September 23, 2024 • 25 mins
Have you ever found yourself overwhelmed by daily anxieties and wondered if there's a deeper battle at play? In this episode of the Certain Success Podcast, we begin with a heartfelt prayer and share a poignant real-life story where a simple text message from Matt unraveled profound insights about our daily struggles and the nature of spiritual warfare. We delve into how spiritual blindness can cause misalignment and misunderstandings, encouraging a shift in perspective to recognize that our real battle lies in the spiritual realm. Through personal experiences, we emphasize the importance of seeking God's truth and love, fostering a posture of understanding and compassion amidst worldly challenges.
Our conversation takes a deeper look at the metaphorical language of the Armor of God, breaking it down into practical applications for everyday life—from mundane tasks like driving to more complex interactions with loved ones and colleagues. We discuss the necessity of maintaining our spiritual armor daily, especially as we draw nearer to fulfilling our God-given purpose. The constant nature of spiritual warfare is underscored, alongside the reassurance that Christ's victory over evil grants us ultimate protection and salvation. Tune in for an empowering discussion that reminds us of the strength and peace found in God's word, even amidst life's relentless battles.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Father, god, thank you for today.
It's Monday and, with all theangst that we have, you just
silence it with your word.
And today was such a greatstart.
I get a text message from Mattand he means one thing and I
took it another because I was ina good place and he sent me a
(00:25):
text that says what's the battle?
And that's actually the title.
We decided yesterday that wewere going to start today.
Father, what's the battle?
And I had forgotten thatalready and when he sent that, I
was thinking I actually feelgood, I don't feel like I have a
battle today.
And it's your word, it's yourtruth, it's everything that you
(00:52):
provide us every single day ofour lives.
That is always there, it'salways within grasp, and we
forget how much you love us andthat in every single battle, you
are locked arms with us.
And all the stress and all thepain, all the uncertainty, all
(01:17):
the lies that the evil onethrows at us, you're saying to
us stand firm, do not fear.
Father.
We're excited about today'smessage, figuring out what's the
battle.
How do we walk through todayand through the rest of this
(01:41):
week in your armor?
And we pray this, father, inyour name.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Amen, praise the Lord .
Hey guys, welcome to theCertain Success Podcast.
Joe and I we usually praybefore we start, but we started
praying and God was like, whyare you not recording the prayer
?
And so we stopped and startedover again and, uh, you know,
what joe just said is such aperfect tee up for the
(02:11):
conversation that I wanted tohave.
And here's, here's why hethinks I said what is the battle
?
And he thinks I was saying itto him.
But what I wrote and what Imeant was where is the battle?
And what's so perfect aboutthat misunderstanding?
(02:32):
Is that that represents thebattle.
That's the problem that we have.
That I wanted to talk about andfocus on today is that, look,
we're all running around in thisspiritual blindness and I say
something and Joe hearssomething else, and next thing,
(02:54):
you know we're misaligned.
And then the evil ones like letme dig into that and separate
them.
And as soon as that, as soon asthe battle is between me and
Joe, or between me and you, orbetween me and another driver on
the road or any other person,as soon as the battle between us
, we lose it's over, he wins,and that's the.
(03:20):
That's what I was getting atand that's what we're kind of
digging into, not only in thispodcast, but sort of this season
of life is like hey, you knowwhat, the battle's never between
us, the battle's always in thespiritual realm.
And I just have kind of found anew level In this past week.
(03:43):
I feel like God's shown me anew level of understanding of
that, because you know what?
I think we learn something, weread a scripture and we're like
I know that scripture, yeah, Ihave that in my head, cool,
understanding a million levelsof clarity.
And so we think, oh, I got that, check that box, there's no
(04:07):
more to learn there.
And then God can, if you lethim, if you're open to it, can
go.
Oh, you know what.
You actually never understoodthat, or you didn't understand
it anywhere near.
The level that I'm about totake you to through some
exercise of difficulty or painor confusion or whatever, or
whatever it is and that's whathappened to me in the last week
is I'm like, oh, you know what?
(04:27):
I'll never forget for the restof my life, that the battle's
not between me and any otherhuman.
The battle's always between meand the world, the flesh and the
devil, everything in oppositionno, he loves, no, no, no, but
it's.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
It's true it's.
He loves no, no, no, but it'strue.
He loves to beat the hell outof us on a daily basis, and he
uses other people to do it.
He uses our eyes to do it.
I mean, it's an example, oneyou said where I saw what, and
it's the who, what, where andwhy of how evil can do that.
(05:02):
There's so many elements of it.
There's so many elements of it.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
There's so many elements, well, and so I said
where's the battle?
