THE DIAL OF DESTINY, PART 3: "DESTINY & CONFLICT" | DR MIKE WOODS SR | RADAH CHURCH | 4-2-23

Uh, we're talking about the Dial of Destiny. Glory to God. Say that with me. Say, the dial of destiny. Amen. And today, this is part 3, and we're going to talk about destiny and conflict. Say that with me. Say, destiny and conflict. Amen. Um, God started dealing with me about this earlier this week, and I'm I just wrote this crazy long post on Facebook about it. But, um, as he began to talk more to me about how conflict is instrumental in a lot of ways of getting us to where we need to go, and then in a lot of ways we need to make sure that conflict that is not ordained by God is immediately dismissed from our life. So let's just jump in here. So the reality is, y'all stay with me today, right? Because I believe somebody watching, somebody here, we've had some conflict show up. Glory to God. That only showed up to stop us from forward movement. Glory to God. So conflict or strife— I want to say this first off— is an arch enemy to your destiny. If you let conflict linger, you will never finish the thing that God created for you to finish. Remember, destiny— and we talked about this— was God's perfectly pre-orchestrated plan for your life. I'll say it again: destiny is God's perfectly pre-orchestrated plan for your life, which means destiny is decided before we ever get here. Say that with me. Say, destiny is decided before I'm born. And we validated that in Jeremiah 1:5.

Before I formed you, I knew you. So before you were created, before your mom and daddy got together, God decided the life he wanted you to live.

He decided where he wanted you to end up. He decided, glory to God, how things should turn out for you. Now here's the problem: most of the time, people never arrive at the destiny God has for them because they don't make the decisions that will align them with the pre-orchestrated destiny that God has decided.

So you make bad decisions, glory to God, many times you get off course and you end up not in the destiny that God created for you.

You end up in a destiny that is what I call a subpar destiny that is born out of the flesh. It's born out of bad ideas, bad relationships. It's born out of sustained failure, because a lot of times we can fail in the thing and we can choose to sustain that failure because we keep babying it instead of rising above.

Glory to the name of God.

Where we are and really moving into, because it's already planned. And the thing to get us back on track is to make the right decision. So let me say this: when it comes to conflict, you need to recognize that most battles— hear this— are really not that important. I'm gonna say that again.

Most fights that show up in your life are really not that important.

And we waste time fighting people and things and ideas and dreams that have nothing to do with where we're going.

We fight rumors that have no power to stop what God planned.

That's right.

We fight gossip that has no power to stop what God planned. And we got to make up in our mind, we're going to stay focused in spite of what people are saying. Because God has planned something.

Touch yourself and say, God has planned something for me.

And say this for me, say, I'm going somewhere. And you need to make the devil very aware. Say that again, say, I'm going somewhere. Say, I refuse to stay where I am. I refuse to go back to where I've been.

Say, I'm going somewhere. Yeah, you gotta, you gotta, you gotta make up in your mind that that's what you're gonna do. So one of the imperatives of fulfilling destiny is that we got to defeat conflict at all costs. Glory to God. Now with that said, let me submit this to you: don't curse your conflict. Because again, all conflict is not bad when it shows up. God has the ability to take conflict and forward his cause. So don't curse your conflict when it shows up. You got to discern whether that conflict is something that has showed up to disrupt a pattern in your life to get you back on course to where God is taking you. You. Let me tell you something, don't lose it the moment something happens, because nothing is ever as big as it first appears. Ah Lord, it's never as big as it first appears. I know, because as soon as something happens, we'll freak out and go start losing, start pulling our hair out at the roots. I've seen people do that. I've literally seen someone pull a patch of hair out of their head because they was so stressed out. A demon of conflict and strife had them so torn that they tore a whole patch out of their head. That's, that's crazy.

Because guess what?

Nothing is ever as big as it first appears. It may, it may look big, feel big, but it ain't big as it looks. And you got to learn how to allow the things that show up— glory to God— to work into God's plan of Romans 8:28, all things working together for your good. Because if it's there, you better believe if you give it to God, he'll work it for your good. So, oh boy, here we go. So attacks from the spirit of conflict, because it's an attack, it indeed is a demon, it shows up, but God sometimes will allow the attack Watch this, he will allow it to see how you're gonna react to—

watch this—

teach you what you really believe.

Conflict, strife, and adversity will teach you what you really believe.

It's easy to believe God when everything's good. It's easy to believe God when all your bills are paid. It's easy to believe God when you got favor with everybody.

But the moment tension happens in your life, you have to learn to trust God through the pressure.

Because again, it's not as big as it looks. It just looked like it gonna kill you, but it ain't gonna kill you. I'm just saying right now, it just looks like it's gonna take you out of here, but it ain't. Now you can be— now some people, you know, they're crazy and they're gonna let the devil drive them crazy because they choose to reject God. And every time you reject God, you're left to your own devices.

So that's what you don't want to happen.

You don't want to get left to your own devices in conflict where you can't manage the conflict effectively. All right, so again, we're talking about the dial of destiny. So this conflict piece is on the dial because you can't get the destiny without this showing up. It's coming. 'Cause again, the attack is proof that you on the right road. If you wasn't going somewhere, the enemy wouldn't attack you. I question whether you really all you say you are if you never have no attacks. If you never have no conflict that shows up. So this dial, and let me give you a definition of dialing so we can get a working definition of this Dial of Destiny. The dial is a— okay, Siri, I ain't said nothing to you. Okay, really? Really, ma'am? Okay, let me just take my watch off because she gonna try to preach with me today. Glory to God. Anyway, say the dial.

It's a measuring device that is manipulated to operate, regulate, or select something for the—

watch this— for the purpose of manifestation, for the purpose of connection. Watch this—

for the purpose of interaction or operation.

