Transforming a Territory | Dr. Mike Woods Sr | Radah Church-Jackson (4 March 23)

I want to talk about— and it's up there— transforming a territory through God's glory. Let me say this: it's a whole lot of talk in the world about the glory. I want to submit to you that even the ones that sound real deep when they talk about the glory— and this is why I was saying before, God wants— there is more. He wants us to come to a new place. But just because you can articulate about it and talk about it doesn't mean you've really experienced it. And very few people have experienced real glory. And one of the things that God told me, he said, I want to— over regions, I want to remove the spirit of Ichabod. Ichabod— and I'm gonna start right here— is the opposite of kavod. Kavad is the Hebrew word for glory. Kavad— let me break down to you what it is, because we're talking about, again, transforming a territory by God's glory. We're here not just to have another church. We did that. We did it. As a matter of fact, honestly, God used us to do some great things. I look at the fruit that came out of my life, whether they're connected to me now or not. Those people from Sandra, from Apostle Brandon, all y'all are still saved. Y'all want God. Y'all hungry. That hunger that was built in y'all still there. So honestly, y'all could have continued without me coming back. I am here because we have to transform this territory, because that's what apostles do. And again, we don't just talk about it, we do it. Anybody knows me, I'm not— even in business, I'm not the person to have a whole lot of meetings. If we're going to do something, let's just do it. If God says it's for us to do, let's do it. Somebody say the word. Say, let's do it. So what we want to do is transform again the territory through God's glory. So say that with me. Say, kavod. Kavod is the weight of God. It's also— watch this— the splendor of God. It is the express person of God. So the glory is literally God putting his weight on us and superimposing who he is on our life and our situations. Not only that, it's the— oh my God— the wealth of God. So this, if If there are people— and I've seen the glory so much, I've seen God move in people's life— but if we're going to see the fullness of glory and see God change territory, it has to change every aspect. You can't tell me you really been in the glory, you still broke. I'm sorry, God owns everything. I'm just, I'm just going to tell you right now, and, and this is just The reality where I am, I understand that God— we cannot establish anything without wealth. You need wealth to do it, and religion is deception. It'll make you believe it's okay to be in poverty, it's okay to be in debt. And the scripture says, owe no man nothing but to love him. That's why I buy houses cash, I buy cars cash, I buy buildings cash, I buy equipment cash. You know why? Because that's God's will for me to do that. And if I'm really in his glory, doing that is easy. I don't care how much we fall on the floor. I done blew on people, they lift up off the floor and just fly to the back of the church. I've seen it all. That's not— that doesn't impress me, because if you get up and you're still the same, you really ain't experienced glory. I just told you it's the weight of God. So when God moves in, everything about him moves in with it. But what has happened, we walk under the auspices of Ichabod or Ichabod. The only difference in Kabod and Ichabod is the letter I. So what keeps you out of glory is I. And the middle thing, the middle letter of everything that keeps you from God is I. One, pride. P-R-I-D-E. Are y'all hearing this? The Bible says God despises a proud spirit. And a haughty spirit leads to destruction. So you really can't get what God has because you're moving too much arrogance. Oh boy, that's ikhivat. We stay separate. And watch this, you can be a humble person that has nothing and just real humble and really believe that God is working in your life and that's a religious pride itself because you refuse to let go of that attitude. You think you're okay. The chief stronghold inside of religion is deception, and we can't change the territory deceived. The difference in a liar and a person that's deceived is a liar know they are lying. Yeah, a deceived person— are y'all hearing me? They have no idea they're deceived. They think they're okay. And so many people walk in strong pride, so they never tap into the real glory of God. Matter of fact, they so stuck that they want to believe that what they're doing really is the glory. Oh, this has to be the glory. Oh, still sick. Can't pray and cast a demon out of mosquito, but, but you in the glory. Okay. Also, watch this, pride, the middle letter of sin is I, S-I-N. So how can you get in glory and you're in sin. The word sin is harmatia in Greek. It means to miss the mark. Okay, you may not say, well, I don't fornicate, I don't lie, I don't commit adultery. Sin is missing the mark. It's coming short. So maybe you don't do what the world calls big sin, or religious folk call big sin, but maybe you're not walking in obedience to purpose. Jesus, or you're not living out your destiny. And when you don't do that, hear me, what happens is— listen to me good— you come short of God's glory. That's why the scripture said, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. See, you come short of God's glory because you start following your own agenda. You start following the popular thing, and you really cannot have glory when you follow the crowd and not the cloud. You, you got to learn to follow the cloud. The Bible said every time the cloud move, Israel move. See, a lot of times we're moving because it's popular, because it sounds a certain way. Because it's getting a lot of likes on Instagram or a lot of likes on Facebook. So we follow— if I could just do that, I can get people like me. You better get out of that mentality that you want the crowd, and you better find the cloud and only move when the cloud moves, because that's the only guarantee that you're following after glory and not really operating under Ichabod. This territory called Mississippi needs great transformation. I'm talking about from even the streets in this city. I'm telling you, I was driving over here today, I promise you I hit one of the same potholes I hit 20 years ago, and I'm like, the devil is a liar. You hit these potholes so deep, you hit them and your car go under the street, you come out on another street. I'm like, this is a problem. This territory needs help. I'm like, we have to be transformative beyond the walls of the church. And you got people right here just trying to fight to have the best church. God is so past that. The kingdom is established outside of these walls. We're not— we could preach kingdom, teach kingdom, talk about the kingdom, but we really are not living in the kingdom until we go out that door and make an imprint in the world. Kingdom is not established in here, it's established out there. That's why we got to empower people that are connected to leaders. And those of you that are leaders in here, you have the power to people that follow you to impact the world outside the church. Empower