Stephanie Ike Okafor - Guard Your Heart: The Boundaries of Life

Ay Man, I've been so blessed to be here. Can we give Jesus praise in the house. Amen, And let's just take a moment again to honor your incredible pastors. Yeah, it's so bittersweet that this is the last day, but not for long. The conference was truly a blessing And just like pastor said, if you weren't here, then you definitely need to catch up on it, and not just catch up on it, allow time to digest what you received. It was so rich and. I believe today would be very rich as well. But when you receive words, don't just you know, go by your just do life as usual, right, Just go by your day, you know, fan the flame right from what you receive. Fan that flame. I'm so grateful to be here. Just like the pastor said, my husband is upstairs. I honor him. He is my covering, he is the head over my life. I thank God for my pastors in California, Pastor Toaray Roberts Passes, Sara Jax Roberts, and I just thank God for everything that is taking place in this church. It's so it's so special, it's so special. But let us pray heavenly Father. We thank you, Lord for your goodness, We thank you for your love. We thank you that you are here. Your presence is so tangible in this place. And I pray, Holy Spirit, that you will glorify Jesus through everything that we do. That Lord God, it would not just be my words that they hear, but Lord, that they would you would penetrate every callousness of heart. Lord God, with your word, Lord, may I just be your vessel to bring forth your counsel to your people in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen, you may be seated. Thank you, Lord, Thank you Lord. You know I truly believe that the Lord wants to do and continue to do for some of you that were here yesterday, a deep hard work. I'm going to be reading from Proverbs four twenty three, and my message today, if I was to give it a title, it would be know your Enemy. And Proverbs for twenty three says keep thy heart. Some translations will say guard thy heart right, keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. And I remember, you know, when I was much younger, and this was one of the scriptures that always stood out to me, and it was not until some time ago when studying that scripture again, that word issues is actually a Hebrew word that translates to boundary, and it made a lot of sense because there's a story I. Will share with you in just a minute. Because when you think of a boundary, a boundary is defined as a line which marks the. Limits of an area. And so in other. Words, that scripture is telling us that God thy heart, with all diligence for out of it are the boundaries of your life. You see, when the enemy desires to limit your possibilities in God, he seeks to contaminate the purity of your heart. When I was eight months old, I'll share this story with you and you see how this was so personal for me. When I was eight months old, my father was murdered and the family member that was behind this assassination was a family member I knew, we love this person. He gave me a nickname that my mom ended up. You know, they stop calling me that name. But this was someone who was like part of the family. And it was years later that everything came to life the person who was behind my father's assassination, and discovering it was this particular person was crushing but in that moment, what I felt for him was compassion. And why was because at nine years old, when I encountered the Lord, one of the things he began to deal with me was my heart. Before that time, I had a lot of anger. I was going in a very very very very dark path in life. And when the Lord encountered me, the first thing he began to teach me about was forgiveness. And he began to show me that if you don't understand the the power of your heart, then you will never walk into the things I've called you to. And I was a kid. I was like, Lord, I don't care about the calling. I want to watch powerproff girls. Okay. But there was something he. Said to me that for many many years, I speak about this often because of how impactful it was for me as a child. And he said, my daughter, no one ever hurts you from a place of love or wholeness. That when a person hurts you, they're broken, and that brokenness opened the door. It was a crack that the enemy used to fulfill his agenda. The person who hurts you is not your enemy. The spirit that influenced it is your enemy. Because that person that hurt you is still my child, It's still someone who I have plans for now. Don't understand that there is a difference between forgiveness and reconciliation. Forgiveness has to do with you, to reconcile has to do with both parties. That means we are both in agreement concerning what happened and we can walk this out in love together. Reconciliation is not for everyone. I don't have any desire to reconcile with my uncle, not for me, but because he is still very interested. In human being. But forgiveness is about my heart that I recognize that I am not going to be the judge concerning him, but I will trust the justice system of God to deal with him, because there might be a day that in the dealings of the Lord concerning this gentleman, that he awakens to his calling God, and there