Leading the Way: Mario Murillo's Blueprint for Restoring America to God

Sondra Martin Hicks 

Hey, it's a great day to be alive. Thanks so much for joining us today on the Sondra Hearthstone show. Say, I hope you're enjoying the guests that we bring on this show I, I picked the people that I do to be on the show because there are people I have found encouraging or their story has taught me something or helped build up my faith, and I just want to share them with you. And to that end today, I have one of my favorite people coming on to join us. It's Mario Marilla. For those of you that know Mario, you know what I'm talking about what an exciting guy he is to listen to who's never dulls got fabulous stories. Well, if you are new to Mario, he is a revivalist and an evangelist, he is going across the country holding tent revivals and seeing some of the greatest harvest of his 50 Plus ministry life. He's also saying just amazing signs and wonders every time he holds an event. And I know it's right, because I've seen them. Well, Mario has written a new book called it's our turn. Mario's books are awesome. They're easy to read. You get very inspired and encouraged. He's just a no nonsense guy that tells it like it is. And that's why I guess I love him so much. He's on a mission not only to see souls saved, but to build an army of God. And I can't wait for you to meet him and hear what he has to say his last book is really awesome. And I hope you'll get a copy, you'll find a copy at Mario marilla.org. Mario is going to tell us about this book. He's going to tell us about his crusades, and we're going to talk about the state of the church when we come back.

Sondra Martin Hicks 

Well, Mario Marilla is great to see you. You are a mover and a shaker and a man full of passion, which is just what I like.

 

Mario Murillo 

Well, God bless you Sondra, it's good to be with you.

 

Sondra Martin Hicks 

All right now you have a new book out. I love all your books, because your books are very easy to read. And I find myself talking out loud going that's right, preach it. And your new book is called it's our turn.

 

Mario Murillo 

Yeah, yeah. It is an undercurrent that I think is the greatest factor in American life right now that very few people are noticing, but it's an undercurrent, it's going to affect everything. What is the undercurrent, that people are ripening toward God, that there is literally a massive general population turning toward Christ, and that we are looking at all the wrong indicators. We don't know what America really thinks about Christ right now.

 

Sondra Martin Hicks 

Wow. We're now in your book. You say it's our turn, and you give us some specific steps of what we need to do to take this country back. Let's talk about those steps.

 

Mario Murillo 

All right, step one is to understand the true state of the American spirit, the American Heart, individuals. Jesus said in the Living Bible, the translation of John 435 says, Don't you say that there yet for months, and then comes the harvest. That's the modern church that believes that there are certain conditions that have to be met before we can win a soul. We've got to do something with our program. We've got to do this. We got to recalibrate certain things. He says that's what you say. In other words, the circumstances are not conducive to people becoming Christians. That's our view. The second Jesus said the next thing he said is, look around you. That's step one, discern what's actually going on and he says, human souls, mass fields of humans souls are ripening all around you. And that means that we are on the verge of a situation where so many people are going to want God at the same time for the same reason, because they've been through all of the same things, that the influx, we've got to read it. And let's sometimes we look at a negative in culture that says, Oh, that shows that we're not interested in Christ, that, for example, barnas report that people are leaving church in record numbers. Well, there's a misnomer there. There. Many of those are genuinely committed Christians who are voting no, on the American Marketing Church of big screens, skinny jeans and fog machines, they want something real. And that is not a negative, that is a plus. And that plays into the scenario that I'm describing.

 

Sondra Martin Hicks 

When out when you talk about people need to really understand the state of our society. Do you feel that people are I mean, you're seeing like, more fruit in your ministry than you ever have in 50 years? Am I right?

