Before God Takes You Higher, He Builds You Deeper

On today’s episode of The Morning Charge, Joshua teaches on why God starts with foundations before He builds anything lasting in our lives. In a culture that wants quick growth, instant breakthrough, and visible fruit, God often works first on what is hidden: character, prayer life, marriage, parenting, finances, integrity, habits, and obedience.

This episode challenges listeners to stop rushing the process and let Jesus become the true foundation of everything they are building. Whether it is your home, marriage, ministry, business, calling, or personal walk with God, what is underneath will determine what can stand when pressure comes.

Key takeaways from this episode:

• God is not careless in how He builds.
• Storms do not create your foundation; they reveal it.
• Hearing truth is not the same as building on truth.
• Foundations are formed through daily faithfulness and obedience.
• Before God takes you higher, He has to build you deeper.
• The strength of your foundation determines the safety of your increase.
• Jesus Christ must be the foundation of everything.

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Real Talk. Real Jesus. Real Life.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the morning charge. This is your moment to slow down, breathe, and get your spirit aligned before stepping into the day ahead. Life moves fast, responsibilities pile up, voices compete for your attention. But before the noise of the world takes over, this is where we come back to what actually matters. This is a place for honest conversations about faith, life, purpose, and everyday battles we all face. No pretending, no religious performance, just the truth. Because following Jesus was never meant to be complicated, it was meant to be real. So whether you're driving to work, you're getting the kids ready, or simply taking a quiet moment for yourself, you're in the right place. This is real talk, real Jesus, real life. This is the morning charge. All right, there's a lot of people that want God to build something great in their lives. Everybody, of course, when we're born, we want to do great things and we want to go forth and build. Here's the thing when we're when we're young, we want to build a name for ourselves. We want to get ourselves out there. We want to do the best we can. But after a while, it's like things we just kind of get shot down and some discouragement comes and things don't work out the way we did, and life just happens. And if we're not careful and not rooted and grounded in the Lord, then that can really damage us in a lot of places, which means we got to go get some healing from all of that to see ourselves rightly, to see how or see who we really are. We got to know whose we are and who we are, and we don't know who we are until we know whose we are. But there's a lot of people you're going to build something really great for your life, but you don't want Him to spend time on your foundations. We don't ever go back to the foundations of the Lord before we start building all these great and grandiose things. You want something quick. We live in a microwave society, y'all. You can stay in your car, ride around to the board, order the food, go to the window, get it in, and off you go, eating it while you drive. You don't even have to get out of the car. You just ride around, get the food, and off you go. We live in a microwave fast food society. You want quick progress on everything. Quick, quick, quick. I won't, I want breakthrough quick. We got to get through this. I want to see growth quick. See, a lot of people jump into and they're gung-ho about this whole business idea, and then they jump into it and they don't see growth within the first few days. That's not how that works. Consistency is your friend. Showing up every day is how things begin to fall into place. Okay. Our cleaning company, we're what? We're three, three years in this July as far as cleaning goes. So we're about to hit three years. Okay. When Brandy and I first started, it was her and me and making a connection with a property manager and us looking at the properties they had and taking as many jobs as we can, splitting the kids up. And she would go to a house, I'd go to a house, and we started cleaning. By golly, we started a cleaning company and we got in and we had to figure out what was working, what wasn't working, what kind of specs did they have, their check sheets was it? Was it working? And we had to put systems together because it was like we're really just wasting time doing this. How can we do this more efficiently? That's taken all the here, and we're still massaging that. We're still looking at that and we're still forming that and shaping that. That doesn't happen overnight. I just want you to know that it doesn't happen overnight. Brandy said, instead of enduring the process so we can be better, we come out instead of enduring the pro. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you will if you will endure the process, you will become better. Consistency every day. Consistency every day. But but see what happens is we're in this, we're in this, where we're where you can pick up your device and you can boom, before your feet hit the floor every day, you know the weather, you know the news, you know what's happened, you're caught up, bada bing, bada boom, off you go. We got it now, we got it now, we got it now. You used to back in the day, and I am just old enough to remember this, okay, because remember, I'm I'm from the millennial generation. No, I'm just kidding. But that era, we saw a lot of things happen. Being born in the 80s, growing up in the 90s. I saw a lot of things take place. We saw technology. I remember when the internet first hit the dial-up thing. Y'all remember the sounds our computer used to say and make all those weird noises. And then watching a watching a uh, you know, you you you've gone to a website for the first time, and that that's how pictures used to load, by the way. It would just be like it would just