Handle Your Mess, Part 4: Set Up For A Comeback | Dr. Mike Woods, Sr.

Well, praise the Lord, everybody! I pray you're well this evening. This is the day the Lord has made, and truly we're rejoicing. And we are glad in it. Thank you guys for being here tonight. This is our Kingdom Bible Class. Uh, always, always super excited to teach and share the word of the Lord with you. Praise God. Uh, do me a kind favor, guys. I need you to do me a favor. I need you to do two very important things for me. Y'all already know what they are, right? I need you to make sure, uh, you are sharing this. The question is— the million-dollar question is Have you shared this encounter yet? And that's indeed what is going to be tonight, uh, is going to be an encounter with the Lord. Praise God. So I need you guys to do a share, and I need you to comment below and, uh, let us know you're here. Glory to God. So please— hey Apostle, uh, glory to the name of God, says Shannon. God bless you, Prophet, woman of God. God bless you, Pastor Jasper. Uh, we love you guys. Welcome, you guys. Do like Prophet Shannon, Prophet Turner. God bless you. Welcome tonight to all of you. Glory to God. Thank you guys for being here. Uh, do me the favor, please. Uh, I believe what the things that we share are indeed, uh, necessary. They are indeed important. And I believe if people listen and receive and apply all the principles that we're teaching, I truly honestly believe that their life will never be the same. So do me the favor and simply share. That's all I need you to do. And comment below. Glory to God. And I promise you, praise the name of God, uh, you'll be blessed. Hey, Wife for Life, God bless you. You're in this somewhere in this house. Glory to God. God bless you. Uh, love you. Great for being— thank you for being on, my wife. Listen, you guys, I need you to do me a favor. Let's— hey, Minister Yvonne Sims, God bless you. Good to see you tonight. Glory to God. Uh, you guys come in and you guys do me a favor, share it in your story, share it on your page, uh, text somebody the link. You can hit share, copy link, and send out texts and just say, hey, Apostle Wood's about to teach, uh, you need to get this word tonight. And I promise you, uh, you're going to be blessed. Glory to the name of God. So I'm gonna give you a few moments to, uh, share, get your boundaries, going to give a few moments for other people to come in. Again, this indeed is the day the Lord has made. Hallelujah! And we rejoice. Uh, I am super excited and elated at all that God is doing. Praise the name of God. Thank you all that are sharing. Glory to the name of God. Uh, it's a great blessing to be a blessing. The Bible says that we are blessed to be a blessing. So if you find something, uh, that's actually being a blessing to you, you know what the right thing to do is according to scripture? You bless somebody else with it, right? And, uh We're certainly in a season of blessing and giving, so I want you guys to make sure, uh, that you get others involved. Glory to the name of God. God bless you, daughter. Glory to God, Lady Zion. I am so excited. Pastor Jeffrey and Lady Zion, God bless you. Apostle McCoy, good to see you, woman of God. Listen, I am super excited. Pastor Jeffrey, Lady Zion, I'm coming to the DMV next week. And boy, you talk about somebody like a kid at Christmas time. I'm super happy that I get to see you guys, get to see my godson Christopher, and most of all, we get to drop the word of the Lord in that region as God continues to propel us forward and what he's calling us to do there. Man, I am so excited about this meeting. I'm telling you, all the times I've been I don't know why, but I am super excited about this one, and I'm trusting God for a major move. Uh, I'm just looking for something special, uh, to happen. Glory to the name of God. While we're in the DMV next week, glory to God, super, super duper excited. Glory to God about being in the region of the DMV. Glory to God, it's gonna be amazing, guys. Uh, just a few more moments, uh, We'll be starting in just a few moments. Glory to God. Uh, we're going to queue up, praise God, our, uh, series video. And right after that plays, glory to God, hallelujah, we're going to get right into this word tonight. Father, we love you, we thank you, and we give you glory. Beside you there is no other. You rule. Hallelujah. Libesoto rakaya. And you super rule, God. Beside you there is no other. And Father, we thank you, God, that we can find our strength in you. And Father, we thank you for that word that says we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. So we thank you that our ability is limitless in you. And so, Father, we thank you that we can live a life with no limits if we tap into portals and realms that you have prepared for us to walk in and walk through, God. And we can live under the auspices of your resources. And Father, we love you and we thank you and we give you the glory and honor for that now. Thank you for what you're going to do on this teaching tonight. I praise you that no person that is listening to us now will leave this teaching the way they came in. I declare tonight that they will be different, and I pray tonight that as they apply this word, they will experience supernatural things in their life, their businesses, their ministry, their families, their finances. And we give you praise and glory for it now, in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. And thanks be to God. Glory to God. I love you guys. Wonderful Jesus. Hallelujah. Daughter, we can't wait neither. Again, guys, if you're just joining us, we're asking you to do us a favor. Share. Glory to the name of God. Like the video. Praise God. It's very important. And comment below and let us know that you are here. We're so blessed at this opportunity, uh, to share with you. Glory to the name of God. Uh, again, we're going to queue up right here our video. Glory to the name of God for Handle Your Mess. And then I'm going to be right back and we're going to teach this word. Stay with us. Praise, glory to God, and we give him all the honor. He's a good God, he's a mighty God. Beside him there is no other. Again, guys, if you have not shared this encounter yet I need you to go ahead and do that if you're just joining us. And if you're just joining us, welcome to our Global Kingdom Bible Class of the Roddell Family of Churches. And, uh, we thank everybody on social media that will connect with this either live or by replay. I'm of the belief, glory to God, that if you take the word of God and literally do it and apply it to your life, it will thrust you into experiences and encounters that you have never ever had before in your entire life. So I'm, I'm believing God tonight that this word is going to do just that for you. Praise God. So Father, again, we thank you for the light, the illumination, and the intelligence of the Holy Ghost. Grant