The SECRET To Achieving Anything with Jon Gordon

You're having belief and optimism along the way. We see the power of belief. What you believe determines what you become. And we've all started to believe something more positive as a result of that, we become it. If you believe you're not worthy, if you believe you don't deserve success, if you believe you're a failure, if you believe you're a loser, that's the life that you will create. And too many people believe that. And that's the life they create. No, you have to believe it in order to achieve it, receive it, and create it.

Oh, man, I've been looking forward to talking to you. I had a chance to catch you in Ed's newest podcast, and I got so many questions.

So a couple things. I'll just. I'll speak personally where I'm at in my journey. So I've been in this weird place, and until I met. Met with you and Ed during Max Out Live, I didn't know I was. Wasn't the only one, which is I'm a Jesus guy, but I'm also an energy guy, and I'm having a heck of a time trying to explain my energy beliefs and things of that nature to some of my. My fellow believers in Christ. So help me understand and help me articulate to them kind of how quantum can be true as well as faith in Christ can be true.

Yeah, What a. What a deep question. I mean, do we have five hours to go?

Let's go.

But, yeah, Ed and I talked about that, and it got such a great response. So many people reached out, because I think people have a lot of the same questions, like, we know when we're living in this world, we know everything is energy equals MC squared. So anything that is matter is energy. You're made up of over 100 trillion energy vibrating cells.

Yeah.

Even when you look at the world, you can actually see that the world is actually energy. It's not physical. Everything is vibrating. It appears physical, but it's not. So then what are we? We are spirit. We are spirit with a soul. That soul is the unique expression, the spiritual DNA of who you are. And Stephen, you have your soul that is unique to you. I have my soul. That soul is actually expressing itself in this reality that we're living in right now. And it's basically a quantum field, but you can call it consciousness. Yeah, quantum field. And again, we see the visuals of the sun, the moon, we see the sky, we see the ground, but it's all energy. At the quantum field, we also know that everything is connected we'll get to that in a second. But you are spirit with a soul. And then you appear to have flesh or a body, but we know it's just an energetic body because when you die, it turns the dust. Think about that. It really turns the dust. So what are you? Your spirit with a soul. And then we're connected to a larger spirit. God is spirit, and the Bible talks about this. And so God is spirit. We're made in the likeness and image of God. So we are spirit. And then we have this soul which is this unique expression of us creating this energetic reality that we are living in right now. Again, with the framework of the, of the quantum field that we're, that we're experiencing all of this.

Yeah.

And so people often look to consciousness thinking it's inside the brain. It's not inside the brain. Yeah, Our brain allows us to experience consciousness. Our brain allows us to experience this reality. But think about it. Right now, your brain is firing synapses.

And literally by firing synapses. And by the way, every neuron in your brain is actually a transmitter and receiver. Every neuron. So your brain is actually an antenna. We can get to that in a second. But. Yeah, but your brain is an antenna. Antenna. Every neuron is a transmitter and receiver. So right now you're going. And that is literally how you're making sense of the world that you're living in. How do we make sense of the world? Through vibrations, sound frequencies, wavelengths. Right.

We're.

We're experiencing the world through all forms of energy. Electromagnetic fields, radiation frequencies, wavelength spectrums. So everything is energy. So you're actually projecting this reality almost like a 3D projector of the quantum field. And then you're experiencing, experiencing it. And then someone said, well, John, how could I be sensing you and you sensing me and how we all experiencing the same thing? Because there's one large quantum field that God created that we are part of in this energetic reality. Now, again, going back to the soul, how is Christianity relevant here? Well, when you understand that Jesus stepped in from the eternal beyond space and time into this reality, this, that we're living in, to teach us what, to tell us what. He talked about the temporary nature of our existence.

Yeah, yeah. And bringing heaven to earth, rather than.

Right, right. Talked about temporary nature of our existence, about don't store up your treasures right here, do it in heaven. But he also talked about the kingdom. And the kingdom is here right now. So we're actually eternal souls living a temporary space time reality. But the eternal is right here. Right now. And so we're eternal beings living in this temporary reality, and the kingdom is right here. And our whole job is to bring heaven to earth, live the kingdom principles here on earth, make earth like heaven. So it makes sense that he stepped in from the eternal to actually tell. Tell us how to live our lives in this way. And this new book that I wrote, the One Truth, explains it and brings it all together. Because once you understand this, Jesus even makes more sense to those who are non believers. Because if you're. If you're not an energetic person, or if you're. If you're not, we'll say you're not a Jesus person. If you're not a Jesus person and you're all into energy and you're all into spirit, well, that still doesn't explain the separation that you feel. And actually the connection that you long for in scripture says nothing could separate you from. From the love of God. So you're actually always looking for this connection and this oneness with the love of God, with the Creator of the universe. And when you don't have that connection, you feel separate, you feel disconnected. You feel anxiety and fear and worry and doubt and insecurity. When you're connected, you feel joy and peace and love and purpose. And I was talking to several people the last few days who came to me for advice. And they told me how fearful they felt. They told me how anxious they are, what they're going through. I said, you're probably feeling very disconnected from God. You probably feel far away from God, don't you? And they said, yeah, how'd you know? Because if you were connected to God, you wouldn't be feeling all the things that you're feeling. That's how I know those are the symptoms of not being connected. And we've all had this feeling something's missing. Yeah, we're longing for something, that there's something missing in our life. And that's your soul saying, I need that connection. I long for that connection. And when there is that separation between God and you, right, and that connection, there's a void, there's a gap. And in that gap, we're always trying to fill the gap with different things that make us feel better. Substances, drugs, drinking, video games, distractions. It might even be work. It might be, I am filling up with success to make money because I actually feel this void. Obviously, making money is better than, say, you know, doing crack and ruining your life. But at the same time, they're both symptoms of. I'm trying to feel the void that exists. And I really long for this connection and this oneness. Once you understand everything is about oneness and separateness, you will realize that there's a force that's always trying to divide you. Going back to Jesus.

