Trust in Yahweh with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
Trusting God’s Instruments When Life’s Storms Obscure Your Direction and Destiny
About this episode
Derek Draughon, host of Fuel Cast Television and a licensed pilot, joins Philip Cameron for a conversation that will reframe how you navigate uncertainty, doubt, and the noise of a chaotic world. Drawing on Proverbs 3:5-6 — "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight" — Derek unpacks what it truly means to trust God's instruments when life's storms obscure your direction. Using vivid firsthand accounts from the cockpit, Derek illustrates how pilots flying IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) must ignore what their senses tell them and trust the gauges completely. "If the devil can get you in the clouds of your life," Derek warns, "he can get you looking around at the wind and the waves — trust those instruments." He connects this to 2 Corinthians 1:20, reminding believers that every promise God has made is "yes" in Christ, and that the Word of God is the infallible instrument panel for every storm we face — financial, physical, or relational. Derek also challenges viewers to stop anchoring their trust in media narratives and instead treat God like a GPS: punch in the destination, trust the routing, and don't panic when he sends you south before turning you north. Watch the full episode and visit fuelcast.tv on YouTube for more from Derek Draughon.
Part of our Trust collection of conversations.
Quotes worth sharing
“If he sends you south and you know you have to go north, understand there's a reason he's sending you south first before he turns you north.”
“I stared at the instruments and I double and triple checked everything ATC was telling me. And guess what? All of a sudden we come out of those clouds and we see beautiful Gulf Shores, Alabama. We see the runway. And I was cleared to land straight in, runway nine.”
“We tend to chase the ice instead of chasing him.”
What's Discussed
Derek Draughon, host of Fuel Cast Television and a licensed pilot, delivers a powerful teaching on trusting God's direction when circumstances are confusing or frightening. Anchoring in Proverbs 3:5-6 and 2 Corinthians 1:20, Derek uses IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) flying — where pilots must trust their gauges rather than their senses — as a sustained metaphor for biblical faith. He challenges believers to stop trusting media narratives (citing a BBC editing controversy) and instead treat God's Word as an infallible instrument panel. He also encourages viewers to find three scriptural promises for whatever they are facing and stand on them, because God's answer to every promise is yes and amen.
- Proverbs 3 and Trusting God's Path
- Pilots, Air Traffic Control, and Surrendered Faith
- Media Deception vs. God's Unchanging Truth
- God as GPS: Trusting the Routing
- Every Promise Is Yes and Amen in Christ
- IFR Faith: Flying Blind Through Life's Storms
- Finding Scripture Promises for Your Situation
Scripture in this episode
For however many are the promises of God, in him is the “Yes.” Therefore also through him is the “Amen”, to the glory of God through us.
Episode Transcript
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Intro
Philip:Hey, welcome to Daily Faith Today. My name is Philip Cameron, and I am delighted you could join us on Daily Faith. I believe that the Lord is gonna speak to you today. Some of you've been asking God to give me a word. Show me, tell me, speak to me. And we are living in unbelievable days.
Philip:I'm telling you now, if Jesus doesn't come, as we say in Scotland, I'll be a Dutchman, because it's just — everything is unfolding on a daily basis. But when you see these things come to pass, lift up your head, because your redemption draweth nigh. And we've gotta take ourselves out of the realm of fear, because the Bible says many hearts will fail with fear. My heart is not one of those hearts that's gonna fail with fear. My heart is fixed — eternal God, fixed on thee.
Philip:And those storms come and blow and howl. The devil can make all the noises he wants, and he can chomp his jaws in front of you, but he can't touch you, because you are protected by the blood of Jesus. And when the blood of Jesus is around you, no weapon formed against you is going to prosper. He has got you in the palm of his hands. And nothing — say it out loud — nothing can separate me from the love of God.
Philip:So I want you to be content. You are not holding onto him. He's holding onto you. You are in his plans. Your plans can change on a good day and a bad day. Most of our worlds would transform if we got a $50,000 check in the mailbox. All our depressions and despairs would go away for $50,000. He's a bigger God than $50,000. He's a bigger God than your circumstance. And he wants you to know that he knows you and he loves you with a love that will never, ever let you go.
