In this episode, I talk with Pastor Gregory Dickow about his book Soul Cure. We discuss the health benefits of fasting from wrong thinking and embracing God's thoughts.
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Gregory Dickow 0:00
So what I did was I put together this 40 day fast from wrong thinking it's I let people know upfront, it's not a fast from food. It's a fast from toxic thoughts and wrong mindsets that limit us and defeat us. I love it. And so I always start with the thought that says I can't. So for, for example, I can't overcome my past, I can't overcome this trouble, I can't become a success. I can't earn more money, I can't feel better. I can't get in shape I can't eat right. The whole concept of can't is a wrong mindset altogether. It's a wrong way of thinking. And what I do is, I like to replace the wrong thought I can't with the right thought. I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me.
David Sandstrom 0:50
Welcome to the Natural Health Matters podcast where it's all about maximizing your health potential, so that you can look and feel your best at any age. I'm your host, David Sandstrom, Naturopathic Doctor, and Biblical Health Coach. And this is episode number 87.
David Sandstrom 1:10
Today we have in the show, Gregory Dickow. He's the senior pastor of Life Changers International Church, a ministry called to heal a generation and cover the earth with the love of God. He's an author, and the creator of the fast from wrong thinking movement, with more than 1 million subscribers worldwide. He's also the host of the television program, power to change today. Pastor Dickow welcome to Natural Health Matters.
Gregory Dickow 1:35
It's a pleasure. Thank you, David, it's great to be with you.
David Sandstrom 1:38
I appreciate you taking the time, you know, many people have heard of working out. But sometimes in order to enhance our vitality and our wellness, we need to do some working in. And that's what we're going to talk about today. So you've got a book coming out, it's called Soul Cure. So you describe soul as your mind to think, your heart to feel and your will to decide. Can you elaborate on that a little bit?
Gregory Dickow 2:03
Absolutely. That is really how we're wired were made in God's image, spirit, soul and body as as you know. And as your listeners know, we, the soul has often been described in many different ways. But I really believe that it that it can be summarized in those three waves, the the mind to think the heart to feel and the will to decide. So if we can master, what thoughts we think if we can master what we allow into our heart, what we allow into our ear gates, our eye gates, what we allow out of our mouth, what we allow into our soul, we, we can really heal ourselves, we can experience the optimum health that God created us for, as you mentioned earlier, it really is an inside job, right? It's from the inside out. So many people try to change themselves on the outside. But really, it's the inside that transforms the outside. It's the it's the butterfly inside the cocoon that that is emerging out. That God created us to experience the we start in the caterpillar, we wrap ourselves, you know, we wrap ourselves in the in the Word of God, as I'm sure your listeners are familiar with, as we wrap our minds in the Word of God, that's where the transformation takes place. And that's where health and healing takes place in our lives.
David Sandstrom 3:20
Yeah, that's great stuff. We know we're admonished in second Corinthians chapter five, to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. And that's not just a casual command, when when God gives us an admonition, he has our well being in mind. And there are certain thoughts that are going to contribute to stress, which are gonna break our systems down. So you know, there's, there's a method in his madness there.
Gregory Dickow 3:43
It really is. It's such it's so simple. When you look at what the scripture says in Romans chapter 12, you're not be conformed to this world, which is to be affected by this world from the outside pressure, but rather be transformed from the inside out through the renewing of your minds. And you notice in that verse that through the renewing of our minds leads to, he says, then we will come into the good, acceptable and perfect will of God, which I believe is a progressive evolution or progressive transformation, the good will of God, than the acceptable will of God than the perfect will of God. It's progressive as we continue to renew our minds, as we as I describe it as fasting from wrong thinking, as we as we change the way we think on the inside and adopt our thinking, adapted to God's way of thinking and God's belief system. It changes everything in our lives. And Paul even or John even said, I wish that you would prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers. So there's a direct correlation between soul health and whole health.
David Sandstrom 4:49
Yes, absolutely. Well, you know, Can you can you give us a couple of examples of thought that we should be fasting from a wrong thought?
Gregory Dickow 5:00
Yeah, you know, I love to start out. So what I did was I put together this 40 day fast from wrong thinking it's I let people know upfront, it's not a fast from food. It's a fast from toxic thoughts and wrong mindsets that limit us and defeat us. I love it. And so I always start with the thought that says I can't. So for, for example, I can't overcome my past, I can't overcome this trouble, I can't become a success, I can't earn more money, I can't feel better, I can't get in shape I can't eat right? The whole concept of can't is a wrong mindset altogether. It's a wrong way of thinking. And what I do is, I like to replace the wrong thought I can't with the right thought. I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. So we want to attack wrong mindsets with God's way of thinking. Another one would be, I feel powerless. So I've noticed that people often feel powerless. They feel powerless to do anything about their present condition. They feel powerless about their past, they feel powerless about the future causes fear. But if we could help renew people's minds and fast from the thought of feelings of powerlessness and realize God has not given us a spirit of fear, but power, love and a sound mind that first word power, is what overcomes a powerless mindset and powerless feeling that we can't overcome this depression, we can't overcome this anxiety, that powerlessness can be obliterated with discovering our power in Christ.
David Sandstrom 6:40
Excellent. That's really good. So is that what you mean by the first step in creating a happier, more powerful life is winning the battle of the mind, as you say, in your book,
Gregory Dickow 6:51
I really do. I think the first step to being happy is you have to realize that it's it starts within, so many people are trying to be happier by being more popular, happier by marrying the right person happier by divorcing the wrong person happier by, by changing something on the outside, having better friends, having this having, having better money, having a better job living in a warmer climate, I found that none of that I found I'm sure you found as well, David, none of that changes, your condition of happiness, all of our happiness, and all of our cure is inside of us, God put it inside of us. By living inside of us. When a person gets born again, God comes to live inside of them by the Holy Spirit. And now we have the treasure buried underneath the surface of our soul. And the treasure of all happiness, the treasure of all success, the treasure of all health, the treasure of all, power is inside of us. Because we have this treasure, the Bible says in earthen vessels, and that treasure is the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of God's word, to come out of our thoughts and out of our mouth, and change our lives and change our world.
