Proverbs 28:13 | You Were Tested in the Failure—Did You Pass?

Most believers think the test is avoiding failure. But what if the real test begins after you fail?

In this episode, Codie Cobb explores a powerful biblical truth hidden in Proverbs 28:13: failure is not what defines us—our response to failure does. Through Scripture, personal insight, and practical application, you’ll discover why confession opens the door to mercy, why hiding keeps people in bondage, and how God often uses our weakest moments to produce humility, freedom, and spiritual growth.

If you’ve ever wrestled with shame, condemnation, regret, or the fear of being exposed, this conversation will challenge your perspective and point you toward the mercy of God. Learn why many believers remain stuck after failure, how to recognize the difference between conviction and condemnation, and what it truly means to walk the path that leads to restoration.

The question isn’t whether you’ve failed.

The question is: What road did you choose afterward?

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Hey guys, good morning. Oh, it is a beautiful day today. It's a little uh rainy and dreary, but um God is good and we need the rain. The earth needs the rain. I always think of rain as like healing. Um, and so a lot of times when the Lord begins to pour out rain, I think of um how he's nourishing the earth. You know, um he says when Jesus was with the Samaritan woman, he said um when you drink from living water, you will never thirst again. And I just think about even his plants don't thirst because they rely on the Father and they trust the Father and they know that if they wait upon the Lord that He will renew their strength. So today I have a topic that I think many people need freedom uh from shame and condemnation. And so I want to share this topic um in the sense that I'm outside. I don't know if you can hear the birds, but these mocking birds are something else. Um, they're very violent. Um, but anyways, I am outside today, so if you hear those birds or or any um uh nature sounds, just know that. Um the topic I want to talk about today is you were tested by failure. Did you pass? Because I think a lot of us we we really beat ourselves up when we fail. But I don't really believe that God is looking so much at the at the failure. Um, if you could see like a timeline, like at the beginning, you make the wrong choice. Um, but it's really what you do after you've made the bad choice is really where the Lord is calling his people to self-evaluate. Most believers they think the test is whether they fail, but what if the real test begins after failure? What if the question isn't did you sin? But what did you do when your sin was exposed? Did you hide? Did you justify? Did you blame? Or did you confess and forsake it? Proverbs 2813 reveals that after failure, there are two roads that appear before us. One leads to bondage and the other leads to mercy. Proverbs 28-13, it says this whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. When I read that scripture, you know, I thought about there's so many people that they come to you and they're like, I need you to pray for provision. I'm trying to do this and I'm trying to do that, and I need provision, which obviously a lot of people think money, tangible money, you know, money in your bank account, somebody giving you a check, somebody giving you cash, you know, they automatically think, okay, this is provision. But um ask the Lord to expand your understanding of his provision because I have seen it to where um God has done so many things to provide um and and to give provision that we take for granted and we don't realize it. And so we don't appreciate it as much as I believe that we should be thankful for. Um, even salvation is provision, even um peace and rest, all of that is provision to God. So I think we really need to shift our perspective on what it actually means to prosper. And so a lot of people ask that. They're like, I'm not prospering, like, you know, I need this money, I need to do this and that, but I'm just not prospering. And when I read this scripture in Proverbs 28, 13, it says, Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper. And I thought, wow, like literally the open door to prosperity is literally confession. Like that hit me so hard, and I thought, wow. And now let's talk a little bit about confession because we think that um, you know, confession is going to your pastor, confessing your sins, and and don't get me wrong, you can do that, you know, and that is a place if you have no no one else to go to and God doesn't lead you, you know, anywhere else but to your pastor. But I think we need to make sure that we're not um just doing a religious act, and um, you know, we are actually asking God, like, how do we confess and where do we confess? Because there's gonna be certain sins that, you know, people aren't gonna confess to their pastor. Um, if you've listened to any of our previous podcasts, I share some of the people that come to us for ministry and how they're actually people from other pastors' churches, um, and they just really need a release. They just need somebody trusted that they can confess their deep, dark, secret sins to and get freedom. And