Leadership & Anxiety Management | John Jr. Rennie from Brush Fires

Speaker: [00:00:00] Hi, my name is Jr. I'm the founder of the brush fires ministry. 

Speaker 2: What is it that you do there? 

Speaker: I help run the ministry. I work with the development of all the. Online products. I teach, at this point we're a fairly small organization. So if you name it, I'm probably doing it. If not my wife, Buffy is doing it.

Speaker: So we are all hands on deck. 

Speaker 2: I interestingly did a podcast a little while ago that, was me and the person I was talking to talking about, if a leader is born or if they can be made. Do you have thoughts on that? 

Speaker: Absolutely. So I believe leadership is in a person's wiring is what they have been created to do. They will find themselves at an early age being placed [00:01:00] in positions of responsibility and so forth.

Speaker: And, you can always learn to be a better leader. You can always improve upon your leadership skills. But the idea of actually. Taking somebody that is not designed as a leader to become a leader is really, unlikely, in most cases, they're just going to get frustrated and frightened from the experiences.

Speaker: So leadership is something that is born into an individual, wired into them, if you will.

Speaker 2: I have a different, I think that it can be learned from some people, but it does take time and energy. Some people can never become a leader because of who they are. There are people who can become if they are willing to put in the work 

Speaker: and we can agree to disagree.

Speaker: There are leadership aspects that are assessments actually reveal. From multiple standpoints, you can actually look at, what [00:02:00] a person is wired to do some areas of leadership, areas where they can actually flourish in. But if most of those things are absent, I think they would really struggle in those positions.

Speaker: Now, there is a difference between leadership and management or being a manager, two different things. And a manager is somebody. That needs a well defined set of responsibilities, needs to have a, policies and procedures already in place. And then they can shepherd those things going forward to make sure that they adhere to those guidelines, such as my daughter was a 9 1 1.

Speaker: And she, there's a protocol that if it's a domestic abuse type of, situation, then there's a protocol of what you warn the, law enforcement going into. If it is a fire, there's a protocol for each one of those sorts of things. And so a good manager will [00:03:00] understand what the protocols are and then want to facilitate things in the most effective, efficient, way possible.

Speaker: Process to be able to accomplish that is different than leadership. A lot of people get this. Things confused, but they are not the same. 

Speaker 2: So from our talk yesterday I believe you said that you helped people find their purpose, right? 

Speaker: That's psychometric assessments for for those of that aren't unfamiliar. With the term psychometrics is the science that says that who we are, our interests, our abilities, our values, the things that motivate us, how we, those are all ingrained in us from the very beginning.

Speaker: They're virtually in our DNA. That's why you can have a child with amazing singing. abilities or a great musical talent be born from a family with no musical talent. It's in the DNA and can actually be be measured [00:04:00] through these psychometric assessments. And so we use those assessments to help people understand that they are wired differently.

Speaker: It's unique, just like their fingerprint, just like the DNA is, and that when they start to find themselves actually operating in the area where they are best suited, then all of a sudden life starts to make sense to them. Now they start to feel like, Oh, I fit. This is my jam. This is what I can do really well.

Speaker: And they find satisfaction, fulfillment, joy in doing those things.

Speaker 2: So how do you, how do people find you usually? 

Speaker: A lot of it is word of mouth at this point. We started our ministry back in 2018. So there's been a lot of people that have gone through our program. We have an online presence that we established a year ago at brush fires, digital. com and they can register there Choose one of our packages for going through our digital workshop, get our workbook, [00:05:00] get the psychometric assessments.

Speaker: The entire program can be done online now at this point, and this allows them to be able to do it at their pace. And to be able to begin that journey of discovering exactly what makes them unique and how do they best fit into this world?

Speaker 2: How long does it usually take? 

Speaker: It really depends. Yeah. For thing, for people to do this in a, what I would call a measured approach, I would say eight weeks, but it's possible that you could actually do it say, oh, I don't know, less than a month that is possible. It really depends upon the individual.

Speaker: The thing about our sessions is that most of what we do is really cutting edge. So most people have not given any thought to this. They haven't had any experience. They haven't been exposed to these thoughts, these these. [00:06:00] methods and these assessments. And so it takes some time for them to get their head around it and be able to really understand How this all comes together because it's just, again we're very cutting edge as it relates to these sort of insights to people's designs.

Speaker 2: So once you have the insights and you're hoping that the person is working on it what kind of support do you put in place for them? 

Speaker: So we do have a coaching program that they can optionally continue with, and that would allow them. them for one to two sessions a month with one of our trainers to keep them on board.

