"FAITH ESSENTIALS" | DR. MIKE WOODS SR. | 17 FEB 23

Well, praise the Lord everyone, and welcome to day number 18 of our 21 days of fasting plus prayer. Listen guys, we have been on an amazing journey. Uh, no, I'm sorry, day 18. Yeah, this is 18, 19. No, Sunday midnight is 21, so yeah, this is day number 19, 20, 21. All right, so day 18, that's where we're at. We're in 18. So day number 18, guys, super excited. The fast closes on Sunday at 3. Welcome everybody. Listen, do me a favor, guys. Today I need you again to be a champion for this teaching, and I need you to go ahead and share this right now. Uh, I'm going to send out a text. Glory to God. And go ahead and share this with everybody as well. But I need you to be a help, praise God, because this teaching is absolutely necessary, as it— as in all of them. But this teaching is really necessary. So as you're coming in, I need you to do two things. One, I want you to speak, comment below, say hello, let us know you're here, speak to everybody else in the room. You know, the reality is, man, when you— when you come into a live or into any kind of interaction or Zoom, you're actually entering into a room with other people. So it's really nice to be nice. So hey, say hello and, and make sure that you, you're being nice when you enter the room. Amen. Also, I need you— secondly, I really and truly— I mean, I'm serious, guys— I really and truly need you to share this stream. Um, this stream is going to be a tremendous blessing today. Uh, we have been teaching a lot on faith, and what I'm going to do today— and we're going to pray in a moment, glory to God— is give you some faith, what I call faith essentials. The Bible says without faith it's impossible to please God. I've been saying that for the last 20 days, right? So this is why I've been teaching so heavy on it, because you really want to bring pleasure to God, you got to move in faith. You can't move in your feelings. You can't move in your flesh. Uh, you can't move in, uh, religious fiction that ties you into a religious culture that really has no power. So no feelings, glory to God, no flesh, no fiction. But in order to move in faith, you have to move in a reality that's based in the word of God, and it has to be very determined, very, very aggressive in how you move. And so I'm gonna give you some essentials out of the word of God today to show you just how to walk by faith. I'm taking my phone here and I'm gonna just shoot out a few texts and let people know, glory to God, that we are live and we are on the air right now. Praise God. So please guys, please ma'am, please sir, whether you're watching us on YouTube, on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram, wherever you're watching this live stream right now please be kind, be nice. The Bible says you are blessed to be a blessing. I need you to share this. You know, whenever you share the word, you're sowing it as a seed. So I need you to— glory to God— literally, for real, I need you to share it. And we're going to teach in just a moment. Glory to God. So I got my phone again and I'm sharing. I'm not telling you to do something I'm not doing. So I'm sharing. So we, we got the phone out. We're going to send out a message here. All right, 12 noon teaching. Yes, yes, let's see. All right, y'all coming in? I need y'all to share. I'm sharing, I'm sharing. I need you guys to do the exact same thing. I'm on my phone, I'm sharing. I want people to join this live today at noon and get this word. Amen. Amen. Glory to God. I see John's Facebook looking here. All right, let's see. Forward slash DRMWDS. Yes. All right, let's see here. All right, we're sharing, we're sharing, guys. I'm on, I'm sharing. That's why I'm not doing anything right now. We're sharing. I'm trying to get people into this live. Glory to God. I want to make people aware that we are on and we are live right now. Glory to God. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus. Isn't God good? Isn't he wonderful? Isn't he amazing? Isn't he mighty? Praise God. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. We love him. We magnify him. We give him praise. Thank you, Lord. We lift— We bless him, we honor him. Beside him there is no other. Glory to God, glory to God. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. All right, so we have sent out texts, we let people know we're on. Glory to God. We're going to send this in a, uh, to our story and just share it to our story. All right. We're live. Glory to God. Let's pray. Father, in Jesus' name, we thank you for another opportunity to teach your word today. We have done our due diligence and we're going to teach this word. We pray, God, that those that don't catch us live today will indeed catch this replay, because quite honestly, all of the other things that we've taught on faith— this lesson today will be a capstone to those messages as we will learn Essentials to faith. Your word says without faith it is impossible to please you. So Father, as we teach today, we're going to unpack some very powerful essentials to retool our faith so we can begin to apply faith to our everyday life. So Father, we thank you again for what you're doing in our life. We thank you for this fast that's producing so much overflow. Of finance, overflow of faith, and overflow of spiritual power. God, I thank you. God, as we have kept this fast, we're seeing it in every aspect in such a strong way, and we know it's going to follow us perpetually throughout this