The Mystery of Peace

All right, we're gonna get into it. I'm going to leave a little time to do, uh, some Q&A at the end. I'm streaming from StreamYard, so I have to maneuver this in a sense because StreamYard shows the comments for Facebook Live but not Instagram, so I have to go on Instagram. So I'll be juggling a couple of different worlds and just making sure that all is well. Thanks. At the end, I will leave it up to you guys to— if you guys want a few questions, I'll go through some questions, and that'll, that'll be kind of fun. Let me do a little groundwork and just say that I'm a very honest person, so, um, I hope— hopefully I do not offend anybody with how honest I am. I think that just came with age. As I got a little older, I started getting a little honest, so just about what I feel and what I think. And so just know that I don't have fear of man anymore, so I tend to make sure that I am just saying what I need to say. And, uh, that's just something that I'm going to continue to do. All right, so just bear with me with that. The other thing I do want to say too is that I do believe in biblical principles, so I will be using scripture. And if that offends you— let me turn this off. And if that offends you, then, um, I'm probably not the person for you, okay? Um, I do believe in the word of God, and I use it to, to rule my life, and I use its principles to live the life that God wants me to live and to say the things that God wants me to say. So if it offends you, I'm not the person for you. If it offends you that I use the Bible, all right, so, uh, hopefully you guys are okay with that. I have not done a lot of lives, and actually this is my first live in a very long time because I've been doing a lot of coaching. So hopefully I get back into doing a little bit more of this and being able to connect with you all, because I love that. In the end, I'm going to offer an opportunity for you that I think is going to really steer you in the right direction, especially as we're headed into the new year. One of the things that I noticed is that I am about personal development. And I think if you know me, you're going to know that I love personal development. And what I'm seeing right now across the entire world is a mental pandemic. It is a mental pandemic. And there are a few things that you can put in place to make sure that on a mental level, you know, that you are doing what you need to do to be able to be clear-headed, to have guidance of purpose, and not to fall off track. Because what I notice is that it is very, very hard. I think in the beginning when you have some mental alignment issues, I think people know, they have a little bit of self-awareness. But as time goes on, what I'm noticing is that it's harder and harder to get a grasp on it if you do not put in the intentional effort to make sure that you are addressing your mental health. And that is something that you really have to do every day because there are circumstances that happen in life that's beyond your control. You just can't control it. And if you allow the things that are happening day to day, or the things that people do around you, to, to dictate the state of your mental health, it's going to be very hard to really push past that. Because there comes a time where you really— your self-awareness starts to diminish. And that's what I'm seeing. You can see it all over social media. I mean, The stuff that I'm seeing on social media is so bizarre and so weird and so abnormal. And it's crazy because what is abnormal is normal to people. And some of this stuff is just outright crazy, and it's mad, it's madness. And, um, and it's just— it's some things that I feel like we can do to kind of address that and, and live a life that is healthy and we can stabilize ourselves, right, the way we need to. I'm seeing just some really traumatic stuff. Mothers killing their kids, brothers killing their sisters and their nieces, and suicide. Just the even bizarre behavior— there's a lot of bizarre behavior that's on social media. And so I think we got to address this. And one of the things that I found out, and this was some years ago, I started to study the topic of peace. And as I began to understand peace from a biblical perspective, I realized that it is one of the greatest strategies that the enemy uses to try to create, number one, hostility between ourselves, with our, with ourselves, our relationship with ourselves, being hostile with who we really are as individuals, and also to create hostility against us and God. And so I was wondering one day, I'm like, what is the opposite of peace? What is the contracting force against peace? And I realize it is hostility. And that's throughout the entire scripture. What the enemy wanted us to have is hostility towards God. And so I started to study this years ago, and so I'm kind of now drawn a bit back to it as I, I develop content on dealing with stress. Because chronic stress— you all know I'm into health, physical health, mental health, emotional health— and chronic stress is causing people to not be able to make clear decisions. As you know, the process is that our thoughts, which we have to get a hold of— our thoughts will create emotions, and our emotions will create decisions, and our decisions will create our actions. Our actions create our experiences. And the thing that's untold is when we continue to create these experiences over and over again, they create our identity. Our identity gets established in this, this routine. And so our identity is everything because we can't outperform our identity. And so when there is hostility against who you are as an individual, then there is a lacking of peace there, and it is almost impossible to connect with God and to know who you are, what you should be doing, why you are— I mean, you are just going to have a lack of clarity moving forward in your life, and it's going to be hard to experience true prosperity. And I'm talking about prosperity that comes from heaven. The Bible says, and you shall prosper as your soul prospers. And so there's a lack of prosperity in the soul. A lot of people are gaining money, influence, power, you know, all kind of other things, but there is a lack of prosperity in the soul. And so that is how we come upon this topic of peace. And like I said, I will do a few questions at the end