Ep. 110 - A Man's Journey into Bold Kingdom Faith: A Conversation on Identity, Power, and Fighting Human Trafficking with Henry Hastings

The church built you to fail. Green Beret Henry Hastings explains exactly how. Henry Hastings spent 14 years as a Green Beret. He has been in ministry for 30 years. And he has a word for Christian men who are tired of trying harder and getting nowhere: the system was never built to help you win.

In this episode:

Why declaring "I'm just a sinner saved by grace" is coming into agreement with a lie, and what happens when you break it
What Romans 6 and Colossians 2 actually say about your sin nature (it was circumcised, not just covered)
How Galatians 5:16 in the Greek contains the strongest grammatical negation possible — walking by the Spirit is not advice, it is a promise
How Henry's identity work connects directly to fighting human trafficking, caring for rescued children in the Philippines, and what it means to be a modern-day mighty man of God

Henry is the founder of Shoot Move Communicate (SMC), a brotherhood and discipleship movement built around the spirit of David's mighty men. He and his wife recently launched Justice Rains (justicerains.org), their anti-trafficking ministry. His book Unredacted (his journey from cessationism to Spirit-filled ministry, including a documented healing from a brain tumor) releases in approximately 60 days.

This one will rattle some cages. Let it.

To connect with Henry:

Join up with the Shoot Move Communicate Tribe and Events: https://smctribe.com

Follow along with the new Anti-Trafficking mission that Henry is building, Justice Reigns: https://justicereigns.org

Connect with Henry and his wife Amanda's ministry:  https://henryandamanda.com



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Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Henry Hastings and His Journey
08:22 From Military to Ministry: A Transformative Path
15:15 Encountering God: The Spiritual Awakening
20:59 The Struggle with Identity and Sin
27:16 Understanding Forgiveness and Repentance
33:04 The Power of Identity in Christ
39:16 Breaking Free from the Cycle of Sin
43:24 The Impact of Theology on Identity
49:53 Deprogramming Lies and Embracing Truth
55:52 The Power of the Holy Spirit in Modern Life
01:03:15 Emotional Vulnerability and Masculinity
01:19:09 Confronting the Reality of Human Trafficking
01:22:05 The Impact of Poverty on Human Trafficking
01:25:39 Cultural Perspectives on Exploitation
01:29:18 Divine Guidance and Career Transitions
01:32:08 The Call to Action Against Trafficking
01:35:01 Spiritual Warfare in Human Trafficking
01:41:37 Engaging the Community in Anti-Trafficking Efforts
01:48:15 Upcoming Initiatives and Resources

Creators and Guests

Host

Matt Hallock

Founder of Man Warrior King and author of The DNA of a Man

What is The Man Warrior King Podcast - Confident Christian Men and Passionate Marriages?

Faith and masculinity meet kingdom living to help Christian husbands rebuild their confidence and masculine strength, so they can enjoy attraction-filled and passionate marriages.

You want to live a life on fire and on mission.

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You want that self to be a man who is burning in passion for Jesus, unafraid to bring his kingdom to anyone in your path, no matter the cost.

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You want to experience God for real, to not just believe, but to KNOW that he’s got you and that he’ll show up on your behalf. That he’ll show up THROUGH you.

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Welcome to Man Warrior King. Congratulations. You are among the violent taking the kingdom by force. You are among the chosen, answering the call to rise above your self. You are in the forge being stripped down and strengthened—and you WILL rise stronger, solid, unshakeable.

You are a man. You are a warrior. You are a king.

Good afternoon and welcome to another episode of the Man Warrior King podcast. I'm your host, Matt Halleck, the founder of the Man Warrior King movement. I'm the author of the book that almost got splashed on a second ago, The DNA of a Man. And today I am honored to have ⁓ my in-person guest, Henry Hastings here. Henry spent 14 years as a green beret in the army.

After retiring from that he transitioned into the other battlefield full-time ministry seen all kinds of all kinds of ⁓ Different experiences that he and I've talked about and I'm excited to get those get talking about him again on the show here ⁓ he has been in ministry for 30 years and along with his wife

In January 23, Henry founded Shoot Move Communicate, known as SMC, and it's right there on his hat. ⁓ It's a brotherhood and discipleship movement built around the spirit of the mighty men of King David. And it started as a three-day tactical shooting training, and it's grown into an online community, a tribe of men.

who are being equipped to walk in identity and purity and in kingdom power. Henry believes that biblical masculinity is a calling for us men in the church and it's his mission to raise up modern day minute men who protect, provide and disciple in their families, in their communities and even in the world at large. Also on top of all that, Henry's taken on one of the darkest fights there is.

fighting against human trafficking.

Henry, welcome to the show. Yeah, I you a gift here for the SMC hat. That's mine? Yeah, come on man. incredible. Thank you. Love it. Happy to be here, man. And this, as you know, is your gift that we rescued from the spill of the water. ⁓ DNA of a man. Yeah. I love it. So Henry, I'm glad that you're here. This is awesome. Thank you for the hat, too.

by the way, I'm a hat guy, I guess you know that, ⁓ so I'm honored. I wanna start by hearing where you came from. So I kinda think of my guests as the superheroes that I'm interviewing, so I know what your origin story is. Well, like you, I'm a... ⁓

refugee from California. Yeah, okay. So right there we both have our head on straight. ⁓ man. Yeah, I was ⁓ born and raised in Newport Beach, California. My dad taught me to surf on his longboard, you know, when I was probably four years old. ⁓ My grandmother lived down in ⁓ Carlsbad. And so yeah, was a...

California kid grew up a block from the beach and had this This just I guess it was a I'd call it divine guidance, but I didn't know it at that time because I didn't grow up as a Christian my parents were not believers and so we had a book report assignment in

in elementary school and I went over to the library and I used to spend a lot of time in know World War II in Vietnam you know books that were had pictures in them yeah and I just was enamored with that and loved playing army and I came across an article in National Geographic and it

was special forces in action in Southeast Asia. And it was about this Captain Gillespie and he was a Green Beret who had...

Basically in the 18th Ford operating base in in the mountains and he was leading You know a 500 man Montagnard army against the communists Wow and so it had him in his uniform and this green beret and then it also had him in native Montagnard ⁓

clothing, smoking a peace pipe with the chief. And so when I saw these pictures, mean, was just something within me just went, that's what I want to do. Wow. And ever since that time, I didn't really care or want to apply myself to anything other than that. Wow. Wow. So you, so did you go into that like,

Basically as soon as you turned 18 or something. Well, there was a I had a fight with my mom All great origin stories Yeah Her my uncle her brother Was enlisted in Korea. Okay and had a horrible experience in the army and You know, my mom basically said that You know

I didn't need to go in the Army. My dad was a World War II veteran in the Navy. My grandfather fought in the 1st Infantry Division in World War I.

So this was kind of family, but I didn't even know my grandfather or my father served at all until I was probably 17 years old. Wow. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. My dad never mentioned anything of their service. my goodness. Whoa. So

were you were not, if I'm putting the pieces of your story together correctly, you were not yet a Christian at that time. No. So you go into the military unsaved.

just like and I don't know how it all works but did you, is it quite a feat to become a Green Beret? Yeah, I mean there's that Barry Sadler song, the Ballad of the Green Berets, and it says, know, 100 men will test today but only three for the Green Beret. It's a high attrition rate. I mean, ⁓ and Special Forces Assessment Selection.

That's basically where you go and are tested. ⁓ There's all the individual physical training events. There's written exams and write papers and stay up late. And then there's, ⁓ you have your land navigation and your road marches and your runs. So as long as you meet those times and you're consistent with those scores, ⁓ then you move and graduate into team week. ⁓

When I went through half of the guys at selection moved forward into team week. then you go to team wake, they put you with a team and they have team events and those things are pretty, pretty grueling physically, but also mentally challenging. And ⁓ you go through those and then they're evaluating how well you can work as a team, team player. So I would say out of

360 guys that started, I think about 140 made it to team week. And then we probably had somewhere around 80 to 100 graduate. And then you go to SF school, which is normally six months. really? Yeah. while you were in the military,

Were there any events that happened for you that got you at least thinking about God at all or were you not thinking about Him much? Yeah. There were two times. I went to US Army Ranger School in 1989. And I remember during City Week they have a

hand-to-hand combat and so they put you in it they take you out and do PT real early in the morning and Then they have ⁓ Hand-to-hand combat and you're in a giant sawdust pit that's lined with sandbags and you know, they

you know, say on guard and then you're supposed to get in this, you know, attack position and say, kill, you know, and every time, you know, the, the ranger instructor with the microphone would say, you know, you know, on guard kill. would just in me would be like, what about that command? That shall not kill. wow. And so that was something that obviously

had something to do with God because it's a command from the law, law, it's the deck log, one of them. And so that was an interesting thing, but I just continued to press through. I had someone give me,

little pamphlet called the paratroopers faith that was ⁓ this guy is he was his last name was Tullage and He died in World War two, but his mom prepared like this little pamphlet for him with all his favorite quotes and things of that nature and so it's something that he carried with him when he died his mom took it and Added a letter that he wrote home to his brother and sister

and then ⁓

And it had to do about, you know, walking up rightly and being good and doing all these things. And she published it. And so a lot of the chaplains back then, they would hand these out. Yeah. So I carried that with me and I would read it on occasion. Yeah. When I graduated, a friend of mine gave me a Bible and he had engraved on it Ranger Hastings and Psalm 144, one and two, which is blessed to be the hand. You know, the Lord, my rock who trains my fingers for.

