323. God Wants To Develop You, But You Have To Let Him

But I could ask most Christians, do you believe God heals people? And they say, "Yeah, of course." You know, I'd say, "Well, do you believe He's going to heal you?" That's a very different question. Do you believe God is a plan? Yeah, of course. God is a plan. But do you believe God is a plan for you? Regardless of where you're at, what you've been through, I've been through difficult things, too. You've got to decide, "Does God have a plan for your life? And are you going to bet on that? Are you going to believe in it? Or are you just going to believe in the God that, you know, I believe there's a God up there, but is he active in your life? That's impossible. Let me tell you what I believe. Your weakness is not your technique. Yes, yes! Don't think you are. No, you are. The Impossible Life Podcast? I'm just sitting on a winning lottery ticket. An idea that is fully formed, fully understood, that sticks. This is the Impossible Life Podcast, because Nick and I are attempting to live impossible lives. What we know is that nothing is impossible. So instead of using Impossible as an excuse to not try, we'll use the pursuit of Impossible as an accelerant for greatness. If something's never been done before, that just means it's unexplored. If they tell you it's too hard, it's just waiting to be simplified. Impossible is a default label used by uncorragious people, unwilling to take a risk. The real truth is this. The solution to any Impossible task starts with this question. If I had to, what would it take? What it takes? Welcome to another episode of the Impossible Life Podcast. I'm your co-host Nick Surface, and I'm looking across at a man so prepared, he once shot himself in the foot on purpose, just so he could perform the surgery and restores his foot back to normal. That's right friends, the Fomulevisu. Gerard Alkabok, a man who knows that YouTube and a scalpel are a recipe for a good time. It's a good one. Wow, maybe you should tell your face that's a good one. Well, I just want to, you know, I'm grateful to have Nick Surface on the show as a good guest for 300 and what episode? 323 episodes of being a guest on the. I have the longest standing guest appearance on any podcast. I'm making a joke too. I'm making a joke and also honoring my friend at the same time because so many people. You're honoring me by telling me I'm a guest at your podcast. That's what I do, Nick. I start by stabbing you and then I fix it and be like, see. Look, I fixed the wound. You mean the one you gave me? Yeah, I did that for you. That's all good with my damn. Thanks, bro. Man, we have some of our friends and just people who sometimes refer to it as like, you know, big Gerard Uncle Bog podcast. All the time. Yeah. Or, you know, Gerard's podcast. Yeah. And Nick is my co-host. One of the greatest times was whenever somebody said that it was telling me how much he loved Gerard's podcast. It was telling me how much he loved Gerard's podcast and I was like, how much have you listened to? He's like, oh yeah, and he's like, tell me all about it. And I just, I didn't even say it to him. I just was like, I was just happy he was listening, man. You know, like we talked about this at this point, like, and you love, we love jabbing each other and it is funny. But like, honestly, as long as people are getting it and they're growing closer to Lord, who really cares? Who's podcasted is? That's the, that's the attitude. So today, gee, we are diving into, as always, this is going to be a good one. It's all, yeah, I'm actually very excited. This, this is all about letting God develop you. And I, and we're going to really uncover what it is to have real faith in the development process. And which, you know what the development process is? It's uncertainty. There's no like, okay, here's what you got to do to become e2. There's, there's like, and if you don't know that reference, when you're in the military, everyone knows what you have to do before you can get to your next rank. It's not like, surprise. You're going to be, you know, we just fast-tracked you to e6. It doesn't happen that way. You go e1, e2. I mean, I'm talking about you know this way better than I do because you lived it. But there is a process. Yeah. And it's, and it's documented. God doesn't have like, don't worry. Here's how long you're going to be here. The difference is in the military. They put it on a piece of paper and say, do these things. Right. God doesn't do that. Exactly. Now, so we're going to talk about what it is to have faith. It'll sometimes feel like it's in the waiting in the frustration and the uncertainty. And that's where we're called to be. And so we're going to talk about this. And you said, you always say this story. And I think this is a really interesting application for what it is to follow God. You said that they said, we don't train you to become seals. A seals show up to be trained. This was a moment for me that it was acknowledgement. It was like, I knew I was supposed to be here. I knew that I was meant for this program. I knew I could do it. Even though nobody else had told me that. I knew it. And when they said this, you don't come here to become a Navy Seals. Seals show up to be trained. I was like, that's right. I already was one. I'm like, this program is going to validate who I am. I didn't come here to figure out who I am. Right. What is statement? What is statement, man? Because it's like, the natural thought process, anytime you do something difficult, it's like, can I do it? And I would say with that parallel to that process of like any training program. We need the seals to show up here and then we'll train you and develop you. Meaning like, this was who you were assigned to be. I would say it is the exact same in your life and who God's created you to be. Like, God has assigned you to be something. You need to go through the development process. Don't get out there and try to, and this is what we're going to talk about today. Don't get out there and try to figure out, well, if I could just do this, then I'll know who I am. God's already assigned who you are. Like, God has given you a purpose. God has a great plan for your life. And just like if your dad was a professional baseball player and he wanted you to be a professional baseball player, shout out to Matt Holliday. Yeah. He's figured it out. Yeah. If your dad's a professional baseball player, you want to be a professional baseball player. Your dad wants to help you be a professional baseball player. You know what you should do? What's your dad says? Yeah. Right. Instead of like, you know, dad, I know you were a pro ball player. You want to help me be a pro ball player. I want to be a pro ball player. But you know what? I think I've got my own plan. Yeah. I'm going to come with my own plan. No, the whole thought process and what I want you to take away from today is that you should let God develop you. Yeah. That he is the coach. He's the father. He's the master. He is a great program for your life. When you'll submit