David Sandstrom 8:07
Very good. I really liked that, you know, I was listening to a podcast of a health and wellness guy that I enjoy. And he had a well, I'm not gonna use any names, but he had a well known brain researcher, MD psychiatrist on and this guy, they were talking about happiness. And he said, Well, you know, happiness starts in the brain. And I thought, I think he's got it backwards, you know, a healthier brain healthier body will will enhance our mood and that kind of thing. But I think I agree with you, I'm with you. happiness comes from within it comes from getting our lives in alignment with God's design. First, it starts with the personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And when when God's Spirit is animating our spirit, it will send healthy instructions to our minds, and our minds will send healthier instructions to our brains and our brains are on our bodies. So that's the direction that it ought to work. We're not going to we're not finding the right supplement or you know, those things that you see on primetime television, you know, for better memory and those kinds of things. That's not the secret here. The secret is getting our thought getting the inside, right and the thought logic, start thinking the thoughts that God would prefer that we think start believing in the things that God would prefer that we believe in because they're based in his truth.
Gregory Dickow 9:21
Yeah, really, God's word is the source of all joy. Even Jesus said, I write these things to you or I say these things to you that your joy may be made full. It's, it's when we hear the things that Jesus has to say if we were listening to the real Jesus, I don't mean the religious version that a lot of people have of Jesus. But I mean, the the real Jesus the God is love the real Jesus said, When you see me you've seen the Father. I only say what the father what I've heard from the father only do what I see the father do. Well, the father is love and the father our Heavenly Father is great. better than any earthly father could ever be. And I want to be as good of an earthly father as I can possibly be. But as much love as I could have for my children doesn't even come close to the amount of love that God is our Heavenly Father has for us. And when we get a hold of that kind of love, somebody said, I think it was Victor Hugo, he said, the supreme happiness in life is the assurance that we are loved. And when we understand when we get the assurance and have the assurance of God's love for us, it really brings true joy. I think Jesus comes out of the waters of baptism. He hears the voice of God for the first time we have recorded in the Bible, and what does that voice say? It says, You are my beloved son, and you I am well, pleased, or you are my dearly loved son. One translation says, You are my dearly loved son, and you bring me great joy. Imagine that David, Jesus had not done a miracle and not healed anybody yet, had not did a teaching yet had not had a sermon, had not died for our sins, had not done anything except be baptized, comes up out of the waters of baptism. And God says, I love you, son. And you bring the joy. We realized, yeah, when we realized that that's our father, our heavenly Father that said that to Jesus is saying that to us too. And when we get a hold of that brings us true joy and happiness.
David Sandstrom 11:20
That's Amen. Brother. That is the that is good stuff. You know, A.W. Tozer said, The most important thing about a person is what they believe about God. That's it. And we've got I think it's really super important. This is foundational to get our minds around the kind of love God has for us. God is all powerful. The Bible doesn't say God has power. He's all knowing. But the Bible doesn't say God has knowledge. But the Bible does say, God is love.
Gregory Dickow 11:48
Yes, that's what it's all about. Right there. Man, when we get when we get a hold of the God kind of love that He has for us. And I'm not even talking about the love that we should show to each other. Because that's secondary, that is the overflow, the love we have for each others. It is the overflow of the revelation that we have of the Father's love for us. Like when we get a hold of that In this is love not that we love God, but that He loved us and gave us His Son as the propitiation for our sin. Like his love for us is what sets me free. In fact, in Soul Cure my book is all built around the foundation, that God is love. And it's all built upon what I call tornado love, the kind of love that comes in and sweeps away our fears and sweeps away our our past and sweeps away our insecurities and sweeps away our, our mistakes and sweeps away the the negative feelings that we've had about ourselves. That's the kind of love that God has for us. And it is it swept me away and I call that chapter get swept away because I really want people to be swept away with God's love.
David Sandstrom 12:55
I love it really, really good metaphor. Yeah, I gotta, I've gotta say this, did you see the video of the guy in the pickup truck that got caught in a tornado just a few days ago. I did not. I don't know where it was Kansas or Texas or something. And he's going down the highway and he gets caught in a tornado. And somebody's filming them from their dashcam in the truck rolls over, like like a like a leaf that's up on his roof. And then he hit gets hit by another gust of wind and it gets pushed across the road. And he rolls over again back on his wheels and then keeps driving away. Wow. Unbelievable. It's a really amazing video swept away. Yeah, he got swept away. You got to share that with your congregation. It was really good. Yeah, that's a good word.
Gregory Dickow 13:36
I you know what? I think that that picture is so vivid, and it's so descriptive of where I believe all healing and all health begins in our lives is it's when we're rooted and grounded in the love of God. When a lot of times I think people misunderstand Scripture because they misunderstand the nature of God. And like you said, when A.W. Tozer said that that rang so true for me when I first read his quote that the most important thing about any human being is what they believe about God. And you know, there's a scripture David in, I got to I got to talk about this for a minute with you in Deuteronomy chapter one. And God is talking to Moses. And Moses says, the people, they believe that God hated them. They said, We're going back to where we came from, because the Lord hates us. And they literally had the belief system here, people that already saw these miracles that Moses and done the miracles of God, and the plagues and all the things that had happened, God to deliver them from so much. And yet, they went and grumbled in their tents. And they said, because the Lord hates us. He has allowed us to suffer here in the wilderness. Yeah, so that belief system that God somehow hated them was what corrupted their image of themselves. It's what corrupt their view of their circumstances. And it's what corrupted their ability to get get into the Promised Land was because they had the wrong belief about God. And that belief was, God is against me, rather than God is for me, not against me. And that mentality is needs to penetrate people's hearts, and it will change their life.
David Sandstrom 15:20
I couldn't agree more. And of course, that belief led to fear, right? That's why they take the promised land when they were supposed to they were afraid. They were, of course, if God is against you, you got to be afraid you ought to the natural outcome to a faulty belief. So speaking of fear, you talk in your book about your own struggle with fear and anxiety and depression. Can you talk a little bit about that and why you put that in the book?
Gregory Dickow 15:45
Yeah, I wanted people to know that every, every turn around in a person's life has a turning point. A turning point, is what creates a turnaround. And so I wanted to share people share with people my turning point, there was a turning point that created my turnaround. And it was when I was around 16 years old. And I was I was doing drugs I was I was just partying like most kids, like a lot of kids did at that time. But then I got heavy into it, because I had a really one of my best friends committed suicide in my junior year of high school. And they called me up at three in the morning, the parents and they said, have you seen Randy? We don't know where he is. He hasn't come home was the out with you? And I said, No, not tonight. We saw him a couple of days ago. Well, the next morning, they found him dead in a ditch down the street where he had killed himself with, with his with his father's shotgun. And I was devastated. And I've never I really was so numb at that point in my life by the drugs. And by a lack of growing up with love. I didn't grow up with a lot of sense of security and confidence or love. My parents were precious people, but they didn't know how to love the way I needed that from God. But that sent me on a journey from that moment. I had to ask myself, what's going to stop me from doing the same thing Randy did. And I began to, to pursue what I was living for, why am I on this earth, what is going to keep me from from killing myself with drugs or with a gun or in any way. And that's when God came into my life. That's when Jesus revealed himself to me through a series of events brought me to salvation by His goodness and grace. And from that moment, Depression began to leave my life I was filled with depression and anxiety. And from that moment, it began to leave it was a process. But it began to leave. And I found hope. And I found breath and I found oxygen in the love that, that God showed me through Jesus.
