When God When, Part 2: "Accepting God's Timing, PT B." | Dr. Mike Woods, Sr.

Well, praise the Lord, everybody! This is the day the Lord has made, and we certainly will rejoice. Glory to God, and be glad in it. Listen, welcome tonight to our Thursday night Bible class. I have literally missed you guys. I've been on the road, I think, um, these last couple of weeks. I was in Denver, I was in Cairo, and we've missed these Thursday nights. But I'm so glad to have the opportunity to be back in your presence again, uh, sharing the word of the Lord. Now here's what I need you guys to do, uh, be very expeditious about this, please. I need you guys to share, uh, this live stream tonight. Uh, we're going to share the word of the Lord, and I believe with all of my heart that there is a word from God and that our lives are going to be changed because of what we hear. So do me a favor, guys, please go ahead and share this You know, sharing is caring. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Uh, do like Pastor Jeffrey. Glory to God. God bless you, Pastor Jasper. Good to see you, sir. Uh, tag people below. Share this with your family, your friends. Uh, good evening, Kiara. Good to see you. Uh, again, guys, do me a favor. Uh, share this to your timeline. Share it to your story. Uh, let's get the word out that we are live tonight. And glory to God, we know God's gonna bless us and meet us here in a tremendous way. So please guys, do me a favor, let's get this word out. Glory to God. Hallelujah, hallelujah, glory to God. Listen, if you get— you're just joining us, sharing is godly. It's on the screen, is godly. So let's do it, let's do it. Uh, please like this video, please comment. Uh, if you're scrolling by and you are not a champion for truth, keep scrolling. Glory to God, because that's all we're going to disseminate tonight is the truth of our God, the truth of our King. And I believe that we're going to be free, we're going to be liberated. I believe that the Bible says he sent his word and it healed them. So I believe as we teach and share tonight Uh, somebody's going to be healed, somebody's going to be set free, either by live or by replay. Either way, I know for a fact that this live stream is going to be a blessing on tonight. So again, guys, do me a favor. I need you to go ahead and make sure you are sharing this encounter. Glory to God, somebody needs it. Amen. Somebody needs it. I want— I need you to be very clear about that. Somebody needs this word tonight, and I need you to help them get it. Glory to God. Again, welcome everybody. Uh, I'm gonna pray and we're gonna jump right into the heart of this. Glory to God. Good evening, Shannon. God bless you. Good to see you. Uh, again, I need everybody sharing. Glory to God. I sent out that last text, sent out that last inbox. Glory to God. And let people know, hey, I need you to get on and experience the word of the Lord with me. Glory to God. Hey Bruce, God bless you. Good to see you, my friend. Good to see you tonight. Let's pray, guys, and we're gonna jump right into this. Praise God. Father, we give you praise and we thank you again for this day you've made, and we rejoice and we're glad. And Satan, the Lord rebuke you. The blood of Jesus be against you. Every diabolical scheme, every attack, every plan you have had to thwart our victory today. Hallelujah. I declare you're defeated. Hallelujah. According to the word of God, for the Bible declares that Jesus has placed all things under his feet. I am a part of the body of Christ. We are a part of the body of Christ. Therefore, every plan and every attack, every intent of the devil is under the feet of Jesus tonight. And we declare no weapon formed against us can prosper. So we stand here tonight Even in this seat, we sit in victory, God. And even for those that are under the sound of my voice, I declare that they are a victorious people in the mighty name of Jesus. And we declare it to be so, God, in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. Glory to God. Listen again, we, we were so glad to see all of you here tonight. Again, please make sure, glory to God, that you guys are sharing this for us tonight. Amen. And I believe that we win at all costs, no matter what the enemy throws at us. Glory to God. I'm telling you tonight, we win. Why don't you just put your hand on yourself and say, we win. Glory to God. I'm telling you right now, we win. We win, we win. I want to jump right into the heart of this. And Father, we thank you again for the light, the illumination, and the intelligence of the Holy Ghost as we teach, as we preach, as we share this word tonight. Uh, let's, let's just jump right into this, man. Um, I started teaching a series. I thought I was going to be able to, uh, start on our series on mantles tonight, uh, but here again, the Holy Spirit is in charge and, uh, he has redirected me again to, uh, just keep driving in this vein of when God will. I believe it is vitally important, guys, hear me, it is vitally important that you and I as believers respect— hear this— honor and accept the timing of God. The reality is We can't make God do anything. We cannot make him move when we want him to move. However, it is our responsibility through the various and diverse and very intentional many times processes that God allows and takes us through that we continue to have faith. And that we continue to trust God. Matter of fact, right here at the top, I need somebody to type in the comments, 'I must continue to trust God.' Listen, trusting God is not an option. I don't care how holy you live— watch this— I don't care how righteous you are, how morally good you think you may be, because watch this, the Bible said even our righteousness is as filthy rags. Glory to God. So the only way we're righteousness one is through the blood of Jesus. But the only way you bring pleasure to God— okay, how will you preach, how loud you could pray, how much you dance, how much you cry at church— the reality is the thing that brings pleasure to God is faith. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. You cannot please him without faith. Hebrews 11:6, period, point blank, end of story. There are a lot of people— watch this— they're not even saved that are morally good people. They're just good people, they're just not born again. They live right, they don't do anything wrong, they don't lie, they don't cheat, they don't steal, they don't commit adultery, they don't fornicate. They, they're good people, right? But they're not saved. And, and in order for them to get to Well, here we go. Heaven and experience heaven on earth, they gotta receive Jesus. So what? And it takes faith, hear me, to receive Jesus. And that's what we ended up on last week, last Sunday. Well, let me just back up. We covered a few things. So this is a teaching, this whole series is a teaching on God's timing, and we discovered that Timing. I'm just going to review Sunday so we can be caught up. So we discovered that timing is the superior authority or ability to cause a thing to occur in time. And watch this, we've learned that the only person that has that ability to make things happen is God. And we'll look closely at that again Tonight, the only person that has the ability to control what happens in seasons and times is God. No matter how we would like to control it, we cannot. All right, and so we talked about that. We gave you some examples on how God reserves timing for his wisdom. And how even God will withhold information from you, how he tells us things in part. And we talked about why he will withhold knowledge. We went through some scriptures. We talked about how Moses waited 40 years and still didn't go into the promised land. Hallelujah. Only people that inherited that promise was desert babies. But we talked about how God put a promise in Moses's heart which moved him to action and believe, only to be delivered into wilderness. Well, wait a minute, why did Moses stay in the wilderness? He stayed in the wilderness, family, because of his disobedience. Glory to God. And he literally died in the wilderness. There were certain instructions that God told Moses to follow that he didn't and he died in the wilderness. I'm sad to say, many believers who jump, shout, speak in tongues, spit, blow bubbles, roll on the floor— they are going to miss the promise of God over their life. Watch this. Because of disobedience. Because they don't realize that God— hear me— is in control of the timing. So, so we learn that while we're waiting on God to manifest timing, we read Luke 19:13, what we discovered, that we are to occupy until he comes. We discovered the word occupy means to be, to do business, to continue to do the business of the Lord and trust him until he shows up. And the reality is, we came to this conclusion, when God shows up hear me, will he find faith when he shows up? Because that's ultimately what he wants. He wants to find you believing so he can trust you with the next thing. So tonight I want to jump into this, and because the last— I closed with this kind of— I, I share with you guys to not get frustrated, watch this, with what you don't know. See, most people get frustrated when God only shows them part of it. Well, again, he wants you to learn faith. And when you go from faith to faith, you go from glory to glory. We go from faith to faith, you go from glory to glory. You begin to see promises that glorify God over and over again manifested in your life when your faith increases when your faith grows. Yeah, we can't take this out of the playbook, and every time we resort back to our old ways, we create a delay. So tonight I want to start with this. Glory to God! And to those of you just joining us, please guys, do me a favor, share this. Look, whether you're on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, we're streaming everywhere tonight. So wherever you are Guys, please share this. So tonight I, I want to go to Psalm 31. Let's go there first and, uh, let's look at this. Glory to God. Really close, because God really is in control. And we're going to look at Psalm 31 in verse number 14. Somebody do me a favor. I know we may be out of practice. I missed 2 weeks on a Thursday, but please guys, I need you to do me a kind favor. And, uh, Psalm 31:14. Type that in the comments. Glory to God for those that might be joining us. The Bible says this, it says, but I trusted in thee, O Lord. I said, thou art my God. So there's two actions in 31:14. Number one, David says, but I— no matter what was going on around me Saul's trying to kill me. My life is in the balance. I'm in a cave. I'm running from my life. I don't know. I'm complacent. I don't know which way to turn. I have no direction. But David says, Lord, I trusted you. I need you to understand something. You're not the only ones, guys. Hear me. Will get to a point where you don't know what to do. And any believer worth his salt has gone through seasons where you didn't know what to do, because God, again, he's building your faith. As a matter of fact, right in the name of Jesus, I command faith— oh, she keep coming— to come alive in you. I, I command dead faith to resurrect now in the name of Jesus. Because the quicker— oshi aman totoboso rakaya— your faith comes alive. Glory to God. The quicker you're going to move from this season that you're in. I'm telling you, some people can get away with not walking by faith. Glory to God. But some of us, like me and many of you, You have no choice because of the assignment and what God needs to get out of your life that the world needs to glean from. Glory to God, because you're walking by faith and not by sight. But notice David said, these guys have devised, oh my God, to take away my life. That's right, Mia. I can't neither. Glory to God. I can't. I'm telling you, my life is governed by belief and trust in him. I can't depend on anyone but him. I know without a shadow of a doubt he has my back when nobody else does. These people were trying to destroy David. Matter of fact, if you read this chapter, you'll see it. But David said, but I trusted in thee. That's the first action. That's an action word. The Hebrew word is batak, and it literally means— watch this— I put my confidence, I was boldly secure. Hallelujah. In the fact that though they were trying— and listen, some of you, you, you complain about where you at, but ain't nobody trying to kill you. Ain't nobody trying to take your life. David was about to lose his life for real, and he chose instead of to try to fight back, instead of complaining, he's praying right now to God. Lord, I trusted you. I was confident in you. I held fast to you. I was secure in you. I was safe. Matter of fact, he said I was so safe, glory to God, that I was careless. I, I went where they were. I wasn't trying to hide from them because I trusted you that even if I went in the midst of those— oh my God— that were trying to kill me, they would not kill me because I am confident in God. Can I tell you tonight, you gotta trust God. Against all odds. I don't care what it looks like right now, you gotta choose to trust God. Hallelujah! Oh, somebody just touch yourself, say, Lord, I trust you. Lord, I trust you. See, the devil don't want you to say that. He wants you to act like