on my hands for war. And I still would read that and go, what about that thou shalt not kill thing. And so I wasn't a Christian at that point. ⁓ And then that individual took me to a Bible study and the pastor

answered a lot of my questions about drinking. You know, I was like, well, if I become a Christian, can I drink beer? know, typical, you know, 20 something year old question. Why do I have to give up? And then, you know, what about this? Thou shalt not kill. Yeah. And so he took me through the Bible and he said, actually, you know, killing in defense of your country, your family or your person is

not a sin and in the Hebrew this actually means thou shalt not murder. You're not to lie and wait for someone and murder an individual out of anger or something and that just made sense to me. I still had not believed in Jesus but that made sense so I was warming up to the idea and then regarding the beer situation because I was ⁓ a

totally addicted to chewing tobacco. yeah. I mean, I always had a dip in and I couldn't get up in the morning without a dip. So it was, it was just, I was fully addicted. Yeah. but the interesting thing was he sat me down and he said, look, the Bible doesn't say that you can't drink. says that you can't, you're not to get drunk.

And so he goes, there's a difference. And I was like, ⁓ okay. So that kind of made sense to me a little bit. mean, I there's other passages for the biblicists out there that have, you know, forbid strong drink and some of the things like that. on the whole, that's where, ⁓ you know, these were little experiences. But it was when I graduated from special forces school that I probably experienced

just the greatest amount of emptiness I had in my life up to that point. Wow. So I was 27 and you know, I was a typical soldier, you know, uh, my, my class of guys, I was an officer. So, uh, my MOS was an 18 alpha, which is special forces officer. Yeah. And my officer class, we would go down to, um, a place called Rick's, which was a strip club and a couple of my buddies dated the girls there and we would do our home

at the strip club. That's hilarious. So this is typical me growing up looking at women as objects and getting my identity and affirmation from that. And so that was really kind of all I knew. I had no one speaking into my life. ⁓

My greatest influence as a kid was a Vietnam veteran who was the coolest guy in the world. And he was like, hey, man, the meaning to life is to go out and be with as many girls as you can.

And so when you've got, you know, somebody like that, you know, that you're looking up to and you're young and, and all that, that takes you down a road that leads to, to nowhere. Right. But I walked out, graduated from SF school. I walked out. had a huge party with my, my, my class. mean, K's of beer, it was out of control. It was wild. I mean, typical like, you know,

party out of like Animal House or something, you see, right? And I walked out of that party and I looked up in the sky and I was like, there has to be more to life than this. Because I just accomplished my childhood dream and I'm empty. And I was 27, so go back to third grade.

When I saw that National Geographic article, and that's what I want to be, it took me that long to actually accomplish that goal. And then I was just empty. And so it was a six month process from the moment I looked up into the sky and I said, God, if you're really real, there's got to be more to life than this. Can you just please show me? need to know. And then a series of events happened that brought me to an encounter

or with God in my saving faith, know, Jesus. Yeah, wow. Wow, so you went from all of that, strip clubs, achieving your goal, finding out that it was empty, into that next six month period of like, whatever it took where you've met with God, right?

How did your life with God ⁓ basically develop from that point to get you to where you are today? Because if I'm kind of like giving a summary of your life as the expert that I am, I'm just kidding. It seems to me like you've got your...

Natural origin story takes you up through the military, but you've got your you've got your spiritual origin story as well And it seems like now You're you're doing something in life where both of those have become Have joined up in the same pathway. I never Saw that yeah to happen. Yeah, right. Yeah, but but here we are, right? Yeah, basically kind of yeah, so How

How did you, over all that time, and you can speak to any more of that story from that point on when you meet God or whatever that you want, but how did you get to the place where you are now where you have this really strong drive to minister to men? Crash and burn. Yeah.

walking out of the grave. When I got saved, had a pretty powerful conversion experience. It was in my room. It wasn't an altar call, but I was radically convicted out of reading the Bible that my buddy gave me back in 1989. here we are, 90, 91, and I'm...

it's December now graduated in May. Yeah. And I'm reading that Bible and I just get convicted, ⁓ that I'm a center and that I am actually headed for a lake of fire. That's, that was the conviction I had. Yeah. And it, it just, I was like, my gosh, you know, and

there were all these passages about there's no forgiveness without the shedding of blood. And then Jesus is the lamb of God without spot or blemish. And he gave himself ⁓ that we might become the righteousness of God in him through faith. And so I was just like, wow.

You know, John three 16, uh, John three 36, all of it. He believes, you know, will be saved. Uh, Hugh does not will be condemned. And I just had this, I knew I was, and I had a hard time for a majority of my life. I just didn't believe I was a sinner. Like I was like, you know, Hey, I, I, you know, haven't committed any felonies. I'm not this, but all the premarital sacks, the drunkenness, the, you know, all of that.

never, you know, I didn't look at that as committing sin, you know? Yeah. It's not like I, yeah, it just didn't register to me that. But then when I, the Holy Spirit shows up and convicts me of my sin, I realized all that sin was against God. Yeah. Yeah. Like I had sinned against Him because He is holy and His standard is holiness. And I fell short of that. And I just was like, my gosh. And then

here's Jesus, you know, who died on the cross for my sins and demonstrated God's love toward me.

⁓ that while I'm yet a sinner, Christ died for me, died as my substitute, and that through faith in Him, I would receive forgiveness and eternal life. And so, I got down on my knees and I started confessing sin from seven years old and stealing a piece of bubble gum at 7-Eleven. I couldn't even believe the things that I remembered. It was like the Holy Spirit just recalled all these events in my life.

Wow. You know, I had girlfriends that got pregnant and you know, either they or we chose to have abortions. So they were just like, dude, it was like a lot. Yeah. I mean, just a lot. And I remember just confessing my sin to the Lord, placing my faith in Jesus and then saying, look, I've lived my whole life and it's brought me really to nothing.

And I, it's you, I'm all in, and I'm surrendering my life. And I literally said to him, you're in the driver's seat. This is before that song came out, Jesus Take the Wheel. But I actually said in that prayer, I said I don't want to be in the driver's seat of my life anymore.

I said, you can take me down any alley you want. You can drive me into any neighborhood. I will sit in the passenger seat and I will go where you want me to go. I I just surrendered my life at that point. And it was, I walked out of my room and I was a totally different person. And I didn't understand.

all the soteriological, you know, all the, all the things that happen when we believe in Jesus, like, you know, justification and regeneration and sealing in the spirit and all. I didn't know what had happened to me, but I knew something happened to me and I...

I was just different. Like I couldn't even do the things that I was doing. mean, I just like, I can't do that. I had gotten engaged in this process. And obviously as unbelievers, mean, she would come and spend the night at my house and, you know, I would spend the night at her house and we were planning on getting married. But now it's like, I can't do that anymore. And I didn't have an answer for it.

It was just something in me was different and I couldn't do that. And she thought I had lost it. And that didn't go very well. that engagement was called off within a couple weeks. Yeah, okay. Wow. Yeah. Wow. So you crash and burn and you have this like, let me,

Let me ask you, so you're talking about this encounter with God where...

all of this sin that you had forgotten about. He's reminding you of not, not to shame you, but to bring you to a place of conviction and repentance. So obviously you and I working with men, I would imagine, I mean, of course you understand that there's plenty of Christian guys out there who, who

carry ongoing guilt and shame. And they feel like, sometimes they feel like I've had conversations with guys about this, like it's easy for me to accept that God forgave me of all those sins that I did before I was saved.

what about the ones now that I am? Like those are the ones that a lot of times guys have a hard time finding that freedom and joy of like forgiveness from. What do you say to those guys? Well, I think there's two different aspects of it. There's a waking to righteousness and

Walking by the Spirit where you're going to experience victory over sin in your life. Yeah but then there's dealing with it apart from the walk it's Applying faith to the word and I mean first John 1 9 is pretty clear if we confess our sins he

God the Father is faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. So that's written toward a Christian who has fallen short of the glory of God or sinned. And so to me, if you have fallen into sin, you need to start with...

If you confess your sins to your father, I mean, it's very simple. So all sin is against him. It may hurt people very deeply and destroy lives in the process, but your sin is against God because it's his standard that you violated as a son. Yeah. And so then you confess your sin, which means to name or site in the Greek in a court case. Yeah. So you're just simply father. I did this and it's sin. I acknowledge this and I confess this is sin to you. Yeah.

