Stop Calling It Discernment... It's Fear!

There are times when God asks us to step into something we've never done before. The question is, are we truly using discernment, or are we allowing fear to keep us comfortable?

In today's Morning Charge, Joshua challenges one of the most common spiritual misconceptions many believers face: confusing fear with wisdom. While discernment is a gift from God that helps us recognize His leading, fear often disguises itself as caution, hesitation, or "waiting on the Lord." Left unchecked, it keeps us from walking into the very purpose God has prepared for us.

Drawing from Scripture including 2 Timothy 1, Proverbs 3, James 3, Numbers 13–14, Isaiah 30, and John 10, this episode explores how God's voice leads us toward obedience while fear always pushes us toward self-protection. You'll discover practical ways to identify false reasoning, recognize trusted voices in your life, and develop the courage to obey God even when the next step feels uncertain.

If you've been wrestling with whether God is calling you into something new, this conversation will encourage you to stop magnifying the obstacles and start trusting the One who promised to walk with you every step of the way. 

Episode Summary:

•  Learn the difference between biblical discernment and fear disguised as wisdom. 
•  Discover why fear often sounds spiritual while quietly keeping us comfortable. 
•  See how Scripture calls believers to trust God instead of demanding complete control. 
•  Be challenged to identify areas where fear has delayed your obedience. 
•  Take practical steps toward walking confidently in God's calling. 

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Real Talk. Real Jesus. Real Life.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 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 is never meant to be complicated. It's meant to be real. So whether you're driving to work, you're getting the kids ready, or you're simply picking a quiet moment for yourself, you're in the right place. This is real talk. Real Jesus, real life. This is the morning charge.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