You saw what is the battle, andit's just so interesting that
just that one change of wordcauses complete misunderstanding
.
And it doesn't matter in thiscontext, it's completely benign
right but imagine how heatedthat could be or how powerful
(05:31):
that could be if there was otherfactors, any other factors.
All of a sudden it's like waita minute, what you know, did he
really say that?
And then the devil's going likematt said this and like no, I
didn't, I didn't say that at all.
And so it's just such aninteresting moment of
perspective.
I love how god just set that upfor us.
(05:52):
Um, for all of you who arecatching this to think about in
your own lives of what, where'sthat misunderstanding between
you and another human that youshould probably reconsider?
You should probably go back andask these questions to the Lord
(06:12):
about, like, I think, lord, Ithink this is true about this
person, but what's really?
Tell me what's really true,lord, what do you want me to
know about this interaction withthis person, and how do I love
this person, even when I don'twant to?
Because, just, I think eventhat posture change changes all
(06:40):
of it.
And I'm completely talking tomyself.
Let's be really clear, causeman, I'm really good at not
loving people, um and but, man,what a lesson.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Yeah, it makes you pause for a moment and think of
exactly what you were saying tome in that text and what we
chatted about yesterday.
And where's the battle for allof us?
Is it in the six inches betweenour ears?
All those voices?
I mean it's no joke.
(07:18):
When I go to tee off, when I getready to hit my golf ball, my
friends laugh at me.
I do not take a practice swing,I do not set up, I get to that
ball and before they can get thelast word out of their mouth,
I'm driving that ball.
And they're like Joe, we'remid-sentence and I'm like I
don't care, you can talk all youwant, no-transcript.
(08:00):
If I do that to myself, I'mshanking that ball, I'll be Mr
Shankoponymous and that's lifefor me and I think it's life for
a lot of people is the battlesbetween the years and we just
come up with all of thesequestions that make us face
plant.
So that's my golf game I get up, I hit it and make people laugh
(08:22):
because I'm so quick to do itWell, and that you know that
that is really cool.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
But I want to go back to what you said.
You read my text and thoughtwhat is the battle?
And you said.
You said I don't.
I think this was before we wererecording.
You said, you know, I didn'treally have a battle today.
Like I felt great today, whichis awesome.
I love those mornings when youwake up and you're like you know
, I'm at peace, like I have thissense of peace and um, which is
(08:49):
something that I've becomereally tuned to.
Uh, like the I could, you knowit could be a scale of one to a
hundred, but on a scale of oneto 10, like I know, when I first
opened my eyes, like wait, ismy peace level 10 or two or
seven, and why?
And like maybe it was a dream,or like you know who knows what
(09:12):
it was.
But there's those mornings whenyou wake up, when you're a 10
in peace, before the thoughtscome in, which is what you were
saying about the golf swing.
You're like I can make thisbefore, so, but you can't.
That's not true in all of life,right?
Like you're going to wake upeven if you're at a 10,.
Okay, in the hours that aregoing to come up, like thoughts
(09:33):
are going to come in, things aregoing to happen.
That dude is going 45 in theleft lane for me, like that's my
worst, that's my nemesis, Ishould never drive again because
it's just ruins me.
You know that that dude canruin me in five minutes and um
and so like things are going tohappen.
So, and that's the moment whenyou have to be like, oh, wait a
(09:57):
minute, he's not my enemy, andthat's the moment when you have
to be, like oh wait a minute,he's not my enemy.
I want him to be, but he's not,yeah, so what do I do?
How do I do that Tell?
Speaker 1 (10:06):
me how to fix that.
Yeah, that's when you focus onGod.
I mean, that's one of thethings that you said to me the
other day.
We're sitting at a trafficlight, I don't know if you
recall this.
You said we were supposed tocatch that red because we don't
know what's on the other side ofthat red.
Yeah, god was pausing us.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
I do know that I do say that to myself, but I didn't
realize I said it to you.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Yeah, you said it out loud.
Yeah, you're like God's pausingme for a reason.
I don't know what's on theother side of that red.
You know a car in the left laneand we can clearly see that
there's nothing in front of them, and the car in the right lane.
That says going at the samerate of speed as they are.
We can see there's nothing infront of them.
That's where.
That's where that and it's notjust you, matt, it's the entire
(10:53):
world of drivers.
Most of us have that same angst.
But, like, move out of my way,I gotta get going.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
And uh, you know what's so funny about that, joe,
is that, as you were describingthe situation, I can't actually
remember.
I don't remember the situationand we were in north carolina
together and that must be whatyou're talking about.
But, yeah, that same thinghappened again.