that to us tonight in Jesus' name. We're going to jump right into this. We're not going to waste any time. Uh, again, welcome everybody. We're continuing our series, as you've seen in the video, on Handle Your Mess. This is message 4. You know, one of the things that we've learned, I, I think the substratum or the central theme of this entire teaching has been that we learn how to look at mess from a different vantage point and understand that mess, uh, is not made for us to be critical of, not made for us to judge But it literally comes to make us better. And it comes to give us wisdom so we can actually bounce back better and really never go through that mess again. And secondly, help someone else in their mess. One of the things that we've learned is that instead of being critical of others in their mess, what we should learn to do is become students of mess. Others and ours, and learn how we could take mess and help others navigate through the mess they are experiencing. Because many a times, ladies and gentlemen, we can be— especially church folk, hear me— can be some of the most judgmental people on earth. And many times we show up to church, we show up to meetings, uh, we scroll through our timelines and we do it with a white glove. It's almost like we're always looking for something wrong in someone else. And one of the things that happens when you mature, you're not constantly trying to find what's wrong with others. As a matter of fact, uh, the Bible says in Matthew, judge not that ye be judged. How can you cast the beam, the the 2x4 out of, out of, out of somebody else's— well, the moat, the little small speck out of somebody else's eye when you got a 2x4 sticking out your eye? How can you do it? The scripture is saying to us, look, look at you. And so what this, this series, uh, has been designed to do, because prophetically— hear me, guys— prophetically, as we move into 2024. I've been trying to get you ready for 2024 since, uh, the end of September. The reality is all these teachings I've been teaching have been to prepare your mind and your spirit, your thought process for this coming year, even literally this next decade. Because as I've shared with you, this is going to be— hear me, guys— a decade of dominion. It's going to be a decade of authority and power uh, where God is going to begin to position those of us who will jump in the supernatural accelerator and allow him to mature us to a high level of maturity spiritually, where we can walk with him in a dimension that's beyond religion, just beyond church attendance, that's beyond, uh, putting on a good show but really showing up in the world in a way where people can experience God through us. Because the whole plan— hear me— is for us to take over the world, to have dominion, to be in control. And you got to handle your mess so you can mature, so you can grow up. You can't keep living in stuff that's over. And so here's a few things I want to start off, and we're going to— I'm going to put a scripture at the end in Luke chapter number 5. Luke chapter number 5. We're going to read a few verses there. I'm gonna share some, some nuggets out of those verses, uh, but I'm going to just give you some principles on the top that I believe will help you. All right, so because what I want to share tonight— your mess is a setup for a comeback. So I wanna, I wanna really talk about how Your setbacks, your issues, your mess, the times you blundered, bumped your head, made a mistake— hear me— is a setup for your comeback, for you to come back and take over, take authority, rule, and watch this, walk in a level of increase and influence. I said it, both of those, increase and influence. Watch this, that your worldly counterparts, those who are not saved, the Gentiles, in your fear of influence, that they cannot deny that God will raise you up in a way that your influence, your power, your authority, and the increase that's on your life can't be denied by your worldly counterparts, and they gravitate to it. And they ask the million-dollar question, what happened that you move in such authority and increase? How do you have so much influence? And you know what your answer has to be. You have to point them to Jesus. You have to let them know, oh, you didn't know? It's just Jesus, right? You gotta let them know it's just Jesus. Glory to God. I'm telling you right now, glory to the name of God. That this world needs a people, an apostolic and prophetic people that will show up in the world. We show up good in church services. Matter of fact, most people have learned church. They've learned the, oh my God, the calisthenics is what I call them, of going through a worship process. But the question is going to be, as we cross over to this next year, how do you show up in the world? What influence, what impact are you making on your worldly counterparts so that people can discover Jesus and know who he is for real? Thank you, Lord. Glory to the name of God. So first thing I want to share with you, your mess or your issues Number 1, here we go, should teach you wisdom. Wisdom— the Hebrew word for wisdom is hakma, and, and hakma means the proper use of knowledge. So here we go. When you go through a blunder, when you bump your head, when you mess up, when you fall, when you make mistakes What should happen— hear me, oh my God— is you should get up, dust yourself off, and start seeking the godly wisdom. Libeso torabaya, bransoto kosi. Inside of your blunder, inside of your mess, you should learn wisdom. Matter of fact, let's— this ain't even in my notes, but let's go to Proverbs 4:7 real quick. Let's go here, Proverbs 4:7. Let me pull it up. Proverbs 4:7, it says wisdom, or hakma, how to use knowledge, how to use what you know, is the principal thing. Let's stop right there. The word principal is a financial word. If you ever buy a home uh, finance a car, uh, got a credit card. There are two things that are connected to those revolving payments: principal and interest. The more principal you pay, hear me, the closer to ownership you are. As long as you're paying interest, ownership is delayed. Hear me. There are a lot of people who, because they're not walking in godly wisdom— hear me, guys, oh my God, oh my God— the ownership of their destiny, of their purpose— hear me, guys— it's delayed. It's literally delayed because they're living in the realm of interest in the spirit. Because they won't mature. They won't learn from the mistakes. They keep repeating cycles from their past. They keep doing the same old stuff trying to get different results. Well, what the Bible is saying here, wisdom is the principal thing. That means if you got to buy it, buy it. That— oh my God, that means if— so to keep you from going through something, if, if there's somebody that has the wisdom, and especially if they're giving away free, and all of it's costing you is your time to sit at their feet and