June 28, 2024 • 23 mins
With God, there is always a way, and by faith, you will find it. In Mindset Masterclass Session 3, New York Times bestselling author Pastor Steven Furtick sits down with Brendon Burchard to unpack practical ways we can activate our faith in seasons when we can't see the outcome.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
In your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
I think when you said to me, if you remove
the element of time, it takes away disappointment.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
It took me five minutes to.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Realize how powerful it was what you said, because think
about it, we're going well, I thought God was going
to make a way, but he didn't.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
How do you know yet? Right? How do you know
it wasn't the way? Right? You know?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
We won't stay on the path. We just want to
get off on the next exit. And what does that mean?
Because again a metaphor, a metaphor, Well, when I say
pat and ecton, I'm talking about moving forward in the
last thing that God spoke to you to do, or
continuing to sow seeds in the place God has planted you.
Whether that means your prayers, your kindness, you're showing up,
(00:58):
your discipline, your diligence, whatever that means for you. The
mindset to get out of this mentality that says, if
I don't see the way right away, then I'm going
to turn around and try something else. It's the enemy
of your faith. And I'm not coming to you on
this saying that I've never done it before.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
I have. I felt so frustrated.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
It's a temptation for me to want to judge the
success of something based on the immediate impact that it makes,
based on the immediate feeling that it gives me, or
whether I can quantify it. That's why I loved my
little corny wordplay about suck seeds. It's like the seed
goes down into the ground, breaks apart, goes through trauma,
(01:41):
and comes back up after water and light and fertilizer.
And so so our faith is like that. That's the
way God germinates the things that he puts in our life.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Yeah, and then what we do is we get in
trouble because we start saying, well, what if this turns
out and it's negative? And I want to jump back
in that because I think we usually add three things
that really ruin it for everybody, which is the first
one is associated with our fear of loss pain. Well,
what if I do this and I lose prestige, I
(02:11):
lose status, I lose their respect, I lose money, I
lose time. And so we start saying, well, what if
I do this and I lose this and I lose
it now? And it's just and it's black or white thinking.
I'm what if I do it and it's loss, and
they're not thinking, well, what if I do it and
it's a gain. What if I do it and it
(02:34):
is planting that seed? What if I do it and
it has a positive impact. What if I do it
and I gain money? Well all the other external things
people think that they want. It really does change the brain.
So if you hear yourself saying what if negative and
it's lack, challenge yourself to balance your thinking.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
This is a lot of part of maturities. You learn
to balance thinking.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
And when you're younger it's black or white, and when
you get older you can apply nuance and you can say, oh,
what if.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
What if this turns out terrible? It might okay? Could
I handle it? Well?
Speaker 3 (03:07):
What if it turns out well, well, I'd like it.
And so the first thing is we say what if loss.
The second thing is, wait, what if hardship? What if
I can't handle this. What if it's years of difficulty.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
What if you know, I don't survive this.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
What if I go through this and it's so painful
and instead say well, what if I grow through this?
What if it's not just hardship. What if it's challenge
and character building. What if it's strengthening me. What if
it's making me sharp? What if it's difficult but that's
the thing that makes me stand out later again with time.
(03:45):
And the last one is what if the outcome is bad?
Like you know you said to Graham, well, what if
there's what if we drive all this way and it's
a long line and you have to say what if
we drive all this way and it's a short line
and you have to change it? And flip is said earlier,
But also what if the outcome is good, but it's
(04:05):
good in five years? What if it's what I'm trying
to encourage people is a lot of the mindset is
the decision to start the journey, hoping and trusting and
having faith that things turn out well later, not on Monday.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Like you start lifting. If I start lifting tomorrow, I
don't look like him tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
You know what I'm saying, it's like you have to
give yourself this time. And I think that's where a
lot of our pain and all of our mindset destroys
us is we want it so fast that we won't
begin the longer journeys that have the bigger payoffs.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
We won't begin the longer journeys that have the bigger payoffs. Yeah,
because I'm so focused on what's right in front of me,
or I'm holding on to something that was And don't
you think a lot of times what keeps us from
seeing the way God is making is the way He
did it last time, right, And so we're holding on
(05:03):
to the way God used to do it. And I'll
give an example of this.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Or we thought he did it. Oh yeah, we can
go there too. Which one should I go with? Let's see, I.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Like yours better the way that we thought he did it.
