What's going on guys? In this episode of Technically Short, I'm talking with Jesse
Lege all about fear. We're going to be talking about his book, When I Am Afraid, a daily
devotional. And we also dive deep into scripture about what God says and has said about fear.
We'll talk about how we can combat it and how we can combat it in our daily lives.
So guys, get your notebook out. This is a good episode. It's a long episode.
So get ready, sit down, take some notes, and we'll see you in there.
Hey guys, how's it going? Welcome to this episode Technically Short.
This is the second episode I've recorded without Sean as he's been off
in basic training. At this point, he's nearly almost done. So hopefully we'll be back soon.
But now, in this episode of Technically Short, we're done with the Why Are You Here? series.
I didn't really... It was kind of an abrupt stop, so I apologize. But there's somebody that I
was recommended a few times in previous episodes and reached out to him. He said yes.
And there was a particular topic that I wanted to talk about that was outside the purview of the
Purpose series. So I figured this would be a great benefit to everybody. So the guest today is Jesse
Lege. I just give a little bit of an introduction about him. He is a father, a grandfather, a mentor,
and a friend to myself. Well, mentor and friend. He's not my father or grandfather. But now he has
continuously told me for at least a year that God has amazing plans for my life and is going to use
me in amazing ways. That's kind of the encouraging person that Jesse Lege is. He always has a smile
on his face and no matter what he is doing, whether that be praying for others or cleaning the
windows at our church, he always has that smile on his face. Or even waving people in in the parking
lot. He always had that smile and people know him as that guy in the parking lot.
That's me.
So Jesse, could you give a little bit of an introduction about who you are? For those who
don't know you, give a little bit of a backstory.
Okay. Well, I was actually saved at 19 years old. A woman that I worked with that was very gracious
to talk to me every day when I had questions. There were times when we would stay after work
for an hour just standing in the parking lot talking. She would answer the questions and
she would invite me to church every week. And so finally, after a few months of her asking every
week, I said yes. And I went to church with her and heard the gospel for the very first time.
And I thought, who would not want this? This is a God that I hadn't heard about. Even though I had
been in church all my life, I had not heard about that goodness of God and what he had done for me.
Yeah. And so I said, absolutely yes. And went to Israel. Not long after that, the Lord spoke to me
through a television program that was on. And I went to Israel being a very young Christian and
saw so many things over there, learned so much about the places that Jesus walked, the things
that he did and the culture that is over there. And just the customs, how they operate was
tremendous. Came back, got married to that woman who spent so much time talking to me every night.
And we left and went to Tulsa, Oklahoma and moved out there for a year, went to Ramo Bible Training
Center and moved back after that year. And it has been a whirlwind ever since, let me tell you,
after almost 43 years of marriage. And yes, I have five kids and now 15 grandchildren.
It never stops, but I get to see God working day after day. And in the smallest things,
I don't know if anybody else gets to see it, but God puts a sunrise, a beautiful sunrise in the sky
for me every morning. And I have a great time talking to him. I do a lot of driving and just
the time that I get to spend and he shares things with me, just even from a sunrise,
showing me that he is there every day. So maybe somebody else gets the benefit from that sunrise
he gives to me, but it's for me. I know he gives it to me every day. So yeah, that's a little bit
about me. I do lead a small group from church. I am the leader of the parking team at church,
which is amazing. And I work with the kids from first to fifth grade. I'm on the prayer team.
Anything else the Lord has that I can do, my hand is raised. And if he says, who wants to do,
my hand is up before what it is comes out because I want to be there because he's there.
And if I know he's in it, I want to be working in it with him. That's the way I look at it.
Yeah. Wow. Yeah. If he's in it, you know, you want to do it. That's good.
Yes. That's like Sunday. I think is God's bring your kid to work day. And we get to do it.
It's what he's doing and we get to be a part of it with them.
Right. Jesse, thank you for that little bit of introduction. Not just to you, but
it also kind of gave an introduction to Christianity, to faith, because that is such a core of who you are.
