What about John? You know, he's also one of your disciples Well truth be told John was the only one who actually wasn't martyred at all of twelve he's the only one who died of old age and Jesus knew that I think too often We take our eyes off the call that God has for us and the purpose that he has for us We start looking around at what other people are doing and you know It goes a lot deeper than you realize Because sometimes these things begin very early in our life Right back in our early experiences in childhood For example a mother Who fails to accept you the way you are Who compares you with others Well, I wish you was as clever as your brother I Wish you were as pretty as your sister But I guess we got the run to the family, which is you You know, sometimes parents aren't quite that abrupt but sometimes they can be sometimes they can be quite hurtful in comparing you and I know and what about our friends kids? You know what? You don't seem to shape up with them. Why are you so weak and useless? And you know sometimes Mothers do that without even realizing that they're doing it My own mother was a very strong woman When I was younger Looked at how I was doing at school. She said how come you so low in the class and so-and-so We had personal friends a family who kind of had Kids almost the same age as us How come this guy who's your age in the same class as you why is he doing so much better than you? see now I Didn't know it at the time, but my mom actually Saw my potential and she wanted to encourage that potential But she went about it all wrong what she communicated to me was you're not acceptable to me because you're not as good as somebody else and And that that had a very deep effect on me mothers And have a very strong effect on their children either through neglect Also creating a wrong impression but you see a mother is to give the acceptance that a child needs and anything that is viewed as you don't accept me is the way I am leaves a scar and The first effect that it has is you begin to compare yourself with others You begin to think I'm not as good as my brother.

I'm not as good as my sister I'm not good enough to be loved Therefore I must change. I must do something To somehow earn the same attention that they're getting and yeah fathers. I'm afraid make the same mistake See fathers fail to recognize your abilities Father shows favoritism to other siblings.

Oh, you know My son is so strong and great. He does sport But are you weren't a boy can happen You never have another way around, you know, my daughter is so beautiful and lovely, you know what? It's just don't even come close to her just look how she gets A's in the in the classes And yeah, you struggle just to barely make it through You know, why don't you wake up? Rejection Rejection and and since the father is meant to give the recognition and the direction for a child We once again come to this place where we think in order for me to be recognized. I need to change I need to do something.

I need to perform. I need to compete with somebody else and be like them Oh, I'm not good enough. I think we've all been there to some degree or another Because parents are sinful beings Even with this knowledge.

I made some mistakes myself as a parent. So unless it's not shoot mom and dad down just yet Okay You can't change what happened back there, but you can't change how you Responded see and then of course siblings brothers and sisters. Oh boy There's a competition isn't there to see who's gonna get the most attention to see who's gonna get the most favor and Some some siblings they just win because of who they are You know in South Africa.

They they call sometimes the last one the lot Lamiki The lot Lamiki is spoiled rotten You know the kids that have labored through the day Through the years have been faithful. You're not good enough. You're not the exciting young baby All of these things happen that create within us a sense of I've got to change.

I've got to be like somebody else. I've got to always be on the outlook to see what other people are doing Otherwise, I'm not gonna succeed and that starts just in our normal life and This is what resulted creates first the s word Stress Stress we've been looking at how stress can cause some of major diseases in your body Deep distress fear of failure if I fail I Will not be accepted if I fail I will not be recognized So I've got to make sure that I do not fail Inferiority and insecurity I'm just the ugly one You know My brother's tall up there, you know in this little me What hope do I have he's playing a team rugby at school? Nobody even wants me in any team of any kind See, I'm just useless. I'm ugly And Very often it's taken up with our abilities or our looks so many things But always there's the sense of I'm competing all the time with somebody else in order to be accepted in order to be recognized in order to be happy in life and then You realize that actually It's true You're not so good You're gonna compete with the other person sure as nuts you're gonna lose So what do you do you avoid competition? So here's what you do you say I'm not gonna do what everybody else is doing because they're going to beat me hands down I'm gonna find something else to do that.

