Change Your Mind Pastor Hope Carpenter

Well, welcome. I am so glad that you're here tonight. Are you excited? I am so excited about the word of God. I am excited to shift. I'm excited to change. I'm ready to grow. You know, 20, 20, 2020 was a year 2021. I am ready to shift, change, grow, adjust myself, whatever I need today do. To be ready for the move of God, to be ready to hear his voice, to operate in everything that he wants me to operate in. And I know that you are too. You know, we're all on different levels and we're all on a different journey. But you wouldn't be here tonight if you weren't ready for the word of God, which is just sharper than any two edged sword. And it cuts, it divides, it changes us. So I'm so excited you're here. So get your bibles, I'm ready to go. We're going to talk about going out deep tonight. Redefining the parameters of your life. So Proverbs 27:19 says this. It says, as water reflects the face, so one's life reflects his heart. As water reflects the face, so one's life reflects the heart. See, the heart is the place where you store everything. It's the place where you store your hurt, where you store your pain, where you store your past, where you store your bitterness, or where you store your joy or your peace or your freedom, or your forgiveness or your unforgiveness. Whatever is going on inside you, it will show in your life. You store it in your heart and then your life reflects it. And see, most of us, this is the the truth most of us have never been taught, right? Unfortunately, there's several ways you can be taught. But as a Christian, we are supposed to live our life by the word of God. It is supposed to dictate our life. It's supposed to dictate our choices. It's supposed to dictate our cravings, our love, our passions. We're supposed to love what he loves and hate what he hates. But see, when we've got mixture in there, when we let other people tell us what to think and other people tell us what to believe, we're going to go there. Are you ready? We're going to go there. Proverbs 27:3 says, As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. What does that mean? Well, whatever I believe to be true, whatever I think is ultimately what defines me. See where that can be a problem? That's why you have to be careful what church you go to. That's why you have to be careful who is speaking into your life. Because that defines all of the parameters of your life. The way you think will be the boundaries and the parameters of your life and what you ultimately live by. You are a house made of thoughts. And those thoughts come by what you're taught. You were taught by your mom, you were taught by your dad, you were taught by your grandma, you were taught by your pastor, you were taught by your friends. You were taught by experiences. And all of the things that you were taught define you. It makes you who you are today. It's how you live. It's how you operate. You're where you are because of what you have taken to be the truth. Your life is just a reflection of what you believe to be true. So if you sit under a preacher who preaches, there are no miracles. God doesn't work miracles anymore. You'll see no miracles in your life. Your life. If you sit up under a preacher who says that you're not supposed to prosper, then you are not going to prosper. You sit up under a house that says God doesn't heal anymore. That's Old Testament. God doesn't heal your body. Then you're not going to see the healing of God manifest in your life as you think so are you. Say it out loud as I think the devil didn't make you do it. It's how you think so are you. And you'll never rise above or flow out of or outside of the parameters of what you believe. Oh, we putting all the pressure on us tonight, Right? It's all the pressure on us. And the problem is when I believe things that are not true, that are contrary to the word of God, I'm believing a lie. I have taken a lie to be the truth. And that's what the word calls a stronghold, is when you take a lie to be the truth and then you must live according to that lie. Everything in your life will flow out of the lie that you've taken to be the truth. For example, if someone told you growing up, you'll never amount to anything. You're never going to be any better than your daddy, and your daddy was sorry. If you took that lie to be the truth. Everything in your life flows out of that lie. You can never rise above that lie because you accepted it, you took it to be true. It's a stronghold in your life. If you were taught marriage is not supposed to be great. Marriage is not supposed to be celebrated. Marriage is just supposed to be tolerated, right? And after a few years, there's probably no spice, there's no commitment. You don't enjoy one another. And your marriage will be that way. Why? Because you took that lie that someone told you to be the truth. And now your whole life is operating out of that lie. See, when I read the Word of God, I see a life that God has for me, that God has for you, that has no limits, that has no boundaries. I see endless possibilities. I see power, I see resources. I see freedom. A life where I can walk through the darkest times and I can still have peace. But if I don't believe it to be true. If you don't believe it to be true, although it's available to me, it will never be mine or your reality. It can be sitting there waiting on you. It's waiting for you to grab