to him, when you'll follow his plan, you're going to become who you were called to be. When you fight against that and wrestle against that and say, well, you know, I know that I know you want me to develop in this way. But that doesn't take me towards what I want to do. You've been a coach before and you've developed players. And they're like, well, I want to learn how to do this. It's like, no, we can't go to that phase of training yet. You're not ready. Right. Yeah. 100% right, man. And oftentimes that analogy you gave of being a coach, you're trying to develop a player because you can see their strengths. But they want to be something that they're not like, oh, but I really like it. It's like you may like that. But what you are naturally designed for, like you have all the giftings to be really good in this role. And it's a matter of can you accept that that role is equally as important as the one that you think you want to play. It's a five seven center fielder who wants to be a pitcher. Right. It's like, bro, we know you got a cannon, but it's not meant for that. Right. You're also really fast and when you do cover the field. Yeah. We like our sports analogies here. So that's what we're going into, man. And you put it like this. I thought this was such a great mindset statement because oftentimes people will think, man, like they'll want to hack their way to what they think they're supposed to do. So like if you feel like you're called a ministry, well, I better start like holding meetings. And I better find some people like people are trying to come up with the career plan. Right. I could just meet this guy. And if I could just get this opportunity. Yeah. People are trying to build the staircase with their life. And that's God's job. God knows where you're going. He knows what the end of the road is. I want you to take on this thought process in your life. And this is like it's a metaphor. We do a lot of metaphors here. Christ taught a metaphor. So I think it's a pretty good way to teach. Do a lot of metaphors here. I want you to take on this metaphor in your life. Stop trying to build the staircase and build a set of legs. Right. That is also a little bit of a high T from my background because that's, you know, they everyone wants like big arms and that's great. But legs are what gets you to the battle. Right. Right. And you can judge a warrior not by the size of his biceps but by his legs. You've got to be able to fight. You've got to be able to carry yourself. You've got to be able to get there. And that is also the platform for, you know, if you've got pencils for legs, you know, the arms, your swing and aren't going to do much for you. much for you. A.K.A. Stop skipping leg day. That's a bone. Physically. And spiritually, stop skipping leg day and stop skipping core. Right. That's a bonus nugget. Now, so we're gonna go into this morgue but I, I want to just dive in here. So you have to, like we, we, you say on this podcast all the time and you say it every week. Every week. You have to understand that. It is one of the most important beliefs. We talk about beliefs here all the time. I always mention the definition because I'm just trying to help you get it if you're new here. Our definition of beliefs. These are the things that you know are true. You can't prove them. You can have evidence for it but not enough evidence to scientifically prove it. Verifiable, demonstrable, repeated. But it's what you know is true. You have to know that that's true. That God is a great plan for your life. And look at it this way. Let me ask you this question. Okay, I could ask, I wouldn't say every and we're not going to get into these silly and ridiculous theological debates. It's not what this podcast is for but I could ask most Christians. Do you believe God heals people? And they say, yeah, of course. Yeah, reading the Bible all the time. There's some who don't but that's okay. Again, we're not getting and I could ask nearly every Christian and they'd say, "Oh, yeah, of course God heals people." I'd say, "Well, do you believe He's gonna heal you?" - Right. - That's a very different question. - Yeah, it's the road. - Do you believe God is a plan? Yeah, of course. God is a plan. God knows what He's doing today. And he got already, we already know what the end looks like. - Yeah, I think as well, when you say that, I think of people like, "Well, yeah, but I didn't have. " And they'll start listing off some of the things that they didn't have that they think would be part of the plan. But Garrett, you say that and like, "Yes, He has a plan for me, but I don't know how good it is." Right? Because like I can see for you, you're an AVC, you had great parents, like you had all this stuff, I'd get why stuff is going well for you. You don't know my background. I had really bad parents. I've also screwed up a bunch. I ruined my marriage and I'm just out here floating the wind. Like God, I think I've ruined God's plan for me. - Yeah, and Moses murdered a guy and David committed adultery. - Right. - And Joseph went to prison wrongfully charged. - Yeah. - He paid the price for a crime that he didn't commit, right, which was sleeping with a pot of his wife. - Nobody has a perfect life and you can call out the highlights in mind and look at it that way. You can, hey, look at Joseph. His father was Isaac, his grandfather was Jacob, his great grandfather is Abraham. I mean, I said the backwards Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, his father is Jacob, grandfather's Isaac, great grandfather is Abraham. You can look at him like man, Joseph one, right? The favorite son of the grandson of Abraham. He was always gonna end up ruling the world. - Yeah, yeah. Then his brother's plotted to kill him, became a slave. You can look at the high notes, you can look at the low notes. You know what? - Joseph, when he was in prison, he said, "You know what, God is a plan for my life." And regardless of where you're at, what you've been through, I've been through difficult things too. You've gotta decide, does God have a plan for your life and are you gonna bet on that? Are you gonna believe in it? Are you just gonna believe in the God that, you know, I believe there's a God up there, but is he active in your life? - Right. - 'Cause what you said about, do you believe it, he has a plan for you? - Like that. - I believe God can heal, but do you believe he can heal you? - Right, because there's a level of walking that out. - Because we use the term believes so haphazardly in culture today, like I'm a believer. What, I mean, I feel like that doesn't even mean anything anymore, like when you say I'm a believer, 'cause so many people, let me give an interesting context for you. - All right. - So it's one thing to know, that's step one, okay? Like I just have knowledge of it, but I'm not active in it. And then the next step that people would call belief is like Peter and it's what ripped his heart out when he denied Jesus. - Right. - And made it, but he's like, but I know him. And then he, but he still denied him. A lot of