They can't do So make me stand out and unique See, nobody can then compare me with somebody else and say hey, you're not as good as them because I'm the only one doing it It's one of the ways we can respond and so we we have this this driving force to be unique To be different To go against the grain and go against the status quo and just to do the opposite of what everybody else is doing just for spite Just to prove I can be unique I can achieve And then you're going to overemphasize what? Your natural abilities see See if the beautiful people are not where you fit because you're not beautiful You're gonna find another gift or ability that you have that will make you look better. You know, so I have Good strengths I can compete in sports. I Yourself fully Into another effort in the hope that somehow you can succeed without being told You're not good enough because everybody else is better than you some people go the opposite direction They say I have to win if it kills me I have to win I cannot take failure So If I'm in a competition with somebody I'm going to practice twice as hard.

I'm going to get twice as fit I'm going to push myself. I'm gonna lose weight. I'm gonna do whatever it takes Until I beat them, you know, it goes right down to playing a board game like Monopoly or something People they can't lose They lose a game but a game of chance Determined by how you threw the dice and they get all discouraged and depressed that you don't want to play anymore Try to cover a whole lot of different areas because these are some of the effects This has in our lives You know what you end up being You end up being driven You're not in the driver's seat anymore.

You're being driven. You're being driven by an inner force that will not let you relax They will not let you rest They will not let you even be who you're supposed to be because you determined you've got to win You've got to keep going. You've got to keep at it.

Because if you don't somebody's gonna overtake you That produces things like arthritis and ulcers and high blood pressure So many effects in our lives because we can't relax Continually on our toes. We've got to keep our head above water. We've got to be the best You may think that God has given me great ability We even give the Lord the glory for the great things that I do How do I know these things? I've been there Through a lot of these When I was still younger and full of zeal and Felt I could conquer the world man.

I was just going one goal after another. I Made this famous famous statement when I stopped pushing forward bury me with some dead One day the Lord brought me to the place where he said stop And I wasn't dead yet, and I realized I'd been pushing myself for years Thinking that I was doing it out of zeal for the Lord, but I wasn't I Was trying to be unique. I was trying to be different.

I was trying to be on the cutting edge Above everybody else and beyond everybody else so that I could stand and feel good about myself that I'd accomplished great things For the Lord now, what about other people? If you have this need To perform and compete other people cannot win So when you look at other people who are achieving The first thing would use pick holes in it Say yeah, well, you know if I if I had the money that her dad had I could probably also do that, you know You know if I say if I was living in that particular place perhaps I could also Accomplish that you know he he's not so great You know he's just been given opportunities. I didn't have we try to justify Why that person is succeeding and we're failing? And we're continually nitpicking and being negative by everybody else Really at the end of the day It's because you yourself are feeling Insecure incapable and a failure you can find enough faults in that person that makes me feel better Now if that star has risen up and everybody's talking about if I can find a few faults in her Then maybe I won't feel so ugly anymore that's human nature it's sinful human nature And all of these things they rob us of the joy That God wants us to have And you know it affects your health Or one of the first thing you've got to do is you can't be a normal person Who eats junk food and puts on weight? Now you've got to be super fit You've got to do those exercises every day. You've got to be at the gym at least three or four times a week You've got to keep slim and trim You've got to have that Curvaceous figure You got to starve yourself, but it doesn't come naturally you're gonna have to work hard and do all those exercises Because it doesn't come naturally And you know something It never satisfies As fit as you are or as slim as you get you still aren't satisfied Now why because there's a restlessness inside of you a driving force inside of you And in the end it just robs your health anyway But eventually you become physically incapable of doing any of these things and what did you accomplish through all of that? Absolutely nothing Okay, that's the bad news Let's bring the Lord into the picture, huh? You know sometimes the Lord's in the picture there, but we just left him out Let's bring the Lord into the picture the Lord has a plan for your life It's known as a calling Okay, now your calling is unique to you Thought this very clearly so many times Your calling is not what everybody else is doing well.

