Andy Jenkins: Recent Episodes
Andy Jenkins
Grace does something TO you, so that the Spirit can then move powerfully THROUGH you. The Overflow Podcast encourages, equips, and empowers you to experience the presence and power of the Kingdom... now.
One day I received a Zoom request for a meeting. It was from Carol.
Carol is from Kenya. Turns out, he found my book (from an Advance event) in a thrift store in my hometown...
“I followed the link listed in the front of the book. There, I saw the videos were free— entire workshops… free.”
He reached out to his friend Philip, who still lives in Kenya.
Philip registered for the free course and watched the entire workshop overnight.
“Finish it,” he told Carol. “It’s really good. Finish it.”
They did— and that’s when they reached out…
In this talk I continue reflecting on what I'm learning from the #75Hard Challenge. WIth just two days to go...
(See the previous talk for lessons 1-5)
#6 = You don’t always “feel like it.”
Sometimes the motivation to do it comes in the actual doing…
Sounds odd, I know. We often think we NEED to get motivated first, and then we can step it up, get going, etc…
Then there’s this…
C.S. Lewis, the famed author of the Chronicles of Narnia said that even when he didn’t feel like praying, he just knelt and prayed…
… it was in those times, he wrote, that the supernatural kicked in, God showed up, and he most felt like it…
We often wait to feel it— anything— before we move, don’t we…?
I’ve learned… some of my best workouts (a la in the #GarageFit gym here at the #Hilltop) happen on those days I don’t actually WANT to get up and get moving…
Then, I rationalize…
What else am I gonna do with the next bit of time? Just lay here in the bed…?
Nah…
So I get up, and get moving…
And those are the days that seem to be the best day.
Can’t explain it, it just works…
Then there are the days I don’t feel like writing, but I do…
Or I don’t feel like having that convo, but we step in and push anyway….
And the days I don’t feel like…
… ah, you know what I’m saying.
Sure, sometimes we’re motivated. And that’s great.
But many times… some of the best things happen when we’re not. And we just show up and step into it anyway.
Because a lot of time the motivation to do the thing comes in the actual doing…
🚌🚌🚌
#7 Propensity = to “do it now”
Two workouts a day is a lot.
So is reading 10 pages a day— on top of everything else going on.
And so is drinking the water…
After a few days, I realized that if I put anything off, I was just wasting valuable time that I could be using to DO THE THING that I was going to END UP DOING ANYWAY… just a few moments down the line.
So, I would tell myself, “There’s nothing to do but do it…”
Besides, hitting the snooze button in the morning feels good for a moment— but I’m not better rested 10 or 20 minutes later than I was the first time the alarm went off…
I carried this mentality to other things, too.
I realized that many times I would punt a phone call off one day (in my day-timer) to another day. Mind you, it wasn’t a hard call to make— not difficult conversation involved. It was just, well, I was “mentally tired.”
Turns out, I discovered I spend MORE time writing and rewriting my “to do” list (inking the call or email or task to the next day) than it would require to just DO THE THING!
So, I began developing a “take action now” mindset. Here’s what I mean:
👉 If the task requires less time to do than to write down (i.e., reply to the email, text message, etc.), I just do it right then.
👉 if I’ve already bumped it a few times, I ask myself WHY— and evaluate it if actually needs to be done. No sense in postponing something that could be done NOW, nor putting off something that could just be permanently erased.
#8 = Not just what you give, but what you get…
This one sounds odd, so let me flesh it out a bit…
The #75Hard challenge— and any exercise / personal development process— becomes more about what you GET than what you GIVE..
I get it. A lot of us are busy. And we don’t know when / where / how we’d fit anything else in…
I (generally) wake up around 5:30- 6:00am, take time to exercise, then read, then write… all on my own…
… that 2-hour (or more) window always seems “selfish” when I’ve got a lot going on…
But…
I realize that—
🚀 if I don’t take that time, it just evaporates. It’s not like I use it on anything else…
🚀 What happens in that time radically affects everything else— and everyone else— in my small world.
🚌🚌🚌🚌🚌
And that leads me into the next observation…
#9 = The morning routine sets up the entire day.
I talk about the extensively in video #13 of the Advance Planner Workshop (www.Jenkins.tv/AP). The way I begin my day MARKS THE TONE for the entire day.
(Sure, you can overcome a bad start, but… why risk it?)
Look back at #8…
That morning time…
If I don’t TAKE IT, it’s not like I can “make it up” later.
A few days, I missed the early workout. So, I “made it up” in the middle of the afternoon— and found myself running in the heat of the day. Though I still enjoyed the time, it wasn’t the same. There’s something unique and unhurried about the early hours, something precious about a long pause before anyone else is awake…
… when there’s no talking…
… and I’m just alone.
The mental space which the margin of time offers was shocking. I processed more ideas and crafted more plans WITHOUT trying during that time than any other part of the day. And, it was during those long runs (with no headphones) that my mind began making connections on its own— unforced— about pieces of projects that needed to come together.
#10 = Cross the goal line— and keep going 🏁
Several people asked me if I ever thought about quitting. The answer…
“Yes.”
With about a month to go, though… I began to think about what’s next AFTER #75Hard…
I realized, for me, the key = to keep going. On something. Somehow.
🏈🏈🏈
A few years ago there was a pandemic of college football players DROPPING the ball before the goal line…
… they did ALL the work go getting to the end zone, then began celebrating too early, effectively dropping the ball as they raised their hands in celebration.
It happened MULTIPLE times…
🏈🏈🏈
We do that too— in life. We “drop the ball” rather than bursting through.
Or we achieve something…
But instead of continuing— even if a different or limited capacity— we just stop.
🛑 Ever hit the weight loss goal and then stopped, then gained it back?
🛑 Ever trained for the “couch to 5-K,” run it, and then lost the progress?
🛑 Every made massive strides in marriage, parenting, finances, whatever… but then just quit moving once you hit the goal…?
For sure, you don’t have to “double down” once you hit the goal, but it makes sense to USE the momentum you’ve acquired, and allow it to propel you forward. Somehow…
🚀🚀🚀🚀
++++++++++++
Links
ESPN- goal line drops = https://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/11844727
Download the free Advance Planner = www.Jenkins.tv/FreePlannerPDF
This summer, I did— and am still doing— the #75Hard challenge…
It works like this—
✅ Follow a meal plan of your choice
✅ No cheat days
✅ No alcohol
✅ Two 45-minute workouts each day— one of which must be outside
✅ Take a progress picture each day
✅ Read 10 pages per day (audiobooks don’t count)
✅ Drink 1 gallon of water
That’s it— and it’s supposed to be more of a #MentalChallenge than a #PhysicalChallenge…
⭐️
As of the recording of this talk, I’m 61 days in… so, the light is at the end of the tunnel, for sure. And, so far, here’s what I’ve learned…
(Think of this as my Top 10 lessons. I’ll communicate them in an order that makes sense to me— though not necessarily the order of importance…)
Here’s the first…
#1 = Sometimes, the reason(s) you think you CANNOT do something are precisely the reason(s) why you SHOULD wholeheartedly jump in…
I almost didn’t do the challenge…
… because we’re in the middle of summer…
… because we’re in the middle of launching the new #1B7 project and I’m working crazy hours
… because we’re about to go the lake with friends and the diet will be hard
… because we have MORE friends coming over tonight and I’ll probably want to open up the TWO new bottles of bourbon a friend sent…
… because…
… because…
You get it. There are always reasons why it’s NOT A GOOD TIME.
⭐️
But when it comes to #SelfImprovement, it’s always the #RightTime and #RightPlace, isn’t it?
I mean, think about— really think hard— the reasons we push stuff off, and punt the great actions that lead to the best results down the field…
Those are usually the very reasons we should just jump in, aren’t they?
#2 = Most things in life aren’t “all or nothing.”
Around the 3rd day of the challenge, I began recording my thoughts + reflections as I rounded the hill in front of the house. This is generally where I walk to cool down…
(And, I began posting those short vids to social media, including a new TikTok account… @AndrewEJenkins)
That first week, something struck me—
#75Hard is an “all or nothing” proposition. You either make it all the way, or you fail and you must start over. That is, if you don’t drink the water, if you don’t make the workouts, if you don’t read the pages… if you forget to take your progress pic that day…
… then your gain for the entire journey thus far is considered NOTHING and you begin over at Day 1.
That’s the rule.
And, of course, it makes total sense in a challenge like this.
But most things in life aren’t that way. Yet, oddly enough, we tend to treat them that way.
👉 We mess-up the diet at one meal during the middle of the week, so we toss the entire week out the window.
👉 We lose our temper during an exchange, so we assume we’ll never get our anger under control.
👉 We rank the budget, so we assume we’re not good at managing money…
👉 blah, blah, blah…
It’s easy to treat life as if it’s “all or nothing.” But, life isn’t that way.
Proverbs tells us the righteous fail… and they get right back up (Proverbs 24:16).
(On a social media post I shared a few weeks ago, I said it like this: “Think progress, not perfection… and direction, not distance.”)
#3 = Your time will pass anyway— whether or not you choose to do something with it is up to you…
🗓🗓🗓
One of the biggest obstacles we have... is our perception of TIME, and how much of it we have, or how long the dream will take, how much time might pass for healing comes, before we're able to launch into our next mission, discover our purpose... or whatever it is...
We don't like waiting...
Or, waiting (sometimes) intimidates us.
But, regardless of how long it takes to move from where you are to where you want to be, remember... that time is going to pass anyway. Might as well do something productive with it...
+++
Somebody told me that your checkbook reveals what’s important to you. That is, follow the trail of where your money goes and we can see what truly matters…
Same is true of TIME.
It’s easy to say we value certain things, but… when we turn and look at where the time was invested, the calendar SOMETIMES tells a different story, right?
+++
Push ahead.
In a few days, weeks, whenever you’ll look back in the rear view mirror and be glad you did 🤙🤙🤙
#4 = You can’t do most things all in one sitting…
… so break those goals down into manageable pieces.
🤷♂️
One of aspects of the #75Hard Challenge is “drink a gallon of water each day.”
(In fact, I found this to be one of the most difficult parts of the daily list.)
Unless you plan it— or have plan of attack— there’s no way to make it happen. If you wait until 3pm in the afternoon to begin, it’s not gonna happen. Or, if you still have half a gallon to go after 8pm… it’s gonna be a struggle…
So, I found smaller water bottle and broke the gallon down…
128 ounces (a gallon) = 8 of my 16 ounce bottles.
I use rubber bands on the bottle— and move them down— when I drink one.
And, I pace it…
I try to hit 2 before the morning coffee (easy, b/c I drink those before, during, and after exercising… so they go quick…). At least two more before lunch….
… and then finish before drinking anything else (i.e., no afternoon coffee, if at all, before the water is complete).
🤔
Breaking down the big goal makes ANY goal easy.
Pay off $40,000 in student loans? Break it down… how much are you going to pay AHEAD this month…
Lose 30 pounds? I’ve done it… and did it by targeting just 2 pounds per week.
Reading the entire Bible? It’s 10 pages a day for about 4 months…
Making $100K in a year… the same. Incrementally figure out how much you need to increase your income— just a bit— to make the reach.
🔥
You can’t do ANY of it in one sitting. So, often we just assume it CANNOT be done…
But, nothing in life works that way. It all takes time. And consistency.
And the the payoff comes.
#5 = The messy middle… sometimes you need to look back AND look forward at the same time…
I remember hitting day 38. That meant, halfway through THAT day, I was halfway there…
It was what you call the “messy middle”— that phase where I’m too far out from the shore to turn around. And I can’t quit.
But I still have a LONG way to go…
… in fact, I’m only halfway there…
Leads me to this.
👉 Sometimes you need to look back and celebrate how far you’ve come.
👉 If you’re always looking forward, it’s easy to get discouraged. It’s tempting to ponder HOW MUCH FARTHER you’ve got to go until you land the job, reconcile the relationship, move into healing, take care of…
… you get the idea.
That’s why, sometimes- no, a lot of the time- you need to pause. Turn around. And celebrate…
The GAINS you make often seem imperceivable in the moment…
The extra workout.
The shunning the sweets.
The getting up early to push ahead on your dream.
The phone calls, conversations, whatever…
Even though they don’t always SEEM valuable in the moment, they each have something working for them— namely, the momentum and amplification of the other, almost unnoticeable activities…
So, don’t just look at the gap between where you are and where you want to be.,..
Look at the gain.
Notice how far you’ve come.
+++++++++++++++++
Advance Planner = www.Jenkins.tv/FreePlannerPDF
My friend Amanda has pink hair… and has lost (almost) half her body weight in the past 2.5 years.
After a series of “no wins” in life, she looked at the person in the mirror. Though she couldn’t blame everything going on in her life on her, she could manage the person in that mirror— and take full responsibility for them.
“I began a diet plan that month,” she told me. “And I committed to sticking to it for just 30 days.”
That was it.
A lot of times people assume we’ve got to eat the entire elephant. Or even commit to eating it.
But, as everyone also knows, “You eat an elephant one bite at a time.”
And, you can always just eat that one bite and THEN decide if you want to go for more…
🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘
She continued her journey.
Part of the “continue” meant doing a 5-K that same month. And, by “doing” I mean finishing. That is, she walked the entire thing…
Which brought another observation— sometimes you just need to commit to starting and finishing something— even if you DO walk the entire time, even if you DO go the slow way…
SLOW still gets you there, right?

🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁
The “thing” Amanda is now part of is called TRANSFORMATION— a healthy movement people undertake to move from obese to fit…
Her journey includes marathons and pole fitness, which we discuss a bit in this talk.
And it includes a brighter outlook that has affected work relationships, taken an already-good marriage to the next level, and caused to her see things differently…
“There are so many things that I just tolerated before,” she said. “I was sick and didn’t even know how good I could feel.”
In other words, she’s created a new normal, a better level of LIFE.
And—
“This has affected so much more than just the time I spent investing in myself…”

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
I get it.
I (generally) wake up around 5:30- 6:00am, take time to exercise, then read, then write… all on my own…
… that 2-hour (or more) window always seems “selfish” when I’ve got a lot going on…
But…
I realize that—
🚀 if I don’t take that time, it just evaporates. It’s not like I use it on anything else…
🚀 What happens in that time radically affects everything else— and everyone else— in my small world.
🚌🚌🚌🚌🚌
In this talk Amanda reminded me of a few things she’s observed on her journey…
✅ Take the next best step.
A lot of life can be boiled down to that. When you aren’t sure what to do, just do a little…
… a little of the next best thing you CAN do (a la commit to a 30 day run at the diet and then agree to reevaluate after that)
✅ Surround yourself with people who are where you want to be…
No sense in taking advice from someone who’s not, right?
And, there’s no gain in being the smartest one in the room all the time…
So, find people you can help— and find people who can push you, too….
++++++++++++
Links=
Amanda’s Instagram = instagram.com/restoringthetemple2018/
Watch Amanda’s “transformation” testimony = https://www.facebook.com/ahicks07/videos/10100380258097275/
The weight loss program she mentioned = https://www.myshibboleth.com/sponsor/ahicks07/
Join Amanda’s 1B7 team = myoola.oolalife.com/RestoringTheTemple2018
The Hilltop Hangout Facebook group = www.Facebook.com/groups/AndrewEJenkins
My men’s mastermind group = www.Jenkins.tv/men
Beth found Carol via social media. And then learned she lives just a few miles away.
Carol has an interesting story…
A few years ago she began writing a book about diet + fitness. (She’s worked in gyms and— even when we recorded this talk— arrived in cycling shorts, having just come from leading a spin session at the gym down the street.)
Then she had a double mastectomy. She was “grounded” for a while.
Her college-aged daughter saw her journal entires / prayers one day and began counting them…
“Mom, there are 21 of them here…”
She continued, “And they all connect. You need to make this a book, something others can use to walk in their true identity.”
💙💙💙💙💙
Carol is a trainer and nutritionist. Part of her mission is to “demolish the diet culture strongholds of fear, false guilt, and shame so that you experience the fruit of the Spirit in your relationship with food and body image” (see https://www.fuelbodyfeedsoul.com/our-mission).
Yet, she’s more than a trainer. She also writes, “As daughters of the King: we believe God’s grace and the gift of His Holy Spirit empower us to authentically transform. Only through ignited faith in Christ can our minds be renewed and our hearts change. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, His image bearers, and when we seek the Kingdom first we trade in the ashes of willpower for the richness of His power in us.”
In other words, faith and fitness aren’t two separate ideas. They flow together…
💙💙💙💙💙
Carol agreed.
She was editing the diet + nutrition book but set it to the side to release the prayer book…
You are His was released, as a prayer + journal tool (for women) to walk in their true identity…
Then, months later Healthy Breakthrough, the first book, was released. That book empowers women to defeat the strongholds in their life— the unhealthy relationship they have with food.
