The Seduction of Self-Help: A Theological Review of ‘The Power of Spiritual Thinking’

[00:00:05] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
So I think this teaching and the reason I'm staying on it is because the only way to really overcome that is to have a renewed mind.
[00:00:13] And it's a constant work that God's doing in our life.
[00:00:16] So we already know Romans chapter 12, present yourself, which is your reasonable service to the Lord.
[00:00:22] and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed, how?
[00:00:26] By the renewing of your mind.
[00:00:28] The word renewing is a renovation, to renovate your mind, that you may prove what is the good, the perfect and the acceptable will of the Lord.
[00:00:36] We've looked at Proverbs 23, verse seven, and I wanna get in and really work with your faith.
[00:00:42] Because where there's faith, faith boils down to this word of pistis, which means total trust.
[00:00:48] Where there's total trust in God, no matter what you're facing, no matter what you see in the natural, no matter how much you're being bombarded, you know that God has you.
[00:00:58] And when you know that God has you, there's an inner peace, there's a confidence, there's a calmness to your spirit, to your heart, to your mind, that no matter what, you're like, it's okay.
[00:01:09] It's okay, I know that God has me, and God is great, and He's a good Father, He's a good Daddy.
[00:01:16] And with that knowledge, there's just this rest in Him.
[00:01:21] And that's why I really want to keep teaching on this, because Proverbs 23, verse 7,
[00:01:26] for as he thinketh in his heart so is he the Hebrew verb as we've taught so often is found only here and what it probably means is as he is all along in his heart which in the Hebrew is led the way a person feels about something or thinks about something perceives it so is he at last in acts so we've talked about the ABCs an action creates a behavior which causes or actually an action creates a belief
[00:01:54] which all behavior comes out of belief creates a behavior that has consequences so there's an action in our life right now the entire world has gone through trauma there's an action that creates a belief that causes behavior and has consequences
[00:02:14] Now God says that we are washed by the Word, that our soul is cleansed.
[00:02:21] We're going to deal a lot with what is the heart, what's the soul, the mind tonight.
[00:02:25] So the habitual thoughts in a person's life, habitual is that it's so you have about 60,000 thoughts a day.
[00:02:32] Unfortunately, more of those tend to be negative because that's the makeup of
[00:02:38] Atmosphere and things that surround us and what comes in our ear gate and our eye gate and just the world that we unfortunately live in.
[00:02:45] It's so important to guard your heart according to Proverbs chapter 4.
[00:02:50] What you see, what you hear, the conversations that you partake of, the people that you fellowship with, all those things are gates and it's so important to guard that because the habitual thoughts of our life control how we live.
[00:03:04] So as a man thinketh, so he is at last an act.
[00:03:07] Matthew chapter 22 verse 37 tells us it's the second greatest command because it says you'll love God with all your heart soul mind right that's our first command and then love your neighbor likewise as you love yourself so let's look at verse the first part of this
[00:03:25] Matthew 22, verse 37.
[00:03:27] You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, watch how he puts this out, and with all of your soul and with all of your mind.
[00:03:36] Now we've read that, heard that, what, a thousand times?
[00:03:39] But have you ever really thought about why God is saying all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and what's the difference between them?
[00:03:46] Jesus commands us to do more than just believe in God, but to love him with all of our heart.
[00:03:52] Then he even gets more specific and says, I want you to love him with all of your soul.
[00:03:57] And then he makes it crystal clear and says, and I want you to love him with all of your mind.
[00:04:02] So I was doing some etymology and digging around today and I went, all right, let me lay this out.
[00:04:09] The Greek word heart there is kardia with a K. K-A-R-D-I-A.
[00:04:14] Figuratively, it means the heart, but it literally, that is the thoughts or the feelings.
[00:04:20] So the word heart there is your mind, the way you think about something, the way you feel about something.
[00:04:26] It's kardia in the Greek, it's leb in the Hebrew.
[00:04:29] So you're to love God with all of your thoughts, all of your feelings.
[00:04:33] And then he goes on, you're to love Him with all your soul.
[00:04:36] Now we often say your soul is your mind, your will, your emotions, but the Greek word here is different.
[00:04:42] It is P-S-U-C-H-E. And it means breath.
[00:04:46] That is by implication spirit.
[00:04:49] So I'm not only to love God with my thoughts and my feelings, but I'm to love God with my spirit.
[00:04:58] Then it says, I'm to love Him with my mind.
[00:05:01] Well, what's the difference here?
[00:05:03] In the Greek, it's D-I-A-N-O-I-A.
[00:05:08] Now watch this, it means deep thought and faculty.
[00:05:12] It's mind art's disposition.
[00:05:15] By implication, it's exercise of thought.
[00:05:20] So I am to love God with the way I think about things, the way I feel about things.
[00:05:24] I'm to love Him with all of my spirit.
[00:05:27] And I'm to love Him with all of my deep thought or the faculty of my mind.
[00:05:32] It's disposition by implication, the way I exercise my thoughts.
[00:05:37] In other words,
[00:05:38] Thoughts, as you'll see, turn into actions, actions turn into habits, habits become character, and character becomes destiny.
[00:05:45] Should we say it again there?
[00:05:46] So thoughts become actions.
[00:05:50] Actions become habits, something you do so routinely without even thinking.
[00:05:54] Habits become your character.
[00:05:56] Character becomes your destiny.
[00:05:59] So God's doing this constant transformation.
[00:06:02] So when I'm faced with a trigger, I'm faced with something, an action that creates a belief, faulty or real,
[00:06:09] It becomes my belief, right?
[00:06:12] We have ownership.
[00:06:13] No one owns your thoughts.
[00:06:15] You own them.
[00:06:17] So we have ownership of that.
[00:06:18] God says, renew the mind, renew the mind.
[00:06:20] Get rid of the old way of thinking and get my way of thinking.
[00:06:23] Get my perception.
[00:06:25] Belief creates behavior and behavior has consequences.
[00:06:28] So as the man thinketh, so at last is he.
[00:06:32] So put the correlation here together.
[00:06:34] That God has a certain way that he wants you to think and the enemy has a certain way he wants you to think.
[00:06:39] God has a perception how he wants you to see the world and life.
[00:06:42] The enemy has a perception of how he wants you to see the world and life.
[00:06:46] And Paul alludes to it as there's this constant battle going on.
[00:06:49] That's why the battlefield becomes the mind.
[00:06:52] So we'll help this to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and to love Him with all that is within us.
[00:07:00] We have to remain and remove every, remain in Him and remove every thought that is not loving Him.
[00:07:08] So that means it has as much to do and we're gonna get into this principle as putting on and taking off.
[00:07:17] So 1 John 4, verse eight, whoever does not love does not know God.
[00:07:22] because God is love.
[00:07:24] Now, right here, whoever does not love does not know God.
[00:07:31] Now, remember thoughts, as a man thinketh, at last he is in action or all along.
[00:07:39] At last he is in act.
[00:07:41] So, thoughts become thoughts.