start and it would just kind of just take its time. But we saw, we saw a big, a big flip in things. You but used to we had to wait until the five o'clock news to know what was going on around town. Oh, I didn't know that happened. Ah, we relied on all that. Now you know everything that happened overnight by the time you get up. You know, there's a lot of people in TV. I give them advice. You can't do it the way you used to do it because everybody already knows. That's nothing special anymore. So you have to change your way of thinking. We're always mending, we're always molding to what's going on. But we live in such a microwave society. The bad part of that is we don't want everything now. I want it right now. I want the, I want the I want this laid out now, I want that built now, I want this done now. We got to be doing this right now. I want answers right now. I want breakthrough right now. I want the growth to happen right now. And I'm like, oh my god, oh Jason, I am old enough. It's 10 o'clock it's 10 o'clock. Do you know where your children are? Those are the things a lot of us remember from back in the day. What I want to bring home here, though, is God is not careless in how He built. He is not one to just slap things together. Now He can bring instant healing, He can bring instant freedom to you. But that is the start of what God wants to do in you. We think that was it. Done. I'm healed, set free, I'm delivered. That was it. No, no, no. Now comes the real process in the game for you is that you've got to stand up and you've got to walk it out every day. Didn't we just talk about this? You've got to stand up and say, I'm gonna put measures in place to be free again today. Because now that's on me. God came and did what he did, he totally eradicated that thing in my life. It is up to me to make sure I don't fall face first and the sin that so easily ensnares me and tangles me anymore. When God builds something, he starts what's hidden underneath. So he comes in and searches and knows you, and he starts cleaning and he starts doing what he does. He comes into what is hidden. He cut he has to start with what is supporting everything else, and that happens on the inside. When you're first putting your business together, you have a lot of people tell you you're crazy. You are crazy. I can't believe you're starting that and doing that. My gosh. You know how many people succeed in doing that? I mean, the percentage is pretty low. I mean, so if you heard from the Lord, that's all you need. You don't need man's approval. You don't need anyone to tell you what ain't working. All right. But once again, get around people who are doing what God is calling you to do, and they are successful at doing what they do. Success breeds success, by the way. You you want to you want to succeed in business? Be around somebody who succeeds in business. Especially the trade that you're that you're that you're feeling called to jump into. Whatever I use business a lot, okay. This can be applied to anything. You want to be a successful parent, be around godly parents who parent their children according to the word of God. You're number six of the five people you hang out with. So there's another example. But if your foundation is off, if your foundation is not stable, eventually everything that's built on top of it is going to, it's going to begin to put a strain on that. And then everything's going to have a strain on it. Like I said, you'll look up and you'll see cracks in the ceiling. Oh, what's going on there? Oh, the foundation is, oh, it's settling. Oh, no. Well, we didn't allow things, we didn't do things right to get it all nice and settled before we started building. We got too quick, started building upon a foundation that was not ready yet. And now the house has got some issues. And you try to put some paint on it and some spackle and you try to hide it. But it's but the crack is still there. All you did was hide the crack. You got to take care of the foundation. Sometimes you just have to bulldoze the house and start over if you didn't build it upon the right foundation. So let's talk about these foundations today. I mean, one of one of the frustrations people have with God is that that he doesn't build at the speed we want him to be building. What we forget is we're on his timetable. So we need to remind ourselves that we are on God's timetable. And so we have to, and that is it, Ginger. Very good. There's there's a lot of a lot of he should, there's a lot of false gods out there. There's a lot of distractions out there. And honestly, whatever you pay your most attention to is pretty much what you're saying is Lord of your life. You got to assess your schedule. That's a whole teaching of itself. Assess your schedule. What do you spend your most time doing? God is not very impressed by what looks to be strong if it is built on something that is extremely weak. A lot of things can look great for a couple of seasons, maybe a season, till it starts showing signs of things. We've seen this in different ministries and different things. And, you know, and I and I don't bring that up to point fingers because there's always three pointing back at me. We've got to be careful who we're pointing fingers at, but there's a lot of corrupt corruption out there, y'all. I mean, it is a lot, there's a lot of things that that were built according to man specs. And while there was you could see the mission of Jesus in it, there was a whole lot of corruption that's going on behind the scenes. So you got to be careful what you attach your wagon to. If there's a whole lot of corruption involved, you better unhook your wagon. Say, Lord, I need to regroup, because I can't be attached to that. But then you need to pray for those people that God would open their eyes and that and that they would begin to see things rightly. I mean, that's still God's child.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

But you can't have your wagon hooked to something that's corrupt.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

