REJECTION: PART 3, | DR MIKE WOODS SR. | 10 JUL 21

Y'all come on in, please, please come on in. This is going to be good tonight. Really quick, y'all come in, do me a favor as you're you're coming in, everyone, please share this, all right? Please share it. I believe it's going to be a blessing to every person that comes in. Please share. Hallelujah. I'm not gonna be long. I'm gonna share this. I'm gonna drop it like it's absolute absolutely and categorically hot tonight. It's Saturday night, uh, it's almost 9 o'clock, and I plan on being through by 9 o'clock. But I want to share this piece, uh, we're going to teach about rejection again in the morning at Raleigh Church, and I know it's going to be a blessing. So do me a favor, guys, uh, share this. I'm going to share it with a few people, uh, into a few groups and, um, I pray that you guys will do the same, all right? And, uh, I trust that this, this word is going to be a blessing to somebody. Rejection is a real spirit, and we have to deal with— a lot of people operate from it and don't even know it. Hallelujah! We bless you, Lord. We praise your name, God, and we give you all the glory. We— yes, Lord, you're worthy of praise, you're worthy of glory, you're worthy of honor. We thank you, Lord, for your goodness. We thank you for your mercy. We thank you for your grace. Hallelujah. We thank you for your favor, God. We trust you for all things. Hallelujah. And we worship you and we adore you, God. Beside you there is no other. You're perfectly and absolutely wise. Hallelujah. It's in you we live. Thank you, Father. It's in you we move. It's in you. Shkita baya. Ebre botu rabanisiya. We have our being, God. You're wonderful. You're mighty. You're glorious, God. You're awesome. Besides you, there is no other. Oti asababa bakoromo ondi asai. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Wonderful Savior. Mighty God. Thank you, Lord. We bless you. We bless you, God. We bless you and we honor your name, God. Hallelujah, hallelujah. We honor your great name, God. You're wonderful and mighty, you're glorious and awesome. So Father, in Jesus' name, tonight we thank you for an opportunity to share your word. I pray, God, for those that will hear this live or by replay tonight, I decree and declare that this word will land on good ground. Hallelujah. And I thank you, God, that their best days are ahead of them. I thank you, God, that they will reap this word in due season if they faint not. I thank you, God, for the victory over the enemy and every spirit, every demonic force, everything that's not like you. I decree and declare tonight, Father, that you will give us the victory in Jesus' name. And I bless you and I honor you, Lord. For your goodness, your mercy, your grace, your favor. In Jesus' name, amen. And thanks be to God. Hallelujah. Again, if you're here, do me a favor, guys. I need you to share this wonderful Savior. I need you to share it, okay? I really need you to share it because I know it's going to be a blessing to somebody. Hallelujah. I know it's going to be a blessing to someone. If you're here also, say hello. Thank you, God. I feel the anointing, and I'm gonna teach this and let us know you're here. Say hello, let us know you're here. Just type in the comments, let us know you're here. Glory to God, we bless his name. All right, tonight I'm gonna jump right in this and, um, we're gonna teach it. Somebody will get it. Glory to God. Um, at some point this evening, tonight, but I'm not going to take long with this. All right, so by way of review, guys, I want to just kind of look at a little bit what we talked about in chapter number 2 of this teaching on rejection. First of all, I share with you guys in the second, um, teaching on this, the second version, the second dissemination of it that the spirit of rejection— number one, I share with you that it is an oppressive spirit that robs you of joy and peace. And I share with you how oppression is mental pressure or distress that's designed to stop something specifically. And so anytime the spirit of rejection shows up and it brings oppression with it, It's trying to stop your progress because— and it's trying to rob you of the peace and the joy and the prosperity and the victory that God has for you in the future. And so as a result, the spirit of rejection actually is an oppressive spirit. And you really can think of it as a tactic by the enemy to push you down, to press you down into various moods and emotions, to block you again from experiencing freedom and the presence of God's love and power in your life. Now, when you're going through this, does this mean God has left you? Well, the Bible says that God's love never fails, even when you feel like he don't love you. And I talked about that last time, so make sure you go back and, and watch last time. I also dealt with the fact that the spirit of rejection is a lie from the enemy, right? And I share with you that you had to understand that the spirit of rejection is often going to lie to you about God's love and your worth. Listen to me. And the moment you accept that rejection is doing it, because