Well, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Mike Calderon. President of the United States, Ronald Reagan. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. I have a news flash for you. That got you, didn't it? Well, at some time, not more than an hour ago, the Congress started voting on a measure that was of great interest to me. As you know, I vetoed what I thought was a terribly protectionist measure, the textile bill. The vote in the attempt to override was 272 to 152, which means my veto was sustained. Well, I'm delighted to see so many of you here tonight. This is a great time of year because it gives me an opportunity to get out and around and spread some gospel. And what I've been told by Mike Castle and Terry Branstad, many of you in this room have been instrumental in making it possible to get the good word out to the people of all our 50 states. Believe me, everything you've done through the Republican Governors Association has been much appreciated. In the past, yes, but especially this year, your generosity has made possible so much good work for the party and our all important statewide races. And you know, whenever I come to one of these fundraisers, I think of the couple that never once during the long years of child rearing took a vacation. But then in retirement, they wanted to take a trip to Florida. And they asked their sons for some money. And the first son was a lawyer, and he said, no, I can't do it. I'm just fitting out a new law office and sending my son to an expensive camp. So they asked their second son, a doctor. But he said, no, I'm sorry I can't. I just bought a new house, and my wife has put him in a new kitchen. Then they asked the third son, who was an engineer. And he replied, it just would be impossible for me to do it. I have just bought a big boat for the family and I'm remodeling our summer home on the lake. And finally, the father pleaded, look, we've worked all our lives, not one day of vacation. We never had any money except what we saved for your education. In fact, do you realize that your mother and I were so busy working trying to save money that we never took the time out to get a marriage license? And father said, all the three sons in unison, do you realize what that makes us? He said, yes, and cheap ones too. Well, the fact you're here tonight means some of you have anything in common. None of you, I should say, have anything in common with those ungrateful sons. But ladies and gentlemen, I've been thinking your continued generosity is going to make a difference. And I'm starting to think perhaps a bigger difference than any of us could have realized. As I said, I've been out of the campaign trail lately and I'm just starting to wonder if this year there isn't something in the air. When you step back and look at it, it's been quite a couple of months. We've seen George Bush come from way behind and then go into the lead, a movement of about 25 points in the public opinion surveys. That's some kind of movement. In fact, it leaves you a bit speechless, sort of like the cowboy who stumbled one day into the Grand Canyon and said, wow, something sure happened here. Something has been happening. You know, when this race began, we knew that our record gave us a big advantage on the key issues of peace and prosperity that are normally decisive in a national campaign. We've also seen the emergence of a whole range of social issues from the Pledge of Allegiance to school prayer to the radical agenda of some far-left legal groups. And when you compare our positions with those of the other fellows, you begin to see a dramatic difference, not just on these individual issues, but on basic values and fundamental perspectives. Well, you and I are aware of these very clear distinctions. The fact of the matter is that while someone decided to put the wishes of the Massachusetts legislature out on furlough and refused to sign a certain bill, Governor Jim Thompson, who has plenty of legal experience, by the way, decided he could sign the Pledge of Allegiance bill sent to him by the Illinois legislature. And it's incidents like that that are making it easier for the American people to perceive the fundamental difference between the two sides. At first, of course, there was the difference on taxes and spending, a difference that we drove home in the 1984 campaign. We were against big government and more regulation and higher taxes, and the liberals in the other party couldn't stop talking about how good a tax increase and how, and more government would be for us. And then the people told the liberals exactly what they thought of that bit of castor oil economics. Maybe you remember in 1948, 49 states spoke up and said no to liberalism. Now I think the American people are beginning to see that this consistent difference in how the two sides approach government springs from deeper convictions about the nature of society and the rights of the individual. So too on the social issues.  And as these values, the average American also readily identifies with. The public agrees with us when we say we're for the death penalty, school prayer, tough law enforcement, and against liberal organizations like the ACLU that always seem to be searching for technicalities to exonerate criminals. So what does all this mean? Well, it's a way too early to say that this is the realignment election, but I do think many rank and file Democrats are getting in a mood to say to their party leadership, you've gone too far to the left, returned to the political mainstream. And just to make sure you know how deep our dissatisfaction is, this year we're voting Republican in state races and congressional races. Now remember, we did see signs of this happening back in 1984 when Republicans made unexpected gains in states like Texas and North Carolina. And I'm just thinking that some of this is going on out there in the heartland and that this campaign may be starting to break out as a referendum on liberalism itself, a referendum on the direction in which the liberals have taken the once proud Democratic Party. Now of course, some of you know how tough it is to get people to give up old loyalties.  In fact, when I was out in Missouri just a few weeks back, I told some students down in Cape Girardeau and they seemed to enjoy the story about the fellow who was running for office as a Republican in a heavily Democratic state. He stopped by a farm to do some campaigning. And when the farmer heard he was a Republican, his jaw dropped and he said, you were right here till I get maw. She's never seen a Republican. So he got maw. While they were going, the candidate looked around for a podium from which to give his speech. The only thing he could find was a pile of that stuff that best Truman took 35 years trying to get Harry to call fertilizer. So he got up on that mound and when they came back he gave his speech. The end of it, the farmer said, that's the first time I ever heard a Republican speech. The candidate said, that's the first time I've ever given a Republican speech from a Democratic platform.  They're beginning to realize that under the leadership of the liberals, the once proud Democratic party, a party of hope and affirmation has become a party of negativism. A party whose leadership has changed it from the party of yes to the party of no. No to the balanced budget amendment and the line item veto. No to holding down taxes and spending. No to the death penalty and the school prayer amendment. No to adequate defense spending and a strategic defense initiative. The American people are beginning to understand that in all these ways the liberal leadership has been saying no to rank and file Democrats. Now rank and file Democrats are going to say no to the liberal leadership by saying yes to George Bush and the Republican party. Now let's move in on that. Let's point out that the other party has had enough control of Congress to say no to the American people on all these issues because of gerrymandering. And that's why with congressional reapportionment coming up in 1991, your statewide races take on a special importance. But in addition to drawing attention to the liberal bender the opposition party has been on, let's also talk about our own record of success in the states. And here again we see fundamental differences. Our policy of taking power away from the federal government and returning it to state and local authorities has been a smashing success. The recently passed welfare reform bill that drastically overhauls the existing federal welfare system is true to this principle by relying heavily on state participation and involvement. But federalism is more than just a policy. It's a philosophy of government. People in Washington have a tendency to look out at America and see a sea of distant faces all of which are a little fuzzy. But when a governor looks at the people of his or her state, he or she sees them in all their variety and he or she hears their voices. Each state has different characteristics. Each has different greatnesses and each has different problems. And you, the Republican governors who are here can see all these things and act to help where help is needed. And when you're successful, you show us all how we can do better to help. I think of Governor Tom Cain's innovative ideas for helping the disadvantaged in his state, which have been models for some of the things we've been trying nationwide. I think of Governor Ed DePreet's investment in job training programs to build a more competitive workforce. I think of Governor John Ashcroft's efforts to improve the education in his state and compel those who provide education to be accountable to parents and school boards. And there are more, many more, but time prevents my listing them all here. The federal government is so large and its mandates so very broad that when programs are instituted, flexibility and ability to adapt to local circumstances are very limited. And that's another way the states have it all over the federal government. You're low to the ground, you're flexible. You can change speeds and directions as nimbly as a high-performance sports car when you find out what works. The virtue of innovative programs at the state level is when they work, you know it quickly, and you can expand them. And when they don't, you can re-channel the energies that went into them and look for new solutions. If there was one thing I learned when I was working as a Republican governor, it was to take heart when we began to look into a problem area. Often it was like turning on a switch in a pitch-black room. The entrenched interests had gotten so used to the dark they were blinded by the light. I know you've all heard those moans. They go like this. No, no, that's not the way we do things. The way we do things is the only way. Who do you think you are coming in here and fooling around with our program? That's when I knew we were doing well. Because of course programs do not belong to bureaucrats and they do not belong to politicians. They belong to the voters, the people who hire us and watch us like a hawk to make sure