DIVINE INTERVENTIONS: Killing Cancer Without Chemo

Dr. William Ranahan, professor of Biology at Oral Roberts University, shares his journey from aspiring military academy student to groundbreaking cancer researcher. Initially planning a career in the military, he sensed God redirecting him to pursue a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology.

Despite early academic struggles, Dr. Ranahan excelled in his research, leading to significant achievements and awards. However, again feeling the prompting of the Holy Spirit, he left a promising research career to return to ORU and teach at his alma mater. Shortly after arriving there, Dr. Ranahan received an idea he calls a "God thing" to use mushrooms in cancer research, leading to the discovery of compounds that selectively kill cancer cells. This innovative work, supported by unexpected funding, has resulted in a patent and potential new cancer treatments.

Dr. Ranahan emphasizes the importance of obedience to divine guidance in his professional and personal life.

Transcript

TOPIC: Killing Cancer Without Chemo
GUEST: Dr. William Ranahan
EPISODE: S3, E44


William Ranahan (00:00):

I didn't ask for the money, it just popped. I didn't ask for the idea, that just dropped. I didn't even know what mushroom, God just brought the person. And within six weeks we had trained ganoderma lucidum to live on just cancer cells. And we've captured a compound that selectively kills it.

Ric Shields (00:25):

You are listening to the DoorWays® Ministry Network podcast. My name is Ric Shields. Thanks for joining us today as I speak with my friend, Dr. William Ranahan, about divine interventions in a research laboratory.

(00:37):

Dr. Ranahan is a 2005 graduate of Oral Roberts University and went on to earn a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Indiana University Purdue University of Indianapolis in 2013. He's currently Professor of Biology at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

(00:58):

Now, if you're concerned that this would be some kind of academically oriented podcast, let me put your heart at rest. While Dr. Ranahan is really smart, he's going to have to explain things to me. And though I also graduated with a degree in biology from ORU, that was 42 years ago and I've slept a lot since then. I may not have slept very well, but I have slept in hundreds of various places on six continents in over 30 different countries.

(01:24):

We've worked hard to schedule this episode. Dr. Ranahan, thanks for working this time into your crazy schedule.

William Ranahan (01:30):

It is my pleasure to be here.

Ric Shields (01:32):

You know, you didn't always plan to come to ORU. As a teenager you had other plans. You didn't plan to go on to earn a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. So, take us back, if you would, to the time when you were an 18-year-old sweeping the floor at the Manchester Country Club in Bedford, New Hampshire. Something out of the ordinary happened that charted a different course for you.

William Ranahan (01:55):

Yeah, I grew up on a farm in New Hampshire and we had, we lived in a log cabin and we were hardworking family but not an academic family. So, I was planning on going to a military academy. My grandfather had won a purple heart and that kind of opens a door for you to go to a military academy. So that was the plan. However, we're Christian, we love God and we prayed. And so, I took two weeks to pray and fast about what God wanted me to do with my life. And I was like, "God, I'll do anything. I'll go anywhere."

(02:32):

And so, I took those two weeks to pray and fast. I was finishing high school at the time and I was working, as you mentioned, cleaning the floors.

Ric Shields (02:40):

A very illustrious job.

William Ranahan (02:41):

Yes, it was a very seven nights a week, hard job. But it provided a lot of time to talk to God because you're literally there alone. And so, I'd play worship music, I would talk to God. And in the middle of this two weeks of praying and fasting, I was in the corner and I'm sweeping and something like it felt like warm honey or something fell over me and I shot bolt upright. I was leaning under a table to get some stuff and I just shot straight upright because I thought somebody dumped something on me and I looked around.

(03:13):

And then I had a waking vision where I was in what I can only describe as a sound tunnel. It was like standing in a wind tunnel except for instead of wind, there were voices coming to me and then moving past me. And there were thousands of them.

(03:30):

And it was just God. And it was every, every voice, everything was about me in my future, in my past and who he was and what he felt about me. And it was completely overwhelming. It was just like I couldn't hold onto any one of them. And I was trying to look at all of them. And I just felt his presence moving through me. And at the very end, the last, it got smaller and smaller. Like it kind of narrowed in at the end until it was just one voice and it said, "You will go to the internship in January." I knew that to mean an internship in Texas that I had been praying about.