Speaker: Ideally that we want to work with other leaders that want to implement this. So other life coaches other counselors, church leaders, people of that nature that have a vested interest in working with the people that they are, ministering to, shepherding to. So ideally we would teach those individuals and then they would [00:07:00] be able to minister to the members of their flock to be able to help them to really pursue these really world changing aspects of who they are.

Speaker: There's nothing worse than go through life and doing what you hate. And that in a lot of people that are at work. They literally hate what they're doing. And for many reasons, it's not simply the environment. It's what they're doing. They hate there are things that I can do because you can do something doesn't mean that should be your life focus.

Speaker: Whenever I'm doing something that is redundant, I'm doing the same thing over and over again. It just starts to suck all the joy out of my life. It's I don't want that. And when I find myself in those positions, I tend to get, just less satisfied with what I'm doing. And I would say the vast majority of people doing things at church or at work, a good number of them are doing things that they really don't want to be [00:08:00] doing.

Speaker: It's not the work cause we were designed to work. It's the actual type of work that they're doing that they absolutely don't want You know, have had enough. 

Speaker 2: I am exactly like you in that case. If something is monotonous and I just have to keep doing the same thing over and over again, I'm going to throw my computer out a window.

Speaker 2: I get so upset when I have to do something like that. I have in fact found somebody that I can pay. And she learns real quick. So if I say look I need you to do this But it's going to be monotonous and boring and she's okay, that's what I like to do and so she does those things for me and i'm just like thank god because that's No, thank you.

Speaker 2: I put it off and I put it off and I put it off and it sometimes you can't do that. So 

Speaker: those are actually design elements. So people with that design under our motivated role assessment would probably score [00:09:00] high in the refiner maximizer area. Thanks because they love that. Comfort of routine. They love that and they want to make it work faster and more efficient and improve upon the effectiveness and efficiency of it.

Speaker: As opposed to having to reinvent things from scratch that's not their jam and that's not what makes them happy. But if you give them a routine. Of something that they would enjoy doing it. That is what makes them feel that they've accomplished something. And if they can do it faster and more effective each time, that's just the cherry on top.

Speaker 2: Yeah, she gets ecstatic when I go, okay, thank you for doing that. Cause that would have taken me like five days and 25 like rage moments. And she'd done it in two hours and I'm just like, yeah, I couldn't do it. Thank you. 

Speaker: Yeah it's the impediment of being unmotivated to do it.

Speaker: That really prevents you. I'm three chapters left [00:10:00] in the book that I'm writing right now, and I'm just so done with it, but I need to finish it. And it's just it's a hard thing to motivate yourself when that has that initial energy has been expended. 

Speaker 2: I can find vast quantities of energy for a lot of things, but copying and pasting a hundred things into one thing is not one of them.

Speaker 2: I cannot find the patience. I cannot find the will. I just, I will hire somebody else to do that. Cause I'm not. I'm not okay. I have no problems, man, helping people to understand what needs to be done and being able to do it. But I just can't do repetitive tasks like that. Because it's 1 of those things.

Speaker: No, I feel you. I get it. 

Speaker 2: I will, if I can, I like. I was supposed to have her do something And I put it off for six months and she still got it done in an hour Once I [00:11:00] finally was like, okay, you have to do this i've put it off for too long and so She was laughing at me, of course 

Speaker: But that's the thing is that we are not designed to work as lone rangers.

Speaker: That's not how God has created his children. So we all have something to contribute to the whole. And so there are people that are on your assistance side of things that love doing what it is that you're giving them to do and are very fast at doing it. And I'm motivated to get it done, and there's other people that are on the creative side of things that are going to be reinventing things, and there's others that are on the implementation side of things.

Speaker: We're all very unique in what it is that we can contribute to the whole, and division and disunity is the tool that prevents us from accomplishing things, because We're constantly being set against one another and being offended because of this or that, [00:12:00] and not able to accomplish the things that we were really meant to accomplish because we get offended or we don't want to ask for help or we feel unappreciated or all of these things.

Speaker 2: Do you have ways that you bring out, weaker talents so that people can be at least better at them, if not perfect at them? 

Speaker: It's a common question and I think it's a misnomer. It's not that you need to become good at something that you weren't designed to be good at that's not the point is to be aware of that blind spot or that shortcoming or that area of ineffectiveness in your life and then look for people to Associate with that fill that gap.

