Mindset MasterClass Session 4: God Is Not Against Me.

Welcome back to the do the new you mindset masterclass. I feel funny calling it a masterclass, Brendon, because I don't feel like a master of any of this.

Yeah. And yesterday was like a class of discussion, you know, in the previous session. So today, you know, we'll get some teaching in there. It'll feel good.

Yeah, no, we're teaching, but we're also trying to help people see that these are tools. Like, I wrote this book, do the new you to myself. Not for myself. It was written for anybody who knows. There's a me that I see. It comes out every once in a while. I like her. I like him. How do I get her or him to come out at the right times? Because there's another me. I'm not schizophrenic, but I do need to understand this concept of what you hear sometimes called my best self. It's like my best self. Well, what about the days where I feel at my worst and what I think like, is less like a scientist? My friend Brendan, if you haven't met Brendan by now, go back and watch the other sessions and go watch all of his stuff, too, because he's a performance coach. And a lot of people would think a pastor and a performance coach walk into a bar is the beginning of a joke. We haven't been to a bar together, but we talk all the time on the phone. And a lot of Fridays, I'll be talking to Brendan. And Holly will usually say, when I'm getting stir crazy about my sermon, you need to go talk to your buddy Brendan. Because I'll start sharing like, yo, Brendan, I got this thing, man, about the hand of God and the left hand and the right hand. And what do you think? And you'll go, well, there's three ways that people experience provision in their life that I've normally found. And I'm like, wow. And you're like, now tell me that scripture again. And you love the scriptures. And I, obviously, as a pastor, I want to help people get their minds right. Not just know the truth, but have the tools. And that's what this masterclass is about. That's what the book is about. That's my heart for you, that you would get these mindsets and live into them. The you that God sees is not some future version that you have to work up or pretend to be or act as if you are. It's who you really are. And so as we're transformed by the renewing of our minds, mindset as we set our mind on Things above mindset. We begin to see the difference in our life, and we glorify God and we help others, and we like our life more, too. That's all right. Every soul needs a coach. So we want to coach you a little bit today, give you a little bit of bonus content. If you haven't got the book yet, get it. But the fourth mindset in the book, we'll review all of them real quick. I'm not stuck unless.

Unless I stop.

So if I stop, I'm stuck. But if I keep going, yeah, I.

Think that's the most important thing. People realize at some point that I know in my faith that God is generative, that he didn't stop, that he's still working through us, and that when I realized if I stop, then I'm just fixated. I'm fixed in the moment. I'm fixed on my reality. I'm fixed on my discomfort. I'm fixed on my troubles. I'm fixed on my insecurities, and I freeze. And when I'm stuck there, I'm actually displaced from the intention that God has given us, which is this idea that, hey, we're still here. Jesus is still here. We're still working through this here. And that generative idea says, well, let's keep going. And that as we get progress, as we get movement in our life, we learn, we discern, we find our own way. And so I would tell people, if you feel lost, you got to get motion.

Yeah. And that motion is sometimes limited because we'll feel like, well, I don't have what it takes. So then the second mindset comes in to remind you, Christ is in me. I am enough. Not I will be when I'm making this amount of money, Not I will be when this group accepts me, Not I will be when I've received accolades on this level, not I will be When I have three kids, I am enough because Christ is in me. The third mindset, it kind of gets you moving again, because knowing that I make this confession with God, there's always a way, and by faith, I will find it. Now, Brendan is more, like, scientific in his approach. I'm more like a songwriter. I am a songwriter, so I think like that. So I write these affirmations to myself, I say them to myself, and that's what I'm sharing with you. The fourth one goes like this. And I'm going to tell you how I made it. I don't think I've told you this. I wouldn't say I haven't told Anyone this, but I don't know if I've told you this. I think I shared it with my church. It goes like this. God is not against me, but he's in it with me, working through me, fighting for me. So maybe just write that down. God is not against me, but he's in it with me, working through me and fighting for me. And it would seem like I would know that at my core and never doubt it. But I was driving to the church to preach. This has been several months ago. It might have been, you know, it might have been a particular Sunday where I felt my message was confusing and I didn't know if I was going to be able to communicate it. Maybe I didn't sleep good that night. I don't remember. I just remember pulling in, thinking of all the ways it could go wrong. You know, you do that sometimes. Like, you're driving up to something, you're like, I'm probably going to blow it. These pants feel tight. Look. Look at this. My hair is doing this thing. It could be any little dumb thing, and you just start imagining all the ways it could go wrong. Well, I was doing that about my sermon. And as I pulled into the church, I thought, wait a minute. I'm showing up today to help people, to give them God's word, to share with them what the Lord says the best I know how. And it won't be perfect, and I'll miss some things and I'll mispronounce some things, and I'll probably make a mess of some of it. But do I not believe that God is, for what I'm doing today, that he wants to help these people more than I do?

