Latest / Witness the Wonder Christian Podcast: Supernatural Christian Testimonies, Miracles, and God Stories / Redefining Failure | What Failure Really Reveals | Pastor Duke White Jr.
Transcript
- 0:00It just didn't happen the way I thought it was, and it didn't
- 0:03happen in the top I thought it was.
- 0:05I got in my head all by myself, didn't talk to anyone.
- 0:09I was trying to be strong, pretending that I wasn't
- 0:12completely destroyed inside. Have you ever felt like failure
- 0:17disqualified you? This episode will help you see
- 0:20what failure actually. Reveals welcome to witness the.
- 0:25Wonder I'm your host, Christina Smith.
- 0:27Today, we're going to talk. About something we all face
- 0:30failure. And my guest today is Pastor
- 0:33Duke White. Junior.
- 0:34He is the Co founder of the Goodview Network and.
- 0:37Also he is the. Host of real.
- 0:39Life with Duke White Duke Let's let's have a discussion.
- 0:42About failure, we all go through it.
- 0:45Failure is the the only opportunity a lot of times that
- 0:49we get to really come in contact with who Jesus actually is.
- 0:54When I think about the scripture where he says that I've come for
- 0:58the broken, the oppressed, the blind, and sometimes we think
- 1:02that that's a scripture about him, which it is, but it's
- 1:05equally a scripture about who we are without him.
- 1:08We are these absolute failures without him.
- 1:12And so my personal story reflects that.
- 1:15And it's weird because we are terms like we're more than
- 1:18conquerors, we're victorious. That is true.
- 1:21We can go through so much in life that we often forget that
- 1:25he's already defined us as reborn, resurrected.
- 1:29We resurrected with him. We can go through stuff in
- 1:32moments that a lot of times in my, my personal experience, I
- 1:36defined myself by my failures, not by his promise.
- 1:42And I wanted that conversation because this is an age where so
- 1:47many Christians are trying to be creative, trying to find their
- 1:50identity. They, they know that God's
- 1:52called them. There's something, but they're
- 1:53faced with these constant failures.
- 1:56And often we think it's the enemy.
- 1:58And then a lot of times it's not just the enemy, It's also our
- 2:02inadequacies and these challenges and how and failure
- 2:06has such a bad reputation. But often God uses that failure
- 2:11to show us our vulnerability and our absolute dependency on who
- 2:17he is. I've been pastoring for 25 years
- 2:19and I've experienced such utter calamity in my life.
- 2:23Usually that calamity comes when I try to do things that only he
- 2:28can do and how to interpret that.
- 2:30You know, it's like God, you've given me this ability, but every
- 2:33time I try to do something, it blows up in my face.
- 2:36Believers were to be honest, there's a lot of times we just
- 2:39want to throw our hands up and just walk away.
- 2:41But there's something inside of us that doesn't allow us to do
- 2:43that. So I'm going to start really
- 2:46with understanding that failure doesn't feel good, but it can be
- 2:51such a weapon to keep us humble to to keep us focused on on who
- 2:56God is and how much we need him. Most people don't understand
- 2:59this, but even in the physical realm or when, when athletes
- 3:02work out, they actually work to failure because that's the only
- 3:06way to get stronger, you know, is, is to to what comes against
- 3:10you. And so if we learn to get a new
- 3:13word association, a new emotional association with the
- 3:16word failure, it actually helps us achieve more and realize, oh,
- 3:20this is what it means to be more than a conqueror.
- 3:23I had a business, a Christian clothing line coming soon,
- 3:26Jesus. It's it's still there, We're
- 3:28still doing it. But right now the focus is good
- 3:30view. So, but 2023 years of my life
- 3:34was coming soon, Jesus. The goal was to get the shirts,
- 3:36say coming soon on the front, Jesus on the back.
- 3:39God had me started in the mall. I used to be an evangelist in
- 3:42the mall. I still am.
- 3:43I would go to the mall. God would tell me to go to the
- 3:45mall and I'd preach in the mall and then I'd get kicked out and
- 3:48I'm like, what do you keep telling me to come here?
- 3:50Like am I being crazy? I'm doubting myself?
