Latest / Pst T.D Jakes -The POTTER'S HOUSE / GOD WON’T RELEASE YOUR NEXT LEVEL UNTIL YOU DO THIS FIRST Bishop T.D. Jakes

Transcript

GOD WON’T RELEASE YOUR NEXT LEVEL UNTIL YOU DO THIS FIRST Bishop T.D. Jakes · Pst T.D Jakes -The POTTER'S HOUSE

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: He doesn't even call him the God of Elisha. He
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: calls him the God of his teacher. Where is the
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: God of my teacher? And then he took what he
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: had and struck the water and it divided to the
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: right and to the left and he crossed over. And
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: I'm going to pause right there. I'm going to read
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: a little bit more, but I'm going to pause right
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: there and tell you what my subject is. It'll work
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: if you work it. Look at somebody and say, it'll
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: work if you work it. Give me the rest of
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: that text. The company of the prophets from Jericho who
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: were watching said, the spirit of Elijah is resting on Elijah.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: And they went to meet him and bowed to the
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: crown before him. Look, they said, we, your servants, have
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: 50 able men. Let them go and look for your master.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Perhaps the Spirit of the Lord has picked him up
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: and set him down on some mountain or in some valley. No,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Elijah replied, do not send them. But they persisted until
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: he was too embarrassed to refuse. So he said, send them.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: And they sent 50 men searching for what was, who
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: searched for three days but did not find him. When
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: they returned to Elisha, who was staying in Jericho, he
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: said to them, didn't I tell you not to go?
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: When it's over, it's over. I want to talk to
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: you from the subject, it'll work if you work it.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Let's pray. Spirit of the living God, we are at
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: the point with our church. We have taught them about
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: faith today. But we have not taught about works. And
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: faith without works is dead being alone. If we leave
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: it in the euphoric atmosphere of just believing and don't
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: bring it down to the practicality of the works that
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: are required to follow in the footsteps of the mighty,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: we would have failed them. illuminate their minds and cultivate
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: their spirits and hold them over the next few moments
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: as I discuss with them what you have discussed with me.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: I thank you in advance for what you're about to do.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Have your way, great God, that you are. In the
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: name of Jesus, we pray. Somebody who believes God, shout amen.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: On your way to your seat, look at somebody and say,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: it'll work if you work it. This is somebody's word.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: I don't know whose, but this is somebody's word. It
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: is somebody's word. It will work if you work it.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: The text before us has been one of the most
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: abused texts in the Old Testament. In some cases, it's
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: not just abused, it's been misunderstood. But whether it's misunderstood
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: or misappropriated, it has been the catalyst through which a
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: spirit of covetous entitlement has stopped us from grasping the
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: power and the intent of the text itself. This is
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: not about blabbing and grabbing. This is not about coveting
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: what somebody else has and getting up under them so
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: you can get an opportunity. It is my hope to
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: shed insight that will contextualize the powerful and brief relationship,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: underline brief relationship, through which God in his providence, pass
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: the mantle and the mission from one man to another
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: to accomplish his purpose, not their agenda. His purpose, not
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: their agenda. This is about what God has purposed to do,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: not what you have decided to do. God has accomplished
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: his purpose and agenda by using these two men who
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: walked together for a brief six years. He was gone.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: This is about that. This isn't about the transference of
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: property or platforms, nor is it a backroom deal where
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: influence is conveyed. It's not about ego and ambition. This
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: is about the will of God's eternal purpose. It isn't
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: about the ambition of one generation for the goods of another.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: He wasn't asking Elijah for his stuff. This is deeper
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: than that. God chose Elijah to be a prophet in
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Elijah's stead. It is the mysterious influence of the Holy
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Spirit and his ability to transfer the unction of the
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit's work throughout ages for his glory. And it
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: is not about Elijah's ambition, ego, or career. Are you
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: with me? Because of God's ability to use whomever he chooses,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: his work has never been void of a representative, never.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: God will always have somebody from, say, from Moses to Joshua,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: from Elijah to Elisha, from Saul to David, from David
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: to Solomon. God's purpose will always have a successor. No
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: man being moved will stop God from doing what God
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: is about to do. God will find somebody else and
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: use that person for His glory and His honor. Do
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: you hear what I'm saying? No Elijah is irreplaceable. I
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: don't care how gifted you are. Never allow the devil
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: to make you think that you are so gifted— a speaker,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: a teacher, a singer, a draftsman, a doctor, a philosopher,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: an engineer— that God doesn't have somebody else in the wings
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: who can do what you do like you do or
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: better than you do. No Elijah is irreplaceable. No Elisha
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: is self-appointed. No, Elisha is self-appointed. You can't just sit
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: there and decide to be me. Number one, you don't
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: know what all goes along with being me. This hour
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: or so on the stage is the tip of the iceberg.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: The real work is beneath the surface. If you watch
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: the swan from the top of the water, the swan
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: is just moving nicely across the water. But if you
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: look up under the water, it's flapping like crazy to
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: keep things going. You want the flow, but you don't
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: want the flap. This is the Lord's doings, and it's
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: marvelous in our eyes. I feel good. Y'all in trouble.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: I don't know what y'all are going to do this
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: one because I'm feeling good. 1 Kings shows us how
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: God spoke through the prophets of old. It reminds me
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: of Hebrews when it says, Hebrews 1, when it says, God,
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: who at several times and in diverse manners spoke unto
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: us by the prophets, but have in these last days
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: spoken unto us by his son. In 1 Kings and
