Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to The WallBuilders Show, the place where we take on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. Rick Green here with David Barton and Tim Barton. You can learn more about us at our websites, wallbuilders.show, for the radio program and wallbuilders.com for all other things in rebuilding the wall. So if you want to know what the right bricks are, if you wanna have the right mortar to rebuild the walls, just like Nehemiah did in the Old Testament, in other words, rebuild the culture in America, visit wallbuilds.com today to learn more. Guys, later in the program Ed Rush will be with us- new friend that has been on Flashpoint a lot lately and victory news and just starting to be a part of rebuilding those walls across the country we're going to talk about even California rebuilding the walls even in California we haven't given up on California yet have we guys.

Tim Barton [00:00:54] Definitely not and depending on who you talk to, um, but California, we've talked about a lot internally and that we probably set it on air many times too. It's one of the places we probably go speak the most of anywhere of all of the 50 states. We get invited there all the time. And so even though there's really bad policies, even though there's a really bad leaders, God is, God is moving all over this nation, including in California, stirring the hearts and minds of people. Liberty is being awakened that they're working to rebuild it and if we go back 30 years, Texas was becoming a Republican state. They were leaving, being a Democrat state. California was a Republican State and really up until the last, I mean, maybe not even two decades, but really up to the last two decades until then, California was the Republican state and so the idea that is too far gone now certainly is not historically correct. It's not theologically correct. Although we buy into that far too often. And Rick knowing our friends from Flashpoint and just seeing Ed. He had some really great thoughts and perspectives And so you suggested hey, we should get him on a talk and I think it's a great idea He has a book out that I'm also very intrigued. I've not read the book yet, but the little I know I want to now go read this book or listen on Audible as is often the case with my quote-unquote reading some of these books but I'm very excited to hear him dive into some of these thoughts and explanations of of what we should be doing engaging California the way we should think about it and the the way we should be activated in what we do so I think it's gonna be a great interview. 

Rick Green [00:02:33] Well, let's go talk to Ed Rush, we'll be back in a moment. Stay with us, folks, you're listening to The WallBuilder Show. 

Rick Green [00:03:43] Welcome back to the WallBuilderds Show. Thanks for staying with us. Ed Rush is with us, I've had the chance to get to know Ed on Flashpoint over the last few months. We finally got to meet in person just a few days ago when I was out in California and other than being a Padres fan, he is a great guy. We will try to convert him to being a Rangers fan as we tag, you know, pile up on him here, David, Tim, and I, uh, we'll all talk bad about the Padres, no kidding. Ed, great to have you man. Thanks for coming on man.

Ed Rush [00:04:07] I was rooting for the Rangers in that World Series. I will say this. I spent more money with the Texas Rangers than I've I bought two luxury boxes this year. We did a coaching in Texas. So literally two nights in a row. But we and Rick you and I were in LA this weekend. So I made the tragic mistake of mentioning my Padres team. And I got booed.

Rick Green [00:04:27] I didn't realize it was all Dodgers fans in the room. Yeah 

Ed Rush [00:04:30] I've actually, I can't remember ever being booed and they booed me four times. And the next night, the second night you weren't there. The second night I made them. I don't know why I actually saw the words leaving. Like, you know, when you say something, you guys see the words leave your mouth and you're like, I didn't even know that I said that. 

Rick Green [00:04:49] I've been there. You're trying to gobble them back in before it was too late. 

Ed Rush [00:04:54] A couple times too, but most of the time they just booed so. 

Rick Green [00:04:56] Oh my goodness. Love it. Well, as I was telling you backstage, one of my favorite memories, we've been to 28 of the 30 ballparks and,  you know, taking our family all over the country for that, but one of our, our favorite memories is, going to Padres game and seeing Trevor Hoffman's,  500 save. And, in fact, my, my oldest son at the time was, yeah, I want to say 11 or 12 maybe, and he ends up,  adopting Hoffman, you know,  AC/DC Hells Bells song whenever he gets called to pitch, you know, to the mound. So that... We would always play music out of the dugout, you know, and now our wall builders audience probably doesn't know that song so we'll, we'll play that later with the Christmas music that David Barton will require us to play. But anyway, hey man, I have so enjoyed getting to know you, and doing Flashpoint with you. Your commentary is so good.  You having served being a fighter pilot and then also being a coach now for people in business and just understanding success principles. The way you apply that to the country and how we as a society succeed, I think is really special. I think it's something that's desperately needed because we feel our patriotism, right? We wanted, we want what's good for our country, but we don't always know how to do that or how to apply those principles. And you spoke to that last week at the live Flashpoint event, even the mental side of this, you know, we're sitting there in California and everybody in California, you know, we hear so often in our circles,  it's done for it. As you said, going down the tubes, you know, and you, and, and you pointed out when we do that, we're literally, we're literally professing the destruction of our own state and for me as a Texan, it's part of my nation. I mean, you guys are my neighbors. You're still part of our country. 