so if you're dealing with the fact that you're not enough, God doesn't love you, you're less than and people don't care about you, it's because the enemy is lying to you. Because one, God loves you, and two, you're worth everything to God. And we talked about that in the last one. I dare somebody just say it: I'm everything to God. Hallelujah! And I want you to know you are. You're everything to him. He loves you, he cares for you, and he'll never leave you nor forsake you. So the enemy really uses this stronghold of rejection as a weapon in warfare to try to stop, again, purpose, destiny, God's plans for your life. But you gotta understand that the word of God can work in your life completely to set you free, and that's what the truth comes to do. So in this series, basically, we're learning how the spirit of rejection is manifested, where this spirit comes from, what type of spirit it is. We already saw that it's an oppressive spirit, and how to battle this spirit by integrating your life completely with the Holy Spirit. So we dealt with, uh, last week, and we looked at real close how the spirit of rejection It's manifested in your life. And the first thing we saw was that this spirit comes into our life— glory to the name of God— and it comes again to lie to us about our worth, right? And this stronghold makes you question— hear me— your identity in Christ Jesus as a son of God. And you gotta understand, this is not God's will. So let's look really close tonight at how rejection is manifested in your life, okay? The first thing is the spirit of rejection when it shows up, and I want to just really take a deep dive into this tonight because I think we need to. It taunts you with feelings of worthlessness. And I know there's some people that'll catch this replay that deal with spirits of worthlessness, and you go through things where you literally feel worthless and you feel like God doesn't care, he's not with you, nothing's working, you're not good enough. And at the end of the day, that's a dangerous thing. How does this happen? Well, there's another spirit called the orphan spirit. Hear me. And what the spirit of rejection does, it partners with the off— orphan spirit. Now you got to really be clear. A lot of people don't understand this. And ask yourself, is the orphan spirit operating in my life? Because— and I want to just kind of take a deep dive into this orphan spirit because it works in partnership with the spirit of rejection to keep you down, to hold you back. Oh my God, here we go, we're gonna jump into this. See, the orphan spirit is something that a whole lot of humans struggle with, both in the body of Christ as well as people who are not even born again. You know, when Adam and Eve made the choice, guys, to disobey God in the Garden of Eden, here's what happened. Sin came into the world. And unfortunately, because sin came into the world and because God— hear me— is a sinless God— Lord have mercy— it separated us from God. That disobedience on Adam and Eve's part caused a separation between God and man. Now, most of us have heard of what is called separation anxiety. Hear me, separation anxiety is a real thing. And when a baby is separated from his parents, it oftentimes experiences great fear. And this actually is a normal reaction when those they have known as protectors are no longer with them. It's normal to react like you're crazy, probably most of the time, when you know somebody you love and is supposed to protect you and love you is not with you and not loving you the way they should. So it's a real thing, all right? So, so, and, and it, it, it can make people really act crazy. Because they don't have the right support. And when man chooses— watch this— in the same sense to turn his back on God, an unexpected fear enters our lives. All of us have been there, man. Uh, you know, when you live outside of the will of God and you're living in sin, and especially when you've been in God and you disconnect and you start living another kind of life You know, you start— there's an unexpected fear that shows up because now you're disconnected from your protector and your provider because it appears that he's left your presence. But the thing we gotta know about God, and I want to make this clear tonight, because no matter who else has rejected you or left your life or, or separated from you, here's something you gotta know about God. Hear me, is that God is merciful. And so often, hear me, when we've done something wrong, we take the way of Adam and Eve and we recoil. We isolate ourselves from God and even other people. Do you remember when Adam sinned? He hid himself in the garden as if he really could hide from God that knows where we all are, but we feel alienated, we feel alone. But the opposite is true. Watch this: God never leaves us, we leave him. So you want to grasp this tonight because again, if you feel alone and you feel abandoned, God is a gentleman. And he will never violate our decisions. Even will he interrupt our decisions when we go against his greatest desire, which is to draw near to us. Listen, it is God's greatest desire to be