MANIFESTED VISION, PART 5: VISION & TIME, PART B | DR. MIKE WOODS SR. | 11-27-2022 | RADAH CHURCH

Well, grace and peace everyone from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is Apostle Mike Woods, and it's always a privilege to share the word of the Lord with you. I want to thank you off the top for being here. Please don't scroll. I promise you there is something here for you today that's going to be absolutely life-changing. Today we're gonna teach part 5 of the series Manifested Vision, and we're gonna continue talking about vision and time. We just couldn't get finished with it last week. It's too much meat in this message, and I really want you to get it. I don't want to entertain you with it. I want you to take great notes, and then most of all, as you intake this revelation, I want you to take it into the world and make application so that you can see a manifestation of God's vision in your life. So listen guys, please don't scroll. As a matter of fact, I need every person watching me right now to share this video. Listen, I posted a video a couple of weeks ago of Jasmine Sullivan singing the national anthem at the World Series. I— it was my video I posted posted it, and 12,900 people and counting have watched that video. And I'm like, oh my God. So Jasmine was doing her thing. She sings, right? But people need the word, man. If we would get as excited about the word as we do everything else and share it, man, do you realize the world would be a better place? I'm not just talking about when I'm preaching, but when you hear other preachers that's preaching the word and people, and you know that it's something that people need to hear, you need to share it. So I'm inviting you, that, that video was shared off from my page 364 times so far. I want to challenge you guys, share this message. It's going to help somebody maximize their time. So I'm excited to teach today, but before I do I'm going to take you into— I was scrolling through some archives of video. We have so much video of services and things we've done, and I found a worship set. Our worship pastor at the time, a wonderful woman of God, LaChelsie King, she's so anointed. She led worship, but the worship was so pure. It was so clean from a, from a very chaste place, and it just really touched me as I was looking at the archive. and I want to share it with you because I believe it'll be a blessing to you. So LaChelsey King, our former worship pastor, is coming, and you know, she's, she's just a part of our family. And so we're going to share this video with you, and then after she ministers, I'm going to come back and I'm going to teach this word. So don't scroll, y'all stay with us, share it and enjoy this. Get into the worship, lift your hands and talk to God. I promise you, you're going to be blessed. I'll be right back.

Here I am to worship. Yeah, here I am to bow down. Here I am to say that you're my God. We're all together in love, all together You are worthy, altogether wonderful to me. So here I am, here I am, here I am, Jesus. Here I am. You can trust me, I'll go. Here I am. So here I am. Here I am. Here I am. Here I am. Here I am. Here I am. Here I am. Here I am.

The right way you are.

If you don't mind, would you join me and just simply say, here I am, God.

Father, I'll do what you ask me to do and joyfully worship you in spirit and in truth.

In spirit and in truth. In spirit and in truth, cuz I know the truth.

Hallelujah. Father, we only You.

Hallelujah! We say thank you, Lord. Oh, thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. I just want to— you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, Lord. I just want to thank you, Lord. Everybody know this, we all be Thank you, thank you, Lord. Oh, thank, thank you, Lord. Oh, thank you, thank you, Lord. Oh, I just want to thank you, Lord. Oh, you've been so good. How many of you know he's been good to you? Oh, you've been so good. Yes, God. Yes, God. Oh, you've been so good. Oh, I just want to thank you, Lord, what you've done for me. Hallelujah! He saved You saved, you saved my soul. Yes, you saved, you saved my soul. Hallelujah! Oh, I just want to thank you, Lord.

