Don't Curse Your Crisis!

Well, praise the Lord, everybody. You guys come on in real quick here. I just want to share a few things because I gotta go to sleep. All right, I pray you guys are well and have had a phenomenal— I'm talking about absolutely phenomenal Saturday. Amen. Uh, you guys come in, and as you come in, do me a favor, guys, share this. I just want to drop this while it's on my mind. I'm not going to be long. Um, you know, I, I think, and I just really been feeling this really strongly in my spirit here lately, uh, I believe, hear me, that there are a lot of people that are actually, uh, going through crisis and As I talk to different people and I have opportunity to minister to people, whether it's, uh, people in the church, uh, people connected to me in ministry some kind of way, uh, whether it's people on the golf course, uh, what— whatever the case may be, uh, guys, I want you to understand that, you know, people are in trouble, people are going through, people are experiencing crisis. All over the— all over this nation, all over this country. And you guys are coming in, you guys do me a favor, comment, let me know you're there, uh, share. I think I'm on like Instagram, YouTube, and like 3 different Facebook pages right now, um, and I can't really see what's going on. But at the end of the day, because I just decided— I sat down, uh, I just walked in this studio and sat down and decided I wanted to talk to you for a few moments, um, Got a lot of things happening, um, in the world, man. And I just want to encourage somebody, man. I know sometimes life can get hard, you know, you could get depressed. It seemed like nothing's gonna change. Uh, you out here praying, you going to church, you reading your Bible, and it just seemed like nothing is changing for you. But I want to share with you, man, God has not forgotten you. He still loves you. Uh, he's on your side. Listen, if you're on here right now, uh, do me a favor and comment and let me know you can hear me. I want to make sure, uh, I'm being heard right now, for real though, uh, because I'm gonna share this real quick. And like I said, I gotta go to bed, man. Church, you bring your Bible. Okay, yeah, I'm gonna share this real quick. And like I said, I gotta go to bed, man. Church, you bring your Bible. Okay, yeah, all right, so yeah, real quick. Anyway, guys, um, I, I just believe we need to stay focused, not give up, and we cannot curse the crisis, you know. Um, I was talking to one of my daughters today, and I was sharing with her, you know, some of the, you know, just challenge— she's a leader, so I was telling, sharing with her some of the challenges that you know, ministry brings and a lot of sacrifices we have to make when we're leaders and when we're in ministry. A lot of time, man, the people who follow us, they really don't get it. On most occasions, they don't get it. Um, but, you know, and she, she just said something real simple to me that's in the scripture. She said, well, Dad, to whom much is given, much is required. And, you know, I just opened my heart really quick right there and received that. While I know that, uh, a lot of times, you know, we become so accustomed to sacrifice, so accustomed to giving up ourselves and the things we desire to do ministry, in many cases, um, it just becomes a way of life. And so, you know, I just started thinking about that, and I wanted to just kind of share with you guys tonight Uh, just a few principles that I think I believe will bless you, and I'm gonna be done. You know, um, truth of the matter is, God, I've had many seasons of testing, uh, some harder than others, right? Um, but I'm quick to recognize, um, that all of us, not just me, but all of us will have our own seasons of testing. I want you to understand, and I want you to grasp that All of us will have our own seasons of testing, and the reality is no one season or test, uh, can be used really as a template to— this is what life has taught me for understanding and dealing with the future seasons and future tests. What am I saying? I'm saying even though you may have survived some seasons in your life, uh, the reality is there's going to always be more seasons and other things you go through, other things you endure, other things you have to deal with, uh, that qualify you. Again, to whom much is given, much is required. To be who you are, um, it's just simply not possible, uh, to judge the entire continuity of seasons and testing that you'll go through by one season of testing. To whom much is given, much is required. And often, you know, when you have an authentic assignment on your life that is going to require, you know, a lot of discipline, a lot of commitment and loyalty to God— hear me— on many instances you're going to be tested, you know, um, and you're going to have future testings. And, you know, just like we can't prepare for summer um, thinking that is helping us prepare for winter. I mean, they're two different things, right? So, uh, one's hot, one's cold. So again, when seasons change, seasons change. Uh, every situation, uh, is really unique. And this is what I've learned again, you know, as the person experiencing it is unique. So Again, you can't even take my personal experiences and judge what your test will be like. It's just impossible to do. Um, there