Transcription
Well, the theme for this year is lifting. I just see that this is a year of lifting, and I'm going to speak on a sub-theme and a message that I believe addresses the theme. And my message is simply titled "Breaking the Spirit of Inferiority." "Breaking the Spirit of Inferiority." It's a message that I feel very passionate about. I feel very strong about because it's a message that is very strong in my life, in my heart. It, it defines to a large extent what I believe I'm called to do: to help people break the spirit of inferiority.
Inferiority is very simple. It is simply to fall short or to be diminished, to fall short or be diminished, to feel insignificant, to feel incapable, to feel unable. When a person feels inferior, our nation feels inferior, or people feel inferior, no matter how much you bless them with, they will still be unable to utilize what they have. And I believe one of the major challenges of our times, in our generation, in our continent, is breaking the spirit of inferiority. If God is going to lift us up, then that spirit of inferiority must be broken.
Early this year, I went to Ethiopia, and I went to Addis Ababa. I have, we have an annual meeting that rotates in nations, and we hold it in different African capitals and nations once every late January, February. And this time, it was in Ethiopia. It almost coincided with the AU summit in Ethiopia, and I took the opportunity to go and look at the new AU headquarters, the African Union headquarters. It's a fantastic, fabulous building. It's a huge edifice, beautifully done. And the great thing and significant thing about that building is that in front of it, there is only one statue, and that is that of Kwame Nkrumah, our first president.
And today being our independence anniversary, I just felt I needed to chip in that story. And Kwame Nkrumah's statue stands. It is, uh, painted in gold with his characteristic gesture of lifting up his hand, which he did, uh, 56 years ago when he said, "Freedom, freedom, freedom" three times. God bless you and sent us home. Um, but he has his hand up, and underneath the statue, there is an inscription from Psalm 68, which says, "Ethiopia shall soon lift up her hands to God." And in that statement, Kwame Nkrumah, and I hear that it was part of a statement he made at the opening of the Organization of African Unity, the OAU, in 1965, when he said, "Ethiopia shall soon lift up her hands to God." And that's the inscription there.
The paradox is that while Kwame Nkrumah is portrayed there, saying Ethiopia, meaning Africa, is going to lift up her hands to God, the reality is that that whole edifice, the African Union building, was a gift from China. All the 52 African countries could not come together to build their own center. It was built and donated, and the Chinese are still building new buildings. They are building a hotel complex to house every president, donated. And yet, Kwame Nkrumah was standing, saying, "Ethiopia shall lift up her hands to God," not to China, not to Russia, not to America, but to God. So his personality is severely contradicted by the reality behind him that the people whom he spoke to are still lifting up their hands to other nations. Somebody say, "Break the spirit of inferiority."
A great woman, Eleanor Roosevelt, who was a woman of many parts. She was a US First Lady, she was a diplomat, she was an educator, she was a reformer. [Music] She said, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent or without your permission. If you're going to feel small, it is because you allowed yourself to be made to feel small. But tonight, that spirit of smallness, of insignificance, of littleness, that makes you feel incapable, will be broken tonight. And somebody is going to be lifted, to rise to a new level, to do awesome things for God.
Let's start with my text from the Bible, and it's in the book of Job, chapter 13, verses 1 to 4. Job chapter 13, verses 1 to 4. The book of Job is a very interesting book. I don't know whether you've read it in the Bible, but I've studied it several times. It's a very interesting book in the Bible because it is a conversation, primarily. It's a conversation. You know what happened to Job? Job lost everything in the space of a very short time. Within probably three days, he lost his business, he lost his children, he lost his wife left him, and then his health became a challenge. Almost everything left him in a short time.
In the culture that Job grew up in, when people suffered calamity, it is interpreted that the people have done something wrong and God was punishing them. So when Job went through his crisis, his best friends came to speak to him. But all the best friends were trying to do was to let Job know that the reason he's going through crisis was because he had sinned. And so they would put forth several arguments to prove that Job had sinned. And then Job would put forth arguments to say, "I have not sinned." And so they go back and forth. "You have sinned." "He says, I have not sinned." "You have sinned." "I have not sinned." And much of the book of Job is based on this dialogue. The friends of Job trying to prove that he had done something wrong, and he tried to tell them that this is something he doesn't understand, but it is not a result of sin.