people would say they believe because they won't deny him. I was like, well yeah, no, I don't deny that God is real. And that's the next level, right? You have knowledge of him, and then you would essentially not deny him, but then the third thing is that you would bet on him. - Right. - That you, like truly, you would put your chips on God's plan. That's what, like I say, the analogy I like to use is a lot of people love a sports team. Like, oh, yeah, this is my team. Like would you bet everything you own on that team? - Yeah. - It's like, well, then you're a fan. - Right. - There's nothing I'm not saying. It's not wrong to be a fan. There's a difference between fan and belief. - Now, here's, but here's what we are saying. You can, no one's gonna judge you on your, your level of fandom for your team. I mean, most people won't judge you on that. And say there are some places where you'll be judged on how committed you are to the team. But when we're talking about falling after God, this is like the most serious thing in the world. And so I, I think where we become so casual and calm in place about saying like, yeah, I'm a believer and that makes me a Christian. And I mean, I'm gonna reference it again because it was so, like listening to Hormosi talk about Christianity and he said one of the reasons he walked away is because he felt like, I think he said 99 or 95% of the people that said they were Christians weren't actually living it out. It made no impact on the world. - Because he saw people who say they believe, but they don't make the bet. - Right. And so when we say, oh God has a plan for my life, it's like, yeah, I love that. It's like, okay, well, we're gonna go into what that actually looks like because there's so many times throughout the day that what we actually believe is revealed. And I don't think we really, we really realize that we're betting on those things. Like the things that we worry about, if somebody stopped and said, what are you trusting right now? And you actually had a sober mind, you're like, oh my gosh, I'm not trusting, I'm trusting 100% in my ability and not in God. - So you've gotta have faith, right? The sort of saying, don't just say God is planning for your life, you should say it, don't just say it, but you've gotta have the faith in that. And to people who ask this question all the time, like, okay, how do I get more faith? Well, that's really simple. Scripture says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. You've gotta get activated, you've gotta get involved in the Word of God. How can you believe in Him if you don't know what He says? This is the, I always tell people as it relates to reading the Bible, like this is my advice to people reading the Bible, people ask me, and people are probably asking you the same thing, like, man, how do you know those scriptures? I don't sit down and memorize scripture. I spend time with it, this is what I care about. This is what I meditate on, it's connected to everything in my brain. The same way that, like, I see stuff in life, and I go, oh, that's like this scene in the Matrix. I've seen it, it's one of my favorite movies. So it's very easy for me to make the connections, okay? And in the same way, I look at the Bible similar to a movie in that, I've never had to sit down and memorize scenes from the Matrix or memorize the lines from the Matrix. For any person, ask yourself, what's your favorite movie? And I could show you a scene from that movie. You could tell me what's happening in that scene, what happened before, what happened after. You could probably quote lines from the scene, and you could tell me your favorite lines from the movie, you could tell me the story of the movie, and try to get me involved in it, and like, you know, isn't this great? Yeah. That's the level of relationship you have to have with the Bible. If you just spend time with it, like, it becomes a part of your life. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Get that relationship with the Bible, and it will grow your faith, and I'll also tell you that, you know, Bible says that faith comes from God, but then there's a duality of faith and works. It's not one or the other. They have to work together. And very simple dominoity is faith and works work together, the same way that working out and eating right work together. When you start working out really good, like, there's just this weird thing that happens where you naturally want to eat healthier. You may be hungrier, but you start to want like better food. And you also don't want to ruin the work that you just did in the gym. And when you eat better, it helps you work out better. And so these things begin to work together. The same, when you have faith, right, like this is the beginning, like I want to just zoom out for you for a second. Catch this understanding about faith. Like God created you. You are a person on the earth for a short amount of time, and God made you for a reason. There's a plan for your life. There's a great story for your life. And it is the beginning of the hero's journey that you would just take a step of faith. Step forward beyond where you are today, right? If you are listening to this right now, and you're brand new to Christ, you're brand new to following God, take a step. You don't have to have this mountains of faith. Whatever your level of faith, like if you are level one faith right now, I want you to step to 1.1. Like just take a step forward. And when you activate your faith, it works like that, doing your workouts and eating the right food. When you do these things together, when you begin to act out your faith, you know what you just did? You move to a new level of faith. And that becomes your baseline. And you continue to grow and increase your faith. This is an exercise that you're doing with God. You're not doing this by yourself, but when you step out in faith, God is growing you. God is giving you new faith, and you can do it again and again and again. - Yeah, 'cause so oftentimes faith is like this, it's we have the faith meter that when I strain past level 17, then God starts activating. That's how some people have understood that. But when you understand the Greek word "pistus" and the way what faith actually means, it's the divine persuasion. And isn't that such a gift, G. That God, God's not saying, "Hey, you need to go figure this out." I think about that divine persuasion. It's that God has, it's the gift that he's given to us, right? It talks about this faith, it's not from yourselves. It's Ephesians 2, 8 through 10. He talks about how the faith is not from yourself. It's a gift of God. And so it's exactly what you said. So when we seek God and we hear, which is the word of God, which is always available, what happens? Faith grows. And what is faith? It's taking God at his word. It's just saying, "I believe you." Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. That is the Father that we're following in. And when you understand it like that, it's so simple, but at the same time, it requires a complete release because you're going, "Lord, I just trust you. I just believe what you said." And so belief in actions goes on. Yeah, and then I'm going to act on it. And that's the both. It is the both of faith and works. We've done, I think we did an entire episode once on this one. On both, it's a great concept. Let me just kind of re-explain, 'cause we're going to talk about some both today. This is the greatness. This is the divine nature of God. To be both, to be two things at one time. God is both love and law. And these are different things. And he's both of them at the same time. It's not even in either or, or sometimes I'm this and sometimes I'm that. He's both at the same time. I gave, I gave, this is for the nerds. I gave math, I gave Nick the nerd math question this morning, and asked him, I said, "How many decimals are there between zero and one?" Yeah, I was like, "What is your, what is your, what is your, what is your. " It was 615, I was still waiting for the coffee to kick in. This guy's hitting with math questions. Then the math nerds know that there's an infinite amount of decimals. Right. You can just go on and on. Right. You know, point 999, into infinity. And that is the point. And if you are both a zero and a one and everything in between, that is by definition infinity. Right. Because we define life as zero or one and to be both at the same time is to encapsulate infinity. It is the greatness, it is the glory, it is the divine nature of God. And what I want you to also take away from this, if you're not a nerd, just let me bring you back. Okay. This is sinfulness. Sinfulness is to just be one. Like I just want to be this, right? Just want to be that. Because you start making it about you. You start wanting some of your feelings. This is literally the beginning of sin. This is Satan saying, well, why can't it be about me? Right? To just to be great and to serve at the same time. He said, I just want to be great. Right? I don't want to serve you. Why can't it be about me? And this is where we fall away from God. When you are two things at the same time, it is the greatest capacity that you could be. It is a God like quality. We'll get back to the episode in just a minute. If you're thinking about buying a home right now or even the next six to twelve months, the best move you can make before scrolling listings is to get your numbers right. That's why you should reach out to the guys at New Wave Lending before you shop for your home. They're not just another lender. These are guys we trust and have close connections with through two-time podcast guest Cody Bobe. 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With my children, I have to be both strong and firm with them, but warm and loving at the same time. And you know what will happen? Sometimes when my kids irritate me, get it is less than perfect. And out of that irritation, I might become more firm and less loving. In the same way, people who are weak or soft naturally, you should change. You need to grow. God has more for you. Not everyone has to be a terminator, but you should be strong. God made you to be strong. God will not give you a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power and love and a sound mind. And people, and I'm giving the other side of the coin here, for me being sinful and overly firm with my children, some people who are naturally weaker, soft, they look at Christ and they put him in this ultimate meekness box. But Jesus was just so nice. He was just so nice. He was just so loving and just let people beat him up. And he was just so nice. Also, remember, who Christ is in the Bible? He's the commander of Heaven's armies. Yeah, okay. Ultimate Terminator. The commander of Heaven's armies. Also extremely kind. Yeah. This reminds me of the lady who came in to contact with our mighty men group when we were there supporting Rod. And she was very offended that we had warriors on our shirt. And she said, "Why can't they just call themselves friends of Jesus?" That's what he actually wants. God doesn't want warriors. This was on social media that she was coming back and forth. I mean, I just replied back to her and I said, "Lower is a warrior." It's 15, it's 15. I literally was just like, "He literally, that's who he is." People try to put God in a box. Right. And that's not. So I just want you to take away from this and it's something that I do the best that I can to teach this concept. And I feel like these are some of the mysteries of the kingdom that I've touched and I'm learning and still learning and try to share as much as I can. But it is one of the greatest things that you can do is when you can figure out how to be both. And you do it when, right, selfishness makes you just one thing. Sinfulness makes you one thing. When you can be both, like Christ did, not your. Not my will, but yours be done. Out of a sacrificial nature, you'll say, "Well, maybe what I would want, like what Satan did, what I want is it to be about me." Right. Instead of what I want, what does God want? What is my part to play here? What do I need to be? What's required of me? Yeah. How am I useful here? I'll be whatever is required of me. Right. And I'll be the one that I want to be both. It is the selfishness that pulls you into just one or the other. Yeah. And really, Capricity, if you're still kind of struggling with this, because you talked about it, God's infinitely, many. All of God's qualities are infinite at all at the same time. When we're talking about both, it's the ones that are seemingly in opposition. Like you gave a few, he's just and merciful. Well, wait a minute. How can you be both? He's gracious and truthful. Right. And these seem in contrast. So let's give a great application. Is sex good or bad? Is it right or wrong? It depends on the context, right? It's both. It can be terribly sinful of a lustful nature. It can also be God's design. Right. And this C.S. Lewis quote, I love this. It's genius. It's from Mirk Shiaini. He said, "Strictly speaking, there are no such things as good and bad impulses. Think of a piano. It has not got two kinds of notes on it, the right notes and the wrong ones. Every single note is right at one time and wrong at another. The moral law is not anyone instinct or set of instincts. It is something which makes a kind of tune. The tune we call goodness or right conduct by directing the instincts." And what is great music? So what is great music? Right. It's harmony. Yes. It's the notes being played well together. Yeah. It's both. Right. Right. If you just play one note, that may not be inherently wrong. That's also not music either. You just play one note, but when you play a set of notes, different notes together at the same time, both notes, in a rhythm, in a harmony, that's what becomes beautiful. Yeah. So what we're saying, because you gave the great statement beginning that you said, "I don't need to build a staircase. I need to build my legs." Okay, well, wait a minute. Because is God going to develop me or am I going to develop myself? Like it's kind of like a lot of people struggle. You probably maybe you're getting the answer here. Correct. It's both. It's like, "Okay, well, that's great. Cool story." Well, let us share a little scripture with you because this is not Garrett's original idea. This is 2 Peter 1, 3 through 11. I think it's such a great thing. We have Jesus who died, who paid the price, who took God's wrath for us and did what we could never do in making us right with God. Okay. And we have this great promise. He's coming again. We had John Bevereon. If you haven't read the King, he's coming. Read the book. Jesus is coming back. And we are all going to have to stand before him and give him a count for our life, which is absolutely terrifying if you don't have Christ. So, this is where we live. So how should we live now, gee? Should we just be like, "Man, thank you so much that we have that. And because I'm under grace, I can do all these things." No. Listen to how the correct response to that level of grace. 