Confidence Part 6: "Do It Afraid!" | Dr. Mike Woods, Sr.

Well, grace and peace everyone, be multiplied to you from Jesus Christ our King. Good afternoon and welcome to day 17 of our 21 Days of Action. And listen guys, I'm super excited to be here with you today. So sorry for those of you that was looking for me in 5 o'clock prayer this morning. But I'm going to be totally honest with you. I haven't been getting sleep for the past couple of nights. And this morning I had just got to sleep around 3:00 AM. And when my clock went off at 4:30, I hit the— not the snooze button. I hit the turn off button and turned over and I went right back to sleep. So y'all forgive me, but I needed that rest. I felt so good to be able to sleep in a little today. Welcome, guys. I pray you're well today. This is the day, glory to God, that the Lord has made, and we will rejoice and we will be glad in it. We're super grateful for all that he is, all that he's doing, all that he's made us. Glory to God. We're, we're better because we're in him. Glory to God. It's in him we live, it's in him we move, it's in him we have our being. He's our strength, he's our help, he's our life. He's our everything. Glory to God. Do me a favor this afternoon, guys, uh, if you're here, uh, same drill. I'm going to ask you to go ahead and do me a favor and share this live stream. Glory to God. Share it in your inbox through Messenger. Glory to God. Uh, share it, share it, share it, uh, share it on your timeline. Tag people below. We want to make sure that we get as much engagement as possible on these teachings. Um, a lot of people come in later and watch it by replay, which is great. And a lot of times that's a result of you sharing it. Glory to the name of God. I don't know about you, but these teachings are blessing me, and every person I've talked to, uh, that have been partaking of this time with us, they have been tremendously blessed. So what I need you to do, guys, I need you, praise God, to go ahead and I need you to share this. Amen. Um, it's godly, just like it says on the screen. Sharing is godly. And I've given you scripture upon scripture to show you that it's godly. Glory to God. You ought to have it by now. You're blessed to be a blessing. So if something indeed is blessing you, then you need to share with others so it can in turn be a blessing for them. So welcome everybody this afternoon. Glory to God. Uh, so glad you're here. I see you all. Hey, Kiara, God bless you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Dr. Tam. Welcome, welcome. Good morning for you, uh, Bruce. Welcome, sir. Well, I know you're in a different time zone. Glory to God. Uh, good afternoon, Pastor Jasper. Glory to the name of God. And thank you so much, Pastor, for sharing. Glory to God. Thank you so much. And thank you for being so kind and, uh, excusing me for 5 AM prayer this morning. Glory to God. But Sleep was necessary. Glory to God, my body was starting to feel it, and I'm so glad I did get, uh, that sleep that I needed today. I feel, I feel good. I feel great right now. Glory to God. Um, glory to God. Good afternoon, Felicia, wife. Glory to God. Welcome everybody, everybody, everybody. So glad you're here. And like I said, I need you, I need you guys to go ahead and share this. This is Confidence Part 6 we're teaching today. This is Day 17 of 21 Days of Action. Listen, and I pray because, you know, it takes confidence to take action. So I understand clearly why the Holy Spirit chose this particular subject matter. This particular series is not entertaining, but it is empowering and it is edifying. It is educational. Again, it's not entertaining because a lot of things are challenging us, you know, to expand our horizons, to challenge us in areas that we haven't been challenged before. And glory to God. Listen, good afternoon, Minister Tanya. Good to see you. God bless you. So glad you're here. Listen, these teachings are not to entertain you. They are to edify you. They are to empower you. They are to educate you. I'ma say it. One more time, for the third time, these teachings are to empower you. Oh my God, they are to edify you, which is to build you up. They're to educate you because where there's education, there's confidence. Education breeds confidence. Information breeds confidence. And empowering you gives you the ability to take action. I mean, you feel like you have the authority to actually take action based on what you've learned based on what you've received. So I really, guys, want to make sure, glory to God, that you are grasping this with all of your heart, glory to God, with all of your mind, glory to the name of God, and that you are receiving, uh, what thus saith the Lord. God is so good. Again, welcome to day 17, guys. Let's pray. Father, we give you praise, we give you glory. This is the day that you have made. Father, we rejoice and we are glad in it. Thank you for another opportunity to gather virtually to teach your word. Thank you for those that will watch this, whether they're on Instagram, Twitter, uh, YouTube, Facebook. God, whether they're listening to this podcast, however they are engaging with this revelation, I pray, God, that the revelation will not only release supernatural information but it will be a supernatural impartation that what we receive will become a working part of our life and how we move, how we live, and what we do. And we give you praise for it, Lord. And we thank you, God, that we're not religious people, we're kingdom citizens, and we are designed to show up in the world. Yeah. And we give you glory for that now. In the mighty, mighty name of Jesus we pray. Amen and amen. Glory to God. I'm so glad again that you all are here. Again, do me a favor. Hello Zion, good to see you, daughter. Listen, you guys, please share this. Please, by all means, share it. Glory to God. Um, I'm gonna drop this like it's hot. Glory to God. So this is the 6th installment again of the series we've been teaching on confidence. We've learned a few things. Number 1, we've learned that confidence— and I'm just —review I'm gonna give you is the assurance. Watch this. It's the assurance that you are acceptable, able, and capable to undertake a task. I'm gonna say that again. We have learned that competence is the assurance that you are capable, you are acceptable, you are able to undertake a task. Glory to God. That's what competence is. It means that you believe that you can do it, and you have that knowledge based on the fact— one, we've learned that God is working with us. So when our confidence is in him and not in ourself, and we align who we are with who he is— glory to God— We become unstoppable and there is no thing, glory to God, that we cannot accomplish that's in the wheelhouse of our purpose when we are adequately aligned with God. Oh my God. So that's what we've learned. That's what we've gathered in a nutshell so far. We've unpacked that in so many different ways. So today we wanna continue in this sixth installment and we wanna talk about fear. And I wanna really just tell you today to do it afraid. And that may sound oxymoronic based on what we understand about God and fear, 'cause the scripture clearly tells us in Timothy 1:17 that God has not given us the spirit of fear, but he gave us power, he gave us love, and he gave us a sound mind. And we've covered that, so we don't have to be afraid because of confidence. But we do understand that fear becomes a friend