We have so many misconceptions about what God needs to
use to bless us or what we need to move forward, right, Like, Okay,
I need a team, someone might say, and then I'll
start this thing. Or I need somebody to come along
and support me or back me or finance me, or
(05:34):
I need this perfect church, or we get all this
list of what we think we need for God to
do it right, and so we're holding on to that.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Don't you think that a lot of what.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Keeps us from moving forward is what we won't let
go of, our idea of how it should be, our
idea of the way we thought God was going to make.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
I thought i'd be married.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
And I'm twenty five and I was planning to get
married at twenty two.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Well, that's the way I thought God was going to make.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
So I love what you said, like, not only what
God did in the past, but what I thought he
was supposed to do. And now I can't go forward.
So let's have a little therapeutic coaching. I know you're
not an ist, a psychologist, or a nutritionist.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
You know, I know that you're a coach.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
So let's coach somebody in faith who won't let go
of something that they thought was supposed to happen in
order to go forward into the way God is making.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
They can't even see right now.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Yeah, I think too often our vision becomes myopic on
what was, and we're operating from here. What we should
be operating from is our potential and into our future
and the best of who we are and so I
always tell people never limit your vision for who you
can be based on your past stories or your current circumstances.
(06:49):
Because every great successful person there was that part of
their story where they were broke down and out struggling, and.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
They just didn't choose to live there.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
They choose to work through it because they believe something
good would happen. And so I think the first part
is going where is your vision and where are you
operating from? Are you operating from the past time zone
or the current struggle time zone or are you living
into and being the best of who you can be
(07:17):
for the future you, which is what your book is about. Yeah,
I mean that's really powerful. Where you operating and where's
your vision? And then we also have to set up
these rhythms in our life where we choose to release
the tension and the disappointment.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
I love that rhythms where we choose to release our
tension and disappointment.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
So what are your rhythms of release? Write that down
in the comments. Rhythms of release?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Yeah, because what happens is, you know, inevitably stuff builds
up and we get disappointed, we get angry, we get hurt,
and if we never release that. It's like a pressure cooker,
and one day it will release, and it will release
in a pipe burst. It will release in an inappropriate
way for people. That's why therapy is so powerful. You
go every week, or you talk to a coach, you
(08:01):
talk to them every week. It's a place that you
go to release your thoughts and your concepts and your
frustrations and your plans. But it can't just be releasing.
It has to be what I always call you release
the tension of that, and you set the intention for
what's next. So I'm somebody I have to do this
every hour. I'm easily distracted. I'm so enthusiastic.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
I want to do this. I want to do this.
I want to do this, and I know this about myself.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
So every hour, no matter what's happening, when I'm working
at my desk, every hour a little timer goes off.
I have a next to my computer, press it start.
Fifty five minutes, it stops, and I push back, close
my eyes and I just start breathing, and I release
the tension in my body and I just repeat this
little mantra to myself.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Release Release, Release, Release.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
And I might only do this for two four or
five minutes, just release, release, trying to release all thoughts,
all feelings, all emotions and tension of my bad Once
I feel like I'm in a good place, open my
eyes and ask, Okay, what's my intention for this next hour?
And I learned that in helping a lot of people
through grief and trauma. You know, sometimes we think our
(09:15):
vision has to be this huge new thing, But when
you're really struggling, what's the intention of the next hour?
You know what, I'm going to go pick up the
kids and I'm going to share some love with them.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
That's the intention for the next hour.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Yeah, but I don't want to go pick up the
kids carrying all that stuff. So I always say, before
every significant interaction with somebody, if you can just release
the tension.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
I teach people all the time.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
If you're the one who goes to work and you
come home to your partner, your spouse with the kids,
when you pull up that house, tell you what, put
the chair back, close your eyes, do release meditation for
about five minutes, and say, what's my intention? Well, my
intention is go be a good dad, Go be a
good mom, Go be a good provider, Go be a
good servant, whatever it is, and these little moments that
(09:58):
you're just released all this frustration and this tension, because
people carry a lot of tension and they get lost
in the tension unless you release that. You know, you
can use the metaphor releasing baggage, but I don't like
that metaphors much, But just releasing the tension and setting
an intention. It's a constant recalibration into the future and
into your faith. And when you can recalibrate into my future,
(10:23):
into my faith, then I can survive this moment.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Now.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
What I love about this is how you broke it
down and shrunk it because sometimes when we talk about
letting go of the past moving forward into the future,
which is a lot of what this mindset is about
with God, there's always a way by faith I will
find it. We set that finder so far out in
the future five years from now, I want to be here,
(10:49):
and sometimes what we really need to release happen five
minutes ago, not five years ago.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
And I love that you use the word rhythm.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Because I like music so much that I thought, well,
that's brilliant, because I've thought of letting go of what
was as something I do maybe once like, I let
it go, God, how they hurt me? I let it
go God. But when you put it in the term
of a rhythm, that's not a rhythm unless.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
I do that that right that that so letting it
go isn't letting it go unless I let it go.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Every time it comes back up, Yeah, the stuff that
your parents did or something that frustrates you, it's going
to come up over and over and you let it
go over and you got to let go over and over.