I have some other questions written here, but you kind of answered them already about introducing
where your joy comes from, which I was going to ask you about. You kind of already mentioned that.
So guys, if you didn't already hear it, whenever I intro this episode, which are for you, Jesse,
I record introduction to the episode that will then go before the recording. This episode,
I particularly wanted to talk about fear because this podcast is all about providing people with
the tools they need to successfully pursue, well, discover and pursue their God-given callings.
And whether you're a Christian or not, whether you have faith or not,
you have a calling on your life. And the point of this podcast is to help you discover and
pursue that calling. And Jesse and I were talking about this a couple of days ago, that fear is
one of the direct combatants of us discovering and pursuing these passions that are placed on our lives.
And for those who don't know, Jesse wrote a book. He's a certified author of a daily devotional book
called When I Am Afraid. And I picked that, well, he gave me the book. Obviously I picked it up and
now he gave it to me. And I spent a few, I spent, I was spending maybe even like five,
10 minutes a day just reading through a few of them each day. And like, it, and he, word thing,
you Jesse word things in a way that it puts a new perspective on a lot of scripture that I didn't
really see before. I don't have any examples written down here. So like, which I kind of did
have like some notes from that. But if you guys, I'm going to put the link to this Amazon link,
whichever link is best to this book in the show notes so that you guys can go buy it if you don't
have it yet. But Jesse, so you wrote this book, you did deep dive into fear and you wrote this
book, you did deep dive into fear and you wrote like a devotional for all 366 days of the leap
year. And so like the way, from the way that you understand it, what is fear?
Fear is the toll of the enemy to stop you from doing what God has given you to do. And that's
that if he can get you to stop for one second, you began to look at yourself and that fear can be
from anything. Everybody faces fears. It doesn't matter. I was at two hockey games today for my
grandson and I could see these kids out there doing the best they could do. And yet I could hear the
parents of every one of these kids screaming at them for everything they were doing wrong.
And no matter how good you try, when you're a child, it's like, you know that you don't live up
to what someone else has for you. And you carry that with you and you don't live up to your own
standards. You set those standards high for yourself many times and you don't live up to
those standards. And so there's that fear that you're always falling short. And when that happens,
there's one of two things that's going to take place. You will either give up because it's like
it's never going to work. So there's no sense in pursuing anything else or you cry out to God
and say, I can't do it, but you can. And I need you to show me how. And when we get that
understanding, just as like the kids, they know, they can hear their parents screaming at them.
They know what's coming after the game, that the coach is going to be screaming at them. And
I even heard, I've heard parents screaming at the kids to do one thing and the coach screaming at
them to do something different. And it's like, they're going to lose either way. And so it's
kind of a hard thing on them. And it's hard for a coach to try to coach when the parents are telling
the kids something else. And it's hard for the parents thinking that coach isn't doing the right
thing for my kid. And so the coaches that lose her in their eyes and the kids are losing in their
eyes. So that fear can creep in in so many different ways. As you get older and you realize the mistakes
that you made, you know, and that fear tries to get you to stop from doing anything else.
You know, I, many times I've looked at my kids and thought they're doing something and every parent
tries to raise the perfect child. Okay. That's, that's the goal is to raise the perfect child.
And when they do anything wrong, it's like, why aren't you listening? Why aren't you perfect?
And then you start looking inward and saying, it's all my fault because I wasn't the perfect
parent. And so the fear can creep in that way. Fear creeps in at work, you know, your job, it's like
you do something wrong and you, you feel the pressure, you know, and maybe sometimes the
pressure from work is pulling you that way. And the pressure from home is trying to pull you that
way. And the fear of who am I going to disappoint today? And it's always something there that says,
I'm not going to make it. And that's, this book is a book that is about finding that courage to get
through today. Okay. We can't even think about tomorrow. And that's, that's the other thing that
fear does is it tries to put you in tomorrow, which your enemy has no, no say so in the next
second of your life, but he will tell you he does. Right. And faith in him says it's getting worse.
