November 3, 2023 • 28 mins
Drawing from my own personal experiences, this episode unveils my journey navigating through the crippling fear of failure that had taken root in my life. I reveal how I allowed perfectionism - a common manifestation of this fear - to dictate my actions and decisions. Through my struggles, I discovered that this fear can significantly entrench itself in our identities, causing us to deviate from the path that God has intended for us. But luckily, there is a way out! I share my process and how nurturing our minds, adhering to faith, and anchoring our existence in God's promises can steer us towards liberation.
Unmasking the fear of failure, we discuss its various guises such as procrastination, perfectionism, and paralysis and how these can act as deterrents from God's plans for us. Rooted in Timothy 1:7, we are reminded of the innate power, love, and sound mind given to us by God, which can act as an antidote to the spirit of fear. As we explore the damaging effects of fear on our lives and how it instills confusion and instability, we realize the importance of placing our identities firmly in the Lord. This acts as a solid foundation, aiding us in breaking free from this cycle of anxiety and fear.
Towards the end, we unveil a powerful strategy to combat the fear of failure - the five Rs: renew, rehearse, reinforce, resist, and rejoice. By implementing this strategy, we challenge the enemy's lies, co-laboring with the Holy Spirit to overcome fear and inadequacy. Join us as we pray for a breakthrough and encourage everyone to challenge their fears, question the lies they've been told, and embrace the truths that the Lord reveals to us. As we conclude, we hope that you feel equipped to conquer your fears and stride confidently towards the path God has laid for you.
For more resources on experiencing the abundant life Jesus intended, visit http://www.godsplanforliving.com
tags:
fear of failure, how to overcome fear of failure, fear,procrastination, perfectionism, renewing your mind, renew your mind, identity in christ, overcome fear of failure, fear of failure motivation, motivational, self-improvement, personal development, perfectionism and anxiety, perfectionism and procrastination, how to stop being a perfectionist, personal growth, breaking mental strongholds, christian motivation
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Matt (00:00):
You know, the fear of failure in your life can be one
of the most paralyzing thingsyou could ever face.
I'm going to jump right intothat and give you a proven
strategy for conquering thatfear of failure here today on
God's plan for living.
Why, hey, my friends, so gladthat you are with me here today
(00:22):
on God's plan for living.
Listen, I don't know about you,but if you've ever dealt with
the fear of failure and all thebaggots that that can bring in
your life, it is absolutelydebilitating, or it can be.
I can remember for years andyears and years in my life
having this fear of not beinggood enough For me, that fear of
(00:42):
failure kind of, you know,manifested in my life as
perfectionism.
And so I was always making surethat the way I looked and the
way I dressed, and the way Italked to people and was
perceived, and the what peoplethought about me, and the things
that I would say and the thingsthat I would do, even the
things that I would be willingto try and not try, all of that
manifested in this sort ofperfectionistic tendency to make
(01:05):
sure everything was perfect.
Why?
So that I wouldn't fail.
Because I had this belief in mymind that if I failed somehow,
that would be the end ofeverything.
I think a lot of times when wehave these mirages that come up
in our mind of fear, you know alot of times we don't even know
what it's about, we don't eventake it to the natural end, we
(01:27):
just think.
I can't even think about it.
It's just so horrible.
It's destroying me.
There's no way that I can gotoward that edge.
I've got to make it right, it'sgot to be perfect, or I've got
to, you know, push it off, orI've just not.
I've just got to stay righthere in my safe space, and fear
of failure can be something thatis absolutely debilitating.
I remember in my own life when Ibegan to see really progress
(01:51):
being made in my ability to walkin faith and walk free of the
fear of failure.
It really happened as I startedto develop my identity in
Christ and establish thataccording to God's word, as
opposed to basing everythingthat I was doing on my feelings.
Because, listen, there are alot of people Christians are not
.
You may love Jesus with allyour heart, but you've not
(02:14):
learned how to renew your mindand so you continue to walk in
this fear-based living over andover and over again, and it
keeps you in a place that Godnever ever intended for you to
be, because it keeps you focusedon your inadequacies as opposed
to God's promises and God'sintention for your life.
(02:36):
Listen, frustration grows inyour heart anytime you allow
your fears and worries and allthat kind of stuff to be bigger
than the promises of God in yourlife, and so that's what we're
going to kind of dive into todaySome of the ways that fear of
failure manifests itself, andalso a proven strategy that I
know is going to help you beginto get free of this fear of
(02:58):
failure so that you can walk ineverything that God has for you.
Now you may know if you're newto me listen to me or whatever
or if you've known me for a longtime.
I've had the privilege ofmentoring and walking with
people for a lot of years.
I've seen a lot of people comefrom struggling to really
thriving and everything thatGod's called them to do, and
(03:19):
I've seen this whole fear offailure and adequacy thing be a
root in so many people's livesthat keeps them from everything
that God's got for them.
And as I look at you, know sortof how this fear of failure
manifests itself.
There's really three differentways that fear of failure can
manifest itself in people's life.
(03:39):
The first way, I would say, isprocrastination.
And this is insidious becauseit doesn't seem like a big deal.
It's just this sort of thingthat, well, I don't want to do
this, I don't want to fail atthis, I don't want to look bad,
I don't want to seem weak, Idon't want to seem like I don't
have it all together.
So I'll just keep pushing thatthing off.
(04:00):
And what procrastination doesis it just keeps the decision as
opposed to happening today.
I'm going to do this, I'm goingto step forward in faith.
We just keep pushing it off,right.
We just keep pushing it off.
And we make excuses in our mind, right.
We can make all kind of excusesfor oh, I've got this going on,
or this is not a priority rightnow, or you can over
spiritualize it and say, oh,it's just not the right season,
(04:23):
you know, or whatever.
But if we're really true toourself, if we really listen to
the voice of the Lord, manytimes those procrastinating
tendencies at the root arereally just a fear of failure.
You just don't want to looklike you don't have it all
together.
You don't want to be foundinadequate or wanting by other
people that may be looking.