Philip:My friend Derek Draughon today — he is host of Fuel Cast and is a great man of God. I've known him, it seems like all my life, at least all his life. And he has got a word for you today. I can't wait for you to hear him. And I want you to go and check out Fuel Cast TV. He is a blessing in my life.
Philip:And 35 years ago I had a very unusual call. My dad called me — the phone was sitting, those ones that were connected by a cable to the wall. And the phone rang and I picked it up. It was my dad calling me from Scotland. He had had cancer surgery and was recovering, and his wound burst. He was in a terrible state. And he called me up one night crying, saying, oh, baby's dying. I says, dad, what are you talking about? And he unfolded a story about orphanages in Romania, and he says, we've gotta help. I says, we are busy doing what we're doing. I don't need — my dance card is full. Thank you very much.
Philip:And the next night he called me again, and the next night. And he says, if you won't go, I'll go by myself. And I ended up going, and that started a 35-year vision and walk and challenge of life.
Philip:And over the last 35 years we have rescued and helped thousands of young kids that have no one else to care for them. We have an amazing place called Vatra Village. You should see this place — right on the largest lake in all of Moldova. And these homes, young girls that would be trafficked — each girl you're about to see in this little B-roll that we're showing you, each girl is worth $300,000 a year if a trafficker gets them. Instead of being caught by the trafficker, they come to our houses and our village and we tell them about Jesus.
Philip:And we put them back in school. And these kids that have gone through horrendous circumstances — abuse like you can't imagine, rejection — I can't even tell you some of their stories. But grace and mercy and the gospel changes them from being orphans to sons and daughters, and then from sons and daughters to ministers. It's crazy. And these kids evangelize constantly.
Philip:When the Ukraine war broke out, when Russia invaded Ukraine, 800,000 Ukrainians came to Moldova. And our kids were up on the border in a tent, cooking and feeding and loving and praying for refugees — mothers that had left their husbands behind to fight, that a million have been killed. And our orphans were there when other organizations quit. And you would know their names, I've told them to you. They went home at five. Our kids stayed there in case there was another mom coming, walking with our babies through the darkness and the cold.
Philip:And I've never seen anything like it in all my life. A church came just recently, a couple of weeks ago — called The Healing Place from Shreveport, Louisiana. Scott Ethridge is the pastor of that church, another great friend of mine. And they had an amazing time. They came back with their lives changed. In fact, they told me, we went there to minister, we came back having these kids minister to us. It's unbelievable. And they had a special day when all the kids got together. And they sent me this video. Watch this.
Philip:It takes $75 to buy one of those big bags of wood that is life — that puts away the fear of death from that little family. And our kids go out every day. This is part of their outreach. And they go into villages that are forgotten, with no hope, no streets, no sidewalks, no street lamps, no indoor plumbing — everyone living at the point of desperation.
Philip:And our amazing young kids go out and they bring food and they bring wood. If you'd like to sponsor a bag of wood, you could sponsor that great big bag that you saw them taking off the back of the truck for $75. Can you imagine giving a whole family a month of heat — that the terror of freezing to death is taken away? A month's food for these families costs $60. You can give that and be a part of the answer and the prayers of these families.
Philip:We have a hundred families that we have believed God to feed and care for. And we are asking you, if you give more, we will reach more families. Believe me, there are thousands of them. And I challenge you in the name of Jesus — don't curse the darkness. Don't get caught up with all the badness going on in the world. That's not your calling. Your calling is to look at the fields that are white at the harvest. It's the harvest fields the church needs to be looking at.
Philip:And when you cast your bread upon the waters, it will return. And as you care for these people — alcohol in Moldova is the biggest problem. There are more alcoholics in Moldova than any other country in the world. Alcohol brings violence in the home. It brings terrible abuse of every kind to little girls in a home. And we are working to do our best to reach out.