it's not um, they don't want to confess to their pastor not because they don't trust their pastor, but because we have to understand as leaders that if we are leading a congregation, that congregation, um, if they come to us and they confess our sins, they're they're now gonna be very vulnerable um to the condemnation, the shame and the guilt that the enemy is gonna put on them. I mean, they're not strong enough in their spiritual walk with Christ just yet. So when they're in a state of learning how to confess, they're not gonna be confident that they're they're gonna be able to resist that shame and that guilt and that condemnation every time they go to that pastor's church that they confessed all their sins to. And just him up there preaching, like if he says any little thing that is is biblical towards that sin that they just confess to him, they're automatically gonna get triggered and think that he's exposing them. That's a spirit of fear. But you have we have to understand as leaders, like that Satan is going to attack them with that. So it's actually best as leaders and pastors, if we actually know somebody that functions in that anointing to be able to break those yolks and is a trusted, loyal person that's not gonna go blab and tell everybody's business. Almost like if you could have like a secret counselor as a leader, that would be great because, and to be honest, it would be great if it was somebody not at your church because your people are actually gonna get more freedom and they're gonna be more open because they don't have to see this person on a weekly basis that they confessed all of their dark secrets to. It's like the therapist, right? Um, most people go to a therapist. Why? Because they want to release things that they're not gonna have to face on a daily basis at their church. Because, again, they're gonna be tormented, they're going to be, um, they're gonna have that guilt and that shame. And every time that preacher says something in the pulpit directed towards that sin for somebody else, they're automatically gonna think that he's exposing them. And that's the lie of Satan, and that's what he's that's what he would do. Um, and so it's really beautiful. Um, we work in ministry, like I said before, we actually help a lot of leaders that don't even know that we're helping them because people come to us, they call us, um, they don't have to see us on a daily basis. A lot of them are um from different states all over the United States. And it's just so beautiful because we literally allow people to confess and they actually can take the road that leads to mercy in Proverbs 28:13. Um, the first road is the person who conceals his transgressions will not prosper. That's the road that leads to bondage, more bondage. Um, but it says he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. So um I think in the church we need to kind of reevaluate um how our people get help, how our people get deliverance, and how they get healing. And they actually need it, it actually needs to be um a ministry that you partner with outside of your church so that the person doesn't um you actually cut the hands off and the voice off of the enemy of any of that condemnation, shame, and guilt uh from that person not having to see the Holy Spirit is really pressing on this because I'm literally only a couple uh lines into my um outline, but I really feel like God is asking leaders and churches to begin to partner with ministries outside, and I know that's scary for some leaders because they're like, well, you know, I don't know. We just really have to be spirit-led because don't get me wrong, you don't want to partner with just any ministry or any leader outside of your your church because, well, then they're held accountable, you know, not completely to you because they're not in your in your teachings and in your um you know, all of your the things that you you trust in to make sure that your leaders are doing what they're supposed to be doing and they're held accountable. But I wouldn't really encourage um any leaders or pastors that are listening to this, um, find a deliverance minister, find somebody um who flows in, you know, the spirit of God and you know and you trust that person and test that person, you know, bring them in, like, you know, let them actually minister, you know, to you or to some people you trust and and take them through the the test of their fruit. Believe me, somebody who truly is of God, they are not going to mind you testing their fruit. They're not gonna mind that. They're gonna say, absolutely. We will I would love for you to let me minister to a couple of people that are trusted. Let's see how they feel after they get ministered to, let's see what they what they deal with. If they actually are getting freedom, um, that should be a desire of the person that you choose to almost be like your hidden sniper to the kingdom of darkness, because your people need freedom. Your people need deliverance, they need healing, and they need somebody that is not in your church to take them through these things because then that will protect them from the shame and the guilt and the condemnation and the enemy actually turning them against you as a leader, um, because that's what he will try