Stephanie Ike Okafor - Overcoming Doubt, Fear & Double-Mindedness

You said, there are times that the Lord is telling you things. And if you only understand the person who is speaking to you, it's the one who holds you tomorrow, the one who is trying to ensure that you get to the place he has ordained for you in the future. You will take his words more seriously. Let us get into the world of God. But let us pray while we're standing Heavenly Father, we just give you all the glory and all the praise. We thank you, Lord God, for what you're doing in this atmosphere, what you're doing through this convention, what you're doing through the lives of your sons and daughters. The messages that have been flowing from this altar there are spirit and their life. And so we thank you, O God, that even as your children have come with great expectation, that as they begin to apply the words that you have released through your servant, that Lord, they will see great transformation. We thank you, Oh God, that even as some have sacrificed to be here, that what they don't understand is that even at home there are things you are dealing with from the roots in their family, that even when they return, they're not just going to return to share the goodness of God in what took place. But even from home there would be reports of your faithfulness, of your power, and of your authority. And so Lord, we give you praise. I thank you, Lord God, that when many have been experiencing delay, O God, that you are roaring on their behalf. You are restoring the times and seasons on their behalf, that Lord, where people have felt as domed, and some have even carried the guilt and the shame of the opportunities that were missed. But Lord's shame and guilt are not founding you. But restoration is founding you. Healing is founding you. You are a good God. And I thank you, O Lord, that all of us sudden they will begin to see that they have stepped into a favorable time and a favorable hour, and Lord, they would receive it. I come against every spirit of self sabotage in the name of Jesus. I come against every lion spirit in the name of Jesus. I come against the spirit of the devourer, in the name of Jesus. That the harvest that you give onto your people, Lord, may they be partakers of it. We thank you, Oh Heavenly Father, have your way in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Amen, Amen, you may be seated. Thank you Jesus. You know, there is a way that the Lord sometimes deals with me when it comes to messages that he would show me already before Walthback began. The Lord begins to reveal and just you know, minister to my heart about what he wanted me to speak on to his people, and in the message today, it's no coincidence what I also had to experience because there are times it's very similar. Even when the Lord wants to show me the you know, or you know, let me understand who he wants to heal in a room, I may start experiencing pain in that side of my body. And it's just God deals with all of us very differently. So there are times that I would even experience in my life something that is taking place just to communicate the realities of what God is saying through his message. So two days ago, it's probably by yeah, two days ago. You know, while I've been in Nigeria, you know, the food is awesome, you know, food is great and exactly you know, and one of the things that I loved and missed so much was Suya and then I found out there was a chicken Suya burger. I was like, wow, that's something different. And I had that chicken see your burger one time. I was like, amazing, incredible. Then two days ago, you know, I was probably like close to the evening and it was after administration. I said, what a great way to you know, just thank the Lord for what he has done. After prayer, you know, ministers have to eat. I had a chicken see your burger and I had a cold press juice. Then I realized that's not the best combination. And I don't know if it was the burger or the juice that almost gave me food poisoning, and so you would not know. Yesterday the glory of God covered it, you know. But when I got back to the hotel, I could not keep anything down. I was in pain, and to the point where even my family they're like, I don't know if you know you're gonna make it tomorrow to come and minister tomorrow that you might just need to rest. And they're coming from a place of care and concern, because if you saw me in the evening yesterday, it was not good at all. But then I was like Okay, Lord, there's an assignment I have to finish. There's an assignment you have given me that I must complete. And even though I have no idea how tomorrow it's gonna look, but I know that you are in tomorrow. So even though presently things might look like, hey, you need to call past a culture right now, but I said, but Lord, you hold tomorrow and I must complete the assignment because I didn't send myself. I didn't come here because I thought it was a good idea to be home. I came because the Lord showed me I'm sending you go. You see, there's a scripture that when we go to it Matthew five point thirty seven, it says this, let your yes be yes, and you're no no, For whatever is more than these is from the evil One. You see, there are times in our lives where the Lord will show you I am sending you to do this, and there are circumstances that will come up, their challenges and difficulties, and often in the midst of it, we forget the voice of the one who sent us, and we begin to allow the circumstances to dictate our movement. That God, you told me to do this, But in the middle of the journey, I'm faced with some difficulties and challenges. And if you are not an individual who lives by the principle of let your yes be or yes and you're no, you're no, you begin to waiver. Then the enemy knows that all he has to do is throw a little curveball your way, and then you will start to change your commitments. And the thing is, your excuses are great and perfect. But who sent you? Because if it is the Lord that sent you, if it is the Lord that told you to start that thing, if it is the Lord that gave you the instruction and division, then your commitment is to see it through. You See, when you said yes to Jesus, when you said yes in the place of receiving eternal the gift of eternal life, when you said yes to salvation, it was not just so that you can call on him. When you call him lord, lord means owner. It means Jesus has ownership of you. And whatever he says to you is your truth. Whatever he what he calls you to do, is your truth. His word begins to redefine your life. It's no longer your past or your experiences