7 Lies That Are Destroying Christians (And Most Don't Know It)

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Success by the Book Podcast, the place where Christians who want to experience the extravagant goodness of God in all areas of their lives come from mentorship. I am your host, Dr. Inn, and I'll be unpacking the secrets I have learned from the Word of God over the last two decades. Let's dive in. Today I'm going to show you seven lies that many Christians believe that are slowly destroying all areas of their lives. Okay, there is so much deception. In fact, God said in the last days deception will abound, and today He's going to expose that deception. So we'll rise above it. Okay. And I am going to start. Um gonna start from number one. Okay. This is gonna be so good. All right. So as we go about, as we as we go through this, I I want you to really look inward. Okay, this is not for entertainment, even though we're gonna laugh, we're gonna have fun and all those things. It's not for entertainment. This is for you to discover where you've been tricked and undo the trick, okay, so that you're no longer subject to these things. So let's go right into it because we have a lot to cover. So seven lines. First one, line number one. Line number one is I have the right not to forgive someone who hurt me, and it's okay. Okay? Like they've hurt me. In fact, they've hurt me deeply, and because of that, I have the right to not forgive them. Okay. Now, let's unpack this and let me know in the chat if you've ever felt this way. If you've ever felt like Dr. Una, I know the Word of God says this, but after what this person did to me, I am not going to forgive them. Okay. Now, we are not going to have any opinions about this. I am just going to read this from the word of God. Okay. And then we can make conclusions because this is the final authority for us. This is what God says. Okay, this is what the truth is. Okay. Okay, so let's take a look at this. So I'm going to read Matthew chapter six, and I'm going to read verses 14 and 15. I'm reading it from the New Living, the New King James Version. Okay. So listen to this. Jesus said, This is Jesus. Okay. So if you have a Bible where the words of Jesus are in red, this is in red. And after today, this lie is no longer going to get you. Okay. Okay. For if you forgive, if this is conditional, if you forgive men their trespasses, that's another word for sins. If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you. If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you. Now, from that verse, I can say so. That means if I don't forgive them, then I won't be forgiven, right? But that could be subject to interpretation. So Jesus goes on in verse 15 to say, but if you do not forgive men their trespass trespasses, neither will your heavenly father forgive your trespasses. So I said this yesterday in church, but I had the privilege of teaching the service yesterday. And this is these are your options, okay? If you look at Matthew chapter 6, verse 14 and 15, you have two options. You can forgive and be forgiven by God, or you cannot forgive and then not be forgiven by God. This is a multiple choice question. There are only two answers, okay? Option number one, I forgive and I get forgiveness from God. Option number two, I don't forgive because I'm so mad at what they did and I don't get forgiveness from God. Okay? Now, I don't know about you, but I desperately need the forgiveness of God. And in the grand scheme of events, I've probably quote unquote hurt God more than anybody can hurt me. If you think about the volume of the things we've done in the process of growing up, in the process of our Christian walk, things we didn't even know were sins until we, you know, we got there and stuff like that. So listen, we need God's forgiveness more than people need our forgiveness. And God's forgiveness, according to this verse, has a condition. I will forgive you, but you need to forgive others. Okay. And so the question I ask is who has hurt me so much that I have decided instead of forgiving this person, I am going to not be forgiven and I will go straight to hell. Like that, instead of, instead of forgiving this person, I'll go to hell. Now I don't want to be insensitive. I know people have had very, and this is a minority, but very, very traumatic experiences. And they would probably need to work with people to work through that. So I'm not, you know, like so, but we still have to work through it. So I'm not, I'm not trying to be insensitive to that, right? But for the average person, okay, yes, people have heard us and they've really hurt us, but yes. So let's start identifying, right? Let's start identifying as who God has called us to be. Jesus said, forgive and be forgiven. Don't forgive and don't be forgiven. And so forgiveness is for forgivers. If I'm not a forgiver, I cannot get forgiveness. And I need forgiveness, okay? So you need forgiveness. And so this lie, and it feels good, right? Like when you don't forgive somebody, it's like what they did to me and all that stuff. It feels good. It feels like it's the right thing to do. It's not according to the word of God, not according to the word of God. So forgiveness is for forgivers. So the consequence of this lie is that we're disqualified from forgiveness. Think about how powerful this deception is. This deception is so powerful that if you believe it, like I could just go around not forgiving people because, oh my goodness, what they did to me, and all of that stuff, you will not realize that what you have done is disqualified yourself for forgiveness, not from other people, but from God Almighty. So we are people who forgive. I am a forgiver. Forgiveness is my default setting. You might say, oh my goodness, Dr. Una, but this is so hard. This is why we have God, and God identifies as