You Had it, You Lost it, Now its Time to Get it Back!

Welcome to the Apostle's Table, where lions roar and lives are changed. The Apostle's Table is a part of the worldwide outreach ministry of Dr. Mike Wood Sr. You will encounter supernatural wisdom and revelation that will help you discern God's purpose for your life, develop your potential, and deploy your gifts effectively into the earth. We decree your life will never be the same again. Thanks for joining us And welcome to the Apostle's Table.

Well, praise the Lord. And yes, welcome to our virtual edition of the Apostle's Table. My name is Dr. Mike Woods. I'm the senior pastor and founder of Rhoda Church here in Atlanta, Georgia. And in case you're wondering, the word rhoda means dominion. I'm simply excited to be able to come into your homes, your cars, wherever you may be and share with you live today, May 24th, 2020. And I'm particularly excited that we get an opportunity to release the anointing through livestream and video and let it come into your home where you can literally not just hear a message or some singing, but you can have a real encounter with God. Well, let's start today's service. You know, I don't believe we should start anything without the Word of God. And so I want to read the scripture for today as it will be found in Proverbs 24, beginning at verse number 1. The Bible says this, it says, do not envy the wicked, do not desire their company, for their hearts plot violence and their lips talk about making trouble. Listen to this, by wisdom a house is built and through understanding it is established. Through knowledge, its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures. May the Lord add a blessing to the reading of His Word. You know, it's my prayer today that as we sit at the table, we share the Word of the Lord, we experience the songs and the ministry of worship, that you will create a space right where you are. Open your ears, your heart to receive whatever God has for you, because I'm telling you right now, God wants to fill your life with wisdom, and he wants to fill your life with beautiful treasures from on high. So let's go into this worship experience, and my wife, Lady Felicia Woods, is leading us in praise and worship, and I'm telling you, you're not going to be the same. So let's go into this ministry of song, and then I'll be back and we're going to share the word of the Lord. God bless you.

He's holy, he's righteous, and I thank him for being holy. Holy, righteous, come Lord and abide with us. Your presence is all that we need.

Our hearts are fixed.

Our hearts are fixed upon your face.

Upon your face. Thankful lips.

Our thankful lips are filled with praise. Your presence is all that we need. Oh, holy, you're righteous. Come, Lord, and abide with with us. Your presence is all that we need. For our hearts are fixed upon your face. How thankful is— they are filled with praise. Your presence is all My heart so fixed upon your face, with my thankful lips, there we will pray. Your presence is all that we need. Oh, you're holy, you're righteous, come Come, Lord, and abide with us. Your presence is all that we need. Our hearts are fixed upon your face. Our thankful lips, they are filled with praise. Your presence is all that we need. Your presence is all. Your presence is all. Yes, your presence, say your all. Your presence is all that we need. Your presence is all that we need. Your presence is all that we need. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Praise the Lord! I I pray that that song touched your heart and your spirit. You know, we can do nothing without God. And really, he's the most important piece to our life. And if you don't know him, you might want to get to know him today. And I don't mean you go to church or you're religious, but I'm talking about really getting to know God. It is the best thing you could do. He's the greatest person that you could ever know. Matter of fact, I'm going to go on record saying Jesus, is the greatest man I know, and that's for real. I mean, because I know Him for real, and I want to challenge you to get to know Him for real. Well, let's pray, and then we're going to minister the Word, and then I'm going to get out of your way and give you your time back tonight. Father, in Jesus' name, I thank You, Lord, for the opportunity to teach and preach Your Word. I pray, Lord, in the name of Jesus, that this Word will go out with power. It will go out with anointing, and that prophetically, You would drive this message And I decree and declare that the Holy Spirit superimposes itself upon us now and that, God, we're experiencing the light, the illumination, and the intelligence of the Holy Spirit. I decree and declare it now. And I say it is so in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. And thank God. Well, hallelujah. Thank you again for listening and joining us. I'm excited to teach this tonight. Our message is gonna— I'm gonna put two scriptures on the end. You could go ahead and hold those in your Bible. 1 Samuel chapter 30, I'm gonna read verses 1 through 8 at the end, and Psalm 30, verse number 5. I'm gonna read one verse. I'm not gonna be long, but I'm gonna share what thus saith the Lord. And again, I'm gonna allow the Holy Spirit to drive this message the way he desires to drive it. And I want you to just get in a solemn place where you can hear and receive all of this because this message is for you. If you're watching me right now, it's for you. I want you to share it with somebody because they may need it too. So I'm believing God that this message will be transformational and it will change your life in a very real way. I want to release some things on this livestream that you can go out and use this week to bring restoration and recovery to your life. So here we go. Tonight the subject is, you had it, you lost it, now it's time to get it back. If I was in church, I'd tell you, turn to your neighbor and say to your neighbor, you had it, you lost it, but now it's time