it. God's already paid the price. He's done everything there is to do. He's already paid the price. But if you don't think it's for you, you will never grab a hold of these precious promises of God, which are yes and amen. In our life, truth is not truth until you believe it. Truth is not truth until you agree with it. God is trying to get two to agree. I'm three parts. I'm a body, I'm a soul, and I'm a spirit. And if I can get two parts of me to agree, it will overtake the third part. My flesh, my body and my spirit. They're warring with my soul every single day to come into agreement. Whichever one will find agreement is the life I'll live unto my flesh or unto my spirit. My spirit knows no boundaries. Why? Because it's direct, directly linked to God. But see, my mind can talk me out of it every single day. God is wanting you to agree with His Word so that His Word can manifest and operate in your life. If I can get my mind to wrap around the spirit world and grasp the fact that Jesus has seated me in heavenly places with him. He seated me in heavenly places. It's over, Benito. It's done. He seated me in heavenly places. I don't care what your mama said. I don't care what your daddy said. I don't care what your other preacher said. I don't care what your granny said. I don't care what your ex husband said about you. What Jesus said overrides everything that they say and everything that the world says. But you gotta agree with it. If I'm going to change the parameters in which I live. I gotta change the way I think. God help us. God help us. This is not a self help class. This is the Bible. We gotta change the way that. That we think. God's word is a lamp unto my feet. It is a light. It turns the light on when we don't know what to do. We gotta stop running to this one for advice and that one for advice and going to Instagram and seeing what the new phase is. God's word is a lamp unto my feet. It is a light into my path. It will lead you and guide you. It will never let you down. Will never let you down. God wants to expand your borders. He wants to enlarge your tents. But he will not give you any more than what you believe, if you believe can be yours. What is this foolishness called? Preaching? Why do we build these churches? And why do we have all this staff? And why do we do what we do? Trying to get this. This truth into your life. Trying to make you realize that you are the head and not the tail, that you are seated in heavenly places, that you are an overcomer, that you are victorious. And if I can get you to see what you really can't see, then what you can see will change. If I can get you to see what you really can't see, what you see around you will eventually change. Man, that's good news today. That is good news. See, but most of us believe what we've been taught, and we've never really even checked to see if it was true. So they said it, we believe it, and now we're walking out the reality of it. That said it, we took it to be true, and now we're walking out the reality of it. Be careful who you give your ears to. Don't just watch and listen to anybody. Whoever has your ear has your future. Whoever has your ear has your future. And it's more important who you're under than who you're over. It's more important. Let me say it again, who you're under than who you're over. We all want to be over people. We all want to take the lead, but it's more important who you're under because it sets the trajectory of your life, who you're listening to. Some of you need to press delete, delete, delete, delete. And change numbers. Delete them out of your phone book. Quit looking at those Instagram posts. Quit listening to that music. I'm telling you, it's more important who you're under than who you're over. And then somebody comes to preach and they start bumping up against that lie that you've taken to be the truth. Preacher comes in and says, no. The Bible says it is his will that you prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers. Oh, and we get mad. Oh, he's just a prosperity preacher. Yes, I'd rather be a prosperity preacher than a poverty preacher. It is his will that you prosper and that you be in help. If it weren't his will, why would he have paid such a horrible price for your freedom? Jesus, help us. We're taught by two ways. We're taught by the Word or we're taught by religion or the world. The Word says, the Lord is my shepherd. Psalm 23. I shall not want. Why? Why shall I not want? Why shall I not worry? Because he's the shepherd. I'm just out here grazing. He leads me. He guides me. See, he's the one who's supposed to be leading you. He's the one. His word is the one that's supposed to be guiding you. Not your history, not your ethnicity. It's him. He's supposed to lead you and guide you. You don't side on the side of your ethnicity or what your ethnicity thinks. You side on the side of what God says. You don't side on the side of what your family and what your mama taught you. You side on the word of God, what it's teaching you. This is tough. It's tough, it's tough, it's tough. Somehow I gotta get my mind to release the lie and side with the truth. But first you gotta expose the lie. And you cannot know what lie you've taken to be the truth until you get in the word of God and see where it contradicts it. You have to know God's word to see what he's saying for your life. Because whatever I agree on, that's going to be my reality. That's