 So we are Vlad and Lana hi guys wanted to take a moment and talk to you about the Importance and some practical tips on overcoming discouragement burnout and Perhaps depression as well. And so we know that from the scripture that anxiety depression Discouragement a lot of times it comes from three sources. The first source is the sin We know that when Samson he committed the sin. He lost his power. The second one is from serving When Jesus when a woman touched Jesus the Bible says the power left him Sometimes you serve a lot and you get burned out that you get discouraged after that And the third one is actually Satan Because it is the devil's goal to bring distress the scripture says that King Saul had a distressing spirit I believe there are spirits that have released to bring stress anxiety Depression burnout discouragement to dishonor courage. And so the first tip that I would encourage anybody who's going through that is to re-anchor yourself in Your identity in Jesus a lot of things that we do I feel like it's to find who we are and We start out well by finding ourselves in Christ But with time we we drift we shift our perspective to begin to draw our identity from work accomplishments our appearance Failures people's opinions or all of the other things that are extra That is like a sand because the Bible says the man who built this house on the sand everything was fine He built it quickly Until the storm came and sometimes when a storm comes in the form of a testing or in the form of promotion And we just fall apart because our foundation our identity is not anchored in Jesus. Yeah, and many times we can lose that Inkerness if I can say like that in Jesus Christ and turn our eyes or our hearts towards something else to draw our identity from And I just want to read Hebrews 12 and the Bible says that So Therefore since we have surrounded Since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith Let us strip off every weight that slows us down Especially the sin that so easily trips us up and let us run with the endurance the grace the race that a God has set before us and so Everything that weighs us down is like a like anything that we don't anchor any Anything if we don't anchor our identity in Jesus Christ It becomes like a stone in our hearts that slows us down that weights us down Like if it's an accomplishment or something or every insecurity if we are Comparisment and those things they are not necessarily sin But they're like a weight like a stone in our heart that slows us down to run the race to live for Jesus Christ And but when we Set our identity and draw our worth from Jesus We need to remove every single insecurity and kind of just refocus our you know refocus ourselves to Where our identity comes from and it's only and it has to come only from Jesus Christ That's so true because Paul or the author of Hebrews. He said that he said that to Lay aside every weight and that weight and then he says sin So sometimes the weight is anything we place our worth in that's not Jesus Becomes the weight those things in themselves are good. Be good-looking is good Accomplishments are good success is good money is good People's opinions are good But it cannot be where you draw your identity from because when you do it brings discouragement It will bring depression. It will bring anxiety. It will bring pride It will bring all of those things that will destroy us eventually and so the first thing that I would encourage you with is to go back and To anchor yourself in Jesus anchor yourself in Christ Paul says so many times in the Gospels He says that in in the Pistols in Christ in him in him in him because Christian life we are defined by Jesus We're not defined by our job. We're not defined by our past. We're not defined by our appearance We're not defined by how many followers we have What people think of us that doesn't define us Like any time we will define ourselves for example by opinions of people that means if they have a good opinion about us our Head is gonna grow this big. We're gonna become so grateful But next day they're gonna have a low opinion about us and then we're gonna literally die and have a Headache and fall into depression and security and those things they just cannot become a base Foundation for our identity the second thing that I would encourage everyone facing discouragement right now or facing anxiety or depression and that is to examine your consciousness and Live with pure consciousness Because let's be let's be honest The thing that brings a lot of anxiety a lot of depression and discouragement is an open door called sin When people live in sin see when Samson Samson had the power He lost the power when he started to compromise and when we begin to compromise We we lose our strength. We lose our passion. We lose our we lose the the courage that we have in Christ And so Paul even says he says that some people have ignored their consciousness and they suffered shipwreck In their faith their faith is destroyed. What is your faith? It's positive Substance is this confidence inside. It's that joy inside. It's that It's that optimism and people who have a shipwreck meaning their inner world is falling apart Because the consciousness is like the ship. Yeah. Yeah, it's true when we don't follow our consciousness and go against That gut feeling, you know that don't do this or do this If we constantly ignore our consciousness, it eventually will destroy our faith and we will be so discouraged Won't be able to pray won't we will not find strength to open our Bible and read the Bible follow Jesus and Our inner world will world will fall apart like you said You have to ask yourself. What is the last thing that God asked me to do that? I've been ignoring What is the last thing that God has asked of me to do that? I've been putting it off because that my friend is the key to courage This encouragement is something that's dissing on your courage and you know what that this is. It's disobedience This obedience will this on your courage you find this encouragement And so because