Manifesting Prophetic Destiny, Part 5: "The Danger of Reasoning" | Dr. Mike Woods, Sr. | 24 NOV 24

Well, praise the Lord, family. This is Apostle Mike Woods, and welcome tonight. Listen, I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you decided to take a moment to watch this video. The message we're teaching tonight is entitled The Danger of Reasoning. Listen, when you're a believer that's trying to live out of the spirit, reasoning is a great enemy against your faith walk. And I want to challenge you, man, just trust God.

Listen, let's get into this.

This message is powerful, it's profound, it's passionate. It's going to literally change the trajectory of your life if you take the principles here and apply them. I love you guys. Listen, don't go away after the message. I'll be back. I want to pray for you. I want to believe God for the very best. Thanks for watching again.

I love y'all. Peace. I love him, and beside him there is no other. Glory to God. Um, this morning I want to talk— we're continuing, this is part 5 of manifesting prophetic destiny. And this morning, as a matter of fact, the Lord actually gave this to me. I was going to go another way last night, and, um, I think it's very important to Jesus, the manifestation of prophetic destiny, that we eliminate carnality out of the process. Is because we do understand that the prophetic means that that pertains to what God has said or what he uses a prophet to say. If that's the case, it's spiritual. Say that with me. Say prophecy is spiritual. I need y'all to grab that.

So we cannot mix it.

There cannot be mixture with carnality when we're expecting the promises of God to come to pass.

So this message, uh, this morning is entitled The Danger of Reasoning. And some people will say, well, Apostle, reasoning is good. I need the reason.

Because if you define the word reason, it means to take logic and to come to a logical conclusion about a thing.

Some call it common sense. Common sense ain't so common anyway, but at the end of the day, common sense can be dangerous if it is not fueled by spiritual direction.

And watch this— faith. You cannot afford to operate in reason when it comes to the things of God.

When it comes to what God has promised you. Because most of the things that God promised you— watch this—

appear illogical. Glory to God. And you know, when you're walking out something with God, especially when you're trying to build something that he promised you, like this ministry, like a business, like a family. It's easy to tap into logic and reason and try to figure things out in your personal intellectual capacity.

So I want to show you really how dangerous reasoning is in the scripture today and how it blocks the manifestation of prophetic destiny.

A lot of people's word is in stuck because they reason too much and they have leaned to their own understanding. Wait a minute, Proverbs 3:5 says that.

It says, lean not to your own understanding. But people do the opposite. They lean to their own understanding.

They lean to their reasoning.

But the Bible said, in all your ways acknowledge God and he directs your paths. So it's dangerous to lean to your own reasoning. It's very dangerous. And a lot of times things are stuck because we've been reasoning too much. God began to speak this to me last night, and the first thing he said, he said the first danger of reasoning— y'all might want to write this down. Those of you watching online, take notes today because I'm gonna help you. Reasoning brings struggle.

Say that with me. Say struggle.

It's gonna seem real simple and ain't gonna be deep and wonderful, but I'm gonna give you some practical things to apply.

Hallelujah.

So somebody said, how is that, Apostle? Well, reasoning is a mental struggle. Because the moment you start reasoning something, especially something God said, and start weighing it against your carnality, you're inviting a battle that's going to create a struggle in your mind.

It's going to disrupt your peace.

Because again, most of the things God say—

God here.

They are very illogical in some terms. They don't make sense. The math doesn't add up. Some things God tell me to do, the money don't ever add up. And if I start reasoning based on what's in my bank account, I would never take a step forward and do anything. I sit there in a mental struggle, stressing myself out knowing God said it, trying to figure out how I'm gonna do it. But if God says do it, he already knows how it's gonna get done. So you gotta dismiss that struggle. You know why? Because God hadn't called you to struggle. Touch yourself. Say, God hasn't called me to struggle.

He called me to rest.

Come on, say that again. Say, God has not called me to struggle. He called me to rest. Oh God. And if you battling stuff in your mind and your mind ain't at peace, you're out the will of God, because that ain't God's will.

