Creflo Dollar - The Holy Spirit: The Administrator of the New Covenant
So, we were sinners not because we broke the law, but we broke the law because we were sinners. So, we sinned because we had the old man, and we sinned because we had the sinful man. We sinned because we had the nature that wanted to sin. But now that you are born again, you do not have that old nature. You have to understand the difference. What Jesus did was set us free from the very root of the issue, the sin nature, the old man. You have been delivered from the sin nature. You have been delivered from the old man.
Now, the question that I get sometimes is, "Well, if I have been delivered from the root of sinning, then why am I still sinning"? Well, listen, you are a born-again, new-creation possessor, and you're still sinning because you still have the old mindset or software of the old man who's no longer there. So, the old man is gone, but the software needs to be renewed. The software needs to be changed. Your way of thinking needs to be changed. And check this out, if you're in a church, and they're preaching bad doctrine, or doctrine that lines up with performance-based, self-effort based, law-based living, then you can be born again like so many of us were, but are mind's not been renewed to the New Testament that gave birth for this new creation on the inside of us, and we're not getting any results.
So, your mind needs to be renewed. Somebody says, "With what"? With the Word of God. I'm gonna go a little deeper. Your mind needs to be renewed with the gospel of Jesus Christ, the New Testament covenant of grace. You understand what I'm saying? You see the problem if I just say, "Your mind needs to be renewed with the Word of God"? Your mind needs to be renewed with the gospel of Jesus Christ, preached by Paul. You need to renew your mind with what Paul preached.
I'm gonna talk to you when they were at the counsel of Jerusalem, man, and they were having this big debate going on, and Peter stood up and said something pretty momentous, and said, "Listen, man, the Gentiles, they believe just like we believe, and they got filled with the Holy Ghost like we can be filled with the Holy Ghost", and from that point on, man, that seems like it was a real specific thing that happened with Paul's gospel. You'll also find out this week there's a reason why, he wrote the book of Galatians because certain Jews from Judea were doing their best to take the converts of Paul and try to convince them that you need to be under the Mosaic law, and you need to experience circumcision.
And Paul said, "No, that ain't what we tryin' to do. You Jews are trying to get the Gentiles to act like you've been delivered out of. How y'all gonna do that"? And wrote the whole thing. In one chapter, he starts off with, "Who has bewitched you"? Who put a spell on you to make you think that somehow, it's by your performance instead of the news that you heard about Jesus Christ? Read the book of Galatians over again, man. We cannot continue to carry this new creation on the inside with a Mosaic law-based mindset. That's got to be renewed. You have to renew that. You know, you gotta bust through all the religion of, "Well, I'm gonna renew my mind with the Word of God". And I can't help but ask, "What word are you renewing your mind with"?
Somebody says, "Well, I'm renewing my mind with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John". Oh, dear God, you may be in a worse situation than you were when you were just on the other side of the Bible. Because, remember, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, even though it was written after the death of Jesus, it was about his life as a prophet under the law, walking on the earth, while the law was still valid. So, you have to be careful with some of the statements he makes. He will make some statements that are based clearly on Mosaic law, while he will say, "Up until now you hadn't asked me, but in this time to come", as he sets forth the New Testament. So, you gotta be careful what you read, because, if the truth be told, you better read it right, or you gonna end up cutting your hands off and plucking your eyes out.
"Well, bless God, I'm gonna read the red and everything will be alright if I read the red". Yeah, you see? You read the red without having a proper understanding of how to rightly divide between the law that came by Moses and the grace that came by Jesus Christ, you are going to be confused. You're looking at a Jesus who showed up and said, "I am gonna fulfill the law. Not one jot or tittle is gonna pass away until I fulfill every bit of it". And you gotta rightly divide when Jesus is talking. Is he fulfilling an area of the Mosaic covenant?
A rich young ruler came and said, "What do I need to do to be saved"? And Jesus tried to give him a little hint on what was coming on, but he didn't hear it, and he says, "Well, keep the commandments and you'll be saved, and your house will be saved, too". Alright, that's basically what we've been told at church. "What do you gotta do to be saved"? Keep the commandments. Keep the commandments. Well, he was referring to keep the commandments of Moses, but do you know that there is a new commandment in the New Testament? So, you gotta rightly divide. What commandment is he talking about? Is he talking about keeping the commandments that came by Moses, or is he talking about keeping the new commandment of love?
