Father Facts & Mountain Tops: David’s Story

Episode Summary

In this powerful episode of Stories of Hope, Forrest and his longtime friend David sit down to discuss the transformative power of saying "yes" to God. David shares a deeply personal account of a supernatural encounter on a mountainside that redefined his understanding of God as a father. This shift in perspective gave him the strength to obey a difficult calling: reconnecting with his estranged father after 23 years of absence.

Through David's testimony, we see how one act of obedience created a "ripple effect" of healing that touched his brothers, his mother, and ultimately his father in his final years. It is a beautiful reminder that God’s instructions are always for our good and that He is a Father who truly inclines His ear to His children.

Key Moments & Reflections

• The Voice on the Mountain: While working in the mountains, David experienced a profound moment where he felt God say, I’m proud of you son. This moment led David to respond with Thank you, Daddy, a word he had never used due to his childhood abandonment.
• Getting Your Father Facts Straight: Drawing from a concept by Pastor Travis Aicklen, David discusses the importance of knowing the truth about God’s character—that He is 100% faithful and always works for our good.
• The Call to Obedience: After 23 years of silence, David received news that his father was dying. Instead of leaning into resentment, David chose to follow God's prompt to go and love him and be the best son you can be.
• A Miracle of Restoration: David recounts the six-year journey of restoration that followed, including a miraculous fish fry where his once-estranged mother and father shared a meal together after decades of animosity.
• The Scriptural Foundation: David connects his experience to John 14:21, reflecting on how Jesus manifests Himself to those who love Him and keep His commandments.

Scripture Referenced: John 14:21

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, welcome back to the Stories of Hope podcast. I'm here with my good buddy David. David, how long have we known each other?

SPEAKER_03 0:08

Probably close to eight to ten years. Somewhere around there.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

I started going to Radiant in 2010.

SPEAKER_03 0:16

Oh, so we've known each other close to 15 years because I started around the same time.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

And we were on staff together starting in 2020? 2021? Yeah, somewhere around there. So it's been about four or five years on staff together at Radiant Church in Vassalia, which is a which is a real joy working together, causing trouble. And uh, but as I've known David during that time, he's just one giant story of hope. It just just pours out of him. And uh you've had a you can stop me if I'm saying things that are wrong, David. You've had you've had quite a life. You you've had many adventures and gotta show up and just show up over and over and over and over again in your life. And and uh it's like I said, it just pours out of you. You just love Jesus and you love to talk about him. So I'm excited to get you in here today. So thank you. David, yeah, you have a story to hope for us.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

I do, I do, and thank you for that. Such a uh such an amazing uh journey, it has been for me. Uh just seeing the faithfulness of God, the goodness of God and poured out of my life over and over and over again. And so yeah, I have this is probably the the most transformative story um that has where God has impacted and and uh my heart in in a deep way, and so in a healing way. And so that's my story of hope. We're called to hope in God, and uh the way that I've learned to do that is by knowing that he's trustworthy and he's worthy to be hoped in, and he's good, and his direction is good, and his and his word is right, and it's it's true. So, and I had that experience uh just really impact my heart in a deep way on the mountains up here. Uh and I got to go up to uh the mountains and and was up there actually doing some remodeling on a resort up there and just helping helping uh some guys do that, and of standing on the mountainside and looking out over the view and and and the trees behind me, this giant grove of trees going up the mountainside and looking out, and I seen this amazing creation that God had made, and it just said it impacted me deeply. And and in that moment, in that instant of a moment that I heard in my heart that God said to me, I'm proud of you, son. And that word just penetrated me deeply um as a word that I longed to hear. Uh yeah, it's a real good word, and and in that um I immediately started to think that I'm going to respond to this word, and and verbally and from my heart uh just went deep uh to respond. And and and then my response was thank you, daddy. And I spoke those words out loud, and it felt uncomfortable, uh a little uncomfortable because I had an estranged relationship with my dad and didn't know him, and I didn't use those words. So I I grew up uh raised by my mom and and uh with my brothers, and and so I never never was calling anyone daddy and never used that word. So I spoke those words out loud and and I immediately started to get the impression that God leaned in, that he actually like leaned down and to and and inclined his ear as the scripture I found later uh that he does, he inclines his ear. And so I to hear him, his son call him daddy, and that just impacted me this to to get this impression of God as a good father that longs to hear his son call him daddy for the first time.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:52

And that that that just impacted me. And so I left the mountaintop with that in my heart, and and and and I felt like God said, You I want you to share that with others and let them know what had happened. And so I went to man camp and about about uh within the next year, I went to main camp and got a chance to share that.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Uh people out there who might not know what's main camp.