to get it back. I'm excited to share this with you tonight because I believe that there are some people— I believe that there are at least 100 people watching me right now who have gone through a series of loss, not just in 2020 behind COVID-19, but you've gone through a series of loss and your life has seemingly been on this downward spiral and you seem like you've had failure after failure. And then some of you seem like soon as you get something and you start amassing some level of stability, then you turn around and here comes something else and you're losing things. Well, I'm here tonight to prophesy I prophesy to you that whatever you lost, it's time for you to get it back, okay? We're gonna get into this, and I promise you, you're gonna be blessed. So, at the top, I wanna give you 4 points, and then we're gonna read the text at the end. Is that fair? Okay, again, the text tonight is coming from 1 Samuel 30, verses 1 through 8, and Psalm 30, verse number 5. And when we get there, we'll be almost done. Hallelujah. So I want you to stay with me. Glory to God. Call somebody, text somebody, let them know that Apostle Mike is on the air and he is teaching the word of God. I want you to get this tonight. Share this with your friends. Glory to God. And be a blessing to somebody else. Okay, so here we go. Number one, here's my first point. Failure is always, you ought to shout always, a prelude to success. I'll say it one more time. Failure is always a prelude or preface to success. You never really can be truly successful and be effective in a successful connotation of your life if it has not been preceded by processes and failures. Because it's the processes and failures that teaches you how to emerge and appreciate where you are. And it actually qualifies you to keep the blessing, to keep the success when you get it. Listen, you're looking at somebody tonight. I have had tons of failure. I've had tons of failure. I've had so much failure. So much failure. Sometimes I've asked God, when am I going to get this right? But you know what I've learned with all of the success on the other side of all of that failure? There have always been— my God, glory be to God— there have always been an emergence of wisdom and knowledge and power and authority that I did not have before I failed. See, God uses pressure. He uses tests. He puts you in tight places so he can get the best out of you. As a matter of fact, the word pressure is two words. It's an Anglo-Saxon word, press, and it's a French word, urer, which means to extrapolate, to extract, to pull out. Press, of course, means to tighten, to squeeze. So God will put the squeeze on. Hallelujah. And he'll put you in a place where things are tight, things are hard, and he'll start squeezing you so he can extrapolate anointing, so he can pull out of you your gift. Listen, your best gifts and talents emerge under pressure. Your greatest— oh my God— manifestation of you will be born out of pressure. So I'm challenging you tonight, don't curse your crisis. Oh, shabba, etamando! Don't curse your crisis. You're going through it for a reason. Listen, because after this, the best you is gonna emerge. Matter of fact, the word failure, two words, fail and yare. Fail, again, means to fall down, to miss the mark, to come short, to not win, to not achieve success. Yare, pull out. So you have to use every failure, every opportunity to pull something great outta your life. and that's why you go through it. So listen tonight, don't curse your crisis. Somebody ought to type that in the comments right now because I'm prophesying to somebody who is in a crisis. The nation is in a crisis. Glory to the name of God. Somebody lost their job. Somebody tested positive for COVID-19. Somebody's going through something and they do not know how they're coming out. Listen, type it in the comments right now. Don't curse your crisis. Whoo! Abba, uskete este mare osho rokuska talaban deke. Don't curse the crisis. God set it up. Matter of fact, every setback is a setup for a comeback. And I'm telling you right now, the season has changed. I'll say it again, the season has changed. I believe I'll say it one more time because somebody missed it. The season has has changed, and you're getting ready to walk into a new place. I came to tell you there's going to be no more dry seasons. Hallelujah! Glory to God! There's going to be no more seasons where you're, you're pressed on this side and on that side. Glory to the name of God. God says, I'm bringing about change right now because I was using the pain, I was using the failure, I was using the pressure to pull the real you out of you. And here's what I know. Many of you keep suffering. You keep going through cycles. Yeah, you keep going through the same cycles. You keep going in circles. You keep having the same issues. You keep having them because you refuse to learn the lesson in the pressure, the lesson in the failure. But you gotta learn from it so you don't keep repeating it. Any failure, any pressure not learned from will be repeated. See, when you're a person of destiny, when you're a person that has great anointing on your life, you can't just do what you want to do. Hallelujah! You gotta do what God says to. Point number 2— I gotta move, I can stay right there all day. Point number 2: God is always 100% invested in your recovery. Wow, that means no matter what it looks like, you may feel like God has fled the scene. I know I've been through some stuff and I'm like, God, now really, where are you right now? But God knows exactly what he's doing, and he takes us through stuff. He takes us through seasons that are really hard, that are really challenging a lot of times. But he takes us through them, hear me, so that he can get out of us what he's trying to get out of us. But just know, no matter how hard it gets, God is 100%, 100% invested in your recovery. He wants you to be restored. He— watch this, I'mma— let me tell you this, God wants to permanently deliver you. Whether the area the enemy, my God, attacked you before and the thing you went through, once you pass the test, he wants to permanently bring you out 100% where you never have to go through that again. Woo! Ha! Just touch yourself and say, God is 100% invested in my recovery. I need you to grab that tonight. He's 100% invested. 