Creflo Dollar - Transformed By Delight - Part 2
True delight in him causes us to take our sights off of what we want in order to long for what he wants. When you’re operating in true delight, «delight yourself in the Lord,» this is what it looks like. You take your sights off what you want, and you put your sights on what he wants, and you take your sights off what you want in order to long for what he wants. And there’s a longing here. There’s a longing here to be able to long, God, I want your will for my life. But that can’t happen if you’re constantly in self-indulgence. Can I go there for a minute? Self-indulgence. Self-indulgence, ladies and gentlemen, it’s the desire of the flesh. It is not a longing for what God wants in your life, it’s a longing for what you want for your life and the different cravings, you know, people have different cravings, right?
You crave food, you crave sex, you crave adultery, you crave drugs, you crave whatever you crave, okay? And you know what the real issue is around the issue of craving something? You know, I thought, well, how do you defeat a crave? Well, you resist it and you fight against it. Yeah, kinda, but you need to find the root of your craving. The reason why you crave what you crave is a belief problem. «What do you mean, 'A belief problem'»? You believe that the thing you crave will make you happy. Yeah, you believe that drinking that little liquor right there, you, «I gotta have that 'cause that’ll make me happy».
Most of your addictive behaviors are fueled because you believe it’ll make you happy. And all you gotta do is look at it, just look at the end results of the thing. It don’t make you happy, your head hurt. You know, I believed that Krispy Kreme donuts made me happy until Ken and I in New York got two dozen, and it made us sick. I don’t ever want no donuts no more with all that sugar on it because I was just craving it because I believed it would make me happy. So you think that by having a wife and a girlfriend or a boyfriend gonna make you happy. Until that shotgun come out, you believe it’ll make you happy. So until you change your belief about being happy concerning the thing you crave, you’re still gonna be doing it. I smoke weed because, well, I don’t smoke weed anymore, but I want to correct that because people will hear that and say, «Pastor smoke weed. You heard what he said on there»?
As an example, I smoke weed because I believe that it’s gonna make me happy, and you’ll feel goofy for a minute. Until one day, the results of it shows up in your life and you’re not as sharp as you used to be and you’ve been smoking forever and all kinds of stuff going on. You’ve got to change. What is it gonna take before you realize that is a deception, you’re craving something because you think it’s gonna make you happy? Are y’all hearing what I’m saying? But true delight is when we take our sights off what we want, and we finally get to a place where we long for what he wants. I want what he wants for me. He made me, he wired me, so there’s something about me that I might not know about that he knows about and I want what he wants from me.
And you know, a lot of people are not interested in what God wants for them. You know what they want, they want what they want. And I don’t know if there’s anything I can do about that. I know the Spirit of God can do something about that. But that’s what real delight looks like. I want what you want, Lord. I want what you want. And then the fear of denying your craving comes up and you think, «But what about this and what about that»? And you’ve never even given him the opportunity to show you that what he wants for you is so much better than what you want for yourself. So much better than what you want for yourself. And I know it’s scary, trying to figure out are you gonna like what God wants for you? Well, here’s the next part of that now.
Let’s take it slow. So, we looked at what delight is and I’m gonna keep working on that, but let’s look at «give». «Delight yourself in the Lord, he’ll give the desire of your heart». It’s so interesting, the Hebrew here, that the word «give,» it does not mean to pass on a nice gift. So it’s not talking about pass on a nice gift, but it means to make a change in you. To impart or to assign as in, give you a new hair color, give you the kind of internal desire or attitudes you should have, give you the desire or attitude, like give you patience and give you kindness. This is what happens when you delight yourself in the Lord. He’s gonna give you, assign you, impart unto you, make a change in you. It doesn’t mean pass a nice gift. It’s not, oh, I want a car, so God’s gonna give you the car that’s in your heart.
No, he’s not saying that. He says, no, I’m not going to pass on a gift to you. I’m gonna impart something on you. I’m gonna assign something to you. I’m gonna give you something you didn’t have. I’m gonna give you a attitude. I’m gonna give you a right desire. I’m gonna give you patience. I’m gonna give you kindness. He’s accepting the entire responsibility for what happens when you delight in him. Here’s another view of this word «give». In the Hebrew there, this language means to bestow or to apply it. Now, if you delight, here’s what he’s saying. If you delight, now here’s what it means. If you allow God to lead you, if you allow God to direct your life like you’re completely dead, then God will apply. He will put his desire into your heart, not give you what is in your heart, but what is in God’s heart, he will put in your heart. He says, «You delight yourself unto me».
