iShare 2014: Light

iShare 2014 Plenary Sessions

Taariq Patel

Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Testimony

Today I'm going to share with you why I'm here, how I got here, standing on this stage talking to you.

Before I begin, would you please join me in another word of prayer?

And I am thankful, Lord, that your mercies endure forever.

I am thankful, Lord, that all your people are here and you are here with us.

I am thankful, Lord, that you are so faithful and you love us so much that you want to keep us from falling.

And Lord before I go any further I pray for forgiveness of our sins.

I pray that your angels will be here to rebuke evil and to focus our minds on eternal things, on things that matter, and that we will get a glimpse of the most high because we ask it in Jesus' name.

Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever.

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy.

I was born in Gloucester, England in 1981.

I have 4 siblings, a twin brother and a brother Javid.

And my brothers and I grew up Muslim boys.

I vividly remember my father sitting in front of us, and all 3 of us in front of our father, and he would have his slipper right there as we were reciting the Quran, starting like from age 3 or age 5 years old we were learning Arabic.

And that slipper would flash out and hit us if we mispronounced 1 word.

We grew up in Islam and going to the mosque all the time, growing up around the Muslim brothers, we were told that if we weren't good Muslim boys that our father wouldn't make it to heaven.

We were told that if we tell lies, that the angel Gabriel will pull out your tongue and put it back in your mouth according to how many lies you told.

This is the kind of religion we grew up in.

By the age of around 8 years old, 9 years old, my mom had a meeting with Jesus.

You see, she grew up Seventh Day Adventist, But she had backslid and she met my father in England and they both had 3 kids And then from there they moved to you to the to the United States and had my 2 sisters And so for the first 7 8 years of my life, I was a Muslim, but then my mom had a meeting with Jesus.

She found in the garage a book called Steps to Christ, Desire of Ages, and man, she fell in love.

And she used to walk by the room and see her sons being disciplined, learning Islam, and she got a flashback of the felt boards, of the Sabbath school songs, and she said, man, I didn't grow up like that.

And you know, when you meet Jesus, you got a mouth problem.

Because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.

And Jesus had touched my mother's heart so she couldn't stop but telling us about Jesus.

So now when my father's at work, she would teach us about the Word of God.

And it was the first time we read stories about Joseph and Daniel and David and all this stuff.

And we were like, wow, it was so amazing.

But my father, a strict Muslim, wanted control of his house.

You see, when the Spirit of the Lord is in the house Satan got really angry at that time.

It was 1989 the brothers at the mosque many of them came from the war from Afghanistan a Lot of them lived in Saudi Arabia and they were telling my father take your family to Saudi Arabia You will have complete control My mother was praying to God and she said, God, I want an experience with you.

That's a mighty prayer because God will give it to you.

She felt impressed to go to Saudi Arabia with my father, with all 5 of us, children.

So we're on the plane and we're going to Saudi Arabia.

I'll never forget, got off the plane, it was like at midnight, walking down the stairs in the outside in Saudi Arabia in Riyadh, and I thought that the jet engine heat was blowing on us because I felt like I was melting.

But then I realized that was the temperature there in Saudi Arabia at nighttime.

We got there and it was just straight desert.

The women over there have to walk behind their husbands.

It's typical to see 1 man with like a tribe behind him, a bunch of kids and a few wives.

Women have to cover up, no ankles and cover your face up.

It was the type of country where we would drive And we would get caught in a traffic jam, and you smell something in the air.

And there's somebody hanging, because they've been hanging there for 3 days in the public square.

If you get caught stealing, your hand gets chopped off.

In coming into the country, little did my mom know that it was under the penalty of death if you try to sneak in the Bible or any kind of Christian literature.

But my mom would tell us, hey boys, we're undercover agents for the Lord, And we're going to go into this country, we're going to still spread the gospel as best as we could.

And we were, we had imaginations, we were excited about this mission.

And so we were at the airport, my mom had 2 suitcases, and she had, you know, wrapped up some books, some Ellen White books, she had a bunch of books, 2 suitcases full.

We got to the customs these guys with guns were walking by the suitcases my mom was praying The Lord told my mom before she got there, dress up in the traditional Muslim garb.