So this belief that one day you're, you know, completely
spiritually free of all pain and problems in the past.
Maybe some people have that, but for most people, the
(11:50):
difficulties of life happen on a recurring basis. There's a
rhythm to that too, And so when it comes up again,
Oh you know what, that's my old demons. They're fighting
me again. Oh you know what, that's that old behavior.
I used to do that because he taught me to
do that or she said that. And so as it
comes up again, it's an active release process. You're actively releasing.
(12:11):
But here's the thing. If you just release it and
you don't set intention for what's next, you'll keep falling prey.
It'll keep pulling you back in. You have to set
an intention that is higher or part of something that
is higher, and that is where I met by. You
have to set intention to your future and your faith
over and over and over. It's like recalibrating back into Him,
(12:35):
back into spirit because these things often they're dispiriting, and
you got to connect to the spirit again and so
release the dispiriting things, tap back in to the spirited things.
And when you teach yourself to this over and over
and over again, you suddenly es I.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Got a pretty good mindset.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yeah, Because if our brain is operating off of the
neuropathways that have created our thought pattern, and our mindset
is to think a different way, then we can basically
say that seeing the way that God is making is
a product of thinking the way God thinks.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
So we're possibly.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Looking at something right now that would be an opportunity,
or you could reconcile, or you could actually have love
in your life or supporting your life right and you're.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Telling yourself you can't.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
And the reason you're telling yourself that you can't right
now is because the way that you are thinking. I
like how we call God a waymaker, but there are
also God blockers in our life. I think about if
God is the waymaker, there are God blockers. Those are
the thoughts, the thoughts that cause us to say, well,
(13:50):
if it would have happened five years ago, I believe it,
but it would have happened by now if it was
going to happen, or things like that don't happen to me.
They don't happen for me, they happen for others. Or
maybe somebody told you, like I remember.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
My dad was.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
We both shared about our dads today and I learned
a little bit more about your dad, and I didn't
tell you much about my dad. We just realized our
dads both went to heaven when we were about the
same age, about thirty two or thirty three years old.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
And you know my dad was. He was a passionate guy.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
One time, somebody was telling me, you'll never be able
to go to college, you won't be able to afford it.
And they were saying, I didn't go to college, and
so you're not going to go to college, and you need.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
To make peace with that.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
It sounds like a weird thing for somebody to tell
a kid, right, and it kind of was. I was
only like ten or eleven whole, and I don't even
know why they were saying that, But my dad goes,
shut your stupid mouth.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
To this other person. And this is not probably recommended
for an advice.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
He said, if I have to kill somebody to get
the money to send that boy to college, if he
makes good grades and wants to go to college, he'll
go to college.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
And I got scholarship instead, so I went to college.
He didn't have to kill anybody.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
The story doesn't have a weird ending, where then that's
the day my dad died. The point of it was
that he wasn't going to have me limited. We've talked
in the previous mindsets, and I want you to go
back and watch all of them, because we talked about it.
I'm not stuck unless I stop. We talk about coming
from abundance in the mindset Christ is in me.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
I'm enough. But now we're moving deeper into this to say.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Are your thoughts the result of seeds that someone planted
and that someone wasn't God? And if they were, can
you go back by faith and uproot those through the process? Well,
what does that look like? I love Brendan's handles released
Attention set the intention, the intention of what, the intention
(15:56):
of your future, and your faith with God. There's always
a way by faith, I will find it. And maybe
that's why you haven't found it yet, right, because you're
not looking by faith, right, you're looking by sight. And
so I don't see it and I've never seen it,
and I've never been it and I've never done it.
(16:17):
But this mindset is by faith, I will find it.
So how does faith open up your eyes to possibilities.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
That were there all along? And how do you tap
into it practically?
