Everything Begins with Intimacy with God

I want to talk about Jesus for a moment now, and I want to talk about shoes. What does Jesus have to do with shoes? I remember once when I was receiving missionary training, and this woman was teaching us how to discern the Voice of God. She was also talking to us about the character of Jesus Christ, all the existing names of Jesus, and all the characteristics of Jesus.

Then she told us, “I want all of you to go out there until you receive a Word from God and are able to experience the Presence of God.” I said, “Okay.” I was in Concord, New Hampshire, in the state of New Hampshire, so I went out into a field. There were these beautiful trees, the pines and granite typical of New Hampshire. I was standing there worshiping the Lord, but suddenly it was as though He were physically present before me.

I did not see Him with my physical eyes, but the preacher Oral Roberts used to say something like, “You know that you know that you know it is so,” and I knew clearly and convincingly that Jesus was before me at that moment. And He was a little jealous, and He said to me, “Hey, do you think what you are experiencing right now is wonderful? Let Me give you a glimpse of what heaven is like.”

Can you imagine a very dark day when suddenly a bolt of lightning comes and illuminates the entire sky, and all at once you can see everything brightly lit? That was what my glimpse of heaven was like, but it was magnificent. The trees were lush and seemed translucent, something I had never seen before. The colors were colors I had never seen, but the best part was the joy that overwhelmed and filled my entire heart.

The Bible speaks of that inexpressible and glorious joy. And do you know what that really means? It is having so much joy that you do not know what to do with your own body. It is like knowing that, but when you have so much joy inside you, it is as though you do not know how to express so much joy physically. That was how I felt at that moment when the Lord gave me that—it was an overwhelming, all-consuming joy.

When I was in college, I was an American football player, and I went on to play semi-professional American football. You always tend to see yourself as this strong, burly guy, but in the midst of that experience the Lord gave me in that field, when I was completely alone with the Lord, the Lord said to me, “Hey, let’s dance by ourselves,” and I found myself dancing with Jesus. I went crazy dancing alone in that field. And I remember thinking, “I hope no one is watching me.”

But that joy was so great that I had to do it. Then the Lord spoke to me again and said, “What do you want? I am going to give you whatever you desire.” So I looked at my shoes. At that time I was working with a youth group—I was a member—and its initials were YWAM. There is another way of looking at those initials: Youth Without Any Money. (Laughter.) So I looked at my worn-out shoes with holes in the soles and said, “Lord, I would love to have a new pair of shoes.” Then the thought struck me again, and I thought, “Hey, Solomon asked the Lord for wisdom to lead an entire nation, and here I am asking the Lord for shoes.” And I said to myself, “What an idiot you are! What have you done?”

So I went back to the building, and as I was walking down the hallway, I wondered, “Was that God, or was it my imagination? Did I imagine this or make it up?” Then one of my friends came out of one of the rooms, and I saw this guy every day. He said, “Hey, Doug Tony!” I said, “Okay.” He said, “No, you don’t understand. I was in my room a moment ago, and the Lord just gave me a directive.” I said, “Well, what did He tell you?” He said, “I just bought a new pair of shoes, the most expensive athletic running shoes there are.” He asked me, “What size are your feet?” We wore the same size, and I have wide feet.

So he gave me the shoes, and I went back to my room and said to myself, “Well, the shoes are very nice, but what is far better is that I can enjoy this kind of relationship with Jesus Christ—that He is personal and speaks directly to me.”

So we see that today in America, people spend an average of three minutes in prayer because they do not know the joy of knowing Him. We do not understand the sublime majesty of Jesus, and the average Christian man spends only one hour in total over the course of an entire year reading the Bible. That is why we do not even understand what this Bible says; we do not even know Him anymore. So when I had that experience with the shoes, it began a new way of experiencing Jesus in a personal and wonderful way.

I began traveling all over the world, preaching the Gospel in different parts of the world. During my lifetime, I have preached to and prayed for around 200,000 people across different countries. I have been to 45 countries, and to many of those countries 12, 15, or even 20 times, and I have experienced the majesty of Jesus wherever I go.