Ed Rush [00:06:33] I mean, it's interesting. So, I mean I raised my right hand in 1995 when I joined the Marine Corps and I swore to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against enemies, foreign and domestic. I spent the first 20 years of my career on the front lines of our military in Iraq, overseas for actually quite a bit of my career flying F-18s, and defending our country against enemies foreign. And then I came back and realized, actually our biggest enemy frankly is domestic. Defending the constitution against enemies domestic. And I mentioned this week at the event last, this weekend, but you know, what you think essentially becomes a reality, a self-predicting reality. It says in the Proverbs, as a man thinketh, thinketh, so he is. It's very clear that you're thinking as a software system for your behavior. And so I always tell people, if you're not where you want to be in terms of money or in terms relationships or in term of your health, the first look at the way you think, a lot of the programming happened when we were very and certainly the book that I. Most recently wrote, God Talks, talks about the neurological program. I could literally show you videos of the brain rewiring itself and disconnecting and reconnecting, literally rewirring itself as you think a new thought. Well, that's true. And I think most scientists now are fully agreeing on that. Most people agree that the way you think affects your life. Well that's truth for our nation too. And so, for example, I live in California and people have been saying to me for years, believers, good intended believers, church members in California. Man, California is going down the tubes. Man, California's in trouble. And I understand that we have some major issues. We've got a governor that does, that openly mocks God. We've gotta legislature that hates parents. And so I understand we have issues, but at the same time, if you're speaking over your state, California going down the tubes, you're actually creating a prophetic prediction about your state. And God listens to the prophetic predictions of his people. And so, I've been saying positive things about our, I was joking when we were at the event, I was like, what's the opposite of going down the tubes is going up the tubes? It sounds like sort of a colonoscopy procedure or something. But nonetheless, it's a positive thing to say. And look, I have high hopes for California. And I believe not only can the state change, but God can change a nation in a day. Certainly He can change one of the 50 states. And so I predict great things for our state. I actually predict great thing for our country as well. Obviously, we're seeing incredible change inside of our country. And it really is because of God's people. I don't think there's anyone any even atheists in the political structure will acknowledge that it was evangelical Christians and their actions in 2024 that changed the election. So we were making great strides. 

Rick Green [00:09:07] No doubt, man, no doubt. The mindset is so important. And I, you know, I grew up on Zig Ziglar. I mean, he was a mentor of mine and wrote the forward of my book. And, and you know he used to always talk about that. The book of Joel says, let the weak say I'm strong. So we're going to let the, but the liberals in California say, uh, no, I'm turning into a conservative. No, but seriously, the, the believers in California saying, yes, they may have control of our, our state now, but we are becoming stronger. We are, we are gaining ground and they, and they actually are in there and they're getting more involved. The opposite, it disempowers you and and I think you're so right about you know, it's that it's the diet of information it's the it's what we fed ourselves, you know Zig used to always say You are who you are and where you are because of what's gone into your mind you can change who you and where are by changing what goes into your and the more we can get people in the church to hear the message of God's Word is true He has a blessing for us and we can choose and Deuteronomy the blessings or the curses now let's go act on that, then the better chance we have of turning, not only California, man, I'm seeing the same kind of thing in Washington state and Colorado, a lot of these blue states that used to be red. I mean, California gave us Nixon gave us, gave us Reagan. I mean California was a conservative bastion. So yeah, man. I, I haven't given up on you guys at all. That's why I love coming out there and doing events in California. But, but, but let's talk about God talks and, and, and what you, um, what you're teaching believers whenever you teach about these, uh Uh, even the idea of in their personal life, not only, uh, you know, we're talking country here because we're on wall builders, but even in their personal life um, how to, you know, um, program yourself, if you will, uh to, to literally be in line with that, that's renewing the mind, right? I mean, you're literally just working to renew the mind. 