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Because a lot of people will say, so, I'm just
supposed to what, lift my hands, I'm just supposed to
quote a Bible verse.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Well yeah, oh that's good.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Yeah, But there's an actual way to activate faith too,
that's practical.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Yeah. I think you begin if you are looking backwards.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Look backwards and notice that all the big moves in
your life, and all the big random things that look
so random, they happened when you were in motion. You
were in motion, and serendipity happened, and you met this
person who gave you this lesson that helped open this
(17:05):
door later. It's like Steve Job said, you never connect
the dots until you look backwards. And I think that
when you do look backwards, you start to realizing, oh wait, wow,
God's grace is right there.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
I never thought about that. Huh, God opened the door
right there. I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
And what happens is you start to realize that all
these things have already opened for you.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
But they always happened when you were in motion.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
You made a decision, you went for it, you tried something,
and some big lesson or a failure or a pivotal
point happened. But they always happened when you're in motion.
And so when you trust in that, you say, interesting,
doors looking backwards, I can see doors open when I
was in motion. Let me get in motion now because
I want new doors to open. I want new doors
(17:51):
to open for me. So I have to be in motion.
I have this belief, I have this desire, I have
this stream move And you write so eloquently about this
in the book. It's like move because when you move,
the doors are open or you're gonna blast through them
and discover something. But for the most often, I think
that what people discover is Wow. When I get in motion,
amazing things start happening. These random people come into my life. Yeah,
(18:15):
that's when I met my wife, or that's when I
met this business partner, or that's when I got that
first sale that led to this sale, and they can
start connect that forward again with that trust and the
faith that will happen again. I think coming from that standpoint,
it's like it's evidence based.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
There's a lot of.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Evidence that great things happen when you were in motion,
and a lot of things when you were stopping yourself,
fearing yourself, you know, laying on the couch week after
a week and self pity. There wasn't none that happened.
Nothing was happening. You were in the seventeenth bag of Cheetos,
nothing happened. But when you got in motion, oh okay,
(18:50):
you got tired of sitting around and you tried something,
something open. So I think first stepping into that truly
the smallest motion.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Small motion. Get out the house today, Yeah, get the
shower today.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
I didn't tell you this story, but I'll give it
to you now. And maybe I've shared it publicly, but
I don't think.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
That I have.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
I feel like I should, though, when it was time
for me to write this book, and I felt like
you're either going to do this now and write this
because the message was coming alive in me. But I
had become pretty discouraged about the writing process, you know,
going from the spoken word, which I'm more comfortable with
and I have a lot of muscle memory with to
(19:29):
the written word and the way I would judge it,
and I would think this is not very literary. So
everything in me was telling me you're not an author.
You know, back to the identity Christ is in me.
I am enough arguing for your limitations. All of these
mindsets build on each other, right, which is really why
I want you to share every session and read the book.
(19:51):
But the book actually was completely stalled out in my mind.
I tried to write another book, and I remember the
day that I had a blank afternoon on my calendar
and something told me that today was the day to
set the book in motion. And when you said motion,
(20:12):
something jumped in me because I wanted to say this
for the person who is like I know that there's
something that God has put out in front of me
in my future, but I am completely paralyzed by what
I feel. And here's what I did that day. I
went in my closet, I put on a suit, I
(20:32):
never wear suits. But I put on a suit.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
And I drove to my office, and I called my literary.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Agent, and I stood there in a suit, not on
a zoom call, a phone call. So why am I
wearing a suit? To set it in motion? It was
my way of saying to myself, I mean business. And
this wasn't when I was twenty three, just starting out
in ministry. This is recently that I had to do
this for myself, yes, to let myself know we mean business.
(21:03):
And the series of meetings that were set up on
that day, standing there in a suit that was, by
the way, a little too tight because I hadn't put
it on in a couple of years, and as the
suit squeezed the blood out of.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Me, the faith began to flow.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
And one of the reasons that the book is here
today is because, like I said, instead of sitting and
waiting for God to deliver away or make it obvious,
I chose motion. And I think set it in motion
is a great thing to add to this mindset. It's
not just the mindset, but it's setting that mindset in
(21:41):
motion that even the smallest step of putting on a suit,
even the smallest step of setting up a call, even
the smallest step of flushing it and telling somebody to
ask you about that addiction and asking somebody to check
in on you. Did you set up the meeting with
the therapist that you've been saying you're going to do?
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Whatever that move is a lot of times I think.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
The paralysis of the entire path blocks us from the
next step. Yes, because if I'm looking that far out
to see, well, God's gonna make a way, and then
it's gonna lead to this, and this and this, we
are essentially trying to calculate the next five ways that
God is gonna make when all we really need to
(22:24):
do is step through the door that's open right in
front of us. Thank you for joining us. Special thanks
to those of you who give generously to this ministry.
