The 6 Stages of Obeying God (Even When It Costs You Everything) | Spiritual Leadership Podcast with Landon Schott

When you begin to hear God and obey God, everything begins to change. Don't fall into the trap where you want it to be God, you hope it's God, you think it's God, you have to know it's God. It's from hearing to obeying, and that middle ground is what we call faith. The enemy is going to come to attack your faith. He's going to come, like he said to Adam and Eve, did the Lord really say you're not supposed to touch this? He comes with doubt, he comes with fear, he comes with insecurity, and let me help you spiritually grow. You are going to need a God said in your spirit, you're going to need a God said in your mind. When that Jezebel spirit comes to talk you out of doing ministry, to talk you out of leading in your church, when the enemy comes to kill, steal, and destroy, you're going to have to learn how to respond, it is written, you're going to have to learn how to respond. God already told me, you're going to have to be certain in your faith that God spoke to you. So let me give you a warning. Today I'm going to be sharing with you one of my favorite things in life, hearing the voice of God. But it doesn't matter if you hear God if you don't obey Him. I'm going to talk about the journey from hearing God to obeying God, I call it the journey of faith. I'm going to teach you what God has told me, I'm going to answer your questions and give you some practical advice. I'm Landon Schott, and this is Spiritual Leadership, where we're helping leaders become spiritual leaders. Let's get after it. I tell my church every single week when I stand up at the pulpit of Mercy Culture Church, I say this, it is easy to hear God when you're in His presence. And when you begin to hear God and obey God, everything begins to change. So I'm constantly telling people the secret to spiritual growth, the secret to spiritual

leadership is hearing God and obeying God. It is that simple. Or is it? Here's the thing. Even though it's really as simple as hearing God and obeying God, there is a process. There is a journey between hearing and obeying God. And most people don't make it through that journey, or what I like to call it's the journey of faith. See, hearing God is one of the most important aspects of every Christian's life. Matthew 4, 4, Jesus responded that man shall not live on bread alone, but out of every word that proceeds or comes out of the mouth of God. Now, I've already done a teaching on hearing God's voice. I think it's called Anyone Can Hear God. And so I've already taught on the different ways that God speaks. So I want to take it to the next step. After you hear God, what do you do next? See, spiritual maturity is when you go from God told me to I obeyed what God told me. The Greek word, o-k-o, is how we hear listening or hearing. And when you hear God, it actually means to obey God. That meaning of that Greek word is to hear, perceive a sound, to listen with attention, to understand, respond. It's not a passive hearing. It's an active listening. It implies obedience. It's frequently used to describe hearing that leads to a response, or hearing is incomplete without obedience. What I want you to understand is that as you hear God, the next natural step is obeying God. Luke 8, verse 24, everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who builds his house on a rock.

Someone that does them is someone that obeys them. Again, Luke 8, verse 21 says, my mother and brothers and those who hear the word of God and do it. Jesus is saying this, those that do the word are his spiritual family. So I would say this, guys, it doesn't even matter if you hear God if you don't obey him. So maybe we don't have a hearing problem in the body of Christ. Maybe we have an obedience problem. See, this is what true spiritual leadership looks like. Spiritual maturity is the ones that not only hear God and obey God. But I wanted to break this down because I know it sounds really simple, hearing and obeying. But like I said in the introduction, it's a process. And sometimes the process takes weeks. Sometimes it takes months. Sometimes it's a year of the process of hearing God and obeying God. For me, one of the greatest moments where I wrestled with hearing and obeying was when God told me to plant Mercy Culture Church. Many of you know our story and our testimony. Heather and I did a podcast about it where we talked about the church hurt and the church abuse that we went through. You can watch that podcast if you haven't seen it. Because I was raised in church and I saw the hypocrisy and the dysfunction, because I worked at other churches and I saw behind the scenes of people that professed one way of living and did another way behind the scenes, I was jaded. I always loved the Lord. I never deconstructed. I never rebelled against God. But I didn't want to be a part of the local church because of the unhealth or the church dysfunction. And so I made an inner vow that I wasn't going to do it. And then God spoke to me to plant the church. I'm driving through Fort Worth, Texas. I'm minding my own business. I wasn't even talking to the Lord, but he talked to me and he said, you can pastor here. And when he said it, I mean, it was so quick. It was so fast. It was like it came behind me. I could not believe

