Revival of Hope - Dr Frederick Best: They Said I Wouldn't Make It!

So the Lord knows what He's doing. I'm going to tell you, when I was planning for this revival at the very beginning, our team will tell you, we just felt dead towards this. I'm going to be transparent. I was like, Lord, I don't want to just do another revival because we did one last year and people liked it and people are telling me, you need to hold another one. I've already told last night, we need to do it for a whole week and then I've been told that we need to have it at the stadium and then I've been told, and I was like, I don't want to just do it because people are telling me. I want to do it because you're telling me. And so I was really kind of dead towards it and Renee came over and we were meeting. She's the director over at Building Hope for the partner development, I believe. And she and I were meeting and the Lord said, she's one of the ones. And it was a spirit, a word from the spirit that just dropped in me and I was like, Lord, you're alive towards this revival because you just gave me my first word that she's the speaker. Because I'm trying to figure out who do I get. And he said, she's the one. And that's when I knew. And as I was sitting there, I was like, oh, I'd vote for you for president, lady. You just need to run. I'm just telling you, wow, I don't, I'm glad I don't have to follow that. So Fred, you get to follow that. So listen, Renee, Renee's story, I love different stories. We're going to have all these different stories. Her story, someone's yelling these voices of lies to her. And I know many of you had that. Some of you like me didn't have that. My dad didn't crawl in the bed. My dad stopped at the bed in his little boxer shorts, checkered red, and knelt there, stopped

at the bed and prayed for me. He'd come in the room, there she is, Miss America. And I don't know why someone has a daddy like that and someone has what you had, I don't get it. But here's what I know, the enemy still finds you. I had a mama, still got a mama, and a daddy, praise God, who was always there, always pouring into me, setting an example. She was my coach on the water, reminding me of all the things I need to be reminded of, this quiet, still, strong voice in my life. They never spoke a harsh word to me. But let me tell you what was going on in here. It wasn't the external, it was the internal. Defeating myself, you're not enough. Got world championship titles, you ain't done enough. Going to ministry, you've got to serve God harder, harder. You've got to make the ministry bigger, bigger. That's why God took me out of water sports ministry in His wakes, made me give it away. He said, you're not going to do this anymore because you think it's your name and you think it's your responsibility. He says, I'm going to put you in prison ministry where you don't know anything, you've got no name except for the name of Jesus. You don't know anything but me. And so today, what our whole goal is, is for you to recognize those lies. Because I didn't, I thought that was normal to feel, come on Christy, suck it up buttercup. Get out there. It doesn't matter how bad you feel, put a smile on, speak to everybody, tell everybody you're fine. You just crashed and burned, you got a concussion, go sit in the toilet at the portalette. I lived, I don't have, y'all don't complain about portalettes, I lived in those things growing up at a ski tournament where people were drinking and all sorts, they weren't

clean for days, they were nasty. And I'd go in there and cry because I didn't let anybody know that I was sad or hurting. And you bottle that stuff up and you put a face on, the mask on and you go out and this internal dialogue says you disappointed them. I didn't disappoint them, they were disappointed for me. So I want you to pull out that little sheet of paper, it's a plain piece of paper, can you hold it up Ms. Renee, you're my Vanna White today, whoo, whoo, whoo, from the— Yes, pens and Ashley will make sure you get one. Would you take your pen and would you write down on one side, yep, here's some hands up, run Ashley, run. She trips when she runs sometimes, a lot of times. Okay, here's some over here Julie, Ms. Renee needs one. We need some pens, run Lauren, run, we need pens. Okay so on one side I want you to write at the top, lie, L-I-E, lie or lies, L-I-E. Yes, there's some hands still up right there Kim. There you go Now I want you to close your eyes And I want you to think for a minute. Listen, you know, I'd put your name on this or anything We are gonna do something with this special at the end I want you to close your eyes and I want you to think about three or four words That as a child or maybe even now as an adult or a senior adult that you Would have described yourself The thing then you wake up. We got some more up here at the front needs pens and paper What are three or four lies that you have heard I already told you mine Renee's told you hers Would you write those down? All right now would you look at those words You don't have to share them with anybody But look at those and think about how they might have impacted how you feel about yourself How It may have made you respond to things this is something you're gonna have to go home this this just didn't happen overnight I've been working on this for decades