might be a moment that the Lord was saying, now, Stephanie, I want you to pray for him. If I don't have the capacity to do that, then the boundaries of my life in God is limited. You see, we often think that, you know, especially in a culture where where we are we talk about. Haters, haters, haters, haters, haters. Right, we think that the person in front of you, the person that caused that trauma, was your enemy, and you hold on to so much bitterness and unforgiveness, not realizing what the enemy has always been after was to contaminate your heart, because the contaminated heart would be a contaminated vessel. And there is not that much that God could do with that person. You see, when we look at the scriptures, there's so many scriptures that deals with the heart. Concerning marriage, Matthew nineteen, from verse seven to eight would say, you know, this was when they were asking Jesus that why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce and to put her away? And Jesus said to them, Moses, and no, he said to them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts permitted you to divorce your wives. But from the beginning it was not so. So even when it comes to marriage, when the enemy wants to strike a marriage, he goes after the heart. The same thing concerning in your lifespan Exodus twenty, verse twelve says, honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. There's some of you and you feel like you have a right to dishonor your parents, But it is a curse upon your head because in the wisdom of God, for some reason, he chose them to be the vessels that brought you forth. And if you dishonor the source, then he says, now this is the outcome. And I'm not saying that there are not real issues that take place with your parents, but the posture you must take is one of love, because when you honor someone, you see one of the things the Lord began to teach me about honor. To honor a person is to remind them about their crowns, to remind them about their image. At some point, you lost sight of who you are. And when I can recognize that you are functioning from a place that God did not call you to function from. I don't honor you because of what you do to me. I honor you because of who He created you. As I'm reminding you to put back your crown, put about the crown of the image of the Lord. You see, even your lifespan is affected. When your heart gets corrupted towards your parents, then we look at it life Matthew six fourteen. It says, for if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, and in reverse, if you don't, then he doesn't. Do you know, there are many believers who go to hell because of unforgiveness, because the Lord is like, first of all, you have no right to come before the throne if not because of what the blood did concern in your sins. But then the scripture says, but if you don't forgive others, then the Lord will not forgive you. So now you owe a debt. There are many people. There are times when I will ask the Lord to give me, to reveal to me what hell really looks like. And there are many people that go to hell because of unforgiveness. So even when the enemy wants to attack where you end up in in a very subtle way, he strikes your heart, He strikes how you see people. He wants you to hold on to this bitterness and offense and pain and you and make you feel as though you have a right to it. I love it. When we were listening to the testimony and pastors share that if they remained offended, they would. Not have come the following day. Can you imagine that they got offended that, oh you did not give me a word. If the enemy kept them in their offense, they would have missed out on what the Lord. Was gonna do in just a few hours. Do you see how it affects the boundaries of your life? You see, there are some of you and you maybe you were serving and something happening you just got offended. You're like, you know what, I'm no longer serving in this ministry. I'm just gonna come when I feel like, not realizing you were just at the tip of something that was gonna that was ordained and assigned by God if you stayed in your position. You see, God is not reactive like we are. We get emotional about things and we react, and then when things don't go our way, we start to complain and say, God, where are you? And He said, well, if you stayed where I placed you, and if you did not allow your heart to get corrupted and get in the way, then you would have recognized the blessing when it came. You see, the word of God says, blessed at the pure in heart, for they shall see God. It also, it's not just about you know seeing God when they pass on. No, there is a discernment. There is a level of discernment that they walk in with in life that in something that you would complain about. They see how the hand of God is moving through it. Thank you Lord, Thank you Lord. I wonder I'm gonna just flow how the Lord is leading me because I'm seeing there are certain angels that are in the room, Thank you Jesus, Thank you Jesus. And in their hand literally I'm seeing beating hearts. You see some of you feel like you have. I'm wow. There's some you've never not even some. There's a lady in particular, you've never shared this story with anyone, But it was your father that