Taking Action Against STRIFE!, PART 1: EXPOSING STRIFE | APOSTLE MIKE WOODS, SR. | 1-11-24

Well, praise the Lord, everybody! I pray that all is well. This is the day the Lord has made, and we shall rejoice and be glad in it. So glad you guys could join us tonight. Listen, if you're watching us by YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, wherever you're watching from tonight, do me a kind favor, guys. I need you to share this. We want to get as much engagement as we possibly can tonight. I do believe that there is a word from the Lord. Uh, if I haven't told you, uh, we're 11 days into the new year, so happy new year to you. I'm not going to be long tonight. I'm going to be as extemporaneous as I possibly can. But guys, I do need you to do me the kind favor and share, uh, this evening. Uh, God bless you, Kiara. Good to see you, daughter. Uh, God bless you, Grace. Good to see you tonight. God bless you, my friend Bruce. Happy New Year, sir. Good to see you. Uh, God bless you, Latoya Williams. Good to see you tonight. Listen, guys, if you're here, do like, uh, Grace, Kiara, Bruce, Latonya, and please share. God bless you, daughter Tamara. Good to see you on tonight. Good evening, good evening, guys. I need you to share this, um, so that we can— again, whether you're— again, whether you're YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, wherever you're watching, please, I need you to share this live stream. God bless your hearts. Amen. Listen, I'm going to get started in just a moment. I'm going to pray And I believe God is going to meet us where we are. He's going to touch us, he's going to bless us. Glory to God. And I believe that our lives won't be the same. Glory to God. After we experience this teaching tonight, I want to deal with something that I believe is very important. Matter of fact, over the next several weeks I'll be dealing with this because it's going to be really impossible to take real action in your life. We have deemed this is the a year of action. If anything is going to happen for you, you're going to have to take action. Listen, if you're on our text list and you're here tonight, please share that text you got in your phone. Let's get this word out tonight. Glory to God. And let's trust God. But yeah, you're gonna have to, uh, take some action to see manifestation of the results that you desire in your life. So tonight, guys, do me a favor. I know a lot of people get on and they don't think it's important to share, but you know, the Bible does say we're blessed, hear me, to be a blessing. So you're blessed to be a blessing, right? So if, if what you're receiving blesses you, I need you to share with others. I need you to tag people below. I need you to share it in their Messenger, comment below. Uh, we just came out of awesome revival, uh, with my spiritual father, Apostle Stephen A. Davis. If you missed those messages, uh, they're somewhere on YouTube if you're watching on YouTube. They're also on my Facebook timelines. Just make sure you connect with those words. We were tremendously blessed, and I just believe that as we move through this year of action, God wants us to deal with strife. And that's what we're going to talk about tonight, taking action against strife. Glory to God.

So let's pray.

And then we're gonna get right into this. Praise God. I trust God, I love him, uh, beside him there is no other. So Father, in Jesus' name, we thank you and we give you glory for another opportunity to teach your word. God, may we experience tonight the light, the illumination, and the intelligence of the Holy Holy Ghost. Father, may every person that watch this live or even by replay, may they be blessed by you and never impressed by me. Father, let your word go out in such a manner that those that are weak will become strong and those that are poor will become rich. Those that was sick will be healed because your word declares you sent your word and it healed him. So Father, heal us where we're hurting, where we're broken emotionally, mentally, spiritually. Let the word of the Lord come forth tonight and let it bring healing for healing and deliverance. Hear me, God, we believe it. It's the children's bread. So Father, as we teach, you sent your word, let it heal, let it deliver, let your children experience their bread. And Father, as we expose this venomous spirit called strife tonight, I pray in the name of Jesus that we will defeat it and we will begin to have victory over it, and we can begin to take big action in our life to achieve big results. And we praise you for that. Now, may your grace be sufficient for us tonight. Forgive us of our sin, anything we've done that doesn't please you. Have mercy upon us, God, and we'll praise you for that now.

In Jesus' name, amen.

And thanks be to God.

Hallelujah.

God bless your hearts again tonight. I am so glad, uh, to be here. Glory to God. Um, yeah, make sure everybody gets on. Praise God. Um, and engages tonight. I, I want this word to get out, but I'm going— I can't wait no longer. We're already late, so we're supposed to start at 8. Glory to God. So we're going to jump right into this. So again, we're talking about taking action against strife. Taking action against strife. Uh, write that in the comments if you will. Taking action against strife. Glory to God. Taking action against strife.

Come on, come on, come on, say it with me.

Taking action out of your mouth against strife. I'm coming back. Taking action against strife. That's what we're talking about. That's what we're going to deal with. Glory to God. And I believe we're going to be different because of it. Praise God. Hallelujah. All right, so tonight we want to really expose this demon because it's a spirit and it tends to show up, uh, in our lives. Glory to God. When we're just on the cusp of breakthrough, when we're just about to cross over into a new day, something can happen with a person You can internally become upset and experience strife about something. Something can happen in your finances, something can happen at your job, and it gets your whole spiritual equilibrium off, and you start complaining, you stop praying, you get lazy, you get lackadaisical, because you start really feeling, you know, what's the use of me praying? Nothing's happening anyway. What's the use of me trying to do the right thing? I'm doing the right thing and everything is still bad. I want to tell you something, it's the spirit of strife behind that. And what we want to do is expose that tonight. Well, y'all, we all—

are y'all okay with that?

