The Holy Standard

Is Imposter Syndrome Biblical?

• Chelsea Tansey

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We challenge the myth that credentials create calling and show how surrender, obedience, and service dismantle imposter syndrome. Scripture, story, and practical steps help re-root identity and authority in Christ so bold action becomes natural.

• defining imposter syndrome as misplaced authority
• qualifications versus God’s calling and commission
• control, perfectionism, and the need to be seen
• service over self using the burning house analogy
• doing it messy while you learn and repent
• Matthew 10:19–20 and speaking without fear
• authority anchored in the cross, not metrics
• chosen and appointed: intimacy fuels courage
• weakness as capacity for grace and growth
• stewardship of clients, culture, and legacy
• two-part cure: surrender and service

Thank you for listening and God Bless YOU!

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Work with me: chelseatansey.com


SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Holy Standard, the podcast for bold, God-led women with strong spirits, sharp minds, and high standards. This is where Kingdom Authority meets high performance discipline. Together, we're raising the standard for what it means to be a woman of God in business. Holy and high level. Welcome back to a brand new episode of The Holy Standard. I am so excited just to dig right in today. I think that this is going to be just a really important episode. This was one of the biggest breakthroughs that I had over the last year as I've really started digging into my faith, um, reading the word. Y'all, I'm not even fully through the Bible yet. Like just to give y'all context, but I have been reading the word every single day, studying it, um, and really getting into depth. And this was one of the main messages that smacked me upside the head by the Holy Spirit. And I really recognize, wow, we have it so backwards, especially in the entrepreneur industry, um, coaching industry, obviously, more so because I am so familiar with it. Um, but we're gonna be talking about imposter syndrome. This is one of the words, or I guess one of the themes and the concepts that I hear hold women back the most when you're looking to start a business, when you're looking to maybe start a podcast, when you're looking to do any and all of the above. And the first thing that I want to say on this, like, let's just like define terms going into this. Imposter syndrome in itself, if you're not aware of it, which most people are, I probably don't need to describe it to you. But when we're looking at imposter syndrome, it essentially is the questioning of who am I to do this thing? Am I good enough? Am I qualified enough? And usually comes back around to looking at your qualifications. Now, obviously, let's go into this because if I was to go and get heart surgery, I would want someone who is qualified. I would want someone who's gone through school, I would want someone who has those things, right? But I really want us to go into this with such an open mind because a lot of people, entrepreneurs especially, think that they need a certain degree or a certain certificate to do things. And while I think extra, extra education can be super incredible to have, I don't also think it's a means to an end. I think there are certain positions where it is legally required, it is necessary, it is needed, and I think that other times it's actually us just focusing way more on our own qualifications rather than God's. For most of us who have been called into business, who've been called into some type of commissioning, most of the time, especially if you're listening to this podcast, it is ordained by God. Now, again, I want to like have all the nuance here before we start. If I was to go into something like being a pastor, like needing to really know my theology and things like that of that nature, of course, I would say, okay, I need to learn more about this. I'm gonna go through school, I'm gonna do the things, right? So again, I just really want to sit with there are certain positions where we are going to require a certain level of education. And that is usually the majority of how most people qualify themselves is some type of certificate, some type of degree, some type of qualification. That qualification usually is in the eyes uh or under the guise of education. Sometimes for people, I also think that it's just about, you know, I even want you to think about this as as you're as we're speaking about it. What do you think you need? Because most people will say, Well, I don't know if I'm good enough for this. And I love, if you've ever been in one of my coaching containers, if you've ever had a conversation with me, you will know this about me. If you come to me and say, Well, I don't think I'm good enough, I'm not gonna sit there and be like, oh, that sucks. I'm gonna sit here and I'm gonna say, well, what would make you good enough? I'm gonna ask you the questions that make you unpack the limiting belief that you're currently living in. And so for most people, when I ask them, well, what does good enough even look like? You can't even tell me, right? Because you have formulated this perfect, this perfect woman in your head that you think that you ought to be in order to dominate a certain area of