Why Success Isn’t Blocking You, But You Are Blocking It…

3, 2, 1. Do you feel like success has been avoiding you? Do you feel like it's been evading you? Do you feel like it's been running from you? Do you think it's been like trying to make sure everybody else can have it but not you? Well, I've got news for you. Success isn't hiding from you, you're hiding from it. Success isn't running from you. You're running from it. And if you'll stop being scared of success, your life will change. People have different reasons for being scared of success. There are literally people in the world who are afraid of success because they're afraid their success will create somebody else's failure. I've heard people say, I don't want to make too much money. There might not be enough. I want to leave some for everybody else. As if them making more money somehow takes money out of somebody else's pocket. That would be like me walking around holding my breath.

And you ask me what I'm doing, and I say, I'm holding my breath. Why are you holding your breath? I don't want to breathe too much air. There might not be enough leftover for everybody else. It's insane. It doesn't make any sense. You not doing your best doesn't make anyone better.

Did you hear what I just said? It's not gonna make like you not giving your all is not gonna. Oh, well, I'm not gonna give my all because if I do, somebody else might not be able to give their all. It doesn't. It's nonsensical. It's ludicrous. It's just. It's a level of insanity that can't be measured. And there are people who think.

Unfortunately, we bought into this lie, this lie of an idea that.

Well, I don't want too big a piece of the pie, because if I get too big a piece of the pie, then there won't be enough pie left over for everybody else. Well, that'd be fine if God would have made the ideal environment for man a bakery.

But God's ideal environment for man is not a bakery. It was a garden.

What's the significance of that? Well, the significance of that is in a garden that has trees and crops, those fruit that those trees produce have seeds inside them. And when you consume the fruit, it exposes the seed. So in a garden environment, consumption creates production, or at least the possibility of it. And so people don't even realize the byproducts of just being successful.

Success has byproducts. People who you'll never meet will benefit because you decided you're gonna live to the best of your ability and not just keep yourself down because I'm worried about somebody else. There are people who are afraid that if they make too much money, they can't get to heaven because they misinterpreted Matthew chapter 19. I don't want to make too much money. I want to get into heaven. As if.

Somehow being poor buys you a ticket to eternity. It's like.

First of all, let me help you understand something. There are no isolated doctrines in Scripture. Everything in scripture supports everything else in scripture. And unless you study the entire thing, you're not going to understand how to rightly divide the word of truth. Where you compare spiritual things with spiritual things. Yes, the scripture says, yea, it's easier for a camel to enter to the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Yes, that's exactly what it says. But you did. You read it. You heard it preached, but you didn't study it. And the people you heard preach it didn't study it either.

How do I know? I studied it. I didn't want some man's opinion of what it said. And I studied it compared to all the other verses in Scripture because. Because whatever it means, whatever it does mean, I'm not even going to talk about what it means. I haven't did a whole video on that called why Evil People are rich. Go watch the video. Okay, so if you. If you want to know the answer to that, I'm not going to answer that right now. But whatever it means, it can't contradict or negate the blessing of the Lord. It maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow with it. It's not going to contradict that. So both of those verses have to be true. Because if both of them aren't true, neither of them are true.

Man, you came out swinging today.

The first time the word rich is used in the Bible, it's talking about Abraham, the friend of God.

And it didn't even say it was rich. It said he was very rich. Go read Proverbs chapter. I mean Genesis, chapter 13, verse number two. And Abram was very rich in cattle and silver and gold. It didn't just tell us that he was rich. It told us how rich he was. He was very rich. It didn't just tell us how rich he was. It told us how he was rich. He was rich in cattle, silver and gold because he didn't want some of you pseudo over Spiritualizing people to say, it's not talking about money, it's just talking about a noble heritage. No, it's talking about rich in cattle and silver and gold.

There's a verse in Scripture that says a good man. In Proverbs, it says, a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children. And just so we're not confused. Go. Is what an inheritance is.