going to be your reality. When God starts to redefine all of these parameters in your life that you're used to hitting up on the truth, you're used to hitting up on even if it's a lie, when God starts to redefine that, it starts to become very, very, very uncomfortable. Very, very, very. When God starts kicking out the props and the underpinning from you, it gets very shaky. I'm talking about going out deep with God. See, it's easy when the concrete of the pool is under your feet, but when you get out to 6, 7 and 8, 9ft. It's harder, right? It's easier in the ocean when you can feel the sand. But when you get on out deeper, you get a little nervous. You get a little scared. Your palms start sweating a little bit because you can't touch anymore. Everything that you relied on. Do you hear me? Everything that you relied on is not there anymore. My comfort zone, what seems to be natural, what's easy to do, it's no longer there. What do you do? That's when you reach out and you grab the hand of the shepherd. You grab the hand of the one who wants to lead you. And you say, I have no idea where I'm going, but God is stretching me. God is taking me. He's shifting me. He's stretching me. He's taking me out deep. Then you ask God, God, expand me. Enlarge me. Come on, say it right now. Say, God, expand me. Enlarge me. Stretch me, God. Even if it's uncomfortable, stretch me, God, teach me your ways, God. So then when you say that, this is what happens. You say that, and then chaos sets in. Sorry, wish I could give you some sweeter news today. Chaos sets in disorder. God's answering your prayer, but he has to bring disorder to your order. See, you think it's ordered and it feels okay. It feels comfortable. But it's a lie, remember? So it's really disorder. You think it's order, so God has to come shake it up. God has to come get you uncomfortable so that he can take you where he wants you to go so that you can stand on the truth of God's word. So to move from where you are now to where he wants to take you, you have to travel. You have to travel. And everybody doesn't like to travel. Traveling isn't easy. It makes you tired. You have to prepare, you have to pack. You have to get organized. You got to get your bills paid so that you, when you're out of town, everything. Listen, people don't like to travel because it's hard. It's going to cost you something to travel. I don't think I've ever been on a free trip. Don't get mad at God when he starts shaking things up in your life. He's just doing what you ask him to do. Ron and I prayed, God, send people from the north, the south, the east and the west. Fill up our buildings. We didn't realize that more sheep meant more sheep dung. Needed a bigger shovel. Some of you. This is so foreign. I know it is. Some of you listening to Me right now. This is so foreign to you. I know, I know. I'm trying to stretch you to believe God for more. I'm trying to stretch you to let you see that where you are right now, there's so much more in God. And you're sitting there saying, I'm working three jobs, Hope. I'm trying as hard as I can just to put shoes on my kids feet. And you see where you are and you hear about this life of endless possibilities in God. And there's this hopeless journey in between where you are and into where you know a life that God has planned for you. And I want to show you how God shows up and he bridges the gap. Listen, he wouldn't dangle things in front of you. He doesn't play keep away. That's not his heart. It's a mindset. Say it. It's a mindset. It's a mindset. If I can just get my mind set on the things above where Christ lives. If I can just get my mindset set above, not on the things below. Not what I'm looking at, not what I'm going through. If I can get my mind set on the things above where Christ is, Where Christ is. Where the anointing is. If I can just see from a different perspective. If I can just see from the perspective of the anointing. Whoo. Things will shift. Things will change, things will grow, things will expand. Stop looking at the things around you. Stop looking at your bank account. Start looking at what God says about your finances. Stop looking at the condition of your marriage. And look at what God says you can have if you just believe. Stop looking at the condition of your body. Body. And start looking at what Christ did on the Via Dolorosa, called the way of suffering, so that you could be free. Body, soul and spirit. It's a mindset. Romans 7. Paul said, oh, wretched man, I do what I shouldn't do and I don't do what I know I should do. I know I should go to church every Sunday, but I don't. I know how I'm supposed to treat my spouse, but you know, I just get so cranky after working 8, 9, 10 hours a day. And I deserve to be ill. I know I shouldn't scream and treat my children like I do and not give them the proper attention they need because after all, you know, I'm tired. I know I should be tithing and bringing offerings to the Lord, but you know, I got to pay my bills and I got to save for Christmas and Oh, wretched man am I. I don't do what I know I'm supposed to do and I end up doing the thing that I hate. The Bible says, do not be conformed to the pattern of the world, but be ye transformed. How? By the renewing of your mind. Don't be conformed. So if you find yourself tripping and being conformed in the pattern of the world, that lets you know that you have not renewed your