The Apostles Table | WED.Jan.13..20 | "BITTERNESS & RESENTMENT-Part 2" | DR. MIKE WOODS

Well, praise the Lord, everybody. I pray that you all are having a supernatural Wednesday. Glory to God. I wanted to jump in here really quick and share with you guys. I hope again everybody's well and you're having a supernatural day that's absolutely exhilarating and outstanding and wonderful and all of the great things that you can experience from the Lord. I pray today that you are experiencing those things. Listen guys, uh, do me a kind favor. And I need you to say hello, let me know you're here. And then secondly, I need you to share this for me, uh, since you could be to someone else, is to share the word of the Lord with them. I'm super amped, super excited to be able to teach you this afternoon. I'm about replay, uh, it does my heart good to serve. Praise God! We are believers, we are in some exciting times, and we are in some days where God wants to do some tremendous things for his people. Uh, the reality is, in order for that to happen, we just gotta get in position. No matter how many prophecies over your life, no matter how many promises in the word of God, the reality is you have to align yourself in a way where you meet the conditions so that what you're trusting and believing for can literally come to pass. So, and part of that is developing your faith. The scripture declares that faith come by hearing and hearing by the word of the Lord. And so it's a sign of maturity when you have the ability to sit down, listen to the word, absorb it, and figure out strategic ways to deliberately apply what you hear to your life. It's not just designed for you to get you know, good teaching is really designed for application. And something has to change because you made application to the revelation that you heard. I always say revelation without application— hear me— is constipation, which means you're stuck, you're not moving, nothing's advancing, uh, simply because you heard it but you never applied it, and it really, uh, does you any good. I mean, it's just knowledge, and you just get fat and heavy, and you're never able to really accomplish what the word would have you accomplish. But I'm grateful today, guys, to be here. I'm grateful to be alive, grateful for the opportunity again to teach and to share the word of the Lord. Uh, it is indeed my privilege. Always to do that. Let's pray, and then we're going to get into the heart of this today. I, again, I'm continuing something I started a couple of days ago on bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness. The reality is these three things are the biggest vehicles used for being in your own way. And so many times we're bitter, we're resentful, and we kind of broke down what those things were last time. And we got a lot of unforgiveness we're harboring. We don't realize that the delays, the delays in our life is directly connected to our inability to just let people go, let things go, uh, getting things out of our heart that are cancerous, that are literally killing us, uh, soulically. Our mind, our will, and emotions is toxic, is sick, is poisonous because we're walking around with these things. And the blessing of the Lord, which is pure and holy and chaste it can't get in, it can't flow out because you clogged up with bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness. So we're going to teach today, uh, here at the Apostle's Table. Uh, we're, we're flowing a little different and we're super excited, glory to the name of God, about the opportunity to share with you today. Um, again, let's jump into this. We're going to pray and then we're going to jump right into this teaching. Okay, is that all right with y'all? Let's pray. Father, in Jesus' name, I thank you for the opportunity to teach and share your word today. I pray, Father, that you would anoint my lips to declare the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I pray, God, that every person that listens, that their faith will be built, for the word declares faith come by hearing and hearing by the word of the Lord. I decree and declare that 2021 will be a year where we will get out of our own way and the impediments and the things that have caused, uh, great delays in your promises over our life. God, we're going to remove them and we're going to operate as champions, God, and we're going to be everything you've called us to be. And we praise you for it and we give you all the glory in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. And thanks be to God. All right, ladies and gentlemen, again, man, I love y'all so much. And guess what? Ain't a thing— ain't a— I'm talking about not a thing you can do about it. I'm, I'm so in love with you guys. I'm glad you're here, uh, again, whether you're watching live or by replay. And, uh, it gives me great pleasure to be able to teach the word, to share the word. Praise the name of God. Um, I am just going to again just pick up where I was last time. Glory to God. Hallelujah. God is a good God and he's worthy to be praised. Praise God. Y'all love him? Hande basiku rabahaya. We bless him and we give him the glory. All right, so today again, bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness. Glory to God. And I'm not going to be long, praise God. I'm going to share with you what thus saith the Lord, and I believe if you would adhere and open your heart and your spirit, you indeed will be blessed today. Um, I'm always excited to share the word, praise God. So let's, let's look at this. Glory to