Gregory Dickow - Your Calling Is Found in Your Conquering
Well, welcome to the 60th episode of Think Like a Champion and you know that we're dedicated to helping you win in every way and enjoy every day. I want to thank everyone who's written a review or shared this podcast on social media. Thank you. Thanks for partnering with me to help expand our community of champions. That's what we're here to do. The mission here is to build a community of champions and champions go forth conquering. They conquer the life that they have. They conquer the things around them. They conquer the things within them.
And I want to talk to you about how you're calling today, we're going to get right into our topic. And your calling is found in your conquering. Everybody that I know wants to know what they're created for. Everybody wants to know the two most important things. Somebody said, I believe it was Mark Twain. He said, The two most important days in your life are the day that you're born and the day that you find out why. The day that you find out why. One of the core verses that we've talked about, both here and in our church is Ephesians chapter one, verse 11, that is only in Christ that we find out who we are and what we're living for. That's where we find out who we are and what we're living for, the what we're living for, the why to our life.
Everybody needs to learn their why. We don't need to just live because we need to live "by cause" And so many people just live because. Because they're just going through life. Because that's just all they know how to do. But God wants more and wants to do more in your life than just you to live by cause or because he wants you to live "by cause" and by a purpose and find your way and find your calling. Your calling is very simple to find. It's in your conquering. What do I mean by that? Well, let's talk about this. Michelangelo conquered a block of stone. He saw what was inside it, and he kept clearing away the obstacles until David was revealed. He conquered that block of stone because he saw what was inside of it.
You see, every one of us have obstacles keeping our destiny locked inside, keeping that David locked inside, that angel locked inside. But I believe that is through conquering our obstacles that we discover our calling. Everyone in life has a set of weaknesses, defects, fears, inhibitions that we grew up with, our willingness to clear them away, our willingness to search and destroy those things that are limiting us to conquer and defeat those things that are limiting us. That's what will determine the degree that we experience our purpose, our potential, our calling. My weaknesses my fears had to be conquered or they would have fenced me in for the rest of my life. There was a David in me. There's a David in you. There was a David in that marble. But we've all had a lot of damaged stone that needs to be cut away.
So who we are can come forth. So what do we do? How we. How do we do this? Our calling. If our calling is found in our conquering, then just what are we supposed to conquer? So let me give you three or four things that we're supposed to conquer, because in your progress of conquering those things in the process and in the progress of conquering these things, and I'm about to tell you, you will find yourself one step closer to your life purpose. Everybody that discovers that they have something in their life that is broken, something in their life that is a challenge, something in their life that they have to overcome. That's a person who is overcoming a drug addiction is most likely supposed to be a person that's helping other people overcome their addictions. A person who's been abused is most likely after they've recovered from that is a person who's going to help. Who knows? Thousands or millions of people that have suffered the same thing that they've suffered.
So as we conquer what is in our lives, as we conquer these following few things, we will find ourselves in our call and we'll find ourselves flung into our life's purpose. We shouldn't just try to become famous on social media. We shouldn't just try to have success and make a lot of money. Those are good things to have success and money. But your calling and your purpose is much more important. I believe that provision will always follow your vision. When you have a vision for your life, your why, the reason you get up every morning, the reason that you're willing to discipline your life, the reason that you're willing to roll out of bed, the reason you're willing to pray and invite God into your day, the reason why you face the things you face is because there's a vision that's greater than the obstacle. So our obstacles are the things that we must conquer.
All right, so let's go through these. Number one first. We need to conquer our past. That doesn't necessarily mean that you have to crawl up into a ball on a therapist couch, although there's nothing necessarily wrong with that. If you need that. We all need coaching, sometimes emotional coaching, physical coaching. There's nothing wrong with that at all. But what I'm saying is we have to learn to conquer our past. We have to stop excusing it. See, we're not responsible for how we got the way we are, but we're responsible to do something about where we are. You see, we it's not necessarily your fault that you're dealing with the thing that you're dealing with, but it's your responsibility to deal with it the best way that you know how. And you see sometimes our upbringing, our weaknesses will condition us to stay small, to stay limited, to stay insecure, to stay lonely. They sure did to me. The DNA of my past tried to mark me, tried to corner me and and really push me into a predictable, boring, uneventful existence. That's not God's will for my life. That's not God's will for your life.
