Love Identity Validation and Mental Health

[Music] [Music] [Music] he [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] he welcome everyone to this broadcast. Mark De Jesus, your brother from another mother, back again, bringing you more insights for your healing and freedom journey. Want to talk about a subject that's very important to our mental health journey and life in general. That's understanding identity. Understanding our connection to love, validation, acceptance, approval, all that stuff. It's going to be really important to tune in to how do we navigate that, because how does that impact our mind, our thoughts, emotions, and how we approach life? Looking forward to addressing the [Music] subject. [Music] [Music]

Welcome, welcome, welcome everyone. Mark De Jesus here, glad to have you here in this broadcast. I thought I would take some time today, January 12th, which is the day I was born, to celebrate my birthday by sharing with you and empowering you and being a blessing, being a brother to your journey and adding value to what you are working through and sometimes wrestling through. So it's great to have you here, whether it's live or you're seeing this broadcast later. I pray that you're having a heaven of a day. And if you're having a hell of a day, there's an opportunity for heaven to meet you where you're at and bring the compassion of God and bring the grace of God to where you are, so you can connect to love and experience empowerment for the next steps of what is there available in your life to learn, to heal, and to grow in.

Please do me a favor and click that like button, whether you're on Rumble or YouTube. Click the subscribe and also go to markdejesus.com because I'm jam-packing my website with materials for your journey to equip you and to empower you to be a voice in your life in the battles and things that you're wrestling through. And consider supporting, and you can do that by uh subscribing to the email list and sharing with with other people things that have been helpful for your life. But also consider one-time donations or uh you can also set donations to become reoccurring each month, and that's a real blessing too, as we're producing just more and more content to bless the lives of brothers and sisters out there.

I'm going to get into the subject in just a moment on love, identity, validation, mental health. This material, what I'm going to give to you today, is in the OCD healing journey. I'm in the middle of teaching the training course on based on the book. And the way that my training courses work is I get to talk about what's in the book but expand on it, take some helpful tangents. I can cover some areas that got chopped out of the book for the sake of content and size, and I get to specify into questions and address it in the way that people are are battling and get into more specifics. And I do that in our healing and freedom community. And what I wanted to do here was share with you in a free live broadcast uh some of the content and material that I provide there. And I am now on chapter 13 there. And let's see, I got 10 more areas, so I'll be I'll be spending a good portion of this year uh teaching this out. So I'm in no hurry, I'm in no rush to teach the material. So each week I put out uh a little a little bit of content each week on the material because those that are joining the healing and freedom community, one, it's an investment into uh exposing your life to teaching and letting that teaching there. Two, to recognize there's other people that are also going through very similar battles. Um, and and we're all going through uh many of the same themes, but we're learning to encourage, heal, grow, and there's opportunity for questions, and that's great too. We just did a community Q&A yesterday, and we do um, we do those each month, and it's just a great way to um, encourage, equip, and empower your journey. It gives me a focus too on um, people that I know that are wanting to walk a journey. So so this is an opportunity for you to take advantage of that. Again, you can go to markdejesus.com/community uh to check that out to subscription. You can cancel it any time if you want, if if it's not working for you there. There's no pressure thing. Um, and um, there's no pressure in how much content you need to go through. You can go through it at your your own pace, at your own leisure. In fact, I encourage people, go through it slow, go through it in repeated fashion. Many of my materials need to be marinated through over and over again. Go back through them, listen to them. Uh, some people even tell me they go to sleep with my videos playing, and I don't blame you. I've done that in my life for something that speaks to me, which I just kind of fall asleep. I've even taken naps while listening to something. Uh, every once in a while, I take a little 10, 15 minute nap, and I might have something playing in my earbud, and I'll just kind of drift off while it's talking. I'm like, Hey, listen, maybe if I'm falling asleep, maybe something will speak to me while I'm sleeping.

And um, so uh, even this week, this week was jam-packed with broadcast. I uh, this past Sunday, my wife and I navigating all kinds of technical issues. Every kind of technical issue that seemed to happen was happening. Uh, the the the internet connection, I think was the only thing that was stable, that that and and Jesus, but we navigated it fine. And um, then Tuesday had a broadcast on on confusion over God's voice. It's a very honest and very transparent picture insight. It's not um, shaming, condemning, being um, critically harsh, but just honest about many goofy things that Christians fall into about God's voice and hearing God's voice and empowering you to walk in greater mental health in that. And then I did a very long form, about 3 hours, um, yesterday. Was it yesterday? No, Wednesday, on the subject of sex, sexual struggles. Uh, and I went into many areas for the sexual confusion, pornography, went into a lot of areas and battlegrounds that people face, processing some questions. And it's a great format. And those broadcasts are intended for journey, so let them, let them. Many people say, you know, I I listen to it, I got to listen to it again. And that's actually how I listen to content. Uh, if something is is speaking to me, it's helpful, I'll listen through it, and then I'll go back. I just kind of let it wash over my heart. Then I'll go back and I I'll document some things that were important to me, meaningful to me, so I can do some further marination in my life.

And what I'm talking about today uh applies to OCD, but it applies to all mental health. And one of the things we have to do in our mental health journeys, we got to slow things down. And there's a tendency for so many of us, we don't marinate, we ruminate. And rumination is following disturbance. Rumination is chasing things that make us feel anxious, guilty, conflicted. And we we obsess and obsess, and we think we're going to solve it by staring at it. And that's not how mental health improves. Mental health improves with awareness, humility, teachability, and practice, not with obsession. And so the, I like the term marinate because I'm I'm a bit impatient when it comes to food. I like it a little bit quicker. I like, I'm I'm not passionate about cooking, but people who are passionate about cooking, they understand spice, marination, time, attention. They understand the process. They get joy out of the journey, not just the finished product and result. Getting hungry just thinking about this, thinking about food. And many of us in our journey, we're we're microwavers. We are fast food. And we're not only trained in fast food in our actual eating, but we're trained in that in our spiritual life. Quick services, quick books, quick video, quick thing, give me the five things, come on, let's go, let's go, let's go. And mental health calls us to actually slow down. Calls us to slow down so that we can start marinating. It's more of a crock pot. It's more of a, if you love uh smoked meat, the smoker process, process. I've I've used a smoker uh enough times to realize there's a lot of patience that's needed. The temperatures are are are lower, and it's time and it's patience that's involved there. So so this is something that, man, I'm getting getting hungry today. This is something that uh will will help you if you learn, okay, I got to slow down, I got to take my time and navigate through.

And so I am slowly, I'm dedicated this whole year to pouring into the OCD healing journey. And then from there, there will be more topics. So I'm always in the healing and freedom community. I'm always teaching on something and uh creating um uh in-depth library content that people can access. So again, you can take advantage of that. It's a real blessing. I I developed and created what I would have wanted in my journey when I was just going through you waves and waves of what felt like hell. And that's everything I do, I provide of what would I have needed and I didn't always have it. And so I want to be able to provide what I wasn't necessarily given. So it's a blessing, an honor to be your brother today and be able to speak into your life and into your journey.