So in chapter 13, verse 1 to 4, Job attends the words we are about to read. I want you to follow it carefully. It says, "Behold, my eye has seen all this; my ear has heard and understood it. What you know, I also know. I am not inferior to you. But I will speak to the Almighty, and I will desire to reason with God. But you are forgers of lies, and you are all worthless physicians." Those are some pretty harsh words to tell your friends.
Now, I want you to note verse 1 and 2, and I'll read it again. It says, "Behold, my eye has seen all this; my ear has heard and understood it. What you know, I also know. I am not inferior to you." Now, Job is telling his friends, "I'm not inferior to you. You can't impose your knowledge on me. You can't make me feel what I don't want to feel. You can't tell me I'm wrong when I'm not wrong. You can't tell me God is angry with me when God is not angry with me. I am not inferior to you." But the reason he could say, "I am not inferior to you," is because he says, "I have seen it. I have heard it. I understand it. And I know it." In other words, if you haven't seen what somebody has seen, and you haven't heard what they have heard, and you don't understand what they understand, and you don't know what they know, they can impose inferiority upon you. And Job is saying, "You can't do that."
He talks about the eye. The eye is a gate of information. It's an interesting thing. When a group of people meet and we are talking, let's say five people are talking, and they are talking about something, maybe the Buckingham Palace in England. But none, they haven't been to England, and everybody's talking about Buckingham Palace. And this one says, "Buckingham Palace is like that." And the other one says, "Buckingham Palace is like that." And the other one, they all express opinions. And then all of a sudden, somebody comes in there and says, "I have been to Buckingham Palace. I have seen it." The moment he says, "I have seen it," everybody's argument becomes inferior from then on. They will listen to everything he says, even if it's a lie, because he has seen what they have not seen. Whatever he tells them then about Buckingham Palace, they will believe it because when somebody claims to have seen what you have not seen, you subjugate yourself to their opinion.
Job said to his friends, "What you have seen, I have seen also. What you have heard, I have heard also. What you understand, I understand also. What you know, I also know. You can't put me down." Therefore, if any group of people want to make you feel inferior about yourself, they are going to control what you see, what you hear, what you understand, and what you know.
Questing in Africa, we have South Africa, we have Nigeria, we have Libya, we have Egypt, powerhouses. South Africa by itself could have built the AU building. Nigeria by itself could have built the AU building. Ghana, with some help, could have built that building. Many African countries could have built it. How come they didn't? It's not a lack of resources. It's not because they don't have the money or the resources, but something told them they were not capable. A beggar is not an untalented person. A beggar is not somebody who is not gifted or has no ability. A beggar has a body, has a spirit, has a mind. How come they beg? It's not because they have no spirit, or they have no brain, or they have no body. They have every property, physical, mental property, available to every human being, and still they beg you for money because something has told them they are incapable.
Job says, "I'm not going to allow you to belittle me. I'm here to let you know that in this life, if you don't oppose it, somebody is going to control you, and somebody is going to control you to your disadvantage." Sometimes a whole government can control people. A whole nation can be controlled. The whole continent can be controlled, and a gifted people would never express their gifting. Understanding. Job says, "What you understand, I understand also." Understanding is a very interesting thing because it's not just about how much you know or what you work with. If I come to this auditorium, like what Bishop Oyedepo just did, and say that this is going to be a year of great increase for you, so let's say Bishop Oyedepo came and just said, "Hear the word of the Lord. This is going to be a year of great increase." And I heard many people say, "Amen." But the understanding was not the same.
It's not the same. If somebody was in this auditorium and he's a tomato farmer, and he had Bishop Oyedepo say, "This is going to be a year of great increase," he's going to apply that word to his reality and he's going to think, "This year, I will have more tomatoes." If somebody was here and he had that same statement, "This is going to be a year of great increase," and he's a student, he will think, "I will pass my exam." If somebody was here and is a market woman, maybe sells a few provisions by the roadside at Medina market, and now they've been kicked out, and she comes to church and she had Bishop Oyedepo say, "This is going to be a year of great increase," he's going to think, "Kiosk." If somebody was an international financier and he had the same prophetic word, "This is going to be a year of great increase," he's going to think, "I'm going to Hong Kong and Shanghai and I'm going to all these places to open outlets, and I'm going to really invest, probably in some stock exchange somewhere." He's going to start thinking global about that statement.