You’ll love hearing Carol’s heart on this issue. I found myself totally floored by the depth of her ideas, as well as the simplicity with which she communicates them.
After she shared them, they were completely obvious…
… a mark of a powerful teacher, shared with me by a gracious Daughter of the King.
__________________
Website: www.FuelBodyFeedSoul.com
Blog post referenced in the talk— God is My Mirror— Jesus is My Scale: https://www.fuelbodyfeedsoul.com/blog/2020/8/12/god-is-my-mirror-jesus-is-my-scale
Oola is about finding balance— and growth— in the seven key areas of life (Fitness, Finance, Family, Faith, Field, Friends, & Fun), while living with less stress…
… so that we can live our purpose.
The digital framework uniquely bends to you— and then pushes you forward by providing you with curated videos and suggestions specifically for you.
The daily tracker— on an app— marks your progress, checks daily streaks, and provides built-in accountability (and celebration) for your progress…
🚌
In this video I talk you through the product itself…
👉 we discuss the 70 questions you answer— as you build out your “Oola wheel”
👉 we talk about the Design My Life Blueprint you create— that location of where you want to be
👉 we chat about My Breakthrough Experience, the initial 90 days that move you through the blockers, beyond the setback mindsets, and right into the accelerators
👉 we chart My Personalized Path…
👉 we outline the daily tracker— and talk about how it navigates you from your current location to your best case scenario…
(You can watch the product demo at www.Jenkins.tv/demo.)
🚌🚌🚌
After all of that, I take a quick turn and bend this talk into a Bible study…
That is, we talk about SIN.
Specifically, I highlight Romans 3:23— “all have sinned.”
Here’s my take—
One of the biggest issues with sin is that it distorts the image of glory we’ve been designed to carry.
(This is one of the life lessons I’ve learned the hard way, BTW— school of hard knocks.)
The greater issue is this: sin creates a distortion of our unique form, of the greatness we were given from the very beginning. Sin keeps us from seeing who we really are. Sin hinders wholeness, completion.
It holds us back from out destiny.
The word hamartia (the Greek word for "sin") actually means "without form."
✅ ha = the Greek prefix which means “without”
✅ martia = the word derived from “meros,” meaning FORM or DESIGN.
That is, the word sin doesn't just mean "failure."
Rather, it actually means that we've walked away from our true identity, the blueprint we were given from the beginning of time.
That’s a lot different than you typically hear it preached at church services, isn’t it?
🔥🔥🔥
Here’s a BIG IDEA— >>
If you get your identity right-- if you walk in your true design-- the morality takes care of itself. In fact, all of the other issues do, too.
So, when he writes about sin, Paul calls us to something greater than a do/don't mentality… he beckons us to elevate ourselves above the rules of right vs. wrong and walk in the beauty of who we were designed to be (Romans 15:15).
In ancient literature, the word meros ("form," the root of martia) is often used of blueprints— that is, designs for buildings. If the design isn’t solid, the final product is distorted from what was intended by the architect.
Paul reminds us that we have a perfect design. Sin isn’t just a moral issue, then; sin is a decision to walk away from our eternal design.
In fact, the second HALF of that Romans 3:23 tells us precisely the FORM we’ve missed…
“All have sinned and fallen short of glory…”
That is, our original intention— and the thing which Jesus redeemed— is a restoration of that glory, that value, that “weight.”
🔥🔥🔥
I love how, rather than appealing to a legalistic “do vs. don’t” mentality, Paul calls us to something greater... to shine as the people we really are.
That’s the subject of this week’s talk…
And this Oola framework is a tool to help you walk in that design…
+++++++++++++
How much does it cost?
The first month costs $77. Each additional month is $47.
Oola carries a 30-day money back guarantee, and you can cancel at anytime.
If you want to do “the business side” there’s an annual fee of $50, which provides a website, business app, and the opportunity to earn an income.
Ambassadors (business builders) receive their product free if they have 3 members, meaning you could pay for the first month ($77) and your annual fee ($50) and never have to pay again.
So, either—-
👉 $77 + tax to be a Member.
Or,
👉 $77 + $50 = $127 + tax to do the business.
Link here for both options: www.MyOola.OolaLife.com/AndrewEJenkins
+++++++++++++
Ready to enroll, do your own Design My Life Blueprint, and begin your personal transformation ?
👉 https://myoola.oolalife.com/andrewejenkins/enrollment/memberconfiguration
Want to watch the short video?
👉 www.Jenkins.tv/demo
Want to watch Dave’s demonstration?
👉 www.Jenkins.tv/app
Want to take the 21 day email challenge?
👉 www.Jenkins.tv/21
Want to join the #Hilltop Hangout, our Oola-driven Facebook group?
👉 www.Facebook.com/groups/AndrewEJenkins
Let me introduce you to Bryan Clay…
You’ve probably already SEEN him, but you may not know him.
Long before I met Bryan I saw a photo of him circulating the Internet— one where he was draped in the American flag, fresh off winning the Decathlon. That feat officially dubbed him, for that four year Olympic period, “World’s Greatest Athlete.”
But he’d already won— on some level— even before he had the title. Prior to the Olympics, Clay was tested by SPARQ to establish his SPARQ Rating across a number of different sports. The test is meant to measure sport-specific athleticism. In the football test Bryan hit 130.40, the highest ever recorded up to that point. By comparison, Reggie Bush— a noted running back from USC— scored a 93.38.
Anyway…
🥈 Bryan won the silver medal at the 2004 Olympics (Athens), where he posted his best score…
🥇 He returned and collected the gold in 2008 (Beijing).His victory margin of 240 points in the 2008 Beijing Olympics was the largest since 1972. And, he performed personal bests in SEVERAL of the events…
🔥
Then there’s this…
I’ve gotten to see Bryan on a personal level. And, as great of an athlete as he is, he’s a MUCH better person.
A husband, a father, a coach, and business entrepreneur, Bryan has his hand in a lot of things— and has moved on from athletics to, well… the next chapter of life.
In this talk, we chat about several things, life lessons picked up from the track…
Like…
👇
Lesson 1: Control what you can control, and trust Providence for the rest.
We get this one backwards— a lot. We blame factors we can’t do anything about (i.e., the weather, what other people do, etc.), yet we fail to take extreme ownership fo the stuff we CAN control…
Like our mindset…
… and our schedule….
… and doing the necessary work to show up, full strength.
👇👇
Lesson 2: Don’t overlook the small stuff.
Every big goal can be broken down into dozens (and often more) small things.
You know the saying, “You eat an elephant one bite at a time…”
And, “You run a marathon one step at a time.”
Or, “You achieve any dream one small action at a time…”
The problem with the small stuff is two-fold:
✅ Sometimes it’s tedious. There’s not a lot of glory in it. So we push on to something more “visible” and “important.”
✅ The small stuff is often SO small that we undervalue its significance.
👇👇👇
Lesson 3: You aren’t what you do.
Bryan talks of waking up the first day as a non-official athlete. Before that time, his routine had become so regimented that it literally involved every waking hour…
… if he wasn’t DOING something athletic, he was THINKING something athletic.
But what do you do when that’s gone?
Or, to make it relevant to us…
What do you do when your job changes?
Or your role?
Or a relationship?
You’ve got to resolve your identity— and it’s NOT what you do. So, find out WHO you are, and then let the good stuff overflow from there, regardless of what you choose to do with your time…
👇👇👇👇
Lesson 4: Everything is (literally) figure-out-able.
You’re probably not going to stumble into something that’s not ever been done. And even then, the success of others always leaves clues behind.
(Tip: watch the video + read the post “Success is recipe” at www.Jenkins.tv/blog/AP02 )
If you’re trying to build a business, reach out to friends who’ve done it before— and get them to show you how. If you want to do anything, for that matter, find an expert….
… in the same way athletes use coaches, don’t neglect the power of a “coach” (paid or otherwise) to help you figure your next steps out.
Take the lessons the past and move forward in your next chapter. Bryan talks of taking his grit and determination with him from the track to the board room table.
👇👇👇👇👇
Lesson 5: Your sweet spot is at the intersection of your skills and your passions.
(Now, I love this because it connects well with the video I posted here: www.Jenkins.tv/blog/AP11. There, I talk about the importance of your skills, your passions, and your financial opportunities.)
Applying this lesson took Bryan into his Eat the Frog fitness opportunity, a franchise-able gym he co-owns. And, true to form, he figured it out… with the help of a trusted friend.
I asked him about the name, which led to the final lesson here…
👇👇👇👇👇👇
Lesson 6: Eat the frog first 🐸
That is, do the hardest thing first— and let everything else fall in place.
Yes, sometimes there are moments when you need a quick win (Ok, sure, make the bed first thing in the morning— it takes 2-3 minutes and sets the tone). But when you have a list of things that NEED to be done, take the biggest first…
This mindset creates a ripple effect that infuses all of life…
🚌🚌🚌🚌🚌🚌🚌🚌
In the end, Bryan and I discuss a way you can connect with him and continue interacting with him— via our Oola #1B7 team…
Oola is about finding balance— and growth— in the seven key areas of life (Fitness, Finance, Family, Faith, Field, Friends, & Fun), while living with less stress…
… so that we can live our purpose.
The digital framework uniquely bends to you— and then pushes you forward by providing you with curated videos and suggestions specifically for you.
The daily tracker— on an app— marks your progress, checks daily streaks, and provides built-in accountability (and celebration) for your progress.
++++++++++
Links for this talk
Brian’s linktree = www.Linktr.ee/bryanclay
To join Bryan’s team as an Oola Ambassador and work with Bryan + me + our team, join here: https://myoola.oolalife.com/teamclay/enrollment/ambassadorconfiguration (Ambassadors use the platform, receive coaching, and can earn an income)
To be coached by Bryan and the team and join as a member, go here: https://myoola.oolalife.com/teamclay/enrollment/memberconfiguration
Bryan’s gym: https://www.eatthefrogfitness.com/
In this talk I continue where I left off last week (see www.Jenkins.tv/blog/170), talking about the Oola story. My piece in it, anyway…
Right now, Oola is in the middle of a global launch. In fact, it’s HAPPENING the day this podcast airs— 7/7/2021.
The goal is to positively impact 1 BILLION (yes, with a “B”) over the next 7 years…
And, even though Beth + I have bought Into the vision (and invite you to join us), that’s not where it began for me…
🚌
About seven years ago I met Dave + Troy, the Oola guys…
Seeing someone else do some of the things I wanted to do stretched me into some of what I do today…
👉 Writing books
👉 Learning about email funnels
👉 Understanding how websites + webpages work
👉 Social media
The first book I pushed out to a larger audience was about natural health + essential oils.
Here’s the connection to Oola—
👉 Hearing Dave + Troy speak the first time awakened me to the idea that I could write that book— and push it out into the public space
👉 The guys actually wrote the foreword to the first edition
Here’s where it gets even more interesting (for me, anyway):
Travis, now the CEO / C0-founder of Oola Global was the COO at Young Living Essential Oils at the time I wrote that book…
He became by de-facto “fact checker” about the history of the company, as well as some of the data I provided about current operations. Then, in a real sense, he opened a few doors for me to help share that book with others.
Over the past seven years I’ve gotten to know all three of these men in various forms…
Here’s a pic of me interviewing Travis onstage at an event back in 2015.
Sometimes, people ask if the CEOs, CFOs, or other leaders are who they appear to be on the stage…
… Travis, onstage and off, walks with a humble-swagger, a gentle confidence that is genuinely FOR other people, consistently calling for the best in them.
In fact, during a tough chapter of my life, well after he’d moved from his C-level position at Young Living to help lead Isagenix (two companies he helped grow to $1 billion + in annual revenue), he reached out via text… just to check in, as he knew I was in the midst of one of the most difficult fights of my life…
When I first learned of the Oola Global opportunity I was “sold.” All in— as they say.
About halfway through the discussion I learned Travis was involved— and it gave me even MORE confidence that this was an incredible opportunity.
🚌
Anyway, back to the Oola guys—
I’ve seen them up-close-and-personal a few times, as well. In fact, we hosted two different events in Birmingham at which they spoke— one that was a “normal” event and another that was on the Oola Dream Bus tour…
The guys decided to collect one million dreams— on stickers— all over the VW bus. I watched, that night, as people approached the bus, many with tears in their eyes, placing the dream out there…
… the thing they wanted desperately to see change.
👉 rebuild the marriage
👉 find a group of friends, so they didn’t feel alone
👉 reignite their faith
👉 climb out of debt
👉 navigate towards a career that fulfilled their purpose rather than just providing a paycheck
👉 cling to their kids in new ways
We held the bus stop at Avondale Brewery, so the guys drove into the backyard, where concerts and events are held. Then, they spoke to a crowd in the open air environment…
Music blasting.
Beer + food trucks + more…
It was, well, an experience…
Here’s a pic during the talk.
During the rocky estrangement-separation-divorce chapter I lived years ago, Dave also reached out. If you know his story, you remember that back in 2008, just as the economy collapsed, his life fell apart, too…
“You OK?” he asked. Then— “You might not feel like you are, but you will be… I promise.”
In a real sense, he spoke to me— multiple times— in ways that couldn’t be quite communicated with bumper-stickerisms and cliche Bible verses that others wanted to toss at me…
I get it. I believe the Bible.
But sometimes, even though the verses ARE TRUE, you need something MORE than just a few words…
“If you need me, reach out,” Dave told me— more than once. “Most of the time my day is packed. But if you message me early in the morning, I’ll find a window for you and connect that day.”
And he did…
Eventually I found myself in a better chapter… just like he and others promised would happen. One May, Beth + I headed to the beach, to 30A.
“Get a picture of that bus,” I told her. “I’m going to send it to Dave. It’s a blank canvas…”
In a real way, I felt like it was a blank canvas for me…
This pic is a real life boomerang…
… a reminder that “The Lord is patient… wanting all to experience true life” (2 Peter 3:9, my translation).
Remember, I had at one time lost everything.
And by everything, I mean everything…
💔 Marriage = gone (ever had the one you were in covenant with just, overnight, freeze you out?)
💔 Finances = obliterated (been to less than $100 in your checking account?)
💔 Faith = big gasp— what was God doing— and was this God or was this me?
💔 Career = 💣
But God is patient. That’s what 2 Peter 3:9 says…
And, it’s KINDNESS— His kindness— that leads us to Him (Romans 2:4).
He doesn’t wipe us away, erasing us from His life like others might… that’s what He does to the memory of our sins + mistakes— not what He does to US (Psalm 103:12).
I grabbed the pic, but then forgot to send it to Dave…
But…
In the patience of the Lord…
3 days later, after I forgot to hit send, Dave reached out to me…
“Man, I was just thinking about you over the weekend…”
“Well, I was thinking about you, too,” he said. “Do you want to become a certified life coach with Oola? If yo do, I’ll train you and certify you myself…”
That eventually led to where we are today…
Because the first people to learn about the Oola Global launch were the coaches…
… and I wouldn’t have learned about it if I wasn’t a coach.
… and I wouldn’t be a coach if I didn’t go through a bunch of poo that led me to lose the life I thought I was building.
… and I wouldn’t have connected with those guys during that season in a new way if that season didn’t exist.
… and I wouldn’t have connected with them then if I didn’t meet them during a “better” time before.
Every time I go to 30A, I grab a pic with that bus, usually when I’m riding my bike from one end of the stretch of road to the other…
See, here’s one…
I don’t know about you, but you *may need a reboot, a re-crank…
I did. And got one.
Things. Have. Never. Looked. Better.
(Hard road to get there, but all things work together for the good, right?)
Here’s the deal…
Where you are isn’t who you are.
It’s just the location of where you happen to be.
But…
… and this is important….
Where you are IS where you must begin.
Hop on— we’ve got room for you. Let’s enjoy the ride.
Ready to enroll, do your own Design My Life Blueprint, and begin your personal transformation ?
👉 https://myoola.oolalife.com/andrewejenkins/enrollment/memberconfiguration
Want to watch the short video?
👉 www.Jenkins.tv/app
Want to watch Dave’s demonstration?
👉 www.Jenkins.tv/app
Want to take the 21 day email challenge?
👉 www.Jenkins.tv/21
Want to join the #Hilltop Hangout, our Oola-driven Facebook group?
👉 www.Facebook.com/groups/AndrewEJenkins
Last week— the week I recorded this podcast episode— I started the #75Hard Challenge. It’s been all over the Internet + social media for the past year or so. If you haven’t heard about it, I guarantee you will again in the near future.
