When I was 20 years old I got saved.
And within a year and a half I sold everything I had and moved to Houston, Texas β because I wanted to experience the power of God - and to get away from all my problems.
But I told myself it was about the power of God.
Don't judge me... π
But when I got there I discovered that my problems followed me there.
They bought a plane ticket an flew all the way to Texas to torment me!
See, before I gave my life to Jesus I wasn't a very good guy. Drugs, sex, rock 'n' roll, occult things β I did it all, and I hurt a lot of people along the way.
And even though all of that was behind me now, the way I thought about myself and treated myself - wasn't.
I had this bad habit of beating myself up in my mind. I'd berate, condemn, and demean myself until I felt like a pile of β you know what. And I couldn't seem to stop myself from doing it no matter how hard I tried.
And it wasn't the devil doing this to me, I was doing it to myself!
Can you relate to this?
Then one day, right in the middle of telling myself what a terrible person I was for making yet another mistake, in the middle of my anger and frustration, I stopped and asked God a question... (True story... I did this because I thought He would agree with me.)
"Well God... what do you think about me?"
Without any warning, and I wasn't expecting this... a thought filled my mind as big as the state of Texas.
"I think you are wonderful."
Wait... WHAT? I was stunned. Confused. Speechless.
And the thought didn't go away. It stuck with me.
For two full days I kept asking, "How can God think I'm wonderful?"
"There's no way He can think I'm wonderful because of the stuff I still do. Doesn't He know what I'm like and what I have done? How can He think I'm wonderful?"
Then by the third day, because His words were still reverberating in my mind, I changed the question.
"If God thinks I'm wonderful⦠what is He seeing in me that I'm missing?"
The answer from God about that one question changed everything. And it became the foundation of The God First Process β something I've now taught for 42 years.