Faith in God says it's getting better and that's hope. Yeah. So, yeah, like what you, what you said
about like anxiety is the fear of something that might happen. Yeah. And we talked about that a few
times on this podcast already in different contexts, but it's true. Like if you're, it's true.
Like if you're worrying about what might happen, that you're never going to pursue the things that
might make that thing happen, cause you're too afraid that's going to happen. And so like, what,
whenever we hit those points in our lives, like, like, what do we do? What you say, you, like, you,
like, you say, you, like, you're saying you go to God, which I believe too, but like, what is like
the practical, either practical or like, what is the more in depth version of that for when you're
combating fear? Well, one of the first things is most people don't believe they can hear God.
Okay. That's, that's one thing I have heard over and over again. People don't believe they can hear
God, but for some reason you can always hear that voice whispering that says, you're not good enough.
You're unworthy. And I think, okay, so God made me with ears to hear the enemy talking loud and clear.
And yet he didn't make me with ears to hear him. I don't think so. Okay. My father gave me ears to
hear him. You know, that's what he wants. And the more we get in his word, the more we understand
what he's saying to us. He's the only one that has the authority to tell us who we are because he put
us together. He made us. And so if we listen to anything contrary to him, we're listening to a lie.
That's, that's what the enemy does. And if we don't know what he said about us, then we have nothing
to stand on. We have nothing, you know, that was the thing that the enemy came to Adam and Eve in
the garden and said, did God really say what you need to know what God really did say? And then when
you do know that when the enemy comes and says something to you, you can say, no, no, my God
really did say this. And I'll, I'll open up my Bible and show you if you don't believe it, devil,
I will show you right where it's at. And I'll prove it to you that this is what my God said,
who he told me I am. And when the enemy is yelling loud and clear, that's when we have to get with
our father and say, you know, this isn't who you made me to be. Yeah. And it's not, it's not fitting
into my soul the right way. It's not giving me hope. And he is a God of hope. So anything that
tries to steal that away, you've got to recognize it right away. And when you, I think I was
I think I was texting with somebody yesterday after I sent to my devotional and they, they texted back
and said, I'm afraid that I'm going to get a bad report on this, this test that they took. Yeah.
And I said, it's amazing how we have so much faith in the devil and giving us a bad report
over God giving us a good report. We put our faith in, in how powerful the enemy is.
And take away that power that God has and say, I know what you said, God, but it doesn't seem like
it's working. So I'm going to believe the bad report. And we have a choice. We always have that
choice as to what Jesus said most of the time did not go along with the circumstance that was in
front of them. When Jesus showed up on the scene, he didn't look at it and say, sorry, this is what
God gave you. So I can't do anything. He changed it. That's what he did. He showed up and changed
it. And he said, let me show you, you know, he, he, when he came, he said, repent for the kingdom
of heaven is near and repent means change your mind because you're thinking wrong. Okay. You're
going the wrong way. You're thinking about it the wrong way. And he said, the kingdom of heaven is
near. He was about to show them what the kingdom of heaven looked like. He was that kingdom of
heaven that came down to earth. And the things that he showed them were so contrary to what they had
been told all of their lives, that God was against them and that God, everything that they ran into,
all of their sickness and disease, everything that went wrong was because of them. And God was mad
at them for that. So that's why there was nothing else they could give them. That's the way they
perceived it. And Jesus comes along and says, ah, that's not who my father is. Let me show you
who my father is. And that's why the people flock to Jesus because they saw something in him that,
you know, that man that was let down on the sheet where they ripped off the roof to get that man in
front of Jesus. And Jesus is sitting there with all the religious leaders and he looks at this man
and says, your sins are forgiven. That man had been told all of his life that he's in that position
because of his sin. That's all he had ever heard. And for him to hear, my sins are forgiven,
the freedom that that brought, the anger that it brought with the religious leaders that, who do
you think you are? You can't do that. And Jesus showing, you know, your sins are forgiven. And
he says, what's easier to say? Your sins are forgiven or rise up and walk. The penalty is no
longer applicable because there's no longer the sin there. Your sins are forgiven, they're wiped
clean. And that's what he did. He changed the whole scenario and said, let me show you what my father
looks like. Cause you've been taught wrong. That scripture about your ways are not my ways.
The heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways above your ways. And people take that to mean
that we can never understand God's ways, but that's not what he said. When Jesus came and,
you know, the Beatitudes, you've heard that it said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I tell you, okay, this is God's way now. Let me tell you what God wants. That's what you've
always been told. That's your ways, but let me tell you the right way. Love your enemies, okay?
Bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you because this is who my father
is. This is how he sees you. And this is what you get to do. Yeah.
See that's interesting. I like it whenever I have these conversations with people that
don't know, never really know the direction they're going to take it.
And I'm sitting here, I'm sitting here and like, man, what's this have to do with fear?
Everything. Everything. Yeah. Because if you think about it, if you saw, if you picture this,
there's the kingdom of God out there. Yeah. And Jesus comes to you and takes hold of your hand
and says, come with me. I'm going to take you right there. And you look in front of you in
between where you're at and where that is. Yeah. And you see so much stuff going on, so much chaos.
And Jesus says, just stay with me. I'm here. I have you by the hand. Yeah. Okay. And yeah,
there's going to be a whole lot of stuff coming, but it's okay. As long as you're with me,
that stuff isn't going to touch you. Yeah. You know, and I hear so many people say, well, you
think God is going to allow all this awful stuff to happen. And I think about it this way.
Do I think God is going to throw me in the ring with an enemy that he's trained me with everything
I need to defeat that enemy? Absolutely. He will throw me in that ring over and over and say, I
taught you what to do. You know, I'm going to beat you. I'm going to beat you. I'm going to beat you.
I taught you what to do. You know how to do it. You know how to win this battle. Yeah. He will put
me in that ring because he's right there behind me saying, you know what to do. And the Holy Spirit
is right there reminding me of everything, every tool I need, every word to speak to take down that
enemy. And I can win every battle that way. Yeah. Yeah. And I want to like add more contact because
I also like, I feel like, well, this is a very faith heavy episode. And I think most of my
listeners, I would say are all like Christians majority, but I like to make the preface that,
I guess this isn't the preface anymore, but kind of, I don't know how far we are in. Oh, laptop locked.
Yeah. For those who like say, like they don't believe in God, they're, maybe they're just
agnostic, like without, like some people are agnostic about the title and they're just,
they're living their lives and they're still like, they experience fear and like, what would you say
to those people that are experiencing fear and they don't realize that God is like, Jesus is there
for them to take their hand. And these people, like it can be somebody that is just like,
even maybe kind of curious or like maybe there is something to this Christian thing, to this God
thing, or they're somebody that has never thought about it at all. And they're just like, and they're
living a life that the way the world has kind of taught them to.
When it comes to fear, like, and what they're afraid of, like, what would you say to them?
Well, first of all, if you don't know who Jesus is, and there are plenty of people out there
that think they know who Jesus is and still don't dig into his word to find out who he is.
But he went to those people and he offers them hope. Okay. That is the first thing that people
need. And the people that are in darkness, the people that are in fear, the people who
have no hope, that's the first thing they need is hope. And they, they don't know who Jesus is.
And, and they have been taught all their lives that if there is a God, he doesn't care about them.
Yeah. And so when you finally hear about a God who cares about you enough to come down here
and take everything you've ever done wrong and put it on themselves and take the penalty for that.
And the places that Jesus went to, the people that he reached out to were people that many times,
they, they were, they saw themselves as completely unworthy. And there were people who were demon
possessed. There were people who were just, um, out there that were traitors. Um, and they were
the people that were, um, Levi was a tax collector. He was a trader, what he was considered
because he was a Jew working for the Roman government. And that made him a trader to all
the Jews. And Jesus brings him in among the disciples. Okay. Which probably every other one
of them there hated the guy. That that's the way it was. The group that he picked are,
we're probably some of the most, what the world would call losers. Okay. And when we realized that
we all fit in that category, okay, whether we know Jesus or not, we all fit in that category at one
time or another. And for a God to come to offer us hope. And that's the thing that we need to see.
