← ONE | A Potter's House Church
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- [00:00]
A
You guys, Pastor Tim Ross. I don't even know what to say. He is the host of the Basement is still the Base.
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B
Now what do we call it? What's your new show? It's still debate.
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A
Still the Basement.
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B
Okay, that's. Yeah, that show was just for 2025. Wide open. Was for 2025.
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A
Okay, gotcha. So you can find him on the Basement on YouTube. Incredible show. Tim is the most realist straight talking his pastor in these streets. He is also one of the most brilliant people when it comes to theology and real life. And so I'm excited to have him here tonight to talk about clarity and especially as it relates to a revelation he has around peace. So I'm just going to let it go. Is that good?
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B
Sweet. That's fantastic. Thank you. I love all of you all. Thank you so much for taking the time to invest in yourself, your personal development, your growth. These. This is how champions are made. This is how leaders are consistent. I love what PDA was saying right at the end about your mental health. I've been a believer for 30 years. January 14th of 96 is when I gave my life to Jesus. I've been in therapy for 28 years and I would not be able to sustain what I'm doing if it wasn't for my faith in Jesus and having someone ensure that my mental health was where it needed to be to handle all the stressors that come with just life, forget just ministry, just life. Okay, so I want to talk about clarity. I'm so excited to talk about this because I hope in this conversation that I'm able to demystify what I brooded on. When Dr. Anita actually asked me to talk about this, I started to brood on why this is such a difficult thing to for believers, especially young leaders, people in ministry. And what I realize is, and this has happened at a subconscious level and please put hands in the chat if you identify with this. But I think all we've heard from very successful leaders is the end of the story that brought them success. Right? So it's. They don't really give us the sloppy, unedited version of the journey. It's like, I believe God and then he just did it. Right? Like I sowed a seed and then somebody paid off $10 million worth of land and you're like, did somebody go to the bank? Or it happened just like you said it or what happened in the middle, Right. So when it comes to clarity, I realized that what I've heard from the leaders that I've looked up to Is I believe God for this. And God gave me a clear word, and we set out to do it, and it just happened. And then I'm like, did it, though? Because I'm looking at people in the Bible, which we are going to look, and I'm like, they wasn't as clear as you, so. But one of them is father Abraham, and he had many sons, and many sons have father Abraham. I am one of them, and so are you. So let's just praise the Lord, right? Like so. So let's go to the Word. Because I'm a. That's what I do. I go to the Word.
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Let's go.
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Anita has an earned doctorate. I have an earned high school diploma from an alternative school. Just to let you know that God will use anybody, huh?
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Brilliant brilliance. And it was born in.
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B
He'll do it for you. Okay, so Genesis, chapter number 12. Genesis, chapter number 12. I'm reading from the tree of life version of the Bible. It's the Julius Jewish Bible in the world, and I love it, but this is the calling of Abraham. Okay, then Adonai said to Abram, get. Oh, let me pray first. Jesus bless this time. Amen. Okay, then Adonai said to Abram, get. Going out from your land and from your relatives and from your father's house to the land that I will show you. My heart's desire is to make you into a great nation, to bless you, to make your name great so that you may be a blessing. Now, I want to do the end of that first verse again, which for some of you, it's like verse three, but. Or verse two, but it's all one verse. Get going out of your land. That's a direction. You. We have a directive, okay? And from your relative's house. Now we. Not only do we know we have to leave geographically, we have to leave relationally. And from your father's house, now you got to leave familial, familiarly familiar, that word as well. And from your father's house to a land that I will show you. That's not clarity. I know. I'm talking about clarity, but we first got to talk about the lack of clarity. You don't need clarity to get started. You need a word from God. And when we are assigned to do things, we have the directive, but we don't have the clarity of, like, where are we actually going? What are we actually doing? How am I supposed to execute this? But you don't know until you go. Until you got to understand. You got to understand something about faith. Moves. God will never speak to you about what's next until you do what is now. I'm going say that again. God will not speak to you about what's next until you do what is now. It is incumbent upon us once we hear a word from the Lord that we go. He shows us the rest on the way. It's. It's cap, that everybody that we look up to in faith knew it all. They didn't even know they was going to be them. In retrospect, they can sit up there after they've done all the great things and be like, yes, I knew from a young age that God had called me to greatness, but greatness is relative. Who knew? Who knows what greatness actually is? Come on. Greatness from your family might be graduating college, being the first one to graduate college. Greatness for somebody else might be becoming the first billionaire in the entire lineage of a family. But that's relative. So we don't know. We have a sense, but we don't know until we go. If you go back to Genesis