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: 2 Kings, you are seeing God speaking to us through
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: the prophets, tearing down kingdoms, destroying idolatry, to bring his
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: people into right standing through his infallible word. That's what
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: he was doing through his prophet. God's Word is sovereign.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: It's sovereign. It's sovereign. It rules. It's the boss. It's
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: in charge. It is absolute. His Word preexisted pen and paper.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: When I say God's Word, I'm not just talking about Bible.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: God's Word predated printing machines. God's Word predated pens and pencil.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: In fact, the Bible said, in the beginning was the Word,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. So,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: when you say the Word is infallible, you're not talking
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: about the book you hold in your hand. You're talking
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: about the integrity of God, that God's Word, if He
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: said it, He'll bring it to pass. Do you understand
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: what I'm saying? Glory to God. Glory to God. The
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Word preexisted pen and paper. His Word is His integrity.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: It is His integrity. Whatever He speaks is true. He's
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: greater than any doctrine, stronger than any opinion, more powerful
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: than human creeds, boards, or bishops. He will use whomever
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: He chooses. He is sovereign. He is God. He will
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: use the jawbone of an ass. Do you hear what
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: I'm saying? He will speak through a goat. He will
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: use a woman or a man. He will use a
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: child and a little child shall lead them. You don't
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: get to decide who God uses because God is God
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: and God can use whoever He wants to use for
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: His glory. He will use the professor and the intellectual
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: and He will use the illiterate. Look at the dichotomy
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: between Paul and Peter. Paul is an intellectual and Peter
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: is an unlearned man. And yet God used them both.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: This is not flesh at work. This is the Holy
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: Spirit at work. The two texts I have chosen are
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: dealing with how these two men met at appointment with destiny.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: It is about the passing of the baton. See them
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: as bookends. The first story is one part of it,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: and the last text is the end of it. The
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: first story shows how it started, the next text shows
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: how it ended. Elijah is outside working in the field.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: He is oblivious. He is oblivious to the fact that
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: his entire life is about to change. He has no
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: idea that today would disrupt all of his family and
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: change the trajectory of the rest of his life. It's
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: just another day of getting up early in the morning
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: and perhaps having the breakfast at four o'clock in the morning.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: My grandmother would get up before day, morning was dark.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: And you ate breakfast in the dark because working the
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: field starts in the dark before it gets hot. And
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: Elijah is just working in the field working in his
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: parents' field, working in the field of the dreams of
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: his parents, working in the field that he will inherit,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: working in the field that he will own. His life
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: is set. It is nice. It is neat. It is traditional.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: It is orthodox. He is in it. This is just
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: another day. He has no idea that God is about
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: to disrupt his entire life. One text can disrupt your
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: entire life. One phone call can disrupt your entire life.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: One meeting of one person can disrupt all of your
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: plans and everything about it and put you in conflict
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: because all of a sudden he has to wrestle with
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: what he has imagined to be his destiny. All of
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: a sudden evaporates through one meeting. And what about the
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: expectations of his parents? the pressure that's on him to
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: be who they raised him to be. They didn't raise
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: him to be gallivanting across the country with this weirdo.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: They raised him to run this farm. He was their legacy.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: He was their future. He was their destiny. And all
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: of that was fine until he was exposed to something.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: Exposure will bring about conflict. Exposure will bring about a
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: disalignment and confusion. And can you imagine the pressure that's
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: in him to live up to the expectations of the
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: people around him? And can you imagine the pressure that's
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: on you To live up to the expectations of people
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: around you. The expectations of people will make you cut
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: your hair. It'll make you grow your hair. It'll make
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: you get your teeth replaced. The expectations of people will
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: make you go back to school. The expectations of people
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: will make you lose weight or gain weight. The expectations
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: of people will drive you crazy. The pressure to be
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: everything that everybody wants you to be is killing us.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: The pressure we put on ourselves. Because we don't want
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: to face the disapproval of the people we love. All
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: of this has come into play. God has not spoken
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: to Elijah. God has spoken to Elijah back in the
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: cave and told him that Elisha would be a prophet
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: in his room. But God did not speak to Elisha.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: God has spoken about him but not to him. What
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: has God spoken about you that he has not spoke
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: to you? And there you are, focused on what's in
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: front of you. God always chooses somebody who is focused
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: on what's in front of him. Because if you can't
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: focus on what's in front of you, you can't focus
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: on what's ahead of you. If you're not faithful over
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: what's in your hand, you're not going to be faithful
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: over what's in God's hand. Every time God ever called anybody,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: they were busy. They weren't laying on the couch watching
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: soap operas. They weren't laying on the couch reading magazines.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: They weren't playing with gaming. They weren't sitting around. Every
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: time God found anybody, they were focused on what they had.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Some of you have decided, as soon as I figure
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: out what I'm supposed to be, I'm going to focus.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: You'll never be anything. You got to focus on what's
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: in front of you. Whatever is in your hand, focus
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: on that. And if you focus on what's in your hand,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: your future will find you Your future finds you. You
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: don't find it. Elisha's not looking for Elijah. He's looking
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: how to plow this field before the sun gets hot.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Elijah is looking for Elisha. But Elisha was not looking