Jehovah Ezer, which means God my helper. God is my helper. So I can ask him for help. I can decide to obey and I can ask him for help. So I choose to be a forgiver, and I'm like, Lord, help me, right? Lord, help me, help me, help me to forgive, help me to forgive, help me to forgive quickly. And then you start putting in the reps, okay? Um, there is a habit um that I learned many years ago from my pastor, and I was like actually, I was talking to my sister-in-law yesterday, and she said the same thing. She said, one of the strategies when I find somebody has done something and I'm so hurt and I can't bring myself to forgive them, is I add them to my list of people I pray for, and I start praying for them, bringing them before God, asking God to bless them and all of that. And it shifts my heart. So if you want that as a strategy, you can borrow that strategy. Um, and then, you know, you can thank my sister-in-law. Her name is Ugo UGO. You'll say thank you, Ugo, in the comments. Okay. But forgive. Okay. So we are forgivers because we want forgiveness. We don't want to be disqualified for forgiveness. We do not want to blow hell wide open because we're so mad at somebody. There is nobody that is that serious. Okay. There's nothing that is that serious that will say, I'm not forgiving, I want to go to hell. So this lie is so destructive. In fact, this video, you want to go ahead like up front and share it with the people in your world. Share it with every Christian you know. Why is that? Because these lies destroy our lives, and we will no longer believe them. Okay, so never ever from today believe the lie that it's okay to just not forgive people and it's okay. It's not, it's not okay. Okay, number two, second lie here. Second lie. Um, I don't have to read the Bible. Okay, I don't have to read the Bible. And the thought doesn't come like, oh, you don't have to read the Bible. It comes like, yeah, you know, reading the Bible, you know, that's for like pastors and people who are really serious, because the Bible is boring and it's big and it has like words in King James, like who can understand that? Like, what in the world, you know? And you know, like I'm I'm okay. I go to church, I hear the word, I get my word in, you know, and I listen to some worship music and I listen to a message here and there, but like read through the Bible, like know the Bible, like gain mastery of the Bible. No, no, that's not. I mean, like, hey, that's not for me, right? That's not for me. Like, you know, okay, where are my cousins? Where are my cousins? Like, yeah, I don't it doesn't take all that. Like, do you see how big the Bible is? No, I don't have to do all that. I'm just I'm a regular Christian. There is no such thing as a regular Christian. In fact, that's line number eight. I don't have it on my list for today, but that's line number eight. There's no such thing as a regular Christian. Okay, so again, we're not gonna go based off of my opinion. Let's see what the word of God says. Okay, so I'm gonna read a number of scriptures. Hosea, Hosea chapter four, verse six. I'm gonna start from, I'm gonna start from there. Hosea chapter four, verse six. Pay attention to what this says, okay. Um, like, oh, I don't have to, you know, and sometimes it's even more subtle. It's as subtle as, oh, you, you know, like you woke up late today, you don't need to read your Bible. It's you know, you know, God understands. Like, you know, and then you read the New Testament, you're like, oh, I don't have to read the Old Testament. Um, you know, because ooh, God was angry in the Old Testament. Hello, if you don't read the Old Testament, then the New Testament is not a New Testament to you, it's a half testament because you don't have the rest of it, right? Okay, so listen to this. The Bible says, This is the word of God. It says, My people. God didn't say the dying world, he didn't say the people that don't know me, he said, my own people. All right, we are God's people. My own people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Why are God's people destroyed? Because they don't know. What they don't they know? They don't know the word, they don't know the truth, they don't so because of this, every form of deception can get them. So, for instance, we just looked at you know, having the right to not forgive somebody and all of that. The only way you can believe that is if you're not in the word, right? And so, my people are destroyed. I want you to think about this. All nine areas of life destroyed why for lack of knowledge. For lack of knowledge. What is the raw material for knowledge? The word of God. So imagine the brilliance of this lie. Well, I don't have to read the Bible. Like, and when I say read the Bible, I don't have to read the Bible through, I don't have to memorize scripture, I don't have to, you know, read the Old Testament and the New Testament, I don't have to read it every day, I don't have to do any of that. Hello. When there's no knowledge, God's people perish. When there's no knowledge, we perish. We die, we're destroyed, and all aspects of the life are destroyed. So your walk with God destroyed, family destroyed, ministry destroyed, you know, health destroyed, finances destroyed, business destroyed. These things are destroyed for what? Lack of knowledge. Okay, that's one scripture. Let's look at, and that's actually part of the scripture. You know, we could go further in that, but I have two others I want to show you. Isaiah chapter five, Isaiah chapter five. I'm gonna read verse 13. Okay, really powerful. Never forget. Okay, this is what it says. Um, Isaiah chapter five, verse 13. My pages are sticking together. Okay, it says, Therefore, listen to this. This is so wild. Therefore, my people have gone into captivity. Now, notice again, it didn't say random people. God said, My people have gone