Apostolic Commission | Apostle Mike Woods Sr | The Apostles Table | S2-E1

to the Apostle's Table, where lions roar and lives are changed. The Apostle's Table is a part of the worldwide outreach ministry of Dr. Mike Wood Sr. You will encounter supernatural wisdom and revelation that will help you discern God's purpose for your life, develop your potential, and deploy your gifts effectively into the earth. We decree your life will never be the same again. Thanks for joining us and welcome to the Apostle's—

Well, praise the Lord and welcome to tonight's edition of the Apostle's Table. My name is Apostle Mike Woods, for those of you who are uninitiated, and again, I am super excited as usual to be in your presence and have the distinct honor and opportunity to share the word of the with you. You know, I don't take it for granted, and I never have really, the opportunity to teach and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is actually the greatest privilege of my life. I look at all of the preachers in the world, and I tell you, you know, for me, it's really an honor to be able to carry the Word of God And I've been carrying it full time some 33 years now, and I'm super grateful that in spite of me, God chose me and he's given me the distinct honor to share his thoughts with you. So I take what I do very, very seriously. I've never been one that's so interested in hype and entertaining you, but I do want you to be educated. I do want you to have a clear understanding of things so that you can actually have a real relationship with God that is rooted in reality, that's rooted, hear me, in an actuality that you can, with beyond a shadow of doubt, they can throw the Bibles away, hear me. Someone can come and preach another gospel, an angel can come and say something different to you, but you will not be moved simply because you have been educated to the point where you have encounters and you have real experience with God himself, because that has always been his desire. Listen, I'm not a religious man. The Bible is not a religious book. I teach and preach this book, man, because it is living, it is alive. And I want every person that engages with us to be able to experience what we experience through allowing the word to come alive in our life. So with that said, you know, I'm honored to be here tonight again, and we have an exciting word for you that I want to teach, that I want to share. But before I do, I want us to pray, and I want to pray for two things. One, I want to pray for revelation knowledge. I want to pray that God will open up the heavens and reveal to us everything we need to say. Even though we've studied, we want him to have full course and have the freedom to teach us, uh, during this session. And then secondly, I want to pray for wisdom. Wisdom is highly important. The Hebrew word for wisdom is hakba, and it literally means the application of knowledge. So once we get revelation knowledge, we want to have the wisdom to apply it properly so that we can see these things actually working in our life. So let's pray. Father, in Jesus' name, and as I just stated, God, we're asking you today for revelation knowledge. Father, as I teach your word, I pray that you will give revelation knowledge to your people, God, that comes directly from your mouth to my ear out of my mouth. And I pray, dear God, in the name of Jesus, that you will give us the light, the illumination, and the intelligence of the Holy Spirit, revelation from your word, God, that those that hear it will be transformed and healed. For even you said in your word, you sent your word and it healed them. So even as we teach today, I decree and declare that this word will go out and many will be changed. Hallelujah! And many will be healed. And Father, secondly, we pray for the spirit of wisdom. Give us the ability to apply this revelation to our life, God, so that we can have encounters with your word and so that we can live the life at a maximized level that you've created for us to live. God, we thank you for it now, and we give you praise for what you're about to do. In Jesus' name, amen. Hallelujah, and thanks be to God. Lord, I love to pray, man. I love the opportunity to just bow my head, humble my heart and my mind, and out of my spirit talk to God. That's why oftentimes when I'm praying, I'm smiling, because the relationship is so real. The love that I feel for him is so, uh, real from me. And here's the flip side of that: it is reciprocated from him. He shows me his love in such a real way, and I'm super excited about just continuing to walk with God, Man, and again, I've been saved for 40 years, preaching for 33 years full-time, and it just gets better and better. Hallelujah! Let's get into this today, guys. Listen, today we're going to talk about apostolic commission, and I believe again the body of Christ has a unique need to have clarity and understanding concerning the office of the apostle. And how that governmental office that is one of the fivefold ascension gifts relates to every believer and how every believer needs apostles. So we've been teaching on apostolic intelligence, and today we want to give