God. And, um, I pray you stay with me. All right, y'all, y'all stay with me, stay with me today. Let me just check and see where we at. Y'all share this and say hello and, uh, let me know you're here. Glory to God! Let me know you're, you're listening, you're tuned in. Praise the name of Jesus! God is a good God. If this thing is freezing, please let me know. I don't want to waste my time. Hallelujah! Y'all come on in, come on in, please. I, I need some feedback. Y'all let me know what y'all looking at so I can make sure we good. Y'all come on in. Looks like we good. All right, looks like— come on in, please. I need some feedback, y'all. Let me know what you— all right, look like we good, y'all. So let's rock. All right, so let's jump in this. Do me a favor, guys, if you're here, say hello, let us know you're here, and please share it. Some of y'all never share. I, I don't get it, but please share the video. Glory to God, if it's blessing you, uh, bless somebody else with it. And you know, my, my opinion is this. I love all of y'all, but if you watch this live or by replay, and if you trying to— because I'm not going to be tagging a whole lot of people, I'm going to talk to folk that want to hear. We got a lot of partners from around the world that watch the replays. Uh, our church watches these teachings, uh, but we got a whole lot of spectators too. And, and I just want to say this to you, man, if you never share the video and it's blessing you What in the world is you here for? The Bible said we are blessed to be a blessing. Okay, I'm gonna say that again. We're blessed to be a blessing. And if you never share the video, that says, hey, number one, maybe it's not blessing you, or two, you just flat out disobedient because you're blessed to be a blessing. And if it's blessing you, you should sow seed. And I know a lot of preachers too listen to some of the stuff we teach, they go back and they teach it and do whatever they want to do with it. But at the end of the day, man, you know, we need to be laborers. One, I share people's stuff all the time. You know, if it blesses me, I'm gonna bless somebody else on my page with it. So share it, guys. I mean, it's only nice to be nice. Otherwise, like I was about to say, my opinion is this: if what I'm saying to you is not good enough for you to share, I'm going to politely ask you just don't listen to me no more, because we're on a mission to make sure as many people hear what we got to say. And if you just here a spectator, or you trying to be a follower of me in private or in secret— no, we're not doing that. We're not playing that game. So, so that you can be blessed, and so that you're not moving in on disobedience, you need to find you somebody that you free in sharing what they say. There's hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of people out here talking, and maybe you can find somebody that you can bless somebody else with what they're saying since you refuse to share the stream. All right, uh, I mean, and that just, that just bothers me. You know, I see people jump on here all the time, but then they never share it. You know, again, find you somebody you can bless somebody else with so you can share the love you're receiving. Because I'm not— trust me, I'm really not into you trying to follow me in secret. That's ridiculous. You need— just don't follow me if you got to do it in secret. Something wrong with that picture. All right, so I mean, I'm telling— and I politely have shared that with you. Just find you. And I'm telling you what the Lord love, you know, because at the end of the day, you know, we're blessed to be a blessing, period. That's Bible. And if it's blessing you, please, please, I'm asking nicely, bless someone else. That's all I'm asking. That's all I'm asking. I love y'all. All right, all right, all right, all right, all right. Somebody said preacher, preacher. What? Glory to God. All right, let's, let's, let's, let's jump into this, man. So I left off sharing two main things on, uh, Monday when I taught this initially. One, I left off saying to you, do not play in the dirt. Hear me, don't play in the dirt. You got to get it together, man. And when you operate in bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness, what it does is there's something lodged in your spirit that, oh my God, is totally impure, totally dirty, that you need to exonerate. You need to clean up. You cannot play in the dirt. As I started talking to you about how when you do that, you're causing torture in your own life. You invite lack of joy, depression, heaviness. You're not happy because you're poisoned. And when you're poisoned, that's how people who are poisoned flow. They never happy. They always mad. They always upset because they're bitter and they're resentful. They're hateful towards something and they have unforgiveness in their heart that they have not released. And I also talked to you as I closed last time that you can't expect your personal relationship with the Father— and this is what we all need, we don't need religion, every one of us needs a personal relationship— and so you can't anticipate your personal relationship with the Father growing or evolving if you got bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness in your heart. It's not going to happen. You know, you can't enjoy his presence because your prayers are hindered. Because the first thing God is requiring of you is to deal with your relationships within humanity. And here's the problem with people in the kingdom: we want to be churchy, we