I keep talking about this stove because every time I look at this stove I bought my wife for Christmas, I always see something different on it. So I was making a futile attempt this morning to make me some breakfast. My wife was doing something else, I was hungry, I wasn't about to wait for her to get through. So I said, let me try to make this myself. So I went in, got this pan, thought I was gonna flip this egg and cook it over well. But I didn't have the dial set to where it needed to be. So my egg— I thought my egg was hot as it needed to be before I flipped it. I flipped it and it was egg everywhere on the stove. But at the end of the day, the dial manipulates the temperature. It puts the temperature where it needs to be.

You go in your car, start pushing buttons— those are dials.

Something changes in your car. So you got to have these things I'm teaching you.

I taught you about passion. I taught you about order. If you don't get the—

and I got a whole bunch of them, we're going to just keep talking about until we get to destiny.

Because at the end of the day, we got to have the right sequence to get where God's taking us, because we want to interact with our destiny.

That's right, we want the destiny to be manifested.

We don't want to just talk about it, we won't be about it. We want to really experience what God is saying. I'm so tired of church as usual, Christians as usual.

Everybody's talking about they're saved, but nobody has the fruit of what salvation looks like.

I need to see some fruit that you're walking in the things of God. I mean, seriously, God doesn't want us just to come together and have good church, but he wants the fruit of who he is in reality to be expressed through our life. And the way that it's maximized is when we fulfill destiny.

So we can talk about God and talk about how much we love him and how deep we are, but it's a problem when you ain't got no fruit, when you constantly at conflict in every area of your life and you can't get past that conflict. That means you're trying to handle the conflict yourself. That's right. Okay, all right, all right. Is this working? Y'all hear me? Okay, so let's get a definition of conflict because I've been teaching this real fast, but I want to make sure going forward we break down every single thing we say.

So conflict— watch this—

is bickering, it's arguing. Watch this, it's heated disagreement. It's an angry undercurrent.

Conflict— watch this—

and strife are congruent. They're the same thing.

So when strife—

when you— when we say strife, we're talking about conflict.

Conflict is war.

If you got two people that disagree and they decide we're gonna shoot each other to prove our point, that's a conflict.

Conflict is when somebody can't get their way.

They choose violence to prove their point and to prove that they're the better person.

Watch this, violence doesn't even have to happen with physical contact. Violence can happen with words. That's right.

And sometimes you got to avoid abusive people who will abuse you with their words, who don't know how to talk to you because they don't know your value.

You've got to dismiss that kind of crap out of your life.

So the word conflict is two words. It's con, which is where we get pros and cons. Pros are for, cons are against.

So we already know the word conflict means that it's against something. Flict is— oh my God—

is an Arabic word that means high in priority or rank, the top thing.

So conflict is against God's top priority in your life. It's against God's advanced plan. And so what conflict does, it comes to get you off course so you never get to the top. It's against you excelling to the top. Oh boy, I need to touch yourself, say, I'm going to the top.

Say, no conflict will stop me.

Say, no conflict will hinder me. Come on, say it again. Say, I'm going to the top. I need you to believe that, because when the enemy starts throwing everything but the kitchen sink at you, you got to realize, in spite of what this looks like, I'm gonna make the decision to get me through this conflict. So I'm gonna do a few things today.

The first thing I'm gonna show you is how important it is to be in unity and harmony, because the opposite of unity and harmony is conflict. God moves and he wants to bless us, but we need to be in agreement with him— watch this— and with each other.

You have to be able to exist with other human beings. And when you find a human being you can't exist with, you need to depart because they're going to slow up your blessing. Ah, Lord, Lord have mercy.

Okay, let's go to Matthew 18:19. Let me prove it to y'all in the word. Glory to God. Matthew 18:19 says, it says, again I tell you, if two of you on earth agree. I'm reading from the Amplified Bible.

Harmonize together, make a symphony together.

Let's stop right there. So when he starts talking about agreement or being congruent, he uses the word symphonia, or where we get words like symphony. In a symphony, watch this, there are a variety of instruments. They're totally different.

Right? You got a brass section, you got a woodwind section, you got a string section, you got a percussion section. All these instruments are different. But here's what symphonale does, or the symphony, or the agreement does. The conductor says, I need this piece played in the key of C.

Okay, 'cause I do a C, E, and a G for 'em. Just, just, just.

That's C. See how harmonious that sounds? That's an agreement. Just play a medley in the key of C Yeah, that's how God wants your life to sound. It should be peaceful, it should be full of melody, it should be full of grace. Glory to God. But play—

okay, play—

most people's life don't sound like that.

They sound like this. Play a C A B-flat, a G, and an F. Now just hit it. That's called discord. That's conflict.

Do it again.

Do it again.

That's conflict. People mad all the time, upset all the time. That's not a real key, is it? That's—

that people are Just hit it some more.

I want them to hear it. Angry, upset, in conflict, tense, always on edge, waiting for somebody to do something so they can cuss them out or go off. Glory to God.

We'll go back to that melody and see.

But God wants to take you from that discord to this accord. He wants your life to be in agreement. He wants your life to be in peace. He wants your life to be filled with his glory and his favor. He wants your life to be filled with blessing. He wants your life to be filled with the release of the Spirit, in harmony with heaven.

So your life is full of that crazy noise when you're not harmonized with heaven and you're not harmonized with other people. Oh my God.

He says about whatever, he says, so if you get in harmony about anything, he said it will come to pass. So we get in harmony about our destiny. If, if I know you're going toward destiny and I strengthen you, and you know I'm going toward destiny, you strengthen me. The Bible said our destiny will come to pass because we understand we can't do it alone. We need people we're harmonizing with.

Oh God, if you grew up in the church like I did, uh, we had a church choir. Choir. And glory to God, we would rehearse every week religiously. The unfortunate thing about the church I grew up in, although we rehearsed religiously every week, we never achieved harmony because there were only about 3 folk that could sing. So the rest of us didn't even know what harmony— y'all ain't got to say nothing—

what harmony was. So I was like my wife.

