The Power Of Imagination 3

Let's reach down and pick up our bibles, wave them around, make Jesus glad and the devil mad.

I love to make the devil mad.

Some people go through life trying not to wake up the devil, sneaking past the devil's house, trying to be real quiet.

I like to wake him up every now and then kick him.

If he's not moving, kick him.

Let's say this together say heavenly father, I'm glad to be here today.

I'm here by divine appointment.

I have ears to hear and eyes to see what the Spirit is showing me and revealing to me of the Word of God.

It's by revelation that my faith grows, and my faith grows exceedingly because the needs in this world needs the faith that I have to overcome.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Let's look at Romans chapter 12 and Romans chapter eight.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Today I wanna wrap up my series on the power of imagination, and imagination is something God gave us.

He gave us a brain, he gave us a body and he recreated our spirit when we got saved.

Romans 12, one tells you what to do with your body.

12, two tells you what to do with your mind.

You have to do something.

God won't do it.

God's not.

You can't pray God do something with my body.

No, god told you to do something with your body.

God told you to do something with your mind.

Here it is 12, one.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is a reasonable service.

Quickly, what is a sacrifice?

It's a dead animal.

So you render your flesh dead.

People trying to die out to self.

That's silly Self.

Your self is your spirit.

You don't die to your spirit, the self that anytime you see the word self, it's talking about your spirit.

You're a spirit, you live in a body and you have a mind, a will and intellect.

That's your soul.

So you're supposed to do something with your body.

What is it?

Offer it as a sacrifice, render it, render it dead to sin.

That's what that's talking about.

You do it.

You do it.

And then in verse two, and be not conformed to this world, don't be thinking like the world thinks, but be you transformed.

That's the Greek word metamorphuo, which means metamorphosis.

It means the same thing as the caterpillar turning into a butterfly.

It means the same thing as a tadpole turning into a frog.

It's nothing.

There's no comparison.

They're totally new.

It's exactly the Greek word when Jesus was transfigured on the mount, he was metamorphuo-ed, which means it's the same word.

So, jesus, when he was transfigured, he wasn't the same Jesus that had just been there with them.

He was the post resurrection Jesus.

Oh, you're blowing my mind.

Well, I'm hoping to.

Your mind is limited, but when you get into the word it will blow your mind.

No, that wasn't Jesus.

He was transfigured, he was metamorphosized.

He was transformed into the post resurrection Jesus in all of his glory.

And this is the preview of a coming attraction.

This is what's fixing to happen.

Boys, this is what I'm gonna look like.

This is who I'm gonna be when I get out of the grave.

Yeah, his clothes were white.

Glistering.

Is countenance brighter than the sun.

Are you with me now?

So that's that same word.

Be transformed, be transfigured.

By what?

The renewing or the refreshing, or the reconstitution of your mind, the reordering?

There's all kinds of RE words we could use, but they all amount to the same thing.

We have to have a new way of thinking when we get saved, because when you get saved, you're a new species of being that never before existed.

You're a new creature.

2 Corinthians 517.

So you've got to have a mind to match.

You've got to have a mind that's able to communicate with this brand new spirit, because the world's mind is not gonna be able to do that.

So you have to be transformed by the renewing or refreshing of your mind that you may prove what is the good, acceptable, perfect will of God.

A lot of times people don't want the will of God is because they've got an unrenewed mind making decisions.

That's why it's some of these politicians that we voted for.

They're making terrible decisions because they're just in the flesh, they've got the world's way of thinking.

And even people who claim to be believers, they're not very much believers because they've got unrenewed minds making these terrible decisions.

All right, I'll get off of that for a while.

I'll step on their neck again a little bit later, all right.

Romans eight, verse five.

For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit, the things of the spirit.

For to be carnally minded my margin says the minding of the flesh is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

That word life is Zoe, the God kind of life, super, abundant in quantity, superior in quality.

That's the life that Jesus came to give us.

And did he give it to us?

Yes, he did.

But when we're not spiritually minded, we don't live it.

We don't have that super abundant in quantity of life.

We don't have that superior quality of life.

Why?

Because we're making the wrong decisions with an unrenewed mind, make dumb mistakes, dumb decisions, we think wrong.

Are you with me now?

So I like EW Kenyon.

You know I've got some of his material out in the media center, don't?

