The Transformation Podcast

In this week's episode, Josh Acosta and Michael Louderback are back to share a collection of miraculous stories from their street evangelism ministry. Like the stories they each shared at the end of Episode 15, these stories are very encouraging and faith-building.

The guys share multiple stories of miraculous healings, testimonies about people giving their lives to Christ in the most unlikely of circumstances and the lessons they learned from God all along the way.

As encouraging as these stories are, the most powerful theme in this episode is understanding that every follower of Christ can walk in the same power of the Holy Spirit and boldness to preach the Gospel. It all starts with believing Christ when He says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father." (John 14:12)

Followers of Christ should always remember Mark 16's promise/warning: "Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart… And he said to them, 'Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation… And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.'"

• Josh led a girl to Christ just after she was involved in an car accident with him.
• A guy was healed of carpal tunnel that Michael prayed for.
• Josh saw someone have their foot healed where the young man could not wiggle his toes for four years previous to that moment.
• A man with chronic back pain was fully healed through prayer when Michael decided to pray for him.
• Several other stories were shared, including a past evangelism encounter of Justin's.

This week's guests, Josh Acosta and Michael Louderback, both share come from hard beginnings.

Josh grew up in a dysfunctional and abusive home. He found himself addicted to drugs, alcohol, and lust as a teen. He tells the story of his mom, who was at this point a believer in Jesus, being led by the Holy Spirit to the house he was partying at one night and finding him passed out, on the brink of death. She got him to the hospital in time to save him. He continued his lifestyle, unfortunately, and felt depressed and empty.

He went from girl to girl until, one day, he found out his girlfriend of 3 months was pregnant. The two married but she didn't understand the level of his addictions. Nor did she understand his addiction to women. Soon he cheated on her. They moved to a new state. He cheated again. The marriage was over and he found himself more depressed than ever and hopeless.

By the grace of God, Josh's mother encouraged him to go to church and cry out to God. He brought his daughter to a service at a local church he'd heard about. He felt exceptionally welcomed and loved at the service and the message seemed to be tailored directly to his life.

He gave his life to Jesus, joined Celebrate recovery and today is growing strong in the Lord with an evangelism ministry.

Michael was born into a rough family. Both of his parents were distant and addicted to substances. In spite of never feeling mothered or fathered, he did what he could to teach himself how to be a man. As he got into his late teens, he found himself partying with the cool kids. Partying gave way to hanging with tougher and tougher crowds. People around him were involved in gun violence and theft.

This led him to look for a new crowd of people. He found some guys who seemed more tame than his previous crowd. It turned out these were backslidden Christians who partied but, from time to time, they were good to one another and he'd never seen that. It was through this group that he met a guy who was genuinely trying to live his faith and spoke to Michael about Jesus for the first time. Michael ended up getting connected with Martin's friend group and even moved in with a few of the guys in it. It would take years of hanging around these guys and even casually attending a Bible study with them, but eventually he had a few experiences that led him to know that God was real and the Bible was true.

The most significant thing that happened was that Michael woke up with bloody noses every morning, as a side-effect his partying lifestyle, and one day a man at the Bible study offered to pray for him. The bloody noses stopped after that moment and he never had one again. This was the shifting point for Michael. He got plugged in with a church and devoured the Scriptures.

After a while he noticed the group of friends he was hanging around were fairly lukewarm with their faith and he longed for more. The Holy Spirit spoke to him to move to another state in order to get plugged in with a specific church where people were walking out their faith with a lot of passion. Michael was obedient and moved there. At that church he encountered many miraculous works, including healings and prophecy, and this experience matured and deepened Michael's faith greatly.

Today, Michael and Josh co-lead an evangelism ministry where they witness to people on the streets and are used by God to heal people as the Spirit leads. They each share a powerful story at the end of the episode demonstrating how God is moving through the ministry.

• Michael shared a story of an old man who got healed of a health issue he'd had since he was 12 when Michael prayed for him at the mall.
• Josh shared a story of witnessing to a man from a similar background as his and the man giving his life to Christ. The man pulled out his crack pipe and through it on the ground and crushed it with his foot.
• Next week, we will be sharing part 2 which is just stories of miraculous encounters in their street ministry.

Today Pastor Brian Headrick is a passionate minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but for 24 years of his life he was a severe criminal and drug addict who estimates he may have committed over a million felonies in his lifetime.

