In this conversation, David Doty and Michael Mishkin explore the complexities of discernment in understanding truth, particularly in the context of faith, politics, and societal issues. They discuss the importance of a true relationship with God, the challenges posed by modern media, and the necessity of critical thinking in navigating current events. The dialogue emphasizes the need for individuals to seek God's perspective and to be aware of the deceptive nature of the world around them. In this conversation, David Doty and Michael Mishkin explore the complexities of faith, the accuracy of scripture, and the challenges posed by secular education. They emphasize the importance of seeking truth, personal transformation, and the need for humility in understanding God's word. The discussion critiques modern church practices and highlights the necessity of genuine devotion to God and community. Ultimately, they encourage listeners to hear God's voice and obey His guidance in their lives.
takeaways
* Discernment is crucial in understanding truth from God's perspective.
* Many people follow a false gospel that does not lead to true transformation.
* A true relationship with God involves hearing His voice and being led by the Spirit.
* The media often presents a distorted view of reality, requiring critical thinking.
* Understanding current events requires a deep relationship with God and discernment.
* The concept of freedom is often an illusion in modern society.
* Gender identity issues are viewed through a biblical lens as a distortion of God's design.
* Many people are unaware of the true nature of their reality, living in a 'cesspool'.
* The importance of questioning mainstream narratives and seeking the truth.
* Good intentions do not guarantee a place in heaven; alignment with God's will is essential. The accuracy of scripture is often questioned due to various translations and interpretations.
* Seeking truth requires a genuine desire to know God and His word.
* Personal transformation is essential for understanding and accepting faith.
* Secular education can challenge one's beliefs and understanding of scripture.
* Many churches today fail to equip believers with a strong foundation in faith.
* The importance of personal experience in understanding God's truth cannot be overstated.
* Humility is key in recognizing one's need for God and His guidance.
* Modern church practices often stray from biblical teachings and community involvement.
* Understanding God's purpose requires a commitment to His ways and teachings.
* Hearing God's voice is crucial for spiritual growth and obedience.
Transcript:
David Doty (00:01.849)
Privacy was set to only me like you know And I think it's probably because I was messing around I was testing it at one point and I Set it to where I was like no wonder nobody's watching on Facebook like not a single like zero Not even my mom, which is weird. Usually at least my mom would you know see?
Michael Mishkin (00:24.706)
Mm-hmm.
David Doty (00:29.593)
Let's see, it says that we're live. We're live on YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn. I'm gonna try to get the Facebook. Check the privacy. Got Michael Mishkin, David Doty.
Michael Mishkin (00:50.626)
can see if it's on my phone.
David Doty (00:53.133)
Yeah. Edit audience. I'm going to make it public.
David Doty (01:00.963)
There we go.
And we're going to go live. We're to talk about some fun stuff today that's going to make some people.
feel great about everything. It's gonna be fun. All right.
So we'll see. We got YouTube working. And we'll see. We'll see if anybody joins and maybe if people have some questions.
Michael Mishkin (01:36.334)
Alright.
So you wanted to discuss proper discernment. How do we know if we're really discerning?
David Doty (01:48.409)
How do we know if we're discerning truth, right? Because, right, from God, because you all have an opinion, I'll have an opinion, maybe you're right and I'm wrong, but if we both think we're right, we're not gonna be able to come together in unity. And Jesus prayed, we all have one, right? We all have one. So there's a gentleman,
Michael Mishkin (01:51.822)
from God.
Michael Mishkin (02:01.762)
Mm-hmm.
We know the old adage about opinions, right?
David Doty (02:16.3)
people close down here will know who I'm talking about probably. And I don't think he'd mind me even saying his name, but I won't say his name. There's a gentleman who goes to our home church who
David Doty (02:29.795)
I don't mind he, I don't think he would even mind me saying that he hates President Trump.
And when I first was getting to know this guy, maybe the second time I met him, he kind of went there and politically said, I just, I can't stand this man. And I was like, are you a Democrat? He said, no, like he, you he was, he was very conservative. We haven't talked in detail. I think my suspicion is he heard some of those old tapes about.
things that Trump said, you know, the whole locker room talk stuff. He probably watches the news and has heard some of these quotes and how, like, you know, I I don't know. I don't know if he watches the news, but I think he's gotten some sources that would, for whatever reason, he's a very godly spirit filled man. That's my point though. He's a spirit filled man who loves the Lord.
He's very wise as I've gotten to know him. He's become a very close friend. learned so much from him. And yet on this specific issue, we would disagree wildly on a lot of stuff. And so I'm going, how do I reconcile this gentleman?
with my position, like, am I wrong? Is he wrong? Are we both wrong? And then, you know, we have these Facebook conversations or social media, like, you know, I'll put something out there. Different people, people I know who are even pastors will comment on some of my stuff, and I feel like they're trolling me. I mean, I get more flack from other Christians.
David Doty (04:31.021)
than I do from Democrats on a lot of stuff. And I'm not overly political, but I'm a seeker of truth. And so maybe it would be helpful to have a conversation with you today about like, how do we determine or discern what God's will is and what God's opinion is on stuff? What's right in God's eyes versus your eyes or mine?
Michael Mishkin (04:57.272)
Well, first thing we'll have to say in all of this is we're not here to defend Trump. This is not our idol. don't, you know, at any point he could become Mr. Evil and do horrible things. It still remains to be seen, you know, if all the things he said will even come about. But we're not here to say, yeah, this is the man of God, you know. But we do need to discuss discernment. How do we discern what God's perspective is?
David Doty (05:03.895)
Amen.
Michael Mishkin (05:27.266)
versus our own. And this is the whole purpose of what the true gospel message is about. Again, I have to bring out the foundation, the true foundation of Yeshua, the Messiah, HaMashiach, where that foundation is on the true gospel, which is good news. You don't have to be that old guy anymore that Adam made us all into. I can transform you into the image of God if you let me. And...
