Episode #177: Unpacking Prophecy: The Ezekiel War and Beyond, with Branch Isole, Author - Poet - Podcast Host

INTRODUCTION:
In this episode of the Sex, Drugs, and Jesus podcast, host De’Vannon Seráphino and frequent guest Branch Isole delve into deep discussions about Bible prophecy, focusing on the Ezekiel Holy War and its implications for the present and future. Branch explains his insights into the end times, including significant historical and contemporary events like the reconstitution of Israel, the ongoing Gaza conflict, and a potential future war led by a coalition of nations. The conversation also addresses spiritual preparedness, understanding tribulations, the Antichrist, and the importance of maintaining faith. Practical steps for spiritual growth and connection with God's Spirit are also shared. The episode concludes with humorous dad jokes to lighten the intense discourse. 

Playlists: https://music.apple.com/profile/DeVannonSeraphino

Website: https://www.SexDrugsAndJesus.com

Website: https://www.DownUnderApparel.com   

INCLUDED IN THIS EPISODE (But not limited to):

·     The Ezekiel Holy War & The End Times.

·     The Battle of Gog & Magog.

·     How Modern Nations Come Into Play.

·     The Third Temple in Jerusalem.

·     Birth Pains.

·     The Two Witnesses.

·     The Rapture.

·     The Lat Days.

CONNECT WITH BRANCH ISOLE:

Website & Books: https://www.branchisole.com

Fb: https://www.facebook.com/podcastguestbranchisole

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@branchisole9097

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/branch-isole-851433201/

CONNECT WITH DE’VANNON SERÁPHINO:

TikTok: https://shorturl.at/nqyJ4

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3daTqCM

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devannon

Email: SDJPodcastNewYork@Gmail.com

REFERENCES:

The Battle of Gog and Magog: https://shorturl.at/SkkOW

Thanks for listening!!! Please follow us on YouTube + TikTok @SexDrugsAndJesusPodcast

Transcript

Episode #177: Unpacking Prophecy: The Ezekiel War and Beyond, with Branch Isole, Author - Poet - Podcast Host

De'Vannon Seráphino: [00:00:00] Hello, all my beautiful, delicious Starseeds, childs of light that God has sprinkled all over the galaxy who have come to this show to hear knowledge and enlightenment. Welcome back to the Sex, Drugs, and Jesus podcast. My name is Devan and Serafino, your host, and I have with me a Sex, Drugs, and Jesus favorite.

De'Vannon Seráphino: He definitely holds the record for coming on the show the most times. And I love that. And you will, this ain't the last of him. His name is Branch Isole. Branch, how are you? Savannah, my brother, it's 

Branch Isole: so good to see 

De'Vannon Seráphino: you again. Always a pleasure. Branch and I have talked about everything from homosexuality, Armageddon, the end times, life, past, present, future, drugs, man, drugs.

De'Vannon Seráphino: We have talked about it all. Can you tell us about your show that you host? 

Branch Isole: Oh, sure. Thanks. Yeah. I've got a [00:01:00] podcast. It's called Small Changes, Big Dividends. And we talk about growth, spiritual, personal, and career growth, and it's on every Wednesday live through the Bold Brave TV network on YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Branch Isole: And then, of course, it's recorded and posted on all the. channels right, right after we're finished the live show. So, Wednesday four to five.

Branch Isole: And I invite everybody to stop in and we talked about like I said, spiritual and personal and career growth. We do a prophecy segment every week where we talk about the end times and the last days and Bible prophecy and what it means for us today who are looking to the future. [00:02:00]And I've got a website.

Branch Isole: I've got a YouTube channel. Everything there is basically a composite, a sampling of, of what, what I do and what I write about, and I invite you there. Branchy Soleil is the name. That's the name of the website. That's the name of the YouTube channel. So I, I invite you to stop in, check me out, see if there's anything there I can help you with in your struggles of daily life.

De'Vannon Seráphino: And all of that information will go in the show. We notes, as it always does. Today, we are talking about. The Ezekiel Holy War, because I was flipping around on, I don't know, X or somewhere on the internet, and I saw that Branch had posted a post thing, speaking in no uncertain terms about his opinion about the Ezekiel Holy War and things that are going on politically, and so I thought, I want to, I want to get, get this, get him on the show and talk about this Ezekiel holy war.[00:03:00]

De'Vannon Seráphino: I'm going to read a little something of this article that I, or really two paragraphs that I pulled from churchofjesuschrist. org and see what you think about it. And we'll just kind of springboard from here. So is this is titled the battle of Gog and Magog. So Ezekiel. 38 through 39, and this is chapters 38 through 39, speaks of a great battle that will occur in Israel in the latter days, then that will involve a people from Magog led by a king named Gog.

De'Vannon Seráphino: Ezekiel described this war as being waged in the mountains of Israel against the children of Israel gathered to these lands. The Lord also told Ezekiel he would miraculously save his people from the armies of Magog, so that all nations may know that I am the Lord. Because of these descriptions, Ezekiel seems to be describing the great battle before the Second Coming, commonly known as Armageddon.[00:04:00]

De'Vannon Seráphino: What can be confusing is that John the Revelator, Describe the battle between good and evil at the end of the millennium as the battle of Gog and Magog. This is Revelation chapter 20. So there are two battles referred to as Gog and Magog, the first right before the second coming and the other at the end of the millennium.