 

Mario Murillo 

That's correct. That's what that's what fostered this, and catalyzed me to write this book. Because I had to explain to myself, Why am I giving an altar call? And 500 700 800 people? Why are they sitting in my tent, coming an hour early, coming in 38 degree weather and sitting in a tent for three and four hours some sometimes. And we begin 60 minutes early, you were in a couple of these meetings yourself, and they start shaking in their seats, crying, and I have to stop in order for those that want to be saved to come forward. For a moment, the devil tried to tempt me as if I was a great preacher, or is if I had some unique gift. And God really slammed me. He said, This is not about you. This is about an ongoing undercurrent in the American culture that the church is completely missing. Because they assume people don't want God. They preach sermons. For an audience that doesn't even exist. They are they are concocting these these homilies, and these devotionals. For people who don't want, God won't serve God and we try to sell them. And we don't realize how we lose on both ends. First, the last thing you want to do is have convinced someone to serve God, because they're gonna bring that lukewarmness into your church, and they're not going to grow, they're going to add your people aren't going to make them effective, they're going to make your people ineffective. And that's why true conversion is is missing, and for all the worst possible reasons.

 

Sondra Martin Hicks 

So do you think all of the difficult times that we are seeing in America is actually driving these people to come to your towns and find Christ?

 

Mario Murillo 

I believe that the ripening is caused by woek Misery. What people don't understand about wokeness is that wokeness is parasitical? Anybody who's leftist that is a true social justice warrior is far more legalistic than any Christian I ever met. Because they are continually raising the bar of what virtue is, what equality is, what meaningful human love is. And it's never enough. There's always another word that offends there's another level to go to have what you have to self examine. And in the white culture, especially, there is a massive amount of self loathing. So we're constantly putting ourselves out there as you know, I'm terrible. I'm bad. I've done it. I'm guilty. I'm part of General Custer. I was there in the Nazi thing. I just by being virtue of being white. And this wokeness is the most tedious, the most upsetting, and the most unattractive individual to be around. It's they are the sound of a drill in the dentist office. They are the fingernails on the blackboard. And because of their annoyingness people are ripening, they're going they're saying, You know what, this is nuts. This is crazy. There's got to be something more, and it's got to be real.

 

Sondra Martin Hicks 

So their agenda is actually being used against themselves in it.

 

Mario Murillo 

Yeah, that's why you're watching. You know why suddenly, Spotify failed to keep Joe Rogan off their network. Why Elon Musk when he took Twitter began to See this groundswell they say, oh, Twitter's gonna go under now. And it's so interesting, isn't it that they were censoring everything on there that oppose their viewpoint, but suddenly believe that, oh, no, there's going to be the end of the world when there's actual critiques, civil discourse and opposing views presented in an open and fair presentation. And then look at Disney, same thing. Oh, yeah. Same thing is happening.

 

Sondra Martin Hicks 

Well, you know, people, it seems that churches are afraid to just say it like it is. And I, and I want to say, Mario, I've heard a lot of your preaching a lot of your teaching, and your blog comes up on our site every single day, you are blunt, you say it like it is you're not trying to sugarcoat anything, you're just laying it out there. And yet, you're saying, I've been to numerous of your events. And when you stop, I mean, you don't go on and on, you'll, you'll talk maybe 20 minutes. And you'll say it's time for you to get up and come down here and receive Christ and the aisles are flooded, you're just telling it like it is. And that brings us to number two point in your book. And that is, is that as believers, we need to see what our message should be. So tell us a little more about that.

 

