THE POWER AND NECESSITY OF EVANGELISM | DR. MIKE WOODS SR | 24 MARCH 25

All right, well, praise God, everybody! It's 12 noon and we are here, man, and we're gonna teach this word this afternoon. Glory to God! I believe that God's gonna meet us here. Listen, if you're just joining us, whether you're live or by replay, do me a kind favor, family, and share this. Glory to the name of God! The Bible declares that we are blessed, uh, indeed, uh, to be a blessing. So we want to thank God for every person that's joining us. Hey Stephanie, God bless you, uh, thank you for being here. 5 o'clock prayer was amazing this morning, glory to God. And, um, thank you Stephanie for even being back again for 12 noon, glory to the name of God. Uh, listen, you guys— hey Sharia, God bless you, good to see you. Uh, you guys come in, please do me a favor, share. Glory to the name of God. Oh, we're fasting, ladies and gentlemen. Glory to God. And, uh, this is a part of the sacrifice. We get this word at 12 noon. We're getting it daily. Um, for me, you know, I make the sacrifice. I love what I do, so I enjoy teaching. But you got to be hungry enough to want it and get what the Lord would share with us during these times. So please By all means, guys, share, share, share. Somebody needs this. Uh, glory to the name of God. Uh, again, people don't really want to hear this message, so I get it. You know, at the end of the day, uh, this teaching right here is not popular. You know, people want to go through the churchy stuff, and, uh, they don't want the responsibility that rests upon them, uh, to actually bring others into the kingdom of God. Amen. So, uh, please, guys, uh, do me a favor and share. God bless you, Zion. Good to see you this afternoon. Glory to God. God bless you, Pastor Jeffrey. Good to see you this afternoon. Uh, you, as you guys again are coming in, uh, it's important, praise God, to share. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. And we're going to give you a few moments to do that. Um, you know, this fast has been great for me already. I pray it's been great for you. Um, it's not too late, guys, to join us if you're not fasting with us. Uh, simply go to, glory to the name of God, rhodachurch.com. Uh, you can go to /fast25 or just click the link on the website. Fast 25 is going to take you to a page. There'll be a red button under a video there. You could hit that button and download the guide so you could be in sync with us as we fast. Uh, we're— this is literally day 7. Uh, however, you still have time. You can finish this week out with us. And tap into what God is doing and what God is saying. Amen. Please again, guys, share, share, share. Glory to God. Hallelujah. God is so good. God is so kind. He is so wonderful. He's so great to us. Father, we love you. We thank you. We bless you. We honor you today, God. Beside you, there is no other. It's in you we live. It's in you we move, God. It's in you we have our being. You're the joy, hallelujah, and the lifter of our head. Glory Glory to God. From everlasting to everlasting, you are God. You're the King of Kings. You're the Lord of Lords. Hallelujah. You're the Lily of the Valleys. You're the bright morning star. And we give you praise today. Oh God, your word declares you are Alpha and you are Omega. Glory to God. You are the beginning and you are the end. You're the first and you are the last. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Oh my God. You're the eternal one. You're good and you're good all the time. You're holy, Father, and you're righteous. You're Jehovah Jireh. Yes, God, you're the God, our provider. And we give you praise, God, for being our provision. We don't lack a thing, neither do we have a care because we are aligned and we are found in you. Glory to the name of God. So we bless you today, God. You're Jehovah Rapha. You're the Lord, our healer. God, we thank you that we're whole and our bodies are well. Because you are the source of our healing. You are the source of our deliverance. And Obadon Siyaleh Dabon Sukku. Oh God, we give you praise. You are Jehovah Tsidkenu. You are the Lord our sanctifier. Oh God, through your blood we are sanctified. Hallelujah. And through your blood we are made whole. So Father, today as we're coming in and preparing for this teaching, we worship your holy and righteous person, God. You are Jehovah M'Kaddish. You are the Lord our righteousness. We're made righteous by the substitutionary, hallelujah, efficacious, vicarious, glory, and redemptive blood of the Lamb. And so, Father, we thank you for being our righteousness. We are in right standing today because of your blood. Hallelujah. And we have a right to boldly go to the throne of grace because of your blood. And so, Father, we thank you. Father, we glorify you. Father, we magnify you. Father, we lift you up and we exalt you. Great is thy faithfulness, O Lord, and we bless you. And we give you glory, God. We thank you. You're Jehovah Nissi. You're the Lord our banner. Glory to God. And because of you, Lord Jesus, we uphold the bloodstained banner. And we say we have victory in Jesus. Glory to God. And we declare even today that nothing we do, nothing we say, nowhere we go, it is not about us. God, we declare victory and we uphold the bloodstained banner. And we say Jesus is King. We say Jesus is Lord. Hallelujah. Jesus is good and he gives us victory. We give you praise. Yes, Lord Jesus. Yes, Lord Jesus, you are Jehovah Rohi. You're the Lord our Shepherd. Yes, God. And because of you, Lord Jesus, we are your sheep and we sit in right standing with you right now, God, because of your blood. And Father, because we are your sheep, glory to the name of God, and you are our Shepherd, we align ourselves as sheep. We are followers of Christ. Glory to the name of God. We are followers of the ways of God, and because of that, we do not lack a thing. We shall not want, and we give you praise for it, God. We give you praise. You're Jehovah Shammah. You're the Lord that's with us right now, God. Thank you that you never leave us nor forsake us. You'll be with us even now until the end of the age. We're not alone. You're with us, you got us, you cover us, you keep us. And so, Father, we give you praise. Hallelujah. We give you glory, God. Yes, Lord, we bless you. And so, Father, as we enter your word today May we experience the light, the illumination, and the intelligence of the Holy Ghost. Speak through us and to us and talk to us, God, and we'll give you praise, we'll give you glory, we'll honor you forevermore. Beside you, God, there is no other. We give you praise and glory now in Jesus' name. Amen. And thanks be to God. God, we love you. Do you love God today? Hallelujah. You ought to bless him. You ought to honor him. Glory to God. You should worship him even now. Again, If you're just joining us, please share. It's Godly. Glory to the name of God. It's just nice to be nice. And plus, when you get a hold to something that's