Be Still and Know He Is God

3/5/2025

(Conversation with a parent struggling with anxiety and oversensitivity to noise...)

Recently I experienced a breakthrough. My child was screaming, and I felt like screaming (my medical condition and hormones), but I kept my mouth shut. I didn’t open it. I just stared at him for the longest time and I thought, “He’s a person who needs me to not be like him. He needs someone who is bigger than his little loops, chemicals, or whatever. And I thought, ‘What does he need?’” And at that moment it was literally like the sound went from in front of me to behind me, and all I saw was a person. It was very incredible. It literally felt like a “matrix moment.” I’ve only tapped into that twice. But I know it’s possible.

Yeah, and that’s what I would have always suggested instead of you wearing headphones to muffle noises. The world is now filled with people wearing headphones. There’s something wrong with that. These people are hiding from the reality instead of conquering reality. I’m glad you had that breakthrough experience because now you really know it IS possible. That’s the Jesus way to live, right there. If you let yourself be a victim, it’s going to multiply. But if you’re an overcomer, then it’ll start going behind you instead of in front of you.

I’m sure Jesus had his moments of temptation. I think about Jesus with the crowds of people...He was not away from noise. So, there’s no way I’m going to put my headphones on. If I’m at an elevated level of anxiety...for me there’s anxiety levels. There’s level three, there’s five, there’s seven, there’s nine. Once it hits nine...

Make sure you recognize that level three of anxiety as the enemy. And instead of justifying it in your mind, “Well, it’s because of ___, or that’s just how I am, it’s just my chemicals.” You need to say, “This internal motor that just turned on inside of me is my enemy; it’s not Jesus.” Because once you start kicking rocks over the cliff, then the avalanche starts. Then things get to that level nine, and you snap and react. You never had to get to level nine in the first place. You’re not a victim.

I agree. I do agree with that.

Jesus was tempted in all ways as we are. So if Jesus had the loud noises and people making demands and people lying about Him and accusing Him and slandering Him and all this stuff, then He could feel that temptation—the motor, the vibration. He could feel that and know that if He gave in to it at all, then three turns into five which turns into seven and then He’d react. He was very capable of reacting when they were hitting Him with whips and mocking Him and spitting on Him and saying, “If you’re really the Son of God, then take yourself down.” All this stuff could have been tormenting. And in the wilderness, “Turn this stone into bread if you’re so hungry. You call yourself God.” All that mockery and stuff, it wasn’t like it didn’t affect Him. But He was able to say, “The prince of this world has come, and he has nothing in me.” Meaning, “I feel the pressure from the outside, but I’m not going to let it in me. I’m not going to. If I feel the motor revving—I don’t have to debate it. I don’t have to find answers for it. But what I need to do is turn off the motor. I have to push the motor back behind me while it’s still manageable. Because if I let it go, then it’ll go off the charts.

Medicine affects these things, of course, and DNA affects it, but as a general rule, you can feel that motor when it’s one or two. Then you don’t even have to “identify” it, you don’t have to debate it, you don’t have to excuse it, you don’t have to blame it—you don’t need all the words associated with it. Because if you feel this thing starting to mount and if you try to analyze it, “Well, yeah, I feel this way because of,” then what you’re doing is pouring gasoline on your fire.

I typically don’t feel like I really have a lot of thoughts associated with it.

No, not at first. But when your child does something loud and you think, “That is startling, buddy.” I think you could go a little bit further with pushing back on that thought because you let it accumulate. You just described the accumulation that happens inside you, right? But you can get back to zero if you want. You don’t have to let it accumulate. You don’t have to let level one’s turn into three’s turn into five’s.

I know your little fella can push those buttons, I’m sure. All children have their testing, and “I’m going to duplicate your vibes.” If you feed it by giving into it, then it’s not going to help him.

And the giving in is the—well, when I get to nine and I’m reacting to him.

You can’t get to nine unless you let yourself get to nine.

I know. I feel like the breakthrough was just closing my eyes and stilling myself. Because the moment I even try to open my mouth to talk to God or even talk to Him in my heart, it’s like another sound input. Then I have three sound inputs. It’s very difficult.

“Be still and know I am God.” Shhh. Sometimes I’ll just say, shhh, shhh, shhh, shhh, to remind someone that if they let their motor get running, it’ll be very hard to stop later on. You just need to shut it off, not let the inputs accumulate. Stop it, turn it off. Just sit at God’s feet quietly and shut your mouth. But the underlying principle is the same: Once you let that motor go from one to three to five, it becomes very hard to shut it off.

It’s those green skies that we talked about. You recognize it before the tornado happens.

That’s exactly the point. You’ve got to have the wisdom and the calmness to stay at level one or two. Do not let it go to three because if it goes to three, it will go to five. And don’t say, “My brain is making me ___.” Do not say that. Your brain makes you do nothing. That is your flesh talking, not your brain. Your brain is not making you do anything. It is what your flesh wants and isn’t getting. That’s what James said, “You want it...you can’t have it so you panic.” James didn’t say, “Or you might just need some chocolate.” That’s not in the book of James. Now, I’m not opposed to you having chocolate. I’m not opposed to chocolate in any shape or form. But all I’m saying is that Jesus always goes to the flesh explanation. You’re not getting what you want. You’re being pressed. You’re being stretched. You’re having demands placed on you, and your flesh doesn’t want those demands. So try to keep that in mind anytime the explanation of “My brain is making me” comes up. No way.