We still have some EW Kenyon?

I recommend I don't know if we have the advanced Bible course or not, but if those of you really want to study and get more spiritual, I mean, leave off, you know, youtube and some of the flakes that are on there.

There's lots of them.

But stick with people like EW Kenyon.

I mean, he has helped me immensely and one of the things that he taught me 30 years ago and I started reading his books are longer than that, really more like 40 years ago they sold all these books in the Lakewood bookstore.

So I bought all these books.

I stack of books like that and then I'd buy books and glad it's a given away, you know, and I'd turn around and here's our library going out the door.

Honey, we don't need to give all our library away, do we?

Do we have to give my?

So far nobody's been giving me any of the books back that I.

I should have a hundred of each of those, have my own library, have my own bookstore.

Should I All the books we'd be giving away?

The advanced Bible course, and when you read that he talks about the flesh being senses, the five senses, so that really helped me Say the flesh.

What is the flesh?

Well, we tend to think about sinful and and yeah, that's true, but really it's just what we see here, taste, smell and feel is the flesh.

And so what we have in the world is a sensory overload, to get fancy with the language.

A sensory overload when you go out of your house, you have taken your stand of faith, you've read your Bible, you have made your confessions, you're ready to meet the world, and every person you see has got a mask on and says I am deathly afraid.

Now, anita's got a mask on, she has her reasons, so she knows I'm not shooting at her.

You can wear a mask if you need to anytime, I'm not gonna, but I'm talking about the sensory overload now.

Yeah right, amen.

I mean you're being pummeled with everything you hear and see, with your five senses, that if you're not afraid, you must be nuts, and if you're not wearing a mask you're super nuts.

In fact, now they're doubling down and now it's a double mask.

I'm thinking about getting a pair of pantyhose and doing the mask, two masks, and then pull the pantyhose over that, cut a couple of slits right here, maybe tie a big knot up here.

See, if they still let me in the bank, I forgot my mask the other day.

He said oh, this is the only time you have to wear a mask in the bank.

I said yeah, I wasn't nice, but anyway I'm sorry.

No, everybody say sensory overload.

So you know, this is what it means to be overwhelmed by the flesh.

To mine, the flesh is to mind your five senses, which are the gateway that the flesh receives its information.

And see, thomas said you know, unless I put my finger in the, in the prints of the nails, and put my hand in his side, I will not believe.

Eight days later, jesus shows up.

He heard what he said.

He said come here, come here, tommy, Tommy boy.

They made a movie, tommy boy.

But anyway, tommy boy went up to and said here.

Stick your finger See.

Evidently, you know Brother Hagin mentioned this he was shocked that there were big holes in Jesus' hands.

We just think it's a little scar.

No, it's a hole, you can see through it.

And he put his finger in the holes.

He stuck his hand in his side.

And be not faithless but believing.

You know, thomas, because you have seen, you believe.

Blessed of those who have not seen and yet have believed.

You see, you've got to be prepared to suspend the sensory overload, to believe what God says, beyond what your senses are telling you.

I know you know this, but it just helps you to come at it from every different way, because we are being assaulted and our faith is under attack and I see people succumbing that are in the church at all to know better, including preachers.

So I was meditating on this.

The other day God gave me this little ditty and he said let's not acquiesce to the left's demands, but rather possess with the Lord commands.

Let's not acquiesce to the left's demands but rather possess with the Lord commands.

Now, acquiesce is not a word that I use in a typical fashion.

I can't even remember if I've ever used that word in a sentence in my life, but anyway, I know kind of what it means.

I looked it up.

I looked up what acquiesce, and really, left, we could say let's not acquiesce to the devil's what the devil demands.

Let's not acquiesce to what the world demands, let's not acquiesce to what the flesh demands.

See, we could whirl the flesh to the devil.

They all fit right there with the left, because that's what the left is, isn't it All right?

So I looked up acquiesce.

Now listen, it means to rest apparently satisfied, without opposition and discontent, implying previous opposition and discontent, but ultimate compliance or submission.

See, acquiesce means more than just settling.

It means that previously you were against something, you were disturbed by it, you were against it, you raised your voice and then it seemed like by your sensory overload.

By the time you plugged in your five senses, you figured out that you were on the losing side.

And so you say what's to use?

Might as well, submit, might as well, comply, let's just comply.