Mario Murillo 

Yeah, this is what's important. You know, in in one of his books, Spurgeon said this, he said, there are the Chinese jugglers that had been in London, and they were everywhere advertised. And he said there expert knife throwers, they'll tell you to spread your arms out. And there, they will come within a hair's breadth of the ear or the under the armor. And they said, That's what our preachers have become experts at missing. In other words, he says, he says, pastors will say, come to my church, I promise you that the truth won't hurt you, or come anywhere near you. And so I thought, Spurgeon said that, then what would he look at the modern church? I tell people that Paul wrote letters to the church. I'll tell you, if he was alive. Now we'd be getting a letter. And I don't know if I'd want to read that letter, because it would be absolutely a flame thrower. So the issue becomes that we don't we don't know, three things we don't know. Number one, we don't know what America wants to hear. Or we'd stop saying what we're saying, because we're not even conscious enough to look at it and say, and they're not listening to this. Now, then they'll come back with What do you mean, our churches are packed? Well, let me tell you, what's happened is the Walmart phenomenon is what's happened. A mega church is emptied out a little church, we haven't had a growth of the Christian population, we've had a redistribution. So the fact is, you don't even have a house full of people that have been saved. What you've got are disgruntled Christians who have turned you into the flavor of the month. And they're going to be moving on because they're, they're inherently pre wired to be non committed. And they're not the people we want anyway. So number one is, we don't know that what we're saying doesn't work. Number two, we don't understand what God wants said, Billy Graham, and I got a I got I know we got a time constraint. I'm gonna be very careful. Billy Graham said that people would say his sermons were simple. They were Sunday school lessons. And yet millions were saved. Because he factored in one thing. It really isn't about you, the audience, enjoying what I'm saying. It's me surrendering to the Holy Spirit, to tell what the gospel is and the cross in the blood, and the resurrection of Christ. That's up to me. And God will take the words that I speak and drive them into the hearts of people. But he can't do that. If I am a rogue salesman on behalf of God, I have to be a direct spokesman for God. And, and the last thing is that we who preach must get rid of our fear of finances, our fear of being rejected, and our fear of not being famous. None of these things matter. You see, God, God won't poison a man with fame. If he knows it'll destroy him. God will not give money to someone that's going to squander it. So well then where is the money coming from? is only one other source and for the devil, giving a an aberrant or misguided preacher money is easy, chump change. It's the best way to do it. You know, and Matthew Henry said that it's it is commentary on Matthew 24. He said a traitor inside the church is more dangerous than a 1000 persecutors outside the church out. And so we got to understand that we. So those are the three things. Number one, we're not reading America. Number two, we're not listening to God, of what he wants said in the pulpit, regardless of what the audience says. And third, we're not aware within ourselves, that our motives are wrong. And that, that our values and our direction are inappropriate.

 

Sondra Martin Hicks 

You know, Mario this morning when I was sitting with the Lord, and I was asking him, basically, you know, what exactly is revival? Because people have thought, you know, we have this idea that revival is going to look like it's has in the past. Well, I started coming to your tent meetings, and I started seeing what was going on. And I thought, This is what's going on in the country, there are some people the great falling away, some is happening, because people aren't seeing their prayers answered, and things are still not going the way they want. Well, these weren't mature Christians in the first place. They're falling away. And then you have all of these people running to the aisle to accept Christ, and then you have people leaving the church. So all this is kind of brought me to the same thought and that is religion is the greatest enemy of Christianity.

 

Mario Murillo 

Absolutely, absolutely. You know, the religious demon is the only one that's strong enough to go to church. You know, it when they're getting their assignments, you know, like, from the devil, Oh, I get to go to an abortion clinic, I get to go to a pornographic bookstore, I get to go to a dope party. And then he says, Oh, who's gonna go to church, and none of them want to go except the religious spirit. Because that's the one that's strong enough to do it. Because it takes it takes a falsehood to make something as sight as exciting as the gospel, boring. There's someone helping them do that.

 

Sondra Martin Hicks 

Well, when I was talking to the Lord this morning about revival, just tell me if you if you think maybe I was hearing from the Lord accurately or not on this, Mario, I was asking the Lord Exactly. You know, what is revival? What do we need to see? And I, I think that revival is this. It's an explosion of the love of Christ inside of us. That's pretty much it. Because if you have that love for Christ, and you have that love for mankind, I mean, what else you need? That's what drives you every day? Yeah, that's simple, isn't it, Mario?

 

Mario Murillo 

Yes. Yes. And what is what is the first thing that love is going to do? And this, to me is another issue a major issue, because we've lost our love for Lost Souls. The church doesn't care. Recently, I had a kerfuffle, let me use that word I had a little rough and up with, with certain leaders, because they said, well, we need to talk about politics. I said, I agree, we need to, well, we need to talk about the prophetic. And I said, Yes, I agree we do. But never at the expense of winning souls, and never at the expense of doing something vital, which is to win the loss. Revival breaks out in a person that is suddenly overcome by the state of those around them, and the desperate need, they have to be God's agent to transform that problem and to deal with the evil.