Most people are not following that true gospel. Most people's foundations are sand. Most people's perspective understanding of God is the false gospel that the church peddles, which most churches are peddling that, which is teaching you to just say a prayer, you're saved, you're going to heaven. Now talk to people at work. And it does not foster you to kill that old guy, which is all the ways you think, all the ways you do things, and all the ways that you want to walk in life.
Your life is over and you're now being renewed in God to be led by Him. Which means you gotta learn how to hear His voice, which is what Yeshua said, my sheep hear my voice. They know me and they follow me. And there's plenty of people that Yeshua said, you they'll come to Him in that day and say, Lord, didn't we cast out demons? Didn't we heal the sick? Didn't we, you know, raise the dead in your name?
I mean, all the things that he says we're supposed to do, and he's gonna say, get away from me, I never knew you. So the whole kingdom, what's that?
David Doty (07:03.499)
and you do evil things. And you do evil things. You're worker of iniquity.
Michael Mishkin (07:09.122)
worker of iniquity. but they don't think so. But this is of God. And they may even hear a voice and it's demons. You have to make sure you're grounded on God's perspective of being transformed into his likeness and the fruit of it is his character is being grown in you. The old man is going and whatever he tells you to do is what you do. And if he doesn't tell you to do something, you sit down, shut up.
and just wait for commands from the king, because it's his kingdom, not your kingdom. So in that basis, if you're getting to know God, look at Paul, for example. Paul got smacked on his tuchus by the spirit, blinded, and he's brought to, you know, to the place where he's gonna have the guy lay hands on him, the scales fall off, and right away he starts to preach and they wanna kill him.
And then he goes off into Arabia for three years and then he goes to Tarsus until Barnabas eventually tries to get him. So in all that time, he's spending time with the Lord, as you could see. I mean, he's getting these revelations. This wasn't a snap of a finger. So it's over three years, over three years, he's being trained and getting to know the true Messiah, Yeshua, by the Spirit, which is a true gospel message according to what the apostles were getting when they were walking around.
with Yeshua. So we have to get that. We think we get that when we get saved we go to church. You do not. You get false gospel. You get cheap milk that allows you to be a kindergartner and maybe a first grader and then you're stunted. Then you don't really get led by the Spirit. You get led by the pastor. The pastor tells you what you should be doing, what you should be wearing, how you should be behaving. All of that is false.
All of that is not the design of God. Therefore, you can't truly discern. Now you imitate them. I see videos of little children and they're all, people are enamored by, wow, that's so cool. This little three-year-old is screaming in the microphone, Jesus, we're gonna do that, Jesus. And they're all happy about that. Why? He's just mimicking what he sees the adults doing. That's not knowing God.
Michael Mishkin (09:31.086)
But that's no different than what most people going to church do. So you've been bred in the counterfeit. Looks just like the real, but it has a form of godliness, but denies the power. Because the kingdom of God and the true gospel is about power, not about persuasive words, not about I like it this way or I like it that way. No, I'm a Baptist. No, I'm a Pentecostal. So all of this is fake. And most people believe the fake.
Most people are on the wide road leading to destruction. Most people are not that remnant that will truly be brought unto God when the finality comes.
David Doty (10:12.259)
Well, so let's, let's look at some modern day, very specific examples. hello to George from he's in Moultrie Georgia today. He says it's important that we unite and seek truth. Amen, brother. And this dude right here, George encourages me every day. He comments on pretty much every video that I put on YouTube and is just like, Hey, I agree. Hey, great job. Hey, thank you. Like, you know, it's just so encouraging. So thank you, George. God bless you.
And I pray for you every time I read one your comments and just pray that God would bless you. So I thank you. I appreciate you. so in 2025, in a very highly contested political environment where there are God fearing people on both sides of the Ukraine war, right? I mean, I've adopted two kids from Ukraine. I've spent months in that country. We have people there who we love.
We know people who have been killed in the last three years. we know people whose facilities have been bombed and I mean, it's, it's very close to our hearts. What's going on over there. And I see a lot of those people who I love desperately saying I stand with Ukraine.
Zelensky is a hero. You know, and all of all of that stuff. How do we know?
David Doty (11:51.277)
How do we know which side of this particular issue God is on? Or is it even possible for us to know?
Michael Mishkin (12:02.406)
it's definitely possible, that's for sure. It's a matter of you have a relationship with God, a true relationship with Him, He'll show you. You pray and you ask Him these questions. Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. James talks about that if any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God and the Father of lights will bountifully bring it upon you. But you should not waver. What does he mean that you should not waver?
there are plenty of people that are caught between the flesh and the spirit. So you keep going back and forth between two opinions. The carnal guy is still there. So the whole purpose of us coming into the kingdom is to die to our flesh, going through the cross. That's why Yeshua died on a cross. The cross is the death of the way we think, the way we do things, and how we walk in life. And if we're truly dying and understanding, then we will get to see behind the scenes.
If you're really getting to know God and understanding what he's doing here, understand his big picture, you're really spending time to really see why he's doing what he's doing, then you start to get the sermon of this world and you start to see behind the scenes what's behind the curtain. Because here's a little news flash, your fellow man does not care about you. They're not out for your well-being, especially the leaders of these countries. It's very rare to have...
Leaders of a country that really care about the people, most of them are corrupt. They are caring about the powerhouses behind the scenes that actually have the money and they have the threatening pull that if they don't follow their ways, they're gonna be taken out or their family will be taken out or something like that. But you don't really learn and understand that stuff because you don't wanna believe it. You don't wanna believe that the world that you live in is a lie.