what God told me. And it was almost like, Lord, I told you I would never pastor. And he had to remind me that I told him that he never told me that. And then I went through this process of wrestling with it. And for me, once I hear God, I have to obey because it's part of this process of this journey. And so I can't hear God and not obey because over and over in my early days, God would speak to me and I would disobey. And then he would say to me, do you want me to speak to you or not? And what he was doing, he was training me that if I ignore his voice long enough, he'll talk to someone else. And it reminds me of 1 Samuel chapter 3, where Eli, the high priest, God wasn't talking to him anymore. He was talking to Samuel and maybe just maybe that Eli ignored the Lord enough that he stopped talking. And that's why the word of the Lord was very rare in that day. See the process of going from a mega church with 10 campuses and 13 house vision nonprofits and three states and growing all over the nation in seven years, people are like, wow, that's amazing. But it didn't happen with just, you just hear one time and you immediately obey. There is a wrestle. There is a struggle. There is a journey of faith. And I had to go from a six months wrestle with the Lord to a 40 day fast and continue on a multi-year journey from hearing God to obeying God. So the question of how do you go from a church plant in a city where you don't know anyone, not a soul, no one, no connections to 10 campuses and national impact in seven years, it is the journey of faith. It's from hearing to obeying and that middle ground is what we call faith. Today, I'm going to give you the six stages of the journey of faith when it comes to hearing God and obeying. You ready to go? Number one, you get an awareness of the will of God. This is what I call a kick in your spirit. This is where God may speak to you. You may have a conversation with one or two or three people and all of a sudden you start hearing, you start sensing, you start feeling the spirit of God, the will of God. Those are when you start asking yourself questions. Does the Lord want me to do this? Does the Lord want me to go there? Does the Lord want me to give you this? You start getting an awareness of the presence of God. The reason why I call it a kick in your spirit, it's because the Holy Spirit on the inside of you starts jumping. It reminds me of Luke chapter one when Mary walks into the room with Elizabeth. Mary is pregnant with Jesus. Elizabeth is pregnant with John the Baptist. When they walk in the same room, Elizabeth's womb leaps because John the Baptist is full of the Holy Spirit in that moment, which that will boggle your mind theologically. He's baptized, filled with the Holy Spirit in the womb, and he begins to leap in the womb. As a charismatic, I think he was speaking in tongues,

but I'm not sure. He's filled with the Holy Spirit in the womb, and her womb leaps, and she said, whoa, I felt something. When you start getting an awareness of something God wants you to do, you start feeling it. It's the awareness. It's that conversations with people, late night chats, fireplaces, those walks with your spouses like, hey, I think the Lord may want us to do this. A lot of times it's a question. Maybe you have a dream. Maybe you have a vision. Maybe there's a series of questions. So for me, it was that moment where the Lord said, you can pastor here. Now, I knew that wasn't my thought, because I've been telling people for years I would never pastor. So when I had the thought, when I heard it out loud in my car, I knew it wasn't my voice, because my voice said the opposite. So I knew it had to be God's voice. I remember when I told Heather for the first time, hey, I think that we're supposed to start a church. She's like, you said we went pastor. I was like, I'm very aware of what I said I wouldn't do, because I said it. But I begin to process what the Lord said as I was aware of it. Stage one is being aware that God is speaking. Number two, you lean into the heart of God. This is when you pray. This is when you seek. This is when you ask. This is when you knock. This is when you walk. This is when you fast. This is when you are pursuing what does God want. Okay, you don't do this. This isn't a pursuing of what you want. This isn't you weighing the pros and cons, and is this what I should do? This is where you're saying, Lord, are you sure? This is when you start fasting about it. This is when you start putting scripture to it. This is when you start asking wise counsel to come in agreement with you. This is when you're like, okay, Lord, I need confirmations. I remember when I was in the middle of my first 40-day fast, and I am fasting about starting a church, and God had already spoken to me two weeks prior in this wild moment. There's actually a picture right over my shoulder right here, this moment God spoke to me. I'll show you on the screen so you can see it. God speaks to me in this moment. He tells me two weeks before the fast that he was sending me, and I said to the Lord, then why do I have to fast if you're telling me now? And the Lord said, the fast is for them. He told me the fast was going to be for the team and the leaders that would follow me from around the nation to Fort Worth. So I go downtown Fort Worth. I'm praying the first time. I'm walking the city praying, and I pray in the Holy Ghost the whole time. It took me about two hours walking every block of downtown. I get to the very end, and I said to the Lord, would you make me a spiritual father in this city? The Lord spoke to me and said, you can't ask that yet. I said, then what

