SNS84 Saturday Night Special - Interview with Matthew Deibler author of The Devil and the Children of God at the End of the World
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Welcome to tonight's Saturday night, special episode 84.
[00:00:05] Matthew Deibler: [00:00:05] I'm Matthew dabbler. 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 focus on the calling of God is key.
[00:00:22] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend. Scott Mader
[00:00:31]I think it's just really neat inviting that in and stepping forward in God's will and saying Holy spirit, I want you to guide me. I want you to like the way I don't. Have the best vision for my life and my own natural mind. But I know you do. I know you care for my needs and I need you
[00:00:54] Scott Maderer: [00:00:54] welcome and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast.
[00:00:59] If you [00:01:00] 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. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.
[00:01:19]In today's episode with Matthew Diamler. I ask him a lot about his journey through mental health and how that's led to the activities that he does today, where he feels that he's living out his calling. I asked him to share some about how he hears God's voice and knows that it's the direction that he's supposed to be going.
[00:01:39] And we talk about his ministry, the lamp on the stand and the outlet and the book and how they all fit together. And lots more. One reason I like to bring you
[00:01:49] Matthew Deibler: [00:01:49] great interviews. Like the one you're going to
[00:01:51] Scott Maderer: [00:01:51] hear today is because of the power in learning from others. Another great way to learn from others is through reading books.
[00:02:00] [00:01:59] But if you're like most people today, you find it hard to find the time to sit down and read. And that's why today's podcast is brought to you by audible. Go to inspired stewardship.com/audible to sign up and you can get a 30 day free trial. There's over 180,000 titles to choose from. And instead of reading, you can listen your way to learn from some of the greatest minds out there.
[00:02:27] That's inspired stewardship.com/audible to get your free trial and listen to great books the same way you're listening to this podcast. Matthew dabbler is the founder of the lamp on the stand, a motivational ministry, which inspires faith led transformation. He is an outspoken mental health advocate with nearly a decade of powerful influence in the mental health community, where he has boldly shared the riveting story of his spiritual rebirth from the depths of a panic written Gora phobia.
[00:03:00] [00:02:59] OCD and addiction. Matthew is also the founder of the outlet, a natural dialogue, mental health community that recharges its members with positivity, faith and gratitude. Matthew has also recently released his book, the devil and the children of God at the end of the world, a 2005 graduate of UNC chapel Hill.
[00:03:19] Matthew is a devoted husband and the proud father of two beautiful children.
[00:03:23]Matthew Deibler: [00:03:23] Welcome to the show, Matthew. Oh, thank you so much, Scott. I'm excited to be here.
[00:03:30] Scott Maderer: [00:03:30] It's great to have you now, one of the things, as,
[00:03:33] Matthew Deibler: [00:03:33] as we're talking about in the context of this book, the devil and the children of God at the end of the world. I may not immediately be obvious to folks is one of the things that you're a huge advocate for is mental health.
[00:03:46] And that comes a lot out of your own journey and your own experience. Can you tell us a little bit about your experience with mental illness and how this relates to your book and what's happened to you and how you've experienced that journey [00:04:00] with the devil? Yeah, absolutely. My mental health journey is really what led to my spiritual rebirth and then, this purpose driven life that I lead today and faith.
[00:04:09] And so that journey began the mental health journey back probably an early adolescence is when I first began to understand that, there were some things that were going on. I started to experience obsessive compulsive thoughts, and those thoughts were. Thoughts that were really not welcomed to me.
[00:04:27] I felt as though they were being placed there and I felt a lot of shame and guilt for them. And so under that shame and guilt, I really felt the obligation to conceal. And I often, I didn't have much of a relationship with God at that point in my life, but I would often go to prayer and I would say, Lord, please forgive me.
[00:04:47]I don't welcome these thoughts here, but I don't know what to do with them. And the more that. I, found myself in those powerful negative emotions. The more that they just, beat against my brain. And I started adapting my [00:05:00] behavior to accommodate them and really to create some control over my life.
[00:05:06] So that individuals around me could not see what was going on beneath the surface of my skin. And that pressure, led to a lot of anxiety for many years. I didn't know that it was anxiety. It was just. That uncomfortable rush of adrenaline and pressure that I was feeling like stress that was, probably not typical for an adolescent, but I did a pretty good job of concealing it.