Writing down the lie and then you're gonna have to we're gonna do this later We're gonna replace it with the truth and that is a daily thing. It is part of fighting the good fight of faith So our goal is today is to help you just realize That those things that you hear they don't wind up with this That's why you have to know this and I can't put this in you. You have to put this in yourself Those verses that were flowing out of you, man You've challenged me to get in there deeper and know it so when it comes against you you can like it still comes against you But what is it? Joyce Meyer says you can't keep a bird from flying over your head But you can't keep it from nesting in your hair You can't keep the lies for coming at you, but you can't keep them from rooting in your heart But you have to be vigilant you have to like it said earlier in Galatians 5 stand firm then and do not allow yourself To be yoked again to slavery. I'm gonna invite a dear friend new friend. Dr Fred best is in the house and His brother Jacob and he has his family here and friends and fiance Fred Which feet would you like You're the man of the hour We got waters and everything did your team do that cuz I don't know if my team would remember that I don't know I need my notes How y'all doing we need you both have mics you don't have a mic. Yep Oh, here we go Well, and yours is working check check check Excellent good to be here Say hanging like a Okay, I Travel around with an older gentleman. He's in his 65 ish 70 and he teaches me all these weird jokes So he always says I'm hanging in there like a hair in a biscuit But there were no biscuit hairs in the biscuits from the biscuit and being this morning. So y'all know that So I have invited my friends of Frederick best dr. Frederick best and this is his brother who's actually What do you call him?

My dad my dad Yeah, it's more like a dad to him and we met last year actually you and mr Pat Pat works with our ministry victorious living you guys have been talking some about sharing your story in our magazine And then it had been about a year or so since we had talked and Fred lives right down the road And last year he said the Lord just got a hold of him and said get down to that tent And he didn't even know that it was our ministry that was putting it on and that mr Pat would be here and so he comes down and the minute I saw him in that smile and his son Prince's smile and I Was like, oh my gosh, I love this man and We just started talking and as the Lord said get Fred up here But I thought it's gonna be at one of the night events. He's like nope the women's event You forgot your wig He say the best for last So the thing is is Fred's mother spoke such life over him and it was the words the power of the life of those words that in have enabled him and Jacob and 14 15 brothers and sisters, I know one is past To be the most amazing, successful, God-fearing people that I have met. People who faced tremendous challenges, who were told they weren't going to make it, but God said, oh yes you are. And so, you guys have heard a little bit of the stories, Fred, your story is a whole book, and we've got your book, it's going to be over there, wave team over there, and he's going to be there later. What's the title of your book? They said I wouldn't make it, but God said, I'm more than a conqueror. Yeah, more than a conqueror. And I read that whole book and I loved it, and we went and we did a cover story of Frederick's in English and in Spanish, and we have copies for all of you here, and this will tell you his story, because I don't want to spend a lot of time on that, but to sum it up, his mother was given a drug, what was the name of the drug?

Thalidomide. Uh-huh, say that again. Thalidomide. Yeah. It's like speaking in tongue, thalidomide. So, but that drug was given in the 70s, and it was for morning sickness, so she wasn't doing drugs, she was given a drug by a doctor, prescribed to make her feel better. And what it did is it caused severe birth defects while he was in the womb. And what did the doctors advise your mother to do? They actually instructed my mom to have an abortion, because they did not think that I was going to endure the pregnancy, I was actually growing through her placentas. And so, when you were born, it really hurt your mother, suffice to say, and she went through a lot of pain with that. But you guys, not only did you have many challenges physically, but you had extreme poverty, sleeping five to a bed. I know that at the age of eight, was it? Foster care came in. Eleven. Eleven. Uh-huh. You were eleven. Came in, and there was 15 siblings, and because of the poverty situation, they were all taken from his mother, and his mother went on to have a nervous breakdown losing her children. And they did not know where each other was, they were all scattered. And this story, it's amazing, and it will make you cry, but it was the mother's words that raised this man up, that reminded him that he was born to win, born to win. And when I asked Jacob to come up here, and they're going to be, as soon as, we're going to see a little video. But after that, I brought him up here because I'm like, you are the proof, the generational proof as is Prince, as is your daughter, that because of a mother's words to him, a mother

