The Will Of God // Friends (Part 3) // Dr. Anita Phillips

Welcome to Transformation Church Podcast, where we represent God to

the lost and found for transformation in Christ. We're so

glad you're here and wherever you're listening from, we believe

God will transform your life. Do today's message.

Hey bam, Hey fam, Hey fam, oh man. I love

pastor my infest in Natalie so much and I love you.

I'm so excited to be back. And uh yeah, don't

sit down, I'm gonna pray. Stand up, I'm anna pray.

I'm gonna pray, and then we're gonna sit down and

we're gonna we're gonna find out how to know what

the will of God is. Anybody need to know, Anybody

wrestling with a hard question, a decision, and you're like, yes,

I'm meant to be here for that. Today, let's pray Father,

Oh Jesus, from whom all things come and to whom

all things will return. We honor you God for your omniscience,

your omnipresence, your omnipotence. We thank you that you have

everything in your hand and that we're covered by you

at all times. Thank you for letting us be your children.

Help us today to settle into that position as your children.

I ask you to bless this word. Speak through me.

Take over every note, every plan, every outline. I give

it to you. God, speak your word to your people,

and let it rest in this house and bear fruit

long after today in Jesus' name. Amen, Amen, you can

be seated glory to God. So glad to be here.

Want to give honor to all the leadership in the house.

To Pastor Mike's mom and dad, I'm so sorry that

you've lost your sister and lost loser. You know where

she is, but she's not here in the body anymore.

Pastor Bree and her husband and their recent loss, just

want to honor the leadership that continues to serve. You know,

when you serve in leadership, it's a different thing. Everybody

goes through stuff, but the enemy sometimes twist a knife

a little deeper in a leadership space. And so pray

for your leaders. It's so important as they are praying

for you. I'm having quite a morning, but I can

feel the healing power God just flowing on through my body.

And I tell you my back went out last night

so bad. I just sleep sitting straight up. I have

never had this experience before, and so I know God's

getting ready to share something with you that you need

to hear. I flew into Tulsa yesterday. I'm gonna bring

you greetings on behalf of Spirit Lake Nation, the reservation

in North Dakota where I had been spending time with

family and deep bonds. I was at Powwow, y'all, but

I came from Powwow to come and see you and

to bring you what I believe God has for you

on this morning. Is anybody ready for group therapy? We

have a little group therapy today. We got a little

group therapy today. My bat got me sitting down. But

we don't know what the Holy Ghost might do. If

you see me take off running, you better start running too.

You better start running too. I want to talk to

you today about high stakes decisions. We make one hundred

decisions a day, more tiny decisions brushing our teeth now

and sitting a snooze button, eating breakfast or not eating breakfast,

ordering your Starbucks on the app, or just going inside.

We make a plethora of decisions all day long. But

there are sometimes these decisions that we get stuck in.

We call them high stakes decisions. They can be about

our education, our vocation, the location where we should live,

the connections that we should have in our lives. Those

are often so big. What is God calling me to do?

And where should I do it? How should I do it?

And what way should I get it done? Who am

I supposed to be in relationship with? And where am

I supposed to walk? And do? We have these high

stakes decisions that sometimes just never seem to have a

right answer. A high stakes decision is a decision that

is going to be costly, has the potential to be

extremely costly emotionally or financially, and that will be difficult

to roll back. You know what I'm talking about, where

it's like, if I do this, that ball is rolling

straight down the hill. I can't you know, You've done

all the increment that you can a little bit. A

little bit, you figured like, well this, if I take

this half a step, I can always back up. But

now you're standing at the cliff, and this decision is

high sakes, financially costly, but there's nothing higher than our

emotional wellbeing. And that goes because we can make money again.

But when we're standing on the edge of a decision

that could be heartbreaking for us, for our family, for

the people we love, and we're worried about pleasing God

or failing God. We start to ask God what should

we do. And one of the first things we say

is God, what's your will? Show me your will? And

sometimes we think we found it and we get a

sign over here, and then we move a little bit,

and then another sign comes and it seemed like that

sign got reversed. And you just anybody you out here,

you got vision boards and checklists, and you're like, well,

I had these eight signs over here, but I got

seven red flags over here. But is one red flag

really worth two signs? And I don't know how this

balance is out? And you're losing sleep, and you feel

like it shouldn't be this hard to know the will

of God. You're right, I'm gonna show you where you

can find the will of God right now today, in

this moment. This sermon might be five minutes. Are you ready? First,

that's alone. In chapter five, verse sixteen says, rejoice evermore.

Step one, pray without ceasing, remain in continual contact with God.

We're gonna dig into that a little more later in

everything give thanks for this is the will of God.

In Christ, Jesus concerning you, quench not the spirit despise,

not prophesyings, prove all things hold fast that which is good,

abstain from all appearance of evil. Because the Word is powerful.

I'm going to read that one more time because you

wanted to know how or what the will of God

is for your life. So here it is. Rejoice evermore,

pray without ceasing, and everything give thanks for this is

the will of God in Christ Jesus. Concerning you, quen

share not the spirit despise, not prophet science. Prove all

things hold on to what is good, abstain from all

appearance of evil. Problem solved, everybody ready, I raise a

second offer. Well, doctor Nita, that didn't really answer my question.

