Episode 1489 Interview with Mike Manuel About Experiencing Both Spiritual and Emotional Health

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining us on episode 1489 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:00:07] Mike Manuel: I'm Mike Manuel, and I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to recognize that walking with God isn't about religion, but it's about faith being the key.

[00:00:28] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this. inspired stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Mader.

[00:00:44] Christianity and Jesus and the simple message and was decoupled from a lot of the religion of man, the rich rituals of man. And when I saw that simplicity and pureness, and it just like, man, this is what it looked like in the [00:01:00] original church back in the early days. And it just helped me just grow so much closer to Christ and appreciate him.

[00:01:07] Welcome and thank you

[00:01:08] Scott Maderer: for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:40] In today's podcast episode, I interview Mike Manuel. I asked Mike to share what are the keys to becoming both emotionally and spiritually healthy. I also asked Mike about his book, Breaking Up With The Enemy, and Mike shares with you his journey and his faith walk and how that has affected his life. I've got a new book [00:02:00] coming out called Inspired Living, assembling the puzzle of your call by mastering your time, your talent, and your treasures.

[00:02:07] You can find out more about it and sign up now. For getting more information over@inspiredstewardship.com. Inspired Living. That's inspired stewardship.com Inspired Living before becoming a pastor at age 40. Mike spent several years in the broadcast industry as an on-air radio personality and as a TV news anchor for a local NBC affiliate over the last two decades.

[00:02:32] As a pastor, Mike has equipped thousands of people to experience more of God's power. purpose, and peace through effective deliverance ministries and understandable biblical teaching. Mike has written two books, Torn, embracing the new covenant in an old covenant world, and his newest book, Breaking Up With The Enemy, how to defeat the devil's deceit and reclaim peace, hope, and joy.

[00:02:56] Welcome to the show, Mike. Hey, thanks for having me on Scott. [00:03:00] Absolutely. I'm glad to have you here. So I talked a little bit in the intro about some of the things you've done, an interesting background of radio and TV and then. Pastor and ministry and Arthur and all of these different things, but share a little bit of kind of the story behind the story.

[00:03:18] I think intros are like Instagram photos. They just show the highlights. They don't show the real story. What was the journey that brought you to where you are today?

[00:03:28] Mike Manuel: Yeah, that's a great question. I like you said, I've had a varied background, especially in my adult working life.

[00:03:34] I became a, What people refer to commonly as a second career pastor when I was at age 40. That's when I started pastoring and Originally pastoring was not something on my radar. It wasn't something that I aspired to do it was I know it sounds kind of cliche, but it was a call of God and he spoke to my heart And the answer was yes or no.

[00:03:55] And so I gave him the yes answer. And so when I [00:04:00] started that, that journey of being a pastor, that, that wasn't really the end of the thing. That was really the beginning. And what I learned a lot when I started pastoring, I, let me back up When I was called to be a pastor, I knew that pastors preach because that's what I was used to you go to church and you hear the pastor give a sermon and but I didn't realize that he really spent most of his time during the week helping people live life and life can be difficult and so I found myself as a 40 spending most of my time helping people spiritually, obviously, but even emotionally, and those two are often are connected and and I just realized there's a lot more hurt in this world.

[00:04:44] There's a lot more emotional distress that people keep hidden often put on the mask, especially when they go to church are oftentimes out in public. They'll put on the mask that everything's okay. But really it's not. And so just, [00:05:00] I just helping people bring, find some peace and hope and joy in their life really became, again, it wasn't something that I was searching to do or planned on doing.

[00:05:10] It was just really out of necessity, helping people grow. And so it became something I spent a lot of time on because that's how I felt like, what God called me to do in addition to preaching and out of that was born. I started doing conferences and seminars and and at some point God in there, God really spoke to my heart about beginning to write, he wanted me to write books, which again, was not on my radar.

[00:05:34] English was not my favorite subject in school. I didn't want to be a writer, but I knew that what he was showing me and teaching me and I saw the fruit of that. How I was able to help people. And so I began writing books a few years ago. I've written two books so far, and especially the latest one, Breaking Up With The Enemy, has really been a kind of a culmination of [00:06:00] what I've found really helps people to live a life of peace, hope, and joy, because that's really been what I've been spending most of my life doing as a pastor.