So you see it from the front face and whatever the news media propaganda pumps out, you take it in and say, yeah, yeah. And they're just lying through their teeth. The news is not news. It is straight up propaganda there to tell you lies. So how do you know, huh?
David Doty (14:13.027)
How do you know that? How do you know that though?
Michael Mishkin (14:17.56)
Well, that's through a lot of research and understanding of what's gone on in history. You have to really understand, just, know, if anybody really wants to go and do that and dive into things that have happened, look up the projects of the CIA and secret government organization projects. There's one called Project Mockingbird, where the CIA literally had a project where they were gonna take control of the media and they're gonna tell you what they want you to know.
and it's gonna come through all the media. This happened, this is from years ago and they still do it today. But that's just one of many, many things. But if you don't really have the discernment, if you're not connected to the Father, if you're not really hearing, then you're gonna be going on the wrong ways of doing this. He has to guide us into all truth. He has to show us because there's a lot of false information out there. I see plenty of it. Discernment is he gives you by the truth that you're built in.
There's a spiritual trigger now. It's like you walk in it. It's like a banker who's so counting money and they're so equipped with seeing the 20s and it's like, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. There's so much, they see it all the time. They're real so well. When a counterfeit comes along, boom, they catch it. This is not real. You have to be so acquainted with what's real, with what's true. You gotta be ingrained. You gotta be immersed in it. You gotta be continually.
built in that by spending time with him and reading his word and renewing your mind that you start to see behind everything. You don't, the world is not the way it is. The world is a big lie. And if you think you're with God and you think the world is just, we're growing up now, I believe in Jesus, I'm saved and now my life is all, you don't know God. Your life should change. Meaning you're gonna see through everything. You're gonna see the whole operation of how mankind does things. And you're gonna see
you are living in an invisible prison. That everything that we do is not meant for us to be, we're not free. We have to work to pay our bills and if we don't pay our bills they're gonna take away our stuff and then we gotta go and struggle to get an education. If we go into the wrong education they're gonna turn our kids into women and all this stuff is waiting to get you. But if you can't see that, you're still blind.
Michael Mishkin (16:38.446)
So you're not really learning from the truth. Yeshua is the truth. Not my truth, not someone else's truth, is the absolute truth that comes from the Father from the beginning. If you're truly aligned with the truth, it shines the light on everything else and you start to see that you're living in a cesspool. That's the truth.
David Doty (16:56.451)
So you bring up a great example about children being transitioned or the whole gender thing. I saw a post from somebody I'm connected with on Facebook who I have a lot of respect for as a person who is a school teacher. And with the new stuff, with the Department of Education and stuff like that,
this person was upset that they, among other things, I mean, there was a litany of things listed about the whole education system and the things that they as teachers are no longer allowed to do or things that they must now do. And it had to do with DEI and a lot of other things. But included in that was now we're required to refer to the children by the gender that they were assigned at birth. I'm like, okay, so
That's a huge red flag. That's to me, if you are on the side of allowing children to identify with different genders, you're against God. Cut and dried. That is a very clear litmus test for anybody, regardless of your political affiliation or anything else.
If you are four little boys at the age of whatever little, little kids of changing their gender, there's that's demonic.
Michael Mishkin (18:37.016)
explain why.
David Doty (18:38.765)
Please do.
Michael Mishkin (18:41.686)
In this thing called the Bible, especially the first five books, we call it Torah, which is the law as Christians like to call it. It's instruction is the literal terminology. And in that instruction given to Israel, they were given all of these different laws, precepts and decrees. know, commandments are the big thing. And then there's aspects of it that all describe.
really the spiritual understanding of God encapsulated in physical format. The people of Israel, their covenant with God was to live in a physical formation of the spiritual understandings that Yeshua brings later. One of those laws says, man shall not wear women's clothing and a woman should not wear man's clothing. This is a law. Now, why would he say that? Everyone just says, okay, don't wear that clothing or whatever, but it's a law, it's a sin.
homosexuality of a man lies with a man as a woman it's a sin. a man has his father's wife it's a sin and all for a reason everything has spiritual meaning behind it. Behind this law is talking about if a man wears women's clothing it's symbolically representing a man should not try to take on the role as a woman and a woman should not try to take on the role as a man. Okay that's a law we shouldn't do that God's a wild
Why do we care? Who cares? Because symbolically what that's representing is man is made in the image of God. Woman is made in the image of man. And that the whole design of man and woman being made was to show the illustration of God and man and how they become one. So we are living that example. We're supposed to be living that proper expression of God. Sin is where we're distorting.
the expression of God. We're changing things the way he made it. Everything he made, he made a certain way to express him, who he is and what he's doing. So he wants us to, it's all his and it's all about expressing him. Everything we do expresses him. It says that we're without excuse. It doesn't matter whether you want to believe in him or not, that the very creation expresses his invisible qualities and the power of God. It's explaining who he is.
David Doty (20:41.495)
And it's all his, by the way, it's all his.
Michael Mishkin (20:58.67)
So if you wanna now distort that picture, you're sinning, you're defying God and you're out of alignment. You don't get to do whatever you want. You're supposed to, if you really want God, you gotta align with his way by his spirit. So if a man says, don't wanna be the image of God, I wanna be like the mankind. And the woman says, no, I'm God. And you have illustrations like that. Jezebel and Ahab, they weren't, you he was a man, but he subverted his role and she made her.
to operate in the man role where she was the one who wore the pants and she was an atrocity to God because it's basically man telling God what to do. I'm gonna tell you what to do. And that's a no-no. I wanna see any human dare stare in the face of God and say, listen here, I'm gonna tell you. Bye-bye. Don't even think about it. Picture when Moses was on the mountain and he was shaking them out with fire and blasting and quaking.
David Doty (21:43.022)
Mm-hmm.