I'm called to be a prophet. You know how many prophets there are Yeah, you've got this problem of competing You got you're gonna have to something have something a bit better than just saying I'm gonna be a prophet I'm gonna be a pastor. I'm gonna be a teacher because there's millions of those see your calling is unique because God calls you based on your own unique talents and abilities and Experiences in life and circumstances he puts together a package That only you can do See instead of worrying about being the best Prophets you've got to be the best you see For me to strive to be the greatest apostle It's foolishness.

I Must be the greatest Liz Krauss that there is in this world And that's all that God requires of me Nothing more. No, but you Liz Krauss is one of those little nobodies. He's just got this tiny little group of people You know, there's this big name there was drawing the thousands See, that's the mistake we make because I want to tell you something your calling Is likely to be very different to what everybody else's do Now a lot of the time we don't want to be unique We want to be in with the in crowd you see but your calling is something that only you can do It nobody else can do so.

You need to find out what God's called you to do Instead of looking at what everybody else is doing and saying I'd like to do that as well Now there's a place for that as we look at shortly now the problem with a calling is it requires a preparation and If you've been through our training courses, you will know That the preparation and training for those who rise up in leadership All have one common factor the D word Death In other words, you've got to come to the place where all of the things you're good at Have to fail Well all the things that you depend on Become undependable You've got to come to the place where you realize without God you can do nothing But you spent your life competing with others you spent your life being the best in what you do Lest somebody else should rise up above you and you get left behind Such a person faces the greatest difficulty when they try to move into the call of God because God says You don't qualify for this lesson by being clever and Passing the tests in the world. Yes, that's the way it is You study hard the more, you know, the higher marks you get in the test. You're the one who qualifies In God's economy, sometimes it's the other way around The person who comes last in class is the one God wants Why is that? Because the Lord doesn't need your strengths or your abilities He wants to be the one who provides those he wants you to learn to depend on him and on him Alone so what role then do other believers play in your spiritual experience? Should you not look at what other people are doing Not at all.

They can be a tremendous Inspiration to you. They may even give you a goal when you see what they have accomplished For the Lord and with his power you may say Lord I would really like to rise up like that and be used by you also See, but it's not a case of I want to do better than them You know when I was going through this syndrome when I was younger I would sit in the pews listening to the preacher and I would say to myself, I'm sure I could preach better than him I'm gonna learn how to preach better than him and I did It didn't help me People still didn't recognize me. They still didn't want to promote me.

They still didn't want to put me behind the pulpit You know my own pastor said I'm jealous of you the way you preach he never gave me his pulpit See, so what did it accomplish? Absolutely nothing. There's only one I learned to camp come to that place of saying Lord I Can't do this Without you Lord. I can't do this.

I am nothing. Who am I? Just a funny little old bald-headed man who has nothing going for him in this world. Oh If you can take this ugly piece of clay and do something with it Have a go See if you can do something with it look see that's what God's looking for see So if you're having this problem of comparing yourself if you driven to perform all the time to be the best It's actually gonna stand in the way of you fulfilling your calling No matter how Great somebody else is being used.

You can never be that person because God called them to be what they are and he's called you to be what you must be and The only thing you need to find out is what has he called me to be? Now that doesn't mean you can't come to him say Oh Lord. I would love to be used Lord I would love to flow in certain gifts Lord. I would love to teach and preach There's nothing wrong with that and in actual fact if those desires are in you the Lord may even have put those desires in you You know if you set your target to be as good as that minister over there You may actually be aiming too low God may have something greater for you You know how many people reach a plan in their ministry, and they now content and young sometimes That's all they were meant to be maybe they're only meant to get that far See I had this striving.

I wanted to be in ministry and the Lord said no But everybody else is going in ministry. They're not even as qualified to me. No Then he finally released me into ministry.