If a politician here, "This is going to be a year of great increase." I don't know what you think about it. [Applause] If a pastor had that same statement, "This is going to be a great increase." He may think, "My congregation will increase." What is happening is not what the statement is, not the statement, it is your understanding that brings the statement to your level. So for whatever God says to you, you will always reduce it to your level. So if God says, "I will bless you abundantly," if you have a sense of inferiority, you will reduce it to your level because you cannot receive anything beyond your state of mind.
So when God speaks prophetically to us, and every time we come to church, there's a prophetic word and an anointed word, but people are always dropping the word to their level, dropping the word. For somebody, that word means, "Wow, I'll get louvers for my house." Now, I was talking to a friend of mine who said, you know, he years ago, when he was young, he used to hear his mother tell him, "Louvers are very expensive. Louvers are very expensive." Louvers are very, you know, those days we used to use wooden, I don't know whether they are louvers or whatever, but wooden shutters. And and then we had the glass louver blades and the models. And louvers are very expensive because they use a wooden one. Louvers are very expensive. So he says he rented a house, and the house didn't have windows, and he boarded it up, used plywood to cover the window. And he was a businessman, he made, he was making money, his business was prospering. But somehow, he said he never thought he should put louvers there because louvers are very expensive.
So for years, I mean, his business was going on well, he's bought a car, he's doing well, but louvers are very expensive. So he says one day, there was a huge rainstorm, and the rain, the storm knocked out the boarding, the water came to the house, messed up the house. His wife was angry, and the wife said, "Fix that thing. Louvers are very expensive." So he says, eventually, out of frustration, he got a carpenter to give him a quotation for putting louvers all over his house. And when they brought the bill, he put his hand on his head and started crying. He says, "I've been a fool all these years." He asked the carpenter, "Are you sure that is it?" He says, "Yeah, yeah, that's it." "Are you sure there's a price?" "Yes." It was far less. He could afford it a hundred times more. But somebody whispered to him, "Louvers are very expensive." Somebody has whispered something to you. Between you and your destiny is a lie you are believing, and that thing has made you feel that you can't do something. And so a whole continent will sit down for somebody to build them a free [Music] head office because they are used to donor mentality, donor mentality, donor mentality, free, free, free, free.
I like how Job described his friends. He describes them in verse 4 as "forgers of lies." In other words, he says, "You guys are making up lies, you're making up stories, and you are using those things to make me feel wrong about myself." "Forgers of lies." And then he called them also "worthless physicians," people who are offering non-performing solutions, worthless physicians, that your solutions don't work. That's how he described them. Has somebody offered you a solution that doesn't work? And has somebody forged a lie to impose inferiority over your life? Now, that is the theory of inferiority. Inferiority is not a product of military conquest. It is a result of mental conquest.
Now, let's see a case study from the Bible about and see how this process works. And go with me to 1 Samuel chapter 13. I've given you the theory. I'm going to give you the case study. 1 Samuel chapter 13, from verse 19 to 22. The very interesting story, and it says this is during the time of Saul. And Saul is king. I want you to follow the story. "Now, there was no blacksmith to be found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, 'Lest the Hebrews make swords or spears.' But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen each man's plowshare, his mattock, his axe, and his sickle. And the charge for a sharpening was a pin for the plowshares, the mattocks, the axes, and to set the points of the goads. So it came about on the day of battle that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people who were with Saul and Jonathan. But they were found with Saul and Jonathan his son."
This is talking about a time when Israel is under the Philistines. Now, you know the Philistines were long-term enemies of Israel. The Philistines control the Israelites. They are like colonizers. Israel is under the Philistines, but the Philistines are not really militarily oppressing the Israelites. They left the Israelites. They just left them. But the Israelites couldn't fight back to be free because the Philistines had only one policy against Israel, and the policy was very simple: "Let us make sure that there will be no blacksmith in Israel." And if we can eliminate blacksmiths from Israel, we will conquer Israel forever. Blacksmiths were designers. They were people who designed tools for war. And the Philistines said, "We're not going to attack the Israelites, but we'll make sure Israel does not produce a blacksmith." That was a policy. "Lest they make a sword or a spear."
