This is a group that was designed to help people trying to overcome addictions, drugs, alcohol, sex, whatever it might be. 

This group would meet once a week. There was a support group to help people socially. Then, there would be a full prayer team. There were also professional people trained to help people with a dedicated resource package.

Pete would watch as people came in. Someone would hold up their seven-day chip. Seven days sober.

And maybe the next week, 14 days sober.

They’re covered in prayer and we’re seeing all these miracles happen of lives transformed and turned around. 

Pete says “If I was to look at it on balance, most people didn’t change.” 

Most people would get small breakthroughs and then regress. Not all, but most wouldn’t come out the other side. 

It got Pete thinking “Well, if God is the God of the impossible, and if God can do all these things, and heal people in an instant, why is he not radically changing people’s lives?”

In that scenario, Pete’s observation was that God’s grace and power were open. But where he saw people regress, to old ways that they detested was when they didn’t believe they deserve good things. 

They didn’t believe they were worthy of love and they didn’t believe they deserved good things.

So when good things happened – when they began to be sober, get a job, and maybe at times, people gifted them with something that could help them – whatever it may be, when things started to go better, they would hit this wall where they just could not believe it would continue. 

So rather than being disappointed, and have things taken away from them, they would take control. They would sabotage themselves.

So often in life, we’re waiting for people to help us, prophesy over us and speak life into us. 

But if we don’t believe we can approach God and others with confidence – that we’re worthy of help, love, mentoring and friendship.

If we don’t believe it then we’re not going to find it. 

We’re always going to be in the outer thinking that no one is doing enough for us. 

We just want to encourage you in this: you are worthy of love.

God is a perfect father, and he loves you. 

His primary message and hope in sending Jesus weren’t to condemn you. 

Jesus said “I’ve come to bind up the brokenhearted”. 

He says, “if you’ve got a broken heart, I want to knit it together, so it has time to heal” and “I’m here to bring freedom for the captives”.

If you’re held captive by addictions, or fears, or anything else – He is here to bring you freedom.

If you believe you can claim that and ask that as a son, because you’ve accepted God, then you need to ask it boldly. 

Pete wants to encourage you to prophesy over yourself. “This was something that an old spiritual mentor said to me: write down the ‘you said’. Write down the promises that God has given you and claim them. 

After this, Pete wrote his own ‘you said’ letter. This is something you may be able to apply to your own life in prophesying over yourself. 

Pete’s ‘You Said’ letter reads something like this:

“Father, you said that you’ve set me apart for a higher purpose even before I was born.
In Jeremiah, You said that you’ve prepared in advance the good works that you want me to do.
I want to live this life. I don’t want to go through life living for me and chasing meaningless things.
I will find a life of meaning and fulfilment as I seek to live the life that you’ve set for me.
I look back on my life and consider myself immensely blessed.
I know that you’ve used me for Your glory and being present at all seasons and stages of life.
You promise that your favour is not for a season but a lifetime (Psalms).
And it is with this in mind that there is great excitement as I approach the second half of my life.
Lord, you said that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few (Matthew).
I’m putting my hand up and asking that you’ll bring me into a mighty harvest.
Jesus, you once told story about three men who were given one, two, and five talents by their master.
The first one hid the talent whereas the other two took risks and put the talents to work, doubling the original investment. 
You had equal praise for the later two. “Well done, good and faithful servant”.
I’m willing to do everything I can do, so that you can do what I cannot do.
Lord, show me the talents you’ve given me and show me where you want them invested.
It’s in line with your word. And I know that this prayer will not go unanswered.
Set your vision ablaze in me. Connect me to the right people – people that will guide me as mentors support me as peers, and work alongside me in the harvest.
You bless me so much today. You’re Jehovah Jireh – the Lord God my provider.
You promise that the glory of the latter house will be greater than the former.
Bless me indeed and enlarge my territory.
Let your hand be with me and keep me from hurt so I will be free from pain.
Grant this request just like you did Jabez.
Provide abundant financial provision so that my family will be provided for.
May my profile and influence raise so they may expand on the portfolio lifestyle.
Utilise the talents that you’ve invested in me.
In a moment, you can turn a life around.
You told a story about a woman who was bleeding for 12 years and was healed in an instant by faith when she touched a cloak.
I believe and claim the same power over my life today.
In an instant, you can take me to a place that I could never be on my own.
You are the God that can do more than I can think or imagine. May I do it all for your glory.
Release me to use the talents that you’ve invested in me. May I return back multiples on what you have given to me?” 

Pete says sometimes, when he is down and tempted to blame others. He reminds himself that God has called him to be his son through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

That’s when he prays this: “God, You said Do not forget me. And personally, I want to tell you that I wrote that at my one of my lowest times in life.” 

When he wrote it, he was going through a marriage breakup. He had negative cashflow in the business. He was going through a personal settlement and the immense stress and betrayal that goes on with that. 

Pete remembers wrestling with God like Jacob but he clung tight to God. 

He said “You said, You said, You said.” and “I consider myself one of the most blessed men on the planet. I’m going through a divorce. Everything’s going backwards. I am one of the most blessed men on the planet. I am blessed beyond blessed.”

And he held on to God like Jacob.

He said “I am not letting go until you ****  bless me.”

“I don’t think God cared that I swore”, Pete says. “I think he saw my heart. I think he saw my desperation to cling to him”.

We want to prophesy over you today: you are not cursed. You are blessed beyond blessed.

 God will give you double for your trouble. For the iniquities you’ve suffered, for the false accusations, misunderstanding, and personal attacks. 

For the things that have come to you in one direction, we prophesy over you that God will scatter in many and your better days will be ahead. 

There is always faith. There is always hope. There is always love. 

There is always a better day ahead.

May you go in peace.