that's not even here anymore, but still lives within him, and you're going to meet her on the screen, you were able to rise up and impact generations, not just here, but when I went into the jail yesterday, those men said, that's Fred on the cover, I know him. They grew up in Aden, I would say, you're running with some circles or something, Fred. But they're like, that's good that everybody in prison knows you. But they were like, that's Fred, and they were running, and it was the first time that I had really seen a local hero, and people grabbing it, and they're going to read it, and they're going to say, if God did it for him, he can do it for me. So let's meet Frederick's mother. We got some sound? If I have to, I can play it through my phone, because you've got to hear this. Okay, Frederick, tell me about your mother while we're waiting. I guess for stardom, like you were saying, being born in this body, I think my mom became like my mind. She was the one that spoke life, whether I was going to school, whether people in the community were staring at me, talking about me, and things of that nature. She was always... pulled me aside, and my mom would always tell me things like when people stare at you, they'll stare for a while because they are not used to what they're seeing. But she always encouraged me that no matter what everybody else's eyesight was, I had to pay attention to what I was thinking and what I was knowing about myself. It's like God hand-picked my mom to really alter my mind, the way I think. I don't know if a lot of mothers know how important their voice is to their child, but the most powerful thing that I learned about my mom, because she didn't see me as being handicapped, I didn't take on a handicapped identity. And I think whatever identity the parents or moms have is the very identity that they can give their children. So her voice in my ear all the time magnified so loud that I stopped hearing the voices that was around me, and it was her voice that turned my life around and pushed me on the right path. Okay, let me finish this statement, then we'll start it here in a second. I think a lot of moms, we want to protect our children from the bullies. What were some of the words that were spoken over you? One of the things my mom was sharing with me, she always told me... Not your mom,

what were people telling you? Oh, what people, oh wow, people. People. But, you know, people was always just calling me names, calling me, you know, one arm and handicapped and all of those things, crippled. You know, I heard that a lot in my life. Almost every time I would go out in public and I would watch how fabulous people were trying to do it. When I would walk by, they would look one way, and then once I passed them, they would turn to stare. So I would turn to stare at them, too, because I already knew what people was thinking. But there was a lot of negative stuff. There was a lot, even school teachers, when I would try certain things, they would say to me, no, Fred, you can't do this, you can't do that. And the battle that I was having was my mom was telling me inside, you can do anything you put your mind to. You know, I got in trouble a few times in school because teachers, principals, and they had their laws, you can't go upstairs, you can't go on the sliding board and all this and that. And I was just rebellious. You know, the only voice I was hearing was what my mom was telling me to do. And I'm really glad that I was a rebellious child, that I was willing to do what my mom told me instead of what society was telling me. And what I was going to say, a lot of times we want to protect our children from the bullies. We want to protect them from falling and failing. But what your mama did, she couldn't protect you from out there. What she could do is help you understand how to process it, cope with it, and overcome it. And I love how you say she would let you cook, she would let you pile things up in front of the stove. Tell about that. Well, here's, you know, just again about my mom nature and having the 14, 15 brothers and sister. My mom would always, Frederick, come here, let me show you this, let me show you that. And so the most amazing thing that I really just was blessed with is that my mom showed me that I didn't have to do it like everybody else did it. I had to sometimes find my own way. And so when I would see her cooking, I was too short to stand up there at the stove. So I remember getting this wood block and putting it up under the stove lid. And as dangerous as it was, she allowed me to climb up there and, you know, give me that fork. And I was just turning the bread over or the chicken leg over. I was getting popped by the grease or whatever the case might be. My mom did not shelter me from danger like a lot of mothers. I remember one time falling down the steps and I didn't know my mom was looking out the window to see it, but she watched me struggle to get back up. And when my mom made it known to me that she was standing there the whole while, I'm like, well, why didn't you come to get me up? And my mom said, if I had to pick you up then I would have to pick you up for the rest of your life.

