Creflo Dollar - How To Have A Godly Mentality - Part 1
Have you noticed the number of suicides that's been taking place this past year? There's a reason for that. And I want to start off with this statement. Young lady killed herself yesterday and this statement just really caught me. I think the statement said, "Living is overrated". Oh, I heard that. That was so sad. Those kind of things don't just happen. There is a explanation and a reason for those kind of things happening. They happen because of unseen spirits that church people don't even believe in sometime. There are unseen spirits that have been released to take advantage of those who don't believe. The Bible says to blind the minds of them that believe not so that the glorious gospel won't enter in.
Now, I thought about that statement: living is overrated. Do you know how upside down that is? It's like you're deceived to such a point, something has deceived you into thinking that death is better than living. Living is overrated and... woo, my heart went out. I almost like, you know, "God, help me to help others like never before. There's got to, I want to get a gigantic light and just start shining it on the situation". Everybody has days where they're down, and everybody has days when they're up. Everybody has days when you are attacked emotionally. Everybody has those days where you just kind of wake up and it's just, it ain't that today, but death is not the answer. And I think a day before that a CEO of a large company jumped from a building or something. And it's like, "What's going on"? That's not the answer. That's the devil; and he wants to kill, steal, and destroy.
And I need to do a couple of teachings so you can understand this so you can help spread this around so that you can see this is the realm that he operates in, and you need to wake up to understand that these demonic spiritual forces, it's not like the exorcist or a scary movie. This is real. And they operate in an invisible realm through the power of suggestion to try to destroy your life in every area, and there's a constant attack. Have you ever noticed you can be in the bed lying still getting ready to go to sleep and your mind still working? Your emotions are still going on. You're still looking at, you're still physically, but emotionally you're active. Just activity going on the whole time there.
So what I'm going to do is I want to take these Scriptures, most of them that you are familiar with, and I want you to know that the gospel of grace, there's about to be an explosion of a move of God like never before and Satan is just trying to, actually, he just wants you out of the way. But we've got to begin to really hunger for souls and ask God to help you in situation of soul-winning to bring people to the Lord to deliver them out of that darkness. Some people just don't know unless we tell them. You hear what I just said? Some people won't know unless we tell them, you know. It's like the little girl who was sitting in this center I was at, and I walked in and she says, "Hi, how are you doing? You're going to have such a blessed day today". And then she paused and she says, "Do you know Jesus"? I said, "See, that's what I'm talking about".
It was like she was sitting there waiting on anybody to walk through that door so she can say, "Do you know Jesus"? So she can introduce them to Jesus. Once you see what's going on here, I pray that you have such a urge and a hunger to tell people about Jesus Christ. Again, if we don't tell them, then they won't know. So let's get into this. I started this yesterday morning in our daily confessions and I thought, "Well, you know, I'll finish it the next daily confession". I thought, "No, I need to crank something up at Bible study". So if you have your Bibles, in John chapter 10, John chapter 10 and verse 10, now, I need to say this. Satan is real. He's a archangel that was responsible for praise and worship who rebelled against God and declared independence from God. He is real.
Now, he is the enemy of every born-again Christian. We all have an enemy, and his name is Satan. His heavenly name was Lucifer, but when he fell and rebelled against God and then convinced Adam and Eve to do the same thing, he is your enemy and you've got to know how he operates. And so you have an enemy. Satan is your enemy. Now notice this verse 10:10. We know it, but let's examine it. Look what he says. "The thief", so this is the first thing we know about him. He is a thief. "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to," what? Kill. And to what? Destroy. All right? So you see his assignment. He will, wherever you see stealing, wherever you see killing, wherever you see destruction, it's the thief. Somebody says, "No, it's not. It's that guy right there," or, "It's that woman right there".
See, you got to understand how it operates. In order for Satan to operate in the earth, he is constantly looking for some body, some bodies, some body. He needs a body. He needs an earth suit to carry out stealing, killing, and destruction. So the question is, will you allow him to use your body? All right, now watch this. "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy". And so Jesus says, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly". The problem is is we're blaming God for something Satan is responsible for. He's getting the blame for somebody dying. He's, "Why'd you let that happen, God? Why you allow that to happen, God? Why weren't you there"? No, no, no, no. There's a devil loose, okay, and you've got to recognize this.