Brian started life in a tough situation. He was the son of a single mom and was molested as a kid. He poured everything into sports but after a motorcycle accident ended his sports career at 17, he quickly fell into drugs. This, in turn, led to a life of crime in order to support his habit.

Throughout the 24 years of this sordid life, he was in and out of prison for over 50 felony convictions and arrests for hundreds more. He estimates that it was common to commit hundreds of felonies in one night as he struggled to support an incredibly expensive habit. At one point, Brian and his wife's habit cost $700/day.

After meeting his wife, the two settled down together, started a legitimate business and had kids, but after a period of time, the habit came back and this landed them both back in jail. This particular go-around was hard on Brian, as now his kids were fatherless just as he had been growing up.

This was the tilled soil God decided to use to pursue Brian. One day, not long before he was busted and sent back to jail, he heard God speak to him audibly and tell him the two paths that laid before him. When Brian found himself back in jail, God, once again, audibly spoke to Brian saying, "And this is going to be about faith." God did more than just speak to him in that moment, though, Brian felt his heart heal supernaturally. He testifies that he didn't even know how sick his heart was until God graciously reached down and healed it and he knew in that moment that all the drugs he'd ever done were to cover up the wound God just healed. He also knew, now that God had healed him, he would never get high again.

This began a seven-month journey where Brian went searching for God in every type of religion. He read the Koran, the Book of Mormon, and the Jehova's Witness writings. He attended Jewish services and Buddhist meditation hours. He didn't know anything about Jesus or Christianity. Brian just knew God spoke to him and he wanted God, Whoever He was.

During this time, God kept gently leading Brian back to the Bible–in spite of there being no Christian ministry in his jail. Finally, Brian had a supernatural encounter with the Book of James in the Bible where, through a series of circumstances, God led Brian to read this passage of scripture and then pray with faith, as it instructs. Very quickly Brian saw a miraculous answer to his prayer and knew from that time forward that the Bible was set apart as more than a mere religious text.

Eventually Brian served some of his time in the Pierce County Jail, where he began to be discipled by ministers of the Gospel. After Brian's sentence was up, he began attending a small church whose pastor recognized Brian's fire for the Lord and encouraged him to attend seminary. Brian didn't know what seminary was and had no plans to become a pastor, but was excited to spend much of his week reading the Bible, praying and worshipping. Two years into seminary, God used certain circumstances to open Brian's heart towards the idea of being a pastor and eventually led him to pastor the church he currently leads.

• Brian describes the voice of God as thundering, loud and simultaneous outside and inside him.
• The math Brian used to calculate the amount of felonies he may have committed is thus: It only takes 10 nights of committing hundreds of felonies a night to reach 1000 felonies. Over the period of 24 years of doing this night after night, this could easily add up to a million.
• Brian is the pastor of a Calvary Chapel in Tacoma, WA.
• During the same exact prison stint, God reached Brian's wife and she also became a believer. This, in spite of neither of them knowing about the other's transformation.

115 years may seem like a long time, but in many ways Christians in the Western world were facing many of the issues believers face today. This is especially true when it comes to all the distractions the wealth of the modern world brings. This period of history was just at the point when the 1st World emerged from an Agrarian, simpler way of life into an industrialized, busy way of life inundated with the distractions of materialism. So while the people of the early 20th century didn't have to worry about smartphones or Netflix, they still found plenty of distraction in drinking alcohol and attending myriad entertainment events.

Yet, there was a faithful contingent of Christ-followers in the tiny nation of Wales who dedicated themselves to fleeing the distractions of the world and seeking God in prayer, day and night. It was from this faithful place of prayer that God unleashed one of the greatest moves of His Spirit in the last few centuries. One observer described it like independent wildfires breaking out all over the entire country. It was hard for anyone to point to a specific leader who was catalyzing it. The movement just seemed to spring up on its own in the form of spontaneous prayer and testimony services in virtually every town throughout Wales.

The results are shocking to anyone finding themselves struggling with apathy or faith. 100,000 people of this tiny land gave their lives to Christ in the period of six months. Pubs were closed down because no one was buying alcohol. Judges had no cases on the books and policemen started attending the meetings out of shear curiosity of why there was no crime. Countless stories of people reconciling, forgiving, and paying back old debts are common from the revival.

