Sid: I have a couple that are red hot for the Messiah and you know I’m reminded of the scripture to him who is forgiven much they love much. And they have a ministry called “Get Real Ministries. Phillip where did this title come from for your ministry, that’s pretty different name.
Phillip: Yeah, it is I was in one of the lower moments of my life when I actually in myself was taken captive in my own desperation asked the Lord to heal me and change my life and he said, to me “I’m going to heal you, but you have got to get real first.” And so…
Sid: But what did He mean by that?
Phillip: Well, I think that he meant that it was time for me to take a look at the issues in my life that had really produced my pain and misery and as well as the reality of what He wanted to give me. And so it’s both get real, take a look at me, but even greater, get real, take a look at what he’s offering.
Sid: It’s almost like we have a façade for the world and if we use the façade long enough we think it’s us.
Phillip: Yeah.
Sid: And it’s not and it’s time to get real. I love that name so Phillip and Darlena Fields from Get Real Ministries, it sounds to me like the two of you were sabotaged from day one of your marriage. But let me find out as to why you were sabotaged before you got real. I’m going to start with you Phillip you came and actually Darlena did from for a lack of better words; a house of rage. Tell me about your background Phillip.
Phillip: Well, my background is you know riddled with a lot of struggles and you know my Dad was a very hard working man but he was also a very conflicted man in anger and rage and things of that nature that really controlled him. And that led to bouts of drinking which lead to nights of horror actually. And growing up in that it was like fighting a war with terrorism you just never knew when it was going to come but you knew that it would. And so we really struggled with it that throughout our childhood I spent the better part of my childhood really just becoming paint on the wall trying to be silent and not seen and unheard.
Sid: But at twelve you became a believer and the thing that is so amazing to me is that you had devoured the Word at twelve the Bible sometimes six hours at a time. How did you have that capacity within you?
Phillip: Well, it was you know really the miracle working power of God; you know He reached in to my desperation as a kid even and you know I think about it and get a little bit emotional about it. You know I was in a state where I just cried out and what’s interesting is that just somebody in my neighborhood took me to church one Sunday and I quickly realized that the environment in that church was what I was after because the love of God was present. And it was really the love of Father that just drew me in to that and so I devoured the Word of God not because I was you know I was trying to study and gain facts but I was looking for answers, I was looking for a new life.
Sid: And if looks to me like God so blessed you, he literally took you out of that house of rage and alcoholism.
Phillip: Yes.
Sid: And a retired high school principal took you in and became a real Father to you.
Phillip: Yes, that’s exactly what happened and you know, there was no way that I could have orchestrated that intervention, I mean it was definitely the hand of God. And very early on I realized the presence of God was with me and it really humbled me but this man literally at the height of the pain and agony for me he said to me you know I’ve been praying for you and some people told me your story and I want to give you a place to live. And before it was over with sent me off to college and eventually a Masters Degree and really became a Father to me, Best Man at my wedding. It was the biggest breakthrough of my life outside of salvation itself.
Sid: But still those early years, those roots of alcoholism and the rage they were masked but it was still there those seed that were planted. So you go to Regent University and I assume you met your wife Darlena there?
Phillip: Yes, we did.
Sid: Okay and you got married and it was suppose to live happily ever after but it’s not exactly what happened because there was an explosion ready to erupt I your life but there was an explosion ready to erupt in Darlena’s life. Darlena tell me a bit about your background.
Darlena: Well, I came from similar circumstances; I was just raised on a different social scale. I was more primarily a wealthy family but the same type of scenario went on behind closed doors, rage, anger, from alcohol. My family was centered around the patriarch of the family, my Grandfather who controlled everything and he was an alcoholic. And when he began to drink at night was when all hell broke loose.
Sid: So during the day everyone thought you were the ideal family but at night it was hell on earth.
Darlena: Yes, really it was, we had nice cars, nice cloths, I won Best Dressed in High School so we had all the appearance going on as a wonderful well to do family but at night it was a whole different story.
Sid: And you were being groomed to take over the family business, what kind of business was it?
Darlena: It was a manufacturing jewelry business. It was the largest in northeast Texas for thirty-five years.
Sid: Okay, so you had a boyfriend, he was being groomed and you were being groomed with your college education. But they got a little upset when you said you wanted to go to ORU except your father surprised you.
Darlena: Yes, I was able to go to church camp and meet a girl that invited me to college weekend and surprisingly allowed to go. And when I got back and told my father that I loved it there he began to weep and told me this dream that he had to go there, but he wasn’t able to go but he prayed that one of his children would get to go. And sure mercy that was me and my life completely changed after that.
Sid: So you get married but both of you had background issues of the way that you were raised and let’s face it, we’re in an imperfect devil and with imperfect parents who also had imperfect parents and what so we expect perfection? So you both get married to each other and Darlene you had been suffering from depression as a young child, did the depression lift for a season?
Darlena: Well, I had what is called cyclical depression so I stayed kind of a low grade state of depression most of the time with dips of low periods. So I had moments or long period of time where it was very deep in what I call living in the pit.
Sid: Out of curiosity Phillip when did you first realize that Darlena was suffering from this depression?
Phillip: Well, what I realized was that when we started having children it would really dip and you know the post partum issues were very intense and so I realized that you know that we weren’t up against just a normal issue here. In other words it wasn’t life style oriented it was entrenched.
Sid: And one day you literally heard the voice of a demon, Darlena and what did this demon, accept you didn’t know that it was a demon say to you?
Darlena: It told me that I should take my children’s lives. I had struggled for years with suicide thoughts as my own but this particular day the voice said that I should take my children’s lives as well, that I would prevent them from experiencing the pain and torment that I had struggled with all my life.
Sid: You know what that reminds me of? What we see in the news of mothers that kill their children and we say “How could that happen?” But you understand that Darlena, don’t you.
Darlena: I do it was all around the time that big news story about the woman drowning her children was on that most people are aware of, it was all around the same time.
Sid: Well, let’s put this on pause, we’ll pick up here on tomorrow’s broadcast but Phillip I am amazed over this George Barna study six years worth of research and he’s one of the top pollsters in the world and what was his conclusion about Christians?
Phillip: He said, eighty percent of all Christians, no matter the level of maturity are living in a circular fashion. In other words they are living stuck and not moving forward in their growth.
Sid: It’s almost like what happened to my ancestors the Jewish people in the desert where approximately a week from their promised land but were walking in a big circle for forty years.
Phillip: Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Sid: Eighty percent are stuck, that an interesting word.
Phillip: Yeah, well eighty percent is that’s the majority and you know most of the time statistics can go either way and I would pump it up closer to ninety percent, you know in my ministry and experience is that most folks are struggling to get forward and really find you know a Greater Power to live.
Sid: Well, let me ask you something, are you related, are you part of that eighty or ninety percent that are listening to me right now? What if you’re life totally changed in forty days? What if the course of your life was changed forever? What if you were empowered and then your whole family changed. Your whole walk with God changed, then your whole community changed? What it you could have a breakthrough in every area of your life? What if you could break those generational cures that we just heard about that Phillip and Darlena were suffering from? Phillip and Darlena have put together a course called “Transformation, Possessing God’s Promises.
