The Courageous Faith Podcast
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The Courageous Faith Podcast
Why Most Christians Never Step Out in Faith
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Most Christians do not have a faith problem. They have a failure problem.
In this episode of the Courageous Faith Podcast, the conversation dives into the fear, comfort, and self preservation that quietly keep believers from fully trusting God.
Pastor and crew unpack what it truly means to “fail boldly” for the Kingdom and why biblical success looks completely different from worldly success.
James shares the powerful story behind founding BC Fitness after receiving a life changing prophetic moment at a seminary event he never even wanted to attend. From hurricanes to COVID shutdowns to building boot camps in local parks, this episode reveals the unseen pressure behind obedience.
The discussion also explores:
• Why fear of failure keeps believers spiritually stuck
• The difference between worldly success and Kingdom obedience
• How disciplined joy produces spiritual endurance
• The powerful “Zone 2” running analogy for emotional and spiritual stability
• The shocking testimony of putting a church building up for sale
• Consecration, surrender, and spiritual testing
• End times prophecy surrounding the Euphrates River
• Spiritual warfare and standing firm in chaos
This episode will challenge the way you define faith, success, and surrender.
The Courageous Faith Podcast is approaching its 100th episode and continues to challenge believers to live boldly, think deeply, and follow Christ without compromise.
#ChristianPodcast #Faith #SpiritualWarfare #EndTimes #Christianity #CourageousFaith #Jesus #BibleProphecy #FaithOverFear #ChristianMotivation
So this past week pastor talked about failing boldly. Did you get in on that? I did. I did hear it. Yeah, did you enjoy it? Did you take any notes? I did not. I was working camera. Yeah. Well, I took a bunch of notes, and there were some things that really stood out to me. And one of them is that uh I feel like in general in life, we don't actually have a faith problem, at least not in Christianity. We have a lot of faith, but what we have is a failure problem. We're just scared. We're running through fear. Um, and so I mean I guess I can be connected to faith, but I think really more than anything, it's more about not being able to trust God and trust that he's gonna be your provision. Uh so as long as we're comfortable, then we're okay. And the moment we're pulled out of comfort, the moment we, the idea of getting pulled out of comfort, we we hit the brakes. So, I mean, I know for you oftentimes and I, we have conversations all the time uh about you know what's next, and you know, hey, we're going through this or I'm doing that. And I feel like a lot of times it always comes back to that comfort and discomfort discussion, right? The fear of failure. Yeah, letting people down. Yeah. Why do you feel like so oftentimes, so many times people are so afraid of, especially now, I feel more than ever before. I mean, if you think about uh the early 1900s, the 1800s, you know, I think we've talked about it on the podcast before, the the people who went west, you know, the people who braved everything to come to this country, uh how the the amount of unknown, I mean, you're talking about they went to places that no one had ever been before, that they had known, just from the idea that there could be something a little bit better. And so they lived with an idea of faith and hope more than anything else. And now we're scared to get out of bed sometimes. We're afraid to go to a job interview, we're afraid to try something because we might fail. There's not even a guarantee, but we might fail. And we're not even talking about losing our life, we're just talking about not doing what we thought we wanted to do or you know, we really would enjoy doing, or something like that, right? So um, you know, Pastor really got into uh he said something that really stood out to me, and it was uh faith begins when when retreat is no longer an option. You know, I always think of the burn the ships scenario, or um, you know, you there is no looking back, right? Failure is not an option. So um why do you think so often people people live in that kind of fear? What what is the deal with that?
SPEAKER_03Because we're not, we don't it's the showing everybody we don't have it all together. Yeah, it's the embarrassment, the fear of embarrassment. I gotta tell everybody I didn't do it. I I couldn't do it, I failed. I didn't pass. I didn't get what I didn't my dream did not come true. But your dream didn't come true because when you stop.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but I mean what you're talking about. So you're talking about a dream, let's say it's a dream that you've had since you were a young person, right? For 20, 30, 40, whatever. How long do you commit to that dream before your dream says, my dream never come true? Like how much effort do you put into that before the realization of it? Like is it a is it a thing where it's I can allot five years to it, I can allot ten years to it to make a dream come true? I mean, I mean, Pastor, you've been you've done a lot over your span of history.
