Welcome to the Builder of All Things Podcast—where we go beyond the pages of the book and explore into the Author’s Cut! 🔥 Join Richie Breaux and Ray Bisnar as they break down each chapter in micro-episodes, giving you the behind-the-scenes insights, deeper wisdom, and real-life applications—just like a Director’s Cut for a book.
Episode 5 | Light or the Smoke? (Chapter 8)
In this part of Chapter 8: Facing the Mirror, we explore the unsettling reality of thinking we’re walking in light when, in truth, we’re surrounded by smoke—a fog that blinds us from seeing clearly. Using scripture, real-life imagery, and historical references, we unpack what it means to have “light” that’s actually darkness—and how dangerous that can be.
You’ll discover:
* Why this was the hardest and deepest chapter to write
* The scripture in Matthew that warns about light that is actually darkness—and how deep that darkness can be
* The military tactic of the smoke screen and how it mirrors spiritual vulnerability
* How fog and smoke distort our vision even when the light is on
* The connection between spiritual “smoke” and hidden fires in our lives—and how to trace it back to its source
If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re truly on the right path or just lost in a false sense of clarity, this episode will challenge and inspire you to clear the smoke and walk in true light.
📖 From Chapter 8: Facing the Mirror in the book.🙏 May our eyes be healthy and our vision clear.
#LightOfTheSmoke #FacingTheMirror #Episode5 #Chapter8 #Faith #Leadership #SpiritualClarity #PersonalGrowth
Follow "Builder of All Things" on YOUTUBE@richiebreaux
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:17):
We're in kind of like the thick of it, right?
Yeah.
Kind of like the end of the maincourse-ish.
Yes.
Yep, starting off with thestorms.
Um sm uh storms, snakes, and nowwe're here in the smoke.
In the smoke.
Tell me about the smoke, bro.
SPEAKER_01 (00:36):
Yeah, you know, this chapter eight was the hardest to
write.
And I think I mean it was, Idon't want to say hard meaning
like I felt like it could havebeen its own book.
You know, like I just there wasjust so much stuff that was God
was pouring into my heart.
I was experiencing, I waslearning, I was just, I guess,
(00:59):
revel revelations that werecoming just of what I was
discovering about the smoke wasjust like mind-blowing.
And so in the book, in thechapter, it is really practical,
kind of identify what it is,what category it is with
battling adversity, veryimportant, but it's the mirror
of your challenges.
(01:19):
It's the one where you got tolook at yourself versus outside
trying to solve things.
You're kind of looking in, andwhen you do that, man, it can
get deep, you know, just lookingat things beyond the surface of
things and really being honestwith yourself.
So just the revelation in theprocess of you know, seeking God
and trying to understand whatGod was revealing, and it was
(01:41):
just like I it was like endless,man.
It was like so deep of like itwas beyond just business
ownership challenge solving, itwas to the level of recognizing
the depth of our salvation.
And is it really even there?
I mean, it was just it's a deepsubject.
(02:03):
So I'm excited to to get behindthe scenes of the stuff you
won't even find in the book.
But the book is very importantbecause it is from a business
owner speaking to you too, andhow important it is to recognize
when this is kind of derailingyou, right?
And and then how to get back oncourse.
There is a scripture that I'llstart with, and then we'll
(02:25):
reference this throughout thisauthor's cut.
Is it's in Matthew.
Basically, it talks about ifyour eyes are healthy or if
they're unhealthy, you know, andso if the light in you is
darkness, how deep is thatdarkness?
And that really spoke to me.
It basically says, if what youbelieve is right is actually
(02:46):
wrong, how deep is that wrong?
Because you don't even know it'swrong.
SPEAKER_00 (02:48):
Oh, come on, you see what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_01 (02:50):
And so that really spoke to me because if you're
walking down a path where youthink you're going the right
way, but it's a false sense oflight, how deep is that
darkness?
It's like that's scary becauseit means you don't know.
It's one thing to know and makea decision.
I know this is not the rightpath, but I'm going.
But to not know and think you'regoing on the right path, yeah,
it's you know what I'm saying?
(03:10):
That's dangerous.
So I wanted the Lord to reallyspeak into that business, life,
husband, personally, like, whatis this?
What's what let's unpack that,God?
Like, what is that?
And so, you know, what visuallywhat I think of, and I I this is
what I wrote in the book, justto give some, but it driving
down the road at night, right?
You got your headlights, you cansee, but what happens when
(03:31):
there's a fog?
You know what I mean?
And I've been in thosesituations uh that you're trying
to conquer the the darkness withlight, so boom, you can see.
You turn on the light, you'regood, right?
But what if there's fog on whenyou're driving at night?
SPEAKER_00 (03:43):
So hazy.
SPEAKER_01 (03:44):
Yeah, the light doesn't do doesn't do anything.
