Ten Godly Leadership Skills - Andrew Wommack @ Summer Family 2023: Session 1

I think I'll have you guys stay up here with me. All right, praise the Lord. Amen. Thank you very much. Praise God. I asked Mike and Carrie to stay up here. I'm going to play a little video that'll give you some idea about what's happening here. Uh, let me just say concerning this ramp, some of you that may wonder what's happening. This is part of the production that we'll be doing tomorrow night, and so, uh, that's the reason this is up here. I don't know if they'll get it cleared off for Wednesday or not, but anyway, uh, that we're going to have that production.

This production has been absolutely awesome, and let me say that we've had over 6,000 people register for the two performances. This building can handle 3,200 people, and so we had to cancel our stop registration. If any of you tried to register for the, uh, "In God We Trust," and and it was closed, go ahead and come because we had some people that didn't show up yesterday. And I, that same thing may happen tomorrow, but you will really miss something if you don't come.

And Carrie is one of the gossipy church women in the thing, and she, she does it great. I mean, it's like she didn't even after her. She's, she's a natural. There you go. So, Miss Jamie and I were practicing the other day, and she, we have a scene, and she looked at me, she said, "Well, you were wrong." And out of my stomach, I heard myself, "Oh, shut up!" And I was like, I said that. I said that to Jamie, but I was in character. Oh, yeah. Afterwards, I was like, "I'm so sorry, Mr. Jimmy." She's like, "I know you were acting." Okay. I was like, "Oh my gosh, you are a character, that's for sure."

But anyway, we're going to receive an offering tonight, and I want to give you an opportunity to give. But what I'd like to do, we had a meeting with a few of our partners today, and we shared this, and I had some partners that are very well connected with us that said, "That little, uh, video that you showed was wonderful. Have you ever shown that before?" We've been trying to get everybody to see it, and here's some of our partners that didn't even know about it. And so I wanted to show this.

And the reason I wanted Mike and Carrie to stay up here is because they're the vice presidents of Karis, and they're over all of our Karis worldwide. And today you gave a presentation about how, uh, we are really, really, really, really, really limited on space. And we've been trying for over a year to start building. The city has delayed it, but finally, we've got six permits now. They were pouring concrete out there today. All right. So, just the permits to build the thing is $1.32 million for six permits. I don't know exactly why that is, but that's just the permits. And then the construction is going to be over $50 million for that. And we've got a, uh, a vision for building buildings on this property to accommodate this.

Real quickly, before we share the video, just share something about what's happening with our students, why we need all of these buildings. You know what we're finding last year and this year? Last year for registration, we had over 500 students who registered who said that their number one challenge for coming was student housing. They could not find housing here in Woodland Park or even down in the Springs or anywhere in Teller County. This year, we have almost 600 students as of right now, and we're still taking in applications. We have over 1,800 applications just for our first-year program alone, and we're expecting between 300 and 1,400 students coming in this year. So we need to have a place to house them. And the reality is, is that we have a very limited pool here in Woodland Park and also in Teller County. So we definitely need to have more student housing here. And also, we're limited here on spacing on our expansion.

There's so much we could say about that, but, uh, I'll tell you what, God is doing here is absolutely incredible. The hunger that people are showing to want to come here and have their lives transformed. I don't believe it's God's will that we turn anybody away. So I believe that the provision needs to come in, and it's going to come in. How many of you have been praying for revival? Well, God is sending the next generations of leaders and ministers and trainers and teachers, and they're coming in, and we're trying to get ready for them. And one of the things that we're already facing is that classroom space. We are running out of classroom space. In fact, we are transporting and transforming our internal parking garage into a big film and production classroom this year because we have so many students. And so we're excited, but we, uh, not only are we going to receive this year's students, we're already anticipating the growth of the next years. And if we continue to grow the way we have the last couple years, we're going to outgrow this building even before we get these things built. And so we want to invite you to be a part of what God is truly doing here at Karis Bible College.

So that's just to share with you that the need really is not, uh, something that we're just making up. It is serious. We are having students that can't come because of housing, but then also the classroom space, uh, we're actually having to change some of our curriculum and the way we do things, and some of the, uh, things that we're offering, we're having to cut them back because we don't have the space for them. So this is not a perceived need, it's a real need. And tonight, we just want to give you an opportunity to be a part of it. So thank you all for doing that.

And if we could go ahead and start playing this little video, I want to show you, uh, what our architects have come up with. This is what we call a flyover, and it'll give you an idea of what we are planning on building. So these are the buildings that you see right now. And now it goes into this artist rendering. And over on the right-hand side, this large building with the brown roof, that's what we're calling our Student Activity Center. We'll come back to that and show you more of that in a little bit. These six dorms that you see right here, we've already started construction on the first one. We've got the permit for all six of them, and we are progressing on this. And they were pouring concrete today. It's the second pour that they've had in one week's time. And so we'll be making these. Each one of these dorms will house, uh, 40 students. And they aren't like typical dorms, they are more an apartment. It's really nice. We'll go in and show you kind of what it looks like inside.

So this is a break area, area where they can congregate. On the second level, this shows you an area that four people will share. They'll share this break area, the kitchen. Each person will have their own private room, but they'll share, two people will share a toilet and shower sink, and that's the private room. This goes outside and looks on the back side. There's a balcony on the second level. And as you look around on the bottom floor, there's a walkout thing. So that half of that is maintenance of mechanical things, half of it is student housing. On the third floor, we'll go in there and show you, there's another break area up there. And I've got antler chandeliers. I just don't believe it because you're a Christian, you have to do things cheap. And so it's going to be nice. Hey, man. And so this will begin to show you our Student Activities Center. And this is coming in on the fourth level. On the fourth level, there's going to be a steakhouse. It will seat over 200 people. It's going to be configured differently than that, but this will give you an idea. Up on the fourth level, that'll be for the, uh, community too. They'll be able to come in and take advantage of that steakhouse. And this is already going to change some. We've already added 60,000 more square feet to this building and and change this a little bit, but it'll give you an idea of what it's going to look like. And, uh, it's going to be awesome.

So now this will turn around and look back towards the north, and this will show you this Student Activity Center. This is going to be a 300,000 square foot building that is going to be awesome. So over on this right-hand side is our cafeteria, and it will house 1,100 people at one time. And as you go in, you see that we've got six serving areas. There we've got Billy's Barbecue, Jamie's, whatever, Wendell's Prime Rib. And so anyway, there will be that. That is really necessary. If we're going to have students living here, we've got to be able to feed them and take care of the needs. And then over on this other side is another auditorium. We, we already, uh, I, if you could pause this a second, can they do that? This, uh, area right here, if you use those tables, what they call schoolies, I think you can put, what is the number? How many can you put in there with the schoolies? 1200. And if you take the schoolies out and turn it into an auditorium, it'd seat about 15 to 1700. And we really need this space because in just two or three years, at the rate things are going, our third-year classroom is going to have five to 600 people in it. And like they were saying, we had, I think 1800 that have applied for first year. And right now, we're using this building as where everybody gathers. Then first year stays in here, second year goes into the barn, third year is downstairs. We've already outgrown that. And so we've got to have a bigger space. And so you can continue on. This will be kind of like what that, uh, uh, this will either be second or third year classroom. And then down below here, we don't show this in this video, but down below, we're going to have, uh, we don't even know, but maybe 30 or 40 more classrooms, which we really, really need. And then we will go over this little footbridge right here, and we'll go over to an activity center. This will be a recreation or athletic center, and this is something that we really, really, really need.

Again, if we could pause, once we get inside this building, this is going to be an Olympic-size hockey rink with a thousand seats around there. And, um, anyway, there's a lot of uses for this, not only for us, but for the community. And even for the, uh, you know, some of the hockey players because of the altitude here. This is great training. That's the reason they put the, uh, Olympic Center in Colorado Springs is because it gives you an edge. And so anyway, there's, there's potential for this for the community, for other things. And if you'll continue on, now we've also got a climbing wall behind there. We've got, uh, eight, uh, lanes of bowling up here. We've got foosball, ping pong, uh, pool, all those kind of things. We've got an equipment center where we'll rent all of the equipment or provide the equipment for people. There's, uh, escalators that will allow people to go up and down all the different levels. We've got a lot of exercise things. We've got four racquetball courts that are going in here, two pickleball courts, and three basketball courts in this building. And then around the ice rink is this jogging track and all kinds of exercise equipment around the outside of that. And so this is going to be a great, great facility.