want to be in the church, but Hear me, we want to carry bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness in our heart. And listen, man, that ain't the will of God on no day, on no level. And you just got to make up in your mind— hear me, y'all— that you're gonna let this stuff go, because you can't afford to hinder your worship. You can't afford— I even talked about how it hinders when you give. Not just money, but when you give your talent and your service, it hinders the release of that because you're releasing those same toxins that you're carrying through bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness into everything you do. And God forbid if you're a prophet— come on, man— and you got bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness in your heart. Every time you prophesy, every time you preach, what is happening you're causing a leakage of this bitterness and unforgiveness to come forth out of you into the lives of the people that are like sponges opening up their gates to you. So you got to deal with that, man, so you could grow, so you could increase. Are y'all hearing what I'm saying? So let's, let's jump into this. So I want to jump right into this. Because some of you don't realize— y'all, hold on a second— some of y'all don't realize, glory to God, that you are operating in a, in a space where it's not only hindering your relationship with God and the blessings of the Lord from flowing out of your life in a healthy way. It's hindering you having healthy love relationships. Some of you single people and married people, both of— everybody, you're not getting the maximum benefit of love out of relationships you have because you're harboring so much bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness towards something in your past. You are— how can I put this— spiritual necrophiliacs. A necrophiliac is a perverted group of people. Now, they practice necrophilia, which means they make love and have intimacy with dead stuff. Necros meaning the dead, philia love. Necrophiliac, making love to dead things. And some of you, because you still are intimate with dead things through the vehicle and the spirits of bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness, you're clogging up your ability— boy, y'all need to catch this today— to have effective love relationships. You, my friend, are a necrophiliac. You just ain't physically doing it. Just as nasty as that is in the physical, it's 10 times worse emotionally and spiritually. Oh my God, because it hinders your ability to evolve at a loftier level of love and experience all the love you're supposed to get out of your marriage, out of your relationship, even with your children. You can't do it because you're holding on to something that happened in the past and you gotta let it go. I know people right now that are great women and they'll be great wives, but they'll never get married again because their first marriage— watch this— they got hurt so bad. And because they got hurt so bad and they're operating in emotional necrophilia, spiritual necrophilia, intimate, bitter resentment against a dead marriage. New people trying to come into their life and they're kicking them down every time they show up. And some of them make the mistake of marrying again and not dealing with this crap. Hear me, they get married again and haven't dealt with this crap, and then the person they're with suffers the repercussion from what some deadbeat, some zero did in the past. And I want to submit to you, you got to deal with that because that bitterness, that resentment, that unforgiveness is keeping you from having the love level bliss that God wants you to have. Listen, he want— he wants all of us to have love on a level like we never knew it, and he wants to love us through humans, but he can't do that because he's so pure and holy and he is the epitome of love. When there is hate in your heart and you gotta deliberately deal with it— oh my God, let's go, let's look at 1 Peter 4:8. Let's look at it. 1 Peter 4, verse 8. Because you can't love with unforgiveness in your heart. The Bible says, 1 Peter 4:8, and above all things— somebody type that on the screen for me— and above all things, hear me, and above all things, have fervent charity among yourself. That's love. Passionate, fervent love among ourselves. Hear this. For love— watch this— shall cover the multitude of sin. Wait a minute, so you can't tell me that you're operating and walking in love and unforgiveness at the same time. You can't do it according to that text, man, because love is going to cover the fault. Is going to forgive, is going to have compassion. Oh my God. And it's going to free you to move on. You can't love and walk in unforgiveness at the same time. I'm sorry, you can't do it. I wish for the sake of people that feel that they just really justified because what happened was so horrific to them Come on, get over it, man. Everybody's had something bad happen. You ain't the only one that was molested. You're not the only one that was raped. You're not the only one went through a divorce. You're not the only one that's been lied on. You're not the only one that's had a scandal. You— oh my God. But you gotta forgive the attacks that'll come against you. Lord knows I ain't forgot how to cuss, neither have I forgot how to fight. And some of the stuff I've suffered at the hands of people, some justifiably, maybe I should have went through it. Some I didn't deserve it, in my opinion, but God knows all things. But you know what I had