Mark Casto 0:00
Welcome back to the Mark Casto program. And this is the podcast for those who are done living by default and you're ready to live by divine design. Here we challenge toxic hustle culture, fear based religion and small thinking, and we equip you to build what actually matters, your life, your business, your calling all rooted in the finished work of Christ. If you listen to episode one, you know we're in the middle of something big, something cultural, something spiritual, a mass shift. I call it a holy disruption, a kingdom realignment. And today, I want to take that even further, because what's happening in the spirit right now isn't just about leaving a nine to five job, it's about stepping into an era, and we are entering the age of the builder, and this episode is about why God's raising up creators, not just pastors. So if you've ever felt out of place in church, if you've ever wondered why you love entrepreneurial systems and businesses and and love business in general, creativity, content, if you've ever felt like you were too entrepreneurial or not spiritual enough, then This episode is for you. And guys, I'm so excited. Episode One was amazing. I heard from so many of you that enjoyed the podcast. Thank you to everybody that left us a five star review and put a comment there on the podcast. That was an awesome blessing. And for those of you that haven't done that yet, go right now to your podcast platform of choice. Give us that five star review. Tell people why you love the podcast. It's one of the greatest things that you can do to help us spread the word about this. The Mark Casto program and guys, I'm excited. We're in the middle of getting settled in here in mobile. We just made the move from COVID in Georgia here to mobile to live with our kingdom family here at the homestead mobile to live in close proximity with my spiritual father, Damon Thompson, and just loving what God is doing here, my kids are surrounded by so many other great kids that are hungry for the things of God. I've watched my kids have some pretty amazing encounters with Jesus in just the month that we've been here. That's really important to my wife and I, but we're getting settled in. So thank you for everybody that has sent encouraging messages to us on social media. Thank you to everybody who has continued to support us in this journey. Pray for us and encourage us. It means the world to us. So if you want to stay updated with what we're doing in life, business, all those things, make sure to follow me on Instagram at Mark Casto underscore, all right, let's jump in. And let's get straight into this. The western church has spent the last 100 years reinforcing one primary model, the pastor centric church. And listen, I love pastors. They are necessary. I've been one. I honor the shepherding gift, but hear me the model where only pastors are seen as the called ones that model is done. It's outdated. It's limiting, it's unbiblical. God never designed the church to be a stage centric system ran by just a handful of one or two gifted communicators. He designed it to be a kingdom family, a community of builders, each carrying a piece of this greater Kingdom vision, each anointed in different lanes. Guys. We've said ministry is when you hold a mic. But Jesus was a builder long before he was ever known as a preacher or a traveling itinerant, and maybe so are you. So I want to really take a minute pause on that for a moment and ask you this question. Have you ever wondered why Jesus spent 30 years in obscurity before stepping into public ministry guys, the reality is he could have rushed to the synagogue to start teaching at 12 years old. He was astounding people in the temple at 12, so by the time he's 18, he could have launched revival meetings as a teenager, but instead, he worked in obscurity and worked with his hands. The Greek word used to describe him is the Greek word Tecton, which is not just a word that means Carpenter, but it's craftsman, builder, architect. So what does that tell us? It tells us that God will. Honors the hidden years that building chairs was just as holy as healing the sick. One of my favorite things that I watched in the chosen series is actually the episode where Jesus is building out in the wilderness, and he's out secluded by himself, and little kids start coming to him, and then you see him begin to craft, you know, not only tools and things that he could sell, but toys for the kids. And I think that's amazing,