So here's the plan. I'm going to teach uh content. This is going to be uh just like I would be teaching in the healing and freedom community on this. Then after that, I'll uh consider with what time's left, some questions that that I can take that um I'll be available to take, Lord willing, and the creek don't rise, and we'll go from there. How does that sound? So today in this video, we're going to talk about love, identity, validation, and mental health. This is so important, and I'm going to launch some things that I hope will empower you more and more. I am teaching this based off of the OCD healing journey book material in in in the course, but I'm also going to take some tangents that cover a lot of areas of mental health, no matter what your battleground is.

And I want to start off with saying this: in my early work with OCDers, and I've been working with them for years and years and years, in the early years of coaching work and and walking with them, I did a lot of investment into identity because I noticed in myself and so many of us, we had no idea who we are. We had no idea in our identity. And in church life, there's a lot of emphasis on, you know, who you are, you know who you are in Christ. And we just kind of yelled that a lot. I know who I am, and you need to know who you are, and declare who you are. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, you know, and but meanwhile, the way that we're living shows we don't know who we are. We're not rooted and grounded in who we are, and we're kind of pep rallying our way into trying to know who we are. And and listen, there's room for that. There's room for that. I bring that up not to say that's wrong. I bring that up to say that there is so much more to what it means to get rooted in who we are because what God has offered us in Christ Jesus needs to be equipped in our lives. He's given us a gift of a new identity. I teach on that in the Father's Love on Romans 8, where I talk about the spirit of adoption, what that what that means, and Paul's writing of Roman adoption and the power that's there of the new identity that's been given. And God sees you according to that new identity. Even Paul goes next level with it, New Creation. He brings out Paul also brings out, you're no longer slaves, you're sons. And in Romans 8, talks about, you have not been given a spirit of bondage again to fear, that rejection mindset, that fear rejection mindset, not giving you that, but he's given a spirit of adoption by which we cry out, Abba, Father. So this is very, very important. And the spirit bears witness that what we are sons. And and that's the core of identity.

Now, in in Christian Christian life, and and even those who are not Christians, it's so common that we base our identity on a lot of metrics. We base our identity a lot on our roles. So how our roles are going. So if you're a a a husband or wife, if you're a parent, if you are a teacher, or whatever you do for work, or a position you have, we base our identity on those things and how well those things are going. And we we haven't been taught that's not who you are at the core. Now, those are roles you are that you that you fulfill, right? But many of us get lost even further. Not only we get lost in the roles that we're in, we're lost in how we're doing things and how well we are seen. And we get lost in all the all the things of the day and the metrics of how well we perform or how well we achieve and all that stuff. We get lost in those areas and we lose sight of who we are. The reality is, we haven't been equipped in who we are because at the core of identity, you're not a father, husband, pastor, teacher, fancy uh elder, church person, uh entrepreneur, rich person, whatever, whatever that is, or poor person, or sinful person, or those that's that's not your identity. Your identity is you are a son. Your identity is you are a daughter. That's the core.

So our mental health healing journey is actually bringing us back to, what does it mean to be a loved son? To be a loved daughter? That's all your battlegrounds. You battling depression? It's bringing you back to that. Battling anxiety? It's bringing you back to that. You battle with OCD? It's bringing you back to that. You battling panic attacks? You B you battling um, you're battling paranoia, you're battling um, you know, borderline personality issue, whatever, whatever you're battling, it's bringing you back to, who am I? And we get lost in a lot of areas that's not wired into who we are. We take the the plug or the wire of our identity and we plug it into a lot of things that don't keep us rooted and grounded in sonship. And Paul had to teach that. He had to tell the church in Galatians, you're not slaves, you guys are living as slaves. And and there's a big difference between slavery and sonship. And I teach that in my Exposing the Rejection Mindset material. This is foundational in identity. And that book addresses a lot of the fundamental things I'm going through that are so important to this journey because we have to understand that mental health is strengthened and out of a out of a growing and empowered identity. Mental health is strengthened from a growing and empowered identity.

Now, today, more than ever, we are living in a world that is manifesting massive identity crisis, massive identity crisis, massive massive confusion over identity, over who we say that we are, more than ever before. And it's revealing some very important things that we've not experienced that we need to get equipped in. I saw this even 15, 20 years ago, of just my own battlegrounds, but then looking around and going, there is mass confusion. We have been neglected, and we are empty in some very important areas because out of identity is how you see yourself. It guides and it influences what you focus on, what thoughts you listen to, what thoughts you don't listen to, how you behave in the world that you live in, what gives fear more room, what you spend more time ruminating over. And when I don't know who who I am, I become more vulnerable to thoughts that are counterfeit, because I'm struggling to be rooted. And so in those battles where you struggle to know who you are, you shame yourself, you condemn yourself. Some of you go into, oh, it's because I'm not even a Christian. And and those become so unhelpful, and they distract you and send you in rabbit chases that go nowhere, instead of realizing as believers, one of the common Christian problems is we feel disconnected to the love the Father has for us. This is a mass Christian problem. So many OCDers go, haven't repented enough, I haven't done this. No, no, no, no. Welcome to the club. Could be because Christians today struggle with a sense of connection to the love of Father God. And two, they have a real deep battleground with understanding who they are and being able to walk in it and practice it and learn and discover it each day. We get lost in so many battlegrounds, and there's a lot of identity confusion going on. We could talk about that at length in many areas, but here's some common ones that that people struggle with that I want to just bring us back to, and you probably have a combination of these that take place in your life.

One is this is the the top most common is the mindset of, who I am is what I do or achieve. A performance-based mindset. This gets locked in when we're not affirmed in the love of of the Father, affirmed by the love of our earthly father. When we haven't had that rooted in our lives, we go to performance. You know, no one loves me, I don't know. So I'll prove to them, I'll show you. So we live life trying to prove ourselves, trying to prove that we have worth and value, and try to prove that we have validation right through performance. And uh, this goes into a lot of areas. We try to um, we try to get a sense of approval and validation by showing good metrics, good marks. In our battlegrounds, mental health is where it gets it's where it gets really messy, right? We can often try to get validation off of our our struggles and our battles. We're trying to like get people to, we get obsessive over trying to get people to validate what we're going through. We're we're we're struggling through because there's such an ache in our hearts that hasn't been experiencing loving, identity-affirming uh understanding of who God, what he says about us, and being rooted in that validation within us. So it forms how we relate to people. One aspect is is this performance, who who I am is what I do or or what I achieve. If I don't have that, then I don't belong. But then high-ranking achievers, they'll achieve it, and then they go, is this all there is? Because they realize this isn't what's going to bring fulfillment into our life. So then many of the performers struggle with addictions, they struggle with um, with with with burnout, with depression, with a sense of where's life going. A lot of performers live in perpetual burnout and and depression and all these things.