And it says, you know, He's faithful and righteous to forgive. He's going to forgive you when you confess. And He's faithful to do that. And He's righteous. In other words, His integrity is never compromised by forgiving you because of Christ's atonement on the cross. that payment for your sin that Christ made comprehensively, that

satisfied the righteous demands of God.

once and for all. And so that was finished at the cross. And Jesus even said that to Telestai. I mean, it is finished. Forever. You can't add to that work. It was final. And so to me, applying faith to that, it's like, okay, wow, okay, I've confessed my sins. The word says this, God's faithful and righteous to forgive. I'm forgiven. I need to start walking in that forgiveness and move on. I mean, you have to, you know.

apologize to someone that's been hurt and even at times say, what can I do to make this right? They may choose to forgive you or not, but at least you have asked for forgiveness. And then you've tried to make whatever damage occurred right in that life. That to me is real repentance, kingdom repentance. So then this brings up

It's brings me to the issue of identity, which you're big on. We talked about that. I'm big on it. It's a whole third of this book here. ⁓ In my experience, like, it seems like the norm for Christian men, at least in our culture, I can't speak of cultures around the world, is to just kind of live in a low level,

discouragement, defeat, maybe even still shame, right? Maybe even still carrying guilt, even though they've apologized to people or they've they've repented to God. And I think what that, yeah, what that gets to is an issue of identity, right? So you might have guys who just no matter, no matter.

what they've done to make right, know, whenever they've blown it, there's still this like flavor of just down this and defeat over their lives. I mean, honestly, in a church, like, I feel like all the conversations I've had on Sunday mornings are like, man, I'm really struggling. You know, that's like, that's what it is. This struggling is like the Christian buzzword in my opinion. ⁓

In the work that you do now, just in your ministry work, everything like, tell me about identity. Well, I think, you know, it's pretty classic. ⁓

When you go to churches, majority of people will say, I'm just a sinner saved by grace. you know, I know when I get to heaven that, you know, I won't have to deal with this struggle anymore.

And Roman 7 becomes their mantra, wretched man that I am, who will save me from this body of sin. the things that I want to do, I'm not doing, and the things I don't want to do, I'm doing. And man, just, I'm helpless and I'm a sinner saved by grace.

You have got to get to a point where you stop allowing your behavior to determine your identity. And you start believing who God says you are, which is your identity. And so I think you really have to dig into the substance of your salvation and what God really did. So for me, you know,

I get born again and I'm on fire for Jesus. Yeah. And in three years I'm going to seminary and

You know, the seminary I went to, I loved and I'm so thankful for the academic tools, the exegetical tools they gave me to dig into the word. Yeah. I love it. Yeah. And I love the Bible-based background, but it was a very, you know, was a cessationist school that did not believe in the gifts of the Spirit. They did not preach on the baptism with the Holy Spirit as a second work apart from salvation, okay.

receive the power to really ⁓ go out, power for service and life. So there was that aspect. So I'm in this camp where I don't believe in these gifts, but I know I'm saved. I know I'm saved. And I know when I get to heaven, ⁓ I'm half forgiveness of sin. I'm gonna have eternal life.

You know, here that starts out in 1991 and things are great for a while and super, but then all of a sudden, you know, I start falling into sin.

And that might have been like, you know, at this point I have transitioned to the National Guard. Okay. So I'm in a 20th Special Forces Group, which is a National Guard Special Forces unit. And so we have ⁓ drills once a month. So I would go into my drill weekend and oftentimes the guys are like, Hey, let's go to the strip club. And where did I wind up with the guys, the strip club? Yeah.

You know, and I'm saved for sure. I know I'm saved. Yeah. And yet here I am and I'm thinking, well, you know, it's like Solomon's harem, you know, and David had these issues too. And he was a man after God's own heart. And, know, I've repeated all those things and

The Roman seven, you know 14 through 25. I don't want to be doing this, but I'm doing it and I know it's wrong Yeah, and so, you know the next day I'm like Lord, I didn't you know want to do that and you know, I drank too much and and shouldn't have lusted and yeah, know I confess that a sin and then I try to put that behind me and move forward Yeah, yeah, but the solution was we need to more of the Bible You need to fast you need to pray more you need to get an accountability partner I mean all of these

These things that the church has come up with to help men walk in purity to me are crutches to the sheer power that's available to men to walk in victory. And so it's like until you get out of the mentality,

of being a sinner, which is an identity saved by grace. You're saved by grace. Of course you were. But are you really a sinner anymore? So if you go back and start looking at what I would call the substance of salvation in Romans 6, it says if I've died, then I've been freed from sin. But he's not talking about physical death in Romans 6. No. Because you die when you get water baptized, it says.

So if you're gonna take the scripture literally, it's like, wait a minute. I thought that was just a symbol. ⁓ don't even get me started. So, so, okay. I mean, it's just outward testimony of what's already happened in your life. We didn't even talk about this one before. see, this is this is all a system built for you to fail as a man.

100%. And when you start hearing that baptism isn't a symbol, I mean, yes, it symbolizes things, but there are mystical transactions that take place in the spirit realm. Yeah. For instance, when you compare Romans 6 with Colossians chapter 2, it talks about your old nature being circumcised. Yeah. Okay. Well, what happens when, you know, ⁓

The doctor, if your parents had you circumcised, you know, and you're a little baby and they cut that foreskin off, I mean, can you get that back on? Right. I mean, it's gone. Yeah. Right? Yeah. And it says that our sin nature was circumcised. Yeah. By Christ. Like, he's like the spiritual moil that...

cuts off this for the new covenant. It's almost like something going on in the spirit realm. So it's like, wait a minute, are you telling me I don't have a sin nature anymore? But then people automatically, they're trying to figure this out and they don't understand. They're like, are you saying you can't sin? I said, no, I'm not saying that. Jesus didn't have a sin nature, did he? No. Did Jesus have to be filled with the Holy Spirit?

He had to be but he was but he was because the life that he lived he modeled for us to live right So he had to depend upon the spirit and not his divine attributes to fulfill the Father's will With you tracking 1000 % so he modeled a life that's actually possible for us to live in all aspects of it Yeah, and so to me like when I started waking up to this stuff, and this is after okay get saved in 91 ⁓

married in 1998, struggle with sin, and wind up in a full blown divorce in 2011. That was finalized in 2012.

I mean I was wanting to take my life. And so all of the things I'm communicating to you now, even with the passion I am, is because of what the Lord did in my life after that was the grave I went to.

You know? so from my perspective it's like I believed I was a sinner saved by grace. Well what kind of... When you declare that over yourself and you say that you're coming into agreement with actually a lie. You're not a sinner. You're a son and you've become the righteousness of God in Christ and you share the very nature of God. We have his DNA. I call it the divine nature anointing. It's in 1st Timothy... 1st Peter

One three, I think but his shares nature become partakers of his nature. Yeah, okay, so his through his great and precious promise Yeah, yeah, dude So it's like when you start waking up to this stuff and you start thinking are you kidding me? Am I really not a sinner? Yeah, and then you're like, but it doesn't mean that You're not able to sin It means you're able not to yeah because of not only who you now are

but because of the power available to you when you walk by the Spirit. And so Galatians 5.16 says walk by the Spirit and you won't fulfill the desires of the flesh. And I'll drop this one on you, will not fulfill...

is in the subjunctive mood in the Greek and it's actually the construction is called the subjunctive of emphatic negation, which is the strongest way to rule out even a possibility from occurring in the Greek language. Really? Which means if you walk by the Spirit, there's no way you can fulfill the desires of the flesh. Yeah. So the key is, okay, God show me how to walk by your Spirit. Yeah, totally. And so to me, like, what does it mean to walk by the Spirit? Well,

When we walk, just break down the elementary principle of walking where I'm putting one foot in front of the other. And if I don't, then I'm going to fall. So each step is breaking a fall. And so what is this? It's a moment by moment dependence upon the spirit. And the fruit is what the spirit produces in your life. I don't have to try to come up and muster patience.

Right. I don't need to be praying for these things. mean the joke, I mean this is just how I mature the majority of Christianity is, well don't pray for patients because God, what kind of view of God is that? Like some like, I mean is really our Father that messed up? I know. give me a break. I know. It's so, I'm just like, no stop. But anyway. You're get my blood boiling over here on this side of the table man. Come on dude. So I know we just met too. I know. To sit down and talk for two hours.

in a coffee shop and just go, poof. Seriously, if everybody could come listen to this conversation, the whole church would get fixed, in my opinion. Yeah, well, if Pharisees will, I'm sure I a heyday with it.

That's true and your keyboard unix get a bunch of That Christian hate flying around out there, right? Mm-hmm, but you're so right. You're so right about everything that you've been saying here I mean even even like I said, we didn't even talk about the whole the whole baptism like

misunderstanding out there. Like it's just this outward, outward symbol of an inner transformation. It was like five or six months ago, I was thinking about baptism and I told my wife, I was like, that's not in the Bible. Yeah. That's what that's yet another thing. Yeah. That's not in the Bible. Yeah. And the list is is multitudinous. Right. And you said something really powerful just now, in my opinion, which was the whole system.

is designed for men to fail. I could not agree with you more. Unfortunately, I really feel strongly that way. And I do not think it's an accident.