we're doing what we promised. And there's something we ought to promise them. After the 1990 census, it will be time for the reapportionment of all your states and all the states in the union. We must go to the voters now. We must tell them that never again must they permit the kind of obscene redistricting plans that we saw in 1981 in places like California where the map was shattered like a pane of glass and each district was a different shape. We've got to let them know how it was done, why it was done and why it must never be done again. I wanna thank all of you for what you've done these past eight years. You've made my job easier and after November 8th, I know you'll be there to make George's job easier too. Some of these things that I've talked about here perhaps you're not aware of just the extent of some of them. This redistricting, this gerrymandering, it's been a case of cramming as many Republicans as they could into as few of districts as possible. And the result was that in California we saw where more people in California voted for Republican congressmen in the last election. But the Democrats elected 60% of the candidates because of the way they had compressed us into the fewest possible districts. Well, that isn't the way reapportionment was supposed to be. So we've got to get back to where we're in charge. And you know something, I'd be awful proud if when we got back to where we were in charge, instead of doing it now that was our turn the way they've been doing it, if we would change the system and maybe have a bipartisan citizens committee, Blue Ribbon Citizens Committee that did the reapportioning instead of the way it's done now where there's such a conflict of interest on those that are doing it. Well, that's one thing, this thing what the gerrymandering has meant to us. Are you aware that in the 58 years from 1931 through 1988 the Democrats have held the House of Representatives in Washington for 54 of those 58 years. And they've held both Houses of the Congress for 48 of those 58 years. The others being the six years that we had a majority in the Senate in this administration. Now we're back the other way. We couldn't have done the things that we've done or accomplished them if we hadn't had that one House, the Senate. And so this is just part of what's at stake in this coming election. Now, you know that in 1976 when the Democratic candidate beat Jerry Ford, our candidate for president, he made great hay with the thing he invented called the misery index. And the misery index was adding the rate of inflation and the rate of unemployment. And it came out around 13%. And he claimed that no one had a right to ask to be president that had such a big misery index. Well, it all came 1980. And they never mentioned the misery index. I did. Because by that time it was over 21%. And now it's down to less than 10%. And still going lower. We'll keep getting it lower. I know that I'm keeping you from your dinner, but you've just got to humor me on one more thing.  I'm collecting jokes that I find are invented by the people of the Soviet Union they make them up and they tell them between themselves. And I only collect the ones I can prove are their stories that they tell. And I brought one home on the last summit there from Moscow. And this one, the story was to the effect that I was in Gorbachev's limousine with him. And the chief of my secret service unit was with me and his head security man was with him. And we were sightseeing. And as the story goes, we came to a waterfall. We all got out to look at the waterfall. And Gorbachev said to my secret service man, jump. Go over the fall. And my man said, I got a wife and three kids. So he turned to his own man. He says, you jump. Go over the fall. And he jumped. My man scrambled down the rocks around to the base of the falls there. Wanted to see if he could be of any help. And he found the guy was all right. He was wringing out his shirt. And he said, when he told you to jump, why did you jump? He said, I got a wife and three kids. Thank you again, all of you, for what you're doing. God bless you all. Tonight we are enjoying the last presidential dinner in which President Reagan is the guest of honor. This time next year, George Bush will be seated here at the head table. Has enjoyed a unique relationship with President Reagan. And tonight we wanted to give him a memento of that relationship. We looked for something which symbolized the Reagan presidency, but which at the same time would serve a useful purpose when the president, ladies and gentlemen, you should have seen us trying to get that by the Secret Service. They said we had to take the gasoline out of the engine. We said it was sort of like the The Caucus campaign. I'm sure that the Democrats would agree that this is a fitting symbol. After eight years of what must have seemed like the Capitol Hill chainsaw massacre, certainly there is no question that when Ronald McRat Congress and cutting through the indecision and uncertainty, the failure and lost confidence that a previous administration tried to blame on the American people, and which Mike The Caucus would now make the bench, somewhere in Massachusetts, your old friend, Tip O'Neill, whether he is filming travel commercials or doing the backstroke in the back bay, will hear the roar of the Reagan chainsaw and think, my God, is Ron Reagan still cutting taxes and liberal programs? Eight years. We have seen firsthand the great contribution you have made to our nation. This has been a rare and special time we no longer have to turn to the history books to learn about the administrations of great presidents because we are living in one of those administrations. Mr. President, we thank you very much. We hope you enjoy your saw. The Gipper's Clipper, no answer. In case you can't read what it says on here, it's the Gipper's Clipper. Just don't turn me loose on Capitol Hill with this. Thank you very much.


Hi there! This is Pastor Vlad, and before we go into this week's content, I would like to invite you to become a part of what God is doing at Hungry Generation today. This year we've seen a great blessing of the Lord, an anointing of God, God's healings and salvations and deliverances, and in 2019 I know that God wants to take us further. And many of you who are watching this video right now and watching this message, you've been receiving from Hungry Gen, you've been growing, your world has been changing, and we give to God all the glory. But we would like you in 2019 to become a part of what God is doing, and you can do that by sowing your best gift into this ministry, or maybe doing something monthly, like a partnership, a reoccurring gift. This will help us to go further in 2019 and bring more of what we're bringing to you to many, many more people. Me and my wife, we do that every single year. Our church does that every single year. Well, once a year we give a special offering to God, and then we also become partners of this ministry by our monthly contributions. And I give you that opportunity today to become our partner and to become somebody who contributes to what God is doing today. Below is a link where you can make that happen. So, why don't you ask God, what would God have you give this year to this ministry to help us go further in God? And now, let's go into this message. A lot of time has been taken, and so we're going to combine two sessions into one. But before we do that, I do want to mention Andrei asked me to not forget. I do have a break-free book out. We sold them out already. So Andrei's books are still available. I on purpose bought less so that they can be bar out. It's good feeling. We also have a, that book is available on Amazon. If you're reading your version of Bible app, I have a Bible reading plan there, and it's called Break Free. I think it's over 9 or 8,000 people have already subscribed to that one. So you can also join that plan. For those of you, how many of you here, you got a break-free book? Okay, pretty much most. How many of you, okay, keep your hands up. How many of you, you read it? So the rest of you put your hands down. Who read it? Okay, so keep your hand just for a second. I would love, it would mean the world to me. If you could be kind enough to go on your next bathroom break, you're sitting on the toilet and you pull out your phone and there's no more new posts on Instagram. You will go to your Amazon and leave me an honest review. I read all of them, but the way Amazon works is you can get the book and be known around the world based on two things. Either the amount of people that bought it or the amount of people that reviewed it. And so I heard a lot of testimonies of people who read it and I would just ask for your favor. It would mean a lot to me, but if you don't do it, I'm still thankful that you read it. God is good. Amen. This morning service, Pastor Sergey, so powerful. When I look at him, I just want to speak in Russian. Bring me up a little bit more. These speakers, because I can't hear them. I'm so sorry. Oh, perfect. Thank you. My wife told me I can't preach in Russian. Wow. What is that? Who's there?  And then when I heard that Pastor Andrzej is going to be preaching in English in two years. I've already want to preach in Spanish. Wow. But such a powerful testimony of prayer and fasting is so impactful to me.  I'm like, God, I just want to say one soul. And so, but one day we'll get there. Yeah, it was difficult for me to preach after that. I was like, Lord, I have no testimonies. Everything, nothing comes close. But God uses all of us for His glory and for His kingdom. What I want to talk about for the next few moments is the culture of revival. It's pretty much what you heard already. It's pretty much what you heard Pastor Andrzej and Pastor Sergey. And some of you maybe have heard this from me before. I want to talk about the three things that I believe have to become a culture in our life and as normal as breakfast, lunch and dinner. And it's prayer. It's fasting and sacrifice. These things, they create a spiritual climate. In which the presence of God, the promises of God begin to flourish in our life. I see that change in other men of God. And now I begin to see slowly that change in my own life. And so, for those of you who are taking notes, I have a different way of preaching than the rest of the guys. They call me not being spiritual led, but I can't flow. I can't flow. I can't flow. Everything for me has to have points. Just easier for me. And so what we're going to talk about this afternoon is the three benefits of building a culture of prayer and fasting as a habit in a Christian life. I know the flame of fire ministry practices this every month. I see Pastor Dima's church also every month, they announce how they have prayer and fast. Pastor Sergei, he just doesn't stop. He always fasts. And so we see that and we see the results of that. And I want to challenge you today to do that with us for this coming year. In Ecclesiastes, it says that a three-fold cord is not easily broken. I believe that these three cords is the prayer, fasting and giving, and when we combine them together, God begins to work in our life. When Jesus talked about in Matthew chapter 6, he addressed three main issues. It was giving, it was fasting, it was prayer, and then he talked about sacrifice. It's not a coincidence he talked about that, because as humans we have three main enemies. It's pride, it's greed, and it's lust. And these three habits of prayer, fasting and giving, they cancel our three main temptations. Prayer defeats pride, sacrifice defeats greed, and lust, and fasting destroys lust. And so that's why these three habits has to become a culture in your life this year. For the reason number one, and write this down, you must bind the devil before he binds you. Pride, lust, and greed is the devil's chains to bind us. And many people even in this room, you're bound by one of these three things, and therefore prayer and fasting and sacrifice is not an option for you. Sometimes we think that's for the ministers, but the ministers are not the only ones that fight the devil. Everybody fights the devil. Everybody has a flesh, and therefore everybody gotta do that. Are you with me? In Esther, chapter 9 verse 1, it says the following. And Tim, if you could just read it in Russian for us. Haman was dead.  