them to be entrepreneurs. Deploy them to be effective in their day-to-day living. And then the kingdom is represented everywhere. Can I tell you something? There ought not be a pin that drops in Mississippi where somebody in the kingdom cannot hear it. We ought to be a part of everything. You ought to be a part of every kingdom. We ought to have somebody in the medical kingdom, so we got to raise up doctors. We need somebody in the legal kingdom, the justice kingdom. We need lawyers. Oh, y'all ain't saying much because everybody want to preach, everybody want this, and most people that's holding this They don't even know what to do with it. This is overrated because if you ain't called to this, you, you shouldn't even want this. Every day I'll be trying to figure out how can I give this back and just make— just, just go on and just keep making money and advance the kingdom and helping people. I'm not— I've been preaching probably as long as some of y'all been alive, and then I'm not so in love with preaching that I can't stop if God let me. But he ain't gonna let me, so I just gotta keep running my mouth and y'all have to keep listening. Glory to God. But here, here's what I understand. The kingdoms of the world, the entertainment kingdom, the economic kingdom, the media kingdom— we need somebody in every kingdom. 'Cause the scripture says that in that day the kingdoms of the world will become the kingdoms of our God. How can that happen if we're not present in the kingdoms of the world? If all we're doing is hiding in the church, shouting and speaking in tongues, and we have no representation in the world. I'm telling you, I'm looking for the day that God start— see, we be worried about trying to get on the Word Network and get on TBN. Man, that's crazy. I could care less about that. 'Cause guess what? Sinners don't watch TBN. I'm gonna help y'all. Sinners don't watch the Word Network. And y'all that been connected to me, y'all know I've been on television, I've done all of that. We're on television in Georgia. But at the end of the day, our goal is not to reach folks that's like us. I'm looking for God to take over ABC. You want to impress me? Take over a whole network. I'm looking for the CNN anchor, John Lemon, to come on there and say, welcome to the John Lemon Show, this is CNN, and he go to speaking in tongues because God take over the air. Are y'all hearing this? We need to be in every space, not just a space where we're reaching people like us. There's a guy in Atlanta right now. His church is a lot of momentum. His daddy turned the church over to him. When daddy turned the church over to him, just a few members after COVID. In 6 months while this boy been pastoring this church— he's a great preacher, I love him— but here's the problem. 354 people, I think, in 6 months has joined the church. That's a lot of people, right? But it's all membership transfer. Every now and then we baptize 2, we— we— 2 got saved or 5 got saved, but for the most part it's membership transfer. There's no real church growth. The Bible said he adds to the church daily such as would be saved. So we want to grow a church, we got to get people saved. I did the numbers in this city years ago when I first came here, and it ain't even changed much. So out of the populace of the Jackson metro area only about 6.9% is born again. Watch this, it's less than that that's born again and Spirit-filled. Only about 4.3% is born again and Spirit-filled. This is empirical data. This is real research by the Barna Group. I did— George Barna is a prophet, so that's his ministry, to do research on territories. So we did a prophetic research on Atlanta. There are almost 7 million people in Atlanta. Only 12% are born again, and you got about 40 churches in Atlanta that say they mega churches. Where's the growth coming from? It's not real church growth, it's membership transfer. People leave one mega church, go to the next one, get tired of this guy, we go— and they just swapping members. I promise you, I'm going, going New Birth any day and point out 30 people that used to be a member of World Changers, of Creflo's church, because they're swapping people. So we got to figure out how to effectively— because guess what? People are fickle. So as a leader, we got to get people that'll be connected to a bigger vision than a person. See, people come to church and get connected to a person, and what happens when that person lets them down? Okay, let me go over here because he ain't right. I'm going to hell. But what you don't realize, that same person you left and went to somebody else, they got issues that you just don't see yet. And the moment you start worshiping them, God's going to show you they're human. So the church has to be centered around a King, and his name is Jesus. And we have to tie into his bigger vision for the kingdom. So as an apostle, and this is what I wanted to do tonight, I'm just being obedient. I want to entertain you. I want you to grab this. My job in coming in this territory is to bring transformation in a way that will cause people from every walk of life— I got a prophecy from Rick Hawkins when I first started the Destiny Place. We was inside of 566 Northside Drive. Rick Hawkins prophesied to me, and it wasn't nobody in there but me, my wife at the time, about 3 more people. Rick prophesied to me, he said You're gonna build a church in Jackson that has all kind of people. It's gonna be a melting pot. You're gonna be a black man in Mississippi that pastors white people and black people. And that really ain't never happened. You got— got it the other way. You got white pastors that got a whole bunch of black folk, 'cause for some reason black people in Mississippi kind of believe that, okay, I can kind of trust, you know, them a little bit better. And so they, they'll, they'll, you know, okay, I ain't gonna say too much about that. But the reality is I received that word, and so that's part of what we got to finish. But we can't do that just doing the same old stuff. We got to have a bigger vision that will impact people where they are. So how do you change the territory, Michael? I'm glad you asked. There are two— there are three things I'm gonna give you in the text, but to lay a backdrop to this, and really I'm almost finished, I just sound long. I'm gonna just put this down. Can y'all hear me? Y'all hear me? Can y'all hear me? You can't hear me? No, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna hold it. Okay, glory to God. Do we need to pray for your ears tonight, woman of God? Okay, praise God. Listen, so two things that must happen. This is the foundation of transformation. Then I'm gonna give you the keys to change the territory. But this is the foundation, because if you don't have these two things, the three things I'm gonna give you in the text don't even matter. So let's get the foundation. The first thing you need if you're gonna change territories, Apostle Calhoun, is that you need an apostle. You need a real apostle, not somebody that woke up and say, I'm gonna put apostle on my name And I don't just call myself an apostle because it's convenient to do so. If you're gonna change the territory, you