The Word Is Closer Than You Think And That Changes Everything

Deuteronomy doesn’t whisper. It warns, it promises, and it draws a straight line between what we choose and what we live with. We start with Deuteronomy 28 and 30, where Moses lays out blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience, and we ask the uncomfortable question: what if the “punishment” we fear is often the consequence of spiritual laws we keep ignoring? That opens up a real conversation about national drift, personal repentance, and why redemption is still on the table. 

Then we zoom in on identity. “Israel” isn’t just a nation name, it starts with Jacob, the deceiver, becoming Israel, the one who wrestles with God. We talk about how that same struggle plays out in us: the ego that performs versus the self that clings to God, face-to-face, close enough to share breath. From there, Deuteronomy 30:11–14 hits hard: the Word is not far away. It’s near, on your lips and in your heart. We connect that to Jesus Christ as the Word and to reading Scripture in a way that reveals him in the plain sight of everyday life. 

Finally, we make it practical with a simple discipline: “catch yourself in the act of being generated.” When life wells up in you, pause, create a sliver of space, and ask, “Jesus, is that you?” We pair that with psychology you can use today: negativity bias, the whirlpool vs the whirlwind, and why “state first, then story, then strategy” can flip your attention from what’s wrong to what’s real and good without denying pain. If this helped you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs a reset, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

This is the Buddy For Junior Show — where faith, truth, and courage come together. Join us as we explore life’s deeper purpose and carry the torch of conviction. The show begins now.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:12

Right. Welcome. Hey Brian. Welcome. Thank you, Monk. This is Mondays at the Monk. We've got a couple weeks. We've been dry or off the air. So thank you

Welcome Back And Why Deuteronomy

SPEAKER_02 0:23

for coming back. It's been a crazy couple weeks. Appreciate your time. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Doing very well. I'm actually visiting family right now. So for the I was in for the holidays for the 4th of July and the 250th birthday of the Declaration of Independence. And so feeling liberty ringing in the air.

SPEAKER_02 0:43

I love that. 250 years, God bless America. And I want to dive in here and probably push outside your comfort zone a little bit, if you don't mind. I might get a little political. So, Brian, you had mentioned it 250 years. I was talking about Deuteronomy. Folks,

Blessings Curses And America’s Drift

SPEAKER_02 0:59

I've been reading Deuteronomy. I haven't, it's the second time I read it. And for some reason, this time, the Holy Spirit showed me a different approach to this. And I got enthralled with chapter 28, Brian, and chapter 30. And I'm hoping you can help us unpack this. Chapter to talk Moses is talking to the chosen people, to the Jews, on their exile, their ex- I'm sorry, on their Exodus from uh Egypt. They're not at the promised land yet, and is giving them the blessings for obedience. Look at if you are obedient to the command that I've given you, that the Lord has downloaded to me, wow, our life's gonna be amazing. This land we're going to is gonna be fruitful, and my goodness, we're not gonna be able to handle the greatness that's before us. Then he brings in the curses for disobedience, and he tells them when you're disobedient, here's what's gonna happen. Not if, but when. So he prophesizes, which is I never caught that before. And what I love thank God, praise God for redemption. In chapter 30, to return to the Lord. So be obedient, here's your blessings. When you're disobedient, here's what's gonna happen. We all know they got exiled. And then uh number three, it's not too late. Return to the Lord. And Brian, I've always felt like, and I know it says Israel, I feel like America is God's Israel. I feel like we are also Israel. We are a nation, I believe, blessed by God. We're a nation, we can debate it all we want. In the constitutions of the states at the time, you had to be a person of God. I believe the freedom of religion was the freedom to practice religion, not the not the freedom from religion. Right. I and I believe that when you look at our historical battles and wars and freedom, there's no way these things are pullable off without God's hand. From George Washington off of Manhattan to George Washington attacking the British troops on the Potomac and how it happened and being off course, all these things would go on and on. But the bottom line is I believe we were obedient to God's. I believe we were founded on those principles of the Bible. And however, I believe we've drifted. I believe as Christians, we've been apologetic. We've been hiding, we've been in a closet. I believe a demonic force has taken over our nation. I believe we are being punished for it. But the good news is I feel like if we as a Bible-believing hypocritical group of people, because we're sinners, I believe if we can return to the Lord like Moses instructs in chapter 30. And I believe you read chapter 28, you can't deny the fact that we were blessed and we're now being punished. And if we don't get our act together, if we don't repent, like chapter 30 says, I believe we're in a lot of trouble as a nation. Call me crazy. Bob will give you the microphone. Talk me off the cliff.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

