12 Noon Word - Day 11 of 21 Days of Action | Dr. Mike Woods, Sr. | #drmikewoods

Well, praise the Lord, and grace and peace be multiplied to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is the day the Lord has made. Glory to God, and we rejoice and we are glad in it. Welcome to day 11 of 21 Days of Action, where we are fasting for fire. Glory to the name of God. And it's been a great 11 days. I want to invite you really quick off the top to go ahead, guys, right now and share this live teaching. I promise you it's going to be a blessing to every person that taps in today. Listen, I'm super excited that we're on day 11. It doesn't really seem like it, man. It seems like, glory to God, we just started yesterday. And you know, that's just kind of how it is when you're in the things of the spirit. Time is kind of suspended. You know, I'm almost tempted to say let's go 21 more days. Somebody said, well, Apostle, please, no, no. But listen, I'm dead serious, man. This, this has been so, so good, and I pray that it's been a blessing to you. I don't want to hold you long today, uh, but I do want to drop what God has given me. And, uh, so do me a favor, please go ahead right now and share. It's just nice to be nice. Glory to the name of God. Uh, share it on your timeline, share it. Glory to the name of God with your people in your inbox. Text— get a text out. Let people know that Apostle is on, Apostle is teaching. Join us. This is going to be good. Listen, if you missed yesterday's message, I want you to make sure you go back and watch that message. I promise you, this series on confidence is going to be a tremendous blessing. So let's pray, and then we're going to jump right into the heart of this today. Father, in Jesus' name, We give you praise, we give you glory, we give you honor. We thank you for the opportunity to teach your word. We thank you that the grass withers, the flower fades, but your word stands forever. And so, Father, we yield ourselves today to the light, the illumination, and the intelligence of the Holy Spirit. Father, have your way. Your word declares you sent your word and it healed them. And Father, even as we discovered in 5 AM prayer that you want us to renew our mind. So Father, even as we teach today, we thank you that the anointing will flow on this word in such a way that it will begin to renew our mind in a special way so that we can begin to see the promises of God that are only born from a renewed mind. And so we give you praise and glory for it, in Jesus' name. Amen. And thanks be to God. Listen again, I need you to do me the favor and share this, man. Somebody needs this teaching. Glory to God. Somebody needs this word. Glory to God. And so I want you to share it so that they can get it. They can receive it. Glory to God. And that the anointing that destroys yokes, hallelujah, can be resident on their life and they can be changed and they can know Jesus. Listen, specifically, if you know somebody, which you do, who does not know the Lord, share this with them today. Glory to God. All right, we're going to jump into this. Uh, this is message number 2 of the series we started yesterday entitled Confidence: Freedom to Be Yourself. And we started teaching a lesson yesterday, uh, on the confidence to be an individual. And we didn't get finished with that, so I would call this Part B to the confidence to be an individual. Matter of fact, touch yourself right now and say, I have confidence to be myself. And we kind of discovered yesterday, glory to God, a few things. Number one, we gave you a working definition of what confidence is, right? And, um, we share with you that confidence— hear me, guys— is the quality of assurance that leads one to undertake a thing. So confidence, we learned yesterday, leads us to take action. It— we also learned that confidence is the belief. It's a system of belief that causes us to believe that we are capable We are able and we are acceptable. Matter of fact, say that with me. Say, I'm capable, I'm able, and I'm acceptable. Glory to God. I want you to grab that. You're capable, you're able, you're acceptable. Capable, able, acceptable. Capable, able, acceptable. Capable, able, acceptable. So the next time the enemy tries to tell you you're not enough, glory to God, and you don't have the ability, you're not smart enough, you don't have the equipment, you don't have the gifts, you don't have the money. Just tell him, I'm capable, able, acceptable. Glory to God. We learned it yesterday. You got to go back and watch it. And then we talked really intensely, uh, from 2 Timothy 1:7, where we learned that a direct contradiction to confidence is fear, timidity. Glory to God. And we learned that God has not given us the spirit of timidity. He gave us power, he gave us love, and he gave us a sound mind. So make sure You go back and watch message 1. We even broke down our scriptural right to move in confidence. Glory to God. And we closed it out yesterday by sharing with you that no confidence in a believer equals to a lack of revelation of who we are in Christ. So today I want to pick that up because I want you to understand Matter of fact, let's just go to John 10:10. Glory to God. And we'll start there. John 10:10. John, the 10th chapter and the 10th verse. Glory to God. John 10:10. We give God praise, we give him glory. The Bible says here, the thief cometh not but forth to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come— this is Jesus talking that they might have life and they might have it more abundantly. So, so watch this. There's a thief, right? And we know who the thief is, right? This word thief is kleptes, is what we get words like kleptomaniac. A kleptomaniac is one that has a disease to steal from others, which means they cannot help it. They, they don't even know they're stealing and stealing. The devil is a kleptomaniac. He's a kleptiz. He's a master thief. And his whole goal— glory to God— honestly, in a fight with you, watch this, is to steal your confidence. Remember yesterday we said that faith and confidence were synonymous? There's some congruency between those things, right? So without faith, Hebrews 11:6, it's impossible to please God. So if the thief can show up— hear me— and steal your confidence— oh my God, did they— oh my God— if he can steal your faith, he steals your ability— watch this— to bring pleasure to God by undertaking the actions that— oh my God— God has ordained for you to undertake in the earth, by fulfilling your purpose, by pursuing your vision, by fulfilling your dreams. Glory to God! Are y'all here today? My God, today, shout confidence! Say, I have it and I will not allow it to be stolen by the devil. So you— so, so I want to start here with this because problems are created when your confidence is stolen. Listen, most of the problems in your life— hear me— can be connected to a lack of confidence or a lack of faith. Oh boy, here we go, here we go, here we go. And really, religious people have this bad, all right, because religious people— here we go— are again, they're constantly looking for God. They haven't found him, so they really don't have any confidence in God. And their confidence has been stolen because, you know, they're leaning on religion more than they're leaning on God and his word. Oh my