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MANIFESTED GLORY 31 Trusting the Word of God in Crisis Pastor Sally Snow – 7/26/20 I. TRUSTING THE WORD 1. The Word of God is proven! Proven: demonstrated by evidence to be true or existing; tried and tested; found to be true 2 Sam 22:31-33 NKJV As for God, His way is perfect; The word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him. 32 "For who is God, except the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God? 33 God is my strength and power, And He makes my way perfect. Ps 9:10 NKJV And those who know Your name will put their trust in You Jehovah – Self existent eternal God who is revealing Himself! Jehovah Rapha – The Lord my Healer The Good Shepherd The Door of the sheep Adoni – the Lord Way, Truth, and the life Light of the World My Helper Waymaker Miracle worker Promise Keeper Light in the Darkness The Secret Place Covenant Keeper! A Carpenter A Holy King Mighty God; Everlasting Father; Prince of Peace; King of Kings and the Lord of Lords Immanuel – God is with us! Fairest of 10,000 El Shaddai – All Powerful All Mighty God Protector Rock Savior Deliverer Messiah True Vine and the Vine dresser! Balm in Gilead The Father, Son and the Holy Ghost! Lord of Hosts Lord strong and mighty The Lord mighty in Battle God of the Angel armies Lilly of the valley Rose of Sharon He is the Oil and the Wine Bread of Life The Living Word Water of the word Elohim – My Strong Creator Jehovah Jireh – The Lord my Provider Jehovah Rapha – The Lord my Healer Jehovah Nissi – My Banner of Victory! Jehovah Tsidkenu – The Lord my Righteousness Jehovah M’keddish – The Lord my Sanctification Jehavah Shalom – The Lord my Peace and Prosperity Jehovah Shammah – the Lord Who is Present! Jehovah Gumelua – The God of Recompense Lion of the Tribe of Judah And the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world! Ancient of Days The Son of God Redeemer The Great I AM JESUS And He is CALLED… the Word of God! 1. His name is called the Word of God. John 1:1-3 NKJV In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. John 1:14 NKJV And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. 2. We can trust the Word of God because His word is truth and will never end. John 17:17 NKJV Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. Num 23:19 NKJV "God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? Matt 24:35 NKJV Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. Ps 138:2 NKJV For You have magnified Your word above all Your name. Mal 3:6 NKJV "For I am the Lord, I do not change…” Heb 13:8 NKJV Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 3. The Word gives me patience, comfort, and hope! Rom 15:4 NKJV For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. 4. The Word of God is alive and powerful. Heb 4:12 NKJV For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. MSG God means what he says. What he says goes. His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon's scalpel, cutting through everything, whether doubt or defense, laying us open to listen and obey. 13 Nothing and no one is impervious to God's Word. We can't get away from it — no matter what. Rom 1:16 NKJV For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes Rom 10:17 NKJV So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Matt 4:4 NKJV 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'" 5. When I become a doer of the word it has the power to strengthen me for the crisis. Matt 7:24-25 NKJV "Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. 6. The Word is our armor and the sword of the Spirit. Eph 6:12 Protecting power! Proactive Power! Helmet of salvation 2 Cor 5:17 NKJV Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Breastplate of righteousness 2 Cor 5:21 NKJV For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Belt of Truth John 8:32 NKJV And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Feet Shod 1 Cor 15:3-4 NKJV …Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures… Shield of faith Prov 30:5 NKJV Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. MSG "Every promise of God proves true; He protects everyone who runs to him for help. How did Jesus quench the fiery darts? It is written - Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God! It is written - you shall not put the Lord your God to a foolish test! It is written - that you shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve! The Sword of the Spirit – which is the Word of God! 7. The word makes us fully equipped for serving Him! 2 Tim 3:16-17 NKJV All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. 8. Angels respond to the Word of God in crisis! Ps 103:20 NKJV Bless the Lord, you His angels, Who excel in strength, who do His word, Heeding the voice of His word. 9. God cannot and will not ever break His word or promises! Heb 6:13-18 MSG When God made his promise to Abraham, he backed it to the hilt, putting his own reputation on the line. 14 He said, "I promise that I'll bless you with everything I have — bless and bless and bless!" 15 Abraham stuck it out and got everything that had been promised to him. 16 When people make promises, they guarantee them by appeal to some authority above them so that if there is any question that they'll make good on the promise, the authority will back them up. 17 When God wanted to guarantee his promises, he gave his word, a rock-solid guarantee — 18 God can't break his word. And because his word cannot change, the promise is likewise unchangeable. Isa 55:11 NKJV So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. Ps 107:20 NKJV He sent His word and healed them, And delivered them from their destructions. 10. His word promises that He will keep me in crisis. Isa 43:1-3 NKJV "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you. 3 For I am the Lord your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior Ps 68:20 NLT Our God is a God who saves! The Sovereign Lord rescues us from death. Matt 6:31-34 NKJV "Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Matt 6:11 NKJV Give us this day our daily bread. 11. Absolute trust in His promise and His faithfulness to bring it to pass will cause me to receive it! Heb 11:11-12 NKJV By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age because she judged Him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude — innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. Rom 4:18-21 MSG When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said he would do. And so he was made the father of a multitude of peoples. God himself said to him, "You're going to have a big family, Abraham!" 19 Abraham didn't focus on his own impotence and say, "It's hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child." Nor did he survey Sarah's decades of infertility and give up. 20 He didn't tiptoe around God's promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, 21 sure that God would make good on what he had said. Ps 61:2 NKJV When my heart is overwhelmed; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Habakkuk 3:19 AMP The Lord God is my strength, my personal bravery, and my invincible army. He makes my feet like hinds feet and will make me to walk, not to stand still in terror but to walk and make spiritual progress upon my high places of trouble, suffering, and responsibility. Isa 26:3 NKJV You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You Because he trusts in You.