 

Sondra Martin Hicks 

That's it. Yes. Many times. I have said, Lord, forgive us, because we haven't cared enough to care enough. And that's exactly right. What it is, well, now, you know, Mario, something, you are a soul winner. First and foremost, that's your passion. So winning, but you've kind of taken on an extra row since 2000. I mean, 2020. And that is the role of building an army calling forth an army trying to motivate the body of Christ to get out and and take our country back. Is that right? Yes.

 

Mario Murillo 

You see, I have a I have a priority, preach the gospel. The secondary priority is fight to preserve my right to preach the gospel. So I never got involved in politics for any other reason than I knew it to be the evil that was now going to shut down the church. And, and the only, and I have a lot of churches that may disagree with that. Say, Well, we shouldn't be politically common commenting on politics. Well, and they say we don't see the threat you do. Well, that and I said, Well, that's probably because your church is harmless to the left. They're harmless. You're harmless. You don't represent someone who's going to sit there record straight on biblical morality, or how our children ought to be raised, or how we're, while we're not here to colonize the earth, we're here to evangelize the earth. And we're not here to run the government. We're here to be used of God to be the worst nightmare of government when it opposes reality, the righteousness and the convictions of God. So I never got into politics, politics, jumped the fence and came after me, and basically said, You're not going to get to do what you do anymore. And I have an interesting reaction and people that criticize me for political commentary. As in, you know, when I was preaching against drugs, no one ever accused me of being a pharmacist. But now that I'm preaching against the evils of politics, when I see them, they think I'm being a politician. Well, not any more than I'm a pharmacist, any more than I oppose gang violence, because I deem myself to be a social worker. It's all a part of the gospel, which is that Jesus went about doing good healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God is with it. And first, John three, eight says, For this purpose was the son of God revealed that he might destroy the works of the devil, understanding evil in your time and opposing it by the spirit in love. And that's what our Christian faith that's the natural expression.

 

Sondra Martin Hicks 

Well, the Scripture says A house divided cannot stand. Right? Well, we have way too many churches, pastors, Christian leaders, standing with wokeness standing on the left side, our house is so divided Mario, how do we fix this?

 

Mario Murillo 

Well, here's the conundrum. A house divided against itself cannot stand. But what we're looking at is not really a division so much as it is a rebellion. So those who are the righteous core, what we like to call the remnant, and I don't use the word remnant too often, because there's too many of us to be a remnant. There's millions that are in total agreement with what you and I are saying right now. And they're fed up with it. So Jesus said, on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. So I hold that. So what's happened is the carnal Church, the apostate church, the woke church has split off uncoupled itself. And their opposition is not to you. It's not to me, it's to Christ. What they have abandoned, is what the parable in the steward said, There was a man that owned a vineyard and he left and he left people in charge of it. And then they began to do evil. And whenever the master sent servants into the vineyard, they attacked him. And finally, when the air came, they killed him. When he's referring to what Israel became, it became the belief in a temporal kingdom, they lost sight of what Solomon was ordered to do, which is through you, all the nations of the world will be blessed. So they turned it into a racist, political, territorial, physical kingdom. That's exactly what's going on right now. When you hear a pastor or a leader get up and say, I'm going woke, they're saying this, I love my people. And I want them to love me, but I don't want them to be surrendered to Christ. See, in the military, there's a thing called troop pride. And it hits drill instructors hard. After basic training, they have a graduation and all the different drill instructors with their squad are now going to march together as an army, not as an individual squad. And they, they literally will transfer the authority that they've held for all those weeks with the recruits to the commanding officer of the base. Some of them Rebel, and refuse to let go of these kids that they have trained all those weeks. That's exactly what's going on in the church. They can't surrender because of true pride, to the one thing God is saying to the church in America. We've got to come together. We got to quit arguing, we got to understand that we face an existential and a common threat. But we're absolutely

 

Sondra Martin Hicks 

right. And sorry, we have got to take a quick break, and we're gonna pick that up when we come right back.