So anytime the Jews wanted to fight the Philistines, they felt inferior because the Philistines had metal weapons. They had swords made of metal, spears made of metal, shields made of metal, helmets made of metal. They had all kinds of metal instruments. The Israelites had no sword or spear or shield. They had wooden swords, wooden spears. And the only two people who had a metal sword and a spear were Saul and his son Jonathan. So when the day of battle came, Israel felt inadequate.
Now, you have to understand this story to understand what happens in chapter 16 when Goliath shows up. Why is it that when Goliath comes and says, "Give me a man," everybody is shivering? It isn't just because of his size. Because if you compare the height of Goliath and Saul, they are about the same height, or Goliath just slightly taller than Saul. He is not an extraordinary person because of his height. But if you look at the biblical story, it describes not just his height, but his armor. Remember that the writer of 1 Samuel is writing from a Hebrew side, so he's describing a Philistine enemy. And he talks about his metal helmet and his spear, and he even gives us the weight of his spear. Why? Because in Israel, there is no blacksmith. So they have no capacity to equip their people with weapons similar to what Goliath has.
So they go to war, and Goliath shows up, and nobody can fight him because they have allowed a policy in their country that has eliminated every blacksmith. So Goliath shows up and says, "Give me a man." The Bible says, "In the day of battle, there is nobody with a sword, nobody with a spear." How did it happen? The Philistines made sure Israel would never have a blacksmith. So a whole nation, they have everything. They have a king, they have a temple, they have priests, they have prophets, they have bakers, they have farmers. But the only profession that is eliminated is blacksmith. So when they are going to go into battle, David shows up. That is why he had a sling and a stone. It wasn't a miracle. It was because there was no metal instrument in the whole land. The Israelites and soldiers, soldiers, when they go for military training, they were using wooden swords, wooden spears. They had no equipment. David had no metal equipment. The only two people who had a sword and a spear were Saul and his son. And even that was inferior to Goliath's. It's almost like Goliath has the original tool, and Saul has the toy copy. And Saul gives his toy equipment to David and says, "Go and fight with this."
Now, if that was strong enough, why didn't you face Goliath yourself? You know, you are using toy equipment. David said, "I have not proved that." Now, we tend to over-spiritualize it, but let me tell you, he was telling the truth. He has never used metal equipment before because nobody in Israel has ever used weapons of metal. He had no way of using it. He has not seen it before. He wouldn't know how to use it. So he was telling the absolute truth. And I'm sure everybody else could have said, "I can't use it. I've never proven it. We've never used it. When we go for training, this is not what we use." And the only people who had metal equipment were Saul and his son. The question that strikes me is, Saul thinks weapons of metal are good. Why did he limit it to only himself and his son? Because so far as he was concerned, among the Israelites, nobody had swords. So if he has swords, nobody can fight him in Israel. But he had never contended that they're going to fight Philistines and not Israelites. So he was happy with the Philistine policy because it favored him to stay in power.
The strategy of the Philistines is: "Make sure there is no blacksmith." I believe that throughout this world, Satan, through any agency he can deploy, would make sure that there will be no blacksmith anywhere. A blacksmith is somebody who does work, but his works put tools in the hands of the people. A blacksmith builds the people so the people can fight their own warfare. And anybody who rises up as a blacksmith is an empowerer of people. He's going to empower people to rise up and say, "Hey, we can do this by ourselves." So the Philistines said, "Make sure no blacksmith will develop." How do they do it? I don't know. But it was a policy objective of the Philistines. They didn't care that Israel wanted to have a king. They say, "If they want a king, give them two kings. They want three kings, give them ten kings. They want the temple, give them five temples. They want a prophet, give them a prophecy. They want singing, give them singing. But make sure they never have the tools to resist us, to fight us, and to be free." So a whole nation cannot fight. I'm sure the Philistines did it through an educational policy. I'm sure they decided that the students of Israel would never learn how to make a weapon. They can learn how to sing, how to play a harp, they can do all of that, but never how to make a weapon.
In a sense, the colonizers did that to us. You know, I like Great Britain. Outside of Ghana, the nation I like most is Great Britain. I like the British. They're my number two fans. The reason I like the British is very simple. They come from a tiny island, small island, but they conquered the whole world. Now, any small island that can rule everybody has some strategy. You must be aware of it. The British colonized America, colonized Canada, colonized Ghana, Nigeria, and quite a few West Africans, East Africa, Southern Africa, Asia, India, Pakistan, I mean, Hong Kong, Australia. At the height of the British Empire, it was said that the sun never set on the British Empire. Every time the sun was rising on a country that was under British rule. At the height of British rule, the British were ruling over 430 million people on this planet. At the beginning of the 1900s, right through to 1930, 430 million people. How can a tiny island rule 430 million people? Rule Nigeria, which is about three times their country, India, Pakistan, America? How could they do that? You would think they did it in a very sophisticated wellness office, kid, but it was quite simple.