That's the job that God gave us as Christians is to offer hope. And we so many times get caught up
in judgment of people in their sins. And it's like, no, that's not the job that God gave us to do.
In fact, he told us, do not judge Jesus. If you picture him at the Beatitudes. And I told my small
group this, I said, you picture him there and you're sitting in front of him looking in Jesus's eyes.
Yeah. And he says to you, do not judge or you will be judged. Yeah. Okay. That's it. That's not our
job. That's his job. Right. And to try to take that position is to try to rip that off of him
and take his position. We don't have the right to do that. But if even when we judge ourselves.
Yes. Yeah. Yes. And we do that very well. Yeah. Because we know ourselves that well. Yeah. And
we figure if anybody knows how to judge us, we are really good at it. Yeah. And he says
that that's not our job to do. No. And I particularly, I was walking through, I'm reading,
I think I told you earlier, I'm reading through Think and Grow Rich. I feel like I've been reading
for like a year now, but the final chapter, the final chapter, last 10 pages in this whole last
chapter is all about fear. And I just went through, today, maybe he has 30 questions that he's like,
okay, I'll read through these questions and say the answers out loud so you hear your own voice
saying the answer to these questions. And one of the things is like, what are your 10 most destructive
weaknesses? And I'm like, man. And I'm like, okay. So I was thinking about it. And one thing I circle
with, and to be vulnerable, and my friends have told me, and I know my boss has told me,
as I've been trying to grow, as I was trying to grow my career, I say was, I still am,
my biggest thing is confidence. And working through with my therapist, I found it pretty much that
it's the fear of looking stupid. That's where my lack of confidence, whenever I'm lacking
confidence, that's where it comes from. Yeah. Because I don't want to be seen as somebody that
doesn't know what they're doing. Yes. And- Nobody does.
Yeah. And because it's the fear of what other people think, it's the fear of messing up,
you can mess all those into what I struggle with a lot of the time. And I like practical things that
are practical for people. And this is like, from my mind, it's like, okay, what can I do for myself?
And I'm going to ask you the same question, but what can I do for myself that would come directly
combat my anxiety or fear of messing up or fear of looking stupid or lack of confidence? And why
can I put myself in situations that make me extremely uncomfortable that I don't have a
choice but to grow my confidence? And so I've been thinking today of what can I do? And I'm not going
to say it just yet because I want to reach out to a couple of people and be like, hey, can I do this
thing? And so I'm not going to say it on here yet because in case they say no. But it's like, how
can I grow as a person so that I can pursue my calling? Because without me getting rid of this
fear, I want to be a leader. I want to grow in leadership. I believe I am a leader in certain
aspects of my life, but I would like to be able to be the best leader I can be. And I know for me,
I have to remove that fear of looking stupid in order to surpass where I am right now.
One, I'm going off my own script, but one, I'm going to ask you,
this is almost like me asking you as a mentor, what would you say to me for that directly?
What does that make you think of whenever you're thinking of me and my own fear? And then what
does God say about that kind of fear? Yes. Exactly what... That's perfect. Because
what fear does is take God out of the picture. If God is removed, fear comes in when we don't think
about us with God. Fear comes in when we're thinking about us with our neighbors, what
everybody else is looking at, that we're not going to live up to their standards. We're not going to
live up to our standards. When we look at it with us with God and he says, you're mine.
You don't have any standards to live up to. You take God out of it and it takes hope out of it.
Yeah. And what's left is fear. Yeah. So that's how you get back to that place,
is you bring back God into it. You set yourself that, God, your word is what I believe. Your word,
you have the right to tell me who I am and you alone have the right to tell me who I am.