I'm trying to decide if I'm supposed to marry this

person or not. I'm trying to decide if I'm supposed

to move to a new city. I'm trying to decide

if this is the right job. I'm trying to decide

if I can put my family of hole and go

back to school. And you're telling me, rejoice ever more,

pray without ceasing. That's it, because I feel like I've

been praying. Rejoice. It might be a little sticky. But

I feel like I've been praying because I've been like,

God tell me what to do. God tell me what

to do. God tell me what to do. God tell

me what to do. That is not prayer. Prayer is

not a synonym for ask and ask and ask and

ask and ask. It's so much more than that. But

when we face high stakes decisions, we immediately start asking.

As Christians. Has kind of become part of our Christian culture.

I need to find out what God's will is. And

the reason is is because we have gotten ourselves emotionally

and mentally in a compromising position. One of the things

that makes me good at my job as a therapist,

especially working with people who follow Jesus, is that I

take the time to let folks know what's just basic

human experience. A lot of times, after we give our

life to Jesus, we think that we are now exempt

from the basic human experiences and the data doesn't apply

to us. But if you walked into this room this morning,

gravity is still holding you down on the earth, and

so there are still some principles that apply to you.

And I know we want to have a God who's

the entire anointing on our lives is about breaking the

rules so that we can have things our way. But

this burger king kingdom has yet to come into manifestation.

You cannot always have it your way. Lord, give me

a sign the DMX annointing cay have it because you

want everything to be so sure. And so this is

what happens. Research has shown what happens to humans when

they are being dogged by a high stakes decision. Anybody

got a high stake's decision? Oh yeah, a high stakes

decision leaves us in a compromised state. It causes us

to have an excessive focus on the short term because

what's hard I'm standing come on, I'm like, come on,

holy ghosts, what's hard is staring you right in your face.

If I end this relationship, I'm gonna be heartbroken. The

kids are gonna be heartbroken. I might have to move

out of this house. Oh see, if everybody's not paying

bills together. If I leave this job, it will be

hard for me to get seniority somewhere else. If I

move to a new city, I won't know anybody there.

And so we're thinking about the pain. And so because

of the pain that's in the moment. In the short term,

we're scared to move. We're waiting for a path to

be cleared, and we run to God asking for his

will because we think if we know exactly what God

wants to do, somehow, we'll suddenly be at peace and

we'll be able to move. So you're under the impression

that the presence of pain means that you're about to

make the wrong decision, and that the right decision would

automatically have you floating down on your bed. I said,

if it was a cloud, and you'll just move at

perfect peace and you won't cry, and you won't be

scared and it won't hurt. That would be like me

saying last night, well, God must not have a word

for me to speak. He must not have meant for

me to be here because my back hurt. Baby. I

will sit right in this chair and preach a word

that will deliver you, and God might take the pain,

or I might lip off the stage. But I can't

say that the pain I'm in has anything to do

with who I am and what God has called me

to do. You have to stop using short term speculation.

Sometimes you're afraid of how much will hurt because of

what you don't want to lose. Sometimes it's not even

the feeling of what you don't want to lose, but

how much you want to have that thing. I want

to have the achievement. I want the degree from that

better school, the better school that the world says is better,

even though God gave you a scholarship over here, and

you're ready to go in debt over there, so you

can have a stamp from a name when God's given

you an opportunity. I'm prophesying to somebody. We have to

pay attention to what's in front of us, but the

short term pain can't stop you. The second thing we

do excessive attention to what's available, so we start trying

to find the will of God in what we can

get our hands on. Well, this is here, and this

is here, so God must man made God put this here.

The next thing that we have a problem with when

we're making high risk decisions distortions under stress. Everything is

distorted when we're stressed. Pain is intensified, sleep is lessen.

I'm compromised. Distortion's under stress. Another thing over reliance on

social norms. What are other people doing? What are other

people saying? What's trending, the tendency to prefer the status quo.

That's another thing we that listen. At least I got

what I got the devil I do know, you know,

I'd rather go with what I do know. At least

I know how to deal with this. I get out here.

I don't even know how to deal with that. At

least in this city, I got people. Over that city,

I don't have no people. At least I have the

least this page had come every two weeks. If I

start the business over reliance on status quo, and finally,

a failure to learn from the cycle. When we are

caught in the throes of a high st high stake's decision,

we lose our capacity to see what is the same

from these other cycles in my life, previous cycles in

my life, current cycle in my life. We're driving along.

Didn't we pass that tree before? Someone tries to give

you some advice, some wisdom. Well, I remember once before. No, no, no, no,

that was different. Oh no, no, that one was different.

No no, no, you think about another thing. No that

was different, since that they was different, that job was different,

and that boss was different, that financial issue was different.

That was an emergency I'm reasually really good with my money,

except for the seventeen times that that one thing happened.

Because we fail to recognize patterns, because we think we're

always doing something and we think we're all unique. But

the Book of Ecclesiastes says, everything that has been is now,

everything that is now already been, everything that will be

is happening now. There's nothing new under the sun. And

I know it's hard to reconcile that with your God creation.

Give me whatever manifestation faith, And I know it's hard

for you to manifest that and think about that with

your self belief about how special you are. But everybody

in here got a heart in two lungs. Oh, if

we're healthy, we do. Everybody in here is being held

down by gravity. Everybody in here was born of a

human woman. There are some things that we have in

common that were set in motion and in order, and

we need to pay attention to those things. I want

to tell you a story about a man in the

Bible named some of y'all know him Judges chapter six

and seven. You can read all of it later. But

Gideon was out threshing some wheat under a tree in

the back of a field. He was in Israelite, but

he was hiding from some people who was in charge

of them at the time, called the Midianites. And Israel

had got into trouble. And the reason Israel was being

attacked and covered by these Midianites is because they had

acted up seven years later earlier. Israel was acting a

fool and God let them fall into the hands of

a group called the Midianites. And the midia Knites were

crushing they had their foot on their necks. Israel was broke.