Yeah.

He came here to restore you and unite you back to God to experience the oneness that you're meant to experience. The power and the peace and, and the joy and the love that you're meant to experience. So it all makes sense once you understand it.

Yeah.

Like Buddhists, as someone who practiced Buddhism years ago and was an energy guy and was a big meditation guy, it's so funny because the Buddhists believe in non attachment and that is the key to happiness and life. To be non attached, actually. The key to life and happiness is to be attached.

Yeah.

The creator of the universe to be connected.

Yeah. No, I love that. See, that's why I wanted you to explain it because I've been like going back and forth with, you know, I got, I've got close friends who are very much in energy. I got close friends that are very much into Jesus. I got close friends that are now somewhere in the, like between the both of them. And it's. I feel like there's almost a new movement coming of an explanation of this oneness, of this connectedness, of this.

This beingness with other consciousness, if that makes any sense.

Yeah, I mean there's again, there's this consciousness that we're all part of. Namaste means the spirit in me bows to the spirit in you. We all know that deep down we have this oneness and connection with others. A team that has oneness and connection is a stronger team. A team that actually has division and bitterness and envy of each other doesn't perform very well. A marriage that is not connected will be a weaker marriage. When you have a strong marriage, you feel united, you feel connected, you feel one with your spouse. When you feel separate from your spouse and you, you're not communicating well and you're not connecting with each other, what happens? You feel this weakness that, that, that arises, you feel this anxiety, you feel worry, concern, what's going on with our relationship. And then what happens? You seek for that oneness. Now, if you do in a healthy way, you'll find ways to connect back together. If it's an unhealthy way, if it's unhealthy, then what will happen is you'll start trying to find that connection with someone else. And people do this all the time with God. They really want the connection to God, that would be the healthy way, but they actually do it with cheap substitutes in a very unhealthy way. And so you can actually see how oneness and separateness plays out in everything. What happens is the energy. People need to realize that in my search for and my feeling, knowing that there's this spirit and they call consciousness, what they need to know is that. That Jesus is. Is. Needs to be at the root of that.

Yeah.

Because he is the love and the forgiveness and the healing that allows you to actually create that oneness with the Father, with. With God. And those who are big Jesus people who may not be very spiritual people, they go to church every day and they know about Jesus, but they've not experienced the spirit.

Yeah.

Of Jesus. And Paul says in Romans that a mind governed by the flesh will lead to death. A mind governed by the spirit will lead to life.

Yeah.

So what you'll find, actually, all throughout the scriptures, you'll actually find. Throughout the scriptures, you'll find examples where these prophets, these apostles, these disciples at different times are all talking about oneness with the Spirit, with the Father and Jesus as the. The reason. There's a way for that. And then the Holy Spirit, you being one with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit living through you. See, here's health. Health is that we have a soul. The soul must actually bathe in the spirit to be healthy. The soul is the integrator between the flesh and the spirit. If the soul is not healthy, if the soul has patterns of wounds and negative thinking and betrayal and trauma, that soul is a wounded soul. Well, guess what happens if the flesh is driving the bus and driving the soul? It leads to death. It leads to more wounds. It leads to more promiscuity. It leads to more bad behavior. It leads to more dysfunction. It leads to more challenges if the flesh is driving it. But if the soul is bathing in the spirit, the Holy Spirit, guess what happens? That soul gets healed. See, a lot of times people, they'll give their lives to Jesus and they. They say, okay, I accept Jesus, and they are saved. They accept salvation, but they don't experience healing.

Yeah.

Because they haven't taken the time to bathe their soul in the spirit. Take a pickle, put the pickle in cucumber juice. Or, sorry, pickle juice. Take the. Take the cucumber, put it in pickle juice. What happens if you just submerse it once? Okay. Take the cucumber, put it in pickle juice. If you do it just once, doesn't do a whole lot. Yeah.

Not A whole lot.

Right. But if you, if you submerge it into that pickle, juice soaks in for a long period of time. Wow. It gets pickled, it gets transformed. What did Paul say? Don't be conformed by the patterns of the. Of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Yeah.

So what happens when you're bathing in the spirit? It actually renews your mind. And that happens through prayer. It happens through surrender. It happens through trust. I actually just recently created a prayer acronym to help people pray, because that's the way you're going to experience and connect with the creator of the universe. So again, you may go to church every day, but you're not connecting with the spirit of God and allowing the spirit to heal you. Then you heal the soul. And then when you heal the soul, what happens is the soul as the integrator now drives the flesh, now it's done in a healthy way. And this is pretty wild when I say integrator, the word integrity comes from the word integer, which means whole and complete. When a soul has wholeness and completeness to it, it has integrity. It is a healthy soul, and it drives healthy actions. When you have a wounded soul, gaps and separation in your soul, and the wounds cause you to then act out of the. Of that wound.