It works like this—
✅ Follow a meal plan of your choice
✅ No cheat days
✅ No alcohol
✅ Two 45-minute workouts each day— one of which must be outside
✅ Take a progress picture each day
✅ Read 10 pages per day (audiobooks don’t count)
✅ Drink 1 gallon of water
That’s it— and it’s supposed to be more of a #MentalChallenge than a #PhysicalChallenge…
You do it, as you might suppose, for 75 days…
I almost didn’t do the challenge
… because we’re in the middle of summer…
… because we’re in the middle of launching the new #1B7 project and I’m working crazy hours
… because we’re about to go the lake with friends and the diet will be hard
… because we have MORE friends coming over tonight and I’ll probably want to open up the TWO new bottles of bourbon a friend sent…
… because…
… because…
You get it. There are always reasons why it’s NOT A GOOD TIME.
But, sometimes those are the very reasons we SHOULD jump right in… especially when it comes to self- improvement.
Face it, you’re one of the best investments you’ll ever make.
We intuitively know this.
If you asked ANYONE, “What’s more important, people are things?”
They’d answer you quickly— and easily— “People.”
If we made it personal and asked, “What’s more important, YOU or your possessions…?”
“Me, of course…”
It’s a no-brainer.
Yet we spend years and even decades training to acquire money so that we can acquire stuff…
… stuff that we’ll eventually store and never look at again, sell for a penance of what we bought it for, or just giveaway.
Someone said it well, “You spend the first half of your life acquiring things, and then the second half of your life realizing that the most important things aren’t things at all… it’s the people your didn’t prioritize in the pursuit of those possessions…”
Since we know that…
And since we’ve OWNED that reality…
Why not just change it up NOW, instead of waiting until later?
Why not—
👉 prioritize people (including you) over possessions?
👉 invest in yourself rather than commodities and clutter that will fade away…?
I digress…
A few years ago, I met the Oola Guys, Dave and Troy. I met them in Hawaii on an award trip with Young Living Essential Oils.
Sometimes you just connect with people and you just, well… you know… that you’re on the same page…
At the time, I was the heaviest I had ever been. I’d slowly (and steadily) let my health deteriorate… while I chased projects and goals.
(Or, to say it another way, I invested heavily in other things during that season, but not in myself— including the time it took to manage my health and steward my body.)
I’d just turned 40, as well, and had all of those LIES we believe about age rolling through my noggin’. I assumed it couldn't be done. I was certain that your body "falls apart" after you reach that arbitrary milestone. It was a mental block I'd created.
Then I met a few guys who had similar stories.
Then I heard Troy and Dave talk…
Both of them are in great shape. But, turns out, Troy had lost 50 pounds- and he was a few years older than me.
"If he can do it, I can do it," I reasoned.
I've applied the same logic to writing books, creating websites, and even working our home based business. When I see someone- particularly someone I know- that has done it, it shows me that it's possible.
In effect, such relationships enhance our capacity for dream achieving. They show us what’s possible that we might not have seen before.
You might have been told something like, “Comparison is thief of joy.”
It doesn’t have to be, though. Comparison can actually show you what’s possible— what’s doable and achievable.
Here’s ANOTHER example…
The 4-minute mile…
👟 1950s- people thought it was scientifically impossible for a man to break 4-minutes in the mile run.
👟 May 6, 1954- Roger Bannister ran the first 4-minute mile in Oxford, England. His time: 3:59.4!
👟 The next month, two more people broke the 4-minute mark.
👟 The next year… 300 did it!
It can happen anywhere…
But, particularly when we’re closer to people we can see something in them that empowers us to be more… or, perhaps they call it out of us…
Anyway, in this talk I begin discussing Oola…
The word Oola comes from the French word “oolala,” which means everything in life exists in harmony— that life is in the sweet spot.
The guys wrote 3 best-sellers and teach there are SEVEN key areas of life—
⭐️ Fitness
⭐️ Finance
⭐️ Family
⭐️ Field (Career)
⭐️ Faith
⭐️ Friends
⭐️ Fun
Like spokes on a wheel, they're each essential to keeping forward momentum.
If one spoke goes down for a while, you're fine. But lose a spoke completely-- or lose a few-- and you stop forward progress in every area. Momentum grinds to a halt.
Think about it...
👉 If family isn't working, then your field (work) suffers
👉 If you're finances are jacked, life isn't very fun
👉 If you're not fun, your friend-quotient probably goes low
👉 If your faith tanks, you might feel hopeless in all the other areas
You get the idea. These areas all matter.
Here's the purpose of this talk—
Oola recently created a digital platform to empower people to live… well, in Oola— to find their purpose while living a life of balance and growth.
This means it works anywhere, at anytime…
… there are no shipping delays, and it never goes out of stock.
Best of yet, you can access it now and begin your Oola journey….
All the info is below.
________
Ready to enroll, do your own Design My Life Blueprint, and begin your personal transformation ?
👉 https://myoola.oolalife.com/andrewejenkins/enrollment/memberconfiguration
Want to watch the short video?
👉 www.Jenkins.tv/app
Want to watch Dave’s demonstration?
👉 www.Jenkins.tv/app
Want to take the 21 day email challenge?
👉 www.Jenkins.tv/21
Want to join the #Hilltop Hangout, our Oola-driven Facebook group?
👉 www.Facebook.com/groups/AndrewEJenkins
My friend Randy Pardue is back on the podcast, and here’s why…
… as I decided to talk to a “family coach,” I knew I wanted to host someone who’s successfully navigated a blended family (that’s coming soon), as well as someone who is STILL married— decades later (and happily so)— to the first person with whom they fell in love…
Randy + Tammy have been married 42 years, and still date each other like most engaged couples. They truly adore each other, and would rather be with one another than anyone else in the world.
And then there’s this…
🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁
As they were facing the “empty nest” years, Tammy discovered she was pregnant. This gave them the perfect opportunity to simultaneously…
👉 Decide what their “almost grown” kid needed to know before he was launched
👉 Think long-term about what the next kid needed.
The result was the Directional Parenting Blueprint, a framework Randy explains in his book Diapers to Dorms.
🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁
Here’s what the framework includes…
👉 0 - 5 = kids need disciple and self-control
👉 6-13 = kids need training— they need to learn basic, everyday skills (i.e., how to do specific tasks)
👉 14- 18 = kids need coaching— they need to make decisions and learn how to course correct, reflect, and make better choices going forward (i.e., skills they’ll need when they’re not with you).
🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁
Randy says the best way to “teach” all of this is in everyday life— to recapture moments when you’re already together…
👉 Bed-time (be the last thing they hear at night, and frame their subconscious)
👉 Breakfast (send them into their day, your voice cheering them)
👉 Carpool (capture drive time with intentional questions)
👉 Meal times (do your best on these)
👉 Fire-pit time (after hearing this, you’ll want one)
In other words, be intentional…
And, if you’re schedule doesn’t work perfectly like the one outlined above, do your best with what you have, capturing the moments that matter as you can.
🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁
Sometimes, Randy called family meetings.
And, he let them kids call them, too…
To re-orient and move back in alignment together…
🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁
Listen in. Wherever you are in the parenting journey, this convo has a bit of 🔥🔥🔥🔥 you can apply immediately and see instant results.
And, he’ll tell you what to do if you find yourself overwhelmed…
++++
For more info…
👉 Find Randy’s website at www.BeRefreshed.org
And…
👉 Download by free book, Redemption, about radical faith, at www.Jenkins.tv/R
👉 Find balance and grow in each area of your life at www.Jenkins.tv/21
👉 Join the #HilltopHangout Facebook group at www.Facebook.com/groups/AndrewEJenkins
I invited friend Lance over to the #Hilltop to record a talk about faith and we got to chatting so quick I forgot to take notes…
(You can listen at www.Jenkins.tv/blog/168 or on your fav podcast provider.)
in this discussion, we move into the realm of faith-- and talk about Lance's story. Part of it anyway.
That leads us to a encounter from his childhood when he stole a handful of Jolly Ranchers, felt he’d gotten “left behind” in the rapture because of his disobedience, and then met grace…
… something that’s always scandalous— even to the religious and upright.
📚
In this episode, Lance and I talk about the fact that, as Hebrews 12:2 says, Jesus is the Author and Perfecter of our faith. That is, He is writing our story.
And, as Paul suggested in Ephesians 2:8-10, He’s completing a story He fore-ordained centuries— even millennia— ago. That means He’s not simply “doing the best He can” with what’s left on the scrap pile after you’ve made a mess of things. He’s literally working things together for your growth— and for your good.
Furthermore, as odd as it sounds, you can’t out-strip the grip of grace NOR out-flank His ability to do something powerful in your life.
📚
This episode is for the down-trodden, the beaten-up, the smacked-around, the ones who might feel disqualified… and un-blessable. We promise, that qualifies you above all else.
Listen in…
… the party’s just getting started.
-
- +
📻 www.Jenkins.tv/blog/168 or your fav podcast provider.
+++++++++++
For more info…
👉 Find balance and grow in each area of your life at www.Jenkins.tv/21
👉 Join the #HilltopHangout Facebook group at www.Facebook.com/groups/AndrewEJenkins
Talks mentioned in this chat with Lance include:
📻 Three talks on the Holy Spirit—
Power from above =
… to reveal Jesus =
Powerful intimacy =
📻 The talk about the prodigal son =
And…
📺 The #SoulWholeness book + video course— www.Jenkins.tv/SW
The first thing my friend Ingrid showed me as we began talking was her Bible— the one she had when she was 21. Inside, she wrote an inscription, something she believed God told her…
“I love you and I want you to be free.”
⭐️
Ingrid was around alcohol her entire life. Casually.
She tried it when she was 12— and immediately spit it out.
“That’s important,” she says, “because we learn that it’s an acquired taste. We don’t naturally like things which are harmful to our bodies.”
(The good news is that if it’s a learned behavior, you can unlearn it or replace it.)
Eventually, she acquired the taste and began drinking more…
Especially as she got older (it became more of a crutch, as if often does).
And as she got remarried (into a fabulous family of extroverts who never meet strangers, always invite everyone Into the home, and constantly pull out more chairs for more people).
“It was just the perfect storm,” she says.
She found a path forward and quit.
And, her husband, who had been her “drinking buddy,” quit with her.
⭐️
Today, Ingrid coaches clients on how to be free of alcohol. And, she does so from a position of grace and empowerment, by helping people change their mindset and their beliefs about alcohol.
She helps people explore questions like…
👉 Does this really relax me?
(No, alcohol messes up your sleep, jacks up your cortisol, messes with your adrenalin, and creates anxiety… then, you drink more to take the edge off… but, you create a bigger problem by drinking more. Before long, you’re just feeding the beast.)
👉 Does this really serve me?
(Most of the time, the honest answer… is no. It doesn’t reduce anxiety, it doesn’t create mental clarity, it doesn’t make you feel better.)
In other words, she doesn’t lead with “will-power” or deprivation— two things which don’t, long-term, work.
👉 Does this really numb out the bad stuff?
(Sure, but you can’t selectively “numb.” If you’re hiding yourself from the bad, you’re also hiding from the good. You need to be able to experience both, so you can navigate life wholly.)
⭐️
On the other side of her freedom march in this area, Ingrid found more confidence in her decision-making ability. And she discovered she could be happy without being propped up by any external thing.
Most people find the same…
She leads structured groups for 3 months and meets with clients 1:1.
She finds that groups allow people to support and lean on each other— and see that they’re not alone in the journey.
She also provides—
👉 a video each day
👉 written prompts
👉 journaling exercises
⭐️
This reminded me of 1 John 1:7, where we’re told that if we walk in the light we find true connection with each other— and cleaning.
And of James 5:16, where we’re told to confess… to each other… so that we can experience healing.
And of Galatians 5:1— it is for FREEDOM you’ve been set free…
++++
Links…
Need better habits in your life? Check out the new app at www.Jenkins.tv/app — we’ve partnered with Oola to bring you an incredible resource that helps you define your purpose, live with less stress, and accomplish more.
Soul Wholeness is the latest book + video course on the site. The soul is uniquely different than the spirit— and is the place where habits and emotions and feelings dwell. Learn more about the project at www.Jenkins.tv/SW
My friend Barbara has always been an event planner. Even when she was a kid, she planned parties and hosted everyone— gifting them with an experience that just made things “better.”
In college, in fact, she studied event management and even took a specialized (read: adapted for her) course plan towards earning her Master’s.
That led her overseas where she planned and hosted events at one of the best venues in the city…
But, of course, life happens.
And things aren’t always as rosy as they seem.
Late in her 20s, Barbara began doing some soul searching. Now at home staring a family, she found herself excited (new blessings) and depleted (new revelations) all at once.
(Such is life, right? As we often say: Life is beautiful, and life is also hard.)
In a short time frame, Barbara:
- Lost her 2.5 year old niece (and walked with her sister through that journey) * Lost two family members to suicide * Lost her closest guy friend * Saw her own marriage end
In other words, life imploded.
⭐️
By the way, Barbara has a certification in the “Science of Happiness” from Berkley. She coaches individuals— and corporations.
(Happier employees are more productive employees— and that increases the bottom line and helps everyone.)
In time, Barbara boomeranged back to her original passion— events. But this time she did so with a healthier perspective, one informed by past experience and one shared from her position of health rather than a position of unbridled hustle.
Then Covid hit— and all of the events were placed on standby. And then they were postponed…
⭐️
During 2020 Barbara had an idea— what if she used the same knowledge (and science) she used to create great events to deliver the “event” in a box?
Happy Event Co morphed into the Happy Box Co.
The “boxes” feature items from local vendors (who were also struggling with the pivot during the pandemic), and have become an ongoing feature Barbara continues to create.
And, of course, it was all built on the science of happiness.
They feature products designed to:
👉 boost dopamine (a “goal” chemical)
👉 lean into your body’s desire for serotonin (calms you down when you’re stressed— and can be achieved in healthy ways rather than over-induling on chocolate or other sweets that lead to “crashes”)
👉 works with the colors that bring fun (i.e., yellow and pink are fun, red is aggressive!)
👉 acknowledges that oxytocin (in a good way) illicit trust— and benefits the giver and the receiver of a gift.
👉 understands who mirror neurons work…
⭐️
Barbara said she just knew this was something she was supposed to do…
… yet, she wasn’t so sure where the idea came from (Was it God? Was it her? She was hesitant to say…)
I took her to 1 Corinthians 2:16— which says, “You have the mind of Christ” in most modern versions of the Bible.
A better translation is, “You have the IMAGINATION of Christ.”
That is, the supernatural deposits ideas in each of us… some of us, with a science-backed (and supernatural empowered) destiny to bring the fun…
⭐️
I asked Barbara for a few things, practically speaking, everyone can do each day to elevate the fun…
✅ Your music matters. In the same way sound sets the environment at a party or a play or any other place, it can set the mood for your day.
✅ Dance. Even if you don’t know how to. It’s impossible to be miserable while you dance.
✅ Small things. Notice them. And do them. Like the cup of coffee you like. Or the sunset. Or the walk. We often think that happiness comes in one big bulk gain. It doesn’t. It comes in small does, added up, over time. Keep your tank full.
✅ Go outside. Sit in the shade and enjoy the breeze. Go to the park. We need vitamin D AND nature…
✅ Colors. Don’t do drab every day. Break the monotony (plus, when you look better, you feel better).
✅ Smile at people. And even talk to strangers. It’s almost impossible for them to NOT smile back.
✅ Create a small “reward” to look forward to. And then enjoy it (i.e., something you’ll do at the end of the day, when work is done, etc.)
Notice, nothing above costs money….
_________________
Links for this show
Barbara’s website: www.HappyEventCo.com
For more: Read Shawn Achor’s book, The Happiness Advantage: https://amzn.to/3aowCi0 Take the free 21 day challenge— www.Jenkins.tv/21
Freedom is found when you no longer need to self-protect…
🎭
In this talk we discuss the third— and final— soul wound(s) of the Soul Wholeness series, guilt and shame.
It’s a nasty tag-team duo that works like this…
🧐
We’re born with a moral compass— an internal rudder of right and wrong. When we violate our personal conscience, soul wounds can occur. Moral Injury, a soul wound akin to PTSD, is often the result. Rather than eliciting a fight or flight response, MI creates feelings of guilt and shame.
Here are the main ideas to listen for—
👉 “Moral Injury” occurs when we violate our code of morality, that is, of right and wrong. The result... is guilt & shame.
👉 The uncommon cure for Moral Injury— for guilt & shame— is mature love.
Now, pause right here…
… the ODDEST part of this reality is that so often we inflict the people closest to us with the most “immature” versions of love.
Those are the people we seek to berate, belittle, and bash…
And that leads to the final observation—
👉 In relationships you can choose intimacy or control, as well as transparency or hiding... but not both.
True love expels fear with great intensity, creating space where people own who they are and move forward to who they’re designed to be.