And in Esther chapter 9, it says that the enemy planned to do something, but the Jewish people, they did the opposite to the enemy. So instead of the enemy binding them, destroying them, when their enemy's main boss was dead, through prayer, through fast, and through Esther's sacrifice, God empowered the Jewish people to bind the enemy, destroy the enemy before he destroys them.  You're only one chance. Destroy him first.   Bind the devil first, and destroy him. And there's only three robes that can do that. Prayer, it's what the Jewish people did. Mardechai cried out, it's fasting, as they fasted three days. And third one is Esther, she sacrificed her life to be in the presence of a king. I believe prayer, fasting, and sacrifice is not an option for people who have a devil as the enemy, and who have a flesh that's still alive. The Satan has been defeated. He's destroyed, but the evil in this world is still real, and God will now remove certain things from your life. He will leave them on purpose.  Many people look for deliverance. They want God to set them free, but what if God wants to empower you to have a victory instead of deliverance? What if God, this year, he wants to bind your enemy? Maybe you're sitting here right now, and you're bound, you're bound by some demonic thing, perhaps some curses, maybe an addiction, or maybe you have certain things, you know it's not from God, it's not from you, it's straight from the devil. This year, make a decision to stop praying and fasting, and sacrifice. There is a God in heaven. When he sees your hunger, he will empower you, and he will overcome your enemy. When my brother was delivered from drugs, he still struggled with smoking and drinking. He comes to my home group, and so one time he was sharing, he said, Vlad, I tried everything to quit smoking and drinking, and we practiced deliverance. So he was at every prayer light. He says, God delivered me from drugs, but the smoking and drinking, no matter how hard I tried, I kept slipping in. And then he says, in one of the services, I shared a message. What I challenged people to stop seeking freedom, but to start seeking to be filled, and that freedom will come as a result. Walk in my spirit, the Lord says, and you will not fulfill the last of the flesh. D'Almudhi said to his students, he says, how do you get the air out of the glass? You can't vacuum it. There's only one way. Is you fill it with water, and then the air comes out. Sometimes the way to our freedom is not through shaking and baking. It's not only through deliverance. It's when you put as much focus on being filled as you are putting in to being free. And stuff will come out. The Bible says, perfect love, casts out fear. It's the same word there that it says Jesus cast out a demon. It means, as I mature, as I grow, as I pray and as I fast, I'm mature, my maturity drives out demons. It drives out certain problems by itself. There is freedom. There is deliverance when you live that kind of a life. A lot of people in pursuit of freedom, they obsess with open doors. I believe in open doors. And if I'm not mistaken, there's a chapter in my book called Open Doors. There are open doors to the devil. But when you begin to seek open doors, why am I addicted to this? Why am I struggling with this? And your main seeking is looking for a door. It's not scriptural. No, we're in the Bible. Do I see Jesus before he cast out a demon? He went into their ancestry. I believe in that. I think we need to do that. But everywhere in the Bible it says for people who are oppressed to seek his face, not an open door. When you see him, he will show you an open door. But he will be the one to help you close it. If you only seek an open door, you will find so many open doors. You will spend your three lives trying to close them. And you'll never close them. Because there is only power in the Holy Spirit. And that comes when we seek his face. I want to encourage every person. You know, when I shared this in the book, when I was exposed to pornography, at the age of 11 or 12, in the Ukraine, but grabbed the hold of my life in America.  I did not know much about demons or deliverance at the time. But I knew something was wrong with me. Because I was a disciplined guy. And I fasted regularly, even as a teenager. And no matter how hard I tried, once a month, especially before some kind of big event at church, it would chop me down into that sin. And I became desperate. So I started to, I think, at that time I went for seven days on fast. And I told God, you got to deliver me. You got to help me. Because I can't afford, I'm already a youth pastor. I'm 17 or 16 years of age. And I'm addicted to porn. I'm struggling with this.  But no matter how hard I tried, once a month, I would fall. And you know, when you're desperate, when you're sick and tired, fasting is easy. You don't worry about food. You don't want to live. So that was the easiest fast I've ever had in my life. And during that fast, God opened the door. He showed me that was an open door in my life. But listen to me, young man, I wasn't looking for open doors. I was seeking God's face.  This year, go crazy for prayer and fasting. And you begin to see God's face. You may say, I can't do the Vlad because I'm still addicted to something. You can't afford not to do it because you're addicted. Bind the enemy before he binds you. And God delivered me at that time. He brought me freedom. But the best part is I continued that seeking of God. When Jesus talked about defeating pornography or lust, he never used deliverance from another minister as a way to deliverance. A lot of times, people hear my story and it's embarrassing to share it for me. But I get over myself and I know that I want to help other people. So young men would come and they said, pray for me. The same demon you had, I have. I said, great. We're fasting next week. Three days. He said, no, no, no. I want you to pray for me.  I said, which hand are we cutting today? No, no, no, no. You don't understand Vlad. I need deliverance. And this is the question I usually ask.  Has the pain of discipline equal to chopping off your own hand? Not somebody do it for you on accident. You're doing it on purpose. And they said, let me ask you a few other questions. In the last 30 days, how many times you fasted? Usually zero. What is your prayer life like? Usually it's five, ten minutes a day. Are you in God's word? Let me check the settings on your phone how much time you spend on Instagram. So you're allowing this much pain tolerance when Jesus who knows more about demons than every guy who casts out demons in the world put together. He said that your problem, that's with the devil, can be crushed by the level of your prayer, your fasting, and your sacrifice. And when I usually present that to them, like, well, never mind. Like, do you want to be free?  You're going to have to pray. You're going to have to fast. And there's a certain level of price that has to be paid. Somebody say amen. There was a president, 20th president of America, James Garfield. He can put up his photo. He was shot after four months of being a president. On the train station, it was during that time in America that medicine wasn't very advanced. I think over 12 doctors without gloves on their hands started to go into his body, trying to find a bullet. They didn't find it. At one inventor who invented a metal-detecting machine, wanted to try to experiment with his machine on this president to find the bullet. So he put the machine over the president. He just forgot that the bed he was on was made of metal. So the machine showed him that the bullet was on one side. So doctors cut that part open. They found out that the bullet wasn't there. So they kept probing around, looking for a bullet. A few months later, he died. The news article wrote this. A shooter shot him. Doctors killed him. Why? They were looking for a bullet. They should have left that bullet alone. He would have survived. Sometimes digging into your past, when the Holy Spirit is not leading you, will open more problems than you will know what to do with. I'm all for going into our past, only when the Holy Spirit leads us. If you have problems that keep repeating, and you hear a message on curses, or about demons, right away your mind starts to focus. Which demon do I have? Which curse do I have? And then you start looking for a demon and for a curse. And my Bible says, you will always find what you look for, and many times you start poking around. And it's not the devil. It's the fact that so much attention is given to him. It gets your problem. Infected. So my challenge to you even if you know there is a bullet in your body. And you don't know how to get rid of it. Live. Pray. Fast. Stick his face. He will help you. He will remove it. He will come out by himself. I had an uncle. He passed away now to be with the Lord. When he was 17 years old, he was a hooligan. He was a hooligan. He wasn't a good boy. So he decided to make a little bomb to help all the fish come up to the surface faster. Because he was didn't want to catch all of them individually. He wanted all of them to come up. And the science wasn't his strongest suit. And he miscalculated a few chemicals. So it blew up in his house. It blew up the whole roof. The glass from the bottle went into the fireplace. And then another glass went into his eye. So he lost his vision right away. The second glass went into his other eye. So he wasn't able to see. So he was only able to see halfway through one eye. Three or four fingers on one side was cut off right away. And glass went into his body. He went to the hospital. They removed whatever they could. And then he continued to live. Had many children. When we moved to America, Stefan told me one time. He said, till this day, every so and so, glass comes out of my body. I'm not looking for it. He says, it's just growing. My body is growing. It pushes stuff out by itself. I just want to encourage every person. Make prayer and fasting and sacrifice. Bigger goal than finding the glass. Getting out of the bullet. Finding some kind of an open door. Seek his face. And when God reveals an open door, the best part, he'll right away shut it. Bind the devil before he binds you. Through prayer, fasting and giving. Amen? Number two. In Ecclesiastes, it says that, let's read the verse, though one may be overpowered, Ecclesiastes 412. If you can overcome one, two will stand against him. The second thing that I want you to notice that this year prayer, fasting and sacrifice will do to your life. And if you can put a point up, it will build your spirit. So you will not have a broken life. It says in here that when you put these three cords together, you will not be easily broken. Many people's lives get broken. I believe one of the main reasons is because their spirit is not built. When your spirit is not built, your life will get broken. Prayer fasting and sacrifice builds you on the inside, which many times protects us from being easily broken. I am not saying we will never have problems.  