I am. I am that.

Yourself. And then you infect others.

Yeah, I am that person. A lot of my audience knows about my, my homelessness and some of the things I've been through. And throughout all of that, that entire season of life, two things. First of all, I looked at adversity as something to avoid rather than lean into. Learn that. Learn that there's a different truth there. And more importantly, I also learned that I had an orphan spirit. Like, I had a spirit within me that.

Longed for connection. But because I didn't have a family connection or family around, you know, your, your core parents, your. Your mother, your father, they weren't around very much. Um, I longed and I tried to fill it up with all kinds of things, you know, girls, business. You know, I was telling somebody recently, I got a good friend of mine, you know, he's very, very. What's the word I'm looking for? He's very much enjoying the fact that he gets to look out and see some levels of success. He's like, well, you've done this, you're doing this, you've got this, you're doing that. And I was trying to tell him, said, no, you don't understand. Like, I've been my most Successful. And at my most successful peak, I was also my most unhappy.

Right.

Because of that connection piece, you know, so let's talk about the. The higher state of mind, you know, because I felt like nowadays I'm operating more in a higher state of mind rather than where I was with a homelessness or even in that moment where I quote unquote, had extreme success but still didn't feel happy. So how do we transition?

Yeah, the more you experience that oneness and that connection, you're going to experience a higher state of mind. You experience.

More positive thoughts, more joyful thoughts, higher level thoughts. Whereas when you have a disconnection and you feel separate, you're gonna have a lower state of mind. More. More fear, more anxiety, more worry, and more doubt. What characterizes a low state of mind? A lot of clutter. Yeah, Fear, anxiety, doubt and worry. So all these negative thoughts would characterize a high state of mind. A lot of clarity, a lot of focus, a lot of positive energy, a lot of confidence, a lot of courage. And we all know on our journey in life, we've experienced those moments where we had that high state of mind. We're in that zone.

Yeah, that's right.

Flowing. And we're feeling great, connected to everything. And then we've had the experience of that low state of mind with the fear, the anxiety, their doubt, the doubt and the worry. And it's amazing when you really think about your life, like, the circumstance happens, the same circumstance can happen. And when you're in a low state of mind, it bothers you.

Yeah.

And yet the next day you can be in a high state of mind and the same circumstance can happen. You rise above it, you move on. Maybe you're in sales and you get that. You get that rejection. And if you're in a low state, wow. It really bothers you. You start to question yourself.

Yeah.

You question your capability. You start thinking about your future. Should I even do this? You're in a high state. You're like, all right, next call, let's go.

It's true.

I got this. The next one's going to be great. In sports, you make a mistake, you're in a low state, it really bothers you. You start to question your swing. If you're a baseball batter, go over three zero for four, you start to question everything. If you, that same baseball batter in your high state, you're like, all right, next to bat. I got this. Let's go. So it all comes down to our state of mind. It's never the circumstance. It's never the environment. It looks like it is, but remember, it's just a projected reality.

Yeah.

So it's always inside out that we're experiencing life in our reality. So it's always going to be inside, not outside. So recognizing that the outside has no power over you, we create from the inside out. This is what you talk to Damon west about, the Coffee Bean. That's why I love the Coffee Bean message so much. Because here I was teaching inside out for years before the Coffee Bean ever came around. Because I saw the power that we create from the inside out. The Coffee Bean message was that analogy to explain how you overcome the outside by the power on the inside. The minute you focus inside out, you actually raise your state of mind because you're not looking at the circumstance anymore thinking that it bothers you. You're not looking at the circumstance thinking it has any power over you. For instance, pressure is believing the lie that anything outside you can impact how you feel. Guess what? Nothing outside you can impact how you feel. It looks that way, but it cannot once you recognize that it has no power over you. The fans, if you're an athlete, yelling and cheering or booing has no power of you if you recognize this truth. So the minute I'm looking inside instead of outside, I start to have more power when I'm looking outside instead of inside. More clutter, more thought, more worry, more anxiety. And then guess what happens? I start to spiral down. It's like the roller coaster of life. We're all on this roller coaster of highs and lows. High states of mind, low states of mind. The truth is, you will experience both on your journey through life. Why? Because this is the existence. We're in the world of duality, light and dark. We're not experiencing the eternal oneness because there are moments when we're connected and feeling one and then also feeling separate and feeling disconnected. Those moments and those different moments cause different levels of states of mind and different thoughts.

Yeah.

So as we go through this highs and lows, when you go into a low state of mind, you actually think you're on this roller coaster that's going to crash. And if you've never been on a roller coaster before, for instance, say you've never been on one, you don't know that it goes back up. So you feel like it's going to crash and you think that card is going down and you're going down with it. You want to jump off in those moments, you want to escape. And this is the reaction that you have when You're a seeker. When you're an addict, you're trying to escape the discomfort that you feel, the lack of connection. And so as a result of that, you start to fill that void with cheap substitutes that make you feel better but cause you to have relief. Temporary relief, but not restoration.

Yeah.

Of the soul release.

No redemption there for sure.

We're relief but not restoration. So what happens is you keep escaping and causing more and more of a lower state of mind. The other problem with this is when you're in the low state, what happens is you're now seeking answers.