(04:43):
Maybe you don't want to befound inadequate by the Lord,
maybe you don't want to be foundinadequate by yourself,
whatever that that looks like.
There's that fear of if theyreally knew me, if they see that
I can't perform in thissituation, then I'm not gonna be
found enough, and usually whatthat ends in is a fear,
ultimately, of rejection andbeing alone.
(05:04):
And see, that is always thefear of the enemy that he's
trying to throw into us, right?
He's trying to plant thoseseeds in your mind.
So procrastination although itseems I'm just kind of a, I'm
just a creative, or I'm justthis, or that's just kind of the
way I am, or I'm not reallythat organized, if you dig
deeper, procrastination usuallyhas some pretty insidious roots
(05:27):
that are getting really deepinto us.
The second way, then I would saythat I've seen, you know, this
fear of failure really come upin people's lives and manifest
is in this idea of perfectionism.
Now, that's kind of how ithappened for me.
I didn't necessarily pushthings off.
I just went overboard, ocd onmaking sure everything was
(05:51):
managed perfectly or, in my eyes, perfectly so that I wouldn't
be found wanting and listen.
That is a lot of times evenworse than procrastination,
because you're in this constantperformance mentality all the
time, trying to manage the wayyou are perceived by others, the
(06:11):
way you're presenting yourself,the way you're speaking and
dressing and looking and workingand all the stuff of life.
But at the bottom of it is nota desire for excellence.
The bottom of it is not adesire necessarily to please the
Lord also, although sometimeswe, kind of you know, try to
fool ourselves with that, thebottom of it is I don't want to
be a failure, I don't want tolook bad, I don't want to be
(06:33):
found out as wanting, asinadequate.
I don't want to be pushed awayand rejected by others.
I'm going to get on thistreadmill of performance and do
whatever I got to do to makesure that people don't see me in
that way and again, that is noway to live.
The third way that happens then.
(06:54):
So you got procrastination,then you know you've got this
whole idea of perfectionism.
The third way that I see peopleit affects people a lot of
times is paralysis.
You just get paralyzed infeeling like there's no way that
if I step out into this, intothis direction right now, that
it's going to work out good, I'mgoing to be a failure.
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I'm not able to do it.
I don't have what it takes.
I feel like there's somethinginherently wrong with me and I
don't see God showing up in this.
I'm left out on my own.
I'm just going to freezebecause that's the safest thing
to do.
I think about the guy in, youknow, the pair of all the
talents, in Matthew 25, the endof that chapter, where it's, you
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know, talking about health.
You know, he gave the threeguys some talents, which was a
big sum of money.
And the third guy, instead ofinvesting that and doubling his
money like the other two guys,did, what do you do?
He took that money and he hidit in the ground and he waited
for the master of the field.
Jesus sent the story to comeback and he said what I knew you
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to be a hard man, you know.
In other words, I knew that Icouldn't measure up to what
you'd asked me to do, so I hidit.
I just got, I just gotparalyzed.
I hid it so I wouldn't get introuble.
Now here it is, and so that isno way to live.
And again, is it the ploy ofthe enemy to get you either
(08:19):
striving on your own, pushingthings off that God has for you
for now, pushing them off tolater, or either just being
paralyzed Absolutely?
That's the ploy of the enemy.
In fact, I want to look in fora second, timothy, actually
chapter one, verse seven.
You may know this scripture.
This is Paul talking.
It says for God has not givenus a spirit of fear, but of
(08:42):
power and of love and a soundmind.
Now, just think about that.
If he says God has not given usa spirit of fear, well, well,
somebody gave it to us.
We didn't just come up with iton our own right.
Who gave us the spirit of fear?
Who's trying to give us thespirit of fear?
The enemy, of course.
Right.
(09:02):
He's always tempting you andalways will be tempting you with
the spirit of fear.
Why?
So that you come out ofalignment with the power and the
love and the sound mind thatGod has given you.
So realize, in this trying toconquer the fear of failure,
realize you always have a choice.
(09:23):
Am I going to choose to receivethe spirit of fear that the
enemy is trying to give me, oram I going to choose to receive
power and love and a sound mindfrom the Lord.
What does that mean?
Power, love and a sound mind.
Power means what?
In Christ, I have the power todo the things that God has
called me to do.
(09:44):
I don't have to be afraid, Idon't have to be worried about
failure.
I don't have to be worried thatmy actions don't measure up to
some some fantastical view ofwhat perfection, uh, you know,
is and what I'm imagining and ithas to be like.
No, I have the power in Christto do everything that he's
giving me the opportunity andthe authority to walk in.
(10:04):
So my job is not to worry aboutam I inadequate?
Am I afraid?
Am I, am I not able to do this.
My job is to say thank you,lord, that you have designed me
and assigned me for this timeand this assignment in my life,
and I'm going to step forward infaith, believing that it's not
by my power or not by my might,but it's by what?
(10:25):
By your spirit, that I'm goingto be able to accomplish
everything in my life.
That's huge.
So he's given us power.
He's given us love.
What does love have to do withthis?
What's love?
No, just think of this.
What does love have to do withit?
Love has to do with everythingbecause, listen, if you are not
fully persuaded in your heartthat you are loved by God
(10:49):
unconditionally, if you're notfully persuaded in your heart
that you can love yourself withthe love of God, then there's no
way that you're going to beable to walk in power and sound
mind and freedom and boldnessand faith that God's got for you
.
Why?
Because you're always going tobe either doubting the love of
God, doubting the love of othersand trying to prove yourself to
(11:12):
other people through youractions.
Listen, the supernatural loveof God will set you free from
performance.
The supernatural love of Godwill set you free from striving.
Why?
Because you're no longer basingyour identity on what you do,
but on who you are in Christ.
That's huge, that's a gamechanger.
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And then, number three in thisverse he says he's given us,
given us a spirit of power andof love.
And what a sound mind.
One of the things that thespirit of fear that the enemy is
trying to get you to come intoagreement with, one of the
things that he does is he bringsconfusion, he brings
instability, he bringsdouble-mindedness, he brings
(11:56):
this constant ping-pong match ofback and forth, this or that.