He's from the devil. It's good that he doesn't. I'm not saying you'll never have financial challenges. But there is something about your life that's going to be different because your spirit is built. Prayer fasting and sacrifice builds you on the inside. You can't explain it. What Pastor Sergei shared this morning, unless you experience that word faith, word something gets deposited. It's a very strange topic. You know, when we had a sacrifice yesterday from many of you who sacrificed, you felt something in your spirit way deeper than the level of your emotions. Because it builds your spirit. It builds your spirit. And when your spirit is built, it's hard to break your life. It says of Jesus that he grew in the spirit. Meaning, your spirit can be built. Your spirit can grow. I go to gym. Not as often as my wife. She is very committed. I just go to gym the way most Christians go to church. Just for the check mark. And my pastor always says so that I'll be able to see my feet without being overshadowed by my king well. So, benching is not one of my strongest things. And one time I remember, I was going for a while and decided to try to do a plate, a plate 45 pounds. And so, I knew that I wouldn't be able to do it by myself. I invited a guy who was in the gym who goes to my home group. So, he can be my spotter. And the only reason why I invited him, because I knew that I know the power of peer pressure. When somebody watches you, you do way better. And so, he was sparring me. And I did 3 sets of 10. And at the end, I just praise God. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Alleluia. So, I felt proud.  So, he looks at me and he said, next time just add more weight. And I didn't want to admit to him that it took every ounce of my faith to lift that. But see, right now to lift that for me is peace of cake. I don't add any more weight, because I don't like to be challenged. I don't go to the gym to be buff. What, six months ago, stretched my muscle. Today is not doing anything to me. That's why these things don't grow. The routine that brought you revival, if they're kept too long, they'll bring you into a rut. Many of you spiritually, you're stuck. And the only way they will get you unstuck, is you gotta put a little bit more weight on your bar. For those of you who don't live a life of fasting, and who simply say, well, I live by faith. That's good. I challenge you once a month to take three days to fast. If you've been fasting, and you say, Vlad, last year, I did it every month for three days, with FFM. Can I challenge you something this year? Cut away coffee from your fasting. I know FFM drinks coffee during. I used to too, until my fasting hit a plateau. So I went in all five days, and the Lord challenged me.  I said, Lord, I can fast for 21 days. I feel nice for that. Change your routine. This coming here. If you're fasting, has gotten a plateau. Same thing with prayer. If your prayer hit a plateau this year, change things up. Is there pray more? Or pray less? Or some other time? But one thing I want to challenge you, is something that Pastor Sergei shares a lot. And Pastor Andrzej shares a lot, is to take time during a month, where you separate yourself with God. I used to do that when I was in high school, and I took every Wednesday off to fast and pray. So I would lock myself in church, and I would pray from about six to about five. From morning till evening. And I was a high school student. The crazy part, the more school I missed, the better my grades became. Now, don't try that at home. I did not miss because I was sick. I wasn't missing because I was chilling with my homies. I really felt that God wants me to seek His face. And my grades became better. But then when I graduated, this habit of separating yourself unto God, for a long time, became spontaneous. It became like when the God will lead me. I found out he did lead me around. Sometimes God leads you. But in Corinthians it says, give as your purpose in your heart. You don't have to be led. So when I came to Kingdom Domain, I heard Andrei talk about separating yourself for a few days and going like into like outside of city. I started remembering my high school days. And I did that as a youth pastor, but very sporadically. I got so fired up. I came back to church. And in February, I remember I booked my hotel for two days. And so I went there just with my Bible with an iPad. No text messages and left my phone at home. And I told my wife, if after three days I don't come back, call FBI. So I went there. You know, you're like excited. Big gallons of water, prayed first hour, second hour, third hour, ran out of things to say. After the first day, I started to understand what mental disorder looks like. You have a headache, you have four walls, and you can do nothing. Because I've read the book that you read 20 times. And so I still have one more day. And there will be times I would experience break through there. But there were times I just went to Applebees. I said, God, I'm sorry. But if I don't need some chicken right now, you're not going to like it. Nobody going to like it. And so after about five times or four times, I stopped going outside of town. I said, why am I torturing myself? I'll be honest with you. I stopped until not long ago. The Holy Spirit challenged me again. And he says, I want you to start taking time to spend one day with me. Ten or twelve hours of prayer. And he said, don't pray. He said, don't pray. Just be with me. I'm sorry. God, the thought scares me. He said, what scares you is a hotel. Stay home. Stay in your church. Why do you have to hide somewhere outside of town? He says, you're not mature for that level. You're not Andrei. And you're not Shedlovsky. So I started to do that. Just the church. You know, on the third day of our fasting. Because if I do the first two days fasting, the headache hurts. Half of a day just rebuking the headache. So I wait for the headaches to finish. And the third day to just take that from five to six, just take that whole day and just be with God. Why am I sharing this with you? That maybe your prayer got stuck. Prayer is not the problem. But you're pulling the same weight you've been doing for the last three years. When God led Elijah to a brook, it was revival. But after a while, it became drought. The things you did three years ago, that brought you revival, most likely right now, those very things make you stuck. I challenge you. Be creative. Take your prayer life to another level this year.  Many of you spend a whole day somewhere. What if once a month? And if you're able, if you may be in ministry once a week, you take the whole day. And as you would work eight hours a day that you would worship and wait for eight hours a day. I know that maybe this freaks you out. Avatar is three hours long. Avengers is two and a half or three hours long. Nobody gets a heart attack by going and watching those. And the Hollywood keeps making them longer. Stranger things season one has 10 episodes. That's about 10 hours. People watch all those 10 episodes straight in one setting. And they're completely fine. The way I build my spirit, I use five steps. The first one starts with my desire. Desire says I want, meaning I want to live a life of prayer this year. And this is the step every person is in this room is on right now. I remember when I was here, people talk about sacrifices. When I read Robert Morris' book and blessed life, how he would give cars away, houses, something inside of me said, I want that. But the want doesn't do anything. It goes to the second step. When you have to go from I want to I will, meaning I will do this. And some of you right now in this message, you need to make a decision and move to step two and said, I will fast three days a month. You must say, you're creating a religion.  It's a religion. Relax. Everything is fine.  You don't worry, that's a religion. So fasting three days a month, it's a good religion. You have to make I will. Not say I will see. If nobody at my workplace brought crispy cream donuts, but I will. Whether somebody's birthday is on that day, I will. But many people die because they never make it to step three. It's where you have to have discipline and you have to say I must. For me it took me a while to get to that point. I must. No matter how I feel, I must. Jesus said I must at the age of 12. That's what formed his spirit. It's not that he wanted only. He must. It's that you know that you know you got to do it. Your flesh doesn't want it. Everything comes against you. There's a black caviar, a pastor's meeting. But you must. You must. And if you don't develop that muscle of must, you have to have that. Many people are afraid of I must. They say, well, it means I don't have a passion. I must stage. It doesn't last very long. Because when you through that, you will enter into the stage of delight, where you will, I love. The Bible says Jesus loved righteousness. He didn't just say I have to be righteous. Which meaning if I am faithful, if I pay the price, I'm not going to dread giving, praying and fasting for a long time. I will delight in it. I love. And the last thing, when you do it for long, it becomes your default. It becomes your automatic. It becomes your I am. It becomes who you are. When you think of Pastor Sergei today, one word comes to your mind. It's who he is today. It's not only something he does. It's not only something he has to do. It's not only something he loves to do. It is defined him. It's automatic. It becomes default. Your spirit can change you. But it's not because I'm just going to breathe on you. Because you have to go from I want to I will, from my will. And this is where many of us die. I must. When the headache kicks in, and that second day of fasting, and you didn't read your Bible, and you're looking like God, this is not helping anybody, that you step back. You said no. I'm going to finish this. I must. And God will give you breakthrough. It will change who you are. It will transform you. And God will give you breakthrough.  