- 3:53Oh my God, I keep getting kicked out.
- 3:55And and he gave me a word. He said that the people that are
- 3:59in the mall, they paid a price to be there.
- 4:02Are you willing to pay that price?
- 4:04And I said, yes, Lord, I'm willing to pay that price.
- 4:06Immediately fear comes in and I'm like wait a minute, I can't
- 4:09afford to be in the mall. It's going to be like twenty
- 4:11$30,000 a month and I don't know where to start.
- 4:14Now I'm feeling like a failure because of my own fear and I
- 4:18haven't even really talked to God about The Who, what, when,
- 4:21where or how. But now leaving that I can't
- 4:25already spend about 12 years go by and I don't even try but it's
- 4:30haunting me. And then I decide I'm going to
- 4:33go at least find out after 12 years up and I'm selling the
- 4:36shirts at different events like that.
- 4:38But he keeps calling me to go to the mall and so I finally go
- 4:41there and find out the the actual cost was $2000 a month.
- 4:47Right, right. Oh my God, I could do that.
- 4:50We go into the mall and we're all optimistic and I bring my
- 4:53family. We have this family business.
- 4:55We're running it. It's wonderful.
- 4:57And the excitement wears off and it's like, wait a second, this
- 5:00is, this is not going well. People are not coming to the
- 5:03mall to, to find Jesus. But but something interesting.
- 5:06The same security guards, they used to kick me out now work for
- 5:10us. Now they're, they're there to
- 5:11protect us. So there's this shit.
- 5:13I'm like, well, that's cool. However, this is not cool
- 5:16because now it's a financial burden and that, that sense of
- 5:19failure is starting to come. We were there for about 3 years
- 5:22and I pretty much invested everything that I had into it.
- 5:25And I'm focusing on how much the the, the stress and the
- 5:29oppression. I'm not even seeing the amount
- 5:32of people they got saved at the kiosk.
- 5:34We were ministering and preaching to people and sharing
- 5:36the gospel like we were supposed to be.
- 5:39And it was so effective. And we weren't getting kicked
- 5:41out. Lives were being changed.
- 5:43But all I could focus was the failure.
- 5:46I couldn't see any of the good because the money wasn't coming
- 5:49in, the support wasn't there. I was discouraged.
- 5:52Oh my God, what are you doing? I'm like, I counted the cost
- 5:55and, and, and now this is happening.
- 5:57Well, the malls started dying and the COVID thing happened and
- 6:02it's starting to get worse. Depression starts coming in.
- 6:05I'm watching my children watch me handle the stress, the
- 6:09depression, and I'm failing as an example, as a leader, as a
- 6:14father. Now they're watching me preach,
- 6:15but at home, they're watching the the effect of failure
- 6:20happening to me. So they're looking for a strong
- 6:22leader. They're looking for their dad to
- 6:23be who he preaches about, and I'm battling it.
- 6:26The next thing I know, the depression leads to to alcohol,
- 6:29and I started drinking. I was this close to becoming an
- 6:32alcoholic. It didn't help me make it make
- 6:34anything better, but it was like, at least I knew what I was
- 6:36going to get out of the alcohol, right?
- 6:38I'm still preaching, but nobody understood the pain that I was
- 6:43going through. Then I couldn't take it anymore
- 6:46and the next day I know I'm closing the kiosk because the
- 6:50the the money wasn't there, the support wasn't there.
- 6:53I'm angry at the body of Christ. I'm angry at the lack lack of
- 6:56support. And then I have about $20 in my
- 6:59pocket when I get a request to go to this thing called NRB.
- 7:05I'm just like, yeah, God, of course you want me to go to NRB
- 7:08with 20 bucks in my pocket. I don't even know what this
- 7:10thing is. I I kind of got this snazzy
- 7:12attitude. Like, you know what?
- 7:13God, you're the same one that told me to go into do the mall
- 7:16thing. Let me show everybody how you
- 7:19treat me. So I'm literally with 20 bucks
- 7:21in my pocket going to driving to Florida and I'm like, when the
- 7:25car breaks down, God, you know, like, remember, this is what you
- 7:27told me to do. And I'm on Facebook Live having
- 7:30a hissy fit because I'm I'm a drama queen.