or the words of people, or what culture and society is telling you to do. The words of Jesus begins to be the mirror that shapes your life. But you have to come to the place of embracing that if I said yes to you, then then everything else you tell me to do, my answer has to remain yes, because that first yes was to say that you are now my owner. You see something I've learned about you. Know how oftentimes we relate to the things of God. When God gives you a vision, when God gives you a strategy, when God puts a dream in your heart, when God gives you this idea, and sometimes you may not even fully recognize it came from the Lord. Sometimes you might just that this was just some random idea, but yet it had this weight in your heart. When it's initially deposited in your life, there is a conviction that comes with it. There is a conviction of the Holy Spirit revealing to you that this is something you are called to do, revealing to you that this is something the Lord is going to empower you to do. The problem oftentimes with humanity and even with Christians, is that we rely on that conviction to see us through the finish line. But that conviction comes at the moment of deposit. You see, it's just like when someone deposits money into your account. There's an alert that shows up. It tells you that, okay, so, so, so and so has been deposited and this is your new account balance. If you go about spending the money, the account balance will change. But it does not mean that the bank is going to alert you about every expense that is made. The bank alerts you when a deposit comes in, and then when that deposit comes in, you get excited. You think about all the things you need to do, maybe bills you need to pay, things you need to purchase. But you see, the same thing relates with us and the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit places a deposit in your heart, there is a conviction that takes place, and then over time, the enemy just allows you. He doesn't attack it right there. It's not when the deposit is made he begins to attack the word. He allows you to stay in a place of slumber, and then he shows up to start discouraging you. In the beginning, you are excited. You maybe have told some people that, wow, God gave me this vision and this is what we're gonna do, and this is how we're gonna do it. And then over time, because if you are relying on the strength of that conviction, it fades away because the Lord is expecting you to receive it, make a commitment to it, and be faithful onto it. Let your yes be or yes a person of integrity, a person who commits and does it's not shaken by the winds or the storms until they see you through. But when the enemy begins to throw curveballs, when the enemy begins to show you why it can't happen. The crazy thing is that you don't even realize when you start to slip into a place of just normalcy. You don't even realize when you fall into stagnancy years go by, it now becomes that thing you wanted to do years go by. It becomes another project you started but did not finish. You See, it's just like, let's even look at it from a spiritual perspective. There are times even when you know the Lord will put on your heart to fast, And when you were in prayer, it was so clear the Lord said, twenty one days or forty days, you should do this fast. You woke up you were excited, you were in prayer, you wrote in your journals, you know, just encourage yourself in the Lord. On day five you said, does it have to be this long? You start questioning yourself. I don't think I need to fast all forty days. You said, okay, let me maybe seven day fast. You know, perfection. You start remixing and changing the nature of the fast, and you give yourself good reasons. Then somebody will text you and say, hey, next week, I'm celebrating my birthday. You should come. You not take it as a sign. You see, I knew that I wasn't supposed to do this funny day fast. And we do this to ourselves, not real life. This is how the enemy plays with the minds of people. This is how the enemy is very suggestive, because one of the things about the nature of Satan is that he would camouflage his thoughts as your own. He's not going to come to you in a way that you would say, get thee behind me. He will make it. He will speak to you in first person. He will make you believe that you are the one thinking what he is saying. And then all of a sudden you don't realize that when God gave you the instruction. Your miracle is in the obedience. It's not just in the thing you do, because your ability to be obedient to what the Lord said reveals your faith. When the Lord tells you, I'm gonna do X, Y and Z in your life, but for the next forty days, I want you to meet me in the place of prayer and fasting. If you believe that God is gonna do what he said, your ability to follow through reveals that belief when you start to make amendments and adjustments. So the Lord might have told you for forty days. You know, it could even be that the Lord said six to twelve. Let me just make a point from six pm, six am to twelve pm, no food, nothing, just meet with me. Then you now remix it and say, you know what, let me go three days drive fasting. It's a sacrifice. But was that what God said? And what you don't realize is that your inability to carry out the assignment is a lack of faith. Because when the enemy wants to attack you, he's not attacking the thing that you're supposed to do. He's attacking the faith that will carry you you through. He doesn't care about you fasting or you praying? Are you doing the project? He doesn't care about any of that. What he cares about is the faith and the belief for you to see it through. Because when you give up on that, there's nothing you can receive from the Lord. The Bible says, without faith, it is impossible to please God. Why is it impossible to please him? Because without faith there is nothing that you can receive from him. He cannot partner with you if you don't believe him. And so there are things and words, and even when God tells you about who you are, it is your faith to receive it as truth. Oftentimes in Christianity we have this fake humility to say, no, no, Lord, that is not me, that is too big. How can you say that is not you when he is the one who made you, When he's the one who formed you and ordained you even before you came into time. It is by faith we receive his instructions and it is by faith that we carry them out. You see, even the Lord, when he was in the garden of Gethsemane, do you not think that the challenge is for him to question and see if there was another option that he would have taken