Creflo Dollar - How to Defeat Fear - Part 4
You know what God wants more than anything? He wants you to enjoy your life. Enjoy it. Be happy. Listen, when people go home to be with the Lord, you may have to rearrange some things. You're used to doing this one thing. Now you got to figure out how to fill that spot. How do I fill that time? What do I do with this situation? But don't just sit and rot away, waiting to die, thinking it's honorable 'cause somebody told you, "You can't get married no more, ever again. And if you do, people gonna be mad at you". Forget people. They got somebody, "but you upset with me 'cause I decide I'm gonna get married again? Mm-mm-mm, he ought to be ashamed of me himself. See, you in the dark". The marriage covenant is over at death. I can go hunting.
Now, I may have to fix myself up just a little bit. Well, how old is she gonna be? That ain't none of your business. If my... work, then hey, praise God, amen. Now, I ain't doing no 20-year-old 'cause ain't nobody waking me up at no 4 o'clock in the morning, talking about we're going to the Beyoncé concert. "Who? Girl, don't be waking me. What"? Just like you're laughing right now, God wants you to have a good life. He wants you to have a happy life. He wants you to rejoice. He wants you to have some fun. He wants you to go hiking, go to a amusement park, go to the circus, eat some popcorn every night and day and get you a Snickers bar. He wants you to enjoy life. He don't want you to go around deep and sad. Yeah, you talking to all the young people.
Listen, if you, like, 81, and you see a 80-year-old twistin'... I ain't gonna do that. Let's just keep going, amen. "Arise and shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth," the whole earth against God, "and gross darkness is gonna be on the people". Imagine, gross darkness on the people. They don't have a clue. They're not going to church, and the church they're going to, unfortunately, he or she don't have a clue, maybe. Hopefully, that's not the case, you know, overall. He said, "But the LORD shall arise upon thee, his glory's gonna be seen upon thee". Verse 3: "And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and the kings to the brightness of thy rising". You know what God says to me? He says, "Those of us who will stay in the light or get back in the light".
There are too many World Changers in the dark. You haven't been to church in so long, you're in the dark. You ain't been to church, then you started listening to the stream, and now you've stopped listening to the stream, and now you just replaced church with something else. And you think you all right because of your past knowledge. It's got to be current, right now. You know what revelation is? It's right-now knowledge. You need a revelation on what to do today. You need a revelation on how to handle tomorrow. It ain't based on what you already know. That'll fool you, you start living off past knowledge. You need to know something for right now. God is a right-now God.
Boy, that's real bad presenting. He's a right-now God. Ha, ha. I believe God's gonna use you. I believe that the light of the gospel is, and the love of God will rise on you. Your attitude being affected by the anointing. The presence of God as we come and gather together. Satan who has been after our gathering, he wanted to break up our gathering. He's still trying to stop us from gathering because there's power in that one sound of prayer. There's power when we lift our hands up and we worship God. There's a sound that comes from this building, hallelujah, that no place on the planet can make like the church of Jesus Christ. And we make a sound that all hell got to back up. We make a sound that demons got to bow to. We make a sound that angels give attention to, and heaven receives that sound. He's against our oneness. He don't want us to come together and agree as one. "Well, you can do that through technology".
Honey, I thank God. Listen, I thank God for technology. I thank God for streaming. I thank God for all that. But, boy, when I can come together and feel it. I know you can feel it through the stream; I've felt it through the stream. But then when I got here live, and when you all came back, my stream preaching went from stream preaching only to the oneness of a few people that gathered together. If I was on the stream, I'd have been finished this series, like, last week. But it's the pulling, it's the stuff I sense when I come in here and I look at your face and the Lord will say this to me and say that to me, and then I'll change that and then, it's something, just something about it, I don't have the intricate details of what goes on, but when God's children get together, the Bible says where two or three shall gather in his name, "there am I in the midst of thee".
God is in the midst of us right now. God is in the midst of us right now. And you're safe in his presence. I wish that Omicron would try to come up here in his presence. You're safe in his presence. Look at Isaiah 12:16 in the ESV version. Isaiah 12, excuse me, Isaiah 42. Isaiah 42:16 in the ESV version. Watch this. Oh, goodness, Lord Jesus. Lord Jesus, the light is rising on you. Yes, things are changing. God gonna show you how to do what you need to do. Glory be to God. God is gonna show you how to prosper in bad times. Watch this. "And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them".
