Transcription
Where's the biggest challenge in a Christian's life? Come on, the thing just tries to eat you up. You just muse on something all day, and it's not producing life. And you'll still just muse there all day. And you think you need prayer? No, you need to stop musing. And we believe if we're not feeling good, we're not doing good. No, if you're not believing good, you're not doing good. I can wake up and feel all kind of stupid things, man. It happens to everybody. Sometimes just a rampant thing just tries to grab you. Who's ever just got a wild thought? Who's ever just reminisced? Who's ever been free from something for a long time, and all of a sudden it felt like you were living there? You don't need prayer. You need to have this truth so established in your life that when that thing comes, you smell it out and say, "I am so separate from that. That is so not in my heart. That is not who I am. You have changed me, transformed me, and made me brand new. God, I thank you for a new day, and I thank you you're in me, and I thank you you're alive in me."
We ought to be so aggressive and take these things by force. For us, the devil comes in, and we go, "Huh? Can you just pray for me?" We've spent countless hours in the body of Christ, well-intentioned, well-intentioned. I'm not putting anybody down. We're well-intentioned, but we've spent countless hours ministering to memories, flashbacks, dreams, impressions. It's not prayer issues. It's changed the way you think. It's put truth in there. So if you're driving to work and you remember this moment of promiscuity where you vowed you'd never be, and all of a sudden you found yourself there, and you woke up in horror and weeping in tears, and you cried and you repented, and it took you a while to even feel okay because you were so upset with yourself, and "How did I end there? And I wanted to not go there, and how did I do?" People are, this is real to people. Their hearts are pure. They, they put on a little vowel ring in their youth group, and and now they're 17, 18, and and and it just goes too far. And then they're wearing their little ring, and now they're, and they were sincere the whole time. They just got caught up in emotions and crossed the line. And and then you finally worked through that, and you finally, and people ministered to you, and you, because you were broken in, and a year later you're driving to work and you picture that and remember that. That is not time to get grayed out. It doesn't mean you have a devil lurking in you. It doesn't mean you're not forgiven or not free because you remembered it. You don't need ministry. You need to just keep driving your car, keep your hands on the wheel, and say, "Father, I thank you that I'm clean. Father, I so appreciate that you transformed my life. I thank you that I'll never be the same because of your goodness and your grace. God, I love you so much. Your love is life-changing." Yeah, and you just keep the hand on the wheel, Father. Yeah.
I act this little thing out. I won't take the time today to do it, but I act this little thing out where the devil, the devil, he's coming to get somebody. I usually bring somebody up, put him on a chair, and act because it happens to us all the time. Come on, stuff comes to your mind all the time. Goofy, crazy stuff out of the blue. You could be in worship, and some stupid comes. Am I the only one? Say that happens to you. Dan, I thought you were like above the clouds, brother. No, I'm on the earth, but I'm not of the earth, and I'm not conformed to the world. I'm transformed. My mind has been renewed. I have the same things. Peter said, "Don't you think it's strange your brothers all over the world are going through the same thing you are?" So don't make it all about you. Let's keep it all about Him and how you feel and what you're going through. And I can't believe it. And how come the devil could come right in the middle of the presence of God and invade my mind? Is there something wrong with me? Is there something hiding in me? Am I not all the way delivered? Oh, I've been around us. I've heard all the language. I'm not mad at us. I'm here because I love us and I'm trying to help us, man. I've been in worship and crazy stuff come right in the middle. That is not time to fall apart. That is not time to get grayed out. That is time to get louder and more convinced that you're free. Yeah. You don't fight the devil. You fight the good fight of faith. You submit to God. You're submitting to God is resisting the devil, and he will flee. There's so many people, "I bind you! You thought you foul thought! I bind you! I break your power over my mind! And I plead the precious blood of Jesus over my mind! I bind you!" And a half hour later, you're crying, wondering why it's not working, and what did I do wrong, and did God cut me off, and did I cross the line, and why does the devil have permission? Hearing that thing and remembering that thing is not your problem. Believing it's the problem. And believing it has to do with you. And here's the key: if it bothers you, it's not from you. Man, I was in a worship service. I was, I was teaching us a supernatural school, they called it. And and I'm supposed to teach on giftings and things. And I'm standing there with the mic, and the worship got really ridiculously amazingly good. And and the instruments stopped playing, and people were knew, and when the guitar guys just kneel and put their guitar down, and the drummer isn't even drumming, you know it's something amazing going on because I mean, I just love music, and it's awesome, and musicians love music. And when everybody just stops, and they're all just frozen, it's one of those special moments. And there was this one little girl, she could just barely reach the keys. She was down on her knees, and she's going, and and she just kept hitting the high ones. And every time she hit the high one, and you just were like, "That's where their manifest moments." And everybody looked like they had fleas. It was like it was beautiful. And I'm just like, "Oh God." And there's tears in everybody's eyes. People were prostrating. It was just one of those hush moments. If you're a minister, if you preach, if you do what I do, there's there's times where you don't want to say nothing. There's times you know you shouldn't say nothing. There's times you're scared to say something. It just was that atmosphere where it's like you don't even want to talk. There's just no reason to talk. And right in the middle of that video, that I watched way long time ago, just traveled through my head like I was watching it in that moment. You know, Jesus said something amazing. He says, "The ruler of this world cometh, and he has nothing in me." We ought to go after that and live that way. I'll tell you what, he works with self-centeredness. He works with guilt and condemnation and shame. He works with unbelief. He tries to get your eyes off of truth and get you to believe you're still the person that you thought you were or used to be. Tries to get you live in the past so you can never walk in your present. He tries to make tomorrow yesterday. Every day. That's what he does. Jesus said, "He has nothing in me." Said Satan withdrew himself from Jesus and looked for a more opportune time. I'll tell you, try to catch you off guard. He'll try to catch you right in the presence of God, right in the middle of worship, right when everything is absolutely amazing, and it's just the most incredible. And then that thing comes, hoping you take it personal, hoping you say, "Now, how could this happen in the midst of God's presence? This has to be with me. There must be some, I'm not free in this. Must still be lingering in me all these years. I must need deliverance. I must need healing. I must need freedom." I don't need any of those things. I need to be in touch with who I am in Him and what He's done in my life and my heart. And if He's going to whisper that thing into my mind in that kind of moment, I'm going to lay a hold of truth more and louder than I ever have before. I'm going to seal this deal forever.