that often shows up uninvited, because many times in our past, before we start walking with God, You know, we were— we operated in levels of fear that wasn't of him. And so I need to tell you today that when fear shows up, you know, if you, if you just can't shake it, you need to go ahead and take action and do it afraid. But I want to really, uh, kind of defeat the oxymoronic idea of how fear relates to God, how fear relates to faith, and, and kind of show you something of how this connects to confidence. I'm gonna take a rabbit trail from what we normally know as fear. So there are two Greek words for fear. Let's start right there. Uh, the first one is— glory to God— is phobos, which means to take flight, which literally means to run away from something, which that, my friends, would be not having confidence at all, right? Well, the other word means a cowardice. It's dehilia in Greek. It's a cowardice from fright, which means you are frightened, so you become a coward and you just don't do it. So fear, in my opinion— and you, you know, you can write this down, you type in the comments— is the enemy. God bless you, Mr. Alexander. Good to see you, lady. Listen, fear is the enemy of confidence. So I want you to get that in your mind and in your spirit this afternoon. That your number one enemy of confidence— hear me, guys— oh, it's fear. And anytime you lack confidence to undertake things, when you feel like you're not acceptable, when you feel like you're not capable, and when you feel like you're not able— glory to God— fear. I want— I'll be willing to bet if I was a betting man that fear is somewhere lurking around. So we got to deal with this. So here's a question, and this is a— this is a— I think it's an honest inquiry. Have you ever really— if you think about it right now, is there something that you really wanted to do but you didn't do, and you stopped yourself from doing it because of fear. I mean, you ran away from something, you know, not necessarily conflict or confrontation or just something like that, like a fight, or— but I'm really thinking about something that really could have brought you a level of fulfillment, but you didn't do it because of fear. Okay, so I'm, I'm working on my wife's mindset about swimming because, you know, she never learned how to swim. And so I want her to know how to swim. In order for her to do that, she's got to conquer her fear of the water and be able to be comfortable with being taught. So, you know, every now and then I'm in conversation working on her mindset about, you know, the water. Now, even last time we was in Hawaii, I was trying to get her to go parasailing, you know, and that's when, you know, you, you get strapped into this parachute and you have a guy driving a boat and, um, he takes off and then he— the parachute lifts you up about 500 to 1,000 feet in the air and it's the most beautiful thing you ever want to see. Let me tell you something. It's a different vantage point being in the air that high, being able to see the water, being able to breathe the air at that altitude. It's a whole different situation. But to get that benefit, you got to get over the fear. So she'd be like, nah, I ain't doing that. You're going to do that by yourself. But at the end of the day, I'm working on her because I want her to do it. I want her to have the joy I have had of being in a, um, that seat in that parasail and enjoying that view. It's absolutely amazing. Now, and to go to show you that you could be fulfilled in these areas, now I just have to use my life and my experiences. Glory to God. Uh, at one time my wife would never get on an animal, so through her building her confidence and not running away from opportunities to experience different things. She has ridden a horse. We went horseback riding, and this chick, listen, has even gotten on a camel. Glory to God. The last time, uh, I think was— it was Hawaii. We was in Hawaii then. Oh, we did a camel ride, and, uh, I got proof, I got drone footage. Glory to the name of God. Of her being on the camel. But here's the reality, she enjoyed it. And but if she would have kept the reserve of, I ain't getting on that camel, I ain't gonna take no picture next to that camel, I'm not going over there, I'm not getting on that horse, she, she wouldn't have got the fulfillment of that experience. So what am I saying? So, so I'm asking you guys, is there something that fear has robbed you of? And maybe you're living with regrets. Glory to God. That's right, Zion, encourage her because we got more adventures. I mean, we ain't old. Glory to the name of God. We got a lot of life in front of us. We got a lot of stuff to do. Glory to God. Listen, but I want you to experience— and many of you, listen to me, we're going on our cruise in September. I'm going to talk about that at the end. Uh, you can go ahead and start getting your deposits in for the cruise. Glory to God. I'm super excited about this leadership cruise, and I'm telling you, I'm, I'm gonna reveal this stuff to you guys that's connected to me first. But once I share it with my partners, once we send out a text, I'm telling you, the cabins are gonna go fast. So I want you to make sure you lock your cabins in, but you're gonna have opportunities to parasail and do all this different kind of stuff, and, and you need to take advantage of those opportunities to live, you know. Do it, do it. Listen, glory to God. So, uh, maybe— watch this— oh, oh God, in your walk with God, in your gifting, in your anointing, that you disobeyed because of fear. Oh my God, that God gave you a word for someone and you didn't release it to him. Mm, because you were afraid. You didn't know how they would receive it. Glory to God. Again, I'll use myself as an example. Glory to God. And I won't call his name, and, um, I love this fellow dearly. Glory to God. And again, this was back, um, early in my ministry, I was married to Rachel, but early in our marriage, I had an opportunity to meet a gentleman who I had been watching from afar, you know, television. I had seen him preach in different places. And, you know, he had a massive amount of people following him. You know, both of us love basketball. So one time I was in Orlando at an Orlando Magic game and he was there. And got a chance to stop him and we talked and he said, "Man, come to the church. You know, I love your spirit. You know, let's develop a relationship." So we went to the church and, you know, we began to develop a relationship with this gentleman, this preacher and his wife. And over time, I started noticing different things about him. And again, this is a transparent moment. Don't judge me. Um, and I, I guarded the relationship so that— and watch this, this goes back to what I was talking about yesterday— putting, uh, confidence in others or in confidence in an entity like a relationship more than you do yourself, or more than you do God and him with you. Um, for fear of loss. Watch this. God began to speak to me some things about some addiction, some things he was dealing with. And I knew it was God, you know. But guys, I never shared it with him. And long story short, maybe a year went by, and then I see a news report of, of a preacher who dies in a hotel room from a drug overdose. And I'm like, never again will I not be bold enough and confident enough to share what God gives me. So I'm just trying to make you aware that it happens to all of us, and you really need to evaluate