I don't think that it's like only because we've had a bunch of well-meaning people stumble into bad theology. And like, whether you call it, know, Satan infiltrating the Western church with his lies that we have latched onto and we've maybe well-meaning many of us have embraced them. ⁓ It's possible that it's not an accident on a human level too in some ways, right? But I really think that it's so much of the common

mentality of the Christian man is one of one that produces defeat and passivity and losing. My wife is like, she told me, she said, Matt, you should you should title a book called Your Theology is Making You a Loser. ⁓ That's true. Yeah, yeah, it is. So in and that one. ⁓

Sinner saved by grace, that's the one I harp on all the time. And you're right, like, if you believe that you're a sinner, then that's what you're gonna experience. And there's psychology that supports that, right? And some Christians will hate for even mentioning psychology, but there is psychology that supports it. But there's also scripture that supports it. Jesus who said, according to your faith.

it done to you. So if you have your faith in the fact that you're just a sinner, then that's then let it be done. As a man thinketh. Yeah, totally. Or ⁓ James, your tongue is the rudder on a ship and it'll steer the course of your life. that's what we get programmed with day in and day out or week in and week out on Sunday mornings. So

How do you, in your work with men, how do you go about deprogramming? Shock and awe. All right. I'm D.

I have a sense of what that may mean. For me, it means drop all these truth bombs that everybody's like, wait, that sounds heretical. Yeah. And then you explain to them how it's not. Yeah. If I tell guys they don't have a sin nature, they're like, wait a minute, are you kidding me? But, you know, I'll take them to these passages. Romans six is key. Understanding Romans ⁓ six, seven and eight. But you really have to start Romans five because Romans six.

You know, starts out with an inferential conjunction. So it says in light of everything in chapter five that happened. Yeah. Yeah. Here's the, you know, here's the deal. Yeah. So in light of you being justified, basically, you know, here's the deal here. Yeah. And so when I start telling these guys that, ⁓ you know, their old sin nature was, was cut away and circumcised their

I start with that, in that they're not sinners anymore. And it is pretty shocking. But when I show them the Word and we go through the Word, they're like, whoa. And then when I explain that, you know...

Why is Paul saying what he's saying in Romans 7 14 through 25, you know the whole concept about yeah, you know, I hate what I'm doing Etc. Yeah, but if you really look at comprehensively You step out of those three chapters and start looking at four chapters You see that Paul goes back to what it was like to have a knowledge of the law as a Jewish boy

and then have desires contrary to that without being regenerated. You know? And so he's, he's not talking or referring to himself as a regenerated, you know, spirit born Christian who's had his sin nature circumcised. Go back to Romans six, know, if, if you've died, you're free from sin. I mean, just look at this and just go, my gosh, this is just, you know,

This just sounds heretical to me reading. yeah. But when you start looking at that and then to wrestle with God over this, like, you know, gosh, Lord, this is what have I been taught? Can you help me point out the lies? Yeah. So the next step, once I show them these scriptures and

You know, like even reckon yourselves dead to sin. How can you reckon yourself dead means to be separated from? Like when we die physically, our soul and spirit is separated from our body. Yeah. So there's a separation that occurs in death, just like spiritual ⁓ death, you know, is separation from God. Yeah. Right. And so, you know, in this, ⁓ when you died, you're separated from that.

that old nature. Yeah. And you've become a new creation and God's given you a new nature. Well, how could you, if you had two natures, you'd be what? Schizophrenic. Like you can't, like God didn't make you that way. He's a good father. Yeah. And so, you know, all the lies that, that men had believed are really, it's just, they're lies that start about the goodness of God. Yeah. And then we're like, you know,

Okay,

well I need to perform for my dad. No, you don't Yeah, you know you actually Don't have to do anything which is the whole point really of the book of Ephesians because in the first Three out of six chapters. There's not even a command for us to do anything It's everything that God accomplished for us and then the first command starts in in four. Yeah

We're not told to be imitators of God until chapter five. We're not told to put on the armor of God until six. And so all the commands that we're responsible to fulfill don't occur until after chapter three. In other words, you've got to realize that you're doing everything from a place of position. And that's a position of power and authority. And so just learning these things, it's like... ⁓

start with the truth bombs that shocks people into reality. you kidding me? Testimony in walking, know, experiencing victory over sin after having a completely bombed out past. And you know, I tell guys, there's probably nothing you can tell me that I haven't fallen into or gotten in trouble with. And so that opens up transparency. I've found that transparency is key to experiencing freedom, you know, for men. ⁓ You know, and then

seeing if there are like strongholds, like if there's addictions to pornography, if there's habitual sin in their life, ⁓ that can be a stronghold. That's a demonic, you know, ⁓ oppression, demonic influence, you know, that they need some deliverance from. And then once you get that freedom, you're going to have to maintain your perimeter and keep, you know, moving forward. A lot of guys may not know about

about

the baptism of Holy Spirit. Yeah, you're right. I get a lot of guys who come to me for marriage help and then, I may have told you this, but they come to me for marriage help and then they end up like, wanting to know more about the Holy Spirit in the process because everything I do to work with men on their marriages is all from the power of the Holy Spirit. And they realize,

This version of life that I've been getting coached into is so much better than what I've been hearing on Sunday mornings all the time. And golly, the lack of the Holy Spirit in the modern church is...

Evil. Well, it's funny. I brought this card that I have. It's called porn is a weapon. Yeah. And it has, you know, some points here how men are the solution, but every click and view fuels demand to groom and traffic women and children. A lot of guys don't know that. So I think it's well, I'm not hurting anybody. Right. Actually, you are. Yeah. But.

49 % of US pastors have struggled with pornography and 18 admit it's an ongoing struggle. So those are just the ones that are willing to admit it. So I would say this is a much higher percentage. Yeah, I would imagine so. But if the guy standing in the pulpit on Sunday doesn't understand how to walk by the Spirit and thinks he's still a sinner,

We're just setting men up for failure. Absolutely.

And then people are shocked because of, I can't believe this minister fell into sin, or I can't believe so-and-so is getting divorced because her husband had an affair, or so-and-so's wife just went AWOL and wants to divorce and is living with some other guy, whatever. I mean, that's reality. That's happening. It's a real war. ⁓ But there things happening even in the spirit realm in this nation that have happened over last 20 years.

that have given the Ephesians six, 12 principalities and powers and ⁓ rulers of this darkness and spiritual forces of wickedness more reign, more territory to influence over in the United States because of laws that had been made in the natural. And so now these doors open up for these... ⁓

fallen angels and demons, I distinguish between the two. Me too. We can go as down that rabbit hole as we need to. Yeah. Well, mean, enemy's forces have greater

⁓ freedom of movement now in the United States of America than they had before because laws have been changed ⁓ for gay marriage and things of that nature and there are principalities that govern homosexuality, they govern the occult, they govern, they have different territories, they're very organized. Sure and it does seem as though ⁓

people in positions of power knowingly work with him. Some do. Right. So we're not talking about this like invisible world disconnect from the natural. Sometimes we're talking about, you know, meetings between the two to figure out the strategy and all of that. Yeah. So that's, ⁓

There's a whole lot at play in all of that. And I would agree with you. I think you're right. There's been a lot that's happened to give them some more free rein, if you will. ⁓ And it just makes me, again, my blood boils when I think about all of that happening and the power that...

all the forces of darkness move in, both human, angel, demon, okay, not both, all of them, right? All three and more, if there's more, right? ⁓ And yet here we are saying, yeah, the gifts were only for the time of the apostles. I mean, it's a great ruse by the enemy. It's the enemy's Psi-Op because you're stripping the church of her power and her authority.

That's the thing too, because not only does that narrative say, the power's not for today, but pretty much without fail, that goes hand in hand with a complete lack of authority of the believer as well. We have an approach to life which is, ⁓

God is in control, you know I talked about that. God's in control. And so, you can't do Jack. You can only go along for the ride. Whatever happens to me is his will. Yeah, absolutely. So why would I pray against that? Yeah, yeah, why would I pray against is insanity. It's absolute insanity. And it's weak, and it's powerless, and it's no wonder the world is where it is. It's no wonder that trafficking has become

the massive industry that it is because we have a church that's been taught it's supposed to get that way and you can't do anything about it because you suck. yeah, the classic dispensational fundamental cessationist Bible teaching that's been, you know, signaled for many pulpits for many years from very dear

Bible teachers who were solid in the fundamentals of the faith. Don't polish the brass on a sinking ship. The world's going to hell in a handbasket and there's nothing you can do about it. And that is just, you believe that and it's like, okay, well I'll just hide and hoard now. I'll just get everything I can for, you know, and...

and hoard and rapture me now, Jesus. I mean, and I'm sorry, but you know, it says that when the Lord returns, he'll return for a bride who has made herself ready and clothed herself in righteousness. so.

You know, I think that's why 1 Corinthians 1534, you know, it's a command awake to righteousness and do not sin. Yeah. And so to me, that's part of the waking up to our identity. Yeah. There's a book I think I mentioned to you called God in a brothel. You did. Yeah. Yeah. Investigator, international investigator for a child sex exploitation and trafficking went out. He was extremely successful. ⁓ But, you know, he

At some point in his career, he fell into adultery with ⁓ an older prostitute, not an underage girl. ⁓ it destroyed his life. And he wrote this book. It's a really solid book. And I remember reading it and the Holy Spirit told me. When I asked him, I said, why did he fall?