it. But then he says, not my will, but yours be done, because his commitment was always to the will of the Father. There are times that you're going to experience challenges in the past God has called you to. There are times that it's not going to look pretty. There are times that it's easier to want to quit, but then you have to get back in the place of saying, Lord, yes, if there's another way, I will take it. But if this is the only way and the only route you have called me to, not my will, but yours be done. And you see, sometimes it's so interesting because you know, I don't know about you. But something I used to struggle with for a long time was receiving help. I was not someone, and it showed up even in my even it was even hard for me to delegate things. I had a very hard time receiving help from people because something about receiving help from people made me feel like a victim. But that is that all of these are lies and deceit from satan. Because how God. When God wants to bless you, he sends a person. And there are times that you're in a position of need, not because you're a victim, not for you to look at your circumstances and say, God, why me, but because even the one who was sent to help you would receive a blessing by doing so. You see, when you don't allow people to do what they're supposed to do in your life, you're actually a hindrance to their blessing. If you're only thinking of it from your perspective, if you're only looking at it like oh God, no, no, no, no, please find another way, you don't realize that that person that is assigned to help you is also going to be rewarded for their obedience. They need to do what they're supposed to do because we are all connected. Look at what Jesus when, after being whipped at everything and was crushed by the weight of the cross, that the gods had to find a man from Syene to help him carry the cross. You see, in that moment, it will look as though Jesus was too weak and this poor man was just brought into the situation to be abused. But when you look at it prophetically, everything surrounding the life of Jesus had purpose and power. That man from Syreene that is modern day Libya. He was from North Africa. When people wonder, even in the from from generation to generation, why is it that there is a unique expression of God in Africa? Why is it that when you come to Africa, it's like the spiritual possibilities you see in Africa is different from what you see in the rest of the world. That man implicated Africa. You see, when he helped Jesus to carry the cross, he implicated Africans in a very strategic position, even for the second coming of Christ. You see, so the man. Someone might look at the man and say, Wow, such a such a innocent man, Why would they drag him into this. Someone might look at Jesus and blame him that because you couldn't carry your cross. Look at what they've done to this man, not knowing that that man helping Jesus was not only a blessing to his life, but a blessing to the continent he will come from. You need to allow people to help you. You need to allow people to be a blessing to your life. You see. I remember one time the Lord showed me something and it humbled me. There was someone in my life, a dear friend of mine, and there was this huge opportunity that came into my life, and it was a huge blessing. And the Lord showed me. He said, the reason I brought this to you is so that you can connect her to it. He said, I'm bringing this into your life. You're gonna benefit from it. But the target and the person and is assigned to it is this other person in your life. But because you are connected to her, and because the relationship is something that is connected to you, I'm opening the door to you. But it's not just for you to walk in. I need you to bring this person in that room. You see. But if I went to her and made it feel as though and I'm telling her and she feels like no, no, no, I can figure it out on my own, she doesn't even realize. The reason I'm partaking of the blessing is not even for me, is because God wants you to be connected to this opportunity. Allow people to help you. When there are people assigned to your life. It doesn't make you a victim of circumstances. But there is something God has for you, and there is something the Lord has for them. You see, the Word of God says in First Thessalonians five twenty four. He who calls you is faithful, The one who called you is faithful to do what he said. But will you believe him? Will you see it through? You know, my husband, there are people that he mentors in his life, and it's so beautiful just what I see God, you know, when I see God doing in and through his life, and when they're maybe friends of his that are women, you know, he will bring me into the situation just out of wisdom. And there was a dear friend of his, and just to see what God began to do with her life, you know, bringing her out of a place of darkness into God's life, bringing her out of ways of darkness, you know, making income, profiting from darkness, and now she wants to commit her life to the ways of God. But in that place of removing the things that she used to do to make money and wanting to live a life please and to God, she was experiencing challenges and there was the temptation that kept coming up for her to go back to the darkness, that oh, you can't even pay your rent, But when you are living this life in the other side, pay you could pay your rent and pay the rent of other people, the enemy starts whispering to you, come back, come back. But in your commitment, in knowing there is something God has shown me. And even though I have these challenges today, I don't know what God has for me tomorrow, I will stay faithful. If the enemy knows that, just by a small circumstance you would waver, then he knows what to throw at you at the point of breakthrough. He knows what to slow you down. He knows that at the opportune moment, he knows the very thing to assign to your path that will make you compromise. And then you compromise with the reason that you believe is sufficient, not knowing it was always a trap, a sneer of satan. You see, when I was praying for you, the Lord showed me there some even attendant. Presently that you're in this room and you have been contemplating on going back to your darkness. You have been contemplating on going back to the place of compromise because it felt like there was more fruitfulness and abundance in it. It's not that you're walking away from God, but that you just want to get some things out from that place. Not knowing that if you ever show up there, that is where Satan is waiting to