in holiness is righteousness and strength and power So the first thing is Anchoring yourself in Jesus number two is keep your consciousness clear watch for your consciousness Always protect your consciousness. So it stays pure and holy. The third thing is avoid a comparison trap It's the tenth commandment that thou shall not covet meaning don't it's okay to look up to people and learn from them But when you become when you make it your mission and your goal and your happiness depends on being better than somebody else competing Then you're not complete and what competition does and what comparison does is it is it leads you to complaining it Leads you to coveting and then it itself destructs you it destroys you because you no longer can Be yourself. You no longer can celebrate other people. You're constantly Competing with other people you can't weep with those who weep because you rejoice in their sorrow because you find identity in being better than them You can't rejoice with somebody who rejoices when they're succeeding. You're you're suffering and becoming insecure Yeah, you can't take somebody's success You can't learn from anybody and you can't help somebody when they're struggling because you derive joy in them being doing bad you derive happiness in them failing and then you derive disappointment in them succeeding and that in itself is such a Painful painful way to live and with the invention of Facebook Instagram and Twitter and snapchat and YouTube It's becoming more and more harder to be yourself To not compare. Yeah people constantly Trying to be like somebody else and if they cannot reach that goal They're depressed they are destroyed inside and it's so destructive. It's true. Nobody posts on Instagram their failures Almost nobody nobody uploads their weaknesses. Yeah, and nobody projects their struggles If you watch our Facebook and our Instagram, we don't post the challenges we go through and the happy moments It's the best smiles. It's it's the best angles best angles And so you got to understand is the social media is one big lie That's all it is and my social media is half of it is a lie, too That's that's not how we live we go through stuff We we battle with things we struggle with things and we just don't post them Nobody does and then you're looking at your struggles. You compare it with what people post and of course you're gonna be discouraged and so the goal is to Not to find again not to find our identity in there and not to live comparing but to live being complete I love the story of Genesis where God completes each day and he looks at that day and he says it is good God doesn't compare the mess on earth with what happens in heaven. See God lived in heaven God lives in heaven So in heaven everything is perfect God doesn't look at the earth and says all this sucks compared to heaven. God looks at the earth here So this is good. Why because God wasn't comparing the earth with heaven. Those are two different realms Each person has different gifts each person has different talents. They have a different assignment on this earth Don't compare your life with someone else's. Yeah, and I feel like when people stop comparing themselves to Somebody else. They actually finally Beginning to become the best they are and actually able to grow into the best They could be but when people, you know compared to somebody else it it closes a door There is no opportunity for people to for a person to shine to To become who they are supposed to be and when you start becoming more like you you'll find a lot of people want to be like you When you stop being other people Everyone's gonna want to be you when you're trying to be everybody else you you lose your own Identification lose your own distinct this Distinctiveness and I realized that what attracts people to certain people is because those people they actually became Themselves and they're shining and who they are and that's why this is attracts actually But when you're copying someone or you're trying to like it's it literally it repels people from you Some churches you you walk into a church and you can see like it's a hill song church They're just copy copy of a hill song some is copy of Bethel and I'm like guys Be you like you go to hunger generation and you're like man. This is Weird different you can't put it but that's us Yeah, but that's that's because of us and so we we get criticized for that But I'd rather be criticized for who I am Then be applauded for someone I'm not and so be yourself and you will see a lot of people would want to be like you if You're trying to be like everybody else Nobody's gonna you just gonna find this encouragement and and because it's a competitive thing Look at your life and say it is good and then grow in that learn from others celebrate other people's success We put others when others weep, but don't live your life Getting others approval and trying to be like someone else like you read the scripture what it says that to run the race said before us Run your race. Yeah, the one that God has their own race to run Jesus finished the ministry at the age of 33. He was able to say I finished everything the world wasn't saved yet People were still not doing good, but his race was complete He didn't compare himself with with other guys who lived till 120 and so So the fourth thing that I wanted to share with you is that in order to overcome a discouragement is honor the Sabbath it's one of the commandments the fourth commandment is to To Take a day off This to honor the Sabbath and the rest of the commandments go into don't kill don't lie don't cheat don't Don't steal and don't covet. I really believe that when we ignore that the fourth commandment that is to honor the Sabbath If we will begin to ignore other commandments, we will begin to lie We begin to cut corners. We begin to be jealous. Why because when you're not rested You begin to do a lot of other stupid things when you don't rest from fatigue You become arrested by fatigue and Jesus, you know, because some people say well, we're in the New Testament