I remember going to Mongolia once. Everyone there is Buddhist. Christianity had only just arrived there in 1995; Campus Crusade was the first group to arrive there. Then an Assemblies of God pastor suddenly arrived. Right now, only one-hundredth of one percent—not even one percent—of the people there are Christians. And God told me, “Go to Mongolia.” You have to take a flight to Chicago, then fly over the North Pole and arrive in Beijing, China, and from there take another flight to Mongolia. Then, when you arrive, you take the slowest train in the world in 100-degree temperatures. There is no air conditioning on the train, and we reached our destination four or five days later, ready to die.

Then I approached a pastor and asked him, “Pastor, what is your plan?” And he told me, “Well, I would like to start a church here.” I asked, “When?” He said, “Well, I am going to pray for seven years, and then we will start it.” That was on a Friday, and I said to him, “Brother, why don’t we start it on Sunday?” He said, “But we don’t have any people!” And this was in Mongolia, where the overwhelming majority had never heard about Jesus or the Bible even once in their lives.

But then I entered the Presence of the Lord within my own heart and said, “Lord, give me a strategy. What should we do?” That particular town had no water; people had to go to a well to get water. At that time, I had a drama team and a dance team with me, and I told them, “Well, let’s go to this well. We will stay there and see what happens. We are going to meet many people who come to draw water there at the well.”

So we spent the entire day Saturday there giving our presentations, and that evening we went somewhere else. And on that day, 112 Buddhists converted to Jesus Christ—112. It takes about an hour and a half for each person, so you need a large team. And the oldest Buddhist monk in the entire area was one of those 112 people who gave his life to Jesus Christ. He had served Buddha his entire life.

Afterward, we went to another part of the city, and all these people were inside a school building. We began giving our presentations there. It was like a vacuum cleaner: everyone came out of the school building and gathered around us. I remember clearly that we were there preaching the Gospel when the school principal came out and said, “These people come from the devil.” And she said, “If you follow them, these white people, you are going to go to hell. Do not listen to them.” And all the students said the following: “We have never heard these words before. This message has never come to us. Please let us listen. We want to hear it and decide for ourselves.” So she finally withdrew, and by the end of that presentation, 300 people came to Jesus Christ, all of them Buddhists.

You have to understand: it all begins with shoes. It begins with the Person of Jesus, with having that intimacy with Him, knowing the Voice of God in your own life, and spending time with Him. You do not pray because you believe it is not worthwhile; you think it will not make a difference. But you have no idea of the power found in prayer. Prayer changes everything, brothers.

Pray for your children. Pray for your grandchildren. Seek the Lord, especially you men. Men, you need to pray. Brothers, take some time out of your day. I know you are busy; you need to earn money and go to work. I understand that, but look at what I do with myself. The flesh does not want to pray, so I speak to my flesh, stretch out my hand, and say, “Hey, you are going to pray.” Then I slap myself and tell myself, “Hey, stop that and start praying, because it is not by the sword, not by an army, not by human strength; it is by the Spirit of God.”

You know, God does these things through us. And I remember the next day, when we planted that church, around 130 people came to church that day. Even the mayor of that city came. And I remember the questions they asked us, because when you start this kind of church, there are going to be many questions, and you have to have the answers. One woman raised her hand and said, “We worship the mountains, the trees, and natural objects. All our lives and for 1,500 years, we have worshiped these beings. Whom, then, do we worship now?” And I told her, “Now you can worship the One who made all those things and who made you as well.” Then she said, “Oh, now we understand.”

Brothers and sisters, I want you to have that experience too. I want you to have moments like that as well. You know, not long ago we were at Downtown Crossing, there in downtown Boston, at Rogle’s train station, and we ran into a Chinese student who had never heard the Gospel of Christ even once. And we had the opportunity to lead him to Jesus Christ.

You know, there are many Chinese people who believe that all of Creation was created by birds. If you go to Mongolia and ask, “Who made us?” they will tell you, “The birds.” They believe that. And to be able to tell them, “No, there is a God. There is a Creator—a real, living Creator God.” Do you know that there are two and a half billion people in the world who have not heard the Gospel? How will they hear if there is no one to preach to them? How will they know if we do not go to them?