Yeah. Okay. I can't judge myself because of past mistakes. Yeah. Because you can take that and
turn it around. I can't judge myself because of everything else that I've done and what other
people have thought of it. Yeah. Because even some of the things that God has told me to do,
other people have judged wrongly. Yeah. And if I stop and look at that, it'll stop me in my tracks
from doing the next thing God has for me to do. And so that's what happens. That's how fear grows.
And so many times, I believe it is 366 times in the scriptures that God says, do not fear.
And he told them that before he told them, well, he didn't tell them there was giants in the land.
He told them that I'm taking you into the promised land. Okay. And in their mind, promised land,
this is amazing place. And they sent spies in there and they're like, but there's giants.
And when we see what we believe to be something bigger than what God can do,
it takes God out of the picture. Yeah. Well, sorry, I cut you off real quick. No problem.
I just read that devotional today from your book. Well, I maybe you've mentioned it more than once,
but that one particular is like whenever they sent the spies in, two came back,
two of them though came back and they told them like, they don't know this exactly what we are
looking for. Yes. But so many people were talking about what they were scared of. Yeah. Like these
are all the terrible things that are over there. We can't go there. We can't go there. People were
more focused on the fear than what was promised. And like, they almost got stoned because of it.
Yes. And I'm like, people were so afraid of these things that the majority said,
that they forgot what God said. And like, honestly, a great reminder.
Yeah. I'm just like processing it now. But like, I don't know. It's like whenever God,
you say God, fear takes God out of the equation. Yeah. Exactly what happened there. Yeah. And that's
And they transferred that fear to all of those people. Yeah. Those leaders that went in there,
those 10 that came back with a bad report were leading 10 of those tribes of Israel. They were
the ones that they sent out as their spokesperson to say, you go find out for us. And 10 of them
came back with that bad report. And they caused the death of a whole generation wandering around
the wilderness. Yeah. Because they grabbed hold of the fear instead of the faith that it would take
to get that promise. And it's the same with every promise God gives us. There will be giants in the
land. And it depends how you see them. If you look at it, like Joshua and Caleb did and said,
I don't care. God promised me that and I'm going to get it. I don't care how long I have to wait.
God's promise is still going to be good. Yeah. Doesn't matter if it takes 40 years. His promise
is still good because he said it and I'm getting it. Yeah. And that's what happens with us.
Mm-hmm. Those giants will be there. Yeah. It's the same as David and Goliath.
You know, it was the whole Israelite army saw a giant. David saw an uncircumcised Philistine.
Yeah. That's all he saw. Yeah. Was the same guy. Right. But David went in knowing who his God was
and the Israelite army, their God wasn't big enough. Yeah. Yeah. So fear took over.
So I think it, so I told you I was going to ask you the same question I kind of presented about
myself. And I sent this one I did send to you. So it's around what, it adds, I think it'll add
another depth to the conversation. Like I was afraid to ask it. It kind of works into the theme.
But so it just is like, what are you afraid of? What am I afraid of? Is there something,
and then how do you combat that? You already talked about that, but how do you personally do it?
But how, this is how I do it. I start off every morning with worship. I have a playlist on my
phone and as soon as I get up out of bed and go into my bathroom, I turn it on and it starts off
with gratitude. Yeah. Okay. And the next song is Plead the Blood and it goes on and on with songs
that are uplifting, songs that tell me who I am and who my God is. Yeah. And I start every day with
that. And when you start your day with that, when the enemy comes with a lie and tries to get you
to believe it, it is so much easier to say, no, you don't know who my God is.
And that's what is living inside of me. And those thoughts come, believe me, those thoughts
come when things go wrong, when you feel, whether it's something with your job, with your family,
the conversation, just a single word can be enough to try to knock you off of that place that God has
for you. And I'm not saying that I stay in that place all the time, but when I finally realize,
when I stop and look to my Lord and say, this is not what you have for me, take me out of it. Yeah.
Take me to the place that you have for me. And that's where we have to go. We have that choice.
We can fall back into that pit because the enemy is trying to throw those chains at us to bring us
down. And we can look down at that stuff and say, yes, you're right. I screwed up big time.