that that Jesus, that the years Jesus spent learning how to take raw material and shape it into something useful were not wasted. They were actually foundational. So many of you listening to this right now feel like you've been in the wilderness. You've been learning skills, you've been working behind the scenes. You felt overlooked, and maybe some of you deal with feeling disqualified. But what if you weren't in hiding? What if you were being trained as a builder in a place called Secret? Now let me walk you through the Bible and show you that builders have always been a part of God's story. Just think of Noah. Noah was given blueprints by finding grace in the eyes of the Lord. And he did not march and protest on the streets and talk about how we need justice or or we need to end the violence. He didn't do protest. He didn't do marches. He didn't do gatherings in stadiums. He didn't do tent meetings. He didn't do church services. He built something no one had ever heard of for something that nobody had ever seen. Let me explain. At that time, nobody knew what an ark was, a boat that could survive a massive flood. Matter of fact, they didn't even know what rain was. They didn't know what this stuff was that Noah was talking about a boat for what rain for, why guys, Noah was a builder, and he saved the human race, not because he did churchy things. He saved the human race because he heard the voice of wisdom by the Spirit of God to build a boat. Joseph, he didn't preach sermons. He he managed national supply chains to make sure that Egypt made it through a severe famine, and on top of that, because of his wisdom for how to handle and interpret a dream that led to him being second in command to manage those national supply chains, he sustained Israel. He sustained his entire family, which then gave birth to the nation of Israel. Then you've got basil Leal in Exodus, 31 who was filled with the Spirit. This is the person that was first mentioned in the scriptures to be filled with the Spirit. And guess what? He was not filled with the Spirit to lead worship in a church service, but to design furniture and create the tabernacles atmosphere. He was an architect. He was a builder. He he helped create the lamp stand. He helped create the table of shoe bread. He, he was moved upon by the Spirit of God to release creativity and build things. Then let's Let's not miss Nehemiah. Nehemiah, whole book written about a man who rebuilt broken walls in a broken city with strategy, developing labor crews and and releasing vision for restoring a broken down city called Jerusalem. That's a big deal, guys. It's a part of that was a part of God's plan, and Nehemiah wasn't out holding church services. Nehemiah wasn't out there preaching every Sunday morning. Nehemiah was rebuilding the walls of a city. He was actually doing physical labor, creating labor crews and casting vision to those crews for rebuilding a city. Think about Lydia. Most people miss this in the New Testament. She's she's mentioned in the New Testament, and she ran a luxury fabric business, and her house became a launch pad for Kingdom gatherings, and really the birthplace of the Philippian church. Like this was an amazing person, and her house was was built in such a way that not only took care of her business, but it supplied space for those early days of Kingdom gatherings. And then you have the Apostle Paul. He was an apostle guys, but not was not, not only was he an apostle, but he was a tent maker. And his tent making. King was helped fund his mission work. And so when the people of God didn't honor or support him or support his calls, guess what, he still had the ability to make tents, and it was in his tent making that funded his mission for work. When I was processing this whole transition with my spiritual father. We were talking about the apostle Paul, and how that many people today have, they have a revelation about kings, which would be business people, entrepreneurs, and then they have a revelation of the priest. And from in many ways, we separate those two, but the Scriptures are clear in Revelation one six, that we are kings and priests, which means we can move in both the kingly and the priestly. And matter of fact, we should get kingly about our priesthood and priestly about our kingship. So those those worlds should actually collide. Okay? And my spiritual father said this to me. He said, Isn't it amazing, though, that like when the Scripture mentions the unusual miracles that happened in Paul's ministry, it was in his tent making days that when he was making tents, that's when people were cutting off pieces of cloth from his clothing, sending it out to people who needed miracles, and God was releasing the miraculous to them. Guys. This is happening through builders and again, just bringing this full circle. Jesus, he spent 90% of his life building things in private. God has always used builders, and it's religion that made us forget that. But part of what's happening in this hour is a redefinition of calling, because for too long, we told people, if you're really serious about God, you'll go into full time ministry. But let me say this clearly, full time ministry comes only through people who are who are living in a full time obedience and ministry is not apostle, prophet, Pastor, teacher, evangelist. Those are gifts to the body of Christ to help prepare every believer for ministry. So what qualifies people to be in ministry, equipped with the lifestyle of the kingdom in obedience to the leadership of the Holy Spirit. That's ministry and God needs people fully alive in their calling, whether that's coaching men or coaching women, selling digital products, building building tools, apps, editing videos, baking