[00:07:44] Belief become behavior become consequences.
[00:07:47] So whoever does not love God does not know God.
[00:07:51] So when you see the fruit
[00:07:53] of wickedness or evil or unrighteous or injustice or hatred or abominations or I mean just keep going through that whoever does not love does not know God so somebody can say Satan claims to know God actually does know God uh he says because why God is love I learned a very important principle that I do almost every day in my daily life tonight's going to be very practical
[00:08:20] I say God is love.
[00:08:22] So anything I'm facing that day that is not love, I command it to get out of my life.
[00:08:29] I command it to be uprooted in the name of Jesus.
[00:08:33] So I simply say things like, okay, anxiety, that's not love.
[00:08:37] Fear's not love.
[00:08:38] Offense is not love.
[00:08:39] Perversion's not love.
[00:08:41] Hatred's not love.
[00:08:42] Racism's not love.
[00:08:44] Unforgiveness is not love.
[00:08:45] Bitterness is not love.
[00:08:48] Death, disease, sickness, that's not love.
[00:08:51] All the destructive things, that's not love.
[00:08:53] So if I'm dealing with fear, fear is not love.
[00:08:59] God is love.
[00:09:00] So anything that is not love, I command it to be uprooted out of my life in the name of Jesus.
[00:09:06] Proverbs chapter 6 verse 23 tells us reproofs of instruction are the way of life.
[00:09:12] Reproofs, corrections, instructions, or confrontation from the Word of God are designed to bring change into our life.
[00:09:20] It's a lifestyle of being corrected because God wants to course correct us.
[00:09:24] He wants to challenge our way so that we get rid of a world's way of thinking, a natural way of thinking, faulty beliefs that we've taken on, and that we are corrected and instructed so that we can grow and become mature in Christ.
[00:09:40] The words reproof, reprove, rebuke, correct, instruct, and teach you find them especially I'm going to focus in on the book of Proverbs throughout the book of Proverbs show us that to have the wisdom of God and the ways of God then we must be willing to change.
[00:09:56] Now it sounds easy but all change feels like loss and we tend to stay stuck in minds and mold sets that have to come off.
[00:10:05] I told you this is a really important principle because change is more than just gaining new insight or gaining new information.
[00:10:12] The process of change involves the putting off as well as the putting on.
[00:10:19] So the process of change means I've got to take some things off.
[00:10:23] and put some things in so there's some things we have to get rid of as well as some things that we have to embrace now that can go really deep because we all have biases we all have ways that we think we all have perceptions we all have beliefs and and we truly believe that those are right our minds been bartered culture has taught us our family our lineage our history maybe your history tells you people aren't safe
[00:10:51] And maybe that's been true to a certain degree, but it doesn't mean that every person is bad.
[00:10:57] Maybe your history tells you that no man's ever going to stay with you.
[00:11:00] They're always going to abandon you.
[00:11:01] But that's not true.
[00:11:03] Not every man is an abandoner.
[00:11:06] See, because you went through something doesn't mean it's truth.
[00:11:09] Truth is the Word of God.
[00:11:11] It's the infallible Word of God.
[00:11:12] And eventually, the more this Word gets in you, the more your mind is renewed.
[00:11:17] It's renovated.
[00:11:17] And the old, the things that need to be taken out of you, come off you.
[00:11:23] Now remember, you cannot say you love God and hate your brother.
[00:11:30] The love of God is not in you.
[00:11:32] It says, God forbid every man's a liar.
[00:11:35] So, it's telling us the more that God's Word gets in me, the more transformed I become.
[00:11:40] Let's look at Ephesians chapter 4 verse 22 through 24.
[00:11:43] You're going to get a lot of Word tonight.
[00:11:45] That you put off concerning your former conduct the old man which grows corrupt according to deceitful lust, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.
[00:11:56] And that you put on the new man which was created according to God in righteousness and true holiness.
[00:12:03] So here we go again.
[00:12:04] In the New Testament, God uses this principle a lot of putting off and putting on.
[00:12:11] So take this off and I want you to put this on.
[00:12:15] In the process of renewing our mind, we must realize that there are as many thoughts and attitudes that must be taken out of us as there are that are to be put in us.
[00:12:26] So we've got to do a lot of this course correction in order for us to walk in the wisdom of God and follow the paths of life.
[00:12:36] And that's what we ultimately want, right?
[00:12:38] To have the wisdom of God, the mysteries, the wisdom, the application of understanding and knowledge,
[00:12:43] and also to walk in the ways of God.
[00:12:46] Romans 8, verse 5 and 6.
[00:12:49] For those who are according to the flesh are controlled by its unholy desires.
[00:12:54] They set their minds on and pursue those things which gratify the flesh.
[00:12:59] But those who are according to the Spirit and are controlled by the desires of the Spirit set their minds on and seek those things which gratify the Holy Spirit.
[00:13:09] Verse 6, For to be carnally minded is death, and to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
[00:13:16] So when I'm carnally minded, it's death.
[00:13:18] When I'm spiritually minded, it's life and peace.
[00:13:20] So satanic forces are at operation right now and they're always working to control my thinking, to control my thought process through my flesh by connecting me to my sensual mechanisms, my five senses,
[00:13:35] See what I hear, what I taste, what I smell, what I touch.
[00:13:39] Your faith comes through the Word of God.
[00:13:44] Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
[00:13:47] So your faith is in the Word of God and it's fighting that sensory perception.
[00:13:53] So, it is always trying to bring you from situational thinking to revelational thinking.
[00:14:01] So, you've got situations that try to bring fear, anxiety, offense, hurt, abuse, unforgiveness, but God wants to give you revelation.
[00:14:13] Now Revelation is important because remember that's why the struggle and the battle occurs in the mind between our spirit and our carnal man.
[00:14:22] Carnal has to do with the nature of flesh.
[00:14:25] That is sensual, controlled by animal appetites.
[00:14:29] There's a natural man that's not born again.
[00:14:31] There's a carnal man that's led by a sensory mechanism.
[00:14:34] And then there's a spiritual man.
[00:14:35] So carnal has to do with the animal appetite.
[00:14:38] It has to do with the
[00:14:40] Nature of the Flesh.
[00:14:41] Spiritual or spirit in the Greek means pneuma.
[00:14:44] The Hebrew is ruah.
[00:14:46] It means wind or breath that is spacious, air in motion, or the Holy Spirit.
[00:14:51] It means the air or the breath of God.
[00:14:54] And so a spirit mind is one that is connected and controlled by the Holy Spirit.
[00:15:00] Because we have the power to choose, because God gave us a free will, we find ourselves engaged in a battle every single day deciding between life and death.
[00:15:09] That's why God said, choose you this day whom you will serve.
[00:15:15] I've set life before you and I've set death before you.
[00:15:18] Make a choice.
[00:15:20] So every single day, every decision is a decision of life or a decision of death.
[00:15:25] A decision that creates , creates , which comes out of thought, right?
[00:15:32] Creates belief and behavior, which causes a consequence.