kill you. That is where he's waiting to destroy the possibilities of your life. When the Lord begins to show you something, commit to it, stick to it. Be a person of integrity. You see, there are four key things the Lord began to show me in connection to this message. And one, even as we talk about soar and on the wings of faith, I speak a lot on integrity because of the magnitude and the role it plays in the life of a believer. And I want you to think of integrity as the wind beneath your wings. You see, in the same way that eagles rely on strong winds in order for them to soar, integrity allows a believer to soar. You see, when you're an integrost person, you not only win favor with God, but favor with Man. And in this walk of Christianity, you're going to need favor with man. You cannot fully express, and not even just express, you cannot fully receive the fullness of God's favor if you don't know how to have good dealings with man. You see, their people, even in ministry, their people have met They preach amazing but their character is nothing to write home about. And sometimes when you meet these people, if you don't know them personally, you'll be wondering, like, wow, this person. I mean the way you minister the word of God, you should just be everywhere. But then nobody wants to have any relationship with them because when they go behind the scenes and see things in the secret, it's like, oh, no, I'm washing my hands off this person. This is not someone who I want to be associated with or affiliated with. You lose favor with men because of your character. You see their doors that God has for you, But there are people He uses to bring you to those doors. You know, the Bible talks about the Lord will open up a door for you, then no man can shut. But sometimes you need direction to know where is the door. And there are people assigned to your life to lead you to the doors that God has opened up for you. But if you have favor with God and not with men, you're limited. And when favor with men deals with your character, it deals with how you live your life. Do people see you as an honest person? Do people see you as one who keeps to their word? Do they see you as faithful, as trustworthy? You see, there are times that even within a company, there are staff members who can be amazing at what they do from a skill perspective, but there are certain things that they will never be promoted into because they don't have the character for it. I remember working with someone who just did not understand confidentiality at all, and I remember saying to him personally, as said, you have so much potential, but the reason people cannot work with you, because everyone else is saying it, might as well let him know. I said, the reason people cannot work with you is that you don't understand discretion, and you don't understand how to be confidential. Nobody will trust you. And if they cannot trust you, they will not move with you. But skill wise, oh he's gifted, he is talented, But character a lot of work needed to be done. And I'm asking you, if you only look at your skill and your ability, and your resume and all the things you know, but you don't focus on a key component, which is your character, some doors can be shut to you. You know. There was a story that I heard there was a man who was just so gifted in his work, so gifted, and there was an opportunity the wife actually was speaking to a friend who was in a very high position, and when the wife spoke to the friend about her husband, shared her husband's resume, told the lady of all the things the husband has done, this opportunity literally would have got this guide to a place where he was making He would be making ten times his current income. It was an elevation. It was a place where God wanted to lift him up. But then when it came time to the appointment and he met the woman, it was someone who he was having an affair with, and the lady felt so disgusted. Now, this woman, I thank God for her integrity because according to the story, she did not know he was married, and he never really knew the line of her work. It was just a lot of stories, a lot of lies, a lot of all kinds of things. And that lady ended up calling his wife and says, for me to do this would be an evil thing for me to allow open this door, because this man, this is what he has been doing. First of all, this man had a wife. That is a good thing. She was out there advocating for her husband. Just to find in the moment that should have been a time of breakthrough you see times and seasons. It could be that it was always in the will of God that that would be the woman to open that door for him. But way Satan stepped in was leveraging on his lust the fault. And in this kind of situation you don't blame the devil. There are some things we blame the devil for. I'm sure he's in the WhatsApp like, hey, I'm not in this group chat. I have nothing to do with this situation. A time of breakthrough, a time of elevation was aborted just like that because of integrity. You see, there are things you might do in the secret and you think it's okay because no one sees. Your future is watching, your destiny is watching, God is watching. You know, It's so crazy. This is how even in my personal life. I remember when I was in high school and there was this guy in high school. You know, in high school, everybody wants a boyfriend, you know, just so you can be like everybody else. Everybody just wanted a boyfriend so that you know. Back then, and I did my secondary school in Nigeria, and so the idea was you take your boyfriend and you go the Silver Bird cinema right, that was the thing for us. But back then there was this one particular guy who always will tell me just man, Stephanie, me and you, me and you and the Holy Spirit, because then I knew the voice of God very young. The Holy Spirit would tell me, don't touch it, don't go near it, stay this person's friend, don't have any relationship or dealings with this person at all. And it was now here's the interesting thing. No, let me tell you this story, let me let me, let me give you my life a little bit. There were other people that, you know, I mean, there were there were some instructions that God gave me very young. You know that I abide it to. You know, there were things even as a child, He's like, hey, wait till marriage, I said, you know, all right, all that stuff. But even when it just came to dating, there were people this is the this is the way, this is why you have to be so dependent on the voice of God. There were other people that the Holy Spirit didn't have any problem if we went to the movies