 The fact that there were risks involved brought peace because I know that in the risk God was going to come through right but it wasn't just the risk of like leaving it wasn't just the risk of you know saying bye to our friends and family it was the risk of am I even the right person to go. Hello this is David Diga Hernandez and you are watching eTV interviews here on the EncounterTV Network. My guest today Michael Hernandez. Michael Hernandez is the pastor of Reclaim Church and the host of Reclaim Media. He and his wife Jessica reside in Hutto, Texas with their three children Liam, Ryland and Lucas and one on the way. Pastor Michael has a heart to make disciples and help believers reach their divine destinies. Pastor Michael's testimony of radical faith is inspiring people of all generations. Pastor Michael welcome to EncounterTV well thanks for having me on. So for those who do not know Pastor Michael Hernandez is actually my brother and welcome to the broadcast you and I have been working on something very special. We've launched a brand new YouTube channel called Reclaim Media so let our viewers know who you are just give us a little bit of an introduction and then talk a little bit about this new channel that we've launched together. Well obviously I've been I've been working with the ministry for a long time and something we've always talked about is is being able to create content with the ministry and so my heart has always been to invest into people to give whatever I feel like I've learned over the years in ministry and discipleship and find ways to practically give that out give that information out raise up leaders really help people get into their God given destiny that potential that they have and so whatever I can give I want to give that to invest in others and that's really what Reclaim Media is all about. Now you have a tremendous story which we're going to be getting into in just a moment and you're not going to want to miss this especially if you sense that there's a call of God on your life you're going to want to hear this testimony it is a faith builder so stick around for that but you know we talk about Reclaim Media and one of the things I really enjoy about the content that you're putting out is that it really complements the rest of the content from Encounter TV you know they come to Encounter TV they get messages on the Holy Spirit spiritual warfare prayers topics like that you cover those topics too but you're also helping to supplement you talk about marriage you talk about overcoming pornography addiction you you talk about some of the practical things in everyday life and I really enjoy that perspective you take on media you really do have a passion to build people and help them walk in their God given destiny yeah I mean it's something that I've had to learn over the years and I've had great people disciple me and teach me you know how to become a disciple and even entering into ministry before we became pastors of how to be a leader how to run ministry how to help people all that was there's so much learning involved in that and a lot of the learning was you know you watch videos and stuff right and you hear these amazing messages and they're good stuff but sometimes I would I would watch those things and take away like man what do I do though like I get the point of what I should be doing but how practically do I do those things and even with things like marriage with things like overcoming habits that are not healthy for you how do I how do I do that and I try my best to find practical ways to overcome struggles and marriage to overcome addictions and habits and but also obviously with a spiritual perspective on that but with practical teachings so not just inspiring them but instructing them specifically exactly in those areas so the I guess the goal is at the end of each video or that the end of each teaching I want to I want to be able to say okay today you can go and do this you know you can go and make these changes right now now you mentioned that you are pastoring a church right now and yeah that is part of the story that we're going to be talking about today but right now you're pastoring in huddle Texas yeah and that's near Austin and how's that going man it's been it's been so good lately we've had a lot of visitors we've had our church members staying faithful and we're seeing a genuine move of God it's not that we're just getting gathering a crowd or it's not that we're just you know we're staying above no like above water just floating through no we're we're encountering God every Sunday it's it's incredible like I've had visions of where our church would be eventually when we first moved there and I remember praying and God would show me things and I would say man that's good I can't wait to get there in the next five to ten years but we're experiencing those visions right now we've we've seen people get saved we see people get healed we've seen marriages restored and we are literally encountering the presence of God every single Sunday it's it's incredible it really is and that's that's a beautiful beautiful testimony especially since there was some groundwork that had to be done first now you have a message that's on your heart that God gave to you and the people who are listening to this right now need to hear this talk to us about taking those steps of faith yeah well you know as I was reading the book of Timothy or Second Timothy and Paul is in like this it's almost like he's in in this part in his life where he's understanding that his days are kind of ending and he's giving Timothy's this advice and a part of that advice kind of what the whole book kind of comes down to is he's teaching Timothy to embrace the risks and intentions of following Jesus and you know I just recently I read that but throughout my life I feel like God's always been teaching us that he's always been teaching me that too to embrace the things the struggles the heart the hardships of ministry and to be able to take those risks and those steps of faith I feel like Christianity becomes so boring when it's comfortable you know when it when you're when you're in it and if nothing's difficult there's no faith it's just like this routine I feel like that's when we can easily slip up and and miss what God is doing but to take those steps of faith to take those risks I think that that is the excitement and the adventure of