Is because of you that this ministry is possible. You
can click the link in the description to give now
or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information
and if you enjoyed the podcast.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
You can subscribe. You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
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Speaker 1 (22:51):
Your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks
again for listening, God bless you.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Yeah.
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
In your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
I think when you said to me, if you remove
the element of time, it takes away disappointment.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
It took me five minutes to.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Realize how powerful it was what you said, because think
about it, we're going well, I thought God was going
to make a way, but he didn't.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
How do you know yet? Right? How do you know
it wasn't the way? Right? You know?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
We won't stay on the path. We just want to
get off on the next exit. And what does that mean?
Because again a metaphor, a metaphor, Well, when I say
pat and ecton, I'm talking about moving forward in the
last thing that God spoke to you to do, or
continuing to sow seeds in the place God has planted you.
Whether that means your prayers, your kindness, you're showing up,
(00:58):
your discipline, your diligence, whatever that means for you. The
mindset to get out of this mentality that says, if
I don't see the way right away, then I'm going
to turn around and try something else. It's the enemy
of your faith. And I'm not coming to you on
this saying that I've never done it before.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
I have. I felt so frustrated.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
It's a temptation for me to want to judge the
success of something based on the immediate impact that it makes,
based on the immediate feeling that it gives me, or
whether I can quantify it. That's why I loved my
little corny wordplay about suck seeds. It's like the seed
goes down into the ground, breaks apart, goes through trauma,
(01:41):
and comes back up after water and light and fertilizer.
And so so our faith is like that. That's the
way God germinates the things that he puts in our life.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Yeah, and then what we do is we get in
trouble because we start saying, well, what if this turns
out and it's negative? And I want to jump back
in that because I think we usually add three things
that really ruin it for everybody, which is the first
one is associated with our fear of loss pain. Well,
what if I do this and I lose prestige, I
(02:11):
lose status, I lose their respect, I lose money, I
lose time. And so we start saying, well, what if
I do this and I lose this and I lose
it now? And it's just and it's black or white thinking.
I'm what if I do it and it's loss, and
they're not thinking, well, what if I do it and
it's a gain. What if I do it and it
(02:34):
is planting that seed? What if I do it and
it has a positive impact. What if I do it
and I gain money? Well all the other external things
people think that they want. It really does change the brain.
So if you hear yourself saying what if negative and
it's lack, challenge yourself to balance your thinking.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
This is a lot of part of maturities. You learn
to balance thinking.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
And when you're younger it's black or white, and when
you get older you can apply nuance and you can say, oh,
what if.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
What if this turns out terrible? It might okay? Could
I handle it? Well?
Speaker 3 (03:07):
What if it turns out well, well, I'd like it.
And so the first thing is we say what if loss.
The second thing is, wait, what if hardship? What if
I can't handle this. What if it's years of difficulty.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
What if you know, I don't survive this.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
What if I go through this and it's so painful
and instead say well, what if I grow through this?
What if it's not just hardship. What if it's challenge
and character building. What if it's strengthening me. What if
it's making me sharp? What if it's difficult but that's
the thing that makes me stand out later again with time.
(03:45):
And the last one is what if the outcome is bad?
Like you know you said to Graham, well, what if
there's what if we drive all this way and it's
a long line and you have to say what if
we drive all this way and it's a short line
and you have to change it? And flip is said earlier,
But also what if the outcome is good, but it's
(04:05):
good in five years? What if it's what I'm trying
to encourage people is a lot of the mindset is
the decision to start the journey, hoping and trusting and
having faith that things turn out well later, not on Monday.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Like you start lifting. If I start lifting tomorrow, I
don't look like him tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
You know what I'm saying, it's like you have to
give yourself this time. And I think that's where a
lot of our pain and all of our mindset destroys
us is we want it so fast that we won't
begin the longer journeys that have the bigger payoffs.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
We won't begin the longer journeys that have the bigger payoffs. Yeah,
because I'm so focused on what's right in front of me,
or I'm holding on to something that was And don't
you think a lot of times what keeps us from
seeing the way God is making is the way He
did it last time, right, And so we're holding on
(05:03):
to the way God used to do it. And I'll
give an example of this.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Or we thought he did it. Oh yeah, we can
go there too. Which one should I go with? Let's see, I.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Like yours better the way that we thought he did it.