And so my mom really had, you know, she had this boldness in her heart about me that she just made sure that she was the one that was the wind pushing me to higher heights and deeper depths. So we don't know what each other's going to say, but when he just said that, the Lord just said, some of you are having to struggle right now because if he picks you up right now, he'll have to pick you up the rest of your life. And it is the struggle that makes you strong. Now, do you have any funny, good trad stories? Um, uh, not, I mean, it's a whole lot, but I don't know. The only thing I can say about my dad is. Like, he's just original, you know. We always tell him don't never change because he's not just a preacher, but we always call him a comedian, too. And he reminds us of Eddie Murphy and all of them. And it's like, you know, he always keep you laughing. Like, the family, when we, like, hang with each other and stuff like that, what you call joking on each other, man, this guy right here, he be having some jokes. And our older brother over there, he had him crawling, like, crawling on the floor, laughing so hard. He be like, friend, stop, man, stop, stop. And he would walk beside him, still just joking, joking and saying stuff, saying stuff. But, I mean, wow, I mean, you can't stop him. Like, we always tell him don't never change. So what does he mean to you? I try to keep it together. Like, a whole lot. Tell us a little bit. About me, about me, as y'all heard, like, how we was all split up, put in foster care.

Mines, I was in an institution, a mental institution, where I went from group home to group home, foster care to foster care. When he got me, I was 10 years old. When I went into the system, I was about 2 years old. So all my life up until the age of 10, that's all I've seen, was the abuse of the group homes. They always telling me I won't be nothing. All I was really to them was just a file, a piece of paper and money. These people that I look up to, that's supposed to be there to protect me, they was the ones that was, like, either restraining me so hard till it hurt me up in here, you know, up in this area, like, it spread in my legs. They restraining me so bad till my arm was all the way up here and my shoulder almost came out of place. One woman, she tripped me and my eye busted right here, had to get stitches. But these are the people that I look, supposed to be looking up to to protect me. And for so long, I hated, and I hate to say that, but I hated, you know, I hated authority. And I always walked my head down. I never wanted to hear the word of encouragement. I didn't want to be loved. I didn't feel like I needed to be loved or wanted to be loved or anything like that. But when he came in my life, and I didn't even know I had, you know, other siblings,

and when he came in my life, I was scared because I, you know, looked at his body and stuff. I was like, you know, and he was like, go ahead, touch it, go ahead, touch it, it ain't going to hurt you. So I'll be touching his hair. So I'll be touching his hair. I love that hair. But yeah, and so to make a long story short, when he came into my life, all he did was speak into my life, like, keep your head up, keep your head up, you're somebody. And I was always used to, like, people pushing me away. And one time when he was correcting me, because I was, like, I used to throw deskies and all that stuff into school when I came down here because I was so full of anger and so full of hate. And they had to call the police at times. They were straining me even then in school. But people was, kids was calling me stupid, slow, because I was actually in what they call BEH, which is Behavioral Emotional Handicap class. I wasn't in regular classes. And so he came out, brought me home to correct me, the black way. But in the midst... Come on, now, it's the white way, too. Come on. Come on, now. People are talking about your hair. But in the midst of it, like, we stopped, we stopped. And I was, like, and I was telling him, I was, like, send me back, send me back.