(04:03):

And there I met my wife and there I received directions from God again because we did another prayer and fast thing. And he audibly spoke and said, "You're going to go to ORU, you're going to get a degree in biology, then you're going to get a PhD in molecular genetics." I had literally no idea what those words meant.

Ric Shields (04:23):

Because they don't talk about those words in log cabins, do they?

William Ranahan (04:25):

No, not really.

Ric Shields (04:26):

Not really. Nor at country clubs when we're sweeping the floor.

William Ranahan (04:30):

Yeah.

Ric Shields (04:31):

You did go to ORU and you graduated in 2005. Afterwards, you and your wife moved to Seattle. I think you worked for a bio tech company there. Then later you moved back to your home state of New Hampshire for a time. You moved to Indiana and started to work as a technician in the Biochemistry/Molecular Biology department at the Indiana University School of Medicine and began attending graduate school. And it seems there may have been a bit of a rough start there. Tell us a bit about that first exam in grad school.

William Ranahan (05:01):

Yeah. The journey to grad school was a long one and very difficult. But we ended up at IU and I had actually started as a research tech and then I got into grad school. So, I was generating a lot of data as a research tech and my boss was like, "Hey, you don't really need to study for these exams. They're super easy. Just stay in the lab and do the research so we can get published." Yeah. And I was dumb enough to follow his advice and so I plowed the first round of exams and I got a 26% on my Molecular Cell exam. And that was my illustrious start to my grad program.

Ric Shields (05:47):

That's pretty discouraging <laugh>.

William Ranahan (05:49):

Yeah. Well, if you don't get a “B” average, they kick you out.

Ric Shields (05:51):

Yeah.

William Ranahan (05:52):

So, this was very, this was a real problem.

Ric Shields (05:54):

This was way below "B" You know, grad school exams are really nothing like those in an undergraduate program anyway.

William Ranahan (06:01):

Yes, you're given maybe one or two opportunities and it's all free response. And so, they're just like, tell me everything you know about this. So, there's nowhere to hide, you know, the information. You have it or you don't.

Ric Shields (06:15):

Well things changed pretty quickly for you at Indiana University. You began to publish some of your research. You pioneered some new techniques. You won the Student of the Year award after this <laugh>, after this initial exam score of 26%. But it looked like you were going to have an illustrious career there, but something happened to alter that course for you.

William Ranahan (06:37):

Yeah. So, after starting off as a research tech and then failing the first round of exams, I went to the director of the program and I said, "Listen, I didn't study for these exams." And he said, "No kidding."

Ric Shields (06:50):

He said, "Really." <laugh>.

William Ranahan (06:52):

So, I was like, "Okay, but the point is if you let me stay in the program, I will study and I will do well."

Ric Shields (06:58):

I promise.

William Ranahan (06:58):

Yes. And he said, "Whatever."

(07:00):

He looked at me in the face and he said, "You have great hands. I mean you can generate data and get published. That's awesome, right? But you don't have what it takes to be a PhD. So just go back to being a tech." And I said, "Thank you very much for that information. I'm going to stay in the program."

(07:16):

So I basically was humbled. I went back to God and said, "I'm yours. I have no wisdom of my own, but I am yours. So, whatever you want to do." And as I was working in the silence in the monotony of molecular biology labs I just started talking to God and he started to "Wait, why don't you try that? Why don't you try this?" And I'll be like, "Oh yeah, that's a good idea." I didn't really think much of it.

(07:40):

And then I started doing it and it worked. And so, we were able to develop new techniques and we were able to identify a new onco-gene and just some really big exciting stuff. So, by my third year in grad school, I had published in a top journal and I had won every award you can win. I won not just the department's like Student of the Year award, but I was in competitions, Sigma Xi, which is the National Graduate Research Competition. And just on and on it goes. That opened up some remarkable opportunities for us. And we shot for the moon. We basically said, "Okay, we have a once in a lifetime opportunity here. I'm interested in breast cancer. Let's, let's try to get my job set up with the most famous breast cancer researcher on the planet." And so, her name is Mina Bissell and she is at UC Berkeley.

