How 'Subject To, Not Central In' Changed EVERYTHING | 016

In this episode of When You Look, Mick shares the powerful moment when the Holy Spirit revealed a life-changing truth:"Because you are created, you are subject to, not central in, your own life."Prompted by a sermon by Matt Chandler, Mick explains how God reshaped his understanding of identity, obedience, and surrender. This is a story about moving from God as my co-pilot to placing Him fully at the controls.💬 Mick talks about: • How a single sentence from a sermon led to a revelation • Why “God is my co-pilot” can be deceptive • The shift from asking God for things to praying “Your will be done” • How Ephesians 2:10 reframed his prayers📖 Verse: Ephesians 2:10 – “We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”Matt Chandler Sermon: Identity – Formed – Week 2 – Sermon – Matt Chandler – 6/11/23When You Look Links Be a Guest https://www.whenyoulook.com/beaguest

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@WhenYouLookShow Website https://www.whenyoulook.com/Instagram https://www.instagram.com/whenyoulookshow/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/whenyoulookshow/ Chapters1:51 - Subject To, Not Central In2:50 - Different Than I Thought5:32 - Mick's Biggest Fear7:22 - Everything Changed10:44 - Behavior Change12:35 - Closing, Ephesians 2:10

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
What's up, everybody? It's Mick from When You Look.
This is the story of how Subject2 changed everything.
Ready. Let's go.
Welcome to When You Look, where ordinary people share their
extraordinary experiences and you get to decide, was it
coincidence or God? So back in 2023, I'm listening

(00:20):
to a sermon from Matt Chandler out of the Village Church Flower
Mound. And it's part of this sermon
series called Formed, and he's speaking specifically about
identity. And he's in the process of
reading through Genesis 124 through 31.
And he reads through that whole block of text.

(00:41):
And then he says. One singular point.
If we are created beings, then we are not the measure of nor
central to anything. If we're created beings, then we
are not the measure of nor central to anything.

(01:05):
And he goes on then to round that whole point out with this.
And therefore this, this is the major point of the day.
Our identity is not something wegot to go discover, but
something we receive from the One who created us.
So he makes this one singular point, as he puts it, by saying

(01:26):
if we're created beings, then weare not the measure of nor
central to anything. And then goes on to say our
identity is not something that we get to or go discover, but
something that we receive from the one who created us.
And in that first moment where he is saying if we are created

(01:46):
beings, then we are not the measure of nor central to
anything. I can distinctly remember
sitting in a chair listening to that on my laptop, watching it
on my laptop. And the Holy Spirit gave me a
more distilled version that wentlike this.

(02:08):
Because you are created, you aresubject to not central in your
own life. And that changed everything
because this was a moment of super deep clarity.
This is what I call sort of an impression or a a pressing into

(02:32):
me of information from the Holy Spirit.
Because you are a created being,you are subject to, not central
in your own life. Game changer.
Being subject to was completely different than the way in which

(02:56):
I was operating and I didn't realize that.
See, up to this point I've been a Christian for many many years
and I'll define that meaning. I have been born again.
I have accepted King Jesus as myLord and my Savior and that He
is the only way to heaven and everlasting life, confessing

(03:18):
that and proclaiming that I havea relationship then with God the
Father and I have the Holy Spirit.
And I believe that I'm doing things at this point in my life
that are aligned with God's willand aligned with God's
expectation. And those are things that you
might think of as well, like praying regularly and reading

(03:38):
Scripture every single day. Praying with my wife every night
before we go to bed, praying with my children every night
before we put them to bed, goingon mission trips, going to
church, doing all of these things that seem like they are
normal Christian expected behavior.

(04:00):
And I was doing them earnestly, truly.
But what it ultimately became very apparent to me through this
revelation from the Holy Spirit,this impressing or this pressing
down of information from the Holy Spirit, was that all of
that had been happening with me in my mind and in my heart as

(04:27):
central in my own life. I didn't even know it, but
essentially despite having what I thought was a good
relationship with God, a meaningful relationship with
God, and in the end it was kind of like an embellishment.
He made my life better and I tried to do good stuff or be

(04:49):
aligned with him, but in my heart of hearts, I kind of
thought didn't even think, but operated in a way of where it
was like this is my life and it's great that God's in it.
What the Holy Spirit was saying to me was you're subject to
buddy, you are not central in your life.