year and beyond because we've been faithful to what you asked us to do. And so we give you praise and glory for that. Now, as your people come in I pray God that they will share this, that they will like it, that they were engaged, and that their lives will be transformed. They will begin to move from faith to faith. In Jesus' name, amen. And thanks be to God. Listen, I love every one of you. Hello everybody, I'm glad you're here. Please comment, please get involved, please share today. Listen, is it very important? But I'm not going to waste a whole lot of time because I got a lot of ground I need to cover today. So today, again, we're talking about essentials of faith, or faith essentials. Again, Hebrews 11:6 says, without faith, listen, it is impossible to please the Lord. I'm gonna say that one more time: without faith, it is impossible to please the Lord. So it didn't say, glory to God, without any other practical thing you think brings pleasure to God. Because whether you're a tither, a giver, whether you're living holy, no matter what you think you're doing to please God, if you're not doing it in faith, you're doing it wrong. And honestly, according to scripture, it's not being pleasurable to him because you're doing it out of either your flesh— watch this— out of religious fiction, or out of your feelings. But when you move in faith, you base everything you do on the very fact that you are confident, you are persuaded— glory to the name of God— you're absolutely intrigued with God's truth without seeing physical evidence. And so you act on what you cannot see with your physical eyes, but you act on what you've been persuaded to believe through the word in the invisible. You act on the invisible peace. So again, today, guys, I need you to share this, man. We want to get this word out today. All right, so I'm going to give you— that's why I don't have a lot of time, because I'm gonna give you scripture to connect with every essential I'm gonna give you. And so I got like 2 minutes to elaborate on each one of these and read the scripture. So we're gonna go through these because I want you to get them. I can literally teach 25 messages on each one of these essentials, but I'm not going to do it because I want you to get this. All right, so essential number 1, I want you to go to Hebrews 10:8. Let's go to Hebrews 10:8. Glory to God. The Bible says this, Hebrews 10 and verse 8. Go with me right there. Yep, that's what we want. And when he said sacrifice— and I'm sorry, not 10:8, 10:38. 10:38. Come on, come on, 10:38. I apologize. Hebrews 10:38. 10:38. 10:38. The Bible says, now I should have known that by heart. The just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back— watch this— my soul shall have no pleasure in him. Oh my God. So the just shall live by faith, and God said there's no pleasure in drawing back on faith. Glory to God. So essential number 1, the just shall live by faith. So if you're going to operate in faith, you gotta dedicate your life to it. See, when you're just, and, and if you're a believer, watch this, you're just, you've been justified by the efficacious, vicarious, substitutionary work of Calvary. You've been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. And you've been justified. You're just— glory to God. And so now your life, your behavior pattern as a believer, as a just person, should be one of pistis faith, one that's absolutely persuaded, totally confident, totally reliant upon God. So the just live, not try it out when they feel like it, not choose it when they're in trouble, not do it when they can't, when they just can't do for themselves. Because even when you're moving in abundance, there's always new levels of abundance you can achieve. So you ought to be living by faith every single day. So essential number 1, the just shall live by faith. Essential number 2, go to 2 Corinthians 2 Corinthians, let's go, 5 and 7. Glory to God. The Bible says, watch this, for we walk by faith and not by sight. So essential number 2 is we walk by faith and not by sight. Wait a minute, so that means I don't go by— here we go again— what I feel. What's in my flesh, or religious fiction, or what— because religious fiction never empowers you. Glory to God. Watch this. Or life facts. Glory to God. Facts should not move you away from faith because you don't walk by what you see in a factual basis. You don't walk by sight, you walk by Faith. Hebrews 11:6. I just discussed this at the beginning. I'm gonna hit it again though. Hebrews 11:6. The Bible says— because I want you to get it, glory to the name of God— the Bible says, but without faith it is impossible. The word impossible there is aidonatos. Aidonatos. This word literally means that you are impotent. You have no strength. You are powerless. You are disabled. You have no ability to please God without faith. He said, for he that cometh to God— well, what do you mean, Michael Woods, when you say please? I'm glad you asked. The word please is eristhio. Eristhio means that you cannot be well pleasing to God in his sight. Eristhio means that when he looks at your works, he sees nothing good. He's not pleased. He's not well pleased. He cannot say well done to that. But so you got to move in faith because— so again, if you're not doing it in faith, you're doing it wrong. Listen, for he that comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Now, so, so, so number 3, it is impossible to please God without faith. All right, essential number 4, let's