Okay, so let me give you some scripture. Matthew 11:28. You can go there. Matthew 11:28.

We're going to walk this out this morning.

Glory to God. I feel God in here. Jesus, hallelujah. Jesus, glory to God. Thank you, Jesus.

He says, come unto me, all ye that labor. Let me stop right there.

The word labor is kopio in Greek, K-O-P-I-A-O, and this word means those of you that are exhausted from struggling.

So if you're watching me and you're exhausted from—

you ever said it out of your mouth, I'm just tired of going through this?

All those don't say—

I don't say it.

I had the flu for 2 weeks and I said it a couple of days.

Look, I'm tired of this.

I was exhausted. From those symptoms. I was exhausted from how it was making me feel, from having no strength. But here's the answer. God says when you're exhausted from struggle, come to him. So when you get to that point, instead of trying to analyze and reason, go to him. Are y'all here? Talk to him.

See, some people have created a pattern of mental torment where they torment themselves over things that if you just take it to God, God will give you peace.

And taking to God means you take it to him and leave it alone. You don't keep going back checking on it. No, you say, okay God, I'm giving this to you, and you let it go and you keep moving. He said, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you what? Rest. Say it again.

Say, God's called me to rest.

Come on, say it one more time.

God's called me to rest.

Watch this.

So that means that word katapio in Greek, it means to take a cease from struggling, a cease from labor, a cease from movement. Because you know, when you're going back and forth in your mind, that's mental movement.

So God says cease from all of that, step back and rest. What am I resting in? I'm resting in him. God has called us to rest.

Amen.

All right, so say this with me again.

Say, God has not called me to struggle but to rest.

See, when you was resting in God, that's like you just get up in his arms and you just snuggle up in his arms.

Glory to God.

You know, in the natural, when you get in the arms of somebody, you know you're secure in that. You, you rest it there. If you hold the baby, that baby is— he know when he in the right arms.

And he can get in the wrong arm and just holler because he know ain't no peace there.

He can't rest.

He don't know what gonna happen in them arms.

But when you snuggle up with God, you can rest in the surety that what he said he gonna do, he gonna do. Because guess what? He cannot lie. So the question becomes, are you struggling or are you snuggling? There's some people who are struggling mentally because they won't snuggle with God. And you got to decide, I'm gonna snuggle up with God cause he can't lie. And if he said it, I believe it.

If he said it, so shall it be.

Just touch yourself, say, I'm snuggling.

Glory to God. Heaviness that we carry often comes from mental labor.

You laboring mentally, trying to figure something out and freaking out over it.

And God has never called us to do that.

Touch yourself again. Say, I'm snuggling, I'm resting in God.

Let me tell you something. When you allow your mind— hear me, guys, those you online watching too— when you allow your mind to go around and around a problem It causes you to get tired.

It causes you not only mental fatigue but physical fatigue and spiritual fatigue, because you're going the opposite of what you should be doing. What you should be doing is snuggling up with God and trusting God at his word. We get tired because we keep replaying that thing in our mind. Watch this. Your mind has two functions: memory and imagination.

Your memory, it replays the past.

Your imagination preplays the future. And you got to decide— hear me, guys—

that you're going to— my God, today—

trust God with every part of who you are. Glory to God.

You got to say, I got to trust him with every part of who I am. Glory to God. All right. Say struggle. That's a danger. It's danger. This again, we're talking about the danger of reasoning. That's the first danger: struggling. And we don't want to struggle, right?

Okay, number 2, write it down: confusion. When you operate in reason, you get confused. So confusion Basically means your mental state is lucid.

You're wrapped up in 2, 3, 4, 5 opinions and you don't know what to believe really.

Well, let me start here. The devil is the author of confusion. So if you're operating in confusion, that didn't come from God. Matter of fact, when you— whenever you're under subjection or confusion, the devil your daddy. And you don't want the devil ever to be your daddy because he's the father of lies, and often he creates confusion around a lie. But you have to stand on truth. Not what you think is true, what you know is true. Because when you— even when you start operating what you think is true, that creates confusion because you don't know that. You're still confused because what makes something true is the source it comes from and the facts that back it up. Or watch this, the faith that backs it up. Let every word of God be true. So if I really want to eliminate confusion, I'm gonna trust what comes out of God's mouth instead of listen— well, you know, God, the Bible do say that, and you did get that word, but God really not gonna do that. You start listening to those voices, that's confusion, and that's dangerous. Let's go to Psalm 71:1.

