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You Can Mentor is a network that equips and encourages mentors and mentoring leaders through resources and relationships to love God, love others, and make disciples in their own community. We want to see Christian mentors thrive.
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Speaker 1:Find out more by following us on social media or going to our website at youcanmentor.com. You can mentor.
Speaker 2:What up, mentors and mentoring leaders? Hey. I'm here to talk about the National Christian Mentoring Gathering. I would love to see you and your team join us in Colorado Springs, Colorado, April 16th through 18th. We're gonna be there for 3 days.
Speaker 2:We're gonna get refreshed and recharged as Christian mentoring leaders. At the gathering, we're gonna connect with God and other mentoring executives, learn best practices. We're gonna build key relationships to collaborate and encourage each other. There's gonna be good food, beautiful surroundings, and gorgeous Colorado, meaningful conversations, I promise you and your team will leave inspired, equipped, and ready to pour out. Go to our website, you can mentor.com, to learn more and to sign up.
Speaker 2:Can't wait to see you in Colorado. You can mentor. Sign up today. What up, You can mentor fam? Zach Garza here.
Speaker 2:Hey. I'm super excited to bring you guys this podcast today by Norris Williams. Norris is associated with Jamie Winship and identity exchange. If you guys don't know about Jamie Winship, you're missing out. He has this book called Living Fearless, exchanging the lies of the world for the liberating truth of God.
Speaker 2:You can find Jamie at his website, jamiewinship.comor@identyexchange.com. They have online courses, in person trainings, coaching sessions, all the good stuff that help you find your true identity and help you hear from the Lord. Norris is, he's just an amazing guy. He's an identity coach. He's been married for over 40 years.
Speaker 2:He's a missionary. He's a former college and professional football player. He is a cherry orchard farmer. I mean, this guy is a man's man, and I know that he is going to add a ton to your mentor and tool belt. He has been a missionary and just has a ton of experience in helping people find their identities, helping them see themselves how God does.
Speaker 2:So check out Norris and Jimmy Winship on their websites or social media at identity exchange and, enjoy the pod. It's a good one. You can mentor. Welcome to the You can mentor podcast. This is your best mentoring friend, Zach, and I'm here with Norris Williams.
Speaker 2:Norris, say hi, my friend.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Good morning. Good to be with you, Zach, and good to be on this call.
Speaker 2:So I found out about Norris and, who he is with, which is the identity exchange because I got hooked on this book called Living Fearlessly by Living Fearless, sorry, by Jamie Winship. And I don't really know how I got a hold of this. I think one of my friends sent me a series of, like, a bunch of podcasts that talked about forming identity and the things that Jamie had to say just absolutely captivated me. So, I'm excited to find out more about identity exchange and how to live fearlessly, and that's why we have mister Norris Williams here on the podcast because he is gonna tell us all about it. So Yeah.
Speaker 2:We'll see. Well, Norris, why don't you introduce yourself? Tell us a tad bit about who you are and, you know, just a tad bit about your family and your background, man. You have an amazing kind of background. You're you have a cherry orchard.
Speaker 2:You used to play football. You have an awesome mustache. I mean, you just look like a man's man.
Speaker 3:Well, well, you have to ask my girlfriend about that. So, yeah, I'm been married to my girlfriend, Lori Ann, for 44 years, and, we have 4 married children, 11 grandchildren. And we've been missionaries for 41 years, living by faith each month. And during that time, identity has been the primary focus of how we live, what we do, how we bring the actual presence of God into any situation. I have some early foundational things concerning identity that probably need to be said that helped shaped me as a young man, and that came from my mom and dad.
Speaker 3:My dad was a business guy. He wasn't a ministry guy, but he understood identity at a very deep level even back then. Didn't use some of the same language we're using today, but he would say to me when I was a little kid, if I saw me getting prideful about something, he would say verbatim. He would say, so Norris, he'd say, which molecule of your existence are you taking credit for today? You know, the way that you think, the way that you move, the way you look.
Speaker 3:He said, you don't get to say, look what I did about anything. This is what god gave you. It's from him, and it's for him. It's for his kingdom. So I had some really good foundational things like that happened to me as a kid so that I understood that identity was never tied to what I could do, but it was who I was.