It's okay that we expose this demon.

Glory to God. And so we can get some freedom, so we can get some deliverance.

Glory to God. So that we can climb to new heights and go to new levels.

And because honestly, there are a lot of people who are stagnated, they're stuck, uh, they're frustrated, uh, nothing's working. And I don't care what you say this year is going to be, if you don't deal with things through action—

I'll say it again, I'm gonna keep saying it all year—

nothing's gonna change.

You have the same year you had last year, you're gonna have the same year you had year before that and the year before that. If you don't do something different, you're gonna always get the results you've gotten.

So tonight we're going to talk about taking action against this demon, against the spirit. Um, so basically, in exposing it, we want to recognize it.

So through this teaching tonight, we're going to recognize what strife is, and we're going to talk about how to deal with it. All right, this is going to be the foundation of these next several messages I'm going to share with you when I stand before you on Sunday and on Thursdays. Glory to God.

So let's go first to Philippians chapter number 2.

Uh, if you're on here, uh, guys, write that in the chat.

Uh, welcome Sharon, welcome Lakeisha, welcome everybody that's here.

Even if you haven't commented below, welcome guys.

If you're on YouTube, welcome!

Glory to God! If you're on, um, Instagram, Twitter, wherever you're watching, welcome to this teaching tonight.

Uh, Philippians 2, uh, verses 2 through 5. Glory to God!

Philippians 2, verses 2 through 5.

Praise God!

Somebody type that in the comments. Philippians 2, verses 2 through 5.

The Bible says this, it says, fulfill ye my joy, that you be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord and of one mind. Verse 3, it said, let nothing—

listen to this—

be done through strife. Oh my God, let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem another better than themselves.

Oh my God.

Look not, verse 4, every man on his own things. In other words, don't be selfish. It's not about you. It's not about you. Hear me, guys. He said, but every man also on the things of others. Verse 5, let this same mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Listen to me. So tonight, again, we're exposing the spirit of strife.

We're going to take action against it.

So the first thing I want to do, I think this is a good place to start, is share with you the importance of— watch this— unity and harmony. Let me share with you the importance of unity and harmony. And these scriptures right here talks about this. The first thing it says, it says, complete the joy of the Lord. So what you want is not for God to be satisfied with how good you look at church. Hear me, in your religious face on when you're at church. But he wants you to be able to have joy every day of your life. He wants you to live in complete joy even after you leave church. He says, complete my joy, or fulfill my joy, and be like-minded like Christ. Hear this, and he says, live in unity and harmony.

Harmony.

So watch this: people, circumstances, deals, situations that threaten your peace, threaten your unity, threaten your harmony— you're gonna learn how to deal with that. And even when other people are being disruptive and other people are being rude and people are being aggressive and people are not necessarily aligning with what you want, if you got to be at that job, if you got to be in a contract, you got to figure out a way— hear me— to operate in love and unity while not being passive, being a wimp, letting people run over you. Y'all not hearing this. You definitely cannot allow people to run over you because they feel like they can. Are y'all hearing me tonight? I'm telling you right now, you gotta make up in your sanctified mind, listen to me, that you're gonna fulfill the joy of the Lord. When you wake up in the morning, you ought to have a mindset that I don't care what happens today. I don't care what that person says, I don't care what my spouse does, I don't care what my friends do, I don't care what the people in my job do. You gotta decide for yourself, for you, that you're gonna take action against strife and you're gonna be in oneness with God and you're going to complete his joy.

Oh my God, oh my God, you gotta complete his joy. I pray y'all listen to me tonight. Glory to God.

Because I'm telling you, you're not going to get any further than you are if you're always allowing everything to get you upset and get you bent out of shape when things are not going your way. Don't just consider you. Consider your testimony.

Consider the others that are looking at you. Are you hearing me? Glory to God.

They— listen to me— they need your light.

And even when you want to act out your strife, you got to choose to complete his joy.

Are y'all hearing me? All right, let's go to— oh my God— Acts 4:24, because I want to further show you why it's important to walk in unity and harmony with yourself and with others. Because watch this, a lot of times the disunity you have with other people is because you got disunity with yourself. Oh, we go to Acts 4. Somebody said, Apostle, you're meddling. Yeah, I am.

I'm not planning to get in all your business tonight.

I plan to help you move. Hear me, I plan to help you move in unity with you and in alignment with God so that it's easy to be in harmony with others that you need to be in harmony with. Some people—

and I'm just going to say this for the record— are not designed to walk with you. So you don't walk with them because they only bring strife.