David Sandstrom 17:57
Love it, what a story. That's a tough story to listen to. But yeah, and I praise God that you came through that with the right frame of mind. And
Gregory Dickow 18:05
yeah, you know, I can do like, I feel David like, I'm living for it, not just, I'm not just living in my purpose, but I'm also living in the purpose that God might have had for my friend, Randy, then he didn't get to fulfill. And so my purpose is now bringing his purpose to pass, which is healing people from the darkness in their soul healing people from the depression, first of all, destigmatizing it because you know, there's a stigma when people have depression, anxiety, they don't want others to know, it feels embarrassing, they feel ashamed. And I want people to realize I'm a, I've been a preacher for 30 years, I've built a big church, with a lot of people in a lot of buildings and a lot of success. And I've still dealt with anxiety. And I've still dealt with, with social anxiety. I've still dealt with depressing moments. And I think people need to hear there's hope. And there's nothing to be ashamed of. And when you I treat anxiety as a signal to pray now, when I feel anxious, I realize I'm there's something I'm supposed to be praying about here. And it delivers me and sets me free that time from that particular anxiety.
David Sandstrom 19:18
Yeah. Wow, that's really good. I, I'm sorry, you had to go through that ordeal in order to get to the place that you're at. But I'm grateful that you are in that place today. That's that's a good thing.
Gregory Dickow 19:28
Yeah. Amen to that. Yeah.
David Sandstrom 19:31
So you talk about gratefulness in your book as something important, something that should be nurtured and developed. Talk about the importance of gratefulness.
Gregory Dickow 19:40
Yeah, it's a great question, you know, 10 lepers in the Bible, came to Jesus and said, Have mercy on us, Lord, most people will know this story. That and Jesus said, Go show yourselves to the priests and as they went, they were cleansed. We know the Bible. Horses as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them turned back as we all know, one of the 10 lepers turned back to give thanks to God. But people sometimes miss why he was the one that turned back to give thanks. It was because the Bible says when he saw when one of them saw that he was healed, he turned back to give things. They were all they were all cleansed. But when he saw that he was healed, so when he focused on what God had just done for his life, it caused him to turn around and fall in his face in gratitude. And thanks to Jesus for doing that. The other men were cleanse, but they weren't focused on the fact that they were cleansed, they were focused on going and doing the next thing that they were supposed to do go show themselves to the priests. But this guy stopped, looked down at his hands, looked at his body and said, I've been healed. And it made him grateful. And I believe what we focus on, is what will determine whether we're thankful and happy. If we focus on what God's already done for our lives, we will be happy and we will be joyful. If we focus on what we don't have, we will be ungrateful, we will feel negative, we will feel pessimistic. So that's why I want to get your viewers, my viewers, our friends, our our readers to focus on what the gifts that God has already given them. And in that will be such a gratitude that will activate their faith for all that God wants to do in their lives.
David Sandstrom 21:36
I love it. That's a good word. And you know, thank you for sharing that I had never really looked at that passage the way you just explained it. And the other nine, were more concerned with complying with the legalism in the law, going back and showing themselves to the priests and the one guy said no, to heck with that. I'm gonna kneel down at this guy's feet, what he did for me, and I'm reminded of the Scripture, you know, I desire mercy more than sacrifice,
Gregory Dickow 22:00
Amen. And another thing that heals people's when they really tap into the mercy of God, rather than thinking that they're always being judged by God, really. It's the throne of it's a throne of grace. It's called the throne of grace, not the throne of judgment. And we get to come to through Jesus, we get to come to the throne of grace and find mercy and grace to help in our time of need. Anytime that we need it.
David Sandstrom 22:22
Yeah, that's good stuff. Good stuff. Yeah. So that leads us right into the thing I'm most grateful for is the receiving forgiveness for my life for the things I've done wrong. This is this is a big thing. We need to be grateful for that every day. Right? So could you speak to that? Just a little bit? What what does that mean to you? And what would you like the listeners to understand about forgiveness?
Gregory Dickow 22:44
You know, Jesus said about the woman who was wiping his feet with her tears in her hair. He said, This woman has been forgiven much. Therefore she loves much. And he said to the Pharisees, you guys, basically you guys have been forgiven little you don't think you need forgiveness, therefore you don't have any love. And the more we realize how much he's forgiven us of, the more we will love as a result, he has been forgiven much loves much he has been forgiven little loves little. So our love Walk is in direct proportion to how much we believe God has forgiven us. And I know he's forgiven me of anything. And everything that I've done, the things I can remember the things I can't remember the things I've done in my past, and things that I'm going to do in my future. And that causes me to have so much love. So forgiveness, knowing you're forgiven creates this, this adoration. And this love for Jesus. That is, there's no other way to get it. There's no other way to experience that love except to know how much he has forgiven us. And there's a doctor from years ago, a psychiatrist named Karl Menninger. And he did do he did some studies about forgiveness. And he found that the people that were in his psychiatric ward of his hospital, the three out of four of them when they were when they were taught to forgive when they were told to receive forgiveness and show forgiveness. Three out of four of them were cured, so to speak, of their psychiatric problem of their mental disorder, because of forgiveness that they had received and forgiveness that they had given. It was the cure, three out of four of them left the hospital in a very short time because of it. It's some amazing studies that have been done about this topic of forgiveness.
David Sandstrom 24:41
Yeah, it's really powerful. One of the things I like to say often is withholding our forgiveness against the perpetrator, the person that wronged us is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. Exactly. We're holding on to this toxicity. And that's not what God wants for us. That's why he's so big on forgiveness because he knows it hurts the ones he loves. You know, forgiveness is not, you know, the person that hurt us may benefit. But that's not the big reason. The big reason is for our own benefit. Because, again, going back to when God tells us do something, he has our well being in mind.
Gregory Dickow 25:18
Yeah, it's smarter. He's a little bit smarter than us. Yeah, that's really great. So maybe that is really, you know, obeying God should not be done, because we just want to, we want to stay out of trouble with God. obeying God should be simply because it's smarter. It's a better way to live. It's a God, like you said, there's a method to his madness, though he's not mad at all. I can say God's not mad at you. He's mad about you. And, and so I really feel like forgiveness and releasing people, is if you if I look at my life, seriously, David, I look at my life. And I'm like God has forgiven me of so much. Why would I hold back from somebody else, when the God of all creation has not withheld His forgiveness towards me? So it really starts with that the more abundant we realize we're forgiven, the more abundantly We can forgive?