She grew up in a church where they had a real She was a choir director. They had a bunch of singers, had recording artists directing the choir. We didn't have that. We were making a joyful noise unto the Lord. We never achieved harmony.

But at the end of the day, when you harmonize, it's a beautiful thing.

Glory to God. He said it'll come to pass and you'll have what you asked for. So what is that saying? That's saying that harmony, you're being synchronized with the Lord. Oh my God, it opens up the heavens and give us an opportunity to fulfill destiny. Go to Philippians 2. I just want to show you how important unity and harmony is. Philippians 2, verses 2 through 5. Glory to God.

He says, watch this, didn't make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.

So God says, wait a minute, so what completes God's joy? The word complete there is teleios in Greek, which is where we get the word perfect, or watch this, to finish or to mature.

We don't finish or reach the maximum of maturity until we finish destiny. So what completes God's joy?

He happy you saved. He really is. He happy we worship.

He happy we speak with tongues.

He happy we go through all of the stuff we do, but his joy will be complete if we finish our course. If we get to destiny. See, a lot of people are in love with church and the process and the things that we do in church, but I want to complete God's joy by completing the assignment that I'm called to complete. Okay, let me keep reading because I got a lot to cover.

He says, do nothing out of selfish ambition.

We got a lot of that in this hour. I'm talking about a lot of it. Everybody is concerned about themselves. I said this last week, I said again, in life you're gonna always have an opportunity to either do what's right or to choose what's best for you. And a lot of times what you think is best for you ain't right. I'm gonna say that again, because God saved us for others. And sometimes we have things sitting before us where we got to choose. I got a person in my family and I told them, I said, you constantly, all your life, what I've—

I said, you want me—

and I just broke them down a couple of weeks ago and told them the truth. I said, what you don't want to hear is this: every time you've had an opportunity to do what's right, you chose you. And this is why there's so much division between you and everybody else, because you always choose yourself. And when you choose yourself, regardless of who that hurts, regardless to who that affects, as long as you're satisfied, you, you can go over here, become an addict, become an alcoholic, you go over here, become a whoremonger, but you choose that because you're selfish.

But it affects your children, it affects your grandchildren, it affects everybody connected to you. So you get the opportunity to choose what's right over what pleases you.

Choose what's right so you can complete the joy of God. See, to do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, to be seen of men— that's what vanity is.

He said rather do it in humility value others above yourself, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interest of others in your relationships with one another. Have the same mindset of Jesus.

In a nutshell, he's saying, look, complete my joy, finish your destiny, and watch this—

get along.

It's a problem when people that say they saved can't get along.

That's, that's a big problem when the kingdom people who say they love God can't coexist and get along.

That's a huge issue. God is grieved. He—

his joy is compromised because he's looking at his family and said, y'all can't get along. And how is it are we going to reach people that are not in the church and we don't know how to love each other.

It's a body problem. It's a problem in the body. Everybody, again, they concerned about themselves. Oh God, oh God. So living in unity, living in harmony positions you to fulfill God's destiny for your life. It's important. Go to Ephesians 4. I'm just— again, I'm just laying a backdrop to where I'm going. Ephesians 4, verses 1, 2, and 3. Watch this.

He says, as a prisoner for the Lord—

let me stop right there. Somebody say prisoner. Prisoner. Yeah, thank God I never been to prison, but I have been to jail, and I think jail and prison is pretty similar. I mean, I never had to go as far as getting sentenced and going to prison. Thank the Lord for that. Glory to God. And, and, and I always make a joke with apostles. I said, you really can't be a real apostle if you ain't never went to jail. I mean, every apostle I know in the Bible went to jail. Every single one of them. Even Jesus got locked up before he got crucified.

Come on now, he was locked up.

Okay, maybe not for the stuff that we did, but he got locked up because there's a—

there's something that happens when you are inmate that's totally different. You ever met people who get saved while they in jail?

They go to jail and first thing they do is find Jesus, find Muhammad, they find somebody and they get real religious.

But the moment they get out—

Jesus stay locked up in the jail, they don't bring him with them. But Paul is saying here we need to take on the likeliness of a prisoner.

Of the Lord.

See, when you are an inmate or a prisoner, first of all, everything is unified.

All the prisoners—

y'all ain't got to say nothing.

Let me just talk to people out here that been to jail. Y'all know what I'm talking about. All the prisoners dress alike. You in orange, you in yellow, and then you got some flip-flops.

Y'all ain't talking to me here.

Everybody's underwear is the same. Yes, you unified from head to toe.

So Paul said, when we come into this thing called the kingdom, we need to become prisoners. Oh my God.

And we need to be unified from head to toe.

We need to have the same testimony.

We need to be teaching the same doctrine. I can't be over here telling you it's wrong to be a liar, it's wrong to be a hoe, it's wrong to be gay, and then the dude up the street is telling you it's okay to be gay, it's okay to be a hoe.

Uh-oh, we need to be teaching the same thing. We need to be teaching this book, not what we think is right. That's right, because we're prisoners and Jesus is the warden, and we do what the warden says. When you're in jail, you eat when the warden say eat. Okay, I ain't got— I ain't got no people in here that committed no crimes. I got some BC in my life, before Christ. Glory to God. Some stuff I did before he was in me real good. Glory to God.

Thank God for deliverance. Thank God for breakthrough.

Glory to God. I ain't always been the same as I am today. Thank the Lord that he had brought me this far. Listen, let me tell you something.

When you were locked up, you got to do what the people in charge say do. You talk on the phone when they say talk on the phone.

