Take Advantages Of Your Advantages

A whole lot of people go through life struggling unnecessarily. Are you one of those people?

And the reason I know that a.

Lot of people do this is because.

I was one of those people for years. I had resources that I could have been using, but because I lacked resourcefulness, I did not use them. And on this video, I'm going to.

Show you how you can take advantage of your advantages.

And so the first advantage that I have is the fact that I'm made.

In the image of God, and I know it.

That is an advantage. Like me being made in the image of God and knowing that I'm made in the image of God and that I'm not a higher form of animal. That is an advantage over people who think they evolved from a lower life form. Why? Because.

I have a perfect. I have a perfect.

Image that I'm working on becoming more like.

They only have an imperfect image that they're coming from.

And so it's really fascinating. Like, if you look at the word for man in Genesis chapter one, and God made man in his image, that word man is the word.

It's the word. Aleph Dalid mem.

Right?

So God made man in his image. Now, when God made man in his image.

The aleph is the part that that letter in Hebrew represents God. It's the beginning of Elohim el Shaddai.

It's like the first letter. So God is first. It means the strength of the ox. God is the strong one.

So this represents God. Right. But if you take the letters dalid mem, it spells the word blood.

And we know that the life of the what? The life of the flesh is in the blood. The life of the flesh is in the blood. So now, because I know how the word man is spelled in Hebrew, I know what a man is.

A man is a godlike creator or creation with flesh and blood. An animal is not a godlike creation with flesh and blood. What is an animal? An animal is a b he ma. What's a bahema? Bahema means in it is what it is.

That's what it is. In it is what it is. That's the word for an animal, a beast, and in it is what it is. In other words, it cannot become more. It can only be what it is. It can't be any more. Well, that's another reason we know there's no such thing as evolution, because bahema and it is what it is. Some of you are old enough to remember a horse is a horse is a horse, of course.

And anyway, so, Mr. Ed. Anyway, so.

But you can spell like this word Adam if you put so. So Hebrew is so interesting because it doesn't have any vowels. It just has. It has accents that are called nakud. And so you put these accents under the letters, Right?

And.

So you put these accents under the letters. It might be like. And so A and.

De. And then if this. Adam. And so this might be like Adam.

No, that would actually not be there.

There might not be one under there.

So it would be Adam. Adam. Okay, cool.

And I don't know that this is right. This could be. This could. It could be Adam. But I'd have to go look at it to see exactly what the marks are under there. But I'm just saying, depending on whether it's. Depending on whether the mark under the letter looks like this or the mark looks like two dots or the mark looks like three dots or the mark looks like one dot, it's going to.

Make the letter have a different sound. Right.

So you can actually put marks under this. So it spells a totally different word. It spells the word adama. What does adame mean? Adame means to become like.

To become like.

What does that mean? That means as an Adam, as a man. Man or a woman, because God called their name Adam. Our job is to make this part of us become more like that part of us. And this part of us is in.

Charge of this part of us.

And see, as someone who's made in the image of God, I have an advantage over someone who thinks they evolved from a lower life form. So that's my first advantage. How is that an advantage? Well, because God made everything out of nothing. Now I don't have the ability to make things out of nothing. But because I'm not God, I'm like God, but I'm not God. I'm restricted. Blah. This part of me is limitless, but this part of me is limited. And so I can only make God like God because he's God. He could make things out of nothing. But I can't make things out of nothing. But what I can do is I can get nothing that is something, which is like if this is me, I can get a nothing that is a something in the form of an idea in my head. What color is an idea?

Depends on the idea.

How much does an idea weigh? Doesn't weigh anything. What does it feel like? What's the texture of an idea? So an idea is a nothing. That's a something. So I can take this thing in my head and then I can use My flesh and blood, to turn this idea into an implementation, into an invention. Is what I'm saying making sense into an instrument. I can use the idea and turn it into something. Oh, I wonder if I took this, this, this, this, and this, put them together, shaved some of that off of there, added some of this to that, put them together. I wonder if I can make one of these. And that's why we have all of this stuff, because. So here's why. It's important to understand that there's a difference between a man and an animal. Because a horse can only do what.

A horse could do. The first day a horse got here.

How does a horse get around? It can walk, it can trot, it can gallop, or it can swim, or.

It can ride with a human. How does. How does a human get around?

We can walk, we can skip, we.

Can walk on our hands, we could scoot, we could run, we could.

Back flips, front flips, cartwheels. And if we get tired of that, we can make a skateboard. If we get tired of that, we.

Can make a bicycle.