I was in the car with someoneelse on Saturday and a car in
front of me stopped to let a carout from the left and like the
(11:25):
situation doesn't matter, but itwas, it was dumb, it was so
stupid.
I was like, oh my God, what areyou doing?
I now want to kill you, Iabsolutely want to hurt you, and
we all missed the light andwhatever.
And but I did that same.
I said that same, effectivelythe same thing, to my friend
that was in the car at the time.
I was like, hey, well, I guesswe were just meant to be here
for a minute, you know, and um,but gosh, that's hard.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Yeah, you know I like to listen to Rick Warren and
Rick said he has the same issue.
I mean, I was reading anotherChristian novel the other day a
guy getting into the same exactsubject Matt about drivers that
are in the left lane, so it mustbe a common theme and what Rick
(12:18):
was saying was hey, thatscripture passage that you
wanted to memorize this week,just have that off to the side.
So when you do catch that redlight, you start to review that
scripture passage.
That's what God's doing.
He wants you to learn thatpassage.
So pick a passage a week sothat every time that you're
sitting at that red light youcan look at that passage and
guess what?
That light's going to turngreen before you know it.
So I don't think that yourstruggle with traffic is unique,
(12:42):
but I do know that's how Godworks and he needs to slow us
down.
And sometimes the devil's inthe details, huh.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Sometimes the devil's in the details.
Huh, man.
Well, we were talking about myback.
Pain was kind of going away andyours is picked up.
I feel like that's another waythat God for me it sounds crazy,
but for me that's a reality of.
I feel like God does thingsBecause I can hurt my back
(13:18):
without doing anything at alland I'm like what's, why is this
happening?
What's going on?
And then I'll like somethinghuge will happen in my life.
Some huge things have happenedin my life in the last couple of
months, in the middle of a realstruggle.
Boy, there's a fundamentaltruth Like you know, the
learning's always in thestruggle, right?
But I swear, sometimes I'm likeI think it's intentional, I
(13:43):
think god's like hey, guess what?
Speaker 1 (13:45):
we're gonna stop there's that pause button again
yeah, there's that pause button,so what so?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
so, where is the battle?
Is going to become a mantra forfor me, for us, probably, and
and if you're listening to this,you can write that on a sticky
note in your car and wherever.
It's like the battle is notagainst the flesh and the blood,
but it's in the spiritual realm, the armor of god we keep, we
(14:19):
keep really focused on.
You're going to hear lots aboutthe armor of God from us, and I
guess I just didn't realizethat at what level that's true,
or you know what I think Ithought for most of the last 20
years.
I would say I thought, yeah,there's a battle in the
spiritual realm and it's goingon while the battle on earth is
(14:42):
going on.
So like, while I'm fightingagainst these humans, there's
also a spiritual battle going on.
I think that's the reality thatI've been living in, and now
I'm like you know what?
There's kind of only thespiritual battle, like there's
stuff happening on the earth,but whatever's happening on the
earth is just a manifestation ofwhat's happening in the
(15:03):
spiritual world, and that that'sa new understanding for me.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
I look forward to us digging into it.
I mean, it's Ephesians six andwe're going to.
We're going to dive into thoseverses as we go through the days
and weeks and months.
But imagine if you were handeda Superman cape outfit early in
(15:29):
life and you were told you wouldhave superpowers.
Every time you put it on Inyour entire life, you just kept
looking at it.
It was in the closet and youjust left it there and you're
like no I don't believe that.
Well, the word of god is morepowerful than any fictional
superman cape it's.
And where I'm going with thatis we have the armor of god, and
(15:54):
a lot of times we just rememberit as great scripture.
We don't put ourselvesvirtually putting it on each day
.
And that armor is so wellneeded to get through these days
of where's the battle?
The battle is within all of us.
(16:14):
It's in our minds, it's in ourhearts, it's in our physical
bodies when we're getting beatendown.
It's.
It's in the car as we drive towork.
It's around the people that wework with.
It's within our families, it'swithin friendships.
So I say we have to have thatarmor on all the time, take it
(16:40):
off at night so we lighten ourload and wake up and put it back
on again I'm glad you broughtit back to armor of god, which I
think we're going to talk aboutevery day now, forever, but uh,
but I think you know what.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
What I want to do, continue to do in my own life,
and I want everyone who listensto these conversations to
understand is to be able to makethe bridge from metaphor to
reality, because we hear allthese things about the armor of
God's a really good example Likeif you've been a Christian for
(17:16):
five minutes, you've heard thatlanguage, but and you hear, you
know swords and helmets, andlike, okay, cool, that all
sounds great.