He's like, forgot who he was. And that's how important identity is for us men, because it just takes that. It's just, just one, one degree off Azmit on our identity, you know, will lead to being five miles outside, you know, from your point where, know, you're not on time and on target anymore. And you're off. And so it's like,

The identity is so solid that we have to get that wired down. We have to understand who God has made us to be as his sons and that... ⁓

The life that Christ modeled is actually possible through the power of the Spirit and who God has made us to be. But when we don't break agreement with lies, we believe that's another thing, know, hold a man down. You've got to break agreement with lies. You have to say, I break agreement with a lie that I'm a sinner. And I sever the influence of this lie off my life right now in the name of Jesus. And I receive the truth

and wear it as a blanket that I am the very righteousness of God in Christ. And just start declaring your identity. And when you do that, you're coming into agreement with who God says you are. Because I can't find in scripture where God calls a born-again, water-baptized, spirit-filled Christian a sinner.

see it. Even the Corinthian church that was pretty messed up and off Azmuth and there was sin that was happening in the church. ⁓ know, Paul addressed him, know, as the saints. I know, yeah. You know, doesn't say you're a bunch of sinners. Yeah. So to me, ⁓

We've got to get the identity part right. And that's huge. So that's number one step to answer a question for men. And then it's the power of the spiritual life. Yes, absolutely. Because you can't...

wield the power of the spiritual life if you think that you are just a limping, long-broken, messed up, wretched person, right? And I'm with you on that. My story is so much around identity as well. And literally, like you just said, speaking out a new set of truths than the ones that I had just let run through my head all the time.

I tell guys, ⁓ so with shoot, move, communicate, we have, if your guests want to find out about the ministry, it's absolutely SMC tribe.com. But, I usually run two to three training events a year. And it was funny. The Lord told me not to call them retreats. And I was like, huh. Okay. And, you know, and I was like, why? goes, cause I don't want men to give up ground that they've taken. So don't call it a retreat. You're not coming here to retreat.

anything. And so I called them training events. And so one of the things that the activations and the training events is for the guys to get up in the morning and look themselves in the mirror in their eyes and say, I'm not a sinner anymore.

Yeah, that's good. And then to write down what they think, what they feel or what they experience at that moment. Even if there's any like chatter going on in the head, like, you're full of ass or, you know, wake up loser or whatever it is to write these things down when you look your look yourself in the mirror and say, I'm not a sinner anymore. Yeah, right. And so to me, you're declaring

what God says about you over yourself. I mean, we don't have time to get into, know, 86 % of our compositional makeup is water. Water carries sound and light frequencies. And all of our voices have a frequency that our body is designed to respond to first and foremost. And so when I'm declaring reality, you know, I'm stepping into agreement with heaven.

And

this is part of the shift. Man, I just keep on discovering more things that I've never heard anybody but me talk about. No, it's good. you talk about it too, like with that whole thing. Yeah. We're not actually fixed as a being, right? Because everything is very fluid. We're more space than we are solid matter. And you're right. Like what we speak.

shapes us. It's like it reminds me of the the water experiment that they that they did where they ⁓ the Japanese doctor yeah where he froze the water with different words taped onto the cups you know and like it's fascinating yeah it's absolutely fascinating but you're so right what you speak it

It's ⁓ evidence of the authority that God gave us. What we speak can actually shape the molecular structure of ourselves, of nature, of matter. It goes deeper than our Sunday morning sermons ever go, right?

One thing I wanted to get into with you was, know you had, you, now how long have you been married presently? 13 years. 13 years. I imagine you are quite a different man in this marriage. Totally. Than you were in the previous. Yeah. And because so much of what I do is, you know, working with guys on their marriages, I'd love to just hear.

how you have shown up differently in this marriage than you did in the past.

Well, it's interesting. I think the Catholics say that marriage is a sacrament. Yeah. Yeah. Which has to do with our sanctification. And so obviously I wouldn't even be the man I am today apart from my wife. Yeah. For sure. So I have to give her, you know, ⁓

And sometimes that can, you know, feel like sandpaper a little bit, you know, when you're being honed into the man that, the maturity, you know, aspect. So yeah, it, how I've showed up differently is just, man, ⁓ praying, praying husband praying for my marriage, praying for my wife. mean, I pray in the spirit, ⁓ over my marriage declaring, ⁓

God's word over it, like no weapon formed against our union will prosper. ⁓ Watering my wife with the word. And not being religious about it.

I think being proactive and taking the lead as the husband, like, you know, there are things my wife will say, like, gosh, I would, I've gone places that I would not have gone unless we were married. You've taken me out of my comfort zone. And so I would say vice versa. There are places that, you know, she will take me out of my comfort zone in places. ⁓ And so, ⁓

Usually in marriage, it's that element of submission of the will. And that's really one of the biggest things in life is, you know, there's a lot of religious interpretation of what it means to, you know, ⁓

pick up your cross and follow Jesus. You know, I mean, there are, you know, there's the guy in Hollywood that literally has a wooden cross and he used to walk up and down Hollywood Boulevard with his cross. Cause he felt like that's what he was supposed to do. Wow. Yeah. That's that'd be kind of a, to me, a very religious motivated. ⁓

Expression of that. Yeah, but it can also be a prophetic symbol too for people If the Lord's really telling you to do that sure, I don't I don't discount prophetic symbolism It's it's can be very powerful like shooting arrows out of a window when the prophet tells you to do it Yeah, right. You know, you're either gonna win three battles or you're gonna you know win all yeah, so yeah But I would I would say that

You know, being...

Knowing who I am and not trying to get affirmation from my wife would probably be one of the biggest ways that I show up differently. And then also just knowing the power of the word. I wasn't filled with the Holy Spirit in my previous marriage. I'm being filled with the Spirit. And then having that grace.

to be sensitive to my wife is just how she's wired. ⁓ Which is, for me, being a Green Beret, you're kind of cut from a certain type of cloth and you look at things differently and I can be a little head forward, press through.

complete the mission. Totally. Regardless of what's happening. Yeah. You know, we'll clean up the mess when we get to the finish line. You got casualties, right? It's just part of it. Yeah. So now it's more, you know, the sensitivity ⁓ to her and how she's wired. Yeah.

And you know where before I don't think I really took that into consideration. Yeah. Right. I think to be honest, like what you said about knowing, knowing your identity, right? Apart from her affirmation, honestly, I feel like that opens the door for you to be able to be more considerate for you to be able to, ⁓ you know,

submit to those times when she calls you higher and you have to humble yourself, right? That's been the biggest shift in our marriage where I got married looking for my identity and my wife. while on the outside it makes you kind of like...

appear as though you might be the dream husband. least it did for me because I would like do everything I could to try to make her happy, right? And you know, serve her all the time and do all the romantic things and it's like, boy, who wouldn't want that? But man, when you're doing it to try to get your identity from her, it's all just a bunch of like smothery poison to the relationship. Well, yeah. And if you have ⁓ a woman who

say isn't godly, she's going to...

take advantage of that and learn to manipulate you. And then you're going to feel emasculated and you're probably going to start dealing with anger issues. yeah. And you'll probably fall into porn for a reward system to deal with it. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's definitely a slippery slope for sure. Especially because you're already operating under this weakened identity where you don't,

where

you don't have a high view of yourself according to what God has called you anyway. So you're just a sitting duck ready for the enemy to snipe. And vulnerability too. I've found that it was funny. I remember when I was leaking out of my eyes. I actually got to a point in the book I just wrote where I just said, you know, I...

I was crying over the fact that the Lord wanted me to get out of the military and I knew I was saying goodbye to a lot. ⁓ To include a retirement and things of that nature. ⁓ yeah, had tears streaming down my face that night. But the Lord told me your tears are actually your strength.

where before, you know, we grew up as men and it's like, don't cry, don't show emotion, don't do these things, you know? And so, you you're not a man if you, you pansy, whatever it is, you know, right? And so there was a, I think it was with the possibly the Spartans or the Athenians, but ⁓ after a battle,

and the burying of the dead, the commander would give an order to mourn or cry. And they had...

a certain number of hours where they could let out that emotion and shed tears. And then that commander, when that time was up, it was, they formed up and moved out and they never looked back. Interesting. And so there was a shedding of that emotion. Yeah. And so I think emotions are incredibly important. They're belittled a lot for men. But when the Lord told me, you know, your tears or your strength, and I had had to really kind of think about that, like, really, I just

feel

like I'm being weak and he's like, you need to think differently. And to me, vulnerability to the Lord is strength. And you think about how vulnerable the Lord has, what a vulnerable position the Lord has put himself in. And... ⁓

That is a demonstration of his strength. His character. Definitely. And so, you know, I try to help guys get in touch with that too. I that's really good. I used to not be. Yeah, I that's really good. I, in our family, so I'm...

father of three girls. Yeah. And then my wife. lot of estrogen in the house. A of estrogen. But I am the biggest crier of the family. like, you know, we'll be watching. ⁓

There's a new series that is put out by Angel Studios called The Promised Land. And it's this comedy about the people of Israel and Moses and Aaron. have office style interviews, you know, like the office show, and they talk to the camera and stuff. Super funny. But they'll have these deep moments at the ends of the episodes and stuff. So even in this comedy, there's a deep moment happening at the end of the episode. And all my girls start looking at me.

they want to see dad crying again, you know? You get misty. Yeah. Or just the other day, so on Easter we were doing some family church time and we, I just like played this song in Christ Alone, Michael W. Smith version. And I was sitting there in the chair and like,

was just tears just streaming and the song ends and I like you know lift up my head looking around and again everybody's like dad you're crying again there are there are some hymns that get me yeah there are some songs some lyrics man and I'll just man yeah there's ⁓ a song that ⁓

John Wesley wrote, so Charles Wesley's brother. Yeah, yeah. Or is it the way around? John Wesley was the preacher. Charles was the musician. yeah. He apparently wrote like 2000 hymns. Did he really? Wow, Oh, geez, yeah. You talk about someone filled with the Holy Spirit. Yeah, right. But one of the songs is How Can It Be?