Sondra Martin Hicks 

Well, we are back with the one and only Mario Marilla. Now listen, you guys. His book is called it's our turn. And here's what it looks like you need to get a copy. You go to Mario morello.org Yes, I know you can get this book from other places. But it's important to get it from Mario site. Because every dollar goes to reach the last it goes to these mazing amazing tent revivals. And all the proceeds will go to him. And if you buy it through Amazon or other places, then they they are blessed. And it does not go to the work of the Kingdom and Mario I think you're also offering free shipping Right? So there's absolutely no reason not to come to Mario marilla.org

 

Mario Murillo 

I don't know how important this is. But I'm also signing every Cody, so they're autographed.

 

Sondra Martin Hicks 

Yeah, now I want mine and make sure you you write it out to me so I can tell everybody I know Mario. Mario, Mario is what you see what you get. And Mario is a hero of the faith because he is out there fighting for the loss. He is fighting for the church. And it's not as easy as it looks. There is there's always hard stuff that comes with that. But Mario The reason people need to know that every dime goes to these tent revivals. It's not just about putting up a tent. You guys do amazing things. You have this tremendous ground game, I'm going to call it before the Crusades. Tell the people about that because this is very impressive.

 

Mario Murillo 

You know, I wanted to mention the name so that because you brought it up Frank Sal Dona inner city action, we are partnered, and they are the boots on the ground. They are the Marines that go in. And what we do is we invite volunteers from all over the nation. In fact, I'd like to invite people, they when they go tomorrow, and we're gonna.org They can also become a volunteer. And we train them how to win a soul lay hands on the sick and they're healed right on the streets. We have stories that will literally boggle your mind of what God has done to people, not only inside the tent, but all around it. And in the neighborhoods. Frank is the most effective ministry I know anywhere for the homeless, he takes them off the street cities, ask him, beg him bring your program to our city, help us with the homeless, they want his expertise. Well, he brings that in, we go on to the homeless camps, we go where the gang activity is, we go to the regular folks, you know, people think because of the Jehovah's Witnesses, that you can't go door to door anymore because they burn everybody out on that. The fact is, that that is not our experience. people open their doors. And they're you we have pictures of them weeping, saying please pray for us. And we we give out entire semi trucks full of clothing and food. That's where the hurt is in. It's amazing. But we have one more gift that I want to mention that is very important. When we livestream our crusades, we will have 2530 50,000 people tuned in to the 10 live besides what's inside the 10 And they're getting saved out there. And that's growing now. Our technology is growing. We're moving our operation is centered now in Tennessee, so that we can reach the East Coast. And we'll be doing 10 crusades across the US.

 

Sondra Martin Hicks 

Yeah, so what I want people to hear in that is this is not just about a man getting up on a platform talking. This is about a heart of love. Really trying to reach a community because that that's a lot of work a lot of effort a lot of money sewn into that community but you know, it's worth it's worth it all. You know, it's totally worth it all. And Mario your next crusade is it back in California or winter next,

 

Mario Murillo 

Bakersfield, California 1700 Golden State Avenue 10 acres of open ground right next to highway 99. And it's going to be visible to the whole city. And we're going to set up the tent, we're going to have four nights, march 12 13th 14th, and 15th. And people can volunteer to be a part of that outreach, and get the training. Fact on the Saturday, we begin on a Sunday night, but on the Saturday night, I personally meet with all the volunteers for a with them and get them fired up for the week of incredible results.

 

Sondra Martin Hicks 

And it's true, I've been to these and I've seen people get healed. And I have followed up with some of these people after to see you know, if how the healing actually manifested in it. It's real God moves and and you know, this is not a ministry where you go out and you put hands on people, the power of God comes up most of these people. You're standing up at the stage, and people are healed, or while you're talking to Susie over here on the right, Bob over here on the left gets healed and you're not even looking at him.