you trust. Some of us are good actors, we act like we trust him, but you don't trust God. Because when, when the rubber hits the road, you do the direct opposite. Oh boy, hallelujah, hallelujah! Just say, I must trust him. Glory to God, glory to God. Whoa boy, I don't know about you, but I gotta trust him. I gotta live for him. Glory to God, thank you, Lord. David says, I'm secure, I'm confident. This joker's gonna murder me. It's just like, you know, you on a hit list of a hitman and you drive right to where they are. That's how confident you are in God that you won't die, that they won't kill you. Some of the stuff you're dealing with, you got to put your trust in Jesus and be absolutely, categorically confident that God has your back. Can't lean to your job, can't lean to your check you get coming in, can't lean to Mama, can't lean to Daddy, can't lean on your spouse. You gotta trust God. Oh my God, oh my God. The Bible said put your confidence in no man but God, him alone. Glory to God. So that was the first action. He said, I trust it. And then watch this, the second action. Then I said, wait a minute, in the midst of all this, I said— the psalmist says, I said, which means I opened my mouth and said something out loud. Here's where many of you fail. When you get in trouble, you start saying what the trouble is. When you're having challenges, you're saying the wrong thing. And what you need to be saying is, you are my God. Like David, this works, man. Glory to God. He said, thou art my God. They trying to kill me, they got a gun to my head, but you are my God. Oh boy, I'm helping. I'm helping somebody tonight. Some— if I, if I can just help one person that gets this tonight, You have to trust God at all costs, because what you gonna do when they lay you off? What you gonna do, glory to God, when your resources dry up? Who you trusting? Glory to God, you got to declare he's God. Or really, are you God, or are you trying to play God? See, when you don't trust God in his timing and his way of doing things, you don't understand his ways, you start playing God. Oh boy, some of y'all need to repent for playing God. You feel like, well, he ain't moving fast enough, so I'm gonna take control of this situation. That's why he's not moving, because he knows your heart. He knows you're not all the way locked in anyway. You're still depending on your system. You're still depending on you. Oh, when you need to release yourself from the equation. And declare, you are my God. And just in context, just in context, he says, you are Elohim. That's what he's saying in Hebrew there. You are Elohim, or Elohim. You are the one. You are the God of gods. You are in total control of this situation. You're omniscient, you're omnipresent, you're omnipotent, which means you're all-powerful, you're all-knowing, and you're everywhere at the same time. And guess what? You're my God. That's the dude you need to be trusting in, and you need to say that out loud. Oh my God, you are my God. Hallelujah. Somebody just open your mouth and say it to him right now. You 'Art my God.' There's nothing he can't do. Watch this, God can beat you any day trying to fix something he's supposed to fix. Get out of a hurry and realize this next verse, verse 15. David says, 'You are my God, I trust you.' And I said, I deliberately, intentionally trusted, and I said, 'Thou art my God.' Watch this, verse 15, 'My times Saints of God, that's right, cuz. Tanya, he is your God. He's our God. Yes, he is. Glory to God. He says, my times, whoo, are in your hand. Wait a minute. The word times there is the word eth, E-T-H, in Hebrew. What eth means is my seasons are in your hands. Can't start a season, number one. So if you're in a season, you can't start a new season because you want to be out of that season. No, you gotta endure that season. Because that season is qualifying you for the next season. And then watch this, when you move into the next season, you can't stop a season either. So matter— no matter what comes against you to try to stop you, when you move into the next season, you can't stop it. And even this season you're in, you can't stop it. Are you hearing me? You're supposed to be in that season. It's making you. Don't curse your crisis. Don't curse your season. Your times are in his hand. Oh boy, are y'all ready? Are y'all ready? Okay, the word hand here is— this is a powerful word— it's Yad, Y-A-D, which means my times are in his power or in his strength. So no matter how it looks where you are, the strength of God is controlling the season. And I'm telling you again, the quicker you emerge in faith— oh we— the quicker you emerge in faith, God's power, God's strength is moved and made manifest when faith is aligned. Oh my God, in the right position against the obstacle. But when you start playing God and try to do it yourself, God says, okay, I guess you don't need my power, my strength, my supernatural ability, my Elohim-ness to show up and bring you out. So I'm gonna sit back and see how long it's gonna take you to get yourself out when all I need you to do is believe. Lord, I'm preaching to somebody tonight. Glory to God. Brother, if I can help one individual tonight, I'm telling you, listen, I've done my job tonight. Because at the end of the day, all of us on here, let me tell you something, and I believe that the consensus of us is on here tonight, regardless of those that are watched by live, will be by replay, is someone that's connected to me in some way apostolically, as a father, as a pastor, as a leader, some kind of way, as a mentor. Reality is, I hear God saying this group has great responsibility upon their life. And secondly, it is important that our faith be matured at an accelerated speed so we can move to the next dimension. And you don't realize it, you're stuck because your faith, you allowed it to die and you stopped believing in the hand of God, the power of God. He says, my times are in thy hand. Deliver me from the hand of my enemy and from them that persecute me. So when you pray that and say, God, deliver me from persecution, deliver me from those that are coming at me, deliver me from those that are trying to take me down, deliver me from these odds that are seemingly against me, You gotta believe it. You— it doesn't make sense to pray it. Hear me, if you don't believe it, the scripture says believe when you pray. Back to the trust again. Totally persuaded, totally reliant, absolutely confident in what he says when you pray. Okay, somebody lying, because if it ain't working for you Let me say this: God is always 100% invested in us. Anytime there's a fallacy, it's us, and