Creflo Dollar - How to Live in the Supernatural - Part 8
Now, the cure for a hardened heart is a total commitment to keep our minds stayed on the Lord. The cure for a hardened heart. Isaiah 26:3, and Psalms 4:8 through 9. The cure for a hardened heart is to keep or to have a total commitment to keep our minds. There's a game, the war, the battle is up here. You're gonna win it or lose it up here. The key is to keep your minds stayed on the Lord, a commitment to do that, a commitment to do that. Which means it's not one of these things that I'm gonna try to do if I have time. It's one of these things that I am setting myself to discipline myself to do because I see how vital it is. I see now how important it is. This requires me to commit myself to this. It requires me to... it's not some little religious thing I go home and just forget about.
Now my mind, I've got to commit myself. At the end of the day, if I take a sum total, you know, sometimes at the end of the week, your phone sends the amount of screen time that you have spent on the phone? And if you were to take a total of the amount of the time you've spent where your thoughts and your attention, hopefully it will say that you spent most of the time thinking and attending to the things of God and the Word. But you and I both know that's not true with a lot of Christians. We have turned this thing into a drive-by, okay? We drive by on Sunday, or drive by on the Internet, and you know, drive by and stream by and go by, and then return to the things that are defeating us because we're not making a commitment to discipline ourselves where our mind is concerned, where our thinking is concerned. Follow me very carefully.
Isaiah 26:3 says this, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace". Perfect peace. First of all, peace is security in the midst of turmoil. Peace is security in the midst of turmoil. And he says, "I'm gonna keep you in perfect peace". So, I declare over everybody at the sound of my voice the blessing of peace be over you right now. Peace is a blessing, all right? "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace," who? Who is he gonna keep in perfect peace? Who is he gonna keep in perfect peace? "Whose mind is," what? "Stayed on thee". Now, why would I even want to discipline myself to get my mind stayed on God and stayed on his Word? It's because I trust him. So, this is now the authentication of your belief, really your trust in God. You know, if I really trust him, first of all, if I trust him, I'm gonna keep my mind on him. If I keep my mind on him, I'm gonna stay in peace. But you got to settle this issue, do I trust God more than everybody else?
Please understand, you know you're gonna die one day, right? You do know that you can't be here forever. You are going to die one day. You will have an opportunity to see what I'm preaching if it's right or wrong. And you know, I'll be there. Well, it depends on what address you go to. I'll be at 77 Holy Ghost Boulevard. Now, if you go to 666 O'hell, I don't know if I'm gonna be there. You have to send me an email. But 20 years ago, I was in that car accident. And when that car flipped over and I had that experience in the car, and they didn't even call an ambulance. They called the folks to pick up dead bodies. And when you saw it, you thought, "Man, nobody's alive in there". And I had that experience where I saw those angels go past my face. And you know, I believed in angels, but not like that. You know, because I told myself I'm gonna keep my eye open like, "Oh God, if I don't make it, I want to keep my eye open to see how this all works. I want to see how close my understanding was to it working".
And when I went and my eyes were opened and I saw these people, and they were out of focus, and I was on one side, and they were coming close to me. And the closer they got, the clearer, and they became into focus. And when I thought I just kind of recognized somebody, a voice came and said, "No, too much unfinished business". And I came back and I didn't know if I was in my body. And I'm hanging upside down and I'm like, "What just happened"? See, I don't care whether anybody believes me or not, man, it's like there is no way after experiencing that that I'm gonna show up unprepared, see Jesus face to face with an excuse of why I didn't do what he told me to do. I ain't doing that. I'm not doing that. Jesus is coming back. Jesus is coming back. I'm gonna cry loud like a trumpet, "Jesus is coming back. Jesus is coming back".
Somebody say, "You've been saying that forever. How come he ain't come yet"? Because he waiting on your hard head that gonna get your life together. Don't you turn that stream off, you stay right there. I'm trying to save your life today. Don't go in the back door and go visit some other preacher, stay right there and listen to me. Jesus is giving you enough time to get your life together and get born again, so go ahead and make him your Lord. Go ahead and make him your personal Savior. Go ahead and get Jesus in your life, hallelujah. I got to preach Jesus no more. I can't be sitting up here just teaching, oh, you know, with perfect articulation because that makes you feel well, and it represents your family members when you bring them to church. No, I got to preach like a John the Baptist, man. I got to cry loud like a trumpet, hallelujah. You haven't heard me over the last 40 years, I've been trying to teach and tell you.
