THE FRUIT OF REASONING | DR MIKE WOODS SR | 3-24-24

Glory to God. Um, we have been teaching a series. This today will be actually the, uh, I want to say the fourth installment, yes, of this teaching. We taught third installment on this past Thursday, and we've been teaching a series entitled When God Win. Uh, this teaching is about accepting God's tithing, accepting God's plan. And on Thursday we talked about how man's mind plans his way. We found out really that God's plan is beyond our thinking, right? And we found out that God is really smarter than we are. I think we all knew that, but I think we kind of Got some clarity from the scripture on Thursday. God really is smart, smarter than us. And, um, we understand that we got to commit our way, our thoughts, our plans to him. One of the things we left off with on Thursday, and I'm going to start here, is Psalms 46:10. And it said, be still and know that I A lot of times, as I said on Thursday, we're tempted to shorten our wait because maybe God's not moving fast enough for us. And so we start taking matters into our own hands. And I want to tell you something, that's a dangerous place because God really has a plan. Say that with me, say God really has a plan for my life. It's important that we know that, that God really for real has a purpose, a desire for every one of us. There's something that each one of us has been sent to this planet to deliver. Matter of fact, you are God's delivery system in Earth. For real, there's something in your belly that you gotta drop off. It's the problem. There are tons of people who have gone before us who have died and never delivered that package. And quite possibly they delivered something, but it wasn't what God brought them to earth to deliver. Can I submit to you the reason your heart beats is because you have something you got to give birth to? There's a plan on your life. If that plan wasn't still necessary, you'd already be dead. But you're still alive because you are necessary. God preserved you from things that probably should have killed you. Because you're necessary. He kept us in places where we really didn't deserve to be kept because we're necessary. And so I'm inclined to believe that when I look back over my life and see what God has done for me personally— and I'm sure each of you can testify to the history you have with God And when you look back at where you were to where he's brought you, you can honestly declare— hear me— that if it had not been for God who was on your side, you don't know where you would be. You're here because of him. And so because you have history with God Can I submit this to you? The fact that there is really real history— say real history. I'm not talking about made-up history. I believe that there are real testimonies in here, and those of you that may be watching, to what God has done. And because there is real history— say it again, say real history— that also means there's a real future. That's my little Caucasian support system back there. Hallelujah! He's gonna say amen when nobody else does. I love it. Glory to God. Say, I got a real future because I got real history. Hallelujah! I'm telling you, you're going somewhere. So that fact alone ought to give you credence confidence to be still and know that he is God. I'm telling you right now, there's a blessing in waiting on God. All right, so let me lay a backdrop to where we're going, because today this, this part 4 is called The Fruit of Reasoning. And so We've talked about how reasoning is really dangerous and analyzing before we believe is not a good thing and trusting our insight over God's mind, because again, God is smarter than us. There is fruit that is born from reasoning that we really don't want in our life. Let me just lay a backdrop to this because I want to show you how important it is to do the right thing so you can have good fruit. Fruit. So go to Isaiah 61:3. Let's start right there. Glory to God. I'm just gonna lay a backdrop to this, then we're gonna get into these fruit of reasoning. Glory to God. Yo, people that reason really don't have facts. They're just trying to figure it out. But one thing I discovered about the word, it's right and it's real, it's true. So if I can believe that, stand on it, I'm gonna have some good fruit. Watch this. Isaiah 61:3 says, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion. What is he appointing? I, I like this. This word appoint is sum, is where we get the word actually S-U-M, Psalm. Assume is S-W-M in Hebrew, and what it literally means, to complete them, to bring them to a place of completion. That mourn in Zion. Zion represents in the plan of God those that are in covenant with God. So it's unfortunate— watch this— that there are people who are actually that walk with God who experience elongated seasons of mourning. And you— we don't just mourn when somebody dies. The reality is you can mourn just by complaining too much. Matter of fact, you can mourn because you're pouting, not getting what you want fast enough. Because the word mourn is able, uh, which is where we get Abel's name. Cain and Abel, it's able in Hebrew, and it literally means this. Watch this, this word is so powerful, it means that you complain, you throw a tantrum or a fit. Glory to God. Because you're not getting what you think you're supposed to have when you're supposed to have it. But God