We understand that the peace of God causes us to be firmly planted in certainty. We understand that our foundation is what God has said. Our trust is in who he is. And the peace that God gives to his church goes beyond all comprehension. Even in the midst of great trial and tribulation, within you is the strength of the Spirit causing you to keep your eyes firmly fixed on Jesus. Though the foundations of the earth be shaken, those who stand in the presence of Almighty God, those who live under the shadow of his wing, walk in that peace despite what's going on around them. And having said that and making sure that the believer understands that we never have any reason to fear, we do, however, have reason to be prepared. The goal of speaking truth to the body of Christ is not to scare them, but to prepare them for the things that are to come. Because if we understand by the Spirit what's happening, that's part of what brings the peace because we know it's part of God's plan. Now this doesn't mean that we have to know everything all the time and understand absolutely every move that God makes. If that were the case, then that would mean that there would be no trust in God, but we trust in his nature even when we don't understand what's happening. Still, it's important that we be informed. It's important that we receive revelation by the Holy Spirit that we might be guided in certain times, that we might have that certain guidance in uncertain moments. Now let me say this, many in the body of Christ have been sensing that there is something coming and we can't quite put our finger on it. We just know by the Spirit, we sense by the Spirit that there is an intensification of deception coming upon the earth. And that deception causes people confusion about who God is, about who they are, about how they should live in this world, and that deception will only intensify as the world goes further and further into darkness. Now we must remember that Jesus did say that in the last days, perilous times would come. We understand that, we accept that, and that's no reason to fear. But we also must remember that though in the last days, perilous times will come, Jesus never said that in the last days the gospel would lose its power. Sin is still the problem, Jesus is still the answer, and the gospel still has power. So we're not facing these situations with fear. I often get messages from believers on social media saying, David, please, I'm so afraid of the last days. I'm so afraid of the rapture. And I think that we're afraid because we don't understand exactly what it is. Even in the midst of tribulation, we are not abandoned, pressed, but not crushed. God remains with us, that strength of the Spirit holding us up. And even though things may be falling apart out there, there's glory on the house. And so pressures come, deception intensifies, the world gets darker, yes, but people are still being saved, revival is still happening. I mean, think about the fact that Jesus listed several different things that would indicate to us that the end is upon us. And he talked about wars and rumors of wars, pestilence and famine, and I can go on listing several different things, but after each time he listed something, he would say, but the end is not yet. What did he say was the indicator? He said, but this gospel shall be preached to the ends of the earth, and then the end will come. What does that tell you? That revival not retreat will be the posture of the church in the last days. We're not powering in the corner saying, get us out of here, Lord. No, we're advancing the kingdom of God in power with truth by the Holy Spirit. So yes, deception will intensify. This is what the Bible says in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, verses 1 through 4. And as you turn there, I'll just mention that I'm wanting to balance our thinking on this, because on one hand we have people who are so consumed by the realities of this world that they live in fear. And on the other hand, you have Christians who are so naive about this world that they live in delusion. And so we want to avoid both delusion slash deception and fear. We must recognize that yes, deception is coming. Yes, hard times are coming. Yes, the world is getting darker. But also we must remember that ultimately Jesus has the victory. He's seated upon the throne. He's seated at the right hand of the Father, 2 Thessalonians 2, 1 through 4. Now, dear brothers and sisters, let us clarify some things about the coming of our Lord Jesus and how we will be gathered to meet him. Don't be so easily shaken or alarmed by those who say that the day of the Lord has already begun. Don't believe them, even if they claim to have had a spiritual vision, a revelation, or a letter supposedly from us. Don't be fooled by what they say. For that day will not come until there is a great rebellion against God and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the one who brings destruction. He will exalt himself and defy everything that people call God and every object of worship. He will even sit in the temple of God claiming that he himself is God. So there we see the coming of the Antichrist, a great deception coming over the world. 1 Timothy chapter 4 verses 1 and 2. Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith. And I believe we're seeing that now. Except they don't call it turning away from the faith. They call it deconstructing their faith. They will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons.  Matthew 24, 24. For there shall arise false Christ and false prophets, and they shall show great signs and wonders in so much that if it were possible, and there's a lot of misconceptions surrounding this particular verse, it says if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect, meaning those who are truly guided by the Holy Spirit cannot fall under this deception that's being described. But the great deception is rampant. We see it in culture. We see it in the systems of this world. We see it in the political system, in the education system, in the movie industry, in the music industry, in the entertainment industry, in the social media algorithms, we see deception being pushed. And many are caught in this system of deception under the power of darkness. Here's the reality. Either you are of the kingdom of light or you are a slave to the kingdom of darkness. There is no in between. Whether you're aware of it or not, there are only two kingdoms, light and darkness, truth and deception, good and evil, heaven and hell, God and Satan, they are opposed to one another. And we must recognize that there is a clear line of distinction drawn between the two. And many preachers, sadly, trying to placate to culture or make the gospel more palatable, are trying to blur that line in order to be accepted by culture and society. People of God, leaders, preachers, hear me now. It is not clever or wise or profound to dance around issues and questions. It is not clever to give half answers. God raised preachers to be bold declares of truth. We see these systems that are gaining power, but again, this is not a reason to fret. I want to make you aware of these things so that you can stay spiritually sharp, that you can use eyes of discernment. By the way, discernment is not the gift of criticism. I can't tell you how many times I've seen posted about my friends, they'll post their picture or the video, they'll say, you have to use discernment with this guy. I'm thinking, you have to use discernment with every guy, with every woman. So what they think it means is you have to dislike them or you have to mark and avoid them. No, my friend, discernment is seen by the spirit based on the word, not your opinions or emotions. And so we have to make sure that our discernment is properly calibrated and that is based on the word. And this is why I want you to be prepared because I don't want you to live under the bondage that comes from deception. We have to stay strong. Let he who has eyes to see, see. Let he who has ears to hear, hear. Let me say it this way. And I'll only go so far on this point because I've not been released to talk too much about this by the spirit. You watch as those in power begin to blatantly communicate with demonic beings themselves. You watch for that. And what those demonic beings will communicate, you may think this is crazy. You may think this is conspiracy. I don't really care. I'm telling you the truth. Those in power will believe that they are receiving truth from these demonic entities. You want to talk about deception. The enemy is losing. Truth is advancing. These are not moves made from positions of power. I want you to hear that. These are not moves made from positions of power by the enemy. These are desperate attempts of a dying kingdom. Darkness has already lost. Jesus defeated darkness when he rose from the dead. Now John 16 33 says, I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth, you will have many trials and sorrows. Many times we don't want to claim that part. But that's what Jesus said. But take heart because I have overcome the world. So let's go now to Ephesians chapter 6. I'm going to begin reading at verse number 10 and we'll go through down to 12 and then onward to 13 and 14 through 17. But I want to make a few points about 10 through 12 first. A final word, Ephesians 6 10, a final word, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. Stop and look up at me for a second. Does it say some strategies of the devil? What does it say? Meaning any strategy that the enemy can use against the believer can be prevented by use of the armor of God. God does not hide the believer's freedom behind demonic or ancient mysteries. God kind of quiet here. So I know I'm on the right track. Your liberty in Christ does not depend upon whether you have a membership to ancestry.com or not. Well, I have to find out. It's not like in the movies, guys. I have to solve the riddle. I have to put the puzzle together. I have to go back and find where in my generations, as if God is folding his arms looking down at you saying, I would set you free, but you don't know what your great-great-grandmother did yet, so I can't do anything.  