Do you know at the height of the British Empire, when they were ruling over over 400 million people, they had only 1,200 British officers deployed in these countries? In Ghana, the British who were here were just about 150. Nigeria, just about 300. But they would bring a 24-year-old high school graduate, make him a District Commissioner, and our chiefs and everybody would yield to him. Everybody saluted that boy. Everybody called him, gave him appellations. He was the judge, he was the surveyor, he was the cartographer, he was the teacher, he was everything. He's just barely out of high school, 19 years. So how could this tiny island make all these millions of people subject with 1,200 people? They didn't do it by military conquest. The British didn't fight us to conquer us. They did it with what you know, what you hear, what you understand. And so far as they could influence and dominate your thinking, they didn't need an army to keep you subject. That is why when the British were here, education. Every African wanted to be a teacher, teacher, nurse, teacher, nurse, teacher, nurse, a few lawyers. Teachers, nurse, teacher, nurse, lawyer. Nobody was studying industrialization, science. So you have your gold, but you're not studying how to mine your gold. So they'll mine it for you. They will actually use you to take it, and then you bring it out, and then they will take it from you. And then they'll take you to their country and make you dig more, and you feel good doing it. And whilst they are doing that, they will get a Saul and a Jonathan and give him swords. He would just get a few people and empower them to settle them. And the rest of the people again. Smart people, smart people.
So if God blesses Ghana with oil, with gold, with diamond, with all the resources we have, how can we have all of these things and still be poor? It is not demonic. It is not a case. It is a mentality. It is that same mentality that makes our presidents go to the AU head office and instead of building their own office, they take a donation because something tells them, "We have to depend on somebody else." Job says, "I have seen it. I have heard it. What you know, I also know. I am not inferior to you."
When we talk about God lifting us up, it's not just about you buying a new car. That is just cosmetic, it's decoration. It's not about you building a nice house. The problem with us is we see success only in a microscopic area. It's personal breakthrough. What effort, what good is it if you have all the money in Ghana, but there's no good hospital? It's not just about you buying a car. It is about a people rising up to fulfill their destiny. Because I believe in the end time, Africa is going to be critical to God's agenda. But a poor Africa cannot fulfill God's mandate. That is why God has put so much resources in our land to finance the gospel. Because America is losing, Europe has lost the gospel. The only continent aflame with the gospel is Africa and South America. The heart of Christianity is in the hands of these two continents, and really, the place where the real revival is, is in Africa. It is the most spiritual continent, and the poorest. And they're not poor because they have lack of resources. They are poor because there is a mindset that has failed to produce blacksmiths. [Applause]
Now, if you study this text, it says when any Israelite wanted to go and sharpen their tools, sharpen their tools, the Bible says they go down to the land of the Philistines. They want to go and improve themselves. They can't do it in their country. They go to Philistine land. It is sad, but it's true. If people want to sharpen their tools in Ghana, you want to get a Master's degree, a PhD, become a specialist, you want to sharpen your tools, you want to be most effective. What do you do? You go back to Philistine land. And most of the time, when the people go, not only do their tools not come back, but they don't come back. So the Philistines created this system to make sure Israel will never have capacity to resist it. So everybody goes down to Philistine land to sharpen their tools, and they are charged for rate, and they have to stay to work to pay. And by the time they pay, they can come back because the Israelites never had a blacksmith in their own land to sharpen the tools of their own people.
That is what happens when you have an educational system where, in Ghana, until recently, if you wanted to get a Master's degree, you wait and wait and wait and wait and wait and wait. One degree that you should take two years to take, it takes you nine years. And if you want to do a PhD, you'll be frustrated and frustrated and frustrated. There is no associate or full professor in Ghana that is below 30 years. In Ghana, by the time you become full professor, you are ready to be retired. You give your inaugural lecture, and that's the end of your life. So a person becomes a full professor, we never get the benefit because the process for sharpening his tool has been made so rigorous and difficult, and some blacksmith who is not a real blacksmith is making sure nobody's tools has happened. And the rest of the people are going to Philistine land. So a nation of tool-less people. We can say, for example, "We have discovered oil." You know, that is not true. We didn't discover oil. Somebody discovered oil in our land. It is a fallacy that Ghana has discovered. Ghana never discovered oil. Somebody did it in our land. So how come we couldn't? So how come all the big industries, the gold, the mining industry, the, the, um, [Music] oil industry, all the extractive industries are controlled by other people?