says, I want to complete you. He says, my desire is not for you to mourn, but I want to make sure you have what you desire. Say, God wants me to have What I desire. Oh God, that's good. So to appoint them that morning Zion— here we go, here's another thing— to give them beauty for ashes. So out of the things that have burned up, ashes are residue of something that was consumed. So when the fire of the Lord comes into your life and the consuming fire of God enters into your life, he starts consuming everything in in you that's not like him. And most of the time we don't want to give those things up. Well, let me talk about me. There was stuff in my life I didn't want to give up, right? And watch this, after I got saved, when I first got saved, some stuff I still didn't give up. I will say, with sinner problems, y'all ain't got to talk to me. There's some sins I enjoyed. Oh, y'all ain't got to And I didn't realize that God wanted to exchange beauty for the ashes I was still holding on to. You say sanctify, feel the Holy Ghost, and still hold on to some ashes, some residue from the past that cannot bring fulfillment in your life. Oh God. And God says, I want to give you beauty for them ashes. Because in the end, I realize that I can, I can have a life of joy, a life of peace, a life of prosperity, a life of real relationship with God if I just let go of the ash. I don't know if you ever experienced ashes, but ashes is nasty. It's nasty. Um, I, I had some family members that smoked, and to see when they smoked, but the smell of the smoke was nasty. But even nastier than that was ashes. I, I used to think about what if that ash got in my mouth, how terrible that would be. And you know There are many people, instead of embracing the fullness of God, they're consuming the filth, the residue of ash that they just need to let go. Those to give you beauty flashes. Say beauty flashes. Come on, say it again. Say beauty flashes. This, this word beauty, watch this, it's the word per, P-E-R, in Hebrew. Watch what this means. It's not what you think. It means a crown. He wants to put a crown on your head and make you royalty. He wants to make us royalty, and we're holding on to ash. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. I gotta listen to this. Old things are passed away, and behold, all things have become new. So when I come to God, everything now is new. God says, I want to embellish you with a crown. Listen, I was born in poor circumstances. I accept the royal nature that God has given me. As a believer, each one of us have that. We got to let go of the ashes and put on our crown. Just elbow somebody, say, put on your crown. Tell them, stop playing, stop playing, put on your crown. Glory to God. He said, to appoint them in mourning design, to give unto them beautiful ashes. Watch this, the oil of joy for mourning. It's interesting to me that he now mentions mourning a second time, because again, there are a lot of saved, sanctified, Holy Ghost-filled people who are mourning. Who are sad, who are despondent, who don't feel like they can take another step forward. How do you know that, Michael Woods? Because I've been there. I've been in a place where— saved, watch this— I was saved and didn't feel like I could live another day. Had Jesus in my life but was fighting to move forward because I didn't know what my tomorrow would bring. But God says if you just choose him and his way and wait on him, he said, I'll give you joy. Sasson, my God, I'll cause you to rejoice in the place of mourning. Joyfully-yam. Daily I'll cause you to live in a perpetual life of rejoicing. That's big, because that means no matter what hits your life, you don't let it stop you from praising God. You don't let it stop you from rejoicing at the fact that you're a part of a royal kingdom, that you got a God that really loves you. Oh, just touch yourself and say, he loves me. I need you to understand that that's enough to be joyous about. I don't care what human breaks your heart, he loves you. I don't care what people do to you, who walks away from you, he loves you. And that's enough to rejoice. See, when you know what you know about God, you got a relationship with him, you know that in spite of what you're looking at and going through, he got me and I can rejoice. It also means to extol or exalt you. Exaltation means that he lifts you up for others to see your joy. So they can rejoice in him and in the joy he's provided you. So God replaces your mourning for joy so others can look at your life and say, my God, God has done a great thing for them. Matter of fact, you know, I've learned he'll even make your enemies say, God has done a great thing for them. He'll make people that don't even like you and they never even care for you look at you and say, you know what, God's doing something for them. The Lord really is moving in their life. They did the right thing following Jesus. And guess what? It'll trigger them to want to serve him. He says, I'll give you the garment of praise. Good God Almighty. For the spirit of heaviness— I'm just trying to lay a backdrop to where I'm going, because you don't have to be heavy. You have to live burdened down. They sing a song in the church I grew up in. Please don't ever sing that song, but they sing some burden down, Lord, burden down. Now I need us not to sing that. Since I laid my burden down. No, you