Speaker 3:He said one thing to me in high school one day, he said, you know, Norris, whether you're scoring touchdowns or cleaning the toilet, Neither of those jobs define you. You bring who you are to whatever you're doing. But if you don't know who you are, then you're gonna let those jobs define you. And you're gonna think you're somebody really important or somebody really small based upon what you do. And neither of those are true.
Speaker 3:So I had some real positive identity kind of messages all through my young life. Didn't mean I didn't struggle, you know, with performance and trying to earn God's love. And but God was God's been faithfully, speaking to me throughout my whole life about that, about relationship with him. So those were the the early pieces that shaped Norris, and, went to school at Arizona State. Go Sun Devils.
Speaker 3:They're in the playoffs this year. Happy about that. I signed with the Steelers back in 1980 right after I got married. My first part of my rookie year had a back injury. Legs went numb from the waist down, and the doctor says, you're all done.
Speaker 3:You can't do this anymore, or you're gonna be paralyzed from the waist down. So from one moment to the next, I can never do this thing that I love to do, which for a lot of men, when we get thrown a roadblock like that, I mean, we're it's certainly I was sad. I didn't wanna be her, but I knew I was more than just a football player even though that's what I was planning on. God readjusted everything. And then, in high school, I'd had a vision of of a home for juvenile delinquent type boys.
Speaker 3:Because many of my friends that I played football with were pretty rough backgrounds, and God kinda broke my heart for those guys that were my friends that were struggling. So I was my plan was to make all this money, buy a ranch. My degree was in agricultural business. We had a quarter horse ranch when I was, in college and high school, and so that's what I was gonna do. And it would kind of been Norris' thing.
Speaker 3:But now I, said, said, okay, lord. Is there is there anything that you still want me to do with that? And he said, yeah. So I went and got a went to graduate school, got a graduate degree in bible, and then my wife and I became missionaries in 1983, serving at a home for juvenile delinquent boys up in the mountains of Washington. And we were there 13 years.
Speaker 3:And, you know, those guys, just like many of those who are listening to this podcast, they have their false identities firmly intact. You know, I'm an addict. I'm a criminal. I'm a bad human. I'm a bad son.
Speaker 3:I'm a bad person. Not worth loving. Not wanted. You know? I was a mistake.
Speaker 3:I'm not as good as somebody else. All of those things that creep into a man or a woman's soul when they're little, lies that get told to them, and they become part of this false identity that begin to believe about them. So and we would say, yeah. We we wanna help you with that, whatever that presenting problem was, but the most important reason why you're here is you're gonna come to know who you really are and how much you're loved. So that's where we started, in doing this identity work.
Speaker 3:We left there in 1997 and joined another mission organization that we're a part of now, and been doing same kind of stuff all all around the world. So I've probably traveled 2 and a half 1000000 miles doing training men and women in Middle East, all over Africa, India, Nepal. And we have a real basic thing that we're trying to do, and that's to empower ordinary men and women to know how to hear God's voice, to know their identity, and to move in obedience to what they're actually hearing from god. Yeah. So that's what we've we've been up to for quite a long time now.
Speaker 3:We've been with that, you know, doing it for quite a spell. So that's probably a good start.
Speaker 2:I'd say so, sir. So this is why I was so intrigued by this whole identity thing. Right. Because. More than likely, if you're tuning into this podcast, you are building relationships with kids who have experienced some hard films, whether they're growing up without a father or experiencing poverty, certain kinds of trauma.
Speaker 2:And for some of these kids, they don't have anyone in their life telling them who they are.
Speaker 3:That's true. So they
Speaker 2:are getting their identity from what they do. And for some, for some that's sports. Right? For some that's academics, for some that's, how they look or who they hang out with or things like that. And it is just absolutely vital.
Speaker 2:And it really doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter if you have money or if you don't, it doesn't matter if you've experienced certain kinds of trauma or if you haven't, if you don't know who you are, if you don't have someone who's helping you figure that out, then this world is going to tell you who you are and this world is not a very kind place. And so, we talk often here about how it's really easy for mentors to go all in on skills. Hey, I'm gonna teach my mentee how to shake a hand. I'm gonna teach my mentee how to get a job and how to make good grades and how to go to college.