Yeah.

You're trying to find a solution and you think something's broken. And I meet so many kids today that have all these negative thoughts, are in a lower state. They think something's wrong with them. And the key to tell these kids and all the adults is there's nothing wrong with you. You're experiencing the highs and lows that are natural. And when you're in that low state, don't jump off the roller coaster. Nothing needs to be fixed. Just stay on it and remember this truth. Right? It's never the circumstance. And what happens is you will start to ride that roller coaster right back up to a higher state of mind when you stay up on the roller coaster. This is an incredible teaching for people to just stay on the roller coaster. Even though you're feeling discomfort, you're feeling pain, you're feeling anxiety, it feels like the outside is affecting you. Now you reclaim your power. You remember the truth inside out love instead of fear, which we can get to. And the minute you do that, because love casts out fear, love takes you to a higher state. Fear is trying to bring you down to that lower state. I'm going to focus on love. Fear will dissipate. It's like turning a light on in a dark room. You then ride that roller coaster right back up to that higher state. And that is the been full of life. And the more you know this, what happens is the more you're aware of this and recognize this, instead of having these highs and lows, these big steeps, these big, steep highs and lows, you'll have more of a more level even kill. Yeah, more of an even kill. Instead of all these deeps. Highs, deep highs, highs and lows.

Yeah, man, I love that. Oh, my God.

My second time really talking about this. So I, you know, a little bit.

I. I'm. I'm just soaking it in. Dude.

I literally wrote it all. I literally wrote it all. And Ed and I went to, like, partially now we're going even more deeper, sharing even more about it with this. And. And I've got to figure out, like. Because in the book, I lay it all out. So it's easier as you read in the book. Harder to explain every single nuance.

Yeah.

As you're explaining it.

Well, I'm just so happy that someone stood up to the plate to do it. Right. We're talking about a very. A very deep subject, but I found that the. There's a very deep root in people, including myself, my. You know, pastor. In fact, one of the things that I. That I mentioned to you that you have said is it's important to talk to yourself rather than listen to yourself. And I can tell you, when I was. When I was the homeless kid, when I was trying to go through all that stuff and going through all the drama and then going through the embezzlement that I went through with my businesses before and all this kind of stuff, I was very much listening, just. And my mind was giving me all kinds of reasons why I should be, why I was a failure, and why I should have seen it coming and all this kind of stuff. And the only thing that shook me out of that was really three factors. Prayer, meditation, and learning to talk to myself.

Let's get to it. Why does meditation and mindfulness work? For years, people talk about mindfulness and meditation, but they don't even know or understand why it actually works. The one truth explains why it works. It actually lessens the amount of thoughts that you have.

Yeah.

You have less clutter. And when you have less clutter, you start to have a higher state of mind, and you allow for a connection to happen in that moment. But here's the interesting thing. It helps with the connection. But does healing necessarily take place in that connection? I believe it allows for it. I was talking to our friend Irwin McManus, and I was talking to him about relational psychology, how the latest research shows that you can heal in a loving relationship. Well, now they're starting to look at, can you heal with a higher power? Is that possible? So Erwin says, can you heal with a stranger? John, can you heal with a stranger? I said, no, it has to be a loving relationship. Well, that higher power is just a stranger.

Yeah.

And it's just a impersonal force. Then it's not going to heal you. It has to be a personal God.

Yeah.

It has to be a God of love that loves you, that cares about you, that has a plan for you. That's Jesus. I came here to heal you. To take your burden, to take your pain so that you don't have to go through life with this pain, with this anxiety. You don't have to die every day or feel like you're dying at the die to yourself. Let me live through you and I will restore you, redeem you and energize you. Think about the difference there, right? So it's that personal relationship, it's that love that takes you to that higher state. And so when I'm talking to student athletes, I talked to one yesterday who was really struggling. She's at her wit's end. And I was. I know her, dad. When I'm talking to people like this, I try to make it really, again, simple for them and just teach them the basics and help them understand that. That love cast fear. And the minute you focus on the love, right, the love, then the fear starts to dissipate. But there is a force of fear trying to sabotage you. There's. There's a. There's a force in evil that is trying to distract you from your purpose, from your destiny, divide you from God, discourage you along the way, and cause you to have a lot of doubt. And when that happens, I call those the five Ds, right. There's doubt, there's distortion, there's discouragement, there's distraction and there's division. And when you have these 5Ds, it'll wreak havoc on your mental health. And they cause you to experience the low state of mind. We have to realize that it's not just about staying on the roller coaster. It's knowing negative thoughts and how negative thoughts work. And once you know that, then they're not coming from you.

Yeah.

Because who would ever choose to have a negative thought? Would you ever choose a negative thought?

No.

The minute you realize, wait, I wouldn't choose a negative thought. Where they coming from? They come from consciousness. They come from the spiritual place. There's this battle going on in your soul. Good and evil.

Yeah.

Evil feeling. Your mind, your soul. Mind and soul are one in the same. Mind, soul, not. We're not talking about the brain. Mind, soul. Those thoughts come in to distract you, to cause doubt to lead to your demise, to lead to your defeat. And that's the battle going on, going back.