SPEAKER_00Well, thank you. Um I'm very grateful for the what the Lord has allowed me to be involved in. Um I think uh in this kind of discussion, people have to go back to the reality that uh much of humanity has the wrong metrics for success. And so uh if you have the wrong metric for success, if you have the wrong understanding of what success is, then you cannot achieve uh true success because you're standing in the wrong position. So in other words, if you're uh for example, if you're oriented if your psychology is or oriented around you might lose and you might become a victim or you might fail, then you will never know what it is to experience the joy of failing boldly. Right? So uh that goes back to the posture that I I was trying to get to uh lit this past weekend. I didn't make it, but I wanted to get to the place where we were discussing about the posture of belief, and the result of that that posture is that I know that I'm in a contest, I know that I'm in a battle, but because I'm in the battle is not uh indicative that I there's something wrong. Yeah. It's the place that I discover he's covered me. Right. So he covers us in the day of the battle. The Bible says in Psalms 104.7, you have covered my head in the day of battle. So the day of battle is not theoretical, it's it's the moment where the pressure mounts, it's the moment where the arrows of adversity are are flying, and you stand up and say, No matter what the outcome is, I am going to be victorious because my God covers me.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00Right? And so uh I think that that uh distills down into the very fabric of our being because that's what feeds our faith. Now, when you get the position right and you learn how to articulate what God is doing in your life, not from a position of anxiety or victimhood or peril or this is happening to me, but God is with me even through that adversity. Though I Job said, I cannot perceive him on the right and I cannot discern him on the left, but I know that I'm with him because he knoweth the way that I take. I'm not departing from the path, right? And so he's resting in this covenantal relationship, not this theoretical hope. And that's where you've got to realize that God gives you permission. You know, so many people grow up with this idea they can never fail because if they fail, they're failing God. Like, I'm gonna miss the will of God. Exactly how can you miss the will of God? If you misunderstand him and you think he's called you to California, but he actually said Caledonia, if you go to California, don't you think he's great enough to get you from California to Caledonia?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Right? And we don't think of those, we think of very concrete, uh stringent uh boundaries that if I step over it, I'm out. If I if I mess up, I'm I'm done. You know, that kind of thing. And so the the garments of praise remove the spirits of heaviness because we know we're in the right posture and position with the Lord. Does that make sense? Yes, sir. And so if I'm in the right position, then I am given a laboratory of opportunity to go see what works and to go see what doesn't work, right? Everything you try to do is not going to work. But if you're wearing the garments of praise, there's an old ancient imagery that's given to us in the covering garment that Jesus wore. And and you of course you find this throughout the history of Israel in the Old Testament, but it's it's this covering garment of worship, and and on it the the covenantal mantle was called the Talit. And and so that is your prayer shawl, that's your covering, that's where the garment is anointed with oil, that's where the the presence of God is. And in the battle, when we're in contest, when we're doing life, we're under the covering of God. And so no matter what is going on in the heat of the battle or the or the uh the measure of adversity in the contest, I'm rejoicing in the God of my salvation because I'm under his covering. That makes sense?
SPEAKER_03Yes, sir. Can we uh make this applicable real quick? So, James, you've been in business nine years. Nine years is a long time for a business. A little longer than that, but that officially nine, yeah. I was doing double duty for a little while. Oh, yeah, you're right. In that time, you had a huge hurricane. Yep. COVID. Yep. A couple hurricanes actually. Yeah, COVID was like a three-year thing in my head. Five year thing.
SPEAKER_01It was a long time. Yeah, yeah. But we were officially shut down for like seven, eight months. You shut down. We we had to, we weren't allowed to do anything. And then we lost contracts because we couldn't go to the like we had companies that we would do classes for, so their people weren't going to work, so they canceled those contracts. So why did you just pack up and go home? Uh I mean there were several different reasons. Um, but the biggest reason was because I believed that God God called me to do this. So um, and when and I didn't I didn't go into it flippantly either. It wasn't one of those things where I just decided one day, hey, I just want to I want to open up a fitness company. Uh I I think I told, I'm sure I told you this before, and I know I told Pastor, but you know, we were in a a one-day seminary one day, and uh we had several different speakers. We'd always have different people come in, and it was always more like you break down the scriptures. A lot of times they are, you know, I think this particular day there was, you know, a lot of Hebrew being described and talked about and everything. And uh there was one particular gentleman who I was not honestly a very big fan of, and I didn't even want to I didn't want to go that day. Um I was like, man, there's so many other things we could do that are so much more beneficial. But because I am obedient to the man of God in my life, I went and I had a great attitude about it, and I listened and I learned and I took notes. And at the very end, uh he's like, okay, I want all of you to get together. And most of us were men there. I don't think there were very many. There were some women, but most of it was men, which was awesome. And so he said, I want you to gather together in groups, and you're gonna have someone get in the center of the group, and I want you to pray. And uh, you're gonna pray for that person in the middle, and whatever God's putting on you, wherever he's leading you, you know, that he'll give you a clear vision, all that good stuff. So we started praying in our circles, right? And I was like, all right, this is great, we're almost done. So that's what that usually means when you're praying because you're about to get to go home. So um, what was his name? Tony? I think that's his name, Tony, was in the center of the circle, and that we were praying for him, and he was just taking up all the circle time. He would not get out of the circle. And at a particular point, I don't know how long he was in there, I felt a like a physical hand, and there may have been somebody behind me, I don't know, push me into that circle. And I pushed him out of the circle. And uh when I got in that circle, I got like a clear vision of what I believe God wanted me to do. And so, you know, was it was you know, BC fitness and you know what it could be and all that other stuff. And so when we left that day, you know, I went home, and for the next like two or three nights, like I was I'd wake up in the middle of the night just thinking about it, and I'd be praying about it, and I would think about it, and I was like, and I kept the thing, same thing kept going over. It's it's time, it's time, it's time. So I talked to my wife. We were about, I don't know, I think at the time, maybe a couple months pregnant or so, right? Um, and we've been trying to get pregnant forever. So it's not really probably the best time to quit your job and start trying to start a business, right? Um, and so I talked to her and I was like, what do you think about this? What if we did this? And she she didn't fight me on it. She's like, Yeah, of course, let's do it. We'll do it together, da-da-da-da-da. And so I talked to Pastor about it, and I came to him and I kind of explained the situation and everything that was going on, you know, and I was really expecting him to tell me, you know, give me all the sound advice of like, well, you need to make sure you got this much money, you need to make sure you got this in line, you gotta have all this, gotta have all this. And he was like, um, he's like, Well, that's God talking to you right now, so go for it. So that was kind of the extent of it. I mean, there were a few other things he said, but it that's all I that's pretty much what I heard was go for it, you know. So uh, you know, when you have that type of encounter, then I think it's kind of hard to just give up on something when you have those challenges, especially in the moments of those challenges, God still keeps providing for you, right? You get things happen for you that don't make a lot of sense, you know. So um I cannot explain, I have no idea. I cannot like even even by a little bit, I cannot explain, you know, how we've were able, especially the first probably four or five years, how we were able to like survive at all, you know, just forget the business itself, um, but like personally, you know, just eating and keeping our house and all those things, you know. So um I mean I guess for me it was one of those things where I it was kind of like one of those Moses moments where it was the burning bush. And you know, I I I didn't fight it, but you know, I I wanted to make sure. And then once I made sure my there was no, it was like my my wife and our marriage, right? You know, we don't use the word divorce, we don't talk about failure, we work through it no matter what. So failure is not an option.