Mm-hmm, and it goes how can it be that thou my god? Should die. Yeah, I know that one. Yeah, it just hits me every time Yeah, yeah, yeah, and there are some hymns that do or even just contemporary worship that just hits me man. yeah Yeah, totally. I mean I I find it. I'm thankful for the fact that in my growing

the Lord as a young kid with my dad not in the picture and stuff like I sought him hard as a dad and I wasn't settling for the emptiness of just you know, Father, Son and Holy Bible stuff, right? I wanted to know him for real. And so I'm thankful that early on I had encounters with him that

basically like just floods of emotion. And I'm thankful for that. That's like, I don't know, it's just been baked into my relationship with him from the beginning. But yeah, I think ⁓ that's also made possible the man and his wife, right, by a man knowing his identity. Because in my opinion,

Confidence is demonized a lot of times in the church. It's like, you can't be confident because you're a sinner. God's the only one who can do anything good, right? So if you're confident, you're misguided about your own nature or whatever. But in my opinion, confidence actually sets a man up to be humble.

And if I'm confident, I can more easily risk vulnerability and letting my emotions out because I'm not threatened by that anymore, right? So I think the man knowing his identity is able to free him from that. That's why men bow up. Yeah. mean, because...

they don't know who they are and they feel threatened. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's so funny, the things that, that men get their identity from. I'm not harping on things, but, uh, and I'm not saying any of these things are, you know, necessarily wrong, but you know, I look at it, some guys trucks and I'm just like,

You know, yeah, right. Or, you know, material possessions. Yeah. And they get their identity from these things. ⁓ And that's, that's, it's a slippery slope. yeah. Yeah, it is. It really is. And so that's, that's my starting point with everybody I work with is let's start on the identity. Yeah. Right.

And I want to talk a bit about the trafficking work that you do as well. Well, obviously, if anybody's getting into that work not knowing who they are, that's not going to last very long, right? That's a recipe for disaster. it's recipe for disaster. Yeah. So first of all,

How did you get into that and...

What have you?

I guess I have a multi-part question with this. How'd you get into it? What have you learned? What have you seen that you just never, that just was like, are you kidding me? This is real, right? And how has it actually elevated your walk with God, your experience with Him?

Well, I'll start with the second question first. Yeah. Just because it's hitting me right now.

that babies are trafficked for sex.

I mean, dude, like, two-year-olds.

just raped repetitively and thrown out of a moving vehicle and discarded.

Um, yeah. Yeah. Just brutal. And, yeah. If someone told me that, uh, you know, we were going to be, uh, supporting and helping traffic to babies home, I would've been like, what? Babies? Like having sex with children under three? What are you talking about? Yeah. People don't do that. Yeah. Yeah.

But we just got back from the Philippines about 10 days ago and, yeah, there was a little baby boy that was discarded, ⁓ in a culvert who had been abused sexually and, ⁓ was picked up and, he went into ICU and had sepsis and they didn't think he was going to live.

And so I had a couple friends that I texted and said, Hey, this, this kid's name, they named him Vince and he's probably not going to make it. It doesn't look like that unless God intervenes here. So just let's pray for it. Wow. And, and so, one of the friends is, is pretty prophetic. And he said,

He called the kid Invincible. That was his new name. wow. So we all agreed that his name would be Invincible. Wow. And this is about two, three months ago. And so I show up to the home and ⁓ I'm like, I want to see Vince. Where's Invincible? Yeah. And so I got to hold him.

and just sit with him. my gosh. And, you know, probably eight months right now.

And so you just don't think about that a lot of the parents, you know, poverty and pornography are the two things that drive in greed, ⁓ drive human trafficking. Poverty, meaning like parents giving up their children. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's interesting in South America. It's very cultural. If you have, two girls and a boy or a girl and a boy, ⁓ you can sell your daughter, ⁓

to the cartel that runs brothels. ⁓ And they will pay that family money ⁓ so that their son can get an education and have hope for that family or they can have a better life. In the Philippines, it's interesting, I've learned culturally.

That with a lot of parents, they don't think if it's real sex, it's real. So they'll put their children behind cameras. Really? Yeah. Yeah.

And they get some kind of payment for it. Yeah. Well, yeah, sure. They, you know, a subscription, monthly subscription to a child. ⁓ Two of the girls that were there at the home, ⁓ we brought ⁓ our videographer, who we've known for years with us to document things. And so we brought him and before ⁓

when you go in, not anybody can go in and interact with these kids. So the gal who's running the home, we go into a neutral space, which is like their classroom. And ⁓ we sit down with the kids. Well, we brought our videographer. We sit down and he brought his camera. And so knowing that the camera could be a trigger for kids who have been used in cyber or online sex exploitation. ⁓

She gave the kids the opportunity to name the camera. Really? So they named the camera. So a couple days later, you know, we're spending time there at the home, worshiping with the kids, praying with them, going through Bible stories. It was really amazing. ⁓ One of the girls who had been used in front of a camera, there were two.

She felt comfortable enough with our time there to come back around behind the camera with these two boys and learn all about the camera. So our videographer was showing them all the things and they were getting all excited about the camera and all that. But you just don't think about the normal do's and don'ts. You know, around kids who have been, you know, trafficked. Yeah. I'm sure someone who's never worked in that would have no idea what...

like innocuous things could be triggering. All right. So poverty is creates an environment that's very conducive for the cartels. Um, wow. You know, I can tell you right now that we're working on a operation. It's going to take some time to put it together, but there are.

Girls being trafficked from one country to another, smuggled into another, where they are being used to, they're impregnated, and they're being used to surrogate these babies. And once they get weaned from breastfeeding, they are shipped to another country for body parts. They're just, they're just birthed so they can have the body parts. Yeah.

This is an international ⁓ situation.

Yeah. So, um, those are the biggest shocking things. Yeah. Uh, how did we get into it? Um, we followed the Lord's lead to move to Tennessee in, uh, 2023 from California and didn't have a job. had the men's ministry and, uh, we're praying like, Lord, what do you want us to do? Like you brought us to Tennessee. Now what? And

Normally if I have to make tents then I go into construction, renovate houses, construction project management, either commercial residential, either one. I'll just, you know, kind of, you know, do carpentry. Yeah. money. Yeah. So,

I'm looking for jobs and nothing. It's crickets out there. mean, I'm on LinkedIn. I'm filling out apps. I'm qualified for these jobs. Nothing. About three months go by and I said, this is the weirdest thing in the world. And I pull out of my CrossFit gym and I hear the Lord distinctly say to me, whispers to me, says, be careful what doors you knock on. And the minute I heard that, I knew that

I wasn't ⁓

Spoke to me pulling out a crossfit this morning Yeah, I said he said Be careful what doors you knock on and I I know what that means I'm not supposed to be applying for jobs. ⁓ gosh. He has something But it hadn't been revealed yet and we're just gonna need to trust him. Yeah She's like, okay. Well, all right

Because see, the other thing is, just from a marriage perspective, I understand guys are supposed to be the provider, right? But I don't put that weight on me. My provider is our father in heaven.

And so my wife doesn't look to me for provision. She looks to our Father in heaven for provision. And so as we are yoked in that, we look to Him together. So I'm meeting her expectations. And we're trusting in His plan for our life and why He moved us here. The righteous shall live by faith. So we have to encourage each other to do that.

Two weeks later, we get invited to a weekender with some couples that are all in ministry. Yeah. And they want to do something about human trafficking. And we're like, okay, we'll go. Yeah.

And after two days of listening to everybody, ⁓

I felt like the Lord gave me a download. And so I put it into an operation order format. And I said, Hey guys, here's what I sense the Lord given me about this. And I communicated, you know, situation, mission, execution, command and signal service support. Yeah. You know, those are all your, you know, off-order paragraph. Yeah. And the.

And the guy who ran the ministry said, Hey, I think we're supposed to put you on full time work and you need to start a human trafficking division. Wow. So all of a sudden, you know, had I taken a job on LinkedIn, I wouldn't have been able to go to the weekender. No. mean, it was like a Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Yeah. And

I would have been ramping up for a new job or on the job site. There's no way I could have taken the time off. Yeah. And all of sudden now I'm boom. Like I'm, I'm on a salary and I've been given a budget for the, for six months and I reported back in six months on everything that we had accomplished. And then they decided to put my wife on salary and then they doubled our budget. And so it was, you know, an uphill learning curve into the human trafficking space.