I thought at last I've arrived now that I Want more? I'm not happy with this I Want more Does God had something higher for me? How many people they reach a plane and they become satisfied? You know some people like to just be few warmers, you know I'm gonna go to church every Sunday get blessed now pray and You know most of us are happy If we got enough money just to meet our needs at the end of the month and that's fine if you're happy with that But you could be wealthy It could be God's calling you to something higher Have you asked him? Or if you looked at somebody else who's wealthy and said that's not fair I want to be like them see there's a big difference between those two and you know all that the Lord asks Is that you follow him? Jesus said when he walked the surface I do only what I see the father did Jesus didn't look away everybody else was doing Kept his eyes fixed on the father and he said father What do I see you doing what do you want me to do and that's what it means to follow him? to fix your eyes on him and see what Jesus is doing see what Jesus wants to do because Whatever you do in ministry It's not going to be you doing it It's going to be him doing it through you So what does Jesus want to do through you? Does he want to preach? Does he want to heal the sick? Does he want to just be there to care for people and show them love does he want to stand up and teach? What does Jesus want to do through you open your eyes and watch and see and Follow him that's all that's required Once you find that out Then you do that to the very best of your ability Now here's the part That we struggle with okay Lord. I did what you told me to do Lord I stood up and I preached Fervently powerfully and nobody responded. You know when I was finished nobody said afterwards.

Hey, that was a good preach Nobody shook my hands at the door and said hey, that was great. You know, I'm coming back next week to hear what you preach again And sometimes they're just kind of ignoring you you can't get the feeling maybe they probably didn't like what I said, honey I guess I didn't like what I said. Hey, maybe I wasn't so good Yeah, maybe I went a bit hard on that.

Maybe yeah Mmm, I wonder what did I do that was wrong? You've been there See Jesus didn't ask you to bring results He asked you to do what he told you to do and to leave the results in his hands History shows that some of the greatest names Came from insignificant little meetings with some Little guy was the only one who went forward to get saved One day became one of the first famous evangelists See now the preacher that day probably felt he failed Because he didn't get everybody coming to the front. He's got one young guy. He probably didn't even know what he was doing You've been in ministry.

You know what I'm talking about. And if you haven't you're going to find out soon enough And we're in Mexico would send out to our mailing list and I'd sit down and get a great revelation from the Lord Nice study and I would send it out But if this has just gonna bless the people and if you got one, amen That was huge Same thing on Facebook post this awesome thing Everybody's gonna rave and all you good is amen. Amen.

Amen Yes, I didn't touch him. I Guess it didn't mean much So you got to get yourself out of the way The only question you need to ask is did you do what God told you to do? Did you speak the words he told you to speak? How would you know somebody else? Somebody else posted some stupid little article and he had 10,000 results of People raving raving raving and he said nothing You see it He's so hard to not be discouraged And that happens Sometimes the Lord in his grace rescues us For me it usually happens six months later And somebody ride and say remember that email you sent out and you and you said that oh You know, that was exactly what I needed to a year. It was right on time.

It changed my life And I'm thinking could you've told me a bit earlier what really helped are you following him? Are you living the results to him? You know what all you have to do is what he says Whatever results come are the results he wanted to accomplish It's not to show what a great preacher or teacher or minister or how anointed you are So you prayed for the sick and nobody got healed How do you know? Healing may have come later God may have touched somebody in a totally different way that you didn't expect Did God tell you to do it? Yes Well, you annoyed her when you did it I could feel the anointing Nobody got you You're gonna face a lot of that In the aftermath of our seminar as we've looked at moving in some of these things and many of you received an impartation And now you're waiting for something super duper to happen And it hasn't yet I'll give it time Just take what he's given you and use it Practice it develop it Get it out to the world What does Jesus require of us? He requires us to just follow him Do what he tells us and he only looks for three qualities faith hope and love You read the letters that Paul wrote to his churches and right at the beginning. He always says I think the Lord for your faith Well, I thank the Lord for your hope or for your love and If one of them is missing He'd say I thank the Lord for your faith and your love now. I pray he will give you the hope that you need You'll see it next time you read your Bible.