There's an aspect too of number two. It's not only what I do, but who I am is is based on how well I do it. This is the perfectionist mindset that comes in. It's got to be just right or never enough. And the problem is, is that's a constant loop because it is never enough. It is never enough. It is never enough. So we continually chase, whether we chase in our thoughts, we chase things in in our in our environment, chase things in what we do, because we're trying to find, if I get it just right, I'll feel better. I can land. And it keeps us in a cycle.

Many today get lost in, who I am is what I struggle with. So you have a battle, you have a thought that you struggle with, you have a pattern, you have an addiction, you have a sin struggle, you have you have intrusive thoughts that come in that compete for your for your attention, get you hooked in. And so then condemnation comes in and brings shame and accusation to accuse you. Now, this is who you are. This comes from you. And this is what you want. And then and now we're sinking and sinking and sinking because you see your battles as who you are. And we live in a world, quite honestly, that goes, yeah, maybe that is who you are. And explore it this further adds to the confusion that we're manifesting in our life.

Many even think, who I am is what thoughts show up. And and if I if I base who I am on what thoughts show up, I'm going to be in a lot of unfruitful, very tormented, confused, double-minded, unstable, you name it. I'm going to be in all those areas, all over the place. I'll manifest the opposite of peace, the opposite of joy, the opposite of of being loved. There'll be a lot of confusion, a lot of fear, and a lot of chaos going on in in my stability. If if I make myself one with thoughts that show up, it's saying this is who I am. That's why even in uh, I did a recent um, broadcast on battles that are sexually related, about sexuality and sex drive and and attraction and those kind of things, that if we make ourselves one with a thought or feeling that arrives, this is just who I am, that's going to get us into a lot of trouble. It's going to get us into a lot of deception. We have to, we have to get clarity on who we are, and we practice that. So we learn how to relate to our thoughts and go, this isn't, this isn't who I am. This isn't who I am. How do you know that, Mark? Because it's not who God says that I am. He's my Father, and he's the one that tells me who I am.

So number four is, who I am is, got to slow down for a second here in your thoughts. Take this in. Who I am is what I think other people think about me. Now, what other people think about you is is really more about what you think they think about you, right? Because we spend a lot about what people think, what people think. I I saw a thought one one day, and I thought that that needs to be a t-shirt. People need to wear it. It's uh, "What other people think about you is none of your business." I thought that's great. That's fantastic. That's a that's a good word right there. And but we have a perception of what other people think, and so then we feed that, and that now becomes a dictator in our life. It dictates moves we make, it dictates ways that we act, we think so much, we become people pleasers, we become codependent, we um, become hooked in to neediness, to need to get reassurance from other people. Why? Because we need a sense of reassurance that we're okay, that we're okay in where we are, we're okay in love, we're okay in validation.

This happened in the life of Christ and his interaction with Peter. And I want to take a minute to bring this up for just a moment, because if you go into Matthew 16, and let's go back a little bit and get get some context. Peter is is interacting with Jesus, and Jesus asks an interesting question. When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" That's interesting. He just asks to the um, to the uh, to the disciples. And you see Peter's name brought up here. Peter was one of those guys who would he would step in and and be maybe the first to speak, and he'd say something off the top of his head. He'd speak out of emotions. And I appreciate watching Peter's life because he wasn't perfect by any means, and he had some of those moments that we would consider embarrassing, we would consider not so perfect moments. But you see his journey, and you see the identity formation happening over time, and you see the beauty and what happens in the book of Acts of of him standing and God using him in a powerful way in the day of Pentecost. And then we are now blessed by his powerful writings. So you see this journey of identity development taking place in Peter's life, and you see Jesus's patience with him throughout the journey. We could go into so much about Peter denying Christ, and Jesus even calling it out, saying, hey, it's going to happen. When Peter was like, I'm I'm going to be with you all the way, and I'm going to go, you know, people say that I'm going to be loyal all the way to the end. And Jesus like, actually, you're going to big time betray me, buddy. And um, he even told him, hey, Satan's going to sift you like wheat, but I'm going to pray that your faith isn't failed, and you're actually going to strengthen other people. You're going to recover yourself, you're going to repent, you're going to turn from some of these ETS that had get you off track, and you're going to encourage other people of it. I have faith that you're going to make it. Excuse me. And God has faith that you're going to make it too. That's that's something we need to learn in our life and our journey.

But this is an identity moment because Jesus poses the question, and he's not fishing for answers so that he gets a a pulse of what people are saying to then go, oh, what do I need to do? What I because Jesus wasn't swayed by what other people thought about him. Why? Because he was deeply rooted in what the Father said about him and thought of him. So important. I'll get to that in just a little bit. So he just, he he poses this question. So they said, "Some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets." They listen to what he says and they try to like pigeonhole him. Ah, this sounds like a prophet, so he's a prophet. Uh, you see people go, oh, he's acting like a rabbi, you're a rabbi. Uh, you're you're you're a teacher. They're looking at performance, right? And they're trying to label. This is what people do, and they they want to put a label on you in a certain way. And and sometimes that can be helpful. Some, it's a way of that people shortcut, hey, the guy's a doctor, you know, she's a she's a nurse, you know, it's the way we we often relate according to role, according to performance, right? They even saw Jesus and said, "Isn't that the carpenter's son?" They're trying to like put that box in. And we do that in our world. And many times we can place limitations on people by how we label them because we see them in that and in that only. And Jesus wanted to help break that a bit because they're all looking going, man, they're trying to they're trying to equate to a reference that they have. And there's a revelation Peter gets here that's so that's so important.

So he narrows it down and says, "But who do you say that I am?" Do you understand who I who I am? And Jesus said, and I'm sorry, in verse 16, Simon Peter says, answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." So in this revelation, and there's so much in the name Christ, there's so much in the in the Son of the Living God, so much in the name Jesus, you Yeshua, you can go Yahweh, you can go into all those things and go into the Lord God, and you can go into so much fascinating study and spend the rest of your life in that. But um, he's bringing out, you're the Christ, Messiah, because people didn't see there's a redemption he's bringing here. It's powerful. But there's something very core here. The Son, I see that identity in you. And Jesus says, "Whoa, blessed are you! Look at you, man, Simon." Now, that's Simon's name, but there's a movement now in emphasis of who his name is, because when you when you come into when you come into Christ, you get a new name, you get a new identity. There's a whole new identity thumbprint that you get. There's a whole new DNA you gain. And we're spending the rest of our life learning to discover and practice who God says that we are. So if you struggle with identity, welcome to the club, because everybody does, in some way, in some fashion. We're learning to discover. You got to give room for discovery and give room for practice. And and so Jesus, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you." Right? Because flesh and blood will just look at external, a, he's a prophet, teacher guy, they won't see the divine work. In fact, the Bible mentions, you know, uh, don't don't deal with people according to the flesh, because that can be our tendency to do that. The outward appearance, the old you, the um, this the the weaknesses, right? We box people in, and we don't see the the potential. Uh, and and people that have a spiritual maturity and have a fathering and mothering heart, they're able to see people not as they were, not in the former, not in their struggles. They're able to see through the eyes of grace to see the work of Christ and what's taking place here. Because most churches today, Peter would be fired from staff. He would have lost his job. Most churches today, Peter, his his fiery temper would have gotten him kicked off the board, would have gotten kicked off the. There's no room, right? I'm not saying we shouldn't have standards, I'm not saying we shouldn't have those things, but there is a need for us to see the deeper work in our children, in our families, and our churches.