[00:15:37] So we battle with our humanity, our flesh, trying to take on this walk of our divine nature of God and fight the walk to live in the promises of God.
[00:15:48] The only way to do this is to live by the law of the Spirit which is in Christ Jesus according to Romans chapter 8 verse 1 and 2.
[00:15:56] The first step is having a foundation of faith or total trust because remember now faith is the substance of things hoped for when you boil that root word down it's total trust so the first step of our foundation the foundation the essential and I've taught a lot on this is to have total trust
[00:16:17] and have a spiritual mind.
[00:16:19] So I cannot have a spiritual mind if I don't have total trust in God because a spiritual mind is one that is connected and controlled by the Holy Spirit.
[00:16:27] Therefore, I'm bombarded by all these messages that the world is going to try to inoculate me and try to constantly bombard me with.
[00:16:37] But the Spirit of God, and you know it because you'll get this, it's called conviction, like this yellow, you'll get this warning, no, no, no, I shouldn't do that.
[00:16:45] I really don't need to go to that place or I shouldn't,
[00:16:47] You're being led by the Spirit and those that are led by the Spirit are called the sons of God.
[00:17:00] So how do I become spiritual minded and get this total trust?
[00:17:05] Remember you've got to take off as much as you've got to put in.
[00:17:09] Therefore, I have to break the molds that have been formed in my life by various inputs.
[00:17:16] So what are the most inputs that have formed in our life?
[00:17:20] Our parents, how we were brought up, religion, learned behaviors, negative words, failures, hurts from past experiences,
[00:17:38] So I've got to break the mold.
[00:17:40] Now what is a mold?
[00:17:42] A mold is your mindset.
[00:17:44] I've got to break the mindset of religion.
[00:17:47] I've got to break the mindset of learned behavior.
[00:17:50] I've got to break the mindset of negative words that have been spoken over me, especially if they came from a figure of authority.
[00:17:57] I've got to break the mindset of failure.
[00:18:00] I've got to break the mindset of hurt and offense from my past.
[00:18:04] So I've got to break the mold, the mindset.
[00:18:06] It's a learned thought, a pattern, or a paradigm.
[00:18:10] So those molds that shape the way you think, like there's certain triggers that used to I'd just freak out.
[00:18:19] Then I'd get fearful.
[00:18:21] Then like years and years, then I'd get anxious.
[00:18:23] Now today, because I work so much at getting the Word of God in and getting those molds out,
[00:18:31] Those molds that once had such a grip on my mind.
[00:18:35] Those molds that once dictated my thought and created a faulty belief that produced behavior and had consequences that were not in alignment with God's Word.
[00:18:47] Listen, God wants to set you free and you're set free by the truth that you know.
[00:18:52] For whom the Son sets free is free indeed.
[00:18:56] So a mindset that is in a mold of learned behavior that is not in alignment with the Word of God or religion or hurt or any of those things, and there's a whole list of other things, is resistant and rigid against the process
[00:19:12] of Change.
[00:19:14] So we live within the limitations and the confinements of our thoughts.
[00:19:19] As a man thinketh, I'm taking my time to work this because I'm going somewhere tonight.
[00:19:23] As a man thinketh, so is he at last in act.
[00:19:26] So we live and our life becomes a reflection of the limitations or the confinements of our thoughts.
[00:19:35] You see how much we deduce and reduce God down to our situation.
[00:19:41] God is God.
[00:19:43] Is there anything too difficult for Him?
[00:19:47] God who stepped out of nothing and flung nothing into nothing created the entire universe.
[00:19:52] God who breathed into dust and He became a living soul, man.
[00:19:57] God who gave man all authority and even told Adam, hey, whatever you name those animals, they'll become.
[00:20:04] God who sent His only begotten Son and gave us victory when He said it is finished and now has given us all power and all authority both in heaven and in earth.
[00:20:13] God.
[00:20:15] God says, listen, you are limiting yourself.
[00:20:20] The life that you're supposed to be living is much larger than the one that you're in right now because you're deducing and living within the confinements and limitations of your thoughts, not of someone else's thoughts, not of what somebody else did to you, not of the patterns that you have walked through that have become molds now in your life.
[00:20:41] Not of the rigidness of religion that you grew up in that taught you who you were supposed to be but was not truly who I created you to be.
[00:20:52] See what God's saying is I'm about to break the limitations off because when you get a renewed mind you see there is nothing too difficult for me.
[00:21:00] There is nothing.
[00:21:01] Who had known the mind of the Lord or who has first been his counselor?
[00:21:04] Or who had given to him that it shall not be recompensed unto him again?
[00:21:08] For the earth is but a footstool to the Lord.
[00:21:11] because thoughts are seeds of perception, emotions, and actions.
[00:21:20] So what are thoughts?
[00:21:21] They're just seeds of perceptions, emotions, and actions.
[00:21:29] So thought, let's just break it down to its most basic, is the action or process of thinking, serious consideration, the power, I'm gonna teach on this later, the power to imagine,
[00:21:41] A developed intention or plan.
[00:21:44] That's why if you're ever gonna get a dream, a vision, I should say, not a dream.
[00:21:48] A vision is, we know, a mental picture of your future that is forceful enough to mold your present.
[00:21:54] So without a vision, people perish.
[00:21:57] It's a God-inspired dream, a hope and an expectation that is planted in a man's heart by the Holy Spirit and made real in his imagination.
[00:22:06] So when you dream, like you wrote Don't Stop Believing, baby, you gave people permission to dream.
[00:22:12] But a God dream, a God vision is a mental picture of my future that is forceful enough to mold my present because I'm seeing by revelation.
[00:22:22] So it's a God-inspired conception in my heart, a seed that's been planted in my heart, the way I feel about something, the way I think about something that is made real by the Holy Spirit in my imagination.
[00:22:35] So see, we can have man's dreams all day long, but the Bible already says that the plans of man are gonna fail and the plans of God are gonna prevail.
[00:22:44] But when God puts a dream on your heart and in your heart, like I saw myself preaching to nations when I was living in a trailer on Bill Moxley Road.
[00:22:53] I knew it, it was more real to me than the trailer that I was living in, than the WIC food that I was on, than the things that I didn't have.
[00:23:03] So my situation was just temporary.
[00:23:09] It was not my destination.
[00:23:11] It wasn't my destiny.
[00:23:13] How'd I know that?
[00:23:14] Because I had been illuminated by the Holy Spirit, and the more I got in the Word, the more it confirmed what the Holy Spirit had revealed to me.
[00:23:23] You see, God's dropping seeds in your heart.
[00:23:25] God has shown you things that might sound crazy to other people.
[00:23:29] God gives you a God-inspired hope and expectation that has been planted in your heart by the Holy Spirit and made real in your imagination.
[00:23:38] He's given you a mental picture of your future that is forceful enough to mold your present.
[00:23:44] How's it molded?
[00:23:45] because you're taking out the old mindset, the old things that made you think one way and putting in the new because the more the Word of God gets into you, the more that you become conformed to what God says you can do, who God says you are, and what God says you can have.