De'Vannon Seráphino: They are similar in that they will be massive battles involving great destruction that completely destroys the enemies of God. and make significant changes in the earth. What do you think? Well, 

Branch Isole: that's a lot to unpack. 

De'Vannon Seráphino: It always is here on the sex drugs. 

Branch Isole: Obviously I agree with scripture, right? One of the things we find about Bible prophecy, but all scripture, but especially about Bible prophecy, because it was written and recorded by different authors, over a 2, 500 year [00:05:00] period.

Branch Isole: So, there's no way that specifics by any of those writers could be known, even from age to age. So, in prophecy, a lot of times there are different labels and names given to the same circumstance or the same person or the same event. Certainly the biggest two battles that are going to come in the future related to prophecy and the last days, are the Ezekiel war and the battle of Armageddon.

Branch Isole: Certainly the battle of Armageddon could be noted as the Ezekiel war because both wars are going to change everything that we know and [00:06:00] understand about our lives. Now that said, let's go back. to the beginning, the end times, and this is all what I read and study and what I believe. Different people have different interpretations of the Bible.

Branch Isole: All I can do is share with you what the Lord directs me to study and learn. So this is my understanding of Scripture, particularly prophecy in the last days and the end times. We find in Ezekiel 36 or 37, the valley 37, that we're told that there will come a time in the future when Israel will be reunited in the land of Palestine as a nation.

Branch Isole: Now, you have to understand that the Jews The Israelites who were in Jerusalem when the [00:07:00] Romans took over sacked Jerusalem in 70, the year 70 A. D., from 70 to 74, forced or killed all of the Jews who were there, all of the Israelites. And the ones who survived fled. And they fled into the wilderness. And this was the Israeli first diaspora where they didn't have a home.

Branch Isole: So they just started moving and going to other places. And in the year 135. They decided they needed to codify or write down their religion. It had always been oral and traditionally passed down by stories. It wasn't really written down. Now, the Torah was written and the books were written, but The Jewish religion and Jewish people as a, as an entity really started in what's called rabbinical Judaism, which is what you see in [00:08:00] Israel today with the Hasidics or the fundamentalists.

Branch Isole: It was started in 135 when they wrote down all of the things about the religion that they wanted to ensure was passed on from generation to generation. So the significant thing in Ezekiel 37 is the Lord says that he will reconstitute Israel, the people, as a state and nation and as a people once again in the future.

Branch Isole: Well, that happened on May 14th, 1948. That's when the UN officially made Israel a nation state again, and it happened in one day. Well, that's never happened anywhere in the world, in the history of the world, but yet it was prophesied in Ezekiel. So that happened on [00:09:00] May 14th, 1948. That started the end times.

Branch Isole: So we are now living in the end times. Now the end times, It's a period that goes from May of 1948 until the Battle of Armageddon and the second coming of Jesus Christ. That will be the end of the end times. So Ezekiel also tells us that the world will witness, and this is really important because never before in the history of mankind or humanity, has the world been able to witness the same event at the same time?

Branch Isole: Well, with our technology today, we can watch things all around the world in real time. So the technology will make it available. But the Ezekiel books say that the end times will start in May of 19, or when Israel's reconstituted [00:10:00] as a nation state. That happened May of 1948. And then in,

Branch Isole: in Proph in Psalms 83, we're told that there will be another war in Israel, and it will happen before the Ezekiel War. Well, we are witnessing that war today. That's the Hamas Israel Gaza situation. And now Israel Hamas Gaza. Hezbollah situation. Okay. Now the totality of all the wars that Israel has been in from 1948 until today are wrapped up in the Psalm 83 prophecy.

Branch Isole: But the specific of the Psalm 83 prophecy is this conflict we are witnessing today between Israel, Hamas, Hezbollah, and basically the Palestinians on the West [00:11:00] Bank. The war we're watching today. is the precursor to the Ezekiel War, which is next. Now, we're told that the Ezekiel War will be a coalition of 10 nations who want to invade and destroy Israel, and the 10 nation coalition will be led by Russia, Iran, and Turkey, and they will mount a military offensive from the northern border of Israel, which is Syria and Lebanon.

Branch Isole: where you currently have Hezbollah and other militant groups and individuals who want to see Israel eliminated. So we're seeing that build up right now. There's Russians, there's Turkey, all of these countries have military components in [00:12:00] Syria particularly, and possibly Lebanon as well, but definitely Syria.

Branch Isole: So the Ezekiel prophecy tells us there will be a war in the mountains of Israel, which means the Golan Heights, or the mountains that are on the northern border of Israel and Lebanon and Syria. So the mountains are described for us, we know where those are, and there will be a military buildup and an invasion that will invade Israel.

Branch Isole: Now, in my original reading, I always presumed that the Psalm 83 conflict and the Ezekiel 38 Ezekiel war would have a definite space in between them. I'm starting to wonder if that's going to happen, because I see that the Gaza situation, and now with Hezbollah in it, and the [00:13:00]West Bank being also drug into it, that we could just see this roll from the Psalm 83 Gaza situation right up to and into the Ezekiel war situation.