need a real apostle. Most of these people that call themselves apostles, they can't even define what an apostle is. If you line up 20 of these jokers that say, "I'm Apostle such-and-such," and ask them to define the word apostle, they won't be able to do it because they don't have apostolic succession. Apostolic succession starts with Jesus Christ because you can't call yourself to be an apostle. The idea of being an apostle— the Greek word is apostolos. And it says you are a sent one. Who sent you? Jesus. And you have a clear revelation that what's on your life, you didn't create. It came from Jesus Christ. Listen, when God called me to this office, I was a little boy and I knew I would never wanted to do it because God would show me visions on the hell I had to go through to walk under this anointing. I'm like, I don't wanna do that. And I fought it for years. And my father showed up at my church on Northside Drive here and said, I don't care what you say, I'm affirming you tonight. He brought certificates and all. I was like, no, I'm not doing that, man. I told him, I said, I'm in Mississippi, I'm a pastor. I'm not an apostle. I'm gonna be, and this is exactly what I told him. Y'all probably gonna laugh when I say it. I said, I'm gonna be the T.D. Jakes of Jackson. He said, man, you'll never succeed at that. He said, you are an apostle, you're already doing the work, you're planting churches, you're casting out devils, you're moving in power. How you gonna deny it? I knew it because God had already told me that's who I was, and he came and affirmed it. So the succession— watch this— came from God first, then he spoke to another person. See, if you're telling me you're an apostle, somebody else needs to agree with that other than you. Ah, okay, okay, because, because there's a lot of apostles that the only person agree is them. Even the people they pastor looking at them like, man, what are you doing? You're not But you gotta have heritage. You gotta have succession. Because being apostolic, again, it means to be a sent one, sent from God. What are you sent with? The word apostolos suggests, number one, you're sent with plenipotentiary status. What does that mean? An apostle has the potential to one operate in all 5 offices. You can't tell me you're an apostle and there's no prophetic mantle on your life. See how Apostle Hawkins was up here and she was flowing prophetically? Things start coming out of her because she's an apostle. The man of God's playing, he's an apostle prophetically. As a minister, stuff flows out of him. 'Cause when you're an apostle, you cannot escape the prophetic realm. You're too close to God not to be able to prophesy. And watch this, and to prophesy accurately. 'Cause see, here's a lot of apostles, what they do, 'cause they know they don't have plenipotentiary status, they make up prophecies. They prophesy to make it They're some of the biggest actors I've ever seen. Hollywood don't know what it's missing. I'm telling you, if they want some good actors, they need just come to the church. I'm telling you, they'll have some Oscar, Grammy Award-winning actors, because these people play a lot of games. If you're an apostle, you can also be an evangelist. I've talked to apostles, "I don't evangelize. I don't knock on doors. I don't go in the community." Well, how you gonna get folk to come to your meeting? The Bible told— listen, the Apostle Paul told Timothy, "Make full proof of your ministry. Do the work of an evangelist." Apostles should be the best evangelists because they carry government, they carry power. So when they walk into a region, people ought to come and experience what's on their life. If you're an apostle— you can't tell me an apostle, you can teach? If all you doing is tuning up, mm-hmm, it's all you gonna do is do that, you're not really Apostolic because an Apostle has a key inside of his office or she has a key inside of their office where they unlock the mysteries of the kingdom and articulate what's on God's mind to people. And you can't do that if all you do is tune up. You have to be a teacher. A teacher brings balance. Then an apostle has to be able to pastor because an apostle has to be able to plant churches and pastor the church long enough until he raises up a senior leader. So an apostle has plenipotentiary status. Also in that plenipotentiary status, the apostle also has the ability to move in and out of all nations. 9 gifts: tongues, interpretation of tongues, healings, miracles, prophecy, working of miracles, discerning of spirits. He knows how to succinctly operate in these gifts. He can wake up in the morning and prophesy and have discernment of spirit because that's what apostles do. God trusts the apostle with this government because, watch this, He also has, in addition to plenipotentiary status, the Apostle also has gubernatorial authority. Somebody say, "What in the world is that?" Gubernatorial authority means that he has the government of Jesus on his shoulders, which means when I come into the earth as an Apostle, I carry a government where God says, "I'm trusting you to do what I would do if I was there, and I'm trusting you to operate like I would operate." me if I was on earth. So apostles should be doing what Jesus did, because again, that's where the succession starts. That's why we go through so much hell, because we have to be broken to a point where God breaks us and says, okay, I can trust you with this mantle because you've proven in your brokenness that you won't quit on me. You can't be like Jesus if you can't endure crucifixion. You can't be like Jesus if you can't die on the cross and get up. Hallelujah. If you can't be crucified by others and get up from it and say, I'm gonna keep moving. See, many of you here, the devil has hit you with his best shot, but you're still standing. He's hit you with his best blow, but you still alive. I'm a witness. He's— the devil has hit me with his best shot. He don't have no better shot than he's taken at me. I'm telling you, the Joker has tried to kill me, but I'm still here. As a matter of fact, in some areas, he did kill me. Only for God to resurrect me and make me better. And listen, when you come back from the dead, you're able to say, I'm back and I'm better than ever. Shama andiosa. I dare you, shout it. I'm back and I'm better than ever. Don't let the devil keep you in the grave. Get up from there. And apostles— let me, let me, let me move. Plenipotentiary status, gubernatorial authority. Apostles are also stratospheric warriors. Apostles are air traffic controllers. You can't tell me that you're apostolic if you don't have a prayer life. My God, I live with my wife. Y'all can ask her what I do every day. That's my, that's my day. Glory to God. I spend time with God. I cannot function in what I do in the realm of— because an apostle's impact is felt more in the realm of the spirit than it is— listen to this— in the flesh, or in the earth realm, or in the physical realm. Let me give you an example. I say this all the time, a lot of my pastor friends in Georgia be like, man, I believe you because I see it happening. So I know my position in my city, in Atlanta. I'm not trying