Speaker 1: (00:00)

Hey guys, Biblical Selling… is that an oxymoron or can it be done? Well this week we're going to find out with my good friend, Michael pink, a master sales trainer that's going to answer that question for us. So, stay tuned. How do I bring my faith to work? How do I tap into the power of God in my work life? Paul, why am I going through this adversity? Is God mad at me? I'm also yeoman and I've been helping leaders like you enter these questions at more for over 30 years. That's what this podcast is all about. Let's learn and grow together. Welcome to TGF today. God is Herb's well, Michael, good to have you on our podcast. known each other for a long time. The first, uh, time that we met. Do you remember that? The way I remember it? You were involved in a magazine. Oh my goodness. That was 1990.

Speaker 2: (00:55)

Okay. That's kind of the Genesis of my memories. I'm thinking does that go back far enough? But I certainly remember the magazine days, so wow, that's, that's way back there. Yeah. you were in my pit days, you know.

Speaker 2: (01:12)

Well I also knew of you from a, from a, uh, a mutual friend of ours, Mark Heron, who uh, did some graphic work with you in your, when you were the, uh, had your ad agency and uh, so

Speaker 1: (01:23)

you have really excelled in the sales area over that time when I was on the track of all the faith and work messaging and doing workshops and so forth, then you were kind of along the a similar path but really focused on sales. Uh, give us a little bit of background on yourself in terms of kinda your sales and how you got to be such a specialist in that area. I know you were had a pro, you were professionally in sales, but uh, had it translate to equipping others around them.

Speaker 2: (01:54)

Well, it's, it's a good question. It started like this. Uh, I moved to this country, uh, in, um, 1985 and got a job in sales in January of 86. I had to learn to speak the language. She was a whole new language for me. How did you come from Canada? But I moved to Tennessee and you know, they had to learn me how to talk. Right. So at any rate, um, so I got down to Tennessee and I got a job selling copiers. The thing I knew OSS, you have to understand, you want to talk about the Holy spirit. I'm driving, if you know Nashville at all. I 40 goes right through the middle of the town downtown and I'm driving through there and the Holy spirit said, and just the core of my eye corner of my eyes. Hmm. Quantity to a building. So that's where you're going to work.

Speaker 2: (02:40)

I mean, I hadn't, I wasn't married or anything. I was just down there on a trip and it's like what? And I, you know, I saw it was copies. I said, Lord, I don't want to sell copiers. I've done that. I don't want to do that again. But he told me that's where you're going to work. So I went by, got it. And I applied. And now long story short, they wanted me and they hired me and put me out in a Murphysboro in a branch office out there. And the fact of the matter is, I want to two things. Number one, I want it to be able to glorify God. And I said, I don't want any intention or fame or anything else. I just want to be able to have enough of a platform to give you glory and credit and honor. Because what I know, we've got a lot of Christians in the marketplace who are doing not doing well.

Speaker 2: (03:20)

And so their reputation, they're, they're, they're, um, their messaging of the gospel isn't necessarily well-received. It can be very authentic, but a lot of times people don't regard you very highly if you ha, if you're not doing well, if you're, if that's just the reality, that's just the way it is. So I said, I want to have a platform. I want to do that. And so, and I was a little nervous to be honest, you know, getting back in sales and straight commission and all that. And so I, on the first day when the vice president said to me, Michael, we expect you to make one sale for every four or every five demonstrations that you do. The national average is one out of four. That's what we expected. And we don't expect any sales you first month, but we want to have your second month and for every month thereafter.

Speaker 2: (04:01)

So in 90 days they wanted me to make six sales. Now I was with the company two years off, so I didn't see anybody do that, but that's okay. But what really bothered me was selling one out of four minute failing three out of four times. And I, and I've got frustrated with that. I said, Lord, if you call me to do this, I said, what farmer plants four rows of corn and embrace the God, but just one of them come up. And I said, and I picked up my Bible and I said, I'm going to find principles and strategies. I'm going to start starter. Provers and I can apply deliberately and consciously to the sales process. And instead of selling one out of four, I tend to sell one on one. Well, they thought it was a little lofty to be put a mile late.

Speaker 2: (04:36)

But as it turned out, 90 days later at the first quarterly meeting that I was involved with, all your results are projected on a screen. And when it came my turn, I said, I've been here 90 days, I've, I've done 22 presentations and I had 22 sales. It was one out of one and was three and a half times a number that I never saw anybody hit. Well, they all said I'm from Mars. I finished the year at about a 90 some odd percent closing rate instead of 25% and they may be the the a sales manager. And that was to find out whether in fact it was transferable. Well, you know what, 10 months later the team that gave me the results were up not 30% for 130% in 10 months. Huge increase. That meant it was transferable. So that was the Genesis of that when I was, cause I was going into the scriptures and mining it and saying, wait a minute, there's a pathway, there's a blueprint.

Speaker 2: (05:25)

There's a model, there are things in scripture that are actually practical. It's not just for my marriages, not just for the most important thing, our eternity and all that was important as that is, but it's for the here and now. Even if you're calling to sales and business, there are practical things that you can apply. You can pull from scripture and do it. And so that began, that was the beginning, the Genesis of that. And when I left that and I started my own publishing company, hidden men of publishing and, and from there I went into sales training and in 1994 and I've been doing it ever since. And sharing and continuing to mine the word of and the principles from the,

Speaker 1: (05:58)

from the scripture and teach them to the body of Christ or anybody else who's interested. You get some pretty remarkable results. You know, when I think about sales and where we're going to focus on sales and marketing in this podcast, when I think about sales, I can hear somebody say, well, I'm not really in sales. And my answer to that is we're all in sales. We all have an idea that we have to sell. We all have somebody that we need to persuade. We're all in situations that requires certain skill set to communicate in a way that is persuasive. Um, how do you take,

Speaker 2: (06:35)

well, you know, it's true because the people, they don't have sales representative on their business card. They may be a CPA or an accountant or a dentist or whatever. They're in sales. Believe me, they're looking at their numbers every month. They're in sales. But it doesn't matter what my definition of selling is this, it's the transference, a passion or you could say the transference of conviction. So if you don't have anything that you're passionate about or con or, or have a deep conviction about that maybe you're not in sales. Okay. But we do have, I'm passionate about a lot of things and things that I believe in deeply. You could say it's a transference of belief. And so in that sense, if you are passionate about something, you believe deeply about something, how do you communicate that in a way, ms goin to get, um, somebody interested in, in your value proposition. So to speak and get them to want what you want. How are you going to do that? And what does the Bible teach about that? And so that's some of the stuff that I open up big time and uh, and talk about is how you [inaudible]

Speaker 1: (07:32)

you can actually do that based on biblical mop. Yeah. And I think that's the key distinctive here is how do we bring the kingdom of God into a professional area like sales, you know, and we constantly are teaching men and women too. How do you manifest the presence of God in the area of your calling? It if gunner also, my spiritual mentor said that wants to me, he must have said it 500 times to me, you know, how are you going to manifest the spirit of God in that area? That's what you've, you've really figured out and really saw the scriptures to help people understand that. And, uh, you know, um, when we think about selling being spiritual, um, you know, you know, how do you approach that? What, what, what's the first step in? And really getting to first base on that. Well, first of all,

Speaker 2: (08:27)

selling is an activity, but it's between people. It's not between me and the hospital or me and the hotel or me and the other firm. It's between me or you and another individual. And each of us have three parts to us. We know we're body, soul and spirit. And so we are communicating and all of those levels, whether we know it or not. And so it's, I think it's important when you're, you're not just in a selling situation transferring, although some people do that and they're not very good at it by the way they, they suit up, they show up and they throw up, you know, and I hope something comes out of that. But that's not the way to do that. And so you recognize that there's a whole other element there of, of my soul, of my heart, of my passion and my conviction and auction actually the spirit as well.

Speaker 2: (09:15)

There's, I call something I call a space between me and you, between me and a buyer, between, you know, two people. I went in a selling situation, I call it, there's the, there's the, there's the spirit of the sale, the there, there's a spiritual substance between me and you. I can't see it, but I can feel it. And so can you, and that's what happens. People say, you know, I don't know what it is. I just don't trust that guy. And the guy was, is he's saying the same thing that maybe somebody else said, but he's unaware of the fact that he's communicating with his entire being. And maybe his motivation is, I don't care about this guy. I'm just trying to get money out of his pocket and put it in mind. And the thing is, people can pick up on that. So there's a spiritual dimension to selling that I think is important.

Speaker 2: (10:02)

And so what I want to do is come into the selling situation with, Mmm, what it says in progress three, three and four where I'm going to write mercy and truth on my heart. Okay, I'm going to blind it around my neck and I'm going to go into a situation. Mercy to me meant never trying to get somebody to do something that wasn't in their best interest in truth was basically full disclosure because on us, you know, you've been in marketing for a long time and you're a genius at at that end of it unparalleled by almost anybody. But in that marketing thing, you know that you can tell the truth but convey a complete lie. I tell people as an example, um, I once spoke at the promise keepers meeting in when it was going big time. It was at the RCA dome and Indianapolis 60,000 men there.

Speaker 2: (10:47)

It was phenomenal. It was a big experience. People are going, yeah, you did. Yep. I said, no, I was in the bleachers. I wasn't on the platform. Um, but nobody could hear me. And so you can, I tell everything I said was true, but if you leave out certain things, you can convey a lie. And lying is the, is really as the intent to deceive. And so you can deceive intentionally by leaning on certain facts. And so people who have their intent open can pick up and discern those things oftentimes. And so I look at that, his interaction with people as a body, soul and spirit kind of thing. Well let's help our listeners today by getting some tools that might be useful to them in sales. And I, uh, put a question together for you. And the question is five things you've learned about sales that have impacted your life the most?

Speaker 2: (11:38)

Well, besides the fact that that I learned at selling is the transference of passion. When you, when you just, when you understand that, that if you're not passionate, you don't have conviction or deep belief about what it is you're selling, you really need to be find that well go find the thing that has that for you cause you're not going to do so well. Number two, this is a very big one off [inaudible] and it's so contrary to how I was trained in sales. Now I was trained by the way, as a young man, I mean I sold insurance, I sold copiers and both of those industries focused heavily on training. And so I'm, I'm familiar with that, but they don't teach what I'm about to tell you. And this one has put millions and millions of dollars in my client's pockets. And it's, it's a simple rule. It's this selling is not about telling.

Speaker 2: (12:27)

It's about listening. And if you're going to listen, you need to ask questions. If you're going to ask questions, you need to ask strategic questions, the right questions. So where, cause as a Christian, I'm thinking kid, God, you've called me into sales at this time in my life back when I was in my thirties. So where do I find those questions? What questions should I ask? I asked you about the ballgame last night. Do I ask about the weather? W w where do I go in this thing? And it's that kind of study that got me now to answer that question, when I'm reading the scriptures, I look for patterns. I see patterns of three. I have a pastor friend of mine, uh, that has seen now, um, 1500 of these three full progressions, body, soul and spirit, prophet, priest and King and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of those. I look for those patterns.

Speaker 2: (13:18)

I look for patterns of seven and OS. One day I was reading numbers 13 and I noticed Moses is getting ready to send the 12 spies into the promised land, but understand this and for the people listening to this podcast or watching it, when they were going into that promised land, it wasn't like they, the people on the other side of the Jordan river were saying, Hey, I heard you were coming. Come on in. Hey, let me show you my guest house and you got my main house. Here's the keys to my Alexis. Hey, I got an SUV out back and I have all my cattle. Good luck. We're headed to the desert. No [inaudible] that wasn't it. They were going to be met and they knew this. They knew they were going to be met with resistance and if there are going to be resistance, and it wasn't like, Hey, I don't like this.

Speaker 2: (13:56)

No, it was resistance to the point of death. They were going to fight to this, to the death on that. So with that in mind, they knew there was risk and if they were successful, they knew there was a great reward. So resistance, risk and reward. Golly, that sounds like business, doesn't it? We, you know, we take risks all the time, all the time, and we have a resistance to our ideas. We think you think, and I think, Hey, this is something that people love. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. I mean it's just the way it is. You take a look at acts chapter two you know, Peter gets up and he gives the best presentation ever and thousands of people are there and some people are saying, I don't understand this guy. I'm perplexed. And other people say, no, they're drunk. They're this.

Speaker 2: (14:40)

They were mocking them. And I don't see anything worth mocking. And I don't see anything perplexing look like a straight forward presentation to me. But some people said, no, wait a minute. This makes perfect sense. That 3000 of them gave their life to Christ. That's the reality. And you never know which ones you're going to get. Are they going to love it? Are they going to hate you or are they just going to, I don't understand what he's talking about. And you're always going to get those, that kind of a mixture. So they knew they were going to get some resistance. And so Moses has you read it. Number 13 you'll see that he had a verse 17 to 20 his seven questions he had to have answered. Well OS when I saw there were seven questions I that Whoa, wait a minute. That's the divine imprint of God right there.

Speaker 2: (15:21)

I want to dig deeper on that. And I spent two or three days reading those four verses and on my knees and at my desk praying and seeking God for what is, what are the implications and what does the application to business. Now I'm telling you, you know this Oscar, cause you're one of the very few people I know that do what I do the same kind of thing. But I know hardly anybody other than you, you and a couple other people who actually will take the time and say, how do I apply this practically in business? Right? They just read the verse and it's a story from 3000 years ago and they move on, Hey, I've checked, I read my three chapters today, or whatever their thing is, right? No, I'm not. I got to understand this thing. And so what happened is, um, I thought I had an understanding of it.

Speaker 2: (16:08)

And coincidentally I call this the Moses questioning strategy as it happened us within a couple of days of me getting my understanding of this, I would buy a client who was in the air conditioning wholesale business, meaning they supplied brand X to air conditioning contractors. They kind of guys are calling your house in mind, thanks our air when it goes out. And so they sold their particular line of air conditioning. And so they would call on the big contractors and say, Hey, why don't you install our equipments that are the ones who were installing? That was the business and the president. Uh, I ran into him in the parking lot. I said, Michael, I've been calling this one contractor a big contractor twice a month for six years. You said, I'm taking heat, him and his crew breakfast, lunch and dinner. My wife and I had been to his house, his wife, and he had been to our house for dinner.

Speaker 2: (16:53)

We'd gone to movies together, but in six years I haven't got a nickel's worth of business. What would you do? I see, well, it was me. I'd ask him seven questions. I just, I just discovered this and they looked at me like, what are your title? Seven questions? I said, well, they're not seven questions. Exactly. It's more like seven topics. And he said, can you write that out for me? So I created a, I got three or four page document and under each topic I wrote all these questions. Did not at that time disclose where I got it from and I wrote it. The kind of questions like Moses said, first question is, you know, look at the land, what it is. Okay, well what it is, man, he's looking for this. These are the general circumstantial questions, which you know, the art of war, if you, if you've ever read that book by sun Xu, you know that they looked at other box canyons are the, are there mountains or the planes are there, bogs are there, you know, different, what's the lay of the land or the swamps is their forest.

Speaker 2: (17:47)

They had to know the lay of the land to have a victory. So that's essentially what Moses was doing were kind of contemporaries. And he's looking at that. So those are the general circumstantial things. So in a business, that's the first question. I want to find out all the general circumstantial things, but then it goes deeper. So anyway, I wrote all this out for the guy and it was a Wednesday when he went to his call with these questions. And now this is a man who's been calling on twice a month for six years and at each other's home. But in that one call he discovered more about that man's business than he had ever known in six years. As a result, the gentleman asked him for a quote, a proposal, which he gave him on Thursday and on Friday, 48 hours afterwards, he received a purchase order for $60,000.

Speaker 2: (18:31)

No, he was blown away. I mean he was so blown away. He said, Michael, he speaks to us because, excuse me, it just was too amazing to him. So he called it an emergency sales meeting. Cause us the first thing that you might think and others might think, and I would think that too probably, well maybe that was just the time. Maybe it's just coincidental. Maybe. Maybe, you know, people could think that, but he put me in front of a sales force of 18 guys. He held up the sheet of paper and he said, I don't know what this is and I don't know why it works. I want every one of you using it. And Michael, I was going to tell you how to do it. So he hired me for the day and I trained to Salesforce and this was the end of March. Now this is important because it's air conditioning, so it's seasonal in terms of the demand.

Speaker 2: (19:14)

The preceding April, they had done 1.2 million in sales. This was the end of March. They were hoping to do 1.3 million in this April. It's a a hundred thousand dollar increase. Most people are happy with that. It's an 8% growth. I just, when people are, they just think, okay, a hundred grand, we're, we're, we're climbing our business. So that's what he was trying for. But he made them use this questioning strategy and they were reluctant because they thought it was kind of corny, even though they didn't know it came from Moses at that time. The end of the month, I checked with them, said, how'd you do? Well, it wasn't 1.2 it wasn't 1.3 or four or five or six or even seven. They did 1.75 $550,000 Pope 46% I think it is over the year before his face. I'm not exaggerating his face. When I saw him just went white, he was almost speechless. Like how, what, what is this?

Speaker 2: (20:04)

And he asked me, what is, what is this? And I know he's thinking, is it Zig Ziglar? Did you learn it from Tom Hopkins? Where'd you get this? I said, I learned it from Moses [inaudible] I didn't realize how that was going to land on his ears. He looked at me, like I said, like I was inferring, I just talked to Moses the other day, you know, and uh, you'd been less surprised. So I just cold cocked him or something. But anyway, uh, I tried to explain it to them as best I could. He thought it was the strangest thing, but that was the beginning of that question. The strategy, and I've taken that to corporations large and small and seeing their sales one company, Ohio, they were stuck at 22 million a year for three years. President calls me, says, Michael, can you help me? W we just can't seem to get above 22 million.

Speaker 2: (20:46)

We'd there for three years. Okay. I go there and I bring not only the Moses question he strategy, which is important, the other biblical principles and strategies and tactics that go along with that. Brought that to the table. Middle of the year, I think it was there in the summertime. By the end of the year, they went from 22 to $30 million. Big, huge thing. It happens over and over and over and over and over again. Is that, so that's a big thing when you say, well, some of the things I learned I learned from the Bible. Well, listen, I've been trained by Xerox, I've been trained by insurance corporations, I've had the PSS course. I almost bought a Sandler training system at one time. I understand what's out there in the world of sales. People are married to that, but I decided us, I don't know. I do know about you, but I don't know about dude watching this, but this means everything to me.

Speaker 2: (21:32)

And by God I can find it in here if it, if it exists, if it's there, I'm going to find it. And if I can find it and I can synthesize it and put it into project racing or do so, and to prove it, I'm going to take it out into the marketplace before I ever teach anybody. I'm going to, I'm going to, you know, before I start teaching in abroad, you know, all over the place. So a few years ago us, uh, back in, uh, I'm trying to get my timeframe here, 2015, you know, I'd been developing some new materials and really pulling out some stuff and getting a handle on things. And our friend of mine called me, he had a, a commercial real estate agency. Yeah, 12 agents. But when he called me, they were down to three and these three guys were looking for a job.

Speaker 2: (22:15)

He was thinking of shutting it down. He said, can you do what you do for me and what you do for all these other companies? Come in and do an analysis. It's expensive, but it's worth it. And so I went in and I did my three day analysis. He's a very good friend of mine and he said at the end of that he said, do you think you could help me for six months? Maybe we could turn this thing around. You do the front end, help me do the sales, I'll do the back end. And I said, okay. At the end of six months we had a 900 and something percent increase in sales. Well, people think that's not bad. [inaudible] he asked me to do it another year, so I extended it a year, 2016 the two year growth rate was 6,000 and something percent you said one more year please, please, please. I did it for the third year. We ended up with 11350% three year growth rate, which made him his company the fastest growing real estate brokerage in the history of the inc 500 and the 16 fastest growing privately held company in America. So that isn't a boast on anything but this boasting on this and the person that wrote this book, Jesus Christ, I'm talking about him and his word and it works. [inaudible] very practical, measurable, meaningful ways. So that's true. It's one of the things.

Speaker 1: (23:27)

Well, I want to transition, uh, and talk about a new resource that you've come out with called rainforest strategy. The planet's most successful business model. You talk about seven well secrets that will revolutionize your business, turn your ideas into revenue and your life.

Speaker 2: (23:47)

This is a new book you've come out with. Um, what's this all about? Rainforest. Well, you know that the book's been out a little bit longer than that, but the, the, the, uh, content, uh, in some of, I keep developing new content, but the rainforest is this here, here's how it came about. Very important. Nope. You remember how I told you I got the job selling copies when I first came to this country because the Holy spirit said, go there. Right. Well, I'm trying to remember the year now might've been Oh five, I'm not sure. But at some point in that era, that timeframe, I was in my living room, on my knees, praying, having my time with the Lord. And I remember asking him, I said, Lord, how'd you start your business? You know, the one that we call planet earth, not planning on Hollywood, but planet earth.