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: for Elijah. He was just plowing on the 12th yoke
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: of oxen. This is a big field. It's a lot
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: of property. His parents have a lot of land. It's
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: how they eat. And he's young enough to work. And
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: they need him to be who they expect him to be.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: And there are some of us right now that we
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: cannot get loose from people who need us to be
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: what they expect us to be. And it was all
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: cool and organic and orthodox and natural and normal until
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: Elijah shows up and he messes everything up because he
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: exposes Elisha to something that we all secretly need. It
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: wasn't just his mantle. Elisha saw somebody who was like
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: him And isn't that what we all really want? To
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: find somebody who gets us? And whatever we're doing while
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: we're waiting is just filling space until we have an
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: encounter with somebody who gets me, who speaks my language,
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: who understands where I'm coming from. Somebody who represents the
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: possibilities of what I could be. This plow is my
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: father's plow. These oxen are my father's oxen. I'm busy
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: doing what they expected. And I'm talking about having the
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: courage to be yourself. The courage to be yourself sets
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: you in conflict with your environment. Do you hear the
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: words that are coming out of my mouth? The courage
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: to be yourself sets you in conflict with your environment
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: because your environment is pre-described and predisposed for you to
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: function in predictable ways. And now here comes Elijah and
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: he throws off the predictable pattern of Elisha's life and
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: puts him in conflict. Shall I stay with the people
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: who have invested in me all of my life and
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: try to be their dream filler or shall I go
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: for myself and go after my own dream? Oh, I
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: want to stay there. I want to stay there. I
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: know this is going to be hard for me because
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: I want to stay there because some of us are
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: stuck in that place, in prison, by expectations. You'd be
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: surprised at the things people do to keep peace. The
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: jobs they don't take. The careers they don't pursue. The
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: entrepreneurial pursuits they don't go after. The churches they won't attend.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: The religion they won't embrace. All just to keep peace
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: because I want to be what you expect me to
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: be so you'll be quiet. Keep everything nice and keep
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: everything neat and keep everything quiet. And all of you
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: people who need everything to be nice and neat and
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: be quiet have contorted yourself and distorted yourself. into a
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: mere caricature of who you could have been because you
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: lack the courage to be your own person. I love you,
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: but I gotta be me. You love me, but you
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: gotta be you. And the only reason our marriage has
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: survived is that we have finally grown to give each
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: other the permission to be different. Instead of trying to
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: make me be her or me make her be me,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: we finally realize that God didn't make a mistake when
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: he made her the way he made her and he
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: didn't make a mistake when he made me the way
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: he made me and I am through shutting my mouth
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: to fit in to anybody's expectation. I want you to
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: see how difficult it is for Elisha to make this
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: next move. All of the hopes of his ancestors is
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: on him plowing in this field. Stay right here. This
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: is what we designed for you. We are living in
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: a— we are teaching out of a patriarchal society where the
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Father's Word was law. And if Daddy didn't approve it,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: it didn't happen. And all of a sudden, instead of
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: him living up to the expectations of his father, he
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: has to have the courage to confront them and be himself.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: You'll never be successful at being me. You'll only be
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: successful at being you. You have to figure out who
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: you really are aside from who you are expected to
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: be and ask God to bless who you are because
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: God does not even know who you pretend to be. Adam,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: where art thou? Doesn't mean you disappeared. It means you
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: lost your identity. Oh God, help me, help me, help me.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: I'm talking to somebody. I don't know who it is.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: Elijah passed by that boy. and threw his mantle on him,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: for a moment and it was, it was a glimpse.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: It was a glimpse. I preached a few weeks ago
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: about glimpses. Have you ever caught a glimpse? Just a
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: glimpse of something that didn't even fit your surroundings and
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: didn't fit your environment and didn't fit your paycheck and
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: didn't fit your pedigree and didn't fit your degree and
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: didn't fit your background, but you got a glimpse. And
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: it was so attractive. It was so alluring. It was
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: so dynamic. It was so magnetic. It was so sexy
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: that all of a sudden that once you have been exposed,
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: you can never be unexposed. That's why the devil doesn't
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: want you to be exposed because once you know, you
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: can never unknow what you know. Once you know it,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: you know it. Once you know it, you know it.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: There was something about this mantle that spoke to him
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: in such a way that he gathered his courage to
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: go with Elijah. Wait a minute. Elijah didn't know that
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: Elisha was going to follow him. Because God had told
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: Elijah to anoint Elijah, but he didn't say he was
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: going to have to live with him. And Elijah said, look, dude,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: I'm just supposed to anoint you. And now you have
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: upped the ante. You want to follow me? What have
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: I done to you? Go away. God doesn't give either
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: one of them all the details. And some of you
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: are waiting on all the details before you make your
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: next move. You will die an old lady and not
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: have all the details. God fills in the blanks as
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: you activate on what He has already given you to do.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: Day by day, the steps of a good man are
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: ordered by the Lord, and He delighteth in His way.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Away with all your questions of what do we do
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: when we get there? Where are we going to stay?