I want to sort of expound upon where we were yesterday. Yesterday, we talked about how do we hear the voice of the Lord. Is that me or is that you? Is that is that me just thinking up a whole bunch of stuff, or is that you, Lord? And we went through all kinds of different ways where you hear the voice of the Lord. But today, I want us to talk about, I want us to talk about fear. I know we've we we've touched on it from time to time, but uh, I believe it's something that you really have to, that we really must look at because we have to stop calling it discernment when it's actually fear. See, there's a little bit of confusion there. Sometimes you feel like, ooh, well, that's not the Lord. Well, maybe that's just something new to you. Maybe you don't know anything about it, but God is calling you to it. You're feeling fearful over it. Like that's completely out of my realm of things. And a lot of people are just saying, well, that's discernment. We shouldn't do things we don't know. I'm gonna stay over here and do things I know. Well, you're just staying over here being comfortable. All right, when the Lord asked me to step out and and and we started fire and water ministries, I ain't never started no ministry before. I've only helped you I didn't know anything about it, but God began to surround me with people and with voices who have been there. And they begin to speak life into our life. And then I had connected with a guy that knows all about the paperwork and stuff. I don't know nothing about that. So he was able to help us there. God has always led us in the places and around the people that we've needed. But I had to take a step and had to conquer my fear of the unknown to be able to be around the right people, to be in the right place at the right time where God wanted my foot to be. If you're still standing back here, God may just want you to take a step before he can bring you the next thing. You have to trust him with that. Look at that, everyone. Amanda's in the room. Brassel Dazzle, good morning, friend. Thank you for your heart, me. And I hope you're enjoying your summer away from the bus for now, unless you're doing some extra things outside of the normal school. So I know you and Apostle Kelly and Sheila, and all you guys are kind of taking your little bit of a break right now from the bus. So praise God. It's good to see you, friend. If you don't know Amanda, you need to know Amanda. I know she is here at various times, but most definitely she is here at night and she is going through the word with you. She's breaking things down. She is uh and she does such a great job at it. Her heart is to see people delivered and healed and set free, and then going forward with their healing, going forward with their deliverance in discipleship. Amen. I know Matthew and Amanda, and I know that's their heart's desire, is to see people completely, radically changed, but then get filled with the word of God as they move forward. If you're a person that's filled with the word of God as you go forward, you are a powerhouse and you've learned how to speak and you've learned how to walk and you've learned how to live according to the word of God in your life. Amen. So that is another trusted voice in my life. So y'all make sure to glean from her as much as you possibly can. Amanda, we love you, friend. Discipleship, yes. That's one thing, and it is sad to say, but that is one thing that is lacking. Discipleship. We've got to get back to where we don't just see people healed and delivered. We're like, yay. No, we need to say, hey, why don't you meet us here at this time and let's pour into the word together? All right. If you can't physically drive to where we are, hey, I meet every morning for the morning charge around 7 a.m. Central Standard Time, somewhere in there. Jump in with us. Let's go through the word together. Amanda's on. When to the times that she's on, you jump in there, get into the word together, continue iron sharpening iron. That's what we've got to do. Amen. Apostle Kelly and Popeye are going live on Tuesdays at 6:30 for the prophetic perspective. Hello? Another place to glean from the Word. There's so many places you can get. But like I always say, I'm very careful at the voices that are pouring to my life. You have to use discernment when you're listening. There's a lot of false voices out there that are building false kingdoms. They're building their own thing. Be so very careful about who you're listening to. You have to listen to trusted voices, and that is between you and the Lord. I mean, because there's a ton, there's a ton of good voices too. Hello? I could not sit here and listen to all of the good teachings that are out there. I have to know who God has said. Hey, this is a voice that I want to speak in your life, and that is what you have to do. Amen. But we have to stop calling it discernment when it's really fear. So we got to break this down and we've got to talk about this today. Not everything that we call wisdom is wisdom. And we're going to look at some different things today. Now, not everything we call discernment is discernment. Sometimes what we're calling be careful, oh, just be careful, is really just fear. And you're trying to justify the fear in a way to where you don't step beyond what you're comfortable with. Sometimes we're calling just waiting on the Lord is actually just a hesitation from yourself on taking that first step. I'm just going to wait on the Lord. God said he was going to do it, and I'm just going to sit here. There are times when you need to wait on the Lord, but there are times when he has spoken and it and it causes a reaction on your part before you get to the next thing. You have to discern what it is that you are doing and where God wants you to go now. All right. Do not overthink this because then people get into overthinking. Well, I don't know if it's me. I don't know if it's what take a step. And he will meet you step for step. There's a lot of people that are calling, well, I just want to maintain my peace. No, what you're doing is you're avoiding stepping into something uncomfortable because you're fearful over it and you don't want to move into it because, oh, that's going to take a lot of work and oh, that's going to really mess with our schedule. And ah, that's going to. And you're trying to just say, well, I'm just going to stay over here where it's peaceful. Do you think a warrior going off into battle, strapping on the armor and going into the fight? Do you think they're like, well, I'd rather stay over here where it's peaceful? No, you got to go take the land, it said. Take the land. You're an army dressed for battle. Rick Pino has that song. So take the land. You can be dressed and you can look like a soldier, but if you go sit down and don't get out on the battlefield where you're called, ain't nothing gonna get done. The fight is still gonna be there. Are you gonna arise and step into place today so that God can meet you right where you need to be? Amen. Now we do maintain our peace even in the midst of the fight. Hello? But you need to step out and step into the place that God is calling you to. All right, so if we're gonna grow in God, we have to learn the difference here. All right, because fear loves to wear, fear loves to dress itself up real spiritual and nice-like. It likes to say, ooh, no, that hesitation just means we don't need to. No, sometimes the enemy will put that little hesitation because that fear on the inside, you got to conquer that. Tim, thanks for the coffee. So instead of saying, I'm just being cautious, or I'm just gonna wait just a little bit, we're just gonna wait. You know, now's not a good time. We're just gonna wait. Or, you know, well, I'm just I'm just trying to be wise and hey, there is nothing wrong with wisdom. I'm not telling anyone to go against wisdom. We talked about wise counsel yesterday, what it looked like doesn't mean you take the advice of 10 different people. That just means you have trusted people