All right, well, praise God. I know that, that worship ministered to you like it did us. Listen, I don't want to waste any time. I'm going to get into this word, so let's pray. Father, in Jesus' name, this is the day that you have made, and we rejoice and we're glad in it. And Father, on this day, this last Sunday in November, as we move into the last month of the year, December, God, I pray that you would open our mind to understand that as we move into new territory, new days, God, I pray, God, that you will just give us a refresh, a reset, and a retooling, God. And I pray that your vision for our life will be manifested. God, we understand that it takes time for the entire vision unfold. But God, I pray that for those of us that will get in place, we'll start seeing, uh, accelerated manifestations of seasons of blessing inside of the vision you've gave us. And I thank you for it now, Father. Even as we open the word to teaching, let us experience the light, the illumination, and the intelligence of the Holy Ghost. Give us the grace to teach. God, give us the anointing to rightly divide the word of truth. And I decree and declare, God, as we speak your word today, God, that the truth will be spoken and the truth will set us free. In Jesus' name, amen. And thanks be to God. Listen, I'm super excited today again to teach this word. Please go ahead right right now and share this, whether you're watching us on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, IG, whether you're listening to the podcast, however you're getting this message. I really want you to make sure that you are distributing this to others because somebody else is going to need it. So we're continuing today— yes, Lord— our series on manifested vision, and this is part 5, Vision and Part B. We started teaching Vision and Time last week. Uh, there was a replay of it actually on earlier today, and if you missed it, you can go back and watch the replay of the first part so you could be up to par as to where we're going with this today. Listen, you have to learn how to manage your time effectively. And last week, just by way of review, I just want to just give you a few principles we brought out. First of all, we, we talked about the fact of time mastery, and we talked about how when you master your time, you actually master life. Um, people who waste time, people who procrastinate, people who put things off, people who um, never have time to engage with God to get things done God's way and to operate in the realm of his nature. Most of those humans waste a lot of time on all of the wrong stuff. Most people spend their life doing things that God never really ordained because they never engage God in the first place. I've been saying this for 25 years. I'm gonna say it again right now. Every success in my life was a prayer success first. Every failure was a prayer failure first. Either I didn't pray about the decision I made and moved strictly in carnality, or I didn't pray through to clarity or to a voice, and I moved prematurely and it ended up in failure. And many a times wasting a lot of time. But whenever I chose to pray through, hear this, whenever I chose, listen to me, to spend time with God so that he could bring the clarity necessary, hear me guys, to walk out accurately the events in my life based on clarity that came from heaven, Every single time I had good success. So what am I saying? You have to make sure that you master your time in prayer so that you can have clarity and understanding. Because again, he who masters his time masters his life, masters his destiny, because you synchronize your steps, your movement, your relationships the things you do, the things you say, you synchronize it with God and his desire and plan for your life. Are y'all hearing me? Are you hearing me? Okay, so we talked about that again. Go back and watch it. Go back and watch it. Uh, we brought out the fact that vision is for an appointed time, and we'll read that scripture in a moment. But at the end of the day, all vision has an appointment. And we talked about how an appointment, listen, is a prearranged meeting. It's a meeting that is set up in advance. And so everything about the vision that God has for your life was already preordained, pre-established before you even got to this planet. So again, you gotta go back and watch so you can get the meat of what we were discussing in that regard. Because the moment you start pursuing something that wasn't appointed, it sets you up for disappointment. Because watch this, when you start pursuing something that wasn't appointed by God, whether it be a job, whether it be a profession, a relationship, whether it be starting a business just because you think it's lucrative, but maybe it's not what God, wants you to be doing. Maybe it is preaching and you ain't supposed to be preaching or trying to be a prophet or an apostle, and that's not who you are because that wasn't appointed. So what ends up happening, you start creating a whole lot of seasons of disappointments because you worked against the appointment. Oh, you got to go back and watch that teaching because at the end of the day, we got a whole lot of people who watch this even at eye level. And because we've learned throughout this series that sight is a matter of the eyes, but vision is a matter of the spirit. So we got a whole lot of people that are living in the sight realm and they're operating in gifts and they're operating in offices that at sight level, if you look at them, you say, oh my God, they're successful, they're popular. You may even say they're powerful. But in the end of the day, there are tons of people who are operating in cultures and areas that God did not pre-appoint, that God did not ordain for their life. So yeah, go back and watch part 4 of this, and I, I promise you, you'll get it. And so we talked about the fact that time is life and that life is defined as time. So what we discussed was, was that your birth certificate is your time clock that clocks you into life. Your death certificate clocks you out. If you die before the measured out time that God has measured for you, for you to fulfill your purpose, that's murder. And we got into what that really was in the last teaching. Not gonna teach it again, But I want you to understand just a few of those nuggets because it's a good segue into where we're going tonight, or today. Listen to this. Every human being, every single day, and we discussed this, and we're gonna get right into this next part once I say this, is given the same amount of time. That's the only thing that everybody gets the same amount of every single day is time. What you become in your life, listen to this, is determined in how you use the 24 hours that are given you. I'll say that again. What you become on earth, what your marriage becomes, what your church becomes, what your business becomes, what you become, what your children become based on how you parent them. It is determined on how you use the time you've given to relate in the areas of vision in your life, and that's why we got to make sure we are spending time— uh-oh— correctly. Let's go to Habakkuk 2:4. Again, and let's read this, 2, 3, and 4. It says, for the vision, the harzan in Hebrew, which is the prophetic perception, revelation, dream, or the prophetic word pertaining to God's optimal reality for your future. I'll say that again. God has an optimal reality for your future. Which means there's a future pertaining to you on God's mind. Hear this, that he wants you to walk in, that he designed you to live out. And vision is simply seeing that end result, getting a revelation of what he said, of what he ordained. Glory to God. It is a prophetic decision. Glory to God that God made before you became a human being. So he says, for the vision, the prophetic decision, the dream, the perception, the revelation that comes from heaven, God's optimal reality for your future, it's for an appointed time. But at the end, hear this, it shall speak and not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come and it will not tarry. I'm going to tell you something. Every real vision from God— hear me— it's going to come to pass. One day you're going to see— listen to me— the manifestation of that vision. You're gonna see it happen. You're gonna live to see it happen. Hallelujah. I dare you type in the comments, "I'm gonna live to see it happen." If you're listening to the podcast, I dare you write it on some paper, say, "I'm gonna live to see it happen." I dare you speak it out loud and say it, "I'm gonna live, woo, to see it happen." Glory be to God. I need you to hear that. I'm gonna live, I'm gonna live, I'm gonna live to see it happen. I'm gonna live to see billions. Glory to God. I'm gonna live to see souls saved in the hundreds of thousands. Glory to the name of God. Annually. I'm gonna live to see homelessness eradicated in my city. I'm gonna live to see God add to our churches daily. Such as would be saved. I don't know what you see, but God said to Jeremiah, Jeremiah, what seeth thou? He said that to him in chapter 1 of the book of Jeremiah. What seeth thou? Glory to God. I say to you today, what seeth you? What does the end look like for you? You ought to write, say it again, just say it out loud. I'm gonna live to see it happen. And you cannot allow distractions, negativity, people who lack faith, people who are falling away, people who try to tell you the vision that's over your life is not— do you realize there's so many people that told me that the things I'm doing now I couldn't do? People that told— I had, when I first went full-time in ministry, people— I had people false prophesying, saying, thou art not called. Go get a job. But if I wouldn't have started then building my life around the things of God, I wouldn't have the faith I have now. And I wouldn't have the ministry wisdom and experience I have now. So I didn't listen to the distractions because those distractions could have been fatal. And granted, some of them probably meant well, and then some of them were just stupid. Because they didn't want to see me go for it because they weren't doing nothing. And the reality is, I need you to get this, man. You can't listen to the distracting voices that try to distract you from your purpose, distract you from your dream, distract you from the plan of God, God's optimal reality for your future. You cannot listen to that crap. You gotta stay focused. I dare you, say it again. I'm gonna live to see it happen. What seest thou? What do you see? Don't you get so distracted by what you're going through that you stop looking at what God showed you as his optimal reality.