learn the wisdom so you don't bump your head over and over again. And then you're 65, never fulfill your purpose, never operate in the things that God— as I talked about this last week, purpose, on last Sunday I think it was— you never operate in that realm of maturity where your purpose is released to you in a way where you're trusted to fulfill it. Because you, you're living in interest, you're borrowing time and days and not doing what you were born to do. But if you can buy wisdom with time, buy it. If you can buy it in a book, buy it. If you can buy it by going to a conference or sitting under good teaching buy it. Wisdom is the principal thing. Here we go. He said, therefore get wisdom. Get it, whatever you got to do, get it. He said, therefore get wisdom. My God, get it. Get out of a life filled with interest. So you owe no man anything. So you owe God nothing. All you— you want to give your life back to him and live the best life you can because you make a full sacrifice of who you are to him daily. Oh my God, I wish I could teach it like I feel it. Good God from Zion. Good God. Oh my God, today Glory to God. So, so he says get wisdom, and, and watch this, and with all the wisdom you get, here we go, get an understanding. Oh my God, with all the wisdom you get, he says get an understanding. Understanding, if you flip the word, it means to stand under. Study it, learn from it. The Hebrew word literally means to learn to your maximum ability from the process, to learn to maximize the process through learning. Learn everything you need to know about why you messed up. I'm trying to show you how to handle your mess. I'm not teaching this— I'm telling— I'm gonna get to Luke 5. I gotta lay a backdrop before I get there. Okay, number 2, your mess shows up in your life— hear me, guys— to form you, to form you. See, God is trying to form himself in you. He's trying to form your identity as a son of God, because just because you got born again doesn't mean you're clear about who you are, your identity as a son of God. Now watch this. The scripture says, be not conformed to this world. Conformed, two words, conformed. Cons are against, pros are for, pros and cons. So he says, be not conformed, be not against the form because of the world. He said, be not conformed to, or because of, ish, E-I-S in Greek, which means be not— don't allow the world system to be against what God wants to form in you. Or a better word is, or better phrase is, what he has already formed in you. Oh my God, here, God has already formed success in you. He's already formed blessing in you. He's already formed authority in you. But as long as you submit to the world's way of doing things— the cosmos in Greek— be not conformed, be not against the form of God because of the cosmos or the cosmopolitan system, the systems of the world, how the world operates, the laws of the world. Mm. So we're so wrapped up in worldly attitudes, worldly ideas, we miss purpose again. And the Bible said don't allow— hear me, oh, don't allow— glory— this world system to go against what God is forming in you. You got to handle the mess, guys. You got to let it form. You gotta let go of the world. You gotta let go of soulish ways, which means there's something about your behavior that changes. Ah, there's, there's, there's— when you let go of the world, you don't want to be worldly anymore. You want to embrace the ways of God in every area, in your finances, in your family, in your morality. Come on. Oh boy. Oh my God, I hope y'all catching this tonight. God have mercy. He said, be not formed but be transformed. Trans means to move, relocate. So be transformed. How? By the renewing of your mind. So here, there's wisdom again. So I gotta renew, redo my mind with wisdom so I can relocate my mind and my thinking to another dimension, a heavenly dimension, a heavenly way of living, a heavenly way of doing things. And when I get in here, I can become a creator and I can create like the Holy Spirit creates because I've tapped out of the world and now I can do the things that God does Oh my God, because he's forming in me the hope of glory. So again, I'm trying to get you to see mess different because the mess shows up so he can— oh my God, I feel like running. Glory to God. It shows up so the hope of glory can be formed in you and you, glory to God, can create like he creates. You can move like he moves. You can have the authority that he has. Oh, I'm sorry for getting excited, y'all. Y'all forgive me. Y'all, y'all forgive me. I'm, I'm on something else right now. But, uh, so y'all know I was in an accident back in August, so I had to go to the doctor today. They got me going to these doctor's appointments, and so I don't even understand really why I was getting the MRI, but I was getting the MRI today You know, you kind of closed in everything. So, and I had a long MRI, hour 30 minutes MRI. So I had headphones on, I put my tapping music on, and I just prayed the whole time I was getting it. So I started walking through some realms today where God was showing me just, just things that he was going to allow me to build, things I was going to do. And as he was showing me these revelations He was saying to me, son, what I'm gonna do, I'm showing you that you will not sweat in building this. You will have sweatless victory, and I'm gonna give you the creativity— oh God— the creativity and the creative ability to speak like I speak and cause these things to manifest. Oh my God, oh my God. Oh, I'm telling you right now, guys, You need to move your mind out of this realm, and that's what your mess is designed to do, is to raise you above it so you can relocate and you think in another dimension. Set your mind— Colossians, come here— Colossians 3, on things that are above. I'm not teaching that, it's just a backdrop, that's just introduction. Let me keep moving. I could teach that all night though. Glory to God. So So, so, so your mess should give you wisdom. Let me calm down. Somebody might be scrolling through and say, who's this crazy preacher? So let me calm down. Glory to God. See, can I just say one more thing about that? We sit here and watch the world create everything. They come up with witty inventions. They come up with Apple Watches, iOS. They build rockets. They come up with cures for diseases. We're supposed to be doing that. We— and they do it through tapping into portals through familiar spirits. Ah, they tap into the demonic realm. That— some of them do it through drugs, someone do it through Zen, some of them through it— do it through hypnosis. The reality is they tapping into a familiar portal and they stealing what we're supposed to be creating. We— and that's what I'm saying, as we move to this next year, you got to relocate your mind. You cannot think on a natural level. I love y'all. Okay, I'm gonna move. I feel some of y'all. I'm gonna move. All right, so, okay, I'm calm down. I'm