So as we swing around, if you could pause just once again, let me just say that as we've been visiting other schools and colleges, I believe that what we offer here is second to none. I really do. I mean, I am so blessed. We are seeing people's lives changing, and that's the most important thing. Amen. But as we've gone to these other places, they attract more young people because young people aren't established yet, and they need housing. So we're trying to build housing, not only these first six, but we're going to be building housing to accommodate a thousand students here on campus. The Lord has given us a total of 527 acres here, and so we're going to be building housing that will really accommodate our students and I believe draw younger people. But also these other places, they're offering all the athletic things, which we don't have, which again, is not the most important thing. But we have a desire to minister to people, not only spiritually, but also their soul and their body. And I think it's going to really increase the experience. I don't think that Christians ought to have to do without just because we're a Christian college. And so praise God, we're going to put in all of the facilities.

So if they could continue, the only flat spot on this 527 acres is on top of our athletic center. So I put a soccer field and a baseball field there, and we've got 300 to 400 cars can park down below. That'll be below ground, a lot of that. As we swing around, the only thing that was on this property when we bought it is this lodge. This is a three and a half million dollar lodge that was on this property. Everything else has been built since then. We're going to have to put in roads, bridges to connect with the northern property that we have. We had 336 acres on the northern part, and we're going to put a lot more student housing over there. We're going to put a hotel and conference center, 300 beds with a conference center in it, and then a performing arts center. And that's just the beginning. But anyway, so this will show you what my vision is.

And as I was sharing with some of our partners today, right now, Karis Bible College is supplemented by Andrew Wommack Ministries. It's my television ministry. We put between 6 million and 11 million dollars a year into the school. There's no way that students can pay for all of these buildings. So I'm paying for all of these things out of my ministry, and I'm not going to be on television forever. I just turned 74, and I'm going to believe I'm going to live a long, healthy life, but I don't need to be the face of Karis when I'm 90 years old. So I've got a goal of getting this done in 10 years' time, and to do that, I need $5 million per month extra. And I know some people think, how are you going to do that? It's doable. It's doable. And so tonight, I just wanted to share those things and share with you, this is what you're giving towards. We really need people that are outside of Karis to be able to help us because again, our student body cannot pay for all of these things. And so you, this is what you're investing in. And of course, when you sow into the ministry, you're blessing people that come here. They wouldn't have these facilities if it wasn't for our partners. So you're blessing the students that come. But ultimately, if you look at it, these students are going out. We've got students on every continent on the earth, even Antarctica. We actually had a man that got born again on a scientific expedition at the South Pole, and he was there for six months, socked in in the weather, and out of boredom, he just got to looking through all of the stuff that other people had left there, and somebody left the whole library of my materials, and he read them, got born again. So we've got people ministering all over the world. And so anyway, I'm encouraging you today to give and to sow. It's not just about you receiving and giving for what you've done, but this has given you an opportunity to sow into other people's lives. And our woke society today, I tell you what, we need instead of just cursing the darkness, we need to turn on a light. Karis Bible College is making an impact all over the world. And when you give, you literally are helping change this entire culture, not only in the U.S. but around the world. We just got back from England, France, and I tell you, it's awesome. We, we started a school in France this last year with 70 students. We've already had over 770 more students sign up during this last trip. And the, the ministry there, we're on television. Our television program is translated into 10 languages now. We can be heard by over 5 billion people on a regular basis, on a daily basis, and it's just making a worldwide impact. So I'm encouraging you and asking you to be a part of this. We need a lot. So unless you give more than a billion dollars tonight, I've already got a place to spend it. Now, if you give over a billion, give me another 30 days, and I'll have a way to spend that. But we're going to get it done. So thank you for being a part of it. Amen.

So, Father, we love you and thank you for the good news. Thank you for the great gospel that you've given us. And thank you, Father, for the privilege that you've given me and all of our employees here, the opportunity to impact millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of people around the world. Father, we just thank you for this, and thank you for the lives that are being changed. And I'm asking that you would touch hearts here tonight, that people would give and become a part of this. And Father, I believe that for every person that gives, that you multiply this back to them, not only in eternity, but right here in this life, according to Mark chapter 10, verse 29 and 30. We agree for a hundredfold return in this life on these gifts. And Father, we thank you and we agree and receive that in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Praise God. You can receive the offering. And I just want to thank you for everything you've done. We've had some partners here, and I've asked a lot of people today about, "Do you like what you built?" And they just look at me, and I say, "You built this." And they say, "Oh yeah, we like it." So, uh, and you know, we don't want to waste money or anything like that. But when the Lord spoke to me on January the 31st, 2002, and told me I was limiting him by my small thinking, and I could minister on that all night tonight. But at that time, we were reaching 3% of the U.S. population through our television program. Now, as I said, we reach over 5.2 billion people potential around the world. And I mean, things have exploded. Our income back then was less than two million dollars a year. Now we have to have at least seven and a half million a month just to pay bills, and we need more than that. I need $5 million more than that per month to get this done. So I'm just saying those things to say that, man, when I started thinking different and believing, it is phenomenal what God has done. And one of the things he told me was, "Don't limit me by small thinking." And so I designed these buildings. I sat down and drew all of these buildings and came up with all of this and drew it on a napkin, and I gave it to our architects. And of course, they made it look nice. It didn't look that nice when I did it. But this, this is the concept I had. And I actually designed all of these buildings. And we had spent a million and a half dollars on architect's fees before I ever sat down and said, "What's this going to cost?" You know, most of the time, people will sit there and put a limit on something and say, "What can we get for this?" And God told me, "That's limiting him." And I'm sharing these things because God is not doing this only for me. All of us limit God by our small thinking. And man, you need to just start believing big. You need to believe big.

I was talking to Jeff VanderWaal. He's here someplace. Where's Jeff? Right here. Is Jeff? I was talking to him today, and man, they started believing that same thing. And now, according to Billy, I don't know that Jeff has said this, but Billy says that Jeff is probably going to have one of the largest car dealerships in the nation, and it's just happened in a few years. And he was telling me today, it's because of him giving. This will work for anybody. And so I want to encourage you today to just believe God for big things and be a partner with us. Amen. How many are partners with Andrew Wommack Ministries? Man, that's awesome. And those of you that aren't, why aren't you? I guarantee you, there's a lot better than some of the things you partner with. And people saying, "No, I'm not a partner with anybody." You're a partner with your satellite company. You're a partner with your telephone company. You're a partner with all kinds of people. And man, you need to partner with the gospel. It'll be a blessing. Amen. Praise God.

So in our little gift thing that we're giving you, uh, we're giving you this little booklet on "10 Godly Leadership Essentials." And this is what I'm going to be teaching on during this conference. I've got four sessions, and so I'm going to have to cover two and a half of these 10 principles per session. And I probably won't cover a half principle, so sometimes I'll do three, and others I'll do two. But we passed this out, and I've written 25 of these little booklets this year, and we now have those available. And this is just a real brief summary, like what I'll talk about tonight probably doesn't comprise more than three or four pages in this book. And so I'm going to go into a lot more detail than that. But this is a free sample. And, uh, I think, uh, somebody mentioned this today, but because I've been giving these out, the logic behind this is that some people may not sit down and read a whole book or a whole teaching, but they'll get this, and we're giving these away free. And we've had over, uh, 200, we've had over a quarter of a million people contact us in the last two months to get these free little booklets. It's amazing. People love free. And so we're using this like a free sample and giving this away. And, uh, praise God, I believe they'll like the way it tastes and they'll get the rest of the teaching. But, but we've had great, great response. And so that's what I'm going to be ministering on.