Though there was no leader who catalyzed the revival, there was a young man who, in humble faith, became the pure-hearted inspiration to many in the revival. His name was Evan Roberts and in this episode we dig into his story as well as recount many of the testimonies from the inspiring time in history.

If you're curious about what revival looks like and how the Gospel can flat-out transform a society, listen along as Justin and episode guest, Jon Osterman, help each other tell the story of the revival.

• The revival meetings were always packed to the gills with people trying to climb in through windows and stand outside, if need be.
• Evan Roberts had an intense prayer life and even recounted a season of his life where he was being transported into heaven in the middle of the night.
• While preaching wasn't a central piece of this revival, Welsh Christians were historically very dedicated to reading and practicing the Bible and Bible sales greatly increased as a result of the revival.
• Interestingly, unlike the demographics of many modern Evangelical churches, the majority of the people who gave their lives to Christ in the Welsh Revival weren't women but poor, gruff, coal-mining men. Of course, many people from every walk of life, and from both genders, were touched, however.
• One testimony from the revival tells of an anonymous woman who inspired the organization of thousands of prayer groups throughout England ahead of revival meetings in London scheduled by the famous R.A. Torrey. The meetings had some fruit, but certain spiritually discerning persons understood that these prayer groups were likely the spiritual match that actually lit the Welsh revival. However, the seasoned wood, so to speak, was in the neighboring area of Wales.

Angus Musselman didn't have much of an understanding about the spiritual realm, but that all changed as he started to look into things like witchcraft and demonic activity. What seemed to Angus as a harmless curiosity about supernatural things, led to his life being turned upside down after he allowed himself to be possessed by demonic forces. This culminated in Angus becoming a terror to those around him as he had intense supernatural encounters with demons. Eventually, though, God's grace reached Angus and he was able to be freed by giving his life to Christ.

Follow along as you hear how Angus was ultimately delivered from slavery by dark forces to walking in the freedom of the light of Christ.

• Angus' dad was killed on the freeway when Angus was young.
• Angus was enticed into pursuing demonic things by promises of having "powers".
• Soon after, he began seeing terrifying phenomena at his house, including the furniture rearranging itself and demons manifesting in visual form.
• Angus visited many churches, but few knew what to do with him until he came to Justin's home church of City Central. There he found believers equipped with the knowledge to lead him into deliverance, through the power of Jesus.
• Angus was not only freed from demonic possession but was also freed from depression and having to use medication.

Erika Wilfong grew up in what many might call almost idyllic circumstances. Her loving family, who started one of the largest churches in her town, not only loved her well but set an excellent example for her. Unfortunately, instead of inheriting the real faith of her parents, she saw church, and its accompanying practices, as something to merely be good at–at least enough to put on a show for others within the church.

On the other hand, her curious personality led her off in search of that which excited her. So, in spite of having much success in beauty pageants, sports, and her academic career, Erika developed an addiction to the opiate OxyContin, and later, heroin. Over the course of seven years, she witnessed the demonic habit claim the lives of those around her while completely ruining her own.

She tried getting clean on multiple occasions, but it wasn't until getting pregnant through her drug-dealing boyfriend and landing in prison for numerous felony convictions, that she was forced to encounter the true faith that she missed as a child. It was this trust in Jesus that finally freed her from her tragic addiction and, in the process, gave her the fulfillment she had been looking for all along. Along the way, Jesus showed her her that her true value and identity are rooted in Him.

In this episode, Erika also details several miracles the Lord worked in the process of delivering her from the demonic clutches of drugs and even some of the tragic consequences of her sin. The God of Grace is on full display as Erika joyfully proclaims all that God has done in and for her.

• This episode is filled with countless spiritual insights from Erika's life and she delivers them with God-given enthusiasm.
• Erika was Miss Greater Tacoma and competed for Miss Seafair.
• She wants to start a non-profit called "A Diamond's Worth" focused on reaching and mentoring adolescent women
• Erika's great uncle received one of the only public processions ever given to a Westerner in Calcutta, India, to mourn his death because of the large humanitarian ministry he started there. The only other person to receive such an honor was Mother Theresa.
• Today, Erika is a wife and mother to three beautiful children

Today, Dr. Ted Roberts leads a ministry that has impacted over a million men, but it was a long climb–and required a healthy dose of God's grace–to get to that point. Growing up with an alcoholic mom and being at the mercy of seven abusive stepfathers, Dr. Roberts was full of pain but no godly wisdom for knowing what to do with it. He determined to make something of himself in the world's eyes and eventually found himself flying missions in Vietnam as an elite fighter pilot for the Marines.