gonna be through in a moment. I just sound long, I promise you. I got 30 minutes. Stay with me, don't leave. Stay with me. If you do anything, share this, put— tag somebody in this that you know their mind needs to relocate so that they can experience more. Here we go. Oh, I love Jesus, man. I love, I love this dude. He is so awesome. All right, number 3: your mess. You ready? Not only does it form you and give you wisdom but it also comes— and this is my last one— to fill you. The word fill in Greek, or filled, is epignosis. Epignosis means to be thoroughly furnished with everything necessary to complete an assignment. I'll say that again. Epignosis means to be thoroughly furnished with everything you need to complete an assignment. So when the Holy Spirit, when the person of God who is Holy Spirit shows up in your life, he shows up to fill you. Often it's the mess. See, we think of being filled with Holy Spirit— okay, I'm filled with Spirit, speak with tongues. Great, that's good. Tongues are designed to be a language that opens up heaven for you. Because when you're praying in the spirit, you are speaking in your heavenly language, your— the language of your home country. And all it does is opens up the portal of heaven so that you can now walk in and experience God. Nothing about my MRI today. So I'm laying on the table, eyes closed, tapped in, speaking in tongues. I hear the lady that's administering the MRI come through on my headphones, say, uh, Mr. Woods, Mr. Woods, are you okay? Can you hear me? Are you all right? I'm like, ma'am, yes, I'm good. I'm like, you good? She's like, yes, I'm good. And she was crying because the Spirit of the Lord was moving in that place so heavily while I was getting here. He was filling me up and he was filling her up too. And, and of course I had a great conversation with her before I left that office. But let me tell you something, when you start speaking in your heavenly language, that's great, but it only opens up portals. Because what that did is shifted me— and this happens to me all the time— into these, this heavenly place where I just started walking through stuff that God had planned for my future. So you can't stop at tongues gifts. You use the Holy Spirit, or the man, the person of God that lives in you, because he's a person. You fellowship with him as he becomes your governor and your guide into the heavenly realm so you can be filled with the wisdom that you need, formed into your identity to fulfill your purpose on Earth. All right, good God Almighty, I got to get out of here, man. I'm about to pass out. Listen, the Holy Spirit is in this room with me right now. I'm telling you, you better catch what God is doing tonight. God's trying to shift you somewhere else. He's trying, people of God, he's trying to push you into a realm and a dimension glory to God, that you've never seen, experienced, encountered before. Glory to God. So let's go, let's go to our scripture tonight. Let's go, let's go to Luke chapter number 5. I pray y'all getting something out of this. I dare you type in the comments, those of you that are watching us, just type down in the comments My mind has relocated to heavenly places because that transformed— just say it— my mind has relocated to heavenly places. Because the more you focus on worldly things and worldly places, oh my God, that's what you're gonna get. You're gonna get results from this realm. But type it in the comments: my mind has shifted, relocated to heavenly places. Yes, Lord Jesus, I need you to believe that tonight. Glory to God. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. That's it, Pastor Jasper. That's it, Grace. Glory to God. That's it, Shannon. My mind— that's it, wife. Glory to God. Has relocated to heavenly places. You need to start seeing life through heaven's perspective. You need a heavenly worldview. Your worldview needs to be through the eyes of God and not through the eyes of your flesh. That's it, Minister Sims. That's it, Lady Zion. That's it, Minister Tanya. My mind has relocated to heavenly places. Start thinking through God's mind. Well, how do we do that? Luke chapter 5. And again, remember, the mess is a setup for a comeback. That's it. Sharia, glory to God, glory to God. Our mind has to shift to heavenly places, glory to God. So Luke chapter 5, and we're going to start at verse number 1, ladies and gentlemen. Glory to God, hallelujah. That's it, Latoya Williams, welcome, praise God. Thank you, Jesus. That's it, Josephine Morris, thank you for being here, welcome, glory to God. Let me tell y'all something, that's it, Sarah Beth Faith, glory to God, welcome, welcome. Glory to God. We have to shift into this heavenly realm so we can experience more. Jesus gives us the key here, and we're going to start at verse 1. Remember, every issue, every ounce of mess that ever showed up in your life— remember this— it showed up to set you up to come back. See, the comeback is necessary to bring God glory. So you go through the mess, you bounce back better, and then it gives God glory. I heard that, I heard that. Just type it, type this in the comments too: bounce back better. Glory to God. You gotta bounce back better. So, so you, when you come back from the mess, you need to be better, which, which means God bothers you to make you better. Glory to God, glory to God. That's it, Keisha, you gotta bounce back better. Oh boy, better, better, better. Glory to Jesus. Now let's start right here, Luke 5:1. And it came to pass, listen, that as the people— listen to this— pressed upon him to hear the word of God. He stood by the lake of Gennesaret. Now I got about 20 more minutes, and I could take my whole 20 minutes on this one verse, but I'm not. Few things I want to bring out though. First of all, Luke says to us prophetically, he says, and it came— listen to this— to pass. Whenever you read, and it came to pass, in the Bible, it is prophetically suggested that this is history. Not just for what we're reading, it's a historical thing that happened. This is history, and it came to pass, this happened. But anytime you read this, I want you to For those of you that still read the Bible, right? 