Dharius Daniels - Your Thinking is Hurting You

It’s not your giant problem that’s killing you; it’s not the giant obstacle that’s killing you; it’s not the giant opposition that you’re facing. The problem is not the giant on the outside; the problem is the grasshopper on the inside. If we can fix the grasshopper, we can kill the giants. You’re second-guessing your options because you’re listening to too many opinions. Watch this, guys. Let me get to what I’m actually trying to say. I’ve been going all this time just to get here: that entire generation ends up dying in the wilderness. I want you to catch this—except for two of them, Joshua and Caleb—and it wasn’t God’s fault. They couldn’t blame this on God’s will. Here’s the issue: they end up dying in the wilderness. Are you all ready? They end up dying in the wilderness, and it wasn’t because of their talent; it was because of their thinking. They were thinking about themselves wrongly. There were giants there; that’s true, but they weren’t grasshoppers. So the giants didn’t kill them; the grasshopper did. And I’m trying to tell some of you it’s not your giant problem that’s killing you; it’s not the giant obstacle that’s killing you; it’s not the giant opposition that you’re facing. The problem is not the giant on the outside; the problem is the grasshopper on the inside. If we can fix the grasshopper, we can kill the giants. Listen to me: the problem was not with their hands; the problem was with their head. Their head was hurting them. Did you hear what I just said? I said their head was hurting them, and I don’t know who I’m preaching to, but I need to pause for the cause and tell you I don’t know what was hurting in 2021, but I’m telling you it was probably a headache. Did you hear what I just said? I said I don’t know what was hurting in 2021, but it was probably a headache because as your mind goes, your life follows. So every ache in life is tied back to a headache. Your head hurts you relationally; your head hurts you financially; your head hurts you professionally; your head hurts you spiritually. My head is hurting me. If I can fix my head, I can fix some of my aches. Darius, how do I know if my life ache is actually a headache? If the ache is chronic and incessant, it’s probably a headache. What does that mean? If my relationships are bad all the time, that’s a headache. It’s something about the way I’m thinking about relationships that’s contributing to the dysfunction in them. Are you hearing what I’m saying? Guys got it? How am I thinking about this? Because I can’t fix that until I fix this. I’m done, y’all tired; I got a minute and 48 seconds left. What I’ve learned is God’s headaches have two things: they have symptoms and sources. When I look at this text, I’m wondering, man, what contributed to them believing they were grasshoppers? Where did they get that from? So here’s the question I think we all need to ask: who is influencing the way you think? Not just who’s influencing what we do, but who’s influencing the way you think about a thing? I want you to look at your relationships. What do you think about them? What do you think about relationships? Now, who’s influencing that? I don’t know if we vet those sources the way that we should. We, grasshoppers, okay? I don’t even want to judge you on that yet. Let’s not talk about that; let’s talk about where you got that from. I don’t even want to argue about whether or not it’s true. Our head is hurting us. This is really weird, guys, because Miles Monroe put it this way: the graveyard isn’t just filled with tombs; it’s filled with unfulfilled potential. It’s filled with people that never got to Canaan because their head was in their way. You’ve got all this talent. Somebody put in the chat, «Get out of my head.» You could have started by now if you just got out of your head. You could have written it by now if you just got out of your head. You could have fixed it by now if you just got out of your head. I’m going to tell you something: I think there are three sources we need to vet. Number one: other individuals. Association produces assimilation. I don’t have time to deal with this, guys, but I’m just going to throw this out. Maybe we’ll circle back around later at some point and deal with it, but all company you enjoy is not company that adds value, and you have to ask yourself what part of me is connecting to the dysfunction in them. What in me still likes that? I’m not saying both can happen, but I am saying some of us are getting our grasshopper mentality from others because of grasshopper conversations and grasshopper-type complaints. Here’s another one, though: it’s not just other individuals. Sometimes it’s our experiences. Bad experiences in the past create beliefs about the future. So some people believe they can’t because they tried before, and they didn’t. So now that experience has become an authority, and they believe that because I didn’t do it then, I can’t do it now. But I don’t have time. Sometimes Jesus will tell you just to throw your net on the other side of the boat. So, let me ask you something: has failure done something to your faith? Think about that. Has failure done something to your faith? Other individuals, other experiences—here’s the other one, assumptions. Improper assessments of your own ability lead to false assumptions.