go. Romans 10:17. You got to get these, man, because if you're gonna walk by faith, you got to have these. I'm just trying to give you practicality on how to move in faith. I'm trying to give you some practical ways to get healed. All right, some practical ways to get rich. Some practical ways to eliminate your debt. These are essential. Glory to God. Ah, Romans 10:17. Let's go, let's go, let's go. 10:17. Romans 10, glory to God, is— listen, Romans 10 is the faith book. Glory to God. I'm telling you, you want to know something about faith, read Romans 10 and 11. The Bible— here we go, Romans 10:17. The Bible says this. Are y'all ready? Faith comes— how does it show up? It comes whenever something is coming, is it— it's making its way to you, right? It is a pro— when something is coming, it's approaching you, it's showing up in your space. So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. That's why, glory to God, this live stream needs to be packed right now. Glory to God. Because people think they're moving in faith and they're moving in flesh, they're moving in feelings, they're moving in facts, they're moving in religious fiction. But you cannot grow your faith until you sit and listen to the word of God. Not— watch this— the Bible, it even says, how can you hear without a preacher? If you keep preaching, if you keep reading, how can he preach except he be sent? Here's the problem, here's a problem: we're listening to preachers and speakers who are speaking from feelings, who are speaking from facts, who are speaking from fiction, who are speaking from their flesh. And the reality is, ladies and gentlemen, we need to be listening to people who are sent. And not just a preacher, even if you're in business, even if, glory to the name of God, you are navigating through life, you need to be listening to people who God sends to you to enlighten you and open your eyes and expand your faith and expand your wisdom. My God today. Who— so, so faith come by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. So the more I hear the word, the more the word of faith is preached and taught, the more my faith increases and the more it grows. Oh, whether you're watching us by YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, wherever you are, You, you got to make sure that you keep your ear to the mouth of a sent one who is articulating faith, who's articulating the word of God to you concerning whatever you're trying to do. Even if it's not technically hermeneutically or exegetically being taught from the Bible, you need a prophet. They're sent that can see into the future that's speaking the word of God that will propel you to where you're trying to go. Oh my God, today. Oh my God, oh my God, I gotta go, man. So, so number 4 is— this is the faith essential— is faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. I'm getting too excited, y'all. And you know what, I'm spending too much time on these points. I'm supposed to be running through them. So number 5, watch this. Romans 10 Oh boy, here we go. At 10, Romans 10:10, the Bible says this: For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. Glory to God. And with the mouth, listen, confession is made unto salvation. So here's— watch this— the beginning of faith. And number 5, according to this text, is telling us that faith is of the heart and not of the head. I'll say that again. Faith is of the heart and not of the head. I'm not gonna even get into that 'cause I could jump in there and just swim in it all day. So, but it's not of a head, it's of the heart. Not the heart 6 inches below the collarbone, but the center of your being, your soul-ical man. Faith starts in your ability to make a decision, your intelligence to trust God, to apply the things that pertain to faith. Ah, so faith is of the heart. That's number 5, and not of the head. Oh wee, glory to Jesus. Oh wee, oh wee, oh wee. Number 6, Genesis 1:3. Let's go there. Genesis 1:3. Let's read. The Bible says, and God said, let there be light, and there was light. Let's go to Mark 11:23. Mark 11:23. Oh my God, today, oh, we're getting the— we're getting some faith essentials today, y'all. It says, for verily I say unto you, that whosoever— here it is again— shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he said shall come to pass, he shall have whatever he says. Now we read in Genesis 1 and 3, God said, let there be light, and guess what? There was light. That's why we got light today, because God said it and it was, and light ain't stopped being light. Light knows when to shine in the daytime, and when it's over, it goes down, and the stars become a light by night. But light never ceases to exist whether it is day or night. Glory to God, because God spoke it, God said it. But wait a minute, so God put that same creatorial power in us according to Mark 11, and said whatever mountain we speak to creatively, he said it's going to be moved. And then we believe, he said, in our heart that the things we say, we will— it will come to pass and we will have what we said. So here we go. Faith, number 6, is both a creative force and a destructive force. Because if you doubt and speak negative and you got a bad faith in not— that's not in God, you're gonna— because I told you before in the teachings, watch this, that faith— hear me— that faith, listen, oh, is an opportunity for failure or faith, and the faith is going to bring success. So everything you come up against is an opportunity for faith or failure. Faith or failure. Are you gonna believe that you're gonna reach that goal you're reaching for, or are you gonna believe that because you had so many failures in the past, because— and you got your hand on something brand new, something fresh, that it's gonna fail too? The devil is a liar. Glory to God. That ain't God's plan. That, my friends, is not God's will. Number 7, let's move. Hallelujah. 