your life. And so sometimes it's not always education, sometimes it's also, well, I need a better wardrobe and I need to be a better speaker. And and now you just actually start nitpicking flaws about yourself that don't actually qualify you or not, right? It's just like I'm not perfect enough to do the thing because if I go there and I fail, it's going to be so humiliating. But instead of looking at this and being like, I'm scared to step into this and fail, I want you to look at I am going to step into this and I am going to fail because that is the only way that you learn anything worthwhile. And it's the only way also that you prove your humanity. We never were meant to come on this earth and to be super qualified and to do things all at once, really great, in our own strength and strive. We were made, however, to abide perfectly in Christ and acknowledge to ourselves, I am not good enough for anything, for anything. I do not deserve a thing. And it is by the grace of God that I'm even awake today. It is by the grace of God that I have breath in my lungs that he's even given me a purpose in the kingdom. It is for his glory and from him only. And when you can approach your calling from that type of mentality, all of a sudden things start to shift. Because one thing that I will say that is so present when we're looking at that imposter syndrome, again, let's go back to what you think qualifies you. You're sitting here on a gold mine of an idea that people need so desperately, whatever that idea is. And you're sitting here being like, well, I don't like the sound of my voice. Well, let me tell you something. A struggling person, if you were more focused on the person that needs you, you wouldn't care about what your voice sounds like because you would be more driven to just saying the thing that you knew could bring them out of the pain. And that's where we ought to get to. The real problem, I don't believe, is the fact that we're not qualified enough. I think majority of the time, there's two main things that are getting in the way of people not being able to break free from this agreement that they have made with the enemy that they are not good enough for something. And the first thing that I will say is that there is not enough submission and there is not enough dependence on God. When we are going into something and we're trying to be so beautifully scripted and perfect and poised, and those times will come, right? People are very good at pretending that that's how they are. No person in the history of life is going into something with that type of energy, though they might perceive themselves that way. When you go into something, especially if it's like an assignment from God, you should hope more than anything else. I would rather be messy and fully dependent on God so that he can move through me than going into something perfectly scripted and blocking him from being able to operate throughout me. And so that's the number one thing. Are you submitted? Have you surrendered everything to him? Or are you trying to white knuckle how people see you, how it comes across, what it looks like, how it's building? Because the first problem to imposter syndrome isn't actually your qualifications, it's your need for control. It's your need to control how people see you, how things come out, all of that. And so that leads into the second point that I want to make that with imposter syndrome, it's about the fact that we as a society culturally, this is just indoctrinated into how we are as people, especially obviously in the States and in Canada. This is just our culture now. But we are in this primary me culture where everything is about me, it's about how I feel, it's about how I look, it's about how I, you know, want people to see me. And that is also why we've had such a rise of narcissism, we've had such a rise of people pleasing, because all of those things have nothing to do with other people, it has everything to do with us, which we can talk about at a different time. But when we're talking about specifically imposter syndrome in itself, it is your fear for how you're gonna come across. But let me tell you something. If your baby was dying in a house fire, okay, say you're on the street, your baby's in the house, the house is on fire. Are you gonna be sitting there and going, well, I'm not qualified enough to go into a burning building because I'm not a fireman. So I'm gonna stand out here and hope that they'll come and do it for me. Absolutely not. You're gonna go, that is my baby. I care way too much about what is in that house that I can't just sit here and let it happen. I don't care about my qualifications. I'm gonna do my best. I'm gonna do what I think is smart. I'm gonna stop, drop, and roll the way they taught me to in school, but I'm running into that burning building to save my baby. You could bet your bottom dollar, that's what all of us would do. Okay. So why is it then when you've been given this assignment, which is very often, and if it's a kingdom assignment, it is to serve other people. God is not gonna give you an assignment just to serve yourself. The reason for us producing fruit in the kingdom is not for us to eat it, but for others. So your assignment is always going to be rooted in how you serve other people. So what we're looking at here is the problem isn't actually that you're