Stephanie Ike -Limitless

Greedy's Family. Pastor Toray here, I'm excited that you are tuned in. You're getting ready to hear a powerful message. I believe it's going to change your life. And speaking of life changing, my new book, Wholeness. It's a bestseller's changing so many lives. I pray you've got your hand on it. If you don't, I. Want you to hear this testimony of what it's. Doing in the life of people just like you. Wholeness amazing book. My favorite chapter, chapter six, Innersecurity. Pastor Terray really breaks it down and gives us some really practical steps to getting to that level where you don't allow the outside voices to diminish the inner voice of your security. I tell you this book is at life saving when it comes to feeling insecure about who you are, or about where you're going, or about what it is that you are supposed to be doing. I tell you, when you take practical steps, you'll get to the place where you can grow and become better. Wholeness, go get it. It's a great book. Amen, Thank you Jesus, Thank you Jesus. While we are standing, I just want us to go straight into the Word of God and if we can open John Yes, John nine. So it says now. As Jesus passed by, he saw a man who was blind from birth, and his disciples asked him, saying, Rabbi, who sinned this man or his parents that he was born blind. Jesus answered, neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. I must work the works of Him who sent me while it is day. The night is coming when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. When he said these things, he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And he said to him, go wash in the pool of silium, which is translated sent. So he went and watched, and came back seeing can reopened quickly to Colossians two verse fifteen. Having disarmed principalities and powers, he Jesus made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. Father God, this is your word. I thank you that you will do only what you can do, Holy Spirit, that this word would minister to the hearts and the minds of your people in the ways that are unique to them. Lord, did I thank you that every ear that is listening to this message. I think you, Lord that it would break mental strongholds. I thank you Lord that it would renew them. I thank you Lord that it would bring transformation. In the name of Jesus, Lord, have your way in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen, Oh God, it's gonna have some fun tonight. You see in the passage we just read. First of all, it's interesting that they see a blind man and the first question they asked this who sinned? Was it him or his parents? Now I'm kind of confused on his part because I don't know what sin a baby could do in the womb? Did he kick too hard? So they say, who sinned? Rabbi? Who sinned? Jesus? Can you tell us how did this problem occur? Was it his fault or was it his parents' fault? You see, have you ever experienced things in life that when you tell people about it, or when you share it with someone, it's like, what did you do wrong? Have you ever thought about things that happened to you in life and you're like, God, what did I do to deserve this? What did I do for this to happen to me? What did I do to be born in this neighborhood? What did I do to be raised in this family? What did I do to have an abusive to be in an abusive household? What did I do to be treated this way? Have you ever had questions about God? Am I in the wrong? Are you not seeing me? There are situations that when someone hears it about you, the first question that we'll ask is how did you get there? Who sinned? Was it him or was it his parents? What did your family do that set you up so bad? And it's interesting when Jesus says that no one said, but this is so that the works of God may be made known. You see, what is interested in family is that oftentimes the very things that you see in your life as an issue as God. Why did this have to happen to me? Or why did I have to be in this position? What people talk about me? Maybe you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. You know, you just need some discernment to know where to go and when to go. And there's all these questions about if I didn't make a left turn, would that have happened? If I didn't meet this person in college? Would I have ended up in this place that brought me to this situation? If I didn't say hi to that person? Would I have ended up in the hospital for whatever reason? Who sinned? God? How did I miss a lie? Find myself to the point that I find myself in this place? And the enemy wants you to be filled with this, you know, regret or bitterness or or blame shifting. Has anyone ever been there when you start having arguments with your parents or family, friends or friends and you start blame shifting, Well, it was your fault. If you didn't do this, I would never be in this situation. I remember one time in college a friend of mine, we were a car pulling together and I started smelling something in the car. I said, girl, what what you got in this car? She has some marijuana? And the car I said, listen, I'm from Nigeria. I could go to jail if they catch me in this car. I'm like, you must be out your mind. Pull over, I'm out of here. I was so pissed, I said, girl. And then you know how like the cops will drive by you just start smiling unnecessarily. Oh hi, And I know, oh