of this. All right, um, so let me just ask you guys real quick, uh, in the comments, just throw it in the comments. How do you usually handle stress? And this is just me getting feedback from you. Like, like, for example, like, do you push through it? Do you shut down? Do you look for distractions? Like, how do you deal with it? How do you usually handle it? Do you eat? Do you get to eating because you're like, I'm so stressed, I want to eat? Let me get some answers on that. Pray, good. I eat when I'm stressed. Suppression, I zone out. I push through it. I overwork myself and get burned out. Try to get to the root of it. I do what I enjoy, that's good. Not good, I eat and shut down. Yeah, it's a lot of people who do, um, you know, it's a survival mechanism basically. Somebody say, I look for distractions by eating, watch TV, emotional eating, eat, usually bad habits. Yeah. So a lot of times if we are stressed out, a lot of people will wind up having really bad habits when it comes to that. And so when I talk about peace and the mystery of peace, it is a strategy. I'm telling you, it is a strategy, and I'm going to explain exactly why. Let's first, uh, create this foundation, and I'm gonna, uh, start with John 14:27. Says, peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. Not as the world gives do I give. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. And when I read this scripture, what I'm, what I'm feeling is that number one, peace is a gift that God gives you. It's such a gift, it's incomparable. It does not justify exactly what it does for us because it's such a gift that God gives. And God knows that if I don't give the gift of peace to you, if you don't enter into that peace— and I'm going to show you how you enter into the peace of God then you're going to have a troubled heart. You're going to have fear. It's going to be very easy to do evil. Psalms 34:14 says, turn from evil and do good. And then it says, seek peace and pursue it, meaning cultivate it, meaning that the solution to turning from evil to good is to seek peace and to pursue it, to cultivate peace. I had to ask myself a question one day, and that was because there's so many decisions that we make in life, right? And we come to a place where sometimes we just don't know if we're making the right decision, right? It's like, how do I know if I'm making the right decision or not? And I've gotten to the point where, you know, I'm a risk taker, so I, I believe in the sovereignty of God, meaning that if I am going in the wrong direction, God is like a GPS and he'll say, no, reroute yourself. But it's hard for sometimes you to even hear God if you don't move. And so there's some people that's just stagnant that needs to move But what I found about peace is that peace becomes an umpire. It becomes a guidance to the decisions that you make. And one of the ways to know, am I making the right decision, is if you feel peace within the decision. See, think about it. It's a lot of people that have certain relationships, they get into certain organizations, they start certain businesses, or, you know, they just make certain decisions in life, and when the decision don't pan out, you can always go back and they'll say something like, I knew in this relationship, or when I joined this, or when I did this, I, I just, I knew it was just not a peace there, but I still did it even though I didn't feel a peace. And what I'm telling y'all is that you have to start going with peace, because peace is an umpire and it guides you. Let the peace of God— this is Colossians 3:15— says, let the peace of Christ rule, meaning umpire. Rule in your hearts, meaning it's— it, it has to create rulership. It has to rule you. Peace has to rule you. And if you don't have peace, then you don't have a guidance to the decisions that you're making in life, and that's going to be a real huge problem. So in the scripture, it's described as an umpire, is described as as this thing that helps us to make decisions. And when we lose peace, we will lose clarity. The first thing, if you have a, a conflictual decision to make, a huge decision that you need to make, the first thing you have to wait and do is get peace concerning the decision. And, and that's peace in whatever direction you want to go in. And when you have peace, nothing else matters. Nothing else matters, but you have to find peace because peace will rule in your hearts. Okay, another thing that you want to understand about peace is that you're not always going to have understanding of it, of why you feel the way you feel when it comes to whether you have peace in a direction or not, right? And so Philippians, um, 4:7 talks about the peace of God which transcends understanding. So it's not always something that you can explain, you know. If, if somebody got— I just don't have peace about this, and it's like, well, why? Well, give me this, give me the, the reason. I don't know. I don't have peace, and peace has to rule in my heart because it guides me into decision-making and it guides me into clarity, and it's a gift that comes from God in order to make decisions. Right? So peace is not only a guard, it's a guide, but it also protects you from chaos, from fear and confusion. And so there, there has to be a way that you understand how to cultivate peace. And, and remember, there's a scripture that also says God is not the author of confusion but of peace. And so again, it's stating that if you don't have peace, you have an open door for confusion to come in, right? When peace is absent, it's also a sign usually that you're being misled by some kind of confusion, some kind of, uh, fear, some kind of guilt, anxiety, some kind of troubled heart. It is not a good sign when you don't understand what peace looks like, how to cultivate it, and how to have a real, um, a radar to know what it feels like, right? And so that's very important. All right, so let me continue to lay this foundation because there's a huge reason why. And I won't get into the depths of this, but I'm going to do some more lives and really dig more. But there is a strategy that comes from the enemy, and it's been there for a very long time. And that is that the enemy will use two main tactics to disrupt peace. Two main tactics. Number one, he is going to use guilt and shame. And the reason why is because guilt and