But to, to understand at aheart level what Paul meant by
all of that and how it actuallytranslates into my life today,
(17:38):
on a Monday, on the earth, intraffic.
That's the, the difficulty, youknow, and the and this thing
that I'm talking about, that Ithink has sort of endless layers
, where you're like, okay, Iunderstand that at level 27, but
I don't understand it at level28.
And you know, hopefully Godwill make that clear to me which
(18:05):
is probably as much a functionof our willingness and openness
as anything.
And uh, that's what cracks meup is the discovery of the
constant.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Next level, it's in that where we learn.
And as far as far as going backto that armor, that armor we
(18:45):
just have to realize is thatwhen paul was teaching us how to
arm ourselves, he knew what wewere going to go through when I
get.
But I, I am finding morecomfort every day because I'm
repeating that prayer every daynow.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Yeah, well, and so there's.
You wake up.
Today you were a 10, but you gothrough your process.
We were talking earlier aboutfocusing on process versus
outcomes.
But you get up, whether it's a1 or a 10, when you open your
eyes.
You go through the process thatyou've learned, that you've
(19:23):
disciplined yourself to that,you've the routines that you've
built and the put on the armorof God in the morning and you
know, clarify your understandingof Scripture and connect with
the Lord and hear what he has tosay to you, that the morning
and all the things that you do,and I think.
(19:45):
But then you step out into theworld and it's so quickly
derailed into like, oh wait, mybattle's against that person and
I think just recognizing thatthat's even happening is such a
massive turning point and go ohwait, my battle's not against
(20:05):
that person.
I've got to find my way back toclarity on where the battle is
and take the next step and likethat to me is just this big for
me, a big shift in understanding.
And you know I I always love,you know, conversations like
(20:26):
this where, because I'm like Idon't, I don't care, I'm like
I'm not proud, I'm like, youknow, it doesn't bother me to go
like, hey, I just discoveredthis, um, but I think it's like
a fundamental thing that that,if you make this jump in your
life and like constantlyself-arrest and go like my
battle is not against theseother humans, and then it's like
(20:49):
, okay, well, what do I do withthat?
And I've also learned.
It's like go back to the Lord,like speak to the Lord about it.
Like what am I notunderstanding about this Lord?
Speak to the Lord about it.
Like what am I not understandingabout this Lord?
Like I think it's this, but Iwant you to tell me what it
really is, because it's probablynot Going back to like I said
(21:11):
where and you said and you heardwhat.
So like it's not what I said,it is not what you think and
what you received is not what Iwas sending.
So it's like that disconnect isthere all the time and the only
answer is take it to the Lord.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
So guys ask yourself constantly today, where is the
battle?
And the answer is it's alwaysin the spirit room.
Whatever's happening in thephysical world is just a
manifestation of whatever'shappening in the spirit world.
And, um, you know this conceptof spiritual battle that I was
(21:56):
thinking about this too, joe.
I want to talk about this, theuh.
Most people, if they acknowledgea spiritual battle at all,
think that it comes and goeslike at this moment I'm in a
spiritual battle and then it'sgoing to go away.
And I mean, you know, and Iknow that it's just like
constant, never ending everyminute of every day from the
(22:18):
minute you open your eyes, neverending every minute of every
day from the minute you openyour eyes, like constant battle.
And so I think that's a reallyanother really important thing
that I think that people need tobreak in.
Their, in their theology andtheir understanding is like it's
not like, oh, I'm in aspiritual battle right now and
it'll be over in a minute.
It's like you're going to,we're doing this until we, until
(22:39):
we go to be with jesus.
And, as importantly, the and youand I talked about this a lot
in the last week is like thecloser you are to victory.
The closer you are to being onyour purpose, on your mission,
(23:01):
being effective in the world andwhatever it is that God's put
on your heart to do, the closeryou get to all of that, the more
the battle is, the harder it'sgoing to get, the more it's
going to look and you're goingto go.
How did that thing happen inthe physical world?
That looks so insane?
Why is that happening?
(23:26):
And if you feel like you'regetting closely aligned to your
purpose and your direction andyour outcome, those things are
happening because that's thespiritual battle.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Exactly those things aren't happening, because that's
the spiritual battle, exactly.
Yeah, as you were talking justnow, I wrote down the rest of
what, uh, all the who, what,where and why, you know.
And you asked, you know thismorning, where's the battle?
And I, and I saw it as what'sthe battle and I think everyone
could sit down and write who'smy battle with, where is my
battle, what is my battle andwhy am I battling it.
(24:11):
And if they wrote it all down,if they just paused and just do,
just do what I just did, I meanI just wrote it down and, as I
look at it, it, as I wrote itdown, who are we battling and
why, and what is it that we'rebattling?