Lord, if something happened to me that day, I would so blame shift. But have you ever been on the other side of something did actually happen? And we are in this position of who sinned, who went wrong? That I'm in this place, But this blind man had been blind from birth. And Jesus is saying that no, no, no, God actually allowed this to happen to him. This thing that looks like an issue, this thing that looks like a problem, God allowed it to happen so that his power may be revealed. You see, when I think about our Lord Jesus, when we think about the crucifixion, the crucifixion are my baby over there. I just love the kids. But the crucifixion was not a punishment unique to Jesus. The crucifixion was a known Roman punishment, just a severe punishment for criminals. When Jesus was even being crucified, there were people next to him, But we don't honor those people for their death. We honor Jesus for his death because this was a man who came without sin. The people that were on there being crucified, there was a reason for them to be. But then Jesus comes and he's innocent, but he embraces this walk because he's not just embracing it for himself. He's embracing it because he came on this earth with a known mission that I would take on the sin of my people so I can kill it on the cross, that I can kill the power of sin. He became the problem he came to solve. But at the same time, there were still other people on the cross, but they were there based on their actions. But Jesus came became the issue to kill it. And when he destroyed the power of sin, now sin no longer can keep us bound. Your sin does not have to lead you to a place of destruction. God can use it to teach you. God can use it to grow you. But the key family is that for Jesus to destroy a thing, he became the thing. And then we think about issues and we think about things in our lives because you see when we say that God, I want to walk with you, I want to follow you, Jesus, it's not just that God, I want to read the rewards of your life. No, I want to know you even in your suffering. I want to walk with you, even in your suffering. I want to share this with you to walk with God. That's why when you know last week when we talked about dying to self, that when you die to yourself, you find your life because the life that God has for you is not even for you. And so family, there are times that God would allow an issue and it's not because you miss a line. And it's not because like men, God, if I never met this person, because the very thing that came he sent you to the earth to solve. In order to solve it, you had to become it. The blind man. The blind man, there was nothing in his past, there was nothing his parents did. But then Jesus said, no, no, no, this is for the work of God. For him to reveal the power of God. He needed to become an obstacle. He needed to become a weakness. He needed to become an issue to reveal the power of God. You see, because this blind man, this was the first miracle of Jesus healing a man blind from birth. Now we look at our own lives and it's crazy to think of it. Because I'll share this. I remember one time God has showed me this dream. I had this dream and it blew my mind because in the dream, it was almost as though I was in a room there was there was like this. The only way I can describe it is like it seemed like the throne room, like the like when the When Revelations talks about like the throne room of God. It literally just seemed like that, like whatever. It was a lot that I don't even know the words to use to describe. But then there's a man that is sitting on the throne and he says, and there's a bunch of us like around, just like in this room. And in the dream, he says, who shall I send? And I'm over there like, ooh, send me, send me. And then he looks at me and he says, are you ready? I said, oh, yes, you know, child, send me. And then he starts giving me these instructions of how I would like how the way I would get into the earth, and it was very like everything was very graphic, and that when I get to the earth, and then it was almost like a metaphor that you would strike like there were these It was interesting, but they were like this match box set and that you will strike the match, you will strike it, and when the fire comes on, you will light their candles that you're going to see, and when you light the candle, the person that that candle belongs to, they will be drawn to you. But what he was talking about, it was almost like I was seeing the experience of coming into the world. And what he was talking about is that I want you to The reason I'm sending you to the world is to win my people for me, because they're in darkness and I'm calling you to to speak my word and to win my people. And I remember, so I see this whole dream. I mean, the dream is very detail. I'm just trying to, like, you know, sum it up. And so I woke up and I was like, wow, you know, and remember in the dream, he was like, do not do not worry about the enemy. I mean he said in a different way, but this is my translation. Do not worry about the enemy. He will not be able to touch you, he will not be able to harm you. When your job is done, I will take you back up. You see what this taught me. I want to because I'm gonna go on a journey with this word. When I had this dream, I wondered, I said, God, could it be that when your word says before I