HOW LOVELY IS THE CHURCH, PART 2: AWAKENING & DIVINE DISRUPTION | DR. MIKE WOODS SR.

Well, grace and peace be multiplied to each one of you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Listen, I am happy joyfully-yam to be with you here today. Welcome to our virtual worship service for Rhoda Church. My name is Dr. Mike Woods, and I am the senior pastor and founder of Rhoda Church. So glad that you're here today. I pray that every person is having a supernatural Sunday. Listen, I'm super excited. I'm amped about sharing the word of the Lord with you today, and we're gonna go ahead and jump right into the heart of this service. We're gonna do like we always do. We're gonna open the service with the word of God. So today's scripture reading is coming from Psalms 8:2. Let's read it. The Bible says in the NIV, through the praise of children and infants, you have established a stronghold against your enemies to silence the foe and the avenger. Your praise is so powerful, people, according to this text. The Bible says he's established praise through his children to silence the foe. Oh my God. And silence the avenger. And watch this, to establish strength, a stronghold. Glory to the name of God. Against that same foe and that same avenger. So no matter what is coming against your life, I don't care what it is, the Word of God says your praise has the power to bring great defeat to it. Listen, you ought to praise him right now for the victory. As a matter of fact, today is August 2nd, 2020. We just read Psalm 8:2, so this is the 8th month and the 2nd day, and I'm telling you right now, this is a very prophetic day. And as you praise God on this 2nd day of the 8th month, I'm decreeing and declaring right now, oh my God, that yokes are being destroyed right now, and that your enemy is being stopped in his tracks, and the weapon against your marriage, the weapon against your children, bre kikeba uskete, eba uskatavaki, the weapon against your finances, the weapons against your health that the enemy has formed. I'm telling you right now, as you begin to worship, as you begin to praise and give glory to God, those weapons, hallelujah, are being diminished, and you're being set free as you praise. Your praise is a weapon. Come on, right there in your living room, right there in your office, right there in your car, wherever you are, I dare you right now to give God glory and honor, for he alone is worthy. Hallelujah! Let's pray this morning. Glory to God. Hallelujah! Because God is worthy of the glory, and we praise him in advance. Even before we pray this morning, because we believe that God is answering our prayers right now. His credit is good with us. So Father, in the name of Jesus, bless this service today, God. Let the power of your anointing flow through this video, God, and every person that watches either live or by replay. I pray the anointing would rest heavy upon them. I pray that the authority and power of your blood, God— God, would rest heavy on their lives and penetrate every issue, every problem. And even as we read in the scripture, God, you said in your word that out of the mouth of babes and sucklings you have ordained, ordered strength, God. So as we, your children, praise you and worship you today on this, oh my God, second day of the eighth month in the year of 2020, we decree and declare, oh, that we are strengthened in our mind, We're strengthened in our body. We're strengthened in our finances. And Father, we're strengthened in our health, God. And we give you glory that our enemy has been diminished. We take authority over the devil now. Cast the devil out of the mind. Break down every stubborn will. And we give you glory and honor and praise today in Jesus' mighty name. Amen and thanks be to God. Why don't you clap your hands again and give God glory? Listen, don't you dare scroll away from this. Matter of fact, if you do anything, I need you to share this right now. Glory to God. You're in for a powerful service. I'm telling you, I feel the anointing of God right now. Glory to God. Well, before we go any further into our service, I want to get some things out of the way. I believe that the service should go from glory to glory to glory. So as we begin to move further into the service, I want to get all of the technicalities out of the way up front. So the first thing I want to do is give you some very important announcements about things that are coming up in and around Rhoda Church. I'm super excited about Rhoda Church of Atlanta. Glory to the name of God. And I'm excited for what God is doing in our midst, in our building. Listen, we originally had planned to be back in church, in the building today, but we've been doing some construction, some remodeling, and because of COVID-19, uh, a lot of things have been moving a little slow. So we've tentatively rescheduled our dates. I want you to put these dates in your calendar. We're going to have what we call— this is, we're going to— this is going to be a very powerful conference for 2020. And wherever you are in the world, you need to make plans to be at this meeting. We're calling this Emergence, where we're going to emerge from the trouble, the disturbance— glory to the name of God— that has happened in our world. And we're going back to church. And guess what? We're going to emerge Better than ever. Glory to God. And that's the theme, emergence. We're back better than ever. And it's going to happen Thursday, September 10th through Sunday, September 13th. They're going to be 6 powerful and dynamic services. We're going to celebrate going back into the house of God. Listen, so we're going to meet that Thursday evening and then we'll come back Friday afternoon at 12 noon, and then we'll do a Friday night service. Glory to God. And then we'll come back Saturday at 12 noon, and then we'll do a Saturday night service, and then we'll close out on Sunday morning at 9:30 AM. Listen, I want you to be on the lookout for all of the instructions. Praise God. Hallelujah. On how to be a part of this conference. Listen, registration will be free, but it will be required because we're gonna honor all of the CDC guidelines with social distancing, with wearing a mask. So when you come to the church, the first thing that's gonna happen when you come into the lobby, there will be a, there will be a worker there who will take your temperature. We will make sure that your temperature is within normal limits. If it's not, we're gonna pray for you because we've already declared before that our worship space is a cancer-free zone. I've been walking through that building declaring it's a COVID-19-free zone. So if your temperature is high and you got COVID in your body, we're going to pray for you right there on the spot, and we're going to watch your temperature go down. Glory to God. And we're going to let you in the service, but we're going to have the seats a distance. Glory to the name of God. And so that's why you got to register in advance, because the seating will be limited. Glory to God. But we're going to pack in everybody we can, and we're going to keep families who live together together, and we're going to keep people who don't live together 6 feet apart. And I promise you, it's going to be safe. We're going to distribute masks if you need them. Glory to God. But the power of God will be