Well, the uh you're you're on the cliff looking over at the promised land, and this is where Moses wrote Deuteronomy from that that high ground

Punishment As Consequence Not Anger

SPEAKER_00 4:24

and gave us everything we need to enter into the promises of the Lord. So I I love the sound of uh I love the sound of what you're saying. I guess if I if I started to, yeah, when you talk about God punishing, so you got blessings and curses, yes. I think it's a worthwhile investment to understand God's punishments as simply a consequence. Like he's the he's not just the author of the laws of physics, he's the author of the laws of spiritual physics. And there's ways that things work, you know. So when we try to defy the law of gravity, we wind up proving, you know, if you jump off the building and try to defy the law of gravity, you wind up proving the law of gravity. So the laws of physics, I believe it's it's the physical laws that mirror the supernatural laws of God. Yeah, and so there are consequences. If you live by them, you'll be blessed. You know, he's a God that he John 10 10 tells us I came that you might have life and have it to the full. And that's what the promised land is promising, and that's what Moses is giving Israel. And so let's let's talk for a minute about who Israel is and the the spiritual meaning, one of the principles that I remember from the monastery is that the spiritual

Who Israel Is Jacob’s New Name

SPEAKER_00 5:51

meaning is rooted in the literal. So you start with the literal, but that's the beginning, and then the better you understand the literal, the more levels of the spiritual you see. So you say literal as in the literal. Yeah, yeah. So the liter the spiritual meaning is rooted in the literal. So I love when you say Israel, let's go back to the first Israel. And so the first Israel was actually Jacob. Jacob. Yeah, and and Jacob, and he got given a new name. He went from Jacob to Israel. And so sometimes they translate Israel as the one who wrestles with God, like Jacob wrestled through the night. It's interesting, Jacob means the deceiver. So Jacob has two identities. I'm either the deceiver or I'm the one who wrestles with God. Now, this wrestling with God, anybody who is taking life seriously, taking God seriously, taking reality seriously, you're gonna wrestle. Sometimes wrestle can sound like resisting or fighting, but he was clinging to the goodness of God. He was clinging to the promises of God. He was saying, I'm not letting go until you bless me. So he knew God's goodness. So this is a beautiful wrestling. This is an intimate wrestling. So you could say, Israel, that L on the end of it, by the way, that's the God. So wrestling with God, Israel, the one who wrestles with God. But wrestling with God is Israel's also the one who's intimate with God. And Israel is also the one who sees the face of God. And Israel is also the one who shares their very breath with God. That's that whole teaching that God is calling us. You talked about taking me outside my comfort zone. Life begins outside your comfort zone. So God's always that that's where you, that's where you grow. God is always going to bring us outside our comfort zone. But the number one comfort zone God wants to take us outside is how close he wants to get to us. So when you're wrestling, as I said before, that's that's intimate. And God's like bringing his face closer and closer to our face. He wants to be forehead to forehead with us.

unknown 8:07

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

And when you're that close, that's uncomfortable. God wants to be, if you don't, if you don't feel uncomfortable about how close God's calling you to be, then you you're not getting how close he's calling you to be. So he wants to be forehead to forehead. And when you live forehead to forehead with God, then you share a breath with him. So all that's built into Israel. So that's that's the first literal Israel. Then Israel had his sons, which be 12 sons become 12 tribes, 12 tribes become the nation.