I messed up. I said things that shouldn't have said. And just, the enemy is right there. He's
never stopped talking to you. And yet my God is right there too. And he never stops talking either.
And he talks to those words of comfort and joy and hope and peace. And if we will give him our ear
and listen to him, Psalm 103, bless the Lord, oh my soul and all that is within me, everything inside
of me. That's my ears. That's my eyes. That's what I see and hear and say, I will bless him.
And my enemy tries to get me away from that place. And yet that's the place my God has for me.
So it's a matter of looking and just like Peter stepping out of the boat, okay. He's looking at
Jesus and walking on water right towards Jesus. And he takes his eyes off of him. All of that stuff,
the wind and the waves, everything was going on the whole time. He's walking on the water,
going towards Jesus, but it didn't affect him with his eyes on Jesus. So when those things begin
to take you down, you cry out to Jesus. The same as Peter did. And Jesus, his hand every time will
be there to pull you out. Knowing that is what we have to rely on. That's where I want to stay.
That's where I want to be. When the enemy comes, I want to present him with the word of God.
Cause that's what's going to take the enemy down every time.
Well, Jesse, I think that's a good place to wrap it up. I think I want to throw one last thing in
there and I really appreciate everything that you brought to this. I think that the people that have
listened through the whole episode have really benefited from it. I don't think they would have
listened through the whole thing if they weren't benefiting from it. And I want to thank you for
your yes, even though you were nervous to come on and that you came on and even gave me some new
things to think about. Now this is a recorded conversation so I can go back however many times
I want. One last thing I want to say and I have some couple wrap up questions.
We were talking about fear or anxiety essentially is the fear of what could happen. And hope that
you bring up a lot is looking forward to what could happen. It's like the polar opposite.
It's like looking forward to it versus being afraid of it. And you can't have both.
Yes. And that's what we're talking about here today guys. We're talking about that whether you
want to have hope or whether you want to have fear. Whether you want to be filled with anxiety,
be filled with hope for the future. And that's the way we do it is having hope in Jesus.
Having hope in what he has promised and hope for heaven will come to earth. And when his kingdom
will come. And that is where our hope lies even whenever we are afraid. That's why he wrote a book
that covers every single day because we have to combat it every single day. But at the same time
we can still have that same hope. And when it comes to pursuing the purpose that God puts on us,
I feel like that's exactly why the enemy wants us to be afraid. It's because he doesn't want us to
fulfill that purpose. So if you guys are afraid, you guys aren't sure what's coming next, I encourage
you to first pray. But also if you're not sure how to pray, you start. That's pretty much it.
I'm just kind of thinking about it like, yeah, you just do it. There's no wrong way to pray.
There's no wrong way to talk to God. I was saying there's no wrong way to pray. There's no wrong way
to cry out to God. But guys, thank you for listening. I want to ask Jesse, I keep wanting
to wrap it up, but I keep remembering I have a couple more questions. So Jesse, when it comes to
fear and when it comes to maybe wanting to exercise and grow in hope, are there any resources?
Like whether it be, I know you have your book, but do you know of any other books or books,
any sort of resource that people can look into that can help them go more in depth in this area?
Yes. There is a book that I just got a couple more copies of. And it is called Smith Wigglesworth,
The Secret of His Power. And it is the stories of miracles that happened with this man.
There's also one called His Name is Almighty. And it's by Randy Clark. And it is about a
pastor of a church in Cambodia and just the miracle after miracle that happened over in Cambodia. And
even in the midst of the worst things happening, that's where, if you look at the stories of Jesus
in the Bible, which is the number one place you need to go, and you just read through the gospels
and see how it looked before Jesus showed up and how it looked after he left. That's what gives you
hope. And it's believing that tomorrow is going to be better than today. That's what hope is.
If you believe that tomorrow is going to be worse than today, you have no hope. That's what it does.
And fear sets in. And it's seeing that when Jesus comes into a situation, he changes it for the
better. And anybody who really knows Jesus, and you were talking about praying. If you understand
that, if you want to just start and imagine you sit down on your couch and Jesus is sitting next
to you and you talk to him, just like he is your friend. That's what Jesus did with his disciples.
