Pleasing God! | Dr. Mike Woods, Sr. | 13 November 2025

Well, grace and peace everyone from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is Apostle Mike Woods and welcome tonight to Thursday Night Thirst. Listen, if you're just joining us, y'all know the drill. Do me a kind favor, guys, I want you to go ahead and share, uh, this live stream. I believe there's a word from the Lord. I believe that those that tune in tonight are going to be tremendously blessed with revelation that will push you into a new dimension of growth and increase and learning and actually being a good kingdom citizen in a world that's just really not open to you being a productive kingdom citizen. So if you're joining us, I need you to do two things. First off, I want you to share this. And secondly, I want you to hit that like button. And then, yeah, this third thing, do this too. I don't want you to scroll. I want you to stay right here. I want you to draw your mind in. There's something that God has to say to you on tonight. Glory to the name of God. Uh, bless everyone that is here. God bless you, Stephanie. Good to see you tonight. Uh, glory to God. Uh, I don't know who this is, but good evening to you as well. LBC Song References, God bless you. Um, God bless you in— I think that's Nicole. God bless you, Nicole. And of course, always great to have my wife who is my biggest fan. So bless everyone that's here. Please comment below, uh, let us know that you're in the building. Glory to the name of God. And we're gonna get started with this, uh, in— I mean, just a few moments. But I want to make sure that we are doing our due diligence, we're doing our part to make sure that every person that needs to connect to this live connects. Listen, I missed you guys at Rhoda Church on Sunday. Uh, we were on our— actually in Nashville on Sunday, uh, glory to the name of God, with my son Ben. Uh, we were there with him Sunday and Monday and, uh, just supporting some of the work he's doing. And it was just great to be there. But I did miss you guys, so I'm super excited to teach tonight. So I pray that you make sure you text everyone, let them know that we're on so you can get this word. Apostle Sears preached a great word. I did get a chance to watch that word. Good word. Glory to the name of God. And I pray you took what she disseminated and you've been applying the fact that you are actually one of they, yet you are they. That's what she talked about. So we were very important in the kingdom. Good stuff. So tonight again, we're going to discuss pleasing God. This is so, uh, very important. Praise God. We're going to discuss pleasing God. I mean, what a great thing, um, to be able to do, glory to God, is to please him. Praise God. Uh, we're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about some real important keys, uh, to bringing pleasure to God, right? And making sure that, uh, in your life, glory to the name of God, you're actually operating at high dimensions of pleasure. Glory to God. So let's pray, and then we're gonna get right into this. Glory to the name of God. So Father, in Jesus' name, we thank you, we bless you, we honor We praise you, God, for who you are. We thank you for another opportunity to teach your word. Thank you tonight for the light, the illumination, and the intelligence of the Holy Ghost. Father, superimpose your kingdom. Superimpose your desire upon us tonight. Father, do something unusual. Do something man cannot do. Saturate the airways, God, with your Shekinah glory. And Father, that's that transformative glory that even as we begin to speak your word. Omansiya lekesontutu mankese aya. Ye kurrangiso tutubunkushe aya. We give you praise that healing will occur just by speaking the word. For even your Bible told us you said the word and it healed them. So Father, even tonight as we speak, we thank you that healing will occur. We thank you that deliverance will occur. For your word declares healing and deliverance is the children's bread. Just through the teaching, God, let the word be sharper than any two-edged sword, and let us bring us to new places of liberty, new heights of victory. Oh God, I thank you that our paradigm in our intelligence will shift toward a kingdom mentality even as we share tonight, and we give you praise and glory for that, God. In the mighty name of Jesus we do pray. Amen and amen. Listen, the Lord bless you, uh, real good. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Have you shared this yet? Listen, if you not, please go ahead and hit that share button. There's something good that's going to happen on tonight. Glory to God. Uh, God bless again everyone that is here. God bless. See my daughter Minister Burns, God bless you. God bless you, Pastor Jeffrey Jasper. Glory to God. Uh, Pastor Jasper and Lady Zion, uh, they shared 10 years of anniversary on this week. So you guys take a moment even in the comments If you haven't had a chance to wish Pastor Jasper and Lady Zion a happy anniversary, glory to God, make sure you wish them a happy anniversary. Pastor, we love you, we love the love you and Zion share, and we're super excited for the years to come in your marriage. We thank God for these 10 years, but we know that the best days are yet in front of you. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Uh, welcome everybody, welcome everybody. Do like Sharia, tag people. Do like Pastor Jeffrey, tag people. God bless you, Teresa. Good Good to see you tonight. Glory to the name of God. Thank you for being here. Thank you for being on. Praise God. Yeah, I see you, Nicole. Glory to God. Hallelujah. I knew that was you. Glory to God. Well, let's get into this, family. Let's get into this. This is going to be, uh, really good tonight. Uh, I believe that God is going to bless us in a real way, so stay with me the whole time. Uh, again, I need you to go on a sharing frenzy because people need to hear this word. Amen. Amen. So tonight, guys, we're going to talk about pleasing God. And some of you may be saying, well, Apostle, that ought to be a given if people are really saved. And you're absolutely, categorically, 100% correct. It should be a given. However, it is not. Um, and sometimes And, you know, people tend to sleep on the fact— hear