SPEAKER_02 8:40

Can we stop right there for a second? Please, yeah. So thank you. That's awesome. So just for you listeners out there, I highly recommend you Google it. Jacob. Jacob deceives his brother.

unknown 8:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:54

He flees from his brother. He's he he deceives his brother of his inheritance. He um it's a long story, but you should absolutely dive into it. So Jacob flees and he comes back. And on his journey back, he is asleep and he wrestles with God physically, and he comes out with a a hip that he wakes up and he's got a hip problem. If I'm if I'm correct. And he he wrestles with God, and then God renames him Israel. So that's a redemption story right then and there. So Jacob, the name means deceiver. He deceives his brother of his inheritance, which is a big deal. He comes back years later with his family. He's wrestling with God on his journey back to see his brother. He's worried about what's going to happen to him. And God changes his name to Israel. Then the 12 tribes of the Jewish nation are born from his line. So the deceiver is redeemed at the highest possibility that you could be redeemed at, which is my hair stands on that story. So I just want to share that real quick, and now we can above where you're going.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

Yeah, and Billy, let's just to not to miss. So we're we talked about the spiritual meaning is rooted in the literal. So here we go back to the historical figure of Jacob whose name was changed. But even in that, there's layers. So when you start to move into the spiritual meaning of the text, you have the literal, you have the original, you have the historical, and then there's layer, beautiful layer on top of a beautiful layer. The Israel's teachers or the teachers of uh the sages, they they talked about the when you first study the Torah, you experience it as light. Then when you live the Torah, the Torah becomes water. Then when you know the secret of the Torah, the water, the water becomes wine. When you know the secret of the secrets, then the wine becomes oil. So these layers, this is part of a rich spiritual, mystical tradition. So when you, whenever somebody says a name like Israel, we want to look for the layers. We want to start, okay, what was the first instance of it? What was the most literal and then the most historical? And then we go to deeper and deeper secrets with it. What I don't want the listener to miss, though, is that in each one of us, there's a Jacob who's a deceiver, and there's an Israel who's intimate with God. And so there's part of us who's the deceiver, so he deceives his father to get his brother's blessing. So that deceiver, that's the version of us that's that's our ego, that's our performance. Um, that's us, you know, competition and trying to prove fight, you know, fight, fight, and freeze that the lower man. So that's we've all got a Jacob in us. So whatever you think of Jacob, we've all got a Jacob in us. That Jacob, by the way, is the same Jacob who had a dream about a ladder that connected heaven and earth that angels were ascending and descending on. So you might feel like in my life, I'm such a like they what do they call it, that impersonation syndrome? Uh uh.

SPEAKER_02 12:12

Impersonating a Christian.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Yeah, impersonating a syndrome, but uh yeah. Anyway, it's something like that. We we we impersonate, we yeah, I think it's called impersonation syndrome. The we don't so but even if you feel like you're far from God and you're not being honest about who you are, that's the Jacob that had the dream.

unknown 12:35

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

You know, of heaven and earth being joined by a ladder. Angels were ascending and descending on that ladder. So wherever you are, no matter how false you are, there's an invitation to the truth. And what I would say is that the Israel, that's the true identity. So I'm either the old man or I'm the new man, I'm either the fallen man or I'm the risen man. You know, St. Paul says it uh it's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, put to death in the flesh, given life in the realm of the spirit. So that same wrestling, it's always been there. And you can see it in the name in the man Jacob, you can hear it in the name Israel. That story is happening in us individually. And then what you're talking about now with the nation, it's also happening in us as a people. These are the rich layers. One of the prayers I have what if every day I could learn something new about God, something new about myself, and something new about the true nature of reality. So, what we're discussing, what we're unfolding, this is true for us as individuals, and it's true for us as a people. It's true for us as a nation. Blessings and curses. Either we figure out how things work and we're blessed, or we stay stubborn in our ways and try to do it ourselves, and we experience the consequences. So the punishment isn't an angry father who's like, I'm gonna show you. My yoke is easy and my burden is like so good.

SPEAKER_02 14:13

So, why do we get it wrong? Why do we get it wrong?

SPEAKER_00 14:20

Great questions take us to great places. So, uh what if we ask the question, how do we get it right? I love it.

SPEAKER_02 14:27

I love it.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

How do we get it right?