ain't laid it down. He removes the burden. When the anointing comes in your life, the Bible said the yoke is destroyed and the burden is removed because of the anointing. So if the anointing shows up, I shouldn't have to lay my burdens down every week. God says, I'll give you the garment of praise, which means you'll wear praise-like clothes. Just think about this. When you want to be mad, you can't. When you want to be depressed, you can't. When you want to be heavy, you can't, because you got on this— you got your praise clothes on. See, what God is saying really here in these few things he's saying to us is get dressed for life. Get dressed for the occasion. You know, I— this just means how I grew up. I just believe that certain places you go, you all look a certain way. I'm not going to business meeting with jeans and t-shirt on because I was taught to wear a suit and put on a tie. You know, some— they're, they're billionaires that disagree with my philosophy. Possible. By the end of the day, I just think that you all live a certain way. If you're invited to a formal occasion, then you show up for them. Are y'all hearing this? You gotta get dressed for the occasion. God is saying, I'm gonna get you dressed for the occasion. I want to point your mourning. I want to give you assignment. Put on assignment. I want to give you beauty for your ashes. Put on beauty. I want to give you joy. Put on joy. Get dressed for the occasion. And I want to give you the garment of praise for the Spirit of Heaven. You got to put that on, man, because when you feel like being depressed, depression can't even sit on you when you got the garment of praise on. He said, watch this, he gives you this— and this is where I was trying to get— these clothes so you can be called trees of righteousness. Says. Touch yourself, say, I'm a tree. I'm a tree. And you're a tree that's supposed to bear fruit. You're a tree of righteousness. Righteousness here, I love this word, is tzedek, which means covenant with what is right. So you're in covenant with the accuracy and the rightness of God. He says, I want you to be a tree that displays what is right, not that displays what's wrong. Your fruit should— so watch this— a tree that you may be called trees of righteousness. So that, that's not God calling you a tree of righteousness, that's others looking at your tree saying that they are trees of accuracy They are trees of what is right and covenant with God. They're looking at your life saying, God is getting the glory out of this. Oh boy. He said, trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. That's the whole key, guys, is that your life glorifies God. Say that with me. Say, I was born To give God glory with my life. Yes, yes, yes. That's why you're here, to make him smile. And so that when others see you, they see him. Listen, I'm, I'm quite sure because of what God brought me through and what he's brought me out of, when people look at me, they see him. Because ain't no way I'm standing here today preaching without him. Ain't no way I'm breathing for real and above dirt without him. I should be dead. Glory to God. So people ought to look at your life and see God getting the glory out of it, and watch this, want to serve him because of that. Now flip over again. I'm just laying a backdrop, and I've been talking too long already. Go to Matthew 12:33. I'm supposed to just be reading these scriptures. Matthew 12:33, it says, either make the tree good— say, I'm a tree. So remember, he says we'll be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified, right? So Matthew said, make the tree good and its fruit good. So if the tree is a good tree— watch this— that tree is bearing good fruit. Or else, listen to this, make the tree corrupt and its fruit corrupt. So if you are a good tree, you're going to bear good fruit. Fruit. If you're a bad tree, you're gonna bear bad fruit. For the tree is known by its fruit. So I can stand here and say I'm a tree. Now if I can stand and say I'm an orange tree, but don't believe it until you see an orange. Are you hearing me? I mean, you— I can say I'm an apple tree and I'm gonna bring forth some apples, but if you don't see no apples, don't believe that. Watch this. I can say I'm a tree of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, but if you don't see the fruit of the Lord manifested in my life, don't believe that. Wait a minute, let me just take— let me go quickly. Go to Ephesians 5. We're going to show you how to get some fruit in your life. I'm just laying a backdrop. So here's the first instruction on this, then we're going to talk about the fruit of reasoning and how wrong that is, how dangerous it is, how detrimental that is to your purpose in God's plan. Ephesians 5:11 says, 'I have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.' So that's an instruction The Bible says, word fellowship here is koinonia, which means don't have community with them. Oh God. So my only connection to works of darkness should be to bring light to it, not to hang out with it, not to go to the movies with it, not to have dinner with it, not— come on. But I shouldn't have no community with the unfruitful works of darkness. Remember Matthew said, make the tree good or make it bad, for the tree is known by the fruit, right? So when you check somebody's fruit and they bearing bad fruit, I'll say, have no