This Celebrated Christian Drummer Could Be the Best Life-Coach You've Ever Had, Here's Why...

Teresa Neumann : Sep 15, 2016
ZoroTheDrummer.com

"The silver and bronze medals never disappoint God so long as our heart is gold, and it is the fires of life is that bring forth the pure gold." -Zoro the Drummer

(Los Angeles, CA)—[This is Part 2 of a BCN exclusive interview with Zoro, read Part 1 by clicking here] Known affectionately as the "Minister of Groove," Zoro is an internationally renowned musician, author and motivational speaker. He has played on some of the most famous stages with many of the world's greatest musical legends. Indeed, throughout his career, he has consistently been voted No. 1 R&B drummer. (Photo Credit: Zoro the Drummer.com)

In addition to writing best-selling books on the art of drumming (they are listed in the Top 25 Drums Books Of All Time), Zoro is also the author of the highly acclaimed "The Big Gig: Big-Picture Thinking For Success."

Now, with his newly released book "Soar," Zoro takes his life-coaching skills to a new level, using his incredible insight and experience to inspire Christians to excel in their divine gifting. I encourage anyone who feels confused, stuck, trapped, anxious or even just curious about their calling—about their life's trajectory—to read this book. You'll find that you've gained a brother and lost your fear of failure. It's that good!

Here's more great stuff from a recent interview with Zoro:

BCN: Speaking of opposition to our best plans and intentions, you wrote: "You live in a spiritually hostile environment known as planet earth." That sentence truly made me stop and contemplate the truth of it. The constant threat of failure—or fear of it—is sometimes enough to prevent the strongest of believers to pursue their dream. Any more insights into that dynamic?

ZORO: Believing in your heart that God has a way to get you to where He wants you to be is the key to all of this, which really comes down to faith—childlike faith. Remember that 2 Timothy 1:7 affirms, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind."

So when fear or the threat of failure enters our heart and mind we must destroy it like we would a venomous snake. Metaphorically speaking, we must crush its ugly head. (Screengrab via Youtube/ ZoroTheDrummer.com)

A scripture that has always empowered me, and one that I taught my children to memorize when they were young was Luke 10:19: "Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all of the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you."

The enemy always seeks to destroy our potential and God's dreams for our life through the age old tactics of fear. We only need to recognize that and then respond accordingly with acts of faith.

Remember what the apostle Paul in Ephesians 6: 10-18 said with regards to putting on the whole armor of God: "Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one."

The enemy always dips those darts in a potent concoction of fear before hurling them at us. But remember, fear is like the bully in the schoolyard that once faced goes away!

Once again, what we need here is courage. But when you pray for courage, often God will give you the opportunity to be courageous by placing you directly before frightening situations that will demand it.

He does this in order to display His glory by showing you that the potential to be a hero was inside of you all along, because He put that attribute in your DNA when He created you.

But as with all things related to God, you must always take the first step and then He will always meet you there. In His magnificent design, God has equipped us with the ability to overcome, and that is a wondrous thing in and of itself.

We could not be overcomers as He calls us to be unless He had wired us with the ability to overcome, and He has done just that so we can take confidence in that fact.

BCN: In the section "Overcoming Doubt," you warn about the "curse of familiarity," noting that "many of our disappointments in life stem from the desire we have to share our unique gifts with people who show no interest in what we have to offer." Then, in the section "Fact vs. Fiction" you also recognize the American Idol-esque problem of people pursuing a gifting they think they have that in reality, they don't. In addition to using common sense, as you recommend, can you offer any other suggestions for discouraged people struggling with whether they should follow their gifting or not?

ZORO: The first thing I would say is to pray earnestly and ask God to reveal what He has deposited in you. Ask Him to remove the blinders that prevent you from seeing it. It could be a lack of vision on your part or your refusal to accept what you see.

It might be the doubt others instilled in you through destructive words spoken over you at key times in your life or during your developmental years.

Whatever the reason, I am convinced that God deposited great riches of untold worth in each of us, but it is up to us to mine it out. The good news is He's there to hand us some of the mining equipment that allows us to discover the gold within, and earnest prayer is one of our greatest tools to accomplish that. (Photo: Zoro and Mike Huckabee/via ZorotheDrummer.com)

Our prayer should be, "Lord please show me what you gave me to make a difference in this world and help me find the courage and confidence necessary to make full use it." 

BCN: I loved your section "Excelling at Excellence." It's so true that excellence is crucial, but it seemed to come with a personal disclaimer when you wrote, "There were times when I had to learn not to try so hard." As an over-achiever myself—someone who attained for A's but could only get B's in school and in life pursuits—I really connected to that confession. Is there something to be said for giving pursuit a rest for a season?

ZORO: Yes, absolutely there are times we need to work hard and push, push, push. Yet there are other times we must learn to let it all go and let God be God by resting in Him, which is really trusting in Him to do what we are unable to do.

There are things He can do that we can never do—like giving us favor in certain situations. If we could gives ourselves favor we all would. Fulfilling God's destiny for our lives can be likened unto a finely orchestrated dance between the Lord and each of us.