mind, that your mind is. Needs some more soap. And that's called the bi ble. Yes, that's the book for me. The renewing of your mind. Lord, I want to go out deep, God. I want to be everything you've called me to be. So what you're really saying is, God, I want you to kick these parameters out of my life. I want you to make me uncomfortable, I want you to shake me up. I want you to send two of my siblings to come live in my house and make me depend on you. What you're really saying is, God, I want you to let me get laid off work so that I will have to depend on you for what I eat, for my car payment. Nothing but you, God, to hold on to. Nothing but you, shepherd, to lead me and to guide me. You know, it's harder to swim out deep. It's harder. I mean, you can paddle around and dog paddle down in the three foot water, but you get out to the seven and eight foot water, it requires more strength, it requires more muscle. So to swim out deep with God, it requires more strength, it requires more faith. It requires. Requires more knowledge of the word of God to depend on him. There is a place in God where there's no boundaries, where there's endless possibilities that's called the abundant life of God. But we have to change our entire way of thinking, our entire way of thinking. But some of us though, listen, this is the problem. Some of us though our heart is so damaged that we cannot grasp ahold of this, our past, our experience. We focus on what we've done, what we've been through, what's been done to us. But listen, God does not count that as an inhibitor to you. God does not count that as an inhibitor to what his word says about you and what you can do and what you can have and who you can be. He has come. This is what he said. He said, the thief comes in John 10:10. He said, the thief comes to what? To steal, to kill and to destroy? He said, but I have come. That you have life, Zoe, and that you have it More abundantly than you had before I entered the picture. Jesus, we've got so many issues going on in our heart, don't we? We won't let God get to the root of our problems. We've been to a thousand healing lines, never free. You know people like that. Could it be you don't see what's really wrong? I see your depression, but what's really wrong? I see that you're an introvert, but what's really wrong? I see that you have failed relationship after failed relationship, but what's really wrong? I see you're angry, but why? What's really wrong? We go to the altar and we want to pray for what we see. Pray for my depression, pray for my anger, pray for my relationships that don't go away until he touches the root of the problem. God will go down on the inside of you and he will show you the strongholds in your life, the lies that you've taken to be the truth that has totally formed all of the parameters in your life. The weapons of our warfare, they are not carnal, but they are mighty through God for the pulling down of strongholds, the lies that we have taken to be the truth. Then you can get new knowledge. God's word can sink into a heart that can receive the Word, a healthy heart. There's a story in Matthew 8. It's the blind man in Bethesda, and they brought him to Jesus. I'm not going to read it all. You can go back and read it. And Jesus took this blind man by the hand and he took him out of the city. And he said, do you see anything? He spit on the man's eye. He spit on him. Okay? He don't even know who this person is. This is a stranger. He took him by the hand, got him up out of his familiar place where he had lived his whole life, took him out of the city, spit on him. Now that's fighting words. Okay? He spit on him and he said, what do you see? Do you see anything? He said, I see people. They look like trees walking around. Can you imagine? They did look like a tree to him. And then once more, Jesus put his hand on his eye. And then his eyes were open, his sight was restored. He saw clearly. And he said to him, he said, don't even go into the village. Don't go back to where I have delivered you from. Jesus had to get him out of town. He had to destroy the parameters. He had to kick all of his comfort zones out. And as long as you're in Your comfort zone. It's very difficult for deliverance to come to your life. God has to bring chaos and a place of dependency, and he sometimes has to lead you out of town. He has to pick you up and take you out of everything that you know and that you're familiar with. You know, blind people, I mean, they're very calculated. It's 1, 2, 3, left, 1, 2, 3, 4, stop, right one. I mean, to the bathroom. Everything is k calculated for blind people. And he picked him up by the hand, didn't say a word, gave him no instruction, and just drug. Can you imagine how he was doing and what he was feeling like he was going to bump into? Jesus said, I got to get him out of his place. I got to get him dependent and holding on to the hand, the shepherd. It's called faith. That's where God's trying to get you today. That's where God's trying to stir all that chaos. It might not have been the devil. It might have been God setting you up to kick the parameters out of your life so that you could see the great life, the abundant life, the Zoe life that he's called you to. Jesus said, I know that I gotta get him out of his familiar. He sits in the same place. He walks the same paces. He's in the old confinement, same old people every single day. And if I