fellowship with that. He says, watch this, but rather reprove them. Word reprove You ready for this? Elincho in Greek. This word means rebuke, correct, convict them, make them aware that they're unfruitful. You can do that in love, but you, you have to make them clear that they are unfruitful. Are y'all hearing me? Some people don't want to hear that. They don't want you to tell them that. But the reality is we have a duty as believers, as children of light, to shed light on unfruitful works. Not conviction that makes people feel bad about themselves, but to feel bad about what they're manifesting. Yeah, you can do this in love, but the key here is don't have no fellowship with them. Texting, inboxing, fellowship, you create community. Are y'all hearing me? But reprove it. Verse 12, he said, for it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. So he said, now it's shameful for us if we're fellowshipping with people who are in darkness, to even have these things coming out of our mouth. What scripture is saying here, it's a shame that we even know what they doing, that we even around them so close that we know what they're doing in secret. We so close to their community that we know they smoking, we know they drinking, because we right there with them. And not being a light to the situation. That's different if you're there and you're being a light. But if you're there and just, well, I ain't smoking, but you just having just as much fun as them, you ain't got liquor in your hand, but you, you just, you got water in your glass, but you, you, you still ain't really reproving them. Are y'all hearing me? Because you chilling. And enjoying the culture. Okay, maybe that's too much. Bob says, 'A shame they know what they doing.' Like, watch it, somebody brings me negativity, I'm looking at them because I wonder, 'How do you know? And how did you get this information? How— you must have been there too.' Are y'all hearing this? Somebody told me one time, I saw Pastor such and such at the hotel with Sister such and such, and she ain't his wife. Well, what you doing in the hotel? You got a house in this city too. Why are you at the hotel to even see the pastor? Well, I saw Brother such and such at the strip club. What you doing there with a dollar in your hand making it rain? Come on now, the reality is a shame to be able to speak about that. God have mercy, because you were at the club too, making it rain, getting lap dances. Then you want to tell on somebody else. Boy, they were having an orgy over there. How you know? Oh, come on, man, come on, because you were there. Bible says it's a shame to even be able to speak about it because we're different. Are y'all hearing this? We don't fellowship with unfruitful works. Uh, here we go, verse 13. But all things that are reproved— watch this— are made manifest by the light, for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. So if I'm there in a situation my light should immediately bring conviction because I'm known as a tree of righteousness. You know, people don't respect the church anymore. They don't respect saved people no more. I remember growing up, you tell somebody you say— you walk by them, they be smoking, they be putting their cigarette out. Okay, here come the preacher, here come the church folk, here come the man of God. Now you go by and smoke and they go blow smoke in your face. 'How you doing, Reverend?' Just blow it right in your face because there's no respect. When I was a little boy, if we walked past the church, we had so much respect for the house of God. We was walking past church cutting up, you know what we did? We went on the other side of the street. He said, 'Nah, y'all chill out, man, that's the church over there.' And we wait till we got up the street past the church and go to cutting up again. Like God can see us up the street. Well, all I'm saying to you is when light shows up, darkness has to flee. These lights we have up when the camera is on, because this is very dark space right here, it causes the, the picture to be clear because of lighting. If those lights are not here, the picture— even though that camera performs real well in low light, it ain't gonna be as good because we got to get the darkness out of the way so the camera can see. Are y'all hearing me? When you show up, darkness need to come in line and say, these are God's people, and I, I can't be acting like this around them. We are hearing this. Okay, I'm getting somewhere. Uh, so, so clearly, verse 14, he said, wherefore he said, awaken thou that sleepest and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. So I just want you to see that the light comes from Christ. So if I'm saved, I got some light in me. The key is, is understanding how powerful that light is. It's not my life. The light comes from him. I remember a story. I was reading in a book. I've read several Smith Wigglesworth's books. One of the books I read, he woke up one morning and told one of the people that worked with him in ministry, he said, look, I need to go down the street to the bar. I'm going to the bar. God's going to do a work at the bar. And the guy was like, no, you can't be seen in there, you're the pastor. He said, no, you don't understand, when I walk in the bar, God's going to do a work. Smith Wigglesworth was a man of prayer and power and authority. Soon as he walked in the bar, bar