yourself when God is speaking to you. You know, you cannot hold back what you know, not what you feel, but when you know it's God and you have affirmed and confirmed and reaffirmed that thing if you had to, and your relationship with God is tight, you know it's him, don't hold it back, man. You gotta share what the Lord says. Glory to God. You got to put that word out there. Glory to God. And you got to disseminate that. You get— so I mean, don't disobey because of fear. And I, I had to repent And I felt really bad. And, you know, it was only the Holy Spirit that led me to believe, glory to God, that it's not your fault. You know, it's, you know, even if you would have shared it, it's not a guarantee would have received it and changed. But what you need to do is obey. And that, that's how the Holy Spirit talked to me. And, you know, but I wanted the friendship. I didn't want to offend him. You know, and at the end of the day, we have to learn to speak the truth in confidence and in love so that people can receive it. All right. Oh my God, glory to God. Yeah, yeah. Wow, Pastor. Yeah, you probably know exactly what I'm talking about. Glory to God. The reality is fear is the enemy of confidence. Many times people start things and they get to a certain point in the process and they back away because they get afraid. Uh, here's another example in my life. Um, again, I'm a swimmer, I love to swim. Uh, but I remember this like yesterday. I was 13 years old and, uh, I've been swimming since I was like 6, right? Um, and however, and swimming in deep water since I was 6, but I've always been a great swimmer. But here in Atlanta, one of the outdoor pools was at Grant Park, and Grant Park was one of the only pools that had this Olympic height high dive. And so Every time I would go to the pool, I'd be like, man, I want to come off that high dive. So one day I was with my cousin, and, um, I learned how to swim before him. And he went up and said, I'm gonna do this before you. You know, he was— he's a couple years older than me. He said, I'm coming off before you. Dude went up and just like it wasn't nothing, ran off, bam, just jumped straight in off that high dive. And I'm looking at, oh my God. So I said, I can't let him outdo me. I got to go up there and do it. So, but instead of me getting up there running and just jumping like he did to break the fear, I walked to the edge and started looking over and looking down. Glory to God. And you know what I did? I turned around and went back down that ladder. Glory to God. I ain't doing that today. Glory, not today. Today ain't the day. But once I got over the fear, the next time I went back, I went up there like it was nothing. And I didn't run and just jump in, I bounced up higher and dived in. Because at that point I had built up my confidence that I was going to do this. And after that first one, glory to God, nothing could stop me from jumping off the high dive. I mean, that's where I lived when I went to that pool on that high dive. Glory to God. Doing flips, everything, because I had the confidence. But I went from being afraid of this thing and backing up from it to conquering it. So basically what I'm gonna say in a lot of different ways today, glory to God, is that you can go from fear of a thing to actually conquering a thing. Oh God. So again, fear, phobos in Greek, which means to take flight or to run away from. And that, you know, reality is not what God wants us to have. He don't want us to run away. He don't want us to be cowards, that dehilia. And most of the time we have a cowardice from fright because we are intimidated by something. Like that high dive, or like water. Oh my God, like I was talking about my wife, uh, at that point being intimidated by animals of that size to get upon. Listen, the reality is once you miss the intimidation and conquer that, there's nothing that can stop you from doing what you got to do. Now let me talk about a proper fear really quick. Huh. And this is how we put in context the oxymoron of doing it afraid, because there is something called a reverential fear. Oh my God, it's the proper fear. It's the reverential fear and the awe. Oh my God, of God. Oh my God. Which means that you are in awe of him. You understand how powerful he is. You understand how glorious he is. You understand how awesome he is. Glory to God. Oh, see, when you got reverential fear of God and you're in awe of him, it causes you to obey. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So when I say do it afraid, I'm not talking about do it as a coward. No, I'm talking about doing it in awe of God, doing it in reverence of God. Doing it because you know he got you and you got confidence in him. Oh, watch this. Matter of fact, when I've got a reverential fear of God, it makes me careful even how I handle other people and I handle situations, because everybody's a child of God. Y'all ain't got to say nothing to me today. Listen, I'm telling you right now, we have to be— glory to God, I need you to understand this— so in awe of God's goodness, his grace, and his mercy that we're careful how we deal with other people in their situations and even their failures. Oh my God, go to Proverbs 14:6. Let's, let's get some some ticks on this. Glory to God. Proverbs 14:6. Glory to God. I hope y'all getting something already. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. We give God praise. Glory to God. We give God glory. We give God honor. We magnify him. Proverbs 14, verse number 6. He's a good God. He's a mighty God. Thank you, Father. Shema ki antolobosha. We bless him. The Bible says this, watch this. It says, a scorner seeketh wisdom and findeth it not. That, that's interesting to me, that it, that this, this text says a scorner. Watch this, an arrogant person. This, this word here is luts, uh, L-U-W-T-S is the Hebrew word, and it means a person who is arrogant and speaks Watch this, overestimating. He overestimates himself and speaks more of himself than he should. We talked about that yesterday, and the Bible said that person seeketh wisdom and can't find it. Oh my God. But knowledge, hear this, is easy to him that understands it. So wait a minute, so if I come under, understand, if I submit, be humble to knowledge that's superior to mean it comes easy. So I want to read this first because I don't want to— I want us to understand, we need to understand that our God is omniscient. He knows everything, and we ought to be in awe of what he knows. And we should always seek him when we make decisions. We should always seek him when we go to do things. Oh my God, today. Oh my God, today. Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy. Glory to God. Drop down to verse number 26. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Watch this. In the fear of the Lord— now, so now I know he's got strong knowledge. I got reverential fear. Glory to God. Reverential fear, yaira in Hebrew. Glory to God. That, that I'm in awe of him. I got reverence and respect, yaira. I reverence and respect his position, his opinion, his authority in my life. I reverence it. I reverence it. I reverence who he is. Oh God, hallelujah! The Bible says when I do that, in the fear of the Lord, I have strong, strong confidence, which is might or strength. I have strong— I'm mighty, I'm strong, I'm powerful, I'm authoritative in confidence. Which is miptok in Hebrew, miptok, which means I have strong trust. Watch this. The indicator in Hebrew is, is that I have a trust that is cemented to my heart and cannot be removed. Ooh. So when I'm in awe of God, oh my God, today I got a trust that's cemented to my heart and I can't be removed from that trust. I won't miss it to the left nor to the right, but I'm gonna trust him because I fear him, and I'm gonna do it afraid. Glory to God. I know he's awesome. I know he can't fail. I know he's got me. I know he's going to take up the slack. I know he's with me even now and until the end of the age, that he will never leave me nor forsake me. I mean, oh, oh my God, that he will come down from heaven and die for me that I might be saved. Oh my God, today, God, I give you glory. So in reverence of the Lord, there's strong confidence. Glory to God. Are y'all with me? Praise God. Listen, you gotta do it afraid. Let me give you a true story, true story. Of a woman. True testimony, true testimony, right? So this, this woman that I'm talking about, I won't call her name, but again, very powerful woman, very successful woman, stopped everything she ever tried to do because of fear. All her life, she— anytime she would try to do something, she was going through this motion where she was always afraid, always afraid. Listen, she, she wouldn't— she would get to the point she wouldn't even go out of her house. She was fearful of everything. And then she, she had a conversation with a friend about how she looked back over her life and how she had been robbed of fear. And her friend said to her, listen, fear has robbed you of everything. And every time you start something, you incomplete it. You miss life. You're 40 years old now. Here's my advice to you: do it afraid. Put your confidence in God. Do it with reverence to him. And if you reverence him, he'll take care of you in all you're doing. So from 40 to 52, She started operating at a high level of competence. And in that process, in 12 years, she now has a net worth of $13.5 million because she started doing things afraid. She's traveled all over the world now because she started doing things afraid, knowing that God has her. Oh my God, did they— are y'all here? Oh, just touch yourself and say, God's got me. I reverence him. Hallelujah. I'm in awe of him. Just— you ought to just say that out of your mouth. Just tell him, Lord, I'm in awe of you. I stand in awe of you. Glory to God. Holy God, to whom all praises do. I stand in awe of you. Listen, it's simple when it comes to the simple stuff, when it comes to anything that proposes a threat, or even the complex stuff. What am I saying? In any regard, whenever something prevents you from doing anything that you're designed to do, there's only one solution and one solution only. Fear not. Do not be afraid. Matter of fact, one particular author said that fear not is recorded in the Bible 365 times. Now, I cannot, I cannot validate that because I have not counted how many times it's there. But seems like it could be right, right? Glory to the name of— seems like it's good information because I've read fear not in the Bible a lot. And he went on to say that it's there 365 times because it's there for each day of the year to make sure that no day of your life in any given year of the 365 days in that year you move in fear. So I say to you this afternoon, fear not. Glory. I don't care how big it looks, fear not. I don't care how tough it's gotten, fear not. I don't care if the enemy has thrown everything at you but the kitchen sink, and then he decides later to throw the kitchen sink. My word to you today is fear No. Okay, maybe you need some Bible. Joshua 1. Joshua 1, let's go there. Joshua 1, glory to God, and verses 3 through 9. Let's just read that. Glory to God. The Bible says, every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that I have given unto you, as I said unto Moses. Watch this. Hallelujah. Let me just tell you something right here. Glory to God. Instead of you being afraid I just wanna tell you something, put your foot on it. Glory to God. You, I, ah, shee-ah, I feel like running here. Glory to God. Listen, I wish I could run. Listen, whatever God has shown you, just like Joshua, instead of you being afraid of it, I know it's big 'cause if God showed it to you, it's big. If God showed it to you, it's beyond your circumstance. It's beyond your natural ability. You're gonna need him to get it done. Glory to God. So at the end of the day, ladies and gentlemen, my word to you is put your foot on it. Oh God, today, put your— matter of fact, somebody type in the comments, put your foot on it. Glory to God, put your foot on it, put your foot on it. The Bible said every place that the sole of your foot treads, he gonna give it to you, because it's— that's inside of your purpose, it's yours. Glory to the name of God. This inside of his plan. So you got to identify where your feet are supposed to be, where you're supposed to go. Some of you are in the wrong geography. Oh my God, because every purpose, every assignment— God, I hear you, Holy Ghost— has geography. And God says some things won't change until you get out of where you are. And you can't be afraid, you can't be fearful to put your foot down in a new location. Whoa, whoa, in a new— put your foot on it, put your foot on it. Shabbat. So you've been treading the same ground, and you know why all you have accomplished is what you've accomplished? Because you've only put your feet in the same places all the time. Glory to God. But oh, put your foot on it. You know what? You know what? I, I was— whoo, glory to God. Think about my life and the things I do in ministry and business, and even with my, my life as a golfer. Glory to the name of God. God began to tell me, put your foot on it, put foot on that driving range and keep practicing. Put your foot on the course and keep playing so you can start evolving and matriculating in this at a different level. So I know he's shown me I can do this. I can be a pro amateur, glory to God. And that's really all I want, glory to the name of God, at this age. But at the end of the day, I just got to put my foot on it and I got to keep being consistent. Can I tell you something? And at one point I was afraid. I was like, oh no, I just keep beating up on these guys I play with. Glory to the name of God. But God said no, there's something special there. And if you lock in, if you focus and put your foot on it, the sky will be the limit to what you can obtain in this. Oh my God, put your foot on it, put your foot on it. Some of you so smart, you're so intelligent, you're so wise, but your feet are in the wrong place. But your feet are in the wrong place. Put your foot on it. Oh God, we give you glory, we give you glory, we give you glory. We place this— are important. Let me keep reading. Let me click— are important. Verse 4 says, from the wilderness and this Lebanon, even unto the great river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward going down of the sun shall be your coast. Put your foot on it, it's yours. Glory to God. Put your foot on it, it's yours. We give you glory. Put your foot on it. It's yours. Glory to God. Verse 5: There shall not any man— wait a minute, you, you're afraid for what? Not any man be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Boy, if you don't put your foot on that assignment, on that destiny, if you don't start walking out— oh my God, God's desire for you. Glory to the name of God. And what you afraid of. Glory to God. God