How do we conquer our past? Well number one: We have to realize that Jesus paid for all of our sins. We have to realize that everything that's happened in our past does not have to ruin us or confine us or define us, but rather the things that have happened in our past can be simply a piece of the puzzle of God constructing his masterpiece or carving from your life the greatness that's inside of you. The the David that's inside of you. The the the the the miracle, the greatness, the power, the purpose that's inside of you. You know, when we think about our past, we can look at it. We can look at it in two ways. Either it defines us or it contributes to who we become. So in Romans chapter eight, verse 28, the Bible says that God causes all things to work together for our good. He causes all things to work together for our good. He doesn't cause all things, but he causes all things to work together for our good.
So when you realize and look at it from you from a better perspective, from a higher point of view, from God's point of view that he doesn't he's not thrown off by your past. He's not thrown off by your past mistakes. He's not thrown off by your past inhibitions. He's not thrown off by your past failures. He's not thrown off by your past sins. He's not. None of that surprises him. None of that throws him off. None of that makes him change his mind about your future. Your past does not dictate your future. It can go into the mix and become an ingredient that produces a better future. But it doesn't have to limit you and it doesn't have to define you and God certainly not looking at you that way.
In fact, when it comes to our sins, our mistakes, our shortcomings, the Bible says in Hebrews Chapter eight that I will. God says, I will remember your sins no more. I won't even remember them. I don't even look at them. If you said to God, Oh, I just can't get over my past. And he'd say, What past? In other words, as far as he's concerned, is washed away. Now, can He use the remaining fragments that seem to be at the bottom of the of the pool that was washed away? Yes. He can take those pieces of your life. He can take the brokenness of your life, and he can use it for his glory. Stand on that verse like live. This is a verse to live by Romans 8:28 that God doesn't cause all things, but he causes all things to work together. Comes from a word that where we get the word symphony from where you put all these instruments together, you know, if every instrument just says whatever it wants, just sings, whatever washes, plays, whatever the person wants it to.
It's not going to sound beautiful with all the other instruments until everybody is doing what that instrument was created to do. It creates a symphony. It creates a beautiful sound. We have to realize that if everybody was a trumpet, we wouldn't need to more than one trumpet. If everybody was a cello, we would. We would only need one cello. But my point is, is that when everybody is walking in their God given purpose, when you're moving in the path that God has for you, and each of us do that, there's this coming together. And when you take your life and give the pieces of it into the hands of God, He will turn it into something better than the pieces were by themselves. So you have a piece of your life, your piece of your life, a broken piece here, broken piece here, broken piece here. But in God's hands, he can take all the broken pieces and he can put them together and create a symphony, create a masterpiece, create.
So instead of us seeing our life broken in all these pieces, let's realize that all these pieces create a puzzle that we didn't even think those pieces were any good. But when in God's hands he takes them and he makes them something much better than they ever could be on their own. So it's not just one part of my of my past that I conquer by putting it in God's hands. It's each piece of my past I put into God's hands. The more of your life that you put into God's hands, the more He can use those pieces and make them into something that you could have never made them into. Sometimes our greatest disappointment is really God's appointment. His appointment. Your disappointment becomes his appointment. Just change one letter from D to H and everything can change.
You see, right now, when you think of your life and you look back at it, the way you conquer your past is not by pretending that it never existed, but it's by even that past offering that to God. God, my past is full of failures. My past is full of mistakes. My past is full of is full of disappointment. But in your hands you can do anything with it. The surrender of your past to God is the way to conquer your past. The surrender of your past to God. Like take that thing. Yep. Those ten years are right there, Lord. And you know what a mess I made of them. But I'm giving that history. I'm giving my past into your hands and you and inviting you to use it to make me What you created me to be.
That's how Romans 8:28 actually works through trusting God, through turning it over to God, surrendering it to God. He can take your pain or your past and make it into something better. Which leads me to the second thing that we need to conquer in our lives, and that is our pain. We must conquer our pain. So first we need to learn how to conquer our past and how do we conquer it? We know that our sins are washed away, but we also surrender our past to God. We put all the pieces of our broken past into the hands of God. Surrendering your past into the hands of God is how you conquer your past so that it no longer controls you or defines you or limits you to whatever it was. Secondly, we need to conquer our pain.