I ought to read that again. See, the Lord is saying, "You might be in darkness. You might be in darkness". World Changers, wherever you are, you might be in darkness, but here's what he said. "I'll lead the blind in a way they do not know". Glory be to God. In other words, God said, "Even though you're blind, I'm gonna lead you in a way you don't understand". He says, "I know how to get the light in. I'm gonna lead you in a way you do not know. I'm gonna lead you in paths that you have not known".
In other words, get ready. We're getting ready to walk down avenues we've never walked down before. Everybody else has done it this way. I'm telling you, we ain't got to follow everybody else. God says, "I'm getting ready to show you a path you've never seen before. I'm getting ready to take you down a path that you've not known before". And he says, "Now what happens when you go down a path you don't know? You don't know where to go". He says, "That's all right. I will guide them". Glory to God. He said, "But what about the darkness"? He says, "I'll turn the darkness before them into light". God's getting ready to turn darkness into light. I don't know where you are. I don't know what you're doing. I don't know who bed you in. I don't know who you're talking to. I don't know what you stole, but I tell you, God is working.
There's a eagle stirring in the nest right now and he's turning your darkness into light. I gotta believe that, and start praying that for your friends and your relatives. "Lord, I thank you that you're turning darkness into light". I'm telling you, he can do it. I don't know how to do that, but he can do it. And when God turns darkness into light, you'll be like that Baptist deacon, "Won't he do it? Won't he make a way for you"? 'Scuse me, I done got excited. I done got excited because here go God doing something that I can't do.
See, that's why I can't depend on human beings 'cause God, God is God all by his self. Don't ever think God really needs you to do what he wanna do. God can do what he wanna do, all by himself, hallelujah. He still sits high and looks low. He's still the Almighty God. He's still Jehovah Jireh. He's still Jehovah Mekadesh. God can do whatever he wants to do. And I'm gonna trust him. He gonna turn darkness into light. Now here's what I like. How many ever had some, how many... everybody have. How many have experienced some rough places over these last two years, you've experienced some rough places.
Now hold on to this one now. The rough places, he says, "I'm gonna put it on level ground". Now here's a promise. "These are the things I do," O glory to God, "and I do not forsake them". I'm telling you, God's at work on your behalf right now. Don't you quit. Don't you quit 'cause you don't see it right now. You stay hooked to him, he gonna stay hooked to you. This thing's getting ready to happen. This is where you're gonna see souls being saved like never before. When they see God turn it all around for you. When they can't understand why you ain't in your rough place no more. What happened? Somebody forgot to tell me what happened.
You say, "Baby, I been telling you the whole time. It's God. I've been telling you God is good, not because I'm good, but God's just good and I just trust him. I know I ain't there yet. I know I got a lot of stuff going on. But God is good, and I'm gonna stay hooked up to that good God, 'cause I need that good God". Look at Saint John 1:5 in the ESV. Saint John 1:5, hallelujah. I believe I don't preach myself happy. Glory be to God, hallelujah. "Well, you know, I don't like all the hollering and screaming". Go, please.
When you know Jesus and you are in his presence, and if he's ever delivered you out of anything, if he's ever delivered you out of a ditch, if he ever delivered you out of sickness and disease, if he ever delivered you out of debt, if he ever delivered you out of a toxic relationship, you better learn how to shout and you better learn how to praise him, because he is worthy to be praised, hallelujah, somebody. He's worthy. My God. My God. So forgive me if I done stepped away from proper for a moment. I can't get it out of my head how when I was sick, he healed me. I couldn't get it out of my head that when I was in deep debt, he delivered me. I can't get it out of my head when I was broke and it hurt, that he made it all right and gave me peace. I got to praise him. I got to give him glory. I got to shout and God would have... 'Scuse me, 'scuse me while I shout a little bit. 'Scuse me while I praise God a little bit. 'Scuse me while I lift my hands up just a little bit. Excuse me. My God, my God, my God. I will not allow fear and darkness to keep me down when I have the light of Jesus Christ and the light of his Word. Not gonna do it.
Now, look at John 1:5. I like to shout and praise him, but my time go by too. Let's turn to John, John 1. I keep doing it. You ought to shout on your own time. Oh man, verse 5, he said, "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it". The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can't overcome it. You might minister to somebody that's in dark and they didn't get saved at that point. But at that time, you might just be somebody just sowing a seed. And then somebody come after you and just water the seed. But remember, you're not the one that's responsible for the increase. God says, "Some plant, some water, but I get the increase". God says "I get increase. So keep sowing and keep watering, and keep sowing and keep watering".