House and riches are the inheritance of fathers. And a prudent wife is from the Lord. That's what the scripture says. House and riches are the inheritance of fathers. How many all know you'd be better off if your father would have left you some house and some riches.

Let me somebody talk to me about mortgage Free living, ladies and gentlemen. Mortgage Free living.

And so. And so please don't smack your neighbor. Okay, okay, okay. So. So. So understand.

That hiding from your help is a part of the human condition.

Running from your remedy is part of the human condition. Being scared of success is part of the human condition.

And so people will intentionally not succeed because somehow or another they believe that's going to mess something up.

I want to read a story about a person who reminds me of me, but he also reminds me of you. And you.

And it's really interesting. This whole story is interesting. Don't forget now, in the book of Romans, it tells us the things that were written aforetime were written for our learning. Those of you who don't read the Old Testament, you are shooting yourself in the foot. By the way, for those of you who don't read the Old Testament, the New Testament's not even the New Testament. It's just the half Testament because you never read the Old Testament, so you don't have anything to update. You ain't even got the app, and you ain't. How you gonna update the app? You don't even have the app. Okay, sorry. Yeah, I got a little attitude. Okay. So it tells us the things that were written before time were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope. God put these stories in scripture so we could see ourselves in them.

When you read the Old Testament stories, do you see yourself in them? Okay, I'm gonna read Judges chapter. I mean, it's like Judges is kind of like watching a really intense action movie, right? So in Judges, chapter six. And I'm not gonna read all the whole story to you. I'm gonna tell you what happened in the story, and then you can go back and read Genesis, chapter 6, 7, 8, and 9. Go read it yourself. But I'm just gonna. We're gonna get the story started. Genesis, chapter six, starting with verse number one. It says. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord delivered them into the hands of Midian. Into the hand of Midian. Seven years.

So they did evil in the sight of the Lord. And God delivered them over to their enemies for seven years. Now.

We have enemies that want to destroy us.

You have enemies that want to destroy you.

One of them you take with you everywhere you go.

See, the scripture tells me that our enemies are the world.

The flesh and the devil. See, the world attacks me and my ambitions. How does it do that? By making me desire you to think something about me. See, me needing you to believe something about me is worldliness.

Did I go too fast? See, when you're going through life as a people pleaser, you are suffering from worldliness.

You want to go along to get along. You want to get in where you can fit in. You want to sign the banana and be one of the bunch. You want to be like all the people you see on TV.

Or in the neighborhood or at school or at your job. They that compare themselves among themselves, measuring themselves by themselves, are not wise. That's what the scripture says. Get to the place where you're more concerned about what God thinks about you than with what some man thinks about you.

And then our flesh. Our flesh don't attack us in our ambitions. Our flesh attacks us and our appetites. My desire to feel something.

I did a video called Satan's Secret Weapon. It's like the weapon that's killed more people than the atom bomb.

More people than what? So called gun violence.

What's that? Food. Most Americans dig their grave with a knife and fork.

The world, the flesh and the devil. The devil attacks us in our attitudes.

And he attacks us in our aptitudes. Our attitudes. How? By making me think I'm better than you. See, Satan wants you to elevate yourself above other people. And see, God wants you to understand. God wants you to understand that you ain't better than anybody. And he put you here to. God put you here to please him and serve those people that come across your path. And see, I did a whole Bible study on this last week. So I already know how hard it is to people. Because people and sometimes requires a lot of energy. Can I get a witness? But it's still our responsibility. It is not good for a man to be alone. It's not good for a woman to be alone, lonely. I did a Whole video. I ain't even going to go there. But see, what happens is, either you think you're better than them and you don't want to be around them, or you think they're better than you and you don't want to be around them.

Oh, Lord, you talking good now. My. The world, the flesh, and the devil understand that you are exactly who God says you are and no more. Anyway, if we gonna do that after every verse, we ain't gonna even almost get through, so. And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel because of the Midianites. The children of Israel made themselves dens, which were in the mountains and caves and strongholds in Israel. They have these mountains that are. They're really fascinating. They're rock mountains, but they have caves in them.