blessing you, it's really not a blessing until you give it to someone else. So give it to someone else today. I love you guys. We're gonna dive in here. Glory to God. Please like, please comment below, let us know you're here. Good to see everybody that's on today. Uh, God is good. And we're gonna jump right into this. So we have been teaching— this is the 5th message that I've taught, glory to God, uh, this series, glory to God, over this fast on evangelism. And we've been talking about the power and the necessity of evangelism. The world cannot, uh, experience the goodness of God except we evangelize. The people in our home, watch this, cannot experience the goodness of God except we evangelize them. As a matter of fact, one of the main purposes of the home is so that children can be evangelized through parents. Glory to the name of God. And learn the principles of Jesus Christ. Now, they may grow up and become heathens and, and, and start doing things that are outside of that, but watch this. The Bible says that if you train a child in the way they should go, when they are old they will not depart. So the house is— should be an evangelistic field. Glory to the Lord. First in Jerusalem, first in your home, first in your local community, you should be reaching people for God. One of the things we've covered, and just by way of review, and then we're going to get into today, we've been talking about really the mandate for evangelism. A mandate is a command. It's, it's something that has no negotiation. So when God commands it and he gives a mandate to do something, he is serious. Glory to God. So I want to start here today. Evangelism is serious business, okay? It is the serious business of the King. Yeah, and once again, I'm not really concerned about numbers with this, for real, because I know how people are, especially with church folk. They want what they want. They want it convenient. They want it easy. Most people don't want to do this because they want to prophesy in church. They want to be seen on a mic. Glory to the name of God. And half of the time, most of the people holding mics have no oil, no anointing anyway. So you, you probably don't need to be holding the mic. It's most, most stuff is rehearsed. It's not born out of prayer. It is birthed out of religious attitudes that have influenced you over the years, and then you label that anointing. But at the end of the day, anointing is born out of time with God and is born through pressure. Oh my God, and processes. And you could tell the anointing and oil because it's released through, glory to God, victorious battles that individuals have won. Another message for another day. But the reality is We need this, what I'm teaching, because the world will never change if we do not show up. In all of the things that's going on, it is time now like never before to be obedient to this call to bring people into the kingdom of God. Are y'all here? Glory to God. So we've been talking about this mandate. We, we read in Mark's, uh, Gospel chapter 16, and we talked about the Great Commission. Some there we read in Matthew 28, we've talked about the Great Commission there. Glory to the name of God. And the reality is, in all of these messages we've taught, is that there is a command to every believer— not just prophets, not just evangelists, not just the preacher— every believer You, as a matter of fact, we started off telling you to say, I am one of them. These signs shall follow them that believe. He said to the believer, go into all the world. That's you and I, regardless to your title, your perspective, anointings, or ministry position. Yeah, you have a charge. To go into the world and bring people into the kingdom of God. There, God saved you from what he saved you from, so you can go back and get those— glory to the name of God— that's struggling with the same stuff he brought you out of. Because now you can go in there and say, look at me, glory to God, look what God did for me. Quite frankly, it's really time for us to come out the closet, come out the salt shaker. I talked about it yesterday. The stars come out at night. We got to come out of the church, show up, and be the light of the gospel for people. Glory to God. So today I want to give you some fundamentals. I, I think that— so we've been talking about mandates. I want to kind of really start diving into some methodology and give you some fundamentals of evangelism. And I want you to write these down. I want you to take good notes. I want you to receive this, glory to God, because I, I really indeed want you to become an evangelist for real, right? I want, I want people to experience God, uh, because you live, hallelujah, and because you're saved, because that's how it's supposed to be. So, uh, this first one, and you know, it's, it's really obvious, right? Uh, but I need to say it because I cannot be assuming to believe that everyone that's listening to me talk, even now or may by replay, already possess this. But in order to be an effective person who is evangelizing and sharing the love of God with others, here's number one: you must be born again. Let's just make that clear. You cannot be effective in bringing people to a Jesus that you have not accepted. And somebody may say, well, Apostle, that's a given, you know. Yeah, I guess so. But at the end of the day, you got people out here, man, that don't believe half of what they hear. Half of what they've learned in church, and they'll try to talk to you about God. You know, I've talked— said and talked to people, uh, intoxicated. They're intoxicated, glory to Jesus, and trying to talk to you. I'm trying to talk to them about God. They're trying to, uh, give me their philosophy about God, about why that, you know, God accepts what they're doing or whatever. But the reality is you honestly have to be born Again, listen, you can't even join the military, guys, and say you a soldier— hear me— until you go through basic training. You have to be transitioned from a civilian to a soldier. And basic training or Officer Candidate School, or OCS, it takes you through the process. It turns you from a civilian person to a soldier. Hear me. The reality is You got to get the mentality of a soldier. You gotta, you gotta start doing things like soldiers doing. You got your mindset has to transition. So being born again means that you are actually convinced all the way that Jesus is Lord, not just because somebody told you to do it, you weren't forced to do it. You, you— and I'm not talking about just going up and shaking the preacher's hand and going to church. That's not being born again. Right? Not born again. Being born again means you're being born again of water and of spirit. Listen, and, and again, if you're not born again, you really are not going to be effective trying to get people in the kingdom. You got actors and actresses out here, man. You got athletes out here who talk about God and will proclaim that they are saved, trying to get others into the kingdom. But then when you look at their life, uh-oh, their life doesn't line up with the principles of Jesus Christ. See, when you're born again, you walk out a manifestation of your newness. Matter of fact, let's go, because the— because the Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost Jesus Christ, the oneness of God, has to bear witness that you are born again. Let's go to 1 John 5. Oh, this is not going to be popular, Lord, I already know it. 1 John 5. Yeah, but we gonna teach it anyhow. Hallelujah. 