David Sandstrom 26:20
Yeah, yeah, really good. You know, I thought we may come to this in this conversation. So I had this verse ready. It's Matthew chapter 11, verses 28 through 30. If you don't mind, I'm going to read it. Sure. Please come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle, and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. And here's the key part. For my yoke is easy. And my burden is light. Oh, man, if we could just get our get our minds around that.
Gregory Dickow 26:52
We really you know, there's so much there's so much to unpack in that in that passage. But to realize the heart of Jesus is to give us rest and to, for us to realize his yoke is easy. And you know, that word yoke. It it speaks of what was what connected to Ox together to create this, this set of oxen that can tread out the grain so that one one ox was weak, he was yoked to the other one. So the stronger one could carry the weaker one. Well, we're yoke to Jesus now used to take my yoke. So we're the weaker ones and his strength carries us and his strength moves us forward. And we're we glorify Him in our weakness, because in our weakness, that's when we're made strong by His grace. And so I love that verse because we forget that sometimes, David, that his yoke is easy. Religion is hard. But that's not what Christianity is not a religion. Religion is hard. But Christianity truly is an easier yoke. Because Jesus did all the work, all we have to do is start believing it.
David Sandstrom 27:58
Absolutely. You know, CS Lewis said, genuine Christianity is irresistible. Absolutely, but no, without the corrupted, warped, perverted Christianity that we often witness, unfortunately, is is resistible, right, a lot of people are saying, I don't want to do it that you know, but if we, if we can do this, right, if we can just say, hey, you know, as you said earlier, God, you know, better than I do, I am going to submit to your goodness, I'm going to surrender to your love.
Gregory Dickow 28:30
You're surrendering to love, you're surrendering, you're not surrendering to something bad, you're surrendering to the best thing you could ever surrendered. In one of my chapters in my book, The Soul Cure. One of the chapters is called the beauty of Jesus. And it's all about how beautiful he is. And in Song of Solomon, it's written of Jesus, prophetically a picture of Jesus, right? And it says, He is all together lovely. He is and we sing about that. And we've heard that to him. But he is all together. Lovely. It is. He is the most stunningly beautiful being in the universe, that when you see him the way he truly is, you use the right word. He's irresistible. Yeah, you will fall in love with him, when you see him for who he really is in all of his beauty, because the most beautiful things in the world were created by God. And yet none of those things are as beautiful as the creator himself. The Creator Himself is the most beautiful of all. And when we see him, that's why I want people to get a glimpse of the kind of God that is the real God. He is beauty. He is all together. Lovely. I pray that your viewers get a hold of that and grab that today.
David Sandstrom 29:50
That's a great word. Thanks for that. Yeah. So if someone is struggling with negative thoughts, what's your number one piece of advice for them right now? I'm sure most people know deep down On inside, there's something that they could do better with their thought life.
Gregory Dickow 30:03
Yeah, you know, there's so many things. But one step that people can take right now is I like to call it Romans 28. In your life, Romans, Romans 828ing in your life. And you know, there's a scripture in Romans 8:28, that God causes all things to work together for good. To those that love me to call the quarter is purpose, God doesn't cause all things. A lot of times we caused them, a lot of things are caused by ourselves. But God, he doesn't cause all things but he causes all things to work together for good to those that love Him and are called according to His purpose. So I believe that, that belief in and of itself, believing Romans 8:28 that delivers me from negativity that is delivered me from negativity countless times, because I just throw that verse that call it Romans 828ing that situation, and attacking that negative thought or that negative feeling with Romans 8:28, telling me, You know what, even though I see this negative, even though I feel negative, right now, somehow God is going to turn this into something positive, God's going to turn this into something good. And that changes, the very feeling and the very thinking that is going on in my mind when I realized, wow, God can even turn this around into something good.
David Sandstrom 31:25
You know, I'm thinking of what you mentioned earlier in our in our talk about your friend who committed suicide. So that was that was a painful event that didn't feel good at the time. But God didn't waste your pain. And he did work that together for your good because it led to your salvation.
Gregory Dickow 31:38
It led to my salvation and led to my life purpose. It led me to have empathy for people that are depressed and people that are going through emotional turmoil or pain. And, you know, The Bible says that Jesus, one of the beautiful things about Jesus, he said, a dimly burning wick, he will not extinguish, right? A bruised reed, he will not break. So he. So often we think when we're bruised, we're going to break when we're dimly burning with God's gonna be mad because we're not on fire. And yet he says, a dimly burning wick, he will not extinguish. He is so lovely and so beautiful that he, when we're at our weakest, he picks us up when we're at our most down. He encourages us the Holy Spirit is like, the best mother in the universe, right? The mother that encourages the Mother, the Father is God, the Father, and then you have the Holy Spirit, who's like the mother who encourages us comforts us, believes in us is always our number one fan. And, boy, when people get a hold of that, it, it really turns their lives around.
David Sandstrom 32:53
Yeah, that's a good word. So we've covered a lot of ground in a little time. But if if you wanted someone to take the what's the most important thing that we covered today that you'd like people to remember, I think
Gregory Dickow 33:05
the most important thing is having a renewed view of the nature of God. When you truly understand God is love, then you can be safe. In being honest with him, you can be safe and being able to admit your weaknesses. And you can then do the work on yourself that you need to do to become healthy, because you are being held in this in the arms of God's love. Right, basking and, and in his everlasting arms and being held in his everlasting arms. That revelation of God's love, and His beauty is what I think is the most important thing a person can take away because like you said, what a person believes about God is the most important thing about them. What is God like? He is love. He is good, he is merciful, and He is rooting for everyone watching today.
David Sandstrom 34:05
I love it. That is that's a good word. So thank you for your time. If someone wants to get ahold of you, what's the best way to do that?
Gregory Dickow 34:12
Best way is to go to GregoryDickow.com Just my name GregoryDickow.com. They'll find the book Soul Cure, they'll find the Fast From Wrong Thinking and they can go to fastfromwrongthinking.com is another place it's easy to get to fast from wrong thinking. Not a fast from food, everybody but uh, fast from wrong thinking. It'll change your life forever. Great. Great to be on your show. David, thank you for your time.