The all-too-uncommon cure for guilt & shame is receiving forgiveness— unconditional love— from someone the wounded person believes has the moral authority to grant that forgiveness.
💙💙💙💙
Listen in…
Putting this into practice has the potential to revolutionize… well… everything.
To change the fruit, (first) take care of the root—
🌳🌳🌳🌳
In this talk we continue the Soul Wholeness series…
… and discuss the topic of soul ties.
Here’s why: Issues arise when we attach our hearts, for any reason, to the wrong place. When we do, bad fruit always emerges. When we connect our hearts in the right way to the right things, beauty emerges.
💙💙💙
Here are the main ideas of this convo:
👉 The “fruit” we see in our lives is a result of the unseen “roots.” To grow better fruit you must nurture better roots.
👉 Addiction happens when we attach our hearts—
❌ To the wrong things, or
❌ To the right things for wrong reasons
And, note: we can find ourselves “addicted” to many things. In fact, over 2/3 of the people who seek addiction help do not have a chemical dependency.
👉 The cure for bad “roots” = knowing and walking in your true identity. When we get this healthy, good fruit emerges.
💙💙💙
Dealing with soul ties isn’t about legalism; it’s about walking in freedom— so that nothing hinders us from embracing who we’re designed to be.
++++
Again…
To change the fruit, (first) take care of the root—
You can’t drive forward using a rearview mirror.
(But we try.)
🚌🚌🚌
We’re designed to grow by exploring the world around us. But, we bump into painful experiences as we do. So, we create (often unconscious) rules to protect ourselves from future pain.
Some of the rules are functional (and help us), others are dysfunctional (and hinder us).
In this talk I reference three rules of human nature, related to soul health, govern how we uniquely approach the world.
Then, we’ll go farther. We’ll discuss how these rules can create ruts— both good and bad.
- Functional rules = friends = help us (don’t touch a hot stove, fear of heights, walking down dark alley) * Dysfunctional = foes = hinder us (lack of trust in relationships, fear of failure, etc.)
In the the end, we eventually get more of what we expect, creating a “flywheel” of momentum.
In other words, if we don’t work through the “triggers” we discussed in the previous video we’ll find ourselves constantly living from “soul memory,” something much like muscle memory.
How does it fit with soul health?
Well, in the same way you can’t drive a car by always looking over your shoulder, you can’t drive through life by staring in the rearview mirror. Gaze back when you need to…
But live “ahead,” leaning forward…
🚌🚌🚌
Brandon Lazarre is the founder of Your Purpose Coaching, and serves as a life coach with a unique angle towards helping you discover your specific design…
… that design, in turn, launches you into your purpose.
🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹
Brandon uses the analogy of an arrow— and says we’ve all been created, like arrows, differently than other arrows.
Some arrows…
🎯 Explode and cause a big “boom,” like Rambo.
🎯 Others are like those with which you hunt deer— they resemble a precise surgical scalpel.
🎯 Still others are more blunt— like practice arrows.
But they’re all needed, each of them (and others) fulfilling a specific purpose.
His tagline is…
⭐️Everyone is created by God to create something that only they can create.⭐️
🏹🏹🏹🏹🏹
Brandon outlines 5 characteristics which help you define your purpose— and see what your arrow is like (again, all of them being unique):
✅ Personality
He uses the DISC profile for this assessment, noting that each of us favor two of the following…
👉 D = Dominant / directive… prefer tasks, and work well with groups.
👉 I = Influencing / Inspirational… prefer to help people, and work well in groups.
👉 S = Steady / faithful… prefer to help people and do well alone.
👉 C = Detail oriented… prefer tasks and work well alone.
✅ Passions + Interests + Talents
Brandon likes to set these items “on the table,” too, so we can see the bigger picture and learn more about who we are.
✅ Spiritual gifting
This is what he refers to as the “X-factor,” and is where the supernatural kicks in…
… and it fits well with his tagline…
⭐️ Everyone is created by God to create something that only they can create.⭐️
✅ Struggles
Brandon breaks our struggles into two categories…
👉 Past brokenness shows us pain points the Lord can use from our journey to encourage, equip, and empower others…
👉 Barriers highlight temptations and fault-lines we might face in the present.
It’s important to be aware of both.
✅ The overlap of time + place + people
Finally, the trifecta here acknowledges that many things in life are an issue of sovereign convergence. When we see these things aligning, we can recognize the hand of God moving— especially when the areas above (personality, passions, gifting, struggles) all speak into the same situation…
Bottom line = you’re made for more. You’re designed for extraordinary, so don’t settle for ordinary.
+++++++++++
For more info…
👉 Brandon’s website = www.BrandonLazarre.com
👉 Reach Brandon (call + text) = 205-362-1610
To learn more about your gifts + calling…
👉 Check my book LifeLift at www.LifeLift.online
👉 Find balance and grow in each area of your life at www.Jenkins.tv/21
👉 Join the #HilltopHangout Facebook group at www.Facebook.com/groups/AndrewEJenkins
My friend Randy has been working on a book, Immerse, for the past few months. This one is all about finding confidence in your faith, by learning who you really are…
… that, in turn, provides you with certainty.
🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋
Randy and I began this conversation by talking about butterflies— and how a caterpillar enters a cocoon and emerges as something totally new— something so radically different that there’s no correlation between what was “before” and what is “after.”
So it is with us (2 Corinthians 5:17).
🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋
That leads us to the first main idea of this discussion— faith is NOT about behaving a certain way, it’s about BECOMING who we really are, who we’re designed to be.
Randy refers to the book of Ephesians, where Paul reminds us—
✅ We were dead (chapter 1)
✅ We are not only not alive, but we are God’s workmanship— His art— His artistic expression— to this world (chapter 2).
Furthermore, we were planned before time began…
This means that God had insight into our destiny long before our mess-ups, mistakes, and mash-ups. That is, grace is bigger than any blunder you’ve made (or even any blunders done against you).
🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋
Our unique transformation— into who we are, restores what was lost with the Fall. Adam and Eve…
❌ Lost life (they eventually died, though not at that precise moment of their sin)
❌Lost light (they began walking in darkness, their minds clouded to the truth, confused as to what was really happening)
❌Lost love (they built barriers between each other and God, distance entered relationships)
Jesus uniquely restores each of these areas…
✅ We receive life from Him.
✅ We walk in the light with Him.
✅ We experience— and then share— His love.
Randy reminds us that each of these three highlight things John clarifies as “certainties” of our faith (see 1 John 5:13).
🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋
Furthermore, John says that— as we walk into our new creation identity—
✅ We desire Scripture, and allow the Word of God to wash over us…
✅ We love others…
✅ We don’t love the things of the world— not because we “force ourselves not to,” but because our desires, our cravings, change.
🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋
And there’s more…
We learn that…
✅ We’re forgiven (of all past, present, and future sin) (see Hebrews 10:14).
✅ We are brought into a household, the family of God.
✅ We have a different citizenship…
🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋
Again, it’s all based on the notion that the same grace that saves us is the same grace which ALSO empowers us to live the life we’re created for…
++++
For more info…
👉 Find Randy’s website at www.BeRefreshed.org
And…
👉 Download by free book, Redemption, about radical faith, at www.Jenkins.tv/R
👉 Find balance and grow in each area of your life at www.Jenkins.tv/21
👉 Join the #HilltopHangout Facebook group at www.Facebook.com/groups/AndrewEJenkins
Two of the joys we most crave— freedom from guilt & shame and authentic community— exist in the place which seems scariest, the light. Those who are willing to “go there” discover true freedom comes not in hiding, but in realizing there’s nothing more to cover-up.
++++
For years— probably a decade or more— I was told I needed to share my story with others.
“There’s power in it. And healing,” I was encouraged. “Your words will set people free.”
A family member felt certain that owning my story would set me free, too.
The problem was that my story was… well… I didn’t want to confront it. I didn’t want to admit what was there, buried somewhere between all the pages. In order to share your story with others, you’ve got to admit that it is, in fact, your story.
Parts of it were hurtful, painful, and self-incriminating. Parts of it were embarrassing. They were at the time, anyway.
I was afraid that in sharing I would suddenly find myself not accepted but rejected. And, as you might imagine from a guy who reveals that he’s “defensive” on a psych eval, relationships have been a fragile thing for me. I didn’t want to deal with the “distance” with which people often inflict punishment when you disappoint them. Rather than dealing with with truth— and moving into the light— I was content to live in the shadows.
As such, I got cozy there. I made my home in the dark for decades.
Trouble is, there’s no freedom in the places we hide— just a lot of fear. Whereas we think that walking into the light causes fear and that living in the hidden places provides safety, the opposite proves true.
1 John 1:7-9 is a passage that’s come to mean a great deal to me (NIV, emphasis added):
…if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Scripture promises us that when we walk in the light (i.e., the “open”), two things happen: cleansing and community (John refers to “community” as “fellowship”)…
Are those not two of the things we most crave…
👉 A clear conscience?
👉 A community of people who, though imperfect, each hope and believe and call forth the best in each other, empowering the entire group to be who we’re designed to be?
Those two are found in the open, when we own our stuff, and begin stepping forward…
🚌🚌🚌🚌🚌
+++++++++
Links
Take the PTSD Self-Check at www.Jenkins.tv/PTSD
Learn more about the book, the video course, and more at www.Jenkins.tv/SW
We each have a body, a soul, and a spirit. It’s easy to confuse the soul and the spirit, but distinguishing each from the other is essential to walk in total health.
++++
One of the most difficult aspects of navigating life is the constant tension between what we believe in theory to be true— and what we “know” in reality to be true.
For instance—
The Bible tells us we are complete in Christ (Galatians 4:19), but we often feel empty.
The Bible tells us we are forgiven and that God doesn’t even remember our past sins (see Hebrews 8:12), but we sometimes still feel guilty.
The Bible tells us God is doing something in us and that He will complete it (see Philippians 1:6), yet we often feel stuck— like we’re not really getting anywhere.
Oddly enough, the Bible actually embraces this tension. For instance, Hebrews 10:14 says, “... He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified...”
Notice the two— seemingly opposite— realities:
The work is complete (“He has perfected…”)
We are in process (“…those who are being sanctified.”)
Though this sounds like one massive contradiction, it starts making sense once we understand there are multiple “layers” to us. As we learn to live from the right “part” of us, we find ourselves empowered to move through the lenses of the invisible truth rather than focusing on the visible reality staring us in the face. That, in turn, begins changing what we see.
I know. It sounds super-confusing.
+++++
We must recognize there is an “outer person” and an “inner person” to each of us. In some sense, we do. But, most of us don’t realize the Bible also teaches that we are comprised of a body, a soul, and a spirit— and that the soul and the spirit are two different entities. That is, the “inner person” can be subdivided even more.
We intuitively understand that in order to be healthy we must take care of our bodies. That’s a given. But we’ve also got to take care of both aspects of the “inner person.” In other words, health involves not only spiritual wholeness but also soul wholeness, because the body is different than the spirit and the spirit is different than the soul.
We often confuse “soul” and “spirit” as the same. They are different. Hebrews 4:12 says (emphasis added),
For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
According to this passage, the Word of God “divides us,” so we can effectively discern what is spirit and what is soul.
It’s easy to separate the “body” from the “spirit” or the “body” from the “soul.” But delineating the “soul” from the “spirit” sometimes proves a bit more difficult.
The word piercing in the Hebrews verse in the original Greek language is more akin to a precise surgical scalpel than a wieldy William Wallace-like battle sword bludgeoning someone. That is, sometimes it requires close and careful attention to discern which part of us is soul and which part is spirit. Reality is far more nuanced than “black and white.”
++++
Let’s briefly discuss the differences between the spirit and the soul— because this concept is foundational for walking in soul health…
The Spirit is the part of us which immediately renews when we awaken to God’s grace. As well, it is the part of us that is “one” with Christ.
1 Corinthians 6:17 tells us, “Whoever is united with the Lord is one with Him in spirit” (NIV).
This spirit is the true “inner man” we want to live from. It is the key to pulling the unseen world into the visible world around us. The problem is that the spirit is often hidden beneath or behind the soul.
And, whereas the spirit is quiet, steady, and humble, the soul can become aggressive, outraged, and opinionated. Quickly. In other words, the soul is the internal part of us that’s still “in process.”
The soul is comprised of the following:
-
The mind, which includes our thoughts
-
The will, which includes our desires
-
The emotions, which includes our feelings
Are those not the parts of us that cause the most problems and create the most chaos?
In this talk we break it down and begin stepping towards total health…
_____
Links for this talk =
The Soul Wholeness book + other info is available at www.SoulWholeness.com
The 5/7 online event info is at www.SoulWholeness.online
Join the Facebook group I mentioned, the #Hilltop Hangout, at www.Facebook.com/groups/AndrewEJenkins
The resurrection isn’t only something that happened to Jesus, it’s something that also happened to you.
+++++
Here’s why and how…
Jesus not only died in our place, He also lived in our place…
That is, He gives you His death and He gives you His life… and more— that’s actually just the tip of the iceberg.
Let me explain…
500 years ago, Martin Luther taught that Jesus walked among us and lived as a man from birth all the way to age 33 in order to capture the essence of being a truly alive human, one who lives fully to the glory of God. He lived a lifetime of obedience that neither you or I have.
Then, at the Cross, He doesn’t just give us His death, sacrificing His blood for ours. No, He gives us His life, too— the resurrected life.
Further, He doesn’t only gift us that resurrected life, He offers us full credit for all of His obedience, thereby taking all of our sin on Himself in the process.
This, Luther concluded, is what Paul meant when he penned, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV).
Luther called it "The Glorious Exchange.”
Or, as some translators term it, "The Wonderful Trade.”
For sure, it’s a trade-up for whatever we’ve had…
And, once you understand it, it TOTALLY changes how you see your identity, who you are...
Paul says that— in light of the bigger reality of Jesus’ work on our behalf, everything we’ve been included in— we should no longer “regard” anyone according to the flesh (2 Corinthians 5:16 ESV)…
From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.
That is, we shouldn’t value people based on what they look like in their mortal bodies-- the surface appearance.
(That's what everyone looks at-- the "outer shell"-- but there's so much more, so Paul tells us to look deeper, go internal and look eternal.).
How could we? There’s obviously so much more that’s true that we can’t see!
Jesus continues calling us to look at the things that are eternal, to the places in each of us where He’s already done that greatest work. He intends to infuse all of our lives, every bit of reality, with that…
You see, our physical bodies are simply our containers, the temples that carry around the Spirit-beings we truly are, the more-real-than-real versions of ourselves that transcended time and participated in everything Jesus did.
It's kinda mind-blowing, but we'll make it super-simple and pleasantly practical in this talk...
… recorded Easter Sunday, sitting in the office, reflecting on the weekend…
__________________
Links for this talk =
Some of this info is in chapter 3 of my LifeLift book-- learn about the book at www.LifeLift.online or purchase it on Amazon— https://amzn.to/2Zyvz6F
Join the Facebook group I mentioned, the #Hilltop Hangout, at www.Facebook.com/groups/AndrewEJenkins
God doesn’t simply reveal truth to you so that you can study it; He reveals Himself to be encountered and experienced.
When He shows you another facet of Himself (in this book or anywhere else!), He's inviting you to receive it. And, I guarantee, God is better experienced than merely explained.
Moreover, He invites you to receive it— in full— right then, in that moment. There’s no waiting, and He doesn’t give Himself in pieces (see John 3:34). He gives Himself— and His gifts— completely.’
We often think (because we’ve been taught) that we must “step it up” and “believe harder” in order for the Lord to do a great thing in us. I’ve heard some pastors at a well-known church say, “Dig in deeper” and “go after God.”
But, the Bible tells us clearly that faith isn’t something we generate— it’s something that comes to us (see Romans 10:17).
The gifts we receive by faith come from a faith that is also a gift in and of itself!
Galatians tells us we actually live the life we live now by the “faith of the Son of God” (Galatians 2:20).
Look at the King James Version. Most other translations miss this one and suggest that it is faith in the Son of God. The KJV rightly denotes that God Himself places the faith there. It is His faith working in us!
The gifts we receive by faith come from a faith that is also a gift in and of itself!
If the Lord places within you a desire for freedom, it is His invitation for you to receive it. And it is His faith alive in you which makes it happen!
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Download the free ebook on this website at https://www.jenkins.tv/R
Buy the paperback on Amazon at http://amzn.to/2EdbdKD
Join the free Facebook group at www.Facebook.com/groups/AndrewEJenkins
In the final talk in our Life Planning series we discuss time management— and the reality of tradeoffs.
🎳🎳🎳🎳🎳
We’ve got to be honest with ourselves; we can’t do everything.
And, a yes to one thing is most often a no to something else (and vice versa— a no now empowers us to say yes later).