SPEAKER_02 14:29

Yeah. As a nation, as a people.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

Well, I think studying the word's a great start. You know, looking for the patterns that are in the scriptures, and then looking for the ways that those patterns appear in my life. If if the patterns in the scriptures, if they're true, then they're gonna appear at every level of reality. So we're just looking at those patterns, you know. So if you want to go back to Deuteronomy, Moses writes this book before Israel goes into the promised land, all of those patterns are gonna be rich with application for us as individuals, for us as families, as communities, and as a nation.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

Yeah, I mean, he literally predicts he predicts it. He says, when you fall, when you don't follow these rules, here's what's gonna happen. We will be scattered all throughout the nation. What that means that happened hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years later.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

Yeah. And this is one of the traps in this buddy, is to get stuck on prophecies of the scriptures. Are they are they for the past, are they for the present, or are they for the future? And the answer is yes. Because these patterns will perennially, perennially repeat one, repeat themselves. They they will echo like a branch, like a if you have a tree, this is a fractile pattern. So if you have a tree, that tree has the trunk of the tree, has a branch, that branch has a branch, has a branch, has a branch, has a twig, but they all look exactly the same. Like this is what we're looking at, this these beautiful, this beautiful divine proportion, the divine fingerprint that appears in all reality.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

It's I just read, I just looked over 30 again, and I love 30 because it calls to return to God to the Lord. And I just asked you how, right? How? Check out 30 uh verse

The Word Is Near On Lips

SPEAKER_02 16:29

11.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 16:31

This command I'm giving you today is not too difficult for you to understand. It is not beyond your reach. It is not kept in heaven, so distant that you must that you must ask who will go up to heaven and bring it down so we can hear it and obey it. It is not kept beyond the sea, so far away that you must ask who will cross the sea to bring it to us so that we can hear it and obey it. No, the message is very close at hand, it is on your lips and in your heart so that you can obey it.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

What?

SPEAKER_00 17:15

Yeah, buddy, can we can we just stop there for a minute? I am so grateful for you bringing our attention, bringing my attention there. So, this is for those that want to look it up, this is Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 11 to 14. And the I I love the teaching that from John, it's a combination of the what I call the John 5 anointing and the John 12 anointing. In the John 5 anointing, Jesus says, I only do what I see the Father doing. And in the John 12 anointing, Jesus says, I only say what I hear the Father saying. And then I love to ask that question, where does Jesus look? Because we're being invited to live life in Christ so that we too, with Christ, through Christ's eyes, we can see the Father, we can hear the Father. But where do where does Jesus look? So therefore, where should we look? Where does Jesus look to see the Father? Where does He listen to here? And people give me lots of great answers, but there's one answer that's more important than all of the others. So some of the great answers, they say, I look in prayer, I look in the scriptures, I look in my heart, I look up to heaven. This I get all, but I feel like that's this first. When I tell them, there's an answer that's more, I'm not saying to delete those. I'm just saying make sure the first place you look is the depth of the beyond that's in front of you. Because Christ is risen, Christ is alive, he's right here right now, waiting for us to have eyes to see him. And I just feel like that's what it's saying. Like, you don't have to go up to heaven to find it, you don't have to go across the sea to find it. The word, so Jesus, once again, this pattern is is uh this will change the way you read the scriptures. Look for the way that Jesus is revealed in every line of the scriptures. So when it says the word is near you, Jesus is the word. So even back there in Deuteronomy, we're getting a message about Jesus. So the word is near you. Jesus is the word made flesh. The word is near you. It's my translation says it's in your mouth and in your heart so that you may obey it. Um I think yours is a beautiful one. It says, on your lips, he's right here. Living Gods, right here.

SPEAKER_02 19:29

I love that you just went there. And for the first time, I was waiting for you to ask me because I had the answer for the first time. Where is it? In the depths of the reality in front of me. I I got that one. All right, now listen. I've been talking to some people going back and forth, and one thing that they're still missing or confused about, and I'd like to close up. Let's see here, what time is it? We got time. So I would love to go through again because I want to be redundant. Jesus was redundant, Moses was redundant, the Bible's redundant. I'd like to be redundant and go through again right now, because I think I love what you just said, the depths of reality of the reality that's in front of us. Can you take us through the concept of being generated?

unknown 20:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:17

I'm gonna hit pause. I got a lot going on in the background. This is a live scene behind me, folks.

Catch Yourself Being Generated

SPEAKER_00 20:24

Yeah, so this pro this proposal catch yourself in the act of being generated and know that that's the presence of Jesus in your life. Don't look, don't believe it because I'm saying it. Test and verify it for yourself. But how do you do that? All right. So, what does it mean to be generated? There are moments. It's not an accident that you live where you live, buddy. Look at that beautiful scenery behind you. Um the so there are moments in our life, all everybody, the believer, the non-believer, the close to God, the far from God, the close to church, the far from church. No matter who you are, there are moments when something beautiful happens. There are moments when something meaningful, something moving. So those are the moments when we're being generated. I'd like to propose that's God breaking in. That's God reminding you that you know how to see God and you know how to hear God. And so now take me from that. That's the moment of being generated. Where do you want to go next from that, buddy?