Right.

That he wants to lift these people out of the pit they're in more than I do? That he wants to give them their next step, to fulfill his purpose for their life more than I do? And it hit me, Stephen, you're showing up like God is opposing you, like he wants to trip you, leg sweep you. Why do you believe that? And I just said right there in my car, God is not against me. Now, I've said that, sung that, thought about that. It's a core teaching in the scripture that if God is for us, who can be against us? But it kind of hit that time, and then I thought about the consequences. Well, if he's not against me, what is he? He's in it with me, working through me and fighting for me. And from there, I show up knowing he's got my back. Let's do this. Now I Think for a lot of people, that almost sounds like I have an imaginary friend. My imaginary dad can beat up your imaginary dad. I don't see it that way. I really have come to tap into that belief. And the times that I do operate in confidence, the times that I don't operate in insecurity and inferiority. So let's talk about that a little bit practically. Let's get it out of the cartoonish realm where we sometimes put it, and let's put it in the realm of that everyday confidence, walking in the confidence that God is not against me, but he's in it with me, working through me and fighting for me. Hit me with your best stuff on confidence, because you teach this like nobody I've ever heard.

Well, I don't think it's cartoony at all. I think it's a powerful metaphor because I like to tell people, loneliness only got you this far. When you feel alone in life, how do you act? When you feel like nobody's got your back, how do you act? When you feel like no one understands you, how do you act? Those thought patterns of, I'm alone, everybody's against me, no one's for me, that doesn't inspire your courage. But I work with a lot of elite people in the military, and they have that phrase of all is one. Right? That moment where if you're on the battlefield and you're by yourself as a lonely warrior, it's terrifying and you hunker down, you don't charge. But when you're at the line with all the guys, all is one. There's a forward momentum, there's assertiveness to it. It's like, we got this. And you got to, at some point go, we got this. Because if you're disassociated from your faith, if you're disassociated from God, I just believe you're disempowered. And so there's got to be that element in your life where, you know what? Loneliness only took me this far. If I don't believe he's here, if I don't believe that someone is fighting with me, I will continue to procrastinate and to blame and be frustrated. So the metaphor is really powerful. It's not cartoonish. And when you approach the day, that day you swarm the day. You don't, like, hide on the couch. And so I don't think people realize the incredible power of there is strength with you and there is strength in you.

See, when you say stuff like, swarm the day, yeah, I'M like, put that on a hoodie. That's a great phrase.

Yeah.

I mean, swarm the day.

It's true. You're either caged in your day or you're charging the day. And we often talk about it.

Caged or charging.

Yeah, you're in the caged life.

Yeah.

And the caged life is where you just continually. Your thoughts continually trap you where you're at. Or you're more open and you're more generative and you have higher agency, which means you're charging the day. It doesn't mean you crush every day. And every day is perfect. It means you're moving forward even if you're a hot mess. You're moving forward even in doubt. You're moving forward in strength, even though you know you have weaknesses because you're empowered by something higher.