The post Prophesying Over Yourself & Saying ‘You Said’ appeared first on 100x.

For a guy that failed maths in high school, he’s now making decisions worth tens and hundreds of millions of dollars!

From humble beginnings, he has stayed humble – even in his success.

Andrew went from being a plumber, to what he describes as being “a plumber in clean clothes”. Today, he is now one of the most significant land developers in Australia. He’s an author of the book, ‘Kingdom Builders‘ , which has been published in numerous languages and is an elder at Hillsong Church.

He is one of Pete’s dear friends and mentors. In this episode of the podcast, they discuss big dreams, practical vision, wisdom and living a life of risk, led by faith.

This article draws from this podcast episode to explain 8 tips for living a life of risk with wisdom:

1. IT STARTS WITH A MINDSET SHIFT

Andrew says the success he has experienced in both his business and personal life has come from a mindset shift.

“The mindset shift, actually was the trust. It was a trust issue. I had read the Bible from front to back and I believed it was true. I just didn’t believe it was true for me”, says Andrew.

He had to take a step of faith and say “Okay, God. I’m reading all these promises. I’m reading all these things. Is it really true?”.

Andrew says that what blew him away is when he actually chose to take that step of faith and put his trust in God – He actually turned up.

“I realised that had nothing to do with my level of intelligence. It had nothing to do with my career. It had nothing to do with how much money I had in the bank. It had nothing to do with even my desire. It was really just putting my trust in God – that His promises were actually for me. It really was as simple as that.”

Looking back, Andrew says his dreaming and what he believed he could accomplish was so small. “I was 31 then … it all revolved around how much effort – just effort – I could put in. My dreams were tiny. So that had to change.”

What motivated Andrew back then, and what continues to motivate him today is financing the Kingdom of God. But before he could take any steps, he had to start really trusting in God.

“I actually had to start to believe that some of these things that were way back in the deep recesses could actually happen”.

Andrew believes that what stops people is fear. This shows up in our lives as unbelief and a lack of trust.

“I can take those steps with a real confidence, because I’ve been doing it for so long. I just know God is gonna turn up. I don’t know how he’s going to turn up. Very often it’s different to how I had planned – you’ve still got to have a plan – but you’ve got to be open to God guiding you on those things”, he says.

“It really is that mindset shift that says, ‘I’m no longer relying on Andrew, I’m just going to rely on God, I’m going to trust him. I’m going to believe the promises for me. I’m going to dream big’.”

2. WRITE DOWN YOUR VISION

Having a dream is vital. Andrew encourages us to write down all the things we want to see achieved in our lives, through whatever we are putting our hands, heads and hearts to. Those are the things that will sustain you if you really believe them.

Andrew wrote his vision down when he began his business and he continues to write it down.

He remembers that at one point, he had an office with glass doors everywhere. He made it so they could be used as whiteboards and there was stuff written everywhere – all over the walls.

“When you are sitting at my desk, and the challenges were on us, and the devil was kicking us, and it was all getting a bit hard, I literally could just look around the walls and see all these things.”

As time progressed, Andrew could get up and erase dreams and visions off the wall because they had become reality.

“With faith steps, dreams and goals, we often see the big goal. And maybe that big goal might be writing a million-dollar check. But there are 20,30,40 other steps along the way”.

We tend to sometimes focus on the big steps but these can freak us out a bit and make things too seem too hard. Andrew advises us to break things down.

“Do it in chunks. Do it in small things. Take small steps. But write it down. This is how you’re going to do it.”

3. MAKE THE VISION PRACTICAL

Once you’ve written down your vision, it’s important to actually put practical steps to it. It’s not as difficult as you think.

We can get bogged down in the details; making sure our ducks are all lined up. If we aren’t careful, this can be a form of procrastination because we are afraid of taking the next step.

Andrew says, “There’s no such thing as a wrong step. I know that sounds counterintuitive.”

He explains that when you aren’t taking any steps, no faith is required.

When you take a step, God says “Fantastic! I can now work with that guy”.

In his early days, Andrews ‘next steps’ were phone calls, door knocks and taking people out for coffee.

God has a plan for us. It’s a really good plan and if he told you, it would blow your mind! But he is waiting for us to take that next step.

Andrew remembers a time when he was walking through the shops with his brother, who is also his business partner. He rattled off some figures they had made that year.

These numbers blew Andrew’s mind so much that he had to sit down on the nearest bench seat. “I remember saying to him, ‘can you just repeat that? What was that number?’  …  I was 10 years into this. And I still would pinch myself and think ‘am I dreaming? Am I going to wake up from this’.”

Now, Andrew has been doing it for 27 years. He says if God can do it for him, he can do it for you!

4. LEARN FROM MISTAKES

Andrew learned a $10 million lesson in his business. “I’ve only ever learnt lessons that have cost me and my hip pocket. When something really, really cost you, you stand up and listen.”

Andrew is in business with his youngest brother. In the early days of the business, they had a third partner also, who they eventually found out was ripping them off. They had to pay him out and it cost $10 million to get rid of him!

Andrew came to the conclusion that it wasn’t the partner’s fautl, but his fault. He accepts responsibility for this happening because he hadn’t put things in place to ensure he couldn’t be ripped off.

“That was just his nature. I hadn’t realised that. But money just magnifies who you already are. If you’re a greedy son of a gun, when you’ve only got a little bit of money, you become a very big greedy son of a gun when there’s lots of money. If you’re generous when you’ve got a little bit of money, you become very generous when you’ve got a lot of money.”

Once Andrew and his brother had paid the third partner out, they were determined to never let that happen again. They had to educate themselves.

“My problem was that I am the plumber – terrible at maths. I’m still terrible at maths. My brother was good at maths, and the other guy, I thought was good at maths, but he was dealing the figures, and we didn’t realise that whole thing.”