100% invested in your recovery. Wow! He's 100% invested. So one, failure is a prelude to success. Two, God is 100% invested in your recovery. And number three, watch this, your recovery will require massive action on your part. Oh, oh, which means the restoration, the victory, the success, the coming out to the next place, it's not just going to happen. You gotta participate in your victory. You gotta pray, you gotta fast, you gotta read the word, you gotta endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. And every day you gotta tell take action to be better. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. Look at— let me, let me, let me read a scripture to you, and I'm gonna put the main text on the back, but I need to put this right here. James 1:23-25, because I want to show you action. Watch this. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty— listen to this— and preserves being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. James said, if you don't just be one that looks at the law of God, that looks at the word of God, that religiously goes to church, that religiously goes through the motions of a Christian— if you listen, he says, if you don't do that and just, and just be a hearer of what you hear and be a doer, he said you will be blessed in everything you do. So what are you saying, Michael Woods? I'm saying tonight, take action. I'm saying tonight, take action. As you hear this word, take— make up your mind, you're not going to sit down and wait for it to break the sky. You're going to take action. Because guess what? Action produces— action produces actuality. Oh my God. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. Action brings things out of the dream dimension, out of the prophetic dimension. So while I'm prophesying to you tonight that things are gonna get better, what brings this prophecy into your house, into your life, is action. I'm gonna say that again. What brings this word alive and makes it live is going to be the actions that you take. I dare you, look at, look at your child, look at somebody next to you and say, you gotta take action. Touch yourself and say, I gotta take action. I'm telling you right now, you must take action. Oh, you must take action. Say one more time, you must take Action. Glory be to God. Hallelujah. I'll say it again: you must take action, because action produces actuality. Oh my God. And actuality— watch this— produces access. So, second, third point: your recovery is going to require action, massive action on your part. Every believer, every person listening to me, you need a map, you need a massive action plan, and you need to map out how you're going to take action every day so things can get better for your life. Action produces actualities, people. That gives you access. Access to what? Access to full recovery. Hallelujah! Touch yourself and say, I had it. Say, I lost it. Say, but now it's time. Glory to God to get it back. Praise the name of God. I need you to hear me. I'm almost done. I'm almost done, I promise you. So, and number 4, you will never recover You will never grow stronger. You will never amass the success you were created to amass when your comfort zone is a place of consistency, when you refuse to break out of the box that you've been in, that religious box, that professional box, when you keep your faith locked into a pattern that you say you believe God, but you really still do everything that contradicts your belief. Oh my, that's, that's a whole nother subject, and I really could get deeper into it, but I won't because I don't have time. But at the end of the day, you'll never recover, you'll never have the success, you'll never rise to that plateau that God has created you to rise to if your comfort zone is constantly consistent. You know, if you do this, you're gonna do that. You got to make up your mind in your action plan that you're gonna take actions that lead to a better experience. Experience. You cannot reap a harvest in an area where you have not sown. I'll say that again. Mm, mm. As Kingdom people, if we want to reap a harvest in the medical field, in the culture of medicine, in the system of medicine, in the kingdom of medicine, we need to plant a seed in that kingdom by planting talent and ability into the medical field that is anointed Anointed. So we need anointed doctors. Hallelujah. We can't reap a harvest in the legal field that we don't sow lawyers in the legal field who are anointed. We can't reap a harvest in the entertainment industry if we don't sow entertainers in that system who are anointed. We got to get out of our comfort zone. We gotta watch this. God let COVID happen. He didn't cause it, but he showed allowed it, 'cause he God and he could have stopped it. But he didn't stop it so he could get us out of our comfort zone. So that we could break out of the box of the four walls of the church, start doing outreach. We could plant seed in fields where we have not sown. Oh boy, y'all hearing this tonight? Oh glory! You need to hear what I'm saying. We need to understand that the world is ours, but we can't reap the harvest until we put the seed inside of the culture what we want to reap. Hallelujah. So we got to stop being religious, stop being comfortable, and break outside of the box. I'm almost done. Let's go to the text. Hallelujah. I told you, so the old preacher would put the scripture on the front, but I'm gonna put it on the back today. Is that all right? Glory to God. Hallelujah. Let's go to the Bible. Glory to God. So let's go to 1 Samuel chapter 30. And ha! Glory be to God. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Somebody ought to praise God for recovery. So what's our 4 points? Number 1, failure is always a prelude to success. Anybody watch The Last Dance about Michael Jordan? Well, you can celebrate the victories that he's the GOAT, but you cannot celebrate those successes until you honestly embrace his failures. To be honest with you, Michael Jordan was a standard basketball player in high school. He didn't even— he got cut from the team as a junior. Are you hearing this? So at the end of the day, he, he determined that he was going to make a difference and that he was going to win. Failure is always a preference to success. Number 2, God, Abba Father, Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Makkaddish, the Lord our righteousness, Jehovah Gabor, the Lord that wars for us, Jehovah Isid could do. The Lord our sanctifier. God is always 100% invested in our deliverance and recovery. He's invested in your success. Number 3, oh my God, your recovery, your success, your growth is going to require massive action from you. And number 4, hallelujah, you will not be successful, you will not enlarge, you will not recover, you will not reach the heights that God has called you to reach when your comfort zone is a place of consistency. Hallelujah. Let's look at the text. 1 Samuel chapter 30. It should be on the screen. I'm going to read verses 1 through 8. The Bible said, and it came to pass— wait a minute, let me stop right there. Whenever you read, and it came to pass, in the Bible, that means this This is history. This really happened. This is not a fairy tale. And it came to pass. Let me prophesy to you. God is working on a historical moment in your life where you could say, and it came to pass. They're gonna say, how did you get that car? It came to pass. How did you get that big house? It came to pass. How did you get that beautiful wife? It came to pass. How did you get that— oh my God— husband? It came And it came to pass. How did you get that business? How did you become a millionaire? How, how, how? You'll be able to answer, and it came to pass, because in the realm of the spirit, while I'm teaching, God is working on history for you, and you gonna be able to testify so that the enemy is defeated on every front. Watch this. When you begin to testify, and it came to pass, everything the enemy ever throwed at you, loses authority to ever throw that thing at you again because it's history. It's over. You've learned the lesson. You've been recovered, and now you're moving forward. Somebody ought to shout, "And it came to pass!" And it came to pass! And it came to pass! I'm telling— I'm talking to a pastor right now. You got a dream to win souls and to have a great harvest inside of your ministry. I'm telling you right now, the harvest is coming. I'm speaking to a businessman. Customers are coming. Hallelujah. And it came to pass. You just gotta trust God. Watch this. When David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south and Ziklag and smitten Ziklag and burned it with fire. All right, so let's look at that word Ziklag. The Hebrew transliteration of the word literally means twisting. So here it is. David has his men and his family and the families of these men in a twisting place, a place that represents confusion, a place— watch this— that represents a sense of insanity. And one would say, Michael Woods, why do you say that Ziklag would represent a type of insanity? I'm going to tell you why. Why? Because if you look at the topography of Ziklag, here's what you're going to find. You're going to find that at every turn in Ziklag, it was a blind spot. So you could never really be fully prepared for an enemy if they pounced upon you. Or if someone was planning an attack, you had no ability to have deep foresight as to what was going on. Because it was a twisting place. It was a confused place. And many of you right now, you find yourself in a twisted place. You don't know what the will of God is. You don't know, glory to God, who certain people are in your surroundings and in your life. And at the end of the day, we got to stop the insanity, guys, and we got to make up in our mind that we're going to align ourselves with what God says so we can begin to walk out his history, walk out the testimony that God has prepared for us. These guys were in Ziklag, and you know, the Bible said they were here 3 days. There's power in the third dimension. God, I don't have time to teach about the third dimension, but let me just briefly go over a few things with you. The third dimension is powerful. Everything that connects us deeply to God is found, listen to me, in the third dimension. Wow. So God now is getting ready God is going to use David's failure in coming to Ziklag and making a decision here in Ziklag that will traumatize his life in a great way. And we're going to see that in a moment. But watch this. The third day, distinctively, again, everything inside of that third dimension brings us closer to the Father, brings us closer to God. How do you say that, Michael Woods? Watch this. The scripture says, "Now abide these three." Joyfully-yam. Faith, hope, and love. The greatest of these three is love. Love is in the third dimension. We're made up of three parts. We're a trichotomy. We're tripartite beings. We are body, soul, and spirit. The spirit man is our innermost man who is in the third dimension. God, I don't have time to teach about these. Listen. And then in the third dimension also So you have outer court, inner court, holy of holies. So when you read about the tabernacle in the Old Testament, outer court, inner court, holy of holies, holy of holies is in the third dimension. Are y'all hearing this? Watch this. I ain't through. Jesus died. Oh my. And then he rose again on the 1, 2, 3, third day. There's power in the resurrection. Glory to God. He rose up from the grave with all power in His hand. Watch this. Now, by these three in Heaven, as a witness in Heaven, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is in the third dimension. So, there's something extremely powerful about third-day people.