[00:24:02] And God is not limited by anything, by pandemic, by people, by kings, by presidents, by economies, by governments, by haters, by witch doctors.
[00:24:13] God's not limited.
[00:24:14] He's God.
[00:24:15] And with God all things are possible.
[00:24:19] So behind the expression of sound speech substance lies the fact of thought.
[00:24:23] The philosophy of Hebrew doctrine declares that behind thought is thinker.
[00:24:28] So until I master my mind, I cannot master my life.
[00:24:34] So if my thoughts don't get in alignment with the way God thinks, then I'm never going to have the life that God has intended for me.
[00:24:43] So we've already talked about we must become aware of how God thinks.
[00:24:46] That means instead of thinking situational, I'm thinking revelational.
[00:24:52] So how does God think?
[00:24:54] That's why revelation is absolutely a necessity because revelation is deeper than just knowledge.
[00:25:00] It's deeper than just knowing or facts.
[00:25:04] Because something can be factual, but that doesn't make it truth.
[00:25:08] It can be a fact that maybe you have cancer right now, but that doesn't mean it's truth because truth is he was wounded for your transgression, bruised for your iniquity, the chastisement of our peace is upon him and with his stripes you are healed.
[00:25:23] It may be factual that you went through an abusive situation like myself, but that is not truth because you are not a victim, you are a victor.
[00:25:32] You are more than a conqueror according to the Word of God through Christ Jesus.
[00:25:37] So something can be fact but not be truth.
[00:25:40] So Revelation becomes much deeper than knowledge.
[00:25:43] It's deeper than just facts.
[00:25:46] Revelation is a special extraordinary manifestation which removes the veil from something.
[00:25:52] So what we're really fighting in the clash of kingdoms between darkness and light is one has veils and one doesn't.
[00:25:59] Even an entire region can be deceived, be veiled.
[00:26:03] The entire region of Galatia, Paul said, oh you Galatians, who has so easily bewitched you?
[00:26:11] Who's veiled you?
[00:26:13] How did you get veiled?
[00:26:14] He's talking to the church.
[00:26:16] He's talking to Christians.
[00:26:17] He's saying, you're veiled.
[00:26:19] Just because you've called out on the name of Jesus does not mean that you're not walking in darkness.
[00:26:25] There are a lot of people that have called on the name of Jesus and because of the grace of God and because of the mercy of God and the finished work of Jesus Christ, there's eternity and you can go in and you can have relationship with God, but you can live totally defeated here on earth and never fulfill your purpose.
[00:26:44] And that is not the intention of God.
[00:26:47] But I have to change, constantly change this mind, which does what?
[00:26:51] It's a principle of taking out and putting in.
[00:26:54] Taking out and putting in.
[00:26:56] The Psalmist cried out in Psalm 119, verse 18, Open thou my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.
[00:27:04] Proverbs 20 says the Lord is the one that makes your eyes to see.
[00:27:08] So Revelation is based on how God wants me to see things.
[00:27:12] It's based on how God wants me to perceive.
[00:27:15] How God wants me to see.
[00:27:18] That's why I develop a certain type of thinking that always puts God in my circumstances.
[00:27:24] So I don't just think about, no matter what decision, like this morning I was contemplating a decision whether to get on a plane and go somewhere, right baby?
[00:27:33] And what did I do?
[00:27:35] I got up early this morning, six or so, almost started praying, and I was thinking about, if I do this, then I'm gonna have to cancel this.
[00:27:48] Because there was one flight and one situation.
[00:27:51] And I prayed and I said, no, this is what I feel like God's doing.
[00:27:55] Now, if I would have told most people
[00:27:58] They would have said door one or door two.
[00:27:59] They would have said definitely door two, right?
[00:28:01] They would have 100% said, oh, that's the door.
[00:28:04] In fact, they would have run for that door.
[00:28:07] But my spirit was telling me, do this.
[00:28:10] Now it looked like the lesser thing.
[00:28:12] It looked like the lower thing.
[00:28:14] It looked like little fruit kinda.
[00:28:17] John woke up and we always have coffee together.
[00:28:19] And I said, baby, this is what my heart's telling me.
[00:28:22] It's what my spirit's saying.
[00:28:24] And so I've prayed and I've asked God to reveal to me, like, which do I go?
[00:28:28] Do I go, you know, because I was making a decision.
[00:28:30] Do I go here or do I stay there?
[00:28:32] And I felt by my spirit, I was to do this and keep a commitment for tomorrow that I'd had that seemed like lesser fruit when the other one seemed like the ultimate fruit.
[00:28:46] And so I did that.
[00:28:47] I made that decision.
[00:28:49] Well, I get a call this afternoon, they said, I know this is the craziest thing, but that event that you're supposed to be at tomorrow, or that I did not, I decided not to go to, which in the natural would have really high stakes, in the natural, if you don't have Revelation, it got canceled last minute.
[00:29:09] Got canceled.
[00:29:11] So I would have totally missed what I am supposed to be doing,
[00:29:15] If I would have been thinking with natural perception.
[00:29:20] So Revelation, you've got to put God in your circumstances.
[00:29:24] So when I wake up in the morning, I'm like, God, you've ordained this day.
[00:29:27] I put you in the midst of it.
[00:29:30] And if that's in the midst of, do I go here?
[00:29:34] Do I buy this?
[00:29:36] Do I hire this person?
[00:29:38] How do I fight this battle?
[00:29:40] When three armies are aligned against me, God, which one do I hire to help work this stuff out in the natural?
[00:29:49] You've got to put God up in their circumstances.
[00:29:51] When the doctor gives you a report, put God in the middle of it.
[00:29:54] When you hear this, put God up in the middle of your situation.
[00:29:58] So that becomes revelation thinking.
[00:30:01] You're putting God in your situation.
[00:30:03] You're putting God in your circumstances.
[00:30:05] So His Word becomes a filter for my life.
[00:30:08] Therefore,
[00:30:10] When I'm at my best, which I try to be, can't say I always am, but what I'm doing is the Word.
[00:30:18] I'm making decisions not based on...
[00:30:20] I would have never come to Papua Florida if I was making decisions based on what seemed like my best.
[00:30:26] I just stayed in Tampa.
[00:30:28] I mean, it just would have been crazy to come here in the natural.
[00:30:32] But this is what I was told to do by spiritual authority and by the leading of the Lord.
[00:30:37] So your word becomes the filter.
[00:30:39] Well, how'd you know to submit to spiritual authority?
[00:30:42] Because I know to submit to spiritual authority, that's a whole nother teaching.
[00:30:47] So when the word becomes filter for my life, all revelation comes out of illumination.
[00:30:53] and all New Testament blessings, because we want the blessing, don't we?
[00:30:57] Luke, like I quoted it earlier, give and it shall be given, and pressed down, shaken together shall men give unto your bosom, running over, yes, I'm gonna get back, all right, yes, it's gonna happen.
[00:31:05] My God shall supply all my needs according to His riches and glory and dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah.
