Transformative Power of Self-Affirmation and Humility

Look at somebody, say "I can do this." [Applause]

Your affirmations spoken over yourself, particularly if you're a person that wrestles with insufficiency complexes.

It's the reason you have that; the reason you feel that way is because of the way you talk to yourself. If you change the way you talk to yourself, you'll change how your story is.

The only thing the woman with the issue of blood did that saved her from dying was change how she talked to herself. She said within herself, not to anybody else, "If I may but touch the hem of his garment, I'll be made whole."

So the greatest sermon starts within you. And so, what you are saying to yourself will either make or break what you are doing with your life.

So she said, "If I may," but there was no scripture that said if you touch the hem of his garment, you'll be made whole. But that was the way she thought about it.

Like there was no definition for light when God said, "Let there be light," but it became what he thought. And there was no definition for her to get healing by touching the hem of his garment, but she thought the thought and she said it to herself until it became what she thought.

"If I may even touch the hem of his garment, I'll be made whole."

As she crawled through the crowd on her hands, oh, I'm doing it again. I'm sorry. I'm doing that. I should just be cool.

No, I'd love to hear this. I'd love to hear. You know, we can have a hard time imagining that you would struggle with those insecurities.

The first time I heard you talk about when you used to preach, you put the mic on the stand because your hands would shake so much.

Yes, that you couldn't hold the mic. Yes, and I almost thought, "I don't believe him." And I mean that with respect. Just to see who you are, what you do.

There was a part of me that thought, "You know, he's saying I'm sweating through my clothes." I would stutter so bad.

And I think it took me a minute to believe that because I couldn't believe that that same voice that talks to me that way talks to you the same way.

I guarantee you, I screwed up. I would go home, I would go back to my hotel and scrutinize everything that we said.

Still, yes, tonight, because that's the only way to get better. And when you stop getting better, you start dying.

When a teacher ceases to be a student, they begin to be irrelevant. So to have the courage to critique yourself and say, "I could have done this better, I could have done that better, I could have explained this wonder, did they really get what I was saying?"

Those are still the voices that live in my head, but they don't live too loud. [Applause]

See, the art of it is not to kill the voice, it's to cut the volume down. So instead of existing at a 10, maybe it exists at a three.

I don't want to kill it because if I kill it, I'll become arrogant. And if I become arrogant, the Bible says, "When you were small in your own eyes, I bless you."

And if I become arrogant, I will lose my anointing. So I don't want to kill that voice of dissension that balances my accomplishments.

And so God balances my accomplishments with the thorn in my flesh that makes me question myself.

So I don't want him to remove the thorn in my flesh because I need balance for the weight of the glory that he placed in my life.

But I don't want that voice to become so loud that it cannibalizes what he has created in me.