not qualified. The problem is you're so focused on you, you are way not focused enough on the people that need you. And something that I'll say to my clients is how rooted are you in your vision? I don't want to know. Obviously, this is a part of it. Yes, I want to know your vision. Where do you want to live? Do you want to be on a beach? What kind of car do you want? Right? Those things are fun to talk about. But the true meat and potatoes of where I try to get my clients to is understanding what is truly your vision. How do you want to impact the world around you? What is the legacy you want to leave, right? How do you want your children to remember you? What is your mission in life? And that is so important because it's about how do your actions, how does your business, how does whatever you're selling impact the world around you? And what is the culture that you are creating, what does that do, right? What is your culture? And what you'll notice is that culture is not simply just about the leader, it's about the pack, right? And the pack creates the leader, right? It's a it's a beautiful back and forth between whoever is leading it and the people within it. And so what we know is when you are more focused on those people, that imposter syndrome goes away. But the problem with majority of these industries that we see rising sky-high rates of imposter syndrome is the fact that people are being taught to build a business, how much money do you want, how much time freedom do you want? It's all about the person. And it was so shocking when I first started working with online coaches and I began really digging into not them, but the people they help. They didn't know how to answer any of the questions because most of us have been groomed that it's all about me. It's what I want. It's, you know, it's it's as much money as I want to make. And it's all about money, money, money, idols, idols, idols. But in the kingdom, this is where we do things different. Is I start looking at service. It starts, we start looking at service. How are we helping our people? Who do I need to be to help my people? Right. And that also is what grows you up. But even in the concept of imposter syndrome, you should be so, it should be more heartbreaking for you to sit in the reality of what will happen. What is the consequence of you not helping your people? Right? Whatever entrepreneur idea or even page or podcast, whatever you have in your head, what is the heartbreak that will come if you don't act, if you don't do your thing, right? And I sit with this a lot because if I'm honest, the past few months I've really been sitting with God. I've been getting a lot more intentional. Um, even with my podcasts, I used to do podcast episodes and I would just sit here and I would just spew out BS. I would just post to post. I would just post to get it out. And now I come into these podcasts and I just pray to be so much more rooted in the word that it's not me speaking, that I'm not just speaking out of a place of just wanting to be heard, but that each of my words, each of my sentences are so deeply intentional and transformative that I'm not wasting your time. I'm not wasting your time. I'm not wasting my time. I want every single podcast that you listen to from me to be like, wow, that was a good one. I can't wait to go and binge the next episode. And so what that means is I need to be so much more rooted in why it's important that I'm doing this and bring that to every single thing that I do. I'm not recording this today because of how it makes me feel. I'm not recording this for what it's going to bring to me. I'm recording this because of the conversations that I've been having recently have been so focused around this concept. And so I'm recognizing this is more out of a place of service than it is self. When you are focused on service, that imposter syndrome fades away. And so that's how I want you guys to think about is that your ideal client or whoever is the ideal person for the business, product, podcast, whatever it is you're trying to build, they're in a burning building right now. You're standing on the outside and you're like, well, I'm waiting for 911. They could be dying, but let me wait for the qualified experts. And here's the second thing that I want to say on this that Rachel Wortman actually brought up in our podcast episode. So go and listen to that if you haven't already. And she talked about the fact that biblically, it is actually not biblical that if you don't move, God's gonna send someone else. And that's a huge fallacy that we see so often is just thinking, well, if I don't act on the idea, he's gonna give it to someone else, or well, if I don't build the business, he'll do it for someone else. I actually don't believe that that's true because we've never once seen that happen in the Bible. We've never once seen, hey, well, Moses said no, so he just asked Aaron to do it instead. We didn't see that, right? We saw we saw Moses feel unqualified, not want to step up to the plate, be nervous, but go anyway and have the Lord work through him. Did he have Aaron for support? Yes, right, but but he wasn't sent in place of. And I truly think in the kingdom of God, he's not just looking at what we can do for him. He's looking at us as individual people. That is the glory and that is the wonder of us