1 John 5. Glory to Jesus, wonderful Savior, my God today. Verse number 8, let's look at this. The Bible says And there are three, three that bear witness in earth: the Spirit, and the water, and the blood. Watch this, these three agree in one. Verse 9, if we receive the witness of men— listen to me, guys— the witness of God is greater. So watch this, so many times we'll receive what people say about us, how people define us. Glory to God. And as you've grown up, most people operate under the auspices of the definition, the definitive value that family, friends, people in your neighborhood, bullies put on you. And you'll carry that label, you'll carry that identity all through your life. But watch this, the Apostle John says the witness that we bear is far greater than any— oh my God, oh my God— inspired or influenced identity that's been superimposed upon you by people around you. Now, when we get born again, there's a witness in the spirit. My God, there's a witness through water, which is baptism. Come on, for those of you that think baptism ain't necessary, it is a outward, because watch this, we're trichotomy, we're body, we're soul, we're spirit, we're three parts. So the spirit gets saved, the body part of it, glory to the name of God, happens when we go through— here we go— the water process, because it shows the world, it is an outward display to the world that we are now a part of the regime of those who are born again. We're saved. So that's a witness, right? Spirit is a witness. The Spirit of God witnesses inside of you. Okay, yeah, you, you, you're with me. And blood, the fact that Jesus gave up his life for you, is a witness. And you receive those things. Hallelujah. They agree in one. You can't take one away from another. And the Bible said if you can receive the witness of men, in verse 9, you should be able to receive these witnesses. Because they're greater. He said, but this is the witness of God which he has testified of his Son. So Jesus Christ is the expression— hallelujah— when you receive him of the Father, you receive the Father. When you receive Jesus Christ, you receive the Holy Spirit, because the Bible said these three are what? One, right? So you, you have, you have the Godhead in Jesus Christ operating in your life. So you got to be born again. So now you come under the regime where you support that witness, you live according to that witness. Not you, you, okay, I'm gonna live for God today, but tomorrow, yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna get over into something else, and then I'm gonna repent and come back. But when you're truly born again, you don't deliberately plan to live from— oh my God— live under the auspices of sinful nature, sinful ways. Oh my God, are we here today? Oh, Shabbat! Amen, Dios! Yeah, God, you choose to operate under the auspices of the realm of glory and the realm of the Spirit and to live as he desires. You want to learn about him, you want to know him because you're born again. Because guess what? When you were first born Your mama nurtured you, your daddy raised you, uh, glory to God if you had that in your life. If you didn't, someone was there to nurture a perception of yourself. Now you have to— just how you trusted that perception, you got to trust the witness of God, who he says you are, what he says you could be, what his word has defined as your future. And the promises he's given you for the new born-again life you have in him. Because being born again in evangelism— his— and I'm gonna get to the next one— what it does, family, is it honestly gives you a witness. Are y'all here? It gives you a witness. Oh boy, that now you got something to talk about. It creates testimony when you live as one that has been born again. So if you're gonna be effective in evangelism, that's number one, you must be born again. You know, and I can stay in this all day because the reality is, watch this, if, if you needed a heart surgeon, you're not going to have somebody inside of your chest that is not trained cardiovascular matters. Y'all ain't talking. Glory to the name of God. You, you, you want somebody that has the credentials to be dealing with your heart. Are you hearing this? Same, same difference. If you're, if you're trying to transition the heart of others, you need to be qualified inside. Glory to God. To handle heart matters with others that you're ministering to because you know it's real, not because you're doing it out of religious obligation, right? Because the reality is the blood of Jesus cleanses you, makes you whole, you're new. You got a testimony that all things have become new, man. And now you got some authority because you're walking with God. Number 2, which brings me to number 2, all right. So think about number one, because I want you to be born again, again. And I believe most of the people watching now are, but at the end of the day, you know, if you're watching this and you don't know God and you want to reach people for God, let's make sure that to thy own self you are true and that you are examining yourself and making sure your heart is right, your heart is aligned, so you could be effective in the things of God. Number 2, watch this: you must be full of divine power. Yeah, so when I think about power, I mean, I look at a few things. Glory to God. And let's go over to— let's go over to Acts real quick. Acts, hallelujah. 1, hallelujah. 