Now consider Jesus for a moment in John chapter 19, verse 34, it says, And one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and out fourth from his side came blood and water. So consider Jesus pierced in his side on the cross where blood and water flowed. You see, the blood cleanses us of our sin while the water washes away our old mindsets that have kept us defeated and kept us limited. The reason why both blood and water need came out of Jesus side is because it's the blood of Jesus that washes away our sins. But it's the water of God's Word that washes our previous conceptions, our previous views of understandings, our belief, our broken belief systems are mistaken beliefs. We need the water to wash away the wrong believing the wrong thinking. Who would have thought that the wound of an ignorant, misguided Roman soldier would open the way for blood to flow and for new life to begin?
You see, this is a very powerful reality that the wounds inflicted by a misguided Roman soldier actually led to the blood flowing out of Jesus body to wash away our sins and water, to wash away our old way of thinking. Boy, when you get a hold of this fact that it's time for us to get to the root of why our life doesn't change, why it doesn't improve, why it doesn't get better, because we haven't conquered our past by surrendering it into the hands of the great artist, the greatest artist, the architect, the builder of our faith, the one who, the one who is the the great artist of your life and the great artist of your masterpiece. And you as a masterpiece. We stay where we are in life when we don't conquer our pain, When we simply build a life around our pain to protect our pain, to preserve our pain. To give us an excuse, an excuse to always complain about something or to give us sort of an excuse to always blame something that doesn't have to limit you anymore.
God can heal your pain. Pain is a signal that you need God. Pain is a signal that you have an opportunity to invite God into another area of your life. Pain is a signal that something's broken. Something's wrong in in your body, in your mind, in your emotions. And God is the healer. But the way we conquer our pain is by dealing with it. We have to get to the root of it. Maybe you've heard the story of a guy who went to the doctor and said, Doctor, it hurts whenever I lift my arm up like this. The doctor does a thorough exam from head to toe and gives the guy a bill for $500 looks him straight in the eye and says, Don't lift your arm like that anymore.
This is this is often the way we deal with our pain. We just try not to move that part anymore rather than getting to the root and fixing the cause. There's a cause and effect to everything. We have to get to the root. We have to forgive the person that causes pain. We have to forgive ourselves for causing it. Forgiving yourself or forgiving somebody else. It doesn't make the feeling go away. It's not a feeling. It's a decision to not let the feeling control you. If you wait until you feel like forgiving someone, you'll probably be waiting a long time. Make the choice whether you feel it or not. Stick to the decision like glue the feelings of what they did to you will only leave when you take the plunge and decide to forgive regardless of what the feelings are telling you.
So we have to consider our past pain as future gains. We have to turn our pain into power, our pain into purpose. So when we feel something, we want to get to the root of what's causing that. And once we get to the root of what's causing that, we we begin to conquer our pain. Many people have been to several doctors. There was one lady in the Bible. She went to many doctors. She spent all that she had from doctor to doctor to kind of try to find her problem and fix it. But none of them could solve it until she heard about Jesus and she went and touched the hem of his garment.
And the Bible says that the condition she had for 12 years was immediately healed. She was healed of that pain because she sought for help and didn't settle for the fact that nobody could find the solution. She kept searching and she kept looking. Whatever pain is in your life, don't just ignore it. Don't let it just remain in your life. It's a signal that you need to do something about it because healing that pain is going to catapult you into something better, something greater. Healing that pain is going to catapult you into a greater calling in your life. So we have to conquer our past. We have to conquer our pain. We have to realize that the Bible says the tongue of the wise brings healing. Words heal, words restore. Words build.
Let's just take a moment right now. I'm going to go to number three in just a moment. But let's take a minute right now. And let's just speak words of healing right now. Just say, Heavenly Father, I thank you that you've given me the power of words. You said death and life are in the power of the tongue. Say that out loud. Say I speak life to my mind. I speak life and healing to my body. I speak life and healing to my pain. Father, I thank you. Just pray this Lord, show me the root of this pain and I will uproot it. And when you see it, what it is, when you find out what it is, just speak to it and say Be uprooted and cast into the sea. Your words have that kind of power.
Keep speaking for a moment before we go to number three. Declare out loud. Say I release healing words. The tongue of the wise brings healing. I speak the wisdom of God. I speak the promises of God. I speak the power of God over my body. I speak the Word of God and the healing of God over my mind. I speak the words of life over my life, over my family, over my finances. Whatever it is that's hurting or broken, speak life over it because you have the words of healing and death and life are contained in the power of your tongue. Use it for healing today.