said, no man can stand before you all the days of your life. Why? He said, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. So I'll be with you, Michael. So I'll be with you, Jeffrey. So I'll be with you, every person on this live. Glory to God. Put your foot on it. Glory to God. I give you praise. I give you glory. Watch what God says. He's not through with you. He says, I will not fail you. And you ain't got no confidence, you're afraid. But God says, I won't fail you. People might, people might walk away, people might cut you off, but God says, Michael, Mia, Felicia, Zion, Tanya, Jeffrey, Sharia, Kiara, Tam, I will not fail you. Glory to God. Oh boy. Yes, shaddaya. Oh, he never failed me yet. He never failed me yet. Jesus Christ never failed me yet. Everywhere I go, I want the world to know Jesus Christ never failed me yet. I'm telling you, he'll never fail you. Oh my God, he— matter of fact, ain't no failure in him. So all you got to do is be in awe, hallelujah, and reverence him and fear him only. Oh, I gotta get out of here. We love you, God. We bless you. We give you praise. Abba Adonai. Watch this. He said, I'll never fail thee nor forsake thee. Okay. He says, be strong and of good courage for unto this people you shall divide for an inheritance the land which I swear unto their fathers to give them. Verse 7, only be strong and very courageous. There's confidence again. That thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded thee. Turn not from it to the right hand nor to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. I need to stop there. Glory to God. God says don't— I go back here because we've been right here with this book. You gotta trust the integrity of this book. He said don't let it depart out of your mouth, meditate in it day and night. And wherever you go, he said, observe to do what's in this book. Let's do what's in the book. And the Bible said wherever you go, you're going to prosper. See, many times you're operating in fear of life and fear of the things that come toward you because you're not observing what's in this book. You're doing things your own way, and God says no, no, you gotta stand in all of the book. You got to stand in all of my instructions. You got to stand in all what I've said. Are y'all hearing this? You got to trust the fact that I'll never leave you and that I can't lie. I don't know about you, but I want to prosper everywhere I go. Boy, if you don't put your foot on it— because God is just saying, everywhere you put your foot, you're gonna have Good success. Good success. There's no failure. There's no failure. There's no failure. Put your foot in it. This book can't fail. Verse 9, and I'm through with this, on this, this, this scripture. He said, have I not commanded thee, be strong and of good courage? Be not afraid, neither be dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee wherever you go. So what are you saying? Them verses is basically telling us— these verses we just read, all right, these verses is telling us that God, hear me, has already made arrangements. Our part is to just put our foot on it and fear not. God already said what he's going to So why are you trying to do his part? No, no, put your foot on it and fear not. Get in the right place. Glory to God. Get in alignment with the right purpose, with the right plan. God have mercy. All right, all right. Jeremiah 1, you can study that one too. Same situation as Joshua. Jeremiah's afraid of the faces of the people. God tells him, don't look at their faces, fear not, I'm with you. Glory to God. You can have confidence when you prophesy to them because I'm with you. Hallelujah! Ah boy, I love Jesus, he's so good. Philippians 1:28, let's go there. Philippians 1:28. I pray, I pray y'all in love with him. I'm praying, I pray to God y'all getting something out of his word today, man. Everybody needs to be out here listening to this, not because I'm teaching it, but I'm telling you, this will change your life if you apply this stuff, man. If you apply this stuff I'm teaching you, glory to God, your life will never be the same again. The results I've been able to see in my life are a result of me applying what I'm teaching. I'm not teaching you something I haven't done. I'm not teaching you something I don't live. I'm not teaching you this again to entertain you. I'm teaching you it to empower you. And real empowerment comes from authority that has been empowered— watch this— by the resource or the message that they are using to impart to you to be empowered. In other words, I've applied it, it works. I'm not giving you a formula that I ain't seen work. Glory to God, this stuff works, man. Oh my God, Philippians 1:28. Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go. I gotta get out of here. My time is about gone, man. I bet time go by fast when you having fun. I'm 50 minutes into this. God have mercy. Good God Almighty. I'm trying to get through, guys. Glory to God. The Bible says this, it says, glory to God, in and in nothing terrified by your adversities, which is to them an evident token of perdition. But to you of salvation and that of God. In other words, the Bible is saying here, don't be frightened or intimidated by your adversaries. Be constant, be consistent, because what that shows them— the moment you let them see you fear them, it says to them, you're in perdition, which means you don't fear God, you're not in right relationship with God. So when you fear the adversity that comes against you, the enemy— that portal opens up and the enemy slips in and starts trying to control your behavior, control your actions through fear. And many times it keeps you from moving in the direction you need to move in. Oh my God, I need you, Jesus, to help us. But the Bible says when you choose not to fear It says that you know that your salvation, your soteria in Greek, your rescue, your deliverance, your victory is of God. So what we afraid for? Why we afraid of the enemy? Why are we afraid of adversaries? Go to Exodus 14. I'm almost done. I, I'm gonna have to quit because I ain't got enough time to finish this today. Glory to God. Exodus 14. Glory to Jesus, my God. I really feel like just teaching this until we come off the fast at 3. I know y'all got to go back to work. Glory to God, it's okay, I won't do it. Glory to God. Exodus 14. Glory to Jesus. Hallelujah. And I know you're— I know humans, our retention level, we can only retain so much at one time, so I won't overwhelm you. but I feel like teaching this. Philippians 14, watch this, verses 10 through 14. The Bible says, and when Pharaoh drew nigh, listen to this, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes and beheld the Egyptians, and the Egyptians marched after them, and they were so afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. So now we see an enemy here, this coming up on God's children, which could be indicative of you and I. Pharaoh is a ruler, uh, Pharaoh is a god, hallelujah, that had them bound to the past, that made them slaves. So we could say that there may be things in your history, systems in your history, that are pharaohistic in their approach, glory to God, because they keep you bound Uh, maybe there are territories, regions you live in that keep you from putting your foot on it so you won't leave that region. Glory to the name of God. I'm telling you right now, you just got to obey God because that— you got to become Pharaoh's God. And you got to understand, like the children of Israel, that the, the answer here is not in being so afraid, but you've got to cry out to the Lord. And verse 11 said, and they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, thou hast taken us away to die in the wilderness. Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? And that's always the issue, all right? So they're always— when, when you're not doing what you're supposed to do, you're going to look for somebody else to blame because you're not doing what you're supposed to do. You're not in the place that you're supposed to be in. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. Oh man, this is so good to me. Lord have mercy. Listen, listen please. You have access to God. You have an opportunity to be in relationship with him. Him so he can calm your fears and calm your adversity and give you confidence to move forward in life and not be stuck. You don't have to be— watch this— the deliverer has come. Jesus has brought us out like Moses brought them out. Don't complain about what you permit, is what I'm saying. If you're allowing it, shut up about it. You don't get to talk about it if you allow it. Don't complain about what you permit. Listen, if you are letting things happen to you because you're not making the right decisions, you don't get to complain about it, especially when you know better. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. Okay, verse 12, let me keep reading. Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, leave us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? In other words, we don't want to come out here with you We don't want to change our position. And, and by the way, if you don't change your position, you'll never change your condition. Your condition is repudiating. Your condition is redundant because you refuse to put your foot on it and change your position. Okay, somebody's hearing this. Somebody's getting this today. Glory to God! Somebody's getting this today for real. Oh my God! Listen, he says, we don't— we didn't want to die in the wilderness. We wanted to stay there. Verse 13, I'm gonna get where I need to be. And Moses said to the people, fear not, stand still, see the salvation of the Lord which he will show you today. For the Egyptian whom you've seen today, you will see them no more, for the Lord will fight for you. Verse 14, and you will hold your peace. Here we go. So the Israelites— basically these verses say this: the Israelites felt fear, right? They were ready to run. They're ready to go. Well, let's run from Pharaoh, he's going to kill us. Or let's surrender and let's just go back with him. Glory to God. Oh boy. But God said to Moses, tell them stand still, don't run. Oh my God. Here, let me tell you something. Let me say that to you today. Stand still. Let me just pull in real close to this camera. Stand— yeah, stand still. Don't run. Glory to God. I know it may be tough. Don't run from the instruction. Don't run from the urge to pack up and put your foot on it and set up camp somewhere else. Listen, listen, listen. Follow the Holy Spirit. Be where you're supposed to be. Do what you need to do. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Hallelujah. I'm glad, Mr. Alexander. Glory to God. I'm telling you, your greatness is too great for your space. You've outgrown that, that flower pot. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Glory to God. The world needs who you are. Yes, God. We've had this conversation. Glory to Jesus. Glory to God. Listen, I need you to understand Every one of you, you got to put your foot on it. You got to stop being bound by your environment. Glory to God. Stand still, see the salvation of the Lord. I, I'm doing this because the word see there, oh my God, I love it, I love it, I love, I love it. I love it. I love it. The word see there, this word is ra'ah, and it literally means, watch this, that your eyes perceive as a mouth. Oh, that's crazy, right? Because your mouth and your eyes are different. But this Hebrew word is crazy because what it means is that you see it so clearly and intently that what you see begins to speak. It begins to speak to you to how glorious God is. It speaks to his goodness. It speaks to his mercy. It speaks to his plan for your future. Lord, I got to get through today. Oh my God. God— and I'm done, I got 45 seconds and I'm gonna say this and I'm done. God never told any of us, any of us, any of us— watch this— not to feel fear. He said he didn't give it to you. He gave you power, love, and he didn't say you would feel it because that part of your trichotomy exists. But what he did say is fear not, which means don't run. Oh boy, trembling. Oftentimes people do when they get nervous, right? They tremble. Tremble because they're nervous. And fear in many instances will cause trembling. It— because the word tremble literally means to shake, to fear, to shudder, you know, to stutter. But the Bible doesn't say tremble not, it says fear not. Because if I fear not, it'll remove it through cause and effect, I won't tremble if I choose not to be afraid because God is with me. Glory to God. There are times God has— in the past I've had to minister, and even sometimes now, and I think this is a good thing in some ways. When I have a word I have to release, I'll feel these butterflies in my stomach My knees are even beginning to tremble. Glory to God. And the moment I choose to trust God over what I'm feeling, it all ceases immediately. A lot of times in those situations, when I grab the mic, it goes away and just yield myself to him. The reality is those feelings will come, but you just got to move anyway, trusting him. Regardless to what you feel. Glory to God. And you just got to choose not to run away because you feel like running away. Are you hearing me? Are you hearing me? Glory to God. Listen, let me give you a few examples and then we're going to close, where you might feel fear. I'm gonna close with this, I promise you. Well, you might feel it in your belly, you know, or might shake a little bit and be a little nervous about it. But I want to give you a few areas where you might feel fear, but I want to tell you to do it afraid, right? Like I said, number one, when you have to give a word. I said that earlier. I gave an example when it's time for you to minister. Look, do it afraid. Fear not, don't run away as God has commanded. You know, you may feel like you lack personal confidence. But fear not, don't run away. Yield to God, let him take over. How about confrontation? A lot of times we feel nervous when we're confronted and don't know how to handle confrontation. And many times because of this, we handle it wrong. Oh my God, we handle confrontation wrong. Hmm, because we're afraid. You know, people have gotten shot not because the person just was a bad, mean person. They shot him because they was that scared. When maybe— and the person wasn't even armed that they shot— but maybe if they would have chose another route to deal with the confrontation outside of fear, that person would still be alive. Are you hearing me? Glory to God. Uh, But fear not, fear not, fear not. God is with you, right? Even in our giving, sometimes I, I have to say this, there are people that don't tithe, that don't give consistently because they fear, you know, they lack confidence in God's system of giving and receiving. Listen, I'm so confident in God's system of receiving, I