me, family— that, you know, bringing pleasure to God must be a deliberate act that occurs through you. You have to decide, I want to please God. You know why? Because God wants to be chosen. Ooh. He's not going to make you live for him. Are y'all here? He's not going to make you align with his word. He's not going to make you walk by faith. Glory to God. He's got— not gonna make you be a kingdom citizen. Watch this, in a hostile world. And part of this teaching tonight, um, you're going to learn how to be a kingdom citizen in a hostile world, how to make choices that please God on your day-to-day life. Because guess what, guys? I'm a witness. It is possible to bring to God in every single thing. Oh my God, that you do. I'm gonna say that one more time. It is possible to bring pleasure to God in every single thing that you do. Do y'all believe that? I want you to believe that because it is possible, but you have to make the choice. Now watch this, before we even get into this, let me lay this backdrop. The choice many times boils down to two things. You got to choose either to operate again deliberately in the pleasure mode— somebody say pleasure mode. Matter of fact, type that in the comments, pleasure mode. Glory to God. You got to choose to either operate in the pleasure mode— watch this— or the only other choice is performance mode. So either you're going to operate in the pleasure mode of God, or you're going to operate in the performance mode of man. Oh boy, oh boy. And so you got to decide which mode you're going to operate in, because either you're going to be performing for yourself, doing things that make you feel good, that bring you pleasure, or performing for others, or watch this, trying to be accepted. So you create a performance, you create a fake persona, you start being someone that's ingenuine, that's not 100% authentically you because you want other people to embrace you. When in reality, watch this, you should be living— here we go— for the audience of one. Life gets real tough. Life gets real hard when you spend your days trying to please other people and you do not live for the audience of one. Well, who's that one? Not your spouse, not your teachers, not your boss, not your pastor. The one audience your life should be reflective of is God. Live for the audience of one. And I promise you, if you make that decision, I'ma say a lot of things tonight that ties into this, but ultimately this is all I'm really gonna be saying. You gotta decide that you're gonna live for the audience of one and please God and God alone. Glory to God. You cannot be a man pleaser. You cannot be addicted to approval. You gotta live Live for the audience of one. And I promise you, if you do that, everything in your life, every decision you make, will be quality decisions. Because you understand you're not doing this to bring pleasure to anyone else but to bring pleasure to God, right? Now you may be asking— yeah, so let me, let me do this because this ain't even in my notes, but let me go to this scripture real quick because before I get into what I'm gonna teach, because this is important. To where I'm going. Because if you don't get this substratum, this foundation, this premise right, then the rest of the stuff I am about to give you is not going to matter. It's just not gonna matter, people. I'm telling you, because you're not going to do any of it. But when you, when you really can embrace what I'm about to read to you and understand— watch this— that for real Somebody shout, for real! For real! Glory to God, you are bought with a price. Say that with me, say, for real, I am bought with a price. And I want you to— we're going to read this because I want you to see it in your Bible. Glory to God. So let's go to 1 Corinthians 6:20. Glory to God. 1 Corinthians 6:20. Matter of fact, let's read 19. Praise God. Let's read 19 and then we'll read— hallelujah— 20. The Bible says, do you not know— this is the New International Version. And somebody type these two verses in the comments. 1 Corinthians 6:19. Glory to God. And 20. He says, do you not know that your bodies of the Holy Spirit? So now when he talks about body here, that's the Greek is bio or bios, where we get words like biology. So which is not just the physical body, but it is actually the expression. It's because this word is a verb, so it's the expression that the body manifests. It's the behaviors, it's the things that the body does. Watch this, it's the body's actual existence in life. Y'all hear me? So let's back up one other step so you can understand that. So your entire being, you're not just a body. Reality is you are a tripartite being. You are a trichotomy, which means you are three parts. You body, bios, soul, psuche, psychological, mind, will, emotion, uh, passions, intellect. All of that is in the soul, uh, praise God, hallelujah. But you're also spirit, which is zoe, which is the life of God breathed in you. Now you have to choose deliberately out of your soul which part of you will be the most influential part of your life. People who normally live in the performance mode and not the pleasure mode, they live allowing their flesh, which is crazy, to take the lead. Whoo! Because what they— and the flesh can't do nothing unless the soul influence. So the intellectual capacity in your soul makes you believe you are actually smart enough to control your life better than God. That's really what this boils down to. So you start manifesting crazy, dumb, stupid behaviors. Hear me out of your body. Hear me, because you're being guided by your mind and not your spirit, not the zoe life, not the regenerative Holy Ghost that lives in you, because you think you have ownership. You do not own you. God owns you. Watch this, let me, let me keep reading. He said, don't you know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost who is in you, who you have received from God Watch this. You are not your own. How good is that, people? You don't belong to yourself. He owns you. Your body is the temple of God. He lives in it. So what you have to do is decide you're going to cooperate. This is why you need baptism in the Holy Ghost. You need to be be filled with the Holy Ghost. Glory to God. And I'm— listen, we got a meeting