Well, nowadays you got prisons all on Instagram. I don't even understand how this happened. I got a little cousin, he been in jail for about 15 years. He'd be on Instagram posting every day. He'd be in my inbox inboxing me. I'm like, what are you doing, dude? But at the end of the day, what I'm saying is, when you're a prisoner of Jesus, you got to do what Jesus say do. So I gotta obey God.

He said, as a prisoner of the Lord, I urge you, watch this, to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

So wait a minute, so if I'm a prisoner, I gotta live like a prisoner. I gotta live a life that's worthy of the calling. So I gotta put worth on what I've received from God, and I gotta live like that's a valuable thing.

I gotta honor that thing.

I gotta protect that thing.

I said, God, you know what? This is the best thing that ever happened to me. You gotta live a life worthy of that. I said, God, I'm worthy to be called your minister. I'm worthy to be called your apostle. I'm worthy to be called your prophet. I'm worthy to be called an entrepreneur in the kingdom.

Live the life that reflects your calling. That's right. Oh boy, especially us in leadership. It would behoove us. Glory. And God knows, as a leader, I ain't always crossed every I and dotted every T. That's so wrong. That was so backward. I ain't always crossed every T. See, y'all, y'all, y'all, y'all, I could have just let that go. Y'all won't even know.

I, I have not always crossed every T and dotted every I.

Y'all done made me put a dot on the T and a cross on there. Listen, but I thank God that I understand the value of my calling. I thank God I understand what God has invested in me, and that this is a real serious thing, and my life should reflect— are y'all hearing this? This calling. To whom much is given, much is required. Preachers shouldn't be— or the leaders shouldn't be doing what other folk doing. We ought to set a standard. It ought to be a standard of righteousness. Preachers shouldn't be running through the, the women in the church, or he shouldn't be running through the men in the church. In this day and time, you just don't know what he might do. At the end of the day, there's a standard of righteousness and holiness that we should display because we're called. You ought to desire holiness.

It presents a conflict to your blessing and destiny when you live unholy, ah, when you keep falling in the same thing over and over again.

Trust me, I know. I'm not teaching you nothing I ain't lived. A lot of the delays that I went through in my life was because I had sins that I was not willing to give up. I loved how it made me feel.

I love doing what I wanted to do. And God said, son, you're delaying your breakthrough because you're making this harder than it needs to be. What's this?

The way of a transgressor is hard. So you transgress against God's ways, you make things hard. Let me move, let me move. He tells you how to do it, how to be worthy. He said be completely humble. So you really can't live a godly life being arrogant. You got to be humble. You got to know that you need somebody else. You gotta know that you need help.

All of us need others. Arrogant people don't embrace unity. They're looking for conflict.

They're always looking for strife. Are y'all hearing me? He says, watch this, and be gentle. Oh God, help us to be gentle. That's a— that's one of the fruit of the Spirit, gentleness. Most of the saints are mean as rattlesnakes, and that's terrible. You better not catch in some of these churches some of them ushers on the wrong day where they wore the wrong shoes. You'll see just how mean they are because they fear. Glory to God. He said, be patient, bearing with one another in love.

Listen, he said make every effort, endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. God—

so God says, I want you to basically say, I want y'all to be unified, I want y'all to work together, I want y'all to be humble that y'all gonna receive each other, I want you to be able to honor what's in your brother and what's in your sister. And not exalt yourself above them.

Oh boy.

Even Jesus said in John 17, verses 20 and 21, he says, my prayer is not for them alone. So watch this. He said, I'm praying— I'm not just praying for my disciples, those that are close to me.

He said, I'm praying also for those who believe in me through their message.

So everyone that receives the message and gets saved, he said, I'm praying that all of them will be one. Say unity. Say oneness.

Say harmony.

Say that's God's desire for my life.

He said, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you, may they also—

here we go—

be in us so that the world may believe—

devil, you're a liar— that you have sent me. So God says, I'm a champion. For unity, because I know that unity will be a testimony to let the world know that Jesus is real. Because guess what? Anytime you get more than two people together, it's a threat to unity. You don't need a whole bunch of people. You get more than two, it's a threat to unity. As Cain and Abel, it was just two, and Cain killed Abel over worship. That's crazy, man. Two people, God give them the same instruction: when I come, worship me like this. Abel did it the way God said. Cain waited to the last minute, threw something together. Are y'all hearing this?

And got mad because his brother did it right. Often people will get mad because you doing it right and trying to tear you down.

Ah, but you got to keep going. Hallelujah. He says, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us so that the world may believe that you sent me. So it's about getting people to him through our unity. But when we're divided We cannot draw people who are already divided.

Watch this. People in the world are already separated from God. They're already divided from divine destiny because they don't know God.

Oh boy.

So how can we reach a people who are already divided and we divided?

Satan doesn't even tolerate division within his ranks. Watch this.

He said—

Jesus said, a house divided against itself cannot stand.

He wasn't speaking of us, he was speaking of Satan and his kingdom. And Satan doesn't tolerate division in his kingdom. He'll divide us in here.

Oh God. But he don't tolerate division himself because he understands the power that division has That's right, to forward his purpose. So he's constantly trying to divide us. That's what the spirit of conflict and strife does. So let's understand the spirit. I'm longer than I promise you. I just sound long. I'm almost through. So let's look at it like this: peace— hear this— and strife are both spirits. Peace of spirit. If somebody's carrying the spirit of peace, you know it. Matter of fact, children often are indicator of an adult who's carrying peace or strife.

I've seen some folk that's carrying strife, baby can just be happy and bubbly. They go grab the baby, baby's gonna go holler. 'Cause the baby done picked up that spirit of strife that's in that person. Then they give it back to somebody with peace, the baby calm down.

'Cause they're sensitive to the spirit. I can be in certain environments in my family, Everything could be peaceful till a certain person show up.