Speaker: So if a person say is a high thinker which is when they evaluate [00:13:00] information, they are looking at it from a standpoint. Does this get the job done? It's very objective. Is this solution going to get the job done? That's really the primary criteria. The opposite of that design is a feeler. And the feeler is always going to look at the situation from a subjective perspective.

Speaker: How does this impact my friends, my family, my co workers, and their well being? I will never tell a thinker that you need to become more emotionally aware and become more sensitive. That's not going to work. All that's going to do is frustrate them and lead them into an area of just being disillusioned that they can actually be something that they're not created to be.

Speaker: But I do tell them is that surround yourself with people that are more of a feeler than you People that, care about you. And what's your best. And when they come up and say, Hey, Fred the way that you spoke to Mary was really unkind [00:14:00] and you need to go back and address that, or is there a better way for us to resolve this?

Speaker: That doesn't cause us to have to fire these people. Is there just a better approach when somebody that cares about you, who is a feeler, allows you to see life through their perspective, be open to it. Now, you still may have to make the same hard decision that you already set to make. And that's the realm of being an objective thinker, but it doesn't mean that you have to do it in an insensitive way or that you couldn't Modify it in a way that becomes less insensitive.

Speaker: So having people around you that can speak life into you and then also add in the missing ingredients. So in your particular case, you found somebody who quite likely is a refiner maximizer who loves the sort of work that you're giving her. Great. That is a very healthy symbiotic relationship that allows the two of [00:15:00] you to get more work done than either one of you could individually.

Speaker: And that's what team building is all about. Looking for the missing pieces of what is necessary to get to accomplish the objective. And there's various roles in that process. And you pick and choose the members of your team like you would a baseball team. There are certain positions on a baseball field that require very unique skill sets.

Speaker: A pitcher is very unique, a catcher, very unique, left fielder, right fielder, center fielder, very unique. So you build your teams, your business teams, your church ministry teams, in a way that covers as many of those bases, pun intended, that was that's required to be able to accomplish the job.

Speaker: And so we're stronger when we understand our weaknesses and the areas that we need help in. And then we're even more stronger when we're willing to ask for that help. [00:16:00] 

Speaker 2: So you said that you're writing a book. Do you have others you've already written? Or is this your first? 

Speaker: So this will be the fifth book.

Speaker: The very first book I did with the ghost writer she took my speaking notes from our workshop and then she assembled it into a book. And then I, she and I worked on it to get it to be a useful tool. Make sure that it represented what we were teaching properly. The three other books after that were written by me and they were the combination of using our materials to teach others how to use psychometric assessments, use the things that we teach in our ministry to be able to help leaders be able to find where their people fit best and to understand psychometric assessments and so forth.

Speaker: This last one is different from those. Workbook type of materials [00:17:00] there's there's items. This is more of an autobiography of how at various points in my life, God's worked through me to accomplish and to change things in me including the time in 2016, when he made it clear to me that I had to walk away from my software business and to pursue a ministry that was a really difficult transition for me, and it was something that.

Speaker: I didn't embrace. In fact, I fought it for about nine months, and it was something that allowed me to experience things in a whole different way. And my life is richer because of it. But it wasn't an easy transition. 

Speaker 2: So what kind of software company did you have? 

Speaker: So I got involved in software as early as I think 1978 when I worked at the Disneyland hotel and they went from a manual system to an automated system.

Speaker: I was one of the younger [00:18:00] employees. And so for some reason they chose me to learn how to operate the software and then to teach the remaining employees. From there, I got a. Job at a temporary agency doing data entry. And from there I was hired by a software sales organization to implement a new software and train people how to use the software in the midst of doing that.

Speaker: They asked me if I would like to learn how to program. And so they paid for college course in COBOL, which is the closest language to what they were using. And I did that for one semester while I was in the midst of going through that training, the. Software manager, i. e. programmer, the only person that really knew this stuff and the boss got into a huge fight, she quit and I'm out there installing software that was falling apart.

Speaker: So I had my limited, maybe a [00:19:00] month or so training in COBOL my limited training from that software manager, a programming manual, and my ability to be able to read the code. And so it was me out there as a. Trying to figure out why and fixing it because the software manager wouldn't take a call because she was ticked off at the owner.

Speaker: That was my baptism by fire in software development. And from there, I wound up getting a couple other jobs and started my own business in 1987, primarily. It's in business accounting software. The area that we focused in on with our own company was wholesale distribution and manufacturing. So people that build things on a routine basis.

Speaker: So assembly line type of built building and people who have extensive inventory control, importing inventory from overseas selling it to retailers, that sort of thing. 

Speaker 2: And you did that [00:20:00] for how long again? 