to be Creflo or Eddie Long, or, well, KB Eddie Long, I'm not trying to be— glory to God, yeah, I'm not trying to be none of those guys, Dale Bronner, none of those guys. I understand, watch this, that every pastor in my city gets to do what they do because I'm there, because God made me the gatekeeper. I am an apostolic gatekeeper. I control the airways. Let me give you an example. When Bishop Long— and that's why I called his name, because that thought was running through my head— went through that stuff he went through, God showed me long before he went through it he was gonna go through it. So I started praying, because no matter what you say about Bishop Long, Bishop Long was a great pastor. Bishop Long took care of our city as a leader. He had his own issues, but he was a great pastor. And God told me, this can't kill him. And the only thing to ward those demons off from him was prayer. And I prayed until God said, let it go. And when I let it go, things started turning, because God said, I got to step in and I got to take over this. But at the end of the day, my job was to keep him alive as long as God needed him alive. See, I know that's, that's too much for some people, but at the end of the day, apostolic ministries change territories because they respect the leaders that work in that territory and they understand the assignment to those leaders. And he don't know to this day, of course, that I was doing that, but that was an assignment God gave me, and it's not something I have broadcast often. And I'm saying it here because this is an intimate setting, but at the end of the day, the reality is I'm trying to show you how the stratospheric authority apostles should control the airways to protect the territory from strongholds and demons that try to keep the people enslaved. And there's a problem in this territory. Y'all, the stronghold in this region is religion, and it has so many people deceived. And even those that call themselves supernatural ministries, some of them are just as religious— hear me— as the religious folk, because they do the same thing over and over again and their people don't have no results. See, I'm not gonna judge you by what you're doing in a service. I'm gonna judge you by the fruit of your people. Because, because here's what apostles do. When an apostle shows up in his stratospheric authority— because again, plenipotentiary status, gubernatorial authority, stratospheric warrior— when that— when apostle shows up in that authority, the first thing an apostle do when they walk in a room is they measure things. Oh, when you enter into a territory, you start measuring. The word measure is metron, which means you put a meter and set a standard to it. You define where the place is. And as a stratospheric warrior, God shows you where the place is and how you can help. Here's the problem, because people don't understand how to receive An apostle, when they show up, they miss the metron, because nobody wants to be measured. Everybody wants to believe they're okay. Oh Lord, I'm gonna get to Psalm 67, I promise you. Secondly, after the apostle measures, he teaches the people how to manage. He has a management anointing that teaches people how to manage the gift that's in them. A lot of people are frustrated and never get to where they're trying to go. One, because they never measured. You can't go into the future if you don't establish where you are. I walked in the mall one day, I was looking for a store and they had— I couldn't find it, didn't know where it was, and I went to the directory Y'all know what that is, right? Some of y'all ain't been to a mall in so long, you're like, "Uh, what is a directory?" It's that, that map, that big old thing that tells you where everything is. I walked up to it and there was an arrow on the directory that said, "You are here." I had to establish my position. I had to measure where I was. Watch this, and I had to accept it. So that I can get to where I was trying to go. I'm on the first floor, but if I would have been deceived and said, "Nah, bruh, you on the third floor," I never would have got where I was trying to get. So many people in the body of Christ don't get where they're trying to go because they reject measuring, they reject management. Watch this, because to change the territory, we must deploy masters. That's what apostles do, they deploy masters. We have too many novices who are out here doing things who have not been adequately deployed. Again, the apostles' anointing is a sending anointing, so his job is to send you out properly measured, properly managed, as a master of what you're called to do. Not learn as you go. Listen, we don't have time for on-the-job training. You need to get trained before you go. And the only way you're gonna get trained before you go, you got to sit at the feet of somebody that knows what they're talking about. I told y'all last time, when I start walking in this, this new level of, this new realm of wealth and faith that God is trusting me with, I had to get around people that know stuff about this that I didn't know. So I started listening to billionaires. I started listening to people who are already doing what God has commanded me to do, and I start connecting with men— glory to the name of God— that could pour into me and deploy me as a master in this area, because I'm not too arrogant to take the position of a learner. You'll never be a master if you don't take the position of a learner. You earn what you learn. Let me say that one more time, somebody missed it. You earn what you learn. The word earn is inside of learn. Spell it, L-E-A-R-N. You learn what a doctor knows, you'll earn what he earns. You learn what a lawyer knows, you'll earn what he earns. You can show up at Saint Dominic's, you want to, and put on a white coat saying you're a doctor. The moment you go and stick a Q-tip in the wrong place, they gonna know you weren't trained and you didn't learn. But if you go to school, glory to God, and learn what that neurosurgeon knows, you're gonna earn what he earns. You can't teach me how to be a billionaire if you ain't never made a billion dollars. Amen. I'm not gonna waste my time listening to you. With all due respect, ain't nothing you could tell me 'Cause you don't have a billion. So I'm gonna listen to the folk that got a billion. I'm gonna listen to Warren Buffett. I'm gonna listen to Stan McGramm. I'm gonna listen to Oprah, the people that got a billion. Okay, that's what grown folk— but when you in an apostolic house, you get deployed as a master of what you're designed to do. And this is how we change territories. Glory to God. So let's go to the text. Hallelujah. I'm almost through, believe it or not. Y'all getting anything out of this? Glory to God. Praise God. Psalm 67. The Bible says, to the chief musician of on negenah. Now I want to stop right there. Negenah, watch this, in Hebrew means a mocking or a song that makes fun of those in pursuit of God's goodness. So this psalm was written to a chief musician that was mocking people who are trying to get more of God. Do you realize whenever you make up your mind you're gonna get more of God, there gonna be people who say