Somebody says, "Well, I don't believe in Satan, and I don't believe in the devil". You know what? He has accomplished one of his greatest feats right now, and that is to get you to not believe. He don't care if you believe or not. He would rather you not believe in him so that his operation can go unhindered, but you, it's not like God, you're not hurting his feelings. You're not hurting God's feelings either, but you're not disrupting anything if you don't believe in him. He wants you not to believe in him because his operation is based in deception. "How can I deceive you"? It's all about deception. It's all about getting you to think that you know something you don't know, getting you to think that you understand something you don't understand. Deception, especially self-deception, you think you know something, but you really don't know but you think you know it. All right?
So that is his MO. He comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But Jesus said, "I come that you might have life, and that you might have it in abundance; to the full, until it overflows". But the thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy. So please understand that. He's not coming to be your friend. That's not your ride or die. You understand? He's not coming to do that. He is coming to set you up for this objective: kill, steal, and destroy. Now, let's look at 1 Peter chapter 5 and 8. I thought, "Man, I'm going to just go through this thing, and we're going to nail him down". 1 Peter chapter 5 and 8. Verse 8 says this: "Be sober, be vigilant for the adversary, your adversary".
You have an adversary, your enemy. Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, he's walking about seeking whom he may devour. So if he has to seek whom he may devour, that means he just can't devour anybody. So who would be prime candidate for him to devour? Let's look at this in the New Living Translation. 1 Peter 5:8 in the New Living Translation. He says, "Stay alert". Now I'm telling you right now stay alert. Stay alert, especially now. There's an all-out attack. There's an all-out attack right now. Stay alert. Especially against Christian people, there's an all-out...if you hadn't had an attack on you, I'm telling you there's an all, everybody I know that's saved, under some serious pressure. It's all kinds of pressure, but it's like gaddog. It's like, "Can I meet a brother that ain't going through", everybody I know right now, and it confirms what the Bible says. The Bible says that they that live godly, they that live godly shall what? Suffer persecution. But we know how to handle this thing.
All right, now watch this. Stay alert. Turn to your neighbor and say, "Stay alert". "Watch out for your great enemy". Watch out for him. Watch out for the devil. Watch out for him. Don't just sit up there and say, "Well, that's just that person". Don't reduce it down to a human activity. He said watch out for him now. So he's going to come with, you know, very subtle. He going to come just like he did in the Garden of Eden very subtle. He might not have the body of a snake, but he might come very subtle. He might have a body of your cousin, or your best friend, or your husband, your wife. He might have that body. So it says, "Stay alert and watch out for him. He prowls around like a roaring lion".
Now, he's not a lion, but he's acting like one, looking for someone to devour. Will he find you? He's looking for somebody to devour. You know, I don't think people get it. You know, kill yourself, that's it. That's like, that's it. Your human physical experience is done. You think that, "I'm going to kill myself and I'm just going to sleep. I'm going to kill myself and, bam, I'm just, you know, it's over". Dude, it just started. You thought you had hell here. Try having hell in hell.
Now, I got a lot of things to say about suicide, and one of them is not that everybody that commit suicide goes to hell. I don't believe that. I believe that suicide is like cancer in some ways. It's sickness; I believe, emotional sickness. People that are emotionally sick and, you know, they just didn't know how to handle certain things. You know, if they made Jesus the Lord of their life and they're born again, the only thing you got to do to get to heaven is to get born again. Now, you know, just like people die of sickness and disease, certainly I don't condemn people to hell because they died of cancer or they died of a heart attack and... no, no, no. Well, I feel the same way.
Now somebody say, "I don't agree". I don't care. I believe that emotional sickness is just as real as physical sickness, and I believe a lot of people killed themselves and died because they were emotionally, they were in emotional sickness, they were in pain, and they handled it in a way that they didn't know how to handle it under the deception of the devil, finding somebody he could take advantage of and push them on into doing something. You have to be out of your right mind to do something like that. You understand what I'm saying? You got to be right, out of your right mind. But the thing about it, and I know this. I sat on a bucket. I have had suicidal ideations. I know the voices that speak. I've heard those voices that say, "Just kill yourself". I've sat down and stared at a gun for 12 hours. And they speak to you. And you're sitting there listening to it and it's real clear, and you're like, "What am I doing? What am I doing"?
Sometimes these people kill themselves and they say, while they're doing it they say, "What am I doing? What am I doing"? Because the enemy, seeking whom he may devour, is talking to them and saying things to them that in that state of mind make sense, and you don't think about that. You don't think about what's happening when you're on social media and a devil comes to you in social media in one little comment that mess your whole night up. "Well, I need to talk to somebody". Don't talk to social media. Don't air your laundry out on no social media. Are you kidding me? Beelzebub and his friends on social media. He looking for someone to devour on social media. Are you listening to me? This thing is real, and it's becoming more real. I mean, I hate burying somebody who committed suicide because I'm thinking, "Oh, what future was just canceled? What invention that we'll never get a chance to see? What was God's plan for this soul that was deceived by demonic influences"? Are you listening to me?