Whoo!

About— watch this. Hallelujah. Also in the third dimension is the dimension of manifestation. So, a lot of times when you're going through pressure and failure and you're going through problems, it is in the third dimension that God manifests the breakthrough. Oh my God, I dare you just shout, "I got to get to the third dimension." We got to stop living from an external viewpoint and take introspective and really begin to walk through the third dimensions of our life. You know, the Bible said, walk in the Spirit, third dimension, that we don't fulfill the lust of the flesh, first dimension. Come on, church. So God says, I want you to move into the third dimension. That's why you need the baptism in the Holy Spirit, because it unlocks the realm of glory for you in a way that religion cannot usher you. Are you hearing me? Tonight. Oh my God, I'm almost done because I think I'm boring some of y'all, but I'm really almost done. So he says they were there the third day, and then the Amalekites invaded the south and, and Ziklag and smite Ziklag and burned it with fire. So here's a great big mistake. David understands that Saul wants to kill him. He understands, secondly, that the Amalekites are warring against everybody. They're trying to take territory. They're trying to take property. They are giants. Why would you take all of your men, the males, out of the court?

Ooh.

Take all of the men out the court, here again, and you end up leaving the women and children there subject to attack. Wow, not a very wise decision, David. Not a third dimension decision. You know why? Because a woman and her husband have specific roles. The man should always cover his house, cover his children, cover his wife, and be a leader in the home. Listen, ladies, let me tell you something. Don't marry a man man that doesn't have 4 levels to him. One, he should— and he should have all of these, and he should be matured in all of these before you start calling him husband. First of all, a man should be the priest of his house. What are you saying, Michael Woods? The man should be the intercessor of the house. So if you're one of these powerful ladies— and there's a lot of powerful ladies in the world that's apostles and prophets, and I love all of you. Some of my favorite preachers are women, and I'm grateful that God has anointed you. But no matter how anointed you are, you need a man in your life that has a greater anointing and a greater ability to touch God. And you should celebrate his priesthood, his ability to be an intercessor. An intercessor takes things to God on behalf of us. Others. So in the home, the husband would be an intercessor that takes the issues, the future, the plans, the agendas for the home before Abba and says to Abba God, what are you saying for my house? And guess what? He leaves God's presence and comes back home as a prophet because now he can say what God said. Oh my God. When he was in God's presence interceding for the family. So you need a prophet and a priest, women, that you could trust. And when he comes out of prayer and comes out of the presence of God, you should be able to move in agreement, and there should be a check in your spirit that he has been with God. Are y'all hearing this tonight? So women, don't do it. Because if you get the third one, his third level, which is provision, his ability to provide and get— and listen, I'm not disdaining this because you definitely don't want to marry a man as a prophet and a, and a priest, but he can't provide. Because if he's a prophet and a priest, one of the first things God's going to tell him is, man, provide for your house. Come on, he's going to tell him to do something huge and big that you could take the burden off of your Wow. So you need a man that can operate in all three of these arenas effectively. You need a lazy bum that can't provide, that don't have a vision, that don't have a dream, that's not grinding, that's not trying to reach the highest pinnacle of manhood that he possibly can. So you need provision, you need a prophet, you need a priest, and then you need a king. A king is a governor, and a governor— a king A king has elements. He decrees a thing and it becomes law. A king also has an army that protects. Just like David, he had an army of men, but he refused to protect their families. And that's a dangerous place. This is the failure that we see. Remember, failure is a prelude to success. This is one of David's many failures. Hallelujah, but thanks be to God. Hallelujah, that God has a way of turning things around. Let's read this story. Verse number 2, 1 Samuel, verse 2. 