(05:13):
God does not embellish your life.
He does not bless your life because your life is your life
and central to things. No, man, you are subject to him,
period. A good example of how I was

(05:34):
operating in what I thought was a good spot, but really beneath
the surface it was God. Adding to my life is my biggest
fear. And my biggest fear for a long,
long, long time was that God wasgoing to ask me to move to
Africa and live in a mud Hut. And I, I never even got beyond

(05:57):
that, truly. It wasn't even that he was
necessarily going to call me to be a missionary, but just that
that was the fear. And my words here are really
important because I just said that God would ask me to move to
Africa and live in a mud Hut. To think about that I am
operating here even in this fearof God and I essentially being

(06:22):
peers that he would ask me, He would ask me to move to Africa
and live in a mud Hut. Not tell me because he's God,
but ask me because that's kind of the relationship I felt like
we had. So the bumper sticker God is my
copilot was without me knowing it, essentially the way I was

(06:48):
living my life, even though I didn't believe that I was living
it that way. I felt as if I was subject to
him and doing his will and trying to do his will and trying
to do what he wanted me to do and be a good Christian and all
of those types of things. But it really ultimately was God

(07:12):
me peers, which is nothing but deception.
God is my copilot is nothing butdeception.
Now God's grace enters the picture where this pressing in
of clarity changed everything. My prayers changed.

(07:34):
They went from God will you do this and this and this and this
and this and by the way, it'd bereally cool if we could have
this and this this and that to your will be done.
My prayers got massively shorterand a lot scarier.

(07:56):
Transparently praying your will be done and meaning it was
really scary. The weeks go on and remember
we're praying daily here. So I'm saying, OK, your will be
done Lord, and I'm recognizing by saying with my mouth and

(08:16):
words out loud, we are subject to so your will be done.
And I would tell him, this is scary.
This is scary for me to pray this.
And so it was around the nine month mark where I felt like the
edge, the scary edge kind of gotrounded off and it just became

(08:39):
more normal to say your will be done and to actually mean it.
And that sort of leads into thisidea of obedience, which I've
got an upcoming episode to discuss about that as well.
But it was a process sanctification for sure of going

(09:04):
from God is my copilot and thinking that was good to the
Holy Spirit saying Nope, becauseyou are created, you are subject
to not central in your own life.So since this initial revelation
in 2023, God has continued to help me better understand it.

(09:30):
And he's done this truly just entirely through his grace.
But he's reminded me time and again that I should have died.
So as a quick aside, November 7th of 2000, I legitimately
should have died due to massive trauma to my head from an
avalanche. And there's an upcoming episode
about that that'll release in November.

(09:52):
But God reminds me, you didn't die because I saved you.
I saved you. Just another example of how you
are subject to meaning. You're beneath me.
I saved you, Mick. I saved you.
You didn't save yourself, I saved you.

(10:13):
And he showed me many other things like that as well, where
things I thought I was involved in to a very, very or full
degree. No, he's like, that was me.
So it's been really neat to see how he has shown these different
things in my life and given me the ability to see them from a

(10:36):
completely different perspective.
Now knowing that I am subject tohim, not central in my own life.
And then behaviorally, that matters.
Because if he wanted me now to dig a ditch to glorify him, I
would dig a ditch to glorify him.

(10:57):
And if he said fill it in to glorify me, I would fill it in
to glorify him. Because when the King of the
universe, the God of the universe, the creator of
everything, including me, says to do something or explains a
law or writes out an expectation, I have no choice

(11:23):
but out of love in response to his love to do it.
So I can tell you straight facedGod is not my copilot.
I am fully in the back of the plane where I belong, subject to
where he's taking it. And I can also tell you straight

(11:44):
faced that in certain days that is legit hard because I want to
control things and he goes, no, I'm in control.
And then I have to relent. Like I didn't pick when you
look, God directed me to do that.
This could be something massive over time, Maybe, maybe not, but

(12:08):
regardless, he wanted me to do it, so I did it period.
Like it's that straightforward. It's not easy, but it is that
straightforward. He created me and everything
else, but He created me and therefore I am subject to Him.

(12:34):
Boom. So to close this out, I want to
go to a verse that God has really brought me to and helped
me see His love in, and it relates exactly to what we're
talking about. It's Ephesians 210.
We are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works

(12:58):
which God prepared in advance for us to do.
And the beauty in him taking me here is that I have been
reminded by him that one, he's created me and the two, I'm his
handiwork. So all of the things that I
think about myself as being not good enough to do this or to do

(13:19):
that, he says I made you the wayI wanted you to be because I got
you. And then he says there's
specific things that I made you to do to bring me glory.
And I can tell you that when youlook in this entire podcast and

(13:42):
show is absolutely one of those things without question.
And as I mentioned before, it may or may not ever be some big
thing, but I know that He created me and then kept me
alive for me to sit here and have these types of
conversations with others and with you.

(14:03):
So our prayers as a family use Ephesians 210 over and over and
over as we essentially ask Him, OK, what are the things that you
want us to do to bring you glory?
Because we recognize that you made us and you made us exactly
the way you wanted us to be. So show us Lord, show us God,

(14:28):
show us King, show us Creator. What is it that you want us to
do to bring you glory? If you're wondering those same
things, ask Him. I'm confident that He will show
you when you look. I'm confident that He will
answer when you ask. Thanks for listening.

(14:53):
If you've liked this content, subscribe to the channel because
it helps with the reach and the reach is what helps glorify God.
Until next time, God bless.