can't afford not to tithe. I can't afford not to give. I understand clearly that if I don't tithe, if I don't give, I'm really going to be in a position where I feel— but at the end of the day, when you trust God over yourself, over your resources that you've earned, you return to him what belongs to him. And you don't shake and tremble over giving. You give, you move in faith, and you trust the word right there, right? Uh, and you shouldn't be afraid when you give. You should give with confidence. You should give joyfully-yam. I'm not gonna harp on that, but there are some people that, you know, feel fear sometimes when change comes because they have to put their foot on it, because they have to step out and do something different. They feel fear, but you got to learn, and in spite of what you feel, hear me, to just do it afraid, man, and fear not. Don't run away. And I'm telling you, when you yield to God and yield to his ability, all of what you feel leaves because he takes over. I mean, to really be totally honest with you, you may not be able to tell, but every time I minister, I have some trepidation because I take it serious that I have to disseminate the word of the Lord. So I still, after— oh my God— 35 years this year full-time ministry and some 40 years of ministry total, I still have some trepidations when I get up to preach the word, you know, not because I'm afraid of the people or their faces, but I mean, I'm really serious about the word I'm handling. Yeah, yeah, that's real, man. But the moment I open my mouth, like now, all that goes away. All of that goes away because I know he has me. I know I'm in his hands. Oh my God, that's right, Pastor Jeffrey, it works. Glory to God, it works. Glory to Jesus. Hallelujah. Glory to God. And spoken about true tithe, glory to God. Although listen, listen, listen, maybe new responsibilities, or maybe you got promoted, maybe Uh, you started a new business, maybe you're trying to do things differently, you got some different set of responsibilities, maybe you got a new baby. Glory to God. And there's some, some trepidation because, you know, you haven't done that before. But at the end of the day, you got to yield to God. And again, even in that area with new responsibilities, know that God has you. Fear not. Don't run away from it. You know that there are some mothers, oh, I'm such a bad mom, I'm just going to give up my child. No, you got get some confidence in raising that child correctly. It's a new responsibility. Glory to God. I love the Lord, man. I'm almost done. I'm 6 minutes over, guys. I'm gonna get through. I got, I got a couple more points. There are people that are nervous being in front of people. I just hit that, you know. At the end of the day, don't be. Just yield to him and let it rip. Glory to God. And don't worry about Old preacher told me something when I was a little boy. He said, preaching is like chopping wood. He said, you swing the axe and let the chips fall where they may. And when you're swinging the axe, you're not concerned about the tree. You're not, you're not concerned about the potential of the axe. You know it has the ability to cut that wood. That's how you have to be when you're in front of people, or whether you're a salesman or preacher or whatever. You got to be confident in what you're saying and what you're doing and who you're with. You're with him. Amen. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. You know, I've had times— and I'm going to close with this— where I felt tremendous fear, where like I had to confront a family member about something that happened in my life and that went on in my past pertaining to them. I felt great fear because I had a lot of respect for them, again, and did not know how they was going to receive it. But God said, now you need to have this conversation, you need to talk about it. You talk about your hurt, you need to talk about your pain, whether they receive it or not. You need to forgive them and get it off of you. And of course, when I did share it, they didn't receive it, which is okay, okay? But I got it off of me, you know. They didn't want to hear it. Matter of fact, a lot of denial. Glory to the name of God. But it is what it is. I— it happened to me, and these are feelings I had. But I, I was reserved, and I didn't run away. When God said now, he meant now. And I did it. Glory to God. So I'm gonna close there. We'll finish Do It Afraid tomorrow. But listen, guys, I need you to know, glory to God, God is in your corner. That's all I was saying today. You don't have to run away. You don't have to be afraid. You don't have to be a coward. Just reverence him. Just standing off him. Let's pray. Father, we give you praise. I release today The spirit of confidence, the ability to trust you with everything, the ability to know that no matter what is going on in our life, you have us. And Father, we have discovered today that fear is the enemy to confidence. So Father, where we've lacked confidence, we bind the spirit of fear and we receive power, we receive love, and we receive a sound mind. Which are all gifts from you. And I pray that power, love, and a sound mind will begin to emerge and manifest in our lives like never before. And that even when we feel afraid, we'll still do it afraid. We won't run away. And finally, I release the boldness to put our foot on it. God, give clarity, open our eyes to see the directives, to see the plan, And give us the boldness and the confidence to obey. And I give you praise for that now, in Jesus' name. Amen. And thanks be to God. Listen, perhaps you are listening to us and you scroll right to this point and you do not know Jesus in the free pardon of your sins. Listen, I'm a living witness that God can save a sinner. And there was an old mother in my church that used to say these words, and I quote, "Before I take it back, I'll add more to it," end quote. And that's my story. You know, before I remove myself from who God is, I'll add more to this. Because let me tell you something, if you're watching me right now, I want you to realize, glory to God, that this is not about religion. This is not an invitation to shake a preacher's hand and join a church. This is an invitation for you to become a part of God's family, for you to be born again, for you to experience the exclusive benefits of having a relationship with God for yourself and living for him. It's quite simple if you want to do that today. If you want to know Jesus, if you want to receive his precious authority and ability in your life, and you want to experience his love, the Bible says this. Confess with your mouth that you are a sinner and believe in your heart that Jesus died and he rose again. It's just that simple. The scripture says, thou shalt be saved. Listen, if that's you, I want you to pray this prayer with me right now. Say, Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus, I repent of my sin, and I decree and declare I am a sinner and I need to be saved. Say, Lord, save me. I repent of my sins. I open my heart and invite you in. Say, I believe that you died and you rose again. In Jesus' name, I declare I am saved. Listen, if you said that prayer with me right now in this moment, you're saved, and I want to welcome you to the family of God. Listen, I'm not a religious man, so when I say this ain't about religion, trust me, it ain't about religion. I am a kingdom citizen. I am a part of God's family. And I