So the Bible here says all strategies, nothing hidden, nothing that the enemy can bring forward that the Scripture did not mention, nothing that the enemy can bring forward that solves some, that takes some riddle to solve that we're desperate to find the answer to. No. God lays it out plainly for you. You live by these precepts. You will walk in freedom. That's what the Scripture is telling us here. So you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. Every single one of them. That's what the Bible says. Verse 12, for we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in heavenly places. There's a lot to break down there, but I want to simply point out to you that hell is structured. There is a rank in command, a rank in file in the kingdom of darkness. There is a organized effort against the children of God, and they're coming after your faith. They're coming after your belief in the truth. There are some believers who are so obsessed with demonic power that they live in paranoia. There are other believers who are so ignorant of demonic power they live in bondage and don't even know it. So we have to avoid demon obsession, but also ignorance about the demonic. Vigilant, not paranoid. But my friend, lest there be any mistake that we can make regarding this issue, let me make it clear. There is a spiritual realm. Demons are real. There is a spiritual battle going on over this world, over the souls of this generation, and we cannot pretend any longer like this isn't a conflict between light and darkness because it is. We have to wake up. We have to stop preaching things that take our focus off the realm of the Spirit. The Bible is fundamentally supernatural, but many times we try to pretend as if it's superficially supernatural, as in the basics of it are mostly very just practical and so forth. And there is a practical application to everything in scripture. Don't get me wrong, but many believe that we can live disconnected from this reality and to do so is detrimental to your spiritual life. And so again, we must strike balance, not paranoid, and also not ignorant. So the Bible lists for us there. There are powers, demons. That word is not a metaphor or just an idea or a figment of literature. These are actual beings that come against the people of God. Verse 13, therefore, in other words, because of the existence of these entities, because of the existence of the powers of darkness, because these are realities by which we must live, therefore put on every piece of God's armor. Now watch this again. Put on every piece of God's armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil, then after the battle you will be standing firm. This is a command. You put it on. God provides it. You have to choose to use it. This is what many believers don't understand about the power of the Holy Spirit. They're constantly begging for more of the Holy Spirit, not realizing that everything the Holy Spirit is, he dwells in you.  When you were born again, the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you. It's the same Holy Spirit. This Holy Spirit gives us power, gives us truth. That's the life of the believer. You already have joy. You already have peace. You already have love and power and grace and holiness. The issue is, many of us aren't living a life and surrender to the Holy Spirit, and therefore we never make use of that which he's already given to us. And so we're begging God for more and we're saying, Holy Spirit, I want more of you. When in reality it's not a matter of you getting more of the Holy Spirit, but of the Holy Spirit getting more of you. Surrender. So you put on the armor. Now watch this, verse 14, stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness. For shoes put on the peace that comes from the good news so that you will be fully prepared. In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. Verse 17, put on salvation as your helmet and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Now let's break these down. Number one, the belt of truth. What is the scripture describing here? Truth itself, simple enough. John 14, 6, Jesus told him, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the father except through me. John 17, 17, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth.   You wonder why it's difficult to remain standing. You wonder why your faith goes up and down. You wonder why on Sundays you get recharged only to find yourself by Wednesday feeling like you're ready to backslide. Because many of us build our houses upon opinion. Many of us build our houses upon emotion. Many of us build our houses upon how we're doing that week or what the circumstances dictate to us. When we should build upon the words of Christ, the teachings, the truth that he has given to us, if you are not in the Word, you are easy prey for the enemy. Why? Because the enemies attack against the believer. Hear me now and this is something I pray the Holy Spirit gives us all revelation on. The way that the enemy attacks the believer is the one thing, deception. It's always deception. Now you talk about the unbeliever. Oh my goodness, there's a whole bunch more that's in his tool belt that he can use against them. But against the believer, it's just deception. Why? Because you've already been given the power of the Holy Spirit and the only way he can take any influence in your life is if you don't make use of what God has given to you.  And so we must learn not just who we are, but more importantly, who God is, what Christ has accomplished. So many believers are in bondage because they don't understand their inheritance or identity in Christ. So many believers are in bondage because they don't understand the work of salvation. They don't understand the fullness of the power of the Holy Ghost. They don't understand what it means to walk in the glory of God. The life of the believer is meant to be one of victory. Now I'm going to say something that may be offensive, but I'm going to say it anyway, not to offend, but to speak the truth and then allow me to explain it. Because many times when you say things, people hear another thing than what you're saying. So listen very carefully. If you are in bondage, you are not living the Christian life. Now this is something you're not going to be told quite often, because many times preachers placate to itching ears wanting to be told something else. If you are in spiritual bondage, you're not living the Christian life. Did you say I'm not a Christian? No. It's not what I said. I said you're not living the Christian life, meaning you are not accessing what is rightfully yours. Spiritual bondage, please hear this church. Spiritual bondage is not a part of the Christian life. We often think as though, oh, I'm in my struggling face, and I understand that there are trials. I'm not saying we won't have emotions. I'm not saying we won't experience sorrow. I'm not saying we won't face difficult times and difficult circumstances. We will face loss and tragedy. Yes, we will have trials. But that's not the same thing as a spiritual bondage or deception. See, a believer who walks in victory, though they have trials, they still have their joy and peace intact. But a believer who's in bondage faces those trials, and they think those trials are proof that God has abandoned them. They think those trials are proof that God didn't keep his word after all. They think those trials are proof that the enemy has any power over them whatsoever. And so because we always have trials, they believe they're always under the power of the enemy. And so you look in the Scripture, and the life of the believer is described as victory. And we accept spiritual defeat. Again, I'm not talking about trials. We have to distinguish between the two. Spiritual defeat is not a part of the Christian life. Yet we say things, and we have this form of pride that we surround ourselves with to protect us from actually addressing the issue.   And we wrap our identity around our struggles. You say, well, I've never wrapped my identity around my struggle. You have wrapped your identity around your struggles. If you accept those struggles because you think that's just a part of being anointed. Being anointed, people will come against you. There will be seasons of doubt. There will be seasons of hardship. You will be persecuted. But never once did the Scripture say that we should be under spiritual bondage. And so we accept it as a part of the Christian life and say, well, you know, I'm so anointed that I'm just spiritually bound. And it's this backwards thinking when the Scripture tells us that if you resist the enemy, he flees. He doesn't fight. You know why?  And once you find out who you are, he says, I have to flee. But you see, if we're not keen on how the enemy deceives, then when deception begins to permeate and intensify, we may be swept under certain mindsets that keep us thinking in defeat. And this is more than just positive thinking. This is truthful thinking, rightful thinking, biblical thinking, the belt of truth. And many of you are arguing against your own deliverance.  Yes, he can. I say, some of these believers really want their demons. But you know, we accept these lies and we haven't girded ourselves with truth. And because we just accept the premise, we grant the premise, we grant the premise of the lies of the enemy. And then he runs our lives through that influence, through that deceptive thought pattern that we have. And we don't even realize we're the ones who gave him that in the first place. And so we have to come back to the place where we're living in truth, truth about who God is, truth about your identity, truth about the new nature of the believer, truth about the power of the Holy Spirit living in you. That's the belt of truth. Now, you know you're not walking in truth when you're swayed by worldly opinions. Let me put it to you this way. Truth by its very nature does not change. I don't care what the modern world says about any issue if it contradicts the truth of the Word of God. You know you're not living in truth if you're swept up constantly by strange doctrine. Getting all wrapped up in doctrines that just create legalism. You know how you know you're wrapped up in legalism? You have no peace. You know how you know you're wrapped up in strange doctrine is when the doctrines bring you more paranoia than they do power. You forget about who you are in Christ. You know you're not living in truth when you do things based upon your own thoughts and emotions. Well, is Jesus Lord or are your emotions the Lord of your life? See, because if you live according to your emotions, your emotions change and therefore soul will the direction of your life. But you live according to truth and no matter how you feel, you have a fixed purpose. So that's belt of truth. Number two, the body armor of righteousness. Romans 4-3, for the Scripture tells us Abraham believed God and God counted him as righteous because of his faith. Righteousness is a gift. Righteousness is a gift from God. When you believe God and put your faith in what Jesus has done on the cross, then he grants to you righteousness. It's imputed righteousness. Once you've placed your faith in Christ, and this is one of the true miracles of salvation, and this truly is one of the great lifters of the burden that many of us have carried, when you recognize who you are in Christ, you come to know this wonderful reality that when God looks at the cross, he sees your sins. And when God looks at you, he sees Christ's perfection. Now that can only be granted by faith. You believe and therefore he gives that to you. That's the gift of salvation. So this righteousness in which we live is only stabilized, is only received, is only acted upon or lived out when we live in truth. In the Scripture, the armor that's being described is an ancient armor, and that breastplate of righteousness, the body armor of righteousness, was held in place by the belt. So therefore we see in Scripture that truth is what fastens righteousness to us. Jesus said you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free. If you're bound in a sin in an addiction of some sorts, you're bound in a cycle of habits that you can't seem to break, I promise you this, somewhere deep down you are believing a lie that's keeping you bound to that sin. And that truth that you're not living in, that lack of truth makes it difficult to hold to yourself the body armor of righteousness. Now, I don't have time to completely dissect this because there's many other points I want to make, but we want to talk about repentance here just for a second. To repent means to change your mind. Now when I say that, some believers get offended, they say no, you must turn around. That's what you must do. And I agree, you must turn from sin, yes, but that's still not what the word repent means, though the Bible does say we must turn from sin as well. To repent means to change your mind, to renounce means to turn from. Now here's the issue. Many believers try to renounce their sin, that is turn from it, before they've had a change of mind. And so when you repent, you agree with God, God, I agree, this sin is destructive.   