Job said, "I am not inferior to you." The only thing the Philistines did not consider was a non-conformist called David. David didn't go to the army to be taught how to use wooden tools. He had not gone through the process of indoctrination for him to feel inferior. He has been in the back side, and he never heard what they had. He never understood what the rest understood because his knowledge base was very different. He was learning a new lesson. "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." "By my God, I will run through a troop." So he is out there, and he's speaking this knowledge. And the people have been told, "You can't do it." David is here in the wilderness. "You are able." And in the wilderness, God begins to raise his own David outside of the system. May God raise a new generation, a new generation of industrialists, of educators, of people from all walks of life who are coming from outside the system. And David comes from outside the system, and he is using non-conventional weapons. He picks a slingshot, a sling, and a stone, and he says, "I may not have blacksmiths in Israel, but there is a new blacksmith in the wilderness, and this blacksmith is using new weapons, new abilities, new skills, new insight, new mentality, and he's going to fight from a different perspective." So he builds his capacity using this non-conventional tool, and he goes to the war front. He hears the same thing that everybody is hearing, and he says, "What will be given to me if I solve this national crisis?" Somebody here must ask, "What, um, is going to be my reward if I solve this national crisis?" Because there is a new generation of Davids. God is raising up. It's a David generation. Their mindset is different. Their language is different.
In Ghana, the only place where blacksmiths are still functioning is the church. [Music] [Applause] Sometimes the pastors don't even know their power. They don't know their capacity. The only functioning place in Ghana is the church. That's the only place. That's the only place where people are inspired. If there was no church, all of you will be so depressed. It is only in church that you will come, and you would hear words of inspiration, words of motivation that lift you up, that makes you feel you can do it. So you go out there into the world, they tell you it's impossible. You come here, and we tell you it's possible. That is why almost every successful person in Ghana is church-produced. [Music] [Applause] It is the only place where the Davids of our generation are bypassing the system to raise a new army. David raised his army. It wasn't Saul's army. Saul's army was on wrong technology and a wrong influence and a wrong mindset. But David picked whoever was hungry, whoever was in trouble, people who were discontented. He took them to the wilderness and reprogrammed them, and they are the army that came and literally took the Philistines out of the game because David empowered a new generation.
I'm here to tell you, God is doing something extraordinary in our country, but your eyes must open, your ears must open, your understanding must be open. It is not just church. We are not just here for spirit. We are here for the spirit to sharpen our tools so we can go out there and do exploits for God. [Applause] Anytime, anytime I hear people say, "It's Africa's time." I used to say, "When is that time coming?" But I believe that time is here. I believe in the next seven years, Africa, Ghana, is going to experience monumental transformation. [Applause] But it is not going to be because of government or politics. It is going to be because Davids are going to rise up in various fields, and those Davids are going to bring the Goliaths down. I believe it's time for Ghanaians to own the oil fields of Ghana, the gold fields of Ghana, the diamond fields of Ghana. It's time for Ghanaians to rise up. If you're waiting for government, it may never happen. But in the backside of the wilderness, Davids are being raised up. The weapon in your hands may not be weapons that the enemy has. God is going to pick people, some of them will scanty education, unusual anointings will come upon them, and he would stir up their spirits, sharpen them, and they would enter fearlessly into wealth that people are afraid to enter. It's our time. It's our destiny.
When I see Pastor Steve, he's a blacksmith. He's a blacksmith. This is your blacksmith in this place. [Applause] What you're doing with your medical missions, even government is not able to do it. If you have a church doing what government cannot do, it means the church is more significant than the government. [Applause] Because in God's economy, the government must be upon your shoulder, not we on the shoulder of the government, but the government on our shoulder. We carry the government. Government doesn't carry us. [Applause] And until that mentality shifts, when God tells you it's your time, you'll be waiting for somebody to wind the clock for you. When God tells you, "I will bless you," you wait for somebody to give you money. When God tells you, "It's going to be a time of great increase," you're going to limit it to more tomato stalls. But I believe under the blacksmiths that God is raising all over in our continent, look at what the churches are doing with education. Very soon, in healthcare, you will see churches begin to pioneer things that are unusual. We're going to break barriers because the churches have a God and a knowledge that is outside of the system. That's how David broke through.