close to you, to accept you, to love on you, to build up your worth, to make you feel wonderful and awesome about who you are in him. But the orphan spirit comes in— hear me— and makes you forfeit what God wants, which is to draw nigh to you. Listen, when a wrong decision is made and you do something that God is not pleased with, it's good to know, ladies and gentlemen, I want you to hear this, that God is quick to forgive if we'll only come to him. Instead of assuming that God has cut you off and throwed you away because you thought something wrong, did something wrong, you need to understand God is merciful and he loves us and he's quick to forgive. But often the spirit of rejection works with the orphan spirit, and you start rejecting yourself and you orphan yourself from your father. God doesn't give you away. Once God adopts you You're in the family. I don't know who this is for, but I, I needed to get on here tonight without sitting in front of the green screen, without editing. I just needed to come raw and come live tonight because somebody is going to hear this replay because they're going through a season where they feel isolated, they feel alone, they feel like God has left. Let me tell you something. I'm a father. I father 3 children that came through my bloodline, and then I've inherited 2 children that I treat and love as my own through marriage. So I have 5 children and a grandchild that I play the role of a father in, in many occasions. There's something unique— hear me— about a father's role in the life of a child. The father and the child relationship, listen, is the heart of where identity is formed. You know, my children, at the end of the day, my boys Michael, Ben, Alex, you know, all three— Alex is the young, he'll be 13 this year. Michael is a grown man, he's 20, be 25 this year. Ben is 20 years old. Um, crazy, man, how so much like me these guys are. My DNA is in them. Um, and as I continue to evolve in my relationships with all three of them, you know, I understand that part of their identity is rooted so in me. That's why I have to be careful on how I interact with them, because my relationship with them should be a healthy picture of how the Heavenly Father interacts with me. I'm gonna say that again. When people see my relationship with Ben, with Michael, with Alex, it should be really a healthy picture of how the Father interacts with us. When, when my children do something I don't agree with, I don't cut them off. My oldest son, Michael Jr., You know, he had been saving his money and he wanted to buy his own car. He wanted to get a car. We had given him a car and it was like a project for him to fix up. Never really got it off the ground the way he wanted, but Michael started saving his money, wanted to buy him a car. So Junior— true story, can't make this up— went out, found him a good car. In his mind, it's a good car. He liked the car, right? He calls me about the car. I got all kind of red flags about this car. I'm not in agreement with him buying this car at all, right? So I say to Junior, send me the VIN number, let me check it out, let me do this, let me do that, because in my heart of hearts, I don't want him to buy this car. Now I'm taking too long to check the car out. I'm taking too long to even find him another option, which is what I was doing. Um, he goes ahead and purchases this vehicle. Now, I can't be mad at my son because he made a decision as a grown man to purchase a car. So as a healthy picture of what a father-son relationship looks like, I'm happy he has a car. Am I pleased with his decision? No. But I still love my child, and I'm gonna support him if the thing breaks down and he needs help fixing it. Because at the end of the day, I love him enough to forgive him not agreeing with what I thought was right for him buying a car. He was putting his own money down. He was doing his— he got his own credit on it. He ain't got no cosigners. I'm happy for the dude, not mad at him. I could— it— I can remember a more immature me. If this was 10, 15 years ago, I probably would have been upset and been all over him about doing it, but I had to understand that sometimes love is allowing those you love to bump their head, to make decisions you may not agree with, and still love them through it. You know, the reality is, when someone is abandoned or rejected by their earthly father— hear me— a deep void is created, and this often watch this, makes it difficult for us as humans to interact with God. Oh my God, because our earthly father abandoned and rejected us, it makes it hard and difficult to trust God because the man that we saw rejected and abandoned us. Oh my God, because we get tired of rejection And we don't want God to reject us because our trust has been broken. And watch this, healing has to take place. And I don't know who I'm talking to tonight or who's watching this by replay, but somebody needs to understand that just because your earthly daddy was not there for you— glory to God— you know, sometimes God would trust the man to sow the seed, but he will not trust that man Oh my God, to cover that seed and incubate