Let me just say some introductory things. That some people think, "Well, man, I don't care about leadership. I'm not called to be a leader." All of us are called to be a leader. The scripture talks about that we are the light of the world, that we are the salt. And people are watching you. I tell our students all the time that people are watching you. That when you leave school and you go out to get gas, when you go to a restaurant, when you do something, a lot of our students wear their vest that has Karis Bible College on it. They still have their lanyard on, or the fact that they have an out-of-state plate, people can tell that they're a student. And I said, "People are looking, and people evaluate Karis, and ultimately the Lord, based on how you represent him." I believe that leadership is just really influence. And some of us have more influence than others. God puts us in different positions, but every one of us is influencing people. You're influencing people in your family, you're influencing people in your church, in the job that you work. And so every one of us really is a leader. It's just varying degrees of leadership. And what I'm going to be talking about, I've entitled this "10 Godly Leadership Essentials." But you know, this isn't really the nuts and bolts of leadership. Billy just did a leadership training with our management-level people this last month, and I watched that, and he's talking about, you know, real practical things. You've got that know-how to, you know, IT and marketing and on and on and things like that. And there's a lot of details. All of those things are good. I'm not against any of them. But what I'm going to be talking about are leadership essentials. Are, I think it would be accurate to say, character traits that leaders have to have. And one of the things I'm going to be emphasizing during this is the reason that God doesn't promote us and give us greater levels of leadership is because we aren't good representatives. And that's one of the reasons he won't promote us. He doesn't want us to be hurt if we go out there and don't have the character to sustain it, and he doesn't want to have other people hurt. And so this is, this is really going to be good, and I, I'm excited about this. I think it'll bless you.

So this little booklet is a freebie to you. And we also put in there another little booklet that I wrote about "My Appointment with God," and that's where the Lord changed my life, March the 23rd, 1968. So I think this is really going to help you. So again, let me just say some things here that I found myself being a leader by default. I have never pursued being a leader. I've never been to a leadership training. A year and a half ago, or maybe two years ago, Billy brought in John Maxwell, and he held a business summit here. And that's the first time I've ever sat under anybody's ministry talking about leadership. So my point is, uh, I became a leader without trying, without purposely pursuing it. And this is one of the things that I want to talk about is that as I talk about these things, actually, the things I'm going to be talking about are nothing but different levels of a relationship with God. If you have a vibrant relationship with God, I believe that God will make you a leader because he will work things in your life that he wants to reproduce in other people's lives. And when you get these character traits operating in you, I can guarantee you God's going to put you in a position where he will use you to influence other people. So actually, you could talk about that this is just nothing but relationship with God. I have never pursued being a leader. The only thing I've pursued is God, and God has just made me a leader. And I'm not saying that in a prideful way, but we have, you know, 850 employees here. We're the largest employer in Teller County, and we have 1100 employees worldwide, and we've got a lot of things going on. And whether I like it or not, I become a leader. And so when I was listening to John Maxwell, I was really blessed by his teaching, but I was also confused because I thought, "God, I haven't done a blooming thing that he talked about. I haven't done any of this, and yet you've put me into a position of leadership. How in the world did this happen? And how in the world is it functioning?" And you know what? It's really working well right now. I mean, God is just doing great things through this ministry. And the unity, it's not perfect, but the unity and the culture here in this ministry is really healthy. It is very, very healthy. And so how did this happen? As I began to pray about it, the Lord began to speak to me about it. Really, all comes from relationship.

So this is where I want to start. Let's turn over to First Corinthians chapter 11, and this is the Apostle Paul speaking. And there's a number of times that the Apostle Paul talked about people following him, which is what a leader is. A person who's, uh, having people follow him. If you don't have anybody following you, then you aren't leading, you're just out for a walk. So this says in First Corinthians chapter 11, verse 1: "Be followers of me, even as I also am of Christ." So let me start by saying this, what makes a godly leader? Now, we've got plenty of ungodly leaders. And many of you, if you go to a leadership conference, they're going to tell you a lot of the secular things. They're going to tell you things that people are running these major corporations and and all kinds of stuff. And I haven't, uh, it's not my place to be critiquing them or talking about that, but I'm talking about what godly leadership is. And godly leadership is exactly as Paul said, "You only follow me as I follow Christ." If a person isn't truly in a, in a relationship with the Lord, if they aren't really fellowshipping with the Lord, you should not be following them. They aren't qualified to be leaders. And if you use that definition, we don't have a lot of godly leaders today. We've got a lot of people that are in positions, and yet their relationship with the Lord is wanting. And as I go through every one of these 10 things, this is one of the things you're going to see that every one of these qualities I'm talking about is really a byproduct of relationship with the Lord. I think the number five thing in this list that I've got is talking about vision. If you go to hear, most people talking about being a leader, they're going to start with vision. You've got to have a vision, and you got to do this. And I'm not saying that that's not important, but your vision should be a byproduct of relationship with God. It ought to be an outgrowth of your relationship with God. And I think a lot of people who are leaders, they have their own vision, and they're trying to get God to bless it. And that's the reason that they're so frustrated and things aren't working. So relationship with God is what everything centers around. And again, I'm a testimony that I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer. I haven't sought these things, but I have sought the Lord. And as God has been doing things in my life, then it reproduces in other people, and God has given me a greater level of influence the more that I've sought him. And the same thing works for every person. So all of these leadership principles that I'm talking about should come out of relationship with God, just like Paul said, "Follow me as I follow the Lord." So the best leaders are actually the best followers. If you aren't a good follower of Jesus, if your relationship with Jesus is wanting, then I can guarantee you you're going to be wanting as a leader in a godly sense. You aren't going to make a godly leader if you don't have a vibrant relationship with God. And I think that the majority of people go into all of these other things, the mechanics. We're going to be talking about, you got to be able, uh, to, you know, handle hardship and things like that and delegate some of the things I'll talk about. But again, all of these things come out of a relationship with God. So I'm not saying any of these things to criticize anybody, but just to emphasize that if you want to be a leader, again, doesn't mean that you're necessarily leading millions of people, but if you want to have influence wherever God has put you, you are going to have to have a vibrant, vital relationship with Jesus. And many people are bypassing that step and trying to get on, "Well, like, give me some of the practical things." Nothing else works until you really have a relationship with the Lord. And this is why so many people struggle. And they may even know that God has put them in a position, they may be trying to fulfill what God has told them to do, but I can guarantee you that Christian life isn't just difficult, it's impossible. It's impossible to be the person that God really wants you to be. You have to depend upon God. You have to have God supernaturally living through you. And there's so many people that they may even have a desire, "God, I want you to use me. I want to be a blessing. I want to touch other people." But if you have a deficiency in your relationship with God, then I guarantee you you aren't going to be effective the way that God wants you to be. So everything goes back to relationship with God. If you don't have a relationship, I mean, God is your personal friend. And I'm going to be talking about hearing the voice of God. All of that comes out of relationship with God. I'm going to be talking about patience and just a lot of things. All of these things are the result of a vibrant relationship with God. And again, I can say I've never pursued all of these things, but what I've done is pursue the Lord. And as you get to know the Lord, God just changes things. Man, I could spend all night tonight just talking about relationship with the Lord because that's really what it's all about.