there. So please mark your schedules. We're going to have some powerful speakers, including myself. We're going to have a great worship leader that's going to be with us. It's going to be phenomenal. Make sure you put those dates in your calendar. All right. Secondly, I want to encourage you, we're currently in the midst of teaching, glory to the name of God, a live online class called Basic Instruction in Prophetic Ministry. Our house, Rhoda Church, is a prophetic and apostolic culture. And as a people, it is God's will that we not only be prophetic in the house, but we be prophetic outside of the house. So we're teaching these classes, and our very next class will be next Saturday, this coming Saturday. Glory to God! I want you to go right now to rhodachurch.com, scroll down to the prophetic training link, and register. You have to register to join the Zoom. You want to be a part of the Prophetic training, basic training in the prophetic. You want to get involved, I promise you, you will not be disappointed. As a matter of fact, coming up this week on the Apostle's Table, we're going to be sharing, praise God, hallelujah, part number 2 where we talked about prophets and the gift of prophecy. You don't— you won't want to miss Monday through Friday. It's going to air every day. It's going to be a piece out of that training that we're going to air. And I promise you, you want to make sure you get it. Glory to the name of God. Well, finally, I want to— well, not finally, I want to encourage you to one, text the words RADAR TV. Hear me, RADAR TV to 319-996. What that's going to do is going to put you on our corporate text list. And we won't just be sending you texts all the time, but whenever I am live, whenever there's a special event, we're going to send you a text and with a link to how to register or how to get more information. So you want to be able to get that so you know whenever we are live on YouTube or Facebook, you'll receive a text. So do that today. Text the words RODA TV, all one TV, to the number 319- 31996. 31996. Glory to God. All right, now finally, I want to challenge you guys. Follow us on social media. First of all, I need every person watching this, whether you're watching my Facebook or YouTube or Periscope, if you have not subscribed, or Instagram, if you have not subscribed to our YouTube channel, Raw TV. It's brand new. We need your support to subscribe. So I want you, before you leave today, subscribe to the YouTube channel @RadaTV. There's something else out there called RadaTV, but ours, you'll see the logo with the lion and it says RadaTV. Glory to God. And you'll see my messages under the bottom. Make sure you hit the subscribe subscribe button. Secondly, I want you to follow us on Instagram. I want you to follow us in two dimensions. One, I want you to follow Radha Church on Instagram, and I want you also to follow @apostlemike on Instagram. Make sure you do that today. All right, and then thirdly, I want you to follow us on Facebook. Make sure you follow us on Facebook at Radha Church 1 Follow us on Facebook at Dr. Mike Woods. Glory to God. So either one of those Facebook pages, you'll be able to catch us live in what we do every day. You'll be able to follow our posts and follow the ministry and the things that God is doing. And then finally, glory to God, I want to encourage you to follow us on Twitter @DrMikeWoodsSr. Glory to the name of God. So make sure again you Follow us on every social media outlet so you can stay up to date on the things that we are doing. Glory to God. Well, we're almost where we need to be. I told you I want to get everything out the way. Glory to God. So when we get the flowing in the word, nothing's gonna stop us. Praise God. Hallelujah. So I want to challenge you guys today as we're preparing and we're construct— I mean, we have a large undertaking and budget for reconstructing this space that God has called us to create called Rhoda Church, and we need your help. So for every person that's connected to Rhoda Church, that's connected to me, every, every partner, every son, every daughter that's a leader, I'm telling you right now, as your apostle, I need your help. One, if you're connected to us, I need you to tithe. Glory to the name of God. I need you to tithe. The Bible says that 10% of your gross earnings, the first fruits of all your increase, belong to God. I need you to be faithful and loyal in tithing. So today I need you to tithe. And then secondly, I need you to make a sacrificial offering and sowing today. Glory to God! I need you to plant a seed. Glory to the name of God! That is a sacrifice. So let's prepare our gifts. Glory to God! And let's begin to worship God in giving on today. The ways to give at Rhoda Church are real simple. You can give 3 different ways. One, you can give online at rhodachurch.org. .com/donate. That's rhodachurch.com/donate. Secondly, you can give via Cash App. You use the money sign and the name Rhoda Church. Glory to God. Again, that's Cash App @rhodachurch. And then thirdly, you can give via text. Simply text the word RHODA Give give, glory to God, to 31996. Again, text RADA give to 31996. Listen, saints, we need your support. We're not here to beg, glory to God, because God has been good to us. Matter of fact, most of the undertaking for the reconstruction, we've carried it ourselves, but we're at a point now we need your support. Praise God. Because I'm telling you, we're gonna build a house of worship and a people, glory to God, that will influence the world. You know, our motto at Rhoda Church is to, glory to God, number one, discover your purpose, develop your purpose, and to deploy that purpose. This is our threefold action statement, mission statement, whatever you wanna call it. This is what we are in the earth to do, to teach you, number one, how to discover your purpose. Every one of you listening to me has a real dominion purpose, and we are here to help you learn how to discover that purpose. Glory to God. Because so many people live and die never knowing why they were really here, and we want to help you understand that. Okay. Secondly, once we help you get a revelation of that purpose, We want to help you, glory to God, develop that purpose through instruction, through teaching, through training, glory to God, so that you're fully mature in the area of your dominion purpose. And then finally, Radha means dominion. We want to deploy you, deploy, release you into that purpose as a master, as an authority in that area where you could take dominion and influence in that arena. So this is why we're creating this space, so it can be a training center to help people be deployed into the earth, and so that we as the people of God can fulfill the mandate. Are y'all hearing this? Of dominion. It's in Genesis 1:28. It's not something God was just saying. He wants us to do it, and we need a house that will be able to train people to do it. And that's why Rother Church at exist. So please, please, ma'am, please, sir, sow your seed, give your tithe, and be a blessing to ministry today. I love you guys. It's such a wonder, amen, to be able to serve you. And I want you to be loyal, glory to the name of God, in the area of giving. Let me pray over your offering, glory to God. And then as I pray over it, I want you to begin to prepare your hearts to