376 | Charge The Storm - part 2

So what do you do when disaster strikes? What do you do when you're right in the middle of a storm and you feel stuck there and you go into reactive mode? Well, that's not what we're gonna do. We're in the middle of a series called Charge the Storm. And I'm gonna show you exactly what to do when it strikes so you can get through that storm faster, better, easier. Stay tuned. Well, hello there beautiful and welcome to GR Be Blessed. This is where we dig into the Bible and get those strategic principles that can help us truly create a life that's blessed like crazy. Even if you think it's not possible, even if you think that there are the haves and the have nots and some are lucky and some are. I'm going to show you how. Actually everything in God's word is available to you. So what we're talking about in this series is actually part two of a series that we're doing called Charge the Storm. If you've been alive for any time at all, then you will know that life has its fair share of storms. Now being a believer does not mean that we avoid the storms or we're exempt from the storms. It just means we're storm proof. Now what does that mean? It means that we can face anything and we can go through anything and we can go through it victoriously because we know that God fights our battles and he is always victorious. So I know sometimes we feel like we have to, you know, be a little stronger, be a little smarter. But that is that pressure to now depend upon ourselves and depend upon our strength. So the, it's the weak that say that they're strong. Why did they say they're strong? Because it is in our weakness when we can actually be a living demonstration of God's strength. Sometimes when we feel like man, we need to handle this better, we need to be stronger through this, we need to be more capable. That's so self focused. We're leaving God out of the picture. The reason we're not stronger is maybe because we're not weaker and because when we're weak we can now allow God to pour through that weakness and demonstrate his strength. I'm going to walk you through this step by step on how to go through the storms of life. Because no one is exempt from this. No one. We all have to go through problems. Jesus even said, in this world you will have problems, but take joy. I've overcome the world living in that. Overcoming strength means we don't avoid the storms and we don't go around the storms, and we don't run away from the storms. What it means is with that indwelling power of God, now we have the ability to face the storm and go through it and come out on the other side faster, stronger, wiser, better. And I have seen in my life and in the lives of others this one thing, the way you come out of that storm, makes the storm worth it. I'm telling you something. Whether it's been a. A, a death that you had to go through, death of someone you love, maybe a death of a relationship, a divorce, maybe a death of a dream, maybe a business closed down, maybe bankruptcy, you know, whatever that looks like. Maybe it's a physical, you know, something physical that happened that, that you felt like it really took a part of your life away from you, maybe an injury that you had to go through or an illness. Here's what I'm saying. God's never stopped healing. He's never stopped redeeming. He's never stopped destroying those yolks over us. So in that storm, in that struggle that you went through, in that loss, whatever it looked like, when you come through it the right way, and there is a right way and there's a wrong way. I'm talking about the right way to go through the storms. When you go through the right way with the power of God, then the way you come out of that storm makes the storm worth it. I'm telling you, I'll never forget hearing about Joyce Meyer. You guys know who Joyce Meyer is? One of my heroes of the faith. But I remember hearing about Joyce Meyer talking about the abuse that she suffered at the hand of her father. She was sexually abused, tormented by her own father for years. She said the way she came out of that, she would not have changed anything. Now here's someone think about going through that much trauma you come out of it, and the way you come out of it and what it built in you and, and what it, what it allowed to come to fruition in you, and how, how you can now have a platform to reach people and, and how it, it just changed you. Not for the worst, but for the best. You can say, you know what? As painful as it was, I wouldn't be here if I didn't go through there. So we're talking about this. Step two is called Study the Horizon. Now, if you missed step one, don't move from here, because I think maybe the Holy Spirit wants you to hear this and watch this right now. So don't move from this but make sure you go back immediately and watch the one just prior to this, which is step one, because that is face the wind. You got to do that first. You got to face what's actually going on and stop distracting yourself from it. But this is step two, and that is study the horizon. Now, we already face the wind. Okay? We're acknowledging, wow, this is horrible, this hurts. This is painful, agonizing, this. Like, we have to acknowledge it because our brain already is anyway. Sometimes I think believers get into this thing where it's like, I'm not even going to acknowledge you. I'm going to pretend it's not there. But our subconscious is. Like, I can feel that it's there. Don't even try to pull the wool over my eyes. Like, I know it's there. I know that that person got admitted to the hospital. I know I saw that bill come in. Like, your subconscious knows it, is