you some intelligence on commission, and we want to talk about how one of the jobs of apostles is to restore the commission— hear me— of every believer to go into the world and literally help others become walking encounters with God. See, you can't teach someone else to be a walking encounter if you're not a walking encounter. And so I think one of the apostles' job— hear it is to empower people to go into the world and make an impact that's so huge that the church and the kingdom, the kingdom citizens of this planet, become— watch this— the go-to of every entity, of every situation on Earth, because they understand we walk in so much power and authority. So it's, it's the apostle's job to raise up apostolic people who can walk out the significance and the authenticity that rests heavy, hear me, upon their life. So today we're going to talk about apostolic commission. Let's go, uh, to one of my favorite, uh, chapters in the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 10. Matthew is a very apostolic book. All the gospels are because they're written by apostles. Uh, the New Testament is apostolic, but I want you to really be clear that these are strong apostolic books when you start reading the gospel. And so when you read them, I want to challenge you guys to read them from an apostolic mindset, a governmental mindset, that the things you're seeing Watch this, are meant to be lived out and duplicated, hear me, in the earth. Oh boy, yeah, yeah. They're meant to be lived out and duplicated in the earth. I want you to grab that. It's not just a good book, it's not just a good story, it's not archaic because I'm telling you right now, like never before, the world needs to be subjugated to the word of God. And when the world becomes subjugated to the word, word of God, the world would change tremendously. Listen to me when I tell you, but the people that claim to be people of the word, they must first become totally subjugated to the word of God. Man, listen, let's, let's get in this. Matthew chapter 10, and what we're going to be looking at here, and I'm going to read a few verses and then we're going to just jump into this and share it as the Holy Spirit leads us. Um, Jesus actually commissioning the 12 apostles, 12 disciples, um, to do the work of— to do apostolic work, to do the work that all believers should be doing, right? So let's read this. Uh, Matthew, here we go, uh, 10, verse number 1. It says, and when he called unto him his 12 disciples— listen He gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. So, so the first thing we see here, glory to God, that there is an invitation in every commission. Jesus called— the Greek word for called here is proskelomai, and proskelomai, it deals with to call you intimately to yourself. So, um, when you, when you speak to people who are close to you and you really want them to understand something you're about to say, you call them in close. Glory to God. And you, you speak from your heart. So it's an invitation to hear the heart of the one that's calling. Uh, yeah, I love that, man. Prosquelomai. Prosquelomai. Is an invitation to hear the heart of the one that is calling. So I want you to understand something. You can never really walk out apostolic commission, first of all, until you get ears to hear the call. The— oh my God, you got to get ears to hear the pros kalemoi. Hallelujah. That Jesus is calling you in to hear his heart. I want you to be very clear. God is real. Jesus Christ is Lord, and he is real, and he wants to speak and fellowship with his creation. And there is a— there's another Greek word for call, kaleo, which is an outcall to humans, to every person that will listen. But you got to get the faith to trust that God is calling, God is speaking, and you got to ask God in prayer. Hear this, to allow you to hear his voice, to allow you to heed the call, because there's something— again, I want you to hear this— that he's inviting you close, intimately, to hear. So he called unto him his 12. 12 is a governmental number, it's an apostolic number, his disciples. And he gave them power. Oh my God. So whenever there's an invitation, hallelujah, from God inside of a call, there's always a gift that comes with it. There's always power. Watch this. This word power in the text is exousia. It's authority. You will never leave God's presence, hear me, without leaving with some level of authority to conquer something in the earth. Listen, I, I have a problem with people that tell me that they've been in God's presence but they don't have authority or power to conquer the things that's in front of them. I'm gonna say that one more time. I have a real issue with people saying they've been in God's presence, they're— they having praise breaks, they having good church, they're worshiping, they're singing, but when it comes to their everyday life, when it comes to sickness and disease when it comes to finances, when it comes to demons, when it comes to systems and strongholds that are diabolical in nature. No authority, no power to move those systems, to move those demons. Oh my God. There's going to be a level of power that comes with every