'Cause you ought to still read the word. Glory to God. Anytime you see the words, and it came to pass, I need you to understand that God is prophetically talking to you and saying that he is making history with your life. So watch this, the mess showed up, so that God can create a testimony and make history out of your mess. The mess didn't come to stay. Whatever you're going through right now, whatever you're dealing with right now, listen, let me tell you something, it did not come to stay. I'm here tonight to announce to you— stay with me 20 more minutes— I'm here to announce to you that it came to pass. It didn't come to stay, it came to pass. God bothered you to make you better. I'm telling you, no matter what mess you're in right now— relationship mess, marriage mess, money mess, job mess, whatever the mess is— the Lord told me to tell you it didn't come to stay. Oh my God, it came to pass. And I'm telling you right now, this thing is getting ready to pass over. Glory to God. Oh my God, when I grew up in the church, when I, when I used to go to church before my daddy started church and before my daddy got sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost, he used to take me to a church whenever I would go visit him when I was little. There was a Baptist church and my granddaddy was a deacon there, and one of the hymns they used to raise was 'The storm is passing over.' Hallelujah, glory to God. And, and I didn't know what that means as a little boy, but now I understand. They were singing a song of hope to let people know that no matter what you're in right now, the storm is passing. Oh my God. Yes, Shatabaya. Brahmsatakosi. Te shuto rabansatai. And you can shout hallelujah. In other words, you ain't got to wait till the battle is over. You ain't got to wait till the mess clear. You can begin to praise God now because it came, it showed up just to pass. Seems really ambiguous, right, that God will allow this just to remove it, but he does it because you need the testimony. You need to be able to look back over your shoulder and say it came to pass. You need to be able to testify to folk when they say, how did you get out of that? You were struggling, you were going through, you were broke, you didn't have a car, you didn't have this, you didn't have that. How did you get out? Just look at them and say, it came to pass. Glory to God. You can let them know that it showed up just to pass. I'm trusting God for our, our dear sister Vern. Glory to God. Who is in the hospital and she's progressing through this aneurysm process. I'm trusting God that she's going to testify. She's going to rise up out that bed, and when they check again, them other two aneurysms that they found are going to be gone. Glory to God! Because this thing showed up just to make her prophetic testimony, to strengthen her ministry, to make her even more powerful than she already is. And she's going to be able to testify. And it came to pass. The aneurysm should have killed me. Ah, but God raised me up. I was in the hospital most of the day on Monday with my— on Tuesday with my father. Glory to God. And God brought him through this process. We've been praying for him, and I'm telling you, God is doing a great work in him, and he can now testify You know, he's going through this recovery mode right now because of some of the things they had to do on Tuesday, but nowhere near— glory to the name of God— what could have been. Glory to the name of God, because the hand of God was on him. God brought him through. Prayer brought him through, and he could say now, and it came to pass. Oh my God. Oh my God, I'm telling you. And it came to pass— okay, let me calm down. Oh, Jesus, help us, Lord. I got— oh my God, I got 16 minutes. Y'all bear with me. That as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God— see, when God creates history in your life and you go through mess that passes, and you know it was God that brought you through, it creates a press in you to hear him speak to you. Often you start to understand, I cannot live unless he speaks. Or you could live, but you couldn't live accurately unless he speaks. They pressed to hear what God— can I tell you something? Your message is designed to teach you to search for God daily before you make a move, before you make a decision. They pressed to hear the word. The word here in the text is aou in Greek, and aou literally means— well, it's what we were— it's like acoustic. Or full sound or clarity of sound. So they press to hear the clarity, the clear word of God. Here's another point: your setbacks, your mess, it sets you up to learn clarity. Use, use the seasons of mess as an opportunity to gain clarity about your life. Oh my God. I mean, so you can honestly say for surety, I clearly heard God. God said this. Not you guessed at it, but you're sure. Not you say it and then months later you realize it wasn't God and you got to fix it because you start telling other people God said it, that it wasn't him, but Your mess is designed to put you in a position where you seek his face and you hear him. They press to hear the word of God. Watch this. The word here is logos for word, which is the logic or the intelligence of God. God is very intelligent. God is very logical. So when he speaks clearly, he doesn't speak in riddles. He speaks very logical. He speaks in ways that we can understand. And even the preacher— watch this— who teaches or shares the word should be able to teach with relevance, simplicity, okay, and understanding. There, that word understanding again. So you can apply what you hear. It should be clear, right? So when God gives it to the man of God, he gives it in clarity. Not to disseminate it in a way where you still walk away confused. So as I'm teaching tonight, I'm teaching in a way because I want you to have clarity, right? Watch this. They press here the word, and the Bible said he stood by the lake of Gennesaret. I'm not gonna even touch that, but I could touch Gennesaret, uh, which, uh, oh my God, oh my God, which in Greek, the word Gennesaret, which is a Greek word actually. So when King James transliterated this, he transliterated Jennessaret, as it is pronounced in Greek, Jennessaret. Or, um, the reality is the word means a heavenly harp. God loves strings. He— I said I won't get into it, right? But I'm gonna give you this. God loves stringed instruments. He loves the harp. There are harps in heaven. Glory to the name of God. So he loves strings. So Jennessaret was as a harp, which tells me the blessed place to hear his voice with clarity is in worship. You know, living with me, uh, these 4 years, my wife, since we've been married, uh, she's learned to appreciate strings because I played them all the time. I play them when I'm working in my office, I play them in my studio, I play them before I go to sleep, I pray when I'm praying, I play them in the car. We'll be driving Mississippi the whole time, strings, because God shows up in that. With clarity. Yeah, glory to God. Hey, glory to Jesus. Yes, Lord. Get with Pastor Jasper, who's an awesome musician. He recorded some music that he had some high string and orchestrated instruments in that music. Get it for your prayer closet, I promise you. Take you right on through them portals. Glory to God. Thank you, Jesus. Oh, we give you glory, God. We give you honor. We give you praise. We mata basura. Verse 2, let's go. And he saw two ships standing by the lake, but the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their nets. Interesting piece here. Jesus is speaking to a crowd by Gennesaret, but then he sees some fishermen on the other side of the lake. Watch