Speaker: So the software company is still going. I had to back off from it at the end of 2015 because there was a situation with one of my employees that I had to let go and I should have let him go about two years before that.

Speaker: And I didn't. And the damage that it did to our company was I lost my two largest clients, which equated to two thirds of our revenue. And so at the end of 2015, we experienced our largest loss ever. And I looked at it at going into 2016 is I can't sustain that. In fact, I can't sustain that for another six months, period.

Speaker: So I looked at cutting costs and the only thing that I was left with after all the obvious costs was my salary. And because I was not, I was unsure of how long the company was going to last, I had to stop selling the software. I couldn't sell a quarter [00:21:00] million dollar software package to a business and not be available in three months to sell to them.

Speaker: Ethically, that was just wrong. So basically 70 percent of my job description was erased in January 2016 and I was left with a lot of time on my hands trying to figure out what God was doing because this didn't make sense. The company is still going and there are still businesses throughout North America that are using the software to run their business.

Speaker: We've been trying to wind it down for, I guess we're going on nine years. And the software is so good and so expensive to replace that the clients don't want to walk away. So I'm in this weird limbo period with that company going, all right. The software is great. It's doing their business. It's running their business.

Speaker: They want to continue to use it. I still can't take a salary because it's not generating enough [00:22:00] income to pay me a monthly salary. It's bringing enough income for me to keep my support person and to pay the basic overhead expenses. So I've been in this weird limbo all this time, and that's why when God brought the ministry to me, it was like, all right this is what I'm supposed to be focusing my energies in.

Speaker: I'm not getting paid from the ministry either. So it's been a weird transition here. 

Speaker 2: What did you learn from that transition or what have you learned from it? 

Speaker 2: Earlier on, we 

Speaker: talked about the redundancy thing and that,

Speaker: how I hated that. I was reminded of a couple of things, probably starting in maybe 2014, I had done so many sales presentations of our software and we have key strengths of our software. So we would always hit in those areas. But I got to a point where I was saying the same thing over and over [00:23:00] again throughout each one of these presentations.

Speaker: And sometimes I would do two or three presentations a day and sometimes three to four times a week. So I'm sitting there parroting these things over and over again, and I can remember watching my wife walk past my office and I placed my finger to my head. It was like because I was so over. I was so over this.

Speaker: It was sucking all the joy out of my life. All the creativity. I was just done with it. So I was being set up already. I was already at a place where It was still making really good money. It was being run very effectively and efficiently. In addition to that, there was this sales conference that I went to, I think there's probably 2015 where they were doing this thing called vision boards and vision board is, post a board where you paste pictures of really expensive homes or jewelry or cars and all these things [00:24:00] of what you want to aspire to.

Speaker: And I watched this guy go through this process. I'm going, none of that stuff motivates me at all. I'm not interested in a, jewelry. I'm not interested in a bigger house or a car or even travel or any of that stuff. I wasn't interested in any of that. And as I was digesting my lack of motivation, What he was trying to motivate us with.

Speaker: I realized that I had been living most of my life up to that point out of duty, responsibility, and obligation. I had a duty to my clients. I responsibility to my family. I had obligations to my employees. That was my life. There's no joy. There is absolutely. No joy in my life. I created the software along with some other talented programmers.

Speaker: I had sold a number of really big deals. I had benefited from the finances. Our kids went to [00:25:00] private Christian schools because of it. There were a lot of benefits that were part of that process. But ultimately that wasn't enough to make me feel excited to get up in the day and to do that. So leading up to that, there was a place in my life that I knew that something Had to change.

Speaker: And I was looking at retirement at 65 and that would be the change. And God said, no, I got something else for you. Time to take all that energy and creativity of yours and throw it into a different project. And that's where the brush fires ministry was born.

Speaker 2: You've mentioned your wife a lot, so I'm guessing she was supportive of all of this, all the change that happened. 

Speaker: So we've been married last year for 45 years, and in every one of these large situations, like when I left my, employer and started our software company in 1987, [00:26:00] there were instances where she and I just talked and she knew that working for that other guy was just killing me and that there was this opportunity to start this business with a friend, an ex colleague, and it was very uncertain, but she was supportive.

Speaker: The situation with closing down the software company was there was no other alternative. It was either close down the company, take. bank, leave my employees and my clients high and dry without any support or finances or do what I did. And I chose What I believe to be the ethical moral thing to do in every one of these situations, my wife has come alongside and helped as best she could.