God, prayer was so good at 5. Glory to God. Make sure if you didn't pray with us this morning at 5, make sure you go and pray with us. Glory to God. Hallelujah. No matter what time it is, that this morning was fire. God was with us. Glory to God. Ah, so let me just tell you what religion basically is. It's man's idea— watch this— of God's expectations. So man creates this idea in his mind of what God expects, what God wants from us, and so we start putting confidence in a legalistic way of living, a religious way of thinking a religious mold that we feel that we do this, God will do this. If I, if I show up this way, God will show up that way. When really you can't put God in any kind of box. Glory to God. And you have to constantly be led by the Spirit. So when you operate in religion, a few things happen. And I got to start here. When your confidence has been stolen, this problem— you start going through these religious patterns First of all, you never reach your full potential. Write it down. When you, when you embrace a religious way of doing things where you're not confident in God, where you're still looking for God. Number one, I want you to write this down. And I'm starting this way for a reason. You never reach your full potential. You always kind of just hang around the same old pattern, the same old mundane way of doing things. You never expand. There's never no expansion of your mindset. There's never no growth. There's never no increase. Glory to the name of God. And the reality is there's a high calling of God in Christ Jesus that we should be pressing toward, that we got to forget what's behind, reach to what's ahead. And the children of Israel— watch this— they never reached their full potential. Hear me. They, they were supposed to cross over into the Promised Land. The original Israelites that came out of Pharaoh's house did not make it in. They wandered for 40 years looking for something. Here we go. That was promised, that was already theirs. And they feared confrontation. This was the biggest cause of their delay. I don't have time to get into that. But the Moabites, the Amorites, the Jebusites, and the inhabitants of Mount Seir— hear this— they were constantly trying to block the progress of the Israelites. And the reason the Israelites wondered, because anytime they would see any of these groups set up, they were going another direction, and they was just constantly going in circles, you know, not being confident that God would take care of them. Oh my God, today. That God would cover them, that God would keep them alive because of the promise. And so it took Joshua, the Bible said Joshua had another spirit. Caleb had another spirit, and he brought the babies of those, the desert babies, glory to God, of those that were born in the wilderness, he brought those desert children into the promise because they had a renewed mind. They had a different mindset. You can't be so religious that you keep going around the circle of something that you know is not working. You gotta dismiss that. You gotta let it go, all right? Number 2, watch this. When religion and the thief has stolen your confidence, fear rules. Fear takes over. Something that God didn't give you, it comes in because now that you lack confidence, you're moving in doubt, you're moving in, in a lack of faith. Glory to God, you're moving in unbelief. So now what happens? Fear comes in. Hear me. And the person who is religious, who has no confidence, now starts to live in torment. Oh boy, because you're wondering now, I'm serving God, I'm giving my time, I'm returning the tithe back to God. Glory to God. I'm returning what's His. I'm, I'm giving my offering, I'm going to church, I'm praying, I'm on this fast, and seem like nothing is changing. Well, you start tormenting yourself. Glory to the name of God. Trying to find— watch this— someone to blame, someone to blame for why you are where you are. And really, the only reason you are where you are is because of you. It is nobody else's fault but yours. And the reality, ladies and gentlemen, you must make a choice. Hear me. Glory to God. Glory to God. To either trust— and we prayed about this this morning— the words that are coming out of your mouth carnally, or glory to the name of God, the word of God. You need to trust God's word or the world. Which, which you're going to choose? Because you're going to continue to live in this torment if you have religious expectations that are born out of doubt and unbelief. Religion never empowers you. Religion never pushes you forward. Religion will never get you to the pinnacle where you're seeing the manifestation of God's promise, his plan, his purpose, of your full potential. It'll never do it. So you can't put confidence in it. But here's the reality, family. There are so many people that have put confidence in their way of doing things over the way of God. Hear me, they put all of their confidence in their way of doing things, their mode of living, their mode of acting, and they trust in that way more than they do God. And that's a dangerous thing. That's a dangerous piece. Oh, it's so dangerous. You know why? You know why? Because at the end of the day, that system becomes a part of you. You literally become one with a bad system, a bad way of living. And the deceit in it is, to a certain end— watch this— it worked. And you Yeah, because you did what you did and it worked out for you doing those things. And so you get a comfort in that way. And so it becomes hard to grab something that is unknown. And this is why you got to get your confidence back that the enemy has stolen— your confidence in God. Hear me? And that comes through building a proper relationship with him. That's why we're fasting. That's why we're seeking him. That's why we serve him, so we can know him better, so we can see his hand in our life for real. And, and that way we never second-guess him or what he can do. We never exalt a previous system, an old system, over his way. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things have become new. All right, listen, when you're religious— and I gotta go here because this is what religion looks like when your confidence is stole— when you're religious, watch this, true joy— this is number— watch this, number 3— is never known and never experienced because your confidence is gone. I mean, you have these sporadic seasons where you have joy but you have more days where you're depressed and you're not happy and you're wandering and you're living in defeat. But man, when you got confidence in God, your everyday is full of joy. The joy of the Lord is your strength. Glory to God. No matter what it looks like, you have a— you have— you find a way to rejoice, which means to return to joy. No matter what the odds are against you, You have an ability to return to joy. As I trust the Lord with all my heart, I'm not going to lean to my own understanding. In all my ways, I'm going to acknowledge him, and he's going to direct my path. You rejoice in who he is, what he's promised, what he said he will do. Watch this, when you got the joy of the Lord, it don't matter. Listen, it doesn't matter what it looks like. You understand that his has done is just as powerful as his will do. I'll say that again. His has done is just as powerful as his