Ed Rush [00:10:49] It's a perfect analogy when you said reprogramming. So speaking of renewing the mind, so Romans 12:2, you know, Paul says, don't be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The Greek word transformed is metamorphu, which is the same word when Jesus was on the mountain of transfiguration and he turned blindingly white. It was the same words. So Paul's saying, completely transform yourself, turn yourself into a new, completely new person, not by working out a crossfit, not by getting a new diet, not by some sort of procedure, but by changing the way you think. And so, fundamentally, the God Talks book is about changing the way you think. There are a lot of books about neurology, the way the mind works, and the way to reprogram your mind. There a lot books about how to have a conversation with God. However, God Talk is the only book that brings them both together. And in the beginning of the book, I tell the story of a dramatic encounter I had in a counselor's office, where literally my mind was actually blown through an encounter with God, I had my first words from the Lord came out of heaven. And accompanied with a very dramatic vision that completely upended me and changed my life forever. I was a cessationist at the time. I did not believe that God spoke to people. I wasn't interested in a conversation with God. I was very spiritual. I did love God. I was I was, a believer. I just didn't have a conversation, with God, out of the darkness, God spoke to me. And ever since then, I've been on a mission to help eight billion people in the world hear tangibly the voice of God. I want nothing more than everyone in the world, all eight billion, people to wake of the morning and spend a 10 minute. Conversation with the creator of the universe, I think it will change the world. And I know it's common to look at our political enemy and think horrible things about them, but at the same time, I pray for them. I ask that God would intercede in their lives and that people like Gavin Newsom and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris would have a life-changing conversation with him. I want nothing more for them to be able to speak to the same God that we're speaking to on a fairly daily basis. And so God Talks basically brings the neurology and it teaches about the three parts of the mind, the conscious, the subconscious, and the super conscious. I can show you scientifically how you are hardwired, not just softwired but literally hardwires in the substance matter of your gray matter to hear from God. I can actually show you the part of your brain that tunes in when scientists show this one part of the brain comes alive. It literally lights up the moment you start praying. And then I'll also teach you how to have this conversation in seven different areas with God. And I love it. I've had atheists, Rick, honestly, I've have atheists who have come to my events and have heard. Tangibly from the voice of God. I always tell people, if I can teach an atheist how to hear from God, I can tell you to. By the way, I do get criticized. It's amazing to me. I thought when I wrote this book that the people who would be critical of me online would be the atheist. I have yet to receive one word of criticism from an atheist. The people who are critical, strangely enough, are the same conservative Christians that I came out of, that cessationist sect. And they say to me, why would you teach an Atheist how to talk to God? They literally asked me that question and I have a simple answer. Which is, you know, God loves them. And because of that, I love them. And who am I to tell God who He can talk to? He spoke through a donkey, for crying out loud. That's right. Sure, He can use me to talk to an atheist. 

Rick Green [00:13:54] We could use a couple of donkeys like you and me.  

Ed Rush [00:13:58] Yeah totally. That was the point of that story too, wasn't it? 

Rick Green [00:13:59] Yeah, exactly. GodTalks.com, by the way, the website. Godtalks.com, how to have a friendship with God. And even if you made a million mistakes, I love that because I think I've made at least that many. I am totally curious. You say you will, you're going to learn how to ask God questions. I find that interesting. Like, how do you, what do you mean by that? When you, w what would be an example of that? 

Ed Rush [00:14:20] I mean the simple premise of the book is you're going to learn how to ask God questions, you're going to get answers, and then you're gonna use those answers to re-code, re-wire your life for success. And the questions are really important. I discovered when I first started hearing from God. Nowadays, by the way, I can walk probably like a lot of people who've been maturely walking with God like you can. I can just go for a walk and have a conversation with God somewhat freely, kind of hear from Him about that day. My experience though is when you're starting to hear from God or when you're improving your hearing from God. That there's often a lot of walls that have been built up. There's a lot of things that, you know, you're not necessarily comfortable talking about. And it's not like God's not speaking it's just like you're not hearing. And so what I found was some very detailed questions, often clear some space for a very radical conversation. And so in the book, I literally will teach you two questions that you can use over a period of seven days, that as you ask these two questions about seven topics, it really opens up your ears and your mind to a conversation with God and the walls start to come down. My experience is that God is always speaking. You know, John 1, He calls Himself the Word. It's a safe assumption if He calls himself the Word that He has something to say. The history of the entire Bible from the very beginning to the very end is God speaking to His people, literally without God's Word speaking to his people, there's not one single page of that 66 books of the Bible or I hope it's 66, you can fact check me on that one if you want to later on. My point though is that that is the history and if you're not experiencing that in a vital daily, even minute by minute way. Then it just takes a little training. It's like when I was a fighter pilot, when I first got into an airplane, I about killed myself and my instructor, like legitimately almost killed us. And the second flight, I almost killed this again, but by the 50th flight, I was pretty good and by the 500th flight I was lethal. I was lethal weapon in an F-18. And the difference between flight one and flight 500 was training. It's just practice and training. People tell me not to use that word. They say that people don't wanna do it. I said like, why don't we just try it? Why don't you just learn to have a simple conversation with God? Why don't you train yourself, tune your antenna to be able to hear Him. It will absolutely change your life. And I will tell you, with God's wisdom comes a very simple principle called easy and light. Jesus said, my yoke is easy and my burden is light. If you feel like life's been hard or a little more challenging, or if everything is difficult, start with a conversation with God. It'll change your life. 