do I ask you for? He said, ask me for authority. I did another podcast on spiritual authority. You can learn more about that story then. He was giving me the secrets that spiritual fathers have. He was telling me this is what you need to do. This is how you need to lead if you want to be a spiritual father. I get done with that prayer time, and I get a phone call from my friend, Pastor Russell Johnson of the Pursuit Church. He calls me and says, hey, I just had a dream that you're standing on the map of Fort Worth, Texas. Does that mean anything to you? I'm like, bro, no way. God gives me this confirmation as I am praying in Fort Worth about it. I have this confirmation from the Lord. This is where you are getting that process of, okay, I'm getting the mind of the Lord. Stage three, this is when you know that you know that you know that you heard from God. The story where God spoke to me, I was preaching at this church. As I'm preaching at the church, I had this sense that God wanted to speak to me because he had spoken to me at that same church on the same stage a different time. So I went back to that same place that he spoke to me before, and I said, I wonder if he's going to speak to me again. I took my prayer to lead. I put it over my head, and I kneeled down on the stage. Here's the picture of that moment. And in that moment, I heard the Lord say, I'm sending you to Fort Worth. That was the moment I heard the word of God. This is so important because when you are going from hearing to obeying, you have to make sure you heard. And part of that journey of faith is that double down, no, I heard the Lord. You say, why is this so important, Landon? The reason why it's so important, because the enemy is going to come to attack your faith. He's going to come and say, like he said to Jesus, did God really say he's going to come? Like he said to Adam and Eve, did the Lord really say you're not supposed to touch this? He comes with doubt. He comes with fear. He comes with insecurity. And let me help you spiritually grow. You are going to need a God said in your spirit. You're going to need a God said in your mind. When that Jezebel spirit comes to talk you out of doing ministry, to talk you out of leading in your church, when the enemy comes to kill, steal and destroy, you're going to have to learn how to respond. It is written. You have to learn how to respond. God already told me you're going to have to be certain in your faith that God spoke to you. So let me give you a warning. I would advise you do not move forward until you hear from God. This is really important. You have to—don't fall into the trap where you want it to be God. You hope it's God. You think it's God. You have to know it's God. Now, when I say that, your theology matters. And there's a real big difference between Calvinist

and Arminianism right here, because there be a group of people that just think that, you know, whatever God will wants it, and if it's good, it's going to be God. And there's a lot of people that just say, you know what, I think this is a good idea. I think God would like it, and I'm going to go with it. And I'm not saying that you have a bad theology. I'm saying I don't have that theology. I'm saying I would not move across the country. I would not start churches in those cities. I wouldn't do those things. The only time I make a move is when I know God said. And when I know that God said, then I'm willing to take that next step in the faith journey and to obey what God said, because I'm sure—see, a mistake a lot of people make is they think it will be okay if they're just trying to obey God. And I know that's good-hearted, and I'm sure that there's the grace of God that will cover those things, but I don't know if the favor of God would be on those things. I can't say for sure. Yes, God's favor at His hand will come, and He'll bless it. And I can't speak for you, but I'm telling you how I live my life and how I spiritually lead. I don't want to do things that God doesn't bless. I don't wanna do things that his favor's not on. So I need to know that I know, and it's important that I hear the voice of God. The goal of the Spiritual Leadership Podcast is that you will spiritually grow. With every episode released, you'll be equipped with a leadership guide. In every guide, we will review the information that was covered, reflect by asking questions to yourself, to God, and your teams, and apply what you've learned. It's gonna be short, sweet, effective, and to the point. I don't want you just to listen to this podcast. I want you to be able to immediately apply it to yourself and the people you lead.

So text podcast to 59090 and download the leadership guide with every podcast episode we drop. Number four, this is where you get in unity. Okay, this is where you get in unity with your spouse, with your family, with your pastors, with your leaders. I did an episode on how to leave your church healthy. We'll put that link right here so you can see it. Learn how to get your leaders on board. Learn how to get in unity. I had to do this multiple times in our journey, and I still have to do this on a regular basis. But the big part was getting Heather on board. So for years of our marriage, I told Heather we would never pastor. So we have a plan. We're working our plan. We live in Austin. We live in the hill country. I'm doing 80 flights a year as an evangelist. I wrote some best-selling books. God's blessing us. She's a top 10 realtor in Austin for her company. We bought a piece of land. We're building her dream house. She has a contemporary farmhouse builder that she had sold tons of houses for. He's building our custom farmhouse in the hills of Austin. Life is good. Everything's going great.

Then God says, just kidding. You're gonna go to a city where you don't know anyone. You're gonna leave all of your clients, all of your businesses. You're gonna come off the road, and you're gonna plant a church. This is what I'm telling my wife. And so I'm like, hey, I know your dream builder just said that he would build it for us at cost, and you thought it was God because he was gonna build it at cost, but that's not what God's saying. And I had to go through this process. And so for Heather and I, it was a wrestle. We had to get in unity. And so the first step was even planting a church, which I told her for years we wouldn't do. And I started talking to her. I really feel like this is what the Lord's leading us to do. And she knew I was going on a 40-day fast, and I kept going to Fort Worth to pray. So one time she said to me, she's like, are you gonna go to Fort Worth every time? Why don't you go to Austin to pray? See, the thing was is I never told Heather what God told me about Fort Worth. I never once said God said to do it. I just kept, hey, what do you think about Fort Worth? What would you think about starting a church in Fort Worth? And here's what I was doing.