Woo! Woo!

Some of y'all have gotten so distracted by your bills, your money problems, your marriage problems. You've gotten distracted by the problems with your children, by the problems in politics and in the world. You, you're looking at the wrong thing because those distractions, watch this, will turn into delays. Because as you start focusing and placing your vision on what's distracting you, versus the vision of God that should be attracting you. Oh boy, that should be attracting you. Listen, ooh, you create delays because you got to be focused on God's vision so you could put in the work and go through the process necessary to bring it to pass. But you too focused on the distraction, you will never fulfill the vision, and it creates delays. Something that should have took a year is taking you 20 years because you're distracted. Something— oh, Shikiana, it's for an appointed time. Glory to God. So something that should have already happened 5 years ago, you missed it because you was distracted. I'm telling you right now, God's grace is sufficient. He could get you back on point and get you back in the realm of attraction. There's a kingdom law called the law of attraction where— oh boy— where you tap into the realm of the spirit and the realm of the King in a way that he shows you what's at his disposal for you. And what he has—

oh wee—

and what he has planned for you, then now you get pulled in by the law of attraction, and you so attracted to it. Don't watch this. When you really see it, it's gonna be hard for you to get distracted, man. I'm telling you right now, it's hard for me to get distracted because I seen it. I know what I'm doing. I know where I'm going. I know what God said. And once you see it, you don't get distracted by no little problems that come up. You gonna stay focused because that— listen, you ever been attracted to somebody in your flesh? Yes, of course you have. The proof of desire is pursuit. You don't saw a fine woman, uh, men, ladies, you don't seen a fine man and you attracted to them and you— and something about that attraction got under your skin. And the proof of desire became your pursuit. No different when you tap into the realm of the spirit. When you see it and your king shows you his vision for you, it creates an attraction. You go, woo, I want that. And something in you ignites like Ezekiel. It becomes like a fire shut up in your bones, a burning passion. To go after what God shows. I love it.

Woo, I love it.

I gotta move, man. I gotta move, God. So the delays, if sustained, so distraction sustained cause delays. Delays sustained, ooh, Causes detours, which means now you've been delayed so long— a detour is taking another route to get to a destination— that you start trying to take shortcuts. You start trying to create new routes to get to something you want because you have sustained the delay so long. And then when you finally get a glimpse of what God is saying you start trying to cut out the process. But watch this, the process is what qualifies you to keep the vision when you get it. Oh, oh, it's what qualifies you to keep it. So you can't take detours, 'cause a detour's a stain to leads to destruction. You destroy the authentic purpose, you destroy the original plan because you were living in the realm of delay too long. That turned into a— oh my God— a detour, and the detour destroyed the vision. Listen, you got to make up your mind that you're going to maximize your time and finish your course. So it's where we're going. So let's talk a minute about spending time. So time has to be spent. Matter of fact, time is the currency of life. You might want to write that down, type that in the comments. Time is the current— type in the comments— is the currency of life. And time, like all currency, must be spent. Now watch this. You may be given or may have a different amount of physical currency than someone else. Someone else may have 100 grand in the bank, you may have 2 grand in the bank. Someone else may have a million in the bank, you may have 100 grand. Here's the reality. Both parties have the same amount of currency when it comes to time. And all you gotta do is figure out how to tap into the vision of God for your life and spend your time and your currency right. Oh boy. And your bank account automatically by default will increase. Because you're sowing into, ooh, the vision that God has for your life. And wherever there's vision and where there is a flow toward vision in the law of attraction— so watch this, as the law of attraction is not just one way, so I'm being attracted to the vision over my life. But watch this, when I start walking in it and spending my time on it The vision now becomes attracted to me.

