When Faith Calls – Pastor Touré Roberts and DeVon Franklin

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hey family hey it’s time to get into the

word and i’ve got a special word today

again like we did last week i’m taking

you to the call to pioneer conference

and i’m going to bring you into a

powerful transformational conversation

that i had with my good friend new york

times best-selling author hollywood

producer of blockbuster films incredible

man of god uh he’s got just too many

acknowledgments for me to even put in

here but let me just tell you he is a

gift to the world he’s a gift to me and

it’s a gift to our movement devon

franklin so i want to bring you in to

the conversation that we had at the call

to pioneer experience you’re going to be

inspired you’re going to be challenged

you’re gonna grow check it out i’ll see

you at the end

i call it my friend god calls him son

let’s celebrate and welcome devon

franklin to the stage what up

[Applause]

hey why you read all that brother

i know i know and that’s just the half

of we didn’t even talk about the movie

stuff really uh no that was all just the

cbs stuff and you know but but i just

first of all

i don’t know if i know

anyone more inspiring than you

um his first book

was called anybody read produced by

faith is his first book called produced

by faith

incredible book first book but when i

look at your life

your life has been produced by faith you

you you epitomize

someone who faith

has shaped and developed let’s kick it

off there like like um

do you agree with that like let’s talk

about how faith has produced devon

franklin that we’re celebrating today

yeah no first of all are y’all enjoying

the conference give it up for pt

come on now

it’s called leadership conferences

everything i learned a lot in this

section second session um in terms of uh

yeah it has been produced by faith it’s

also been produced by craziness

and fear right um you know i mean just

my quick backstory is coming from the

bay area growing up in the church always

having visions of wanting to be

successful in hollywood and the thing

that was really interesting i did a talk

a few days ago and i was talking about

the difference between our truth

and the expectations that others have of

us

and that for me my truth was to come to

hollywood because god had given me that

vision he gave me the vision of being a

producer when i was a young kid but the

expectation was to go into ministry

because people saw that gift on me they

were like oh we see that you have the

gift to minister and the gift to touch

people so you should go into the church

you should become a minister you should

become a pastor and i was like but god

is calling me talking about the call

cons he’s calling me

to hollywood and so i had a choice to

make am i going to follow that truth

or am i going to meet others

expectations of who they wanted me to be

and so in following the truth of wanting

to be in hollywood where the faith came

in was

i can’t

become successful

at the expense of my faith

i have to know if god has called me to

hollywood by how i hold to my faith

and if holding to my faith will not

allow a door to open in hollywood then

hollywood not cannot be for me that was

the key i mean so so what i mean by that

very specifically

not like theoretically oh you know

everybody says i got fake no

first job

hey i observe the sabbath

i will not take this job it was

internship for will smith i won’t take

this job if it requires me to work on

the sabbath

because i will not compromise for my

calling

and i did not care what they had to say

because if god was in the opportunity

they were going to say yes

and if he wasn’t then he either would

have another door or he’s going to want

me going to another place so

long story short when you talk about

faith in my story and my life being

produced by faith without a doubt

because faith at every turn

has been the integral thing and the

other part that was important was

it wasn’t this wasn’t planned but as i

started to become more vocal about my

faith so 22

excuse me 18 years old intern for will

smith uh did that for four years

graduated from usc became an assistant

at will smith’s company to his uh fight

on if i don’t any sorry if you went to

ucla that’s all right the blood is still

good for you too

[Laughter]

but i got that internship and then his

assistant you know i took that job as an

assistant but what happened while i was

working at will’s company as an

assistant

people started finding out that you know

i was preaching on the side and that i

was in ministry and god told me don’t be

afraid of that

because i’m from oakland and my uncle

called me when i was 22 and asked me to

come up once a month to preach for him

in east oakland once a month and i

didn’t want to do it because i’m like i

just got my start in hollywood as an

assistant i’m starting my career i don’t

want to do it and god was like don’t be

afraid of it so i started going up once

a month people at oprah brooke will’s

company found out

and what happened is people started to

come to me 22 23 for prayer

we started to do bible studies

during lunch at will’s company okay

right

and and the irony

the irony is that by embracing all of

who god created me to be

that became what people started to know

me for

and that’s what started opening doors

because people said we don’t know

anybody else in this business who is

standing that clearly in their christian

faith and still finding success so today

having deals with paramount netflix and

cbs and disney plus and audible and all

these different things it’s only because

standing in that truth and honoring that

faith

okay

okay

that that’s just powerful and first of

all before i met you and i think i met

you 11 years ago or so before i met you

i had heard of you

and i didn’t hear of you through the

church world

there was a loopy fiasco’s manager

was like yo man you know he knew i was a

pastor he’s like yo man there’s this

preacher man he’s like an executive at

mgm but he’s a preacher man and he so

your reputation was moving

outside of church circles now

here is i always call and i’ve called

you this for years

like some people do

signs and wonders and some people are a

sign of the wonder

i

the the

particularly if you’re in hollywood and

sometimes not even just hollywood just

corporate america in general

there is a

argument or a belief

that

you can’t share your faith

or not even share your faith you can’t

it’s not cool to even admit that you

have faith and there is this um

this idea

that you have to be in the closet

with your faith

but it’s actually first of all just to

survive

but in your case

it worked actually in the opposite

direction your vocalism you vocalize and

your faith

actually push things forward

absolutely i mean you know it’s

interesting because

it’s two things

and it’s important right so if i’m just

walking around saying hey i’m a

christian i believe in god

people gonna be like

aunt

right right

the key that is so important from day

one to this

is you know my uncle who was the pastor

really instilled in me hard work and

excellence

so from in service

so from day one the only reason i

believe people tolerated uh my faith and

were open to it is because of the work

that i put in

and the excellence in the work you know

so again going back to the internship

you know 18 years old uh i got there

early

i they said oh we want you here at two

o’clock i’m there at 1 45.