- 7:32I'm whining up everybody. The body of Christ didn't
- 7:35support and I'm mad, but I'm like, I'm going to keep the
- 7:38faith and I'm being sarcastic as you can be.
- 7:40I'm telling people what's going on and I'm like, and then he
- 7:43tells me to go to Florida. You know this and that, you
- 7:45know, and I've lost everything. And then people start sending me
- 7:49cash apps to get to NRB safely. It's not even dawning on me that
- 7:53the CEO of NRB actually not only invited me, said, Hey, your
- 7:58tickets going to be taking care of me want you there.
- 8:00They, they saw my television broadcast that I was also on,
- 8:03which also no money was coming in.
- 8:05So I'm just putting out thousands of dollars each month,
- 8:07stressing out again, not considering how many souls are
- 8:11being saved and and all this good stuff.
- 8:13All I can think about is failure.
- 8:15I'm obsessed with failure. It feels terrible.
- 8:19I get an RV 1 miracle after another meeting.
- 8:22The Warrior riders was one of them.
- 8:24One miracle that happened. I end up meeting all these
- 8:26wonderful people. All of a sudden I can't see the
- 8:29failure. I like, wow, God, one miracle
- 8:31after another and guess what happens?
- 8:33I go, I knew you were gonna do something like I knew I had the
- 8:36faith the whole time and God's like, no, you were not doing
- 8:39that. I end up meeting organization
- 8:43that develops television networks and he offers me this
- 8:47opportunity to have a television network.
- 8:49And then when I hear the price, I'm like, yeah, great.
- 8:52I got you're talking to the guy who got here on a miracle, you
- 8:55know, and on the way back, God tells me exactly who to talk to
- 8:59about this, who is now my business partner.
- 9:02When I talk to my friend about it, he says, I believe in the
- 9:05vision, let's do it. And the next thing you know,
- 9:07good views born. And I'm confused because coming
- 9:11soon, Jesus, the kiosk was supposed to be what paid for the
- 9:15television network. And I'm going to wait a second.
- 9:17Hold on, God, you did exactly what you said you were going to
- 9:21do, and then I got consumed by failure.
- 9:23You were consistent and like what happened, It's here, the
- 9:28promise is here. Why all the emotional trauma and
- 9:32drama? And then I realized I didn't
- 9:34trust Him through my failure, what I was identifying as
- 9:38failure. What we hold on to because we're
- 9:40afraid of failure. We don't have to remember that
- 9:43surrendering it over to God is part of the process of success.
- 9:48Surrendering surrendering it over to God When a when a tree
- 9:52drops a seed let's it go, it takes root, it goes through its
- 9:55process and I realize wow, God was taking me through.
- 10:00Then all of a sudden good views here and coming soon.
- 10:03Jesus is still here. It just didn't happen the way I
- 10:06thought it was, and it didn't happen in the top thought it
- 10:09was. And now I'm thinking, wait a
- 10:11second, who did I become in between that fear, failure and
- 10:15faith? And I realized I got in my head
- 10:18all by myself, didn't talk to anyone.
- 10:21I was trying to be strong, pretending that I wasn't
- 10:23completely destroyed inside. So often we look at our
- 10:29callings, the things that we're doing as maybe not as big, that
- 10:34maybe it's a failure compared to what someone else is out there
- 10:38doing. I want to take a moment to thank
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- 10:55If you'd like to learn more or get their free information kit,
- 10:58you'll find the link at christinasmithofficial.com.
- 11:02That's christinasmithofficial.com.
- 11:04Everyone's How you doing, Duke? I'm fine, you know, the whole,
- 11:07you know, being polite, being strong because you got to walk
- 11:10in faith. So I'm not trying to be
- 11:12discouraging, but the more people I talked to, they said we
- 11:15saw your discouragement because you when I would go live to try
- 11:19to advertise, each one got a little bit more and more
- 11:21negative to the point at the very end it was more like where
- 11:25is everybody help me, We're drowning.
- 11:27Reminds me of Jesus sleep on the boat.