Christianity of discipleship we were in a thriving young adult ministry my wife and I we we were leaving that ministry for five years and I always had the heart to pastor but I remember about three years into the ministry and God moved there too it grew it was it was it was a lot of fun really it was seeing people get changed and being being in our church having the my pastor covering us and and there was a comfort in that and I remember three years in I began to pray and and kind of tell God like hey I'm good here like I'm comfortable here at the home church yeah at the home church running the young adult ministry we had people to help with the kids babysitting so that was a plus to you but um I remember telling the Lord like I'm good here if I never go start a church if we never go pastor I know that's something that I felt called to do but I almost thought like he was changing he was trying to help me with perspective and so I remember telling him that like I'm good I'm good right here I could I could stay here and around that time is when my pastor approached me and said hey I want you to consider moving to Texas and starting the church he just dropped that on you yeah it was something that we had went to visit we really just went to visit to see our friends out there and uh when we came back he said you know how did you feel about it what do you think can you pray about going to start a church out there and um you know I'm pretty much down for whatever at that point how old are you at this point oh jeez I don't know man um I don't remember I think 26 26 so you're young yeah we are young still young but 26 years old and uh we had we had two kids and it was we had a really comfortable life I mean it was it would have been very easy to stay well you I know this because I you and I attended the same church you were leading the young adult ministry it was thriving we had all our friends that we had grown up with there our family was nearby your children were getting in all the children in the church we had a we have a great pastor and everything was just kind of comfortable in the perfect position and then that's when he comes to you and just says and brings that challenge and how did you feel in that moment I felt excited I didn't I didn't think about the risk in that moment honestly I remember um kind of just taking it to Jess my wife and just saying hey you know this pastor Omar is asking us what do you think she's like uh we can't move out of California our our house was literally or our apartment was literally five minutes from our parents and five minutes from her mom we were like in the perfect zone for babysitting and comfort and it was it was great um so I told her that and it was like man she's at first she was kind of you know we can't do that but we just we prayed about it and I remember um praying about a thinking of like okay what are we gonna do for a job what are we gonna do for our living situation and all this stuff was in question all this stuff was we didn't know where we live we didn't know what city we were going to go to exactly we just knew the Austin area and um we just continued praying about it and and God would kind of speak to me here and there but I remember this one specific time we every year we'd have a young adult retreat and man the young adults that we're they're like they're still our like family like we love them we love them so much and um you know seeing them get saved and God's moving their life we we never wanted to leave them we never wanted to leave and that that was probably one of the hardest things to do but I remember we were at our young adult retreat we were in the mountains and the young adult retreat is when the young adult group comes together goes on you guys would rent a cabin rent a cabin and just hang out um really pursue God together and I remember sitting in in there and I was watching everybody kind of just me you know you're like kind of just have that perspective just watching everyone's mingling yeah you're almost like on the on the outside looking in and I remember looking around and seeing everybody and the Lord speaking to me like you have to go you have to leave you have to leave them and I was just I was just like man I okay like we'll do it we'll do it because there there was there was a peace in knowing I'll put it this way the risk the fact that there were risks involved brought peace because I know that in the risk God was going to come through right but it wasn't just the risk of like leaving it wasn't just the risk of um you know saying bye to our friends and family it was it was the the risk of of am I even the right person to go you know and I think that was the that was probably the biggest battle was I can't do this right because I know a lot of pastors and I you know being around the ministry and being around the conferences that we did and all that I met a lot of pastors and and their backgrounds and their routines and the things they've done it's like man they're they're great men and I remember thinking that's not me like I'm not like that I've not written books I've not I didn't finish high school like I didn't go to I didn't go to seminary I didn't do any of that stuff and I remember thinking like I don't I don't know if you're calling the right person you know and that was that I feel like that was the biggest risk is I'm gonna go we're gonna go I'm gonna move my family and move my kids and we're gonna go to the city where we only know one family we didn't know anybody out there I remember even when we had made the move I don't know if I'm jumping too far ahead but when we had made the move we we got there in March of 2018 we didn't launch till September or till April of 2019 so we had a about a year a little over a year of just preparation just preparation and you know meeting people and stuff and I remember a couple months in we hadn't met we hadn't met anybody that was that felt like oh yeah you know this is why we've come right and I remember we didn't have any church services there was nothing going on and I remember being in my office just like God why did you bring this here like we're by ourselves it's lonely there's no church I still don't feel like you call the right person like there's there's no way that I can do this and God had we prayed about a timeline and everything in me wanted to go out of that timeline but God kept saying no stick to this I've