We don't have to honor the Sabbath. Actually, you have to understand one thing about the Sabbath is that Jesus said this He said that the Sabbath was made for a man Meaning God created the Sabbath for a man because God knew man needs rest He commanded it because he knew men will never stop working Men will always always run themselves to the ground. And so what do you think about the importance? I think it's very important to take a day of rest at least one day throughout the whole week And actually rest and do things that replenish your soul and things that are fun things that are not your Regular everyday job. It's very important. Like I really like how you mentioned that if we are physically and emotionally Not rested it's so easy for us to go into the sin to go into the things that will break God's heart break God even even break people's hearts because when we are frustrated when we are not rested when We did not have enough sleep throughout the whole week. It will mess up other people around you That's for sure not only yourself, but other people around you. You're gonna become cranky You're gonna lose temper. You're gonna be angry and all other sins will just come alongside it's kind of the principle of tithing when It's better to live on 90% of being blessed by God than a hundred percent Not being blessed by God people say well, I have so much to do It's the same thing with money you say, oh, but I need to buy so many things yet You prioritize your your your money by giving 10% to God Prioritize your life by giving one day a week to your family to God to yourself Stay away from work for that one week. You will do you will accomplish more with less You know, they did a study. I heard Robert Morris mentioned about chick-fil-a and a chick-fil-a closes on the busiest Week busiest day of the week, you know, Sunday Families go out to eat and it's a fast-food restaurant that people will go out to eat and they close on the day in the airports and all the restaurants are closed and You know on the average a fast-food chain Restaurant chain makes about a million a year a chick-fil-a makes five million a year being closed on the Busiest day of the week. So that tells you something when you honor God and you Honor the Sabbath as a pastor as a minister as a woman as a man God created that for you Yeah, a lot of people looking for deliverance when you reality you just need to honor the Sabbath You know when Elisha was Elijah brought the fire and killed the pre the the prophets of Baal and everything and then What's her name? Jezebel then he ran with the horses overpowered the horses and brought the rain again Jezebel sends a threat and it spooks Elijah so bad I mean this guy literally went over against the whole power of hell and he got threatened by one witch What happened? How come he got so threatened because he was exhausted because he was emotionally worn out because he was physically worn out and Then he ran he became suicidal and the angel came and he gave him a good meal and Elijah slept He gave him a good meal and Elijah slept and then he heard the whisper of God And I really believe that when you eat good you rest good and Start paying attention to God's whispers not God's loud voice, but God's whispers through devotional replenishing yourself honestly That will heal you bring your courage back and I feel like when we like follow and uphold God's Commandment and standards and things like that it will actually Bless our lives beyond and above because if we stay busy busy busy that it doesn't mean we're gonna be more productive Yeah, we're just gonna run ourselves to to the ground But with a being God's you know God's Commandment to take a day of rest we will accomplish more and the fifth principle is Regularly exercise, you know me and my wife we would try to do that regularly to to exercise the care of our health Why do you think it's important for our emotional well-being our spiritual well-being to take care of our body and to exercise? I I think it's very important even like when I Started I Resigned from my job and I started to work at the church with my husband It was such a big change for me and even emotionally and physically my job was different than right now And so I when I started to Go to the gym actually regularly. It absolutely changed my mood. It helped me to Even go through this transition because for me that was a big transit transition from that job to working in the ministry full-time It was it was a big issue for me and Exercise actually helped me to kind of emotionally can guide me through this stage of you know transition and it took me one year to actually Snap out and I gym and exercise was actually a big deal for my emotions and my physical body And I actually noticed that by giving energy in the gym I had more energy back and I was more energetic and better mood and Health-wise and it's just a lot of and you don't have to go to the gym to exercise you can yeah You can dance in your house. I mean go for a run go for a walk with your outside walk And park your car a little bit for anything that you enjoy I think that the key is to find something that you actually enjoy doing it not something that you have to oh My gosh, I gotta go lift weights No something that you enjoy and it's it's the principle of sewing and reaping you get power you get power back Number six is seek community we have a home group and We believe in the importance one of the reasons why people get discouraged a lot is because they don't have friends and They don't have people that they love spending time with I'm not talking about that the forced community I'm talking about the community that actually replenishes you and so um, you know, we are like snowflakes snowflakes in themselves are very weak you can put a snowflake on your hand and It will melt within seconds the warmth of your body kills a snowflake put snowflakes together They close down schools Flip traffic They shut down roads highways. They flip semi trucks Because of the power of community if you Bible says it's not good for men to be