Man's Mind Plans His Way | Dr. Mike Woods, Sr. | 3-21-24

Joyfully-yam. Well, praise the Lord and grace and peace be multiplied to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Welcome. Welcome to our Thursday night Bible encounter. Listen, I'm super excited tonight at the opportunity to be able to share the word of the Lord with you. Listen, whether you're a part of our Rhoda Church family or if you're joining us, uh, from anywhere in the world and you're connecting with this teaching, I want to challenge you to stay with us tonight. I believe that this series we're currently teaching is definitely life-changing. It's it is going to equip you, listen to me, to show up in the world with a confidence that you're not alone. Because no matter what it looks like, we're learning that patience gives us the reality and the revelation that God will never leave us, that he'll never forsake us, and that he'll be with us even now and unto the end of the age. Isn't that an exciting thing? So listen, I want you to stay with us. Do not scroll. And as a matter of fact, If you're here right now, what I need you to do, I need you to share this. Glory to God! Someone else needs this experience. So I need you, uh, right now to press that share button, whether you're watching us on YouTube, Instagram, whether you're watching us on Twitter or Facebook, wherever you're watching, even if you're listening to the podcast, share this with someone. I promise you, uh, they'll be blessed. So again, welcome to, uh, the Thursday Night Bible Encounter for Arata Church. Uh, my name My name is Dr. Mike Woods, and I'm so glad to serve you. Let's pray, and we're going to jump right into the heart of our teaching tonight. Father, in Jesus' name, God, I love you. I thank you for everyone that's joining, everyone that's connecting tonight. I thank you that no weapon formed against our faith, no weapon formed against our mind, no weapon formed against our spirit, no weapon formed against our heart. God, I thank you that it will not be able to prosper. And I decree and declare, God, in the name of Jesus, God, that your word would go out in such a manner that the weak would leave saying, I'm strong, that the poor would leave saying, I'm rich, that the discouraged would leave encouraged, that doubters would leave with faith. And God, I thank you that even as we teach this word about accepting your timing and patience, I decree and declare, God, that patience will be ignited. And Father, we will learn the power and the authority of waiting on you. And we give you praise and glory for it now in Jesus' name. Amen. And thanks be to God. Listen, I feel Jesus, man. I'm telling you, I feel the anointing of God right now. You know, the Bible says he sent his word and it healed them. So here's what I want you to hear clearly tonight. As I teach the word, God is— it's not just me, glory to God— is God using me as his vessel, sending his word through me. And he has sent his word. Hear me. And it healed them. I believe tonight, glory to God, that as we teach and share the word of the— oh my God, the word of the living God is going to bring forth healing and deliverance. It's going to bring forth breakthrough for those that want it and those that need it. So stay with us, don't miss this tonight. And again, hit that share button and let somebody know we are live. So let's jump into this. Glory to God. Um, we ended up— this is the fourth installment of this series entitled When God Win, and we're talking about accepting God's timing. Make sure you go back and watch messages 1, 2, and 3. I promise you Um, you'll be blessed by those teachings either on YouTube or right here on Facebook or Twitter or even on Instagram, however you choose to watch. But please get caught up because some of your frustration— hear me— is connected to the fact that maybe you speak in a lot of tongues, maybe you worship and cry, maybe you pray a lot, maybe you prophesy a lot, but maybe you don't have patience. And one of the fruit of the Spirit is patience, is long-suffering. And part of that is the ability to wait upon the Lord. And we ended up last week when we were teaching this on Sunday, actually, uh, we, we ended up in James 1:4. And I'll just read this and then we'll go right into what we're going to deal with tonight. Uh, we ended up just by way of review We read the scripture that says, but let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Listen to this. So he says, let patience be perfected. Watch this. So you want patience to perfect itself in you. So watch this, so that you never have any question in your mind about patiently waiting on God. Hear me, that you never have any question in your mind about accepting God's timing, that you always know that no matter what the situation looks like, God is with you and God is going to show up. So you got to work through the process, and we've talked about that process. We talked about the spiritual strength that's birthed in patience. We've talked about these things. So You gotta let it have her perfect work, that ye may— that, watch this— that you may be perfect. So the word perfect, teleios, we broke that down, which is complete, mature. Glory to God. Grown up. Glory to God. I posted something, uh, yesterday, I think it was, that carnality plus immaturity is a death sentence. Watch this. To peace, to prosperity. Hear this, glory to God, and power with God. So you, you'll never operate in the peace of God, the purpose of God, the power of God, the prosperity of God. Hear me, if you are operating from an immature place or carnal place, so what happens is you allow yourself to be processed. You don't get ahead of yourself. You don't get ahead of God. Glory to God. You move in sync with him. You move in step with him and you do things in his timing. Glory to God. Again, it may be tough right now, but if you let patience work out what is working out in you, the Bible says you'll get to a point where you'll be complete, you'll be mature, you'll be entire. You'll have total sufficiency. We broke that down last week. You'll be entire. Uh, touch yourself and say, I