It was all wrapped up in a bunch of clothes.

And as he was flipping through the pages and looking at us, flipping through the pages, looking at us, it didn't make sense.

Because we looked like a typical Muslim family.

We looked like nice little Muslim children.

And then he called all the security to him and they were all talking in Arabic, what's going on, what's going on?

And then finally, they said, you guys are all good.

Don't even check the rest of their bags they're good and my mom was rejoicing because those other bags had some desire of ages and great controversy and councils on diets and foods and all that it would have been a wrap.

Got in there undercover agents for the Lord So now my father would go to work, but guess what would happen at the house when my father's at work?

I'm 33 years old now, but I never forget those Bible studies when I was 8 9 years old we would get so so excited that we're like rolling around on the carpet never heard stories like that before filled with love and filled the Spirit of God was in that room 1 day my father came home and caught us in the middle of Bible study.

You see, while we were doing Bible studies that whole time in Saudi Arabia, 1 of the brothers would be looking out of the window on lookout and making sure we see our father's car pull up into the parking lot while everybody else is having worship.

That was our job and we would rotate but this particular time my father took the back way nobody saw him coming.

Every other time we would see him coming, okay Pap is coming and we'll pack up all the books.

We'll have books in pots, books under the bed, books under the clothes, I mean, and we would just play games and act like nothing was happening.

But this time he came in, and I never forget.

You know, when domestic violence happens or something traumatic happens in your childhood, it leaves a scar in your life for the rest of your life.

The feeling I felt when he came into that room, it was like the Holy Ghost was in there and then darkness just came in the room.

And we knew he was irate, he was beside himself.

My mom was screaming, she ran into the bathroom, and he was threatening to kill my mother.

We were, each sibling, each of my brothers and sisters, we were on an arm and a leg, and we were screaming, no, Papa, no.

You see, he had made a threat to my mom before, the day before she got baptized.

He said, if you get baptized, you see this knife, I'm going to run you through if you decide to wake up and get baptized.

My mom woke up and got baptized, and that morning he was as calm as a lamb and he walked out.

When my mom went into that pool in Hartford, Connecticut, my older brother was so moved that he stood up and he wanted to get baptized.

So this threat that he made, and we've seen him hit my mom before, it wasn't an idle threat.

And we were screaming and screaming and he got mad.

He took all the books, all what my mother had.

You see, she didn't have no personal contact with her family, couldn't write a letter, couldn't call nobody.

The only thing she had in that country as a woman with no rights was those books.

All she had was like a little Bible that she had hid somewhere else that he didn't find and maybe a couple of other Ellen White books.

From then on, my father would take us boys to the work, to his job with him, so our mother's influence wouldn't be over us.

Seminar: From Darkness to Light: Overcoming Sin and Addictions

Rescuing “P.O.W’s” (Reaching People with Addictions)- Part 2

Today, my brother and I are going to be speaking about a very important topic.

Before I begin, I want to see the hands of those who know somebody, maybe yourself, or a loved 1 or a friend that is struggling with addiction.

Yeah, I think that everybody in this room could probably raise their hands to that.

Today, we are gonna be discussing What are some ways you can rescue POWs?

What are some ways, what are some things that you can do to reach out to help these individuals?

After that, my brother is going to take over and he's going to speak about how to overcome addictions.

Before I go any further, I would like each and every 1 of you to join me in a word of prayer.

And as we pray, I ask that you all pray for yourselves and ask for the Holy Spirit to come into your hearts and mind to give you understanding.

And while you're praying for yourself, please say a word of prayer for me.

So I'll pray out loud and you all just pray in your minds.

Heavenly Father, we are so grateful, Lord, to be assembled here, your people, awaiting to hear some truth from your spirit.

And Lord, we pray that you would forgive us for our sins, Lord, and clear our minds from distractions, Father.

And as we focus on this most important topic on how to reach and save those in bondage, I pray, God, that your spirit would enlighten us to think along trains of thought that we never thought before.

And that whatever I say, Lord, your spirit will magnify it to the hundredth power and give people understanding that they can understand according to your spirit Lord.