shame is connected to the past. Now I'm gonna, I'm gonna put all of this together so you can understand the importance of this, because what I want to say, what I want to say is, and I'm going to help you to understand what this means, is that there's only one place that you technically live. There's only one place that you experience, and it's the, the present. You never experience the past, you never experience the future. At every point in your life, it is the present, right? The past is just a reference point to space, okay? And I can't get into the, the depth of that, but there is only one place that we experience, and it is the present. The past is no longer here. It's only the present. The future is yet to come, and when it does come, it will be the present. There is only one place that we can rule and we can make adjustments, and it's in the present. And I'm going to tell you why people are stuck. Now, number one, guilt and shame from the past. It keeps you tied to mistakes, failures, and regrets. And this is why it's very hard to experience peace if you are connected to the past, because peace only lives in one place, and I'm going to explain what that is. So number one, guilt and shame is connected to the past. Number two, this is the second strategy: anxiety about the future. So what the enemy does is fills your mind with the what-ifs. The fear of failure, the fear of this, a, a sense of, of impending doom to what will be that hasn't even came yet. And so some people are, or most people are, either in worry and anxiety or they are in guilt and shame. And when you are in either of those places, these are tactics that keep you out of the present. The reason why is because the present is the only place where God's peace resides. Let me say that again. The present is the only place where God's peace resides. Okay, and this is why in Matthew 6:34, God says, do not worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will worry about itself. Because The only place that's important in this moment is the present. The present— listen to me— the present moment is the only space where God exists. And that is why when they say, who sent you? Who do I say? Tell them, I am that I am. Not I was, or not I will be, but I am that I am. Because peace is found in the presence of God, and that is in the present. Be still and know that I I am God, right? And so here, here was the downfall of, of the Garden of Eden. Because think about it, when the enemy tried to come to Adam and Eve, they had all— they had always been naked, right? They had always been naked. Why all of a sudden now did they have knowledge that they were naked, right? And, and why did they hide themselves? They hid themselves because there was an awakening of almost like they came out of being. Because in the present, there is only one thing you can do, and that's be. That's it. That's all you can do is be in the present, right? And so anytime you come out of that place, you're connecting to something else that's not in the moment, right? If I— if all of a sudden I snapped my finger and you had amnesia about everything, there would be no worry. What would there be to worry about? Everything you worried about comes from a place of recognition. It comes from a reference point. If you worried about your bills and how you go, it's a reference point that maybe you, you know, oh, yesterday you didn't get the job, or you didn't get enough money, or that bill came through. Everything that is connected to worry and any type of pain, it comes from a reference point, right? And reference points make a huge difference in our lives, and I'll explain why. But Adam and Eve, they hid themselves because now they had a reference point to something that they had done. They came out of the existence of being connected to God because you can only do that in the present moment. They came out of that place and there was an awareness that opened up to them. And really what it was was a knowledge of time. It was a knowledge of a reference point instead of just being. Now all of a sudden there's this reference point. And that's why God took an angel and guarded so that they wouldn't eat from the Tree of Life because he's like, You can't stay in this state forever. And so that's when a sense of death opened up, and now there is a knowledge of time and, and good and evil, and there's a knowledge of space. At one point, there was no knowledge of any of that. When you are— you just— when you are in into being mode, you're not doing anything else but being. And that's why being is where God wants us, wants us to be, because That's how we have dominion. That's how we take over, is that we learn to be first. All right, it's the first stage of having dominion. Okay, and, and I don't want to go back in Genesis and talk too much about that, but there was an awakening of the existence of time. If you understand God in time, do you understand? And it's very hard to conceptualize because time was created for the world, okay, for the material things. And even at one point when we were connected to God, I don't think there was an understanding of time. Honestly, time was created for things to, to happen in, in the ecosystem of our world. And, and there was no such thing as death. There was no such thing as things dying and things like that. And so now we're in a place where they're like— time begins to affect us now. It didn't affect us then because there was no such thing as us dying at that point. We died when our eyes opened and we were able to now conceptualize a reference point to things that maybe we have done outside of the obedience of God. God does not exist in time, right? Time was created for us. And that's why the prophets, like in Isaiah, could say something like, by his stripes you are healed. Now, how, how can a prophet declare you are healed with something that never happened. And the reason why is because God, he does not exist within time, he exists outside of time, right? And so the present moment is that place where we tap into our connection with God. But the problem is that in our present, we are so distracted and we are so connected still to the past. We are connected to past traumas, we are connected to past relationships. We are connected to past experiences. And so when those past experiences and those past emotions come from those