If we get tired of that, we can make a car. We get tired of that, we can make a plane. We get tired of that, we can make a jet. We get tired of that, we can make a rocket.

Because human beings are the only things God created that can make their experience of life exponentially better over time.

Are y' all tracking?

And it's really interesting, like, if you watch animals, animals mature really fast. You know, horse is born, it's walking.

In a couple of minutes.

Human beings, we take sometimes a year and a half, two years.

You know, we just.

We take our time, right?

Why?

Well, maybe where the horse is going isn't that important.

But where the people are going is very important.

So me being made in the image of God is an advantage over people.

Who think that they're made, that they.

Evolved from a lower life form. But, I mean, if that was all, that'd be a great advantage.

But it's not all. I also have the advantage.

I have the word of God. That is an advantage. I have an advantage over people who don't believe the word of God, who don't believe the Bible is the word of God. I have an advantage. And so if I've got that advantage, I might as well take advantage of it. If I have this advantage, I might as well take advantage of it, right? So I've got that advantage. I might as well take advantage of those advantages. I'm made in the image of God. What does that mean? Well, let's talk about that before I get to the next one. Because the word of God tells us. Y' all have heard me talk about the four levels of value, right? The four levels of value. The lowest level of value is implementation. The next level is unification. The next level is communication. The next level is. Where did I get that from? I got that from Genesis chapter one. And people think, how many all ever wondered, where's that at in Genesis chapter one? Anybody ever wondered that?

Right?

Okay, so here it is. It says, Genesis chapter one, verse 26. And God said, let us make man in our image.

And God said, let us make man in our image.

Well, that's an interesting thing, because if God said.

God said.

Let us make man in our image. So God said it.

Okay, that's communication.

But if he said, let us make man in our image, the image had to exist first.

Oh, so this is God.

That's the image.

An image.

The root word is imagine.

The root word for imagination is image.

But God didn't say, let me make man in my image.

He said, let us make man in our image.

That's the unification.

Are y' all tracking? And then In Genesis chapter 2, verse 7, it says, the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground.

Oh, he formed man.

That's implementation.

Are y' all tracking now? Here's what's really cool, though. Here's what's really cool, I said. And I said this yesterday. Genesis chapter one could have been Genesis chapter one, verse one.

But it wasn't. Why? Why did God say in the beginning, God created heaven and earth? Then he started going in all this detail. And the earth was without form and void and darkness upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light. And there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good. Why is he doing all of that? He already told us he created everything because he wanted us to know more than that. He created everything. He wanted us to know how he created everything. Why? Because we're made in his image, which means he made us to make stuff, and he created us to create stuff. So he didn't just create stuff. He created stuff and then told us how he created it so we could have a pattern. When we get ready to create something, we have a pattern to follow.

That's an advantage. I know. It doesn't matter what I'm gonna create. I have a pattern for creating that thing. What is that pattern?

I don't have time to do the whole thing right now.

But while I'm chasing rabbits, I might as well get one.

So what is the pattern? The pattern is all creation begins with intention.

In fact, I'm gonna move this over. All creation begins with intention, right? Intention. And then what happens? Disruption follows intention. Disruption.

Man, I write so fast, sometimes disruption follows intention. And the earth was that word. Was is the word became. So what does that tell us when we get ready to create something, when we intend to do something good, when we intend to change our life, when we intend to take our lives to the next level? The first thing that shows up is not a victory. The first thing that shows up is not a paycheck. The first thing that shows up is difficulty. The first thing that shows up is disorder. What does it say? And the earth was. It became without form and void and darkness upon the face of the deep. So what does disruption look like? It looks like deformity. The earth was without form. It looks like devoidness. It was empty. The earth was void. And then it looks like darkness. What does darkness represent? Confusion, fear, anxiety, disorientation. And so that's what shows up as soon as you set a new good. Intention. Don't be shocked when disruption shows up. Like, why should you get to opt out of disruption? God went through it when he created the heaven and the earth, God himself went through disruption. It followed intention.

And then you look at all the Bible characters, they went through it, right? Look at Joseph. Joseph has a dream. There's the intention.

Then what happens? His brothers sell him into slavery. They throw him in a pit, right? Then the Midianites come, take him out, and then they sell him in slavery in Egypt. And then Potiphar's wife tries to seduce him. He says, I ain't doing that. God's watching me. Ain't nobody in the house, but somebody's above the house. I ain't doing that. And he ran out of the house. And Potiphar's wife lied on him. And he went to prison for a crime he didn't commit.

Why?

Because sometimes your dreams will drag you through some drama on the way to your destiny.