Michael Mishkin (21:58.498)
these people were rattling in their boots and they were defecating in their pants. Do not mess with the all-powerful God and don't take his patience and forbearance for granted. So these are important things to understand that, you know, that's just an example of why that's wrong. You know, we're living in an age now where we call evil good and good evil. Well, they don't understand because they don't know what the difference is because they don't look to God. They don't want to know, but they want to run them up.
But it is up to the people of God to know the truth and understand what's right and they're supposed to stand for it and reflect that and shine that light. So that's where things go astray. And that's just one example.
David Doty (22:41.943)
Yeah. Well, and to go back to Zelensky in Ukraine, you know, a lot of people who really dislike Trump want to judge Trump for things he didn't said in the past. He's also accused of a lot of things he did not do. If you really look into the court cases and the different evidences that were put out, there's a lot of things that he was that he was charged with and accused of like rape that he didn't actually do. If you, if you really dig into it and look at the evidence.
and listen to the testimonies of the different people instead of just reading the headlines or believing what we're told by the news. So there's that. But there's also tons of video of Zelensky doing all kinds of nasty stuff on video. mean, it's crazy. And so, you know, it should tell us again, if we're willing to look at the facts and do some research.
Michael Mishkin (23:32.75)
Mm-hmm.
David Doty (23:39.181)
we should see a discrepancy that the mainstream news media, even if it's like Fox News is supposed to be conservative and CNN is more liberal or MSNBC or whatever, you'll see that they both report the exact same stories. So Fox might give you a more conservative or right-wing approach to those stories.
But there's still a whole lot of stuff that happens in the world on a daily basis that never makes it to the news. 99 % of what takes place in the world never makes it to the mainstream news channels. And most of the people, most of the quote unquote educated people around the world get their news from the mainstream news media. That's starting to change because more and more people are starting to see how
Michael Mishkin (24:20.174)
Mm-hmm.
David Doty (24:34.007)
different it is from reality. those the mainstream news was created for two things. One is to tell us how to think. The second thing is to divide us.
Michael Mishkin (24:47.214)
Mm-hmm.
David Doty (24:49.101)
Fox and CNN, they'll spin the same story in different ways in order to divide us. It's indoctrination. And so we've been conditioned to think a certain way to have a specific response. And as a result, we're divided and we're weak. So how do we get outside of that? What are some other sources that we can go to to get these, get information like
Michael Mishkin (24:56.184)
Mm-hmm.
David Doty (25:16.621)
There, there might be somebody watching this right now, either on Facebook or YouTube or somewhere else that's saying, wait a second. How is it that you saw videos of Zelensky? I never heard of that before. Like where do you get that stuff?
Michael Mishkin (25:34.456)
Well, and the biggest thing about this is that the easiest thing that they work off of is a passive mind. And if anybody wants to understand what that means is that you don't actually take, stop the information, go, wait a minute, how do I know this is true? Especially from the mainstream media. I mean, if you're seeing MSNBC, they're just, you could just stop everything they're saying because it's just lie after lie after lie. mean, they just ridiculous, but all of them are. mean, like you said, Fox News,
It sticks a little bit here and there and then puts a whole lot of filler in there. But the key about what we're trying to do in discernment is walking in an active mind. An active mind thinks. It doesn't just allow the information to come in. Anytime I see something, you could watch the mainstream media. As long as you have an active mind, you'd be like, wait a minute. So you're telling me he did this, that, you know, why would he do that? Explain that to me. How did that work? Put that together. Nobody asks that on a passive mind.
you just told me he raped somebody. Okay, he raped somebody. No. How do I know that that's true? How do I know you didn't plant that? How do I know? Can you show me exactly where it came from? Let's see where this person came from and explaining it because you know what? There are people who don't like him and they know if they lie and they put it out on a media source here, most people will just take it in. That should be your first skepticism right there. But an active mind is one that questions everything.
You you look at whatever it is you deal with and you go, okay, this is what I'm seeing here. And you know, there's the old adage and most people don't go with it. Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear. That's absolutely true, especially in this day. Now it's believe 10 % of what you see and none of what you hear. Because you're getting lies like you wouldn't believe. You have to learn how to investigate. You have to learn how to apply questions to everything coming along to you and get your emotions.
out of the way. Your worst enemy is your emotions. What you have built around through years of perspective according to yourself and what's being triggered, especially by the mainstream media, is your emotions. And that blocks you from reasonably seeking out the truth. Now here's the difference with those remnant that actually do get saved and those who do get to know God. Paul speaks in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.
David Doty (27:32.334)
Mm-hmm.
Michael Mishkin (27:59.828)
after he explains about the man of lawlessness and how Yeshua will come and destroy him with the breath of his mouth. And he says, a powerful delusion has been put upon the people, mainly the people of God, the church, to believe a lie, to believe a lie by God, it says. A powerful delusion by God was put upon the church. Read it. To believe the lie and why?
the most powerful line to really explain it, because they did not receive a love for the truth to be saved. That's the difference between who's really gonna be with God and who's not. Very powerful. You have to want the truth more than everything, and that means your emotions are gonna rise up against things you do. I can't believe this or whatever. It's like Neo when he pops out of the matrix and he sees what the real world is like.
and he's like, can't handle it, he's freaking out. And then he's like, you know, he says he's gonna pop and he throws up because that's what's gonna happen to you. When you really decide you wanna go for the truth, your world is gonna shake. You're gonna be like, what am I living in? And it's gonna be a time of transition and you're gonna feel sick when you realize what you've been living in. And that's what happens to most people. What's that? The Truman Show is another example of that. Yes, The Matrix is absolutely true. Just a wake up call for you.
David Doty (29:10.499)
Mm-hmm.
David Doty (29:16.375)
It's the Truman Show. It's the Truman Show. It's the Truman Show.