molested you, and you've carried this. This deep seated anger towards him. I'm not saying that the Lord approved of it. No, I'm not saying that it was the will of God. No. There is real evil in this world. There's real evil. But when you take what happened out of what was what took place from the influence of an evil spirit. Why in in in in any. World, do you think that a father would molest this child that is demonic by nature. But if you hold on. If you hold on to the poison of what that moment did and you don't let go, you don't realize it's doing more damage to you than to your father. Honor is not about. To honor a person does not mean you are ignorant or you're a naive of what happened. But to honor a person is to see them through the eyes of God that yes, I know this took place. I pray for my own I pray for him from truly, from the bottom of my heart. I pray that he encounters the Lord. Because this was a man. When I learned about his relationship with my father, they were very close. This was a man that whatever my father, whatever he needed, my father would. Give it to him. My father was extremely generous towards this man. But envy cracked was the crack in his life, and it opened up a door and the enemy got in and the enemy striped You. See, if it. Was just that people hurt you because they just wanted to look at the story of Judas. If you think that Judas betraying Christ was just because Judas, you know, just decided to betray Christ and you know, get money and walk away, then why would they ever be a moment when the Bible tells us and Satan entered him. So there was a crack in Judas. Judas was the thief. He was stealing from, you know, their money bag. Judas desired wealth over following the Lord. There was a crack. In his his in him following the Lord as a disciple. And when the enemy saw that crack, he used it for leverage, and then the enemy came in. What I'm sharing with you is the person that you are holding bitterness against. There's some of you in thisstrument. God is after your heart, and. The person that you're holding this deep seated bitterness against is the key to your freedom, is the key to There are things that you're seeking and desiring in God that he cannot release to you because your heart sets the boundaries of how God could use you. You see when you look at a man named David in the Bible. David the moment that the prophet Samuel went to the house of Jesse, his father and the Lord had instructed him that in the house of Jesse that he would anoint the next king. What took place in that moment. Reveals to us that David and his father had a very weird relationship because when the prophet comes to his home, the prophet asked him to literally, you know, line up his sons, and Jesse has every son except David. To tell you that he did not even regard that there is a possibility that the hand of God could be on David. He left him in the field. He did not for one moment tell the prophet, wait, let me get all of my sons. No, he believed that there is David is only good for being. A shepherd boy. But yet David served and honored his father in such a faithful way. You see, as I was prayed for this message, there was a thought that came to mind that if David did not honor his father in the manner that he did, maybe one of the when he was fighting the lion and the bear, he may. Not have He might not have survived it. Because when the Bible says, honor your mother and your father so that your days might be long, there is a covenant of life you come into through honor. So apart from the fact that the hand of God was upon him, but there was a covering over his life through the way he honored a man who dishonored him. And what David modeled with his father, you see the same thing he modeled with Saul. David was not a perfect man by any means, but the Lord saw him as one who was loyal to the things of God because David recognized the power of a pure heart. You see this morning, what I wrot to encourage you with is that you have to understand that your heart sets the boundaries for your life. If your heart is corrupted, there is not much. That God can do through you. And if you are a part of this church, then you are aware of the great and mighty things that God has in store for you. But for you to be effective as a vessel, then you must be a pure vessel. You see forgiveness. One of the reasons that we struggle with forgiveness is because we think that sometimes when we let go, we lose our power, we lose out the power that we held over that person. But that is part of the deception, because the only one that keeps in bondage is you, not the individual. And one of the things that. The Lord was showing me was really just to take some time, to take more time, not more time, but to really spend some time in prayer that the Lord would do a deep heart work in you. You see when you think about Jesus, for example, Jesus's ability to love those that were persecuted him was part of the reason that in that moment he could say, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do. Those words could have been very different. He could have called angels to wipe everybody out. But because he walked in a purity of heart, he could carry the weight of the assignment. Do you know what