8. Glory to God. Hallelujah. The Bible says this. Touch yourself and say, I must be full of divine power. Say this with me. Say, I have the Holy Spirit in my life. Say, he lives in me. Say, he is a person that lives in me. And because of that, say this, I am full of power. Yes, Lord, today you're full of power. If you— if he's there, if— hold it, listen. If God lives in you through the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, is alive in you, come on, because the Holy Spirit is simply God in you. Glory to the name of God. Is he— listen, the Holy Spirit is no different than God the Father. Glory to God. Again, we just read they are one. They bear witness. Holy Spirit is no different than Jesus. So you have Jesus in you, you have God in you. Glory to God. And with that comes his power. Let's read it, let's read it. It says, but ye shall receive power— dynamis in Greek— which is miraculous power, inherent ability. Inherent strength that you inherit— watch this— from heaven, that you inherit from the power source of God that's in you. And watch this, the more of him you have, the more powerful you become. So to be an effective witness— come on, somebody— you got to have power. I'm not talking about this weak— people have— oh my God, First of all, let me say this: titles don't necessarily mean you got power. God knows I have encountered and experienced numerous apostles, numerous prophets, numerous evangelists, numerous pastors and teachers who say they operate in these offices, most of which in this category that I met are self-appointed. They're really not called to this. Or if they are, they do not cultivate their positioning in the office in prayer, but they operate from head knowledge. They operate from, oh my God, mimicking and influence from people they may like in those offices. They don't operate from heaven to earth. They operate from earth and they try to produce heaven through earthly imitating. And that ain't the way that work, man. But I have met many who have labeled themselves, self-appointed themselves to certain offices who have no power. So having a title doesn't denote power because the power source is not in the title. The power source is God. So watch this, power is not reserved, wow boy, just for people who are in ministry as well. Every believer should be operating full of divine power. Gloria, something ought to move when you pray. Something ought to move, glory to God, when you— when you, when you go to decree a thing, it should be established. Calm down, Michael. So he said, you shall receive power— supernatural strength, supernatural ability, inherent residing power. Watch this. So when you receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit, power moves in. See, we put so much emphasis on receiving the Holy Ghost that we miss the fact that it's not so much just him being there, it's what he brings with him. So we said, oh, I got the Holy Ghost. Yeah, I got it, I got him, I got him, he's in me, I spoke in tongues. Great. Okay, now let's go beyond that and let's tap into the inherent ability that's in you to bring about change in others. Glory to God. Because that's why he showed up in your life. And by the way, he said, watch this, you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you. So after the Holy Spirit enters your life, glory to God, you get power. So here you go. The source of power is not your bishop. Your source of power— hear me, hear me— is not your pastor. Source of power is not your apostle. The source of power is your reception of the Holy Spirit in your life. Glory to God. And watch this, here's, here's the difference. After you receiving him, allowing him to come upon you— God, I could teach this all day. Jesus, you gotta allow him to come upon you. So he comes in and upon. So when I'm evangelizing, I need him upon me. Glory to God. Oh, we have to submit to this power. This is why Jesus taught this as well. He says, watch this, when the power comes upon you, you shall be witnesses. So watch this, in order to be effective witness— this word witness is martus in Greek. And you know, a martyr is one that dies for the cause. Oh, and gives up his life for the cause. So God says, now when the Holy Ghost comes upon you, you shall sacrifice your desires, your plans. You shall die, mortify the members of your flesh. You're gonna receive power— watch this— to be a witness. What's it— watch this— which means you have seen it with your own eyes. A martyr, uh, is convinced through what they saw that the one they die for, or the one they lose their life for, is worth it because they have seen them work in their own eyes, and their faith is in what they saw. So when you've seen— here it is again, being born again— you've seen God work in your life and you've died to self, now you can be a powerful witness in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, in the uttermost parts of the earth, right? So that's number 2: you must be full of divine power. I want to look at one other thing on this. Go to Luke 4:32, because I want to show you how Jesus taught this, right? Luke 4:32, because, because Jesus taught this as well. Watch this. It says, and they were astonished at his doctrine, for his word— watch this— was with power. So in him speaking to people that don't know the way and don't understand why he's on earth and what he is actually doing, he spoke with power. And they were astonished because the things he taught wasn't, oh my God, stale. It wasn't dry. It wasn't rehearsed. Hear me, hear me, guys. It wasn't read out, uh, which is okay. I mean, if you got notes to read it, but as long as they are with power, right? And God gives you what to say. Glory to God. You gotta still allow him to speak through you, and your words need to be with power when you're evangelizing. Because again, we can't save anybody. I remember coming up, there was a lady used to come to my dad's church, and, um, she used to say, you know, every time she talked, introduce herself, my name is such and such, Evangelist such and such, and I saves people. That's what she used to say, I saves people. And, and I used to always be thinking, even as a young teenager, a young believer, You ain't— you can't save nobody, lady. And that's just the truth. We— and I just think she was saying it, you know, because she just probably didn't know what else to say. But the reality is we can't save anybody. Jesus doesn't save it. We speak with power that astonishes them. We speak the word with power. We teach doctrine with power, and people get astonished and they come to him. It's almost the opposite these days. People get astonished with the person speaking because they're not— oh God— in tune with their spirit. So, and people are accustomed to being entertained, so they get astonished by the speaker, which definitely doesn't change you because entertainment is temporary. That's why you always want more. That's why if you're watching the show and they leave a cliffhanger, you were— that's entertainment. You're like, man, I'm gonna see next week because bam, that was so good. I need to make sure I'm in front of TV next week, same time, because at the end of the day, man, they got me with that one. Because you were entertained, it keeps you coming back. But what should astonish you in God is his power. You should want to be in tune with the power of the living God. Are y'all here? Oh God. So you must be full of divine power. Glory to God. Like Jesus was. You said you was a Christian, right? Glory to Jesus. Matter of fact, look at Luke 24:49. I'm gonna go to the next point. The Bible says this: And behold, I, Christ Jesus, send the promise of the Father upon you. Watch this. But tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high. Now, first thing I want to share with you here, when you study the, the text, you'll understand that when Jesus made this statement— watch this— there were about 500 to 600 people in the audience at this time. And he told them, he said, listen, all right, the