invitation, with every encounter with God. So you can have a glory conference, call it glory, name your church glory. Listen to me. But really, when glory really happens, oh boy, oh boy, there is a release of authority that comes with that glory for you to go into the world and shift structures, shift systems. Hallelujah. Shift social norms and cause these things to bow. Hear me at the feet of Jesus. Ah, so he gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness and disease. Are y'all hearing this? He says, listen, when you come into this invitation, you're not going to leave empty-handed, but you're going to leave from this encounter with a gift, with an anointing to have— oh my God— operate in authority. Over unclean spirits. Unclean spirits exist. Unclean spirits drive a majority of the things we see in society today. Unclean spirits— oh my God, I have to be careful with this— drive television, it drives entertainment, it drives economic systems, it drives banking. Most of these things, at the substratum, there's an unclean spirit that produces an unclean motive that— watch this— the root of the word motive is mot, which is where we get words like motor. Mot means, glory to God, to ignite or turn on. So the motor gets running on things that we see being accomplished and things happening through bad motives that are— watch this again— fueled— let me calm down— by unclean spirits. Let me, let me, let me teach this, man. Listen, we got authority over all manner of sickness, mental illness. We got authority over it. I'm telling you, we got authority over it. And if you really been in the presence, your own personal mental illness, you could take authority over it. When you really get in his presence, you could take authority over cancer. You could take authority over COVID. Listen, I'm a witness. You could take authority over flu. You take authority over blindness. Deafness, AIDS, HIV. When you really had an encounter, when you really have heeded— hear me— to the invitation, to— oh boy, the call, the proskelemai, the proskelemai. When you have heeded to the proskelemai, listen to me, ladies and gentlemen, there's nothing that you cannot handle. Watch this. So he called his 12 This is the— he's commissioning them. And now, verse 2, the names of the 12: Simon Peter, Andrew, James, Zebedee, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James, Labias, and Thaddeus, Simon Judas, who also betrayed him. So verses 2 through 4, so we have an invitation that releases power and authority. But then verses 2 through 4 shows us that there is identity. You'll never leave God's presence or an invitation to spend time with God and not understand your true identity. Oh my God, all these people who say they've been in the presence of God and extremely confused about who they are, confused about their purpose, confused about their assignment. Hear me, hear me. Confused about their sexuality. Oh my God, identity. Confused about their office or their gifting. But listen, when you're really in the presence of God, confusion is always eliminated. Oh boy, oh boy. I'll say it again: identity is established in the presence of God. And watch this, you don't want to walk out any commission without being clear of who you are, without having identity. That's why we read the names. This— he identified the 12. So when you have apostolic commission, says God is identifying me. Yeah, you, you got an identity. You— and watch this, the church man is suffering from identity theft. Because we got so many people mimicking— mimicking, I'm sorry— other people, trying to be like somebody else. Everybody wants to be Jakes. You got jokes running around trying to change, change their preaching style and preach like Jakes. And they said, get ready, get ready. You sound silly. Shut up. Please, please, no, don't do it because you're not him. Okay, so And granted, you gain things from your spiritual parents. You gain characteristics from them which carry over into your ministry, not negating that. I have a lot of traits of my apostolic father, Apostle Donald Graham, and that's because he's my daddy, period. So I get it, but I don't run around mimicking him. I'm not trying to be him. I'm not trying to sound like him. Because in my head I don't want to do that. Because at the end of the day, you can get caught up in saying, if I sound like Jakes— watch this— I'm gonna be more effective. When really who you need to be sounding like is who Jesus identified you as. Oh, come on, leaders. Come on, leaders. You gotta know your identity, because when you understand your identity You get established in the right places, in the right position. You can move, hallelujah, according to the right set of particulars that God releases in your life because you're clear about who you are. There's some things that will never be revealed until you have been revealed to yourself. I'll say that again. There's some things in your life that will never be revealed until you have been revealed to yourself. You know why? Number one, because where there's no revelation, there's always violation. And show you the, the money— I can't show you where the resources are. I