to do, um, to try to get them away from you because you're actually um trying to help them truly. But um a lot of times you just need that that person that they can release to um that they don't have to see on a weekly basis at church and and the person that knows all of all of their deep dark secrets. But these people need freedom, so they've got to learn to what confession is and how to do it and where to do it. But as leaders, we need to make it that space available for um our sheep. Okay, um, so this is my question. What do you do after you fail? This is where we need to self-evaluate. We don't need to self-evaluate of whether we failed or not. We're all like, guys, you can't get wisdom without failure. So don't have this mindset. Um, and I just hear the Holy Spirit saying, like, um get rid of the pride in and I'm I don't want to fail. Some of you have this idea that that I don't want to fail, I want to do everything right, I'm gonna make sure that I do everything right. I'm gonna read my scripture, I'm gonna pray in tongues for 40 hours a week. I'm gonna, you know what I'm saying? Like, you got all these rules and regulations and devotions and all these things, and you're like, I'm gonna do all I can do to not fail. And God's like, I actually want you to fail. I just hear the Holy Spirit, He's like, please tear that down. Please tear that down for my people. They have pride in this idea that they don't want to fail. And so we can't have that perspective because we have to understand that if you look at every great leader in the Bible, they all have a failure that was publicly exposed. That's okay. Like that is how they they learned humility. Um, and a lot of times God will actually cause you to fail. Okay, maybe people will get weird about that that phrase, but um, okay, he'll actually allow you to fail in what you consider failure. He doesn't consider it failure. That's why I say, okay, let's not get weird about that phrase, because actually, what we call failure, God calls success. Because without failure, he can't give you his wisdom, his understanding, his counsel. Because why? You're in your strength of not failing. So he actually needs you to come to a place of failure. Um, that is how God actually humbles us. And so we can't be leaders in the body of Christ and and not want God to humble us, right? But he humbles us through failure a lot of times, and so we have to tear that down, okay? We we can't say I don't want to fail. I did that, I remember um many times the Lord correcting me on that, and he was like, So you don't want wisdom? And I was like, No, I don't want failure. And he said, Well, you can't get wisdom without failure. And I was like, Oh, and he's like, You need to start desiring failure. And I was like, Oh my, okay. So I want to share that with you because we really need to understand that failure is an open door. Um what do you do after you fail? Not before the temptation, not before the mistake, not before the compromise. What do you do afterward? One of the greatest misconceptions in the church is that God is looking for people who never fail. Like I said, that is a prideful thought. It is not biblical. Um, so we need to tear that down. Scripture is filled with imperfection, imperfect imperfect people who stumble, fell, made terrible decisions, and still found restoration. The difference wasn't the failure, the difference was their response to the failure. I want to talk about the two roads every believer faces after they miss it. And that's again Proverbs 28:13. We talked about this a little bit, but let's go deeper into it. Again, whoever conceals his transgression will not prosper. But he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. People want mercy, but they don't want confession. We've got to get those two. They're paired together. So many of you want mercy, but you're not willing to confess. Notice what the verse does not say. It does not say whoever sins will not prosper. It doesn't say that. Although, right, transgression that's sin. But it's not saying that. It's not saying whoever sins will not prosper. Whoever conceals, okay, conceals his transgressions, conceals his sins. The highlight here is the word conceals, okay? The focus is not on the failure, the focus is on what happens after the failure. I can't say that enough. Every believer will face moments of weakness. Guys, failure is universal. Like, it's I mean, look at God. I even think about God. He created Adam and Eve, and everybody's like, well, why did he do that if he knew they would sin? Because he's telling us, guys, you actually can't prosper until you fail. Like, you know what I'm saying? And and I'm not saying that that God failed. I believe that he knew all of those things, but he allowed them to happen to show us that even what we call failure is a path to restoration. Without Adam and Eve, he could have never sent his son to become the only one who could take away sins, right? He couldn't, Jesus couldn't even step into what he was called to by God. It says he was slain before the foundations of the earth. That means before Adam and Eve came, before he created all that, before he even created earth, Jesus already had a purpose and an assignment to be slain before the foundations of the