[00:06:10] Scott Maderer: Going back to even before you actually heard the call and became a pastor when you were working in radio and TV and those sorts of things, do you think how do you think that experience was preparing you for what came after.

[00:06:27] Mike Manuel: Yeah, totally. Because also within the broadcast career, I also, I was raised on a family farm and after a kind of a stint in broadcast, moved back to the family farm with my wife, raised some kids and then got back to the broadcast.

[00:06:41] So had this farming slash broadcast background, which is an eclectic background, but I realized it was all, it all helped in helping me be a better pastor and help other people farming, Jesus had a lot of parables about agriculture and farming, and so there's a lot of [00:07:00] illustrations that, that can draw from that, a lot of understanding and but also in the broadcast industry, just being an effective communicator has been helpful.

[00:07:11] I know I'm not the best communicator, but I have, I've had to develop some skills as in the radio and TV industry. And I think that's been helpful.

[00:07:22] Scott Maderer: How about your faith journey? When you go back in time and think about how you grew up and then what you went through as an adult, and then now becoming a pastor how has your faith and your relationship with God changed over that time and influence the life journey that you were on.

[00:07:38] Mike Manuel: Yeah, I grew up going to church every Sunday which I'm appreciative to my parents for establishing that in my life. And so like I knew about God and Jesus at a very early age and I Got that, so to speak, but it was more, my faith as a young person, like [00:08:00] elementary school and even in high school was more of I don't want to go to hell.

[00:08:05] I guess I better make sure I'm trying to go to heaven, but I really didn't understand that. And it was more of a religious exercise to me to try to, buy me some fire insurance rather than being a personal relationship with Christ. I believe I was saved. I had made that commitment and put my trust in Christ in that way, but I didn't understand this.

[00:08:28] Jesus as my friend, Jesus as somebody interested in my everyday life, Jesus somebody I could relate to actually hear from and talk to. And that really happened in my young adult years. It started to happen, but I would say in my mid to late thirties, that just it just really, exponentially grew.

[00:08:51] And part of that had to do with just, stage of life. Part of it had to do getting into a church that, and I think maybe you're under, [00:09:00] your listeners will understand this, wasn't focused on religion. It was focused on Jesus. And I was I didn't realize how caught up I was into religiosity.

[00:09:11] And Jesus didn't die for religion. He died for people. And

[00:09:15] Scott Maderer: I often wonder if Jesus saw some of the things we do in his name, what, what he would say, or what he just bow his head and go, Oh, boy,

[00:09:23] Mike Manuel: but what I've realized over time, part of my faith journey and what I'm trying to, undo as a pastor, not only in my life, but in the lives of the people who come to my church is, Christianity, true biblical Christianity is not complicated.

[00:09:36] It's pretty simple, but man has unnecessarily made it

[00:09:40] Scott Maderer: complicated

[00:09:41] Mike Manuel: and we've put so many man made things in. And so I think really what, honestly, what with the biggest jump in my faith journey in my mid thirties was coming getting into a church where the pastor really focused on the simplicity of Christianity and Jesus and the simple message and was decoupled from a lot [00:10:00] of the religion of man, the rich rituals of man and And when I saw that simplicity and pureness, and it's just man, this is what it looked like in, in the original church back, in the early days and it just helped me just grow so much closer to Christ and appreciate him.

[00:10:19] And so that was really a big I suppose the biggest upgrade in my spiritual life. And it was out of that, that God called me to be a pastor. And I've tried to try to share that with the people that I lead, that this is not a bunch of do's and don'ts and exercise and religiosity. This is about a relationship with Jesus.

[00:10:38] Scott Maderer: And that, I, one of the things I like to put it as I don't think Jesus set out for gotchas. You know what I mean? Where, with the, there there's these steel traps. It's oh, got you on that one. It's that's not the point, and the other thing I would add is because, you talk about the simplicity of it and I agree wholeheartedly with you at the same time.

[00:10:59] I think [00:11:00] we confuse simplicity with being easy.