formed you in your mother's room. I knew you that the same way that when Jesus came here with a known mission. The only difference is that Jesus remembered his mission even as a child, and a lot of times we come into the world. And that's why God requires us to die to self, because when he says that your life is hidden in Christ. Isn't it amazing that when you encounter God you have this like, oh, Jesus, I will do anything for you. And that was not your story some years ago. Because there is something that is speaking to this, to something inside of you that says, no, my life is to surrender, my life is to die. It is crazy when you tell the world, oh, I just want to die to myself, They're like what, And you say it with so much conviction, like no, I just want to live for Jesus. You know, whatever happens, I just want to live for Jesus. If I die for Jesus, I will die for Jesus. But that conviction, that conviction is coming from a place of memory. You see, when God allows certain things in your life that seems unjust, that seems unfair. What we feel to realize is that we already said yes to that thing before we even got here. So when you start questioning, like God, why am I born in this family? And He's like, no, you you agreed to You just don't remember, And so it cancels out this thing of like God, why does this happen to some and it doesn't happen to others? No, we all agreed for this journey. Jesus just remembered his mission. So we come on the earth and we're in this place of discovery, like, God, what is it you've called me to that? That's why God tells Jeremiah that I have already ordained you as a prophet even before time, because we already had this conversation. I'm just bringing it to your awareness what we already agreed on. And so when you're going through things family, what is interesting? You see the other passage we read, It talked about how Jesus had disarmed principalities and powers. I'm gonna talk about that in a second. But the interesting thing is that when you find yourself in weird positions, when you find yourself in places that you're like God, like why, and God is like no, no, no, I need you to have a shared experience in this thing in order for you to kill it, in order for you to show that the people that you're called to that even though this can happen to you, it does not need to keep you bound. Because when Jesus told the blind man that I came, that this happened, that this was not because someone sinned. This is for the works of God to be revealed. But then when we look at the Cross and the works of Jesus, because it's all God, and he disarmed principalities and power on the cross. Now other principalities. Now to get a full scope of this is to study what happened in Daniel chapter ten. In Daniel chapter ten, Daniel had been praying. Twenty one days after he started praying, an angel came to him and said, Daniel, the moment you set your heart to pray, I was released with an answer. But the Prince of Persia held me back. So the Prince of Persia held me back to the point that Angel Michael had to come and set me free. But he will still have to go and finish that battle. So you see an angel. Now, the Prince of Persia is not a man, and angels are not gonna fight with men in that manner. This is a spiritual war. This is angel fighting against angel. Now, these are two angels that have two different agendas. The angel being sent to Daniel is an angel sent by God with instructions for Daniel. The angel that is known as the Prince of Persia is an angel that has an agenda from the enemy. Because when the enemy rebelled against God, he was not the only one that left. There were other angels that left with him. And we will see this in Revelations twelve nine. You can write that to study there were other angels that went with Satan. And the funny thing about the enemy is that he literally he builds his kingdom from the limited knowledge he has of God's kingdom. And so the same way that God has angels that he sets above nations and communities and racial groups, the enemy also sets his angels above racial groups and communities. But the difference is God's angels. You see the Book of Revelation. We're just gonna teach a little bit tonight. Yeah, In the Book of Revelations, it's known that when there were these letters being written to the church, the Word of God says that to the angel of the Church in a city. So the letter is being written to the church, but God's word says to the angel of the church in this city. You see, because God's angels, first of all, this tells you the power of the presence of a church in a community, because the angels are in partnership with the vision of God's Church. And so it has always been the purpose of God that the church is what transforms communities. And so even when we think about this house, this is a church that touches lives on a global scale. But even when we think about this city, the reasons so many in the industry, they are drawn to this church because this is a church that God has positioned for his will to manifest in the city through his people. So when the people of God are now being are coming to know the Lord, are coming to a place of wholeness, are coming to a place of identity. Now when in partnership these angels, they go before us and start opening doors of favor, opening doors of influence, opening doors to position God's people strategically in