Michael Mishkin (29:29.078)
You are plugged in. You're being told a lie. And the only way out is you have to be determined to go after what is really true. But you can't go back once you take that red pill. And God is the one who has to bring you there. You have to be truly engaged with him. You can't accept him with your lucky rabbit's foot and think you're going to heaven. If that's why you chose God, bye bye. You're not going there. You're going to hell. And let me tell you, you're going to be standing in line right to next door to all those wonderful, nice people that you thought were good people.
because that's most of the people going to hell. Good people in your own eyes do not go to heaven because heaven is being with God. And if you're not being with him here, which is the kingdom of God is at hand, then you ain't being with him there. You can't do things your way, the way you like it and think you're gonna be with God. That's the truth.
David Doty (30:22.041)
Well, you brought up something. You talked a lot about scripture. How do we know that the scripture is accurate? How do we know that the Bible is the word of God, especially when there are so many different translations of the Bible and different people, different churches would say this book should be in there and this book shouldn't be, you know, I mean, the Catholic book has, the Catholic Bible has different books in it. The Ethiopian Bible has the book of Enoch in it. The American church, you know.
by and large doesn't. So you see all these different versions and translations and some of them have variations in the text of what they offer and obviously words that are translated in different ways. It's, mean, how do we know what's really true and what's of God and what's not?
Michael Mishkin (31:13.07)
If you're a person that's trying to debate right now, how do I know if the Bible is true? I'm not even gonna, I'm not an apologist. Go away, it's not true for you, okay? Have fun. We're not here to convince you that the Bible's true. You know why? Because before I was a believer, I thought the same way. And nobody can convince me otherwise. And I'm not here to convince you otherwise. You don't believe it's true? You don't know about who wrote it or whatever? You're not seeking the truth, that's why.
David Doty (31:13.753)
You
Michael Mishkin (31:41.646)
If you sought the truth and asked God and you really wanted to know, He'll reveal it to you. I'm not here to go and use apologetics to try and say, well, this guy said this and if you think about this and that no, no, it's a lie. Okay, go away because you're not ready. If you really have a love for the truth, then you seek God and He'll show you and you'll be, but you gotta be willing. The key about it is you're trying to put up a defense mechanism of what you already have.
That's baloney built inside of you and you're trying to defend that against what is true And you want us to try and explain it so that we can give you an opportunity. Okay, maybe then I'll take a look at how we don't do You don't do any favors go away the only people that are coming into the kingdom of God is people who truly love the truth and are willing to give up the way they see things in life the way they live and Let God in and change them and transform them. That's the true gospel. I'm here to hurt feelings
I will not pull punches and I'm actually looking to hit you harder if I didn't hurt you. Because the reality is the kingdom of God for almost 2,000 years has been maligned by these little fruity preachers that try and dance around things and explain things to people. Whereas like, no, the creator of the universe that made everything and put breath in your lungs does not have to explain himself to you, old man. Bow down and understand what truth really is. Humble yourself.
seek God in full heart, then you'll know. Because that's what happened to me. When I was not a believer, I'd believe whatever heck I want. You ain't gonna tell me nothing. But when something started to change in my heart because I saw this world and my heart was getting grieved more and more, this hardened heart, I was a piece of garbage. This hardened heart said, you know, I don't understand this world. just, and then people just say that's life.
And something in me just said, you know what? And I wasn't looking for God. I was atheist. I said, I just want to know the truth. Not my truth, not someone else's truth. What's the truth? And now my heart was ready and God was able to show me. And he did a certain event that made me realize there's no more such thing as coincidence and there's something behind the scenes. And that just clicked in me. And now I was seeking what the absolute truth was, not what I wanted, not what other guys were telling me.
Michael Mishkin (34:03.564)
I wanted the absolute truth from the source, the creator of all things. And he gave it to me, and he built me, and he's trained me, and it's a process. I've been growing more and more as I go. That's what it is. Same way you grow up from a little man physically into a person, an adult, is the same way it's gotta work when you're born again and you grow up spiritually. Unfortunately, most of Christianity are kindergartners. They never grow past that. They're stunted in their growth with a lot of...
baloney that they've been fed by the mainstream church.
David Doty (34:37.401)
Well, yeah, I mean, you bring up a great point and I had a very similar experience to you. I never would have considered myself an atheist, but I believed in God and yet I lived my life how I wanted to and it brought me low. You know, my own choices brought me to a place of breaking because I was a failure, complete and total failure in every aspect. then God, when I humbled myself,
When I said, I can't do this, I need.
I need help, really. And at that point I was able to look to him and he was finally able to work with me because I was letting go. was letting Jesus take the wheel to use that overplayed analogy. I also began looking at some of the apologetics and I think apologetics are helpful as a sense like we...
defend what we believe because it's confusing out there in this world, especially like when we send our kids off to college, which I'm not a big fan of, but I know people who grew up in church studying the Bible, who you would think has a, they would have a very firm foundation in scripture. And then they go off to four years of university where they're taking college level.
Michael Mishkin (36:03.214)
Mm-hmm.
David Doty (36:07.769)
classes on the Bible that are taught by atheists, atheist professors, and they come out atheist or they come out agnostic or they come out going like, eh, maybe the Bible is true, but it's all allegory. You know, maybe it's, it's not real history because they've been taught by people in positions of authority who claim to be experts. And, and as a result, their life, as far as a walk with God is gone.