can't show you the place. I can't show you the people, because all you're going to do is violate and misuse that because you have not fulfilled The substratum mandate of understanding in revelation and identity who you are. I feel like running. Good God Almighty. I want to challenge somebody that's watching this or listening to this podcast. Get clear. Hear me about who you are. When you know who you are, there's so many other things that follow. Watch this, watch this, watch this, watch this. There are instructions that come. Verse 5: Then Jesus sent forth the 12 and commanded them, saying, go not into the way of Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not. So watch this, after the invitation and identity, there comes instruction. So invitation, identity, instructions. So after God— oh my God— gives you the invitation, calls you speaks to you, interacts with you. He tells you your identity. Then immediately he gives instructions, because now you know who you are. You have been revealed. Can I tell you something? You can never be recognized. You must be revealed. The moment people just recognize you, and they're trying to recognize you based on your past, based on your history, based on your family, based on your last name. Listen, when you see people sizing you up like that, number one, that tells you a lot about their spirituality. Listen, man, I've been around a long time, so I'm— whenever I'm around preachers, I'm really quiet. I don't talk a lot about what I know, who I am, what I have. Glory to God. I listen because I want to see, because that's what apostles do. We— uh, thank you, Holy Spirit— we enter rooms with measuring stick on our office. Because apostles have a metron in Greek, and, and Apostle Paul talked about this. I'm not teaching about this today, in Corinthians 14, where he talked about men who measure themselves by themselves. The Bible said they're ignorant, they are not wise. Listen, that apostolic measurement is a real thing. We'll do a whole teaching on that. It creates enlargement. But when I walk into a room I'm— that measuring thing just comes on, and I could tell what people are based on how they're interacting with each other, and especially how they handle me. Listen, I could be in a room with people who have a bigger church than mine because God has blessed me, right? But at the end, outside the ministry— but at the end of the day, they don't know that. They don't know that because I don't run my mouth about those things. That's not important. The reality is people, just because they may have more members, a bigger church, or more people know them, or more, uh, people following them on social media, there's an arrogance that sets in. But it says to me, when you don't measure me in the spirit, sir or ma'am, that you're very shallow because you don't know who I am. And, and I have to mark you because you are dangerous. Because when you don't have a revelation of me, oh boy, you'll violate me. That's why I try to get revelation of people so I don't violate them. And you know, in the process of that, man, oh boy, y'all wouldn't believe, man. Again, I'm Brown Preaches a Lot, so some of the things God shows me I'm like, God, why you show me that? I don't even want to see that about their life. I don't want to see that they're doing that. He said, because I got you in here so that in the spirit of compassion and love, you actually can help them through it. And in my mind, I'm like, these niggas ain't gonna listen to me. They don't want to hear what I got to say. They want to keep doing that. But God knows more than me because he's measured it on a high scale. So I start— I just— this Metron measures through God's eyes. God, I didn't mean to get into that, but let me tell you, the reality is when God invites you, you get the invitation, he gives you clear identity, he gives you instructions based on who you are. Oh my God. And oftentimes these instructions are so— I don't want to say this— sensitive in terms of time. Because in this particular text, this region needed this apostolic deployment immediately. I'm telling you, when God is speaking for real, it don't have time for you to be trying to figure out how you're going to obey. Because God wants obedience. So when the instructions come, you got to obey the commission. And he says, watch this, verse 6, but you go rather to the lost sheep of Israel, still instruction. And as you go, preach, saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Verse 8 is where I want to get. He says, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils. Oh, freely you have received. Uh-oh, freely give. Can I touch this, Lord? Yeah, I think I will. So your purpose, when you're not clear on what you should be doing with your ministry, with your life, there it is. Verse 8, this is the commission. This, this is, this is a commission. This is an apostolic commission. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils. I said again, heal the sick, cleanse the leper, raise the dead, cast out devils. Freely you received it and freely give it. Ooh-wee. So with the invitation, with the identity, with the instructions, there's also in every commission an impartation of, again, that power to heal the sick— sick systems, sick people, yeah, sick situations— cleanse the lepers. Terminal— there's nothing terminal about any disease in the eyes of God. And watch this, raise the dead. Those that are physically dead, oh boy, and those that have spiritually died. Apostolic commission, ladies and gentlemen. Watch this, cast out devils. Oh Lord, I'm— I— warfare, it's not just marching around someone waving your hands. Warfare God's way is alignment with his power to remove demons from space that they occupy illegally. I'll say that again, real spiritual Warfare is alignment with God to remove demons from spaces that they occupy illegally. God knows in our life and ministry we've cast out so many devils. The reason the world has so much trouble, because we are afraid of deliverance. I can't tell you the number of conferences I've attended in the last— not ones I've hosted, not ones that have been hosted by my sons and daughters. I'm not bragging about that, but this is just how these individuals have been trained, so I can speak to that, and especially through my attendance in those meetings. But I've gone to so many meetings outside of what God has called me to do in the culture and stream I flow in. You wouldn't believe the altar calls where people are at the altar crying out to God, full of devils and needing breakthrough, but no preacher lays hands on anybody. No preacher approaches the demonic onslaught that's happening in these people, and hundreds of people go back to their seat still bound. They had a good shout. They got hyped up for their offering, but they leave the church still. I was just at a meeting, man, altar full, power of God was in the place. Uh, you know, whenever there's a— whenever there's real worship, God's going to show up, period. Even if the people who are leading the meeting ain't all the way where they need to be and they just acting like it, it makes me itch, man. Listen, So let me tell you something, a real worshiper is going to unlock the heavens and heaven is going to superimpose itself on the service. Hear me. And true story, I was just at a meeting, hear me, and knowing I'm so hot, young man was on the altar. I could not resist. The Lord says, pray for him, he needs deliverance. I got down on my knees, put my hand in his belly and proceeded in this big mega church to cast this demon out of this boy that needed to be free. Got him free. Didn't take a long time because I'm aligned. I know it's not me, it's God. Saw another young lady bound, hurt, broken. God said, put your hand on the forehead, just lay it on her forehead lightly and just blow on her. I did it. Bam! She lifted up off the floor and, and hit the floor because the power guard hit her so fast. Well, here's a testimony. I was leaving the building later that night. The young man first says to me, he says, sir, I appreciate you. He said, I've been battling with that for a long time, and I've been coming to church serving, and I haven't been able to get free, but tonight after you prayed for me, I got liberated. And he said, thank you, sir. And I said, and you know, I said to him, it's my pleasure to serve, because it's not me, it's him, it's God. Next, the young lady encountered her going out of the building, wasn't looking for him, encountered her. She came, she said, hey, man of God, Thank you for being obedient. She said, when I— when you touch me, fire went through my whole body. She said, I fell to the floor, had never spoken tongues. I spoke in tongues for the first time. And she said, my whole life has been changed after my experience. She laid in the floor quite some time. I said that to say, hear me, I just want you to hear me, man. Because, you know, I— because I'm trying to help somebody. The reality is, man, you know, a lot of times these people, you know, they miss it, and I'm just a guy to help bring correction to it. It amazes me that apostles want to correct other people. Here it is, in their authority, but when it's time for them to get corrected they don't want to listen to nobody. Now let me tell you something, I done been through so many seasons of correction. You can't have Apostle Donald Graham as your spiritual father and not be corrected. This dude done corrected me publicly, openly, in front of my people, whole 9 yards. The reality is you take it, you get free, and you keep moving. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hallelujah. Anyhow, so we're talking about apostolic commission. Glory to God. Hallelujah. So in Acts 2:22, let's read this. The Bible says this, it says, Jesus of Nazareth— listen to this— a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs. Here we go. Which God— hear this— did through him in your midst. Now, if Jesus is our example that miracles, wonders, and signs can really happen, that miracles, wonders, and signs are something that should be normal, then if you call yourself a Christian, a kingdom citizen, You should be working with everything in you to model the life— hear me— that Jesus presented before you. Oh, oh boy, we don't want to hear this, do we? I know it, I know it, I know it. But he was attested by God to you by— so the confirmation Because Jesus— watch this— is the chief of all apostles. That's why we have to be careful when we start calling men chief apostles or women chief apostles. There's just things we like to do, and it just sounds good to elevate somebody over the other people. But the reality is, the only chief— and I don't care who don't like this, really, you don't have to like it, really, because it's the truth— the only chief is Jesus Christ, period. I just want you to understand, Ephesians tells us the same thing. The church is built on the foundation of apostles and prophets. Wait a minute, with Jesus being the chief. Yeah, he's the chief. No man is the chief. I just want to make that clear. And because— so if he's achieved all apostolic types, whether it be people who serve with apostles or apostles themselves, should be looking to Jesus— hear me— for guidance and example. They should be looking to Jesus for guidance and example. He said, because Jesus was attested by God to you through miracles, wonders, and signs. So, hey Apostle, if that calls yourself an apostle, where's your miracles? Where's your wonders? Where's your signs? Ask me, I got a list, and I got medical documented miracles, stacks. If I printed the stuff out, it would be stacks of paper. I'm asking you Where is your miracles, wonders, and signs which God does through you in your midst? Huh. Okay, let me go deeper. Believer that serves with apostles— this is called apostolic hegemony. I don't have time to teach about hegemony tonight, but people who serve with apostles, apostolic people, the hegemony or the which is a hedge that comes out of the apostle and flows through the culture of the people that works with him. Oh, they operate with the same wonders, signs, and miracles. See, the moment the apostle starts thinking it starts and stops with him, first of all, I question your apostleship, because every apostle worth his salt with any good intelligentsia understands that apostles are multipliers. Apostles release what is called the multiplicity of ministry, and through their hegemony, they, they— oh my God, different people, they create a symphony or a unity in culture where everybody is flowing under that same authority. May not be an apostle, but they got the power. Glory to God, cuz they're in the culture. Okay, watch this. Let me, let me share something with you about Jesus. He was attested by God. Attested by God. What does that mean? It means, first of all, that Jesus— some of y'all going to hate me for this. You're going to hate me cuz you've been saying this and you're going to hate me. You're gonna hate me. But Jesus— let me pull in real close this camera— Jesus could not heal the sick. Oh, wait a minute, Woods, what you talking about, man? Jesus could heal the sick. Uh-oh, no, he couldn't. Let me tell you what else he couldn't do. Neither could he deliver tormented demons from people. Neither could Jesus raise the dead. Somebody listen to us. I know this negro, this man talking this foolishness was crazy. My Bible tell me Jesus healed the sick, Jesus raised the dead, Jesus cast out demons. Listen, if you believe anything other than what I just said, if you believe Jesus could heal the sick, If you believe that Jesus himself could raise the dead, if you believe that Jesus could cast out demons, then you choose to ignore what Jesus said about himself. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. And more importantly, you miss his self-imposed divine self- faceman to live as a man. He was God incarnate. He was God in the flesh. Yes, he was. And he lived as a man. So he did that. He restricted himself, self-imposed. The Bible said— let's, let's look at it, let's look at it, let's look at it, let's look at it. The Bible says in John 5:19— I want y'all to see this. John 5:19, let's go here. John 5:19 says the Son— for those of you that said I was crazy— can do nothing. He can't do nothing of himself. He only does what he sees his Father think, what he sees his Father do. Listen, he did it because he wanted to be an example to us of what it looked like in our humanity to move in the authority of God. I know you popular preacher, I know you got followers, I know you— oh, you love on yourself and you just scroll and scroll and you checking your phone every 5 minutes to make sure your reel is getting likes and make sure your fans are commenting on what you said. That's all right, but let's get some power with that. Let's get some real power that when you're speaking, people get healed. I get testimony all the time. People say, I was watching the live, my back was in pain, and as soon as I start watching, the pain dissipated. I have people say, I was sick, could only breathe, coughing. Listen, I want you to understand, when I was listening to you teach, I was was healed. I mean, it just goes on. You got— you need power, man. You need power. People come to your church, you lay hands on them, they get healed for real. Because this is what the world needs to see. They need to see real encounters with God. Watch this, that lead to real discipleship and real relationship