 

Mario Murillo 

Yeah, we had a dramatic healing, just reported this last month. That I think is amazing. I, I pointed at a lady and we give God all the glory. I don't like talking about this unless Christ is glorified. And he uses a very unworthy vessel by the way. And when I stood there, told her something about her ankles, and then her lungs, her brain, her kidneys. Oh, wow. And I did that it turned out she had broken her ankle. And as during the process of healing, several blood clots, went through her body, and inflamed all of those areas that I'm describing. And she could barely walk. She was the doctors didn't give her much hope. And the end result was cancer. She She also developed cancer, and she had three tumors. And when I said that to her, you have three growths in your body. We give God the glory. She lost it, began to walk. And Sandra, she ran around the tent three times, she re entire labs. I was exhausted watching her. When she goes back to her doctor, her oncologist. And the oncologist has all the X rays and walks out sits there. And she this surgeon, she takes off her glasses and says, What happened to you? You're gonna have to tell me what happened to you. So she had a video of the entire experience. Oh, wow. Waited for Oh, wow. And the doctor wrapped her arms around herself like this and begins closing her eyes and sobbing going Jesus. Jesus, it was that real? We never heard of anything like that.

 

Sondra Martin Hicks 

Was this doctor a believer? No. But she became one.

 

Mario Murillo 

Oh, talk about a collision. But it's an unfolding ongoing story. But in every 10 crusade, the secret is that we are where the need is where we're right on the people can walk in our tent, right from their camps in their homes in the poverty areas. They can just walk right in. And this the devil doesn't like what we're doing because it's shattering the lie that America isn't ready. Because America wants Christ. They do.

 

Sondra Martin Hicks 

And Mario tell the people, you know, this was in the middle of COVID. You are doing some of this. And I would say you know I live in Texas. And if you had to say quick name, the two most blue states I will go New York and California. And both states you saw hordes of people coming? big crowds of people coming to your tent revivals in the midst of COVID. Shut down. Am I right?

 

Mario Murillo 

Yes. You see, I read a story about Amy McPherson that she went to Tulsa, Oklahoma during the Spanish flu. And God told her that if she would go and you never do this unless God speaks to you, you don't defy any authority except by the greater authority of Christ. That's why Peter said you decide whether we should obey God or man. So in obeying God, Amy went to Tulsa and saw great miracles. And there's no there's no record of anyone contracting the Spanish flu during our 10 crusade at all. Well, we were gonna go to Fresno and then Gavin Newsom shut us down. You said no, no 10th crusade. So I was at home and I had a counter in the middle of the night. And I and I was looking at the leper in Matthew chapter eight, verse one, who said, If you want to you can heal me. And I had this picture of someone from Fresno. And that's where our crusade was canceled. And, and it was a composite of every misery you can imagine. It was a hideous face. And the face it spoken, it said, you can come and help me if you want to. And the Lord said go to Fresno. I called Frank Sal dama. I said, find somebody that owns a plot of land that is willing to defy the locked down order and have a crusade. And so Frank went to Fresno, and we found a couple that had bought a massive Park, soccer field and baseball field had a baseball diamond soccer field, used to belong to the city. They took it over as a private business, to use it for soccer leads and different things. And they said, you know, we're sick of this lockdown. Bring your tent here. Awesome, amazing miracle. Amazing. It's pat down, people healed. And we ended up having coffee with the mayor of Fresno, who sat there with tears in his eyes. We need this in our city. So it was a it's amazing what God has been doing.

 

Sondra Martin Hicks  

Are many churches across the country asking you to come.

 

Mario Murillo 

We are we're right now looking at San Antonio, Texas. Yes, Houston, Texas. That's what I'm talking about. Winston Salem, North Carolina, Charlotte, North Carolina. Fort Myers, Florida. We're looking at New York again. We're debt. We're looking at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds for this way, and we're buying a 5000 seat tent. We're now going to get one that is bigger than the football field is going to take cranes to put it up.

 

Sondra Martin Hicks 

How many does this tent you had in Florida? How big was that tent?

 

Mario Murillo 

That tent can see 2500 people. So you're doubling down? We're doubling down. And even in Florida as you you saw the pictures, we had over 1000 people outside. So we're we're desperate need of more space and more room and more workers. Jesus said pray the lord of the harvest that will send workers into the harvest and we need them desperately.

 

Sondra Martin Hicks 

This is I don't know, I think this is exciting, this whole idea that your next meeting is just going to be out in the field. Boy, that's old time religion. There it is.