having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Is he's not just looking at, hey, I just need to find whatever disposable person can do this thing for me. No, it's not just like you're at home asking who can empty the dishwasher. He's so entirely specific and methodical about you, your talents, how you'll play it out, the things you'll say, how you'll say it, and the mission that he's placed on your life. That is why each and every single one of us have different passions, have different things that break our hearts, and have different ways of doing things because we are called for that. If we were supposed to all be the same, he could have easily just made us all the same, but he didn't. And there's purpose behind that. And so when you're sitting here and you're going, well, there's different qualified experts, there's more online pages that are doing what I want to do, well, this, well, this, you're sitting here and you're just trying to make agreement with everything the enemy is trying to tell you. When we come into agreement with the word of God and what he says, we can actually recognize that he often doesn't say, you're good enough, go off, go get more education, do the thing. Was Moses qualified to free the Israelites out of 400 years of slavery? That is a big job. If he didn't need qualification for that, you don't need qualification for a coaching program or a podcast or any of those things. Now, again, nuance to this. Please continue to seek the Lord with all your heart. Please be biblically literate. Please make sure that you are investing in mentors and education and all of these things, but do not think that you need to do something first before you do the thing. Do the do both at the same time, right? Do it messy. Correct yourself, openly repent if things come up. I think that is the beauty of us. And obviously, we're gonna get into the Bible here. I want to ensure that we do get into some scripture. And so something I actually posted a mini Bible study on my page um this past week, but something that has been so powerful for me with this concept is obviously just the story of Exodus is is such proof of God's will and God's work in our life. But it's Matthew 10, 19 through 20. And so I'm gonna read from the NIV version and then we'll kind of break it down. But he says, um, but when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time, you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the spirit of your father speaking through you. And so I want to talk about this and go a little bit more in depth when it comes down to the actual verbal qualification because when I talk to a lot of women, the primary fear is bringing God up. And I've noticed this. Almost every single woman I've at least I've talked to recently, and obviously this is more um biased to what I do and who I help, is I'm scared to say verses wrong. I'm scared to say something that maybe isn't biblical. How do I know if I'm falling into prosperity gospel versus the fullness of life? How, how do I know? How do I know? How do I know? And you know, there's this fear. And what I think is interesting when I study this with commentary, I and I'm just gonna be so transparent because people are like, how do you know all these things? I study the word through the enduring word, which has commentary from David Guzick, um, but he also has um, you know, quotes from like Trapp, Charles Spurgeon, um, some really, really high-level um biblical commentaries on there. So the commentary goes on to say that it was not the humiliation which the early Christians dreaded. So it wasn't the bullying or the persecution or people thinking that they were crazy. Because if we're honest, we kind of expect it. That's not actually our fear. Our fear, and what he says, is many of them actually feared that their own unskillfulness in words and defense might injure rather than commend the truth that is God's word. Their fear was more so that they lacked the eloquence and would end up harming or misrepresenting the truth and Christ. Wow. If that is not every single one of our fears. And when you are truly anchored in humility, that's probably going to be your first fear. When you start thinking about, am I gonna go into ministry? Maybe I'll start talking about God on my page, all these things, right? It's like, well, I better be perfect first and have read all of the Bible and know everything in the Bible before I do that. That's not possible. And I also just want to make this direct reference because when I go to compare myself to where I think I should be, I always like, instead of picking people out of my life, I go and I pick people out of the Bible. And so just with that, sharing God's word, can we sit with who are the first people that shared God's word? Can we even just look at the gospels? Can we look at Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John? Do we think that they were perfect? Do we think that they never struggled with sin? Do we think that they didn't slip up sometimes, that their faith didn't maybe go in and out? Like let's even look at the, you know, all of the apostles, all of the disciples, that after Jesus' death, after he was resurrected and then left again, they were actually in charge of spreading God's word and spreading the good news. But let's also come into the understanding they weren't perfect, they didn't know everything, right? There