Your podcast is a gift. The question is are you a person who buys people a gift card (which screams "not very personal, not much thinking put into the gift) vs a personalized gift that shows you really know what the person wants.  So Why Would People Listen to You? Because you took the time to find out what they want, and then give it to them. You don't need to know everything, you just need to know what they want and give it to them.  Your Audience Wants You To Succeed Your audience isn't sitting there waiting to criticize you, they want you to succeed. Recently Demi Lavato at the grammys started a song and was overcome with emotion as she tried to sing a VERY PERSONAL song. She ended up having to stop the song and restart.  People didn't boo her when she stopped. They cheered her on to win. We are all convinced that people are just waiting to hate our show and that's just not the case.  You can see the video I mentioned at www.podcastconsultant.com/54 Ready To Start a Podcast? Scheduling a coaching call at www.podcastconsultant.com/schedule or choose my three-month mentoring package.

This week I’m talking about a practical approach to discovering your purpose and taking action on ideas in ways that are easiest to pursue and that will also have the most impact in the world. MENTIONED ON THE SHOWAre You a Scanner? Refuse to Choose Energy Reboot HOST LINKS - SLADE ROBERSONSlade's Books & Courses Get an intuitive reading with Slade Automatic Intuition FACEBOOK GROUPShift Your Spirits Community BECOME A PATRONpatreon.com/shiftyourspirits Edit your pledge on Patreon TRANSCRIPT For 15 years, the number one type of question I get asked in readings is about discovering your purpose. Purpose is not necessarily the same thing as a job. You’ve probably heard this expressed by myself and others if you consume personal development content. The SENSE of purpose is something worth discovering in and of itself, independent of the concept of choosing a major or a career. But I do mentor intuitives, psychics, mediums, energy healers, teachers, coaches, counselors… and for many of us purpose IS about a profession. I get it. I need a project at the very least to express my purpose. There’s a lot of value in having a purpose driven project, even if it's not your primary source of income. If you have a boring day job, a purpose driven project can be the most important thing in the world to balance all that energy. I’ve seen clients start a project and it becomes like this release valve for other areas of life. The day job isn’t as awful. You’re not snapping at your spouse over everything. You’re not as annoyed with your kids for stealing your life force. You don’t hate your boss or the sound of coworkers breathing quite so much. You have a reason to get you up in the morning beyond all those mundane things. You have this new source of energy and also an outlet for energy. Because there's energy coming in, and then there's energy you're shedding. You need really healthy vessels and venues and streams for all of those things, to move in and out and through you. The biggest problem with the "Your Job is Your Life" model is that you can’t get everything that you need from that one source. You don’t get all your social interactions from one relationship… or expect one person to fulfill what it takes many relationships to have. And you've seen what happens in those marriages where people really have no friendships or relationships or support systems outside the marriage itself, it's just you and this person in a bubble with nothing else going on... That in itself is a kind of cancerous situation to be in. And I know lots of people with relationships like that. They think they want that. Oh, I want this person to be my best friend and we're going to do everything together. We're just together 24/7. We work together and vacation together. You know what though? I don't see a lot of those filled with joy, it doesn't seem like. So anyway, I think the average person, we need a lot of different kinds of friendships. We need people to take care of and people to make us laugh and we need family and we need people we can talk about woo woo stuff with. And we need people for sex. We need people that we've known our whole lives that we don't have to explain ourselves to. All kinds of different friendships. People who are teachers and mentors. Parents that you talk to. You know, all those different things. Not everybody has that, but ideally, you kind of want a spread, and you want your spouse to have a spread, and you want your kids to have all those things as well. If you’re unhappy and experiencing low level type of "depression" that’s not really clinical depression, but more a lack of motivation, still with an inkling that you should get off your ass and do something. There’s a chance to turn it around, and you feel that, and that's sort of part of the ennui that you're experiencing. The first thing that I would recommend is that you do the Energy Reboot. We've talked about it on a couple of different episodes, and of course can link to those, but the idea is to get back in touch with your intuition, spark your creativity, ground the body, rest better, feel better in your own skin. You can’t create from a place of lack and anxiety. And you can’t save the world if you’re empty and exhausted. Once you experience some of the results from doing the Reboot, because really, start there. Don't skip that. The results are ideas, energy, motivation. Just new fresh signals coming in. Once you start to experience that and feel like that's clicking again, like things are turned on again, things are connected again, sign up for something — a class, a workshop, some kind of group activity. Host something for people with your shared interest. Return to an old hobby or pull out some dream that you put on the shelf long ago. Teach your kids how to do something that you used to love to do when you were younger. Teach other people, period — you could sign up for something and host something at the same time by teaching people, because a lot of times your sense of purpose is about sharing what you’ve learned and experienced with other people. Sometimes your purpose will be chosen for you. Maybe it already has and you don’t have the clarity to realize it. Maybe there's something that you do in the world you're not even giving yourself credit for. Maybe there's something that you do you think of as a duty and a chore, that with a little tweaking and change in perspective, could really become something different. Once you put some intention