[00:11:03] Mike Manuel: Absolutely. Not easy. It is

[00:11:06] Scott Maderer: simple, but it's not easy. There's a lot of challenge to it.

[00:11:09] Mike Manuel: Exactly. And what makes it so hard is because we have to humble ourselves and come to the realization we're not God. We want to be in charge of our own life.

[00:11:18] In a sense we are, but we don't, it's hard to bow a knee. to that higher power, so to speak, which we know who that is, right? But I think that's the hardest part about the simplicity of Christianity is is picking up your cross, as Jesus said, which is there's going to be some things in my life that I'm going to not do, that I would prefer to do, but I'm not going to do them because I'm, it will impede my relationship with Jesus.

[00:11:48] And that, that, that can be, those can be some hard decisions sometimes.

[00:11:53] Scott Maderer: And conversely, there's going to be some things that I am going to do that I maybe don't really want to do. [00:12:00]

[00:12:00] Mike Manuel: Right.

[00:12:00] Scott Maderer: That would be. to facilitate that and change that relationship. You talked earlier about the idea of helping people find peace in their life and this sort of, of journey and how you've written some on that topic in your latest book.

[00:12:17] How do you think, What we're just talking about with that idea of the simplicity of the relationship and the relationship driven nature rather than the rules driven nature and helping people find peace connect, connect the dots for folks how those two things are actually connected to each other.

[00:12:35] Mike Manuel: Yeah one of the things I realized is that there's a difference between worldly peace. and Biblical peace. Worldly peace is basically lack of conflict. And when we search for peace, we're looking for lack of conflict, generally. But that's not Biblical peace. Biblical peace, the Hebrew word is shalom.

[00:12:55] Many people have heard that word, shalom. It's a very rich word. word. I think it's [00:13:00] one of the most rich words in any language. It's a sense of well being. It's a contentment. It's a satisfaction. It's a, it even has to do with physical well being, mental well being, emotional well being. It's just a very rich word, tranquility.

[00:13:14] And that's the kind of peace that God wants for us. And it's not lost on me that Jesus is called the Prince of Peace. And Jesus said I, my peace I give you, my peace I leave you, not like the world gives. And when I really experienced that, it was life changing to me. I just, I was going through a pretty tumultuous actually a moment in my life.

[00:13:38] It was a day actually when my dad passed away unexpectedly and through all of, in, in a moment there, I was just flooded with this blanket of peace that fell over me and it I couldn't have gotten out of my chair if I would have wanted to, but I, and I enjoyed it for about five seconds.

[00:13:55] And then I'm thinking, what am I doing? My dad just died. I got to get all stirred up. I [00:14:00] felt guilty about having peace and the Lord spoke to me and he doesn't speak audibly to me. I suppose he could. He doesn't. It speaks to my heart. And he just said, Mike, I just, I gave you that peace as a gift. You need this peace and I'm giving it to you as a gift.

[00:14:15] Don't feel guilty about it. And I realized that real peace is a gift from God. He, that he wants to give, he's not holding back. Jesus is the Prince of Peace. And if you'll step into that, you can experience it. Peace is not as elusive as most people think, but it seems very elusive. It's much more available in the person of Jesus than we would think.

[00:14:43] And when I experienced that, it was so life changing. I can't even tell you. It's wow, in the midst of a storm, I can have peace.

[00:14:53] Scott Maderer: It

[00:14:53] Mike Manuel: doesn't mean I'm not concerned. It doesn't mean I, I don't have grief. It doesn't mean any of that, but I don't have to have chaos and I [00:15:00] don't have to have turmoil.

[00:15:01] And I think what, if we can help people live a life of peace, it doesn't mean, again, it doesn't mean every day's easy. It doesn't mean that there aren't storms, but it means that in the days that aren't easy, in the days there are storms, you can have peace, and it's much easier to make good decisions from a place of peace than a place of chaos.

[00:15:21] Scott Maderer: When you think about that so there's a an idea that I've been working on and it's probably going to be my next book or go into my next book. And I've been talking it through with people. And so I'd like to put it out to you and just see what you take of it. I think a lot of times as humans, we try to create what I, dichotomies.