promise of the Father is upon you. You're experiencing it now, but there is something greater coming. And in order to receive it, listen what he says. He said, go to Jerusalem and tarry there, wait there in the city until you be endued with power from on high, which is We were just reading that in chapter Luke— Acts, I'm sorry. Who had just said Luke wrote Acts too, but we were just reading in Acts chapter 1, and the promise was being released more than when the whole— because this thing is being explained while they're waiting. And then we, we keep reading in chapter 2 when the day of Pentecost fully come. All right, we, we talk about how the Holy Spirit came in, right? But here's the interesting thing: 500 to 600 folk, only 120 went. So that means 380, 480 people decided there was something better to do than wait on God. Ah, then wait on power. Boy, what our priorities can really be jacked up, right? Because we need God more than anything. We need his power. We've been following this guy, but that's just how people are, you know. It was only 120 that said, okay, we're gonna wait this thing out, man. We're going— we're gonna do just what Jesus said. We're going to obey because there's nothing he's told us that didn't happen. But there was still a majority that decided Man, we ain't going down to Jerusalem and waiting on all them days. But there were 120 that went to the upper room and did it. We are here. All right, so there we go. Number 2. So number 1, you must be born again. Number 2, you must be full of divine power. Number 3, watch this, you gotta break up fallow ground. So you just don't get out when you decide— when you're being led to be a witness on any day, instead of you getting up and just say, okay, I'm going to Walmart, I'm about to talk to some people, I'm going to Walmart, I'm gonna find— look for clues, I'm gonna find somebody that I need to pray for. That's great because you should, you should be looking for clues, but you ought to be led of the Spirit and doing all of this, right? Before you do any of that, you need to break up the fallow ground. Why, Michael? Why, Apostle Woods? Because there are some environments that are not conducive to effective evangelism. The enemy has strongholds on the minds of the people in these environments. And some of these environments have never seen a move of God, or have— oh my God, they're not normal places where a move of God could take place. So in prayer, you gotta break up the evil ground of the enemy, and you got— so that you can freely minister. So you got to dismantle these ungodly altars. Oh my God, you got to dismantle these demonic forces that have been established in certain places to keep the gospel out. The weapons of our warfare— and you ain't got to go there— 1 Corinthians 10:4, are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. So you have to now, when you know you're about to go witness, be very point it in prayer and pull down strongholds. Glory to the name of God. That could possibly block your ability— Lord have mercy— to witness effectively. I got to get out of here, y'all. Glory to God. So before going into a strange land— glory to God— a strange community, you got to command the elements to favor your course. You got to break these strongholds because failure to do so it's going to send out a signal in the spirit to those demonic forces that you are intruder. Glory to God. But watch this, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. And so you got to take back what belongs to God, take back the territory and the atmosphere. I remember we used to go inside, we used to take teams to nightclubs, outside of nightclubs, inside of nightclubs to be a witness. But before we would do that, we would fast several days before, and then we would pray to bring down the strongholds in those environments. Because those environments were for partying, they were for sinful uses, but we were going in with light, with gospel, with prophecy, witnessing to people, sharing the gospel, praying for sickness and disease. Listen, letting God use the gifts to talk to people in a club. Hear me. That wasn't born again, or— and even outside of the club, still witnessing, still carrying this thing forth. Because the reality is, again, we serve a God that is the greater power. Well, even though the enemy may have some power, he ain't got the greatest power. And we serve God that can destroy yokes, that can pull down strongholds, that can cause men to be born again. Now you— and again, you need to pull down the stronghold just in case you go up in somewhere like a club and you still got a little club in you. All right, yeah, you get in there and you, you get lost because you get pulled back into what you got brought out of. So you got to take the territory, and they don't even know why things ain't functioning the way it normally would function. It's because you prayed. Hallelujah! Because you're going in to be a witness. Listen, you, you carry the power of the Holy Ghost. You carry the power of the Holy Spirit, and you can break any spiritual force that comes against you. Let me show it to you in Bible. Jeremiah 23, and we're gonna move. Jeremiah 23. Glory to God. Hashem, Lord, we love you. Jeremiah 23. I— what we want? 29, I think. 23:29. Are y'all here? Glory to God. Hallelujah. Watch this, watch this. He says, is not my word like as a fire, said the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in many pieces? Watch this. So now You can break those fellow grounds by praying the word, by decreeing the word. You could consume those things that are not of God by praying the word. Because he asked the question again, once again, he ain't asking the question because he don't know the answer. He asked the question to position you, to create— he creates an inquiry to set up measurement. So do— did you realize that the word really is fire? Right? So when we, so we be talking about the fire of God, it can't exist, watch this, without the Word. Uh-oh. Because it's the Word is God. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God. Our God is a consuming fire. So watch this, the substratum, the foundation of all we do in God including evangelism— hear me— is the word. Oh, I gotta get out of here, man. My time, I'm gone. Glory to God. Word is a fire. All these people talking about fire and don't know the word. Glory to God. All these people talking about fire burning and they do it and, and they're not solid in the word. Because the word itself is fire. Glory to God. And watch this, and it's like a hammer that breaketh up rocks in pieces. So the word, if you start putting the hammer of the word down in evangelism and you start praying the word, you could break up fallow ground so that when you go forth and go out people will receive you. I got, I got some evangelistic ventures planned for this spring and this summer, and I'm already trusting God that as we teach the word in these settings, as we go out as teams and groups from our church to minister to people in our community, glory to the name of God, I'm already decreeing and declaring that as we speak the word, hallelujah, that the fallow ground will be broken and those people's hearts will already be ready to receive what we say. So watch this, that this will eliminate fear big time. Hear me, guys, it'll eliminate fear big time because I need you to understand something. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Hey, Woman of God, God bless you. Woman of God, good to see you. Glory to God. Glory to God. I love what God's doing with your life. Glory to the name of God. Hallelujah. Listen, this is an assignment that we have negated. So we got to break up fellow ground in the marketplace because when we show up in the world, glory to God, and the light of the glorious gospel is shining through us, we need people to receive what we're saying. So again, in prayer, in intercession, before we enter into the world, we need to be decreeing things and breaking up— oh my God— those rocks with the word of God. All right, so y'all, y'all ready? We're gonna keep moving. I mean, my time is about gone, y'all. Good God, my time is about gone. So number 1, you must be born again. Number 2, you gotta be full of divine power. Number 3, glory to the— and again, these are just some effective strategies to evangelize. Glory to the name of God. You gotta hold— glory to God— break up fallow ground. And number 4, watch this. You gotta engage with the people you're called to reach. The Bible says Jesus was a friend of sinners. You'll never be effective in evangelism if you have a holier-than-thou attitude, man. If you believe you can't be around— listen, like I just said, we will go in clubs, right? Glory to the name of God. We will be outside the club waiting for people to come out, ministering to people at cars. Kind of stuff, man. But, but you got to be willing to engage with people who are outside of your world. Paul said, when I, when I went among the Jews, I became as the Jews. Not he sinned with them, but he blended into culture so that he can give them the word of the Lord. He said, I became as them so I can win them. So that means not necessarily you are showing— let's— I'm using club as an example, but this is any place you go that's outside of culture. So you don't show up in these places, glory to God, looking religious, glory to God, with your clergy attire on, with full vestments, glory to God, and a crosier, a staff, and a bishop's hat. You know, this is not— because watch this, what fellowship does light have with darkness? They're not going to respond to that. You have to, hallelujah, be able to be on their level. So how you look when you show up makes a difference, you know, you— yeah, okay, okay. So, and you got to know where you're going. So if I'm going to my— and as an entrepreneur in the marketplace, as a marketplace apostle, uh, as an apostle who operates in the realm of municipality government, when I'm going in these realms, whether I'm with the mayor, whether I'm going to places where the governor is doing something, listen, I dress accordingly. Glory to the name of God. But if I'm going to a place where I'm trying to reach millennials, I dress accordingly. Glory to the name of God. Because you want to be received. This is just wise. Listen, he that wins a soul is wise. And you have to engage with people so that they'll— so in other words, you don't lead with— here we go— and the Bible and start beating people down with the word You know, you, you have to literally befriend people. You have to really be nice to people. Oh God, that's hard. It's sad to say, it's sad to say, glory to God, that it's hard for some saved folk to be nice. I mean, it— listen, you're saved with the love of Jesus in your heart. As a matter of fact, the Bible said that the love of God should be shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. So with your tongue talking itself— come on, man— with your tongue talking itself, with your deep and wonderful self, you should be able to show some love. How can you speak in tongues one minute and you mean as a rattlesnake the next minute? That's a problem. That's a whole problem. Because at the end of the day, I need you to hear me, we should be operating in love. And people don't want to be around you if you can't walk in love. If all you walk is in judgment and condemnation, you're never going to win them. All right, I'm telling you right now, you're never going to do it. So you got to engage with people. Jesus was a friend of sinners. He sat down and ate with them. Glory to God. He was around their culture so that he could win them. Paul became as the Jews. Glory to God. So he can win the Jews. Glory to the name of God. So you, uh, are y'all hearing this? Are y'all hearing me for real? You got to engage people where they are. Here we go. This is the, the nature of evangelism. This is why people don't want to do it, really, because you don't get to be religious and be effective in this. Religious people are the least effective folk in this process of winning souls. I'm gonna say that one more time. Oh my God. Religious folk are the least effective when it comes to this because they want to push what they think is right on people who just need love, who just need Jesus. We'll get to teaching them the tenets of the gospel and what's right and wrong later. Let's get them in. We're commissioned to show the love of God, and God knows it's hard. Oh, let me just go here real quick and I'm gonna keep moving. It's hard to show the love of God to people who are not saved, and we can't even do it to each other. We're constantly fighting, we're constantly backbiting, we're— oh my God— we're constantly kicking and screaming at each other. And the devil is a liar. That's— and that's part of this fast too. We're talking about the synergy of the saints and the salvation of souls on this fast we're on. So we got to figure out How do we get along? Glory to the name of God. How can we be in the same room and have peace? Glory to the name of Jesus. And operate in love. Oh boy, have mercy, God. Have mercy, God. God is so good. He is so kind. He's so wonderful. Glory to God. Let me keep moving. Let me keep moving. Number 5. I gotta get out of here, man. I got like 5 minutes. I got to get out here. I'm gonna get these 7 to you because I can teach on all this stuff all day, but I just want to give you these 7 principles to be an effective evangelist, believing evangelist. Glory to the name of God. So number 5, you got to be one with the logos. Logos is one of the Greek words for word. See, Here's the problem. There are two New Testament Greek transliterations of the word word when it's talking about the word of God. It's logos and rhema. People start throwing the word rhema, rhema, I want rhema word, rhema word around because they won't— they, they think that that's something deep. But watch this, rhema is simply to put the logos in