places that will manifest God's will in these industries. So God's angels, they have an agenda for God's purpose in God's will. But the enemy's angels, he's an angel himself. Their agenda when their called principalities, is to enforce some form of limitation on a society, a racial group, a nation, whatever have you. That's why sometimes you will see that people have a shared limitation from a certain background. There is a shared limitation in Asserlian, from a certain race. There's a shared limitation when you come from a certain city or a certain country. It's like, oh, you go through that too, girls saying here, no, and so so with principalities, they come to enforce limitation. And then Jesus is saying no, no, no, no, I disarmed that already. So the limitation now that you're experiencing is in your mind. Then you have then Now it talks about principalities and powers. Now, powers represents the evil influence behind the actions of people that affect God's God's children or even just I mean, we are all got children first of all. So what I'm talking about is why would a man, for instance, molest his child? How do you bring a child to the world to molest the child? And why? A lot of times why? God will tell you that will tell you no forgive, forgive, forgive, forgive, because God recognizes it is not your father that did that. There were powers behind it. Have you ever heard of a case where and some are even being the Truman And I'm saying this so that this can even bring clarity and understanding of what God is doing in your life. Where someone is molested several times by different people they don't even know each other. And the question now is what is it about me that is attracting the same issue through different people. And the thing is that even though we are seeing different faces, is the same spirit. And so there are these principalities and powers, these influences behind the actions of people, behind the actions of those that are not submitted to God. And so when Jesus says, I have disarmed principalities and powers. But now the only way for my children to really know that they are free is if I send someone an assignment to become the limitation that people are experiencing and show them that no, no, no, this doesn't have to keep you bound. So when you're asking that God, I don't understand. I have a god fearing mother. I don't understand I worship you. How could this happen to me on my way home from church. How could I have this experience or why is it that you're calling me to do this thing? And the community I come from this is unheard of. And God is saying no, that is exactly why I sent you, because I sent you to show that this limitation was not of me. This limitation came from principalities and powers. But I have this armed them already, and now I am sending you to reveal my power through sharing experience with the very thing I've sent you to kill. Jesus became sin to kill sin. Oftentimes, if you want to know what God is calling you, to think about what you've been through. And it's not that because God didn't see you in society in the world. The question is always well, if God was there, why did this happen? And for God's people, he said no, no, no, I understand that there is an issue in the world, but I'm sending you in the experience. I'm actually you see, there are some things that happened to you and it's almost like it was inevitable, like you could even avoid it if you tried. It's like there was no way that you could plan your way out of it. There's no way you can plan. You know, the race you're born into, there's no way you can plan the community you come from. There's no way you could plan. If you come from certain communities, you're going to be surrounded by cerning people. So sometimes when we even see people who end up in the prison system and they're just like, oh, you know what, you set yourself up, It's like, no, they had been. Everything that followed their lives actually led them to this place. And there are times that God will see the issue that is killing his people and in sending an answer, he's not sending you to come in a white horse. Jesus did not come as the king of kings. Jesus came and found himself in the appearance of the people he was called to. And so we're there thinking that God, just send me to the world and send me to the people, let me tell them something. And God is like, no, in order for you to have the power to speak, you have to have the power to be. And the thing is that we just forgot that was signed up for this. We forgot that God actually said yes a long time ago. So the yes I'm giving you now is that yes with with with knowing that everything I've experienced, I'm still saying yes to you. You see, It's interesting because this the blind Man. When Jesus tells him the final stage of his miracle was to wash his face in a pool, but the pool was called scent, it was almost as if Jesus is reminding him that the very purpose you were blind in the first place is because I sent you. The miracle is not just for you to say, oh my gosh, I can see. I need to remind you that this is because you were sent. He could have told him to wash his face in any other pool. He didn't even need to wash his face. This is Jesus we're talking about. He could just be like blind eyes be opened and it's gonna be like light flashing everywhere. But everything about Jesus is so strategic. He