Let's see how we can prevent confusion. Pretty simple resolve here.

It says, in you, Lord, listen, I put my trust. Not my job, not my business, not my partners, not my members. Not my family. In you, Lord, I put my trust. Now, who you trusting? If you're confused, that's a trust issue. If you're confused about whether God is going to perform what he said he's going to perform You got trust issues with God. He says, let— he said, in you, Lord, I put my trust. Let me never be put to shame. Do you realize something? When God promises you something, not only is his name on the line, but he realizes your name is on the line. So you stand flat-footed and say, I'm trusting God right here. Here. No matter what everybody else is saying, you, you stand. I'm, I'm trusting God. Trump the president, I don't care. I'm trusting God.

Are y'all hearing this?

People worried. I—

they, they talking about they going out the country for 4 years.

You better stand flat-footed and trust God. And believe it or not, You don't realize it, but God has set us up for a blessing through this administration. People don't want to hear that, but we about to be blessed through this administration.

And listen, I'm sorry if you voted for Kamala and she didn't win.

She never was going to win because God already had a plan through this administration that she could not administrate.

Oh yeah, okay. I know this is not a political message. I'm just telling you, we don't need to trust none of it.

We need to trust what God is doing.

We gotta pray for anybody in authority, and we need to trust that God's got his heart and gonna use him in our favor. Oh boy, I just lost some people, but it's okay.

You're gonna be all right because you can't change the fact that he the president. You better pray and you better position yourself for what God's about to release and deal with your trust issue. See, right here we're reminded in 71:1 that trusting God eliminates confusion, because when you trust God, you know he ain't gonna let you be ashamed.

Because again, his name is on the line.

The fact that he says he can't lie, it's on the line. So trusting him pays off. But if there's somebody that comments, type it: trusting God pays off. It pays off, it pays off, it pays great dividends. You walk around confused about something And guess what? That ain't God. Matter of fact, go to 1 Corinthians 14:33.

Glory to God.

The Bible says, for God is not the author of confusion. So wait a minute, if I'm confused That didn't come from God. He don't offer that. I told you, Satan is the author of confusion, but of peace.

Say peace.

And I told you, watch this, peace is not the absence of confusion.

Peace is the presence of assistance. So I can move in peace because I know he's assisting me.

I am not by myself because he got me. Hallelujah! Just touch yourself and say, God's got me. Just when you thought one door was closed, God will kick another one open and say, I got you. What you freaking out for?

Be at peace. Good God Almighty. He says, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. Touch yourself, say, God wants me at peace.

Go to Colossians 3:15. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts. Listen to this: to which also you were called in one body, and be thankful.

My God, today let's walk through that. Basically what this text is saying, let—

oh my God—

peace be the umpire in your life.

If you ever go to a game, you're gonna see somebody in black and white stripes.

That's the umpire, that's the referee. They're calling whether someone was safe or whether someone was out or whether someone scored a touchdown or whether someone made a first down. They're looking for penalties.

They are the ruling authority on the field.

This text is telling you, let peace be the ruling authority in your life.

Let the fact that God is present to assist you be the ruling authority in your life. So instead of freaking out when something happens, go to that space between stimulus and response. Let peace come in, and then you react in peace.

Most people react— oh God, help us—

in the wrong way because they don't ever visit that space between stimulus and response. I'm telling you, there's a space. I've been teaching this forever. There's a space between stimulus and response. You got to learn to go to that space when you get stimulated with something before you respond and let peace lead you forward.

Because nothing is ever as big as it first appears. It looked like it.

You see, you panic, man.

Be about to freak out. But nothing—

think about your life—

nothing ever was as big as it appeared when it showed up.