But there's a lot of people that have you you you're going and you you seem to be picking up some momentum and you're starting to gain some attention and people making all kinds of noise, and there's growth happening, the numbers are going up. But I can tell you this the appearance of things is not the foundation of it. Things can look great, things can sound great. I tell you guys all the time be careful what you listen to, be careful who you listen to. All right. I can't sit here and just listen to everybody all day. There's a lot of voices out here, okay, on the on the internet. There's a lot of voices streaming out every single day. I mean, technology has made it easy for anybody with a device to go over here, hit live, and say, hey, here I am. You got to check the foundations, and you must discern the voices that you are listening to. Because not every voice, hey, even the Bible says not everyone that says Lord, Lord, is going to enter into the kingdom. There's a lot of people saying, Lord, Lord, and they're spatting off a whole bunch of, I don't know. I mean, it yeah, I've heard some things, I'm like, that doesn't sound very filtered. Some very distorted things going on where we're trying to, we're trying to justify things and throw Jesus on it to make it okay, and it's not okay. It's not okay. The appearance of things might be all well and wonderful. You might be saying Jesus, but the foundation could be rocky. Always check the foundation. If you're going to go buy a house, you want your home inspector under that house looking at that foundation. Because if it ain't good, it's not a good investment. We also too should be ones who are checking the foundation of things. What is your vision? That's why we have a vision statement, a mission statement on Fire and Water Ministry's website. You can go on there. I mean, most of you guys know me and you and you hear what I what I talk about, and I always point you back to this. Go read this for yourself. Get in the secret place. There's a lot of people who would rather just get online and hear what they need to hear and then move on about their day. You got to go spend time with the Lord. You need to find time in your secret place. You'll never know specifics about your life until you go spend time with Jesus. I don't know specific things about my life until I spend time with the Lord. If I need answers on something, prayer and fasting until the answers come. Oh yes, that should be a lifestyle. We got to get back to biblical basics, y'all. We have to get back to biblical basics. All right, if we look at I meant to mark this earlier. If I go to Matthew 7, 24 through 27, everyone who hears my teaching and applies it to his life can be compared to a wise man who built his house on an unshakable foundation. This is from the Passion. When the rains fell and the flood came with fierce winds beating upon his house, it stood firm because of its strong foundation. But everyone who hears my teaching and does not apply it to his life can be compared to a foolish man who built his house on sand. When it rained and rained and the flood came, with wind and waves beating upon his house, it collapsed and was swept away. By the time Jesus finished speaking, the crowds were dazed and overwhelmed by his teaching, because his words carried such great authority, quite unlike their religious scholars. They heard the authority in his voice when he was speaking the truth. The religious scholars only spoke what they knew to the best of their abilities. But Jesus came to be our example about how we speak things in authority in our lives. But Jesus is talking about two builders here. Both of them built their houses, both of them heard words to build houses, both of them faced storms. They all went through the same things, except the difference here was not the storm. The difference here was the foundation that the house was built upon. One was built upon the rock, one was built upon the sand. The storms of your life don't build your foundations. The storms that come in your life reveal your foundations. If you are one that stands the test of the storm, then you have built your life upon the solid rock who is Jesus Christ. If you crumble with every storm that comes and you feel swept out to sea like everything is hopeless and like nothing is going to change, and this is the way it's always going to be, well, then you've built your house upon the sand. And that that's another one, Scoot Scoot. Those who dwell in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of his wings.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

Are you dwelling in the secret place?

SPEAKER_01 15:53

He is your protection. He is your everything. He's your strength when you're weak. He is your protection from the storms. This is the whole reason why God starts with foundations. Foundations are everything. What you build your life upon is everything because pressure, pressure is always, pressures are going to come. Life is going to happen. It's not a matter of will life happen. It's a matter of when will life happen when it comes to these storms and things that we go through. And we have already been through it this week. Life shouldn't be a constant spiritual warfare battle. If so, you have an open door and you need to find that open door and get that closed and barricade that thing. But storms are going to come. Situations are going to arise. How you respond is going to make the difference. And that all shows how you respond to things, how your house is built and what foundation it's sitting on.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

Pressures will expose what needs to come to the forefront and be dealt with through the words you say.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

If there is no peace in the midst of your storm, something needs to be dealt with. And there's a lot of things that look fine until pressure comes. What about marriages? When pressures come, how you begin to deal with each other. You have money issues, you have your priorities are out of whack. Okay? You have trust issues, whatever you have going on, that can bring a huge strain. What happens when pressures hit in your finances, in your business or your ministries, or or or or hey, what about here? The enemy trying to bring pressure to your thought life. Pressures can hit your families. Your time is what the enemy is after. Distractions. All different kinds of things. When these pressures and things begin to hit, how do you handle things? Because what is lying underneath starts to bubble to the top. And then you need to take note of things that may need to be dealt with. And that's it, Hill Country. When the storms do come, we need to praise him.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

We need to praise him.