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: And what do the people think? And what, and what,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: and what? You have spent years asking questions rather than
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: obeying commandments. I'm talking to somebody I don't even know
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: who it is. God is not going to give you
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: all the details for the just shall live by faith.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: God Almighty, I feel something about to happen in this place.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: I feel a stirring in the spirit. This was the
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: call on his life. This was the call, a call
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: to something. A call is in front of you, not
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: behind you. If I say, Serena, come here, I can't
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: be there and say, come here. A call is futuristic.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: But calls put you in conflict. Because in order to
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: answer the call, you have to leave there to come here. Separation,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: come on. It means you had to leave the familiar.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: It means you had to leave the comfort of the chair.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: It means you had to leave your surroundings. It means
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: you had to leave your position. It means you had
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: to leave how you knew yourself. It means you had
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: to step out on something you didn't even know I
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: was going to do. When God calls you, you don't
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: know what's going to happen next. You didn't know I
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: was going to call you. You didn't know what I
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: want you for. You don't even know what I'm going
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: to do now. You disobeyed because I called you. Give
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: God a break. That's what he wants. That's what he does.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: That's how he moves. That's how he works. That's how
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: he speaks. That's how he delivers. You got to have
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: courage to walk away from everything that's comfortable to you
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: and do what God called you to do. I call you, Elijah,
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: come here. Somebody praise him, baby. Somebody praise him if
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: you understand what I'm talking about. Glory to God. Type
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: on the line, he called me, he called me, he
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: called me, he called me, he called me, he called me.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: And all the while, you've been praying about where you're sitting.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: And the reason God isn't answering you is because it
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: ain't about where you are, it's about where you're going.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: Stop praying to me about the field and the ox
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: and the plow because I'm calling you if you have
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: the courage to detach yourself From the expectations of others,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: do you have the courage to be yourself? I'm asking,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: do you have the courage to be your authentic self?
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: How long do you think you can play this role?
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: How many years of your life are you going to waste?
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: Playing a role just because that's where you are, that
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: doesn't mean that's where he called you. And I want
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: you to see how much Elijah sacrificed to say yes
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: to God. Type on the line, sacrifice. How much he
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: had to sacrifice. He had to risk his relationship with
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: his mother and his father. He had to risk being
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: made to look like a fool. He had to risk
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: everything in his life to follow Elijah. And Elijah, on
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: the other hand, didn't know this dude is going to
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: start following him. Elijah goes from being the leader in
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: the field to being a servant with the master. Oh, God. Leader, servant. Leader, servant. Leader, servant.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: Am I going to be a big fish over here,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: or am I going to be a servant over here?
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: And because you can't humble yourself to serve over here,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: you lead in a small pond rather than to serve
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: in a big pond. You lead in your history rather
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: than to serve in your destiny. Servant leadership means you
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: have to have the dexterity and the ability to transition
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: from being the boss— over a bull to being the
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: servant of a prophet. And most of us will never
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: respond because we like being a boss over a pond,
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: over a little place. He gave up being in charge
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: and his inheritance and he gave up being a boss
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: to serve because the secret to leadership is always servitude.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: And until you can wash feet, Peter, You cannot be
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: my disciple. As long as you see being disciples as
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: stages and lights and camera and action, you're not fit
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: to be my leader because you're not willing to be
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: a servant. If I, your Lord, can switch from being
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: Lord to washing feet, how much more ought you to
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: be able to make the transition? Somebody say, I gotta switch,
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: I gotta switch, I gotta switch. I got to serve
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: my way up. I got to serve my way up.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: I got to serve my way up. I got to
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: serve my way up. I got to serve my way up. So,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: it's going to require sacrifice, and it's going to require service.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: And so, when he asked Elijah, can I go with you?
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: Elijah said no. Elijah goes back. and burns up the
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: ox and the plow. Do you know how long it
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: took to raise an ox? He cooked him. He burned
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: up the plow. He cooked the ox to say to Elijah,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: there's nothing to go back to. I want you to
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: shut the door on your exit strategy. I want you
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: to shut the door on your backup plan. I want
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: you to shut the door on your safety net. If
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: you really believe that this is God, it is time
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: for you to shut the door. And who am I
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: talking to? I feel like I'm talking to somebody. I
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: don't know who it is, but I knew when the
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: Lord gave me this word, he would give me the
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: right people to deliver it to. Somebody in this room,
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: God is talking directly to you.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: He cooked the ox.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: He burned up the plow. He said, I've got nothing
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: to go back to. I honestly believe that That when
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea and Pharaoh
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: chased them down to the water, that when the Red
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: Sea closed in and drowned Pharaoh, it didn't just drown Pharaoh,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: it closed up any possibility of them ever going back
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: to Egypt. Because sometimes when you follow God, you get
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: scared and you want to go back to what's safe
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: and you want to go back to what's familiar. But
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: in order to follow God, you got to close up
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: your exit strategy and make up your mind, for God
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: I'll live and for God I'll die. I'm throwing all
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: my chips. in it. I'm throwing everything I got at
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: it and I shut the door. You praise God for
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: the doors He opened. I praise God for the doors
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: He closed. I praise God for the doors He closed
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: so I could never go back to that just because
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: times got hard. I wanted to go back. I missed it.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: I longed for it, but He shut the door. If
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: the Word of God is speaking to you this morning,
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: take 30 seconds and give Him crazy praise. Honey, come
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: bring me some water. Honey, come. No, I don't want
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: you to do it. I want her to do it.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: Come on. Honey, come bring me some water. You mean
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: you gave up being first lady? Just to give me
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: some water? Pour the rest of it on my hands.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: Just pour it right— let it go on the floor, just
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: pour it right on my hands. He poured water on
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: the hands of the prophet, all of it. He poured
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: water on the hands of the prophet. He poured water
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: on the hands of the prophet. He poured water on
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: the hands of the prophet. No recognition, no name for himself,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: he just served the man of God. The anointing you
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: serve is the anointing you receive. The anointing you serve
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: is the anointing you receive. The anointing you serve is
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: the anointing you receive. Did you hear me on the screen?