2 Peter 1, 3 through 11. His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these, he has given us his very great and precious promises so that through them, you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. He's talking about the promise of Jesus coming again. He's talking about resurrection life. Okay. And then listen to how he says we should respond in verse 5. For this very reason, oh, so because we have these promises, make every effort to add to your faith, goodness and to goodness knowledge and to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance and to perseverance godliness and to godliness, mutual affection and to mutual affection, love, what a list and then listen to how he says it. If you possess these qualities and increasing measure, right, if you possess these qualities, there's some work that you got to do. You got to follow this process. If you possess these qualities and increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is near-sided and blind for getting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. I want to be effective. I want to be productive. You're going to have to possess these qualities. Verse 10, "Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort. Whose job is it? Mine." Make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is, "Hey, you know what? God's got a great plan for your life. Act like it. Act like it. God is a great plan for your life. What are you going to do about that? God's going to do his part. Are you going to do yours? The whole theme of this episode, and we're going to get into some practical here, the whole theme of this episode, is let God develop you. If you'll truly believe he has a great plan for your life, it's going to be hard for you to mess things up. If you'll act it. If you'll act accordingly with that. And what I gave this analogy to Nick when we were prepping today, I said, "I want people to get this stuff we're talking about here today. I want people to get this because I see people sometimes and they're trying to develop themselves and they're developed themselves. Plan is like, "What if I can just get this career bullet and this resume and check all these boxes? Then you know what I'm going to be great?" What that looks like to me is the Taekwondo geeks on YouTube that are rehearsing their like, "When the bully comes up to me, I'm going to do this kick and I'm going to judo chop them in the neck." Right. - You're an idiot. - Yeah. - You're an idiot. That's what that looks like to me when people are coming up, "Well, I'm gonna get this career plan." Like, you've got this beautiful idea of how you're gonna, you know, round house the bully in the face. And that didn't work. And now what are you gonna do? You didn't learn how to fight. You have no set of legs. You've been spending your whole time sketching in your notebook, how great your dreams are gonna be. - Right. - You've gotta decide, I'm gonna get in the spiritual development process. I'm gonna get in the greatness program. I'm gonna give my whole life to trusting and following God. And he's a way better coach than I could ever coach myself. - Yeah. So, we're gonna dive into what is the actual application. But I wanna share a quick story before we dive in there. We had a question on our mindset mastery 'cause mindset mastery is awesome. We get to spend time with people and they, at the end of every single call, we do two a month. You get to ask questions. And I think that's some of my favorite part because as you once told me, prompts for Garrett's brain is a great way to get the best out of you. And so you get live prompts for Garrett's brain. I like the questions. - I like the questions too. And so we recover. - When I go do corporate speaking, almost every time I get requested Q and A, but sometimes people don't ask them like, and I help them like, you should, you know, we're gonna do a Q and A. I promise you, you'll be glad we did. - Yeah. - If you guys don't want it, I will take audience questions. Let anybody ask me anything. I'm good with that. But sometimes environments are uncomfortable with them. Like, you guys can gather questions and I'll answer those two. - Yeah. - I'm gonna do them as well because it puts you, it's a great way to apply the knowledge that you already know. And people give you things that you're like, I think it brings out some of the best. So anyways, we had a question because we're covering principles. And if you know anything about principles, from this podcast, principles are what govern outcomes. So people are looking at what you're doing right now. And you are making some massive breakthroughs in building a-- - Today's the day. - Today's the day, gee. You had a big week. In building a multi-billion dollar company with a B and transformed manufacturing in America. And that's what you're doing right now, literally in progress. And so somebody asked the question, which is a very logical question they said, what principles did you like navigate to get there? As if you just sat down and said, well, here's the principles. If I just do this, then I'm gonna go ahead and become a CEO of a multi-billion dollar company. And that sounds-- That's like about how we would like it to go. This is what I want. So here's exactly what I'm gonna do. And it's gonna work out. And where we had to shift this person's mindset, 'cause you answered the question and I said, let me answer the question because I, as your friend, I've watched a lot of this happen. And I think that the logical thought process would be what we just said. What's actually happened is I've watched you go, okay, I think I should be doing certain things and it hasn't happened. So there must be something missing and it's not the time. So I'm gonna trust God and be faithful with everything in my hand. Well, but what did-- How did you know you-- No, I didn't. I just knew that God had a great plan for me. And so my job was to keep getting ready to keep preparing myself. It wasn't gonna happen the time frame. I give the example all the time. You spoke to Oracle, Fortune 50 Company. I was there. You've got people clapping