SPEAKER_00It's not it's not failure is never an option, and if you've got to have that mindset because here's the deal if God gives you a commission, he'll provide the provision. Yeah. And uh sometimes, you know, I've been in places in my life where God required me uh to give up uh something that He He He blessed me with. Um that ha that has happened more than once in my life, but I always reflect instantly on the call of Abram, you know. Um the very thing that he cherished the most, the thing that he wanted so desperately bad was to have a son. God asked him to sacrifice it. And and it was a test. It was a it was a it was a plumb line testing the severity of his trust and his obedience and his will. And so there have been times in my life where where God blessed me immensely with something, and then he required me to give it back to him. And it was in the willingness to give it back that he saw the tenor of my praise and my heart. And that's what he was judging. And so he wasn't after the thing after all. He wanted to make certain that what he blessed me with had not become an idol in my life. Yeah. And so that's why you can't be afraid of failing boldly, because on the metric of success, giving up something, for example, if you earn a great deal of money and you purchase something, whatever, I don't know what it would be, but you purchase something and you love it and you you cherish it, you possess it. And then he turns around and asks you to give that back to him in an offering. It's it's the response to that request that determines what you're doing in your spirit. Does it have you or do you possess it? And if you give it up in an offering, is that failure or is that success? See, so you're always you're you're walking this thing out, and you have to have a multi multi multidimensional understanding, a layered understanding of what true success is. True success is measured by my complete dependence and obedience. My obedience to him and my dependence upon him determines the level of success I have. Not my not the accumulated things that fill up a treasury. That's it. Right? So over here the world says these are the metrics of success, and we can count them by addition or multiplication. God says, this is the measure of my success. Come on. See? So um that's that's the kind of thing that you have to remember, and and the spirit in which you do it, because many people reluctantly give things up. And if you reluctantly give things up, have you really given it up?
SPEAKER_01Well, kind of to speak to that like like real-world kind of testimony with BC, you know, we first started in parks, and you know, like I said, I was able to do that.
SPEAKER_00We didn't even have a place. Mm-mm.
SPEAKER_01We were just Memorial Park, Meyer Park, you know, we were out here in the in the days here.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, you know, we had like a Saturday boot camp we do on the basketball court type situation. And it wasn't until the pandemic that when we were coming out of it, you know, I talked to Pastor and I was like, hey sir, what do you think if I use because we weren't nobody was coming, right? Nobody was here on the campus at all. And so I was like, what if we you know put workout equipment and stuff in this multi-purpose facility and we open it up for members to come of the church where they could come and get fewer.
SPEAKER_00We're trying to get yeah, we're trying to get them mobile.
SPEAKER_01Get people moving. And I mean, the one thing that they were concerned about was the pre-existing conditions. Well, if we could address those, then that should take away some of that fear, right? So just doing so we started doing a few classes there. Um, and uh, you know, I remember very distinctly, you know, as we started adding things, right? I'd build stuff or you know, I'd be on marketplace and I'd get some extra weights or something like that. And so it became looking more and more like an actual gym. Yeah, and we would have an event, a mayus, or you know, one of the other uh ministers or whatever that was on the campus would plan some kind of event, you know, a baby shower. A baby, yes, a baby shower, you know. And it was tear down so aggravating to have to tear all that stuff down and or move it and put it up, and then you know, but like to Pastor's point, was did it did I belong to it? Did it belong to me? Were was I stewarding it? So we're sharing this space with other people. And so, you know, getting to the place where eventually I created it, I put it in a place where I could move it a lot easier, where I would I had that plan in mind where I knew that, hey, this many times a year we're gonna do this. I bought a big curtain so that we could hang it to cover it up, you know, and all that good stuff. Um, and you know, there was a time period where I had to like really watch my kind of my attitude, you know, because you know, I'm working hard, I'm doing the same thing, and I'm like, I gotta shut down for a day again, or I gotta do this, and so I'm losing money, right? And then I finally, you know I didn't finally realize this, but I think I came to the the uh the point in my my personal attitude where I was like, listen, God is taking care of us no matter what. One day is not gonna ruin us because all these other days didn't ruin us.
SPEAKER_00That's right.
SPEAKER_01And so if if we're obedient and if we're making sure that we're doing, we're we're we're standing on the foundation that we the reason why we started this, which was to help people.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so let me break in here right here. So what are you describing? He wants to break it down practical so a brand new uh believer or someone that's investigating the claims of Jesus Christ can understand this. You're you're describing the inner climate of your life and your response just with the confrontation of self with attitude. Right. I I could choose to have a good attitude or I could choose to have a bad attitude. Right. That choice, this is what people don't get. You choosing to possess a good attitude in the adverse conditions of having to move is equivalent to faith.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That is faith. Right. A bad attitude would be equivalent to unbelief. Right. And that's the way God, that's the way God measures that and looks at that. So uh the Bible says in Proverbs 17, a merry heart doeth good, like what? A medicine. So the Spirit of God at work in us is is the expression of God living through us so that it provides for us a God that surrounds us externally. Right. But what but what's going on? He's he's surrounding us externally, but our faith is what's governing us internally. So if my faith, if I can if I can get my faith to the place, and I you know I'm using very elastic language, get my if I can mature my faith to the place where it becomes a static solid, uh if you look at an oscilloscope and you're measuring electricity, it's it's jumping all over, you know, it's it's it's got a 60-second h cycle to it. And you can see the rhythm, it looks like a heartbeat. But you if you can take your faith and and uh um remove the the the great peaks and the high and the great lows, and you can get it into a laser line where you're um you're just steady, right? No matter what's going on around you, no matter what's going on before you, and no matter what's you're feeling fearful inside, if my faith is can be a constant, then then the joy of the Lord is going to be my expression of that peace on the inside. Right. And this is where the government, the internal government of a man is betrayed by what he does externally. So all right.
