Transcription
If God is first, everything else falls into place. Before your meetings, before your schedule, before the demands. Let God be first. This ain't about just some religion. It's rhythm. It's duty. It's passion.
When you start with God, peace becomes your atmosphere. Wisdom becomes your companion. Strength becomes your identity. Whatever atmosphere you start your day in is the atmosphere you will carry all day. The beginning of your day is the womb that everything is birthed from. And so often times you will see somebody who starts their day on social media. They start their day in drama and chaos and the whole day is drama and chaos.
You got to understand that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. Life is spiritual. In the realm of the spirit, God rewards men and women who show up early. The morning is not just sometime. It is the time. It is a spiritual doorway. It is the portal of influence. And whoever you allow to speak to you first, God or the world, determines the traffic of your day. The cadence, the rhythm, how you navigate, how you see. It determines your perspective, your energy. I need you to protect your energy. Drop it in the comments. Protect your energy.
In scripture, King David said, "Early will I seek you." The Lord Jesus Christ himself rose a great while before the day even started. WHY? BECAUSE THE MORNING IS WHEN DESTINY IS SHAPED, WHEN battles are settled, before they begin. Command your day. If you don't command the day from the morning, something else will command you all day long. You can't start your day in the swirl of busyness, distraction, and noise and expect to hear the voice of God. You can't start your MORNING IN A HURRY and expect to walk in authority all day long.
There is a rhythm. There is a concentration that separates those who crawl through life, those who are distracted and those who are able to command, those who are aligned. God doesn't just give you instructions. He gives you capacity. Men and women that live lives of significance, STATURE, POWER, AND PRESENCE. They rise because they have met with God in the morning before they meet the world. Ordinary men do not respond to notifications on their phone first before they've gotten into the presence of God. Men of stature, men who live lives of significance and fulfillment, start their day in the presence of God. Ordinary women and men reach for their phone. Extraordinary men and women start in the presence of God. Ordinary men and women start their day with activities. Extraordinary men and women start their day aligned.
You will discover that when you start your day in the presence of God, you start your day in the word of God. You start your day in prayer and singing and praising God. Even if the day was a battle and a storm, it is THE POWER TO SAY, "PEACE BE STILL." God got me. There is a difference between men who merely exist, women who are just ordinary, and men who dominate. Women who are aligned, they rule. There was a mystery, a strange and divine. I would even call it ancient secret between the two. The difference is this how they start their day.
Because I believe you are listening to me for a reason. I believe you're here at this moment in your life playing this track because you know God is calling you to go deeper. There are graces waiting for you at dawn. The grace to navigate marriage. The grace to navigate single life and walk in purity and power. The grace to build, to create, to design, to imagine, to align, to unify, to conquer, to command. You are graced. YOU ARE anointed to command boisterous winds. PEACE IS NOT THE ABSENCE OF CONFLICT. IT IS the presence of God in the midst of the storm. And so come out of hustle. Come out of toil. Come out of the grind and get aligned in the presence of God. You'd be amazed at the amount of things and people and connections that will be attracted to you. That destiny will start to chase you down. The rooms that you walk into, the tables that you sit down at, the hands that you will shake, the deals that you will sign. Life begins to shape up. Clarity comes before noise.