You know, and, but if you genuinely look into it, if you look into it using unbiased sources, you will find that the scripture, the Bible is the most documented book in all of antiquity. And it's not even close. It's not even close. mean, people want to say, well, did Jesus really say those things that are written on those pages? Well, you have.
dozens of eyewitness writings, people who heard Jesus, you have dozens of copies, have hundreds and even thousands of fragments of manuscripts of people within one generation of Jesus writing down his words and they all match versus nobody's questioning whether Homer really wrote the Iliad or the Odyssey. We have like one or two copies that are
hundreds and hundreds of years gap from the time that he actually wrote it to when you know, these early earliest manuscripts are so there's a huge double standard by academia to discredit the Bible which shows me and a lot of other people that we can't trust a lot of these secular universities are colleges and professors, I mean that
Michael Mishkin (37:54.67)
you
David Doty (38:04.609)
The Dean of the Religion Department at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill is a pro. He's a hardcore atheist who's like anti-God. And he's over the religious department, department of religion at this university. And that's true at almost every major university. And we're sending our kids in there like little sheep that
don't have a shepherd, they can't defend themselves, most of them, which also is, as you said, it's showing the product of the church that we've brought our kids up in. The churches are ill-equipped to train our children. And the reason we can't get past a kindergarten level is because we're believing things that are not true. And our foundation is built on shifting sands.
And you can't build a skyscraper or even a two story building on the foundation that was created for like a lean to shack.
Michael Mishkin (39:13.922)
that's absolutely correct. And you know people who are going to universities to find out about the Bible, you know, why not go, you let's go to Satan, the father of lies, and ask him if the Bible's true. You know, he runs that stuff. People forget, you know, the book, the Bible is very simple. It's a history book of my people, the people of God, the Jewish people. I'm a Jew. It's my history, you know, from my people going back.
and these people experiencing God and showing interaction with God and who he is and what he's doing. And it's been legitimate because it's a true history going down. So you want to go and say it's false. Well, I exist. I came from the lineage of those people. So I'm here and many of us are here. Went all the way down through the Maccabees and they moved mightily and beat back the Greeks and sustained the temple there. And the people should have been...
totally demolished then and they were not by the power of God, it was impossible. And then Yeshua comes along, another Jew with a bunch of other Jews and it's more history book of these guys experiencing and guess what? The other Jews that don't believe in him do acknowledge that Jesus was there, Yeshua existed. They don't like him, they don't call him the Messiah, but they even acknowledge and they realize that this guy really made a stirrup of the whole world and they did everything in their power.
for the people, Jewish people to not believe and created a whole system around it to say, no, no, no, it's this way. Don't even look at this guy. So a lot of stuff goes on if you're gonna look into the, if this stuff is legitimate. I exist, it's my people. All the people who wrote the Bible pretty much are Jews except for Luke who heard it from Jews, their side.
You know, I'm not here to try and, you know, that's as far as I'll even go, you know, but if you're hungry for truth, it goes back to God. Go ask the Creator himself. Don't have me convince you. Why don't I got, can you convince me into your religion, buddy? No, I'm not gonna convince you into my religion. Get out of here. My religion is spend time with God. That's what I'm about. Hear his voice.
David Doty (41:20.781)
Mm-hmm.
Michael Mishkin (41:34.466)
be led by his spirit and see the fruit that comes out. That's how you know if it's his voice or a demon that's talking to most people who think they're hearing from God. And yet I just said that. Most of you think you're hearing from God and you're hearing from demons. Why? Because you got the carnal man seated in your temple displaying himself as being God. That's what Paul's talking about in 2 Thessalonians chapter two. The carnal man is not being killed off by the cross and many people are falling away.
great rebellion, the great falling away is gonna happen. And it's not our falling away where everybody at once says, hey, we're out of here. It's you're all diverted to a false gospel, false religion, and you allow your carnal man to discern God instead of truly being transformed by the power of his spirit. That's what chapter two is talking about there. So you're all filled with the carnal man displaying it as being God, hearing from demons, and you're go to destruction because you did not receive a love of the truth.
so as to be saved. So you think about that now and really, hopefully you get convicted, cut to the quick and get on your knees and humble yourself and cry out to the true God and say, I'm willing to let everything go to have you, which is the true gold of the kingdom is to grow in the deep knowledge of God, of who he is and what he's doing and to become like him. That's the only way.
David Doty (42:54.285)
Well, you know, when we're confronted with something like this, we have a couple options, right? We could ignore it. We could just keep on scrolling. Some people are going to get mad and respond in some way. And then some people are going to pause and say, well, maybe that applies to me. And that's the sign of humility. And that's what God is looking for. If you're willing to, see, I could get mad and be like, hey,
Michael Mishkin (43:18.83)
That's correct.
David Doty (43:22.445)
How dare you say that you don't know me. Or I could say, maybe I have, maybe, maybe I'm wrong. And on the day of Pentecost and Acts two, Peter said to these people, you crucified the son of God and they were cut to the heart. Jesus, a lot of times said very mean things by today's standards.
Michael Mishkin (43:25.474)
Yes, I do.
David Doty (43:51.661)
He said some very mean things. He called Peter Satan.
Michael Mishkin (43:55.182)
That's right. In his good intentions.
David Doty (43:59.661)
because Peter was like, Jesus, we're not gonna let you be crucified, are you crazy? Jesus, we're not gonna let them hurt you. Jesus said, get away from me Satan.
Michael Mishkin (44:03.981)
Mm-hmm.
Michael Mishkin (44:12.686)
He also said, he gave the warning in Matthew 24, he said, many people will come in my name saying I am the Messiah and deceive many. Well, that stopped happening. That means today in your churches, many people will say, yeah, Yeshua is the Messiah and he's gonna lie to you straight up from the pulpit. And you're gonna gobble it all up and go, amen, amen. You know how many times I go into churches and I'm like, flesh, flesh, flesh, flesh, and a little bit spirit, spirit, spirit, flesh, flesh, flesh.
Most of these guys are speaking right out of their flesh or out of their rear end, I should say.