I was waiting for God to speak to her, but the truth is she was a little slower to hear God than me. So here we go. I had to fight for unity. And so one day she says to me, she's like, well, would you even go to Austin and pray? I was like, sure, I'll go to Austin and pray. So I already know that God called us to Fort Worth, so I go to Austin to pray. So I'm down there, I'm praying with my son, and he's about a one-year-old baby. He's in a car seat or in a stroller, so I'm walking him downtown, and there's this guy with, a bald-headed guy with sunglasses on and a black cat on his shoulder. I kid you not, a black cat on his shoulder. And I'm walking in the crosswalk of downtown Austin where they're keeping it weird, and this dude reaches down to grab my son in the middle of the crosswalk. And all of a sudden, the spirit of Bruce Lee, spirit animal, kung fu ninja, comes upon me. I didn't even mean to do this, but I just turn around and I kick this guy in the chest as hard as I can. I mean, it was actually awesome, but you had to have been there, and I kick this guy in the chest, and he goes flying back, I square up to fight this guy. All of a sudden, there's people all around yelling at him, and he starts yelling, he's like, I'm a prophet

and I bless children. I'm like, bro, not this child, you're not. And then all of a sudden, this crowd gets around us, I keep walking, and this guy's gone. Crazy story. So I get back home, and Heather's like, how'd it go? Did you hear from God? I was like, actually. And this is the moment I go out and pray, but this was part of us getting into unity. So then the story, I'm praying every day. It's the 16th day of my 40-day fast. I'm like, Lord, I can't go start a church without Heather. You're gonna have to speak to her, you're gonna have to get, if this is you, you're gonna have to get her on board. So we come to Fort Worth on Father's Day weekend. We're walking in downtown in Trinity Park, and some random lady comes up and gives Heather a prophetic word about starting a church in Fort Worth. You can't make this stuff up. Then we find herself in Trinity Park, and she's like, man, that church would be awesome for a building. Let's pray for this building. I'm like, okay. So we start praying for this building. I turned to her, and I was like, why are you praying for a church building in Fort Worth? And all of a sudden, her eyes tear up with water,

and she goes, I don't know. She goes, but I think we're supposed to plant a church here. I pull out my Bible, I open it up, and I show her the moments that God spoke to me. I show her a screenshot of that moment that God spoke to me, and I said, God has already spoken to me. I told her about. dream. She's crying. She's like, why didn't you tell me any of this stuff? And I said, because I wanted God to speak to you. And we call it the proposal. I proposed to her again. I invited her to join me in unity in planting this church. And she said yes. That unity was the next step of us moving forward in the journey of faith. Psalms 133 says this. You all know it. How good and pleasant when brothers dwell together in unity. At the end of that verse, it goes on to say this, for there the Lord has commanded a blessing. There is a blessing that happens when you're in unity. And I want to speak to a moment. I feel this prophetically. And what I mean by that is as I'm sharing this podcast, it's not in any of my notes, but I sense in my spirit that there's some of you that you are at odds with your leadership. You're at odds with your spouse and you're trying to move forward in the journey of faith without being unity. And I would caution you right now to stop and pause and find unity before you move forward.

If you want to see the fruit of hearing and obeying, if you want to see the beauty of that fruit, the favor that you're really looking for, make sure you're in unity. Number five, this is where you make a plan. This is where strategy matters, health matters, and timing matters. I learned this by walking through my living room one day and the History Channel was on. This is wild. And I'm watching the History Channel and it's talking about Joshua and how Joshua was such a great war strategist. And they're talking about how Joshua would set up battles where the sun would be in the enemy's eyes at the peak of the battle. I don't even know how they know this, but apparently in the History Channel they know this. So I was curious. I went and looked up the battle that the History Channel was talking about. And the battle that they looked up, God promised them the victory. This is wild. So God promises them the victory or gives them a word, but they still use strategy. Now I want to push in and I want to warn you, because there's a lot of people that will say what God told you and God told me this and God told me that, and you may be using the Lord's name in vain. And here's what I mean, is God might tell you to do something, but he doesn't tell you exactly how to do it. Sometimes he doesn't tell you when to do it. One time this young minister was arguing with me about disobeying God, and he's like, God told me to do it, he told me the date, and I'm not going to disobey God. And my response was, what did God tell you the year? And a lot of times you can think that you're doing what God said, but you're not using wise strategy. At Mercy Culture, we delayed our church plant a year. Everybody was moving here.

We're getting ready to launch. And a wise man came to me and said, hey, I feel like the Lord's telling you to delay your church plant a year and do it differently. We prayed together as elders. We got in unity, and we believed that that was the word of the Lord. Watch this. It wasn't my timing. It was God's timing. Be careful that you hold to what God told you firmly, and maybe you told how to do it a little more loosely. Number six, once you're in unity, once you have a plan together, that's when you stink and run through walls. That's when you burn the plow, like when Elijah called Elisha. That's when you sell the field and you buy it. In Matthew's 13th parable, this is where you go all in. This is where you say, if God wants me to do it, I'm going to risk my life. I'm going to risk my reputation. I'm going to do whatever it takes. You go all in. For me, going all in means I came off the road. So as an evangelist, my income was on the road. So I went off the road 100%. I was doing over 80 flights a year, 80 events a year. I said, you know what? Either mercy culture is going to thrive or it's going to fail, but I'm going to give it my best. It means it costs me income. It costs salary. Heather volunteered full-time for the church. We lost all of her clients because she wasn't doing business in Fort Worth.