feeling it, and it's actually operating as a decision maker on a subconscious level. So we have to face it first of all, face what's actually going on. Stop running from it. Turn, face the wind. But number two is study the horizon. So you already know the illustration. In a storm, buffalo and cow respond two different ways. So when a storm come, cows will run away from the storm. And now they are. As they run away from the storm, they're actually making it last longer. It's more painful. It just makes the process stretch out. They stay in the storm longer. However, buffalo, when it senses the storm is coming, will face the storm, run toward the storm, therefore making it shorter, quicker. They come through stronger, they come out the other side faster. So we're going to come out the other side faster, because guess what? The only way is through. I want you to hold on to that. Excuse me. The only way is through. The longer you avoid that health issue, that financial issue, that relationship issue, the longer you avoid it, the worse it's going to get. It's going to last longer, it's going to be harder. It's going to be more painful. If you face it, you go through it. Guess what? It's not just you going through it alone. It's you going through it with the power of almighty God. Don't forget about that. You're not going through by yourself. You have got the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, my friend. That's enough to sustain you through any. Any storm that life could dish out. So we already have to face it. Now understand, your brain reacts like you just can't help it. We have, like, if you're watching this or you're listening to this, I know for a fact you're human. Unless you're like a pet dog who's watching or listening to it. And I'm just glad you're spending time with me because I love dogs. Okay? Now, caveat aside, so you're human, which means you have a brain. Now, the brain is there to keep you alive. That's it. Your brain is there for your survival, not for your success. I want you to write that down somewhere so you remember it, that your brain is there for your survival, not for your success. It doesn't care about making your dreams come true. Your brain is there to make sure you make it to the next day alive. That's your brain's job. So that's why a lot of times we have fear responses, because our brain is saying, hey, I see the storm. It's time to button down the hatches and make out your last will and testament and curl up your toes and die. Like, it's terrifying, right? It'll say, oh, my gosh, this is going to happen. You're about to die. You're about to die. You're about to die when you are doing something. I remember when I made my first really big investment in growing my business. It was more money than I had ever spent on anything, including a car. Seriously, the most money. I mean, okay, I got a loan for a house. I was living in a. I had a house loan at the time. So that was more. That's like in a different category altogether. But it was like a quarter of what I spent on my house, Right? I remember it was like. It's like $25,000 I never spent. So you can tell what kind of house I lived in at the time, right? And so this was like a 25, 000 investment. And I remember I. I went up there and I scanned the cards just to put down a deposit to hold my spot. And I didn't even know if the card would clear the deposit. That's how much money I did not have at the time. But what do you know? It actually cleared and I immediately freaked out. Immediately felt sick to my stomach. I went and to be honest, I went to the bathroom and threw up. I was terrified. What was my brain doing? My brain thought I was dying. It was saying, no, we don't do this. We don't spend this much money. We do not do this. Alert, alert, alert. Everything's going off, right? Everything's like. It's kind of like firing those bells off in my brain. So of course I got this, like, fear response, incredible fear response. So that this is what happens when we face things we've never gone through. When we face a. A storm that we. That triggers a storm we did go through, right? We will have that same fear response. So understand this. Your brain cannot help but react. Just can't help it. It reacts. That's what it does. So we have to face this. When I say to study the horizon, I'm talking about that momentary pause. Pretend like you're playing a chess game. I don't play chess, but I've seen people play chess, okay? And I've seen how they. They take a pause. And what they do is they analyze their next move. So that's what we're doing when we study the horizon. What we're doing is we are analyzing for our next move. Now, the brain, remember, it responds in fear. You know, let's say. Let's say you're gambling and you know, you're in. You're in Vegas, you're at the tables. I don't know. I've never, I've never been gambling in Vegas, y'. All. Have you done anything in your life? Yeah, I've done some pretty cool stuff. Gambling in Vegas was not one of them. Been to Vegas, just never gambled. And so, but. But here's what I've heard that goes on in the casinos, is that when you get scared, you start to play safe and you don't make any money. You start to hold back. You're scared to put your. Put money on the table. You're scared of bet anything. And so this is what it looks like when you're going through a storm. I'm not saying gambling's right, guys. You know that. Okay, so just, Just shout out to the people who don't really know me that well. I'm not saying that gambling is cool. I don't know. Maybe it is. I don't even know. So what I am saying is the fear response when you start to play