If you will give God an opportunity to lead you, give God an opportunity to direct your life, he says, «I’m gonna give you me. I’m gonna give you me. I’m gonna give you my heart. I’m gonna give you me. I’m gonna give you me. I’m not gonna give you what’s in your heart. I’m gonna give you what’s in my heart. I’m gonna give you my heart». I want God’s heart. I want what’s God, I want what’s in his heart, okay? I don’t know how the desire got in my heart for whatever it is, but I want what’s in his heart, and when I get him, then what’s in my heart I want because that’s what’s in his heart. And you gotta ask the question: What’s in your heart, was that in God’s heart? Is that in God’s heart? What’s in your heart, is that in God’s heart? I want what’s in your heart. I don’t see any way we can do this without a relationship with him. 'Cause I don’t know all the scriptures to apply to having this kind of relationship with him.
I do know, I do know I would love to have the assurance that what’s in my heart came from you, that was your heart. And a lot of you right now probably are carrying what’s in your heart that was in God’s heart. I’m just saying that sometimes in your life where you might have to question what is this in my heart? Is that God’s heart? Say out loud, «I want God’s heart». See, I want God to apply his heart and to assign his heart to my heart. And he says the only way I’m gonna do that is I’m gonna delight myself in him. I’m going to have the courage enough to let him lead me and to let him direct me and to let him teach me and let him show me and at least get to the point where I’m saying, Lord, I just wanna make sure that my heart and your heart are the same.
So I don’t just take off and just start doing stuff. That wasn’t your heart in the first place. Oh my goodness. I tell you the glory is about to increase in your house. I want what’s in his heart. Yeah, he did say that. I want what’s in God’s heart. How? Delight myself in him. Let him lead me, let him direct my life. And let him do it as if, like I’m completely dead and have no control. Someone might say, «But, brother Dollar, I’m enjoying sin». And the Bible says you’ll have pleasure for a season. «But what do I do? What do I do? You’re telling me to do this, but I’m telling you I’m enjoying what’s in my heart. I know it’s wrong, but I’m enjoying it». For a season. He says, «Delight». What do I do? «Delight». What do I do? «Delight». I’m enjoying sin. He says, «What do I do»? «Delight,» and he changes the desire.
What does it look like? Lord, you love me with a never-ending, undying, unconditional love. You’ll never leave me nor forsake me. I am the righteousness of God. Let these things lead you. Let love lead you. Somebody says, «Well, I can’t hear from God real good». All right, so we know what we can do. God is love, okay? Let love lead you. Let love lead your life. When you’re tempted to treat somebody wrong, ignore somebody, gaslight. I don’t even know if I know what that means, but I don’t even know if it’s appropriate in a sense, but kinda heard it and I don’t, you know. So if you’re tempted, I think it’s a negative thing, but if you’re tempted to do that, he says, let love lead you.
Let the fact that you’re righteous, let that lead you. Let the fact that he said, «I’ll never leave you, nor forsake you,» let that lead you. «Oh, I’m trying to hear from God, but I can’t». But you know that he’s love. Let it lead you. Go down the path of love, and if it’s not love, it’s probably not him. I know we get hurt. I know we get frustrated. I know we get mad and we’re tempted to let hurt, frustration, and madness lead us. But that’s not God’s heart. See, I don’t care how powerful the revelation is, and I don’t care how many times you can prophesy people’s addresses, I want love to lead me. Because anything that happens that takes me away from the cross, I don’t wanna have nothing to do with it. Praise the Lord.
I know the Bible says, «Examine your heart,» but I wanna look up before I look in. Because if I look in without looking up, I might be looking in and finding some darkness in my life and it’ll tell a thousand lies to me. It’ll tell me I’m nothing. It’ll tell me I’m not righteous. It’ll tell me that God doesn’t love me. But if I look up and God says, «I love you, I’ll never leave you, nor forsake you. You are my righteousness,» then when I look in the darkness in my life, I bring some light in there and I can see clearly that even though it exists, praise God, I’m gonna let those things lead me. Are y’all hearing me this morning?
See, grace doesn’t just reveal what Jesus has already done. Grace wants to transform you. It is good for your heart to be filled with grace. Why? He wants to transform your life. And he wants you to have a relationship with the spirit of grace. Grace is not that which allows you to do something and get away with it and God’s just fine with it. Grace is that thing that teaches you how to overcome the thing that you used to do, that you used to get away with. He still loves you. How you behave doesn’t change him, but how you behave may change you. Your behavior doesn’t change God. God loved you before you got saved. He loved you when you was acting like a fool, trying to be cool.