And then, of course, it allcomes back to the evil.
(24:39):
One is going to be in all ofthose places if we allow the
evil one to take a foothold, butthe one that's bigger and
better and has already won thewar, won the battle, defeated
the evil one, our Christ, ourSavior, is there before him
saying go ahead, you can beatthem up.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
But they're still mine.
Nice Dude.
All right guys, thanks forbeing with us on the Certain
Success Podcast.
Go fight the spiritual battle,we'll see you back here real
soon, see ya.
Father, god, thank you for today.
It's Monday and, with all theangst that we have, you just
silence it with your word.
And today was such a greatstart.
I get a text message from Mattand he means one thing and I
took it another because I was ina good place and he sent me a
(00:25):
text that says what's the battle?
And that's actually the title.
We decided yesterday that wewere going to start today.
Father, what's the battle?
And I had forgotten thatalready and when he sent that, I
was thinking I actually feelgood, I don't feel like I have a
battle today.
And it's your word, it's yourtruth, it's everything that you
(00:52):
provide us every single day ofour lives.
That is always there, it'salways within grasp, and we
forget how much you love us andthat in every single battle, you
are locked arms with us.
And all the stress and all thepain, all the uncertainty, all
(01:17):
the lies that the evil onethrows at us, you're saying to
us stand firm, do not fear.
Father.
We're excited about today'smessage, figuring out what's the
battle.
How do we walk through todayand through the rest of this
(01:41):
week in your armor?
And we pray this, father, inyour name.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Amen, praise the Lord .
Hey guys, welcome to theCertain Success Podcast.
Joe and I we usually praybefore we start, but we started
praying and God was like, whyare you not recording the prayer
?
And so we stopped and startedover again and, uh, you know,
what joe just said is such aperfect tee up for the
(02:11):
conversation that I wanted tohave.
And here's, here's why hethinks I said what is the battle
?
And he thinks I was saying itto him.
But what I wrote and what Imeant was where is the battle?
And what's so perfect aboutthat misunderstanding?
(02:32):
Is that that represents thebattle.
That's the problem that we have.
That I wanted to talk about andfocus on today is that, look,
we're all running around in thisspiritual blindness and I say
something and Joe hearssomething else, and next thing,
(02:54):
you know we're misaligned.
And then the evil ones like letme dig into that and separate
them.
And as soon as that, as soon asthe battle is between me and
Joe, or between me and you, orbetween me and another driver on
the road or any other person,as soon as the battle between us
, we lose it's over, he wins,and that's the.
(03:20):
That's what I was getting atand that's what we're kind of
digging into, not only in thispodcast, but sort of this season
of life is like hey, you knowwhat, the battle's never between
us, the battle's always in thespiritual realm.
And I just have kind of found anew level In this past week.
(03:43):
I feel like God's shown me anew level of understanding of
that, because you know what?
I think we learn something, weread a scripture and we're like
I know that scripture, yeah, Ihave that in my head, cool,
understanding a million levelsof clarity.
And so we think, oh, I got that, check that box, there's no
(04:07):
more to learn there.
And then God can, if you lethim, if you're open to it, can
go.
Oh, you know what.
You actually never understoodthat, or you didn't understand
it anywhere near.
The level that I'm about totake you to through some
exercise of difficulty or painor confusion or whatever, or
whatever it is and that's whathappened to me in the last week
is I'm like, oh, you know what?
(04:27):
I'll never forget for the restof my life, that the battle's
not between me and any otherhuman.
The battle's always between meand the world, the flesh and the
devil, everything in oppositionno, he loves, no, no, no, but
it's.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
It's true it's.
He loves no, no, no, but it'strue.
He loves to beat the hell outof us on a daily basis, and he
uses other people to do it.
He uses our eyes to do it.
I mean, it's an example, oneyou said where I saw what, and
it's the who, what, where andwhy of how evil can do that.
(05:02):
There's so many elements of it.
There's so many elements of it.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
There's so many elements, well, and so I said
where's the battle?
You saw what is the battle, andit's just so interesting that
just that one change of wordcauses complete misunderstanding
.
And it doesn't matter in thiscontext, it's completely benign
right but imagine how heatedthat could be or how powerful
(05:31):
that could be if there was otherfactors, any other factors.
All of a sudden it's like waita minute, what you know, did he
really say that?
And then the devil's going likematt said this and like no, I
didn't, I didn't say that at all.
And so it's just such aninteresting moment of
perspective.
I love how god just set that upfor us.