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: The anointing you serve is the anointing you receive. You
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: can't be it if you can't serve it. It's just water.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: It'll be all right. It'll be all right. What I
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: want you to see is that the true essence of
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: leadership is servitude. I am the leader of the potter's house,
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: tis true. But in reality, I am serving you now.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: I am serving you right now. I am pouring water
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: on your hands, water on your dreams, water on your prophecy,
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: water on your potential, water on your possibility. I am
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: pouring water on your hands right now. If you have
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: the willingness to receive it, I am pouring water on
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: you right now. That's why Paul said, one man plants
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: and another man watereth, and God gives the increase. Good
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: God Almighty. Hallelujah. All we are are water pourers, watering
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: your dreams, watering your prophecy, watering your future, watering your potentials.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: I want to water seeds that are in your ground
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: that you didn't even know you had. I want to
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: water potentials that you didn't even recognize. I want to
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: water dreams that will blow your mind. I'm watering them
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: right now. I'm watering through my preaching. I'm watering through
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: my doing. I'm watering through my business. I'm watering through
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: my entrepreneurship. I'm watering through my foundation. All of that
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: is pouring water on you. your dream. I didn't know
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: that was possible. I never thought about doing that. I
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: didn't know you could be two things at the same time.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: You could be ten things at the same time according
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: to the grace that worketh in you. Don't do it
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: just to imitate me, but if God gives you the
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: grace for it and you have the same kind of spirit,
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: I am just modeling the possibility that you don't have
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: to be locked into one dimension, that you have the
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: freedom to be your authentic self. Can I go just
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: a little bit further? So sit with me. He followed
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: Elijah as a servant for six years. For six years.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: For six years. He goes from Gilgal to Bethel. From
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: Bethel to Jericho. From Jericho to Jordan. Because after everything
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: is said and done, you have to have sacrifice, you
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: have to have service, and you have to have stability. Stability.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: It means I had pastored this church when I felt
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: like it. And I have pastored this church when I
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: didn't feel like it. It means I have preached with
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: power when my heart was broken, and I have preached
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: with power when I was on the top of the mountain.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: I have preached, and sometimes you didn't even know it,
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: I was hollering up at you from the valley. Stability
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: means that I don't take you on the rollercoaster ride
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: of my personal experience, that I am professional enough to
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: function in my capacity with stability and the reason God
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: can't use you is that you are too into your feelings.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: You're talking about how you feel about this and how
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: you feel about that and how you feel about the other.
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: God's plan cannot be hindered by your feelings. You're liable
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: to feel anything. You know you half crazy, you're schizophrenic anyway.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: You can't do this according to feeling. You have to
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: open up the business and be open when it's good,
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: and be open when it's bad, and be open when
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: you're happy, and be open when you're sad. Be ye steadfast, unmovable,
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: always abounding in the work of the Lord. God wants
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: you to have stability. If you can't say amen, say ouch.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: You don't understand sometimes you pass the test by staying.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: It's not about winning, it's about staying. It's about being stable.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: Preach the word, Timothy. Be instant, in season, out of season, reprove,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: rebuke with all long suffering for the time will come
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: that men will not endure sound doctrine. They're going to
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: be flaky, but don't you be flaky. Preach the word.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: Be stable. Be steadfast. Be unmovable. Oh my God, who
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: am I talking to? You're in the middle of a
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: test of your stability. You're not stable. How can you
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: lead if you are not stable? For what God was
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: getting ready to lay on Elijah, he had to pass
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: the test of six years of stability. Stable a Gilgal.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: The place of cutting, the place of separation. Stable at Bethel,
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: the house of God. You're not even stable about the
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: house of God, and yet you want God to be
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: stable about blessing you. If you're not preaching, you're not coming.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: If the choir's not singing, you're not in it. He
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: had to be stable. at Bethel to the house of God.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: That means you gotta worship in the hospital. You gotta
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: worship in grief. You gotta worship in pain. You got
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: to worship when your mama's dead. You got to worship
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: when your feelings are hurt. You got to worship when
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: somebody ticked you off. You got to worship when they
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: got on your nerves. You got to worship when somebody
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: cussed you out. You have to pass the test of
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: stability because of the weight of glory that God is
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: getting ready to lay on you. You can't have that
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: kind of glory and fluctuate. Six years. The number of
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: man It was on the sixth day that God made man.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: Six years God spends making Elisha a man, forming a man.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: Six years of stability, of forming a man, forming him
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: in good days and bad days, in bleeding days. They
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: circumcised at Gilgal, the separation place. from Gilgal to Bethel,
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: away with your feelings. You cannot serve God out of
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: your feelings. God doesn't care how you feel. How do
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: you think he felt about going to the cross? And
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: still he died. He hated it, but still he died.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: The Bible said he despised the shame, but for the
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: joy that was set before him, and still he died.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: Be steadfast. Unmovable. Always abounding. Always, always abounding. always abounding,
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: always giving your best, always doing it to the limit,
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: always leaving it all on the floor. I'm only happy
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: when I walk away from this pulpit and I feel
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: like I left it all on the floor. I left
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: it all on the floor. I gave it my all.