Ah!

And so now while I'm going toward it, it's coming toward me and blessing me as I spend my currency of time on vision. Ooh, wait, watch this. You don't like what you get at the end of the week? Change how you spend your time. Doing the week. You look at that paycheck and say, man, I don't like this. Well, change what you're doing with your time. See, most of you are making linear income, which means there's a set amount of time, a set amount of money that's going to yield a set— oh my God— amount of pay. So they already said, we set this amount, we're gonna pay you $50 an hour, and if you're going to work 40 hours, and you're going to yield $2,000. Well, the moment you get mad about that $2,000 and start spending your time different toward the vision, that number by default, it's going to change. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. I, I don't know who I'm helping, but I'm helping somebody. Yeah, somebody's got to grab this tonight because you've been living by a linear way of producing income and trying to create wealth when really you should tap into a realm of passive income where you're spending your time. Oh my God. Moving toward a larger vision where you're basically doing one thing right and it yields consistent results. And the one thing you're doing right is spending the currency of your time correctly. Oh boy. So basically, what are you saying, Woods? Time is used to buy life. I'll say it again, time is used to buy life. Not money, time. Because really, whatever you spend your time doing— time is so powerful that whatever you invest that time in, that's what you become. Think about it. A doctor spends 8 years plus in school to become a doctor. But they can't become a doctor without that. They have to go to school, pass the boards, become licensed, and then watch this— they, they are now known as a doctor. What you invest your time in, that's what you— and you just have to determine that you want to become what God has visualized for you as his optimal reality for your future. Come on, man. You got to decide that that's what you want.

Whew. Whew.

Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God, people. What do you want? You got to make the decision that that's what you want. Hallelujah! Glory be to God! You want what he saw, not what you came up with. Oh my God, today! My God, today! So we got to spend our time correctly. Let's talk a little bit about— because I said it's in one of the last week You gotta avoid time wasters. Time wasters are enemy to progressive vision. And so you gotta, you gotta make up in your mind that you're gonna avoid time wasters, people who waste your time. So let's talk about wasting or abusing time. First of all, I want you to be very clear that time can be stolen by a time waster. A time waster can show up in your life. And lemme tell you what a time waster is, is aligning yourself with someone, one, that cares nothing about wasting your time, but two, their reasoning for being in your space does not align, hear this, with God's purpose nor his plan for your life. Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. I'll say it again. It doesn't align with God's purpose or plan for your life, right? So if that be the case, Michael Woods, what are you saying? Yeah, I'm saying you gotta mark people. The Bible says in the book of Romans, mark the man. Hallelujah. That comes to bring division, that comes to cause strife. And any person that shows up in your life that isn't in alignment with where you're going, and all they're doing is wasting your time and creating distractions, you gotta eliminate it. Yeah, you, you can love them, but you can't keep them in close proximity because they have proven that they are a distraction. Lord, have mercy. Have mercy, Jesus. Help us, God. So time can be stolen. Secondly, time can be abused. So it can be stolen by people you waste time with, but it could be abused by stuff you choose to waste time doing that don't align with your purpose or the vision that the king saw his optimal reality for your future. You can waste, ah, shiandolo bokushkataye, amansa, briskete bamando. You can waste so much time. I want some of y'all to be honest with yourself, right? And I want you to take a time abuse test when it comes to social media.

You.

Don't scroll, don't get mad, all right? Stay with me because some of you can't fulfill God's vision for your life, and some of you never saw God's vision or God's dream for your life, and you waste time on social media scrolling, watching everybody else's dream, right? And you don't even spend enough time with God to see what he sees. Listen, there's, there's something wrong. You're abusing your time if your screen time on social media, if it's more than your time working on your vision, than the time— ooh, somebody said, I am on social media working on you. But no, you're not. Oh yeah, what you don't understand is, is that The algorithms on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, they're very controlled by the people that own those channels. And they make sure that whatever you post, they're going to make sure who they want to see it see it. They— the algorithm has determined how you use social media. And that's why some of y'all be posting flyers. I'm looking at it like, okay, the only people— and you be mad cause 2 people like the flyer. Well, or 5 people like it. Well, because social media sees that you're doing an event, right, that may possibly bring you revenue. Well, they're not going to let everybody that's friends with you or that follows you see that flyer. They're going to throttle your traffic, okay? And then what they're going to do is want you to buy an ad. That's how social media companies make billions of dollars in ad services.