I MADE A DECISION A LONG TIME AGO THAT I WANT TO BE A MAN THAT WALKS IN UNUSUAL wisdom and grace and favor AND I WANT TO WALK IN POWER AND PURPOSE. IS THAT YOU? Are you listening TO ME OUT THERE THAT YOU WANT TO BE A DIFFERENCE MAKER, A GAME CHANGER, AN INNOVATOR, A TRAILBLAZER TO BE THE first in your bloodline to do whatever God has called YOU TO DO? NOT TO CRAWL THROUGH LIFE, BUT TO COMMAND THE DAY TO BE ALIGNED. IF THAT'S YOU, DROP IT IN THE COMMENTS, THAT'S ME. Start with God. Keep God first. THIS IS THE PRINCIPLE OF FIRST. Start with God. Practice stillness. Let God whisper in your ear through his word while you're sitting in his presence. Let him minister to you. I assure you, your life will never be the same. Encounters come to men and women who make room for God. God, you don't just get a corner in my life. I'M NOT JUST A SUNDAY CHRISTIAN. YOU DON'T JUST GET WEEKEND VISITS. The person, whoever is listening TO ME RIGHT NOW, STOP GIVING GOD WEEKEND VISITS. He is your father. He is your friend. He is the savior of the world. You got to learn to stop just running to him when you are in crisis. You got to start spending time with him every day.
God is calling. When you start your day in the presence of God, you wake up with gratitude and it breaks the fog of the soul. Pray in the spirit. It aligns your atmosphere. Open the word of God. Let God speak to you before anyone else does. Make declarations. Command the morning. We will WALK WITH THE ONE WHO CANNOT BE DEFEATED. WE WILL STAND TALL. WE WILL STAND BOLD. We will stand assured that he who goes before you is the same who surrounds you. To him be glory, dominion, AND PRAISE NOW AND FOREVER MORE. HE WHO STARTS THE DAY WITH GOD WILL NEVER WALK IN DARKNESS. FOR THE LIGHT OF GOD GOES BEFORE YOU. HE IS THE AGENT OF DAYS. HE IS OUR ETERNAL MONARCH. HE IS THE COMMANDER OF ANGEL ARMIES. HE IS ALPHA AND OMEGA. THE BEGINNING AND the end, THE FIRST AND THE LAST. HE IS THE SUSTAINER. HE IS THE WAY MAKER. HE IS THE MIRACLE WORKER. HE IS THE PROMISEKEEPER. HE MAKES RIVERS IN THE DESERT. HE MAKES WAYS IN THE WILDERNESS. THEREFORE, I WOULD DECLARE AS FOR ME IN MY HOUSE, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD. THE MEASURE OF MY SIGNIFICANCE IS FOUND, LET ME TELL YOU, in the presence of God.
Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in the earth as it is in heaven. Amen. It's not always going to be easy, but if you trust him, he will see you through. Proverbs 3:5, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean into your own understanding." Bible says in Psalm 46:10, "Be still." And see, stillness requires discipline. You have to trust God to be still. We are so addicted to moving. We are so addicted to talking. And then we don't realize and we walk away and we think it's done. and it was nothing but a band-aid. But God is the physician. Bible says in Psalm 46:10, "Be still and know that I am God." You can't be still unless you trust him. It says, "I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth." This means that whatever it is that you face in the earth, Jesus will be exalted. And I need to trust in the risen savior. He is the one who was and is and is to come. He is alpha and omega. He's the beginning and the end. He is the first and the last. And he is with you right in the middle.
And if you're going to trust God, you cannot lean into your own understanding. You can't lean into what looks pretty, what looks perfect. You can't lean into what makes sense to the naked eye. You can't lean into what everybody's telling you to do. If the father is leading you to go in a certain direction, into uncharted territories, to conquer in an area where you have never conquered before, the time is now to rise up and make it happen. Moses had to believe something he had never seen. He had to walk and do something he had never seen anybody do. Moses had to become the man he had never had in his life. Moses had to trust God in the face of gross adversity and turbulence. In the face of people that did not believe that he was the one that was to lead them into a promised land. Even if you are tired, even if you are weary, even when you don't completely believe, can you trust God?
The Bible says in Exodus 14 and 21, "And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. And the Lord caused the sea to go back by the strong east wind all the night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. But God told him that he would do it." And with many of us, God tells you that breakthrough is coming. curses are being broken. The miraculous is going to be unleashed in your life. And he's going to speak to you before you see it. And you got to catch the word before you see the manifestation. You have to stand on the word of God before you see it. Stand on it before you see it. This is the beauty and the brilliance and the power of leaning not to your own understanding, but trusting the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The God who was and is, and is to come. the God that is already standing at the end. He's at the beginning and he's with you right in the middle of the worst hour of your life.