We have so many misconceptions about what God needs to
use to bless us or what we need to move forward, right, Like, Okay,
I need a team, someone might say, and then I'll
start this thing. Or I need somebody to come along
and support me or back me or finance me, or
(05:34):
I need this perfect church, or we get all this
list of what we think we need for God to
do it right, and so we're holding on to that.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Don't you think that a lot of what.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Keeps us from moving forward is what we won't let
go of, our idea of how it should be, our
idea of the way we thought God was going to make.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
I thought i'd be married.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
And I'm twenty five and I was planning to get
married at twenty two.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Well, that's the way I thought God was going to make.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
So I love what you said, like, not only what
God did in the past, but what I thought he
was supposed to do. And now I can't go forward.
So let's have a little therapeutic coaching. I know you're
not an ist, a psychologist, or a nutritionist.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
You know, I know that you're a coach.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
So let's coach somebody in faith who won't let go
of something that they thought was supposed to happen in
order to go forward into the way God is making.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
They can't even see right now.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Yeah, I think too often our vision becomes myopic on
what was, and we're operating from here. What we should
be operating from is our potential and into our future
and the best of who we are and so I
always tell people never limit your vision for who you
can be based on your past stories or your current circumstances.
(06:49):
Because every great successful person there was that part of
their story where they were broke down and out struggling, and.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
They just didn't choose to live there.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
They choose to work through it because they believe something
good would happen. And so I think the first part
is going where is your vision and where are you
operating from? Are you operating from the past time zone
or the current struggle time zone or are you living
into and being the best of who you can be
(07:17):
for the future you, which is what your book is about. Yeah,
I mean that's really powerful. Where you operating and where's
your vision? And then we also have to set up
these rhythms in our life where we choose to release
the tension and the disappointment.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
I love that rhythms where we choose to release our
tension and disappointment.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
So what are your rhythms of release? Write that down
in the comments. Rhythms of release?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Yeah, because what happens is, you know, inevitably stuff builds
up and we get disappointed, we get angry, we get hurt,
and if we never release that. It's like a pressure cooker,
and one day it will release, and it will release
in a pipe burst. It will release in an inappropriate
way for people. That's why therapy is so powerful. You
go every week, or you talk to a coach, you
(08:01):
talk to them every week. It's a place that you
go to release your thoughts and your concepts and your
frustrations and your plans. But it can't just be releasing.
It has to be what I always call you release
the tension of that, and you set the intention for
what's next. So I'm somebody I have to do this
every hour. I'm easily distracted. I'm so enthusiastic.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
I want to do this. I want to do this.
I want to do this, and I know this about myself.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
So every hour, no matter what's happening, when I'm working
at my desk, every hour a little timer goes off.
I have a next to my computer, press it start.
Fifty five minutes, it stops, and I push back, close
my eyes and I just start breathing, and I release
the tension in my body and I just repeat this
little mantra to myself.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Release Release, Release, Release.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
And I might only do this for two four or
five minutes, just release, release, trying to release all thoughts,
all feelings, all emotions and tension of my bad Once
I feel like I'm in a good place, open my
eyes and ask, Okay, what's my intention for this next hour?
And I learned that in helping a lot of people
through grief and trauma. You know, sometimes we think our
(09:15):
vision has to be this huge new thing, But when
you're really struggling, what's the intention of the next hour?
You know what, I'm going to go pick up the
kids and I'm going to share some love with them.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
That's the intention for the next hour.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Yeah, but I don't want to go pick up the
kids carrying all that stuff. So I always say, before
every significant interaction with somebody, if you can just release
the tension.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
I teach people all the time.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
If you're the one who goes to work and you
come home to your partner, your spouse with the kids,
when you pull up that house, tell you what, put
the chair back, close your eyes, do release meditation for
about five minutes, and say, what's my intention? Well, my
intention is go be a good dad, Go be a
good mom, Go be a good provider, Go be a
good servant, whatever it is, and these little moments that
(09:58):
you're just released all this frustration and this tension, because
people carry a lot of tension and they get lost
in the tension unless you release that. You know, you
can use the metaphor releasing baggage, but I don't like
that metaphors much, But just releasing the tension and setting
an intention. It's a constant recalibration into the future and
into your faith. And when you can recalibrate into my future,
(10:23):
into my faith, then I can survive this moment.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Now.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
What I love about this is how you broke it
down and shrunk it because sometimes when we talk about
letting go of the past moving forward into the future,
which is a lot of what this mindset is about
with God, there's always a way by faith I will
find it. We set that finder so far out in
the future five years from now, I want to be here,
(10:49):
and sometimes what we really need to release happen five
minutes ago, not five years ago.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
And I love that you use the word rhythm.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Because I like music so much that I thought, well,
that's brilliant, because I've thought of letting go of what
was as something I do maybe once like, I let
it go, God, how they hurt me? I let it
go God. But when you put it in the term
of a rhythm, that's not a rhythm unless.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
I do that that right that that so letting it
go isn't letting it go unless I let it go.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Every time it comes back up, Yeah, the stuff that
your parents did or something that frustrates you, it's going
to come up over and over and you let it
go over and you got to let go over and over.