safe. Like, imagine if I played safe. It was. It would be like, I can't spend $25,000. That's terrifying. How am I going to eat next month? And then I would have held back from investing, and I wouldn't have reached the level where I am now in my business. So the same thing happens when storms of life. We go into protective mode, we start to go into fear mode, and we start to make decisions that keep us safe, which don't always make us successful. So instead of just Responding in fear, and all of a sudden, like, worst case scenario, doom and gloom, which is what our brain has a tendency to do. We're going to do this. We're going to face it like a chess game. We're pretending like we all know how to play chess. And we're going to study for our next move. We're going to study the. Study the chessboard. And what I'm going to show you is the three moves. Three moves. That's all you need to do. Three moves in order to study the horizon. You're going to look for these three moves. Now, the first move. I hope you're writing this down. Acknowledge the worst. Now, sometimes it's. It's shocking, like if you're my client, if you're my personal client, or if you've ever been through, or if you're inside, like mom Master University. And I'm coaching you, right? Because we coach our elite students every single Monday. I coach our elite students every single Monday. And sometimes my steps are very counterintuitive. They don't seem very Christian. They don't seem very. Like I'm a pastor because it's. And I am. But how I pastor is a little different from how other people pastor. So as a, as a pastor, you know, leading our mom Master University, and I coach every. Every Monday, like I said, sometimes in my coaching or with my personal clients, I'll say, okay, we're just gonna acknowledge the worst. What's the worst thing that can happen? I could die. All right, first of all, is that the worst thing that can happen? Because where are you going after you die? That. That's, that's what'll make it the worst thing if, if you ain't going to heaven. Yeah, that's gonna be the worst thing. Could be pretty cool. If you're going to, to, you know, to be absent from the bodies, be present with the Lord, right? So we acknowledge the worst. Oh, this person could die. I could go bankrupt. I could. He could file for divorce. This, you know, our brain is already going there. Anyway, that's the thing. You can tell by the tension you hold in your body, your brain is already going there. So the first move, just go ahead and acknowledge it. Acknowledge the worst. If you've ever gone through Covenant Coach Academy, one of the first things you learn about is tantrum therapy, which basically it allows your client to just have a tantrum. Let it all out. All the pain, all the grief, all the anger, all the rage, all the fear. Pour it out right now. It's a Safe space. So that's that first step. Acknowledge all the things that you're actually holding inside and trying not to acknowledge because you're a good person or a good Christian or a Bible believer or whatever is that is that filtering system which you adopted in life that says you can't be real. First, we're going to be real. We're going to acknowledge the worst. Oh, terrifying. This could happen. This is so scary. Now the second move. First of all, can we all just do that? Are we all good doing that? Okay, so I just had to stop and put on a little lip gloss. There. All right, Much better. So first move, we acknowledge the worst. It's going to feel bad. That's what we don't want to feel. But I'm going to tell you something that I want you to remember for the rest of your life. You are strong enough to feel anything. Did you get that? I wanted you to let that hit. You are strong enough to feel anything. The worst thing that you could go through, the worst pain. Guess what? You're strong enough. People have felt it before. They've lived through it. You're strong enough to feel anything. No feeling will kill you. And you're strong enough to feel it. And guess what? You're feeling it. You're showing up. Way to go. Way to go. That's awesome. So first we acknowledge the worst. Now the second move. Okay, the second move is we have to entertain the unless. I hope you're taking notes. If you're taking notes, I want you to write that down somewhere in all capital letters. I want you to write down. Unless. Did you get that? Unless. There's. That is one of the most powerful words for a Christian. And I'm going to tell you how. Like, if you're a believer, I'm going to tell you how that one word is so strategic, and it can completely change the atmosphere. It can change your situation. It can change your next steps. So that's why this is our second move. After you acknowledge the worst and feel all the pain, then we're going to have to entertain the unless. And this is what I mean by that. I want you to say the worst thing that could happen. Well, we could get divorced. Unless. And we have to acknowledge what could come after that. Unless. Unless we start to get coaching to communicate better. Unless God does a transformative work in my husband's heart. Unless God does a transformative work in my heart. Unless I can start getting coaching on how I react to him. Unless a miracle happens. Unless we go to marriage, that Marriage retreat together, unless and less and less. So you'll. The thing I'm trying to get at, if I could just get my words right, thing I'm trying to get at is unless. That word unless opens up a part of your brain called the problem solver. Now, when you're going through a storm, the problem solving part of your brain shuts off. That's why we are so reactive. And that's why