He sat down and talked with them. He walked on the roads and talked with them. He was a friend.
And anything that they needed, they could ask him. And it was crazy some of the things that they
argued over, but even when he was talking, the last supper, going to the cross,
he was ready to go and die. And they begin to have an argument over who's the greatest.
And Jesus has to take off his outer robe and put a towel on and get a basin of water. And said,
do you want to know who's the greatest? Let me show you. And he washed their feet. He said,
this is how you become greater. And that's the relationship that he wants with every single one
of us. And he will talk to us according to what's in the scripture. He will never tell you something
that's not backed up by his word because that's who he is. And when we pray, we pray according
to his word. That's what he tells us to do. And because when we put his name at the end of it
and say in Jesus name, it has to agree with what we were talking about and praying about.
So it has to agree with what's in his word. And you just talk to him. If you don't understand
something, tell him that and ask him to show you, ask him to give you the hope you need
to face and to win over what's coming against you. Because every time he throws me into the ring,
he knows that he's given me everything. I need to win that battle.
So it may be a weakness. And in fact, the weakness, I don't know if you had a chance to read today's
devotional. If I could very quickly read the one that I just sent out today.
But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in your heart.
For my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about
my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me. We really don't like to talk about our
weaknesses, but to boast about our weaknesses. Paul, what were you thinking? You see, the problem
comes in when the Lord asked us to do something that we can't do. That's the place where we have
to rely on God's grace to get us through. We understand that we have no expertise in that area
and we are not comfortable at all in what he gives us to do. That's one of our weaknesses.
Let's consider Gideon for a moment. God wants to deliver his people who have been in bondage for
years. So you would think that God would find someone who is brave, a strong military leader.
Where would you look for someone like that? Hiding in a wine press? And even after Gideon
explains to the angel all about his weaknesses and why he isn't qualified for the job, it doesn't
change a thing. You see, it doesn't matter that we are unqualified for the task. It only matters
that we understand and know that we are unqualified for the task. Then we get to rely solely on his grace.
God will never ask you to do a job that you are capable of doing without him. He will ask you to
trust him in the jobs that you have no idea how to do on your own. That's where he gets the glory.
We all want Christ's power to rest on us. In our weaknesses is where that happens. Trust him.
Step out in those places where you are weak and watch what he will do.
That's what he wants because those are the places that he is glorified in. Those places that,
it's stuff that we are not comfortable in. We don't know what we are doing. And yet that's what God
calls us to do so many times. And it's like, okay, I can't do it, but you can. So I got to trust you.
I got to rely on you every step of the way. Yeah.
That's great, Jesse. Thanks for reading that. That was great.
I want to, I would go on, but I do probably should wrap it up, but there's what, like one final
question. Who would you recommend to be on this podcast? Wow. Who would I recommend?
Ed Newell for one, Pastor Ed. I'm trying. He's a busy man.
Yes. But he is a very, very busy man. He's a very busy man. He's a very busy man.
He's a busy man. Yes. But yeah, he used to, he was, his podcast was his idea.
So I really want to have him on here. Yes. And then he definitely deserves to be on here.
Yes. Terry Bachner is, yeah. Yeah. She is incredible. She is full of the spirit of God.
And yes, she, she is wonderful. There are some people, Brandon, Pastor Brandon Major.
Yep. Pastor Rob. He's been on, yeah.
Leah. I have not had Leah. I've asked Pastor Rob, but I haven't asked Leah yet.
Yeah. Yeah. Those are the people that I've, man, they walk in the power of the spirit and walk in
humility. And you can't walk in the power of the spirit of God without humility. It doesn't work.
Yeah. That's the only way it functions. So those are the people, those are the people that I want
in my corner. Those are the people that I will be in their corner praying and holding them up.
And those are the people I want in my corner. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Well, thank you for those.
I have to reach out to them. What are you guys? Thank you for listening to this episode of
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