So this belief that one day you're, you know, completely
spiritually free of all pain and problems in the past.
Maybe some people have that, but for most people, the
(11:50):
difficulties of life happen on a recurring basis. There's a
rhythm to that too, And so when it comes up again,
Oh you know what, that's my old demons. They're fighting
me again. Oh you know what, that's that old behavior.
I used to do that because he taught me to
do that or she said that. And so as it
comes up again, it's an active release process. You're actively releasing.
(12:11):
But here's the thing. If you just release it and
you don't set intention for what's next, you'll keep falling prey.
It'll keep pulling you back in. You have to set
an intention that is higher or part of something that
is higher, and that is where I met by. You
have to set intention to your future and your faith
over and over and over. It's like recalibrating back into Him,
(12:35):
back into spirit because these things often they're dispiriting, and
you got to connect to the spirit again and so
release the dispiriting things, tap back in to the spirited things.
And when you teach yourself to this over and over
and over again, you suddenly es I.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Got a pretty good mindset.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yeah, Because if our brain is operating off of the
neuropathways that have created our thought pattern, and our mindset
is to think a different way, then we can basically
say that seeing the way that God is making is
a product of thinking the way God thinks.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
So we're possibly.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Looking at something right now that would be an opportunity,
or you could reconcile, or you could actually have love
in your life or supporting your life right and you're.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Telling yourself you can't.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
And the reason you're telling yourself that you can't right
now is because the way that you are thinking. I
like how we call God a waymaker, but there are
also God blockers in our life. I think about if
God is the waymaker, there are God blockers. Those are
the thoughts, the thoughts that cause us to say, well,
(13:50):
if it would have happened five years ago, I believe it,
but it would have happened by now if it was
going to happen, or things like that don't happen to me.
They don't happen for me, they happen for others. Or
maybe somebody told you, like I remember.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
My dad was.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
We both shared about our dads today and I learned
a little bit more about your dad, and I didn't
tell you much about my dad. We just realized our
dads both went to heaven when we were about the
same age, about thirty two or thirty three years old.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
And you know my dad was. He was a passionate guy.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
One time, somebody was telling me, you'll never be able
to go to college, you won't be able to afford it.
And they were saying, I didn't go to college, and
so you're not going to go to college, and you need.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
To make peace with that.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
It sounds like a weird thing for somebody to tell
a kid, right, and it kind of was. I was
only like ten or eleven whole, and I don't even
know why they were saying that, But my dad goes,
shut your stupid mouth.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
To this other person. And this is not probably recommended
for an advice.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
He said, if I have to kill somebody to get
the money to send that boy to college, if he
makes good grades and wants to go to college, he'll
go to college.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
And I got scholarship instead, so I went to college.
He didn't have to kill anybody.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
The story doesn't have a weird ending, where then that's
the day my dad died. The point of it was
that he wasn't going to have me limited. We've talked
in the previous mindsets, and I want you to go
back and watch all of them, because we talked about it.
I'm not stuck unless I stop. We talk about coming
from abundance in the mindset Christ is in me.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
I'm enough. But now we're moving deeper into this to say.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Are your thoughts the result of seeds that someone planted
and that someone wasn't God? And if they were, can
you go back by faith and uproot those through the process? Well,
what does that look like? I love Brendan's handles released
Attention set the intention, the intention of what, the intention
(15:56):
of your future, and your faith with God. There's always
a way by faith, I will find it. And maybe
that's why you haven't found it yet, right, because you're
not looking by faith, right, you're looking by sight. And
so I don't see it and I've never seen it,
and I've never been it and I've never done it.
(16:17):
But this mindset is by faith, I will find it.
So how does faith open up your eyes to possibilities.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
That were there all along? And how do you tap
into it practically?
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Because a lot of people will say, so, I'm just
supposed to what, lift my hands, I'm just supposed to
quote a Bible verse.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Well yeah, oh that's good.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Yeah, But there's an actual way to activate faith too,
that's practical.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Yeah. I think you begin if you are looking backwards.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Look backwards and notice that all the big moves in
your life, and all the big random things that look
so random, they happened when you were in motion. You
were in motion, and serendipity happened, and you met this
person who gave you this lesson that helped open this
(17:05):
door later. It's like Steve Job said, you never connect
the dots until you look backwards. And I think that
when you do look backwards, you start to realizing, oh wait, wow,
God's grace is right there.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
I never thought about that. Huh, God opened the door
right there. I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
And what happens is you start to realize that all
these things have already opened for you.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
But they always happened when you were in motion.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
You made a decision, you went for it, you tried something,
and some big lesson or a failure or a pivotal
point happened. But they always happened when you're in motion.