you. It was a great pinnacle moment for you where everybody's like, wow. Mark Hurrah, who I think listens to this, who's the VP of sales, or is he VP or where, I don't know what his title is. He's VP. That's like a lot of hierarchy. Right, so very, very high up. Stands up gives you the most diffusive praise. He's like, I'm all in on what you just said. And I'm going, wow. Like what a great validation statement. You and I get in the car afterwards. I'm like, hey, gee, you've had foundations of an unstoppable team for a little while. How long have you had that? I said, when did you write it? You said as soon as I got out of the teams. This was in 2024. You got out of the teams in 2016. Oh, so you mean you were in Navy SEAL. You got out and people didn't just like, lay a straight path for you and go like, wow. Buds was hard. And you would be like, you're in a title fight for a boxing match and like, man, how'd you get there? How did you do that? Yeah. How did you, you know, who'd you have to talk to to give you a title fight? It's like, dude, I've been developing myself as a boxer for a decade. And I just, you know, as many boxers would say, I knocked out every person they put in front of me. Right. But the difference between that is even in a title fight, you can see the path to get there. If I want to be a pro boxer, I better start boxing. Well, you want to be a CEO of a company. What do you start doing? Well, you start developing yourself. You start being faithful. You had other companies. Yeah, the day equivalent would be, you're like, you calling boxing promoters and say, hey, give me a fight. Right. The difference is be someone that boxing promoters can't help but see you. Right. But that's the point. And so it's like, you didn't know exactly how it was, but you had apps. I've watched you over and over again. Like, I know God has a great plan for my life. And it's a difference between-- Because really, the way I've lived my life is where a lot of my opportunities have come from, is where boxing promoters accidentally saw me and they said, who's that guy? Right. Yeah. That would be the analogy is that you were just, you were not playing the level of the game. You were playing for the level you knew God called you to regardless of what the game was. And that's a big, big, big difference. And so that's what it looks like to have that response. And I want to share that because I think that that's a practical thing. Yeah, but I don't know how good you're not supposed to know how. The how is that you develop yourself and trust God. So gee, if you believe that, if you believe what is what we said, God has a great plan for your life. If you really believe that and you believe it's true for you, then this is how you will act. This is what it means to act accordingly. There's three things. So why don't you kick us off? Number one, these are-- this is three things for, like God, develop you. This is the-- if you actually believe God has a plan for your life, this is what you do. Act it out. So number one is a considerate joy mentality. This is James 1-2. Considerate joy when you face struggles of many kinds, because this is an opportunity for your endurance to grow. And when your endurance is mature, you will be complete and lacking nothing. Very similar to the scripture we read earlier, that you'll be effective. That you won't be ineffective and unproductive. That you'll become effective. That you'll become productive. And what this means is that when you know God has a plan for your life, you look at all of these struggles as like, this is development. I've been through some stuff in my life in the past. And recently, that I'm like, man, this really sucks. This really sucks. Did I deserve this? What did I do to deserve this? I didn't have that attitude. I said, you know what? This is going to be a great workout. This is going to really hurt. And I'm going to finish it. And I'm going to get on the other side of this. What's next? I have taught some of the people around me to just have that attitude. What's next? What's next? Like when difficult stuff comes my way, what's next? I'm going to get this. And I'm going to get on to the next one. I'm not going to sit here and have this fair mentality. I'm not going to say, like if your coach tells you, like every day you show up and your coach is like, you're going to do 100 free throws today. And you shoot 100 free throws and your coach says, okay, now do 100 more. Are you going to sit there and be like, well, why? I already did the first 100. Did I do something wrong? Are you mad at me? Right. Am I-- do you think I'm not developing as a player and do the free throws? What's next? What's next? Have this attitude of all of this is an opportunity for me to grow. Most people, you know, you can just catch yourself, kick yourself the next time you get in the gym. When you are in the middle of your workout and you're saying, you know, all I got to do is finish this and then I'll get to rest. That is a-- don't have the attitude. That is a seeking comfort mentality. What you should seek is your growth and development. You've got to decide that instead of comfort, like instead of chasing comfort, you're going to get really comfortable in your suffering. This is a both that I want you to have from this considerate joint mentality is learning how to be comfortable in suffering. This is something they talked about all the time in seal training. This is a big part of like tadpole prep programs. How do you get ready to go to seal training? They tell you learn how to be comfortable in suffering. Most people, if you don't learn how to get comfortable in suffering, this is the majority of people. They are suffering in their comfort. All they do is pursue comfort. And you know what? Life is so hard for you. If you're soft, life is very hard. Learn how to get comfortable in your suffering. And man, when you become very tough, when you become hard, life gets easy. When you've been going through all the difficult stuff, have you ever once said, man, I wonder if God's good? I haven't, because there's the underlying foundation of I know who he is and I know God has a plan for my life. So that is the considerate joy mentality. Considerate joy, when you look at this verse, we'll just dig into the Greek before those of you who come to my team and have heard me preach this half a dozen times in the last few years, hopefully it's starting to stick. I know the word. The Greek word is hegemite, where the English says, considerate joy when you face struggles. The Greek word for consider is hegemite. And hegemite means to lead. Like it's a Greek military word, means to instructor to lead. So basically it's saying, the scripture's not saying, it is joy. It's not trying to like brainwash you and say, nope, this is good. It's not like feeding you medicine and saying, this tastes good, this tastes good. That's not what it's saying. When you take your medicine, understand that this is good. Yeah, I think it's going to be awesome when you have your second son and name him Hegemite Uncle Buck. I