And so Father I am grateful that you care about us, you've bled for us, and you've bled for these prisoners out there who are bound by chains of addiction.

I thank you Lord for your power in Jesus name, Amen.

Turn with me to the book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter 4.

And when you have it, please let me know by saying amen.

Ecclesiastes chapter 4, amen, here we go.

Look with me if you will, starting at verse 1.

So I returned and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun.

And behold, the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter.

And on the side of their oppressors there was power, but they had no comforter.

Wherefore, I praise the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive.

Yea, better is he than both they which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.

I mean, you walk outside of where we live, my front door, and you can see the night star is so clear.

However, we were in San Francisco on Sunday, this past Sunday, and it's total opposite from where we live.

Compact, filled with people, back in the city, the dirty streets of San Francisco.

And we were walking down this street on this past Sunday, and I was pretty much assaulted, being that I come from Angwin now, and I'm not used to coming to the city as often as I was back in the day.

As I'm walking down San Francisco, I'm seeing hundreds of people all over the street with care-worn faces, leather-beaten faces, faces that been through some rough stuff.

I can look at these people and I can tell that they're held by chains of alcohol addiction, amphetamines, heroin, you name it, I could see it on their faces.

I was walking down that street and it struck me profoundly, because I said, Lord, there's a lot of people living here with no hope.

1 brother was sleeping on the side of the street with no shirt on and he was sleeping like it was no big deal and everybody was walking by him.

He smelled as if he hadn't taken a shower all year.

Another guy was there on the side and he had his hoodie all over his head so he could catch some Z's.

But what struck me the most was there in the middle of this sidewalk was this woman.

And she was on her knees with her head between her knees and her arms were out and her mouth was open and she had this cup of change right there in front of her.

And I looked at her and I said, Lord, she looks broken mentally, physically, emotionally, on all levels.

And it struck me that day on Sunday, I said, this is the testament of Satan's kingdom.

This is what he wants to do to all humanity.

And I felt like Solomon on the way back home.

I returned and I considered all the evil works that were done under the sun.

And on the side of the oppressed, their tears, they had no comforter.

But on the side of the oppressors there was power.

Recently we heard the tragic news of Robin Williams, who killed himself on Monday.

What struck me profoundly about that was here was a man that dedicated his life to make others laugh.

Every time I thought about that guy, I saw him smiling.

And here, we find out that in his heart was something total opposite.

It's a testament of Satan's kingdom, what he has to offer you in this world.

And he also struggled with addictions in his life.

And as Taj mentioned today, you think about all the artists and musicians and all them who have struggled with addictions in their lives.

The Bible says, speaking about Lucifer, Satan, and Isaiah 14, is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake the kingdoms, that made the world into a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof, that opened not the house of his prisoners.

Today we're gonna be talking about how to reach into that house of prisoners and how to rescue these prisoners of war.

It is the over conditioning of your brain's reward system.

Everything you see, everything you hear, you're listening to me right now, it's a chemical reaction going on.

We're like a bunch of chemistry machines out here.

But you have certain chemicals in your mind, such as, in your brain, such as dopamine, and when you do things that make you feel good, dopamine goes off, and it's a chemical reaction.

When you overcondition your brain's reward system, that's addiction.

The question is, why do people get addicted?

To understand how to help someone, you gotta know why.

I've been to a lot of NA meetings, Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and I have yet to meet a addict, a recovering addict, someone who's struggling with addiction, who does not have a past filled with pain.

Everyone, the Bible says we are born into trouble, the book of Job.

Now there are different ways that people deal or cope with pain.

There are many people who grew up in divorced homes, parents split up.

It has a profound traumatic effect on a child.

There are many adults walking around this world that are affected from their childhood from a divorce and they don't even really realize it yet.

Sexual abuse, physical abuse, death in the family, a sense of unsatisfaction, an unhappiness in your life.

I used to work at this job, warehouse job, for 8, 9 years.

First thing I wanted to do when I come home from work, my back's hurting, didn't like what I was doing, first thing I wanted to do, go to the bar, get some beer.

I had a hard day at work, so I wanted to just escape.

Let me talk with the fellas, let me watch the game, let me drink some beer, let me just escape.

As I'm drinking that beer, what's going on?

