Participants: Cheri Peters and Leo Schreven
Series Code: CLR
Program Code: CLR000010
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00:11 Welcome to Celebrating Life In Recovery,
00:12 Today we're going to look at what does God want 00:14 us to know about Him. 00:15 About recovery, about life, this is going to be 00:17 a blast, so come in, join us. 00:50 Welcome back, when I first came to Christ what was 00:52 really interesting to me is that everybody said I had to 00:55 get to know who God was, right? 00:57 So I opened up the Bible and started going through the Bible. 00:59 I was illiterate, I could not read. 01:01 I can read just a little bit, but like people would say, 01:06 turn to Revelations and I would be in the first 01:08 part of the book and trying to play like I was in Revelations. 01:10 And every Christian was like she's not even close to 01:14 Revelation, so once I started getting better and learning 01:17 to read, doing all that stuff, doing Bible studies. 01:20 It is amazing that God's going to give us a new heart and 01:24 a new mind and restores our brain cells at all that stuff. 01:26 He just has all these promises through the Bible and I am 01:29 thrilled, I'm thinking how cool is that? 01:31 You know our theme today is Isaiah 57:18 where it says, 01:35 God knows all about us, every single thing about us. 01:38 He wants to heal us anyway, and I am thinking Amen. 01:40 All those things are good to know, but I thought 01:44 you know what? God wants us to know a ton of other stuff. 01:46 As I'm getting to be a Christian, and this is like 10 01:49 years because it takes me a while to learn something. 01:51 So 10 years into my Christianity I start learning about 01:55 you know what? Maybe I can start taking better care of 01:57 myself, and I'm such a mess. 01:58 I've been homeless for 10 years, heroin addict, my parents 02:01 were addicts, my sister has a porn line on Internet and 02:04 sells Coke for living, and my other sister is a meth 02:06 addict, I mean our whole family is totally a mess. 02:08 So I mean I am really having to learn a lot of stuff. 02:11 I was molested since I was three months old, I mean 02:13 I have all this junk, and so as I'm learning who God is 02:16 and I'm trusting that, turning my recovery over to Him, 02:19 somebody comes up to me and says you know what Cheri? 02:22 Do you know why you're such a mess? I said why is that? 02:25 They were so serious that I'm thinking they're going to 02:28 give me something right now it is going to be good. 02:30 I wish I had a notepad, because I would write this down. 02:32 They said because you're not eating right. 02:34 I'm like shut up, I'm serious and so I'm thinking. 02:40 Really, is that it? That all this junk that has happened 02:44 in my life means nothing, I just need to get some brown 02:47 rice and a convert, and I'm like alright. 02:50 So I said, well how do you learn to eat right? 02:53 They say, go to a seminar, and I'm like shut up is that it? 02:56 I've been struggling for 10 years in my recovery and going 02:59 to meetings and learning about the Word of God and trying 03:02 to figure out, I have every self-help book on the planet. 03:04 On the planet, how to socialize, because I don't know how. 03:08 My palms sweat when I had to sit down with somebody at 03:10 pot luck because I don't know how to eat with anybody. 03:12 I don't how to trust people, everybody for the first five 03:15 years if somebody just brushed beside me or touched me 03:18 I would think what do you want? What do you want from me? 03:22 It was like I was like I was so untrusting, but if I learned 03:27 this, it's all good. So I get a notebook, I get in the front 03:35 row, I am at a seminar on how to learn to eat right. 03:38 There's a thousand people at this seminar, I couldn't 03:40 believe how many people came to hear this guy. 03:43 And a really don't take the guys name because you will 03:45 know him, and if you are out there this is for you. 03:47 Anyhow, so I go to this seminar, and he comes running in 03:52 because he is in this incredible shape. 03:56 He has the best little body, and I'm thinking man 03:59 he looks good. He runs all the way up the aisle on to 04:02 the stage, and I'm thinking wow. 04:04 He said he was a triathlon athlete, and I'm ignorant, 04:08 thinking I don't know what that is but it sounds good. 04:11 And he explains what that is for about a half an hour. 04:14 So he tells you all about his stuff, and all about this 04:17 at all about that and I'm thinking how incredible. 04:19 His training, his family history, he was raised by normal 04:24 folks and I'm so jealous I think I want to shoot somebody 04:26 when they say that. 04:28 My family are drug addicts you know. That doesn't mean 04:31 that I want to shoot somebody, I've gotten better, 04:32 you know in my recovery. 04:34 But I just feel like that is an incredible gift to have 04:37 normal parents and so he was talking about that. 04:39 Then he says something that almost killed me. 04:42 It literally felt like somebody grabbed my soul 04:46 and ripped it out. 04:47 He said if you've ever had one bite of meat in your life, 04:51 you should never presume to stand up and talk about Christ 04:54 in front of somebody. 04:56 I just had a hamburger, so I wanted to tell him shut up, 05:00 you cannot be telling the truth. 05:02 And then he said, and I'm sitting there feeling like I 05:05 can't hardly breathe because somebody is taking God away 05:08 from me, it is the only thing I can hold onto in 05:10 my life and because I have been such a mess. 05:12 He said you know what? One sin is no different than 05:15 another if you have had a hamburger you might 05:18 as well, it you have eaten it, you might as well as 05:21 gone to Mustang Ranch. 05:22 and I know what Mustang Ranch is some people don't. 05:25 I'm not even going to go into that, we'll just use another 05:27 sin if you have had a hamburger you might as well 05:29 as killed somebody. 05:30 I thought you know what? Shut up! I wanted to scream. 05:33 I wanted to say you need to stop talking, you need to shut 05:36 up because I am not going to live through this seminar. 05:39 I'm in the front row and there is a thousand people and 05:42 I can't just walk out, I really excuse me you don't know 05:45 me but I need you to shut up. 05:47 It was like stop this meeting. 05:49 So he kept talking and kept talking and he kept talking. 05:53 With an addict in recovery we get hurt for about a minute 05:58 and then what do you think happens? We get angry. 06:02 I was so mad, I'm in the front row and I cannot put my 06:10 hand down, I'm thinking you need to call on me. 06:12 I have something I want to say. 06:14 He is talking about his triathlon and some award he's 06:17 got or whatever, and he finally called on me, like what? 06:21 I'm right in the middle of my thing. 06:23 I said does the Bible talk about the sin of pride anywhere? 06:26 Because you know you are in trouble if it does. 06:30 You might as well eat a hamburger, cause you are in such 06:36 trouble, and I went home and I walked out. 06:38 It was time to walk out, I was so angry. 06:40 So I went home and I am crying with snot dripping out of 06:43 my face and I am praying and telling God, you know 06:46 what was I doing fooling myself that you would love some 06:49 body like me, heroin addict in recovery, 06:51 homeless and all that kind of stuff. 06:52 Who am I to think that you would tolerate me at all, I don't 06:56 know anything and what I am finding out is that every time 06:58 I think I have gotten one step further, I stopped heroin, 07:01 I not striping in clubs, I'm not doing all this stuff. 07:04 I'm trying to not even cuss. 07:05 And that's a little hard, I still smoking and I know I'm 07:08 spraying perfume so people don't have to smell the 07:11 cigarettes when I come in, but I am working on that. 07:13 I remember I was like crying and talking to God and 07:15 He gives me a vision. 07:17 This is weird because people say, God doesn't do that. 07:19 He does do that, He wants to speak to us. 07:22 He wants to communicate with us and with the Holy Spirit, 07:24 He wants to fill us with a knowledge of Him. 07:27 He gives me the vision and I see nothing but I see 07:29 everything, I don't know how He does that. 07:31 But it is a time that I had truly overdosed years ago 07:34 in a drug house, so it is a true story. 07:36 When I overdosed and didn't see it, Janette you work with 07:39 Addicts, you know what I am talking about. 07:40 I didn't see it, there was a bunch of addicts around me 07:42 and they tried to do CPR right? 07:44 I had slammed a bunch of heroin and it was more potent than 07:47 I normally had and I went out, I started going into 07:51 seizures, I was throwing up all over the place and my 07:53 heart stopped and they had to remove the stuff from my 07:56 mouth and breathe for me. 07:57 But what He showed me was actually what happened at that 08:00 event, so I got to see it. 08:03 I don't know how He does that but I feel like I was 08:05 present at that event. 08:06 I lost, when you go into seizures you loose bowel and 08:10 bladder control, I lost bowel and bladder control, 08:13 you know it was disgusting and when He showed me, 08:19 I felt He showed me what it was like with the throw up, 08:22 with smells, with all that kind of stuff. 