David Sandstrom 34:37
It's been a pleasure. I enjoyed this conversation a lot. Me too, brother. Thanks again. For more, go to the show notes page at davidsandstrom.com/87. There you can find an audio as well as a video version of the podcast. I always include a full downloadable transcript and some type of a content upgrade to help you go deeper with that subject. That's it for now. Thanks for listening. me I'll talk with you next week be blessed
So what I did was I put together this 40 day fast from wrong thinking it's I let people know upfront, it's not a fast from food. It's a fast from toxic thoughts and wrong mindsets that limit us and defeat us. I love it. And so I always start with the thought that says I can't. So for, for example, I can't overcome my past, I can't overcome this trouble, I can't become a success. I can't earn more money, I can't feel better. I can't get in shape I can't eat right. The whole concept of can't is a wrong mindset altogether. It's a wrong way of thinking. And what I do is, I like to replace the wrong thought I can't with the right thought. I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me.
David Sandstrom 0:50
Welcome to the Natural Health Matters podcast where it's all about maximizing your health potential, so that you can look and feel your best at any age. I'm your host, David Sandstrom, Naturopathic Doctor, and Biblical Health Coach. And this is episode number 87.
David Sandstrom 1:10
Today we have in the show, Gregory Dickow. He's the senior pastor of Life Changers International Church, a ministry called to heal a generation and cover the earth with the love of God. He's an author, and the creator of the fast from wrong thinking movement, with more than 1 million subscribers worldwide. He's also the host of the television program, power to change today. Pastor Dickow welcome to Natural Health Matters.
Gregory Dickow 1:35
It's a pleasure. Thank you, David, it's great to be with you.
David Sandstrom 1:38
I appreciate you taking the time, you know, many people have heard of working out. But sometimes in order to enhance our vitality and our wellness, we need to do some working in. And that's what we're going to talk about today. So you've got a book coming out, it's called Soul Cure. So you describe soul as your mind to think, your heart to feel and your will to decide. Can you elaborate on that a little bit?
Gregory Dickow 2:03
Absolutely. That is really how we're wired were made in God's image, spirit, soul and body as as you know. And as your listeners know, we, the soul has often been described in many different ways. But I really believe that it that it can be summarized in those three waves, the the mind to think the heart to feel and the will to decide. So if we can master, what thoughts we think if we can master what we allow into our heart, what we allow into our ear gates, our eye gates, what we allow out of our mouth, what we allow into our soul, we, we can really heal ourselves, we can experience the optimum health that God created us for, as you mentioned earlier, it really is an inside job, right? It's from the inside out. So many people try to change themselves on the outside. But really, it's the inside that transforms the outside. It's the it's the butterfly inside the cocoon that that is emerging out. That God created us to experience the we start in the caterpillar, we wrap ourselves, you know, we wrap ourselves in the in the Word of God, as I'm sure your listeners are familiar with, as we wrap our minds in the Word of God, that's where the transformation takes place. And that's where health and healing takes place in our lives.
David Sandstrom 3:20
Yeah, that's great stuff. We know we're admonished in second Corinthians chapter five, to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. And that's not just a casual command, when when God gives us an admonition, he has our well being in mind. And there are certain thoughts that are going to contribute to stress, which are gonna break our systems down. So you know, there's, there's a method in his madness there.
Gregory Dickow 3:43
It really is. It's such it's so simple. When you look at what the scripture says in Romans chapter 12, you're not be conformed to this world, which is to be affected by this world from the outside pressure, but rather be transformed from the inside out through the renewing of your minds. And you notice in that verse that through the renewing of our minds leads to, he says, then we will come into the good, acceptable and perfect will of God, which I believe is a progressive evolution or progressive transformation, the good will of God, than the acceptable will of God than the perfect will of God. It's progressive as we continue to renew our minds, as we as I describe it as fasting from wrong thinking, as we as we change the way we think on the inside and adopt our thinking, adapted to God's way of thinking and God's belief system. It changes everything in our lives. And Paul even or John even said, I wish that you would prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers. So there's a direct correlation between soul health and whole health.
David Sandstrom 4:49
Yes, absolutely. Well, you know, Can you can you give us a couple of examples of thought that we should be fasting from a wrong thought?
Gregory Dickow 5:00
Yeah, you know, I love to start out. So what I did was I put together this 40 day fast from wrong thinking it's I let people know upfront, it's not a fast from food. It's a fast from toxic thoughts and wrong mindsets that limit us and defeat us. I love it. And so I always start with the thought that says I can't. So for, for example, I can't overcome my past, I can't overcome this trouble, I can't become a success, I can't earn more money, I can't feel better, I can't get in shape I can't eat right? The whole concept of can't is a wrong mindset altogether. It's a wrong way of thinking. And what I do is, I like to replace the wrong thought I can't with the right thought. I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. So we want to attack wrong mindsets with God's way of thinking. Another one would be, I feel powerless. So I've noticed that people often feel powerless. They feel powerless to do anything about their present condition. They feel powerless about their past, they feel powerless about the future causes fear. But if we could help renew people's minds and fast from the thought of feelings of powerlessness and realize God has not given us a spirit of fear, but power, love and a sound mind that first word power, is what overcomes a powerless mindset and powerless feeling that we can't overcome this depression, we can't overcome this anxiety, that powerlessness can be obliterated with discovering our power in Christ.
David Sandstrom 6:40
Excellent. That's really good. So is that what you mean by the first step in creating a happier, more powerful life is winning the battle of the mind, as you say, in your book,
Gregory Dickow 6:51
I really do. I think the first step to being happy is you have to realize that it's it starts within, so many people are trying to be happier by being more popular, happier by marrying the right person happier by divorcing the wrong person happier by, by changing something on the outside, having better friends, having this having, having better money, having a better job living in a warmer climate, I found that none of that I found I'm sure you found as well, David, none of that changes, your condition of happiness, all of our happiness, and all of our cure is inside of us, God put it inside of us. By living inside of us. When a person gets born again, God comes to live inside of them by the Holy Spirit. And now we have the treasure buried underneath the surface of our soul. And the treasure of all happiness, the treasure of all success, the treasure of all health, the treasure of all, power is inside of us. Because we have this treasure, the Bible says in earthen vessels, and that treasure is the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of God's word, to come out of our thoughts and out of our mouth, and change our lives and change our world.
David Sandstrom 8:07
Very good. I really liked that, you know, I was listening to a podcast of a health and wellness guy that I enjoy. And he had a well, I'm not gonna use any names, but he had a well known brain researcher, MD psychiatrist on and this guy, they were talking about happiness. And he said, Well, you know, happiness starts in the brain. And I thought, I think he's got it backwards, you know, a healthier brain healthier body will will enhance our mood and that kind of thing. But I think I agree with you, I'm with you. happiness comes from within it comes from getting our lives in alignment with God's design. First, it starts with the personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And when when God's Spirit is animating our spirit, it will send healthy instructions to our minds, and our minds will send healthier instructions to our brains and our brains are on our bodies. So that's the direction that it ought to work. We're not going to we're not finding the right supplement or you know, those things that you see on primetime television, you know, for better memory and those kinds of things. That's not the secret here. The secret is getting our thought getting the inside, right and the thought logic, start thinking the thoughts that God would prefer that we think start believing in the things that God would prefer that we believe in because they're based in his truth.