Andrew then got a mentor and worked with him every month for three years. “I paid him a lot of money for three, four hours and he taught me to read a spreadsheet. He taught me to read a P&L. He taught me how to how to build a cash flow. He taught me all this stuff that I thought I didn’t need to know – that I needed someone else to do”.

Andrew accepted responsibility. He realised if he was going to be the owner of a large, successful company. He had to understand the figures and not be reliant on someone else’s thoughts.

Today, he still has other people who do all of that for him. But he is all over it. He can read more than just the bottom line.

“I used to just go straight to the bottom line. And I’d miss all the bits in between”.

He has made the decision to be proactive, rather than living reactively.

“For most of my life, I’d lived reactively to that point. I obviously changed some areas. But I had to keep changing. I think that’s the point … to remain teachable is so important. We need to always understand that we’ve got something else to learn. If you get to a point where you think you know it all, that’s probably when you’re most in trouble. Because something’s going to happen to you that you weren’t expecting”.

Andrew says learning from this mistake was a humbling experience but it opened his eyes to understand he needs to be reliant on God.

“So I’ve got to get some wisdom on my life. Then, I’ve got to get some understanding. I have no excuse, but to learn to do these things to run my business better.”

Never let a good crisis go to waste.

5. KNOW YOUR NUMBERS

A mentor of Pete’s once said to him “Look, if you don’t want to get deep with the numbers, that’s okay. But just strike off your ambition to be a great CEO. And find something else.”

The technical role you play in the business might be sales, it might be operational execution. But the skills you’re going to need to grow an organisation will be this: entrepreneurship.

if you’re just selling and getting helpers, you’re going to have an ‘operational ceiling’ that limits your growth.

Pete challenges us with the question: what’s the one thing you know you need to change to add to your quiver of entrepreneurship? 

For many of us. That will be understanding our numbers.

“I hear so many people going, ‘I’m not built that way’. It’s probably fair to say at that time, you wouldn’t have called yourself a numbers guy?”, Pete asks Andrew.

Andrew says that to this day, he is still not a numbers guy but there is no excuse. “As the business owner, the buck stops with you. It really does. We can’t be blaming staff, contractors or consultants. I got ripped off, because I didn’t have things in place properly”.

6. DON’T GET TOO COMFORTABLE 

It’s so easy to get too comfortable. The devil wants to keep you comfortable. “When you’re comfortable, you’re relaxed, you sit back, and everything just happens around you again”.

We’ve got to become comfortable in being uncomfortable and realise that when things are going great, our next step has ended. It then comes back down to having a bigger vision and continually looking at your dreams.

If you’ve got to the point where you’re just comfortable, that means that you’re happy where you’re at. Andrew recalls a description of success, which says “to be content with where you are, in pursuit of where you want to be”.

“Once again, it’s a mindset shift that says, ‘Okay, things are going great. What are we putting in place?’. This continues as we continue to move forward”.

It takes research, it takes more risk but Andrew says “I enjoy the risk life. I enjoy not knowing actually how it’s going to happen next month”. It heeps him reliant on God and it keeps life exciting!

Everyone loves to say “I’m vision-focused” and things like that. But are you talking yourself up, or do you actually implement what you say?

Andrew recalls a person he met. “He had been to more conferences, he had read more motivational books, he had a dream book, he had a dream board. He had everything. He knew everything. He could talk the talk. He could give a motivational speech and all of us would be cheering him along through the whole thing. But he hadn’t done much with his life. He knew it all but hadn’t done anything.”

Andrew remembers sitting down with this man and saying “You’re fat on so much knowledge, so much information. You know everything but you’re not taking a step.”

“It’s very easy to talk the talk – to know the lingo and those kinds of things. But taking the step, this is where it’s at.”

“I was so afraid of risk. I was the most fearful bloke you’d ever meet. Now, I’m not completely fearless, but I’m close to that. I love taking the step now.”

Andrew says “when you’ve met enough people, it becomes fairly clear whether they’re a talker, or whether they’re actually doing it”.

“A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week” — George Patton

“Sometimes we try and make it all neat. Just pick up your gun and shoot. Stop analysing the wind and the breeze and the humidity. Just pull the trigger”, says Pete.

7. STAY EXCITED ABOUT THE FUTURE 

“I’m more excited about the future today than ever. And I have no intention of pulling back in business at all”, says Andrew.

The past few years of COVID have shown him that he doesn’t need to travel as much as he once did and that he can run his business without actually being there.

“Property development is all about taking risks, not turning up. You can have a team to turn up if I’m prepared to continue to take the risks, and I am.”

Andrew is actively putting things in place for his future and the future of Hillscorp. “I’m buying land right now that I won’t develop for five years. I’ll be 62 by then.” He stresses the importance of planning ahead and continuously putting structure in place.

Andrew says so much of property development is reinvesting into the next piece of land, so you’ve got your next property. “Now, I could take all the profits, but then it has nothing to do with the next however many years.”

In the middle of the COVID pandemic, Andrew and his brother actually looked at that. They said “if we just sold everything we have—all our land—sold everything we have now. We could just sit back and do nothing and live the rest of out lives quite comfortably”.

But they have a bigger dream. As Andrew says, “there’s still much to do on this earth”.

During the Global Financial Crisis, “we actually just sold and battered down the hatches. At the end of it, we would have been in the same position, if not better, if we just and hadn’t done anything”.

So throughout this COVID pandemic, Hillscorp have continued to buy land and invest in the future.

Success leaves clues and if you don’t do anything different, you’ll just walk the average.

The best time to invest in your next project is when you’re at the top of the wave

8. DON’T FEAR THE PUBLIC EMBARRASSMENT THAT COMES WITH FAILURE

At the end of the day, the fear of the public embarrassment that comes with failure is actually a pride issue.