Israel couldn't get nothing done. They were in trouble. But

it was because they had been acting up. Now, when

an angel comes to Gideon, and that's Gideon. No, some

of you know the story if you don't read it

Judges six and seven, and Angel of the Lord comes

to Gideon and says, basically, God has sent me to

deliver Israel. And Gideon responds with an attitude and Judges

chapter six verse let me go to verse twelve. And

the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him and said,

unto him, the Lord is with thee thou mighty man

of Balor. Isn't that what some of you guys are

waiting for you are waiting for an angel to show up.

I am with thee old child. Quit the job, break

up with her, move across the sete. You are waiting.

You say, I need this big moment. And then Gideon says, oh,

my Lord, if you be with us, then why all

this mess happening? And some of you think that you

wouldn't respond that way, but I'm here to tell you

you probably would, because when we are in the grips

of fear, all we do is defend. Gideon was out

doing his work in hiding because he was afraid of

the Midiannite. So when an angel came and said, hey,

I'm here to hook you up, he got an attitude. Really, then,

why is all these bad things happening to us? But

the Lord, you know, the angel keeps going. He goes,

did the Lord not bring us up from Egypt? And

now he left us out here to his real life?

And since they left Egypt and the angel stays with him,

he says, go in this thy might, and thou shalt

save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I

not sent thee The Angel is reassuring him that he

sent them, and Gideon still not going with it, and

so Gideon says, all right, all right, if you're really

talking to me, prove it. He has acknowledged this an

angel who is talking to him, but now he wants

the angel to prove he is talking to him. So

Gideon says, stay right there, I'm gonna go get some food.

I'm gonna bring it back. So he goes and he

cooks some stuff. Read it later. He puts it on

a rock. He wants to see what the angel's gonna do.

The angel actually waits. The graciousness of God in our lives,

he actually waits. Gideon comes back with the stuff, he

lays it on a rock. The angel walks over with

the staff in his hand. He touches the rock, Fire

comes out of the rock, cooks everything, and then Gideon's like, okay,

this is real. And so the first thing that Gideon

has to do that he was so afraid of and

needed this proof for, is that he's told to go

not to the Midianite's house, but to his father's house.

Because at his father's house idol to Bail an altar

to bail, was built. His father had went from worshiping

the god Jehovah. To worship in Bail and built a

whole altar, and Gideon was scared to go to his

father's house and break it down. And that is the

number one reason some of you can't hear God and

you want to test God twenty times because a personal

relationship has to be broken. High stakes decision, emotionally costly,

no way to turn back. Once he tore down his

daddy's altar, he was scared because there was no way

to care him back from that. So he takes ten

men with him, he goes and he does it. The

next morning, everybody sees the altars down. They come looking

for Gideon, but his father stands up and he actually

defends him. Uh uh, you're not gonna You're not gonna

kill my son for tearing down this altar. If Bail

is mad, let Bail do something about it. So so

he gets confirmation even in his father's defense. You don't

know whether or not your generational curse breaking behavior might

actually change some things, but some of you are scared

to do what you have to do because you're trying

to get agreement first. He didn't go to his father

first and say, Dad, I need us have a conversation

about this alter I need us to bring it down.

I want you to come with me. Let's have a

counseling session together. Let's read the tour together. I think

we need to go backwards. I know, I know we

had an argument, but I want us to be on

the same page before I move. That's not how generational

shifts happen. It starts with you in you. You do

what God is shifting in you to do, and then

you take care of their self. You take care of

your children, You take care of the next generation, whether

you're a biological parent or not, and you let the

generation before you witness what has happened for you. You

will never be able to move forward generationally trying to

drag in agreement the generations before you. That is not

how generational ships happen. And that's what's slowing you down

and keeping you stuck, because every time you arm wrestle

with your mom about this issue, you're just going back

into your childlike state. You're being retraumatized by her rejection.

And you was twenty five and now you five. You

was fifty five, now you twenty. You're turning back into

that rebellious teenager. Who had to fight for everything because

of the abuse. And now you're living as that rebellious

teenager as an adult because you keep going back trying

to negotiate with your mother your father instead of actually

just allowing God and some good therapy to grow you up.

Just because you're an adult age doesn't mean you have

grown fully into an adult. That inner child is still

wounded and they are disguising himself as an adult going

to grandma's house to have a conversation, but really you're

just standing in front of her as the child that

she beat, and you're responding the same way. Tear down

the altar without agreement, and that means sometimes choosing to

heal yourself God and a really good therapist. Glory to God.

And so he does do that. So you think, now

Gideon should be rolling right, But now it's his job

to go and lead soldiers to actually overthrow the Midianites.

And guess what he asked for? Another sign. I really

need you to hear this, because this is what we do.

God send me a sign. And then you get an

email with a loan preapproval. Oh, maybe that's the sign,

and then you click that link. You're doing that application,

and then somebody comes along and say, oh, there's a

community funder that's doing a grant, and you're like, oh,

maybe that's the sign, and then you'll get the grant. Maybe.

And then God says, now make the vision bigger than

the grant, and you're like, wait, I I need another sign.

Because you want there to be a sign for every

single step you take. That's not faith. We have to

watch it because when we are in the throes of

a high stakes decision, fear becomes our motivating impulse. And

it's not a sin to experience the motion of fear,

but it will run you off the road if you

don't tap in and take care of it. So Gideon

has had these two victories, but yet he's still asking

for signs. Imposter syndrome much Gaspoo. What is hoster syndrome?