given you this plan stick to the plan and as we were doing the plan I was like God this isn't working like what do you mean it was taking too long it was taking too long we didn't feel like there was a ton of traction being you know we didn't feel like we were getting traction with people honestly it was hard we had we had two babies you know we're two young kids that that they're not in school they're not in sports they're not you know we're not meeting a lot of people were you know I'm working from home and so it was all those challenges and I remember being so bothered like God why are we even here you know like why why did you send us here why did you put us here I don't feel like I'm the right person but he kept giving me these visions of people being in our church worshiping and people being touched by you know our ministry and and God moving through us and that was the faith that just kept us going was okay I may not feel like I'm qualified and I may not feel like it's happening now but I have faith to believe that it will happen you know and and that faith is what kept us going and it was like little steps of faith throughout on the journey just like saying little yeses right like okay God will go okay God will give I remember we didn't have any money for our church we had we had barely any like barely money in our account and the Lord told us to give it from our church account to a conference that has thousands of dollars right like our our gift was a you know dropping the bucket but he told us to give and I remember just little things like that um throughout the season before we even launched I would call baby churches that were launching alongside of us and say hey can we give you we want to bless you and we'd give them money that we can't afford and when you say baby churches you're talking about churches that are just beginning just in your church yeah and they're out there in the same season you're at and you are supporting them God would tell tell me you need to give you know 500 now 500 to a church plant is a lot of money you know that's our um growth track books or that's our flyers or whatever right and he would tell me like you got to give these amounts and and just little steps like that along the way up until up until launch and and now we're beginning we're beginning to see the fruits of that faith so let's go back for a second you've talked about the risk you've talked about the doubt including the self-doubt talk to me about the sacrifice that that tearing that that had to take place the things you had to give up almost like Abraham where God says just go out and I'll show you the land yeah that and that was that was kind of the thing is like we had before we can see what God was going to do we had to let go of what he already had done you know and and being in the young adult ministry again to most most people that may seem like well it's not a big deal we invested our whole life into that like that was everything to us you know we treated it like it was uh you know a huge huge thing when it was small and and that was everything and we had to give that up really um as crazy as it sounds we loved them so we loved them so much that I was worried about who would come after us and how they would treat the people in our ministry that that we we had been with for so long and so that sacrifice of letting go the sacrifices of man we had to take our kids away from their cousins like you know um I still haven't met uh you know my youngest niece right these kind of sacrifice of pulling away from family like we have to hey guys we're moving to Texas I remember when remember we sat down and I kind of announced it to the family and it was just sad like like it was it was a sad day because it's like man we knew this was coming but we didn't think it was going to be out of state we thought it was going to be another city and remember uh Nani our grandma was like well we're all moving to Texas then and then but it didn't happen obviously and so there was that pulling of of away from family there was a pulling away from friends is that that was our like security um pulling away from our identity like we knew everybody here and they knew us I can go to you know a ton of churches in the area and I know people there um that are really close friends we're we're leaving that nobody knows who we are nobody cares who we are in Texas you know you get what I'm saying was that there was that that sacrifice of family sacrifice of friendship sacrifice of identity and established um uh what's the word I'm looking for uh reputation right like hey we're gone and then we're putting ourselves in this place we don't even know anybody it was it was a huge sacrifice of just of just letting go and letting go and not knowing if it's even going to work right that I think that's the hardest part like if if god is like hey I already have this for you you just have to go to it that's an easy yes because you see it well when god is saying you got to give this up now because I have something for you in the future that's hard to say yes to you but that is the greatest blessing right and I think what we've learned in that sacrifice in that risk in that self-doubt is the greatest blessing of it all is that he walks with us and I think that's been our constant encouragement is that we're not alone you know and then he's he's reassured us of that many times and now you're seeing the fruit of it beginning to sprout it's just we have so many amazing people in our church we have people that gotten saved and now are serving god in our church and it's it's still it's still that god I think you've got the wrong guy like you know it feels like it feels like at some point um at some point it's like okay we've got to put somebody else in here because it's beyond what I can do but it's always been like that and that is the beauty of what god calls us to do is that it's if if what you're in is is something that you feel qualified for then where's god in it right how can god be glorified in that and that is the beauty of it we're seeing god move in such a way that I'm like man god you probably have to find somebody else pretty soon because this is incredible and there are so many people who feel that way yeah in fact there's probably someone watching you right now who feels that way would you just look in that camera and encourage them absolutely I think when I when I was sitting down