together, if we took our time to go to the silver bed together. But this particular guy, and the guy was persistent, this particular guy, the Holy Spirit said, no, go area, don't even try it. I never understood why. So the funny thing was that I ended up introducing him to my cousin. I said, you know what, it's not me, but there's someone who I think you would really want to get to know. I introduced him to my cousin. They fell in love, and if I will be honest, when they fell in love, I said, God, wow, now I have to follow them to silver Beard by myself the third will you know? I never understood why God said that. Years later, this same individual also lives in the state I live in the US, and we're friends. It was always very we have a beautiful friendship. It was always very platonic. When I met my husband, do you know that him and my husband were friends? Now, men are very territorial people. Women we may have some integrity issue sometimes, but men are very territorial. If a man knows that his friend dated you, that's it. He's like, oh yeah, yeah, yeh no, no, no, no, no no. With when my heart we were talking about life and different things, and then one day when the name came up and I'm like, wait, do you know this person casually? Or oh no? They are friends. You see the instruction the Lord gave me as a teenager, I was probably fourteen or fifteen, because that instruction came from my future. That instruction came from the place of destiny that if you don't listen to this now, it will cost you in years to come. You see, there are times that the Lord is telling you things, and if you only understand the person who is speaking to you, it's the one who holds your tomorrow, the one who is trying to ensure that you get to the place he has ordained for you in the future. You will take his words more seriously. You will hold you will you when the Lord tells you something you're yes is your yes, and your no is your no. You will hold it with care. When the Lord tells you to work on this project, the Lord might tell you, you know what, I want you to start this business in your today. You don't understand how the business will start in your today. You don't understand where the money would come from. But while you don't realize, there is a day on the calendar in your future. When you have committed yourself without making excuses, when you started working on the business plan, when you started putting ideas together with what you have, do what you can, because what you don't know is that there is a day appointed by God, that there is somebody that you would meet, and if you have what you are supposed to have by that point, that that person will partner with you. But when the day of destiny shows up and there's nothing to show for it, you complain to God, not knowing that the day that the Lord calls you home, he will show you how if you are only true to his word, all the things he said would have happened. There are instructions God gives you. It's not for you to understand the fullness of it now, But with what you have, do what you can, and do it well. And not only do it well, present yourself as one of character because there are people connected to your future, and they are the people that you are insulting today. You see, God is masterful at hiding treasures in things that you will not recognize it to be because God doesn't work like man. God will not put treasure in the place that you will look for it. He will put treasure in the mud. He will put treasure in what you call dirty. Because if you are truly a man of God, you would understand that even in the place that is dirt, something good can come out from it. It was said of Jesus, what good can come out of Nazareth. But yes, that is where God purposed for him to come out from. See what I'm saying to you. If you take this as gold, the people connected to you as staff, if you start treating them with respect, when they leave your home, they should have something good to say about your character. Because you have no clue how these are the people that God already you see. There are things God has written concerning your life before time. It is up to you to show up in time in the image of Christ in order to obtain it. There are things you're praying for, but it will not change how God orchestrated for it to happen. If God orchestrated that the person who is currently serving you in your house, that in twenty years from now, this will be the person that would be a gatekeeper for something your child would need. That is what he wrote. It is up to the testimony they have of you to see if they will fulfill what they were supposed to do on earth. There were things already written concerning you, but you have a role to play in your dealings with people. You see, even Jesus, if favor with man was not important, then why would look to Verse fifty two tell us that even Jesus he grew in favor with God and with man. If all he needed was favor with God, then we wouldn't even need to know that he grew favor with man. But he needed to have favor with man in order to fulfill the fullness of God's counsel concerning his assignment on earth. You see, in your personal time, I want you to be even when you pray and you seek God, begin to ask the Lord to show you people that you have discarded because you thought that you can gain nothing from them, and to show you where you have gone wrong, and begin to repent. If there are people you have mistreated in your life that the Holy Spirit brings back to your memory, reach out to those people, say you know what, humble yourself, because the ones that are humbled are and wants God exhausts. Find a way to reach out to them. If the Lord gives you a contact or something of the Lord shows you who to to who reach out to those people and apologize You don't know how far that apology would go. Reach out to them and say, you know what, I didn't treat you well. If there's something I can do for you, please let me know. If there's a way I can be a blessing to you, please let me know. Because your character is a key in the Kingdom. If you are lacking in character, there are certain areas that you will never step into. No matter how much you pray, you fast, and you worship, there are certain things you can never walk into. It is a key. Don't allow culture to steal you from the things of God just because everyone mistreats these kinds of people join them. Because in the Kingdom, your culture is not recorded in your image. You are called to be created in God's image after his likeness. Your culture does not come in anywhere. It does not alter that in any way. So don't allow what is accepted