SPEAKER_01So I hear that I'm I'm listening to all this stuff, right? And so it's it it's really very funny to me because and when I say funny, I just mean it's very interesting because how God works and the way He He's very consistent in all things. Oh yes, he is right. So in the human body, yeah, okay. So one of the things I do on a regular basis is teach people how to run.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Okay. And you've made jokes before about uh talking while you're running. Yeah. How do you talk while you run? And so your heart, okay, it's a muscle, right? And the responsibility of the heart for the most part, everybody knows this, is to pump blood. Yeah. You send blood all throughout, it sends nutrients, oxygen, all this stuff. Well, in your muscles, there is a uh a thing called ATP that is created and that creates energy. Okay. And so that ATP creates about three to four, three to five seconds of energy. Well, when it burns off that energy, it creates these two waste byproducts.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_01Okay. A lot of people understand that as lactic acid. Okay, so it's like a burn you feel in your muscles, or lactate is what we call it, is what it really is. So that builds up in your bloodstream. Well, as part of the Krebs cycle, what happens is that lactate or that waste is supposed to be processed out of your body through your lungs, right? As carbon dioxide, you take in more oxygen and then it creates more energy. Yeah. Okay. So it's this big recycling system. So what a lot of people do when they go out and exercise or they run is in the beginning they feel really good. So they go really fast. And then their heart rate jumps up because their heart is trying to pump oxygen to your muscles to create that energy. Well, at a certain point, your heart rate gets too high and you get tired. You peak. You it it jumps up, and so you start slowing down.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, the thing is your heart rate doesn't come down. Right. Even though you go down because it's still trying to regulate itself because of all the energy.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01Well, eventually it will start coming down, but by that time it's too late, you've already built up a lactate, a too much lactate in your weight and your bloodstream, and now your lungs are burning, your legs are burning, your arms are burning, your everything's burning, and there's nothing you can do about it. You've reached your lactate threshold. Yeah. Okay. Well, if you can learn to be steady in your run at a low enough intensity that your heart rate doesn't go above, we call it zone two, zone three, or what have you, which depending on your age, gender, whatever, is a specific number, then what happens is when your heart rate gets up to the place where you can produce enough oxygen, it just stops climbing and it just stays steady. And so the ultimate goal in training, the bulk of our training that we want to do is we want to make sure that our heart rate is really smooth and really steady without a bunch of jumps and drops.
SPEAKER_04That's right.
SPEAKER_01And the more you can do that, the more steady you can stay within that effort. And the longer you go, what ends up happening is your heart becomes more efficient. And the more efficient it is at processing oxygen, that means eventually the faster you can go with less effort. Right. And so the way God has created our body is to this rhythm, and He's taught and He's He's He's created this system that can get better. But you have to, number one, be consistent. It's never, you don't have to be as intense as you think you have to be. But then at a certain point, okay, and this is, I guess maybe the next phase would be at a certain point, once you create this really strong foundation of fitness or aerobic fitness, then you have to learn how to push yourself in a very small portion. Right. So we call it the 80-20 rule. 80% is high volume easy, 20% is easy. I mean, is really hard. And we're talking like really hard. Well, what happens is you develop your lactate threshold even more, but more than anything, you look teach yourself how to be comfortable being uncomfortable. That in discomfort, you're not gonna die. That's right. That in discomfort, you're not gonna get hurt, and that you can continue to push yourself further and further. And so there's like this this parody that you that you bring of I have a lot of really easy stuff that I'm just super duper consistent in. And no matter what the weather's like, no matter what I feel like, no matter what my emotions are, I just this is the this is the mission today.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And then there's a very small portion where it's like all or it's just let's go. It's very intense, very hard, but it's very short. Yeah. Very short and small.
SPEAKER_00And so you're talking about the discipline of not measuring your success by what's happening around you, exactly, but by what's forming within you. Right.
SPEAKER_01Well, we say is we're not a slave to anything. We're not a slave to how we feel. That's right. To our heart rate, to our pace, any of that.
SPEAKER_00So a healthy heart, a proper heart rate, is not naivety in happenstance, it's discipline. It is. And the same thing in the spirit a merry heart is not naivety. Right. It's disciplined joy. It is a purposed joy. And you cannot do that if you haven't learned how to regulate that joy in consistency by believing God when you cannot discern Him.
SPEAKER_01That's really good. That's good. That makes sense. It does. I start thinking about the, you know, earlier I was thinking about it, but even more so now, the children of Israel, you brought them up in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00Yep.
SPEAKER_01And they took a trip that took them 40 years that should have only taken a week or two to get there. Um, but it's kind of dual in that number one, even though they had to take all the extra time, God still took them where his will was. That's right. Right? Even though it took them longer and out of the way.
SPEAKER_00Well, he had to get a generation that would believe it.
SPEAKER_01That would be willing to believe it.