Should I do it, should I not?
I don't know what to do.
Can I do it?
I'm not good enough, I'm notthis enough, I'm not that enough
.
It's this constant thing thatgenerates anxiety and fear and
worry in your heart.
And listen, you will beunstable in all your ways.
(12:17):
Book of James says if you'redouble-minded.
And so what power and love dowhen your identity is set in the
Lord?
It allows you to be firm in whoGod says you are, what you can
do, what you can have, notaccording to your feelings, but
what According to his word.
(12:38):
And that gets you out of thisgame of constant performance and
striving and anxiousness.
And it fulfills the promisehere that God is giving you
power and love and a sound mind.
There's stability when you'rerooted and grounded in the love
of God.
There's stability when youridentity is rooted and grounded
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in who God says you are, in hisword, not just based on your
feelings.
So realize, anytime the enemy iscoming at you with this fear of
failure.
He's I-maxing this movie on thescreen of your mind and on your
heart and he's trying toconvince you that that movie
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that he's playing is more realthan the word of God that he's
spoken in his word, his writtenword, and the words that he's
spoken into your heart throughthe power of the Holy Spirit.
And so guess what.
You have to make a choice.
You got to make a choice.
In fact, the Bible says what wegot to take every thought
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captive.
So if you're going to conquerthe fear of failure in your life
, you got to realize you cannotjust be walking along, flowing
along, going with the flow.
I feel this way, I feel thatway.
No, what does God's word say?
Because when we come intoalignment with the truth of
God's word, the fruit of God'sword will begin to manifest in
(14:06):
and through our life.
And when you are in agreementwith the truth of you, know the
spirit of fear and all that, allthat the spirit of fear is
saying is true.
Then guess what the fruit ofthe spirit of fear is going to
manifest in your life, which iswhat Worry and anxiety and
rejection and inadequacy and allthe junk that none of us want.
(14:27):
See, when you're walking inpower and love and a sound mind,
when you're walking by faith,there is a manifestation of life
that God has for us that hasnothing to do with anxiety and
fear and rejection.
What does it look like?
Well, let's look.
All right, if you look over here, in Galatians 5, I love this in
(14:50):
Galatians 5 is actually inverses.
Let's see verses 22, 23.
This is the fruit of the spirit.
You know this and it says.
But the fruit of the spirit iswhat Love, joy, peace, long
suffering or patience, kindness,goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control.
(15:10):
Against such, there is no law.
In other words, what?
When you are in agreement withthe spirit of God, when you're
in agreement with what God'sword says, the fruit of the
spirit living in you and workingin you and fully persuading
your heart that this is moretrue than all the other junk
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that the spirit of fear istrying to throw in your life.
Guess what these things are?
What's going to manifest?
You may be wondering in yourlife how do I get more peace?
How do I get more joy?
How can I be more patient?
How can I be more kind and goodand faithful in my life?
How can I be moreself-controlled?
The spirit of fear will tell youthat you got to strive for all
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that.
You just got a white-nucleate.
Or religion will tell you thatyou got to do this, you got to
do that, you got to follow theserules.
But no, what do we do?
The fruit of the spirit comesas we are connected with the
vine, john 15, right, I'm thevine, you're the branches.
Apart from me, you can do whatNothing, but connected to me,
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you're going to do what, you'regoing to bear much fruit.
What fruit?
The fruit of the spirit.
And so, fear of failure andconquering fear of failure is
not even about conquering thefear of failure and going after
it like I'm going to conquer thefear of failure.
The conquering fear of failureis the natural fruit of
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establishing your identity inChrist and coming into agreement
with the spirit of God,intentionally, according to His
Word, as led by the spirit, sothat your life can begin to
naturally manifest the fruit ofthe spirit in your life.
Some of that fruit is boldnessand walking by faith and not
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having to walk in fear andanxiety and all that sort of
thing.
That is huge.
That is huge.
Now, what's the strategy?
Is there a strategy?
Well, I want to give you fivethings.
I call this the five Rs, and itis a strategy that I've used
for years.
I've taught for years to helppeople renew their mind to the
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truth of God's Word.
So let's just imagine asituation right?
The enemy, the spirit of fear,is throwing up a movie I'm axing
on the screen of your mind.
You're getting freaked out.
You got a choice at this point,right?
Am I going to go with this andgo down the you know the spiral
here, go down the toilet, justlike?
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This is going to be horrible.
Or am I going to choose to godown the road of faith?
Well, how do you do that?
Number one, five Rs.
Number one is recognize,recognize.
Does this sound like my daddyor not?
Does this sound like the truthof God's Word or not?
Does this sound like somethingthat God would be leading me
into?
Or am I feeling chided?
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And and you know, am I feelinganxious about this?
Am I feeling accused?
All right, you have to get towhere you understand is this God
or is it not?
How do you do that?
Well, spending time with theLord, knowing what His Word says
, knowing what His voice soundslike in your own heart.
That's how you begin to knowwhat the spirit of God sounds
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like and you recognize.
You say, ah, is this the enemyor is this the truth?
And in that moment, you've gota choice you can either connect
with it or disconnect with it.
Now, number two is repent.
And what repent means in theNew Testament is this idea of of
turning around, going the otherway.
But it also means to changeyour mind, to change your
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thinking.
In other words, I was thinkingthat this was my only option.
I was thinking that this was myreality.
The enemy was trying to get meto believe that this was really
the truth.
But I'm going to have a achange right now.
I'm going to, I'm going to turnthe way I was going and go the
other way, in alignment withwhat?
The truth of God's Word.
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I'm going to come out ofagreement with a lie and into
agreement with the truth.
Number three, then reinforce.
This is a great opportunity.
Any time that you are in a placewhere the enemy is attacking
you, you're feeling things andseeing things and imagining
things that you know, accordingto God's Word, have nothing to
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do with God's best for your lifeand His divine will for your
life.
In that moment, it's a greatopportunity to say I'm coming
out of agreement with that, I'mturning, I'm changing my mind,
I'm walking toward you.