And when you know people's agenda, when they've handled you incorrectly—

I'm a champion for reconciliation, hear me. I'm a champion for walking with people who have wronged me and repented. But if you brought me strife, you brought me drama, you brought me issue, and you've proven—

you've shown me who you are. You've proven you can't be trusted. You have no penitence, which means you don't have any, uh, sorrowful attitude concerning what you did, and you weren't willing to apologize. I will forgive you and move on and establish that it's just important for me not to walk with you. I, I'm of the belief that everybody can't go where I'm going.

Y'all ain't got to say nothing.

I'm, I'm, I'm here tonight.

I prayed before I got on here.

You ain't got— listen, you, you got to make up in your mind that everybody can't go. Stop trying to take people that's not designed to go because all they do is disrupt harmony, disrupt unity, and you keep giving them chance at the chairs, and then you whine about it. Listen, take some action against that strife and let it go, and get your harmony back, get your peace back. Or it becomes such a bababaya. I don't care who it is— family, best friend— if they bringing drama, bringing issues, snip, snip, snip, snip, cut them off.

Yeah, I— yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, all right, Acts 4:24.

I'm gonna go because this—

this—

y'all, y'all ain't trying to hear me.

Acts 4:24, it says this, it says, and when they heard that, they lifted their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord, Thou art God, which made heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them.

Now watch this.

They lifted up their— what I want to get is their voice in one accord. The word accord in this text is homothymaidō. This word homothymaidō means, watch this, that they uniquely had a passion for each other that was beyond, watch this, their differences because they had to worship God together.

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. Ibansele de ke soto rabaya.

Whoa, they pressed past whatever issue because they knew they were where they needed to be. They were in the right church.

Oh my God, oh my God.

And they didn't allow the presence of someone they had strife with to hinder their worship.

You got some people getting—

can't even get what they need, can't come consistently because There are other parties that they may have had strife with in the church, so they can't get in harmony. But when you got a passion toward Jesus for real, oh wee, nothing and nobody can block you from getting what you need. You'll come to church, close your eyes, worship right past them, love on them, and get what you need from God.

We gotta learn with passion to press past differences so we can get to God together, in accord, in harmony, in the body of Christ. Watch this, not just in our local church but in the whole body. Hear me, we gotta learn how to press past differences. Maybe you don't worship like me, and maybe I don't do it like you, but at the end of the day, what matters is our passion toward Jesus. And when Jesus becomes the center of attention, I may be loud, you may be quiet, but we have to press past the differences and worship him together. Oh my God, oh my God. Okay, yeah, I know, I know, I know.

All right, go to Acts 13, same book, Acts 13, Acts 13:22. Ah, oh boy, we're missing a lot of people tonight, I tell you.

You know, one day we're gonna understand how important it is to put priority on the work. You know, I, you know, I expect, you know, my followers to be, you know, they're gonna come in when they come in. But you connected to me every time you get that text. Every time you understand the word is getting ready to be dropped, you understand you need that.

Not because I'm teaching it, because one, I know God has talked to me about what to share with you, and God has something to say to you.

People gonna get it after a while, man.

We don't figure out a way to prioritize the things of God over ourselves.

Oh boy, I'm telling you, man.

13:22.

Watch this, because God is not looking for people that's going to carry his program half-heartedly. Matter of fact, type this in the comments before I read this, because it's going to show it to you. I'm gonna pull into the camera.

God is looking for people—

well, oh my God— who will fulfill his program fully, fully. He's not looking for half service. You can't take action like that when you got strife. Let's read it, let's read it. Acts 13:22, it says, and when they had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king. To whom also he gave testimony and said, I found David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, which shall fulfill—

watch this—

all of my will. All of it.

So when you're after God's heart, God's heart is in harmony, is in unity with you. That, and you're after what he wants for real, not what you want, what he wants. Now God raises you up, calls you a man or woman after his heart, because he trusts that you'll fulfill his will fully.

Not just when you feel like it, not just when things are going well. Are y'all hearing this? Oh boy.

Not just when it's convenient for you. Listen to me, guys. I need y'all to hear me. Will you fulfill his will fully when you up against the odds? When your life is challenged, will you still keep going no matter what the enemy throws at you? Because you understand you can't lose anyway, right? You, you really cannot lose with God. You with him, you always win. I don't know who this is for, but somebody watching this— YouTube, Facebook, wherever you're watching, live or by replay— listen, you need to type in the comments, 'I always win,' because I'm telling you something. This year, it's not going to be easy as some people are letting on. The enemy is going to throw some darts at you. I'm telling you right now, you're going to be under the gun But you got to make up in your mind, no matter what comes at me, I am designed to fulfill his will fully, and I always win.

Why?

You got Jesus on your team, man. Oh my God, you got the Lord of your team, so you always win. I was looking for somebody. Is that you tonight that will fulfill his will fully.

Oh God, I'm telling you, I made up my mind, guys. I'll never go back in my life to the place where God delivered me from. I'll never go back to being lazy. I'll never go back to being lackadaisical. I'll never go back to not prioritizing the things of God. Oh my God, I'll never go back to that place.

I love this place. I love my relationship with him.

It's real, it's tight, and you got to decide that you're sold out fully against all odds and that you're going to win no matter what comes against you.