Lord have mercy.

He said the peace of God rule, be the umpire of your hearts. Glory to God. Listen, we can think about things, and I'ma move, and search for an answer. And we should think. I want you to think. But when peace leaves, listen to this, it's a signal that that wrong thinking also needs to leave. I'm gonna say that again. You can be reasoning, but once your reasoning causes peace to leave and you lose peace, that's a sign that you need to change what you thinking about. A lot of times you'll be thinking about something there, bam. Well, I need your mind. I want to slap them. Well, maybe that's just me, okay?

But at the end of the day, that's a sign you need to stop thinking that, because you don't need to slap nobody. That's how people murder people. They don't stop in that space to recognize when peace left.

A murder doesn't happen when the trigger is pulled. It happens at the moment of anger when peace leaves, and there's no one to control that peace. I remember I got a— I got a friend who's a pastor. He's a man of God. I love him. Been my friend for a long time. He lives in New York. And, uh, he had found out that another preacher—

true story—

has slept with his wife. And this man loves God. He's a great preacher, great prayer warrior, loves God. He called me and said, Woods, I'm going to kill him. I'm in my car, I'm headed to kill him now. Peace had left, but he— the Holy Spirit had him call me.

And what I did, I reinstituted peace. And that preacher, he don't even realize that he's alive today because peace came back in And I was able to talk him down out of shooting this man.

I was able to change his thinking.

See, when you're thinking something that when peace goes and it's going to cause you to make a decision you'll regret later, say something you'll regret later— I could teach this because I've been there. I— words have come out of my mouth that in the past that I wish never came out of my mouth towards someone. Because I should have changed what I thought. I reacted— although what they said was wrong, I should have reacted differently.

Are y'all hearing me? Glory to God. Listen, anything you do in excess, including thinking too long about something, reasoning, is the devil's playground.

The Bible says the idle mind is the devil's workshop. So you sitting there idly going round and round over this same old thing, all you're doing is giving the devil a playground, giving him somewhere to work.

Jesus. And that definitely is not the will of God. For us to operate at high levels of idleness because we keep doors open for the enemy to come in.

See, the way you close the door on the devil, you have to stop being idle, stop operating in who he is, which is confusion. All right, so that's the second danger— confusion. Say confusion. Say struggle. Say, God doesn't want me to struggle. Come on, I don't want me to struggle. And say, God doesn't want me confused.

Here's the third danger, and you definitely can't walk by faith with this one: double-mindedness. Double-mindedness.

Okay, James 1:8, let's go right there. It says—

oh boy, well, let's read 7.

For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.

Verse 8, he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

So when you operate in the spirit of reasoning You're double-minded because you're always trying to weigh your thoughts, your emotions, your feelings against what God said, your intellect, your ability against what God said. God said when you're like this, you're going to be unstable in everything you do. I've always said this, and it's true, that if you do one thing one way, you do everything that way. I'm gonna say that again. You do one thing one way, you do everything that way. It don't change just because you're doing something different.

Basically, the substratum, the fabric of who you are, is a person who constantly is going to reason in everything they do.

Glory to God. And you never really get a God result because everything in your life, you do it the same way. You always put you, you mix you into a God thing.

He said you're unstable in every way. That's not, that's, that's not good for the believer. That shouldn't be named among us. Listen, we can make decisions about things and we'll feel good about it. And then watch this, we'll get an opinion from somebody else trying to tell you about the decision you made, that it wasn't the right decision. And just because they said it, you go with them. Because you want to please everybody. Ultimately, double-minded people try to please everybody, and you can't please everybody.

So if God says something to you, I don't care what the opinion of anybody is, you gotta stand on what God says. Because he can't lie, he can't fail. He wants to perform in our life. Say that with me. Say, God wants to perform in my life. I need y'all to believe that. He wants to manifest his promise, his power, his authority. He— oh my God, the prophetic destiny that he planned for you before you even got here.

He wants to see that.

But being unstable and double-minded, you'll never see it.