it means when your creation. Is beating you and crucifying you, and mocking you and laughing at you, when with just a breath you could wipe everybody out, the ones you formed are looking and mocking you. Do you recognize the humility it requires? Do you recognize the way that there was a way Jesus saw the people that was beyond what they were doing. And so those words had weights when he says, Father, forgive them, and then he says why for they. Do not know what they are doing. The people that you might be holding things against, they do not know what they are doing. There were cracks in their life that opened a door for saying to step in. You see. One of the things my husband and I always talk about is an unbelieve Someone who is not submitted to the Lord is a very dangerous person to have as a close friend. And why is that Because they are a willing vessel at any point in time to be influenced by the enemy. If Jesus is not lord over them, then there are a willing vessel at any given time without even knowing it. Because there is no. Emptiness in the spirit, something must be occupying the vessel. And if it's not the Holy Spirit, something else is occupying that vessel. And to whatever degree of the cracks in their life is the degree that the enemy would use them. So if they have cracks of insecurity and unworthiness, those are the people that gossip behind your back concerning you to make themselves feel better. And if their cracks run deeper, their situations like my uncle, not that my uncle was evil, but he was not submitted to the Lord Jesus, so at any given point he was a willing vessel. You see, when you read about the. Story, when say, and you know when Jesus revealed rather that Satan has sought to sift Peter as we and Jesus is telling Peter, look, this is what, this is what's coming for you. But I have prayed for you that your faith will not fail. Peter, is you know, being extra He says, no, Lord never would never do that. And Jesus is like, listen, let me tell you the sign by which you would do this. Right, So he tells me exactly how everything would play out. But we don't even We rarely pay attention to the three people. We pay attention to the sign and when it happened. But there were three. People strategically position to question Peter. Now, if the plant originated from Satan, who influenced those people to question Peter? So when the scripture tells us things that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, it comes through flesh and blood. But flesh and blood is not my enemy. There is something influencing flesh and blood that goes beyond the person in front of me. Peter is minding his business and then when the first person comes, aren't you the one? Aren't you the one with Jesus? He's like no, no, no, no, no, never met the man, But what influenced that person in that moment? It was not just a random moment of conversation, because the plan originated from the enemy, but it was executed through people. You have to know who your real enemy is. It's not the person in front of you. It's not the person that hurt you. It's the spirit behind that person. And that is why in these last days, one of the manifestations of the Holy Spirit that is so pivotal is discerning of spirits, to recognize what spirit is a person operating from, because that is the true enemy. And when you see your enemy right, you war differently. You're not distracted and stuck in things that are foolish. Many of us keep our warfare to the level of gossip. That is our warfare. We talk about the things that this person said and what this person did and how it happened, not going into the real issue. What is the spirit I work in this organization and what is the spirit that we have to confront. Because it's not just about the first person after that person that would jump on somebody else. I remember an encounter I had and this was this is why disobedience is a very dangerous thing. I was in college at the time. There was a church that we were going to and at this church, there was this young lady who you know, had just come in from you know those I don't want to say the exact country, but it was in West Africa and she had joined the church and we became friends. We became really good friends. And when I was I was moving, I had finished it off, was done with college. I was moving from that area to a different city. And the moment she found out that was moving, oh, it seemed like, oh, hell broke loose in her place. So she was living with our youth leader at the time, and she made up I didn't know that these stories were lies. Then she told me all. These things that were happening, and she's like, she's not gonna have a place to stay. She's gonna be homeless. And I'm like, oh my goodness, nobody should be homeless. That if there's someone within our vicinity, they should not be homeless. So I was moving with my brother and I told my brother. I was like, hey, you know, she might not have a place to stay. Can she come live with us? I was like, whatever she needs, I'll take care of it. I'm not going to burden you, but she's gonna be going through a lot to let her just stay with us while she figures things out. My brother was like, okay, the day that we were gonna go pick her up, the Lord gives