SPEAKER_02 21:32

I want to I want to dive into the real world experience of this. And I just want to make sure our listeners and me, and that I am practicing practicing this. So when you and I start off a call once a week, Brian's my spiritual advisor. We talk once a week. And what's the first question you ask me when we set up the call? When we get on.

SPEAKER_00 21:53

Yeah. What's the greatness that you want to open this call with? So the greatness, and what's that that's a reference to in the past week? I know there's always greatness. A beautiful God is always doing a beautiful thing in a beautiful way, and a powerful God is always doing a powerful thing in a powerful way. We're we're not waiting for God to do it. We're Waking up so that we can be aware of it. And so I ask you for what's the greatness? And then we've been refining that is it what's actually happening? There's moments of greatness, any any moment where like, you know what, that was the best day, or that was, I would had this, I had a conversation with a friend, or I just had a walk out in nature, or I was driving somewhere and just felt, saw a movie, read a book, heard a song, you know, fill in the blank. What you know, when I started to explore this experience of being generated, I the I remember asking Jesus the first time, I was like, Jesus, is is I was rock climbing, and it was a beautiful day. It reminds us right before I did my next send, I just pushed back from the rock. I was like, Jesus, is that you? And the words that came to me were there's only one Lord and giver of life. So as beautiful as this granite rock was, I was at the Shangun Cliffs, as beautiful as this granite rock is, it doesn't have the power to give me life. Same with the the the green tree line or the blue sky or the sunshine is as great as all that is, as beautiful as all that, it doesn't have the power to give me life. So if I can feel life being generated in me, welling up within me. This is I so as I so the words that I got was there's only one Lord and giver of life. So that's Jesus. Now that's where I began testing it. And I invite everybody to do, don't believe it because I'm saying it, don't believe it because you want to believe it. Test it and verify it. Catch yourself in the act of being generated, create two millimeters of space and ask, Jesus, is that you? And then let him answer. Don't answer for him. He can he can speak for himself. Let him answer you. What revelation do you get that? You know, man does not live on bread alone, but every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. He knows how to speak to your spirit, and your spirit knows how to listen to him. And we're just creating the space that gives him the chance to remind us that we know how to see God, we know how to hear God.

SPEAKER_02 24:27

I'm about to go jump in a lake, bro. I'm so pumped up. All right, now listen, I'll stay there. I'll stay there, listeners. Follow along here. You just said create the space. So, what what I'm finding, what I said to you whenever I start with the greatness, first of all, real quick, 30 seconds. Folks, I found that when I got on the phone with Brian and he said, What was the greatness of God in the past six days that you want to talk about? It makes you or it adjusts your thinking, it trains you to go, oh, wait a minute, a whole bunch of shit happened. I was pissed off most of the week, but there was one moment. Okay. It just it changes your perspective on your week. And that's what I want to I want to consider or to do is perhaps that's operating in a spiritual realm of heaven. And when we bring to the table of therapy or whatever we're going through, all the negativity we want to unpack, we're operating in the depths of hell in the spiritual world of that battle of good and evil. So if we just adjust and level ourselves up, that Brian has gotten me practicing, where we degenerate it, what did it look like? How did it feel? Let's talk about it. Now, all of a sudden, every week and months later, they're happening more and more because I'm identifying it. However, I say to Brian all the time, I live in the real world where chick is throwing at me all day long, I get pissed off, and I fall off the wagon. Okay. So what I what I'm realizing lately, because I'm in this mode of summertime vacation, I was in Aruba and I woke up every morning. Let me just preparize this. I know we have to practice. I'm an athlete. I know that practice is required. Sometimes we practice in a gym. I call this my Jesus gym on my podcast

Practicing God’s Presence Beyond Vacation

SPEAKER_02 26:13

on Wednesdays, and we all practice in different places. So when I was in Aruba, I had brought up a book, which everyone should read. Um Practice Being in the Presence of the Lord by Bride.