says, no, no, no, when when I do this? Okay, because now he's what is he doing when he uses clay. We came our the very creation came from the earth. He says, Now, what I'm about to do is rewrite your story, and I want you to remember that this was because you were sent. So family, when God is giving you some crazy ideas and some crazy things to do, and you feel like, no, God, you know, there are so many limitations in my life and it feels like, you know what, I don't think I'm the person for the job, or you're telling me to go and speak to this people. I'm still dealing with this. And God is like, no, it's supposed to be impossible because this is how the people think. But with me, what seems like a limitation is a limitation when it meets my power. It's the limitation is limited to being a limitation when it encounters the power of God. That when God meets the thing that we have been sent to show the world that it doesn't matter what you've been through, it doesn't matter where you come from, it doesn't matter if no one else in your family has done it. God sent you to reveal his power. And so when you start questioning and it's like, God, I don't know if I'm the one for the job, He's like, that's exactly why I made you the one for the job, because what is trying to keep you bound I already destroyed it at the cross. And that is why God. God is such a master at using unusual people because It's not just about unusual people. It's about who the unusual people are speaking to. There is a plan for you. This is not out of random. It's not that God doesn't love you. It's not that God doesn't see you. We signed up for this, We signed up for this. We just forgot and it's in that place of death that we are reminded. Can you imagine how the apostles will go from a place of you know, what is he? The Christ? I'm not sure? I mean that even when Jesus's disciples right right, they're like, who, you know? Who is this man that he can even tell the wind to be still? But then all of a sudden, when Jesus leaves and they receive the Holy Spirit and they are empowered to die to themselves. These are the very people that are excited to even die for God. How does that flip? They remembered something. That's why the Bible says, the spirit is willing. The spirit knows the truth. The spirit is always willing anything that God needs you to do. The spirit is always willing. The flesh came from this earth, this world, So that's why the flesh is It's that's the whole the fight between the flesh and the spirit, because the flesh has no idea what you're talking about. It's like, child, I met you here, what are you talking about? But the spirit, the spirit is always, always, always willing. Family. That came to remind you that God sent you, that God sent you whatever it is that He's called you to do. If the door doesn't open, knock again. If the door, if you knock again, that door doesn't open again, you break it. Because why I'm saying this is that you have to know that you cannot fail that, no matter how impossible it looks, no matter the lie the enemy wants to tell you to keep you bound. That is a lie of the mind. Because God destroyed that on the cross, and it didn't help. It did not happen to you because God forgot you. A God does not see you, a God was not there. He was there, and he empowered you through it. When you see when we say that God, what have you forsaken me? Then you're joining the club of Jesus because he said the same thing to the Father. Because there are moments when you're just like, what what did I sign up for? God? Why have you left me in this state? And it's like, no, no, no, this is this from the very start, we signed up to be an answer. Every time God creates, every everything God does has a purpose. We just get sidetracked by the by the pleasures of the world. That's what the Bible calls it, things that we created in society. You see. It's interesting. My mother she there was a prophecy that she had received on her life that she would be an advocate for widows, that she will speak for the rights of widows, she would fight for them, and she would show them. And this was in in regards to my country, that she would show them that no, even though you're a widow, you don't have to you still have your mind, you still have the ability to work, You still you you can still take care of your children. And then few years after marriage she became a widow. She became what God sent her to. So that when when when she goes and she's speaking to these people, she's like, no, no, no, I went through that. I know what it means that your husband could die and they take everything away from you because he perhaps forgot to secure a will, and even when he does, they may challenge it. And because you're fear're you're afraid for your life, you just give it to them. She became to an extreme what she was called to. And so I want you to look at your experiences different. You've lost people in your life, things have happened to you. You didn't grow up in the best of neighborhoods. You came from a place where the things God has called you to had never happened before. But that is why He sent you. That is why God sent you. Family rise with me. Thank you, Jesus, Thank you, Jesus. Wow, I've your awake God. I just want us to take a moment of just a moment of prayer in your heart, just a moment of silence, if you could bow your heads. I believe that