Oh my God, go to 1 Corinthians 3. I'm, I'm almost— I'm gonna get out of here, guys, but I want to walk you through this word.

We're just prophetically plowing. I'm giving it to you just like the Lord gave it to me.

We got to take action against strife, and the first thing is realizing that God wants us in unity and love and harmony with him first and then with everybody else that we got to work with. There are people sometimes just looking for a fight. And let me tell you something, when you're not in symphoneo or melanandoro, which is what was that other word for unity— so those are, those are actually two Greek words in the New Testament that are translated for unity. And they mean two different things. One means symphony.

We come with different things, but we make the same sound. We go after the same purpose.

The other means because we have the same passion, we press past differences.

Be careful of people who are always trying—

I'm getting ahead of myself, but I need to say this here— who are always trying to pick a fight.

It may be a sign that you shouldn't be walking with them if they're not on the same page with you. Watch this. You got a 16 by 20 dream that you're pursuing. You're pursuing a 16 by 20 relationship with God, but you're dealing with somebody with a 3 by 5 mind. Oh God.

Oh, oh, you cannot fit a 16 by 20 dream, a 16 by 20 relationship in a 3 by 5 mind. It will not fit. If you're an eagle, you can't— you're an eagle, you can't hang out with chickens. You know why? You gotta condescend to hang out with the chicken. Eagles don't come down to play with chickens because chickens can't fly that high. What you got to do is find you some eagles to fly with. I don't know who I'm helping. Because chickens will bring drama because they're jealous of your flight.

Good God Almighty, I can't— I, I'm gonna keep moving, man.

But 1 Corinthians 3:3, uh-oh, the Apostle Paul says, watch this, for ye are yet carnal, for whereas there is among you—

I just said it—

jealousy, envying, and strife. Jealousy, and divisions. Are ye not carnal and walk as men? So my question is tonight, who is spiritual? And this text answers the question, who's— who is spiritual? Those of us that can walk with each other without being jealous.

Okay, let's just break these words down. Envy—

let's start right there. Zelos in Greek. Envy means Oh my God, that you are zealous to destroy—

watch this— a gift that you actually admire.

So what you do is, instead of celebrating with them, you try to find ways through your envying to bring destruction to them, which is okay. It was like Zelot—

Zelots destroyed those through their insecurity. So they warred against those that made them insecure. So because they didn't have the intelligence or they didn't have the resources, they would just go to war and just destroy them to make them feel better.

So zelos in Greek, just with the idea you'll tear someone else down even in conversation.

You could be talking to somebody about another person that's carrying something that you really want and which you could walk in.

So instead of asking God to stir up your gifts and increase you and make you better, what you're doing is becoming a zealot because through your envy and insecurity and tearing them down in conversations to others.

You know, it's just like somebody that's How can I say this without— I'm just saying, it's just like somebody that's, all right, broke, right? And they got many gifts, they could really have money, all they gotta do is apply themselves. But instead of them doing what they need to do for themselves, taking action to do what they need to do themselves, in conversation when that other person they envy comes up Instead of celebrating that and, and trying to understand how that person is doing what they do, they find to try to find something, even if it's a lie, to tear them down. That's a problem, man. I watch people that always down others. When I look at them, they could be down to somebody, the same problem they got going on in their life.

That's a problem.

That's a sign to me I— if you telling me that about them, I don't know what you're doing when I am out of your presence. Okay, okay, okay, okay.

He says, wait a minute, you're envious, you're spiteful. If this is what makes you carnal, you're full of strife, yes. Quarrel, contention, always trying to create drama.

Okay, Dante, he said you're carnal if you're doing this. You're not spiritual. Spiritual people celebrate others. Spiritual people give honor where honor is due. Spiritual people take action and work on themselves. So the question again Who is spiritual? If y'all here tonight, somebody write that in the comments. Who is spiritual? That's a question. It's a question. I mean, it's just a question. You're not spiritual because you squint your eyes and speak in a lot of tongues. Oh boy, you're not spiritual because you go to church. You just go to church.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, going to church doesn't make you spiritual. You just go to church. I'm not saying there's nothing wrong with going to church. I'm a pastor. I want you to come to church because you need corporate worship, you need corporate accountability. But being spiritual has nothing to do with your church attendance.

Squinting your eyes, your ability to prophesy. Gifts and callings are without repentance, they're irrevocable. But being spiritual is being elevated from your carnal mind and walking in the spirit so you don't feel the lust of your flesh to cause strife, to envy, to move in insecurity. Oh my God, today All right, so how do we avoid this thing?

Let's go to Ephesians.

Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4.

Y'all with me? I just sound long.

Y'all stay with me. I only been on 35 minutes. Y'all stay with me. Glory to God. People, attention span. So that's why I like doing our Bible study on Zoom. Attention span. The attention span is bad on social media, right? So because you'd be tempted to scroll there— well, stay with me, you need this word, I promise you. I'm gonna get where I need to be and we'll be out of here soon. Uh, Ephesians 4, verses, uh, let's see, 1, 2, and 3. Watch this.

Therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you are worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called.

Let's stop right there. I need to deal with that.

Notice the Apostle Paul says to them I am a prisoner of the Lord. And he's saying, I beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called. He's indicating the way you walk worthy of the vocation, the purpose, the assignment that you were called to—

watch this— you got to become a prisoner. Oh, you gotta go to prison. Not physical jail, but you got to become a prisoner of the Lord. Oh boy, if you ever go to jail— I've been before in my life, not a good place to go— but if you go to jail, you'll find— if you ever visited somebody in jail, everybody in jail dresses the same. They're in unity.

Oh my God, you go to a jail Hear me, y'all.

Don't scroll because I said I've been to jail. I'm sorry about that. Every apostle in the Bible has been to jail. Listen, so I've been to jail. Glory to God.

Listen, don't scroll, don't scroll, please.

I've been to jail.

Thank God that I ain't there now.

Praise God.

And I ain't never going back again. But listen, here's what I do understand. In jail, there's a man that runs the jail called a warden.

The warden decides what everybody wears, when everybody goes to bed, when everybody gets up, when everybody eats, when everybody watches television, when everybody exercises.

Everybody is under the warden's control. You don't get to do what you want to do. You have to be in unison. And if you decide you don't want to be in unison, They separate you to make an example out of you to the others that remain in unity, that if you get out of line, this is what's going to happen to you. You're going to isolation, you're going to the hole, you're going to have to be by yourself.

You got to become a prisoner. We gotta talk the same thing he's talking. We gotta do what he wants us to do. Do you realize I was telling somebody today, I'm not my own, I'm bought with a price. I don't get to do what Michael Woods wants to do. I'm a prisoner of the Lord. Woo!

And Paul says, I beg you, watch this, walk worthy, become a prisoner of that vocation that you were called to. I dare somebody that's bold enough, type it in the comments, I'm a prisoner of the Lord. You may not be right now, but you ought to tonight after this message, Place yourself under spiritual arrest. Glory to God. Hallelujah. And let the Lord know, listen, I'm, I'm your prisoner, and whatever you need of me, glory to God. Hallelujah. I'm going to walk it out in the name of Jesus. Somebody type that. I'm a prisoner of the Lord. Oh, glory to God. Some of y'all scared. Thank you. Thank you, Jasper. Glory to God. I'm a prisoner of the Lord is what he wants.

Glory to God.

Not my will, but his will be done. I am a prisoner of the Lord. Glory to God. If he says go left, I'm going left. If he say go right, I'm going right. If he tells me to go forward, I'm going forward.

Glory to God.

Listen, I'm a prisoner of the Lord.

No more small thinking, no more small dreaming.

I'm a prisoner of the Lord. Glory to God. Hallelujah. No more small giving, no more small talking, no more small ventures, no more small faith. I am a prisoner of the Lord, and where I go, where he goes. I guide, oh my God, according to his guidance, and where he guides, he provides. And whatever he tells me to do, he's going to take care of, 'cause I am a prisoner of Jesus.

Have any prisoners here tonight? Ew. Not of the penitentiary, not of the DeKalb County Jail, not of the correctional institute in your state or your city or your county, but I need someone to sign up tonight in 2024 to be a prisoner of the Lord, and whatever he says, My obedience is loyal to him. My obedience belongs to him because I am a prisoner of the Lord. Whatever you want, God, I want. Any prisoners? Are you on your own thing?

Yeah.

You want to do what you want to do. Yeah. Any prisoners, preachers? Any prisoners, leaders? Any prisoners? How can you carry this gospel and not be a prisoner? Oh my God, preacher, you ought to be a prisoner that every time you open a book, you're teaching and preaching what he says. Not what you want. Listen, do I have any prisoners? Erebasho torabaya of the Lord. I know you're a prisoner, wife. Any prisoners? Thank you, daughter. Any prisoners? Kiara, any prisoners of the Lord? Oh God, help us. Verse 2, let me keep moving.

With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love. So part of my work, part of being a prisoner, is I got to humble myself, right? I got to be low, I got to have some lowliness.

Yeah, man, which is modesty.

I got to have a humble opinion of myself. So when you become a prisoner of the Lord for real, You don't think more highly of yourself than you should. You have a humble opinion of you. That's what this word in Greek means. Matter of fact, it's a word, uh, tapes in your sin—

tapes in your sin— in Greek, this word means to have—

oh my God—

a proper revelation of yourself, to put you in perspective. Watch this, as it relates to you and God.

So you should always know that you are inferior in the presence of a superior when God is your warden and you're a prisoner.

This keeps strife out of your life. This keeps you in harmony with God's will and God's plan for you. Good God Almighty, any prisoners? Hallelujah!

Any prisoners?