That's what's wrong in the church right now.

Because they're president that they really wanted to get to be, they've made up all kind of wiki weird wacky things that yes, he still.

No, he's not the president.

When are you gonna get the get a grip?

That's just baloney.

Don't believe all this garbage.

And some of it's coming from so-called prophets.

Some of them are prophets that are misguided and most of them are not prophets.

They're non-profits, they're self-appointed, they call themselves just because somebody calls them, and really I mean the higher the office, when people start calling themselves something all the time, it calls into question whether they really are or not.

Who's their daddy?

Who was their daddy?

Who laid their hands on that person and said yes, you are, you can.

You can find that.

What happened to Paul?

He didn't call himself an apostle.

I mean, he was called an apostle and then there was a group of ministers that said you know, the Holy Ghost said separate me, barnabas and Saul, under the ministry that I, to which I've called them, the calling, comes first.

Then there's a qualification part.

What are the qualifying, what are the qualifying marks of these so-called prophets that are prophesying a president and then, when he doesn't make it, then prophesies something else that, oh, yes, indeed, he really did.

Well, yeah, I believe he did have the votes, but they didn't get counted, or the other votes got more counted they made.

I believe that.

I believe that there was a lot of hijinks.

The bottom line is God's hand was not on our nation enough to let the righteous men have a second term.

How about that prophetic word?

Because God warned me back on 9-11 that the church had not spoken the right thing after 9-11.

We did not call for repentance, national repentance.

We didn't call for our politicians to overthrow V Wade.

Oh, it's just to kill more babies.

How many more babies have been slaughtered since 9-11?

They're doubling down on abortion, more abortion In the church.

All we do is complain.

We don't do anything.

Are you with me now?

But worse than that is America.

America, I mean sin, has to be judged.

It's being judged for a nation.

The church can say Father, forgive us for not doing enough, for voting incorrectly, and God will wipe away our sin.

It's gone and there's no memory of it.

But a nation, a nation that continues to abort its babies, a nation that now, just a week before last Biden, says we're gonna plug the Iran nuclear deal back into the thing and put the Middle East at great risk in the rest of the world, because if Iran gets a nuke, guess who they're gonna nuke Israel and then us.

Israel and then us.

That's what they are sworn to do and he's gonna help them.

So don't tell me about this freeze.

It's not just.

The freeze happened because God said okay, you wanna mess with my people, all right, I'll let you freeze.

You can have a dark, cold winter.

That's what isn't that amazing?

That's exactly what Biden said.

We're even getting him to speak the curses over our nation.

Well, pastor, I came to be in listen.

We're blessed.

Anyhow, all this has the opportunity to go right over our head.

It doesn't have to injure us, except in the short term.

So we're gonna pray over your damage and all that God can make you hold on that.

But I want you to see that we're living in the time of judgment.

It's not final judgment, but it's partial judgment, and it can mess with your thinking.

That's my point.

We can't allow what is going on in the world to cloud what God wants to do through the church.

Let's not acquiesce.

We're still standing against what we've always stood against.

We're still speaking against it, we're voting against it, we're acting against it.

Well, what good does it do?

Well, you know what?

We're not responsible for the results.

We're responsible to stand, we're responsible to watch and to pray, and if we don't do that, then we are guilty.

Are you with me now.

So God's ways and thoughts are higher than ours, but they're available.

He has His ways and thoughts available to us that we can think differently than the world's way of thinking.

Y'all are looking at me kind of stunned.

I don't know.

Did I Glad to say preach it?

So I'm gonna preach it.

Used to be glad it's about this time in the service would put a rag over her head because I was already saying things that embarrassed her, but anyway, she's gotten so tough lately she's my biggest cheerleader.

Let's look at two Bible examples Joshua and Paul.

First of all, joshua, chapter one.

I wanna give you some example the power of imagination.

Joshua, chapter one.

Now, after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke unto Joshua, the son of none, moses, minister, saying Moses, my servant is dead.

Now therefore rise.

See, joshua didn't know he died.

Why did God tell him he died?

Everybody no, nobody knew he died.

They knew he left.

He went up on Mount Peska and God said I'm gonna take you up to Mount Peska, you're gonna be able to see the promised land, but you're not gonna go in because you struck the rock twice.

You got mad.

You never did anything about your temper and you violated one of my precepts and you struck the rock.

