Andy Mason (00:00)
Good morning and welcome. You're with the Heaven and Business Podcast. I'm Janine Mason and we're talking this morning about the messy intersection between faith, family, business, and the whole of life. Hey, have you ever felt like you were a fraud because you didn't know what you were doing and you thought that everyone else around you is looking at you like you do not what you're doing? Have you ever felt totally out of your depth? Again, because you just are not sure what the next step is.
Andy Mason (00:29)
Well, if that's the case, A, you're not alone. And B, it probably means you're right where the Lord wants you. I want to share with you this morning my journey with this whole thing of feeling totally out of my debt, feeling I'm in this place where I'm not prepared for it, and how the Lord wants to use it so that you can propel yourself into the future that He is designing for you. Many years ago we had been in California not that long and we went back for our first trip.
Andy Mason (00:58)
ministry trip back to New Zealand. And Andy and I were doing a dream culture course. We we had three days of about 150 people in the room teaching them what does it look like to find out the dreams of your heart and to pursue those. And as we were doing that three days, I felt totally comfortable in front of 150 people talking about dreaming. But we had a meeting planned the day after these three days that was to be with one wealthy business person. And
Andy Mason (01:25)
e each evening after the conference I would say to Andy, this conference is fine, but I don't want to do that meeting. Are you sure I should come? He was like, Yes, I'm pretty sure you should come. And I felt inside myself that I should go. But the businessman I knew was wealthy and I knew he was successful. And at that time we had zero money coming in literally and we didn't I f I didn't feel very successful and I had no business experience and I was kept thinking, well
Andy Mason (01:52)
I'm tw totally unqualified to be in this meeting. Well, the last day of the conference came and one of our last sessions we gave a QA time. And for some reason I remember I was standing up there answering questions and a gentleman in the conference asked me, Hey Janine, you have told us the story of coming from a place of zero self-confidence to where you are now. And how was it? How do you how did you transition from no confidence to being confident in the Lord?
Andy Mason (02:22)
And I can remember, you know, giving him some of my tips and tools and then saying, but actually in every moment I have to choose to believe that who I am is enough because he is inside me. Well, and he's sitting on the front row and he knows I've been struggling with not feeling like him enough to go into the meeting the next day and he says, Say it again, honey. So I was like, I have to choose to believe that who I am is enough. And something resonated on the inside of me, like that's the key.
Andy Mason (02:52)
So I'm feeling disqualified and I'm feeling like, I don't know what I've got to offer this wealthy, successful business person. And we turn up and I'm like, who I am is enough. Who I am is enough because he lives inside of me. So we get up to his office and he tells us his business pedigree. He's all the fancy things he's done, the businesses he started. He was also involved with government, involved with national level sporting.
Andy Mason (03:17)
things and and he tells us this whole pedigree and it's pretty impressive. In fact, he whiteboards it for us in his home office. Then he turns to Andy and he asks him, Well, you know, what have you got to offer? Who who are you and what have you done? And Andy tells him, you know, I was a bank manager and I was a consultant and I've done this and I've done that. And but you could tell he was somewhat impressed. Well obvious the next obvious thing is to turn to me. And so he turns to me and I
Andy Mason (03:44)
was honest and I said, you know, listen, I have a degree in physiology and anatomy. That's what I've done. I did some adult education and then I've been raising our four kids and here's what I'm doing now. And you could literally, as I sat and watched him, I could see him mentally pushing me to the side. you have nothing to offer. You you are disqualified. You're unqualified to be in this conversation. And in that moment I had a choice to make. And often we we are
Andy Mason (04:13)
in that place and we have a choice. And one of two things usually happens. Either we pull back and just agree with somebody else's assessment and say, Yep, you're right, I'm unqualified to be doing what I'm doing. And I'll pull back and I'll just let everybody else take over the conversation or take over the project or take over my role and I will pull back and become nothing. Or we're determined to prove them wrong and we lean in and we're we lean in too much and we're
Andy Mason (04:41)
determined to try and prove ourselves and we overcompensate and then we're pushing in and and then it comes across really bad. And so I I kind of in that moment looked at those drops and went, no, I if who I am is enough. If the Lord has put me in this room, then I can't do either of those things. I'm going to just sit and wait and see what the Lord will do. So I stayed engaged with the conversation and I just listened.
Andy Mason (05:07)
And pretty soon the Lord's just started showing me things about this man and where he was in his business and where he was with his family and how those things interrelated and and after a little while I said, please may I share with you what I'm seeing, what I'm sensing. And he said, Absolutely. And I began to put some things out there and talk about what I was seeing on the whiteboard and what the Lord was showing me. And before too long he was poking his finger in my face and saying, You, you're the real deal.
Andy Mason (05:37)
You have come in here and you have said things. He said other people to be honest have come in and said similar things, but they ha and talked to me about how I should receive my wife, but he said they haven't been living it. They've sat there and the wife has just sat silently and said nothing and had nothing to add. And he said, You are showing me a different thing. And he said, That's that's changing my paradigm and thank you so much. I feel changed. Will you do this? Will you do that?