we got to get it right instead of just kicking and screaming about it, throwing a tantrum about it, making excuses about it. Just get it right and trust God. Hallelujah! Bren City, but cozy. You got to trust him. Hey, Agape Church of God, God bless you. Good to see you tonight. Glory to God. Listen, he's 100% in. Question is, are you 100% in, in your faith? I'm telling you, God is 100% invested in your deliverance, in your victory, in your increase, in your healing. Everything he promised you in the word, he wants you to have. Question is, are you invested? You know what I learned in my walking with God? And I walked with him for real. Glory to God, my relationship with him is tight for real. Glory to God. I've learned— hear me— that trusting God alone, not shouting, not speaking in tongues, not laying in the flow, not prophesying, not preaching, but trusting God all by itself will give you peace concerning any situation. Oh my God. Listen, trusting him alone will lead you into peace concerning the timing of the Lord. It leads you into peace concerning what God can do. You just gotta trust. And when you don't have peace, it means you're not trusting. When you have peace about a thing and the word done told you this thing gonna come to pass, I'm telling you, he's 100% in. The fallacy is always in us. Every season in my life where I failed, it was a faith failure first. It was a prayer failure first. I didn't pray correctly. I didn't believe correctly. I didn't believe wholeheartedly. I still had unbelief, and I needed God to help my unbelief. Oh my God. I give you praise. Go to 1 Peter 5:6. I gotta move. 1 Peter 5:6. Glory to God. I'm 30 minutes in. 1 Peter 5:6. I pray y'all getting something out of this. Glory to God. I pray y'all learning. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Y'all quiet in the comments. Glory to God. It's okay. Glory to God. That's good. Glory to God. I mean, you're listening. Praise God. 1 Peter 5:6. Here we go, here we go, because we got to accept God's timing. And again, we run around kicking and screaming, hollering, when God, when? And here's what God is telling you to do. Watch this, because our times are in his hand. Matter of fact, say that out loud. Say, my times are in his hands. Which again, which your season is in his strength, it's in his power, which means God is in control of your life. You gotta trust that. Oh, we— oh, we— oh, we— yeah, I know you think you do. Yeah, and I know you go through the emotional things. Glory to God. But when the rubber hits the road, do you trust it? Yeah. 1 Peter 5:6 says this, it says, humble yourselves Therefore, under the mighty hand of God, here it is, that he may exalt you in due time. So humility means I got to get low. The blessing is getting low. See, it's a— it's— this indicates to me it's a level of pride when I'm not trusting God's timing. It's saying, God, you moving like an old man, you moving too slow. I'm gonna handle this myself, and you get in the way of the timing of God. And watch this, you create a further delay, which now you're in a longer process to get what you need because now you got to get back on the right road when all you need to do is just humble yourself. See, people think pride and arrogant people are people that just turn their nose up with people. That's pride and arrogance, but It's pride and arrogance when you try to operate on your own when you should be walking by faith, when you won't allow God to have full control. The Bible said when you humble yourself under the mighty— there it is again— the strength of God, the hand of God, he says, I can exalt you when it's time. So humble yourself, go through the process, let him accelerate you. Don't accelerate it yourself. Don't take matters into your hands. Can I submit to you tonight? Your hands are smaller than God's hands every day. Your strength is less than God's strength every day. What you're able to do for yourself is inferior to what God can do for you every single day. Oh, I feel like running. So stop trying to take matters in your own hands and humble yourself. Stop being arrogant. You want to arrogantly believe your system because your mama taught you that system, your daddy taught you your system. Well, maybe they were wrong. Or your preacher taught you that system, maybe they were wrong. You should be trusting God. I'm not saying you ain't supposed to take care of your business. If a man don't work, he shouldn't eat, right? But even in that, you need to trust God. Your job is a resource that God provides. You should be on a job that God provides, not one that you getting on because you need to pay your bills. Oh, you need to get on the one he provides, and they need to be connected to purpose. How about start a business and trust him by faith to provide for that business? Okay, you said you believe God. I'm just trying to help y'all tonight. You said you had faith. Let's trust him. Yeah, it takes work and discipline to start a business. It's more work to be an entrepreneur than it is to go to the job because you got to be disciplined, get up, make yourself work, and you got to have a passion and a purpose that drives you other than money. You got to have a why, and you got to have some faith in God. I'm not preaching you something somebody told me. I do this every day. Glory to God. Without excuse. Without— look, look at Daddy in my face— without excuse. Because at the end of the day, he's my source. Everything else that's produced in my life, and God has no respect of person, It's a resource that comes through faith in him. Oh, somebody ought to shout, my times are in his hand! Type it in the comments, my time's in the hand! Let— now don't type it if it's a lie. Yeah, don't type it if it's a lie. If it's a lie, please don't put your fingers on them keys. If you're in control of your life, don't type that. Yeah, right there, that part. Right there, period. Don't type that if you're in control because you're being hypocritical. What you need to do is humble yourself under his strength. Oh my God, you need to humble yourself under his power. Oh, glory to God. Hey, shiba uriki ansatabaya, so he can exalt you. The problem is You've been trying to exalt yourself, and God says in due time. Well, Michael, what is due time? Let me explain it to you. Due time, glory to God, is when God knows you're ready. And the reason many of us are stuck in a holding pattern. We're stuck on a tarmac and can't take off like an airplane that's got mechanical issues because we won't humble ourselves and we won't trust God. We're trying to fly the plane. I saw something years ago, this little boy had