was jam-packed with people drinking, dancing, music going. Soon as he walked in, his light of Christ was so powerful that everybody in the bar was slain in the spirit. He didn't say a word, he just walked in. Oh God, have mercy. That's how powerful the light of Christ is, and we got to walk in that kind of light. That's power. Just think if you walked in a— my daddy, when he was, uh, ringing the bell for his cancer thing after he got finished with his radiation treatment. I was sitting in the oncology office and I'm like, all these people here with cancer. I said, God, I know you can heal every person in this room. I said, God, do it. I said, just begin to heal every person. I declare that no person in this in this building will die just because we're here and carrying the light of Christ, the power of Christ. You know what I believe? I believe God heard. I believe not one person— because my prayer was to myself, I wasn't even praying out loud. I said, Lord, let every person come through the door since we've been here, I declare this space a cancer-free zone, and this is a place where they treat cancer patients. I declare that no death will come out of this place because of this this disease. I believe God heard my prayer. I may never know it, but I believe he heard me. I believe that these people will be healed. But just think if we made a practice of wherever we went, we asked God to bring healing and deliverance through our light, through our presence. But you know, in the church, we want to be like the world so much. Glory to God. We show up and just get right in with them, and we got to be a light. We got to put difference between holy and unholy, between clean and unclean. Are y'all with me? All right, let's get into this fruit of reason. I just need to wait, wait, that backdrop, because 1 John 3:11 told us have no fellowship with unfruitful works. Verse 9 says the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. So we want to manifest goodness, righteousness, truth out of our life. Glory to God. Hallelujah. So the fruit of reasoning— there, there are 5 fruit that I want to give you that manifest from reasoning, analyzing before you believe, putting your mind, your mental system over God's way of thinking. We learned Thursday that God is smarter than us. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. We don't think like him. We have to work to let this same mind be in us as it is in Christ Jesus. I want to show you today because I love you. What happens when we reason? The first fruit of reasoning is this: is struggle. A lot of believers are struggling because they reason. They analyze before they believe. See, reasoning— and I'm not talking about you struggling in your finances, in your body. Those struggles are a result of the mental struggle you have from reasoning. Reasoning is a mental struggle. It's a battle between your thinking and God's thinking. Because we're so used to thinking and doing it our way, we're so used to our mental system, so we're struggling back and forth whether we're going to believe what God said We know the word says with his stripes we are healed, but then we have a mental struggle that our body is telling us, oh, you sick. No, you got a headache. No, your, your back is hurting. No, you got cancer. The devil is a liar. I'm gonna choose to believe what God said. Are y'all hearing this? Because you know what? God has not called not one of us, not one of us in here, not one of you watching. He has not called not one of us to struggle. He's called us to rest. Your mind should be at rest. Your mind should be at peace. Matter of fact, lay hands on your head and say, be at peace in the name of Jesus. Matter of fact, let me propose this question to you: are you struggling or are you snuggling? See, when you really rest, you're snuggling. Glory to God. See, most people are struggling in their mind and not snuggling with God and with what God said. See, when you could really snuggle with somebody— see, somebody can that don't have no heart and got a black heart and just a whore can have sex with somebody, get out the bed and just keep moving. Man or woman can do that. But when you really love somebody, you can lay there and hold them. And rest in their arms even after the act is over. Are y'all hearing this? Because you, you feel comfortable. You can trust that person. You can be vulnerable with them. You can open up to them. Listen, you got to learn to rest in God and in his word. Y'all don't believe me? Go to Matthew 11:28. I got to show y'all Bible. So God wants me to rest. Come on, come on, come on, brother, you slow. Say, God wants me to rest. Here we go. Come on. Thank you, sir. Matthew 11:28. Watch this. This Jesus talking. He says, come unto me. Let me stop right there. That's an outcall to every human on the planet. Jesus said, not Michael Woods, not some random preacher on Facebook, some random preacher from their pulpit. The Bible, the Bible, the Bible says Jesus utters out of his own mouth an outcall to all of us who are human: Come unto me. If somebody tells you to come here, humanly, your nature If they're safe— watch this— you go, right? If I believe Janiyah trusts she is safe with me, and if I told her to come here right now, she will come because I'm safe. Glory to God. Are y'all hearing me? Jesus is saying, come to me. Many people are struggling because they