(08:34):

And she's so famous she doesn't even accept awards. So, for two years we worked to get her to come and she finally agreed. And so, this was my opportunity to solidify my career and join a world famous breast cancer researcher whose original discoveries I had been working on and developing, which is why I think she was interested. So, this was my golden opportunity to pursue the research career.

(08:59):

Remember God told me when I was 18 to go to ORU and then get a PhD. And he didn't give me any directions after that. So, I assumed that this was it, that I was supposed to become a researcher and listen for his voice and be a famous breast cancer researcher

Ric Shields (09:15):

And perhaps stay right there at Indiana University.

William Ranahan (09:17):

Yeah.

Ric Shields (09:18):

The door was certainly open.

William Ranahan (09:19):

Yeah.

Ric Shields (09:19):

I know this, you had no intention of moving back to Oklahoma, but there was a time you said you felt called to apply for an open position at ORU. Tell us about that sense of feeling called. What was that like?

William Ranahan (09:34):

Terrible. I had one plan in mind. I had been working so hard in that direction. I'd been killing myself six, seven days a week, 70 hours, 80 hours a week. I mean like all in for this research career.

(09:46):

And my wife and I have learned that obedience is the only thing that matters. That's it. Our great commandment is to love God. You know, you love God if you obey him. And Jesus learned obedience through the things he suffered. And so, we were learning obedience through the suffering in grad school. And so, we knew that obedience is all that matters.

(10:09):

My old advisor at ORU was going to be a missionary in Australia. And so, I reached out to her and been like, "I heard you're going to Australia. What's, what are you doing?" You know, and she's like, "God called. We say, yes."

(10:21):

She had a great career here. Her husband had a great career. They were very well off. They just left it. And she said, "You should look at the job offer that's out there." And I read the description. I got the chills because they were looking for me. I mean, it was clear. And I got the, you know, and my nephew was standing behind me and I looked at him and I said, "They're looking for me." And then I went to my wife and I said, "I think ORU is looking for me." And we laughed because I left in 2005. This university was going down, it was not going to be around. And I was like, "That's a joke. We're never going back to Oklahoma." But we prayed and the next morning my wife and I looked at each other and said, "Oh my gosh, we have to apply for this position."

(11:04):

But it gets way crazier because as the position developed, I applied. I looked at, we did interviews, we did all the preliminary stuff. And it came time for me to fly out to ORU to interview to do a job talk and to actually. Okay, the day ORU picked to fly me out here for the job talk interview was the day Mina Bissell was coming to my lab at IU.

Ric Shields (11:33):

The one that you had worked so hard, this world renowned researcher, you'd worked so hard to get her to come there. I mean, you're going to be the host, but you're not.

William Ranahan (11:44):

So, I had to have a committee meeting. My advisor stood up and screamed that I was out of my "f---ing" mind.

Ric Shields (11:50):

Yeah.

William Ranahan (11:50):

That I was throwing my PhD away. The director, my committee director who decides if I graduate or not, by the way, he looked at me and he said, "If you wanted to teach, why did you do this crazy research program?" And I looked at him and I said, "I didn't know I wanted to teach."

(12:09):

This is not my life. This is his. I'm surrendered. So, I don't need to know what I'm doing or, or what I want to do. I need to know to be obedient to God. And of course I can't tell that to the committee.

Ric Shields (12:25):

Sure. But well, you could but you would not be graduating with a PhD.

William Ranahan (12:28):

Yeah. You're not graduating. Yeah.

(12:29):

So instead of meeting Mina Bissell, I was flying to Oklahoma to interview for a teaching position.

Ric Shields (12:38):

As an assistant professor.

William Ranahan (12:40):

Which means

Ric Shields (12:40):

It gets a little lower. You could be an adjunct faculty member. I was.

William Ranahan (12:42):

But the salary difference was shocking. Yes. And the career trajectory is completely different.