all of a sudden, when we're going through a storm. Have you ever been like this? Like when you're going through a, a spell in your life, a bad spell, a storm, a, A traumatic moment, a crisis, all of a sudden your brain operates like a negative radar. Everything in your life that could potentially be wrong or bad or out of sorts, now it's right there. So now all of a sudden I'm not going through, I'm not going through a financial problem. Now I'm. I'm 20 pounds heavier and I've never lost that weight. And now I feel this way and my kids are messing up and I'm so mad at my parents and blah, blah, blah. Like all of a sudden everything that could go wrong is going wrong. That's what happens as a result of your brain cutting off the problem solver. So remember, like, if you can look at your brain, the front part of your brain is more like the mind of Christ. It's always there, being creative and solving, solving problems. The back of your brain is like fear response, which we need to keep us alive. But if we camp out there and stay there, guess what? Just like Job, you will create the very thing you're most afraid of. So I'm trying to help you, not create the thing you're most afraid of. And we're going to actually create something amazing to come out of the storm. So we have to acknowledge that that part of your brain in the back that's like, my life is horrible and everything's terrible, okay? Unless, boom, we open up a portal in our brain called the problem solver. Unless. That's all I want you to do. I'm. Now, I am known for taking big principles in the Bible, spiritual principles, and making them super, super practical. So this is all we have to do. Step two is just entertain. Unless. Unless. Unless, you know, they could. This person could die in two months. Unless God does a miracle healing. Unless I can channel all my energy towards the most favorable scenario of them, of them being vibrant and healthy. Unless a miracle drug comes out. Unless everyone is, is dedicated in prayer over this to put all Their most positive emotions. There. So do you see that? Just that one word has opened up the realm of possibility. That's where the spirit of God hangs out, in the realm of possibility. What do you say? All things are possible with God. He said, abide in me, let my word abide in you. Because apart from me, you can do nothing. So apart from him, we can do nothing. It's the worst case scenario. But with him, all things are possible. Now the unless factor has gone to work. Now that's our second move. Third move is we discover the solutions. That unless opens the door to all these potential solutions. Now a lot of these are going to be physical, natural solutions. Remember, they're going to be like, unless a miracle drug comes out, unless we go to this marriage therapy counselor together, unless we, you know, unless I get a check for a hundred thousand dollars in the mail. Like those are natural things that can happen. Unless I find a new job, unless I find a new diet, unless I start to get, start to go to the gym more, unless I whatever. Like that's natural. We're not going to suppress that. Yes, you are supernatural being, but you do have a natural body and a natural mind and you are living a natural existence. So, so we always go to that reconciliation. I feel like a lot of what I do is the ministry of reconciliation. Reconciling our human state to our superhuman reality. Reconciling our natural state with our supernatural state. Reconciling the brain we have as a human with the mind that we have in Christ. So that's where I come in. A lot of my stuff is the reconciling. And so this is the reconciliation. As we start to discover solutions, a lot of those are going to be natural. And that's just fine. That's just fine. Believers, Christian, faith filled people, tongue talking people can actually execute natural solutions. You know, unless I start to really budget myself better, unless I can sell this house and pay it off, I can pay off this debt. So natural solutions are okay, but you know I'm gonna say it, you know I'm gonna say it. Say it with me. Hold up, wait a minute. Put a little super in it. Because we are not natural beings, we're living a natural life here on earth, but we are, when you get down to it, supernatural beings. We are spirits, we have a soul which is our mind or will and our emotions. We live in a body. But when you get down to your real identity, you're a spiritual being. So even though solutions will come up in the natural, we're not going to stop there. Because natural can sometimes make us feel stressed. Because now they're works of the flesh. Now we're trying to do it and, and, and fix it and be strong enough for it and manipulate it and twist it and turn it. And we're trying everything in the natural, and that can lead to stress. However, we are natural beings, so we're just going to entertain it. But then we're gonna hold up and we're going to wait a minute and we're going to put a little super in it. Because I want to show you what God says about this. Okay? Now we can't come up with spiritual solutions. I'm going to show you this in just a second. Can't come up with spiritual solutions in the energy of urgency. Okay, I want you to think about this verse that says that the prayer of a righteous man avails much, right? Not the prayer of a desperate man, and not the prayer of a desperate mom. See, it's not our desperation that makes God, like, step up and take notice. It's not our desperation that makes miracles happen. It's not our desperation or urgency that brings about the breakthrough. What we have to do is our desperation just reveals to us that we're