“I think over the years, God’s just beat the pride out of me. And I’ve realised that it’s not about me. It’s not about me”

One of the biggest motivators for Andrew today is generational legacy. It’s about building for his children’s children.

“Being publicly embarrassed about things – I’m really not concerned too much about that anymore.”

He worked out a long time ago that with little risk comes little money. But if you take a big risk, there is the opportunity to make big money.

With bigger risk, comes a greater opportunity for public embarrassment if it fails. This doesn’t scare Andrew anymore. It just helps him to do better due diligence.

Andrew encourages us that God has got us “but in the end, we still have to be educated enough. We’ve still got to do our due diligence well enough and count the cost properly – not be stupid”.

“So many Christians take stupid risks and want to call it ‘advice’. It’s no wonder why they get embarrassed. Because they’ve done something that’s absolutely foolish! Then, they want to say, ‘Oh, well, God never turned up for me’. They even want to blame the devil … but the devil is sitting there going, ‘You did that to yourself, you idiot’.”.

Andrew encourages us to “take the steps, do the due diligence properly so that they will actually work. And put enough fat in there.”

You want to have margin and not leave too many opportunities for things to go wrong. “Do the due diligence, and you won’t be embarrassed”, says Andrew.

The post 8 TIPS FOR LIVING A LIFE OF RISK WITH WISDOM appeared first on 100x.

If you don’t have conviction, you’re going to default to comfort every time. 

When you have conviction, you’ll say something you believe in, even if it’s not popular. But if you don’t have conviction, you’ll go with what’s comfortable, which is staying with the status quo. 

A mentor of Pete’s wrote down his 10 resolutions for how he’s going to live in the world. Instead of being impacted by people, he wanted to impact people. That inspired Pete greatly.

Some time ago, Pete went off by himelf. He got in a caravan. On the outside, what was going on in his life was good: great family, great home, great wife, kids and friends.

But he admits “I just wasn’t happy on the inside”. 

He remembers picking up his 4-wheel drive and towing the caravan behind it. As he was doing so, he put on Christian praise music at full volume. 

“ I don’t know why, but I am sobbing … and I literally say to God, ‘God, what’s wrong with me? Why am I so downcast?’. I think what it was, is that in my desire, the impact and live my mission, I think I began to forget that God cares less about that and more about my relationship with him.”

Pete admits the words he was speaking, at the time, were more like a clanging symbol, a resounding gong, than words that were cemented in and sounded of conviction.

He sat by himself for a while, parked up on a farm. “The cows had come up and say hello to me every evening, and I just had my little cooker. I would play music, sleep and do whatever I wanted to do.” While pleasurable, Pete says that way of living didn’t take the pressure off feeling like he had to do things.

God spoke to Pete in this time. “I’ve always wanted to be a man of purpose and conviction and priorities rather than selfish ambition, or vain conceit or convenience. And I knew that for me to do that I needed to commune with God, so he could communicate with me, So it would eventually rest on my heart so I could have conviction in my heart”.

Pete wrote down six resolutions. These helped guide him back to what he believes in and how he wants to live this life.

We hope these encourage you but you may also want to think about writing your own. 

Here are Pete’s:

1. I will not demean my own uniqueness due to the envy or misunderstanding of others. Most of all, I will relax, be happy content, and just grateful for being me. 

It’s okay to be you. It’s okay, to be a bit different. It’s okay to walk the earth a little bit different.

Sometimes when we do that, it threatens other people due to their own insecurities.

Give yourself permission not to care so much about what others think.

2. I’ll live with the understanding that whilst discipline and hard work are essential pillars for life. 

Some things are only found in surrender and solitude. 

Pete describes this using the image of scooping up a hand full of sand. If he cups the sand, he will be able to hold a lot more than if he squeezes it tight.

There are things in life that we squeeze too hard and the grains run through our fingers. 

Discipline and hard work are great, but there is something to be said for surrender or solitude. 

3. I shall find peace, love and purpose, living and breathing for one God versus the futility of running and puffing trying to please many people.

Remembering whose opinions and thoughts really matter will help us live with courage and conviction.

An old spiritual mentor of Pete’s once said, “live and breathe for an audience of one”. 

Sometimes we live to please God. Sometimes, other people step into the grandstand.

We need to ask these people to leave the grandstand because we are not living to please them.

4. I will love and prioritise in the right order, understanding that while all relationships are precious, they are not all created equal. God, myself, my wife, family, then others. 

Pete finds that too many people go out trying to help a bunch of people, which is true and noble. But they often don’t think about how they should be prioritising certain relationships. 

So for him, it’s God first, then his wife, then his kids, and then others. 

Now, you don’t want to be too inward focus? Of course not. But ask yourself the question:

Are you overstretching in things like work, advancement, career, business? O even helping other people at the detriment of what God is actually wanting you to prioritise? Are you prioritising these things over a relationship with Him?

5. I will live knowing that life is more than good and bad, or happy and sad. Rather, each moment presents equal opportunities for growth and maturity.

So often, we think that the only teachers in life are the good times.

The reality is, the real teachers in life are going to be the tough times, rather than just good and bad.

There’s an understanding that comes when you realise that everything that comes to us today is an opportunity. 

Pete says what he does in the midst to hard this is this: “Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out.”

Notice how breathing stills your mind and heart?

It gives you some space, and things seem to settle. 

Don’t try and push through – just try to find the good or bad in situations. Understand that everything is teaching you something. 

In those tough moments, just keep breathing. And keep walking. It’s super helpful. 

A friend of Pete likes to remind himself “ I’m too blessed to be stressed”. A reminder to you too – you’re also too blessed to be stressed!

