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Music Credit
Artist = Alice In Winter
Song = Hold This Place and licensed through soundstripe
https://app.soundstripe.com/songs/2304
AlongTheWay Links
- Join My Email List
- Become a Patreon https://www.patreon.com/AlongTheWay
- More episodes and Social links for AlongTheWay
- Watch episodes of My TV show RealLife & HopeToday
- START YOUR OWN PODCAST JOURNEY!
https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=220590
Welcome to along the way. This is John Maeda. As your host, and fellow traveler, I am grateful to have a good friend back with us on the podcast. And I want to talk to you today about encountering the Holy Spirit and encountering God in a new way. And I want to encourage you, as we're going through this podcast to just be ready to kind of engage and see what God is doing in your life. As Joshua Marsan, Gil and I are going to be talking and just a little bit, he's going to provide a way for you to have an encounter with the Lord that is very unique. But it is very purposeful. His podcast is something that I've been helping him with. I work now for charisma media, and the podcast network here that the charisma Podcast Network, and we've been interacting. And so I've been listening to his podcast. And I have been blessed by this, this ministry that he has, where he's going through the Bible, and he's reading it, and he has some prophetic music happening in the background. And we're gonna sample a little bit about that in this episode. But I want you to grab a pen and a paper, get ready to write down some notes. But I really want you to engage with the concept of having an encounter with the Holy Spirit, right where you are. So before this day is over, I want you to when you're listening to this, I want you to maybe check out one of his episodes, and then go through it, go through that. And then I want to hear back from you. I want to see how you've been able to have an encounter with the Holy Spirit. And just reach out to me, John along the way@gmail.com. And I'd love to hear how you are putting some of these things into practice. And that's enough about talking about what I want you to do. But what I want you to do right now is to meet my friend, Joshua Marcinko, who has been on the podcast before he was episode 47, when he talked about his book encounters, pressing into the abundant supply of heaven. And today, we're actually going to have an encounter ourselves. So Joshua, it's great to have you back on the way my friend.
Josh Marcengill:Thanks so much, John, it's really an honor always man,
John Matarazzo:give us a brief summary of what inspired you to start your abundant encounters podcast. Because as I was listening to it, I'm like, this is different than somebody just speaking into a microphone. This is different than somebody having an interview, which I enjoyed both of those things, you're doing something a little bit different. And some people might think it's a little strange, but kind of set it up and frame it. And the reason I'm saying it might be a little strange is just because it's different. And people need to kind of go into it with an open mind. Yeah, but being submitted to the Holy Spirit in the process. Could you tell us about that?
Josh Marcengill:Yeah, thanks so much. Yeah, the whole word even encounters is a little strange. I told the Lord when He called me into this mystery. I'm like, this is a little. But I think, you know, it's a good thing in a way because you know, we need to stretch ourselves towards the Lord, you know, he's got so much for us, we want to make sure that we open our heart fully to him. And meditation is nothing new. And that's, that's a little bit of what this is encounters. The way I define them. Any moment that is real, that you know that that you know that you know that God is like real, those, those are definitely qualified as encounters no matter how big or small. And as Christians, we have the opportunity to steward those to practice those in any way we can. And the word is our resource. I mean, God is abundant. He is not short on encounters, he's got tons for us, daily or encounters was the way Jesus showed us to live with with God, we want to see what he's doing want to hear what he's saying. And so it's definitely a big invitation to all Christians. And there's so many ways to do this. But the Lord definitely showed me this this way, personally. And then I started to develop it as a podcast, I really wanted to do something that was where I didn't talk about it as much, but just really gave people an opportunity. So it's what it's lacking in theology, hopefully, you can find in your own church or, you know, and all that kind of stuff. But what, but what I hope I'm doing is really just providing an opportunity for you to get an intimacy fix with the Father.
John Matarazzo:Yeah. And so I just want to take a step back real quick, because you said a word that has been throw or that through some people that were listening and you said meditation. Now, meditation has had a negative connotation. Okay, negative understanding because people just think of meditation as something that they do in yoga, or Buddhism or some of those Eastern religions. But meditation actually has biblical roots to it. Could you dive into that a little bit.