i don’t have to they don’t have to ask

me what to do i go around and i say well

what do you need me to do you know oh

you need me to file and oh i see you

need to get the coffee your coffee’s

down let me go run the starbucks for you

i remember your order oh and you need

lunch let me go get your lunch i took

the initiative

so when people say wait wait wait this

intern who’s this guy it was because of

service

being an executive it was because of

service so my service because there’s no

there’s no excuse

for us not giving good service yeah yeah

because it’s within our power right i

can choose how i serve every day

i can’t choose the result i can’t choose

who’s going to see it but i can choose

how i serve

and so that service in the jobs that i

had and something that’s very important

i always had the vision of being a

producer always

it was you know why i came into the

business

but what was so important was in those

days and it you know took me a very long

time to become a producer

but in those days when i was doubting

the vision god still got me up and said

serve

the people that had promised me

opportunities that did not make good on

their promise

god said don’t use that as an excuse to

not serve them

even better than what they may deserve

and it was the service

that worked with the faith

to produce the opportunities because i

think sometimes especially in this

generation of of christians trying to

navigate professionally

so often you know we we focus on the

faith part but we don’t focus on the

excellence part

right like how did you do that

assignment you know what i mean did you

stay late and you used to get there

early and stay late what is their

excellence in your work does your work

be speak for itself because a lot of

times we want to tell people what we

want to do let me see it in your work

yes because see i have a staff and i can

tell who’s on and who’s not yeah why by

the pride and the excellence they put in

their work so it really was it was

service

it was a commitment to excellence and it

was faith that really were the things

working behind the scenes to help give

me a foundation for success that’s

powerful so you’ve had an incredible

trajectory it didn’t start you started

as an intern for will

uh you became a junior executive over at

mgm

then you became i think you may have

still been a junior i don’t know if so

anybody i don’t know what happened but

then work your way up so there is this

uh and you may have heard the term we

know the term entrepreneur but there’s

another term entrepreneur

and the entrepreneur is someone who

works inside of an organization with a

degree of some degree of autonomy

to enhance and make that organization

better

but your ultimate destination was

ultimately to be a producer to be an

entrepreneur when did you know

it was time to step out to move from

being an

entrepreneur to an entrepreneur because

some people here i i’d imagine

are still working their jobs you have a

dream about your company and your

business you’re still working your job

but kind of what were some of the signs

or what were some of the promptings

that gave you

the

faith or gave you the confirmation to

take the step from intra to entre okay

um i know we got short time somebody

tried to take time

because this is i wanted to walk you

into the store okay so so again i had

the vision when i was a kid uh to go to

hollywood and and become a producer

so at 18 years old majored in business

minored in film and by the way i got

rejected from the usc film school as a

major right but what was this is why god

is so good

because we have a plan oh in order to

make it in hollywood i need to be a

major in film at the usc school of film

and cinema television which is the best

film school in the world that’s what i

told myself

they said devon we don’t want you

now mind you

because i wasn’t a film major and i was

a business major i had more time

i was able to do an internship

my freshman year for will smith

wow that laid the foundation

for everything that i’ve had in my

career if i had been a film student

i would have never be sitting in front

of you in the way that i am now

the rejection was his protection

because if i had my plan

i wouldn’t be here right now so

important because you know when you when

you have these visions we misinterpret

rejection oh well it’s not going to

happen what do you know it’s going to

happen it just may happen differently

than how we see

wow because god doesn’t always give us

the he will give us the vision but he

doesn’t always tell us how wow and we

try to manipulate the house that’s what

i love what you were saying earlier

right there’s a difference between when

you try to manipulate things and when

you allow and you get the vision so long

story short

i became the intern 18 years old at 20

uh my business major was uh i had an

emphasis on entrepreneurship

so for my senior thesis pro project i

did a business plan for my production

company

at 22 i had the whole business plan

worked out the type of movies i wanted

to make and everything i didn’t know

that i want yeah

yeah i did 40 40 page business plan it

was all worked out i was ready to go at

22 i said hey i want somebody from my

company

crickets ain’t nobody who’s in front of

my company who are you i’m frank i just

graduated from usc and right

but i had the plan

and i wanted that producer’s chair i

wanted it at 22.

