The Door: Focus

Sharing good news of great joy to all people.

Elation Church. This is week number two in our

series entitled The Door. Everybody say the door.

The door. And we're going to go over what we

talked about last week very quickly so that we'll

all be on the same page. How many of you were

not here last week? Raise your hand. That's about,

I don't know. 20 or 30%. So we're going to go

over what we talked about to build the foundation.

So look at the person beside you and tell them

to listen fast. Listen fast. Even if you don't

understand, act like you understand. So I won't

say it the same way four times, all right? A

different way four times. Same thing, a different

way. Starting out in Ephesians 119. part of what

we call the Ephesians 1 prayer, where Paul is

praying for the believers in Ephesus and he's

saying, I pray God that you will give them revelation.

Let them see. Let them really get it. That's

the difference. Because you can hear it and not

get it. So Paul is praying that they would receive

revelation from God, from the Holy Spirit. His

word would come alive in them. And one of the

things that he wants them to receive revelation

is about is found in verse 19, where he says,

I pray that you will understand the incredible

greatness of God's power. I don't know if we

can fully wrap our minds around the incredible

greatness of God's power, but I believe everyone

in this room could... Understand a little bit

more than you already do. I believe we can grow

in revelation and grow in understanding. I pray

that you will understand the incredible greatness

of God's power. And what's his power? It's for

us. Look at the person beside you and say, God's

power is for me. It's for me. It's God's power,

but it's for us. That we would understand that

God's power is for us who believe in him. It's

for you. So God's power has direction and purpose.

God's power is directed towards those who believe.

Do we have any believers? So God's power is directed

towards you. And we invest our belief in God's

word when we do that. When we invest our belief

in His Word, our understanding of God's power

will grow. It will build. The purpose of God's

power for the believer is to accomplish His will

in the earth. How many of you know God doesn't

send seven -foot angels to accomplish His will

in the earth? I mean, He can. If He wants to,

He can, right? But that's not the way it normally

works. That's not the normal flow. The normal

flow is that God wants to accomplish His will

in the earth through believers, through you,

through me. He wants His power to flow through

us in the earth to accomplish His will. Then

we talked about Jacob's ladder, Genesis 28, 11,

12. It says, Jacob found a stone to rest his

head against. I like my soft pillow. Jacob. Jacob

found a stone to rest his head against and lay

down to sleep. As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway.

Has anybody heard of Jacob's ladder before? He

dreamed of a ladder. He dreamed of a stairway

that reached from earth up to heaven. And he

saw the angels of God going up and down the stairway.

They were going up and down the stairway to take...

The things of heaven and to bring them to earth.

This is a picture, right? And at the top of the

stairway stood the Lord. Then Jacob awoke from

his sleep and said, surely the Lord is in this

place. After he saw this vision from God, he

said this, what an awesome place this is. It

is none other than the house of God. The very

gateway to heaven. So in this text, we see that

there is a gateway. There is a door. Everybody

say a door. There's a gateway. There's a door

between the spiritual realm and the natural realm.

House of God. This is the Hebrew word. And here's

what it means. It can be translated house, household,

temple, or dwelling. What? He was seeing what

Jacob was seeing. He's describing it as the house,

household, temple, or dwelling of God. And then

he described the door. Sha 'ar is the Hebrew

word. It's an opening. It's a gate. It's a door.

It can be translated any of those ways. And it

was a door between heaven and earth, between

spiritual and natural realms. Jacob saw angels

moving. From the temple, the dwelling place of

God, the house of the Lord, angels moving from

there through the door to accomplish His work

in the earth. As we learned last week, this is

a shadow of a New Testament reality. Where is

the temple and the dwelling place of God? Where

is that at? Revelation 4, 1 and 2 says, Then

as I looked, I saw a door standing open in the

heaven. This is John. I looked, I saw a door

standing open in heaven. So here we see a door

in heaven again. A doorway. I saw a door standing

open in heaven and instantly, I was in the Spirit

and I saw a throne in heaven and someone sitting

on it. And we know when we continue to read that

this is God sitting on the throne in the throne

room of eternity and John saw this. But he saw

it through, This open door. So God is in heaven.