2 Corinthians 4:13. Let's move. 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 13. I could stay in all these all day. Uh, 4:13. We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believe and therefore I have spoken, we also believe and therefore speak. Listen, Matthew 8. And verse number 5, glory to Jesus. The Bible says, and when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion beseeching him and saying, Lord, my servant lie at home sick of palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus said unto him, I will come and heal him. Then the centurion answered and said, Lord, I'm not worthy that thou should come under my roof, but speak the word only and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this man, go, and he go. And another, come, and he come. And to my servant, do this, and he doeth it. Verse 10: And Jesus heard it and marveled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. Listen, this— these two verses give us number 7 so clearly. Are you ready? Number 7 is that Faith is released by words. Listen, we must speak the word only. Can I tell you the centurion's servant was healed? Jesus was willing to go and lay hands on the servant. The servant said, "No, my faith so big, you don't have to go. Just speak the word." and my servant will be healed. That's all it requires, guys. That's all it requires. You gotta put your work— that's why you got to be speaking faith every day. Just as much as you yap and talk and joke and be silly and talk about everything else carnal, you need to have faith confessions on your lips every single day. I, I, I know people, glory, I know a lot of people, man, and I know a lot of very strong spiritual people who are extremely silly all the time. Let me say it again, they silly all the time. All they doing is laughing, playing, and joking all the time. Listen, there's a time for laughter, but then there's also a time for confessing, a time for praying, and that's all the time. You need to keep your faith active all the time because I'm gonna tell you something, negativity is active all the time. Doubt is always working. So every time you— it comes to your mind or comes up in your spirit, you need to speak to your billionaire status. You need to speak to your jet. Glory to God. You need to speak to your debt-free living. You need to speak, glory to God, to your family being saved. You need to put faith on it so you can see it come to pass. Ah, Lord have mercy, Jesus. Oh boy. All right, all right, so number 8, let's move. 1 John— I'm loving this, man. 5:14. You better love the word. Glory to God. 5:14. You fool with me, you better love the Bible. Glory to God. And that's all I got. Hallelujah. The Bible says, and this is the confidence— word confidence is parrhesia in Greek, boldness, frankness of speech. Again, everything goes back to what you're saying. He said, this is the confidence, the frankness, the freedom to speak that we have in him, that if we ask— the word ask, aishio in Greek, which means to come as an inferior to a superior. Yeah, to come as an inferior to a superior. He said, this is the confidence we have in him. My God, today, then if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. Let's read verse 15. And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have desired of him. In other words, when you speak it in faith and do it, we know it's done. It's done the moment we speak it. So number 8, faith begins— watch this— where the will of God is known. This is essential. Number 8, faith begins where the will of God is known. That's why he said if you ask according to his will, his will is his word. You don't know what to ask for if you don't know the word. You're not hearing the word. That's why faith come by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Man, I'm trying to get through this, boy. I'm trying, I'm really trying, because I want to just jump into this, man, and just open this up, but I can't because I got to give you these essentials. So number 8, faith begins where the will of God is known. Number 9, let's go to James. James, Saint James. James 1:5, the Bible says this: If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given to him. Verse 6: But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. Number 9, watch this. Y'all ready? Write this down. Felicia, make sure you type this one in the comments. Faith stops at the question mark. So the moment you start questioning God, faith exits. The moment you start questioning God's ability, the moment you move into doubt and waver, the Bible said you are tossed like the wind. It go— everything you're asking for becomes null and void because you have no standard, no biblical standard to receive what you're asking for. More. Oh my God. Number 9: faith stops at the question mark. Number 10: let me move. Let that marinate. Glory to God. Go to Proverbs 18. Proverbs 18. Glory to God. Oh Jesus, we bless you. Hallelujah. We bless your name, God. Hashi andalabo kunsukadai. Ah, Proverbs 18:7. Listen. The Bible says this: your faith— watch this, oh my God— is so powerful that when you start speaking crazy, it, it compares you to a fool's mouth. Watch this. A fool's mouth, listen, is his destruction. Oh my God. And his lips oh Jesus— are the snare of his soul. Drop down to verse 21. Oh, thank you, Holy Ghost. 