Branch Isole: So prophecy tells us we will, the world will witness three events that will prove that prophecy is true, if you haven't believed anything about prophecy up to this point. Number one, the reestablishment of Israel as a nation state. Number two, the Psalm 83 conflict, like say, which has actually been going on since 1948, but it has now come to a head, come to its final explosion and implosion in the Gaza situation.

Branch Isole: And then the third will be the Ezekiel War. Okay. And it will be [00:14:00] undeniable because Israel will be alone. Everyone will have pulled out their support. Even the United States won't get involved. So Israel will stand alone and look like it's finally going to be decimated to dust, right? You've got these armies on the north, right?

Branch Isole: And nobody willing to come to Israel's aid. And so the world will be anticipating the final destruction and elimination of Israel, or the Israelites, or the Jews, however you want to label it. This will be their final destruction. And everybody in the world is going to see what's happening and going to think, Okay, this is it.

Branch Isole: This'll be the end for Israel because she can't do it alone. And God tells us, as you just read, he will show to the world. Number one, that he is, [00:15:00] because he's telling us he's going to intervene in this. When everybody in the world on the whole planet believes Israel is finally going to be pushed into the sea, God himself is going to intervene on Israel's behalf, because the Jews are his people, his chosen people.

Branch Isole: And he's going to prove to the world that they are his chosen people, and that he exists. Because he's going to throw into disarray from climate and cosmology, Israel's enemy. They're going to be ready to invade and he's going to destroy them by his own power to prove to the world he is who he is.

Branch Isole: And Israel is his people and his word prophecy is true. Now, why is this so important to you and me to understand? [00:16:00] And again, this is just my reading and interpretation study of prophecy, which I've been doing for 10 years. I was called to do it by the Lord. He told me I have a commission for you and I need you to get educated.

Branch Isole: So prophecy tells us the world will witness those three events. Israel's, reunification in the land of Palestine, the Gaza War we are seeing now, and the coming Ezekiel War in which he will change all the things that we believe to be true. How's he going to do that? Once he defeats Israel's enemies, there's going to be a treaty that's brokered between Israel and her enemies, right?

Branch Isole: The war ends, there's going to be a treaty drawn up, and that treaty is going to dictate some things going forward that will speed up our [00:17:00] understanding of prophecy coming true. One of the things I believe will come out of that treaty will be the rebuilding of the Third Temple in Jerusalem. The other thing that's important about that treaty is the man who brokers it, the man who is instrumental in that treaty coming to be, be signed and ratified, is the man who at, I believe, mid tribulation will become the Antichrist.

Branch Isole: And this is why the Ezekiel War and its treaty are so important for us. Now prophecy and scripture and revelation tells us that when that treaty is signed and ratified, accepted,

Branch Isole: There will be a trump, there will, the seventh seal and heaven will be [00:18:00] broken and there'll be 30 minutes of silence. Now we don't know how long 30 minutes is. I have a thought about what that is. But, when the treaty is signed and ratified, the seventh seal on the scroll in heaven held by Christ is broken.

Branch Isole: That's the seventh of seven seals, so the scroll is unrolled. And that time starts the seven year tribulation period. Now, I'm not sure if it's when the treaty is signed or when it's finally ratified, or if the 30 minutes comes in there. I have a thought on that, but I won't get into it right now. So the treaty signed and ratified, the 30 minutes of silence starts in heaven, the seven years tribulation begins, and, the third Jewish temple.[00:19:00]

Branch Isole: It started to be built, but that's the importance of the Ezekiel war because what it does is it jumpstarts all the things that prophecy tells us about Seven year tribulation, and that's the Ezekiel war. I,

De'Vannon Seráphino: I, I, I personally could, stand to miss the seven years of tribulation if the Lord would like to like, push that back to like, I know the year, I dunno, 4,000 or something like that. But, because people when I was growing up. And thank you for, for breaking that down for us. Mr. Isole

De'Vannon Seráphino: would always be saying like Jesus could come any day and everything like that. I'm all like no girl He cannot like there's there's certain things that have to happen politically and physically. It can't just be like, A feeling of impending [00:20:00] armageddon like it's not just gonna drop out the sky like that Because god has got a process and he likes to have this lead to that lead to that And he likes to give people plenty of warning Plenty of signs, plenty of opportunities to, to change, learn, grow before he just drops like judgment.

De'Vannon Seráphino: On us. The beautiful thing about the life we live, like sometimes we go through these like periods of like karmic cycles and karma coming back to us while we yet live, we're in one of those right now. I had been reading the signs in the clouds and the judgment card has been all over my tarot readings and things like that and other signs.

De'Vannon Seráphino: I had a dream about like a blood moon this morning and all of that and all of that has to do with like karma while we yet live, but all that. It's preparing us for the final judgments. We can have, like, an in life review, get our progress report, see what we need to improve before we actually face it the last time.

De'Vannon Seráphino: But them 7 years of [00:21:00] tribulation and the Bible say things like woe to the inhabitants of the earth. Like, it's going to be like, not great.