Look at the person beside you and say, God's

in heaven. Everybody knows that. Everybody, right?

God's in heaven. How many people agree God's

in heaven? All right. But God is somewhere else.

God is omnipresent. That means He's everywhere

all the time. That means you can't go anywhere

and escape His presence. You can't go anywhere

and hide from God. be unseen by God. But then

the Bible talks about something a little bit

different. God's in heaven. God is omnipresent.

He's everywhere all the time. But the Bible talks

about Him, sometimes He's more here than other

times. Have you ever thought about that? Like

the verse I shared when we were singing, that

when we gather together, right? When two or more

gather together to lift up the name of Jesus,

what does it say? What does the Bible say? Does

anybody know? He's here. He's here. So wasn't

he already here? Yeah. But there are times when

he's more here than other times. There are times

when His manifested presence is here. So God's

in heaven. And then in 1 Corinthians 3 .16 it

says this, Do you not know that you are the temple?

You are the temple of God? That the Spirit of

God dwells in you? Right? When we're in Christ.

The Holy Spirit takes up residence inside of

us. We become the temple of God. And don't forget,

we were talking about the house of God, the temple

of God, the dwelling place of God, and there

was a door there that opened or closed to let

His power go through. Well, guess what? You are

the temple. You are a dwelling place of God.

The Spirit of God dwells in you. So, there must

be a part of us that's the door. What is the

door between the spiritual and natural realms?

What is that door? I'm going to look at this

story each week. Matthew 16, 13 -19. When Jesus

came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He

asked His disciples, saying, Who do men say that

I, the Son of Man, am? So Jesus is with his disciples

and says, What's the word on the street? What

are people saying about me? Who are they saying

that I am? The disciples begin to answer. They

said, Some say John the Baptist. Some say Elijah.

Others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. And

then Jesus looked at his disciples and he says,

But who do you say that I am? Who do you say

that I am? And Simon Peter, boy, this is a guy

that liked to put his foot in his mouth a lot.

Anybody in here put your foot in your mouth every

once in a while? He's recorded of putting his

foot in his mouth a whole lot, right? But this

time he got it right. Simon Peter answered and

said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living

God. That's the right answer. Jesus answered

and said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar -Jonah,

for flesh and blood has not revealed this to

you, but my Father who is in heaven. Everybody

say revelation. This isn't something that he

just worked up in his own mind. It's not like

all of a sudden he's like, I think he might be

the Messiah. No. Jesus recognized this as a revelation

from God. It didn't come from his noggin. And

I also say that you are Peter. This is when his

name changed from Simon to Peter. And on this

rock, Peter means rock, on this rock I will build

my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail

against it. I've preached a series on this before,

but we've got to realize that where they were

standing, there was a big cave. And everybody

thought that that was a gateway. Everybody say

a gateway. They thought it was a gateway between

the natural world and the spiritual world. And

they called it the Gate of Hades. Because they

thought it went to the underworld. So as Jesus

said, as he looked at Peter, he said, on this

rock I will build my church and the gates of

Hades shall not prevail against it. He was just

standing right there. The gates of Hades shall

not prevail against it. All the false religions

of the world. demonically influence ideas of

the world, they're not going to stand against

the kingdom of God. That's what Jesus said. They're

not going to stand against the revelation that

comes from God to His people. Peter's flesh is

not what the church is built on. Some people

think, well, you've got to build the church on

the bones of Peter's grave. The rock is the revelation

of who Jesus is. Jesus is God. Jesus is the Messiah.

And it's the method of delivery. That's how the

church is built, right? On the revelation of

who Jesus is and on divine revelation from God.