But because they carry a spirit of strife, I've seen a room go from being happy and go all the way down to everybody mad at each other and ready to go because that person came carrying their stuff. And what you got to learn how to do is not let people make you feel guilty about what they're doing to you. That's what strife does. It makes you feel guilty about something they're doing to you.

Oh Lord, help us, Jesus. You can't accept it. That's witchcraft, because strife and witchcraft work together, because it's manipulating, it's controlling. I just want us to understand the spirit. It can be felt.

Atmospheres are— oh my God—

affected by people who carry strife. I could talk about this, I'm telling you, because I grew up in such a hard way. Grew up in the hood, grew up in a house where I was fighting in the hood, fighting all the time. But at the end of the day, let me tell you something, I learned to defend myself. I learned to engage conflict the wrong way. And it carried over into my adult life, and I had to get delivered because there was seasons in my life if you brought my food wrong, I'm in a restaurant, the waitress didn't stand a chance. But if you save, the waitress does not feel like committing suicide after you leave the restaurant because, because you don't cuss them out and been so angry. At the end of the day, we got to walk in a level of peace that reflects Christ, who's the Prince of Peace.

But bickering, are you just show up looking for a fight?

I used to be that guy. I would show up looking— I mean, it would be something as simple as, you know, you go to an event, a concert, a game and you know you got seats and you be walking in the door, I wish somebody would be in my seat.

That's conflict.

That's conflict.

You, you— I mean, I used to be like that.

I'm, I'm like, boy, if somebody in my seat, I'm gonna eject them so quick.

But you, why not just pre-think how you gonna be peaceful about it?

Okay, because that can be felt, and you don't know what that will do to people.

You know, I'm to a point now I can call somebody on the phone, they answer the phone all hard and conflicted. Hello?

I'm like, okay, let me hang up and let me call you back, cause I don't need whatever you got going on right now. That ain't what I called for. I don't need that in my life, so I'm gonna call you back later. I'ma pray, but I'm gonna call you back later because I can't let you transfer that onto me.

You know why?

Because conflict is contagious. Uh, this week I'm trying to help y'all understand the spirit. That bickering, that arguing, that heated disagreement, that undercurrent of anger is contagious. I've seen parents before they had kids, both of them was always angry, always arguing.

The worst thing they could have did was had a baby.

Now they got a baby that's a teenager that's mad at everybody. Y'all ain't got to say nothing because that thing is contagious and it goes through the DNA. And that's why you have to pray and break those generational curses off children when they're born. Oh Lord Jesus Christ, when someone allows or permits the spirit of conflict to operate in their life, it shifts the whole atmosphere of their life. You start— conflict is— it starts leading how you do things. And that's a dangerous place because nobody wants to deal with a contentious person.

Let me just show you.

I have to show y'all. Go, go to Hebrews 12, verses 14 and 15. I'm almost done. Thank you, Jesus. I've been teaching longer than I want to. Y'all getting anything out of this? Glory to God.

The Bible says pursue peace with all people.

Pursue peace. That means you deliberately— the word pursue is zeteio in Greek, which means to go hard for it, to be passionate about it. So you go hard after peace and holiness without I love this part. No one will see the Lord. I don't understand how these mean-spirited people are saying they see the Lord and the Lord moving in them. I mean, they're in church just mean on the mic, and at the end of the day, the Lord is not in some of the stuff we say he's in. Just going to say that was you. You was mad, you was having a bad day. It wasn't God.

And I think what people need— I saw a clip.

God knows, that's why I don't even scroll my Instagram, but when I do, I run into the craziest things. I saw this lady on there talking about she was coming for some woman's tail that was messing with her husband, but she didn't say tail, she used another word. Then somebody was inboxing her husband, and she, she owned—

and she's somebody that everybody knows.

You bring that contention in the pulpit, that's a problem. God says you can't see God like that because he's a God of peace. It goes against his character.

So the moment you get in that spirit, he steps out. What we cannot afford to do on the road to destiny is have God step out.

I don't need God to step out and say, okay, I'll be back Just like that phone call I made, when you get it together, when you find some peace and get calm and calm down, I'll come in and we can work together. I don't need that to happen.

He says, verse 15, looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble.

The word trouble there is terasso in Greek. Watch this, cause agitation or hindrance to forward movement. Forward movement.

So God says, oh my God, you can't let people in that agitate your forward movement. The moment you see that culture, those people agitate, it's trouble.

When you can't function because they get on your nerves so bad, you can't think, you can't make right decisions, you need to dismiss yourself from that culture. Oh boy. He said, watch this, and by this, by letting that in, many become defiled. That's a dangerous piece to get defiled, 'cause the Bible says in Corinthians 3 that God cannot dwell in a defiled temple. He can't dwell in an unclean temple, and if we defile the temple, the Bible said he himself will destroy the temple. So before God lets you disrespect him, he'll cut the work off in righteousness and take you out of the earth. That, that's why we see a lot of people dying prematurely, because they chose, knowing right from wrong, to disrespect God's soul. And defile the temple. God says, okay, I really don't want to send you to hell, so I'm gonna cut this off in righteousness. I'm gonna let you repent, get to your most righteous place, then I'm gonna bring you out of here because you're not going to change. We need our temple to do destiny, so we got to take care of it, right? We got to watch what we let close to it. Oh boy. Contentious people— write this down, you're gonna need— I want you to remember this. You may remember without writing down, but I want you to really remember this: contentious people are enemies to agreement. You need to remember this because agreement is the most powerful heavenly resource on earth, and contentious people are in opposition to agreement. The moment you agree with God and decide you're going to live your life for God, here comes a contentious person that goes totally against your agreement. Because your agreement on earth with heaven is guaranteed success. You can't fail if you stay in agreement with God.

Only way we fail in life, when we get out of agreement with God, we allow contention and contentious people to move us out of agreement.