Yeah.

So you're really limited to who you're reaching, who you're touching, and you're spending all your time trying to figure out how to master the internet when really you need to be mastering vision. And if internet is a part of your vision, then you incorporate it in a way that's maximizing your time and not abusing your time. You incorporate social media in a way that's productive and not counterproductive to the fulfillment of vision. Time can be abused. Some of you dating people and all you're doing is abusing time. You're dating with the hopes that this person is the right person. You're dating with the hopes that it's going to turn into marital bliss. And some of you just dating because you want to have sex, which is a sad occurrence if you're born again, but we're not even talking about that today. Let me tell you something, you're abusing your time if you're wasting your time going out on dates, spending money, having conversations with people that are not going to be a part of your future. So you have to make sure you're bringing people into your world, or a person into your world, that has the potential to go to the altar with you. Otherwise, you're abusing time. You're abusing time. And how do you know that? Women, wait, hide. He that finds a wife, wait in prayer, pray Work on your purpose, work on your vision. And the man that's doing the same thing, working on his vision, praying about a wife, guess what? He's going to find you. He's going to find you working on his vision. He's going to find you in prayer. That's— my marriage to Felicia is a prime example of that. When I— when, when Rachel and I divorced, I really was determined I'm not getting married again. And I had all kind of distractions started coming at me. And my spiritual father said, boy, it ain't good for you to be alone. You, you, you can't be alone. You got to get married. So I started praying. The first thing I did, I needed to find, not in my flesh, not in my carnality. I needed to find the person that was for me. That I needed in my life, that knew how to love Michael Woods, that I could be with forever, right? So I did that. And guess what God did? I found her working in her purpose. I found her, glory to the name, serving the Lord, not looking for me. Listen, you, you gotta understand some people. When you start going through all these different people abusing your time, here we go again, you are distracted. You're sustaining the distraction and now you're gonna become delayed because the thing that you could have got if you just would've followed the process, you missed it cuz you stayed delayed too long. You got distracted and you destroyed it. Original vision. Stop abusing your time, people. Listen, if you have to work right now, I get it. But while you on that job, be praying about that business, be praying about that vision, because that, that's not God's stopping point for you. He wants to deploy you into the marketplace as an entrepreneur. Yeah, I'm talking to somebody. I'm talking to somebody. Oh my God, I got to go, I got to go. So time can be abused, time can be lost, time can be squandered, time can be appreciated, time can be deappreciated. Hallelujah. So you got to understand something. You— it could be devalued, it could be revalued. The bottom line here is you're in control of whether you value your time, use your time productively, wisely or whether you squander it. The Bible said in Ecclesiastes 3 that there's a time and purpose to every— there's a time and season, I'm sorry, to every purpose under the sun. So there's a time, and that eth in Hebrew, that word literally means, glory to God, there's a measured space for every purpose and every destiny and every vision to be worked out. And you got to value your time enough because it's going to take you all that time to work out what God's trying to work out in you. Man, I gotta go, I gotta go. So what do you do with time? Number 1, time must be managed. You got to manage it, you got to take control. Again, I heard somebody say you can't manage time. I did, I saw I mean, the boy is a great speaker. I was listening to him, great speaker. I mean, but I can't agree with that. I mean, the whole, whole thing he was teaching was great, but then when he said time can't be managed, he's— and, and his, his point was you can only manage your energy. I don't agree. We, we manage. That's why we have clocks, right? Chronos or chronology, the clock, which is natural time. It's why we could set an alarm. We're managing time. Otherwise we just sleep and let our energy get us up. That ain't working for everybody. Some of us need an alarm clock. I don't, 'cause my body knows what time it needs to get up and I get up. But even when I get up, I'm managing my day because if I don't, I will waste a whole lot of time on something I probably shouldn't be doing too long. So time can be managed. Time has to be used. You have to invest time. So anytime you invest something, you're looking for what? ROI, a return on investment. So you want to be a disciplined investor of your time. Come on, church. Which means you want to be disciplined enough to invest your time within the right people, in the right places. I've gotten to a point— I love to play golf, but you know what? When I'm— when I'm— when I play golf now, that's why I'm a member of a country club, because I want to invest my time properly. I ain't saying nothing to you, Siri. That's why I'm a member of a country club, because I want to invest my time wisely. I want to meet people, I want to network, and I want to play rounds of golf that are productive, not just with me playing golf, but even with the people that I'm playing with. Even though I have family members and friends I play with that has nothing to do with that, but that's still outlet me managing my time. I play with them at certain times, and I play productive golf business meetings at productive times as well. So time has to be invested so you can get a return on it. Think about what you're doing, when you're going to do it. Your purpose, that vision, should define your time. Glory to God. Let's go to Ephesians 5. Let's go to Ephesians 5. Let's go. I'm almost done. I just sound long, y'all. I'm almost done. Ephesians 5. Hallelujah! Glory to God!