in society to actually cause you to be hindered from what God wants to do in your life. Another thing that is very important is to remove every weight of double mindedness. On day one we talked about how and in order for an egle to soar, it cannot be weighed down. It needs to have a certain type of body weight. It cannot be the body that the wings have to be able to carry it in order to source. So if it's body weight is not according to the wing capacity, it will not soar. And one of the things that keeps us way down as believers is being double minded. The Bible even talks about how a double minded man James one verse eight is unstable in all his ways, and in the previous verse it talks about this kind of person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. This goes back to being a person of commitment. The moment the Lord puts something in your heart, commit whether you feel like it, and whether you don't. Commit when you feel excited, and commit when you feel discouraged. Put it, make it in your heart. Know that you know what. I am going to see this thing through when I see holes in it, whatever the case might be, Lord, I am going to see it through. Because you can't soar if you're double minded, because the moment you want to go up, you start checking, Okay, is the wind appropriate? Is that? Am I sure the wind is that strong? You're not gonna soar. Then the enemy just knows that he just has to plant other thoughts in your head, and then you start debating, Okay, which one is. Maybe this is not the right time anymore, and you're missing off from key moments. Whatever you know to do, do it now, and do it well, whether you're discouraged. You see, yesterday I could have easily just called and said, and I would have had a good reason. If I called, I'm sure passed porch, well, they wouldn't tell me no, no, it's okay, we'll praying for you. It would have been fine. But was that the assignment God gave me when he told me to come. I know the assignment and the words he gave me. So if I allow a circumstance the moment I answered it to be true, then I would give it legal permission to stay my reality. If I entertained that to be true today I will still be on the bed somewhere in the hotel. But because even in the midst of the circumstance, I said, Lord, you have given me an assignment, and I must finish it. However I finished it, I must finish it. So I didn't make room for the enemy. And then when I woke up this morning, nothing was completely fine. Because when you are committed to the things of God, that is when you start to see supernatural possibilities, you see. I remember, even when I was pregnant with my daughter, there was a time where I was I mean, there was some complications that happened and I was going through extreme, extreme pain, I mean the kind of pain that I couldn't even stand up straight. And then the doctors were like, you know what, there's nothing we can do. You just have to endure it for They talked about how this is something that was going to happen for another ten weeks or so, and they're like, you just have to endure it. And this is the beginning of when it started. I couldn't even handle a few days and you're telling me I need to endure it for ten weeks. And that Sunday I was supposed to preach, and the Lord had already given me the word, and I already told my senior pastor, yes, I would minister this Sunday. And I remember one day I was just in prayer and in tears. I said, Lord, I don't think I can do this unless you empower me. B See. I did not allow the circumstance to immediately dictate if I can or not. I had to go back to the source, the same way Jesus will go to the Father and say Lord, if there's another way. So who I ran to was not my friends on the phone. Because people can bring you out of destiny, out of love and concern. I had to run to the source. Even when I share to my husband. My husband told me, Stephanie, pray and let's see what the Lord is saying, and I will be praying as well. And so when I was in the place of prayer, I pray to the point that finally even had some relief to sleep. When I slept, the Lord encountered me and he said this was what carried me through my pregnancy. And he said, no harm will come to your child. Let's just settle that. And then he starts to speak to me. He says, I am the one who walks with you on the mountains, and I am the one who walks with you in the valley. So don't think because you're in the valley, I'm not with you. I am with you. He says, stay, stick to your commitment and minister. On Sunday, that was all I needed. When I woke up the pain was still there. Actually, I think it even intensified. You see how things work in the Kingdom. Whose report would you believe? I shared it with my husband, and my husband said, we're going to keep praying, and that's just what it's gonna be. He says, God will carry you through the day when Sunday came, because there was nothing in me that was going to be double minded, even though the pain intensified. So when Sunday finally showed up, I woke up to get ready to head to service. When I got up from the bed, I noticed that the pain had lessened. I was like, okay, you know this would make dressing up faster. I even reached out to the team ahead of the time. I said I might need a cheer because I don't know if I would have the ability to stand through the service when I got to church. The moment I walked into church, it was like everything lifted off me, all the pain, every It was almost like if the pain was an outfit, someone just lifted it off me. That was the Lord saying, when you show up on the day of the appointed time, supernatural possibilities will start to walk on your behalf. Something that was supposed to last ten eleven weeks was gone within days, and the miracle was connected to obedience. The miracle was connected to a place of not choosing to be double minded because of circumstances that showed up. You see, there are things in your life that Satan will try to talk you out of. But if you stay faithful the day of the appointed time, you will see how God will begin to orchestrate supernatural possibilities on your behalf. This is why Jesus, even when he didn't have a boat to get to his disciples, he didn't say, Okay, you know what, maybe tomorrow. He just walked on water. Because when you are in a place of knowing that there is no circumstance that can limit me, you soar above the circumstances. This is what a life of fate does. It allows you to soar where people stop because the average person stops at challenges, the average person stops at circumstances, The average person stops when it gets difficult. This is what