SPEAKER_00And and and their fathers had to overcome the fear.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And so that's, I mean, that's that's where you get to in your spirit and in your life. You you have to you have to you have to verbalize an absolute refusal to allow the external pressure of life to dictate your internal posture. You have to say, I'm sorry, you're not entering here. You're not entering here. I don't care what the circumstance is, you're not taking my and here's the reason why. Because the Bible says that if you allow that to corrupt your inner man, that it breaks the spirit. And a broken spirit dries the bones, right? So if if if a broken spirit dries the bones and a joyful heart is like medicine, then I'm gonna defer and default on the side of discipline joy. Right. Right? Because there's nothing uh that is so impoverished as a man with a with a broken spirit. You you give me a man with a broken spirit, and I'll show you a man that won't do anything. He'll never conquer anything, and he will be a victim of everything. That's why it is absolute perilous for a woman to marry a man and she thinks she's going to heal him and rejuvenate him and reform him. I'll fix him. No, you will not. Because only God can do some things, and he cannot work where a man chooses to default to bitterness, brokenness, and victimhood. Don't be bitter, be bitter. That's right.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's good. Well, you'd you'd also mentioned um that, and this is me paraphrasing and kind of repackaging it, but as Christians, right, as followers of Jesus Christ, we're in his kingdom, right? We're under his governance, and once we put our faith in him and get under what you know God's put over us, then hell cannot approach us or can't conquer us legally. Right. Hell can only approach us in our where we basically exploit ourselves, right? Where we open up ourselves for sin, right, or or doubt or fear.
SPEAKER_00Sins of omission and sins of commission.
SPEAKER_01So we we operate from a different playing field. That's right. So it's not fair, honestly. It really isn't fair because of the favor of the Lord, but it all comes, it's all connected to that submission, that attitude, to that submitting to the will of God. And so that looks, I think it looks so different to people. Yeah, because you know, success is never like a straight line. Right. You know, in everything, you know, it doesn't there's gonna be ebb and flow, there's gonna be up and down. That's right. And most of the time I feel like the downs have to do with us learning where we need to submit or us learn a lesson that we need to to go to that next place, right?
SPEAKER_00That's right.
SPEAKER_01And you know, you've always said, and I think you even mentioned it last week, but you know, the the quicker our response time to what you know God is dealing with us or trying to teach us or what the Holy Spirit tells us, yeah, well then usually You short circuit that the length of the trial. Right, of that left that learning the lesson time period, right? And so, you know, you had mentioned that you know fear always will whisper you know in those deficiencies. Yes, sir, right? Yes, sir, and that discouragement will oftentimes tell you you know where you fail. That's right. And so as a Christian, right, you know, I was always taught, or maybe I wasn't taught this, but I always had this envisionment of God being kind of this judge. Because I I kind of I think as a child you always kind of relate God to the relationship with authority or your parents and your life, right?
SPEAKER_00That's right.
SPEAKER_01So I kind of always envision God.
SPEAKER_00If you have a good father, earthly father, it's you'll have a better outlook on who God is. If you have a horrible, abusive father, then you have trouble or um you have a difficult time trusting God.
SPEAKER_01So which is that that's kind of and I didn't have a horrible father, but I just mean that yeah, I do feel like there were often times he was waiting for me to mess up.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes, yes.
SPEAKER_01He wanted me to mess up so he could get me. Yeah, you know, and so I knew he loved me, but I also felt like he liked catching me doing something I wasn't supposed to do. So I always kind of had that same concept of God in that when I messed up, he was there to like judge you, judge me. Yeah. And so that made you not fearful to do wrong or take a risk. To take, but it does to take a risk, I feel like, because if you do mess it up, yeah, then there's gonna be heavy consequences.
SPEAKER_00Well, this is where you have to rewire your mind about the about who God is and his fatherhood. So uh, and this goes back to our previous uh baseline discussion. Faith is sustained by the atmosphere that you permit within your own spirit. And so we know this in Romans 10, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. In Matthew 4, faith is fed by the word of God. In Jude 1, faith is built up by prayer in the Holy Ghost. First John, faith overcomes the world through the victory of Jesus Christ. So those are the those are the pillars, those are the architecture that you have to walk within and say, This is my covering, this is how I maintain my faith, build my faith, grow my faith, mature my faith to the point that there are no places. The Bible says, give no place to the devil. Right? And so that's where we have to stand up and say, I've not given you permission to trespass here. Satan, you're this thought is a trespassing thought. This this um this doubt is a trespasser, and I cast you out. And when you get it, when you get that legal ease and that understanding that you have an enforceable um covenant that you can speak, and it has nothing to do with your feelings, it has nothing to do with your highs and lows, it requires you to speak from the position God gave you about the covenant He has over you.
SPEAKER_03Come on. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You see what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_03I do.
SPEAKER_00And that's very, very hard for people to do because it's it takes a great deal of surgical uh acuity and maturity to separate my personal struggles and feelings of the day or the hour from the reality of who God is and what he said. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I have a question. So we say fail boldly. Yeah. And then we say failure's not an option. Yeah. What is failure? That's good. That's good. Trick question.