SPEAKER_01 18:07

Prayer and praise is how we fight. Pray and praise your way through. Another thing we've talked about is being doers of the word, not just hearers of the word, but hearing the truth is not the same as building on the truth. This means you've got to build upon something, not just hear the truth. See, Jesus made something very clear, all right, in the passage was that both men heard to build the house. So the difference was not the exposure to the truth of building the house. The difference was whether truth became the structure. Go build the house. Okay. Well, you went and built it. Okay. Did we consult the Lord on where to build this? Because it's not, if you stop and think about it for a minute, we shouldn't have built it there. It's too close to the water. It's on the sand. It, I mean, sand, and so you got high tide rolling in, and when storms come in, it really comes rolling in, and you're really close. And ah, what are we going to do now? You know what I mean? There's a proving ground for faith. It's how you respond to what his word says, and then you act. You respond to what his word, what is he saying, what is he showing you, and then you act upon what he is showing you. That's the steps. That's the success, the successful steps of building on a firm foundation. A strong foundation is not built by hearing a word or hearing the word. It is built by obeying the word. You can't just hear it. You have to obey it. And then if you hear it and you partially do it, oh my gosh, well now you're doing it your way. Do it the way that God designed. I mean, even building the temple in the Bible had its specks. The outer court, inner court, holy place. All of that was built how the Lord had designed it. God most definitely works below our surface before he begins to work on what's up here. He is building something in the man before he before he puts the man in place to begin to build what needs to be built. Does that make sense? Foundational work seems very slow on the inside. You're going through different processes, you're going through different things. The Lord has taken you through different seasons of doing something here and maybe something there and over here. But every season in life brings some sort of a teaching moment. Did you learn what needed to be learned here to better equip you for here? To learn what you need to learn here, to better equip you for here to learn what you God will take you different places and do different things with you to prepare your life because he's pouring the foundation in your on the inside. See, the Lord spoke to me, the vision for fire and water ministries back in 2019. Seven years ago. But I've had to go through a process and a process. Then overhear a process, and then overhear a process. The Lord's had to impart things into me. I've had to learn things to be able to take me to the moments when we can fully launch the full vision of what fire and water ministries actually looks like. But he has, you have to be willing to go through the fire, in and out of the fire. Seven times purified. Seven years, seven times. Thank you, Lord. Okay. In the furnace, hot, hot, hot, really uncomfortable, out to cool off, in the fire again. Oh, here we go. Burning away the impurities, seven times in, like the silver and the gold. But it comes out shiny and it comes out smooth and pure the way God had intended it to be. But it all starts in The furnace. It all starts in the hidden places where you cannot see what is going on. Psalms 11 and 3. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? I mean, that that tells me that foundations are extremely important. If the foundations are destroyed, well, what can the righteous do if there's no foundation? See, God will spend time on what people cannot see, the hidden things, because he knows it determines what they eventually will see. So God spends time on those things. He spends time on the hidden things because eventually it's going to come out. The hidden things on the inside of you right now, is it going to be good when it comes out? Ask yourself that question. Are you allowing God to prepare the inside of you and clean some things up to set you on the path of righteousness to move forward? Or are you just going to kind of just follow the Lord but yet keep all the hidden stuff? Hello. We talked about all this this week. Keep all the hidden stuff on the inside. The hurts, the pains, the wounds, the sins, all of that stuff. You're going to keep all that on and then look like Jesus on the outside, but be a total wreck on the inside, trying to hold it all together is only going to last you for so long. Maybe a season if you get that far. If you don't allow him to work on the important things, the foundations of your life, everything will look good for a moment, but it's just a matter of time, my friends. It's a matter of time. If you don't lay down your crap, your junk, and you don't make that move towards pressing into holiness. I didn't say you needed to be perfect to be get it all together. None of us are perfect. We all have decisions to make every single day. Casting down thoughts, putting on our armor, denying ourselves, taking up our cross and following Him. Those are all choices we make every day. Amen. Are you doing what you want to do or what Jesus wants you to do? Carrie, that's another thing we talk about all the time. Are you doing life your way? All the things you want to do, all the things you want to build, all the things you want to happen? Or are you doing what God wants you to do? Are you following the ways of Jesus? Have you adopted the lifestyles of Jesus as you're doing kingdom things and kingdom building?

SPEAKER_00 24:30

This is how you live true life. Real talk, real Jesus, real life leads you to your true life.

SPEAKER_01 24:39

But God spends time on what people can't see.

SPEAKER_00 24:45

Because eventually people are going to see it.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Your character, your prayer life, your marriage, your parenting, your finances, your thought life. Lots of different things, your habits, the disciplines that you've put into place or not put into place. I mean, there's there's there's there's I mean, this can go one way or the other on all of these categories.