08:24 They finally put me in the shower and put ice all over me 08:26 they thought I was going to die. 08:28 I obviously didn't and I came out of that and I remember 08:30 saying, God, God wait because I came in here praying 08:35 just because I was guilty because I had a hamburger. 08:38 You show me this whole scene at a drug house and it 08:40 didn't make me feel better, I do not feel better with that 08:43 and God said something that changed my life forever. 08:46 He said Cheri I loved you as much as when you were laying 08:51 in your own feces in a drug house, do not make this 08:54 a behavioral thing, you are My child, and I am your Father 08:58 and I am crazy about you. 09:00 I thought Man, do I even know God? 09:03 All of a sudden I realized, that eating is important, 09:05 all that stuff is important, but God loves me. 09:08 God loves you, there is nothing we can do that is going 09:12 to change God's mind about us, but He said there is 09:15 a knowledge I want you to have of who I am. 09:17 Before I introduce you to the guest, and the guest is 09:20 amazing, but before I introduce you to the guest 09:22 I just want to say who is here today. 09:24 We have people Leo Schreven, I love you. - you do? 09:27 You are a life coach, motivational speaker all over 09:31 the world, you speak with hundreds of thousands of people 09:34 all the time and when I called Leo, just got to say I'm going 09:38 to introduce you to him in a minute, but when I called Leo 09:40 he was like I will be in Africa and just be flying home. 09:42 I said but do you know what can you stop by my place? 09:45 Just do the show with us, and I love you because you said 09:48 yes. - I am glad to be here. 09:50 Susan you have been on the show before, and I love you. 09:52 Larry and Janette, we lived in the same state and the only 09:56 time we actually get to see each other is when we do this 09:58 kind of thing, which is fun. 10:00 And Betty and Fasoa, I just want to say God bless you 10:04 guys for being here. 10:05 I want to tell you one more thing before I introduce you 10:07 to Leo, and the next thing is that God gets me into 10:10 ministry and I love that. 10:11 From sitting and trying to learn how to be a Christian, 10:14 eat right and all that kind of stuff I start praying to 10:17 God that I want to work in ministry. 10:18 And years later, I mean, He was doing, I mean He is 10:21 teaching social things, He's working with the attachment 10:23 disorders and bonding disorders, He's working all my trust 10:26 issues and He is so faithful, I mean He is so amazing. 10:29 I had teeth knocked out because I got beat up by a 10:31 motorcycle gang and God gave me new teeth. 10:35 My jaw in my face was so infected from being homeless for 10:38 10 years, they literally had to go in and scrape the 10:41 infection off my jawbone to hold the teeth that I had left 10:43 before they gave me the new teeth. You know God is just 10:46 faithful and He has been faithful every step of the way. 10:49 So now I say, I want to be in ministry. 10:51 When God opens a door, I am a worldwide ministry. 10:55 How fun is that? All over the world working with 10:57 who do you think, addicts. 11:00 You know what? at first I said, no way, I don't like them. 11:03 They will lie to me and manipulate me, they run games on 11:06 everybody and play you like crazy God, not fair. 11:10 Can I teach like English in China? 11:12 I'll do Sabbath school, I'll teach the Bible, I don't 11:16 want to work with people that are a mess. 11:18 You know to see something wrong the cut their head off, 11:20 I'm just like I do want to do that. 11:23 He said that is what you are going to do, that's what 11:24 you're going to do. 11:25 So after I got that I thought how fun is that? 11:27 So I get a call one time and I'm doing Camp Meeting, 11:30 women's retreats, talking in schools, having a blast going 11:34 to jails, prisons and rehab centers, homeless shelters and 11:37 I'm having a blast because as an addict in recovery needs 11:39 to do something like that, right? 11:41 We had a TV show, radio show and all that stuff and 11:43 I get a call one day, I can't even tell you what 11:48 health Institute, you would know if I told you. 11:50 From a vegan vegetarian health Institute. 11:55 They said Cheri, we're having our annual seminar, and we 12:03 want you to be a speaker. 12:05 I'm like, shut up, there's no way I just had a hamburger. 12:12 I'm thinking there's no way, how funny is this? 12:15 And the other speaker, I just have to say this because 12:18 it makes it more funny is Hans Diehl, I don't know of 12:21 anybody knows him, he's like a health nut of the planet. 12:23 I mean he is like, he's incredible what he knows about 12:26 health and I don't mean nut in case Hans Diehl is 12:29 watching, he's absolutely amazing. 12:31 But he is the other speaker so I want to say no, 12:33 you don't even know, have you read my book? 12:35 But anyhow they say no, we want you to speak. 12:38 I'm like really, so God is telling me yes. 12:42 I'm saying God, excuse me God You can't. 12:45 I finally said yes and I go to this health place. 12:48 So I am now at this health place. 12:50 I walk in for breakfast and I'm telling you this is the 12:53 truth, they have plates of fruit, I love fruit. 12:56 It's no problem for me, I love fruit. 12:58 But putting the fruit aside they are eating the white 13:01 stuff on the rind, with this little white stuff rind 13:04 remover fork, I'm thinking am I in the twilight zone? 13:09 Rind on the fruit had they're saying this is an 13:13 antioxidant, and I don't know if anybody knows that. 13:15 I didn't know that and I thought it looks freaky. 13:17 So as soon as I saw that, I think I am definitely in the 13:21 wrong place and I need to go out and go back to my room. 13:23 Praying God, what are you doing to me? You know, 13:26 You can't do this to me. 13:29 So then I'm thinking, I never write notes or figure out 13:32 what I'm going to say or even these shows, we kind of 13:34 pray beforehand to see what God is going to do for our 13:37 stories and stuff, so I'm saying God you are got to 13:41 tell me what I'm going to say. 13:42 Because I'm scared, Hans Diehl is talking, I finally go into 13:45 the Auditorium, they are going to introduce me 13:47 after he finishes his last word. 13:49 There are all these health nuts sitting there and I'm 13:51 thinking, Oh Man, so they finally say Cheri we're so glad 13:54 to have you, and I'm thinking you don't even know. 13:56 I shouldn't even be here, it is like God is going to zap 14:00 us, you, me, who ever. 14:02 I get up on the stage and I have no idea what to say. 14:06 I had the mic on and I'm looking at them, they are 14:13 looking at me, not a word for almost a minute. 14:17 That is a long time when you are in front, it's a long 14:20 time and finally I said God I've got to say something. 14:22 He said just tell the truth, so I just said, 14:25 you know what? I don't know why I am here because I don't 14:29 even like health nuts. 14:30 And there are some people that laugh but it was actually 14:33 pretty quiet in this room and I'm thinking you know what? 14:37 I really don't and I'm not sure why I'm here and I'm not 14:39 a health nut, I'm not even a vegetarian, I'm too flaky 14:43 to know anything about all that kind of stuff. 14:44 But I know you can't eat enough brown rice to deal with 14:48 your emotional issues. 14:50 And all the sudden God gave me this whole sermon about 14:53 part of what He wants to do with us is to teach us about 14:55 the Bible, part of me wants to teach us about health. 14:58 But also He wants to teach us how to live right. 15:01 How to think right, how to actually live a life that is 15:04 free from all that stuff. 15:06 And that is what we are going to talk about today because 15:08 you know God doesn't want us in bondage. 15:10 He does not want us tied up, but if you are chasing any 15:12 thing trying to get well, rather than surrendering it to 15:15 God and figuring out what He wants you to know about that, 15:17 you'll die skinny. 15:19 I've seen some health nuts real skinny, really looking 15:23 angry all the time, sunken eyes and you know God wants 15:27 us to be healthy, happy and full of joy and enjoying life 15:31 We are going to take a break and I'm going to introduce 15:33 you to our guests when we come back. 15:35 My most favorite part of the show, I want to tell you, 15:38 you will blessed so stay with us! 15:45 We want to introduce you to a beautiful book 15:47 called 'Steps To Christ'. 15:49 Each program in this series is based on a different 15:51 chapter showing you how to become a Christian and 15:54 gain victory over your addictions. 15:56 'Steps To Christ' is our gift to you free of charge. 15:59 Just call us at: 16:28 This is my favorite part of the show where I get to 16:30 introduce you to some of the guests. 16:32 And today we're going to have on Leo Schreven, and the 16:35 first time I worked with him was that Cowboy Camp Meeting. 