Speaker 2: (24:32)

I mean, how, how'd you do that? I said, I got Tom here. Just explain it to me. Okay. Hmm. And he began to do that. I think he was laughing pretty hard. Uh, and, and he gave me some incredible information, but one of the things he said to me was, and I can't say the words, but the gist of it was he invited me to go to Panama. The country. No, you have to understand something. A, I'd never been to Panama. B. I have never met anybody who had ever been to Panama and see, I never read about or knew anybody in Panama except for Noriega and he was in jail in Miami last I heard. So it wasn't completely completely left field thing. Come the panel. I'm going to show you something. I said what? What? What do you want to talk about? So it's to do with business.

Speaker 2: (25:21)

Oh, okay. So I thought I was going to meet some banking things or something I didn't know, but I'll say, okay, we'll go. And so I remember, Mmm. Telling some people, Hey, I'm going to do. And I said, Lord, when he said make haste right, right now, don't delay. I've got on the phone that day and I made a reservation for like a two week notice or whatever it was. And uh, I told people I'm going to Panama. He said, what force? I don't know how long you going to be gone? I'm not really sure. What are you going to say? I don't know. He just told me to go to Panama, so I don't really know. So I'm, but I'm going. So I go to Panama, I fly down there and one of the guys, that kind of mindset, well listen, I'll underwrite the entire trip if you'll, um, look for some real estate for me.

Speaker 2: (26:03)

Okay. So we, I got down there, rented a helicopter and his expansion, he ended up putting an offer on a three kilometer wide stretch of beach front property and you know, for 25, 30 million, whatever it was, and you know, help them do that. Because I had no agenda. I didn't know why I was down there. And one day when I was up in the mountains staying in a bed and breakfast, I'm just walking and observing the amazing beauty of the rainforest. Often the distance and the plant life and everything was just staggering to me. I was so impressed and his Holy spirit spoke to me, just spoke to me. Now how was it praying on my knees and saying, speak to me, Lord, my servant listens. I'm just taking in the beauty of it and walking to get some breakfast. And he said, so on everything you need to learn about business, you can learn in the rainforest.

Speaker 2: (26:55)

What are you talking about? You can learn about business in the rain forest. I, I went to the lobby, I said, are you guys having, are there any seminars in the rainforest today? I thought maybe somebody doing a business seminar in the rainforest. I didn't know. I was trying to figure this out. No, there's nothing going on. That's a strange thing. Business in the rainforest, you know, and I went and rented the car and you know, took a look around and reinforced, didn't go on a trip that particular time, but I got home after that and I Googled rainforest and the word business. It turns out there was a book written by the CEO of Mitsubishi and, uh, another gentleman and it was called what we learned in the rainforest business, lessons from nature. And I opened it up and I thought, wow, I'm not crazy. [inaudible]

Speaker 2: (27:41)

this whole thing. It's really there. It's a real model. I went back to Panama, I went there a total of five times. I went to uh, you know, Tobago, Barbados, Jamaica. I went, I went to the upper Amazon and Ecuador. I mean, I searched this thing out. I went to the world headquarters for tropical research research for the Smithsonian Institute. I mean, I dove in with all four feet, you know what I mean? I mean, I just don't render this thing. I was like fascinated that they got that everything I needed to learn about business I could learn in there. And so I did and I searched it and I found so many amazing things in the rainforest that apply to business and it was just nice to know that somebody else that the world respected because of his stature. Again, you got an ice statute. People pay attention to you.

Speaker 2: (28:27)

Give me a few, give me a few. Okay, I'll give you one just that I think is really amazing. Do you know what an an agouti is? A G. O. U. D I know. And agouti is, it's a, it's a mammal. It's, it's kind of like an Otter in terms of how it moves, but it doesn't live so much in the water, but it's probably the size of a dog. Mmm. But it moves kind of like an honor. Right. And when it runs across the land, it's got a bit of a hump to it, but it's an unusual creature. And when I'm down in the rainforest, I saw these booties. One thing I learned about them, and I call this the Brazil not effect, is that in the rainforest, only the agouti of all the creatures that live in the rainforest, the Gootee is the only one with teeth sharpen up and jaws strong enough to open up a Brazil nut.

Speaker 2: (29:16)

Now, most people don't know this. I didn't when I first learned it, but in Brazil, not most people are familiar with the Brazil nuts. They see them there. The shaped almost like a section of an orange. What they don't necessarily know is that they come inside a ball like this, like a size of a grapefruit with lots of Brazil nuts in them. And that outer shell is so hard. No other animal can open it except for the agouti. Now as it turns out, the agouti loves Brazil nuts and Brazil nut trees. They have a problem. They don't have legs, they don't have mobility. And so they pay the agouti [inaudible] say you can have all the Brazil nuts you want, man, it's all yours. Just do me a favor. Go down the river a little bit and plant some more, uh, nuts in the ground for me so we can expand our franchise.

Speaker 2: (29:59)

And they do like squirrels. They buried the nuts in the ground, so they don't always go back to them. And up comes another Brazil nut tree. So this, this example, yes. What's happening here when you analyze this is that one, one entity. The agouti is trading what it has in excess. And the excess mobility energy could go anywhere for what it didn't have any of, which was food and Brazil. Nut trees has incredible amount of food just dropping to the ground, but it has no mobility, no ability, no ability or mobility. [inaudible] a multiply the franchise. So we employs the agouti and they have this relationship. And so I'm looking at that and thinking, how can I apply that principle in business? How can I take what I have in abundance and trade it for what I don't have? So here's the best example. The first one, first one I did actually first one I did [inaudible] what I have in abundance.

Speaker 2: (31:00)

Well, I have knowledge. And the nice thing about this, when I give you or the listeners this knowledge, the beautiful thing is I still retain it. They have it. But I have it too. If I, if I give you my watch now you have it. And I don't if I give you my knowledge now, we both have it. So it costs me nothing to give you knowledge. So I called a friend of mine who was the a part owner and, and participant in a success magazine, been around for a hundred something years. And I said to him, he was doing the relaunch of it and everything was going fine. And they were selling ads in that magazine for $60,000 for a full page ad. And I called him up one day and I said, Hey, listen, you know, actually I got it wrong. He called me up and said, Michael, what would you charge for your training?

Speaker 2: (31:48)

And I said, well, I said, what's money among friends? I just learned this, this Brazil nut thing. So what are you talking about? I said, all I want is a piece of paper from you. What do you mean a piece of paper? I said, I don't even want wanna hope he spent, I just want one side of a piece of paper, the full side. And you realize, Oh, you want a full page ad? And I said, yeah, and I want it to run for the year, which at that time was a bimonthly publication. So six issues and they had it on. So see now here's the thing. They had unsold advertising space. I had time and we traded my training for a full page ad in a prominent business magazine success magazine. And the deal was for a year I was $360,000 four me doing my training now, that's the agouti effect. That's the Brazil not effect and it works and everything. I know a guy in

Speaker 1: (32:40)

Canada who, and you can, they can Google this if they haven't ever done it. I think it's called one red paperclip or just Google red paperclip. Have you ever heard the story? Awesome. No. It's a young guy and he was on the news, everything. He traded a paperclip. I can't really, I'm going to butcher the story, but you'll get the idea. He traded this red paperclip for a pen that somebody didn't want. They had a lot of pans. Okay. And so he basically traded up and he took the pen. Any traded it for, I don't remember what a letter opener or something and then he traded that for, you know, a little piece of furniture and then he traded that for something bigger. Then he traded it for a snowmobile. Then he traded it for a truck and then he ultimately traded it. What does way up to an Alice Cooper concert and everything else.

Speaker 1: (33:25)

We ultimately treated it for a house in the end of the year. He went from a paperclip to a home free and clear in someplace in the prairies of Canada, a good home, nothing wrong with it. And he traded it up and it was just, Hey, I have this in excess. I don't need you have something in excess. And he worked his way up. That principle works in business. I use it to get a, you know, incredible advertising thing, which by the way led to a publishing deal and lots of other things. So that's one. Yeah, that's just what I want to stop you for a moment. And, uh, I was looking over the chapter titles of the book. Um, but as you were talking, I was thinking about, you know, you and I both been equipping leaders for 25 years and, um, you know, we're both getting in a to a winter season of our life, if you will, a little, uh, we don't want to admit it, but we are, and I see that gray hair.

Speaker 1: (34:19)

So, um, but, uh, I know that you still have a passion to equip leaders and so do I. And you know, um, we've been thinking about a new program that's going to come out in the next, uh, few months that, um, I think [inaudible] we'll incorporate, uh, things that you're teaching cause you'll be at probably a guest on one of my programs that I'm going to do in this, but it's a very exhaustive program for leaders. And, uh, I just want the listeners, uh, to know that that's coming and if you're interested in it to go to a webpage that we set up to get on our waiting list and that's become God's change agent.com because God's change agent.com and that's just a waiting list. You'll also get a free download of a resource that, uh, is very compatible to what Michael's talking about today. So just go to, uh, become God's change agent.com and just get on our waiting list and you'll be the first to learn about this when it comes out.

Speaker 1: (35:24)

So, um, yes. So this reminds me also of some of the things I see in your book. I just want to go through each chapter and the title of that chapter one is the epiphany better than gold. I assume you're kind of share what, what you just shared about the epiphany of the rainforest and then chapter two is breaking the code. The mystery unfolds. Chapter three is spontaneous. Well seeing what others, miss. Boy, is that true? A chapter four, well, secret number one, the fungus factor getting the most from the least. Uh, chapter five is practice abundance or experience scarcity. Chapter six is well, secret number two is grow towards the light powered by vision. Mmm. Chapter seven is well secret number three, enter the no pest zone. Seven natural laws to get control of your time. And chapter eight is the [inaudible] a pathogen problem, the feeding, what's been eating you.

Speaker 1: (36:27)

Chapter nine, well secret number four, the photo censuses. Photo synthesis of ideas. That's easy to say. Turning vision into provision. Chapter 10 deals with, well secret number five, the strangler fig phenomenon, a lesson and timing. Chapter 11 Wells circuit number six, the Brazil nut effect. Leverage through strategic relationships in chapter 12 as well. Secret number seven, the orchid element, creating irresistibility. Before we went on, I asked if you'd be willing to share a little bit, uh, of this book. And so you agreed to give away. Mmm, I, uh, first two chapters of the book just to see if people would like what they see and if they, they like it, there's information in there about ordering it, but, uh, you agreed to do that. And so we set up a webpage, a call, Michael pink, download.com Michael pink, download.com. You can go there and download the first two chapters of this book, uh, in a PDF format and, uh, it'll give you some good, good stuff there, but you're going to want the whole book.

Speaker 1: (37:39)

Uh, and, uh, as we, uh, close out today, Michael, I just want to talk briefly about the fact that Jesus had 12 salespeople, you know, I call them salespeople and, uh, they all were not highly qualified. Uh, in fact, they had very little training in what they were doing yet. Ah, Jesus. Turn these guys into the, um, the most incredible world movement. Uh, what are some things we can learn about how Jesus related to his disciples? Well, you know, I love all the warm and fuzzies because they're wonderful and nobody is more loving than Jesus. Nobody's more gracious than Jesus. Nobody's more humble than Jason's. He's, he's everything. He's amazing. But people sometimes lose sight of the fact that he also, yeah, he's the ultimate businessman. He's got a ruthless competitor who lies about him, who lies about their own promises, right? Who do anything to succeed and, and he's

Speaker 2: (38:36)

up again, but that, that competitor is against up against Jesus where everything he touches is self replicating and self duplicating. And, and so the best the devil can do is imitate what Jesus does and love. This is number one. Numbers are important is business. People are going to appreciate this. I'm going to get down to the nitty gritty, you know, in the parable of talents where it gives one guy, one talent, another guy to another guy, five. And those aren't talents like how now you can sing and chew gum. These are, these are weight measures. Uh, some estimates say, you know, 75 pounds would be a talent and it was either silver or gold was gold. It would be multi-millions, five talents of that. It would be quite a bit. Um, so it kind of depends whether we're talking gold or silver, but it doesn't matter with substantial amount of money that was given in this story.

Speaker 2: (39:20)

And it's illustration. But Jesus is telling it for a reason. And so he says now the, in the story, the person goes away, but when he comes back, he wants an accounting. Interesting. [inaudible] so Jesus tells a story and the only question Jesus is reported to a vast, again in his story, [inaudible] what have you done with what I gave you? He didn't say, Hey, how's your mom? How's your grandma? Do you guys have a good Christmas? No, I'm not saying those things aren't there. But the one question that a boiled down to is what I gave you this, what did you get? And so the first guy says, we gave me five, I've, I've doubled it into 10. The other guy says, you gave me two, a double that into four. And the other guy says, Hey, I knew you were a tough guy. I hit it cause I was scared.

Speaker 2: (40:05)

And Jesus as you know, took the talent from the guy who he considered to be a essentially faithless guy. And he took it and he gave it to the guy who had doubled the five as opposed to the guy who doubled to, for the simple fact, the doubling, doubling $1 million. It's a lot harder than doubling $100 for example. You and I can double a hundred dollars pretty quickly, but doubling 100 million, that's harder. And so the larger the amount, the harder it is. So we gave it to the guy that had accomplished more, but the thing that I really, really spoke to me was [inaudible] he's zeroed in on the numbers because salespeople have a tendency when you say, how's it going this month? They give you a story. Well there's this one guy and you know, he's got his wife sick and this and that and, and uh, and then, you know, there's other ones.

Speaker 2: (40:52)

And they tell stories. Jesus just cut through all that. What are the numbers? That's number one. Uh, number two, what Jesus did that I really like is you read it in Luke 10 [inaudible], he sends the 70 out. Well, the 72 depending on which it is, he sends them out and when he come back, he debriefs them and they said, you know, it says the 70 came back and he said, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And so there was a bit of a debriefing, which puts a value on them. Listen, I wonder what happened, how did it go when you're out there? So we cared about that and debrief them. And probably my third, but favorite thing about cheeses is that, I mean so much I could talk about, but he taught them by example. He didn't just say, and I'll go up there and do this.

Speaker 2: (41:35)

They saw him time and time again, laid his hands on people. He's healed the sick, raise the dead. They watched it firsthand, 100% successful all the time. And they, he modeled it for them so that they could actually go out and do that very thing. And so I think that's important as leaders is that people want to know, but they want to know can you do what you're saying? Oh awesome. You know, I teach what I teach. But I took that three year hiatus to see if what I had additionally learned really worked in the non forgiving, highly competitive, somewhat on ethical world of commercial real estate. Can we do that? And by the way, during that time when it became the fastest growing company in America or 16th us, his company, fastest growing real estate brokerage. Wow. A lot of new people. I personally led several of them to Christ who led other people to Christ.

Speaker 2: (42:30)

There are other people doing that. They started a Bible study on Wednesdays at noon. I didn't lead it. I wasn't, I didn't want to because of my, my relationship there, let them do it. And there was a revival of broke out in the office. I mean people that would or were maybe born again but had become closet Christians and weren't talking about, now they're vibrant. People that didn't know Jesus were born again and their lives were transformed. All this was happening in this business setting. And, um, so I see that kind of thing happening. I like to, uh, you know, when I learned something, I want to test it out. I want to try it. And so what, what we're sharing here today has, it's not just a good sermon. Hey, I found a verse. I bet you this works like that. It's not that I had to pay a price off three years of obscurity, three years of nothing, three years, and nobody knows anything to gamble on.

Speaker 2: (43:19)

Is what I'm learning really going to work? Is it really going to make a difference? Is it gonna have an eternal difference? Yes, it did. Is it going to have a financial difference to the tens of millions? Yes, it did. Is it, you know, is it going to give them a higher platform? Oh yeah. Very much so and so, but I wouldn't, I didn't know that going into it. I believed it and I thought it would. Yeah, I didn't know until I actually get it. You know, when I think of Jesus, uh, one of the things, uh, I saw in the life of Jesus as to why he was so effective with people was a heat, almost every time solved a problem in somebody's life. He served them, he engaged with them, he talked to them and on, I know a lot of the principles you talk about have all those elements in it, but you know, almost every time if you read all the stories of Jesus, he saw the problem, whether it was healing or feed 5,000 or, you know, Lazarus coming out of the grave, you know, whatever the case. And that's how influence happened then, you know, so often I think the world teaches us about sales and, uh, is go in and get that order rather

Speaker 1: (44:31)

than taking the first step of serving the people and seeing what need they have and try to solve that need. And, and, uh, that's what you talk about in this book, uh, rainforest strategy. And so I want to encourage our, um, listeners and those watching on YouTube to download this at Michael pink, uh, download.com and you'll get an immediate download of the first two chapters. And so, uh, Michael, thanks for being with me on this, uh, podcast. I want to remind everybody if you're listening by iTunes, uh, please, um, give us a rating on that, that'll help others find us because of the positive ratings, if it's helped you. And if you're on YouTube, uh, become part of our channel is subscribed to our channeling and leave us comments at the bottom of this page so that, uh, we know, uh, if this program has been helpful and we can improve.

Speaker 1: (45:32)

And, uh, so Michael, why don't you give out your website to people if they want to reach you or connect with you? Sure. Well, there's two ways of course, Michael pink.com is my, my name's sake. And selling among wolves.com is a, you know, a detailed thing on my sales training. Either one of those ways, selling among wolves.com or Michael pink.com. Either one. I'd be glad to hear from them and let me know if you reach out to me, let me know that you heard about me from us cause I want to make sure that us is it where the of the support that he sent our way. And I want to bless Austin, the process. Well you can uh, see the book behind you. Hold up the book there and behind you on the shelf there. I just self your left shoulder there. This one here.

Speaker 1: (46:13)

Yeah. And that's the book we've been talking about. And so really well, well done by Zig Ziglar and Mark Victor Hansen, the chicken soup for the soul guy. I mean he sold over a hundred million copies. He loved this book. He said exciting minds, mindset changing ideas and a lot of good endorses on the back from big name folks. So I don't know if I told you this story, but you'll find it interesting if you don't about Zig Ziglar. So Zig Ziglar grew up in the church. I grew up in, in Columbia, South Carolina. I didn't know, I didn't know who he was. I was a child. Uh, but I had heard that later as I left, that my pastor that, um, you know, led me to the Lord, uh, knew him and he later moved to, uh, I forget where I ended up moving to. But a few years ago, uh, somebody came to me and said, OS I was in a Zig Zig Ziglar conference and somebody asked him, what do you read? And he says, well, I, I do read this one devotional called TGI F and, uh, and that, bro, that blew my mind. Wow. Um, uh, great. A great connection there. Yeah. Well thanks Michael. We will see you next time. And, uh, guys, uh, connect with Michael if you have a need in sales training or whatever, he's a great resource, so God bless you guys. Take care. Thank you. Thank you ass. Bless you, my friend. Hey guys.

Donald Trump, Hugh Hefner, LGBT, Roe vs Wade & (a Declining Culture)

Remember! You are God’s Culture Shaper!

Our nation has changed dramatically in the last 50 years. What are the tipping points in culture that have led our nation down this path? Os Hillman gives you a picture of the signs of the times and a warning about where the nation is currently. Listen to this wakeup call from Os.

Are you in debt? Do you need a strategy?

to get out of debt? Well, today I've got a

guest that's gonna help you do just that

so, stay tuned.

How do I bring my faith to

work how do I tap into the power of God.

Why am I going

through this adversity?

Hi I’m Os Hillman. I've

been helping leaders like you answer

these question for over 30 years.

That's what this podcast is all about.

Let's learn and grow together.

Welcome to TGIF Today God Is First .