into captivity, they're captives, they're in bondage, they're victims, they're slaves, they no longer have autonomy. Why? Why did this happen to God's people? Therefore, my people have gone into captivity because they have no knowledge. So, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. My people have gone into captivity because they have no knowledge, and the knowledge is the word of God. I will go after knowledge, which means I read it, I read it with the intention of growing in my knowledge, growing in my understanding of God, growing in my understanding of who I am in God, growing in my understanding of God's ways. I will read it a lot. This is the primary textbook of my life. I'm a physician, we read a gazillion textbooks, but this is my primary. If there's any body of work I must master, this is what I must master. The word of God. The more knowledge I have, the less the challenge, chances of me being destroyed. The more knowledge I have, the less chances of me going into captivity. Okay, I'm gonna read one more scripture because I want this, you know, from now on, we're people who forgive, and we are people who dig into the word to grow in our knowledge. Okay, okay, so first Peter chapter 2, verse 2. Okay, let's look at what the word of God says. It says, um, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby. So, how should I desire the word of God? I should desire it like a newborn desires milk. Okay, I should desire it. Now, the new living translation doesn't use the word desire, use the word crave. Okay, so the baby craves this milk, baby cries for this milk, baby, you know, screams for this milk, and this baby screams and shouts for this milk often. Okay, we are talking two to three to four hours. In fact, and if the baby after four hours has an eating, you would probably wake the baby up and say, Oh my goodness, we got to get some milk into this baby. So we are called to crave the word. So if we're told to crave the word like newborn babes, then obviously it doesn't mean hear the word when you go to church on Sunday alone. It doesn't mean hear the church when you know, hear the word of God when you hear somebody discussing it in the sweet by and by. This is something we consume. We consume it day, we consume it night. So sometimes we're reading, sometimes we're meditating, sometimes we're listening to a message, sometimes we're talking to others about it. We are constantly in the word, in the word, like a newborn babe. Why, right? Okay, so as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby. So if we're not consuming the word, we cannot grow. So we can say, Oh, I've been a crit, I've been I've been a Christian for 25 years, but if you haven't been consuming the word, you might still be a two-month-old in the realm of the spirit. Because you're not growing, because there's no word. So I want you to think about this. Why would we, this lie, why is this lie so powerful? Like so powerful against us? It is so powerful because according to Hosea 4, 6, if you don't have knowledge, you'll be destroyed. According to Isaiah chapter 5, verse 13. If you don't have knowledge, you go into captivity. According to 1 Peter 2, 2, if you don't have the word, you don't grow. So the consequence is destruction, captivity, and stagnation. What? Okay, okay. So this is what we do. We don't believe the lie. Remember, Satan is not necessarily powerful. Okay, he uses deception to get us to hurt our own selves, right? Like he's not coming to catch us and hurt us. A lot of times he gets us to hurt ourselves. We hurt ourselves by not forgiving, we hurt ourselves but by not being in on the word. Okay, so I am a person who goes after knowledge. I am a person who will read, study, and meditate in the word of God. I will be a person who, like a newborn babe, I will crave the sincere milk of the word of God. I will crave it. Okay, I crave it. Okay, so that's line number two. Lie number two: two lies that will never stop us after today. They're so deadly. That lie is so deadly because if you believe it, it will destroy your life. Okay, number three. Number three, we're gonna sit on for a little bit because this is this is one of the biggies. I can live however I please. God's grace is here. I can live however I please. Whatever I want to do, I can do. You know, God understands, God loves me, his grace is sufficient. Okay. Let's look at the word of God. Okay, pretty pleased with 17 cherries on top. Let's look at the now. Before we look at the word of God, let's analyze what we're saying. Okay. When we say, I'm a Christian, I'm born again, I'm washed by the blood of Jesus, God's grace is at work with me, and we're no longer into works. It's the grace of God. What are we saying? We're saying as Christians, we can live any way we want and it's acceptable to God. Okay? Okay. But I have questions for you. Okay. Is there any country that lets you live, like even the countries with the most freedom? Is there any country that will just let you live any way you want? No. Right? There are traffic signs that need to be obeyed. There's speed limits that need to obey, they'll be obeyed, there are tax laws that need to be obeyed. There's a code of conduct. If I'm a citizen of the United States of America, there is a code of conduct for me. Okay? Okay, let's so let's forget, let's forget country. Country is too big. Let's think about an organization. You are the CEO of an organization or you work at an organization. Can you just show up in an organization and do whatever you like? No. For every organization, there is a code of conduct, there's a way we behave here. There are core values for this country, for this organization. This is not like even in Burger King, where they say have it your way, the employees cannot have it their way. The employees need to follow a code of conduct. There's a way they