SPEAKER_02 4:13

Yeah, main camp is a a time set aside for men uh to go up to the mountains and and and seek the Lord in a fresh way and to connect with each other and to bond with each other as brothers in Christ and men of God. And uh it's a it this main camp was for through through Radiant Church, Pastor Travis Aklin and those guys, and I love those guys. And he uh speaking of Pastor Travis Aklin, he spoke of uh father facts, getting your father facts straight. And this is a father fact for me, and and to have that father fact that God is a good father and that he loves us and that he longs for that relationship, he anticipates uh to connect with us as a good father and and as a father would. And so I came back down, I shared that with the guys at Man Camp, and then we got some time to meditate and to go off uh uh by yourselves. And I never really asked God, what specifically are you proud of me about? And I did that in that time and immediately uh revealed a scripture, John 14, 21. And that scripture has impacted me deeply. It says, uh, he who has our command, he who has my commandments and keeps him, is he who loves me, and he who loves me will be loved by my father, and I will love him and make myself known to him, manifest myself to him, make myself known to him. That's Jesus. And I felt like this is what happened to you on the mountain. And he goes, This is what I'm proud of you about, that you took my word and you obeyed me and you listened and you trusted me. And he specifically went to the relationship I had with my dad and and uh the lack of relationship that I had with my dad. And it had been seven about seven years I'd been working at the church, and uh uh my my brother from my dad's second marriage had called and said, Dad is sick and uh don't think he's gonna make it. And and so I went to the staff of the church and explained to them the situation. I had been 23 years since I had seen him, and and and and uh yeah, they said we and I I felt like the Lord was calling me, and I felt like the call was this He says, Go and love him and be the best son that you can to him. And I did, and and I was willing. And there were scriptures that went with that, and and and when God says something to you, if you can't find it in the Bible, you can't find it in scriptures. So I mean, every all all that he was speaking to me was right out of the word. And he said, Love your enemies, bless those that curse you. And I felt cursed by him, and I felt like he was one of the first enemies of me as a as a child in that abandonment and not being there for me. And so, and and and God pointed to also my own fault. I hadn't been a good son to him. I had been around him a couple different times, and in those times I wasn't a good son to him. I had a drug problem and a rebellious problem to authority and and all the resentment that I had towards him, and all that had played out in those times that I was around him. And so I hadn't been a good son. He had been a good dad, and and uh I got a chance to go and love him, and and and and the church actually paid for uh my vacation to go up there and the next year, and it went amazing, and it went amazing. We we immediately started just to connect, and he started getting better, and he ended up getting better and living for another year. And the next year I went on vacation, I got to go and and and be a son to him, and I got to do that another year, so that was three trips, and then on the fourth trip, I got to take my little brother, who really didn't even know him, but he hated him uh for the same reasons I did.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

And uh he got restoration and he got to get healing, just like I did. And I had to basically twist his arm to get into the car to go. But he went and uh he started to receive healing, he started to love and have a relationship with my dad, and he got to go the next year, and then uh this the sixth trip. Uh my my older brother wouldn't go, and and and the sixth trip uh before my dad ended up passing on, he came here to California and got to spend time with us, and we got to go fishing uh for catfish and and catch a mess of catfish and cook them in my mom's apartment uh with my dad. And uh so was the whole family together and then my whole the whole family together back back back again, and which was absolute a miracle because my mom, my mom hated him worse than probably all of us hated him.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

And in that moment, your mom and dad got along well.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

They did, they did, and they they we got a pick I got a picture of them together and just this amazing restoration and healing. And then my dad left, and that was the last time I saw him, and he ended up calling, and he ended up uh passing on from cancer. And uh, but but to have that, and then to think also not only did we receive that restoration and healing, that I'm hoping that he also would receive love that he knew he he didn't deserve, and that he would have seen Jesus in us, and that he would one day that I may see him in heaven. So, and then my mom ended up passing on, and so just having all of that happen and and and to see God's faithfulness and his his his his wisdom in his instruction, that that that his goodness, that his instruction is not for our bad, but it is for our good. And so that was what impacted me, just to know him as a good father, that you can trust him, and then in knowing that now I can hope in him, now I can I can have a life where I can trust him because I know he's good and I know he's faithful. And so that was that was the uh that was the story. It it just it just truly impacted my heart and and uh in in a way that only he could do and and and then in a place that was the probably the deepest wound that I had in my heart that he's healed, you know. So I love that.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

Praise God. Thank you, Jesus. It was the one that one simple act of obedience from you. Yeah, you know, like it nobody would have questioned you if you would have been like, no, he hasn't been a part of my life for 23 years, so I don't care if he's sick. Yeah, we'd have been like, well, I understand that, you know. Uh but you were obedient, you went anyways, and then like the gigantic ripple effect that had. Yeah. I I'm I'm gonna go ahead and be bold and believe that your dad met Jesus through that. Yeah, and just the effect it had and the reconciliation with your brothers and your mom and your dad, and all that was beautiful, all because you said yes.

SPEAKER_02 10:27

Yeah, and and that's the profound providence of God, like like his plan, like his wisdom.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

Yeah, that was all ready to go. Yeah, all you had to do is say yes.

SPEAKER_02 10:37

Say yes, yeah, and and follow. And and man, what a good shepherd, right? Jesus being a good shepherd and shepherding.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

Like you were saying earlier, man. That that makes you trust him even more.

SPEAKER_02 10:46

It does. It does.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

That's what I get for saying yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

I would never say no. Exactly. And and so we're called to hope in God. And it's father facts, like Travis said, it's father fact. When you know that father fact about him, that he is good, he's 100% faithful, he never ever is going to do something to harm you. He will work everything for your good. It's going to be difficult, yes. Life is difficult. We have those things. But to know him as a good father and right and true and just, and and and man, you you know that about him, and you know him. Um, it makes it it makes your walk with him uh a walk of love and and trust in every and all situations, you know? And he takes a knee and tells you, You're a good son. Yeah. Oh man. Amazing. And then to find that actually in the scripture, in that verse where it says, The Father will love you, and I will love you, and I will make myself known to you. So Jesus made himself known. He's a good shepherd, right? It's a good shepherd. It's just it's blessed my heart. It has blessed my heart to um to a point of overflow. It's like I just want to talk more and more about the goodness of God and what he's done. Yeah, don't stop, David. Yeah, thank you, bro.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

Thanks for being a good son.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

Yeah, thank you, man.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

Thanks for listening. I love you, man. Really good too, brother. Yep. See you soon. All right. God bless you.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

Thanks for joining us. Follow the journey. Find us at My Spirit Radio on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok for more stories of hope. Do you have a God story? We would love to hear it. Head to spirit889.com slash hope and share it with us. Links are in the show notes. All right. I'll see you next time.