And so, you know, I it was justa visual that may help me
understand like you don't reallyknow where you're going if you
have fog in front of yourwindshield, right?
You gotta kind of tap intoanother GPS or trying to figure
out like where am I actuallygoing.
So, you know, there's a there'sa historically there's a term
(04:04):
called the smoke screen.
Yeah, yeah.
And I I'll just kind of shareinto that.
And so in Germany, it's a battleof Normandy, you know, against
the British, where the smokescreen really took, you know,
surface of like a militarytactic.
And they would actually, youknow, you see the movies like
the the army military dudescoming into a room that throw a
(04:24):
little grenade that shoots smokeand then they come in, right?
Yeah.
But see what happened was thethese tanks they wanted to hide
themselves coming in for amilitary approach to attack the
British.
And so they put out these smokebombs and you couldn't see the
tanks.
But where the from the vantagepoint of where the British were
standing, they were like, Oh,enemies coming.
Yeah, yeah, like, oh, I knowexactly where they're at, you
(04:47):
know.
Like, what's that smoke?
And so it backfired on them, youknow, and and the enemy or I
don't know who was the enemy orwho was, you know, the offense
or defense, but British militarywas able to succeed that battle
because the smoke screen gaveoff where the German tanks were.
And so they defeated them.
And so that made me think oflike us personally, man, when
(05:07):
we're when we are going down apath that are are that is
blocked by the fog or the smoke,let's say, or the smoke screen.
We we feel like we're being, youknow, we're going down the right
path, but actually we've openedourselves and our vulnerability
to the enemy, you know, and wedon't even realize it.
And that's what it's like, oh,like you're walking in the smoke
(05:28):
down the wrong path.
You think it's the right path,but you're open game.
Like the enemy's thinking, man,you're open game.
I can just attack you like crazyand you don't even know like
where you're at.
And so what I was recognizing isthat, okay, what is this smoke?
Like, how does it happen in reallife?
Like, what can cause us to thinkwe're in this light, yeah,
right?
And walking and thinking we'recorrect path, but we're actually
(05:50):
derailed in the wrong path, andwe're just open game for the
enemy to attack us, and we don'teven know it, you know?
And so, like, what is that?
Now I'm like super interested,and that's what really opened up
the can of worms, man.
I'm like, okay, I don't want tobe this guy.
Yeah, like I don't want to bethis guy because there's like
there's a lot of pastors rightnow, Ray.
Like they're they're they'releading churches, they're
(06:13):
leading with messages, they'reeverything looks good on the
surface, sure, right?
Yeah, you know, and and and Igotta be honest with myself,
okay.
If I'm if I'm if I'm pushing,I'm doing what I'm doing with
this book, am I doing all thisstuff, trying to press some push
a message of the Lord?
It could look like light, but itcould be how if that light in
you is darkness, how deep isthat darkness?
(06:33):
It could be a false sense of youknow, projection.
And so I was like, what is that?
SPEAKER_00 (06:38):
Yeah, you know what?
I just got uh small kind chillsbecause it's I mean to to to
speak about or or to pushsomething that you think is true
and it you know couldpotentially be false.
That's that's scary, super scarybecause you know I don't want to
be in that position.
I don't think anyone wants to bein that position.
SPEAKER_01 (06:56):
No, man, and it's um so I I prayed really hard and
spent a lot of time in thischapter to unpack to really know
okay, what is this?
Like what what's happening topeople?
What's happened to me?
What is this thing?
And I and I don't want to be init.
(07:16):
Yeah, I don't I want a truesense, I want my my eyes to be
healthy, like the scriptureMatthew says, not unhealthy.
Unhealthy eyes means what youhave a hard time seeing.
SPEAKER_00 (07:25):
Yeah, yeah, it does me.
SPEAKER_01 (07:27):
Right?
And so unhealthy eyes, and sothat's where the smoke comes in.
There's another scripture inRevelation that why I even call
it smoke now was that you know,God sent there's a furnace that
He sent and set fire and it letloose the smoke out, and the
smoke was so powerful that itgot in front of the sun and you
couldn't see, yeah, you know,and so that imagery just kind of
(07:50):
made me feel like okay, there'sa a fire that started in the
furnace, smoke rose and got infront of the sun and blocked all
the light, yeah, and nobodycould see.
And so that that made me thinkof that process of like, okay,
I've been through two housefires.
I understand that you know,there has to be something that
starts a fire.
SPEAKER_00 (08:10):
For sure.
SPEAKER_01 (08:10):
And if there's a fire that starts, what always
comes from the fire?
Smoke.
And smoke, if you have a housefire up in the sky, you see tons
of smoke.
It's an indicator that you'refire.
It's a flag saying there's afire.