I was, like, send me back, because that's what I was always used to, like, when I messed up, you know, or if I was, like, really, like, really angry, just, you know. And I was about this small at the time up there, and it took, like, four to five people just to hold me down. I was that strong. And I was so used to people just throwing me away and, like, sending me here, sending me there, sending me away, so I was used to that. I had that mindset of just send me back then. He told me, he said, no, I won't send you back. Amen. And ever since that day, that just stuck with me. So I call him my dad. I don't care. I call him my dad, because he's my dad. He raised me. I didn't know my dad like that, because I was, you know, in the system. I didn't know Mama like that until I came down here and got a chance to know Mama, and I really see that Mama... was it's in him like everything that he bestowed you know put in me that's mama and to the point that i'll give that to my daughter and like my daughter she loves me like like i don't know like pig love slot like she loves me amen well let's let's meet your mother so try it, I'm afraid it's all right try your face up okay listen to momma now you don't forget what I told you I told you people gonna think small of you

hey, listen to me they gonna put labels on you and they gonna think you can't do nothing more than what they see you can do which ain't much that's why momma told you you got to see yourself through your own eyes not through the eyes of other people through your heart and what God said to you about you don't let them people tell you you can't do nothing you can do anything anything if it's anything you ain't done it's because you don't want to do it or you ain't tried hard enough at it yet I wish he could protect you but the truth is, boy, this this life is hard and when it comes to you you got to remember the promises that God made you as well with you you got to as hard as it is for him you got to pray for them kids that bully you because they don't know what they're doing but you know who you are

you know who you are and I want you to remember that, okay? don't be going to stop all this crying and you're going to be alright okay okay you're going to be alright you're going to be alright and there's someone out here that needs to know their baby's going to be alright I don't know if there's someone pregnant here and the doctor's giving you a diagnosis or there's someone, maybe you've gotten a diagnosis of your child that says your child's not normal it's going to be alright it's going to be alright and just like you wouldn't throw him away or send him back, God's not going to throw you away or abandon you and so I got our poster board people lining up over here I'd like you to just pour some mama wisdom into us and I do want to tell everybody that that film you guys are co-producing that film and it's an independent film and if you feel led to support that film they're going to be over there

and you can sow into that you can also get their book and meet their team over there but give us some wisdom you know I would just like to say for stardom and I think about this a lot I pray that this will fall into your heart always remember that your purpose is more powerful than your problem I want to say that again, always remember that your purpose is more powerful than your problem to really sum this up with all that we had to go through through the grace of God I was able to get custody of 10 of my siblings On top of that, when the system challenged my mind, and I graduated from high school with a fourth grade education. Today I have four doctorate in theology, two master, a bachelor, associate degree. My brother here graduated from Agartha High School with the highest grade average, not in the BEH classes, but in all regular classes.

He graduated with the highest grade average of all of the kids in Pitt County. And so along with the journey of writing 12 books, I'm the author of 12 books, I'm currently working on a movie and have written three movie scripts. And that really goes back to my mom's wisdom that she has spoken over my life, that I was more than a conqueror, that I could do anything that I set my mind to do through the grace of God. And I want to encourage, most especially the mothers, you are the wind under your child's wing. I want to encourage you to speak life to your child. You may not know right now how far your child will get, but if you muscle the strength to speak life to them, years later you will see that seed that you planted that will become a strong oak tree as they blossom and bloom in the things of God. This week, the Lord, I'm gonna close with this verse. He led me to this verse and he said, those that sow in tears are gonna be reaping a harvest while they're rejoicing. And you're sowing in tears right now. We sowed in tears over this revival. Every day we gotta sow in tears, but there is a harvest coming. And the word of God that you plant in your child's heart will not come back void. Y'all make sure you meet them.

They'll be there during the break. We've got one more thing before we go to break and we're gonna come back with some giveaways. And y'all know y'all like that. And we have a few more wonderful testimonies to round out this morning. All right, thank you, brother. Thank you, Chrissy. Thank you, Jacob. Thank you for watching our broadcast. Are you an incarcerated brother or sister who needs encouragement? Write to us at Victorious Living Correspondents, P.O. Box 2751 Greenville, North Carolina, 27836. Or email us at hope at vlmag.org. To view Victorious Living Magazine in its entirety, please have your chaplain contact us at 352-478-2098. Or email us through our website at vlmag.org. We are happy to provide our Victorious Living Magazine free of charge, in bulk, with or without staples.