earth. So if we look at Adam and Eve, it's like we we as humans could say that was failure, right? But God doesn't see it that way. He sees it as an open door for Jesus to come and literally conquer death, cleanse sins, and restore his people back to him. I I want you to shift this perspective of failure being a bad thing. Okay? Failure is an open door. I keep hearing the Lord say that as I'm talking. Failure is the open door. You need to fail to go to the next level. You need to fail to go to faith to faith and glory to glory. We've been taught in the church, don't fail, don't sin, don't and I'm not saying go sin. I'm just saying it's an opportunity for you to pave a new path in your life, make a different decision. That God's not looking at the fail at the sin, He's looking at what do you do after the sin? Because Jesus already came, He already dealt with the sin. Okay. God, when He looks at you, He's not dealing with the sin, He's dealing with the decision that you made after the sin. Did you confess? Did you go the path of mercy and righteousness and turn and do all you can to turn? And to be honest, some of you keep thinking that you're you keep sinning, and God's like, I actually sent that demon to you. I actually sent that that of um storm to you. But not not that I'm trying to get you to sin, but I'm trying to get you to make a different decision after the sin. I'm trying to get you to change your ways. Like, I'm actually giving you an opportunity to change your ways and turn from your wicked ways. Oh my. He's giving you an opportunity to turn from your wicked ways, yet we are so focused on the sin because of what we have heard preached in the church. Um that doesn't have mercy in it, it just has judgment and wrath, and you're a sinner, you're going to hell. And it's like we don't we don't add the mercy and understand. And in the church, when we preach this way, and all we preach is you're in sin, you're going to hell, we're actually nullifying the what God Jesus did on the cross. Because the cross already took care of the sin. We don't need you in the body of Christ to preach on and have your people focus on their sin. That's actually an inward focus, and it's actually you're you're actually um you're actually focusing people towards um towards pride. Goodness, I'm gonna say that again. When you constantly preach sin, sin, sin, sin is bad. Okay. I'm not gonna say sin's not bad. This is a hard one, Lord. It's not that we shouldn't preach sin, but we have to apply mercy to it, and we have to say, this is sin, okay? Biblically, this is what the Bible says, this is sin. Homosexuality, sin. Okay. Um, an abortion, sin. I'm trying to think of big things, all right? Um lying, sin. Well, we know these things, right? Um, committing adultery, sin, murder, sin. We can go through the Ten Commandments. We know what is bluntly laid out. This is sin. Okay. But Jesus came and he died on the cross through the open door of the failure of Adam and Eve, and he took care of the consequences. I won't say consequences because I do believe there's still consequences for sin, but it's more of like a cleaning up consequences, and it just takes longer. Um and it just delays the process, you know, and there's just more work for you to do when you when you sin. But it's more of um the cleaning up process has more Consequences. But Jesus cleansed us from our sin. Okay. That's a given. It's done. He said at the end, it is finished. Okay. He's not still trying to cleanse you from your sin. Like this is where people don't understand. Sin has already been dealt with. Okay. But what we have to partner with the Lord in is the decision. After we've made the sin, what do we do? Okay. Do we go to Jesus? Or do we focus so much on self because all we've heard is this message of sin is bad, you failed, you're going to hell. And so now we don't even know how to lock our eyes on Jesus, who is mercy, because we're so focused on ourselves, because that's what we've been heard preach our whole life. We're so focused on ourselves and what we did wrong. And this is sin and this is where you're going. And look, guys, I've preached, I've told people these things, and I've preached, I've preached those messages of condemnation and judgment, okay, about hey, this is sin, you're going to hell. And I didn't fulfill the rest of the message. So this is not, you know, an attack on leaders or anything like that. It's just, I hope that your eyes get open to the fact that you're only preaching half of the gospel. You're not preaching the fullness of the gospel. So let's preach the actual fullness of the gospel because most of you only have 30, 45 minutes to preach, and that's really not long enough to even get people to understand God. Um, there's so much. It would take you, I mean, you could have a whole 365-day um, what do you call those things where people preach like on a ser oh a series? So if you preach like a series, I mean you could you could go into this for a whole year. Um so the point is, is when we just preach sin, sin, sin, all people are doing is self-focusing. They're looking at their self and what they did wrong, their failure. Okay, but that's that draws them to pride, that draws them to an inner, inner, inner self. They're focusing on