experiences we had, what happens is our present becomes occupied with the past. So if your present is occupied with the past, there is no place to create, and creation can only come from the present. And so that's called a cycle, by the way, when we are constantly living based off of something from our past. And that's why the trauma has to be healed, and that's why the narrative has to be changed, and that's why we always have to go backwards before we can go forwards, because we have to change the reference point. I'm gonna prove it in the scripture. Where is it? When, when Peter walked on top of water, right? Let me see if I can find the I think it's Matthew 14. Let me see if I can find Matthew 14 on here. All right, okay. Shortly before dawn, Jesus went out to them walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. It's a ghost, they said, and they cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them, take courage, don't be afraid. And Peter said, Lord, if it's you, tell me to come and I'll come. So he came. Then Peter got out of the boat walked on the water and came towards Jesus. Now, how was he able to do that? He was able to do that because he connected to the present. He connected to the I Am That I Am. However, when he saw the wind— here we go— he saw the wind and then he was afraid. See, the question is, what did the wind represent to Peter? What did the wind represent? See, the wind was a reference point. That's what happens when we're connect— we, we're connected to God, and then the enemy throws something externally that means something to us. And then when we start to look at the thing that means something to us, we disconnect from the present and we go back into history, or we go forward into, to, uh, some level of fear or some level of panic or, or some level of anxiety that hasn't happened yet.— and most, both things, a lot of times happening at once. The wind represented something to Peter because Peter had been in the midst of a lot of storms, and so those storms meant something to him. And so, but it's not— it's never the storm, it's never just the wind, it's what the wind means to you. See, when we have circumstances that happen in life, it is never what happened to you, it is what did this mean to me. What did this scenario of my father not being there in my life, or me not having the support— what did that mean to me? Did that mean that I was unlovable? Did that mean that I wasn't good enough? Did that mean that I wasn't qualified? Did that mean— what did this mean if I didn't get this job, that there's so many other people better than me, that I'm a fail? What does it mean to you? That, that's what I'm saying when I say you have to go back into the past to reconcile reference points. And what those reference points mean to you. Because see, to one person, a wind could represent a storm, and another person, the wind could represent momentum. It could represent your help of moving you in the right direction. Even obstacles can represent the fact that I know how to overcome, because obstacles are often there to make you strong. But it's all about the way you view the wind, the way you view the circumstance, the way you view what's happening in your world and around you, and The way you view it is going to get in the way of whether or not you have the ability to be in the present, to connect to God, and to obtain peace and cultivate peace. I hope that makes sense to you. Let me look at the comments real quick. And yes, somebody just said perception is everything, and perception is everything. It's a higher faculty. But guess what? You can't obtain the right perception. You can't have intuition. You can't have creativity You— there are just some things that you cannot have if you are not in a heightened state of emotion. And what these circumstances do, and what the past— they— what they do is they keep us in these primal emotions. And I can't get into all of that, but because your emotions are what makes you make decisions, the, the type of emotional state you're in, and peace has an impact on your emotions. And you make decisions based off your emotions. So you have to understand the importance of obtaining peace. Now let me say this, and I'm gonna get to answering some questions. So here's what I want you to know: when you lose peace, you lose your ability to hear clearly, to think wisely, and to act decisively. You lose that ability. Because when we talk about the present, again, it is the place where you're free from the memories of the past and the worries of the future. And it doesn't matter what's going on in your life. Like I said, if you could forget everything for a second, you would be at peace. Trust me, you would. You just don't realize it, but you really would. And it is— it's not easy disconnecting from everything that we know to be, um, real in our lives, but there's a way to do it. Trust me, and it takes intentional effort. It has to be cultivated. The present is really a sacred space. It is where God's grace meets your reality. And that's why the Bible talks a lot about meditation, because you can only meditate in the present moment. When you're meditating, you're not in any other space but the present, and you are fully connected. And so here's what you need to know, because I want to encourage you and say this: The past may be full of mistakes, but guess what? It is forgiven, and the Bible tells us that. The future may feel uncertain, but it is in God's hand. The Bible tells us that. And the only place that you can understand is if you stay in the present, and that's where you encounter God's presence and you receive his peace. And that's why it's so important, and that's why the enemy tries to keep us out of that place, and he tries to throw things in our direction that we look our— we, we put our gaze upon to throw us off, just like he did with feeder with— and he tried to use things that he knows is going to be traumatic for you. And that's why you got to get healed, because when those things are released upon you, you got to have the right perspective concerning those things. And so when you are anchored in the present, what you're doing is you're stepping into the peace that does surpass understanding, and it is that place that acts as a guard for your heart and for your mind. And most people are not guarded. It's