that seed and raise that seed. The reality is sometimes all things work together for good. And what you got to understand, that earthly father's decision has nothing to do with what God has decided about his love for you. So I dare you tonight, or today, or whenever you're watching or listening to this I dare you to open your heart and receive the love of God, whether you're male or female. Even if your father abused you, molested you, did something to you that, oh my God, uh, should not happen, should not have ever been done to you, the reality is that does not speak for our Heavenly Father. Our Heavenly Father loves you. Glory to the name of God. And just because you were rejected Do not allow that to stop you from trusting the God of all creation. Let him heal you tonight. So a father's love, and knowing that love, receiving that love— hear me, y'all— is very important and necessary for a believer to function as a healthy member in the body of Christ. Listen, you can't function as a healthy member in the kingdom of God if you're not clear, if you're not sure of the Father's love for you, because you will not be able to handle the attacks of the enemy when they come, and you will think you're being rejected. You got to know this love through relationship. Listen, so what does this orphan spirit look like that works with the spirit of rejection, that tries to consistently and constantly taunt us with feelings of worthlessness. Remember I said it taunts you with spirits of worthlessness? The orphan spirit is a demonic spirit, listen, that invades a person's mind. It causes a sense of abandonment. Hear me, it causes a sense of loneliness, it causes a sense of alienation. And it causes isolation. It often attaches itself to any person who has experienced— watch this— extreme rejection in his or her life. A person who is operating on an orphan spirit often compensates its feeling of insecurity— hear me— by being performance-driven, competitively, and they work independently. Watch this. Most people who have an orphan spirit are so insecure and they seek to perform. Watch this. They operate and live their life in the performance mode. Hear me. They live in the performance mode rather than the pleasure mode. See, we should be living not to perform for people or God. We should be living to give God pleasure. When Jesus was baptized, the heavens opened, the Father spoke and said, 'This is my Son in whom I'm well pleased.' Before he did anything in his ministry, God said, 'I'm pleased with him already. I know his heart, I know his purpose, I know my plan in him, and I'm pleased.' Can I tell you something? God is pleased with you. You don't have to perform for him or anybody else. You should live for the audience of one. Don't let But I used to be this way, man, because I had a lot of rejection in my life as a kid. I had a lot of rejection in my life coming up as a teenager. And at the end of the day, I wanted to prove to people that I wanted attention from in my life, man, I'm good at this, I'm smart, I can, I can do this in sports, I, I can win this competition, I, I can become the leader of my entire the ROTC unit in school and become the battalion commander of the whole city. I can do these things because I want you to see me. I can accomplish these things in school, get these degrees, because I wanted that attention. But I had to quickly come to realize that God loves me and is pleased with me if no one else is. You have to be competitive with other preachers, other business people, other couples. Oh my God, you can be true to who you are, but when you're in an orphan spirit, you operate like this. And then if you operate in the orphan spirit, you like to work independently and you do not work well with others. You don't work well with others in ministry, you don't work well with others on your job, you don't work well with others in your house. You don't work well with others in business because you operating from an orphan spirit, and that is not the spirit of God. You struggle with self-worth and you find it difficult to maintain healthy relationships. Hear me, guys, we can no longer afford to live in this dysfunction. We've been here long enough. And because when you live dysfunctional like this, when I was in it, man, I didn't even realize I was struggling. Hear me, I didn't even realize I was struggling. I didn't realize how bad it was blocking my happiness, my joy, my prosperity. My greatest breakthroughs financially, my greatest breakthroughs in marriage and relationship have come from— hear me, hear me good— my ability. Listen to me. To understand how complete I am in God and how I don't need to perform for people, how I don't need my marriage to look good. I need it to be good for me and the person I'm married to. Oh my God, I don't want my ministry to look good and just sound good. I wanted to be good for God and for the people I'm called to serve. And that's why I'm so glad that God consistently, he purges people and things out of my life and ministry that do not belong. I don't want nobody around me that don't belong around me. I'm happy for you when you realize