Josh Marcengill:You know, David was a big meditator. He's a He meditated on on God and the things that he did on testimonies on precepts, and on the things of God on on the ways of God on his identity, the way he had revealed Himself to Him. And so we actually get a lot of meditation, there's a big difference, though, the difference. The short version is meditation from like Buddhist perspective, or something like that is about emptying yourself out. And God's meditations about filling yourself up, like you're absolutely trying to take a big drink of the Holy Spirit.
John Matarazzo:So am I understanding this correctly, that meditation that you see on Eastern religions, that's emptying yourself, which is really a counterfeit of what God's plan is for meditation? Because we're supposed to meditate on the Word of God? We're supposed to meditate on this, on this Book of the Law Day and night, I believe that's in Joshua, yeah, do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth, meditate upon it day and night. And so you know, that's a command. And just because another religion does that, you know, or does something that looks like that externally. They are trying to empty themselves where we are trying to meditate on the Word of God and fill ourselves with that. And so that's what you're doing with your encounters podcast, where it's not just nice sayings that you are doing. You're saying, and you're presenting, or I don't even know what would be the best way to describe that. But you take people through the Bible.
Josh Marcengill:Yeah, you know, it's real simple, like with the Bible, we have this opportunity to, you know, increase our hearing, and increase our faith all at the same time by hearing comes faith and hearing. And so, you know, with that opportunity, then, you know, my podcasts, we just go into an activation from there, so a little teaching, and then an activation, and that gives you the opportunity to engage with the Lord, ask him real questions. There's a lot of different forms of this contemplative prayer. And so asking Lord questions is just good practice. This is a relationship that we're invited into. So and we're all Christians, Christians have a right to hear from the father. It's really important. I mean, and thankfully, we're all invited to do that, as Christians, you know, whatever we can do to try to engage in that. And steward it is, I think, very important.
John Matarazzo:Yeah, it is very important, especially in this day and age where we have social media, we've got our cell phones, we've gotten just dings and notifications, and everything, trying to pull our attention away from focusing in on God. There's so many distractions throughout our day, that that's why I love your podcast, because if you just take the however long it is, you know, 1520 minutes, half an hour, some of them, you just take that time, sit quietly, focus on the Lord, focus on the Word of God, which you read from the Bible, read a passage from the Bible, you're not making up something. It's not just a feel good. You know, thing about yourself. It's a passage from the Bible. And then you do these activations explain a little bit about those activations? And what that looks like, what that sounds like. And yeah, what does somebody do about
Josh Marcengill:it? So a lot of my background is in inner healing. So zone is real, you know, kind of my battle history and stuff like that. But so so just
John Matarazzo:to explain a little bit, yeah. A little bit deeper.
Josh Marcengill:Yeah. So soza just means it's a it's a type of counseling, but the word is a Greek word, it means saved, healed, and delivered all in the same word. And it was used frequently in the New Testament, and the Greek. So Jesus used it. And, you know, a lot of times, and so it's just a powerful word, but it describes the ministry, the ministry is also facilitation. And it brings different tools from different inner healing ministries together to one place so that you basically walk people through prayer, where they're in gauging with the Father, or with Jesus, or with Holy Spirit, intentionally, and asking questions, and sometimes like, if they've got hurts or, you know, things in their past, then it's just a great way to help encourage them to have the conversation that maybe they haven't had. SOS is great at that. And thankfully, I've had, I've had a lot of history with so and so I just, I've always felt like this is a great way to activate people just to have encounters with God. And I've seen people in these sessions and these counseling sessions again, and again, just be you know, have these very real and wild encounters and a mic. This works. Why wouldn't we take it out of the counseling room and put it on a podcast so that people could just do it in the privacy of their home? They didn't even have to do that scary thing for some some have us to even go and actually see the counselor they could, they could just practice it at home. And the best part to me is that it gives them a real opportunity to have a real encounter with God.