So it's so fascinating. And the scripture says we're talking about the children of Israel who were delivered into the land of milk and honey. Now they're hiding in caves from their enemies. Okay, what does it say? It says.

And so it was when Israel had sown, so they planted seeds. The Midianites came up, and the Amalekites and the children of the east, even they came up against them, and they encamped against them and destroyed the increase of the earth till thou come unto Gaza and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor assemble.

They killed all the crops. They killed all the animals. Israel didn't have a chance. They didn't have a shot.

The Midianites had them covered. The Midianites? The Amalekites.

People from the east. Oh, yeah. Wait, there's more.

For they came up against their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for multitudes. For both they and their camels were without number. And they entered into the land to destroy it. And Israel was greatly impoverished. Poverty is always the result of spiritual warfare, Period. Satan is the God. Little G of lack. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, to kill and to destroy. That doesn't mean he's coming to kill, steal, and destroy. It means he ain't coming unless he. He can kill, steal, or destroy. Are y' all tracking?

Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites. And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord. Isn't it funny how it takes people seven years to cry unto the Lord? It's going to take you seven years to repent. You knew what you did wrong the first day you did it. Yeah, but, you know, I just need one more night with them frogs. One more night with the Midianites. One more night with the grasshoppers.

What are you doing?

Okay. Anyway.

And the children of Israel were cried unto the Lord because of the Midianites. And the Lord sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which said unto them, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt and brought you forth out of the house of bondage, and delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and drave them out before you and gave you their land. And I said unto you, I am the Lord your God. Fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell, but ye have not obeyed my voice.

See? Oh, by the way, we come asking God for stuff that he already gave us the power to get. But he takes back that power or he restricts that power when we are disregarding Him.

See, there are times when God will block your blessing because you're disobeying him. God brought the Midianites to punish Israel.

Wow. Let me ask you a question. What in God's word have you been disregarding so that he's had to bring your own version of the Midianites to block you?

Just a thought. Sometimes you're better off just asking folk than telling them. Because they know. They already know.

Yeah. And?

And it said.

And you have not. Not obeyed my voice. And verse 11. And there came an angel of the Lord and sat under an oak. God ain't stressing. He sat, sat down.

That's a good place to sit. I love how the Bible is written. It says, then came the angel. Lord sat under an oak which was in Ophrah that pertained to Joash the Abiezrite.

And his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. See.

Gideon is working in secret to help his family because he was afraid of the enemy. What enemy are you afraid of? What illusion are you afraid of? What real thing are you afraid of? Here's why. You being afraid of something is a problem. Because fear is a controller. And what you fear controls you. And that's why God desires for us to only fear him. Because he is the only one that deserves control. Am I going too fast?

It says so. He was hiding.

And then verse 12. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him and said unto him, the Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor. And Gideon said.

Who? Me?

And Gideon said unto him, o my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? And where be the miracles which our fathers told us of saying, did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt, but now the Lord hath forsaken us and delivered us into the hand of the Midianites? And the Lord looked upon him and said, go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have not I sent thee.

Gideon, you mighty man of valor? Who, me? I, the Lord am with you. If you're really with me, why is this happening? This happening. This happening. This happened. See, see, here's what we don't understand. We want a God in a box.

Huh? We want to rub our Bible three times, make four wishes and have them all come true.

Am I telling the truth? But see, I got a question for you. What doth the Lord require of thee? Because the angel of the Lord said. He said, go in this your might. Go in your might.

What? What is he saying? Use what you got.

I'm not going to tell. I'm not. Hey, hey, guys. I'm not going to ask you to use something you don't have. But I'm going to challenge you to use what you have.

Hey, Gideon. Go in the strength that you have. Now Gideon's now even more confused than the beginning of the conversation.

He said, go in this thy might. And Gideon said, o Lord. And then in verse 14, he says, and the Lord looked upon him and said, go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have not I sent thee? And he said unto him, o my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor.