to do so I can move on with my life? I had to let them go and love them in spite of— wait a minute, Jesus said love your enemies, love those that despitefully use you. And speak all manner of evil again. Oh my God, oh my God. So you say, right, with your tongue-talking self, with your prophesying, devil-casting-out self, with your preaching, hooping, tuning up self, with your apostolic self. Come on, man. How you gonna operate in the fullness of all them gifts and you ain't got no love and you harboring hate towards somebody? I got to go, man. I gotta go because y'all, y'all looking at me crazy. I can tell y'all looking at me crazy, but you gotta forgive. Okay, let me give you some more word because maybe y'all don't believe me. Colossians 3:13 and 14, watch this. Forbearing one another and forgiving one another. This is Colossians 3:13. Forbearing, forbearing, which means we lift the burden off each other, we release each other. And forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. You say you want to be a Christian, that, that they Christ-like, which actually Christian is a pagan word, uh, that came up about— gave— that the people in Antioch came up with. God in scripture never called you a Christian, but for lack of a better explanation, because it does mean Christ-like, even though they were saying it They were saying them mini Christ, they were mocking them because they were trying to be like Jesus. Wow. He says, if you want to be like me for real, forgive, forbear, take that burden off somebody else. When you got a quarrel, let it go. How you saved and call yourself a mature Christian and you walking around here holding a grudge against somebody? You're not acting like Christ. I'm gonna say it again, you're not acting like Christ. You're acting like a baby. Well, you know, when I was growing up, I've always been very athletic, um, which is part of the reason I'm a great golfer today, because I've always been athletic. I'm, uh, and I'm not, uh, yeah, I am boasting a little. Glory to God, that's a hard game, and I'm so grateful I learned it. Praise God. And I'm good. But here's, here's the, here's the thing. When I was growing up, we would, we had in my apartment complex, we had a basketball court. It has a couple, um, and I would go to the court every day. And most days I would take my own ball because I had my own ball, and we would run ball, full court, play ball. All right, of course I'm killing, uh, like I always did in my younger days on the basketball court. Uh, my sons Ben and Michael are still trying to drag me on the basketball court because they took so many beatings from me growing up. So now they want to take advantage of an old man, but the devil is a liar. I got a trick for him. I tell him, we were just over Christmas, I was telling him, look, y'all ain't getting me in that gym, man. Only place I'm going to compete with y'all is on the golf course. So y'all better pick up some golf clubs and learn that game. Glory to God, cuz I'm not going to get out there and get hurt at 51. But none of that— I got too much to do, too much to do. I need my back. Glory to God, need my back. Glory to God, need, need my body to fulfill purpose. Praise God. But my point I'm getting to, there will be days I would be just out and didn't have my ball but would walk over to the court and play. But there was always this guy, man, who we were playing with his ball, and when he started losing— when, when— or he didn't get picked up by the team, this little joker takes his ball and goes home. Listen, let me tell y'all something. That's how some of y'all is in the church. You can't progress and you trying to stop everything else because you hurt, because you broken, because somebody did— some of y'all get crazy over someone looking at you wrong. Some of you so immature you can't even take rebuke. Come on, how— wait a minute, how you gonna follow leadership and not get rebuked sometime? I know in this New Age church that's a foreign word. I tell you what, you better not come near Rada Church because part of my Godly duty is to rebuke you when necessary. The Bible said God chastised them who he loved. There's no way I can walk in love with you and not chastise you when you miss the mark, when I see you need to come up. Are y'all hearing me? Open rebuke is better than secret love. We don't talk like that in church no more. I mean, we do, most folks don't. But I want you to understand something, it's for your betterment. As the old mother would say, it's for your growth, it's for your matriculation. But this joker would take y'all home, and some of y'all are mad, and you trying to stop everything else because you can't forgive, you can't let it go. You make everybody in your house unhappy because you unhappy. Oh my God! Oh my goodness! Everybody you work with don't want to be around you because you bring drama and unhappiness with you every single day, and nobody wants to be around you. And you supposed to be the same one at the job, and you wonder why they won't go to church with you. Oh my God. Verse 14, let me keep reading. Colossians 3 Here's verse 14: And above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfectness. Perfectness, teleos in Greek, perfectness, which means it is the bond of maturity. It's the bond of maturity. It's a seal. It's a sign that you are mature when you can forbear, forgive, let it go. And walk in love with people you feel like hating, and walk in love with people you feel— oh my God— like refraining from. You know, it's a shame, hear me, that when people