16:37 I didn't even know we had a Cowboy Camp Meeting and he 16:40 got up and he talks so fast, but I am ADD so I'm thinking 16:45 oh I love this guy and he's just like one thing after 16:48 another after another and I fell in love with you on that 16:51 Camp meeting, and we've worked a little bit together 16:53 since then and you are going to tell us what you know 16:56 about making the right choices and about life. 16:59 You are a life coach aye? 17:00 Yep that is what we do. - okay, and what else? 17:03 Can you start telling a little bit of your testimony? 17:08 - yeah. - especially about the guy and the... 17:11 - yeah the hold up, we call it the cowboy hold up. 17:15 First of all it is a pleasure to be with you and 17:17 I appreciate so much what you are doing and what a joy. 17:19 But yeah it goes back to 1975 when I was a messed up 17:22 teenager, I was just born violent and out of control. 17:25 I made bad choices until I got to the age of 15. 17:28 My mother began to pray for me, there's nothing more dangerous 17:30 then a praying mother, you might as well give up. 17:32 So anybody out there if your mother's praying for you, 17:34 just give up now and save yourself a lot of pain. 17:36 At any rate, so yeah we had an experience with these two 17:39 guys that come to our house and held us up for three 17:41 hours, and try to kill us three times. 17:42 - first of all I have to say, you and your brother are 17:44 pranksters, you thought when the guys came in your 17:47 brother was - no, no that was my brother's girlfriend. 17:49 My brother had just flown in with his girlfriend Mary 17:51 three hours before and he is a terrible prankster. 17:54 So when these two guys jump in our house and blow the door 17:56 open and are holding us up, she thinks this is a sick joke 17:59 and walks up to the one guy laughing, this is a really 18:02 funny joke, and shut up lady, and the guy throws her down. 18:05 It took us 10 minutes to convince her that these guys 18:06 are real, and when she realized she passes out. 18:09 At any rate, so we got off to a bad start and they didn't 18:12 like us from the get go. 18:13 But that is how it started and I'm just sitting there 18:15 thinking, man I'm going to die tonight, where am I going? 18:17 I knew I wasn't going to heaven that was a given. 18:19 So I figured I was going to hell and it's just a bad feeling. 18:23 You don't think about life and death when you are 15. 18:25 It lasted for three hours and they finally took us in 18:28 the garage and they were going to kill us, they lined us up. 18:30 And my praying mother, the most amazing thing she just 18:33 starts praying out loud and singing out loud. 18:34 These guys are trying to shoot her, it was unreal. 18:37 To make a long story short they couldn't pull the 18:41 trigger three times, they tried. 18:42 You seem like they went on and shot other people after 18:44 they left our house, but that was the night that I said 18:47 I'm sick of my life and I'm tired of doing it my way and 18:49 there has got to be a better way of life than this. 18:50 It is the first time I decided to put God in my life and 18:53 the Bible, and I'll tell ya it changed my life. 18:57 I begin to spend a half hour in the Bible every day, then 18:59 and hour, and then two hours, then three hours. 19:00 Aged 15 to 20 spent three hours a day in the Bible. 19:03 I never had to worry about my foul mouth, it was gone. 19:06 I never had to worry about my bad attitude, it went like that. 19:08 - it went out just like that? I'm so jealous. 19:09 Well there's reasons - mine didn't go that fast. 19:12 - is that right. - I had to struggle with different 19:15 things. - it's different for different people. 19:16 For me I was so sick of how I was I think, and here 19:19 was something better, every- thing Jesus was I wasn't. 19:21 It was pretty easy, by beholding you become changed. 19:24 It just so radically changed my life in a matter of 19:28 months, and it is a great way to live. 19:30 We have devoted our whole life to just doing seminars. 19:33 How did you get into life coaching? 19:34 How did you get into that whole kind of ministry? 19:36 Yeah well, when I went to high school everybody had issues 19:39 and God has so radically changed my life. 19:42 Who doesn't have issues, but the teachers were coming 19:46 To me for counseling and I am 16 years old. 19:47 They're coming to me for counseling but I began to read, 19:50 I'm a ferocious reader and I read two books a week and 19:53 it's probably the best decision I made in my life. 19:55 I've read hundreds of book on life mastery skills. 19:57 Psychology, just the study and the answers are there. 20:01 They are all Bible-based, which is the most amazing thing. 20:04 This stuff has been in the Bibles for years. 20:05 Just simple tools sometimes, one or two little tools can 20:08 make all the difference. 20:09 So I started to teach it even before high school, 20:11 from high school and went into the ministry, and the 20:13 ministry kept on teaching and doing seminars for 24 years. 20:15 - all over the world. - all over the world! 20:16 You just got back from Africa. - yeah last night at one 20:19 o'clock in the morning. 20:20 And talk about even the Africa trip, how was that and 20:24 what did you do? 20:25 It was awesome, we did Germany and Africa together. 20:27 I do corporate work as well as a lot of church work, 20:31 volunteer work. 20:32 We had been there to Germany first of all I'll start there 20:35 because Germany is a very secular society and they don't 20:38 really believe in God, but the all power principles 20:40 we teach, these life skill principles, they love it. 20:43 They come out and so we have been there several years 20:45 before and the neat thing was coming back to the people 20:47 and seeing how they have grown and the testimonies. 20:49 One young lady Bulimic, terribly bulimic had gone down 20:52 70 pounds and almost killed herself. 20:53 She came a year and a half ago, came back and she was 20:56 just thriving and healthy and it was so beautiful. 20:59 People had quit smoking, had a great one quit smoking. 21:02 I've got to tell you this story. 21:03 - smoking is the hardest thing. 21:05 - yeah we help people do it in five minutes, there's 21:07 a five-day plan but everything in my life is fast and 21:08 don't have time for five days. 21:09 We have a five minute plan - remember when I talk to you 21:13 about him talking fast, don't you love him? I love you. 21:16 Seriously why take five days when 21:18 you can do it in five minutes? 21:19 But this couple came to me in British Columbia just before 21:21 I went to Germany and they were telling me, do you remember 21:25 our son? I said yes I remember you got us stop smoking 21:27 eight years ago. - I said really. 21:29 They said you told us to invest the money we're putting 21:31 up in smoke and we have been doing that and we just paid 21:33 $380,000 for a brand-new house just on the money 21:37 we saved from smoking. - no way. 21:38 So yeah it was - they were smoking quite a bit. 21:42 Oh yeah, about five packs a day between Canada 21:45 it's very expensive to smoke there. 21:46 It's like 6-7 dollars a pack - they are just putting 21:49 that away, the money they were putting up in smoking 21:52 they put on the house. 21:53 So Africa was awesome and we go there, this is South 21:55 Africa and most people would think that is largely a 21:58 black community, but it is largely a white community. 22:02 We had 1700 show up and you can't believe the changes 22:06 in these people's lives. 22:07 - You are saying that a number of them were actually 22:09 millionaires, people that you wouldn't even think about. 22:11 The reason I think of that sometimes it's when we think of 22:13 addiction and trying to get our lives together, we think 22:15 of addicts. - like gutter, if I can use that word. 22:17 - that is only a small percentage of the population. 22:19 It is you would be amazed, you would be amazed. 22:22 I don't care across culture, across income levels, 22:25 every part of social anomic, it makes no difference. 22:27 Everybody has got challenges. - right. 22:29 Sometimes they are more hidden, sometimes they are more 22:32 professionally bathed, but they are all there and so yes 22:35 I've studied with thousands of multimillionaires through 22:38 the years, and our seminar tends to attract them because 22:41 we teach life mastery skills on a professional level. 22:43 But boy when you sit down one on one, I don't care 22:46 who they are, they can be a Fortune 500 company owner, 22:47 but they have got issues. 22:49 We live here in this world. - this is it, this is it. 22:52 So we don't have a lot of time because the show is short, 22:55 so I want you to teach us some of the stuff you teach. 22:58 And know this is Celebrating Life In Recovery, so this 23:01 is people coming out of junk, normal junk, twisted junk, 23:05 just stuff. - sure, sure, it's real. 23:09 It's really real and that is the best thing. 23:11 Well the first thing we teach is how to make a new 23:12 beginning, Paul said forget what is behind you, put what's 23:15 before you and press toward the mark. 23:16 One of the biggest things is people's ability to forgive 23:18 themselves and realize that anybody makes mistakes, 23:21 everybody makes mistakes but there is always a brand-new 23:23 beginning and even if God's plan A, B. or C it doesn't matter 23:26 where you are on the scale, there's a new beginning today. 