connecting to me ain't where you need to be, because it makes me clear on how I need to move on. Lord have mercy. And what we often end up doing, guys, we live in dysfunction And the dysfunctioning— the dysfunctioning, hear me— lifestyle that we pick up from this orphan spirit starts deceiving us and makes us believe this is functional. Let me just ask yourself a few questions, and this is the orphan spirit test to see if you living under the orphan spirit. One, do you operate out of insecurity? If you answer yes, you're living under the orphan spirit. I talked in lessons 1 and 2 what insecurity is. Number 2, ask yourself this question: am I jealous of other people's success? Ask that to yourself, man. Am I jealous of other people's success? Hear me, watch this. Do you serve God to earn his love, or do you just flat out know he love you and you know you ain't got to earn that? Oh my God. Number 4: Do you self-medicate by pulling deeply inward? You become an introvert, you don't socialize, so you medicate yourself by isolating yourself. Do you struggle with self-worth? Oh my God, that's number 6. Number 7: Do you fill the void by working constantly through physical gratification or with narcissistic behavior or self-indulgent indulgence? Or in other words, is it all about you? Come on, ask yourself, am I driven by the need to succeed? If you answer yes, you're operating under the auspices of an orphan spirit. Glory to God. Do you use people— hear me— to accomplish your goals? Oh my God, Father, we rebuke this spirit now in the name of Jesus, and we decree and declare that those that hear these words— and we're praying, God, for those that are listening now and those that are listening by replay— and we command the spirit to loose them. We cast the devil out of the mind. We cast the orphan spirit out of their life, and we send it into dry places now. In the name of Jesus. Oh my God, do you repel against your biological or your spiritual children as a leader, as a father, as a mother? Do you repel against your biological? In other words, do you Oh my God, are you jealous of your own children? Do you diminish their accomplishments? You know, you got some ignorant parents out here that's jealous of their own children, both natural and spiritual parents. It's ignorance because there's no way we can help the world and change the world as spiritual parents if we don't understand You gotta raise up people that do stuff better than you do. I'm proud of my natural children, my sons, Michael, Ben, and Alex. I want them to be better men than I ever been. My son Tyler, I want him to be a better man than I ever was. My daughter Peyton, I want her to be a great woman. I want them to succeed and be more successful than me and their mothers. Because that's how parents should look at their children. It's idiotic for you to look at your son or your daughter and be jealous and not be able to celebrate their success. Something wrong with you. Something seriously wrong with you. You blind, crippled, and crazy if you can't look at your children and celebrate them. You're operating out out of an orphan spirit. You repel them. You don't want them to be better. But a great leader teaches the followers that follow him or her how to do what they do and do it better than they do it. Lord, I'm teaching better than y'all saying amen. I tell you what, this is gonna bless somebody. Glory to God. Ask yourself, ask yourself this question: do you struggle with fits of rage or anger? Oh, you just get mad and have fits when you can't get your way and go off and hang up the phone and punch holes in walls. Y'all not saying nothing to me. And abuse people verbally, mentally, and physically. Do you have fits of anger or rage? If you say yes, You're operating out of an orphan spirit. It's a sense of abandonment, loneliness, alienation, and isolation. Remember, and that's where the enemy wants you ultimately. Oh my God, ask yourself this. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Am I always in competition with others? If you say yes, You are operating out of an orphan spirit, and I command you tonight to be healed, to be delivered, to be set free. I wanted to explore this. Oh my God, ask yourself— oh, thank you, Holy Spirit. Ask yourself this: do you lack self-esteem? If you lack self-esteem, and I'm gonna pray in a moment, you're operating out of an orphan spirit. Mm, here's a big one. Do you get your identity— hear me— from material possessions, physical appearance, or activities? Oh my God, that's why when most people do something, they can't wait to post it to see how many people gonna like it. They want everybody to see where they are and what they doing. Because at the end of the day, they need that acceptance. Half of the people that's liking your post, you don't even know, and they, they really don't like you. Because the moment you do something they don't like, they're gonna stop liking your post. Trust me, I know. You're looking at somebody on my fan page that went from 35,000 people who like that page to down to like 9,000 now. You were looking at somebody had 28,000 followers on