Otherwise, you wouldn't be doing it. And so I agree that this sin is destructive. I agree that this sin will not fulfill me. I agree that this sin must go now and for all time, because here's what we do. The flesh is so tricky. We lie to ourselves when it comes to repentance. We say before God, God, I'm going to put this sin away. And the flesh whispers for now. I'm giving this up. And the flesh says, until the cravings become strong again. And so even though we say it with our mouths, even though we really want it, and many times it's not sin we want to be freed from, but the consequences of sin. Many times it's not sin you want to be freed from, it's from the guilt that sin brings. Lord, relieve the guilt, but let me keep the sin. And then they get stuck in the cycle. Feeling bad is not repentance. And so you believe, according to the flesh, and then you're lying to yourself, and then you try to renounce and turn from it while you're battling with yourself. So to repent means I change my mind about it completely. And now I can renounce. By the way, renounce means to turn from. We've ritualized repentance and renouncing to what we think is just a list that we read off of. You know, we get the scroll and it rolls all the way across the floor. I renounce this, I renounce this, I renounce this. And if it really was biblical, we had to renounce everything our ancestors did. You would need a genealogy all the way back to Adam and Eve. And then a perfect record of everything in between. But that's not what we're in. You can do that. There's nothing wrong with that inherently. If you want to verbalize the fact that you're rejecting the sins of your ancestors, go for it. That's a beautiful thing. And it's good that your children see you do it. We renounce drug addiction. We renounce alcohol. Right? You can do that, but that's still not what that word means. Because many of us will read off of a paper or say a ritualized prayer while never turning from that sin and then wonder why it still has its consequences manifesting in our lives. And so we've made it a religion. We've ritualized it. This is where we have to come to the place where we're saying I'm going to hold myself to righteousness in the truth. And that truth will be held to me fast. And I will agree, God, this has to go. I turn in my mind from this sin and I also renounce it in my everyday life. I'll briefly survey some of the other pieces of armor, the shoes of peace. This is your readiness to preach the gospel. Now I do find it ironic. I think that's the word that I should be using. I think it's ironic that the shoes of peace are the means by which we take territory. See, we don't conquer in the manner of worldly kingdoms. We don't expand territory through violence. When we take steps with the shoes of peace, we are taking the declaration of the gospel everywhere we go. And everywhere that the gospel goes, the hearts of prisoners are set free. Everywhere that the gospel goes, truth advances. You see, we expand our kingdom by sharing the gospel. And every time a life is transformed, that life touches a family. That family touches a region. That region shakes nations. And so the shoes of peace is the truth of the gospel. Are you seeing a theme here? Truth, truth, truth. Number four, the shield of faith. The shield of faith is your belief in what God has said. Spiritual warfare ultimately is the fight to believe God's truths over the enemy's lies. That's spiritual warfare. It's that battle in the mind to hold fast to truth. And the fiery darts of the enemy that are launched at you, that's deception. That's a lie. And just as the shield quenches that fiery dart, so truth quenches deception. Fire like deception spreads if it's not addressed immediately. Everything about the kingdom of hell is built on shifting shadow. Oh, I pray we understand this in the name of Jesus. Everything about the kingdom of hell is built on shifting shadow.  The weapons of the enemy are nothing more than sharp silhouettes. And just as a shadow can appear larger in the right perspective, so the power of the enemy can seem larger than it actually is when we live under the power of deception. The enemy's power, everything he can do against us, it's a smoky illusion that only works if we give in to the belief in his lie. When you enter a dark room, hopefully you don't scream at the darkness to try to get it out. All the enemy doesn't care at all if you raise your voice. He's not intimidated by our tactics or our firm stance or our raised voices. He doesn't care about how much we think we know about the spiritual realm. The enemy fears one thing, it is written. And so the kingdom of hell is built upon shadowy illusion and the moment the light is turned on, everything in the kingdom of darkness dissolves. Everything in the kingdom of darkness dissolves once that light is introduced. So shoes of peace we take the gospel, shield of faith we believe in the truth of what God has said. Helmet of salvation, just cross-reference this with 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 8 and you'll see that the helmet of salvation is your confidence in salvation. Oh, the enemy wants to shake you from that. You know it's not God's will that you live your life wondering if you're saved. In fact, and this may shake you up, but that's okay. It'll get you studying in the right direction.  Legalism. You want to know how you're bound by legalism? You want to know if you're bound by legalism? If you're constantly fearing the loss of your salvation, you are bound by legalism. Now, again, I know I'm preaching some things that are shaking some people up, but it's good to be shaken up sometimes because we need to come back to the truth. Now, again, people say, what does that mean? I can live however I want. No, because a true believer would desire to live holy. And the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, the spirit of truth, the spirit of truth works in conjunction with the word of truth. The Holy Spirit will remind and reveal concerning truth. And when we're faced with those battles where the enemy is coming against us, we must hold fast to the truth of the word of God. When culture tries to pressure you into believing and preaching according to how they believe, you hold fast on truth. Do not be deceived.  They'll call you old fashioned.  They'll call you narrow minded. Just smile and say, yes, I am narrow minded because Jesus said narrow is the way. I am narrow minded. Some people are so open minded, their brains are falling out. They just take anything for granted and believe everything that comes their way. No, I'm narrow minded. Jesus is the way. Jesus is the way. There's no name under heaven given amongst men by which we are saved other than the name of Jesus. There's no other name, no other name, no other name. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the father, except through me. So we stand fast in the face of adversity and the face of persecution. And yes, criticism and slander and rejection, that is a form of persecution. We stand fast at the armor of God when the enemy comes to attack you. He throws a lie at you in that fiery dart. And you know the thing about a lie is that a lie doesn't become deception until you believe it. When I tell a lie, if I say to you something that's untrue and you reject that lie, you're not deceived. So the enemy crafts his lies to try to make them as believable as possible. And he hurls these fiery darts at us. God has rejected you. That's the lie that's been launched, the fiery dart. Then I take the shield of faith and I believe in the promise I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. And so you hold that shield up and it quenches the fiery dart of the enemy. And then you go after that attacker with the sword of the spirit. It's with the shield of faith that we quench the fiery darts. It's with the sword that we cut down the liars themselves, those demonic powers. The enemy says, God holds your past against you. That's a fiery dart launched. Shield of faith. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. The enemy launches. Nothing good will ever happen to you. You're bound for defeat. God has rejected you. Shield of faith. I cling to it and believe. I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future. Your family will never be saved. Nothing is impossible with God. That sickness is going to keep you bound by his stripes. I am healed.  I want to live in the truth. I want to live in the power that God has made available to me. It's time you stand and who you are. It's time you stand upon truth.  Devil, you cannot have my body. Devil, you cannot have my children. Devil, you cannot have my family. Devil, you cannot have this state. We declare to the enemy, we say America belongs to Jesus. The nations belong to Jesus. This world belongs to Jesus. Are you ready to wage war against the enemy? Well, I pray that that message blessed you and I want you to apply what the Scripture teaches us concerning deception and truth. And I want to pray with you and I want to ask the Lord to help keep you grounded in truth in these confusing times. Father, in the name of Jesus, I lift that one to you now receiving this word. And I pray, Lord, that you would keep them grounded upon your sayings, grounded upon your truth. Teach them to walk and live and think according to your word we pray. Touch each one, Lord. And I also ask that you would begin to heal and deliver and set free. Thank you, Jesus.  Let them sense your nearness even now. I want you to receive that. Thank you, Jesus. Break every chain, break every addiction. Bring peace of mind, peace of heart. In the mighty name of Jesus we pray. I want you to say it because you believe it. Say amen. Well, if you enjoyed that message and you think others need to hear it, don't forget to leave a like and also subscribe to my channel for more content like what you just saw. And I'll mention briefly, if you'd like to support this ministry and all of our ministry endeavors around the world, you can go to davidhernandezministries.com slash donate to give a single donation, or you can go to davidhernandezministries.com partner to become a monthly ministry supporter. Thank you for your support. Thank you for helping us to take the gospel all around the world in the power of the Holy Spirit. And until next time, remember, nothing is impossible with God.