Chapter number 11, Abram and his family start from Ur of the Chaldees, then go to Haran, then go from Haran to Shechem, which is Canaan, and then go from Shechem to Egypt, and from Egypt to the Negev, and then from the Negev back to Hebron. He was all over the place. He didn't know. He was just following the voice of the Lord. And it doesn't always look as linear as we testify it to be. So I just want to give somebody permission first of all, to just get started. Like, I got a word from the Lord and I need to get started. Let me put that in the context of a team on the staff. I'll never forget when I was working at the Potter's house. I was the young adult pastor there for four years between 2006 and 2010. And Bishop Jakes calls me into his office and he says, I want to pack this sanctuary out with young people. I want this place to be crawling with youth and young adults. And I just want the place packed for Thanksgiving. The. The Sunday before Thanksgiving. I want this place packed with young adults. I want them. I want them crawling in here. He told me this in October, November was the next month. And I'm a strategist and I'm a planner. I have never been so fuming hot in my life. And I was given an assignment. So it didn't matter if I liked it or not. It didn't matter. This is not my way. I'm a strategist. You should have called me six months ago. I would have get. This place would have been crawling before you even asked. If you would have given me at least a six month Runway. You giving me five weeks. Okay, I'm mad about it, but I have my directive. I will figure out what I'm going to do after I start doing it. Go. Go. If you need a little acronym for it, God's orders, go. He already told you what to do. But you're not going. You're not going to. Abraham would have never found Canaan. Waiting for a clear word from God that said Canaan. He stumbled into Canaan because he left. And you are. Thank you, Holy Spirit. You are leaving before you are going. You can never be going to the grocery store without leaving your house. But you leave first. You are leaving before you're going. So if, if, if we don't. If we don't learn to embrace the ambiguity that comes with navigating into God's will, we will find ourselves frustrated and we will find ourselves with the paralysis of analysis. Well, God told me, but I don't know how he gonna do it. And I'm just still waiting on the Lord. I mean, he said this was the year that, that, that there was a shift coming, but I don't know what the shift is yet. And you know, so I've talked to three of my mentors and I'm, you know, because in a multitude of counselors, there's safety. Then we get deeper and start thinking it's wisdom. And. But it's been five years and we still haven't moved because now we got five people paralyzed with us. And you got all your words, you got more fleeces than Gideon. And you still like, well, I mean, you know what, that fleece is orange and dry on a Tuesday when it's, you know, flooding. But if you can just get Gabriel tomorrow to hold the fleece in his hand, then I'll know. So you gotta go. And Abram found out where he was supposed to be. Because he wasn't waiting for clarity. He had his directive. Okay, So I wanted to give you the og the father of our faith. I want you to know the first person that God called out of the nations and had a covenant with had no clarity. I just wanted to free you up. I could have used anybody in the Bible. I wanted to go with the guy that we all have our faith from because he heard from God and started moving in the direction that he didn't know where he was going until after he left. Right. So we've established our baseline, and this happened in the beginning. This happened in the book of Genesis. All right? Okay. Now let's go to the New Testament, because we've. We. We've demystified Abram. And now I want to demystify these apostles because I swear, we be treating them like they. The Avengers. We act like they got bit by spiders, had gamma radiation flow through their body bloodstream, that they are just like. They were like the superheroes of the faith. These dudes were so regular Degular. Let me tell you how regular Degular all these people were. They were so regular Degular that Luke, that great doctor, was smart enough to write that the. The title of this wasn't just the Acts. The full title of Acts is the Acts of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles. He wanted to make it very, very clear the Holy Spirit was putting his extra on their ordinary, because alone, they wouldn't have done none of this. Okay, so I want to read you what I hope is one of the most encouraging passages in the New Testament about what it is to be led by the Holy Spirit and be trying to discern where I'm supposed to be going and what I'm supposed to be doing with the clarity God's giving me. All right, and then after I. I talk about this with the little time that we have left before Anita runs out her door because she's already dressed for it. Q and A. Or if you need to ask me some clarifying questions, Anita, we'll do that. Okay, so this is acts, chapter number 16, starting at the sixth verse. Okay, here's what Luke writes. They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Ruach Hakodesh, the Holy Spirit, to speak the word in Asia. When they came to Mysa, they were trying to proceed into Bithynia, but the Ruach of Yeshua, the spirit of Jesus, would not allow them. So they passed by Mysah and went down to Troas. Now, a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man from Macedonia was standing and pleading with him, saying, come over to Macedonia and help us. As soon as he had seen the vision, immediately we tried to go to Macedonia. This is how you know that these were regular Degular people concluding words matter. Concluding that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them. This don't sound like people. That was like, I got a word from God and I just left, and I knew exactly where I was Going. Paul knew he was on a missionary journey. He already had the call to go preach the gospel right after his drastic conversion. In Acts, chapter number