And then the confirmation from the Lord came. We bought our first house together and we wanted this one lot and it was lot 77. And I was thinking, you know, seven is fullness and completion. two sevens for each of us. And so we were like, we want lot 77, but everything just kept diverting. And we didn't...

We were on the list, but someone took lot 77 before us. So then they call and they're like, well, we have lot 82. It's like, okay, well, we'll go look at lot 82. So we get over to lot 82 and I'm standing in the front and it's the house is not built yet. It's just a graded lot. I was like, Lord, what is the significance of this? this, is this our home site?

And I hear Psalm 82.

Now read it. God has taken his place in the divine council in the midst of the gods. holds judgment. How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Give justice to the weak and the fatherless, maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute, rescue the weak and the needy, deliver them from the hand of the wicked. And the minute I read that, I knew that was a mandate and a calling that God had given us to get into trafficking. Wow. Boom.

It was his confirmation. Wow. So we were, we were all in. And, yeah, our first year was amazing. And then our second year, they increased our budget. was, it was huge. ⁓ we had operations, going on and that we were supporting, ⁓ in central America, South America, ⁓ Southeast Asia and ⁓ Africa. Wow.

Wow. And it had everything to do with, setting up LPOPs in Nigeria to be able to, alert Christian communities of, ⁓ church burnings and kidnappings that were going to be taking place to, ⁓ and, partnering with the government in that. and also in Dominican Republic.

⁓ which has been great ⁓ to partner down there in that. ⁓ So yeah, it's been... ⁓

It's been a great year and then we, the ministry decided to go in another direction this February. so my wife and I just launched our anti-trafficking ministry called Justice Rains. So it's at justicerains.org if any of you guys want to check it out. And we're just getting everything built out for that. yeah. Wow.

Justice Reigns. Justice Reigns. And you're, even though it's under now a whole different organization, your own, you're still working with the same contacts to do the same, hopefully get back up to doing the same projects and everything, right? Yeah. Wow. So.

I also noticed it wasn't lost on me in that Psalm 82. It's fascinating that's the divine council Psalm as well. is, that's really interesting to me. The divine council Psalm and this like life mission of yours for the human trafficking. It's fascinating. ⁓

you

How important, I mean, this issue of human trafficking, you have people who are not believers who are aware of it, you know, and some who do things to fight it, right? How spiritual is this world though? And how important is the spiritual, like being able to do spiritual battle? Yeah.

Well, human trafficking is the fruit of what I would call the Nephilim agenda. Yeah. And that goes back to, you know, the first seed war, you know, like we've had World War I, World War II, World War III. Yeah. And, know, what I would call seed war one, Genesis 315 ⁓ is called the proto-Juan Gueliana, the first gospel. Yeah.

And talks about the seat of the woman and the seat of the serpent. Yeah. And that the seat of the woman crushed the head of the serpent and the serpent would bruise his heel. Yeah. Which was ultimately fulfilled at the cross. But you still have the seat of Satan and the seat of the woman, which is, you know, believers ⁓ in contention and battle. Yeah. And so, you know, you have a second major rebellion that occurs

⁓ as well when the 200 Watcher Angels descended on Mount Hermon, entered into a covenant and ⁓

intermarried with the daughters of men and produced a hybrid race, the Nephilim. So in that you have just very diabolical... ⁓

hatred being manifested toward the human race because of the Dominion and stewardship that God gave man. Yeah, right and that we are his image bearers. Yeah, so even unbelievers Bear his image. Yeah, and the demonic realm ⁓ Satan's task organization. I mean hates us with a ⁓ very Very evil just hatred they

to destroy everything. And that agenda is to corrupt the human gene gnome or gene bull ⁓ and build out an end times army to flip the scales that they believe that they can ⁓ at the Battle of Armageddon. And they want to enslave the human race and

you know, enslaving the human race. That's why I say the fruit of that is human trafficking. Sure. Yeah. But it's also, you know, control mechanisms that they're trying to influence people to bring into, um, our natural realm in order to control people. So, uh, CBDC, central bank, digital currency. Yeah. Uh, and the,

⁓ digital IDs. And so once that control grid is put into place, you can actually restrict what people buy. And if they go outside a certain perimeter or neighborhood, ⁓ they might not have the ability to purchase. And then everything is tracked. you know, ⁓

It's a very insidious agenda. ⁓ And the human trafficking is definitely a fruit of this. Yeah. I it's just... It's...

Just it's an attempt to destroy the image of God and the right to life in people. ⁓ And the thing is, that demons are transferred or they create bridges ⁓ within people ⁓ through sexual iniquity.

And then there's a cult ritual. So I don't, I can't even get into that, but sex magic, Alastair Crowley, you know, all of, all of the, you know, stuff that the hallucinogenic drugs that people are doing. That's another thing. mean, you know, guys are like, Oh, it's, it's okay to microdose. You're seeing a lot of guys with PTSD in the service, microdosing mushrooms. You've got people out there experimenting with that stuff. It's all pharmacia. Yeah. Yeah. And it's, it's,

creating I would say portals and access points to people and so this whole thing is spiritual it's all spiritually motivated and that's why I guys I I sent two guys on a on a anti-trafficking mission ⁓ into the Caribbean and you really got to make sure that

Those guys understand who they are, identity. And they understand the walk by the spirit and they're walking with a relative degree of freedom in their life. And you can't deploy guys on these things alone.

It's just you can't. Yeah, because there's knocks on the hotel room door. You're staying in that can happen ⁓ You know all sorts of things, but if you have a roommate, you know, Jesus sent us out two by two the disciples Yeah, why would we not? Yeah, totally and that was for by design protection and accountability Absolutely, know and so you're less susceptible to temptation when you're you know walking with a brother

Yeah. You know? So. Yeah. Well, yeah, I mean, I imagine that's that everything you just went into there, the Nephilim agenda, the sex magic stuff, the cult rituals, all that like that's I'm sure that's hours worth of conversation. gosh. Well, there's podcasts dedicated to that. yeah. Thank God. absolutely. Absolutely. So how?

if how does anybody get connected with you, right? Like where can people find you ⁓ if they wanna be a part of what you're doing, your SMC events, stuff like that. ⁓

I don't know, I imagine you have a pretty, you're pretty selective on who you send out on missions. But if there's anybody who's like, man, I've wanted to know how to like, go fight it. I mean, what do they do ⁓ if they wanna connect with you? Well, for me to put my hands on somebody, what I mean by that, like, if I lay hands on you, I'm...

You know, approving, right? Yeah. And then my reference carries when you go down range. Yeah. And so that's my reputation on the line. Yeah. And I've, I've known guys that have had issues that have, are not walking in freedom. Yeah. They don't know their authority, ⁓ that I would never send down range. And some people get involved with this and it's just a recipe for disaster. Like you said, so I use SMC personally, the training events, ⁓ as a

All fire because I really get to know the guys that we're training with ⁓ More on a personal level because we're all in a bunk house. Yeah, we're all you know together We're training every day five six hours on the range. We're in you know meetings in the evenings ⁓ I can you can kind of see in the spirit and you know get to know guys hearts and where they're at Yeah You know I had a guy communicate with me on the way over here that he's he's

⁓ struggling a little bit with pornography. He's not totally free from it. You know, and so I've got to ask him questions like, well...

You know, what does that mean? Yeah. Are you talking every day? Are you talking once a week? Are you talking once a month or six months? Do you have like freedom from this? And then all of sudden, how does this come on? Yeah. Is it a thought that spurs it? What's happening here? Yeah. So, you know, you got to get to know where these guys are at because you don't want to send, you know, someone who, you know, is freshly recovering from alcoholism into a bar with a gospel. Right.

Yeah, okay. I mean you got to get some you got to get some ⁓ maturity on your belt before that goes down So yeah based on where the guys are but they can always pray be involved, you know in prayer chain Yeah In particular they can give you know to me. I tell them you know where Your treasure is your heart will be also. Yeah, so it's like hey if you start giving to this You know, then you're gonna be more interested in this you'll be committed to pray to it and

And then that goes from there. ⁓ So they can get a hold of me on the SMC Tribe website, is ⁓ smctribe.com. They can also ⁓ find our YouTube channel, ⁓ which we just launched, SMC Tribe, on YouTube. They can go to our ⁓ website, which will be up this week or next. That's going to be justicerains.org.

But they can also go to my wife and I's ministry site, is henridamanda.com. And then there's trafficking there to become a partner for that. So they can get a hold of me with that. On the smctribe.com website, they can click the events tab and find out about the next events we have, like coming up April 20 through 24, we're training out of Memphis area. And then ⁓ October, I think seven,

through 11.

It's going to be in Idaho, in southern Idaho. Just about an hour from Boise. Okay. Cool. Cool. So, and yeah, I'll put all the links. We also have an anti-trafficking ⁓ training event that we are hosting here in Nashville. And that's going to happen in ⁓ September. ⁓ cool. And ⁓ that's going to be through the Association for the Recovery of Children.

And it is an intensive.

deep dive into anti-trafficking work to recover kids. And so this guy is a former Marine officer and he and his wife's a missionary. They're awesome people. And it's like eight hours of class time a day for like five or six days. It's $650 a person, but you will get into everything from identification to the different platform.