So welcome to our podcast this week. It is such

a delight to have my daughter as my

guest this week and her name is Charis

Brown and Charis is in the media and she

has a new book out and it's a book that

everyone's gonna benefit from and so she

is author of two books she actually

created a new book when she was working

for me called TGIF for next generation

and her new book is called Alt Money

Choices: Securing financial freedom one

choice at a time and she speaks to

groups about faith and finance she's

also an editor for ClarkHoward.com and

managing editor for ClarkeDeals.com

daily deals website started by a

consumer expert radio talk show host and

New York Times bestselling author Clark

Howard. She lives with her husband just a

few miles from a with their cat in North

Atlanta well. Charis great to have you on

today thanks for having me dad well

you've done a great job with this new

book and we're gonna get into some

details but before we do let me just

tell people that you know this is your

second book and you wrote TGIF for next

generation which is a daily devotional

and you can get it online at your

website what website is that if they

want to go and sign up for your place oh

well if they want to get the free

devotional its prison ministry at work

but of course you guys have copies so I

would encourage people to get copies

from you too so yeah it's a it's a 365

day daily devotional

and her ministry site is Prismministries.org or prism ministries.org but

today we're talking about this new book

and Clark Howard you know it's

interesting he is a household name in

Atlanta and a few other cities. How many

cities is he in now? He's in quite a few

there's a there's a long list of media

affiliates that will air the show in

different markets um you know LA it's

one of those big cities that

regularly air the Clark Howard show so

yeah well he's quite a name in different

markets and he helps people save money

and it evidently has rubbed off on

Karras because she now has a book that

he is endorsing and he won't endorse a

book that doesn't prove it's going to

save people money so you can be sure

this has been field-tested by a Clark

but he gave a great recommendation for

the book and today we're going to talk

about this and listen to what Clark says

about the book

I loved Charis’s book. I couldn't stop

reading it and I finished it in a couple

of hours what I love about Charis’s story

is she's so methodical about her process

and she's not preaching at people she's

teaching how to get their money in order

and so that's what we're going to learn

today and so we're going to go ahead and

shut our video off so today we're going

to talk about top 10 financial mistakes

people make that cost them money and how

you can avoid them you know curious when

I looked at that list I thought that was

an incredible list of things that you

know money just flows out of our pockets

so easily sometimes and you put together

a list and different aspects of what

those ten things are that eat people's

money and so we're gonna go through each

one and you're gonna tell us what we

need to know about it and mistake number

one is over buying on a home tell us

about that alright well a home you know is probably

the biggest one of the biggest financial

decisions that will make in a lifetime

because a home is generally the most

expensive part of somebody's budget if

you look at someone's pleasure

like a pie you know if the housing cost

is going to take up a big portion of

that pie and so um you know you really

want to think about that and not in

terms of what your Realtor is telling

you and what your banker is telling you

because often they're going to try to

get you into something that is at the

max of what you can afford but what you

really want to do is you want to look at

your budget and you don't want your

housing expense to eat up you know more

than 25% 20% if you can get it down to

15 that's really ideal um but you know

people so many people over buy on their

house and then they don't have money

later in retirement when they need it

most and so just to give you a couple of

figures you know if you buy a $250,000

house that's gonna end up with interest

being over $400,000 if you buy a

$500,000 house that's gonna end up being

over $700,000 because of the interest

and so you can see how much that adds up

over time you know one of the things

people don't realize is if you just pay

a little extra every month you can

significantly reduce the overall amount

that you're going to spend and reduce

the term of your loan just paying an

extra fifty or hundred dollars a month

can make a big difference yes that's so

true yes and that's one of the things

that we highlight in the book just about

you know it's little changes that you

can make that will make a big difference

so that's definitely one of those

choices that you can make yeah all right

mistake number two over buying on a car

well we just actually bought a new car

new to us it's not a brand new car it's

a 2009 Honda but we were really feeling

good about this decision because we were

able to buy cash and just like you dad

like when you helped me buy my first car

my dad helped me you know you put 50%

down I put 50% down and we paid cash for

it which is great so we paid for this

car in cash and you know when an expense

starts to meet a psychological need

versus a physical need that's when we

tend to overspend so I don't know about

you but like I saw all these Lexus

commercials and different brands of cars

over the holidays it's like this

December to remember event and you know

it's like Oh your spouse could be

surprised by this forty five thousand

dollar car and you know I think for most

America

that would be a surprise but not in a

good way because you know if you're

married you want to talk to your spouse

and your significant other about any big

financial purchase and so you know with

cars seeing these table. you at CNBC no it's

actually forms so Forbes wrote a piece

about how buying new cars can delay your

retirement by years it can delay it 14

years 15 years just because people you

know um take cues from commercials to

buy their cars and so what you really

want to do is the sweet spot in car

ownership is buying a two-year old used

car because you know once it starts off

a lot it's lost a lot of value so and

then really being intentional about

researching the kind of car that you

want to get making sure it's reliable

making sure it's good on gas you know

because we want to get all the bells and

whistles but those bells and whistles

can cost us and when we're paying for

image when it comes to cars that can

really cause us to overspend yeah that's

good I know that we recently bought a

car and found out that you know we we

searched all over Atlanta and we went

beyond Atlanta and don't be afraid to

look beyond your own city to find the

best deal because sometimes it's it's

not in your particular city Atlanta is a

very competitive market for certain

types of vehicles and so you want to

really look everywhere when you're

searching for a car but that's good

advice all right number three is mistake

number three is going out to eat too

much ooh that one hurts well yeah I mean

you know it's just so convenient to go

out to eat one of the things that we did

in our 11 month long experiment is you

know this book is about the little

choices that we made and that we

journaled throughout 11 11 months

timeframe and one of those choices that

we made was making different decisions

when it came to going out to eat and

maybe choosing a less expensive

restaurant over a more expensive one and

just knowing how much that adds up over

time that can make a huge impact in your

budget but even you know you don't have

to deprive yourself maybe going to

Chipotle or chick-fil-a or something

like that um you know instead of going

to a sit-down more expensive restaurant

that can really make a big difference

and just to put it into perspective a

$50 meal out once a week cost twenty six

hundred dollars per year so you think

and you think about wow what can I do

with that money I could put that money

into my retirement account my brought my

IRA I could go on a vacation with it and

so it's just about figuring out where

your money is going and putting it in

places where you really want to go

because it's so easy to spend that money

going out to eat but maybe you know

there's something else that you could do

with that money yeah and you say habits

you know a lot of a lot of times we get

in the habit of just going out and don't

even think about it so it's I think it's

what you're saying is let's be

intentional about you know being frugal

or being disciplined about how many

times we're going to eat out etc exactly

well mistake number four is not saving

enough for retirement yeah that's a big

one and unfortunately it's it's one that

affects so many Americans um you know

most of us don't have enough retirement

money saved but it is the top financial

regret of the elderly and so and that's

according to an article by CNBC and so

you know if at all possible you know if

you're you know even just starting you

know start at 1% saving for retirement

and then just build up you know year

after year and once you get used to a

certain amount of income it makes it far

easier to live with that income later in

life and so um you know I would

encourage people whether you're in your

20s 30s you know start now just start

with a little bit and see how much that

little bit can grow because anything

that you put into a retirement savings

account a Roth IRA is a great place to

start um with a company like Vanguard or

fidelity and you know you can see that

income really start you know beefing up

as it you know works with compound

interest and so that would definitely be

something that we need to do better at

as Americans

when you say Roth our IRA why don't you

explain what that is for the folks sir

so I RA is an individual retirement

account and you can use these accounts

to stash away money for retirement you

can do a traditional IRA or you can do a

Roth IRA and a Roth IRA is a better

option to many people something that

clerk talks about a lot when people are

just getting started

because you pay the tax now with a

traditional IRA you pay the tax once you

take it out later but you can stash I

believe this year at 6500 dollars in

either of those and that's the maximum

that you can put in there but if you're

not already contributing to a 401k at

work the 401k would be the number one

place to start because if you have a

match that's like free money so

definitely want to start with a 401k and

then see if you can add them to an IRA

probably a Roth IRA if you can yeah and

you know saving it's not just saving by

putting money away but it's also not

spending and you know that's one of the

your testimony about writing your own

book was about in fact why don't you

share briefly with the folks what

happened with you and kind of what

motivated you to get out of debt yes

absolutely and you know this is kind of

school of hard knocks for me because dad

has always told me not to get into that

but I did for school and I started start

a business and I was like nineteen

twenty and so um I had over thirty five

thousand dollars in student loan debt

hanging over me and when my husband

Justin I got married we had a combined

total of three hundred thousand dollars

of debt because we had two homes and we

bought them at the height of the market

and we had to we have credit card debt

we had car loans and so we really had to

work hard at getting all of those debts

out of the way but we kept knocking them

out and so the student loan was was the

final kind of straw and I really wanted

to pay that off as quickly as possible

so that's where this whole idea about

many choices came from and recording

expenses and making a better financial

choice and so we were able to pay off

that student loan that was $27,000 at

the start of the year and we were able

to pay that off within 11 months mm-hmm

that's awesome so one of those things

that you had to do was budgeting and

that's mistake number five how important

is budgeting that is still hard I think

it's always going to be hard for us and

many people and you know budgeting is

something that you know people hear it

and I was chatting with a women's group

and I mentioned budgeting and they're

all I go it's a groan that will echo

throughout the room but budgeting is you

know not necessarily constraints it's

just kind of guidelines and a plan and

so you know there's plenty of free

budgeting

out there budgeting doesn't have to be

hard there's you know clarity money

there's mint there's all kinds of apps

that you can just plug in you know your

info and it'll spit out what you're

spending and then you can kind of decide

where your thresholds are for different

categories so another way to do it is

cash one thing that we did is and we

continue to try to do is especially with

food expenses and grocery expenses we

try to use cash because you have that

set amount and we treat cash much

differently than we treat a credit card

that one yeah with a credit card it's so

easy to swipe and studies have shown

that we spend less when we use cash

because we have a different relationship

with cash because we see it leave our

hand and so it's a much different

experience even though most of us are

encouraged to use plastic because it's

so convenient so budgeting is definitely

you know one of those things that we

want to try to get a hold of when it

comes to success with money yeah and I

think that you know talking about credit

and debt and you know nowadays they're

really trying to lure us into the credit

cards because of a 2% cash back or 3%

and you know all of that that may be

good on the front end but it actually

encourage you to spend more because you

think oh I'm putting a say I'm putting

getting money back though and all you're

doing is spending more money and but

that's so true you know when I go to the

grocery store and pull out cash to pay

for something I take it more seriously

than if I just use my credit card right

exactly exactly and one thing that you

could do is you know if you want to use

credit cards and you want the benefits

of the cashback or whatever you can use

credit cards for fixed expenses that

you'd be paying for anyway and you know

use cash maybe for those more variable

expenses that you know can get out of

hand easily yeah and it's so important

for you to not carry over in your

spending and kirie debt on a credit card

because that will absolutely eat you up

with the high interest rates of most

credit cards and so you know the the way

you beat the credit cards is those

recurring incomes or recurring expenses

use the credit card for that if you want

to build miles or you want to you know

bill cash back but the way you beat them

is you

that thing off every month and that's

that's when it that that card becomes

your servant instead of you being the

servant to that death right exactly

exactly I mean if if you can't do that

with credit cards maybe just stick to

the cash or the debit you know but yeah

that's definitely I mean number one roll

of credit cards make sure you can pay it

off every single month yeah

mistake number six falling for scams

well you know there are so many scams

that steal people's money and Clark's

Consumer Action Center gets calls um you

know every day hundreds of calls from

people who are who have fallen prey to

some kind of scam you know there's tons

of scams that are happening right now um

one of the most popular ones has been

the IRS Social Security scam where you

get a call from the IRS and they're

telling you that you owe money and are

threatening you um you know but the IRS

does not communicate that way they send

letters and mail so security is the same

way so what you want to do is if you're

faced with something like a phone call

or somebody that wants to sell you

software or something do a little bit of

research about it um don't immediately

take action try to stop yourself from

taking action when it comes to any of

these things and do some research and

see if there is a scam out there that

you need to be aware of a lot of times

there's government websites that have a

list of scams that are popping up and

greater frequency I say you can check

that out um but that's definitely

something that you know to watch out for

even gift card scams where you know

someone might want to sell you a gift

card and then it ends up not having any

money on it so just be aware of the

scams that are out there um Clark coms a

great resource for looking for scams and

then some of those other websites are

really great too yeah and be careful

with investments that are promising very

high returns you know back in the 90s I

got taken I became a victim to a Bernie

Madoff type of scam where he was having

20% interest and you know he just you

know that interest those those reports

came every month saying oh he made this

much he made this much then all of a

sudden I get a phone call from my

manager and he says all of your money is

gone the man

that we'd been working with was a scam

artist and they had fled the country and

that was over half a million dollars and

we never got one penny back and so be

careful with the types of investments

that you go into and when they claim to

have incredible returns it's probably a

situation that you really need to think

twice about Wow and I know that was a

really painful and I'm glad that you're

sharing it with everyone because so many

people have gotten taken by scams like

that and you know as the slide says if

it's too good to be true it probably is

you know you just have to watch out and

don't use any income that you really

need in an investment you only want to

use cash that you can afford to lose in

an investment that's a very good word

their mistake number seven shopping as a

hobby

okay well this goes back to habits and

you know in the book um I just shared

that habits are one of our most

money-saving assets and that is so true

and what you know being in debt taught

Justin I was that you know we'd learn to

live on less than what we made and so

that was something that I think will

just you know have such an impact on me

for the rest of my life just trying to

live beneath our means and pay off that

debt but shopping you know I mean some

of us or shopaholics I you know of

course I'm looking at deals all the time

with my job and it's very tempting but

you want to be careful not to make

shopping one of those things that's

filling another kind of void you know

shopping can be fun it's fun to get

those deals

I love deals deal hunting but we just

want to make sure that our habits are

not leading us as you said before into a

path of you know bondage where you know

we're becoming a slave to a certain

habit or whatever so that's something

that is just good to watch out for well

I think the other things addictions can

come in a lot of different forms and an

addiction is anything that you can't lay

down voluntarily and if you find that

you simply have to shop or have to do

something else then you most likely have

some kind of an addiction and you need

to look at the root cause of that and

what need you're trying to meet that

that shopping or whatever

it activity it is is trying to meet and

so this is an area that is very

practical and we need to look at it and

see what it might be doing to us mm-hmm

yeah that's good

mistake number eight not having

insurance yes and so you know we often

think about insurance like car insurance

homeowners insurance renter's insurance

but other kinds of insurance are often

overlooked for example a disability

insurance you know Social Security the

Social Security government website tells

us that one in four of today's young

people will be disabled at some point in

their lives and so it's really important

to consider disability insurance as

you're looking at budgeting and monthly

expenses because um you know anyone can

become disabled at any moment so it's

really good to think about short term

disability and long term disability I've

got a friend of mine she's she's

chronically sick and she's been that way

ever since she was 27 and so it's just

sad for me to watch that because you

know she could have probably had a much

easier time if they had known about

getting disability insurance when they

were in their 20s I said that's just

something that I would just just plead

everyone to look at just because the

statistics are real 25 percent of us

will be in some you know place where

we're not able to work and so it's

really important that we are covered not

just in our car insurance but also

disability insurance and of course

health insurance another factor in that

is to make sure that you have income

that you can live off of two to three

months you know set aside in an account

on a amount of money that if something

happens that you can go to that money to

be able to offset what might happen you

know you never know it was what comes

across our path sometimes and having two

to three months of operating income is a

wise thing to do and that's separate

from your long-term insurance not

insurance but long-term retirement

savings this is a short-term money that

should there be an emergency in other

words it's your emergency fund

right so if you can't put that much

aside yet just start putting a little

bit toward that account and set it up as

a separate account as a money market or

something like that and just put money

in there until you get to at least three

months of operating income and if you

have that money saved up maybe you won't

need the short term disability insurance

but yes that is that is definitely

something that that would be good for

everyone to consider mistake number nine

not paying bills on time well you know

we live in a credit-based society and I

know that there's some financial experts

out there that you know don't use the

credit cards and don't want to rely on

credit but you know credit becomes a lot

easier if you're looking at buying a car

or you need to buy a house and so paying

bills on time is definitely a part of

that and so when you're looking at a

credit score thirty five percent of

credit history is based on our thirty

five percent of the credit score is

based on your history and then thirty

thirty percent is the amount owed so

that's over 60% of the total credit

score and so when you're paying bills on

time especially credit cards your credit

score is going to go up and you want to

make sure that your debt to credit ratio

percentage is below 30% overall which

means that the amount that you owe is

thirty percent is thirty percent of the

overall credit that you have if that

makes sense because that also has a big

impact on your credit score yeah now a

lot of times we get these promos for

apps that will give us their credit your

credit score do you recommend people

getting that how important is it for

this them to stay in touch with their

credit score yes that's a really good

idea and when you know the whole Equifax

breach happened a lot of people are very

concerned about their credit and rightly

so so one of the great ways to keep

track of that is Credit Karma it's over

the K and so you can go on that site and

you can monitor your credit and if

there's any changes to your credit say

if somebody opens an account in your

name Credit Karma is going to alert you

of that and so you'll be able to catch

it in time a lot a lot of things that

people or times what people do is

they'll actually freeze their credit and

if they're concerned about you know

stealing their credit history or

whatever or opening accountant accounts

in their name they can actually freeze

their credit you know if you don't have

anything that you need to apply for you

know you have a house it's pretty much

set you're not making any big changes

that's another great way to keep

criminals from accessing your credit

would be to do a credit freeze good

mistake number 10 getting into debt

this is probably my top mistake

and the book you know all money choices

this is all about our journey of getting

out of debt and making better financial

choices you know but that can cost us so

much overtime um you know in Proverbs I

know you've said this many times says

borrower is slave to the lender proverbs

22:7 and so we want to be careful that

money is our slave and we're not a slave

to money but the cost of financing can

be pretty high we think about mortgages

they're generally considered good debt

because you're actually you know going

to get your house but you're still

paying a whole lot in interest for

example a one hundred and fifty thousand

dollar mortgage is going to cost almost

five thousand dollars in interest in the

first year and so you know when you

think about that compared to um you know

the tax write-off you're getting most

people don't even Ida Mize so it's kind

of a wash so you know when people are

touting like home ownership you just

want to be aware of what you're actually

spending an interest because that can

really add up over time I remember you

know one of my biggest mistakes was you

know buying a house with an

interest-only loan I don't know what I

was thinking but I thought the market

would go up and up and it didn't crash

just almost as soon as I bought that

house and so when I look back at how

much money I was paying an interest it

is absurd and how much I could have

directed that money in other places like

you know saving for retirement or

business or whatever and so um that's

one thing that you know work generally

accustomed to as a society is getting

into debt but we you know in order to

save more money and you know have more

financial stability in our lives we

really need to think about and think

hard when we are faced with getting into

that because that can cost so much in

the long run you know over the years

I've had people talk about the whether

you should pay off your mortgage if you

have the ability to pay it off and I

have always said yes

absolutely you want to do that and some

would kind of you know argue that point

to say that well why would I want to do

that you know I've got my money over

here collecting interest and I get an

interest deduction on my mortgage and

the answer to that is you're presuming

upon the future for the first thing now

you don't know that you'll be able to

pay that in the future when you have the

ability now and that's exactly what

happened to me back in the 90s when I

had that Bernie Madoff situation I could

have paid my mortgage off at that time

but I didn't based on that logic so then

after that happened it was tough for me

to make that mortgage for season and so

they also that the premise that you're

having a tax deduction

look you're paying a whole lot more

interest than the benefit you're getting

from a tax deduction then if you had

paid off that completely so there is no

better feeling than living in a house

that you know is paid for and nobody can

take it from you you never know what's

coming down the pike and so you know

that presumption upon the future is not

faith it's presumption so if you have

the ability to pay it off

paid off if you have the ability to pay

an extra hundred a month do that

anything you can do to reduce the amount

of interest you're paying and to get

that house under your belt and not the

banks bill right exactly

all right so we've been talking about

all money choices securing financial

freedom one step at a time you can get

it on our bookstore at tji at bookstore

calm you can also get it on Kara's

website at Alton money choices calm and

you know some of the practical things

you're going to learn in this book are

how small choices can really add up

and why changing your money habits have

a big impact over time and you're going

to read about Karis is strategy for

paying off twenty seven thousand dollars

of debt in 11 months she took small

choices that added up over time and how

to make saving funny money fun

and the science of making better choices

money mentalities have separate the rich

from everyone else and simple steps you

can take I encourage you to get this

book so you know Kerris has been on this

journey with me for many years and after

all these years we've been equipping

leaders and we've been thinking about

how we can help those that we've been

serving for these years go deeper and

help them with specific things that they

tell us they had help need help with and

so we've been listening to some of our

listeners and I would encourage you that

if you'd like to know about these coming

things that we're about to do that we're

going to announce very shortly within a

month or two about a new program you can

get on the waiting list for that it

become God's change agent com that's

become God's change agent calm and if

you get on the waiting list you'll be

the first one to be notified you'll get

a discount on this new program that

we're going to be doing plus you will

get a download that's free of my top ten

biblical truths for succeeding in life

and work and so if that's of interest

you just go to become God's change agent

comm will cost you anything just to be

on the waiting list and that'll be a

free download now let me remind you that

if you're listening on iTunes we want

you to rate our podcast that allows us

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subscribe to our podcasts and download

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YouTube and that will allow us also to

have more people watching our programs

and so let's curious when we come back

on the video just for a moment as we say

goodbye to our friends and let's see if

I can do that there we are there we are

both so again the book is all money

choices and it's a great read it's not a

very big book it's only 118 pages so you

you know I like those kind of small

books you can read almost in one session

but you won't do that in this cuz you

need to really study what to do and take

the advice that she has there well Kara

says we close out today any final words

for those that that are out there well I

think one of the things that just became

such a big theme of the book is you know

just realizing how much God gave us

choice and how it's one of the gifts

that he gave us you know in the Garden

of Eden he gave Adam and Eve a choice

and so you know one of the most

impactful things that I want people to

get from the book is just to realize you

know you might be in a certain situation

or you might be facing a big challenge

right now but you know there are choices

that that you have that you may not even

have thought of yet and you know God has

given us creativity as well and so you

know even though we might feel like

we're in a tough spot um you know he can

give us ideas and solutions to those

things that we're facing and so um you

know he just gave us such a big gift

when it came to her choice and so I just

want to encourage people with that yeah

and that's a good word I think that

whenever we are intentional about

something like this God sees that it's a

it's a step of faith and sometimes when

you put your first foot forward towards

something God multiplies it and it's

amazing how many things can change you

know in my own situation although I'd

lost a half million dollars at the end

of seven years God restored all of it

back and I had no idea that was going to

happen but I was just seeking God and

asking him to help me walk through that

season and I paid off all the debts I

owed as a result of that crisis and

that's important so be faithful in the

little things and the big things and God

will honor that faith so what cares

thanks so much and everybody joining us

today god bless you and we'll see you

next week

What does Moses have to do with my marketplace call? Can I learn anything from this leader to apply to my own daily work life call? Stay tuned and we'll find out. How do I bring my faith to work? How do I tap into the power of God in my work life call? Why am I going through this adversity? It's got mad at me. I'm Os Hillman and I've been helping leaders like you enter these questions and for, for over 30 years, that's what this podcast is all about. Let's learn and grow together. Welcome to GIF. Today. God is first.