[00:15:41] You can have peace or you can have chaos. You can have left, you can right, you up, down, everything's either, or we want to put it in a box. And what I see in theology and in God and when you really begin to understand the richness is. A lot of the message is in the place of both and, it's the [00:16:00] merging, the journey, joining the nuance, the, and that's not to say that there isn't good and bad or black and white.

[00:16:06] It's not that the either or doesn't exist, but it's. The richness of our life and our relationships come sometimes out of the nuance and the mix. How does that idea resonate with what you're talking about and what you've experienced?

[00:16:21] Mike Manuel: Yeah, a hundred percent. I think you're exactly right. And I guess you put it in a way, I've verbalized in a way I've not heard is that people look at it as an either or, and I think you're totally right on that.

[00:16:30] I've done that for years and I think that would be a huge concept that's actually. Again, it's a simple con concept now doing it, carrying it hard.

[00:16:40] Scott Maderer: Yeah.

[00:16:41] Mike Manuel: But yeah, this whole concept of peace in the storm. When you see that Jesus had peace in the storm, the disciples didn't have peace in the store And I think that's, and so people, yes, neither or, okay, I'm in a storm, I can't have peace, because if I have peace, I think really, and what God told me is we feel guilty [00:17:00] about having peace in a storm, because then we, we confuse that with not being concerned, or not being alert.

[00:17:06] No you can be alert and concerned and still have peace. And I, so no, I think you're right on. Definitely write that book and let me know.

[00:17:16] Scott Maderer: Yeah, no it's still a work in progress, but that's probably going to be out there eventually. Yeah. Jesus took a nap in the middle of a storm you gotta be pretty peaceful to take a nap which I also point out means that if we're supposed to do what Jesus did it means taking naps is biblical.

[00:17:32] I'm

[00:17:32] Mike Manuel: a hundred percent. Naps are, Jesus modeled that. So I'm all for that.

[00:17:37] Scott Maderer: I'm all for that. So when you think about the relationships that you've had and the conversations you've had with folks, you mentioned early on that, that you began to discover as you were walking with people, these strong emotional needs.

[00:17:50] And, I think is normally when people think of a pastor, they think of, like you said, the pastor serves the spiritual needs and that's it. That's where the job description ends. [00:18:00] And yet you stepped into the emotional needs as well. Why do you think it's so important? as a pastor, as a person, to, as a believer to find those places where you can be both spiritually and emotionally healthy and how those work together.

[00:18:18] Mike Manuel: Yeah, because they're not separate. They're not separate. They're not the same, but they're also not separate. There's a lot of overlap there. And I think our emotions can can steal our faith. And that doesn't mean that emotions are bad. God is, God shows emotions.

[00:18:35] God's an emotional God. He gave us emotions. They're important, but they're, but they, sometimes they rule us and they run our lives and we're ruled by emotions and And I just think, they can have so much sway on us and they can, and here's the thing, and I First and foremost, we need Jesus in our life.

[00:18:54] He is the Prince of Peace. But there is another entity out there, the Bible, It's really clear [00:19:00] about, Jesus is clear about the devil, Satan and he wants to steal your peace, and he does not want you to have peace, and he want, and the way he does that is to kind of mess with your emotions, and he wants you to get he wants emotions to rule you, negative emotions, he wants you to feel hopeless.

[00:19:19] He wants you, he doesn't want you to have joy. He doesn't he wants you to be angry and fearful and confused and all that stuff. Those are emotions. Most of those are emotions, but that can, because he knows it affects your sort of your spiritual thoughts and your spiritual actions. So they're certainly not decoupled.

[00:19:42] And that's the, that's, the target of attack from the enemy, which is devil and his army of fallen angels. That's their attack point is your, the seat of your emotions. That's where they start.

[00:19:58] Scott Maderer: So when you think [00:20:00] about

[00:20:00] The way that we can work on our emotional health, so that We could also find spiritual health. What do you think are some of the biggest challenges? And I'm not sure that's really the right word. What are some of the things that we struggle with recognizing and working on working on ourselves when it comes to our emotional health?

