 Eric welcome Share with us your life before what happened the the chaos and how you got to meet Jesus and what Jesus did for you I've been a Christian for 20 years But for 40 years my entire life I have struggled with addiction to things like pornography and sexual things and it is Even though as I was a Christian it still plagued me and four years ago It came out that I was having an affair and I lost everything in one weekend because of it Even though I was a Christian it was still a struggle in my mind and my heart and everything and I couldn't break free from it And I lost everything that weekend my marriage my children both my jobs I became homeless and that was the day that God said it's time and then he started me on a journey of Rebuilding my life, but he started from the ground up He had to break me down and then about six months later Well God had given me a small business and about six months later I started that business in my friend's garage while I was living in his basement I still had lost so many things in my life, but God was slowly rebuilding those things bringing them back Conversation after conversation these kinds of things with people all sorts of stuff And he took me to the lowest point in my life standing in that garage He one day he came to me held a divine mirror up in front of me and said you are the man You did this and I had nothing left because he exposed everything in me He brought it all to the surface and he said you have no excuses. That's it. It's done And that was my lowest day the lowest day of my life And and he kind of let me to wallow in that for a couple of hours He let me understand really who I truly was that holy spirit divine exposure and then after that He came back to me the same day and he said to me You are a fighter. I've allowed these circumstances to be stacked up against you for a reason I've you've lost everything everything has been taken from you You have been turned against by just about everybody around you because of your sin but I've allowed the circumstances because I Called you to be from the moment you were born to be a fighter You've been one your entire life The problem is you have been at war with everybody around you since you are a little boy So it's time for you to get into the right fight Stand up and get out there and start fighting for the hearts of the people around you now go And when he said that to me something inside of me changed permanently and I stood up and I couldn't help but just move I was so broken in because of the shame everything inside of me for so many years Being lying and hiding and I was just I couldn't just stand up But God stood me up and said go and that day he sent me out after my daughter my adult daughter Who want nothing to do with me and he drove me to her work and I marched in that door And I said I've got one thing to say to you. I love you And what I didn't know was that morning she had reached her lowest point ever and God told her don't give up Don't quit don't give the throw in the towel and he said to her or she said she started crying out to him I just want somebody to tell me they love me and that was the day God broke my heart and sent me after my daughter But that began the process in my life of rebuilding and God knew that I had to stand up and fight and the biggest battle ever Started from within me He started bringing it out of me and he started taking me to the darkest places in my life The deepest darkest places the scariest places we all know those spots in our hearts and minds And he started taking me there a couple years later. He took me to some counseling in Montana and The middle that week he showed me I have never truly rested in that that salvation that I've been given Hebrew chapter 3 and 4 talks about resting in Christ sitting on what he had finished and completed And I realized I'd never been that because I thought he was going to reject me just like everybody else had and I knew The only way to heal was to give him access to my entire heart and I couldn't do it Largest leap of faith I ever took was hike it up a mountain that week and when I got halfway to the top I told the Lord all sit and rest as soon as they get to the top and he said no Stop right here sit and rest and as soon as I did that Two footsteps to the left. I sat on the ground and I started balling 40 years worth of pain 40 years worth of rejection All the stuff from a little boy all the trauma started coming to the surface God said do not move until I tell you to stay here And I fell asleep right there on the ground and I cried and I cried and I slept and I woke up and God said you Can move along he told me to stay there until I tell you to move and he said you can move and after that I started to make my way back down. I got to the bottom. I started driving away in my truck and God said this Two people went up that mountain today, but only one came down That sad scared broken little boy was laid to rest up there and he said to me I Did that enter into my rest your strivings have ceased Come on give God a shout of praise for that. That's so awesome This shows us how we when we surrender Completely our pain our issues our heart breaks everything to God and give our problems into his hands he'll put peace into our hearts and Eric can you tell us what happened afterwards and how God continued to restore your life so Even through all of those things I still struggled with those things I still hid them and I couldn't break free from them. I had accountability software on everything even the toaster I mean it I went to meetings I did all these things and I still couldn't get away from it until the race to deliver conference This Sunday morning the Sunday morning. I went forward for prayer I thought I was leaving because I had to get to a birthday party God drove me to the front And I stood there praying I don't know who it was Hands up in the air eyes closed someone started praying over me and they moved on then somebody else came and started Praying over me also and they started praying this prayer and they just prayed and prayed and started getting more intense and more intense And all of a sudden they started saying things like come out of him right now come out of him get out of him And I'm just balling come leave her just go get out of this man And then he said leave and never come back in Jesus name and he turned on a walked away I didn't realize to about two or three days later that I had been Delivered from 40 years worth of addiction to pornography and sexual addictions come on give God a shout of praise in this place hallelujah That is so awesome, and what did God continue to do for you? God has continued to show me what it means to be a man He showed me what it means to be a husband I lost my marriage, but he showed me he took me to a place in my own heart He came to me once and he said am I your beloved and what he meant by that was am I the only thing you have if I Only thing that I could give you is who I am will you take that and He showed me how to be a husband because we are his bride And he taught me how to do those things and he's walked me through this healing process with people person after person But he showed me how to be a man. God will not take the burden from off your shoulders men He's only gonna strengthen your back widen your shoulders and you know steady your footing He's not gonna relieve it. The pain won't go away. The addiction will not solve the pain And you have to confess it and get it out in the open And that's yeah, come on. You've got a shout-up praise hallelujah. That's so awesome You see what God has done in your life and Eric What are some border advice for people from men or maybe it's some people that they've lost everything like Marriage with kids and everything and maybe they find themselves in your your position where they were for years in addiction They can't get set free from what the word advice. Can you give them? I had a prophetic war or prophetic word spoken over me at a different church And the man came to me and spoke exactly what God had been speaking to me He said to me do not give up The second half of your life is coming The second half of years your life is coming I've got a double blessing and a double portion, but do not give up give it all to me and And the other thing and I have to say just don't quit don't quit It'll be hard to be difficult But don't quit and the other thing is it has to be spoken out loud. You have to confess it It'll be the scariest thing you've ever done, but that's where the be that's the beginning That's where it begins. Come on. Thank you so much Eric. Thank you. Come on. Give let's put our hands together for Eric And what God Almighty has done in his life