Hey guys, this week I'm in North Myrtle beach. Every year I come down here between the December 26 and January 1st and I like to do a lot of my writing and just to decompress down here. Also have a very close friend of mine, Jim, who is 83 years old today. Not today, but, this year. He has been a mentor and father to me. He's been a pastor for over 32 years here in this area. And if I was to point the camera down that way, you would see a pier. And that is the peer that I accepted Christ on in 1975 at 11:00 PM one night. And so this place has a special place for me, a place in my heart for me this week. I want to talk to you about the marketplace principles we can learn from the life of Moses. And whenever I think about the ocean, I think about Moses and the red sea.

Moses has a lot of things that you and I can learn from what he did. And you know, he represents a type of leader that made a lot of mistakes. You know, the first mistake he made was when he realized who he was and that God in some way wanted to use him in a very powerful way to deliver a people from slavery. He went about it the wrong way. He used his power and, uh, to try to force things to happen. And we know that he killed an Egyptian. And that led him to have to flee after being raised in the ways of Egypt and no doubt that impacted him and not really understanding how to be led by God or be used by God in such a way. And so, you know, Moses is a, a type of marketplace person where we can sometimes use our force to make things happen, but God, you know, has to take us through a process.

And so God’s process for Moses was to take him into the desert and put him out there as a shepherd. And, you know, the shepherd life was something the Egyptians despised. It was the lowliest of all professions. And, uh, you know, when I think about Moses and when God, after 40 years, decides to reengage him through the burning Bush, and that when he sees this burning over to the side during his work day, I think that's interesting that he does it during his work day. And so God speaks to him. And the first thing he says to him, it says, Moses, take off your shoes for a year on Holy ground. Now what does that mean? Well, you know, even our daily work life, God says that it's Holy ground because my presence is there. And that's another principle we need to understand is that God sometimes comes to us in the day to day activities like our life.

And he wants us to really experience his presence even in that place. And so after the initial discussion with Moses, God asked him a very interesting question and he says, Moses, uh, what is that in your hand? Of course, Moses said, well, it's my staff Lord. I picked up this stick here on the beach and uh, it'll just be our staff for a minute. Okay. And, uh, so he says, Moses lay down that staff. And so he lays out the staff and it turns into a snake and a imagine the shock. And so then God, Elsa and that pickup, that snake by the tail and alive was that important. Whether it was important because he was taking a car to you over the serpent, which is represented as the devil and the scriptures that caused the, uh, problems with he back in the garden of Eden.

And so Moses is taking authority over that. So he picks it up by the tail. And when he does, it turns back into a staff. Now. Then God says something very interesting in the scriptures from that point on. He says, now take that staff and perform miraculous signs with it. And that also says that that staff was no longer the staff of Moses, but it was actually the staff of God. And so now he was going to be a steward over that staff, and he was going to perform miracles through that staff. Not only would he perform miracles, he would actually deliver an entire people from slavery. So we see in this example that God uses Moses in a very powerful way. And you know, Moses wasn't a perfect leader recently. I've been talking about how God uses very imperfect leaders. And he used David who was a murderer and a conniver at, uh, uh, Eno adulterer.

He used Esau. And he also used Jacob. Of course he did despise Esau, but he did turn him into a nation. But Jacob who was a controller and a manipulator, he used him to birth the 12 tribes. And so today when you get upset with leadership and America realizes that God uses very imperfect people for specific assignments, you think about also the, uh, the character in the old Testament, Jehu, where God used him and Elisha and picked him to destroy Ahab and Jezebel, which was an ungodly, an evil rulership. And you know, so when we look today at our leaders, we need to realize that they are not perfect characters and they won't pass the evangelical litmus test many times. But God raises those kinds of people up. You know, Jehu, who is probably the closest thing I can think of to a Donald Trump who was very narcissistic, knew his abilities, was very good at what he did.

He felt God's hand on him. And, yet he was a guy that was, you know, not going to win popularity contest. And so just think about that. When you think about the kinds of leaders God raises up around us and you know that it takes a particular kind of leader to train a swamp in a political system like America that has for the last 50 years has been going far left and you know, further and further into corruption. And so it took a, takes a person like that to really do that. And so when they see Moses now going into deliver the people, an interesting thing happens and he fails to do something that God told him to do. And that was to circumcise his son. And it says that an angel was on the way to kill Moses because he failed to circumcise his song.

And you know, why is that important? Well, it's important because God's representation of covenant between he and his people was the concept that circumcision, they were to be a people set apart for his purposes. And so when Moses didn't honor that symbol of commitment and covenant promise between him and God, that was a very serious thing. And so his wife actually saved him by circumcising the child. And Moses was able to go on and perform what God called him to do. So now Moses is with the people. He's delivering the people. Finally after the plagues and you know the situation, it gets to the point that he got the people released,but during the journey he comes to the Red Sea and it's interesting what God said about the Red Sea. He took them to the Red Sea.

Now the route that he took them to was a route that ended on the shores of the Red Sea. There's an alternative route they could have taken to the North end so that they could go around it and get to the other side. But God didn't take them there. He took them right at the Red Sea. Now if you imagine, let's imagine that that's the Red Sea behind us, that would be an incredible thing to think that that sea could part and that you could walk through that seat unfathomable for you and not to imagine such a thing happening. But if we're believers that we know that the word of God is true and we need to believe that that in fact took place. And so they go through the Red Sea and God takes them along the way. They get thirsty and hungry and God uses manna to feed them because they can't care for themselves and they need water.

And so God tells Moses to strike the wrong in order to get water for the people. And here again is a, you see the symbolism of the staff and how God used the staff to be the instrument of power. And so he strikes the rock and the water comes out of it. And then later on we see a similar situation in which the people are thirsty again. And God says to him, now, Moses, this time I want you to speak to the rock. And this is a very important thing that God does with the people. Now he's now telling Moses, I want you to use the authority of the spoken word. You know, the Bible is very clear about the power of the spoken word and the authority he gives us to speak the word in power. And so he tells him to speak to the rock.

But Moses is not having a good day. And he's very frustrated with the people. And so instead of speaking to the rock, he strikes. And when he does that, an interesting thing happens. The water still comes out of the rock, but it's at a cost to Moses that he actually loses his ride to be able to go into and participate in the promised land that God had promised to the people. And that was the consequence of his disobedience because he dishonored the people by doing that. And that's what the scripture tells us. And so there are a lot of lessons there that Moses tells us. And so I would encourage you today to think about this staff, what is your staff? Your worklife call and what God has put inside of you to deliver a people and to bring people into a place of worship.

That's what God also said about Moses. And the reason they were going to go into the desert was to worship God and have the freedom to worship. And so that's what we see taking place today. That you know, our rights as believers are being fronted every time we turn around in our nation right now. And God needs you and I to stand in the gap, to be able to use our staffs, to really perform the miracles needed to re see our nation restored to some, some foundations that will not be cracked. And so, you know, I've been thinking about, uh, what we can do to help many of you out there who struggle with how to live out your faith in the marketplace, how to live out your faith as a business owner. What can you do to be more successful then applying your faith life and to your work life.

And so we're going to be announcing before too long a new initiative that's going to help you, that that's a, an interest in that you have to be able to go deeper into the things of God to connect with other leaders in a community that will allow you to rub shoulders with others who have the same DNA, the same arc for you, that you have to be able to represent Christ in all that you do. So, you know, if I, when I think about, um, where believers are and how they're getting equipped today, you know, you got to admit that it's, it's, uh, there's not too many places you can go to get equipped, coach, mentor, and uh, so, you know, the church, the local church hasn't done a great job with that. But where do you go to find an opportunity to be equipped, you know, by leaders who are in the marketplace, who've gone the journey, who, who paid the price for those things.

So that's what, uh, the kind of thing that we're planning to release before long. And if that's of interest to you, uh, then you might want to go on our waiting list. And, uh, we've set up a web page that you could go on to, uh, be notified when we released that. It's called become God's change agent.com become God's change agent.com if you'll go there and put your information there, you'll be able to be on our waiting list and you'll also have the opportunity to, to be the first ones to get a discounted opportunity to the initiative that we're going to launch. There's also a download of my top 10 success principles that I've recorded over the years that I found to be most influential. Things I've done that have helped me walk the walk that I've met. So as we enter 2020, I pray that God will really use you this year in the via time where God will use believers to really bring the gospel into our nation and pray for revival in our nation.

Pray for just an awakening of men and women in the marketplace to be used by God. And so if you're watching this on YouTube, I pray that you'll subscribe to our channel so that others can get notified about these things. And if you're hearing this on iTunes, please give us a rating that helps us to be recognized as by Apple to come and listen to our podcast. And so thanks for letting me share with you that this a year end message. And do you ever get to come down to North Myrtle beach? It's a great place to come. So we'll see you next week. Blessed take care.

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Pamela Hillman knows what it means to be sexually abused, used, betrayed, raped, prostituted and a contract placed on her life from the mafia. Men in her own family system held her hostage to sexual abuse under the threat of death. She was in prison to drugs for more than 35 years through a cocaine addiction and a victim to sexual abuse. Drug dealing led to jail and ultimately prison for 18 months. But that is not the end of the story. Stay tuned to listen to this inspiring story of redemption and incredible forgiveness.

Guys, welcome to this week's podcast. Well, I've got a treat for you this week. You know back in 2015, I had been single for several years and just thought that my life was going to be a life of singleness for the rest of my life. And, as it turned out, I ended up going to a movie preview from a friend of mine who produced a movie called Captive. That movie was about a drug addict woman who was taken captive in her apartment in North Atlanta. And, she read the Purpose Driven Life to him and that saved her life. He had already killed three people that day. And, but I was introduced to someone at that movie preview and her name was Pamela and Pamela. And I got to know her from that time and I heard her story and one thing led to the next and we were engaged not long after that.

And so today you're going to hear an incredible story of Pamela that had a difficult childhood and that childhood led her into a lot of difficult places. You know, many of us have had difficult pasts but forgiveness is a key point on whether we're going to move past that difficulty. There are people that have betrayed us, used us, abused us, and so what do we do with that? And so, Pamela has a story of forgiveness. Her story is unlike anybody that I know. And so this week we are featuring a talk she recently gave at our church here in North Atlanta in Dawsonville, Georgia -- Christ fellowship. And this talk is an extraordinary talk on redemption and forgiveness. So I hope that you'll benefit from what she has to say and we'll see you at the end. God bless

Pastor: I've grown to love a couple of them. And now a part of the our fellowship. I discovered Os Hillman years ago, nearly two decades ago. I think he is one of the most prolific authors. I would encourage you to research Os and to go to TGIFBookstore.com and buy everything that you have read. But Os is not speaking tonight. His wife Pamela is speaking to us tonight.

I got to know her and we had lunch one time with Karen, my wife to discover her story. As I said this morning, every speaker at the North Georgia revival, and we had felt a particular leading to bring her before you. I sense the presence of God so strongly. When I invited her, I knew what would happen in this evening. There will be breakthrough tonight. There will be breakthrough tonight in people's lives. How many of you would like to have breakthrough in your life, your family?

You don't need to pull out your phone and I want you to share the link of the North Georgia revival because you're going to want to have the story coming into the advices of people that you love. Christ fellowship awesome is our Facebook page. And you can go there right now, Chrysler shift Austin, he'll find the lightning if you will. And share. Are you going to download the orange? Add the ISN app. It's Supernatural app. Download it. And we are being broadcast all over the world. So I want you to make sure that you share the link. Christ fellowship Dawson. So without any further ado, I want to introduce this video clip on Pamela Hillman. She will come right after the short video.

So are you ready for breakthrough? inside of you? The breakthrough is inside of you. It's one decision away. You have to make a choice. So let's get ready. Okay, awesome. So I have to tell you about my grandmother. I had a praying grandmother. And if you have a praying grandmother that is the key to your life ,it's important to pray for your children. She played the piano for the church for 65 years. She would cook for the pastors. They came to the home and this one jolly old pastor evens everybody puts his hand on me and he says, “You’re special. She's going to do great things for God.

The enemy heard that. The enemy heard that this one here is special. We're all special in God's family. We're all special. When this seed is planted, that was an impartation. I didn't know it at the time, but the enemy came into steal that seed, and it was through my dad. So I was outside playing and there was this little puppy. So I bring this dog home and I said, “Dad, can I have this puppy?” I'm five years old. My mom and my sister aren't home. He said, “Come upstairs with me. You can have the puppy.” I had taken a nap with my dad before. I don't think anything about this. I go upstairs, lay down, and then something happens. So I go running out of the room, go downstairs, and my puppy was gone. The seed was planted. I can get what I want by going on upstairs. The enemy came in right after the impartation.

We are in a battle, you have to know these tactics of the devil. Okay? So by the age of five it was my dad then my uncle then it was my godfather and the godfather was the worst and he had continued on. I was told that I would be killed if I said anything. Actually after I did tell my mom, she didn't believe me when he was with my dad. And then my sister started having my sister. Then she finally threw my dad at God. I thought I caused that. I caused my dad to have to leave and I wasn't going to have a daddy anymore.

Watch carefully. It's a trauma that the enemy brings in. So I was choked, raped, ran over and shot at. I knew Jesus was praying through my grandmother. I accepted Jesus as a child. I didn't know what that was. I mean, she took me to her Bible study, but I didn't really know what that was. But He was with me. When I was shot. I was sitting in a chair. It made a complete circle around me. The chair had holes in it. The picture of my, my head was shattered. I knew, I knew, I know my grandmother was praying for me. There was an angel in front of me and do it. I'm going to run it out of the room.

Oh my liver. I was in so many car accidents. I was in a body cast. I was mauled in this body, and in a wheelchair for a long time. They said I wouldn't walk again. I mean, I'm running today. However, I did cocaine for 35 years. That destroyed my liver. I destroyed my liver three times. I was in the hospital one time when I was on the dying ward with cancer patients and I didn't even know it. I said, “Why am I on this ward?” And they said, “You're dying.” I said, “Well, can I get another liver?” “No, you don't have enough time. You have about six months.” So, you know, I got involved in dealing large amounts through this Colombian mafia guy. One time I kicked his door and so he put a hit out on me.

It was stupid. This is a Columbia mafia guy and it doesn't matter what you do when that happens. But somebody that worked for him contacted me. I was at a lowpoint in my life. I didn't care and so I went to him expected to be killed. I always carried a gun and I just said, you know, do whatever. I can't live with this anymore. I was sleeping with a gun under my pillow and showering with a gun and I just can't live like that. I'm here to reconcile something, okay? Or just do it! So I got tired of running and did this for 35 years. I was on such destruction. Everything that I did that I turned to it was the same guy with a different face. I concluded it was always everybody else's fault. It was dad's fault. It was my mom's fault for not watching over me. Right? It's always somebody else's fault. So we blame others for our situations.

What words you're listening to? We must remake our brains. Demons are going into your soul and you're speaking to them throughout your life. You've got to be careful about your words. They have power. They really have so much power in any, that's the enemy's tactic. He wants us to play the game. It's all the combinations that you can't get out of it. You're in this confrontation within, and I'm going to tell you about the confrontation here shortly. And so I have this big house. I had the hummer and all the vehicles. I was dealing drugs and with drugs comes prostitution. I was miserable.

I had 1800 stamp collecting books, a gun collection, vehicles and a big house and I was miserable. That did not make me happy. I would be sitting on the bed or sitting on the sofa and I would have my Bible open next to me in my lap. I had to have a crack pipe, a line of cocaine, you know, and I was watching TBN while taking drugs. People ask, why are you watching that when you're doing drugs. “I'm never going to get out of this if I don’t watch Christian programming.

I knew Jesus and I know he was the only one that could get to me. So I was like, if you want to hear it, go to another room. I'm not turning it off, you know? So that was my point of surrender. I was praying. I said I don't care if you put me in an institution or jail. But I didn't know he was going to do it quite this way this time. So my point of surrender was to go to prison. Oh my gosh. When you really surrender and you're asking God to get you out, that is when I get pulled over by the cops. They don't find anything, but I go to the bathroom. And then the Lord spoke to me and he said, “I thought you wanted this to be over.” And I said to do. And he said, “Well tell him about the drugs in the car in the backseat of the police car.” He was taking me to jail for violations of probation. So it was my choice.

That was my decision. I had to, no matter what the consequences were, say, “I'm ready.” I went out there and I told the officer I put drugs in the back of your car. He in this inflamed red face, you said, I already knew that and they tried to get me 20 years and I'm like kicking and screaming and say, no thank God. It wasn't for me. It wasn't just for me, it was me, but it wasn't just for me because when I was there, like I said, my 20 years, because I got five years, God can raise me with five to three and I spent 18 months, that 18 is my number now. My birthday is December 18 and you can go into the prison 18 months and I got out November 18.

Okay. My point of surrender wasn't prison and I was trying to get all this stuff and I've been to treatment before. I knew that was just a short my time. And then I said, I'm using, use me in here heaters longer. She gave me more because he was speaking to me. He told me, he said, this is your college campus. I brought him here to train and equip you for what I have prepared for you. I said, Hey, this is my first mission field. I started this class for women. They want to change so bad. They were so angry. They saw me happy all the time. I was like, Oh, everyone's skipping and happy. They said, how can you be happy? You're in prison.

It is so prevalent and people are like, this is the age and this is what the enemy is doing is it's adoption. Okay, and he's got to be mindful of this and I'm like figuring out what is causing me to go back to this. When I would relapse and go back to the drug, it was the because of many insecurities from a lot of the wounds that hadn't been addressed from the sleeping with a guy and then going back to drugs because of the pain. So I'm studying all these books and the Holy spirit spoke to me in my room. He said, the only thing that will change your mindset is the word of God, memorize it.

This is the only way. My other book is and it will be done. My story will be out in spring. But anyways, so the journal book was about this size. I started from the very beginning of it. And I went through the book to the theory and theory first ever memorized to the theory. If you are intentional, if you want to have a change, you've got to do it on purpose. You got get up and make that decision and say, okay, I've got to do this for my own self to change.

I was sitting on the toilet, I'm get a picture of a toilet paper roll. And the Holy Spirit says the center represents Jesus. The Holy Spirit fills you. The inside of the white of the toilet paper is our soul. What are we going to do with all of this garbage? It's the world and self putting in the shame, the guilt, the condemnation, the jealousy, all the anger. What are we going to do with it? It's the sanctification process of tearing off the sheet purposefully to do it.I said some people have a lot more stuff.