[00:31:09] Whatever the New Testament blessing, all New Testament blessings of joy, of peace, of love, of life, of goodness, of giftings, all New Testament blessings come out
[00:31:22] of illumination and illumination is when God reveals something a revelation excuse me now it comes out of revelation and revelation is when God illuminates you because he reveals it he makes it rhema to you it's actually from a Greek word when you're illuminated it's from a Greek word a photograph
[00:31:45] So it's like you're looking at a situation, could be negative.
[00:31:49] It's like a photograph that gets developed the old way.
[00:31:51] It's like when they take the negative, put it in the dark room, put solution over it.
[00:31:57] The solution is the Holy Spirit.
[00:31:59] The solution is the Word of God.
[00:32:01] And that negative goes in a dark room.
[00:32:03] You might be in a dark room right now.
[00:32:06] With nothing but a bunch of negatives around you.
[00:32:09] But I'm telling you the solution is the outpouring of God's Word and it takes that negative and brings out this beautiful photograph.
[00:32:17] So what happens is your spirit has illumination.
[00:32:21] It has a photograph.
[00:32:23] It has a picture on the inside.
[00:32:26] Now not everybody else can see it.
[00:32:27] That's why when you become a visionary, you learn how to communicate the photograph that you're carrying by the Spirit of God.
[00:32:34] So visionaries have the ability to communicate vision.
[00:32:39] So visionaries, it's one thing to have a vision, it's another thing to be a visionary.
[00:32:43] Because they begin to communicate which means they can mobilize and move people in a direction for a bigger picture because they're all in the portrait.
[00:32:53] So some people see nations being shaken because God's illuminated them and they have an ability to
[00:32:59] So when God gives you something, He illuminates you.
[00:33:12] He gives you a photograph on the inside.
[00:33:14] It's not for selfish ambition.
[00:33:15] It's always going to involve other people because the purpose is that it brings God glory.
[00:33:22] The purpose is not about you.
[00:33:24] Now it can be a blessing to you.
[00:33:26] That's part of the benefit.
[00:33:28] That's just part of the package.
[00:33:30] But God illuminates.
[00:33:31] He puts this photograph, a picture on the inside.
[00:33:34] So revelation is a result of God communicating with my mind through faith in His Word.
[00:33:42] So the more I'm in His Word with a pure heart, clean hands, open heart,
[00:33:48] The more that I am revealed to or illuminated, the more that I begin to see.
[00:33:54] Now, I'm not talking about these eyes.
[00:33:56] I'm talking about these eyes.
[00:33:59] Now, when I have revelation through illumination, you ready?
[00:34:01] This creates, because God's communicating with me through faith in His Word, this creates the realm of all things possible.
[00:34:10] And then revelation creates perception.
[00:34:14] which is the capacity for comprehension to realize that the possibility of change.
[00:34:23] So now I'm illuminated, are you with me?
[00:34:25] I told you I'm gonna take my time which creates the realms of all things possible.
[00:34:30] So Revelation,
[00:34:32] God creates perception, which is the capacity of comprehension to realize for the possibility of change.
[00:34:41] That's how transformation starts happening.
[00:34:43] So my perception determines my conception.
[00:34:51] So how I perceive determines what I'm going to conceive.
[00:34:56] So my perception determines my conception.
[00:35:00] How I perceive determines what I'm gonna get pregnant with.
[00:35:04] Pregnant with fear, pregnant with faith.
[00:35:06] Pregnant with victory, pregnant with loss.
[00:35:09] Pregnant with purpose, pregnant with defeat.
[00:35:12] What I conceive, which is the comprehension to realize the possibility of change, that I'm not stuck as a victim, that I am a victor in Christ Jesus, that I can do all things through Christ, that if the doctor says sick, God says healed.
[00:35:28] If your bank account says poor, God says, not necessarily like you're rich with just money, but I'm talking about you're rich with spiritual richness.
[00:35:37] You're full, you're healed, you're whole.
[00:35:40] If the world says broken,
[00:35:42] God says Ephesians 3 20 you can do all things I mean that that according to the power that worketh in you there's there's nothing too difficult for God so what happens here my perceptions determine my conceptions when my mind spiritual one that's connected and controlled by the Holy Spirit it's not only includes conception or creation of an idea but it causes me to act according to what is being produced in my spirit
[00:36:12] So as a man thinketh, so is he at last in act.
[00:36:17] So remember, now that I start in Revelation, I have illumination, internal picture by the Holy Spirit.
[00:36:27] A picture.
[00:36:29] A mental picture of my future that is forceful enough to mold my present.
[00:36:34] So now that begins to transform me and move me and my perception determines my conception which also is inclusive of the creation of an idea and it causes me to act, to move.
[00:36:46] Remember the Spirit of God moved upon the earth and then God said and whatever God said it came into being.
[00:36:53] So that's why you can sit there and call those things that are not as though they were and nothing ever happens.
[00:36:58] But there's other people that call those things that are not as though they were and things happen.
[00:37:04] Why?
[00:37:05] Because it's real.
[00:37:07] It's more real to them than the stage I'm standing on, than the ceiling that I can see, than this air that I'm breathing, because the realm of the Spirit is a very real spirit.
[00:37:19] are very real thing.
[00:37:21] So this is where the results of the spiritually activated mind according to Hebrews chapter 11 is so vital and important.
[00:37:28] By faith, Abel offered up a more excellent sacrifice than Cain and he was counted righteous.
[00:37:34] By faith, Enoch was translated
[00:37:36] and he did not see death.
[00:37:40] By faith, Noah built an ark and his family was saved.
[00:37:44] By faith, Sarah received strength to conceive the seed and bear forth the child.
[00:37:49] By faith, Abraham offered up Isaac.
[00:37:52] By faith, the walls of Jericho began to fall down.
[00:37:56] It was a result of walking in revelation.
[00:37:59] By thinking like God.
[00:38:00] You say, how can I think like God?
[00:38:02] That's what have the faith of God.
[00:38:04] It says have faith in God.
[00:38:06] But it literally translates, have the faith of God.
[00:38:09] So, the more His Word becomes revealed in your life, the more transformed your thoughts become.
[00:38:15] 1 Corinthians 2, verse 16.
[00:38:18] But we have the mind of Christ, the Messiah, and to hold the thoughts and the feelings and purposes of His heart.
[00:38:25] The God of eternity has placed eternity in our hearts.
[00:38:29] according to the Word of God.
[00:38:31] He's given you His very heart and memory and now we carry a revelation of a pre-existent dream, a vision that is hastening toward the end according to Jeremiah 29 verse 11.
[00:38:43] So God shows you the end from the beginning.
[00:38:46] He puts it in your heart and you're hastening or you're running towards it or you're hurrying towards it.
[00:38:52] You're acting it out because you carry eternity in your heart.
[00:38:56] That's why your mind struggles to comprehend what your spirit has a memory of.
[00:39:01] Because your spirit has a memory of your future that your mind struggles to comprehend.
[00:39:07] So where's the battle between your mind and your spirit?