I'm glad you said the part about sometimes you move forward messy. Because that feeling that God is not against me, it doesn't really mean the most to me when I feel like I'm doing good because I feel him with me. Yeah, I need this mindset when I don't feel him with me. That's the moment where I believe. I don't have to feel it for it to be true. That's where my faith kicks in. And I think a lot of times when we're having a real proud moment and we feel like, look at me, man. I actually, like, actually showed up for that. I did that. God is not against me. Suddenly, of course he's not. Who wouldn't want to be on my team? Like, hey, God, come work with me. I'm like a first round draft pick. And then you hit those moments where you go, if I were God, I wouldn't want to be on my team. I wouldn't want to use me. And not only do all the Bible heroes have this, but there's one in specific that we both love. And I use this for probably the central character for this mindset in the book. And it's Gideon.

Yes.

And the reason I chose Gideon, I'm telling you, Brendan, I had a moment writing these chapters about Gideon that I will never be able to share with anyone because it was so powerful from God to me. And I've read the story of Gideon, preached the story of Gideon all the way from the Levine Senior center when we had 80 people in the room. I'm up there talking about Gideon and his army of 300. And we don't have what we think we need, but if we have God, we're a majority Right. And yet the personal message of it was when I saw Gideon in a winepress, threshing wheat, which represents us kind of in hiding in the caged life. And so he's caged in this oppression of the Midianites and how they spent all of these years being subdued by these people. And he's come to believe these things about himself. I'm the littlest, I'm the least. My tribe is the smallest. All of these things that he begins to believe. Right. The angel of the Lord comes and says, the Lord is with you, mighty warrior. And he says, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And I won't repeat the whole story, but what the Lord said to Gideon that was so powerful to me was, go in the strength you have.

Love that.

Because it hit me in that moment that the strength Gideon had was God. And he's so focused on, I'm the littlest, I'm the least, and you may be, too. I do it all the time. I'm not the best singer. I'm not the smartest person to take a Bible text apart. I'm not really even good with geography. And here I am trying to talk about Midian and Gideon and Israel, and I can barely find where I live on a map. Sometimes, if I stay stuck in that and don't get into the mindset, God is in it with me, working through me, fighting for me. Then my strength is always limited to my situation. My strength is always limited to my skill set. The moment that I realize, go in the strength you have is a command to tap into God himself.

Right.

Then it becomes unlimited. What God can do through me, why I put three different things behind. God is not against me, is. It isn't just. God is not against me. So I can buy a Lamborghini. No. He wants to work through me, for others, for something bigger than me. He's fighting for me. Not just fighting against the people I don't like because I don't like them. He's fighting for his purposes. He's fighting to make sure that I can do everything I need to do. And he's in it with me even before I change. He calls me strong and courageous when I don't feel like I am.

Yes.

So let's talk about separating your confidence from your feelings, because that can be so dangerous.

Yeah. I imagine when you think about Gideon, you imagine him in this wine press, and I'll give you this framework for what's going on in his head. Maybe because we trap ourselves a Lot. And I always use this metaphor of we zap our success. Which means it's just an acronym. Z, A, P. We zap our success. And you'll notice your thoughts do this. You have momentum, you feel good, and then zap. It disappears because you're like, what happened to my confidence? What's wrong with me? What happens with zap is zap. Z stands for zoom. We zoom in to a problem and we catastrophize. We zoom in and we worry if I take action, I'll be ruined, I'll be rejected. I won't be able to handle the responsibility or I'll regret it. So I'm just going to stay right here in this winepress because if I go out there, I'm going to get killed.

I'm going to slow you down and give us the four R's again because I think those are very big. Will you do them again?