That's what the church is built on. Because we

can hear a lot of things and not hear it, but

we need revelation. That's what's going to build

the church. That's what's going to bring transformation

in people's lives is when they get a revelation

of who God is and who they are in Christ, what

they have in Christ. That's when transformation

starts happening. It happens through revelation,

not just through carving out an hour, hour and

a half on Sunday morning. I'm preaching too hard.

I'll back up a little bit. At this point, Peter's

door is open to God's revelation. It's open to

God's power. So divine truth flows out of Peter

to accomplish God's purpose. Because the door

was open. Let's continue reading. And Jesus says,

And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of

heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound

in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be

loosed in heaven. Everybody say the door. Right?

If a door is locked with keys, things can't come

in and out. But if a door is open, things can

come in and out. Keys open doors. Keys represent

authority. Right? The janitor of this school

probably has the most authority because he can

open and close any door. Everyone who works here

doesn't have a key for every door. The principal

has authority. She has keys for every door. God

said he would give us the keys of the kingdom

of heaven. He gives us the method, the ability,

the authority to open or close the door of spiritual

influence in the earth. Verse 21. From that time,

Jesus began to show his disciples that he must

go to Jerusalem and suffer many things. from

the elders and chief priests and scribes, and

be killed and be raised on the third day. And

Peter took him aside. He said, wait a minute,

Jesus, we've got to talk. I don't want to say

this in front of everybody else, but you shouldn't

be saying that. The Bible says he began to rebuke

Jesus, right? Peter took him aside, began to

rebuke him, saying, far be it from you, Lord.

This shall not happen to you. This is not going

to happen on my watch, Jesus. And then, well,

Peter didn't want to think that Jesus, who he

loved, would suffer and die based on his human

reasoning and understanding. And listen, it's

never innocent to say that God is wrong. It's

never innocent to say that His Word will not

happen. And Jesus looked at him. Listen, Jesus

looked back at him. He turned and said to Peter,

he said, get behind me, Satan. You are an offense

to me. Peter didn't become Satan. I mean, just

a few minutes before that, he said, upon this

rock, I'm going to build my church. I'm going

to call you Peter. A few minutes later, get behind

me, Satan. What was the difference? Being open

to the right thing and then being open to the

wrong thing just a few minutes later. Peter didn't

become Satan. Here's what he did. He opened the

door of his mind to the work of Satan in the

earth. And listen, here's the work of Satan in

the earth. It's questioning and challenging the

words of God. He's a liar and the father of lies.

He twists the truth. He questions and challenges

the Word of God. And He wants to make you question

and challenge the Word of God. Who God is. Why

did this happen? Jesus goes on to tell us why

it happened. He said, Peter, you're not being

mindful of the things of God, but on the things

of men. All of a sudden you went from being open

to revelation from God to you don't set your

mind on the wrong thing. You've got the wrong

mindset. Each one of us, we are empowered by

what we set our mind on. Your mind is the door

to spiritual powers. And you're going to be the

one who decides which power is going to influence

your life, the lives of those around you, the

lives of those who are close to you, and on earth.

It's going to be what comes through your door.

So how do we open the door to the power of God?

We must continually direct our thoughts and desires

to the things of God. What's it going to come

down to? You've got to be in charge of your thoughts

and direct your thoughts and your desires towards

the things of God and away from the things of

the earth. Like Peter, our focus, everybody say

focus, because today we're going to focus on

focus. And I need to stay focused to focus on

focus. Like Peter, our focus or what we are mindful

of will determine What the door of our mind is

open to. Romans 12, 2. Do not be conformed to

this world, but be transformed. How? By the renewing

of your mind. That's how you're transformed.

By renewing your mind. To renew our minds, we

must daily take control of our focus. We must

daily direct our imaginations. That's what we're

talking about next week, imagination. We must

daily align our words. That's what's going to

be two weeks from now. To the reality of God's

Word. Jeffrey introduced that thought of the

rest of the series last Sunday. So focus. Focus

is one of the key contributors to renewing your

mind. How many of you want to have a renewed

mind? Well, focus is going to be a key contributor

to that. You have to constantly be attentive

to what's going on between your ears. Sometimes

we're not very attentive of the thoughts that

go through our mind. 2 Corinthians 10 verse 4

2 Corinthians 10:4

says this, For the weapons of our warfare, because

we're engaged in a spiritual warfare every day

of our lives. The weapons of our warfare are

not carnal. They're not fleshly, but they're

mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. Strongholds.