themselves, they don't need to do that. They need to actually look at Jesus, they actually need to confess. They need to know, like, hey, I sinned and I need to go tell somebody. That that's confession. Maybe it's just picking up the phone call and calling your best friend that they're not even gonna minister to you or do anything. You just need to confess to somebody. You just need to hold yourself accountable. Maybe, you know, I don't know if people want to post on social media, but I mean, probably not, but it's probably not a safe place. But the point is, is like get it out there. Like share, say something, like share with your wife or your husband, or I don't care if it's your kid. I mean, I think that's a big weight to put on your kid, but maybe you're a single mom and you know, you're like, God, I just need to confess to somebody. And you just tell somebody, you know, anybody, just tell somebody. It doesn't have to be like, oh, you got to set up this meeting with your pastor. And look, the pastor can't sit there and and let everybody he can't sit there and let everybody make an appointment with him so they can confess their sins. He wouldn't be able to preach. He wouldn't be able to even take care of his own life and his own family because he'd be so um he'd be covered in appointments all day. Like, appoint some people in the church or some elders or like gosh, just tell your family or somebody, anybody, somebody you trust. To be honest, it doesn't even have to be somebody you trust, like just get it out, get it out somewhere. Tell your dog, I don't know. That that doesn't hold you accountable, but you get my point, okay? My point is confess, get it out, stop self-focusing and self. I keep hearing this word and I keep really not wanting to say it because I literally said it at the beginning of this podcast, but the Holy Spirit keeps saying, like, quit self-evaluating. Oh my, quit self-evaluating because you're actually just you're evaluating yourself so much because you it's pride, like it's this inward focus of me, me, I. What did I do wrong? How did I go wrong? All of that. No, just get to Jesus. We need to focus more on teaching people how to get to Jesus. This is our core ministry message is learning how to get to the feet of Jesus. But sometimes you've got to, you can't get rid of the demon who's in the way until you confess. You can't prosper. Prosper, prospering is getting to the feet of Jesus. You can't even get there because your transgression is still in the way that you haven't confessed. Okay? There's so many people that are held in bondage and they refuse to share the deep dark secret of their heart with somebody. It doesn't have to find, I don't know why I can't just get off of this topic, but find somebody that is not going to expose you, somebody that you know has true humility and honors the Lord. And so, therefore, they're gonna honor your reputation, they're gonna honor your walk, they're gonna honor your calling, and literally, God is just putting them in your life so you can literally get freedom, and just they're just a person of safe confession.

SPEAKER_00 28:04

I think about the Catholic Church, you know, and they're the most some of the most loyal people I have ever met. And they actually are really good at learning how to confess.

SPEAKER_01 28:18

No, I don't agree with all of their, you know, all of their teachings. I don't agree with, you know, going through the Mother Mary, and I don't agree with all of that stuff, but when I look at them, I see so many great aspects of the Catholic people. They're very loyal. You know, they they they know how to confess, like they're not ashamed to get it off of them. Like they actually desire freedom, and it's crazy how the enemy has had to try to come against them in um different ways, you know, through trying to get them to go through the Mother Mary to, you know, get to God and things like that. A lot of Catholic people um are Catholic, but they don't even do that really. Um, they they talk about Jesus and they they clearly acknowledge Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life. But I say all that to say is we've got to learn how to confess so that we can actually prosper. Every believer will face moments of weakness. David failed, Peter failed, Jonah failed, Moses failed, Abraham failed. Guys, these are people who are considered in the hall of faith in the Bible. I mean, and and we're so we've got this we've got this idea and this prideful thought in the body of Christ of how we gotta make sure we don't fail. To be honest, when I invite people, you know, to join us on different um, you know, conferences or things like that, it's like I want somebody who actually has a testimony of failure. Like I want somebody who actually has been sifted as wheat by Satan. Like I want somebody who but but they've conquered, you know what I'm saying? Like, obviously, we need that part too. We don't want just somebody who's been sifted as as wheat by Satan and bowed down to him and began to worship him and turn to his you know his ways, and now they're in witchcraft and you know, all this crazy stuff and partner with the spirit of death. Like, okay, we don't want somebody like that who's been sifted as wheat, but we want somebody