me a vision. I see myself under I was washing my hands under the sink and the Lord says to me, wash your hands off this, and I wish I listened. I said, Lord, how you you should know? How can we leave a person who is in need? I said, no, Lord, I am going. Okay, we are getting to the place. We get to the house, we get, we park in front of the house. I see the vision again, and I didn't pay attention. I was like, because in my personal space, I call the Lord Dad. I said, Dad, come on now, would you do this really? And I try to use the Bible. I said, you're the one who said I was in prison and you visited me. I was, you know, naked. I said, look at somebody who's naked, and I disobeyed. We picked her up. There were always some things that were off to me sometimes about this young lady. But I was like, you know what, everybody is struggling to be normal in life. We're just gonna let her be weird. You know, it's all right, you know, God bless her, but I will be there for her. And there were things that. Just I was like, you know, years go by, and there was a pattern with her, no matter when she left, she always found her way back. Something crazy would always happen. The apartment burnt down, literally this is it would be the craziest thing. She was frying plantee. True story. She was Frank Plante and fell asleep and they caught on fire and their apartment burnt down, and she needs a place to say again, I'm like, girl, there is like this is a revolving door. No matter where I moved to, she somehow would end up moving finding her place with me, and I'm like okay. Then one particular day, based just for the mercy of God, wow, Cup was minding my business. The Lord says to me, pack a bag, get an airbnb for thirty days, and. I will meet you there. And he says, pack a bag, don't tell anybody where you're going, just act like just just leave the house. Just a backpack. Didn't even say not a luggage, just something that does not even look like you're going anywhere. But get a place for thirty days and I will meet you there. And I was. I said, first of all, Lord, I'm paying rent here and airbnbs are not cheap. And then all of a sudden, one of my close friends had called me and she says, I received an instruction from the Lord and she says, I. Think we need to go to an airbnb for thirty days. And then she says and then that morning she's like, someone just sold a seed to my account, and that was she was like, I think we're supposed to use this for the airbnb. I said, well, God must know, because I. Ain't got it. We found the place when we when we moved. When we moved in Ish, I remember walking into that Airbnb and the presence of God was so potent, and I. Said, Lord, what, like did we what is happening? Like? Are we being commissioned? I was. I was really confused. And so we're like, you know what, let's just start praying. And so we start praying. Few days into the prayer, we haven't I have an encounter with an angel who says thirty days of fasting and praying. So we start fasting as well, and we're trying to figure out what is taking place. So we just were praying the spirit most of the time because we have no clue why the Lord gave. Us this instruction. Long story short, because I don't have too much time to dwell into this. In the course of that thirty days, that young lady exposed herself as a witch, and the Lord show me that as a result of your disobedience, I blinded your eyes, but in my mercy, I would allow you to see this for what it really is. Now. This is why I'm sharing this. When she exposed herself to be a witch, she revealed to me, she said, our assignment has been to kill you, but for some reason, we couldn't get to you. And she was so confused about it. And in the process of all this taken place, I said, girl, you got to go okay, because you need to pack all your things and leave my house. But afterwards, after the whole process, and this was so interesting because the Lord had shown me many things concerning this young lady, talk to me about how the you know, the monic operates and you know where the enemy will cause her to be that when they you know, when they fail in their assignment, sometimes they may lose their mind. And she ended up like literally going crazy, and it was just a lot of crazy things happen. But here's reason I'm sharing this. Right after that happened, I have a dream and I see that young lady. There was a friend of mine at the time who the Lord was already showing me things concerning that individual. And I see that young lady. She takes off her jacket as she's walking out of the house. She throws it and that gentleman picks it up, and the Lord said, it's falling on him. Cut this person away from your life, but he says to me, do not cut them out of hate. Understand that there is a spirit at work through them. You can love the person, but don't have a close relationship with them, because if you bring them into your intimate circle, they will betray you. That the enemy has found another person to carry out this mandate and to see if they would succeed. Remove this person from your life. That is someone I still love as a friend, but I had to recognize the need for separation because you are functioning under a different spirit that I cannot bring close. Your enemy