I'm, I'm, I know I can't fail. I'm telling you right now, I can't fail because I'm in agreement with him. Touch yourself, say, I'm in agreement with God. If you want to have good success, stay in agreement with God. Ecclesiastes 4. I'm giving you word because I want you to get this, because this will stop you from fulfilling destiny.

It says, two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow. So two people are better than one person trying to do it by themselves.

Come on. So you need to be in unison with somebody.

You need to have somebody in your life that you can trust, that can roll with you in destiny. The Bible said if you fall when you walk with that person, that other person will lift him up.

I'm totally convinced that my wife, if something happened to me and, and I stumble, she would pick me up. She would have my back.

You gotta have somebody like where you can be convinced that that's gonna happen.

That's why I prayed and prayed and waited and waited, because what I wasn't gonna do is mess up and marry somebody that couldn't carry me if I needed them to.

I don't need her to ever carry me if I'm in my right mind, but if I—

something happens to me and I need her, she's going to be a me and carry me. You need to have— if you got somebody where all you're doing is giving and they never give anything, that's contention. That's the wrong person. Listen, if you come into a relationship and you didn't come to give, you came to take. I say it again, if you didn't come to give became the tank.

Because everybody should show up at the table in a relationship to give.

But most people end up in contentious relationships, contentious lifestyles, because everybody's coming with their hand out. Oh boy, Jesus. So conflict— you might want to write this one down too— it distracts you from destiny. It's a distraction because once you get drawn into conflict, you spend all your time managing the conflict, and that's not God, he doesn't want you to spend your days managing conflict with someone that ain't even supposed to be walking with you anyway. Y'all quiet, man. I hope y'all getting this. God, see, this distraction usually starts— watch this— with deception. The only reason, because the conflict is deceptive. So they'll start telling you things they know you want to hear. They know what you need, so they'll start telling, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that, start giving you all these promises. It's called deception, and you get pulled into the deception.

The dangerous thing about deception is different than a lie. Liars know they lying.

Deceived people think they're telling the truth.

They really think that they're doing something with your best interest at heart, because most of their life they watch people, and people are modeled before them winning battles through manipulation. So that manipulation and that deceptive track has become a part of how they deal with other humans. And they think it's okay.

And there's nothing you can say to tell them they're wrong because they think they're right. Only thing that will change them is deliverance. It's the blood of Jesus.

You, you don't have the power to change them.

And a lot of times I was telling one brother, he was like, man, I'ma just keep, you know, loving on her. I'm gonna keep— I'm like, dude, You're deceived. Your love is not going to change this woman who's being a witch toward you. You're sick because of this woman.

You're struggling and in poverty. You've lost your job.

You've gone through all of this strife because you live with this witch who thinks she's for you. And I ran down a list of things that would show him she is not for you, she's against you. And you—

only way you're gonna get breakthrough, you got to get from under the jaws of deception and leave. And watch this, and hear the truth that I'm telling you. See, once you've been hoodwinked by conflict, it's hard for you to hear the truth.

I mean, you can tell somebody getting abused and beat, oh, he just love me.

That's a lie. He don't love you if he hitting you. That, that's not love. That, that is the devil trying to devalue who you are.

Help us, Lord. So that deception— watch this— there's a process. It leads to defamation, which means the deception starts defamating your destiny or defamating your character, making you feel like you're supposed to be receiving what this deceived person is giving you.

You get common with what they're giving out, and God is saying, no, you're deceived.

You didn't accept truth and understand your value because that ain't how he called you to live.

Then that defamation— watch this—

leads to detours.

You start taking shortcuts now trying to figure your life out. Even you'll try to get out of that situation and you'll jump in the arms of somebody else who you think love you differently, only to turn out that they the same person that the person you moved away from, because you really can't see because the deception hasn't been lifted off of your eyes. The reason the same person keeps showing up is because your eyesight has been defamed. It has been lowered.

You can't see real value.

Watch this. You become dysfunctional so much that your dysfunction starts telling you that is function. But when you're operating from a dysfunctional place, all you can really find is dysfunction. Ah, Lord.

That's why you shouldn't be looking or receiving nobody until you can see clearly. Okay, alright, so that detour then leads to distractions. You get off focus and ultimately your destiny is destroyed. But it all started with deception. Deception and conflict. Someone acting like something they thought they really were and they wasn't. See, when you know who you are, you don't invite conflict in. You're secure in who you are and you understand quickly, okay, you don't align with who I am, so you can't come in here. This, this is awful.

I love you. Only I got for you is to take you to Jesus.

Jesus. Oh God, remember this, and I'm almost done. Conflict always begins with a person, never an issue. A lot of times we get in the issue, we think that's the conflict. No, it was the person carrying the conflict.

It started with a person, an individual. So you got to start seeing this in people 'Cause they are threats to your destiny if they do not belong.

This thing is dangerous, man.

Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 9 through 11.

I'm gonna read this quickly, I'm almost done. He said, God is faithful by whom you are called into fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. So God is faithful to us that he called us, there's that word again, he called us into fellowship.

Fellowship, koinonia in Greek, to commune, to be one, to be in unison with God. Watch this, he says, now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ— here we go— that we all speak the same thing. There it is again, unified testimony. And that we be joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. So We're connected because we think alike, because we think like Christ. What connects us and makes us unified is we think the thoughts of Jesus.

Ah, let me keep reading.

He says, for it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, that those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions, quarrels, fights These people were literally fighting in the church.