like, I look— when I look on social media And I'm looking around the world, I'm like, these are the most unguarded people concerning their hearts and their minds. This is, y'all, this is a mystery. It is a mystery how peace can guard your heart and mind. And it's— and peace is not, again, it's not dependent on circumstance, because if it was, Peter wouldn't have been able to walk on water, and Jesus wouldn't have been able to go and take a nap in the middle of a storm. How was he able to take a nap in the middle of the storm? Because he had the right perspective. He's already seen, he's already visited, he, he's every place in life, he sees how this all unfolds. He understands. When you get to the point where you can see a storm and you can go lay down and take a nap, that's peace. And that is hard to explain to somebody. How can you take a nap in the middle of a storm? But the peace of God is a sign of God's will and his direction, right? It is a sign that I am in the right direction and I am in the will of God. And most people don't know when— and if you ask them Is this the right choice? Is that the— they have no clue, right? So the only thing that you really need to do is number 1, release the past. Number 2, anchor yourself in the present. Number 3, surrender the future because it takes care of itself, right? And then number 4, I would say use gratitude as a tool for peace, because when you use gratitude, you're no longer dictated by whatever the circumstances is that you're facing. It's just all about the fact that you have found a way to be grateful in whatever situation that you're in. And let me tell you something, there is a cost of staying stuck versus having peace. There's a cost. You know why? Because it does allow stress to wreak havoc on your mind and your body. And I see it every day. I see how chronic stress is tearing people's bodies and minds to pieces. And your relationships will suffer. When you're more reactive than responsive. And then you'll have decisions that are made out of fear that leads to regret and cycles of frustration. That's why people are mainly frustrated, right? And so peace is not just something that's nice to have, it really is an essential tool for living a life that God intended for you to live. So there is work to be done. And I'll say this too, peace does thrive in community, okay? So you're not designed to navigate life alone. You're just not. Even Jesus had his disciples for support, accountability. When he was headed to the cross and he couldn't carry the cross by himself, thank God he cultivated relationships because Simon was there to help him carry the cross. So I have to ask, who do you surround yourself with? Because who you surround yourself with matters. Having a safe space to share, to reflect, to grow, you know, helps to really accelerate your breakthrough. And people need breakthrough, right? So accountability— here's what I want to say— accountability does create breakthrough. And sometimes having someone guide you back to peace when life feels overwhelming is all you need. It's literally all you need. But peace is a tool, and I'm going to talk a little bit more about this in the future. I'm looking at some of the— I had a couple of questions that I'm gonna answer. I'm going to talk a little bit more about this and kind of dive into the nitty-gritty of it. But what I wanted you to have awareness of is that it is needed in order for you to have a life of success. It is absolutely needed, right? And a lot of people are lacking it, and they don't have a clue what peace even looks like. You know what, let me ask you this: when is the last time you felt real peace? And I'm not talking about like this idea of I've chosen to, to feel relaxed today, or like from a surface level. But I'm talking about that type of supernatural peace that is in the midst of chaos, right? When is the last time you felt that? If you're not feeling that on a day-to-day basis, then I'm telling you that some of the decisions that you're currently making are wrong. You are in the wrong direction, whether it's your job, whether it's your money, whether it's your relationships. Whether it's your body and what you should be doing with it, you're in the wrong direction. Because if you don't have peace— and there are people who go through storms. I go through so many storms, y'all have no idea. I go through a lot of storms, but I got peace. And because I choose to have peace, I receive the gift of God. Jesus is the King of Peace. And when you have relationship with him, you understand what peace looks like. No matter the storm, no matter what's going on around you, no matter your circumstances, no matter what is happening, you still feel it. It is a gift. It is something that cannot be explained. I, I see some people say like, it's been a long time since I've been in the midst of supernatural peace, where I felt a sense of peace in the midst of what I'm going through. Let me see some of the comments. I see some of you all's comments. I'm just looking through them right now. When my son was killed. Now that's definitely some miracle peace right there. When you're going through death and you're grieving of a situation that's actually happening, peace will get you through. Peace will determine life or death. And so I wanted to bring clarity to this because I don't feel like enough people understand what the peace of God feels like, or even how to cultivate it in their life. Now I'm speaking from biblical principles, but I also understand— I'm a very research-driven person, so I understand also the science back strategies that allow you to open up the door to feeling like this. And one of the things that I wanted to do just, uh, towards the end of the year and going into next year is I wanted to create a community. Not just any community. I don't like working with everybody. I'll just be honest and tell you that. I like only working with people who are— have high value for their personal development and that, that hold value towards growth people are not growing. If y'all don't realize it, there's a lot of people stuck in arrested development, and it's really sad because that's not where prosperity lies. If you're not growing, you cannot be prosperous if you're not growing in the way that God intends. And so what I wanted to do is I wanted to create a space