Branch Isole: It's the 7 years are actually broken down into 2 equal 3. 5 year periods. And if you read scripture, sometimes it says three and a half years, sometimes it says 1290 days, and sometimes it says 42 months. which are all the same time periods. But again, that's why prophecy can be so confusing because you're reading along about three and a half years and all of a sudden it says something about 42, 42 months or 1290 days.

Branch Isole: Well, is that the same time or is it some other time? So that's why studying prophecy the deeper you dig, the more you find, but then the deeper you have to keep digging because these interrelations between the people and the events and the circumstances. Although [00:22:00] they always align in the end, getting there is always in incremental steps.

Branch Isole: So, and because it's an incremental steps, we don't always seem to make the connection until we're a little further down the path. And then we can see what the connection was that brought us to this place. That's the importance of the seven year tribulation. So let's talk about that for just a minute.

Branch Isole: The first three and a half years are going to be labeled as a time of peace and safety or peace and security. particularly in Israel, but because the Ezekiel wars ended and all of this death and destruction that we are going through, not we're going through, but the the Middle East is going through right now in the Gaza situation, which will only continue to be worsened [00:23:00] up until the Ezekiel War.

Branch Isole: Once that Ezekiel War has happened, people are going to be so relieved, right, that there's a new normal and there's finally peace, that it will be declared a time of peace and security or peace and safety. And that's how it will be marketed. Okay, well, that's true. However, the seven year tribulation period is actually two periods.

Branch Isole: the Tribulation and the Great Tribulation. So three and a half years of Tribulation, three and a half years of Great Tribulation. Now there will be death and destruction going on in this first three and a half years of peace and security. However, it will come just the same ways we see it now. Climate change, storms, political upheaval, economic [00:24:00] stress, famines all the things that we're experiencing today that we obviously, by the data, can see how much worse it is than it was, say, 50 years ago.

Branch Isole: Well, that will just continue to exacerbate, and our world will become more dangerous and more deadly. Viruses, whatever the things we already experience, they'll just be more intense, more frequent. And claim more lives. Now, on the other hand, just like today, there's a lot of people who are doing well, and a lot of people have a lot of stuff and a lot of people who are enjoying life, and it will be the same way then.

Branch Isole: But there will be, there'll be this sense of things are getting worse, even though everything is peace and safety and peace and security, man, the storms are getting worse and the floods and everything is just the intensity. This is what Jesus calls birth pains. in Matthew 24. And what [00:25:00] he's describing for us is, there's going to be a birth ahead, and it is his second coming, that is the birth.

Branch Isole: And before the birth, you have labor pains and you have birth pains, and they increase in intensity the closer you get to the birth. So right now, from May of 1948 up until today, and until the Ezekiel War, we are experiencing these birth pains, a world in turmoil. Taking some lives and letting others live.

Branch Isole: It's just sort of the luck of the draw, the way nature operates. And so, when the Ezekiel War ends and the treaty is signed, and the seven year tribulation begins, it won't appear to be any worse than it is right now. Just more of it. more destruction and death and more frequency, right? Just life. [00:26:00] Well, two things are going to happen, and I think it's this.

Branch Isole: 30 days in from the ratification acceptance of the treaty, two men are going to show up in Israel on what will be the steps of the rebuilt or in the process of being built third temple. Those two men are Moses and Elijah. See, these are two men in biblical history who never, we don't have. proof that they ever died, right?

Branch Isole: And we're told Elijah was taken to heaven living, and we're told Moses was left when the Israelites crossed over into Palestine, he didn't go, and so we don't know if and when he died. But Moses and Elijah are going to show up again on the steps of the temple 30 days after the tribulation starts, and they're going to start [00:27:00] preaching the Bible.

Branch Isole: They're going to tell the world about Christ, Jesus, as the Messiah. And they have the power to call down from heaven death and destruction upon the world. And so what they will be doing is their job. They will be trying to alert and warn the world that the time to come to God through Jesus Christ is now, because what's coming is going to be worse than anything you could ever imagine.

Branch Isole: And things will get worse and worse that three and a half years. And at the end of the three and a half years, when we reach mid tribulation, one of the things that is going to happen is the Antichrist, the man who becomes the Antichrist, is finally going to realize and take on the job of Antichrist. See, the Antichrist [00:28:00] is already here.

Branch Isole: He is here today walking among us.

Branch Isole: He doesn't even know he's the Antichrist. See, he's unaware that he is the Antichrist. He just thinks he is who he is, just like we all do. But at mid tribulation, at the end of the three and a half years of peace and security and peace and safety, where Moses and Elijah have been calling down death and destruction upon the world through the storms and increased turmoil, what we will be calling life.

Branch Isole: At that point, Satan is going to offer this gentleman the job of Antichrist, and he's going to accept. And the first thing he's going to do is invade [00:29:00] Jerusalem to take over the temple. And in so doing, His militias, his army, his military are going to kill gonna kill Moses and Elijah. And the world is gonna witness all this.