Yeah. Our four primary big fears that prevent action. The first one is ruin, which we just believe if I do something that's going to ruin my reputation, that's going to ruin my opportunities, that's going to ruin my ability to get ahead. Then we go, oh, well, I'm worried if I take action, people will reject me. I'll be ostracized, I'll be abandoned. They won't understand. Then we fear responsibility, which is the one most people forget. It's like we're scared of more responsibility. If you give them that responsibility, I'm not going to be able to handle it. I don't know if myself. I mean, I'll burn out, I'll freak out. I'll have too much anxiety and stress. I don't want the responsibilities. It's too much to bear. And then we fear a regret. Well, if I do take action and it doesn't go well, I'll always regret I made that decision to trust her. I'll always regret I made that decision to try that thing. I'll always regret. And that's the form of catastrophizing that we have in a problem. We just zoom in. Oh, my gosh, there's going to be ruin, there's gonna be rejection. I can't handle it, and I'll regret it forever. Why would you take action after that? And then a is we attach ourself to it. This problem is me. This circumstance that I don't like is me. I'm the problem. I'm the same. We make our psychology the same as the problem. And we forget that our personhood is bigger than the problem and that the problem is not permanent. The problem is placed there to challenge us to. To rise above it. And then the p. What we do is. So we've zoomed in and catastrophized. We've attached ourself to it, so we feel insecure. And now we procrastinate, or we pause or we punish. What that means is we say, oh, well, I just don't want to do it, because, you know. And we start telling ourselves all these stories about why we're procrastinating. Well, I don't have enough resources, or this is going on, or that's going on. Then we punish ourselves. It's weird. Like, we're scared because we've catastrophized and we don't feel enough. So now we do all these weird things to punish ourselves. We overeat. We get addicted. We turn to video games. All day long. Nothing against video games, but all day long, we go into social media and we scroll. Cause we're uncomfortable, and we're doing these behaviors that are not moving anything forward. And like we talked about in previous sessions, you have to learn to flip that thing. Instead of zooming in and catastrophizing, we zoom in. We ask, what if. What if God actually has my back here and I am being challenged to grow into more of his glory? What if instead of attaching myself to it, I attach spirit to it instead of me taking it personally? What if I recognize it's part of the world and it's part of a plan that I don't understand? And instead of pausing, then I kind of power up in his faith. And I power up and I go, okay. I know that I have been given these tools. I've been given his faith, his words. And he said, did I not command you?

Yeah.

And so he's saying, did I not command you? This is in front of your life. You didn't want it there, but I put it there.

Yeah. Yeah.

And then you have to go, oh. And it gives you a different edge. And this is what you always have to realize when you're facing a problem in life. And when you're thinking about this, you know, is God fighting for me or not? If you believe God is fighting for, you have an edge. Just like when you were sitting in the car wondering, are my pants too tight? Am I gonna do a good job in the sermon today? What's happening there is you're going to insecurity.

Yeah.

And I always want you to hear. It's like, am I feeling insecure about something or do I feel the edge? The edge is like a forward lean. It's a confidence. And the funny thing, it's the same. It's the same acronym. It's still zap, but now I'm zooming into the opportunity.

Okay. All right. This is what I wanted you to get this level of. We're talking about an ancient warrior in a wine press who takes some jars and read Judges 6, and he goes and defeats Midianites. I'm really, really just trying to pay this rent, bro. Like, I'm really, really just trying to get my kid back off drugs and doing good in school. Like, I'm really just trying to recover from this miscarriage. I don't. I like the story. I believe that. Yeah, I believe it. But how we always used to say Holly's thing was hallelujah. Now how? Like, praise the Lord, he's with me. Now how do I have him with me? Because I can't see him. I can't always feel him. This is a tool, zap. Yeah, It's a tool for me to know what's happening when I'm shrinking myself. Because I used to think that when I shrink myself, that magnifies God. You know, I grew up in a great little Methodist church, and I went to a Baptist church to learn how to do ministry. And then I went to seminary, and none of my professors taught me this. They all taught me well. I'm sure that the things they said were good, but somehow I got the message that in order for God to be great, I almost had to make myself little and less. And my feeling about that has changed over the years. And I'll tell you what it is. It's not that, oh, I think I can do it without God, because I know now more than ever, if he doesn't show up, I'm done. It's that I realized that the children that God has given me to raise, Elijah, Graham and Abby, the woman that God has given me to love, Holly. The church that God has called me to Pastor. They don't need me in the wine press. Of all my reasons why I'm not good enough. And the same is true of the people in your life. When you think, oh, beating up on myself is kind of like giving God glory because I know that he's holy and I'm not holy. But didn't he make you holy? Isn't that why Jesus died? If you want to zoom, zoom into the cross and see how he paid the price for you, now zoom back out from that who would he die for that he would not fight for? So now I know that any situation I find myself in, I already have evidence. I don't need another evidence. I already have evidence because I believe God sent his son to die for me. And that may not be your belief right now. I'm just telling you where my confidence is. It's in the cross. It's in the fact that after he died, he. He rose again. So now if he went down into the grave for me, what situation will he not get in with me right now? You're telling me God won't be with me through a divorce when he went to the grave? You're telling me God won't be with me through a bankruptcy when he went to the grave? You're telling me God won't get in the middle of my insecurity and the trauma that I went through and help me heal through that and then turn around and work through me so I can be a healer of others, so we can give glory to God together. That's what he's all about. That's what I mean. He's in it with me. That's what I mean. He's working through me. That's what I mean. He's fighting for me. But you don't see any of that if you're zapped. I listen to acronyms like most people eat candy. I'm like, oh, give me another acronym. And we just did so much. And it's all going to be right here for you to go back and revisit and go, what was that R again? Am I what, what am I doing right now? Which one am I at right now or when I'm attaching, I'm attaching. What? If you'll go through it slowly and I want to encourage you, go back through this masterclass. Go back through the ones that you haven't watched yet. Get into this truth, and get this truth into you, because it gives you a way to tap into the strength that you have. You have no idea what resource is available to you through your relationship with God when you are accomplishing his purpose. Now, I want to bring up another thing that might be a little difficult to talk about. Maybe if I feel like God is against me, it's because I'm going in the wrong direction. There will be times in my life where I'll feel like, man, God is against me. And it may just be he's closing a door to something because it's what I want, not what he wants.