this. Who are giving up, who are quitting, who have a bit of a mess, right? They're quitting, they have mess going on. It's okay, yeah, we, we're done, we, you know, we're not fishing anymore. They're washing their nets. The Bible says he entered into one of the ships which was Simon's and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. So watch this. The moment you feel like quitting— I love this about God because I've been there. Watch this. And if you're doing anything and you never wanted to quit, you're not doing much. Okay, I'll say that again. If you're doing anything and you never wanted to quit, it ain't much. But people who are— have high vision, who are engaged in trying to pursue God's purpose for their life, they're gonna be seasons where you want to quit, and that's a mess. And so I told you before in early in this series that God is attracted to the mess. He shows up in the mess. So watch what he does. He leaves the crowd and says, okay, I'm gonna just turn this into something else. Goes to Simon and says, let me have your ship, thrust it out a little from the land. I'm telling you right now, God wants to get on your ship. He wants to get in the middle of your mess. He's attracted to what you're going through. You just got to let him in. Stop trying to fix it yourself. Stop trying to handle yourself. Stop trying to figure it out, it could cost you greatly. You know, I'm working on several things, and one of the deals I've been working on, you know, because I, I needed God. I've been praying about things, and I was in a meeting yesterday— or was it Tuesday? Today was Tuesday. It was yesterday. I was in a meeting yesterday. I was at the hospital Tuesday. Listen, it'll cost you. Let me just say it'll cost you, because I was trying to avoid going this route to get this done, but God had already set up the favor with me and these people, me and these people who needed to release these funds. And I'm not— and I'm talking about— I'm, I'm talking about 8 figures. You know, at the end of the day, the reality is I was in a meeting for 35 minutes at the most. We actually met and then we talked more afterwards, only to get contacted today saying, okay, we valued this. Oh my God, at 10 figures. And what we want to do is give you the 8 figures you need to do everything you need to do. The crazy thing, again, I was trying to avoid it, but God— when you tap into God, God will show you, it's okay, you need to revisit this because I took you down this road for— and you trying to calculate how you gonna do XYZ when I didn't tell you to do that. I've just made the provision for you and you need to open yourself up to receive it. Good God Almighty, I'm losing somebody. But I'm just telling you right now, you need to let God get on your ship and throw it. Here we go, here we go. Here's the principle, write it down. If you want to change your condition, the mess, you need to change your position. I'll say that again. If you want to change your condition, you got to change your position. See, that's why Jesus told them, let's get this boat back out in the water. Let's, let's stop entertaining quitting. Let's get back out here and let's see what happens when you change your position. A lot of times your condition is connected to the position you're in. Sometimes it may be connected to the geography you're in. You know, there are people that live in other states that need to move because the geography has dried up and their purpose cannot be fulfilled in the geography they're in. Now, if you call to a region, you call that region, stand still, stand flat-footed, do what you got to do. But then there's some people who are so married to a territory, they're scared to change their position. Some of you are high-minded, and so your position is thinking more highly of yourself than you should, and your condition is always going to be mediocre. It's always going to be hard. You'll always have challenges because you need to change your position and humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. He wants to get on your ship. I got 5 minutes. Glory to God. Oh God. Ah, Jesus. Ah, the Bible said he entered into the ship, verse 3, which was Simon's, and prayed him that they would thrust out a little land. And he sat down— here we go— and taught the people out of the ship. Here we go. So when you change your position, your condition changes, and you begin to receive diadakos teaching. Learning necessary— watch this— to guarantee that you never enter that position again. And that's what Jesus began to do. He taught the multitudes actually from this ship. The ship became his pulpit. And Peter, Simon then, and his camera heads looking at this like, what is this man doing? But they don't understand their life is about to change forever because they allowed the master to change their position. I'm almost done. Now, when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draught. Verse 5, Simon answered, saying unto him, Master, we've toiled all the night and we've taken nothing. Nevertheless, at your word, I'll let down the nets. Now let me just break all that down quickly. Got Jesus gets finished teaching, he turns to the man that owns the boat. Now you, let me give you some prophetic instructions. You got to always open your ears for prophetic instructions. That's why it's important to be around prophetic ministry, prophetic culture, prophetic people, because at the end of the day, prophets and prophetic people carry in many instances the prophetic instructions you need to get to that next place. These guys have been fishing all night. Mind you, they were professional fishermen. And I can imagine Peter— Simon was being a little sarcastic. Okay, Master, yeah, I heard your word you were teaching. Yeah, but we fishermen, we professional, we've been fishing all night. And bruh, We ain't caught nothing, all right? But nevertheless, you know why? Because every time you read nevertheless in the Bible, it means that God's option, the prophetic instruction, is nevertheless— hear this— it's nevertheless than God's. Oh, your way is never way than the prophetic instruction. Your way is never better. It's— watch this— God's way is never less than your— how you think it ought to be done. They thought quitting was the answer because, hey, we come back and do this tomorrow. The fish ain't biting. We're fishermen, we do this all the time. We just come back tomorrow. Jesus said no. You gotta listen to the instructions. He said, let down your nets for a drought. And when they had done this, verse 6, the Bible said they enclosed a great multitude of fish. So here's a revelation on this, and I'm done, my time is up. I can teach this all night. But listen to me, guys, you got to obey what God tells you. You're talking about a setback. What if I told you— because you'll read later in this story, I don't have time tonight— that of course Simon began to follow