with my pastor and I'm going to act like we're sitting at a coffee shop we're just hanging out right and you're you're you're wondering if god called you when I was sitting with my pastor and I told him this said one of the ways that I know that this is god calling me is because I feel like I can't do it because if I felt like I could do it then it would I feel like that would be me but the fact that I feel like I'm stepping into something that I cannot accomplish then I know that god is with me so if you're feeling that call you're feeling that urge to do something for the lord and you feel like it's beyond your capacity it's beyond your strengths then step in faith that's where the faith comes in the sacrifice the risk the tensions of following Christ it's it's all worth it it's all worth paying that cost because at the end of the day we are building the kingdom of god for his glory we're able to participate we have the privilege of participating in the building of the kingdom and sing soul saved and that is the greatest blessing that is if you look at the life of paul what he did is he invested into people all the risk all the tension all the suffering all the persecution at the end of the day what was he doing is he was he was pointing people to christ and that is that is worth our risk so don't let yourself doubt keep you where you're at don't let the risk cause you to mess out on the blessing step into what god is calling you to do step in with big faith with that adventurous spirit like you know god i may not be able to do this by myself but i know that i can do it because you're with me and if you take that step of faith i guarantee i guarantee that god will bless that and you'll see fruit that you could not bear alone it's only buried it's only you're only able to bear it because the spirit is leading you so don't don't let this stuff stop you if i can do it if i can do this and i'm not just saying this lightly i really firmly believe this that if i can do what god is calling me to do then you can definitely do what god is calling me to do would you pray with him of course father i pray god for anybody watching right now well those that are struggling in their mindset and their self-doubt god even those that are ashamed of sin god and the mistakes that they made would i pray that there'd be a covering over them holy spirit i ask that you would you would speak to their heart like that fire again but those that have lost the passion those those that have lost the drive and the burden to pursue your call god i pray you to give it back to them let the fire again god i pray lord for that individual that's just on the verge of stepping out god i pray that he would jump over that she would jump over into a faith move god into a step of faith to embrace the risk to embrace the tension to embrace the suffering god to embrace the things that come with following you because lord we know that it is worth it so i pray god give them big faith give them lord give them power give them your spirit so they can accomplish what you've called them to do jesus name father i pray that the holy spirit i want you to stretch your hands toward mine right now let's believe that god's going to stir that fire in you father in the name of jesus i pray the holy spirit would stir their faith stir that fire of faith lord to where you become their sole focus let them step into the unknown knowing only you and i pray god you begin to speak to them clearly in the name of jesus we pray i want you to say it because you agree say amen amen well michael you did an excellent job sharing and i think your testimony really is going to encourage many different people now we're going to tell them about reclaim media i know we talked a little bit at the top of the program about it but tell them again just a little bit about what reclaim media is so reclaim media is is weekly content that i pray and i believe is going to equip leaders and pastors and believers to fulfill that destiny that we talked about right that that god has called us to to fulfill um you know when i when i was called to do it i didn't just jump into it in faith by you know i i think i don't know if it sounds right but in faith without preparation right because sometimes i think we do that but what i'm hoping is that this content is preparation for others to step out in faith right with some wisdom with some guidance with some practical guidelines so i want to really encourage you to go and make sure you subscribe to the channel you can go to reclaim dot media so like you would dot com is so not reclaim dot com or dot org it's actually dot media if you type that in reclaim dot media it's a website so go to reclaim dot media you're going to see a link to the youtube channel you're going to see a link to the instagram account you're also going to see information on the church if you are in the greater austin area they say a church alive is worth the drive so make sure you make it down to reclaim church pasted by michael and jessica hernandez get down there check it out we know you're going to love it but if you're not in that area the rest of us have reclaim media which is online so go we're trying to get their channel some subscribers and their channel is actually already growing and we're pushing this thing because we know it's going to be a great great tool that god uses to equip you the people of god well pastor michael thank you so much for coming on to encounter tv and that is it for this edition of e tv interviews here on the encounter tv network until next time remember nothing is impossible with god if you enjoyed this video and want to see more from encounter tv subscribe now we have hundreds of videos including worship clips and inspiring messages on topics like the holy spirit healing spiritual warfare prayer and more we also have footage of the power of the holy spirit at work in our miracle services that we host all around the world especially if you want to know more about and draw closer to the holy spirit this is a channel i know you'll love this is the holy spirits channel encounter tv encounter the presence and power of the holy spirit thank you for watching encounter tv don't forget to subscribe and click the notification bell also help us spread the gospel of jesus christ in the power of the holy spirit make a one-time donation or become a monthly 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