He said the Lord spoke and he said, Hey, I want you to write down every name of everybody who was wronged you. I didn't remember some of the names because I've been raped. I didn't know their names and started praying in the spirit over them because my printer was, that was my, he said just put your hands on the paper. Greatest fear. Cause I know Holy spirit since I was 26 so that was core to my sanctification. I've been in the segregation process since I tried to commit suicide when I was 26. So anyway I reviewed all the names on the paper and began praying in the spirit over them and something happened in me. And he taught me to put my name at the end. He gave me this analogy. Look in the mirror and quote scriptures to say who I am.

He says, I am the word of God and you gotta do it on purpose. This is all on purpose y'all. You got to be intentional about your process of sanctification, okay? You already said you got to use this. There's a process. My heavenly father will do the same to you if each of you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart. Okay, I can do it from my heart. I saw Holy Spirit work through me and for you. Okay? Again, had a lot of sickness. I had a lot of stuff going on in my body, handed over to the torturers evil one. Where is there unforgiveness?

He's a torturer. We've got to release it. Writing on the piece of paper. How did you forgive all these people? And myself took me a long time for a couple of weeks. I just, I got to tell you what Greg did. So many I saw on a piece of paper, and I'm going to tell you this is the story towards the end, but at least they're on the phone. My soul, they were in my soul. It was great. I started praying for their salvation, for their healing, for their minds to get right. Do that. And I'll tell you the story in just a bit. Okay. So when I get out, I'm going to tell you this 100%. So when I get out of prison in 2010, my son who was here with me, praise God, he's getting bad taste today. And yeah, um, God has reconciled us. But, um, so I went in to get life insurance because I'm thinking I need to go take out the life.

So I go and I guess they'd have to go to the doctor they call me. This nurse calls me and she says, I thought you might want to know about this. Yes. And I'm thinking I knew somebody right. And she said, well, you are one of 1% of the Americans with 100%. And she said, there's only 1% of Americans that have 100% of the people, all of that garbage for me. Didn't matter how long I was in there, I told them these women were coming up to me after my class, the daughters of science class, and they were saying, you don't know what it's like. This happened to me and that happened to me. I did this and that. And I'm like, I liked it dad. Maybe not to that extreme, but that happened to me. I can relate. I can relate to all these.

I know why I had to go to all of these things. So they're stable. Well, the Lord taught me to pray scripture. He says in Genesis one 26 that created in his right and he also says in Isaiah 55:11 so shall my word be those forth from my mouth. Please. What are you sending out of your mouth? So I created these workbooks and I was like, okay, I was on this module or changed and um, Oh, it's great. It's on identity, everything but Google change. I need an acronym, maybe more in the morning habits around new bro every day.

Good. So it's rewiring your brain every bit of it. Every day, every night when you sleep, you're rewiring your brain. Something can rewire your brain to the neck. Okay? You've got to pay attention. Don't get up in the morning. Oh my gosh. I get out of here and go on the table. God's given me so many dreams. I had one dream. We're in my day room and I fell asleep. I don't ever fall asleep this morning I did. And the Bible starts breathing. I heard decoding the Bible, then Os walks in ourday room, door opens and wakes me up.

I know you weren't expecting part of the condemnation that was so deep in my soul were things that happened with him. If I allow it to happen because I wasn't the mother that he deserved and that, that just, it's still, you know, it still has a place. It's not a wound anymore, but it's a low place dead and he's done okay. For 20 something years, I never really pray this, but when so many would ask me about my mom, I would say she lives in an apartment. We've lived in an apartment all my life, you know, and she's ever had a house. I'm going to buy my mom a house one day. And I know, I knew.

I didn't know. I never knew how it's going to happen, but I kept saying it, the power, they are so critical. Y'all did know that I was going to buy out six months after I got out of prison, the guy's dead. So my dad had got reconciled with my dad, while I was in prison and he was writing and he had dementia and he started it just really bad. So I sit down, I'm going to come take care of you. I'm going to come live with you. And he got so bad that, uh, they contacted me and said, he's in hospice and he's not gonna make it. You're not going to get Amazon. Well, it did. I prayed, I prayed. He says, God, I got to see my dad more time, please. So we've got an inverse. He got steam on Saturday and it was just [inaudible] seven.

He was already dead in this chair. His eyes are all [inaudible] six or four. It's horrible. But when I got to and I got to tell him I forgive him and he started crying, he was waiting for me any time the next day. So I know the power of forgiveness when I was given a say and that $65,000 center and I knew what I was going to do with it. I bought my mom a house. It's a freezer other than the $70,000. We got it for $62,000. It's actually in the workbooks about my story. But all these stories are the power of our words. You know, you've got to speak the word.

And I was praying for my child and got to take me into a mountain for a year. And then Jesus, you know, he's my Lord Satan. I didn't know he was my husband. When I brought him home, God multiply. I didn't so these are some other women. This is our Daughters of Zion for women. Can God use your time wisely? We have this is where she is anointed. Y'all okay. Go to the website, download this, this career shift because I went to my room and I said, what you heard the request they needed for your sheet. And so I was actually, I was leaning over somebody in the prison and never on her badge over her bed. She was in a whole rhythmic accident. Only some people were killed. She was on a Tuesday it off outside detail. Okay. In the whole ban for the women. And some of the women did die, some of their arms and legs, but she saw this bright light in the band and she was in a bubble and nothing happened.

I was praying there were women and then she had this beautiful, it was like, they said, well, we'll pray over mornings or after she was sick and they made us all get out. But let me tell you, we never [inaudible], we never get to come together. We got to see each other name the next day in the cafeteria. And the Lord orchestrated that because she said the Devens choked her every time she got on her knees, she couldn't. She stayed so many countless women just led them to me too. He always had me in his, well, the Lord at the ministry is to borrow ministries but life changers legacies and he says those among you, you shall raise up the foundations. I feel so blessed to be in this search. I am so blessed and I know the annoyances. I am so honored to be you. Okay? It's not just the people in prison, they're the bridge bridges, your neighbor, the person you're sitting next to. We all have a condition or something. Okay. And we need to be praying one another, loving each other through it. Not judging because the Lord has taken me through a lot of courses and it's all preparation for the women to know, to be prepared to be geared at the training. And I have a brand team. I have a lot of Gaston and family team over here.

I'm thankful for my team here and my family. Yes. So in my recent ordination is a chapel and now the Lord told me to become a number of deans for his forum, for his people. So through the different workshops, different counseling classes, everything that I've been in training for the last 10 years. So it's been nine years. I've created this workbook series and it's to go back home to the person. So each woman, we're this presence. So if you want to be a mentor, we do accept as well. This is the thing, I wanted to go into the dorm with them. We had security issues and different people. It was just purpose. So I waited on the Lord, prayed into it, all my experiences or I don't just like the dog. It's important that I tell him the moment when I go into the person, I say, this is just good. Boom, it's an important place. We got to know we weren't in that dark place because he is in the secret police. Right? So this one box came out of my story, my certifications. And I do have a lot of other people's material. And here I've got a couple of bosses pieces and we provide everything that is necessary for the psychotherapy. It's all therapeutic interventions, meaning the psychotherapy, the [inaudible] model, the cognitive, behavioral, everything.

There are all kinds of programs. Like you said, they don't have Jesus. They're only a little stepping stone. So each woman, we provide a mentor for them to walk alongside. So the mentor gets a workbook as well. [inaudible] aged, soar. Both are getting the yelling. Yes. We rely on mentors and partnerships. Let me say anything or everything. We go to a national prayer breakfast and I've been on a 30 day fast and this was day 35 and I hadn't had chocolate. And I said, [inaudible] go upstairs. And I told him I was almost [inaudible] you sure you want to get back on top? We walked around the corner, we walk up the stairs. And um, did you take the video? Nope. Um, so every time I saw Michael Lindale on the TV with my pillow, I said, let him know how great his pillow is. So little did I know going upstairs to get my chocolate. You telling him about my story and that is, you're not going to see a picture of me. [ wow. It was horrible. So if you'll play that video. Thank you.

I first met Pamela Hillman at the national prayer breakfast. We share stories of drug addiction and finding freedom through Jesus Christ. I realized that it was a divine appointment by God. He had brought us together to help others who struggle with drug addiction. Since then, I've learned all about Pamela's amazing one-on-one mentoring program for those in prison and those coming out of prison. This mentoring program is one of the best like they receive. And that's why I chose the partner with Pamela and Life Changers Legacy. I'm endorsee that I saved reprogram and I encourage you to support this life changing ministry as well. This is one of the best ministries ever.

So, as we do have more workbooks, but it's really easy to just, um, he's using his workbooks in his Lindale recovery network. He's opening in January in Minnesota, so there and they had stacks and stacks of books in their room that this licensed counselor she had gone through and she says, that's awesome. So you visited me in person? Yeah. This is the community thing. So many people were like, I don't want to hear them. Neither do I, but the Lord made this program so easy. It is all done. Any video visit, you don't even have dementia. Somebody inside the prison, you do it to your computer and it's 30 minutes to an hour when it's so simple, isn't it? I've had to reserve him.

I was wondering if you give me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you visited me and you did it to your community then, okay, how many times are we doing any of these? Are you stopping or are you saying they're just going to buy drugs? So I did, but I gave him a dollar. I give him $5 because I trust that person. It is my duty. It is their choice. And God knows my anointed dollar isn't going into their hands. It is going to infuse their [inaudible].

If I come up to you and I to say, Hey, how are you today? Because you might, she might make something like he does and he's working through me and I purposely do that every day. Everything you did. So now I'm going to tell you about that. Their biggest forgiving moment. I told you about the letters that I made. All people, right? Mostly guys, well, prostitution, business, drug, business, all of it. Um, I had a, uh, my, the business I had was a lot of wealthy men. They flew in from other States too. And um, I was just one year. But anyway, this one guy, uh, he was just need people. Uh, I, I was at this party, this place and um, and he was ugly. He to people. And, uh, he was very wealthy man, but in all the women were genuine and he wanted me and I said, no, there's no amount of money that you ever offer me because you know, I didn't like his attitude, how he treated people.

And I still had a heart for people. Even though I was in sin, my soul wasn't affected. I didn't know how to get out of that. These women in prison, we have to beat the other hands if we want them to change. If we want our societies to change, 90%, 90%, are we going to do something about it? So there's one guy, he says, I'll have you, I'm going to get you. I didn't really think much about it. And um, so I go to this person's house. I had this guy who's like a big brother and he was kind of, my bodyguard went everywhere with me. And so I go to this, this house I was invited to and um, I wake up and nobody's there and I'm in a puddle and he's, you know, my big brother guy. And when I left and got in touch with him, he called me and he says, I'll help you get in.

I'm going to help you get it. We're going to talk is, and I was like, what happened? What happened? And he said, he came in, you and the other room, he came in at eight, you go water money. And um, six other guys walked in behind him and they pushed everyone out of the room. And I said, yeah, I want to get in there. You know, that wasn't my soul, that violation, that trauma. I held that and I had hatred it because of that. I lived in that and I didn't drink for that man, but the Holy spirit on that piece of paper when I was in prison and I was praying over it, the Lord gave me a vision of this man as the man who was being raped repeatedly.

We don't know what all of these people that are creating all these offenses, we don't really know what's happened in their soul and their life. We've got to back up and say, okay,

Sarah, what happened to them?

You know, this is not just about us.

So I saw that and I started weeping for him. I started to bring for his soul and I get out. It was about three months later, I met a store and this man walks in front of me and when he said, thought you out, you know the whole memory, everything flashed for me and I froze. But he started crying and he said, I've come to Jesus and I have to ask your forgiveness.

It was like to hear y'all. I don't know it. I don't know. Prayer of putting my hands on that paper and none of them, his name people.

Okay, think about it. How many words have pierced hearts of our families and we're carrying our souls ready to release. Is it time? It's time y'all. You can't move forward and like this was your ride for the breakthrough. It's up to you. Yeah.

This was my biggest challenge. It was the self forgiveness because of my children. Hers too though. I come with them so much, but he's [inaudible]. I've had four boys, four different men. I gave up one for adoption at birth, having ever seen another one. I chose to sign him over and say she was old. 13 months. [inaudible] his life. I'm wanting to have him to have a good life and I didn't trust myself and that was 20 something years ago. I know we won't be back because I was weeping in the prison. And I said, Lord, tell him that my children took her forgiveness and the Lord. I said, Lord, speak to me randomly of the word to Jeremiah 31 60 says, refrain your voice for me.

Says a lot of stuff. And then at the very end it says, your children shall return to their own orders. I'm trusting my father. I'm trusting. Most importantly, I want them to know. I want them to know Jesus wherever they want. That's the most important border. So you know we can live in this invisible prison of I forgiveness and has sickness, have headaches, have different diseases and anger, anger. I had rejection issues. I had so many issues in the past 25 years. Billboard is just toilet paper sheets off it is my cheese. It's my decision and it's your decision. It's up to you to release the forgiveness, the unforgiveness and receive his forgiveness.

It's so hard to do. Active your will. Faith is the activating force, what we believe. What do you believe? What is your belief? That's really the question. You keeping the unforgiveness or somebody that offended you. You're staying in a prison, you're not doing anything. But watch what happens when you step forward and you say, I release it to you. I really see your forgiveness. I can't do it anymore. And it does that to you. It says [inaudible], I've had so many new tools in my life and I know it's the cause of decision. It's because of making it on purpose, doing things every day.

Give me the time that I was going to give up the baby for adoption. Christmas three years old and um, I wasn't getting Chell. Some were Brown and I didn't want him to go through a bad wife. I didn't want both of them to go through a bad wife. And so I made that decision. But while I was in prayer, all of a sudden the walls I've been through for hours, over and over, but the wall opened up. All of a sudden this pass everywhere, little sparks everywhere. I rolled my eyes cause I thought, I've just been crying too, right? But something led me to look to the left. There was a huge, huge one, waves bigger than a door. There was a veil on the face. I couldn't make out if it was male or female, but it didn't matter. This is liquid piece that I knew I was making the right decision. I knew that I needed to give him up there. There've been so many times I've seen it, a spirit realm. I've seen evil. I wasn't on drugs. I've seen a man transform right before my eyes into it to an Eagle spirit.

So many people that are carrying the unforgiveness, it as a spirit, it is a spirit. Don't let it overtake you. Tell me it won't be able to shoot every aspect of your life. I invite you. Anyone here that has any unforgiveness, stand out. Bring it to the Lord.

prayer ripped in the walls. There are more Holy spirit. All those places. Oh, there's two places. All those words say you have no more rights. There's more than one person name. You said fill those places right now. Overflowing joy. Freedom out of your soul. Don't listen to the enemy when he comes back and reminds you, don't listen to it. It's out of your soul. Say Jesus, I trust you. [inaudible] forgive me. [inaudible] when someone [inaudible] give me your, give me your, let me know what they're going through. Let me pray for them. Help me remember that

I rely on you. Holy spirit. Every part of my life, I am free. Say it. You have free. Don't listen to the enemy, okay? If the Lord you are afraid to release, you just said it comes off. It reminds you where the person even comes back to mg, step back and say, no, that's been released for fame. Keep reminding yourself. Laura says, we got to remind yourself. Remind yourself, no release for me saying that's a lie. I'm not receiving that. And you'd get a worn out and not receive things, okay? Because the enemy's gonna walk through people. He gets to people he works through people. See, I'm not receiving those words. When they told me , where is it? I said, I don't receive those words. I never see those words because in the hospital with this disease, but they never told me it was up diagnosis. And so I said, no, it tells me I'm healed.

And it's like, Oh, you're one of these Jesus freaks. And I said, no, no. I had Jesus long before I came to prison, three Skype. And so Joseph, before I had to take blood work before I got out, every time I've wanted, I said, I don't receive their scores. I don't receive it. So this day I'm about to get out and they take the blood work. The doctor opens in the fall and he says, something's wrong. I said, no, nothing's wrong. It's three orders, another test, and they come back. It's the same thing. And he says, looks like you're Jesus.

Do you know why God made you? Do you know your purpose? Did you know there is a book in heaven with your name on it? OS Hillman has created an informative called out to discover why God made you. That will help you discover the answers to these and more questions about purpose calling and God's will for your life. This downloadable resource is yours free by going to www.mypurposedownload.com that's www.mypurposeDownload.com.

Do you ever ask the question why bad things happen to good people or maybe, Is God mad at me? Why am I going through adversity? If you've ever struggled with those questions, today's podcast is for you. Stay tuned.

How do I bring my faith to work? How do I tap into the power of God in my work life? Paul, why am I going through this adversity? Is God mad at me? I'm also yeoman and I've been helping leaders like you enter these questions at more for over 30 years. That's what this podcast is all about. Let's learn and grow together. Welcome to TGF today. God is first. Well, welcome

Today's podcast is entitled four reasons why you'll go through adversity. You know, we all go through adversity. The question is are determining why we go through that adversity and today I want to give you four reasons. I believe that we all go through adversity, but make sure you stay through the end because at the end I'm going to give you a resource that'll really help you, that has supporting scriptures in it that you'll be able to download. At no charge. So just stay with me till the end. You know, I went through a seven year adversity back in the early nineties. It was a devastating time. I'd lost over a half a million dollars. My wife left me, 80% of my business went out the door. And it was a very difficult time. I had a vice president take my second largest account and so many of you who follow my podcasts already know my story so I won't get into it.

But you know, it was during that time that I really discovered a lot about why I went through adversity and why others go through adversity. And so that's what I want to talk about today. You know, Satan has three great lies and, and I wonder if you know what those lies are because he speaks it to almost every person, whether you're a believer or a nonbeliever. These lies are 1)you are powerless over your circumstances, 2)you are a victim of an unjust God 3) who left you here to suffer. Those are the three lies that every believer will believe at one time or another. So, you know, we need to understand that Satan wants your past to be your future, but God always sees you for what you're becoming. You know? And that's where we see in the story of Gideon.

Gideon was spoken to by the angel of the Lord. He says, “Oh, mighty warrior!” Now, he wasn't a warrior at the time, but I can assure you that God was looking at him through different lenses. You know, he was hiding behind a fence trying to protect himself from the Midianites. And so he was impugning the nature of God too. When the angel started talking to him, he said, “Why do you care? You don't care about us. You're not helping us. What kind of God are you?”

And that's the way many of us are. But you know, God worked in his life and he did become a mighty warrior. You know, in the book of Mark we see a passage that says, “Jesus told them, you're all going to feel that your world is falling apart. And that it's my fault.”

You know, I think that we've all identified with that statement, but we need to better understand what the Bible says about adversity. And while we might go through adversity, let's look at these four reasons that I believe we all will go through adversity. The first one is a consequence of the call. Our biblical example of that is Joseph. Now Joseph learned later about his adversity, that his brothers meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. You know, I believe that Satan entered the heart of his brothers. And yet God's omnipotence even worked in that situation. So Joseph went through 13 years of adversity that included slavery and also being a slave in Potiphar's household. And it, the Bible tells us about Joseph that he did.

He was blessed by God and God prospered him. He used that word prosper. You know, it doesn't seem like he's being prospered, does it? But that's what the Bible says about him. And so, you know, when it came time to him to be elevated, God used his gifts and talents as Joseph, in the prison there. And his dream interpretation ability became renown. And as a result of that, he interpreted the dream for Pharaoh. And that's what got him out of prison. And Pharaoh chose to use him to be number two over all the land that what an incredible story that is. Uh, but it came with great heartache and great, um, persecution. But we learned from that story that sometimes God uses great adversity in order to fulfill your purpose for a larger story. And that's the key thing you need to remember.

It's for a larger story. And Joseph had a larger story than what he was living. God gave him early visions of that story through dreams and visions. And so God used that. And so, you know, it's a consequence of the call was the adversity that Joseph went through and because there was a big call and the the greater the adversity often the greater the call and the greater the influence. And we see this really lived out with Paul and the disciples and just about anyone in the Bible that God used significantly went through a major crisis. Number two is sin. We can go through adversity because of sin. The guy Gehazi was the assistant to Elijah and he had his boss heal a general. And when that that general got healed, Gehazithought that they should be compensated because that was a man who had means.

And so he wanted to benefit from that. And that was not what God had in mind. So God judged that sin and he got leprosy and he lost his job. And so here was a situation that he thought he deserved something because of the power of God that worked through them. And so sin can be a place that can keep us from fulfilling our destiny. It can cause adversity in our life. The scripture is very clear about this area. You know, just in the old Testament, we see where Joshua, uh, in his first battle where they went into Jericho, they won the battle. But God said, don't take any first fruits. And so there were a couple of people that did take the first fruits and hid them in the camp. Well, the next battle they go out at I and they you know, they're not winning.