Today, I just came here to tell you to break the spirit of inferiority. [Applause] [Applause] Break that spirit. Break that spirit. Break that spirit. The spirit of inferiority makes you always look up to somebody else to solve your problem. The spirit of inferiority tells you you are not able. Nobody looks down on the black man more than the black man. I don't have a problem with white people. In 1967, when the Meridian Hotel was opened in Tema, it was a leading hotel in Ghana, Ghana's most prestigious hotel, Meridian Hotel, great hotel. And when Meridian Hotel was opened, I was young, younger than I am now. My father decided to take us, his children, to go and see the Meridian Hotel, so we too will see a hotel. It was in that hotel that I first saw chicken rolling in in that little oven. I said, "Wow, I could imagine myself tearing it into pieces and munching." Because I've never seen a whole chicken rolling that way. Because we were doing necks and legs and, you know, the chicken is cut into tiny, tiny pieces. And we were going to the hotel. And when my father was leaving, my father, my mother, as siblings were going, we got to the entrance of Meridian Hotel. Ghana had been independent by that time about eight, uh, how many years? Since 10 years independent. And a gay man, or doorman, or whatever he is, told us we couldn't enter as a black man. He told us, "You can't go." And we said, "Why?" My father said, "Why? I want my children to go and see the Meridian Hotel." The man said, "We are wearing Charlie Wati." I said, "Wow." I was younger that time, I didn't know much about these things. But the man said to my father, "You can't go." So my father is there pleading, you know, telling stories, "Please, we just want to go, you know, and we'll just come, we just go, man, we won't sit down, it won't do anything, we just turn around." The man said, "No, no, Charlie Wati goes to Meridian Hotel." So we were there, my father and all of us were there, just begging, and the man is preventing. And then another family came. Unfortunately, fortunately, unfortunately, their skin was lighter, and they came, and the man said, "Oh, oh, oh, say, oh, yes, please come." And my father said, "Back, their children are also wearing Charlie Wati." I might say, "Yes, they are white people." He said, "Very boldly and proudly, they are white people. You can't go. They can go." You don't know whether this one is racism or discrimination or prejudice. You can classify it.
So the hindrance is not really coming from outside. Maybe the outside programmed it into our minds, but we are now perpetuating it. It's we ourselves knocking each other down, destroying one another, making sure nobody rises up. But this new generation will be different. I said this new generation will be different. Tonight, I came with a very simple message to tell you that God is raising up a new generation. God is breaking the spirit of inferiority. Don't underestimate what He would do with your life and through your life. Coming to church is not just about singing and praying. It's about coming to sharpen your tools. The people God uses to sharpen our tools are the blacksmiths He has given to us. That is why these days you go to churches, and churches preach people. Messages are preaching churches, and people say, "But that's not, that's not for church." Sometimes you sit in a church and it's like you're listening to a motivational speech, and people say, "But that's not the gospel." What is the gospel? Is the good news? Jesus said, "Preach the good news to the poor." Preaching the good news. You can't tell a poor man, "You'll be poor for life." That's not good news. The good news to the sick is that he'll be healed. The good news to the oppressed is that he will be set free. The good news to the poor is that he will prosper. But prosperity is not magic. It's not that you go and sleep and money comes into you under your pillow. Prosperity comes when your mindset changes. And the people providing that mindset change are the blacksmiths that God is raising in the pulpits of Ghana, of Nigeria, in Kenya, all over in Africa. Blacksmiths are rising up who are sharpening the tools of the people. May you receive your blacksmith, and may your tools be sharpened. Every spirit of hindrance that has limited your movement, your progress, your advancement, I bind it. I cast it out. I roll it out of the way in the name of Jesus. Every mindset programmed into you that has made you underestimate your capacity, I lift it from your mind, from your subconsciousness, from your understanding in the name of Jesus. Any sense of inferiority that makes you devalue God's prophetic agenda for your life, I break it now in the name of Jesus.