have not heeded the call of Jesus to come. I hear me seriously. Okay, let me show you a distinction. You can get saved and still not come to him. Wow. There are a lot of people who are born again with lip service. They said the prayer, but they still in those ashes. They have not come to him to accept him. Watch it. He said, come to me. Here's how we know they didn't came. He said, all ye that are labor and are heavy laden We know they ain't came because they still toiling, they're still laboring, they're still tormented. Are y'all hearing this? They're still heavy laden and burdened down. He said, but if you come to me, watch what he says. He says, I'll give you rest. You can snuggle. Glory to God. You can have peace. And apio in Greek, this word means that I will cause you or permit get you to cease from personal carnal labor. Were you trying to fix it yourself? Were you trying to— God says, I got you if you come to me. He said, I got what you need, and I'll end struggling. It's right there in black. It's right there in red in your Bible. Jesus is speaking. He said, you come to me, not just get saved, but come to Get saved and then follow my life. I'm saying, come to me, I'm gonna give you rest from your labor. I'm gonna lift them heavy laden burdens off you. You stop singing that dang song and I'm gonna give you rest. He's a burden bearer, he's a heavy load sharer. He'll take it and put it on him. Are y'all hearing me? Listen, when we allow our mind— hear me, guys— to rotate round and round and around a problem, guess what? It makes us tired. Oh, y'all got angry. But when we let our mind just go round and around on an issue we keep playing it over and over in our head, it makes us tired. Yeah, I've been there, done it. I'm telling you, you get mentally tired, but it also makes you physically tired. I played situations over, over my head so much I didn't want to get out of bed. I didn't want nobody to bother me. Don't say anything to me, just let me isolate myself from every single body. It's because I wasn't resting in what God said. I was resting in my circumstance. I rested in what presented itself. I rested in the odds. That's, that's one of the fruit of reasoning. Say struggle. Say it's not God's will for me to struggle. But it is his will for me to struggle with his word, with his purpose, with his plan for my life. Glory to God. All right, number 2 is the second fruit of reasoning. I'm gonna get out your way. It's confusion. People who are often confused about things in their life are often the people who are not trusting in God's word and his way. Matter of fact, the scripture says the devil is the author of confusion. So confusion is demonic, it comes from hell. And the only thing that prevents confusion is trusting God's way over your way. All say that with me. Say, trusting God prevents confusion. See, some— somebody's got my Caucasian brother's attention. Trusting God prevents confusion. Come on, brother, you come on, man, you gotta stay with me. Come on, everybody say it again. Trusting God. Prevents confusion. Yes, Lord. Go to Psalm 71:1. I'm gonna show it to you. Psalm 71:1. Thank you, Lord. See, only time you confused is when you don't start trusting your own mind. You know, you don't just bought into every thought that exalts itself against the knowledge of God when you should be bringing that thought captive. Watch what this Psalm says. It says, in thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. Watch the because. Let me never be put to confusion. So it's simple. Trusting God eliminates confusion. So I didn't make that up, that's Bible. So if you put your— and putting your trust means you got to deliberately do it. Can I submit to you? Trust is a choice. Oh, you have to choose to trust God. He ain't got no gun to your head to trust him. Like I said, you can get saved and not trust him, not come to him because you don't trust him. I'm saying, God, I'll take heaven 400. That's all I want, is heaven. I don't want the rest of this stuff. Just give me heaven. Just save me, give me heaven. But I'm gonna keep doing what I want to do my way. You're signing up for confusion. Let's just break it down a little bit. Confusion means that you're signing up to be ashamed. Pros and cons. The root of the word is con. Pros are for, cons are against. Yeah, so you are now in confusion. You are against fusion. Fusion means to bond, to align, to become one with. Watch this. Fusion is an inseparable bond. And when you're in confusion, you are against fusing with God's way. You're dry, you're delayed, you're detoured. You make things longer than they need to be because you're not trusting the Lord. Are we here? Go to 1 Corinthians 14:33. Say, I'm not confused. Say, I trust the Lord. Now that was a song I liked in the church. I will trust in the Lord. I will trust in y'all. Come on, sing it. I will, I will trust in the Lord until I leave out the morning. And I will trust in— I will trust in the Lord. I will trust in the Lord until I die. I'm going to stay on. 1 Corinthians 14. Just say, I trust the Lord. There you go. Come on, man. Thank you, sir. 1 Corinthians 14:33. Let's look at that one. Watch this. So you say you in God, right? Watch what God says. He says, for God— the one you say you in and with and trust— for God is not the author of confusion, right, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. So