John Matarazzo:When you say encounter with God, what does that mean? Because I know that that I know what it means for me, but what does it mean for you? And what does it mean for our listeners,
Josh Marcengill:so I've had a lot of encounters, the Lord saved me with encounters. I was an atheist, I won't go all into my, my testimony, but I was an atheist. And so number one in my heart was I did not think God was real, and had about 120 different ways to prove it to you intellectually and all that kind of stuff, you know. And so when God came into my life, he actually used a, an open vision, which was a little bit like in your face, I'm real. And so I had a lot of moments like that, where god went overboard to, you know, come out of the Holy of Holies, through the torn curtain, and come and get his son, which just, you know, I'm so blessed to be that son that he wanted and came after me. And obviously, he convinced me about that for so many others. But so big encounters our encounters, obviously, those are the ones that we're used to. But even the little tingles on the back of your neck that let you know that you know, just something's happening. Sometimes that can be God, or, you know, just any any little moment that where you're just recognizing what God's in the room, you know, right now is important. You know, all those kind of serendipitous, or whatever you want to use, it doesn't matter. Those Those moments are, are actually God communicating with us. And if we begin to pay attention, then there's a lot, we can unpack those and begin to really seal a lot more. Does that help?
John Matarazzo:Oh, yeah, that definitely does. I mean, that connects with the theme of this along the way podcast, and yeah, you know, the disciples were walking with Jesus, but had no clue that it was him until they love that table. And, you know, they, Jesus placed, bless the food, breaks the bread, and then poof, he's gone. Right, and Luke 2432, they turned to each other instead weren't our hearts burning within us along the way. So the whole purpose of this podcast, I hope that everybody that listens to this gets this point is that those moments happen in our lives all the time. But sometimes we are just too busy in the moment to realize that Jesus really is right there with us. And so as we look back, we learn from that, and hopefully, the next time we have those moments, we're more aware of it. And that's exactly what you're talking about. You're talking about being more aware of, hey, that that person that you met, that was you know, God was speaking through them, or that feeling that you had, God was trying to get your attention that way. Not that that feeling is God, but God's trying to get your attention, God's letting you know that he's there. And I think this is something that I kind of want to spend a little bit of time talking about, before we go into one of your biblical guided meditation moments. You know, just try to set that up so that anybody's still stumbling over this meditation thing. You know, that's what we really want to kind of get into. But you're saying that God wants to be involved with us every day. God is not far off. God is right here with us. We need to be aware of him. Could you just talk about our relationship with God, and how we really need to just invite him to be involved in our lives in a deeper way than we are? Because that's if you don't look at God and say that he's involved in our lives, then it's hard to say that he can have us totally saved, delivered and made a whole with this whole SOS Oh thing, because God's not far off. He's right. Yeah.