And Joshua was wondering why are we not being blessed by God? And it's because they had a disobeyed God even though he didn't know, uh, someone in his camp disobeyed God. God was not blessing his organization. And that's another principle to learn. If we've got people in our organization that aren't doing the right things, then you know, that could hinder us and cause adversity in our own situations. So the next one is son ship. And Hebrews 12 find the Bible tells us that we are sons of God and as sons he disciplines us just as the earthly sons need discipline. And so in this situation we see that God might reproof us and the Bible speaks about being reproved as sons and daughters. And so it's important that you and I know that, you know, God's going to allow things in our to our lives that will really keep us in the right path.

You know, a parent always wants to keep their children and going down the right path and God certainly wants to do that with us as well. And so here we see sun ship as being the third reason we might experience adversity. And then the fourth reason is spiritual warfare. John 10:10 tells us that Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy. And you know, the second part of that says, Jesus came to give us life and life abundantly. There are two mission statements in that one, uh, scripture verse. And so we see that Satan wants us to, uh, really have terrible life on this earth. If you can't kill us at birth. And he tries to wound us so badly in childhood that we are in effect ineffective in our walk with God and on the earth. Now, Ephesians tells us about this warfare.

He says, finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the armor of God so that you can take your stand against the schemes for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but of the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places. Therefore put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground and after you've done everything to stand. So you know, first John three eight tells us that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. That was another reason he came, in addition to being the savior of the world, but also to destroy the works of the devil, and he causes us to do the same. You know, there's another aspect of adversity that I just want to briefly mentioned, but I won't teach on it today.

And that is the Joseph calling. Some of you may have a Joseph calling on your life, and that's a calling that's earmarked by adversity. When we think of Joseph, we think of the adversity he went through. He was a spiritual and physical provider to others. And, uh, you know, when I first encountered a man to help me understand my adversity, he says, loss. You have a Joseph calling on your life. It's earmarked by adversity. When people think of your name, do they, uh, relate the adversity to your name? If so, there's a good chance you may have a Joseph calling. You know, God created us with seven needs. And these are found in Genesis one and two. He created us with a need for dignity and authority, blessing and provision, security and purpose and meaning and freedom and boundary and intimate love and companionship. And so in order to raise, you know, have those needs met, we have to depend on God for that.

But if we try to meet those needs outside God's design, that really opens us up to what the Bible calls a spiritual stronghold in Corinthians. Paul talks about this in Corinthians, and so we need to make sure that we're clean. You know, Jesus, there was nothing in Jesus, uh, in which the devil could use as a reason to attack him. You know hereafter I will not talk much with you for the Prince of this world comms and that nothing in me. In other words, what he's saying is that there is no sin in my life. Jesus had no sin so he couldn't attack Jesus for sin. You get attack him because he's the son of God because of warfare, but not because of sin in his life. And so there was no entry door into his life. And we need to understand is there any entry door to our life?

Could he come into us because of that? Now in Corinthians, we see the definition of a strong home. It says, the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And so that is the definition of a stronghold. The opposite of that is found in Ephesians 3:17 Paul says, and “I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Now, whenever we seek to meet one or more of these basic needs outside God, we set the stage for the development of a generational stronghold.

You see, Satan convinced Eve to believe God was holding out on her and he would not meet her needs, so she chose to meet her own need. Now there are examples in the Bible of generational strongholds. We see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob having the stronghold of deceit and lying, and then we have control with Laban, Rebecca and Jacob, and then we have King Saul as well. We see a sexual stronghold in Rahab, David Bathsheba, Absalom, Amnon in Solomon. In Psalm 51 David says, I was conceived in iniquity. What that tells me is that perhaps he might have been conceived in iniquity or out of wedlock. Maybe that might be the reason why his father didn't even have him as a one to be considered when Samuel was looking to anoint the next King. You know, I've, I learned a lot about this stronghold through a mentor who came in my life and he had written a book called demolishing strongholds that actually helped him publish.

And he said, there's nothing wrong with you. You just have a stronghold of insecurity and fear that makes you control people in circumstances. Well, I said, that's crazy. And he says, well, let me prove it to you. And so he gave me this little self-assessment tool and he says, I want you to go to your sisters and your mother, have them fill it out and come back to me. Well, what this does is gives you symptoms that rank, uh, according to your stronghold. And so what came back back from that was sure enough, I stronghold of insecurity and fear. And this was quite a revelation to me. And so he took me through a prayer of faith to get rid of that. And, uh, you know, in the scriptures in second Corinthians it says, but we have renounced the hidden things of shame.

Not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully but by manifestation of the commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And so, you know, we don't have to remain in those strongholds. We overcome the influence of strong those by renouncing and repenting of their influence through the prayer of faith in Jesus's blood to cleanse us from these influences. And one of the things I've discovered in working with people, uh, over the years is that whenever the reaction to a situation seems to be an extreme response compared to the offense, you know, there is unresolved pain or the enemy is at work in the situation. You see, whenever we grow up, uh, and have a pain or a wound in our life and never resolve it as an adult, that pain can surface through different trigger points in our life. Now when people react to the out of their pain, their behavior is never logical.

And let's say a person gets upset over something and it should be a level three and they go to a level 10 well you know something's going on under the hood and you need to find out what is the problem. So there's a process of discovery and deliverance for that. First you see the symptoms, which are light lights on a dashboard. And then we need to understand what the root of the behavior is. Then we read, revisit that wound and bring healing into it by confessing it and asking Jesus to heal it. And we discover the lie. John 8:32 says the truth shall make you free. And when you discover the truth of something that begins the process of healing, you apply the truth to that situation. So the steps to freedom is this prayer. Identify the strong hole and their symptom and rank them from 1 to 10 and then you want to work with someone close to you to help you confirm those strong holes.

And then you want to confess a renounce the influence of strong holes in Jesus's name. Each believer has the power of the Holy spirit to renounce the influence of strong holes over their life. We have divine power to demolish strongholds. It says in second Corinthians 10, four and then we meditate and walk according to the word. Uh, we renew our minds. We began to change our behaviors. You know, any self-image, contrary to the truth of who God says you are in the spirit is a false self-image. You must agree with God, not with your flesh or the devil. You know, this reminds me of the, you know, the fact that we've been equipping leaders for the last 25 years on things like this. And I've been thinking about what we could do to help go deeper in a lot of these concepts.

And so we've decided to come out with something in the near future that's going to address things like this and other issues in people's lives as well as a marketplace initiatives. And if you're interested in being on our waiting list to know when that comes out, we set up a webpage called www.becomeGodschangeagent.com. If you go there and just enter your information there, we'll uh, make sure that you know about the program when it comes out. And we'll also give you a free download of a booklet there that I did on the 10 truths of success that I've, uh, documented over the last, uh, 20 years. The top 10 things that I have found to be the most influential in my life that perhaps would be helpful to you as well. Just for putting your name on that list. Go to www.becomeGodschangeagent.com.

You know, Paul’s sufferings, it says that five times I received the Jews the 40 lashes minus one three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was pelted with stones three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night in a day in the open sea and I've been constantly on the move. He says, I've been in danger from rivers in danger, from bandits, danger from fellow Jews, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city. And in the country dangerous. See danger from false believers. I'd labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep. I have known hunger and thirst and I've often gone without food. I've been cold and naked. That's Paul describing some of the experiences that he's had, but he never complains. He always see taps into the grace of God wherever he goes. Philippians two five says, let this mind be in you. That is also in Jesus Christ.

We need to have the mind of Christ. Uh, Philippians two five, whatever God sets you free from, he automatically gives you an anointing to set other people free from the same thing you were a victim of. That's your payback to the enemy. And know that if you go through something major and you get victory on that, God is gonna use that to create your anointing and the power to release others from that same thing. We want to transform our past into a new beginning. First. We need to realize our identities and then learn to contend with it and then to receive our inheritance. And so that's the process. And these are the things that we want to help you with. Facing our fears requires coming to a debt in our expectations and leaving outcome to God. And so we can't cookie cutter this. You know, I had my mentor once say a dead man can't have stress, you know?

And so if you get angry or upset about things, that means you're not dead yet. We can have strong emotions about things as long as we don't sin. And so that's the borderline severe adversity will reveal what we really believe about God. It reveals our deepest fears and beliefs about God. The bottom line is every in our lives is designed to give us an upgrade with God. If we'll press end to him with our whole horror, the greater revelation, greater power, greater character, and greater intimacy will be the result of that and a greater influence as well. So fear drives us to performance and to be slaves and orphans, but they encouraged, turns us into sons and daughters. And that's the difference between operating out of fear and operating in courage and faith. So I want to help you with this message by offering you a free download of a booklet I put together called www.adversityFAQ.com or, frequently asked questions.

So if you go to our webpage we set up just to download this resource. So if you'd like to receive this nine page ebook on adversity - frequently asked questions just go to www.adversityfaq.com that's www.adversityfaq.com and there you'll be able to download that resource at no charge. As we close out, I'd like to close us with a word of prayer. And then a final remark from myself. So father, we thank you for this day. We thank you Lord that you allow adversity at times to matures into sons and daughters, but you also equip us to fight the battle because we're in a war and Satan wants to steal, kill, and destroy from us. And so we ask for grace to be able to weather the storms and to persevere through them. And I pray for anybody going through adversity today that you'll minister to them through your word this day and help them navigate in Jesus name. Amen. So a final word. If you're listening to this on iTunes, uh, please, uh, give us a rating, uh, that helps others find us on iTunes and help others benefit from this teaching. If you accessed, uh, on YouTube and watching this program, please, uh, share your comments at the bottom and subscribe to our channel. That too helps us, uh, find more people who will find this message helpful. God bless. Have a great week. We'll see you next week.

Do you ever ask the question why bad things happen to good people or maybe, Is God mad at me? Why am I going through adversity? If you've ever struggled with those questions, today's podcast is for you. Stay tuned.

How do I bring my faith to work? How do I tap into the power of God in my work life? Paul, why am I going through this adversity? Is God mad at me? I'm also yeoman and I've been helping leaders like you enter these questions at more for over 30 years. That's what this podcast is all about. Let's learn and grow together. Welcome to TGF today. God is first. Well, welcome

Today's podcast is entitled four reasons why you'll go through adversity. You know, we all go through adversity. The question is are determining why we go through that adversity and today I want to give you four reasons. I believe that we all go through adversity, but make sure you stay through the end because at the end I'm going to give you a resource that'll really help you, that has supporting scriptures in it that you'll be able to download. At no charge. So just stay with me till the end. You know, I went through a seven year adversity back in the early nineties. It was a devastating time. I'd lost over a half a million dollars. My wife left me, 80% of my business went out the door. And it was a very difficult time. I had a vice president take my second largest account and so many of you who follow my podcasts already know my story so I won't get into it.

But you know, it was during that time that I really discovered a lot about why I went through adversity and why others go through adversity. And so that's what I want to talk about today. You know, Satan has three great lies and, and I wonder if you know what those lies are because he speaks it to almost every person, whether you're a believer or a nonbeliever. These lies are 1)you are powerless over your circumstances, 2)you are a victim of an unjust God 3) who left you here to suffer. Those are the three lies that every believer will believe at one time or another. So, you know, we need to understand that Satan wants your past to be your future, but God always sees you for what you're becoming. You know? And that's where we see in the story of Gideon.

Gideon was spoken to by the angel of the Lord. He says, “Oh, mighty warrior!” Now, he wasn't a warrior at the time, but I can assure you that God was looking at him through different lenses. You know, he was hiding behind a fence trying to protect himself from the Midianites. And so he was impugning the nature of God too. When the angel started talking to him, he said, “Why do you care? You don't care about us. You're not helping us. What kind of God are you?”

And that's the way many of us are. But you know, God worked in his life and he did become a mighty warrior. You know, in the book of Mark we see a passage that says, “Jesus told them, you're all going to feel that your world is falling apart. And that it's my fault.”

You know, I think that we've all identified with that statement, but we need to better understand what the Bible says about adversity. And while we might go through adversity, let's look at these four reasons that I believe we all will go through adversity. The first one is a consequence of the call. Our biblical example of that is Joseph. Now Joseph learned later about his adversity, that his brothers meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. You know, I believe that Satan entered the heart of his brothers. And yet God's omnipotence even worked in that situation. So Joseph went through 13 years of adversity that included slavery and also being a slave in Potiphar's household. And it, the Bible tells us about Joseph that he did.

He was blessed by God and God prospered him. He used that word prosper. You know, it doesn't seem like he's being prospered, does it? But that's what the Bible says about him. And so, you know, when it came time to him to be elevated, God used his gifts and talents as Joseph, in the prison there. And his dream interpretation ability became renown. And as a result of that, he interpreted the dream for Pharaoh. And that's what got him out of prison. And Pharaoh chose to use him to be number two over all the land that what an incredible story that is. Uh, but it came with great heartache and great, um, persecution. But we learned from that story that sometimes God uses great adversity in order to fulfill your purpose for a larger story. And that's the key thing you need to remember.

It's for a larger story. And Joseph had a larger story than what he was living. God gave him early visions of that story through dreams and visions. And so God used that. And so, you know, it's a consequence of the call was the adversity that Joseph went through and because there was a big call and the the greater the adversity often the greater the call and the greater the influence. And we see this really lived out with Paul and the disciples and just about anyone in the Bible that God used significantly went through a major crisis. Number two is sin. We can go through adversity because of sin. The guy Gehazi was the assistant to Elijah and he had his boss heal a general. And when that that general got healed, Gehazithought that they should be compensated because that was a man who had means.

And so he wanted to benefit from that. And that was not what God had in mind. So God judged that sin and he got leprosy and he lost his job. And so here was a situation that he thought he deserved something because of the power of God that worked through them. And so sin can be a place that can keep us from fulfilling our destiny. It can cause adversity in our life. The scripture is very clear about this area. You know, just in the old Testament, we see where Joshua, uh, in his first battle where they went into Jericho, they won the battle. But God said, don't take any first fruits. And so there were a couple of people that did take the first fruits and hid them in the camp. Well, the next battle they go out at I and they you know, they're not winning.

And Joshua was wondering why are we not being blessed by God? And it's because they had a disobeyed God even though he didn't know, uh, someone in his camp disobeyed God. God was not blessing his organization. And that's another principle to learn. If we've got people in our organization that aren't doing the right things, then you know, that could hinder us and cause adversity in our own situations. So the next one is son ship. And Hebrews 12 find the Bible tells us that we are sons of God and as sons he disciplines us just as the earthly sons need discipline. And so in this situation we see that God might reproof us and the Bible speaks about being reproved as sons and daughters. And so it's important that you and I know that, you know, God's going to allow things in our to our lives that will really keep us in the right path.

You know, a parent always wants to keep their children and going down the right path and God certainly wants to do that with us as well. And so here we see sun ship as being the third reason we might experience adversity. And then the fourth reason is spiritual warfare. John 10:10 tells us that Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy. And you know, the second part of that says, Jesus came to give us life and life abundantly. There are two mission statements in that one, uh, scripture verse. And so we see that Satan wants us to, uh, really have terrible life on this earth. If you can't kill us at birth. And he tries to wound us so badly in childhood that we are in effect ineffective in our walk with God and on the earth. Now, Ephesians tells us about this warfare.

He says, finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the armor of God so that you can take your stand against the schemes for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but of the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places. Therefore put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground and after you've done everything to stand. So you know, first John three eight tells us that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. That was another reason he came, in addition to being the savior of the world, but also to destroy the works of the devil, and he causes us to do the same. You know, there's another aspect of adversity that I just want to briefly mentioned, but I won't teach on it today.

And that is the Joseph calling. Some of you may have a Joseph calling on your life, and that's a calling that's earmarked by adversity. When we think of Joseph, we think of the adversity he went through. He was a spiritual and physical provider to others. And, uh, you know, when I first encountered a man to help me understand my adversity, he says, loss. You have a Joseph calling on your life. It's earmarked by adversity. When people think of your name, do they, uh, relate the adversity to your name? If so, there's a good chance you may have a Joseph calling. You know, God created us with seven needs. And these are found in Genesis one and two. He created us with a need for dignity and authority, blessing and provision, security and purpose and meaning and freedom and boundary and intimate love and companionship. And so in order to raise, you know, have those needs met, we have to depend on God for that.

But if we try to meet those needs outside God's design, that really opens us up to what the Bible calls a spiritual stronghold in Corinthians. Paul talks about this in Corinthians, and so we need to make sure that we're clean. You know, Jesus, there was nothing in Jesus, uh, in which the devil could use as a reason to attack him. You know hereafter I will not talk much with you for the Prince of this world comms and that nothing in me. In other words, what he's saying is that there is no sin in my life. Jesus had no sin so he couldn't attack Jesus for sin. You get attack him because he's the son of God because of warfare, but not because of sin in his life. And so there was no entry door into his life. And we need to understand is there any entry door to our life?

Could he come into us because of that? Now in Corinthians, we see the definition of a strong home. It says, the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And so that is the definition of a stronghold. The opposite of that is found in Ephesians 3:17 Paul says, and “I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Now, whenever we seek to meet one or more of these basic needs outside God, we set the stage for the development of a generational stronghold.

You see, Satan convinced Eve to believe God was holding out on her and he would not meet her needs, so she chose to meet her own need. Now there are examples in the Bible of generational strongholds. We see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob having the stronghold of deceit and lying, and then we have control with Laban, Rebecca and Jacob, and then we have King Saul as well. We see a sexual stronghold in Rahab, David Bathsheba, Absalom, Amnon in Solomon. In Psalm 51 David says, I was conceived in iniquity. What that tells me is that perhaps he might have been conceived in iniquity or out of wedlock. Maybe that might be the reason why his father didn't even have him as a one to be considered when Samuel was looking to anoint the next King. You know, I've, I learned a lot about this stronghold through a mentor who came in my life and he had written a book called demolishing strongholds that actually helped him publish.

And he said, there's nothing wrong with you. You just have a stronghold of insecurity and fear that makes you control people in circumstances. Well, I said, that's crazy. And he says, well, let me prove it to you. And so he gave me this little self-assessment tool and he says, I want you to go to your sisters and your mother, have them fill it out and come back to me. Well, what this does is gives you symptoms that rank, uh, according to your stronghold. And so what came back back from that was sure enough, I stronghold of insecurity and fear. And this was quite a revelation to me. And so he took me through a prayer of faith to get rid of that. And, uh, you know, in the scriptures in second Corinthians it says, but we have renounced the hidden things of shame.

Not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully but by manifestation of the commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And so, you know, we don't have to remain in those strongholds. We overcome the influence of strong those by renouncing and repenting of their influence through the prayer of faith in Jesus's blood to cleanse us from these influences. And one of the things I've discovered in working with people, uh, over the years is that whenever the reaction to a situation seems to be an extreme response compared to the offense, you know, there is unresolved pain or the enemy is at work in the situation. You see, whenever we grow up, uh, and have a pain or a wound in our life and never resolve it as an adult, that pain can surface through different trigger points in our life. Now when people react to the out of their pain, their behavior is never logical.

And let's say a person gets upset over something and it should be a level three and they go to a level 10 well you know something's going on under the hood and you need to find out what is the problem. So there's a process of discovery and deliverance for that. First you see the symptoms, which are light lights on a dashboard. And then we need to understand what the root of the behavior is. Then we read, revisit that wound and bring healing into it by confessing it and asking Jesus to heal it. And we discover the lie. John 8:32 says the truth shall make you free. And when you discover the truth of something that begins the process of healing, you apply the truth to that situation. So the steps to freedom is this prayer. Identify the strong hole and their symptom and rank them from 1 to 10 and then you want to work with someone close to you to help you confirm those strong holes.

And then you want to confess a renounce the influence of strong holes in Jesus's name. Each believer has the power of the Holy spirit to renounce the influence of strong holes over their life. We have divine power to demolish strongholds. It says in second Corinthians 10, four and then we meditate and walk according to the word. Uh, we renew our minds. We began to change our behaviors. You know, any self-image, contrary to the truth of who God says you are in the spirit is a false self-image. You must agree with God, not with your flesh or the devil. You know, this reminds me of the, you know, the fact that we've been equipping leaders for the last 25 years on things like this. And I've been thinking about what we could do to help go deeper in a lot of these concepts.