something's wrong with them? That's a cult, you shouldn't be a part of that. We dealt with that a lot when I was here before. People used to call our church a cult all the time because they didn't understand what we was doing. But at the end of the day, people will mock your growth because they don't understand that God has something bigger planned for you. But you have to learn to dismiss the distractions. Say that with me. Say dismiss the distractions. You ever seen that movie— I'm finna date myself, some of y'all probably never seen this, uh, and some of y'all probably too saved that you never go to the movies or Yeah, I grew up in that church where they told me it was a sin to go to the movies, but my pastor had all these VCR tapes in his house. Like, what, what are you talking about? It's a sin to watch a movie? You got all these tapes. I need some answers. Glory to God, you, you teaching me from the pulpit that I can't watch this, but you at home watching it. Anyway, that's another message for another day. But anyway, What you got to realize is, is that God will take things that are carnal and show you some real life in it. So I saw this movie a long time ago called Fatal Attraction. Y'all seen that? Chick was crazy. That's why you have to watch where you lay your head. Come on, somebody. 'Cause chick was off the chain. She was crazy, bananas. And it really turned out fatal. She was killing herself emotionally. She was killing herself physically. She was trying to kill the man, the wife, the little girl, the pets. It was fatal. But I want to submit to you tonight that distractions can be fatal. Fatal distractions. You can get so distracted, distracted that it destroys your destiny. Let me show you what that looks like. So you get distracted and the distraction creates a delay. So you get distracted by what people are saying, other folks' opinion, and now you get delayed on the road to trying to finish what God tells you to do. You got distracted, now you're delayed. And most of the time when you're delayed, you get frustrated. You ever been late? Some of y'all don't care nothing about being late, but when— if you ever really been late and want to get somewhere on time, It frustrates you when a delay happens. Listen, I live in Atlanta. The traffic is ridiculous. So when I'm trying to go somewhere, I'm already mapping out in my mind if I need to leave early enough to beat this traffic, because at the end of the day, I hate it. Last night I went to the Hawks game. I took one of my friends with me. He lived— and I don't even— I love the boy. I'm like, why I signed up for this? I don't know. I'm like, who— what was wrong with you, boy? Because I want to get to the game on time. But he lived 40 minutes from my house already, oh, in the other direction of the arena. And I said, you know what, I call myself leaving early enough to go get the man of God. That's— I'm going to get And I'm driving, and lo and behold, Atlanta traffic was faithful as it always is. I sat at a standstill trying to get— it's already 40 minutes, y'all— trying to get to this brother's house. I sat in traffic for 40 minutes. I'm sitting in that car praying, speaking in tongues, 'Cause see, I ain't forgot how to cuss. So I'm like, let me speak in tongues so I don't cuss. Y'all ain't got to say nothing. Look how y'all looking at me like, okay. Like you just left heaven to come to church tonight. I ain't forgot. You ain't forgot neither. I ain't forgot how to fight. I just don't fight. Glory to God. Trust me, I remember how to do it. And if you— if somebody come up in my house, start messing with my children, messing with my grandchild, my family, I'm gonna fight, 'cause I ain't forgot. But anyway, I'm sitting there just trying to keep my mind, and the Lord said, "Son, I'm trying to teach you that everything in life," watch this, "has opposition when you're trying to progress." You cannot progress without being opposed. At every level you're trying to get to, there's an opposer. So I'm sitting in the delay and God starts talking to me. I turn on my music and let him start ministering to me, and I'm like, okay God, I get it. So I got real calm, got real patient, and I had a peaceful delay because a few times I was tempted to turn around and and just go on to the arena. I said, I'm gonna just call the man of God, say, this ain't working, you know, I gotta go. But the Lord said, no, you be patient, because delays— watch this— that are born out of distraction always lead to detours. If you don't handle the delay properly, you're gonna take a detour and try to take a shortcut. And if you get on a detour, the detour ultimately leads to destruction. You destroy the purpose. See, watch this. If I would have went, turned around, took the detour, and went— just went on to the arena, I would have destroyed the purpose of me taking him. We had a great time. We talked about God. It encouraged him. He was excited. He was happy. I mean, it And this is a man that's gone through a lot of hell in his life. And to be able to have a night away from his norm and just do something different, it brought him so much joy. And I, even though I got to the game, it was 9 minutes left in the second quarter. So I mean, I missed the whole first quarter. I still found joy in that. Because I didn't get so distracted by what I thought I needed and let it take away from the real purpose of why I was taking this man, because God put it on my heart to take him. Glory to God. Y'all, y'all get what I'm saying? So you can't be distracted like these These, these actually was Midianites who were worshiping in the temple who were being distracted by this mocker. And you can't never let nobody distract your worship. You gotta make up in your mind, I'm gonna worship, I'm gonna give God praise, I'm gonna serve God if nobody else does. Amen. So the Bible says, God be merciful unto us and bless us. Y'all hear this? And cause his face to shine upon us, that thy way may be known upon the earth, that saving health may come to all nations. Whew, I'm almost through, I promise you. Listen to this. So there's 3 things in that text that we got to embrace if we're gonna change the territory. One, the first thing says, "Lord, be merciful to us." You cannot change a territory without mercy. You can't do it in your own authority. You can't do it without the help of God. Touch yourself and say, Lord, be merciful to me. Let me tell you what you're saying. You're not saying, God, have grace, give me grace. There's a difference in grace and mercy. Grace, charis in Greek, it is charisma, it is a gift. That, watch this, empowers you toward righteousness. Even when you get forgiven of sin through grace, it should be empowering you toward righteousness or to a righteous cause. Mercy, saul in Hebrew, it literally means, watch this, that God stoops down as a superior to inferiors and he shows us favor. He stamps his badge on our forehead and says, I am with you everywhere you go. So you need the mercy of God because you can't do it in your own power. If we're going to impact this territory We need God to lean down, stoop down, and show us favor. But mercy cannot gravitate to us— hear me— if we think we're all that. Mercy starts with humility. You got to humble yourself as an inferior to a superior and say, God, you're bigger than me. 