Rick Green [00:16:35] And that sounds like to me also the whole, uh, what Paul talked about working out your salvation, like needing it, like dough into your DNA. You know, you're, you've literally building those muscles of the relationship with God, you, you you're learning to have those conversations. But I love how you talk about asking the questions because too often I fall into the, you know, going back to even the Lord's prayer and, you know come thy kingdom, be done thy will so I'm already like saying you know God your will in my life, and I don't spend enough time saying Lord, what is your will for me today, Lord? What would you have me do today and and having more of a conversation rather than me just you know? Spouting off whatever I have on my mind that day, so I love that I'm gonna start implementing that part immediately, but there's so much more there Godtalks.com. Ed man, thank you. Thank You so much for just being being willing to be used by God and and for bridging that gap, for bringing the success principles of business and life and everything into the political realm the way that you have with Flashpoint and some of the other events that you're doing now. We need it desperately and we've got a great window of opportunity. People are willing to listen to guys like you and me and David and Tim and all these other folks right now more than at any time in the 30 years I've been doing this. So the harvest is plenty. The workers are few. Thanks for being one of those workers, man. 

Ed Rush [00:17:54] Oh, man. Thank you for saying that. If I can say very quickly.  What you said about the window is 100% right. We woke up in 2020. There was something that happened in our country in 2020 that everyone got awake and we do have a window. It's been my experience that, God's people go in one or two directions, either they get activated or they get complacent. You mentioned Ronald Reagan in 84 Reagan swept 49 of the 50 states, one California, you know, and I think, I think in 84 the believers were like, my barns are full, eat, drink and be merry. We're done, yeah, yeah. Said this very day your life will be required of you and we lost, we really lost right then, I'd say. And so we are winning in a lot of different ways, in a lot of ways, Supreme Court in terms of what's happening in the White House, in terms of Congress. My encouragement to you is to don't get complacent, to put the throttles in afterburner up in the left-hand corner, as we would say, as fighter pilots. Double down on your connection with God and ask him what your purpose is for this next four to eight years. He'll give it to you. And I tell you, God is calling some very unlikely people, some very unlikely leaders, and just ask him. Just ask him like Rick said, first 10 minutes of the day, man, just ask them those questions. You'd be amazed at what you hear. 

Rick Green [00:19:01] So good, so good. Well, Ed is off to a Padres game. As long as you're not playing the Rangers, it's okay if they win. Ed, God bless you, man. Thanks for coming on. 

Ed Rush [00:19:11] Thank you, Rick. I love you, man. Thank you for what you do. 

Rick Green [00:19:12]  You too. Stay with us folks. We'll be right back with David and Tim Barton. Welcome back to The WallBuilders Show. Thanks for staying with us. Thanks to Ed Rush for joining us as well. And guys, Tim, you were saying it earlier. I mean, we spent a lot of time in California. And if you think about it, a lot of the best pastors and churches that are leading the way on how to be salt and light have been coming out of California, man, Jack Hibbs and, and Rob McCoy, and of course, John MacArthur made the really a big turn in the last, after COVID really stood up for the right relationship between the church and government and not allowing government to rule over you. Shayan and and uh... So many good churches in California i think there's like three hundred calvary chapels i mean there's obviously thousands of thousands of churches in California if they would all just stand up and be salt and light we certainly could turn California. 

David Barton [00:21:07] Well, I don't, were you guys talking about California or Massachusetts? No, no, it's New Mexico. No, wait, it was Illinois. No, I mean, think of all the, Minnesota, think of of all of the blue states out there. This is not a California only program. This is for anybody who's in a state. 

Rick Green [00:21:20] Washington, Oregon. Yeah. 