leave him there, he's not going to get his miracle. He's not used to this road. The sounds are unfamiliar. The ground is unfamiliar. Where are we going? I wonder if I'll ever be able to get back. Where is he taking me? I have no clue. I can't see, I can't feel. It's not familiar to me. Have you ever felt that way? Has God ever grabbed your hand and jerked you up, took you to a place where you don't understand the voices. Everything's unfamiliar. You don't understand the circumstance. You don't understand the people. And God says, I can't deliver you where you are. Will you trust me? Me? Total and complete unfamiliarity. And then he spits in his face. He spits in his face and he still never said a word to him. He'll take you to a place that is so unfamiliar to you, and then he will withhold his voice. He will be spiritual, silent. The teacher never talks during the test. Whoo. Spit in your face. Sometimes your situation will feel so bad, you'll even think God's against you. You can either get mad at him or you can trust him. Then, right when you think he's left you, he'll touch you. Whoo. Hallelujah. Right when you think he's left you, he will touch you. Verse 25. He put his hands on his eyes. He touched him again and he made him look up. Jesus assessed him. Right then the light came on. He said his blindness is not his problem, but rather he had sat in that corner for 30 years. He had probably been kicked, he'd probably been hit, spat on. He was probably days hungry. He was a beggar. He depended on everybody else for his food. He probably bumped into walls. His inner man was probably so damaged. And he says, if I don't touch him again, if I don't touch him in his inner man, if I heal his blood blindness but I don't heal his heart, he will probably end up blind again. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. God's touch, it healed the damaged emotions of the inner man. The lies of the stronghold was broken. And when God cuts the light on, when he violates your lies, everything that you've known as truth will be thrown. Thrown into chaos. You will be wandering around wondering where you're going and wondering if you'll ever be able to kick back on your own. He's got to mess your stuff up. You gotta. You gotta be in a place of complete dependency on Jesus. You might have to cry like you've never cried. You might have to pray like you've never prayed. You might have to fast like you've never fasted. You might have to cut out all the voices in your life so that you can only hear Jesus. But I don't want you to have temporary healing. I want you to have real, true inner healing. There is a self bigger than yourself. There is a life bigger than the life you are living. God wants you to prosper. He wants you to be in health. He wants you to be able to pay your bills. He wants your body healed. He wants you to feel his presence. He wants you to have healthy, meaningful relationships. And you can embrace where you are right now and just stay right there, or you can allow God to kick the parameters out of your life and take you out in the deep. It's painful. It's not easy. Faith is a fight. Faith is a fight. The Bible says, fight the good fight of faith. But some of you listening to me tonight know that you got deeper problems. And even when you get in the Word, you can't even comprehend it. You can't even. It doesn't do anything because it's falling on the wrong ground. Your heart is not supple. And healed and ready. Some of you need to be touched twice. And you need God to expose the lies that you've taken to be the truth. And if that's you, I'm going to pray for you. You right now. I'm going to pray for you right now, Jesus. Stretch your hand out just as an act of reaching out to Jesus. There's nothing powerful about the tv. There's nothing powerful about the computer. There's nothing powerful about me. But Jesus is the one. Just stretch your hands out to him and say, I need you, God. I need you to heal me on the inside. Every hurt, every pain, every lie that I've taken to be the truth. Truth. Every negative word spoken over my life. Show it to me, God, so I can bring it to the cross so that I can bring it to the cross and lay it at your feet. Heal me on the inside, Jesus. I want to live this abundant life that you've promised me. Touch me twice now, God, help me on this journey. Living by faith. Living by faith. Say I'm going to live by faith. I'm going to live by faith. It's not going to be easy. I know it's not going to be easy, but I'm going to live by faith. And I'm going to be everything that God has called me to be. I'm going to do everything that God has destined and ordained me to do. And I'm going to have everything God says I can have by the word of God. Come on, if that's you, just lift up a shout of praise. Lift up a shout of praise. Today is the turnaround for you. Today is a turnaround. And I believe, I believe. I believe even if all hell breaks out tomorrow that you are on a new journey going out deep with God. Wow. What an inspiring word from Pastor Hope. She is always so incredible and just so real. I love hearing from her. If you want to hear more from her, see more, interact with her throughout the week, make sure you check her out on social media. You can look her up on Facebook @PastorHope C or follow her on Instagram at Pastorhope Carpenter. You can also check out more online on her website@hopecarpenter.com we'll see you next time.