Disruption always follows intention.

David.

Samuel anoints David to be king. What happens now? Saul puts out a contract on his life, and he spends years running from Saul. Even Jesus himself, when he was baptized in Jordan by John the Baptist. He comes up out of the water, the heavens open. There's a voice from heaven that says, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. You know what the next word is immediately, I wonder what happened immediately he was led of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And you think you're going to set a new good intention and everything's going to be hunky dory, all roses, no thorns. You are confused.

God gave us a pattern.

Why? Because he doesn't. God does not desire for us to quit when the disruption follows our intention.

Mary, why does disruption have to follow intention? Well, Jim Rohn would say why?

Why? What is this why?

Right, like, but why?

Because the disruption that follows intention is the thing that happens that makes you strong enough to stay there when you get there.

And if you don't go through the.

Disruption that follows intention, you won't be strong enough to stay there when you get there. You got to go through something to.

Get to something and then stay at that something.

You're to.

But most people think, oh my, I decided to start a business. It's not working. That's a sign from the Lord that I shouldn't be doing this. Well, maybe it's a sign from the Lord that you need to get better at that hashtag.

Just saying.

And then what? The spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. There's some inspiration.

God said, let there be light. Oh, that's some illumination. Need to learn something that I didn't know before. The disruption followed my intention. And then we have separation and we have segmentation to completion and then we have delegation and I'm not gonna, I don't have time to go through all of them. Go read Genesis chapter one a little slower.

I always like to say, you know.

Too many people treat the Bible like an interstate. They need to treat it more like a school zone. Slow down so some learning can take place.

Okay, you'll get that one on the way home.

Alright, so.

Understand being made in the image of God and knowing it is.

An advantage over people who think they've evolved from a lower life form.

And I know I'll get comments on.

My YouTube video that'll want to argue with that. Thank you for the comment.

Thank you for sharing.

Okay, so the second advantage we have.

Is we have the word of God.

The Bible is the word of God. I've been testing it for decades.

It works.

So let me help you understand where.

I'm coming from when I say this.

I came to Christ when I was 16, almost 17 years old. It was like a month before my 17th birthday. Shortly after that, the friend of mine who led me to Christ, he said, now you need to start reading the Bible. I am not exaggerating. I was literally horrified because I was 17 years old and had never read a book in my life other than a comic book or karate book. I didn't like reading because reading made me feel less than. Because when we were in school, teachers would make kids read in front of the class.

I'd be reading stuff that wasn't there, not reading stuff that was there.

Other kids would be laughing. My eyes would be chasing those words across the page saying, sit still.

I'm trying to read you.

You know, it's just like. It's like my. My brain just has always moved faster than my eyes. So reading was. Has always been hard for me.

Really, really hard. Still really hardly hard.

Like, I have to now. When I listen to binaural beats when.

I'm reading, it's easier. Like, so I have Brain fm, the Brain FM app. Any of y' all ever heard of binaural beats?

Like, Brain fm? So I listen to Brain FM for.

Study and concentration when I'm reading, and it makes. It helps me read. It helps me focus better. So my eyes. My brain's not just all over the place.

And I don't believe that's ADD either.

I mean, I'm gonna. So I believe it's eca, that some people who didn't have ECA dubbed as ADD say eca.

I've never heard of that. What's that eca?

It's called Extra Creative ability.

And because I have extra creative ability, people who were boring thought I had ADD because I didn't want to pay attention to them. I didn't want to pay attention to them because they were boring.

If you'd be more interesting, I'd pay attention to you. I'm just saying, right? So anyway.

Anyway, so I wasn't good at reading. And he said, you need to start reading Bible.

And I'm like that big, thick book with the two columns, little bitty words and no pictures.

Yep, that's the one. Well, I'm not going to play with God.

If I got to read the Bible, if that's what this new thing is, then that's what I'm going to do.

And I started reading the Bible when.

I was 17 years old. I said, where should I start reading?

He said, start reading in Proverbs. I started reading in Proverbs. I found a verse in Proverbs that.

I said, I'm gonna put this one.

To the test, see if this works. And it says a soft. I think it's for Proverbs 15:1 a soft answer turneth away wrath. But grievous words stir up anger. So I've got six brothers.

We had a lot of wrath. Can I get a witness? We had a lot of wrath going on. It didn't even matter. We didn't need a reason to have wrath.

We just, like, we're brothers, we have wrath.

Right?

Okay. We don't have wrath anymore, but we did when we were kids. And so I remember. I'm gonna test this and see if it's true. And I remember one of my brothers came in one day and I did something. Clearly I had done something that I shouldn't have done to him.