But let me go on to say that if, if you have a real godly, healthy relationship with God, you know what the second thing that's going to work in your life is? Is humility. If you have a relationship with God to where you still are the boss, and God tells you to go do something, and you're going to sit here and debate whether you do it, you got a deficiency in your relationship with God. That's why humility is. Humility isn't weakness. Humility isn't putting yourself down and not recognizing that God has done something and given you a talent or something like that. This is the way religion is defined, and they make humility a weakness where you just, you know, you don't have any confidence in yourself. That's not it. You know, Moses, he said in Numbers chapter 12, verse 3, he says, it says, "Now Moses was the meekest man on the face of the earth." And Moses is a guy that wrote that. Did you know most people think, "Well, he couldn't be meek, he couldn't be humble because he said he was the meekest man on the earth." Did you know it would have been pride if God inspired him to write that and if he hadn't have done it because he was afraid of what people thought? That would have been pride. Humility isn't weakness. Humility isn't putting yourself down. It's just not glorifying yourself. It's making yourself subject to God. And again, this comes from a relationship. If you say that you have a great relationship with God, and yet he tells you to do something, and you're going to debate whether you do it, you don't have a good relationship with God. I'm not saying that you aren't born again, but I'm saying that you, you have not yet developed your relationship to the degree it should be. One of the things it ought to come out of relationship with God is that you recognize He is God and you aren't. That He's Lord, not only Savior, but Lord. This is a part of a healthy relationship. And if you can say, "Oh yeah, I love the Lord, and God speaks to me, and I have a great relationship with the Lord," and yet he tells you to do something, and you're going to debate whether or not you do it, your relationship with God is deficient.

You know, during this COVID thing, I had so many people come up to me and say that God told them not to get a vaccine, told them not to do something. All of these restrictions they were placed on us. And that's a separate issue about whether you get a vaccine or don't. I'm not criticizing that, but I'm saying God told them not to get a vaccine, and yet they were going to get fired if they didn't get the vaccine. And I had people come to me and say, "What do I do?" To me, if you have a great relationship with God to where He is God, He's Lord, He's boss, and you aren't, well, then it, you don't evaluate what God tells you by the results that come. If you're sitting here knowing that God told you to do something, and yet you're debating about whether or not to do it because you aren't sure you're going to have the money to pay for it, you aren't sure that you might be fired, you could be rejected, some people could criticize you, then you've got a deficiency in your relationship with God because He's not boss. If you really have a great relationship with God, you're going to reach a place to where, "God, whatever you want me to do, I'll do it."

You know, we actually sued the governor of Colorado twice during 2020, and he sued me twice. And they commanded us to cease and desist during the July the 4th presentation and stuff. And we, we had, I think it's 15 or 1600 people come against the government's orders and stuff. And and they were potentially going to arrest me and do stuff. And and Jamie and I talked about him. Jamie says, "I hate this." And I said, "I hate this too, but you know what? What do you do?" Some people say, "Well, they told us not to do it. I, I'm not gonna, I don't care whether or not I'm following all of the guidelines. If God tells me to do something, I'm going to do it and let the results come whatever they are." You know, it was John Adams that said, "Duty is ours, and results are God's." I'm just going to do what God tells me to do. And if they had to put me in jail, I'd have had a prison ministry. Amen. Praise God. But see, so many people, they know that God tells them to do something. We have people all the time that God told them to come to Karis Bible College, and yet they say, "But how am I going to do this?" Again, if God tells you to do it, you just do it. If it hair lips the devil, you do it. Amen. Regardless of what the consequences are. I had one guy from Chicago come, and he says, "God told me to come to Karis Bible College, but..." and then he spent 20 minutes telling me that his parents had never heard of me, so they went to their pastor and asked, and the pastor said, "Oh, he's a cult. Don't go there." And the parents came back and said, "We're going to disown you if you go." He was going to inherit the family business, and they said, "We'll kick you out. You'll get nothing." He was engaged to be married, and his fiance said, "If you go to that school, I'm not going to marry you." And so he would be out of a job, his family would cut him off, he would lose his fiance. And so he says, "I know God told me to come, but..." and he spent 20 minutes telling me all this, and he says, "What do you think?" And I said, "You lost me the moment you said God told you to come. If God told you to come, come." And he says, "But what about this?" I said, "Who cares about anything else?" Oh, man. I would suspect that the majority of people sitting right here tonight, this is not the way you think. You could get a word from God, and you're going to debate whether or not you will do it. I'm saying this in love, but you do not have a good relationship with God for you to sit there and exalt your wisdom above God's wisdom. I don't even relate to that. Now, I'm not saying that I do this perfectly. I make mistakes, just because I'm human, and I don't always think things through and pray about it the way I should. But once God tells me to do something, I can guarantee you that ends the discussion for me. And this is not just theory with me. The one of the very first things that God told me, I'll go into some more detail when I get to talking about some different things, but the Lord told me back in 1968 to quit school, which was going to send me to Vietnam, going to get me drafted. I could have been killed. I nearly got killed twice in one day. I've seen bodies stacked up 15 and 20 high right next to me. And I went through all that. But you know what? Once I knew that God told me to do it, regardless of what the consequences were, I was just going to do what God told me. And if I got killed in Vietnam, that was up to God. It was up to me to obey. See, brothers and sisters, if we start talking about all of these leadership qualities, and yet if your relationship with God, it isn't to the place that if God told you to do something, you just say, "Yes, sir," and do it, well, then your relationship with God is not where it needs to be. I just can't relate to that. I don't want to relate to it. And I'm not going to go into detail right now, but the way that the Lord touched my life, I got born again when I was eight, but I became a religious Pharisee, and I really got into performance and thinking that I was special because I've never, you know, gone out and used profanity and taken a drink of liquor and other things. But I got into self-righteousness, and God showed up, and I literally saw the glory of God, and in comparison to God, man, I saw that all of my righteousness was like filthy rags. And I mean, I repented of being self-righteous. I repented of doing my own thing, March the 23rd, 1968. And I did it with all of my heart. And I haven't done it perfectly. I'm not trying to profess that, but I'm saying that it just totally dealt with something on the inside of me that my only desire for the last 55 years has been to follow the Lord and to do what he told me to do. Now, I don't do it perfectly, but I mean, that's my desire. Failed through humanity, but I don't fail because of commitment and desire to do it. And this is a direct result of relationship with God.

Look over in First Peter chapter 5 at some scriptures where the Lord was talking about humility. In First Peter chapter 5, in verse 5, it says, "Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble." God resists the proud. Now, I'm a grace preacher, and I believe that God put all of our sins upon Jesus, and we aren't getting what we deserve. Praise God for grace and mercy. I believe that with all of my heart. What does it mean then that God resists the proud? The word "resists" means to actively fight against. Matter of fact, Jeremy Pearsons, he taught at our men's advances last year about resistance, went into a long explanation that basically he sets himself at war against these kind of things. So does God resist us when we're in pride? The way I've understood this, it's like God made us people to breathe air. This is how he created us. And you know, today we've got people that are saying they were a woman born in a man's body, and they're just going to identify as something else. We've got people that are identifying as cats and dogs. It doesn't matter what you think, that's not who you are. And you can identify as a fish and say, "I'm a fish," but if you go live in the water, you're going to die because God didn't make you to be able to, you know, have gills and breathe. And if you take a fish out of its element and try and make it live above the water, it'll die. That's in that sense is how God is resisting us. It's not that he hates you and is against you, but God is a humble God. Jesus even said himself that, "I am meek and lowly in heart." Man, praise God for that, man. If God took offense, if God was just thinking about himself, we'd all be toast. We have all broken the heart of God so many times. We have done so many dumb things. Praise God for His mercy. But God is a humble God, and He set His kingdom up just to function under these laws of relationship with Him, which will produce you recognizing, "I'm not the boss. I'm not the one that's calling the shots. I'm not making the decisions. He's God. I'm not." And that automatically is what humility is. Humility is just submitting yourself to God. And if God does something good in your life, you don't deny it, you don't put yourself down, you just give the glory to God instead of taking it for yourself. Isaiah chapter 42, verse 8 says, "My glory will I not share with another." And if you read the first seven verses of Isaiah chapter 42, it's definitely God the

Father talking about Jesus and what Jesus will do. And it says, "I will not give my glory to another." God is not going to glorify anybody but Jesus. So if you start glorifying yourself and talking about, "Look what I've done," and if you start taking credit for it, God resists that. God will not promote you.

And this is the very reason that many of us who God has a plan for your life that is better than your plan for yourself, I can guarantee you that. God's never made a failure. God's never made a piece of junk. God has a great plan for every one of us. But very few people experience the fullness of God's plan in their life because their relationship with God is not what it's supposed to be. They haven't humbled themself. And God doesn't want to promote you. It's like taking a person and putting them under water. You would get swelled up in pride. You would thank God, "Thank you for giving me a word. I'll make a paragraph out of it. I can handle it from here." And God doesn't want to put you in a position like that.