[00:05:30] And I was, on the surface, I looked like the kid that had it all together, I was popular in high school. I got good grades. I excelled in athletics. I seemingly was. Doing all the right things, but there was this war raging beneath my skin. It came, I guess it was a, the summer before my sophomore year in college is when it really came flooding through the door.
[00:05:55] That's when I really began to know anxiety and panic disorder [00:06:00] at a very intense level. And it started disrupting my day in just a very powerful way. There was an experience that I had where I was experimenting with marijuana and did not know that it was laced with PCP, which is a very dangerous substance that I'm invited in all this paranoia.
[00:06:22] And really, that was the moment in that summer before my sophomore year of college, when anxiety started to truly take root and make its presence known. And from there, I had a really devastating season. About later, got my life back on track. I transferred into the university of North Carolina at chapel Hill.
[00:06:39] I had a good experience there. And then I went through seasons of anxiety. Sometimes that were more troubling than others, but it wasn't until about 2011, I was coming out of a relationship that, was ending a bit poorly. There was a lot of stress over the last several months of that relationship.
[00:06:57] And. I could feel like this anxiety building [00:07:00] beneath my skin and in one moment of a fight near the very end of that relationship, I began to feel as though I was having a panic attack and it turned into what was a nervous breakdown. A panic attack typically lasts, a minute or two, and then you find a little bit of relief and it has its lingering effects, but this went on for.
[00:07:23]About 40 or 45 minutes. And I shook uncontrollably. I couldn't form a sentence. I could barely stand or walk. It was just devastating. And I thought that I was losing my mind. I thought that I was going to have to actually be hospitalized. And eventually I snapped out of it. The relationship ended.
[00:07:40] And then that led me into this period of great captivity where anxiety and panic were just taking over my life. On a level, like I had never known before. I was so fearful of experiencing that nervous breakdown type of event again, and being out in public when it happened, because the first time that did happen, I will say I [00:08:00] was in the car with my partner at the time.
[00:08:02] And so I had to pull off the road and that was really scary because I thought if I'm not, inside of the walls of my comfort zone, I'm out in public, I'm standing in line at the grocery store or. Wherever it may be. Like, if this happens, then, they're gonna, they're gonna take me and they're going to take my life away.
[00:08:18] Like I'm going to be led into some kind of care facility where I'll never, be able to have life. Like I knew it once before. And so I started shutting myself off to the outside world. I did less and less, and I really only took care of the things that I absolutely needed to like very limited exposure to anything outside of my comfort zone even shopping.
[00:08:42] I started to avoid the grocery store because of lines. And I'd just pick up a few things very quickly at the local Rite aid pharmacy, and my life grew pretty dark. And so the walls closed in on me. I became a Gora phobic and it was during that period of my life when I [00:09:00] had this divine intervention experience and I met God and.
[00:09:04]Over a period of about six months we started building a relationship with each other, although I was still in my own strength, still trying to do a lot of things. I really hadn't given my life completely to him at that point. And I was stepping in the right direction. I had an event that led me to tell my story.
[00:09:24]I felt that nudge from him to, seek forgiveness stop hiding, own the responsibility for my life and just put it out there. So I began blogging and healing started to take place, but I really still hadn't fully given my life to him. And then about six months into that blogging experience site, I hit rock bottom.
[00:09:43] And that was the point when I said, God, I can't do this anymore. I was. In a place where, a lot of people would contemplate suicide. I didn't want to take that route because had established a bit of a foundation with him and I knew he didn't want me to go [00:10:00] that direction, but I just really couldn't see any way forward.
[00:10:03] So I said, Hey, I'm ready to go. If you're ready to take me, take my life or take my life and do with it, according to your will. And when I. Handed it over to him. There was an affirmation that washed over me and it was let go, trust, belief, faith. And I started living my life by that affirmation and inch by inch.
[00:10:26] I started climbing my way out of that captivity out of my agoraphobia and outside of my comfort zone. I started beginning to take those steps and just a miraculous transformation. Came in a relatively looking back. It was a relatively short period of time. It was truly a miracle of healing that I invited into my life and how it relates to the devil.