Jesus, right? And he followed him, and Jesus made him a fisher of men. Right. How about, I believe that God created a mess so that they would realize— here's the point of this teaching tonight— that they could do nothing without him. I'll say that again. God created the mess so they could learn that they could do nothing without him. As good as they was as fishermen. So you may say, Michael Woods, how did God create a mess? Well, I'll tell you, they're fishermen. These, these guys know where the fish bite. But God is God. We learned from his communication with the great fish in Jonah. The Bible— so the miracle in that text is not necessarily Jonah being in the whale 3 days in the belly. Uh, you can actually get in the whale 3 days and live if he spits you back out, or if God gets you out. I mean, it has been proven that you can be in the belly of a whale— Google it— all right, for 3 days. Now, but the miracle in that text is the Bible said God spoke to a fish. It actually says that God spoke to the fish and gave the fish— here we go— prophetic instructions to go arrest them, create a mess for Jonah. Because he was going the wrong way. He was doing the wrong thing. I told him to go to Nineveh, he wanted to go to Tarshish. So let me get him back on track. So the mess comes to get you back on track, to realign you with God's plan. So here's my take on Luke chapter 5. I believe that all the fish that were in Genesaret Besides, it was a, a, a place where obviously God visited because it was as a harp. It was worship happening in the waters and upon the waters because the Spirit of the Lord was moving on those waters. I believe that God spoke to those fish, and I saw this— the revelation I saw— that God moved the fish under the boat. He said, y'all just get under the boat, go as deep as you can under the water. Said no matter where they cast their nets— because it wasn't no bait and all that, they were rolling nets trying to get fish in the net— so the fish were moved out of the way of the nets by God. You know, no fish is not gonna stay still. This has to be a miracle. They caught nothing. I mean, these professional fish fishermen with a net, they caught not one fish because all of them were under orders. Glory to God! And they were obeying the master. Are y'all hearing me tonight? Oh my God, I'm done, I gotta quit. So God will speak to fish, he'll speak to— oh my God, whoever he needs to speak to to bless you and get you right on the right track. He created a mess And then when he told him, launch out into the deep, he told the fish, all right, y'all go back out there in the deep water and jump in these nets. And the Bible said they got a great multitude of fish, so much so that they had to beckon for their partners. They had so many fish, the Bible said, that their nets break. Are y'all hearing this? Ah, y'all, y'all, oh God, they had so many fish, y'all. The scripture declares that their nets break. I'm done. All God wants is for you to trust him at his word. And you'll experience the greatest comeback of your life. This was a setback to comeback. These guys received the greatest comeback of their life. Are y'all hearing this? My God, today it was a setback to comeback. All I was trying to tell you tonight, bounce back better. Use the mess to be better so we can show up in the world and literally, guys, change the world for real. Let's pray. Stay with me. Please don't scroll. Please don't scroll in this moment. But I want to pray with you. Glory to God. And I want to pray. Glory to God. Yes, God, I want to pray. Glory to God. It's not what I want. Glory to God. I want to pray. Thank you, Jesus, that you'll take whatever mess, whatever issue that you've dealt with in this life, and you'll get the wisdom you need from it. You'll bounce back better. That's all. That's what I want to pray tonight. So let's pray. Bow your heads with me. Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank you. And we give you glory, we give you honor, we give you praise. We thank you for this word tonight. I don't know who I was helping, but God, I believe it was for somebody that was live or by replay. They need to shift the location of their mind. They need to change their position so they can change their condition. And Father, every area in our lives where we're stuck or we're lacking First of all, God, we ask for grace. Have mercy on us. And God, we open ourselves up. We become acquiesce to your will, your way, your plan, your desire. So whatever it is you want for us, whatever it is you need, we present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto you, which is our logical service. Abba, even as Simon took you at your word The words change. The first word was logic, or logic, intelligence. The second word was rhema, which is the grammatical expression of revelation. They had heard you express, hallelujah, the miracle, express the blessing, express the abilities that tapping into heavenly things could do. Glory to God. And they trusted you at your word. My prayer tonight is that those listening to me won't analyze before they believe. Well, they are for real, God. Take you at your word so they can bounce back better. And we give you praise for it now, in Jesus' name. Amen. And thanks be to God, guys, I love you so much tonight. Thank you so much. Don't leave, I got an— I got a very special announcement about our cruise that I'm going to share with you before we get off. I am so grateful for you jumping on tonight, all of you that joined us. I pray this word has been a blessing to you. If this word was a blessing to you tonight, just type in the comments those hands that lift up so the people that passing by can see it, and it might make them press play pray and watch this message. Glory to God, because that's ultimately what we want. We want engagement. We want people to watch these words and be blessed by them. Whether you're on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, wherever you're watching us, you know, please, uh, engage the comments. We appreciate God for you. Glory to God. And sharing with us on tonight, listen, the first thing I want to do, I want to challenge your hearts to give. I know this is the time of year where everybody's trying to do Christmas and you got your stuff, man, but I want you to make sacrifice tonight. So many times we appeal on Thursday night for offering, but I want you to understand that— and I want to appreciate our church. Our church is a, a good tithing church, except those of you who don't tithe, you know who you are, right? I, I said it on Sunday, um, tithers are the one that makes things happen in ministries. And a lot of times what happens when the church does something, everybody said, oh, we did this, or we did that, or we did this. And it really— the folks that don't tithe, I told them Sunday, just speaking French, oui, oui, oui, because we didn't do it. The tithers are the ones that made