who's literally been sifted as wheat, and just like Jesus told Peter, I've prayed that your faith would not fail. I want somebody who's been sifted as wheat and actually come to a place of failure and actually resurrected on the third day in the resurrection power of Jesus Christ, and now they're walking in the resurrected power. Why? Because they failed, because they let Satan sift them as wheat, they they understood that what they were going through was actually the hand of God raising them up. What Paul says Satan God sent Satan as a messenger to him, the thorn in his side. And God said, My grace is sufficient for you. In other words, my grace and mercy is the path. Like I don't think we understand that we give Satan too much glory. Yes, he's there, yes, he's present, yes, he's attacking us and all the things, but so what? God sent him to refine you, to to strengthen you, to grow you, to to raise you up. So many of us want to be David, but we don't understand that. When God anointed David, he sent him to serve Saul. And Saul began to come against him, literally, Satan himself. He removed his spirit from Saul and allowed Satan to be in his place in Saul's heart. And Satan, this is crazy. Satan raised David up. I know many of you will not agree with that statement, but you have to understand who rules Satan. And until as leaders we can understand that God truly rules Satan, and not that Satan rules God, then we understand that yes, Satan does raise up leaders by the hand of God. Because God is the creator, God is all-knowing. God is the one who sent Satan to do it and let him. Yeah, Satan's a great deceiver, but God uses Satan and deceives him because the Bible says you reap what you sow. So therefore, God uses Satan and deceives him to raise up his leaders. So let's stop giving Satan all the glory and understand who actually rules Satan and who has Satan in his hands as a little puppet. Satan likes to pretend like, you know, we're his puppets, and many people he does puppet around. And he controls them and he does what he wants to with them. But Satan is a puppet in the hand of God. These people failed. David, Peter, Jonah, Moses, Abraham. The issue isn't whether you have failed, the issue is what do you do when failure finds you. Whoever conceals his transgressions, I want you to understand that word is the important word of this teaching. Conceals. Concealment is often the natural response of the flesh. That's what your flesh automatically wants to do. If you don't have your flesh crucified, you're gonna conceal. After failure, people instinctively want to hide. Think about Adam and Eve. What's the first thing Adam and Eve did when they sinned? They hid from God. God came in and he said, Adam, where are you? Not like God didn't know. God was actually giving him an invitation of confession. God will give you an invitation of confession, but do you take it? When God said, Adam, where are you? That wasn't because God didn't know. If you look at the life of Jesus all throughout his ministry, he asked many questions. People aren't asking you questions because they're trying to, you know, expose you or things like that. Like it's an invitation to confess, it's an invitation to freedom. That's what he said to Adam and Eve in the garden. Where are you? It was an opportunity to confess. People instinctively defend, justify, minimize, blame, protect their image. What did Adam do? He he said, the woman, the woman gave it to me. He began to blame. Like, guys, I want you to understand we have to go back to Genesis and really see the character of God and that he's not trying to, he doesn't want to expose us. He wants us to confess. He doesn't want to force us into exposure. All these people that you see that get exposed publicly, I promise you, he gave them an abundance, overflowing opportunities to confess their sin in a private manner. I don't, I guarantee it. It's 100% fact. I know he did. Because we see how he did with Adam and Eve. The sin with in Genesis 3 with Adam, when he hid from God, the sin created distance before God ever spoke judgment. Concealment always creates separation. With Saul in 1 Samuel 15, when confronted by Samuel the prophet, Saul immediately shifted blame. The people. Instead of repentance, Saul focused on protecting his position. In Pharaoh's case, this was Pharaoh's pattern. Pressure comes, fear appears, temporary surrender, relief comes, and he returned to rebellion. Pharaoh wanted relief. He did not want transformation. Many believers repeat this cycle today. They don't want transformation. They just want relief from the torment. They want relief. So many people call that shame and guilt and condemnation and all this stuff from the enemy. And it's like, no, that's actually the weight of conviction. Conviction from the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we we um interpret it as the enemy. We interpret it as shame and guilt and condemnation. And God's like, no, that's my conviction because you disobeyed, because you're actually in a place of disobedience. And so he'll actually allow that weight of conviction on you. Why? To break you, to actually bring you back to himself. He allows all of that. So that's why it feels really similar to what Satan puts on as