(05:52):
Um, for all of you who arecatching this to think about in
your own lives of what, where'sthat misunderstanding between
you and another human that youshould probably reconsider?
You should probably go back andask these questions to the Lord
(06:12):
about, like, I think, lord, Ithink this is true about this
person, but what's really?
Tell me what's really true,lord, what do you want me to
know about this interaction withthis person, and how do I love
this person, even when I don'twant to?
Because, just, I think eventhat posture change changes all
(06:40):
of it.
And I'm completely talking tomyself.
Let's be really clear, causeman, I'm really good at not
loving people, um and but, man,what a lesson.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Yeah, it makes you pause for a moment and think of
exactly what you were saying tome in that text and what we
chatted about yesterday.
And where's the battle for allof us?
Is it in the six inches betweenour ears?
All those voices?
I mean it's no joke.
(07:18):
When I go to tee off, when I getready to hit my golf ball, my
friends laugh at me.
I do not take a practice swing,I do not set up, I get to that
ball and before they can get thelast word out of their mouth,
I'm driving that ball.
And they're like Joe, we'remid-sentence and I'm like I
don't care, you can talk all youwant, no-transcript.
(08:00):
If I do that to myself, I'mshanking that ball, I'll be Mr
Shankoponymous and that's lifefor me and I think it's life for
a lot of people is the battlesbetween the years and we just
come up with all of thesequestions that make us face
plant.
So that's my golf game I get up, I hit it and make people laugh
(08:22):
because I'm so quick to do itWell, and that you know that
that is really cool.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
But I want to go back to what you said.
You read my text and thoughtwhat is the battle?
And you said.
You said I don't.
I think this was before we wererecording.
You said, you know, I didn'treally have a battle today.
Like I felt great today, whichis awesome.
I love those mornings when youwake up and you're like you know
, I'm at peace, like I have thissense of peace and um, which is
(08:49):
something that I've becomereally tuned to.
Uh, like the I could, you knowit could be a scale of one to a
hundred, but on a scale of oneto 10, like I know, when I first
opened my eyes, like wait, ismy peace level 10 or two or
seven, and why?
And like maybe it was a dream,or like you know who knows what
(09:12):
it was.
But there's those mornings whenyou wake up, when you're a 10
in peace, before the thoughtscome in, which is what you were
saying about the golf swing.
You're like I can make thisbefore, so, but you can't.
That's not true in all of life,right?
Like you're going to wake upeven if you're at a 10,.
Okay, in the hours that aregoing to come up, like thoughts
(09:33):
are going to come in, things aregoing to happen.
That dude is going 45 in theleft lane for me, like that's my
worst, that's my nemesis, Ishould never drive again because
it's just ruins me.
You know that that dude canruin me in five minutes and um
and so like things are going tohappen.
So, and that's the moment whenyou have to be like, oh, wait a
(09:57):
minute, he's not my enemy, andthat's the moment when you have
to be, like oh wait a minute,he's not my enemy.
I want him to be, but he's not,yeah, so what do I do?
How do I do that Tell?
Speaker 1 (10:06):
me how to fix that.
Yeah, that's when you focus onGod.
I mean, that's one of thethings that you said to me the
other day.
We're sitting at a trafficlight, I don't know if you
recall this.
You said we were supposed tocatch that red because we don't
know what's on the other side ofthat red.
Yeah, god was pausing us.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
I do know that I do say that to myself, but I didn't
realize I said it to you.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Yeah, you said it out loud.
Yeah, you're like God's pausingme for a reason.
I don't know what's on theother side of that red.
You know a car in the left laneand we can clearly see that
there's nothing in front of them, and the car in the right lane.
That says going at the samerate of speed as they are.
We can see there's nothing infront of them.
That's where.
That's where that and it's notjust you, matt, it's the entire
(10:53):
world of drivers.
Most of us have that same angst.
But, like, move out of my way,I gotta get going.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
And uh, you know what's so funny about that, joe,
is that, as you were describingthe situation, I can't actually
remember.
I don't remember the situationand we were in north carolina
together and that must be whatyou're talking about.
But, yeah, that same thinghappened again.
I was in the car with someoneelse on Saturday and a car in
front of me stopped to let a carout from the left and like the
(11:25):
situation doesn't matter, but itwas, it was dumb, it was so
stupid.
I was like, oh my God, what areyou doing?
I now want to kill you, Iabsolutely want to hurt you, and
we all missed the light andwhatever.
And but I did that same.
I said that same, effectivelythe same thing, to my friend
that was in the car at the time.
I was like, hey, well, I guesswe were just meant to be here
for a minute, you know, and um,but gosh, that's hard.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Yeah, you know I like to listen to Rick Warren and
Rick said he has the same issue.