And he's like, man.

And I said, and I'm thinking to myself, I'm gonna test this Bible verse. I was like, oh, wow, wow. I'm sorry that I did that. Yeah, yeah, I'll make it. I'll make sure I don't let that happen again. Yeah, I really do apologize. Sorry about that, bro. Okay. And it just like totally de. Escalated. And he walked out of the room. I was like, that was so cool.

That was so cool.

Then I found another verse about giving and tithing. And I'm like, okay, I'll do that.

And then all of a sudden, I.

Remember there was one summer and I was. I had a job.

I had jobs.

Summertime during the school year, I liked having money, so.

And the only way I knew to have money when I was a teenager.

Was get a job. So I had a job. And so.

There'S one summer there were no jobs. There was no summer jobs in Harrisburg. I had three jobs that summer. I had three jobs. Nobody could find a job. But I said, I'm gonna honor God with my life.

And I'm telling you, it's mind blowing.

How many situations I've applied the word.

Of God to in my life.

I remember.

Back in 2000, 2005, I think was my first million dollar year. Maybe 2005 or 2006. I think 2005 was my first million dollar year. 2006, another million dollar year. 2007, another million dollar year. 2008.

Hit a little hiccup, right.

And they created the Great Recession.

And I didn't participate in it, but some of my clients did.

People who owed me a lot of.

Money got abducted by aliens.

Say, how do I know they got abducted by aliens?

Because I've never seen them since.

Right, right. It had to be aliens.

Okay.

And it just went into a downward spiral, actually. In 2007, my oldest son was in a car accident. He passed away four days later, which was like devastating.

Then 2008, they created the Great Recession. 2009.

My income started going way down. So I started doing the thing that I got started in something I knew.

I could do to make money.

I started doing multi level marketing because I was good at it. And in four months started making like 40,000amonth within four months with a network marketing company. And then people in the company started wanting me to teach them how I did what I did. So I started making another 100,000amonth teaching people in the company how to do what I was doing and things were going good and then the company changed the product and then the whole thing went kapui. Which is why I don't do multi level marketing anymore. I'm not saying it's bad. I mean, I know I've got friends who've been in a multi level marketing company for decades and they're still making a boatload of money. So I mean their version of a boatload of money, you know, 60, 70, 80, 90,000amonth.

Good, decent money.

And so that went down. Then 2010, I got audited by the IRS.

And that was four months after my accountant moved to Australia.

In 2011, my mom passed away. And then 2012, I had to sell my million dollar house on a short sale and lost like four hundred and something thousand dollars and had to borrow money from friends and family to move from Pennsylvania to Florida in January of 2013. I am so deflated at this time. I'm like.

As I said, we're going to work again. I don't even know if I want to do it again. The IRS came back and gave me a final determination. Told me I owed him a million, 65,000. I couldn't have even given him 65,000, let alone a million, 65,000.

Couldn't have given him 6,500.

Like it just, everything just kind of went away.

And I can remember and I know y' all probably get tired hearing this, but it's surreal. More than one time, sitting on my back porch, crying on my wife's shoulder.

I don't know, I can't make it work.

That was 2014. That was nine years ago. 2015, I joined Russell Brunson's inner circle. I just, I got in an environment that introduced me to my real self again.

And people who were making way more money than me saw value in my ideas. I'm like, this is fascinating. And I realized for the first time in my life that my biggest entrepreneurial problem didn't Even feel like a problem to me. And that is.

All this time I've been serving and selling to the wrong people.

Okay, cool. I'll change my messaging so it appeals to these people. In 2017, had my first seven figure year since 2007.

Right. But the other thing that happened in 2015, that was paramount. And I can remember having this conversation with my brother. Two things. I said, bro, I just came through seven years of famine.

I'm about to come into seven years of blessing. I'm telling you, it's about to happen. Like, I could feel it. I don't. And I know that doesn't make any sense.

Like, but I could just feel it.

I'm like, there's a shift taking place and I'm going to. And then I found King Solomon's business model.

In First Kings, chapter 3, First Kings, chapter 4, First Kings, chapter 9. I'm sorry. First Kings, chapter 10, 2 Chronicles, chapter 9. And I said, oh, my goodness.

How did I never see this before? The Bible says that God gave Solomon wisdom, exceeding much.

And he was wiser than all men. And his prosperity and his wisdom.

No, his.

It says his. His prosperity, his riches, and his wisdom exceeded all the kings of the earth. Like, that's interesting. All the kings. All of them.

Then I started naming them. I'm like, okay.