Number one, because he loves you. It would destroy you. You know, right now, like I said, we have to have a minimum of seven and a half million dollars a month, and we need much more than that. If God would have put this kind of responsibility on me back 10 years ago, 20 years ago, it would have killed me. One of the reasons that we haven't hadn't seen that growth back then was because I just wasn't to a place to where I could handle it.

You know, when I first got started in the Lord, I used to pray all the time, "Oh God, use me. God, use me, Jamie." And I ministered for a long time, and people stayed away from our churches by the thousands, and we struggled. And I used to spend a lot of time praying, saying, "Oh God, use me." And finally, the Lord spoke to me and he says, "The reason I don't use you is because you aren't usable. Quit praying, 'God, use me,' and pray, 'God, make me usable.'" In other words, go back to relationship and just, and let God work in you the things that he needs to do. And God told me, he says, "The moment you get usable, I'll use you. I want to use you more than you want to be used." If you aren't being used, it's because you aren't usable. It's because your relationship with God isn't where it's supposed to be. And if you, God wants to promote you and to put you into that position, you'd blow the whole thing. So that's one reason that God doesn't promote you. He resists the proud.

If you still are calling the shots, if you st-, if you're going to hinder God because he's going to show you something, but then you're going to get it done in your own strength and power, you aren't usable yet. I had a guy that I know, he came to Bible school here. And he told me today that I told him, I forget how many years ago, many years ago, that he needed a revelation of his flesh being no good, no confidence in the flesh. And he said he did not understand that. And he finally came to me today and says, "I think I got a revelation that it's not by my strength and not by my power."

Did you know most people haven't arrived there because they aren't really submitted to God? They aren't really having a vibrant relationship with God. And so they're doing their own thing, leaning under their own understanding, which the scripture tells us not to do. If you're going to be a Godly leader, you have to have a dynamic relationship with God that puts you in a servant position, not to where you're asking God to bless your plans, not where you're trying to get God to do your thing, but that man, you just run up a white flag and says, "God, I'm yours."

You know, Carrie Pickett, man, this is something I learned from her. And she was teaching on this exact subject. And she said that, I'll say it in my words, it won't be exactly like her, but she was saying that she, in a sense, had like a piece of paper where she wrote down everything that she wanted God to do in her life and everything that she was believing God for. And then she signed it and had a place for God to sign it and push the piece of paper over to God and ask God to sign all of her deals. And says the Lord told her, "No, that's not the way." He gave her a piece of paper that was blank. And he says, "Now you sign it before I fill in all of the details." That's the way that our life should be.

And yet, I'm saying this in love because I, I just deal with so many people. I know people. And brothers and sisters, this isn't normal. It is not normal for us to submit ourselves unto a God that you can't see. And for us to do that, it takes faith. It takes relationship with God. And most people are not to that place. God can't trust you. It's not that he doesn't love you, but he can't trust you. He loves you too much to put you in a position that's going to get you lifted up in pride or put you in a position where, man, when you start being used of God, I guarantee you, they're going to attack you. I've got so many people that hate me, that say terrible things about me. I've got thousands of blogs written about what a terrible person I am. And I tell you, if I didn't have a relationship with God that was what was dominant in my life, I wouldn't be able to handle the criticism and all of the things that come against you.

God loves you too much to promote you and to fulfill his will in your life if you aren't really tied into him, because you'll never withstand the pressure. He loves you too much to do that. And also, he loves the people that he wants to influence through you too much to put you in the position of leadership and have you fail, and you get bitter, and something happened, and then it affects all of these people that are looking to you for leadership. I tell you, I'm preaching better than you're listening. This is good stuff.

And again, this doesn't just apply to people that are preachers that are going to be in front of hundreds of people. This applies to every one of us in our business situation, in our relationships with other people. Every one of us has. God wants to use you to influence other people. And yet, if you, if you start being put into a position of leadership, I guarantee you there's going to be criticism. There's going to be criticism.

I was talking to somebody just recently, it was actually one of my relatives, and they are, they have just been attacked, and they were crying. And they told me all of the things that happened. And they said, "What are you thinking?" I said, "Welcome to the ministry. I said, this comes with the territory. People are going to hate you." If I'd have come into this town and started a bar, or if I'd have started some homosexual deal or something, nobody would dare say a word against me because it'd be politically incorrect, and they'd criticize it. But man, I've got lots of people that speak against me because we're here trying to bless people and change people's lives. You are going to be spoken against if you are a Godly leader. And if you don't have a dynamic relationship with God, you'll crumble under the pressure.

So these are two qualities. You have to have a relationship with God that is more important to you than your relationship to anybody else. You're going to be criticized. There will be people that will reject you. And if you have to be co-dependent upon other people approving you, and if you have to have their approval, then I can guarantee you, you're going to crumble. You will not fulfill what God called you to do. You got to get to a place to where, even though you don't like rejection, nobody should go out and try and make people reject them, but you need to get to a place to where if other, if everybody else hates you, it doesn't matter. You've got God, and your relationship with him is so real, and he's ministering to you on such a level that it's sufficient. It's enough.

You know, there was a man who was a missionary to Africa. He was from Sweden, I believe it was. And I heard him speak. And when he first went to Africa, he was there for two or three years and just saw virtually no results. And the people who supported him back in Europe had over the years decreased their support, and he was running out of money, and he was just miserable. And he was praying, and he was out in the jungle of Africa praying, and saying, "Oh God, don't you care? Nobody loves me. Nope, my partners have forsaken me. Nothing's happening." And he was just complaining. And he said that a voice came that was so loud, it shook the ground. It was like an earthquake. The trees shook. And he said, "Walter," called his name. And he said, "Am I not sufficient for you?" And it came twice. And finally, Walter said, "God, you're sufficient." And he just said, "It doesn't matter if anybody else accepts me or not. You are enough for me." And he went on to found over a thousand churches in Africa and just did a tremendous work for God.

I tell you, we get to griping and talking about things. Elizabeth Morin is overrunning the children's ministry, but I was talking to her, I think it was, uh, yesterday or something. And she was talking about when she went back to Israel. They had a house in Israel. They were a missionary to Israel for seven years. And she had a young baby with her. And they arrested her and put her in prison on one of their trips back. And, uh, anyway, she was in prison saying, "Oh God, what about this? I've got a young child, and I'm in prison. They've arrested me, and I'm here doing your work." And she said the Lord spoke to her and he says, "That's nothing compared to what they did to me." He says, "You aren't getting any sympathy from me." And she just decided, you know what, I can handle this. And that's the way you got to be.

Sometimes we always want this validation from people, and we want everybody to love us. I tell you what, if you are going to be a minister that stands up and speaks the truth, Jesus said, "If they don't hate you, uh, then something's wrong with you, because they hated me. And if you represent me, they'll hate you too." Now, there will be people that'll like you, but yes, there will be rejection. And see, if your relationship with God isn't the way it's supposed to, to where you have submitted yourself, and it's not about building your kingdom, it's not about everybody liking you, it's all about Jesus. And if he tells you to do something that's going to wind up costing you friends, costing you, uh, reputation, you don't care. You're going to do what God told you to do.

You know, a friend of mine was over in Russia, and he was preaching, and he was really demonstrative. I've seen him jump off the stage and land on top of people and spit on people and do all kinds of things. He was just the opposite of me. And anyway, this guy was preaching, and he was in Russia, and he goes, "Praise the Lord!" And his interpreter goes, "Slava BOGO." "Slava BOGO." And after a few times, he looked at that interpreter and he said, "Look, you aren't interpreting for yourself. You're interpreting for me. You got to say it like I say it. You got to act like me." And as soon as he said that, the Lord spoke to him and he said, "Dave, that's the way I feel about you. It's not up to you to sit there and represent yourself and what people think about you. You are supposed to be interpreting for me."