Josh Marcengill:I mean, you know, the good news like is legitimately that, you know, death isn't our Savior. I think, Georgia and Allah says that or something, but it's so inspires me. It's true. It's like, we're not waiting for death. There's actually a whole life and adventure that's available in this life. And we need the Lord we need real moments with him to be able to live that out with Jesus left us with was a connection to the Father that that so strategically decided how he was going to get back into our lives. I mean, you know, there wasn't another there wasn't a Plan B wanted to be with us, you know. And so in engaging in this lifestyle of like, knowing the father, you know, everything else ends up being secondary, but in an approachable way, like in a practical way, like intimacy with the Father is every kind of spirit, spiritual warfare tool you need. Like if you can get close to God, then things will fall off if you crooked places will be made straight. You know, our eyes will begin to see the glory of the Lord in the land of the living and the goodness of God everywhere we look like things that we looked at before, like literally looked at people We knew, and God will reveal them in a new way. And we'll, we'll open up to the idea of God's kingdom being advanced in this time in this place all around us. And through us, no matter what we're doing, whether we're a minister, or we're out there, you know, as a business man or woman, and anywhere we are in life, and in our sphere, with our friends, people, we know, we get empowered, we get equipped, these are real tools, like what God is giving us is what's available in heaven, you know, what we get here on Earth as a fallen reality, but but heavens full of life, and it's full of peace and for, you know, just like health and well being, and there's, you know, Jesus's physical body that he took up there didn't have like cancer, you know, what I mean? So, what we have access to, from my heavenly perspective is, is so much and encounters do deliver that kind of stuff to us. I mean, you know, I've had encounters where I fell out on the floor, and, and, you know, all that kind of wonderful stuff. And, and God would do like a little surgery on me. And he would, and I'd come up with more than I could contain, you know, where before, maybe I didn't even have enough to kind of get through the next day. And, and then all of a sudden, I'm so full, I've got enough to give somebody else and that's, that's the supply of heaven. That's the economy of heaven. There's so much available, and God is trying to get it to a sons and daughters through encounters, anything that we want to talk about, it's actually it's really common subject matter for the church to talk about. Like I said, God chose this spooky word. I think he just wanted to, like, get people's attention or something. And, you know, I remember having these conversations with him, like, Can we do something else? And he's like, No, Josh, just use this word. And that sweet relationship that I share with him, like, let me know, through confirmation after confirmation. Even my editor, like, you know, this is really about encounters, you've got to stick with this word. So I was like, okay. But yeah, I mean, encounters are living life with God,
John Matarazzo:that's awesome. Living life with God is so important. And that's where we all want to be. And, you know, if you haven't had an encounter with the Lord yet, I just want you to prepare, be prepared for what Josh is going to take us through in just a moment. And so, you know, unless you're driving, you know, I want you to make sure that you really just enjoy this, you know, take, take some time, close your eyes, and let Josh kind of guide you on a, on a short journey with the Lord. And if you are driving, re listen to this. And you know, but I want to hear back from you what it is that God has done in you, as a result of taking time to put God first and let Him lead you in a journey with him. So, Josh, could you just take some take some time and lead us through the word? Yeah,
Josh Marcengill:I want to read actually, from Colossians. Three, this is one of my favorite scriptures. And I'll I just I love what God is asking us to do right here, but I'll read it to start us off. So Christ's resurrection is your resurrection to this is why we are to yearn for all that is above. True, that's where Christ sits and thrown at the place of all power, honor and authority. Yes, based on all the treasures of the heavenly realm, and fill your thoughts with heavenly realities, and not with the distractions of the natural realm. And I'm gonna stop there. But this is a beautiful invitation and kind of sums up what we've been talking about, there's a feast available. And, and if you can take some time now, it just makes it easier sometimes when we close our eyes. And it's helpful to understand that our we have the mind of Christ in this context, like this is where we get to engage with the sanctified imagination of Jesus Christ, like it is a safe place if it's with you and him. You know, so make this between you and him make it relational connect with him. And you know, like in that those inner healing sessions, a lot of times we will have people imagine themselves in a safe place. So it's really helpful to do that. So just imagine yourself in a safe place, imagine yourself just being there smelling the place like feeling the place hearing the place, maybe it's the ocean, maybe it's the mountains you know, all great places to me, but the Father meet with Jesus, and then invite Jesus into to, to be there. And take a look at him and, and see what you can see and try to connect with the image that you see maybe At speaking to you, maybe he's already talking to you about something. And take advantage of that. John had mentioned having a notebook, this is a great place to take some notes. Then we're going to start with this beautiful. This is like what I'd call a centering question. But ask Jesus, Jesus, what do you think of me? And allow him to answer just don't? Don't answer for him. Don't Don't think about try to fit in 1000 scriptures