with God. I got to get out of here. I gotta go. But Jesus said it himself, the Son can do nothing. And guess what? In the Greek language— and y'all know I love words, I'm an etymologist, so I love words— but in the Greek, the word nothing, guess what it means? Nothing. Jesus said, I, the Son, can't do nothing without Daddy. Jesus had no supernatural capabilities at all. While he was 100% God— hear me— he chose to live with the same limitations you and I face once we are redeemed, to prove to us that as a human The things that he did, you can do as well. Listen, he performed miracles, signs, wonders, fulfilled his purpose— watch this— as a man in right relationship with God. This is the core. I'm closing. This is the core of the commission. You gotta be a man in right relationship with God. I'm not talking about religion. Oh, I'm not talking about your attendance in church. I'm not talking about your title. I'm not talking about our priestly robes. I'm talking about relationship. I wonder, preacher, do you pray as much as you study? I wonder, do you read to preach or pray to preach? I'm just asking. I wonder, are you cognizant of God and your relationship with him as you live your day-to-day life? Instead of making excuses for the living like you in the world. Uh, yeah, I know, I know. He performed miracles, signs, and wonders. I want you to hear this again: not as God, but as a man in right relationship with God. Ooh, that is so big man. He performed these miracles for us because guess what? If he had performed these miracles because he was God, then guess what? They will be unattainable for us. Oh, and that's why you got to stop living like these miracles are unattainable. Listen, man, last week I had to bury one of my classmates, my age, neighborhood friend, great man, nice man. And it was tough to be there, tough to see that. But you know what I did first? Right in the funeral, I'm trying to get him. I looked at him and said, Rodney, come forth. I'm trying to whisper it under my breath because guess what? Every time I'm faced with death. I want to see the dead raised, and I'm going to challenge it every opportunity. He didn't get up, but I'm gonna keep going until I see it. Glory be to God. I got a funeral tomorrow. I'm going in the door laying hands on the corpse because at the end of the day, people need to see these miracles. I won't put on a show. I won't be all, ah, hollering at the casket. I'm gonna walk by and gently put my hand under my breath, say in the neck, call him by his name like Jesus did Lazarus, and I'm gonna say, come forth in Jesus' name. And I'm praying that God would honor my prayers even now, and that the people that are watching this man that they love, their grandfather, and the ones that are not saved would come to Jesus because they saw their granddaddy get up from the grave, get up out the casket alive and well. Oh, maybe that's too much for somebody. Listen, he did these miracles as a man. I'm closing, y'all. And you and I are responsible as believers. You and I are responsible not just to preach this Not just to go to church and be religious, but you and I, ladies and gentlemen, we are responsible to pursue, to chase, to go after his lifestyle. And listen, when we recapture this simple truth, it brings into play all your excuses about how grace got you to cover for living like a devil. Listen, at the end of the day, you can make— we're human, we make mistakes. But you know what you could do when you wake up in the morning? The Bible said mortify the members of your flesh. You could do that first. You can call— you— all of us know where we struggle, so we can deliberately war against that struggle and choose to pursue holiness, to pursue the lifestyle of Jesus. See, some of you wonder why you don't see results when you lay hands. It's because you're dirty, and you can't— you can't work a miracle by yourself. You got to do it through him, and you got to do it through pursuing the lifestyle of Jesus. Listen, when this happens, when every believer grabs this— not just apostles, not just preachers, not just leaders— because these signs shall follow them that believe. Once every every person grabs this, hear me, let me pull it here, we will tap into full restoration of the commission of God for His church to change the world for real. But we gotta, instead of pursuing fame and fortune and pop popularity. We need to pursue power. We need to pursue the lifestyle of Jesus. So I'm gonna close with this. Yeah, thank you, Lord. I'm gonna close for real with these things. I'm gonna give you 4 things that made the life of Jesus distinct, and I believe we should be pursuing these things. Write them in the comments, write them in your notes. If you're listening by podcast, I want you to record them, whatever you're doing, because I want you to understand you are called to pursue these distinctions so you could be trusted with the commission flowing out of your life. Hallelujah! To heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, to raise the dead, to cast out devils. What's the first one? The first distinction of Jesus's humanity. Again, he was human. So the first distinction