[00:39:10] That's why the more I'm led by my spirit, trust me, the more peaceful my life's gonna be, the more pleasant my life's gonna be, the more calm my life's gonna be, the more glory to God my life is going to have.
[00:39:23] When you're led by the Spirit of God.
[00:39:26] So, you know, some of us, I say, like I was telling someone, I said, man, I've spent a lot of my life kind of trying to be like Uzzah, trying to steady the ark and help God out.
[00:39:34] God doesn't need our help.
[00:39:36] God's got this, I promise you.
[00:39:39] And what we do out of our own molds and mindsets, because of my own fears in my childhood, sometimes I try to control something a little bit, not so much with other people, but with me.
[00:39:51] And I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna,
[00:39:52] I'm not going to live with regrets but I can look back and go man I wasted some time trying to just you know put myself in this disillusionment like I could actually control a situation when all I needed to do was surrender it over to God and trust his sovereignty and put total trust in his word that God's plan and purpose was going to prevail in my life
[00:40:16] And I just have to trust Him and know that all things are working together for the good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose.
[00:40:24] You say, but my marriage didn't make it or I got fired from that job or this didn't happen.
[00:40:29] You can't control other people.
[00:40:32] You can't control their decisions.
[00:40:34] You cannot renew their mind.
[00:40:37] Only they can renew their mind.
[00:40:39] You can just stand and look and pray for them and your prayer can change things.
[00:40:44] God can change things through prayer.
[00:40:47] Prayer moves mountains.
[00:40:49] Prayer can change everything.
[00:40:53] But you,
[00:40:55] Have to just trust God and yield to God.
[00:40:58] No matter how great that discrepancy is between your revelation and your situation, instead of getting frustrated and hopeless, a spiritual mind embraces the discrepancy as opportunity, not opposition.
[00:41:13] You recognize that it takes created tension to cause your faith to work.
[00:41:18] So tension is the act or the process of stretching something till it's really tight.
[00:41:23] So if you feel like you're being stretched, if you feel like your mind is being stretched, you feel like your love is being stretched, you feel like your generosity is being stretched, you feel like your compassion is being stretched, you feel like your peace is being stretched, your long suffering, your patience, all those things are being stretched, you're in a good place.
[00:41:44] Because it means faith has to now begin to kick in because it takes faith, total trust in God, takes created tension for it to work.
[00:41:53] So for faith, total trust in God, a God who you cannot see, but is more real than anything you can see, it takes total trust in that God that you cannot see, takes created tension.
[00:42:07] So there's opposition working really in your favor.
[00:42:11] So anything being stretched or that's going through the process of being stretched, start giving God praise for it right now.
[00:42:17] Because faith always requires and exists in the context of unfulfilled longings and desires.
[00:42:25] So your current reality and your future reality are held in this creative tension as a place for faith to function.
[00:42:34] Now, baby, you teach me this because I'm always asking you all these questions, right?
[00:42:38] I'm always curious about music.
[00:42:41] And you taught me for a good song, it needs what?
[00:42:44] Tension, right?
[00:42:46] For a good note to come out.
[00:42:48] What is it?
[00:42:50] Tension and release.
[00:42:52] Tension and release.
[00:42:53] That's what makes a good song.
[00:42:54] And God rides on the waves of sound.
[00:42:57] And I go, baby, how do you write a song?
[00:42:59] How do you know this?
[00:43:00] Show me this.
[00:43:01] What's a real melody?
[00:43:02] Like I'm like a little kid sitting on his feet, like as if I'd ever be able to play like that.
[00:43:06] Or I just dream maybe when I get to heaven, I'll lead the choir or something.
[00:43:09] I'm going to get something.
[00:43:10] I'm going to sing like an angel.
[00:43:11] All right, it's on my checklist.
[00:43:13] I'll get to do something.
[00:43:14] I'll sing like John or play like him.
[00:43:16] Amen.
[00:43:17] I can hear it in me.
[00:43:18] It just gets stuck right here.
[00:43:20] And I'm always asking, tension and release.
[00:43:22] So is faith.
[00:43:23] It exists in this context of these longings and desires of that internal picture.
[00:43:29] Are you with me?
[00:43:30] Because I'm taking my time for a reason.
[00:43:32] That internal picture being illuminated on the inside.
[00:43:36] Your current reality and your future reality are held in this creative tension for a place for your faith to function.
[00:43:46] It is the hallway between a closed door and an open door.
[00:43:52] It is the nowhere between two somewheres.
[00:43:54] You've left one place and you haven't arrived the other place.
[00:43:58] So you're in the hallway yet.
[00:44:01] You've left Egypt, but you aren't in the promised land yet.
[00:44:05] You're in that place, so that is the transitional place from where I have been to where I'm going.
[00:44:11] Therefore, like I said, you've got to have revelation that gives illumination because that's where you get vision.
[00:44:16] Vision is a mental picture that is forceful enough to mold my present.
[00:44:22] It's a state of seeing my future.
[00:44:24] It's a state of seeing me as God sees me.
[00:44:26] Oh, Gideon, thou great man of valor, sitting there shaking with his knees.
[00:44:29] David, your anointed is king.
[00:44:31] He's just a kid that's watching over a few little sheep.
[00:44:34] but he's killed a lion he's killed a bear and he knows that with God he can do it Romans chapter 10 verse 17 so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word faith cometh by hearing hearing means receiving instruction so when I hear God's Word with ears of the Spirit then I receive instruction
[00:44:58] Because it's not like I just hear it and don't do anything.
[00:45:02] Faith cometh by hearing, right?
[00:45:05] And hearing by the Word of God.
[00:45:07] Everybody with me?
[00:45:08] But faith without works is dead.
[00:45:13] So if God just calls me to hear and there was never any action, as a man thinketh so he is at last an act, and there was never any action,
[00:45:22] because thought creates what?
[00:45:25] Actions create belief, belief creates behavior, behavior has consequences.
[00:45:30] So if there was just hearing that produced faith, but faith without works is dead, why would God open my ears?
[00:45:39] It wouldn't even make sense.
[00:45:41] So if my ears are open and I'm hearing, the next step is called a step of faith.
[00:45:48] It means I'm obedient to an instruction even when my carnal mind or the mechanisms, that's why you've gotta love God with all of your what?
[00:45:57] Cardia, all of your heart, all your psyche basically, your feelings, your emotions, and your thoughts, and all of your mind, the faculty to make decisions.
[00:46:09] So, I have to love God with my ability to make a decision whether I feel it or don't feel it.
[00:46:15] I will it.
[00:46:17] So, when God was saying, love me with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, He's saying, you're gonna love me so much that you're able to hear by faith and then faith produces what?
[00:46:29] Hearing, hearing, right?
[00:46:33] Hearing the Word of God produces faith.
[00:46:35] So out of that, hearing means I receive instruction.
[00:46:41] Sit here, Paula, don't go catch that plane today.
[00:46:44] All right, that doesn't make much sense.