who have been where you're going and they understand the journey. They can speak wisdom into. It's not a matter of, did God say this to you? It's a matter of who do I, who has been the way that God is sending me and what works, what doesn't work. Okay, maybe some of that's going to be good for you, but you glean from them and you step into place and you continue to walk things out with the Lord. But a lot of times what people have is you have the fear of you have the fear of failing, you have the fear of looking foolish. All those people that said that that wasn't gonna work out, and then I step into this thing, and it don't work out, they're all gonna say, See, I told you so, and I'm gonna look like a fool. You have the fear of looking foolish. You have the fear of stepping out, stepping into the unknown. You got the fear of being uncomfortable. I don't want to be uncomfortable. I want to just live my life and do my things and the way that I want to do them, and that's all I want to do. Maybe you have a fear of trusting God. Maybe he didn't move in the past the way that you thought he should have moved. And so you think now you're gonna step into something with a pre-conceived notion up here in your head, but he's not going to move the way that you that's what it boils down to. He doesn't move the way that you wanted him to. So now you have that fear of trusting him. See, God's gonna move. Rarely does he move the way that I want him to, but he always moves in a way that he needed to because I can look back and go, that's why that had to take place. That's why this worked out the way that it worked out. He's always navigating you where you need to be. What happens is we come against the current and we start fighting against it. And now we're making ourselves miserable. Like this is not happening. I'm I'm not, I'm on, I'm not gonna have it happen this way. We have to surrender to him. Yes, Tim, we have to go back to surrender. Amen. And in Creekside Outpost, we can't we can't fail if we never try. If God calls you to something, get out here. If it didn't work that way, just say, Lord, if this is what you call me to, show me a different way and allow him to show you a different way. But you gotta, God, he created us to move, by the way. Have you ever seen our bodies? Like our arms and our legs are, I mean, we were we were meant to move. We weren't meant to just be still. I'm just gonna be back over here if y'all need me. I'm just gonna stay right here. Okay, not moving, not doing anything. He created us to move. I saw an article a few years ago that when when more desk jobs were, you know, were happening, more people sitting in offices behind computers rather than out in the factories and the fields. And and they were saying that that sitting was the new smoking. Sitting was the new, you know. And so, because it it it it it our bodies were meant to move, and people were just going and sitting for eight hours a day and then wondering why they're having joint pain and why their legs don't move the way they're supposed to, and why this is not happening. So then we started coming up with with different things. The the 2020-20 rule, you know, every 20 minutes you need to look 20, what, 20 feet away or 20 whatever away. There was something else that went with, I don't remember. It was like some rule where you needed to look up from your computer and stand up for like 20 seconds. That for like 20 seconds, look 20 things away and take 20 steps or so. I don't remember. But the point is, we were meant to move. Okay, we weren't meant to just sit. Okay, so you gotta be careful. A lot of people have the fear of losing control. What if we start going this way? And then I just lose all control. You gotta be surrendered to Jesus. Amen, Chris. I'm at my desk eight hours a day. You gotta make sure that you get up. And my uh, you know, my my my lovely watch here reminds me it's time to stand. It's time to stand. So thank goodness for this, because I can get lost, y'all. The things that we work on, I mean, I could just be in it to win it. And then when I see that, I go, ooh, yeah, I should probably stand up and move a little bit. I need to take a little walk around and we'll come back. Clear my head. You got to get yourself out of what you're doing for a little while and clear your head. All right, so let's go through this quickly but efficiently this morning. Discernment and fear are not the same thing. Discernment and fear. Discernment is a gift from God. Fear is not a gift from God. Okay? Discernment will help you recognize what is of God and what is not of God. That is discernment. Discernment lets you know what is and what is not from God. Fear makes you withdraw even from what God is calling you forward into. All right, so let's so we have to define those two things. Discernment, what is God, what is not God. Okay, if it ain't God, we ain't going that way. If it is God, woo. Okay. Write the vision, make it play on tablets. And then you have to run with whatever God is showing you. 2 Timothy 1 and 7 tells us that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. He has not given you a spirit of fear, but power, love, sound mind. Fear is not from God. He did not give you a spirit of fear. But if you have power and love and a sound mind, a sound mind can go, okay, I don't know anything about this. So it looks like education is my first step. Let's look up what it is that God is speaking to me about. And now you're going to do your research and do your homework and you're going to educate. Okay? You should be learning. Yes, you should be in your word. There is no excuse. You should be in your word every single day, reading God's scripture, letting it wash over your mind as you have your armor on every day to go out and deny yourself and pick up your cross daily and follow him. Those are those are required, those are not recommendations. Those are requirements if you want to live a good, sound life. That sums up the morning charge right there. That is all of our messages are always going to boil down to that. Spending time with God. But I also encourage you, listen to audiobooks. If God has called you to start an accounting business, maybe you got an accounting degree, maybe you don't. If he's calling you to do that, I know that sounds really boring. Even though I've done a lot of administrative work my whole life, then you need to look up accounting. Okay, God's calling me to do this. Why are you calling me to do this? You're calling me to learn, oh, I gotta learn about numbers. I gotta learn how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. Okay, fifth grade math. I gotta have a good fifth grade math basis under me. Good. I'm good there. And then you move in a little bit deeper. What does that look like? Do I need certifications? How does this look? See, you have to educate yourself and then listen to like books. My gosh, we have platforms everywhere that have books upon books upon books. I mean, read the reviews, find a good book to listen to or to read. Educate yourself. When you look up the word sound mind, it means self-control. There you go. So having a sound mind means you have self-control. A sound mind makes good financial decisions. That means you have self-control. You know what? We don't really have the funds for that right now. So we got to wait until here. Maybe you need to put an actionable plan together month by month and say by this month we should be able to obtain that. And if you don't have a sound mind, then you're going out here and be like, we can get whatever right now, and we'll just, I mean, let me tell you, those little monthly payments, they tend to get on up here. Just ask me how I know. I've lived it, I've breathed it, and I'm still shoveling my way out of some of it. Because God is shifting my mindset. But there has to be some sort of change in your life. Having a sound mind, having it having a clear, sound mind is having self-control. Amen, Amanda.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