Speaker 2:And all of those are good things. But if they don't know who they are
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 2:Then they're not gonna believe that they have what it takes to do the things that we're trying to teach them. So at the fundamental, foundation of mentoring, before we teach them anything, we have to, know that they know that they're loved for who they are, that they were created on purpose for a purpose, that they have value and worth, and it's got nothing to do with what they do. It's got everything to do with who they are and who God says they are. Amen. So everything that you guys are saying, I I am just like yes and amen because every kid out there needs to hear it, especially if you come from a home where you're not hearing these things on a consistent basis.
Speaker 3:Exactly. I remember back in the eighties when we were just starting out and, you know, people were telling us, so you really gotta help him have a good self image. Right? And I sat there looking at this young man going, k. Where is he gonna hang his hat?
Speaker 3:You know? He's not handsome. He's not good at sports. He's not good at school. His family's in the in the toilet.
Speaker 3:He's all pimply faced. And, where what am what am I gonna lie to him about? You know, that's what it felt like to me. I was gonna lie to him. Well, this is what you gotta start feeling good about yourself for, because he knew it wasn't true.
Speaker 3:And I didn't want him coming back 10 years later saying, man, you lied to me. You said if I just had a good self esteem, life would work out. And instead, we said, let's find out who you really are, who God says that you are, which has nothing to do with these circumstances, your looks, your abilities, or your skills. And that's what began to change their life when they actually encountered the living God, and they began to hear his voice. And it was the the only thing that really made transformation possible.
Speaker 3:And people can learn skills and be successful. But in my experience, the enemy, you know, has been lying to us 2 ways our whole life, through the curses of men and through the praises of men. And the first thing, these curses, these are things that get said to you, you know, sometimes even before you're born. You know? You we wish you'd never been born.
Speaker 3:You were a mistake. You know? You're not what? All of those lies, you know, you weren't good enough. You're not smart enough.
Speaker 3:Why can't you be more like your sister or your brother? And we go through life with these curses, and the and the enemy just heaps it on us, and we start believing these lies about ourselves all the way into adulthood. I'm not good enough. It doesn't matter how successful I might be down inside. I still feel I'm not good enough.
Speaker 3:Now those are those curses, and we we wanna help young people get over these curses and men and women, to be honest, who are still living with these curses on into adulthood. And people like to get rid of the curses, but the praises of men can also be just as deceptive. And we don't actually wanna get rid of them because we like them. So these are things that we like about ourselves that we're good at. You know, I'm football player.
Speaker 3:I'm pastor. I'm missionary. I'm CEO. I'm, I'm a podcast guy, you know, or what whatever your the thing is that you're actually enjoying, we can also use those as a false identity because that's not who you are either. That's just something you're good at.
Speaker 3:It's something you're doing, and it doesn't mean you'll stop doing them, but you need to stop using it as an identity. Because if it's if it ends for some reason, who are you after that? Right? Who are you? And people implode because this this worldly success that they depended on goes away.
Speaker 3:Who are you? Whereas, when you really know who you are, you can wade through the curses and the praises of men and say, no. That's not me. This is who God says that I am, and that's where I'm hanging my hat every day.
Speaker 2:I think, I think one thing nor is that I came on. I mean, God truly put on my heart as just probably last year, maybe a couple years ago. You know, I was I I was in the, I was in the gospels, and I was reading about the baptism of Jesus. And, you know, Jesus comes along. He's 30.
Speaker 2:He's starting his ministry before he starts. He gets baptized by John the Baptist. He enters into the water right there by his cousin. And I forgot that Jesus had done nothing of note up until then. He was just an ordinary guy.
Speaker 2:He was a carpenter. He hadn't had any huge successes or anything like that. Hadn't done any of the miracles. And he gets baptized and God comes and says, this is my son Mhmm. With whom I'm well pleased.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And Jesus hadn't done anything, but his father spoke those words over him to let him know, hey, this is who you are. Mhmm. And then what is the very next verse? Jesus enters into the wilderness and he's tempted.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. And Satan tosses everything that he has at him. But what did Jesus have that helped him get past the temptations of Satan? He had his identity.