6. I will chew on things true noble, reputable, authentic, compelling and gracious. The best, not the worst. The beautiful, not the ugly. Things to praise, not things to curse. I know that t as I do this, God will work into me his most excellent harmonies.

The word ‘meditate’ literally means ‘to chew’. 

So many of us spend so much time chewing on things that don’t take us in the right direction or do anything constructive to the people around us, or to ourselves. 

Pete says “I’m going to choose and meditate on the best, on the good, and on the on the things that are hopeful”. More often than not, it helps stops him from saying things that aren’t helpful. 

These are Pete’s resolutions. What are yours? Because God has deposited something in you that’s unique to you. And in the busyness and of what goes on in life. What are the moments that draw you back to why you think you’re here and how you want to walk in life? Hope that helps.

The post 6 RESOLUTIONS FOR HAVING CONVICTION appeared first on 100x.

We had the privilege of having Pastor Bruce Monk share on the 100X Legacy Business Podcast. He started his journey as a dairy farmer in Otaki, New Zealand, and today leads the Equippers Network, which has 50 churches across 20 countries,

In his early twenties, Bruce purchased his own farm, with the help of his father. At this time, Bruce and his wife Helen also made a strong commitment to Christ and started going to a small rural church.

One week, the pastor didn’t have anyone to preach, so Bruce was given the opportunity to.

This was the beginning of Bruce thinking, ‘Perhaps I’m called to do this!’.

His heart began to shift, and farming, which he was doing for the money, lost its edge.

He then went into ministry and served as a Pastor in Gisborne, Whanganui and Lower Hutt in New Zealand. In 1986, Bruce and his family moved to Auckland to pastor a church of 30 people: 6 of whom were retired pastors. Bruce said it was “a nightmare!”.

Bruce sat down with Pete and the 100X Legacy community to share 3 leadership lessons he has learnt on the way:

1. EMBRACE THE AMBIGUITY

Bruce describes himself as a very logical person. He likes things to be clear. “I like to know where I am going. I like to know every step and the details with it.”

However, throughout life’s journey, Bruce has discovered that God does not always give us the answers in detail. Reflecting on the past, Bruce says this “frustrated the hell out of me”. But it became a gift that enabled him to take hold of what God wanted – experiencing His supernatural ability coming into his life and work. This led him into areas he could have never navigated himself! 

Bruce encourages us not to nail things down, but to live with ambiguity: to allow God into them. This is where he has seen supernatural scenarios and God opening doors he’d never foreseen entering. 

For example, In 1995, Bruce had a clear direction; a goal to plant 10 churches in 10 major cities of the world. He was led to the right contacts in cities such as Rome and Budapest, where Equippers Churches would soon be planted. 

Bruce encourages us to know where we want to go, but to live with the assurance that God has our lives in his hands. He says that’s where the thrill and excitement of walking this path with the Holy Spirit comes in.

With vision, Bruce explains you must look forward and take the next step. 

A step of faith that Bruce took was handing over the church in Auckland to his son and moving to London, 20 years ago. 

He didn’t know how this was going to work, as Sam was only 26 at the time. There were lots of steps of faith to it but Bruce knew he was the right person for the job. 

2. FAITH SEES AND WISDOM BUILDS

Vision alone won’t get us there and neither will structure. Both of these components need to work together to move us forward. 

Bruce gives a helpful illustration of a rubber band:

“If you had a rubber band around two fingers. Vision is my right finger. The left is actual reality (where I am now). 

Most visionary people go so far that they snap the rubber band… and they wonder why they’re not getting to where they want to be. 

Then you have the realists, who have no vision but they might have a lot of structure in place. Without any vision, they just stand still. They don’t go anywhere. 

Imagine a caterpillar. Vision goes forward enough to pull reality along the way. It goes out a little further and then pulls reality along the way. 

Vision is always pulling, but reality has got to know wisdom… A caterpillar just keeps moving forward. 

Sometimes that can happen quickly… other times, you’ve got to just say ‘No, I’ve got enough stretch here that it’s not going to break me, but it has got enough reality to catch up’.”

Vision is important. You have to know where you’re going. 

Wisdom is the ability to take what you see, and understand the steps needed to carry that vision forward. 

Vision is seeing the future. Wisdom then helps you form the culture and develop the values: the vehicle upon which you’re going to carry it.

Bruce explained how: 

Visionaries are needed to keep moving forward. (Otherwise, things stagnate)
AND
Good structure is needed, (Otherwise, it’s out of control)

Bruce has a good team of managers around him who see things he doesn’t and helps “put the rubber on the road”. They give traction. They don’t pull the handbrake but share in the faith and the vision he sees. 

“Such a team develops over time, when they see your vision is not going to break them… you’re just going out there enough”. 

Some leaders go so far out that the people in their team don’t trust them, as they’re not fulfilling the vision. 

Bruce encourages us to just go far enough out so they say ‘Okay, I can hear you. I can see there is a faith challenge in this, and I’m prepared to go on the journey’.

 If it works, they’ll trust you the next time and you can go a little bit further. Initially, you may have to develop some of that by yourself, but ultimately, it’s that team dynamic that is paramount.

Bruce said he has been blessed with five strategic people who have helped him to put things into place; “I could see it, but they actually ‘baked the cake’.” 

Bruce shared an analogy from The Bible of a church being like a body. It’s not just one person. One man or woman can do something, but to achieve what you really see – you need to know how to work and cooperate with other people. You have to inspire them. This is how you take vision and move reality forward. 

3. PRESSURE STRENGTHENS AND CLARIFIES WHAT IS IMPORTANT

None of us like pressure!

Bruce explained how we think the pressure is working against us but one of the things he has learnt is that pressure is his servant.

“With COVID, I told our network, ‘COVID is our servant. It’s not our master’. We’re going to make it serve us. We’re going to get the best out of it. We’re going to grow through it.”