makes an ego so unique because where birds can't see, egos are soaring. They have a different perspective of life. Because they have this, they wants the opportunity come. Their instinct is to allow it to cause them to soar. The same strong winds that other animals may flee from are the ones the eagles run too. And that is where breakthrough happens. That is where you are sustained. You see, if an egle doesn't soar, they will lose their survival ability because it's in their ability to soar that allows them to see their prey. And your survival and the thing God called you to do, it's in your ability to soar above your circumstances. Jesus said, you will see to this mountain move and it would be moved. But do you know what it means to say to the mountain move and it will be moved. It means you will look at the face of your circumstance and say you will not be in my way. You are designed to rise above circumstance. It is in what God wrote about your life. So when you run from them, you're actually limiting yourself. You cannot run from them and then go and pray to God to bring the breakthrough when the breakthrough was right in front of you. David never ran from Goliath. When you study David's life, it's so incredible. David is anointed to be king. David knows there is a current king. Then all of a sudden God brings him the step towards how he would access the throne. All of it, you see, there are different steps that you need to be in tune with God. All God did was revealed to David. Okay, this is what I know about you. But on earth, there's going to be a strategy in order for you to realize what Heaven already has announced you to be. So when Goliath shows up, when you study David, when they tell when he hears what would be given to the one who would defeat Goliath, David says, come again, can somebody repeat that it was not just about Goliath. When David heard the reward, what he was seeing was access to the throne. The king will give you his daughter. Oh, now you're going to become the king's in law. If it was just about Goliath, then when David heard about Goliath, he would have just said, oh, who is this uncircumcised feel estate. But David said, no, no, no, tell me what would be given to the man. And what he was hearing in alignment with something in his spirit, he took the opportunity. It wasn't just about defeating him. He was also after the harvest that comes with defeating Goliath. There was a circumstance that the Lord orchestrated for David to soar. If David saw it and ran the other way, we would not have heard about the story of David like we do today. What circumstance are you allowing to defeat you when it is actually your breakthrough, when it is actually the thing that, if you stay committed to, you would soar, When it's actually the thing that if you say nothing is gonna shake me, shake my feet from where God has planted me, you will sore. My husband always has this analogy that I love so much, and he talks about if you are in a room with your family and all the doors are locked, the windows are locked, everything is shut, and there was a fire in that room in that home, because you already know that there is no way out, your instinct would be to put the fire out. But if you're in a room the doors are open, the windows are open, and there's a fire, your instinct will be to run. When you have a life in your walk with God, you commit to no longer being double minded. When the fire shows up, your instinct is to put it out. When the fire shows up, you begin to seek the Lord in prayer to give you strategy, to give you wisdom on how to rise above it. You don't allow the fire to make you run. You look at the fire. You say, thank you, Lord, you have designed this fire for my growth. You have brought this fire to my presence. You have brought it in front of me because there is something even in my ability to soar above it. There is something you're doing within me. You look at that challenge, at that circumstance, you begin to worship God because the challenge is actually the sign of your greatness. How can you be great if there's nothing to exercise it out of you? How can you be the man God has called you to be? If you only want to stay at the level of what is comfortable for you, then why did God need to call you as someone else? Why would the Lord need to change your name? If you want to stay where you were? The challenge and the difficulty is actually speaking to the great within. You don't allow it to intimidate you. You may feel like you don't have the resources. There is a version of you that God knows that will begin to create, co create with him, and you will see where the resources will start to come from. When you see yourself as God sees you, you soar above the circumstance. And finally, before we pray, you see in God. It's easy when you come to the Lord to say, Lord, I trust you with my whole heart, but that takes time. In reality, it's a journey with God. Trust is like a muscle that is built with God. That is why there's little things that the Lord will start you off in. There are small things that the Lord will say, hey, do this. Even with David. David, when he fought Goliath, there was a record of God's faithfulness he could hold onto. When he had fought other animals that came after his father's sheep, he knew that God was with him. So he had this trust in God that this would be nothing. This would be like the rest. You see. Some of you are in places that you are speaking down on, and so even the instructions God has given you in that small place, you are ignoring it, not knowing that when you follow through with that instruction, it would build trust like a muscle because before the Lord would tell you to do something of great faith, you need to know how to do things of little faith. If you don't know how to exercise trust in the little thing, then the enemy can talk you out of the great thing. But even where you are their instructions, the Lord would give you follow it through, follow through on them because in the end of that instruction you see the faithfulness of God. And when you recognize the faithfulness of God, when something bigger shows up, you're like God, I trust you, Oh Lord, I trust you. You see earlier on Day one, I was talking about when we went to eastern Nigeria and people were panicking about insecurity. Insecurity. But part of the reason what gave me the confidence to know if God can protect me, no one else can protect me. Why because I remember as a child the things that came up against our family, spiritual warfare and physical warfare, and none of it ever touched us. I remember how the Lord will