But if what if what is leading you is fear, then it is not God's voice that is leading you.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

If what is leading you is fear, it is not God's voice that is leading you. Now that does not mean that every concern is fear. Okay. See, amen. Becky Barrett said, I can't agree, not boring to Becky. So some people love it, some people don't. But if God is calling you to it, you learn as much as you can, and you don't feel like you work a day in your life when you are stepping into the places that the Lord has for you. You don't feel like it's work. Oh, I've got to go to work. If you feel that way every day, now I don't feel 100% every day, but even on my worst days, it's better than my best days in the corporate world with what I do now. You know what I'm saying? When you're where God wants you to be, there is a sense of peace. There is a sense of everything is together. Amen. See, even Amanda said, I've never felt like bus driving is work. When you're where God wants you to be, it does not feel like a burden. It feels like a purpose. Amen. I hate being behind a desk and not behind a wheel. Some people may be like, ooh, driving a bus with all those kids, I'd probably have no hair left. I couldn't do that. So what that means, that's not for you. It's for Amanda. That's what I'm saying. It goes back to the puzzle piece message from the other day. All of us have our puzzle piece. Stop trying to be somebody else's puzzle piece. You are who God has cut you to be. You are unique in your way. Now find out what God has for you and begin to move forward and what he has for you, and you will experience peace and life more abundantly and all the things that come with that. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. All these other things will be added to you. So if you're seeking his kingdom and his righteousness, then I want to walk by kingdom standards. I want to be where my place is in the kingdom now. And when I do those things, everything else is added to me. There is peace in your journey. Doesn't mean your whole life is put together and it's perfect. None of our lives are completely wholly put together and perfect, okay? But there's peace and there's purpose that goes along with that. No fear in your life. Fear sometimes will try to disguise itself as wisdom because fear usually doesn't just show up and say, hey, I'm fear. Just letting you know fear here. I'm gonna try to block you from this. So, you know, just listen to my voice. It's not real blatant like that. Fear, fear shows up and says, Hey, let's not, let's not rush this now. Let's not, let's not, let's not rush through this. What if things what if things go bad? You know, things may go kind of bad. You're gonna put a little little bit of funds in here. What if you lose all that? Then you're gonna have nothing left, and then you're gonna have to go back to your job, and you know, then you're gonna look ridiculous. I mean, just stay where you are for goodness sakes. You're already here, you're probably gonna wind up here anyway. That is fear. When fear tries to keep you from stepping into something new, stepping into the things that God has for you, it's gonna try to keep you where you feel quote unquote safe. What if you miss God? What if this what if this really isn't the Lord? We talked about hearing his voice yesterday. Go back and read the blog notes if you need to review that. Now, once again, wisdom, wisdom is very real. I'm not saying that we willy-nilly anything. Timing does matter. The correct, right, wise counsel matters. People who have walked the way that you are going to walk. Discernment matters in what you're doing. But fear's version of wisdom always leads back to some sort of self-protection. You try to dress fear up as a, oh, well, you know, we're gonna stay over here and just continue to do what we're doing because there's a lot of people who are already doing that, and they do very well at that. Yeah, but there's not a you that does that. There's not a you that has stepped fully into because I want to remind you of something. You are somebody's solution. It does not matter what you do in your life, you are a solution for somebody else. If you go to work for someone, you were hired to be in a role where you would be a solution for the company. You are the one that holds that particular job role down. And if it wasn't for you, okay, that job function wouldn't happen. Okay. If you own a business, you are creating a solution for someone. We have a cleaning business, we are a solution for people with dirty homes and dirty vacation rentals. You got that going on? We might be your person to come in and spruce that thing up before the next guest arrives, or before your family comes in for Thanksgiving, or before the fam gets home from the end of the long hard day. We are a solution to somebody to come in. Ah, it's nice and fresh. All right. That's a solution. You might be in counseling and somebody comes to see you and they sit with you and you talk through things with each other and you're helping sharpen them mentally. Okay. And if you're a Christian counselor, you're helping sharpen them in the word. You're discipling them. Hello. That is a solution. You are a solution no matter where you are. If you're a pastor in the pulpit, you are people's solution because you're teaching them about the word of God and you're showing them the truth and you're trying to help them along the way. You're trying to be their solution. Amen. Amen. We got some new folks in the room this morning. Y'all make sure to say hello and good morning. Andrew, welcome in. Good to see you this morning. I am from Alabama. You can probably hear it in my voice. But welcome in, man. Thanks for being here. And if you're new, you guys say something down here in the chat so we can love on you as the morning charge community. And I'm here every weekday morning around 7 a.m. ish central time to do just this. James 3 and 17. Let's look at some scripture. 