did nobody want it for me

but god said here’s an assistance chair

for a producer

y’all wow i’m trying to talk to somebody

yeah yeah yeah you can see what happens

is

especially in this generation

entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs want to

get the vision

but then they don’t want to serve

anybody else’s vision

[Music]

your receiving of a vision comes because

you serve someone else’s vision wow

wow look at joseph

he couldn’t get the reception of his

dream

until he served somebody else’s dream

wow

and he also didn’t worry about the

timetable in which it happened that’s a

whole nother story so i didn’t get

anyone in front of my company i would

took the job as an assistant and every

day though i didn’t show up just as an

identity of an assistant i showed up as

a producer in training

way way way way

because you talk about the mind way

what you talked about at the beginning

of this session was it happens in your

mind

so if i go in with the mentality i’m

just an assistant and when am i going to

get my company and don’t nobody see me

and all this kind of stuff

i’m going to miss out on the opportunity

to serve i am in training i am learning

from the best i’m working for the

biggest movie star in in the world and

the biggest manager in the world and i’m

coming in and i’m learning and so i’m

doing the i’m pushing papers with

excellence when my boss would get in his

whole desk would be organized and i

would go in there and take off what he

didn’t need and put in place what he

needed make sure his water was where it

needed to be got the dry cleaning why

because i’m in training wow

i didn’t just approach it as oh i’m just

an assistant

right but hold on i got to keep going so

so watch this is really really good

watch this watch this take your time

so so i i did that for two years but

here’s the thing when i took the job as

the assistant i was promised this

promotion that because i had been with

their the company for four years they

said devon we love you after two years

you know after a year we’ll promote you

to become a junior executive in

development because i really wanted to

get more into film so cool i took the

job did that served now a year in they

didn’t give me the job

didn’t even mention it

as it was almost like the conversation

never happened

so a couple months in i kind of followed

up and there was no response

so in my flesh i started to get

depressed

because i could only see my future

through the lens of this opportunity

and when the promise was not fulfilled i

didn’t know how to handle that

so i was like oh man what am i going to

do so i started coming in the office

depressed and angry and mad and

frustrating god what are you going to do

and this went on for months now i didn’t

let anybody know you know i was putting

on the facade oh i’m good hey y’all dude

all that kind of stuff but inside i’m

like yo

god what’s happening

true story

after months of of this this process

i just one day i went into my cubicle

turn on my computer and i just said i

can’t do this any longer

so i went into the bathroom

closed a stall door and i prayed

i said god if you are real

if your word is true

i am standing on your word right now

you have to move on this job today

so i left a stall

later on that night true story my boss

he and i were the only two people in the

office he calls me into his office

and he says devon

uh i want to talk to you i said okay

cool he said will and i we love you

we wish we could promote you but we

can’t so we want to help you find a new

job

and i’m not pause okay okay okay

wait a minute wait a minute we want to

usher you into your destiny

[Laughter]