 

Mario Murillo 

It is of a 10 acre field, right on Golden State Avenue 1700 Golden State in Bakersfield. And we're going to see astonishing healings and miracles and breakthrough there.

 

Sondra Martin Hicks 

So is that associated with any one particular church or not? Well, we're

 

Mario Murillo 

grateful to Canyon Hills assembly God and Wendell Vinson pastor is a great man. He has. He's connected in sponsoring a ministry that's nationwide called City surf. And they also help the homeless on a mazing level one, they give away tons of food nationwide. And they're partnering with us.

 

Sondra Martin Hicks 

Okay, Mario, since all of this locked down, and all this woke ism really went into high gear. It's been three years. And what have you seen over that three year period in the church? How have you seen the church move and the direction they need to go or have you?

 

Mario Murillo 

I have, I have seen the church make a mistake that some are going to find very controversial, but I'm gonna say it, okay, they never should have walked down, they never should have shut down. They never should have closed their doors, the churches that stayed open, they got their people back. But they also got another group from the other churches that felt betrayed, and abandoned emotionally by the lockdown. And so we needed to face the fact that this statistic that a lot of people are leaving church has more to do with the fact that they felt betrayed by their pastor, and that betrayal. There are a lot of great men of God and women of God in ministry in America, there are a lot of great pastors. I don't want to paint with a broad brushstroke. I don't want to generalize, but because I know too many great men and women of God who are faithful I left their doors open, stood against the tide of wokeness took a stand against abortion and for traditional marriage, there are many parts of America and their churches are growing. And it's it's because of their stand.

 

Sondra Martin Hicks 

Do you think America still has an identity crisis? Or are we learning who we are? Or what do you think? Is the church waking up and making a claim?

 

Mario Murillo 

Well, one thing that I do know is happening right now is a great backlash, this undercurrent that I talked about in my book, and the various symptoms in the book, I talk about the effect of woke on children, I actually talk about parents protecting their children in from the woke schools, and what we do so it's, it's a distinct strategy for dealing with the current state, here's America, here's the identity crisis. We are divided between left and right. But we don't have an accurate picture of how many believe what, because our information highway is dominated by a handful of dictators that control the medium that use, you know, their, their their systems to control knowledge, and allow certain emails to go through stop others, we're only finding out more and more about this now. It's only now coming out the full iceberg that's underneath the ocean, of how far we've gone. So America doesn't know who she is. We can't trust 60 minutes to tell us what's going on. We can't trust Facebook, YouTube, we can't trust Instagram. And we certainly have no business being on tick tock, because then you're going to lose faith in the human race as a whole. You know, the movie that I want to quote, a comedy called Idiocracy. A lot of people may remember it. Well, the director of it said this about America. He said, I never dreamed that this movie would become a documentary. And it is, because we have politicians staying the most inane thing. And there's this constant sludge that's going out over all of us. But it isn't a real America. And that's why voices that oppose it. voices that speak against it, we're going to reach a tipping point where the dictatorship of information in America is going to shift. But it will happen through soul winning, predominantly through still winning. If we want women to win, they keep their children, they need to know Christ. It says in Proverbs that week, the wicked man does not understand justice. All what I love to spend an hour on that deal. We have all of this talk about justice is justice. For the schools. What is justice for the races, what is in the left, in its in its campaign, to tell us what justice is, has come up with utter foolishness that creates more inequity, and more racial division and more hatred and foments? All of the things that claim to be against because the wicked does not understand justice.

 

Sondra Martin Hicks 

So what do you say to the every day, every day, Joe? That's not in ministry doesn't have, you know, just as a regular job, what do you tell them they need to do? What is their part in taking America back?