will do. If he did it before, he'll do it again. Gloria, you ought to type that in the comments if you're watching this live. Glory to God. Hallelujah. His has done is just as powerful as his will do. If you listen to the podcast or this is streaming audio somewhere, then you need to write that down. Put it on your refrigerator. So every time you forget that God has done something before, he's very able, hear me, and wants to do it again. He just needs your confidence in him. Oh my God. And then not to be religious, wait a minute, here's another one. Number 4, write this down. When your confidence is stolen, hear me, glory to God, and the thief has got you following after his patterns, his ways, and you're trusting in old systems, not only do you never reach your full potential, do— does fear come in and rule, number 2. Number 3, not only is true joy never encountered, but number 4, the Holy Spirit is grieved. Oh, and the Bible clearly tells us to grieve not the Holy Spirit. You know what happens when the Holy Spirit is grieved? He gets quiet. He feels rejected. He still loves you because— and he loves you so much he wants to get to you, but he can't violate your will. That's why he's grieved. Because if it's your will to doubt, to fear, to move in carnality, to not trust the word, you know, do not trust this book, he starts believing— hear me— that he's not being accepted. And guess what? He's not going to violate your will. The Holy Spirit is a gentleman. He only will come where he's allowed. And if you're trying to control your life with your negative thoughts, your negative well-being, with your depression, with your fear, and you just gotta— you gotta kick that stuff in the butt and say, listen, I got God living in me. I don't have to be depressed. I don't have to be bound. I listen with all the talk about mental health and mental wellness. It has gotten people who are believers— watch this— believing that, you know, everybody has to have some kind of mental health issue. Well, even if you do have them, if you got the mind of Christ and you got Holy Spirit living in you, working through you, glory to God, Why can't you fellowship with him so he can regulate your mind and help you with any issues you're struggling with mentally? Not disdaining the need for counsel, because the Bible says in multiple counsel there's safety. Not disdaining the need for that. What I am saying is you have a relationship with the Holy Spirit, and it ought to be far few believers who who are using mental health issues as an excuse to not do things because you say you have the Holy Ghost. You say, glory to the name of God, that God lives in you. You say you're a believer in the word. So Holy Spirit is grieved when you operate in religion and not confidence in God. Oh boy, I got to get through this today. So religion opens doors to torment, endless torment of self-hatred. You start hating yourself again, thinking you're not enough. And we, we've learned yesterday that you are enough. You're able, you're capable, you're acceptable. You have all the equipment you need because the King and his kingdom is in you. So you don't have to hate on yourself. You can be at peace with yourself. We learned this throughout the teaching on taking action against strife. So you have to have self-hatred. You have to condemn yourself. You have to operate in this fear of rejection where you don't speak your ideas, you don't speak what's on your mind. Glory to God, because you fear being rejected. That's a lack of confidence. And listen again, when God is on your team Y'all operate in fear of rejection, and God has given you something to say. Glory to the name of God. You say what he tells you, or you say what is in line with your word. Or listen, or God has given you something to do. He's giving you a dream, a business idea, a plan to pursue. Listen, family, let me tell you something, man. Let me tell you, you got to, to defeat this fear. You got power, you got love, you got a sound mind. You got to step out on what you know you're supposed to be doing. And, and sometimes you have to step out on nothing, and the resources will find you when you step out. You don't know how it's going to turn out sometimes when you're planning it. Glory to God. Listen, listen, listen, this, this business I'm in now, I tell you for surety, when, when God spoke to me and told me When I was looking at my cameras and equipment that God had blessed me with, and he told me to take that equipment and create a business around it, I had no idea how this was going to turn out. Glory to the name of God. But at the end of the day, I'm grateful I did. You have to have confidence in what he says to you and not have a fear of rejection. You gotta be confident that you're gonna get that grant, that you're gonna get that loan, that you're gonna get that funding that you need to do what you got to do, and you got to step out. Oh boy, you can't be religious. You can't, you can't have this fear of failure. And a lot of times people have failed so much because of lack of confidence. All they do is fear. If I do this, I'm going to fail. It's not going to work. I'm not going to make it. They're not going to like me. They're not going to buy my product. Devil is a liar. He's a liar. You don't have to fear failure. You're going to win. You're going to have total victory. Hear me, listen to Michael Woods today. I'm trying to tell you something, I'm trying to help you. Listen, if you fear failure, you're gonna fail. I'm telling you right now, if you fear it, it's gonna overtake you. You're gonna be tormented by that, that thing that you feel like, I'm not gonna win, I'm not gonna make it. But if you go in confidence— listen, I'm a golfer, I love to play golf, and I made a decision this year that I was going to take my golf game this season to another level. So I'm going out on days when it's 50 degrees above when I can, and I'm playing, I'm practicing, you know, because I love the game. So I want to be able to qualify for Pro-Am tournaments, play alongside people who I admire watching them play on television and things of that nature. And be able to do something I love. But it takes confidence to be a good golfer. Matter of fact, golf is 80%, watch this, mechanics. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, no it's not. It's 80% mindset and 20% mechanics. I said that backwards. 80% mindset, 20% mechanics. So if you learn the 20% mechanics and how you swing, how you keep your head down, The 80% is just being confident you can hit the ball, being confident you can make a putt, and having that confidence for 18 holes and being able to consistently do the same thing every time in different scenarios, 'cause every hole is different. But it takes confidence to know, 'cause watch this, I've seen times where I'll be shooting a perfect par round the first 9 holes. On the back 9, I fall all the way apart and start making bogeys, double bogeys, triple bogeys, because something happened in my mindset, in my confidence. The first 9 holes proved I can hit the ball straight. It proved I can hit the ball far. It proved that I could putt. It proved that I could read the wind. It proved all of the things I knew how to do. But when I got on the back 9, something happened in my confidence. And sometimes it could be something as minor as looking at email, taking a phone call that creates a distraction and breaks your confidence. So what are you saying, Michael? I'm saying distractions you got to manage, and you can't— because distractions will break your confidence, it'll break your flow, it'll break your mindset. So don't fear failure. When you enter into a situation, enter into it knowing you're going to win, you're going to conquer, you're going to come out that— oh man, you don't come out that thing on top. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. This religious spirit opens up a whole lot of things, man, that torments us. Perfectionism. You feel like you got to be perfect, and nobody's requiring you to be perfect. You just got to do your best and maximize your potential and be confident in your very best. But we feel like if I don't do it perfect, I'm gonna get beat down. If I don't do it perfect, people are not gonna like me. The devil is a liar. Come on, man, that's not what God has for you. There are people that are tormented by fear of man. They want to please people. They eliminate pleasing God, all right? And they operate in this torment to make sure everybody is happy. Can I tell you something? You can't make everybody happy. So what you need to do is stop trying because you can't. You cannot. You do not have the ability to do it. There are going to be some people that have displeasure with you no matter what you do. So you— what you got to make up in your mind: I'm living for the audience of one. I'm gonna please God. We got to stop living in this performance mode. Watch this. We want to perform for God and we want to perform for man, but God doesn't require that. He just wants us to live in the pleasure mode, and confidence brings pleasure to God. Faith brings pleasure to God. Without faith, without total confidence on him, we cannot please God. So the people pleasing, the man pleasing, let that go. Glory to God. We, we even open the door to be controlled by other people when we walk like this. And you know that? Ashian tokon siai. Princeki tititi anso. I hear you, Father. And we know that's not God's will. We know that's not God's will for others to be in control of us. I mean, we can walk in a room with certain people and they control how we pray, control how we worship, control how we receive the word. The devil is a liar. You shouldn't let any other person have no authority over how you live, how you are, especially how you worship and approach God. Come on, man. Oh boy, listen, when you're religious and that thief has stolen your confidence, here's the last one, number 6: you lose the right to be yourself because you start abiding by what everybody else wants and everybody else desires and what this rule says. Glory to God. And many a times the rules can rob you of being you. Glory to God. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Y'all remember who this thief is? He come to steal, kill, and destroy. He don't want you confident. He don't want you to have faith in God, cuz you know what? What you're able to do has no limits when you have confidence in him. Oh God, so hear me again. Problems— so problems are created when your confidence is stolen. So let's— now let me just digress out of that and let's, let's talk a little, and I'm almost done. About this confidence to be an individual. You know, how do we establish individualism? You know, even in marriage, the Bible says the two shall be one. It's hard to be in marriage and be one if you're not clear of who you are as an individual. I said this yesterday, Otherwise, you'll go into that marriage trying to turn someone into what you want them to be, and, and the reality is that's not going to ever work. That's not going to ever produce joy. It's not going to produce happiness in that covenant. You know, the two shall be one. It takes two wholes to make another whole. You can't have one half and one whole and think the marriage is going to be whole. It's not going to happen. You, you have to be your whole self. You have to be clear on who you are as an individual. You got to be clear on what you bring to the table. You got to be clear and confident that what you bring to the table is enough. Glory to God. And watch this, and if you're dating someone, courting someone, engaged to someone who you feel like what you're bringing is not enough, then maybe you need to rethink going any further in that relationship. Because what that means is either you don't have a revelation of you or the other person doesn't have a revelation of you. Either way, you got to decide, okay, if what I bring is not enough, why? And once you come to a conclusion as to why what you bring is not enough to them, you need to make a determination whether you're going to stay and work through that if necessary. If it can be changed, or you need to walk away. Because you got to establish individualism and you got to place value on you as an individual. Listen, there's power surrounding you. Let me just— so individualism just really deals with the idea of understanding the power of you. Oh God, oh God, just how powerful and great and valuable and wonderful you are without anybody else. See, if you think you're operating at 70% joy and that your joy be complete when you get somebody else, you got a problem. Because you shouldn't need anyone to complete your joy but God. And you should be operating at the highest level of your individual value so that nobody can ever demoralize you, demote you destroy you. Oh my God, pull you away from that idea. You confidently move through the earth conquering everything the enemy put in front of you and taking dominion. So how do we establish this? Let's go to 1 Corinthians 13. I'm glad you asked. 1 Corinthians 13. Glory to God. Hallelujah. I pray you're learning something. Glory to God. 13:16, and I'm going to read verse 17 also. I'm sorry, it's 1 Corinthians 3:16 and 17, not 13. 3:16 and 17. Glory to God, glory to God. Let's read. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God? Hear this. That, that, that, that right there by itself ought to place high value on you. This is the power of you, man. God chose to live in you, okay? And that the Spirit of God dwells in you. So the next time you devalue yourself— so I'm trying to establish individualism now and individual value. And the power of you. The next time you devalue yourself and not recognize just how powerful, wonderful, awesome, magnificent you are, ask yourself the question. This is a question in verse 16. Just ask yourself, don't you know you're the temple of God and that God lives in you? The next time someone talks about you and you heard about it, or they treat you a certain way Instead of you getting bent out of shape how they treated you, how they acted toward you, just step back from it. Say, okay, it may sting a little bit, it may hurt a little bit, but then just step back, shake it off, and say, hey, don't you know you're the temple of God and that God lives in you? So no matter what they say, no matter how they put their mouth on you, glory to God, you are God's temple. Oh my God, glory to God, glory to God. Verse 17: If any man defile the temple of God, he shall destroy. So wait a minute, wait a minute, we've take— there's a dichotomy in the