Yet, this endeavor didn't bring healing. It wasn't until he found Christ in the midst of a Vietcong rocket attack that healing truly came. The next day after he had given his life to Christ, he was miraculously saved from a Vietcong ambush in his fighter plane. The Lord spoke to the young Roberts and telling him that He protected him because Ted had given his life to Christ the night before.

Over the course of the next season of his life, God freed him from many vices, including sexual addiction. Later, God would use him to lead many out of their own addictions.

Some years later, he was led into the ministry where he reluctantly took over a dying church with orders from his denominational supervisors to shut it down. The church was millions of dollars behind in their building payment. God tole Ted that he would miraculously pay it off within a year and almost to the hour, it was paid off. 10 years later, the church was thriving at 7,000 people, 85% of which were new believers in Jesus. At the heart of this miniature revival was a healing ministry where a 1/3 of the participants had no background with church. Great numbers of people gave their lives to Christ as they found healing from the brokenness that had plagued their lives. These people were encountering the truth of God for the first time, while finding tangible, and eternal, freedom.

These days, Dr. Ted leads Pure Desire Ministries, where he councils pastors away from sexual bondage. He also is featured as the main teacher in the Conquer Series, which has impacted the lives of countless men, giving them freedom from pornography addiction and sexual bondage. Listen to this week's episode to hear the inspiring details of this godly man's life!

• Dr. Roberts also developed Seven Pillars of Freedom, an in-depth character-development program for men.
• Ted and his wife have been married over 50 years! His wife "Went fishing" for him in college: after noticing him on campus, she began to strategically plan her schedule around his.
• Jeremy Wiles, the producer of the Conquer Series, called Dr. Roberts out of the blue, saying he was the only one that Jeremy could find that seemed to have an effective understanding for how men can get free of sexual addiction. The Conquer Series was born.
• 1/3 of internet traffic is porn-related, but the Conquer Series is helping countless men make a break from the patterns of the world.
• A funny story from Dr. Ted's first experience praying in public as a young believer took place at his wife's women's bible study. Not knowing any better, he spoke the prayer, "Whatever the hell you want us to do, we're ready." The women were gracious in response.

God's providence was clearly shown in Derrick Rhayn's life from the moment he left the womb and was good as dead. Miraculously, Derrick, being a twin, was not only six weeks past his due date, but, being a twin, was well past when twins are expected to leave the womb. This turned out to be God's sovereign grace as Derrick left his mother's womb deprived of oxygen and the hospital he was at wasn't equipped to help him. Yet the hospital's new building, which was equipped to help him and due to open in two days, was able to be utilized to help him.

In spite of both this miracle and his Catholic upbringing, Derrick would end up pursuing spirituality in almost every form except the Way of Jesus. This ultimately led Derrick to severe spiritual bondage, demonic oppression and, finally, possession.

Yet God's explicit pursuit of Derrick didn't end with the miraculous circumstances surrounding his birth. Over the course of seven years, God revealed Himself to Derrick in the series of three supernatural dreams. Each dream featured a different member of the Trinity until finally Derrick had encountered Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

That these revelations were the grace of God, was made even more evident because, in the meantime, Derrick had jumped in headfirst into the New Age movement and, as a result of the demonic foundations of such practices, Derrick became possessed by demonic spirits. The demons forced him to do self-harming and crazy things until Derrick finally found himself calling out to Jesus. The demons left him immediately, but it wasn't until Derrick had the third and final dream that he finally understood what he was missing all along: encountering the Word of God, repenting of his sin, and acknowledging the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

This is a special episode because podcast host, Justin Mayfield, had the honor of being a part of Derrick's testimony over the period of several years. Listen along as you hear not only Derrick's incredible, God-glorifying story but also the mistakes made and lessons learned as Justin helped lead Derrick to Christ.

• Justin and Derrick initially did community development work together while Derrick was the president of Go Local, Tacoma's buy local organization.
• Derrick was a Quaker for five years, but as Quaker's generally don't emphasize the Bible, Derrick wasn't able to come to a knowledge of the Truth of the Gospel through them.
• The Devil oppressed Derrick into trying to take his life by crash head first into a utility pole on the freeway, but God miraculously protected him from being hurt.
• Jesus told Derrick that He wanted him to give his life to Him in the dream and Derrick told Justin this but Justin totally missed the opportunity to preach the Gospel because of shame in his life.
• Next time, Justin was ready when Derrick called him to do spiritual warfare over Derrick's apartment. Justin much more clearly (but not perfectly) proclaimed Derrick's need to repent of idol worship and acknowledge the Lordship of Christ.