 

Mario Murillo 

Okay, their part in taking America back is to believe that they belong to a great army. You see, if if you're a soldier in a foxhole, and you're alone, and all you hear is bullets, and you're cold and hungry, and isolated, you're gonna think that you're losing. But if you suddenly realize and remember that you're one soldier and a great army, led by a great general. I remember Norman Schwarzkopf was talking to the, the Desert Storm. He's talking to hundreds and 1000s of soldiers that we had transported over there. And he looked at him and he said, You are the best trained army in the world. You have a strategy that's been devised by the greatest experts and military warfare in the world. You have the highest quality weapons of any soldiers in the world. I was sitting there in my you know, I'm not even a soldier. I'm not at Desert Storm, but I stood up and saluted the general because by the time he was done, I was realizing this American military is truly a formidable thing. Well, how about the army of God? We're led by the general Jesus Christ, the commanding officer of our campaign. is the Holy Spirit. The Bible says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty through God through the tearing down of strongholds, we are, were protected by angels, we are the direct heirs of the Word of God, we are filled with the Holy Spirit. There's nothing out there, that is even competition. So therefore, the individual needs to feel I'm not an isolated, more, you know, I'm not a mutation. I'm part of a great family, a great army with a great strategy, a great legacy. And I've inherited something powerful. And then let me add to that, we're here for a reason, the first duty of the general is to remove his army from certain annihilation. The only reason we're kept on Earth is because we can still win, we can still make a difference. And we're capable of being trained to turn circumstances in our favor. Finally, they need to understand that God wants them to fight evil on a local level. There's nothing we can do much about Washington right now. He said, maybe we could put an electric fence around it. So nobody in there in the in the beltway can get out and nobody can get in and cut it off from the rest of the US until we're capable of doing that. There's really we got to ignore it. We got to face it, our school board, our local District Attorney, the influence was in the pulpit. Are you going to a church that stands there and says there's no difference between Christ and Islam and new age? And God doesn't really care about sexual immorality and he loves you just the way? Why are you giving your money to that church? Why are you sitting in that chair? Right? Aren't you part of a group that is actually in love with God and moving in the power of the Spirit? That's, that's what the average person can do.

 

Sondra Martin Hicks 

Omari? I got one last question for you. Are we going to do it? Are we going to take America back?

 

Mario Murillo 

Yes, we are. And I'll give you the indications of why. Okay, because at the end of the day, Sondra, it's not about you. It's not about me. It's about God's indescribable love for this nation. Because there's something in the American spirit, the British had George Washington Dead to Rights, he's got to get back across the Hudson River to the other side to New York City. To do it. He's got to send his men on boats. And they're going to be a shooting gallery for the British that are up on top of the cliff. And as George Washington gives the order for the Continental Army across on boats, a fog bank comes out of nowhere, and covers the entire Continental Army. And the British can't see them and they're saved. There are 17 major moments in American history, when we should have died, should have been destroyed, should have been over where God's hand is come out of nowhere and done something amazing. So I believe once again, there's something in the ground. It's not just about my church, your church, I believe you believe it's about God's love for this land. But yes, and the mandate for why we exist as a nation, and I believe God is going to intervene. One more time.

 

Sondra Martin Hicks 

I agree with you. I think he's gonna give us one more chance. But I have to say, I was not surprised when we didn't have the red wave that everybody said we were going to have because we're not there yet. It would have been just like 911 when everybody goes, Oh, thank you, Jesus. And then a couple months later, oh, we got this. We're good. So it's not a surprise to me that we didn't have the red wave. The body of Christ is moving in the right direction. But I don't think we're there yet. Where we can be fully trusted to, to keep it going. Hmm,

 

Mario Murillo 

I want to bottom line it real fast. Okay. God wants to glory. Amen. He wants to glory

 

Sondra Martin Hicks 

he wants to glory. Mario, thanks so much for coming on. I can't wait to finish reading that book. I only had snippets. And I do want to encourage everybody go to Mario marilla.org. And not only get a copy of your book, buy five copies and give them out to your friends help help us grow this army. But also think about signing up to be a volunteer it is crusades. It's an awesome experience and one that you will never forget that I can promise you. Mario, thank you so much for everything you're doing to lead this army. God bless you and I know that your days ahead are just going to continue to be thrilling.

 

Mario Murillo 

Amen. Thank you. Sondra was an honor to be here with you today.

 

Sondra Martin Hicks 

See you soon.