That's interesting. My family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. Wait a minute. So I'm in an oppressed nation.

In a poor family.

And I'm the smallest one in the bunch, and you want me to go save them? That's right. Because your strength.

I mean his strength, is made perfect in your weakness.

God doesn't call the qualified. He qualifies the called.

And if he's called you to do something and he made you for a purpose, don't be hiding from that purpose because you're afraid it might not work.

Hola.

It's amazing to me. You know what's amazing to me? I remember when I was on the struggle bus, and I lived on the struggle bus for years, and all the stuff I do right now, I could have done then. There's only one thing that was missing. My perception of me.

Was all Jacked sideways because of the circumstances that I found myself in.

I'm talking about after I'd already made millions of dollars.

After I already had six figure months and multiple six figure months. I found myself broke as a joke and ready to choke. Sitting on the patio on the back porch of my house, crying on my wife's shoulder. This is working, baby. I'm harder.

Who, me? I can't do it.

Stuff I'm doing now, I could have done then, but you know what I couldn't do then? I couldn't see then what I can see now.

The eyes of my mind were blinded by my circumstance. But I want to show you something about perception. God has given all of his children a promise. And he puts that promise right in front of us, clear as day. And you know what we do? We start pursuing that promise. And the very God.

That set us on course to pursue that promise ordained. That same God ordained that the enemy come and block our vision with a problem.

And the enemy's objective is to block your vision of the promise as if the promise weren't there.

But God ordained him to bring you the problem so you could strengthen your perspective. And God said, I want you to put the problem right in front of him. I want you to put the problem right in front of her so that they can learn to peer through the problem and focus on the promise as if the problem weren't there. But the enemy wants you to focus on the problem as if the promise isn't there. There. The promise is there, and the problem is there. But you got to learn to look through the problem problem before you can make it through the problem.

Because if you can't see it, you can't seize it.

And you don't see things the way they are. You see things the way you are. And Gideon was looking at himself all wrong. Hey, mighty man of valor. Who, me? Yeah, you. I'm gonna use you to deliver Israel. But you don't understand. I'm in an oppressed country, in a poor family, and I'm the runt in the bunch. And you telling me I'm gonna do it?

Oh, yeah, let's don't get it confused now.

And he said.

Wherewith shall I save Israel? Verse 15. Behold, my Father is. My family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least of my Father's house. And the Lord said unto him, surely I will be with you. I love the fact he said, surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. You're going to kill all those people who are as grasshoppers, like they're one person.

Now.

Here'S the interesting thing about Gideon. Gideon and Midian. I didn't even realize they rhymed until just now. Somebody should write a poem about Gideon and Midian. Maybe it's already been done anyway. If not, maybe I'll do it.

Gideon. Here's the interesting thing about Gideon.

God created Gideon for that moment. He was created for that challenge. He was created for that time of oppression. He was created specifically. All of the events of his life were there to prepare him for that moment.

So God knew Gideon could do it before Gideon knew Gideon could do it. Can anybody handle some good news? Let me hear you say I can handle it. God created you for all the problems you face, to be the victor over them. Before he created you. God created you for your success. In fact, he put you here specifically to solve the problems of other people.

You were created for it. Gideon was created for it, but he didn't even know it. How many of you, how many people? How many of you on YouTube right now, you don't even realize that you are created for great things? Myron, how do you know I was created for great things? You don't even know me. But I know the image of the great God you were created in.

You don't create something in the image of something great to make it something other than great. I'm not confused. In fact, what does it say in the book of Psalms, chapter 8? It says, oh, Lord.

O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. What is man that thou art mindful of him, and the Son of man that thou visitest him for? Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels and has crowned him with glory and honor. I don't know. That sounds like pretty important stuff to me. But see, you got your perspective of who you are from somewhere other than whose you are. And you let the school system tell you you're not smart and you believe them. And so you go around your whole life acting like you ain't smart and hiding from learning.

Because you had a teacher in elementary school that didn't like you. I had a teacher in elementary school that didn't like me.