give it. Praise God. Hallelujah. Father, in Jesus' name, we bless you, we honor you, we thank you, we glorify you, and we give you the praise. We thank you, God, for this opportunity to give, God. And I pray, Father, in the name of Jesus, that you will cause the spirit of liberality to rest on your people. I pray that as they tithe, you would do like the scripture says, open the windows of heaven, pour them out a blessing that they will not have room enough to receive it. I decree and declare, dear God, hallelujah, hallelujah, glory, hallelujah, that they will not want for anything and that the devourer power will be rebuked for their sake. I thank you that as they sow seed in the kingdom, you give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. God, that they will reap a harvest that's a thousand times more than what they are sowing. And we give you praise and glory for it now, in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. And thanks be to God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah! Well, God is so good. Again, plant your seed, sow your tithe, and be a blessing to the kingdom. Well, it's almost preaching time. Glory to God! Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah! As we begin to gravitate into this next part of our worship experience, glory to God, before I minister the word— and listen, I I told y'all the sanctuary is so lovely, and that's what we're continuing today. Hallelujah! Our series on How Lovely Is His Church. And I'm trying to pull out each week some throwback stuff from the sanctuary. Well, one of the people that have always been a blessing to Roddick Church is— hallelujah— Courtney Henderson. She's an anointed psalmist out of Decatur, Alabama. Alabama. And every time Courtney has come to us, she's done nothing but a stellar job in releasing the anointing in the atmosphere, and it induced miracles, signs, and wonders because of her ability to unlock the heavens. And we're so grateful for the grace that is on her life. And so she's going to sing a song to us called Holy. Glory to God. It was originally performed by Donnie McClurkin. We don't own the rights to this, but we use, uh, various worship songs for our worship experience. But listen, I want you to draw your mind in, turn your TV up, close your eyes, and let's give worship and praise to the holy God, because indeed he is holy. Come on, let's receive psalmist Courtney Henderson. God bless you. Yes, Lord!

To my Lord and Savior, my God and King, I will sing holy, holy. I will praise the Lamb of God who sits upon the throne. I will worship him and give the praise to him alone. He who was and is and is to come. I will sing before his throne forever, forever. You're holy.

Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord.

Holy, holy Lord God. Holy. You're holy. Holy. Holy Lord God, holy. I will praise the Lamb of God who sits upon the throne. I will worship him and give the praise to him alone. He who was is and years to come. I will sing before his throne forever. Anybody want to sing to him? Forever. You're holy, holy, you're holy Lord. Ah, holy, you're holy, you're holy, you're holy Lord God. Holy, yeah, you're holy. You're holy. You're holy. That's all the angels say. Holy. You're holy. Holy. Holy. Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy. You're holy. You know what holy means? Just separate and sanctified. He's set apart. There's nobody else like him. You're holy, Lord. Holy. You're holy. Holy. Holy. Holy. Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy.

Hallelujah! Well, praise God, he is holy. Hallelujah. Come on, just lift your hands a few minutes. Glory to God. And give him praise and glory for his holiness. Father, you are holy, you are holy, you are holy, you are holy, God. Hallelujah. And we worship you today. You're the crown jewel of heaven, Lord Jesus. Holy Spirit, we magnify you, we glorify your great name, and beside you there is no other. Oh Father, even as we worship now. We ask of you to anoint your word as we teach today. God, anoint your word as we give your people what you have said. God, rapture me out of my conscious mind. Hallelujah. And oh God, supply my intellect with supernatural intelligence that I may minister the word with power and authority and clarity. And I yield myself to every gift of the Spirit, God, with your prophecy, tongues, interpretation of tongues, word of wisdom, word of knowledge, word of faith. Hallelujah! Discerning of spirits, healings and miracles. God, I thank you now that as we teach, you sent your word and it healed them. We thank you that your holy presence is here to help us today, and we praise you now in Jesus' mighty name. Amen and thanks be to God. Hallelujah! Glory to God! I'm excited, man. Well, let's jump right into the heart of this. Praise God! We're continuing our series entitled How Lovely Is the Church. Praise God! Hallelujah! How lovely is his church. Church. So what I want to do, I want to first read the foundation scripture for this teaching, all right, because I want us to see what we're building off. Uh, last week, glory to the name of God, we, we interrupted the series, praise God, actually, and we played a throwback from the sanctuary called The Gift of Apostleship as we were led of the Lord. So we're back here today and we're gonna teach you, hallelujah, again, part 2 of How Lovely Is the Church. So I want to just refresh you a little bit. So let's read the text, and then I'm gonna give you a brief review of what we talked about in the introductory message, and then we're gonna get into today's teaching. All right, so today's message foundation text is Psalm 84, verses 1 and 2 and verse number 11. Glory to God. The scripture says, how lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. For the Lord God is a sun and a shield. The Lord The Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. Oh my God, hallelujah, hallelujah! So let's give a brief review of that introductory message. Glory to God. First of all, in that message I shared with you some effects of coronavirus or COVID-19 that they have literally had upon the church. I kind of deliberately shared some effects that coronavirus have had on the church. Praise God. And so one of those things was fear. All right. And we know that God has not given us the spirit of fear. He's given us power. He's given us love, and he's given us a sound mind. The other thing has been stress. Glory to God. The stress that has been on leadership and the people, uh, because many times we just don't know or understand really, uh, in a lot of ways what it is and how it can really affect us if we don't react to it properly. Uh, you know, we see in the media inebriated with, you know, there are 4.5 million cases of COVID that have been confirmed. About a— probably less than 2% of them have died, 125,000. Of course, we don't want anybody to die. So the fact that we see that 125,000 people have died, it incites a level of stress because we want to move on with life. We want to do things the way we feel they need to be done. But this is all inculcated— inculcated, I'm sorry— with a deliberate deprivation, glory to God, of corporate assembly. And I shared those things because I wanted you guys to be totally clear that it's never been God's will for us to disassemble. Um, but God will allow some things