DeQuin Evans started on the streets of Compton as a gang-banger and quickly found himself in juvenile detention. What DeQuin didn't know is that he was destined to meet someone in that prison that would forever altar the course of his life. That someone? None other than Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who was filming a movie in that same prison. Through one conversation, he inspired DQ (DeQuin's preferred name) to work hard to achieve something of value in the world. So, in spite of having no football experience, DQ went to work to become a football star and, after a few years of grueling hard work, found himself on a bonafide NFL roster.

But there was still more to his destiny. After a few seasons of putting in his dues on the Cincinatti Bengals' roster, DQ had the opportunity to be featured on HBO's Hard Knocks. This seemed like a blessing initially, but as the season was airing, it was announced that DQ had been suspended for the use of performance enhancing drugs, or PED's. As we find out in this episode, the story wasn't what it seemed like to the average fan and that meant that the magnifying glass of Hard Knocks only amplified the backlash on social and traditional media outlets. Perhaps the worst part was that DQ had to go without a large portion of his seasonal paycheck as a result of his suspension.

Yet, his destiny had one more important development which would reveal itself to be what this entire saga was leading to all along: DQ encountered the person of Jesus Christ and in Him, found the salvation he had been striving for throughout his storied life.

Listen along as you hear about DQ's hardships as a gangbanger, his encounter with The Rock, the details of his PED use, and finally, his encounter with the Lord of Glory, Himself, Jesus.

• With only a few years of football experience, DQ found himself as the #15 defensive end in college football.
• DQ's wife is Jenna Evans (née Martin), who competed in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.
• DQ and his wife recently had a baby and before that they fostered his sibling's children.
• DQ and Jenna gave up a beautiful Florida beach community to live in the rainy (and beautiful!) PNW. DQ recounts it took some convincing for his wife to sign on to moving into a historically rough neighborhood but they ultimately felt God led them there.

It's probably no exaggeration to say that C.T. Studd was the Babe Ruth of England. He was more than a generational talent within his sport of choice, Cricket. Yet, he shocked the world and sparked a revival when he announced he was leaving it all behind to become a missionary to China with Hudson Taylor's famous China Inland Mission.

What resulted from this decision was a life of hardship and suffering, on one hand, and Spirit-fueled endurance and inspiration to countless believers, on the other. From China to India and finally the Heart of the African Congo, C.T. was faithfully devoted to pursuing the call of Christ to preach the Gospel wherever he may be sent.

He did all of this without any fundraising and he solely trusted God for provision--in spite of having been a millionaire who had given away his large inheritance. Along the way, he would also have to endure countless exotic diseases, like ongoing bouts with Malaria, and tolls on his health. He even endured the loss of children, but God seemed to always provide just what he needed to make it through to the next season.

There were surely a lot of ups and downs in C.T.'s life, but one thing is clear: when the curtain was drawn for his time on the Earth, it could be said that C.T. finished the race, to have fought the good fight of the faith. He died surrounded by thousands of African believers who had devoted their lives to Christ as a result of C.T.'s own devotion to Christ.

Today, the organization he left behind is still responsible for sending thousands of full-time missionaries into the field. He also leaves behind a legacy every believer in Jesus will greatly benefit from knowing more about. In this episode, Justin sits down with discipleship trainer, Scotty Kessler, to talk about the life of one of the modern era's greatest missionaries.

• C.T.'s dad was converted to faith by famous 19th century evangelist, D.L. Moody.
• C.T. gave away the equivalent of over five million dollars in today's money, which he had inherited from his rich father.
• The Moody Bible Institute was started with money donated from C.T.'s inheritance.
• C.T.'s life story is a who's who of late 19th-century, early 20th century Christian preachers and missionaries. George Mueller, General Booth and other Salvation Army leaders, Amy Carmichael, D.L. Moody and Hudson Taylor all played a role in C.T.'s life.
• "Wuzza" is a reference to a bad joke Justin made in the episode about C.T.'s nickname being C.T. "Wuzza" Studd.