spent time with this man daily. I read his word. I live according to his voice. I have fellowship with his spirit that lives in me. And now you have the opportunity to do the selfsame thing. Listen, I want to help you on your walk, on your journey. I want to make this journey as powerful. I want to help you maximize your purpose. So write me, please, right now at ronaldchurch.com. Www.apostlewoods.com/contact and say, hey, Apostle Woods, I prayed with you today. Please send me all of the things I need to strengthen my walk with the Lord and to get started on my journey. I'll be glad to shoot them over to you. God bless your hearts, and again, welcome to the kingdom of God. Glory to God. God is so good. He's a good God. Listen, um, just a few things before we go. Uh, we have permanently shifted our service time, guys. So listen, if you indeed— hallelujah— understand just trusting God with directives. So no longer will we be meeting at 3 in Atlanta. Now on Sundays, we will meet every Sunday at 12 noon, which means for those of us that are working to help set up You need to be in the church at least an hour before so we can get things in order. Glory to God. Uh, so 12 noon on Sundays is our new service time. If you're watching this, you're in the Atlanta area, listen, make plans to be with us this Sunday at Rhoda Church at 12 noon. It's going to be powerful. Again, listen guys, we are believing God for a new building. And I've got my eyes on a couple of things. I need your assistance. I need your help. You know, I need you to give glory to the name of God. I'm not begging, but we need your— we need your support. Glory to God. So that we can do the things that the Lord is requiring of us. We can't do it without you. And, you know, perhaps maybe you said, man, I'd be willing to give, but I just don't have. I challenge you to start with that heart, praying, asking God. I mean, consistently to bless you with monies to sow into the ministry and watch how money starts finding you. And when you get it, you know, don't use it for something else. You know, realize that the blessing came for you to give it. And when you do that, you're going to see the blessing of the Lord that really makes rich and adds no sorrow begin to flow through your life. So please, today, the ways to give are up on the screen scrolling at the bottom. Please give. And share with us as we're on a pursuit, glory to God, to find our own space of worship outside of the venue. We love the place we've been, we are, but it's time to go. And so we're heeding to that call, we're going to be obedient, and 2024 is the year we're going to move, glory to God. So, and we don't want to rent, we want to buy. So we need your assistance to help us to get that done. Amen. All right, one final announcement. Glory to the name of God. I want to, uh, share with you about our Dominion at Sea cruise. Glory to God. Listen, I need every one of you connected to me to go on this cruise, right? You got time. The cruise is September 2nd. Glory to God. And it's a 5-day, 4-night cruise that leaves out of Miami, Florida on the Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas. We're calling it Dominion at Sea. We're going to have some very impactful sessions on our sea days and even on our port days. Early morning, we'll get up and have session, one session. Glory to God. And we're just going to really have an opportunity to pour into everybody that's on the boat with us. But we're going to have a lot of fun too. So we want you to get together with your families. The deposits start as low, hear me, as $50 per person. You can go ahead and get registered for the cruise and make your deposit now, right? So how do you do that? Somebody put on the screen roddachurch.com/at-sea. roddachurch.com/at-sea. Go to the website, uh, there's a video about the boat there, uh, all the information you need about the cruise is there. There's a phone number for the travel agent. All you simply need to We have a group travel agent. Call her, let her know you're with the Woods Group or the Rother Church Group and you want to book your cabin. Again, it's based on double occupancy. The deposit— if you— if there's two of you in a room, your deposit is only $50. That holds your space, and then you have until the end of June to make your final payment. So listen, go ahead and get your deposit in. Glory to God, and join us on our Dominion at Sea cruise. It's going to be a blessing. I'm looking forward to sailing with you guys because I want to see some of y'all parasail. I want to see some of y'all come down these big tall water slides. We're gonna have a lot of fun, but we're gonna share a lot of teaching and a lot of— we're gonna really talk about dominion in a huge way, how to take our place in the world. It's going to be real good. So you want to make sure that you're there. I'm going to bring a few guests to help us teach, and we'll have a couple panels where you can ask questions. So it's gonna be real good. So make sure you go ahead and get registered. So I'm not gonna share this with the general public except on this live, because most of the time when we're streaming this right now, uh, it's just us here. So because I want to make sure our people get locked in, because we have a certain amount of cabins classes being held. Glory to God. And I want you to get locked in first, and if we have to get more, then we will. Glory to God. Listen, I love you guys. I love you, I love you, I love you. Get your seed in the ground, please. Glory to God. Get registered for the cruise, please. Be at church Sunday. Glory to God. Oh, let me say this real quick because I want you to get your head right for this. February 25th, 26th, 27th, I'm gonna be in Cairo, Georgia. Now that means on February 25th, uh, what I'm, I'm gonna ask you to do, church, glory to God, okay? I'm gonna ask every member around the church, glory to God, if you can, if you will oblige us to meet us in Cairo, Georgia for at least the Sunday services. I am ministering at 11 AM and 6 PM on Sunday. And then I got two services Monday and Tuesday. So you can come down for Sunday, be with us in service on Sunday, and go back home after the services on Sunday night. Or if you want to stay, you're welcome to do that too. Glory to the name of God. But listen, this is going to be a great crusade, and I really want you guys to be a part of it. Because at the end of the day, more than just a church, we are also an apostolic team. And so I want you guys to be able to come familiar with how things happen on the road as well. So if you want to go, let me know. If you're going to be coming, let us know, me, me, me, Lady Felicia. Glory to God. And we'll know you're coming and we'll be able to accommodate you. And we're going to also be able to give you an assignment to help out in some areas while you're there. So please let us know if you're going to be there. Uh, it's going to be great. So I really would that you would be in the house, uh, because it's gonna be good. Glory to God. All right guys, I'm done. My time is gone. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Dominion City is going to be awesome, Pastor Jeffrey. I'm looking forward to it. Listen, y'all be blessed, man. This is day 17. Um, man, this fast has been so beautiful. This is day 17. We're looking for next Tuesday when we could testify and see what God has done. Y'all be blessed. Heaven smile upon you is our prayer. Peace out, man. Peace.