So here's and that's pretty tough punishment for Moses.

He didn't get to go in and so God hid him.

He hid his body because he knew.

God knew that Israel would take his body and use the Egypt's power of embalming and all of that and turn his body into an idol.

And the devil was looking for his body, pretty, you know.

So God hid him, so nobody knew he actually died until Joshua and Joshua is the next in line.

He had already laid hands on Joshua and gave him his authority and his power in front of everybody, and then he left.

And then.

So God comes to Moses.

My servants did now, therefore, rise, wake up and get your feet moving.

Everywhere the feet of your foot shall tread that I've given you.

As I said unto Moses, as I was with Moses, so I will be also with you.

Amen, you're gonna cause this people to gain their inheritance at your main function, joshua, moses.

All he could do was just preserve them, but you're gonna take them in.

My job is to make sure you go in and possess everything God has in mind for you, to teach you every way that I can and give you the word of God and give you the way to possess your promises.

In a time when the whole world is being judged, that doesn't have to stop us from possessing everything that we have coming to us.

When it sounds so selfish, well no, it's about people looking at us and saying how is it that you're so blessed and I'm unemployed?

How is it that you're so blessed and I'm sad?

See, listen, god still has certain ways that he can reach people and we're the ones that he's gonna use.

So Joshua came from a line of big thinkers.

I mean, abraham was a big thinker.

He was very rich in cattle, silver and gold.

And then I mean he's a big thinker.

He thought about how many kids he's gonna have.

He looked at the stars in the sky, the dust on the seashore and he said, yeah, the sand on the seashore, yeah, I'm gonna have a big family.

Isaac sowed in the land during a time of famine and reaped a hundredfold.

Jacob, on the run from his brother, goes to Laban's place and after about 20 years he's richer than Laban.

Rich had so much that he had to divide it into two bands and come back.

And God gave him favor over his brother.

And there wasn't no murder, nothing like that happened to him.

He was a big thinker.

God showed him how to get rich, showed him about the sheep and the spotted and the speckled, and all of that.

So here you have Joshua.

He's come from a whole long line.

So God told him in verse 8 of Joshua 1,.

He said thou shalt meditate on this book of the law.

You shall meditate on it, shall not depart from your mouth, you shall meditate in it day and night.

And what book is that?

Well, the five books that Moses wrote.

He had access to five books of the Bible.

That's all he had, because that's all they had at that time.

And yet, meditating on the word that Moses wrote, under inspiration of the Holy Ghost, genesis, exodus, leviticus, deuteronomy and so forth.

Judges, not judges, but whatever.

Five books are Leviticus.

So those five books you meditate on those, then you shall make your way prosperous, then you shall have good success.

God is wanting us to be prosperous and successful.

He doesn't want us to go down on the Titanic.

I mean, maybe, maybe the I don't know what's ahead for America.

There'd be some tough days ahead and we just went through.

I think a couple of months ago I warned y'all to be prepared for something like a storm.

Remember that I said you know, I'm not saying be fearful, but it wouldn't hurt to have a little extra water, a little extra food in your freezer, a little extra.

You know, don't let your gasoline go all the way out of your tank and run on fumes.

Keep your car kind of over half full at least.

Now, I'm not talking about hoarding, I'm not talking about panic stricken, I'm talking about wisdom.

Well, that still goes.

I don't know just what's ahead.

I mean, there the Bible says there's going to be earthquakes and famines and pestilences in the end times.

That's what we're going through, folks, but it doesn't have to sink our ship.

Listen, we've got the Word of God.

That's not Aquias, joshua, never Aquias.

Think about him.

Okay.

So he went into the promised land as one of the 12 spies.

Remember that Him and Caleb were the only two.

The other 10 said oh, we'd be not able.

We're like grasshoppers and their side and in our side there's wall cities, there's giants in the land.

We'd be not able.

And Joshua and Caleb said no, let's go up at once.

They're bred for us.

Let's go up right now.

They got outvoted and the 10 spies died that moment from the plague.

And every man and woman over the age of 20 died in the wilderness because they believed and they cried and they moaned and groaned and murmured and believed the evil report.

And God was so mad he said get out of my way, I'm going to kill all of them.

We're going to start over.

I'm going to bring you back through another group, abraham.

I mean Moses, just stand aside.