[00:10:48] I guess I could say is I believe that the devil was very involved with my thought life from an early age. And I believe that those thoughts that were, a position that I accepted [00:11:00] responsibility for as my own I believe that they were placed there and, they were positioned in a way to steer me off course because it was actually a very, just a very cunning plan that he had put in place because it's, it started with the disruption of my thought life, which led to the anxiety then led to, a panic disorder.
[00:11:22] And that panic disorder to a nervous breakdown and then to the captivity of agoraphobia. And I believe that the devil's intention all along was for me to be distracted from the purpose and the life that God had called me towards. And that he was really probably leading me to a place in captivity where I would, feel the pressure to take my own life.
[00:11:45] And then in doing so God's mission would never. Reveal itself to me and his work would never be done. And so that's how it all ties together as far as mental health and what I began to experience spiritually. And I realized that once [00:12:00] I healed myself spiritually once I took care of that spiritual imbalance, a lot of the battles that I was facing in the mental health environment began to shift in the right direction for me as well.
[00:12:11] It was as though for many years, I was beating at the air in my own strength and I wasn't, taking the battle to the right field. And when I started positioning this journey with mental health and the spiritual realm, then everything began to change and, to be clear. Cause I think some of the frame, the words that we use when we're talking about mental health or.
[00:12:35] Part important. And a lot of times people will say, Oh, I have OCD. And what they really mean is they're just paying attention to something, they're trying to do something. What you're talking about. When you say OCD, thoughts is a totally different class of attention.
[00:12:52]Can you give an example of something that kind of illustrated that for you? Yeah. Yeah. And I'll step into a little bit of vulnerability here, but this is in my book [00:13:00] as well. One of the things, and this was early adolescence, I started develop to develop this fear. And these were always, fear-driven thoughts.
[00:13:08] Yeah. It was this fear of getting a woman pregnant. And this was at the time when I was stepping into, the very beginning of my. Sexual maturity, I was in no way active at that point in my life. So this was not a real threat, but I had this crazy fear that I couldn't essentially spread my seed, really not by the traditional means, if you will it didn't necessarily have to involve sex.
[00:13:34] If I, sat on a toilet and I was not completely clean, then I could leave something behind that would affect the next person or something like that. That sounds very irrational, but it was very real to me. And so I started to very carefully Maintain like that cleanliness that so I started obsessively hand-washing, which is something that, a lot of people with OCD experience it's that kinda germaphobe [00:14:00] type of thing.
[00:14:01] And that became, it had a really major impact on my life because it was irrational, but I wasn't mature enough at the time to, to understand it. I didn't have enough information and. I really didn't want to ask the question of anyone so that I could clear up the issue because I felt so much I, I knew that it was probably a little bit strange, but I was so ashamed that I was even thinking it that I didn't want to actually clear it up by asking somebody who could help me.
[00:14:28] You could see that other people didn't seem to behave exactly the same way. So therefore something must be wrong. Air quotes around that. And that shame and that guilt then reinforces it as opposed to breaking that behavior. It's one of the reasons, I am an advocate of I've had.
[00:14:46] Depression and suicidal thoughts and even suicide attempts in my life. And, I'm an advocate for talking about that stuff because it's like I think out of the shame of mental health is often where a lot of the danger comes because [00:15:00] it's self reinforces. Totally. And as part of that, you mentioned too having a Gora phobia, which, lightly described as the fear of leaving home.
[00:15:08]Talk a little bit more about that phobia and how that interaction was keeping you from being able to do what you felt called to do. Yeah oil boy. It was a really dark period in my life. And it started with just again, that, that fear that the nervous breakdown could occur out in public. And it, initially it was maybe that I didn't feel comfortable sitting in a restaurant for a long period of time or, but then it grew more intense.
[00:15:34] The more I essentially enabled it. The more I gave into that fear that, you know, if I was somewhere and. I could be standing in a line at a grocery store for just a matter of a couple of minutes. And I would become so overwhelmed with anxiety that I would literally drop the cart and run out and leave all the groceries.