SPEAKER_00 25:09

And then and then even beyond integrity, your private integrity. Do you do the right things when nobody is watching? It's just the real part of life. Before God, before God can take you higher, he's gotta build you deeper.

SPEAKER_01 25:28

Just like that oak tree. Your roots have got to go in, and you have got to be firmly planted before you can shoot. It's root downward, shooting upward.

SPEAKER_00 25:40

Root down, fruit up. Thank you, Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

When you have a weak foundation, those cracks are visible. We talked about this earlier. If the foundation is weak, well, eventually you're you're gonna see it in in in in in different things. What do the cracks look like? They look like constant instability. One minute you're up, and the next minute you're down. I mean, you're you're you're you're never the same person when people see you. There must be a constant in your life. People should tell that you have spent time with Jesus, or they can tell that you haven't spent time with Jesus. An unstable man or a uh a double-minded man, sorry, is unstable in all of his ways. That's what we see in James. You need stability. You see this constant instability. You have these repeated collapses. I made it, I fell. I made it, I fell. I made oh my goodness. Are you going to get it? You need to make some different choices in order to get to that place of stability, is what you're trying to get after.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

You're emotionally a wreck.

SPEAKER_01 26:57

Relationally, you're a strain on the people. People don't want to associate you with you. People don't want to be around you because you're just, you're emotionally draining. I'm just, this is real talk, real Jesus. He speaks to me through me. Hello.

SPEAKER_00 27:12

Maybe you're always in some sort of financial chaos.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

You're inconsistent even with your spirituality with Jesus. Jesus is good. And then tomorrow he hates me. What? Weren't you just saying Jesus was good yesterday? And now you had this one little thing happen. I mean, that thing that happened actually because you sort of, you know, you didn't do what you needed to do, and now it happened. I didn't have nothing to do with him. It's the blame game with the Lord. When your roots are shallow like this, it topples. Your tree is going to topple over. It's like a pine tree root. Pine tree roots kind of like a taproot and a few little things going out. They're not the strongest of trees when it comes to their foundation. They uh high wind comes and pine trees, usually the first one over. You have the inabilities to handle pressure. Yeah. When you have a weak foundation, you can't handle pressure. You feel crushed, you feel pressed, like all is lost, and oh, it's me. So you cannot permanently fix surface problems and ignore your foundational problems because there's a root of something. The way you act, the way that you carry yourself, the words that you speak, the way that you are when you're blowing to and fro, and you can't seem to, you know, I mean the wind starts coming, you're like, ah, you're only good on the sunny days. If your foundation is built upon pride, or it's built upon your own self-will, or or it's built upon people pleasing, hello. Maybe you have your foundation you've built upon compromise. You built upon a foundation you lay.

SPEAKER_00 29:06

There's no prayer, there's no order, there's no truth. Well, the cracks are just gonna keep coming back.

SPEAKER_01 29:16

You're gonna think you're dealing with these little things, but all you're dealing with is just the side effects of a crumbling foundation. There's not enough plaster and paint to get you through that before the house crumbles and it falls in on itself. Because foundations are built through faithfulness every single day. Yeah, all me, that's it. Just like in exercise. When you exercise, core strength is key. You got to get your core strong so then you can begin to work on everything else. If you don't have a strong core or a strong center, Jesus at the center. If you don't have a strong center, you got to get this going so you can build everything else around that. Or if you don't, you wind up hurting yourself. That's just the physics of our body. You got to get the core right before everything else can begin to get stronger. So you can do things the right way without hurting yourself. But sometimes foundation is built through the little things. What do we talk about and hear all the time? Find yourself in the secret place. Daily prayer, right? Consistent time in the Word of God. You need to be faithful in your giving. Giving of your time, giving of your finances, giving of whatever God says to give, because none of this stuff and things, and I mean, He's only just given me the things that I have. It's not really mine. We get really possessive really fast. But if God said, hey, give that to somebody, I have to look at it through the eyes of a kingdom-minded person and say, well, that's not really mine. And if God said to do that, then obviously he's gonna bring me what I need. I must not really need that. So what do you have? What's God been what's what's God been knocking on your door and saying, hey, that over there needs to go to that person over there? You just got to be obedient. Say, I don't know if you need this, I don't know what, but here, God said to give this. So you got to be able to give faithfully. Honest repentance is how a strong foundation is built. Forgiving quickly. Stop letting things fester. Things happen. Oh, I'm sorry. And truly ask for forgiveness and forgive when you need to forgive. Honoring your spouse, being faithful to your husband or wife. Disciplining your children, yes, that is building a foundation. You must do that. Okay? You have to discipline your children one way or another. You know your children better than anyone, so you should know how to do that. Managing your money just as wisely as you possibly can. Telling the truth. It's another part of building your foundation. Showing up every single time, whether someone's looking or not. That's building a strong foundation in your life. Obeying God in the little things. Whatever those things are. Trust God. I mean, if we look at another great example would be Luke 16. If we turn over to Luke 16 and 10, the one who manages the little he has, oh, that he has been given with faithfulness and integrity, will be promoted and trusted with greater responsibilities. Did you hear that? Those who can manage the little bit that they have with faithfulness and integrity will be promoted and trusted with greater responsibilities. But those who cheat with the little they have been given will not be considered trustworthy to receive more. Might need that one day. I can't give that away. Excuse me. If the Lord has spoken, you have been spending time in the secret place, you're understanding how to hear his voice, you see him through the word, through your prayer time, through a billboard, through whatever. And he says, Hey, do this. You're cheating yourself without giving that thing away. You're cheating yourself. If you can't be faithful in what God's given you, like, yeah, we'll do that tomorrow. I don't feel like it. You're cheating yourself out of the promises of God, is what you're doing. We don't live life based on our feelings. We go through life trusting Him to give us strength when we need strength.