21 says, death and life— woo-hoo— are in the power of the tongue, and they that love it shall eat the fruit of it. Text is saying, fall in love with your own tongue. Fall in love with your mouth. And speak death or life, either one. But either one, you're gonna get the fruit of it. If you start speaking death and negativity, you're gonna get the fruit of that, those words. But you need to speak, glory to the name of God, life, so you can eat the fruit of life that comes out of your mouth. Listen, your miracle, your breakthrough is right in here, is right under your nose. In this orifice, in this mouth. Open your mouth and start saying what you want to see. You got to say it until you see it. I'm giving you faith essentials, man. Glory to God. So here's number 10: your faith will never rise above the level of your confession. I'll say that again. Your faith will never rise above the level of your confession, and you'll never see a manifestation above the level of your confession. Listen, the stronger your confession, the stronger your faith becomes. Again, number 10: your faith will never rise above your Confession. What are you saying? What are you talking about? Ah, oh my God, help us, Jesus. Go to Isaiah 46. I gotta move. Isaiah 46. Glory to Jesus. I could— man, I could swim in all of these scriptures all day long. Isaiah 46. But I got to get this to you like the Holy Ghost gave it to me. He wants you to have the essentials so when you start doubting, you can go to the word and know what you ought to be doing to walk in faith. Isaiah 49— 46 and verse 9, I'm sorry. The Bible says this: Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is none else. I am God and there's none like me. Watch this, watch this. Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. Listen, number 11, faith focuses on the desired result and outcome. It doesn't focus on the dreaded negative outcome that may occur. Oh my God. Faith focuses on the end. It focuses on glory to Jesus. Andemansi, briska to la boshkatai. It focuses on what the word says can be, and it determines that it will be. Faith— now here we go again. Faith focuses on the desired result. That's number 11. Let's go to Romans 12. Hallelujah, we're moving. Romans 12. Glory to Jesus, glory to Jesus. Ha! Verses 1, 2, and 3. Ah God, I feel like teaching today. Glory to God. I pray these people get on here and catch this live. So many people scrolling timelines right now. Glory to the name of God, doing their own thing and will never get these essentials. It's, it's sad. It's here. Glory to God. They're going to go to church Sunday and won't get these essentials because again, the preacher has to be sent to teach the word of God, to be intentionally build your faith. And so many are not trying to build your faith or their faith. They all they want to do is build their following. Ah, but the whole goal as a leader, especially as the leader of Rhoda Church and the Rhoda family of churches around this country, my goal is to deploy you as a person of faith into the— a person of faith into the kingdom of man so you can move in a high level of maximized dominion, control, and authority where you can literally take over Glory to God. Romans 12:1, let's go. I beseech you, uh, I beg you. The word beseech is I beg you, I urge you. This is very serious. He said I urge you. Glory to the name of God. Parakaleo in Greek is what it is. I beseech you therefore, brethren. Adolphos in Greek, those that are connected to me, is what the apostle is saying. Those that are in my culture, a part of me. He says by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Watch this, verse 2: And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you. Listen, glory to God. Every man that is among you, glory to Jesus. He says, I want you to understand that they are not to think more highly of themselves than they ought to think, but to think soberly according to how God— listen to this— have dealt to every man a measure of faith. So these 3 verses are telling us basically, when you present your body, your bios life, your flesh— oh God— your feelings, your— oh, your fiction, your facts, glory God— your frustrations. When you submit your body, your bios existence, your biological existence to God as a living sacrifice, say, and saying, God, I choose to follow your way. And to live for you. So I lay this down and I submit it as a sacrifice, and I want it to be holy and acceptable unto you. This is my reasonable— my reasonable— my logicos in Greek, my thought through logic. It's logical for me to give up my way for your way because you're greater than I am, God. Hey Jesus, help us, help us Father. Help us, Jesus. He said, if you lay it down, he says, one, you'll start thinking humbly and soberly. You won't think more highly of yourself than you ought because everything now is processed through faith, is processed through the mind of God and not necessarily your personal intelligence. When you understand that everything born out of you is born of God, because you're doing it by faith. You move humbly because he can do it better than we can ever do it. And the Bible says every man has been given a measure of faith. So here we go, number 12: every born-again believer— watch this— has— watch this— the God kind of faith. When it says he's given us a measure of faith, It means that God measured out of his faith and made a— he took a measurement of his faith and deposited in men. He took his metron of faith and cut it out of him and deposited in us so we can share in his creatorial faith, in the power of his speaking faith. God. Okay, all right, whatever, whatever, whatever. I, I'm teaching way better than y'all talking back to me today, but it's okay. Glory to God. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. So number 12— I'm sorry, number 13. Let's move. We're, we're over halfway there. Glory to God. Thank you, Lord. We're over halfway there. Number 13, go to Mark 11:23. Hallelujah, Jesus! Hallelujah! Mark 11:23. We love the Lord, we love him. Glory to God! And we, we're going to do it by faith so we can do it right. You heard what I said? We're going to do it by faith so we can do it right. And that's why we're teaching this. See, if you're doing it any other way, you're doing it wrong. If you're counting any other money other than God's bank, you're doing it wrong. If you're counting your money before you go to do something that God told you to do, you're doing it wrong, because he said he will supply according to his riches, not yours. Ah, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. Mark 11:23, the Bible said, for verily, there it is again. Seriously, this is serious. I say unto you that whosoever say to this mountain, be thou removed, cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he has shall come to pass, He shall have whatever he says. So number 13, this just simply tells us that every believer has a right to use their faith. It is not illegal because some people, you know, feel some kind of way, you know, that they can't do it theyself. God says use your faith. You want to— you know what, I'm gonna keep using God's money to take care of my house, to take care of my businesses, to take care of my ministry, because he told me I got a right to use my faith. I'm encouraging you, this is essential. Use it, man. Start speaking faith to what you want to see more. Every believer has a right to use his faith. Number 14, let's move. Hebrews 12, Hebrews 12, Hebrews 12, and verse number 2. 12, Hebrews 12 and 2, let's go. Hallelujah. Watch this. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy— listen— set before him, endured the cross, despised the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of the Father. Glory to God. Here's number 14: faith must be developed— watch this— by exercise, use, and action. I'll say that again: faith is developed by exercise, use, Oh boy, and action. So Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. So when Jesus came to earth, that's— he, the author and finisher of our faith, means that he was the— he, he, he displayed action, use, glory to God, and exercise in his faith. It took faith to turn water into wine. It took faith to raise Lazarus from the dead. It took faith to walk on water. He's the author and finisher, so he's already written the book. This ain't new. This ain't new. Glory to God. I'm gonna say again, this is not new. Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. Oh my God. So number 14: faith must be developed by exercise, use, and action. Jesus proved to us that if you use this stuff, it'll work. Okay, you say you're a follower of Jesus? No, you not. You're not a follower if you walking in doubt. You following your feelings, your flesh, your own fiction, religious fiction, the facts. You're following your finances. You're not following Jesus because Jesus is the author and finisher. You need to read his faith book. You want to see what Jesus did? Jesus paid his bills in faith. Jesus told the disciples, listen, we got to pay our taxes. Go fishing. The first fish that comes up, you're gonna find money in his mouth. Pay the tax collector. Glory to Jesus. He's the author and finisher of how supernatural things occur. See, who book you been reading? He the author and finisher. He already did it. And who for the joyfully-yam? It was a joy. Oh my God, for him to endure the cross, to lay down. He died by faith. Yeah, they told him, yeah, you're gonna get up again. He— they told him, you're God incarnate. And he trusted that because he was a human on this earth that was moving in faith. So your faith, my faith, has to be developed by exercise, use, and action. Number 15, go to Psalms One. Glory to God. Ah, I hope y'all hear. I hope y'all getting some out of this. Psalms 1. The Bible says, blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bring forth fruit in his season. His leaf shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth— watch this— the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. Two people categorized in this text: the ungodly and the godly. The godly man, glory to the name of God, is a blessed man that doesn't walk in the counsel of the ungodly, that doesn't move and live by the culture of ungodly people. So what is an ungodly? A rashah in Hebrew. An ungodly person is a criminal, a guilty one. Glory to God. One guilty of sin against God. Watch this. One guilty of coming short. One guilty— watch this— of being detached, rashah, from faith. Are you godly or you ungodly? So here we go, number 15. If you're godly, meditation in the word builds a capacity for greater faith. I'll say that again, number 15. Meditation in the word builds a capacity for greater Faith. Oh wait, oh wait. Oh my God, I love Jesus. How about