am entire. Glory to God. Let me just, let me just go back to that real quick. Uh, the word entire, holokleros in Greek, and this word means that you are sound and you have total sufficiency in all things, which means entire means you are complete mentally physically, intellectually, financially. You are sufficient in every area. And guess what? It all comes from having patience. Letting patience be perfect in your education. Let patience be perfect in the training you need to be who God has ordained you to be. Are y'all hearing me? Glory to God. The Bible says you'll be sufficient in all things. You'll be entire. You'll be sufficient. Because guess what? No matter how you've judged yourself intellectually, every last one of us will be ever learning and coming into the knowledge of truth. I want you to understand the amount of knowledge that you've obtained, the amount of revelation that you've received, there's no cap on that. There's no limit. God intends for us to keep learning, to keep gaining knowledge, to keep getting information and revelation. But if you operate in carnality and immaturity, listen to me, you'll believe that you've been capped off, that you've been sealed where you are. And I'm here to announce to you, you have not. I'm here to announce to you that there's more to you— glory to God— than you have seen or known. And you have to open yourself up, become acquiescent to God's idea, God's way, so you could be entire sufficient. Watch this. The Bible says you'll be entire and wanting nothing. So I want you to take a moment, and then we're going to jump into tonight. I want you to take a moment, right, and think about your life right here. Just think about your life. Just a matter of fact, right where you are, close your eyes and think about your life. One of the things we don't do a lot in church is think. I'm— I want you to think tonight. Again, we do a lot of shouting, speaking in tongues, prophesying, laying hands, falling on the floor, healing, all that stuff, and very little thinking. But it is vital that you think. Glory to God. And I want you to think for a moment, hear me, about the things in your life that you want, the things in your life that you lack. And be very honest, because none of us, including myself and everybody connected, has everything they want. And maybe it's something you're lacking in your relationship, maybe something you're lacking financially, maybe something you're lacking physically, maybe it's something you're like lacking volitionally or intellectually. But Whatever it is, I want you to take a moment right here, right here. I'm not gonna ask you to write it in the comments or any of that, 'cause this is about you. Close your eyes, because when you close your eyes, you have a tendency to look in, you have a tendency to take inventory and introspective and autopsy of you. And so I want you right now to get a clarity about what you lack. Yeah, start making a list in your mind. If you're writing notes, write it in your notes. What you lack, what you want, how— where can you be better volitionally, intellectually, spiritually, financially? What do you lack in your life? Can I submit to you that whatever you list, whatever you've thought, is highly connected Friends, family, enemies, whoever's watching with us tonight, is highly connected to patience. Your lack thereof always is congruent to the lack manifested in your life. So the lack of patience is always congruent to the lack manifested in your life. So if, if there's an area where lack has been manifested, you could trace it back to an area where you have not been patient and accepted God's timing. And perhaps you went ahead of God, made a decision you shouldn't have made, did something that God did not ordain, God did not order, was not God's plan, and you ended up creating a delay and you ended up in lack. So which brings me to the— to tonight's lesson. And if I was putting a subject on this, I would call this Man's Mind Plans His Way. You see, and we're still talking about When God Wins. This is the fourth installment, but tonight's title is Man's Mind. That's you and I, humans. Man's mind plans his way. A lot of times, again, we lean on our carnality, we lean on our natural intellect, we lean on how we analyze things with our own intellectual capacity and not through the mind of God. And we start seeing things our way and we plan things our way. Versus God's way. And the first thing I want to tell you tonight is that when you are planning your way with your own mind, without the influence of Holy Spirit, or the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Ghost— he's the person of God, we know that, no matter how you say it— Listen, if indeed— hear me— you are making plans without God, and perhaps you may feel, listen, that God is moving too slow. Oh my God. So you have decided, well, God will come when he comes, but I'm gonna just start planning my way. That doesn't work because guess what? God knows more about you than you'll ever know. And the Bible clearly tells us, listen, to lean not to our own understanding. Ooh-wee! To our own understanding. It tells us that clearly. Matter of fact, let's just go there. Proverbs 3. 3:5-8, just in case you think I'm making that up. You— we've read this, we've heard it quoted, but let's break it down tonight. Hebrews 3:5-8. The Bible says this, it says, trust in the Lord. That's the first thing it says. The word trust there— let's go— and, and this word has come up throughout this teaching if you've been listening to this teaching. The word trust is batak in Hebrew, and the word batak means, listen, to have confidence in, to be confident for, watch this, to be totally secure in, to be boldly expressive because of confidence. Oh my God. What's this? To be safe and secure. So batok deals with the idea that I am safe and secure in the Lord. I am bold to express the things of God, the ways of God, what the Bible— I am bold to believe what the Bible says, even against all odds. Wait a minute. Even when it seems like I should not be believing God and I should be planning my own way, what real trust in