for a community. And so what I'm doing is I am opening up an opportunity for community, but it's only for people who are in my particular programs that I, I release to them. It's not just— there's a lot of people right now that's reaching out, and I do a lot of coaching, one-on-one coaching and stuff. For some of y'all who don't know, I do reversal of chronic disease naturally. But right now I'm opening up an opportunity to be able to work with me and to be able to understand exactly what it feels like to get rid of stress, to break free from self-sabotage, because that's all going to happen if you don't understand how to deal with chronic stress, cultivate peace, and find clarity and direction in your life. Also making confident decisions. Too many people are indecisive. They don't know what they're doing. They don't know who they are. It is too many people who don't have a solid grips on who they are as individuals. They're in an identity crisis, right? And there's a lot of people who don't know how to reduce stress and overwhelm. There's a such thing as overwhelm, and it's breaking hearts, it's causing heart attacks. I see it every day. Some people don't understand how to reconnect with their true self, and that's the greatest relationship that you could ever have. Y'all sitting up, listen, looking at everybody else's life and business on social media. You don't even know your own business. You don't know what you're called to do, what you're called to be, what life has in store for you. You have to uncover who you are beyond the noise and the distractions. There's just so many distractions that people don't even know how to connect with who they are as individuals and then being able to create sustainable and lasting change. So I have a framework where I'm working with people to be able to improve this part of their life. And most importantly, chronic stress is to me the number one culprit to me behind chronic disease. And that's why I'm seeing so many people who have health issues because they're dealing with chronic stress. And so, um, I created a program that helps to address this, but anyone who's in the program has an opportunity to work with me. I'm doing a community where I'm going to do master classes, live Q&As, and, and really make sure that you're accountable and that you're growing, um, in the way, in the direction you're supposed to be growing, dealing with identity issues and purpose and getting rid of the stress, the overwhelm Being able to identify, like I say, self-sabotaging habits. All of that is, is what I'm addressing going into the new year. And so I want to give you an opportunity. I'm going to answer some questions, but I want to give you an opportunity to go to HBstressfree.com to get a little bit more information about that. Even if you're not— even if you feel like it's not for you, still go there, HBstressfree.com, and you'll have an opportunity to join the program and you'll have an opportunity to work with me It's gonna be fun, honestly. We're gonna, we're gonna do some, we're gonna do some real work. But what you're gonna find is that life and success and prosperity is going to open up for you because it doesn't happen outside of you dealing with these soulish issues and dealing with trauma and getting rid of that, the stress that is really overwhelming you and blocking you from peace. All right, so, um, I just want to give information about that. Now let me answer a few questions. That is in the chat. If you got a question, just throw it there and I'm going to do my best to answer it. All right, I hope that this added a little bit of value and helped you to understand some things about yourself and about God's peace. I'm going to be doing a few more of these just to address some things that I really want to address. I love working with you guys. All right, question: I don't feel at peace with the circle of people I interact with on a close level. How do I know if this is to grow me or otherwise. How do you know is when you're in that community, do you feel like— do you feel a sense of pulling to be higher, or do you feel like there's a toxicity? What kind of identity comes upon you when you're in that environment? You know, is it an identity where you feel like you are persuaded to gossip, or is it a— or you're persuaded to do things that you don't want to do? Or is it an environment where you feel compelled to reach higher and you're just uncomfortable because you're not quite maybe at that growth place that you need to be? You know, it's almost like if Jesus appeared before you and we look at his good works and the love that he has, it's not about the fact that we haven't necessarily done what he's done. It's like we're looking up to him, you know what I mean? It's not like we belittle ourselves because that's not what he wants us to do. He doesn't want us to like belittle ourselves to the point where it's like, oh, woe is me, I'm I'm unfortunate, I'm a sinner, I'm, I'm just never going to be where I need to be in God. It's the fact that he gives us a blueprint and we look up to him, right? We don't look down on ourselves, we look up to him. So when you're in those environments, do— are you looking down on yourself like you're becoming less, or are you looking up like, I maybe feel inadequate because I'm not where I want to be as far as this growth is concerned? Because I don't know when you say a circle of people, these could be toxic people, I have no idea, or these could be like just people that make you feel uncomfortable because you're not just yet on their level and they're going to stretch you. That's a different feeling. So it depends on the feeling, but if you feel like you want to become more when you're in those environments, they're probably a good environment. But if you feel like you become less in those environments, then it's not a good environment. And see, religion makes you become less, you know what I'm saying? Like, religion boils you down to nothing and makes you try to work really hard to be something that you can never be, in a sense. But when you get in God's presence, you want to become more. You realize that you're inadequate and you look to him for help, you know what I'm saying? And so it's a different feeling when you get in those environments. Okay, let me look at some more questions. Where was that other