The key is to know when to lead and when to let Him lead, because neither of us leads all the time. It is a partner dance and walking closely to the Lord is what heightens your spiritual intuition and sharpens your ability to stay in step, and to tune into the frequency in which He speaks to you.

This is how you discern when to do what and recognize one season from another. Both the season of work and the season of rest are crucial to the fulfillment of His call on your life.

If we do our very best and turn out B's instead of A's, then God is pleased with us just as much as I am pleased with my own children's grades if I know they did the best they were capable of.

The silver and bronze medals never disappoint God so long as our heart is gold, and it is the fires of life is that bring forth the pure gold.

We must remember, throughout the losses and victories, that God is always routing for us just the same. He doesn't love us more when we land a gold medal and take the podium. We can never earn His love. He just loves us because we're His children.

Knowing this truth and believing it with all of my heart is how I have learned not to try so hard at times, especially when I know I've already given my all.

I can then rest in the assurance of His love for me, with the confidence of knowing that He will weave a beautiful tapestry out of my life complete with mistakes, shortcomings, failures, successes and all.

If you've left nothing on the table and given you're all to something, then you must learn to be content with your performance and accept the outcome, for God is truly thrilled with you more than you know. But in all honesty, what interests God most is not so much getting us to the ultimate destination we dream of, but rather He delights in us getting to know Him intimately throughout the process. From His perspective this journey of our lives is always about developing an intimacy with Him that He longs to have with us.

BCN: Although many couples have similar values, they also often have highly different temperaments and personalities. As the wife of a life-long professional musician myself, I'm aware of the sacrifices spouses must make for each other to attain their calling. I also know of many spouses who couldn't/or wouldn't make the necessary sacrifices. So if, let's say, a husband has a vision that the wife isn't on board with—or emotionally can't support—or vice versa, what would you say to them?

ZORO: I would say to pray, pray, pray, and then pray again without ceasing. I believe prayer is the only place where you will win this battle. Remember, with man it's impossible, but with God all things are possible. What you bring up here is yet another reason why I would tell someone to pray earnestly before they get married in the first place.

In fact, I would suggest starting as early in life as possible praying for the spouse that God has prepared for you, for that one special person who will compliment you. Ask God to lead you to the person who will help you fulfill your call and vice versa.

The most common mistake many of us make is to just marry the person we want to marry rather than asking God for His approval. Then of course the carnal consequences of our unguided choices begin to take shape because we never consulted Him in the first place.

Generally speaking, most people just want God to approve their decisions. They want Him to stamp His signet ring on their plans, but they're not really open to Him saying this is not the one I have for you. (Screengrab via Youtube / ZoroTheDrummer.com)

However, this will always cost us dearly in terms of the fulfillment of our purpose because divine alliances ordained by God will yield the most fruit.

Divinely appointed relationships and alliances, though never perfect, always lead to divine outcomes. But to discover these we must be subordinate to God's will for us.

We must be in tune with the master's voice and then be willing to abide by His instructions, even if it means walking away from the one we thought it was.

His ways are better than our ways and higher than our ways. He sees what we cannot see and, therefore, that is why we must seek His council always and trust Him with all our heart in every decision.

BCN: And finally, on a personal note, does your family share your incredible energy and zeal? If not, how does your family work with varying levels of intensity?

ZORO: My wife and two children are all passionate about what they love, but each of them expresses those passions in their own unique manner.

Even though my wife is passionate about all that is dear to her heart, in all honesty my intensity can be a bit overwhelming for her. This is why I always need an outlet to express the zeal and energy that God wired into me and—praise be to God!—interviews like this one give me that outlet to pour out my heart, because she couldn't possibly entertain all of the zeal in which the Lord has instilled in me.

It needs to be given to people all over the world through a variety of platforms because I am constantly overflowing with this uncorked champagne bottle of enthusiasm.

God provides those outlets in the form of speaking engagements, ministering to people one-on-one as I travel the world, playing drums, teaching, writing and pursuing the visions that God has entrusted unto me.

What my wife is good at, I am not, what I am good at, she is not. It is a true partnership where each one of us brings to the table what the other needs.

It is not perfect by any means, because no relationship is but that's where God's grace gets to be the star of the show. He uses imperfect people to be the perfect solution to the world's problems, so long as they are willing to be used.

Marriage is the most important collaborative union of all time and true love demands that you give your spouse the freedom to be who God created them to be.

Anything else is selfishness that comes from an earthly mindset rather than a kingdom mindset. At the end of the day, we are servants of the King and all efforts—individually and in marriage—must move toward that end, for they come with eternal implications.

When we understand that we do not own our spouses, that they belong to God and are His property, then we can come to that place where we set them free. Remember, we are only stewards over all the things and people that God places in our life. He is the rightful owner.

So we shouldn't stand in the way of His purpose for another individual whom He has put us in union with, whether it is our spouses, children, friends or colleagues. We need to always foster encouragement, not discouragement.

Find out more about Zoro by visiting his website: ZoroTheDrummer.com.