[00:15:53] And that was a very depressing place to be because it was like, I'm just trying to care for my needs. For [00:16:00] the next few days or a week. And I couldn't even. Follow through with the transaction so that I could fill my pantry, but it intensified to the point where I would have a difficult time even walking to the mailbox or to going to the trash shoot in my apartment complex.
[00:16:17]It was really when I would step towards that door exiting my comfort zone. I could start feeling. The intensity of the adrenaline just begin shooting all through my body. And it was paralyzing. I would shake, I would feel my throat close up. I would feel faint. And so that was a very difficult and dark season in it.
[00:16:38] Once you get into the pit of that place it's hard to see your way out and. In my natural mind, I couldn't have done it, but God, he had a different vision and when I was reborn in Christ, he just gave me the tools really to say, just take the first step, and I often refer to that. Martin Luther King [00:17:00] quote, you don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step in faith. And that was really what it was. It was about just taking that first step and, repeating it over and over again, with that affirmation in mind that he had placed in my heart and, over a period of time, I was able to inch my way out of that hole.
[00:17:18] Yeah. And agoraphobia, interestingly I think if. I have the research I've done on it. It affects typically more women than men, but it is by no means, unheard of and either gender and it's probably a little bit more common than people really think. Maybe not as serious as what you were talking about, but still on that spectrum as well.
[00:17:41]It's interesting Scott too, is that, I was working in a career. I've always been in sales. And so I was frequently on airplanes and, traveling all over the country and it's just amazing how quick this took over my life. Because it really didn't take long in a matter of six months time I was in [00:18:00] this space and it's.
[00:18:04] It's hard because it affects everything. Yeah. And I guess that, maybe that was another part of your question, how did that affect my life? It was so impactful. How did it affect my, like my faith journey or my purpose-driven life? The one thing I can say that was good about the agoraphobia and that's good about the agoraphobia, but it really did.
[00:18:24] Create a lot of alone time and was painful alone time, but it did give me the opportunity to draw on that higher power where I wasn't, I didn't have a lot of the outside influences. I wasn't distracted. I was in the space of my comfort zone with a creator and it was essentially my faith was all I had.
[00:18:46] And so that allowed for, a very powerful foundation to be established. Relationship wise between me and the Lord and just that complete trust in him in that space was What's [00:19:00] something, looking back, I'm thankful I had the experience because it really allowed us to draw close to one another.
[00:19:06]And again, I think that gets back to, God can work the good from all things, it's not, not us, but at the end of the day even that if you choose to see it. Even the worst things continue, can continue to build your relationship with God.
[00:19:21] Absolutely. And now it's hard to see it when you're in
[00:19:25] Scott Maderer: [00:19:25] the pit. It is to make, to be
[00:19:27] Matthew Deibler: [00:19:27] fair. That's not easy, but there, it is there. Absolutely. Yeah. I think it's when we realize that we're inadequate in our own strength and we need to draw on that strength of a higher power. And that reliance on him and the obedience to go where he leads.
[00:19:43]It's really what ignites our faith and in a really impactful way. So let's
[00:19:49] Scott Maderer: [00:19:49] talk a little
[00:19:49] Matthew Deibler: [00:19:49] bit more about that you've mentioned in the book. And then in this conversation as well, several instances where you felt, God speaking to you,
[00:20:00] [00:19:59] Scott Maderer: [00:19:59] How it gets, you
[00:20:01] Matthew Deibler: [00:20:01] know, for a lot of folks, we, the problem is that God calling me to do that, or is that just me completely to do that?
[00:20:08] How do I know the difference? So how, what were some experiences that led you to differentiate and understand this was God speaking to you, not you. The first time that it occurred was that kind of divine intervention moment. So I had created some habits too. Oh, escape from the chaos of my mind.
[00:20:28] And one of them was gambling. And so I had this experience, it was in July of 2011 when I had fallen into this captivity that I placed a wager on a sport that I knew. Absolutely nothing about just to really escape my mind for a period of a couple of hours. And the wager was not. Going in my favor and I was angry about that.
[00:20:50] I was angry about where I was just in a very dark place. And so I yelled something that was completely out of character within the confines of my apartment, but it was essentially a [00:21:00] slur that was really, it's just it's shameful. I did that. I smacked the screen of my laptop and it shattered and I thought, wow, now I've just cut off access to my.