proper grammatical expression so that it is understood. It's not some deep revelatory thing that you can't really hardly understand. It honestly— Rhema is to put it in proper grammatical expression. The logos is the logic of God. It's how God is thinking. So when it comes to being an effective evangelist, I got to align with how God is thinking. Because first of all, evangelism will not work, again, without the word and without the mind of God. So we already know that in order for me to have the mind of God, I gotta study the word. Word. So being one with logos means you got to study. Come on, Timothy and Paul. He said to him, study to show yourself approved, a workman that need not be ashamed, rightfully dividing the word of truth. So watch this, you have to study this book because guess what? People will respond to the word because oftentimes You may not believe it or not, there are people who are not saved, they know the word because they've heard it, they grew up in the church, and they'll respond to the word. So instead of, um, instead of leaning to your own understanding and doing things the way you want to do it when you're trying to reach people, glory to the name of God, you need to become one with the word of God. Glory to the name of God. That's right, my dear wife, it is the truth. Glory to God. We, we have to become warm to the Lord. You got to study, because if you, if you don't know what you're talking about, you're not going to be a very good witness, especially if you start talking to somebody that actually knows the word. They're going to be— they might not even tell you, but they're going to be sitting there listening. Well, you know, I know that ain't right. You up there talking to them some, some Madea type Crap. Glory to God. Because y'all, if you ever watch those movies, she ain't never got the scripture right. Glory to God. And you're talking, and that's how you sound, because as silly as that is, that's how you sound to that person. And you got to make sure, glory to God, that you're rightfully dividing the word of the living God. We give God praise. Hallelujah. We give God praise. So, so watch this, because you got skeptics out there. You got people who, just to back up their disbelief in the word, they study it and try to make diminish it. So, but if you're operating in power and word, you'll be effective when you speak to these people because you're studying the scripture. So let's go to Ephesians 6:17, and we're going to move on to the last— to number 6 because I got to get out of here. My time is almost gone. I mean, I'm telling you, y'all stay with me just a few more moments. Ephesians 6:17. Glory to God. I hope y'all receiving something out of this today. See, if you want to be effective as a believing evangelist that's winning souls, you got to make the word your priority because on the battleground you got enemies that's— watch this— fighting against this. The devil does not want you to win souls. The devil doesn't want your life to bring people to him. He wants you to get caught up in everything else and make it about you, when really everything that God is doing for you and through you is to get people to him. And I think in the body of Christ we have lost— whoo God— that vision. We've lost that value. But you need to bring the word of God and become one with the logos so that when you're on the battlefield, you got something to fight with. Watch this. The Bible says, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. So when you're battling on the battleground, my God, today you're fighting with word. Glory to God. And the enemy cannot stand against the word of God. Praise God, that's one of your offensive weapons against the enemy. The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Your faith and your sword of the word, it defeats the enemy every time. Man, I can stay there. Let me keep going. Number 6, I'm almost done. You got to revive your secret place. Oh my God, oh my God. So Effective evangelism— hear this— it can't stand the storms that come against it without a prayer life. And listen, I thank God, by God's grace, I got a prayer life. I— listen, that's why, you know, you know, you need to pray every single day, even beyond this fast, us getting up at 5, praying daily. You need to be praying every day. You need to rise up early and seek him. You need to build altars in your house and revive your secret place. Listen, in my experience, the, the most times we've seen people born again, get saved through— in our ministry, through our ministry, they were already— always preceded by times of fasting and prayer. You gotta be prayerful. As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. You— and, and you can't be led by the Spirit of God if you're not a person of prayer. See, and that's why when you go into your day-to-day basis, you need Holy Spirit leading you throughout your day. Are y'all hearing this? So that he'll take you to the people or the person you should be sharing the gospel with. You got to revive your secret place. Glory to the name of God. So that you can see the fruit of evangelism flowing to your life. I'm telling you right now, I'm telling you, as a church, I'm looking for God to bless our church in such a significant way through new souls. The Bible says he adds to the church daily such as would be saved. So I believe the Bible, I believe in praying the word. So that's one of the things I pray daily, because I want to see the people that we currently have become evangelists so that they can speak to people daily and they get saved and the church grows because people are being born again. Are y'all hearing this? I want to see small group ministries launched so that in those small groups, people are not just meeting, drinking coffee, eating pizza, but people are actually getting born again in those small groups. And then they come to the church and we make them disciples. Are you hearing this? Oh God, I need, I need you today, God. So you got— and, and they're reviving your secret place. And I want to say this to you guys. The Bible says pray in the spirit and with understanding. So you gotta allow your language of the spirit, glory to the name of God, to mature and grow. You gotta learn to pray in tongues, man. You gotta let the spirit of God give you utterance and you pray in the spirit, 'cause something is happening when you pray in tongues, glory to the name of God, that doesn't happen when you pray in English, glory to the name of God, something is breaking. So watch this, and when you tap into that secret place, oftentimes, the Holy Spirit will take over your prayer time and all you can pray in is tongues. That is a sign that you have penetrated that secret place. Glory to God. Watch this, go to Luke 8. I'm almost done. Luke 8, because here's reality: demons will try to block what you're trying to do when they know you trying to do something without prayer. You try to do it and you ain't got no prayer life. Oh, y'all