Cast down arguments. Strongholds and arguments,

listen, and every high thing that exalts itself

against the knowledge of God. Doesn't that sound

like what I just read a few minutes ago? Doesn't

that sound like it? Bringing every thought into

captivity to the obedience of Christ. So here's

what's happening in your mind. You're getting

arguments against the knowledge of God. Sometimes

we have strongholds built up in our minds that

are contrary to God's Word. Sometimes we have

a thought that says, Like in Genesis, did God

really mean that? Did God really... Is it really

going to make a difference? I mean, I know there's

a verse that says this, but is it really going

to work? All of those things, all of those kind

of thoughts, they're exalting, they're trying

to exalt themselves against the knowledge of

God. And you've got to bring each thought, every

thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

You've got to say, no, this doesn't line up with

what God said. This is what God said, and this

is what I'm going to believe, and this is what

I'm going to focus on. That's what we've got

to do. We've got to take control of our focus.

Like Jeffrey said last week, you can't control

how many birds are flying over your head, but

you don't have to let them build a nest in your

hair. You can't control every thought that goes

through your mind. But you can control which

ones you focus on, which ones you meditate on.

You can control that because it's your mind.

Look, we've got to refuse to focus on any thought

or temporal condition that doesn't agree with

who God is. That doesn't agree with who... You

are in Christ. It doesn't agree with what you

have in Christ. Ain't nothing like a sound system

buzz to make people not even hear. So I'm going

to say it again. Because this is one of the most

powerful statements in the whole message. We

have to refuse to focus on any thought or any

temporal condition that does not agree. Listen.

That does not agree with who God is. That does

not agree with who you are in Christ. That does

not agree with what you have in Christ. We've

got to refuse to focus on those things and on

those temporal conditions. Renewing your mind

is not just refusing to focus on the bad things

like I just talked about. It's also focusing

on the good things. We need to focus on the things

of God. We need to focus on the spiritual things.

We've got to focus. So some thoughts you smack

down, like that bird that's trying to build a

nest in your hair. Herb don't have that problem.

Some thoughts you smack down, and some thoughts

you place on purpose. Listen to Colossians 3,

1 and 2. If then you were raised with Christ,

has anyone been raised with Christ? If you were

raised with Christ, seek those things which are

above. Where Christ is. Sitting at the right

hand of God. Set your mind on things above. Everybody

say focus. So we're focusing on those things

that are above. where Christ is, and we're setting

our mind on things above, not on the things of

the earth. That's just the Bible. And you can

either say, yes, or eh. But it's still true.

Whether you receive it or not, it's true. But

if you're like me, and you want your life to

improve, I would receive it. Instead of rejecting

it. Setting your mind on something is setting

your focus on something. Listen, John 16, 15.

Here's why we need to set our mind on spiritual

things. It says this, All things that the Father

has are mine. This is Jesus talking. Everything

the Father has is mine. Therefore I said, He

will take of mine and declare it to you. In this

verse, we see the Godhead, the Trinity. We see

the Father, we see the Son, we see the Holy Spirit.

And Jesus is saying, everything God has is mine.

And the Holy Spirit is going to take what's mine

and make it known to you. He's going to declare

it to you. He's going to reveal it to you. That's

how we get the revelation. That's how Peter got

that revelation where Jesus said, I'm going to

build my church on this. It didn't come from

him. It came from God. The Holy Spirit takes

the things of God. He reveals them. He makes

them known to us. Let's look at some examples.