wait a minute hold up lord

i i said pray i want you to do something

lord wait wait i didn’t

i wasn’t just trying to lose his job now

lord hold on hold on hold up lord wait

wait wait wait wait prayer works it

works i should have been more specific

in my prayer but i said something lord i

should have said here’s what i want you

to do

so this is all a true story

so i was like okay what’s our timeline

he said well there’s no timeline we’ll

make some calls on your behalf and you

let us know and all kind of stuff so you

know i left the office saying okay wow

prayer works but whoa

i got to find a job right

so

i started looking for a job no job this

is all true no job nothing was coming

and so one night um

bishop jakes was in town and he was

preaching at the forum now this is the

time i didn’t i didn’t know him at the

time and so i literally go to the forum

this is on this is on a good friday i go

to the forum and i’m like you know way

way back bishop’s you know on the stage

but he preached this message called turn

the page

at the end of deuteronomy moses has died

and you had to turn the page to joshua

when god tells the israelites you still

have to go into the promised land

and so literally it was like god was

saying devon this job working at will’s

company is dead

the only way you’re going to see your

promised land is if you have enough

faith to leave it

true story

i mean this is it’s amazing that we’re

all so aligned you know it’s it’s

unbelievable it’s all organic so i go in

on monday i put in my two week notice

and they say devon what are you doing i

said well i can’t tell you faith works

if i’m afraid to try it because they

were like you don’t have a job i said no

they said where are you going i don’t

know

i said but i got to put my two-week

notice so they were like all right man

whatever fill out the paperwork whatever

two weeks come and but here’s the thing

my pride and arrogance i was like in two

weeks i want god to give me a new job in

two weeks

so i can run up and down the halls of

this company let everybody know how good

god is

right

right two weeks came and went there

wasn’t no job

so i left unemployed

and i’ll never forget on sunday a friend

of mine said um what’s it gonna feel to

wake up tomorrow how’s it gonna feel

what he was saying was you stepped out

on faith you have nothing to show for it

a faith walk is a fragile walk

you don’t have to entertain

people that are speaking against

so i immediately got off the phone and

said hey man i’m not even i can’t even

deal with that okay

i see the vision i know what god called

me to do and i got to figure i don’t

know how it’s going to happen but i

trust in it

monday rolls around by the end of the

day i was offered a junior executive

position at another company the same

level of position i was promised at

will’s company wow

the first day of unemployment

wow i take that job i’m there for a year

and a half mgm calls out of the blue mgm

is a studio behind the james bond

franchise they call me out of the blue

and say we’re looking for an executive a

young executive of color we’ve heard

about you want to interview so i go in

and now mind you i didn’t even know i

wanted the job right and i was working

for tracy evans at the time and long

story short this is why it’s so

important to remember whatever is for

you

you don’t have to manipulate it it’s you

i went to the job interview at mgm

dressed just like this

and what i said when i got in the meat

interview was so y’all want to talk to

me

you called the meeting

i didn’t apply you you said you heard

about me so tell me what you want me to

know

about this opportunity so i can see if

it aligns with where i’m going i don’t

know who i’m talking to don’t just be so

obsessed with opportunity that you don’t

evaluate if it works for you too

this is all y’all this is all true i’m

trying to go quick so i get in the

interns i get in the interview for mgm

they offer me the job i take the job

six months into being at mgm the company

is being sold

and everyone’s gonna get paid out of

their contract

so i’m like god wow you gotta you got a

funny way of doing this

you know i could have stayed in my other

job

the company gets sold

a month before the deal closes i get a

message from one of the senior

executives

amy pascal who at the time was the

chairman of sony pictures entertainment

the senior executive at mgm said i have

a message from amy pascal for you

this is huge

you don’t have to worry about a job

you have one when the deal closes

now now watch this how how how did that

happen

because when i was at mgm we talk about

service

i was the last executive hired in my

department

but i came in there with the service

mentality so there was a senior

executive who who took a liking to me

and i worked on the films beauty shop

and i worked on the film be cool in the

film be cool it’s a sequel to get shorty

uh they were looking for a song because

there was like the whole movie hinged on

one song because christina milian’s

character was singing a song in the film

so they had their music supervisors on

on it you know they had all these people

working on it and i come in i say at the

time because i worked for tracy edmonds

i said i have a relationship with alicia

keys in her camp

let me reach out to them and see if

there’s some songs alicia did not use

that might work for the movie

the song that christine emilion sings

and be cool is a song that i found

the executive said wait a minute who is

this guy

we’ve been looking for months and he

comes in and within a week we have the

song

that everybody that nobody could find

and alicia keys wrote it

service because i served the executive

and made that executive look good she

was close friends with amy pascal and

when amy pascal said who on the staff do

i need to know about that executive said

you got to know about devon franklin

because it’s

because of service

right so i go i so the deal closes i go

to sony uh sony pictures entertainment

is the umbrella company for columbia

pictures and screen gems and so a lot of

your famous favorite films from

spider-man to uh you got ser all those

films come from sony so i get there

right and the irony is that will smith’s

company is now at that time funded by

sony pictures entertainment

the first movie i work on is pursuit of

happiness

the first day i get on set will’s like

yo so you a suit now

you go from being the intern who left us

to now you one of the executives we got

to listen to come on i don’t know who

i’m talking about come on right now okay

i don’t know who i’m talking to

i don’t know if y’all listening to me

this is god

this is god

this is god this is god

but the story is not done watch this

again service

i had the vision of still running my

company i didn’t know how that was going

to happen but i had but i had the

commitment to service so in pursuit of

happiness i’m like

uh this movie is so inspirational to me

even as an executive working on the film

the first time we saw the first cut we

all were crying i mean it was just so

emotional and i said i’ve got to make a

contribution

how do i give back to will give back to

sony

i said because i said wait i’m a

christian and this movie is helping me

in my faith

maybe i could help market this film to

other christians to help them in their

faith

so i put together a whole marketing

campaign and publicity campaign 40 pages

on here’s how we could take the message

of faith and produce and pursue

happiness to the world

first call was bishop jason i got will

to megafest okay will smith with jada

and the kids showed up at mega fest in

georgia okay

on stage introducing the trailer to

pursuit of happiness

because of the vision

long story short pursuit of happiness

that year

domestically made almost as much as the

james bond film casino royale

because of the strategy of going taking

this movie to the faith community

so immediately

people said okay wait a minute

here is a young executive who’s

passionate about his faith

but he’s also contributing to the bottom

line

we’re going to create room for him

i didn’t have to ask for the room

because if i go in and say give me room

and they’re like where’s your room for

what

i had to show them

sometimes i find we talk too much and we

don’t do enough

let our work speak for itself

and so i did pursue the happiness they

started to create room for me and say oh

well devon what other movies do you want

to work on what do you want to do and so

that’s when literally i mean that’s how

i know sarah because we we got together

on not easily broken you know what i

mean we’ve marketed not easily broken

and that movie worked and i started

doing seven pounds and the karate kid

remake and and jumping the broom and all

of these inspirational films and we’re

getting to the point of your question

which is

after i had this run at the studio of

about nine years of you know all these

films that were very successful

um