Now, I'm getting ready to just shout it like a crazy man, to let you know that Jesus is on his way back. Jesus is on his way back. And I'm gonna give him attention now. I'm gonna give him attention. Facebook ain't getting us attention, Instagram ain't giving us attention. No, I'm gonna give him the attention. It's in him we move, in him we breathe, in him we have our very being, hallelujah. Philippians 4:8 through 9. What's wrong? What's wrong, what's going on? What's up with Dollar this morning? Man, I'm happy. I'm happy. That news fast, best thing I could've done. Thank you, Jesus. So, I don't know what's going on. We might be in the middle of a war, I ain't even know it. What's happening, why? Because I'm depending on God to take care of me.
"Well, did you hear there's a food shortage"? I didn't know that. It seems like I'm just being supplied. Maybe he just, maybe when I show up, the angels just putting it all on the shelf for me. I don't know, I didn't know, I didn't know that was happening. "Well, you know they got a water shortage"? Well, don't matter, I got a well. And that well is full enough for every world changer. See, membership has its advantages. Philippians 4, verse 8 through 9, "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true," now watch this. This is a, don't ignore this, "Whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, if there be any praise," look at this, "think on these things". Is this so important that he had to give us instructions on what to think on? "Those things, which you have both learned, those things that you've received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you".
The God of peace. Peace being with you is gonna be based on what you've been thinking about. Now, what do you spend the majority of the day thinking about? Who are you renting space in your mind to? What are you thinking about? Here's what I believe these Scriptures are saying. Here's what I believe we have to do. Single-mindedness is the key. My mind, it's got to be single-minded. See, you might want to say, "Well, now you're a fanatic". No, I'm single-minded. Single-mindedness is the key. If you look at any person who has been mightily used of God, you'll find that it wasn't because they were a great man of faith, but it was because they were a little man of unbelief. Unbelief is what the enemy is trying to introduce into your thinking. Every thought that the devil brings to you is accompanied by unbelief.
Now, follow me carefully now. I'm gonna say something really radical right now, but give me a chance to finish it. We've all heard, and through religion and religious teachings, you need to be holy. You got to live holy. You got to live holy. You got to be holy, you got to live holy. You got to live holy. You got to be right, you got to live holy, you got to be right. Because you don't live holy, if you don't be right, then God ain't gonna be able to bless you. God ain't gonna be able to help you. You got to be holy, and then God will bless you. You got to be right, and then God will bless you. Anybody ever heard that before or got that idea before? All right, now I'm not saying that there's a problem with you living right and doing right and stuff like that, but it's what we're saying. We're saying you have to do this in order for God to do that. And I'm saying I don't know if that's the whole truth here.
See, with this goes the idea that God won't bless you if you don't live holy, and that's false. Wait, wait, wait, wait a minute, Brother Dollar, you trying to tell people not to live holy? No, I'm not trying to... no, I'm trying to get you out of this idea of thinking that if you don't do this, then God won't do that. See, there's a reason why God can do this, but it's not because of what you're doing to make him do. Are you with me? Let me finish it, I'm on my way now. God doesn't use you because you are holy or because of your holiness. God has never had anybody qualified working for him yet, never. Seriously, you think because I'm the pastor, I'm qualified? Dude, I was and still am so unqualified to do this job. You too. Well, what has God done? God has taken my unqualified self and showed me how to connect with him so he can do what I couldn't do. And he put me in a position where I got to depend on him. Oh, y'all don't know. Yeah, yeah.
All right, let me finish that. Let me put it all together here now. It's not your holiness that moves God. See, we're always, "I got to do this, and then I'll move God. I got to do that, and then I'll move God". And so, you think the supernatural happens because of what you're doing to make it happen. Watch carefully now. It's not your holiness that moves God, but your holiness and your separation and your commitment does determine how sensitive you are to God. Mmm. My commitment to God. Holiness is not perfection. Let me give you what holiness means, define it. See, you already are holy the day you got saved. Holiness is being uncommon with the world. That's why you're separated. You separate yourself from the world. Commonness is unholy. Being common with the world, that's unholy. Being uncommon with the world, separate from the world, when the world is full of fear, you're holy, you're full of faith and peace. When the world is sick, you're holy, you're healed. That's what that means. You took that upon yourself the day you got born again.
So, what happens is is my commitment to strive for that holy life, to strive to walk in that separation from the world, and to strive to that commitment to God, it determines how sensitive that I am to God. And what happens is I literally made a decision to give him my attention, which now allows me to access his abilities. You thought it wasn't happening because you were not flawless. It wasn't happening because he didn't have your attention. You thought it wasn't happening because, you know, some stupid you did or said the other day. Yeah, God knows it was stupid and all this stuff, but he'll use that to mature you, but not punish you. He's not going to withhold from you. 'Cause if that were the case, he'd have to withhold from everybody 'cause all of us say some stupid stuff sometimes. But what he's after is, will you separate yourself unto me? Can I have your attention? Will you separate yourself from the world? Can I have your focus? And if I can get you to focus on me and give me attention, then the thing you know I can do will be done unto you. I need your attention. I need your attention.