God says, I prioritize the word of God. Oh my God. Over what I want, over my desires, over my plans, over what I think is right. So I trust in the Lord because I'm secure in him. That's what betak, all those things, I'm secure. In other words, God's got me. Oh my God, type that in the comments. God's got me. Lishé, oh God, help us. God's got me. I'm telling you tonight, God has you. I, I need you to hear me here, Michael Woods Senior, tonight. If you never heard anything I said, I don't care what your finances look like right now, I don't care what the challenges are you're having in your relationship, in your physical body, in your profession, in your business, I need you to be very clear prophetically tonight: God's got you. I'm telling you, he won't leave you comfortless. He's just waiting for you to let patience have a perfect work, being entire, making sure that you trust him totally and stop trying to figure your own way out. You know what? I work better with God. Listen, I discovered all these years I've been saved, I discover I work better with God. Because every time Michael Woods has either moved on something I thought was God— mm-hmm— because there have been some times I thought something was God and it just wasn't God. And then there have been times I just didn't wait for God to speak. I moved because I was ready to move. And every time It failed because, oh my God, it was a patience failure. Oh my God, it demands— oh my God, it was a patience failure. It was a trust failure. But when you trust God's got you, you wait for his instruction. This is how you do it. He said, trust in the Lord— wait a minute— with all thine heart. That's your heart. That's my heart. The word heart there is not the heart that's 6 inches below the collarbone on the left side of your chest. The word heart here is leb in Hebrew, L-E-B. And the word leb means with all of your intellect, all of your feelings. Hear this, with all of your understanding, with all of your mind. So with all of my will, mind, emotions, heart, my feelings, I'm trusting God with that because in my flesh or in my carnality, I may feel some kind of way about this. But when I'm trusting God with all of my heart, I take those feelings and I turn them over to God. And I said, God, listen, I feel some kind of way about this. I'm hurt by what was said to me. I'm hurt by this situation. I'm broken by what I'm going through, but I trust you with my feelings. I'm not going to retaliate. I'm not going to respond. Oh my God, because I trust you got me. And watch this, no matter what I feel about what my finances may look like, what my health looks like. I gotta trust. Come on, Zion, that God— lay up— I give him my heart, has my heart. Just say it. Say, God's got me. I trust him. God's got me. I trust him. God's got me. I trust him. God's got me. I trust him. God's got me. I trust him. In a world where everyone is— oh my God— leaning and depending on everybody else. You need to know God's got you. Watch this. He said, trust the Lord with all your heart and conjunction, lean not to thine own understanding. The first thing this suggests, ladies and gentlemen, is that you and I have an understanding. We have an understanding that's our own. Watch this. We have an understanding that belongs to us. But watch this, just because you understand it that way doesn't mean it's God's way. And watch this, it doesn't mean it's right. Ooh, God said just because you got understanding, let's just break it down, let's break it down. B-I-Y-N-A-H in Hebrew, yes, thank you, Lord. Bye now. Bye now. The Y is silent. This word means lean not to your own objectives, your own discernment, which means you have a human discernment that's outside of heavenly discernment, that's outside of spiritual discernment. And if you're not careful, you'll start staking your fleshly faculties, your fleshly objectives, your fleshly discernment, your fleshly analyzations and discoveries as something God is showing you. And really, it's you leaning to your understanding. But if you talk to God about it and wait and accept his timing, he will reveal to you. Trust me, I know what's what, because again, there have been so many times I've leaned to my own discernment. I could be totally honest with you, totally transparent with you. There have been seasons in my life where I lean to what I felt about certain people without waiting for God to really reveal them to me. And that was the wrong thing to do because at the end of the day, as a matter of fact, I'm not even talking about bad feelings. Oh, oh, I discern some good human feelings I had about them, only to find out later this was a terrible individual who meant me no good. Oh my God. Because— but because I leaned to my own understanding and didn't wait for God to— and didn't really pray through to trust God about this person. And you, you got to apply this across the board. I've been telling y'all for the longest, there's a space between stimulus and response, right? So you get stimulated with something So before you get bent out of shape, go to fight and go to slap and go to kick it, pull out your Vaseline, greasing down your face, get ready to fight. Glory to God. I'm taking off your shoes, getting ready to throw down. Step back, get some understanding from— whoo, God— from the Holy Spirit, and then respond through his lens. You will find— and I'm just telling you something I've lived— you will find you will have better outcomes. And watch this, you will preserve relationships, you will have more money, you will have better health. Are you hearing this? You'll stay out of jail. I'm telling you, go practice going to the space between stimulus and response. It'll save you a lot of heartache. It'll save you a lot of headache. It'll save you a lot of arguments. Oh boy, let's move, let's move. So he says, trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not to your own understanding in all your ways. So in everything you do, All of it. Derek, that's the Hebrew word Derek. That's the same name as a man. It's masculine. Derek. If you ever meet somebody named Derek, they— their name means direction. Their name means journey. The name Derek means direction and journey. Watch this. It also means a habit formed on a journey. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, because on our journey, as we walk through life, we form— we form habits. Watch this— that are not necessarily spiritual habits, that are not necessarily habits that cause us to trust God, his way, his idea, his way of thinking. So we form these habits, and we've been used to operating in these habits on our journey. Then we— when we get challenged for real to empty ourselves of our habits, our way of our idea of how we plan things, how we do things. Oh my God, we are challenged. It's hard, it's tough because we've formed that derrick. We formed that derrick, that habit. We've established a way in how we handle our journey. But the Bible says on your journey, he says in all of your habits, Acknowledge him. That word acknowledge is powerful. It's two words. It's ek and knowledge, which means you become acquiesce to his knowledge. The Hebrew word is yada, y-a-d-a-a, y-a-d-a, y-a-d-a, yada, which means, oh my God, are y'all ready? It means that God has a designation. God is aware. God knows. God, oh my God, has perceived everything. Oh boy, y'all here. God has perceived and he knows everything. So the Bible says here, become acquiesce. Open, open yourself up. And we, first of all, when you open yourself up, the first thing you need to do is empty out yourself Oh my God, glory to God, of every habit, everything that's a part of your journey that does not— oh my God— reinforce trust in God, that does not align with God's way. Let me give you an example. If you really want to change the way you eat, change your diet, The first thing you got to do, I'm telling you right now, you got to get everything out of your house that's bad for you. Because as long as it's in there, it's a part of your journey. You're going to eat it. Yeah, I mean, if you want to cut back on hot sauce— I love you, daughter, uh, but if you're gonna cut back on hot sauce, you gotta not buy hot sauce. Glory to God. Until you get where you don't use it as frequently as you would like to. And let me use a simple example. I love sodas and I have cut back on— listen, I stopped drinking them and I told my wife, I said, listen, don't buy any more sodas. And I'm glad she listened to me and didn't because I said, I told her, I said, even if they on sale, don't buy them. Because you know how you go in the store, you see, oh my God, you got 12-pack, 2 for $5 each, so you get it. Listen, don't, don't even get it. I don't want no zeros, I don't want no sodas. It's water only for me. And the other night, I'm gonna tell you, man, I wanted a soda so bad and it wasn't one in the building, one in the house, nowhere. And I was so glad because if it was here, I would have drunk it. What am I saying? You got to empty your ek ek, open up your life again. Look in yourself. You know the junk that's in there. You know the stinking thinking that doesn't align with God. Yeah, you. Yeah, you. You too. Yeah, you, apostle, preacher, pastor, prophet. Yeah, you know that stinking thinking that's down in you that's got you where you are Ek, open yourself up, kick it out, and then become acquiescent. Surrender to Yada. Surrender to what he knows. Listen, can I let you in on a secret? God knows everything about you. He knows where you are and he knows where you're going. Ooh, kochai, my God. Touch yourself. And just say that. Say, he knows where I am and he knows where I'm going. You thought he forgot about you? No, ma'am. No, sir. God knows where you are and God knows where you're going. Good God from Zion, he knows the path that you take. Glory to God. He, he, oh, he declares the end from the beginning. Oh God, before he formed you in the belly, there it is, he knew you. Yada. He knew everything about you. Can I let you in on something else? There's nothing about you or your journey that surprises God. He is waiting on you to line up with him and get in sync with his desire, get in sync with his will, so he can release the blessing that he's got planned for you. Oh my God. He said, lean not to your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct. Yahshua, he shall direct. Watch this, which means Yahshua means he'll make your paths right. He'll set you in the right direction. Watch this, he will establish your way and make your way as his thoughts for you. So he says, all I want you to do is empty yourself, become acquiesced to what's on his mind, prioritize his thoughts over your thoughts, 'cause your mind again plans your way. 'Cause that's the topic of this teaching tonight, man's mind, plans his way. People who are not spiritual, they plan their own way because they look at God as this religious entity that's just sitting in the throne on heaven. And, you know, well, I'm gonna talk to the man upstairs and, you know, he maybe he'll answer, maybe he won't, but I got this plan. God is imminent. Oh my God, he's transcendent. He is interested. That means he's just simply interested, coming off the throne, being involved with your life. He is transparent enough to show you his plans for you, to allow you to align with his thoughts if you just seek it, if you just trust him and don't lean to your own understanding. He's in all your ways. Notice him, he'll direct you. Your paths. He'll direct your journey. He'll direct your way. Listen, here's the problem with that. Because we have so many ideas in our mind— let me shift for a minute— often it's comfortable to follow what we're used to. And we fear many a times what is uncommon. But can I submit to you tonight, if you want uncommon results, you got to walk in uncommon faith. You got to walk in a faith that is not normal to your path. You got to trust God on a level where you haven't trusted him before. Oh we I gotta go, y'all. He says, be not wise, verse 7, in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. He said, it shall be health to your navel and marrow to thy bones. So basically, these 3 verses are just telling us trust in God releases help from God. Ah, type that