You haven't done it for a while That's what Paul's epistles and look for those three words faith hope and love and you'll see how intertwined they are Into everything those are the three things God is looking for and if you can walk in faith and hope and love you will have everything that you need To be what God has called you to be well, how do we develop them? Oh, I Could teach you a whole series in each one of them But let me give you a simple summary and show you where the keys lie faith Where does faith come from? I Winston 18 says faith comes by your ring and you're in by the rain word of God Not by the logos word of God Faith comes when you hear God speak words Directly to you. In other words got to come up out of his spirit now when God speaks in your spirit usually he gives impressions or pictures and Sometimes you cannot understand those unless we've read the word And so you need to combine the word with the inner revelation and when you do a Ramer comes out. Oh That's what God's trying to tell me now.

I know that I know that I know at that point faith is born in your life So You need to feed on his word and you need to be in his presence To you what he's saying to you Now he could be saying it to you from somebody else's orbit Something that I said today may hit straight home. Yeah. Ooh, I Can hear God speaking straight at me.

That may be your Ramer But the best Ramer is the one that comes up out of your own spirits so you need to be in fellowship with the Lord and in his word to have faith Hope means having a clear vision for the future. It means having something to aim for in Life and it also means that when you step off the road You are aware that the fact that you stepped off the road and get back on it again Otherwise, you're not going to reach that goal That means not only do you need to have from the Lord a clear word of direction Or what his purpose is for your life, but you need to continually on a daily basis Hear his confirmation that you're doing it, right? You've got it, right? No, you missed it there get back on the road continual fellowship with him Love means having the right motives in everything you do Love means keeping it other oriented not self Oriented and it's impossible for us to do that without God's divine love Well, where do we get that from? Bible says the love of God is shared abroad in our house by the Holy Spirit, which he has given to us so All of these things come from Fellowship being with The Lord, how do we do that? David told us way back in way back in the Old Testament in the book of Psalms Psalms 91 is one of the most beautiful Psalms Every believer should memorize it. I Was doing pretty good and then I decided to retranslate it and I've got to memorize it all over again But that's okay Here's what it says in Psalm 91 verse 1 The one who remains in the secret place of the Most High The Hebrew that's El Elion God Most High Will live under the shadow of the Almighty.

That's the El Shaddai the one that remains in the secret place What's the secret place? Any of the prophets have learned to enter the secret place through prayer and intercession To come into a fellowship with the Lord Jesus By his Holy Spirit and to come into that that place where it's just you and him alone It's almost like the intimacy of the marriage bed Very close intimacy in the spirit, but actually I think the secret place is more than that I think the secret place is Is what I try to communicate during the seminar It's the realm of glory in Which we are seated with Christ in heavenly places Right now in other words, we need to daily Go into that secret place We need to do it by choice Not wait for it to happen to us Many of us we wait until the Holy Spirit moves upon us and oh, yeah I feel like praying now and I'm gonna pray and yeah, the Lord begins to manifest himself. Oh, it's wonderful I experienced the secret place. What is the last time you were in the secret place? And you ever remember the dates? truth of the matter is you're living in the secret place spiritually and actually You don't have to pray for hours You get into the secret place Sometimes the secret place is an attitude more than an activity It's a choice where you step out as I try to teach in our seminar stepping out of the natural and Into the supernatural and you can do that by a choice and by an act of your will Okay, Lord, here I am We step now into the supernatural where I'm seated with him in heavenly places From the supernatural now I Begin to walk into this world and do what I do Now if you remain there David says You will live under the shadow of his protection and at the end.

He actually he actually gives us a Conclusion in Psalm 91 verse 14. He says because he has said his love upon me Therefore I will deliver him. I will lift him up and exalt him Because he is intimately come to know my name He will call upon me and I will answer him.

