Creflo Dollar - What Happens When Fear Becomes Bondage - Part 2
Look at Colossians 1:27 and 28 in the, first of all, in the King James Version and then we'll go to NIV. Colossians 1:27, 28. He says, "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you," Christ in you, it's the hope of glory, hallelujah. "Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ". Now look at verse 28 in the NIV. He says this. "He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ".
I declare in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth that my focus is on him. My focus, your focus is on him. We're focusing on the only one that can help you, glory to God. And I'm gonna stay focused on him and Satan wants to steal our focus off Christ and get our focus on something else. Get our focus on everything else that's going on in the world. When everything else is going in the world, like it's going on right now, you got be a good steward of what you allow enter in your heart. You can't sit up and listen to the news all day long about how many more people got COVID, and these people got that and that many people died today, and that many people, you can't sit up there. You sit up there and listen to that you're feeding yourself with the seeds of fear.
And before you know it, you gonna wake up, you gonna be scared. Somebody sneeze around you're within a hundred miles. "Oh, Jesus". You can't do that. You can't do that. Say this out loud. "Greater is he that is in me, than he that is in the world". The Bible says, "We preach Christ and not ourselves. We are not perfect in ourselves. We are however perfect in Christ". Say, "I'm perfect in Christ". You know what? Focus is how real transformation takes place. When you focus on God's Word, that transformation of healing takes place. When you focus on what's going on in the world, that fear, that transformations of fear takes place. What's your focus? What's your focus? I done been there several times. What's your focus? My focus could not be on the cancer, my focus had to be on the healing. If I got up every day, focusing in on the cancer, I wouldn't be here. My focus was not on the cancer I had already received.
I sat down one day and I said, with your stripes I am healed, I receive your healing now. I set my stance and that's why I stood. I'm there. My focus is there. I'm healed in Jesus's name. Every time the pain will come. "I'm healed in Jesus's name". Every time a thought would come. "I'm healed in Jesus's name". Every time I saw, and it is weird things going on. Every time I'd pass a funeral home or a funeral and it just go through my body, "I'm healed in Jesus's name". Every time I do a funeral, I'm looking like, "Oh dear, I'm healed in Jesus's name". No devil, if you wanna fight, put your gloves on. I am not gonna shrink, I'm not gonna be some spiritual sissy, you wanna fight? I'm telling you greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world.
I'm gonna fight the good fight of faith. You don't give up and quit and cave in. You fight the fight of faith. I'm healed in the name of Jesus. I'm protected in the name of Jesus Christ. His blood hallelujah, has already bought my healing. And you go for it. If you can't memorize all them Scriptures, you write it down somewhere and say, "Devil I can't remember it, but I can sure read it". And just open that thing up and read it until you run him out of the room with it. Run about with it and when he get ready to leave say, "No, come on, I got one more, I got the back part of this. You ain't heard this yet in the name of Jesus. Come on, come on. You wanna mess with me, I'm gonna mess with you back in the name of Jesus".
I remember when I got meningitis, I mean, you know, I don't say a lot of things, but it ain't like I have had a little smooth little walk. I've had to fight the fight faith. And I'm laying up in the hospital and the doc come back, "What's going on"? He says, "You got meningitis". I said, "Okay, what's the cure". He said, "We ain't got one". "We can make you comfortable," and I'm like, what? And I had to be in Nigeria that week. And I said, "Okay, let me get this straight. You ain't got no cure"? "No". "Okay, so you ain't got no cure and I'm laying here. I might as well get up and go". I said, "You can't do nothing for me, right"? Well, I mean, God knows somebody who can do something, "I know ah, I know a doctor". Y'all excuse me, I felt that thing. "I know a doctor". He said, "Well, if you get up and leave, it's against medical advice".
I'm like, I understand that, but you ain't gonna use me sitting here wasting no money, I might as well get out here against the medical advice and save some money. And I got on a commercial flight and went to Nigeria and preach. And let's see, yeah, I believe that was, I think that was four times a day and preached the gospel. I said, I figured, well, if you can't do nothing about it, ain't gonna use me stay stuck here. I might as well go to the one who can do something about it, and went there and preach four times a day for almost 30 days. I figured, if I'm gonna leave here, I'm gonna leave here in style. You understand what I'm saying? And God healed me.
Now, I don't advise anybody to do something like that unless the Lord leads you to do that. The Lord always lead me to do that. "Get up out of this bed, I got you". I'm telling you, man. Fear is the faith of the devil and I'm not gonna operate, I don't, and I don't tell people to do stuff that's foolish, you better make sure God said, said it to you, better make sure God has spoken to you. Oh, been through some stuff, boy. And I just thank God, that I'm alive and well. Glory be to God. I'm alive and well. My life was almost sniped out earlier this year, I'm still working on putting a tough testimony together. 'Cause some stuff happened, I didn't understand. I saw some stuff I ain't never seen before.