God’s always loved you because he doesn’t have love, he is love. But your behavior may be impacting your life negatively. And grace wants to move you into transformation. And he made it so easy. He says, «Just by beholding Jesus, you’ll be changed by the Holy Ghost. And just by delighting in me and trusting me and commend your ways unto me and letting me lead you and guide your life and letting me apply my heart to your heart,» he says I’ll change. «All I need for you to do is let me. See me. Behold me, let me, see me, delight in me. I’m not asking you to do…» How hard is that? Behold and delight. He didn’t ask you to do nothing. He said, «Behold, and the Holy Ghost will transform you». He said, «Delight, and I will deliver you».
He knows how to change your want to. Just because you wanna do something now, doesn’t mean you’re gonna always wanna do it. He’ll change you. And that’s why you can’t buy in to the identity that the world tells you to accept because God has given you his identity and if you’ll accept his identity, he will change you, he will mold you, he will make you, praise God. The only thing that’s set in stone is what he said. And every attack of the enemy is an attack on your identity. That’s why the devil is so afraid that you’re gonna start using your identity in Jesus to resist temptation. Temptation will never overcome a believer who will not let go of his identity. I am the righteousness of God. I am redeemed. I am holy, I am sanctified, and I am perfect in Jesus Christ.
That’s who I am. Not because I act like it, but because that’s who he made me and if I can hold on to how he made me long enough. He’ll make me over again. Y’all getting this? True transformation is when the desire has been changed, not just when the actions change. True transformation is not true transformation because you stop doing something. It’s not just when the actions stop. It’s when the desire has changed. That’s true transformation. So you think you really changed because you stopped doing something. But it’s still in your heart, which means one day you’re gonna have the potential to do it again. Honey, when God change you, he wants to change you completely. And he’s already started.
Let me tell you, some of y’all in here, you know good and well, you ain’t nowhere near what you used to be. Nah, you ain’t. Even if he ain’t changed but a little bit, a little bit better than none at all, but you’re not what you used to be. And the more you give to him, the more he’s able to do for you. Now he know how to change you. He might have to expand the program a little longer. You know some of them folks who go 20 years in college and six years in high school, they still came out. They got their degree, praise the Lord, but it just took a while. 'Cause some people want to do what they wanna do. I like what Taffi said this weekend. I kept saying, I said, «Please tell me that again». She said, «You know what, when people say they wanna do something,» she said, «I’m gonna reply like this, 'Have at it.'»
Because life is a teacher. You hear me? If you don’t want to listen to nobody, you don’t want to listen to nobody. Life is a teacher. Have at it, boss. 'Cause sometimes you get tired of wanting it more than the individuals want it. You gotta want it. I want it more than you do. I mean, how can I invest in somebody that won’t invest in themselves? It’s just like this. You can’t tell me you love me and I find out you don’t even love yourself. How am I supposed to believe you love me and you don’t even love you? Mighty quiet in this, I just, some of y’all looking at me like, «I think I’m getting off the bus».
Look at Philippians 2:13 in the NLT. You are being transformed, ladies and gentlemen. The day you heard the gospel, your transformation started. We couldn’t figure it out. We knew something was going on, like somebody was moving our furniture around. We knew something was happening because we, like, «God dog, oh, I remember the day». Yeah, but look at what the spirit of grace has already done and don’t you want to know the heart of God? Don’t you want his heart and your heart and you’re walking around and every time you show up, the anointing shows up with you. You walk in a department store and everybody demands an explanation of what just happened.
The atmosphere just changed 'cause you walked in there. That’s what I’m talking about. This glory is about to increase in your life. We’re not just gonna be religious people that go to church, praise the Lord, and have our little religious language, and no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, it’s time, it’s time for the authenticity of this relationship of grace to flow out of us so people will know there is something about you that’s not like what I don’t… who are you? What’s your name? Where you came from?
I sensed something. Oh, my hand just got healed. Oh, and then I’m fell out and you didn’t do nothing. You just trying to talk to them y’all at the grocery store. Folks are falling out. You just trying to get some manna. You don’t even know what’s going on. That’s what I’m talking about. I don’t want to miss what the anointing is like on a physical human body. I don’t want to miss what the glory is like on a physical human body. 'Cause I let the influencers of the world convince me ain’t nothing special about me, I’m just a human. No, I’m not just a human. I’m anointed by God. I have the presence of a Holy Ghost living on the inside of me, glory to God. This thing about to wrap up. It’s our last opportunity It’s our last opportunity to see us like we really are.