She was doing business in Austin. There was a cost to it. We went from making a lot of money to making almost nothing. It took faith. We sold our house. We took the sale of our first house, and it was the first Heart for Mercy offering. We went all in on it. It took risk. It took faith. But here's what I knew. I said, I'm going to give it my all no matter what. When you hear God and you're obeying God, you have to give your all. You can't do it halfway. You can't give partial. You can't be mad at God. I tried to obey and it didn't work when you partially obeyed him. It needs to be all in. I really view myself the same way of one of David's mighty men. When they heard the king say, oh, I just want water near the well of Bethlehem, and they risked their lives to get the water the king wanted. When I hear what's on my God's heart, I will risk whatever it takes to go get what my God wants. You have to go all in. And number seven, you do it again. This is where you just repeat steps one through six. This is where you keep doing the same. process, and you do it year after year, decade after decade, and it creates wild results when you do it. When you look at mercy culture, and you see what God has done, and I want to be very clear, this is not braggadocious.

I'm not saying I'm such a great leader, and this is why it's happened. This is the sovereign grace of God. This is the sovereign mercy of God. But I can tell you what I did and why, and why I think we found the favor and the grace of God. I was having a conversation with one of our elders, Steve Panate. He ran for mayor in 2021, and that run was one of the moments that put us on the map in the city when we began to spiritually lead outside of our church in our city for the first time. We became public enemy number one because the left-wing activists didn't want a church involved in separation between Church's Day, Johnson Amendment, and we were in the news constantly. And a couple months ago, I was having a conversation with one of our elders, my friend Steve, and I was like, when was that? When did you run again? And he's like, oh, that was 2021. And I remembered that was a year and a half into our church lawn. And I was thinking, oh my goodness, how insane, how crazy was it to run for mayor as a year and a half old church? I know I didn't know what I was doing because I know now what I was doing, and I don't think I would do it. And here's what I mean by that. I had a reckless, wild faith where I would hear God and obey Him no matter what the cost. And the next thing I thought was, man, I don't want to lose that wild faith. I don't want to lose that zeal. And the next thought I had was, well, I don't think we are because we're planting churches in Orange County and D.C. in the same year and San Antonio. This is wild. I realized I'm growing, I'm maturing, I feel wiser, but I still have that same spiritual edge that I will hear God and I will obey God and I will walk out the journey of faith.

If you want to keep spiritually growing, stay in the journey of faith. Keep hearing God, keep obeying God. Years of doing this have created the massive strength, the impact, the influence and the authority of Mercy Culture Church. And God is not a respecter of person. He will do the same thing in your life and your ministry. So let's recap. It's easy to hear God when you're in His presence. When you hear Him and obey Him, everything changes. It's a journey of faith. Maturity is the difference between God told me and I'm going to obey what God told me. And if you want to keep spiritually growing, stay in the journey of faith. Keep hearing God, keep obeying God. Let me pray for you. So Father, I thank you right now for the wonderful journey of faith. I thank you that anyone can hear God and my friends are hearing you. So now I pray for the faith to walk out what you have said. I pray that there'd be a transition. I feel this in my spirit. I really feel the Lord right now. Is there's going to be a transition in your spiritual walk and journey that you're going to be as passionate about obeying God as you've been a passionate about hearing God. So Lord, I pray what you've done in my life, even greater do in theirs. I pray the grace to hear you and obey you in Jesus name. Amen. We're here to recommit to the fight. After the church service, local drag performers were invited onto the stage. I love killing babies. They're like descending into chaos. The time of reformation is now.

Hey everyone, Landon here and I wanted to tell you about Reformation Weekend happening in Washington, D.C. on June 4th through the 7th. America needs reformers and you were born for this moment. Join me in Washington, D.C. for prayer walks where we're walking all over the city on Saturday inviting the Holy Spirit into our nation's capital. A reformers panel, a live panel with voices that are shaping the nation. A CFL march where we're holding our first Citizens for Life march on the National Mall standing for the unborn and for life. America is on holy ground and we're contending for reformation. Text REFORMATION to 599 to sign up and join me in D.C. Let me give you some practical advice. I have six things for you today. Number one, determine in your heart that you will obey God even before he speaks. I tell young leaders all the time, opportunity is everywhere. The perfect will of God is in one place. It's the place of obedience. Number two, steward prophetic words. Write them down, whatever God speaks to you. in your notepads, if it's in binders, if it's on your phone, whatever it is, but you need to document what God has said. Far too many people in immaturity love getting words, but they don't steward the words God gives you. I'm growing in this area because I'm starting to dream a little more than I've ever dreamt before, and Heather has, like, meticulous notes of all of these dreams, and I'm beginning to dream, but I haven't taken notes on them. So then I'll be like, oh, I think I had a dream about this, and I can't remember the details of the dream, even right now. Real story. I am repenting to the Lord for not stewarding a dream because I'm looking for an answer to a situation that I need right now, and I saw it in a dream, but I didn't write it down, and I'm kicking myself because I should have known better. So here's what you need to do. When you hear God speak to you, when you have visions, when you have dreams,