so that he can reroute us and create a different type of people, a different type of culture when we emerge. So yeah, this is again inculcated with an idea that we have been in violation of Hebrews 10:25, which tells us to forsake not the assembly of ourselves together. Oh God, which is the manner of some, which now is the manner of most. Most folk don't like to go to church anyway, so this was right up the alley for some of y'all because you don't want to go to church anyway. But in the end of the day, for those of us that love the house of God, you know, this is pressure, this is stress. We want to be around our colleagues, we want to be around the people we love, we want to hear from God in the sanctuary. This is good, okay, but there's nothing like when we come together and worship. I don't care what you say, this is good. You know, I was talking to somebody the other day, they said, well, you know, you might, might ought to just keep doing stuff, because I was talking about our opening in September and things like that, how we've— we're getting ready to amped up to go back out. Then they were saying, well, you might just keep doing Zoom, you might just ought to keep doing virtual, man. I was doing virtual stuff before COVID But at the end of the day, this is not God's way, and we cannot allow what is happening in the earth to keep us out of his lovely house. Okay, let me keep reviewing. So in the introductory message, I gave you 4 benefits of corporate assembly. One was awakening. Hallelujah. Two was assurance. Three was advance. Hallelujah. 4 was alignment with leadership. I'll say those again. 1 was awakening. 2 was assurance. 3 was advance. 4 was alignment with leadership. I'm not going to talk about all of those today, but go back and watch the message, How Lovely Is the Church, Part 1, because I promise you it's going to give you a clear foundation of what you need to hear concerning as we move forward. So what I'm gonna do over the next several weeks, I'm gonna break down those 4 benefits for you. So today, glory to God, we're gonna talk about awakening. We're gonna discuss divine disruption. Oh God, divine disruption. Hallelujah! Awakening and divine disruption. So let's just first get a working definition once again of the word awakening. All right. The word awakening is emergence. There's that word again. Hallelujah. Emergence from stress, from pressure, or the disruption of life. I'll say it again. Awakening is emergence, and many a times it's supernatural emergence. Glory to God, from stress, pressure, or disruptions of life. All right, so God— and I know people have taken this word awakening and they've turned it into something else, but I mean, at the end of the day, it means what it means. Uh, you cannot make up a definition for a word that has been defined. I'll say it again, you just can't make it mean what you wanted to mean. Okay, so A lot of times in the, in the, in the eras where in order dispensations where we saw revival and change happening. All right. And what we, what we call those times was emerge. Well, we're not— we didn't call it Emerges from Stress. We called it Awakening. Glory to God. And in other words, it was like you waking up to something new, something revelatory. And in one sense, we could view awakening as that. But the core definition of this word is emergence from stress, pressure, or disruptions of life. It's just like when you're awakening from sleep, you're awakening actually from a disruption from life. But oh my God. Yes, you— because you have disrupted life by taking a rest and going to sleep. And so when you awake in the morning, you're— watch this— you're being brought back, or you're emerging from a temporary disruption. And so I want you to view the word in that light, okay? So let's get a working definition of disruption, because we're talking today again about divine disruption. So disruption is disturbance or problems that interrupt an event, an activity, or process. I'll say it again. Disturbance. Hallelujah. Disruption is disturbance or problems which interrupt an event, activities, or a process. So we can agree, Claude, that the activities of our life have been disturbed have been interrupted. Listen, my wife and I were originally planning to go to Hawaii for our first anniversary, which is happening this week. And soon as this hit, that was, that was disrupted. So we immediately shifted those plans and said, okay, well, maybe we just need to try something else. And so because we shifted those plans, as we saw things opening up and we said, well, maybe we can do Orlando for a week and Disney's going to be open, one of our favorite places. That's where I proposed to her. It's a beautiful proposal. We proposed to her at Disney and it was just awesome. Our family and friends were there. It was, it was great. Glory to God. She was totally surprised, had no idea what was happening. Listen, We start planning that. We bought plane tickets or start booking stuff and looking forward to our trip. And bam, we see on the news Florida is number 2 now in COVID-19 cases. And we say, okay, well, maybe we're sitting there watching TV together. We said, okay, well, maybe we need to hold off on that. And not that we're walking in fear, we're just saying, okay, let's just be wise right here. They number 2. Let's not get on a plane going there. Let's not go down there and go to Disney because I didn't want to go because we went over the 4th of July weekend, went there, stayed at the Waldorf Astoria and kind of enjoyed the resort. I played golf and didn't go out anywhere because it was like ghost town. Nobody was there. But we wanted to— we love Disney, we love Universal. We wanted to enjoy Florida. We was like, okay, ain't no need us going because we're not going to go do that. So now that was disrupted. It disrupted, it interrupted an event, activities, a process. So watch this. It is— COVID-19 has disrupted in a lot of ways church. I know y'all say we still having church now. Listen, I'm telling you right now, we ain't having church. We're doing this at your convenience. Many— then this is why I personally, I post these lives when I'm led because I don't have a particular time when they're going to come on on Sunday because I really can't be consistent with that. You need to hear God on it because at the end of the day, people are going to watch this at their leisure anyway. Some of you won't watch it at 9 o'clock if I put it up at 9 o'clock. You don't wait till 3 anyway because you at home in the comfort— oh, y'all ain't talking to me here. You're in the comfort of your house, and so you're gonna wait until you're comfortable doing it. You don't have— there's no alignment with leadership, there's no accountability to a time frame because you at home. Oh boy, y'all don't like this kind of teaching. I'm just trying to help you, because in no area of your life will you be able to have success and be effective if you cannot discipline yourself. To be accountable to structures and time frames, especially surrounding God. Don't you tell me you can be on time. Some of you that's working from home, when they tell you to log into that computer at 9 o'clock in the morning, you there. But listen, tell y'all log in for church at 9 o'clock, some of y'all, glory to God, you just wiping the darn crust out of your eyes. Oh