In this particular instance in Corinth, these folk were fighting, and Paul was like, y'all doing way too much. Y'all are throwing licks in the church. And listen, I've been in church all my life. It's unfortunate, but I have seen a fight in church, which is ridiculous. We have no respect for sacred things. I mean, God wants to bless us, but we got to get along, man. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Go to Proverbs— I'm sorry, 17:1. I want to give you these. Proverbs 17:1, he says, a house full of sacrifices with strife Listen to this, it's not pleasing to the Lord. So this is dangerous. You could have a house where you're sacrificing and doing all these things for the Lord. You're giving, you're worshiping, you're giving him your time, you're giving him your gifts, your talents, you're going through the motions, but yet there's strife in the house. He said that ain't pleasing to the Lord. And if it ain't pleasing to the Lord, the Lord ain't gonna get on board and push you forward until he's pleased. Go to Psalm 133, verses 1, 2, and 3.

The Bible says this, it says, behold, look, look, open your eyes, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.

God said it's pleasant, it's pleasing for people to dwell together in unity, not just with him, but with each other. Oh, go— oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, here we go.

He says it is like the precious ointment, oh, poured on the head that ran down the beard, even the beard of Aaron the first high priest, that came down upon the collar and the skirt of his garments, consecrating the whole body.

Wait a minute, so when there's conflict in church in particular, it hinders the flow of the anointing. That's why I'm telling you, man, I'm, I'm so good with, with just this because I'd rather have this than a whole bunch of people and a bunch of conflict and ain't no anointing. So we have to lay a foundation with this, so then when other people come upon it, it flows, and the anointing never stops flowing because there's no conflict. A lot of churches don't have the power and the anointing present because it's too much conflict. You got preachers sitting in the pulpit behind their pastor wishing they was him, trying to figure out how they can get it, get his position. They're sitting up thinking, oh, I can do better than him on my off day. And really, if they could do better than him they will be somewhere doing it. The reality is conflict causes the anointing to be sucked up, and it just is never encountered or experienced. He says, good for us, it's profitable for us to be in unity. Now watch this, I gotta touch this. Thank you, Holy Ghost. There's a danger because this is a type of conflict in gossip. Gossip is a well-planned lie. That's all it is. I'm planning to lie about this to make this other person look bad so I can feel good. That's what gossip is. It's a well-planned lie. I'm gonna talk about them because that's what contention is. I'm gonna talk about them to somebody else because I want them to look bad in their eyes and I want me to look good in that person I'm 2 eyes. My mama used to always tell me, if somebody brings you something, she said— she always say, watch the dog that brings you the bone.

You gotta pay attention to the one that's carrying the dirt.

And she always used to say too, when you throw dirt on somebody, you always get some on yourself. So that person that's bringing it is dirty as well.

So gossip is dangerous to the pursuit of destiny and the fulfillment of God's power and glory in worship experiences. Watch this.

Proverbs 16:28, it says, a perverse man sows strife.

Perverse—

word perverse or perverted, two words: pure and verse. Perversion, pure version, which means to create another version of the authentic. That's why man on man, perverted.

Woman on woman, perverted.

That— but that's not the only type of perversion. You can be in a marriage and the woman is the head and the man is submissive to her. Oh yeah, there are marriages like that, I know. Hey, it's totally out of order. It is totally perverted. God gave a man the role to lead.

The Bible says man is head of the woman.

This is not sexist, this is Bible. And if you be a leader, you can lead and your spouse will follow. I don't have a strong arm on my wife, you know.

She got her own brains, her own mind.

I'm a leader, but leader is the ability to influence followers. I ain't got to threaten her. I ain't gonna do this, I ain't gonna do this if you don't do it.

No, I lead. So a man who's connected to Christ, your wife follows you as you follow Christ. Now you go to following something else, she gets to make a choice because you don't believe anymore on what she gonna follow because you're not following God.

Okay, all right, yes, okay, whatever. He said a perverse man's soul strifes So it's a person that's perverted, that's gossiping and causing strife and division. He says, and a whisperer, a gossiper, separates close friends. You got close friends, don't know why they mad at you and why they ain't talking to you.

They ain't texting no more, they ain't calling.

It's probably because somebody got in their ear and planted a spirit of strife there.

Proverbs 17:9, the Bible said, he who covers and forgives an offense seeks love, but he who repeats or harps on a matter separates close friends.

Oh my God, Lord, help us today. He who covers and forgives an offense— so if I'm really forgiving and if I'm really walking in the love of Christ, I'm gonna seek love and I'm gonna cover people in their wrong. I'm gonna— I'm not gonna justify, but I'm not going to go out and tell everybody what's going on with them.

You have to become—

in the kingdom, you got to be a trusted friend.

If somebody's got a struggle, you got to be an ear.

If somebody come to you and say, hey, I'm dealing with this, this happened, that happened, and they can trust you ain't gonna go tell somebody else. It's hard to find that, but when you get it, you need, you need to cherish it.

The Bible said, well, he who repeats or hops on the matter—

watch this here again— separates close friends. Some things we just got to keep our mouth closed about, right? Some things ain't meant to be repeated, and you're moving in conflict when you're repeating things that you shouldn't be repeating. Oh boy.

All right, so strife and— oh my God—

and conflict is very, very dangerous even to this end. Watch this, because it grieves the Holy Spirit.

Say, say that one.

Say, strife grieves the Holy Spirit. Now watch this, we need the Holy Spirit God have mercy. I'm putting the mic down because I don't want to get you happy. I want— I want— because this is going to make me happy if I hold that. Uh, glory to God. Listen, because I want you to get this: you got to make sure that nothing you do is grieving the Holy Ghost because you need him to live.

Paul said, it's in him I live, it's in him I move, it's in him I have my being.

Let's go to Ephesians 4. I'm almost done, I promise you, I promise you.

Ephesians 4, watch this. It says, therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor for we are members of one another. He said, be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath. Verse 27, nor give place to the devil.

Uh-oh.

Verse 28, let him who stole steal no more, but rather let him work, work with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.

Verse 29, let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth. Somebody say, Apostle, why are you reading this? I'm gonna tell you in a minute. He said, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to hearers. Here we go, verse 30, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, fighting and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice.