Ric Shields (12:51):

Yes.

William Ranahan (12:51):

You're not doing research if you go to a non-research institute. It's the end of your career. I again, had to die and just let it go because God called us here and thank God, we got a job offer <laugh>.

Ric Shields (13:06):

Yeah. Because, because there was going to be nothing left.

William Ranahan (13:09):

There was nothing left there. So yeah.

Ric Shields (13:11):

You're listening to the DoorWays® Ministry Network podcast. My name is Ric Shields and I'm joined on this episode with Dr. William Ranahan, Professor of Biology at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

(13:25):

So essentially, you were on track to become a prominent name in the field of cancer research when you believe the Holy Spirit led you to come to Oral Roberts University to become a professor at your alma mater. Now, did you really take into consideration the possibility that you were laying down a dream and a call as a research scientist to become an assistant professor?

William Ranahan (13:50):

Yeah. It was a death because on one hand you have California...

Ric Shields (13:57):

Yeah. That hand <laugh>

William Ranahan (13:58):

And, and a set research career that would be phenomenal. On the other hand, I was thinking of ORU from 2005. I was thinking of a dilapidated, not well organized non-research.

Ric Shields (14:13):

Underfunded,

William Ranahan (14:14):

Underfunded. And we were in the basement and it was the saddest. And you're going to have a small group of students. You're not going to do research, you're just going to teach. I had absolutely no training in teaching it.

(14:28):

It felt like God was being mean to me. He was telling me to go do this. And then he is like, "yeah, now chuck it." Almost like, "take your son, your only son and go ahead and murder him for me. Just because I feel like it." So, I struggled for like six months with depression just because I'd worked so hard for so long and I just had to let it go and receive his joy, the joy that was there for what was asking me to do.

(14:52):

There's no question in my mind that that was the end of my research career. And I had to let it go. I had to let go of all the ideas of being famous or wealthy or anything like that because if you're going to come here, you're going to be a servant. You're going to be poor and you're going to be a servant. And you just have to embrace that. And if you can, and if you can find God's joy in it, it turns out that's all you need.

Ric Shields (15:16):

Mm mm

William Ranahan (15:16):

It turns out nothing else matters.

Ric Shields (15:18):

You know, some would say that God has a sense of humor. I would say that God has a remarkable way of using the unusual to accomplish the impossible. One of the long-term themes at ORU is "Make No Little Plans Here." And few people may realize that it was Oral Robert's dream to bring faith and medicine together at ORU in order, really specifically in order, to find a cure for cancer. And currently you are doing some groundbreaking cancer research. I don't want to steal your thunder here but give us an idea of what's happening in your research lab today.

William Ranahan (15:55):

Shortly after I got here, the dean came because we had a new administration that came in. And they found a, a tiny bit of money to do some research. And so, the dean came and said, "Hey, we have a few thousand dollars for you to do some research." And I was like, "well, that's more than I was expecting. Sure." So great.

(16:13):

And then God dropped an idea in my head. Now when I was in grad school and I started to listen for his voice I grew this ability to kind of sense when he was talking. It feels different when it's God. I feel a sense of peace and comfort and joy when those ideas come. And so, I was here driving to school and the idea came to me to try to use mushrooms, to train mushrooms, medical mushrooms to live on just cancer cells. And the idea was that they could produce compounds that could selectively kill cancer cells and, and that we could use instead of chemo. Because chemo's a lot like gasoline, it kills all of your cells. And it's non-selective, so it makes you very, very ill. And I thought that idea was totally bonkers.

Ric Shields (17:04):

Yeah. It's like, we're going to kill you so that we can cure you.

William Ranahan (17:07):

Yeah. Well, if you're going to die, let's just see if we can give you this poison and then see if we can get another six, eight months of life out of it. You know, it's not a real solution. Yeah. And I've had many family members and people I know and love suffer like that.

(17:21):

But the idea that came to me made no sense. I don't know anything about mushrooms. I don't like mushrooms. I think they're squishy and gross. But then I started looking into it and it turns out that one of the most popular chemotherapeutics came from a mushroom; Taxol.