my God, listen, so I do it as land because this thing has disturbed a process that God put in place to produce his glory, man. Okay, but I'm going to show you today how this ain't just something that happened. Glory to God, it's a divine disruption. God did— he's not raining COVID-19 out the sky. He didn't do it. But I'm, I'm gonna tell you now, after much prayer and sacrificing around this, I'm clear in the corridors of my spirit that though God didn't give it to us, because he's God, he allowed it. And I began to now say, Lord, why did you allow it? He said, I had to create a disruption. I had to cease the normal activities temporarily to get the attention of my people. And I'm gonna show you why. Let's go to 2 Chronicles 15. This teaching is coming from this text today. Somebody say divine disturbance. Obashia. Come on, say it again. Divine disturbance. God again is not raining COVID-19 from the sky, but he sure allowed it. I'm gonna say it again. He allowed it because he's God. Because guess what? He surely could have stopped it. COVID-19 is real, but he's more real. And I want to tell you something, there's never been a time that God has not been in control. I'm gonna say that again. There's never been a time that God has not been in control. Oh my God. Here, 2 Chronicles 15, verse 1. Y'all stay with me. And the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Obed, or Oded, I'm sorry. Let me read it again. And the Spirit of God came upon Azariah, the son of Oded. First of all, I want you to see where here the Bible said the Spirit of God came upon him, which means the Spirit of God took control of Azariah. Now I want to submit to some of you watching me today, part of the reason we are where we are is because God has wanted to create an intimacy with us that will cause us to yield our life to complete control. I pray that you guys have been using this season not to be lazy, not to be lackadaisical, not to be sitting around twiddling your thumbs, sitting on your hands, sitting on your gluteus maximus posterioris. Glory to God. I wish you have— I wish to God that you have been using this season of isolation to create intimacy with God and those you love. I pray, glory to God, you've created intimacy with your purpose and God's plans for your life, so much so that he could take full control. Because see, here's a problem, guys. This is a big issue. God really ain't had full control of your lives. He really ain't had full control of the church. Oh, you have a whole bunch of political, religious, demonic people who have been raised up in leadership, who have made church and ministry all about him— about them, I'm sorry. And not about him.

The—

oh, she caba! I feel the anointing. I feel— oh, bah, eh, brisca la mondo, la bocusta tabaki ashe. Listen, there's so many leaders who are teaching doctrines of devils that— then the Bible said in that day there'll be a great falling away. If we're not careful, when we emerge from this pandemic, this will want to be one of the greatest falling aways in the church. God, because people don't want to go to church again anyway, and they're looking for an excuse to stay at home. Listen, the church is lovely, and this pandemic was designed and allowed by God so God can be intimate with you through the isolation, so he can get control of your life. And the Spirit of God— another way of putting this— controlled Azariah. Yeah, 2 Chronicles 15:1. And the Spirit of God controlled— somebody said, I'm grown, I'm a grown man, I'm a grown woman. But let me tell you something right now, you're not grown in God's eyes. And whenever you approach him, you— if you want to get anything from him, you need to come to him like a child. We should all come childlike before the Father. I don't care how anointed you are. I don't care how long— oh, by sea. Oh my God. I don't care how long you've been saved. You should be coming before the Father childlike. Oh goodness. Oh my goodness. You should be coming before the Father childlike every time you approach him, and you are— let him have control. Let him be your puppet master. Bishop T.D. Jakes preached a message back in the late, early '90s actually called The Puppet Master. Glory to God. He was still in West Virginia when he preached it, you know, wearing that blue suit that he used to wear. Glory to God. But he preached a powerful message called The Puppet Master, and in that message he talked about when God pulls your strings. A puppet master pulls strings and makes the right arm go up, makes the left arm go up, makes the head turn right, makes the head turn left. That's what a puppet master does. You all let God be— the puppet cannot move unless the master is controlling it. You ought to give yourself total submission to God like Azariah. Let God control your life. But watch this, the Spirit of God— I'm gonna show you what happens when you let God be in control just in this one verse. And the Spirit of God came upon Azariah Now Azariah's name in Hebrew means whom Yah or God has helped. Awah Jah or Awah Yah, which is Azariah in Hebrew, and it means whom Yah has helped, whom the God Almighty has helped. So first of all, complete control from God it is going to yield help from God. Oh God, oh my God. So when you, when you just yield yourself to complete control, God says, okay, I got you, I'm helping you. So you should be able to replace your name right there. Oh my God. And the Spirit of the Lord took control of Michael, and the Spirit of God helped Michael. Glory to God. Hallelujah! Glory to God! Y'all better put your name in there. See, when, when you listen, in my life, the moment I started saying, God, you in control, and stopped depending on myself, stop leaning on myself, that's when the Lord started really helping Michael Woods. But the Lord— let me tell you something, as long as you feel like you are in control I'm gonna tell you right now, y'all. God have mercy. I'm gonna just tell you right now, the help gonna be slow because you're trying to help yourself and God's saying, get out the way, let me help you. And the Spirit of God controlled Azariah and helped him. Hallelujah! Watch this. Hallelujah! And he was the son of Oded. Oded, or Awad in Hebrew, means restorer. Wait a minute. So when I let God be in control of my life, out of my life I give birth to restoration. Awad, or Oded in Hebrew, also deals with the idea that that which I touch is restored. Oh, or that which I speak to is restored. Oh my God, oh my God, listen, what kind of power is that? So God says if we as believers would submit to him, God have mercy. Yield to his authority. Glory to God. My God, my God, y'all don't like this kind of teaching. I know y'all want me to entertain you. I'm not gonna do it, not gonna do it, ain't gonna do it, ain't gonna do it. Glory to God. I want you to learn something. Glory to God. Listen, if you understand this, the restoration and all of its essence through your touch, through your words, through your interaction with that that needs to be restored, is the Father of help. So watch this. So once I give my life in control to God, God helps me, and I can now align myself with the Father who helps and begin to help others just like he helps. So I should be speaking, and I do every day, you should be every day, to coronavirus, and speaking to our planet and commanding it to