Downtown Boston is an incredible place to preach the Gospel. I would tell you that half the world passes through Downtown Crossing. You need to know around forty languages to be able to speak there. Once, I was able to sit there with some Turkish people. They had never heard anyone speak about Jesus in such a personal way. They were so curious about Jesus; they asked a thousand questions. Most of them were not going to accept Christ on that first occasion, but they had never heard the message. Brothers and sisters, do you know who lives in your city?

The world has come to you, and yet we spend the day shut inside our homes, in stores, or at work. Why not give some of your time to Jesus and have a personal experience with Him?

You know, when you have that personal experience with Christ, wonderful things happen. By the way, at another church we planted there, we added 300 people to that other congregation. If you want to check them out, Erdenet is the city in Mongolia where we added these two churches—a truly amazing story. But when you hear these stories, you can then tell them to young people like these.

And yesterday—Joe Campbell, who was playing soccer with you? Come up here, players, the young men who were playing soccer. Yesterday they were playing soccer with some Vietnamese people, all of them Vietnamese. And these guys had never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ before. At the end of their game—Joe, tell them what happened.

Joe: So at the end of the game, I asked, “May I pray for you or with you?” And they were very open and attentive. They had never heard about Jesus Christ before. So I prayed with about ten of them, and every one of them accepted Jesus Christ.

Pastor: And so you have the opportunity to pass on these kinds of stories to young people like these. Thank you; good job. I remember once when my son was in Dorchester. He was in one of those housing projects there ministering, and he described it like this: the crowd and the group were in front of him, and there was another guy far away, standing at the top of a staircase. And God said to him, “Jeremy, catch him.”

Jeremy is six foot three, so Jeremy took off after this guy, and the guy started running. Jeremy took off after him and caught him, and the guy asked him, “What do you want? What do you want?” You know, you have to surrender everything; you have to give everything for Jesus. My wife and I have surrendered everything. All the time, we give everything. I cannot tell you how many times I have had the privilege of emptying my wallet of every bit of money. I assure you, it is no great feat because there is not much money in it, but you pass that on to people.

So the guy told him, “You know, I am not interested in what you have to tell me.” And Jeremy had just bought himself a very expensive watch, and he told the guy, “If you let me tell you this story I have to share, I will give you this watch.” The guy looked at him and said, “All right, go ahead. You’ve got me; it is a very nice watch. I like it.”

It is good to tell these things to your children. What matters is the Kingdom of God. So this man listened to Jeremy for 30 minutes and told him, “You do not know who I am. I am the owner of the drug business. I control and sell the drugs in this neighborhood.” And Jeremy looked at him and said, “Let me tell you something: this is a very important and significant moment in your life. Your life is hanging in the balance right now. This is not a decision you can put off until tomorrow.”

And he says to him, “Do you know me?” Jeremy says, “No, I don’t know you.” He tells him, “Tomorrow I’m going to court. It’s already my third strike. The judge will probably send me to prison.” And Jeremy says to him, “Yes, your life is hanging in the balance right now. What are you going to do?” And he asks him, “What can Christ do for me?” Jeremy tells him, “Well, the first thing He is going to do is transform your life.” He asks him, “Will He get me out of prison?” “Well, no. You’ll probably go to prison for however long you have to go, but the Lord will be with you the entire time you’re there.” And he says to him, “Well, I’m going to give my life to Jesus.”

So this man prayed with Jeremy and then asked him, “Well, what do I do tomorrow?” And Jeremy tells him, “Well, do something you’ve never done: tell the judge the whole truth.” “You’re crazy,” he told him. “He’ll send me to prison for 30 years, not 20.” And Jeremy says to him, “Look, if you tell the truth, God will be with you. If you lie, as you always do, the Lord will move away from you, so tell the truth.”

Do you know what happened? This man went to court over the next few days and laid everything out before the judge. The judge was absolutely astonished. If anyone would independently like to know this person’s name, I can tell you. And the judge said this to the man: “I’ve known you since you were a young boy. This is the first time you’ve told me the truth. Your life,” the judge says, “is different. You’re not going to prison; I’m going to keep you out of prison.” A true story.

This guy never sold a single drug again. He left the gangs. He texted and messaged Jeremy almost every day, and do you know what he asked him about? Biblical questions. He couldn’t put the Bible down; he fell in love with it. He was reading the Bible four or five hours a day. His life was transformed. He attends the church on Blue Hill Avenue, and now he is one of the leaders of his church. Look at what God can do when you share the Gospel.