could have been very possibly things that Matthew knew that the rest of them didn't know, and vice versa. And we actually know that when Jesus came and he brought the little girl back to life, he didn't bring all of his disciples, right? He actually told them not to go and tell the rest of the disciples. So we know firsthand there's some things that people did and didn't know, right? Not to say, okay, let me sit in my ignorance and I'm just gonna sit on my false gospel. What we are saying is I'm going to make an added effort to continually be in the word, to get rooted in my church, to stay prayerful, to do all of these things. And also, I'm not gonna let my clear deficit hold me back from doing where God has been calling me to do. You think if God was calling you to do something, he is sitting here and he's gonna be like, oh, but you're not smart enough yet. Can you read my Bible more? No, if God is calling you to something, he's calling you to it. It's not on you to qualify you. And often we're waiting and we're looking at our own qualifications, but we forget to look at his. I need to say that again. I need to say that again. You're so busy looking at what qualifies you that you're not looking at the qualifications of Jesus. That is who works through you. That is who does all things for you, that is the person, that is the the energy and the nudge in your in your gut that says, this is what I got to do. So instead of sitting here and questioning myself, I'm not gonna question him. I'm gonna trust what he says and where he's calling me to go. So let me, with blind obedience, step into where I feel he's pulling me. And every single time, every single time, guarantee you, you will come back and you'll say, Wow, that was so much easier than I expected. I just needed to let go of my white knuckling of the control and the identity and all of these things. And I just need to trust what I already know to be true. So again, diving back into this text, God promises to strengthen us in our weakness. This text obviously is more so talking about when we are being persecuted, when they would when they're getting arrested. But I also want us to look at the theme of being in your weakness and God supplying our words. The real question is not, do I have the perfect answers? The real question is, do you trust God's spirit to give you the wisdom and clarity in that moment? Because it also says, in that hour. That's the promise, is in that hour, which means it comes right when it is needed and not beforehand. And I think the reason for this is because our goal is not, again, I said this kind of at the beginning, our goal is not to be skillful and rehearsed and perfect and poised and mapped out and boxed into what we think it needs to look like. Our goal is to be so surrendered and so dependent that you can actually get advice from the Holy Spirit in conversation. Sometimes I'm sitting in conversation, I'm like, I don't know where this idea is coming from. I have this random urge to say this, and it like it's not coming from me. And I just come out and say it, and people will be like, How did you know that? I'm like, I don't know. The whole I the Holy Spirit gave it to me. So just really recognizing that the more that you're in the word, the more you're connecting to the Lord, that will happen for you. There's some words even throughout this podcast, there's connections throughout this podcast, things that I've said where I'm like, I don't even know where that came from, but it comes out of my mouth and that sounds so good. Like, I don't know where that came from, right? Glory to God that He supplies us the words that I was coming on here to film this, honestly, and I was like, I don't know if I'm gonna have all the right words. I'm not, I don't know. And I'm sitting here and I'm 24 minutes in going, this is a banging podcast episode, right? All because of the glory of God. It's nothing that I've done, it's nothing that I can do, it's not Chelsea Tansy, but the Holy Spirit in Christ that dwells within me. So I just want us to look at that through Matthew, um, it was 10, 19, verses 19 through 20. We see that he says, I will speak through you. I will give you the wisdom through your lips. The worldly view of imposter syndrome is feeling unqualified, as we said, unworthy, fraudulent, right? The fear of being found out. And so I would also question and say, Well, are you doing things that you wouldn't otherwise be doing and you're scared people are gonna find out about it, right? But the biblical view, when we're looking at imposter syndrome, it is unbiblical to have imposter syndrome. Because what what it tells me, if you say, I am a Christian, but I struggle with imposter syndrome, actually means that you are living in a distortion of your own identity and who has true authority. When we forget who sent us, who woke us up today, who made us, who created our life, who gave me every single thing in my day, and start measuring ourselves against who the world says we ought to be, that is a dangerous place to be in. We have to be so rooted in Christ and so rooted in the word that my authority does not come from my achievement. My authority comes from the death on the cross that came back three days later in Jesus Christ. That's my authority because I am a child of God. I'm not just legally adopted into this kingdom, but