Lord, what do you say is thetruth about me in this situation
?
What do you say, lord, is thetruth that I need to be
(19:47):
connecting with and coming intoagreement with, based on your
word?
Now listen, if you know God'sWord, you can probably go to a
scripture, go to Google, go towherever you need to go to ask
the spirit of God to speak toyou, to give you a truth from
His Word so that you can beginto reinforce the truth of God's
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Word.
Replace that, all right, replacethat.
That's actually number three.
Replace the lie with the truth.
And the number four would bereinforce.
That is, every time the enemycomes at you with that old lie,
you reinforce the truth.
You're not going back to say,oh yeah, I keep getting tripped
up by this, oh, this is thethird time this week that I keep
(20:30):
believing that lie.
No, you're recognizing itquicker this time.
You can recognize, turn,replace it with the truth of
God's Word.
And then what?
Reinforce that truth every time.
And then number five is thisrejoice as a normal part of your
time with the Lord.
I would encourage you torejoice in your new, normal.
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See the whole thing about thespirit of fear and fear of
failure, and you're not going tobe enough, and inadequacy, and
all of that.
That whole thing is based onthe enemy trying to sell you the
lie that this reality that heis presenting to you is the
truth.
My friend, your reality and myreality as believers in Jesus is
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not based in what the enemysays.
Our reality is based in what,in what the truth of God's Word
says.
And so, as a normal part of yourdaily time with the Lord, you
got to begin to rehearse andrejoice over and over God.
Thank you that you've not givenme a spirit of fear, but a
power and of love and a soundmind.
Thank you, father, that, as Ilearned to co-labor with your
(21:36):
Holy Spirit, that love, joy,peace, patience, kindness,
gentleness, faithfulness,goodness and self-control.
Thank you, lord, that thosethings are going to begin to
flow out of my life, naturallynot because I'm striving, but
because you are producing thosein me through agreement with
your spirit.
And, my friend, guess what?
As you begin to do that, yourlife will change.
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You will.
The enemy will always listen.
The enemy will always bethrowing fearful thoughts at you
.
He'll always be presentingrealities, realities that he
thinks are are you know he'strying to convince you of that
are out of alignment with God'sWord.
But you're going to be gettingstronger as you use this
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strategy of the five Rs to takeevery thought captive, come out
of agreement with a lie, intoagreement with the truth,
reinforce that, rejoice in that,rehearse that over and begin to
walk in his rest.
Listen, that's God's plan forour life, or, as I've said many
times, god's plan for living.
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That is, that is what it is.
It's God's plan that we walk inhis power and in his spirit, in
rest, not in striving and infear, and in, especially, fear
of failure.
So, my friend, I want to prayright now and if you have been
dealing with the fear of failure, I just believe that there's
going to be a breakthroughmoment right now for you, that
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God's going to do some businesswith you on the inside and that
this is going to be a strategythat, if you'll begin to
intentionally use in your life,god's going to use it.
Listen, this process ofconquering the fear of failure
and conquering, you know,learning to renew our mind this
is not something that God doesto us, is something that God
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does with us, and as you beginto co-labor with him, you're
going to be making room for thespirit of God in your life to do
incredible, incredible work.
So, father, we pray right nowin Jesus' name, god, I pray for
my friend that's found their wayto this episode about
conquering the fear of failure.
Lord, I know that your wordsays you've not given us a
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spirit of fear, but of power andof love and a sound mind.
And so, holy spirit, I prayright now that you would break,
right now, the power of fear intheir life, father, that you
would break the power of thefear of failure, of inadequacy,
of the lies that the enemy hassewn in their heart for so many
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years.
Holy spirit, would you leadthem right now out of the
darkness of failure, out of thedarkness of fear, out of the
darkness of anxiety and lies, ofinadequacy, and lead them into
the light of your truth, thelight of your word.
Now I just want to ask you rightnow, friend, as we're praying,
(24:25):
just begin to ask the Lord.
Just ask him right now.
Say, lord, is there a lie thatI've been believing about my own
inadequacy, my this fear offailure?
Is there?
Just ask him to reveal whateverthat lie is.
So just ask him right now.
Thank you, lord, and as he doesthat, then I just want to
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imagine you.
I want you to imagine yourselfgiving him that lie and say Lord
, would you take this lie fromme?
Would you take the weight andall the baggage, all the
extraneous junk, the roots ofthis thing?
Would you take this from me?
Lord?
I give this to you right now,in Jesus name.
I don't want it anymore.
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And just tell him right now, asyou're praying, and say Lord, I
want what you have for me.
What truth?
What is your truth that youhave for me about this situation
?
I've been believing this.
The enemy's trying to sell methis lie.
But, lord, what is it you sayabout this situation?
What is it you say about me?
What is it you say that my lifeis about?
(25:27):
Just ask him.
You may hear a still small voice.
You may hear a word, you maysee a picture.
He may give you a scripture,whatever it is.
Listen, just write it down andbegin to ask the Lord, in your
quiet time with him, to unfoldthat truth for you according to
his word.
Father, we thank you for that,that your Holy Spirit wants to
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speak to us.
You want to lead us into alltruth.
You want to see us whole andhealed and free.
In Jesus' name, we thank youfor that, amen, amen.
My friend, I'm so glad that youwere here with me today.
Listen, we've all been there,this whole thing of fear of
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failure and inadequacy and allthat.
I've been there, you've beenthere.
But listen, there is absolutelyfreedom for you in Jesus when
you learn to use this strategythat I call the five Rs.
Do me a favor If you've usedthis either today, or maybe
you've listened to me before andyou've been using this strategy
, leave me a comment below.
Let me know what was the liethat you were believing, the
(26:33):
fear that the enemy was bringingup in your mind, and then tell
me what was the truth that theLord showed you.
And so that you can begin, justas a matter of declaration of
your heart, begin to say youknow what, I'm coming out of
agreement with this.
I'm gonna type this down on thepodcast, on YouTube, on
wherever it is that you'rewatching this.