And so he says, uh, "Flesh and blood hasn't revealed to you." Who reveals it? Did Jesus say, "Oh, me, I I showed you this"? He goes, "Your Father showed you this." Why? Because Father, it is the Father's role to bestow identity. He's the one who tells you who you are. So this helps us understand our heavenly Father. This helps us understand your earthly Father, because you need to hear from your Father who you are and who he says that you are. And that's where Peter got this revelation. So Jesus then turns the table and he says, "By the way, you're Peter. You're Petra. You're rock." Now, at this time, Peter was not a rock. Some of the other disciples, when they if they heard this, if they weren't understanding uh in the lane of grace and faith, they might go, "Yeah, Peter, fiery Peter, Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater, puts his foot in his mouth all the time, says stuff that's that's off. Peter, who you say? Get behind me, Satan, that Peter, Peter, who's going to deny you? Peter, who's?" And Jesus says, "I see it because I'm not panicking over your ups and downs." And God in your mental health journey is not panicking over your ups and downs, lefts and your rights. He's stabilizing you in the long term in identity because you're walking through a process of working it out. You're ironing it out. You're learning. You're you're learning through mistakes. You're learning through through um what doesn't help. You're learning to renew. You're learning to heal. You're learning to mature. We panic. God, help me, help me, help me, help me. He goes, "I'm I'm taking you through an identity renovation in your life. Trust me. Trust me. I'm building it. I'm making it happen." Yeah, but did I commit the unpardonable sin? Yeah, but I have this thought. Yeah, but this this is this person the one? Yeah, but I don't know if I'm steady, steady.

And this is what he says. He says, "You're a rock." What what's the what's the point of rock? What's he establishing here? He's establishing the church. He says, "I'm calling you a rock, and on this rock, what's the rock? It's the rock of identity." That's what's being established here in this interaction, that the church is going to have an identity as sons and daughters, and the gates of hell are not going to prevail against it because the church is going to have an impact. Sons and daughters, all knowing who they are, who they are combined together as the family of God, will have an offensive work that the gates that are holding people in captivity of hell will no longer have the work. What's the impact? Is the impact in how good of an evangelist you are, or how much time that you spend fasting and praying and all those things? All those things are great, but we get lost in them in performance mode with God, don't we? Many of you are detoxing from that now. The effectiveness Jesus is calling out here, you're going to know who you are and you're going to walk powerfully in it. But that is going to be, there's going to be a war over it. You're going to have an assault and an attack over who you are, and it's going to happen a lot in your thoughts. And there's there's just so much beautiful power that brings here that I won't get into today for the sake of time. But he says, um, "the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." And "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth," he's giving power to the church, "whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Um, there's a there's a power here of the church of Jesus Christ saying, yes, what we permit, you know, that that bind, loose, what you permit and what you forbid, right? There's a power the church will have. And now the church is so confused on what they what we should promote and what we should forbid, what we should say yes to, what we should say no to. We're so confused because we don't know who we are. We've lost it. And the church is tuning into the frequency of what the world is talking about. The church is following the agenda the world is bringing to attention and then following and drifting into it's like, whoa, we've lost who we are. We've lost our compass because we we we lock father connection. That's why my number one pass in seeing a renovation, restoration happen is a restoration of the Father's Love in the church of Jesus Christ, because we don't know his love. We're we're lost in so many goofy battles in in who we are, and we don't know how to relate to each other. We have no idea how to relate to each other. We're condemning, we're shaming, we are accusatory, we are we're splitting like atoms all the time, we're splitting like like meteors that are colliding against each other, divided against each other, fighting against each other, yelling, screaming at each other. We're becoming more bitter, we're becoming more hostile. We don't know we're loved. We don't know who we are, because if I don't know who I am, I'm not going to value who you are in the way I need to value you. And so we see so much dysfunction coming out of our lack of connection to this.

Jesus says, there's going to be power taking place, and what you say yes to, what you say no to, as the body of Christ. And and he says in there, um, an interesting statement, he commanded his disciples, "Don't tell anyone I'm the Christ." Don't tell anyone I'm Messiah. One, because there's a timing to that being revealed. And two, he didn't have a need. He didn't have a need to be promoted. He didn't have a need to be seen. He didn't have a need. And our lack of Father's Love and our lack of identity causes most people in ministry, and business, in in just day-to-day life, we we have this need to be seen, and we have this excessive rejection root need to to to feel belonging by our performance. We got to get our ministry out there, we got to get this out there. We got. And I'm not against marketing, promotion, and any of those things. People got to do what they got to do. And and and you can do that and not have validation issues. You can do that and not have this need to be out there. But Jesus is like, he actually told people the opposite. Jesus's marketing plan, whatever people do today, it was the opposite. He would heal people and say, "Hey, by the way, don't tell anyone." Can you imagine somebody writing to me and saying, "Hey, I love your book," and me going, "That's awesome. Don't tell anyone." [Laughter] It's because God has a timing in what he's revealing in and through your life, and he's working identity in our lives. So otherwise, we're going to have this need to be seen, this need to be needed, this need to be validated, this need. And once we tap into that, it's a drug, and then you need that drug to survive. And then and the ups and downs of people. So Jesus lives by this metric of the Father's approval over his life, and that became the guiding presence throughout his whole life and throughout his ministry, so that it didn't cause distraction for him to be pulled by the opinions of other people.

So going back to what I'm sharing here, identity is not earned. You can't earn it. It's received and it's practiced. Now, you don't just get fully who you are and live it out. No, you're practicing and learning. But you can't earn it. It's received because the Father bestows it to you. Your heavenly Father bestows it to you. But your earthly Father was designed to be a template of understanding. Why does God call him Father? Because we as human beings have a reference for Father. Okay, this is who I'm relating to. Perfect heavenly Father. So we bring into the kingdom of God our reference of what a Father's like. And so God uses that term because in his design, earthly Father sets the template. Earthly Father launches you into knowing your heavenly Father. And now you have a sense of how to relate because your earthly Father is flawed, but your heavenly Father is perfect, and you'll know how to fill those areas of your life and grow in who you are. But this is what most of us have not experienced.