[00:20:28] Mike Manuel: Yeah, that's a great question. I think the biggest problem we have in our natural being is we accept it as normal. This is the way life is. Life is tough, it's gonna stink, but you power through and try to make it. And that's not God's plan for you. Again, it's not that every day's gonna be easy.

[00:20:50] But he does want you in every day to have hope and peace and joy. And I think when we don't have that, when our lives are [00:21:00] filled with chaos and fear and confusion and all the other kind of anxiety that's the biggest one. That's what most people deal with is anxiety. That's just the way it is.

[00:21:09] Our world's a mess. I'm a mess. And let's just grind it out until, tell my heart gives out or tell Jesus comes back or whatever happens first. And I think that's the biggest lie that we believe is that's just the way it is.

[00:21:26] Scott Maderer: Would you say too, that part of it and I think you referenced this earlier, we have a feeling too, of It's all on us.

[00:21:36] That we're the ones that have to fix it. We're broken and it's our job to fix it or, we're struggling and we have to, it's that feeling again, it comes back to that humility and submission and what that really means, is recognizing no, it's not only on you, you're not alone in this, right?

[00:21:54] Mike Manuel: Self help. And I understand, self help is an important concept and of course, how many books have been, how [00:22:00] many self help books have been written in the 80s in, in the last several decades. And again, I recognize, helping ourselves is an important thing, but there's just a lot of things that we're not able to do on our own.

[00:22:14] And that's where we need, sometimes professional help, but honestly, what I've found, and I know this might be challenging to a lot of leaders, but the enemy, the devil is a lot more involved in our negative emotions than I think we think. And because that's his attack point. The enemy can't make, he can't just do whatever he wants to do.

[00:22:37] He is limited in what he can do because he's a defeated foe, but he doesn't want you to know that he's defeated. And the only power the devil has in your life is the power of your agreement. And when you start agreeing with the devil, that's when he has the power. what we would call legal consent to attack you.

[00:22:56] Now you think I don't agree with the enemy. I would never do that. But we [00:23:00] do it all the time with the words we say. The Bible says in Proverbs 18. 21, death and life are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat its fruit. I used to just think that meant don't say mean things, say nice things.

[00:23:13] I'm sure it means that, but it means much more. It's much more literal. The Bible is really clear that God gave mankind power and authority on this earth. Now, God created the heavens of the earth. He's sovereign. He's all powerful. It's his earth, but in his sovereignty, for whatever reason, he's given mankind power and authority.

[00:23:34] And a lot of that power and authority comes out of our mouth. So when we speak words, there are two entities looking to partner with our words, the Holy Spirit, who's looking to, when we speak in agreement with God, The Holy Spirit is there to help supernaturally help that to supernaturally happen. And there's a word for that in the Bible.

[00:23:55] It's called prayer. That's why God calls us to pray. Yes, he's sovereign, he can do whatever [00:24:00] he wants, but he's asked us to be responsible and take part in that. We're, we have a responsibility on this earth. And so part of that is to speak in agreement with God. And when we do, God the Holy Spirit is there to help those things happen.

[00:24:14] It's called prayer. We've seen it work. Conversely, when we speak in disagreement with God, there's another entity there that the Bible talks a lot about, the enemy, and that's what empowers him. He can't do whatever he wants, but when we get up and start, Oh man, today's gonna, today's gonna stink. The weather is going to be horrible.

[00:24:34] The boss is going to be cranky. This is going to happen and this is going to happen. And none of it's happened yet. And we don't think a lot of that. We just think I'm just, okay, maybe I'm negative, but when we speak and we're speaking in disagreement with God and in agreement with the enemy, they actually have power to, we, we empower them.

[00:24:54] And I think people are speaking, I guess I'm going to say all that to say this, we [00:25:00] speak a lot of our own junk into our life. And it's not just being negative. It's actually unleashing a dark power. I'm not saying every word, but Jesus did say, watch every word you say. The reason he says that is because our words have power.

[00:25:18] And it's not just negatively affecting us. And when the enemy comes in and starts lying to us like, Yeah, see, there's no hope for you. You're hopeless or you're in a mess and there's no way out or you're worthless. You're not lovable You've messed up too much. You've gone too far There's no hope for I mean on and on the enemy just lying people don't see that as the enemy line They just think they're just thinking things through and that just beats people down And that's why people think that's just the way it is, but I'm telling, I'm here to tell you all that, that you don't have to live that way.