Now, am I gonna be susceptible to the doubt and unbelief of the devil? Oh yeah, yeah. You wake up in the morning. If you give your attention to God, Satan's gonna do everything he can in panic mode to try to get your attention back. How can he get your attention back? Shoot a pain over there, "Oh Lord". Have something come in. Have a IRS letter come to you that they sent to you by mistake just enough to get your attention just for a little while. Some of you, "I'm caught". Dude, this is a battle over your focus. This is what this is. And so, this is gonna sound strange when I say this. Absolutely, you can learn how to overcome doubt. You can learn how to overcome unbelief. But it's greater, it's a greater thing not to be tempted with the doubt and the unbelief in the first place. "Why pastor, is that possible"? What are you asking? Is it possible for me not to be tempted, or tested, or tried with the doubt and the unbelief?
I want you to remember something. You can't be tempted with anything you don't think. I want you to just pause on that for a moment. Everything you've ever been tempted with was preceded by you thinking about it. You can't be tempted if you don't think about it. I don't want to mention certain things from the pulpit, but you know. You can go back in on your own lives. For every dirty, nasty thing you did, you spent a great amount of time thinking about it. It dominated your thinking. There's no temptation without you thinking about it. You can't be tempted with anything you don't think about. So, you need to become a good custodian over your thought life, ask yourself what you're thinking about. 'Cause if you keep thinking about that thing, it will one day present an opportunity.
Every temptation you're faced with, "Oh, I've been thinking. I've just been thinking about weed. I just can't stop thinking about weed". You smoking it. Your thinking is the access point for those different things to come to pass. And it's a spiritual principle, so God is trying to say, "Don't you see it? Everything you've ever spent any time investing in your thinking, in your thought life, has become a temptation to you. I need you to give me that. Do that with my Word. Do that with me". Focus, everybody say focus. That's the key to winning this game in this crazy time. Who gets your focus? I can tell the devil is panicking, and I can tell the devil knows that Jesus is coming back soon. He don't know the day, he don't know the time, none of us do, so don't be caught talking about, "Pastor, the Lord told me that Jesus is coming back next week at 3 o'clock". And I'm gonna say, "You's a lie. No man knows the day nor the hour".
Focus. When you focus, let's break it down. A central point, it's your attention. It's to concentrate, concentrate. It's to target. You aim your attention at. And the opposite is true when you ignore or when you neglect something. You aim your attention at. Where's your focus? Abraham's strength was that he was absolutely single-minded on God. Look at Matthew 6:22 real quick. Abraham's strength was he was absolutely single-minded on God. It's not enough for you to attend church or stream into church and, you know, check your little box, went to church today, did my little goody-goody deed. Until the Word becomes alive, it will never become a reality. It won't happen. It can't be this religious part of your day. Look at Matthew 6:22, this is so cool. He says, "The light of the body is the eye".
All right, so if the light of the body is the eye, he says, "Therefore if thine eye be single, if it's single, then your whole body is gonna be full of light". Your whole body, because that area that was the focus, which was the light, now impacts your entire body. In other words, if you fill yourself with the Word of God, the Word of God will come out of you. If you fill yourself with the Word of God, that Word of God will come out of you. Now, look at Proverbs 23:7. We're familiar with this one, Proverbs 23:7. Yeah, Lord. This is Proverbs 23:7. He says, "For as he thinketh".
You know, sometimes I have to deal with these translators and how they put their commas in places because they're not rightly dividing the Word, but allow me to do this. "As he thinketh, comma, in his heart, so is he". As he thinketh, comma, in his heart, so is he. That's pretty powerful. He says your thinking determines who you are in your heart. Who you are in your heart is based on your thinking. Your thinking determines who you are in your heart. So, whatever you are today is what you've been thinking about yesterday. Whatever you are today is what you've been thinking about yesterday. You woke up this morning, "I'm depressed". What were you thinking about yesterday? What were you thinking about yesterday? You follow me?
Now, 2 Peter chapter 1:3, I love this because it just kind of settles for me that it's the knowledge of God and his Word that allows all these things to be made available to me. "According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness". So, we have been given all things that pertain to this life and godliness, but how do we get it? "Through the knowledge of him that has called us to glory and to virtue". We get it through the knowledge of him. Whatever your life is is a result of what you've been thinking. That's pretty powerful. Whatever your life is is a result of what you have been thinking. What have you been thinking? There's a whole lot of things to think about in this day and time. And you have got to pull those thoughts and make those thoughts obey the Word of God. So, here's the deal here, here's the deal here. The real issue here centers around the matter of priorities. It's a matter of priority when you choose what to think. You're choosing what's priority in your life.