We shouldn’t see this as restrictive, but as freeing…
… so freeing that we actually place things on our calendar.
You see, our calendar reflects our stewardship of our most valuable currency, time. In the same way our bank statements reveal what we value, so also do our day planners.
🗓
So, if it’s important, protect it… budget it… steward it…
Just like money.
Although, here’s reality, time might be an even MORE valuable asset that cold card 💰, because you can always make more money— yet no one has found a way to develop, save, find, or create time…
This talk will help you define— and then focus on— the things which matter most, so that you can build a life that truly matters.🚌🚌🚌🚌🚌🚌
Links mentioned in this talk—
If you just dropped in on this talk, review the previous talks...
Download the free PDF of the planner— www.Jenkins.tv/FreePlannerPDF
Purchase the Advance paperback book mentioned in this talk on Amazon— https://amzn.to/33Hy0ZU
Join the Oola group at www.Facebook.com/groups/AndrewEJenkins
Wherever we focus our time + energy will grow— for good or bad. So, it’s important that we focus on the things we want to grow.
In talk #3 we dive deep into the law of the harvest, that is, sowing and reaping. And, we see that it works in every area of life.
🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎
Sowing and reaping is a principle implemented on the 3rd day when the power of seed bearing plants were spoken forth by God (Genesis 1:11). You know the principle: like begets like based on something already inside the first of the “likes.”
Somehow, we've just assumed that “seed” only works in biology. However, “seed” is a principle of creation which works in every area of life.
This is what Moses meant when he taught “Whatever you put your hand to prospers” (Deuteronomy 15:10).
Here’s how it works…
✅ You reap WHAT you sow…
So plant the right thing.
✅ You reap it WHERE you sow it…
So plant it where you want the seed to grow…
✅ You reap MORE than you sow…
So, rest assured— for good or bad— your efforts will be multiplied!.
✅ You reap AFTER you sow…
So don’t delay. Start now. The sooner you sow, the sooner you the harvest comes.
Plus…
🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁
Though we cannot control the harvest (like a farmer), we can manage the cultivation process. We can faithfully do the work set before us, even the unglamorous and simple…
Small actions doing regularly, over time, have incredible results. So, we should never underestimate the power of simply showing up with our best selves and faithful tending to our field.
🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳
🚌🚌🚌🚌🚌🚌
++++++++++
Links mentioned in this talk—
If you just dropped in on this talk, review the previous talks, beginning...
Download the free PDF of the planner— www.Jenkins.tv/FreePlannerPDF
Purchase the Advance paperback book mentioned in this talk on Amazon— https://amzn.to/33Hy0ZU
Join the Oola group at www.Facebook.com/groups/AndrewEJenkins
In talk #2 of the Life Planning series we discuss the soundtrack which plays in our heads.
Who’s got a bad one, sometimes?
✋
And, who needs to change the story they tell themselves?
✋
Yeah— all of us at one point or another…
Here’s why…
👉 We’ll live from the story that’s playing there moreso than any other thing. Whereas many of us are quick to “shut up” someone who speaks against us, we need to learn to manage our own negative self-talk as well.
Read that again.
Slowly.
Manage. Your. Own. Negative. Self. Talk.
😬
This doesn’t mean we deny reality or cease being honest with ourselves. Rather, it acknowledges that our thoughts— and our mindset— are important factors in how we live.
Many times, we react negatively to our circumstances because they seem mundane. We compare our “normal” with other people’s “highs.”
But, when we look at reality, we see that the supernatural most often happens amidst the ordinary. Understanding this frees us to embrace the small blessings of everyday life— and even plan for them.
🚌🚌🚌🚌🚌🚌
Links mentioned in this talk—
If you just dropped in on this talk, review the previous talk...
Download the free PDF of the planner— www.Jenkins.tv/FreePlannerPDF
Purchase the Advance paperback book mentioned in this talk on Amazon— https://amzn.to/33Hy0ZU
Join the Oola group at www.Facebook.com/groups/AndrewEJenkins
Many of us hate goal setting, but we know we should do it. That is, living with intentionality is better than “doing random” or just “going with the flow.”
🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️
But maybe there’s something about how we’re often taught to set goals that unsettles us moreso than the idea of goal setting itself.
In this 4-part series, we break it down and offer another way to look at things, empowering you to move from where you are to where you’re designed to be.
Here’s where we begin…
In talk #1 we learn that there’s a certain rhythm to Creation— a way things just “work.” Specifically, the universe runs on rest, on intentional bursts of on and then “off.”
But two things knock us off balance—
👉 Anxiety
👉 Identity issues
This tag-team duo keeps us from taking that much-needed reset (we need it daily, weekly, and even annually). The result is that our bodies don’t rebuild physically, we don’t reset mentally, and we don’t regulate very well emotionally.
That knocks us out of whack. Big time.
🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
When we step into the intentional rhythm of Creation, we live from a a different center.
Furthermore, we begin to see a blur between what is truly sacred and what is secular. That is, we discover that any activity can be holy and set apart for supernatural use. This frees us to stewards the gifts and time and calling that we’ve been given…
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
And once we understand that, we’re ready to truly begin living the life we’re designed to live.
🚌🚌🚌🚌🚌🚌
Links mentioned in this talk—
Download the free PDF of the planner— www.Jenkins.tv/FreePlannerPDF
Purchase the Advance paperback book mentioned in this talk on Amazon— https://amzn.to/33Hy0ZU
Join the Oola group at www.Facebook.com/groups/AndrewEJenkins
If any one thing is characteristic of ALL of us, it’s likely that inner struggle we feel…
“I want to do this, but I know I should do that…”
Or-
“I don’t know WHY I did that thing right there— I’d already decided I wasn’t going to…”
We do this with “big” things and “small” things, with actions we would classify as sins and everyday occurrences as simple as sleeping in too late, fudging on the diet, loosing our temper, letting something fluster us, or even allowing something to get under our skin…
Paul wrote about it in Romans 7:14f— “the good the I want to do, I don’t do… and the evil I don’t want to do… I find myself doing that!”
Who can relate?
🙋♂️🙋♂️🙋♂️
Yeah— all of us, in some way, if we’re honest…
❌ That’s the bad news.
✅ The good news is that Jesus was tempted in every way we’re tempted (Hebrews 4:15). That means, yes, He faced— and beat— the same struggle…
And, then He actually DEFEATED it on our behalf.
Theologians use the term “bondage of the will” to refer to this tension…
… and it goes ALL THE WAY BACK to the Garden of Eden.
🌳🌳🌳
Whereas Adam gave away his freedom- and ours- in the garden, Jesus regained it. And Jesus has returned it to you.
Here’s what happened: Matthew says that Jesus prayed, “Not My will, but as You will... (see 26:39f.).”
Notably, this is written in the context of Jesus wishing there was another way to secure our redemption- another way besides facing the Cross.
(In other words, even then He faced that same internal tango between this/that + that/this.)
👉👉👉
Before praying, Jesus tells us disciples that they should “watch and pray” with Him. He says that the spirit is willing- but that the flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41).
Yes, Jesus sensed the internal tug-of-war that we all experience. The “good” in you (God’s Spirit) wants to walk the perfect path God has ordained- no matter how difficult it may be. The flesh, though, often wants another route.
(Don’t emphasize the weakness of the flesh— Jesus didn’t. Lean into the strength of the Spirit!)
When Jesus laid down His will in a DIFFERENT Garden, His obedience became ours— because His life is now our very life….
Want to be free of the inner struggle?
That’s the subject of this week’s talk—
It’s easy to spiritualize the promises of God (detaching them from real life) or even futurize them (punt them to the after-life).
Especially when things look bleak.
Especially when things have looked bleak for a long time (we often think we won’t be disappointed if we feel that things are just *supposed to be this way, that things don’t get better until it’s all over).
I do it all the time… I think, “Geez, things will eventually get better.
🤷♂️ But what if there are lessons available now?
🤷♂️ And what is some of the glory + beauty that we hope for in the future is ALSO for today?
I was reading one morning and noticed something…
The early church looked at it OPPOSITE way that we do— they were SO CERTAIN that the promises of God were for the present that they even relegated to after life to unnecessary.
That’s right. No resurrection. No after-life. No heaven.
Paul corrected their theological error (1 Corinthians 15) and, in doing so, showed us something remarkable.
👉 We don’t have to pick and choose.
👉 The gifts of God are for later… and they’re for now.
Our hope is eternal. It transcends the present to work in the future, it redeems (and restores) our past… and it’s good for right now, wherever we are.
Without faith, it’s impossible to “please God” (Hebrews 11).
That’s what the Bible says, anyway…
It also says that obedience is essential in order to please God (John 15).
Makes me wonder…
How many times have people felt beat down, squooshed down, the life-sucked-out-of-them, and spiritually vaporized all because…
👉 they didn’t have enough faith, so (they were told that because of that) they weren’t healed?
👉 they didn’t “trust God” enough, so (because of that, they were told) that situation that was bleak got even worse?
👉 they had some unrepentant, hidden sin or misdeed (like Job’s friends wrongly accused him of), so God couldn’t turn things around…?
It seems so odd, doesn’t it, once you spell it out on paper…
… yet, this is the stuff many of us believe.
I want you to notice something…
Something about FAITH and OBEDIENCE.
💡 Both of these actions are the RESULTS, the natural overflow, of encountering His radical grace + unconditional love.
💡That is, they don’t create dynamic spirituality, they’re the RESULTS of an authentic encounter.
We need to shift the burden…
… off of each other, and onto grace….
Because FAITH and OBEDIENCE are the effects of a supernatural encounter, not the causes of it…
I talk about it here.
Too many times we view ourselves based on our past.
We do this with all kinds of sins, shortcomings, failures, and missteps…. this labeling ourselves on the past rather than our potential.
We do this because we understand that those things were actually once part of our identity. In fact, in the case of sin, the sins emerged from who we were.
Sin is personal— it doesn’t exist apart from people.
Here’s the good news, though. Cleanness is stronger that uncleanness. Grace is stronger than grit and grime.
You might understand it better like this…
💡light overpowers darkness
💡And, it doesn’t struggle to do it, either.
💡Whenever and wherever light is near, darkness simply disappears.
💡Moreover, when it does, that darkness is actually transformed into something completely different.
Stop looking at your past. God sees your potential.
And that’s good news for all of us…
The word “convict” can mean “to cast judgment as to guilt” or it can mean “to convince” (i.e., people in prison are called convicts, but beliefs we hold dear to use are often called CONVICTION).
Which one does God do to us— because we read the the Holy Spirit convicts us…?
Does He do the kind that is punitive?
Or does He do the convincing kind…?
My thoughts =
You’re not being punished…
When things are going quite as you planned, it’s easy to think there’s some cosmic judge behind the scenes, seeking to “mess up” stuff on your behalf and “give you what you deserve.”
(Especially in the area of RELATIONSHIPS & MONEY!)
Maybe you’ve even done the negative self-talk about that kinda thing…
“I’m so ________________________ [insert the negative phrase of your choice here].”
Been there, done it, have the t-shirt.
Let me offer you this perspective…
The voice inside of you (some people call it the Holy Spirit) isn’t here to convince you that you are bad, evil, janked-up, etc…
In fact, there’s one who IS called the accuser…
On the other hand, the Spirit convinces- ahh, let’s just say it, convicts- you that you are righteous.
Not wrong. But righteous.
Here's where I get that:
👉 Jesus took all judgment on Himself (John 12:32), 2,000. Years ago.
👉 The Holy Spirit takes what is His and gives it to you, constantly reminding you (read: convincing / convicting you) that sin has been handled and you are righteous (see John 16:12).
That’s right, the Holy Spirit persuades you about righteousness. He doesn’t do this by giving you a pile of bad things you've done or a checklist of good deeds which you need to do.
Rather, the Holy Spirit does this by convincing you- by convicting you- that you are free to be who you were created to be.
🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧
“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sin, according to the riches of His grace, which He made abound toward us...” (Ephesians 1:7-8).
+++
Redemption— in the ancient world— meant “freedom.”
We toss it around, along with other “church words,” without really thinking too much about it…
But the word is deep.
And, as Jesus was called our Redeemer… it was a word that linked Jesus to freedom- to a freedom from the yoke of bondage.
Furthermore, redemption not only means “freedom,” it means freedom now in this life, not later after you die… ++++
This week’s talk is up and (after a short intro last week) it starts a new series of talks…
About redemption.
+++
Redemption is a common “Bible word,” a term we read a lot and even mention a great deal, but it’s one of those words we don’t really understand.
The word was in common use in the ancient world. Specifically, the word redemption “was used in slave markets to refer to the price paid either to purchase a person, or to purchase that person’s release.”
We toss it around, along with other “church words,” without really thinking too much about it…
But the word is deep….
Outside of the church today, we see the word used in pawn shops. When someone comes to “free” their property which has been held; they pay the redemption price and their property is loosed to them.
(You’re probably beginning to make theological connections even now.)
And, as Jesus was called our Redeemer… it was a word that linked Jesus to freedom- to a freedom from the yoke of bondage.
But, there’s something we need to catch ABOUT redemption…
In seminary I learned about “the law of first mention,” a precept that tells us to really comprehend something in the Biblical narrative, we need to dig deep into the first time we see the word or concept introduced.
To understand the redeeming work of Jesus and to comprehend everything achieved by His blood, we need to travel way back through the Old Testament to the book Exodus. The story of Israel's freedom provides incredible insight into the life Jesus offers each of us.
In this talk, we discuss what it means that—
👉 Thousands of years ago, a people living in real time + real space found themselves in a jam, with no way out…
👉 God intervened, and redeemed them in their lifetime (I.e., they didn’t wait until they died + went to heaven to experience what He had for them)
👉 It wasn’t an easy journey, for sure… but was something they had to proactively choose
👉 The people closest to Jesus looked back at THAT story to define what Jesus did for us, 2,000 years ago…
This story is 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
In THAT story, we learn that redemption not only means “freedom,” it means freedom NOW in this life, not later after you die…
“Christ became for each of us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30).
+++++
A few years ago I read Abba’s Child by Brennan Manning. In that book he reminds us of some of the perplexing truths in Scripture—
-
“All things work together for the good” (Romans 8:28).
-
“All things are made beautiful in His time” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
Notice— Paul (who wrote Romans) does say that all things are good. Rather, he contends that all things— even the worst of all things— work together in our favor.
Manning suggests this includes the horrible things other people (i.e., government officials rolling over and asking for payoffs in order to follow the laws they’re elected to actually adhere to, people turning against us), as well as the sins we commit.
Even then, at our own worst moments, God works on our behalf.
Though waiting is often involved— and thew “new” doesn’t appear overnight— God often uses these times to impart something to us that can’t be acquired ay other way.
Lots of uncertainty in our stories…
Sometimes you wonder who’s writing the script, right?
Keep stepping, walking forward….
You have access to the Author (and Finisher)—
“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart” (Hebrews 12:1-2).
Yes, the best way to live forward is to look back and remind ourselves of who the Father says we are, to evaluate our place in His story, and to stay in close proximity to the Author and Finisher of our faith.
And, you have His very mind—
“For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16).
Plus, you have the ability to not only know what He desires, but you also have the capacity to walk it out—
“… continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose” (Philippians 2:12-13).
Easy?
No.
But, in the midst of the chaos and confusion that each day brings… we already know the end of the story.
Have faith.
Be grateful.
One day Jesus spoke to the religious elite (Luke 15). The people who were in “church” every Sabbath. The ones who kept the most definitive rules and measured others on their moral compass.
They wondered why Jesus consistently did what I just mentioned- left those who thought they had it all together to befriend those whom we’re all sure don’t.
Instead of just answering the question, He told the story of a man who had two boys. One was bad, the other was “good.” The young, “bad” one actually wished his father dead. So he could get on with his life apart from the rules. Kind of like a “God doesn’t exist” thing.
The older one persisted in the rules. He kept it together.
Of course, everything came crashing down for the young one. It was predictable. The rate of depression, divorce, addiction, and even suicide is documented and backed by colorful charts with big numbers. (The elitists probably cheered or at least smirked when this happened in the story.)
Jesus wasn’t done with the story, though.
That poor “wretch” of a son came to his senses. It would be better to go back and be a simple servant, he thought. So that’s what he did. He’d become a statistic; now he needed redemption.
Turns out, his father was looking for him. And ran to him. And instead of stoning him as culture- and religious rules- demanded, the father didn’t even let him apologize.
No confession of faith. No verbal repentance.
There might not have been one. The young son wasn’t heading home to be a son; he headed home ONLY because he was hungry. Destitute. It was a shallow transformation, at best.
Until, the father...
He gave this son a ring of authority. And shoes. And a robe.
And a party.