- 11:29He's like, don't you care that we're dying?
- 11:31We're going to drown. And I realized we can maneuver
- 11:36through failure a lot better when we don't forget to trust
- 11:41him. And, and and that's the real
- 11:44challenge. When we feel like we're failing,
- 11:48we have to really hunker down and say, OK, Lord, what are you
- 11:51really doing? Not what do I think you're
- 11:53doing, but show me what you're really doing.
- 11:56And, and my entire life was like that, this.
- 11:59And he started to walk me through real deliverance from
- 12:03this fear of failure because I, I had such a negative word
- 12:09association with it. You know, I, I've had people
- 12:14call me stupid because they didn't understand my creativity.
- 12:17So then I got caught up in trying to prove who I was.
- 12:20Then I didn't realize I can't control how people see me.
- 12:24You can't. You, you can best person in the
- 12:26world with the best heart in the world, the best intentions and
- 12:29people be like, yeah, we just don't believe you.
- 12:31You're too good to be true. Or you're just trying to get
- 12:33money or whatever the situation is.
- 12:35You're trying to make sure people see you the right way.
- 12:38All that stuff happened very young in my life because we live
- 12:41in a culture that seeks approval and what happens?
- 12:44Failure in getting people to see you the right way.
- 12:47Now we're consumed by that. And I realized how much of our
- 12:50lives is occupied trying to avoid the inevitable failure.
- 12:55It's going to happen. And then I begin to see the
- 12:58success stories of celebrities and made proudly without a
- 13:01nonchalantly talked about how much they failed or a movie they
- 13:04made bombed. I'm like, how come the world has
- 13:07such confidence? How come they're not afraid of
- 13:09failure? How come they just keep going?
- 13:12And I realized because they believe in themselves.
- 13:15And this is where the mystery kicks in.
- 13:16What's the difference between pride and confidence?
- 13:18How do I know where where my ability still is not enough?
- 13:23When do I ask for help? All these things, these all play
- 13:26a part in how we're going to interpret what failure actually
- 13:30is. When I realized so many people
- 13:33won't take chances because of their fear of failure, then
- 13:37other people will do the exact opposite and take unnecessary
- 13:41chances. And I'm like God, Well, where is
- 13:43the balance? The balance actually is in
- 13:45surrender. Saying God, only you can do this
- 13:48moving forward while being surrendered is a key element in
- 13:53deliverance from the fear of failure.
- 13:55When we accept that failure is a form of transformation, it
- 14:00really is because most people are living according to their
- 14:04emotions and emotions can be extremely deceptive.
- 14:09First of all, when when fear gets involved, you're going to
- 14:11misinterpret everything with fear if you're looking through
- 14:13the lens of fear. So if I put on my fear lenses,
- 14:16I'm afraid of everything. I'm afraid of doing nothing.
- 14:19I'm afraid of good things, I'm afraid of bad things.
- 14:21I'm afraid of everyone. We've got to be able to make
- 14:23sure we're looking through the lens of faith because that's the
- 14:27only true way that we realize that.
- 14:30And there's no such thing as a wasted moment.
- 14:32God's always moving us forward. But if we're not careful, when
- 14:37we define ourselves as failure, failures, not having a moment
- 14:41where we failed or a moment where we made a mistake.
- 14:45In the movies, they go take one, take two, this is a mistake.
- 14:49And so God says, do it again. You're going to get it right.
- 14:52When I realized that 25 years still ministering, leading
- 14:56people to the Lord, but inside I still saw myself as a failure.
- 15:01I realized because I was not only trying to do what only God
- 15:04could do, but I missed this revelation, but even what he
- 15:06wanted to do through me still required community and I'm like
- 15:10we're the body of Christ, every believer like we're we're
- 15:15necessary. So the truth of the matter is it
- 15:18was impossible not only to do it with God, but without God, but
- 15:21it's also impossible to do it without community.
- 15:24And by connecting to community, what that actually did for me
- 15:28was help me find peace, Help me realize that we were never meant
- 15:32to do this alone. That when you find community,
- 15:35when you, when you allow not only God to order your steps,
- 15:38his steps are not going to necessarily just lead you to
- 15:42your destiny. He's going to lead you to the
- 15:44people that are supposed to be a part of your destiny.