David Barton [00:21:22] Everything, everybody who's in a State that says, man, this is, you know, I need to pack up and move to Texas, quit. We've already got enough moving to Texas. Stay where you are. We need you to stay where you're, not move to Texas. But nonetheless, this for any of those. Just listening to Ed go through all that, it kinda triggered me on something that I think may have triggered a lot of other people. And I say that in the sense that last year, as we look back over last year we were in, I don't know how many scores, dozens, maybe hundreds of places. And among that we were in 26 different denominational settings last year. So we were invited in to speak to groups, churches, others, and there were 26 different denominational setting in which I spoke made a presentation. And what I've noticed, I had one weekend at San Antonio where I was in a Catholic church, I was an assembly of God church, I was a Bible church, I was five different things, and they all thought I was one of them when I got done. Everybody thought I as one of the them. So I am somewhat familiar with a lot of the theology and a lot the denominations, and what Ed said could have triggered so many people and so many denominations. And so what I wanna say is, wait a minute, if he said something, he said, well, I don't believe that. It doesn't matter what you believe. Show me in the Bible where it's wrong because if you can show you you're not accountable for you not accountable to God for what you believe you're accountable to God for what the Bible says and if your belief is different than what the Bible says now you've got an issue so you know I understand some of the stuff with me is that sounds like name a claim it to me no no it sounds like the Bible because it does say life and death is in the power of the tongue and as a man thinks so is he i mean the way you think and the way you act and what you say is vital to to what happens 

Tim Barton [00:22:57] And, dad, along those lines, it doesn't mean that there might not be examples of people that have taken things to extremes and we don't, you know what? I think that's incorrect. I don't agree with what you're saying, but this is also where one of the things that we are seeing some really positive ground in is different groups learning to work together where the founding fathers did that was so brilliant in the midst of their disagreements, which they had far more disagreements far more often. If you go back and read the debates and read conventions, they agreed. On, it seems like less than they disagreed on, however, what they agreed on were the fundamental things. Where Jefferson writes in the Declaration, we owe these truths to be self-evident. All men are created equal right. We can go through, all of us could quote that entire second paragraph of the Declaration. But the point is they found the common ground and the common groundbreaking where they aligned is what allowed them to work together. And that's what ultimately changed the world by America becoming a nation, making it through the Revolution, etc. What I think we are seeing more of is Christians finding common ground where we can work together. Almost like the C.S. Lewis, mere Christianity. And Dad, as you mentioned, we speak in so many different church denominations. And the message we bring. Is not as doctrinally driven that might be viewed as divisive or disagreeable to certain denominations. And so it allows us to have access in places where we might even disagree with some of the fundamental doctrines and tenets of that denomination of that church that we are in. However, because of what we are doing, we're promoting with a common ground where we should all agree. And so even as we like listen to this interview, I think I think Ed said so many fascinating things. There's studies we know to be true where you can go look at plants, you can look at water. There are crazy studies where when people only speak positive words around plants, they do better. When people speak negative words they do worse. Now, you don't have to say that's super spiritual other than God made the world to work a certain way. There are just really, really fascinating studies and as he's pointing out, the brain is actually hardwired certain ways that there's a lot of people that we would talk about that maybe have embraced a victim mentality in because that's the way they think you can either be a victim or you can be a victor and the Bible tells us that we should be more than overcomers The reason I'm saying this that is to your point. There's a lot of solid Bible ideas that there's affirmation from what Ed said And so to your points, don't be distracted if there's something man I don't I don't know if that's really right we should say what does the Bible say and whatever the Bible says we should believe and affirm and hold to that biblical truth 

David Barton [00:25:30] Yeah, as Ed was going through it, I was writing down Bible verse after Bible verse after Bible, verse after, Bible verse on so many statements he made. And so if something they're triggered, you don't get triggered, go back and listen to it again and start looking for Bible verses and don't reject it just because that's not what you've been taught or believe because the Bible is the basis and I'll tell you the starting place for every single one of us is God is right every time. So as you go through, if you hear something like look at the Bible. If you can find it in the Bible, then it's going to be right. That's God's teaching. That's what He gave to every one of us. That is your starting place, not what you hear from anything else, not even how you were raised. You have to be conformed to His Word. And that's what's so good about what Ed said. That really was a really good biblical exposition of so many beliefs that are out there. And it does affect the way we behave. He was exactly right about that. 

Rick Green [00:26:19] And I just love his optimism. I mean, that was part of what drew me to you in the first place, David, is you know, when things happen, you're like, OK, Lord, well, that's the situation. But let's march out. Let's go. God's given us the land instead of looking and seeing the giants and the and the wall say God gave us the lane. Let's let's go take it. So just having that that optimistic approach and just really, really cool. Good stuff. All right. Godtalks.com is Ed's website. Our website is wallbuilders.com and then our radio site is wallbuilders.show. Thanks so much for listening to the WallBuilder show.