Speaker: So in 88, I believe I was working 16 hour days, developing the new software product. I was working six [00:27:00] days a week. I'd come home. I would do payroll. I do accounting. You still have to do the books and all that stuff. And at some point she volunteered. She goes, Hey, is there anything I can do to help? Can I do that?

Speaker: Cause she has a stay at home mom and everything that we did for the county was at home and I go, all right let me see about teaching you how to do payroll. And she got that down and then I taught her how to do accounting. I wrote accounting software, so I knew what I was doing.

Speaker: So I taught her how to do accounting and then health insurance and all these other things. And so she came alongside and did all that. Same thing with ministry. We do this as a team. In fact, when I hang up with you, I've got a three hour coaching session called a design discovery meeting, and she will be partnering with me In that effort, where we've been doing that together since 2018.

Speaker: She went through the psychometric assessment training with me. She understands when I use these terms. She produced the PowerPoint. She does the [00:28:00] accounting for the ministry. She does my video editing. She's my refiner maximizer and does things that, that are Repetitive that I can easily delegate that she winds up doing a great job at.

Speaker: And so that's, we are well suited to work together from that standpoint, based upon our interests, abilities, and talents. 

Speaker 2: Congratulations on 45 years. That's a very long time. 

Speaker: It is, 

Speaker 2: My friend here has actually been married to her husband for 47 years as well. I think it was very cool. 

Speaker: It's an exclusive club.

Speaker: There aren't many of us out there. 

Speaker 2: Not anymore. So do you have any final thoughts? Anything you didn't get the chance to say that you wanted to say before we switch [00:29:00] topics? 

Speaker: I would say one of the best bits of business advice I've ever received was that same business where the software was failing and I had to learn how to fix it because the software manager and the boss got into I forget the guy's name.

Speaker: I think the name of the company was County Financial or something like that. I was talking to him and I can remember saying clearly, I will never start my own business. There's no way I want to deal with, there's no way I want to deal with employees. I think that's what I told him. And he gave me some advice.

Speaker: He says, the best advice I can give you about business is figure out what you do really well, do that, and then hire people that do the things that you don't do well. To do them. And it was interesting because it was like an introduction to design and team building and so forth that I've used ever since, because the things that I do I stay focused in on and I can be [00:30:00] motivated by, and the areas that I don't do well require real efforts and I.

Speaker: Ideally, we have people around that want to do them like my book editor that will, I'll be working with, like my wife, all these individuals that can do things that I just, Not well suited for, 

Speaker 2: You have grown something that from what I've heard about it is needed because if you don't know where you're supposed to be, you can't get where you're supposed to be, 

Speaker: right?

Speaker: No, that's exactly the problem. And the thing is that we have few guides to be able to get us there. We will see people that we admire and we try to model our life and our life doesn't seem to work out like theirs does. There's a lot of deception out there about, what will bring you happiness.

Speaker: Like I said about that vision board thing, I wasn't motivated by a bigger [00:31:00] house or a car or, accumulating even wealth. It wasn't really those things I had achieved to some limited extent, but they weren't really big motivators in my life anymore. And so We pursue things that we think, okay this will be a career that I will make a lot of money in, and then you're miserable at it.

Speaker: We pursue things because this is what my parents want me to do. And so I'm wanting to please them, or this is what my friends are doing. So I guess I'll just do what they're doing. None of those things are effective. Maybe you're going to be lucky. You just happen to do that. But in most cases, we really need to.

Speaker: Figure out what we do well and pursue those things that are in alignment with that. And that's where our program, our assessments are completely objective and they've been used in the corporate world for, [00:32:00] Oh, I think over 30 years in doing just that. Organizations like IBM and lucent technology and Coca Cola and Clorox have used these assessments in motivating.

Speaker: And positioning their top people to get the most out of them. And so these are very effective tools in the right hands and we're using it for God's glory, but they've been used in the business world for, like I said, decades. 

Speaker 3: Hey everyone, thanks for sticking with us. Before we dive into our next topic, I just want to take a quick moment to remind you to like this video, subscribe to our channel, and hit that notification bell. That way, you'll always be the first to know when a new episode drops. And we want to hear from you.

Speaker 3: What topics are you most excited about? Drop your thoughts in the comments below. Your feedback helps us create content that you love. We've got some exciting stuff coming your way, so don't miss out. Now, let's switch gears and jump into our next [00:33:00] discussion.

Speaker 2: I was thinking about doing it on anxiety and actual tips to help reduce anxiety. 

Speaker 2: Okay. So we can. My only thought was anxiety is something that I deal with.