Accepting everybody else's opinion about what God said about you, man. Most of it is connected to people addiction. There are so many people that are addicted to the approval of other people. They can't even obey God because they're worried about what somebody else thinks. Are y'all here? I've seen people like that.

They have a good thing going and somebody start talking and mess up their whole thing because they listening to the opinion of— first of all, somebody ain't got nothing. How you gonna listen to somebody ain't ever did nothing tell you to stop doing what you're doing, or to give you advice on how to do it. No, you just be quiet and you get some fruit, and then maybe we can talk. But you ain't got no fruit. You ain't never did nothing. Oh, y'all hearing this?

But because people can be addicted to the approval of others My God, they'll change their whole trajectory trying to make them happy. The devil is a liar. I'mma obey God, and I don't care who doesn't like it because I need him. I— there are people I need, but I'm gonna put him first.

I need him first.

My God. So don't be double-minded. It's dangerous. It's one of the fruit of reasoning. Listen, and I'm not telling you guys don't take advice from people. What I'm telling you is don't listen to solutions to your problem from people who have no anointing to solve it or intelligence to solve it. You can't talk to everybody about what you're dealing with because everybody ain't qualified to solve your issue.

Just because they can open their mouth and talk don't mean they qualified to deal with where you are.

My God, Jesus Christ. All right, so glory to God.

Just, just, just, just not just—

just touch yourself, say, I refuse to change my mind about what God said about me. What you ought to do is tell the devil you change your mind and you ain't listening to him no more. Glory to God. All right, here's another danger or fruit that comes from reasoning.

So say this with me. Say, God doesn't want me to struggle. Come on, say it.

Say, God doesn't want confusion in my life.

Say, God doesn't want me Double-minded.

Now here's another one, write it down: reasoning causes complications. Causes complications. See, excessive thinking, going around and around in circles, excessively thinking. About the wrong things, it complicates things. It makes life harder than it needs to be. Watch this, it prevents the joy of simplicity. See, it's real simple to really trust God for real.

You just got to choose it, and it brings great joy when you do it. There's—

I mean, let me just give you an example. You can really get confused about where you want to go eat if you start thinking about too many restaurants.

Undid it.

I can have in my mind what I want to eat, but if I start thinking about different restaurants, it complicates things. And then what, what irks me, you ask somebody what they want to eat, what comes out of their mouth, it don't matter.

You should open a restaurant, Tony and Carl, it don't matter.

Everybody will be at your place.

Glory to God.

Because that's the number one answer when you ask people what they want to eat, it don't matter.

But it complicates things when you start thinking a buffet complicates things. You're going there, they got everything. And some people ain't learned how to manage that complication. They walk in that darn buffet.

I don't know why people do this, but you see people with food on one plate stacked up as high as they can get it. First of all, what I'm saying to myself is, don't they realize they are in the buffet?

So you can put small portions on the plate. And you can eat that and go back and get some more. They don't pile everything that— because it's complicated. They, they want to taste everything they see.

Listen, let's not complicate our life by overthinking. Let's just trust God. Let's just trust what he said he'll do. Oh, hallelujah! Touch yourself, say, I trust him. Man, you could turn, uh, a simple situation into a mess overthinking it. Watch this. Half of the time, people ain't thinking what you think they thinking, and you could be overthinking what they think about you. Or how they feel about coming to your house, or how they feel about being around you. You overthinking that, you turn the whole thing into a mess, cuz they ain't even thinking about that.

You worrying about what people going to think when you walk in the room, and half of the time people ain't thinking about us that much, cuz we, we're overcomplicating it, cuz we're reasoning.

Well, I'mma go on over here, but I know she don't like me. Why are you worried about that?

How about you walk in love in spite of the fact that they don't like you anyway? There's a whole lot of people ain't gonna like you. How about this? You're in good company. They hated Jesus.

Jesus was one of the most disliked figures to ever walk this planet because of what he stood for. The religious community hated him.

So much so they ended up killing him. So stop being concerned—

again, people addiction, overthinking what people feel. Glory to God.

All right, let's go. Here's another one, write it down.