Philip:And we ask you to help us. If you would pray about this, our homes need supporting. We are just opening two more, and that will take 300 people giving a dollar a day. And if you could help us be one of those people that give a dollar a day — it won't change your world, but for those orphan kids that we are taking into our homes and putting them back in school and paying for the school and paying for the medical — our bus tickets to send them to school is over $3,000 a month just to buy the bus tickets.
Philip:And we're looking for you to be a part of this thing. Help us if you would. You can contact us — Orphan's Hands, PO Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee, 37716. You can also go to Daily Faith TV — that's the most direct where you can help. There's a giving page there. You can also go to orphanshands.org. There's a lot of information on that site you can look through, and there are a bunch of films and stuff. The kids make these videos for us. Or you can dial our 800 number, 833-Daily Faith.
Philip:Be a part of the answer for Jesus, if you would. And when you do it to the least of these, you do it unto him. Pray about it, will you? I'm delighted to have my dear friend with me today, a great man of God. What a great friend. I went through a tremendous battle over a decade ago, and God used his words to strengthen me, to keep me focused, to keep me walking through the storm. And I know that he's got a word for you that's gonna help do the same for you today.
Philip:His name is Derek Draughon. He's the host of Fuel Cast Television, and he's my friend. Derek, welcome to Daily Faith again. Every time I see you on the roster coming to be our guest, I think, hallelujah, I've got a day off, because Derek's coming to be with me. How are you doing, my friend?
Derek Draughon:I'm doing great, man. It's always a pleasure to be on. And that first 15 minutes I get teary eyed — I mean, just seeing what you guys are doing. And let me say this — I know I say it a lot of times when I'm on with you, but you know, I pastored for 28 years. I've been around a lot of missions, and I'm not saying any of them are dishonest or not doing what they're saying, but I know you guys — it is the real deal.
Derek Draughon:And I would encourage anybody — buy $75 worth of wood for somebody. Help pay for those bus tickets, help pay for those homes. Because what you guys are doing just amazes me. And what's crazy is — I'm not kidding — it brings tears to my eyes. It's not just giving the wood. What it does is it gives our kids — orphan kids — something to give away.
Philip:They've been in that house freezing most of their life. They've spent winters wondering if they'd die by the morning time. And suddenly, yes, we're blessing the families — that's important beyond belief for the family. But what it does to the kids that are hauling those great big bags of wood and walking back and forth in an endless line to stack the wood for the family — it's them that I'm interested in. It's the orphan that I'm interested in, that we are helping become God's hand extended.
Derek Draughon:Absolutely. It is an open door of ministry. Absolutely.
Philip:We are just so thrilled with what God is allowing us to do. And everyone that comes over — what I love is they'll contact me and they'll say, you didn't tell me half of what you were doing. And I'm thinking, what more do I have to do? That video does not explain it. You gotta come and see it.
Derek Draughon:God's been talking. I mean, honestly, a 30-minute show is not enough for you to tell everything you're doing.
Philip:We hired an organization for a season and they looked at what we're doing and all the stuff, and we began to tell them all the different outreaches in Moldova, Ukraine, and feeding the — and he says, we have never seen a ministry — and this organization worked with some of the biggest ministries in America. He says, all other ministries are asking us to swell up what they're doing to fill space. He says, you guys — you're doing too much. We don't have a big enough space because it's all coming in for what you're doing.
Proverbs 3 and Trusting God's Path
Philip:So we are delighted. And your help and your kindness to us over the years has been a real blessing. God has been talking to you about the directions of our life. And tell us what God's been telling you.
Derek Draughon:Well, I'll start with Proverbs — the third proverb. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding, and in all your ways submit to him, or acknowledge him, and he makes your path straight. And my biggest concern — the reason this is on my heart, and even men that I meet with and hang around, it's on their heart right now — it's because the world is in such an uproar right now. So many people are wondering, what is the path? What is the direction? And we base everything on whatever's on the news and what's happening in the world, when really what's on the news and what we see happening in the world through the news is not even the truth. So I think we've gotta go back to this, and we've got to put our trust in the Lord.