(17:36):

And in first world countries like Japan, their five year survival rates are way better than ours. And I started to look into it. They use mushrooms as a standard adjuvant therapy when they treat cancer. For instance, gastric cancer, their survival rates are two or three times better than ours. In the United States, one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast ovarian cancer. In Japan, it's one in 38. We're doing something wrong here.

(18:01):

So, we had this idea and there was no money for it, so I didn't even bother writing it up. I was just like, "whatever, there's no money." That week President Wilson announced that there is a fund for research for faculty; $150,000 for all the faculty to divide up. So, then I had to write a grant and I did the work, I wrote the grant, but I needed $52,500, which was a third of the total amount.

Ric Shields (18:30):

And everybody would've been very happy to let you have a third of that. Yeah. So that they could starve with the rest.

William Ranahan (18:35):

Yeah, I would've been murdered. Yeah.

Ric Shields (18:37):

Yes, you would've.

William Ranahan (18:39):

So I write the grant. I give it to the dean and I say, "Look, I know that I'm asking for a stupid amount of this money." And I, and he can vouch. I said, "I think it's a God thing. I think it's a God idea. So, if ORU doesn't get behind this, I think God's just going to make a way. He's not limited by our limitations. This, this much I know."

(18:59):

So, while I'm waiting for the grant to be rejected, I have a student,

Ric Shields (19:04):

<Laugh> While you're waiting for the grant to be rejected. Now that is a statement of faith, the likes of which we don't often hear at ORU. <Laugh>.

William Ranahan (19:12):

So, I'm waiting for the grant to hear back. And a student comes in and she says, "I'm looking for research projects to boost my resume before I go to medical school. What do you have going?" And I was like, "well, I've got these little piddly projects, but really I'm waiting on a grant for this other crazy project." And she was like, "Ooh, that sounds great."

(19:32):

And so, I told her about it. She got all excited and I was like, okay, if the grant gets funded, I will let you know. She's like, great. So, she's like, how do I get ready for that? And I was like, well just read up on mushrooms. You know, I gave her a bunch of stuff.

(19:47):

So, she went home all excited, told her dad, and her dad's like, "That sounds great. When do you start?" And she said, "Well, we're just waiting on a grant." And he's like, "no, you're not. What do you need?" And that man, without me asking or meeting him or anything, he wrote a check for $52,500 for the exact amount we needed. And that's how we did the work.

(20:08):

The next, okay. So that's, that's crazy, right?

Ric Shields (20:11):

Yes.

William Ranahan (20:12):

So, I got the check and I'm freaking out because now it's real. Now I have to do this. Now it's not just a crazy idea, pie in the sky. God has landed this one. And I'm like, okay, "God, there's a lot of mushrooms out there and I don't know anything about any of them." So, I started doing research. I came up with a list of like 25, and I'm like, "God, you have to help me. I don't know."

Ric Shields (20:36):

Now how many species of mushrooms are there?

William Ranahan (20:38):

Thousands. Most of them are not even identified yet.

Ric Shields (20:41):

And they're dangerous.

William Ranahan (20:42):

Yes.

Ric Shields (20:43):

If you eat some mushrooms, you could

William Ranahan (20:45):

Yes.

Ric Shields (20:45):

You could die or get really sick.

William Ranahan (20:47):

Yeah.

Ric Shields (20:48):

So, you had to find out which were the good ones.

William Ranahan (20:50):

Yeah. And again, I didn't know. I knew which ones had been used historically as medicine, but I was like, I, we have no budget. Like we're, we're not, this is a one-off where we have to show proof of principle. So how do I do this? Yeah.

Ric Shields (21:02):

We could send some of the students out to start chewing on them and see which ones come back.

William Ranahan (21:07):

Oh yeah. ORU would love that. Thats not a problem.

Ric Shields (21:08):

Yeah, that would be good, wouldn't it?