3 and 17, James 3, 17. The wisdom from above is pure and peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and of good fruit. See, God's wisdom has fruit that looks like him. If you're known by your fruit, you want to be growing godly fruit. And that way you're known by him and you look like him. When people see you, they say they should see Jesus because they see the fruit of what your life holds. Fear's wisdom has fruit that looks like you're over here in bondage. You're so wrapped up in the lies of the enemy, and maybe even down to the point where you're not good enough, you'll never be able to handle that. It's always going to turn out wrong the way that everything else has. I mean, the enemy can come at you with all kinds of lies, causing you not to start the thing that God wants you to start or jump into the thing that God wants you to jump in. All right. Godly wisdom leads you to obedience. Fearful wisdom leads to self-protection. So be careful the voices that speak into your life. Listen to those who have gone the way. I have a cleaning business. I want to hear from those who have successful cleaning businesses because I want to hear what you have to say. Okay. Fearful wisdom. Listening to somebody who started a business and it failed miserably, and they got hurt over it. And now they have fear of uh the uh they have veils of rejection and and and and discouragement and everything else over their eyes. And so now they're in self-protection mode, and you're like, hey, man, I'm thinking about starting this business. Oh, let me tell you how it went for me. Oh, man, we got into that thing, and that thing was like that that ship had like nine holes in it, and that thing started sinking, and I didn't have enough funds to, oh my gosh. I mean, we we tried that, man. I'm telling you, it don't work. And not in today's economy. I'm gonna go ahead and tell you right now, that's not gonna work out for you. Wow. I'm probably not going to do what God is calling me to do based off of a man who cannot get over his own hurts now and is giving very hurtful and wrong advice. You do not want to take relationship advice from somebody who has had four broken marriages and is in divorce court again. All right, that's not who I want to hear from how to heal my marriage, okay? Brandy said, I'm not taking advice from that person. Do not go to the broken ones. They need help, they need healing. Go to the ones who have been like my grandparents who were married uh for 65 years. My granddaddy is one who I listen to about relationship advice, okay? And uh, and praise God for Brandy. So uh listen to those who have been in it to win it. And they talk about the good things, they talk about the bad things. They don't they don't hone in on the problems, but they say, here's the solutions for overcoming. Those are the ones you want to listen to. Trusted voices, godly wisdom. That is godly wisdom, my friends. If we look at Israel in the wilderness, that is a picture of fear that is dressed up as reasoning. Numbers 13 through 44. I'm not 44, gosh. 13 through 14. I listen to me this morning. Good gracious. Numbers 13 through 14. When the spies went into the land, help me, Jesus, they all saw the same promise. When the spies went into the land, they all saw the same promise. They saw the same fruit, they saw the same giants. Joshua and Caleb, they they saw through eyes of faith. The other spies that went in, they saw through eyes of fear. Now, what's amazing here about the fearful report, I mean, it sounded pretty reasonable. Ah, there's there's giants in the land. There's there's giants here. The the the the the cities are they're they're they're they're fortified. We're we look really small. I don't I don't know about this, guys. We're kind of tiny. Those giants are really large. This looks really dangerous. I got my doubts. And while all of that was true, the big giants in the land, we look kind of small. Yes, in the natural, that's that's true. But it was spiritually twisted because of fear, see. So they all saw the same things, but fear comes in and twists it, makes a mountain out of a little molehill. Or feel can fear can tell you the truth about the problem while lying about what God can do about the problem. That's what fear does. Fear just exposes the problem and makes it huge. And it leaves out the details about you, about what your God, what Yahweh could do about the issues in the giants and the really strong walls. The issue is not that they saw all of these things, the issue is that they they let the giants speak louder than God's promise in the midst of the promised land. And there's a lot of people who are doing the same thing. There's a lot of people who are falling into this same trap today. You are calling it discernment, you are calling it uh wisdom, you're trying to put all kinds of things on it. That's too big. I can't handle that. You know, this will never work.