- 15:48We're all part of the story of God, and He's bringing us
- 15:52together for His story, His completion.
- 15:56A lot of times we'll take our ministries and our ministry
- 15:59becomes our identity, which is a big mistake.
- 16:02And then, you know, then, then we define ourselves by how well
- 16:06we do our ministries. When God is really calling,
- 16:09calling us to rest, he's calling us to peace.
- 16:12If you look at all the promises of God, usually he's telling the
- 16:15human to obey and then he will do this go throughout the
- 16:19scriptures. All he's asking us is to do is
- 16:21to be available and he will open this door.
- 16:24I remember holding so tightly to coming soon Jesus, and now you
- 16:27guys got to remember it wasn't just a brand for me.
- 16:30It was this, this divine revelation that Jesus is really
- 16:33coming soon. When we miss opportunities to
- 16:35celebrate what He's doing because we're so focused on
- 16:38failure, it comes off as ungratefulness.
- 16:42But really it is a striving to please God.
- 16:46And that's not what He wants. He doesn't want us striving.
- 16:49He wants us to trust Him. He wants us and rest and failure
- 16:54comes in when we don't actually respect rest in peace, you know,
- 16:59that's when the misinterpretation of failure
- 17:01comes in, you know, and that's, that's a very hard thing to do
- 17:05because especially if you're a doer, right?
- 17:08You know, because you're a doer. I understand that one exactly.
- 17:11Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's just like, you know, we
- 17:15don't celebrate like I wasn't good enough.
- 17:18And this is going to sound awful when I say it.
- 17:21One of the things that that that God showed me through keeping my
- 17:25eyes focused on Jesus is with the naked eye.
- 17:27You see failure everywhere in the ministry of Jesus.
- 17:31The rich young ruler reject Jesus.
- 17:34They called him a devil casting out devils with devils, you
- 17:37know, isn't he the carpenter's son?
- 17:39There was this always this doubting there was a where
- 17:42there's a scripture where he's preaching in his own family,
- 17:45sees the intensity of the rejection that he's going
- 17:47through. And they were like, OK, they're
- 17:49not receiving calm down. And they begin to mock him.
- 17:51And he says, my mother and father are those that do the
- 17:54will of God. And then of course, the
- 17:56crucifixion biggest 1 is that it's it's in John 666.
- 18:02Matter of fact. Well, it's the scariest
- 18:04scripture. He had 500 disciples that walked
- 18:07away from him leaving only the 12th and he asked them us will
- 18:12you leave too? And they said where would we go?
- 18:15You have the words of life. Their ability to not look at the
- 18:20situation as failure, even though with the naked eye they
- 18:23they saw something different. And the reason why they saw
- 18:25something different because they didn't just follow Jesus when he
- 18:29was preaching, they were intimate with him.
- 18:32And so because they were intimate with him, they're like,
- 18:34hey, 500 people can walk away. We watched him walk on water.
- 18:37500 people can walk away. We watched him feed 5000 with
- 18:41five loaves of bread and two fish.
- 18:42We we saw him raise the dead. They were so confident in their
- 18:46intimacy with him. But but it wasn't the miracles.
- 18:49They said, you have the words of life.
- 18:53Well, this lets me know because we have to be very careful that
- 18:56when we're being ambitious and we're trying to please God and
- 18:59we're trying to do the will of God that we feed on the words of
- 19:05life, not the the the technology, not our ability.
- 19:10What's the newest trend? What are we supposed to be no
- 19:12feed on the words of life. Stay in that surrendered
- 19:15position because one thing's for sure is challenges are going to
- 19:19come like Peter walking on water and it's like, how do you please
- 19:23this Jesus you walk on water. He gets distracted, he sees the
- 19:26wave and and he sinks and Jesus picks him up and say ye of
- 19:30little faith. It's like, well, what about the
- 19:32fact that I just took a couple good steps.
- 19:34This is a very defining moment of what failure looks like.
- 19:37Peter, he didn't get in his head and go, well, I'm the only one
- 19:41that got out of the boat. He he wasn't offended.