[00:25:53] And it doesn't mean, again, it doesn't mean that every day is going to be easy, but you don't have to live with that yuck in your life. [00:26:00]

[00:26:00] Scott Maderer: Yeah we definitely are not promised that will have an easy life. Again, earlier, pick up your cross and follow me. That's not an invitation to everything's going to be, everything's going to be a bed of roses.

[00:26:11] But that doesn't mean that it, some of it too is almost like When we begin to ascribe, I call it the P's when I talk about it. When you begin to have this attitude or this feeling or this belief that everything is personal, permanent and pervasive. So it's personal. It's not I failed.

[00:26:33] It's I am a failure. And permanent. Not only did I fail this time, I always fail. And pervasive. Not only did I fail at this one thing, I fail at everything. You begin to spin and invite this feeling of all encompassing. It's, that's a road towards, Inviting that to then be the truth that you're living,

[00:26:56] Mike Manuel: Then it takes on, we can say we can begin to think that and [00:27:00] speak that into our own life, but then the enemy partners with that and amplifies it.

[00:27:04] And that's when I call the enemy an amplifier. He takes all that negativity that we start out with. and he just amplifies it to a, and it just turns up the volume so loud that even sometimes we can't even hear ourselves think. And as I've worked with helping people get rid of the lying voice of the enemy and just get free of all the junk in their life, get rid of their baggage.

[00:27:28] One of the most common comments I get when we get through that process is wow, my head is quiet. I don't think people realize how noisy their head is, the voices and they just think that's them thinking everything through. And certainly there's a component to that, but not every voice you hear in your head is your own.

[00:27:48] And when you finally realize God's trying to speak to me, the enemy's trying to speak to me, I'm trying to figure things out in my life. When you start finding some distinction between those voices and [00:28:00] separating those out and then using the authority that Jesus gave you to shut the lying mouth of the enemy.

[00:28:08] It's amazing how quiet your mind gets.

[00:28:12] Scott Maderer: I've got a few questions that I like to ask all of my guests, but before I ask those, is there anything else about the work you've been doing or your books torn and breaking up with the enemy that you'd like to share?

[00:28:24] Mike Manuel: Yeah, Breaking Up With The Enemy is my latest book.

[00:28:27] Again, it is a culmination of a decade or so of seminars and just really helping people one on one. So I've put it into book form, and I've been really, it's just been so fulfilling to see so many of the reviews. of people I've never met don't even know that say, Hey, I've applied these principles to my life.

[00:28:47] And I, I feel like I have a whole new life. And so that's really been fulfilling. I'm not, I don't write to make money, although I'm not opposed to that. I'm writing to help people. And I guess that's, I think that's the [00:29:00] biggest fulfillment in life. I've had a lot of fulfilling things, but helping people have transformation in their life.

[00:29:06] From a place that maybe is not so light, maybe a little bit of darkness into a place that's more light. That is, there's nothing better than that. And that is not, let me just say this, that is not reserved just for pastors. Every person is called to be a minister. According to Ephesians 4.

[00:29:23] Scott Maderer: 11. Not

[00:29:24] Mike Manuel: everybody's called to be a pastor, but everybody's called to be a minister.

[00:29:27] I just would encourage you to get on the road to health, spiritual health and emotional health yourself. And my book can help, obviously, and there's lots of books that can help you, the Bible being one. But we're to be agents of change and help. To others and minister to others. So I would just encourage people to think about that as well.

[00:29:51] Scott Maderer: So one of the things, my brand is inspired stewardship and I run things through that lens of stewardship, and yet I've discovered over the years that as I've [00:30:00] talked to people about that and used that word, that it can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

[00:30:04] . When you hear the word stewardship, what does that word mean to you? And what is the impact of that had on your life?

[00:30:10] Mike Manuel: Yeah, that's a great question. It's that's changed as I've come to a, I think more of a better understanding of stewardship. My, basic understanding of stewardship is caring for something.