is not the person. Your enemy is the spirit at work through them. This will help you when you recognize there are times when there is need to move on from someone, not out of hate, but out of discernment. And this will help you to recognize how you can love and forgive a person that and it doesn't require. Being reconciled to. And this will help you even when the Lord is saying, now, be reconciled, because the apostle Paul had to be had to walk in his ministry with certain people that hated him in the past. But when the Lord will reveal, look, aver raise this person up. I have enlightened them to see who they truly are. And you need to come in agreement as well. People are not your enemy. There is a spirit at work that is your enemy. And when you recognize the spirit, you can war differently. You should never find joy in a person's downfall. Do you recognize that even though Saul tried to kill David. When David heard that Saul, when Saul was. Killed, he did not rejoice. That speaks of heart. Even though he knew that this day was coming. When the day finally came, it was not met with celebrations. And what did David say? Because David recognized at some point Saul was an anointed one of God, he honored him based on how God saw him. You should never find you should you should never And even in the moments were humans. Right, there was something that a young lady did was said concerning me, and it was all lies. And then the lies that she made. Certain things happened to her in a very negative way. And when I learned about it, I won't lie to you. I wanted to rejoice. There was something in it is the weakness of our humanity, right, There was something in me that said, girl, you should have known better. And when that happened, the Holy Spirit convicted me. I began to pray a blessing over her that even till today, if my heart wants to find pleasure in her pain, I began to pray a blessing concerning her, because your heart is your boundary. If I ever find pleasure in someone's downfall, in someone's demise, it's corrupting my vessel. It's not affecting them the way I think. Let God be the judge concerning the things that people do. Consue you trust in His justice, not yours, but in this moment as a lord, for those that are carrying this burden in their hearts of unforgiveness and offense. It's only killing you. It is like someone who is in prison with the King. You have the power to free yourself if you're willing to let it go. So stand up, let us pray. Amen. Amen, just very quickly close your eyes. Thank you Lord. And I know there are many people watching from different campuses. But wherever you are, and you know there are things you're carrying in your heart and you feel like you have a right to them. But when we come under the lordship of the Lord Jesus, we don't have a right to anything except those that He gives unto us. And the Lord will never give you a burden of unforgiveness. He will never give you a burden of hate. He is love. There are many stories that could tell you of how I've seen the justice of God, that when you keep your heart right before him, he knows how to deal. Because the truth is, there are consequences for people's actions. Let's never miss take that. There are consequences for the things that people do, and the Lord knows how to reward them according to their ways. But just because you desire to see someone rewarded according to the things they did should not cause you to have corruption. In your heart concerning them. So with all eyes closed, if you know you need the grace of God to help you release what you have been carrying, just lift up your. Hands right now. Thank you, Jesus, Thank you, Jesus, Thank you, Lord, Heavenly Father. You see your sons and daughters, and as they're lifting up their hands, Lord God, they're saying, Lord, I need help. Help me in this area. I pray for a grace that will come upon them to walk in the revelation of love, because it's not just a commandment. There is a revelation that guides us to live in alignment with that commandment. May they recognize, Lord God, May these words penetrate every callousness of heart, that their enemy is not flesh and blood. Help them to see the real enemy and help them to war according to who the real enemy is. I thank you, Lord God, that you're giving people their fight back. I thank you, Lord God, because I'm seeing where many have been fighting, but yet you are not moving. I'm seeing where you're in a sinking set. You're in a sinking sand, and you're struggling. And the more you're struggling, the more you are drowning. And it's because of the bondage of offense and unforgiveness. Don't let it corrupt your vessel any longer. It is one of the greatest perceptions of the enemy because you feel you have a right to it. It's where your pride and your ego gets involved. And so Lord Jesus, we thank you Holy Spirit. You can do mighty things in just a few seconds. And so I pray that right now touch their hearts, and that may the angels who are carrying these beating lively hearts. Lord, may it replace every callous heart with a heart of flesh. Every heart of stone be removed, and the heart of flesh be placed in. Renew them, O Lord, from the inside out. Restore unto them. Lord, in Jesus' mighty name. Amen,