23:28 So we really teach that and how to take responsibility 23:30 for your life, that is something critically 23:32 important in our seminars. 23:33 People don't realize that is like almost the first step 23:36 If I know I take responsibility I can change. 23:38 I have power for that day. 23:40 - that's the starting point. I think a lot of modern 23:42 psychology which I do not want to say this critically, 23:44 but they had to go through your past and dig it up 23:46 and dig it up and dig it up so finally you have someone 23:48 to blame for why you are like you are. 23:50 We teach you to take full responsibility for your life and 23:52 the day you do that you put the steering wheel back in your 23:54 hands, quit blaming your mom, quit blaming your dad, 23:55 quit blaming your circumstances. 23:57 If you choose to, anybody could have a life of 23:59 victory and power. 24:00 And if somebody says, like I could say to you but Leo 24:03 you don't understand I had a horrible life. 24:05 What would you tell me? 24:06 I would tell you to quit focusing on your horrible life. 24:09 I had two ladies the other day in Alaska. 24:12 The first one came in and she was mad and angry and bitter 24:14 and hateful and I tried to help her for an hour but she 24:17 was, bless her heart my heart just broke for her, but she 24:19 wouldn't let me help her. 24:20 Your a man. Didn't you get it? She hates men. 24:25 Oh I am sorry go ahead. 24:26 Alright, I didn't get that? 24:30 No, I love it, I just love it, but the point is she had 24:36 been abused by her father and she took that and she used 24:40 it as a weapon to destroy her life. 24:42 And the next lady came in, and said there is a little Methodist 24:44 church across the road from where I grew up and I was abused 24:46 until I was 17, and she said that Methodist church taught 24:48 me that all things work together for good, and I decided 24:50 I'm going to turn this into a stepping stone. 24:52 I'm going to be the one that breaks this chain of abuse 24:54 that has been in my family for generations. 24:55 She talked for 10 minutes, maybe two minutes and told me 24:58 what happened, the rest of the time she's smiling and has 24:59 her degree in child psychology and devotes her life to 25:02 helping abused children. 25:03 She is happy and fulfilled, the difference was how they 25:05 interpreted their experience. - Amen. 25:06 And we teach people that you can use it as something to 25:09 destroy yourself, or you can find a positive meaning for 25:11 it and it will take your life to the top. 25:13 Incredible, God really wants you to find a positive 25:16 meaning for it, He really wants you to surrender it to Him so He 25:19 can actually lift you out of that. - yeah, that's right. 25:21 That is an incredible way to start. - you bet. 25:23 So everybody makes a new beginning take responsibility. 25:25 Once that happens, you can go on. 25:27 We talk about the two forces that control all behavior 25:29 and its very fun. 25:30 Most of us don't realize there are two things built in us 25:32 by God and everything we do is for these reasons. 25:35 I'm so bad what is it? Tell me! - give me the money, no. 25:40 pay me. Alright go ahead. 25:44 It's two things, pain and pleasure. 25:45 Think about it, everything you do in your life is for 25:47 pain or pleasure. 25:48 They did a study in the book, The Day America Told the Truth. 25:51 They found out that 34% of married men cheat on their 25:54 wives in America. 25:55 Now every man intellectually knows - I'm calling my 25:57 husband, what are you doing right now? 26:00 I'm sorry go ahead. 34% - I love this show. 26:06 Yeah one out of three of us, now every guy intellectually 26:11 knows that is going to ruin his finances, devastate his 26:13 home, wreck his children, everything and they still do it. 26:16 Why? Because we like pornography we like sex, we like 26:20 it's pleasure. - You guys are visual and it brings pleasure. 26:22 He also guy has an affair he does it with a woman mostly, 26:24 most of the time anyway. 26:25 And so for a few moments of pleasure, he is willing to 26:29 ruin his entire life see. 26:30 We teach people it's pain or pleasure that makes you do 26:33 everything in your life and the biggest challenge we have is 26:36 we associate pleasure to hundreds of things that limit 26:39 our life. - and causes pain eventually. - exactly. 26:41 Even to the point we turn on the television and watch 26:43 another man blow another man's head off and 26:45 we are entertained by it you see. 26:46 Once you associate pleasure to sinful degrading, negative 26:49 limited things, your life will go down. 26:51 The day you associate pleasure and happiness to Godly, 26:53 good, pure and wholesome things your life goes up. 26:55 Skiing, snowboarding, photography, traveling 26:58 - so many fun and wholesome things, so we teach people 27:01 how to put those two forces where they belong. 27:02 Then how to make instant changes and this is probably 27:04 the most powerful thing we teach. 27:05 It is how the brain works. Most people won't realize 27:07 their habits are bound up in their neural pathways. 27:10 Everything you do is a neural pathway in your brain. 27:13 The more you do it the more strands it adds to cables in 27:15 your brain that make you go down certain areas. 27:18 - and I have to butt in - please do. 27:21 Because you know you changed my life the first time you 27:23 taught me that, and totally when you say you get this 27:26 you can actually change within so it really did change me. 27:30 I teach that at every school I go to, I just love it. 27:32 I'm so happy that it was a blessing. - it's amazing. 27:35 People when they see that seminar I don't care where 27:37 you are, I could have a room full of atheists, I can have 27:39 a room full of addicts and they look at it like a thousand 27:41 light bulbs go off in their head and they say man, for the first 27:44 time I finally know why I'm behaving like I do. 27:45 I understand the habits I have are there and I can't seem 27:48 to break them and then we teach them how to change their 27:50 neural pathways and it is not hard to do. 27:52 Once the neural pathways don't exist and new ones are in 27:56 their place your behavior changes automatically. 27:58 That is just so powerful. 27:59 - so you have to understand how you were made. - right. 28:02 How your brain works, how your behaviors are set or not 28:04 set. - exactly and the audience may wonder shall I give 28:07 you two minutes of it? - yes, yes. 28:08 What it boils down to is every- thing you do from the time you 28:11 are born in the mother's womb, at four months the 28:13 neural pathways begin to form. 28:14 So if a mother sits in front of a television and she 28:17 hears violence and screaming and anger, the baby's neuro 28:19 pathways are being formed. 28:20 They learned that, let's take anger. 28:22 Every time you are angry or watch someone that is angry 28:24 or you read a book where people are angry, anything you 28:26 hear or see a fracture audio and visual senses. 28:29 It adds a strand to the neuro pathway and that it adds 28:31 another strand. - they kind of wrap around itself. 28:34 Yeah a rope is not one piece of material but thousands 28:36 bound together and the same thing happens in the brain. 28:38 Pretty soon you end up with these huge cables in your 28:39 brain and you see it so many times and you've heard it 28:41 so many times and it takes you down an automatic path 28:43 of behavior, because God wired to bring this way. 28:45 But the neat thing is that you can break it, we teach that 28:47 people by interrupting the patterns, first of all getting 28:50 motivation, interrupting the patterns with Bible verses, 28:52 songs or prayers, jokes or whatever. 28:53 Yet it's fun and then you create a new neural pathway 28:57 that is the behavior you want. 28:59 Once that happens you don't have to worry about your 29:00 behavior anymore because it is an automatic condition 29:02 response, if I say to you birds of a feather what do 29:04 you say? - Flock together. - yes see. 29:06 The reason this neural pathway, you didn't think you 29:08 didn't analyze you just went down that path. 29:10 So a man is known by the company he - keeps. 29:12 There again. - it's automatic. - I love that. 29:14 Never leave home without it. 29:20 I love this we could do this all day. Okay go ahead. 29:22 The point is it is an automatic response, how many 29:24 automatic responses do we have? 29:25 If you are drug addict is an automatic response. 29:27 If you are a professional and somebody offers 29:30 you something, I can't do it, we can't afford it. 29:32 You see these are automatic responses. 29:33 So you wake up in the morning it's cloudy and rainy, 29:34 how I dress? It's an automatic response. 29:36 So if you teach people how to break those and put new 29:38 neural pathways and they ding dong along the positive path. 29:41 Then you take that to the Bible it says renewing your mind. 29:44 That is all we teach us how to renew your mind 29:46 like the mind of God. 29:47 They don't know in the audience but that is what we are 29:49 teaching them. - and when the Bible also says the joy 29:51 the Lord as your strength, you actually are filled with 29:54 joy after that and anticipating life. - absolutely. 