Hello, I'm Oliver Pedra and this is the third presentation. In the previous presentation I have illustrated the first stages of latent transition analysis. So we start by investigating the number of classes that optimally explain heterogeneity of behavior and we do so separately at each time point. If we identify latent classes that appear to be similar across time points, we can also test measurement invariance of these classes across time. Once we have selected one or a few optimal measurement models, we can extract the measurement parameters from these models and use the three-step approach to investigate the associations between latent classes across time and also the association between those classes and other variables. In this presentation, we'll talk about these in more details. So I will follow the outline of stages of latent transition analysis that I have described in a chapter linked here. And in particular, in this presentation, we'll talk about these issues, investigating transitional probabilities, models where I include covariates and distal outcomes and also models that include moderation effects. And I will mention associative latent transition models. So I will start by talking about investigation of transition probabilities in the models. And as I illustrated in the previous presentation, once we have chosen optimal measurement models at each time point, we can use the latent class memberships estimated to which participants are assigned as imperfect indicators of latent classes, feeding to the model the information about the extent of uncertainty in this assignment in the membership of participants into these classes. This information is represented by the classification log-olds parameters that I have extracted from the optimal measurement models. In the previous presentation, I had shown how we can calculate these log-olds, but software like Mplus and others will provide them for use without the need to calculate them. These log-olds parameters that represent uncertainty in classification are indicated in this picture as the parameters besides the hours in the figure. Having defined a fixed measurement model, I can now impose structural relationships between latent classes at each time point. Now the latent classes are considered nominal variables even when we might think of them as being ordered. So the association between latent classes are expressed by multinomial logistic regressions and these are basically regressions, multinomial logistic regression of the latent classes at age 15 on the latent classes at age 14. Since we are using logistic regressions, the associations between latent classes can be expressed by odds ratios. For example, we will have the odds ratios of being an abuser rather than an abstainer at 15 years if someone was an experimenter rather than an abstainer at 15 years and so on. As well as the odds ratios, the other parameters we obtain from a latent transition analysis output are the transition probabilities. These represent the probabilities of being in a latent class at 15 years conditional or a latent class membership at 14 years of age. And these probabilities sum up to one in the rows as you can see here. So if we have the same or similar classes at different time points, we can report what are the probabilities of individuals staying in the same class across time. For example, here we can see that abstainers at age 14 have a 68% probability of remaining abstainers at 15 years. So these probabilities represent continuity in behavioral patterns across time. By considering the number of participants in the study, we can also calculate the total probability of individuals remaining in the same classes over time. These represent continuity as long as the latent classes are the same across time. And at this stage, I just wanted to give a summary of the key parameters of latent transition analysis. And here the letter p represents probability and the horizontal, the vertical bar sign represents means conditional on. So the first two parameters we obtain are those produced by latent class models. So conditional item response probabilities at each time point representing the probability of responding to an item in a certain way for people in a certain latent class. And we also obtain the prevalence of latent classes at each time point. The first set of parameters are unique to latent transition analysis and they represent the structural model. These are the probabilities of being one latent class at one point, one age, given membership to latent class at the previous time point of the previous age. So for example, the probability of being an abuser at 15 years of age conditional on being an experimenter at 14 years of age. I will show that it is possible to constrain some of these transition probabilities to test specific hypothesis about developmental patterns. For example, here we see that the probability of a substance use experimenter becoming an abstainer, the following here is quite low. We can hypothesize that this reported 5% probability of moving from experimenter to abstainer is due to measurement error. And we can test if the model will provide the same fit when we constrain this probability to be zero. That is, when we assume that the transitions from experimenter to abstainer classes are just an effect of random variation. So we can estimate a model where this transition probability is constrained to be zero. And since this model is nested within the model where the transition probabilities are freely estimated, we can formally test our hypothesis by calculating the likelihood ratio test between the two models. In the exercises I have attached with these presentations, I provide more guidance on how to conduct this test. And in a similar manner, we can formally test other hypothesis on transitions across age. Here I am presenting a fictional example of a stage-like model of skill mastery. Individuals may be at different levels where we have novices, learners and masters at a particular skill set. Our model may state that we should not observe individuals backsliding that is moving from being a master to a novice level. Similar transitions will be only observed because of random variation. And we can test this hypothesis by comparing a model with transitions freely estimated and a model where we constrain these backsliding probabilities to be equal to zero, like I indicated here. A likelihood ratio test, compared in the two models, provides a formal test of this hypothesis. Having talked about transition probabilities here, I want to emphasize that latent transition analysis is another regressive model. So individual's status at one time point is directly related to the individual's status in the previous time point, at the previous time point. So this also means that unlike growth models where changes are modeled as a function of time, in latent transition analysis, time is not usually considered as a variable in the model. In this example of free measurement occasions and latent classes measured at time zero, time one and time two, the time variable does not really matter. So time zero may be aged in years, time one may be aged 11 years, and time two may be aged 18 years. So the ages at which we collect data are not usually part of the model. And while we usually consider that individual's status at one time point is directly related to the status at the previous time point, that is, first-order effects as described in this model, we can also test hypotheses where we model second-order effects. For example, individual's status at time two may be also related to individual's status at time zero, or else there may be lagged effects of the initial status. And we can test these models using likely ratio tests, as I mentioned before. Now I'm going to talk about inclusion of covariates and distal outcomes in the latent transition models. When we use the freestyle approach I described in the second presentation, and therefore we have a fixed measurement model that takes into account a sanity in class membership, it becomes straightforward to include covariates in the models, and that means we can investigate associations between the latent class statuses at different time points and covariates. Here, for example, I considered the effects of gender on latent class status at age 14 and latent class membership at age 15. Since latent classes are considered nominal variables, again we use multinomial logistic regressions where the latent classes are regressed on the covariates. And here I considered a nominal covariate-like gender, but we can include all type of covariates, ordinal, continuous, or latent variables. So the freestyle approach also allows a lot of flexibility and inclusion of different type of covariates in the latent transition models. In a similar model described by this picture, we will obtain these parameters. First, we will have the probability of being in one class conditional on gender. And the parameters at 15 years of age, however, report the probability of being one latent class conditional on gender and latent class in the previous age point, age 14 years. In other words, this parameter represents latent class probabilities adjusted based on the previous class membership. So here I simplified the example, including only two classes at each time point. And again, for the sake of example, consider gender as dichotomous variable where we have females and males. Based on the parameters of the model, we can create probabilities matrices like these, which represent the probabilities of staying in the same class or transition into a different one for females and males, respectively. We can see, for example, that males have a higher probability, point 38, of becoming users between time point zero and time point one, compared to females who only have 28% probability of becoming users. And we can use these probabilities as I illustrate in this slide to calculate the odds of becoming a user for females and females and use these to calculate the odds ratios of becoming a user. Compared to females, males displayed a 56% increase in the odds of becoming a user between age 14 and age 15. So the odds ratios indicate that males have a higher likelihood of becoming a user. I will illustrate here that, however, the sign and the strength of the association between date and status is at the two time points is the same across gender. For example, in this graph, I report the probabilities of being a user across the gender conditional on previous date and class membership. So the two lines represent males and females and the two values on the X axis represent previous date and class status, users at time zero and abstainers at time zero. And you can see that while males have higher probabilities of being users, the lines here are parallel, indicating that the strength of the association between date and variables will similar for males and females. However, we may be interested in testing more complex models where covariates may moderate the associations between the date and class at different time points. And I represented this moderation by gender in this graph here. To illustrate what might happen with a moderation, I looked here, the probability matrices for females and males when we model the moderation effect of gender. And in this case, we can see that males have a higher probability of becoming users compared to females. But males also reported lower probabilities of remaining users compared to females. Overall, this moderation effect indicates that the association between date and classes across time is stronger for females. And consequently, males have a higher likelihood to change substance use status between age 14 and age 15. So we can use latent transition analysis to look at this type of moderation effects by gender or by other covariates. Finally, using the freestyle approach, we can also include distal outcomes in the models while we have fixed the date and class measurement models, while also taking into account a certainty in measurement models. We can, for example, investigate the association between substance use categories at 15 years of age and school attainment at 16 years, while controlling for covariates like gender. And we would do this by comparing the adjusted average school attainment across individuals in the free latent classes at age 15. The freestyle approach also makes it possible to develop more complex models like this one. This is an example of an associative latent transition analysis where we investigate changes into two different processes in this example, substance use and depression. So we can identify measurement models for those different processes and investigate how people and adolescents move across different categories of substance use between for age 14 and age 15 and how they move across different categories of depression from age 14 to age 15. And we may then investigate questions that concern how, for example, the depression status may affect substance use across time. For example, we may assume a cross-lugged effect of depression from age 14 to substance use status in age 15. And by adding this regression and controlling for a substance use class at early ages, we are effectively testing if the depression status at 14 years affect changes in substance use classes at age 15. We can test the cross-lugged model with a model without this effect and since these models are nested, we can use the likelihood ratio test to formally test if there is a difference in the fit of the two models. So similarly, we can develop more complex models where we may have more measurement points, more covariates of covariates of different nature and distal outcome. So to summarize in this third presentation, I have talked about ways in which we can use latent transition analysis to test hypothesis about transitions and orders of development where, for example, we can use latent transition analysis to test whether probabilities of backsliding or individuals moving from a more advanced stage of development or less advanced stage of development are only observed for because of random variation in the data. We can also include covariates in latent transition analysis and the three-step approach I discussed makes it very straightforward. So we can use latent transition analysis and the three-step approach to test different hypotheses about the effects of covariates, including more complex moderation effects of covariates. So testing whether some covariates may moderate the association between latent statuses at different time points. And we can also easily include distal outcomes to test whether membership in some latent classes at some time point affect other outcomes later on. And finally, we can use these methods to develop more complex models where we can also look at associative latent transition analysis and this you can add how changes, person-centered changes across one process, for example, changes in mental health, statuses from one age to another may affect changes in another process, for example, changes in substance use patterns from one change to another. So I have provided more material and exercises together with these presentations. So I hope this is useful and thank you very much for your attention. Bye.