Woo!

I hope y'all getting something out of this. I really and truly do. Philippians 5. I'm gonna read verses 14 and 15. The Bible says— watch this— so this is what this, this is, this is what this is going to tell us what we do with time. Watch this. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest. Let's stop right there. So Kathoudo in Greek, sleepers, and the word literally means that you that are slothful or dead. So he's saying, awake, get up, you that are slothful, dead, Wasting time.

Whoo!

He said, "And rise from the dead." I told you it meant dead. "And Christ," watch this, "shall give you light." So light here is illumination, revelation, vision. "Ipo phayo" in Greek. "Ipo phayo" in Greek. It literally means illumination, intelligence, insight, He says, so when you get up outta your sleep, when you stop being lazy, stop being slothful, stop being lackadaisical and get up, watch this. Ooh, let me go here. Let me go here. Just because you got outta the bed, let me say this, still doesn't mean you're not asleep.

Ow!

I'm gonna say that one more time. Just because you got out the bed, that doesn't mean you're still not sleeping. You know, everybody's talking about you got to get woke, get woke. I'm woke, I'm woke. Most people saying that, they not woke because until you've received light from Christ. I'm not talking— the religion can't give you this, but the light of Christ is born out of relationship with him. Again, I talked about it earlier, where the king illuminates his throne and illuminates what he has. Oh, let me, let me sit back, let me sit back in my chair, man. And he shows you your vision. He gives you intelligence and insight, epaphuah, on where you're going. But you gotta get up and you gotta engage God deliberately in worship, in prayer, through his word. Lord, help us today. Help us, God. Watch this, verse 15. He says, see then that you walk circumspectly. Aerobos in Greek, circumspectly, which is accurately, which means he don't want you to miss it to the left nor to the right. He wants you to walk accurately. Hear that?

Woo-wee!

He don't want you to miss this. He says, I want you— he said, now when you wake up, see the light, 'Cause you can't be accurate really until you seen the light. 'Cause the only thing that's really accurate is what's in the light. And if you're still asleep and dead and living in the dark and living without a revelation of God's vision for your life, you're gonna waste a lot of time with inaccuracies. Oh boy, oh boy. He said, "Walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise." So he's basically saying anybody that hadn't been in the light is walking as a fool and they're not walking in wisdom. They're just kind of living out of their flesh. The word fool, there's asophos in Greek. Asophos means without wisdom, to be foolish. Asophos, watch this, to be without revelation. Oh, and you can't get revelation from God unless you pray, unless you spend time with him. Oh God, he says, verse 16, redeeming the time because the days are evil. What are you saying, Michael Woods? Redeem You know, there was a time in my life, man, I was going through stuff, I was struggling, and I done had to take something to the pawn shop before. And some of y'all know about that. I know you always been blessed, okay, but I've been through it, man. Thank God for deliverance. Praise God. Thank God for increase and prosperity in my life. But you take something to the pawn shop, they give you a ticket. It's called a redemption ticket. And basically what it says is you have a right to buy back what you gave them at a higher price. God have mercy. I mean, the interest on pawning something is ridiculous. The whole system is set up for you never to get it back so they can resell it. But at the end of the day, the redemption ticket says, y'all got something belongs to me. And if it costs me 100% interest, I'm gonna pay it and I'm gonna get it back because I'm buying back what's already mine. So what the scripture is saying here, this word exagaro in Greek, to redeem the time, to buy back the time, means to recover it from the power of another. Because when you pawn your stuff, the pawn shop has power over your stuff. Oh, you can't get it until you pay. So once you see the light and you understand what it means to live accurately, you understand what it is you exactly should be moving toward. Hear me, hear me good.

Wow, wow.