nine. They wanted to go to Asia. And they were so bent on going to Asia, the Holy Spirit had to block them. They was going to Asia until the Holy Ghost blocked them from going to Asia. So then they like, okay, thank you, Holy Spirit. Let me slow down. All right. So can we thank God for closed doors? I know we thank him for the open ones. And we always, God, open the door. But sometimes God makes the obvious doors open for us based on the ones he closes. And I know we're always praying for open doors. But the biggest doors that I've walked through is because of the bigger doors God closed. I didn't know which way I was going, so I was. I was about to go through every door, and the Lord's like, nope, locking this one. I'm locking this one. Go this way. So it was in them trying to go to Mya and then trying to go to Bithynia that they found out they were supposed to be in Macedonia. And let me tell you how regular they are. They didn't feel this weighted. We know it's God. They were like, well, we just concluded. I mean, all the other doors closed. We might as well go over there. Paul said he had a vision. Foreign. Let's go to Macedonia. See? See what's popping now. Here's what I love about what happens when he gets to Macedonia. He has a vision of a man saying, come over here and help us. But who he runs to, who he runs into first is a. A woman named Lydia. So even in the. The. The. The. The understanding of what the vision was. The church in Philippi was started with a woman who sold purple Clarity, did not come until they got in the boat and tried to find out where God wanted them to go. And so I. I hope. I hope what I'm anchoring through scripture is a release for you to just go do some stuff. Here's one of the things that I hope will help you. Hopefully this is helpful. Stop putting God on it until it's done. Maybe instead of always leading with, God said you should lead with. I think the Holy Spirit is saying, I feel like the Holy Spirit is leading us this way.
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Thank you so much.
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That way, you give yourself an out. That way, the Lord don't look schizophrenic messing with you while you trying to figure out his will. Thank you. And. And I. And I'm guilty of it. Okay. So I'M not, I, I am 30 years in ministry. Not, not, not three years. So at a three year old, Tim was, God said it, I got to do it. And then it didn't happen. And I, I was wise enough to not to say, well, God changed his mind. But, but I got tired of putting stuff on God that wasn't him. I felt something. I, I was moving in the direction, but I didn't know. Jesus said, wisdom is proven to be right by its results. And so, and so sometimes you have to wait till a thing is over before you have clarity on. Oh yeah, that was definitely because a lot of stuff we do is good, but it ain't God. So I have learned to say, even with Juliet. I used to wear Juliet out in our first 10. 10 years. She probably say 15, but I'm gonna say 10. That, you know, like you, you was always saying God said, but I came up in a culture where the Lord said this. The Lord told me to do this, the Lord told me to do that. And no, he didn't. You wanted to do that. And because we deep and spiritual, we slap God on it all the time. And then when it don't work, then it's like this how we remix it. You know what? God just sent me through that to test me to see if I was going to real. No, God, God is not up here doing lab experiments with his people. Stop playing. Don't do this to him. Okay, so you, you want to, you want to remove that language and be able to navigate and then at the end be able to say, okay, this, this is good. We, we know this is the Lord. All right. Okay, thank you, Holy Spirit. Okay, so this is the next door neighbor. So this is, this is Acts 15, so you don't have to go far. So this is Acts 16. We can start at the 20, the 23rd, 22nd verse. This is, this is Jerusalem Council. This is after they have ruled that Gentiles don't have to be circumcised. They don't have to be circumcised to, to have faith in Yeshua. And then, so this is what they write in 22. Then it seemed good to the emissaries and elders, with the whole community to choose. Oh, no, that's not it. Therefore, I judge not to trouble those among the gentiles. This is 19. Who are turning to God, but right to them to abstain from contamination of idols, from sexual immorality, and from what is strangled and from blood. They literally say, it seemed good to us in the Holy Spirit not to bother them with. This is after hours and hours of frustrating, tense conversations, they come out going. It seemed good to us in the Holy Spirit to say this. There wasn't a lot of thus say it the Lord, but there was an inner peace. And that's what I want to talk about. Last you've heard from the Lord, you got enough to get started. And that's really where clarity is as a believer, as faith. We walk by faith and not by sight. We do not get what we see, we get what we hear. In the kingdom, your ears are your eyes because you get what you hear, you do not get what you see. Okay, so when you feel that peace and that piece is literally a regulation of your nervous system. We're not talking about chill bumps. We're not talking about. We just talking about there is quiet, there is calm, there is no anxiety. I feel like God has told us to move this way. I'm sensing this is the direction that the Lord wants us to go. And we just gonna go. And as you go, you know, as you go, the clarity comes. Last story the Holy Spirit told me. And I can say this because it's past tense, so I know it's the Holy Spirit because of the way all of it's worked in real time. I was like, here's what I feel like the Lord is saying. But September of 21 is when the Holy Spirit told me that my time as a lead pastor was coming to an end. I did not know what that meant. I didn't know when he meant it. All I knew is I needed to start talking about it. We started talking about it. Juliet and I felt peace about it in January of 22. In March, God showed us who our successor was. And then in May, he told me to start a podcast. I