00:00Hey friends, just wanted to stop by today and be about as straightforward with you as I've ever been.
00:07Some of you have been living too low for too long.
00:12And I'm not talking about money or status.
00:15I don't mean whether people clap for you or know your name.
00:20I mean the way you carry yourself, your behavior, the things that come out of your mouth.
00:27I mean the way you think when no one is around.
00:32I mean the way you let certain things stay in your life that should have been gone long ago.
00:40I mean the way you keep accepting a version of yourself that you know is beneath who God has called
00:47you to be.
00:49Because that's what happens when somebody forgets who they are.
00:53And you start settling in places you were never meant to stay.
00:58You start making peace with things that should bother you.
01:04You start talking down about yourself.
01:08You start shrinking your standards.
01:10You start letting fear have too much influence.
01:14And you start acting like surviving is the same as living.
01:19It's not.
01:20And after a while, you don't even realize how low you've gotten because it starts to feel normal.
01:28But normal?
01:31Normal is not always right.
01:35You see, a lot of people are not broken because they do not have potential.
01:40They're broken because they've been living beneath their identity for so long that it started to feel familiar.
01:48And that's what I want to talk to you about today.
01:53You are the child of a king.
01:57No, really hear me.
01:59Listen to this.
01:59You are the child of a king.
02:02And I mean it.
02:04You see, it means something.
02:06It means as a Christian, you're the son or daughter of a God.
02:11A God who is a king.
02:13And that means you do not belong in every mindset that you've been entertaining.
02:19You're the son or daughter of a king.
02:21It means you do not belong in every habit that you have been protecting.
02:27You are the son or daughter of a king.
02:31You do not belong in every low place that you've been calling home.
02:36You're the son or daughter of a king.
02:39That means you do not get to keep living like you came from fear, confusion, weakness, or defeat when your
02:49father is still on the throne because you're the child of a king.
02:57And some of you need to let that hit you today because your life has been out of alignment.
03:03You love God, but you've been carrying yourself like someone who forgot where they came from.
03:10You've been doubting too much.
03:12You've been apologizing for yourself way too much.
03:17You've been backing down too much, accepting less than you should accept, and letting your emotions make too many decisions.
03:26You've been telling yourself that same tired story about why you cannot change and why you cannot rise and why
03:36this is just who you are.
03:38Well, you know what?
03:40It is not.
03:42It may be how you've been living.
03:45It may be how you've been coping.
03:47And it may be the result of what's happened to you or how people have spoke over you.
03:54And it may be what you've just gotten used to.
03:57But it is not who you are.
04:00There's a difference.
04:02And until a person sees that difference, they stay stuck.
04:06Because if you think your dysfunction is your identity, you will protect the very thing that is destroying you.
04:15If you think your weakness is your identity, you will keep making excuses for it.
04:21If you think fear is your identity, you will keep bowing to it.
04:29And if you think your past gets the final word, then your future is always going to feel smaller than
04:36it should.
04:36And that's why this matters.
04:39This is not about acting important or ego.
04:43This is not about pretending to be above anybody else.
04:47It's not about pride.
04:49And I'm not talking about arrogance.
04:52Because arrogance is weakness, pretending to be strength.
04:57And arrogance is what insecure people wear when they do not know who they are.
05:03I am talking about something deeper than that.
05:06I'm talking about a man or a woman finally reaching the point where they say,
05:12I am done living beneath who God says I am.
05:16I am done dragging around this broken agreement with weakness.
05:20And I am done acting like the low version of me deserves to stay in charge.
05:26I'm done.
05:27I'm done carrying myself like somebody with no covering, no calling, no worth, and no future.
05:37And that's a real moment.
05:40And a lot of people never have it.
05:43They just keep drifting.
05:45They keep almost changing, almost getting serious, almost becoming disciplined,
05:54almost healing, almost letting go, you know,
05:57almost becoming the version of themselves that they know they were supposed to become.
06:03You see, God put gifts within you.
06:06And other people may have those gifts as well.
06:09But they can never represent those gifts in the way that you can.
06:15So it's your job as the son or daughter of our King to represent those gifts every day to the
06:24best of your ability.
06:25And that means not giving up, not quitting, not giving in to profane behavior or all the other crap that
06:32this world seems to shove down our throats every day.
06:35Because you know what?
06:37Life will keep moving.
06:39And that's the danger.
06:42You don't always ruin your life in one big decision.
06:46Sometimes you lose years by staying the same.
06:50Sometimes the biggest damage is done quietly.
06:53There's no explosion or collapse in front of everybody.
06:58Just one more day of staying low.
07:01One more day of thinking small.
07:05One more day of calling your compromise normal.
07:08One more day of waiting to become who you should have already decided to become.
07:15And that kind of living, well, that kind of living will just wear you out.
07:22It wears your spirit out because something in you knows this is beneath you.
07:28You know when you know when you are not showing up like you should.
07:32You know when you're hiding.
07:35You know when your discipline is slipping.
07:38You know when your mind is getting weak and when your standards are getting too low.
07:44Come on, you know when your private life does not match what God has put in your heart.