are, for real though, similarities— and I gotta go, I already been on here too long— um, that all tests has regardless of the context and their guiding principles. Watch this. Inside of every test, every season, where we're being tested, uh, they're guiding principles. Hear me, guys, that— how can I say this— that will help us emerge from the test victoriously. Here's a principle I want to give you, and if you listen to this live or by replay, I'm sure, uh, people are ironing their Easter suit right now because, you know, folk ain't been to church. Uh, some people COVID hit. Before COVID they would go to church on Easter at least, uh, but after COVID, they just said forget the church. Now, I mean, they just don't go to church at all. But, but so, but there are some people that are actually ironing their Easter suit, and, uh, kudos up to you. Uh, make sure you go to church another Sunday after tomorrow. That's, that's what I want you to do, uh, so that you can continue to grow in the things of God, because one Sunday is a dab, and a dab won't do you. You need a whole dump. You need consistency and continuity in the house of God. I'm gonna just say that and leave that right there. All right, so here's the first principle. And matter of fact, live or by replay, I want you to write this down. Number 1: until we have all been tested in a way that what we believe— watch this— and what we trust in is tested we will never truly understand the magnitude or magnificence of what we believe. I'm gonna say that again: until all that we believe in is tested, we will never truly understand the magnitude and magnificence of what we believe. So the test is designed— my God— to teach you what you really believe. The adversity is designed to teach you what you really believe. Oh my God. So times of testing, here it is, they come not to uncover how ignorant we are, because a lot of times, you know, we think that's what it's about because we think we've done something wrong and so God's throwing stuff at us. No, uh, quite the contrary. It comes to solidify things that we've actually been taught. So again, back to my daughter Sharia's words to me today: to whom much is given, much is required. Yeah, I mean, when you've been trusted with revelation, when you've been trusted with knowledge and it's come at a high level— hear me, family— it's going to be tested. You know, watch this: the lack of testing is its own witness to ignorance. Oh God. Okay, I'm gonna let y'all go so you can iron your Easter dress and your Easter suit. But I'm for real right now. Again, I'm on Facebook, on 3 different Facebook pages. I'm on YouTube, I'm on Twitter right now. And wherever you're watching this, glory to God. Candace Castillo says, is God testing us or is the devil tempting us? God. Well, God does test us. He allows tests in our life. He allows processes in our life. Uh, God does not tempt us to sin, but temptation does come. And often God will allow even temptation from the enemy to come to test our strength, to test our ability to withstand what we're dealing with. So, uh, Minister, this is God does allow seasons, uh, to allow again what we have learned, what we've been taught, to resonate with us at another level of magnificence and magnitude. Uh, we— testing uncovers who he is. And as I was getting ready to say, um, watch this. The lack of testing in its own right is a witness to ignorance. The reason you go through tests, it's— I mean, so that you can know that what you've learned, what you've been taught, what you've received, uh, is really real. Otherwise it's just religion if it's never tested. Matter of fact, the Bible says your faith must stand trial. The trying or the testing of your faith, uh, Candace, worketh patience. You know, and thank you for watching, Candace. Thank you for being on. She's watching on YouTube. Thank you so much for that question, uh, because the trying of our faith works patience, but it also works revelation. It brings about reality, you know, um, If what we believe is not tested, here's what's happening, family. We're, we're literally just uttering, oh, we— wow, we're literally just uttering words, God, and going through religious motions that we really don't, really don't know experimentally is real. So the test comes to prove it's real. I'm, I'm just, I'm just telling you, you know, I know Jesus rose from the dead for real because my life through tests and trial has revealed him as a resurrected Savior. It's not what I read, it's what I know now. Oh God, that's why I don't, I don't just attend church on Easter, I go to church every week. Glory to God. Preacher or not, I'm around God. Glory to God. In some way or another, because, you know, I know this for a fact. I'm gonna let y'all go and I need to close. All right. Um, but until all that we believe is tested again, we don't truly understand the magnitude of what we believe, and we're just uttering phrases without conviction. We're talking clichés that are void of encounters and experiences to validate them. But oh, how blessed the man or woman is Oh my God, who knows why he believes what he believes. Oh my God, you're so blessed when you know why you believe what he believes. You know, there are people, you know, had to have no confidence in the church, confidence in preachers, is because they don't