Derek Draughon:Philip, you guys know that I'm a pilot. I think I kind of inspired y'all to step into that world.
Philip:You did. It's your fault.
Derek Draughon:But it's like leaving Orlando the other night. We're leaving Orlando to head to Anniston, Alabama, but air traffic control sends us toward Cuba first. But we have to trust them, because they know what's going on. So when we take off out of Orlando, we're heading south, we're heading toward the border. And when we ask, hey, can we get a turn? Air traffic control says no. It's gonna be three more minutes. I'm moving you around some traffic. What do we do as pilots? We completely trust air traffic control.
Derek Draughon:But yet us believers, man, we trust the media. We trust social media. How often are we taking Proverbs 3 and literally putting all of our trust in the Lord? I said this to a group at a Bible study last night. Can I — listen to this. The BBC yesterday has just been found out that they edited Donald Trump's speech on January the sixth. And they took, fight, fight, fight, then lapsed it for 50-odd seconds, and edited in that he was telling the people, we're gonna go up to the Capitol and we're gonna fight, fight, fight. And what he really said is, we're gonna go up and honor our senators and honor our heroes in the police department. And the BBC, as we speak right now today, is in total turmoil because they're being caught lying — total lies to the public.
Pilots, Air Traffic Control, and Surrendered Faith
Derek Draughon:And when we look at that — I mean, that's horrible. But who do we know that cannot lie? Only one. That's God, the Lord.
Media Deception vs. God's Unchanging Truth
Derek Draughon:So here's what I said to that group last night. I told them, guys, every time you use your GPS over the next week, every time you punch in an address, I want you to realize that you need to be doing the same thing with God. You need to say, God, here's where I need to go. God will give you the address. He'll tell you what to do. Trust him. Punch it in and trust him. If he sends you south and you know you have to go north, understand there's a reason he's sending you south first before he turns you north.
Derek Draughon:We were at 23,000 feet and we're asking for 27, and ATC says, I've got traffic in the opposite direction at 27, I can't send you there. We trusted that and stayed at 23,000 feet. So when Proverbs tells us to trust in the Lord with all of our heart, there are too many people trusting in what they think, trusting in what they're seeing in the media, trusting in what their neighbor says to them, instead of completely trusting in what God says. What does his word say?
God as GPS: Trusting the Routing
Derek Draughon:And that's just really my heart for anybody watching today — that we've gotta pull the trust back out of the world. I know with humans we say it all the time, you know, you gotta earn my trust. Well, God doesn't have to earn our trust. He's got thousands of years. He's already earned our trust. We just need to trust in him now.
Philip:My favorite chorus — I sing to myself almost every day. He works in ways we cannot see. He will make a way for me. That's a great one. It's trusting in him to take you south when you think you should be going north. That is one of the best analogies I've ever heard in my life. Because I understand — we have a plane and we sit there and we trust our pilot and we trust that voice coming over the headphones to us. There's weather and there's this, and we came back home a few weeks ago and they go around all kinds of thunderstorms. And ATC spoke to us and spoke to us and we couldn't see anything. It was dark and there were clouds. And through our headphones we kept hearing the word coming, speaking — turn left, whatever it is. And that's what God wants to do for folk watching us today.
Derek Draughon:That's it. That's it. And like, I've been up in the tower. I've been to air traffic control and met those people. I'm gonna take some donuts to the Gulf Shores tower because they've heard me so much getting my commercial rating. I'm gonna drop some donuts off for those guys. But I've been in there and seen the radar and how you can look at that radar and see all those planes — you see their altitude, you see the direction they're heading. And it's got weather radar on it. You see if they're headed toward thunderstorms. Is God Almighty not in heaven with that same type of spiritual radar for us?
Every Promise Is Yes and Amen in Christ
Philip:Way bigger.
Derek Draughon:I love 2 Corinthians 1:20. No matter how many promises God has made to you, they're yes in Christ. And so through him the amen is spoken by us to the glory of God. Every promise he's made us. I used to tell my church, go in the Bible — if you're sick, find a promise for sickness. Find three of them. Write them down. Come to this altar next week. Bring me those promises you found, then I'm gonna stand in agreement with you on them. Because it got to the point where my people would come down and they wanted me to know the promise to pray for them. And we saw healings, we saw God touch them.