It is this cycle that we go through of achieving

but never feeling like the achievement really says anything about

who we are or who God is in our life.

And so we're just as terrified next time. We're just

as scared to try the new thing. Next time, We're

just as scared of the presentation. Next time, We're just

as scared of the test the next time because we

fail to see what we should learn from the cycles.

You with me. So Gideon goes back and he says,

all right, all right, I'll do this thing with this

overthrow in Israel, but I need you to let me

have another sign. And so in this is we're in

chapter six. Still we're down there at verse thirty six

for when you study it later. So Gideon says, okay,

here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna take this sheep

skin the fleece, and I'm gonna put it outside because

in the morning, we know, dew falls on the ground.

So he says, if the fleece is wet in the morning,

but the ground around it is dry, he just making

stuff up. Now, that's gonna tell me that you really

want me to go out here and do this. And

you know what, the Angel's like, Fine, it's fine, do it.

So he goes to sleep. He gets up the next morning,

he comes out, he picks the fleece up, he rings

it like a towel, water comes out ground as dry.

The angel did it. And then Gideon says, thank you

so much. One more thing, how about tomorrow morning? Stalling much.

How about tomorrow morning. How about God, I'll move at

the end of the year, but not right now. How

about God just let my child graduate from high school first, God,

just let me pay off this other thing first. Let

me just get this promotion. All I ever wanted was

to just achieve this one thing. When I was living

in Tulsa in nineteen ninety three ninety four, all I

wanted was to be a delta. And I do not

want to tell this story, but the holy ghosts I

had wanted to be a delta forever. And I got

to Tulsa. I was at or Robertson University. They didn't

have any sororities of fraternities there, but there's a chapter

at another university in town, and so I went down

there to pledge and I was like, God, I just,

I just I always just wanted to do it. I

had people I looked up to and all kinds of things.

I just wanted to do it. And so I paid

my money. I was getting up at five o'clock in

the morning driving down there to be online. Grades were

suffering all kinds of stuff, but I was like, please,

and this was literally my prayer. Just let me get

the letters. Just let me get the letters. Just let

me get the letters. I just want to get the letters.

And how we got to the ceremony and they started

telling me what to say. Dang, ce Les, it's my witness.

I didn't want to tell this. I would not have

told this story. And I remember thinking, ooh, I could

feel my mom just like write in this area. You

know the word? I know you what? Say what? Repeat what.

I didn't have it in me. I didn't have it

in me to walk away. This is so much stuff,

and I just wanted it so bad, and so I'm

saying stuff and in my head saying sorry, ooh, got

through there, got them. The line was very small. It's

only three of us. It's total, so it's nineteen ninety,

it's only three of us. And a couple of weeks

later had an election for the larger chapter and one

of my line sisters wanted a certain position and I

didn't think I thought another woman in the group would

be a better fit. So I voted for that person,

and my line sisters got so mad at me they

stopped speaking to me, never spoke to me again. I

got letters, no line. Then the chapter got shut down

because of the size and different things. Letters, no chapter, letters,

no people, because I said, God, just I just want

so he gave me. That's what he did. That's all

I got to. I ain't here, I'm not you in

no hate about it. And I'm and I'm and I

I'm just telling him what happened. Because sometimes we're so

focused on the thing we want to get our hands on,

we will keep shrinking it and shrinking it and shrinking

it till what we got ain't even worth nothing. You

know what, God, I just want to be married. I

just want to get married. And and and you know what, God,

at this point is fine whatever, We're gonna just keep

on shrinking that situation down. First, it was like, I'd

rather you be like in my age, bragget you know.

And I never used to talk about single stuff because

I understand that women have it's challenged out here. But

I survived the divorce last year, so now i'm single,

I'm learning some stuff. So I'm with you. I hear you.

But guess what, you can't keep shrinking it down until

it's nothing, just to say at least you had the experience.

I do understand. I hear what you're saying, and it

is a grieving situation to feel like maybe I won't

have the relationship that I want, or maybe I'll never

birth to children that I want. It is a form

of grief and I understand, but stop shrinking it down

to say I just want the smallest manifestation because fear.

This is what I've learned in my years since my

divorce about singleness. The thing that makes singleness hard is fear.

If you can overcome fear, you'll be okay. But fear

will have you shrinking is down. It's the fear. It's

quiet in here. Somebody needed that word. It's the fear.

But let me tell you something. Having a partner doesn't

solve your future problems. You could go because because this

is the when I was married, it was just like

I never even thought about you know, you have this

vision like, oh, I'm gonna we're gonna grow, oh the

rocking chairs one hundred years old together, And I didn't

ever cry it in my mind that my marriage were

in and so it ended in divorce. But also a

bus could have hit one of us and that could

have ended it, or an illness. You don't know what's

gonna happen twenty years. So just because you get married

now don't mean you won't necessarily be by yourself later.

You can't depend on what you can get your hands on,

but your short term vision. I'm trying to help you.

There's no guarantees, and you allow anxiety to try and

all who's on inside out projection room, projections, projections, projections, projections,

And I'm guilty of that. I've dealt with anxiety most

of my life because of trauma in my childhood. But

you have to learn to say, oh, turn off the

projection room and stop thinking of all the worst case scenarios,

and then stop fantasizing that this one thing is gonna

solve all these other things. You don't know what tomorrow holds,

and so the signs is not a guarantee. So Gideon

comes back the next day. He asks for a different sign.