Life allows pressure to form us. Physically, you cannot develop muscle without pressure. We too, cannot develop what we see and what God has called us to do, without pressure. Don’t run away from pressure, learn from it.

One thing Bruce said pressure does for him is to simplify things.

“A lot of leaders are too cluttered – there is too much noise around them and they can’t stay focused. For me, pressure always brings me to a point to go; ‘Okay, what do I need to get rid of? Where’s the noise? Where are the distractions?’.”

Let pressure serve, strengthen and also simplify things around you. It’s easy to get distracted from what we’re called to do and lose the cutting edge.

Bruce talked about how, when shaving, you have to have a pretty good razor blade to get the whiskers off.

“But one thing my father taught me is, you can have an axe as sharp as a razor blade, but you’ll never cut a tree down with a razor blade!”

Bruce observes that a lot of people are as sharp as a razor blade, but they don’t have the weight behind them.

God builds weight into our lives over a period of time… but we need to keep ourselves sharp, because a blunt axe is no good.

Things like how much weight we have behind us and how much of an impact are hard to measure but Bruce encourages us by saying “We can count the seeds in an orange, but only God knows how many oranges are in a seed!”

Bruce hopes he can mobilize enough leaders who are like seeds. He wonders how many lives can be touched by that one seed being planted in the right place.

“When I now think of churches around the world, I don’t think so much of the numerical size of the church – I think of the influence of those men and women who were prepared to plant themselves in that soil. Coming back to my analogy, I wonder how many oranges are in those people’s lives. This is my hope!”

Bruce steers us away from the ‘Lotto Mentality’.

“Only 1%, if that, have the potential to be a superstar or win the lottery. It wouldn’t even be 1%. But isn’t it sad that most of society have been sold that dream? 

Whereas I’m actually the 99% and I’ve got to learn the rhythms that bring growth in life and multiplication; that is seed-time and harvest. It’s about sowing seed, developing, processing and growing stuff. 

Destroy the lotto mentality. 

I am the 99%. It hasn’t happened quickly, but it has happened because I just have stayed true to what I’ve been given to do.”

Solid.
Faithful.
Loyal.
Consistent.
‘I’ll be here tomorrow.’

“Come on, get out there, and sow some seeds! Develop and put some things in place!” 

When asked what keeps him going through the tough times, Bruce had an experiment once where he:

• Read 1 King 4:29, and believed the Holy Spirit spoke to him “Bruce, your heart is too small for what I want you to do”.
• Saw too, in Psalm 78:41, it is written that the children of Israel limited God
• Had a dream where He heard God say at the end of his life; “You loved me, but limited me in your life.”

This still motivates Bruce today and he shared how he never would have left NZ and gone to London without this.

“I know I’m called to empower another generation to mobilise and coach people.

Our group of churches is called ‘Equippers Church’. 

It came out of revelation, simply because God has called me to be an equipper of people and to mobilise them so that they can become all that God has called them to be.”

When asked what is one next step he’d encourage us to take, Bruce replied:

 “Life is about rhythm. Sometimes we compartmentalise our lives. I think that’s dangerous. Life for me is like a wheel… I have Jesus in the centre of it. 

I believe one day I’ll have to stand before God and have to give an account for my marriage, my children, my grandchildren and what I’m called to do. 

I also think that I have to give an account for how I enjoyed life, because otherwise how am I going to inspire people if I’m just a boring, old, fart that’s locked in and never really gets out and has any activity.”

He challenges us with the question: what is your life like? 

Is it consumed with one thing or is it holistic?

Thank you Bruce for an inspiring and motivating session! There is so much wealth and wisdom in the years and journey you have walked. 

If you would like to hear more. Bruce has a book titled; ‘Pave The Way: Embracing a life of legacy’. In this book, Bruce encourages us that significance is found in carving a path for another generation to follow.

The post 3 LESSONS ON LIFE AND LEADERSHIP appeared first on 100x.

There’s a concept that a mentor once said to me. He said ‘If you want to grow in life, and fulfil your destiny, you need to leave the tribe’.

This is not talking about having fights with your friends, I’m talking about leaving the tribe in a way that allows you to forge your own path. 

Jeremiah 1:5, in the Bible says, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, before you were born I set you apart”. So if God knew you before you became into physical being, then it means you have a soul.

What this verse is also saying is before you even came into this world, he had set you apart for a specific purpose.  

A purpose has been laid on your life and not someone else’s life. 

It’s less about trying to find who you are. It’s more about relaxing into who you’ve always been. 

As you do that, you’re going to see a vision for your life that’s different to what you have been rolling with. 

If you share that dream, God can do more than you can think or imagined.

If He can do more than you can think or imagine. Well, imagine how confusing that can be to someone else! 

I know in my early days, when I had the heart to start a business, no one around me was saying it was a good idea. 

Everyone was fearful for me. 

And you know what? Everyone was kind of judging me and saying it probably wouldn’t work. 

On my journey, I found that as you leave the tribe, it’s this:

The first is ridicule. “What an idiot”.  I started an IT company after the.com crash of 2000. “What an idiot”. 

And then when you keep on persevering, keep on making mistakes and learning, it’s respect. “I respect him. Don’t understand him, but he’s giving you a good, go”. 

After ridicule and respect, when it keeps going, and you get a little bit of momentum, it’s curiosity. 

When the momentum continues to build, and you continue to learn from your lesson, pride. 

So that’s the journey. 

Leave the tribe and watch the motions of your friends or family go from ridicule, to respect, to curiosity, and then pride. 

It’s a funny thing, I have all these people now say, “Hey, I always knew you were going to do it”. 

But you know what? They didn’t believe that at the time.

 So just to encourage you on those steps. 