- 19:43He just, yeah, messed up. But he then he gets back and
- 19:46stays focused on Jesus. When you started talking about
- 19:49Peter, I was thinking about it, but I was thinking about it from
- 19:52a different perspective. I was thinking about it from the
- 19:56standpoint of all the disciples that didn't get out of the boat.
- 20:00And how much of A failure they probably thought of themselves
- 20:04in that moment. They're like man Peters like
- 20:07getting all this recognition from Jesus.
- 20:10Jesus said upon this rock, I will build my church and like
- 20:14there was a lot of especially on the show the chosen they were
- 20:19show them as being competitive a little bit wanting to know who's
- 20:22going to sit beside Jesus in heaven competing over his
- 20:26attention, his affection and we know he was he loved each of
- 20:30them equally, even though he recognized each of them's would
- 20:33serve a different purpose in his father's plan.
- 20:37So often we look at our callings, the things that we're
- 20:42doing in our for the Lord as maybe not as big that maybe it's
- 20:47a failure compared to what someone else is out there doing.
- 20:52You know what I mean? If you are planted exactly where
- 20:55he has you doing exactly what he's called you to do, and it's
- 21:00not a failure if it's not some big gigantic ministry.
- 21:04You know, we all have these like grandeur ideas that we have
- 21:08called to do this big ministry out there.
- 21:12And what if he's called you to be the best mom that you could
- 21:15be because you're raising up the next Billy Graham.
- 21:19You know, you're raising up someone who is going to have a
- 21:22huge calling. Think about Mary.
- 21:25I mean, it was all she did was birth the son of God, like like
- 21:28all she did, right? Like but what if she?
- 21:32Didn't like all I am was a dad. All I am was a mom.
- 21:35Right, exactly. Her job was to carry the Son of
- 21:39God and to raise him. I mean that alone.
- 21:42It would be intimidating, the call.
- 21:45And there's a massive lesson in that when when we're walking in
- 21:50faith, it doesn't mean that failure is not going to come,
- 21:53but what makes a difference? How?
- 21:55How fast do we repent? How fast do we depend?
- 21:59How fast do we cry out to him? Lord save me.
- 22:02Because that becomes a defining moment that redefines failure.
- 22:07So failure is a awesome opportunity to cry out to Jesus
- 22:12and and instead of being discouraged, because discourage
- 22:16is a product of failure, discouragement means your
- 22:19courage has been dismantled. Most people and too many people
- 22:23think discouragement is the same thing as depression and they're
- 22:26not. Discouragement means your
- 22:28courage has been dismantled and you don't have the inner
- 22:32fortitude to keep going. You like, oh, this battle was
- 22:36too hard, and you don't even realize that you can still fight
- 22:40because because you're still here.
- 22:41You didn't quit. It's only true failure when
- 22:44you've actually stopped. And if you stopped in your mind,
- 22:47you're actually going to stop in your faith, you're going to stop
- 22:50in your heart, and you're not going to give a true chance for
- 22:54transformation to take place. It's important for people who
- 22:58are creative, whether you're writing a book, whether you're
- 23:01making music or whatever you're doing as you offer these things
- 23:05for God, that you don't get deceived by failure.
- 23:08And in the first case that we knew biblically that this was
- 23:11going to be a problem. The first case obviously is Adam
- 23:13and Eve failure. They failed, right?
- 23:16However, we that we can't dismiss that failure came,
- 23:20judgement came, consequence came, but also grace.
- 23:25Even though they left the presence of God, they came back
- 23:28and, and, and, and instead of cursing them, he curses the
- 23:31earth in their stead and then gives them grace.
- 23:34Still consequence, but he gives them grace for their failure.
- 23:38You see the second case with Cain and Abel, his worship was
- 23:42rejected and the opportunity that God was given him, giving
- 23:47him was to overcome. He says, why is your countenance
- 23:51falling right. So when we when we fail, our
- 23:54countenance falls and and sometimes it can come from God
- 23:59rejecting an idea because we can have good intentions, but are
- 24:03they God ideas? God ideas don't fail, good
- 24:07intentions do. That's a hard thing to process.