Branch Isole: And because Moses and Elijah are now dead, the world is gonna rejoice because they are, they're blaming Moses and Elijah for all this death and destruction. That's been going on in the three and a half years of peace and security. And so the blame for all the death and destruction goes to Moses and Elijah.

Branch Isole: So the whole world will celebrate that they are now dead and they will lie, their bodies will lie in the street where they were slain for three and a half days. And in that three days, three days, I'm sorry, in that three days, The world is going to rejoice and everybody's going to send each other gifts because the nemesis of their [00:30:00] peace and safety and peace and security life has now been eliminated.

Branch Isole: Well, at that point, Scripture tells us that on the third day, Moses and Elijah are going to come back to life and stand up, and the whole world is going to witness their resurrection, and they're going to be resurrected and taken physically from this world. Now as I read Scripture, the next thing that I think is going to happen is the fifth .

Branch Isole: trumpet in heaven is going to be blown. And with the rapture of Moses and Elijah, the rapture that we always talk about and see in pictures and movies and stuff, is going to take place in conjunction with the rapture of Moses and Elijah. It's going to be one rapture. First goes Moses and Elijah, then goes all those, [00:31:00] believing in Jesus as the Messiah and the Christ who are dead.

Branch Isole: will be raptured or taken up, caught up into the world, up into the heavens, and then all of us who are alive that believe in Christ as the Messiah will be raptured. And from that point on, the Antichrist is in power, and the Great Tribulation, or the final three and a half years, or what is sometimes called the Last Days, begin.

Branch Isole: You don't want to be here for the last three and a half years, no matter what. Because the whole last three and a half years is only about two things. Are you going to follow Christ? Are you going to follow the Antichrist and God's dealing with the remnant of Israel? You see, at mid tribulation, when the rapture [00:32:00] happens, not only are Moses and Elijah and all dead and unliving Christians and Messianic Jews gonna be gone, he's also going to remove his grace from the world, and it will be the Antichrist world at that point.

Branch Isole: And you can believe in God or not, if you missed the rapture, or if you believe in God after the rapture. Unless you're a remnant Israelite in Jordan, in Petra, you will not have God's grace. You will literally be on your own. And it will be hell on earth. You do not want to be here for the last days, the last three and a half years, the Great Tribulation.

Branch Isole: The first three and a half years is going to be hard enough. It's going to be like trying to survive today, but on steroids. good, bad, and ugly. [00:33:00] But the last three and a half years, even if you come to Christ at that point, all it means is you are not going to hell or oblivion when you die. You are going to be on your own and trying to survive every day.

Branch Isole: And they're going to be, it's going to be just terrible. 

De'Vannon Seráphino: Sometimes it's all we can say is just terrible, but you see a warning comes before all and all of these like I was saying, all of these. In life reviews when, when judgment comes to us and our karma comes back, whether we've been good or bad, this is still the Lord training us for what is to come.

De'Vannon Seráphino: See, a warning came before whatever trouble came upon us in life, because God has a personality. He's a God of process. He has a personality, like, personality like we do. He goes about doing things a certain way. So all of this, [00:34:00] what Branch just described is a big ole version of the, how we live throughout our cycles of life regardless.

De'Vannon Seráphino: And so you've seen all this before, just in the way you live, but you have to open your eyes to be looking for the ways God is speaking to you and training you and getting you ready for what is to come. That word about no grace. I often say this to people like there's no point of really arguing about whether hell is real.

De'Vannon Seráphino: If there's fire there, the real problem is there ain't no God there because God has the power to take heat out of fire like with no grace, like, that's what keeps whatever semblance of peace you have in your head. That's what that is. What allows you to eat and feel full. That's what allows you to enjoy the cool of the breeze and to actually be satiated and satisfied.

De'Vannon Seráphino: We can take for granted the simple joy of eating a plate of food and being happy with that. Without grace, you could be just fearful and looking over your [00:35:00] shoulder if an acorn falls out the ground like the devil. If he, if he really could just turn a loose with you, you would. You would be a lot more thankful for the little shit in your life if you really understood the power of the devil.

De'Vannon Seráphino: And, and speaking of God's personality, One other thing how you were saying like how Israel will be on the brink of destruction and everyone thinks they're gonna, This is it, they're about to bite the dust. buy the farm no more Israel. This is another way that God trains his saints and his people who believe on him through life.

De'Vannon Seráphino: A few times I've really thought that me personally was at the brink of destruction and that was not going to be anything left. No, that wasn't, whether that was an internally emotional brink of destruction. Like after a bad relationship or physical, when I was in the drug dealing game and people were trying to kill me and shit, in either way, Emotional overload, whatever.

De'Vannon Seráphino: I really thought I don't see how I can go any further. I'm about to [00:36:00] to either burn up to ashes or explode into a billion particulates. I thought it was it, and then something happened. I woke up the next day feeling like a million bucks. Maybe I just needed to process through that trauma.

De'Vannon Seráphino: But a few times I was like, I don't know how I can go any further. This is it. This is the end. It's over. And as you can see, it wasn't. So I love how God is planning to basically do what he does, which is to save his people at the last minute for waiting and trusting in him until the last minute and not giving up hope and faith.