I mean, I was reading anotherChristian novel the other day a
guy getting into the same exactsubject Matt about drivers that
are in the left lane, so it mustbe a common theme and what Rick
(12:18):
was saying was hey, thatscripture passage that you
wanted to memorize this week,just have that off to the side.
So when you do catch that redlight, you start to review that
scripture passage.
That's what God's doing.
He wants you to learn thatpassage.
So pick a passage a week sothat every time that you're
sitting at that red light youcan look at that passage and
guess what?
That light's going to turngreen before you know it.
So I don't think that yourstruggle with traffic is unique,
(12:42):
but I do know that's how Godworks and he needs to slow us
down.
And sometimes the devil's inthe details, huh.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Sometimes the devil's in the details.
Huh, man.
Well, we were talking about myback.
Pain was kind of going away andyours is picked up.
I feel like that's another waythat God for me it sounds crazy,
but for me that's a reality of.
I feel like God does thingsBecause I can hurt my back
(13:18):
without doing anything at alland I'm like what's, why is this
happening?
What's going on?
And then I'll like somethinghuge will happen in my life.
Some huge things have happenedin my life in the last couple of
months, in the middle of a realstruggle.
Boy, there's a fundamentaltruth Like you know, the
learning's always in thestruggle, right?
But I swear, sometimes I'm likeI think it's intentional, I
(13:43):
think god's like hey, guess what?
Speaker 1 (13:45):
we're gonna stop there's that pause button again
yeah, there's that pause button,so what so?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
so, where is the battle?
Is going to become a mantra forfor me, for us, probably, and
and if you're listening to this,you can write that on a sticky
note in your car and wherever.
It's like the battle is notagainst the flesh and the blood,
but it's in the spiritual realm, the armor of god we keep, we
(14:19):
keep really focused on.
You're going to hear lots aboutthe armor of God from us, and I
guess I just didn't realizethat at what level that's true,
or you know what I think Ithought for most of the last 20
years.
I would say I thought, yeah,there's a battle in the
spiritual realm and it's goingon while the battle on earth is
(14:42):
going on.
So like, while I'm fightingagainst these humans, there's
also a spiritual battle going on.
I think that's the reality thatI've been living in, and now
I'm like you know what?
There's kind of only thespiritual battle, like there's
stuff happening on the earth,but whatever's happening on the
earth is just a manifestation ofwhat's happening in the
(15:03):
spiritual world, and that that'sa new understanding for me.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
I look forward to us digging into it.
I mean, it's Ephesians six andwe're going to.
We're going to dive into thoseverses as we go through the days
and weeks and months.
But imagine if you were handeda Superman cape outfit early in
(15:29):
life and you were told you wouldhave superpowers.
Every time you put it on Inyour entire life, you just kept
looking at it.
It was in the closet and youjust left it there and you're
like no I don't believe that.
Well, the word of god is morepowerful than any fictional
superman cape it's.
And where I'm going with thatis we have the armor of god, and
(15:54):
a lot of times we just rememberit as great scripture.
We don't put ourselvesvirtually putting it on each day
.
And that armor is so wellneeded to get through these days
of where's the battle?
The battle is within all of us.
(16:14):
It's in our minds, it's in ourhearts, it's in our physical
bodies when we're getting beatendown.
It's.
It's in the car as we drive towork.
It's around the people that wework with.
It's within our families, it'swithin friendships.
So I say we have to have thatarmor on all the time, take it
(16:40):
off at night so we lighten ourload and wake up and put it back
on again I'm glad you broughtit back to armor of god, which I
think we're going to talk aboutevery day now, forever, but uh,
but I think you know what.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
What I want to do, continue to do in my own life,
and I want everyone who listensto these conversations to
understand is to be able to makethe bridge from metaphor to
reality, because we hear allthese things about the armor of
God's a really good example Likeif you've been a Christian for
(17:16):
five minutes, you've heard thatlanguage, but and you hear, you
know swords and helmets, andlike, okay, cool, that all
sounds great.
But to, to understand at aheart level what Paul meant by
all of that and how it actuallytranslates into my life today,
(17:38):
on a Monday, on the earth, intraffic.
That's the, the difficulty, youknow, and the and this thing
that I'm talking about, that Ithink has sort of endless layers
, where you're like, okay, Iunderstand that at level 27, but
I don't understand it at level28.
And you know, hopefully Godwill make that clear to me which
(18:05):
is probably as much a functionof our willingness and openness
as anything.
And uh, that's what cracks meup is the discovery of the
constant.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Next level, it's in that where we learn.