Gregory Dickow 9:21
Yeah, really, God's word is the source of all joy. Even Jesus said, I write these things to you or I say these things to you that your joy may be made full. It's, it's when we hear the things that Jesus has to say if we were listening to the real Jesus, I don't mean the religious version that a lot of people have of Jesus. But I mean, the the real Jesus the God is love the real Jesus said, When you see me you've seen the Father. I only say what the father what I've heard from the father only do what I see the father do. Well, the father is love and the father our Heavenly Father is great. better than any earthly father could ever be. And I want to be as good of an earthly father as I can possibly be. But as much love as I could have for my children doesn't even come close to the amount of love that God is our Heavenly Father has for us. And when we get a hold of that kind of love, somebody said, I think it was Victor Hugo, he said, the supreme happiness in life is the assurance that we are loved. And when we understand when we get the assurance and have the assurance of God's love for us, it really brings true joy. I think Jesus comes out of the waters of baptism. He hears the voice of God for the first time we have recorded in the Bible, and what does that voice say? It says, You are my beloved son, and you I am well, pleased, or you are my dearly loved son. One translation says, You are my dearly loved son, and you bring me great joy. Imagine that David, Jesus had not done a miracle and not healed anybody yet, had not did a teaching yet had not had a sermon, had not died for our sins, had not done anything except be baptized, comes up out of the waters of baptism. And God says, I love you, son. And you bring the joy. We realized, yeah, when we realized that that's our father, our heavenly Father that said that to Jesus is saying that to us too. And when we get a hold of that brings us true joy and happiness.
David Sandstrom 11:20
That's Amen. Brother. That is the that is good stuff. You know, A.W. Tozer said, The most important thing about a person is what they believe about God. That's it. And we've got I think it's really super important. This is foundational to get our minds around the kind of love God has for us. God is all powerful. The Bible doesn't say God has power. He's all knowing. But the Bible doesn't say God has knowledge. But the Bible does say, God is love.
Gregory Dickow 11:48
Yes, that's what it's all about. Right there. Man, when we get when we get a hold of the God kind of love that He has for us. And I'm not even talking about the love that we should show to each other. Because that's secondary, that is the overflow, the love we have for each others. It is the overflow of the revelation that we have of the Father's love for us. Like when we get a hold of that In this is love not that we love God, but that He loved us and gave us His Son as the propitiation for our sin. Like his love for us is what sets me free. In fact, in Soul Cure my book is all built around the foundation, that God is love. And it's all built upon what I call tornado love, the kind of love that comes in and sweeps away our fears and sweeps away our our past and sweeps away our insecurities and sweeps away our, our mistakes and sweeps away the the negative feelings that we've had about ourselves. That's the kind of love that God has for us. And it is it swept me away and I call that chapter get swept away because I really want people to be swept away with God's love.
David Sandstrom 12:55
I love it really, really good metaphor. Yeah, I gotta, I've gotta say this, did you see the video of the guy in the pickup truck that got caught in a tornado just a few days ago. I did not. I don't know where it was Kansas or Texas or something. And he's going down the highway and he gets caught in a tornado. And somebody's filming them from their dashcam in the truck rolls over, like like a like a leaf that's up on his roof. And then he hit gets hit by another gust of wind and it gets pushed across the road. And he rolls over again back on his wheels and then keeps driving away. Wow. Unbelievable. It's a really amazing video swept away. Yeah, he got swept away. You got to share that with your congregation. It was really good. Yeah, that's a good word.
Gregory Dickow 13:36
I you know what? I think that that picture is so vivid, and it's so descriptive of where I believe all healing and all health begins in our lives is it's when we're rooted and grounded in the love of God. When a lot of times I think people misunderstand Scripture because they misunderstand the nature of God. And like you said, when A.W. Tozer said that that rang so true for me when I first read his quote that the most important thing about any human being is what they believe about God. And you know, there's a scripture David in, I got to I got to talk about this for a minute with you in Deuteronomy chapter one. And God is talking to Moses. And Moses says, the people, they believe that God hated them. They said, We're going back to where we came from, because the Lord hates us. And they literally had the belief system here, people that already saw these miracles that Moses and done the miracles of God, and the plagues and all the things that had happened, God to deliver them from so much. And yet, they went and grumbled in their tents. And they said, because the Lord hates us. He has allowed us to suffer here in the wilderness. Yeah, so that belief system that God somehow hated them was what corrupted their image of themselves. It's what corrupt their view of their circumstances. And it's what corrupted their ability to get get into the Promised Land was because they had the wrong belief about God. And that belief was, God is against me, rather than God is for me, not against me. And that mentality is needs to penetrate people's hearts, and it will change their life.
David Sandstrom 15:20
I couldn't agree more. And of course, that belief led to fear, right? That's why they take the promised land when they were supposed to they were afraid. They were, of course, if God is against you, you got to be afraid you ought to the natural outcome to a faulty belief. So speaking of fear, you talk in your book about your own struggle with fear and anxiety and depression. Can you talk a little bit about that and why you put that in the book?
Gregory Dickow 15:45
Yeah, I wanted people to know that every, every turn around in a person's life has a turning point. A turning point, is what creates a turnaround. And so I wanted to share people share with people my turning point, there was a turning point that created my turnaround. And it was when I was around 16 years old. And I was I was doing drugs I was I was just partying like most kids, like a lot of kids did at that time. But then I got heavy into it, because I had a really one of my best friends committed suicide in my junior year of high school. And they called me up at three in the morning, the parents and they said, have you seen Randy? We don't know where he is. He hasn't come home was the out with you? And I said, No, not tonight. We saw him a couple of days ago. Well, the next morning, they found him dead in a ditch down the street where he had killed himself with, with his with his father's shotgun. And I was devastated. And I've never I really was so numb at that point in my life by the drugs. And by a lack of growing up with love. I didn't grow up with a lot of sense of security and confidence or love. My parents were precious people, but they didn't know how to love the way I needed that from God. But that sent me on a journey from that moment. I had to ask myself, what's going to stop me from doing the same thing Randy did. And I began to, to pursue what I was living for, why am I on this earth, what is going to keep me from from killing myself with drugs or with a gun or in any way. And that's when God came into my life. That's when Jesus revealed himself to me through a series of events brought me to salvation by His goodness and grace. And from that moment, Depression began to leave my life I was filled with depression and anxiety. And from that moment, it began to leave it was a process. But it began to leave. And I found hope. And I found breath and I found oxygen in the love that, that God showed me through Jesus.