SPEAKER_00Okay. No, that's good. So it's an attitude. So when we say go fail boldly, we're talking about take risk. So um I'll I'll never forget things uh, and I'm when I'm saying risk, I'm not talking about physical things per se. I'm thinking about what are you praying for? Are you praying for those things that you can strive for and work two jobs and use your credit card to get, and you're just asking God to let you have it? Or are you praying for that blind eye to be opened? Where you can't do anything to get it. That's God. Right? So there's a there's a different, you know, are you praying for a headache that if God doesn't answer in 30 minutes, you're gonna take three ibuprofen? Or are you praying for an incurable disease? See? And this goes back to the Tallit. This goes back to the prayer covering that we have. This goes back to that inner man developing and die and discipleship and faithfulness. This goes back to your language, this goes back to what you wake up saying, right? This goes back to how you are living the constitution of your life, living in the position of your call, living according to his word and having that confidence. I had an encounter with God and He put me in this business. Come on. Right? For example, we all know what we've been through here. And uh and one of the things for me was uh coming out of that, there was a season in my life where I was so broken over the losses. And so I finally said, God, if if if what you're requiring of me is to give up everything that you gave me and you asked me to build for you, if if this is if this is a test, I'll show you. I give it all to you. And I put I had this place put up for sale. I did for sale sign out there. And instantly we had four or five offers. And the Lord spoke to me and said, I wanted to see how much you're consecrated to me and if you would give this to me. Like a Gideon type of moment. That's right. That's right. And so he was he was wanting to see how I would react, right? And and what uh attitude I would adopt if I had to give it, would I be a failure? Would the would the hallmark of my life not be he was a revivalist, but now it would be he lost his church? What would what would the epitaph of my life say? Am I willing to say, Lord, I don't care what they print about me? I just want to be in your will. And brother, when that happened, we took it off the market, things changed. The atmosphere changed. People's attitudes changed. There was a there was a fight and and a grit that took hold of people. They said, Oh no, no, we're not doing this. And you see, you see the the metal and maturity rise up in people, right? And then you also it see it reveal things about other people. You know, the people you think will never leave you will leave you first. And the people that you thought was leaving tomorrow, they'll still be here. And you and there's so much revelation that comes out of that. And but it goes back to the the strength that we have from faith. So faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. That's what the Bible says. And you asked me earlier what faith was. Is that what you asked? Failure. Failure. So failure is failure is a very broad subject, but one of the things that I like to say is failure is the index of my expectations. So if I set a threshold for your performance way up here, and you're striving to make that threshold, but you're never quite good enough, then by that metric, you're a failure. But what if you lower that threshold? Right? These things are unreasonable. These things are not necessary, they're not life and death. They're my hopes. I'd like to see you do that. I believe you could do that. I want that for you. But if you don't want it, and you're you're you're pleasant here, and you're living here, and you're excited to be here, do I have the wrong expectation, or are you a failure? You see how deep that goes? So I think a lot of times people are trying to live up to a false expectation of themselves, and they've not allowed God to live through them and breathe in them until He gives them the vision. So James said something that was so very, very important because he was in the right place at the right time, even though he didn't want to be there. God put him in a circle and met him there and opened his mind to a vision. And when he got that vision, then he was set. He knew what BC fitness would become. He didn't ink it out on on the back of a paper sack out of his own mind, will, and intellect. Right? It was God breathed. And so then in the in the pressure points and in those times of testing, and when you don't know how to make payroll, you've got something to go back to and say, Oh, but wait a minute. You met me in a circle. You see what I'm saying? And that's that's kind of the way you have to live. If you're gonna live dependent upon God, and revival only comes through two things, comes through a lot of things, but m two main pillars my attitude toward his presence and how hungry I am for it, and my attitude toward my dependence on him and how dependent I am on him. And if I keep those things before me, then I'm gonna have a dynamic, supernatural relationship with God. That's it.
SPEAKER_01You know, um, as we're kind of rehearsing this the last few years, and we're talking about the gym and the church and you know, some of the struggles and things, you know, just being very raw, you know, I remember, you know, during all this, because my life is so connected to this place in so many different ways. And I'm I'm very thankful for that. But still, my success and failure is very tied to this place. And I remember you had brought someone in one time, and I think they were gonna help us. They were gonna do something, right? They were gonna systems and whatever. They were gonna take over or do something, right? Um, this is during the the for sale sign time, right? And I remember them asking a question, and they were saying that, you know, a lot of places are, you know, there's I think the way they put it was there's two options, right? Either you are struggling, but you still have hope, and uh you're not you're not you're not going to die, or you're dying a slow death, the death of a thousand cuts, right? And he asked people who feels that way. Yeah, right. Now, in my heart and in my mind, because I am not, my personality is not one to just give up on anything, right? I I'm a fighter for sure. Um, but because of people around us, because of you know the lackluster passion, you know what I'm saying? That may not be my attitude, but what I saw was we're dying a slow death. Yeah. And I said that out loud, you know, because that's how I felt, right? And so, but I was immediately convicted in that moment because even though that wasn't my heart and that was what I was seeing, I verbalized that to whoever that guy was, right? And so, you know, I went home that night and they, you know, there was he had good things to say and it was all great and everything. He's gone though, he hasn't been around since then. But um when I was home that evening, I was, you know, praying and thinking about it because I was majorly convicted that I had said that because that wasn't really what I yeah, what I believed, you know. And so, you know, that evening, you know, I was sleeping, and once again, I couldn't sleep. Yeah, I was woken up, you know, and I believe a week later we had like a board meeting, yeah, or something like that. And I never go to the board, I'm never invited to the board meetings, you know, never anything important, you know, because I'm rock the boat, James. Um, and so I got in that meeting, and you know, people were saying all kinds of things, you know, some positive, some like we need to do this, we need to do that. And, you know, like something stirred in me, and I was like, listen. We're not failing. This is like we're in this, and we have to trust in God, and we're not gonna quit, and we're gonna keep pushing, and God's gonna make a way, and we're gonna and we're not gonna fail, you know. And um, especially in that group of those men, you and them, I wouldn't usually talk. Yeah, I just sit there and be quiet, you know. Um, but I think it was that moment for me because I was convicted, because that was out of my personality, it was out of you know what I truly believed, but the fact that I I vocalized that for everybody else to hear. Yeah, you know, and so that didn't build anybody's faith. That didn't help anybody. There's like, oh, he's he thinks the same thing we do. Yeah, and so you know, you're gonna have those moments where you're unsure. Yeah, you're gonna have those moments when you're you're human, you're a human being.