in there. Just allow him to answer maybe he'll use scripture. But just give him a second now to answer that question, what Jesus, what do you think of me? Amazing, and maybe you just heard something really, really, really important. I mean, he is the keeper of identity has so much to say to us. Just make sure you write that down steward that I just want to encourage you. And based on the scripture that we read, I want you to ask Jesus, Jesus, will you take me to heavenly places, let me look around in heavenly places. And begin to allow him to utilize your imagination, allow the influence of Holy Spirit to come in, utilize your imagination, to see heavenly things. Now this might be the throne room, it might be something I would encourage you to remember and utilize scripture. You know, angels are present the great cloud of witnesses as an option, all of those options, but just have the Lord kind of take you through a little bit and show you around in heaven. you're seated in heavenly places. And you know, remember that this is your your there, your you know, I mean, as hard as it is for our minds to understand the reality is we are in heavenly places. So begin to engage with that reality through the sanctified imagination. And this is powerful, because from this heavenly perspective, and this is the tool I want to leave you with today as you can look back at any situation you're dealing with right now, from that heavenly perspective. And, and begin to ask for the internal you know, what's what's happening with me right now, especially, it's a really hard place that you're just something that you're tired of dealing with that's kinda in there that's just been, you know, non achoo, or any torment or anything like that, let's just call it that anything like that, that you've been dealing with? This is an opportunity to look down on that thing from a clean place. There. Remember, this is so cool, like you're in heavenly places, guess who's not there? Yeah, that's, that's the enemy. That's the evil one, the accuser of the brethren there, all the all the sisters, too, he likes to accuse you. He's not in heavenly places, but you are. So engaging with that reality can be a very powerful way to get past any of the nonsensical accusations that just feel real when you're on in earthly realities. So, so this is a powerful tool that you're going to want to keep with you, and engage with regularly.
John Matarazzo:Josh, I love this type of ministry. Further the for one of the main reasons is that it causes us to step back and not rely on our own strength. Now rely, it helps us to focus in on what God is doing. And even though we're imagining some of those things, I love how you said that allow God to use your imagination as a tool. Yes. I haven't thought about that that way before. Come on. No, we think about imagination as like a vain imagination, right? But didn't God give us the gift of imagination, he could give us that creativity? Yeah. And so if that's already in us, and God can use that for His glory, now, of course, always submit things to the Word of God. And you know, if you, you know, once you writing things down, and I encourage you to write those things down, then go back to the Word of God and say, okay, where does God Where does the Bible confirm what God's saying? Because all of his promises are, yes, and amen. So this should line up with what God's word has already said. And, yes, if you're getting something that is a word that you're not sure about, ask somebody about it. You know, talk to a close friend about that. Talk to somebody that knows you. That's yeah, spirit filled, and they, they can hear the voice of God to just to kind of bounce it off of them and confirm it with them. So what what Josh has just talked us through, I'm just blessed by it. Because you know, I love that how, when we're in heavenly places, the devil can't be there. The accuser can't be there. I'm just sitting here listening to you do this. And as we're recording this, we don't have the music playing that add that and post. And so but that's something that you always do for your podcast. And it's just peaceful. And it helps people kind of just like King David did well before he was King David whenever Saul was attacking him. But David was the one that would, would come in and play his heart for King Saul, and that would calm down the tormenting spirits that were on him. And so that music does that. And Josh started with the Word of God, and then he just kind of led us through some guided prayer time. It's not that difficult. But when we do it, and we step back from everything else that we're busy with, and we can see God do something in us that we wouldn't necessarily see until we realize wasn't God revealing the Scriptures to us back there along the way. So, but yes, this is awesome, man.
Josh Marcengill:I like Thanks, John. And well said, Yeah, I know, for some of us, we just jump right in. And I want to encourage you keep at it, like, if you got a little taste, you taste and see, like, keep going, you know, seek and you will find like, that's the truth, that really is a reality. And you can live every single day with the presence of God, and no matter what you're doing, and he just has so much to reveal to each one of us uniquely, to live our lives with him. It's It's so good. He's a good father,
John Matarazzo:a man, he is a good father, and he wants us to live in His presence. That's God's not far off that he, you know, we need to stay at arm's length. He wants us to be right there with him. And that is such an amazing promise that He has for us. And Josh, how can people find out about your podcast? How do people find me, you're on the charisma Podcast Network. And that's how we are working together. And we were just talking a couple of weeks ago, and I said, I want to feature you on along the way, because I'm going through something right now that I need this type of ministry, I need God to speak to me in this intimate way. And it's been a blessing to me, and I want it to be a blessing to other people. So how do people get connected to your, to your podcast into your ministry?