dress, there's a way they take orders, there's a way they say thank you, there's a way they open up the shop, there's a way they close the shop, there they they don't have it their way. They may tell the consumer to have it their way, but they don't have it their way. Okay? Okay. Now let's let's forget, let's forget the organization. Too big. Let's come to the family. Let's come to your family. In your family, if a child walks up to you, say that I'm now washed by the blood of Jesus, I am now a born-again Christian, and we are in the dispensation of grace, so I can live anywhere I need to. The grace of God is sufficient to me. Sufficient for me. And they show up to act that way in your house. I have a question for you. It's a yes or no question. Will you tolerate that? So I can go out whenever I want, come back whenever I want, eat whenever I want, keep my room anywhere I want, talk to you, my parents, anyhow I want, like because this is the dispensation of grace. Will you tolerate that? Yes or no? Let me know in the chat. So we see that countries have codes of conduct, organizations have code of conduct. I would love to see what you say for your family, but in my family, I'm 99.999% of all the families I know, they have codes of conduct. So what in the world makes us think that the number one kingdom in the universe, which is the kingdom of God, functions without a code of conduct. What makes us think that the number one kingdom in the universe will tolerate that level of chaos? What makes us think that? Like from a natural standpoint, it makes no sense. No family runs like that, no organization runs like that, no country runs like that. And if there was a country that ran like that, you would never want to be in it. So why do we think that God's like, yeah, do whatever you want? So we're gonna read some scriptures. We're gonna read some verses, and for this one, I am going to read a lot of verses. And the reason for that is after today, I want you to never fall victim to this thing again. Now, does that mean we don't have grace? Of course we have grace. Does that mean God doesn't help us? Of course he helps us. But God has standards, and anybody who tells you he doesn't is lying to you. And I want you to see this from the word of God so you do not believe a lie that would destroy your life. Okay, Colossians chapter three. I'm gonna read a lot of verses, but I want you to hear the word of God. If then, from verse one, I'm reading the New King James Version, if then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand, at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died. And your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Okay? So when Christ who is our life appears, we will appear with Him in glory. All this stuff. Amazing. Hallelujah. Amen. Now, verse five. Therefore, put to death your members which are on the earth. Then it goes on to list them: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. They're listing things that put your members on the earth to death, so you no longer do these things. Verse 6. Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, which you yourself were once when you walked with and when you lived in them. But now you yourselves are to put off these things. You had them on, put them off. This was your code of conduct before. Don't do this anymore. Put these off anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. So you're not Christian, but I cuss a little. I have a little cuss. Okay. That sounds okay on social media. But Paul said here, um, ma'am, ma'am, put off from you filthy language out of your mouth. Put it off. Put it off. Okay. I can't control myself. You lie. You lie. Put it off. Okay. And the beautiful thing about this is the person who taught about this dispensation of grace is Paul. And this is still Paul. So there's grace, yes, and truth. There's grace, yes. There's a part God does, there's a part you do. Okay. Do not lie to one another. Code of conduct. Since you have put off the old man, now that I'm in God, I have a new way of conduct. In this kingdom, we behave in a different way. In this family, the family of God, we behave in a different way. Do you see how deadly this lie is? Because you believe it and you don't understand that you're setting yourself up to like blow hell wide open. Okay. Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge. Do you see knowledge again? Do you see why it's dangerous to say out of the word of God? We have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. I'm going to read a few more verses. So let me skip to verse 12. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, puts on, okay, so he talks of all these things to put off, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long suffering, bearing with one another, and forgiving. Do you see forgiving again? And forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, you also must do. You must forgive, according to the word of God. According to the word of God. But above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And I can go on and on. And if you read Ephesians, you'll see stuff like this here. You read a book of Philippians, you'll see stuff like this. It's all over, not the Old Testament, like it is in the Old Testament, but the New Testament put off the old guy, put on the new guy, and this is the way we behave now. Okay? This is the way we behave. So, what do we do? We gain knowledge. This is who Jesus is. This is how Jesus functioned. Now that he died for us, this is how he has enabled us to function. We ask God for his help. We maintain a prayer life that powers what the knowledge shows us. And then we start putting in the reps. We practice forgiving. We practice loving people. We practice being kind. We practice being patient. We practice feeling like cussing and not cussing. We practice. We practice