CAN YOU TRUST GOD WHEN THEY STOP BELIEVING? CAN YOU TRUST GOD WHEN THEY STOP CHEERING YOUR NAME? CAN YOU TRUST GOD WHEN PEOPLE don't see it? When people CAN'T HEAR YOU? WHEN PEOPLE ARE COMPLAINING? MOSES, he had to trust God. He had to stretch forth his hands. And I love that God told Moses to stretch forth his hands because this is a sign of surrender. God, I trust you with everything that is WITHIN ME. I TRUST you when people don't see it. When people don't agree with me, when people don't support me, when people don't hear me, when people don't understand the moves that you are making in my life, I would trust YOU WHEN MY BACK IS UP AGAINST the wall. I would trust you in murky, muddy waters. I would trust you in deep, dark prisons. I would trust you, Father. I trust you to trust God. It requires for you to be still. It requires for you to stop making all the moves. It requires for you to get out of your own head.
If you're going to trust God, if you're going to believe that he is going to move on your behalf, if you're going to see a move of God such as never before, you have got to get out of your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5, trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean into your own understanding. The problem with many of us, we keep trying to outthink God. You can't outthink God. You can't outalk. You can't outdo God. And so, it would behoove us to lean not to our own understanding, but to trust the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to trust the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abedneo. to trust the God of Esther and the God of Job and the God of David and the God of the Apostle Paul, to trust the God of all the men and the women in the Bible that have gone before you that had to trust God when their back was up against the wall. They had to trust God in deep, dark prisons. They had to believe that God would show up when Moses was running for his life. The Bible says in Exodus 14:14, "The Lord shall fight for you." This is Moses talking to Israel. He said, "The Lord shall fight for you and ye shall hold your peace." You got to trust God to hold your peace. You got to trust God not to lean into your own understanding.
It takes courage to trust God. It takes love to trust God. It takes an obsession with the father to trust God. It takes a passion. It takes a zeal. It requires obedience. This is going to take everything in you to trust God. I want you to see yourself stretching forth your hand over your sea, over your storm. I want you to see yourself stretching forth your hand over your impossible situation. What is your improbable feet? What seems to be the giant that is in your way? The Bible says in Acts chapter 16 that at midnight, Paul and Silas began to sing praises unto God. I don't know if they were singing at 10:00. I don't know if they were singing at 11:00. I don't know if they were singing at 5:00 p.m. 6:00 p.m. But I do know that in the darkest hour, at the hour where night turns to morning, the hour of midnight, right in the middle of it, they began to sing praises.
Let me ask you a question. Can you sing praises in the face of adversity? Can you sing praises when you are discouraged? When you are tired, when you are weary, when you feel like nothing is left in the tank, can you sing? Singing is a sign of surrender. Singing is a sign to God that says, "I give up. I'm giving over control. I'm going to sing of your praises. I'm going to sing of the strength of your right hand. I'm going to sing of your wisdom. I'm going to sing of your counsel. I'm going to sing of your discipline. I'm going to sing of your power. I'm releasing this by song." Can you sing when you don't have anything left in the table? Can you lift your hand and trust God when it seems as though all hope is lost? With everything that IS WITHIN ME, I'M TIRED, BUT I TRUST YOU. I MAY BE DISCOURAGED, BUT I'M NOT DEFEATED. I TRUST YOU. I'M NOT HOLDING YOU BACK. I'M LEAVING EVERYTHING ON THE FLOOR. I'M GIVING YOU EVERYTHING THAT I HAD, EVERY STITCH OF BELIEF IN ME, EVERY DROP OF BLOOD IN MY BODY. TRUST YOU, JESUS.