Everybody say examples. Here's an example straight

out of Jesus' mouth. That's why I tell you. Not

to worry about everyday life. Whether you have

enough food and drink or enough clothes to wear,

isn't life more than food and your body more

than clothing? Look at the birds. Everybody say

focus. If you hadn't figured it out, every time

I got that brighter blue up there, you could

replace it with the word focus. If you hadn't

figured that out yet. Consider the birds. Look

at the birds. Focus on the birds. They don't

plant or harvest or store food in barns. But

your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren't you

far more valuable to Him than they are? Can all

your worries add a single moment to your life?

Not one. Not one. And why worry about your clothing?

Consider the lilies. Look at the lilies. Focus

on the lilies. Everybody say focus. Look at the

lilies of the field and how they grow. They don't

work or make their clothing. Yet Solomon in all

his glory was not dressed as beautifully. as

they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for

the wildflowers, because we just have to look

at them, right? Just focus on that a minute.

Focus on the birds. Focus on the flowers. If

God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that

are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow,

He will certainly care for you. Why do you have

so little faith? Because you're focused on the

wrong thing. I'll just go ahead and answer that.

It's focus. Listen, Jesus said, so don't worry

about these things saying, what will we eat?

What will we drink? What will we wear? These

things, listen, these things dominate the thoughts.

These things dominate the focus of unbelievers.

But your Heavenly Father already knows all your

needs. Isn't that amazing? So we don't want those

things dominating our thoughts. We don't want

to be focused on those things because it only

leads to worry. Only leads to worry. What are

we supposed to focus on? Guess what? Focus on

the kingdom of God above all else. Seek the kingdom

of God above all else. And His righteousness.

And He will give you everything you need. So

when we get our focus in the right place, we're

going to find that we're going to have provision.

But if our focus is in the wrong place, we've

opened the door to lack, is what we've opened

the door to. Worry is a byproduct of your mind

being focused on natural things that question,

that call into question. Listen, your mind's

focused on natural things that call into question

the character of God. and the Word of God. So

anytime we catch ourselves worrying, we need

to shake ourselves and say, No! I'm not going

to focus on that. I'm going to focus on the character

of God and the Word of God, and I'm not going

to focus on these things that bring worry to

me. That's what Jesus said. Look at the birds.

Look at the flowers. Focus on who I am and what

I do. Hello? It's good preaching right here.

Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Amen. I need it

just like you do. I get happy. Focus on the character

of God. He is Yahweh Jireh. He's going to see

to it. Focus on who God is. Focus on the character

of God. He is El Shaddai. He is more than enough.

Not just barely enough, but more than enough.

That's who God is. Is that who He is? Is that

who He told us He was? I'm not making these names

up. This is who God told us He was. Focus on

the character of God. He is Yahweh Ra. He is

your good shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd,

I shall not want. What does that mean? A good

shepherd is going to take care of me. And if

he doesn't take care of me, he's not a good shepherd.

But I've got to trust in him as my good shepherd

in order to receive him as my good shepherd.

Because he's not just going to be a good shepherd

if you're not having faith in him. Because faith

is what connects us to the grace and goodness

in who God is. It's our faith that connects us.

We're saved by grace what God did by faith. Everybody's

not going to be saved. Everybody's not going

to come to a relationship with Christ. Only those

who connect to His grace with their faith. Listen,

your mind is the door that releases the power

of God so the eternal can transform your temporal.

It's the door. Your mind is the door that either

releases or closes. Here's two more examples.

I'm not even reading the whole story, but if

you've spent any time in church, you're familiar

with these stories. Matthew 14, 22 through 23.

Listen. There was a bad storm. Jesus came walking

on the water. Peter goes, if that's you, call

me out to you. Jesus said, come on. So Peter

stepped out of the boat. How many of you know

you can't walk on water? There's laws of buoyancy,

as I think is how they put it. You can't just

walk on water. So he had to be stepping on something.

He was stepping on the law of faith. Because

Jesus said, come on. So he stepped on the Word

of God and it held him up as he walked towards

Jesus. And as long as his focus, everybody say

focus, as long as his focus was on Jesus and

on what Jesus said, he was walking on water.