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: I'm not competing with anybody else. I'm competing against the
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: voice that's down inside of me. When I walk off
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: the stage, I am only confident when I left it
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: all on the floor. He was stable in the house
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: of God. He was then following him to Jericho. Jericho.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: The place of possibilities. The place where it all started.
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: The place where the promise became real. The place where
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: the battle ensued. The place where the walls were high.
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: The place where the challenges were. He followed him even
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: to Jericho. And they're having a walk. at Jordan. They're
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: just walking along. And Elijah asked Elijah, late in the journey,
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: not the first year, not the second year, not the
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: third year, not the fourth year, the fifth year. He says,
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: what shall I do unto thee? And he says, I
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: would like to have a double portion of of your money. Oh,
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry. A double portion of your platform. A double
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: portion of your contacts. A double portion of your stage. No,
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: he says, I want a double portion of your spirit.
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: Do you know what to ask for? Are you asking
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: for the wrong thing? Are you asking for the thing
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: that is covetous? rather than prophetic. What you call faith,
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: the Bible calls coveting. You are not to covet your
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: neighbor's oxen. You are not to covet your neighbor's wife.
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: You're not to covet your neighbor's day. That is not
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: what he wanted from Elijah. He didn't want Elijah's stuff.
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: He wanted his unction. I want the unction. I see
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: the unction. If you give me the unction, I can
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: get my own stuff. Give me the unction. I want
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: a double portion of your unction. I want a double
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: portion of your power. I want a double portion of
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: the power of the Holy Spirit. And Elijah says to him,
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: you have asked a hard thing because only God can
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: give a transference of spirit. You have asked something that
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: is beyond my ability to give just because I like
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: you doesn't mean I can make you what he didn't
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: create you to be. So how dare you feel rejected
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: of me because you have asked me for something that
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: I can, I tell you what, if you see me
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: when he shows up, if you're still here when the
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: boss shows up, If you are still there when he
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: shows up and they're just walking along and suddenly the
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: heavens opened up. I don't know who I'm speaking to,
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: but God said, you're going to get a suddenly moment.
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: And when God gives you a suddenly moment, after years
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: of service, you're going to have a suddenly. Service, suddenly. Service, suddenly. Stability, suddenly. Nothing,
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: and then suddenly. After years, you say, it's not working.
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: It's not working. It's not working. Don't stop doing what's
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: not working because it will work if you work it.
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: It will work if you work it. It will work
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: if you work it. It will work if you work it.
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: It might not work on year one. It may not
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: work on year two. It may not work on year three.
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: But if you stick to your guns, it'll work if
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: you're working. And suddenly, somebody shout suddenly. Somebody shout suddenly.
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: Somebody shout suddenly. That's how your prayers are going to
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: be answered. That's how the door's going to be opened.
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: That's how the mountain is going to be moved. That's
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: how the way is going to be made. I don't
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: know who I'm talking to, but I'm talking to somebody
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: in this room. God said, I'm going to give you
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: a suddenly. Nudge your neighbor and say suddenly. Suddenly. After
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: years of looking like you weren't getting anything. After years
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: of being overlooked. After years of being ignored. God said
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: he's going to give you a suddenly. A suddenly is
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: going to break out in your marriage. A suddenly is
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: going to break out with your child. A suddenly is
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: going to break out in your ministry. Somebody give him
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: a praise for a suddenly.
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: The heavens
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: opened up and the chariot came Now the guy who,
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: watch this, stand on your feet, because if you don't,
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: I'm going to keep going. Stand up. You got to
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: stand up. You got to stand up, because I'm fired
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: up about this. Suddenly, the guy who wants a double
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: portion of Elijah's spirit, when he got to the place
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: that he could get it, he suddenly realizes, I don't
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: want the mantle. I want the man. My father, my father,
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: the chariots of Israel have carried you away. And now
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: I realize what a privilege you are. Oh my God.
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: I will see you. I will see you no more.
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: I will have to walk the rest of the way
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: without you. He wasn't crying out, the mantle, the mantle,
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: the mantle. He was saying, my father, my father, my father.
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: Everything I learned, I learned it from you. Everything I understand,
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: I understand it from you. Everything you taught me, it
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: made me who I am. And I will see you
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: no more, Lord. Oh, God, I will see you no more.
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: How can I do this without you? The chariots of
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: Israel have carried my father away. You see, I left
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: my other father. And you're the closest thing to a
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: father I have. And I will see you no more.
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: Forgive me for valuing the mantle more than I did
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: the man. Because it's going to be hard to be
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: you without you. In fact, it's going to be hard
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: to be me without you. Everything I ever did, I
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: did it with you. Everything I ever learned, I learned
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: it from you. Everything I ever accomplished, I accomplished it.
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: You got me into Gilgal. You got me into Bethel.
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: You got me into Jericho. You brought me across this
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: Jordan River. We just crossed over, and I don't even
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: know for sure that I know how to get back
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: without you. And he ripped his garments, which in the
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: Old Testament, the ripping of your garments is a sign
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: of utter grief. He ripped his clothes off. And he
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: snatched his father's mantle. And he raised it high. And
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: he said, where?