07:51And I think that's where this gets personal.
07:55Because there are people listening to me right now who are tired, but not for the reason they think.
08:03You are not just tired because life is hard.
08:07You are tired because you have been carrying a version of yourself that is too small for who you are.
08:14You are better than that.
08:16And this will exhaust you.
08:18It's exhausting to keep betraying what you know.
08:22It's exhausting to keep lowering yourself to fit places you have already outgrown.
08:28It's exhausting to keep calling weakness humility.
08:32They are not the same.
08:35And it's exhausting to keep acting like a victim when God has been trying to call you higher.
08:42It's exhausting to live disconnected from your real identity.
08:47And here is the truth.
08:50If you are the child of a king, then act like it.
08:55Think like it.
08:57Choose like it.
08:58Walk like it.
09:00Recover like it.
09:02Talk like it.
09:03And fight like it.
09:05Not in a fake way or a loud way or in some weird religious performance.
09:12I mean in a real way.
09:14When life hits you, act like you still belong to God.
09:19When people disappoint you, act like your worth did not come from them in the first place.
09:26When temptation shows up, act like you actually know who you are.
09:31When it is time to be disciplined, act like your life matters.
09:38When it's time to forgive, act like bitterness does not own you.
09:44And when it's time to get back up, act like failure does not get the last word and get back
09:53up.
09:54That's what I mean.
09:56Some of you have been waiting for a feeling.
09:59You've been waiting to feel powerful, waiting to feel ready, waiting to feel clear, or waiting to feel changed.
10:08Well listen, sometimes change does not begin with a feeling.
10:13Sometimes it begins with a decision.
10:17Sometimes you decide before you feel anything.
10:21And sometimes you say,
10:23I may not feel strong today, but I know who I am.
10:29I may not feel clear today, but I know who I belong to.
10:34I may not feel healed yet, but I am not going back to the old version of me.
10:40I may have cried yesterday, I may have fallen short, I may have wasted time, and I may have been
10:48weak in ways I should not have been weak.
10:51But I am still the child of a king, and I am done acting like I came from anything less.
10:59That's the kind of decision that shifts something, and it does not always look dramatic.
11:07Sometimes it looks like getting serious in private, or finally ending what should have ended months ago.
11:15Cleaning up your thoughts, keeping your word, praying honest prayers instead of polished ones.
11:23Waking up and saying,
11:25Today, I am not going to let the weak version of me run this day.
11:32Because every day you are handling your future, you are not handing it to somebody else.
11:40You are either handing it to your higher self and God, or you are handing it to your lower nature.
11:48You are either feeding the version of you that is growing, or you are feeding the version of you that
11:54keeps pulling you backward.
11:56And it can't be any other way.
11:58You can fool yourself into thinking it's different, but that's the way it is.
12:03You are either moving forward, or you are pulling yourself backward.
12:07And you know what?
12:09One of them has to lose.
12:11And I think a lot of people know exactly what I am talking about,
12:15because there is a version of you that you are tired of being.
12:20You are tired of that mindset, or that weakness.
12:23You are tired of how easy it is for fear to get in.
12:28And you are tired of how quickly you talk yourself down.
12:33You are tired of how often you delay what matters.
12:38You are tired of watching yourself stay where you have no business staying.
12:43And that frustration is not always a bad thing.
12:47Sometimes it's the mercy of God waking you up.
12:51Sometimes that holy discomfort is God saying,
12:55this is not your home anymore.
12:57This version of you is too low.
13:00These habits are too low.
13:03These thoughts are too low.
13:06And this compromise is too low.
13:09You are my child.
13:11Come up higher.
13:14And that is what I want to leave you with today, my friends.
13:19Come up higher.
13:20Not into pride or ego, and not into pretending.
13:25Come up higher into truth.
13:28Into strength.
13:29Into discipline.
13:31Into peace.
13:33Come up higher into a life that matches the fact
13:37your father is king.
13:41You do not need to be perfect today.
13:44But you do need to stop agreeing with the low version of yourself.
13:49And you do not need to stop...
13:54Well, you do need to stop talking like defeat is your destiny.
13:57And you need to stop carrying yourself like somebody forgotten by God.
14:03And you need to stop making room for things that are killing your clarity
14:08and draining your strength.
14:11You are the child of a king.
14:15So act like it.
14:17Stop settling.
14:19Stop shrinking.
14:20And stop living like you were made to crawl
14:23when God has been telling you to stand.
14:27Get up.
14:28Get serious.
14:30Get honest.
14:31And get aligned.
14:33Because the very best version of yourself under God
14:37is just waiting for you to agree.
14:41Because the world does not need more people living low.
14:45It needs people who know who they are.
14:47And if you want, you can make that change today.
14:54If anybody can do it, you can.
14:58And I believe in you.
15:00And I'll be back here tomorrow, the next day, and the day after that,
15:05supporting you, caring about you, and praying for you.
15:09My name is Douglas Vandergraaf, and I believe in Jesus Christ.
15:15God bless every single one of you.
15:19Every single one.
15:26Bye-bye.
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