Instead of fussing about it, "Well, the Bible says that you gotta keep the commandments", yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you do have to keep the commandments, the new one: the love commandment. So, when you keep the love commandment, then you keep all of them. Because if you love, you're not gonna violate not one of those moral laws, not one of them. So, we've got to get this thing down, and we gotta get it down right. Now, there was some pretty interesting reasons why the law entered. It wasn't God's best plan, but there was a lot of sinning going on, and there was no standard to determine, you know, you guys are sinning and don't know you're transgressing anything.
So, we put the law of Moses in along with these other things, so that you would at least recognize that you transgressed something, or it would just go wild. It was almost like a mercy thing that God did, because the sin was so crazy, how can we preserve... men couldn't get born again. Please understand, nobody could get born again before Jesus came, so they had this old nature in them, and capable of doing anything. And it had to be curbed until Jesus could get in the earth. And the only way to do it was people had to die, and they did. Do you remember when Samuel told Saul, "Kill everybody, the children, the wives, the animals, all babies, all". And then some religious folks said, "Hmm, what kind of God gonna have you kill everybody"?
See, you didn't even understand. People couldn't get born again. Just kill everything, so we can curb sin. I'm working on this thing. Jesus is getting ready to come in. I'm working on it. Isaiah's gonna get it. I'm working on this thing, but we gotta rightly divide the whole thing, the whole Bible and quit letting religious pockets pop up and confuse us the more and take us back the more. I remember a time where preachers would say, "Well, I know that's the truth, but I can't preach that right now, because nobody else is saying it". I remember that. I was told that several times. And I was like, "Well, should that matter"? He says, "Well, it won't be received because you'd be the only one saying it".
And that's when I decided to break off and become a... I don't know what they called me or what I became, but I prospered when I did, amen? I just didn't think it made sense. I thought, "Wow, that's kind of like people bondage, isn't it"? Yeah, it was the righteousness of God, and I remember I wrote this book on righteousness, I don't know what it was called, but the publisher was doing a proofreading on it, and he says, "We can't put this in this book". And it was a part of you can't sin away your righteousness. They said, "We can't do that". I said, "Well, why"? He says, "'Cause nobody else has said that". I'm thinking, "What is up with y'all with", it's like norms and values, you know. Norms and values determine whether something is right and wrong in society, we were doing that in the church.
Now, let's look at Romans chapter 3:19. I'm gonna look at it in the New Living Translation with the time I have left. So, you got some kind of idea of what we'll be dealing with, but bit, by bit, by bit. He says in verse 19, "Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given". Now, it was given to Jewish people. The law was not given to Gentiles, it was given to Jewish people. It was an agreement between God and Jewish people. He says, "Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses and to show that the entire world is guilty before God". Verse 20: "For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands".
Now, you know that's radical. You show that to your grandmama, see how she responds. "No one can ever be right with God by doing what the law commands". And it's like the church worldwide is teaching that the way for you to be right with God is by keeping the law. He says, "The law simply shows us how sinful we are". That's what it does. The law, the Mosaic law simply shows you how sinful you are. It's hard to keep morality when you're continuing to see just how sinful you are, and it shows you. It's like a mirror, it shows you what you look like, that's it. The mirror doesn't reach out with hands to fix your hair or wash your face, it just shows you you. It's like medical dye that they put in your body to show you what the problem is, what's going on in your body, but it's not the cure.
That's what the law does. God gave Israel the Mosaic law for one purpose, to reveal sin and to condemn. To reveal sin and to condemn, are you all listening to what I'm saying? This renewal of your mind to renew it in line with what Paul preached, the gospel that Paul preached. We gotta make a distinction. We gotta make a distinction between the gospel that Paul preached versus the gospel of the kingdom. We gotta make a distinction. All over the church world, we've been preaching the gospel of the kingdom, but without the distinction between the two of them, you'll just kind of assume they're about the same.
