Dharius Daniels - The Principle of Perception and Partnership

The principle of perception: what’s that? Darius, you will always behave in a way that is consistent with how you see yourself. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. How far you go and how much you grow is not just dependent on what you believe about God; it is also impacted by what you believe about yourself. There is a narrative found in Numbers 13 that describes people on the verge of possessing a promised land, which is a metaphor for their redemptive potential. This promised land is occupied by giants because the promises of God are accompanied by opposition. Your willingness to overthrow the opposition determines whether or not you possess the promise. If you’re scared of a fight, you’re scared of the next level because the next level is always on the other side of a battle that will intimidate you if you don’t have a revelation of who you are. Just as it says, they didn’t fight a fixed fight; they looked at the giants in the land and said, «We are as grasshoppers in their eyes and in our own.» I want you to catch this: they didn’t lose to the giants out there; they lost to the grasshopper in here. Y’all missed that. I want you to understand this because we need to correct some theology. They didn’t lose because they saw God wrong; they lost because they didn’t see themselves right. It was the grasshopper mentality. What’s scary is that there is no evidence of them suffering from any type of impostor syndrome until they were confronted with a giant opportunity or a giant adversity. This is because a giant opportunity and giant adversity are actually mirrors that show you what you really believe about yourself. This is why you have to fight to stay in rooms like this. You must do what’s necessary to remain in environments like this because some of you are meeting people—don’t miss this—and you’re not seeing other people; you’re seeing you. Some of you, watch this: we’re not hating on your other surroundings; we’re not being condescending or dismissive regarding your other relationships. However, many of us have relationships with individuals who don’t share the values that we cherish in this season. You’re about progress and advancement, yet you still have some people who are stuck in seasons of settling, meandering through mazes of mediocrity. You are in a season where you’re saying, «I’m ready to do more than talk about somebody else’s business. I’m ready to do more than talk about all the dysfunctional stuff we used to do. I’ve got bills to pay, children to raise, a purpose to accomplish, and money to make.» You have to be intentional, sir, about being around people who help you see who you are. I don’t have time to delve deep, but some people are in love with an inferior version of you. The only version of you that they know is a version that doesn’t recognize who you are. They’ve attached your identity to your dysfunction. Once you break that dysfunction off your life and become a healthy and whole version of yourself, people will start saying things like, «You’ve changed, ” and you should respond, „And you didn’t.“ You’re upset because I won’t let you exploit my brokenness. You’re mad because I no longer have impostor syndrome. You’re upset because you can no longer subject me to your abuse. You’re angry because you wanted me to win, but not this much. Y’all, they wanted you to win, but not that much because your success became their trigger. It didn’t create insecurity in them; that insecurity was always there. Your success exposed that insecurity. That’s why you have to be intentional about staying in rooms and being part of communities like this, with people who help you see you. But there’s another thing I need to tell you. Do I have your permission to share this other thing? Do you want me to tell you this right now? Okay, here it is: the second principle is the principle of partnership. You can’t do your best work or be your best self by yourself. Success requires a squad. A dream that is bigger than you will always require more than you. You don’t go as far as your dream; you go as far as your team. You need people in your life who are rich where you are poor. I want to see if there is faith in the room. I’m trying to determine if you can see beyond your present season and stage. Can you see your dream manifesting to the degree that it requires a team to properly steward everything that’s in your heart? I want you to catch this because if so, there’s something you need to manage: it’s called relational intelligence. This is the ability to determine who should be in your life, what place they should occupy, and how to manage those relationships accordingly. Who should be there, and what place should they occupy? Sometimes, you can have the right people on the bus of your life, but they are in the wrong seat. The seat they want to be in isn’t always the one they’re assigned to. Some people feel entitled to seats that should be earned. Love should be freely given, but access should be earned, and the reason some…