I was purchased, I was bought with blood. You can't take my authority away, and I live in it every single day. And you want to wonder how you're gonna come online and you're gonna have this conviction and you're gonna have this fire in your belly. It's not going to come from anything that you do, but it will come from every single thing that he has already done. Oh, that's good. Thank you, Jesus. When we can sit and we can truly remember that, are you placing your identity in the things that you can do, in your performance, in your striving, how much money you make, how perfect you can look, how edited your content is, or are you finding your identity in the word of God? Have you read the word of God enough to say this is who I am? This Bible explains everything about me that I didn't know about myself before. We're looking into a generation of women that have been told that you get to choose who you are. You get to just do what makes you happy, just fly off the handle. If you want to do whatever you want to your body, to your face, to what you want to post, any of those things, you can just choose. That's fine. It's a free-for-all. But the word of God is very clear about who we are in Christ. And if you don't know yourself in Christ, that is where you will find your authority. That is where you will find the conviction inside of you to say, you know what? I will stand on this hill, I will stand on my mission, and nobody can stop me from doing it. The cure to imposter syndrome is understanding your divine authority that you have as a child of God. Because you cannot be an imposter when you're operating under your commission. When God said to me, and as I felt God just transform my heart over this last year, as this wasn't even, can we just take into context? If you're listening to this and you're as blown away in the way that God's moved in my life this last year, like, can I get an amen? It is nothing that I have done but being so surrendered and giving up my white knuckle of being like, I'm really scared, I don't want to do this, I don't want to give this up, I'm really nervous, but Lord, it is yours. Because a year ago, I'm sitting in prayer and I'm asking God, I said, What do you want me to do with my business, Lord? Like, let me put this on the altar, let me give it up completely to you, Jesus. And would you just show me, would you just tell me where you'd have me go? And I remember in that moment I was just sitting in my office in prayer and I just heard two words, two chilling words, and I heard use me. And I sat there, and when I tell you, I was so adamant. I'm like, this is a magic eight ball. Can I shake it for a different answer? And the last thing I want to do is post about Jesus. The last thing I want to do is post about the Bible. I do not want to be one of those. I don't want to be a Jesus freak. I don't want to be a like cringy Christian girl. That is not who I want to be. That is not who I want my identity to be. But I realize I can't argue with Christ. And the more that I've leaned in to this identity, to where he's called me, I tell y'all, there's nothing that has felt more. Natural to me because it's him. It's all him. It has nothing to do with me. So when he calls you into something, know that he's already prepared the way and that he will go before you, that he will come beside you, and he will be all on all sides of you the entire time. This also leads to number two is that you cannot be an imposter when you are walking in obedience. I'm not calling the shots. I'm not sitting here telling, telling myself when I'm ready. If he says I'm ready, then I'm ready and I'm gonna go. Even if it if it's frightening, even if I don't want to do it, even if it makes me feel like I want to throw up in my mouth, because often it has. But I have to sit back and I have to humble myself and remember who God is. I'm not God. I don't call the shots. I don't tell myself when I'm ready. He does. And that's obedience. Lastly, you cannot be an imposter when you're stewarding what's been trusted to you. Every client, every interaction, everything that you have in your day-to-day life has been given to you by God. You did not earn it, you don't deserve it, but He's given it to you and it is a gift. So when you have clients that come to you, when you have people coming to you, when anything is coming your way, it's your job to say, I'm not gonna step up to the plate into this opportunity because I think I'm worthy, because I think I'm qualified. I'm stepping up to the plate because this is an opportunity that God has given to me. And I just pray and I just hope that I can steward this well enough to bring glory to his name. There are times that you're gonna mess that up, also. Newsflash. There are gonna be times you're in conversation, you went, I did not handle that right. I did not say the right words. I need God's glory, God's grace now more than ever. But what we know is that love keeps no records of wrongdoing, and that his mercies are new every day. What you did yesterday is wiped clean, and that today is a brand new day. He is going to continue to send you opportunities. He's going to continue to send you clients and people that you can show up in as the best leader you can possibly be. And that's why I do what I do because it's more important that you have this leadership stuff down pat, that you