SPEAKER_00 29:02

And what you're doing is you're magnifying the obstacles over being obedient with the Lord.

SPEAKER_01 29:12

We've got to go back to the book and we've got to see the thing. Oh, I'm more than a conqueror. Oh, is that what the word says about me? Fear in your life is gonna keep asking you, well, what if this, and what if that, and what if this happens? What if you fail? Faith says, Well, what did God say? What did God say? God said to start a business. God said to step out and start a ministry, God said to step into this new career path that I'm showing you. God said, Move here. God said, I need you to live in your RV and go where I tell you to go. I don't want to do that. You have to be careful. What are you listening to? You listening to fear or are you listening to faith? Brandy and I could have sat there and come up with a million different reasons as to why we didn't need to RV full time for a season and uh go where God wanted us to go. We could have said, you know what? We are gonna stay here and stay around, family, and we are going to be comfortable in what we're doing and continue to build our little cleaning company and do the things that, do the, do the little things that we do. But God had a different plan. We had to follow his plan. Why? Because fear would say, what if it don't work? And what if it fails? And you sit around the what ifs. What does faith say? Faith says, What did God say? What what what did God promise you if you stepped out and you went the way? Right now we're calling our season short-term pain for long-term gain in the kingdom.

unknown 30:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 30:53

And God has given us the grace to be able to do what we're doing. When you step into something unknown and it looks uncomfortable, I promise you, if it is from the Lord and you step into that with boldness, he will meet you there with peace and he will give you the grace to sustain you in the season. He always does. So you need to get back to what is God asking of me? Where is obedience in this? How do I move forward now? Where do I take my first step and start researching what it is that God wants you to do and partner with the Holy Spirit step for step as you go the way? When we first moved into this RV, I had no idea I'd be sitting in Aniston, Alabama right now. I had no idea that I would be here. We thought, okay. So we just did it. We moved out, we moved in, went to a campground. Woo! Here we are, Lord. And we stayed there for a while until the Lord showed us our next step. And then he showed us here where we are now, which is our next step, as he is showing us our next step. But you don't know until you take a step. Brandy said, I definitely would not have done it if that's what I had heard first. That's why you take steps with the Lord. If he spoke to you somewhere in the middle or spoke to you first about somewhere towards the end, you probably go, Ah, I can't. What? He knows you. He formed you. He fashioned you together before you were in your mother's womb. He gave you a plan and a purpose. Hello. Salah. He gave you a plan and a purpose. Before you were even in your mother's womb. Sherry, we love you, my friend. Have a good day, my friend.

SPEAKER_00 32:52

Thank you, Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 32:55

The word of God is what trains you too, by the way. This is what trains you to be able to respond to God's voice instead of your anxious imaginations running wild with the what-ifs. This is what helps you stay rooted and planted by the living waters that brings forth what your what your roots need to bring forth the nutrients that your fruit needs. Everything goes back to this. Everything goes back to being in his presence. Doesn't matter what topic I could possibly come up with here on the morning charts to speak with you about every single weekday morning. It all boils back to the secret place with the Lord, the secret place getting on your face before him, getting in your word, being rooted and grounded in him, knowing whose you are and who you are. It all goes back to the simple foundations of that. And then you'll know how to walk, and then you'll know how to talk, and then you'll know how to do what's next. Fear wants control more than your obedience. At the root of a lot of fears, it all boils down to control being at the root of your fear.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

Fear, it wants a guarantee.

SPEAKER_01 34:17

I gotta know that I know that things are gonna work out and that it's gonna be okay. I need to do something that I know I'm gonna do it and it's going to work. I have to know. I gotta have clear I gotta have certainty that this thing ain't gonna fail. Fear wants to know the whole plan. I gotta come up with, you know, 15 actionable steps from start to finish, and this is how it's gonna go in the middle to get me down here to this guaranteed result. Fear does not want any risk, it doesn't want any stretching, and and definitely no vulnerability. No vulnerability here. Vulnerable, vulnerable, vulnerability. That's a hard word to say. Already having a hard enough time Englishing. But fear doesn't want any risk.

SPEAKER_00 35:16

But following Jesus retries requires trust. Just like the song Oceans. He's calling me out upon the water where feet may fail.