document them. It'll help you steward them. Number three, go back to the places God has spoken to you before and thank Him for speaking to you. I told you I did this at the stage of that church. There's places I go on the Trinity's Trail. There's literally places in Israel that I've gone to. I have gone on trips just to go back to little small little cabins out in the middle of the woods. Anytime I'm in any place that God has spoken to me before, here's what I do. I go back to it, I kneel down, and I thank Him. And here's my mindset, is I don't want to be like one of the lepers that encounters Jesus and doesn't go back and thanks Him. And I don't want to be one of the people that hears from God and doesn't thank Him for his voice. Because when you go back and thank God, it means you get another encounter with God, and I want to encounter Him more. I want to hear from Him more, so I want to thank Him. Number four, if you are a new believer or young in your faith, don't say, God told me. I know this is gonna be very difficult for a lot of you, okay? But let me tell you why. Don't attribute something that God didn't say. It's taking His name in vain. Here's what I mean. If you do not know for sure that God said, then you are using His name if you said He said when He didn't say. Taking the Lord's name is not swearing by using God's name. That's very dishonoring and disrespectful. Using the Lord's name is giving tribute to something God said that He didn't say. So you can't say, God told me as the Christian trump card, which we try to do this all the time in our faith. Or you have young people that you're so fast to share what God has spoken to you. Everything God speak to you might not be for for everybody else. It may just be for you. So when you are learning to hear God, I want you to be excited. You can tell people that you think you heard from God. But if you have a word for somebody, here's what you need to do. Say, I feel in my spirit. And then after you tell him, hey, I felt this in my spirit. I just want to submit this to you. Let them say it's from God. Jesus did this when He met a woman at the well. And He's like, hey, you got five husbands at home. She's like, I see you're a prophet. He didn't go to her and say, hey, I'm a prophet and I have a prophetic word that you are unfaithful wife. He didn't say that to her. He just gave her a word and

she's like, whoa, that was prophetic. See, when it really is God, you don't have to tell people it's God. You have to say, hey, I was praying. This came up to my heart. I feel like I want to submit it to you. And then let them say, I think this is God. And you can be like, hey, I think it's God, too. That's awesome that we're in unity about it. So be careful about saying God said. Number five. All right. This is that that awkward stage of like teenagers, like, you know, when teenagers voice are cracking and their bodies change in and they're like the most awkward people and they're clumsy. And it's like, OK, this is that spiritual awkward stage where you're not a baby, but you're not mature. And here's what it is. Number five, you have to move past the peace or I feel and you have to go with what God said. Here's what I mean. There's a lot of Christians that you've been serving the Lord for decades and you still can't hear his voice. And so God's speaking to you and you're like, I don't really know. I feel good about it. I have peace in my spirit. And that's great for baby Christians. That's not great if you've been serving God for 10 years. God has a voice. He has a voice. And you need to learn to recognize his voice. So if you've been serving the Lord for a season, if you've been through leadership schools, if you've had faithfulness serving the Lord, you need to go from I feel to I heard. Number six, take your timelines off of it. Oh, there's so many people that you think if God said, if God showed you, then it has to happen right now. And I'll be honest with you. That's just immaturity. Go read your Bible again. Go look at from when David was anointed king to when he became king. Go look at when Joseph had a dream to when he became the fruition of that dream. There is a process. This whole episode is about the journey of faith. It is immaturity to think because you have a prophetic word over your life that you're going to go to the nations, that you're going to the nations at 19 years old, okay? there's a season, there's a preparation. I'll give you an example. I'm in this church service, probably top five church services I've ever been in my entire life. It's in my evangelism days. It was in Florida in this party town. People are coming off the streets getting saved. I mean, the glory of God came in this room. When I got done ministering, this little lady who was a