I had a bunch of teachers in elementary school that didn't like me. I didn't know they didn't like me. But more importantly, I didn't care that they didn't like me because I didn't get my self worth from them. My mama showed me my worth when I came home from school one day and said. She said, what'd you learn school today, baby? I said, I learned that I made. That I'm a higher form of animal. She said, don't you ever say that again. But you asked me, right? She said, you're not an animal. You're made in the image of God. I'm like. I didn't understand why she got so bent out of shape about it. But I knew one thing. I wasn't gonna say no more. Not now, not never. Mama wasn't playing. I ain't never. I ain't saying that no more, right? No, sir, teacher. No teacher, right? No. I'm way more scared of her than I am y'. All. I ain't thinking about y'. All. Y' all can put whatever grade on there you want to.

Mama got something worse than a grade. She got a switch. She know how to break off a switch. Can I get a witness? Okay. Anyway, y' all don't know nothing about switches in 2024.

How do you know they don't know nothing about switching? The kids wouldn't be acting so crazy in public. Okay, that's.

Anyway, anyway, I digress.

And interestingly enough, we get our perspective from all of the people of who we are, from all the people who didn't believe in us. And we go through life holding onto that. Holding onto the li identity. What's that? That's all the things that all the people told you you were not. The li identity that maybe your parents put on you. The li identity that your teachers put on you. The li identity that your classmates put on you. The identity that your siblings may have put on you or your cousins or somebody that you looked up to, or the cool kids in school or the jocks or the cheerleaders or the whatever, or the whoever. Or your boss or your employer, or maybe you were unfortunate enough to even be married to somebody who would happily remind you at every opportunity who you are not.

And here's what God has to say. Hey, mighty man of valor. Hey, mighty woman of valor. I got something important for you to do.

I'm going to deliver the thing that's been oppressing you into your hands.

I'm going to deliver the multitude of oppressors into your hands so much that you are going to slay them like they're one man.

See, Gideon was created for that. Gideon was called for that. He was called to it. But you know what we do? We go through life ignoring the call because we look at our capabilities or lack thereof, and Say, surely you can't be calling me. You gotta be calling somebody smarter than me, somebody better looking than me, somebody taller than me, somebody who can talk better than me, somebody more educated than me, somebody with more degrees than me. Surely you can't be calling me.

I'm calling you because of those things, not in spite of those things. See, I don't want any flesh glorying in my presence. So my strength is made perfect in your weakness. If you had all the answers, you wouldn't need mine. If you had all the strength, you wouldn't need me to deliver you. I got you got this. Cause I got you and I created you for this. And I called you for this. Y' all picking up what I'm putting down.

But don't make the mistake of thinking that you were only created for success.

Do you understand? Gibeon is going to be successful before he lifts the first weapon against the first enemy. God already told him it's a wrap. It's done before it gets started.

See, here's our problem. Our problem is we're so acquainted with time that we lack an acquaintance with eternity.

What does that mean? Well, in the realm of time, there's no such thing as the present. It cannot exist. Well, we can't experience it. It can exist because the present can exist in time, but we can't experience it. We don't have the ability to perceive it. Why? Because we're bound by time. So as soon as I say now, it becomes, then.

Now is forever evaporating. But guess what? In the realm of eternity.

There'S no such thing as the past or the future. There's only the present. Eternity is the forever. Now, God knows the end from the beginning because the end is the beginning and the beginning is the end. And all of it's right now. It's a moving picture to us, but it's a snapshot to God. It's a fully produced film in the. In the theaters of heaven. You're worried about what's gonna happen. I'm not worried about it. Why? Cause God's not worried about why. Cause it's already happened. It just hasn't. You just haven't experienced it yet. You haven't allowed yourself to step into the thing you were created for, the thing you were called for to. And now the thing you're being challenged by, you've been abating it because it's hard. You've been evading it because it's bigger than you. You've been invading it because you're in an oppressed country and you're in a poor family and you're the run of the bunch. What could I possibly do? I didn't do good in school. What could I do? I wasn't an athlete. What could I. I'm not musically inclined. What could I do? Go in this, thy might. Go in your strength. Use the things I gave you. And stop looking at other people and thinking I gave them something and gave you nothing. Cause you are delusional.