[00:21:10] My one and only escape. And so what am I going to do? Like I have to sit here in my thoughts. I've lost. I always, in my gambling habit, it was like if I lost, I felt compelled to dig myself out of the hole. So it was like, I had to get back if you will. And I was having so much trouble just like I said, going out to the mailbox, but I felt compelled that day I needed to move.
[00:21:31]Cause I had to go get a new laptop. And so I went to the local best buy and I'm shaking as I'm walking through the store. It was just overcome with just a tremendous level of fear. But I got up to the counter and I went to check out and. I remember thinking like, just a few more minutes to freedom and then, you'll be back and you can, get back to this escape.
[00:21:51] And as I was walking in the parking lot, a man approached me and he came up to me as though it was almost as if I had [00:22:00] hit his car in the lot or something, but I hadn't been in my vehicle. So I had no idea what he was upset about, but he came right up into my face and he said, do I look like a blank to you?
[00:22:11] And he kept repeating it. Do I look like a blank to you? Do I look like a blank to you? And I had not seen this guy, earlier I had not made any eye contact with him. I had not spoken to him, but the word that he was using was the same word that I had, called out in my apartment. The shameful word that I had used in my apartment a few hours earlier just before I smacked the screen on my laptop.
[00:22:33] So it was incredible because it's I just. Could not believe what was happening. I got into the car and I was just thinking what in the world is took place here? Like, why is this okay, angry? And then it just, it hit me the conviction just washed over me. And I knew that God was showing me something.
[00:22:51] I knew that he was revealing to me, the depth of the darkness that was within me in that season, in my life. And I felt very shameful. I did not [00:23:00] even want the laptop anymore. I didn't really want to go home and gamble. So I cleaned out the account and I got into the shower and I'm standing in the shower.
[00:23:08] I was really thinking over my life. And I I was reflecting on a lot of the hardships I had cause I had, bad breakups. I had financial troubles, things of that nature. And I was just was thinking what's the one consistent, and that was what God, that was a question that he was placing in my heart was what's the one consistent thing in all of these situations, you've placed a lot of blame outside of yourself.
[00:23:30] You blame everyone outside of you. And you've never really taken inventory of yourself. And I was like, it, the answer came clear and I would say, this was God speaking to me is that it was you. And it wasn't in a hurtful Yeah, it was more like, I love you and you need to see this. And that's when I felt him call me to, take responsibility to own my life, to seek forgiveness.
[00:23:52] And I knew that there would be freedom in that. But I felt that I needed to share my story publicly, really, to be able to effectively do that. Cause there were a number of people that I had [00:24:00] heard along the way. So this extended beyond just. Asking forgiveness from God. And so the very next day I started a blog.
[00:24:07] It was called setback to come back and I began sharing my mental health journey quite openly. And I found so much healing through that experience. So that was the initiation into hearing God's voice. And I trusted him on a level because it took a lot of. Faith for me to actually put the dark elements of my story out there, because for, in my entire life, I had worked so hard to conceal it and I knew people were going to react to it.
[00:24:35] I made it visible, not only through the blog, but through my social networks. So Facebook and LinkedIn, and it was like, there were a lot of people that were reading it and saying Oh my gosh, like I never knew. But through that I found such community because people came to me and they said, listen, I've experienced something similar, or someone in my family is going through it.
[00:24:52] And this is just amazing that you're finding the courage to do this because it's going to bring so much healing and it's breaking down [00:25:00] essentially like the stigma around mental health. And so out of just my own, In a sense, like care for myself and this need to seek forgiveness. I found that God was surrounding me with the community and giving my life purpose and meaning.
[00:25:13] And then, as, as long as I empowered his voice, I would hear it. And a lot of times it was through like, experiences where someone come into my life and show me something. But then it was really like in 2016 or so. When I began like had a vision for the first time on nine 11, 2016.
[00:25:31]I had a word that came to me on my honeymoon that was very powerful and essentially prophetic in nature. And then in the last like year or so as I've been doing my best to really empower the voice of the Holy spirit. There's just been so many occurrences and I've started having prophetic dreams as well.