Heard some things I never heard before. Had experiences that I could, cannot put together is coming together now, even now it's stuff that I'm just, what in the world is this and what is that and what is going on? But God did what he always did, showed up and did a mighty thing. Showed up and did a mighty, you would notice when I left for that period of three weeks, I came back and you saw a real skinny. Had lost about 20, 30 pounds, amen. And I'm telling you, thank God, I know how to fight the good fight of faith. I saw the demons, they were contending for my life. I saw that angel the same one I saw during the car wreck when I was in, where was that? Sacramento, California, that's almost 20 something years ago, 20, 20, something years ago. Same one. And I had a choice, you can come if you want to. All you gotta do is make a decision, it's real easy. And I thought, well, sure a lot going on here. But I couldn't stand the fact that the devil would get the credit for me going. I said, "No, I don't believe he will". "I believe I want in on smashing his head in".
Focus is how real transformation takes place. Focus. Don't let this world and don't let the devil steal your focus. Focus. Everybody, say "Focus". Where's your focus? Whatever we focus on is what we give strength to. Do you spend half your day focus on COVID, now you need to run from it? Where's your focus? If I spent all my time focused on cancer and how it was gonna kill me, where's your focus? That was the first headache I gave the devil. I refused to focus and every time he opened his mouth, I beat him up with the Word of God. And if you have to write the Scripture down and he opened his mouth, "Oh, hold on, hold on a minute. No, no, you started it, stay right there. Stay right there, hold on a minute". "Okay, Isaiah". Start quoting to him.
And then he gonna start now. "That's right". "No, no, no, you sit right here. You started it. What's wrong, what's the matter with you? What's the matter with you"? And you sit down there and you read your page and a half to the devil and you bust him up with one Scripture and another Scripture and then he gonna leave it be for a minute, but see, that sucker gonna come back in the next five minutes, you gotta be right there. "I'm still here bro, what's up"? "I'm still here. You want something with me? Hey, you want something with me? I karate kick you, I karate kid you. You cannot be afraid of the enemy. 'A thousand will fall at thy side and 10,000 at thy right hand, but it shall not come near you.'" You gotta get ready to fight, put your fight on. You ain't got time to be scared. You ain't got time to walk in fear. You ain't got time to take the doctor's report and receive it 100%. It's time to fight and we only fight the good fight of faith.
I said, we only fight the good fight of faith. I said, we only fight the good fight of faith. Every now and then, every Christian need to look at the devil, squaring his little eye and say, "I ain't scared of you. I ain't scared of you. In fact, I'm tired of you. I'm tired of you. I ain't scared of you now in the name of Jesus, I'm gonna stand up bold, I will not move off, God's Word. I'm all ready to heal, protecting my health, in the name of Jesus. I walk by faith and not by sight. A thousand shall fall at my side, 10,000 at my right hand, but it shall not come near me. I am Psalms 91 equipped. I shall not be moved. Greater is he that is in me, than he that is in the world, hallelujah". You gotta fight the fight of the faith! I'm not too sure that one of the reasons I went through all that, so I can stand up with boldness. I'm not talking to you about something I ain't went through. Meningitis hit my body. Glory to God. Hit my spine.
Many people didn't know about that, I just didn't say nothing. I said, "You really gonna try that, huh? I'm not gonna be moved". I'm not gonna be moved. Greater is he, see, it's one thing for you to come to church and shout over this stuff, it's another thing for you to really believe it. I done been there. I done been right there in the middle of the devil's den, contending and fighting for my life. And I'm telling you some of the things that I saw, when Ken and I were in that car accident and you know, I saw it not too long ago on television. I think this past week, where that car was slipped upside down on a hill, it knocked the wheels off. It was a devilish thing. Never seen nothing like that before. I mean, that you had to see that truck, how violent that wreck was. And when the paramedics came, they said, "Nobody can be alive in that". And we started crawling out one by one. Everybody said, Ken, he flew about whoa, I'd say about 80 yards and landed in the front shield of a car.
And can you imagine a lady that was in that car, and all of a sudden this flying man comes and his head is on her lap. And as polite as he is, I would've want to excuse me ma'am but he couldn't see 'cause he had glass in his eyes the whole time. Once he went out, he knew he went out the thing and he was flying. I've done been through too much to doubt him now. He been too good, how am I gonna doubt him now? How am I gonna doubt him now. If he did it once, he'll do it again. Took me through meningitis, took me through cancer, took me when the devil tried to just snatch our lives. I mean, the devil was violent. It was the most violent wreck, it knocked three wheels out the car, I mean whole thing. The car landed on his hood.