ain't saying much to me. Glory to God. You're trying to do a godly work in light and in fire and you ain't got no prayer life, man. Come on, come on, come on, church. Uh, let's go to Luke 8 real quick. Luke 8, I'm almost done. Verse 4, let's read this. The Bible says, and when much people were gathered together And were come to him out of every city, he spake by parable. Verse 5: A sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. Verse 6: And some fell upon a rock, and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. Listen to this. Verse 7: And some fell upon thorns, and the thorn sprang up with it and choked it. And the other fell on good ground. Okay, here we go. And sprang up and bear fruit a hundredfold— of 10,000%, right? A thousand times more. And when he said these things, he cried, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. I wonder why Jesus weeps here. Because when the seed of the word is being sown— because this is what he's talking about, right? And the witnesses taking place, he's telling them, look, it's gonna even follow one of these three places: good ground, thorny ground. Are you hearing this? Stony ground. It's going, it's going. And none of those grounds other than good ground matter because they don't produce fruit. So why is it that there is a dichotomy here? Why ain't all the ground good when we sow the word? It goes back to the secret place. This goes back to tearing down strongholds, preparing the ground. Reviving the secret place, praying before you do. Are y'all hearing this? Because we want to bear fruit, man. We want to see the fruit come forth, and we want the fruit to remain. All right, I'm done. Last one: you want to engage the Holy Spirit. As I stated in the previous point, you got to fellowship with the Holy Spirit, you got to fellowship with God, you got to spend time in the secret place, right? The Holy Spirit is your guide. He's your keeper. He's your teacher. Go to John 16:13. John 16:13. Glory to God. John 16:13. The Bible said, howbeit, when he, the Spirit of Truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth, for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak. And he will show you things to come. So if he knows everything, if he knows the future, he knows about the person you're talking to, why not engage him? I told you the other day that these gifts that we have of the Holy Spirit, they are designed to be used in evangelism. So word of knowledge, word of wisdom, discerning of spirits, the gift of prophecy, miracles, healing, These gifts are in us to touch the lives not just of the saints, but moreover, those that don't know God. So you engage him so that he can cause the gift to be activated, and you can use the gift in your witnessing. Are y'all hearing this? Because he will guide you to all truth, because he's the Spirit of Truth. So he will begin to reveal to you truths about the person you're talking to. And you know, at that very moment— and I'm done— when you're talking to that person, that person experiences the kingdom of God. At the very moment that you're having dialogue with that person, that person is experiencing God when you're engaged in the Holy Spirit and not yourself. So let's be effective evangelists, family. Let's decide that we're gonna make sure, glory to God, that we're operating all 7 of these places. 1, you must be born again. 2, you must be full of divine power. 3, you must break up the fallow ground. 4, you must engage people. 5, you must become with Logos, become one with Logos, the word. 6, you got to revive your secret place. And 7, you got to engage the Holy Ghost. Let's pray. Glory to God. Father, whoo! I pray your people received. I pray this word landed on the good ground of their heart, that they may reap it in this season of their life. I thank you, God, that we will be effective witnesses for you. And Father, because you've given us your Spirit, and the Holy Spirit dwells within us, you dwell within us, and your power dwells within us. So right in this moment, I just really want to pray for and boldness and authority, that we will tap into the inherent ability that you've given us, God, and that with power, authority, and without fear and boldness, we will share the word of the living God with others. We decree and declare that now, and we say it is so. We thank you that many will be turned to righteousness, and because of that, you said in Daniel 12 that we will shine as the brightness of the firmament and as the stars forever and ever. And so we thank you that we will be— we will emerge as lights by night. We will be cities that sit on a hill that cannot be hid. And our lives will not be about us, but it will be about leading people to you. And we give you praise for it now, in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. Listen, I love you guys, man. Thank y'all for tolerating this word and being patient and receiving it. Glory to the name of God. It takes a lot, man. You got to want to, because we live in a world of sound bites, man. Most people only have an attention span for a minute to a minute and 30 seconds. You start going over that, you lose people because people want to scroll, they want to see what everybody else is doing. But it takes a discipline to sit in a position of a learner and hear and receive and evaluate where you are, measure where you are, so you can be better in those areas. So I'm grateful to God for you. Thank you for your time today. We'll be right back here tomorrow in studio, uh, at 5 AM, and then we'll be here at 12 noon teaching once again. And we believe, glory to the name of God, that God is going to meet us here. Listen, if you desire to be a blessing to ministry please, this ministry needs your support. Glory to the name of God. Uh, the ways to give should be scrolling at the bottom of the screen. If you want to sow, whatever you want to give, it, it's a blessing to us, and we will receive it. And we command your seed even now to go back to you a thousand times more. Listen, I want to thank you again, again, once again. It's not too late to fast with us. If you want to join this fast please go to rhodachurch.com/fast25. Glory to God. And download your fast guide and you could tap in to this fast. We gotta— we got through Saturday. We will be closing this fast out on Saturday. So please guys, join us. Listen, if you're in the Atlanta area, want to invite you to worship with us at Rhoda Church on this coming Thursday— uh, Sunday, I'm sorry, this coming Sunday at 9:00 AM. We're having our Family and Friends Day. It's going to be phenomenal. You need to be in the building. Uh, we're intentionally looking for God to move by his power and be a blessing to our family and our friends. And I'm inviting you to be my special guest at these services this weekend. Rhonda Church is located at 410 Santa Fe Trail, right in Ellenwood, Georgia. Hope we get to see you there. I love you guys, man. Y'all be blessed. Have a super day. Peace.