And so if smoke, now I'mthinking, okay, if something's
smoking me, smoke screening me,where's that fire?
What is the fire?
(08:31):
Where did I start it?
So now I'm like thinkingpractically, right?
I'm thinking, yeah, okay, let'sunpack like where are these
little fires coming from thatcould start these things?
And so now it's like reverseengineering.
I'm looking, you know, from thesmoke, trying to look back and
deep and dig and try to find,okay, what is going on here in
this smoke?
So that's where this all startedbirthing from, right?
(08:53):
It was just like, okay, I don'twant to be this guy.
There's an issue, right?
I don't want to be this guy, andGod's giving me this vision, uh,
don't want to say vision, but ofuh imagery of smoke kind of
representing the blocking oflight and then like a fire.
So I just started digging thatway to kind of figure out like
what this thing is.
We're in kind of like the thick of it, right?
Yeah.
Kind of like the end of the maincourse-ish.
Yes.
Yep, starting off with thestorms.
Um sm uh storms, snakes, and nowwe're here in the smoke.
In the smoke.
Tell me about the smoke, bro.
SPEAKER_01 (00:36):
Yeah, you know, this chapter eight was the hardest to
write.
And I think I mean it was, Idon't want to say hard meaning
like I felt like it could havebeen its own book.
You know, like I just there wasjust so much stuff that was God
was pouring into my heart.
I was experiencing, I waslearning, I was just, I guess,
(00:59):
revel revelations that werecoming just of what I was
discovering about the smoke wasjust like mind-blowing.
And so in the book, in thechapter, it is really practical,
kind of identify what it is,what category it is with
battling adversity, veryimportant, but it's the mirror
of your challenges.
(01:19):
It's the one where you got tolook at yourself versus outside
trying to solve things.
You're kind of looking in, andwhen you do that, man, it can
get deep, you know, just lookingat things beyond the surface of
things and really being honestwith yourself.
So just the revelation in theprocess of you know, seeking God
and trying to understand whatGod was revealing, and it was
(01:41):
just like I it was like endless,man.
It was like so deep of like itwas beyond just business
ownership challenge solving, itwas to the level of recognizing
the depth of our salvation.
And is it really even there?
I mean, it was just it's a deepsubject.
(02:03):
So I'm excited to to get behindthe scenes of the stuff you
won't even find in the book.
But the book is very importantbecause it is from a business
owner speaking to you too, andhow important it is to recognize
when this is kind of derailingyou, right?
And and then how to get back oncourse.
There is a scripture that I'llstart with, and then we'll
(02:25):
reference this throughout thisauthor's cut.
Is it's in Matthew.
Basically, it talks about ifyour eyes are healthy or if
they're unhealthy, you know, andso if the light in you is
darkness, how deep is thatdarkness?
And that really spoke to me.
It basically says, if what youbelieve is right is actually
(02:46):
wrong, how deep is that wrong?
Because you don't even know it'swrong.
SPEAKER_00 (02:48):
Oh, come on, you see what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_01 (02:50):
And so that really spoke to me because if you're
walking down a path where youthink you're going the right
way, but it's a false sense oflight, how deep is that
darkness?
It's like that's scary becauseit means you don't know.
It's one thing to know and makea decision.
I know this is not the rightpath, but I'm going.
But to not know and think you'regoing on the right path, yeah,
it's you know what I'm saying?
(03:10):
That's dangerous.
So I wanted the Lord to reallyspeak into that business, life,
husband, personally, like, whatis this?
What's what let's unpack that,God?
Like, what is that?
And so, you know, what visuallywhat I think of, and I I this is
what I wrote in the book, justto give some, but it driving
down the road at night, right?
You got your headlights, you cansee, but what happens when
(03:31):
there's a fog?
You know what I mean?
And I've been in thosesituations uh that you're trying
to conquer the the darkness withlight, so boom, you can see.
You turn on the light, you'regood, right?
But what if there's fog on whenyou're driving at night?
SPEAKER_00 (03:43):
So hazy.
SPEAKER_01 (03:44):
Yeah, the light doesn't do doesn't do anything.
And so, you know, I it was justa visual that may help me
understand like you don't reallyknow where you're going if you
have fog in front of yourwindshield, right?
You gotta kind of tap intoanother GPS or trying to figure
out like where am I actuallygoing.
So, you know, there's a there'sa historically there's a term
(04:04):
called the smoke screen.
Yeah, yeah.
And I I'll just kind of shareinto that.
And so in Germany, it's a battleof Normandy, you know, against
the British, where the smokescreen really took, you know,
surface of like a militarytactic.
And they would actually, youknow, you see the movies like
the the army military dudescoming into a room that throw a
(04:24):
little grenade that shoots smokeand then they come in, right?
Yeah.
But see what happened was thethese tanks they wanted to hide
themselves coming in for amilitary approach to attack the
British.