29:56 - okay the next one. I love this, next one. 29:59 I need a notepad, if somebody taking notes here? 30:02 The next was the awesome power decision, because 30:05 everything in your life depends on your decisions. 30:07 It is the one thing that God doesn't control in your life. 30:09 He tells you how to do it but ultimately you have to make 30:11 the choice here after, so if you want to go to heaven you 30:13 can go to heaven, if you want to go to hell you get to go. 30:16 Isn't that great? So here you are free and how to harness 30:19 that, most of us get on the river of life and we don't 30:21 decide where we are going to end up and we just become 30:23 a part of this massive humanity that goes with the flow. 30:25 We flow down this river of life and comes to a fork and do 30:28 I go right or do I go left, do I go midstream, we don't make 30:30 a decision, we just go with the flow. 30:31 Pretty soon we end up 5 feet from a massive water fall and 30:33 a boat without a motor and that is usually when people 30:36 cried God help me! But there's nothing God can do. 30:38 Your going to take a fall, sometimes it's an emotional fall 30:41 sometimes it's a fall in a relationship, sometimes it's a 30:43 physical fall. - financial - but it hurts, you know it hurts. 30:47 So we teach people to make better decisions upstream and 30:50 that way you won't go through the falls. 30:52 So we teach them how to role model, people that are 30:54 successful in their spiritual life, or their financial 30:55 life, physical life or whatever have to make good decisions 30:57 consistently. - I've got a story to tell you on this and 31:00 it just fits perfectly with that. 31:01 The guy has a sex addiction, he's trying to deal with it. 31:05 But when he gets really stressed, when he is feeling put 31:07 down, not respected and all that stuff he has problems. 31:10 So he has problems with his wife, at work the boss is on 31:13 him and all that kind of stuff, problems at work. 31:15 And he said you know what? I'm sick of this and I'm 31:18 just going to go to the store and get a Pepsi on the way home. 31:20 He goes to the store to get a Pepsi, the store he always 31:23 goes to and right next to the Pepsi are the porn 31:24 magazines. So he ends up getting the magazine and he is 31:27 going to go home and he is just going to go through the 31:29 magazine, but I am not going to do anything else. 31:30 So he is going to the magazine and decides to cruise the 31:33 streets, so he's cruising the streets and he is a 31:35 Christian so he never buys hookers but he likes to look 31:37 at them, so he looks at all that and comes home. 31:40 Gets in trouble with some self pleasure and stuff and then 31:45 he gets online and do some porn stuff. 31:48 He starts get into treatment with someone that is holding 31:51 him, accountability person and do you know they tell him? 31:53 Stop drinking Pepsi. - exactly. 31:56 So stop way upstream, and a lot of people want to stop 31:59 in the middle of a crisis we want to stop. 32:01 We say don't stop there, stop in your head before 32:04 you even start acting out. - right. 32:05 That is all going back to making proper decisions. 32:08 We have lost that art. One of guests was commenting today 32:11 that we have lost the ability to be committed to anything. 32:14 The decision means that I'm going to do this and cut myself 32:17 off from any other possibility of accomplishing it. 32:19 So learning that skill is very fundamental to really overcoming 32:22 any habits or addictions in our life. 32:24 When you even say that, sometimes when you actually make 32:26 those commitments to yourself and stop something, 32:29 it feels like it's going to kill you not to do it. 32:32 Maybe for the first time or second time or third time or 32:34 fourth time, but eventually you start feeling actually 32:37 good. - you build the new neural pathway and it becomes an 32:39 automatic response and it is easy. 32:41 God just loves to do that for us. Okay next thing. 32:44 Yeah, well the next is on health and fitness and weight 32:47 loss and mastering our physical body. 32:48 Now I need a notepad. Alright this presentation is an 32:52 hour and a half but we cover some really cool stuff. 32:55 Of course 3ABN and other channels carry a lot of this 32:58 kind of information, but we do it on a basis most people 33:02 your greatest wealth is your health. 33:03 You have a hundred bucks in the bank it does you no good if 33:06 you don't have health and so we look at it from that 33:07 standpoint, our bodies are the temple of God and God 33:09 knows how to take care of it the best. 33:12 The more I come in harmony with that the better. 33:14 I'm 45 years old today, and because eating right and 33:17 drinking right and a very clear exercise program I feel 33:19 better today and have more energy than when I was 16. 33:22 I can't imagine you with any more energy. 33:24 It's like oh no. - I'm glad you're not serving coffee 33:27 today. - but even what's interesting about the health 33:30 thing is that I started out being taught in a very 33:34 negative way, but as I get taught it in a positive way it 33:37 is really cool to think clearer and to be happy and to have 33:39 energy in the morning and not to be tired. 33:42 You know I did an experiment, I'll confess to the audience 33:45 two years ago I go to Alaska on a camping trip up there. 33:48 I'm with a group of hunters and I went into a camp with 33:52 a cholesterol level of 114, I keep it close to healthy. 33:55 I decided to break every rule so I ate meat and I drank 33:58 pop and I ate donuts and just confused my body and I 34:01 came out of camp at 298 on my cholesterol two weeks later. 34:06 I felt terrible and it was hard to move it hard to get 34:10 up in the morning then I did a quick cleanse and got back on 34:12 my regular diet and exercise and I feel good all day long. 34:15 But there's people, there's a guy that even did a movie 34:17 about that, not eating a real healthy thing for a month 34:20 and almost died, he had diabetes, he had weight gain, 34:23 his sexual stuff with his wife decreased at all that kind 34:26 of stuff, but we don't know and I really believe for 34:29 people in recovery, if they could get this message. 34:32 Take care of yourself, drink water and get away from all 34:35 the junk, and it's not that God says I'm going to punish 34:38 you and you've not going to have anything you enjoy again, 34:40 God says you are going to have life again and 34:43 you will be surprised at how hard you laugh. 34:45 How good it is. - that is something about the Bible, 34:48 and I say this to every audience, the Bible is not 34:51 religion. I hate religion, religion has caused more 34:54 heartache and bloodshed than anything else. 34:55 It binds people and controls people, but man the Bible 34:59 and Jesus liberates people and everything about 35:01 Christianity, it makes life better, you're marriage 35:04 better, and your health better, your sanity better 35:06 and everything is better. 35:07 It's the only way to live, if there was no heaven or hell 35:09 I'd still be a Christian is an incredible way of life. 35:11 And I just love it. 35:12 - I love that, I love that. Okay next thing. 35:14 Next thing is on your spiritual part because you realize 35:16 most people miss a quarter of the potential power 35:18 they can have in their life because we thrown Jesus out, 35:21 we thrown Bible out in much of our culture. 35:22 - we thrown the Holy Spirit out. - and yet when 35:23 you get that time of devotional life, daily devotion. 35:26 Most people wake up and they turn on the TV, what kind 35:28 of life is that? There's nothing but negativity, 35:30 negativity and it just drives you crazy. 35:33 Then you go to work people are frazzled and cussing all 35:35 day and then turn on the radio and hear all the talk shows with 35:37 this is happening in the govern- ment, unsafe streets health care 35:40 and teenage pregnancy, then you turn on the country- 35:42 western station and Henry the hillbilly is crying 35:44 about his wife leaving him for another man. 35:46 Goodnight it's no wonder people are messed up. 35:48 You put in all that negativity and going to live that way see. 35:51 You need some quiet time to read and feed the mind, as 35:55 spiritual, happy, positive, loving and so we teach people 35:58 how to get a devotional life so they can get that power, 36:02 get that joy, get that love. 36:03 We know at first it is really tough because at first 36:06 you think I don't even know what to think of. 36:08 Your mind is wandering and all that stuff, 36:10 and you really do have to train yourself. 36:12 It's like I need to get this stimulation down, 36:15 I need to do all that kind of stuff but at first when 36:17 I tried it, I thought I'm going to die here. 36:19 Well I had the same experience when I started to read 36:21 the Bible it was the most stupid, dumb, boring book 36:23 I ever read in my life. 36:24 It made no sense to me, I hated it. 36:25 But like anything in life, if you want something you have 36:27 to put into it, you have to work for it. 36:28 I hated English in schools too, boy am I glad I took it. 36:33 At any rate what I found is that you have to stick with 36:36 it because the cardinal mind is at enmity with God. 36:39 It will not naturally like the Bible or spiritual things. 