Right?

And we have to Be so careful in those moments not to mistake the circumstances that are not favorable for the absence of God. I've always liked to say that the presence of problems doesn't prove the absence of God.

Right.

And so now we want to get into what I call non circumstantial confidence, where we can just know that this is always true. God is in it with me. What's it? Fill in the blank?

Yeah, yeah. I think it's so important because you were mentioning earlier about how some people, you know, minimize themselves or shrink themselves. And, you know, a lot of my audience have never heard me speak a whole lot about my faith other than telling my car accident story where I found my connection with God. But I often have to tell my friends of faith. There's a difference between being receptive of his word and the idea that he might be powerful and responsibility. You can be receptive or you can be responsible. And I think you have to know there's a spectrum there. Right. Some people are very receptive, but they're very passive. And some other people are receptive, but they're responsible. And what I always got from Gideon, and this was a turning point, I think, in our friendship, at least for me. When you told me the story of Gideon, the way you explained it to me was that no matter what's going on around you, it's still, do not be afraid. Be bold and courageous and go in. The strength that you have was so huge to me that I started shouting to my audiences last year. I have them all put their hands up, I'm here. I'm ready. I go in strength.

I love that.

And this is after we've acknowledged all the suffering and all the challenges and all the difficulties we have, we can still say, I'm here, I'm ready, I go in strength. And I really believe that the huge shift is when we say, I'll go in strength forward. And I think it's very practical for me, like on Sunday, looking at the calendar this week, if I feel like I'm off course or God is punishing me or things are going wrong, okay, it's Sunday. Let me recalibrate. Let me recalibrate into my faith. Let me recalibrate into the week. Let me move these blocks around. Because you know what? Maybe you are going in the wrong direction. And the truth is, you've been hearing, you've been getting the message.

Yeah.

I always tell people when they crash and burn, when they burn out, when the divorce comes up, it's usually not a huge surprise.

Right.

It Might have been a surprise in calamity or surprise in the way it was brought up. But usually there were hints and sometimes we just don't. We don't see them and we don't listen and we hear that. It's like we hear this faint thing for months or for years. And the thing is we're receiving the worry or not being responsible for the work to change. And so if you're getting that vibe, I'm like, listen to it. Be receptive to that too. Because there are warnings, there are moments where that silent voice is saying, maybe this isn't the right thing for me. Maybe I should shift it. And I'm here to say maybe. Listen to that earlier.

I love that.

And then plan your week based on that truth.