Andy Mason (06:07)
Now to be honest, I don't think that man changed after that moment. I think he went back to living the way he'd always been living, interacting with his family the way he'd always been interacting. But for me, it was a pivotal moment. It was this moment of saying that if I can not listen to the head trash that the enemy wants to feed me, if I cannot come to the place where I'm like, in the natural, I'm disqualified. In the natural,
Andy Mason (06:35)
I might look like on paper I have nothing to offer. But if I will stay connected to the Lord and listening to His voice, then in every room I step into every situation, then I have the opportunity to perhaps add to the conversation and bring some revelation and bring some change. I felt like that was the first moment for me of a lifelong pursuit. From there I remember we spent the rest of the time in New Zealand, and when I went back,
Andy Mason (07:05)
into the California, the Lord invited me to be part of building what is similar to heaven in business but in the realm of education. And what that looked like was that I started from the bottom. I have a degree like I said in physiology and anatomy. I had been on a preschool board in New Zealand, but that was the extent of my education in the realm of education. I have no teaching experience. I've I've got no understanding of the language there.
Andy Mason (07:33)
And but I got involved kind of accidentally through doing something with Bethel Christian School. They asked me to come in and teach them to dream. And as I did that, I saw what the Lord was wanting to do in education and it was stunning. And I felt like he said, Will you come and work with teachers, with educators and teach them to partner with me in a greater in a greater way? And I said, Yes, and enthusiastically, yes.
Andy Mason (07:58)
But then I had zero idea of what to do. So I just simply went and served in the school and started to build a friendship with the principal, build friendships with the teachers, and begin to ask the Lord, like, what are you doing and what are you saying? And to be to be really candid, it was super awkward because every time I went in, I was less educated, I was less qualified than every other person in the room.
Andy Mason (08:27)
And so I'm sitting having conversations with educators and saying, this is what I see the Lord doing, and this is what I see the the invitation of the Lord to be for you. And they would be like, Well, you don't understand. You know, I've got 20 years of teaching to tell me that that's not gonna work. And I was kind of like I came to see that that was the whole point. That I the Lord invited me to be a part of it simply because I didn't have any
Andy Mason (08:54)
20 years of teaching experience to overcome. There was something about the fresh eyes and the total dependence of the Lord that perfectly set me up to be the person to hear. I was a novice because I didn't have educational experience. So when the Lord said, Hey, let's try this, I simply went, Yeah, that sounds like a great idea. And where other people who were qualified,
Andy Mason (09:20)
Other people who had experience, other people who had education in that area were a little bit skeptical and it was harder for them to adopt the ideas that the Lord was bringing forth. What I saw happen though was as I stayed in that place of being awkward and uncomfortable, I saw the Lord move and I saw educators begin to grasp new ideas and I saw the Lord bring things into that realm that weren't happening previously. What about you?
Andy Mason (09:50)
Where are you at? Where are you feeling disqualified? Where are you feeling out of your depth? Where are you scared that people, if they found out that I really don't know what what I'm doing, they wouldn't follow me anymore? Is it possible that the very thing that makes you feel disqualified is actually the thing that qualifies you? 1 Corinthians 1, I want to read verses 25 through 29. And this really speaks to the heart of the matter. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than man.
Andy Mason (10:19)
And the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. And God has chosen chosen the weak things of the world to put this to shame the things which are mighty, and the base things of the world, and the things which are despised, God has chosen.
Andy Mason (10:48)
and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. The beauty of me being thrust into the educational world is that any time something amazing happened, it was very clear both to me and to everyone around that it had nothing to do with me, nothing to do with my brilliance, nothing to do with my strong mind, nothing to do with my training, because I had none. It simply was
Andy Mason (11:17)
I was a vessel that will was willing to say, I don't have us have what it takes on my own, but I have the Spirit of God inside me. And the Spirit of God inside me is enough to bring wisdom. James 1 says, if you've not got wisdom, then simply ask and believe that you've got it, and he will supply it in abundance. And so being in a place of discomfort, being in a place of feeling unqualified, placed me in a perfect place to say, I have no wisdom on my own.
Andy Mason (11:45)
But I do have access to the wisdom of heaven. It's an awkward place to live. And it on to be honest, it never changed. I remember a story in in that educational realm of a of a lady that she was the lowest on the educational totem pole. So she was a teacher aide, which, you know, just the helper to the teacher. And she asked the Lord, like, God, I'm just a teacher aide, but will you give me wisdom for what is happening in my classroom?
Andy Mason (12:13)
And he gave her an idea that she introduced to the teacher she was working with. And pretty soon that whole cohort of of that grade was using the the idea that the Lord had given her. And after a little while, the principal came to her and said, I heard that you're doing something pretty amazing in the, you know, first through third grade. Can you come and teach the rest of our educators what you're doing? And she found herself as a teacher aide, the most unqualified person in in that realm.
Andy Mason (12:42)
Suddenly teaching the whole school. Well, it went so well that pretty soon she was asked to teach at a district level. Hey, this new thing that you're doing, this new idea that you have is so impactful. Will you come and teach the whole district, the school district, what you're doing? Listen, you might be feeling disqualified. You might be feeling like I have nothing to offer. You might be feeling like I don't know what I'm doing. How can I possibly lead? Well, welcome.