It seems like that's also like the good fight, Right? You know, Paul talks about the good fight, right? So it's like you have the duality which then perfects the soul over time as you face different adversities, as you choose to talk to yourself, to Be connected to spirit. As you choose the next step and you, you choose to shun the. The call it, the, The. The doubt, the discouragement, and all this kind of stuff, right?

Yeah. So the distractions come in and leads to division. The discouragement leads to the vision. All those things lead to division. So what do they do? They separate you from God. See, thoughts are the mechanism that separates you from God, your creator. But then we have these positive thoughts that allow us to connect and unite. And we allow. And we have these feelings of. Of love. It's hard to describe what love is, but there's knowing that love casts out fear and knowing that love is what unites us to God. And the minute we experience love, then we experience connection. Connection creates clarity, clarity creates confidence, and confidence creates courage. And that's why the men. You focus on love, then fear does dissipate. It's why when you are connected, you have clarity. It's why when you have clarity, okay, I now see things so clearly. You're in the zone. You have so much more confidence. And when you're confident, you have all this courage.

Yeah.

And so that is the, the battle going on is. It is the good fight, the ultimate fight is the battle between good and evil. And you nailed it, though. You said it makes you stronger.

Yeah, it does. It does. Well, check this out. You know, I was just thinking, you know, that it is hard to put your finger on love and explain love. Right. You know, Paul tried explaining it in three different, you know, three different categories. We've got my grandfather, who I was fortunate to spend some time with Catherine not too terribly long ago. I was able to kind of share a little quick story with her. He told me, he said, when you start out on this quote, unquote, thought leadership journey, start putting yourself out there, start teaching, start training, start speaking, all this kind of stuff. He says, I want you to always remember you need to be one part lion and one part lamb. And then I was like, what does that mean?

Like?

He's like, well, you need to have the courage of the lion. You need to have the love of the lamb. You need to have the wisdom to know the difference of when to use it. And he's like, you know, he gave me an example of Peter, obviously having the. The boldness of Christ command a couple times to shake, you know, Peter out of his stuff. At the same time, he also came to Peter a couple times with loving. With a loving hug, so to speak. You know. So as we're trying to dig into love, right, if the if the love is the source, that ends up becoming the freedom. How do we define the love in such a way that even the most masculine man who's whatever will just let go and let God? Yeah.

Love is power. Love is strength. Masculine men, if you're lifting weights, you're actually a lot stronger when you're thinking a loving thought versus a fear based or negative thought. And this is actually proven. So love is the most powerful force in the universe. How do we explain it to masculine men? Michael Jordan, he was the greatest of all time. You could argue that LeBron is. But those who still think my think Michael is. What was his secret to success? Was it fear? No, it was love. What did he love? He loved competition. Yeah. He loved to battle. He loved to compete. He also loved to destroy you. He wanted to humiliate you on the court. But while he's playing, he is loving the moment, loving the battle. He's not thinking about failure. He's not worried about the outcome. Think about people today. Worried about what people think, worried about performance, worried about what others say. We're worried about everything. Instead of just loving the moment, loving the competition, loving the battle, loving the opportunity to get to do what I do. Love is what drives grit.

Yeah.

Talk about grit being the number one predictor and factor of success. What is the number one predictor and the driver of grit? It's love. If you love something, you're not going to quit. I can predict if you love it, you won't give up. If you love your team, you're not going to quit on them. So love is what makes you powerful and love is what makes you great. But let's go back to the good fight for a second. I gotta, I gotta share this. It exists for a reason. Peter. Peter was tested by the devil in the Bible.

Yeah.

Was tested. Think about that. God allowed them.

Jesus was tested.

Jesus was tested. The ultimate test. God allowed them all to be tested. Why? Because it's what makes you worthy. It makes you stronger. It makes you go through the fire. You have to actually get out all the impurities. Fire gets out of the impurities. You have to cleanse. And the battle cleanses you of my ego. It cleanses me of my own personal desire. You get to a point where you realize your will is not strong enough. You need that greater will. You need God. I'm not here to build my kingdom. I want to build God's kingdom. That only comes from the fire that makes you humble. If I don't do, if I don't go on that 28 city tour around the country, try to promote my book the Energy Bus and have all this rejection and 5 people shop. If I instant success, I probably wouldn't be as humble as I am. If, if I didn't go through all of the tests and all the challenges and all the ups and downs and all the things that almost destroyed me, I wouldn't be who I am today. God allows us to have worthy opponents. He gives us worthy opponents on the journey. And I realized recently that the devil, the enemy, is the ultimate worthy opponent. That God could destroy the enemy at one swoop, one moment, but he allows him to exist because it gives us a choice. Am I going to choose the negative? Am I going to choose fear? Am I going to choose to put my trust in something else besides God? Or will I trust in the Creator of the universe? Will I receive his love or try to find love in all the wrong places? You get a choice every single day and every moment. And those choices determine the quality of your life and determine who you will be in the future. We always talk about choices, but ultimately God has allowed us to make the choice to choose him or to choose to do it on your, your own and rely on your own strength. Am I going to be separate going back to the beginning of our time?

Yeah.

Or will I be one with God?