you? Number 16, Mark 4. Let's go there. Mark 4. We're getting through these, man. I'm almost done. I'm almost done. My time is gone. Hallelujah. Mark 4. I'm gonna do probably a few more. I'm gonna get out here. I may open my next message tomorrow with the the rest of Mark 4. Yeah, because you got to get these. Yeah, I'll finish them tomorrow. This is number 16. Glory to God. Mark 4, verses 35. We're gonna close with this, y'all. 4:35 through 41. We're gonna close with these. Hallelujah. Are y'all learning anything? Glory to the name of God. Hallelujah. Just type glory to God in the comments if you learning something. Praise Jesus. Hallelujah! If you feel like these essentials are ministering to your spirit, just type glory to God in the comments. Praise God. Mark 4:35. The Bible said, the same day when the even was come, praise God, hallelujah, he said unto them, let us pass over to the other side. And when he sent away the multitude Glory to Jesus. Hallelujah. They took him even as he was in the ship, and there was also with him other little ships. And there arose a great storm, listen, and the waves beat into the ship so that it was now full. So, so they're going to the other side, they're on a boat, Jesus is on the boat with them, the wind starts blowing really intense. Matter of fact, they're in the midst of a hurricane. Like Katrina. It beats up against this boat, fills it up so that the boat now is full of water. This boat should be sinking, right? And Jesus was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillar. And they awake him and said to him, Master, care thou not that we perish? And he arose, rebuked the wind And said unto the sea, peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was great calm. Verse 40. And he said unto them, why are you so fearful? How is it— listen— that you have no faith? And they feared exceedingly and said one to another, what manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him. Now I'm not going to unpack all this, but I'm going to give you number 16 because I really can jump in this and swim. Matter of fact, this is one of my favorite verses in the entire Bible. I preached my initial sermon when I first got called to ministry and preached my first message in public. I was doing a lot of preaching before the pulpit, but my first message in a church in public was from this text, and it was entitled 'What manner of man is this?' But, but listen, number 16, Jesus shows us that one, faith is more powerful than any element on earth. A hurricane. Listen, it's more powerful than a tornado. It's more powerful than fire. It's more powerful than sickness and disease. That's what he shows us. Listen, number 16, you ready? You can use your faith— watch this— like a mechanic uses a wrench. I'm gonna say it again. You can use your faith like a mechanic uses a wrench. So a mechanic that's fixing an engine, a transmission, changing spark plugs, and has a wrench in his hand— that wrench is a tool. He understands without that tool Without that wrench, he cannot remove the bolt that needs to be removed. That unlocks the bolt so that whatever he's replacing or fixing can be fixed. Your faith is a tool. It's, it's an essential tool to your life as a believer. Jesus showed us this with this storm. He said, yep, this storm, and y'all panicking like some little punks. He said, how is it that y'all are so fearful? Y'all been walking with me, watching me do all these miracles. I'm trying to get a nap and y'all have no faith. In other words, he was saying to them, you could have did exactly what I just did. Notice what Jesus did. He got up. So he got up, he arose. So the first thing I'm gonna tell you to walk out any of these faith essentials I'm going to tell you to arise. You need to get up and watch it. Stop laying. Don't lay in negativity. Don't stay asleep. You got to rise. Wake up to what faith can do. Rise up. And the first thing he did, he rebuked the wind. Epithemaio in Greek. That word epithemaio means that, oh my God, Oh my God, that— this word means he taxed the wind. He reproved it. He charged it sharply. Watch this. He made the wind aware when you're out of order, and there's going to be a penalty for you being out of order. So Jesus has the power through faith to speak to elements, and those elements— watch this— which are born out of natural creative function, because Jesus created the water, he created the wind, all of the molecules and atoms that cause wind to blow. Matter of fact, The Holy Spirit is often referred to as wind. So this wind, this pneuma, this ruach, this breath of God was out of order. So Jesus rebuked it. Ooh-wee! He rebuked it, glory to God, and said, "Get back in order." So when the wind starts blowing in your life, rise up in faith. Glory to God. Use these essentials and put things back in order with your mouth. Rebuke happens with your mouth. If you got a child and you rebuke your child, you do it with your mouth. Gloria, if you're in authority and you, you're leading, uh, at a job or in a business, you got employees, or you have, you have a place of authority where you as a leader you have to rebuke people, it comes out of your mouth. You gotta rebuke them winds that's coming against your life. You gotta tax them. They're out of order because they shouldn't be coming against you like that. Oh my God, I'm almost done. Glory to Jesus Christ. Oh, he, he rebuked the wind and then said to the sea— wait a minute. He rebuked the wind and he said to the sea. So