Now, in your journey, identity is bestowed by the Father, but it's reinforced by family, by both mother and father, by tribe. When I speak of tribe, it's the people you're connected to, both friends and church and and and mentors, that they they encourage, that they speak it out, they become become cheerleaders, they become empowers to see who you are and see the beauty of what God is doing in your life, and encourage and light fire to that and and and breathe uh oxygen into the flame of what God's doing in your life. Now, identity is reinforced in seasons of transition. Now, in our teaching material in this course, I've done a lot in talking about transitions in life, the the stages in life where you need help, poor equipping and empowering. I talk about the transition from infancy to becoming a toddler, child, a child into what we call adolescence now, or teenage years, that puberty transition, which in the older days, that was more movement into, you're a man now, you're a woman. But now we have this, we have this extended period we call called adolescent. Uh, and some people end up living in an extended emotional adolescence. They're 30, 40, 50 years old, and they're still stuck either in a lot of areas or some areas in emotional adolescence. Why? Because transitions didn't develop and who we are and how we relate to the world in our life. Those who struggle with OCD, you have areas in your life emotionally that are stuck in adolescence and that need equipping. So you may be strong in how you work and operate in certain areas, but then you get lost in these ruminating obsessive tangents that reveal emotional immaturity. God's needing to mature, and emotional maturity is developed in these seasons of transition. The puberty years is a big, big time, that 11 to 13 is a very, very important time in development and transition and moving, you know, towards that 18 to 22 bracket of, okay, now get out there, start practicing, start start living this out at a whole new level. Launching the the goal of parents is to raise loved sons and daughters that live as effective overcomers, because it doesn't mean life is going to be easy, but you're equipped to now move towards resistance and flourish in that. And there's cheerleading at the home base that's there, but you've got to be let go into that journey.

And so identities reinforced in those seasons of transition. And uh, it it it it helps to to stabilize those voices, those thoughts in our life, remind us of who we are, because in seasons of transition, who you are gets tested, it gets challenged. But because there's a sense of love, now most people in their seasons of transition are very alone. Many people recognize back in their 11, 12, 13 years, like, no one was speaking at all into those areas. I've become intentional in my fathering to be aware of where my children are in their journey, to express love, to reaffirm love, but also to be aware of where changes are happening because I see it, I see it in them. And I've had significant seasons of really speaking out and affirming who my son is as a man, and who my my daughter is as a woman. In fact, this past year, we went through this with my daughter Abigail, because she's turned 13. And we had a a number of encounters during this year. First of all, when she turned 12, I said, I want you to know, uh, 12 to 13, there's some new things we're going to introduce into your life, new responsibilities, new things that are going to stretch you, and we're going to be here with you through it, but we're going to stretch you. So there's going to be times where we're going to go, you can do this, you can do this, don't bail, don't quit, stretch, you can do it. And we're going to teach you what it means to be an overcomer. And I was preparing her for 13, because 13 was a was a new metric in the journey of calling out who she is as a woman. And so leading up to her birthday, I wrote her a letter. And in that letter, which I on her birthday read it out loud to her, in front of um, my wife and my son, in our our family huddle, read it to her, gave it to her. And I also made a video for her that echoed the words and had some music to it. And that that's my my own expression because I like to creatively express things. And I I established this statement that who you are in in as a woman is very, very important. And I made this statement. I said, "I want to be the first man in your life to tell you that today, you are a woman. I want to be the first man to tell you that because I'm going to get a jump on the world or any other man trying to tell her who she is, or or or woman, or anyone else telling her who she is. I want to set the foundation that you are a woman, number one, and you're a woman of God." Now, up until then, I've been affirming, you're you're my daughter, I love you, I love you, I'm proud of you. I'll get into that in just a bit. But establishing, you are a woman.

Now, let me ask you all in your journey, when was the first time you felt awakened to who you are as a man? You felt awakened to who you are as a woman? And many people go back to a difficult moment, or there's a lot of emptiness, a lot of crickets going on. And many people will express, maybe the ladies will express, "I felt like a woman when a man showed me attention and thought I was pretty or whistled," you know, because I right? Or or there was an interaction with a boy that who was attracted to me, or or called out something about my body, or some kind of experience like that. Anyway, my point being, negative. Many boys growing up, uh, they felt like a man, but it was in a moment where, oh my goodness, I have responsibility. It's all on me. And he feels no one has my back. No one has my back. Or he felt like a man when he saw pornography and he felt these aroused feelings within him, but it was never equipped in understanding how to deal with his emotions, how to be a man. I I have conversations with my son on, what is a man of God? What does that look like? Let's let's let's together discover those metrics. I don't want to just sit here and lecture you. What is a what does he do? And so then I look at the the family, and I look at how he treats his sister, how he relates to his mom, how he relates to me. What does that look like to be a man of God?

But that encounter with my with my my daughter established something. I said, "We're going to keep affirming you're a woman. You're a woman of God." And so we're going to teach you more responsibilities. We're going to teach you how to steward them. We're going to teach you to honor them. But we're going to instill and reinforce in you an understanding of what it means to be a loved daughter and to call out the the woman of God that you are. Cuz my goal is to release her into this world on the journey that God has her on because God loves her more than I do. And that's overwhelming. And God knows who she is. And I'm a vessel to reinforce that.

We as the body of Christ, we need to be calling out and reminding sons and daughters, just just calling out that identity in them and encouraging the fruit that that they make manifest. So when you see your children, you see your brother and sister acting loving, you see them acting in ways that are gracious, call it out. And go, "That is awesome." We're so used to calling out, um, the sin. We're obsessed as Christians calling out sin. How much time do we spend calling out? We should be spending way more time calling out who we are in Christ than calling out sins that we see or we think need fixing in people. Cuz we spend, we're we're obsessive about it. "Greater is He that is in us." Is it is He really greater than He that is in the world? Is He really greater? Because if He is, then I need to be spending my time calling that out, calling out. I want to drown sin out by flooding your life with reminding you of who you are. That you are loved. That you are a son. You're a daughter. That you're you're seen. You're validated. You're approved. You're accepted. You're taken in by The Father's Heart. And and reinforcing, you're chosen. You're there's glory within you. Your royalty is in you. There is potential that is in you. There's Overcomer that is in you. "I see the fruit of the spirit. Max, that was very kind what you did to Abby. I see kindness in you. I appreciate that."

We're just so used to calling out the wrong because that's our that's our bend because we operate according to the flesh. And according to the flesh is the exterior, what we see, the five physical senses alone, the old you, the um, the unredeemed uh old aspects of us. And we we don't know how to feel the new and and see the new. And Jesus in that moment with Peter saw it and called it out. "You're going to be a rock." And Peter was not a rock. So don't be surprised if you're obsessive and somebody says, "I see stability in you." And I want to encourage you, there's stability here. And I see some steps of stability. I want to encourage you in that. We go, "Yeah, but I got these." Right? Because it's what we've learned to focus on.