Branch Isole: God does two things for us and to us. He gives us promises and he gives us warnings. And all he can do is allow us to experience him being exposed to his word. The choice is still ours of how we will respond. [00:37:00] But what you just described is faith in action, because when we re establish our spiritual connection with God through acknowledgement of Jesus Christ as the Christ, as the Messiah, as His Son, as His Spirit in living form.

Branch Isole: When we re establish that connection, His Spirit is then always with us, right? So you have this, the power of His spiritual strength with your spirit and your soul inside of your heart and mind. And that spiritual strength that you now have to call upon and draw upon is yours for blessings and protection.

Branch Isole: It's that simple. When he's active in your [00:38:00] life, he's active in your life. And the great thing about being on this path with him is the further down the path you go, the more you will see his presence and activity in your life. And the more you see it, the more you start to understand it for what it is.

Branch Isole: It's his connection with you in blessings and protection for your acknowledgement of him for who he is. He's just a loving parent who wants the best for his children. But to be one of his children, you have to make a voluntary decision and action to be one of his children. You see, when we're born, we have the Spirit of God within us.

Branch Isole: How? Well, we know the Scripture tells us in John 4, 24, that God is spirit. And therefore, if he's a spirit, [00:39:00] then everything that he creates has his spirit within it. So when we're born, we're a combination of mind, body, soul, and spirit. That spirit comes from him. So we have a connection with him. That's how you come to learn right from wrong and reward and punishment.

Branch Isole: Because that little spirit that's in you is there, but it's inactive. You see, it only identifies with situations or problems or circumstances of right and wrong. And because we, we live in a society, in a world that's all about right and wrong, as it plays out as reward and punishment, in order to keep us controlled.

Branch Isole: That's what we know and grow from about age two. We learn what the word no means, and that means reward or punishment, most often punishment. No means [00:40:00] there's a consequence. And so as we grow, everything that we do in our daily decisions and choices is about what's in it for me, a reward or punishment, right?

Branch Isole: Well, that's that, that, that question that we have. is our inactive spirit that we came here with when we were born, responding, well right from wrong, right? I mean, that's God reminding you, a little angel on one shoulder, the little devil on the other shoulder, trying to pull you one way or the other.

Branch Isole: Your inactive spirit, that connection with God, is that little angel, trying to keep you on the path. And the little devil is the world's waste trying to tempt you into the world's waste. That's why life is so difficult every day. That's why the struggles and the stress and the pressure and the conflicts are so difficult.

Branch Isole: Because we're torn. We're [00:41:00] in this world and we're of this world. We grew up embracing the ways and the things of this world. That's what we know. That's what we're comfortable with. That's what we use in our daily lives. Because we're taught and socialized to believe it's all about us. So, whatever you want, you can have, however you need to get it, and it's okay, because your life is all about you.

Branch Isole: And your little inactive spirit's trying to remind you that it's not all about you it's bigger than that. And so we struggle from age 2 to age 8, to age 16, to age 20, to age 30, to whatever. Until that day we decide we've had enough and we want to reconnect with God. And that reconnection, at least for us as Christians, comes through belief in Christ, Jesus.

Branch Isole: And we makeyou say, okay, I want to reconnect. Okay, well, how do I do that? Well, there's five [00:42:00] easy steps. You invite Jesus into your life. When you do that, Matthew 7 tells us, you invite Him in, and He responds. Okay, he's going to send his spirit to be with us. So step two, we engage his spirit. We now accept his living spirit within us.

Branch Isole: And what happens is his spirit reuniting with our little inactive spirit blossoms. It blooms. It's now a hundred percent fully active. Right? Now that we have his spirit, we start to see truth in our world, because he sent the spirit of truth to be with us. So we invited him in, he sent his spirit. Once we have his spirit, now we engage his spirit.

Branch Isole: We interact with the spirit. Every time we may have to make a choice or a decision to say, what's in it for me? Well, what would Jesus do? And his spirit will tell us and direct us and guide us. Because His [00:43:00] Spirit is now our guide, our counselor, our advocate, which He tells us in John 14.

Branch Isole: So we invite him in, he sends his spirit, we engage his spirit, now we embrace his spirit, he's with us, he's one, he's one with our spirit, so now we are more balanced, not only are we a human individual operating in this world, we are also now a spiritual individual. operating in this world. This idea of active spirit, which has been in the back of our minds, now is full blown.

Branch Isole: We understand I'm a spiritual entity and I'm a human entity, and the idea for me to have the best life I can have is to get those two in balance. So how do we do that? Step four, we emulate We copy, we imitate what Jesus would say or do or respond in every situation that [00:44:00] we get ourselves in. How do we know what He would do?

Branch Isole: We say, what would Jesus do? His Spirit will respond and tell us, show us, reveal to us what He would do, what the Lord's path would be. And then, As a Christian, you gotta make a choice. Am I going to do what Christ would do? Or am I gonna be me and go and do my old world stuff, my old life stuff, my old pattern stuff.