coming up, uh, in December. Uh, the apostles are coming. I'm believing God that before you will cross over into 2026, every one of you, even, even those of you out there that think you mastered the Holy Spirit, that you have the deepest of all relationship with him, I am believing God that God would baptize you again. That he will refill you to the overflow, that he will refresh and renew his relationship with you. Oh my God. So that you could flow in all things that pertain to him, so that at all times your life is pleasing to him because you're following his direction. Why? Because you realize you're not your own. Well, let's read verse 20. He said, you were bought with a price. Yeah, that's why he own you, because he paid for you. Glory to God. He created you, and then Adam's sin— he came back as the second Adam, repurchased you with his own blood. Are y'all here? And now you belong to God. And here's your duty. He says in verse 20, therefore honor God with your body, with your bios life. Again, this is not just fornication, adultery, and the sins of the body. This is actually honoring God with your bios life, your biology. The expression of your biology should honor God. Your ways of working— hear me— your ways of thinking, your ways of being entertained, your ways of being married, your ways of having relationships. All of these things should Honor God. Oh boy, oh we, oh we, oh we. I'm teaching better than y'all saying amen today. Glory to God. Hallelujah. So, but you got to honor him with your body. God bless you, Aunt Mary. I see my aunt on Instagram. God bless you guys. Thank you guys for being on tonight. Listen, we're streaming right now over 5 platforms 3 Facebook pages, YouTube, and Instagram. Wherever you're watching us, uh, make sure you share this. Glory to the name of God. So this is why you have to make a choice of whether you're gonna perform or whether you're gonna please. All right, so let's go to 2 Timothy real quick, real quick. 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 3 through 5. Let's look at this, right? There we go. All right, now y'all ready? The Bible says— matter of fact, let me go back to verse 1 of this. Let's, let's go back to verse 1 of this, right? So let's, let's, let's, let's move that for a moment. Let's go to the— let's go to the verse of the chapter, and I'm moving it because I don't have a slide for chapter— for verse 1. But verse 1 is going to give this context, right? So, so let's go to verse 1. 2 Timothy 3:1. Hallelujah! We give God praise. 2 Timothy 3 and verse number 1. We give him— we love him. He's such a good God. We thank you, Lord. All right, King James, I'm reading. He says this: Know also— watch this— that perilous times will come. Now I want you to understand something. The Greek word for perilous here is not what you think. It's not to be in danger, and it could lead to danger, but the Greek word in the text means to be without strategy without strength. Watch this, without guidance. So it's perilous, it's skandalēon, when you don't have the strength to function in purpose, when you don't have the strength to exhibit the will of God. And the Bible says in the last days there'll be many who are without strength, there'll be many that don't have strategy to overtake the enemy. They don't have strategy to win. They don't have strategy to progress or prosper. He said in the last days, these perilous times are gonna come. And then he tells you why. He says because many will be lovers of their own selves. Hallelujah. So now they want to bring pleasure to themselves. So we see a world now that had— lacks kingdom strategy, that lacks strength from God because everybody's operating in their own strength— likes, clicks, popularity, whole nine yards, right? People are not operating in high levels of spiritual innovation and spiritual intelligence because they love themselves more than they love God's principles. Watch, what do they love? The Bible says in the King James, uh, they're covetous, or they're lovers of money. They're boasters, they're proud, they're blasphemers, they're disobedient to parents, they're unthankful, they're unholy. Oh my God. Now we can throw up verse 3. Glory to God. They're lovers of— they're traitors, they're heady, they're high-minded, they're lovers of pleasure. More than lovers of God. So watch this: you'll never be able to adequately please God if you love yourself more than you love his way of doing things. If you love being a traitor, if you love being proud and arrogant and high-minded— and mind you, all this stuff I just read is connected to the spirit of pride or the spirit of arrogance. Every one of those things I just read have a direct connection to a demon called pride. And watch this, pride is so subtle and cunning, sometimes you can be operating in pride and don't even realize it's pride because you think pride is in a way overconfidence where you're belittling others. But honestly, pride is when you exalt your way of doing things, your mode of operation, over God's way of doing things. Oh my goodness, oh my goodness. And, and the Bible says here, when you start doing that consistently, you love pleasure. Oh, you're constantly seeking opportunities to extrapolate pleasure. Oh, oh my God, here we go, here we go, here we go. You want— urer is a French word that means to pull out, to extract. The other part of pleasure is please. So you're extracting out of life Only the things that make you feel good. Only the things that make— because watch this, I was telling my son Ben today, sometimes what God will do— hear me, family— he— oh my God— he will, he will put you in a position where, because he can see everything, he's omniscient, and he'll take you through things that may not actually be pleasing to you. I know I've been through a lot of things. I'm asking— I was asking God, now why am I here? I love you, I'm living for you, but here I am now. But he does that because he has a plan that you can't see, you and I can't see. So he takes us through, glory to God, so that he can qualify us to keep the destination, the destiny that he's taken us to. It's all getting you ready. Even though you thought the things should have worked one way and it worked another way, and right then you