Derek Draughon:But I'm trying to teach them, hey, if you keep putting me on a pedestal, eventually I will rule over you. And that's not what we want in the church. So you need to go find those promises in the word. Because 2 Corinthians says God's answer to every promise in the word is yes. He promises us fulfillment. He promises us peace. He promises us direction. He promises us provision. He promises us protection. I could go on and on, but we're gonna run out of time. And every one of those promises, his answer to it when we bring it to him is yes and amen. Then the scripture says, and I speak the amen. And I don't even have to do that in my own strength — it's spoken through Christ. It's amazing.
Philip:Every promise in the word is yes and amen. I'm sitting here, as I'm hearing you talk, I'm going back to the plane now. There's a thing called IFR — instrument flight rating. I'm not a pilot, you guys are the pilots. But you gotta go through — when you are in clouds, you can turn the plane upside down. That's what happened to John F. Kennedy Jr. He inverted the plane, and when he thought he was pulling up, he was going down. And if the devil can get you in the clouds of your life, in the storms of your life, if the devil can get you looking around you at the wind and the waves, if he can get you panicking over whether you're the right way up or upside down, what am I doing — IFR tells you, trust those gauges. Look at what is in front of you.
IFR Faith: Flying Blind Through Life's Storms
Derek Draughon:That's it. That's it. And that's the promise. We preached in Woodward, Oklahoma a few weeks ago. Courtney flew up with me and we were coming back, and we were probably 40 minutes out of Gulf Shores and we hit solid IFR at night. Courtney's got a video of it. I'll personally send it to y'all so y'all can see it. But Courtney knows that I deal with ADHD. When we got on the ground, she said, Derek, look at this video I took of you. How are you so focused? She said, I've never seen you this focused.
Derek Draughon:I said, well, we were in solid IFR at night and my beauty queen, my wife, was with me. What was I doing? I was trusting the instruments. I quit looking outside at the lightning that was around us, at the clouds we were flying in, my strobes bouncing off the clouds. I stared at the instruments and I double and triple checked everything ATC was telling me. And guess what? All of a sudden we come out of those clouds and we see beautiful Gulf Shores, Alabama. We see the runway. And I was cleared to land straight in, runway nine.
Derek Draughon:What do we gotta do as believers? We've gotta trust what God's saying. We've gotta trust the word of God because it is infallible. It has no mistakes in it, never failed. It's everything we need. Thousands and thousands of years old, but it is applicable for whatever people watching right now are facing today. Are you facing financial issues? The word of God touches that for you today. Are you facing health issues? It's in the word.
Finding Scripture Promises for Your Situation
Derek Draughon:And I'd say to people watching, go find three of those promises. I don't care if you Google it — you can Google it, but then confirm it in the word of God. Find three scriptures that you can stand on. Because the answer God gives to his word is yes, and then we speak the amen, and it comes about in our life. And you're gonna see it happen if you'll trust the instruments.
Philip:I am so quickened in my spirit. I believe there are folk watching just now, Derek, that are in clouds, in storms. Master, don't you care that we perish? All they could see was the ups and downs of the waves. But God saw the storm, and God sees your storm today. He knows where you are. You are on his radar. Nothing can separate you from his love. And he's gonna take you — thus saith the Lord — he's gonna take you through the storm into green pastures and still waters. And he's gonna restore your soul in the name of Jesus.
Philip:We've got a minute and 20 seconds left to go. Can you pray for us to help us understand that he is gonna direct our ways?
Derek Draughon:Yes. God, I trust you right now, Father. Thank you. I know, Lord. I used to have my church repeat that after we would pray. And I pray, God, that people watching right now, Father, would realize that you have a huge display in heaven, God, that you are seeing everything that's ahead of us. Father God, you're the God of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. You know where we're at and what we're going through. I pray in the mighty name of Jesus that you would begin to speak to people watching right now, that you would tell them, turn this heading, stay at this altitude, and you're gonna get through the storm. God, you're gonna give them instruction to show them how to get to the other side.