Not to the exclusion of the relationship he had to the other son, the “good” one. But along with it. Turns out, they were all family.
Yeah. Jesus told that story to religious elitists who assumed they were IN and others were OUT, and that Jesus had missed it by seeking those who had been deemed “out.”
Look at it…
Jesus called both rebels and rule-keepers to abandon their lesser identities and embrace their roles as sons & daughters of the king. When they experience the lavish love of their Father, the natural response is to overflow that connection to others.
Everyone in the body of Christ has a special purpose, something they offer that only they can bring. Learning how to encourage people to fulfill their destiny enhances their life and it blesses the church as a whole.
Answering some of the commonly asked questions about spiritual gifts not only helps us clarify what the gifts are, but it also empowers us to serve our purpose with even more clarity and confidence. Learn more about the project at www.LifeLift.online . Grab the paperback at https://amzn.to/2Zyvz6F
God’s will for our lives can’t be reduced to a formula, as the true treasures of the Kingdom are found in relationship. Learn more about the project at www.LifeLift.online Grab the paperback at https://amzn.to/2Zyvz6F
Discovering your purpose includes working through the areas of instructional obedience, your natural talents + created design, and— then— your spiritual gifts. Learn more about the project at www.LifeLift.online Grab the paperback at https://amzn.to/2Zyvz6F
Understanding the reason we’ve been gifted highlights their highly relational nature.
Learn more about the project at www.LifeLift.online Grab the paperback at https://amzn.to/2Zyvz6F
Spiritual gifts are different than natural talents, they aren’t confined to or defined by positions and titles, and they’re not constrained to the four walls of the church.
Learn more about the project at www.LifeLift.online
Grab the paperback at https://amzn.to/2Zyvz6F
The New Testament authors spend more time defining spiritual gifts and describing how to use them than they do providing us with a definitive list as to what the gifts are. As such, and since the gifts are relational, any way in which God chooses to express Himself through us might be a venue for our spiritual gifts.
Learn more about the project at www.LifeLift.online
Grab the paperback at https://amzn.to/2Zyvz6F
Spiritual gifts are the presence and power of God expressing Himself through His redeemed children to empower them for the work of ministry to the church and mission to the world.
Learn more about the project at www.LifeLift.online Grab the paperback at https://amzn.to/2Zyvz6F
We each have a unique design— natural talents, abilities, and the bent Proverbs speaks about which are given to us when we are born. Understanding that design is part of discerning God’s call on our lives.
Learn more about the project at www.LifeLift.online Grab the paperback at https://amzn.to/2Zyvz6F
As individuals, Christ lives in us. As a group, He is us. The church is the body of Christ. Each of us has a unique role as either an equipper of the saints or as a minister.
Learn more about the project at www.LifeLift.online
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We often presume the “will of God” is something that’s hidden, something only few people can find. However, God reveals several things in Scripture which He clearly says are His will for each of us. As we seek His specific plan for our lives, it’s best to begin with the things He’s clearly said.
Learn more about the project at www.LifeLift.online
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In the same way that Jesus is the perfect expression of the Father, revealing Him completely, Jesus is also the perfect expression of the written Scripture. As we mirror His image, so also do we express the black and white of the printed page in living color.
Learn more about the project at www.LifeLift.online
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The Holy Spirit provides us with a greater focus on Jesus, power to witness on His behalf, and increased intimacy with the Lord.
Learn more about the project at www.LifeLift.online Grab the paperback at https://amzn.to/2Zyvz6F
The Holy Spirit always reveals Jesus, and the Holy Spirit has come to us so that we might join Him in doing the same.
Learn more about the project at www.LifeLift.online Grab the paperback at https://amzn.to/2Zyvz6F
The role of the Holy Spirit is an often misunderstood and frightening concept (because of how it is often misrepresented). Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to His Church so that she may experience His ongoing presence, accomplish His mission, and experience a greater intimacy with Him.
Learn more about the project at www.LifeLift.online
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We’re not only called to do the things Jesus did, we’re empowered to do them in the same manner He did them— full of love, power, and self control…
💙
A lot of people hide from each other... in friendships, at the office, in marriage... we tend to "keep something back," lest we be revealed for... well... something less that what we project that we are...
Maybe you don't do it, but I bet you know someone who does...
And that leads me into the subject of this week's talk.
Over the past two years one of my favorite verses has become 1 John 4:19-- "Perfect love drives out fear.”
Now, that word perfect doesn't mean "without flaw," it means, "living up to its full potential," that is, "over-exerting and overflowing to do the best that it can." In other words, it's mature.
Not flaky.
Not subject to the whims of our culture.
Not subject to mis-definition, blame-shifting, or pop-psych "hot words.”
It's solid. Stable. Secure. You can trust it and be confident in it.
John tells us that mature love— the love that reaches its full potential— dominates fear. It doesn’t incite fear or insecurity; it eliminates it. As such, real love makes people feel safe.
I reviewed several translations to see how they communicate the term “casts out.” Here are four ways translators describe what perfect love does.
Drives out fear (NIV).
Expels all fear (NLT).
Casts out fear (ESV).
Banishes fear (ISV).
In other words, this kind of love is strong.
Here’s how intensely it creates security: the same word used of “casts out” fear is the same verbiage used throughout the New Testament to describe how Jesus treated demons. When He bumped into them, they had no choice but to leave. He expelled them. He forced them to go. He eliminated them.
It’s a great analogy. Mature love, the God kind of love, does the exact same thing to condemnation, fear, and shame.
Perfect love drives fear away with this same passion. Fear has no choice but to leave when people are loved in this way.
They don't need to self-protect.
They don't need to feel ashamed...
They don't need to avoid or hide.
They know they are accepted.
One of the biggest issues with sin is that it distorts the image of glory we’ve been designed to carry.
(This is one of the life lessons I’ve learned the hard way, BTW— school of hard knocks.).
The greater issue is this: sin creates a distortion of our unique form, of the greatness we were given from the very beginning. Sin keeps us from seeing who we really are. Sin hinders wholeness, completion.
It holds us back from out destiny.
The word hamartia (the Greek word for "sin") actually means "without form." That is, the word sin doesn't mean "failure." Rather, actually means that we've walked away from our true identity, the blueprint we were given from the beginning of time.
BIG IDEA— >> If you get your identity right-- if you walk in your true design-- the morality takes care of itself. In fact, all of the other issues do, too.
So, when he writes about sin, Paul calls us to something greater than a do/don't mentality… he beckons us to elevate ourselves above the rules of right vs. wrong and walk in the beauty of who we were designed to be (Romans 15:15).
In ancient literature, the word meros ("form," the root of martia) is often used of blueprints— that is, designs for buildings. If the design isn’t solid, the final product is distorted from what was intended by the architect.
Paul reminds us that we have a perfect design. Sin isn’t just a moral issue, then; sin is a decision to walk away from our eternal design.
I love how, rather than appealing to a legalistic “do vs. don’t” mentality, Paul calls us to something greater... to shine as the people we really are.
That’s the subject of this talk…
The risen Jesus now lives in us, expressing Himself through each of us to the world.
Get this: you carry the image of your Creator. We know that. The Bible tells us everyone was created in God’s image. That’s why we see all human life as sacred.
A few posts ago I mentioned that Jesus is the image of God. If you want to know what God is like, well… you look at Jesus. He reveals God completely.
As odd as it sounds, though, the Bible insists over and over that you actually reveal what Jesus is like.
I know. Tough call. We know what we’re really like. Yet Scripture argues this: To encounter what Him and see what He is like, people only need to encounter you. That’s right. You.
You don’t need to go get reconnected to a source. You don’t need to get “re-filled.” You are full. And once you understand that, it makes all the difference in the world.
Listen in...
The difference between the old and the new is so radically different that no part of the first would make you possibly think it could become the second.
For virtually every day one summer I wore my day-camp shirt when I was a kid. It was from a church camp. Yellow with green words. And a green outline of a butterfly.
The shirt displayed the 2 Corinthians verse we just discussed on it, written in small print, on the front. The words NEW CREATION were highlighted to stand out, somehow signifying something about the butterfly.
Think about where butterflies come from— because this illustrates the point perfectly. A weary caterpillar makes its way to a branch, creates a cocoon, and hibernates. In time, although it seems that nothing has happened, the insect struggles and pushes its way through the hiding place…
A completely different creature emerges— something so incredibly better and qualitatively different that there’s no recognition between what existed before and what exists now. In fact, the discrepancy between the old and the new is so radically different that no part of the first would make you possibly think it could become the second.
One of the guys in a 12-step small group I attended last year told me this: “Somewhere I read that a caterpillar doesn’t just go into a cocoon and grow wings. Instead, everything about that caterpillar dissolves… into nothing. It goes away. It’s just goo that’s left. Then, miraculously, once it’s nothing, the Lord starts rebuilding it into the butterfly.”.
“It’s almost like the caterpillar has to lose it’s life— or what it thought was its life— in order to find it,” I said, recalling Jesus’ words from Matthew 10:39.
That is the Gospel. This is the life you’ve been given. It’s a totally new life, a resurrected life, an unrecognizable life which is void of any semblance from the past.
Yes, we’ve exchanged our old life for the life of Christ. We haven’t just traded the current version of ourselves for a clean version.
Why does it matter?
It matters b/c it makes all the difference in the world…
Jesus not only died in our place, He also lived in our place…
That is, He gives you His death and He gives you His life… and more— that’s actually just the tip of the iceberg.
Let me explain…
500 years ago, Martin Luther taught that Jesus walked among us and lived as a man from birth all the way to age 33 in order to capture the essence of being a truly alive human, one who lives fully to the glory of God. He lived a lifetime of obedience that neither you or I have.
Then, at the Cross, He doesn’t just give us His death, sacrificing His blood for ours. No, He gives us His life, too— the resurrected life.
Further, He doesn’t only gift us that resurrected life, He offers us full credit for all of His obedience, thereby taking all of our sin on Himself in the process.
This, Luther concluded, is what Paul meant when he penned, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV).
Luther called it "The Glorious Exchange.”
Or, as some translators term it, "The Wonderful Trade.”.
And, once you understand it, it TOTALLY changes how you see your identity, who you are...
Paul says that— in light of the bigger reality of Jesus’ work on our behalf, everything we’ve been included in— we should no longer “regard” anyone according to the flesh (2 Corinthians 5:16 ESV)…
From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.
That is, we shouldn’t value people based on what they look like in their mortal bodies-- the surface appearance.
(That's what everyone looks at-- the "outer shell"-- but there's so much more, so Paul tells us to look deeper, go internal and look eternal.).
How could we— There’s obviously so much more that’s true that we can’t see?
Jesus continues calling us to look at the things that are eternal, to the places in each of us where He’s already done that greatest work. He intends to infuse all of our lives, every bit of reality, with that…
You see, our physical bodies are simply our containers, the temples that carry around the Spirit-beings we truly are, the more-real-than-real versions of ourselves that transcended time and participated in everything Jesus did.
It's kinda mind-blowing, but we'll make it super-simple and pleasantly practical in this talk...
Jesus not only reveals what the Father is like; He also provides us with a mirror-image of who we’re designed to be.
Jesus did what He saw the Father doing. He was the exact replication of the Father such that when we see Jesus, we see the reality of what God is like through both His words & His deeds. . . . More at https://www.Jenkins.tv/blog/reveal or your fav podcast provider.
Learn more about the project at www.LifeLift.online
Grab the paperback at https://amzn.to/2Zyvz6F
We live in an era in which the time and space between the Kingdom of God and planet earth has disappeared. Though often unseen, the Kingdom is now present.
The true measure of revival isn’t what happens in a moment, it’s what happens over time. The supernatural is a lifestyle.
Kintsukuroi.
Google it.
It’s a Japanese art form in which broken pottery is repaired. Rather than restoring the piece to look as if it’s never been damaged (which is, really, impossible), the artisan injects gold into all of the cracks as the pottery is being put back together. The flaws are accentuated, celebrated. In other words, not only are they not hidden, they’re actually highlighted.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
No. The scars don’t determine the shape or design of the vessel… they don’t control it’s purpose, but they’re there. And they’re there to see.
The “new” version of the pottery looks like the old, but better. It’s simultaneously more raw and more beautiful than the original, “untainted” version.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Can’t miss Paul’s analogy that we’re earthen vessels, pottery with some sort of majesty inside, waiting to come forth (see 2 Corinthians 4:7f.).
And the way it comes forth? By facing- and working through- the hard things (2 Corinthians 4:8f.).
Maybe that’s why Paul delights in weaknesses- because that’s where strength shines (2 Corinthians 12:10). That’s where grace shines brightest.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Grace + healing + wholeness… is the gold. It means our imperfections now serve a greater purpose than the pain and shame originally created.
But… the hitch…
In pottery, the gold can only be placed where there are cracks to be filled.
❌ No crack, no space.
❌ No space, no gold to fill the void.
✅ Brokenness is THE thing to which grace almost exclusively bonds.
Sometimes, Jesus heals instantly. Other times, He teaches people how to be well. Sometimes, Jesus touches us and we are dramatically changed in that moment. Other times, He imparts His wisdom to us so that we can “walk out” the freedom.
Now, think about what this really means, practically. Let’s move it from theory to real life:
👉 Jesus can heal lung cancer, but He can also teach us about the ills of smoking.
👉 He can cure diabetes. He also shows us how to eat better.
👉 He can heal sexually transmitted diseases. He also provides us with directions on how to live whole and healthy lives, as well as experience the joy of true intimacy with one person.
👉 He can heal us of the dozens of physical nuisances that we’ve grown to tolerate. Or, we can take His directions and experience what it really means to be alive!
As far as it relates to emotional wholeness…
It’s possible— and even highly probable— you’ll find healing through the process of walking it out. Too many people wait to get struck by lightning, that is, for a supernatural event to occur that suddenly becomes their breakthrough.
_What if that doesn’t happen? _
_Is all hope vanquished? _
Of course not. We can still therapeuo our way there. We can claim our freedom and begin the process of sorting life and fighting for wholeness.
The Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776. We celebrate that day every year with fireworks, swimming, long days at the beach, and more. That is the day our Founding Fathers claimed our freedom.
But we weren’t yet free.
They claimed freedom before anyone saw the finality of it. You see, the military campaigns of the Revolutionary War lasted from 1775 until 1783. It took years of walking in a freedom that didn’t yet exist in order to truly be free.
Don’t miss the parallel. You might have to stake a claim and begin your freedom march before there’s evidence, as well.
And, even if the miracle happens, you want to walk the lifestyle anyway, right?
What if grace is something that we impart on behalf of God— not just something God imparts?
— for the past few years or so I’ve studied PTSD + Moral Injury (guilt + shame). A lot of people we think are struggling with the first actual carry the second.
Here’s what’s odd— sacred and secular practicioners all agree the 2nd group needs to hear the words “You’re forgiven. You’re accepted. It’s the past.”
And others even need the words “I love you.”
Who has such authority to gift these words?
It depends on the person who needs it. It might be:
A pastor, a priest, or a rabbi A former coach An officer or soldier someone served with- or even people who served that they don’t know personally Someone else they perceive as an authority It must be someone they believe, sense, or feel has the authority to impart forgiveness. It is at this point the healing process often begins.
If you come from a faith tradition like me, you might have just winced a bit when I suggested that coaches and soldiers and teachers and anyone else can dispense forgiveness. I know, that sounds strange.
But… during Jesus’ ministry, the Pharisees regularly scolded Him for forgiving people. In their mind, only God could do that.
In response, at the end of His time on earth, Jesus did something incredibly interesting. We find it in John 20.
After they discovered the empty tomb, the disciples hid in the Upper Room- afraid they might be killed, too. Jesus appeared to them behind the locked doors, showing that our emotional duress (i.e., even fear itself) doesn’t hinder Him from finding us.
John tells us He breathed the Holy Spirit upon them.
Then, He declared, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld” (John 20:23 ESV).
Clearly, He expanded the power of imparting forgiveness farther and wider than the religious elite of the day dreamed possible. Not only could God in Heaven forgive sins, but His Son certainly could (Mark 2:10-11). And not only could that Son forgive sins, but all the King’s sons and daughters could.
Perhaps this is why Jesus said that “all men will know you are My disciples… by the way you love one another” (see John 13:34-35).
Love communicates something nothing else can. Love is the greatest revelation possible to an unbelieving or desperately-wanting-to-believe world. Love creates sacred space where much-needed healing happens.
(And, remember, sacred and secular professionals alike agree that freedom is found in forgiveness.)
Moral Injury occurs when our conscience (which tells us the distinction between right and wrong) becomes broken…
It happens in MANY ways—
👉 when soldiers are commanded to (or must) do something which violates “rules” they’ve been told in the past (i.e., “Thou shalt not kill,” but then you must fire on someone to protect + save the lives of others)
👉 survivor’s guilt— when someone makes it through something that caused someone else to become seriously injured or die (especially if “we should have been there”)
👉 even witnessing tragedy, causing us to question the “rightness” of anything in the universe…
It’s complex.