this is a moment where God there is there's God is having a personal encounter with you, reminding you that I've always been with you. You see, sometimes where God is taking you, it's already it's already a done deal. But the enemy wants to to take your joy in the process. The enemy wants you to feel like, you know what, maybe you don't deserve this, Maybe this is not for you, you know what, Maybe you cannot do this and or and while he's telling you that, while you're doing it, but he wants you to feel inadequate. He wants you to feel like, you know when no one ever did this in your family, no one ever did this where you come from. Meanwhile, God has marked you for success. But I want you to just take a moment for some I want you to just say thank you God that you are with me. Because your whole life you it's been hard. Even though you come to church, it's hard for you to actually say God, I thank you because it never made sense. It never made sense, and family Jesus understands. Wow. So smoker. S thank you. I thank you, God sees you. God is with you. And I thank you God that that we are laying everything at your feet, every every weight that the enemy placed in us, not you, the weight of shame, the weight of guilt, the weight of regrets, the weight of unforgiveness, the weight of doubt that God, the very reasons I thought that I would not be the one is actually why I am Lord Jesus. I want to share with you in in in the in the abundance, and in the suffering, because on the other side of the suffering is the glory. I want to be like you, Jesus. I don't want to just say that because because I come to church. No, No, I want to I want all of you, because that is my truth. I don't want to die and die full because I was full of myself. I want to die empty. I came to this earth with a purpose, and I'm not going anywhere until I fulfill why you set me here. I'm not going to be distracted by the things of the world, the things that human being created. But I wonder, God, what was even the inspiration behind that? What power inspire the things that we look at as success? Was that your power? Or was that the enemy strategy to keep us blind? Lord? I thank you that you are having an encouncil with your children to remember that. Yes, they already gave you to remember. Thank you, Jesus. You move the mounded, I'll see you made away where there was no way. Avon. I'll see you. Two we looking. I see you move. You move the mountain, aven I see you to lockage. You've made away where there was no. Way in time. I'll see you soon. If you believe that the promises of God still stands, If you believe that nothing, nothing can hinder the power of God whom. Ray. This his faithful, This his faithful. This you are still aware, still. In your and. This, this is my confide. He's what has Jesus ever fails you. He has never failed and he will never fail you. That is a life from hell. Family, If you're here and you're just like God, renew my zeal for you. Give me a fresh seal for what you have called me to do. Because maybe I didn't understand before, But God, I already said yes. I already said yes. I already said yes. It's that your testimony. God, I already I already said yes. There's a Holy Spirit confirming that in your hearts. Thank you Jesus. Family, if that is you and you're saying, God, just give me, give me a fresh sein, give me a fresh silk car. Just raise up your hand and let us pray. Oh, you may have your wake God, because family, just raise your hand with me. Lord Jesus, I thank you. I thank you that you are just, you are having your way in the hearts of your people. Lord God, I thank you that what we thought we were victims to know God, we were sins. It's different. There is a power, knowing your sense. This is the life of an overcomer. This is the life of change agents. Lord God, you did not call me to it, to stay it. The blind man was born blind, but he died seeing Father God. I thank you that your children. I thank you God that they know that they have always been in your hands. You never left. Them, you never abandoned them. But you call them to become what they would kill to become, what would be revealed that by the power of God, it does not have the power to keep you bound. Lord God. As they are raising their hands to you, saying that God annoyts me with a fresh zeal, anoints me. Father God, renewed, just renew the fire in me. Because I had allowed doubts to quench it. I allowed guilt and shame to pour some water on it. But Lord, you are the consuming fire, and even water cannot keep you out. Lord God, be the consuming fire in their hearts. I thank you Lord that you're touching each and every one of your children. You are touching them. Father God, have your way, Lord God, have your way. I thank you that they are walking out, that at the end of it all that they will when they rise up and they walk into these meetings, and they walk into into their homes, and they walk into the places you've called them, that they would walk in knowing that I was sent here. They would walk in knowing that the very things that has kept people bound. Oh No, the Lord set me here to reveal that His power is beyond limitations. It doesn't matter what culture you come from. It doesn't matter what race you belong to, the shared experience of limitations you were called to break in. Father God, have your way, Have your way, Jesus Jesus name. Amen, Amen, Amen,