Josh Marcengill:Well definitely find the podcast, it'll help you practice more. And there's so many tools that we put in there, my wife and I. And we also have a website, abundant encounters.com. And there's other tools there and we have a cause guys, God has called us to help the body of Christ have more encounters, like reach Christians, for Christ, kind of like grahamcooke always says, I love that because that's, that's just been my heart and the heart that the Lord gave me for this project, like, every single believer can have more the father, he's not holding back from any one of us. So you know, I just I hope this can help you. But yeah, there's a bunch of tools on there some counseling tools, too. I love doing so is a have a bunch of different versions on there. And encounter Soto is one that will help specifically work with you over zoom or a phone call. And, you know, we help you have a real encounter with God, you know, you can a lot of people walk away from those having had their first real encounter that they can confirm within their own heart. And they just feel like yes, I really had an encounter.
John Matarazzo:That's cool. So you've got some great resources. And I'll be putting your website in the show notes here. But what could you just say the website address one more time?
Josh Marcengill:Abundant.
John Matarazzo:encounters.com, abundant encounters.com. That's and your book encounters is really good, amazing stories in there. This one story which you shared in the last time you're on the Podcast, episode 47, which I will put a link for that also in the show notes. But you talked about this amazing story of you taking Jesus out to dinner, or him taking you out to dinner, whatever it was exactly. I just remember the context of it and what happened there. And that's pretty cool. It's very unique. And it's not limited to just you, and your podcast is all about helping people experience God in a new way. You really, in a way that God wants us to experience him because we get out of the way and we let him yeah, do what he wants to do in us.
Josh Marcengill:We got to break those boxes, man any way we can, you know, and so that's I hope that if we put God in a box, let's get him out of that thing. You know, more God than we need so much that we can give it away, you know?
John Matarazzo:Amen. Amen. Well, this has been a fun episode of along the way a little bit different. We're going to highlight one of our charisma Podcast Network hosts and just what you're doing and this has been fun, you know, how we can work together for the kingdom of God through podcasting. I love it. Absolutely love it. And I just want to encourage everybody, you know, take that time, write down what God did, and I would love to hear about it. You can go to my Facebook page and respond to that, or, you know, email me at John along the way@gmail.com I'm sure Josh has ways to get in touch with him on his through his website, but didn't want to hear back from you take that time. This is your homework assignment, take that time, spend that time with Jesus love that encounter, and just write down what with what he says. And, you know, give me some feedback, I want to hear that because I care about that stuff. And I want to be able to pray for you, and minister to the best way that I can, and encourage you in your walk with the Lord. Because as we are trying to develop our relationship, you know, I'm just a fellow traveler in this world, in this podcast, and I'm on this journey, and everybody that I talked to, I believe God has imparted something into them that is valuable. And as we talk and as we have these conversations that we can pull that out, and we can learn from each other and grow closer to God along the way. So Josh, it's great to have you back on along the way. Thank you for a nice join you along your way.
Josh Marcengill:Thank you, John. So great, man.
John Matarazzo:Thank you for listening to along the way. If you've enjoyed joining me along my way, please share this with a friend who you think will be encouraged by this podcast. Also, please rate and review along the way on iTunes that helps more people discover along the way. And subscribe to this podcast wherever you're listening. You can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and through my website along the way dot media. I hope that you've enjoyed this part of my journey. And may you realize when Jesus is walking with you along your way. Along the way is honored to be part of the charisma Podcast Network. You can find tons of spirit filled content for their vast catalogue of podcasts, including my Monday through Friday news stories for the charisma news podcast. Go to CPN shows.com To see the full list and latest episodes