I said, I'm gonna do what he did.

Some of you are probably wondering, well.

What did he do?

I'm going to tell you, I'm not going to leave that part out. You got to go study it for yourself. But this is what I saw. I saw number one. He was a consultant to his contemporaries. King Solomon consulted other monarchs, other kings and queens.

I don't know if y' all remember when Solomon. So.

When God woke Solomon up.

When he was in Gibeon, he said, ask what I shall give thee. Solomon said, give me a wise and understanding heart that I might discern judgment. Okay, cool. God said, I'm going to give you what you asked for.

And Solomon asked for it for the right reason.

He said, because who is able to judge this thy so great people.

He said, I want you to give.

Me the wisdom to do the thing you put me here to do in a way that pleases you and serves the people you put me here to serve. That's what his prayer was. God said, okay, I'm gonna give you what you asked for, but I'm also gonna give you what you didn't ask for. I'm gonna give you wisdom, I'm gonna give you riches.

And I'm going to give you. I'm gonna give you riches and I'm gonna give you. You didn't ask for great riches. You didn't ask for wealth for yourself. You didn't ask for a long life, and you didn't ask for the life of your enemies in your hands. So I'm gonna give you great riches, a long life, and the life of your enemies in your hand as long as you continue to follow me. Okay, cool. Solomon missed that part. He was paying attention to the first part of the assignment. He fell off on the back end. And in Solomon's life, I believe Solomon's life is a perfect picture of the New Testament believer. When he was young, he followed God wholeheartedly. In the middle of his life, he backslidden. And at the end of his life, he came back to Christ. I mean, he came back to God. He didn't come back to Christ. He came back to God because that's when he wrote Ecclesiastes. And at the end of Ecclesiastes, he said, let's hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man, he said. And he probably wanted to say after that, God told me just before I got started. I don't know why I had to go figure it out for myself. Anyway, so he was a consultant to his contemporaries. So Solomon, that's why there's never been a better business model than teaching other people who do what you do how to do what you do, and they do better. That's why consulting is such a great idea, because it's a God idea. Consulting is a good idea because it's a God idea. And then he wasn't just a consultant to his contemporaries, he was a communicator to crowds. Oh, by the way, when he consulted with his contemporaries, he charged them a lot of money. How do I know? The scripture says that the Queen of sheba gave him 200. I mean, 120 shekels of gold. One hundred and twenty shekels of gold. 120 not shekels. 120 talents of gold. I knew shekels was not the right answer. Right word. 120 talents of gold.

Well, I did the calculations on that.

I researched how much it was in.

A talent because like I'm me reading that didn't tell me anything until I looked it up. You know how much money that was, was in today's dollars?

It was about $256 million. Just the gold.

Talk about premium value. Offers.

That's a premium value offer, Right? Then he was a communicator of crowds. It says not only did all the kings of the earth come to Solomon and pay him to learn his wisdom, but they sent their people. All the people of the earth came to Solomon to learn his wisdom.

Do you think Solomon had time to.

Talk to all the people in the world individually? Is that even possible? No.

So how did he do it?

I believe that Solomon was a communicator to crowds.

And just like people have seminars today.

Solomon had seminars thousands of years ago.

And I've been to the ancient world.

And I've been in coliseums that will hold 30,000 people. And you can stand on the floor and talk, and the people on the top row can hear you, because that's how acoustically they were engineered. Acoustically, brilliantly, they were engineered. Right. So he was a consultant to his contemporaries. He was a communicator to crowds. And then he was also the king of continuity, cash flow. It says when they came to Solomon, they brought every man his present. Vessels of silver and vessels of gold and furs and trees and blah, blah, blah. They brought their payments. And he said, and then it says they paid him a rate year by year. He didn't just charge them.

Once he got them on a continuity. Oh, you don't have to tell me 16 times.

Here's the king of continuity, cash flow. I'm telling you, when I decided to make my business based on those three pillars, everything changed.

How much did everything change? Everything changed so much that.

How can I say this?

What used to be.

What used to be a good.

Yeah, what used to be a really good year for us.

Isn'T even a good week.

I'm talking about when I was making money.

What used to be like, what used to be like back when I first became a millionaire back in 2007 or 2005, what was a. What was a lot of like.

What was a. Like A good month is not even.

A good week now.

Why King Solomon's business model. Take advantage of your advantages. You're an advantage.

One of your advantages.

The word of God. The better you understand the word of God, the better you understand life. The better you understand life, the better you can do life.

I hope this video helps you. Thank you for watching.

Stay tuned for part two.