It is always interesting to me. I have always been on the mission field. We have been in many parts of the world, we have lived in Europe many times, and once I ended up again in the same building in Concord, New Hampshire, where I told this story. And so, as I walked through this building and reminisced, I said, “Wow, Lord, this is where it all began. This was where the story of the shoes happened, where I first encountered You. This was the first adventure.” To me, Jesus Christ is everything; it is Him alone.

So, at that moment there in Concord, in that building, I knelt down, worshiped the Lord, and thanked the Lord for that personal, intimate relationship with Him. And after that, I went to church and was there worshiping the Lord, and there was a lady near me. Suddenly, I saw her turn around sharply and begin staring intently at me like this. I checked my clothes to see if everything was all right. Everything was all right. Then the woman left.

I said, “Well.” I continued worshiping the Lord. The service ended, and I was in the church lobby when this woman came in again and said to me, “During the service, God spoke to me. He told me to leave the church, go to Macy’s, the store, buy the best pair of Italian shoes with leather soles that I could find there, and give them to you. And the Lord even told me your shoe size.”

And do you know what the Lord was telling me at that moment? I want you to grasp this. Just as we enjoy Him and His Presence so much, He enjoys us. He enjoys us and wants to have intimacy with us. He loves it when you go wild, worship Him, and spend that time with Him. So, brothers and sisters, spend time with Him. He is not deaf. He is still speaking. He knew you before you were born. He knows what you need. He wants to take that relationship even further, because sooner or later you are going to discover something.

I remember a time when I was running a school and a man came to the school. The guy was crazy; he offended everyone. And I said to him, “What are you doing in my school?” He says, “Hey, I don’t like you. I don’t want anything to do with you, but God ordered me—He told me I had to be here.” I said, “Okay, great.” We always split into small groups. Everyone in my small group abandoned me, and I said to him, “Tell me your story.”

He said, “I am a Vietnam veteran. When I was in Vietnam, I once got drunk because my best friend had just died beside me, and then I started taking drugs. That same day, drunk and high, I went to a village, took my machine gun, and killed everyone I could. I went to prison for 20 years.”

“I had psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers—everyone—trying to help me.” And I told him, “My school is going to New York to do evangelism,” and he said, “I’m going with you.” He came with us, and there we were in a park in Brooklyn. I began talking to a homeless guy, and this man said to us, “Hey, I have a story I want to share with you. I’m a Vietnam veteran,” this man tells us.

And he says, “When I was in Vietnam, there was a young boy with a bomb strapped to his back, and this suicidal young boy with a bomb on his back was heading toward 20 soldiers.” And this homeless man says, “I shot and killed the young boy, but I have never been able to recover from that. So,” he says, “I am now homeless on purpose. What I want to do is torment myself for the rest of my life for having killed that young boy.”

And I said to him, “Well, look, I have a guy here who did something much more horrible than what you did. He is a Christian, and he needs to talk to you.” So the three of them are there, and the three of them begin to talk. The pastor says, “Hey, me too. I was a helicopter pilot.” And these three began talking. What is interesting is that these two traumatized men had once been with this pastor in the very same helicopter he piloted. This first man who had come with me—the one who had killed and massacred all those people in Vietnam, who had been depressed every day of his life despite being a Christian, despite seeking God, despite being in my class—hears this other man’s testimony, his story, points at him, and says, “I’m going to tell you this: there is no sin you can commit that God cannot forgive.”

And when he said this, suddenly, for the first time in his life, as he was saying it, he himself realized that it was also true for his own life. He too received deliverance through his own words and began to worship the Lord, and he forgot about the other man. He returned home with us—this was in New Hampshire—and this first traumatized veteran then led his psychiatrist, the psychologists, and the social workers to Christ, because they said, “Look, if you can change, God is real.”

So when you do something for Christ, He sets you free; He works miracles in your own life. And then you say, “Well, I can tell others about Christ, but I don’t want to do it.” But when you simply do it out of obedience, not desire, He puts us in situations that will bring deliverance as we testify; they will set our own lives free, and then we can experience the Grace of God in a personal way. Amen? Hey, good stuff—what do you think? Amen.