being the new. We practice putting on the new man. We practice putting off the old man. We practice these things. We ask God for help. We grow in our knowledge of it. We continue that, continuing to keep up to the measure of Christ. Anybody who tells you you can live however you please because of the grace of God is lying to you. It is a clever trick by Satan to put you in a position where you are constantly sinning against God and constantly putting yourself up where you have no reward in the kingdom, no inheritance in the kingdom. I will put in the reps, okay? I'll put in the reps, rep after rep, keep doing, keep doing it, keep doing it, keep doing it, because this is my new nature now. Keep doing it, keep doing it. It's not about works without grace, it's about working with the grace. So let me let me read this scripture for you. And you know, I hope it clicks in a way that you'll never forget. Okay. Now, Paul talked about grace because there's this whole thing of grace and works and grace. We don't do works, we do grace. We do both. Look at what it says here. Okay. Um, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 10. He says, But by the grace of God, I am what I am. You see the grace? By the grace of God, I am what I am. By the grace of God, I've been saved, I've been washed clean, I'm a daughter of the most high God. By the grace of God, I'm what I am. Um, I, you know, I have a measure of the fruit of the spirit on the inside of me. By the grace of God, I'm what I am. Then he says, and and his grace towards me was not in vain. Can the grace of God be in your life in vain? Yes, yes. What makes it in vain? He said, and his grace towards me is not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all. So, how do I do this? I take the grace and I apply labor to it, so the grace is not in vain. So, by the grace of God, I'm now a daughter of God. I have a new nature, I have a new, I have an a new nature. This nature is love and joy and peace. The fruit of the spirit, as we know from Galatians 5:22, is love and joy and peace and patience and goodness and kindness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. Grace, grace gave me this. Then I now labor to walk in it. I now labor to manifest it, I now labor to learn more about it and practice it. I labor more abundantly than they are. So I have the grace and I apply labor so the grace is not in vain. Can you have a million dollars in your bank account in vain? Yes, because when somebody gives you the account, opens the account in your name, that is grace. But you still need to sign the check and you still need to go to the bank and you still need to cash the check. That is labor. Now, that labor cannot produce a million dollars, but the labor can give you access to the million dollars that you got by grace. So there's no amount of trying to live right that can give you the ability to live right, but you have grace, and if you apply the labor, you can then live right. So we're not creating the ability to do that. We need grace, but grace without labor is grace in vain. If you read the Bible, you will understand that God has called you to a life of holiness, God has called you to a life of consecration, God has called you to live according to his code of conduct. God has a lot of ideas about how you should live your life. And he took this so seriously that he said the Bible says it pleased him to bruise Jesus. He was happy to kill Jesus so you can have Jesus and you can have the grace that he makes available so you can now live right. He didn't do all of this for us to continue in our sin. If not, there's no need for Jesus to come. Countries have code of conduct, organizations have code of conduct, families have code of conduct, you, my friend, have code of conduct you expect from your friends, your family, everybody. How in the world do we think the most powerful kingdom now has no colour that like anything goes? No, no, no, no. Nope, any nope, nope, nope. Okay, okay. Number four. The fourth lie that we've believed is so remember, first one, I have the right to not forgive. That is a lie. I don't need to read my Bible, I don't need to master my Bible. That's a lie. I can live however I please. That's a lie. Number four, ministry is for ministers. I'm just a Christian. The ministers who do the work of the ministry. Uh, okay, let's look at the word of God then. Let's look at the word of God. Ephesians chapter 4. Remember, I'm not giving you my opinion. I have no interest in giving you my opinion whatsoever. I just want to expose these lies so these lies don't destroy us. Think about the lie of living however I please. Can you imagine the shock of somebody going like, oh, I can live however I please? They start of their Bible, they're doing all these things, and then they die and find themselves in hell. It's like, what happened? God forbid. God forbid. Okay, okay. Ministries for ministers. And so you show up in heaven, you're like, Lord, I was a good Christian girl. I went to church every Sunday. Okay, and you know, and I invited a few people to church, and and I I lived a good Christian life. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11. It says, and he, uppercase he, referring to Jesus, and he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, some teachers. Okay, so this is what is called the five-fold ministry. Okay, so apostles, prophets, evangelists, um, um pastors, and teachers. And in our minds, these are the ministers of God, and we are good Christians. Well, let's let's keep going. So he gave he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, some teachers, and we have thoughts, and their job is to do ministry. But let's see what the Bible says. The Bible says, for he gave these people for the equipping of the saints. Hello, apparently, we are all supposed to submit ourselves for equipping.