He asked for the fleece to be drying, the ground

to be wet, and the angel does it. Do you

know why the angel did it? Because Gideon was anointed

and called to do something, and by God, God's gonna

get his work done. God's gonna get his work done.

And so he rolled with him. He gave him the stuff,

He let him go out, he went to battle. He said.

The Bible says that God closed Gideon with himself. He

literally wrapped himself around Kideon and went out to battle.

And we know the rest of the story reading later.

I mean, God really does get in and he got

thirty two thousand people with him, and he's like, you

know what, that's too many people, because if I let

thirty two thousand of y'all go out there and win,

you don't think it was you at titty. You know why,

because we take credit for the winds and we give

the losses to God. We take credit to the winds.

But then when it doesn't go our way, God, why

do you lead us out here and leave us? God?

Why didn't you just leave us in each of God?

Don't you care if I'm dying? Think about the disciples

on the boat in the Book of Luke, when they

were out there on the storm and Jesus was asleep

in the boat, and they wake Jesus up and they say,

don't you can't we drown it. When the Israelites, and

now let me say this, they wake Jesus up, they

just left him feeding five thousand people with fish and loaves,

twelve extra bat He's a food and now they're on

the boat. You don't care. Israelites out there in the

moons and is in Exodus. Cloud in front of them,

fire in front of them, and then the cloud comes

around and hides them from the Egyptians chasing them. And

they turn the Moses and say, you brought us out

here to die? What is our problem? Signs will not

solve what's going on in your heart. You're so concerned

about getting what you want or knowing that you made

the right choice, or trying to avoid pain by making

the wrong choice. And it's all about you. God kept

giving get in all the times he asked for, but

he had stopped. He sent away those people because he said,

if you win, you're gonna say it was on you.

So twenty two thousand people, he said, if anybody scared,

leave child, twenty two thousand people was like, that's me.

And you know who would have been one of them.

I'd have been like, oh bet, so now you got

ten thousand people. And then God said, nope, y'all will

still take credit for that, And so he has them

go drink at the river and based on how they drink.

He said, only keep the ones who drink a certain way.

At the end, there was three hundred men left from

twenty two thousand to three hundred. And sometimes God has

to let us get down to just that little bit

of strength left so that we know when we do

it that it was not us, because all I had

was a little strength. That's no way I could have

did it. That's no way I could have figured it out.

And sometimes God will allow us to break down pieces

of ourselves so that it's just a little bit of

strength left. So you know we have this treasure in

earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be

of God and not of me. But you lose track,

my God. Everybody wants to be full of the power

of God, but nobody loves the journey to empty. How

you're gonna be full of the power of God when

you full of your stuff, your fear, your mess, your concerns,

your science. You don't know. Let me tell you what

I have learned to do. I have learned to lay

on my bathroom floor and weep and be in pain

and be sad, and also keep in the back of

my mind. But when God uses this. You gotta learn

how to cry and let it be real and say, God,

I don't understand and it hurts so bad, and devil

you wait. God, I don't get it, but devil you wait. God,

I don't understand, but devil you wait. Because what the

annoying thing of God from death lost? Get through this body? Baby,

you gotta start learning to eat some pain for breakfast. What. Yes,

it hurts, and I'm not just about stuffed. Then nobody

used to be a bigger punk than me. I'm sad.

I don't do pain, but I have learned that when

I am allowing myself to be perplexed but not in despair,

when I can say cast down but not forsaken, when

I recognize the dying of the Lord Jesus in my body,

I know that it says that also the life of

Jesus will be worked in my body too. If every

time a piece of you was dying, you could just

try to get a glimpse through your tears of the

resurrection that's coming. Don't say you ever gonna enjoy the process,

But my God, that's what keeps me from being cast

down but not forsaken, perplexed but not in despair the

but not There's a resurrection coming. And I think about

what God's gonna do, and I see your face and

your face and your face and your face on that

bathroom floor, and I say, God, empty me so I

can be full. But the problem is we don't often

know the difference between what God is allowing to shape

our character and the mess we bring on ourselves. Because

when you're out there staying in a bad situation, waiting

for a sign to tell you what God's will is,

you're suffering long, but you're suffering wrong. You think you're

bearing the fruit of long suffering, but it's wrong suffering.

You are suffering the wrong thing long. I'm glad that

you have the capacity to suffer long, but don't suffer

the wrong thing long. You're not willing to suffer the

thing that actually needs to be suffered. So you're like, oh,

I'll stay in this situation. I got it. I'm gonna

trust God. I'm gonna forgive, I'm gonna forgive. I'm gonna forgive. Baby.