Your brain can give you certain sets of temptations, certain ticks, or stress levels that crop up faster than someone else’s stress level might. Maybe noises affect you more than other people might be affected by noises. That’s all well and good; that’s brain. But when it goes from one to three to five, that’s not “your brain” doing it. The brain is the temptation location, the temptation target, but your flesh is what allows you to escalate the situation. So you can actually push that way back and be still and know He is God.

Trust, trust, trust. Trust is a very important word in this discussion. Because if you get all isolated in yourself and your world consists of noises and short people and demands and disappointments and all this stuff... and if you don’t trust, you’re still trying to put out fires with a big fire hose, then you won’t be able to keep up. You’re going to drown in your own fire hose.

But, if you trust, you’re backing away from it. Not in a cop-out way, but in a way that turns to God. And it may not be “praying” per se, but it’s, “Be still and know that I am God.” Where’s the prayer in that? I know that He is God. This is not my problem. He’s bigger than my problems. Where’s the prayer? I don’t hear any prayer. I hear trust and being still.

Just inviting—it’s that atmosphere thing. It’s going into Reality where He is, stepping into that.

Just take a deep breath and know that He is God. Now I’m from three back to one. It still isn’t easy. I still have things I have to solve. My child is still in there yelling, whatever. But if his yelling takes you from one to three and you don’t push it back at that point, then when he says “no” to you, the three goes to five because it’s accumulating.

If you understand the difference between one and three and three and five, then you do have control over that. You’re not a victim. If you know that, you’ll utilize that a lot more often. If I know that this is my responsibility to keep it down to levels one and two and that I can, then I will. But If I think I’m a victim, then three has to turn into five, and five will turn into seven, and then you claim it’s “not your fault” when you react at nine.

If I know all this, I’m going to utilize it because it’s not helpful to me, or to God, or anybody, to get out of control. Right?

Sometimes I realize what jumps the anxiety from five to seven or seven to nine. I’ve said, “I know what I did. I know what happened. I know what seed came in.” I had a seed of comparison, and then I exploded into an “I can’t handle this situation.” That comparison was poison. So I realized that that’s when I collapsed and went to another level.

This is between you and Jesus. Is your character like Jesus right now? Would Jesus be saying that, doing that, thinking that right now, the way you’re acting? Then what in the world does it have to do with some other person? They would get the same discussion when it applies to them in their areas. Everybody has different areas, but that’s none of your business. Who are you to judge another man’s servant? Back off. You deal with you. Are you like Jesus in this scenario, acting like this, with this attitude? No, that’s your only problem right now. This has nothing to do with another mere human. Back up, zip it. Shut your pie hole.

It’s like this window of escalation. It’s like—that was it; that was where it shouldn’t have gotten to five. It could have stayed at three.

Once it gets to five, you start to lose control. It starts to no longer be your choice. It’s very hard to push it back from five to one, but it’s not hard to push it back from three to one.

Thanks. I’m not there yet, but I will get there. However long it takes, I’m not going to give up.

Wouldn’t you say that’s kind of the key: that you never lower your standard? Yes. You failed. Be sorry, but keep it clear every single time until you’re different.

Yeah. The only acceptable objective and outcome is the full measure of the Stature of Christ, the character of Jesus, and That family likeness of the Son. That’s the only outcome that we’re ever going to accept. So, any discrepancy between A and B, we’re going to close that gap. We’re going to spend today closing that gap. And we’re going to help other people get there, too. The children are going to get there, too.

To summarize it for you in some key takeaways...

The full measure of the Stature of Christ is the most important thing, which means you can’t let your escalating numbers affect those around you. Others, especially your children, will pick up on your vibes and justify their own. You’re not going to help them by matching their intensity or exceeding their intensity. That will not help them. Jesus wouldn’t do that. That’s all you need to know. “Jesus wouldn’t do that. So I’m not going to either.”

It’s very hard to turn a five into a one. So don’t let it get there. Turn a three into a one. Chill before you can get anywhere near a five. Even if you don’t know “why”—maybe it’s a noise, maybe it’s a child’s fit, maybe it’s medical, maybe it’s something you want and you aren’t getting it, like James said—but whatever the source of it, you can sense when the motor starts. You can know that if you’re starting to feel this certain way, then this can’t go anywhere good.

Be still and know that He is God. Take that deep breath. Don’t let a level one go to a three. It goes pretty quickly to a five. And then it’s very hard to reel it all back in until it explodes. So, keep things in the one level. When it starts to exceed that, no matter what else is going on, just understand that it doesn’t have to keep going in that direction. You can take that same matrix experience breakthrough that you described and learn how to draw on God’s mind and power and wisdom to make that the norm instead of the exception. Again, that can be the norm instead of the exception.

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