behind it, you can transform all kinds of things that you're doing. But Discovering Your Purpose is as much about CHOOSING one as having angels descend with an engraved stone tablet or an owl drop a creamy parchment scroll down your chimney. People get lost because there are too many things they love. You feel your interests are all over the place. That they don’t go together. There's no rhyme or reason to them. Or you’re pulled between two different loves and you can’t choose between the two. You may just need to suck it up and do both or do everything you love a little bit. That’s what I do. I might be more successful if I only did one thing and put all my energy into it, but I honestly wouldn’t enjoy that, and the lack of joy would kill it, and I’d be back to square one with nothing. So I do a little bit of everything I love. I now have four different websites officially, 3 different pen names, 3 different businesses, soon to be 2 podcasts, dozens of individual income streams, and that’s not even counting things like my love of animals and the animals that I rescue and care for, and my friends' pets that I help with, and the people I support and care for in my daily personal life on all different levels. From advising younger people to helping some of the people that I work out with, motivating them. Now I don’t advise that you do it like this — if you can avoid it, definitely keep it simple by all means, it sounds heavenly to me, if you have a brain that does that. But some of us don't. And some of us can't choose. So you know what? Refuse to choose. I remember the first time I saw the title of that book, "Refuse to Choose - a Program for Doing Everything that You Love" by Barbara Sher, you've heard me talk about this before. It's like my favourite self-help book in the whole world. It's all based on this principle of scanners. That there's a certain personality type, it's a creative personality type, that requires you to be engaged in a lot of different things. To not just choose one lane and stay there 'til you die. There may be a lot of people who get a sense of safety and security from staying in one track and plodding along and doing the milestones that are laid out for them. And getting the certifications they need and working their way up and just doing what they do and staying there. But that's not scanners. And that's not me. That's probably not a lot of you that are listening. So if you’re a scanner, the cool thing is, we now have this language that allows us to embrace that, and to talk about it as an asset, which is life changing, if you've always been told you're doing it wrong. You're not following through on anything and you can't pick one thing and stick with it. If you've been told all those things, yet you're also extremely intelligent and can potentially do anything, then, you know what? Embrace the fact that you're a scanner. Choose vocations that resonate with that energy. There are lots of activities and environments, social structures, where this is a big positive. So don't put yourself over there in the grey box that has one lane because you're going to be miserable. There are a bunch of other places that you can go and plug in where who you are and the way that you operate and what you love in the world, no matter how eccentric it is, is of value. One of the easiest things that you can do is to tell yourself, you know what? I'm just gonna have a seasonal project. I'm not going to commit to doing something for four years, or five years, or one thing for all of my retirement. I'm going to do a single project each season. Or I'm gonna have a different side hustle project every year. Every new year I'm gonna try out some new crafty thing that I do and see if I can make some money of it. Just tell yourself that. Just knowing right up front that you get to switch it out can really re-orient everything within you. You know, chances are, if you do start out picking one little thing and doing it for a little while, you'll stumble onto one that other people really love. And then that takes over and it becomes about them more than just being about you. Shift Your Spirits was ONE writing project for me. It was one of half a dozen journals that I was writing at the time. This, all of this, that you know me for, it's just ONE area of interest and passion for me. So think of your interests and your roles in the world as different pieces of material in a mosaic. And within that mosaic, you are the glue. The common denominator really is you, so it’s not true that these things have no connection or that they're all over the place. They intersect in you. Knowing that, if you feel pulled equally between 2 different paths, you are a connection point between those 2 things. So, conceptually, philosophically, they do have a bridge, they do have an intersection. When you think about it, what is that connection point for YOU? Because that common denominator that exists for you very likely exists for other people too. Sometimes you need somebody else to point it out. It’s hard to see. You may need to have this conversation over a bottle of rose with someone, or coffee, and hash it out. Sort of mirror it out for one another. It's hard to see your own worth and value. I have a client who is an emerging intuitive, she does energy work, but she also has this cool natural skin care business. She felt like these were two vastly different interests. She's racking her mind trying to find a link between the two things. Because she’d rather be creating one content marketing platform as opposed to creating two separate businesses with different marketing plans and completely different platforms. She’s looking to write articles and post on social media and speak and teach — all the usual formats that work very effectively in all industries. She feels instinctively that there should be a connection… She’s RIGHT. From outside the forest, I can see all kinds of trees! So I asked her: What are the connections for you between skin care and energy? What are the connections, on a deep level, between how you look and how you feel? Why do you choose to craft products from natural ingredients in the first place? What are the spiritual values motivating that? How do the elements we put in and on our physical bodies affect our energy bodies? She can answer all these questions. She did, right there on the session with me. She had fascinating perspectives off the top of her head that lots of people would love to hear about! And you know what’s even cooler? I don’t know a lot of people talking about that