sticker in somebody's car, it said, God is my co-pilot. I knew something was wrong with that when I read it. As you know what, that's something wrong with that picture. God's bigger than you. God, God can drive this car without you. So let's make you the co-pilot and let's make him the pilot. Oh my God, oh my God, God ain't your co-pilot. You trying to fly the plane and you've made God the co-pilot. You feel him in when you want him to be in. No, he's the pilot. He's smarter than you. He has more intelligence than any of us. So lean on his mind and let him think through us. You don't do it because you think you got to do it. Half of the stuff I do, I don't know how to do it. God anoints my mind to do it. Oh God, have mercy. Oh God, have mercy. Because I'm in his hands. I need you to get in his hands tonight. We'll get a whole lot more done. Listen to this: if we get in his hands— Lord have mercy. I'm almost done, guys. I really am. I really am. So what is due time again? Due season. When God knows you're ready. Readiness is congruent to faith. So as you accelerate your faith, mature your faith, God said, okay, I can pull you— yeah, excuse me— I can pull you up. I can raise you up a little more because you trust me and not your own way of operating, your own way of doing things. And then when you don't do what you're supposed to do, making excuses as to why you didn't do it. Listen, I'm a true believer, is obedient. In all aspects of their walk with God, not just in holy living, but they're obedient. They obey what the word says, period. That's what mature believers do, because they understand he's the Father, he's the source of supply, he will never leave me wrong, and whatever he says do, I'm gonna do it. We don't get to pick and choose what part of the word we obey. Oh, okay, I got, I gotta move, man. So here's the point about doobie. Again, he's omniscient, so there's so many things that God knows about us— watch this— that we actually don't know about ourselves. See, you think you know you, but spend enough time with him Watch this. I'm 54 years old, be 55 this year, been full-time in ministry 35 years this year. Let me tell you something, man. I learned something new about Michael Woods every day in his presence. When I mean, I don't even have to be a long time. I could, if I sit still and talk to him and then listen He's about me. Oftentimes things I don't want to hear because I just need him to intervene and, and help what I need him to help me with. But no, he wants to show me me and show me how if that was different, this would be different. So you, you got to be willing to accept those things and let him help you be a better version of yourself. Watch this, a better version of a person of faith. Oh, we moving, we moving. Hallelujah, we're moving. I'm telling you, God knows stuff about you you don't know. Hi, watch this. He knows stuff the prophet don't know. You run from prophet to prophet trying to get a word, and the prophet only prophesies in part. He sees in part. He knows in part. Oh God, I love you. Oh, I love you, Jesus. Glory to God. And I thank him for opening me up to show me me when I refuse to look at certain things. You all let him look. Yeah, yeah, there's something— there's stuff about you. I'm watching. I ain't— and it ain't all bad, see, because some of us are so sin conscious We think that what God knows about us is all the bad stuff. You know the bad stuff. What I'm saying to you is there are potentials, there are abilities, there are gifts, there, there are anointings in you that you have not discovered. Oh my God, there are plans for your life that you know nothing about because you ain't allow him to articulate them because you think you know you. You have defined yourself by the limitations of your past. You've defined yourself by your education. You've defined yourself by your siblings and your family. And the reality is, God knows more about you, uh, Rabbi Sadae, than you know about yourself. Oh, oh. So, God's— your times are in his hands. Say it again. Say, my times are in his hands. I'm almost done. I'm coming quickly to a close, as the old preacher would say. My times are in his hands, in his strength, in his power. God is in control of this thing. He's in control of our next step. He's in control of our next move. My God, today Hallelujah. Go to Habakkuk 2 and 3. I want to show you what the appointed time looks like. Oh, what? Because we, we read Habakkuk, which is a minor prophet. Uh, would that make him any different than the other major prophets? It just means that their books are shorter and they had less to say in scripture. Uh, but Habakkuk 2 and verse number 3. The Bible says, for the vision is yet for an appointed time. Say appointed time. Okay. But at the end it shall speak and not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come. It, hear me, will not tarry. For the vision— and we, we know what vision is. Vision is chazon or hazon in, in Hebrew, and it means, uh, the prophetic future. It means Oh my God, that, that is, can be seen from where you are into the distance. It is akin to words like horizon. Vision is also God's optimal reality for your future. So God has an optimal, optimized reality that he's already thought through for your future. Matter of fact, can I submit to you tonight, God knows where you're going. Watch this. He knows where you are. Yeah, for real. And he knows where you're going. Oh, he knows where you are and he knows where you're going. I need you to grab that. Matter of fact, touch yourself. Say, he knows where I am. And he knows where I'm going. Yeah, he knows where I am. I'm telling you, he's not oblivious to this. You gotta believe that. But he already has an optimized reality plan for your future that he wants you to grab and enjoy. But watch this, the Bible said it's for an appointed time, that future, which means an appointment or something that is appointed is always prearranged. An appointment is a prearranged meeting. I have several appointments or meetings tomorrow. They are prearranged meeting. I made an appointment, uh, with Pastor Jasper today. We have to meet around some things concerning the church tomorrow at noon. That was prearranged in advance so that our schedules align. Listen, God has already prearranged an optimized reality. For your future. The appointed time, hallelujah, that God appoints will not be late. It's always on time. It's right when it should be. You just got to be in place for the manifest. Here's the interesting thing: when seasons show up and we're not ready Oh boy, and we miss a season. Hear me, the grace of God is so gracious when we repent