What you end up doing is you start being very wise with your time because now you want to take your time back from the control of the dark habits and the inaccurate ways and the distracted ways that you were living before you got revelation. I gotta quit, y'all. He said you need to do this because the days are evil. So your life is rooted in how you use your time. Wherefore, verse 17, be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. So the wisdom comes, the will, the, the hēlia in Greek, the plan of God, the accurate plan of God, the vision of God, the written, declared prophetic revelation of God for your life. The vision. He says, don't be unwise, you, because you have clarity, understanding of what the will of the Lord is, what God's vision. He says, and be not drunk with wine— I love this— wherein is excess, but be filled— watch this— with the spirit. So be not drunk. And he's saying not with— and listen, this is a very revelatory statement the man is making, because the whole chapter is about being intoxicated by the world system and the world's way of doing things. He's saying don't get intoxicated and drunk on how you do things. Don't get intoxicated by following your carnal path. He says, but be filled. Whew. Epiknosis in Greek. I love that word. It means to be thoroughly furnished with deity-like characteristics. So he's saying you're thoroughly furnished with everything you need to do what you have to do in God. Matter of fact, can I say this to you? Ain't no need wasting time because you have everything in you you need to be who you are. I'll say that again. You ain't got to get intoxicated and drunk off what somebody else is doing and start trying to be them and trying to follow after the path they on. No, you got a unique, authentic anointing that's vintage to you, and you have to allow God to thoroughly furnish you with his spirit so that you can fulfill the vision and dream that God has put in front of you, man. My God, listen, can I tell you something? You really have to Assess. And that's basically what your culture and the people around you and anybody that's asking you for something, especially your time, you need to really take an assessment before you yield and say yes, because you could be creating a delay that will cost you your vision. To redeem the time means that you're taking ownership of your time. It means you're converting your time into opportunity to fulfill your purpose. Just a few points about redeeming time. I'm almost done. Redeeming the time means that you design your days— watch this— to create value in your life. So you get up and you say, I'm not wasting no time, I'mma design my day so that this day, at the end of the day, I can look back and say I accomplished what I needed to accomplish 'cause I spent my time, yeah, you got it, wisely. Watch this, if you don't plan your day, let me tell you something, I learned this the hard way, someone else will plan your day for you. Listen, you ought to be so busy that nobody can ever assume you got time, because you don't. Realistically, to fulfill that light, that accurate vision that God has for you— listen to me— you don't have time. You got to focus, and you got to do what you got to do. Yeah. Thank you, Lord. Let's go to John 7. Matter of fact, before we do that, I'm gonna give you 10 keys real quick to redeeming time. Number 1: document a plan. As we get ready to go into the next year, I want every person listening to this— document a plan of what you want to accomplish next year as it relates to God's vision for your your life. And wait, now, if you haven't seen God's vision, the first thing I need you to do is get in God's face long enough, because he does talk. He is real. He will show you the vision for your life. We just read that. He'll show it to you. He'll bring you in the light, right? When you just got to wake up. Stop being okey-doke by the world system and the world's way of doing things. Get up, do what you got to do. All right, number 2, establish priorities based on that plan. So prioritize the people, the places, the things you do based on that plan. Number 3, pursue your passion only. I need y'all to hear that. Only go after— glory to the name of God— what you are passionate about as it relates to that vision, because I told you it's going to attract you, and that's going to be your pursuit once you see it. See, every invitation is a— oh my God, oh my God— every invitation you get is not going to be an invitation that you should take, because I want you to understand something: not every invitation is a blessing. Some of you too busy doing the wrong stuff. I have several spiritual sons around the country. I talk to them often. About their travel schedules. I see them on the road consistently on Sunday mornings preaching. Great, God's opening doors. But I say to them, listen, you're a pastor too. I know you're an apostle, but you're a pastor too. So you got to pastor those people, and you got to continue to raise up leadership that's capable of functioning with the right people that God is ordained to be in your life. And then you get— my God, I got to go, I got to go. So I have, I have several spiritual sons. I always talk to them about maximizing their time in their own pulpit. They travel around the country constantly, and that's great, but you have to be very sensitive to the idea that you're also a pastor in addition to being an apostle or traveling evangelist or prophet. If you got a church, your church, especially if it's a growing church, you got to cultivate that house. So I talked to them about, you know, managing the invitations in a way that it doesn't take them away from home, right? Glory to God. The devil's— listen, the devil's greatest weapon against humanity is— and I say, oh my God, I gotta keep going back to these distractions. It's not sin, it's this distraction, it's this preoccupation with the structures and systems of the world and not looking into the light of what God has determined for them. Number 4, I'm moving. Protect, protect your plans and your priorities. Guard them. When I married my wife, I told her, I said, so this is what our life has to look like because we got to protect our time for each other. So I told her, I said, we have a bubble. Inside of this bubble is just me and you. Nobody else gets in that bubble. With us. Our time in that bubble is our time. I said there's another bubble that has me, you, and our children. That's their bubble. This bubble doesn't get to cross-pollinate with our bubble. It should never do that because it's gonna create a problem in managing the time effectively. Then there's another bubble. That's me, you, and the ministry, the church, our business, our profession. It stays in that bubble. We never bring it into the family. We never bring it into our personal space.

Why?