'And everything you got, I need.' The moment you start believing you can do this without God, the moment you start believing that your ministry, your business, your life, your marriage can work without mercy, you're going to miss it, and it's going to be hard. Watch this. The scriptures declare the way of a transgressor It's hard when you transgress against mercy, because we— all we do is run after grace. Everybody wants grace, but I want grace and mercy. I don't just want God to be gracious to me, I want him to stamp his approval on my life. And you know what that means? That means when you walk into any situation, you're already approved. Wait a minute. Okay, you ever got them letters? And maybe your credit might have been bad so long you ain't got no pre-approvals, but there are some letters that come in the mail that say you've been pre-approved for this card this long. Y'all ever got them? All right, so we got some good credit folk in here. Good. Listen, so at the end of the day You're already pre-approved when God stamps his mercy on you. I'm telling you tonight, if you will receive the mercy of God, every place you've been told no, God's going to turn it into a yes. Oh, glory to God! Every place the enemy has tried to reject you and deny you, if you receive the mercy of God, it's going to become a yes. I dare you to throw your hands up and say, Lord, I receive your mercy. Glory to God. He's— the psalmist says, be merciful to us because these people are mocking us. Let them see that you are with us. You can't change a territory if the territory doesn't see that God is with I'm telling you right now, what we're about to do in this region— this region is gonna see not Michael Woods, not a group of people that's coming together just to do something. They're gonna see that God is really with us. They're gonna see the mercy of God, the favor of God in everything we put our hands on. Listen, if you were following us during the fast, I started making a confession and put my faith on something for this region. And one of the things God told me to do to show his favor, to show his mercy on our life and on our ministry, is to purchase a worship facility— watch this— without the bank, debt-free, with no mortgage. So day one, we'll walk in it without a mortgage. And I'm telling you, and we, we have our faith on it for 2023. Uh, just, just sure as my name is Michael, it's gonna happen. Glory to Jesus. I got two buildings I'm eyeing right now that God is getting ready to give us. One that— because I talked to the man last week— one they're asking $800,000 for, but he said, you know what, I'ma tell you something. He's a realtor. He said, I talked to the owner, and I'm just let you in on a secret. That's favor, that's mercy. He said to me, he said, don't offer him over $480,000 because he's willing to take $480,000, and the building is $800,000, and it sits on 9 acres. Right off I-55, you can see it from the highway. It's about 7,900 square feet of meeting space, and then all that land to expand and build if we need to. But the testimony is going to be we bought it with no bank. Glory to Jesus! That's something to get happy about, I'm telling you. Oh boy, I'm just telling you, when you walk in mercy, what God does for you has little effort. I've been walking in this a long time. I remember I first went full-time in ministry. I could testify like this all night. When I first— when I was married to Michael Jr., Mama, when I first went full-time, I quit my job. I started doing meetings, wasn't making no money. I would travel, preach 5 days, get $200 for 5 days. Sometime I go preach, get $50 for 2 days. But I was faithful to the work of the Lord. But she was looking at me like, bro, this is not gonna work. Are you sure God called you? She even got to prophesy, thou art not called, go get a job. She was speaking, but at the end of the day, I'm like, you got to see what God's doing. And God says, I want to show her what I can do. One month we had no groceries. We had a couple cans of Van Camp's— y'all remember Van Camp's? Beans in the cupboard. Some oodles and noodles. Y'all know what that is, right? All that high sodium. But that's all we had, and we had water. And the Lord said, I'm gonna feed you for the next 4 months. I said, Lord, what you gonna do? I said, I don't know. He said, I didn't tell you to know. I just want you to follow my instructions. And when you're walking in mercy, the relationship with mercy will speak to you. I said, okay, this is what you do to get what you need. So he said, I want you to get up, go to the grocery store. I said, okay God, I ain't got no money, can't go to jail. What, what we doing here? What we doing? He said, go to the store. I went to the Kroger right there on Old National Highway. Hallelujah. And God said, get a buggy. He said, walk through this store and start filling up the buggy with everything you need. I said, Lord, what are we doing? I ain't got no money. He said, fill up the buggy. I was just start obeying. I said, okay, Lord, I'm shopping like I got money. I start, I went to the meat section and loaded up with steaks, shrimp, ribs. I'm talking about my buggy was filling up so fast it looked like them folk on the first of the month. I'm talking, it was hot. I'm saying my buggy was packed. Listen, I got over to aisle 9, hear me. And the Lord said, "Praise me." I said, "What are you talking about, God?" He said, "Dude, praise me." I said, "Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah, I love you." The Lord said, "I didn't say do that. I said praise me." So I said, "Hallelujah, glory to God. I'm going in." With the buggy, I'm praising, I'm going in, and I stopped and I looked to my left and I saw this little white woman peeking around the corner looking at me, and I stopped. She said— the Lord said, keep praising me. So I kept praising, I'm going in, I'm talking, I'm going in with the buggy, hollering, I'm yelling, I'm about it, I'm in it. I said, God, we're gonna do this, let's do it. I turned the corner again. The woman looking. So the Lord said, go to the register. I start rolling toward the register. The woman stopped me and said, hey, what was that you was doing over there on aisle 9? I said, I was giving God praise. She said, don't you know you're in a public place? She said, you look silly in here doing that. Then the Lord said to me, he said, prophesy to her. I said, okay, Lord, I'm in. I said, I'm in. I said, but I ain't got no word. The Lord said, tell her her husband is at home eating a tuna fish sandwich. I said, Lord, this woman already think I'm crazy. Now here you go telling me tell her somebody. He said do what I said. This is mercy working. I'm telling you, mercy was working. Glory to God. And let me tell you what happened. Listen, I prophesied to her. I said, woman, your husband is at home eating a tuna fish sandwich. She said, I knew you were crazy. She said, my husband has been diagnosed with a disease that's going to kill him in the next 3 months. He's under hospice care with tubes running through his nose, running