SPEAKER_00And you're gonna have those moments when you say the wrong thing. When you suit when you mess up, but you go back. That's exactly right. And say, I've been convicted. God corrected me on this. Let me apologize, and now make the correct statement. Yes. You see what I'm saying? You gotta bring you gotta bring that to the fore. And and it goes back to uh Psalm 16. When when when the word says uh God speaking to his people, it said, In my presence there's fullness of joy, and at my right hand there are pleasures forevermore. When you're talking about the right hand of God, you're talking about um the disposition and the place that you see his authority. It's the place where you see his uh favor, it's the place where you enter into proximity with his perfect will. And that's where so many people are aloof and distant from him, and they've never known the the right hand of God. Those pleasure, those pleasures forevermore, those those accents of favor and blessing. And so I'm you know, for what we've been through, I'm perfectly convinced that when you have the wrong people on the bus, their attitude becomes so corrosive, they pollute the entire environment. And God has to bring you to a place that looks perilous, that can be treacherous, and that is um that has Ichabod on it. It has certain failure written on it if things are not changed. And and He He will bring those people and reveal them through those those moments. And uh as a leader, you have the ultimate uh challenge of of getting them off the bus. And it's it's it's very sad. But uh yeah. So what does that have to do with us? It has everything to do with us because we're self-disciplining, we're s we're self-governing. We're we need to we need to do that uh um internal diagnostic on ourselves every hour of the day. Just a constant diagnostic running, just like a machine checking. You know, when they plug your car in at the thing and they look at the computer and they tell all of them. That's called a diagnostic. And you're doing that test on yourself. You do that with the anatomy, right? Your systems, your looking, your you're checking. And so I think that's what we do with our our spirits. And you know those days when you wake up and you feel bleak and you feel worn and you feel exhausted, you don't have any more to give, and you just want to weep, you have to get you have to get along with God and say, Lord, I'm I'm weak. I don't have any more to give. But I'm gonna pray your word, and I'm gonna stay right here until I change. And that's that's where in in his presence weakness is traded for strength. In his presence, you know what I mean? Uh uh fatigue is traded for endurance. In his presence, limitation is traded for capacity. And so it it's just you you just keep moving and going and growing. But but you have to learn, going back to your question, you have to learn that God gives you elasticity to learn those things. And those are never failures, those are opportunities, right? So when we say go fail boldly, we're talking about embracing those opportunities that other men might call failure, what you call experience. Right? So you're mining those experiences to to make a trumpet of testimonies and play a symphony of praise that the world can never sing. And so that that's what I look at it. And then when you're talking about the other dimension of failure, uh, and I forgot how you put it, but but failure is not an option. We're talking about those decisions where we've been living for God, we've consecrated something to God, it looks like it's going to be perilous and by all measure fail. And uh, and then that's where we go back and say, no, no, no, no. I didn't spend my life for failure. There is no failure in God. There is no place of bankruptcy in God. This is not a failure. I don't care what they write as a headline. Oh, he preached life, but he died. Let me tell you something. The blood of martyrs is the engine of the church. And so what may look like the enemy killing me is nothing more than the fuel for tomorrow's revival. Amen. That's it. That's it. You see what I'm saying? And so that's that's where those two dimensions, when you're talking about those two different kinds of failure, so we have permission to go fail boldly in that we're stretching our experiences for the supernatural capacity that we have for God to show up. And then over here, it's that tenacious understanding that no matter what it cost me, it's never a failure when I'm in God's economy.
SPEAKER_01You know, I'm convinced that through everything you know I've experienced watching pastor, uh other people that I've known in the in the professional world that were in business, looking at the patriarchs of the Bible, looking through the entire story, that God does not, He doesn't base my future on my comfort. And so, in fact, I believe it's probably the off opposite, is that He constantly is trying to puts me in uncomfortable places so that He can refine me and He can lead me where He wants to go, where He wants me to go. And so uh I think that understanding of being uncomfortable or being comfortable in those uncomfortable positions, if you can have that joy, if you can be in a position where, you know, when the winds are blowing, I'm not freaking out. When when it looks like there is no hope, my hope is in the Lord. Yeah. When you can have that, that is a different level of existence that the world can never understand. That's right. That's why, you know, I'm I'm not I think God has provided us um amazing, a lot of amazing science over the last few hundred years. Yeah. Okay. We've we've discovered so many things that I believe are God breathed for sure. Um but even with that being said, science doesn't have all the answers. Medication doesn't have all the answers.