Speaker 3:Yeah. That's right.
Speaker 2:He had the words of his father. Right?
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 2:This is my son with whom who I love and whom I'm well pleased. That's right. And so that is just so like, if if Jesus, the son of God needs it, then how much more do I need it, and how much more does the kid growing up in, you know, pretty tough circumstances? How much more do they need it? Now there's there's this book and, if anyone is spending time with kids and has a couple hours, I I I highly suggest this book.
Speaker 2:It's called it's called the seasons of life by, by Marx. And this guy is a former NFL guy, and he becomes a football coach, and he starts teaching his team about identity. And he says, at first, you try to get your identity on the ball field.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And after that, it's in the bedroom. And then after that, it's in the boardroom. And so whether it's sports or relationships with the opposite sex or if it's money, we try so hard to get what we need from our external. Accomplishments and God says, no, no, no. What, what you truly need comes from the voice of the father, comes from
Speaker 3:me. Yeah. So
Speaker 2:that's a big deal, man.
Speaker 3:Big deal. And they couldn't they couldn't beat it out of Jesus. They couldn't crucify it out of and when you know who you are, nobody gets nobody takes it from you. And this hearing God's voice, piece, especially for young people and even for all of us, one one of the things that I that I'm passionate about is taking Jesus out of the hands of experts and give him back to regular people, back to ordinary people like it was in the book of acts. Expert driven Christianity does great with, you know, making conferences and you know?
Speaker 3:But how does it actually work in real time? What does God's voice sound like in real time? And we do a great job helping people have quiet time, but most of my life's not quiet. Most of my life is busy and chaotic. Why aren't we discipling people on how to hear God's voice in chaos, how to hear God's voice in utter busyness.
Speaker 3:And because that's our, that's where we live. And so we have to quit making hearing God's voice so hyper spiritual that it's only for the other people. So we're real spiritual people that they hear God's voice and not people like me, not farmers. Right? Farmers, you know, or mechanics or taxi drivers or what name the profession.
Speaker 3:If we feel if we have done this kind of disservice to people to say you have to reach a certain level spiritually to hear god's voice, then we give everyone else a reason to self select out. I guess god can't speak to me. I'm just this, and you name it. Right? And I started asking Jesus this question couple years ago.
Speaker 3:And what was it that really changed the lives of the disciples? What? Why were they all willing to die horrible deaths? Was it all the miracles they saw watching you do? And he's pretty clear.
Speaker 3:He said, no. It wasn't the miracles. A lot of people saw my miracles and called for my crucifixion not long after that. And I said, what was it? And he began to flash pictures in my mind, which I can still see now of him all sweaty, all stinky.
Speaker 3:His hair needed washing. His clothes needed washing. He needed a bath. He went to the bathroom. I mean, Jesus farted for crying out loud.
Speaker 3:He did all of these normal, ordinary human things, And he said, and never once was I disconnected from my father. Because when I said I only do and I only say what I heard the father telling me to do and say, it wasn't just about evangelism and discipleship. And the disciples saw me be a human man Yeah. Fully connected to the father every moment of my life, able to talk to God about everything. Our the liar wants us to believe god doesn't even care about my life, doesn't care about my upbringing, doesn't care about my circumstances.
Speaker 3:And it's this lie that we that we just perpetuate through the church, that somehow you can get separated from god, which is not true. We cannot be separated from him. There's nowhere we can go, and David said, and and be away from his presence. Nothing can separate us from the love of God is what Paul said. So this lie that you're separated because of your circumstances or your job is being used to keep people from knowing how knowing god's voice.
Speaker 3:People ask me a lot, you know, how how can you help me to hear god's voice? And I'll say, no. But I can help you hear how you've always heard his voice. He's been speaking to you since you were born. You just didn't know that it was his voice.