Speaker 2: And I know a lot of people who are dealing with it. My philosophy on mental health. Whether it's anxiety, depression, or anything else you actually have to work on it. It's not time to say, oh, I have anxiety. I can never do X, Y, or Z ever again. Or this thing happened to me, so I can't hear that word ever said again because it will make me completely break down into tears.

Speaker 2: I am not the one for that. I work on my mental health. I have two therapists which I have said a lot I Am a work in progress I am getting better Step by step not that i'm doing steps, but like Actually, day by day, minute by minute, [00:34:00] sometimes anxiety though, is one of those things that even if you're not depressed or you don't have PTSD, you could still have anxiety and have it be pretty bad.

Speaker 2: For me, some of the things that I do when my anxiety is starting to hit the rafters, because I'm in a new situation or whatever, is I will first of all, you have to notice that you're doing it, right? I start with my fingers like i'm constantly like twisting my fingers and stuff And as soon as my brain clicks in hey, look what you're doing to your fingers Maybe it's starting to hurt or whatever I go.

Speaker 2: Oh, yeah let's stop with that for a second and like breathe because you know when your anxiety starts going up People tend to not breathe anymore or they do it weirdly. So I take like the deep breaths to get back to a calmer. Breathing pattern and you know so that I can you know, i'm focusing just on the breathing for [00:35:00] a second That does not mean that I go and sit cross legged somewhere and start doing the or whatever I just take a second wherever i'm at standing wherever i'm at and I just breathe for a second so that I can look Nothing's happened.

Speaker 2: We're fine Let's keep going And I do I keep going. Because anything new Causes anxiety for me because I don't know what i'm supposed to do I haven't figured out if i'm doing it right yet. You know that kind of thing and so I get my anxiety hits the rafters and it's oh, you're what you look stupid you're acting stupid everything's stupid and You're an idiot go away.

Speaker 2: Nobody wants to hear what you're saying a thing And you know taking that moment to breathe and shut my own mind off, tell it to shut up I wouldn't do it out loud if you're in a public place, but, I do sometimes sitting here working my anxiety for absolutely no reason will hit the rafters and I'm like, would you just shut up?

Speaker 2: I'm working. I don't have time for this [00:36:00] and then I do the breathing thing and then I'm fine and I go back to work. Anxiety is one of those things that can attack you. It's a stupidest moment. 

Speaker: I hear you. I'm actually wired in a unique way when things look difficult or when something looks like it's about to explode.

Speaker: I seem to get very calm and my thinking gets very focused and I'm looking for the solution and so forth. And I can give you a couple of situations where that's happened, but I know what you're talking about. I do understand. And I understand that some people are crippled by the, these thoughts. And.

Speaker: Because I am involved in ministry, I'm going to give you a perspective that is based upon my faith and my relationship with God and to understand it from that perspective. [00:37:00] And I'm going to, I'm going to cover two specific areas. The Trinity of how we are all wired. We are body, soul, and spirit and what those do.

Speaker: And the reality is that there is a God out there, but there's also an enemy of all of ours, whether you're a believer or not, the enemy hates you simply because you have the image of God in you as a believer or unbeliever, it doesn't really matter. You were created in the image of God. So the enemy hates you.

Speaker: So let's talk about the structure of the soul and spirit the body. You can look at the skeletal system, the nervous system, and the circuitory system. The soul is made up of your, Emotions, your intellect and your free will. The spirit is made up of your conscience of your [00:38:00] inspiration and your ability to be able to communicate with the spirit world out there.

Speaker: Okay, God, God speaks to you guys, intervenes through your spirit. What happened in the garden when man sinned, that connection to God, that presence of God that was in humans at that time was cut off, was died at that point. We were always created to be in relationship with God.

Speaker: That was how we're created. So that's, and that's the thesis of how I'm going to describe this. Not, you don't have to, your listeners don't have to believe me. I'm just telling you what I know to be true in my life. And I think it's true in everybody. So we have this spirit connection in us. Now, what happens when a Christian becomes a Christian is that the Holy Spirit takes residence in the spirits.

Speaker: That is the, that's what happens. But you [00:39:00] always have that channel open. And not only does God speak to you through that, but also the enemy speaks to you through that. So the enemy will come in when you are in a moment of anxiousness or vulnerability and go, they don't like you. They think you're stupid.

Speaker: They, you're going to fail. Why are you trying this again? You're not good at what you do. If all these areas of self doubt, what I tell people, and we call these things intrusive thoughts. Okay. That, Through that channel, you can get inspiration, but you can also get these doubts these words of destruction that are being spoken into you.