bread, starting a Christian brand, you might never step on a stage, but if you work, but if your work carries kingdom values, if your business reflects his excellence and creativity, if your Coaching changes lives and your leadership breaks generational poverty. Don't tell me, that's not ministry. And so we've got to allow God to reform the vocational imagination of the church. He's calling people to build and to build boldly, boldly. So I want to make this really practical. I created this list of seven signs that you may be one of the builders God's raising up right now and and number one is you've always struggled to fit inside traditional church roles. One, one of the greatest bondages I've seen in my generation is that as a teenager, if you had a passion for the things of God, they automatically want to make you and turn you into a preacher. But there are many people who are struggling right now because you've tried to fit in the mode of pastor or preacher or teacher you and you're not really even gifted for that. You were called to business. You were called to entrepreneurship. You were called to creativity. You were called to be an artisan. You were called to be an author. You were called to be in sales and marketing. But, but because of the religion that we grew up in, we struggle to fit inside these traditional church roles, and he's breaking us out of that. Secondly, you're deeply passionate about ideas and innovation and making an impact being being a problem solver, guys, that's a sign you're a Kingdom Builder. Thirdly, you care more about results than recognition. You could you could care less about being recognized publicly in the church. You could care less about having a title. You want results. You want to see transformation take place. Fourthly, you find more fulfillment in creating solutions than simply maintaining systems. There's something inside of you that says there's got to be more there's got to be a better way, and you're willing to create solutions even if it disrupts the systems. We've had that and. Quite honestly, they're man made systems, and they need to be disrupted. Number five, you think like an architect. You think about you're a visionary, and then, and not only are you a visionary, but you start thinking about the ways that you can make that vision a reality. That's thinking like an architect. Number six, you feel a strong pull to generate income, not for greed. You're not dreaming about
big houses and fancy cars. You're thinking about freedom. You're thinking about purpose and fulfilling what you believe you've been put on the planet to do. And number seven, you've tried to ignore this calling, but it won't leave you alone. Guys, I know what that is. I know what that is. Guys, before we experienced the fire that displaced our church in 2022 2023 I'm sorry, in 2023 seven days before the fire came, though I had an encounter with Jesus, and I felt the Holy Spirit say to me, Mark, I want to talk to you about media and business. And I'm I'm telling you I've had prophecies and people speak prophetically over me. I've had people say things to me over the years about media and business, and of course, I've always tried to make that fit into the religious box of being a preacher and a pastor. But the Lord really wouldn't leave me alone about it. And so for like, 45 minutes, I'm trying to pray about the church and everything happening in COVID 10 and all that. And the Lord said to me, no, I want to talk to you about media and business mark. And I realized he wasn't going to leave me alone. And I remember looking up to the sky. I can say this with my hand on the Bible, looked up to the sky, and I said, Lord, if you really want to talk to me, if you really want to talk to me about media and business, then I want you to shut everything down that's not of you and show me the new blueprint. If what I'm doing is not it, then shut all of it down and give me the new blueprint. Guys. Seven days later was the church fire. I'll never forget it, because it was on my birthday. We had had this major birthday party at our house. All of our friends and family were there. Mariachi band, I'm talking about we did it up. We had tacos cooked by one of the greatest taco cooking families on the planet. We had this amazing experience. And about 10 o'clock, 1030 at night, while we're most people were starting to leave, just a handful of us on the back porch when I got the call that the church was on fire, displaced this and to this day, that building has never been renovated or redone. My point is, in all of this is saying, Hey, you can try to ignore this all you want, but it won't leave you alone. And if you're really called to it, it's just going to keep coming back up and and the Spirit of the Lord is going to just continue to deal with your heart. And if you've listened to this list of things, and you heard the story, and you're nodding your head, listen to me. This is confirmation. You're not being carnal, you're not thinking too secular, you're not outside God's plan, you are one of the ones he's commissioning to build. What the next era of the