And then you go over there and read something about the gospel of the kingdom, and wonder, "Well, wait a minute, that doesn't match the gospel of grace". Because there's a distinction there that needs to be made. Under the gospel of the kingdom, you will still see self-effort and performance, and in a lot of the stuff under the gospel of the kingdom, you will still see it being governed by the Mosaic law, okay? Now, look at Romans 7 verse 12, 13, and 14 in the New Living Translation and I'm gonna be obedient to the time. Mm-mm, I couldn't wait to get up this morning, boy.
See, y'all don't understand, I'm like you. I'm here to eat. Yeah, yum, yum, yeah, yeah, I'm here to eat. Verse 12: "But still, the law itself", so now he's talking about the condition. "The law itself is holy, it's commands are holy, it's right, it's good". Verse 13: "But how can that be? Did the law, which is good", so let's establish something now. The law is good, it's holy, it's from the holy God. It's perfect, it's flawless, but he said, "Did the law, which is good, cause my death"? He said, "Of course not. Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation to death. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God's good commandments for its own evil purposes". Next verse, "So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and it is good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin".
Amen, now, I think I wanna throw this in here, 1 Timothy chapter 1:8-11. It is valid, it still is valid today, it is valid today with those who are not born again, those who continue to believe that it is through their performance and their self-effort. It's for sinners, it's for sinners. Look what he says here, "But we know that the law is good, if a man use it", what? Lawfully, verse 9: "Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man", alright, how many righteous people do we have in here?
Alright, say out loud, "I'm the righteousness of God". So, Christ is the end of the law where righteousness is concerned, okay? He says, "But for the lawless", he says, "The law is for the lawless, it's for the disobedient, it's for the ungodly, it's for the sinners, it's for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers, and murders of mothers, and for manslayers". Look at it, it's gonna bring them to the end of their self-effort like it brought you to the end of your self-effort. It's gonna show them their need for a Savior like it showed you your need for a Savior.
There are gonna be some people that are gonna get so sick and tired of being sick and tired. They done tried, and tried, and tried all night long. They done prayed, you remember that song, "And I prayed, and I prayed. Prayed and I prayed, prayed all night long, prayed all night. I prayed and I prayed until I found the Lord". See, the problem is, the Lord wasn't lost, that's why it took so long. The Lord wasn't lost, you the one lost. You the one who were lost. He said it was, "For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind. It was for menstealers, it was for lairs, for perjured persons, and if there by any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine", so it's still showing you how something that is good, and perfect, and spiritual can still have impact in the lives of sinners.
You, however, are saints. "Yeah, but Pastor, I did something I wasn't supposed to do yesterday". You're still a saint. Don't let what you did last night talk you out of your saintness. You entered into your sainthood through the blood of Jesus Christ, and through the blood and the body of Jesus Christ, you are a saint, you are no longer a sinner. Don't refer to yourself as a sinner. Don't let nobody tell you you are a sinner saved by grace, you just say, "I'm saved and I'm a saint". I dare you, say, "I'm a saint".
Now, if you around your mama, she said, "No, you ain't no saint", because she gonna judge your sainthood based on your behavior. No, you're a saint because of your belief in Jesus Christ. Say it again, "I'm a saint". I know that sounds weird, but get used to it, you a saint. You're the righteousness of God. Glory be to God. You're whole, you're redeemed, you have wisdom. You know what to do when you don't know what to do.
Oh, my goodness, so quit going around talking about, "Well, I just don't know. Well, you know, you never know". No, man, you know. I mean, when you don't know, say, "I know". I have the wisdom of God. He's been made unto me wisdom, praise God. I know what to do, praise the Lord. Glory be to God, this thing that's facing you, you've never see it before, but I know what to do, why? I have the new creation on the inside of me. My mind's being renewed with the Word of God. The Holy Ghost is working on the inside of me. I've been made wisdom, praise God. I receive the wisdom of God, and then pray in tongues.
What are you doing? Now you're pulling up that wisdom, praise God. You stop going around talking about you don't know. You've become progressively ignorant. Look at you one day and you don't know nothing, amen? Christian society has a hard time with the truth about the purpose of the Mosaic law, but most churches even teach that the body of Christ is under the Mosaic law. Most of you can recall going to churches where you were taught under the Mosaic law. You were taught do this, then God will do that.