shame, guilt, and condemnation. Because, well, to be honest, God let it feel like that. He he let the all of it come upon you. Because it's to break you, it's to bring you back to him, it's to get you to a place of humility that you didn't willingly take yourself. So he's actually, hello, he's the savior. So he's going to actually allow that weight to be on you so heavily until you break. And it's even worse if you have a praying spouse or a praying friend or a praying uh pastor that knows you're going through something and begins to pray the weight of conviction and torment on you to push you towards God, to almost to push you into obedience. I think we need to pray that more. Um, you know, he told Paul, he said, release them into the hands of Satan. I think as leaders and pastors, we we pray all this blessing and oh God, you know, just give them peace. And God's like, No, I don't want to, because I want them to actually come to peace, but they've got to break first. They've actually got to be humbled, and they need to, they actually need to endure some of the torment. They need to actually um get uncomfortable. Like this is called discipline. And guys, scriptures clearly says he disciplines those who he loves. And he says in scripture, it doesn't feel good when the rod comes against you. It hurts, it's painful, but it keeps you from the pit of hell. So I believe that the Holy Spirit is speaking to some pastors and leaders and some people that you've been praying blessing on, and the Lord's like, you don't receive what you're asking because you're praying amiss. He says, You receive not because you ask not, but when you do ask, you ask amiss. In other words, you're not praying the right thing. You need to start praying that these people be pushed into humility, be pushed into alignment, be pushed into repentance. Guys, I promise you, I've been in torment many times, many times, and I knew God let it happen. I knew God sent it. And I was like, whatever, whatever it takes, God, break me. Whatever it takes to break me, do it. Whatever it takes to force me into submission, whatever it takes to force me. Now he won't go against our will, but when our will is for him to force us into submission, oh, he's gonna do it. He took that note and he wrote it down, and them angels was like, Oh, yep, did you hear what she just prayed? And they done taken that thing and flat so fast to heaven, and they done took it before the throne of God. And they said, Did you see what she prayed? She actually wants to come into alignment with you, God. Can we can we um allow her to get uncomfortable? Can we actually allow the torment? Can we pull our hand back from the protection that you've had upon her, like he did Job, and actually allow him to come into a place of humility? And God's like, Absolutely, do it. And so then next thing you know, you're going through torment and and you're going through all these things, and it's like but the beautiful thing is you're not gonna be burning in the pit of hell for the for eternity. And the beautiful thing is is that believe me, you're gonna surrender. You're gonna come to a place of humility and not pride. Because I promise you, you won't be able to carry the weight until you actually fall on your face and on your knees before the Lord and just cry out and say, God help me. Most people think they are protecting themselves. In reality, they are often protecting reputation, comfort, position, pride, and control. The flesh says, if people find out, you'll lose everything. The Holy Spirit says if you keep hiding, you'll never get free. This is the thing about that lie from the flesh and the enemy. If people find out, you'll lose everything. Guys, you will go to hell. Like, yes, you're gonna lose everything. You're gonna lose eternity in heaven with God. Who gives a rip what you lose here on earth? It doesn't matter. Is your soul saved and go into heaven? Get rid of that sin. Get rid of those hidden things. Guys, if you don't have, if you don't have a trusted, you know, somebody that you can go to that's not gonna, you know, publicly humiliate you and and you know, blast all your secret sins, you know, and you you just want a safe place, call our ministry, please. Send me an email. My personal email is Cody C O D I E at Global Footprints. That's with the S Ministries.com. You can send me an email. I've had people email me and confess that. Things and I just responded back in an email. I don't even know what state they were in. And they they um I sent back an email, prayed over them in the email, and they were like, Wow, I've never felt freedom like that before. It it just takes a small confession, it doesn't even have to be in person or a phone call, like send an email, just confess that thing, get it out. We want the Holy Spirit is not, He's trying to save your soul from hell. Don't go to hell because you you think you're gonna lose everything. I promise you, when God asks you to confess and he draws you to a place of confession, I promise you, you won't lose everything. And what you do lose, you needed to lose so he could actually give you more. Okay? He will always look at Job. He got way more, he got sevenfold, tenfold what he had before. Confession is powerful. But it says in Proverbs 28, 13, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. You can't forsake. Look at this pattern in just this one little scripture. But he who confesses and forsakes, okay, that's giving you a blueprint of what to do after you confess. Once you confess it, then you forsake it, then you receive mercy, but you're not receiving the mercy until you have done both A and B. You can't get C until you do A and B. Okay? Confess, forsake, obtain mercy. Notice the promise, not judgment, not rejection, mercy. This is a promise from God. You will receive mercy if you confess and forsake. The enemy tells people, if you confess, you're finished. God says, if you confess, you'll find mercy. Guys, there's so much that comes with mercy. Mercy comes with abundance, it comes with provision, it comes with life. He literally is life itself. Eternity, God is eternity. You can't have eternity without having God. You can't have God without having mercy. He is mercy. So you've got to get to a place of having mercy. So you can actually have eternal life. And when you when you take a hold of eternal life here now on earth, you're going to begin to see your family prosper. You're going to begin to see your children prospering. They're not going to choose the things that you did in your past. Because eternal life, God Himself, the presence of Jesus is resting upon your household. You're going to begin to prosper in your work. You're going to begin to prosper in your ministry. You're going to begin to see things come alive. Why? Because you've taken hold of God Himself, life itself. He says in John, I've come to give you life and life abundantly. That doesn't mean, yes, he's come to give you eternal life and life abundantly in heaven later, but you should be taking hold of that now. Jesus tore the veil. There is access for heaven to come to earth and earth to heaven. He says, Our Father who art in heaven. Like literally, as it is on earth, or as it is in heaven on earth. Basically, what I'm saying is they should be one in your life. You should be literally encountering heaven right now in your life on earth. 2 Samuel 12, this is David's response. So Nathan confronts David. David could have defended himself, explained himself, blamed Bathsheba, used his authority, right? He was literally king. But instead he says, I have sinned against the Lord. One sentence, no excuses, no blame shifting, no image management, just ownership. This is why David found restoration. So what does will not prosper actually mean? It is not primarily about money. It means not thriving spiritually, not walking in freedom, not experiencing peace, not advancing in God's purposes, not flourishing in relationships. So many of you are like, I don't hear God's voice. Well, you're not prospering in the voice of God. So therefore, maybe there is a confession that you still have refused to confess. You can look successful externally while secretly not prospering internally. Those are the people that Jesus said, Depart from me, I never knew you. They weren't prospering, even though it looked like they were on earth. They said, God, but we prophesied in your name and we did miracles and signs and wonders and we healed the sick and we cast out demons. What do you mean? And he says, Depart from me, I never knew you. They were externally looking like they were prospering, but they actually weren't internally. David still had the throne at this moment, but Psalm 32 reveals what was happening inside him while he remained silent. The greatest test is not before the failure. The greatest test is after the failure. When confronted, ask yourself these questions. Do you humble yourself or harden yourself? Do you confess or conceal? Do you seek relief or transformation? Do you protect your image or pursue freedom? And one more I'm gonna add, do you blame others as a form of hiding your own sin? Is it always somebody else's fault? If immediately you began to blame like Adam did, God didn't hold Eve. I mean, Eve, yes, she had consequences, but when they got their judgment, God specifically said to Adam, because you listened to the voice of woman. In other words, you are held accountable for yourself. You chose to listen to her. It's not her fault, it's your fault. What did you do? You need to confess your sins. Failure reveals our weakness, response reveals our character. Every listener today on this podcast is likely in one of the three places. You're either currently hiding something. I encourage you to bring that into the light today. You're either in the process of repentance, mercy is available, or you're watching someone else hide. Remind them that only the individual can choose confession over concealment. This is how you conquer Satan. You choose to confess instead of conceal. So I'm going to ask you this question today. What are you protecting? Because after failure, there are only two roads. One road, cover it, protect it, manage it, and hide it. Or you can choose the narrow path, as God says, and confess it, forsake it, bring it into the light, and receive mercy. The gospel is not the story of people who never failed. The gospel is a story of a God who extends mercy to those who stop hiding. The question is not have you failed? The question is, what road did you choose after?