(26:53):
Write that down as adeclaration of faith, because
you know, the Bible says that weovercome not only by the blood
of the lamb what Jesus did forus, but the word of our
testimony.
That is as you declare out ofyour mouth what God has done for
you.
It is part of the overcomingprocess that God uses in your
life to bring freedom.
(27:15):
So make sure, tell me, tellsomebody, email us, if you want
to, whatever you wanna do, buttell somebody what God is doing
in your life in this area, toset you free from the fear of
failure.
I love you, my friend.
It's such a privilege to bewith you all the time.
Please make sure that you'resubscribed, that you like, that
you comment, do all the stuff,share it on social media.
You know wherever you're onInstagram or Facebook or
(27:37):
wherever you're connecting withothers, and let them know that
this episode was a big, bigblessing to you.
Also, you can check out theshow notes here.
There are lots of resourcesthere.
There are books there.
There's free PDFs, there'sother videos that you can watch
and continue to grow in the Lordin all that he has for you.
Thanks so much and I'll see youagain next time, right here on
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God's plan for living.
Bye, yea.
Stakeholders need a cross.
You know, the fear of failure in your life can be one
of the most paralyzing thingsyou could ever face.
I'm going to jump right intothat and give you a proven
strategy for conquering thatfear of failure here today on
God's plan for living.
Why, hey, my friends, so gladthat you are with me here today
(00:22):
on God's plan for living.
Listen, I don't know about you,but if you've ever dealt with
the fear of failure and all thebaggots that that can bring in
your life, it is absolutelydebilitating, or it can be.
I can remember for years andyears and years in my life
having this fear of not beinggood enough For me, that fear of
(00:42):
failure kind of, you know,manifested in my life as
perfectionism.
And so I was always making surethat the way I looked and the
way I dressed, and the way Italked to people and was
perceived, and the what peoplethought about me, and the things
that I would say and the thingsthat I would do, even the
things that I would be willingto try and not try, all of that
manifested in this sort ofperfectionistic tendency to make
(01:05):
sure everything was perfect.
Why?
So that I wouldn't fail.
Because I had this belief in mymind that if I failed somehow,
that would be the end ofeverything.
I think a lot of times when wehave these mirages that come up
in our mind of fear, you know alot of times we don't even know
what it's about, we don't eventake it to the natural end, we
(01:27):
just think.
I can't even think about it.
It's just so horrible.
It's destroying me.
There's no way that I can gotoward that edge.
I've got to make it right, it'sgot to be perfect, or I've got
to, you know, push it off, orI've just not.
I've just got to stay righthere in my safe space, and fear
of failure can be something thatis absolutely debilitating.
I remember in my own life when Ibegan to see really progress
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being made in my ability to walkin faith and walk free of the
fear of failure.
It really happened as I startedto develop my identity in
Christ and establish thataccording to God's word, as
opposed to basing everythingthat I was doing on my feelings.
Because, listen, there are alot of people Christians are not
.
You may love Jesus with allyour heart, but you've not
(02:14):
learned how to renew your mindand so you continue to walk in
this fear-based living over andover and over again, and it
keeps you in a place that Godnever ever intended for you to
be, because it keeps you focusedon your inadequacies as opposed
to God's promises and God'sintention for your life.
(02:36):
Listen, frustration grows inyour heart anytime you allow
your fears and worries and allthat kind of stuff to be bigger
than the promises of God in yourlife, and so that's what we're
going to kind of dive into todaySome of the ways that fear of
failure manifests itself, andalso a proven strategy that I
know is going to help you beginto get free of this fear of
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failure so that you can walk ineverything that God has for you.
Now you may know if you're newto me listen to me or whatever
or if you've known me for a longtime.
I've had the privilege ofmentoring and walking with
people for a lot of years.
I've seen a lot of people comefrom struggling to really
thriving and everything thatGod's called them to do, and
(03:19):
I've seen this whole fear offailure and adequacy thing be a
root in so many people's livesthat keeps them from everything
that God's got for them.
And as I look at you, know sortof how this fear of failure
manifests itself.
There's really three differentways that fear of failure can
manifest itself in people's life.
(03:39):
The first way, I would say, isprocrastination.
And this is insidious becauseit doesn't seem like a big deal.
It's just this sort of thingthat, well, I don't want to do
this, I don't want to fail atthis, I don't want to look bad,
I don't want to seem weak, Idon't want to seem like I don't
have it all together.
So I'll just keep pushing thatthing off.
(04:00):
And what procrastination doesis it just keeps the decision as
opposed to happening today.
I'm going to do this, I'm goingto step forward in faith.
We just keep pushing it off,right.
We just keep pushing it off.
And we make excuses in our mind, right.
We can make all kind of excusesfor oh, I've got this going on,
or this is not a priority rightnow, or you can over
spiritualize it and say, oh,it's just not the right season,
(04:23):
you know, or whatever.
But if we're really true toourself, if we really listen to
the voice of the Lord, manytimes those procrastinating
tendencies at the root arereally just a fear of failure.
You just don't want to looklike you don't have it all
together.
You don't want to be foundinadequate or wanting by other
people that may be looking.
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Maybe you don't want to befound inadequate by the Lord,
maybe you don't want to be foundinadequate by yourself,
whatever that that looks like.
There's that fear of if theyreally knew me, if they see that
I can't perform in thissituation, then I'm not gonna be
found enough, and usually whatthat ends in is a fear,
ultimately, of rejection andbeing alone.
(05:04):
And see, that is always thefear of the enemy that he's
trying to throw into us, right?
He's trying to plant thoseseeds in your mind.
So procrastination although itseems I'm just kind of a, I'm
just a creative, or I'm justthis, or that's just kind of the
way I am, or I'm not reallythat organized, if you dig
deeper, procrastination usuallyhas some pretty insidious roots
(05:27):
that are getting really deepinto us.
The second way, then I would saythat I've seen, you know, this
fear of failure really come upin people's lives and manifest
is in this idea of perfectionism.
Now, that's kind of how ithappened for me.
I didn't necessarily pushthings off.