could see it. You have to lead your thinking into this. This is trusting God, trusting that he's going to use his suffering for good. Nick's over here chocolate. Crack up, 'cause I just love how quickly you just, I rush, I love how amused you are by yourself. I'm, you know what, man, I'm just enjoying life, man. I'm counting it all joy of being across from you right now. Praise the Lord. I'm comfortable with my suffering, I'm being on your podcast. All right. Yeah, there you go. All right, and number two, gee. You can always get me by dog and on yourself. I don't make me laugh. Yeah, 'cause that's like your number one go to that. He's like, that's a well that's never run dry. Well, Lindsay loves making me laugh. So that's why she loves picking on you. I don't think that's actually the only reason. I think, anyways, this is, yeah. What's number two, gee? Number two, this is, You might think this is similar. And so I'll just-- - It feeds it for sure. - I'll talk about how it's different. Right, number one is a considerate joy mentality. Number two is a praise you at all times mentality. This is David and Psalms. This is a mentality of worship, of just reminding yourself, encouraging yourself, how good God is, how great God is. What when you glorify God, you strengthen yourself. And that might seem strange. Like, well, when it's hard, like, you know, you might think like, well, God, why aren't you helping me? - Yeah. - Maybe you're not so good, God. You need to show up and help me. - Right. - That is the wrong attitude and is the wrong mentality. You're getting mad at your coach when your coach assigned you some sprints. Your coach assigned you some sprints 'cause he's trying to help you grow. - Right. - And when David went through his struggles, the ones that he didn't cause, and also the ones that he did cause. 'Cause some of it, you know, David's first son died because of his own sin. - Yeah. - And in the midst of the struggles he didn't cause and the ones that he did, he praised God. And when you glorify God, you're reminding him, the one who's great is the one who has a plan for my life. When you glorify God, you strengthen yourself. Psalms 34, verse one says, I will bless the Lord at all times. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. This is, I would say, the greatest discipline you can have in your life. If you can get this, you will unlock so many things in your life. The greatest discipline you can have is that you could praise him at all times. 'Cause you know what this is, what you're doing with this? If you can praise God when it's hard, that is, that unlocks like my dad, Pastor Pops, as you guys like to call him, talks about, decide. 'Cause me and my dad had a conversation one time and I said, Dad, you're gonna have to decide. And he has anchored that and he preaches this message. So well, if you can glorify God at all times, you know what you can do, you can decide. If I can, if I can lift him up, if I can lift up the one who is the most high, then I can also follow along with that. Because it's choosing to not get sad and pitiful and empty in the midst of your struggle, but say, you know what, God's still great. And God has a great plan for my life. And you're choosing your words and your life and your thoughts will follow those words. Yeah, I really think it's so key and crucial that you develop a relationship of God that is full of worship. It's what you were designed to do because to say you'll bless the Lord at all times, I think for, you can fall into the default of like, I have some worship music on and I really do it at church and that's awesome. But when you develop what it is to actually worship and praise God and you have that relationship with them where in your own time, yes, pray, yes, read the Bible, but to actually worship God and not just to worship him for what he's done, where it'll change for you and really capture this. It's so good and it's a godly thing to be thankful and to say, Lord, thank you for the breath of my lungs. Thank you for my wife. Thank you that I have insert whatever that God's giving you that you're grateful for. But where you're worship and your relationship with God will jump to the next level is when you praise him and you worship him for who he is. When you worship him for the excellence that he brings to like his actual excellence, the majesty of God's presence, when we get to see into the throne room, God, the throne room, you know what they're not saying? God made this and God healed this. They're saying holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. Holy is a quality and a character that is unique to God. The revelation of them praising him in his throne room is not of what he's done but of who he is. And when you press into that level of worship with God, it will transform you because you said this when we were born it will remind you how great he is and already remind you that once again, it feeds in number one that he has a great plan for you despite what you're going through. I asked that question if you ever question whether he was good and you laughed at it. But and rightfully so, when you're praising God and when you develop that relationship of the worshiping not just for what he's done but for who he is, you will never question that he is doing things for good and that he is wonderful and an awesome God. And that will root you when you're in those tough spots. - You can cry 'cause it's hard. You can cry 'cause it's not going the way you want it to. Sometimes it's really cold, sometimes it's raining and you don't have an umbrella. - Right. - But don't get mad at God. - Right. - Yeah, very good. - There's a both here that I wanna, we did a both for point one. Consider it a joy mentality is learning how to be comfortable in your suffering. These are two things that don't seem to go together. And the both that I want you to understand with that praise you at all times, this is a powerful both because when you can praise God in the midst of your suffering, this is someone who becomes unstoppable. - Right. - Let me say that again. If you can praise God in the midst of your suffering, this is someone who becomes unstoppable. I want you to think through this thought process. I'm giving you some unlock mentalities here. The mentality you have to have is someone who is submitted. When you praise God, when it's hard, you're submitted to Him. You're saying, you know what? I don't like this. You're making it rain and I don't want it to rain but God thank you for the rain. That's called being submitted. You know, I'm working on my children's level of obedience. I have a three year old that it's like, "Hey, we need to get in the car." Mm-hmm. Yeah, just like we're all getting in the car to go to Dave and Buster's, okay? I'm trying to take you some more wonderful. Right, don't fight me on this. Get in the car. Mm-hmm, yeah. Right, you've got to submit to God's plan even when you don't like it. But what I want you to pair with this and this is a divine both year to be both submitted but at the same time determined, okay? What's