And so when you trust in that, you say, interesting,
doors looking backwards, I can see doors open when I
was in motion. Let me get in motion now because
I want new doors to open. I want new doors
(17:51):
to open for me. So I have to be in motion.
I have this belief, I have this desire, I have
this stream move And you write so eloquently about this
in the book. It's like move because when you move,
the doors are open or you're gonna blast through them
and discover something. But for the most often, I think
that what people discover is Wow. When I get in motion,
amazing things start happening. These random people come into my life. Yeah,
(18:15):
that's when I met my wife, or that's when I
met this business partner, or that's when I got that
first sale that led to this sale, and they can
start connect that forward again with that trust and the
faith that will happen again. I think coming from that standpoint,
it's like it's evidence based.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
There's a lot of.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Evidence that great things happen when you were in motion,
and a lot of things when you were stopping yourself,
fearing yourself, you know, laying on the couch week after
a week and self pity. There wasn't none that happened.
Nothing was happening. You were in the seventeenth bag of Cheetos,
nothing happened. But when you got in motion, oh okay,
(18:50):
you got tired of sitting around and you tried something,
something open. So I think first stepping into that truly
the smallest motion.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Small motion. Get out the house today, Yeah, get the
shower today.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
I didn't tell you this story, but I'll give it
to you now. And maybe I've shared it publicly, but
I don't think.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
That I have.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
I feel like I should, though, when it was time
for me to write this book, and I felt like
you're either going to do this now and write this
because the message was coming alive in me. But I
had become pretty discouraged about the writing process, you know,
going from the spoken word, which I'm more comfortable with
and I have a lot of muscle memory with to
(19:29):
the written word and the way I would judge it,
and I would think this is not very literary. So
everything in me was telling me you're not an author.
You know, back to the identity Christ is in me.
I am enough arguing for your limitations. All of these
mindsets build on each other, right, which is really why
I want you to share every session and read the book.
(19:51):
But the book actually was completely stalled out in my mind.
I tried to write another book, and I remember the
day that I had a blank afternoon on my calendar
and something told me that today was the day to
set the book in motion. And when you said motion,
(20:12):
something jumped in me because I wanted to say this
for the person who is like I know that there's
something that God has put out in front of me
in my future, but I am completely paralyzed by what
I feel. And here's what I did that day. I
went in my closet, I put on a suit, I
(20:32):
never wear suits. But I put on a suit.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
And I drove to my office, and I called my literary.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Agent, and I stood there in a suit, not on
a zoom call, a phone call. So why am I
wearing a suit? To set it in motion? It was
my way of saying to myself, I mean business. And
this wasn't when I was twenty three, just starting out
in ministry. This is recently that I had to do
this for myself, yes, to let myself know we mean business.
(21:03):
And the series of meetings that were set up on
that day, standing there in a suit that was, by
the way, a little too tight because I hadn't put
it on in a couple of years, and as the
suit squeezed the blood out of.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Me, the faith began to flow.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
And one of the reasons that the book is here
today is because, like I said, instead of sitting and
waiting for God to deliver away or make it obvious,
I chose motion. And I think set it in motion
is a great thing to add to this mindset. It's
not just the mindset, but it's setting that mindset in
(21:41):
motion that even the smallest step of putting on a suit,
even the smallest step of setting up a call, even
the smallest step of flushing it and telling somebody to
ask you about that addiction and asking somebody to check
in on you. Did you set up the meeting with
the therapist that you've been saying you're going to do?
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Whatever that move is a lot of times I think.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
The paralysis of the entire path blocks us from the
next step. Yes, because if I'm looking that far out
to see, well, God's gonna make a way, and then
it's gonna lead to this, and this and this, we
are essentially trying to calculate the next five ways that
God is gonna make when all we really need to
(22:24):
do is step through the door that's open right in
front of us. Thank you for joining us. Special thanks
to those of you who give generously to this ministry.
Is because of you that this ministry is possible. You
can click the link in the description to give now
or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information
and if you enjoyed the podcast.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
You can subscribe. You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks
again for listening, God bless you.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Yeah.
Host
Steven Furtick
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