Because we have to protect our time. And as busy as she is and as busy as I am, if we didn't do that, We find ourselves not spending quality time with each other, so we have to make sure we do that. Amen. Hallelujah. Number 5, identify— if you want to redeem the time, you got to identify what you value. Take an inventory of your values. I promise you, once you put things in perspective and put a value on the things that you value. You'll protect them and you will spend time making sure they are protected. Number 6, make decisions that are based on the vision because your decisions determine your destiny. Where you going? Yeah, I gotta move, I gotta move. Number 7, inventory your association. Yeah, I honestly, going into 2023, there are some people you can't take with you. I'll say it again, as you move into this next year, I'm prophesying now. There's no spooky music or nothing, but I'm prophesying. I didn't squint my eyes, I didn't speak in tongues, but I'm hearing the word of the Lord. There are some people going into next year you cannot take. You gotta leave. Matter of fact, you need to probably choose right now at this end of November, leave them in 2023 because they have hindered you long enough. So I'm just going to leave that right there. Glory to God. Number 8, review your investments. Where are you investing your time? Watch this. Is the investments bringing a return? Are you doing this too much and making nothing from it? Are you spending too much time on this project and it's not yielding any results? Are you planting seed of time into something that's not leading toward that vision that God showed you? This is, this is soul food, man. Number 9: don't try to please everybody. If you want redeem the time, realize you cannot please everybody. I'm gonna say that again because somebody needs to hear. You can't— you got to learn the art of no. You can't please everybody. You can't be a puppet to everybody. You're not going to make everybody happy, and all it's going to do is drain you of your focus and your energy and keep you distracted from the vision because you're trying to please body else.

Can't do it.

Number 10: Forget the past and pursue and define the future. You got to let, let it go and live. I'm gonna say it again: let it go and live. Some of you are spiritual necrophiliacs. You dig into dead stuff. You're intimate with dead stuff. You need to let it go so you can move on. You're wasting time. You're distracted by yesterday. Watch this— past failures and past successes. Yeah, Paul said, forgetting those things which are behind. That includes failure and success. Someone said, well, Michael Woods, I gotta testify. Yeah, testify about it and keep it moving. You're not there anymore. There is more. So John 7:6-9, and I'm out of here.

It—

Jesus talks to us about how to control and master our time. Look at it. He says, therefore Jesus told them, my time is not yet here. For you, any time will do. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me. Because I testify that it works evil. You go to the festival. I'm not going because my time has not yet fully come. After he said this, he stayed— listen— in Galilee. Jesus is telling us, look, if you want to redeem your time, you got to control it. You got to know when to do what. What and when not to do. And watch this, he's also saying forget about what you didn't do. Stop worrying about what you didn't do. It's over. That time is gone. All you can do is do better now and make the future different. Come on, church, listen. Let 2022— hear me— be the last year you waste. Listen to me. Let, let this year be the last year you have wasted or have lived inaccurate. And I know somebody said, I've been accurate, I've been on point. If you ain't seen that light and got a clear revelation of where you going— and I can look at, see, you know, I'm not so easily impressed by a lot of stuff because I'm, again, I mean, I've been doing this a long time, man. I've seen everything. I've been walking with God a long time, and you know, people that over-spiritualize stuff and try to get in this deep place, but then you look at the fruit of their life and I'm like, ain't no way in the world you that deep, okay? And you ain't seen the plan of God for your life in a way that is causing you to be fruitful in your life where you can take care of your children, leave a legacy, grow your business. Glory to God. Come on, man. How you got holy hands and empty pockets? That's not God's plan for you. I just want you to understand that. Let this be the last year you waste, and I need you to repent of your bad decisions. Ask God to help you to make right decisions in this year to come. Let's pray. Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank you for this word. God, I pray, God, that you will help us to redeem the time. And Father, we repent for time we wasted. And Father, we're asking you today, God, to give us the strength, give us the power, give us the grace to manifest the vision and plan you have for our life. Father, we give you praise right now for the light, the illumination, and the intelligence of the kingdom superimposed itself upon us, that we can finish accurately that, that what you've called us to do. And we bind up delays and distractions and detours, and we thank you that our vision will be realized. In Jesus' name, amen. And thanks be to God. Hallelujah. I don't know about you, but I feel the Lord. Glory to God. I dare you to take that word and run with it. Let God use it in your life. Listen, today I want to challenge you to give. Listen, those of you that are connected to Rhoda Church, you know how important it is for you to tithe and to give your freewill offering. So make sure you do that today. The ways to give are on the screen. And those of you that partners, those of you that watch this message today, I want to just challenge you to plant a seed in ministry today. I promise you, you will be rewarded— glory to the name of God— from heaven for entering into heaven's exchange system. You know what? Nothing leaves heaven until something leaves earth. So get a seed in the ground and be a blessing to ministry today. The ways to give are on on the screen. I thank you guys for joining us. Listen, I want to challenge you guys, join us in person at Rhoda Church next week at 3:00 PM, the first Sunday of December. We're continuing this series, glory to the name of God, on Manifested Vision. Listen, we're going to finish 2023 strong, and we're going to be prepared for the vision to come forth in our life as we cross over into the New Year. I love y'all. Y'all be blessed. Heaven smile upon you is my prayer. Peace.