be restored. Not going somewhere, balling up in a corner, living in fear. You should be speaking to this thing, commanding the planet to be restored. Lord have mercy, Jesus, on our soul today. Oh, glory be to God. And you sitting around twiddling your thumbs, you sitting around, uh, confused about where you want to go to church and who you want your leader to be because you scrolling online watching everybody. You need to go back and pray again. Glory to God. And you need to make— you need to understand that God had— he has already decided what you need. Glory, and you need to be consistent and faithful to that promise. Let me move on. Glory to God. Verse number 2. So Azariah, now controlled by God— because he's controlled by God, he's going to go where God tells him to go. So the Bible says, and he went out to meet Asa and said unto him, hear ye me, Asa. And all Judah the praises and Benjamin. The Lord is with you. Watch this. While you be with him, and if you seek him, he will be found of you. But if you forsake him, he will forsake you. So God is saying, wake up here. He's using Azariah to prophesy to Asa and said, listen, You're gonna have some trouble. America, we got trouble. Planet Earth, we got trouble. But the Lord says, the Lord is with you as long as you're with him. I don't want you to get this twist, to think that just because you're alive and breathing, the Lord is with you. He loves everybody, but I need you to be clear, he's not with everybody. The Lord is holy, man. Oh God. And so he can't dwell in unclean things. He can't dwell in unclean places, unclean temples, unclean processes. That's not the way of God. God is pure. He's chaste. He's a holy God. The woman of God just sung it today. He's holy. So he's with you as long as you're with him. You can't be out here doing what you want to do. Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness, I'm getting ahead of myself. Listen, he said he's with you long, and if you seek him in trouble, if we seek him during this pandemic, we'll find him. I told you earlier, use this season as a time of getting close to God, of getting intimate with God, so God can help you. If you seek him, he'll be fine. But if you forsake him, if you take up your own agenda, doing what you want to do, living like you want to live— hallelujah— trusting yourself over God, he said if you forsake him— some of the— why I forsook him? I still love Jesus. But you forsook him if you don't obey his commandments. If you're living a life in fornication, you forsook him. All right, let me move, let me move. He said he will forsake you because I'm getting ahead of myself. Glory to God. Verse 3. Well, let me say this first. Let me say this before I go to verse 3. I never— because that's basically in a nutshell what that text is saying in verse 2. I never want to be where God was. I always want to be where God is. Let me say that again. I never want to be where God was. I always want to be where God is. Oh my God. See, if you're where God was, that's a, that's a, that's a term that is suggesting that he left there, he went somewhere else, You know it, but you won't move where he is, and you've forsaken God. What do you mean? God has a plan, y'all. He has a desire for you. Yes, he do. He does. I'm telling you right now, he do. And when you know that plan and that desire, but you do something else, you're forsaking God. And guess what the scripture said? He's not with you when you do that. Okay, verse 3. I want to show you what America looks like right now, okay? This is what it's looked like for a long time. This is why we have a divine disruption right now. Oh, but we're getting ready to emerge. Glory to God. So let's look at 2 Chronicles 15:3. Uh, listen, stay with me, I'm almost done. Glory to God. The Bible says here, now for a long season, Israel had been without the true God, the true God, and without a teaching priest and without law. Let me read it again because it's just all right to read the Bible. Amen. Now for a long season, Israel hath been without a true God. A teaching priest, and without law. So here's our purpose and reason for the disruption. Matter of fact, in this verse we can interchange Israel for America. Let's read it like that. Now, for a long season, America have been without the true God and without a teaching priest and without law. So y'all see earlier why I felt like I was rushing ahead of myself when I started going into these things about standards. Now watch this. America and the world have missed the reality of who the true God is. Oh my God. And the biggest bandit— I'm going to say this under the auspices of the Holy Ghost. That has robbed America and the world— listen to me— of who the true God is, is religion. I'm gonna tell you something: religion has robbed more humans of relationship reality concerning the true God than any other entity, because what religion has done It has taught people redundant processes that substitute the realities of God for a systematic approach to worship or a systematic approach to dealing with the scriptures or viewing things from an antiquated mindset that do not align itself with the mindset of God. Watch this. God's mindset is never antiquated. It's never outdated. It's never old. God is eternal. And the scripture says he's the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. Who is the true God? Lord, help us. Eba ba bakura bakiski aya. Who is the true God? He is, glory to the name of God, the Almighty God. He's Elyon, the Lord God Almighty. Who is this true God? Hallelujah! That America has been without. He is El Shaddai, the God of plenty, the God that is more than enough. He is— oh my goodness— Jehovah Tsidkenu, the Lord our sanctifier. Hallelujah. Which means he sets us apart. Glory to the name of God. For Pacific assignments and Pacific tasks. He is, oh my God, Jehovah Makkedesh. He's the Lord our righteousness. When we lose our righteous compass, we can lean on Jehovah Makkedesh, who is the Lord our righteousness. He is Jehovah Jireh. Lord, help me in here. Glory to God. He's the Lord our provider. He's our source. And what we've done, we have been without the true God because we have set ourselves aside for assignments. We have not trusted him to be our sanctifier. We have, oh my God, tried to be self-righteous. Oh my God. Oh Jesus. And we certainly don't trust him to provide. He is, who is the true God? Who is he? Who is he? He's Jehovah Shammah. He's the Lord that is with us. He's the Lord that's present right now. I'm telling you, he's not coming, he's here. And he dwells with those who seek him. He's with those who love him. He, oh God, he's with those oh my God who will lean, hola magiska, on his righteous hand. He is Jehovah Shammah. He's Jehovah Shalom. He's the God our peace. Peace is not the absence of confusion. Shalom means the presence of assistance. I'll say that one more time. Oh God, I feel like running, y'all. I feel like running. That's why we gotta go back to church. I can't run in this studio. I could, but it'd be a short run. Glory to God. I feel like running. He's Jehovah Shalom. He's the God our peace. Glory to God. Heba brikilaba surakishkitaya. He's the presence of assistance. That's why you ain't got to freak out because they're cutting unemployment. You don't have to freak out because the stock market is bad. You