1 Samuel chapter 30, verse number 2. And had taken the women captives that were there, and they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away and went on their way. Now you realize that the Amalekites could have killed the women and children, but they didn't. This just goes to show you that even when we make stupid mistakes. God has a way of covering us in our ignorance. Are you hearing me? He has a way of blocking things that really should have destroyed us when we made ignorant mistakes and dropped the ball and blundered. Oh my God, none of the women were touched, okay? None of the children were touched, great or small. Then they were not slewed away. So the Bible says, verse number 3, so David and his men came to the city, and behold, it was burned with fire. Imagine coming home and everything you own was burned. And this is where we get today's subject: you had it, you lost it, now it's time to get it back. So here, here's the— you lost it. See, see, they had, uh, dwelling places, they had material goods. They had pitched their camp there and they were beginning to prosper. But when they got back, the Amalekites had extrapolated the women and children and burned down their houses. They had it. Listen, I'm talking to somebody tonight. Let me prophesy to you. When the enemy has attacked you and he has seemingly set things on fire— oh my God— in your life. Hallelujah. You, you, you have been going through some very hard times and you don't realize how you're going to get out. But let's keep reading. Hallelujah. It was burned with fire, and their wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captives. Then David, verse number 4, and the people who were with him lifted up their voice to weep until they had no more power to weep. Glory to God. Hallelujah. In other words, this— and this word here, weep, in Hebrew is bakah, B-A-K-A-H, and it means they were moaning and groaning and screaming. They weren't just dripping tears, but these was grown, burly men. Glory to God. Greasy men who were warriors. Now they're upset that their women and children are gone, and David himself All of them weeping. Hallelujah. And they wept through the night, literally. Glory be to God. Now, and the Bible said they wept so that they had no more power, no more strength. They wept till they had no more strength. They wept until they passed out because this thing overwhelmed them, that their city, all that they had worked for, was burned down. Their camp was destroyed. Their women and children were gone. Hallelujah. Verse number 5, and David's two wives were taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. Now, I don't want nobody listening to me teach this word out of the Old Testament tonight think that this is telling you you can have two wives, because brother, guess what, as much as you may want it, You cannot. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. You can only have one. Praise the name of God. So, but here they were under Jewish custom, a different law, and they could have as many wives that they wanted if they could take care of them. Then David's two wives were taken. Then this is what they're telling him. Both of his wives were taken. The scripture says in verse number 6, and I'm sure he was, he was greatly distressed. For the people spake of stoning him. So wait a minute, David now the leader, he's distressed, he's depressed. The word distressed actually in this text in Hebrew, it actually, glory to God, comes from a Hebrew word, very powerful Hebrew word actually, that, that means pressure. We talked about that earlier. It means to be stressed out Yeah, he lost it. It means to be— watch this— even mentally off balance or out of line. So he started having some mental issues here because of his depression, because of how distressed he was. And now he's fearing for his life. Sound like a lot of people in this hour now, distressed, stressed out by coronavirus and this pandemic that's in the world. Because people are losing jobs, they're losing money, marriages are under strain. You know, you would have thought that if people now gotta be inside and be around each other, you would have thought that it would make them stronger. But people who have not been used to being in the same space that much, it has really hurt them more than it has helped them. And so people are stressed. People had something and they lost it. Oh my God, you had it, you lost it. Glory to God. There are people that have loved ones or friends. I have close friends who have— I have people I know that died from coronavirus. Oh my God, let me tell you something. Let me, let me tell you something. Glory to God. We have to make up in our mind we're not going to be afraid and we're not going to let this thing stress us out. Let me testify right here. I can do it. Glory to God. On Monday, May 11th— it's May 24th now— I took a coronavirus COVID-19 test because the previous day I was— I started sneezing. And I said, okay, well, maybe I just need— because all I've been was doing basically was leaving the house, going to the office, coming back home went to play golf a few times, but golf is outside. I wasn't around people. I was wearing a mask. So, you know, I'm like, okay, nothing's wrong with me, but let me go take the test. Well, I went and took the test and I tested positive. But you know what? When I got the results back, I did not have one moment of fear. I didn't go into depression. All I did was begin to say to God, you are Jehovah Rapha. You are the Lord that heals me. And I declare now I will live and not die. I will not get sick from this disease, this virus. I will not need a ventilator. I will not go to the hospital. And here it is, May 