Branch Isole: Yeah, well I know what that got me, right? Otherwise I wouldn't be on a new path. If it had been that great, I wouldn't have been looking for something else. The fifth step, you gotta believe that Christ is who He says He is. And then Romans 10, verses 9, 10, 13, and 17, he says, If you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is the Christ, Your salvation is promised.[00:45:00]

Branch Isole: You're saved, and that's all you have to do. Now the hard part comes. Okay, now you know all that, and you've accepted all that, and you believe all that to be true, how are you gonna go forward in your life? All about you, or all about you and the people you care for and love? See, when you have to make that decision, if you still think it's all about you, then your focus is all about you.

Branch Isole: So your behavior is, what do I have to do to get mine? What do I have to do to win? What do I have to do to be on top and stay there? Well I already know what that looks like as we've been trying to do it our entire lives.

Branch Isole: So what choice do you have? Your old life or your new life? Old creation, new creation,[00:46:00] and it's going to be tough. Those first few steps are really tough. Why? Because you see, Satan knows how the story ends. He knows he's going to lose. And just like his fall from heaven originally, he doesn't care. As long as he has people who worship him, he knows the battle is already going to be won by Christ.

Branch Isole: He can't defeat God, but he wants to take as many of us with him to worship him as God. as possible. So the minute you decide to get on a spiritual path with God through Jesus Christ, devil's going to come after you. He's going to tempt you and test you and challenge you from the get go. And if you've already been on the path before and fallen off, you [00:47:00] know how easy it is to stay off the path.

Branch Isole: Well, he's going to redouble his efforts now to make your life miserable to see who you're going to choose. See, this is prophecy in the future already in your life. You got to choose. Satan, are you going to choose Christ? That's the choice. And he's, he's trying to get you to choose right now. Come tribulation, he's going to give you one of your own, a human being to lead you that way.

Branch Isole: So that's where the hard part comes for somebody who says, okay I want to get on the new spiritual path. It won't be easy. The whole idea, the whole world is designed to throw you off the path. That's the struggle of life. Are you going to believe there's something greater than yourself, than the little god himself, or not?

Branch Isole: And every time you [00:48:00] start to get on the other path, where the little god of yourself actually realizes how small it is, And there's something greater and bigger than you that will help and benefit you in this life. Until you make that decision, it won't happen. But once you make that decision, the world doesn't want to lose you.

Branch Isole: It's going to do everything it can to suck you back in. What did Pacino say? in Godfather, just when I'm out, they suck me back in. Right? That's what the world's trying to do to you as you're trying to break away from it. All right, well, all I can tell you is forebear and get on the path. The longer you stay on the path, the more the Lord is going to be active in your life, and the more you're going to see it, and the more you're going to realize that's the life you want.

Branch Isole: Now, once you're on the Lord's path, and you've turned your back on the world, [00:49:00] the world's going to turn its back on you. And people are going to ridicule you and they, they're not going to want to be around you. And that's okay. You see, as long as we're on the world's path, we put all of our faith in the world's ways.

Branch Isole: And the world's ways are designed to keep us enslaved. And the longer we're there and the more layers of the world that are piled on us, the harder it is to dig out.

Branch Isole: But once you dig out. What you're going to find is the world's not interested in you anymore. That's why you find new people in your life who also believe in Christ, and you get a new group of friends. You have some people you now have something of value in common with. You see, [00:50:00] the people who refuse to act and understand and live truthfully, they love the world they're in.

Branch Isole: And the one thing they don't want is the truth. And once you start living truthfully and speaking truthfully, and behaving truthfully by moral and ethical responses in your life, they're not going to want to have anything to do with you. Because to be in a truthful place, you have to look at yourself and you have to come to grips with who you are and who you truly want to be.

Branch Isole: And people who refuse to embrace the truth don't want to be around the truth. It's the last place they want to be. So you don't have to worry about losing those friends. They'll abandon you very, very quickly. [00:51:00]

De'Vannon Seráphino: As we say, let the trash take itself out. 

Branch Isole: Amen, brother. Then the problem comes the people who that you love and care for some of them are going to be happy for you.

Branch Isole: And some of them are going to wonder what the heck is going on because they can't go there. Well, that's okay. All you do is you respond politely and civilly. And say all I can do is tell you what happened to me, and if you're interested, I can share with you how you can make it happen in your life.

Branch Isole: But if that's not for you, and that's not where you want to be, okay, we just agree to disagree on those points, politics, religion, TikTok whatever it may be. But you just simply respond politely and civilly because they're the people in your life that you love and care about. But one [00:52:00] of these days, as we get closer to the Ezekiel War, and the Tribulation Years, and the Great Tribulation Years, they'll be turning to you and saying, okay, don't convince me, but at least share it with me.

Branch Isole: And that's all you can do. And the Lord will, you don't have to do the work. The Lord will do the work. You sow the seeds. He'll water them. That's all you have to do. Your job is not to start a mission, not to start a church, not to your job is to believe in the good news that Jesus Christ is who he says he is and who God says he is, and share that with the people that you love.

Branch Isole: You don't have to share it with anybody else. You just share with the people you love. There's, as a grandfather and as a parent, there's nothing that breaks my heart more than to [00:53:00]think of people who are, in heaven, in a new spiritual realm of God without those they love. So if you're a believer, your commission is to share with those you love what the Lord is sharing with you.