You know what Gideon did? God said, here's what you do. Call the men of war down by the river. And I'm going to pick the ones I want to go.

And he said, when they come down by the river, you have them get a drink of water. He said, the ones that bow down to the river and lap up water like a dog, send them home.

But the ones that pick the water up to their face with their hands, take them. There are only 300 people that took up the water with their hands. Now, what's the significance of that? Well, the significance of water. One of the reasons we know we're not animals, one of the reasons is because animals. This. In an animal, this exists to serve this in a human, this exists to serve this. Are y' all tracking? That's why we're not supposed to lower our face to our plate and lick the food off the plate, but we use utensils. Because when we use utensils to eat food, it's a picture of sacrificing the. The temporal on the altar of the eternal. It's a picture of sacrificing the flesh on the altar of the spirit. And so what I do is I use my utensils to bring my food. My body is sacrificing to my mind, to my head. Are y' all tracking? And he said, I want people. I want people who understand who they are. And I can tell if they understand who they are when just by, they know this person knows they are a person of dignity. They're not going to lower their face to the river. They're going to bring the river to their face. There were 300 people who did that. Do y' all remember how many people it said the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east were. They were without number.

They were as grasshoppers, they and their camels. They knew they had it going on. We've been. We've been winning this battle for seven years now. Here's what happened. Gideon starts walking in faith and doubt.

Huh? He did. He started walking in Faith and doubt. Hey, does that remind you of anybody? Huh? Huh? I see him in the mirror every time I look in one, right? I'm walking in faith and doubt.

And he said, lord, if you're really calling me, let me know that you're really calling me for this. Here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna put out a fleece.

Piece of cloth on the ground. When I come back tonight. When I come back in the morning, if the ground around the fleece is dry and the fleece is wet, then I'll know you called me. Woke up the next morning, ran to the fleece, took it, squeezed it out, filled up a bowl full of water. You know what he did? He walked in faith and doubt. He said, lord, I know you. I saw you did that. But I just want to make sure that I didn't miscommunicate what I was asking you to do. So let me get you to do it in reverse. I'm gonna put the fleece on the ground. When I come back in the morning, I want the ground around the fleece to be dry, and I want the fleece to be wet. I mean, I want the ground around the fleece to be wet. I want the fleece to be dry. He comes back, there's dew all around the fleece. He picks up the fleece, the fleece is dry. Wow. This must be God. You know what? The beauty of being.

Alive in the day, when we have the canon of scripture, we don't need a fleece. I don't need a fleece. All I need is the promise of God. What was the purpose of the fleece? He was confirming that it was really God talking to him. With the fleece, you don't need the fleece. We got the Word. The Word's better than a fleece. And when you walk in it, you can discover that people say, I don't understand the Bible. I got two things I want to say about that. Number one, it ain't the parts of the Bible you don't understand that you've got a problem with. Let's start there.

And the other part is, maybe the reason you don't know more of the Bible is because you're not doing the part you know. Because here's what the scripture says. If any man will do his will, he shall know the doctrine. Obeying what you know is the tuition you pay for getting to learn more.

Okay? So you're walking in faith and doubt. God says, okay, time to go smite the Midianites. The scripture Says they took a pitcher and a lantern and a horn. Well, first, no, he had faith, not doubt again. Because he said, okay, like, lord, I know you showed me the fleece. But, like, one more thing. He said, okay, I'm going to show you. Go down to the camp of the Midianites, and if you're afraid to go by yourself, take your servant with you, and I'm going to show you what they're saying. So Gideon sneaks into the camp of the Midianites, and he hears them talking about.

Some barley coming into the camp of the Midianites and destroying it. And then the guy he said that to. Is that not the sword of Gideon, the son of. I forgot his father's name. Anyway.