I'm going to bring you another group.

And Moses said well, just kill me with them.

I don't want to be around Because I don't want to listen to the rest of these Alec, malachites and the high vites, the Jebusites, the termites, the Bud lights and all the otherites say that God could not bring them in.

Therefore, he killed all of them.

He got mad and killed them.

I don't want to hear that.

I don't want them running you down.

I don't want to have to sit here and defend you.

So kill me with them because I don't want to be around.

So he stood as an intercessor and began to plead with God and God spared their life.

They didn't deserve to be spared, but he spared their life.

But you know what?

Israel never did really repent.

Israel never got over the way they were.

That's anti-Semitic?

Well no, it's just Bible.

It's written here for our admonition upon whom the ends of the age have come.

They never learned from Israel and the mistakes they made because they had a covenant.

They still do, and God's going to visit them and they're going to.

In the end they're going to come out okay.

It could have been so much better if they had stuck with it to begin with.

So he had to go 40 years ministering to people.

Basically, he moved from ministering to regular people to ministering to the college and careers and the youth ministry, the children's church.

Well, that's right, 20 years of age and younger.

So that's a college and career group.

If you're 30, he didn't have anything to say to you.

You're going to die in the wilderness because you were unbeliever.

You're held accountable.

We got a better covenant than they do.

I said we've got a better covenant than they do.

They had the chance to possess, but they acquiesced to fear.

But Caleb and Joshua had to live through that.

I want you to see this we're living through some things like this freeze and COVID, all of this.

We're living through some things that are not easy to live through, but don't let the condemnation come on.

You.

Listen, we're still blessed, glory to God.

We're blessed with all the spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ.

You have to meditate on your covenant.

You're going to meditate on the Word of God and think differently than the world.

Are you going to wind up like them?

So 40 years he had tasted of the good land briefly.

He went across the Jordan and they brought back the fruit and he was excited.

He saw the same things that the other tens saw, but he and Caleb wanted to go up at once and they didn't get to do that.

And so for 40 years he had to keep his excitement about the future.

He had to keep his excitement about what was coming.

Are you with me now?

You can't just give up when things start getting dark.

You can't just throw up your hands and say, well, we didn't win the election and we didn't defend it.

Listen, we've got a whole eternity to possess and rule and reign, and let's get our minds on the word of God.

You quit listening to dead heads.

Glory to God.

He had sensory overload.

I mean.

He sees all these people.

They're gonna die and you know well, harriet died last week.

Yeah, good riddance.

I mean, is that what he's?

I don't know.

I mean, you know, across it off the list, they all had to die.

It took 40 years.

So he started off at being 40 years, now he's 80.

And see, god told him when he's 80 years old, moses, my servant, is dead.

Now, therefore, rise.

Meditate in this word.

Well, he'd been meditated.

My point to you is he'd already been meditating or he would have gave up a long time ago.

He meditated on the word of God so that when it was his time to lead the children of Israel, he had the wisdom, he had the forthright, he had the plans and he knew how to hear from God.

Are you with me now?

Now, paul, let's look at Philippians, chapter three.

There's another guy that never acquiesced.

He wrote four epistles while he was confined either to a prison or to house arrest, and yet he was always writing and influencing.

Philippians, chapter three, verse 13.

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, apprehended the thing for which you know he was saved for a purpose.

He said I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Well, pastor, doesn't say anything about meditation.

Well, it implies it.

Because what does he say?

I'm forgetting about the past.

He forgot about the fact he was a Pharisee, the Pharisees.

He forgot about the fact that he suffered five times 39 lashes.

How many says 195 lashes?

Can you imagine what his back looked like?

He forgot about the three, the night and the day he spent in the deep.

He forgot about the stocks and the bonds and the chains, and he forgot about all the persecution.

He forgot about all that.

This one thing I forget, that which is behind and I press, I reach forth.

That's talking about a race.

That's about breaking the tape.

You ever see, like a Olympic race, and the sprints.

You know, the 100 meter, you know, and they're running flat out and they lean into the tape to get their nose ahead of the, because it's electronic.

You know they're gonna break that electronic beam.

Old days they used to have an actual tape that they'd have to break, but nowadays it's an electronic camera and it shows you that beam and they break it that way Because you're talking about a thousandth of a second, and so whoever leans at the perfect time.