down his throat. He can't eat solid food. As a matter of fact, he hasn't eaten solid food in a year. And now you tell me he's at home eating a tuna fish sandwich. I'm calling the police. I said, ma'am, the Lord told me to tell you don't call the police, call him. She said, okay, I'm gonna call him. So back then you had to be real rich to have a cell phone. So she didn't have no cell phone. She went outside. I'm rolling up with all my buggy, pushing this heavy buggy. Toward the front, she goes out the door. There's payphones out there. She picks up the payphone, puts some money in, dials the husband. I'm looking through the window saying, Jesus, please. I really don't know what you're doing, but I told you I can't go to jail when I came in here. The woman started screaming. She said, ah! And she dropped the phone and stepped back and looked at it. And she picked it up and started having a conversation. And I'm like, my God. She comes back in. She said, who are you? She said, you know, I called my husband and I expected the nurse to pick up the phone, but he picked up. And she said, I asked him What are you doing? He said, I'm sitting at the table and I'm eating a tuna fish. I'm eating a tuna fish sandwich. That's mercy at work. She said, I don't know who you are. Watch this, but here's the moral of the story. I don't know who you are, but everything in that buggy I'm gonna pay for it. Hallelujah, hallelujah. I'm telling you, mercy will work. I just stood back while the lady just rung up all that stuff and they bagged it up, and I ate good for 6 months. Because mercy will take care of you. Say it with me. Say, Lord, be merciful unto me. Then the text said, and bless us. Oh, so mercy, then blessing. You can't change a territory without blessing. Everything bad is under the curse. The Bible said God has redeemed us from the curse of the law. So when you get saved, you should not be living under the curse. You should be living under the blessing. Phew. It's too many saved people living beneath their privilege. You should be living in the land of plenty. You should be living under the blessing. Wait a minute, and I know a lot of preachers won't preach this, but I don't care. They're gonna stay broke. But listen, I need you to understand something, and they people gonna stay broke because they won't preach it. They won't teach them about money. See, many people struggling with money because they don't know how the kingdom works in the money realm. See, the money is a whole nother realm that God uses as a tool in the earth to advance the kingdom. And he uses the blessing to get money to his people because we need it. Why would he tell you he's going to take you into a wealthy place that you never get there? Oh my God, why would he tell you he will supply your needs? Philippians 4:19, according to symphoneo in Greek, according. So we'll get words like symphony, which we are in alignment where we're in the same key with. Everybody in the symphony has different instruments, but if they play everything in C, it's going to sound the same. God says, I want to bless you not out of what I have, but according to what I have. If I bless you out of what I got, I can give you $5 out of it. But if I bless you according to what I got, that's gonna be a pretty big check, I'm telling you right now. But you, you got to understand that God has more than all of us. And he says, I'm going to supply what you need in accordance to what I have, my riches in glory. Why would your daddy's using words like rich? Why are we afraid of that word? Listen, my natural daddy is rich, but I'll never see a dime of his money while he alive, because he ain't gonna give you nothing. That's just how he is. He don't give you no money. Now that's why he rich, because he don't give nobody nothing. But he rich. But our Daddy in heaven, he's well, he's loaded. Good God Almighty. And he wants to give you what he has so you can advance his call and transform a territory. It takes money to do it. We have to have that blessing. That's why we can say we're gonna buy a building that's priced at $800,000, a building that's priced at $600,000, because we know our daddy is rich. There are no limits in what he wants to do if we align with his purpose. Oh God, I'm almost done, I promise you. Say, "Blessed." The Hebrew word there is "barak." Barak means to adore. It means to rock back and forth and adore. Barak means when the king walks in, you go to your knees and you kneel and you rock back and forth. God says he wants to bless us. He wants to— watch this— The only way God will ever worship what he gives us is that he sees himself in it. He will never worship you, but he'll worship himself in you. See, there's a life that'll make God worship. A lot of time we say worship is only directed toward God, but God will worship himself because the Bible said he declares by himself that he is God. So he will declare, I'm God and I'm God all by myself. And when he sees himself, he'll barak what he sees. I'm telling you, you got to live so that God blesses what's in you. Wait a minute, the scripture said— y'all don't believe it— the Bible said the blessing of the Lord makes rich and adds no sorrow. We got so many sorrowful saints. Just mad, walking around looking like they just sucked a lemon dry. You ought to have some joy. Amen. And the blessing makes rich. That— and listen, if you translate that word rich in Hebrew, it's talking about money, it's talking about material good. I don't need trying to— I heard some people trying to spiritualize that and make it about being deep in tongues and all that. Listen, I love speaking tongues. That's why I walk in the blessing, because I pray in the spirit. But at the end of the day, when I get through praying in the spirit, I'm gonna go get what God told me is mine. So when you lay out in the flow and get knocked out in the spirit, get up and go get what you need. Don't get up the same. That's all I'm saying. The blessing makes rich. Wait a minute, Jesus even said I became poor. That's right. That you might be rich. That through my poverty— come on now. So Jesus came off the throne, not that you could stay poor. He came down from heaven. Even when he shows up in our services and manifests himself, he don't come down here for us to stay the same. How do I achieve this blessing? I'm gonna tell you a quick secret. One, if you want to achieve this blessing that makes rich in the earth realm as kingdom people, first thing we have to do, we got to control the market, the marketplace. We got to be in the marketplace present. The marketplace is where goods are exchanged and sold. The Bible said the wealth of the wicked is laid up for the just. We're not wicked, we're just because we're saved. Only way I'm gonna get wicked wealth, I got to be positioned in the marketplace for the transfer to take place. You'll never get it if you ain't in position. You'll be hoping, wishing, and praying all your life and it'll never show up because you're not present. So we're gonna get this wealth blessing, we got to be in the marketplace. Also, we need to be in the mill. The mill is where products are created. How you gonna tell me the Holy Ghost is