understand service and you understand stewardship and you understand obedience and really walking in your calling because everything else comes after that. Everything else comes after that. And so I want you to think about it this way: you're not chosen by yourself to do these things. It's not a self-appointed, I would have never on the planet of Earth said, Chelsea, you know what you should do? You should try to get into ministry, you should preach the word of God, you should do a Bible study, you should do all these things. You're so perfect for it. No, I would have said the complete opposite. But because he chose me to do this, and it says in John 15, 16, you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you. We did not choose God, he chose us, and he appointed us into the things that we're ought to do. If God called you, he's already considered every single one of your deficits and flaws and imperfections, and he still said to go. Your authority in Christ flows from the amount of intimacy that you can build with him. Matthew 10:1 says that he called them to himself before sending them out. You can't feel like an imposter syndrome when you're moving from true intimacy with God. That's where people are like, how are you so courageous? You're speaking your truth. How do you do these things? I am not doing anything because under my facade that you see, I am a shaking, scared chihuahua that's peeing on the floor.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

The best example I can see. But when I'm in God, when I'm abiding in Christ, I'm like this roaring lion that has courage like I've never known before. You cannot feel like an imposter when you're moving from intimacy with the one who knows you better than anyone else. He knows you better than you've known yourself. And he said, You, I chose you to go. And when we're talking about being good enough, what I want us to sit with is that you actually have never been good enough. Controversial, I know. You never will be good enough. You'll never be able to follow his decrees well enough. And there's a reason to that. Because if you were good enough on your own, you wouldn't need him. And what I know about my father is that one of the things he values more than anything else that still makes me cringe a little inside is total and complete dependence. When I look at the idea of complete dependence, it's a hundred percent, it's not 90% and 10, it's not 80 and 20, it is complete a hundred percent dependence. We look at the idea of a newborn infant. Now I want you to picture a newborn infant fresh out the womb, doesn't know how to breathe, doesn't know how to talk, doesn't know how to even walk or get its food. If the mother completely left, if it got taken away from the mother and nobody was taking care of it, it would die. That is the amount of dependence that I pray that you find in God. That you say, if I am not like supple to your teeth, if I'm not so close to you, if I'm not in your arms, I can't make it. I won't make it. Especially if you feel that you have this huge calling on your life. I posted earlier this week that you know what's from God based on how close it makes you to him. And I've recently gotten an opportunity, and honestly, just as I continue to grow in my leadership and doing Bible studies and people are asking me really, really hard questions, I sit and I go, all of this makes me seek him so much more because I need him. I cannot do this on my own. There is no way that I can sustain where I feel he's calling me without him. I will crumble, I will fail, I will turn into my fleshly desires, I will absolutely demolish every opportunity without him. I need him. And so I don't sit from the point of how do I make myself feel good enough. I think that is one of the biggest human flaws that we have in today's day and age because you'll never find it. Everyone's looking for an answer that they will never find on their own. Think of how upsetting that is. That's like me saying, hey, there's a needle in that haystack over there, go find it. And you waste your whole life trying to find the needle in the haystack. Meanwhile, the needle was God holding it the whole time. You find it in him. You will never feel good enough on your own. That hole, that gap in your heart can only be full and filled by him. So, no, you'll never be good enough. That is the point. You will never be completely sufficient on your own. You will never feel complete peace on your own. You're not supposed to. There is a really good quote that says that we were made with a God-sized hole in our hearts because he is meant to fill every deficiency, his strength, our weakness creates his ability to strengthen us. All of I want to picture yourself like Swiss cheese. I'm bringing out all analogies because I just want this to hit so heavily. You are a piece of Swiss cheese. Okay, you got all these holes in you. The more holes that you have, the more he can fill you. And that is why I feel that he uses broken people, he uses imperfect people. We see the story of the disciples. And if you're anything like me, you read through the word of God and you're going, well, the people he's using sound a whole lot like me. You read Proverbs and you're going, well, wait a second, I am the fool that he keeps talking about. And you recognize the more deficits, the more faulty I am, the more humble