particular intersection of topics. I advised her to do something of a mind mapping exercise. I like to do this with lists. Write down some lists. Both fields of work, both interests, in two parallel columns. And then … Draw lines connecting items in one column to the other, wherever you see a connection. As you find items that connect, you think of other things that are even easier and more obvious to connect and you start adding those to the list just so you can generate more of those connections. it will probably look like a jacked up set of boot laces, but the connections are there between these two things that you think are so different. That’s the point. Now, can you create a question that represents each one of those laces? And keep going with that. I suggested she brainstorm at least a list of 10. Once you’ve got a whole list of questions, you start answering them. You write articles for Medium.com, for other people's websites, to post on your own blog, Instagram stories, Facebook live videos where you talk about it, classes, tele-seminars. Your usual product demonstration for say, the skincare, becomes something more like a workshop. Something deeper and more contemplative. A beauty day at the spa becomes more of a retreat-mindset. Your clients aren’t just learning how to apply a product, they’re thinking about WHY they’re using the ingredients in your products and how those motivations make them feel. This is good stuff! I’m trying to think of some examples that are completely different. I love yoga. I did yoga teacher training classes, not to become a yoga teacher, but just to challenge myself and have a goal around it. I also missed the spiritual aspects of yoga being removed for western gym environments. I like the mystical parts obviously. But I also love kettle bells — that’s my favorite workout format. Kettle bell complexes, which are strings of poses that flow into one another, remind me very much of yoga flows, which I also love to do. There are some kettle bell poses that totally remind me of yoga poses with weights on the end. I do CrossFit. And I coach people on intuition and creativity and depression and often recommend fitness as a component of all that. I like to think of fitness as a spiritual practice. Now, I currently do all those things kind of separately, even though I am aware that I am the glue holding that mosaic together. So I do see how they're connected. But I practice them in my world in different boxes. But is there the possibility that other people might like all those ingredients mixed together too? Are there work out classes or fitness group training scenarios that could incorporate all those elements? Sure, I could see that. Since I started recommending the Reboot, I’ve been asked to come assist people, who are more spiritually inclined, to work out and learn to exercise with those concepts in mind. Which in some ways, might be easier than taking someone who is already comfortable in a fitness routine and changing their philosophy about it. I don't know. I guess you could do either thing. I could choose a project — get licensed to be a personal trainer — that could be my project. That could be the thing I'm gonna do this year. That could be my seasonal thing to focus on. I can get some people together, host a class — I could start creating those kind of workouts, those kind of training environments. What if you want to do volunteer work with kids or something? What if you love hip hop music? What if you wish you could’ve been a dancer back in the day? So I have a friend that loved all those things and I helped her apply for a parks and rec grant in our community to teach a hip hop dance class to kids after school. What if you did something like that? Maybe you love embroidery or watercolours and you don’t pursue it because you don’t think you’re the next Michelangelo, so why bother? You can’t make a living as an artist… So you kind of lost your steam for it. I bet the first person who came up with that art studio where you go drink wine with your girlfriends and paint, or go an interesting daytime date where you make pottery together, or the person who teaches art classes in nursing homes, those artists probably didn’t give up a career selling their work in galleries all over the world to create those types of businesses. They cobbled them together from their own interests and transformed it into something else for other people. Maybe you love tarot cards and you collect different kinds of decks and you think it would be fun to create your own. Maybe you're not even artistically inclined but you could find someone to partner with you and do the illustrations and you could write the card meanings. Maybe you want to start some kind of non profit fund, because your family experienced something really awful and there weren’t a lot of resources for it and you saw the opportunity to make the worst in thing in your life the best thing you’ve ever done. People do this stuff. All the time. The people who do this stuff are the people who do this stuff. And here’s the best piece of advice of all that I can give you — if you ARE turning this into a business, or if your project involves other people — and honestly, if it’s truly a sense of purpose, it involves other people, with the exception of other living things, like animals and plants maybe, but you probably still need human allies. Your conservation work where you get to only talk to trees is still impacting other people some how some way, down the line. Assuming it’s a given that your project is about other people, at this point, you simply follow where they ask you to go. If you have those 10 questions and you answered them for others, they will start generating their own follow up questions. And then you answer those. They will request special custom products. “Hey. Can you make this with this another fragrance that I'm really into?” They'll ask you to tweak it in a way for them. And you just fulfill that. You keep going. There's probably an infinite number of fragrances that you can change up. Remember my definition of marketing, borrowed from my friend Tim Grahl: find a group of people and be relentlessly helpful to them. That works just as well for purpose. Here’s what most people do wrong - they fret about picking the perfect concept. They analyze it a million different ways. They go off into their tower, into their laboratory, and they try to invent The Perfect Big Thing, A+ mind blowing… and then they come down and try to find people who want it. And sometimes people don’t. Or only a few do. You