David Sandstrom 17:57
Love it, what a story. That's a tough story to listen to. But yeah, and I praise God that you came through that with the right frame of mind. And
Gregory Dickow 18:05
yeah, you know, I can do like, I feel David like, I'm living for it, not just, I'm not just living in my purpose, but I'm also living in the purpose that God might have had for my friend, Randy, then he didn't get to fulfill. And so my purpose is now bringing his purpose to pass, which is healing people from the darkness in their soul healing people from the depression, first of all, destigmatizing it because you know, there's a stigma when people have depression, anxiety, they don't want others to know, it feels embarrassing, they feel ashamed. And I want people to realize I'm a, I've been a preacher for 30 years, I've built a big church, with a lot of people in a lot of buildings and a lot of success. And I've still dealt with anxiety. And I've still dealt with, with social anxiety. I've still dealt with depressing moments. And I think people need to hear there's hope. And there's nothing to be ashamed of. And when you I treat anxiety as a signal to pray now, when I feel anxious, I realize I'm there's something I'm supposed to be praying about here. And it delivers me and sets me free that time from that particular anxiety.
David Sandstrom 19:18
Yeah. Wow, that's really good. I, I'm sorry, you had to go through that ordeal in order to get to the place that you're at. But I'm grateful that you are in that place today. That's that's a good thing.
Gregory Dickow 19:28
Yeah. Amen to that. Yeah.
David Sandstrom 19:31
So you talk about gratefulness in your book as something important, something that should be nurtured and developed. Talk about the importance of gratefulness.
Gregory Dickow 19:40
Yeah, it's a great question, you know, 10 lepers in the Bible, came to Jesus and said, Have mercy on us, Lord, most people will know this story. That and Jesus said, Go show yourselves to the priests and as they went, they were cleansed. We know the Bible. Horses as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them turned back as we all know, one of the 10 lepers turned back to give thanks to God. But people sometimes miss why he was the one that turned back to give thanks. It was because the Bible says when he saw when one of them saw that he was healed, he turned back to give things. They were all they were all cleansed. But when he saw that he was healed, so when he focused on what God had just done for his life, it caused him to turn around and fall in his face in gratitude. And thanks to Jesus for doing that. The other men were cleanse, but they weren't focused on the fact that they were cleansed, they were focused on going and doing the next thing that they were supposed to do go show themselves to the priests. But this guy stopped, looked down at his hands, looked at his body and said, I've been healed. And it made him grateful. And I believe what we focus on, is what will determine whether we're thankful and happy. If we focus on what God's already done for our lives, we will be happy and we will be joyful. If we focus on what we don't have, we will be ungrateful, we will feel negative, we will feel pessimistic. So that's why I want to get your viewers, my viewers, our friends, our our readers to focus on what the gifts that God has already given them. And in that will be such a gratitude that will activate their faith for all that God wants to do in their lives.
David Sandstrom 21:36
I love it. That's a good word. And you know, thank you for sharing that I had never really looked at that passage the way you just explained it. And the other nine, were more concerned with complying with the legalism in the law, going back and showing themselves to the priests and the one guy said no, to heck with that. I'm gonna kneel down at this guy's feet, what he did for me, and I'm reminded of the Scripture, you know, I desire mercy more than sacrifice,
Gregory Dickow 22:00
Amen. And another thing that heals people's when they really tap into the mercy of God, rather than thinking that they're always being judged by God, really. It's the throne of it's a throne of grace. It's called the throne of grace, not the throne of judgment. And we get to come to through Jesus, we get to come to the throne of grace and find mercy and grace to help in our time of need. Anytime that we need it.
David Sandstrom 22:22
Yeah, that's good stuff. Good stuff. Yeah. So that leads us right into the thing I'm most grateful for is the receiving forgiveness for my life for the things I've done wrong. This is this is a big thing. We need to be grateful for that every day. Right? So could you speak to that? Just a little bit? What what does that mean to you? And what would you like the listeners to understand about forgiveness?
Gregory Dickow 22:44
You know, Jesus said about the woman who was wiping his feet with her tears in her hair. He said, This woman has been forgiven much. Therefore she loves much. And he said to the Pharisees, you guys, basically you guys have been forgiven little you don't think you need forgiveness, therefore you don't have any love. And the more we realize how much he's forgiven us of, the more we will love as a result, he has been forgiven much loves much he has been forgiven little loves little. So our love Walk is in direct proportion to how much we believe God has forgiven us. And I know he's forgiven me of anything. And everything that I've done, the things I can remember the things I can't remember the things I've done in my past, and things that I'm going to do in my future. And that causes me to have so much love. So forgiveness, knowing you're forgiven creates this, this adoration. And this love for Jesus. That is, there's no other way to get it. There's no other way to experience that love except to know how much he has forgiven us. And there's a doctor from years ago, a psychiatrist named Karl Menninger. And he did do he did some studies about forgiveness. And he found that the people that were in his psychiatric ward of his hospital, the three out of four of them when they were when they were taught to forgive when they were told to receive forgiveness and show forgiveness. Three out of four of them were cured, so to speak, of their psychiatric problem of their mental disorder, because of forgiveness that they had received and forgiveness that they had given. It was the cure, three out of four of them left the hospital in a very short time because of it. It's some amazing studies that have been done about this topic of forgiveness.
David Sandstrom 24:41
Yeah, it's really powerful. One of the things I like to say often is withholding our forgiveness against the perpetrator, the person that wronged us is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. Exactly. We're holding on to this toxicity. And that's not what God wants for us. That's why he's so big on forgiveness because he knows it hurts the ones he loves. You know, forgiveness is not, you know, the person that hurt us may benefit. But that's not the big reason. The big reason is for our own benefit. Because, again, going back to when God tells us do something, he has our well being in mind.
Gregory Dickow 25:18
Yeah, it's smarter. He's a little bit smarter than us. Yeah, that's really great. So maybe that is really, you know, obeying God should not be done, because we just want to, we want to stay out of trouble with God. obeying God should be simply because it's smarter. It's a better way to live. It's a God, like you said, there's a method to his madness, though he's not mad at all. I can say God's not mad at you. He's mad about you. And, and so I really feel like forgiveness and releasing people, is if you if I look at my life, seriously, David, I look at my life. And I'm like God has forgiven me of so much. Why would I hold back from somebody else, when the God of all creation has not withheld His forgiveness towards me? So it really starts with that the more abundant we realize we're forgiven, the more abundantly We can forgive?