SPEAKER_00 34:06

But when you cheat with the little that you've been given, you're not considered trustworthy to receive more.

SPEAKER_01 34:16

If you have not handled the riches of the world with integrity, why should you be trusted with the eternal treasures of the spiritual world? And if you've not been proven faithful with what belongs to another, why should you be given wealth of your own?

SPEAKER_00 34:33

What are you doing at the office?

SPEAKER_01 34:36

You think taking pens and staplers and paper, I mean that's gonna. Well, I deserve it. They don't pay me enough. Well, why are you there? If you're that miserable, why are you there? You're not making a difference. You're being a cancer cell to everybody around you, and you're bringing the whole place down, and now you're taking things. I mean little things. I used to be conscious about that. When I would read the scripture and I would see things like that, it's like, oh that's technically the company's. Why would I take that? It's not mine. I mean, we teach, yeah, Kara, we teach well, we teach our children not to.

SPEAKER_00 35:14

If that's yours, don't touch it. We need to take our own advice. It's all here in the scripture. How we live our life.

SPEAKER_01 35:25

Faithfulness in the little reveals the readiness for more. Big things are usually built on small obediences that are repeated over time. Big things are built on small obediences repeated over time. Every day you wake up, you choose to do the right thing, all day, every day. If you get to a crossroads and you're like, if I tell them this, it'll be easier to get out of that. But there's a little bit of a lie that goes with that. If I tell them this, they may not like me anymore. So you'd rather lie just to get out of the situation and them still like you instead of just being truthful and saying, Well, here's the truth.

SPEAKER_00 36:20

Just be truthful. Just be truthful over the matter.

SPEAKER_01 36:24

I mean, they may not like you in that moment, but I would rather have somebody be truthful in my life. Then I find out later, well, they didn't do that. They just didn't want to be here. I can't believe they did that. See, because the lie will always come back around at some point. You might think you got somebody fooled for the moment. But God's light always shines on the dark places and the situations. So keep yourself clean.

SPEAKER_00 36:55

Make the right decisions in the moments.

SPEAKER_01 37:04

God is more interested in what can last in your life rather than what you could put together quickly. All right, you're going to choose to build it with steel beams and welding and making sure the insulation is in place and all the things that require a good strong foundation. You got a good building ready to go. Or do you want to get a bunch of popsicle sticks and glue and try to just piece together everything you can today just to make it look a certain way? I mean, today, the Branjo Collective launched. All right, now that's exciting. We're grateful for all of you, and we're excited about this next step and this next chapter in this walk and the things that we can do. But even putting that together, even in something like that, the real prayer is not like, Lord, let it just start. Let it let it let's just throw something together. Let's just let's just get it together. You know, I'm hearing people want morning charge stuff and then this and that. Let's just all just throw it. Let's just throw something together and let's just get it out there and let's just. The real prayer for me was, Lord, I see what you're showing me. And and Lord, I want to build this right. I want it to have a good, strong foundation. I want it to have the things that are going to be quality things, not just a look of just, oh, well, we just threw a whole bunch of stuff together. I want to spend time on it and build it his way. A good start is not the same as a strong foundation. I thought I was going to stay finished. A good start is not the same as a strong foundation. What I just opened up today for all of you is that this is the foundational part of this, of what it is. It's a community where you can go, where everything can be in one place. Everything that we've done here, it could all be in one place instead of here and there and everywhere. I wanted it to be a quality place with lots of information and lots of different ways that Brandy and I can walk with you and we can help you in many different areas.