Amen. Lastly, we're going to pray. Are you receiving something? Amen. I like to speak very practically.  So please forgive me if I don't give you some very deep profound things. I just want you to know what to do after the kingdom domain is done. And for those of you that if I share personal stories that offend you, deal with it. Amen. Last thing that prayer and fasting does, not only it binds my flesh, not only it builds my spirit, but it births breakthrough. It births breakthrough. If we look at Cornelius, he was praying, he was fasting, and he was also sacrificing. And it's interesting when God's angel came. He highlighted these things. And there is this verse that it says over there in Book of Acts. It says, your prayers and your alms have come up before God. That tells me this wasn't his first prayer. This wasn't his first fasting.  They come up to God, and God saw them. The crazy part in the Cornelius was praying, and fasting, and giving, being not a follower of Christ. And he got God's attention. If some of you think, well Vlad, I'm still addicted to stuff, I can pray. You can't afford not to. I can fast. You don't understand. I struggle with smoking. I struggle with anger. What's this will do? You need God's help, and these things come up to God. But it's not just one time. When it's consistent, when you do this on a regular basis, you're pregnant. You're growing, and it will birth. A breakthrough. Breakthrough is different from a miracle, because a miracle blesses you. But a breakthrough opens the way for everybody behind you. Cornelius did not just have an angel come to him. Many people had that. Cornelius had something that happened to him. They're open the veil for billions of people today to follow after him as Gentiles into the kingdom of God. He broke through the glass of thousands of years' promise that all the nations will be blessed in the seat of Abraham. Abraham couldn't break through. David couldn't break through. Solomon couldn't break through. Even Jesus just went to a few countries. But there was no breakthrough. Apostles stayed only in Jerusalem. But one man prayed, fasted, and sacrificed being outside of even knowing God. It came up before him, and there was a breakthrough. And he was the first Gentile convert. Prayers and fasting and sacrifice. Binds my flesh. Secondly, it builds my spirit. And thirdly, it births breakthrough. I've shared a story a lot of times about how God led me to sacrifice. We sacrificed the missions and one particular ministry when we came back from where we sacrificed at that time. The lady who was in charge of the partners' department in that ministry called us. And she says, we're praying for you and thank you for your sacrifice. Praise God. She says the whole team, eight people is praying for you. I said, what is God saying?  So I'm expecting they're going to give me a strategy for our church to grow for us to have a breakthrough. We just gave at the time was $10,000. So all the money we had we were saving for many, for a few years. And this lady has the audacity over Skype to tell me that what God told them, for me to become a partner. I was like, I thought you're going to say something good. And I was like, well, I'll pray about it. I'm thinking compassion child was $30. Compassion child when you support is $30. I'm going to give $35. And the Skype she calls again. She says, we feel like God gave us a number that you should give. I have this alert Jezebel. Jezebel controls you to run and run. But I'm being polite. So I was like, what did God say? She says, well, in our department, you know, people just give like $500 as VIP partners. I said, what? I can't give that. She said, well, we prayed. We feel you should give double of that.  I'll call you later. And so I am mad. I'm thinking, what is this Christianity going into manipulating? She's telling me what I should give and none of our business. I go to prayer next morning and I'm telling God how he needs to change his church and I feel this thing in my heart. Vlad, what if you will do that for a year? Give $1,000 as a partnership. I say, God, but I don't have that kind of money. He said, well, what if I will help you? I said, God, but what about me? What about my savings? What about like a house for me? What about me? I said, what if for one year you don't focus for you? You've done it for 10 years as a youth minister. You stuck. And this is what the building of the spirit began. You won't believe it. I actually agreed with a crazy lady. I called her and I said, for a year. I said, I don't know who you got some hookups over there because you talked to me too. I'm so glad Andres' ministry doesn't do that. First month, I've never experienced miracles in my finances before that. I was a tider all my life and I was blessed, but I never seen miracles. That month, I saw my first miracle. A girl named Ifra from Facebook. I think she's Ethiopian. She said, God told me to send you something in the mail. It was exactly $1,000. So I made the first month. I started to have rental properties, problems on the month number two. And not only I didn't have money to sew, I didn't have money to pay for my rents, but things in the church were not moving. So there's the part of me that says, God, I thought that things would change, but they're getting worse. I see, but God was trying to form a spirit first. The second month. And Pastor Tokarev doesn't know this. I got invited to the youth group and I came there with my wife. I was at their youth ministry before. Prior to that year, in most of my travels, I would be blessed, and I'll be honest with you, I'll be blessed with maybe $200, $300. It was just enough to pay for gas for a McChicken and a Starbucks coffee, and 10% of the church. And so I didn't expect anything. I don't expect anything when I go. So me and my wife went there, and it was the youth ministry that organized the event. To be honest, I expected nothing. And they blessed us. And I opened it at the airport, and I saw $3,500. I broke down crying, because there's no way they knew. That's exactly what I needed to pay for the property and exactly what I needed to sell. And right there at the airport, God says, I'm Jehovah Jairo. Not the one who provides for your needs, because Abraham had no needs. I'm providing for your sacrifice. I started seeing miracles. The fourth month, when things got to worse, and I believe and I've shared this before, but I feel to share it again. What I believe, I die. I was going to Walmart because the $1,000 I was sending through Western Union to the missions overseas.  Nothing is changing in my life, except I see miracles for money that I'm giving away. Many issues not changing. Nothing supernatural is taking place. And this is where a huge pressure came upon me.   So there's a few more people in front of me holding out that envelope. And part of me says, Vlad, you tried. Well, it didn't work. This doesn't work. It's manipulation. Run. You need that money. But the other part that was dissatisfied with how my life was, something just cried out. I say something is harder than what I'm feeling right now. It's for me to live for the rest of my life. Wondering, what would have happened if I would have went till the end? I know what will happen if I'm going to give up. Same thing that's been happening for 10 years. But I don't know what's waiting behind when I will finish what God asked me to do.  But I'm yours.  Just letting you know. I was trying to hear you. I was trying to give to you. If I made a mistake, it was a mistake in seeking you. I just want to let you know that. Within a week, things started to change in the ministry and in my finances. Within about a few years, when I was in Ukraine, I had a jet leg. So I couldn't sleep at night. And I was praying. And I had two rental properties. One, I had it for 10 years. The other one had for four years. And as I'm praying, seeking God, I feel this prompting in my heart to get rid of them and to sell them, give most of the proceeds away. And I felt God's real estate is not your thing. You're scared of toilets and sewer pipes. So just sell and give the money most of the way. And I was like, okay. And this is where God said, I felt He said to me, when you do that within a short time, I will give you an idea. It will give you the same income that came from real estate. But it will be connected. To your calling. I felt it in my heart. Came back home. I said, baby, this year we're going to sell one. Next year, we're going to sell the second one. So we sold it. It went year without it. And last year, in January, I'm talking about breakthrough, I started to feel this thing that I need to write a book. Of course, I rebuked the devil. I don't even know what to write about. I don't even know what to write about. I don't know any publishing companies. And who's going to read my book? I mean, what am I, an expert as a deliverance? So I brushed it off for about two months and then it became very strong. With the point where anytime I prayed, God just started to like pound on my heart. It became an issue of obedience. So that God would leave me alone. I decided to write a book. And I self-published it last month. I calculated the proceeds from each month. It was way more each month than it was coming from rental properties. And so this month, toward the end of the month, we're actually giving all the proceeds away to the ministry. So for those of you who bought the books, it's not going to me actually. It's going to go into the ministry. We feel that from God. But what I want to share with you is that that book, it wasn't just a book. It became a breakthrough for other authors to publish a book. When Andrei heard that I was writing a book, he said, yeah, I've been wanting to write a book too. I was like, I got you covered, bro. And after that, you know, he's published the book. George David Duke, he's like, man, if you could do it, anybody can do it. Thanks, George. I was like, thank you for a compliment. But I feel that now, even within the Slavic community, there's going to be authors that are going to be risen up. And I will help them to publish it for free. Well, I'm not going to publish it. Amazon will. But I believe there's a breakthrough and second, nobody in my family has ever published a book. I believe prayer fasting and sacrifice makes you birth something that nobody has ever had in your family. That nobody has ever had in your city. Nobody has ever had in your church. But the best part is you're not the only one. You're only going to be the first one. Because a miracle is you're the only one. But breakthrough, you're only the first one. And others will come. And they will go further. Can somebody say amen? I believe this year you're going to bind the devil. I believe this year you're going to build your spirit. I believe this year you will birth a breakthrough. My only advice to you, something happened right now as I was speaking. You became pregnant. Don't have an abortion next month. And don't be scared in March. Carry it through. Do it till the point. It comes up before God. And God sends something back. Don't quit when it gets hard. Don't quit after seven months. I don't see the changes until you birth it. Hold it. Let's rise. If the worship team can come up, oh Holy Spirit, I ask you that right now you will touch us for this year to be the year where we pray, where we fast and where we give, not just on kingdom domain. Lord, I know there are so many people in this room. For them it's just the information. As it was for me for many years. And therefore I ask you for a revelation. I ask you that their heart will respond that there will be a shift in the culture of their life in Jesus' name. If you're saying Vlad this year, I want to go from I want to I will. From I will to I must. But I need God's help. I praise your hand. Let's pray. Begin to pray in the Holy Spirit. Say Holy Spirit, help me. It's not about religion, it's not about discipline.  