can't get what they want or what they thought they wanted out of you, they penalize you Oh, y'all not talking to me here. Because of their immaturity and separate from you, and then they're penalizing themselves because they don't know the value. Obviously they never saw the value that they were extrapolating out of being in your life. Oh my God, man, I gotta go. I, I gotta go. Listen, you can't love with unforgiveness. I'm saying it again, you cannot love with unforgiveness. It ruins your current relationships and it ruins your future relationship. It ruined people that have nothing to do with what you holding in your heart because you couldn't let it go. Oh, she— I want to challenge somebody, let it go, man. It's not worth the happiness you could be experiencing right now in your current relationship and in the things that God has for you in the future. But you got to let go that past hurt and that past pain. Some of y'all can't keep a man, some Some of y'all single women, you can't keep a man because you're so emotional. Come on. And the moment you might see something that is similar to what you went through with somebody else, you ready to call it quits. You ain't got no fight in you because the bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness you're harboring, it takes your fight. Oh my God, it takes your fight. Oh, that's so dangerous, y'all. It's so dangerous. It takes your fight. So you got to check your heart, get yourself together, get that right. Oh my God. Adeanso breti kuska tabaya. Woo! God help us. Love and unforgiveness are opposites. They're not here. They're opposites. So you got to make a choice. If you want love, you better learn how to forgive. Stop being angry at what's gone. Stop holding on to what God's trying to take. He wants it, let him have it. He wants it, give it to him. Are y'all hearing what I'm saying? I gotta go, y'all. Good God Almighty. Let me give you another one before I get out of here, because I can stay on that all day, because there's so many people who are unhappily married They're unhappy in friendships. Nobody wants to be around them. They don't have good familial relationships with the people in their families because they're bitter and resentful and unforgiving towards something in the past. You know, for the life of me, for the life of me, I have some relatives. I, I promise you that I love, man, and one in particular, I love 100 Grand. It's like a brother to me. But when I tell you, let's see, Alexander is 12 years old. It's been a good 12 years. Since me and this man— and y'all pray for this because I believe that our life was never meant to be lived apart because we shared too much of the same innovative DNA. We share a lot of perspectives about life and business that are the same, and God knows if we ever could have found a common ground and work together You know, the things we've done separately would have been a thousand times greater than what we've done separately. So I know this has been the trick of the enemy. I love this boy, okay? I love him. He's, he's 2 years older than me. I love him. But when I tell you it's been— and I'm testifying to this to help somebody, because maybe I'm teaching somebody that's got an estranged relationship with a family member And, you know, to date, I've even apologized for stuff that I don't even believe I needed to apologize for, but I did because I love him, you know, and I wanted the relationship to have reconciliation. I think 4 years ago, at a family reunion, we were able to sit down and have a conversation, to talk for after such a long time, but we hadn't even been able to do it again. We said we would. I got his number, I called several times, dude still won't respond. Here's the problem. Here's the problem. It's bitterness, it's resentment, it's unforgiveness that has created a wedge between me and this man when that never was the plan of God. We went through too many hard spaces together. We've seen too many things in life together. This dude was my confidant, my friend. I could say anything to him. There were things I could say to him— I'm sorry, y'all, uh, that I couldn't say to nobody else. But the enemy had crept in his head, and my prayer daily is to kick his tail out. I want y'all to pray with me. Because I want this relationship with my cousin to be restored. And God knows I'm in a position now in life that I'm mature enough to bring to the table what I need to bring to reconcile the situation, you know, because I don't want to have a disconnect with anybody I'm supposed to roll with. Now, if I ain't supposed to roll with you, you just keep on going about your business. I'm glad you gone. But for the people that I'm supposed to roll with, and it's God or death, I need to be reconciled to them. We need to be walking together, and we need to be doing the things of the kingdom. One of my sons, uh, it came to my attention, which I thought was petty and immature, one of my sons up and from Mississippi. And at the end of the day, um, here's just another situation. I'm just going to show you what bitterness and resentment and unforgiveness would do to folk. You know, when, when you basically hear this dude, you hear me, because he is my son, period. I don't care where he go, what he do, he my son, period. Anybody— Ray Charles can tell you that. Okay, but then because of some stuff that happened in the past, me and him done dealt with it. We moving on. We're walking in maturity. You got a person who moves in a lack of revelation and spiritual ignorance, makes a statement