William Ranahan (21:10):

I'm sitting in my office having a new low point,

Ric Shields (21:12):

A new low point! <laugh>

William Ranahan (21:14):

I am. A student comes in, she's like, "what are you doing?" I'm like, "I'm praying about mushrooms." Like I envision myself as a real scientist, you know, not a shaman, not a not a witch doctor. You know what I mean? I'm not a snake oil salesman.

Ric Shields (21:28):

The real deal. Yeah.

William Ranahan (21:29):

Right. And I'm praying about mushrooms. And she looks at me and she says, "Oh, did you know I'm named after a mushroom?" And, and God just said, "this is it.” Her name is Linh Chi Lai, and translated that is "Reishi." And that's how we picked ganoderma lucidum. That's Reishi. So literally Lin Chi is why we picked Reishi.

(21:54):

I didn't ask for the money, it just popped. I didn't ask for the idea, that just dropped. I didn't even know what mushroom. God just brought the person. And within six weeks we had trained ganoderma lucidum to live on just cancer cells. And we've captured a compound that selectively kills it.

Ric Shields (22:11):

Not only selectively captured this, you have a patent for this stuff.

William Ranahan (22:15):

Mm-Hmm.

Ric Shields (22:16):

You applied for a patent and received that.

William Ranahan (22:18):

Yeah. It's a process. No one's ever done this before. We trained the Mycelia, we took away their normal food source and started to introduce them slowly to cancer. And they began producing products. So, we actually have five different mushroom species right now that we've already established. We know we've, we got it. And then we're still working on the other 20. So, we have a process that we can generate so we can match the mushroom to the cancer type, and then get you a unique product.

Ric Shields (22:49):

So different mushrooms treat different cancer types?

William Ranahan (22:51):

So far, ganoderma lucidum, Reishi, can hit anything we throw at it. It just so happens we "luckily" picked the one that works the best.

Ric Shields (23:02):

Wow.

William Ranahan (23:02):

We have yet to find a cancer type that we cannot kill with that mushroom

Ric Shields (23:06):

Kinda sounds like a divine intervention.

William Ranahan (23:08):

Just probably a huge accident. Right? Just

Ric Shields (23:10):

Right.

William Ranahan (23:10):

Just a series of accidents. Lucky coincidence. Let's call it that.

Ric Shields (23:14):

Absolutely. Yeah.

(23:16):

I once heard you say that early on in your research, you stumbled across an abstract or an article from a researcher. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> at the former City of Faith. You remember that article? And did that encourage you or did it help you to take a different track in your research?

William Ranahan (23:31):

Like all things God gives you what you need when you need it. So, I had just decided on Reishi. You have to understand how insane that is because I like, I'm a researcher, I want data, I want reproducible data. With "p" values. A student walking in and telling you her name is not a scientific way to pick a mushroom.

Ric Shields (23:48):

It's mushroom. “My name is Mushroom.”

William Ranahan (23:50):

Yeah.

Ric Shields (23:50):

Yeah.

William Ranahan (23:51):

So, I still had a lot of anxiety about it. And so, I started researching Reishi. It turns out the Chinese have used it for thousands of years. They call it the mushroom of immortality. Probably just a coincidence.

(24:03):

I, in my research, I came across this book called the Fungal Pharmacy. So, you can Google it. It's on Amazon Fungal Pharmacy. And in that, if you look at Ganoderma lucidum, there's a paragraph in there that says that the research was mostly done in Asia. And they said, "well, it's not just in Asia. Researchers at Oral Roberts University School of Pharmacology have shown that ganoderma lucidum is actually wildly good for heart health. It, it can regulate blood pressure and blood sugar." And they were investigating that in the 1980s over in Citiplex. I had no idea. But you understand Oral in 1983 said that a cure was going to come out and he built those buildings.

Ric Shields (24:49):

Yeah.

William Ranahan (24:49):

They were actually working on the mushroom at that point. And then it disappeared.

Ric Shields (24:56):

Any idea how long it may take before there can be some clinical trials that take place based on your research?

William Ranahan (25:03):

I don't know if we're ever going to do clinical trials because this is a naturally occurring substance. And so according to our federal drug administration, it's not a drug and it's a dietary supplement. And so, what the next steps are to get this in mice to figure out concentration and efficacy en vivo, and then maybe a small scale human trial.