there was a movie that came in heaven is

real joe roth had called me and again

it’s just i love be able to tell this

story because so much of it goes back to

bishop and sarah cause we’re so

connected for years

and so

i ended up uh we get the book in heaven

israel at the time it was a new york

times bestseller uh and you know being a

juggernaut and then we call bishop and

say bishop we have a deal bishop you

know let’s do this movie together bishop

read the book he loved it we started to

do it now internally

right i was working on big films this

heaviness reel was viewed internally as

a small movie

one of my senior executives at the

company said devon be careful with this

film i said why

you don’t want to be known as the faith

guy

those are little movies

you’re a big movie guy

be careful

i said clearly you don’t know my god

right right right right

yeah you were faithful

the tree is in the seed

so if i take care of things for the

kingdom because see in the world what

looks like for the kingdom looks small

but everything in the kingdom is big

right everything everything

so i work on heaviness for real

put my heart and soul into that film

it opens on easter weekend a 14 million

dollar budgeted film

in the first five days we do 30 million

dollars

at the box true story yeah

now the chairman amy pascal

emailed me over the weekend

and said oh my goodness this is amazing

this movie is going to make a hundred

million dollars

this movie is going to be one of the

most profitable films that we have ever

done at our company

oh my goodness you’re amazing all this

kind of stuff god said

do not

bathe in the adoration

use the door

with her to set up a meeting

so i she emailed me i emailed her back

hey can i come see you she said

absolutely

tuesday after opening weekend

i went into her office

now we’re talking about the open door

how did i get the production company how

did i know

because

when i looked at everything that i had

done at the company at that time

i realized that that there was no path

for me to become president

so i was like well i’ve done all i can

do

i have a major film that’s like a

business plan for my production company

that i just put my heart and soul into

and it’s working so i have proven that i

can be who i am and i have enough of a

track record now and enough expertise

and so now’s the moment

so i get in the meeting with amy pascal

and she says we want to promote you we

want to offer you more money

and god said

it’s your company

oh i said lord how are we going to do

that lord

that’s okay you’re going to have to

still you have to ask for so i said to

her i said amy um i said i love you i

can’t take the promotion she said what

are you talking about i said i’ve got to

start my own company and i want you to

fund it

[Laughter]

oh god and she said

she said

okay i’ll do it as long as you know you

know as long as you don’t negotiate with

anyone else i said i won’t negotiate

with anyone else as long as the deal is

good

true story we’re not gonna play much hey

i’m making all this money for y’all

uh-uh no so we we negotiate the deal

takes about six months to negotiate it

by the time the deal closes almost to

almost a month to the day

sony’s computers get hacked by north

korea

all this confidential information gets

into the public

the chairman loses her job because of it

if

i did not

step in to my company

while the chairman was in place with

whom i had favor

the door would have closed the window

would have closed

and i might not be sitting before you in

this capacity

because once she left a new chairman

came in and it was a whole different

story

so i was able to step in to the company

the first movie i did with bishop jakes

and joe ross called miracles from heaven

the second movie was the star the third

movie was breakthrough i just i mean

post on a film called flaming hot which

is about the creation of flaming hot

cheetos and the inspirational story of

richard montenez and so my point in

saying all of that

was you got to listen

but you also got to work

every and and the part that i didn’t

tell were the nights that i cried

[Applause]

[Music]

nope

this is important

because i don’t want to portray

a journey of ease

it’s been a journey of faith

but a lot of tears

because when you carry that vision

and you hold that vision

i started when i was 18. i didn’t

actually get the company until i was 36

that’s 18 years of carrying a vision

without knowing what god is going to do

when he’s gonna do it

and still having to show up with a

straight face and smile and serve and

add value to others when you wonder when

is someone going to add value to me

[Music]

so yes it’s been a journey of faith but

it’s been a journey of tears and then

what happens

is

i go through all of that

to get the company and then literally

it’s like starting over again

as an executive my phone is ringing off

the hook

everybody wants to get to know me

because i’m working for sony i can make

your movie whatever

then i start running my own company

with a phone call

wait wait i’m talking about franklin

would you let you ain’t my pregnant work

for sony no more

right so so so that vision of carrying

it and nurturing it and then also being

open

what you talk about in terms of ideating

is so powerful because if i held on to

the previous idea

i would miss the opportunity for

expansion

god was like yes i’m going to have you

produce yes i’m going to have you do

your production company but i also want

you to write

i also want you to do television

i also want you to be on tv

so sometimes as the entrepreneur

becoming the entrepreneur there is a

temptation to worship the vision

[Music]

god wants us to carry the vision but

worship him

the moment we worship the vision

we miss what he’s trying to do

because if god gave us the vision and

we’re faithful to him

why wouldn’t he fulfill his vision for

our life

he would and he will and so what i’ve

had to learn even now

is

here

right like okay i’m hearing the vision

i’m seeing the vision

i’m allowing but i gotta allow god to do

it and there have been times y’all

when i’m sitting up here worshiping my

vision

and god says okay cool you can do that

we’re going to slow up for a minute

because if i move it any faster

you’re going to think this was done in

your strength wow

wow so we’re gonna slow it down

right because i need i care more about

your character

i care more about your integrity

than i do about what movies you produce

what shows you produce i care more about

your heart come on than i do about who

knows you devon so if we don’t slow this

down

you’re gonna have more success but with

the wrong heart

the wrong character the wrong integrity

and you will not be able to handle when

you talk about structure it’s not just

an organizational structure it’s an

internal structure that’s why what you

talked about yesterday the why

the intent is a integral part of the

internal structure that we have to have

to harness the success

what is so important as we navigate

being called it’s not just what you do

externally it’s what you also do

internally that’s why i love what you

talked about this morning about the mind

i really want to challenge everyone

listening to this

as much energy as you put into the

vision you’re trying to manifest

externally

put that also into your your structures

internally

how’s your heart

how’s your integrity because also the

thing that god challenges me on man

there have been times

i’m like oh

lord why won’t you do this for me

you know why won’t you do that i’ll even

give you something very specific you

know we’re family i’ll tell you all

what’s going on so

i have a first look deal with paramount

and so what that means is that paramount

funds the overhead for my company so

i’ll just break it down really quick so

i have a first look deal with paramount

i have a first look deal with cbs

studios and i have a second look deal

with netflix so what does that mean so

any movie project i have i first have to

give paramount the opportunity to say

yes or no

in exchange for getting the first look

on anything that i want to do

paramount funds my company so they pay

for all the overhead all the staff they

pay for the entire office space

everything

and in order to normally keep your first

look deals you have to make content for

them right now with the way that the

pandemic worked out and all this kind of

stuff

i made a movie the flaming hot film i

made it last year but i made that for

disney

right now as it stands in what’s today

february what

19th

i have not made a movie yet for

paramount

and my first look deal is up in november

in my flesh we’re talking about

worshiping the vision instead of

worshiping god

in my flesh i’m like god what am i going

to do if i lose this deal what’s gonna

happen and i gotta i gotta make this

movie and what’s gonna happen

and god said

so

are you not devon franklin if you don’t

have a deal with paramount

[Music]