So identity in the seasons of transition, it gets rough. Now I'm going to speak to two transitions that Jesus walked through that we need to understand in our own journey. One of them is baptism. And the Bible says when when when He had been baptized, John the Baptist baptizes Him. Jesus came up immediately from the water. And behold, the heavens were opened to Him. And He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and a lighting upon Him. That would have been really neat to watch. You know, it was it was like a dove. Some people think the Holy Spirit's a bird. It's like a d. There's like this this moment that took place here. And God the Father speaks. That's a very interesting moment because you don't see a lot of record of God the Father speaking. But when we see it, He's in this area here where He wants to brag about His Son. You'd think the clouds opening, divine moment happen, God say, "I am God." And and and you must know who I am in my my my glory. Hold on, just a second. Give me one second. My battery and my battery P just died. Hold on one second. Okay, that's better. So my sound went out.

So the Father could have said a bunch of things, and it would have been amazing. But guess what He does in the moment? The Father speaks. He's going to brag over His Son because that's what a father does. Is he loves talking to his children about his children. It's just who he is, provided he's a healthy father. And so he says a statement. It this is transition now because Jesus is moving from being the carpenter's son to being just somebody who is just no one knows there's something on his life that he's brought to now moving into ministry. This is a major transition. Now, in the transition of baptism, he then moves into 40 days fasting and being tempted in the wilderness. So that shows us identity is bestowed, experienced, and then it's tested. And then he came out of the wilderness with fire and began his ministry and launched it. So this is a key transition in his life that needed some some specific things that you and I need in our journey.

So the voice, the Father says, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." This statement gives us three metrics that you and I need, not only as an experience in our life, as a footprint, we need it in transitions of our life, and we need it every day. One is the Father's love for Him. "This is my beloved." And we don't talk like that. So when we read translations like this, we don't we just don't talk. No one says, "Maybe some of you in England do, I don't know." "This is my beloved." We don't talk like that. King James did. It's he's saying this. He he's dearly loved, dearly loved, special. It isn't just he he's loved. I love you. It's it's you're very precious to me. There's a deep connection to that. There's an emotional connection of deep beloved. And maybe we need to start this. Maybe we need to start using "beloved" more and more. This reveals to us the Father's love needs to be said. It's said. We we can't go, "My dad didn't say he loved me, but I knew he loved me." No, that's not how it works. He needs to say it and keep saying it. Your earthly father was designed to model what our heavenly Father showed Jesus here because the more I hear my earthly Father's love, the more it helps me tune into knowing how to hear my heavenly Father's love. So earthly fathers need to say it. They also need to model it. They model it in how they live their lives because John said he brought even more context to it in his writings. He said, "Let us not love but indeed in truth." In other words, talk can be cheap. You could say, "I love you, I love you, I love you," but we need to walk in it and model it. Otherwise, it cheapens our words.

So this starts identity. Identity development does not start with just yelling and screaming, "I know who I am in Christ," or doing a deep study on knowing who I am. That's nothing wrong with studying who you are. I got to back it up first. No, you got to know you're loved because otherwise your identity discovery is going to be performance-driven. And you're going to live under performance pressure. And you're going to be living trying to find love and approval in all the wrong places from people and your achievement and all this stuff.

Second thing he says is, "This is my beloved Son." He doesn't say, "This is the Beloved Christ, Messiah to the world." He doesn't even express that here. It's like, "Wait, no, no, no, no, no. That's what his his mission is, right? Savior of the world." Yeah, but he's my son. He's my son. And I believe this statement should be modeled for every family. That it should be echoed from every father, every mother. And there should be moments where you have this kind of encounter, and it's regularly communicated.

So he says, "This is my beloved. This is my son." And okay, then he says, "And in whom I'm well pleased." There's so much in this because it gets into validation, acceptance, approval, belonging, all those battlegrounds that we're in now. These kind of work like they they travel down. We first know we're loved. Out of love, you begin to learn who you are. You learn loved sons and daughters. And then there's a sense of this is a modern term that we use, and sometimes people get confused like, "What does that mean?" You have pride. It's a statement, "I'm proud of you." Right? It's it's a delight in you. It's not pride like I'm proud and I have pride in in a in a wrong way. It's a it's a term phrase. Some I've heard some parents say, "I'm not saying I'm proud of you because that's pride." It's like, okay, we're we're becoming obsessive compulsive.

So the Father calls out His love. Father calls out identity. Now, if if your earthly father does not call out identity, it will be difficult to comprehend your heavenly Father's love and identity that He is affirming over you and validation He's sending your way. And you will be open and vulnerable to the father of lies who wants to be your evil stepfather and tell you his counterfeit version of who he thinks you are. And he will do it in every way, shape, and form that he can. This is why I establish in my home. I'm going to. It's my job in my home to call out who my family is and to call out identity, to affirm with my words and how I live and model my life. Because I'm doing preventative work by being active, prevent the father of lies from infiltrating. He still will. He'll still do what he can. He still try. But I'm setting a template to establish this.

But He says, "And in whom I'm well pleased." Now, in this, we get approval and validation and and in all these these needs that we have in our life. What does it look like for you being seen? I noticed this in in ministering and coaching and encouraging my sisters in Christ. There's a wound of not being seen. There's a wound of not calling out your beauty by your father. So then the world dictates that now a man's affection pulls on that, or what the world says about your beauty now pulls on that because there isn't that anchor that's been established. For men, there's a sense of, "You have what it takes, and I got your back." Most men grow up in life that it's all on their own, and it's terrifying, and they're afraid. So they often become passive or in everything they do, they feel like everything's on the line. They're very anxious, very under pressure a lot because they haven't been affirmed in this identity and affirmed in, "Hey, I got your back. I'm proud of you."

So let me make this statement. If Jesus Christ, who was sinless, needed to hear His Father's love, a validation of identity, a sense of approval, then how much do you and I need that experience in our hearts? Now, you know what's interesting about this here? "This is my beloved. This is my Son. In whom I'm well pleased." He hadn't done anything yet. Hadn't raised the dead. Hadn't performed the miracles. The Father starts this chapter with love, identity, acceptance, validation, and approval. So that this becomes anchored in Him, that He doesn't get pulled from all the forces and thoughts that would want to pull on that. Ain't that interesting? Ain't that interesting? Marinate on that for just a moment. But if if He needed this, and He's sinless, don't you and I need this? Don't we need this understanding of our Father, of our Abba, of that connection to Dad? Love, Dad, given identity, bestowing to us. Our mental and emotional health is built upon experiencing love, knowing who we are, and having a sense of relational approval that includes validation, acceptance, and all those things. And they are also the areas that are under attack in the midst of our mental health struggles.