So for us to be a Godly leader, we got to be following God. We've got to have such a relationship that literally, your reputation, your, uh, what people think about you, and just so many other things, is not an issue. And this is missing. And that's the reason that more of us don't see God use us the way, because we just constantly have our finger in the air, testing which way public opinion is blowing. And it depends on whether they're going to validate us and whether they're going to love us. This is why we have so many woke preachers today, because they're so afraid that people are going to leave their church and they're going to take their money with them. And so they know what God wants them to say, but they're afraid to say it because somebody might criticize them.

Jesus said, "Beware when all men speak well of you, for so spake they the false prophets that were before you." It says in Second Timothy chapter 3, verse 12, "Yea, all those who will live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." If you aren't being persecuted, it's just because you aren't Godly. You might be born again, you may love God, but I can guarantee you, you are not, you are not interpreting for him. You are interpreting and changing it so that it won't be offensive, so that nobody will be criticizing you. If you start standing up and speaking the truth, people are going to dislike you.

Now, there will be a lot of people that'll like you. I actually have friends, Jack Hibbs in California, and Rob McCoy, who pastor in California. And these guys stood during all this COVID stuff and stood against the government things, and they lost a lot of people, but they grew 10 times over what they were, because other people came. And so you'll lose, you'll lose some people. You will be criticized. You might be fired from your job. But who cares? God's your source. God will give you something better. Amen.

These pastors I was talking about, they lost lots of their members, but they got 10 times as many members coming, because people are looking for somebody who will follow God and not compromise. And we see so many people compromising the gospel today. If you continue to read here in First Peter chapter 5, it says in verse 6, "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time." Oh, there, that verse is pregnant with a lot of things that I haven't got time to go into. But you have to humble yourself. If it's done to you, it's not humility, that's humiliation. And many people only humble themselves once they've been humiliated. And it's not true humility. What it is, you just have been embarrassed, and you've maybe it's taken some of your pride out, but it's not true humility. You have to humble yourself. You have to choose to do this. If it's done to you, it's not true humility.

I know some people that were exposed as having sin in their life, ministers, and they say that they are really repentant. But the only thing they're sorry for is that they got caught. They didn't change their heart. And you can tell, because a person who's truly repentant will not blame somebody else and say, "Well, you don't understand. It was my dysfunctional family that I was brought up in. It was this, it was that. These people did that." No. If you're truly repentant, you'll accept responsibility, even if somebody else had a part in it. And this person I'm thinking of, who had a large church and was exposed for doing some things, they came out on Oprah and started saying, "The church are the only ones that shoot their wounded," and he started criticizing everybody else. And the moment he did that, I said, "That's not repentance. He's just sorry he got caught." And sure enough, he hadn't repented, and it hadn't worked out.

So you have to humble yourself. And then it says that you will be exalted in due time. Boy, this is another thing. See, if you don't have a vibrant relationship with God to where you don't have an agenda, it's just, "God, the only thing I want to do is please you." Well, then you, you can be patient. I'll talk about this in more detail. Patience is one of the Godly leadership essentials, but it comes out of relationship with God. If you are still promoting your thing, one of the ways you can tell is you become impatient. You gotta have it right now, and you can't wait. I'm gonna expound on that more, but that's really powerful.

And then look at verse seven. It says, "Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you." Here's another way to tell if you really are humble or not. Have you cast your care on the Lord? If you are staying up at night trying to figure out, "How am I going to work this out? What am I going to do?" then you aren't humble. This is not a disconnected verse. It's talking about humility and God resisting the proud. If you have the burden on your shoulders, and you're the one that's got to produce and make everything happen, then you haven't truly humbled yourself. You haven't cast your care over on the Lord.

So evaluate. Can you really rejoice even in the midst of problems? When it looks like everything's going wrong, can you rejoice, or are you burdened down with that? Have you taken the responsibility? If you have, that's a lack of humbling yourself. That's a lack of making God your source. You still feel all of the responsibility. And that is a reflection of your relationship with God not being the way that it should. Amen.

Or oh me. I tell you what, that right there. I think many, many of us, and I, and I've, I've been through this. I remember when we first moved to Woodland Park. We used to live on Northwoods Drive back 30-something years ago in Woodland Park. And our ministry was small. And anyway, it was so small back then that if I couldn't pay my bills, I could quit the ministry and go get a job and pay off my bills. Now I can't do it. Amen. If God doesn't come through, I'm dead. I have to have eleven thousand dollars an hour, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days out of the year. If something doesn't work, I can't go make seven and a half million bucks.

So anyway, back then it was small, and I was struggling with God, "How am I going to pay my bills? How am I going to do these things?" And I'm what they call a lucid dreamer. I dream in color. Uh, my dreams are so real that I can't tell whether I'm awake or asleep, unless it's one of those dreams where you're, you know, running in sand and getting nowhere or something like that, something that's just totally outside of reality. It's hard for me to tell if I'm awake or asleep. I think the whole time I'm asleep. And so anyway, we were in this financial crisis, and I had a dream. And in the dream, I had quit the ministry and gone and joined the Air Force so that I could pay off my debts. And I woke up. It was a Saturday morning. And I woke up, and I was laying in bed, and I thought, "Oh man, praise God, that was just a dream." And while I was laying there, Jamie leaned over and she says, "You know, it wasn't so bad that you had to go join the Air Force." And when she said that, I'd been talking in my sleep, and she heard it. And I thought, "Oh God, I did it." And for, for just a second, I panicked.

So I'm just saying that, see, it's not like automatic. Then I, this happened immediately. But I'm saying as I've grown in the Lord, I've got to a place now, it's actually easier to trust God now than it was back then. Because if something happened, I could do something to pay off my debts. I could do something to fill in the gap. But now I'm just so far out there, it's like being out in the ocean. There's no way for me to make it back to shore on my own. It's actually easier to cast my care on the Lord now because it's just bigger than what I am. You need to get so deep into God that you can't find your way out, that you can't work your way out. And this is one of the ways that you can tell whether humility is really a factor in your life. Are you still under the care? Are you taking the burden for it, or have you been able to cast this over on the Lord?

You know, we've got a little cartoon that we clipped out of the paper, and it's, um, it was Family Circus, and it showed a guy sitting in bed, and he was propped up, and his eyes were huge, and you could tell they were bloodshot, and it was easy to tell that he just couldn't sleep. And so here he was, sitting in bed, his eyes bloodshot, and one of these captions came out of the heaven, and it was God speaking to him. And he says, "Go ahead and go to sleep. I'll be up all night anyway." And man, we, we got that little cartoon. It's a great deal. You know, that you should be able to sleep at night because you cast your care over on the Lord.

If you still are worried about how you're going to get your family serving the Lord, you're worried about how your business is going to work, you're worried about how your healing is going to come to pass, and you've got all of this weight on your shoulder, and it's just weighing you down, then you haven't truly humbled yourself before the Lord. Because part of that is casting your care over on the Lord, knowing that he cares for you more than you care for yourself. God wants to supply your need more than you want to have it supplied.

When Jamie and I first got married, we went through a lot of poverty. It was my own fault because I thought that a minister was sinning against God if you worked a secular job. So I just quit everything and was expecting to live full-time off the ministry. And we only had four or five people that I was ministering to on a weekly basis, and we were just struggling. And we went weeks without food. And anyway, Jamie and I had been nearly, I forgot, but it was over a week with no food. And Jamie, praise God, she never griped or complained. Man, I tell you, there's, I don't think there's another woman on the planet that would have stuck with me through what I put Jamie through.

But one day I was praying. It had been a week since we had eaten. And Jamie was over washing some clothes. And she took the car over there because she had like two of these baskets full of clothes. And the little 75 cents that we had, she was going over to wash the clothes. And so while she was gone, I was praying. And I just, I was saying, "God, what's wrong? Why isn't it working?" And I never realized it was because of me. But nonetheless, I was praying and complaining and talking to the Lord. And he spoke to me from Luke chapter 12, verse 42, I think it is. It says, "Fear not, little flock; it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." And he showed me that I was really doubting his love for me. I was saying, "God, what's wrong with you?" Nothing is ever wrong with God. God has never failed a single person. God has never failed to heal anybody. He's never failed to provide anything. We might have failed to receive, but I can guarantee you, God is never the source of our problem.