Of the children of Israel, that God has delivered them into our hands. He's like, God told the enemy what I'm going to do to. What I'm going to do to him. The enemy already knows I'm coming to destroy him again. He's like, I got this now. I mean, how much more? You don't need more confirmation than that. They go down. They fight the Midianites. Here's what the scripture says.

That the people of Midian rose up against one another in the confusion with the horn. They blew the horn and the lanterns and the pitchers. And then it says they slew 120,000 men. 3. How did 300 people go and win against 120,000 men? And then 15,000 people ran away. And then Gideon went and chased after them and slew them.

And it says they were faint yet pursuing. I love that they were faint yet pursuing.

Just because you're tired doesn't give you an excuse to not finish the fight.

Why? Because you were called. You were created for this. You were created for the success you've been hiding from. I don't know why you're hiding. Maybe you're hiding because you're worried about what people think about you. That's the temptation of the world. Again. Maybe you're hiding because. Maybe you're hiding because you're lazy. You just don't want to be bothered. I don't know. Maybe you're hiding because you're afraid if you make too much money, you can't get into heaven. Ridiculous.

Maybe you're hiding because you think there's a limited amount, and if you make too much, there won't be enough leftover for anybody else. But I submit to you.

That.

Satan knows something you don't know. He knows he can't block your blessing. So you know what he does he mental blocks you from your blessing? He can't keep it from you, so he keeps you from it by making you not even desire it in the first place.

Real talk my people by thinking you're not good enough. I'm too small. I'm too poor. I'm too oppressed. I'm too this, I'm too that. I'm not good enough. I'm suffering from I'm just me. Itis inflammation of the I'm just me gland. And certainly the God couldn't be using me to deliver my people. What if you're the very one?

What if you taking this relationship with God thing so seriously that other people realize what they're missing out on because they see your walk with God? What if. What if you become obsessed with pleasing God and serving people so much that it causes other people to desire their life to change?

Stop being scared of success. Stop hiding in the wine press threshing your wheat. Stop doing little bitty deeds of entrepreneurship, business, whatever. Stop. Stop being secretive about the fact that you have a desire to set your family free.

When I got on this journey, everybody in my family didn't understand me. Fortunately for me, I had polio as an infant. I walked with a brace on my leg my whole life. People made fun of me. I came out the womb. People making fun of me.

Oh, I'm. I'm all right. Don't feel bad for me. I'm all right.

You know what it did? It made me tough enough to know that I need to like me if nobody else ain't gonna do it.

I need to be okay with me if nobody else ain't okay with me.

And I am here to tell you before, rejected in business, and I'm gonna worry about it. Child, please. That's the worst thing that ever happens to me. I'm gonna have a great life.

Everybody in my family didn't understand what I was doing. Man, why don't you just get a job like everybody else? I don't want what everybody else has. Everybody else knows what they have is not enough, but they want me to be like them. It ain't in me.

I have a vision that's bigger than that. God called me to do great things. What makes you say that? How can you say that? Well, he called you to do great things too. I'm just willing to acknowledge it.

You were created for great things. You were called to great things. You will be challenged by great things. Here's my question for you. Are you gonna step up to the challenge.

With your 300 soldiers and slay whatever is your Midian. 130,000. I mean, 120,000 plus 15,000 135,000 strong. As if they're one man.

I'm not going to hide from mine. I may get killed in the battle, I may get wounded from the battle, but I ain't going to hide from the battle. I'm going to fight it.

I was in the sixth grade.

Right here in Tampa, Florida. So we lived in Pennsylvania. We lived in. I grew up like, my first. First through fifth grade, from time I was born, pretty much I was born in Florida. My parents moved to Pennsylvania when I was an infant. All the way through the sixth grade, I lived in Pennsylvania, and I lived in this little town called Lewistown. And people in Lewistown, they don't talk like people in Florida. They talk like this here. What are you doing then? Once in a while. And that's how we used to talk then. Marin, Myron, what are you gonna do then? I don't know. We're probably gonna go up over the boondocks then once in a while. That's how we talked, right? Yeah, that's how I grew up talking. We moved down here to Tampa. They didn't talk like that.