watch this, even when confusion arises in a ministry, in a church, that didn't come from God. If there's confusion, you better believe it came from the enemy. It came from the devil. God has no ability to offer confusion. He does not bring confusion. He's not against us fusing with his way. Glory to God. But he's the author of peace. Somebody say peace. Watch this. This word means perpetual tranquility. It's Irene. It's where we get the word Irene from. Irene, E-I-R-E-N-E, is perpetual, which means you have tranquility every single day, all the time. There's never a moment you lack peace when you're with God. Good God Almighty. You got peace with other people, you got peace in yourself, you got peace with the world. You ain't mad at nobody because you got God. Okay, go to Colossians 3:15. I'll show you how to use peace properly. Colossians is one of them books you might have to fast hard to find, but it's in there. It's right behind Philippians. Colossians 3:15. Glory to God. Yes, shantana bantse. We give you glory, God. It says, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also you are called in one body, and be ye thankful. This first part is what I want to discuss. And let Irene rule in your hearts. In other words, he said let peace be an umpire. This word rule is like an umpire, a referee. A referee watches a game and calls safe and out. It makes sure the rules are being followed. So measure things in your life by peace. Are y'all hearing me? So in other words, if it's disrupting your peace, you gotta let peace be the umpire. That means you got to dismiss it. Oh my God, if it's something in your life that's disrupting your world, your peace, that got you can't sleep at night, that's got you worried, you gotta dismiss that. I posted something yesterday, and it bears repeating: if something is not increasing you, it will ultimately decrease you. The reality is you need people around you that bring increase to your life, not people that cause confusion and stir up strife. Hallelujah! Let peace be the umpire in your life. Listen, you can think about things and you can search for answers and try to figure things out. Glory to God! But when peace leaves— listen to me, guys— when peace leaves, that's a signal, that's a sign that it's time to leave. It's time to put up your little finger and leave. Glory to It's also a signal that wrong thinking needs to leave when your peace is interrupted. Glory to God. I say it like that, God. Anything done in excess Listen to this, it's the devil's playground. When you start doing too much of anything, you open the door to become idle, and the enemy can start working in your thinking, working in your life. Listen, don't get me wrong, we're supposed to think, but if you overuse your mind, you'll get confused. You gotta let God be the Lord of your thinking. Number 3 is the third fruit of reasoning: double-mindedness. James 1:8 says, a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. What does it mean, Michael, to be double-minded? That means you trying to mix your thoughts your way, your will with God's way of doing things. Are you hearing me? Say that with me. Say, no mixture. No mixture. See, let me show you what that looks like. This is, this is what double-minded looks like. You can make a decision about how you feel about something, right? You can decide, okay, God said this to me, this is God, this is how I feel about it, and you're at peace. But then someone else gives you their opinion about what you've already decided, and then you buy into their opinion because you start reasoning based on what they said, and they talk you out of your blessing. You can't let people who are disgruntled with themselves talk you out of the blessing that God has established for you. That's double-mindedness. Oh, I know that's a tough one because we like to live— we, we like to please everybody, but you can't please everybody. Only person you should be trying to please is God. Listen, when this is out of balance, when you're, when you're listening to God and then you listen to somebody else and change your mind, it causes agony, it causes pain. Watch this, it causes a whole lot of bad decisions. You know what God said do, you know what he said focus on, and then someone gives you an opinion, you take it as God and start doing something else. Was it somebody said something to me this morning? I was listening to them talk about something, and they weren't saying it directly to me, but my ear heard it. And they were talking about someone who God— at first God spoke to them to geographically relocate to another place, and, and, and they stood on the fact that God told them Hallelujah, that they need to relocate. Well, then someone else came along that they said was very powerful— hear me— and spoke, and now they're questioning whether their moving was God. That says to me they are confused. That's the fruit of reasoning. They, first of all, they haven't prayed for themselves. That's why I tell you, you cannot live off prophecy. You live off the word. You live off your relationship with God. And when the prophet prophesy, they should confirm your relationship and what God has said. There are some prophetic words that are dominant prophetic words that are proceeding to what you've already heard, but there'll be a check in your spirit that that's right. Well, when you start reasoning and