Don’t be misled. Give your family and friends a bit of grace. 

They just care for you. They can’t see what you can see. And it scares them.

But they still love you.

The post LEAVE THE TRIBE appeared first on 100x.

Matt Purcell is one of Australia’s leading young entrepreneurs and speakers. He is on a mission to help doers think and thinkers do. Co-founder and creative director of Mentored Media, a creative agency in Sydney, he works with Australia’s top brands and individuals. This includes American Express, M.J. Bale, Tourism Australia, and leaders on branding, social media, content, podcasts, and more.

Matt works closely with 100X Legacy – teaching on Storybrand and Marketing. However, when he sat down with Pete and the Xtsers to record an episode of the 100X Legacy Business Podcast, he shared some of his own story and the lessons he has learnt on the importance of knowing who you are and your value. 

He shared around purpose, identity, opportunities, distractions and empowering the next generation. He posed the question, ‘If someone had to write a book about your life – what lessons would you have in yours?’. 

For more information and to hear Matt’s backstory, check out this episode of the podcast:

This article draws from this episode to explain 9 secrets to success based on a solid sense of self and identity.

1. STOP SUBSCRIBING TO TALL POPPY SYNDROME

‘Tall Poppy Syndrome’ is a cultural phenomenon commonly seen in Australia and New Zealand. It surrounds ‘cutting down the tall poppy’ – deliberately pulling someone down who has grown or achieved success in their field. This perceived success could be monetary, creative, intellectual, athletic, societal, or cultural.

It is almost seen as a moral obligation to keep others humble – to ‘even the playing field’. This is often done through avoidance, abandonment, resentment, and criticism of the ‘tall poppy’, or anyone who thinks too highly of themselves. 

‘In this country that we live in, in Australia. It’s “the tall poppies”, to assume that anyone who is doing well for themselves was lucky, or was just given it by an inheritance or a will. It’s absolute bullcrap! It just takes away from and discourages people from trying and makes people want to hide their gifts. It makes people hesitant to truly flourish in their area’, says Matt. 

In this seemingly altruistic pursuit of equality, we even see people cutting themselves down (through self-deprecation) or limiting their own potential. Matt describes this by saying a lot of people become reserved or insecure about admitting their talents, strengths, or successes. ‘The Australian in us goes, “you can’t say that”‘, he says.

‘If you see anyone who seems to be doing okay with their life, don’t assume that they were born with a silver spoon in their bloody mouth. I tell you that much. Because it’s not always the case’.

Some of us struggle with a lack of humility, others with a lack of confidence. However, most people aren’t being who they are destined to be because of a lack of confidence – not a lack of humility. 

2. KNOW YOUR VALUE

Matt says, “The person in me didn’t become real confident until I started believing in something more than just trying to please people”, says Matt.

An example of people-pleasing can be seen in the clothes we wear. Why do you dress the way you do? If you boil it down might be because it makes you appear a certain way. 

It works the other way too – you might be dressing down to please people. Perhaps you don’t want to be a tall poppy. 

A lot of people dress for others. Who you are trying to impress will determine how you dress. We put external things on to try and change the internal.

Matt asks himself the question. ‘Am I the mannequin with the clothes wearing me, or am I wearing the clothes because I know I give them value and I don’t need them to give me worth?’

Another place we can look to for identity is confidence in our skills and achievements. Matt explains that technical confidence comes from repeatable outcomes. ‘You aim at something, you practice it repetitively, you have a deep understanding of it, so it doesn’t remain a fluke.’

‘For me, it was actually a revelation that my value wasn’t really boiled down to my achievements … I had revelation From God as well, my personal faith. No matter what I achieved, what I did, or what I accumulated, I’m as good as the poorest person or the richest. We’re all the same and death renders us as equals’, says Matt.

He explains that the thing that now gives him confidence is the realisation that everything he does is valuable. This is not because his actions or the things he does are inherently valuable, but because we, as humans, give things value. 

‘We have, as human beings, the ability to be able to give love to dead things. We’re given to dead things all the time. Without your attention, without your attendance, everything you basically have is useless. Facebook is useless. Zoom is useless. Money is useless. It’s only useful because we collectively believe in it and we act upon it.’

Matt finds true value and confidence in being able to walk into a room and know that he can bring life there – that he is in that environment but not of it. This comes from a realisation that his worth is not derived from external things. 

‘The fact that I give love to things, that I give value and attention to things, shows that I have value. You cannot give what you don’t have.’

3. GET CLEAR ON THE MAN, MISSION & MESSAGE

When it comes to identity and value, Matt says three factors influence these – the man, the mission, and the message. The clearer you are on these things, the more things you attract that are specific to them. “You’re going to have people try and seduce you or try and distract you from that. That just can be part of the parcel of knowing who you are”, says Matt. 

He explains that there is security in knowing who you are but there is also an enemy that comes against that. It is very easy for us to go around trying to avoid a battle. If you got nothing to die for you’ve got nothing to live for. 

“Knowing who I am as a man, what mission I’m on, and the importance of finding a message and refining your message, means that in tough times I’m not as shaken”, says Matt. 

There is a culture, especially socially, where we commentate from the spectator’s stand. This doesn’t compare to being in the arena.

Theodore Roosevelt once said ‘It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.’

When you find your mission and your purpose, you’ll have to pick up the sword and stand on a side. You’re going to encounter enemies, you’re going to find critics. 

Criticism doesn’t change whether you have a conviction or not. Whether you pick up your sword or not, you’re going to have a critic. However, with conviction, you’ll live a life where you stand for what is true to you. 

4. STOP SAYING YES TO EVERYTHING

One of the challenges that competence brings is more opportunities. You start getting good at one thing and start realising all of the other things you could start doing!