And so they put out these smokebombs and you couldn't see the
tanks.
But where the from the vantagepoint of where the British were
standing, they were like, Oh,enemies coming.
Yeah, yeah, like, oh, I knowexactly where they're at, you
(04:47):
know.
Like, what's that smoke?
And so it backfired on them, youknow, and and the enemy or I
don't know who was the enemy orwho was, you know, the offense
or defense, but British militarywas able to succeed that battle
because the smoke screen gaveoff where the German tanks were.
And so they defeated them.
And so that made me think oflike us personally, man, when
(05:07):
we're when we are going down apath that are are that is
blocked by the fog or the smoke,let's say, or the smoke screen.
We we feel like we're being, youknow, we're going down the right
path, but actually we've openedourselves and our vulnerability
to the enemy, you know, and wedon't even realize it.
And that's what it's like, oh,like you're walking in the smoke
(05:28):
down the wrong path.
You think it's the right path,but you're open game.
Like the enemy's thinking, man,you're open game.
I can just attack you like crazyand you don't even know like
where you're at.
And so what I was recognizing isthat, okay, what is this smoke?
Like, how does it happen in reallife?
Like, what can cause us to thinkwe're in this light, yeah,
right?
And walking and thinking we'recorrect path, but we're actually
(05:50):
derailed in the wrong path, andwe're just open game for the
enemy to attack us, and we don'teven know it, you know?
And so, like, what is that?
Now I'm like super interested,and that's what really opened up
the can of worms, man.
I'm like, okay, I don't want tobe this guy.
Yeah, like I don't want to bethis guy because there's like
there's a lot of pastors rightnow, Ray.
Like they're they're they'releading churches, they're
(06:13):
leading with messages, they'reeverything looks good on the
surface, sure, right?
Yeah, you know, and and and Igotta be honest with myself,
okay.
If I'm if I'm if I'm pushing,I'm doing what I'm doing with
this book, am I doing all thisstuff, trying to press some push
a message of the Lord?
It could look like light, but itcould be how if that light in
you is darkness, how deep isthat darkness?
(06:33):
It could be a false sense of youknow, projection.
And so I was like, what is that?
SPEAKER_00 (06:38):
Yeah, you know what?
I just got uh small kind chillsbecause it's I mean to to to
speak about or or to pushsomething that you think is true
and it you know couldpotentially be false.
That's that's scary, super scarybecause you know I don't want to
be in that position.
I don't think anyone wants to bein that position.
SPEAKER_01 (06:56):
No, man, and it's um so I I prayed really hard and
spent a lot of time in thischapter to unpack to really know
okay, what is this?
Like what what's happening topeople?
What's happened to me?
What is this thing?
And I and I don't want to be init.
(07:16):
Yeah, I don't I want a truesense, I want my my eyes to be
healthy, like the scriptureMatthew says, not unhealthy.
Unhealthy eyes means what youhave a hard time seeing.
SPEAKER_00 (07:25):
Yeah, yeah, it does me.
SPEAKER_01 (07:27):
Right?
And so unhealthy eyes, and sothat's where the smoke comes in.
There's another scripture inRevelation that why I even call
it smoke now was that you know,God sent there's a furnace that
He sent and set fire and it letloose the smoke out, and the
smoke was so powerful that itgot in front of the sun and you
couldn't see, yeah, you know,and so that imagery just kind of
(07:50):
made me feel like okay, there'sa a fire that started in the
furnace, smoke rose and got infront of the sun and blocked all
the light, yeah, and nobodycould see.
And so that that made me thinkof that process of like, okay,
I've been through two housefires.
I understand that you know,there has to be something that
starts a fire.
SPEAKER_00 (08:10):
For sure.
SPEAKER_01 (08:10):
And if there's a fire that starts, what always
comes from the fire?
Smoke.
And smoke, if you have a housefire up in the sky, you see tons
of smoke.
It's an indicator that you'refire.
It's a flag saying there's afire.
And so if smoke, now I'mthinking, okay, if something's
smoking me, smoke screening me,where's that fire?
What is the fire?
(08:31):
Where did I start it?
So now I'm like thinkingpractically, right?
I'm thinking, yeah, okay, let'sunpack like where are these
little fires coming from thatcould start these things?
And so now it's like reverseengineering.
I'm looking, you know, from thesmoke, trying to look back and
deep and dig and try to find,okay, what is going on here in
this smoke?
So that's where this all startedbirthing from, right?
(08:53):
It was just like, okay, I don'twant to be this guy.
There's an issue, right?
I don't want to be this guy, andGod's giving me this vision, uh,
don't want to say vision, but ofuh imagery of smoke kind of
representing the blocking oflight and then like a fire.
So I just started digging thatway to kind of figure out like
what this thing is.
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