Are Your Beliefs Really Your Own?  🔗 **Source:** [Are Your Beliefs Really Your Own?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gycIA9PuUv0) [00:00:00] This is where it gets interesting to me. Because my clues come revelatorily. Meaning that almost my whole life something out of nowhere pops into my soul or my my heart like this thing, right? And I call it a bread crumb. >> [laughter] >> And in fact I I'll tell you a dream I had. Um I had this dream when I was younger where God opened the top of my head. Like this hand comes down and opens the top I did it was just my head was a side profile. Opens the top of my head and he drops a seed in. [00:00:42] And my eyes light up cuz I'm so excited that I got this revelation, right? Except for I open my mouth instantly and this little seed comes rolling down off of my tongue and just falls into the ground and nothing happens. I'm like really disappointed because what was it dropped into my head was significant, right? But it had no impact. Then a few minutes go by and the same thing happens in this dream and instead of me opening my mouth right away, I do this. You know that pose the thinker, you know where he's bent over? And I'm pondering. Right? And then I open my mouth after a period [00:01:27] of time goes by and a whole tree slides out. With and it was God's little way of explaining to me just shut up. And ponder things and wait, right? It takes time for things to develop. So what's happened in my whole life is I'll get these little clues that lead to another clue that lead to another clue and it's like a whole bread crumb trail, right? >> Yeah. >> Well, what I've discovered is like most people out there aren't insanely curious like we are. It's kind of like they just read they're just echo what somebody else tells them. They don't actually get curious, right? Until they go through a terrible betrayal, a [00:02:12] terrible disappointment, a terrible situation where they get, you know, rejected or whatever within the church world, suddenly because their whole faith is based on other people's perspectives and not their own personal journey of discovery, they collapse. It's a house of cards. >> Right. >> So, in my world where I deal with a lot of people that are in crisis, we always get back to why and it always gets back to the fact that they actually didn't know God themselves. They were just merely like they were little they were programmed, right? They were programmed [00:02:56] as little kids, whatever, and they just were repeating the subculture world views, right? They didn't own it. And so, you go through this thing. So, it's kind of funny with the whole IHOP thing right now. The younger IHOP kids are having a crisis of faith while the older people aren't. And the reason was the older people already had their disillusionment from KCF back in the '80s or in the '90s, right? And they went on this journey of critical thinking and trying to, you know, discover who God is for themselves. So, I guess, you know, despite all the things we're kind of chewing, you know, we're chewing up and kind of [00:03:39] discussing, the one thing I hope people can take away from this is don't assume anything that you've been told by some spiritual leader is the truth. >> Right. >> It's a perspective. Find out for yourself. Like go on your own journey. You know what I mean? There's a ton of books out there about spiritual warfare. I know all kinds of people that are in that tribe. But it's a few people who have a perspective from years ago that's just repeated, right? Over and over and over again and people want to belong to it and whatever. But go on your own journey. Find out for yourself. Don't just assume because somebody that's on a stage tells you [00:04:23] this is the way it is. That's the way it is. As we were discussing earlier, if we haven't learned one thing at our age is the experts aren't always right. I mean, we're discovering in every phase of our culture the church isn't immune to that. >> There's a saying that we use heavily in the IT world, which is kind of funny if you think about it, but if you [clears throat] have a hammer everything looks like a nail. >> Yeah. >> One of the biggest problems that I have with all of this and I'm I'm going to try to say this delicately because I know that this has the potential to anger a lot of people. So I'm going to try to tread [00:05:05] very very lightly. >> [clears throat] >> I have a very hyperactive mind. And I think people can realize that by now. I think about everything and I think a lot. I think a heck of a lot. People accuse me of being against the signs and wonders, the gifts, etc. I [clears throat] have had dreams that have told me things that I thought could not possibly be true and it was. So off to the side, I I have experienced what everybody is saying John doesn't believe. I've experienced it. I also, like I said, I have a hyperactive mind. As a child, even even though we were largely not [00:05:47] allowed to, my family was for some weird reason. I [clears throat] loved the Batman comics and cartoons. Love Batman. As a child, Batman was on my mind. I loved to think about it. I loved to play the little toys. I think somewhere I've got a Batman toy up here even, but I was constantly thinking about Batman. So, what am I going to dream about? I'm going to dream about Batman. Whenever I'm having conversation, what is what's going to come out of my mouth? I'm going to think about Batman. I'm going to talk about Batman. The Bible says, when I was a child, I spoke as a child. When I became an adult, I put away childish [laughter] things. >> [clears throat] >> So, I grew up in a world where I learned [00:06:31] that if you focused heavily on something, that was going to manifest itself in all kinds of ways, psychologically, physically, etc. >> [clears throat] >> And I know this. I also know that there are people who do not have hyperactive minds like mine. But, I also know that those same people who can't critically think about what's happening to them, if I can make them focus on something so heavily, it's going to manifest itself in their life. And I can literally if I were the wrong type of person, I could create a weird following of people who I could manipulate to think that the fictional world I create for them is [00:07:13] true. In other words, if I was if I was a kid and I had 50 kids around me and I I said, "Okay, we're going to say nothing but Batman the whole for the next week. We're going to talk about Batman." These kids would be dreaming Batman. They would be speaking Batman in tongues, all kind of weird stuff. >> science of sociology actually confirms everything you're saying. >> Absolutely. And that's what >> manipulate humans. >> Absolutely. >> for you. Why do you think you have an affinity for Batman cuz I think I know. >> [laughter] >> Because he's the master detective, man. >> No, but what makes Batman different than all the other superheroes? >> Because he's a normal guy with no superpowers who uses his mind. >> it's all technology. [00:07:57] >> [laughter] >> Absolutely. >> Right? He's the master of tech. >> Yeah. >> But he's got no superpowers, right? That's so you. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, only he I I just wish I had his money to do the things that he does [laughter] with it. >> The Bruce Wayne side is like, Are Your Beliefs Really Your Own?, Leaving the Message (hosts as the transcript/description names them), 01m587gg6eme4fqmcqezjd7vn9.