find out, after the fact, if you’d changed it somewhere along the way, you could have made it for more people. Maybe you could have chosen a different scent, or use a different name, or use different language that more people are actually searching for online that would've made it easier for them to find you. But I still think the best way for it is to jump in early. Pick something you love, find a group of people who love it too, and make something for them. Or host something for them. Create an environment and let them come together and do whatever it is that they want to do there. Create something with the goal of not creating an A+, but just putting a solid B out there. This is not an A+ podcast, not in terms of production level. I don't even have any music. Make your version of the thing a bunch of other people have already made. Romance novels, baked goods, and diet plans. These have infinite minor tweaks and variations, and the innovations don’t have to be huge because the people who love those things always want more of them. But do put yourself in a position to ask them what they want. Here’s a moisturizer with natural lavender scent, which I love. What essential oils do you guys love? Here’s my killer chocolate cake recipe, I can make all kinds of cake. What kind do you want? Who’s going vegan? Here’s what I wish I had known when I made that transition. What are your tips? Talk amongst yourselves. Start a little conversation pit. Toss some prompts out there. Host something for people who share your interests. A Facebook group can be started in a matter of seconds. Start conversations about your interests with these people who share your interests. And while you're at it, join in on everybody else’s group too to make those connections. And here’s the other really HUGE thing that most people get wrong: you do not have to be an expert. Just be a seeker. Nobody likes a know it all who’s perfect and doesn’t struggle. We’d much rather listen to a friendly, accessible person we identify with tell us about what she got wrong and how she eventually figured it out. We like her. And if she invites us to come along on the journey — awesome! We're in for that. Be a seeker and invite other seekers to participate. They will tell you what they need, what they want, what they're curious about. You just see if you can fulfill those requests. Be relentlessly helpful. If you have kids, think about this — You slave away creating an elaborate meal, maybe even trying out some new recipes you’ve never made before, and your family hates it. They would have rather had a simple grilled cheese or a ordered pizza. What if you asked them first? Hey, what do you guys want for dinner? The same approach applies to business and it applies to purpose. At some level, it’s all service. Purpose is serving other people: making things for them, telling them stories, solving their problems, supporting them when nobody can solve their problems, holding space. Here’s your assignment: Go make some of those mind maps. Write down lists of your loves and interests in columns. Look for connections. Draw lines between them. Make some crazy laces. Then find a group of people who might also be interested in those connections and host something for them. Be relentlessly helpful. A creative outlet, a side hustle, a new career, a business… a sense of purpose. This is one way you can find yours. And this is how you CHOOSE yours.

I have had to remind myself this week that God is for me. That he will keep me in perfect peace - when I keep my focus right. Isaiah 26:3 “You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You Because he trusts in You.” VISIT MY WEBSITE: KEELACRAFTAMBROSE.COM

Pro. 3:4-5   INTRODUCTION: In our home we purpose to eat at least one meal together everyday. When the conversation draws to a lull, it’s not unusual for one of our kids to start reading stuff on the products on the table.    So it might be the ingredients in cereal. It might be the instructions on pancakes, but the absolute best is when someone starts reading the warnings. Here are a few:   Nabisco Easy Cheese - For best results, remove cap.  On a Bottle of 7UP - Contents under pressure. Cap my blow off causing serious injury. Point away from face and people, especially during opening.  On a Blockbuster DVD rental - Be kind rewind. (There’s a reason they couldn’t stay in business) Christmas Lights - For indoor or outdoor use only.  Little ones baby lotions - keep away from children. On a Batman Halloween Costume - Does not enable user to fly... of course not, I mean it’s batman.    Well there are some verses that also so obvious, so simple that we read over them without really allowing them to impact us.    Proverbs 3:5-6 is such a passage. It’s the most well known passage in Proverbs. Many of you have this verse displayed in your home somewhere.    TEXT: Proverbs 3:5–6 (ESV) 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.   You know how the Bible compares some truth to milk, some to meat... well Proverbs is sort of like the “Hard Candy” of the word. You can’t swallow it whole, you have to let it melt in your mouth.    The Promise - The promise is that God will make your path straight. He will make His will for you crystal clear. You will know who to date, who to marry, what to major in, what classes to take.    When John the Baptist came as the forerunner to Jesus, his commission was to make straight the way of the Lord. That doesn’t mean that the way was easy for Jesus. It does mean that the ground work was laid for Jesus to come on the scene.   John went before Jesus the way a tiller goes before the seed.    Now Proverbs 3:5-6 says God will do for you what John did for Jesus.    As you prepare to go to the next phase of your journey.   YOU NEED GOD TO MAKE YOUR PATHS STRAIGHT   The shortest distance between two points is what? Straight line. God will help you to reach the goals He has for you in the shortest amount of time, with the fewest number of detours.   This verse tells us God is willing to do that - however this is a conditional promise.    There are some promises in God’s Word that are Unconditional - God says, “I’m going to do this regardless of what you think, believe or do”. Pro. 3:5-6 is a conditional promise. God will make your path straight...IF you do 3 things... Now if I were you, I would really want to know those 3 things.    