can you not do what i’ve called you

if you don’t make a movie for them

oh i see

you’re putting your stock you’re putting

too much of your identity stock in an

association with the company that

tomorrow could be sold

he said but if you keep your identity

stocking me

you can go from company to company it

doesn’t matter

so the reason why i share that is god

said stop worshiping your vision

and worship me

he said give me your deal and i’ll show

you what i want to be done with it and

maybe i have a bigger situation for you

that if you would just let go of what i

get because see the paramount deal

comes from previous faith

y’all not ready come on you’re not right

yeah we are you’re not ready you’re not

right you’re right what i mean is

the deal was signed two years ago

so that is a result of faith that i had

before two years

so the current faith

might be creating a situation that

paramount is too small

because god has given me new faith

and new vision

for what it is he wants me to do

so he said stop worshiping the deal

and worship me

and i will show you

what i have for you

and the only way you’re gonna know

is to continuously every time you and

how do you know when you’re in faith or

not

your level of frustration

if you and i are really frustrated it

means we’re completely out of faith

because why would we be frustrated over

what we know god is going to do why

why

there’s no frustration

our frustration is when we doubt when

we’re not certain

when we don’t trust that’s where

frustration is

so when you talk about ease and peace of

mind it’s because i’m in faith and i

feel and i feel and know what god is

doing

i go back to 18 years old

i had to

be certain

that i was going to be a producer

and just wait for time to catch up with

my certainty

for 18 years

showing up

being faithful

serving in my certainty

devon are you going to produce i am i

don’t know when

devon are you sure i’m positive because

i know what god has said to me

so i’m going to stand in the certainty

of my identity

before my reality

gives me any evidence

to believe i am who i am before my

reality gives me validation of that

divine you better take over sorry that

was a long answer that was a 20-minute

answer no no no no no that that was

everything

so so i feel i feel something stirring

we’ve got questions

and please forgive me

i’m not gonna do the questions

because

i believe

that devon

can impart

a measure of faith

i i i believe that i i believe you know

that in in first corinthians 12 it talks

about the manifestations of the spirit

and one and some people call it gifts of

spirit whatever it’s manifestation

spirit myosis my theology says anyway

which means that in the spirit there is

faith

uh you we have to figure out how to

unlock it but

your life

has been produced literally

by faith

so

before

we let you go

i’m going to say something that i don’t

want anybody to miss

and then i want you to pray

and we’re going to cup our hands to

receive something because this is a this

is this thread

of faith and really believing bigger

is continuing

throughout our meeting together so so i

believe that devon

is gonna i know

is called to impart faith now part of

there was something that you said first

of all there’s so many things you said

you got to watch this thing

and listen to this thing

because there were 18 sermons

and three books

in his answer to my question 18 sermons

three books

but he said something

that was very powerful and a movie

and a tv show series

and he didn’t tell at all because i know

more he didn’t tell at all

but you you when you talked to amy you

went into emmy’s office

and you asked

the power of the ask

[Music]