So not only does God not want you to struggle and not, glory to God, be double-minded and not have confusion and not have complications, Here we go, number 5.

When you operate in reason, here's what happens, and this is my last one: it blocks discernment.

Oh, and as spiritual people, we need to be able to discern, because when it comes to prophetic destiny and manifesting, one of the things that are important You need to be able to discern the season you're in. A lot of times people get frustrated, quit, give up, commit suicide, lose hope because they don't know how to discern the season they in.

Because when you can really discern the season you're in, you know that season is going to change and you got a right to expect more. You know that thing that you're in, it won't be this way always.

Rub your belly, say, it won't be this way always.

Oh my God, it won't be, it won't be this way always.

There's going to be a brighter day.

He going to wipe all the tears away. This is temporary, it's a season. I was on my way to church this morning.

I got a call from one of the members, said they weren't gonna be there, had problems. And tried to immediately discourage me. I'm like, devil, you're a liar.

I've been here, done this.

We're gonna preach through this season. We're gonna preach and worship and pray through this season because the harvest is coming. Oh, y'all ain't got to say no.

I'm telling you, the harvest is coming. And I'm gonna keep preaching like this building is full. I'm gonna preach, glory to the name of God, until times get better. And at the end of the day, glory to the name of God, God is in control. I have discerned this season that I'm in.

I mean, coming, moving into this place and into this area is like starting over again.

So we're replanting basically again, and I'm not scared of it. Are y'all hearing this? And I'm not discouraged about it because the sign of anything great is that there are processes of renewal and refreshing. And watch this, of beginning again. If you fear beginning again, you'll never build nothing great because there's going to be seasons where you have no choice but to begin again. There are things in your life, in your family, in your marriage, with your children.

You have to start over and begin again, because in every covenant there's wronging and forgiving.

You're gonna have some wronging, you have some forgiving, you have some mistakes, you have some failures, but you start over, you learn your lessons, you get wisdom, and you build better.

And I'm telling you right now, We're gonna build better. Hallelujah.

We're gonna build stronger. We're gonna build solid. We're gonna build for legacy. We're gonna build for longevity. Hallelujah. Because I've discerned that this is just a season. So, but when you are reasoning, because the enemy come to my mind, man, you could be gone on the road every Sunday preaching somewhere.

I'm telling you, I turned out literally because people don't like to do stuff during the week no more. Literally 4, 5 times a week I'm turning down people in my inbox, on my phone, asking me to come preach on a weekend, a Saturday, Sunday.

I understand my assignment.

I gotta build this local church, so I can't be all out in the field trying to build this, trying to help everybody else build what they're building. Are y'all hearing that? So at the end of the day My reason saying though, but if you go, you'll— this finance will come in, you'll do this, you'll do that, and you could— no, I got to obey God knowing that he got it. Say, God's got me. Hallelujah. Glory to God. We, we about to go. We about to go. Who's shy? God, I love you. He's a good God.

Yeah, he's a mighty God.

Glory to God. Hallelujah.

Woo! So why do I need discernment, Apostle Woods? Because discernment gives you the ability to live out of the spirit. When you operate in discernment, you can live out of the spirit and not your flesh and not your reasoning.

Oh boy, oh boy.

See, that's why I said last week, I think, walk in the Spirit so you don't fulfill the lust of the flesh. The lust of the flesh ain't always adultery, fornication, and all that. The lust of the flesh is anything that's against the Spirit— carnal thinking, doubt, fear. You can lust to doubt.

Oh boy, you can lust to be disobedient. You could lust to reason and overthink things, but you got to be deported into the realm of the spirit and discern. I gotta live from God. I live from heaven to earth, not earth to heaven. So prayer is my portal into life.

So if I want to live life in the spirit, I got to pray through heaven, and then I come into life. That's why you should never start your day without touching heaven.

Hallelujah. But people who are led by their own heads, their own brain cavity, their own cerebral portion their own thinking, they will never know how easy it is to follow after the Spirit and to operate in discernment, because they feel some kind of empowerment when they're in control of the thought process. But if you think with God, that's what discernment is. It's thinking with God. Oh God, thank you, Holy Spirit. How do I gonna unpack this?