[00:25:52]And it's, I think it's just really me inviting that in and stepping forward in, in [00:26:00] God's will and saying Holy spirit, I want you to guide me. I want you to light the way. I don't. Have the best vision for my life and my own natural mind, but I know you do. I know you care for my needs and I need you to, give me direction.
[00:26:16] I need you to lead the way and I'll Hey, I'll resign my will to yours. Let's do this together. And the more that I've done that the more that voice has become easier for me to discern. And when it's there. There's no denying that it's God, because like early on, I guess that's the point I missed making is there was no denying that was him.
[00:26:37]Because it was it was contradictory to anything that I had a thought or done in the past. And so I knew that it was a voice that wanted to get my attention. And now it's more, when I feel the Holy spirit speak to me, I have, sensations that run all over my body. I'll get I call them the truth bumps, I.
[00:26:55] I feel a goosebumps that run from my head to my toes. I [00:27:00] have all kinds of amazing sensations. Sometimes there's this one I call the head whip where I'll actually feel as though almost like I'm going to faint, but it's this it's this powerful, like acknowledgement of the Holy Spirit's presence coming in.
[00:27:13]I'll have the rush of butterflies. There's a number of different things, but it's always very clear that it's him.
[00:27:20] Scott Maderer: [00:27:20] So with all of this that's happened.
[00:27:22]Matthew Deibler: [00:27:22] I know you've started a couple of different ministries and then of course you have the book that's coming out. Can you talk a little bit about the relationship between the lamp on the stand ministry and the outlet and the book and kind of, how has all of that working at least right now?
[00:27:38] Because again, I know it's probably going to change in the next five years, but how has it all working together right now for you unpack a little bit about what those are. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I guess I could start it. It really began with the mental health piece, which is where the outlet is rooted.
[00:27:54] So in the beginning of 2020, I started doing a lot more mental health [00:28:00] content. And then the pandemic set in, I knew people were going into social isolation, which I had lived literally through anger or agoraphobia. And so I started doing like a series of content on anxiety and panic, and it was like a 14 day series.
[00:28:16] And I started to develop a following with that content. And there was this community of individuals that I kept. Seeing show up and I thought, okay, the series ends, but now what do I do? I feel like I need to create a space for these people to be able to, have conversations naturally about mental health.
[00:28:34] And that's where the outlet came from. And the outlet is a community where we meet twice a week via zoom virtually and then we have a community chat and that's been very fulfilling as I went deeper into my faith journey. I could not ignore the Victor. And so as I began to share more content around mental health, I was also weaving in my spirituality because my relationship with Jesus [00:29:00] Christ is the one that led me out of that dark season and has truly allowed me to step into this freedom that I live now.
[00:29:06] And so I started, going bolder into that. Aspect of my journey as well. And then it led me to this like a second rebirth almost in faith. I was pretty well established, what came over me in 2020, it was just so remarkably powerful. It happened actually at a time when my nine to five employment was taken away as a result of COVID 19.
[00:29:30] So it was about the tail end of June. And I created some space after that happened to really seek clarity. And I took a 21 day fast from social media and I started just seeking God, full-time and that's when I had this second encounter with the devil, which there were two in my life and it was I was going, I was attempting to go deeper at God at the same time that this force was coming into my life and really trying to disrupt that path once [00:30:00] again and out of that experience came the book.
[00:30:04]At the end of that, when I had resisted in faith. I felt led to write the story and that's what I did. And then the lamp on the stand motivational ministry came out of that experience. So the book was written lamp on the stand comes together because the lamp on the stand is essentially, let's put that lamp on its stand.
[00:30:21]Let's share the truth. Let's share God's victory. Let's inspire others. And so that was a place where I could, how's the book and how's all the content that I was doing. And then That developed into this passion for speaking and coaching and consulting. And I've really just been stepping forward one day at a time and faith.
[00:30:39] When I got finished with the book and I began actually getting ready to publish, then I felt God and I was waiting for a period of time, like what's next? And then just one day Not too long ago. I felt the nudge that it was time to do the podcast and prayed about it. And boom, here we are. I really just, when he [00:31:00] speaks, I, and the door opens, I try not to hesitate.