David Doty (44:48.057)
Yeah, well, well said. I think you're probably in.
Michael Mishkin (44:50.988)
And it sounds good. It sounds like a good message, but the problem is it's not a God message. It's spiritual motivational speaking. If you went to Tony Robbins, that'd be fine, because that's what he does. He's a motivational speaker. That'd be great. I don't need the pastor portraying it as if it's God and giving you a Tony Robbins message. Go out there and be a motivational speaker, fine, but don't be going around coddling people and, you know,
giving some sort of practical thing for life. No, your practical thing for life is to die. Kill that flesh.
David Doty (45:24.525)
Yeah, well, the way church is done today is not scriptural. It's not biblical. The idea that we go to church on a Sunday or a Saturday and we sit in a chair and somebody else leads worship and then somebody gets up and speaks and does a sermon. None of that is in the Bible. None of that is in the Bible. Church wasn't even done that way until
300 years after Jesus was crucified. The whole church system is.
worldly. And it's not to say it's all terrible. It's not to say it's all terrible, right? Some good things can do it. God can use anything that we do where a lot of us are in some way, shape or form a byproduct of what God's been doing in the church, but it's not biblical. And if you want to have a true biblical Christianity, you need to move beyond what you're going to be able to get in any
Michael Mishkin (46:07.885)
in the link.
It's not true.
David Doty (46:34.187)
even a good church in any church because it's not the foundation that Jesus was building on. And I'll say this real quick, right? So in Deuteronomy, Moses is recounting for the Israelite people what they've been doing over the last 40 years. They're getting ready to go into the promised land. And there's a passage in Deuteronomy 6 that
Michael Mishkin (46:53.912)
Mm-hmm.
David Doty (47:01.429)
is quoted a lot, hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength. They're commanded to love God with all of their heart, soul, mind, strength, right? In Acts two, verse 42, speaking of the church, mean, the early church was moving in power. They were united, they were filled with the Holy Spirit, they were raising the dead.
They were doing amazing things. And a lot of Christians today say that they want that, but are we willing to do what they did to get that? it, they got that by being united because they all laid down their own agendas. They all said, okay, what is God doing? I want to do what God is saying, not my own will. Acts 2 42 says they were devoted to the apostles teaching.
which is essentially studying the Bible. They were devoted to the apostles teaching, breaking a bread, which is having meals together, fellowship and prayer. They were devoted to it. Today, how many Christians are devoted to praying? I mean, devoted. Like, I'm not talking about checking a box because you said a prayer every day, but devoted to prayer. How many of us are devoted to studying the word of God, not just reading for 10 minutes in the morning?
How many of us are devoted to fellowship and building relationally on a heart to heart level connection where if my brother's hurting, I'm hurting as well. How many of us are devoted to living a godly life in community with other people? And the reason that the church is in shambles today is because we think, you know, I'll go to Sunday school. listen to the message.
I'll show up for worship. I'll say a prayer every day. I'll give financially, but people want to go off and live their own life. They don't want to involve God or get God's perspective. And yeah, I mean, it's lukewarm. Jesus said he's going to spit that stuff out of his mouth.
Michael Mishkin (49:13.262)
And that's what gets them killed spiritually.
And the reason why they can't do that is because that false gospel won't allow them. That false gospel builds you in a simplicity rabbit's foot, God's here, I'm going to heaven and I'm supposed to just live life. No. You you see when people do pray, it's hard from the praying. When they do pray, I'll pray for, you know, Uncle Buck, you know, that his hip gets better. I pray that my kids will be saying everything according to themselves. I pray that I get that job. I pray that the Lord will build my finances.
everything in a selfish manner for themselves. Well, you should be praying for God's way, but the false gospel doesn't give you any purpose in God's way. People don't have, they're just waiting for a rapture most of them, as if they're be caught up and their clothes are gonna be let on the ground, which is stupidity that has been shoveled into them because they don't know the scriptures and really understand how this stuff, what's really gonna happen, because they don't know God. What it is, is that,
When you're built in the true gospel message, you understand the purposes of God. He teaches you what he's doing. I mean, there's a whole map of it by the feasts of the Lord. They're not feasts, they're appointed times, but you got already four of them that we've talked about, Passover, unleavened bread, and first fruits, and then the first fruits harvest, all that were done on their day. That's a map of what God was doing, and he completed that section of them 2,000 years ago or so.
And now we're coming to the end time harvest, which is going to be a buildup. It's going to start of the blowing of the shofar's, which, you know, Jews call it Rosh Hashanah, which is a absolute farce. It's not the head of the year. It's not the beginning of the year. It's the day of blowing the shofar and it's like, get ready, get ready, get ready. And it's 10 days of all between that to tell everyone to get ready until Yom Kippur, which is the coming of the Lord, where he comes back on the Jubilee, restores everything back to the way it is.
Michael Mishkin (51:15.628)
And he comes to those who claim to be of God and he separates the goats. The ones that are truly of him, the sheep from the goats, he made a parable of that as the same parable off of Yom Kippur. And he's going to take those who truly were fulfilling his command of loving one another, those who truly were living by the spirit and were operating in helping their fellow brethren, he takes to himself. And the ones that are not are sinful and he casts all the sin upon them and he sets them out into the wilderness to be gone.
That's why that whole thing is there. It's an explanation of when he comes, what he's going to do. And then we go into Sukkot, which is the celebration of Jews and Gentiles together for the one week period of or the Shabbat, 1000 years and celebrating how we were living in these feeble tents and just rejoicing in the Lord where he seduced the world with a rod of iron and everything is under his rule. But people won't know that they're not taught that.
They don't understand that. don't, in Christianity, you're taught, okay, here's my next motivational speaking for you, and you go back to the barbecue and just go watch football games and live uselessness. And think if you do a little thing here or there, I give my tithes to church as if God's, you don't know what's going on, you're gone. Sorry, bup-bye. You're not gonna be happy.