The light shines in the darkness. It works. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness will never overcome the light. Glory to God, no matter how they acting, no matter what they're doing. You dark, what you talking, what I've got is light. What I have is more powerful than what you have. And the thing about light, sometimes you ain't got to have a big old flashlight. A little bitty one still break through it. Go to Saint John 8, verse 12 in the ESV. I'll just stick in that translation for a moment. Saint John's chapter 8, verse 12, in the ESV. Glory to God. "Again Jesus spoke to them, saying," Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life".
How do you share a Scripture even, it can't get no plainer than this. If you're in darkness, follow Jesus. There's no other way out of darkness, except following Jesus. I don't care how much understanding you get of the world, you cannot get out of darkness except follow Jesus. Somebody say, "Well", somebody says, "Follow him? Where he at"? It's his Word. Follow his Word. Follow his Word. Follow his light, follow the truth. Grace and truth. Jesus is grace and truth. Grace is the truth that makes men free. Follow his Word. If you follow Jesus, "I'm the light of the world. Whosoever follows me will not walk in darkness". The opposite is true. Whosoever doesn't follow him walks in darkness. That's what he's talking about. He's talking about the number of people in the world who just cease to follow him. They got entangled in a bunch of principles, they got entangled with everybody trying to prosper without Jesus. They got entangled to self-ambitions, and they're in darkness and don't even know it because of all of the self-help material that's out in the world today.
It should have been Jesus helping. We don't want Jesus's help no more, we want self-help. Jesus ain't helping me quick enough. Anything you get quickly, you gonna lose quickly. There are some lessons to learn on your way to where you going. And besides, what is it that God's called you to do? Why did he allow you to be born on the earth to do? You just choosing something 'cause you see somebody else doing that? They got an anointing to do it, but you don't. But you wanna do it because it's a whole lot of money. And mammon is ruling the world. Mammon is fear-based. Mammon says, "I don't need God, and I don't want him". Mammon says, "I value money more than I value God because I'm afraid that God can't do for me what money can". And so the whole world is blinded by mammon. Governments are blinded by mammon. People are blinded by mammon. I guarantee you, oh, I'd be so close to say about 90% of the issues in our world today is mammon-driven, mammon-based, which is grounded and rooted in fear. It is.
You know the risk you take when you meet a new person and they say some kind thing to try to get you and you don't know them? It's like, dude, let's just get to the very end. Tell me right at the beginning what do you want? That's what I do. All right, tell me what do you want. And if you lie, I'm gonna know you're lying. Just tell me what you want. "Oh, but the Lord just told me to serve you". For what? Why? Why? You don't know me. Why do you want, tell me. "Well", don't give me all that deep stuff. I'm past, God, I can't say that. Let's just say I have a meter, a monitor. Yeah, for all that stuff. And you gotta be cautious. Dude coming up to a woman, he trying to wrap, you're like, "Oh, so why you want me? Why you want me"? Woman coming up to you, "Why you want me"? You know, and if I was you, dude, if you do have a lot of money, you need to play broke for a minute and see if they still want you. Get you some false teeth that look yellow.
Bad advice. Bad advice. Ain't nobody gonna talk to no yellow teeth. You smile and say, "Praise the Lord". They say, "Oh, yeah". Follow Jesus. That's like, "old-fashioned". "I don't wanna go to no church where they're talking about following Jesus". And watch this now. "I don't wanna follow Jesus because Jesus was a hite man. I don't wanna follow Jesus because that picture of Jesus, that's just really, that came from a Michelangelo painting and that was a model". Well, we know that. Any kind of excuse. "Well, there ain't no Jesus". You see where it's going? It went from Jesus being a White man, that you can't trust Jesus, to ain't no such thing as Jesus, to all right, so who we dealing with now? Watch this. Yourself or you can pick out any god you want to. A higher power. Oh, you think the name gonna change the fact that you devalued God? "My higher power is that chair".
Oh, let me see if that chair can heal you. Let me see if that chair can deliver you. Let me see if that chair can... what? It's just stupid, crazy. I'm gonna follow Jesus, so I can stay in the light. If you don't follow Jesus, and you don't follow his Word, you're in darkness. I can't take that chance. I can't die and then everything the Word says comes to pass and I am now face to face with, like, oh my God, there is life after death. There is a heaven and oh my God, I'm seeing people gone ahead of me and they're there, right there. It's not like I can re-enter my body again and "My bad, God. Give me another chance". I won't risk that with my eternal life.