Yeah, man, that's so good. I was just literally making me think of a. Almost like a personal experience I had. So prior to 2017, I started speaking and I started craving. Craving the stage, craving the community, craving the prestige, craving all of it. Towards the beginning of 2017, the first quarter of 2000, is when I went through my embezzlement scenario. I had had to fire my executive team overnight, had to jump back into my main business and dig out and all this kind of stuff. But I'll never forget this. The night before it happened, before I was notified about this whole shenanigans, was the day before I was supposed to step on stage and teach three days straight at a program called Transform you. And I had a friend of mine that was coming to the event as a friend, and my wife is obviously, I'm crying on her shoulder because I'm, you know, I'm, I'm a wreck. And I remember I was, I went to go walk up to her and I started like tearing up. She goes, oh, no, honey. Oh no, honey. Well, you're going. You can't go. You can't get there unless you go through here. This is the cost of the calling kind of Thing. And it was interesting because I was craving it. Craving it, craving it, craving it. Craving it. Went through that. That. That adversity, if you will.

That fire.

Unknowing that fire. Yeah. That surrender. I went from praying on my knees to praying flat down on my face. Right? Like, I mean, I was. I couldn't get it. I couldn't make myself unhambler to sitting down in front of her a few, you know, a few months later, I'm like, if this is what it cost, I don't want it. You can have your stage, you can have your books, you can have your airplanes. You can have all your stuff. No, thank you. I'll go back to doing this over here. Now, here's the flip side of that. Within a year's time frame, with a lot of coaching with my wife and a lot of things that we were. We were kind of doing a year later, I actually got to the point where I was like, God, thank you for that experience. And I thought I was going to die during the middle of it happened.

So many times to me and my daughter recently. You know, my daughter Jade, she's 24. She's speaking now, and already she's facing adversity. Already she's having travel issues. She's having problems when she's at a location and the setup for the stage and you name it. I said, jade, this is so normal. You are being tested.

Yeah.

And you are being refined. You're being refined along the way. Because to do this work, you've got to go through the fire. To become someone who can make a difference in someone's life, to impact their life, to be a change agent, you have to go through a lot of difficult change yourself. Yeah. And you're going to be refined along the way. This is the curriculum we must go through. This is the fire. These are the tests. Everyone goes through it. And guess what? It's going to make you stronger, to make you wiser, more humble and better. This allows you to be used by God to make a difference in this world. And I think so many people, when they're going through challenges, they don't want to face it. But I always ask my audiences, have you gone through a tough time? Have you. Have you gone through challenges in your life? Of course. Everyone raises their hand.

Yeah.

Did it make you stronger? Everyone says, yes, we. We wish we weren't this strong now. Go through all the things, but everyone agrees it made you stronger. Think about the tree that has been pruned or the bush that has been pruned. It looks like it's been destroyed, but it hasn't been destroyed. The pruning is meant to help it grow more fully. Yeah, all that it's meant to be. You're going to be pruned on this journey. I wrote a book. The seed part of the growth process is to be pruned, to grow more fully, to be who you're meant to be. And Stephen, you had to go through that pruning during that time. You had to go through that fire to become who you're meant to be.

Yeah, it's funny, I was just thinking, TD Jakes used to say, new levels, new devils. And I've. I've had numerous fires that have produced numerous blessings. You know, later, like, you don't. You don't. You don't see them in the moment. You don't. You don't feel them in the moment. It's not until after it occurs that that kind of shakes out. I am curious, what made. What makes now the time for the one truth? What, like, what are you seeing in the marketplace? What's stirring in your heart? Like, like, I remember I told you at the very beginning, I'm like, I feel a movement coming on, and I can't put my finger on it.

There is a movement, and it's the one truth. This is going to, I really believe, create a movement. After the podcast with Ed, the response we got with the response, I've gotten a few talks just recently talking about some of the principles. Doing this with you now, this is the time, like God always has. The ideas come at the time they're meant to come. And I truly believe this is the time for this movement to make it all one, to bring it all together. This is not about a religion. I'm not trying to explain Christianity, people. I'm explaining Jesus to people.

Yeah.

And think about the story of the garden. Adam and Eve in the garden. That is a story of separation of man and women from God. They're being separated because they believe the lie. They didn't follow God. They're now doing it on their own. And what happens? They get separated from God. That is not a Christian story. That is an ancient Jewish story explaining the separation and the problem of separation before Jesus even walks the earth. So think about that. The truth is already there. So the truth doesn't need Christianity to exist. It doesn't need the Bible to exist. It already existed before there was a New Testament. So this problem of separation was there. But the New Testament comes along and actually explains the solution to the separation. And then Jesus walks to Earth and we actually see what the solution is.

Yeah.

And they, oh, so it was always there. Like God literally had it there for us to see. And what I do in this book, and I make it clear, it was all there. The truth is there. The Bible and Christianity just explains the truth that we also just know deep down in our heart that there is a longing for a connection with the creator of the universe. And we know that we have a wound. We know we need to be healed. There is a hole in our soul. H O L E. God wants to make us whole. W H O L E. And that is the ultimate truth. And so once you understand that, I truly believe this is the time for healing. Because so many people have trauma, so many people have wounds of the past. They're allowing their past to define them. And God is saying, no, now is the time that you're going to realize it's meant to refine you, not to define you. I am meant to heal you. I am meant to help you grow. I am here to love you, to and for you to receive this love. And I know that this is the time. And I truly feel like I am put on Earth. And I was put on Earth to teach positivity, to teach optimism, to teach what I taught, which was very innovative at the time of positive energy and the research on gratitude and positive psychology. Many of my ideas have helped countless companies and organizations and sports teams and athletes and kids, you name it. I really believe, though, this was the message I was meant to have right now.