I just went overboard, ocd onmaking sure everything was
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managed perfectly or, in my eyes, perfectly so that I wouldn't
be found wanting and listen.
That is a lot of times evenworse than procrastination,
because you're in this constantperformance mentality all the
time, trying to manage the wayyou are perceived by others, the
(06:11):
way you're presenting yourself,the way you're speaking and
dressing and looking and workingand all the stuff of life.
But at the bottom of it is nota desire for excellence.
The bottom of it is not adesire necessarily to please the
Lord also, although sometimeswe, kind of you know, try to
fool ourselves with that, thebottom of it is I don't want to
be a failure, I don't want tolook bad, I don't want to be
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found out as wanting, asinadequate.
I don't want to be pushed awayand rejected by others.
I'm going to get on thistreadmill of performance and do
whatever I got to do to makesure that people don't see me in
that way and again, that is noway to live.
The third way that happens then.
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So you got procrastination,then you know you've got this
whole idea of perfectionism.
The third way that I see peopleit affects people a lot of
times is paralysis.
You just get paralyzed infeeling like there's no way that
if I step out into this, intothis direction right now, that
it's going to work out good, I'mgoing to be a failure.
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I'm not able to do it.
I don't have what it takes.
I feel like there's somethinginherently wrong with me and I
don't see God showing up in this.
I'm left out on my own.
I'm just going to freezebecause that's the safest thing
to do.
I think about the guy in, youknow, the pair of all the
talents, in Matthew 25, the endof that chapter, where it's, you
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know, talking about health.
You know, he gave the threeguys some talents, which was a
big sum of money.
And the third guy, instead ofinvesting that and doubling his
money like the other two guys,did, what do you do?
He took that money and he hidit in the ground and he waited
for the master of the field.
Jesus sent the story to comeback and he said what I knew you
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to be a hard man, you know.
In other words, I knew that Icouldn't measure up to what
you'd asked me to do, so I hidit.
I just got, I just gotparalyzed.
I hid it so I wouldn't get introuble.
Now here it is, and so that isno way to live.
And again, is it the ploy ofthe enemy to get you either
(08:19):
striving on your own, pushingthings off that God has for you
for now, pushing them off tolater, or either just being
paralyzed Absolutely?
That's the ploy of the enemy.
In fact, I want to look in fora second, timothy, actually
chapter one, verse seven.
You may know this scripture.
This is Paul talking.
It says for God has not givenus a spirit of fear, but of
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power and of love and a soundmind.
Now, just think about that.
If he says God has not given usa spirit of fear, well, well,
somebody gave it to us.
We didn't just come up with iton our own right.
Who gave us the spirit of fear?
Who's trying to give us thespirit of fear?
The enemy, of course.
Right.
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He's always tempting you andalways will be tempting you with
the spirit of fear.
Why?
So that you come out ofalignment with the power and the
love and the sound mind thatGod has given you.
So realize, in this trying toconquer the fear of failure,
realize you always have a choice.
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Am I going to choose to receivethe spirit of fear that the
enemy is trying to give me, oram I going to choose to receive
power and love and a sound mindfrom the Lord.
What does that mean?
Power, love and a sound mind.
Power means what?
In Christ, I have the power todo the things that God has
called me to do.
(09:44):
I don't have to be afraid, Idon't have to be worried about
failure.
I don't have to be worried thatmy actions don't measure up to
some some fantastical view ofwhat perfection, uh, you know,
is and what I'm imagining and ithas to be like.
No, I have the power in Christto do everything that he's
giving me the opportunity andthe authority to walk in.
(10:04):
So my job is not to worry aboutam I inadequate?
Am I afraid?
Am I, am I not able to do this.
My job is to say thank you,lord, that you have designed me
and assigned me for this timeand this assignment in my life,
and I'm going to step forward infaith, believing that it's not
by my power or not by my might,but it's by what?
(10:25):
By your spirit, that I'm goingto be able to accomplish
everything in my life.
That's huge.
So he's given us power.
He's given us love.
What does love have to do withthis?
What's love?
No, just think of this.
What does love have to do withit?
Love has to do with everythingbecause, listen, if you are not
fully persuaded in your heartthat you are loved by God
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unconditionally, if you're notfully persuaded in your heart
that you can love yourself withthe love of God, then there's no
way that you're going to beable to walk in power and sound
mind and freedom and boldnessand faith that God's got for you
.
Why?
Because you're always going tobe either doubting the love of
God, doubting the love of othersand trying to prove yourself to
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other people through youractions.
Listen, the supernatural loveof God will set you free from
performance.
The supernatural love of Godwill set you free from striving.
Why?
Because you're no longer basingyour identity on what you do,
but on who you are in Christ.
That's huge, that's a gamechanger.
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And then, number three in thisverse he says he's given us,
given us a spirit of power andof love.
And what a sound mind.
One of the things that thespirit of fear that the enemy is
trying to get you to come intoagreement with, one of the
things that he does is he bringsconfusion, he brings
instability, he bringsdouble-mindedness, he brings
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this constant ping-pong match ofback and forth, this or that.
Should I do it, should I not?
I don't know what to do.
Can I do it?
I'm not good enough, I'm notthis enough, I'm not that enough
.
It's this constant thing thatgenerates anxiety and fear and
worry in your heart.
And listen, you will beunstable in all your ways.
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Book of James says if you'redouble-minded.
And so what power and love dowhen your identity is set in the
Lord?
It allows you to be firm in whoGod says you are, what you can
do, what you can have, notaccording to your feelings, but
what According to his word.
(12:38):
And that gets you out of thisgame of constant performance and
striving and anxiousness.
And it fulfills the promisehere that God is giving you
power and love and a sound mind.
There's stability when you'rerooted and grounded in the love
of God.
There's stability when youridentity is rooted and grounded
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in who God says you are, in hisword, not just based on your
feelings.
So realize, anytime the enemy iscoming at you with this fear of
failure.
He's I-maxing this movie on thescreen of your mind and on your
heart and he's trying toconvince you that that movie
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that he's playing is more realthan the word of God that he's
spoken in his word, his writtenword, and the words that he's
spoken into your heart throughthe power of the Holy Spirit.