Speaker 3:It's the way he made your brain work, and he's connecting to you your whole life because he loves you. And when you watch people begin to realize, man, me, a normal human, gets to hear god's voice. I'm one of those all my sheep hear my voice. I'm one of those little sheep that gets to hear god's voice, and it's not just for everyone else. And they began to experience the voice of god which changes everything.
Speaker 3:And it's not about following an expert. It's not about reading a book. It's actually about hearing God yourself. I've sat in the darkest ghettos you can imagine in Kampala where everything every evil under the sun and worse is being is being done. And I've watched these gang leaders and these prostitutes and these, every everything you could imagine beginning to hear god's voice, and it's changing their cities.
Speaker 3:Now we have gang leaders because you're when you're the leader of the gang, you're you're the leader for life. You can't you can't get out of it. And now they're leading bible studies, and they're changing the whole ghetto. They're they're retaking the land in their true identity because they're learning who they really are and how they've always heard god's voice. And this is the most powerful thing.
Speaker 3:It's not them hearing from me. It's actually believing that God wants to speak to them and and and facilitating them hearing God's voice for themself. Because when they hear God's voice, they they change. Not when they hear Norris's voice, when they hear God's voice. There's a passage in John, John 643, 44, and 45, and it says, everyone who hears and learns from God comes to Jesus.
Speaker 3:Doesn't say everyone who hears and learns from Norris comes to Jesus. Everyone who hears and learns from God comes to Jesus. And, man, 25 years ago, I was doing a study of that passage, and it literally just blew me away. Like, how did I miss that? Why do I think it's my job to win somebody to Christ when when God says it's his job, and he's he he's really good at it.
Speaker 3:So at at that time, I mean, I'd been a trained missionary for over 20 years by that time, and I threw all my evangelism material away. Just tossed it out. And I said, evangelism is one sentence for me now. I'm gonna set the table for God to speak in any moment because I can talk to God in that moment, and he will speak to me. And I know there's lots of people that don't believe God speaks that way, and I feel sorry for him.
Speaker 3:But they believe such a stupid lie that God doesn't speak. He wants to speak. He is speaking, and he wants to bring people to his his son, Jesus. So set the table for him to speak. Ask him what he wants to say.
Speaker 3:Any moment with any human, he wants to speak. And we make it so complicated. You know? You have to memorize this, you know, method or style or and now it's and it becomes about performance. So I guess I didn't do it right.
Speaker 3:But when it's on god, when I'm when I'm depending on him, the pressure's off of me. This is God's job anyway. It's not even my job. So helping humans, I don't care where you are. I don't care what your race is, what your age is.
Speaker 3:I've got 11 grandchildren, and and my my grandchildren are already hearing God's voice because we sit and we ask him questions. And they they're learning how to hear God's voice in their true identity already.
Speaker 2:So So what I'm hearing, Norris, is, like we said at at the very beginning, you know, our mentees need to know their identity. They need to know who they are in Christ. And one of the best ways to do that is to help facilitate a conversation between them and God.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 2:And let God tell them who they are.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:So if I'm a mentor and this is the first time I'm hearing about any of this, And I'm thinking to myself, man, this guy's got some good stuff. He's making me think he might be a little bit crazy because I've never heard this before. What's a good, like first step. Like if I'm trying to solidify the identity in my mentee, if I'm trying to help them hear from God, what are the first couple good steps that we can do to help our mentees do this?
Speaker 3:Well, you can't give away what you don't have is what Donna always says. Can't give away what you don't have. So the first thing you gotta do is know who you are, and you gotta start asking god those questions. And that's why in that book, Living Fearless, it walks people through that. It's very, very practical.
Speaker 3:You know, I would say, get that book and and actually do what it what Jamie's asking you to do in that book. Don't just read it. Actually, do what it asks you to do. You know? And it's going to especially for Christians that have grown up with a certain paradigm of how god speaks.
Speaker 3:It'll feel uncomfortable. It'll feel weird. Right? Like, okay. How do I know this just wasn't the pizza I ate earlier?
Speaker 3:Where how do I know this is God actually speaking to me? So one of one of the things that I do and every human can do this, every every person has the authority, especially if you're following Christ. You have the authority to take control over a space that you're in. You you're bringing the kingdom of God. So every time I'm anywhere, I'm I'm taking authority over that space.