So that's what it's talking about is the effort that is before, what is before, something he hasn't seen yet, something that he has imagined.

He's imaged it in his spirit.

He has received it.

He's been talking about a future thing.

It has not come yet, he does not have it, he has not apprehended it, but he's on his way, he's leaning toward it.

He's leaning toward it.

Are y'all getting this now or am I if this is just pie in the sky over your head?

Because what we're facing right now, if we don't get ahold of this, we're not gonna succeed like God wants us to succeed.

He wants us all to prosper and be in health, even as our soul, mind, will and intellect prosper.

Amen.

So, paul, he's reaching forth like a race to the finish line.

The things which are before it was a product of his imagination and he never acquiesced to his sensory overload.

You can imagine how much sensory overload he had.

They were hollering at him and screaming at him, or he was the God of Athena and all this kind of stuff, hollering for two hours, beating him with many stripes.

He never succumbed, he never acquiesced.

So I'll give you three things here power of imagination, to unleash this mighty power.

Three things today.

Number one begin to think ahead.

Think long range.

Quit being so concerned with the immediate.

Meditate on the important.

Don't be short-sighted.

Let's look at 2 Peter, chapter one.

Are you getting anything out of this today?

Well, get the spirit of it.

If nothing else, get the spirit of it because we we stand in a very important place.

This is why we're living.

In the time we're living.

There's a grace that we have to tap into by faith in order to have fruit in a time like this.

Second Peter, chapter one, verse two grace and peace be multiplied under you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus.

Our Lord, according as his divine power, has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.

How, through the knowledge of him that have called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers.

Notice the word might.

That means it's our choice.

It means it's up to us.

God gave it, but we have to what Receive it that we might partake, partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Everybody say sensory overload, sensory overload.

That's exactly what it's talking about.

I said that's what it's talking about censor your senses, the lust of the flesh, your senses, the tension that you're under to believe everything you hear and see and taste and touch and all of that smell.

You're under the great pressure to acquiesce and, beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue and the virtue knowledge, temperance, temperance, patience, patience, godliness, godliness, brotherly kindness, brotherly kindness, charity or agape.

For if these things, everybody say, if Say there again, it's your doing, it's what about you?

What are you doing with your fault life?

What are you doing?

Are you breaking the tape?

Are you reaching forth the things that have not yet showed up?

Have you ever looked up?

Or have you acquiesced to the sensory overload and said, well, I've been believing for health, but I'm sicker now than I've ever been and I guess I'll just have to go home and be with the Lord one of these days?

It's just yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

See, you're saying the wrong thing, thinking the wrong thing, amen.

For if these things be in you and abound and barren or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, but he, that lack of these things, is blind and cannot see afar off.

I like what Billy Brim says they're short-sighted.

If there's anything, you must not be right now as short-sighted.

Do not settle for the immediate trouble.

Don't settle for everything.

The devil is building a fire over here and he wants you to get involved with looking at the fire, how it's burning, everything up the frozen pipes and whatever else that he can do to distract you.

Listen, don't be short-sighted.

Look down the road, be forward thinking.

Come on, let's lift our hands right now.

That's to your imagination.

This is the only way you can become like.

That is your thought.

Life has got to be constrained and it's got to be channeled into the proper thoughts.

God's thoughts, all right.

Number two is found in verse three.

It says, according to as his divine power, he's given unto us all things that pertain unto life.

What a statement.

Have you ever read that statement slow and really thought about it and meditated on it?

He gave you all things that pertain unto this life.

He gave you past tense.

He gave you everything that pertains to life.

What is that life, zoë?

Life Superbunit and quantity superior in quality.

He already gave it to you.

You don't have to get it.

He already got it for you.

What you have to learn to do is receive it.

So the second point is if God has it, it belongs to you, and does he have it?

Does he have all things?

Well, it says he gave it to you.

Or else this scripture, well, you're not interpreting.

I'm not interpreting anything, I'm telling you what it says.

This is the trick that false teachers and false pastors and false prophets do.

Well, you're gonna interpret.

There is no interpretation needed.

Either God said it and meant what he said, or it's all a lie.

Let's throw the whole thing out.

Let's just throw the whole thing out.

If it feels good, do it, live like that.

But no, he said what he meant.

Does God have it?

Then it's mine.

Glory to God.