And it’s real.
It results in overwhelming feelings of guilt + shame…
In music, the rests are as important as the notes you play. Life is the same way. There’s a definite beat to Creation that works well for us when we embrace it.
Here are the main ideas:
✅ The created order is built on a rhythm of “off” and “on.” We’re designed for bursts of work and pauses for rests.
(Part of living a life of balance means there are definite times of Sabbath and rest, those moments of complete OFF.)
✅ Five signs highlight when we *might be living out of rhythm.
Sign #1 of 5 = You can’t get quiet, don’t want to be alone, etc.
Sign #2 of 5 = You feel sickish or sluggish for no reason.
Sign #3 of 5 = You’re “short” or snippy.
Sign #4 of 5 = You feel depressed or down, and you can’t figure out why.
Sign #5 of 5 = You’ve recently endured trauma or “hard things.”
When I used to play sports, I learned quickly that we somehow “revered” and honored the injured. A few times a year, at wrestling tournaments, for instance, someone would “get the wind” knocked out of them.
Either they fell to the mat too hard, or got pinned in a whimsical way…
When this happened, everything in the entire gym- even on multiple mats- stopped.
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People took a knee.
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They were silent.
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They created sacred time + space for the man to catch his breath.
And this happened throughout the entire gym. People who were chattering would get a friendly tap to invite them into the sacredness of that moment.
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Even if they were rivals.
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Even if they didn’t know the man that was injured.
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Even if they were in the middle of a conversation or busy doing something else important.
Everything stopped.
The fact is that we’ve all gotten the wind knocked out of us in some way. But, because we can still physically breathe, we continue pushing forward. We go "back to the mats," even though we're wounded.
Or we encourage others to do so, even unintentionally...
During this talk, I’ll explore what it means to create space to deal with emotional hurts in the same way that we deal with physical wounds…
You see, emotional hurts and pains… well, we tend to avoid stopping for them. In fact, we’re encouraged to “man up” and push forward. We’re told not to talk about them, not to appear to be weak, not to slow things down.
Sometimes, the most sacred thing we can do is to just his the pause button.
More in the talk here >>>
To change the fruit, (first) take care of the root—
🌳🌳🌳🌳
In this talk we discuss the topic of soul ties.
Here’s why: Issues arise when we attach our hearts, for any reason, to the wrong place. When we do, bad fruit always emerges. When we connect our hearts in the right way to the right things, beauty emerges.
💙💙💙
Here are the main ideas of this convo:
👉 The “fruit” we see in our lives is a result of the unseen “roots.” To grow better fruit you must nurture better roots.
👉 Addiction happens when we attach our hearts—
❌ To the wrong things, or
❌ To the right things for wrong reasons
And, note: we can find ourselves “addicted” to many things. In fact, over 2/3 of the people who seek addiction help do not have a chemical dependency.
👉 The cure for bad “roots” = knowing and walking in your true identity. When we get this healthy, good fruit emerges.
💙💙💙
Dealing with soul ties isn’t about legalism; it’s about walking in freedom— so that nothing hinders us from embracing who we’re designed to be.
++++
Again…
To change the fruit, (first) take care of the root—
🌳🌳🌳🌳
Maybe it’s time to change the story in your head…
… not to deny reality, or step away from it…
… but so that you can, rather, actually see MORE of what ACTUALLY…
You see, many times we see what we've already decided we'll see. In other words, seeing is believing, yes. But, often, believing is seeing.
See how that works?
—>> If you're looking for reasons why you'll get a bad outcome, you'll likely read everything through that lenses.
—>> If you believe you're going to succeed, that you're going to have a great outcome, you'll (likewise) look at everything through that lenses.
This is especially true when past hurt is involved. If you’re looking for mortar fire or bullets or people to shun / hurt / abuse / take advantage of you, etc… well, you’ll likely see what you’ve already decided to see.
Internally, your mind will subconsciously kick into over-drive, scanning the universe for hints and clues to back up what you've already determined to be true. Then, that will become the grid whereby you view reality.
(And, the truth is that every now and then reality will actually match your perception completely, thereby giving your false impression enough credibility to continue.).
Change the narrative.
See the half full part of the glass, and that the cup is filling + flowing to over-flowing…
… not that there’s a famine of goodness, that all the substance is disappearing…
We’re designed to grow by exploring the world around us. But, we bump into painful experiences as we do. So, we create (often unconscious) rules to protect ourselves from future pain.
Some of the rules are functional (and help us), others are dysfunctional (and hinder us).
In this talk I reference three rules of human nature, related to soul health, govern how we uniquely approach the world.
Then, we’ll go farther. We’ll discuss how these rules can create ruts— both good and bad.
Functional rules = friends = help us (don’t touch a hot stove, fear of heights, walking down dark alley) Dysfunctional = foes = hinder us (lack of trust in relationships, fear of failure, etc.) In the the end, we eventually get more of what we expect, creating a “flywheel” of momentum.
In other words, if we don’t work through the “triggers” we discussed in the previous video we’ll find ourselves constantly living from “soul memory,” something much like muscle memory.
How does it fit with soul health?
Well, in the same way you can’t drive a car by always looking over your shoulder, you can’t drive through life by staring in the rearview mirror. Gaze back when you need to…
But live “ahead,” leaning forward…
Physical therapy isn’t for the purpose of staying physically injured, it’s for the purpose of walking in health + wholeness.
Emotional therapy is the same…
Perspective: Emotional health (in fact, health in general) isn’t so much about what’s wrong with us as it is about what’s right- and walking into what’s even better. In our medically-driven, diagnosis-prone Western world we’ve been conditioned to look at problems rather than seek solutions.
And, we’ve been trained to “fix issues” rather than walk in wholeness.
This applies to emotional health, too.
Whenever I speak to a group about emotional wholeness, many people assume that my goal is to convince people they have emotional scars which need healing. That’s simply not true.
Therefore, my goal is never for people to “get a diagnosis.” Or even to take a psych eval. I’m simply honest about my story (I took a psych eval) because, well, that’s my story.
My goal is to help people walk in freedom. Period.
If a diagnosis or even just an evaluation is the path to freedom, so be it. Many times, it's not, though. In fact, most of the time simply having the information is enough.
In this episode of the podcast, we talk about this ^^^ and define what PTSD is, what it looks like, and more…
The power of the mind is that you see exactly what you’re looking for…
True story-
In the book Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior (now, think about that title!), Ori & Rom Brafman write about the effects of pre-existing beliefs and how they effect our ongoing belief patterns- even when confronted with new information to the contrary.
They write about a visiting lecturer, a guest teacher at MIT. As an experiment, the teacher lectured 70 economics students at the prestigious university. Now, you've gotta think- if anyone is not going to be irrationally swayed by something, it's going to be this bunch of smarties. Right?
Well, all 70 students were given a bio on the visiting professor. The bio was a page long and detailed the profs accomplishments. The students were instructed to review it before listening to the lecture.
The only difference was this:
*Half of the students had a bio that said the guest teacher was "a very warm person.”
*The other half had a bio that said the prof was "rather cold.”
That's it. No differences otherwise. The students all listened to the same lecture, and then were asked to grade the professor.
The results were amazing!
*The half that received the "warm person" bio wrote how great the teacher was. He was funny. He made them laugh. He told great stories and made things applicable. He actually made economics exciting!
*The half that received the "rather cold" bio said the teacher was aloof. He was self-centered. He was rigid, inflexible, and boring. Oh, and he was formal. Stiff. Lifeless.
Did they not sit through the same lecture at the exact same time? Of course they did. What happened?
Quite simply this: the students saw what they already believed to be true.
We tend to look at symptoms, but the Bible calls us to look at the root causes.
So, yes, Jesus said things like, “You’ll know them by their fruit…” That is, you’ll know what kind of people they really are by what manifests around them.
But, He reminds us that what you see on the outside- the fruit- is really an overflow of what’s going on beneath the surface.
John writes about this in 3 John 2. He prays prosperity and health for us (i.e., like the Blessing of Abraham). But, he says that those things directly correlate to how our soul is doing. In other words, our soul is the thermostat (not the thermometer). It controls the outside, the external…
Because of this, we have hope in this life, not just the life to come (see also 1 Corinthians 15:12-19 and Romans 6:6-11). In other words, total salvation starts now.
Two of the joys we most crave— freedom from guilt & shame and authentic community— exist in the place which seems scariest, the light. Those who are willing to “go there” discover true freedom comes not in hiding, but in realizing there’s nothing more to cover-up.
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For years— probably a decade or more— I was told I needed to share my story with others.
“There’s power in it. And healing,” I was encouraged. “Your words will set people free.”
A family member felt certain that owning my story would set me free, too.
The problem was that my story was… well… I didn’t want to confront it. I didn’t want to admit what was there, buried somewhere between all the pages. In order to share your story with others, you’ve got to admit that it is, in fact, your story.
Parts of it were hurtful, painful, and self-incriminating. Parts of it were embarrassing. They were at the time, anyway.
I was afraid that in sharing I would suddenly find myself not accepted but rejected. And, as you might imagine from a guy who reveals that he’s “defensive” on a psych eval, relationships have been a fragile thing for me. I didn’t want to deal with the “distance” with which people often inflict punishment when you disappoint them. Rather than dealing with with truth— and moving into the light— I was content to live in the shadows.
As such, I got cozy there. I made my home in the dark for decades.
Trouble is, there’s no freedom in the places we hide— just a lot of fear. Whereas we think that walking into the light causes fear and that living in the hidden places provides safety, the opposite proves true.
1 John 1:7-9 is a passage that’s come to mean a great deal to me (NIV, emphasis added):
_…if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. _
If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Scripture promises us that when we walk in the light (i.e., the “open”), two things happen: cleansing and community (John refers to “community” as “fellowship”)…
Are those not two of the things we most crave…
👉 A clear conscience?
👉 A community of people who, though imperfect, each hope and believe and call forth the best in each other, empowering the entire group to be who we’re designed to be?
Those two are found in the open, when we own our stuff, and begin stepping forward…
🚌🚌🚌🚌🚌
+++++++++
Links
Take the PTSD Self-Check at www.Jenkins.tv/PTSD
Learn more about the book, the video course, and more at www.Jenkins.tv/SW
Over the past few months I’ve pondered 1 John 4:18 over and over. Here are two translations-
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love” (ESV).
“Love never brings fear, for fear is always related to punishment. But love’s perfection drives the fear of punishment far from our hearts. Whoever walks constantly afraid of punishment has not reached love’s perfection” (Passion).
I want to highlight three things from the verse above:
Perfect love Casts out fear Fear = not yet perfected in love
Perfect love
The word used in this passage doesn’t infer we’ll always love each other without flaws, rather it suggests we will love each other maturely. The Greek word for “perfect” here is th3e same world used for “complete.” Paul uses the same word in Colossians 1 when he says that he endeavors to present “every man complete in Christ” (Colossians 1:28). The word translated is telios, meaning “reaching their full potential.” Or, “fulfilling the purpose for which it was created.” In the same way Paul longed for his congregants to live their purposes, John wants us to “love our purpose.”
What does that kind of love look like?
Well, a telios love pushes fear out and makes massive space for grace.
A la 1 Corinthians 13, it hopes for the best, believes in the best, and never fails- even when the other person being loved clearly falters. In fact, this love keeps no record of wrongs at all. It actually endures and abounds all the more aggressively when sin is present (see Romans 6:1).
How did He love the Church? How mature- telios- was His love? He abandoned all of His rights and offered her everything.
Casts out fear
John also tells us that mature love dominates fear. It makes people feel secure.
Here’s how intensely it creates security: the same word used of “casts out” fear is the same verbiage used throughout the New Testament to describe how Jesus treated demons. When He bumped into them, they had no choice but to leave. He expelled them. He forced them to go.
Perfect love drives fear away with this same passion.
This, of course, is the exact opposite of what we most often do. Rather than driving fear away from the relationship and communicating, “Hey, come in close… tell me what’s really happening…” we actually invite fear and place it on the person like a cloak of shame.
Let’s be honest. We often like it when others have a “healthy” measure of fear, because it allows us to control the relationship, to maintain the upper hand.
The more you exercise control, the less intimacy you experience. The more you hide, the less vulnerability you share. Fear kills both intimacy and vulnerability.
That said, let’s ask another question: What makes us feel afraid?
Quite simply, we fear punishment.
John says it clearly, “Fear involves torment” (1 John 4:18).
We believe we’ll be hit with emotional (or physical) distance, abandonment, or shame. As such we hide as an act of self-preservation and self-protection.
Fear = not yet perfected in love
John tells us that the one who is afraid has not been made complete in love. Now, it’s easy to look at that person and say, “Hey, it’s your fault. You need to get whole. You need to get healthy. I can’t provide your emotional needs.”
There’s some truth to that. You cannot be responsible for another person’s emotional wholeness.
At the same time, however, you can create an environment in which grace abounds. And you should when you’re in covenant relationship. This means that wholeness is both their responsibility and it’s ours. In other words, if they’re afraid, YOU may be the one who’s not loving perfectly / maturely. Love may not have yet done it’s work IN you, as it’s not yet doing it’s work THROUGH you.
No, I cannot control your belief patterns and response. Yes, I can represent the presence of Christ to you, giving you space to come clean and walk into the person you were designed to be. In other words, even though I cannot “perfect” you in love I can provide space that gives you the greatest possible chance of the Lord doing that work in you- by loving you “”perfectly." And you can do the same for me.
Here’s what I’ve seen / learned firsthand:
If people don’t feel secure with you, they’ll fish for compliments and affirmation. If they do feel secure, they’ll reveal their flaws. Notice the shift. The first has to do with performance and reveals the relationship is on a performance criteria. They don’t know that you love them, so they’re seeking verbal evidence that you do. The second option reveals grace. They know they’re loved, and they know they have the grace to come clean.
More in the talk…
Waiting, though hard, creates sacred space where great things happen. Waiting can be a time when God does something to you so He can then do something through you.
Yes it’s a period when- many times- we wonder if God even sees us. Many times, even, we want to blame Him for what’s happening while we wait…
If we’re going to blame God every time something bad happens, we also have to credit Him every time something good occurs. This act of maintaining a divine balance sheet, a “God” scorecard, is an odd game to play. Eventually, you learn that there aren’t many tidy answers. You let go of the need to understand everything, and you simply let grace do its great work…
Over the past few months it hit me: rest is part of the rhythm of life. In the same way that good music depends on the times when the instruments are NOT being played (think about it- if there are no “rests” the you simply have noise), so also does life depend on the times when we’re off.
This is a principle that goes all the way back to Creation…
We think of our days as daylight and then nighttime. But, in the Creation story we read this refrain over and over- that there was “evening” and then “morning.” In other words, days originally began with night time, not daytime… they began with rest, not activity.
This is why Jesus was pulled from the Cross before sundown. The Sabbath began as soon as the sun dropped. That was the sign of a new day… the rest.
Here’s where it gets interesting in the Creation story…
Adam was created on the 6th day- at the end of the day. By the time he’s scooped from the dirt, God has been busy making all the animals that fill the earth (see Genesis 1:24). That is, Adam is created at the END of the 6th day.
Then comes the seventh day…
Which begins with evening (rest)…
Followed by morning (and a complete day of nothing but… yes… rest).
In other words, the first 24-plus hours that Adam was around… rest.
The story of Eve’s creation is interesting, too. God creates her from the side of Adam. He does so while Adam sleeps (Genesis 2:22).
Paul tells us that “woman is the glory of man” (1 Corinthians 11:7). That is, when we see her shine, we can presume that the man has lived his calling- that he has promoted her, elevated her, and loved her well. He shines by causing her to radiate.
It’s interesting, though. She’s the crown of Creation (the final jewel that’s created), and she comes FROM the man. Adam was required for her to be made.
Yet Adam slept through the entire process. That is, the greatest thing he ever participated in happened WHILE he rested.
What do we see?
We’re made for presence- not performance.
The Bible tells us, “God is _________.”
Yeah, you can complete that sentence. Everyone can.
“God is love” (1 John 4:8).
We’re so familiar with the phrase that we forget love is both a commitment of unconditional covenant and it is an emotion. God, committed to us, is emotional, too.
Throughout the New Testament we read truths like-
Jesus was distressed with the Pharisees (Mark 3:5)/ Jesus was moved with compassion (Mark 6:34). Jesus was full of joy through the Hoy Spirit (Luke 10:21). Jesus was sorrowful and troubled (Matthew 26:37-38). Jesus lingers even now, because the Lord is patient (2 Peter 3:9). In God (Jesus is God) we see the full range of emotions- even the ones we typically consider to be “bad” or “taboo” ones- expressed in a healthy way.