David Sandstrom 26:20
Yeah, yeah, really good. You know, I thought we may come to this in this conversation. So I had this verse ready. It's Matthew chapter 11, verses 28 through 30. If you don't mind, I'm going to read it. Sure. Please come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle, and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. And here's the key part. For my yoke is easy. And my burden is light. Oh, man, if we could just get our get our minds around that.
Gregory Dickow 26:52
We really you know, there's so much there's so much to unpack in that in that passage. But to realize the heart of Jesus is to give us rest and to, for us to realize his yoke is easy. And you know, that word yoke. It it speaks of what was what connected to Ox together to create this, this set of oxen that can tread out the grain so that one one ox was weak, he was yoked to the other one. So the stronger one could carry the weaker one. Well, we're yoke to Jesus now used to take my yoke. So we're the weaker ones and his strength carries us and his strength moves us forward. And we're we glorify Him in our weakness, because in our weakness, that's when we're made strong by His grace. And so I love that verse because we forget that sometimes, David, that his yoke is easy. Religion is hard. But that's not what Christianity is not a religion. Religion is hard. But Christianity truly is an easier yoke. Because Jesus did all the work, all we have to do is start believing it.
David Sandstrom 27:58
Absolutely. You know, CS Lewis said, genuine Christianity is irresistible. Absolutely, but no, without the corrupted, warped, perverted Christianity that we often witness, unfortunately, is is resistible, right, a lot of people are saying, I don't want to do it that you know, but if we, if we can do this, right, if we can just say, hey, you know, as you said earlier, God, you know, better than I do, I am going to submit to your goodness, I'm going to surrender to your love.
Gregory Dickow 28:30
You're surrendering to love, you're surrendering, you're not surrendering to something bad, you're surrendering to the best thing you could ever surrendered. In one of my chapters in my book, The Soul Cure. One of the chapters is called the beauty of Jesus. And it's all about how beautiful he is. And in Song of Solomon, it's written of Jesus, prophetically a picture of Jesus, right? And it says, He is all together lovely. He is and we sing about that. And we've heard that to him. But he is all together. Lovely. It is. He is the most stunningly beautiful being in the universe, that when you see him the way he truly is, you use the right word. He's irresistible. Yeah, you will fall in love with him, when you see him for who he really is in all of his beauty, because the most beautiful things in the world were created by God. And yet none of those things are as beautiful as the creator himself. The Creator Himself is the most beautiful of all. And when we see him, that's why I want people to get a glimpse of the kind of God that is the real God. He is beauty. He is all together. Lovely. I pray that your viewers get a hold of that and grab that today.
David Sandstrom 29:50
That's a great word. Thanks for that. Yeah. So if someone is struggling with negative thoughts, what's your number one piece of advice for them right now? I'm sure most people know deep down On inside, there's something that they could do better with their thought life.
Gregory Dickow 30:03
Yeah, you know, there's so many things. But one step that people can take right now is I like to call it Romans 28. In your life, Romans, Romans 828ing in your life. And you know, there's a scripture in Romans 8:28, that God causes all things to work together for good. To those that love me to call the quarter is purpose, God doesn't cause all things. A lot of times we caused them, a lot of things are caused by ourselves. But God, he doesn't cause all things but he causes all things to work together for good to those that love Him and are called according to His purpose. So I believe that, that belief in and of itself, believing Romans 8:28 that delivers me from negativity that is delivered me from negativity countless times, because I just throw that verse that call it Romans 828ing that situation, and attacking that negative thought or that negative feeling with Romans 8:28, telling me, You know what, even though I see this negative, even though I feel negative, right now, somehow God is going to turn this into something positive, God's going to turn this into something good. And that changes, the very feeling and the very thinking that is going on in my mind when I realized, wow, God can even turn this around into something good.
David Sandstrom 31:25
You know, I'm thinking of what you mentioned earlier in our in our talk about your friend who committed suicide. So that was that was a painful event that didn't feel good at the time. But God didn't waste your pain. And he did work that together for your good because it led to your salvation.
Gregory Dickow 31:38
It led to my salvation and led to my life purpose. It led me to have empathy for people that are depressed and people that are going through emotional turmoil or pain. And, you know, The Bible says that Jesus, one of the beautiful things about Jesus, he said, a dimly burning wick, he will not extinguish, right? A bruised reed, he will not break. So he. So often we think when we're bruised, we're going to break when we're dimly burning with God's gonna be mad because we're not on fire. And yet he says, a dimly burning wick, he will not extinguish. He is so lovely and so beautiful that he, when we're at our weakest, he picks us up when we're at our most down. He encourages us the Holy Spirit is like, the best mother in the universe, right? The mother that encourages the Mother, the Father is God, the Father, and then you have the Holy Spirit, who's like the mother who encourages us comforts us, believes in us is always our number one fan. And, boy, when people get a hold of that, it, it really turns their lives around.
David Sandstrom 32:53
Yeah, that's a good word. So we've covered a lot of ground in a little time. But if if you wanted someone to take the what's the most important thing that we covered today that you'd like people to remember, I think
Gregory Dickow 33:05
the most important thing is having a renewed view of the nature of God. When you truly understand God is love, then you can be safe. In being honest with him, you can be safe and being able to admit your weaknesses. And you can then do the work on yourself that you need to do to become healthy, because you are being held in this in the arms of God's love. Right, basking and, and in his everlasting arms and being held in his everlasting arms. That revelation of God's love, and His beauty is what I think is the most important thing a person can take away because like you said, what a person believes about God is the most important thing about them. What is God like? He is love. He is good, he is merciful, and He is rooting for everyone watching today.
David Sandstrom 34:05
I love it. That is that's a good word. So thank you for your time. If someone wants to get ahold of you, what's the best way to do that?
Gregory Dickow 34:12
Best way is to go to GregoryDickow.com Just my name GregoryDickow.com. They'll find the book Soul Cure, they'll find the Fast From Wrong Thinking and they can go to fastfromwrongthinking.com is another place it's easy to get to fast from wrong thinking. Not a fast from food, everybody but uh, fast from wrong thinking. It'll change your life forever. Great. Great to be on your show. David, thank you for your time.
David Sandstrom 34:37
It's been a pleasure. I enjoyed this conversation a lot. Me too, brother. Thanks again. For more, go to the show notes page at davidsandstrom.com/87. There you can find an audio as well as a video version of the podcast. I always include a full downloadable transcript and some type of a content upgrade to help you go deeper with that subject. That's it for now. Thanks for listening. me I'll talk with you next week be blessed