That's so simple, whoo.

So see yourself blessed, strong, healthy, clear-minded, prosperous.

Your covenant is in effect.

Now See yourself with it.

Meditate on it.

Oh hallelujah.

Remember what we asked you to do last year Write down this little card and describe what the greatest year that you've ever experienced, describe what it looks like for you.

Put down there, and then we just mailed it back to you.

How many of you got your card back in the mail?

I got mine back in the mail and I was so glad to get it because I forgot what I wrote down there.

I mean I didn't write it twice, I only wrote it once and I mailed it to the church, or I took it to the church, I guess with a stamp on it, and then they mailed it back, but I mean there was a lot of stuff on there that had come to pass.

There's some things that are coming.

So, if God has it, it belongs to you.

See, don't acquiesce, possess, possess what belongs to you.

All right.

And the third one is Romans 8-6, where it says you know, to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Meditate on what God says and that brings you life.

The Zoë, life and Shalom.

I mean you take those two words and that includes everything in your life that you need.

When you've got Zoë and Shalom, there's nothing else.

It checks all the boxes.

It checks your emotional needs, it checks your social needs.

It checks your physical needs.

It checks your transportation needs, your needs for clothing and shelter and everything.

It checks all the boxes.

Whoo glory to God.

Just meditating, he told Joshua you'll make your way prosperous, you'll have good success.

See yourself with a continuous upgrading and updating.

That's what we're doing here in the church.

We're upgrading and updating Some of you.

I heard about one house.

It was just all the sheetrock fell in, somebody was gone and they didn't turn the water off before they left and so it froze.

And when the water came, when it thawed out, the water just kept running, you know, and all the sheetrock.

My next door neighbor I have a next door neighbor whose wife just passed away.

We wondered what was going on Ambulances and everything was there and it was terrible because one of the daughters was there.

It must have found her body and she was overcome.

So they hauled her to the hospital.

But then it was hours and hours before the medical and when the medical examiner, then I had the picture, I knew what had happened, that the mother had died, and so I caught the guy outside and he was driving up.

So I went down my driveway they're Asian folks and I said we're praying, is everything okay?

He started crying Wife died, wife died, and so his daughter must have seen what happened and got overcome.

And now I saw him yesterday.

He stopped to thank me because, james, you cut his water off the other day, but he had already had a lot of damage inside because they were gone, the water froze the pipes, so he just buried his wife and now he's got a mess in his house.

So he stopped this time to get out of the car to thank us for shutting the water off and he just started crying.

He started crying about his wife.

He's still wounded.

And so I tell you, there's people out there that need what we have.

They don't have what we have.

And so when we meditate on what God's word says, say we can have a continual upgrading and updating.

So if you've had damage, god can turn that.

Just like that scripture that you were talking about, god turns what the devil meant for evil into good.

I mean you can have an update and an upgrade.

You can have something better than you had before you had damage.

But if it's big enough for an insurance, or even if it isn't big enough for an insurance claim, I mean you can turn that thing around and have something better than what you had before.

One thing about it you can insulate all those pipes that broke.

Make sure they're insulated.

Everybody say upgrade and update Real quick.

I'll tell this quick testimony.

This is just.

You're gonna say, oh, it's just carnal.

Well, you know, everything in this life is carnal.

I mean if we're in this world.

I mean, anything we need is carnal, isn't it?

Food's carnal, don't you taste it?

So it's carnal, right, but you still need it.

Anyway, gladys and I went away a few years ago.

We went to Dallas to spend a few days and we decided to go over to a mall where they had a Nordstrom and see, houston didn't have Nordstrom in those days, so we had never been to Nordstrom.

We'd heard about it a lot.

So we went to Nordstrom and I found this suit and man, it was the prettiest suit I had ever seen.

In fact, I think I've never seen one since as pretty as that suit.

It was so beautiful.

But it was priced at least, probably at that time it was probably three times more than I had ever spent on a suit I mean you're talking about.

Not only was it not on sale, but the price was three X.

I can see y'all are judging me right now.

Y'all are.

Why is he looking for a suit?

Well, because my business.

You need a suit, you need, you need.

It's my business.

If I was a plumber I wouldn't need a suit.

I wish I was a plumber in the last one.

I'd be rich right now if I was a plumber.