and get it right. He'll put a— it's almost like putting a master disc in a computer. So you can— your, your master hard drive on a computer— I got a MacBook Pro sitting in front of me. This computer which, which is handling the streaming of these live tonight, uh, if the hard disk just shut down now and all of the data from this computer was wiped, right? Hear me, hear me good, guys. I have been backing up my computer on something called a Time Machine. Yeah, and all I have to do to restore what was lost is connect the laptop to the Time Machine. Now all of the data, all of my files, all of my work that was in this machine will be restored just like that. Can I tell you something? God has the master drive. He has the Time Machine. Yeah, he has the Time Machine, and he's been backing up your life. He, he knows you. He knows when you're going to get off. All you— again, you just got to repent, get it right, and start exercising the action necessary to see the manifestation of his promise. Lord, have mercy. Oh, have mercy. Because again, accepting the timing of the Lord, the appointed time of the Lord, it leads us to peace. Watch this. Being frustrated about waiting, it only steals our now. So when you choose to be frustrated about waiting on God to manifest something— something, I'm sorry— you steal the joy of the process. You steal your now. You steal the value of the moments you're in now as you're on the road and the journey to discover these new leaps of faith in your life because you're frustrated, you're angry, you're mad, you feel like nothing's gonna change, and you're stealing a joyous opportunity. I just gotta accept this timing, man. That's what we're still talking about. That's what this is about tonight. You know, I want to challenge everybody under the sound of my voice before I close. I got a few more moments. Make a decision tonight. Tonight. To enjoy— let me pull in a little bit— the journey, right? Even if it's going to be a long one, enjoy it. Grow in faith. Walk it out with God. Hallelujah. Because I'm telling you right now, there is an appointed time, and when it's time and you're ready And that's up to you. See, your readiness is up to you. Remember, readiness is congruent with faith. And then you got to be willing to accept, like even Jesus— thank you for that, Lord— when it's not your time yet. Let's go to the scripture. Go to John 7:6. That's what I said. Yeah, yeah, we're gonna— I think we're gonna— we might be closing out with this. Maybe, maybe, maybe. I got like 10 minutes. John 7:6. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. My God, today I give you glory, God. I give you honor. Could it be? John 7:6. Here we go. Then Jesus said to them— listen to this. You say you want to be like Jesus, right? You want to be like him. You called yourself a Christian, right? Which means to be Christ-like, you know, in some derivative. Uh, but you said you want to be like Jesus, right? And we all should be striving for this. But here we go. We're gonna be like Jesus. Then Jesus said to them, my time has not yet come. But your time is always ready. So there are people that always want you to do something on their time, but God even knew as he was in the earth carrying out his assignment that his time wasn't ready yet. This is powerful because he says, number one, Jesus refused to be moved emotionally. They were using their emotions trying to get Jesus to do something before his time. Don't let people push you into areas you're not ready for just because they want you to be there. I listen— people will connect to you for one or two reasons: for asylum or assignment. Asylum means they connect to see if they can use you as a leveraging posts to get where they're trying to go. And many times they want that to happen quick. You will know those people because when the process of time is happening, they'll fall off and find someone else that they could try to get what they're looking for through. But those that are connected because of assignment and not asylum they'll go through the process no matter how hard it gets. It's like being married to someone when you're connected to them for assignment and not asylum. See, this is why people are frustrated in marriage, because they're married for asylum. And once— if the marriage is not giving them what they feel like they should be getting and it's not happening quick enough for them, then at the end of the day they start looking for ways to abandon the asylum so they could seek asylum with someone else that they feel— oh boy. But when you marry for purpose and assignment, you go through the process of time. Oh my God. And so, you know, I've had my share in my life in ministry, and this is just the walk of an apostle. People connect to apostles because they are anointed to bring assignments to pass. But when you're a real apostle, you move in timing, and sometimes you take people through an asylum period to see if they'll be faithful. Glory to God! Through the process of time. Oh boy, watch this. You got to be faithful even when you don't talk to me every day. I didn't sign up to be anybody's friend. Come on, any apostle worth his salt didn't sign up to be friends with the people they lead, number one. Number two, you should be able to be true to the assignment even if I'm not on your phone, or me and you ain't on the phone every day. But asylum says, I ain't getting enough attention, they're not putting me up front, they're not pushing me forward. There's a reason you, you have to learn how to exist even when all you get is the word from me. Glory to God, because technically that's my job. Oh boy. Okay, I'm gonna keep it moving. Glory to God, because Uh, I might be getting on somebody's nerves right now, and then I ain't got that much time. But the reality is you gotta check yourself, you know, even with God. Are you connected to him for asylum or assignment? Are you saved for what he can do, or for the fact that you got an assignment in your belly that you got to complete, and you understand that the process is based in that assignment? So you go through the process to become who you need to be. Woo! Here we go. Glory to God. So waiting on the right time, like Jesus just displayed to us, to speak is very important. Oh, that was a season in my life. I'll be very honest with you and transparent right here. I'm closing. Where I used to say whatever I felt like saying whenever I wanted to say it. I got a whole lot better in that area because doing that caused a lot of trouble. You have to learn how to season your words with grace, season your conversations with grace. Pray about things before you