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: It's the God of Elijah. Where is the God of Elijah?
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: What that means is, will it work for me? You
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: have been hearing me preach for years, but it doesn't.
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: Mean anything if you don't learn how to make it
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: work Will it work for me? And God says nothing
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: back to him. He gives him no assurance. He gives
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: him no promise. It's not like Joshua where he told Joshua,
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: as I was with Moses, so shall I be with you.
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: God shut his mouth and left him to discover. that
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: it will only work. it won't work because you listened
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: to it it won't work because you took notes on
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: it it won't work because you shouted about it it
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: won't work because you spoke in tongues it will only
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: work if you work it and so what he did
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: he did what his father did not just heard what
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: his father said. He said, let me see. He bound
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: up the mantle. He took the mantle and he bound
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: it up like the old man had bounded. And he
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: took it and he smoked the water. And when he
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: smoked the waters, the waters went hither and thither. But
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: they only parted because he worked it. And the Lord
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: told me to tell somebody who's been praying to him,
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: I don't know whether this is going to work. He
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: sent me through all of this to tell you He
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: heard your prayer. Come on, come on. He sent me
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: through all of this to tell me He understands your anxiety,
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: your insecurity, your uncertainty. But in order for there to
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: be real succession, We've gone through sacrifice, we've gone through service,
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: we've gone through stability, succession. It will only work if
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: you work it. How many years we been married? 39.
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: 39 years, soon to be 40. No, no, no. Don't
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: clap for us. We haven't been married 40 years because
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: everything's been easy and everything's been good and everything's been
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: nice and I've been the perfect husband and we've always
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: agreed and everything went right and we didn't have problems
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: and we didn't have tests and we didn't have trials
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: and I didn't get on her nerves and she didn't
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: get on my nerves. No, no, no, no. We've been
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: married 40 years because we worked it. Marriage only works
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: if you... Work it. I started my church with seven
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: people in a building cooking ribs and chicken to pay
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: the rent. That boy y'all brought out here the other
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: Sunday almost wrecked me. He was the first face to
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: walk through the door of my storefront. Ron Smith and
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: Judy were the first people to walk through the door
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: in my empty storefront. And they were the first people
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: to join my church. When they were calling me the
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: boy pastor and they were making fun of me and
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: said I would never be nothing. They were the first
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: people to walk through the door. And I was working
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: a job. full time, something that most young preachers won't do.
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: They'll raise an offering but they won't work a job.
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: I worked a job and I preached on the side
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: and I put my check in the offering to keep
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: the doors open and whatever we had left, we cooked
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: up and sold dinners to raise money to get another
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: month to fight again. And don't you come here 45
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: years later and ask me for the keys when you
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: haven't done the time. Until you have preached when you
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: didn't have no car. Until you have thumbed to Bible
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: class and walked up the road like this with your
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: thumb out and climbed across the railroad tracks and not
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: pulled us off your pants and went in and taught
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: on the tabernacle to a handful of people. Don't you
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: come here with your cute suit on and tell me
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: that you are my successor because until you are my sufferer,
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: you can't be my successor. It may not be the
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: same way, it may not be the same story, but
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: in some area of your life, you have to earn
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: the right to be Elijah. Every one of our children
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: were born on a Sunday morning. And I was in
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: the labor room with a clergy caller on. And my
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: wife was pregnant and was asleep on the pew in
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: between the morning service and the night service, waiting on
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: the night service so we could have church again. We
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: preach with our lights off. We preach with our water off.
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: to get to where we are right now. And I
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: came to tell you today, whatever it is you are
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: trying to build, if you won't sacrifice for it, if
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: you won't labor for it, if you won't be hungry
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: for it, if you won't thumb for it, If you
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: won't sweat for it, if you won't bury your pride
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: and put in the work for it, and all you
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: want to do is high sign and blame and impress
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: people for it, you don't have the right to get
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: it until you will stay up at night and go
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: to school while other people are watching the game and
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: read and study and work and pray to get to
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: be whoever it is you are trying to be. You
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: have not got the right. It will work. I said
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: it will work. What's the rest of it? It will whack.
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: It will whack. It will whack. It will whack. It
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: will whack. There are nearly 60,000 people listening at me
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: right now around the world in other tongues and other
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: languages who never saw me fry fish. They never saw
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: my mama putting fish in hot grease behind a wall
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: of the stage I was preaching in. Am I telling
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: the truth? You know exactly what I'm talking about. I
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: got living witnesses right now, but you want to come
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: in when the glamour is and you want more glamour
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: and you need more guts. You need guts. You can't
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: be this without guts. And if you think I'm an
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: easy takedown, try me. I preached a year and a
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: half in an empty room. And I paid all my
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: staff and didn't lay off not one of them. Because
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: I'm in my 60s, but I'm still bad. It will work.
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: It will work. It will work. It will work. It
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: will work. It will work. This is God's word. Forget
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: about my dream. What is your dream? What is your purpose?
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: What is your goal? And how much work will you
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: put into it in order to get what you're trying
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: to get from God? How much? It will only work
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: if you work it. If this message spoke to you
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: as a man, Where my brothers at? I have no
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: fear of how high she goes or how great she
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: becomes or how much money she makes or how successful
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: she becomes. That is between her and God. Because her
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: being great don't take me down You can either cower
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: down and give up and let your wife become your
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: mama Or you can stand up like a grown man
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: and handle your business Where my sisters at? Get out
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: of your feelings. It's not going to come to you emotionally.