SPEAKER_01 35:30

Where where my feet my feet might fail. Yeah. But if you keep your eyes upon him, amen. Creative and crafty, praise God it is not. Proverbs 3, 5 through 6. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. Well, that means I have to trust him with all of my heart, and I can't lean on my own understanding. That cuts fear out of the way. You cannot fully follow God while demanding full control. You cannot have full control. That is our big problem. Our flesh wants control. And if we don't hold tightly to that, when I first got in management, you guys, it was hard for me to learn how to release tasks to other people. Because in my mind, you're not going to be able to do it as good as me, as fast as me, and as efficient as I would do that. No matter how much I tell you, it was really hard to let, and I would burn myself out. Don't worry about this, I got it, don't worry about that. Don't worry about it, I got this over. Don't worry, don't worry about it. Luckily, my general manager happened to see me one time and he called me aside and he said, Hey, you are you're gonna have to start trusting people to do things. And if they fail, you just have to redirect. He said, I already, he said, I already know there's going to be mistakes made. But you've got to be able to give people grace to do what it is that they're supposed to be doing. And this was in television when I was first starting out. So I was trying to build the graphics for the newscast. I was trying to edit the video. I was trying to, then I had to direct it, but that was my main thing was being the operations manager and the director of the technical director for the newscast. But I was trying to, I mean, I was trying to control it everything. He said, you got to let go. So I had to let go. It was messy at first. I was like, oh my gosh. But I found myself more stepping into a teacher role at that point, be like, hey, we did it this way, let's not do it that way. And then we started having meetings after the newscast. What went great, what didn't go great, what do we need to work on? What do we need to improve? And then all of a sudden, it's like there was this ease that started to settle upon me, and all that pressure just began to lift. Now, what I needed was my general manager's blessing to say, I understand those words have still stuck with me today. I understand there's going to be mistakes made, but you've got to let them do that. And your job is to help redirect. I had his blessing upon that. That took a lot of pressure off of me. Do you know that your heavenly father is giving you permission in your life to release control because it ain't all about you and what you can pull together? He says, Hey, I got this. And he says, I understand you're gonna make mistakes, but I'm going to redirect. And when you do, you just gotta get up and you gotta trust me and move with me. Praise God. He is like that with us. But you cannot fully follow God while you demand full control. Amen. Cody, good morning to you, brother. Happy John prayer. My dad's having a stress test today. Well, Father, I pray, Lord, as Cody's dad has his stress test. Lord, I pray right now, Father, that you would just be with him. Lord, we pray for good results from this stress test. Lord, I ask, Lord, that you would be with his dad's heart, Lord, in his lungs. Father, that they would partner together, Father, and function fully into how they're supposed to function, God. And Lord, I just speak even healing over his body if there's something hidden or if there's something there. Father, I pray, Lord, that you would just move in a powerful way in Cody's dad's life right now. In the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Amen, brother. Amen. So in winding this down, I want you to know that God's voice becomes clearer when selfish fears get quieter. Amen. To let go of the illusion of control, Jessica. That's it. And you you feel that wrestle, that tug of war on the inside. But it's something eventually we have to just begin to ease the grip and trust God with even more. And go back and remember the things that God has already done for you and how he moved, that he'll continue to do it again and again and again and again. Amen. But what does fear do? Fear, fear, uh it clouds your perspective and it keeps you still. There's no movement. When there's fear, when people say I was just gripped by fear, that means they were just, they were stuck where they were. They couldn't act, they couldn't react, they couldn't do anything. Fear keeps you standing there, not doing anything, and it keeps you interpreting everything here through those worst-case scenarios. All right. Isaiah 30 and 21, your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, This is the way, walk in it. God is always going to be there with you. This is the way, walk in it. Well, how do I know I'm going to hear that voice? Well, John 10 and 27 says, My sheep hear my voice. So you are his sheep. You are followers of Christ. So when he begins to speak in your ear, he's going to tell you, hey, that discernment, that still small voice, hey, this is the way. You need to go this way. Walk in that. You hear God more clearly when fear stops talking over him. And you have to cast down those fearful thoughts and those worst-case scenarios. Okay, that's why your prayer life matters. You need to pray through things and spend time with the Lord. You need, you need to stay in the word of God. You need to surrender all to him. And you have to find yourself in the secret place, being quiet and listening. You overcome fear by obeying anyway. Obey anyway. Freedom from fear doesn't usually come from waiting until you don't feel anything. All right. Freedom from fear usually comes by obeying the Lord while you still feel feel that pull away from fear. You're stepping in and you're going against the resistance of fear and saying, no, I'm going anyway. I'm going because God said it. Joshua had to do this to take them into the promised land. Esther had to speak up and conquer fear. Okay. Peter still had to step out of the boat and walk towards Jesus. David still had to run toward Goliath with nothing but a slingshot. But they did it. Anyway, do you not think they had a little bit of fear in there? Do you think they were just perfect people? Obviously not. We've read most of their stories in the word. Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is obedience in the face of fear. That's what it is. Courage doesn't mean that, oh well, fear's gone. Courage means I'm going to face this thing head on. I'm going to step where God told me to step. You ain't stopping me. I'm going the way. And I'm going the way with the Lord. The clearest way to break fear is to obey God while fear is still screaming at you while you're stepping into that first step and then into that second step. And the more you just begin to step that thing out, fear is back there. It don't mean you're going to not come up to a new challenge and fear is going to try to rise up again, but you need to be like, you know what? God brought us through those steps pretty good. I think he's going to take us through these steps well. Step number 102 and 103, going to be like step one and two. We're going. We're going to go all the way. And when you just step out in obedience and the Lord begins to meet you, that's when you expose fear for what it was. The enemy is just trying to keep me here. Look at what God is doing right now. The enemy was just trying to keep me from this spot. And now you're growing in the Lord. Now you're really walking out what you're learning. When you conquer fear, you begin to walk out what you've been reading and what we've been going over for almost a year on the morning chart.