just can't quite get why God took you through that. But he took you through it because he wanted you to adapt to the fact that your life is not about bringing you pleasure but bringing him pleasure. And ultimately, as you mature what's his pleasure— watch this— becomes your pleasure. So the Bible said here again, let's, let's put it up there. It says that these men are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. Here's the catch: having a form of godliness. Oh God. A form. Again, it can look like God to you, and even if others look at it and there's, oh, that's God, but a lot of things are just a form of godliness. How do you know that, Michael? I know that because here's the next part of the verse: denying the power thereof. So whenever it's a form of godliness is never gonna empower, it's never gonna have authority, it's never gonna have supernatural ability. Glory to God. It's never, never, never— hear me, hear me good— it's never, glory to God, going to bring change and transformation to people connected to it because it's just a form. Listen, when you've been— if you've ever been around religious thinking people, they could be in a church setting and be a large church, a small church, it don't even matter. If it's a— and, and because people are great mimickers, oh my God, this is crazy. Preachers mimic other preachers and then they wonder why their people mimic them. But can I submit to you tonight, every one of you on the sound of my voice has a unique— and we're going to talk about in a moment— authentic space in life that you ain't got to mimic nobody. You can uniquely be you. Listen, and, and I'm gonna move on. Don't settle for a form of godliness with no power when you can have godliness with contentment with a lot of power. See, power manifests where there's godliness, not compromise. And I know in this world there's a lot of stuff out here that challenges the believer to want to compromise. oh my God, to want to go the world's way. Thank you, Jesus. That want to, glory to God, do things the way the world is doing it. But we're called to live and to walk out a different system of living, a different system of being, and we need to walk it out with power. Oh God. So we, we shouldn't just be doing things to be doing them because we Watch this, you could be gifted and it'd be a form of godliness because that gift doesn't carry weight, it doesn't carry power. Oh, I got to get out of here, I gotta go, I gotta go. So, so again, let me put it up there again. He says having a form of godliness denying the power. So anytime you choose performance and form over pleasing God you're rejecting the power that's available to you. The Bible says here, from such turn away. Can I tell you something? You need to be 100% Grade A. You need to be 100% free, 100% authentic, 100% holy, 100% operating in the things that pertain to God and choosing God's way over man's way every single time. I want to challenge you tonight to dismiss the fake instead of denying the power. Deny the pathetic, deny the fake, the phony, the pseudo. Deny that and choose the pleasure mode of God. Choose— glory to God— godliness. Are we here? Praise God. I gotta get through this. I gotta get through this. I'm gonna get through it. Y'all stay with me. Stay with me. Glory to God. Stay with me tonight. Again, we're off, uh, 5 different platforms tonight— Instagram, YouTube, 3 Facebook pages. Wherever you're watching, please share. Glory to God. All right, now let's go to John 12:43. Let me put it up there. The Bible says— here we 'Cause you— we don't want to operate in performance mode, right? So just let the scripture backdrop it, then we're gonna be where we need to be. For they love the praise of men. My God, more than the praise of God. Do you realize most ministries, most preachers do things for likes and clicks now? Now to gain popularity, to gain the attention of those that follow them, when the reality is you ought to be chasing the praise of God, the blessing of God, the endorsement, the favor of God. Watch this. This simply means humans fall in love with honor from men over honor from God. I said in the beginning, you gotta live for the audience of one. Not likes, not clicks, not popularity. You need to live— and watch this— if you live with audience of one, God can trust you with the likes and clicks and people, because he knows you won't take his glory. Hear me? And you won't take it for yourself and fall in love. So you got to mature to the point that you don't love men, 'cause again, this is performance. So when you fall in love with the praises of men, what you'll start doing is performing so you can keep getting those praise, so they can keep honoring you, so they can keep building you up and stepping you up. Glory to the name of God. The devil is— oh, Apostle Hawkins, I just saw you. God bless you, Apostle. Good to see you tonight. Listen, those of you on here, I'm gonna take this pause for station identification. If you're in Jackson, Mississippi, or any of the surrounding areas, other cities, Vicksburg, Kosciusko, Durant, uh, Byron, Madison, Ridgeland, wherever, Martin, Forrest, wherever you want to come from, you need to meet us, uh, this coming Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday for 3 powerful services. I'll be there with Apostle Hawkins. It's going to be great. Revival is going to fill the room. Make sure you're in the building. Uh, the flyer, there's a video on my page, check it out. Make sure you get there. All Hey, listen, the Bible says here they love the praise of men more than they love the praises of God. And someone say, God will honor me? Yes, he wants to honor you. He wants to honor you as his own. Ooh wee, ooh wee, ooh wee. He, he wants to bless you because you choose him over performance. You choose to please feel. People like the praises of men because some— sometimes it feels like, okay, I'm getting this right now, they're making me feel good right now. But you gotta learn how to humbly receive that. Glory to God! Humbly receive that. Wonderful Jesus! And you have to be able to accept it and still reflect it or deflect it all back to God. Never let it rest with you, because we're nothing without him anyway. Oh, somebody ought to say that. Say, I'm nothing without him. How does that happen? The way it happens, you got to have the fear of the Lord, right? So you got to be able, glory to God, to fear the Lord in a way— hear me, family, which is a reverential fear, that you put all your trust in him and you understand he's the source, he's the resource. And watch this, men will love you today. 