exegetical value of this text, okay? The first part of it is if you personally defile the temple you, you're going to have some problems, all right? Because God himself will destroy the temple, correct? That's what it says. You break— you, you causing the temple not to have the life of God in it because you defile it. But wait a minute, this all— the other side of the exegesis is that if— hear this— Someone else defiles the temple. So you ain't got to be out here fighting yourself. I told you, uh, yesterday in prayer, the Holy Spirit had us praying about our troublemakers already taking an L. Your troublemakers have already taken an L, cuz they not up against you, they're up against God. So if anybody defiles where God lives, attacks your physical body, attacks your value, attacks your individualism, attacks the body— watch this, wait a minute— God himself shall destroy, for the temple of God is holy. Which temple are you? So when you put high value on this holy temple Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Each of us— watch this— are part of the body of Christ, but we are individual members. And so even the entire body, when we come together, we're all these— we come together as these little temples to make a big temple. So even when there's an attack on the body of Christ and the temple is being defiled God says, 'I'll war on your behalf.' And that's why we got to be careful, Zion, that we don't destroy each other, that we don't attack each other, that we don't tear down each other, because we're all divided. We're all a temple. That, that's what makes God's omnipresence so beautiful, that we all can live in him, through him, with him, for him. Glory to God. And we can be individuals in him, and we still can dwell together in unity and peace and walk in authority and power in the earth. Let's, let's keep— let's examine this idea further. Let's go to Romans. Romans, glory to God, 12. I'm gonna read verses 4 through 6. Glory to God. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Romans 12, verse 4-6. Thank you, Jesus. The Bible says this, it says, for as many have— as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office. All right, so again, there's many of us in one body. Again, we are individual parts of the body. I'm trying to get you to hear that. I'm just trying to establish individualism. You don't have to be like anyone else. You don't have to operate in comparisonitis and compare yourself to anyone else. Listen, when you understand you're an individual and bring great value, you don't show up in a relationship compare— comparing yourself to anybody's ex. Listen, I have zero to no conversations with my wife about the people she dated in the past, the people she was married to before. I don't talk to her about them because at the end of the day, I'm not interested, number one, in her past like that. They'll be kind of punkish, kind of weak to be interested in that, right? Kind of insecure. So I had no conversation. I'm not interested in that. I really don't care. Reality is I know who I am. I know who I showed up as an individual in her life. So whether they were good or bad, I'm not here to compare myself to what they did in her life. I'm here to be the individual I'm supposed to be— watch this— for her life. Listen, when you know who you are, you don't worry about comparing yourself to somebody's ex or who they was with before you. Come on, man, that's, that's childish, that's immature. Glory to God. And at the end of the day, you know, in the body of Christ, we suffer from this comparisonitis when we all have different offices. We all— the Bible says that we all have— we all, we, we, we, we're one body. All members of this body, we have not the same office. We have not the same position, the praxis in Greek. We have not the same function. We don't have the same praxis, the same purpose. All of us are unique, so there's no need for me to compare myself to the next person. I have to compare myself to Bishop Jakes. I, I have my own office. Bishop Jakes has his office. Glory to God. You have a lot of people out here, men, women alike, who find icon preachers and try to be like them. I have no interest to be like T.D. Jakes. I have no— I didn't even have an interest to be like Dr. Miles, as much as I love Dr. Miles Monroe. I love my spiritual father, Apostle Stephen Davis. I have no desire to copy Apostle Stephen A. Davis. I, I have only a desire to be individual, to be who God called Michael Woods to be. Because you know what? I understand my value. I understand the value of Stephen A. Davis brings to the body. But I also understand the value of Michael Woods brings to the body. So I'm not going to sit here and compare myself to him and try to be him. Glory to God. No, I'm going to be me. So when God shows, comes looking for Michael Woods, he don't find me acting like Stephen Davis or acting like Miles Monroe or— oh, y'all ain't got to talk to me— or acting like T.D. Jakes. Listen, you got to be individual. Be who you are and celebrate your value. Verse 7, let me keep reading. Glory to God. I'm sorry, verse 5, verse 5, verse 5. We're going to 6. So we being many are one body in Christ, everyone members one of the other. So why would I operate in comparisonitis, seek to destroy another person in the same body? Glory to God. Despise another person in the same body? Because many times when people do that, family, When people look at someone else that's gifted, and instead of praying for them that they continue, that they have longevity, and they get jealous and they start trying to find fault in them, start trying to tear them down— listen, 9 times out of 10, that individual that's doing that has lost their confidence. They don't know who they are. They don't understand their value to the entire scheme of things. So when you understand how you fit in everything, you don't get jealous of what somebody else does. Are y'all hearing me? You don't feel intimidated, you know, when somebody else is doing what they do. Glory to God! What you need to do is discover your individuality and do your thing. Glory to God! And be the very best version of you you possibly can. Oh my God, let's read verse number 6. Having then gifts differing according to the grace— there it is. So our gifts are different according to the charis in Greek, the charisma, the gifting, the free gifts that God has given us, that is given to us. Each one of us have a grace gift that has been imparted to us, something we could do, something we're designed to do. So we don't have to borrow from nobody else. We don't have to get mad because somebody else is doing something else in the body. Everything is important. I'm— listen, I'm not going to shoot my foot because it helps me walk well. Yeah, come on, man. Listen, I love my feet. I'm not going to shoot my physical feet because they are doing a good job with helping me walk. Listen, killing someone else's anointing, someone else's ministry, someone else's business, whatever they're bringing to the body is shooting yourself in the foot because we should all be working together. Whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith. And he just goes on. Or ministry, let us wait on ministry. Or teaching, or teaching. He goes on to describe that we're different. Glory to God. I, I'm