And as far as far as going backto that armor, that armor we
(18:45):
just have to realize is thatwhen paul was teaching us how to
arm ourselves, he knew what wewere going to go through when I
get.
But I, I am finding morecomfort every day because I'm
repeating that prayer every daynow.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Yeah, well, and so there's.
You wake up.
Today you were a 10, but you gothrough your process.
We were talking earlier aboutfocusing on process versus
outcomes.
But you get up, whether it's a1 or a 10, when you open your
eyes.
You go through the process thatyou've learned, that you've
(19:23):
disciplined yourself to that,you've the routines that you've
built and the put on the armorof God in the morning and you
know, clarify your understandingof Scripture and connect with
the Lord and hear what he has tosay to you, that the morning
and all the things that you do,and I think.
(19:45):
But then you step out into theworld and it's so quickly
derailed into like, oh wait, mybattle's against that person and
I think just recognizing thatthat's even happening is such a
massive turning point and go ohwait, my battle's not against
(20:05):
that person.
I've got to find my way back toclarity on where the battle is
and take the next step and likethat to me is just this big for
me, a big shift in understanding.
And you know I I always love,you know, conversations like
(20:26):
this where, because I'm like Idon't, I don't care, I'm like
I'm not proud, I'm like, youknow, it doesn't bother me to go
like, hey, I just discoveredthis, um, but I think it's like
a fundamental thing that that,if you make this jump in your
life and like constantlyself-arrest and go like my
battle is not against theseother humans, and then it's like
(20:49):
, okay, well, what do I do withthat?
And I've also learned.
It's like go back to the Lord,like speak to the Lord about it.
Like what am I notunderstanding about this Lord?
Speak to the Lord about it.
Like what am I not understandingabout this Lord?
Like I think it's this, but Iwant you to tell me what it
really is, because it's probablynot Going back to like I said
(21:11):
where and you said and you heardwhat.
So like it's not what I said,it is not what you think and
what you received is not what Iwas sending.
So it's like that disconnect isthere all the time and the only
answer is take it to the Lord.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
So guys ask yourself constantly today, where is the
battle?
And the answer is it's alwaysin the spirit room.
Whatever's happening in thephysical world is just a
manifestation of whatever'shappening in the spirit world.
And, um, you know this conceptof spiritual battle that I was
(21:56):
thinking about this too, joe.
I want to talk about this, theuh.
Most people, if they acknowledgea spiritual battle at all,
think that it comes and goeslike at this moment I'm in a
spiritual battle and then it'sgoing to go away.
And I mean, you know, and Iknow that it's just like
constant, never ending everyminute of every day from the
(22:18):
minute you open your eyes, neverending every minute of every
day from the minute you openyour eyes, like constant battle.
And so I think that's a reallyanother really important thing
that I think that people need tobreak in.
Their, in their theology andtheir understanding is like it's
not like, oh, I'm in aspiritual battle right now and
it'll be over in a minute.
It's like you're going to,we're doing this until we, until
(22:39):
we go to be with jesus.
And, as importantly, the and youand I talked about this a lot
in the last week is like thecloser you are to victory.
The closer you are to being onyour purpose, on your mission,
(23:01):
being effective in the world andwhatever it is that God's put
on your heart to do, the closeryou get to all of that, the more
the battle is, the harder it'sgoing to get, the more it's
going to look and you're goingto go.
How did that thing happen inthe physical world?
That looks so insane?
Why is that happening?
(23:26):
And if you feel like you'regetting closely aligned to your
purpose and your direction andyour outcome, those things are
happening because that's thespiritual battle.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Exactly those things aren't happening, because that's
the spiritual battle, exactly.
Yeah, as you were talking justnow, I wrote down the rest of
what, uh, all the who, what,where and why, you know.
And you asked, you know thismorning, where's the battle?
And I, and I saw it as what'sthe battle and I think everyone
could sit down and write who'smy battle with, where is my
battle, what is my battle andwhy am I battling it.
(24:11):
And if they wrote it all down,if they just paused and just do,
just do what I just did, I meanI just wrote it down and, as I
look at it, it, as I wrote itdown, who are we battling and
why, and what is it that we'rebattling?
And then, of course, it allcomes back to the evil.
(24:39):
One is going to be in all ofthose places if we allow the
evil one to take a foothold, butthe one that's bigger and
better and has already won thewar, won the battle, defeated
the evil one, our Christ, ourSavior, is there before him
saying go ahead, you can beatthem up.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
But they're still mine.
Nice Dude.
All right guys, thanks forbeing with us on the Certain
Success Podcast.
Go fight the spiritual battle,we'll see you back here real
soon, see ya.
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