like, I don't know about the relationship, I don't think you need to go back to his church. Speaking of my church, what? That, that's the most idiotic thing that could ever come out of something. That's bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness, trying to sabotage something that God ordained. Me and that dude connected at the hip. Ain't nothing you could do to block that. Come on, man. Come on, come on, come on. You, you're a baby. And maybe— watch this— you're threatened by the relationship. Oh my God, because something you got in your heart and you need to get you together. Oh my— oh, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, let me move on. Because you can't have love and unforgiveness, people. Here's another thing: when you walk in bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness, you open a huge door to the devil. Let me say this: the devil is real, and one of his biggest distractions is bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness. He uses these three tools to get you distracted, to get you thrown off, so that he can come in and start wreaking havoc in areas where you need God. Because you get to focusing on what he doing. Let's look at some word on that. Let's look at some word on it, okay? Let's look at some word on it, and then tomorrow I'm gonna come back and teach y'all about the process on how to get this crap out of your life. I'm just showing you the dangers, what did it do, what these— this poison does to your life, your future, your relationships. Oh my God. Let's look at some scripture, man, cuz you— some of y'all got a huge door open for the devil. He working in your children, he working in your husband, your wife, your other family members. He's working in your life because you don't open the door because you bitter. He working in your finances, you stay broke, you stay frustrated cuz you don't know how you going to pay this, how you going to pay that. It's because You need to close this door of bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness. Hallelujah! I got— y'all excuse me for getting excited about this. I'm trying to help somebody. I'm trying to liberate somebody because this spirit is dangerous. Oh, shabanza! Yes, Lord, it's dangerous, y'all. I give you the glory, Father. I pray right now that for someone watching live or by replay or listening to this podcast, I decree and declare now in the name of the Lord Jesus, this resentment and unforgiveness be broken now Ushka tabaya, in the name of Jesus. And I cast the devil out of the mind, the devil out of the heart, and I drive him back to dry places. And I decree and declare their soul is liberated and they can move on in Jesus' name. And I— cousin, I'm not ashamed. I publicly pray, God, that you would break every place of bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness that have crept in and kept us apart but I release reconciliation. Glory to God, that have been connected to me in the past. Some of them left and they need to stay gone, I get it. But the ones that need to reconnect and can't because of bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness, I decree now that the spirit of reconciliation, glory be to God, would rest heavy upon them. For your word says you've given us this ministry the ministry of reconciliation. And I decree and declare that you're reconciling sons and daughters back to the Father in the name of Jesus. Physical sons and daughters, people that are separated right now from their parents. I pray in the name of Jesus, God, that you will reconcile daughters to their mothers, daughters to their fathers, fathers to their sons, fathers to their mothers. And you cause reconciliation to happen in families. Hey, glory to God! Shibanseku, litikisketanabai, brendere debozo rabaka. God, I bind up separation and division. I thank you for the victory now. In Jesus' name. Let's look at this thing really quick. You cannot have unforgiveness, bitterness, resentment in your heart and not think the devil is not going to come in. The idle mind is the devil's workshop. Let's look at scripture. 2 Corinthians 2, verses 10 and 11. Come on, 2 Corinthians 2, verse 10 and 11. Let's go there. The Bible says, to whom ye forgive anything— watch this— I forgive also. For if I forgave anything, to whom I forgave it for your sakes, Christ forgave it. I it in the person of Christ. Oh my God. Verse 11, lest Satan should get advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his Devices. Listen to me. You open the door for the devil when you walk, and it is a device of Satan. These are devices of Satan: bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness. You open the door for him to operate when you don't forgive, because it is the very character, the very personality of Christ to forgive, to forgive, to forbear, to love, to reconcile. We bless you, Lord, and we thank you. We thank you, Jesus. Go to Ephesians 4. I'm still on it. Ephesians 4, because again, you open a big door to the enemy. Ephesians 4:26, that's what I want. Ephesians 4:26 and 27. Watch this. Be angry and sin not. Okay, wait a minute, wait a minute. So here we go. All right, watch this. So the very thing that you can't forgive— would you agree that the initial emotion that occurred when that thing happened to you was anger. Habasso! Woo! I'm not telling you not to be angry. I mean, the stuff— if you got bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness, clearly it made you angry. So that's a welcome emotion initially when you're stimulated. But watch