And so we've decided to come out with something in the near future that's going to address things like this and other issues in people's lives as well as a marketplace initiatives. And if you're interested in being on our waiting list to know when that comes out, we set up a webpage called www.becomeGodschangeagent.com. If you go there and just enter your information there, we'll uh, make sure that you know about the program when it comes out. And we'll also give you a free download of a booklet there that I did on the 10 truths of success that I've, uh, documented over the last, uh, 20 years. The top 10 things that I have found to be the most influential in my life that perhaps would be helpful to you as well. Just for putting your name on that list. Go to www.becomeGodschangeagent.com.

You know, Paul’s sufferings, it says that five times I received the Jews the 40 lashes minus one three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was pelted with stones three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night in a day in the open sea and I've been constantly on the move. He says, I've been in danger from rivers in danger, from bandits, danger from fellow Jews, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city. And in the country dangerous. See danger from false believers. I'd labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep. I have known hunger and thirst and I've often gone without food. I've been cold and naked. That's Paul describing some of the experiences that he's had, but he never complains. He always see taps into the grace of God wherever he goes. Philippians two five says, let this mind be in you. That is also in Jesus Christ.

We need to have the mind of Christ. Uh, Philippians two five, whatever God sets you free from, he automatically gives you an anointing to set other people free from the same thing you were a victim of. That's your payback to the enemy. And know that if you go through something major and you get victory on that, God is gonna use that to create your anointing and the power to release others from that same thing. We want to transform our past into a new beginning. First. We need to realize our identities and then learn to contend with it and then to receive our inheritance. And so that's the process. And these are the things that we want to help you with. Facing our fears requires coming to a debt in our expectations and leaving outcome to God. And so we can't cookie cutter this. You know, I had my mentor once say a dead man can't have stress, you know?

And so if you get angry or upset about things, that means you're not dead yet. We can have strong emotions about things as long as we don't sin. And so that's the borderline severe adversity will reveal what we really believe about God. It reveals our deepest fears and beliefs about God. The bottom line is every in our lives is designed to give us an upgrade with God. If we'll press end to him with our whole horror, the greater revelation, greater power, greater character, and greater intimacy will be the result of that and a greater influence as well. So fear drives us to performance and to be slaves and orphans, but they encouraged, turns us into sons and daughters. And that's the difference between operating out of fear and operating in courage and faith. So I want to help you with this message by offering you a free download of a booklet I put together called www.adversityFAQ.com or, frequently asked questions.

So if you go to our webpage we set up just to download this resource. So if you'd like to receive this nine page ebook on adversity - frequently asked questions just go to www.adversityfaq.com that's www.adversityfaq.com and there you'll be able to download that resource at no charge. As we close out, I'd like to close us with a word of prayer. And then a final remark from myself. So father, we thank you for this day. We thank you Lord that you allow adversity at times to matures into sons and daughters, but you also equip us to fight the battle because we're in a war and Satan wants to steal, kill, and destroy from us. And so we ask for grace to be able to weather the storms and to persevere through them. And I pray for anybody going through adversity today that you'll minister to them through your word this day and help them navigate in Jesus name. Amen. So a final word. If you're listening to this on iTunes, uh, please, uh, give us a rating, uh, that helps others find us on iTunes and help others benefit from this teaching. If you accessed, uh, on YouTube and watching this program, please, uh, share your comments at the bottom and subscribe to our channel. That too helps us, uh, find more people who will find this message helpful. God bless. Have a great week. We'll see you next week.

Do you know the four attributes of a Christian in the workplace? Do you know why these attributes are key to you fulfilling your destiny as a follower of Christ at work? Well, stay tuned. We're going to answer that one. How do I bring my faith to work? How do I tap into the power of God in my work life? Why am I going through this adversity? Is God mad at me? I'm Os Hillman, and I've been helping leaders like you answer these questions and more for over 30 years. That's what this podcast is all about. Let's learn and grow together. Welcome to TGIF Today God Is First .Welcome to our podcast, we're going to talk about these four attributes of what it means to be a Christ follower in the workplace. You know, maybe you've never even thought about that idea. I hadn't until I was posed this question by the New York Times. And uh, so what came out of that was a real understanding and teaching about what it means to live for Christ in the workplace and what makes us different than a non-Christian. That's really the question that I was posed by the New York times. So, a few years ago I was asked when they were doing an article on Christians in the workplace-- imagine that-- the New York times doing an article on Christians in the workplace. Well, that's what they were doing. And they called me and asked me a question and then interviewed me three different times. They wanted to do a story on Christians in the workplace and so they called me a third time and asked me a very interesting question. They said, “OS we've got this article ready to go. But you know, several people just wanted to know what makes a Christian different than a non-Christian in the workplace? And I thought, well, that's a really good question. As I began to ponder that question, I felt like God showed me four key things. And that's what we're going to talk about today. So let's get right into our teaching. Today's podcast is entitled four attributes of Christ at work and why they're important to your destiny. Well as I mentioned to you, I had this interview from the New York times reporter. He had already interviewed me two times and he came back a third time and he says, “Our employees are wanting to know what defines a Christian in the workplace. And so as I began to ponder that and seek the Lord about that, I felt like God showed me four attributes of a Christian in the workplace.

The first attribute is found in Daniel one 20 it says that Daniel and his three friends did their work 10 times better than anyone else and I feel like excellence is first base. If you don't do your work with excellence, then you're not going to be considered by others and you're going to bring shame to the name of Christ in how you do your work. I think that Jesus probably was very excellent at making his tables and that's why you and I are to do our work with excellence. We find in the old Testament that Bezalel was the man who designed the ark of the covenant. It says that he was selected by Moses and that he had the spirit of God and did his work with skill, ability and knowledge, and all kinds of crafts to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver, and bronze, to cut and set stones to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship.

They are to make them just as I commanded you.

So we see there that in the Old Testament, God is instructing Moses to have Bezalel, you know, design it just the way he wanted it. He instructed him in how to perform the work. And so this is the first time we hear of anyone being filled with the spirit of God and it was a craftsmen. Proverbs 22:9 says, “Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before Kings. He will not stand before unknown man.” Proverbs 22 nine Leonardo DaVinci said, I have offended God and mankind because my work didn't reach the quality it should have. Oh my. What? A statement. That is. If DaVinci felt that way, what does that say about our work? Well, number two is integrity. In Psalm 51, David is lamenting about his sin with Bathsheba and he says, “God wants integrity.”

God desires truth in the inner parts. He wants that to be pure and Holy. And he says, you know we are to be the same person on the outside as we are on the inside. Are you the same person at home versus the person that is in the marketplace or are you different? And so it's important that we have integrity. You know, we all make mistakes, but one of the things I've discovered over the years is that whatever you uncover, God covers. You know, that's the grace of God in our lives. But what you cover, God uncovers. That means that if you try to hide something, the more you hide, the bigger the stakes go up. And we've seen that in politics and government and just see how people try to hide their sin. Proverbs 28:13 says, “He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.”

Sometimes your talent takes you beyond where your integrity can keep you. So the greater the success, the greater the integrity test. And if you don't have integrity now, you're not going to have it later. When you scale the mountain of success compromise will always lead to deceit. And if you live a life of compromise, you're going to find that your judgment is really weakening because you're living in deceit and compromise. When we live in compromise, we lose confidence in the faith dimension of our lives and we struggled to hear God's voice. It affects all parts of our life when we live a compromising life. Number three is servant leadership. In Matthew 27 Jesus says that whoever wants to be a great among them must be servant of all. And of course, Jesus was the servant of all. In that first miracle that Jesus did, it was the servants who saw the miracle of turning water into wine.

That's often the case. Those who are servants, they are up front and close to what God is doing and they get the opportunity to see what God is doing. Number four is miracles. Acts chapter five says that the disciples did many miraculous signs in the public Colonnade where the people could see them. And that's a very important one. You know, the truth is that there are many non-Christians that do one, two, and three better than Christians that I know, but the fourth one is one is not going to be done by non-believers. And so it's important that we live a life of excellence and integrity and servant leadership and miracles. And so I want to encourage you with that to take an inventory of your life and determine whether God is pleased with where you are in these four areas.

I want to mention about something new coming up that you're going to want to know about. Over the last few years I've been pondering about how we can we best serve men and women in the marketplace. And, you know, we've done teaching programs and we've done various things, but what could we do that would really satisfy the needs of men and women who were desiring to live for Christ in the marketplace and be successful in their business enterprise? And so we're going to be sharing something with you soon about this. If you want to be on the waiting list to be informed about this when it comes out, please go to our website, www.becomeGodschange agent.com and there you will get a free download of My Top 10 Biblical Truths for Succeeding in Life and Work, a free gift to you just for going there and signing up on our waiting list.

We'll be sharing about this in the days ahead, but we're not ready to share quite yet.

So let's keep going in the teaching and talk about the five dimensions of faith works. You know, Esau, represented the flesh life. He despised his own birthright for porridge. And he allowed his brother Jacob to get the birthright by tricking him. And it became a real conflict between these two brothers. But he represents the “Egypt” life. Egypt is always symbolic of the flesh, the carnal life. It's the world system. If you yield to sweat and toil for outcomes, it's really the life of sin. Then there is the principle-based religion where you use a 10-step program or such, you know, tools that can help us become better and change behavior. There's a place for that because we need to change behavior sometimes like the AA 12 step program that has been very helpful for those who have been alcoholics.

But that's not where God wants us to remain. He wants us to really go to another level. And sometimes getting to that level means that we have to go through our Joseph pit and that requires character development. And sometimes the pit is the very thing that's needed for us to come to the end of ourselves, to really fully live for Christ through our life. And that's going to lead us into a Spirit-led life. Romans 8:14 talks about that “those who are sons of God are led by the Spirit of God.” We're directed by the Holy spirit, and our relationship with God. And then there's Moses who was told by God that He wanted to relate to him in a different way. He told him to speak to the rock instead of striking the rock, which he had done so often before.

And so he was teaching him about the keys of the kingdom in Matthew. It talks about when Jesus told the disciples he was about to leave, he says, “I'm going to give you the keys of the kingdom to bind on earth and bind in heaven and loose on earth and loosen heaven.” And so this was a change. This meant that they were going to have delegated authority from Jesus to represent his interest on earth, to bring heaven on earth. And that's what the Lord's prayer is all about, to bring heaven on earth. So now he is speaking to Moses and says, “Instead of striking the rock, I want you to speak to the rock.” And so here the spoken word was being used for authority by Moses. The only problem was that Moses was really angry at the people for complaining about needing the water to drink was, which was a legitimate need they had.

But he happened to have a bad day that day. And he decided that he would strike the rock instead of speak to the rock. Well, God honored him anyway because the people still needed the water. But it was at a great cost. Moses was not allowed to enter the promised land because of his disobedience. But the principle is still there, that God wants us to move in a new dimension with him in the marketplace. And this is what he did. It says there in Zechariah 4:6 “This is the word of the Lord, not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord almighty.” So when God spoke to him at the burning bush that very first time he came to Moses and said, “Moses, what's that in your hand?” Moses responded to God and said, “Lord, you know it's my staff.”

God turned to him and said, “I'm going to perform miracles through that staff.” But first he told him to put that staff on the ground and when he put it on the ground turned into a snake. And then when he told him to pick up the staff by the tail. You know, you never pick a snake up by the tail because he could bite you. But God told him to do it that way. And he did. And he turned it back into a staff. And that was a prophetic picture of Moses taking authority over the serpent. And in the scriptures, the serpent is always represented as the devil. And so, it says later on in the scripture that when he picked up that staff, that staff became the staff of God, not Moses’s staff.

And so he was becoming a steward of the staff. And so then God says to him, “I'm going to perform miracles through your staff. Take this staff in your hand so you can perform miraculous signs with it.” And that's exactly what God did. He made Moses a deliverer of the people to give them freedom to come out of the bondage that they were in. And this is a prophetic picture of men and women in the marketplace that we are called to use our workplace staffs to be deliverers for people to bring them out of bondage, to bring the Gospel into the marketplace. And that's what you're called to do. You're called to bring the gospel in the marketplace and to rub shoulders and to solve problems and become a person that performs miracles in your workplace. We need to understand our spiritual authority in our work life call.

I mentioned to you that the keys of the kingdom are talked about in Matthew 16:19. And then in Mark 11:23, Jesus tells the disciples to speak to the mountain. There are times where you need to speak to your mountain. And so I want to encourage you to think about that as you go into your daily work and consider that God has called you to use the authority that God has given you and to model those four attributes. And so you have a personal brand in the marketplace and people know you buy that brand. You know, I often talk about perception versus reality. You know, sometimes perception is reality. Sometimes it isn't. So what message do you communicate? What perception of you do people have? Are you late or are you on time for meetings?

Do you pay bills on time? Do you return calls when you say you will? And do you serve others? Do you live a life of integrity? Are you a generous person or are you a workaholic? Is that what your family thinks about you? That you're always working and not caring for their needs? Or are you a joyful person or do you go around, you know, with a chip on your shoulder? Are you a controlling person or a person who serves others and delegates to others? Do you serve God? Are you disorganized? You know, all these things can define us. They can make us into our brand. And I went encourage you that you take a look at each one of those things so that you are modeling Christ characteristics in you. Psalm 15 is a Psalm that I call the marketplace. Psalm Oh Lord, who may abide in your tabernacle, who may dwell in your Holy Hill.

He who walks up rightly and walk and works righteousness and speaks the truth in his heart. He who does not backbite with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor does he take up a reproach against his friend. I encourage you to meditate on the entire Psalm 15 it's a great example of, uh, giving us the character that we want to model in the marketplace. So let's look at the three phase obedience cycle. I believe that there are three phases that most of us go through. The first one is a convenience phase, and if you're a business owner, that's best represented as my business, my way. It's really living as an orphan instead of a son. You haven't really understood the nature of God in your life. And then there's the crisis stage and that's best represented as my business his way. It's a place where obedience is motivated by a crisis.

You know, it's the old thing where you get in a foxhole and you're willing to do anything to get out of it in a battle. God allows you to stay there until you're willing to be obedient. But here we want to move past that. We want to get to a place of conviction where it's best represented as his business, his way and his business his way. And that's intimacy with God and that's best representing us as sons and daughters of our heavenly father. And so take a look at that and see where you are. What best represents you in this diagram. Is it my business, my way? Isn't my business his way or am I living a life that expresses his business his way? Am I living as a son or daughter? In conclusion, Ephesians two tins as we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

So, I hope that you'll be encouraged to live out those four attributes in your own journey. And check out our website, become God's change agent.com to get on the waiting list for some exciting things that are coming down the pike and also get your free download on my booklet, My 10 Top Biblical Truths for Success in Life and Work. I think you'll be encouraged as you download this resource. So take care and we'll see you next week in our next podcast. God bless.

Visit our website to be on our waiting list for our upcoming program.

www.BecomeGodsChangeAgent.com

Hey guys. Are you going through adversity or anxiety or fear or depression right now? If so, stay tuned because this session is for you.

How do I bring my faith to work? How do I tap into the power of God in my work life call? Why am I going through this adversity? Is God mad at me? I'm Os Hillman and I've been helping leaders like you answer these questions and more for over 30 years. That's what this podcast is all about. Let's learn and grow together. Welcome to TGIF Today God is First.

And welcome to our podcast this week. You know today we're going to be talking about adversity and overcoming hindrances to our life. And it's a topic that I teach a lot about because I went through some major adversities back in 1994 that really changed my life. And so if you find yourself in that place, this session is for you. You know, I've been teaching this session overcoming hindrances to fulfill your destiny for many years. Because I feel like I'm an authority on this topic. And so today's session is a teaching that I did a few weeks ago for a nightly meeting that I did on overcoming hindrances. And you know, it's really tied to what I went through in 1994, where I had major losses in my life. I lost over a half a million dollars. I had my wife leave me after going through extensive counseling. I had 80% of my business disappear within a few weeks when a client stuck me for $140,000. And then my vice president left me and took my second largest account in my ad agency. And this ushered me into a seven year season of adversity. And man I thought life was over.

But you know, two years into that adversity I met Gunnar Olson, the founder of the International Christian Chamber of Commerce. And in our first meeting, he listened to my story and he said, "Os, you have a Joseph calling on your life." And I said, "What is a Joseph calling?" And so he explained it to me. And that would ultimately lead to a relationship that's been over 25 years now. I just talked with him last week and he's been a spiritual mentor to me and father in the marketplace for me. And so this session will help you understand some of the dynamics that we can go through that can hinder us from fulfilling our destiny. And over that time, here now over almost 30 years, I've discovered many of the things that cause my adversity and now I'm able to help many others. So I hope that you'll find this session helpful to you. So let's go ahead and begin the teaching.

I was teaching in Scotland a number of years ago, and someone came up to me after going through this session that I'm about to share with you and said, "I just realized something. You must become a free agent before you can become a change agent." And I said, "Well, that's very true. Both God and Satan want you dead but each for different reasons." In second Corinthians four, Paul says, "For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus's sake that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh so then death is working in us but life in you." And then we see in first Peter five, "Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour." And so Satan wants to kill your destiny. I once heard a mentor of mine say, "Dead men can't have stress." And I said, "Well, that's kind of obvious isn't it. If he can't get out of the coffin he's certainly not going to have stress." In Romans six, it says, "Likewise you also recon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus." I once had a mentor say to me, "The only thing wrong with you Os is that you're not dead yet. As soon as you let your flesh die, you will be free. So I suggest you die quietly."

What happens at spiritual birth? Well, we all know that our human existence is made up of spirit, soul, and body. And when we become born again, our spirits instantly become 100% holy by the power of the holy spirit and God's work in our life. But our mind and will and emotions, which reside in our soul, they don't get redeemed completely in the sense that we don't change immediately. It's a process of sanctification. And that sanctification will go on until we die. And then of course we have the physical body. But we relate to God through our spirit. First Thessalonians 5:23 says, "Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of the lord Jesus Christ." So that's where we get spirit, soul, and body. "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly realms. We live in a war zone, and the prize that Satan wants is our heart."

You know, years ago I read the fictional story of Screwtape by C.S. Lewis. One of his great works. It's about a demon coaching an underling demon. And he says to that demon, "I wonder if you should ask me whether it is a essential to keep the patient in ignorance of your own existence. That question at least for the present phase of the struggle has been answered for us by the high command. Our policy for the moment is to conceal ourselves." C.S. Lewis once said, "There are two mistakes the church makes when dealing with the devil. To blame everything on him or to blame nothing on him." Here's an amazing statistic. 24% of the general population believe that Satan is real and 52% of Christians believe Satan is real, which means 48% of them don't believe he's real. When you're deceived you don't know you are deceived. Satan's strategy is to kill. Jesus and the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth to devour her child as soon as it was born. So Satan tried to kill Jesus at birth.

Now what are Satan's three greatest lies to human beings? These are common to every person. Every one of us have been tempted by these statements. You are powerless over your circumstances. You are a victim of an unjust God who left you here to suffer. Just think about it. Have you ever thought those thoughts, that you're powerless over your circumstances or that you're a victim of an unjust God who doesn't love you, who left you hear to suffer and deal with this stuff all by yourself? If you're honest, you've probably felt that way at one time or another. We blame God for evil. In Mark 14:27 it says, "Jesus told him, 'You're all going to feel that your world is falling apart and it's my fault.'" He was saying that to the disciples. The story of your life is a story of the long and brutal assault on your heart by the one who knows what you could become and he fears it. That is the one thing Satan fears is that you're going to really know the truth because the truth shall make you free. "For I am poor and needy and my heart is wounded within me," said the psalmist in psalm 109.

You see, Satan, that word Satan means opposer. And some of the characteristics of Satan are found throughout the scripture. He's an angel of light, he seeks to kill and destroy, he's an accuser. He deceives and lies. He wars against those who obey. He's a lion, a devourer to kill. He blinds unbelievers. So we need to know our enemy and how he works against us. Finally, be strong in the lord and his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil and the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground and after you've done everything to stand. For this purpose the sun of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. You see, that was another reason Jesus came to earth, was to destroy the works of the devil.

You know I'm often asked by people about why do we go through adversity? And I believe there are four core reasons we will go through adversity. The first one is a consequence of the call. Joseph went through his adversity because of a consequence of the call. It wasn't because of any sin that he did. He was a typical teenage boy that might have been a little bit narcissistic. But it wasn't because of a major sin. And God used that to save an entire people. The second reason we can go through adversity is sin. Gehazi sinned against his employer Elisha, and as a result he was struck with leprosy because he wanted to get money from the general that was healed by Elisha. And so God judged his sin and if we have any open doors in our life then God will judge those sins. A third reason we can go through is sonship. And sonship means that God's going to treat us as sons and daughters, which means there are times that he needs to reprove us and to really correct us in order that we fulfill the purpose and destiny has over our life.