told him I'd rather throw a penny in the ocean than to start a podcast. There was 5 million podcasts. There didn't need to be one more. He tells me to start the podcast. He tells me when to start the podcast. So we taped in June. The first episode came out July 6th of 2022, and in three and a half weeks we had 25000 subscribers on a YouTube channel that did not exist prior to. In August, the Holy Spirit told me that 2022 would be my last year as the lead pastor. December 31st was my last year as the lead pastor. And I've been podcaster. And in this apostolic season ever since, he did not tell me all that. In September of 21, he told me my season was coming to an end, and I started to move in that direction, even though there were so many things that were unclear. Clarity comes to movers, not standers. Okay, thank you, Holy Spirit. I thought he was done. I got one more. Well, he has one more, because I. This was not. I wasn't thinking about this at all. But this is. This is nasty right here. All right, this is Acts. This is Acts 1. All this is the Acts in the New Testament. Okay? This one gonna get you. All right, so let me start from nine, because I'm a nerd, and I like to read the whole Bible, but for the sake of time. After saying all of this, this is Acts 1, verse number 9. After saying all this, while they were watching, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight while they were staring into heaven. As he went up, suddenly two men with them. Suddenly two men stood with them in white clothing. They said, men of Galilee, people of one. Why do you keep standing here staring into him? This Yeshua, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. Here's what they were saying. Here was the strongest implication. Don't you stand here waiting for him to come back. Y' all got work to do. I know you don't know which way to go. I know he told you to wait for the Holy Spirit. You're gonna find out where, but you can't stand right here. And what we don't want to be caught doing is just standing, staring into heaven, waiting for Jesus to come back. He is giving downloads to movers. I'm not talking about anxiety. I'm not talking about anxiousness, but he is giving downloads to people that will hear him and start moving in a direction, knowing you give updated words. Man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth. Eth is just like ing. He keeps speaking as we keep moving. So clarity comes to movers. That's my time
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A
now. You know, you can. You can talk as long as you want to because you are just blessing us. Listen, this. This moment of big moves for us. Big stands for bold Christ identified goers.
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Let's go.
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That's big. We are big people making big moves. Bold Christ identified goers. So when you said, go, God's orders, man. That is it. It is about making moves, not standing still, not waiting for the next thing.
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B
So you are just.
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You are just blowing us away tonight. And when you said Abraham didn't even know where he was going, he didn't
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know where he was going. And God didn't tell him until he started going.
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You gotta leave.
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He didn't even know where to sacrifice Isaac until he started going. He didn't. He couldn't give Sarah details if she wanted them. Me and the boy are going to worship, and then we will be back on a mountain. Which mountain? I don't know yet.
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Know yet. Ask everything.
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Dad. I see the wood. I. I see the. I see the. The. The. The string. But where's the animal for the sacrifice? The Lord himself shall provide. You don't need that clarity right now. Let's just go up the mountain.
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Come on.
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It'll be there when we get there. We don't. We don't. We. We got enough to go up.
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Listen, I ain't trying to start. But it's giving. Shunam, my woman. It's giving.
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It shall be.
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Well, where you going? I'll be. Well, I don't know. I don't know. I'm just going. I'm going. Exaction of the word that I had.
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That's exactly right. That's exactly right to move.
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You said leave before you go. That. That's.
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Yeah.
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I'm. I would be mad at you if you wasn't my friend. I'd be mad because this word is thick. So good. So good,
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y'.
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All. Can y' all put it up in the chat and in the. In the responses and everything? Pastor Tim Ross came through here and throw shoes at the screen. Do everything you got to do. But he has wrapped up everything we touched on tonight and just reinvigorated our bigness. We are both identifiable goers, and you. You just revved us up. So thank you so much. I'm so. I'm so honored you blessed us so much. Thank you for answering my call as a friend.
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I love you, doctor Sister.
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Love her. I love you, too. And, yeah. Thank you, sir. Y' all say goodbye.
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B
You're welcome.
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A
All right.
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Okay. Love y'. All. Y' all have a great night.
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A
Good night.