You can forgive and stop being abused. You can forgive

and not take that treatment. You can forgive and still

take better care of yourself. You can forgive and raise

your dignity level. You can forgive and walk according to

the level of your worth. You don't have to keep

taking mess Lord, have mercy. And so anyway, Gideon goes

out with these three hundred people, and then God asks

him about his fear. Giddy and scared. Still in chapter seven,

Gideon is scared too. The Lord said, unto Gideon, open

and go about down. So the people took that d

DA number them like, oh, you know, I'm not evenna

mess with it. Just reach chapter seven. It turns out

that Gideon it's scared after all that, because he's trying

to solve the problem with external things. He's not focused

on what's happening inside of him. Fear is an insatiable

No amount of signs will meet that, fear will persist

asking for the next sign, a deep unmet need, that

need for connection, for deep relationship. External things will not

meet it. You'll get it and then you'll cling to it,

but for fear that you will lose it, you'll do

anything to keep it. And so Lord, if this person

is not for me, it's my favorite one, take them

out of my life. I mean, really, anybody, come on,

just tell the truth look at all? Can I tell

you I had to message multiple people yesterday and tell

them I'm not talking about you when I preached tomorrow

because there's nothing new unto the sun, a lot of

it not for me. Just take them out of my life,

because what you're really saying, you're not saying. God show

me your will. After all that Gideon did that, God

used him to free the Israelites. In that situation, Gideon

was still a mess. He still went and did some

killing later that he shouldn't have done. He had a

whole lot of wives like a problem. And he also

made gold rings and made an idol to which the

Israelites prostituted themselves. You know why, because inside Gideon had

not been transformed. God will get his work done, but

it's up to you to let get his work done

within you. So you worry like if you make a

wrong decision, God's will might be disrupted. Like if I

don't make the right choice, then I'm gonna be out

of his will and God's will won't get done. Baby,

you're not that powerful. I need you to bring down

your level. So if I move into this house instead

of that house, maybe God meant for me to live

on that side of town. And if I don't live there,

there's somebody I was supposed to witness to, and then

maybe they don't find Jesus and they dine and go

to hell because I bought the wrong house. Do you

think God is gambling somebody's soul on your fidgety, messy,

cynecky decision making. The Jesus who died and now he's like, oh, well,

these people are gonna go to hell if you marry

the wrong person. Baby, what who do you think you are?

He may have offered you the privilege to be used

in someone else's life, but I don't think he's gambling

people's whole eternity on your poor decision making. That's saying

a lot about how you think about you. You ain't

think about it like that, did you. I don't know,

because if if I don't do the right thing, souls

that depend. Yeah, I have the privilege and I do

not want to miss the privilege to be used to

touch your life. Every person in this room, every person online,

everyone who hear this message a year from now was

worth the last set of tears I cried on the

bathroom floor because I'm so privileged to be a part

of a tiny part of what God's doing in your life.

But baby, if I hadn't gotten up off that bathroom floor,

not only would the Holy Spirit still be there nursing me,

but he will take care of you. And so I

need you all to get your minds a little clearer.

God's will will be accomplished. His word cannot return unto

him void. What he sent it out to do, it

will be done. What he has to creed, it will happen.

What kind of shape you're in at the end of it,

that's your call. And so now it's about where's my character?

What do I want in my relationship with God personally?

And not what did I achieve for him? Oh and

yes I wanted Listen, I want my heavenly crown to

be so heavy. If I was still a regular human,

my neck will break. I want to have the privilege

to touch that many lives and see him come into

the kingdom. But if I gain the whole world and

lose my soul, then for what for what? And so

I need you to get a grip on what you're

calling the will of God. Like every little step that

you take every day, God is that you're will for

me to brush my teeth? Is it will for me

to eat this breakfast? Is it will for me to

try to work this route? You don't ask those questions.

It is only when you get emotionally distressed by a

high stake situation and you become paired, par realized that

you start asking for these signs. Am am, I liar,

and the signs don't fix it. Moses is another example

a burning bush. A burning bush told him what God

wanted him to do, and He's like, really, I don't

think I could do it. I needed more signs. So

then God's like, okay, okay, put your staff down. He

puts staff down, turn into a snake, pick it up,

pick the snake up, pick it up, turn back into

a staff. Put your hand in your in your vest.

He puts it and pulls it out. It's leprosy on it.

Puts it back in, take it out, No leprosy. And

you know what Moses says, I don't think I could

do it. The signs will not solve your problem. Stop asking.

It didn't fix it for Giding, it didn't fix it

for Moses. So whether or not they leave you and

move across state lines as out of your life. That's

gonna fix it for you, because if they call you

next month or the first time you're on your way

out on the date, you always seem to text you

right when you going out on a date with somebody

else that's got some kind of radar, and you're like, well,

God is sending them back. No, baby, they just you

gave them so much access to your heart and your energy.

They feel you moving around. You underestimate how powerfully we're built.

You don't recognize the supernatural nature of how we're constructed.

You look at what's visible, so you think because you

block them now they can't see you. But it's what's invisible,

and so if they pop up, it must have been God, baby,

because you're so desperate for a sign Matthew twelve thirty eight.

Then certain of the scribes of the Pharisees answers, saying, Master,

we would see a sign from thee. But he answered

it set unto them, don't start playing. I got a

few more minutes left. But accident said, unto them, and

evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, but there

shall be no sign given. Accept the sign of Jonas,

which in this case is Jonah was in the well

for three days. Then he came out, and Jesus said,

and the son of Man will be dead for three

days and then he'll be resurrected. My resurrection is the

only sign you're getting. We are beyond sign, because that

cross gives me a sign of what his will is

for my life, as far as his will in the earth.

But you, every time you take two steps, you're not

looking for his will. You're trying to find out who's

in control. And you lost control. So you want God

to have control and then tell you what to do

as a proxy for the control you don't have. And

that's not his role. He gave you dominion. Make a decision,

make a decision. He gave them dominion. Make a decision

where I don't want to make the wrong decision. Okay, well,

then guess what you aren't looking for his will. It's

not his will you need. It's wisdom. You want wisdom.