question? I'm trying to look for that other question because I really wanted to answer that. All right, how do you navigate having peace with a decision you believe came from God but there is some lack associated? I'm still not understanding that question, but I'm going to answer it the way I think you're asking it. You have a decision that you believe came from God, but it sounds like there's some conflict with it, but you're not sure. Like maybe somebody else has said something to you or whatever. The thing you have to be very careful about when it comes to decisions that you feel like came from God is that sometimes what I noticed is that it is sometimes easier to go ahead and make the decision that you have the most peace with, even if it turns out to be wrong. And the reason why I say this is because when you go in the direction of peace, it's almost like— again, it's like a GPS system where if your heart is open to God and you really desire to make the decisions that will bring you the best outcomes, then you will start to notice if you are in the wrong direction. And that is okay, honestly, because when you are in the wrong direction, you learn things from it. So it's not a win or lose situation, it's a win or learn situation. And sometimes going in the wrong direction can teach you more things about yourself than going in the right direction. Life is a journey, and it's a journey of growth. Life is about growth. Everything that has to do with your life is about growing you, whether it's your relationships. I'm a mom, and if I make bad decisions as a mom sometimes, or if I'm not doing everything correctly as a mom, I'm going to learn from that, and it's going to add on to the journey that, that I have as I move forward in life. So everything is about learning. The problem comes in when people don't learn from the mistakes that they make. And far too many people don't learn from their mistakes, and they start doing the same things over and over again, and that becomes a problem. And most people are just not making good, healthy decisions because they use the part of their brain that's in fight or flight— can't get into that, but it's called the amygdala. The amygdala is what makes you make decisions based off of self-defense mechanisms, basically. And the prefrontal cortex is the executive decision-making part of your brain, and if you don't use it, you will lose it. And so you always want to be making decisions and gaining clarity to make those decisions on an executive high-order level, because if you don't, you're going to find yourself making very bad decisions all the time. And I might want to add that indecisiveness is a bad thing. It makes a poor leader when you're indecisive. Again, go in the direction of peace. But indecisiveness is a form sometimes of self-sabotage and procrastination. Sometimes procrastination can be good because it's telling you that you need a break, but other times it's really just something that causes you to self-sabotage. And a lot of times it just comes because of poor identity issues and lack of self-belief. Like, I don't really believe in myself, so I want to put situations in my way to self-sabotage me so that I don't have to live up to the expectancy of me failing once again. It's a vicious cycle that happens. But I, I hope I hit on a little bit of that because I can't quite understand how you're asking that question, but that probably still gave you a little bit of value. And listen, let me just say this also. I'll give an example before I get off. There was a lady who wanted to make some decisions and felt like— it felt like it might be the right decision to make because, uh, other people wanted her to make it. And what I asked her, um, she was over 50 years old, and so I asked her, I said, hey, is this something you want to do? And she said, no, it's not really something I want to do. And she's— she was 50 years old with grandkids. And I said, here's where, like, some of y'all— I'm just gonna be honest— y'all are so spiritual that you make no common sense half the time. I talk to people all the time that is what they think is spiritual, and I'm not talking about this particular person. I'm making a side comment because this person was asking for wisdom. She was doing the right thing. She's full of wisdom, and I think she was doing the right thing with asking for guidance. But I'm telling y'all, it's people out there that just so, so like, uh, I'm waiting on God to speak to me from a cloud. Like, God ain't always gonna speak to you from the cloud. Like, you need to make some decisions based off of just the Bible, you know what I'm saying? There's enough answers in the Bible that if you get in the Bible, you can find the answer to pretty much everything in life. And some people just waiting on some crazy experience, and they live their life based off of some emotional experience where they got to have some kind of heightened level of spirituality before they step into the water and do all of this other stuff. And it's just bizarre, and it's weird, and it's not relatable to anybody. And I tell people all the time, when you get to that place, you're going to disconnect from just common sense. You know, I get people all the time who like, I got my spiritual life together and I pray and I fast and I do all of this other stuff, but my finances and my health ain't in order. And I tell them, then you ain't that spiritual, boo, because first natural, then spiritual. And your natural life is supposed to represent your spiritual life. Our lives are like open books read by people. Did you not see the stars, the sky, the moon, and all of the beautiful scenery that God placed in this earth? It was a representation of heaven on earth, as it is in heaven. So if your life is raggedy, it cannot represent the spirit. You're not spiritual if you're broke and you're sick. I'm sorry, I don't care how much you pray and how much you go to church and how much you do whatever you do. It ain't spiritual, all right? If it ain't natural, it ain't spiritual. Like, your life is supposed to reflect that. So we gotta make sure that when we're making decisions, we don't lose common sense. But anyway, let me get back to the story. And so I said, I don't know what this is about, let me see what God is speaking or what God says. See, the thing is, when you have the