36:42 But you stick with it, the first week I hated it. 36:45 The second week it was still boring. 36:46 The third week began to make sense and the fourth week 36:49 I met the man Jesus. 36:50 All I can say is that Jesus and Leo were different. 36:53 Very different, and the more you behold Him the more 36:56 you become like Him. 36:57 And pretty soon I enjoyed it so much an hour or two or three. 36:59 Even to this day the one priority in my life is time 37:02 with God just get that positive joy, love in your heart. 37:05 You said earlier the joy of the Lord is your strength. 37:07 You'll mount up on wings as eagles. You'll run and not be 37:10 weary, you will walk and not faint. 37:11 There is a supernatural power, I am totally convinced 37:13 of this in the Bible that is available to everybody 37:16 but you have to plug in, no one can plug in for you. 37:18 We teach that whole spiritual part. 37:20 Even an atheist sitting in the audience, they look at that 37:23 that and say wow, I'm missing a quarter of the potential 37:25 power I could have a my life, I'm going to go get it. 37:27 And it is great and that is that. 37:30 I love that, I love that. But I think until you make 37:33 a commitment you never do figure out what people are so 37:36 excited about, make the commitment and you will find out 37:39 Exactly, exactly it's like getting married, everybody 37:41 talks about it but once you get married you say I love 37:43 this companion and it is a great way of life, 37:45 a lot better than being single. 37:47 The same thing with Jesus, it is a whole lot easier 37:48 going through life with Jesus. - with God. 37:50 Okay what next? The next one is a fun one, you talk about 37:53 emotions, and many of us battle debilitating emotions. 37:56 I feel badly today. Is that right? 37:59 I want five minutes, I want a five-minute thing. 38:02 I'll give it to you in five minutes, 38:04 I'll give it to you in one minute. 38:05 All emotion is experienced only on one level. 38:07 The physical level, people don't realize this. 38:09 We bring a guy on the stage in our live seminar, 38:11 this is hilarious, I say all right audience help me get this 38:13 guy depressed, what does he have to do to be depressed? 38:17 Well he has to hang his head. 38:18 So he hangs his head, and get a frown, so he frowns. 38:20 Got to slump his shoulders, he slumps his shoulders. 38:22 And after we go through this whole thing, did you notice 38:24 one thing you told this guy to get him discouraged and 38:27 depressed had to do with his body. 38:28 His head down, his frown, slumped shoulders and that is 38:32 the power of your physical body. 38:33 You can use this body to create any happy or power 38:36 of emotion, you can use it to create a disempowered emotion. 38:39 And try this, you can look at the audience right now 38:41 and try to put a big smile on your face and try to get mad. 38:43 It just doesn't work. 38:45 I can look at you right now and say Cheri I hate you. 38:47 You make me so mad, you can't. And the reason is your 38:50 body is sending a different message to your brain. 38:52 If you put your body in a state of happiness, so you 38:55 end up with that corresponding emotion. 38:57 That is the power of the physical body. 38:58 Think about the truth of this, people do all kinds of 39:00 things to their body. 39:01 We are talking about addictions on this program. 39:04 Why do people to drugs? Why do people to alcohol? 39:06 Why do they overeat? Because it changes their body 39:09 and they behave differently. 39:10 We always ask our audience, do drugs work? 39:13 And you say no. I say come on think about this. 39:15 Do drugs work? Yes or no and finally they finally 39:17 did it and say yeah, sure true they work. 39:19 Millions of people can't be wrong. - right. 39:21 The thing is they work temporarily, but they work 39:24 because they actually change the body. 39:25 So once you could realize the power of this, and by the 39:29 way you have mastered Cheri, because I watch you, 39:32 you are always walking fast and with purpose, and that is 39:34 one of the things we teach how you walk is how you feel. 39:36 You walk with purpose and passion and you feel good. 39:38 Exactly, you put a smile on an exactly you will have 39:41 those emotions and so it is a simple tool. 39:43 It is real simple because I try to challenge myself as I'm 39:46 thinking about negative things, I tell myself stop, 39:49 don't do that because I don't want that kind of life. 39:52 I want you in less than two minutes to tell me all of 39:55 them, all the rest. 39:57 Because how many points to cover in a PowerPoint seminar. 40:00 We can cover 20 in a typical all power seminar. 40:02 - hurry up a lot faster. You are so slow. 40:05 Audience is bored to death. - I know, come on. 40:09 Okay so the next time we teach is on achieving success. 40:12 Our value systems and our belief systems, we get rid 40:15 of the negative belief systems. 40:16 Next one is on goal setting, my favorite one of all. 40:18 How to create your future in advance. 40:19 The Bible says without a vision the people perish. 40:21 So we had to create exciting goals in our life. 40:23 You just don't fall out you've got to think about it. 40:25 Exactly, your physical life, your emotional life, your 40:27 spiritual life and everything. So we do that. 40:29 The next one is some breaking unlimiting rituals. 40:30 We have unlimiting rituals are life, internal as well as 40:33 external and we deal with those. 40:34 - you know what, say one unlimiting rituals. 40:37 Waking up grumpy, did you hear the great joke about 40:39 waking up grumpy? - no. 40:40 I was sitting with a couple one time I looked at her and 40:43 said to you always wake up grumpy, she says no sometimes 40:45 I let him sleep. 40:49 Anyway we break these rituals, and it's fun we laughed 40:52 the whole seminar and we are having fun doing a series. 40:55 We are having a good time. 40:57 After doing unlimited rituals we do overcoming fear. 40:59 The Bible says that God has not given a spirit of fear, 41:01 but the power, love and a sound mind. 41:02 Fear stops us, fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of what 41:04 other people think about us. 41:05 We destroyed the fear and get confidence in its place. 41:08 We deal with solving problems, how to solve problems 41:11 effectively, simple principles that really work. 41:13 We deal with is own power of positive thinking. 41:16 That gets into the conscious as well as the subconscious mind. 41:18 We could do a whole talk on this sometime. 41:21 You know I think sometimes I would love to do that, 41:24 and I wanted to say to you is there so many things that 41:27 you cover and I want to open it up for questions for the 41:29 group here and have them ask you some things. 41:33 Then maybe cover some of what you teach. 41:35 It is one thing I know about people in recovery, and 41:37 people that want to change their life, or have a life. 41:40 I don't want to just be in charge, I would be in love 41:43 with God, right? And there's something to have to happen. 41:46 So it is like all those things matter, change the way 41:48 you think, changing the way you live, changing what 41:50 you eat, how you look at life, how you walk out in life. 41:53 So we are going to ask him questions like Jeanette, 41:56 I know you had a question for Leo. 41:58 Yes, the question is when you were talking about limiting 42:01 one of the things I hear people say is I can't do you do that? 42:05 I get it a lot as addiction professional or I can't, 42:09 can't not use or I can't stay sober during the holidays. 42:13 I think what you were saying was correct, it's just a 42:16 self-fulfilling prophecy. Do you see it that same way? 42:19 Exactly, if I expect to fail, it greatly increases 42:22 my changes I'm going to. 42:23 So we simply write the word can't and we tell them how to 42:25 knock off the 'T', you are never allowed to use that word. 42:27 You know my daughter is five years old and she came to me 42:29 just a couple days ago, she said Daddy I can't do this. 42:32 I said whoa stop, I say where did you hear that word? 42:35 What word. Can't. She said well I think I heard it from 42:37 my cousin, and I said that is the most dirty four 42:40 letter word, foul word that you could ever use. 42:43 You are never to use that word again. Okay daddy. 42:46 I showed her c-a-n-'- t and knock off the 'T' 42:48 I can do anything, see. 42:50 It basically goes back to who you are going to believe. 42:52 The devil says you can't do it, you're worthless, you're 42:54 stupid, you're a failure. 42:55 Gods as I can do all things through Christ. 42:57 Who do you believe? It is reprogramming the brain. 42:59 It is the law of attraction, if I say I can't do it, 43:02 I will attract that to myself, if I said can do it, 43:04 I can do all things to Christ and it's a done deal. 43:07 When I first got into recovery, my favorite thing was, 43:09 oh I should have done that, I could have done that, 43:12 I wish I would have done that, and so I got a pin for 43:15 myself, and on the pin it says "Don't Should On Me". 