Now, many times, um, I'll get letters from parents and they'll go, "Does approval and acceptance mean I approve their behavior that I think is sinful or wrong?" That can go into a list of whole different areas, right? Because often times we get lost in, "Do I approve and accept that?" And we have to take a step back and go, "Wait, we're talk I'm not talk when I'm talking about approval, not talking about waiting till they're older, they're making bad choices, and the world will say, 'We just got to approve everything. Just love people and just approve everything.'" I'm going, "Wait, back in the beginning was that I see who you are. I love who you are. And I receive who you are." That's established from the beginning. Was that pattern? We focus, "Should I approve this behavior? Should I approve that?" Wait a second. We're focused on the wrong thing. We have to take a step back and go, "Wait, was that established in their life?" Because if not, maybe God can do some work in our life. Maybe there's things that He can begin to do in us as parents to go, "Uh, God, that wasn't done, and that needs to be healed." And I want to I want to pray into who my son or who my daughter really is in Christ. And I want to pray into that and put my attention into that. Because so many of our mental health battles are around this.

Now, all of us are asking the question on a daily basis, regular basis, "Am I loved? Am I loved all day long?" You know, you may not actively be saying it. You go, "Am I loved? Am I loved? Who am I in the midst of all this? Who who am I in the midst of this world, midst of my family, midst of who who am I in the midst of this? And do I matter? Is what I do, who I am, to make a difference?"

Now, I mentioned to you that Jesus hadn't started His ministry because, um, many of us at this moment of baptism, we would hear the Father say, "I'm proud of you," basically, "I'm well pleased." And we we'd go, "What did he do?" Well, he's a carpenter's kid. Uh, uh, is God proud of the the garage he built? What do you do? Because our metrics of pride is based on performance. Our metrics of approval, validation, "I love you, I receive you," is based on performance metrics. But in the kingdom of God, we live as sons and daughters from love and approval, not for love and approval. We live from love and approval, from love received, right? Now, I'm going to live from that rather than trying to live for it. "God, I'm going to prove to you. Going to prove to you." Or trying to prove to other people so that we can feel that we are loved and that we matter.

Now, identity gets tested because Jesus goes out into the wilderness. And everything the devil said to him was, "If you're the Son, if you're the Son, if you're the Son." He's constantly accusing us all day long. The Bible says he's the accuser of their brethren, day and night. He is firing off arrows before the throne. He's accusing us. And we're hearing it in our thoughts from time to time. We're getting hit in our thinking. And so Jesus was tested as identity. So are you. When we we we keep arguing back and debating back and instead of steady, steady. Jesus didn't get into compulsive debates. He made one statement. That's it. Moving forward. Now, some of us think, "Well, I got to argue back with the word of God to my intrusive thoughts." And Jesus wasn't arguing back. It was one statement. Moving forward. It wasn't repeating over and over again and and and arguing back and and oh no, that's it. Moving forward. And that's what you need to do in your journey. This is what God says about me. I'm moving forward. I'm moving through the fear. I'm moving through the guilt. I'm moving through the accusation. I'm moving through what I fear because my identity is going to be strengthened moving through this test and this challenge. When we're not rooted in who we are, we become vulnerable to all kinds of thoughts because we're insecure in who we are.

So I want to remind you of how identity in Christ is nurtured. It's first nurtured and developed by knowing who who you're loved by the Father. That total unconditional loving acceptance and receiving of the Father. Learning how to receive that. Learning how to connect to that. And then in that, when you see yourself through the lens of Father God's love, it helps you to see yourself the way that He sees you. You develop a a father heart lens of how He sees you. And He sees you in Christ. So that brings about the work of grace because there's an empowerment to live in that. I'll read this from my book, "The OCD Healing Journey." When you begin doing some heart work with OCD strugglers, they admit to a deep struggle in connecting to the Father's love, especially in the midst of an obsession where they don't feel very lovable. This is not because their salvation is invalid, they haven't repented enough, or they need to work harder on their spiritual rituals. The real reason comes down to a broken heart. They've not been discipled on what it means to live in love and receive that great love. They have been taught endlessly on serving, denial, and sacrifice. But the most important eternal precepts, the most the most important eternal precept, the love of God, has not been thoroughly equipped in their hearts.

So we we develop a connection of being loved by the Father. We learn to see ourselves the way the Father sees us. And then we practice being loved sons and daughters. I started this many, many years ago as a simple practice before I would run off to work. At the time, I was working on staff. I was a pastor on staff at a church, very busy, a lot going on. And I had to learn how to detox business and and performance pressured living and all that. So I just a simple exercise. Before I ran out the door, I would just pause, sit down for a moment, I'd put my hand over my heart, and I would just think about and say, even in my words, "Father, thank you that You love me. And I just want to connect to that love right now. And I just want to call um my mind and my heart to peace right now that I'm loved and I receive that love." Now, so I don't go out there looking for love in all the wrong places and all the ways that will not serve the journey for I'm a loved Son. And I say yes to that. I just take a moment. Wouldn't be very long, but I was calibrating. And what I was doing was I was allowing a re-aligning to take place in our life, in my life. Because many of our issues, identity issues, stem back to a lack of fathering. We have absent fathers, performance-driven fathers, perfectionistic fathers, addict fathers, emotionally distant fathers, passive fathers. You have a combination of many of those things. Because an earthly father, he walks with you during transitions. He walks with you in general. But during transitions, number one, he's aware of what you're going through. He's mindful, creates presence, proximity. He communicates love and reinforces it. He calls out and he reminds you of who you are. Remember, if he doesn't, the father of lies will tell you. And that's where in life, the transitions that we crash, it's like the curves in in the curves in driving, it's like we just crash into the into the guard rails. He equips you in it. So here's some things that you can you can practice. He'll share with you his own journey, his own learning, because he's not an expert, he's still learning. Conversations, time, attention. He believes in you and he launches you. This this what I'm setting here as a script is so absent in society. And most of the problems in mental health, most of the problems you read about, hear about the news, is talking about. Do you notice what we're not? We're ignoring is the role of the Father's Heart. We're ignoring it in the world. We're ignoring it in the church because we are uncomfortable with talking about father, talking about Dad.