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: People will not work for emotional people who have meltdowns
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: and freak out and hold grudges. You have to be
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: bigger than that. You might can do that at home,
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: but if you come out into the corporate space and
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: the work world and the business space, we don't have
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: time to deal with your attitudes. So, stop popping your neck,
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: hold your head up, get yourself together, get out of
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: your feelings and get ready to fight the good fight
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: of faith. You can't raise your children in your feelings
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: and you cannot keep nagging your husband to death and
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: wonder why he left. It will work. It will work. Oh,
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: y'all kind of weak now. You're kind of weak now.
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: It will work. It will work. It will work. This
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: is what I want and I'm going to go close.
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: Because I'm throwing a party for our pastors. I want
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: on this altar people who realize that you have not
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: thrown your best shot. That you have not slung your
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: furthest arrow. that you have faced your giants, but you
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: have not thrown your best rock. And this message spoke
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: to you today in a prophetic way that you got
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: some work to do. I want those of you that
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: are online, you cannot be physically, but I want you
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: to indicate, type on the line, include me in the prayer.
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: You spoke to me. You talked to me. You made
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: things clear to me. You answered questions that I've been
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: praying about. I've been wondering why it didn't happen. I
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: didn't realize he walked with him six years. I didn't
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: realize I had to serve to lead. I didn't realize
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: that I had to be stable in the house of God.
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: Nobody ever taught me how much it costs. Greatness is expensive.
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: Succession is expensive. I want young people who are next
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: in line. This does not work like your phone. This
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: does not work like an app. You have to work it.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: And you have to work it a long time. And
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: it doesn't happen overnight for most people. Yes, there are
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: one or two people who put something on YouTube and
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: they got discovered and they went famous. But out of
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: millions of people, those are only one or two. The
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: rest of us have to work it. Clap if you
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: know I'm right. I'm going to close out the service
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: with this prayer. But I want every entrepreneur, every business person,
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: every leader, every thinker, every dreamer, every person who's got
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: a prophecy on your life, I want you on this altar.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: I want every person who's dealing with something that ain't
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: working right on this altar. I want you on this altar.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: I want you on this altar. It will work if
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: you work. Every discouraged person. every person who's had their
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: wits in, every person who's been feeling like it's just
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: not working, it's just not working, it's just not working,
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: it's just not working, it's just not working. I paint
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: my ties, I come to church, I shout, I dance,
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: I speak in tongues, but somehow it's not working. This
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: was your message. If I never preach again, this was
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: your message. This was your message. This was your message.
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: It will work. If you're working.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 2: Where is the God of Elijah? He's right here.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: He's right here. Where is the.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 2: God of Elijah? Where is the God of Elijah? We
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 2: need to show Dallas, where is the God of Elijah?
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: It was not easy. It was heartbreaking. It was grieving.
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: People died along the way. We cried along the way.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: We went through scandals and disgrace along the way. And
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: we kept on walking. You think you can wish your
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: way up? You cannot wish your way up. You have
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: to be steadfast. It'll work if you work it. It'll
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: work if you work it. If I never see you again,
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: remember these words. It will work if you work it.
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: I rebuke every giving up spirit. I rebuke every quitting spirit.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: I rebuke every spirit of depression. I rebuke every spirit
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: of depression. I rebuke every spirit of forlornment. I rebuke
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: every spirit of frustration. The devil is a liar. He's
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: trying to talk you out of your future, talk you
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: out of your dream, and talk you out of your destiny,
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: and tell you you cannot do what God called you
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: to do. I call you out of other people's expectations.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: I break you loose from trying to please everybody but
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: yourself and your God. I speak to you right now
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: in the name of Jesus to cook your ox and
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: burn your plow and set your feet like hinds feet.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: This is a war. This is a fight. This is
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: not a game. This is a fight. It will work
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: if you work it. It will work if you work it.
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: I call you out of your emotions. I call you
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: out of your frustrations. I call you out of feeling
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: sorry for yourself. I break every excuse that you have
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: given yourself to fail. My mother wasn't there. My father
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: wasn't there. My husband left me. My wife forsook me.
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: Whatever lie you told yourself as evidence of your right
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: to fail, I take it away from you now. And
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: I command you in the name of Jesus. by the
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: power of the Holy Ghost, by everything that lies inside
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: of me, and everything that I've ever learned about God,
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: everything I've ever read in His Word, to rise out
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: of the ashes of your despair. It costs what it costs.
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: It will take what it takes. Let no man steal
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: your crown. Lift your hands up. A fresh anointing is
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: coming upon you. A fresh anointing from God. A fresh
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: anointing is coming from God. A fresh anointing is coming
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: from God. A mantle is falling in your hands. A
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: release is coming in your spirit. A mantle from the divine.
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: A move of the Holy Ghost. A flow of the Spirit.
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: It falls on you now. It falls on you now.
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: It's going to go home with you. It's going to
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: get in the car with you. I command you to
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: get your fight back I command you to get your
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: fight back I command you to get your drive back
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: I command you to get your dream back I command
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: you to stand up and respond to what God created
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: you to be take me higher and right now in
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: the name that's been exalted above everything