43:18 S H O U L D and I used to think of that because I'm 43:21 not allowed to say that to myself and being able to teach 43:23 yourself to not say that to yourself anymore. 43:26 It takes a while, like any pattern to reprogram yourself. 43:30 You are not allowed to say that word. 43:32 - yeah, you have to reprogram the brain, not hard to do. 43:34 But you can do it. - any other questions? 43:36 I know that Faso a you had a question. 43:38 Yes, Leo, by the way this is very fascinating what you are 43:41 talking about, and I am currently a student at 43:44 a university, I'm attending the seminary. 43:47 And I have a lot of friends and we struggle with issues of 43:51 I can't, or issues of I'm prioritizing, different issues. 43:57 Including our professors, what can you say to, as they are 44:00 watching this program, if they are watching this program 44:03 Will help them get out of this rut that 44:06 we get ourselves into? 44:07 Your mind is like a file box, every time a situation comes 44:11 up in your life, whether it is school, work, or whatever 44:14 you do, you're mind automatical- ly goes back to these files 44:16 ever created, and a lot of our files in our brain were 44:19 created by our parents. 44:20 If you had an impatient father that said you were stupid, 44:22 you can't do anything right that is one of our files. 44:24 We have all these belief systems and whenever a situation 44:26 presents itself we go back to one of those files. 44:28 So it's a matter of changing the files on a daily basis. 44:31 Taking action in every area that you are weak in or that 44:34 you need to grow in. 44:35 So we teach people how to focus on where are the areas 44:38 you most need growth, what areas are you lacking most, 44:41 and then how can we get by day make one choice. 44:44 You see life mastery, it's like losing weight. 44:46 I didn't get fat overnight, it was a steady one step at a 44:49 time, not following the right health plan, not exercising, 44:52 not eating correctly, and the same thing with losing it. 44:55 I have to step-by-step by step do it. 44:56 The culmination of little daily successes is what builds 44:59 you, so if you can take one action today in this area 45:02 of your life, whether it's procrastinating, or whatever 45:04 the thing you are doing as a student, and then tomorrow take 45:07 another action and next day another action, 45:08 this is what we teach people. 45:09 We set a goal, here's what I'm going to do, but everyday 45:12 take one small action and over a month you end up overcoming. 45:15 But deliberately, have it be a deliberate thing. 45:18 - yes. - when I first got in recovery I started to do 45:21 that, and one time I even decided I'm going to send 45:24 myself something for having such a success. 45:26 I went to a floral shop and had them pick some 45:29 wildflowers and I like getting them in the mail so I had 45:32 them sent to myself and wrote a card, you're doing an 45:35 amazing job and had them set them to me. 45:38 What is really interesting is when you do change your 45:41 life skills, when you decide to do that, really tell 45:44 yourself good job and think about it. 45:46 Don't let it just be a success that happened all by itself 45:49 because you had a good test that day, but actually think 45:52 I'm going to do this today and is going to feel good to 45:54 have it be successful. 45:56 Ya, I give myself gold medals, I stand on a platform and 45:59 play the national anthem while tears are coming down my 46:02 eyes, you do have to reward yourself. 46:06 It's almost like it took us forever and people have 46:09 really reinforced all the negative stuff that we have to 46:11 get either people around us to reinforce the positive 46:14 stuff or us ourselves to reinforce that. 46:17 It's like being able to say God, I believe, is our 46:21 favorite cheerleader, God is up there, all the angels are 46:23 up there not looking at what we do wrong in life. 46:25 They are really looking forward to us to get it. 46:27 Come on just get it because I love you. 46:30 I created you to laugh out loud and to love each other 46:33 and to enjoy life. 46:34 And anytime we decide to do something right I think God 46:37 just says, oh my goodness I think he's got it. 46:39 I think he's got it I can see it in his eyes. Right? 46:42 It's a matter of making it very deliberate and that is 46:45 what I so love about your program, it's so deliberate. 46:48 Larry I know that you had some thing you would 46:50 like to ask him. 46:51 What you said about cables, building cables, well I've got 46:53 cables in my brain and they are building up pretty good 46:56 except that I seem to know where I've got to go. 46:58 I'm following that path and I get to a certain point 47:01 and look down here, and I know what I am supposed to, 47:03 but there is like a gap there and I can't get to it. 47:06 It's like something got me by the feet and I can't move. 47:08 How do I get from this point to that point? 47:11 His cables aren't connected. - No they are not. 47:16 Anyone with a habit or an addiction in their life, 47:19 what ever it, has this challenge 47:21 It basically boils down to this, recognize first of all 47:24 that your behavior is rooted in your nervous system. 47:26 Everything you do, everything you say, when you lose your 47:29 temper, when you smoke a cigarette, when you do the drug, 47:31 it is because a neuro path where you have done it 47:33 over and over again and it automatically takes 47:34 you down that path. 47:35 So what you have to change is that actual neural pathway. 47:37 If you try to change your behavior you to spin your wheels 47:40 the rest of your life. 47:41 You try and fail, try and fail. 47:42 So what we teach people is first of all you have to have 47:44 motivation, first step is motivation. 47:46 That only comes through pain and pleasure. 47:48 You have to hit a threshold where you say I'm sick of 47:50 living this way, I don't want this in my life anymore, 47:52 and an associate pleasure to being free of that habit. 47:54 That is a whole study in itself but pain and pleasure 47:57 you have to put in the right place. 47:58 You are associating pleasure to your drugs then you have 48:00 to associate pain to it. 48:01 Once you have the motivation that's what get you going. 48:02 If don't have enough motivation it is because your level of 48:05 pain isn't high enough. 48:07 The second one is to interrupt the pattern. 48:08 When ever this comes up, then you have to interrupt the 48:12 pattern, by that you can do anything, but you have to do 48:14 something unusual, it can be a prayer, it can be a joke, 48:17 he can be a statement, it can be a laugh, it can be a deep 48:20 breath, but you have to do some- thing where you actually break 48:22 this neural pathway as electri- city is flowing thorough it. 48:25 They actually filmed this in neuro science now. 48:27 As you interrupt the pattern it's like you short-circuit 48:29 the neural pathway and in sort of blows up and paralyzes 48:32 and you can't go down that path. 48:34 They found for the average person, if you interrupt the 48:37 pattern 21 consistent times it is gone for the rest of 48:39 your life, you completely damaged and break the neural 48:42 pathway, even if there is a half-million strands all bound 48:44 together, just 21 times consistently interrupting 48:46 it you break it. 48:47 I don't care what you use to break it, it doesn't matter. 48:50 A lot of Bible verses are really, really good because when 48:52 that pattern comes up just hit it with a Bible verse. 48:54 Like fear, God has not given me the spirit of fear. 48:56 You can use jokes, you can use prayers, and use a little 48:59 saying, sometimes just pausing and taking two seconds for 49:02 a deep breath, anything to break the pattern. 49:04 That is what is really, really critical. 49:05 Once that pattern is broken, you do a 21 times 49:08 consistently, you destroy it then many people stop there 49:11 and I think this is where one of the most important parts 49:14 take place in this kind of a situation. 49:16 You also then have to go on to build a new pathway, 49:19 a new neuro cable that will take you down a new path of behavior 49:22 you just don't destroy the one, you also have to build a new one 49:25 Okay, that is where I have a problem. 49:27 I feel like I have started a new cable and I am going down 49:32 this path and I get to this point, I can see the end of it 49:36 but I can't get there. I can't get past that gap. 49:39 My cables don't connect, they are all separated right 49:42 there, and I can do it again and again. 49:44 I'm going down another road, my life is taken a different 49:47 path, my thoughts have taken a different path and it just 49:49 can't seem to get to a point - where you want to be 49:52 different, where you want to live different. 49:53 - it's almost like a self - destruct thing. 49:55 I get to a point where I know I got to continue, but I can't. 49:58 You are dealing with the behavior, and this 50:01 is the key issue. 