this, he said, be angry and sin not. So the word sin is harmisia in Greek. Here we go. Harmisia means to come short. This is where I'm trying to go, but I get here. It means to— I'm trying to get here and I can't. Sin is missing the mark every time. So he says, be angry but don't miss the mark. Sin not. In other words, you need to— once you're stimulated with the anger, you need to go to a space before you respond in bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness. See, a lot of times this is how people get shot. Something happens, they get angry, they get a gun, they feel like they can fix it with the gun, and they kill somebody. Wait a minute, Bible said be angry and sin not. So if I'm angry enough to shoot you— Michael Lyris Woods, have you ever been angry enough to shoot someone? Yes. Did I shoot them? No, because I was able, through the power of the Holy Spirit, when I felt the stimulation of the emotion of anger, to go to the space between stimulus and response and let the Holy Spirit minister to me, either personally or through somebody else. Because the Bible said be angry, but don't you miss the mark and do something crazy that can cause you not to fulfill your purpose or the destiny or the plan that God has for your life. I'm almost done, y'all stay with me, I'm almost through. Woo! Be angry and Harmisia, not— don't miss the mark, don't come short. As a, as a high bar Jesus said, as a standard on how we should be operating as the light of the world. There's a space between stimulus and response. So when you are stimulated with anger, with bitterness, resentment, with unforgiveness, before you respond to it, go to that space, get the comfort, get the ministry that you need to respond correctly. Watch this. To every adverse action that stimulates us to anger There is a— somebody say, yeah, I know, you make me mad, I'm gonna whoop your tail. No, that's not it. You, you, you do something to me, I'm gonna do something to you. We want the blessing of God to flow out of our life. We got to dismiss the bitterness, the resentment, and the unforgiveness. I gotta go, man. Let me keep reading this. Ephesians 4, he said, be angry, sinner, and let not the sun neither give place to the devil. Don't give a foothold to the devil. Don't open a door to him through being angry, through being bitter, through being resentful, through being upset. Bible says here, let that thing go, man. Let that thing go. I gotta go, God, I gotta go, I gotta go. So you give place to the devil, you give him a spot where now he can advance and start wreaking havoc. Most of the ground— and I'm, listen, I'm closing— that Satan gains with believers, watch this, It's through unforgiveness. I'm gonna say that again. So I need everybody today— I'm done, man— to resist this demon of bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness. Let's go to 1 Peter 5:6-9. I'm gonna close with this scripture. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Humble yourself. Don't wait for God to do it. Don't wait for somebody to show up to do it. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. Why? So he can exalt you when the time is right. But if you move through and operating in resentment, bitterness, and unforgiveness, when the time to exalt you comes, you will not be exalted. You will not be elevated. Because you're— oh my God, your life is jacked up with bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness. I gotta go, man. Uh, verse number 7: casting all your care upon him. Oh my God, whoo! For he careth for you. Casting, throwing your cares at him, your burdens, the problems, the stuff you won't be mad about. He care about you. Throw it in him. Let him handle it. The Bible said be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil— so be sober. Don't be intoxicated by this thing that's got you angry, get so deranged and been out of shape you can't function because of what happened to you. Oh my God, be vigilant, be watchful. Hallelujah. Because the enemy, the devil, as a roaring lion walking about, seeking who may devour. Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. Resist the devil at his onset. I'm done, y'all. You gotta resist him, you gotta fight him when he shows up. You cannot show any signs of weakness. Listen, you got to deal with these unhealthy spirits, these unhealthy emotions of bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness. It is hindering your destiny. And many of you struggled in 2020. It wasn't— had nothing to do with COVID It was bitterness, something far worse. Resentment and unforgiveness had nothing to do with Donald Trump. It was far worse. It was bitterness, resentment and unforgiveness. And I want to challenge you today to deal with these spirits so you can now move into your destiny. I love you all. I pray that the blessing of the Lord that makes rich and adds no sorrow upon it be with you. Please guys, share this video as I challenged you in the beginning. Somebody else needs to hear it. I love you, and I thank you for the victory that God has given you in your life. Y'all be blessed. Listen, oh, I need to mention this. Listen, I need every person right now, right now, to just make up in your mind you're going to keep this ministry in prayer. I've had 3 major things open up for us this week. I'm not going to share them with you as of yet. But it's some very exciting things that are happening. But I need you praying that everything that God is going to do will be done sweatlessly. And I need your agreement with me because we stand to reach