react. There's a space between— listen, nobody taught me that principle, I learned it. There's a space between stimulus and response. I've been teaching that for 40 years because I've learned it. Glory to God. Because I get— I used to get stimulated with things and get very angry and respond immediately. And I'm even learning. I, I was even tested today. I'm learning. And even when I respond to something that stimulates me out of the wrong way, I have to repent to God and that person, even if they're wrong. Because at the end of the day, I should be grown enough in that area where I know to go to the space between stimulus and response. Because really, now I can sense in the spirit when I'm wrong, and I can sense in the spirit even when the time is not right for even for me to talk to Felicia about things. Or I can even sense in the spirit certain things I shouldn't say to her to protect her. It's not keeping secrets, it's protecting her growth. I can't— it's just like I can't give Josiah— I say this all the time— a T-bone steak, even though she'll try to eat it. I cannot put that in her mouth. I have to give her baby food. Or feed her on where she is. Are y'all hearing this? Because at the end of the day, the reality is you have to deal with people where they are in the right time. Are y'all getting this? Oh my God, I pray that y'all getting this tonight. Thank you, Minister Alexander. I appreciate you, woman of God. Glory to God. Listen, I've even learned that if I force something just because I want to answer right now, even though I don't feel right about forcing the issue, I always get an answer I don't like from people. So you have— when you speak, it's very important. How you speak is very important. The tone you use is very important. Glory to God. I've learned that, man, in all transparency. I'm telling you, you know, there's times I wanted people to tell me right then what was in their heart, what was on their mind, say it. And, and they said it, and I didn't really like what they said because I really wasn't ready to hear that. So you got to be careful. You got to know when the time is. Jesus displayed this. But here's what I know: if I wait until God releases me to speak, it's always powerful, it's always effective, it always helps. But if I react before I have weighed that thing, it causes a problem. Oh God. God bless you, Rosalyn. God bless you, Tanya. Glory to God. I gotta touch this and I'll finish the rest of this Sunday, but I gotta touch this real quick because a lot of times we move out of timing and we move before God and we don't respect or accept and honor the timing of the Lord, we birth things prematurely. And premature is two words, is pre- and guess what? Mature. Premature, which means it exists— watch this— prior to the assigned time, which means it came forth before it was supposed to come for. You can't— don't, don't birth a ministry, don't birth a church, don't get married, don't do nothing premature. It's a dangerous piece because God has already again appointed a time. And watch this, let's go to Ecclesiastes 3:11. Yeah, I hear you, Holy Spirit. Somebody's getting some help tonight, and I pray you apply this word. Glory to God, because my aim is to help you. Glory to God. Watch this. That's Ecclesiastes 3:11. He hath made— let's, let's just break this down as we go. Asaw. He's made, which means he's already accomplished and finished. Watch this. So he has already— so let's read it like that. He's already accomplished and, and finished everything beautiful. So no matter how ugly it is now— I'm closing with this— God has already made it beautiful. Wait, wait a minute, Michael Woods, let's read that again. He had accomplished, finished everything, completed everything as beautiful. Beautiful is yafeth, which means it's fair, it's consumable, it's palatable, it's glorious to— oh my God— accompany or engulf or to partake of. So God says, no matter how it looks right now, I gotta thing already planned on my supernatural day planner. That's absolutely beautiful. I got a day in your life that's gonna be so beautiful, I'm gonna dry your tears. Glory to God. I'm going to pick you up. Glory to God. And lift you up to the place you need to be. Glory to God. Because I've already made it beautiful. Wait a minute, here's the end of this. It says it's beautiful beautiful in his time. Oh my God, it's beautiful in his time, not its time, his time. I told you he was in control. I told you he had an optimal reality, and it's a beautiful reality. Listen, no matter how you feel right now, There's a beautiful reality waiting on you ahead. Glory be to God. Thank you, Jesus. We give you praise, we give you glory, we give you honor. Hallelujah. Let's just read the rest of it. He said, he has set the world in their heart so that no man can find out the work of God and make it from the beginning to the end. So watch this. God says this thing is so complex There's no way you can figure it out because you have the systems of the world in your heart. So you have to trust him from beginning to end instead of trying to control the beginning to the end, because he is in control. Watch this. Okay, I'm gonna close with this text. Let me go to Galatians. I hear you, God, I gotta go. I'm over time, I'm 4 minutes over. Y'all give me 5 more minutes max to get finished with this, and then we're gonna pray and be done. Stay with me, please don't get off. Glory to God, stay with me. Galatians 4, hallelujah, verse 22. Here we go, here we go. Oh my God, this is so beautiful. Yes, yes. Oh my God, I dare you, touch yourself and say, my life is beautiful. Say, I know this, hallelujah, because the word said It's already done. Glory to God. It's already finished. It's already accomplished. I need you to declare that tonight in the name of Jesus. Glory to God. Okay, here we go, here we go, here we go, here we go, guys. Here we go. Y'all ready? Y'all ready? Galatians 4. Calm down, Michael. Galatians 4, and I'm closing. For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a bondmaid and the other by a free woman. I'm going somewhere. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after— oh, here we go— after the flesh. But he who was of the free woman was by the promise. Listen, guys, verse 24: which things are in— oh my God— allegory. For these are— listen, listen, guys— These are the two covenants: the one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia. I can unpack this a lot of ways. And answereth to Jerusalem, which is not— is now— is and is in the bondage of our children. But Jerusalem, which is above, which is above, is free. Which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren— that— here we go. You say, I'm barren, ain't nothing coming forth. Glory to God, I'm looking for this thing to break through. Listen, he says, Rejoice, thou barren, thou that bearest not, break forth and cry, thou that travailest not. For the desolate had many more children than she which hath an hus— Wait a minute. So in a nutshell, verses 22 through 27 of this text, there are two covenants. Listen to this in the text. One brings joy and the other brings struggle. When you trust the covenant of your relationship with God, it will bring joyfully-yam. Oh my God. But if you trust birthing things out of your carnality, out of your human reasoning, out of your flesh, and then praying the grace card, repenting because you did it, you're going to create a lot of delays and you're going to create a whole lot of struggle. Here's the point, and I'm closing. Those who wait on God— whoop, I'm closing my Bible, guys— will bear much more fruit. Hear me, those— I'm so sorry about that noise— than those that try to force a harvest. You gotta wait on him. Let's pray. Father, in Jesus' name, I thank you for this word tonight. I thank you for every person that heard it live and every person that will listen to it by replay. God, give us the strength and the wherewithal to move in patience and accept your timing. And Father, we give you praise, God, that you're 100% invested in us and that we won't waver, we won't miss it to the left nor to the right. And so Father, we decree and declare today, God, that we— it is in you we live, It's in you we move, it's in you we have our being. You have responsibility for us and we trust you. So Father, as I pray tonight, I release a supernatural trust, a dependence, a confidence in you that in all things we will believe when we pray. So Father, I declare our needs are met, our bodies are healed, and breakthrough is upon us, and vision is alive in our life. And I command faith the faith to come alive in us tonight. In Jesus' name, amen. And thanks be to God. Listen, I pray, guys, that this word— oh my God— was a tremendous blessing to you. Glory to God. I pray— thank you, Lord— that you have received from God. Thank you, Rosalyn. Thank you for that scripture, Tanya. Glory to God. Listen, I need you guys to sow tonight. I need you to give, and I really need you to give, not for me, because those things that we need to do for ministry. Now, a couple things we got coming up, uh, coming in this coming week, next week to be exact, my son Apostle Brandon Cornelius will be with us. Glory to God! In ministry, I like to make sure that we can take care of— not me Even though in times past this has been the case, we have adults in our ministry. In the past, I've had to take care of meetings, take money out of my pocket, take care of speakers. I don't mind doing that. I did that a few weeks back. Glory to God. It doesn't matter because I know that my harvest is coming from God. Listen, I want you to be a part of this. I want to make sure that the church can pay for this meeting before we have it. We got to take care of Apostle Brandon's hotel. We got to make sure that we feed him daily. We got to make sure that we give him an honorable honorarium because he's going to come, he's going to work, and God's going to be glorified. I want to make sure we do that in advance. So if you have not tithed— some of you have not tithed in months— uh, this is a good time to do it. I want you to tithe and give unto the Lord. Again, it's just about faith and trusting that God can take the 90% And you can live better off 90% than you can 100%. I'm a witness. I tithe and give all the time. Glory to God, it works. Secondly, if you are a tither, I need you to make sure you tithe, and I need you to plant a sacrifice tonight. I don't want you to think about this and wait around on this. I need you to give. Again, I'm not— I don't need money. I'm not the Facebook guy that's putting the Cash App on the screen. For you to give glory to God and give me some money. I'm good, glory to God. But what I do need is to make sure we can take care of Apostle Brandon next week. I'm telling you, it's going to be a powerful meeting. He'll be with us next Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and I'm looking forward to serving him. I'm looking forward to him blessing our region. You guys invite people out to the meetings. I don't want to have to depend on money we raise in the meetings. To take care of it. Let's handle business, family. And those of you that are watching us that's not even a part of the family, I'm asking you to sow. Put a seed in the ground. The ways to give are scrolling at the bottom of the screen. Glory to God. Get your offerings in the ground. Of course, Pastor Jasper is always faithful to put the ways to give in the comments, and there they are popping up right before your eyes, and they're also scrolling Glory to the name of God, to the bottom of the screen. However you choose to give— website, Cash App, or Zelle— get your seed in the ground. And I need you to do it tonight, okay? I need you to make a second. If you can't do it tonight, I need you to do it as soon as possible. Get that seed, just be obedient. Sow into the word. Glory to God. Sow into the anointing that was released here tonight and, and put your faith in action. Many times you don't have enough to take care of your stuff anyway. So giving puts you in a position to take what you have and literally turn it into what you need and more. So do that tonight. Let's be a blessing to ministry. I need you to do that. Glory to God. I love you guys. You know, for those of you watching this replay, uh, that are not connected to this ministry, listen, uh, if you're blessed by this ministry, I want to challenge you to support us. Help us to continue to do to do the things that we're called to do. One of the things we're called to do is to edify the people of God consistently through meetings and through bringing in gifts that will build up our region. And that's what we're doing next week with Apostle Cornelius. We want to be a blessing to him, and so I want you to help in that endeavor. I love you guys so much, man. Y'all be blessed. Heaven smile upon you. Indeed is prayer. Listen, I want to see you guys on Sunday. Uh, we're gonna have a great, great, great, great, great service on Sunday. Be in the house. Glory to the name of God. 12 noon at Rhoda Church in Atlanta. I love you guys. Peace be with you. Y'all be blessed tonight. Get that seed in the ground. God bless you. Thank you so much, Pastor Jasper. I received it. Appreciate your support, man of God. Thank you.