hey survivors welcome to the video please like and comment remember to share the video on social media or with anyone who you believe may help if you haven't subscribed please click the subscribe button underneath the video and the bell button so you can receive all of the notifications of my future videos if you would like to make a donation please follow the link in the video description if you are interested in a coaching session my email is in the video description as well on to the topic of this video what triggers the narcissist what do I mean by a narcissist being triggered a narcissist is triggered when they experience a low emotional vibrational frequency such as anger desire fear grief apathy guilt or shame it may seem like the narcissist is always triggered as they are shame based individuals narcissists are triggered by the very things that make our lives worth living our joy happiness any form of progression or success in any aspect of our lives your feeling of excitement offends them it triggers something inside of them something that just makes someone to ruin it because they don't have the emotional capabilities to experience that they can only mimic or imitate what they have seen from people who can genuinely experience these emotions narcissists are shame based individuals if you look at the emotional vibrational frequency chart on Google images you will see that shame is the lowest of all frequencies emotions such as joy love reason acceptance and willingness are some of the highest frequencies as long as a person that has low vibrational emotions such as anger desire fear grief apathy guilt or shame they will never be able to experience real genuine joy love reason acceptance or willingness notice the order of these emotions narcissist or not a person must confront their negative emotions they must reflect on their anger desire fear grief apathy guilt or shame rather than projecting these emotions onto someone else like the narcissist does until the person reflects on these negative emotions they will never get to experience real joy love reason acceptance or willingness this means that the narcissist will never have any willingness towards you they will never accept you or wish to reason with you which means that there will never be any real joy or love in the relationship even if the negative emotions they felt were towards someone else outside of the relationship this would still interfere with their emotional vibrational frequency narcissist do not know how to forgive or let go to do that they would have to self reflect and look within themselves instead they choose to hold on to grudges and resentment which is preventing them from ever having neutrality a person like this who holds on to their anger desire fear grief apathy guilt or shame will never experience real joy love reason acceptance or willingness at least until they let go of those negative emotions and of course we know the narcissist is never going to do that so they will be forever stuck at a low vibrational frequency this means that they cannot feel the way that we feel they cannot experience real joy or happiness they do not feel any excitement they cannot get the same satisfaction or fulfillment this makes the narcissist extremely envious and jealous this is why they are always mongering your feelings and activities it makes someone to sabotage anything or anyone that might make you experience the very emotions that they do not experience they are very good at mimicking joy love reason acceptance and willingness especially doing that during the love bombing phase but of course this is all fake they don't really feel that way they just mimic it to attract you but we know that they are operating at a very low frequency so no matter how hard they try they do not experience high-frequency emotions like we do their emotions are based on hate anger envy and jealousy they can only feel happy or excited at the expense of someone else which isn't genuine the narcissist cannot feel genuine happiness love or an emotional connection towards anyone maybe this is why they're always trying to bring someone down any drive or ambition must be diminished by the narcissist it is a reminder of everything they are not you believe that you can achieve or obtain great things they do not believe this they cannot allow themselves to believe such a thing because it would only trigger their inferiority complex they hate your confidence they will do whatever they can to diminish your confidence they will even put you in certain situations where they know you are going to be rejected just so they can see it happen it makes them feel better about themselves we trigger the narcissist we are not meant for narcissist consumption when the narcissist tries to consume us it's like a food allergy it's going to conflict with the energy that we are given off they are on a completely different frequency if you look at them the emotional vibrational frequency chart you will see that they are operating at a very low frequency while you are operating somewhere in the middle if not close to to the top if you are watching these videos it is likely that you are an empath and this led you to fall into the trap of the narcissist you have to recognize that you are not dealing with someone of like kind now I'm going to get into specific things which I have noticed to trigger the narcissist any form of progression or success in any aspect of your life will trigger them anything you have achieved or obtained will trigger them sometimes it will appear as though there is no reason for them to be triggered but just because it isn't happening in the physical world it doesn't mean that it isn't going on in their minds they could be triggered by something you experienced in the past or they could be anticipating something that might happen in the future past and potential future events are a real trigger for the narcissist especially since they are out of their control the narcissist cannot control what has happened in the past but this doesn't mean that they are going to accept it they will rewrite the past in a way that it makes them feel more comfortable they will also do whatever they can to control and alter your potential future as a way of preventing any possible triggers for them if they see you smiling laughing or joking with a friend family member relationship partner or anyone else you probably already know that this will really get under their skin especially if the narcissist is a friend or family member and they are witnessing your joy happiness or excitement around a potential relationship partner this is probably one of the narcissist greatest triggers and you could be sure that they will hold on to that for the rest of their lives they will use it to motivate their aggression in any argument or rage from that point on any positive emotions you experience will trigger the narcissist even if you are by yourself although if you are with someone else that will really wind them up it triggers them because they are reflecting on themselves and how they cannot experience higher frequencies like you can they will also look back for their lives and how they never got to experience that maybe you progressed achieved or obtained somewhere where they couldn't maybe you did something that they wanted to do remember the narcissist feels entitled to do whatever they want if you can do something they should be able to do it of course most often they do not even have the capabilities but they do not take that into consideration in their minds anything that you can do they can do it better that's the narrative they constantly tell themselves so whenever you do something that causes them to question that narrative you are going to be causing a narcissistic injury narcissists are triggered by your beauty both on the inside and outside they do not feel beautiful and they know that you do they know that you like the way you look and they don't like the way they they look they are always comparing themselves to someone else and they don't like that you don't do that so naturally this is going to trigger them they also have to see you as being all bad they have black or white thinking so in their minds they are all good and you are all bad all of your qualities have to be seen as bad for them to feel all good this is why they are always trying to project their emotions onto you they want you to feel the way that they do they are always trying to make you feel insecure and inferior to them or around them they want to destroy your self-esteem self-worth self-belief and self-assurance they don't want you to have those qualities because they do not have them of course they feel entitled to have those qualities without doing any of the work so they will they will just pretend like they have it already but when you present yourself to them and they have to witness the fact that you have those qualities for real it triggers them nurses need people money and material things to create the illusion that they are whole and valuable inside they cannot do this on their own take away the people money and material items and they've got nothing they cannot produce the real qualities on their own they can't even do it with all the people money and material items they still have to fake their confidence which soon becomes arrogant because it isn't real it's forced another way to discover what triggers the narcissist is to listen what to what they are saying to you look at what they are displaying to you most often they will give themselves away they can't help but reveal what it what it is that is boring bothering them if they are trying to make you experience a certain emotion that's exactly how they are feeling if they want you to feel hateful or angry they are feeling hateful or angry if they want you to feel envious or jealous they are feeling any envious or jealous if their trigger has to do with a certain job material item friendship or relationship partner you can be sure that they will be displaying something similar to you or speaking on it in an indirect way they can't help but reveal their triggers to you remember narcissists do not self-reflect or look within themselves they do not heal or resolve what is bothering to them so they can't help but reveal their triggers to you by telling you indirectly or displaying something to you and remember however they are trying to make you feel that's exactly how they feel be aware that the narcissist will try to sabotage or prevent whatever it is that makes you feel joy happiness or excitement they like to pull the strings behind the scenes in a way that helps to prevent any potential narcissistic injuries and regulate their emotions if they see you experiencing any joy happiness or excitement they will do something to destroy it they want you to feel the way that they feel they want to experience anger desire fear grief apathy guilt or shame while they create the illusion of feeling the way that you feel they want to mimic your experience of joy love reason acceptance or willingness I hope this video has helped you to understand what triggers the narcissist I'm sure there are many more examples that could be listed so if you have experienced something else please share it in the comments I know that they are triggered by many of my videos when you start speaking on the things that they do when you start speaking on the truth of the situation that will trigger them they don't want you to expose the truth or expose what they really are so of course that's going to trigger them anyway thank you for watching the video please remember to like and share the video with anyone who you believe may help click the subscribe button and bear like on if you haven't subscribed yet I will have more videos coming soon


All right, we're leaving now. I've got my bags in the back. We're heading out to JFK. Let's get a flight to LA, shall we? We're at the Fairmont Hotel in Santa Monica and just woke up heading for a morning gym session And then I'm going to be at the Tai Lupez event here today.  How are you buddy? Good to see you Good to see you Oh jeez the paparazzi have got me as well What are we doing? We are creating your thumbnail Sweet, thank you All right this is where it's going down and Terry's gonna introduce me What's up guys? So was that helpful? Go to TaiLupas.com slash sleep and I got a special page built Where you can understand why I use the glasses, why we became an investor in this company I'm live at Tai Look how fast my snaps are going Look at that, these are people who are trying to get a Periswanese glasses This is why you want to be on social media all your business people Look at that, okay we're about to give away Periswanese glasses Here we go, three, two, one, now New York City, it's a pretty nice day Yesterday I did a self-development program called Landmark Forum And it helps you identify your blind spots, places where you're being inauthentic Where you're not living in integrity Maybe when you're telling little white lies here and there It's pretty eye-opening Last night when I came home from it I actually phoned two very important people in my life And I started the conversation with, I've been pretending It was super uncomfortable and it pushed me past my comfort zone for sure And ultimately it was wonderful One of the cool things about having an e-commerce business And being able to sell physical products on Amazon Is that it enables me to go to events like Landmark Forum and be in New York Since I've learned how to sell products online Now I can be in New York one day Or L.A. the next week I'm at New York Airport And we're heading to Toronto, Canada That's where we're going


basket I'm creating with my hip. So it's super important that I'm creating the stopping point out here, not to the side. I don't cross first row to the side. I cross first row 45 degrees. I want to be out here if I can. That's why we did that little high leg drill. So I slide, I dig. I'm thinking about my right foot. I'm on the left side. Now, here's a crucial, crucial detail. The hand that's hooked here or driving on the elbow. The reason why I like hooking is because when I get here, I can pull everything tight. I want you to focus on the hand that has the elbow. Everybody see this detail? This is very important. It keeps his hips open to the ceiling because of this detail. Okay? If I'm here and I did throw my hand elbow on the whole ride, then I see the difference. Even if that bottom knee is open, I might get a two count. So look at the difference in his hips. Right? Look at the difference in his hips than when I have elbow to knee. Okay? I got that small detail from AJ Shop. In my opinion, he's probably one of the best top wrestlers and probably the last 10, 15 years. He was very innovative on top, but he turned everybody with this move. Tony Robles was real good with it. And AJ Shop was way more innovative. Alright? He turned Tony Ramos a couple times in the duel of the year. Tony Ramos won national title. And Ramos was no slouch on bottom. Shop could just get the wrist. And once he got the wrist, it was trouble. Okay? It was trouble. There's no reason why you guys can't be the same. You just got to spend time here. Secure it to the butt. Slide, head and elbow on the whole. Big high leg on the knee. But when I go out, it's not going anywhere. I got to hold him for a minute. Okay? I got to hold him for a minute. And then when he bellies down, when I'm ready for him to, I'm going to go right back to work. My boot might come in and I go to work with my leg right. Okay? We got a lot of options there. So now we're going to put everything together. We're going to do our whole crab ride. To set up this cross wrist roll, we're going to go right into our turn. Double thigh, right? Okay? I like going half. Float, float, float. High hand side kicking, bottom toe trapping. Maybe I get my turn here. One, two, three, four, five. I got three near fall. Look at this. How easy this is. More right into my cross wrist. He's thinking about nothing but getting off his back. And bellies it up. Right into my next turn. Bottom knee to the ceiling, scooting, elevate, knee to elbow. Give another set of three. Okay? Back on top. Right back to work again. Feels real nice to score a lot of points on top.  But everything he does is the wrong answer. That's what we want to try to get our mindset to the next couple of days. Questions? So crab tilt. I don't care if it's half a claw. Bottom wrist, scoop. As soon as he bases up, boom. Right into your cross wrist.