I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and glorify him Looking for the glory is where it comes His long life will I satisfy him don't have to be worried about premature death It calls him to see my salvation You're going to be protected from all harm. You're going to be lifted up and promoted You won't have to promote yourself He's going to answer all of your prayers and he's going to give you a long fulfilled life a life of joy and happiness and accomplishment and to know that it was a life well lived and Enjoyed Where you had today? Have you grown up with this sense of always feeling inferior to others always feeling that you've got to compete with somebody else But you never shape up You find yourself driven at times To try and keep your head above water lest you sink while everybody else is floating Have a good look at that Examine your heart and bring it to him today And say Lord I want to do only What you show me to do? I'm going to stop looking for what people think about me I'm going to stop looking to achieve and accomplish in this world and get recognition and acclaim Because you know he says he's going to exalt and promote you and he's going to glorify you he's going to give you all of those If you'll just take the time to stay That secret place of his presence and there you will hear his voice and his voice will always Always be positive.

His voice will always be. I love you. You are special.

I care for you. I Think you're the greatest I believe in you. Oh If we'd heard those words from our parents, but we didn't Well, let's not go back there and condemn them let's go to the one parent who will always be consistent in giving us that affirmation and motivation keep going and you open your mouth or went out there and gave it your best shot and wrist And ask everybody else what they think Go into that secret place and say Lord Lord I missed it Lord I really screwed it up badly.

Oh, Lord. I feel such a failure. Oh, Lord Why did I even try look? I'm just never gonna do that again Find out what he says He may say you were meant to Miss because that was part of my training for you It didn't fail I brought you to that for a specific reason You Don't know what happened You're going by what your eyes see But I see more than that I see everything and I see the past the present and the future and you do not realize that you sowed a seed That's gonna grow up into a mighty tree Maybe you don't see it right now What did he say? What does he say? If you really did miss it He's gonna correct you in love and he's gonna say let me show you how to not miss it next time He's gonna lift you up encourage you motivate you and send you back out again in the field To do better, you know, it's known fact that every success has a pathway of failures Nobody ever succeeds the first time very seldom if you cannot handle the failure You may never reach that success when it comes to ministry, you're gonna have to fail in order to qualify So don't let the failure syndrome Bug you anymore find out what God's purpose is for you.

What are you here for? What did he call you to do? What unique thing has he? Arranged for your life. What plan does he have for your future? Once you found that all you need to do is daily get into that secret place and say, okay Lord, what do we do today? Where do we go from here? What do I do next Lord and watch him? As he leads ahead He takes you by the hand and he shows you exactly where you should go At times he may lead you through difficulties Doesn't mean you missed it Means he's leading you through that for a specific purpose Always Rest assured in the fact that You are following him Oh Lord, what about John? Is he also gonna die? What about that person in church? Are they also gonna rise up and be a great preacher? What about that person? Is she gonna become a great actress or singer? None of your business None of your business What I do with them is gonna do with you You follow me You just do what I've told you Next time that driving force rises up within you calm it down. Hey, what are you trying to prove? Lord I'm not gonna be driven Anymore, I'm gonna be late That's the difference between a believer Those who are believers are led by the Spirit of God, which means he goes ahead and we follow When we drive we leave him behind Make your choice today and say here I am Lord Show me your purpose And I will follow it.

I thank you Lord for your word Delivered as you gave it to me. I Thank you for the challenges That you've given The principles that we need to apply For highlighting so many of the areas that we fail Lord And yet your love remains constant No amount of failure can change that No amount of failure can change your love for us Lord. And so I ask you to lift up those today Who are feeling a sense of failure? Who feeling a lack of accomplishment who are feeling that perhaps they missed the mark and Failed to be all that they could be I'll ask you to reveal to each one your purpose your unique purpose in calling for their lives Show them the next step to take Show them that you are in control and that the final results lie in your hands And in your hands alone So father even as I've delivered this message the final results.

I Leave in your hands and in your hands alone. May you take it and do with it as you please Accomplish what you send it to do as you promised. I thank you for that now in Jesus name Amen Amen the Lord bless you

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