[00:46:47] In fact, in the natural, this looked like the golden prize.
[00:46:52] But God's like, you're not a natural person, you're a spiritual person.
[00:46:55] Your mind is connected and controlled by the Holy Spirit.
[00:46:58] You only mess up when you don't listen and you're not obeying.
[00:47:03] So, hearing means receiving instruction.
[00:47:07] And instruction provides information.
[00:47:12] And information produces understanding.
[00:47:16] And understanding produces trust.
[00:47:19] And trust is faith.
[00:47:22] You with me on all this?
[00:47:24] So I'm gonna say it one more time.
[00:47:26] Hearing means receiving instruction.
[00:47:29] You become obedient, you do the instruction.
[00:47:31] Walk around the wall six times.
[00:47:32] On the seventh time, shout.
[00:47:34] Instruction provides information.
[00:47:36] Do what?
[00:47:37] Walk around the wall six times.
[00:47:40] Now I've got information.
[00:47:42] Okay, on the seventh time, you're gonna shout.
[00:47:44] I'm just giving you one example.
[00:47:46] Information produces understanding.
[00:47:49] Okay, I'm going to Barack.
[00:47:50] Understanding produces trust.
[00:47:52] Wall falls down.
[00:47:53] Oh, this is how I get in the promised land.
[00:47:56] Now, understanding produces trust, and trust is faith.
[00:48:03] And the more that happens in your life, the easier it is that you live by faith and not by sight.
[00:48:11] The righteous live by faith, that your lifestyle is one of faith.
[00:48:17] So the single greatest motivator of faith is hope.
[00:48:20] Now this is really important because now I've got the total trust down because I have revelation, illumination, I've got a renewed mind.
[00:48:27] You see how all this is coming together?
[00:48:30] But the single greatest motivator and activator of faith is hope.
[00:48:37] Hope troubles your situation.
[00:48:40] That's why the Bible said that when a heart gets deferred, it's made sick because it becomes hopeless.
[00:48:46] What happened to a person like my dad was in that moment he felt hopeless and helpless.
[00:48:54] And so he saw no way out.
[00:48:56] So it was better not to live than to have life.
[00:49:00] The devil is a liar.
[00:49:02] God has hope for you.
[00:49:04] God will change your situation around.
[00:49:06] God will shift your season.
[00:49:08] God has answers for you.
[00:49:09] God will turn things around.
[00:49:11] It might be a famine today, but God says tomorrow by this time.
[00:49:16] God can do all things because hope will trouble your situation.
[00:49:20] Because let me tell you what hope is.
[00:49:22] Hope is predicated by the love of God and it's fueled by faith, which is an expectation that says it's going to change.
[00:49:30] So hope is anticipation.
[00:49:33] So now when I have faith, which is total trust,
[00:49:36] And what produces the promises of God?
[00:49:38] You have to have patience, right?
[00:49:40] So you hope, you have hope, you have faith, you have total trust.
[00:49:44] It's faith and patience that produce the promises of God.
[00:49:47] Because in that time of patience, you hope, you have anticipation it's going to change.
[00:49:53] So anticipation begins to harass your situation because your situation says you're not going to make it.
[00:50:00] You're going to lose everything.
[00:50:01] You're going to die.
[00:50:03] You're going to fall apart.
[00:50:04] You're going to lose your mind.
[00:50:06] But hope says God's going to make a way.
[00:50:08] Hope says there's streams coming forth in the desert.
[00:50:10] Hope says my situation's about to change.
[00:50:12] Hope says God is the same today, yesterday, and forevermore.
[00:50:15] Hope says God is no respecter of persons.
[00:50:18] Hope says God's Word cannot return void.
[00:50:20] I know it too well.
[00:50:21] Isaiah chapter 55 verse 11 tells me that the Word of God cannot return void but it will perform that which it is sent to so I have hope in my heart and now it's not sick because now I have anticipation for the arrival of what I'm believing God for so hope troubles your situation that's why the enemy wants to make your heart sick
[00:50:44] so that you'll be hopeless.
[00:50:46] But the devil is a liar.
[00:50:47] Jeremiah 32, 27, Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh.
[00:50:51] Is there anything too hard for me?
[00:50:53] Which means is there anything beyond my capability?
[00:50:56] So whatever you're going through,
[00:50:58] is small compared to the gods you serve.
[00:51:01] There is nothing, nothing, I was telling someone Brad's testimony today, there is nothing that God cannot access.
[00:51:10] God can access a person right now.
[00:51:12] God can put somebody to sleep, the book of Job's, and speak to them in a dream.
[00:51:18] God can cause Pharaoh to call upon you and to pull you out of a pit.
[00:51:24] God can speak to a son and daughter that you don't even know their whereabouts, their location.
[00:51:30] There's nothing, God's not limited by information or governments or technology or walls or barriers or continents or borders.
[00:51:38] God has no limitations, so there's nothing God cannot access.
[00:51:42] He's accessing the thoughts of people you love.
[00:51:44] He's accessing the thoughts of enemies that are planning against you.
[00:51:48] He's accessing things.
[00:51:50] There's nothing that God cannot access.
[00:51:53] So no weapon formed against you is going to be able to prosper.
[00:51:56] Those things that you care about, that you pray about, that you petition God about, there's nothing that God cannot access.
[00:52:03] This is important because hope brings and spans the horizon because my expectation is God is able.
[00:52:12] My expectation is God's gonna change this.
[00:52:15] My expectation has been something is gonna shift on Pentecost.
[00:52:19] By expectation, I'm expecting.
[00:52:21] You know what it is, women, when you're expecting.
[00:52:24] You're pregnant because I've conceived, because I perceive that God is up to something.
[00:52:29] And so now I've been pregnant with purpose, pregnant with a thought, pregnant with illumination, pregnant with a picture from God.
[00:52:36] And I will produce.
[00:52:37] Whenever you're pregnant, sooner or later, you're going to give birth.
[00:52:40] If you're strong enough to bring it forth because hope is an expectation with an anticipation that God is able.
[00:52:47] And be it unto thee according to thy word.
[00:52:50] So faith binds me to God.
[00:52:52] If you have faith, you expect things to happen.
[00:52:55] But hope is the inseparable companion to faith.
[00:52:59] Hope and faith go together.
[00:53:00] Faith believes God to be there.
[00:53:02] but hope anticipates the time of its arrival for God to manifest it.
[00:53:08] So faith believes it's possible but hope anticipates the arrival of God's manifestation.
[00:53:15] Hope says there's a Kairos to this.
[00:53:17] Hope says there's an end to this pandemic.
[00:53:19] Faith believes that God can do it but hope says it will happen and anticipates it.
[00:53:24] Faith says God has someone who's gonna love me with the love of God, but hope puts you on a Southwest flight to meet Him and brings it together.
[00:53:33] Hope is the anticipation of the arrival of what you've been expecting, that sooner or later, you're not gonna be pregnant forever.
[00:53:41] You're gonna give birth to that marriage.
[00:53:42] You're gonna give birth to those children.