alone a lot of people's discouragement and Anxiety will be solved if they stop spending time in front of fake friends and Facebook and some distant friends on Instagram And they actually get real friends and they get real people around their life two are better than one And there's a sense of accountability. There's a sense of connection that's there It's so important because isolation the devil will isolate you before he defeats you And I feel like it's important for some of people that Loaners that don't like people don't don't like to talk to people I feel like for those people they need to actually force themselves to find a community at first Maybe they will not enjoy it at first, but it's gonna be super beneficial like to make good friends and put yourselves Put yourself out there, and it's gonna be very healthy for for that So kind of like not necessarily start with maybe you don't have those people that you enjoy being around And it takes for you to come out of your comfort zone to you know Go to a home group or find a home church and you just step out there and make yourself and Surround yourself with the good company of people even Jesus had friends Lazarus, Mary, Martha the crazy part is the Lazarus, Mary, and Martha they were not his disciples. I Think sometimes Jesus got so tired of his disciples He went and got himself some homies got himself some friends I mean you can you imagine like Jesus spending time with people there and not necessarily following him 24-7 and But they were his friends and so and then at the end Jesus, you know mentioned that he says now I no longer call you servants, but I call you friends meaning Jesus developed that relationship with them I believe in power of friendships is so important and the last thing that I would encourage you with and this applies to pastors This applies to parents. This applies to young people older people is this a lot of discouragement and Anxiety in our life comes from toxic people You gotta remove toxic people out of your life Even Jesus could not perform his best in the house of Jarius when his daughter was dead until he removed toxic people when he removed them then he healed the people and We see that Jesus says somebody on his clothes circle was Judas He betrayed him caused them a lot of hurt a lot of pain And so when you have toxic people in your life, they will destroy your life They will destroy your emotions. They will give you sleepless nights. These people they never stop texting. They always undermine you They always harass you. They always Speak ill of you and at the end they will leave you listen to me. They're not gonna change Most toxic people don't change. They change you. They change your life. Judas didn't change He destroyed put Jesus on the cross now We know Jesus had to go to the cross But which Judas is do you have in your life that are currently draining energy out of you? You either need to completely disconnect from them or distance yourself from them Give between them and you a break so that you can focus. I have probably 15 people on my phone. They're blocked Why because of harassment? spiritual manipulation Domination prophetic words that are dead are literally that will give me sleepless days and until I had to say no This stops why because I need to move on these people the devil is sending to distract them from me And so and with the help of my wife, she was saying of that You need to stop that stop reading that and completely disconnect why so you can focus on your destiny I always say if your boat is being rocked find a Jonah and throw him overboard. Oh What's gonna happen with them? Don't worry about Jonah God has a whale for him So so and I think Mariana this year. She mentioned something that a real alike She says that there are two main things the enemy will use is isolation and isolation says this I'm the problem No, no, no isolation says the people are the problem I can't connect with people because they're the problem and the second one is toxic people and toxic people will always tell you that you're the problem Yeah, and you're not the problem and they're not the problem The devil is the problem and we have to learn to Run from isolation trust love people and then get rid of toxic people in our life Today either distance yourself or completely disconnect from toxic people and so you can fulfill your destiny and so you can find your courage once again let's take a moment and pray right now for people who are on Facebook and people who are YouTube and Our live viewers so that God is going to Minister to them. So if you can just start and just pray for people who go into discouragement who lost their power Father God, we just pray right now for people who are discouraged Who are burnt out those who are in the ministry? They've been serving a lot, but they have not been Following your standards to take a day or day of rest and all other things that we mentioned Lord I pray for your grace right now I pray that you will give them grace to follow through the things that they need to follow through God to take that day of Rest to replenish their soul that they will not burn out Lord From ministering to people and to you Lord. We just pray for that in Jesus name Lord I just speak courage right now to those who are discouraged Lord. I speak peace to those who are in the storm I speak that there will be a realignment of their identity. I speak right now that they will get their consciousness Pure consciousness and holiness back Lord. I speak they will honor the Sabbath I speak they will not learn come compare themselves to others But they will be complete in you and Lord I pray also in Jesus name that you will help them to run away from isolation and Help them to distance themselves from toxic people unfollow them Block them if they need to remove them from their life so they can focus on fulfilling their assignment in their life I pray in Jesus mighty name. Amen. Thank you guys for watching Thank you for sharing this video share this with your friends and be blessed in Jesus name. Yes. Thank you guys