not mad, glory to the name of God, at a Joyce Meyer who could teach the word. Glory to God. I'm not mad at an Apostle Brandon Cornelius who could teach the word. I celebrate these gifts. I'm not mad, glory to God, as a prophetess, uh, Barbara Callaway, who can prophesy, or prophet, glory to the name of God, that has a word from the Lord consistently. I'm not mad, glory to God, when I see God using other people. I'm not mad when I see God using a, a Mark Moore to have, uh, 3 campuses in one city and growing his church by leaps and bounds and adding to the church every week. And I'm talking about hundreds of people join that church Uh, over 1,000, and I'm thinking less than a year. At the end of the day, I'm not mad when I see that because I understand we all have different purposes, and I understand my value to the kingdom. And I'm telling you guys, you got to learn how to rejoice with others because we're all in the same body. Oh, y'all hearing me? Glory to God. Glory to God. You know why? Because we cripple or stifle or create delays for ourselves and the power of God in us. Watch this, man. When we try to be something we're not, because if you start comparing yourself to others, you start trying to be them and you start trying to, like I said, try to be a Stephen Davis, trying to be a T.D. Jakes, trying to be a Miles Monroe. When you can't be anybody but you, and you— so you, you diminish God's ability to get the glory out of your uniqueness. Oh my God, to get— oh, shiante kansi, to get the— to get the glory out of who he created you to be. Oh my God, when you start trying to be other people and comparing yourself to them and thinking, oh my God, it's working for them, I'm gonna do what they do. No, no, no. Be you, be you, be you, be you, be you, be you, be you. You know, you don't have to say, get ready, get ready, get ready, get ready to have a big church. Some of you sound silly doing that. Glory to God. No, you— no, you— you— we could tell you're trying to mimic Bishop Jakes. Okay, so don't do it, right? Be you. Glory to God. Listen, listen, let me give you an example of this and then I'm gonna move to my next point. Glory to God. When you're operating comparisonitis and don't establish individualism and the value of who you are individually, It's like taking a pair of shoes, watch this, and putting them on your hand. I wish I had some shoes near me or in the studio that I can do it. It's like taking a pair of shoes, putting them on your hand. They do not belong on the hand. Or taking a ring that belongs on your finger and trying to put it on your eye. That ring ain't gonna stay on your eye. All of my— all I'm saying Establish individualism and stay in your lane. Glory to God. Stay in your lane. Your greatest confidence is going to emerge in your lane. That shoe has no purpose on my hand. It cannot do its job. As a matter of fact, when I remove the shoe from my feet and put it on my hand, now my feet are unprotected. So the moment you start operating in comparisonitis, get out of place, start trying to be something you're not, you leave your post vulnerable. You're supposed to be standing guard, standing watch, and you leave your post vulnerable. And now the body is subject to attack because you, ma'am, you, sir, are out of place. Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy. Let's define— let's get a working definition of because we're talking about establishing individualism. So let's get a working definition of what it means to be an individual. It means to be separate. It means to be distinguished by specific attributes or identifying traits, like my voice, you know, like my manner of dress. Glory to God. Like my personality, like the gifts I operate in. It means to be distinct. It means to be unique. Can I tell you something? It's okay to be individual. Listen, there was a time in my life, believe it or not, yeah, I thought I was weird because of how I used to dress and you know, that when I was a little boy, I used to be able to see things before they happened, you know. I thought I was really weird, man. But God— I was a prophet as a little boy. I could see things before they happened, man. Um, I mean, I would see things and didn't understand why I saw them, and then they happened. I'm like, wow, I just saw that. God showed it to me. And what he was doing was training me in the prophetic. But I thought I was weird. And then, you know, I always loved to dress. My mama kept me dressed, and I'd always dress different than everybody else. Glory to God. And, um, so I would put things together. Even now, my wife would tell me, only you would put that combination together, because I'm— I mean, I'm different. So while I used to think I was weird, now I just know I'm unique, right? I used to think I was weird because I would be in the backyard with my brother and sister making them— we'd be outside playing, but now let's come on, let's have church. I'm a little kid and I'm in the backyard preaching to them. I'm taking up an offering with marbles and checkers. Glory to God! I'm taking up an offering, glory to the name of God, with whatever they had in their hand because I'm trying to play church. You know what, because the preacher, you're gonna take up that offering. Glory to the name of God! Glory to God! Listen, I understood then how valuable it was to give to God. Glory to Jesus. And you know, my dad would often tell me that he would look out in the backyard and see me out there preaching. Sometimes he, he would tell me that I would be out there playing by myself and start preaching to trees. I'll be preaching to a congregation of people I saw outside, not knowing that God was preparing me for what I'm doing now. But I thought I was weird, but now I know I was just unique. I am unique. Guess what? You're not weird. You're unique. You're special. You're vintage. There's no one else like you. No one else can do what you can do. You need to establish yourself as an individual and be confident in that fact. Glory be to Jesus. Hallelujah. Listen, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna share something really quick. And again, because I, I want you to relax and be yourself. But before I share this about relaxing and being yourself, I want, I want to share something. I want to warn you of something while we're talking about being an individual and understanding our value. I want you to be very careful now. There's a New Age doctrine It's called me-ism, really. That's what it is, is me-ism. Uh, it's ungodly and it's humanistic, okay? Uh, and it says that the interest of the individual should be exalted above the group. When I'm telling you to establish individualism and individual value and confidence yourself it's for the betterment of the group, not to exalt you above the group. I need you to understand, this is— I'm not talking about this New Age garbage that tells every individual to be exalted above everybody else they're around. Me-ism. No, I'm not talking about this team of me stuff. I'm— what I'm talking about is you becoming the very best version of yourself so you bring value to the entire body. Thus we taking dominion over the entire world together. Boy, I tell you, Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy. We give you glory, God. I got to get out of here, man. I