Thinking what God says.

Okay, first of all, I gotta study what's on God's mind.

Paul said to Timothy, study to show yourself approved.

A workman that need not be ashamed, rightfully dividing the word of truth.

So I gotta study what's on God's mind. Come on, say it again. I gotta study what's on God's mind. So that means you gotta pick up the Bible, which is the mind of God. First, let's start right there and study the Bible. That's his mind.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God. So I got to get in that living word and study what's on his mind. Goodness. I'm telling you, he's thinking about you. He has promises toward you. But I, I got to enter into his mind to understand what's there.

Secondly, I got to spend some time in worship. So there's word, then there's worship. I got to worship God until I'm—

until he superimposes himself upon me, until I become one with him. Glory to God.

Until my steps are congruent and twins with his. So when he moves, I move.

Are y'all hearing this?

When he tells me something, I obey, because the word— his mind has taken over my mind. Worship has caused me to become one with him.

So I can discern.

So I got to live out—

say it. Say, I got to live from the Spirit. I gotta go. Lord, I love you. Lord, I thank you. So this is my final point. When you're making a decision You can listen to what other people say, because I know I've hit that hard today, but because you can't ascribe all the way to it. But when people are saying things, you can listen to it, don't be rude, but ultimately what you need to do is pull back and get quiet in your spirit. And talk to God and find out what the next move is. I started with this, I'm gonna end with this. Proverbs 3:5: In all your ways acknowledge him. Oh my God, the word acknowledge means to become acquiesce, to align to become one with him.

So in everything you do, not people, acknowledge him. He said acknowledge him and he will direct.

God have mercy.

So if I'm reasoning, basically this is what I'm saying. If I'm leaning to my own understanding, leaning to my own logic, my own intellect, and reasoning, what's happening now?

I'm robbing myself of divine direction because I refuse to talk to God.

God says, if you give me your ways, I'll direct your ways. Reverend Ike used to say, you can't lose with the stuff I use. I'm telling right now, you can't lose with this stuff. Glory to God. I don't know what kind of stuff Reverend Knight was talking about, but you can't lose with the stuff I use. If you use the word of God, you'll never lose. If you let him direct your path, you'll never ever lose, because you know what?

He always wins. We always have victory when we follow him.

All right, well, praise God. I pray, man, I really do. I pray that you got this message tonight. I pray you took good notes. And if you didn't, please watch it again, by all means. Faith come by hearing and hearing the word. And man, one of the main takeaways for me is when the Holy Spirit had me share that we need to learn to go to the space between stimulus and response. Listen, just because you're stimulated with something, someone makes you angry, you got a circumstance in your life, Nothing is ever as big as it first seems. Go to that space and let God give you peace. Let's pray for that right now. Let's pray for the discipline to go to the space between stimulus and response.

Let's pray.

Father, in Jesus' name, I thank you for this teaching tonight. I thank you for everybody that tuned in, everybody that grabbed it. And I pray, God, that one, the revelation will cause them to take action and make application. And from that application, they'll experience manifestation, restoration, and reconciliation in their lives. And I give you praise for it now. Give us the boldness, the discipline. As a matter of fact, give us the attentiveness to think when we're stimulated, to go to the space between stimulus and response. And we believe when we do this, we'll respond through you and we'll have favorable results in our life. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. Listen, I pray, guys, that you received that prayer and that you're really going to take action. Listen, I want to challenge you guys to give into ministry tonight. Listen, the reality is we cannot do ministry without your support. We're very appreciative for all of our partners and friends around the world that give to this ministry to ensure that we're able to continue to bring you videos like this, to continue to open churches and plant churches around the country and travel and do the things that God has called us to do. So please pray about getting a seed in the ground and supporting Rodder Church. Glory to God. Today, the ways to give are on the screen. Whatever gift you give is greatly appreciated, and we thank you for it. You guys be blessed tonight. I love you. And remember, share the word with a friend.

Your decisions determine your destiny. I love you. God bless you.