A fourth reason we can go through adversity is spiritual warfare. As I've said earlier, John 10:10 says, "Satan wants to steal, kill and destroy from your life. But Jesus wants to give you life." And so there's a war on earth vying for our heart. And so our job is to understand what reason we might be going through adversity and it could be a combination of these. But ask the lord and show him, what is the root. Now Jesus had no sin in his life and when he said this verse out of John 14, it references the fact that he had no sin so he would never go through adversity because of sin. He says to the disciples, "Hereafter, I'll not talk much with you for the prince of this world cometh and that nothing in me." Basically that says, there's nothing in him that he has a right to. There was no sin. There was no open door in his life. He had no entry to Jesus's life due to his sinless life. Now, therefore my primary hindrance is to becoming a Christian who transforms your workplace. And I've talked about this in the past and that is an un-biblical view of work in ministry. We need to understand the holy calling that is upon us. Colossians 3:23 says, "Whatever you do, do unto the lord. It's the lord Christ you are serving."

And then there's a Greek versus Hebraic view of God. If we fall to the Greek influence in our relationship with God, that can hinder us and then the religious sprit and generational strongholds. And we're going to talk about the ladder three of these hindrances tonight. I've talked over the years about this sacred secular and this dichotomy of calling. If there's one statement I hate hearing it's, I'm in full-time ministry. Well, we're all in full-time ministry. We just get our checks different places. And that's not a higher calling. We need to define our ministry as anything that we're doing that's not against the will of God as a holy calling. So whatever you do, do unto the lord. It tells us in Colossians 3:23. Hindrance number two deals more with the influence of the Greek philosophers versus the Hebraic roots. There's a prophetic verse in Zechariah 9:13, "For I have bent Judah my bow, fitted the bow with Ephraim and raised up your sons, O Zion, against your sons. O Greece made you like the sword of a mighty man." And so this is a prophetic verse about the conflict between the Hebraic heart set versus the Greek mindset. Hebraic deals with the heart and it's active and appeals to the heart. Whereas the Greek mindset is more cognitive and appeals to the intellect.

The Greek philosophers understood the difference between Greek and Hebraic roots. So you see Greeks acquired wisdom by reason and analysis and Hebrews acquired wisdom by obedience. Psalm 111:10 says, "The fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom in the early church." Understood that knowledge was not what changed the world. It was the power of God working through people. Paul said, "My message in my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the spirit's power so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power." Paul wrote that explaining that the reason he was so effective was it had nothing to do with his knowledge and his persuasive oratory skills, but it was because of the power of God working though him. Now there's two systems that you and I could be relating to God through and one of them would be the Hebraic system. And the Hebraic system is a process focus. Obedience is a priority and relationships are a priority and this yields transparency and love. And it produces mature believers. Whereas the Greek mindset is more cognitive and has more of a program focus. Information is a priority with controlled groups and this ends up being more service and activity based in our relationship toward God. And this ultimately produces shallow believers.

Another hindrance is the religious spirit. See, Peter Wagner wrote, Freedom From the Religious Spirit. And in that book he defines the religious spirit as an agent of Satan assigned to prevent change and maintain the status quo by using religious devices. And of course that's what Jesus ran into in his ministry was the Pharisees. And that's what made him the angriest. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You give a tenth of your spices, mint, dill, and cumin, but you have neglected the more important matters of the law. Justice, mercy, and faithfulness."

So the spirit of religion says I must do something to be acceptable by God. It puts people under the yoke of bondage and legalism. Religion divides us into sacred secular mentality. And religion says only overt spiritual activity is acceptable to God. If you remember the chariots of fire, the runner from Scotland, Eric Little. He told his sister, "When I run, I feel his pleasure." Well his sister thought running was a secular idea and he needed to be on the mission field. But in reality Eric was a more spiritual person. Another spirit of religion comment would be bible study at work is not necessary. I go to church on Sunday. That would be a statement that comes from a religious spirit. Why do I need to participate in a kingdom initiative like that? Religion versus relationship looks like this. I had this vision of this diagram years ago that I had an illustrator make up. And so many of us have grown up thinking that well if I do all these things on the right, prayer and devotions and church attendance and bible study and giving money and witnessing and perform and be a church volunteer, then I'll earn God's love and acceptance and favor.

But the truth is it's the exact opposite. When we love God, and when we know and understand the acceptance of God, and know his favor, the byproduct of that is that we want to engage in prayer, we want to do devotions, we want to study our bible, we want to be witnesses as salt and light to our community. These become byproducts of a healthy relationship with God. The religious spirit motivates believers to live out their faith in legalistic and rigid ways. And this is especially evident in the south.

Now let's spend the balance of our time talking about spiritual warfare strongholds and childhood wounds. I want you to meet John tonight. He had a need for recognition from performance. Things like civic projects and sports and business success. He had an emphasis on building financial security and so he became a workaholic. He lacked emotional intimacy in his marriage and with other people, and he had an activity based relationship towards God very Greek based. And he exhibited symptoms of over controlling people and circumstances. Well, that person was me. I came out of a family of three generations of business owners and our generation stronghold was insecurity and fear that resulted in motivations to control people and circumstances around us. And the bible says in second Corinthians 10:5, "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."

So a stronghold can come into our lives because we have a need and we don't understand how to meet that need without allowing ourselves to be opened up to a stronghold. The opposite of stronghold is exhibited in Ephesians 3:17. "And I pray that you being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." So you and I were created with seven basic needs. We have a need for dignity and authority, for blessing, and for vision and security, for purpose and meaning and freedom and boundaries, and intimate love and companionship. These are seen in Genesis one and two. They're not listed like this, but they're evidenced in how God related to Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were born with all of these needs and God met those needs for them.

But whenever we seek to meet one or more of these basic needs outside God, we have set the stage for the development of a generational stronghold. Satan convinced Eve to believe God was holding out on her and he would not meet her needs so she chose to meet her own need. Let's look at some examples of generational strongholds. We see deceit and lying in Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We see control with Laban, Rebecca, Jacob, and King Saul. We see a sexual stronghold in David, Rahab, Bathsheba, Absalom, Abner, and Solomon. In fact, it would be a pretty good bet that David was probably an illegitimate son. You see, he says in Psalm 51 that I was conceived in iniquity. And then when you look at the fact that his father didn't even consider him when the prophet Samuel came to look at his sons as potential candidates to be the next king. We can surmise from that that perhaps David, not only was he the littlest and smallest, maybe that he was conceived in iniquity.

Well, I learned more about this stronghold concept when a mentor of mine who created this workbook that we later published for him. He said, "There's no problem with you Os. You just have a stronghold of insecurity and fear." And I said, "You can't prove that." And he says, "Oh, I think I can." And so, he had me take this little self-assessment tool and rank each one of these symptoms from one to 10 and then added the total and took the average. So that, as you can see in the example on the top right, deceit ... The attributes were six, two, one, nine, and seven for different characteristics. You add those numbers up and divide by six, or five I guess it is, you get the average number of five. So you would do that with each one of these strongholds. So when I did it, I did control, and I would rank those and that became the highest one. And then fear and insecurity, that also was a high one at the time.

So he took me through a process of prayer and confession in order to deal with those strongholds. We eventually published a book about this, a workbook called Demolishing Strongholds. We only had the PDF version of that online. But you can find it on our website at tgifbookstore.com. It's a wonderful resource and I've used it to counsel many people over the years. So spiritual strongholds work at the subconscious level. Their influence is often unseen until there is a problem. Strongholds are designed to keep us from experiencing God's love and they're often generational as I have said. All strongholds that are built in our lives are a result of seeking to meet one or more of these needs apart from God's will for us.

So here's how a stronghold develops. Satan inspires a thought into my mind subconsciously. We're not even conscious of it. Which appeals to my natural tendencies to meet needs. We entertain these thoughts and it brings on emotions. And then we give in to emotions and this eventually leads to some sort of action. And continual participation in this behavior causes me to develop a habit. And once a habit's developed a stronghold is built by that spirit. Now, strongholds oppress versus possess. They control, dictate, and influence our attitudes and behavior. Remember when Jesus was speaking to Peter. He said, "Peter, Satan has wanted to sift you." And he was telling him that Satan was impacting his thought life. So strongholds oppress and discourage us and affect how we view or react to situations, circumstances, or people.

I was once in Singapore and a woman came up to me after I'd spoken on this topic and she said, "Oh, would you go to lunch with me and my friend?" And I had lunch available so I went with them and she was very, very aggressive and I could see some things that were coming through her that I picked up on. So when we were at lunch I said, "Tell me about your father. What kind of relationship do you have with your father?" And she said, "Well, why in the world would you want to ask me that? I don't want to talk about that. I want to talk about something else." And I said, "Well just humor me. Just tell me how your relationship is with your dad." And she said, "Oh, it's not good. He says I'll never amount to anything and he says I'm fat and he just doesn't have good things to say about me." And I said, "Well, you have a spirit of rejection over your life and part of the reason that you're very, very aggressive is because you're seeking to get approval and you have to be successful at all costs because one of the vows that you've made is that you're going to prove your value to your father by being successful. And so you're a slave to what your father has said about you. So you need to pray. We need to break that over you."

And we did. She began to cry as I began to share that with her. And we broke that over her that day at lunch and her whole countenance changed. I also believe that strongholds are a lot like wearing sunglasses. Let's say that you're born with sunglasses on and you go through life wearing those sunglasses and one day it's cloudy and a man says, "Did you know that if you took those sunglasses off you'd be able to see much clearer?" And so you take those sunglasses off and you say, "Oh my gosh, look how bright it is out here." Well that's the way strongholds are. You don't really know that you're operating in that until symptoms begin to show up. So what we need to do is understand where the entry points of those strongholds came in. And one of the resources that we found helpful in addition to our book on demolishing strongholds is a book called Operating In the Courts of Heaven, by Robert Henderson. This book is a great book to help you understand how the devil operates from a legal basis and how we need to do business in heaven at the legal court in heaven as he is our defender.

Now, we need to look at the role shame plays in our life. Shame says I am a failure or a mistake, whereas guilt says I made a mistake, but I am not a mistake. We need to understand the difference and walk in Godly guilt versus shame. But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every good man's conscience in the sight of God.

So I want to pause for a moment and say that if you have any questions or comments, please enter them in the chat area or the Q&A area. Just tell me what you think. Tell me what God's speaking to you about this area in your life. And if you have any questions I'd love to take those.

I want to spend the last few minutes talking about arrested development. And this is out of a book called Broken Children, Grown Up Pain, by Dr. Paul Hegstrom. Dr. Hegstrom passed away last year. He was a good friend of mine. And I actually went through counseling with him years ago. He says, "When a wounded childhood frees his emotional maturity to within two years of a wound, the adult lives as a child emotionally." That's what it means to be arrested in your development. In other words, somebody might say, "Well he's acting like a child." Well, that might be really true. Because your emotional state in life, even as an adult, you might be living as a 12 year old emotionally because you had a trauma happen in your life that froze you emotionally. So we need to understand that arrested development is caused by the wounds of childhood and amplifies or magnifies our sin nature. The deeper the wounds, the more we act selfishly and childishly. And when we have too much childhood trauma, we're hindered in our ability to develop genuine healthy relationships with our creator and others close to us.

We can't readily reach out or accept others because our wounds have made us unteachable. Unable to trust and afraid of truth. Now I believe that Michael Jackson was arrested in his development. Many people felt that there was a sexual issue with him because he liked to hang out with kids. I think that he was arrested in his development and was probably emotionally around a 12 or 13 year old because his father beat him growing up when he didn't sing songs the way he thought he should sing them. And so he had some deep wounds.

We also need to realize that when we are impacted from arrested development we can become a false self and we can be a poser in our way we handle ourselves and try to be somebody that we're not. So we seek to hide from our true self because our shame says we will not be acceptable to others as we are. We are driven to hide behind our fig leaf, our false self or false covering that protects us from our true self. This all happens on a subconscious basis as a built in protection mechanism from wounds we received as a child. You know, the movie Groundhog Day is a good example of this where he learns something about him every time he goes through a 24 hour period. And as he goes through each one of those 24 hour periods he changed one aspect of his behavior to get a different outcome. And that's kind of like what we're talking about with our false self and poser.

Hegstrom says 90% of our marital difficulties are rooted in a trauma experienced by one or more spouses between the age of five and nine. Arrested development sabotages the heart's good intentions and turns us into a spiritual hypocrite. We all require others to live by the rules we were required to live by in childhood. What does that mean? Well, let's say that you're in a situation that, let's say you're a business owner. And you see people that are just totally inept around you and you really lose your patience because you've been trained to do things with excellence and you've been trained to have high performance. So when you don't see that in others, you get angry. Your expectations are not being met. So you're living by a rule that you were required to live by in your life. And this can show up in a lot of different ways. In perfectionism, impatience, and shame. Competence becomes our method of dealing with a wounded heart. So we can hide behind our competence and compensate for our own pain through our competence.

John Eldridge said his plan from the beginning was to assault the heart, just as the wicked witch did to the tin woodman. Make them so busy they ignore the heart and wound them so deeply they don't want a heart. Twist their theology so they despise the heart. Take away their courage, destroy their creativity. Make intimacy with God impossible for them. Of course your heart would be the object of a great and fierce battle. It's your most precious possession. Without your heart you cannot have God. Without your heart you cannot have love. Without your heart you cannot have faith. Without your heart you cannot find the work you were meant to do. In other words, without your heart you cannot have life. "He delivers the afflicted in their affliction and opens their ears to his voice in adversity," says Job. God forces us back into or wound to learn the truth about our wound in order to become healed and free.

It says that Satan is an accuser. "Now salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of Christ have come for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down." So what voice are you listening to when you hear something in your head that accuses you? Are you listening to that accuser? Whenever we grant anyone other than Jesus Christ authority to tell us who we are, we've made that person a god in our life and entered into idolatry. Let's say that you grew up with a parent that said you're never going to amount to anything, or you're not good at this or that, and you were criticized. You were even shamed. Well, you've got to correct that identity and not believe that identity because that's not what God says about you. You need to believe what God says about you.

Let's talk for a moment about addictions. Addictions are anything you cannot willingly stop. Addictions are rooted in the need to be loved. And anything you cannot lay down by an act of your will is an addiction. It's a counterfeit desire for love and intimacy. It becomes an isolation chamber designed to mask our pain. In the brain we have something called a neurotransmitter. It emits two feel good hormones. Serotonin and dopamine. Negative or painful emotion causes the under secretion of serotonin. And that's where Satan comes into our hypothalamus and the brain stem connection. And this is where we drop in serotonin. But if we start looking at pornography or we do something that makes us feel good, it helps to bring our serotonin back. It gives us a high. And that is what leads to addictive behavior. The neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin act as chemical messengers that relay nerve signals through the brain. Dopamine regulates muscle movement, motivation, and the sensation of pleasure. Whereas serotonin primarily affects mood, impulsiveness, and social behaviors.

My good friend Craig Hill wrote a small book that talks about the lies of an addiction. Anyone caught in addiction believes that God is not faithful and that the addictive habit will satisfy their addiction. They believe the habit is stronger than the power of God and that addiction is just the way you are. So they're all lies. They're false beliefs, if you will, that Satan plants into our life. Now, men who struggle with sex. Sometimes if a man was not nurtured growing up, he can be a sexualized adult. In other words, he may not necessarily be a sex addict, but he's an affection addict. So sex becomes that affection for him and he'll often look to the wife to get what they did not get in childhood. Maybe they didn't get touched much in childhood. Or hugs. They lack touch. And they came to know sex as love. And the unfortunate thing is the wife can never satisfy that hunger for live if that root issue is not dealt with. And you might even hear the wife say, "You're a sex addict," when he might not necessarily be a sex addict. It might be a basic need that was never met as a child.

When we live in compromise we lose confidence in the faith dimension of our lives. We struggle to hear the voice of God, which forces us to live our Christian life through performance and the flesh. In Psalm 106 he says, "And he gave them their requests but sent leanness in their soul."

Hey guys. I want to pause for a minute to tell you about something that just give you a heads up on. For the last many years we've been helping men and women like yourself understand what it means to live the larger story of your life. So my gift is really in teaching and I love encouraging believers to fulfill their purpose and destiny. So we've been thinking about a new initiative that could really help people and so we're getting close to announcing it, but we're not there yet. But if you want to know about that and be one of the first ones to know about it when we do release it, you can get on our waiting list. And we've set up a webpage just for that called becomegodschangeagent.com. Becomegodschangeagent.com. In addition, we provide a free download for you if you go on there and put your name on the waiting list. It's called Os Hillman's Top 10 Biblical Truths For Success In Life and Work. These are 10 areas that I believe contributed to my own journey with God and business. And I hope that this resource will be helpful to you. There's no cost. Just go to that. But you don't need to go there now. We'll make an announcement at the end of this as well so that you have that website address at your fingertips. Let's go back to the teaching and we'll talk about this later. God bless.

So we overcome the influence of these strongholds by renouncing and repenting of their influence through the prayer of faith and Jesus's blood to cleanse us from these influences. Now whenever the reaction to a situation seems to be extreme compared to the offense, you can know there is unresolved pain or the enemy is at work in the situation. So if somebody gives you a response that is a 10, that should be a two on the Richter scale, you know that something is going on under the hood. That their behavior is not logical. So it merely indicates there is a root problem. It's like a dashboard and the lights on the dash coming on. What's the root of this behavior? So you need to revisit the wound. Identify the events, and then renounce it and ask God to bring healing to that area.

Discover the lie. What agreement have you been making with the enemy? And apply the truth. The truth shall make you free. So the steps of freedom from a stronghold is one, identify the strongholds and their symptoms. Rank them from one to 10 by the level of influence they have. And work with someone close to you to confirm the strongholds and confess to renounce the influence of strongholds in Jesus's name. Each believer has the power of the holy spirit to renounce the influence of strongholds over their life as shown in second Corinthians 10:4. We have the divine power to demolish strongholds. And then you want to meditate and walk according to the word and renew your mind. One of the things I had to deal with, I was a workaholic. But it was rooted in fear. So I had to change the number of hours I was working because I was working out of fear.

Any self-image contrary to the truth of who God says you are in the spirit is a false self-image. You must agree with God, not with your flesh or the devil. Who said that? That's what you need to ask every time something comes into your head that might be contrary to your identity. "Let this mind be in you. It is also in Jesus Christ." Philippians 2:5. So whatever God sets you free from this and automatically gives you an anointing to set other people free from the same thing you were a victim of. That is your payback on the enemy. For I the lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me.

Take a look at this. This is a fascinating comparison of two families over a 200 year generation. Max Jutes was married to an atheist woman. They had 560 descendants, 310 died as paupers, 150 criminals, seven murderers, 100 drunkards, one half of the women were prostitutes. It cost the US government 1.2 million in 19th century dollars. But Jonathan Edwards, a preacher, married a godly woman. They had 1,394 descendants, 295 graduated from college, three state governors, 13 college presidents, 65 professors, three US senators, 30 judges, 100 lawyers, 56 doctors, 75 military officers, 100 missionaries, preachers, and authors, and 80 held public office, three mayors, and one comptroller of the US. Don't tell me the gospel doesn't make a huge difference in family systems. So you need to transform your past into a new beginning. You need to realize your identity and learn to contend for it.

All right, well that concludes our session for today. I hope that it was helpful and encouraging to you. If you want to go deeper in this topic, I have developed a book called Overcoming Hindrances to Fulfill Your Destiny. It has a lot more information in it and more teaching in this resource. It's only about 100 pages and you can get it off of our website at tgifbookstore.com.

Earlier I mentioned about this new program that we're going to be launching soon, but we're not ready to announce it yet. But if you do want to know about it, just get on our waiting list and you'll be the first to be notified. You can go to our website, becomegodschangeagent.com. Becomegodschangeagent.com. And that will have your name on our waiting list and you'll be the first one to be notified. And you'll also receive a free resource called My Top 10 Biblical Truths for Succeeding in Life and Work. And this was a resource that I put together recently that were the top 10 things that I felt were the most important in my journey to be able to be successful in business and in ministry. So I hope that that will be of help to you. Just click on the website listed on the screen there.

So we look forward to seeing you in the next session. We're doing weekly podcasts now. We've set up this on our YouTube page and also iTunes. If you just want to listen to the sessions you can listen to them on iTunes as well as YouTube at the TGIF At Work podcast. God bless. See you next time.

A few years ago Todd Smith had a vision of fire hovering over his baptismal pool in his church sanctuary. Little would he realize what God was about to do. Hear his inspiring story of miracles happening in this church in Dawsonville, Georgia.