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We are all supposed to submit ourselves for equipping. That's my job.

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Okay, so for the equipping of the saints, for what? For the work of the ministry, and I'm not saying minister like I stand on the pulpit, I'm not saying minister like apostle, whatever, whatever, but you are called to do the work of the ministry, you're a minister. You're a minister, you're a minister. Please do not believe that like you have a calling, you have a calling in God, you have a calling to impact the world, you have a calling, you are a minister. Okay, so I'm not saying go around and say from now on, you're like, My name is minister somebody. It's not a title, it's a functionality.

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It is a functionality. I am a minister.

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Okay, now you might say, What is my ministry? Hold on, I got you. I got you. Matthew chapter 28. And God did this where everybody, every believer can live a life of global impact, every believer can touch the world for our Lord Jesus Christ, every believer can live the life of profound impact. But we have believed this life so much that ministers do ministry and we receive ministry. What we receive the ministry of being equipped so we can do ministry.

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So here is your assignment from God, Matthew 28, from verse 18.

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And Jesus came and spoke to them. Who did he speak to? His disciples. Who are we? Disciples. Who was Jesus speaking to? Disciples. Who am I? A disciple. This is not for popes, this is not for apostles, this is not for pastors, this is not for teachers, this is for every believer in our Lord Jesus Christ, every disciple. What is the job? He said to them, He said, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore, this is your assignment. Go therefore and make disciples. You are a disciple, make other disciples. Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I've commanded you, and Lord, I'm with you always, even to the end of age. That is your assignment. Trees make trees, cows make cows, humans make baby humans, eagles make eaglets, pigs make piglets, and disciples make disciples. This is your assignment. Oh minister, you are a minister called to make disciples. Called to make disciples. What do we do to make disciples? We intercede. What do we do to make disciples? We teach. What do we do to make disciples? We fund the kingdom of God. Which one would you like to do? I don't know. I chose all three. I will intercede to birth the counsel of God in the earth. I and birth his people. I will intercede. I will teach and teach. And when I say teach, I'm not talking about YouTube because it because it can be YouTube, but it's there are people around you everywhere. There are believers around you everywhere. There are people who are saved around you everywhere. You get people saved. You teach them in the ways of God. You're like, I don't know everything. You don't have to know everything. Teach them what you do know. You know, going to church is good. Take them with you. You know, coming on a rise and shine every morning is good. You take them with you. You know that giving is good. You train them to give. You see these lies, you teach them and protect them from the lies. You see them believing once saved, always saved. I can do whatever I want in my body. You sit them down and teach them a lesson. You see someone who doesn't know God and thinks God is some angry man with a sledgehammer somewhere trying to take people out. You teach them about God and invite them into a relationship with God and bring them into discipleship. You, my friend, are a minister. You are called to do this. And when you show up before God, he will ask you what you did with the salvation he gave you. He will ask you what you did with all the sermons you were taught. He will ask you what you did with all the unsaved people he put around you. He will ask you, that's not for apostles, pastors, teachers, and all of that. They will do some measure of that. That is for us. That is for us. We are ministers. Once upon a time, 26 years ago, I was at a camp meeting, and the theme of that camp meeting was discipling the nations. And I decided in that moment, I have no clue how to do this. I have no clue how to disciple one person, but I'm gonna do this. That was 26 years ago, and in this moment, I live a life that has touched people all over the world. So the starting point is accepting I would do what God told me to do. And you start doing what you know, and you learn how to do more, and you learn. So now when the apostle, the prophet, the evangelist, the teacher, and the pastor is teaching you, you're getting it because you understand I'm being equipped. Their job is to equip me to do the work of the ministry.

SPEAKER_00 38:37

They they work their job is to equip me to disciple the nations.

SPEAKER_01 38:44

It is a lie from the pit of hell that you made in the image of God, your job is to sit and warm the chairs in church. No, you go to church to be equipped, you come on a rise and shine to be equipped, you come on success by the book to be equipped and use every tool at your disposal. Like everything you do, sharing this video is part of you discipling others. Um, grabbing people to go to church with you is part of you discipling others, training people who are struggling to pray and say, come, let's pray together is part of it. Talking to unbelievers and getting them into the fold, that's part of discipleship. Live displaying the character of God so people look at it like, what is this? And you can tell them this is God, this is how we behave in this kingdom. Getting massive results in the name of God to use your success as an evangelistic tool. This is all the stuff we do, getting people filled with the Holy Ghost, praying for the sick, doing signs and wonders. This is all the stuff we can do. We can all start from somewhere with the intent of growing and growing and growing so that, like Jesus, we'll be able to say at the end of our lives, Father, I glorify you on the earth by completing down to the last detail what you assigned me to do. We want to pray that prayer. I want to pray that prayer. I would love for you to pray that prayer. Don't believe that Jesus died for you to warm a bench and church. No, a thousand times no.

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You are you are you are you were born and you're equipped to do the work of ministry.

SPEAKER_01 40:11

Okay? Okay, all right, we got that. Delivered from that lie. So, of course, Satan is so interested in this lie because if he does that, I want you to think about this. How many pastors are there? Let's use the United States, for example. How many pastors are in the United States versus how many Christians are in the United States? So he, I mean, like, think about it. If pastors only make 10% of that population of Christians, he has 90% of the church asleep and warming benches instead of doing the work of the ministry. He knows if that 90% is unleashed, I'm in trouble. So he sells us this lie that we are designed to sit and be good Christians and come to church and read a verse every other day, our memory verse, and then go to heaven. God punish the devil. No, I'm no longer this person who is like, oh yeah, you know, I'm a good Christian. What do you mean? You're a minister and you take your calling seriously. You take your calling of making disciples seriously. You decide, oh my goodness, I will not let my head touch the pillow until my life has advanced the kingdom of God, aka has discipled somebody, has helped somebody get a prayer life, has helped somebody get filled with the Holy Spirit, has funded, you know, the work that somebody else is doing, all of that kind of stuff.

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I'm a discipler, I'm a minister, I'm on fire, I'm on fire for God.