Yeah.

Go to the next level. And people come up to me after talks. Wow, John. I thought you'd talk about your usual stuff. This is like at a whole other level.

It's a whole other level and a whole lot deeper.

But what's cool is this whole other level explains the level I was teaching. See, the first part of the book is just high state of mind, low state of mind, which is a very understandable level. Even though it's deeper.

Yeah.

And then. Then in book two of the book, so I broke it down to three books. Book two, I actually share oneness and separateness and all the examples of oneness and separateness. Like ego stands for edging God out.

Yeah.

So when someone has an ego, they're edging God out because they're trying to be God, so they get separated from God. So it actually explains that ego is not actually the enemy. Feeling separate is the enemy. Then the ego arises because you feel separate. If you felt connected to God, you Actually wouldn't have the ego arise like it does. So I explained all these little nuances of things and why oneness training, actually, I think, is the next evolution of training. I think diversity training has been helpful. I think it helps a lot. But really I believe that even more powerful is oneness training, because we need to realize how that. How we're all connected rather than connected and see each person's uniqueness. But to know the soul level, at the spirit level, we're all connected. So let's get oneness training. So I explained all these things in oneness and separateness, and in book three, Then I go and explain how the one truth can be explained from a biblical standpoint. And again, I tell people, I'm not trying to convince you of Jesus, but when you understand the one truth, he actually becomes undeniable. When you understand that there's oneness and separateness and you understand that we have wounds, who's going to heal the wound, Stephen? Who heals the wound that we have in our soul?

That's right.

Meditation doesn't heal the wound. It gives you temporary relief and makes you feel better. I was a meditator. I was seeking all the answers. And I was 35 years old, struggling with anxiety and angst and depression and just trying to find my way and looking for everything. Ultimately, I gave my life to Jesus.

Yeah.

And when I did, when I did, that began the journey. But I look back, I didn't just give my life and say, okay, Jesus, I accept you. I started taking walks of gratitude every day. I started a success journal. I was tuning my mind into a higher frequency. Can I give you the acronym tune?

Yeah, absolutely.

That. Great takeaway. This is practical for people if they feel like this is deep. I want to give you something practical you can use. And I actually share this in the book as well. T U N E. This is how we tune our brain, which is an antenna, to a higher frequency thought instead of a lower frequency thought, which is a negative thought. So how do we tune to a higher frequency? We trust and we speak truth to the lies. Dr. James Gills. We speak truth to the lies on a daily basis. And we trust in God. You, we'll get to you in a second and neutralize the negativity. Andy said, I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.

Nice.

Anytime those negative thoughts come in and fear comes in, I'm not going to believe the lies. Yeah, those lies will tell you things about yourself and your future that just aren't true. So I'M not going to listen to the lies anymore. I'm going to speak truth to the lies. I'm going to trust and speak truth, and that will neutralize the negativity along the way. So I'm going to win the battle of my mind and not allowing negativity when I'm going to make sure positivity wins. And that moves to E, which is elevate your thinking. When you appreciate, you elevate. You can't be stressed and thankful at the same time, as I said earlier. So you're appreciating, you're elevating your mind. You're actually tuning into a higher frequency. You're having belief and optimism along the way. We see the power of belief. What you believe determines what you become. And we've all started to believe something more positive as a result of that, we become it. If you believe you're not worthy, if you believe you don't deserve success, if you believe you're a failure, if you believe you're a loser, that's the life that you will create. And too many people believe that, and that's the life they create. No, you have to believe it in order to achieve it, to. In order receive it and create it. Right? Yeah. So I sound like Zig Ziglar there, but that's the key there. Laughing because you're like, I heard that before. You got to believe it to receive it. So you. You believe it. That's elevate. Elevate your thinking. Mindfulness meditation. Elevate your thinking as well. So if you're a fan of that, great. And I'll get to you in a second. But you have something you want to say?

Well, I was just thinking to myself, like, I had this weird epiphany not long ago because, you know, when I first started meditating, instead of. Not instead of, but in. In conjunction with praying, I started getting a lot of flack from the Christian community. Like, well, meditating is new age. I'm like, when I go to read the scriptures, what I see is the word. Pray in the spirit.

Yes.

To me, praying in the spirit is equal to or the same as meditating, where if I'm praying out loud, I'm kind of praying to say, but I'm meditating to listen, if that makes any sense.