That's what you really need, not a divine sign with will,

because with his will, because you will just ask for

another sign and another sign and another sign. What you

really need is wisdom. And I'll tell you why we

need it because when people are in the throes of

these high stake situations, one of the other things that

they do is ignore information and have a poor understanding

of probability. We don't look at what is likely to happen,

But if you really looked at what is likely to

happen based on your patterns in life, based on the

things you've done before, based on how everybody who cares

about you is saying the same thing, and you're not

listening to none of them talk about a raft, a

helicopter and a bod I mean, God, don't sit you

all kinds of rescue opportunities. And it's like, well, I

can't listen to them. I can't listen to them because

I don't trust him. Why do you trust you? You

have been plowing this. I'm gonna prove to you that

it's wisdom that you want. You didn't realize it, but

it's wisdom that you want. Proverbs chapter three. Happy is

the man that findeth wisdom and the man that geteth understanding,

For the merchandise of it is better than silver, and

to gain their finer than gold, pressure more precious than rubies.

Nothing can be compared to wisdom. Length of daze is

in her hand, and left hand is riches and honor.

Her ways are pleasant, and all her paths are peace.

Isn't that what you want? Isn't that why you're asking

for a sign, because you want peace and pleasure and riches.

The Lord, by wisdom founded the earth by understanding, He

established the heavens by his knowledge. The depths are broken up,

and the clouds drop down the dew, My son, let

them not depart from your eyes. They will be to

your soul and grace to your neck, And then you

will walk in your way safely. Isn't that what you want?

And your foot will not stumble, and when you lie down,

you won't be scared. Wisdom is the answer to all

of the things you're asking for, a sign of his

willfare You need wisdom, but that means you need to

be willing to listen to hear that you are also

a human and not exempt from every human behavior that

has ever existed. That's why a lot of people don't

like therapy. We are human behavior professionals. I can tell

you a lot about you. I don't do it in

session one because then you think I'm not listening to you.

So I got to listen to you, and I am

listening to your specific situation. But you're telling me about

the outfit you want to wear, and I'm looking at

your body type. Did you get that? Because that good

eat the same in every outfit. You're talking about the

outfit and then I wrote a wrong outfit. But I

think my life would be better at this outfit. And

I'm looking at what's consistent in every situation, and you

don't see that about yourself, and when someone tries to

point it out to you, you reject it. You reject wisdom. Well,

I want wisdom from God, let me tell you, especially

when you put God in all caps that cap good,

you might as well just erase that and put me

or ego. Can't nobody judge me, but God capital got

Nobody knows my heart, but God capital got capital good?

Oh my God, Ego, you won't hear it. You have

to be willing to accept wisdom. And the last thing

you have to be willing to do is to be mature.

Is to be mature Hebrews chapter five. That's the last

verse I'm gonna read, and then I'm gonna give y'all

a little to close. Is that okay, Is that okay?

Hebrews chapter five. We see Jesus in Hebrew chapter five

in gysemone, crying in a conversation with God. Now this

is important because in Matthew chapter sixteen, verse twenty one,

it says, after he told them about the sign and

they're not getting one, and fust everybody out. In verse

twenty one, it says from that time forth Jesus began

to show unto his disciples how he must go onto Jerusalem,

suffer many things of the elders in chief, priests and scribes,

and be killed and be raised again. On the third day,

Jesus went teaching how he must be killed, and then

he's in gasemone saying, Lord, if.

It be your will, let this cut pass. He knew

he must be killed, and we don't hear God say anything.

And this is one Listen, you begging God on something

and you don't ever he and you don't hear him

say nothing.

It's likely because you already know. But when the rubber

hit the road and the pain of it gets there,

you're like, can we have a follow up conversation. Jesus

felt that in his own human body, he knew he

must be killed. But when that human body, the fear,

of the emotion of fear in his human body, began

to shake, he said, if it be thy will. But

he didn't lose sight of his father. He didn't say,

just let this cup pass for me. He said, if

it be thy will. He was still submitted. He still

had his eye on the relationship with God. But he

also expressed what was on his mind. But he knew

he must be killed because he was teaching it a

few chapters ago. Sometimes you already know what you how

to do, you just need the courage to do it.

So when you are asking God, I want you to

replace all your prayers for a sign and for information

on his will with a prayer for wisdom and the

strength and the courage to carry it out. Because when

we ask God to just remove this person from my life,

just let the boss fire me, just close the door

at that job, don't let the mortgage come. What you're

really saying is I don't have the capacity to do

this for myself, and maybe this time I won't be

able to, and God will do that for you. But

over time, the goal is for you to grow, for

you to become mature, and so the end of Hebrews five,

after it talks about how Jesus did this, who in

the days of his flesh, when he offered a prayers

and supplications with strong crying in tears unto him that

was able to save him from death, and God hurt him,

and that he feared though he were a son. He

learned obedience by the things that he suffered. God will

orchestrate your life to fulfill the call he has on

your life. But the suffering that you're doing is very

often about you learning obedience in the process so that

you don't end up like Gideon, so you don't end

up like Moses, who didn't even get to go into

the Promised Land because his temper caused him to act

up so bad. He had all the signs in the world,

he had the plagues, but internally still messy. He threw

down the commandments and broke him had to rewrite them himself.

That didn't get him to get his anger under control.

He still hits the rock with the staff later and

when he shouldn't have, and God says that's it. He

doesn't get to go to the Promised Land, but his

call to get the children of Israel out was fulfilled

because God's gonna get his work done. But stop making

his work getting done the bar for how you're doing,

that's how he's doing. And so it says after that

verse eleven, let's go to verse twelve. For when time

you ought to be teachers, you have need that one

teach you again, which be the first principles of the

oracles of God. And you are become as one who

needs milk and not strong meat. Milk is God closed

the door. I can't help myself. That's milk. Meat is

I already know this is crazy. It's inconsistent with the

word of God. It's inconsistent with every word spoken over

my life. It's inconsistent with the healed version of me.