operating in our natural state. But when we put a little super in it, that's when we can exchange desperation for hopefulness. And in the Bible says, hope will not disappoint. It never does. It never does. God is so faithful. So we have to do this exercise in a spirit of curiosity and not criticism and not desperation. Curiosity. Curiosity will always reveal solutions. Desperation will hide them. Did you get that? Curiosity? Now we're not freaking out. We're not trying in the natural. We already did that. We already, like, allowed all the, you know, acknowledged all the worst. We already did that. And now we opened up that door for unless to curiosity. Openness. Now there's this possibility, right? And now we're just going to, like, discover all the solutions. Remember, urgency is not going to help you. Urgency will keep you where you are. And you could even go backwards in the storm. Can you imagine that poor little cow trying to outrun the storm? And he actually, like, now he slows down, he's walking backwards. That storm is staying there longer. What we're going to do is face it, and we're going to develop some curiosity, some openness, because we know that God's faithful. So we do what we can in the natural. We go ahead and prepare a budget. We go ahead and change what we're eating. We go Ahead. And like we get coaching in our marriage, whatever that looks like, but we don't stop there. We put a little super in it. See, the Christian, excuse me, the Christian often tries to stop fear because like, fear's the enemy, right? So we try to stop fear. That's not what we need to do. What we need to do is we need to channel that energy behind fear. Have you ever seen like Avatar the last Airbender, when it's like, like it's coming at him, right? All this pain and this storm is coming at him and he, and he's just open to it. So instead of like, oh no, don't come at me, what'll happen? It'll overtake him and destroy him. So instead I want you to be like a Christian airbender. I want you to be a faith based, a faith walking, tongue talking airbender. So when all of that fear is coming at you and that pain is coming at you, that storm is coming at you. What we're going to do is we're going to just embrace it, allow it, change the energy around, add hopefulness to it, add faith as God, add God's promises to it, right? And then powerfully project that out into our world. And all of a sudden you're going to see a change. You're going to see a shift in the storm. You're going to see a miracle, you're going to see a breakthrough. When we resist, we persist. Whatever you resist will persist. But when we embrace and turn it around, use that energy and project it in a powerful, powerful direction based upon the word of God, then you erase that suffering and start to develop a miracle. So I want to show you how to do this. This is from Ephesians 6 and I'm going to read 10 through 13. You probably know Ephesians 6 because that's where we get the armor of God from. But I'm not going to talk about the armor, okay? Not right now. This is what comes right before the armor. So check this out. Ephesians 6, 10, 13, it says, be strong in the Lord. Be empowered through your union with him. Draw your strength from him, that strength which his boundless might provides. Put on God's whole armor, the armor of a heavy armed soldier, which God supplies that you may be able successfully to stand up against all the strategies and deceits of the devil. Remember, deceit is like deceiving you. The storm, maybe it's not as painful as you think it is. Maybe it's not. For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood, contending only with physical opponents, but against the despotisms, against the powers, against the master spirits who are the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly supernatural sphere. Remember, we are supernatural beings so we have to learn how to do battle as a supernatural beings because we're battling supernatural forces. But this last verse 13 therefore put on God's complete armor that you may be able to resist and stand your ground on the evil day of danger. You can just say in the storm. Okay, and having done all the crisis demands, to stand firmly in your place. So I want you to like camp out really quick on having done all the crisis demands, we have to do in the natural because that's where our brain is going to go anyway. So go ahead, execute the natural solutions. But after you've done all that, don't go back to the urgency, don't go back to the desperation. After you decide, okay, I'm going to start getting coaching around this. Okay, I'm going to like change how I'm eating. Okay, I'm going to, I'm going to start, I'm going to develop a budget and I'm going to, I'm going to sell some stuff and I'm going to pay this off. Okay, after you've done that, now we push it further, put a little super in it. And now we're going to stand firmly in our place. And where do we stand? We stand grounded and rooted in love, based and empowered by the word of God. So we do everything the crisis demands. I get you. I'm never going to be that person that says no, you don't have to take action. No, take action. But don't just take action. It's important to do, but it's more important to be. Who are you going to be? Are you going to be that buffalo that charges it? Knowing that the power of God is pushing you forward and knowing that no weapon formed against you can prosper, and knowing that greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Is that how you're going to go through the storm? Cuz I'm telling you, when you do it that way, honey, you are going to be blessed like crazy.