And so guess what.
You have to make a choice.
You got to make a choice.
In fact, the Bible says what wegot to take every thought
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captive.
So if you're going to conquerthe fear of failure in your life
, you got to realize you cannotjust be walking along, flowing
along, going with the flow.
I feel this way, I feel thatway.
No, what does God's word say?
Because when we come intoalignment with the truth of
God's word, the fruit of God'sword will begin to manifest in
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and through our life.
And when you are in agreementwith the truth of you, know the
spirit of fear and all that, allthat the spirit of fear is
saying is true.
Then guess what the fruit ofthe spirit of fear is going to
manifest in your life, which iswhat Worry and anxiety and
rejection and inadequacy and allthe junk that none of us want.
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See, when you're walking inpower and love and a sound mind,
when you're walking by faith,there is a manifestation of life
that God has for us that hasnothing to do with anxiety and
fear and rejection.
What does it look like?
Well, let's look.
All right, if you look over here, in Galatians 5, I love this in
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Galatians 5 is actually inverses.
Let's see verses 22, 23.
This is the fruit of the spirit.
You know this and it says.
But the fruit of the spirit iswhat Love, joy, peace, long
suffering or patience, kindness,goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control.
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Against such, there is no law.
In other words, what?
When you are in agreement withthe spirit of God, when you're
in agreement with what God'sword says, the fruit of the
spirit living in you and workingin you and fully persuading
your heart that this is moretrue than all the other junk
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that the spirit of fear istrying to throw in your life.
Guess what these things are?
What's going to manifest?
You may be wondering in yourlife how do I get more peace?
How do I get more joy?
How can I be more patient?
How can I be more kind and goodand faithful in my life?
How can I be moreself-controlled?
The spirit of fear will tell youthat you got to strive for all
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that.
You just got a white-nucleate.
Or religion will tell you thatyou got to do this, you got to
do that, you got to follow theserules.
But no, what do we do?
The fruit of the spirit comesas we are connected with the
vine, john 15, right, I'm thevine, you're the branches.
Apart from me, you can do whatNothing, but connected to me,
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you're going to do what, you'regoing to bear much fruit.
What fruit?
The fruit of the spirit.
And so, fear of failure andconquering fear of failure is
not even about conquering thefear of failure and going after
it like I'm going to conquer thefear of failure.
The conquering fear of failureis the natural fruit of
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establishing your identity inChrist and coming into agreement
with the spirit of God,intentionally, according to His
Word, as led by the spirit, sothat your life can begin to
naturally manifest the fruit ofthe spirit in your life.
Some of that fruit is boldnessand walking by faith and not
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having to walk in fear andanxiety and all that sort of
thing.
That is huge.
That is huge.
Now, what's the strategy?
Is there a strategy?
Well, I want to give you fivethings.
I call this the five Rs, and itis a strategy that I've used
for years.
I've taught for years to helppeople renew their mind to the
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truth of God's Word.
So let's just imagine asituation right?
The enemy, the spirit of fear,is throwing up a movie I'm axing
on the screen of your mind.
You're getting freaked out.
You got a choice at this point,right?
Am I going to go with this andgo down the you know the spiral
here, go down the toilet, justlike?
(17:38):
This is going to be horrible.
Or am I going to choose to godown the road of faith?
Well, how do you do that?
Number one, five Rs.
Number one is recognize,recognize.
Does this sound like my daddyor not?
Does this sound like the truthof God's Word or not?
Does this sound like somethingthat God would be leading me
into?
Or am I feeling chided?
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And and you know, am I feelinganxious about this?
Am I feeling accused?
All right, you have to get towhere you understand is this God
or is it not?
How do you do that?
Well, spending time with theLord, knowing what His Word says
, knowing what His voice soundslike in your own heart.
That's how you begin to knowwhat the spirit of God sounds
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like and you recognize.
You say, ah, is this the enemyor is this the truth?
And in that moment, you've gota choice you can either connect
with it or disconnect with it.
Now, number two is repent.
And what repent means in theNew Testament is this idea of of
turning around, going the otherway.
But it also means to changeyour mind, to change your
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thinking.
In other words, I was thinkingthat this was my only option.
I was thinking that this was myreality.
The enemy was trying to get meto believe that this was really
the truth.
But I'm going to have a achange right now.
I'm going to, I'm going to turnthe way I was going and go the
other way, in alignment withwhat?
The truth of God's Word.
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I'm going to come out ofagreement with a lie and into
agreement with the truth.
Number three, then reinforce.
This is a great opportunity.
Any time that you are in a placewhere the enemy is attacking
you, you're feeling things andseeing things and imagining
things that you know, accordingto God's Word, have nothing to
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do with God's best for your lifeand His divine will for your
life.
In that moment, it's a greatopportunity to say I'm coming
out of agreement with that, I'mturning, I'm changing my mind,
I'm walking toward you.
Lord, what do you say is thetruth about me in this situation
?
What do you say, lord, is thetruth that I need to be
(19:47):
connecting with and coming intoagreement with, based on your
word?
Now listen, if you know God'sWord, you can probably go to a
scripture, go to Google, go towherever you need to go to ask
the spirit of God to speak toyou, to give you a truth from
His Word so that you can beginto reinforce the truth of God's
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Word.
Replace that, all right, replacethat.
That's actually number three.
Replace the lie with the truth.
And the number four would bereinforce.
That is, every time the enemycomes at you with that old lie,
you reinforce the truth.
You're not going back to say,oh yeah, I keep getting tripped
up by this, oh, this is thethird time this week that I keep
(20:30):
believing that lie.
No, you're recognizing itquicker this time.
You can recognize, turn,replace it with the truth of
God's Word.
And then what?
Reinforce that truth every time.
And then number five is thisrejoice as a normal part of your
time with the Lord.
I would encourage you torejoice in your new, normal.
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See the whole thing about thespirit of fear and fear of
failure, and you're not going tobe enough, and inadequacy, and
all of that.