But then all of a sudden his focus changed, didn't

it? His focus changed. Quit looking at Jesus.

Started looking at the wind and the waves and

the storm. What happened when his focus changed?

He opened the door and began to sink. I don't

know how you begin to sink. I always just sink

real quick. But he began to sink and Jesus grabbed

him. Jesus said, Where's your faith? Why is your

faith so little? Why was his faith little? Because

his focus changed. Focus. You know, another example.

Having three examples today. Paul and Silas.

They were in Philippi. They were talking about

the goodness of God. This little lady kept screaming

at them and making a scene. She was possessed.

These guys are serving to the most high God.

I mean, they're in Walmart shopping and she's

screaming up. It wasn't a Walmart, but you know

what I'm talking about. They're in the marketplace.

Going somewhere to eat. Lady's just screaming

up. She wasn't screaming bad things, but it was

pretty annoying. So, Paul got a revelation. The

reason why this was happening is because this

lady was possessed. That's why she was acting

like that, causing the disruption. So, he cast

the devil out of her. Problem is, she was a fortune

teller in town and she was a slave and people

were making money off of her demonic influence.

Her opening consistently her mind. To dark spiritual

forces. So, you know the story. They beat up

Paul and Silas pretty bad. Beat them up, threw

them in jail. And what was their focus? What

would your focus be? Just think about it. What

would your focus be? If they beat you up, you

had whelps all over your back, you're bleeding.

All you do is try to help somebody. But the business

owner said, we don't want people like that around

here. And they got the people to arrest them

and beat them and throw them in jail and put

them in the innermost part of the prison. What

would your focus be on? In those circumstances,

those natural circumstances, what would your

focus be on? Well, Paul and Silas focused on

praising God. Instead of focusing what most likely

we would focus on, we would focus on the circumstances

that we were in. We'd be moaning and whining

and complaining. But they didn't focus, listen,

on their temporal circumstances. They focused

on God, focused on praising God. And here's what

happened. Because they were focused on God. They

opened up the door. It opened the door. Does

anybody need a door open? They focused on praising

God instead of focusing on their temporal circumstances

that were not very pleasant. And the door was

open for miraculous deliverance. The door was

even open for the jailer and his family to be

born again. Based on their focus. None of that

would have happened if they would have focused

on their temporal circumstances. Hallelujah.

2 Corinthians 4 .18 We do not look at... Everybody

say focus. Because to look at something, you've

got to focus, right? We do not look at the things

which are seen, but at the things which are not

seen. For the things which are seen are temporary.

Everybody say temporary. But the things which

are not seen are eternal. Everybody say eternal.

Spiritually minded people begin to see something.

they begin to see that the choices of their focus

fall into two categories in their life. If your

focus is set in the right place, it will lead

to an open door to life and blessing. If your

focus is on the wrong place, it will open the

door. To death in cursing. I want you to see

this. I want you to see it. Romans 8 .6. That's

not Romans 8 .6. I copied and pasted that and

didn't change the reference. This is in... I

have to look it up. Deuteronomy. 30 verse 16,

Deuteronomy 30:16

that's where it is. God says, this is Old Testament

and New Testament, just flowing right through.

He says, I have set before you life and death,

blessing and cursing, therefore choose life.

Deuteronomy 30, 16. If you're writing it down,

write that down. Not Romans 8, 6. We're going

to look at that in just a second. As we talked

about this at Life Group, As they were walking,

there were two mountains, and they were speaking

the curses and death on one side, and they were

speaking life and blessing on the other side,

and they walked between it, just so that they

would hear what life that was focused on God

would result in. It's going to result in life

and blessing. And then God says this, I want

you to choose life. Because that's what God wants

for you. That's what God wants for all of His

kids. He wants everybody to be His kids, but

He wants for all His kids that they would experience

His life and blessings. John 10 .10. I've never

thought about all these verses just in repetition,

but listen, Jesus said this. He said, the thief

does not come except to steal, kill, and destroy.