Branch Isole: You become the seed sower. He'll do the work. He'll do the watering. You just sow the seeds. How do you sow the seeds? You, you share with those people, the five steps that to reactivating the spirit that they already have, but that's inactive. It's not working in their best interest. When it gets reactivated 100 percent fully complete, his spirit will be working in yours and their best interest.

Branch Isole: It's as simple as that. 

De'Vannon Seráphino: And what branch is talking about y'all is something that I really feel like you[00:54:00] can achieve it eat more easily. If you go into isolation, I really, really recommend people set their schedules up where you can take 7 days to yourself. Like, at least once every, like, month, month and a half or so, even if that means you go to work and when you get off work, you don't go out to the club.

De'Vannon Seráphino: You stop by. You don't go to happy hour. You really take time. You need at least 7 days, my people, because it takes about. Three or four days for your, for you to fully wind down on a soul level because of how busy people let themselves get. So if you just take it like a weekend or a day or two, you're not really fully resetting when you do that 48 hours isn't nearly enough.

De'Vannon Seráphino: And then most people are incredibly active on the weekend and social. Anyway, I'm talking about seven days to yourself. If you live with somebody else, that means you're in your room. Most of the time are out in the backyard or going out for a walk and you're praying and you're meditating and you're going before the Lord and you're trying to.

De'Vannon Seráphino: figure things out. Because if you move too fast, too much all the time, you really won't [00:55:00] be able to read the ways God is speaking to you, the minutiae, the red flags and the people around you. If you're within yourself, your body could be speaking to you through pains, through aches, through, through, through all kinds of things.

De'Vannon Seráphino: If you're moving too fast and you let the devil keep you believing that quality of life is busy, busy, busy, go, go, go. You're going to miss Everything Branch just got finished saying, so take time to yourself to God and get by yourself and just remember that spirit don't underestimate the power of spirit spirit spirit created us spirit creates a natural, but a human cannot create a spirit.

De'Vannon Seráphino: And while this physical world seems all tangible and potent, but remember, it was, it was God who is a spirit who made all this. So everything, spirit overrules the natural. So be sure that you're doing your spiritual workouts, fasting, prayer, meditation, reading your Bible so that you are spiritually strong, because that is really where your true strength lies.

De'Vannon Seráphino: And [00:56:00] then lastly, Branch helped me write this book that I have just free at Sex, Drugs, and Jesus website. Which is called don't call me a Christian. What does that word even mean? And it actually talks a lot about parallels of what Christianity is versus what it actually looks like and a lot of following God and accepting Jesus and what he was talking about is in that book and it lays it out, I think, fairly well.

De'Vannon Seráphino: So it's free. It's a free download. It's sexiergsandjesus. com and branch helped me to write that. And it's absolutely wonderful. Thank you again for your assistance with that. Mr. Isole. My pleasure. Of course, so that pretty much wraps up everything. Of course, as always, I'll be asking you three dad jokes and, but before I go over into that, just remember his website is branch UCLA dot com, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, was it Instagram too, or just those.

De'Vannon Seráphino: So, okay, so [00:57:00] yeah, so I have that, and are there any, any last words or anything you want to say before we go into the dad jokes and close it out? 

Branch Isole: Only if, if your listeners are interested in prophecy and, and what, what I believe and the Bible says is ahead for us. I have a segment of my podcast every week that's about the end times.

Branch Isole: Last days and Bible prophecy. So you can hear more a little more detail and a little more depth at the podcast. 

De'Vannon Seráphino: Wonderful. So dad joke number one, and these come from the website. I believe it's just the ball guys. com, which is like probably like my favorite dad joke website right now. So it says, why are celebrities never sweating?

De'Vannon Seráphino: Why don't celebrities ever sweat?

Branch Isole: They pay somebody else to do it [00:58:00] for them.

De'Vannon Seráphino: That, that, that, that's a very strong and confidently delivered response. You have to act like you're high on weed to really like get these, but it's because they're surrounded by fans.

De'Vannon Seráphino: Okay. Dad joke number two, what, what, what, what, what article of clothing does a house where. A house coat. You know what? I'll give you that one. I'll give you that because that jokes don't have like a fixed answer. It could be anything that that would fit the bill. So I'll give you that one. The answer from this website from justballguys.

De'Vannon Seráphino: com is a dress, but we can do a house coat too. I'll take a house coat. Yay. One. Okay. Okay. So then the final one is which state in the United States gives you the smallest beverages?[00:59:00]

Branch Isole: Minnesota. Yep. All right. Two out of three this week. Zero out of three last time. I'm, I'm getting better. Growing. 

De'Vannon Seráphino: I love it. All right, Branch. Thank you so very much. Until next time. All right, buddy. Be safe. Take care. God bless. Right. I appreciate you.

De'Vannon Seráphino: Thank you all so much for joining us today and for taking some time to invest into yourself and into the lives of your loved ones, please visit us at sex drugs and jesus. com and check out our resource page, our spiritual service offerings, my blog, my books, and other writings that God has partnered with me to create.

De'Vannon Seráphino: Find us on any social media platform, stay strong, my people, and just remember that everything is going to be all [01:00:00] right.