know why they should, and they have not allowed the word of God to come alive in them. Oh my God. Blessed, you may ask, in a crisis? Can you know, can a person— hi, Tamiko! Tamika, God bless you. Thank you for being on here tonight. Thank you for your comment. Listen, hear this. Can a person be blessed in the midst of tests? Because for some people Blessing is as simple as, you know, assessing the debits and credits, you know, the sum total of things owed versus the things owned, you know. That, that's, you know, where their mindset is when it comes to blessing. But to some, you know, it's very intrinsic that— hear me— blessing is not identified by possessions or things obtained. And you know, the reality is, no matter how you look at blessing, I want you to realize we can be blessed in the middle of a crisis. Peace can flow like a river when everything around us is raging. Hear me. And you know, for years, family, I have believed, I have preached that blessing is more visible in trouble than triumph. I believe it. In my seasons of testing, I've had the chance to experience it and know it for sure. You know, even at times I wanted to give up, even times when I wanted to quit, even in times I wanted to stop, you know, the seasons when what I thought it was over, actually what I knew And what I had learned became real for real. So don't curse your crisis. I'm about to finish. I'm almost— I already been too long. I got on here to be on here 10 minutes, but check this out, guys. And this is a question. Could it be— hear me, I'm gonna let you go out of your Easter suit, man. But could it be— hear me— could it be that the thing you thought would take you out, all right, the thing you thought that were in you— and maybe some of you haven't lived long enough to face that trial. I have. I've been through several storms that I thought, um, that I never would make it through. Um, a lot of people don't know this, but my ex-wife. I don't think I've ever told this publicly, but I'll say it now. Um, I think I probably said it to one person, which is my wife Felicia. Uh, but there was a season in my life, man, um, when I was married to my ex-wife Rachel, who is with the Lord now. Um, when me and Rachel went through our separation and, and she decided that she was going to, uh, divorce me, that's one of the hardest things, um, in my life, you know, because I knew she was my wife. And, uh, but I had made some mistakes that caused her to no longer wanting to be in the marriage. And trust me, Uh, you know, she tried and she did all she could, and she just decided she couldn't do it anymore, which I understand. Um, but that thing crushed me. But you know what it did? It brought me closer to God in a way. It— I thought it was going to take me out. I, I just felt like, you know what, I found purpose with this person. I don't know how I'm gonna ever find this again. And thank God I did. And thank God It, it didn't take me out, but what that did was brought me closer to God and let me know that in my hardest moments as a human, you know, he will walk with me. And he just started to reveal to me things about myself that, you know, I just didn't have a whole lot of clarity on. It brought me closer to him in a, in a whole nother way, and it helped me even to see more clearly even in choosing a new mate and taught me patience and how to wait wait on him, you know. And, uh, for that, man, I'm grateful. So don't curse your crisis. There's value in it, man. Uh, you, you gotta have the right attitude to weather the storm, you know. When you have confusion and constant controversy in your life, I, I want you to understand you could either choose to buy into the confusion buy into the controversy, or you can really accept the fact honestly that you actually have the opportunity to believe that you're not a victim— watch this— of the arbitrary circumstances that are in front of you. You gotta believe that your life, when you're in crisis and controversy and oh my God and confusion, that your life has never left the hands of God. He's the Potter. Who's going to fashion you at his own pace for his own purpose. I had to learn that, man. Even the seasons— I've been walking with God a long time, you know. Yeah, I'm old. I started— got saved when I was a teenager. But the reality is I learned that even in the hardest days, God was still with me. And, and I don't know who I'm on tonight for, you know. I, I don't normally do this, you know. Normally You know, my live streams these days are just totally different than, you know, just me randomly sitting down in front of a camera like this, uh, and streaming. But, you know, somebody live or by replay is going to grab this, and I want to tell you, a crisis is not the end of your life. Maybe— oh my God, I got on here tonight for someone. I feel the anointing right here, uh, that was contemplating suicide, live or by replay, and you stumbled on this. I want you to know, don't Don't curse your crisis. Your life has not left God's hand. He's going to fashion you into what you're supposed to be. He's gonna move your life into the dimension it needs to be in. You know, you got to believe you're not victims of your arbitrary circumstances. You got to choose to believe that you're in the hands of God. Listen, You're not in charge of what happens to you in your