So the atmosphere is quiet. Nobody wants to speak. There's weeping. You could hear moaning and weeping. Nobody's playing. I don't even know if the little girl could even function anymore. It was just beautiful. And you know what I did? Right in the middle of that, "Father, as soon as the video went through my head, I'm like, 'Yeah, okay, duh.'" I didn't watch it. I didn't question. You know what the thing wanted me to do? It wanted me, hand in mic. I'm the teacher. I'm supposed to have confidence in what I'm doing. I'm supposed to not just teach you, I'm supposed to minister out of my life, out of revelation. I'm supposed to know what I'm saying. Know what I'm saying, not because I studied and pulled together a little sermonette, but I'm supposed to know what I'm saying. Are you following me? And this thing, and can you tell when I talk? I believe I know what I'm saying, man. This thing's all on me today. I'm trying to be okay, but it's not working real well. It's trying to get me to crawl to the altar, throw away confidence, question my own identity, my own life, my own security in Christ, and kneel and begin to repent for something I'm not doing. So, you know what I did? In the middle of the quiet and the holy hush, because I just trust what I have here. This thing went, and I went, "Huh? Oh, what? Father, I thank you that you've changed my life forever." I said it so loud, you have no idea. I'm being way modest right now. And Lord God, I just appreciate that you've come in me and cleansed me and washed me and made me clean. And everybody's like, because I scared everybody, and they're like, "I don't think this is where we were. This isn't the atmosphere we were in." And I was just freaking out. "Father, you washed me and made me clean forever. You put a brand new heart in me. You have made me free from everything I've ever done, said, or anything ever done to me." And I just started to proclaim redemption and deliverance and righteousness with boldness. And you know what the room started to do? The room started to go, "Hey, that sounds powerful. Yeah, I think he forgave me too." And Father, I just, and all of a sudden the room just started shouting, and the holy hush turned into a mad, and it all started because of a video that tracked through my head from the realm of darkness. So you think you have a problem, but I'm telling you, you have an answer. We think we're people just loaded down with trouble and need prayer on every bump and bruise. No, we're people with one amazing answer that covers everything. I promise you, one amazing answer. It's called redemption through Christ. But if you're a Christian to survive, you don't understand what I'm saying. If you're a Christian for your life to go the way you hope, you're already discouraged because life shows no mercy. He does. If you're just a Christian for your sake, you will never run well. I'm just telling you plain. Somebody needs to talk plain. If your motive for Christianity isn't clean and clear, why would you receive grace to fulfill what He called you to? If you're not in it for why He called you, there's so many people that came into this thing for preservation instead of transformation and walking in the light. And come hell or high water, I ain't compromising. I love not my own life unto death, and that's why I overcome. Come on, we get nervous about that kind of preaching. I can feel in the room, that's a little intense, but it's straight gospel. Straight gospel. See, if you don't understand what I'm saying, that video is going to catch you off guard, and you're going to clam up. But you know what? I had to mic. I got to teach. That thing should never run through my head where it's concerned. I, I, I, that stuff doesn't even really happen to me anymore. Like, like if he does that, it says if you submit to God, he'll flee. He'll say, "Okay, I'm a slow learner. I'm just used to people folding. But this dude isn't folding. In fact, he's more intense and ridiculous than he was before." I showed him the video. So I really don't want to show him anything else because he might freak out more.
Come on, insomnia people. Wake up in the middle of the night. "Oh, here we go again. I just need prayer. I can't sleep. The devil just keeps waking me up every night. It has to be the devil. It must be a demonic spirit." Okay, what do you want? Well, I want you to pray that I sleep. No, I'm not going to pray that you sleep. If he wakes you up tonight, sit up in your bed and say, "Father, I so appreciate you waking me up. God, if you woke me up, your grace will keep me all day long. I know my schedule, and you know my schedule. Lord, where do you want to pray? What corner of the earth do you want to touch? Let's intercede." You know what I mean? Yeah, that short beats feeling sorry for yourself and getting in the flesh and thinking, "Oh, well, I was awake here through here, so I'm going to be tired here." So when the alarm goes off, I'll guarantee you, if he's, if the devil's waking you up, and every night he wakes you up, you sit up and commune with God, fellowship with God, and intercede for someone. He'll stop waking you up because if you keep your mind on Jesus, you're walking grace through the day, and it won't be like you were up for four hours in the middle of the night. You'll be fresh, and it'll be amazing. Yeah, we just got to learn how to fight the good fight of faith and stop living by feelings. Yeah, you guys got that point, right?