That whole thing is based onthe enemy trying to sell you the
lie that this reality that heis presenting to you is the
truth.
My friend, your reality and myreality as believers in Jesus is
(21:12):
not based in what the enemysays.
Our reality is based in what,in what the truth of God's Word
says.
And so, as a normal part of yourdaily time with the Lord, you
got to begin to rehearse andrejoice over and over God.
Thank you that you've not givenme a spirit of fear, but a
power and of love and a soundmind.
Thank you, father, that, as Ilearned to co-labor with your
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Holy Spirit, that love, joy,peace, patience, kindness,
gentleness, faithfulness,goodness and self-control.
Thank you, lord, that thosethings are going to begin to
flow out of my life, naturallynot because I'm striving, but
because you are producing thosein me through agreement with
your spirit.
And, my friend, guess what?
As you begin to do that, yourlife will change.
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You will.
The enemy will always listen.
The enemy will always bethrowing fearful thoughts at you
.
He'll always be presentingrealities, realities that he
thinks are are you know he'strying to convince you of that
are out of alignment with God'sWord.
But you're going to be gettingstronger as you use this
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strategy of the five Rs to takeevery thought captive, come out
of agreement with a lie, intoagreement with the truth,
reinforce that, rejoice in that,rehearse that over and begin to
walk in his rest.
Listen, that's God's plan forour life, or, as I've said many
times, god's plan for living.
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That is, that is what it is.
It's God's plan that we walk inhis power and in his spirit, in
rest, not in striving and infear, and in, especially, fear
of failure.
So, my friend, I want to prayright now and if you have been
dealing with the fear of failure, I just believe that there's
going to be a breakthroughmoment right now for you, that
(23:00):
God's going to do some businesswith you on the inside and that
this is going to be a strategythat, if you'll begin to
intentionally use in your life,god's going to use it.
Listen, this process ofconquering the fear of failure
and conquering, you know,learning to renew our mind this
is not something that God doesto us, is something that God
(23:22):
does with us, and as you beginto co-labor with him, you're
going to be making room for thespirit of God in your life to do
incredible, incredible work.
So, father, we pray right nowin Jesus' name, god, I pray for
my friend that's found their wayto this episode about
conquering the fear of failure.
Lord, I know that your wordsays you've not given us a
(23:43):
spirit of fear, but of power andof love and a sound mind.
And so, holy spirit, I prayright now that you would break,
right now, the power of fear intheir life, father, that you
would break the power of thefear of failure, of inadequacy,
of the lies that the enemy hassewn in their heart for so many
(24:03):
years.
Holy spirit, would you leadthem right now out of the
darkness of failure, out of thedarkness of fear, out of the
darkness of anxiety and lies, ofinadequacy, and lead them into
the light of your truth, thelight of your word.
Now I just want to ask you rightnow, friend, as we're praying,
(24:25):
just begin to ask the Lord.
Just ask him right now.
Say, lord, is there a lie thatI've been believing about my own
inadequacy, my this fear offailure?
Is there?
Just ask him to reveal whateverthat lie is.
So just ask him right now.
Thank you, lord, and as he doesthat, then I just want to
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imagine you.
I want you to imagine yourselfgiving him that lie and say Lord
, would you take this lie fromme?
Would you take the weight andall the baggage, all the
extraneous junk, the roots ofthis thing?
Would you take this from me?
Lord?
I give this to you right now,in Jesus name.
I don't want it anymore.
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And just tell him right now, asyou're praying, and say Lord, I
want what you have for me.
What truth?
What is your truth that youhave for me about this situation
?
I've been believing this.
The enemy's trying to sell methis lie.
But, lord, what is it you sayabout this situation?
What is it you say about me?
What is it you say that my lifeis about?
(25:27):
Just ask him.
You may hear a still small voice.
You may hear a word, you maysee a picture.
He may give you a scripture,whatever it is.
Listen, just write it down andbegin to ask the Lord, in your
quiet time with him, to unfoldthat truth for you according to
his word.
Father, we thank you for that,that your Holy Spirit wants to
(25:50):
speak to us.
You want to lead us into alltruth.
You want to see us whole andhealed and free.
In Jesus' name, we thank youfor that, amen, amen.
My friend, I'm so glad that youwere here with me today.
Listen, we've all been there,this whole thing of fear of
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failure and inadequacy and allthat.
I've been there, you've beenthere.
But listen, there is absolutelyfreedom for you in Jesus when
you learn to use this strategythat I call the five Rs.
Do me a favor If you've usedthis either today, or maybe
you've listened to me before andyou've been using this strategy
, leave me a comment below.
Let me know what was the liethat you were believing, the
(26:33):
fear that the enemy was bringingup in your mind, and then tell
me what was the truth that theLord showed you.
And so that you can begin, justas a matter of declaration of
your heart, begin to say youknow what, I'm coming out of
agreement with this.
I'm gonna type this down on thepodcast, on YouTube, on
wherever it is that you'rewatching this.
(26:53):
Write that down as adeclaration of faith, because
you know, the Bible says that weovercome not only by the blood
of the lamb what Jesus did forus, but the word of our
testimony.
That is as you declare out ofyour mouth what God has done for
you.
It is part of the overcomingprocess that God uses in your
life to bring freedom.
(27:15):
So make sure, tell me, tellsomebody, email us, if you want
to, whatever you wanna do, buttell somebody what God is doing
in your life in this area, toset you free from the fear of
failure.
I love you, my friend.
It's such a privilege to bewith you all the time.
Please make sure that you'resubscribed, that you like, that
you comment, do all the stuff,share it on social media.
You know wherever you're onInstagram or Facebook or
(27:37):
wherever you're connecting withothers, and let them know that
this episode was a big, bigblessing to you.
Also, you can check out theshow notes here.
There are lots of resourcesthere.
There are books there.
There's free PDFs, there'sother videos that you can watch
and continue to grow in the Lordin all that he has for you.
Thanks so much and I'll see youagain next time, right here on
(27:59):
God's plan for living.
Bye, yea.
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