24th. I am now negative. I am whole. Glory to God. Thank you, Jesus. I never had shortness of breath. I have not had a fever. Somebody ought to dance with me right now. I feel like running. Glory to God. The same thing that killed folk. Glory to God. I never had any of the symptoms. That suggests I'm sick with coronavirus, because God's my healer. I give him all the glory. I determined day one I would not die and I was gonna live. Listen, if you're listening to me right now and you're struggling with coronavirus, I need you to muster up enough strength to open your mouth and begin to say, I will not die but live. To declare the works of the Lord. I'm telling you right now, I'm getting ready to close, y'all. You gotta understand, you can live through this. You can win. You can make it through that disease. Whether you got cancer, AIDS, whether you've had some financial crisis, you had it, you lost it, you lost your health, you lost your money, you lost your husband. God told me to tell you it's time to dust yourself off and get it back in the name of Jesus. I got to get out of here, guys. My time is about gone. David was greatly distressed. The people spake of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David encouraged himself. Y'all didn't hear me. I said, but David encouraged himself. "But David," hallelujah, "encouraged himself." But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. Notice how that thing was made personal in the text, the Lord his God. You gotta know, not religiously, but you gotta know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is your God. Whew. Again, you got to know without a shadow of a doubt that God is God. And you got to learn to encourage yourself in what he's able— uskitidi anso— to do. Hallelujah! Yes, hallelujah! Thank you, Lord. Just lift your hands right where you are. I hear the Lord saying worship. And tell the Lord, I love you. And tell him, I'll live and not die. Tell him, I'm free, Lord, because you are with me. That's it. I'm free because you are with me. I'm telling you, God's about to restore what you lost. Oh my God. The Bible says again, the David was greatly distressed, for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters. But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. Verse number 7. And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod, the prayer garments. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David. See, here's the key to getting where you're trying to go, to reaching your maximum potential. For manifesting the plan of God in your life, for being restored and recovering what you lost, is understanding you can't do it without God. You need him to win. You need him to finish. So you need to take the position David took and pray. I'm challenging you right now to learn to pray like God prays. Listen, I'm getting ready to release an entire CD recording, or an entire digital download recording called the Prayer Lab. It's my COVID-19 Prayer Lab. It's prayers I prayed during the time I was going through COVID, and I decided to record them to encourage other people because they're not just for COVID, they'll help you through any situation. You got to learn to understand that prayer is your earthly license for heavenly interference. I'll say that again. Prayer is your earthly license for heavenly interference. You want Heaven to get involved? You want to be restored? You want to get where God is taking you? You need to open your mouth, lay prostrate before God, and begin to pray to Him. The way you're supposed to. Hallelujah. I'm not talking about some religious prayers. I'm talking about literally spending enough time with God that something opens up between heaven and earth, a portal that gives you access to answers, because God has all of them. And that's— the Bible said David inquired, which means David said, I'm not moving in my flesh. Listen, I'm upset. I'm angry that my wife and kids is gone. Our houses have been burned down. The people want to kill me. God, I'm upset. But what I'm not going to do— come on, church— what I'm not going to do is get in my flesh. It's too many people out here reacting in the flesh. There's a space— hear me— between stimulus and response. Just because you're stimulated with something doesn't mean you're supposed to respond the way your flesh is telling you to respond. You may feel like retaliating in your flesh and doing something that's totally abstract to the will of God, and it ended up hurting you and hurting a whole lot of other people because you moved in the flesh. There's too many people out here moving in their flesh. We must get a relationship with God where we can be presence-driven people. Are y'all hearing that? We got to be presence-driven people. Watch this, we gotta live like the Holy Spirit— the symbol of the Holy Spirit is the dove in the Bible. So we gotta live literally like we know he's with us and that he resides in our life. So we need to live like that dove is on our shoulder, and we need to live like one wrong move and that dove will fly away, because that's really how it looks. The Holy Spirit lives in us, and we got to live like—

woo!