Now, let's go to 2 Corinthians 4:4 in the NLT. Somebody say, "Take your time, Pastor". We're going to get this thing. You're going to have this thing. When this thing, if this thing try to come to you and talk to you, you got one way to respond. "Shut up and get out. Shut up. I ain't hearing that. I'm not hearing that". 'Cause sometimes physically you get tired, emotionally you get tired, in your head you get tired; and when you get tired, that's when you start, you know, thinking stupid stuff. "Well, you know, I'm might as well, I just don't even want to be here no more. I'm tired. I'm just, I don't want to be here". And it's sad. You know, you're by yourself, you're lonely, you're tired, you're misunderstood, and you're just, that's when you need one of them good Christian friends that be talking the Word to you when you don't want to hear it sometimes. You need one of them preaching friends.
"Oh, but the Bible says this, and, you know, the Holy Ghost was telling me this. You know, the other day I was praying you came up in my spirit. Hallelujah. Don't you say...you stand up right now. You rebuke that the", that's what you need to hear right now. You don't need some old carnal friend that talking about, "Well, I feel the same. Well, we'll do it together". No, man. This thing real. All right, now watch this. "Satan, who is the god," small-G god, "of this world", or this world's system or this world's way of doing things, look what he's done. He has blinded what? All right, hold on. Hold on. Don't go too quick. He's blinded what? This is where you win it or lose it, right here. This is Satan's battleground right here. The mind is the arena of faith. How does he attack the mind? I had another answer, but in light of the Mentality Conference that comes up...wow. Through suggestions and inferiority. The power of suggestion, the thing that you're walking and living your life and this suggestion pops up. That's how he works.
He works through, number one through suggestion. Number two, by attacking your identity. You're not sure that you're the righteousness of God. You're not sure that you've been redeemed. You're not sure that you're saved. He's going to attack your identity just like he did Adam and Eve's and just like he did Jesus. "Hath God said? Hath God said"? He said same thing with Jesus. "If thou be the Son of God", just trying to get you to doubt a little bit. Just a little small suggestion, "If thou be the son of God, then do this". What do you mean "if"? You know exactly who he is. Why would you even do that? You know he was the angel of the Lord that showed up when Abraham was getting ready to kill his son. "And the angel of the Lord said," I believe that was Jesus right there before he took on his body, before the Word became flesh. So Satan knew who he was, and yet Jesus in his physical body he came and said, "If thou be". And Jesus was saying, "All right, Satan, get thee hence. I'm done. You know who I am". He does same thing with this. "If you really are righteous, if God has really forgiven you already".
See, the greatest fear, that's the third thing he uses. The greatest fear that Satan can put on Christian people is the fear that what God promised won't happen. You worried about being scared and... no, no, no. He wants you to be afraid that what God promised won't happen. He wants you to be afraid that what you're living by is not true. He wants you to be afraid that what you're not, that what you're standing on won't come to pass. That's the fear. He will visit you every day to get you to doubt and question who you are and what you believe. Just to question. Anything he just gets you to question, just gets you to question.
You know, when I first started teaching the gospel of grace, I remember, you know, that coming to me saying, "Lord, is this really right"? Just to get me to question it. That would have been just enough, but here's the thing that helped me. God didn't even answer me. Like, "What"? And I answered myself, I said, "Oh, yeah". And I said, "Even if it wasn't, I'd never go back to living by the law no more as long as I live". Getting you to question and doubt, that's what fear is. Fear is just many moments of doubt. It's a moment of doubt. So he blinds the mind of those who...now watch this. This is so cool. Well, it's not cool, but it's cool that we understand this. "Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who," what? Don't believe.
So he's working on people who don't believe. And there are some areas in the Christians life that they don't believe because of what I just explained. But he's working on people who don't believe. He blinds the mind of those who don't believe. He's got a reason for blinding the mind of people who don't believe. We all have those relatives who don't believe and their minds are blind. I mean, they blind as a bat. They blind. He blinds the mind of them that don't believe. He says, "They are unable to see the glorious light of the good news. They don't understand this message about the glory of Christ". And I got to tell you something. Somebody says he blinds the mind of them that don't believe. He also blinds the mind of religious people so they can't see the gospel of grace. It is amazing to me the number of people that go to church that can't see this glorious gospel.