So number three, we got to conquer. If we want to, if our calling is found in our conquering, what is it we're supposed to conquer so we can find our calling? Conquer your past. Make peace with it. Conquer your pain, Make war with it until you're healed. Until you're better. And we need to conquer ourself. We need to conquer ourself. Our soul, our inner person. We need to really become masters of ourself. Proverbs 16:32 says better is a man who can rule himself, he can rule his own self than one who can conquer a city. Now, think about that. For a man to conquer a city would be an incredible feat. But to conquer himself is the greatest feat of all. In fact, I think it was Plato that said for a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories. For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories you see in conquering yourself in mastering yourself... What does that mean? What is that? What are the parts of self that we need to conquer?
I believe if we learn to conquer our tongue, if we conquer our appetites, if we conquer our health, if we conquer our bodies with discipline, our our health, with all the nutrition that we need, all the taking care and exercise that we need when we conquer our self, it means we conquer the thoughts that come into our minds. We conquer the words that we speak. We conquer our tongue, we conquer our appetite. We conquer our responses to life's tribulation. You know, you don't really know what you're like until something bad has happened to you. And your response to that thing is what you're like. Your response to that thing is what your character is. Now. It may not be what you're proud of, but at least it reveals to you what you can now work on. Conquering your self, conquering yourself.
You see, you conquer yourself by addressing the victim mindset, right? We've all heard about that. What does that mean? It simply means it might not be my fault, but it's my responsibility. So instead of blaming our parents, blaming the government, blaming our husband or wife or our boss or our employees or whoever is in our lives, we seem to attack and put the blame on them. Adam blamed Eve. Eve blame the devil. They all had somebody else to blame. The devil blamed God. Everybody was blaming somebody there except God.
You see, it's not about who's at fault, but who is going to take responsibility to make it better. A victim mentality is something that is robbing you of your destiny. If we really get a hold of this, that no one can control your response to the things that happen in your life. Now, we can't control, you can't control, I can't control everything that happens, but I can control my response to what happened and I can control what I'm going to do about it. I have the power to choose. I have the power to forgive. I have the power to pray. I have the power to speak.
You see, when you start realizing the power you have, then you stop making excuses for the situation and the problem you have. Because you start using your power on that problem. You start using your power on that situation. You have word power. You have prayer power. You have choice power. The power to choose, the power to choose your attitude, the power to be humble, the power to be thankful, the power to ask big, the power to believe God, the power to speak life, the power to forgive others, the power to stop blaming people. The power to take your life back and say I choose to conquer my past, to conquer my pain, and to conquer myself as a person, my person, so to speak. So you conquer yourself by dealing with these things that are trying to control you, your thoughts, your appetites, your mistakes, your failures. They're washed away.
Now get up and take your life back. Take your life back. Declare that you are enough. Declare that God is for you. Declare that you have the power of life and death in your tongue. Declare that you have the power to choose. The greatest freedom we've ever been given in our lives is the power of choice. I want you to think about that. You know what's so liberating is when you realize that your condition that you're in right now, you have the power to choose to do something about it. And that is true freedom, because that is true power. It's not controlling Somebody else is controlling your own choices, deciding that you will master yourself, that you will master your attitude, that you will master your laziness, that you will master your thoughts, your thought life, really. And because that feeds everything, right?
So just get a hold of the power. You have to step into your calling by conquering what's right in front of you. Is your past bothering you? Conquer that deal with that address that. Is pain bothering you, conquer that, deal with that address that. Is your lack of self-control and you're constantly beating yourself up about not being good enough. Not doing enough. Start taking charge today of how you're going to live. Start taking charge today of your habits because you show me a person's habits. I'll show you their future. Because your future is not based on hopes. Your future is not based on chances. Your future is based on the habits that you make in your life. The small things that add up to big things.
People think habits are so small and yet they yield and wield a power full, powerful sword. Build your life on habits that puts you in a direction of moving forward. Habit of forgiving. Habit of speaking life. A habit of thanking and gratitude. A habit of taking charge of your time. A habit of honoring God with your money. A habit of gathering with God's people and being a part of a tribe that creates the kind of vibe that you want that will cause you to grow and cause you to fulfill your God given purpose in life. Let me pray for you:
Father. Thank you that every person has a calling. Everybody has a purpose. Everybody has a vision. Everybody has a destiny that you have for them. I pray that today would be the day that they choose to conquer what's right in front of them. And therefore they will find their calling in what they conquer. In Jesus name, Amen.