got to get out here. So just relax. Be yourself. Become the best version of yourself. I want to share something with you really quick. So, and I want you to write these down. This is very important because you got to understand how you flow. So there are basically 4 basic personalities. You ready? The first one is a cleric. C-H-O-L-R-I-C. I'm sorry, a cleric. C-H-O-L-E-R-I-C. A cleric. And a cleric, glory to God, the motivation of a cleric is they are workers and they like to work. They like to work. They like to work. And their greatest need, watch this, is accomplishment and appreciation. So you're going to fall in one of these categories as an individual. So relax and be yourself. If you're a cleric, you like to work. You want to accomplish things, you want to be appreciated. There's nothing wrong with that. Glory to the name of God. Another one is a phlegmatic. Phlegmatic, which is P-H-E-L-G-M-A-T-I-C. And a phlegmatic is a watcher. Glory to God. They don't say much, they're laid back, and they watch. Watch this. Most filmatic— no, filmatic people know more than the people that's talking all the time. Glory to God. Because thematic people are watchers. The greatest need of a thematic is peace. That's why they don't say much. So they want to be at peace. They want to always, uh, be stress-free. They don't want to compete. They, they really just lay back and watch. Glory to God. And they're absorbing. So many of you may be a phlegmatic. You're watching. Don't try to— if you're not someone that's vocal all the time, all right, don't try to be that person. You know, at the end of the day, be you. Okay, number 3, I gotta move, is a person that's melancholy. M-E-L-A-N-C-H-O-L-Y. C-H-O-L-Y. A melancholy person— watch this— is a thinker. They're constantly thinking, they're constantly analyzing, they're constantly trying to figure things out, and their greatest need is order. So a melancholy person, uh, glory to God, his motivation is to think. A melancholy person wants order and structure, wants things in place, glory to God. And they're always thinking on how to make the order better. Glory to God. Number 4, there are people who are Saganine. S-A-G-U-I-N-E. Saganine. Saganine people, their motivation is talking. They are talkers. They love to talk, they love to communicate, and there's nothing wrong with that if that's you. Glory to God. Their greatest need— watch this— is fun. They want to be happy, they want to laugh, they want to have fun. Glory to God. So you fit in one of these 4 categories. My suggestion, because your personality— you were born with this personality to fulfill your kingdom purpose. So instead of you trying to be a Saganine person when you're a Cleric, because that ain't gonna work. Glory to God. Hallelujah. You just need to stay in your lane, be who you are. I've said this several ways today, and each one of these, uh, individuals has strengths and they have weaknesses. The reality is that that sums up— hear me, guys— humanity. It sums up human beings. We all have some strengths, we all have weaknesses, but that's why we work together. 'Cause where I'm weak, mm-hmm, you can be strong. Glory to God. My God, here. Glory to God. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Hezekiah Walker wrote a song, I Need You to Survive. Hallelujah. I need you to survive. I need you to survive. He said, I won't harm you with words of my mouth. I love you. I need you to survive. Glory to God. We have to build one another up. We have to be able to be vulnerable with one another. Glory to God. How many times are we able to really trust people and share our vulnerabilities? And say, I'm battling right here, I'm weak right here, can you pray for me, can you help me? We fear people will judge us because it's hard to trust people, but we need a body that understands we all have strengths, we all have weaknesses, we all have areas where we're trying to be strong, and in some areas we're just not— some people are not going to ever be a talker, so that's why we need talkers. There's some people, glory to God, that's never gonna shut up. That's why we need some people, glory to God, that don't talk much. At the end of the day, it all works if we work it. My God, I gotta go, I gotta go. You know, whenever we try to be like somebody else, guys, we create a mess. Let's go to Joshua 1:5, and I'm out of here, man. I'm gonna be out of here. Joshua 1:5. I pray y'all give me something. I pray you're learning something in the day. Joshua 1:5. Glory to God. God is so good. He's so kind, isn't he? He's so wonderful. Praise God. I'm out of time. Joshua 1:5. Praise Jesus. The Bible says— watch this, this is so powerful— there should not be any man able to stand before you all the days of your life 'As I was with Moses,' watch this, 'so shall I be with you. I will not fail you nor forsake you.' God didn't tell Joshua to be like Moses. He said, 'As I was with Moses, so shall I be.' He didn't tell him to be Moses. Matter of fact, Joshua was totally different than Moses. He was a different type leader. He had another spirit. Glory to the name of God. The Bible says it. He— and watch this— he was telling Joshua, look, you got confidence to be you. Don't be Moses. You know, when leaders, uh, are promoted in succession to take over a church of somebody that pastored it before You know, the question shouldn't be to be like the person that was the former pastor, whether they died or moved on to another church. The role of the new leader should be to be an individual, to flow in their purpose, to flow in who they are. And otherwise, they're not going to be good for the people because they're not going to be effective. But to know incompetence, just like God was with the previous leader, he's gonna be with you. Can I submit to you, just like God is with the person you admire, he's with you, and you got the freedom to be you. Listen, he's also saying to us, when you're in challenging situations, when you're in new situations, don't depend on yourself, depend on God. See, that's the confidence we have that he's with us. That we don't have— we can be an individual and be confident in the fact that he's with us, and it's just safe to move in who I am because he's here, he's on board, he's validating this. Glory to God. So I don't have to push myself up in this situation to impress people. I don't have to be something I'm not to try to get the— oh my God— get people to like me. You know, I'm gonna say this, God, because this, this— yeah, yeah, yeah. There's, there's a particular preacher that— because I just like to be transparent about things I deal with to help you. And I'm almost done, I'm closing really. And I, I love this man's ministry, I love his excellence, uh, I've always admired him, glory to God. And I've known him, you know, from the past, and now we're in fellowship together, uh, under Apostle Davis. And, um, so I, I've, I've got an opportunity to have some up-close, in-person conversation with him, where in the past we've only had conversation in the— over the phone, through email, things of that nature. And, um, I don't know what it is, but I want to be connected to him, right? And I— he's a golfer, he loves to play golf, you know, he has a lot of the same traits of excellence that I have. And, and I feel too I can learn