in the comments. Sounds simple, but so many don't do it, which is why they don't have help from God. Trusting in God releases his help. Type in the comments, trusting in God releases his help. You want God's help, trust him. It's just that simple, saints. If you want God's help, trust him. I'm almost finished. Also, these verses shares with us— watch this— that when we're wise in our own eyes and don't fear the Lord and depart from evil, it's sharing us the inference on that idea that reasoning or analyzing before you believe. I want to submit to you tonight, stop reasoning the promises of God. I don't know, I don't know about you, but I've gotten to this point in my life, matter of fact, several years ago, that what God said is what he said. I have no right— hear me— to analyze or reason with what God said. It's appalling to me, it really is, that People can accept— watch this— all of the things that seemingly God would say concerning judgment and damnation and sin and hell. And those things are there. What he said is what he said, right? But The problem is, if I can accept that if I live in sin I'm going to hell, I ought to be able to accept that he will withhold no good thing from them that walk upright— oh my God— before him. So reasoning to me and analyzing before you believe is the fruit— watch this— of pride. When you're reasoning and analyzing before you believe, you're walking in more pride than the average Joe, man. That arrogance is dangerous. God only helps the humble. That's what the Bible says. He said, be wise. If you're not proud, If you're not fearing the Lord, and if you're living an evil life, he said, I can't help you. But, but if you're not wise in your own eyes and you fear the Lord and you've departed from evil, he said, you'll have health to your navel and marrow to your bones. You're gonna be healthy, you're gonna have prosperity, you'll have blessing in your life. God opposes the proud people. So again, you might think somebody proud, somebody just turn up their nose and look down everybody. No, that's not just the proud. The proud— I'm almost done, I promise you— is more than that. Glory to God, it's more than that. God help us. It's when you choose your way, your idea, over God's idea. And you really— and you do it so much, you believe that that stinking thinking is right. I'm not just preaching at you. I've done it, man. I've done it. And I've had to receive freedom and deliverance. You know what deliverance came through? Trusting the word. Just deliberately, deliberately putting my trust in God's word. What he said is what he said. There's not one jot nor tittle of this word that shall pass away. Prophecying shall cease, but my word, the book, shall stand forever. Listen, I'm not against prophecy. Don't say that. Let your— get your mind free right now. I'm a prophet. I've been prophesying for 30 years, period. But prophesying shall cease. It shall cease. You better get strong in this book. You better get a relationship with his mind, which is this word, and trust it. Glory, glory. Matter of fact, go to 1 Peter 5. Go 1 Peter 5, because I want to help you. I want to help you not be arrogant and analyze before you believe. 1 Peter 5. 5. 1 Peter 5:5. All right, he says, likewise, you younger, submit yourself unto the elder. Listen, yea, all of you be subject, listen, one to another, and be clothed, listen to this, with humility, for God resists the proud. And giveth grace to the humble. Grace is— oh my God, are you ready? Grace is charis in Greek, which is favor and blessing to the humble. So favor and blessing come to the humble, but he resists, rejects, atetassami, which means he rejects, he is against. Matter of fact, the word— oh, this word is so powerful— he opposes, hisself as an opponent against the proud. So basically, when you choose to prioritize your way over God's word, you become an opponent to God. God said, okay, we're gonna see who win. In other words, he steps back and say, okay, I'm gonna let you flow in this because I can't violate your will. So the very fact that God steps away from the situation is how he fights to get your attention, that to get you back to trusting. Oh boy, just touch yourself and say, God's got me, I must trust him, I must trust him. Yeah, God's got you, but you must trust him. God's got me, but I must trust him. Yeah, I don't want God to resist me because I'm being proud and arrogant. So guess what? I need to clothe myself in humility, trust the word. I need to submit myself to others. I need to have subjective leadership in my life. You need to have that. You need to have elders. Oh my God, people that know more than you, submit yourself to their wisdom. You don't know everything, neither do I. Hallelujah. I, I have something on my, my plate, a decision I'm making, I'm praying about. Matter of fact, something I'm just actually in the process, and I text my spiritual father yesterday, said, listen, I need insight, sir, on this. This is where I'm at, and as my father, I need you to pray and I need you to give me your wisdom on this situation right here that I'm processing through right now, because it's a major decision that will affect my entire life and ministry and the very trajectory of everything I do. And I want to make sure I'm making the right move. So I had to subject myself to wisdom of my elder. Are y'all hearing this? So if I can do it Aye, aye, hear me. You shouldn't follow any leader that's not subjected to authority. Any leader who's not subject to authority, one, they are out of order. And watch this, according to 1 Peter 5:5, they are not clothed in humility and they are walking in pride and they are an opponent of God. Don't follow that. Oh, I got to go. I'm almost done. Oh, we— oh, just touch yourself. So I can't lean to my own understanding, so I can't plan my way with my mind. I must trust God. Are y'all with me tonight? God have mercy. This, this thing is good to me. Go to Proverbs 16:9. Glory to God. So y'all don't think I'm crazy by calling this message this. I'm gonna go on and read this and get through. Proverbs 16:9. Glory to God. I give you— my God, today