again, with his mouth, he starts speaking to the sea now, which is another part of this problem. So every part of the problem in your life, you need to identify and speak to the element. The wind was out of order, but watch this, peace was out of order too. He spoke to the sea and said, peace, Be still. Wait a minute, one of the few times in scripture that peace is translated like this is from a Greek word, siopio. S-I-O-P-A-O. Siopio. The Greek word siopio, it means— watch this— hold your peace. It means be silent. It means hush. It means calm down. In other words, peace, you're doing something you have no business. You're engaged in an activity against me and this boat that you shouldn't be. Calm down. You— oh, shaw! You got to learn to speak to stuff and just tell it, calm down. You got to speak to the element called peace and tell it to get back in place. Jesus is the Prince of Peace. He's the presence of assistance. That's what peace is when it comes to Jesus. But here, psyopio is peace that has got out of order, peace that became a threat versus a help. But you got to bring it back into order. Glory to God. You gotta speak. Your words are powerful. You don't have to take what the devil is dishing out to you. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. You gotta make it shut up. That's basically what I'm trying to tell you. Make that thing that speak into your head, those thoughts that go against God, tell it be still. Tell it to shut up in the name of Jesus and begin to speak faith against it. Hallelujah! The Bible says when he did this, the wind ceased, and there was great calm. Let's pray. Father, in Jesus' name, we thank you for these faith essentials today. I pray that this word will go out to those who watched it live and those who will watch it by replay, and it will superimpose itself upon them. I decree and declare today, God, that they will operate by faith and not by sight. God, I pray that their faith will be awakened. It will be alive, God. It will be activated. It will be working. I pray that faith will be a permanent part of their life and they will live by faith and not by themselves. And I give you praise for it now, in Jesus' name. Amen. And thanks be to God. Listen guys, I love you so much. Thank you for joining us, man. Y'all are such a blessing. Listen, I want to challenge every person that can get something in the ground or whatever, get a seed in the ground of some kind. Please give, give something. Let the Lord— glory to the name of God— bless you through your giving on today. Praise God. Get something in the ground. The ways to give are on the screen. Listen, I'm telling you, some of you think you can afford not to give, but you can't. I mean, you're trying to— you budget God out, and that's not faith neither. But get something in the ground. If this word has blessed you today, get seed in the ground. Listen, I want to give you a few announcements while you're doing that. Praise the name of God. Listen, March 4th, mark it on your calendars. Glory to the name of God. We're coming to Jackson, Mississippi once again for our monthly meeting. You know, God has instructed us to come into Mississippi once a month right now until we transition into a facility where we'll be there every single week. Glory to God! Because we are planting again. There is so much unfinished work, there's so much work to do. Glory to God! And we are coming into the region once again. Uh, my son Apostle Brandon Knez is doing a tremendous job, but the Bible says two are better than one. And, and he and I are going to work together. We've already discussed that. And listen, I'm super excited, man, that God is going to cause this territory to literally be changed for real. Uh, I started there back in 2003, glory to God, and God instructed me just this year to go back and replant again because there's so much work left to do. The vision that he gave me It's not finished, so we must go back. Uh, we had several prophecies over the years saying your grace is not finished in Mississippi, so we're back. So March 4th, make sure you join us at 5 o'clock in the evening. Glory to the name of God. We're going to be right there, Word of Life Ministries this time, who is going to allow us to use their venue. Thank God for Pastor Adams. We're going to be there in her facility. We're Word of Life Ministry. Glory to God on Lynch Street in Jackson, Mississippi. Be on the lookout for the flyer. It'll probably go up this weekend sometime, but March 4th, put it on your calendar. And listen, if you're in Atlanta, Georgia, you ain't got to wait to March 4th. We're culminating the fast on Sunday. It's going to be super powerful. Meet me at Rhoda Church on Sunday at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. We're gonna have church. We're going to glorify God as we dismiss this fast and go into major overflow in our lives. Listen, I love you guys so much. You're such a blessing to me. I can't do this unless— without your support. You guys give me energy. You guys keep me on my face. You keep me studying. I thank God for you. I want to shout out to my wife. She's a faithful scribe. Glory to God. When I'm teaching, she's typing what I'm saying on the screen. So, baby, I love you. I appreciate you. I know today it was a lot of scriptures and a lot of points, so I appreciate you working your fingers and making sure that stuff got on the screen. I love you all. Y'all be blessed. Heaven smile on you is my prayer. Y'all have a super day. Blessings.