SPEAKER_00 26:27

Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:29

Brother Lawrence, this book is insane. It's not a big read, it's a small read. And I was reading my highlights in it. And I'm like, okay, all week I'm going to I'm going to practice being in the presence of God. So whenever my thought, what that looked like for me, I was talking to my wife about it last night. What that looked like is when I was on the beach at seven in the morning, reserving our chairs and Aruba, and doing my reading, put my book down and started thinking about the markets. I started thinking about what's going on in Iran. Instead of thinking about the political factors, instead of thinking about my business, instead of thinking about my to-do list, I shifted my mind to being present in this relationship. And it was just, hey God, what do I do today? Hey, thank you for this view I'm having. Thank you for that bird chirping. I just came up with excuses for thanking him. And I practice this every day. And man, I got to tell you, one day out of seven, I got it right. One day, and I'll take that, bro. I'll take one day out of seven all day long. I want seven, not a seven, but right now I'm gonna settle for the one. And I gotta tell you, my day was peaceful. My relationships were fruitful. I was present in conversation. Folks, I have a hard time being present because my mind is on everything else other than the moment. I've always been that way. I look at pictures of my vacation with my children on my shoulders, and I don't remember them. Thank God for pictures or not, because then it reminds you of how you weren't there. Anyhow, I don't want to continue that continue that behavior if I'm in the word. So practicing it and getting it right one day. I don't know if it was day number one or day number seven. All I know is one out of those seven days, it felt awesome. So you just to just to bring a practice into it when I'm on vacation here in Lake George, on a lake. This is my background, it's real, there's waves hitting. I can do it here. And then Brian and I talked last, I think we talked on Tuesday, right? This week. And I go, Brian, how do I do this everywhere? Like I don't, I don't want to just need a lake with waves hitting a rock. I don't want to just, I don't want to have to need an Aruba beach looking at the horizon. How do I do it? So, Bri, let me give you the microphone there. How do we create that vacation moment? If we're practicing it, it should be possible.

SPEAKER_00 28:41

Yeah, I love it. Buddy, one of the ways that the Lord's been, I love this content. I love this conversation. The Lord and I have an ongoing conversation about this. He's always showing me something new. So I love learning new things about this. Every person I talk to, every circumcircumstance I'm in, he shows me something new. And one of the recent insights I got about this, as you were sharing there, started coming back to me, is the difference between theology and psychology. You know, some people have fallen out with church and they've

Negativity Bias Whirlpool Versus Whirlwind

SPEAKER_00 29:13

fallen out with God and they think they have a theology problem. They don't have a theology problem, they have a psychology problem. And if they give some good, they're so filled with stinking thinking, they're so filled with low-level psychology that if they just say yes to the grace of healing their psychology, their theology will take care of itself. You're gonna have a brand new, beautiful theology. So what we're talking about right now is actually psychology, which is, you know, it builds, right? If I have a great psychology, then I can have a beautiful philosophy. And then if I have a sound philosophy, then I'm gonna have a brilliant theology. And so that's what we want to get to. But you gotta start with stopping the madness, that that monkey mind, that um so there's something called a negativity bias. Yes, it's 80% easier to pay attention to what's wrong than it is to pay attention to what's right. And this, by the way, is why the news is always bad news or negative news. Their job is not to educate you, their job is not to inform you, their job is to keep your attention, and it's just easier to deal with the negative because of the negativity bias. But that's part of our fallen psychology. What's wrong is always available, and there's a gravitational pull to it that's greater than the gravitational pull toward the greatness. So if we're not intentionally correcting it, saying, like, let me pump the brakes on what's wrong, and let me start focusing, intentionally focusing on. I want to, I want to swap that. So rather, if there's a an 80-20 rule, 80 toward negative, I want to flip that and I want to be 80% more intentional about what's right. It's not that I'm not gonna, you know, in our sessions, there is there's a time to unburden yourself. To the pain is real. Jesus talks about the pain that he's in, even on the cross. He's my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He's not afraid to name the pain. So, however, we don't let the pain tell the story. God is the author of life, and he's the life.

