Andrew F Carter | Powerful Christian Testimony | Prisoner to Pastor | John Giftah Podcast Throwback

Do you ever look around and think, Wow, the world is a crazy place and it just seems to get crazier and crazier. Ease your mind and take a break. This is Fuel for the Soul with John Gifta. We're a hub for inspirational Christian sermons, practical keys for Christian living, and Christian discussions and interviews. You'll be inspired to live the life that you were created for. Your host is a top ranking podcaster, best selling author, world record holder, aerospace engineer, life coach, evangelist and founder of John Gifta International.

Welcome to Fuel for the Soul with John Gifta. Can you deeply share a little bit about your story? Of course, I know I've been through a lot of things, but you can't. You just take a few minutes sha have it out on your story and then we'd take it forward. Yeah. So I was. You know, I didn't, like I said, I didn't grow up in a Christian home. My life was filled with drugs and you know, prostitution and alcohol and violence. I grew up, you know, a way that a lot of people over here grow up, you know, just no idea of God.

I'd say that we would go to church every now and again, maybe for Easter, or we would go you know, with our grandparents during Christmas time, things like that. But most of my life was kind of filled with you know, violence and sin and uh so, when when I was young, I started doing drugs and selling drugs and having sex and you know, do living a life that isn't pleasing to God at about the age of twelve years old, and it was basically because that's what I saw. That was exactly what was going on in my life around me, and nobody ever stood up and said that that was wrong.

Nobody told me that that wasn't you know, how God wanted us to live. I really didn't hear much about God, and so, you know, during growing up, my mom was in and out of rehab and in and out of prison, and I just kind of flowed around from house to house family members. I slept in couches, I slept in cars,

I lived, I went to foster care for a little bit, so my mom lost customed me and I went to foster care a few times. But it wasn't until I was seventeen that I heard about Jesus Christ. And you know, from that point forward, my life was changed. I heard about sin. I heard about salvation, I heard about the penalty for sin. I learned about repentance. I learned like the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and I accepted Jesus as my Lord and savior. But the environment that I lived in didn't change. I was still surrounded by drugs and alcohol and violence.

And so although there was this hard change for the gospel and the acceptance I my life didn't change. My actions didn't change. I still was very much living in sin. I hadn't fully matured as a Christian. When I was about twenty three years old, I got into a church. And the church that I went to was, you know, discipling me to be a pastor. So I was in this church for a couple of years where you know, we studied the Bible, we fasted, we prayed. My life changed, My actions started changing. I started really drawing close to God and getting you know, living a life that was pleasing to Him.

But while I was doing so, uh, you know, I felt I still felt like something was missing. I would lacked purpose. I was unsure of what my calling was. And so we had a revival at our church, and you know, this evangelist came to our church and for seven days he preached. Every night we would fast, we would pray, and then he would preach. And at the end of every sermon, he would call one person up and he would prophis that over their life. And so you know, day one, two, three, four, five, six, all the way up, you know, he called one person.

And on the seventh night he called me up. It was the last night a revival, and he said, Andrew, I've got a word for you. And what he said was you have words of gold, and that you're called to ministry and that you are going to speak to millions of people about Jesus. And when he told me that, I was freaked out because I didn't know a million people. I didn't want to be in ministry. That wasn't really like my goal. I didn't, my heart didn't. My heart wasn't in it, And so I ended up leaving church.

I walked away from church because I thought the guy was crazy. I was like, I don't know what you're talking about. I think you got the wrong Andrew. There's another Andrew. Maybe that's the other guy say isn't for me? And so I left church and I ended up going back to school. And I went to school and I earned two college degrees. You know, I played college basketball. I did all of these things that were good because from where I grew up and how I grew up, nobody in my family had done those things.

So I thought that I was on the right track. But looking back, I was feel really empty because I was still struggling with sin. I wasn't living for God. I was really, you know, building the kingdom of Andrew. I wasn't building the Kingdom of God. Everything that I was doing was so selfish and entered around me. And so, you know, fast forward a couple of years. I graduated, I opened a business. I owned the gym. I was making you know, six figures a year. You know, on paper, it looked like I was really succeeding, but I was so so far from God.