Oh boy, you just want to build your own steps and ladders and, and work your way to the top with what you know to do, but and not following his plan. Oh my God. I was sitting at dinner last night with my wife and I was talking to her about some plans that I have for 2024 that we have, and we was talking about some things that we need to do. And I wrote the plans out, even the economics division, the whole thing on a napkin. And I took a picture of the napkin and I kept the napkin because that idea right there is going to be the foundation of creating a multi-million dollar valuation, not just for us personally, but for our business. But, well, here's what we understand. We have to be prisoners of the Lord to get this done. We have to follow him every step because we don't personally have the capacity to pull it off. It's going to take him and every ounce of faith we have to bring it to pass. I'm a prisoner. God bless you, Sharon. There's another prisoner. I'm a prisoner of the Lord. God bless you, Sharon Turner. You, you listen, we— this has to be our quest this year. This— watch this— when you come prisoner of the Lord, it eliminates strife. It's take— that's taking action against strife. But, but you got to be lowly. You got to be meek. Meekness and lowliness is different. Meekness means you're gentle. You ain't always aggressive and edgy and handling people abrasively. Oh, when you're a prisoner of the Lord, you move with meekness. Your tone ain't always snappy. Oh, I know, I know for a fact that God is working on me right there. And every time— and I'm, I'm so better, I'm so much better than I was 5 years ago. I'm so much better than I was last year and the year before that. Because at the end of the day, every opportunity I get I'm practicing meekness when I have an opportunity to be snapping and go at your throat, your folk. I choose not to do it. You got to be meek, you got to be gentle, man. Oh boy, stop hollering all the time, stop throwing stuff, stop punching holes in walls. You have to pay to get those fixed. I've done that in my lifetime. That's crazy. You get so angry, so much strife within you, you punch a hole in the wall.

For what?

You gotta— now you gotta fix that drywall. God, get to meekness, man. Verse 3, watch this. It says, endeavoring to keep— endeavoring, that's a strong word. Somebody say endeavoring. Endeavoring. Oh, that which means when you're a prisoner of the Lord— this Greek word is spoudazo, and it means you hasten, you make haste, you exert yourself, you give due diligence to— watch this— keep the unity of the Spirit. So endeavoring to keep the unity—

hear me.

Oui! So you must endeavor— glory to God— which means you got to make haste whenever you see strife and division happening, to keep the peace, to keep unity, to eliminate division. When you see yourself falling apart— oh my God— when you see yourself breaking down and coming out of alignment with God, you must make haste to get things right, to do what you need to do. Oh, have mercy, Lord, have mercy. Jesus even wants that for us, guys. I'm telling you, the Lord wants us to be at one with ourselves, one with everybody else, and one with him most of all. Y'all don't believe it? Matter of fact, go— matter of fact, go to John 17. Let's go there. John 17. I want to show you, John— write it in the comments. John 17. And say this with me. Say, the Lord wants me to be a prisoner of him so that I can be one with him and one with everybody else.

You must endeavor Oh, that's it.

Endeavoring. That's a hard word.

I know it's a hard word, but guess what?

We got to do it. We got to do it. Make haste. When you feel yourself falling apart, when people are coming at you, quickly endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit. Don't lose— don't do like the old folks. I'm gonna put my religion on the shelf. Come on, man, you ain't got much anyway if you could take it and put it on the shelf so you could fight. As your people said, don't make me put my religion down and cuss you out. No, that's— you ain't—

you don't have God. That's— it's because it's religion, you could take it off, put it on.

But when you got God, you hasten to keep unity in yourself and with others. Glory to God. My God, today, my God today. John 17, verse 20. I'm sorry, I got to go.

I just sound long.

I'm almost done, I'm almost done, I really am. I want you to stay with me, I want you to stay with me. John 17, verse 20 and 21. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee.

That they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. See, our unity— watch this, this is why harmony and unity is so important— it shows the world—

hear me, good God Almighty— that Jesus is real. The world can believe because we can unify when we ought to be fighting, when we can unify when we ought to be getting mad, when we can have peace when others are losing it and going postal. When we can have peace, it's a testimony to the world— hear me— that Jesus is real. I gotta move real quick. I want you to go— no, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna work this out. Let's work it out. I want to really hit really quick. So, so y'all got that, that, that, that part right there was just the importance of unity and harmony.

Y'all see why it's important?

It's important to be unified with God and others so you can fulfill your purpose. So you got to take action against strife so you can maintain unity and harmony, so you can fulfill the assignment and fulfill the purpose. We are better together. Y'all got that? Oh, we, we, we. All right, let's go. Uh, so Spirit of Strife. So here we go.

Peace— watch this— and strife—

listen to this— are both spirits. I'm going to run through this really quick and I'm going to be done.

Peace and strife are both spirits.

Write it down, put it in the comments. Peace and strife are both spirits.

So if you're operating peace, it's the spirit influencing that peace. You are trichotomy—

your body, your soul, your spirit.

From your spirit man manifest— watch this—

life.

So if you have peace in your spirit through the Holy Ghost, because one of the fruit of the Spirit is peace, right? So peace should be manifesting in your life.

Now, strife, however, means that a door has opened. The idle mind is the devil's workshop.

You begin to think too hard about a bill.

You start thinking too hard about what you're up against instead of trusting God by faith and operating in peace.

You start freaking out and moving in strife. Hear me, but you gotta close that portal.