'Cause let me just read this. The fear of man brings a snare, but whosoever put his trust in the Lord shall be safe. So the fear of man brings a snare, but whoever put his trust in the Lord is safe. Proverbs 29:25. So there's safety, oh my God, in trusting God. There's safety in standing in the will of the Father. Y'all with me tonight? Oh my God. So, so you got to decide, because you said— in other words, Solomon is saying you setting yourself up for failure when you just choose to put your trust in the fear of losing the praises of man. Oh my God. Oh my God, we gotta, we gotta do better. We gotta put our trust in God. We gotta know that he is more than enough. He is more than enough. Oh, I need somebody just type that in the comments. He is more— oh my God— than enough. He's more than enough for you. He's more than enough for me. He's more than enough. God bless you, Mr. Anderson. God bless you, Vernessa. Good to see you all on here tonight. Listen, he's more than enough. He's a source. He's a resource. You got to trust him. You got to stand in him. He's more than enough. He's El Shaddai. I didn't say Shaddai. He's El Shaddai, the God that's more than enough, which means Supply never runs out, and it also means his supply is consistently being released to his children. So when I operate in pleasure mode, it automatically— oh, here we go— eradicates lack. Oh, I'm gonna move, I'm gonna move, because maybe I don't want to hear that, because many times lack is directly connected for the believer to an area of performance. Wow. Where you're operating in a high level of doubt and you're performing for men depending on, again, your soul, your psyche, your psychological existence to guide resources. When even, even though God will speak to our intellect out of his spirit, we should allow that to be the thing that guides our businesses, that guides our contracts, that guides how how we intertwine with people, not out of the flesh, not out of the somatic realm. Are y'all hearing me? I gotta go, man. I gotta go. Okay, so because y'all don't want to hear that, but lack is eradicated when you're, when you're in pleasure. Okay, uh, the Bible says in Philippians 4 that my God shall supply all my need according to his riches in glory. The operative word in this text is not him supplying the need. That's there. That's El Shaddai. It's going to flow as long as you— watch this— understand it's according to his riches in glory. So you got to live in the pleasure mode, which is in glory, in his glory, where you're operating in a lifestyle that brings As you're to him, the supply is constantly coming in. Oh boy. Oh yeah, I gotta get outta here. My time going. 'Cause y'all don't wanna hear that. But because you wanna say, "Oh no, it's the will of God to pour your hand with you always." Well, again, that's directly connected to some level of performance. Either you're performing for yourself, performing for others, performing for your boss. And then when you lose that opportunity, you don't operate in realms of faith and glory where God can supply what you need to get done what you got to do. Oh, I gotta go, I gotta go, because some of y'all don't want to receive that. Well, I'm saved and you know, I know tribulation. Okay, yeah, but again, I'm just trying to tell you the principle from which certain things derive. A lot of things you go through and deal with, especially when it comes to areas of lack and supply, it's because you have detached yourself from the covenant that's already in place to supply for you as a child of God, and you start performing to supply for yourself. Another message for another day. Glory to God. Oh, we don't want to hear that, we don't want to hear that. But I'm just telling you, okay? So let me get into these things. Uh, someone said, okay, I, I didn't come here for that tonight. Okay, it's okay, it's okay. Let's get in there. So watch this. So now I want to give you 4 things. Look at your screen. That bring God pleasure. These are keys to living godly, living as a kingdom citizen in a hostile environment. Y'all ready? Glory to God. So let's look at this. Let's look at this. Let's, let's look at what this is, because if we don't grab these 4 things— and I'm gonna be done when I give to you will never really truly please God. Somebody thought how much we shout, how much we speak in tongues, how much we pray are the things that ultimately bring him pleasure. Those elements of praise and worship and stuff we do in the church building, it's connected to it, but it's not in no way the totality of the work of pleasing God. It's only a small portion. Matter of fact, praise and worship, prayer, study, all those things empower me to walk out deliberately. Remember, bringing pleasure has to be deliberate, has to be strategic, it has to be desired. So those things empower me to do it. They motivate me to do it because they draw me closer in relationship. But you can go through the motions, you better believe it, or worship and praise and going to church and still— uh-oh, you better believe me when I tell you this— be operating in a realm where you're not bringing pleasure to God. All right, I know you won't hear that. Oh, I went to church. Yeah, okay, because you gotta, you gotta please him beyond unreligious experiences or encounters, whatever you want to call it. You got to choose to bring pleasure with him on every level. So let's look at this. I'm gonna put up here. Y'all ready? Here's number 1: love. Very nature of God is unconditional. Are y'all with me? Are y'all with me? Glory to God. The very nature of God is Unconditional. It's selfless. That's who he is. He loves us so much. Y'all know the scripture, John 3:16. He gave his only begotten Son so we can operate in eternity. Not that we can— watch this— have everlasting life when we die only, but we can have heaven on earth while we're here. See, he died right? Oh boy, I know that the religious mind gonna kill me for saying that one, but I don't care. Glory to God. The religious mind wants you to believe that you are here— hear me, family— just to have good church, to go through the motions of spirituality, and then die and go to heaven. Who told you said. You're saved so you can sit right now in heavenly places. And the love of God, the unconditional love— he died not so you can wait in the by and by. Because most Christians have this escapism mentality. They got the backpack looking, uh, out the window saying, Jesus, please come on and get us, they're gonna kill us. But at the end of the day, the reality is you need to tap into the pleasure mode. Glory to God. And receive the love of God so you can experience heaven on earth. So that's love coming from him. But secondly, love should also be unconditional and selfless actions on your behalf toward other people. Oh boy. 