That is a pattern of the old covenant. If you don't do this, then God won't do that. That's a pattern of the old covenant, and you walk around with Christianity compulsive disorder. It's never enough. Praying, did you pray enough? Fasting, did you fast long enough? It's never enough. "Oh, dear God, was I really walking in love? I could have did it a little better". It's never enough, and you're driving yourself crazy. And you wonder why some people just don't wanna come to church anymore, it's just too difficult.
I remember when I was in this church, and my God, I was, oh, my Jesus, I was doing a lot of stuff, and I'd open it up, I'd close up, and I'd cut some grass, and do some floors, and clean some toilets, and preach when I needed to preach, and play the piano, and direct the choir, and I just thought I needed to do all of that to please God. Then I'd fast, and then I'd have to come out and pretend like I wasn't hungry. I was starving. I'd shake people's hand, my hand's shaking, they lookin' at me, "What's wrong with you"? Nothing, that's the anointing, that's the anointing.
I was told I couldn't come around nobody because, you know, if you around people before you preach, they'll mess with your anointing. I had to spend all day Saturday, couldn't have no family time, it had to be with the Lord, so I could be anointed. I had conventions, and, you know, I think it was, you know, what was it? About 2 o'clock, I can't talk to nobody after 2 o'clock. 2 o'clock, "Don't talk to nobody, shh". And they go around, "Shh, don't talk to nobody".
And I got so lonely, I got so tired of being in that room by myself, man, one day I opened the office up on Sunday, I let everybody, "Everybody come in. Bring the babies in, everybody", all this stuff, man. Christianity compulsive disorder, man, and you probably went through it, too. You couldn't wear no sweats, you couldn't wear no makeup, you couldn't wear no eyelashes. Now, if you a man, you don't need to be wearing no eyelashes. Talking about, "Amen", no. Oh, no. Went soul-winning, didn't get but one person saved. Oh, it wasn't enough, God.
And one day, Pastor called me, he says, "You comin' to church tonight", I said, "No, sir". He said, "What's wrong, son"? I said, "I'm just tired". Legalism will wear you out. I was tired. Saved, doing all of that, and then, when I wasn't living and doing it just like they said, then I was just doubting whether or not I was even gonna go to heaven.
So, dying was a fearful thing. Man, I was so sacred. I don't wanna die, 'cause I ain't do too good yesterday. I didn't go to church, my tithe was $30.56. I didn't have the $.50, I just gave the $30, I'm going to hell. I was talking about, "Oh, Jesus, help me, Lord", and then I'd pray in tongues, and I didn't make it an hour. You know, 59 wasn't enough, I didn't make a hour. And I'm looking at the clock, man, y'all remember this. Going in there, looking at that clock, I mean, you were throwing it down. Looked at the clock, ain't but five minutes gone by, and then you be wondering, "Is anybody else going through this but me? I must be a bad Christian, 'cause I don't like this, I'm tired".
Now, let's look at the history of the Mosaic Law, and I want to kind of go over this kind of quick. In Exodus chapter 20, God gave Moses the law to Israel. The Mosaic Law was given to Israel through Moses and that was done on Mount Sinai. Very simple point. The Mosaic Law was God's moral, God's ceremonial, and God's civil law. So, when you take the Mosaic Law, it consists of these three parts. Of course, I told you yesterday that Jewish people will never divide this up this up. They saw this one tapestry. It's a combination of the moral, the ceremonial, and the civil law.
Now, I had mentioned to you that the Mosaic Law was God's way to govern a Jewish daily life and moral law, and we'll get to in a moment, existed way before Mosaic Law. So, when you look at this whole deal of, you know, people saying that under grace, there's no law that you keep, God never changed his mind about morality. He just changed administrators. I don't know if you were here yesterday, yesterday, I think Mike, when he spoke, dealt with was some of this. He gave the Ten Commandments, or otherwise referred to as the Decalogue, and the moral law showed up in the Mosaic Law. But the problem is rather than them, you know, not that they could do it because they were fallen man.
That that's the first problem. But then what happened, this is what fallen man does, he continues to try to come up with a performance self-effort way to try to achieve something spiritual. And so, you have the Ten Commandments that were divided up as far as man's relationship to God, the first four, and then the latter ones are man's relationship with one another. And then you saw yesterday where we went both ways on the on that fifth one. Now, here's the thing I want you to see is that this idea that now that we're under the grace of God, there is no more consideration for morality. That's wrong. There is a consideration for morality. The problem is, is man kept coming up with his self-righteous, self-effort way of trying to keep the moral law through the extensions of the Mosaic Law.