don't have to freak out because you cannot find a job. I want to introduce you to the true God. This is why there has been a divine disruption, because the world needs to know that he is, glory to God, our Jehovah Jireh. He is our Jehovah Shalom. He's our peace. He is here to assist us, and if you seek him, he will be with you. Oh, he's the true God. He's the true God. He's Jehovah Nissi. He's the Lord our banner. Hallelujah! And because of the righteous, efficacious, vicarious, substitutionary blood of Jesus Christ, I uphold a blood-stained banner. Glory to God! I'm free and I'm victorious, and no weapon formed against me can prosper. No enemy that rises against me can prosper because I hold up the blood-stained banner of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah! Glory to God. You ought to shout right there and give God praise because you have the victory. The Bible said the earth has been without the true God. He's Jehovah Rapha. He's the Lord our healer. There is no disease God cannot heal. See, we have been divinely disrupted. Again, God is not raining coronavirus out the sky. But he could have stopped it, and yet he allowed it. He disrupted normal activity so that we can emerge to reality that he is a supernatural king. That he is the true and living God. Oh my God, here. Oh my God, here. Somebody ought to receive this now. We've been divinely disrupted so we can be close to the true God. He's the true and living God. He's Jehovah Rapha. He is our healer. I dare you shout right now, Rapha! Come on, out of your mouth, Rapha! Ibrikataba! Rapha! Over America! Rapha! Against coronavirus! Rapha! Against cancer. Rapha against tuberculosis. Rapha against diabetes. Rapha against high blood pressure. Rapha against lunacy. Rapha against psychological disease. Rapha, our healer, come now and get us. Ibasaya urababasita. Let me come now. Glory to God. Ibababahiki andoloboso. He is Jehovah Rohi. He's the Lord our Shepherd. And because the Lord is our Shepherd, haba sikia, but I gotta go back to church. I shall haba ushkatapa, not want. Habababasikia, because he's my Shepherd. Habakia, I shall not be in need. Obamamasicanda, because he's my Shepherd. He has attacked my lack. Listen, guys, the more we deprecate the true God of the Bible— I'm telling you, Buddha is not the true God. I'm here to announce to you, Confucius is not the true God. Hallelujah. Muhammad is not the true God. Ke tabasele de de be kushka tanabaki. There's not some mother god in the universe. Listen, he is Abba Father. He is the Almighty God. And the more we depreciate his value and deprecate him, oh my God, the more rampagious America will become. Oh God, we're chaotic and we're faced with crisis because we have deprecated the true God. But I heard the Lord say, hey bud, Those who believe must now lift up the bloodstained banner of Jesus Christ and declare that Jesus is Lord. The world has been without the true God. Oh my God. Oh, here we go. And without a teaching priest— watch this— a teaching priest, a priest here in the context It's not a guy from Catholicism that walks around with a collar and calls himself Father and despises marriage. That's not what the text is talking about. A priest here is an intercessor, one that goes to God on behalf of the people and atones for them, becomes one with them. So here, here, here, what we need in this hour, we've been divinely disrupted because God is trying to, one, get his leaders, his apostles, his prophets, his pastors, his evangelists, his teachers, those who are in the headship of the church, the ministry leaders, back to real prayer where we don't just intercede for our four and no more. Where we're praying for the world, where we have a worldview and not a local church— not a local church view. And then if we get a worldview and become a praying priest, we become a teaching priest where we can teach principle that will help people exist in the world because of our enlightened worldview, because now we look at the world through the eyes of God. And we look at it as a place where we're supposed to be ruling and dominating. Ah, God, I gotta go, gotta go. God needs a teaching priest. A priest, a teaching priest, not just a teacher who wants to be popular. Oh my God, and have 100 million subscribers on YouTube. Lord, I wish I had 100 million subscribers for real, but it's not because I want to be popular, it's because I know I'm a teaching priest. I know I pray before I open my mouth, and I know I see the world through God's eyes, and I'm going to disseminate the word with authority and power. Glory to God. So that you can live in this world the way God intended you to live. I'm not on here just trying to say what you want to hear so I can get those subscribers. No, we need a teaching priest who's willing to help you learn. The position of a learner is the most powerful position a human being can take. Especially a believer, because it enlightens you to God's way of thinking, God's way of being, God's way of doing. Which brings me to my third reason we've been divinely disrupted is because there we have been without law. We have passed laws that are totally rejecting to this book. This book, ladies and gentlemen, is still holy. This book, from COVID to cover, is still— oh my, from Genesis to Revelation, it is still the law of God, and we must obey what it says, and we must implement it. There was a time this world was— I mean, this nation America was established on the contents of scripture, but now it is ruled by the styles of Paris and the standards of Hollywood. We passed laws that said it's okay for two men, two women to be married. They're lobbying right now in Washington, D.C. for polygamy, where a man can have more than one wife. They're lobbying for an adult male to be able to marry an underage— oh my God— woman who's under the age of 18. They're lobbying. So you knew that we had opened up a box when we said two men, two women could get married. Now they're trying to go do everything against the scripture. I want to tell you right now, we need the law of God. Watch this, not just on sexuality and those type issues and marriage. We need the law of God concerning our finances. We have been made to believe in many instances by religion that it's okay to be poor, that it's okay to live beneath your privilege financially. I want to tell you right now, who— from a man that has been very poor From a man who's had to sleep in his car, from a man who's lost everything before, who has become rich, who has become wealthy in the things of God. And I decree every day that I'm a billionaire and that I am wealthy so I can advance the kingdom of God, because the law of God says this is his will for me. You stop it right now in the name of Jesus, accepting poverty. I know, I know you're saying, Michael Woods, the poor you have with you always. That doesn't have to be you. You're poor when you refuse to submit to the tenets of the kingdom. The Bible said broad is the way that leads to destruction, but narrow is the path that leads to righteousness, which is the law of God. Diasounion in Greek from that text, the law of God, the way God does things. It's a narrow path. I dare you, get on a narrow path to do what God has called you to do. Are you hearing me? Eba! Sutrebeskite! Briskatabokuskiaya! Watch this. 2 Chronicles 15:4. I'm almost