Speaker 3:Right? And I'll I'll just say things okay. Lord, this this is my space here right now. And in the name of Jesus, I'm applying the blood of Jesus to this space to forgive all the sins that were ever done in this space because this is my space now, and I'm taking authority. And I block all other voices except the voice of the trinity.
Speaker 3:Now that's just a simple statement, a simple prayer that I pray everywhere I go, and I know that he's there. I've learned it. Right? And it may feel weird at times like, okay. I just asked God to be the only one that can speak, and now I start asking him questions.
Speaker 3:And then the craziest thing is we doubt what we hear. Right? Okay, god. What do you want me to know right now? What do you what do you want me to to, do right now?
Speaker 3:Is there something you wanna say to me? And then all of a sudden, the thought will come to your head, and people will dis dismiss it. Well, I can't trust my own thoughts. What what are you looking for a bolt of lightning? What what are you looking for?
Speaker 3:God's voice doesn't doesn't sound like a bolt of lightning. It just will be a hunch maybe, or it'll be a thought, it'll be a picture, and you gotta learn you gotta learn to trust it. And so as you go through the book, they're gonna ask you to do certain exercises of listening, and you went through it. I mean, when you first time you did it, did it feel kind of strange to sit like that with Jesus and ask him questions?
Speaker 2:I mean, you're talking to a guy who grew up, and he could even wear shorts to church, Norris. You know? Right. Or it's less hearing the voice of god. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It was weird. But yeah, man. I'm I'm a I'm a firm believer in this because, you know, this this really is what got me to follow Jesus with all my heart whenever I was 28, you know, is, is, is experiencing God. Not from a book, even though that's amazing. I'm I'm 100%, you know, I'm all for the Bible.
Speaker 2:Alright. And and all of all of the churches, the great podcast books, I'm all for it. But when I got to commune with the holy spirit, with the living God, and when I had a mentor, you know, Steve Allen, who taught me how to hear the voice of God, who taught me, who in gave me the courage, you know, to encourage someone is to open up their chest and insert courage. And it takes a ridiculous amount of courage to follow the voice of God. Right?
Speaker 2:Yes. But but he helped helped me take that first step. And what do you know? I, it worked like he asked me what I felt like God was asking of me. He felt like, or he asked me, Hey, what do you feel like God would say in this certain situation?
Speaker 2:And I told him and I would go and do it. And I started, started to see fruit. And so, yeah, man, it's crazy. But I mean, I'll tell you one other thing that's crazy is someone coming to earth and saying that he is the son of God. That's also pretty crazy.
Speaker 2:Right? And so Right. And so, you know
Speaker 3:he became a human who actually could hear God's voice his whole life and showed us that this is possible. This is this is how we can live. Yeah. And it's so powerful to watch humans began to hear from their creator. And I remember, you know, you could I've been a missionary 40, I don't know, 41 years now.
Speaker 3:You you you know how many conferences I've been to on hearing god's voice over the years? And I would always leave those conferences early in my walk with the you know, feeling like a a a failure. Because sit still for an hour, much less 2 hours. I I would never been able to do that my whole life. You know?
Speaker 3:My my wife one day brought me a list saying, look, Norris. Adult suffers of ADD. You have all the symptoms. You know? And and, of course, I said, denied it.
Speaker 3:I said, no. I don't. And she goes, yeah. Denial. That's one of them that you don't have it.
Speaker 3:Right? And I've never been able to system. My brain is always cranking and moving, and I like to move. I like to be doing. Right?
Speaker 3:And I see things different than other people. Right? And but I always would leave those conferences thinking, well, I'm just not naturally contemplative. I don't like to sit still for long periods of time. I guess I can hear from God as good as the people that can hear God that way, in whatever method they were giving me.
Speaker 3:And this gal that I know 25 years ago, she came up to me and she said, Norris, god wants me to tell you something. I said, I'm ready. She said, he wants you to know that he likes the way he made you. And he's going to speak to you while you're moving because that's the way he made you to hear his voice the best. And it flipped the script for me.