SPEAKER_01 31:32

Yeah.

unknown 31:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:37

I'm saying to cut you off. I just wanted to put that in there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:42

Yeah. So so this what's I I and I call this what's wrong is always available, so is what's right. These form what I call the whirlpool and the whirlwind. So I I love the chariot stories of the Old Testament where Elijah got taken up in the chariot, Isaiah winds up in a heavenly realm, Ezekiel experienced the chariot come down to him, then the whirlwind is part of that. So these mystical whirlwinds where we get to go to other realms with God. But I've noticed, you know, even in psychology, they talk about the funnel. The part of an addiction is you get stuck in a funnel. So there's two types of funnels. There's funnels that lift you, those are the ones I want to be in. And then there's funnels that drag you down. That's what I call the whirlpool. So it's 80% easier to focus on what's wrong. And if I focus on what's wrong, don't worry. It's always gonna be there. And every time I find one thing wrong, then I'm gonna see another thing wrong. Now I'm in the pattern of finding what's wrong. Now I'm in the whirlpool and I'm going down. But there's no bottom to it. It will get darker and darker and darker until you're done. So the whirlpool is death. I don't mess with the whirlpool. I want to be in the whirlwind.

SPEAKER_02 32:59

Okay, so repair state story strategy.

SPEAKER_00 33:04

That's it.

SPEAKER_02 33:04

Let's pull, let's, let's, right, like you're saying it to me, I'm going back to your teachings. So if you're there, it's your state that's creating that. So we have to go back to the story we're telling ourselves to fix it. Let's finish the episode. Don't go back to the story. Start with state. Okay. That's what dyslexia.

SPEAKER_00 33:26

No, no, no. So the the whirlwind goes up. In the metaphor of the building, it's the elevator. I want to get to that elevated state. The more elevated your state, the greater the story you're going to tell. Okay. And then the simpler the strategy.

State First Then Story Then Strategy

SPEAKER_00 33:43

So state story strategy, always start with state, state spiritual. State of mind. Yes, it's a state of mind. I like the language, and it's an altered state of consciousness. Okay, love that. It's an altered state of consciousness. Now you say, okay, that's weird. Where's that in the Bible? So Jesus, when he's speaking to Nicodemus, says to him, Unless you're born again of water and the spirit, you cannot see the kingdom. So this rebirth, Jesus is talking about, it's a spiritual, you can call it a rebirth, you can call it an awakening. It's just it, the way we're looking at reality has to change. So unless you're born again of water and the spirit, by the way, that is a reference to baptism. Jesus' baptism, he goes beneath the water, comes up from the water, Holy Spirit lands on him, heavens open up. What if that's not just available for Jesus then? What if that's available for you and I right now, every single moment of every single day? If I focus on what's wrong, I'm in the mind of man and I'm going down. That's what everybody starts there. With a negativity bias, it's 80% easier to focus on what's wrong. You will stay there, you will die there. But if you could sidestep that, say yes to the grace as a gift, the gospel of grace, finish work at the cross, Jesus is inviting us to live from a new reality. And it begins by seeing that the risen Christ is here, hiding in the depths of plain sight. Hiding in plain sight, the depths of the reality that's in front of me. And I'm just being invited. How do you start to see it? Let me find one thing I can be grateful for. You know what? I woke up, I already won. That's a miracle. I got out of bed, I won. That's a miracle. I I showed up, I won, that's a miracle. I I didn't give up, I won. That's a miracle. That's God giving me wins. I didn't deserve, I can't make myself if it's I mean there'll come a day I won't wake up. So but today I today I did. So God, thank you for that. And then you start just getting in that habit, and you, and that's where the the one thing right becomes a hundred things right, becomes a thousand things right. Now you're in the whirlwind. And and this is how we started a day. You asked me how I'm doing. I said, I buddy, I am over the moon. Because it's it is like a chain reaction. The more goodness you see, the more beauty you see, the more truth you see, the more you will see.

SPEAKER_02 36:14

Wow. That's so good. And the more beauty we see, the state that we're in is an elevated state. And a story we tell ourselves and others that are witnessing it, yeah, is a story of redemption, of grace, of thankfulness, of joy and peace.

SPEAKER_00 36:31

Yeah. I want that. Yeah. And when I hear a person's story, I mean, your stories are on stinking thinking. You know, that's the thinking you have your it's it's like bad breath. You're the last person to realize you have it. Everybody else can smell it, they can hear it. The things you say, you're just telling terrible stories. Like if it was food in the refrigerator, he's like, don't eat that. Like that, throw that away. Let's get something fresh. Let's go to the chateau and get something fresh and delicious. Um, and that's why I want every story that I tell to be a beautiful story filled with liberation and empowerment with the God who's good, a God who raises the dead. That's where I want to, that's the promised land. That's the land of milk and honey.