'Cause love is a verb. You can say you love somebody, you could give it the lip service, say it all you want, But it's action. Glory to God. Listen, I'm gonna tell you something. Yeah, I love my wife with all my heart, and I know she love me. And at the end of the day, what shows me she loves me more than I'll ever even comprehend is the things that she do. I mean, it could be the little things that she does for me, like cooking me a meal, like make sure my clothes are clean, and make sure our house is together. That's the things that she does. And even sometimes I could tell, and I'll help tell, sit down, stop doing it, you gotta do that now. Because, but because of how she wants me to feel, she makes sacrifices. Love is sacrificial, it's a verb. You have to, man, decide that you're gonna be a person of love. I need somebody to type that in the comments. Just say, I'm a person of love. Glory to God. Say, I'm a person love. You can't escape love. Hear me, because you cannot escape God. God is love. So if you're gonna please him, you gotta operate in love. My wife was talking to me about— she was just really distraught in her spirit about all of the murder that she's seen on the news, seeing in social media. Young people, old people, just death, death all around. I lost in the last 2 weeks 2 of my classmates, uh, right in my age group. One graduated with me, one graduated one year before me. One was a preacher, uh, the other was the person I took to the junior prom. You know, just death. I lost my best friend about 3 weeks ago, Apostle McClendon. Man, listen, the reality is It's a lot going on, and we got to choose in the midst of the world system where people are violent, people are angry, people are upset, and death and murder is happening. Let me tell you what murder is. Murder is— you can be murdered by a gun or you can be murdered by sickness. We gotta stop telling a lie at church. It was just their time. Time. And God— God— murder is a thing, right? And it means to die before your time, to die before you finish your purpose. And there are people who are being killed because there's a lack of love. We're in the last days. Lovers of pleasure, lovers of themselves, lovers of pleasing themselves. Because in that moment, taking this person's life makes that please. And that's, that's the devil, man. Oh my God, you got to become a person of love. That's right, Apostle Hawkins, faith works by love. You cannot trust God, you cannot serve God if you don't love him. You gotta— so if you want to really please him, you got to operate in love. We got to deal with all this Listen, saints, I want to challenge you, begin to pray against the spirit of murder and the spirit of death, where people are dying because of sickness and disease, terminal illnesses, and, and, and accepting this as okay. It's not okay. It's a spirit of infirmity, and we need to take control of this on our face, on our knees, and make the devil realize you have no place in our life, in our children, in our homes. Glory to God. Because, ah, because if we let him continue to run rampant, he gonna continue to rehab it. Glory to God. We must, in the name of Jesus, go up in the realm of the spirit and pull these strongholds of murder down. And we will not do that if we don't operate in love. That's pleasing God, up— loving someone other than you enough enough to pray for them. Are y'all hearing me? Loving someone other than you enough to give to them. Yeah. All right, I'm gonna move, I'm gonna move, I'm gonna move. All right, next one, next one. I'm gonna put it up. Number 2, number 2. Yeah, there it is. It's purpose. You want to please God, you got to operate in your purpose. I need you to understand you were created for a purpose. Purpose. There it is right now on on the screen is the original intent for the creation of a thing. Purpose doesn't deal with what you are, who you are, where you are. It doesn't deal with your location. It deals with why you are. And once you are clear about why you are, why you are on this planet, then the rest of it starts defining itself— your who, your what, your when, your where. But if you start trying to create timing without a revelation of purpose, you're going to create a lot of delays in your life. Because once you find your purpose, you're gonna realize you shouldn't have been doing that anyway, right? When you try to develop potential without purpose, quite honestly, you could develop an area of potential that's not necessarily needed for your kingdom purpose, and you start working on something that you shouldn't be. You could do it, but it's not connected to who you are. Ultimately, it's not connected to your higher why. Okay, let me give you an example. You can say, okay, I want to be an IT person, and you can say, I'm going to school for IT. IT people, when they get in their groove, they get their own company, they can make a whole lot of money doing IT. So I'm going to go learn IT. You may have the capacity to learn IT. But as a kingdom person, remember, watch this, you bought with a price. You're not your own. Your bio life, your biology life ain't yours. So you need to find out why you're here and develop in the areas of your purpose, right? So it, it's the original intent for the creation of a thing is why God put you on this earth. Oh my God, today, why are you here? You got to discover that. You want to know that? Ask God. He made you. Stop trying to expect the prophet to prophesy purpose to you. When the prophet prophesies you about purpose, it should be a confirmation to your conversation with God. Do you realize you honestly have a right to have a conversation with God on your on. He will speak to you. He will talk to you. He wants relationship with you. You just got to spend some time with him so your ears become sensitive to his voice. Watch this, you got to pray into becoming a sheep, because my sheep know my voice and a stranger they will not. You're not just sheep because you joined the church or you got saved. You become a sheep through following. You become a sheep through becoming a disciple. You become a sheep through time with him. Oh, well, here there it is again, if you're a sheep, you don't lack nothing. All right, if you really are sheep, you ain't got no lack. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Now somebody lying because there are a lot of people saying the Lord my shepherd and they want— oh boy, how do I eradicate that lack? You got to become a sheep. You got to get a sheep mindset. Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy so that lack is eradicated. Again, sheep don't perform, they follow. Oh my God, huh? They listen to the shepherd. And when they do break away, the shepherd loves them so much he goes get them, break their leg, bring them back so they don't run again. Are y'all here? Glory to God. You got to become a sheep. You got to find your purpose in the fold. And knowing that your daddy is a good, good father and he wants to take care of you. I'm almost done my time, about gone, man. I gotta move. All right, here's the next one. Number 3, faith. Faith is pistis in Greek. It's total reliance, total confidence, total dependence on what you cannot see. Total reliance, total confidence, total dependence Oh my God. Hey, Lakita, God bless you from Vicksburg. Good to see you, woman of God. Hope I get to see you and your husband next week, uh, when we're there in Jackson with Apostle Hawkins. I let Apostle Michelle know I will be there, so hopefully you guys come out and will be a great opportunity to see you guys, uh, and fellowship around the word of God. Praise God. Now somebody shout faith. It's total confidence, which means this brings pleasure to God. Glory to God. It's total confidence, not in your job, in what's in your bank account, not what you got invested. It's total confidence and reliance and dependence on what you can't see, on what the word is to leave what you can see— let me say it like this— for what you cannot I don't have time to do— I'm gonna just hit this because faith brings pleasure to God. Hebrews 11:1 says, and now faith— faith is not tomorrow, it's not a second from now, it's now. So whenever you're moving in faith, you're totally confident, totally reliant, totally dependent right now. It now— faith is substance of things hoped for. So it's the that things you're hoping for is made of. The things you desire to see manifest in your life, that's what faith is. And watch this, it's the evidence, it's proof that what you don't see in promise is real and God wants to give it to you. Oh my God. I need y'all to hear me. It's proof that, oh shia, makor rabatata bani osutu rabaya, that if God said it, he cannot lie. Lie. If God said it, it surely will come to pass. Faith says I have it now. I have proof. I got the deed. I got the receipt. It's already mine. That brings pleasure to God. Then watch this. Hebrews 11:6 says, without faith it's impossible to please the Lord. So you need to totally rely, have total confidence, have total dependence dependence on God so you can bring pleasure to him. I got to get out of here, y'all. Ah, y'all, I listen, I can go all night, but I gotta let y'all go. Here's, here's some facts. Every human is designed to please God. I'm gonna say that again. Every human is designed to please God, period, period. Every human was made with an innate design to bring pleasure to God. Now watch this, every human doesn't walk out that, glory to the name of God, because again You gotta understand, you gotta exercise your faith and know that if I don't walk by faith— let me put it up there— I can't please God. If I don't trust in what I can't see over what I can see, I am actually performing. I'm moving in performance mode when I take joy and pleasure. Hear me— in what I can see over what I cannot see. It ain't faith if you can see it. It's faith when you can't see it, but you can see it because you see it in a different realm. You see it through the eyes of God. You see it through the fact that you could trust God and he can't lie. Amen. Are y'all with me? Are y'all with me? I'm almost done. Glory to God. Here we go, and I'm gonna run through these real quick, right? Real quick. So here are 25 faith essentials, because you can't please them without faith. You got to know. Somebody say, Apostle, we've been on here an hour. Yeah, just, just grab these. I'm gonna run through them so you can get them, right? Number 1, the just shall live by faith. That's number 1. If you are just, if you are operating in the pleasure mode of God, you don't try faith out every now and then, you live by it. Number 2, we walk by faith and not by performance, not by what we see, not by what we're trying to prove. We walk by faith to bring pleasure to God. Number 3, it is impossible to please God without faith. Number 4, faith comes by hearing. This is why you need to hear the Bible studies. Somebody done got off because we've been on here an hour, so you need to stay right here and get all this word, man, because this is what builds your faith— hearing the word of God. That's why you need to be in church on Sunday. Listen, we got a long day coming up this coming Sunday. I'm gonna be at church, I'm gonna preach the gospel, we're gonna get in the car, hit the road, go to Jackson, Mississippi. I'm gonna preach for my daughter Sunday evening, and we're gonna preach 2 days, Monday and Tuesday. But listen, even when I'm receiving, the Bible said the husbandman is first partaker of the fruit. Are y'all here? So faith come by hearing, hearing by the word of God. Are y'all with me? Praise God. My