So we started going to school. Kids on our bus, I won't say everything they said about it. I'll say, why y' all talk so proper? I don't know, man. That's just how we talk. We just talk how we talk. They hated us because we talk different. You know why children hate different? Because they feel like who they are is not enough. They don't have enough affirmation from their parents. They don't have enough affirmation from other children. They don't like themselves. And in order to feel bigger, they have to make somebody else feel smaller. So we have to teach our children that who they are is enough so they don't go around bullying people and trying to prove that they're something that they're not, because they feel like they're not something that they are. Don't ask me to say that again. I'm going to have to go back and watch the video, make sure I said it right.

So these kids used to pick on us every day. And I remember one day, like, I know that we. We got terrorized. I mean, the Junior. Like the Central Florida Junior Terrorist association were all on our bus, all the members.

And so we're getting ready to go to school one day, and I said, dad, do we have to go to school? These kids Always pick on us. He said, well, I'm gonna tell you what you do, boy.

You grab the first one, you grab him by the collar and you beat him about the head and shoulders. Like, beat him within an inch of their life. And I said, and I'm in the sixth grade now. And I said, but, dad, what if it's a girl? He said, I don't care nothing about that.

That's what he said. My dad's hands were as hard as a two by four. He worked construction and plumbing his whole life. And when he said, I don't care nothing about that, I didn't want those hands coming at me. I was way more scared of him than I was of him. Grabbed me. He gave me the speech like it was his William Wallace moment.

And he gave us a speech before we went to school. And sure enough, our bus stop was separate from theirs. There was like 20, 30 of them. I don't know, they come down to our. They were a block apart. They come down to our. Where we get picked up and they want to beat us. They want to beat us up. And so.

This girl, I remember her name, her name was Deborah Ann.

She comes at me.

Pata da Potter. Pata da Potter. The pata da Potter. The pata. My dad said, he don't care nothing about that. Pat de pata de Pat de Pata da pot. This other girl tries to hit me with a stick. I'm wrestling with this stick. We had a girl in the sixth grade, she was 6ft tall, her name was Mary. It should have been Goliath. Me and this other girl wrestling with this stick. And it accidentally hit Mary in the head. And she said, why you hit me in my head with that stick? And I said, it wasn't me, it was her. She grabbed me, she picked me up, she threw me on the ground. They start stomping me and beating me. I got. I had a big old knot on my arm, like it was out.

Went to school, went to the principal's office, whatever. Came home, told my dad what happened. Said, did you get one of them? Yes, sir. Okay. Then.

He said, and you know what? They never mess with us again. Ever put a beat down on one of them. I'm sorry. It's the only time in my life I've ever hit a girl. It's the only time in my life I ever hit a girl. I've never done it since. Never did it before. But my dad told me, get a whooping out there. You go, get another one. You come home.

I don't know. My parents didn't have my parents. No. Violence doesn't solve anything. No. They said, no, it's going to solve something anyway.

I don't even know why I told you that story, but I was scared. I'm telling you, I was scared. I was scared to marry the patrol that was six feet tall. I was scared of all those 30 kids coming out and picking on me and my five little brothers. I was scared. But you know what I did? I did what my dad told me to do. And guess what happened? Exactly what he told me would happen happened. You beat one of them within an inch of their life, they will leave you alone for the rest of your life. And guess what they did. They left me alone. They left me and my brothers alone. Never said another cross word to us, ever.

Boy, that was one of the most. I thought my dad. And I'm like, I thought my dad was a plumber. Turns out he's a prophet.

Because what he prophesied came true.

So what am I saying? I'm saying I know it's not easy. I know it's scary. Do it anyway, because you were created for it. You were called to it, and now you're gonna be challenged by it. All right, my peeps. Stay blessed by the best, and I'll see you on the next video.