If you use a webcam and want to improve the image quality or make adjustments to it, then stick around because I'm going to tell you a great little utility that you can use to do just that. Hello, welcome to Take One Tech. My name's Alec. Sometimes I just completely lose my train of thought in those little intros. So what's this video about? Well, it's just all about a simple utility that you can get for the Mac. I believe it may be available for PC as well. But this is specifically about the Mac version, which basically allows you to tweak the settings that you've got for your webcam, whichever webcam that may be. Now, I'm actually for this video using a Canon EOS 60D that's coming into Ecam Live, and then there's all sorts of settings that I can change in that. But what I'm talking about today is specifically for webcams and how you can make adjustments. So if you're using them, for example, going straight into Zoom or Microsoft Teams or something like that. So let me just first show you what this app is. It is called Webcam Settings, very conveniently titled because that's exactly what it does. It changes the settings of your webcam and it's $7.99 in the Mac App Store. I will, of course, leave a link in the description. Now, I should just point out, if you go and have a look at the reviews, which is a great place to start when looking for an app, this doesn't actually look that great. 2.4 out of 5. So there's a few issues that some people might highlight with this, or maybe when people get the application and it doesn't work exactly as they say, then rather than evaluating fairly, people tend to either give it one star or five stars. And so that is why we've got this average figure here. The one thing that I should point out about it is that with the current MacBooks and in fact, I think for the past three years, something like that, the Apple has restricted the access to be able to tweak settings of webcams that are built in. So the built-in camera that you might have in your MacBook. So as far as I'm aware, this doesn't actually work with the built-in cameras that you've got on your MacBook. However, it will work with external cameras. And I think that that is part of the reason why some people have given this the thumbs down or the one star review is because of it not working with those particular cameras. But for the purpose that it's intended and is capable of controlling, which is an external webcam for me, I found that it's been quite useful really. So let's just go and show you exactly how it works. Now I've prepared a little shot here that has got me and then it's also got me in my little Logitech webcam here as well.  And so here we've got the actual application itself. Now I should mention that it does actually just sit up in the menu bar as a little icon up here. So you can access it here about webcam settings and so on. And you can switch between different cameras from within this menu up at the top. And then you can come into this webcam settings panel. And that's what I've got open on the screen there. So now what you can see is, if I come out of demo mode for a second, there we go. So this is the actual settings panel of it. And as you can see, we've got the camera selected at the top. So this is my Logitech C920, as I mentioned. But then if you've got multiple cameras, then they would just all appear in there. So you can adjust the settings of different cameras. I don't know which cameras to look at now. Do a look at this one or do a look at this one. I'll stay looking at this one because the picture is a bit better on that one. But that's the point of this app after all, isn't it, to make the picture a little bit better. So first of all, there is exposure. So we've got the basic settings here and we've got advanced settings and some preferences. So there is exposure mode. Now some of the cameras will not allow you to actually change this, as is the case with this one. But if you could, then you could change that one in here. So then the next settings down are the brightness and contrast. So as you can see, I'm adjusting the brightness and contrast of this. It's just directly adjusting the webcam and then the contrast here. So we can make some tweaks to that. We can also change the saturation. So to get the color a bit better and the sharpness of the image as well. We can also come down to the white balance and it's not to science this by any stretch. As you can see, it's just basically goes between cool and warm. So I can move this slider down here. So there you go. It's very cool colored. And then if I want to make the picture a bit warmer in temperature, then we can do that there. You can also toggle auto on. So it will just do this automatically. If I take it off, you can see you've got a bit more control over it. Now what you can do as well is once you have got these settings all set up, you can save that as a new profile. So for example, if you get this set up, if you're mobile and you use it in different locations, you could have a different profile set up for different locations, different lighting conditions and things like that. Or you may find that for different use cases. So for example on zoom compared to making videos or something like that, you may want to have a different profile for those. And so you can just click on save new profile, give it a profile name. I'll call it test. I've got so many things called test on my computer. It's untrue, but there you go. And then you can also delete the profile or update it and have it load this particular profile on start. So you can see how that has now got a little star next to it. So if I created some other profile, maybe if I change it and create a new one, and I'll call this one test to test to there we go. So now I've got two profiles. And if I click on the little drop down list, you can see that one of them is has got this little star next to it. And that's basically the one that is going to be effectively the default, the one that's going to load up on startup. If you want to change it to test to just click this. And then now you can see that this one has the little star, which means that will be the default profile, which will load on startup. So that is some of the basic settings. I'm not actually sure which cameras do work with the where you can change the exposure settings, but certainly with the Logitech C920, it's not an option. Next, we'll go into the advanced tab. And here you've got a couple of things. So as a default, this is set to off power line frequency. So depending on where you are in the world, there'll be a different frequency of in the power cables. And so this can interfere with the camera. And in fact, if I change from 50 hertz, which is where I am to 60, then you can see or rather, there is 60 hertz in the power lines here. So you can see that this is actually affecting the giving flicker on the camera. So if you've got a new camera and you plug it in and you've got this flicker, then this is a way to eliminate that. And so switching to 50 hertz eliminates that interference. You can also just totally disable it as I say, that's where it is normally when you first start up the app. But then if I click it back on, it solves that flickering problem. I don't have an option for auto, but presumably for some cameras, then this would be an option. Next is backlight compensation. And this, again, is not something that I'm using at the moment because I don't have any backlight.  Finally, we've got this section here with some control. So there is an autofocus already on this camera, obviously. I say obviously, but there is an autofocus on the Logitech C920. But if you want, you can override that by toggling this one off. So now we've turned off the autofocus. And now I can actually just change the focus manually by moving this slider. So perhaps if you are going to be using this camera as I do actually for some top-down shots sometimes. So when I've done demos and things like that, and there's this top-down shot, it's actually this camera. So if you have issues with things going in and out of focus, this is quite a handy little feature that you can just have it constantly focused on the desk, for example. That being a little example. But that is just one other option you've got there is to toggle on and off the autofocus. Next down here, we've got a zoom. So if you want to just zoom into crop from the camera, obviously you can do that in a lot of applications. But if you just want to do it from the camera itself, then you do have a zoom function. It's not entirely linear, I've got to say. I'm not sure exactly how that's figured out. But it seems like it doesn't have a sort of graduated zoom from one end to the other. I don't know if that's a limitation of the camera or not, that it can only do it in certain increments. I'm not entirely sure, to be honest. But it does give you the ability to zoom in slightly. And then once you are zoomed in, there's also this pan and tilt. So you can actually just pan the image as well. So certainly if you're using this with zoom or Microsoft Teams or something like that, it does just mean that you can get your picture adjusted slightly before it actually hits the teams or zoom. Next is a preferences section. So here you can have the option to... I mentioned that the app sits in the menu bar. So you can actually hide the menu bar icon if you don't want it to appear up there. And then you can also have it read auto settings from the webcam and have that either enabled or disabled or have it incrementally. So it can actually just get the automatic settings from the webcam and sort of take those into account. Or you can just turn this off and have it as disabled, which is the default setting. So that basically it's just totally overriding everything that the webcam might be trying to do and you're in total control to it. You can also have it write settings to the webcam as well. So at the moment, everything from the webcam is getting passed through this and this is controlling it. But in some cases you can actually write the settings to the webcam so that they are sort of embedded in it. But again, that is something that may be not going to work in for every camera. But you can click on the little information button and it will give you a little bit more information about this. So that was a short little video about webcam settings, the app. And if you do need to update the image quality or change rather the picture image or things like that that you're getting out to your webcam, it is a great way to do it. I will leave a link to the app in the description down below. It's available in the App Store for, as I say, $7.99. I almost forgot, $7.99. And yeah, for me, there are a lot of negative reviews about it in the App Store. But as I say, I think that most of those are driven by people who are expecting it to work with Apple's built-in cameras. And as I say, for the later models, it did actually used to work with my webcam in my 2013 MacBook Pro. So it will work with the older models, but I'm not sure of the exact date of the cutoff. But certainly with the new ones, I don't think that it will work with those. But certainly for external webcams, you should be fine. If you found this useful, then don't forget to like and subscribe to the channel and turn on notifications so you get notified the moment I make any new videos. And speaking of new videos, I've got more videos coming up next. And I'll leave a list to my app playlist down at the bottom right. Until the next time, have a great day.