wake me up and show me the things that people were planning in the spiritual realm, where people were meeting in covens, what people were trying to do with pictures and names, and the Lord will give me a heads up that because they tried this again, this is what is about to happen to them, and then in the natural role, what the Lord said would happen. Then I knew as a child there is a God that watches over his people. There is a God that protects like men cannot protect. I remember when asked the sins were sent to our home, and the Lord kept us that by their own selves they ran. But you see, there is a muscle would trust you build with God. So even in how the Lord directs you, even in when the Lord tells you go here and you go there. When people ask me how easy was it for you to live real estate and go into a journey that you did not know with God, I said, it was actually very easy because I know the other instructions God has given me. There were small instructions, but I follow through, and even though I didn't know what the outcome would be, the outcome was was favorable. So when He instructed me to take a big step, it was easy because I had a record of his faithfulness. You might be asked to do something that seems small and seems ordinary, but if you follow through on the assignment of God, it will build trust like a muscle their instructions. The Lord is waiting to give you, but he cannot give you the person because you are not yet built up to receive it. Because in the other things he has said to you, you have not followed through. So if he tells you the big one, you would run. It's the human nature. Look at the Israelites. The Bible had made it clear to let us know. The Lord wanted us to know that there was a shorter route for them to get to the Promised Land. But he could not take them through that route. He says, if if he takes them through it, they would run. The Lord had to take them through a journey of forty years. Why because they were not ready for a shorter distance. They were not ready. They had not known the Lord yet. They needed to build their trust in God before they see war. Does it mean that God didn't have an expedited way. No, it was available, but the person. The people were not ready. You don't want it to be your story that Heaven in the time Heaven wants to accelerate you, they can't. In the Council of God, they said, oh, this is the time for acceleration and promotion, but we can't do anything because they're not yet built up trust to this level. If we give them this word, they would not do anything with it. If we told them this thing, they will be too scared to move because they have not yet known me as faith. They have not allowed their walk with me to show them that I am a faithful God. Whatever God has called you to do, now show up, be faithful, see it through, and watch how you start to build trust with God as a muscle. And then all of a sudden, when He gives you the big instructions that you would have even greater faith to move on it because there is something about His faithfulness you have come to know. There is something you have come to hold on to. There is an anchor in your life. You see a person who has experienced the healing power of God, it is easy for them to call him Jehovah Rapha. It is easy for them to pray and believe that God can move mountains. For one who has seen the dead rays, they have more faith to see another dead race than someone who has never seen it. I said, no, this is nothing to God. I trust him. That's why oftentimes, even for ministers, when God begins to teach you on things like deliverance and healing. He does it in secret. The first time that I ever delivered someone of a demonic spirit, it was probably like five of us. Why does God do that? Because he wants you to know how to trust him where there is no one watching, so that when you're in a crowd full of people and the Holy Spirit tells you, I want you to pray for this person, you're not caring about the crowd self gets out of the way. He said, God, you are faithful, you are true. I have seen you do this in private, and I know that you can do this in public. God works with you in a way that he wants you to succeed. He's not trying to throw you in the fire just out of nowhere. He wants to raise you up like a child so that as an adult you can trust him in the spiritual room. You have an age. Don't let the age and the physical make you think that's how you look in the spiritual because if you have not walked faithfully in obedience with God, you're still a child. Because He wants you to know his love, then he wants you to know his faithfulness before he starts to do great exploits with you. So you may know his love, but you don't know his faithfulness. And if you don't know his faithfulness, then maybe you're five or six years old in the spirit, and you don't man trust a company to a five year old. So the great exploits God wants to do with you, you must know his faithfulness. So whatever he's called you to do, now be faithful, so you can have a record of who he is, so that when he calls you to the greater things, it's easy for you to jump. It's easy for you to commit. Stand with me. Let us pray. Thank you Lord, Thank you Lord, Thank you Jesus. Just lift up your hands in prayer. Thank you God, Heavenly Father. What I ask of you for your people is very simple. Bring back to their memory any instruction, any assignment, anything that you have called them to do that they waver their obedience in. Bring back to their memory or Holy spirit. Convict them again of your word. Convict them again of that which you have assigned to them. Lord. I pray if there are people in their lives that Destiny has sent their way, that they have not seen adequately, they have mistreated. I see this so clearly, Lord, bring it back to their memory. Let them repent of their ways, because Lord, you are showing me the breakthrough many people are looking for is hidden in the vessels they have been mistreating. Know know man by the flesh. Begin to show your sons and daughters who people are in the spirit. There are people that were sent to them. It was not just for a job, but they were sent by you because these people play a key role for their future. Make it known to them. Lord. We thank you Jesus that at the end of this convention, your sons and daughters are going to return transformed. They're gonna look and smell like you, that it will be said of them, like it was said of the disciples. You look like those that have been with Jesus. We thank you, Lord for great transformation and great impact that will flow through their lives. In Jesus' mighty name. Amen,