SPEAKER_00 39:19

So it's going to be a slow grow. In the same sense, a lot of people have started lots of things.

SPEAKER_01 39:28

You've started different relationships, or you've started those business ideas or the ministry ideas, or maybe even health goals. We talked about working out, you know, and maybe getting a different diet. You've started different things. You know, the the resets with the Lord. I'm going to get up early and I'm going to pray and I'm going to spend time in the secret place and all those things. But the issue, the issue was never getting started. The issue was what getting started was built on. This is why foundations matter more than the goals and the things that are built upon the foundation. See. Your foundation has to be there first. You've got to be rooted and grounded in who you are and whose you are. You've got to be able to see the life that God wants you to have. You've got to be able to see the healing that God wants to bring you. You've got to be able to see the financial breakthrough that God wants to give you here and here. And that's called having faith because what it is is you're seeing something you haven't physically touched or seen yet.

SPEAKER_00 40:42

But when you root and ground yourself in him, then you can begin.

SPEAKER_01 40:47

You have to see yourself stronger and healthier so that you can understand what has to take place to be able to walk that out. And then be reasonable and nice with yourself. Give yourself, I mean, you're not going to see, you'll begin to see changes after a couple of weeks, but give yourself some six-month goals at least. If you're going to work out and do some things, here's phase one of this. Here's phase two of this. And then once again, get around people who are doing what it is you want to do. They're going to be your biggest fans and your biggest motivators. Get around people who are excited about your new journey. I mean, you see, you see a guy walking around. Yeah, I want to get to that point. I want to talk to that guy. How'd you get to that point? How long did it take you? How long have you been working out? What have you been doing? What exercises work? What doesn't work? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 41:37

Get around people that are doing what you're doing. I usually jump ahead of myself. That's why I'm like, nope, talked about that. Nope, got on that.

SPEAKER_01 41:53

Your foundation determines how high you can go. There's a lot of people that want to make a bigger impact. You want to make more income. You want to have more influence. You want to have more responsibilities. You want to have a greater reach. You want more fruit on your tree. You want this thing to be growing so well that there's lots of fruit. But if the foundation is not ready, the roots are not ready, it becomes very dangerous. Have you ever seen a small peach tree? You can get excited on that second or third season while it's still growing. And you can get a little overly excited and be like, well, this peach tree is going to bring a lot of peaches this year. But what you don't understand is you see a little peach on there, about that big. And you see about 20 or 30 or 40 of those things everywhere. But that tree's still really small. Unless you help put up some sort of a foundation for those limbs, it's going to, as it grows, it's going to bring those limbs down. And the limbs are going to snap and they're going to break. And now your tree is being damaged. There's a few seasons you got to make sure the health of the tree begins to grow before you start getting the fruit off of the tree. So you may have to get rid of those peaches and nourish the tree so the tree next season can be really strong and it can support the weight of the fruit. So you want things right now and you want it fast, but your limbs are not able to support the fruit that you're wanting. And the other problem is you're looking at the fruit. Stop looking at the fruit and start concentrating on the root. If you would keep your eyes on the root and keeping the roots strong, then everything else, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. That is the roots. And when you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all these other things shall be added to you. The strong trunk, the strong limbs, all the beautiful green leaves, and plenty of fruit to eat. That is all the other things shall be added to you. Seek first the kingdom of God. You've got to go deeper if you want to go higher. If your foundation is not ready, it's going to be a very dangerous situation for you. You want more visibility. I want to get in front of more people, but you have weak character and no integrity. Dangerous, dangerous, dangerous. The lights are going off. You're not ready for this. There's some things you need to get in order. You want more money. I will, if I just had more money. Well, you don't know how to handle money. What's going to happen when you get more money? You're going to keep mishandling the money. So stop that. You can't get more if you don't learn how to do what needs to be done here. Okay? You want more ministry opportunities or more business opportunities, but you're very weak in your private time. You haven't got past some things you need to get past and begin to walk out freedom in your life. Dangerous, dangerous place to be. I want more success. I want to be successful, but your priorities are really weak. And they're really watered down, and there's no meat to what you're trying to put together and what you're trying to do. Dangerous, dangerous, dangerous. You see how you got to have certain things in order. Seek first the kingdom of God and his uh what foundations, his righteousness, and all these other things will be added to you. The strength of the foundation determines the safety of your increase.

SPEAKER_00 45:17

How does your foundation look?

SPEAKER_01 45:21

It's like God is saying, if I give you more right now, what is underneath you is not going to be able to hold it. I can't do the things that you're asking. Yes, I want to give you your heart's desire. But you better make sure that your life is rooted and grounded in me, that your foundation is solid, so that you can handle what comes your way.