was number one— write this down, it's going to sound very, very simple, but this is what we should be pursuing— what made Jesus in his humanity distinct from us, not the fact that he was God. Because we said, oh, I'm— I ain't Jesus, I ain't God, ain't nobody perfect. No, Jesus wasn't either. He was human. Matter of fact, he was born into this sinful evil world. Glory to God. As a human being, and he met his challenges as a human. So the first distinction is— watch this— number one, he had no sin to separate him from the Father. The Bible says because of our sin we have been separated from God. So if you want to be distinct. You want to carry out the commission. You want the power— heal the sick, cleanse the leper, raise the dead, cast out devils, move. And I'm not just talking about physically in people, but when I start talking about demons, I'm— again, I'm talking about systems and structures in our world, systems that come against you— racism, sexism, classism. You have the power to destroy those systems Oh my God, will you operate like Jesus? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, I gotta quit, man. I gotta quit. Number 2, y'all ready? He was completely dependent on the power of the Holy Ghost working through him. Wait a minute, Michael. What? He was totally dependent. He didn't depend on his name, who he know. Watch this. I love my spiritual father, one of the boldest men I ever met in my life, one of the greatest expressions of apostleship I've ever seen in this earth, Apostle Donald Graham. The Apostle was bold and gentle at the same time. But one thing about him, and this is what I learned watching him, especially when he was on assignment in ministry, what I was able to perceive— can't speak for other people— but he was always led of the Spirit. He, he took what he did get real serious, and the Spirit of God was always at the forefront of his actions. Can I tell you something? You need the Holy Ghost, people. You, you cannot do any of what I'm saying without the Holy Ghost. And some of you believers that's listening to me, I want to tell you something. You ain't got the Holy Ghost just because you jumping and shouting and you copied somebody else's tongues. The Bible says you shall receive power after the Holy Ghost comes upon you. The Bible also says that God will send you another Comforter, Apo Parakletos. He's a helper. So the Holy Spirit assists you in carrying out apostolic commission, and Jesus understood that. He didn't just move because he was God incarnate and he came from heaven. No, he The Bible says he grew in stature and power every single day. Glory to God, because he had fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Number 3, I gotta go, I gotta go, I gotta go. And, and number 3, I want to show you the distinctions of our humanity in comparison to number 1 and number 2. Of Jesus's humanity. We are sinners cleansed by the blood of Jesus through his sacrifice. He has successfully dealt with the effect of sin when we become a believer. Nothing separates us from the Father once we receive the blood of Jesus applies in our life. So what's the problem then? The only other unsettled issue is number 4. How— and I'm closing with this— how dependent are you on the Holy Spirit? How much stuff in your life do you do yourself, and how much do you really depend on the Holy Ghost? I'm done, my time is up. Father, in Jesus' name, I thank you for my time today to share with your people. I pray, God, that they will receive this word and that they will become, God, conduits of your power, that they will heal the sick, that they will cleanse lepers, they will raise the dead, they will cast out devils, they will take authority in demonic systems and structures and social patterns in the world. And I thank you, Lord, that we will see like never before in our day and time the miraculous on display. And we give you praise for it now, in Jesus' name. Amen. And thanks be to God. Hallelujah. Well, the Lord bless you really, really good. Thank you guys for joining us, man. Look, y'all be blessed. Heaven smile upon you is my prayer. I'm just excited. I'm happy about what's to come. I pray this word has touched your life. Do me in the name of God. Share this with somebody. Somebody needs it. Listen, perhaps you're not born again and you say, Dr. Woods, I've been listening and I want to be saved. Listen, if that's you, you say, I want to repent of my sins, I want to tap into this power, I want to tap into the authority you've been teaching about. If that's you, I just want you to pray with me right now. Say these words. Say, Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus, say, I repent of my sin. Say, come into my heart, live in me. Say, Lord, I believe you died and rose again. Say, Father, I receive salvation that comes through Jesus right now. In Jesus' name, amen. Listen, if you prayed that prayer, I want to tell you something. You're saved. There's an email address on the screen. Please Email us if you prayed that prayer with me. I want to send you some material to help you in your new walk with God. Y'all be blessed today. Heaven smile upon you is my prayer. Peace.