Speaker: I tell people, not every thought that rambles in your head is from you or for you. If it's a benign thought, like if I say, yeah, three plus four is seven. Okay. You're My goes, Okay, that's a math equation. Three plus 47. Oh, yeah, that's true. Okay, those are benign thoughts. When you are driving, all of a sudden you get an [00:40:00] inspiration of something that you've been struggling with.

Speaker: Okay, quite likely that was God saying, here's the solution to what you need to go through. When you are in a anxious moment and you are wondering, do these people like me? Are they, were they laughing at me? Were they doing all these things? Those are the intrusive thoughts that cause you to.

Speaker: Have division with other people and to shut down and begin to doubt who you are. One of the secrets about what we do is to help people discover what it is that God created them to do and for them to understand that their ability to do that is dependent upon the relationship with God and will be achieved.

Speaker: power of God. That being said, if a person gets to a place in their life where they say, I'm going to start doing the things that God created me to do and I'm going to allow him to work through me, you have now become a [00:41:00] major threat to the enemy. The enemy doesn't want any of us to believe that he doesn't want him.

Speaker: He doesn't want you to believe in yourself and what your God given talents are. He doesn't want you to believe in God so that you can actually go to him. I had a friend that, that suffered from PTSD. She's actually a trauma counselor. She's done a lot of study in this area and she said it the most beautifully I've ever heard anybody say, she says, when I feeling those moments, what I have now realized is as his daughter, I can go to my daddy and I can crawl into his lap and say, dad, I'm hurting, I'm fearful, I need your protection,

Speaker: sorry, and those are the moments that God's waiting for all of his children to recognize. that they can go to him. He is waiting for them to turn to them. Being a [00:42:00] believer, being a non believer, doesn't matter. Your creator wants you to turn to him and say, can't do this anymore. I need you. And his response is going to be, you were never created to do it on your own.

Speaker: You have always needed me. I am ready to embrace you and to welcome you home.

Speaker 2: That is actually something that I believe in and that I do because like I said if those thoughts come I'm just like shut up that's not me. But I also do the thing you did even with my anxiety if there's an actual thing happening that is an emergency type situation or if things need to happen and they need to happen now My anxiety turns off and I am in it doing it And it's getting done and then I might have, the panic attack after once everything's safe again and done again, I may, go off on my own and have a moment, but 

Speaker: okay.

Speaker: When you are looking at an enemy [00:43:00] who has invested it and stealing, killing and destroying everything that is good in this world. Do you understand why a person like you, who is able to operate with that clear mindset and make good decisions in the midst of a struggle, is such a threat to the enemy's intentions?

Speaker: That's why he wants you to be shackled with anxiety. Because the more you are unshackled from that, the more you are a pain in his neck and a threat to his intentions.

Speaker 2: Besides breathing, there are 2 other things that I do for my anxiety to coping mechanisms, grounding, whichever. I do cherry pickers, which is this. And the faster my fingers are moving, the more anxiety is affecting me, but I can slow it down because I start concentrating on it.

Speaker 2: And if I'm going real fast, [00:44:00] then I know, okay, got to breathe, got to stop those thoughts and slow it down until I can stop doing it. It's gone to the point where my friend that I live with will she'll see me start doing it. And she'll know that I'm having a moment. It actually happened 

Speaker 2: we went to walmart normal grocery shopping time Normal day that I go out of the house It was nothing big But we went in a line that could only take cards and for some reason his machine was not accepting my card And like my brain knew I had the money on the card But because it was, not accepting it and he kept having to say, okay, let's try that again.

Speaker 2: I felt like people were staring at me and judging me for this card doing this thing. And so I started cherry picking and so Kim was just like, she knew to just say, hey, you're fine. [00:45:00] We're going to figure this out. It's not your card because I have had times in the past where it didn't have the money and you know or it wasn't there when it was supposed to be there or something and so you're at that moment in front of the cashier and there's no money on the card you're trying to use and that is very stressful, even if there's nobody in line behind you, which why is there always somebody behind you when that happened?

Speaker 2: And so You know, it's ingrained at that point that oh crap Now everybody's like mad at me because i'm taking up space that I shouldn't be taking up but this week when it happened, I was very quickly able to calm myself back down and Not completely go off the rails While this was happening because it was it's just a moment for me.

Speaker 2: That is not comfortable I don't know too many people who are with their card being, declined while they're standing there. Although it wasn't actively declining my card, the [00:46:00] machine was just not accepting it. It was having issues. So just there are times when you're in those moments that you just have to Realize that even if there are people staring at you, they've gone through the same thing.