There aren’t bad emotions. Again, notice Jesus Himself experiencing the “bad” ones-
Jesus wept multiple times throughout His ministry, including at Lazarus’ tomb (John 11:35) and even over the city of Jerusalem itself (see Luke 13:35, 19:41). Jesus became angry on several occasions. He overturned the money changers’ tables in the temple, after taking the time to make a whip to loosen the sacrificial animals (John 2:15, Matthew 21:12). He expressed His indignation when the disciples brushed the little children way from Him (Mark 10:14). Besides, we see emotions throughout the Bible-
Solomon tells us, “There is a time to weep and a time to laugh… a time to mourn and a time to dance” (Ecclesiastes 3:4). Notice both extremes of the emotional scale are present. Paul acknowledged that we grieve, but “we do not grieve as those who who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). That is, the emotion is present- even if we express it in a different way than others. When I grew up (and even until recently), I was confused about emotions. They could be dangerous. We could be deceived or led astray by them. We should never rely on our feelings, in other words. To say it another way, “You shouldn’t let the caboose pull the train.”
Remember this picture?
Maybe there’s some accuracy to that. But the truth is that faith can lead us astray, too, if that faith rests on the wrong thing. Facts- if they’re the wrong facts- can derail us as well.
For years I wanted to run from emotions rather than running towards them. It seemed safer, easier. Yet the way towards health and healing is actually to move straight into the emotions rather than trying to navigate around them.
Leif Heitland, a Bible teacher, locked-on to this notion of God’s feelings. He writes, “I often ask God to share His emotions with me because I know He is an emotional God- full of compassion, joy, and many other feelings.”
Sometimes these feelings are “negative.” We become broken for other people, as we see them dealing with pain.
Sometimes we become broken for ourselves. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve broken down and cried as I’ve worked my way through my story- as I saw the hurt done to me, as I saw the pain I inflicted on my wife, as I realized how much I have exposed my children to spiritual and real danger.
The Scripture shows me that God can be found in those emotions, though. And that seeking the Kingdom often involves not simply doing things out in the world but also in doing the tough, deep work of the soul.
Further, James says to “Count it all joy when you endure trials” (James 1:2). I historically assumed he referred only to the external pressured we face. Perhaps he does. Or perhaps he refers to internal trials, too. The reality is that externals most often place weight on the soul.
I do know that James promises something to those who endure the dark night. In James 1:3-4, he says to consider it joy-
“because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
That is, in the tension God takes us to the “end” of ourselves, to a place where we can no longer rely on our personal resources. At that point, He takes us to a place where He produces something new and substantial inside us.
The Bible communicates something astounding about Jesus: the One in whom was “life” was deeply acquainted with sorrow and grief (Isaiah 53:3). I’ve had my share of pain; you have, too. Somehow, when we connect with others who’ve been where we are, something resonates and hope is delivered…
In fact, rabbis believed that when a story of redemption was told, the telling of the story carried the same power that was present in the original event which the story references. You’ve seen this happen before…
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It’s why you hear about a healing miracle and faith rises…
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It’s why you hear of a restored marriage and you gain confidence that the same could be true for you…
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It’s why you hear the story of someone’s financial breakthrough, and you suddenly sense that something more is possible for you, too...
Here’s the deal. As powerful as it is when we hear that others have been where we are- and that they have come out on the other side of the story- the Scripture teaches us that Jesus has been everywhere we’ve been, too (see Hebrews 4:15). For that reason, He’s able to sympathize with our weaknesses- even as He continues makes intercession for us (Hebrews 7:22).
It doesn’t mean things are easy…
And, yes, right now we live in the tension. A big one. A tension of the pain (acquainted with grief) and the joy (that all things WILL work together for the good, per Romans 8:26-28).
We get enamored with external things- the things “out there.” The truth, though, is that the INSIDE changes before the OUTSIDE ever does. In fact, the greatness of what’s going on inside of you determines the altitudes you’ll reach in the world around you.
In this episode of the podcast, we take take the fifth (and final) rung of the ladder…
Remember, with each rung we go higher AND closer to realizing our dreams…
- What = the idea
- How = implementation
- Why = inspiration
- Who = interdependence
- You = individuality
Once you understand the power of the mind… and how it literally creates destiny, some of the most popular Bible verses make EVEN MORE sense. Things like…
- “Take your thoughts captive” (2 Corinthians 10:5).
- “Be transformed… by renewing your mind” (Romans 12:1-2).
- “Be anxious for nothing…” (Philippians 4:6f).
- “Think on things that are pure, lovely, of good report…” (Philippians 4:8).
When we really believe that we can do these things… that we CAN take thoughts captive, that we CAN transform ourselves by proactively recreating what’s in our minds… that we CAN choose peace over anxiety and stress… that we CAN select the object our our thoughts… we begin to see just how powerful we are.
And when you do that, you realize that the biggest part of the dream isn’t just achieving the goal, but it’s the process of transformation that occurs in you as you do…
_________________
Links mentioned in this episode include www.TheLadder.info and www.EatSleepAdvance.com
Look at EVERY significant turning point in your life- the good ones AND the bad ones. Most of them probably have MORE to do with a RELATIONSHIP than any other factor…
Someone believed in you…
Or someone steered you in the wrong direction…
Someone called forth the greatness in you- or shared with you an amazing idea that TOTALLY transformed your outlook on an opportunity…
Or someone else wounded you in some way…
You see? No blaming here. Just observing…
Relationships have POWER. Tremendous power.
Whereas we tend to plan life around “what” we’ll do… or even “how” we’ll get it done…
… the biggest defining factor is… yes…
RELATIONSHIPS!
I’ll be honest. I never would have thought this one was true. I would have thought talent, position, money, experience… that those would get you higher, farther, faster…
Time + Experience proves it to be true, though >>>>
True power is in the presence of real, raw relationships!
________________
Links mentioned in the show- www.TheLadder.info for the free download AND www.EatSleepAdvance.com for the updated event info.
Everyone seems to ask it these days- it's a "buzz word" that few of us really unpack. In this session we unpack the "why," putting it in the context of everything you do...
PEOPLE that know WHAT they want to do get further than people who don't have a clue!
And people that understand HOW to do that thing... well... they go higher, still...
Yet those who go the farthest, the fastest... and endure... they have a grasp of what's driving them. They're in touch with their WHY.
In this lesson, you'll uncover the thing that drives you! You might even know what it is. Or, perhaps it's eluded you...
Either way, you won’t just know what your dream is (or what your dreams are- remember, you probably have dreams & goals for multiple areas of your life), you’ll actually feel those dreams.
Think about it...
The heart. Most of us don't get in touch with our feelings that often, do we?
I remember sitting through some counseling sessions in the last year (yeah, been there, done that, highly recommend it). The counselor constantly handed me a chart- a sheet with a list of dozens of "feelings" listed on it.
"How do you feel today?"
I'd look at the chart. It was helpful. Really. Sometimes a feeling is just a sense... an intangible. Putitng a word to it helped.
During those sessions I became increasingly aware that, often, I don't know what I'm feeling! Yet, our feelings were given to us by God. And, when channeled in a healthy way, they can been incredibly beneficial!
If you get in touch with your feelings, you can actually "see" what's driving you. Here's the truth: Business is hard work. So are relationships. And marriages. And most things worth pursuing well. In every thing you do there are ups and downs. And having our feelings nailed down for each- the core- empowers us to embrace the right things more fully while letting go of the wrong things more freely!
This is the lesson where we pull out the ladder and start climbing. And, of course, once it's out, it stays on stage for the remainder of the workshop.
We’ll keep adding labels and concepts to that ladder for each of the remaining sessions. This tool will become your go-to when talking to friends, your business partners, and others! And, it will help you clarify what you’re doing, deciphering if it aligns with your deepest aspirations, and help you continue making forward progress.
But, first of all, we've got to get in touch with the heart- and uncover the thing that drives you.
_________________
Links mentioned in this episode include www.TheLadder.info and www.EatSleepAdvance.com
We’re all busy. It’s almost a #HumbleBrag in our culture to actually BE busy. I mean, no one actually LIKES being so busy that they can’t keep up with what’s going on, but we carry our jam-packed calendars around like badges of honor.
That can be a HUGE problem with it comes to pursuing your dreams.
You see, dreams require time. Concentrated, high-octane time. Some of your “best” time. And your energy. And your focus.
At the Advance, we actually use juggling as an example to illustrate this. It never fails. Whenever we call someone onstage and let them start juggling, whenever they juggle beyond their capacity, they don’t just lose the last ball that was added… they drop them all.
You can make the correlation. Less is better. Less is actually “more.”
“More” just… well… it causes the entire thing to fall apart. It creates anxiety, it causes your skill level to actually diminish, and it’s a lot more difficult to live at that level of movement than a SLOWER pace at which you can actually achieve MORE.
You see, if we juggle too much, we end up not doing anything well. That means, well, we get frustrated in multiple areas of life.
Once we understand the reality of tradeoffs, though, and realize that we actually MUST choose which balls to juggle… and that we GET to choose (meaning that we actually pick some up and set the others DOWN)… well, things start humming.
Even better, we learn that we can achieve for more with even less effort than we thought due to the nature of FOCUSED efforts done consistently well…
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Links mentioned in this episode include www.TheLadder.info and www.EatSleepAdvance.com
The first step in living any dream is to decide what that dream is. Sounds obvious, right? I mean, how are you going to go ANYWHERE if you don’t first have a destination?
Cristy and I go on a date every week. Sometimes, we get into this debacle… perhaps you’ve been there:
“Where do you want to eat?”
“I don’t know. Where do you want to go?”
Suggestion made.
Reply = “Anything but that!”
Been there? Done that? (This works both ways- sometimes she makes the turned-down suggestion; others times I do it!)
It’s frustrating, isn’t it? It kinda stalls out the first part of the evening.
And, the truth is that this kind of thing can keep you stalled out in life, too.
Solomon wrote, “Where there is no vision the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18). They lose heart. They grow faint and weary. They find themselves hopeless. They find themselves in despair.
In this episode of the podcast I talk about success- and how it’s simply a recipe. That brings two items of great news-
Great news #1- it’s a proven process. You can look at what others do and you can follow along, getting similar results.
Great news #2- there’s no shortage. Often, we look at success as if it’s a lottery ticket. If someone else wins, that means you didn’t. It means you CAN’T, in fact… that it’s IMPOSSIBLE.
Success isn’t like that, though.
There's enough to go around. We can all win. We can all help each other. We’re not in competition.
OK- just covered a lot…
Listen in. Great stuff, I promise :-)
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Note: download the Advance info at www.TheLadder.info
One of my favorite events of the year is coming up, so I'm taking a short break from the Redemption series. Advance arrives every 5-7 months, depending on the time of year, and is designed to empower men to move from where they are to where they’re destined to be. It’s not a retreat… it’s an Advance.
In this episode I’ll tell you a bit about what we do and how…
And introduce you to the concept of The Ladder, tell you the stories of how this thing (“accidentally”) came to be, and share with you how to go deeper and higher at the same time…
Ah… about The Ladder. Lots of talk about climbing ladders and making sure you go up the right one. This one’s short, though. On purpose. Because we REALLY believe this…
*Your dreams are HUGE (inspired by God Himself and placed inside of you, waiting to burst forth).
*Your dreams are within reach…
Join us on the journey…
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Access the free PDF or the online Advance at www.TheLadder.info
The book mentioned in the show... is here: https://www.overflowbusiness.com/p/hfg
Learn more about attending the live event at www.EatSleepAdvance.com
The Bible outlines a few contradictory things about us- things that we need to hold in tension.
First, everything that happened to Jesus has already happened to us. We were crucified with Him, we died with Him, and we were buried. We also arose with Him AND we’ve been seated with Him in Heaven.
That means that, right now, we’re “here” and “there” at the same time. This is our current experience.
Second, the Kingdom of God is a kingdom- not a democracy. It functions with rank, order, and spheres of authority. I know, authority is a misused and bloated term in our culture… but, under the lead of a benevolent king in which the first is last, the greatest serve the most, and honor and humility win the day, the Kingdom of God is the ideal…
We actually want to see it THIS Kingdom manifest.
However, we find ourselves in the middle of a conflict. A spiritual war of sorts.
But, rather than fighting FOR the victory, we must remember that we live FROM victory. When we live from the 3rd realm (seated in Heaven), we’re free to love… to honor… to grace… and to empower…
We’re not striving… we’re receiving…
And we’re not “against” things so much as we’re “for” things…
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For the worksheet related to this episode, go to:
https://www.jenkins.tv/threerealms
There’s a rabbinical tradition that says Moses’ burning bush was always burning. Or, at least, that it had been burning for quite some time before Moses stumbled upon it.
Furthermore, tradition says that God was there and was READY to speak the entire time. It was only after Moses stopped and “came in close” that God reveals Himself to him…
(In the same way, it's believed that God is always looking... waiting... wanting to reveal Himself to us...)
The name of God that’s revealed here is interesting, too. The name, YHWH, is actually unpronounceable. It’s the sound of breathing- like a whisper. It a real sense, that name shows us that-
*You can’t fully place God’s identity into a single word (like they thought they did with names), and
*You can’t begin to understand God apart from relationship. From close relationship. From close enough to hear the sound of a whisper.
There are two kinds of healing. At least.
This may sound strange- even in Heaven we'll choose health + healing.
(For definition purposes, I refer to "healing" as something God does AND "health" as something you do, OK? Just to keep the terms straight... Anyway...)
Think about it. Health + healing was available in the Garden of Eden AND we see the "leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations" in Heaven (see Genesis 1:29, Ezekiel 47:12, Revelation 22:2).
When Jesus walked the earth, He healed people in two ways. First, He performed miracles (iaomai). Second, He taught people how to be well (therapeuo) (see Matthew 8:15f., Acts 28:8-9).
In other words, health is how things began AND it's how things "end” AND it’s how Jesus + the apostles outlined things to work. It IS your destiny, in other words, a destiny you can choose now.
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More info?
You may also like the free healing eBook + 7 videos:
https://www.jenkins.tv/healing-free-ebook-offer
Jesus marvels at great faith, but a lack of faith never restrains Him.
Somebody told me this more than once: "If you don't have enough faith, Jesus can't move."
I've even seen this belief used to blame people for their own lack of healing, lack of provision, lack of other good thing their Heavenly Father is supposedly holding back from them.
Simply because they don't have enough belief?
Is faith really the most powerful force in He universe? Even stronger than the hand and bigger than the heart of God?
Hardly. Jesus commended great faith, but He never criticized a lack of it to people desperately needing His touch.
The bigger issue in the Bible... is HONOR.
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In this episode I reference The Healing Workshop. Get the free eBook + access to 7 videos here:
https://www.jenkins.tv/healing-free-ebook-offer
Somewhere, we bought the line that poverty is noble, that sickness is a blessing, and that Heaven is when things really start happening in our favor. Yet, a quick look at the Father of our faith shows us something radically different...
In fact, Paul writes that one of the reasons Christ redeemed us was "so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles..." (see Galatians 3:13-14).
What does the blessing include? Well…
*Health, vitality- see Genesis 12:14, Genesis 14:14f., Genesis 21:1f., Genesis 17:1f., Genesis 12:10, 20:1
*Financial, abundance- see Genesis 13:2, Genesis 14:14f., Genesis 14:18, Genesis 12:16, 20:14)
*Spiritual awakening- see Romans 4:1f., Genesis 12:1f.
Here’s the deal: Abraham's blessing "caught" his descendants in this life, while they were still living. They experienced the presence and power of the Kingdom of God now. In this life. As a person walking this planet.
Furthermore… and this is the best part… YOU are aligible for the blessing. It’s YOURS (see Galatians 3:29, 4:6).
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Note: you can read more or watch a short video about this topic on my blog here:
https://www.jenkins.tv/blog/prosper-in-everything
Salvation isn’t just Jesus’ name (the name Jesus / Yeshua literally means “He saves”), it’s what He does. Furthermore, Jesus not only saves us FROM certain things, He also saves us TO an amazing life.
The word in the New Testament used for “save” is sozo (this part of the Bible was originally penned in Greek). That word means far more than being “saved” from sin, though. The word is used to denote-
*forgiveness of sin, guilt, and condemnation
*physical safety
*spiritual freedom / deliverance
*physical healing
*raising the dead
Jesus moves us beyond a life of rules and legalism AND moves us into a life of supernatural meaning and spiritual power. In this episode we discuss what that looks like.
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In this episode I mention The Healing Workshop. You can access the free healing eBook and seven free videos here:
https://www.jenkins.tv/healing-free-ebook-offer