the fear of rejection

is

one of the greatest hindrances

and one of the greatest dysfunctions

in the life of the destiny believer

he the

idea of being rejected

was nowhere

it may have come up but it was so

squashed

by the power of belief

and if you’re gonna be everything that

god has called you to be

you have to get past

that fear of rejection because you are

going to have to ask somebody for

something but here’s the thing you think

about jesus it says that he grew

watch this in wisdom

in stature and in favor with god

and

man

which means that i know we say all we

need is jesus and that’s true but jesus

operates oftentimes through the open

doors

that he gives the keys to man in but if

you don’t ask

if you are not sensitive enough

sensitive enough to know

what you want and if you don’t ask if

you wouldn’t have asked that question

any fear of rejection if you wouldn’t

have asked and asked right there on the

spot when you were supposed to

we would be having a different

conversation

that’s

important the power of the ass and

getting over the fear of rejection

yes yes the thing about the ask which

was so important was to

it wasn’t that that i wasn’t afraid it

was like okay i’m just going to make my

fear my to-do list

oh you got to break that down

you got a meeting the things that i’m

afraid of those are the exact things i

have to do

it was like yo you’re afraid of asking

that’s what you got to do you got to ask

and the only way you’re going to know if

it’s right if god is in it the other

part that was so important

is i was asking

from an account

i had made deposits in

equity i had equity in the account

i didn’t go ask amy pascal and i had not

put anything into her account

for at that point in time over nine

years i had been making investments into

her company her division being an

ambassador making her look good

so when it was time for me to make a

withdrawal

my account was in good standing

very important

to not just make asks for accounts you

have not deposited in

because you would never go to an atm

expecting to get money if you haven’t

put anything

but it’s the same thing and sometimes

it’s not just the people that you’ve

actually literally worked for it’s like

this if everyone’s here and you’re part

of this ministry to what degree are you

contributing to the ministry and i don’t

mean just financially i’m talking about

sweat equity to what degree are you

serving the ministry because there you

go you’re putting something in the

account

in the kingdom account so when it’s time

to make a withdrawal your standing is

good i see too many people in this

generation wanting something for nothing

and then getting frustrated that god’s

not doing it but where is your service

where is your sacrifice

when have you sacrificed what you wanted

because you were helping somebody else

so when it’s time to ask

you are asking from a foundation of

personal integrity because you know what

you’ve done

and you know what you can do

so the ask was not just a wish wow i

wasn’t rubbing on a magic lamp hoping it

was an ass it was a strategic ask

wow from somebody i knew had the power

to do what i was asking

it was only a matter of whether or not

they were willing to do it wow and if

they weren’t willing to do it

my response was my time here is done

because if you don’t believe in me

after all i’ve done

there’s nothing more devon franklin can

do for sony pictures to get you to

believe in me wow i have put all these

movies on my back and done above and

beyond and you all have hundreds of

millions of dollars

that you know if it wasn’t for me this

value wouldn’t be here and if you don’t

believe in my vision at this point

then it’s time for me to go wow and i

was okay

with her saying no

okay it must mean there’s another place

for me to go i got to do something else

but last thing i’m going to say and then

i’ll do whatever you you impartation

prayer whatever sorry i get talking to

y’all

i ain’t had a chance

i’m enjoying the mic

[Applause]

last thing i’m gonna say is this come on

it’s so important when you talk about

the ask and you talk about you know us

wanting right

i also have continuously had to check

myself

why do you want it so badly

wow okay okay okay okay i’m gonna try to

just briefly unpack this so that it’s

clear

um uh

so being the middle child of three boys

you know my father passed away when i

was nine years old

he died of a heart attack when he was 36

uh alcoholic and all that right and so

growing up i found my value in

achievement

so the trauma and the pain of losing my

father instead of really processing that

i said let me get straight a’s

let me be president of student body

government let me let me work my way

against my trauma

so i found so much value and oh good job

and great job devon and good job and

you’re going to be great things and all

this so i started to perform

so that i’d never had to face the pain

that i never resolved

so as i started to work in the business

and as things started to happen and then

there were certain delays i started to

get really anxious

ugh i got to have these things why is

the company not happening and then once

i get the company why aren’t these

movies not happening then what’s going

to happen with paramount and i’m holding

on

because i’m finding too much of my

identity

and what it is i want

and god says why do you want it so badly

and the revelation was i want it

because i’m not doing the work

internally

and i’m needing this

to fill this

and god said as long as you need that

as long as you need the movies as long

as you need the tv shows as long as you

need the deals as long as you need the

people

to subsidize and supplement the work you

are choosing not to do

you will never be happy

you will never be fulfilled

you will never find peace because the

trick of the enemy

is to make us think

once i get the company where i want it

to be then i will be fill in the blame

once i have the people who come to work

for me then i will be fill in the blank

once i have somebody give me the money

to fund my company then i will be

that is a trick of the enemy because

what happens is we keep delaying our

peace delaying our happiness delaying

our contentment and once you get what

you think is going to make you happy i

promise you it’s going to be the

greatest day of your depression

because you’re going to realize you

sacrifice you fought for all of this and

then you get it and it’s not exactly

what you thought it would be and you

don’t feel the way you thought it would

make you feel what was the lesson

[Applause]