What are they?  1.Trust in the Lord with all your heart   ILLUSTRATION: John G. Patton was a British missionary to the New He-bri-des Islands of the South Pacific. One of the challenges he faced sharing the Gospel in their language was finding a way to communicate the concept of faith, because there was no word for “faith” in their native tongue. So he began to pray and ask God to give him a word that communicated the concept of faith. Then one day he was in his hut working when a native walked in and jumped into a hammock and said in his native tongue, “it feels so good to stretch out and rest my whole body on this hammock”. Patton said, “there’s my word”. Faith, or Trust is to stretch out your whole soul on the word of another.    Just as you lie down on your bed at night, and trust it, you don’t examine it, you don’t check the manufactures... you are never more at home and relaxed than when you are on your bed... in the same way... let your heart relax and stretch out on the Word and Character of God.     Trust mean that you give your “yes” to God based on HIS character before you fully know what the questions are.    Then there’s that word, “ALL” trust the Lord with ALL your heart. The Hebrew word for all has two senses. It means All in the sense of the WHOLE, but also ALL in the sense of the individual parts. I’ve met people who can easy, quickly, flippantly say, “I trust God with my whole life”… but then when I examine them the quickly fade.    Money - My two oldest kids recently got jobs and are getting regular pay checks. Before that first check was deposited we sat down and talked about the concept of tithing. I explained how mom and dad believe that if we give the first 10% to the Lord, the 90% remaining is more blessed. I told them that I’d rather have the 90% blessed than the 100% unblessed. Then I told them you are going to have to make a budget and you decided how much you give… do you trust Him with that All?    Dating - What about your dating relationships? God says, “do not be unequally yoked together with an unbeliever”. Statistically, you will find that your standards for dating will fall in direct proportion to your choice of a marriage partner. If you wouldn’t marry an unbeliever why would you date one? Do you trust the Lord with that ALL? Authority - The Bible says, “Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right”. Did you trust the Lord with that part of ALL? The government made Vaping illegal for minors and the Bible says submit yourself to the governing authorities for the Lord’s sake, Do you trust the Lord with that part of ALL? You with be tempted to drink, abuse drugs… you just have to ask yourself here and now - do you trust God’s word on those issues?    ILLUSTRATION: I will never forget as a new believer in college… the most difficult area to trust God in was my dating life. I’ll never when I made the decision not to date anyone I wouldn’t see as a potential marriage partner, it seemed as though EVERYONE had a date but me. I can show you the place on O’neal bridge in Florence, AL that God spoke to my heart a verse that I had never remembered hearing in my life - God said, “whosoever believes in me will never be ashamed”. Later I found that verse was in the OT and the NT. I’m sure I had read it and the Holy Spirit was bringing it to my mind and applying it to that situation. God was saying, “trust me and you won’t regret it!” May I say that after 18 years of marriage as I look at my wife and consider the women some of those compromisers ended up with… I am not ashamed.    Trust the Lord with all your heart…then he says it negatively… 2. and do not lean on your own understanding The word there for "lean" is the Hebrew "shan-ann", which literally means "to support yourself by leaning on something or someone else."     So we are putting our confidence in God’s word rather than our unenlightened wisdom.    It doesn't mean you are to put your mind in neutral.   It doesn't mean that you don't use sanctified common sense.   It does mean that you aren’t relying simply on your intellect, knowledge, understanding as the sole guiding compass for life.    Many times trusting Him will not make sense based on your own unenlightened understanding.    Can you imagine how Moses felt when God said, “Tell Pharaoh that I said let my people goI And use that stick in your hand to do it!”? Did that make any sense at all? When God told Abraham he was going to be a dad and he was going to use his 90 year old wife to do it. She Laughed out Loud.    Isaiah 55:8–9 (NASB95) 8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.   There are a few times in your life when God will call you to do something that makes no sense from your perspective.    Proverbs 28:26 (NASB95) 26 He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, ...   The defining difference between people who regularly see God at work in their lives and those who do not - is highly effect christians are DEEPLY CERTAIN that the Bible is God’s inerrant, infallible, inspired Word. They know it, they believe it, they regularly trust it. And they LEAN on it.    Are you LEANING on the word today?    Proverbs 14:12 (NASB95) 12 There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.   QUESTION: Are you leaning on HIM or are you leaning on YOU? Because if you are leaning on YOU no wonder you are so anxious, stressed out…    Trust in the Lord with all your heart... Lean not on your own understanding... 3. In all your ways acknowledge him,   The word Acknowledge there is from the Hebrew word that literally means, “to know” both mentally and experientially. So in other words in ALL the ALLs of life - you bring God’s persons into the scenario. You invite God into the situation.    Before you choose your classes, before you select a major… make sure you invited God in.  Before you say, “yes” to a date, make sure you invite God in.  Before you commit to an organization or visit a church… make sure you invite God in.   ILLUSTRATION: I remember having a friend named Shane in middle school that I really liked hanging out with. He and I were two of the founding members of the Moulton Middle School Chapter of the G.I. Joe fan club. We got along great, we had a lot of fun. But in 7th Grade I joined the basketball team. I wasn’t super athletic, but my friend Shane was the definition of Non-Athletic. He was short, very thin, red headed, and nerdy. I remember never really wanting for my basketball friends to meet my G.I. Joe fan club friend.    Now let’s be honest there are times we treat Jesus like our nerdy friend that we don’t want anyone else to know about. So we hang out with him on Sunday’s, we sing about him, we study him, we talk about him, we pray to him.    