Today is our final solo shot of the 2021 MLB season, which could be sad because I do enjoy talking to all of you each and every morning. It's been a delight all year long, but it also means we got playoffs just around the corner. And for me personally, I am pretty jazzed, but this is just playoffs. There are a lot of exciting players who I enjoy watching play baseball just around the bend. So that does make up for it quite a bit. So a little bit of sad, but also a lot of happy with the playoff baseball bound to come. And the good thing is we get a little teaser of it this weekend with some high impact games across the board that are going to mean a lot. And there's still a lot of chaos left to unfold. So we are going out on a high note and talking about what should be a fun night of baseball for tonight. Welcome on into the solo shot. That's right here on the FanDuel Podcast Network in NumberFire.com. My name is Jim Sonnis. I am a senior writer and analyst for NumberFire.com here to break down Friday night's 14 game main slate with lockstep for 7.05 PM Eastern time for tonight. And there is just one weather note for today. That's in St. Louis for the Cardinals and the Cubs. At least a chance of rain there for that game. They shouldn't be good to go, but it's worth checking back on later. Check back on that one, but I think that they will be good to get that game in and send us out on a high note. Of course, the solo shot is done up today, but still a lot of good stuff here on the NumberFire Daily Fantasy podcast feed. For this week, we already have our week four, NFL DFS preview podcast posted. That is with myself and Brandon Godulla breaking down the week four NFL DFS main slate with game stacks, players are liking each salary tier and more. Find that by searching for the NumberFire Daily Fantasy podcast feed. Hit subscribe there and also check out our USC DFS podcast, the Austin Swain already posted for tomorrow's card, NASCAR podcast for Talladega coming up later on today, 10 and 30 on YouTube and up on the podcast feed after that. We will have NBA around the corner, PGA. So plenty of incentive to stick around here on the NumberFire Daily Fantasy podcast feed. Go search for that, hit subscribe and swing back and check out all the good stuff we got cooking over there. Hey soccer fans, this season, FanDuel and Captain Morgan are teaming up to give you a one of a con soccer contest. Introducing Captain Morgan's soccer pick up, a weekly fantasy contest that is entirely free to play. The contest is simple. All you gotta do is make quick predictions for Saturday games this soccer season. You'll earn points for each correct pick and compete for a chance to win up to $3,000 in prizes every single week. Head over to FanDuel, then to the Captain Morgan soccer pick up today must be 21 plus two, participate for more details with the FanDuel.com or download the FanDuel Fantasy app and let your ability of tricks is applied and don't forget to make your game day more delicious and sub in with Captain. Pitching preview for this Friday main slate, Clayton Kershaw is the highest salary pitcher on FanDuel checking in at $10,040. We got Lanslin at $10,000. Shane McClanahan is $96. Fromber Valdez is $9,500. Sandiel Contra is $95 as well. Shama Naya checks into $9,200. Rangers Suarez is $9,000. Then Joe Lusgrove potentially not officially announced yet Josh Rogers, John Gray, Eduardo Rodriguez, Marco Gonzalez, Steven Matz and Eric Lauer are the other guys at $8,000 or higher for tonight. And looking at this slate, I do think we want to prioritize getting two guys with an incentive to win for tonight because it's the last start of the year for each of these guys. They're not in the playoffs. The teams may decide, okay, we don't want to risk things too much. We're gonna pedal things back, let them be a bit shorter and stuff like that. That is a legitimate risk for these pitchers for tonight. So my goal is to try to find pitchers I can tolerate who are in high leverage situations. And I think that we got a couple of those for tonight. Starting off with one I think is a bit risky, but I do like quite a bit. And that's Nessar Cortez. Cortez is $7,900 facing the race tonight.  And I think that he sets up pretty well. He's facing the race and they've got power in the lineup, but they also have home field locked up. They may give some guys some time off for tonight to rest up before the post season begins. And they do like to strike out. That gives us wiggle room I think here to use Nessar Cortez for tonight. Cortez has been very good. He has lowered his slider usage over his past eight starts and it's led to some great peripherals. He has a 3.74 skill interactive ERA with a 29% strikeout rate. That 29% strikeout rate for Cortez is actually the second highest on the main slate in each pitchers most relevant sample. And as mentioned, the raise more than happy to oblige in the strikeout category. They strike out at a 24% rate against lefties. That means that there is a path to upside and Cortez has shown he can have upside. He had 11 strikeouts against Baltimore. He had seven, four other times in his past eight starts. So he can have a ceiling and it could come in this specific matchup. I do still worry about the floor because he could get yanked if he struggles because it's basically the playoffs right now. And we do see teens be a bit more aggressive in pulling their starters when we have a situation. So that's a risk here with Cortez. I still think he's worth it. I am willing to roll him out there even in a high leverage spot because I know they'll be pushing him when they can if he's doing well, they're gonna keep him out there. There is risk about the bullpen coming in here but I think he's worth that risk. So to me, that's the Cortez is a top ranked pitcher for today. It's a similar situation for Eduardo Rodriguez where it's a must win game. He's pitching decently well, not the best matchup but I think that there is enough here for me to go at him in this spot. Since the Nationals, they're still pretty good offense versus lefties with a 104 WRC plus based on the current active roster, not a ton of strikeouts but they also don't hit a ton of fly balls. So it could be a worse matchup for sure. And it's in DC. So Rodriguez gets to face a pitcher for tonight. Rodriguez hasn't needed a pitcher to boost his good peripherals. He has been throwing fewer sinkers over his past 11 starts. In that time, his strikeout rate is 27%. He's letting up a 32% hard hit rate. He is still walking guys which helps explain why his ERA is 4.39 and it's led to some really bad outings. But Rodriguez has shown something of a ceiling. He had 10 strikeouts against the Tigers, eight against the Jays, the Reys and the Yankees and all those teams, the Jays, Reys and Yankees are really good against lefties. So that might mean I'm a bit more worried about this matchup than I should be but it's more so because Rodriguez himself is pretty volatile. Like there are a lot of ups and a lot of downs. We have to consider that for sure. I do still like him and a huge spot for tonight. So if we are considering playoff implications, I think that Nester Cortez and Eduardo Rodriguez are very much worth rolling out there. Both those guys stand the risk where if they struggle they could get Yankees for the bullpen, but I think that's the way we wanna play things for today because the non-playoff guys are risky for the same reason as well. So I will take the high leverage spots and I will take Cortez and Rodriguez above the others. There is one guy I like in a non-crucial game and that's Sandy Alcantra against the Phillies. The Marlins obviously not in it anymore. So there is risk, but I think that Alcantra is probably gonna do pretty well for tonight. We talked a couple of times about Alcantra recently. He's mixing in his slider more, which is good because that's a pitch that kills righties. His changeup kills lefties and it's making Alcantra pretty lethal to have that slider a bigger part of his repertoire. Intent starts with more sliders. He has a 3.09 skill interactive ERA. That is the second best mark on this slate. His strike area is 28% with a 4% walk rate.  So from a pitching perspective, if we don't consider anything else, I adore him. The concern is length because he's obviously a massive, massive part of the Marlins' 2022 plans. He should be. He did go 140 pitches, four starts ago. He went one or three, two starts ago. It was 87 last time out, which could be a concern, but that was still six innings and he struggled a bit in that game against a very good raise team. So I don't think 87 is an indication that they're going to fully pull back the reins in this final start. The Phillies, not a great team against righties to begin with. And now they're probably not gonna be super locked in after having been eliminated. So among the non-playoff guys, I would put Alcantara at the top of my list at $9,300. I will say, I did consider Ranger Suarez before the Phillies game last night because they had still been in contention. Suarez could have been a good option. If you think that they'll let him go long, I would say Ranger Suarez is in play in the same game against the Marlins, but given that they're now done, I am wary of the Phillies for sure on both sides because that could be pretty gross given the way the season ended. So Suarez in play, if you think that they will give him a full leash for two nights. So again, pitchers for today, Cortes, Rodriguez and Alcantara. As far as the stacks, the Blue Jays, another team that needs a win for tonight and they're basically facing a bullpen game for the Orioles. I'm guessing that will mean a lot of Thomas Eshelman, but either way, we wanna stack the Jays here. The bullpen has been terrible this whole year for the Orioles. Their active roster ERA is 5.15. So overall, we can target them in a bullpen game. If it's Eshelman specifically, we can feel even a bit better. He has a 7.20 ERA this year. His skill interactive ERA