[00:53:44] You're gonna give birth to that destiny.
[00:53:46] You're gonna give birth to that purpose.
[00:53:47] You're gonna give birth to that ministry.
[00:53:49] You're gonna give birth to that book.
[00:53:51] You're gonna give birth to that new season.
[00:53:54] So faith and hope work together.
[00:53:56] That's Philippians 4.13 that secures you in saying, I can do all things, but I can only do them by or through, which means by my resting in the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:54:09] There are two key things, and I'm gonna leave you right here.
[00:54:12] I actually have eight things to get you out of, to take off, and eight things to put on.
[00:54:17] Maybe I'll come back next week and teach that.
[00:54:19] So get ready to pray, all right?
[00:54:20] Because there are two key things to remember, that faith
[00:54:24] is based on your knowledge of God's Word.
[00:54:29] So what's the Bible say?
[00:54:31] It says that my people perish because of what?
[00:54:35] Lack of knowledge.
[00:54:36] So faith is based on my knowledge of God's Word, and faith is based on His character.
[00:54:45] The Spirit of the world is in opposition to God.
[00:54:50] The Spirit of this world is in opposition to His Word.
[00:54:53] So when you stand in faith,
[00:54:56] The world loses its controlling influence on your mind.
[00:55:02] The more that I know God's character, the more that I know God's Word, then this world which is in opposition to it, which they're always, listen, the stronger you stand in faith, the more the world's gonna oppose you.
[00:55:17] It's so funny, I mean, this really actually,
[00:55:21] It's funny to me, I don't know why, but people are always like, I was with someone, we had some people over to dinner, and they said, oh, it just bothers me so bad when I see somebody make a comment on your social media.
[00:55:33] And they were all worked up, and I was like, are you serious?
[00:55:37] Like, I don't even give a thought to it.
[00:55:39] It doesn't matter.
[00:55:41] It's a person's opinion.
[00:55:43] It's not God's judgment because I know the book.
[00:55:48] I know what the Word of God says.
[00:55:51] I know what God's character is.
[00:55:54] I know that God's not angry with me.
[00:55:56] I know that He's not out to get me, that He loves me with an everlasting love, that He's a good, good Father.
[00:56:03] that He's the same today, yesterday, and forevermore, that He's been faithful and consistent and loving and adoring for 36 years now.
[00:56:13] And so faith, which is based on the knowledge that I have of God's Word and of His character, the world with its opposing forces says, you're gonna go down.
[00:56:22] God says, I'm gonna lift you up.
[00:56:24] He says, Paula, every time you go down, remember, unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, it cannot have resurrection life and power.
[00:56:31] So anything that died was only a seed.
[00:56:34] It wasn't your harvest.
[00:56:36] You aren't hearing what I'm saying.
[00:56:38] Anything you lost was just something that was planted to bring resurrection life.
[00:56:45] All things are working together for the good for those that love God and are called according to His purpose.
[00:56:50] When you stand in faith,
[00:56:52] The world loses its controlling influence on your mind.
[00:56:56] And man, the enemy starts getting frustrated because he's like, man, I can't rock her with that.
[00:57:01] So let me hit her with this.
[00:57:03] Oh, wait a minute, I didn't take her down with that.
[00:57:05] So let me gang up and put a one, two, three on her in one day.
[00:57:08] Oh man, that one didn't bring her down.
[00:57:12] because if I live, I read the book.
[00:57:14] If I live, I live for Christ.
[00:57:16] If I die, I gain because I read the book, 1 Corinthians.
[00:57:22] I've read it several times, a lot, a lot of times.
[00:57:25] Every day I read the book.
[00:57:26] 1 Corinthians 15 57 says, but thanks be unto God who's already given me victory through Christ Jesus.
[00:57:34] So don't lower your expectation.
[00:57:36] Now total trust is the foundation for I expect to possessed.
[00:57:42] Where you set your mind is where your life goes.
[00:57:46] Your habitual thoughts determine your life.
[00:57:50] I pray you've gotten something out of the Word of God today.
[00:57:53] Lord, I pray that every wrong mindset, every mold from learned behaviors, from past hurts, from offenses, from religion, from rigid mindsets that are resistant to change, to take off,
[00:58:09] and to put on, to take off and to put on everything that sees only through their sensual, carnal, fleshly nature.
[00:58:20] Let it be removed right now.
[00:58:22] How do you know?
[00:58:22] They're good people that walk in darkness.
[00:58:27] They do.
[00:58:28] How do you know?
[00:58:30] Because the fruit is not love.
[00:58:32] God is love.
[00:58:35] So ask yourself,
[00:58:38] Hurt, Offense, Unforgiveness, Bitterness, Hatred, Racism, Rage, Perversion, Fear, Anxiety.
[00:58:46] Keep naming them.
[00:58:47] Murders.
[00:58:49] All these things, where do they come from?
[00:58:51] Not on the outside.
[00:58:53] They come from the inside.
[00:58:56] As a man thinketh,
[00:58:57] So is he at last.
[00:58:58] Father, right now, I pray that you would wash our mind with the word of God.
[00:59:02] Let us take off everything old.
[00:59:03] Let us examine because we cannot conquer what we don't confront and we can't confront what we don't identify.
[00:59:09] So show us everything that is not of love.
[00:59:12] Let it be uprooted right now.
[00:59:13] Let everything that produces any carnal, fleshly, natural decision in our life, let it fall, let it be uprooted out of our heart, out of our soul, out of our mind.
[00:59:23] Let us learn to love you with all of our heart, all of our soul, and all of our mind, so that when we make decisions, they're decisions that are spirit-led, that we have the ability to exercise thought and functionality of our mind with love of God that predicates it
[00:59:39] which puts us in a realm of hope and expectation and anticipation that God is always at work, that all things bring glory back to you, God.
[00:59:48] It is our honor to wake up every morning and to give the Lord all the praise.
[00:59:52] That's why Paul and Silas could praise you at the midnight hour.
[00:59:56] That's why they could be in the middle of a prison and give you praise.
[00:59:59] That's why Jesus could lay his head asleep on the hind part of a ship when a storm would rage and would roll.
[01:00:05] That's why Jesus could look at Lazarus, who was dead, and just speak life to him.
[01:00:10] That's why.
[01:00:11] Because he didn't see by these natural eyes, but he was illuminated by the Spirit as so many were throughout your word.
[01:00:19] So I pray right now that every veil falls off and that God gives you eyes of understanding that he enlightens you according to Ephesians chapter 1 verse 17 and 18 that the eyes of his understanding might enlighten you that you may know which is not a head knowledge but is genosko in the in the Greek which means to have an intimate experience that you may know what is the hope
[01:00:42] Anticipation.
[01:00:44] What is the hope of the riches of the glory of the inheritance of the saints?
[01:00:49] You're a saint if you're born again.
[01:00:51] That's what God calls you in His Word.
[01:00:54] So I decree that your eyes would be open and your ears so that you hear and you see.
[01:00:58] In Jesus' mighty name, be blessed.