When the year is over, there are changes on your level, on the level of your business, on the level of your ministry, on the level of your family, on the level of your dream, on the level of your calling, just on the level of your life. It will be different than Pastor Sergei. It will be different than Pastor Andrej. It will be different than Pastor Demas. It will be different than mine. But it will be yours. It will be something that you will know. That you will know. It was God. It was his spirit. That your spirit is going to be built. That your flesh is going to be bound. And you're going to burst something. This coming year. In Jesus' name. Father, I release your blessings. The same grace to have given me. I pray for every young man. I pray for every young woman. I pray for those who are fighting right now. Those who feel trapped. Those who feel hopeless God. Lift their eyes, God. Lift their eyes. To begin to seek your face. Not to seek the devil. Not to seek demon of God. But to seek your glory. Father, build our spirit. We will be finishers. There are so many people who have started. They stopped praying. I will change this year. In Jesus' name. Father, I pray for those who maybe yesterday felt your prompting to sacrifice. But they talk themselves out of it. I pray there will be a change right now. That they will not go into this year without faith and without laying a sacrifice. They lay their life down. For the glory of God. We pray for all the pastors. We pray for all the leaders. We pray for all the home group leaders. We pray for all the missionaries. Fathers and mothers. In Jesus' name. Let this be the year where we begin to enjoy your presence. We begin to go from glory to glory. From victory to victory. In Jesus' name. In Jesus' name. Guys, thank you for receiving this word. And I just ask you that you don't just listen and take notes, but that you do that.  How many of you know you don't need to find a Greek version of that? How many of you know you don't need a bible study to discuss what does that mean, be home by 11? And how many of you know you don't need to memorize it? All she said was I need to be home by 11. I need to be home by 11. I need to be home by 11. No, it just simply means you need to be home by 11. What we talked about right now, what makes it uncomfortable, is you got to do it. I just talk about it. I just read it. So you got to do it. And today on your way out, our students will give you a brochure. It's about internship. I would love for you to pick it up.  Make them make me feel really bad.  You can throw it away. But it's for those who want to be a part of growing in Christ. Not bless you. Thank you for watching this content. I know this was a blessing to you. We would like to ask you to subscribe to our channel and click on the bell on our channel so that each time we upload something you can be notified. Don't forget to share this content with your friends and family and on social media. We're so thankful to you. Better is not good enough. The best is yet to come.


The unbreakable backbone of any engagement they were called upon to fight in. The 14th Legion bore all that their enemies could throw at them, never backing down, never bending, forever resolute. Upon the Ashen radiation choked surfaces of hundreds of worlds, the great cladestarties of the 14th advanced. An inexorable tide of power armor, grinding all who stood before them into the mud. Know then, that this is a record of the tactical preferences, organizational structure, and war disposition. The 14th Legion Death Guard. From the outset of the Great Crusade, the Dusk Raiders, being the first cognomen earned by the 14th Legion, displayed a generally balanced approach to the prosecution of warfare, albeit with a marked tendency towards heavy infantry-centric formations and attritional engagements for which they were to become famed. The resolute character of the Legion, born of its foundation in the warrior culture of old Albia, placed a primacy upon endurance and fortitude. The Dusk Raiders often engaged an enemy knowing that the enemy would break long before they would, relying upon the discipline of its astarties, but also their innate biological resilience to carry the day in environs and circumstances that would kill a mortal soldier in minutes. Special preference was also paid towards self-reliance. Spending far longer without their primarch than many other legions, the 14th internalized the orphan status displaced upon them, resolving to overcome what others may have seen as a deficiency by equipping their astarties and their attendant expeditionary fleets as well and thoroughly as possible. Elements of the 14th were incredibly self-sufficient and could operate for extended periods without any resupply and reinforcements for far longer than any of their fellows in the Legion as astarties, often indeed in circumstances of extreme privation. Should his bolter run out of ammunition, the Dusk Raider would think nothing of simply laying into the enemy with his gladius for as long as it was deemed necessary, with no expectation of resupply before the battle was won. This attitude became more marked over time with the 14th's preference for infantry-based operations becoming the fulcrum around which their operational strength revolved. Fire support was far more commonly derived from heavily armed support weapons specialists as opposed to tanks or aircraft, and an enemy line was more often than not broken by massed formations of terminator armed astarties supported by dreadnoughts as opposed to the armoured vehicles spearhead assaults many favored in other legions. That this became a marked trend within the Legion pleased to the primarch Mortarian upon his assumption of Legion command, for this too was the way of his feral homeworld of barbarus. Mortarian had defeated the psychic warlords who controlled his planet not with armour or technology, but with the sheer stubbornness of his foot soldiers, and saw within his new deathguard the perfect opportunity to create an army of infantry unparalleled by any in the Imperium. Members of the rechristened 14th were now expected to build upon the foundation laid by the dustgraders to become the ultimate foot soldier capable of annihilating the foe through sheer implacable aggression and relentless application of force. To this end, Mortarian expanded the role of a deathguard astarties to encompass all aspects of infantry-centric warfare. Queras a legionary from the 13th Legion ultramarines would steadily advance from, for example, the tactical astarties to special weapon support to heavy weapon support through years of experience. One of the deathguard would hold all of these positions effectively simultaneously, able to fulfill any and all should the exigencies of the campaign require it. Squad formations were thus remarkably fluid within the 14th, as a tactical astarties may find himself fighting with a bolter in one battle, then part of a Volkite weapon support squad in the next should it be required. Only truly specialised roles, such as that of techmarines, were exempt from this expectation. Special note should be accorded to the fact that, even before the edict of Nikia was passed, the 14th had its librarians forcibly shut by a ruling of the Primarch. Despite what was widely considered the benefits of employing psychically adept astarties at the time, especially in an infantry-focused deathguard, Mortarian's hatred for sorcery, born of his upbringing on barbarous, brooked no argument. The 14th Legion librarians were ordered to cease using their powers and return to their positions in the line. The weaponry, born by the astarties of the 14th, was thus kept as simple as possible, with market preference for Melta, Flamer and Bolter displayed above all others. The deathguard was expected to be able to conquer any enemy with this trinity of war gear, and more specialised firearms were only deployed when the situation called for it. Additionally, the Legion clove to power armour marks that could be most readily repaired by either their warriors or the Legion's techmarines. This had the effect of ensuring the 14th Legion supply lines were incredibly easy to maintain, as almost their entire panoply of war could be manufactured upon the most basic of forge worlds, with the most basic of material stock. It was, in its own way, an outward manifestation of the Legion's core ethos, that the astarties himself was the greatest weapon ever created, and that he needed only the most basic of tools to bring destruction to the tyrants that opposed mankind's destiny. The 14th did of course retain a stock of field armour, aircraft and support vehicles, as the deathlord could not countenance his Legion being left simply wanting, if such machines were absolutely necessary. But none were given any sort of primacy within the Legion's tactical doctrine, and were merely seen as tools of necessity that would allow the infantry to complete their stated role. Perhaps the one exception to this rule was the higher than average presence of tanks whose weaponry allowed them to utilize special munitions, such as phosphics or chemical shells. These included vindicator siege tanks, modified and utilized by the deathguard in saturation bombardments of enemy positions prior to an infantry advance. Spartan super heavy transports were likewise kept in high numbers, in order to allow mass deployments of terminator squads to critical battlefield positions. It is noteworthy that, as of the Istvan atrocity, the majority of the Legion's vehicle crews were formed of skilled Terran-born Estartes of the old dust-graders, as during this iteration the Legion had placed much more stock on combined arms warfare. As the years of the Crusade advanced, the deathguard, under the Sapulcro gaze of Mortarian, only hardened in their prosecution of warfare. Whereas the dust-graders were known to be honourable Estartes, willing to accept the surrender of an enemy, the deathguard were not so kind. A predilection emerged amongst the Legion for annihilation operations, where once they had been willing to accept that when a foe had laid down their arms, they would be welcomed into the body