is 6.07. Strike out rate is down below 10% and Eshelman also struggled down to triple A. So whether it's a true bullpen game or one where Eshelman is kind of like the bulk pitcher after an opener, I think we should feel good about the Jays for tonight. And we had the salary to get there too. So again, Cortes is $7,900. You can go nuts though with your Blue Jays. So we got the salary. Let's rank the studs on this team. I think it's Vlad first but that part's obvious but I think we need to prioritize Marcus Semihan number two. He has a 3.35 ISO versus righties in the second half this year. That's actually higher than Vlad's mark in this time. So I'm not gonna put him above Vlad but like, you know, I think they're in the same tier. He has a lower strike out rate too in the second half. So Marcus Semihan playing out of his mind. So he's my number two here. I put Taylor Scott Hernandez third, George Springer fourth, Boba Shet fifth, Lourdes Corriel dealing with a hand injury and I worry a lot about hand injuries that matter. So that's why he's not higher. He's been playing really well in the second half. I just worry about a hand injury when I've got a good option that the salary is up. So that's why he's a bit lower but the ranking again, Vlad Semihan, Taylor Scott Springer and then Bechet when ranking the Blue Jays studs. I know this is probably gonna make your skin crawl but the Red Sox are a high quality stack again. They were very frustrating last night for sure but kind of think we gotta go back. They're facing Josh Rogers. We've seen Rogers for five starts now and nothing there that scares me out of stacking against him in those five starts. His skill interactive ERA is 5.45. He gets there mostly because his strike out rate is low at 15%. And Rogers doesn't excel in other spots either. He has a 9% walk rates. The hard hit rate and fly ball rate are both above 40%. That has not translated into bad results yet because the ERA is 2.73 but his expected ERA at baseball savant is 5.65 and he's faced some super weak opponents. The Mets are the only team he has faced so far with a WRC plus higher than 83 versus lefties. Even the Mets are below average. The Red Sox despite their struggles still have a 103 WRC plus versus lefties. So they're not elite but they are good enough to stack here. I think it's a really big risk. I know I see someone in the YouTube comments saying, nope, they burned me all week. I get it man, I get it. I agree, it's not been fun but I think that I am fine with it here. I think it's necessary in this spot. So we're gonna hold our noses and go back to the Red Sox one more time for tonight. As far as the guys within the stack I would be pretty surprised if we see Kyle Schwerber out there again there's no DH for tonight for the Red Sox. So that could open up a spot in this lineup I'm hoping Bobby Dahlbeck gets in there because I do want to use him but we've seen Kike Hernandez's salary decline a bit. He's $3,400 tonight. I don't think that salary should be going down. He's kind of been the one guy. He and Renfro have been the two guys who have been like actually putting up good numbers this week. Kike has a 220 ISO against lefties with a 44% heart rate, not many strikeouts. He's not as sexy as JD Martinez or Hunter Renfro but I think he's a good player against lefties. So I will see him out tonight. Kike did go deep last night. So thankfully he was the one guy coming through for us. Renfro and Martinez went deep a couple of nights ago. So it's been gross overall but at least these guys specifically are paying off. The guys we're focusing on against lefties are still coming through. I do want Dahlbeck in there. We'll see if he plays for tonight but the Red Sox as much as it may hurt and not feel fun. I think I want to go back there once again for tonight. Now because this is the final solo shot of the year of course I have to take advantage and talk about my Minnesota Twins for this late. They're facing John Heasley tonight. Heasley is a guy I think we can stack against because he's making the leap from double A to the majors and he wasn't bad in double A. His ERA there was 3.33 but that's double A. The first two starts for Heasley in the majors has shown how difficult of a leap that is to go from double A to the majors. His strikeout rate is 14% and that's about half what it was in double A. His fly ball rate is 41%. He's letting up hard contact 48% of the time. His ERA is still fine at 3.86 but his expected ERA is 5.72. The Twins have basically been out of contention since May so like they've been playing non-important games for a very long time but they're still playing hard. You know, we've seen them play well the past month or so. Their WRC plus against Righties is 101. They have a 185 ISO versus Righties so they can go deep. Byron Buxton is fully back so I think it's a good spot to roll the Twins out once again here.  I really hope he isn't. But anyway, got me a little uncomfortable there but Byron Buxton playing well. Max Kepler, I think deserves some love here. At $2,600, his barrel rate in September is 13.8%. That's very good. That will work. Strikeout rate is 18%. So the power hasn't always been great in this time. Like you look at the ISO for Kepler it's not gonna blow you away but I think he can get the job done. I think Kepler is a great value at that number at $2,600. So the Twins, a quality stack for today lean on the value guys like Kepler and then go from there and get to the studs like Buxton and others. As far as things to watch for today did want to touch briefly on Clayton Kershaw. I'm gonna have a hard time getting there tonight despite the fact it is a high leverage game. I'm not sure how long he'll go. That's the big concern. In the three starts back Kershaw has gone 50, 74 and 73 pitches which means he's probably topping out around 90 or so tonight, which could be enough because again, a lot of pitches in this late have motivation concerns but I just don't wanna be working my way out of a hole there. So I think that it is scary to pass up Kershaw but with that sour being that high with the pitch count concerns I'm okay missing out on Clayton Kershaw for tonight. I think you can though go back to the Dodgers offense if you want tonight. They're facing Eric Lauer. He's doing some good things right now. His strikeout rate is 26% in nine starts since he's been using both this ladder and his curve ball a pretty decent amount. So they're a risky stack. That's why they were in the top three but he's also letting up a 46% hard hit rate and a 46% fly ball rate. That is a great recipe for home runs. So the Dodgers not a priority tonight like they were last night but I do think that the Dodgers are really solid for tournaments here in the team I will go to a decent amount despite the concerns around Lauer's strikeout rate. Finally, same thing goes here for St. Louis. It has not been officially announced yet but it seems like they'll be using Zach Davies or facing Zach Davies. Davies really struggling right now. His velocity is actually up over his past nine starts but his ERA in that time is 8.92. His peripherals pretty rough as well. And that does include a start against St. Louis his last time out where he let up six runs and two innings. So check back to see if Davies is confirmed a starter. See what the Cardinals offense looks like since they've already locked up a playoff spot and don't really have a lot to a lot in the line right now. So check those two things. That's why they're more of a conditional stack for today but if it's Davies and the key guys want to use her in there I think the Cardinals do great out pretty well. Let's finish up here with some home run calls for tonight. The boring one will be going back to that Dodgers games. I do think that they set up well for home runs. We'll go Mookie Betts, Mookie went deep last night. Mookie obviously a tremendously talented pitcher or a hitter. I did consider Will Smith here. Just not sure, you know, it's catcher so not sure if it played but I'll go Mookie as the top Dinger call for today. The fun one, we will go to the twins talking about Max Kepler. He is a lower salary guy. Hasn't shown the best power in the second half but I think the building blocks for power are there. So home run calls for today are Mookie Betts and Max Kepler. That is all that we have here for today and this year on the solo shot. So do you wanna give you all a big thank you for tuning in throughout the year, swinging by, talking some baseball, chatting both here and at the MLB DFS Q&A. To do it still, one more MLB DFS Q&A tonight, 4.30 to 5.00 PM on the FanDuel, YouTube, Twitch, Facebook and Twitter pages. So swing by there if you wanna say hi and chat about the Friday night slate. We also have our snake draft for week four coming up at 4.00 PM today Eastern on the YouTube, Twitch, Facebook and Twitter channels with myself, J.J. Zacharyson and Brandon Gadulla. We are all tied up with one win a piece so far for the first three weeks, a lot of symmetry there. So swing by there of course, as always, a lot of good stuff here on the Number Fire Daily Fantasy podcast feed. NFL week four preview is up, we've got NASCAR, UFC, PGA, NBA just around the corner. So a lot of good stuff and a lot of reason to make sure you're subscribed to the Number Fire Daily Fantasy podcast feed. If you enjoyed listening throughout this year, please leave a rating and review because we do appreciate that as always and always fun to hear from all of you over there. If you've got questions for me, I am on Twitter at Jim Sonnis, J-I-M-S-A-N-N-E-S. You can also follow the FanDuel Podcast Network at FanDuel Podcast. Once again, I thank you Deven for tuning in throughout this year. It's been a blast talking to all of you and looking forward to talking to you once again in the spring after hopefully an exciting, exciting post season and a fun off season. We'll talk to you all then, enjoy the baseball. This has been the solo shot right here on the FanDuel Podcast Network.