But when we walk into the locker room on Monday we say, “Jesus, why don’t you wait in the hall”. Lord, some of these guys here at work don’t even believe you exist, so I’m not trying to tell you what to do, but if you don’t mind, just sit quietly.  Lord, I’m about to go hang out with some cool, popular people in the Fraternity or Sorority, you probably wouldn’t like them anyway. Lord, let’s hook Sunday.    NO! FRIEND- you can’t put off the King of Glory like a nerdy friend, you are ashamed of.    Mark 8:38 (NASB95) 38 “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”   NOW - I take this very literally and seriously. I want to acknowledge him in EVERY area of my life.    When I eat a meal I pray, not because I think God will supernaturally reduce my caloric intake.... I’m acknowledging Him. That’s why I don’t pray a long time... I’m not getting caught up on my quite time... I’m acknowledging Him.  So if I sit down at Cracker Barrel.. I and my family will bow our head and pray.  Or if I’m at a fancy Italian place in NYC with mover and shakers around us, we bow our head and pray.  If I have an presence online on Facebook, twitter, Instagram - I make it very clear I’m a  follower of Christ, do I think people are going to get saved because of that, who knows? But I am going to acknowledge Him.     LISTEN: Don’t serve, Don’t give, Don’t worship, Don’t Study - a God you have to leave out in the hall!!!!   The key to developing your walk with God is creating avenues of communication where God can speak into situations.    Then, and only then... He Promises you - HE WILL make your paths straight. It doesn’t say, “He might!” Thank. God for that.   ILLUSTRATION: It’s just as John the Baptist went before Jesus, and make his way clear, credible and plowed the heart of the hearers... God will send His Spirit before you - and your life will be revolutionized.    Don’t be consumed with KNOWING God’s will… Be consumed with KNOWING GOD and HE WILL make your path clear…   CONCLUSION:  The word, "make your path straight" is a word that literally means "to cut a highway" or "to clear a path." Would it improve your life today if Almighty God, just cut a path for you? If he leveled some Mountains? Filled in some valleys?    Pastor James Merritt tells us that, In WWII many fighter pilots were required to land their planes on the deck of aircraft carriers. The aircraft carrier is a tiny landing strip that is not only sailing away from him, but might also be bobbing 6 - 15 feet up and down, as well as rolling side to side.  Landing on the deck was just part of it, cables were strung across the carrier decks, the landing plane had to drop its tail-hook and snag a cable to arrest its forward progress.  As one World War II pilot put it, "You crash-land on the deck and hope you catch a wire."  In fact, they have put heart monitors on pilots and found that their heart rate is faster landing on a carrier than when they are in combat.   The key to landing a plane successfully on an aircraft carrier was the pilot's confidence in the landing officer known as the LSO - The LANDING SIGNAL OFFICER.  The LSO was an experienced pilot who directed pilots coming in for a landing by signaling with his paddles.  These signaling paddles were like cut-off tennis rackets with strips of colored fabric stretched across the face.  The strips allowed the LSO to wave the paddles one way or the other and not worry about catching the strong winds that blew across the deck of the aircraft carrier.   Every pilot knew you had to depend totally on the LSO.  If you are too high or too slow,  he signals you.  It is the landing signal officer who gives you the "cut-signal" to land.  You have to place yourself totally in his hands.   Charlie Brown, a navy pilot in War World II, put it this way, "The LSO gives you a cut sign or a wave off.  The cut signs means you can land.  The wave-off means you give it full-throttle and circle around to try again.  Once he gives you the cut sign, you don't touch that throttle again or you automatically get court-martialed."    God doesn’t promise to eliminate all your problems, or destroy every threat. He didn’t do that for Jesus and he will not for you. However, God does say that if you will Trust Him with all your heart, lean not on your own understand, acknowledge him in every area of your life... then and only then... will he give you the proper signal at the proper time... he will make sure that you land every plane safely. 

There’s something really interesting I know about YOU… and you probably don’t even know it yourself.  But you should, you must, it’s important to you as a self-directed investor.  I’m Bryan Ellis… you’ll hear about it right now in Episode #100. ---------Hello hello hello my friends!  Welcome to another excursion into investment excellence!Folks, this is an exciting day for me… and I have YOU to thank for it.You see, this is Episode #100 of Self Directed Investor Radio.  100 is nothing more than just a nice round number, but it’s a special day for this show, and I’d like to tell you why.May I tell you a bit about my background?  If you’ll indulge me, you’ll very quickly understand why my background is important to expressing how grateful I am for and to YOU!  I’ve been around the real estate business and alternative investment world for about 20 years.  For most of the last 10 years or so, I’ve been focused primarily on publishing my newsletter, the Bryan Ellis Investing Letter.  And wow… has that ever been a success.  I’m so grateful to God and to my subscribers and really to my wife, without whom it simply couldn’t have happened.We have nearly 700,000 subscribers to that newsletter, and through that publication I’ve achieved a level of influence in the real estate world for which I’m so deeply grateful.That newsletter is heavily focused on coverage of news, public policy and current events that are relevant to individual investors.  We also offer a lot of educational opportunities for people who want to learn the in’s and out’s of various real estate investment strategies.And wow am I grateful to everyone who has been a subscriber.  Far more than I can say.But you know… there was a bit of a yearning in my soul for something different… something bigger, and smaller, at the same time.You see, several years ago, I offered an opportunity to my newsletter readers that was different than I’d ever done before.  Instead of just offering educational programs, I actually offered my subscribers the chance to actually invest their money in real deals.  