Speaker 2: They're probably sympathetic. You might get a Karen in line, that happens where somebody behind you is oh, God, you're taking too long. Why can't you just pay, but you got to take those and put them in the trash along with your thoughts that you're having that are making you make this a bigger situation than it is.

Speaker 2: The cashier doesn't care.

Speaker: Yeah I understand the situation and there are times where I get frustrated by circumstances. Just recently the carrier that we use for our 800 numbers, decide that they're going to go out of business. And so with very little notice, we had to find Another carrier for 800 number and [00:47:00] learn all that stuff and deal with the transition.

Speaker: And, it's I didn't need that frustration. I didn't need that. Fortunately we were able to find a good replacement. We're actually saving money on a monthly basis. And my wife was able to make that happen. It's a transition for us. Once we actually got things going in the right direction.

Speaker: So I do get that. It's

Speaker: understand that these things are not coming from God and they're not coming necessarily from you. They are forms of manipulation. I refer to it. As like a puppet master, the enemy knows that you are sensitive in this area and will yank it up, provoke somebody to say something unkind, like why are you taking so much time and trigger all these traumas that are there in all of us that causes us to, get angry or to be anxious or whatever the reaction is.

Speaker: So it, [00:48:00] it's a real thing. And I think one of our biggest defenses against it is the awareness that you are a physical creature. Sorry, you were a spiritual creature trapped in a body and there's more going on in the spiritual world around you. Then you are likely to understand. And these provocations we can refer to them as accusation, provocations, intimidations, insinuations, and temptations.

Speaker: These are the tools of the enemy trying to pull those puppet strings to get you to act or react out of fear, anger, or shame so that you don't. Accomplish what it is that God wants to accomplish through you and that you begin to doubt everything around you, your reality, and they're unhealthy for you.

Speaker: They're unhealthy for the things that God wants to do through you. And as you become aware, you can have the strength and authority [00:49:00] to take the scissors and start to cut those. And to be able to not simply manage it when it happens, but to shut it down. I can remember a situation. I don't want to go into the detail where these thoughts were being put into my mind and then I recognized what they were.

Speaker: They were temptations. And at some point, and then you have to say these things out loud. So you want to make sure who's around you when you're saying these things out loud, because the enemy can't read your mind, he can whisper into your mind and understand and expect what the response is, but he can't read your actual thoughts.

Speaker: So you have to say these things out loud. And when I was being tempted in this area, I recognize what it was and what the intention was on his part. And I said out loud, really, you're going to try that old thing again. Really? Oh, that [00:50:00] is so pathetic. Now you have to be a position of strength in your life and have your identity as a daughter or son of the most high God really in, in ingrained in you, but when you can start to mock the enemy for his feeble attempts at trying to knock you off balance.

Speaker: Be your course and your mission. He does not like being mocked. And so this allows you to get to a place and that needs to be felt. It needs to be real. It can't be something that it's like a false bravado. It has to be real where you look at it for what is being attempted. And you literally say, Oh, that is so pathetic that you think that's going to work again.

Speaker: Now, all that does is he's going to find a different way to come at you or he'll. Start attacking through your family and friends, but it's one less Avenue [00:51:00] that he has control over you because he'll continue to go back to that for as much as he's able to allow him to prevent you from what it is that God wants to do through you

Speaker: I would like to be able to direct people to our website 

Speaker 2: How can people reach out to you if they are wanting to do 

Speaker: so our website is brushfires digital. com. That is our teaching site. I would encourage your people to go there.

Speaker: They can check out what the ministry is all about. If they register as a new user, they will get our spiritual gifts assessment free of charge. They will get to. Two books from that we already have established on the site, as well as that will also be the site where I'm going to make my next book available free of.

Speaker: Charge which is called sparks turn into brush fires. I would encourage people to watch some of the videos that are on there. And then if they decide to go with one of our packages, they can do it as little as 59 a month and get the entire premium package [00:52:00] to be able to go through our 11 different second.

Speaker: Big assessments, the eight sessions video series, the workbook, as well as they can earn enough to be able to do the three hour coaching session. And all the details are explained under those premium packages. And if they have any questions, they can simply reach out to me. My email address is on there as well as our 800 number.

Speaker 2: Okay. I will make sure that information is available in the descriptions as well. 

Speaker: Thank you. And I really appreciate our conversation, Nikki, and all the best in your endeavors there and how you're trying to help people and make a difference in their lives. So thank you for the opportunity to talk to your audience.

Speaker 2: Thank you for being here. 

Speaker: You're welcome.