SPEAKER_00 45:46

God can't give you what you cannot handle.

SPEAKER_01 45:52

And the way I'm ending this this morning, Jesus himself is the foundation. Jesus Christ is the foundation. At the end of the day, at the end of it all, this is not just about having better habits, daily routines, or stronger systems in place for uh for stronger marriage or stronger family or stronger whatever you have. And those things matter, but the true foundation is Jesus Christ. He is our Lord and Savior. 1 Corinthians 3 and 11 for no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. There's no other foundation that anybody can lay. Jesus at the center of it all. Jesus at the bottom, Jesus at the top, Jesus around the sides. I can do nothing apart from Jesus. You cannot build your business, you cannot start your ministry, you cannot, you, you, you cannot live your life in any shape, form, or fashion.

SPEAKER_00 47:03

I can't do anything apart from him. It's all about Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 47:10

You can be the nicest person in the whole world, you can be a real go-getter and one that's just that's just one that'll stand up and just get stuff done. But if Jesus is not your foundation, it's just a matter of time. You cannot do it all by yourself. I cannot do it in my own strength. He is my rock. He is the cornerstone. Hello, we went through that not long ago. Jesus is the very one that everything else has to line up with. If he's the cornerstone, he is the one that everything else has to line up with.

SPEAKER_00 47:45

So what does the Lord want to work on in you? Right now. Some of you this morning may be a bit frustrated.

SPEAKER_01 47:57

Maybe you're frustrated with the Lord because you feel like he's not moved you forward. You're like, I feel stuck. I feel like I'm in the same place. God's not moving me forward. No doors have been opening. Nothing's been happening. And I want it now. I feel like right now. I want it right now. See, you're in that very frustrated frame of mind because nothing's happening in your time. But maybe God, maybe God's not ignoring you. Maybe, maybe God has not had has not turned his back upon you. Maybe he has been strengthening you, but you have been so busy looking at the fruit and all the wrong things that you haven't noticed what he's been doing. Maybe he's been helping you and working on your thought life. Maybe, maybe it's you're developing new habits in your life. Maybe he's been working with you on maybe your marriage, maybe your relationship with your child, your children, parenting your children. Maybe he's been working on your home, your prayer life, whatever it is. Maybe he has been hard at work. And you've just been too busy focused on the wrong things to know. Because when God starts building, he starts at the foundation. He starts at root level. And if you will just allow him to do it right, if you allow him to build things right, what comes later, you're going to be able to stand. Whatever comes your way, you're going to be able to stand. But you got to get some things cleaned up before you get to that point. But if you rush the process, if you ignore the cracks, if you resist doing the work that is necessary on your part to put forth the effort, or you or you try to build this thing for appearance instead of strength, you may get something visible real quick, but you're not going to survive under pressure. There's a lot of people right now that are not surviving under pressure. It's because you built everything in vain. Maybe some things that God didn't even want you to build. If you concentrate on the important things, life is going to go much better for you. Amen. So, Father, I just thank you this morning. I thank you, Father, that you do not build things. You do not build things carelessly in our lives, Father, but you have intricately put things together for us. The way you built this universe, the world we live in, how intricate our bodies were formed, God, that you that you formed and fashioned us in our mother's womb, Lord. The way that you just bring forth new life, God. We see you everywhere. And the systems that you put together. And how they were built upon the firm foundation of truth. Lord, I pray right now, God, that we would just get back to living lives of truth again. Father, help us build our lives on Christ. Our homes on Christ, our marriages upon Christ. Lord, help us build our businesses upon Christ, our ministries. Oh my goodness, our ministries centered upon Christ, Lord. Let us learn to just trust you again, to make ourselves available to you again. To understand that this life is not our own, God, but it is yours. Lord, help me and show me how to unalive to myself daily. How to follow you daily. How to do the things you want me to do, Father. Lord, all the stuff and the things and the finances and all the things that I have, God, it's yours. Show us how to steward those things well. Lord, those that want increase, Father, teach them. Lord, how to better steward what they have. Teach us how to steward what we have, God. May our lives be built upon the solid rock. That is Jesus. And Lord, I just thank you right now in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. That's today's morning charge. Before you move on with your day, take a moment and let what you've heard settle into your heart. Faith isn't just something we talk about, it's something we live out in the ordinary moments of everyday life. Wherever today takes you, remember this. You don't walk into it alone. God is already ahead of you, working in ways you may not even see yet. Stand firm, walk in wisdom, lead with love, and don't forget who you belong to. Until next time, keep your heart anchored, keep your faith strong, and keep living out real talk, real Jesus, real life. We'll see you on the next morning charge.