some things from him about, you know, being a pastor, because iron sharpens iron. He's been pastoring longer than me. He has, uh, built some amazing churches. So I just feel like in the areas I need to learn, I can learn. But there have been times where, you know, I have been tempted— I didn't do it, but I was tempted to try to— because again, this is new, it's challenging— to maybe do certain things to be in his presence, to, uh, to get him to, you know, understand that, hey, you know, this is, you know, this is safe, I'm safe, and maybe want to just try to be aggressive and push into the relationship. But at the end of the day, every time I think I want to do that, the Holy Spirit says no. You know, like, I got access to play golf. I could play golf anywhere, you know. PGA Championship course East Lake. So I even mentioned to him one time about— and this wasn't to push up on the relationship, but this was uniquely to play golf— that, hey, I want you to come out. And I left the ball in his court and play golf with us, uh, at East Lake sometime in Atlanta. And, uh, man, he was like, yeah, man, that'd be awesome. I want to play East Lake. And I believe he does. And so what I've been doing is just waiting patiently on him, but I've been tempted to say, hey man, when we gonna play, or call him or text him because I got his number. But sometimes you just have to depend on God, hear me, and God's timing to put things together the way he wants to. And sometimes instead of thinking in your head that people see you a certain way, you gotta let God give them a God's eye view of who you are. Because in the past the conversations we had was around a different fellowship, a different leader, and it was conversations around— that was back when I was building ministry, traveling around preaching. I, I was an itinerant preacher. One of the main things I was talking to him about again was trying to get to his church and preach, and I just want him to be clear, you know, I don't need that. I don't want to preach for him. I just really want the relationship. Glory to God. I just really value— my God— what the man brings to the body. And I'm not jealous of it. I'm not comparing myself to it. I want to feed from it. Oh my God, are y'all hearing me? Oh boy. God, I got to get out of here, man. Listen, because here's a fact. If God is with you, nothing else matters. He'll reveal you and expose you to people in the light that you should be exposed in, and he'll cause people to see you as he sees you. And listen, you could be confident in that fact. Glory to God, glory to God. Put this in the comments. I'm closing. God is for you. Hallelujah. And he wants to be for you. The devil is against you and he wants to be against you. I'm just trying to give you some confidence to be an individual, to be confident that God is with you. I'm, I'm going to say that again. God is for you and he wants to be for you. The devil is against you and he wants to be against you. So the question becomes, are you for yourself or are you against yourself? I'm closing, guys. Glory to God. And I'm praying. Glory to the name of God. My time is gone. I could keep going, but my time, ladies and gentlemen, it's gone. It's really and truly gone. So I'm praying, agree with me today. Glory to God. Say this with me. Say, Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus, say, I'm confident in who you made me, so I do not second-guess who I am. Say, I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Say, no weapon formed against me shall prosper. Say, I am confident in you, and if you're for me, nothing can win against me. In Jesus' Jesus' name. Amen. Listen, you can be you, so be you. Take this word, use it, apply it. It's been such an awesome grace to teach you today. Listen guys, I want to pray for you. If you're here in this moment, please do not scroll, and you're not born again, you don't know Jesus and the free pardon of your sin, you say, Apostle, if I died today Listen, maybe you scrolled on this video right at this point and you missed the message. It's okay, you can go back and watch the message later, but stay right here if you're not saved. Hell is real. Heaven is real. We cannot have heaven and not hell. Hell gives heaven context. We cannot have God and no devil. The devil brings context to the fact that there is a God. There's a real enemy against you, and the way you walk in confidence in life and win in life is you receive Jesus Christ as your help, as your Savior. And it's pretty simple to do. The Bible says if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus died and he rose again, the Bible declares that thou shalt be saved. Listen, I want to challenge you, glory to God, to get saved today. If you don't know him, receive Jesus in the free pardon of your sin. Would you pray this prayer with me? The scripture declares you just confess with your mouth, believe in your heart, again you'll be saved. Say this with me. Say, Heavenly Father, I confess with my mouth that I am a sinner. I need to be saved. Say, Father, save me. I open my heart and I allow you in. Sit on the throne of my life. Say, I confess that you died and rose again, and I decree and declare today, I I am saved. Hallelujah! Listen, if you prayed that prayer with me, guess what? You're born again, and I want to welcome you to the family of God. I want to welcome you to the kingdom of God today, my friends. You're born again. Your life is— oh my God— is going to be better than it ever has been. He came that you might have life and have it more Certainly. Glory to God. Listen, if you pray with me, I want you to go to rhodachurch.com/contact. Send me an email and say, hey, Apostle Woods, I prayed with you today. I gave my life to the Lord. Can you give me the next steps? I want to give you what you need to complete your walk with God and to live in confidence. Listen, guys, I love you. Heaven smile upon you is my prayer. Thank you for joining us. Listen, I challenged you on Wednesday to sow a seed of $21. If you have not done that, I'm challenging you again today to get that seed in the ground. I challenged you for a reason, glory to God, because God has a future on his mind. Anytime God talks to you about a seed, it means he has a future on his mind. The ways to give are on the screen. Glory to the name of God. But get your seed in the ground now. Listen, I love you with the love of the Lord, and guess what? Ain't a thing you could do about it. Listen, Sunday, Rother Church family, remember we are not having church at 3 PM. We'll be having church at 12 noon on Sunday. So that means we need to get there a little earlier than 12 noon so that we'll be ready to roll at 12 noon. Glory to God. And we're looking for God to meet us there in power and authority. Y'all be blessed. It's been a great week. Listen, I want you to continue every day on Saturday and Sunday. Say your prayers at 5 AM, study your word at 12 noon. Glory to God. Then I'll be back with you on Monday. Glory to God. For day number— what's it going to be, uh, day number 14? Yeah, 12, 13, 14 on Monday, and we'll start teaching again. And at that point, we're going to have 7 more days, uh, left in our fast. We're trusting God for great things. Amen. I'll see you soon. God bless you. Have a smile upon you is my prayer. Peace.