prophet of the church said, I have a prophetic word for you. Gives me about a 30-minute prophetic word. I've listened to it hundreds of times. And one of those prophetic words, she says, you will stand in Washington, D.C. and you will revoke laws. Okay. Here's the word. You will stand in Washington, D.C. and you will revoke laws. How in the world do you get there? How do you connect the dots to you're going to stand in Washington, D.C. and revoke laws? I don't know, but I know how to be on the journey of faith. And the journey of faith is you keep saying yes to God. We had a situation a couple of years ago where I'm in Austin, Texas, and we are fighting to overturn a law or to make a law banning sex changes on minors in Texas. And I remember praying that this would go through. And this was an intense spiritual battle. And as we're praying this to go through, I remembered that prophetic word. And I was like, hey, we're not in D.C., but we're in Austin. And I feel a stewarding part of that prophetic word. Then fast forward about three years later, we bought a prayer house in Washington, D.C. It's directly across the street, the Supreme Court. I'll show a picture up there. You could literally hit a ping pong ball from the porch to the Supreme Court. That's how close it is. And I'm in that prayer house. And I realize that in that prayer house, we are making prayers to the Supreme Court that are going to change laws in our nation. I was like, whoa, I thought somehow I may stand in the Capitol and maybe I will do that. Or maybe I'll just stand in a prayer house in D.C. and change laws. See, it's really, really important that you allow time and space for you to mature, for you to walk in everything God's called you to do. Take your time frame off it. Just look for the perfect will of the Lord. I wanted to take a moment and talk about one of the greatest injustices of our time. It's human trafficking. Right now, there are fewer than 700 long-term restoration beds nationwide for survivors of human trafficking. I want to say that again, 700 nationwide with millions and millions of people that are trafficked, only 700 places for them to go. To answer this cry of justice, our church has birthed a ministry called the Justice Reform. Right now in Fort Worth, Texas, the Justice Reform is building a long-term restoration home called the Justice Residence. It will house up to 100 women rescued out of human trafficking. The Justice Residence is a biblically-based and presence-driven facility that will disciple hundreds of women into healing and restoration with Jesus. I wanted to ask you and invite you to become a monthly partner with the Justice Residence. Help make it possible for these women to have a safe place to learn and grow in their relationship with Jesus. To join us in this fight and to partner with us, text

PARTNER to 59090 or visit thejusticereform.com. Asking questions is a great way to spiritually grow. I'm going to answer your questions on hearing and obeying God. First question, how do I know it's God speaking to me? I've referenced this before, but you need to go back and watch the podcast, Anyone Can Hear From God. I go through the different voices that you hear. So the three spiritual voices that you hear is you hear your voice, you hear the enemy's voice, and you hear God's voice. When you learn how to realize what you sound like, what the enemy sounds like, it really helps you know what God's voice sounds like. When you know the other voices, God's voice will be very clear. Next question, what has obedience cost you? It's cost me everything. Absolutely everything. It's cost my life. It's cost my time. It's cost my will. It's cost my desire. It's cost my money. Over and over and over, I have given everything I have away to the church or to ministries. I have laid down what I had planned to do, what I wanted to do, over and over and over. And the greatest fruit is the joy of pleasing the Lord. I don't think about what I gave. I don't think about the houses I sold. I don't think about the vacations I didn't go on. I don't think about the things in my life that I planned to do that I ended up not doing. I'm constantly thinking about that the Lord is pleased when I hear him and I obey him. And it's the greatest reward you could ever have in your entire life. Next question, I'm a pastor and I know God spoke to me. It's a big step of faith and my congregation is struggling to get behind it. How do I lean in in this moment? Well, I would say your spiritual leadership needs to go to another level. It's not your job to get into agreement with your congregation. It's your... job to hear from God and get in agreement with your leadership. Your leadership sets the tone, and too many pastors let a congregation lead them instead of them with their leadership leading the congregation. So how mercy culture works is our elders operate in unity or nothing. It means this, that our elders have to be unified. Once our elders are unified, we're not asking the church if they want to get in unity. They've already submitted to the leadership and the covering of mercy culture. So they're in unity when they said, yes, I'm going to be a member of this church. But then it's my job to clearly articulate what the vision is and show them the pathway of how they get behind it. So you have to look, is this really the Lord?

And are your leaders unified? And again, that's how we do it. I'm not saying that's how you have to do it, but you do need to be in unity at some point with spiritual covering, with spiritual authority, with some sort of accountability. You can't be rogue. And then you got to make sure that you are teaching and leading your people well. And so you have to make sure that your leadership hasn't outpaced what God's told you to do right now, because the Lord's not going to entrust you with more until your leadership can handle it. Next question. This is a tough one. What do I do if I feel like my leaders are holding me back from obeying God? This is complicated. This is difficult to answer. The reason why, I don't know you. I don't know if you're like closet rebellion and nobody can tell you anything. I don't know if you're the one leadership school student that's super rogue and you're going online and trying to get different answers, different questions, because you don't like the leadership. Or I don't know if you go to a controlling church and they're trying to hold you back. So there's a lot of unknowns that I don't know. So here's what I'd say. If you are going to a healthy church with healthy leaders that you respect, you need to submit. So it shouldn't be your leaders holding you back. If you're going to a church and your leaders are holding you back, why are you going to that church? And so if one is true, then you probably shouldn't be there. And the other is true, then you probably need to submit. And so it's a complicated question.