SPEAKER_01 41:27

What? Warm a chair? Shoo. You don't need Jesus to die for you for you to warm a chair. Okay. Number five, pray for me. Pray for me. Okay. Number five, I don't have to have a vibrant prayer life. I don't have to pray a lot. I have to pray in tongues. I don't, I don't have to pray for for an hour. Like, what am I trying to do? Become a pastor? Like, I don't need to pray. Like, sometimes you know, sometimes I pray, you know, I just struggle in my prayer, you know, like and it's okay. It's not okay. And I don't misunderstand me. This is not about judgment, this is not about legalistic stuff. But when you believe it's okay if you don't pray, you have set yourself up to be a victim as a Christian from now till forever. I have a question for you. Like, let's just use our reasoning brains. If Jesus, the sinless, all powerful son of God, needed to pray. There are many accounts. Okay, so there's the account in Mark chapter 1, verse 35. It says that Jesus, rising a great while before dawn, went to a solitary place and there prayed. It talks about before he called his apostles that he was in prayer all night. Jesus spent nights, like whole nights, praying. Jesus had a culture of prayer, a custom of prayer. And if he needed to pray, what in the world makes us think we'll get away with not praying? We if he needed prayer to live the life he lived, we need prayer more than Jesus. Yes? Okay, so let's look at a few scriptures. Let's see if the scripture made prayer optional, you know, like, oh, you know, I just warmed the bench. You know, sometimes I talk to God. And when I talk to God, God's like, oh my goodness, she talked to me. Oh my word. No. Okay. Jesus made it, he was, he wanted to tell a parable, and this was the introduction of the parable. He said, then he spoke a parable to them that. So the purpose of this parable was to train them on something. He spoke a parable to them that men always, all ways ought to pray and not to lose heart. In Jesus' mind, you should pray all ways. If you Believe the lie that you don't have to pray, you have made yourself cheap meat for the enemy.

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Cheap meat.

SPEAKER_01 44:10

Pray all ways. Okay, let's see. Maybe the Bible says in the mouth of two or three witnesses, a matter is established. So let's look at another scripture. Let's see if this prayer thing is optional. Maybe it's for people who are prophets and people who are apostles. You know, but regular Christian. There's no such thing as regular Christian. Regular Christian, the reason why Christian be defeated, there's no such thing as regular Christian. Like regular son of God. You're a son of God, you're a daughter of God. You're not regular. There's nothing regular about you. Okay. Okay, okay. Colossians chapter 4. Verse 2. Continue earnestly in prayer. Continue in prayer. You've prayed before. Continue. You've prayed a lot. Continue. You've prayed an hour every day for three years. Very good. Continue. Continue. Do I go to First Thessalonians where it says, pray without ceasing? Listen, you are called to be a person of prayer. And let me explain what I mean by that. Jesus, when he went to the temple and they were selling all these things, and he got out a whip and he got all the people selling things out of in the temple out, he said, My house is to be a house of prayer. Let me give you an example. Okay. We have a restaurant, it's not in every part of the country, but it's in it's in it's in Georgia. It's called Chick fil A. Chick-fil-A is a house of chicken, which means you got chicken strips and you got a chicken sandwich, and you have this crispy chicken sandwich, original chicken sandwich. Everything in Chick-fil-A except the soda has chicken because it is a house of chicken. Okay, so if I go to the house of chicken and there are 10 things on the menu, and one has chicken, there ain't no house of chicken. In the same way, the house of God is called a house of prayer, which means prayer infuses every aspect of it. Because if I come to a church and there's no prayer, maybe there's a five-hour meeting and there's two minutes of prayer, that is not no house of prayer. That means, as a Christian, if you look at my life and I pray once a week, my life ain't no house of prayer.

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You are called to be a person of prayer.

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You God is your source and your sustainer. The way you say, the way you stay connected to God, so his life force, his grace, his wisdom, his love, his joy, and all of that is flowing in your life is by prayer. No prayer, no power, no prayer, no joy, no prayer, no victory, no prayer, no nothing. So, of course, Satan will sell you on the lie that it don't take all that. You know, you tired, you don't need to pray. He lied. Why is he telling you that?

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Because when you pray, you're you're you he can't do anything with you, you're unstoppable, you're a problem for him.

SPEAKER_01 47:37

So I am a person of prayer. You must believe this. You must believe this, you must believe this. Like, let's think about the Lord's prayer a little bit. Okay, let's think about the Lord's prayer a little bit. Look at the things you have access in access to in prayer. Let's look at it. Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come. So with prayer, you can make the king, you can aggressively advance the kingdom of God. Remember your minister. One of the things you used to do, that is prayer. He said, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. God's will doesn't get done if you don't pray. And that may sound like how can you say that? The Bible says in Psalm 115, verse 16, the heaven, even the heavens belong to God. The earth He has given to the children of man. God gave us jurisdiction. You have jurisdiction, and in your life, you have jurisdiction. If you don't invite God and say, Lord, let your will be done in this life, his will will not be done in your life. It will not be, it will not be established in your life. It will not be. So when I pray, I can forcefully advance the kingdom using prayer. I can ensure I can I can make the will of God become my reality in the place of prayer. Give us this day our daily bread. If I can pray, I can have all my needs met. He said, Forgive us as we forgive those who trespass again. In the place of prayer, I can get God's mercy, I can get forgiveness. So I have right standing with God. And the things that I've done, the mistakes I've made can be washed away. He says, Um, and the last thing he said was, Deliver us from temptation and from the evil one so I can live a life that is free of temptation, like the scar, the the the scar, the damage of temptation of the evil one of evil, if I will pray. So, what is the opposite? What happens to my life when I don't pray? When I don't pray, Satan has the upper hand. When I don't pray, I don't get forgiveness. When I don't pray, I don't have my needs met. When I don't pray, I can't advance the kingdom of God. When I don't pray, God's will can't be done in my life. Hello, who wants that kind of life? I will pray. I don't want that kind of life. Don't think that your prayer life is optional if you want to be a victorious Christian, living in the center of God's will, fulfilling God's assignment for them, a sign and a wonder. There is no pathway to that life without prayer.