We got to live like— hallelujah! We're going to— oh God, we got to live like we're going to grieve. And the Bible said, grieve not the Holy Spirit. So we got to be cognizant of the fact that he is with us. We're hosting him. We're hosting him. Hallelujah. And we got to be hospitable to his presence so we can get the benefit of God living in us. Hallelujah to God. This is what David said. David inquired the Lord, saying, shall I pursue after this troop? I'm not getting in my flesh. Shall I overtake him? Simple question. I love David's relationship with God. There is nothing in between this question but a question mark. The scripture says, and he answered him— God answered him— pursue. Hallelujah. For thou shalt surely overtake them and without fail. Recover all. You had it, you lost it. Now it's time to get it back. God is about to restore your life. God's about to get you back on track. Listen, I speak to the church. There are many— I'm so grateful more than in our ministry, we have deliberately ensured that the power of God remain in our church, the power of God remain in our meetings. Because I don't want to do this without God's power, without God's presence. I want to see people healed of cancer. I want to see them healed of COVID-19. I want to see people healed of AIDS. I want to see blind eyes open, deaf ears unstopped. And I've seen all of it. It's because we deliberately make sure we keep this. We do what we got to do to see these manifestations of God's glory in our midst. I'm saying to the church, you had it. There are denominations that started out in power, they got political and start doing their own thing, and now you go in most of those churches, there's no power there. They mistaken power for jumping and shouting and praise break. That ain't power. Because if you get through jumping and shouting and yelling and going through all of the motions and nobody's healed, nobody's life is impacted or restored— we need power in every dimension of our lives. Are you hearing me? Hallelujah. I said, are you hearing One scripture, one more scripture. I'm closing. Go to Psalm 30. Hallelujah. Psalm 30. I'm closing with Psalm 30. Praise God. Praise God. Somebody ought to shout glory be to God tonight. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Psalm 30. Praise God. So in this ordeal, and I'll tell you how this story ended. Psalm 30:5 is what we're going to read, and I'm through. But this story ended, ladies and gentlemen. They— God told him he was going to recover all. And guess what happened? He did recover all. He got his wives. They got— and the men got their wives. They got the children back. Hallelujah! Glory to God! They got all this stuff that was stolen them, and plus they got the Amalekite stuff too. Not only did God return their goods, but he returned— oh my God— the goods of the enemy. Gave— listen, he gave them the goods of the enemy as well. I'm telling you right now, hear the word of God. God's about to restore in your life, and he's about to give you double for your trouble. Isaiah said, "For your shame you shall receive double." I'm telling you right now, somebody listen to me, you're about to get double for your trouble. I know it's been hard, but the Holy Spirit is prompting me now to tell you, you're about to get double for your trouble. Well, we know David was a worshiper and a writer. So David, after this ordeal, penned a psalm, and it was Psalm 30. Glory to God. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Listen, let's just read it, because they sung this when David dedicated his house, but he wrote it after this ordeal. He said, I will extol thee, O Lord. Hallelujah. For thou has lifted me up. I will extol thee, O Lord. Extol is ruam in Hebrew, and ruam literally means that I will rise up, praise and worship to you with the purpose of being lifted to where you are. Oh my God. So when you extol the Lord, you're lifting him up so that you're causing praise and worship to be raised so you could be raised in the midst of it. So it's not just songs. You wanna be raised to where he is. Woo! So the song says, hallelujah, I will extol thee, O Lord, for thou has lifted me up. Thou has not made me to be like other men. Neither made my foes to rejoice over me. In other words, David is saying, Lord, I thank you that you didn't let the Amalekites rejoice at my defeat, rejoice with my wife and children. You allowed me to defeat these giants. Verse 2, O Lord, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me. They wept and cried till they had no more power to weep. He wrote this out of the text, guys. Yes. Verse 3, O Lord, thou has brought my soul up from the grave. Thou has kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit. Verse 4, sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. Here's where I wanted to get. Verse 5, for his anger, for his anger, glory to God, endureth whoo, God! but for a moment. Yeah, you failed. You dropped the ball. I've dropped the ball. And God gets angry. But the scripture says his anger endures for a moment. In his favor, it's like God never designs any crisis, any situation to kill you. He says weeping may endure for a night. I told you they wept all night. But joy cometh in the morning. I stopped by tonight to tell somebody joy is coming in the morning. What's joy, Michael Woods? I'm glad you asked. You had it, you lost it, now it's time to get it back. You had it, you lost it, now it's time to get it back. The word joy there is sheya in Hebrew. Hallelujah. And it means Shea is not to be happy and smiling. That's not what the connotation is here. Shea means profit, P-R-O-F-I-T. You ask a man who is in business to define profit, he's going to tell you that which is left over after the expenses of the business have been paid and covered. Can I tell you right now, glory be to that you're about to get a prophet, just like David and his men. They got their stuff and the Amalekite stuff