life. You're not. But you are in charge of how you respond to what happens to you. And taking your life, being depressed, not getting out of the bed, you know, beating yourself up about something you can't control— I posted something today, you know, and I simply said, if in 5 years— I call this the 5x5 rule. If it's not gonna matter to your life in 5 years, don't you waste more than 5 minutes worrying about it, beating yourself up about it. Don't curse your crisis, man. Don't beat yourself about things— up about things you can't control. Listen, if you never get pushed to the limits— watch this— you'll never know the limits to which you can be pushed. How about that? I seriously, if you never get pushed to the limits, you'll never know what your limit is. So a lot of times God will push us to the limit. Here's my final point, and I'm gonna stop here. Only the faith that can be challenged— watch this— or the faith that is actually challenged, for the trying of our faith works patience. Only the faith that is challenged— hear me— is the faith that succeeds. Don't curse your crisis. For every one of us, including myself, unforeseen circumstances like tragedy, bad news, unexpected turn of events, hardship, pain Once they enter the center stage of our life and start producing their production, let me tell you something. Inside of the production, they are designed— are you ready for this?— to produce defining moments. Again, it's the unforeseen circumstances, it's the pain, it's the tragedy, it's the bad news, it's the unexpected turns, guys. Hear me, it's the hardship, it's the financial difficulty. When they take center stage in your life, they're not there to destroy you. They're actually there to see how you're going to respond and to create a defining moment in our life. They're the principal players. Are you hearing this? They're the principal players. They, they got all your attention because something in your mind is happening that's bad and you don't know the next step. But it's a defining moment. And many times what happens, instead of letting this moment make us, we despise it, we resist it, we do our best to ignore it. Or avoid it. And without invitation, without apology— hear me— it still comes, it still shows up. And many times I personally have said, God, I'm your servant, why is this happening to me? Why am I going through this? There have been seasons in my life where I said— well, I've even thought and prayed to God, look God, there are a whole lot of other people that are way worse than me. This, this is the mindset I had. Why not put this trial on them? Not understanding, hear me, that he sent the trial to make me better. I, Michael Woods, am the man I am today because I came to an understanding that bad things happen to good people to make them— watch this— better people. So if you ever ask yourself that question, why do bad things happen to good people? They happen to make them better people. I've learned this, and I'm closing, guys. Somehow— hear me, guys. God, hear me. In the moments following our deepest pain, our hardest trial, our most broken event, somehow after all the things that have happened to us, after the crisis, think about this. We tend to arise with a confidence. If you hang in and trust God, you will eventually arise with a confidence that cuts beyond your soul and the injuries thereof, and you will be anchored firmly in an idea. And a reality. Hear me, that God is real. Oh my God, oh my God, today. So don't be afraid to trust. Don't be afraid to depend on God. This is the resurrection season. Think about this. Jesus went into the grave, and I'm closing, I'm done, I've been on too long. 3 days, he got up. That was a bad situation, that was a crisis. He, he was dead, graveyard dead for you and I. 3 days, he got up. So don't curse your crisis, don't give up, don't quit, because watch this, you never know what can happen in 3 days. I'm talking about just 3 days. You can rise again. Don't fear. The God of our faith, he's got us, and he designed the crisis to bring us out. I love you guys. Father, bless your people. I rebuke the spirit of suicide. I rebuke the spirit of quitting. I rebuke the spirit of giving up and throwing in the towel. And I declare that every person under the sound of my voice that has heard this short word will emerge, and they will have the boldness to trust you, and that they will realize, God, hallelujah, that a faith that has not been tested or challenged— God, I give you glory. Hallelujah. Oh, it's not really faith at all. So Father, we thank you for the challenge and we give you glory in Jesus' name. Amen. Family, I love you. You guys have an amazing Resurrection Sunday. I want to invite each of you that are watching this live or by replay to join me in the morning. I got to go to bed at 6 o'clock AM for our Sunrise Resurrection Bible study is going to be amazing. I'm going to talk about, glory to God, a resurrected kingdom. You want to make sure you on at 6 o'clock live. We'll be streaming from our studio live in the morning. Make sure you join us for that teaching sunrise. Uh, we're gonna worship together, we're gonna give God glory, we're gonna teach the word, and, uh, we're gonna watch God do some amazing things in our life. Uh, beyond Resurrection Sunday. You guys be blessed. I love you. Peace.