David Doty (52:24.345)
Yeah.
David Doty (52:34.595)
Well, and then you're sowing into a ministry that's not fulfilling the kingdom of heaven, but you've been told by an individual, the pastor or whomever, if you give financially, God will bless you. But honestly, their ministry isn't doing anything to further the kingdom of heaven.
Michael Mishkin (52:45.646)
Nice one,
Michael Mishkin (52:52.344)
but they have a building fund. They're gonna build another building to house more people to make them twice as held as they are, just like the Pharisees.
David Doty (52:54.361)
about that.
David Doty (53:00.599)
George says, be devoted to God's statutes and led by his spirit. Church removes the Holy Spirit. I would love to share what he is showing me. George would love to hear your perspective for sure, man, if there's a way. Send you, we'll have you on as a, as a panelist next time.
David Doty (53:22.902)
Absolutely.
Michael Mishkin (53:23.694)
You know, in the church scenery, and here's the trick about it, it doesn't mean that there's no Holy Spirit moving in these churches. The Spirit of God moves in every establishment to the degree that He's allowed. Now, it is very little, pretty much in most of them, but some are a little more than others. So, you know, that's what makes it harder because you'll go to certain places and the Spirit will be there, especially if you're a younger believer. But the problem is, you know, it's the same exact reflection as Saul and David.
Saul, he was the king of the people of God, but he was doing it his way and the way the people wanted. The spirit of God preserved them, but they were never growing to be what the kingdom was supposed to be because Saul didn't concern himself as much with God as he did with what he wanted and what the people wanted. So that's the analogy because Saul existed to show that spirit of people of God, but they're doing it their way.
And David was the representation of the true people of God who wanted it God's way. It was so passionate about God's way that this little feeble kid could use a rock because the power of God was behind him and take down the big giant. All of this is symbolic analogy. It's allegory representing these types of concepts that are continuing to today. Most of the church is Saul. There's very few Davids. The Davids are the ones who are hungry for the truth. God's way.
and are willing to be transformed and seek him into the image of God. That's what Yeshua died for, is that we be transformed into his image. It's a daily process. That's why Paul said, I die daily. That's why Yeshua said, take up your cross and follow me. All of these are things and many other places show us that it's a process of being changed. If you're not in a process of being changed, if you observe your walk and you're the same as you were a year ago, two years ago, five years ago,
You got some big problems there. You should be growing in who God is and a lot of the ways of your carnal man should be dying off and you should be overcoming by the power of the spirit. So this is the observation you need to make for yourself to see victory.
David Doty (55:37.302)
Amen.
Amen. So what's what's one tip you would give to somebody? I mean, we kind of went all over the place this morning, which we tend to do. I mean,
But as we're talking about discerning and which side of whichever issue that's being debated on whatever news channel today, how do we determine what side we're supposed to be on?
Michael Mishkin (56:11.054)
If you're a person who really wants to really grow in God and you're having these struggles, shut it all off. Don't even look at any of it. Shut it all off. Don't get involved with it. That's what I even told with another person that was, you know, having struggles, a new believer. Shut it all off right now. It's only there to deter you and distract you. And put all that devoted time now that you'd be there into spending time with God and saying, Lord, I want to know you more. I've been deceived.
There's stuff in my foundation I know is false, I'm blocked, I want to be released. Help me to build my foundation on the rock of Yeshua. Guide me in your truth, build me in your spirit and let the Spirit of God transform you into His image as you confess whatever sins you see, put it on the altar to die. That's what I would suggest everyone to do and if you're doing that with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, you will be changed and you will get to know God and the Spirit of God.
be growing in you and he'll be guiding you and you'll be knowing the truth, the real truth.
David Doty (57:15.095)
Amen. So the goal is for people to learn to hear God's voice. I've been munching on cough drops this morning because I'm still have that tickle in my throat, but the goal is for us all to hear from God and to obey him. Right. We don't want anybody out there to be casting out demons in the name of that Jesus who Mike
Michael Mishkin (57:36.27)
That's right.
David Doty (57:44.077)
Michigan teaches about, and then the demons jump all over you and you run naked and bleeding from the house, right? Like the guys in Acts eight, the goal is for people to be able to hear from God for themselves. And through that, know, have an authority that they're speaking the truth, not something that another man or another person teaches.
Michael Mishkin (57:45.486)
Mm-hmm.
David Doty (58:12.865)
If you hear it from God, you know, it's true and you don't have to worry about what anybody else says or thinks because you heard from God and that's all the matters.
Michael Mishkin (58:23.982)
Right. And you're being trained to know how you know it's truly God and not a demon pretending to be God. And that might take some work as well because there will be times where demons and the demons use your flesh. That's how they are able to get it. They, if there's a certain area that you didn't give over and you, know, they will operate through that. You'll know by the fruit that comes out of whatever it is that you think. If there's no fruit or it's causing turmoil in whatever shape or form,
David Doty (58:33.113)
It's a process.
Michael Mishkin (58:52.01)
Any fruit that God builds is unto life and blessing and prosperity and being made into his image and it's all in the character of God. That's the key is to learn how to watch the fruit, what's coming out of it.
David Doty (59:09.429)
Amen. Well, another addition of the Think About It podcast is in the books. Didn't get a ton of questions. I appreciate the interaction from George. We're going to have him on after. George, send me your contact info if you can and I'll coordinate next time. If we'd see if we can get you on as a panelist and have a conversation about what God's doing in your life.
Everybody else, God bless you guys. Thanks for tuning in today. Shoot us your questions. You can reach out to us, obviously through Facebook, through YouTube, through BibleInOrder.com. And we love you guys. God bless.