I am in that, the more he actually can use me. And that is why God uses broken people. We are more submitted, we are more open, he can fill us all that much more because we're not full of ourselves. Oh, that's good. That's good. Let's go. And so I want you to think about that. I'm gonna stop trying to hide my flaws. I'm gonna stop trying to throw my flaws away. I'm gonna let him transform me. This might be, I'm just gonna out myself and be really transparent. Me and Sal started going to pre-marital counseling, which is so exciting. I 10 out of 10 recommend it to every single person is going to pre-marital counseling with your significant other, especially if you're planning on getting engaged. If you are already engaged and married, just find a Christian counselor because when you are growing closer to God together, there's nothing that is a bigger blessing and also the biggest middle finger to the enemy that I've ever seen. And so we started going to Christian counseling, which is sounds really cute, but he had individual sessions with us where we asked, What is the thing that that Sal does that makes you the most upset? And then Sal had his individual where he went in and Matt, our counselor said, Well, what are the things that Chelsea does that make you the most upset? And I already knew what his answer was gonna be because it's something I'm actively working on. And it's something I talk about a lot, is this spirit of criticism, right? It's also the spirit of pride, of feeling like I know better, that I do better, whatever it is the story I'm making up in my head, right? And I think women fall into this a lot because we tend to think, well, men never know anything, I'm always right. And so we want to correct them in everything they do. I grew up with a very controlling brain. I learned if I want something done, I want it done my way, or I'll just do it myself. And coming into and trying to create a godly covenant, that doesn't work. That that mindset also doesn't work with God, and I've tried it, he's really had to strip me of that. But again, I had this huge hole in my heart from how I've grown up to think that I want to control and criticize everything so that people will be what I need them to be, exactly how I need them to be. God's going, Well, I made everybody different. Like, this ain't your rodeo, this is my rodeo, Chelsea. You ought to sit down. I made Sal perfect in his image, in my image, not yours. And so the biggest thing is give me the patience, Lord. Help me be less critical, help me speak life into this man of God that you have sent to me and help me steward him well, right? Help me be that woman. And because of acknowledging my deficits, because I'm sitting here and going, I'm not good enough for this man, I'm not good enough for this type of relationship you're blessing me with, that it blesses me that much more. Those who are faithful with little will be trusted with much. And so that is the aspect of stewardship. And so I really just want this entire message to build you up and to build up your faith that God is not calling the perfect, right? There's that famous code that everybody loves to say that God doesn't call the qualified, but he qualifies the called. But your action is giving him the space to be able to qualify you. Your action is do I have enough space in my life, my holes of Swiss cheese? Can I just out all the cheese that was in that hole and let God come and fill me so that he can do the work that he wants to do in me and through me and for him? Can I be the willing vessel? Because if you're not willing, if you're white knuckling, he can't do his job. And that's imposter syndrome. So I want you to just sit and really focus on those two main things that we talked about. Number one was that complete, utter surrender, independence, and submission to God. Are you there yet? What do you have to give up? What are you looking at, trying to control in your own life? Can you give that to him? Right after this podcast, go to him in prayer and say, Lord, I have been white knuckling, fill in the blank, I place it at your altar. Strip it from me, take it away. It is yours. And you have to mean it, okay? And number two is have you been thinking about yourself more than service? Have you been thinking about me over others? And that's gonna be a huge shift for you because when you feel more pain looking at you not moving, what that's doing to other people versus the discomfort that it's it's gonna cause you to move, it's gonna make you move a lot quicker. I don't care what I look like. I care that I win souls over to the kingdom and I get women moving. I care that I instill a boldness and an authority in women that they have never felt before. Because that is how we're gonna raise legacies, that's how we're gonna raise God-fearing children, that's how we're gonna change the world. I truly believe. So I want you to go to him in prayer, right? This ain't something you gotta go talk to me about. Go talk to him about it, right? Imposter syndrome dies when you realize that the kingdom doesn't need perfect people. God's never wanted perfect people, it just needs participation, it needs a willing vessel, it needs you to step forward and say, I don't get it. God, but I'll go. You're not pretending to be something you're not, you're becoming who God's always knew that you were supposed to be.