Instagram, it's got 13 4,000 now on Instagram. It's because everybody is not going to like you if you start saying and doing things they don't like. You shouldn't get off on material good. Thank God you got a nice car, but it shouldn't make you— it shouldn't. That's why I'm so glad I had seasons of struggle before I had the cars I have now, the house I have, the things that God has done for me, the clothes I have. I struggled, I done went through You know, and I know what it means to have one suit and have to preach in that suit every night, traveling the country, doing revivals 42 weeks out of a year. I ain't just started doing this, man. Glory to God. I know what it means to have one black suit that when you shined it, when you ironed it, it shined. And people think, oh, he's in the glory. No, my suit was just cheap. It was poly and Elster. See, people, people don't know the story behind glory. At the end of the day, you can't let material good or your bank account numbers receive— give you your identity. You are who you are because of who God made you to be, and because of the high value he placed on your soul, and the high value he placed on your purpose. You see, and I'm closing with this, If you answered yes to any of this stuff, it's safe to say that you got some heart issues that's in deep need of healing. I'm gonna pray in a moment. The opposite of being abandoned or orphaned is being adopted. Adoption is a very beautiful thing. Listen, when a child is adopted They're no longer without love, without money, without covering, without direction. They're no longer without a name. Oh my God, they are now in the best scenarios, given identity through a new family where they'll be loved and where they'll be appreciated. Oh my God, often in cases of adoption, we see situations where Love for the child is provided even in a higher level than the original parents ever could have. See, when we're operating under the spirit of adoption, we are secure. Hallelujah. We celebrate the accomplishments of others. We experience acceptance. We feel all of our emotional voids. We allow the spirit to lead us into our calling. We serve others. We provide opportunities for others to grow in their destiny. We don't use anger. Or manipulations to get our way. We bless people, we give, we freely share the Father's love with others. We love ourselves and we exhibit healthy self-esteem. Oh my God, we're grounded in our identity. Oh my God, in Christ. You know, the Bible said that he has adopted us. The spirit of adoption has brought us home to the Father. We have a new family in God, and I don't care how you've been rejected. I don't care how the devil taunts you with worthlessness. Listen, you need to connect with God in a very healthy way, and many of you are struggling because of rejection, because of the spirit of adoption. You got to get healing, and you got to admit that there's a problem. I'm going to pray. Glory to God. I got to pray. Glory to Jesus. My God, the reality is, saints of God, you cannot defeat this demon in your flesh. You cannot defeat this demon on your own. You need the power of the living God. Why don't you pray with me, whether you're live or by replay? Father, in Jesus' name, I thank you tonight for your power. Your word declares that we can cast out devils. The spirit of rejection and the orphan spirit is a stronghold from the enemy. And I pray for every person under the sound of my voice, whether live or by replay, by podcast, on YouTube, Facebook, Periscope, Instagram, wherever we're being heard right now. I decree and declare that this orphan spirit be broken. Oh, shababan de kosiai, in the mighty name of Jesus. This spirit that makes us feel lonely, that makes us feel abandoned, that— oh yeah, branda, say, lebe, say, bakorikamba. So that makes us feel like giving up. But God, I declare today that no weapon formed against us is ever able prosper. I send this spirit to the pits of hell. Heal this thing, heal the heart, heal the mind. I curse it at the root, and I command the roots of orphanship, the roots of the orphan spirit, the roots of rejection— I command them to die in the name of Jesus. And I thank you that your people shall live holy, healthy, happy— oh my God— purpose-driven lives. And I give you praise for it now, in Jesus' name. Amen. And thanks be to God. Hallelujah. I love you guys, man, and I want to see you free. I want to see you healed. I want to see you delivered. Please for— by all means, share this with someone. Someone needs to hear it. Someone needs to hear this. Hear me, someone needs the blessing of the Lord that makes rich and adds no sorrow that comes from this teaching. Listen, I want to challenge every person listening to me live or by replay to plant a seed into ministry. The ways to give is around this video. You can give two ways: rhodochurch.com /Donate, or you can give via Cash App. Just simply use the Cash App handle, Rada Church. It's around this video. Again, I love you guys, man. Y'all sow your seed, be a blessing to ministry. Thank you for listening tonight. God is faithful and he's worthy to be praised. Y'all be blessed. Peace.