So listen to the whisper earlier so that life doesn't have to shout. So that pain sometimes doesn't have to shout. We don't always control what we go through, but I do believe that you have a choice to make in every season situation and really every day of your life. This is what was confronting me when I'm pulling up to preach. This is what's confronting you as you move forward right now. Same thing that confronted Gideon, same thing that confronted Brendan when he was sitting under a stack of bills. Remember your then girlfriend is sleeping under a stack of bills and you have a dream to be an author and you're looking at her covered in these bills and you're doing everything but approaching what God has put in your heart. You make this decision, am I going to sit my weaknesses or am I going to go in my strength? I want you to reflect on that and maybe put it somewhere just where you can look at it and evaluate sit in weakness. I know Gideon wasn't sitting in a winepress, he was working in a winepress. But he was down, he was down, he was down. And sometimes you stay down so long and you can list all of your limitations like we talked about in an earlier mindset. We can argue for our limitations. I'm the weakest. I'm the least. I think self awareness is awesome. You want to hear a list of things I'm not good at? Get ready for a 55 part masterclass. I can do it all day, but there comes a point where I have to shift and move beyond just listing my limitations and my liabilities. And I have to access even if it's just one strength. I don't have a job, I don't have any money, but I got more time. Like shifting into strength isn't Something that's just so God, empower me right now in the name of Jesus. And that's what this series is designed to get you to see. Shifting into strength, going in strength, believing in God, taking steps. That looks so simple sometimes that it is literally like sending a text to somebody saying, hey, can we have lunch sometime this week? Because you know that person makes you feel stronger. Sometimes the godliest thing you can do is stop just praying to God, asking him, lord, would you take away my loneliness and send a text to somebody you know, builds you up that is going in strength sometimes. And you say this mindset is, God is not against me. He's in it with me, working through me, fighting for me. Sometimes he fights for you through the friends he sends to you. So go through that again. You're telling yourself you have no one. Is that really true? Are you really the weakest? Are you really the least? Are you really alone? Or are there evidences if you zap, if you zoom different? I'm so zoomed in on who didn't call me back. I'm so zoomed in on who said I wasn't. I'm so zoomed in on three years ago. I'm so zoomed in on how they broke my heart. I'm so zoomed in on who made fun of me. I'm so zoomed in on who might make fun of me. Of me. And I'm going to be ruined. And I'm going to be regretful. And I'm going to be. I'm so zoomed in on this. And then God comes and shows you there's a bigger picture here. Get out of the winepress. You are a warrior. Do the new you. And I'm encouraged because God knew Gideon was a warrior before Gideon did. That means he was training him to become what Gideon already was. That is the distinction in this book, from a book that's called God in the Grind, where it's just grind it out until you are finally an instrument fit for God's use. What I'm saying is there is grace for you to grow into what God knows you to be. And he sees where you are and he knows what you don't have, but he has also given you strength. Let's break it down practically one more way before we close this session. I want you to get a list of your strengths going because my favorite line in this mindset, and I shouldn't pick one because kind of makes you want to skip to just that one. But if you read it, you'll see My favorite line, it's a whole chapter. It's called make peace with your strengths. And the reason that I said it that way is because I've preached a lot to people about, hey, we all have a thorn in the flesh. 2 Corinthians 12, 9. Paul had one, you're going to have one. God's not going to take every weakness away. I believe that Jacob walked with a limp, but he was still the patriarch of the nation of Israel.

Yes.

So make peace with your weaknesses, but also make peace with your strength. Because sometimes what you feel is afraid that if I do this. Oh, the responsibility, like you said, Brendan, oh, if I do this, if I stretch myself like this, will I have what it takes? Well, here's the good news. As you step, God gives you strength. As you step. Put this in the comments. As I step, God gives me strength. So let's get you thinking today practically about what's one step you can take after this session that will move you toward the strength that you have and whether you're stepping into a pulpit to preach like me and you're like, is my zipper down? Did I remember the verse correctly? Is it Deuteronomy 6:9 or Deuteronomy 9:6? Oh, God, don't strike me dead if I say it wrong. Hey, wait a minute. Oh, God is not against me. God wants to help me do this. God wants to help me build this business so I can be generous. God wants to help me have this difficult conversation so that the relationship can heal. God wants to help me get my body in shape so I can be around, so I can do it, so I can have energy, so I can move. But it is in the steps that you find the strength. And I think we helped somebody with this session today, man.