God give me the wisdom and the strength to stand

up and be a grown woman and man of God

that can handle meat. Do you hear what I'm saying.

It's time to grow up some more. And in one

area you may be full grown, and in another area

thirteen I'm fifty. In some areas, I'm eighty. In some

areas fifteen I'm watching out to see where they are.

It's where fear shows up. It's where I begin to

beg God to take my dominion from me, and to

do it without me, because I don't have the strength

or the courage or the healing to see this. And

sometimes we just have to walk through it verse fourteen.

But strong meat belonging to them that are full age,

even those who get this, who by reason of use,

have their senses exercised to desern both good and evil.

If you don't walk through some stuff and get it wrong,

you don't get to exercise your senses. You won't be

able to develop your discernment in a way that allows

you to know what's coming next. And that word senses

there literally means your sense organs. Stop ignoring this. Think

back over your walk with God. Think about the times

when you know He spoke, you followed through, it was

shown that you would. Nobody can tell you never that

it wasn't God. Remember what it felt like to hear

that word. And then remember another time where you thought

maybe it might be God, but you asked for seventeen signs,

and then you did this other way and everything blew up.

Remember that feeling. Notice the difference. Begin to memorize what

truth feels like in your body. That's what it's saying

you discern your senses can discern by reason of use.

That means sometimes you're gonna blow it. And you know

that last one that really went bad. Now you're like, oh,

I got it. As soon as you smell it, You're like,

it's a no. It's a no because there has been

enough use, and so you're gonna have to have some

of those things. But if he just pulled you out

every time with twenty seven signs, you wouldn't learn the difference.

You would just stay scared all the time. But pay

attention to your body and live holy. When we allow

ourselves and our bodies to be involved in all kinds

of things that are not of God, it makes the

signals hard to discern because we have I not sanctified.

That means set aside our bodies for God's use. And

so if we are quick to the wine, quick to

the internet, quick to the sex, quick to the fast drive,

whatever makes us feel better in a moment we don't

have time to sit with these senses. Increase our tolerance

for pain and discomfort. I'm not asking God for another

round of test, but I tell you I can lay

on the floor and crowd for a while, I can

handle the pain of that. But over time I've learned.

But I know what I feel. That's pain that's leaving me.

That pain's going to be resurrection. There's a different kind

of pain that says, get out, move, jump. There's another

kind of pain that says that's the wrong DIRICD. I

know because I have use experience. You are asking for milk.

Meat is what you get when you allow your senses

to mature so that you can tell the difference between

good and evil. A sign may tell you the difference,

but it won't make you better. It won't grow you up.

And God wants you to be grown up. So some

of these days I want you to check. Should I

be asking for His will? Should I be asking for wisdom?

God opened my ears to hear a sound advice. God

opened my eyes to see the truth. God, give me

the humility to walk away and get or walk in,

and give me the strength to trust you more. Deliver

me from fear, Glory to God. All right, that's it,

I'm gone. Are y'all excited about not having to beg

for signs for the way for His will anymore? I

hope you are. But wisdom is harder sometimes stand to

your feet. I love teaching the Word of God, and

I love teaching it in ways that helps us walk better.

There's so much information available in the world today through therapy,

through self help, we understand ourselves as human beings more

than we ever have before. And so there are a

lot of things we can do to improve our lives

and our situations without a word from the Lord. But

there is a level of life and liberty that we

cannot achieve if we don't know Jesus. So don't settle

for achievement. I want salvation for you because Jesus changes

us from the inside out. What happens in a moment

in relationship with him can't happen in a lifetime doing

anything else. When Jesus comes in, resurrection arrives and you're

no longer in it by yourself. And so if you

don't know Jesus, I want to offer you salvation on

today on his behalf. Is there anyone who wants to

give their life to Jesus or renew your relationship with Gess.

Maybe you haven't been rejoicing evermore and praying without ceasing,

you kind of unplugged. You're going through the motions. But

you and Jesus been on the alps for a minute,

maybe because you asked for a sign, But then when

you got it, you realize you were mad at God. Well, God, why, what,

if why'd you allow this? Come home? I promise you

he's good. If you stay with him, it will be

found out to be the case. If you want to

know Jesus today, I'm going to ask you to just

pray this. Pray after me. Jesus, thank you for being

on the lookout for me, thanks for finding me. My

answer to you is yes, if you want that, pray this.

Dear God, I've admit I've made mistakes. I admit I

need a savior. I ask that you change my heart,

that you change my motives. I believe you lived, you died,

and you rose again just for me. Please change me,

renew me, and transform me. I'm yours in Jesus' name.

I pray Amen, And just like that, you're in the

family of God, and he will lead you and guide

you into all truth, one step at a time, making

you better the things that you tolerated and dealt with before.

Forget that. He'll only bring you things that grow you,

and he will change your life in ways you never imagine.

God Bless you, TC Nation. Thanks for letting me hang

out with you this morning. And you already know this,

but let me say it again.

I love you God bless thank you for joining us today.

If you said that prayer and accept it Jesus into

your heart, it's the best decision you can ever make.

We want to celebrate with you, and we have some

tools to help you on your journey. Tech saved to

A two eight two A two and to find out

more about TC text connect to A two A two

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with your friends. Thanks for listening. Now go out and

live a transform life.