Be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God has forgiven you. Listen, he's telling us right in this text what grieves the Holy Ghost. He's—

he, he—

my dad used to tell me, when you get in a fight, throw your first punch as hard as you can and the fight will be over. First thing he said was put away lying. Lying.

He threw the first punch real hard. He said put away lying because that's the substratum, the root of all conflict that grieves the Holy Ghost. Because you know why?

He's the Spirit of Truth.

He's the Spirit of Truth. People, it lies. I mean, they lie too easy. I mean, it takes too much energy to lie and to keep the lie going. So listen, if you want to keep the Holy Spirit around, he says tell the truth. God knows I need the Holy Ghost, so it don't matter what it costs me. If I got an opportunity to tell the truth about something, I'm about to scream, I'm about to tell the truth. I don't care what you say.

If I saw you do it and they come and interview me and you can say snitches get ditches, I don't care. I'm getting ready to tell because I'm gonna tell the truth. Because at the end of the day, he told me to put away lying if I don't want to grieve the Holy Spirit. He said speak truth with your neighbor, be open, be honest. You could speak the truth Oh God, but this conflict, it causes a problem. He said, watch it, he said be angry and don't sin. He didn't tell you can't get angry.

He just said don't sin, don't miss the mark, deal with your anger properly.

But you know what people do? They get angry, they start, then they turn into being mad, and then they take action, then they go get a gun, somebody gets shot, somebody gets hurt. And then they wish they would listen to this, because then they have made a decision that certainly has altered destiny. Oh boy. He said, don't give place to the devil. Don't let the sun go down on your wrath. If you are angry, deal with what you're dealing with before you go to sleep. If me and my wife have— having a heated discussion I don't go to bed without making sure we good. We gotta fix that because I don't want to grieve the Holy Spirit. Then I don't want to grieve her.

I want to make sure we're on the same page.

You got anger brewing in you, if you listen, you need an open channel so the Holy Spirit can talk. Oh God, he said let no corrupt word come out of your mouth. All this stuff grieves the Holy Spirit. Corrupt is also negative words. You ought to be speaking positively what God said in his word. You shouldn't be speaking what you feel just cause you feel it, especially if it's corruption and if it's downing somebody else, or if it's speaking negative towards your faith and where you trying to go. Ah Lord, he said put this stuff away because what happens is contention and strife ends up sabotaging your destiny when you grieve the Holy Spirit because you, you're doing it alone. You have nothing to fight the enemy with because you need— so you need him. Hallelujah. Last scripture, James 3:16. James 3:16. The Bible says this, it says, for wherever there is jealousy, envy, and contention, rivalry, and selfish ambition—

here we go—

there will also be confusion, unrest, disharmony, rebellion, and all sorts of evil and vile practices. So sin emerges And it gets rampant, glory to God, wherever there's jealousy. That's why Cain killed Abel. He was jealous on how he worshiped. Whenever there's contention, a rivalry— I'm better than you, I'm gonna do it better than you— he said there's gonna be confusion. But we got to get on the same page. We got to move in agreement with God. Because agreement is the greatest enemy the devil ever faced. I'm done. 'Cause I— you play softly for me, man. You got to walk away from contentious people. Just gotta do it. Yes. The Lord give me strength to walk away from this contention. I think sometimes we hold on to stuff that God's trying to take. God said, I'm trying to take this from you, but you won't let it go. And what he won't do is violate your will. All I was trying to tell you today is learn how to anticipate and avoid unnecessary conflict. Y'all stand. I'm done. I hope y'all learned something today. I really do. We give you praise, God.

We give you—

come on, worshipers, just begin to worship him a few moments, just a few moments. Father, we thank you for your word. We give you glory. We give you honor, God. We thank you, Lord. We thank you, Lord. And Father, we thank you, Lord, that we move in peace. We thank you, God, that you are the Prince of Peace. You're our strength to avoid conflict, our strength to walk away from contention and contentious people, God. And Father, today I'm asking you to help us to get our life in alignment with you. Come on, if you want to just just be in total alignment with him. I just want you to begin to worship right now. I'm going to pray, but just worship him and open your spirit up to that alignment. Open your spirit up to his way of doing things. Open your spirit up to God's plan for your life.

Come on, worship her!

We give you glory, we give you glory!

Come on, lift up your voice! Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah! Oh God! Come on, make yourself available. Give it to him, give it to him, give it to him. Come on, just make yourself available, just make yourself available. Come on. Yeah, I'm gonna pray in a moment, but I need you to open your heart, open your mind, make yourself available. My will I give to you.

To do what you say, do God.

My storage is empty, God, and I say I'm available.

I'm available, God.

I'm available, God. Come on, empty out your plans, empty out yourself, oh God, and make yourself available.

Lord, I'm My will I give to you.

Come on, Zion, worship him.

Wow, you need more availability. We give you praise, oh Lord. We give you praise even now, right now. God, and always, Lord, we give you praise. Father, in Jesus' name, I thank you for this word. I pray, God, I don't know who it was helping, God, but I decree and declare today, God, God, that your people will will find themselves available, and that they will empty themselves.

And Father, that they will avoid conflict, they will accept alignment in the name of Jesus, that they'll move into your plan and your destiny for their life. I bind up contentious people, contentious situations that come to their life, God, and I decree and declare today Oh God, we give you the glory, God. We give you everything, God, and we pour ourselves out as a drink offering today, God. And God, we are the Come on, make yourself available. Come on, my dear Messiah. Oh God, dismiss the conflict, dismiss the drama. I said, God, I'm available, Lord.

Sing it, Felicia.

Come on, sing.

My will I give to you.

I'll do. Use me, Lord, to show someone the way and enable me to say— come on, say— my storage is empty and I I am—