in you, who is, by the way, a creator, but you don't know creator? Say that with me. Say, I'm a creator. Because the Holy Spirit lives in me. Come on, say it again. Say, I'm a creator because the Holy Spirit lives in me. We messed around and went to sleep, and a heathen created an Apple Watch. Y'all ain't got to say nothing. We went to sleep, glory to God, and a heathen created a Tesla when that was in the believer. but because God said, I need the technology in the world, y'all sleep. So I'm gonna rain on the just as well as the unjust. We need creators so the blessing can be produced. So if you control the mill, the marketplace— watch this— that will give you the money, but you got to get in position in both places. That's how we change territories. What can we— oh, me and my wife was riding by this land in Mississippi, all this undeveloped land. Yes, there's— watch it— there's not an amusement park in Mississippi. In this capital city, there's not an amusement park. There's not a pro team. Somebody needs to create that. Are y'all hearing this? People get excited in Mississippi when Nissan comes because Nissan's gonna supply jobs. They get excited when Amazon shows up because Amazon is creating something for you to be an employee, and you'll never control the wealth punching the clock. You cannot be employed and change territory. You got to be deployed. It's too much opportunity in this region. Some of you are making people rich with your skills when you could be doing that for yourself. Okay, I'm almost done. So We need mercy. Say mercy. Mercy. We need blessing. Blessing. Watch this, he says, and make your face shine upon us. So we need mercy, blessing, and illumination. Your face shine upon us. We need the illumination of God's face to superimpose on our face and on our lifestyle. What's in God's face? Anthropomorphically, God has the same face as we do because we're created in his image, right? So God has eyes. So in God's face is his eyes. So we need illumination so we can see things the way God sees He sees them. Because for too many times in our life, we've looked at ourselves through the lens of other people. We've defined ourselves by other people, and we lived our life based on their opinions of us. But if you define yourself by others, you become what they have created and not what God created. It, which means now you're missing the mark and you're coming short of the glory, and you can't change territory. That's what we got to do. We got to change territory through looking through the lens of God. You got to have a God's eye view of life. That's when it illuminates— when God illuminates your eyes, you start seeing everything like he sees it. You look at your money like he looks at it. When you start looking through God's eyes, you get what is called telescopic vision. A telescopic visionary has the ability to take things afar and bring them close. Yeah, you also get microscopic vision. What is small and you can see it big. See, I don't just see another church. I mean, Apostle Keneah is doing a great job with church part. I want him to keep doing it. He's doing what God tell him to do. He's forging a revival. My job— I'm coming back in here to change this whole region outside of these four walls. I see something bigger than just a bunch of people packed in the church. I see stadiums being built here, y'all. Yeah, because that's what this territory needs. I see the downtown area in this city growing beyond the wildest imagination of the visionaries of this city. I see people looking to move here because of the success that starts happening in this region. I see the last becoming the first. Oh, glory to Jesus! The Bible said the last shall be first. Mississippi has been behind in everything for a long time. We got to change that. Behind the education, behind economically. We got to change the paradigm and make people look at the glory of God on this region and say, oh my God, there's something happening in Mississippi. And it ain't just people yelling and screaming and, and having good church. Of course we're gonna have some good church, but when we get through having good church, we got to change the territory. 'Cause watch this, the only reason we're having church is so we can change the territory. I've been in church all my life. The first house I went to when I left the hospital was a church. I'm not that enthused about going to church. I want to obey Jesus and go into the world, go into the system and preach the gospel to every creature, not just through my voice but through how I live. Through my lifestyle, I get to minister to all kind of people because of the position God has put me in as an apostle in the marketplace. And the meal— I minister to athletes and celebrities because of my position outside the walls. Some of them people will never come to church, but they'll sow a seed. Y'all ain't got to say nothing. And they appreciate the blessing that I give them from the Lord. But if I want in the marketplace, I won't be able to do that. Are y'all hearing this? I don't need to be a pastor and need you to pay my light bill or pay my car note or pay my mortgage. I'm gonna pay tithes with you so we can advance the kingdom. And the thing about it I ain't always been able to say that. There's a time I really needed you to give so I could eat. I ain't lying, I'm telling you. If y'all didn't get right, someone right the next week. And see, I learned real quick, can't depend on church folk. I like to eat, and I like to eat good stuff. And don't nobody call the church on Monday and say Did we meet all the needs, Pastor? Don't nobody do that. Ain't nobody ever called back to the church and said— in no church I ever planted— and said, did we meet the needs Sunday? If so, here go a check to help toward that. So people gonna do what they do. So I'm gonna just create another stream here and another stream here. So if nobody does nothing The church is taken care of. Are y'all hearing this? This is how we change territory, and verse 2 proves it. He said that we have mercy, blessing, and illumination. He said his way will be known on the earth. So we have mercy operating our life. Blessing operating in our life. Illumination. God's eyes. God's mouth. We're speaking like God speaks. We have his nose. We're sensitive like he is. He said his ways will be known in the earth, not just in the church. People outside of here need to know his ways. Amen. He said, and thy saving health among the nations, all ethnicities. That mean the nations mean ethnicities, all races of people will experience the glorious power of Jesus Christ. Genesis 1:28 says that we should be fruitful, multiply, subdue, replenish, and have dominion. This is the Dominion Mandate. The word Rada means dominion and authority. Rada Church is an apostolic and prophetic ministry designed to assist kingdom citizens, believers, to deliberately help them really to shift their life into supernatural overflow, because you really can't have dominion and moving your dominion purpose without supernatural overflow. So Rhoda Church exists to help you discover your dominion purpose, cuz your purpose is never your decision, is always your discovery. And once