[00:31:03] I just try and step through. And I'm really living my life 24 hours at a time in faith without really knowing exactly where he's taking me. And I'm fine with that because I know my destination is secure. So as you think about all of those and living this one day at a time, now I'm going to ask you a really tough question.
[00:31:21] Sure. Cause if let's say I just had a magic machine or whatever it is and could move you a hundred, 150 years into the future, and you got an opportunity to look back on your life. What's the impact that you hope you've had on the world? I hope number one, that I've left. A legacy for my children.
[00:31:42] And I hope that, looking back, a hundred or 150 years, I can see that this, movement carried on through my children and that they're living it and that their children's children are living it because that's really one of the things that moved me most, as far as writing this book was concerned because I wanted.
[00:32:00] [00:32:00] My kids to really have the blueprint for, mental health and the spiritual journey and, navigating the deception of the devil. So that would be one thing that I would like to see. And I'd like I would if, if people were to look at my life after I'm going to say that I lived one of purpose and one that you know, was truly guided.
[00:32:20] By the principles of faith and the Holy spirit. And then I did it boldly that I shared the truth at a time when it was perhaps a bit taboo to do that that I really did stay. And as a light in a dark season, because it's hard to deny that we're experiencing a lot of darkness around us right now.
[00:32:35] There's a lot of deception. There's a lot of evil influence in this world and. I would like for people to look at the work that I've done and say, you know what, he, wasn't afraid to stand up. When others perhaps were a bit concerned about sharing their faith. And he was the light to turn to when when I needed one.
[00:32:57] So with that in mind what is coming next as you [00:33:00] live day by day and continue on your journey to live out your call and make an impact? feel as though I would like to continue writing I'm leaving that up to God. I did begin actually a second book a few months ago and then.
[00:33:15] Edits of the first and just everything involved with the publishing process, put that on the back burner. But I'd like to get back to that. I think right now I'm just so excited about, so I'm starting the delivering dunemas podcast and I'm really excited about that because it's creating a platform for me to share stories that I've heard largely in private, from people who have.
[00:33:38]Heard my content, read my book. They've reached out to me and they've said I've experienced a transformation. And in getting into relationship with them, I've learned the details of that. And now we're creating, again, lamp on the stand where we're taking that story and we're putting it on its stand to glorify God and [00:34:00] say that this is possible not only in the life of Matthew dialer, but look.
[00:34:03] It's possible in the life of this person or that person. And in many cases, their stories are equally as powerful as mine, their transformations, and they've experienced trauma at levels. And in a lot of cases that exceed what I've known and yet God has just revealed this miraculous healing in their lives.
[00:34:26] And, it's just so inspiring to see their work that they're doing. So the podcast is really designed. In such a way to create a space for those those stories to shine. And I'm very excited about that as far as what comes after that. I'm not quite sure. But I'm just, like I said, one, one step at a time and I trust it.
[00:34:45] He'll open the door. I'll hear that. Holy spirit voice move me when it's time for the next phase to unfold.
[00:34:52]You can follow Matthew on his website@lamponthestand.com and you can find out more about that ministry over on [00:35:00] LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook under the lamp on the stand motivational ministry. Of course I'll have links to all of that in the show notes, as well as links to the book and to the podcast.
[00:35:09] Matthew, is there anything else that you'd like to share with the Lister? I'd really like to share with you that God's love is patient and it's enduring. So if you do find yourself in a dark season don't lose hope. If you feel like you're alone, trust that he is with you, he's never left your side.
[00:35:26] I realized that many years after I went through some of the really troubling seasons in my life that he was always there. And he was really just waiting on me to make that call to him and say, Lord, step into my life, do it in a powerful way. Take me in and do with me according to your will.
[00:35:44] And if you just if you do that and you turn it over and you trust in him, it's amazing how by just taking those first initial steps. And repeating that process over and over again, without [00:36:00] really looking too far ahead, it's amazing. The miraculous things that he can do in your life. I it's just, if you look at my story, if you read my book, you'll know that anything is possible.
[00:36:11] If you have faith.
[00:36:11]Scott Maderer: [00:36:11] Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listened, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoy this episode please do us a favor. Go over to inspired stewardship.com/itunes rate.
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