I stopped going to church. I stopped reading my Bible, I stopped praying. It was just me and my actions led me to getting in trouble. I ended up committing a crime where I went to prison, and I lost everything that I had worked hard for. I had lost my gym, I lost my family, I lost you know, my reputation, should the community, everything just went down the toilet. And when I came home from prison, I ended up getting a divorce and basically had to rebuild my life from sect and I started getting into social media to really pick up, you know, pick up the pieces that I had left.

So I started doing social media influencing for like fitness, and I wasn't really growing or seeing any success. And you know, about a year went by and my kids told me, Dad, you should download the appall TikTok. You know, you might have some success there. And so I was like, okay, and so we downloaded it and for the first couple of weeks, you know, we did the TikTok dances and you know, we got some fun videos. But I remember one night I was just kind of reflecting on my life and where I was going, and I felt like I was on the same track again, the same track that led me to prison.

And so I ended up creating a TikTok video about my testimony. And I did a fifteen second video where I didn't say a word, but I just shared, you know, things God has carried me through. So I pointed at one box and the box said prison, the other box said divorce, and the other box said, you know, I thought your care and then and then the last box said and everything else. And I posted it. And when I posted it, I think I had two hundred followers that night, and I went to bed and the next morning I woke up and I had over fifteen thousand followers.

The video went five yeah, and uh, you know, I was working my way through some of the messages in the comments, and you know, a lot of people were just amazed at what God has carried me through. And some of the messages were like Andrew, you know, that really inspired me. But there was one message that really kind of changed everything. And a man said, Andrew, last night I was going to take my life and your video popped up on my TikTok and I decided not to. And he said, I've gone through all of those things we've gone through, but to see you on here still smiling gave me hope and helped me rededicate my life to God, like I didn't kill myself.

And I just started crying, and the Holy Spirit came over me. And immediately the thing that came to mind was that prophecy. You know, and at this point, it was about over ten years had gone by since that happened, and it was just that Andrew, you have worked with gold, You've been called the ministry and you're going to speak for millions of people. And from that day I kind of dropped everything fitness related and really worked on creating a ministry and sharing the gospel, and I rededicated my life to Christ.

Have just been on fire for God ever since. That's so amazing. I just lowed your story so much, and I was actually, although I knew about other aspects about your story, I didn't know how in just overnight you actually saw something happen in with regards your tick target. You know, people often talk about overnight success, right like in a little sense, people can say it's like overnight, but you know, it's all because of what you've been through for so many years. In just the nick of time, party on the table, turn out, and that is something that is what God has been picking over me in the last you know, a few years, and especially in the last few months actually, and that is how actually I saw how my podcast, out of the blue, they started going up, and I could totally resonate because that's exactly what happened with Joseph, right like, for when I look at your story, it seems so much in line with Joseph's story.

That's how I looked at it, because you were in foster care. You know, Joseph was abandoned by his own family. You had a divorce in your life, and Joseph had. Of course it was not the same, but there was an issue because of an accusation. He had a time in prison. Joseph at a time in prison, but that morning he woke up in prison, but that same night he went to bed in the palace. He went from mediocrity to become a celebrating within a day. So that's very much what God has done in your life. And this is like a practical example.

And I'm so happy to see, like because I've been preaching about this for a long period of time that you know, that's what God has been putting in my spirit. Is not where you're always going to be. And uh, and give you some examples other than Joseph. This is the first example where I can say this happened, Master Andrew. I'm sure God can do the same in your life as well. So well, of course, there's an important aspect, like we should not just run after waiting for that job, you know, movement where you're actually going to uh, you know, the Palace like Joseph.

Like everybody says, I want to go to the Palace, like Joseph, I want to go to uh, you know, the palace like David. But Joe have been reached the palace to just go on a vacation. He reached the palace to sell people. He reached the palace and he said, you know what you meant for harm, God turned it around for good. I'm here to save people. So ultimately you found your purpose where you are using your purpose to say the people from being lost in sin, but to find hope in the Kingdom of God. So I'm so grateful that you actually stepped in and you're like a classic example of Joseph in today's terminology.

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