I bless you. I honor you, Lord. I honor you, Lord. So y'all thought I was crazy giving title, but Proverbs 16:9 says, 'A man's heart divides his way— watch this— but the Lord directs his steps.' So yeah, this scripture right here, Proverbs 16:9, is one of the reasons— listen— that many believers experience so much struggle in their lives. Listen, it's in a man's heart, his lab deviseth his way. Hear that? But the Lord directs his steps. So your, your own feelings and emotions, your lab, your human reasoning is trying to get you to go one way. And the Lord's over here trying to direct your steps another way, but most of the time you ain't listening. And God says, I'm trying to get you to my plan. I'm trying to get you to the thoughts I know I think toward you, the expected end that I've already planned. But we're trying to go one way because our lab, our feelings, we feel this in our human discernment. And God's trying to get you to go another way. So you going this way, God going this way, and it's a tug of war. Glory to God. God's trying to direct your steps and you got struggle. And God's sitting over here like, I'm trying to direct you this way. Where are you going? Listen, slow down, be patient, trust the Lord, listen to God, and let him direct your steps. Kun, directive. The word kun there, which means he establishes or stabilizes your steps, which means there's no shaky ground. There's no, oh my God, lucidness. There's no, oh my God, ambiguities in following the steps that God is directing. They're stable, they're firm, they're going somewhere. If we was in church, I'd tell you slap somebody up the side of the head and tell them, I'm going somewhere. Listen, you touch yourself, say, I'm going somewhere. Matter of fact, God's movement is purposeful. He's trying to get you somewhere, but you got to kill that carnality. You got to kill that reasoning, cuz you, you, you— God says, okay, now I'mma wait over here till you want to follow, cuz what I got going on— this is what God is saying— is stable, it's fixed, it's firm, it's secure. It's going to lead to the best days of your life if you slow down and stop following your own mind. Oh boy, oh boy. Can I tell you something? God's plan— listen to me— is often beyond— hear me— our limited thinking. I got to get through this. Go to Isaiah 55:8-9. I'm gonna say that one more time. God's plan is often beyond our limited thinking. I just want to show you Isaiah 55:8-9. Let's go there. Let's go there. I love y'all, man. I love to teach y'all. Glory to God. Thank you for tuning in. Don't scroll if you're just joining us. I'm trying to help you get your mind right. I'm trying to help you get breakthrough. Glory to God. I'm trying to help you get to the blessing of the Lord that makes rich. And adds no sorrow. Glory to God. Isaiah 55:8, watch this: For my thoughts, hear me, are not your thoughts. That's pretty clear, right? Neither are your ways my ways, said the Lord. Verse 9: For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. So those two verses share with us that everything about how God thinks is higher, better than ours, and we are limited in our thinking because his thoughts and ways are above ours. Oh my God. Go to Ephesians 3:20. Somebody say, Apostle That's in, that's in the Old Testament. Give me some New Testament, sir. Okay, okay, I'll give you some New Testament, sir or ma'am. Okay, listen, glory to God. Ephesians 3:20, now unto him, who's him? Jesus, that is able to do. Wait a minute, so Jesus is not just some far-off person that's untouchable. That's not relational, that's not imminent or transcendent, he is able to do something. Not only that, not only is he able, I want you to know he wants to do something. But wait a minute, what is he able to do? Exceeding. Let's go, let's go, let's break this down. Hyper, ah yeah, that's the same English word, but the Greek word is hyper, H-Y-P-E-R, and this word word. Oh boy, means over, beyond, more than. It means beyond— watch this, are you ready— carnal perception. So God is able to do more than your carnal mind can think. Beyond it, above it, far above. Jesus is able to do above. But when you start limiting him to your analyzed desire, your analyzed thought process, your way and my way, that's lower than the word. When we do this, you and I miss the opportunity to experience what is far beyond our intellectual capacity. I don't care if you dropped out in the third grade. God said in this book he is able to do far above what you learned in school, far above what people said about you, far above your rejection. Oh my God, I'm so glad I caught that in my life. 'Cause this how I live. I live not according to what Mike can do. I live according to what God can do. Whew. Oh my God. I dare you type that in the comments. Say, "He is able to do." Woo! He's able to do it. Hey, glory. And he wants to do it. I gotta get outta here, y'all. Exceeding abundantly. Wait a minute. You would think he was doing enough with, just exceeding. What— watch this— abundantly is perissos in Greek. P-E-R-R-I-S-S-O-S. Perissos in Greek. And it means, oh my God, he's able to do more than is necessary, or more than you deem necessary. You may say, oh, this— the money I got is enough. This this car is enough, this house is enough. But that, that's cause you said that. Wait a minute. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, this job is enough. God said, oh, I could far exceed what you think is necessary. All you gotta do is trust me. All you got to do is take the limits off your mind and let this same mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus, which is an exceeding abundantly. Oh man, oh my God, he's— I can do exceeding abundantly above. You think, okay, wait a minute, so I want to, I want to just hyperperform in your life more than you can anticipate? He said, I can do more than you ask or think. According to the power that worketh in us. See, here's a problem. See, like I said in the beginning, I want you to think, right? Now I'm telling you, I don't want you to think in this regard. I don't want you to think negative. I don't want you to think beneath God's ability. I don't want you to limit yourself to what you think. I don't want you to limit yourself to those things you lack and that you wrote down. I don't want you to accept that what you lack and what you want and what you need in your life right now is never going to happen because you got a power, an exousia, an authority working in you, a dunamis, a kratos working in you. Yes, God. A miraculous strength and ability working in you. Woo! God, that's going to get to you everything you need, but you got to trust him. Woo! Trust him. If you just trust him. Here we go, Proverbs 20:24. Let me, let me, let me move. Proverbs 20:24 says, man's steps are ordered by the Lord. Listen, how then can a man understand his way? How— listen, how can we possibly understand? Listen to this, this is an inquiry. All the things that take place in our lives for God's glory or in the lives of others, we can't understand it. The Bible says God orders our steps. So God has a plan that's so big, that's so huge, that your ideas are minuscule in comparison. Your steps are ordered by the Lord. So you can't understand God's way. Just follow. Just trust. Stop trying to figure out his way. Just trust what he said. Listen, the man said what he said. Ah, can I submit to you? God is smarter than we are. I know that sounds simple, but you know what? When I look at people's posts, I watch people's videos, And I'm like, oh my God, you got people that really believe they are just as smart as God, and that just because they're doing something, God's going to bless it even if it's out of time. It's so much stuff that's happening out of time. You may be on target but out of time, on target but out of time, on target. Now I'm not saying that's not what you're supposed to do, but the question is, are you ready to do it? Have you been ordered into that right now, or are you moving prematurely? God's smarter than us. He has a reason why he doesn't want us to get in too heavy in things right now, why we don't want to get in a hurry— glory to God— to be something we're not. Again, you could be on target, but out of time. Yeah, I'm almost— I'm almost— I'm almost— Psalm 37:5. I'm moving. Man's mind plans his way, but you got to acknowledge him, open up, dismiss that stuff, and accept God's plan. Psalm 37:5 says, commit thy way unto the Lord Trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass. So here's the remedy. We've read this scripture a lot, but I want to give you something that maybe you haven't noticed that this is saying to us. Listen, when you are tempted— listen to this, listen— to do something to shorten your wait. When you're tempted to say, oh my God, God's moving like an old man and he's not coming fast enough, I need him to hurry up, he's just moving too slow, and you get tempted to shorten your wait, the scripture gives us what to do. He says, commit your way unto the Lord. What do you mean, Michael? That word submit— come under alignment with God. Submit your way, your path, your feelings, your ideas. There it is again. Your journey, your plans, your desires just, just give it to God. So, okay God, I, I feel like doing this, but I'm gonna continue to trust you. I feel like trying to run ahead of you, but I'm gonna pace myself with you. And I'm closing with that. I'm closing with that. Psalm 46:10, watch this, and then I'm gonna give you 4 things and I'm gone. Psalm 46:10 says this: Be still and know that I am God. Are y'all hearing this? He says, be still and know that I'm God. So what happens when you're still? When you're still, you can hear. There it is again. Go to the space between stimulus and response and be still. Look in, open your heart, open your ears, open your spirit so you can hear the voice of God. He wants to speak to you. He says, be still, don't react to it, don't try to fix it yourself. Be still, go through the learning process, get what you need. Glory to God. Get in that space and respond as a healthy person. He said, be still and know that I am God. So while you're still, God speaks. And what God does, he reveals purpose. He shows you why you are where you are, because purpose is the key to fulfillment. So the reason you're dealing— what you're— oh my God— dealing with what you're dealing with, excuse me, is because God's trying to give you a revelation of purpose. He's trying to show you why, number one, you're going through what you're going through, and why overall you are on this planet and your heart is still beating, because he wants you to fulfill his plan. And then also, while you still— hear me— and you commit your way to the Lord, when purpose shows up Just because you saw the purpose does not necessarily mean— hear me— that you're supposed to right then jump into fulfilling a purpose yourself without God's green light. So the next thing you are thrown into— watch this— when you commit your way to the Lord and you be still, you're thrown into a process. A process. God takes you through a process. So from purpose to process, you go through this process, a process of time, a process of developing, sometimes a process of pressure. That— watch this— press and yureh, two words. God pushes on you. Yureh, which means to extract. So he could pull something out of you. So he takes you through processes because there's something he needs to get out of you that's great, that's amazing, that you need to give to the world. So purpose is revealed, you go through process, and then watch this— after the process, you still don't get to run full speed ahead. Watch this, cuz you got to still be still and know that he's God. Now he takes you into pace, pace. So patience is like a long-distance runner. You got to pace yourself toward the goal. Listen, life with God— hear this— is a marathon, not a 50-yard dash. I'll say that again because that's tweetable. Glory to God. Tweet it, repost it. Life with God is not a 50-yard dash. It's a marathon. And a marathon runner paces themselves because they know they got to preserve themselves throughout the entire 5 miles, 10 miles, 3 miles. It's not bam out the gate. Can I tell you something? You