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None. It doesn't exist. There's none. There's none.

SPEAKER_01 50:12

There is none. So what do I want to invite you to do? Right? You are here, and we have a prayer meeting every single day. We have had it for over six years. It is called a rise and shine. We show up every morning at 6 a.m. Eastern. We pray. We go into the word of God. We pray based on the word of God. I never tell people, oh, I feel this. Let's pray. No, our prayers are based on the word of God. We meditate in the scripture, we intercede for our pastors, we intercede for our churches, right? We have opportunities to give, we have opportunities to invite others. We are doing, we are overcoming these lies. We overcome the lie of not reading the Bible because we read. We overcome the Bible, the thing of living however we please. No, because we do things based on the word of God. We don't leave ministry for ministers, we intercede. We pray for the unsaved in our world, we pray for the U.S. school system. We pray for our churches, for our members to be developed in God. And we have a vibrant prayer life. If you are not a part of Arise and Shine, I'm inviting you today. You may say it's not convenient. That's okay. Make it work. Okay. Arise and shine, 6 a.m. every morning, okay? Every single morning, 6 a.m. Eastern, come join us. Maybe you come and you come once a week. I want to invite you. You know, when the when the apostles were going to the temple and they healed the man who had been lame for who had been crippled for 38 years, the Bible said they went at the time of prayer. This is a time of prayer. Come and pray. Come and pray every morning. Come and build your capacity. Come and build a vibrant prayer life. So maybe you used to come and you stopped coming. I'm inviting you, come back. Come back and pray. And the thing about it, it's not just prayer, it's prayer and discipleship. And you, if you're here, you're already on a rise and shine. Think of two people, five people, 12 people, 24 people, 100 people, 120 people that can be a part of it because of you. Because that is part of you discipling them. You're helping them build a prayer life. You're helping them read their word. You're helping them be in a community of behavior, be believers. You're helping them intercede for others. You're helping them intercede for their pastors. You're helping them become givers. You're helping them do all these things. But please hear me when I say this. You cannot be subject to these lies. These lies will destroy you. Every single one. The opportunity cost of them is way too high. So from today, be a forgiver. From today, be a student of the word, meet which means you are going for mastery. You're not just reading to get spiritual brownie points. You're going for mastery. This means that you take the grace of God and use it to live according to the code of conduct of the kingdom. The kingdom of God has a code of conduct. It means from today, you decide I am a minister. I am called to disciple the nations and I will disciple. I am no longer gonna be somebody who warms the bench of church, then you become the judge of the church. Why the music loud? Why didn't it put that chair over there? Hello. You're not there to be a judge, you are there to play your part, you're not there to be the supervisor of the brethren. There is no, there's no post like that in the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God grows by that which every joint supplies. The things you notice, you're probably called to fix, so go fix them, or you're called to pray about them, go pray about them. You're not the supervisor of the brethren. And then from today, you have a vibrant, on-fire prayer life so that you can have a life that is a sign of wonder, a life that is rich with the presence of God and the wisdom of God and the favor of God, is rich with the interventions of God, is rich with you becoming everything He called you to be. Be living this life where your life is an instrument for the advancement of God's kingdom, where God's will is done. When you show up in heaven and they show you the book written about you before you came to the earth and the life you, the book about the life you lived on earth, the books look the same. If you will give up these lies, then you will walk in that. You will walk in that. And that is what I pray for every single one of you that you will live a life that is such a sign and wonder that every 90 days you look back and you're like, Golly, how did I get here? I am rooting for you. I hope you understand this is not a joke. I hope you understand that this is a gift God has given us, opening our eyes to these lies. I hope you choose to live above every single one of them. I hope you've made a fresh commitment to Arise and Shine. I want to see you starting tomorrow morning. And this is the least you'll ever be is gonna be up and up and up from here because every one of those lies stop everything good in your life. If this has helped you in any way, I would love for you to join the movement and share this episode with your friends, family, and the Christians in your world. By doing this simple thing, you could be changing the trajectory of someone's lives, their family, and their community. That makes you a world changer and they will love you forever.