your, this is Jacob who wrestled with God and he said, "I'm not letting go until you bless me." He knew who God was but he also said, "I know how great you are and I'm not gonna give up and I'm not gonna quit on that." So I'm submitted to your plan but at the same time, I'm gonna fight for greatness in my life. I'm not gonna fight you. I'm gonna fight with you and you're gonna help me as I fight and overcome my struggles and I'm going to demand out of you. I know where I'm gonna fall short and I know that you have a plan for me which includes you helping me get there and I'm gonna demand that out of you and God loves when you do that. Yeah, you know, your favorite book which is such a weird thing but Job, though he slay me yet will I praise him. Yeah, really, I mean, you wanna talk about walking that at what you just said about being submitted but determined, you lost everything. You were the rich guy and you lost all your family, all your wealth and it's gone in like a matter of a very quick thing. All of the great poetry such as "Rudyard Kiplings If" they are pale in comparison to stories like Job. Yeah, they now, they're poetic in that in a few lines that you can read in 90 seconds, it captures the essence of great books like Job but you wanna talk about a man. Yeah, that's Job. "Rudyard Kiplings If" is, if you can do these things, you'll be a man. Job's like done it. Job is the original hard dog. Yeah, Job's life was if. Yeah, I'll just be like, I'll just leave this out. Okay, and then the last one here, and Nick, I'm gonna put a term on this on the flyhairs is not what we had, what we had in our notes. But the both that we talked about here was strength and humility. But what point three is, the point number one, these are the mentalities you gotta have, which is a considerate joy mentality. And then number three, the both is strength and humility, but the mentality I want you to have is a play your part mentality. What is this? It's understanding, hey, I may wanna be this, I may wanna be that, but more important than what I want, more important than this or that, is what does God require of me? What's the mission? You know what, like, here's what everybody wants. Let me make this more simple, 'cause people can look at this as like burdensome of like, why don't wanna do that? You know what, every single person listening to this podcast wants? You wanna live up to your purpose. You know that you have one, you all reach out, and I don't mean that in a derogatory way, but many of you are like, you're here, 'cause you're searching for your purpose. I so desperately wanna help as many people as I can find their purpose. And like God says, you'll find me when you seek me and seek me with all your heart, you'll find me. Those who seek to gain their life will lose it. And you'll never find your purpose when it's about you. But when you decide I'm gonna get on God's plan, I want what He wants for my life. I'm submitted to that, and I'm determined to pursue it, and you know what I want more than anything? I'm gonna quit telling the coach that I wanna be the pitcher. I'm gonna say coach, what do you need me to be? Who have you called me to be? This is a play your part mentality. And if you can say I'm here to do, you know what? 'Cause at the end of the day, none of us are the quarterback. - Right. - God's Tom Brady, okay? He's the quarterback in this situation. The rest of us just get to play some other position. You're gonna have to decide God more than what I want. What do you want? This is the one of the most important processes I've talked about and something I do daily, 'cause I get on my knees and I say, God, what do you want? Not what do I want. This is what I want, but what do you want? And if you don't want this, I don't want it. When you will do this and you'll decide, God, I'm gonna play my part. I'm gonna be with you. I want what you want for my life. Then you step into this place where I can be strong, I can be humble, I can be love, I can be law, and I'm gonna be both of these things at the same time. And this gives you the capacity to be the incredible greatness that Christ was, which was both meek and humble and at the same time, the commander of heaven's armies. When you can be strong and humble at the same time, when you can be. powerful and warm at the same time, you are insanely capable and you are insanely followable. Yeah. I think the play your part mentality, what will make you, what that will feel like practically is when you care more about the team winning than you about, than about the part you get to playing it. Right. Like, I don't care if I have a good game. I just want the team to win. That's like the modern day, what that actually looks like. Whereas so often, it's like, would you be willing to see your team win if it meant you had a terrible game? It's pursuing the MVP trophy. Yeah. Versus being the Tom Brady, who's like, you know what? I'll cut my salary back so we can get some more players here on the team. Let's win. Yeah. Exactly right. Exactly right. So that's training, man. This is the verse for this is Philippians chapter 2, verse 6 through 8. Who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of a man. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. And what it says, it's not right after this verse. I'm blanking on the reference. But there's another scripture in the Bible that talks about Jesus doing this and it says that, and maybe it is the verse right after this, but it says that his name is lifted up higher than any other name. So think about that. We all think like, okay, God is Yahweh. He's the most glorious. But it says that Christ is the one whose name was lifted above every other name. Yeah. That's actually verse 9. It says there for God exalted us. Okay. It exalted us into the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name. Exactly. The mentality that says, you know what? I'll go low. I'll serve. Yeah. Made himself of no reputation. Because the one who right after that, God says his name is above every other name. Yeah. Why don't you decide, I'm going to play my part, quit seeking the trophy, quit trying to be MVP, quit trying to build the staircase and come up with some plan for your life. Why don't you decide, you know what? God, I'm going to let you develop me. And maybe if you'll take the form of a servant, if you'll stop pursuing the reputation, pursue God, pursue his plan for your life, maybe he could lift you way higher than you could ever lift yourself. Thank you very much for listening guys. Remember to share, like, subscribe. If you think that this would be something that someone would enjoy, please send it to him. We appreciate it all. If you want to get in touch, you can follow us on Instagram @TheImpossibleLife. You'll find us on there. You can also email @[email protected]. If you have any questions, if you want to get in touch and find out about care, it's personal or business coaching, that's the way to do it. Thank you again for listening. Go out there, think better, and lift the impossible. See you again soon.