SPEAKER_02 37:20

And if I if I practice seeing that greatness of the depths of the reality in front of me, seeing where Jesus is showing up, when I'm on vacation, when I'm in the moment of non-distractions outside of the world that distracts me, if I practice there, I have a shot without question, according to the Bible and what you're telling me. I have a shot of having more of that everywhere I am, regardless of my situation.

SPEAKER_00 37:45

Yeah. So this is what it means to be a disciple. I'm gonna follow Jesus because that goodness, that greatness, that generation, that's Christ saying, Come follow me. And he will, nobody knows where he's gonna lead. He will surprise you. You can tell that because if you look on the pages of the gospel, the disciples, those that followed him, Jesus surprised them every day. And this is what I want to invite people to. You know, it's not about life in the zoo, it's about the safari. Like, let's go out in the wild. What did John the Baptist was told to prepare a way, prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness? So God is inviting us, Jesus is inviting us to go on an adventure. And every day I'm learning something new, something new about God, something new about myself, something new about the true new nature of reality.

SPEAKER_02 38:40

We have one minute, I love it, and it comes full circle. If we focus on this as individuals and as a nation, that has a compounding effect. And we continue

Keep Your Eyes On The Giver

SPEAKER_02 38:51

to receive these blessings. If we don't focus it as individuals and in our home and in our communities, and start having people witness this transformation that we're exhibiting through the word, the curse is uh inevitable. But there's always room for redemption if that curse gets too heavy to carry and we don't have to carry it.

SPEAKER_00 39:12

Yeah, yeah. That's what I'm getting from all this. At at any given moment, we're either dying or we're rising. You know, so we're either. Yeah, I I think Peter he says, Lord, if it's you, call me and I'll step out of the boat. And he steps out of the boat, and while he's looking at Jesus, he's walking on water. So everybody talks about what Peter sank, but Peter also is the only one that the only reason he sank is because what did he do? He looked from, he took his gaze off Christ and put it on the winds of the waves. Wind and the waves, that is available. The wind and the waves are always available. If you look at them, you will sink in them. So is Jesus, you know, and some people say to me, like, it can't be that easy, you know, there's just suffering, it's going to be difficult. I always say difficult is necessary until we realize that difficult isn't necessary. That was also in that Deuteronomy 30, 11. It's not difficult. So it doesn't have to be difficult. All we have to do is keep our eyes on him. And here's where people get messed up with this to keep our eyes on him is I'm not talking about your idea of who Jesus is. I'm talking about the way that he's in your reality. I woke up today, that's a gift. I got out of bed, that's a gift. I showed up today, that's a gift. Uh you know, the more you keep your eyes fixed on the gift, the more you'll find yourself face to face with the giver.

SPEAKER_02 40:51

Wow. So good. So good. I want to be respectful your time. Uh we gotta wrap this up. You want to say a quick 30-second prayer? Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for your time.

SPEAKER_00 41:02

Yeah, so Father God, thank you. Thank you for the scriptures, thank you for the for the first five books, for the book, for the Torah, thank you for the for the gospels, thank you,

Closing Prayer For Fresh Attention

SPEAKER_00 41:13

thank you for the way that you the man lives not on bread alone, but on every word that comes from your mouth, Lord. And thank you for the words that you've given us in your holy book, but also thank you for the words that breathe life into us every morning, and your word that speaks miracles in the depths of the realities in front of us. Father, we say yes to the grace of dedicating our eyes to seeing what you're doing, to see how what you're doing and your beauty and your power reveals who you are, and thank you that you are who you say you are, and thank you that we are who you say you are. We just we want to agree with that. Thank you, Father God, that the enemy has no authority. And thank you that the enemy has no authority, and we just we we break all agreements to allow the enemy to torment us by getting us to focus on what's wrong. And we thank you, Father, that you're giving us this beautiful fresh wind of the Holy Spirit to direct the fullness of our attention to the fullness of your goodness. And we pray all this in Jesus' name.

SPEAKER_02 42:30

So good. Amen. Thank you, Brian. Thank you, monk.