you, you— so that two prophets, one prophet said you need to move, another prophet said you were wrong for moving, then another prophet shows up and says, okay, well, you don't need to go back home, you don't need to be there, you need to go somewhere else. You're totally confused now because you have not spent time with God to become single-minded. God makes you single-minded so the opinions of other people don't move you. You know, here's another thing. I'll say that, Lord, and then we're gonna move to number 4. You could start out doing something, listen to this, that you really want to do. You say, oh my God, I really want to do this. I'm in with both feet. And you're excited about it, you look forward to it, but then you start thinking about it so much that you change your mind about it. And then you start thinking about all the details of what is going— you start thinking about the time it may take for you to do it. That's some stuff God spoke to me 30 years ago. That's just starting to happen in my life. But I, I always knew 30 years ago it was God. I knew that at some point it was going to happen. I knew at some point God cannot lie. So I had to stay the course and stay obedient and keep a fresh yes on my lips. But if you think about it too long and start reasoning and analyzing, you'll get to the point, I don't even want to do that no more, this is not exciting to me, because you, you're overthinking it. We just need to walk with God. That's being double-minded. Stay single-minded, stay focused on what he said. Here's the fourth fruit of reasoning. Are you ready? Complication. Things get complicated. You make things too complicated when you reason. You know what? Excessive thinking, again, reasoning, it brings complication and it prevents— watch this, because God is simple. He's not complex, he's simplex. And there's a joy of the simplicity of God. Having a relationship with God is having a relationship with— like having a relationship with anybody else. You can make it complex or simple. The relationships we have, we control the narrative of whether they are complex or simple. If a relationship is bad, it's because 9 times out of 10, the people in relationship are doing things to make it bad. We come, we make it complex, we bring complications into it. Same thing with God. Something that can be so simple. All he's asking is to trust him. That's all he's saying. Trust me. Come to me. Trust me. I got you. I want to give you rest. But we kill the joy of simplicity. We make things harder than they need to be. Listen, I can, I can get confused. Let me just show you how old things anything will work. I could be standing in my closet too long thinking about what I want to wear, and I just get confused. Like today, so I was just like, okay, whatever. I just grabbed first things and this one put on because at the end of the day, I didn't have time to complicate something that's so simple. Are y'all hearing me? You ever went to, uh, especially after church, you go out to eat with people and, uh, you ask what y'all want to eat and they say it don't matter. You know, I said I should start a restaurant called It Don't Matter. I would make so much money, right? Because people overcomplicate Gonna eat because it don't matter. Why? We just gotta think about it. Just go, go where food is. Glory to God. And consume it. Praise God. All right, here's the fifth one and I'm done. Here's the fifth one: when you reason too much Hear me, guys. It blocks discernment. Say that with me. Say, one of the fruit of reasoning is it blocks discernment. See, discernment is Following after what God has decided. Discern— spiritual discernment is following a decision that God has already made. Can I tell you something? God has already made some decisions about your life. You gotta follow what he's decided. But when you reason too much You're not going to be able to tap in because you got to learn how to live out of the Spirit if you want to have correct discernment. You got to live through the Spirit of the Word, through the Spirit of God's mind, if you want to have discernment. Oh God, listen, people who are led by their head, they're thinking. Are being improperly led. If we're not being led of God, we're being led wrong. And when you follow your head— and most of the time we don't realize it— we have so many snake eggs in our head from the past that many a times when we get idle those snakes who are very deceptive and subtle rise up to get us going the wrong way so that we're not following God. Listen, you making a decision, especially ones that make sense and ones that align with God's plan, you can't afford to listen to what other people think about it. As a matter of fact, can I submit to you, it doesn't matter what they think about it. It doesn't matter how they feel about it. The reality is you gotta get quiet, get clarity from God, and follow what God says. You don't want to bear these fruit of reasoning. You don't want to walk around discontent, confused. You want peace of mind. You want to be able to follow a plan that's already been decided. It says, but to the plan of God has already been decided for my life. For my life. Watch this. It's not your decision, it's your discovery. You don't get to decide. He decided. It's our discovery. And you know what? He's smarter than us. So he knows exactly what we need. I'm done. Y'all stay.