And he just told me, "It's fear not. I, it's my good pleasure to give you the kingdom." And when I saw that, I, I was saying, when he told me that, I said, "God, I'd give my right arm to feed Jamie." And I said, "How come we don't have any food?" And that's when he spoke to him and he says, "I gave my son to provide your need." And me struggling and taking care about my finances was actually an indication of me not understanding how much he loved me. And so when I saw that, I repented. And I said, "God, I'm sorry."

And when Jamie got back from the washateria, I told her, I said, "We are going to eat meat today. I said, we're going to eat today." And so we didn't have anything for lunch, and we skipped that. And we went to church that night. And at church, a guy came up and he says, "Would you and Jamie come over to our apartment after church?" And he lived in the same apartment complex we did. And so I said, "Sure." And I thought, "Praise God, maybe they're going to feed us something." And so we went over there and we visited for like 30 minutes or something, and they didn't offer us a single thing. And so I was ready to leave and told them, "Well, it's time for us to leave." And we started leaving. He said, "Oh, here, I came over to your apartment today." And he brought out a cardboard box full of fish that he had caught. And he, I mean, there must have been 30 or 40 fish in there. And he says, "I came over to give this to you today, but the car wasn't there. And I figured you weren't there, so I thought I'd just wait till tonight."

Did you know the only time that that car was gone all day long was when Jamie took it over there to wash clothes? And it was the exact time I was praying. And at that exact moment that I finally got into faith and out of griping and complaining, and I cast my care over on the Lord, God was supplying our need. And so we didn't tell him our situation. We just said, "Thanks." But he must have known how desperate we looked, and he said, "Here, you need something to go with it." And he gave us potatoes and and beans or something like that. And anyway, we rushed home, and right before midnight, Jamie fixed the fish, and we had food to eat. And the next day was my birthday, and a woman gave us a whole cardboard box of porterhouse steaks. We went from not eating anything to eating porterhouse steaks for a month. It was awesome. And all of that came when I cast my care over on the Lord, went back to recognizing the love that he has for me.

And so I'm saying these things in love, brothers and sisters. But if you are struggling, and it seems like you're under pressure, and you're, you're struggling, and you're worried about things, "How's this going to work out? What's going to happen if I don't see a healing come to pass? What's going to happen if I don't get the money? What about my children? What about my family? What about this job? What about this business?" If you're struggling, it really is an indication that you haven't yet cast your care over on the Lord. You still are taking the responsibility for change into your hands.

Now, when you cast your care over on the Lord, that doesn't mean that you just ignore him and sit down and do nothing. But you only do things in response to God. You know, right now, what I was sharing with you tonight, I, the Lord has shown me that in order to get the things done in the next 10 years, I need five million dollars extra per month. And, uh, eventually I'm going to have to share that with people. But you know what? I'm just praying about it. It's not, I'm not desperate. I'm not pressured to do it. I'm just praying about it. And when the Lord speaks to me and says, "Now, here's the time. Here's how you share." Well, then I'll do it. But I don't feel any pressure about this. And this is, this comes from a relationship with God. And these are qualities that if God is going to increase you and use you in a greater way to influence people, then these are things that have to come to pass in your life.

You have to develop a relationship with God that is superior to any other relationship. That makes you so plugged into God that if you have a rejection or frustrations from anything else, it really doesn't matter. You just are content in your relationship with God. You know, my life isn't built around this ministry. And this is, I can't prove this to you. You're just going to have to either take my word for it or whatever. But my life isn't built around this ministry. And if God told me to leave here, and if he told me to give all of this away to somebody else, and he wants me to go live in a grass hut in Africa, I'd do it. If I knew that that's what God told me to do, I'd walk away from everything in a second. I don't believe that's what God's telling me to do. I don't think that's good stewardship. But if God was to speak to me, I'd give it all up. I'd probably be by myself. I'm not sure Jamie would go with me. But I'm serious. This isn't mine. This isn't what I've done.

You know, we had the mayor of Woodland Park before this building was built. We were way up there in the rafters looking at all this. And he looked over at me and he says, "Man, you must be so proud." And I said, "No, pride is not the explanation. I said, that would imply that I did this. I said, I'm not proud at all. I am thankful. I am just so grateful that God has blessed me and used me to do these things. But man, I can't take credit for any of this stuff." Now, I've cooperated with God. You can get in his way and you can stop God, but you are not the source of anything. And you need to just get to a place to where, "God, I'll go anywhere. I'll do anything." And if your will for me is a demotion, I'd accept that. If your will for me isn't to be the lead singer, you just want me to be a backup singer, you want me to be a part of the band instead of the main person, that's fine.

And brothers and sisters, there's just not a lot of Christians that have reached that place yet. And yet, I believe that these are the two basic qualities that God wants in a Godly leader. And if you haven't, if your relationship with God is deficient, if you aren't humble and willing to do whatever, and if God tells you something, no gripe, no complaint, no argument, well, then that right there disqualifies you from God promoting you. And again, you don't have to be perfect. None of us are perfect. Nobody has arrived. But you need to have at least left, amen. You need to at least be headed in this direction.

So this is really meant to encourage you. It's meant to show us. This will answer questions if you'll receive it in the heart that I'm giving it in. This is not condemning towards anybody, but it's explanation. Sometimes people get frustrated, "Why aren't things working out?" And it's because of our own problems, because we aren't plugged into the Lord as much as we need to be, because we are too worried about everything else, we haven't cast our care over on him. God isn't using us because we aren't usable. And so I just encourage you to take these things I've talked about tonight. And again, I'm going to be talking about 10 different things, but they build upon one another. To me, the foundation of everything is your personal relationship with God. And if you are really plugged into the Lord, God is going to teach you everything you need to know. You can ask my staff. I am not an expert in many of the areas that they are, but God has brought them to me. God is using them. You don't have to know everything, but you do have to have these qualities so that, praise God, the Lord can use you.

You know, one of my favorite scriptures is in Acts chapter 9, where Saul had had his encounter with the Lord on the road to Damascus, and then he went to Damascus. And the Lord told him that there would be a man come to lay hands on him. And so the Lord appeared unto Ananias, I think it's Acts chapter 9, verse 10, somewhere around there. And, and the Lord spoke and said, "Ananias." And Ananias said, "Behold, I am here, Lord." Most of you probably don't have that marked in your Bible. That doesn't look like a great scripture. But did you know back 50-something years ago, God spoke that to me and he says, "How many times have I called your name, Andrew, and you weren't there?" What would have happened if Ananias hadn't been there? Maybe Paul wouldn't have got his eyes open. Maybe he wouldn't have been converted. Now, God might have raised up somebody else. But for us to be a Godly leader, the greatest thing you can do is just be there. There is no indication that Ananias was used in anything else like what he did with Saul, certainly nothing to that degree. Saul is one that became Paul, and he wrote half of the books of the New Testament. Man, what a great ministry. And I said, "What would have happened if he wasn't there? What would happen if he was out doing his own thing?"

I tell you, one of the greatest things you can do to be a leader is to just be there in relationship with God. And you don't have to have bells and whistles, an angel appear, goosebumps. You're just there. One of the reasons I knew that Jamie was the right one for me is because every girl I ever dated, I had to impress her. Get my mother's car, mine wasn't good enough. I was worried about what if there was a gap in the conversation. But Jamie and I, we grew up together. We had known each other. We had prayed with each other for years. And we could just be with each other and not say a word and just love being with each other. This is a way relationship with God is. If you only have a relationship with God in a crisis situation, when something spectacular happens, but if you just can't be there, then you need to work on that relationship. You need to get to where you just love God and you minister to him. And I tell you, that's what it's all about. God loves you more than he loves what you can do for him. He wants to have you more than he wants your service. And if he ever gets you, he will get all of your service. Amen. Praise God.