Plus, I'd have hot water in my master bath, which I don't have, anyway.

So I saw that suit, I had the money.

It wasn't like I had to go into debt to buy the suit.

I could write the check, I could buy the suit, but I didn't.

It was just I felt guilty.

I felt you know, this is just not needed.

It's just it's kind of like you not thinking, since you're alive, there's no point in pushing the envelope.

If I have to be kind of half blind, it's okay.

And so thank God for Karen.

Karen is able to.

No, you don't say that Karen is a humdinger.

We all need a Karen, praise God.

And we got one.

So I, you know, I just and Gladys looked at it, oh yeah, well, just you go ahead and get it.

I know it's a lot, but get it Now.

And so I walked away.

We went back to the hotel and I kept thinking about that suit.

And fine, we went back there the next day.

I said I'm gonna get that suit, I'm gonna get it, walked in there and it was gone.

I'm talking about it was gone.

Somebody bought it and it was another one like it.

I said don't you have another one?

He looked at it.

That was it in all of our system.

I don't have any Nordstrom.

They have, but they have a lot in California and different parts of the country but they didn't have one in Houston yet.

They have two now Woodlands and Galleria.

But I learned, see it was my see.

God had provided me something.

He gave me the money to pay for it and I'm too cheap.

Now, if you enjoy buying used clothes, that's fine, you enjoy that.

But if you limit yourself and say I can only go to God's will or good will, I know some of you just like to have a bargain.

That's nothing wrong with liking to have a bargain, nothing wrong with it.

You can have all the bargains you want.

But let's be open to God blessing us over and above to where we don't feel guilty.

One more thing about feeling guilty Now again.

But that's so carnal.

Well, we live in the carnal world.

There are certain needs that we have.

I mean, do you just limit yourself to hamburger Because steak is too expensive?

Couldn't you buy steak every now and then you wouldn't?

It would be wrong to go buy steak and then go into debt and pay for it.

After 30 years you're still paying for the steak dinner.

You put it on Visa.

You went to the steakhouse, you spent a hundred bucks for two on steak dinner and 30 years from now you're still paying it.

That's wrong.

That's not right.

One of our Indian brothers, very successful man, and his daughter.

He was able to send her to the States to go to college.

He told this story and she had called and talked to her and she sounded a little bit strange.

They were concerned about her.

She sounded down and so then every month they'd call and of course it's expensive to call long distance back in those days transatlantic call or Pacific call, whichever way it goes, but anyway.

So the women's dean of the college called them and said Reverend, your daughter's in trouble.

She is not eating and we're concerned for her safety.

She's got malnourishment.

She is very, very thin and we had to put her in the infirmary and she's in bad shape.

So he had to fly here to the States and he sat and talked with her and she grew up in India.

She grew up in a big city, huge city, around masses of people that are very undernourished, people that are poor.

It'll break your heart, jay and I.

I mean we stopped and took a picture of what I call the Valley of Death.

It was in Bombay in 1996, when we are, my first trip after the church started without Brother Osteen, and all we could do was get out of the car just briefly, because the insects, the flies and everything were all over.

There was this bridge, like an overpass, overlooking this muddy, dark, nasty looking, I guess, a ditch and little cardboard pieces of tin.

People were living just in squalor, naked, nowhere to have the bathroom except in that ditch.

It was as far as the eye could see, disappearing over into the smog.

Both of us just were overcome, we just, and we took a picture, a video of it, and so that's where you know.

That's her life.

When she, where she came from, and she was so sensory, overloaded here with abundance that she felt guilty.

And every time she'd go to the cafeteria and eat a full meal she'd say if I could just save this money, I want to mail it back home Because I'm eating way more than I should.

I shouldn't be eating this.

There's people that are starving to death in my country.

See, the devil got in there and started lying to her and accusing her and calling her, calling her selfish, and she almost died at 20.

And it wasn't some disease.

It was just simply guilt.

Oh, let's not.

Let's just drive out every area of guilt.

God wants us to live with his full blessing.

He wants us to be a witness of his goodness.

There's no other way that many people are ever gonna get saved unless they see the real Jesus.

Come on, lift your hands and receive the power of imagination, the power of imagination.

See yourself blessed.

See yourself blessed, amen, praise God.

Was this all right today?

Come on, let's shout for joy.

We're overcomers.

I said we're overcomers.