And while all that was happening, I don't know how that happened, but I was in the spirit realm, looking at these people I knew who were on the other side and I was on this side and I thought, well, I'm gone, I'm getting ready to go on and enter in the glory. And the vibration of God's voice came in between me and all those other people he says, "No, too much unfinished business". And then I'm back in my body hanging upside down. Hit the seatbelt, fell into the grass, got out and said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa". Praising God, "Oh God". Looking at this, say "Oh God". I went to preach that night. I told the man to drive slow, but I went to preach. The Lord had delivered my life from a dangerous enemy to try to steal it. So excuse me, well I don't give a hoot on what somebody's saying about Creflo Dollar. I don't care. I don't care, nothing about all that YouTube mess and all that other kind of stuff. I won't look at it, don't care about it.
God, when he delivers you out of situations like that, you ain't got time to be concerned about something little old petty thing that somebody else talking about, they don't even know what they talking about. God has been mighty good to Creflo A. Dollar, hallelujah. He saved me, sanctified me, protected me, delivered me, he sent his angels and I saw him. I'm trying to stick with the subject but I will not fear. I will not fear what man will do unto me. I will not fear. God's been so good to me and you're right, and he been good to you too. So now is not the time for you to turn your back on God. Now is not the time for you to walk in fear.
Now is not the time for you to walk in doubt. You gotta go before God, "God, here I am, God, send me". Hallelujah. "You are my God. You are my protector. You are my deliverer. You are my healer. You are my balming Gilead. You are my rock of ages". Hallelujah. "You are my faith," glory be to God. I ain't quitting on him, he ain't never gonna quit on me, I ain't gonna never quit on him. Turn to your neighbor and say, "No fear". Don't let fear steal your focus. Focus on love instead of fear, because love expels fear. I said focus on love instead of fear, because love expels fear. Look at 1 John 4:18 in the NLT. 1 John 4:18 in the NLT, love expels fear. He says, "Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear," and that perfect love is the mature love towards God. The love that, that loving the way God tells you to love. "Perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment and this shows that we have not fully experienced his mature, perfect love".
Yeah, God loves me and I know it. Say that, "God loves me and I know it". "Oh, but Brother Dollar, I hadn't been perfect". Say it. "God loves me and I know it". If you were perfect, you wouldn't need God. In fact, why are you at church? Put your perfect self, go home and have a sandwich. None of us are, but in him, love is perfected. Praise God. Now, that was for warmup the first two, here's what I wanna get at. How do I know when I'm being controlled by fear?
Number three, when fear tempts you to hear outside influences or voices. When fear tempts you to hear outside influences or outside voices, there's a lot of that going on. People are in fear and they're hearing Information that doesn't come from God. Now write this down. This is a question. What do you do when fear sounds like God? It's really the voice of fear, but it sounds just like God. And if you're not in the Word and if you're not spending time in the Word and you're not spending time with God, you'll hear something and you thought it was God.
Let me show you what I'm talking about. Matthew 16, Verse 21 through 23 in the NLT. This is a situation, revelation knowledge had just come through Peter and Peter declared that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Boy, that was awesome. Revelation-knowledge came through Peter and he said, "Christ, you're the, you're the Christ, you're the, you're the anointed one. You're the son of the living God". But then look what happened afterwards. And you got to recognize when the devil shows up. He says, "From then on Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests and the teachers of religious law," the church.
Please understand the things that Jesus suffered, he didn't, it wasn't an unsaved mob, it was church folk. "He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead". That's Jesus saying, this is what's gonna happen. And listen to this boy. He had a little revelation flow through him in three chapter, three verses up, and now he think he ready for everything. He getting ready, he's trying to rebuke Jesus. But Peter took Jesus aside, heard from the Lord, one time. "Took Jesus aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. Heaven forbid, Lord, he said. This will never happen to you," he said.
Now, most of us, if we heard that, we just said, that's right Peter, right on bro. And didn't even recognize what was going on here. And look what Jesus said. Then, "Jesus turned to Peter and said, get away from me, Satan"! Whoa, "You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view," and not from a God point of view. Did you see what happened here? Immediately, Satan starts talking religiously. You don't have to die like this. And Jesus was like, that's God's will, yes I do. If I don't die like this, Peter, it's gonna be bad for you. Here's what I want you to see, Peter, said what he said, out of fear. Jesus rebuked him and he says, you're seeing things from merely a human point of view and not from a God point of view.