Now, I'm going to get into in closing, I'm going to get into a second aspect of transition that Jesus worked through. This one's powerful. The other one was too, but this is powerful. Uh, it's found in Mark 14. I'm going to switch over to to Bible here on the screen. Mark 14:33-2. Jesus is now in another transition where He's about to now go to the cross. This was painful, incredibly painful, incredibly difficult, challenging. He goes to a place where it's named Gethsemane. And He said to His disciples, "Sit here while I pray." And just that alone, they fell asleep. They can't stay awake. They leave Him hanging, very alone. He took Peter, James, and John, His in, that's His inner circle. And He began to be troubled and deeply distressed. And He says a statement that a lot of preachers can't handle, can't handle this, especially Word of Faith preachers, especially a lot of superstitious name and claim, "Oh, don't say that, don't say this." Or historically, the church that said if you said this, it meant you weren't saved. Go back church history. And a lot of the false, deceptive, I'd even say abusive teachings that told people when they were having sorrow or depression, it meant because salvation is distant from them. Such a lie. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, says, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death." We don't know what to do with that because we have no room for that in church culture. We have no room for, "I am so depressed." So we either go, "Oh, you you see a counselor." Nothing wrong with a counselor. Or you just need to have prayer. Nothing wrong with prayer. Let's quickly fix this because something's wrong with you. Instead of recognizing you're going through something that you're going to, there's an experience taking place here. Jesus, it didn't end there because because most many preachers today on TV would go to Jesus, "Don't claim that you're speaking death over yourself." You see, there's just so many things that this verse just threatens in a lot of teaching. He didn't stop there and went further. He fell on the ground. Come on, Jesus, where's your faith? And prayed, "If it was possible, the hour might pass from." He wants to get out of this. We don't know what to do with this because we can all agree, well, hopefully that He s L. But this here shows us the struggle within emotion. We see emotions so black and white. We don't know that how to recognize I'm going through something. OCDers are so black and white. These kind of verses just mess you up, don't they? He said, "Man, I want to get rid of this. I'm I'm out. This is too much." The reality of the sins of the world. I can't comprehend that. But the reality of the sins of the world starting to creep in on Him, the weight of it, the gravity of this moment, because what's going to happen at the cross will historically change things forever. That there's a heavy weight on Him.

So I want I want to build all this up because within this, He's going to cry out to God. In this, He's going to call upon God for strength. But He doesn't go, "Dear Heavenly Father, with all shouts thy benevolence forth with, albeit we be minor meritorious of thine favor and all your benevolent goodness, will you shown shine thine mercy upon me?" You know what He says? "Abba." Sorry if this wakes you up if you're falling asleep listening to this. He says, "Abba." Which translated speaks Dad. And used three times in the scriptures. He's saying, "Dad, my Father, everything's possible. I don't I don't want this right now." But He was able to align in, "Nevertheless, not what I will, but You will." He was able to align in what God's doing because of His connection to Dad.

Now, many OCDers, they're obsessed with God's will. And they think God's will is, "If I want to do this, God wants the opposite." You have, you have, I have to, I have to bring an explanation in here because there's a lot of confusion over God's will. Don't trip up on that. "I'm not in His will. I'm out of His will. I think I'm in His will. I'm out of His will." Christians are obsessed with God's will. "Am I in it? Am I out of it? I slipped. I took left. Took right. Oh, I'm went over here. Oh, I'm out. I'm in. I'm in." We treat God's will as there was this thing that could just like you just fall out of. That's a whole different subject. Stay with me. And where my point is, my point is, is that what He went through was difficult. He was honest about it. He expressed it. And what gave Him strength to go through what He knew was the assignment on His life was Dad. Because when you and I are going through a struggle, you know what you really need? You need your Dad. That's what you need. Now, you may not recognize that in the moment. You need your Dad to do what? Solve your your your thought process? No, you need your Dad to love you, remind you of who you are, and remind you you have what it takes to get through this. You can do this. You can overcome this. I believe in you to fill the the tank of faith in your life, to breathe in into that.

So my in this session, this is more of an extended session for the the OCD healing Journey course. But what would it look like for you if each day you took a moment, a gentle moment, to remind yourself, "Father, You love me. I thank You for Your love. Thank You that I'm a son. Or thank You that I'm a daughter. I love You. Thank You for Your love. I receive that love. I thank You that You validate me. You see me. You receive me. You accept me. You take me in right now. And I connect to that love." What would your day look like if every day you took a moment of pause to just reflect on that and practice living out of just being a son, not of just being a daughter? It would make you way more open to learning, to growing, to learning from your mistakes, to learning through the ups and downs, the testing, the trials, and allow that to be developed in you. And so Father, I pray in Jesus name, You'd take this. You'd embed it into our hearts in a meaningful way that we would learn how to be receivers of Your love for us, learn how to take that in and let it have a meaningful work in how we think, how we feel, how we relate. I praise You for that because I know it's going to have a work and seeds are are being planted in it and there's growth taking place. And I thank You for that in Jesus name, I pray. Amen.

It's great to be with you. And you can you can go further into more of this extensively in the uh Healing and Freedom Community where I'm teaching on the OCD Healing Journey. Get a copy of that right now if you want to do some more identity work. You can go also go into the topics page, click on identity at Markjesus.com. And if some of what I shared today resonated with you, you can go into "Exposing the Rejection Mindset" material because that will take you on a journey in learning to develop that connection to love. And you can also get a a free copy of my book, "Experiencing God's Love as Your Father." Lots of resources, lots of stuff there that you can you can take advantage of. And uh, I appreciate. Thank you so much for the happy birthday wishes. Appreciate that. I'm going to go uh try to see if we can spend some time as a family today. Although there's going to be a going to be a storm later, so we we'll see if it's going to be possible. We had another one this week and maybe another one later. We'll see. So "Lwell in the creek don't rise" certainly is uh is true. So thanks Griffin. Thank you so much Andy. Appreciate the many Mark. Happy birthday. Appreciate that. Appreciate the love. Yeah, um, thank you. I'm glad Andy, I could be a ray of sunshine to you. So let the sun shine in, my brother. Thank you everyone. I'm oh, I'm just seeing all the happy birthday wishes here. Um, Amy, I'm glad your content has been life-changing for me. Um, how do female hormones and the spike during PMS play a role in OCD and anxiety? Did you send me a question? Because somebody sent me a question on that. I'd like to have my wife uh in on this when we um, we talk about it. Because yeah, it does play a role. That's a transition. Female hormones uh start to change, you know, in that 12 to 14 as a woman uh, so so important. In in a father, fathers can be like, "Oh, that's uncomfortable." I I'm like, "No, I don't want anything to be uncomfortable." You know, obviously Melissa has a lot more things to say and navigating through that and walking through through it. Um, she's a nurturer, but I'm also there in just creating that safety and stability emotionally, hanging in there with that. And then uh, later in life, those transitions, then there's then there's the menopause transition. Becomes a rough ride for sure. And a lot of kindness is needed during those times, compassion and grace. And recognizing where certainly hormones have a massive impact in mood. A lot of us are having certain chemical changes going on, we don't even we don't even know. But if we're gracious to ourselves, it helps us to learn what we need to learn in the transition in those times, in those seasons. So I pray that's helpful. Um, I just appreciate all the kindness here. See you guys interacting with each other. It's great. Thank you for the happy birthday wishes. And uh, look forward to more great materials. "Lwell in the creek don't rise." It's your brother from another mother saying I'll be back with more insights for your healing and your freedom journey. But in the meantime, I'm out y'all. Love y'all. Have a great rest of the Friday. Have a great weekend. We look forward to to more live broadcasts. So see you soon.