of the Imperium. They now all too often took any sign of defiance as an invitation to extermination. To do so, and in keeping with the Legion's stated preference for line infantry, the deathguard steadily began to employ deadlier and deadlier munitions and man-portable weaponry into their armory. Radiological weapons, for example, were given favour, as were chemical rounds that could turn organic matter into a sludgy pulp, viral weaponry that could devour the inhabitants of cities within hours and, worse yet, phosphax munitions, the crawling death, a fire that could eat through armour-like paper and never be extinguished. Employment of such weaponry would often leave a planet's ecosystem irrecovably damaged, or indeed utterly uninhabitable by baseline human colonists that followed the deathguard in the Great Crusade's wake, drawing the Legion criticism from numerous Imperial bodies for what was deemed a senseless waste of previously inhabitable worlds. The Primarch Vulcan of the 18th Legion Salamanders was Mortarian's most vocal critic in this manner. Flames of the 18th would turn a planet to ash undoubtedly, and from that ash crops would still grow. The deathguard, he alleged, left behind them only radiation-soaked wastelands unfit for anyone to even stand in. The Deathlord was known to be derisive of such comments, merely pointing to the effectiveness of his Legion and its methods and how there was no trace of the tyrant he had deposed or the Xeno species he had exterminated. The efficacy of the Legion was never in doubt. As the years progressed, some within the Imperium began to wonder that the sheer cost their victory would entail. This tendency can be seen writ large in the unique formation within the Legion, the aptly named Grave Wardens. These terminator-armored elite Tostatis bestowed the battlefield arrayed in grenade-launching weaponry and stocked with the most potent biological munitions the Legion stocked, including Phosphhex, the flesh-devouring Vastogox virus, and incredibly lethal Colgene gas. Originally only under the purview of 1st Captain Callus Typhon's first grand company, the Grave Wardens' effectiveness in this new style of 14th Legion warfare saw their remit expanded to serve all great companies within the Legion. The chain of command within the Legion was rigid and expected to be obeyed with total compliance. Owing to the predilection for massed infantry formations, the 14th was split between just seven grand companies, analogous to the chapter, perhaps, meaning within far more Astartes each than the strictures of the official militarists suggested. Few ranks existed, for, ever ones to favour directness, the Deathguard placed primacy upon a clear and blunt chain of command. While they, like their fellows, accorded the captain of the first great company a higher rank than all other of his comrades, the second and seventh great companies similarly ranked. All three had no actual seniority over each other, but the latter two were accorded the titles of commander and battle captain respectively. Obedience to one superior was both expected and given without question.  When an officer died, he was immediately succeeded by his next in line, and this was accepted by all under his purview as the natural order of things. And conduct proceeded without the jockeying for position that occurred within the sixth legion space walls, or the theoretical scheming extant in the third legion emperor's children. This further contributed to the Deathguard's resilience on the field of battle, as the loss of an officer rarely precipitated a loss in operational efficiency or efficacy. Unlike many of their fellow legions who operated across a diverse range of theatres during the Crusade, Mortarion was ill-disposed to subdivision and preferred to keep his legion in a coherent and united force as often as possible. Accordingly, when the legion gathered at Istvan at the behest of Horus Lupacal, it did so in its almost full strength of approximately 95,000 startes. Proportional casualty raids, inflated by the Deathguard's focus on attritional infantry warfare, were estimated to be surpassed only by the fourth legion iron warriors and twelfth legion world eaters, and were amplified by Mortarion's insistence on only using the inhabitants of his homeworld of Barbarus as recruits. While the stock of his poison-choked planet were better than average at surviving a startes conversion, they were never numerous enough to keep the legion in full supply, as such rendering the fourteenth in the lower tier of legions numerically speaking. Their fleet strength, however, was nonetheless impressive, approximately numbering 70 capital ships and three times that number in cruisers and frigates. The legion's slow recruitment and notable casualty raids had additionally served to preserve a staunch Terran minority within the fourteenth, who would tragically find their disk quiet. The direction their legion was taking realized in the most horrible of fashions. That is, as is so often the case with one's records, a tragedy for another day. Until then, Ave Imperator, Gloria in Excelsis Terra. This video and this channel are made possible through the incredibly kind contributions of my Patreon subscribers. If you'd like to help support the channel, head on over to patreon.com forward slash Oculus Imperia. And if you're looking to keep in touch with the channel, get regular updates. You can follow me on Twitter, at buttstuffkaiju, or check us out on Discord. A link will be in the description and on the channel page.


Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this morning my statement is on our cannabis regime to be implemented in St. Lucia. And today I rise to provide an update on the cannabis regime to be implemented in St. Lucia. Mr. Speaker, the path to developing a long-awaited legislative regime and rolling out an industry surrounding it has not been easy. What many may perceive as a rather simple undertaking has been arduous and as a responsible government necessitated that we be cautious and meticulous with every step. Mr. Speaker, I have often said that the only way to eat an elephant is to have one bite at a time. I wish to assure you and the general public that our caution should not be viewed as inaction. Behind the scene, Mr. Speaker, we have been working feverishly as eating away at the issues and complexities that this elephant of a task has presented us. Our appetite and our intent has not wavered. Nonetheless, as we continue to achieve milestones along the process and approach the finish line, we remain wary of critical missteps which we note that other jurisdictions have fallen free too. Mr. Speaker, I wish to take this opportunity to thank the members who have served on the Cannabis Commission, the Cannabis Task Force, and the current steering committee who have with each passing of the baton played the role in their own way to progress the regime and the development. Mr. Speaker, in the coming weeks, we intend to introduce to this honorable House a bill called Regulated Substance Authority Bill. This bill will, upon its enactment, create a statutory body charged with the regulation and oversight of a number of regulated substances which will include cannabis and cannabis products. The enactment of that legislation will spell another pivotal achievement in the process of cannabis reform as it will allow for that entity to receive the baton from the hard-working members of the steering committee who have facilitated the review of the Regulated Substance Authority Bill and the Cannabis Bill, which we also intend to introduce shortly after the mobilization of the regulated substance authority. Mr. Speaker, to ensure that momentum has not been lost while we seek to establish this authority as an inclusive government, we have sought to ensure that stakeholders have been afforded an opportunity to review the cannabis bill. Over the last few months, we have engaged a myriad of stakeholders from the following sectors, agriculture, tourism and entertainment, health, banking and finance, and the judicial sector, to name a few. It was necessary to obtain the multi-sectoral perspective to refine the initial draft bill. Thereafter, further engagement with stakeholders is planned along the process and we wish to assure the general public that there will be ample opportunity to dissect the various legislative portions of this regime ahead of its ruling out and we will be better equipped to answer the questions and quail all fears. So I want to tell the public to look out for the public service announcements and discussions on the various talk shows and forums. Mr. Speaker, appreciating the need for a robust regulatory framework to support the proposed legislation, we have proactively commenced the preparation of regulations for the regime. With the assistance of the Canadian Caricom Expert Deployment Mechanism out of Canada, we have obtained the services of consultants to assist in the development of the framework for the regulations. We eagerly await the submission which we expect in the coming weeks. Mr. Speaker, noting as well the need to achieve a unified thinking regarding cannabis and appreciating that many other Caricom nations have taken steps to revise the position regarding cannabis. I am pleased to inform that this government is currently planning to host a regional cannabis symposium to ensure that matters of concern come into our attention during stakeholder engagements adequately ventilated at the original level. Mr. Speaker, this SLP government led by our Honourable Prime Minister, Honourable Philip J.P.A., has been clear in its intent to revise draconian criminal restrictions surrounding cannabis and has developed robust, modern, inclusive, wholesome and bespoke industry surrounding the hub. Mr. Speaker, I wish to reference page 16 of the SLP manifesto wherein we promise the following with respect to cannabis. And I quote, in dialogue and consultation with health officials, education officials and advocates for marijuana legislation, we shall develop a medicinal and recreational cannabis industry. End of quote. Mr. Speaker, I wish to confirm that it has been a consultative process and we are well on our way to develop a medicinal and industrial cannabis industry as promised. I wish to encourage stakeholders to embrace opportunities for dialogue when we reach out to them. Mr. Speaker, we further promise and again I'm quoting from the manifesto, we shall undertake to do the following. Provide the necessary resources to create and maintain a sustainable and vibrant market for cannabis regionally and internationally. Mr. Speaker, within DCS budget and allocation of $500,000 was made for the establishment of the control substance regulatory authority. Again, Mr. Speaker, within the manifesto and I read again, we shall expand the records of crimes relating to possession of small quantities of cannabis as well as we shall decriminalize the use of marijuana to be followed by its eventual legislation. As indicated earlier, Mr. Speaker, this process is well advanced and the passage of the regulatory substance