Yeah. I want to encourage everybody watching right now is if you could just make a list of five things that have made you successful in the past, like we call them in coaching. These are your success markers. When you do these things, think these things, or be these things, you've tended to have good luck or good success. You had good momentum, good progress. And I actually have my clients keep this next to their computer. It's their success markers. And anytime they're struggling with something or they were unproductive, I say look back at that list. Out of those five things, on a scale of 1 to 10, how much were you doing each of those things and what we realized when we do that over and over we go, oh, wait, I just wasn't coming from a place of my strengths. I forgot the things that made me successful already. I haven't owned my gifts or my goodness yet. So I keep entering every new situation insecure again. Every new speech, I get worried again. And what's happening in our psychology is we're just going right to our insecurity and we're doing zap and we're zapping ourselves right out of success. But one thing to zoom in on is, oh, these are my gifts, these are my strengths. These things have made me successful. He has made me successful. And when you start zooming in on those successful things, this is not positive thinking. It is reminding ourselves of what we're good at. And, you know, it's like when I walked in here yesterday and we were doing these sessions, it's like at first it's like, oh, wow, there's more people in here than usually at my, you know, my thing. And oh, am I good at this? And I'm good. And I heard my brain go, am I good? Am I good? I'm like, I've done this a million times. Step into that gift. People have told you you're good at this. Step in that. Holly said, it went great. Step into that. Step into people's praise. Step into his promise. Step into the success you've already had before. And remember that. Because that's one thing I love about this book, is it just, it's taking an acknowledgement of the fact that we struggle and sometimes the feeling isn't there and sometimes we don't feel like we're capable or good enough or, or anyone's fighting for us and it's just reminding you, maybe that is true, but maybe we can shift our mindset into something that's more productive. We can shift our mindset into a higher level of responsibility or calling. And I want to tell everybody watching this, you have gifts that you've not yet owned and you are doing the same thing over and over. You're going in that next relationship, can I be loved? If you haven't figured out you can be loved and you're a 40 year old person, let's revisit your life experience, right? If you haven't figured out you're okay at your job, let's revisit how the last three years have gone. Because what's happening is you're zooming into all the things you've done wrong and you never owned the gifts, you never saw the strengths. You never said, I'm good at this, I'm successful at this. And you never operated from that place. And so A lot of my job as a coach is like, I understand you think this, but I need you to operate from here for progress and power and joy and confidence. Because if you operate from this, we know what happens. You procrastinate, you self punish, you quit. And that didn't get you very far. So let's just shift the scene a little bit.

Yeah, let's shift the scene.

Own those success markers. Own that gift that you have. Step into his promise and when you're coming from there. That's why I love that line. Now go in the strength you have. Because sometimes you don't have much strength, but you can remember the times you did and you can remember his promise. And he's there fighting right along with you. You got an army at your back. You got God at your back. You can only win from here.

And when you memorize what God did for you in the past, you multiply.

I love that.

The strength that you feel when you recite what God has done, it releases more strength. Yeah. And so let's shift it right now. Let's shift it. Say, I've got a gift. I've got a gift. And understand this. When you acknowledge the gift, you glorify the giver. The Bible says every gift comes from above. Every good and perfect gift from the Father of Lights who is not like shifting shadows. He does not change. So if he gave you the gift, you've got the gift. His gifts are without repentance. He doesn't change his mind. Your gift might feel a little bit low right now. Your gift might be a little underdeveloped right now, but say it again, I've got a gift. And put it in the comments. And then let's begin to list the gifts that we've been given. And let's go in our gift, trusting that God wants to give a gift to the world through us. Why? Because he's not against me, but he's in it with me, working through me and fighting for me. I hope you got as much out of this session as I did. I want to run right through that lens right now and give you a hug and push you, get you back out on the field because you've got something. Let's get out of the winepress, let's get into the warrior and do what you have to do today. We'll see you next time.