[00:30:20] That's not that you don't own, but you have guardianship of it. You have care of it. And in my years before being a pastor I owned, I was part owner of a radio station. I owned a weekly newspaper. I've owned a family farm, owned, owned and ran that business. And a lot of that time, I looked at those as mine.

[00:30:44] They're mine. I, and I know there's pride of ownership, but I get that. That's a legit thing. And we're responsible for that. But I think as I look back I held things too tightly. Okay, I'm going to go to church. I'm going to, give tithes and offerings. I'm going to do [00:31:00] this and I'm going to do that, but my business is mine.

[00:31:02] I'm, my land is mine or my, what I built. And I think we hold too tightly when I came to the understanding, like God gave this to me to grow. And yes, it helps build wealth in my life and there's nothing wrong with that. That's God wants to bless us so we can be a blessing. And I think he gives us things.

[00:31:21] I don't think I know because the Bible says that he gives us things for us to be responsible for That helps grow his kingdom and give glory to him. But at the same time it also blesses us So it's like a win and think there's not so much anymore But there used to be more of a I Yeah, that well, if you're gonna really a great Christian, you can't make money.

[00:31:46] You can't be rich you can't do anything then that's not biblical. It's more of them. What's the motivation of it? The stewardship is okay God gave me talents and abilities And I'm gonna use those [00:32:00] But I need to keep my head on straight about why he's doing that for me.

[00:32:07] Scott Maderer: So this is my favorite question that I like to ask everybody. Imagine for a minute that I invented this magic machine and with this machine, I was able to take you from where you are today and transport you into the future. Maybe 150, maybe 250 years. And through the power of this machine, you were able to look back and see your entire life, see all of the connections, all of the ripples, all of the impacts that you've left behind.

[00:32:34] What impact do you hope you've had on the world?

[00:32:36] Mike Manuel: There's so many thoughts that come to mind, but I think, if you had to, if I had to distill it down to one is he helped me get to a spot with Jesus that gave me peace, hope, and joy. That life transformation. helping people to discover that and be able to live that life, not just here on earth, but eternally.

[00:32:58] Scott Maderer: So what's on the roadmap? What's [00:33:00] coming next as you continue on your journey?

[00:33:02] Mike Manuel: Yeah, that's a great question. I'm still actively pastoring. I'm almost 64 years old, but I don't look at retirement anytime soon. I feel like as long as I can be relevant and inspire people and lead them and help them, and as long as God wants me to do this, I'm going to do that.

[00:33:20] I keep getting ideas for books. Like I said, I've written two. I've got another couple pretty much written because I'll start on one with all these great ideas and work on it. And then all of a sudden I get another great idea and I start working on that one. So I've got two books in the works. I've got a couple more in my head that I want to write I'm sure you're the same way.

[00:33:42] And so I think there's a lot of writing in my near future in addition to my pastoring and So that's we're living in interesting times. I think we're living in some of the most exciting times biblically speaking. I know that's hard to say because there's a C, because there's so much turmoil and [00:34:00] division in our world, but yet I think we have there's some really good things coming down the pike for people of God to be a part of.

[00:34:09] And I'm looking forward to being a part of that.

[00:34:11] Scott Maderer: So you can find out more about Mike Manuel over at his site at motoministries. com. Of course, I'll have a link to that over in the show notes as well. Mike, is there anything else you'd like to share with the listeners?

[00:34:24] Mike Manuel: No, I just, Just encourage you to realize and know that you don't have to live a life of anxiety and chaos and fear and confusion.

[00:34:34] You can live a life of peace, hope, and joy. And Jesus is the way and he's made a way. And I encourage you to Get my book, breaking up with the enemy, how to defeat the devil's deceit and reclaim peace, hope, and joy. And that among many other books, but that book has helped a lot of people and I believe will help you.

[00:34:58] Scott Maderer: Thanks so much for listening to the [00:35:00] Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode please do us a favor, go over to inspired stewardship dot com slash iTunes rate, all one word, iTunes rate.

[00:35:28] It'll take you through how to leave a rating and review and how to make sure you're subscribed to the podcast so that you can get every episode as it comes out in your feed. Until next time, invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.