SPEAKER_00 44:00

If you've been hanging with me for a while. So this morning, you need to ask yourself: am I discerning?

SPEAKER_01 44:13

Or am I just afraid? Is this not the way? Or am I just scared to go that way? Am I being led by the Spirit of God? Or am I being ruled by fear and just trying to protect myself because of all my emotions and everything that's running rampant on the inside of me right now? You cannot get free from fear if you continue calling it something. If you continue calling it something holier than it is, you will never get free from that. I'm just I'm just being cautious. I'm just being wise.

SPEAKER_00 44:56

If it's fear, call it fear. And once you call it fear, you need to bring it to the Lord. And then I'm just going to be 100% honest with you.

SPEAKER_01 45:10

Once you've called it, if you've allowed something to grip you for any length of time, it don't matter if it's a day or a decade. Repent for partnering with fear. Lord, I am sorry for partnering with fear. I was trying to disguise it as something else. I was trying to justify that thing, but I know this is you, Lord, and I don't want any more hindrances moving forward. Lord, I turn away from fear now, and I am listening to your voice as I take a step towards your promises. I know this doesn't look like it's going to lead to anywhere or anything, and really it looks more like a hindrance for my life. It's okay. It's okay to get honest with the Lord. But say, I repent from that now, Lord. I turn away from fear and I want to follow you right now. Lord, give me the courage to obey you in the first step that I'm about to take and every step therefore thereafter. So assess some things this morning. You need to ask yourself, where in my life have I called fear wisdom? Where have I called fear wisdom? And say, what am I protecting that God is asking me to surrender? What am I trying to protect that God is wanting me to surrender? This is a this is a goal. We're walking out the lifestyles of Jesus. We are walking out a life this year of surrendering all. Surrendering all. Am I truly discerning or am I just uncomfortable with what I need to be doing? Ask yourself those questions this morning. Get honest, get surrendered, get in the word of God, begin to hear his voice, and then move when he says to move. That's it. You want true actionable steps today? Get honest first with God. But then you need to surrender and filter everything through the Word of God. And once you have heard His voice and you have gotten the okay from Abba Father to step into what it is he wants you to step into, you better take that step. Don't you delay anymore. Take that step now, take it today, towards where it is God wants to take you. Because once you begin to step with one foot and then step with the other foot with a second step, you're rooting and grounding in what it is God's calling you into. Don't take that lightly. Step into what God has for you today. Lord, I ask that you would expose every place where fear has been talking louder than faith right now in the name of Jesus. Father, I pray, Lord, that that people, Lord, would just be honest with you today about where they've been, about how they have felt. Lord, just like Job, Lord, those that will just come and lament with you, Father, Lord, and just begin to just get honest with you again. Father, I ask, Lord, there would be a turning of the tides, Lord, for those that truly want to step into what you have for them, that truly want to take a step and conquer fear today. Father, I pray that every fearful voice, every false voice that is coming against your people right now would be broken off in the mighty name of Jesus. And I say today is a new day. Today is a turning point. Today is going to be a day of blessing and peace and courage to rise up on the inside of your people, Lord, as they just begin to step out into what you are calling them into right now. God, teach us to know your voice and to follow you without fear, ruling us in the process right now. In Jesus' name, let this be the day that fear loses its disguise, that you shine your light bright and you expose it for what it is right now. Right now, in the name of Jesus.

SPEAKER_03 49:17

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