it happen. So I want to challenge you, if you're not a tither, to be a tither. Amen. Because it helps us continue to do what God has called us to do in ministry. Uh, we're managing, uh, things over 3 different locations in 3 different regions. So every dime helps us. Uh, people like to— me and Felicia was talking today, and, you know, people will look at us, say, oh, they got it, they can handle it. And at the end of the day, while that may be true, that's not what God has called us to do. God has given us this word so that others can buy in and be blessed because they're bought in. You know, the reality is you can walk in the blessing of that she and I walk in if you buy in and support like we do. And that's why we're blessed, because we support ministry at such a high level, and so many of you do as well. And I want to say thank you for those of you that do. And tonight I want to challenge everybody, please get your best seed in the ground. The ways to give are scrolling at the bottom of the screen. Glory to God. Uh, Pastor Jeffrey has posted the way to give online through PayPal, rhodochurch.com/donate. Uh, you can use Zelle, you can give it to our Zelle at info@rodderchurch.com. Of course, you can use our Cash App, glory to God, which is Rodder Church. However you choose to give, again, the ways to give are scrolling at the bottom of the screen and they're popping up in the comment section. So however you choose to be a blessing to ministry tonight, please do just that. Now guys, while you're giving, and I'm gonna let you go, uh, because my wife and I was watching the movie earlier. I want to go and finish watching that movie. Uh, I love spending time with my wife. Um, I'm so busy doing stuff. We've been running all week taking care of everybody else. I still— I'm going to the hospital tomorrow to see Vern, uh, and just lay hands on her. I'm believing God when I go down and lay my hands on her, she's gonna get up right then. Listen, that's my faith. Glory to God. But I enjoy spending time with my wife, and so whenever we get opportunity to do that, we we do it. Listen, our cruise— first of all, first announcement tonight, our cruise. Glory to the name of God. So I told you guys we were shifting everything to a travel agent, and, uh, I'm super excited. We have set it up where— are y'all ready? You'll be able to simply make a $25 deposit, or we got the option where you can make a $100 deposit. The $25 deposit will allow you to make that deposit, but you will have to pay the cruise off by June. The $100 deposit is going to make you have to pay it 30 days out, which is great. You have up into, um, August to pay for your cruise in September. So we're going to have a web page up. I'm going to work on that this weekend. By Monday of next week, you'll be able to go in and do everything right there online, get registered, put all your information in, because we want everybody to be a part of Dominion at Sea. So I wanted to give that announcement because we hadn't mentioned it, but we're still planning on doing it. Amen. But secondly, we will be in the DMV. For those of you that are watching this live or by replay, I will be in the DMV on Friday night Saturday and Sunday. Listen, two services, however, on Friday night, 7:30 PM. Glory to God! 29 Stafford Drive in Stafford, Virginia. You want to be in the house. Sunday, 10 AM in the morning. Saturday, we're having our Christmas dinner. Early that day, we'll visit the African American Smithsonian Institute Museum, which is going to be absolutely a great outing. So we're looking forward, uh, to fellowship and sharing with everybody that's going with us. I'm so grateful for everybody that's already bought in, got your tickets. Those of you that are still trying to get there, uh, one of my daughters, I love her so much, her faith is so crazy. She said, Apostle, I'm going. She found a ticket, she bought the one-way. She said, I'm gonna get the other half of it. I said, you really moving in faith. Glory to God. Get up there, I'm gonna have to move you in with the Jaspers. Glory to God. But she, she gonna get the— I'm just playing, I'm just playing. She gonna get the other, her return ticket. I'm I'm just saying, she wanted to go so bad, she moved on it. And, um, I'm just grateful for all of you. I wish all of you could go with us. Praise God. Uh, yes, thank you for the DMV info, Pastor Jasper. Um, again, for those that are coming to the services that are not a part of our group, 8th— December 8th and December 10th. Glory to God, it's going to be exciting. Yes, Tanya, we're excited. Glory to God. I'm excited, glory to God, because everybody that's going to get to be together in one place, and it's going to be great for our church. So I'm looking forward to it. I love all of y'all, man. Y'all so wonderful, y'all so great. Keep us in your prayers, uh, make sure you're in Jackson, Mississippi this weekend on Saturday at 12 noon. Uh, God is going to meet us there once again at Rider Church Jackson. I know God is going to bless on Sunday at 3 o'clock. Please be in the house at, at La Rotta Church Atlanta. It's going to be a blessing. Remember, our Steward of the Year drive is still going on. This is the last Sunday to catch our leader. So the leader of the Steward of the Year drive at present is Pastor Ella Brent. She has 17 visitors that she has brought to the church to qualify her to win. Anybody can catch her right now. Ella says she gonna pack it out Saturday. I believe she will. But you don't— listen, you don't know what's gonna happen. You need to work your list, get on the phone and tell everybody you can, you need to be in church with me this weekend. Remember, there's a $1,000 cash prize to the winner. Pastor Ella our pastor of Hospitality in Jackson is in the lead. If you want to win that $1,000, I suggest you pack the church out this weekend. So whether it's Saturday in Jackson— I love this, man— whether— or Sunday in Atlanta, you need to get your guests, load them up. I mean, get them all gathered at a pickup point. You got to make 2 trips or something. Pack the church out. I'm telling you, you can win that $1,000 and that trophy. It's going to be a tremendous blessing. I love every one of you. Heaven smile upon you is my prayer. Y'all be blessed. Pastor Jeff, we can't wait to see you neither, sir. We love you, man. Uh, we, we thank God for you and what God is doing and gonna continue to do through you and Lady Zion there in the DMV. I'm grateful what— for what God is doing in Jackson. I'm thankful for our senior associate apostle Apostle Sandra Hawkins. I'm just looking forward to the day I can just transition everything into her hands and she'd be the senior leader there, uh, and that day is coming soon. Glory to God. So I'm super excited about that because we got so many other things we got to get done. I love you guys, man. Y'all be blessed. Heaven smile upon you is my prayer. Peace.