But a lot of people that are immature say stuff like, I'm submitted as long as my leaders are doing what I think they should do. But if God tells me something different, I'm not going to disobey God. I'm going to tell my leaders to pound sand. And that's just rebellion. It means you never really were submitted. Here's how I look at it. If your leaders miss God, they're responsible. They are responsible. And so there's a great judgment that comes on leaders. Scripture says they're double judged. And so that's a great weight in expectation that leaders need to be aware of. At the same time, there are controlling churches that are weird, and you probably shouldn't be a part of that. So if you're not a part of a weird controlling church, then you probably need greater levels of submission. So that's the paradox of that question. Either you need to learn to submit, or either you're in an unhealthy place. But if you're always in an unhealthy place, you need to learn how to submit. How do you know if what God spoke to you is for right now or for a future season? Great question. This is where I would put fleeces before the Lord. I remember there was this time and season where I had a dream, and I'm not a dreamer, but I had a vivid dream of us doing a prophetic conference in Chicago at a certain church. So it wasn't about doing it in Chicago. It was this one place. So I had a friend who worked at the church, called the church. He connected me with the pastor, met with the pastor. They're like, yes, you could do this prophetic conference. It was awesome.

Then someone in their church that I believe has a Jezebel spirit got involved and dismantled the entire thing. So I felt like God told me to do it. I felt the enemy came to stop it. So I put a fleece before the Lord, and this was on my first 40-day fast where I was praying about starting Mercy Culture. And on that 40-day fast, I prayed every day, Lord, if you want me to do this conference, have that church reach out to me. If not, I'll give my full attention to the new church of Mercy Culture. That was my fleece. So when you're dealing with timing, you can have fleeces before the Lord. This is where you're like, Lord, I'm going to let you decide through circumstances. Not doing this recklessly, not doing this foolishly, but allow time to go by or allow the Lord to lead and guide in his perfect will, in his perfect timing. So how I discerned that situation is I didn't disobey God. I believe that church disobeyed God and missed out on an opportunity while I continued to obey God with the new assignment, which was Mercy Culture Church. Okay, brutal question. Have you ever missed God? Have you ever misheard him, missed him? If so, what did you learn from the situation? I would say at the beginning, I ignored him constantly. So I would obey God when it was convenient. I would obey God when I had time, but God never spoke to me when it was convenient. He always spoke to me when I was in a hurry, when I was a rush. And so I would like low-key pretend I didn't hear him, but you can't pretend you hear God you know when you hear God. And so God would say to me constantly, do you want me to speak to you or not? And he was testing me where I was getting past my will. That was the earlier days.

When we started Mercy Culture, I missed God one time pretty big. It was the fall of 2019, we're in a prayer room where the church was birthed in Washington, we're praying about different things in the church, we're at an elders retreat, and we pray about going to two services, and we really feel like the Lord say, in January, go to two services. Fast forward a few months later, we get a miracle building, sits 2,000 people, we had 600 in the church at the time, so we're like, hey, we don't need to go to two services because we're going from 600 seats to 2,000 seats. Well, fast forward to week one of being a new building, we're full, and we're turning away hundreds of kids in Children's Church on week one. Insane. Can't make this happen. Grace, favor of God. So I quickly adjusted, I was like, oh my goodness, the Lord warned us in a prayer meeting to go to two services in January, we made an assumption that we didn't need it in a new building. It reminds me of when Samuel went and visited Jesse, and he took one look at Iliab and thought for himself, surely it's the Lord's anointed. The lesson is, is you can make assumptions and you really didn't hear God, or God can speak to you, and then you make assumptions after that, and you can miss God. So it's really important that you slow down, and when you feel like God has spoken to you, really evaluate it despite what your situations are. Next question, is it too late for me to obey God if I haven't obeyed Him yet? I love this question, it's beautiful. And what I would encourage you, if you were my son or daughter or someone I was discipling, I would say, go back and ask the Lord what you're supposed to do. I would repent for delaying, and then I would try to obey. I'm reminded of a scripture where Jesus talks about two sons. The first said he would obey, and then didn't. The second said, no, I won't, but then he did.

And he talked about the true son with the right heart was the one who desired to obey. So situations may be different, things can expire and run out. I don't know the details of the question, but I would say God's heart is always pleased when our heart is to obey Him. So in that case, it's never too late to obey God. If you desire to spiritually grow, I want to invite you to join me on this journey. Subscribe to Mercy Culture, or you can follow me on socials at AtLandonAShot, and if you value this content, I would really appreciate it if you would share it with a friend. I'm Landon, thank you for joining me on Spiritual Leadership, where we're helping leaders become spiritual leaders.