⁓ being used to traffic, how to conduct investigations, he deals with the US Constitution, citizens arrest, ⁓ working with law enforcement, all those things. So if people want to start their own ministry or their own NGO that has its anti-trafficking related, they could go to that and get information.

And we'll have information on that on our website, or they can just email me at info at smctribe.com. Cool. Yeah.

And then I have another guy that I work with and partner with ⁓ who runs the ⁓

anti-trafficking Bureau out of the Caribbean. And he's going to be putting on an online training, ⁓ on, preparing men to be part of the sting operations, which is where you're basically bait and you, need Americans at times for certain sting operations. And you come in and he'll teach you everything online. and that is like, I think it's a six hour training.

I think he's charging around $1,600 but for guys that I refer He's doing it for half. Hmm. Wow. So That's coming up as well. I think in July gotcha Yeah, those sound really yeah, like powerful powerful events. Yeah, that's really cool And I know we didn't get into this too much which

That's okay, maybe it'll be another conversation. But you also do have a book coming out, so we gotta watch out for that. Yeah, it's called Unredacted. Yeah, and you told me a bit about it in our last conversation, which got me excited for it. So when is that getting released? Maybe? It's at the typesetter right now. Okay. so I would say within...

60 days 60 days okay I mean you probably you've published a book so once it's at the type setter the cover art's done yeah I'm waiting for a couple endorsements to come in but other than that it it's awesome and I don't know if you do you want to give a little blurb about it or do you want to just let it let it be a surprise here for no it's it's it's really how

You know, when I got saved, was quickly, ⁓ I guess, assimilated into Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California. And so that was, you know, Chuck Smith's teaching. ⁓ And at that point... ⁓

the gifts of the Spirit were not being emphasized like they were during the Jesus Revolution years. ⁓ You know, from what I understand, they used to have these afterglow ⁓ sessions. So after the main service, they'd have the afterglow sessions where the fruit of the Spirit would, and the gifts would begin to manifest among those who assembled, and it was very powerful. A guy who I really enjoyed learning a lot about, Lonnie Frisbee. ⁓

You know, he really was the lightning rod at that time that God used in amazing way. And really the spark that started the Vineyard Movement as well. A lot of people don't know that. ⁓ Anyway, so...

I grew up basically a ⁓ cessationist, believing in the fundamentals of the faith, the gifts with the spirit were not for today. know, apostles and prophets were things of thing in the past. So there were, there's only, you know, pastors and teachers and evangelists today. so how you can get to completing the objective of Ephesians 4, 12 and 13 is impossible unless you have, you know, prophets and apostles.

However, I believed all that and so I basically lived with a redacted Bible. mean, my Bible looked like a document the CIA released to the public. I it was, if the word prophet was there in the New Testament, was no more, no this, none that. Healing, no. Tongues, no. That's demonic. And I was very adamant about these things.

story is about the encounter I had with God in the North Georgia mountains and how the Lord spoke to me and very just clearly told me that all the gifts were for today, the sermon on the mountain was for today, and then he said, by the way, there are apostles and prophets walking around. And I thought I had lost my mind. But it was clearly the Lord.

So then it was walking everything out from there to present day. So I deal with a lot of theological issues in the book as well, but they are, it's a lot of personal testimony. Like my journey to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, what happened when I received that? ⁓

I got healed from a brain tumor. mean, I, know, here I am, I don't believe in the gift of healing and there's a healing service and I kind of, wow, okay, well there's a healing service. I'll go to the healing service, I guess. And I had an annual MRI scheduled every year to ensure the tumor didn't grow and decided to move my annual appointment to the following week. And I went to the healing service on Friday night, got prayed for, went and had my MRI the following week and you

The doctor calls me and says Henry you're not gonna believe us. We can't find your brain tumor But I don't believe in that Yeah, so Everything that I said was not for today The Lord had me personally experience. Yeah, it's cool. And so it's about that journey and then I deal with you know ⁓ some a lot of issues like theologically, yeah like ⁓

the baptism of the Holy Spirit, you know, are Christians filled with the Spirit when they get saved? Or are they filled after they receive the baptism of the Spirit? And what are the implications of that?

And so I deal with some passages like the, Suki cost man in, in first Corinthians, know, the soulish man can't discern the things of the spirit. so is that, ⁓ an unbeliever or is that a believer who's saved that has not been filled the Holy spirit? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's good. And so those are, those are some theological things that I delve into. And then even, ⁓ dealing with the demonic. mean, my first experience with a demon was

on the beaches in Southern California during the COVID lockdowns. And we were on the beach preaching the gospel. And my wife and I went out in the water to baptize this guy who received Jesus at an altar call. ⁓ I said, you know, I made sure he was a Christian. said, yeah, I answered the altar call. Do you believe in Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior? Yeah, et cetera, et cetera. And so I said, okay, go to your knees in the water and...

When you're baptizing people and the waves are kind of big, you kind of have them get on their knees and then you, you know, facing their back toward the waves. So then when the wave comes, you take them down into the wave. And then you bring them up once it crashes over them.

He purpose to go down to on his knees, but his body as I'm holding him went this way and I was like, this is weird. Like it was, it was the weirdest thing. Yeah. And I thought, this is not normal. And I said, Hey, what's going on? He goes, I don't know. I went to get in the water and my body won't go in the water. Whoa. Weird. That's crazy. And at that moment I'm like,

gosh this could be a demon. And so I did the only thing I knew how to do. I said, ⁓ get in the water in the name of Jesus, now. And his body went whoop! And I'm like, dang. And so we baptized him and we raised him up and when he came out of the water he started flailing, dude.

His head was just going all over the place. I mean, he was shaking his arms back. I mean, it was like, how are we going to control this dude? I mean, it was my wife's on one shoulder. I'm on the other. And this body is just spastically going ballistic. And it was doing things that like naturally people don't do with their bodies. And so

All I knew to do at that point was get out in the name of Jesus. And so my wife's praying in the spirit over this dude. I'm saying get out in Jesus name with my hand now on his chest. And then all of a sudden he just goes limp. Like, nothing.

And I've got to hold him up because he's going to fall down like a noodle. Like drowning in the ocean. It's like he didn't have a spine or a skeletal structure. Wow. And I'm holding him up and then we just started praying for the Holy Spirit to fill him. Yeah. And, you know, after what seemed like an eternity, it was probably 30 seconds. You could...

you could feel his whole lung cavity expand with air. And then he just starts praising God in tongues and his arms shoot up and he's just praising God and his whole complexion changes. There's joy on his face. I was like, ⁓ my gosh, this is what.

this is. And so in the book, I deal with deliverance. And can a Christian be, you know, possessed or demonized? ⁓ And to what degree? ⁓ We had a, we were bringing people to a home that were getting saved and baptized off the beach and a small little house.

My wife had prayed for this gal and she got healed and people started kind of freaking out over in the corner and it was she was excited. ⁓ And then this gal walks right up to me. And she says to you and your wife do deliverance. And I was like why? And she says because during worship I wanted to scream I wanted to run out of the house and scream obscenities. And I was like that's a demon. Yeah.

I was like, yeah, we do. Why don't you sit down right here in the living room? So she said, stay on the floor. And I told the guy who was doing a worship, I said, come over here. I said, start worshiping Jesus. He's like, what,

You know, because like worship was over. took communion. We have prayed for whatever. I was like, dude, just start worshiping Jesus deliverance. He's like, okay. So he starts playing on his guitar, worshiping. I'm like, hey, honey, come here. So my wife comes over. She goes, what's going on? I go deliver. And she goes, right here, right now? I'm like, yeah. So she sits down on the floor and we start, you know, praying for this gal. Yeah. And ⁓ my wife, ⁓ you know, commands his demon to leave her.

And she just looks at my wife with his glazed face and this demon just starts clapping and says, you haven't fasted. Oh, wow. haven't fasted. And I was like, holy crap. Yeah. Like this is weird. Yeah. And so I actually go through that.

and deal with that passage that says, this kind will not come out with prayer and fasting. I will not reveal.

the conclusion I came to. And you shouldn't. We should have to read the book. Because actually there's some text critical issues. Okay. In some manuscripts. Yeah. That have different renderings of that passage with some words that appear in early manuscripts and others do not have the other word. Interesting. And so it's interesting because you know the demons know these things. yeah. Yeah. Totally.

So it behooves us to learn and to read your book. So I talk about that. Yeah, it's awesome. Well, I want to get it. So I'm going to keep my eyes open for it. Well, thank you so much. Thank you, Henry. I've absolutely loved this interview. Yeah, absolutely have. Thank you for. ⁓

coming and doing it in person. Glad we're in the same town. Me too. So we can do that, man. Yep. ⁓ I'll put all your information in the description, the show notes. Everybody watching, thank you for watching or listening, if you're listening on Apple or Spotify. ⁓ Go follow Henry, SMC Tribe. Follow him on YouTube. Go to his website. Get all the information you can. ⁓

even consider attending one of his SMC events. while you're at it, go ahead and subscribe to the Man Warrior King channel as well. And if you feel so inclined, please go ahead and leave a review on Apple or Spotify, leave a rating. And I love you all. Peace out.