These were what are now called “turnkey” deals, because these real estate deals were completely passive for the investor.Well, something really cool happened… people made money!  And my clients were HAPPY.  I mean, genuinely happy.  Many of them had always wanted to invest in real estate, but had never done so for many reasons… maybe lack of time, lack of knowledge, or simple fear.  But what they saw in the opportunity I provided for them was a “green light”… a clear path to actually producing real financial results rather than just attending a real estate course or reading an investment book.Well, that was a couple of years before the crash of 2007, and about a year before that crash, I saw the writing on the wall, and asked my clients to stop those investments.  Thankfully, they did, and we had a really great run together.But you know what?  I never forgot that experience.  I absolutely loved it.  What I got was the chance to have a really meaningful impact on the lives of those clients… an impact that could be measured in dollars and cents.  Some of you may know, my formal education is in engineering.  Software engineering, specifically.  I went to the Georgia Tech – one of the top 10 engineering universities in the entire world – on academic scholarship.  So, needless to say, I’m a bottom line, black-and-white kind of guy.  Making a difference is a good thing, and I’d been doing that for years by educating people through the Bryan Ellis Investing Letter.  But making a MEASURABLE difference is even better… and my experience helping those clients in such a clear, measurable way lit a fire in me that never went away.Well, while the market was crashing, I wasn’t about to go back into the business of recommending real estate investments.  The timing was all wrong.But as soon as it was clear that the market was turning UPWARDS again, I chose to make a move back into attracting clients who I could assist with making a real, measurable impact on their lives.And while there’s still much more to the story, which I’ll be happy to tell you when I have the pleasure of meeting you face to face – and I certainly hope to do that – well, the truth is that this podcast – and YOU – are a central part of that plan.You see, I believe that there’s a group of people in the world who are underserved… poorly served, even.  That group of people is Self-Directed Investors.  These are special people.  What they’re after is clear RESULTS in their investment portfolios, but for them, it’s about more than just following the crowd.These people think differently.  They think that there is some opportunity on Wall Street, and they probably own or have owned stocks or mutual funds at various times.  But they’re open and flexible.  They’re intrigued by having more options.  These people are very cautious about making investments, but they’re willing to try things off of the beaten path.These are the people who, instead of putting all their money on stocks, might allocate a part of their portfolio to something like a well secured private loan, or they might even buy into a commercial building or maybe even oil & gas opportunities or even intellectual property.The point is… this person – you – is both very open-minded AND very cautious.And the fact is that there’s simply nobody serving your needs in the world.There are plenty of brokers for conventional stock market investments.  There are plenty of real estate brokers who will sell you real estate.  There are even plenty of turnkey companies that purport to selling you fully packaged real estate investments.But NONE of those investment providers require of themselves to offer the 3 things that wise self-directed investors demand:  That every investment be simple AND safe AND strong.  I call it the S3 standard – simple, safe and strong.  It’s easy to find investments that have one of those elements.  Even 2 of them.  But all 3?  Not so simple.That’s why I’m here… and my friend, that’s why I’m SO GRATEFUL that you’re here.  You see, YOU have made this show a success.  A HUGE success.  You may remember a show I made a few weeks ago where I made reference to the fact that even though this show is only about 7 minutes long, it still takes me about 2 ½ hours a day to do the research, the writing, the recording, etc to put it together?Well you know what?  The reality is this:  The 7 minutes you dedicate to listening to this show is so much more important to me than the time I spend putting it together.  I’m so very grateful to you.  It’s hard to express the degree to which this show has become a rapid success without sounding as if I’m bragging, but I’m going to do it anyway, because the bragging is on YOU:Because of YOU:  This show was one of the top 3 podcasts on iTunes during the first 8 weeks, during which time Apple ranks all new shows against each other.  I was amazed.Because of YOU:  We have HUNDREDS of 5-star ratings at iTunes… a massive number for a show that’s existed for only a few months.  It’s astounding.Because of YOU:  We’re routinely among the top shows in the investing category             .  This show is regularly listed in the “What’s Hot” section of iTunes among investing shows, putting us alongside such investment titans as CNBC’s Jim Cramer and Motley Fool and Financial Guru Dave Ramsey.  Heck, we frequently CRUSH podcasts from major players like Goldman Sachs, Time Magazine, Ric Edelman and Morningstar.  It’s amazing… YOU are amazing!This show keeps growing and growing… because you keep on listening and listening.Thank you, my friends.  Thank you so much.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart.This podcast has been a dream of mine for some time.  You folks are making it real.  Thank you… I can never say it enough.So, today is kind of a special day for this show… not really a birthday, but certainly a milestone.  And because I owe it all to you, I’d like to do something very special for you.There’s a gift I’d like to send to you at no expense.  I think you’re going to like it.  But I need to know where to send it, so please just get on my contact list by texting SDIRadio to 33444 and I’ll send it to you in the next few days.  You’ll be really glad you did… I want to reward you very well for being such a great listener.And may I ask a favor of you?  Please… tell at least one friend or colleague about this show today.  Maybe even go ahead and decide right now who you’ll tell, and then do so right away… I’ll be SO GRATEFUL to you, my friends.One final time:  THANK YOU, from the bottom of my heart… thank you. And… invest wisely today… and Live well forever! 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