kingdom will rest on. See, guys, this revival and awakening and move of the Spirit that we've been talking about is coming. It's not coming to just buildings. First of all, it doesn't come to buildings. It comes to people, people that have intentionally set their heart to go after the things of God. And it's coming through the builders. It's coming through creators. It's coming through strategists. It's coming through course makers. It's coming through coaches. It's come he's he's coming through content producers. He's coming through digital disciples. And you know what's interesting during the pandemic, the church went online out of necessity. And quite honestly, I think it had to happen because some of us are in religion, have such small thinking that we never saw the necessity of that. But now the ones building online are are actually impacting culture and and inadvertently discipling people. And now people are beginning to do this out of revelation and not just a reaction. We're, we're not just reacting anymore. Now we're starting to pioneer into some things, and we're not just preaching. We're we're we're packaging truth, and we're teaching business strategy, and we're reaching people in their homes and on their phones, and God is using reels and email lists and school communities and podcast episodes to bring this move of the Spirit. Because revival isn't a style, it's a a people in alignment with. God's purposes, and in this hour, Jesus is calling the builders. So I want to end with this. Okay, you may never be handed a mic, you may never be asked to preach or lead a church. You may never be invited to preach a conference, but you have been given something far more significant, permission to build what God has authentically placed inside of your heart. Guys don't wait for man to recognize you. Don't wait for religion to validate you. They're not going to. They don't understand. And if God's called you a builder, build. And what do you mean by builder? I mean entrepreneurs, people that are hearing this call to step into the business space. I say, let the entrepreneurs rise. I say, let the innovators lead. Let the Reformers Disrupt. Let the let the digital apostles create new roads in the wilderness. And when I say digital apostles, I'm not talking about people that are called to to preach Jesus. I'm saying there the word apostle means a sent one and and you can be sent into business just as much as somebody is sent to preach the message of Jesus. Guys, this is the age of the builder, and you were born for it. And if this episode, guys spoke to your spirit, I want you to do two things. Number one, I want you to let me know. Reach out to me on Instagram at Mark Casto underscore, and then don't keep it to yourself. Guys share it with a builder who's been second guessing they're calling too. And then what I want you to do is I want you to click that link below. There's a link in the description in the show notes of this episode, where you can book a call with me, and let's walk this journey together. Many of you are sitting on ideas right now. You're still working the nine to five, but you have wisdom and innovation and creativity moving in your belly and you don't know what to do with it. I want you to click the link below. I want you to book a call with me. I want to talk with you. I want to spend 30 minutes with you. Let's really talk about where you're at. Let's talk about the challenges that you're facing right now, and let's get you a solution to transition out of the status quo and for you to use your God given wisdom to start creating a digital product business that can make you $10,000 a month. How do I know that's possible? Because I did it. You're you. You are listening, for those of you that are new to this podcast, and you're new to who, who I am. I was someone that was groomed for professional ministry, and I've gone through a process. Now. I've, I've literally gone through a process of walking away from the religious systems that really have perverted the gospel and we're and I've said yes to the restoration of that gospel message. So I walked away from those systems and professional celebrity Christianity world. I've gone through this process of even planting a church, and I've, I've seen what works and what doesn't work. And I've also know, I also know what it's like to be scared to make a transition into who you feel you are authentically called to be. And now, 2025, after being in the Ministry for 20 years, I finally got to a place where I have permission to be my most authentic self, which I don't have to choose. Am I still a five fold ministry gift to the body of Christ? Yes? Am I? Am I also a businessman that's called to Kingdom entrepreneurship and to and to show people the opportunity that's available to us now to create wealth online. Yes, I can be both, and so can you. So I want to walk with you on this journey together, guys, this is the Mark Casto program, and this is your permission to build something amazing for the kingdom of God. I'll catch you on the next episode. You.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