Listen to me, guys, and not allow that spirit to manifest out of your mouth, out of your body, out of your life. Oh boy, here we go, here we go. Jesus, Jesus. So because they're spirits, watch this, attitudes and atmospheres, watch this, can be affected by them. You know, I love my wife, and being married to her, I learned a lot, okay, about— and you should learn from your spouse, man, uh, because if you're single, when you get married, you understand you're married to somebody totally different than you. They're not you. So people are different. One of the things about my wife that I've discovered in the time I've been with her for the most part, 100% of the time, she's a peaceful person.

The spirit of peace flows out of her.

Now, there are buttons you can push in her, and I've learned this, that will disrupt her peace.

And here's the reality: while I can feel peace strongly from her when she's operating in peace. When she's operating in strife, or when she's not at peace about something, I can feel that as well, because they both are spirits. And watch this, perhaps you could be at work, somebody walks in and they got strife on them. You know they got strife on them and you can feel it. Y'all ain't saying nothing to me. Because they came in the room. But there are some people that come around, they carry peace. Like Felicia, she carries love, she carries peace unless you push that button, unless she's personally dealing with something that she's working through, and you can feel it. So here's what I want you to understand: maybe the atmosphere in your house is jacked up. Or the atmosphere at your job is jacked up, because make sure you're not the one carrying the spirit of strife.

Oh boy, because it can be filled.

Let me give you a working definition of strife.

We're gonna get out of here.

Strife is bickering, it's arguing, it's a heated disagreement It's an angry undercurrent. I'll say that again. Strife is bickering, is arguing, is heated disagreements. It's an angry undercurrent. You got to make up in your mind, hear me guys, who we— you ain't gonna let nothing get you to the point where you're bickering, you're— listen, I don't argue with people about the Bible.

I was talking to a client today that wanted— aggressively text me about something that we're under contract to do. We're doing the work, we're on a timeline. First of all, I signed the contract under false pretenses, and because they presented in the contract that there'll be certain elements they would provide on the work side that they didn't provide. So in order for the job to get completed, I still had to come on the back end and provide that work. Well, while I wanted to go from 0 to 1,000 when I got his text, I didn't.

I just simply stated the facts and said, hey, listen, I took this contract under false pretense. We're on time with the timeline in spite of the fact that everything about this was wrong from the beginning.

So please give us opportunity to get this done so both of us will be happy and we can move on.

The reality is there's a way to deal with anything, but I wanted to go to 1,000 and really say some things, but I didn't. I really didn't. So what am I saying to you?

Don't let nothing pull you into bickering, arguing. And please don't argue scripture, don't argue the Bible.

Oh my God, don't argue about stuff with ignorant people, man.

It just brings strife into your life. Listen, I, I've had people on my staff before. Thank God we got a good volunteer staff now, we got good executive leaders now that bring peace. But I've had people in the past in those positions that whenever they showed up to a meeting, it was always strife, it was always tension, it was always frustration because that person was in the room.

And whenever we had a meeting and they wasn't there, everything went smoothly.

I'm telling you, this stuff can be felt. Listen, the demon of strife, if you let it run rampant, it will control the very temperament and atmosphere of a house, of an office, of a workplace. So you got to bind that thing up. And destroy. I'm out of time, guys. God knows I'm out of time, but I want to really get into the danger of strife. I'll talk about this Sunday because we got to take action, and you need to see the danger, and you need to see the results of strife and what it'll do and how it is absolutely evil. So I'm gonna stop here because I'm out of time, and I don't want to hold you any longer. It's almost 10 o'clock. I've been on for an hour. I love y'all, and I really want the best for you guys. That's why I teach like this, man. I teach straight from the hip. I teach directly. But I pray you got the foundation of this tonight, that strife interrupts unity and harmony. And in order for us to accomplish what we're called to do, we got to be in unison. We got to be harmonious in every single aspect of what we do together. Let's pray.

Glory to God.

And then I want you to stay with me. I'm gonna give you a few announcements and we're going to get out of here. Let's pray. Father, in Jesus' name, I thank you for this time tonight. I thank you for this teaching. I thank you for action against strife. And I decree and declare tonight, in the name of Jesus, Rangushka tabaseto boholyamandididi osoraki.

I decree and declare peace and blessing on every person under the sound of my voice, live or by replay.

I declare that their lives will be filled with peace, unity, love, and harmony.

I decree and declare that the spirit of strife is bound up now in our relationships, in our marriage, in our churches, in our businesses, in our homes, in our workplaces, in our schools. In the name of Jesus, we bind it up and plead the blood against it now. In Jesus' name.

And I declare this year, as we take action toward our purpose, toward our destiny, and actually as we take action in this first month against strife, I declare that our lives will never be the same. In the mighty name of Jesus, we do pray.

Amen.