god was saying i don’t want you to want

it in order to know who you are

i don’t want you to want it to subsidize

the pain you’ve been through acknowledge

that pain heal that pain and know that

who i have called you to be is what i’m

gonna do but don’t want it so badly

that you lose yourself over it

don’t want to become so successful

that you lose who he created you to be

so i would just share as it relates to

the ask

search the heart

why are you asking and why are you

stressing yourself out

if for some reason you don’t get the

answer you want

think about the word of god there’s so

many stories in the bible

where one person thought it was going to

be a straight line but it wasn’t and

what god said is if you would just enjoy

the journey

if you would learn to enjoy the

experience with me

god says i’m as much god in the valley

as i am on the mountaintop

and you would learn so much more about

me if you would appreciate your valley

moments

don’t want the mountaintop so badly that

you think it’s gonna make you because it

won’t

it’s the valley it’s the experiences

that make you so when you get to the

mountaintop you can say oh this is cool

this is great

this is nice okay great

but i didn’t worship the mountaintop i

worship the god of the mountain

this this is

this is beyond

this is beyond because

not only is

and devon i got to tell you

what god is doing

and you there’s a whole nother dimension

of ministry

and impact

that’s resting on you right now

i thought

that you were just

going to impart faith

but you can impart healing

stand please

if you’re watching on live stream i want

you to get in on this

if i have a minstrel in the house i

would greatly appreciate them

coming forward

cup your hands like you’re getting ready

to receive something this is exactly

what we prayed that this would be

the rod

of judah

and the rod of joseph

because there’s something powerful that

happens

when you marry the anointing

with business

and impact

there’s some i can’t explain it

the context of that passage is

that it wasn’t it was a non-negotiable

take that rod of judah

and take that rod of joseph and bring

them together and this is how

the promise is going to be realized

i want you to just cup your hands like

you’re going to and you’re going to

receive something

devon i just want you to pray as a

spirit lead you

dear heavenly father

we thank you

for being with us right now

dear heavenly father i want to pray

for the brokenhearted

because even at this called conference

a lot of times we’re called

but then our heart breaks over what we

carry

because with what you’ve called us to

carry and the vision you’ve given us

sometimes we get weary and weak because

we wonder when is the vision going to

come to pass

and someone right now who’s listening

their heart has broken

because of what they’ve been carrying

and people forgot about them

promises were made and those promises

were not kept money was promised and it

was never deposited and as a result of

them carrying the vision because of the

calling

but the vision not yet being fulfilled

their heart has broken

i pray right now if you’re listening to

this prayer and you have a broken heart

that god would heal it

i need you to know that every vision

that god has called you to see he has

every intent of fulfilling it

i need you to know that every person

that forgot about you every time the

money wasn’t deposited every person that

left you

god is going to use every single

opportunity to allow his vision to come

in spite of those who don’t believe

and i pray if you’re listening to this

prayer that you would know

that you’re not crazy

because see you have seen something that

nobody else sees so every time you share

it people come against it because they

can’t see what you see i need you to

know you’re not crazy i need you to know

if you’re listening to this prayer it’s

because god has every intent to do what

he said he would do

and i pray right now that you would not

worship the vision

but you would worship the god of the

vision

i pray right now you would not let your

days be wasted in frustration but every

time you get frustrated it means you are

caring about the vision too much it

means you got to step back and say god i

want it too badly you do it in your time

and let me have peace in in

in exchange

i pray right now if you’re listening to

this prayer

that you would know

your greater days are not just yet ahead

they’re here

why do i say that because you can choose

peace right now

you can choose joy right now

you can choose healing right now

do not think that when your vision comes

to pass is the day to celebrate the day

to celebrate is right now the day to

celebrate is when you feel broken when

you feel down when you don’t know what’s

going to happen but the money is not in

the bank now is the day to celebrate

because when you celebrate the things

that are not as if they were there’s no

choice but for god to deliver into your

reality what he has promised

so i pray right now

if you’re listening to this prayer

that when you look at your instagram

account

for your business and you only got one

follower

i pray that you would celebrate that you

just had a million

i i i pray that that when nobody wants

to sign up for you for your e-blast list

that you sign up for yourself and you

say thank god

i got one of the most vibrant email

lists in the country why because i want

you to get into a posture of faith stop

allowing your reality to dictate how you

praise god god said we walk by faith not

by sight so you got to get into the

faith

and start praising him from that place

and i pray right now

that god you would release in your time

not only the fulfillment of the vision

but more

because i’ve learned that you only show

us part

and there’s so much more to come

before we close this prayer i pray dear

heavenly father

for pastor toray

i pray for my brother dear god

you have given him some of the vision

but i want him to also know there’s more

to come

nobody knows the trouble he has seen

in carrying this vision as long as he

has

and millions around the world have been

blessed because of it but nobody knows

the scars that he bears on his heart

no one knows the scar tissue in his soul

so i prayed to heavenly father that you

would let him know at this call

conference that he is also called

and that there is a higher mountaintop

for him

and that more is coming

and more is on the way

and it’s just as he is imparted i pray

that he would receive this impartation

and that there’s more and that there’s

different and that there’s interesting

on the way

oh my goodness lord people may know him

as pastor toray or the author

best-selling author to god but i know

you’re opening up new avenues of his

identity

because there are new avenues of his

calling which will be apparent to him

and everyone around him

and i pray right now that you would just

allow your favor to be on this house

everyone who signed up for this

conference i need you to know you’re

blessed

and you are highly favored thank you for

the opportunity in the name of jesus we

say

amen amen

wow

what a tremendous experience put it

right there in the feed just let let me

know straight out what you thought about

this come on just just i mean i know

some of you are probably crying you’re

touched there’s so much clarity that’s

come to you i mean this was certainly

one of the highlights of the experience

and this wasn’t all we had i brought you

into last week’s moment that was the

opening session this was uh the about

the third session the whole conference

is a blessing and you know it’s my heart

particularly for entrepreneurs young

people trying to get into business

trying to break into the industry trying

to launch their non-profits listen there

are a whole slew of ways of being called

to do great things for god and it’s my

passion to not just raise up preachers

and speakers but to raise up

entrepreneurs and business people and

influential people so they can take the

gospel in their unique way all over the

world and so there are two options for

you one is a replay i want you to get

the entire experience this as powerful

as it was is just a fraction of what

took place in those two days and so

there are instructions on the screen

there’s a qr code you can you can

there’s a text you just follow the

instructions on the screen and you’ll be

directed to the replay where you can

watch the entire conference for three

months you can watch it just feast on it

take your time feast on it it is going

to bless you if you missed it now you

didn’t and then also

the call leadership conference 2023 is

now available and there’s an early bird

registration discount trust me once you

experience the call you will never miss

a call experience again and so those are

instructions on the screen as well get

your early bird discount for 2023 it’s

going to be absolutely amazing and the

last bit of resource i want to make you

aware of is my new book balance it’s

coming out on april 26 but it is

available for pre-order now in fact most

of the outlets right now have it at a

discount i think amazon has it at 30

some of the other outlets have it at 30

percent get this book and in fact while

it’s low

while the price is you know at 30 i’m

sure once it comes out it’s not going to

be that way you can pick up a copy for

other people you are going to share this

book because it is a game changer not

because i wrote it but because of what

god did to me what came through me in

writing this book i’ve never written a

book as powerful as this one it’s going

to be incredible and listen this is

about me desiring to see you be

everything that god has has called you

to be and these are tools and resources

that are going to allow you to do just

that i’m so so very excited i’ll see you

next week