Because when you drink this alcohol, dopamine, and feel good stuff, chemical reaction is occurring.

So on the weekend, guess what I would do?

I'll go to the club, listen to the music, do some more drugs, get on cocaine and alcohol and weed, and I will escape away from my pain, from my unsatisfaction, from my unhappiness in my life.

Adam Patel

Rescuing “P.O.W’s” (Reaching People with Addictions)- Part 1

I didn't expect, I didn't know what to expect when my brother got up here, but it's always a blessing to hear him speak, because we go back, you know.

And I was laughing with him on the way up here, like, man, I just was thinking about the other day, how we used to get in our battle stations to get ready to do our drugs, you know?

And I remember the state of mind we were in, and I was laughing with him and the Lord, like man, who would have thought at that time that the Lord would have chose you and me to speak in front of God's people.

I just thought that was the most funniest thing and the most glorious thing at the same time.

I'm gonna ask that you pray for me as I pray and continue to ask the spirit of the Lord to be here.

What my brother talked about was very important.

He talked mainly about how to reach those who are in bondage and as well as who are the eligible candidates to be reached.

What I wanna talk about is equally important and the whole subject that I'm going to be discussing by the power of God today is how to overcome.

And when I say overcome I mean addictions period but in essence what I'm going to cover today is how to overcome anything that Satan throws at you.

To make it simple, to hopefully you can remember these 3 points on how to overcome sin and addiction.

It's a recipe that has never failed and it's biblical.

Anything that you put before God, anything that takes the place of God.

I'm gonna read something to you that kind of blew my mind.

It's found in the book that I may know him, page 322.

Anything that separates our affections from God and lessens our interest in eternal things is an idol.

Let me read it again, it's that profound.

A whole lot of things on this earth separates your affections from God.

A whole lot of things lessens your interest in eternal things.

And I guarantee you and I promise you and I feel pretty confident you agree with me that Addictions whatever you're addicted to it could be pornography.

It could be people it could be drugs alcohol cigarettes They all lessen your interests in eternal things So guess what?

I loved what the servant of the Lord spoke of for divine hour.

Because what I'm going to talk about, it goes right in tune.

What is an idol a symbol of in the Bible?

It's actually in a couple places in the Bible, but we'll go to 1 Corinthians chapter 10.

And when you get there, would you please say amen?

1 Corinthians chapter 10, beginning with verse 19.

1 Corinthians chapter 10, beginning with verse 19, amen?

The Bible says, 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 19, what say I then?

That the idol is anything, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to what everyone devils or demons and not to God and I would not that you should have fellowship with who An idol is a representation of demons Now let's let's rewind a little bit anything that separates your affections from God or lessens your interest in eternal things, cigarettes, drugs, weed, pornography, even movies.

I've been guilty, and I know this is true for me, I don't know about you.

Have you ever watched a movie that you know you shouldn't have watched, whether it be an action movie, and then you try to read a Bible after that.

We just read that idols are affiliated with what?

What Todd spoke of this morning was so profound.

Satan manifests himself in the United States in a different way than he does in other countries.

You know what a servant of the Lord says about the demoniac in Mark chapter 1, he was possessed with the devil.

She said that same spirit that was in that man was in the Pharisees.

He manifested himself 1 way wild and crazy, screaming and yelling.

The other way he was sophisticated and intelligent, a churchgoer and a law abider.

I submit to you today that if anyone is battling with addictions, there is a power behind the addiction that you're battling against.

Wait a minute, you might say, I've known people who's overcome drugs and cigarettes without Jesus.

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All Teachings

Testimony

47m

Rescuing “P.O.W’s” (Reaching People with Addictions)- Part 2

40m

Rescuing “P.O.W’s” (Reaching People with Addictions)- Part 1

49m

Eye-witness the Light- Part 3

36m

Eye-witness the Light- Part 2

56m

Eye-witness the Light- Part 1

43m

Do This and You Will Live

43m

The Final Journey

29m

Who’s Got Talent

29m

The Shaking, Why and How

52m

Caught in the Dragon’s Tail

50m

How God Saved Me from the Devil’s Workshop

42m

Sound Doctrine