- 24:10And you watch Cain struggle with that And then what does Cain do?
- 24:13He operates in his emotional idolatry and ends up taking his
- 24:17brother's life again. Failure in relationship, failure
- 24:21in emotional management. But what does God do?
- 24:24Grace shows up. Third case, Noah.
- 24:28Noah. Mankind has completely failed.
- 24:30Judgment comes. God judges the hearts of man,
- 24:33but Noah finds grace, you know, and that story repeats itself
- 24:38where humans especially, even when you get more defined to the
- 24:41children of Abraham, they fail. David fails, failures everywhere
- 24:46throughout the Scripture. It's never about our failure.
- 24:50It's always about what God does with our hearts.
- 24:53And it's so important to get ego out of the way.
- 24:56And we've got to practice surrender.
- 24:59We've got to practice accountability.
- 25:01We got to be honest with ourselves and have these honest
- 25:03conversations. And I, I, I think I got a little
- 25:07ambitious and got ahead of you or God, I, I think I doubted
- 25:10you. I know I doubted you, you know,
- 25:12or God, I, I think I, I, I was too zealous.
- 25:16Do you see what I'm saying? And especially when we live in a
- 25:21culture where success has this presentation.
- 25:25But for the believer, the same way we have to redefine failure
- 25:28is the same way we have to redefine success because
- 25:31ultimately the goal is to get people into heaven.
- 25:35When I even though I lost the kiosk due to failure and, and
- 25:40the feeling the business, the amount of people whose lives
- 25:43were touched, I learned when I redefined failure, I learned how
- 25:47to appreciate all those moments that I overlooked that I
- 25:50dismissed that Maybe if I wasn't so focused on trying to avoid
- 25:53failure, that would have given me the energy, the synergy, the
- 25:57perspective to actually have a victorious mindset.
- 26:01And in a sense, I, in a sense, God relieved me from the chaos
- 26:06of the kiosk because he saw with winds in my heart, you know, he
- 26:11saw that he's like, OK, and this is how you know, he's a good
- 26:14father. He's like, OK, let me get you to
- 26:16see that I'm with you and that it's not you.
- 26:20So even that 15 hour drive with 20 bucks in my pocket to go to
- 26:25NRB, which would be the birthing of Goodview, which was born out
- 26:30of failure, doubt, fear, frustration, depression,
- 26:34sadness, all while being this powerful man of God inspiring
- 26:39other people. But inside I was broken and
- 26:42defined by failure. And not only did he give me
- 26:46brothers to build Goodview Network in, a family to build
- 26:49Goodview Network with, but then I started meeting these amazing
- 26:52people such as yourself. And it's like, yes, finally,
- 26:56victory, we're winning. It's important too, that you
- 27:00that you line everything up with the word of God.
- 27:03If you have fear at all. Fear is not from God, right?
- 27:07If you're afraid of failing, then that's not God because
- 27:11that's he said the Bible says that he's not given us a spirit
- 27:13of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind.
- 27:17And so if that's what's preventing you from stepping out
- 27:19into something you really truly believe is from God, then you
- 27:23know that that's the enemy working against and against you.
- 27:26It's not for for your good, but God is for our goods.
- 27:29This has been so good, Duke of any like final words of
- 27:33encouragement for anyone who is afraid of failure, has maybe
- 27:38failed, and is struggling to get back up again.
- 27:40Yes, accept it. It's going to happen what
- 27:43doesn't have to happen. You have to control how you let
- 27:46failure affect your faith. The failure is going to happen
- 27:49whether someone stops you or whatever, but it doesn't have to
- 27:52stop you on the inside. Just recharge, plug back in with
- 27:56God, and he'll be good to go. To learn more about today's
- 27:59guest or explore the resources mentioned, visit
- 28:02christinasmithofficial.com. And if you're enjoying Witness
- 28:06the Wonder, make sure you subscribe so you don't miss
- 28:09future episodes, leaving a review or sharing the show with
- 28:13someone you know. Really, it does help these
- 28:15stories reach more people. Remember, God is always at work
- 28:19in your story.