Andy Mason (13:11)
to being in the best place that you could possibly be, where instead of being tempted to rely on your own wisdom, tempted to rely on your own strength, you're in a place where you are weak and you're foolish and you are what are those other things that you're not mighty, you're not noble. According to the flesh, you might not have what it takes. There might even be people who despise you because you're not as educated or not as qualified as as they are.
Andy Mason (13:39)
But if you will stay connected to the Lord and if you will trust Him, then you can have a mighty impact. So what does that actually take? I I wrote down a few notes of perhaps some ideas that help you to stay in that place where it is uncomfortable, where it is just it's awkward to be the least qualified in the room.
Andy Mason (14:01)
Embrace your weakness instead of denying it and going, Well, no, it's not true that I can't do this. It's not true that I'm disqualified. Actually embrace it and realize that in your weakness he becomes your strength. In your lack, you rely on him. And you have to deal with that voice of shame that goes with that. So often when we realise, man, I don't think I'm qualified, I don't think I'm smart enough, I don't think I'm educated enough, I haven't got the training, I haven't all the things.
Andy Mason (14:30)
Then then when instead of we get to that place and we look at that and we feel shameful and then we shut those thinking down, instead actually pull it out and say, You're right. Hey, thinking you're right. I'm not qualified, but I have the living God inside of me and I have access to his wisdom and I have access to his insight and his power. And then reject the voice that says you can't do it because of that disqualification. Actually lean into the truth, which
Andy Mason (14:59)
The the Lord says there is nothing that is impossible for those who believe. The Lord says that you are able because He is in you. Stay childlike. Stay in that place of absolute dependence. A child is always learning. And I what I found was when I started in education, I didn't even know half the terms that people were using. And the same with business things. Sometimes I'm still like, what does that acronym mean again? What is that?
Andy Mason (15:25)
And I just will ask and ask questions and not feel ashamed that I don't know all the things. I will upskill myself, but I'll stay in a place of childlike trust in the Lord and then just simply learning and as I go. Learning both from him and learning what I can from other training things. Stay expectant for him to show up.
Andy Mason (15:47)
If he has positioned you, which I think all of us at some point have been positioned in a place where we are totally out of our depth, feeling disqualified, the very fact that he has invited you into that place means he means to turn up. He is intent on turning up and showing himself faithful. So rather than feeling like, no, this is gonna go so bad because I'm on my own.
Andy Mason (16:11)
Realize that he wants to meet with you and so look for his intervention. Look for what he is doing. Look for his faithfulness to show up. Deal quickly with the inner dialogue. I think this is the thing that ambushes us the most. I was sitting in a group of women last night and we were talking about the power of God that is available to us. And as we went round the table sharing, I was asking each one like
Andy Mason (16:40)
What does that mean to you that God has essentially has qualified you to do what you're doing? And woman after woman said to me, you know what, I feel like I'm an inadequate. I I struggle with the voice of lack of self-confidence. I struggle with what goes on in my mind that tells me I'm not competent, I'm not able. And I thought, man, how sad is it that that of all the women at my table, nearly everyone talked about that. And the challenge really is.
Andy Mason (17:10)
what you believe, what you meditate on your mind. So your disqualification isn't a problem. It only becomes a problem when you believe the lie of the enemy, that your disqualification in the natural, your lack of whatever, put it fill in the blank, whatever that is for you, where your lack becomes more of your focus than his ability. I want to tell you today that you are qualified because the living God lives inside of you.
Andy Mason (17:38)
You are able to do what you are assigned to do. You are able to lead people even where you don't fully know all the answers. Why? Because he is with you. And if he has placed you in that place, then he will equip you to do that. He will speak to you. He will open doors for you. He will connect you with people to help you. Or I love this scripture. This has been a lifelong scripture. it's in First Peter, Second Peter, somewhere in Peter.
Andy Mason (18:07)
He has already given you everything pertaining to life and godliness. Everything that you need to do the thing that you're called to do, the do the thing that is in front of you. He has already given to you. That means it might be in seed form, but it's already available to you. I want to bless you today. I want to bless you to know that he is with you. And every every thought of being disqualified, every thought of not being enough.
Andy Mason (18:36)
Is a is a thought from the pit of hell. The Lord has enabled you because His Holy Spirit lives inside of you. And you are able to lead even when you don't have all the answers, even when you feel like you're not well enough trained, even when you are aware of your lacks, the Lord is with you and that makes you able to do all that you have in front of you to do. I bless you today and I say, go forth and ditch the lies of the enemy, believe the truth.
Andy Mason (19:05)
And step boldly into doing what the Lord has given you to do. Hey, check out heavenandbusiness.com for upcoming events. We've got the Nashville, yay, first time in Nashville conference coming up in early March. There's a strategic retreat coming up in Arizona that you'll want to find out about. And you can find out more on heavenandbusiness dot com. Bless you.