Derek Draughon:God, I just take authority and I rebuke every voice of the enemy, every voice from outside that's trying to get them to go the wrong way. I command it to shut up in the name of Jesus, and that they would get alone with you and they would hear thus saith the Lord from you, and they would trust it and they would follow it. Because God, you've got a call on their life, and if they'll trust and follow, you are going to get them there. And I believe it in the name of Jesus. And God, before I'm done, I pray for Orphan's Hands. I pray for the Camerons, God, that your hand would continue to be on them, Father, that you would provide everything they need for what you've called them to do, God, and that they would see the miraculous in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Philip:Amen. Amen. We have gone past — I've taken off the last bumper, so we've got another minute to go. I believe today what we've spoken about, Derek, is going to change someone's life. They've gotta understand — what's that country song? Jesus, take the wheel.
Derek Draughon:That's prophetic.
Philip:We need to get our hands off the steering wheel of our life and our circumstances. God can do more for you in one second than you can do in a hundred years of trying by yourself. Your job and your responsibility is to find favor with the king. Find favor in his presence. And when you do that, the storms take care of themselves.
Philip:One time I was in Scotland, it was a freezing cold day. And inside the kitchen windows the frost had painted ferns. Have you ever seen that when it's really cold? My mom was scraping this off with a nail trying to get all the ice off. And I said, no, no, mom, light the fire. Get the fire burning and the ice takes care of itself. We tend to chase the ice instead of chasing him.
Philip:And Derek, thank you so much for being with us today. Let me say, Fuel Cast — do Fuel Cast TV. It's on YouTube. If you have a husband that you want to draw closer to Jesus, if you have kids, a young man in your family, this is a great place. It's a program ministering to men. Thank you, Derek, for being with us today.
Derek Draughon:Thank you. Love you guys.
Philip:Love you. Thank you for watching Daily Faith. We'll see you again. Bye-bye.
Common questions
Why does Derek say we shouldn't trust the news or media for direction in life?
Derek points out that what we see in the media is often not even the truth — he cited a live example of the BBC being caught editing a speech to change its meaning entirely. His takeaway is that only God cannot lie, so our trust belongs with him and his word, not with news cycles or social media.
What does flying in IFR (instrument flight rules) conditions have to do with trusting God?
Derek shared a real experience of flying home at night through solid clouds with his wife on board — lightning around them, strobes bouncing off the clouds. He said he stopped looking outside and fixed his eyes entirely on the instruments, double-checking everything air traffic control told him. He uses that as a direct parallel for believers: when life's storms are disorienting, stop looking at the chaos around you and trust God's word, which is infallible and never fails.
Why did air traffic control route Derek's plane toward Cuba when he was heading to Alabama — and what does that teach us spiritually?
ATC was routing him around other traffic, and Derek had no choice but to trust them even though the heading made no sense. He says God works the same way — if he sends you south when you think you need to go north, there's a reason, and our job is to trust the heading he gives us rather than lean on our own understanding, just as Proverbs 3 instructs.
What practical advice does Derek give for someone who is struggling and doesn't know what to stand on?
Derek tells viewers to go into the Bible and find three specific promises that speak to whatever they're facing — whether it's sickness, finances, or fear — write them down, and then bring those promises to God in prayer. He grounds this in 2 Corinthians 1:20, which says God's answer to every promise in his word is yes and amen, and he says if you'll trust those promises like instruments on a panel, you will see them come to pass.
How does Derek explain why God doesn't need to 'earn' our trust the way people do?
Derek says humans typically make others earn trust over time, but God has thousands of years of faithfulness already on the record. In Derek's view, the track record is already there — God has already earned it — so the only thing left for believers to do is actually choose to trust him now instead of defaulting to what the world, neighbors, or social media are saying.
Topics
derek draughonfuel cast televisionproverbs 3instrument flight rulestrusting godstorms of lifegod's promises