done. But when those who were without a true God, without a teaching priest, without the law, But when they in their trouble did turn unto the Lord God of Israel and sought him— watch this— he was found of them. Again, back to it. I never want to be where God was. I want to be where he is. So in the midst of a pandemic, instead of looking to the man's way of doing things— see, this is the awakening. We got to wake up. The young people, the world has— stay woke, wake up, stay woke, I'm woke. Listen, let me tell you something. Stay woke, wake up, I'm woke. But the Bible said, when they in their trouble did turn unto the Lord God of Israel and sought him— watch this— he was found of him. The reason you do not know God, because you have not sought him. Now maybe you sought religion, you sought a good church, You sought a good group of people you want to worship with. But maybe you have— you're still stuck and have not graduated to him. So you want to be in the house of God when you really know him for real, because you know that he dwells there. You know, glory to God, there's something that happens among his family that doesn't happen for you individually. I mean, great things happen to us individually, But I want to tell you something. There's something happens at another level when we are aligned, and I'm not going to teach about that today, but we got to wake up and seek him, because if you seek him, you will find him. Glory be to God. Drop down to verse number 7, 2 Chronicles 15. Glory to God. And 7, it says, be ye strong therefore. I want to challenge every person listening to me to move in strength. Hallelujah. Be strong. Glory to God. Be strong. Glory to the name of God. I'm gonna say it again. Be strong and let not your hands be weak. Glory to God. For your work shall be rewarded. Don't you faint. Don't you give up. Glory to God. The Bible says your work will be rewarded. Rewarded. The diligent soul shall be made fat. Keep serving him. Keep doing the work of your assignment. Keep seeking his face, because I heard the Lord say he's going to reward us. And as we move from this divine disruption— because I'm telling you right now, God is calling us to emerge. He's calling us to awaken. From the disruption and seek him. And we got to get back to worshiping together. We got to get back to praying together. We got to get back, glory to the name of God, to doing the things that God has called us to do in outreach. There's so much work to be done. And God says, oh my God, that we must now emerge better. We must emerge and come back and be better than ever. If I was in church, I'd tell you to hit somebody and say, I'm back and better than ever. Glory to the name of God. Come on, I'm telling you right now, we're coming back and we're coming back better than ever. The church is coming back with more power. Hallelujah. The church is coming back with more glory. The church under— is going to emerge as a force in the world. To shift the atmosphere, to break atmospheric disturbance, to change the world and do what we've never been done. I dare you, touch yourself and say, I am back. Glory to the name of God. I'm back with more power. I'm back with more wealth. I'm back with more anointing. I dare you, touch yourself one more time and shout, I am back. Hallelujah. In the name of Jesus. Lord, I gotta go back to church. Good God Almighty, lift your hands right where you are. Hallelujah! God is bringing us to a place that we've never been before. I dare you, lift your hands right where you are and begin to worship the King. Come on, worship the King. Hallelujah! Come on, worship the King. He's a holy King. He's a holy king. He's a holy king. Come on, he's holy, he's righteous. Come, Lord, and abide with us. Your presence is all that we need. Our hearts are fixed upon your face. Our thankful lips are filled with praise. Your presence is all that we need. You know, he's everything, y'all. He's all we need. Come on, worship him right where you are. And just tell him, you're holy, you're righteous. God, abide with us. And tell him, your presence is all we need. Glory to God. Thank you, Lord. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Glory to God. Father, in Jesus' name, we thank you for every person, and I pray that this word will land on the good ground of every heart and that they will be awakened from the divine disruption, and we will receive the true God. We will receive teaching priests, and we will submit to the parameters of your kingdom law, and we give you praise for it now in Jesus' name. Amen. And thank God. Well, perhaps, glory to God, you've been watching and you're not saved. You don't know the true God. And you said, Michael Woods, I hear you, I, I don't know where to start. The first step is being born again. God said to Nicodemus, you must be born again. What do you mean? You must be born again of the Spirit. How does that happen? The Bible says if you confess with your mouth, believe in your heart— glory to God— that Jesus died and rose again The Bible says you shall be saved. The scripture says in Acts 2:38, if you repent of your sin, hallelujah, and be repent for the remission and be baptized, glory to the name of God, in the name of Jesus, for the remission of your sin and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, the scripture says you shall be saved. I need you today, if you're not born again, or if you got sin in your life, you know if Jesus returned today you would go to hell, you know you got sin in your life and your business is not straight, I want you to pray with me. He's great in his mercy. His grace is sufficient for us. Would you pray with me today? Glory to God. Just repeat after me and receive Jesus Christ into your heart. Say this with me. Say, Heavenly Father, In the name of Jesus. Say, I believe that you died, that you rose again. Say, Lord, I open my heart and I invite you in. Say, live in me, Jesus. Say, Lord, I repent. Of my sins. Say, have mercy on me and forgive me, in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. Listen, if you repented and said that prayer with me, the Lord has entered your life today. I want to give you the next vital steps. I want to take you to the water and baptize you. I want to show you how to receive received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, would you write me and say, hey, Dr. Woods, I repented of my sin. Write me, glory to God, at the email address on the screen, info@rodderchurch.com, and say, hey, I prayed with Dr. Woods today, glory to God, and I received Jesus Christ into my life, and I want to know the true God. I want to abide by true law. Glory to God. Hallelujah. I want to submit to Teaching Priest. I want to show you how to take those steps. Write me at the email address on the screen and I'll show you how to do it. Listen guys, my time is gone. I really appreciate you sharing. Listen, remember, give your tithe, sow your seed. We need your help. Glory to God. We've already mentioned this at the front, but I want to remind you, after you leave this broadcast, if you've not— have not done it already, I need I need you to give. I need you to sow your seed. Praise God! We need your sacrificial giving today in the mighty name of Jesus. We love you. Heaven smile upon you is our prayer. I look forward to seeing you soon. God bless you. Peace.