Episode Transcript
[00:00:23] Kevin: Hello and welcome to another episode of 10 More Minutes. I'm your host, Kevin Neville, and. And we have the one and only Reverend Paul Johansen. Welcome to the show today.
[00:00:32] Paul: Thank you. Thank you.
[00:00:33] Kevin: Thank you, Pastor Paul. Tell us a little bit about where you guys are at these days and what you're up to.
[00:00:39] Paul: Well, thank you, Neville, and thank everyone that's been a part of this conference.
God has ways of bringing us all together. I feel very privileged to be here and to share some of these lessons. I'm pushing another few months from now to 90, and I've got a few years experience.
I thank God I'm still vertical, as I said, and involved in the work of God, and my mind is still working a little bit.
So we're humbled by the opportunity, Pastor.
[00:01:10] Kevin: Paul, and thank you for coming to Oasis 2025.
You got to share just before lunch today. And I know everybody in the audience, you know, we were hanging just on the entire message. You know, we could have done with twice that amount. Between the stories that are heritage, that are Elim that you brought, nobody breathed.
[00:01:34] Paul: For an hour and a half.
[00:01:35] Kevin: I think we did. We held our breath and we could have done more. But you were talking about the wells, what wells to open and what wells to leave.
[00:01:44] Paul: That's right.
[00:01:44] Kevin: Cheryl, can you review a little bit about what.
What are those wells that we really need to pay attention to what we rush to open and we need to stay away from?
[00:01:53] Paul: Well, there are many wells in the Bible, of course, but I began reading the story of the wells there in Genesis, looking at chapter 16, and all the way to 26 of the wells. And Abraham dug some wells. And the big thing was Isaac, his son, reopened the wells, which is obvious to us that wells get jammed, wells get clogged, and people are starving, have no water. And the wells up there, but it's not working.
And we had a wonderful message last night about cleaning the wells out.
My desire in sharing this is to be able to share between the lines.
Reading between the lines. Oh, you did that and then you went there. But there's a lot in between that.
And that is where the fine print is, where you find God in the fine print.
The disciples saw the miracle.
The people in the banquet only tasted the wine.
And you can decide. Followers of Jesus taste the wine and they love it.
But disciples who work in the kitchen see the miracle.
And most people don't see the miracle. And therefore, it is not the wine that builds your faith, it's the miracles that build your faith. So they're really good people. They love Jesus, but they're not willing to really believe because they haven't seen anything. They haven't been where they can see it.
[00:03:31] Kevin: You said something about in your life, you will have to have a miracle.
[00:03:37] Paul: Yes. Not in your life, in the will of God. Anytime God tells you to do something, somewhere in that thing, it has to be an absolute, unmistakable miracle.
The Jordan river has to open up.
We learned that when the Lord speaks, you must move.
But you say, I can't.
That's you saying you can't. If God said you can't, then.
So it's very important to learn the voice of God. That's probably the most important lesson in life.
Do you know when God really indicates his will to you? We listen to his voice.
Because you can't do the will of God outside of the timing of God.
[00:04:26] Kevin: That's right.
[00:04:26] Paul: And when it's God's timing, then things are going to flow together. Not much, but they're going to still be tough, but it's going to flow together. Coming from New York and living there, being raised in New York, we can do it ourselves.
We're pretty astute, doing things and figuring it out, and very clever.
But God says, no, I don't want your cleverness. I do need your cleverness to figure out certain answers, but I don't need. I need to make sure that my stamp is on that thing so that when it's done, I get all the glory. Because he doesn't trust us with his glory, because we just run away with it.
65 went back to Africa after being home for about a year. And there in Africa, I said, lord, why are we here? He said, well, you're here this time to build the church.
I said, okay, Lord, where are we building it?
And that's what I told you. We drew a little square on a little thing on the plate. And the Lord told me, don't tell me how to build a church. I'll tell you how to build a church.
[00:05:31] Kevin: Pastor Paul, I have one more question, but I would love to continue this conversation at another time because I think the stories.
[00:05:37] Paul: Oh, no, I got too many stories.
[00:05:38] Kevin: Are things that we need to hear. So let's do a part two. But I have one more question for this podcast.
And you, you were right. We were holding our breath for that time. You were speaking because you were speaking of our heritage. Not only where we've come, but where we're going. If somebody like me came and listened to that and said, pastor Paul, tell us we've learned about these wells, the warnings, the blessings.
What do we do now to know what the next step is?
[00:06:07] Paul: Well, we say this.
If you're all out for the will of God, you're in the will of God.
In other words, you're not struggling.
What do you think?
Hold steady if you don't know enough. The voice of God, which you have to learn, have to learn. And you learn the voice of God like when I got the word to build there, and then immediately God reinforced it with a check. The same amount of money as the bill, side by side. Or we go to Africa and we step out and suddenly it's happening. Same in New York City, everywhere it's happened.
I believe that if you will begin using the opportunities that are local.
Okay, well, I'm waiting for God to do the big thing. He'll never do the big thing with you unless you've been used in a little First a little. Take little steps, baby steps, and. And then begin to move out as God opens the door.
Until you do that, you're really not going to get the. Because God can't trust you with the big if you haven't done the small.
And I would say there's a need for someone to help in the church. For yourself, helping out in this ministry right here. All that is so genuinely God, because it speaks of your offering yourself. Lord, I want to serve you. I'm serving you this way.
Many people don't think that way. They think, well, how much money for me, I get nothing out of it, only the joy of killing it.
The joy. I'm not interested in money. If I want money, we would be multimillionaires. But no, that's not it. To see the joy of the people in that church.
Thousands that were saved, born again.
Some stories. I would take forever to tell you stories, to see the work in New York City that went down. And even at that time, Elim, as a school was struggling. And they said, we don't really feel we can do that. I said, that's perfect. That's no problem.
Because he's sending me. He gave me that vision 10 years ago.
And so there'll be no problem.
And there had never been a problem. We just move and do whatever we can. And God brings alongside of you the people that he wants to aid you in fulfilling God's call on your life.
[00:08:38] Kevin: And these are the miracles that have to happen in the kitchen to happen right there.
[00:08:43] Paul: Yeah, in the kitchen. See the water turned to wine, right?
[00:08:46] Kevin: You don't just see, you don't just get to taste it.
[00:08:48] Paul: You get to see it see the miracle the miracle builds faith and my wife she learned that when we believe together it's going to happen even though we started with nothing we still don't have a whole lot we have much more now than we had probably too much we have but by the grace of God we have seen like I said supply we had two children My son is with me now he's been a pastor a teacher and a pastor he's just retired and my daughter she's a doctor and she's very very high up in the system with the University of Florida in Gainesville she teaches there now and in critical care she runs the whole department she's very smart Anyway.
[00:09:41] Kevin: Pastor Johansson I do want to do a part two of this these are stories that are are gourd thank you so much for being part of of the show and we will see you guys on the next episode of ten more minutes. God.