“I’ve been so many things the last 10 years. And it’s only been the last few years that I’ve really niched”, says multi-talented Matt. “I had so many versions of what I did … and I was doing things pretty well. But I reached a certain potential, and I couldn’t go any further.” 

He found it hard to juggle too many balls at once and eventually had to let some go to scale other initiatives up. ‘I’d created several jobs for myself when I was in my early 20s. It was really crazy how I justified them to myself’, said Matt. He admits he found it difficult to know what to let go of. This decision was made as he stepped back and asked ‘Who am I?’

‘When you have all these opportunities, you need to have something like God, or an auditing system to pull you out of it and be values-driven.’ He encourages us, when weighing up an opportunity, to ask ‘How does this fit this is within my gifts, my passion, my ability, my values?’

‘Passion is such an interesting word because it’s thrown around all the time. All of us might have a definition of passion. For me, one little trigger point is what fires you up about the world? What pisses you off about the world? What do you want?’, says Matt. He encourages us not to assume that everyone has the same passion as us because the things that start a fire in us could be our calling. 

You can do anything, but you can’t do everything. Instead of trying to say yes to lots of things, and doing them averagely, know your passion and purpose, and pursue things accordingly. What are the core things that you need to be doing? What’s the one right next step?

5. SPOT THE SECRET ENEMIES

Hollywood pictures paint seduction and Satan as obvious things but one of the things that may be an enemy in our lives is distraction: seeing all of the good options but having an inability to focus on the next right thing. Sometimes, the enemy will look at you and say ‘I know how I’d get you – by bringing a good cause in your world that’s not your cause’.

Another distraction we commonly see in entrepreneurs we coach is a vain pursuit of humility. You might say “I’m just being humble” but this is being vain because people aren’t thinking about you that much! 

What are the secret enemies in your life or business?

6. KNOW YOUR NUMBER ONE

‘We all surrender our knee to someone or something, don’t we?’, says Matt. ‘It’s your boss, your shareholders, your wife, human beings, or a thing that’s bigger than ourselves. For many of us is, it’s a faith.’

Whatever our ideal or ultimate priority is, becomes our judge. For example, if your number one is work, everything in your life will be judged against your work. ‘Family? It’s not good enough if it’s distracting from number one, which is work’, Matt says in an explanation of this concept. 

Matt goes on to explain how whatever is number one in our lives will ask us to surrender for it. Everything that follows it in priority will be asked to surrender for it at some point. ‘People talk about faith like it’s a wimpy thing, like it is a wuss thing. But it’s actually the hardest thing to do’, says Matt.

He poses this hard, hypothetical question to us: could you move on from this thing that gives you identity, provision, and other benefits? Could you move on from it? In his view, that’s the true test of what has your heart.

7. WORK OUT YOUR NUMBER

Get out a document. And write a list of every single thing you want to buy in your life – everything you’re working on right now. This might include financially securing your house or car. It might be funding a holiday. Whatever it is, be practical and tally it all up.

In the next column, write down the purpose of everything you’ve added to the first column. What’s the reason for all that stuff? Why that car? Why that house? 

In a third column, add a monetary amount to each thing you want to buy and total it up. Is it $5 million? Is it $10 million? For a lot of us, it actually won’t be that as much as you think. Really think about when is “enough” for you.

‘I’m currently working on this process at the moment. It isn’t about accumulating the most wealth in my life anymore. It isn’t about having the most possessions. It is actually knowing who I am and knowing when enough is enough. And that’s values-driven‘, says Matt.

‘I don’t live, I don’t exist to be able to serve my business. My business exists to serve my life. And that’s the next step’.

8. HAVE THE FEET OF PROACTIVITY

If you were previously a smoker, and you go out and someone says “Do you want to smoke” and you say, “I’m just trying to quit”, what you’ve done is you’ve identified yourself as a smoker trying to quit. 

If someone says, ‘Do you want to smoke’ and you go, ‘No thanks, I’ve quit’, you’ve identified as a previous smoker. The intent not to smoke is the same, but where you deriver your identity is a stronger predictor than your intent.

What happens when God gives you more than you can think or imagine? This is where the feet of proactivity come in – when it comes to keeping moving through hard times and going further than you’d imagined possible. It’s not about a number. It’s about a harder generosity.

9. EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATION

In relation to the Theodore Roosevelt quote mentioned in point 3, how do we talk to the next generation about being the man in the arena, or the woman in the arena, and not being a spectator?

‘The mantle needs to be on business owners to be able to provide some really good, safe environments to be able to fail‘, says Matt. ‘My philosophy is maybe I can actually teach these guys how to do – then I don’t have to take it upon myself’.

Matt’s score in his HSC (end of school) exams was so low he wasn’t even given a number, he was given an asterix! He says there is an opportunity to encourage young people that school grades are not the be-all and end-all. 

‘I think it is promoting an alternative way of thinking -that getting to where you want to go doesn’t have to be through that avenue. That’s why the street smarts and book smarts things are two different universes.’

Matt explains that having street smarts comes from leaning into experiences and having the opportunity to fail, which businesses and universities don’t want you to do. 

‘If we can find more role models of people who have taken a different path, but ended up where they want to be it just gives much more confidence to people or young people to go “Okay, I’m not crazy. I’m not a nomad. I’m not just some crazy person. I think that I want to do it that way”.’

Arnold Schwarzenegger once said, “Break the rules don’t break the law”. Why can’t the for-purpose entrepreneurs be a dangerous force for good? Why can’t we ripple through the generations and across the globe? 

Let’s be the people that break the rules – that show a new way. Don’t break the law, but let’s break the rules of what people deem as normal or achievable, or realistic!

The post 9 STEPS TO SUCCESS BASED ON A SOLID IDENTITY appeared first on 100x.