Yes, I really believe that. I've read books on contemplative meditation and contemplative prayer, which is a Christian version, a Christian version of meditation. And so when we're doing that, the key is intention. What is my Intention. Am I trying to connect to nothingness or am I connecting to everythingness? Yeah, to the creator of the universe. What happened to me was this is a cool story for people. I would meditate and I was practicing Buddhism in many ways and I started to see a glowing cross. And so that's why I have no judgment on anybody. We're all on a journey. So Christians don't judge people, they're on a journey. So here it was, meditating, seeing now a glowing cross, like what is going on? And Jesus was literally come in. Same thing happened to my wife who was a New Ager. And my wife didn't see a cross, she saw Jesus. Jesus came in, in her meditations. Why? Because in that moment of silence when we're finally still in the power of stillness, God can finally connect to us. We have all the noise, all the distractions, all the stuff that keeps God from connecting to us. It's like we have this static. Like think about, I have two hands up, they're separate right in between the two hands that are up, like a goalpost and a field goal, football field, there's space in between. Static comes in those spaces. But if you can get those two goalposts to come together as one. Yeah now the signal is going to be really clear. So I really believe when you're meditating you're allowing the signal to get more clear, more fine tuned. And now you allow God to start coming in in your meditation. So to me, when I meditate, if I meditate now, it's more like just finding silence to allow, allow God to speak to me and listen to his voice and to hear Him. And I'm wanting to connect with, with the love and Creator of the universe. And that's the way I see meditation. I also pray and so on my walks of prayer I'm always, I'm trusting, I'm crying out to God, I'm praising, I am repenting. I think it's important to repent and ask for forgiveness. And I ask for God to my daily needs and ask for guidance. Then I yield, I surrender. And then in that surrender I expect, I then expect God's going to deliver on his promises. I expect that he has a plan for my life. I know that I can trust Him. So I have childlike faith. So I'm always, I'm expecting and then I receive. And I really believe. A lot of people, they pray but they don't receive. They actually don't believe that God wants to give them anything or that God has the power to Give them.

Yeah.

God wants to give us that things. He wants to give us abundance and peace and enjoy and love. And he wants to give us most of all, I really believe. Well, peace is probably most of all, but power. He really wants us. Give us power to create this world, to bring heaven on earth. In this battle that's going on where it's trying to be like hell. He wants us to give us power to make it more like heaven. But interestingly enough, that power comes from humility. Yeah, it comes from. It comes from knowing who. Who is in control. It comes from surrender. Ironically, it's the world's upside down, or faith is upside down, because all the things that you think make you weak actually make you powerful. Why?

That's right.

Then in those moments of. The real power is me connecting with God, letting his spirit move through me and become my spirit. And as our spirit is now one, one spirit, I'm now acting from his power, not my own. And I'm. So. I'm no longer just me. I am now one with the Creator of the universe. And I'm a new creation. What is what Jesus does, He creates a new creation in you that allows you to. To. To let go of your past and go forward and create a brighter and better future. So to me, there's nothing more exciting and powerful than that. And I'm sorry, Chanting, meditation, you know, EFTs, all these kind of techniques you can do. Tapping will not lead you to the peace that you seek. It will help and give you relief, but it will not give you restoration. There's only one that can give you restoration of your soul. And it is your Father, it is your God, it is your Creator.

Oh, man. Dude, so, so good, man. I. I could. I could talk to you for hours and days on this stuff. Where can everybody learn more about the one truth and start their own journey? Because I guarantee you they're gonna have a lot of people who are okay, like, all right, I'm in.

Where's the book?

I need to start the journey.

Well, first I wanted to tune T u N A. I want you to. I want you to trust in truth. Have trust in truth. Unite with love. That was the last thing. Unite with God. Unite with love. Spend every day uniting with God, with love. And when you do that, through prayer, through surrender, the things we just talked about, you will start to unite with God. And then. And you neutralize a negativity E. You elevate your thinking as you do that. I just want to say, first off, put that into practice. And just see if these ideas hold true, see if you feel better and then go, okay, maybe they're on to something. I, I don't judge anyone and I know everyone's on a journey. So just for me, you'll never get judgment. You'll only get love and understanding. So again, this is my journey. This is what I know to be true. This is what I see. And this is when you understand it, it makes so much sense. Again, I'm not trying to convince you of it, but hopefully you see the truth that is here. And once you understand this truth, you're going to live in a more powerful way. So to know more, check out the One Truth. It's now on Amazon. You can pre order it. So that comes out in June, so it comes out a while from now. But, but, but preorder that book now if you can. The website's going to be get one truth. I think it's up now right now. Get one truth. But start following me in the meantime@jongordon.com jongordon.com Twitter, Instagram is @jo N Gordon 11 at Jo N Gordon 11. And I'm gonna start sharing more and more from the One Truth as we lead up to.

That's awesome.

You know, the book launch. I'm gonna have a book launch. So I'd love for you to join my team to get this message out into the world, to impact the world with it. And again, I feel like I'm a steward of this message. It's not me, it's not my truth. I'm not here to, to win. I'm here to share what God wants in the world because he wants people to be closer and connected to him. And I believe this is going to be a powerful way to help people do it.

Well, I love you, brother. And I can't thank you enough for stopping by today. You can consider me on the, on the, on the launch team. I'm happy to, to make this a reality any day of the week. And I can't just. That's seriously. Thank you very much for hanging out with us today, brother.

Thank you for allowing me to flesh out these ideas as I'm now speaking about it. Because again, I've written the book, it's there. It's so clear when you're writing it, but then translating it into words to be able to explain it. And I appreciate you sharing it, being a part of it. And Stephen, I know, I know you're going to be a major, major pioneer and ambassador with me on this, helping us get this message out there. So thank you.

You got it. My pleasure. All right, brother. Take care.

God bless you. I hope you liked that video.

And if you did, make sure you check out this next video right here.

If we think about the things that, like, especially leadership is asked to do, it requires some deep thought sometimes, and at least we'll enjoy that experience better if we can do it uninterrupted. Now, some of those times, it's like somebody calls and we have to take that phone call or something urgent comes in. But lots of those times, in fact, the vast majority of times, people are switching of their own accord, but.