So let me say tonight, if there's anybody here that if you don't know Jesus personally, that is the very first step. You have to make Jesus your Lord. You can't save yourself. You need a Savior. And you need to make Jesus your Lord. I'm going to ask our prayer team to come on down here. And if there's anybody here that doesn't know Jesus personally, that's the first step. And then the second step is you need the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which includes a lot of things, but it includes speaking in tongues. Speaking in tongues. I don't know how you have an intimate relationship with the Lord without speaking in tongues, because you just don't understand everything. You can't figure it all out. And sometimes you need to be able to pray from your heart when you can't understand what's going on, and you just cast your care over on the Lord.

So if you don't have this baptism of the Holy Spirit, and if you don't speak in tongues, well, then praise God, you need to come down here and let us pray with you. But then, even if you were born again, baptized in the Holy Spirit, if you still are working on this humility, whichever one of us is, nobody is perfect in this area. But I mean, if this is just like a slap in your face and saying, "You know what? The things that you're talking about tonight, if God was to tell me to do something that looked like it worked out to my detriment, man, I'd argue with him. I'd struggle. I haven't cast my care over on the Lord. I'm still in charge of things." You need to humble yourself. And notice it says, "Humble yourself." Don't just ask God to humble you. You have to make this choice. If you haven't done that, I'd, I'd like to have you come forward and just tell somebody. And it will be a humbling experience to come forward and say, "You know what? I'm operating in pride. I'm exalting myself. I'm exalting my own opinion above God." You need to come and humble yourself, and we'd be glad to pray with you.

I also have some people here that I know are in crisis situations physically. I prayed with one of my friends over here tonight that just needs a miracle. Or in the natural, they would die. And there may be people here that need a physical healing in your body. We're here to minister to you. And there's just anything we can do. These are trained prayer ministers, people that know how to pray, and we see a lot of miracles happening. We just want to give you an opportunity to receive a miracle here tonight. So let's everybody stand, and I'm going to pray. And if you need prayer for any of those things I've called out, I want you to come forward and let someone minister to you tonight.

Father, right now, I just pray that every person would receive the ministry of the Holy Spirit here tonight. That, Father, we would recognize it. For us to fulfill your will and to be the leaders, the influencers that you want us to be, that we need a vibrant personal relationship with you. If there's anybody here tonight that has never accepted that, Father, we pray that they would come forward and just admit it and receive that relationship. If anybody doesn't have the baptism of the Holy Spirit, Father, we pray that they would come forward and that we'd pray with them, and that the Holy Spirit would begin to start revealing things to them. Father, for those that need a physical healing or need a miracle in their business or in their finances or whatever it is, Father, we just pray that miracles would take place. That people would come and receive. You can come forward while I'm praying. You don't have to wait until I get through praying. And Father, we just believe right now in the name of Jesus that you are touching people. Father, for my friend over here, I command that cancer to die. Anybody else that's dealing with cancer, if you're dealing with cancer, I want you to raise your hand so I can see who you are. If you're dealing with cancer, put your hand in the air. Here's people back here, people all over right now. In the name of Jesus, we just command you, cancer, to die in these bodies. Just like we were singing tonight, Jesus said it, we believe it, and it's done. That you move the immovable, you do the impossible. Father, we right now take our authority. And you said death and life are in the power of our tongue. So in the name of Jesus, we speak death to every cancer cell in this place, in every cancer in people's body. We speak death and command you, cancer, to die and to get out of their body. We release life right now into them and command these bodies to receive right now in the name of Jesus. Father, we loose this anointing. You said that the same anointing that raised Jesus Christ from the dead dwells on the inside of us. So right now, we release it with our words and command this anointing to come out and to restore all of the damage that cancer has done to these bodies. Any organ or tissue that's been damaged, Father, we just speak supernatural healing right now. Well, right here, I believe that the Lord is touching bodies, that those bodies are being restored, tumors are gone, cancer is dead, that these bodies are rejecting this. Father, we release this anointing right now in the name of Jesus. Praise God.

You know, anybody who's got pain. I'm thinking specifically about these cancer people, but it, anybody who's got pain in your body, it doesn't matter if it's a sickness, a disease, or if it's an injury. Right now, in the name of Jesus, we just command this pain to leave. And whatever the source of this pain is, we command this pain to leave right now in the name of Jesus. If you've got pain in your body, I want you to put your hand in the air so I can see who you are. Man, lots of people, lots of people right now. Father, for those of us that have got our hands in the air, and we're just speaking, and we command this anointing that indwells us, you put it under our command. You said in Isaiah chapter 45, "Concerning the works of my hands, command ye me." Father, we command this power that you've already placed on the inside of us to manifest. In sickness, disease, injuries, leave right now. Pain, you be gone. And whatever's causing this pain, we command it to leave right now in the name of Jesus. And here's all kinds of back pains that are leaving. If you were having pain in your back, if you couldn't move certain ways, begin to move. And don't think that this is for somebody else. Somebody says, "How do I know if that's me?" If you got back pain, it's you. Amen. Right now, begin to move and do some things that you didn't do. Place your hands on your body like Charlie was telling us to do, and just agree. We command this pain to be gone. We command vertebrates to be healed, discs to be healed. Command, um, crooked spines, uh, what is that? Curvature of the spine. We command curvature of the spine, scoliosis, to leave right now in the name of Jesus. You straighten yourself up, and we command it to stay that way. Satan, you lose them. The spirit of infirmity, be gone right now in Jesus' name. Thank you, Jesus.

Somebody had an injury, like some kind of an accident, something has hurt you. And here's the Lord just supernaturally healing you. I believe some kind of a cut or, um, something like that is going to supernaturally heal, not just heal over a period of time in a natural way, but right now we release supernatural healing towards a cut or some kind of an injury right now. Command that thing to be whole. There's some people here dealing with problems from surgery. You had one problem, but the surgery caused other problems, and it's a lingering problem. Right here, the Lord is just reversing that. Whatever they've done, right now, I believe that there is a supernatural healing coming unto you. Who's that in here that had some kind of a problem from surgery? Wave at me. Here's some, man, there's a number of you. Praise God. Anybody up in the balcony? Praise God. Right now, in the name of Jesus, Father, I just thank you for that word. I believe that you are healing this damage that was done through surgery right now, that you are healing these people. Praise God.

And you know, as I call these things out, please come forward and just act on your faith. It's the Lord that heals you, but the scripture says, "Faith without works is dead." So one of the things you can do to act on that is just to come forward and tell somebody, "I believe that's me." Let them agree with you, and that's a way for you acting on your faith and solidifying it. We've had a lot of people that didn't feel anything when they were standing there, but when they come down here and begin to act on their faith and say, "I believe that God is healing me," they see a physical manifestation of that. Praise the Lord.

Father, we just agree and thank you, Father. Anything else? All of these physical things, financial problems. How many of you are struggling and you've been taking care about finances? You're really struggling with that. I want you to put your hand in the air tonight. Like what I was talking about, we're going to cast our care over on this. And remember what the Lord spoke to me about how he spoke that, "Fear not, little flock; it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." If you'll do what I did and just say, "Father, forgive me for doubting your love for me. Forgive me for worrying and taking care. You've already promised you'd take care of this." And if you'll cast your care over on the Lord, I believe that that's going to remove a tremendous hindrance, and you're going to see God's finances begin to manifest. So Father, right now, for those that have raised their hands, we just agree. And Father, we repent of doubting you. We repent of letting circumstances and situations speak to us louder than your word. We believe that you love us, that you've provided all of our needs, that you've already blessed us, that you want to supply. You said that you take pleasure in the prosperity of your servant. And Father, I pray that the Holy Spirit just used these things tonight to speak peace into these people's hearts. That, Father, we'll cast our care over on you and go back to our relationship with you, knowing that you care for us and that you're supplying all of our need according to your riches in glory by Christ Jesus. We just agree and receive it, and we refuse this worry and refuse this care in the name of Jesus. Amen. Praise God. Awesome. Amen.

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Thank you.