SPEAKER_00Science is is an evolution, a theoretical evolution that is constantly proving the word of God is true. That's it. And no matter how they argue from their pragmatic positions that science triumphs over scripture, they're always made to be the fool because scripture is absolute truth. Now, I know we've got a to close, we're coming up on time, but did you guys see this this recent um a friend of mine named Tony, a young man that that uh loves me very much, uh has a podcast named The Confessionals, and he just had uh he just had a guest on, and I don't know if you saw that, I was gonna ask you about it because this is this is some of that dynamic, supernatural um reality that we're talking about. But he just had, I don't know if he was a scientist or what his background is, but he had an expert on the river Euphrates is drying up, right? And so they've noticed that here recently they've discovered that in some of these places that have historically been underwater, they've discovered these places that look like caves. And then in one place they have what looks like prison bars uh chiseled, I mean cut in the rock. And so these scientists went down there to the in into the riverbed where this Rephrates River has dried up, and they put these instruments in the ground. And um, and so they have started capturing audible sounds coming out of the riverbed of the Euphrates. Because you know the Bible says in the Revelations that the that there are three angels that are bound to the river Euphrates that will be unleashed in the end uh the end of days. When the river dries up, those angels are going to be released. And and they have the actual recording on the on the podcast, and you talking about demonic, and I you know, I don't know if it's true or not, but if it is true, we are living in the last hour of the last days. And the reason I bring all of this up is because when those kinds of things are released and that animus, that that demonic uh soldier of hell that hates everything about God, when he shows up on planet Earth, are you going to be tremulous and afraid? Or are you going to have already chiseled at that place in your life where you say, I'm all in, and God is with me, and God can conquer any enemy. And we're very much back to that Joshua moment where you're looking at at a generation that says, Hey, I don't care what the giants look like, I don't care if we're grasshoppers or not, we're going over. Because we've watched our daddies die in this wilderness. Right? And so that's kind of where we're at, and in the in the church is rising up and saying, No, we're going over. We're going to take it. And and you can't do that if you don't have uh the right sense and posture of what failure is and what success is. You know, we're called into to the contest. We're living in this hour. Are we going to be the generation that sees these mighty denom uh demonic forces show up and materialize? Are we going to see the Nephilim again? Well, whatever we see, I don't know that we are, but whatever we see, whatever opposition appears, how will our feet be concreted or will that will it be shifting and moving? Will we be solid on solid ground or will we be dancing and blown about with every wind of doctrine? This is this is the time to gird up your loins about you and put on the whole armor of God, right? And so I just think that we have to go back to the fundamentals of realizing that in his presence is fullness of joy, and at his right hand are pleasures forevermore, and that is where his authority and proximity and uh pleasure is all displayed. So I want the right hand of God to be at work in my life. Amen. Amen.
SPEAKER_01You know, if I could just as we close this out, uh I just encourage people um to kind of get a visual of exactly what you're talking about. If they go to the book of Joshua and read the book of Joshua.
SPEAKER_00Yes, Joshua 3.
SPEAKER_01And if you realize that when they went in, God took them to the biggest city with the largest walls and the hardest one to take, yes, and then instructed them to do things that would be outside of the norm of a battle.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01And the entire time they were doing what God told them to do, they were being laughed at, scoffed at, made fun of, but yet they were obedient, and they didn't have to do anything to take that city.
SPEAKER_00You know, that's I I think you know this, and I don't talk about this much, but I have a foundation. And uh and the name of that foundation is this very thing, Joshua III. And Joshua Three Foundation is a place where I give money to go do things that are impossible. You can't you cannot save those inner city kids. You're gonna write them off, and they're either gonna go to a grave or to a prison unit? No, no, no, no. No. The Joshua III Foundation will step into this urban warfare and claim the soul of those children. You you you think we cannot attack sex traffickers and take those children back and get God to move in in our and smite this unrighteous. Oh my friend, we we'll do it through Joshua 3. You see what I'm saying? Yes, sir. Tell me how wall how high those walls are, and I'll tell you about a foundation of truth that'll knock it down. So I'm I'm with you. Read it. Go get it.
SPEAKER_03Go get it. Just like that, guys. That was a powerful episode. Don't forget champ.org to stay connected at everything that we do. If this episode impacted you, please share it, like it, comment on it, because we gotta battle the algorithm. And the way to do that is if you like it, if you're commenting on videos like this, if you're sharing it, yes, go on to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, listening to it, and just getting involved in this. This is uh this is how you fight for us, helping us fight this battle.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, look before we go, uh we've got some big plans, we have some doors of opportunity that have opened for us, and we're needing cameras and we're doing big things and needing to correct the lighting in here and and just improve across the board to go to this next level. And so this is one of those Joshua 3 things. It looks impossible.
SPEAKER_03Exactly. I mean, you talk about fair is not an option.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03If you watched when we first started this, yeah. Yeah, the road that we've traveled on these almost hundred episodes to get here. Yeah, there's so many times I could have just left you like, all right, I've done two with you. You could have just you could have fired me a long time ago.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So what but think about what what are we coming up on the hundredth episode? What is that? Three weeks away or something.
SPEAKER_03Two weeks.
SPEAKER_00Two or three weeks. Yeah. We're aren't we gonna do a big deal?
SPEAKER_03Yes, we are. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00We got the event bright up as we sent it to you to post it up. Let's go, man. Everybody needs to be a part of that. If you're if you watch us online, if you're some some of our people that are in our digital um theater of of interaction, hey, be plugged in that evening because we're gonna do a live show. We're gonna have fun. Maybe we'll have a hundred candles on a cake or something and um and have James Araki blow it out. We're gonna have fun. Yes, we're gonna have let's talk about it.
SPEAKER_03Epic Dream World?
SPEAKER_00Yes, talk about it.
SPEAKER_03You want a Lamborghini? You want the chance to go to the FIFA World Cup Championship? Go to EpicDreamworld.com. It's a wall digital wallpaper. You get the purchase, 50 tickets, 50 opportunities to get a Lamborghini for $50. Can't beat that anywhere. No, no, it's good. We got BC Fitness here. How many days are open? Every day of the week, except for Sunday. Optimal Family Care. Yes. Champions Food Truck Park. Yep. And of course, the Courageous Faith Podcast.
SPEAKER_00And the Substack.
SPEAKER_03Pastor Substack.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you got to get that, man. I love you. Pray us out.
SPEAKER_01Lord, I thank you for this day. You are so amazing. You are so wonderful. God, we thank you for taking us into unknown places, Lord. And I thank you right now, Father, that you have given us not a spirit of fear, Lord God, but one of overcoming, of strength, Lord God, a sound mind and joy and peace, Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_04Yes, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01I pray right now for everyone that is listening and watching this podcast today, Lord, that you would bless them, that you would strengthen them, that you would favor them, Lord, and let them see every challenge as an opportunity, Lord God. Every failure, Lord God, as a way for you to show how good you are and how gracious you are, Lord. We love you and we bless you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. We love you.