50:02 Whenever you try to change your behavior you will fail. 50:04 That is so critical, because you are dealing with what is 50:06 obvious, not with what the root is of it. 50:09 Sometimes you have to go back and really look at 50:11 situations and say alright, what am I really 50:13 dealing with here? 50:14 If I have this addiction, the addiction is not my 50:16 problem, it's what's behind this addiction. 50:18 It goes back to the pain and pleasure principle for every 50:21 single time, and as long as you are associating pleasure 50:24 to this behavior, or this habit, or this addiction, what 50:27 ever it is in your life in any way or shape or form, 50:29 it's going to be there and you have to deal with that. 50:32 That is the first step begin, pain, pain to the habit. 50:35 And pleasure to overcoming it. 50:37 That is what creates the motivation. 50:39 Interrupting the pattern is easy, but then the key is 50:41 this, once I have got the old pattern broken, 50:44 I'm continually building a new one. 50:46 Because when a new cable is in my brain and I do 50:49 it over and over again, I rein- force it over again, then soon 50:51 I've go this massive cable in my brain to this new behavior 50:54 and I go down that path without even thinking. 50:55 One thing that I think was important in my own recovery is 50:58 that I thought that my recovery was coming off of heroin, 51:02 coming off the streets, when I realized finally 20 years 51:05 into my recovery, God said you'd never learned to love 51:07 anybody or trust anybody. 51:09 So the real cable was I was afraid. - exactly. 51:13 Then you had to build that cable specifically because the 51:16 issue wasn't the heroin, the issue was rejection. 51:18 - behavior. - exactly, can we do with our behavior and 51:21 you try to change your behavior you will fail every time. 51:24 But when you do with the cause that is behind that 51:26 behavior, then it is easy. 51:28 This is what most people have to figure out, is not hard 51:31 to do but as you are in your recovery, as you are claiming 51:34 victory and you destroy the old way of thinking. 51:36 The old emotional habits or whatever it is, when that old 51:39 cable is destroyed, the new one is critical, critical, 51:42 critical and it has to be positive, it has to be 51:44 affirming, and it has to be good, and has to be Godly, 51:46 and it has to be Biblical. 51:47 In my own life, when I got mad I had to replace that with 51:51 a smile, and that became the new cable. 51:52 Where there was lust, I had to replace that with purity. 51:55 A desire to have a pure and moral life, I had that 51:57 as a goal in my life, the cable got built, and built, and built. 52:00 Same thing with anger, anger was my biggest issue. 52:02 I had to interrupt that pattern then I had to come up with 52:06 a new pattern, that is to speak kindly to people, spend my life 52:09 up building other people because more I build you up the more 52:11 it's going to reciprocate. 52:12 These are the new neural pathways, and once they are 52:14 built it is easy. - alright, now I do that. 52:17 I get up every morning and make a choice, either I'm gonna 52:20 complain all day, and worry all day, or in going to 52:22 get up and say, I like to say praise God for another 52:25 beautiful day and I think positive, I go positive. 52:28 But then all of a sudden it goes awry. 52:30 I don't know if it's because I'm trying to do it on 52:33 my own or I want to go and do what God wants me to do 52:37 and trying to do it on my own, my own knowledge 52:39 which is limited or what. But it seems to do the same 52:42 thing, I seem to get to a certain spot and I can't go 52:44 any further even though I know. 52:46 It's very interesting, and I have to say this to you too 52:49 Larry, is sometimes for me it was that I had to ask God 52:52 what were the real issues. 52:53 And when you say studies for 21 days, I really learned 52:57 those two and saw some studies that were 21 days. 52:59 It's like keep doing the same thing, keeping interfering 53:02 with that, I am done and sick and tired of being sick 53:05 and tired, I'm done living like that. 53:06 God says, you know what? Stay with Me and I promise you 53:09 those neural pathways will be redeveloped. 53:12 I've got to say to you, we ran out of time and I knew 53:15 that was going to happen but I want to have you back 53:18 because I think you have so much to give us and I love 53:20 having you here, thank you for being on the show, 53:22 thank you for teaching us this kind of stuff. 53:24 We are going to check out right now and we will be right 53:28 back, stay tuned because I want to tell you some stuff 53:31 to kind of wrap all of this up. 53:32 This is good stuff and anybody in recovery for anything, 53:36 you need to kind of change all stuff and let God just 53:40 pour joy and happiness and life into you. 53:42 It is so cool, we will be right back. 53:49 Amazing stories, of real people in real situations discussing 53:52 issues that really matter. 53:54 A complete first season of Celebrating Life In Recover is 53:58 now available on DVD and can be ordered by calling 3ABN 54:01 or online at 3ABN.org hosted by Cheri Peters. 54:04 This season follows principles of the book 54:07 'Steps to Christ'. 54:09 See for yourself how God changed the lives of the 54:11 convicted and the accused and victims of terrible crimes. 54:14 You won't want to miss a moment 54:16 of these powerful interviews. 54:20 I love this show, I love a couple things about it more 54:23 than anything else is the fact that God really wants us 54:25 to have a knowledge of Him. 54:26 He wants us to understand who He is, what the Bible says, 54:29 what are the promises, all those kind of things. 54:32 There is incredible stuff in the word of God. 54:34 You really need to open it up and get in there, especially 54:36 if you are dealing with any kind of recovery issues, but He also 54:39 says that when you to know how your body works. 54:42 What Leo was saying as far as setting goals and not 54:45 allowing negative things to come in your head, about 54:48 changing habits, changing our neuro pathways 54:50 and all those things. 54:52 As an addict when I learned that it was like Amen. 54:55 I didn't even realize that every single time I ate 54:59 a Snicker's, a neural pathway was developed. 55:01 I'm thinking not that Snickers is bad, but for me 55:04 I was gaining weight, I was turning for my addiction 55:06 into eating disorders and I had to learn all of that. 55:09 So God says, learn as much as you can about yourself. 55:13 When I learned initially, when I told you I learned the 55:16 health message from a guy that said it in a way that 55:19 was not positive to me. 55:21 I got diagnosed with hepatitis A B and C and all of a sudden 55:24 I thought wait a minute, should I not learn about health? 55:27 I ended up doing some good stuff for my body, I started 55:30 thinking clearer, I start having more energy, I started 55:33 really loving life and I realized that the knowledge of 55:37 God in recovery is all of it, all of it. 55:40 What we do, getting outside and getting fresh air. 55:43 Taking some breaths, unders- standing what I think about. 55:47 When I try to understand what I think about, I'm twisted. 55:50 I've said on another show when I was in church and they 55:54 would pass the offering plate, it took me five years 55:56 to not to want to steal all that money because I thought 55:59 there is a lot of money in that offering plate. 56:01 I need to have it. So even been able to say when you 56:04 see something for an addict, for somebody in recovery, 56:08 when I see something that I like I don't have to take it. 56:11 I actually can go buy it because I have a job. 56:15 Those things in us have to be changed. 56:18 There is no way to change that overnight, it didn't happen 56:21 overnight, but God says I promise you I will be faithful 56:24 and follow you all the steps of the way. 56:26 I will follow you out of porn addiction, drug addiction, anger 56:30 stuff, perfectionism, religious addictions and don't fool 56:34 yourself, those can be pretty intense. 56:36 I will follow you out of that, but you have to trust Me. 56:40 You have to give it to Me and make some commitments to 56:43 yourself to actually do the right thing. 56:45 And I'm thinking, God, why do you love us so much? 56:48 Why do You love us so much that not only are You going 56:52 to come in and teach us how to live a life that we may 56:55 not have ever lived, but after I get it, You will fill 56:59 me with laughter, with joy, with energy, with the desire 57:02 to go out and change the world because 57:04 I want to tell every single addict. 57:06 If you are out there watching this, this is for you. 57:09 God has a plan for your life. He wants you healthy. 57:12 He wants your mind clearer. He wants your cables to 57:15 connect and He just wants that. 57:18 Everything about Him wants that for you and He says, 57:21 just trust Me, just raise your hand and trust Me and I 57:24 promise you I will start bringing things into your life. 57:27 If you need to, call Leo, get in touch with me and get him 57:30 out to your church to do seminars because it's amazing. 57:33 So I want to tell you, trust God and get to know Him and 57:36 until next time always remember that God is crazy about 57:39 you and so am I. 57:41 I love the fact that you joined us. 57:44 Bye, see you next week. |
Revised 2014-12-17