And thanks be to God. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Just a few announcements, guys, really quickly. And while I'm making the announcements, here's what I need you to do. Glory to God. Thank you, Bruce. I appreciate you. I appreciate you guys so much. Please stay with me. Nobody leave. Whether you're on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, nobody leave. Nobody leave. Stay with me. Stay with me. Glory to God. That's what I need you to do right now. I need you to stay with me. Glory to God. Listen, the ways to give on the bottom of the screen, and I'm gonna give you these announcements while you're giving. So let me say this to you guys, a large percentage of you that's connected to me, connected to Rhoda Church, the Bible says if I communicate to you spiritual things, you should communicate to not even the church, to me, natural things. I don't need you to give anything to me. I don't take a salary. I don't take money from the church. I do want to make sure the church is taken care of.

So listen to me, guys, and hear my heart.

Nobody leave. I incurred a lot of expense last week, um, the meeting, uh, we had to— which again, I wanted to make sure that my dad was taken care of. I wanted to make sure that all the church bills were taken care of. We have receipts that we need to reimburse people for. We have musicians that have to be paid, uh, the venue, extra day for the venue had to be paid. So in the end, we had hotels we had to take care of. So I had to personally invest, I, in the— on top of my giving I'm just going to tell you what I did. I had to personally invest $2,000 of my own money in this meeting. I'm saying that everybody connected to me tonight— y'all look at me good, I'm looking at the camera— Roda Church is not just my church, it's your church too. And I know many of you are doing your best, but some of you on Thursday night, you just act like I'm not saying anything. And it's okay, it's okay. But listen, and then those of you that are visitors and not connected, you're getting the word, you need to sow into what you're getting. I'm saying to you, Rider Church, Rider Partners, leaders connected to me, whether you're watching this live or by replay, I need you to sow seed tonight and help recover my $2,000. I mean, I gave very well in the meeting on top of that, but I had to make sure that certain things were done correctly. So I want you tonight— I'm not going to tell you what to do, but if this is important to you, making sure that me as your leader is not always carrying the weight of something we do.

It's more blessed to give than it is to receive, and Some of you gonna have financial issues all the time, and I'm gonna keep hitting you in the face with this until you get it, because I love you. Because you don't understand that the heavens unlock for you financially when you are a giver. Now, when you pray, now when you worship, now when you go to church, the Bible said give and it shall be given. So tonight, the ways to give are on the screen. Usually on Thursday night, myself and about 2 more people give.

That doesn't make sense, guys.

If we were at church, we would take up an offering. I'm doing this tonight because I don't ever ask y'all for nothing, and I'm on live, glory to God, talking to you because there are people that watch me live that they watch all the time and never give neither.

And the reality is the scripture says if I communicate to you spiritual things, you should communicate your natural things. Now all I'm asking you to do tonight is respond in faith and make a sacrificial gift toward ministry tonight. I, I could, I could give you a number if the Holy Spirit gave me one, but he didn't. But I want you to have enough compassion in your heart to plant a seed tonight that says, I want to make sure Apostle is taken care of and that he gets his money back from the seeds he sold up and above what was given in church to make sure that we met our budget for this meeting. Everything is paid. The hotels are paid, the venue are paid. Apostle is well taken care of. He's happy because, because at the end of the day, he was trying to pay me for the rooms and not take an honorarium. I'm not stupid. I know how to be blessed, but I'm trying to get you also to participate in the blessing. So tonight I need you to trust God. Somebody got off, but it's okay, it's okay, it's okay. This year I'm not pulling any punches, guys. I'm walking with people that's bought in. We cannot fulfill vision together if you're not bought in. You got to be bought in. You, you can't serve a vision cursed. So if you're not a tither, you don't give, the Bible said you're cursed with a curse if you don't tithe.

Come on, man.

Only way you break that is through your giving. All right, few announcements. The fast, we were supposed to start Tuesday, but because we had such a long 2 days, I wanted to give you a break and help you get your mind right as we go into this fast.

So we're moving the fast back.

We're going to start on Tuesday, January 30th, right? So you got— you literally got 1, 2, 3 weeks to get your mind right for this fast.

So we're gonna go through on the 30th to the 20th of February.

All right, so I think that's the 20th. Yeah, the 20th of February, 30th through the 20th of February. All right, y'all got it, and you'll start getting the information on the fast. The prayer focus, the times of day. We'll be teaching all of that stuff so you can be in unison with the fast. 21 days of consecration will start January 30th through February 20th. All right, uh, we will be at Rhoda Church Atlanta on Sunday at 3 o'clock PM. Please join us. Glory to the name of God. For those of you in other locations We're going to make sure that we stream on Sunday so you guys can tune in at 3 o'clock and get the rest of this word. I love you guys. For those that gave tonight, give these gifts back, God, a thousand times more for their obedience. And Father, we give you praise for even every person that had a desire to give, but they just had zero. So Father, I'm asking you and decreeing that you will bless them because they have a heart to give, that they may be able to give next time. So we give you praise and glory now, in Jesus' name. Amen. And thanks be to God. I love you guys. Thank you for tuning in. If you have not shared this, I really wish that you would share it. Glory to the name of God. And make sure, praise God, that others get this word in their life. Y'all be blessed. Heaven smile upon you is my prayer. Enjoy the rest of your evening. Peace.