will of God and your desire in you, you can live by that, you know, when you're a worshiper, right? And so I said I just can't see God wanting you to do something you just absolutely don't even desire to do that's going to keep you from your grandkids and your family and stuff. You're over 50 years old at this point. Like, what— this is enough time for you to have cultivated the desire of God within your own heart so that you can be led by the desires that God places in your heart. If you don't get to that point by 50 years old, I Well, you just gotta go back and get some real serious counseling. But when you get a certain age, you— there's a place where you should know by now, you should have cultivated certain desires where you don't need a, a miracle and a, and a, an anointed rag to, to lead you and guide you in the right direction. Like, some of this stuff— and I'm not saying I'm, I'm all for miracles and stuff, I'm being extreme right now, okay? I'm being funny. In a sense, because I think some people are too over the edge. Let's get a little common sense, because God wanted you to have that too, right? He gave you a natural brain. If God is not concerned with the natural, why he give you a natural body and a natural brain, right? And so let's, let's just stop being so weird, because the more weird you are, you're not going to be able to make good, clear decisions. And let's understand that heaven and earth must agree. Like, the way God put his love and his beauty in this earth, he left us without any excuse. He said, you can see me in everything. You can see me in the sun, in the sky. You can see me— look around, look at the beauty, look at the complexity of how I created you. You're made in my image. So we gotta stop thinking that they're not connected. The natural and the spirit is very much so connected. And honestly, God can do more with you when you get your natural lives together, because— and the reason why is because he got more to work with. See, he uses parables. He gotta use things that you understand and know naturally to teach you spiritual things. That's what parables are. But guess what? If you ain't got nothing, you don't know nothing, you ain't— how He pretty limited in how he can reach you because he's got to use natural things to teach you spiritual principles. So if in the natural you are all uneducated and you're sick and you're broke and you're pulled down and you're full of poverty and you don't know how to have a conversation with somebody, how the heck are you going to understand spiritual principles? You don't understand spiritual principles if you don't have nothing going naturally, right? So let's stop this weirdness and let's be normal human beings, because that's what we are. We are spiritual beings, but we are also human beings, and we got to understand that God uses natural things to teach us spiritual principles. So the more educated you are, the more God— the more there's probably resistance. Yes, because you probably got a little bit of ego if you have too much naturally. So I get the other side of this. But I am saying that God can also communicate with you spiritual things. So let's just— let's not think we're spiritual and our natural lives are all out of order. I don't believe that. I think your life, that the thing that people can see, the way you speak to people, your level of patience— like, are you unloving? Are you kind? Are you generous? Or are you evil? Do you talk about people all the time? Are you full of toxicity? Are you impatient? Are you honking at people on the road? Are you cussing people out? That there's no spiritual connection to all of that. I don't understand these spiritual people who are as mean as a rattlesnake. Like, people are evil and they call themselves spiritual and they want to get up and start speaking in tongue and trying to act like they so holy and high, and it's disgusting. I told y'all, I just say what I want to say. That's my thought on it. So let's get some common sense going and let's, let's grow the heck up, all right? Let's grow the heck up. I'm sorry, y'all. Y'all, I really do go on tangents because I just get sick of this, this stupid stuff that I see. Yeah, let's get normalized, and then people will actually listen to us if we're kind and stuff. Remember Jesus said, Peter, do you love me? Because y'all, you know, people— I love God, I love God— how do we see that? You can't— that's not a— that's not a theory. That's not something you could just throw in the air like that happens. Then feed my people. Treat my people good, walk in the fruit of the Spirit, live by the Spirit of God, walk in the Spirit. Like, people talking about they spiritual and they love God, they don't walk by the Spirit. They're evil and nasty and toxic and all— and get on social media and just blast people. Like, that's not cool. And most of this stuff that we're seeing now is, to me, it's mental instability. And that's what we're seeing. I don't think we call it that, but it is really mental instability. I can tell because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. I can tell by the way people speak and the way people speak about people and how to get on social media and the stuff they say and the cruelty that comes out. I can tell that they are not mentally well. Brain issues are happening all over, y'all, and we got to get this in alignment. All right, I'll be back on to answer a few questions and establish some things. Do not forget to visit HBstressfree.com because I'm going to tell you now, there are some things that I will talk about there that I will never talk about here. And we get to the, the nitty-gritty of things and really get you on the right path. And it's a lot easier when I can work with people consistently and really monitor their growth and monitor what they're doing right or wrong and really give that personal accountability. Also, I am doing an extra bonus. I forgot to say this, and I'll say this before I leave— an extra bonus for, uh, the first 30 people who join. There's an extra bonus. I'm not saying it yet, but you're gonna love it. Again, HBstressfree.com, and I'll be back on to talk about some more stuff, answer some more questions, get us ready for the new year. So I'll see you inside the program. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you guys. All right, bye-bye.