God, I gotta go. Faith is the heart— is of the heart and not the head. So faith doesn't come from your intellect, your psyche. I told you that in the beginning. It comes from the heart. It's from the spirit. You got to trust God. Amen. According to Genesis 1:3 and Mark 11:23, faith is both a creative and destructive force. Glory to God. Faith can create by the words you speak out of your mouth. You gotta— you speak it, faith gets behind it, it brings to pass what you say when your words align with his words. Glory. Faith is released by words, so we must speak the word only. According to 2 Corinthians 4:13 and Matthew 8:5-10, 10. Praise God. Faith begins— watch this— where the will of God is known. I'm running through these, I'm almost done. According to 1 John 5:14, where it says if you ask anything according to his will, he'll perform it. So you need to study the will so you'll know what you're supposed to— oh boy— to believe for, so you can bring pleasure to God. I'm almost done, and I'm done. And That's it. So did y'all learn anything tonight? I hope y'all did. Let's pray. Father, in Jesus' name, I pray this word blessed your people. And I pray, God, in Jesus' name, that you would cause them to bring deliberate pleasure to you. Cause myself to continue to walk out deliberate pleasure to you as I love, as I move in faith, God, as I operate in purpose. And as your people move in love, faith, and purpose, I declare they will bring pleasure to you. I thank you that they will not, and I will not, love myself or pleasure more than I love you. We rebuke pride, we rebuke arrogance, and we declare in the name of Jesus that we are humble and we know we can only operate and live through you. In Jesus' mighty name, amen and amen. Glory to God. I pray tonight, man, that you guys have gotten some out of this teaching. You know, uh, it's never easy to challenge people to make decisions that's going to require them to be deliberate in some area of their life. Amen. And I just want you to understand, man, when God decide— decides to do something concerning you, he's expecting you to align with it, obey, submit, and be deliberate and trust in him so he can release it. A lot of times stuff is delayed because we spend too much time trying to be obedient, trying to figure out if we really gonna obey God, right? All right guys, I go. I love y'all. I want to see you Sunday, all right? I want you to be in church Sunday. Um, some of us been taking a lot of vacations. Glory to God. It's— I want to see you in the house of God on Sunday morning. Praise God. I believe that God has something for all of us. I'm looking forward to seeing your faces. I missed you this week. Whenever I'm not there, I miss you. So I want you to be in the building. Glory to God. Um, one of our Prophets, and I want to put this out here, uh, sent me a text today and, and it's just really something we, we deal with all the time whenever we go into the territory of Mississippi. Um, since years ago, right, since I was pastoring the church at Apostle Hawkins and Apostle Brandon was in, and even down to when we planted the second church there, you You know, we've always fought warfare, witches and warlocks trying to stop the prophetic voice. And I got a text from one of the prophets who shared that my Mississippi trip came up in her spirit and she saw 3 witches. And, you know, I know exactly these 3 witches because I've encountered them on many occasions. Uh, and we've been kicking their butt for a long time. And I said to her, you know, even Jezebel had a space to repent, but their season to repent and get saved and delivered is coming short. The Bible says that God suffers not a witch to live. Nobody has time for that. They, they should be clear they cannot win. They cannot stop me. So I want you guys to connect, those of you that do do pray. Continue to pray for this meeting, uh, that's coming up next week. Be interceding that there is a great supernatural manifestation in the region called Mississippi and that lives will be changed on every single level. If you could do that for me, I will be so appreciative. Uh, before I go, we're going to take an opportunity to give tonight. Listen, I want you guys— of course, you know what, I am always challenged when I gotta talk to you about giving because I believe that, you know, the teaching should be enough. You've been taught about giving, especially those you connected to the church, enough to know what your responsibilities are. So, and it's not to me, it's not to Lady Woods, it's not even to the church, it's to God. So the ways to give are on the screen. I'm going to actually put them up and let them scroll at the bottom for a moment here so that we can, um, get that off. Glory to God. The ways to give are scrolling at the bottom of the screen. However you choose to give tonight, uh, be a blessing to the kingdom. Whatever you decide to give, let the Lord lead you. The Bible says as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God, you know. And you know, you have to learn to launch out in faith even in your giving and trust God at different levels of your giving and sowing. That it's an exchange system. You're, you're legislating something in the spirit when you release seed into the kingdom of God. Listen, we love you guys. Um, I can't overemphasize Sunday. I feel something great happening in our church, and we just came out amazing revival with Apostle Brandon. Uh, got an amazing word from Apostle Sears on Sunday, but I believe there's a— there's still revival in the atmosphere in that building. You need to be in the place. Something great is going to happen on Sunday. You need to be there. 410, uh, Santa Fe Trail, uh, right there. Glory to God! Somebody got it. Praise God. Thank you so much. Um, in Ellenwood, Georgia, 30294. Make sure you're in the building. Online is all right, but if you're in Georgia, you need to be in the building on Sunday. I love y'all. Get seed in the ground, y'all. Y'all be obedient tonight and give, all right? Um, listen, it's, it's really God's system, and when you get in that system consistently, again, that's another way they eliminate lack. I love y'all. Heaven smile upon you is my prayer. I'll see y'all on Sunday. Y'all be blessed. Peace.