Speaker 3:I no longer felt like a failure in hearing God's voice. It actually gave me back my childhood. How I always heard God's voice when I was on the move, going into new places where you where it's a complete unknown. That's my wheelhouse. That's how I like to see that's how I see things.
Speaker 3:Right? And one of my identities is I'm a field general, and it's has nothing to do with title or position because I don't have any. I never have. I I wasn't even on the org chart in the mission I'm with for 9 years because I it doesn't matter to me. What matters to me is hearing his voice and doing what he says, and I could see it has to do with the way that my brain sees the world.
Speaker 3:And even when I was playing football, I could see the whole field in my head. I knew what every player was doing on every position, and it it was happening in my head that fast. And when I go into environments, it's it's like I can see. It's like I'm above it sometimes, and it has everything to do with how I see. Right?
Speaker 3:And when I'm doing that, that's how I hear God's voice the best when I'm on the move. And how do how does somebody hear God's voice? And especially with young people who feel like they're they're nothing. Right? But they've been hearing God's voice their whole life to to connect with them with things.
Speaker 3:What do you love to think about? You know? In any room, I'll ask you to ask some question. I say, so how many people in here love spreadsheets and numbers? Right?
Speaker 3:And there's always a few hands that go up. I said, God likes numbers. He likes that you know how to do numbers. He's really good at them too, and he made your brain think this way. How many of you love to take things apart?
Speaker 3:Like, to see the inside, actually can look at an engine, and you know exactly what's going on inside of it, and you always have a few hands go up. They love to take things apart. I said, god made you that way. He put this inside of you, and he speaks to you in your normal life. He actually made you love these things.
Speaker 3:It's like these guys who are gang leaders. They're actually really good entrepreneurs, and now they're starting businesses using the same things that they've always done that was that was being used for evil, but it was like the god made you. He made your brain this way. Now use it. You look at these ideas he's given you.
Speaker 3:Look at the creativity. And when you get a team, when you get a group of especially young people who know their identity, and then they start listening to god together. Right? The and don't don't listen to God the way I listen to God. You listen to him as whatever God says to you, and let's see the creativity that emerges out of this team.
Speaker 3:Nobody has to come tell them what to do. They get to hear from God themselves. And all of a sudden things nobody else ever thought of emerge and they start solving problems and they start doing things that people thought were impossible. We have we have we have disabled, the poorest of the poor. And I I won't mention the country here, but it we have and they're leading movements of god.
Speaker 3:It's it's in it's the unthinkable because there's they have nothing. They have no power in society. They're actually nonhuman. They're the broken, the disenfranchised, the forgotten, and they're leading movements of God. And they're you you you look at it and you go, how is this possible?
Speaker 3:But God's doing things nobody else can do. Because we think, oh, we've got this method. Let's just go and replicate it everywhere. And god's over there going, if you'll just ask me, I got some really good ideas, things you've never even thought of. So, anyway, I could go on and on, bro.
Speaker 2:This is great stuff, Norris. As a mentor, there's a couple things that I'm kinda thinking. 1, just the importance of our mentees knowing their identity. Identity as sons and daughters of the most high king. One of my favorite things to ask God is, Lord, would you give me eyes to see them how you see them?
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 2:God, would you give me eyes to see them how you see them? And for them to see themselves, how God sees them is just a game changer. And we don't wanna make disciples of us. We wanna make disciples of Jesus and Jesus didn't mess up when he made these kids and what a great opportunity we have as mentors to pull out the goal in each and every kid that we spend time with and to teach them how to engage with the living, God, how to hear his voice and his voice speaks to our identities. His voice will never leave us.
Speaker 2:You know, us as mentors, odds are, you're probably not gonna spend the rest of your life mentoring your mentee. But if you can help them learn how to hear God's voice, God will never leave them.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 2:And the voice of God helps overcome lies. The voice of God, helps protect their heart. One thing that I really, try to do with my mentee is just sit in silence. Hey. Let's sit in silence for 30 seconds, and let's just see if God has anything to say to you.