authority bill and the cannabis bill will give rise to the eventual legislation. Mr. Speaker, many may have noted the recent formation of the herbal cooperative, the THC. I have been informed that this cooperative, as the name suggests, will be involved in the production and processing of all medicinal herb. It will act as a central purchasing agency for all of its members produced. It will provide members with all inputs and technical assistance. It will be involved in community development and national education regarding sustainable agriculture. As well, it will create pathways for social upward mobility for its members, most of whom for decades have been associated with cannabis. So, Mr. Speaker, the THC is indicative of the interest that our people have in benefiting from the cannabis industry. I take this opportunity to applaud the members of the THC for being proactive and seeking to organize and put structures in place in preparation for the industry which will no doubt require time and resources. Mr. Speaker, while we encourage these and similar initiatives, we urge persons not to overstep the bonds of the current law and temper the eagerness in cases where the actions will fall a foul of current laws. Mr. Speaker, the work is far from complete, but our energy, determination and passion to till what we perceive as fertile soil will not fail and will yield much fruit in due season. Mr. Speaker, we know that the people deserve better than the status quo and remain resolute in our promise to develop a vibrant cannabis industry in St. Lucien. I thank you. Mr. Speaker, with your permission, I will make a statement on the zero rating of facts. Mr. Speaker, in early July this year, my government presented to this honorable house and the entire nation a motion for the zero rating of value added tax on various items, including sanitary napkins and similar articles and two select billing material, namely lumber, cement, galvanized, steel and plywood. The back reduction, Mr. Speaker, from 12.5 percent to zero percent took effect from the second of August this year for a period of two years. Mr. Speaker, I must point out that it has always been the ethos of my government to seek to alleviate the burden brought over by the ever increasing cost of living on our populace, even as we are faced with countless repeated external shocks. Our policies have been and will continue to be strategic, targeted and guided by our mantra of putting people first. For us as a government, Mr. Speaker, this is not merely a catchphrase. It is truly it is truly our overarching mission. We also firmly believe that public policy must be rooted in scientific data and at the Ministry of Commerce we are intent on achieving this much. Mr. Speaker, the Ministry of Commerce was charged with the responsibility to monitor the administration and effectiveness of these measures to provide guidance to business community, to facilitate compliance and ensure consumers rip the benefit of the VAT reduction. I wish to present a timely report to the Parliament of Sanctucia based on our findings since the introduction of the zero rated VAT. Mr. Speaker, we fully anticipated that the 12.5 percent reduction aimed at improving consumer spending power would have almost immediately been reflected in the reduced cost of these supplies. Once all other factors remained constant including the cost of importing these goods and related inputs. I also made it clear in subsequent interviews with the local media that the government would set about the implementation and enforcement of this new measure collaboratively. The olive branch have been extended. I emphasize that we were not setting any stage for war with the business community despite our many options for dealing with persistent non-compliance. The reality, Mr. Speaker, this did not go as smoothly as planned. Initially we noted some resistance and non-compliance on the part of several VAT related businesses to the newly installed tax measure. Upon further enquiry we discovered that much of the non-compliance stemmed from the misconception that the 12.5 percent reduction would only be applied to new stock. Indeed the most frequently asked question with respect to old stock was whether the goods purchased for resale prior to August the second 2023 would be subject to the reduction. To illustrate, Mr. Speaker, businesses that are VAT related are eligible to claim the VAT paid at the ports when filing the VAT return for the respective year for the respective month. For sanitary napkins imported in June the 12.5 percent VAT paid to customs would have been claimed as input VAT by the registered business when the return is filed for the following month and that is July. That stock should be sold if a zero VAT from August second and it didn't impact the VAT registered businesses. The only impact is the 12.5 percent reduction in government revenue. For the small VAT unregistered businesses Mr. Speaker the difference or impact of the VAT reduction may be seen when they purchase new stock from August the second as the VAT will be reduced to zero by the whole seller and the suggested retail price will be lower. I want to state categorically that once the government of St. Lucia has implemented a revised tax measure it is to be applied immediately. Let me reiterate with immediate effect on all relevant goods or services there ought to be no delays. In other words business owners claim not to have known about this tax revision notwithstanding that the inland revenue department conformed that all VAT registered businesses were contacted several weeks in advance of this implementation. Mr. Speaker to ensure a multi-prong approach a VAT relief monitoring committee was established it is chaired by the director of consumer affairs and comprises representatives from the various relevant arms and agencies of government including the ministry of commerce the department of finance the inland revenue department customs and excise the 60s department and the government information service to tackle pertinent issues relating to the dissemination of public information we are fully committed to maintaining this multi-prong approach to ensure compliance with the new policy measure and to mitigate against any possible speculation and misinformation since its establishment the committee has sought to produce a steady stream of new news releases and interviews as well as public service announcements in support of this measure more will follow in the coming weeks in addition Mr. Speaker the department of finance has deployed additional resources to enhance the monitoring of the prices of these goods compliance and observations as it relates to sanitary napkins in order to assess the effectiveness of this policy measure within the last few weeks the ministry of commerce through the consumer affairs department commenced a project to obtain baseline prices of the aforementioned VAT related products and has been monitoring the importation and retail prices to be clear the baseline price and the review are the prices that were in place prior to august the second through commercial cooperation we have been able to obtain this data and have noted with some disappointment non-compliance in certain instances from our database which contained most of the VAT related businesses engaged in the supply of sanitary products 80 submitted baseline data for analysis out of that only 25 percent are in compliance meaning they have implemented the measure and reduced the prices to reflect the VAT reduction and whereas there has been reduction in some measure in most cases the full 12.5 percent reduction has not been realized Mr. Speaker for retailers that are not VAT registered as indicated earlier the reduction should be seen when they purchase new stock from august the second as the VAT will be reduced to zero by the wholesaler and the suggested retail price will be lower again it is worth noting that even among the compliant businesses the full 12.5 percent reduction has not been passed on to the consumer based on data extrapolated from the analysis conducted by our department markups on sanitary products range from a whopping 90 percent to 155 percent Mr. Speaker in light of this Mr. Speaker i should point out that my government is considering adding these essential items to the list of price control goods the ministry of commerce on august the 28th had some candid discussions with the private sector particularly the chamber of commerce industry and agriculture while those present acknowledge that this product the sanitary products were basic necessities they felt a distinction needed to be made between teen specific products and those of general wider usage the recommendation was made to the chamber to seek ways to lower prices by examining what is offered to students and women facing vulnerability then submitting a proposal for consideration during this meeting Mr. Speaker we agreed two things that the chamber of commerce would put a mechanism in place so that discussion could be held on the wider pricing mechanism that impacts consumers generally and secondly that the chamber of commerce would present a proposal on sanitary products within two weeks and yesterday was two weeks Mr. Speaker so we still expecting that while i acknowledge the chamber's concern with respect to proposed price control mechanism i want to take the opportunity to echo the sentiments of senator Lisa Jawa here when she quoted that period poverty is real end of quote this government however remains open to dialogue and is grateful for the level of professionalism and cooperation exhibited so far thus far in the area of building materials Mr. Speaker regarding the expected reduction on selected material the reality is slightly is less big there has been greater compliance more so because the process is not entirely new to some of those businesses Mr. Speaker the ministry of commerce through the consumer affairs department in keeping with its mandate to promote and protect the rights of all consumers in centrucia will continue to monitor the trend to advise government on any changes to implementation of the policy measures to ensure the benefits are passed on to the consumer in closing Mr. Speaker i want to encourage consumers to remain vigilant and to monitor prices and contact the consumer affairs department at 468-4293 or 468-4226 or visit our complaints and investigation officers on our miku street office i repeat the numbers 468-4293 and 468-4226 i also want to thank the business owners who have made every effort to comply and who are committed to cooperating with this government during this stage of implementation of this very critical tax measure we take this opportunity to thank the importers distributors and retailers of these supplies for their cooperation to date and forward to their continued support the ministry of commerce remains committed to providing guidance to the business community to facilitate further compliance and to ensure that our consumers receive relevant and timely timely information to make informed purchasing decisions i thank you Mr. Speaker