(25:27):

 But we don't need to do the big clinical trials because it's just coming from nature. We haven't modified this at all. This is just from mushrooms. You can, you can think about it as a mushroom extract. You can buy mushroom extracts on Amazon. Right now. We're that close to getting it out.

Ric Shields (25:44):

I like stuffed mushrooms, like mushrooms on my pizza and my salad. I like sauteed mushrooms on my steak and hamburgers. Any of that helping me at all?

William Ranahan (25:52):

It is. The mushrooms...

Ric Shields (25:53):

Really?

William Ranahan (25:53):

Yes. The mushrooms themselves.

Ric Shields (25:55):

Oh man, am I happy!

William Ranahan (25:57):

I know, I know. I don't want to admit it, but the mushrooms,

Ric Shields (26:00):

I thought you were going to tell me fat chance Rick.

William Ranahan (26:02):

Nope. The mushrooms have polysaccharides. So, these are complex sugars. Don't think of sugar like sweet sugar. Think of it as just structure. So, these polysaccharides are used by your immune system to recognize foreign invaders and help educate your immune system. So, eating mushrooms in general boosts your immune system.

(26:22):

But these mushrooms that we're studying also do additional things. They just don't do them at a high concentration. So, you have to eat a lot of it. Right. So what we're doing is figuring out how to pull out just the bits that do cancer, just the bits that, do you know what I mean? Sure. And then putting that in a pill and or a powder and just giving that to you so that you can just eat it. We're expecting this to be orally delivered as a food.

Ric Shields (26:49):

Dr. Ranahan, this is pretty fascinating. It really is. I wonder, would you be comfortable praying for people that are looking for answers and for whatever reason they're not finding them? Mm. Would you pray that God would help them to be able to listen, to hear, that he would speak in a way that would make sense to them and that they could have a divine intervention in their situation too?

William Ranahan (27:15):

Yeah. Yeah. Let's pray.

Ric Shields (27:16):

Great.

William Ranahan (27:18):

Father, we welcome your presence here. You are wanted. Wherever two more gathered you're there. For those listening, I plead the love of Jesus over them. I pray that your Holy Spirit would become present to them. I pray that you would give eyes that see and ears that hear.

(27:39):

Father, I thank you that you are not holding back. You have given us everything. Forgive us Father, because we have turned away. So right now, we turn back, we lift up our eyes, we open up our hearts to receive what you have for us. We believe that you have revelation to give us. We believe that you have yourself to share with us, goodness, and hope, and joy.

(28:08):

So, I thank you for those listening, Father, that your Holy Spirit, your joy, your flame of joy would once again rest on them. God, I thank you for opening up hearts and minds. I thank you that you're building your kingdom on earth and you have invited your sons and daughters to take part. So right now, we say yes, that we would relinquish our rights to ourselves, that we would lay down our own agendas, that we'd stop trying to build our own kingdoms. And we would just say yes and accept the kingdom that you've given us, and the role that you have for us to play in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Ric Shields (28:51):

Who knew the Holy Spirit could be welcomed into a laboratory? And not only welcome, but the professor's, research assistants and students actually believe the spirit will give them guidance in how to find answers and unlock new methodologies to combat cancer and other diseases.

(29:08):

You know, divine interventions are not limited to laboratories. If you need answers to tough situations or circumstances, you should know the Holy Spirit is not far away or hiding around the corner waiting to be discovered. Instead, just like God spoke to the prophet Jeremiah; I like this paraphrase of Jeremiah 33 verse three from the message Bible, it says, "Call to me and I will answer you. I'll tell you marvelous and wondrous things that you could never figure out on your own."

(29:42):

I hope you were encouraged by Dr. Ranahan's story. I'd like to hear what you think. Send me an email at info at doorways dot cc. And while you're at it, let me know if the content we're providing is helpful to you and maybe even take the opportunity to suggest something you'd like us to discuss.

(29:58):

Until next week, may the Lord's blessings rest on you, your family, and on those you love.