got to pace yourself instead of trying to figure it out, shorten your time. Be still and know that he's God. That's what being still is about. That's what he's saying. See the purpose clearly. Hallelujah! Go through the process. Pace yourself. And guess what happens? God shows up and he presents to you the product. See, there's a product that God's trying to produce out of you, a purposed plan, whether it's ministry, whether it's a business, whether it's joy, peace, happiness, whether it's money, whatever the product you're processing through. You got to go through the process of being still and knowing that he is God, that you can't do it. It's going to take you and him, and knowing that you are the inferior in the situation. No matter how smart you are, he's smarter. You gotta trust him that if you be still and, and move when he say move, just like that, that he'll bring the product to you and you'll handle what He has promised. Let's pray tonight. Father, in Jesus' name, thank you for this word, God. My God, thank you, thank you, thank you, Father, for this word. I pray, God, that we will clearly stop analyzing before we believe, but in all our ways we will we will acknowledge you. And we trust, God, that as we open ourselves up and become acquiesce to your will, that you, God, will direct our path. God, I believe we are creative because you live in us. And so, Father, we trust your timing to birth creative ideas and innovations out of us. We trust the process of the purpose. God, release pace, pace, pace. We rebuke the spirit of being in a hurry, and we declare freedom to trust you. In Jesus' name, amen. And thanks be to God. And we declare, yes, that when patience has a perfect work, we will be perfect, mature, entire. We will have sufficiency in all things— intellectually, mentally, physically, financially, spiritually— entire. God, I release an entire person, uh, entire people under the sound of my voice, in Jesus' name. Amen. And thanks be to God. Listen, guys, you ought to give God glory, honor, and praise tonight. I'm telling you, if you take what we've learned tonight and apply it, your life literally will never, ever be the same again. Listen, right here, I need to challenge you really quickly to give. I need to challenge you to give. Uh, we're We're streaming on several platforms tonight. We're on Facebook, we're on YouTube, we're on Instagram. Matter of fact, two face— three Facebook pages, glory to God. Uh, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Wherever you're watching, don't scroll in this moment. The Bible says if the servant of God communicates to you spiritual things you should communicate natural things. I want to challenge you to sow into this word tonight. Listen, I— when I— before I came in here, the Lord said that there will be 20 people watching live or by replay that need a financial breakthrough. Listen, I need you— if you're one of those 20, you know you need some finances— to not sow a haphazard seed. I need you to be obedient and sow a seed that's going to help turn your life around. Some of y'all don't believe this, but you're broke because you do not give. And it's just because the scripture says give and it shall be given unto you. How are you broken? You work every day. It's because you're not a giver. You're not a tither. And God wants you to correct that. God knows I love you guys. And if you don't go to my church, you need to tithe to your church. But if you sat and listened to this word, you need to get a seed in the ground tonight. I want to challenge you to be obedient. You know, many times we make these appeals, uh, it's interesting, and we have a couple that give. You know, uh, but the same people are always praying for money. The reality is you better find a way to get seed in the ground, and you better trust God when you get that seed in the ground that is coming up again. Whatsoever a man soweth— I didn't write it— that shall he reap. So tonight I want you to communicate your natural things. Be a blessing to ministry. Glory to God! There are some things we need to do. I'm telling you, we need to secure a worship facility. We have some things we need to get done, and we need your help doing it. Get your seed in the ground. I was watching one, one preacher, a very powerful young man. I really admire what God is doing in his life. I've watched him through the years, and God's really blessed him. and, uh, he posted something on Instagram, and, uh, one person in his building project that they're currently in planted a seed of $100,000, and I just began to rejoice with him. I mean, to the point that I'm like, God, thank you for doing that. Now that's— and it just encourages me to know that somebody's watching, that somebody— I always say it only takes one person to be preoccupied with what you are called to do and to help carry what you're called to do. I think they were trying to raise something like $380,000 for phase 1. He had 3 different people to close that out. One for $100,000, I think another one was $10,000, another one was like $15,000 that took them over the top on that goal they was trying to reach. And they did that— watch this— I think it was a little over 30 days, which is absolutely miraculous. It's because people give into what they believe. So get your seed in the ground. Father, bless every seed sown tonight. The ways to give are on the screen. Give it back to them 1,000 times more, in Jesus' name, amen. Listen, while you're preparing your giving, your seeds, your gifts, I want to encourage you, listen, we'll be at Raleigh Church Sunday. Please This is Palm Sunday. Glory to God. This is the day Jesus rode in on the colt and they declared, "Hosanna, Hosanna!" We're entering into Passion Week, the week leading up to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Listen, this is a very sacred time. Listen, be in church. Glory to the name of God. And let's experience the goodness of God this weekend. Our services are at 12:30 PM on on Sunday. I look to see you in the house. Listen, my time is gone. Y'all be blessed. Heaven smile upon you is my prayer, in Jesus' name. Amen.