Speaker 2:And then you wait. And whenever you're waiting, you know, I I'm typically kinda trying to trying to not freak out because I have no idea what's gonna happen. And then more times than not, they'll say something and I'll just ask a question. Does that sound like God or not? And then you can help, you know, walk them through like, yes, that either sounds like God, because of these things, because here's where it says that in the Bible, it's encouraging, it's life giving, or it's not.
Speaker 2:And so, what a great opportunity we have as mentors to instill identity, to help them engage with the living God, to help them hear God's voice that will and can transform their lives and generations to come. So Thank you. It's a big deal, Norris. It's a big deal. And I'm I'm very thankful for, you hopping on our podcast today and just sharing more.
Speaker 2:And I will be the first to say, pick up the book, Jamie Winship, living fearless, exchanging the lies of the world for the liberating truth of God. And you can find more, about Norris and about, mister Jamie Winship@jamiewinship.comoridentity exchange.com. There's a ton of awesome things that are going on. You guys got courses, and you guys got different kinds of cohorts and coaching, and it's just a really, really cool organization. So
Speaker 3:Yeah. Well, I I glad you mentioned those websites, and I would encourage people to go on. There's there are, lots of things up there that'll help you in your journey of learning how god speaks to you and especially when you're in that role as a mentor to to really live without the pressure of having to perform, but that god wants to speak. He wants to speak to you, and he wants to speak. He is speaking to every human, and helping them to discover that will change their lives like nothing else.
Speaker 3:When god speaks, people change. When they hear his voice, people change. And so I I would encourage all of of the listeners to, take that journey yourself, you know, even if it feels weird, or counterintuitive even inside of you. God, he knows you. He sees you.
Speaker 3:He's proud of you. You know, one of the other things you can give to people is is the the blessing of God, especially as a mentor, either as a as a mother or as a father figure in their life to to give them a blessing, a a a a father's blessing or a mother's blessing over their life. It can overcome so many curses. Because a blessing is the opposite of, the curse that's been put put on them. And so when you take that time to say as a as a father, as a mother, or I want you to know, I see you.
Speaker 3:Right? I see you, Zach, and I hear you, Zach, and I'm proud of you. I'm proud of the man that you are, and I give you a blessing of a father. And something that simple can be life changing to another human. This this power, it's a there's a it's a kingdom weapon to bless and to use it to bless these people that have been so cursed in their life.
Speaker 3:So that's another way to go on that.
Speaker 2:So we had doctor John Trent on episode 250, and he was talking about how to give how to give a blessing. It's so powerful. I mean, for a kid who's never heard that from an adult, it's a it's a game changer. And so, one, this will be this will be the last thing Norris, but you can't give what you don't have. So And if you aren't familiar with hearing God's voice with walking with him in an in a deep way, what a great opportunity for you to learn how to do that and invite your mentee into that.
Speaker 2:Say, hey. Here's here's an area that I want to, that I wanna grow in. Why don't we do it together?
Speaker 3:So Yep. That's a perfect way to do it, Zach. You're introducing it and and as a learner. Right? Hey.
Speaker 3:I'm learning this too. Let's let's let's dig into this and hear god together. You know? That's great, great, great advice right there.
Speaker 2:Well, thanks, Norris. Alright, my man. Hey. Well, thank you so much for your time for for sharing about identity and hearing God's voice and overcoming lies and just all of all of that awesome stuff. So very, very thankful for you.
Speaker 2:Why don't you tell us one more time, Norris, how we can, get ahold of you if, people, you know, have a desire to learn more?
Speaker 3:Yeah. You can go to the Identity Exchange website, and I'm one of the coaches on that. You know, if you're if you're interested, or you could just reach out to Identity Exchange and and you know? Especially if God's stirring your heart that you wanna know more about this, that that's probably the best way to go. So
Speaker 2:Great. Yeah. Thanks a lot, Norris.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having me on. I appreciate the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man. Of course. It was awesome, and I know that people who mentor kids are gonna learn a lot. So if you missed everything in this episode, you missed a whole lot of really, really good stuff, but remember this, you can mentor. Thanks for tuning in
Speaker 1:to the you can mentor podcast. Give us that 5 star rating and share this podcast with your mentoring friends. Learn more at youcanmentor.com. Thank you.