Jesus says, I've come that they may have life

and that they may have it more abundantly or

they may have it blessed, right? So even in this

statement, He's saying that we have a spiritual

enemy and he's wanting to bring death and cursing,

stealing, killing, destroying. But I came, Jesus

said, that you could have life and have it more

abundantly or have it blessed to the full. God

wants life and blessing for you. But God's going

to respect your choices. Your focus will play

a part on what you receive. And God's going to

respect your choices. Here's another one. Here's

one, Romans 8, 6. I hope you wrote that down

too. To be carnally minded is death. But to be

spiritually minded is life and peace. That word

carnally comes from the Greek word sarx. It means

carnal, flesh. It's even been translated earth.

So listen, to be carnally minded, to be fleshly

minded, to be earthly minded will lead to death.

But to be spiritually minded is going to lead

to life. It's going to lead to peace. So our

mind should not be set on things merely of human

form. Origin or human empowerment. Because that's

always going to lead to death. We have an adversary.

Lucifer in heaven was cast down. Satan. 2 Corinthians

4 .4 says that he's the God of this world. Ephesians

2 .2 says he's the prince of the power of the

air. We know that in Christ, we are victorious.

We've overcome. We don't have to put up with

his junk no more. Because we've already won in

Christ. But this is still who he is in the earth.

And here's what he does. He manipulates circumstances

to generate contradictions to the word of God

that you say you believe. We'll say that again.

Satan and his demonic forces, his cohorts, here's

what they are involved in. They're involved in

manipulating circumstances in this earth, in

your life, to generate contradictions to the

Word of God that you say you believe. The enemy

is putting pressure on you through the natural

arena. To get you to choose, to get you to focus

on, to get you to open the door of your mind

to death and cursing. That's how He's going to

steal from you and kill you and destroy you.

Listen, when you believe more strongly in what

the Word says than in what your temporal circumstances

say, Faith becomes the bridge for the power of

God to flow through the door of your mind and

produce transformation in your temporal circumstances.

Help us receive it, Lord. What you believe more

strongly, when you believe more strongly in what

God says than in what you see, we walk by faith

and not by sight. when you believe more strongly

in what God's Word says than what you see are

the temporal circumstances that you're going

through, you open the door for the power of God

to flow through and to produce transformation.

Your focus is one of the determining factors

of what the door of your mind is open or closed

to. Focus is one of them. Listen, each one of

us can grow to the point where it becomes easier.

When you function in taking your thoughts captive

and recognizing the more you do it, the easier

it will become to recognize a thought that, you

know, I need to smack that bird down. It don't

need to build a nest in my head. I need to smack

that one down. The more you do it, the easier

it's going to become. But none of us will ever

get to the point where we've graduated and we're

not going to have any thoughts come into our

mind that we need to choose to throw out instead

of focusing on. None of us are going to get to

the point, right, where there's no work for us

to do. There's no agreement for us to do. There's

no faith for us to have. None of us will get

to that point. But you can get to the point where

it's easier. And I think this is my closing statement.

Your mind is the door to spiritual powers. So,

you're going to decide through your focus which

power has more influence in your life. You decide

what power influences your life. You decide.

what power influences the lives of your family

and your closest friends, your co -workers, people

around you. You determine. You decide which power

is going to influence the sphere of your influence.

Because we're all connected in different ways.

Right? Because... It's easy to see that you can

control the door of your mind. You can control

your focus, but somebody you're connected with

is not controlling their focus. It can mess up

your circumstances too, right? But what are you

going to do when that happens? You're not going

to change your focus. Because if you do, you

know, you wind up joining them. Hallelujah. Is

anybody glad you came today? Anybody join me

in saying, I can see that I've come a ways, but

I need to go farther. Anybody join me in saying

that? I need to go farther than I am today. In

taking control of my focus. Because I can see

areas in my life that are messed up and I can

see that they're messed up many times because

of my focus. I want my focus to open up the door

to the power of God to bring transformation.