Let me show you something in light of what we heard today. Go to Romans chapter 7 and verse 5. Mike's gonna finish this, but I want to give you my definition of the flesh in light and in context of Romans 7 and 5. In verse 5 he says, "When we were controlled by our own nature", put that the King James first and then I'll come back to the NLT, Romans 7 and 5. He says, "For when we were in the flesh".
All right, now we were talking about application here, but when we were in the flesh, and he says, notice what happened, the motions of sins, but then he says, "which were by the law". This is interesting because verse 5 is defined in this as, it's defining the flesh as being under the law, trying to do good through your own self-effort, being under the law, trying to do good. Anybody ever been in a situation where under the law you were trying to do good? Under the law, you're trying to do good, but you're not doing it relying and trusting in the administrative of the Holy Spirit, you're doing it relying and trusting on yourself. And so, if morality is here and you're trying to do this under the law, you're under the law trying to do good in your own self-effort.
Here's another way of saying it, you're trying to be like God without God. There were two opportunities for your consciousness to be awakened by one or two of these trees. Your consciousness could have been awakened by the tree of life, just as much as when it was awakened by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What if your consciousness was awakened by the tree of life? Well, first of all, we wouldn't be in grace life 2019 because we've all operated in a consciousness of trusting and relying on God. All we could see was God. The answer to everything was him, praise God. Our total reliance was on him, and why is it that God told him not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
He says, "Cause I got something better than you knowing what's right and wrong. I'm here, and if you will rely on me, praise God, I'll walk you through, I'll walk you by, I'll sit with you, I'll sup with you out. I'll be everything you need. I want you to see me as you're all supply". So, morality comes up, and now we go to church and we hear rule keeping. You know, people freak out when I say that. It was, "What are you trying to say, we don't we don't need to keep rules? Everybody needs to keep rules. You'll have chaos without rules". You don't get what I'm saying. You're trying to do something through your own self-effort. You're trying to do something through your performance.
At the time, you were a fallen man, you couldn't get born again. You were dead. The problem is this beautiful, spiritual, perfect, good law, flawless, was presented to carnal fallen men. The problem was not God's perfect moral law. The problem was imperfect fallen men trying to keep something that you can't keep in your own ability. It was never going to work because you were not the right fit. And now we are fussing about keeping this without understanding nobody is saying that it's gonna be okay to have a terrible relationship with God and have a terrible relationship with one another.
The New Testament talks about the way you really grieve the Holy Spirit is how you treat one another. That's how you really grieve the Holy Spirit is when you're nasty at one another, and you're unforgiven at one another, and you're mean at one another, and you're envious, and you're jealous of one, that grieves the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit came, Romans 5 and 5, to pour the love of God, supernatural love, in your heart so you can now take that supernatural love and do with that supernatural love what you couldn't do with that natural love. It's the first act of the Holy Spirit when a person gets born again, as he shows up to pour supernatural love on the inside of you. Praise God, amen.
I think the point of coming, we got to, and I don't know how we got there but, you know, some of us say, "Well, now I'm under grace and under grace, it's just, you know, I don't know anything". It's like hit me, hit me. That's not what this is. It's being able to allow this perfect, holy, flawless standard to be administered through your life until it gets in your behavior through a born-again spirit that's sealed with the Holy Spirit as he begins to lead and to guide your life, and that couldn't be done under the Mosaic Law.
You know that the Holy Spirit's gonna be a much better administrator than the Mosaic Law but somehow we think well, and it's easy to do if you're not careful. Somehow we think well, and the Bible makes it clear, I'll show you that in a moment. We are absolutely free from the Mosaic Law. The Mosaic Law is not for those who are righteous. There's an end to the Mosaic Law so we can come into this new and perfect way. All of those things are absolutely true, except you have to consider that moral law, which existed before the Mosaic Law, has always been the heart of God. It is God's law that was present before Mosaic Law and it's not just cancelled out because fallen man, through rule keeping, found out he couldn't produce the morals like he wanted.
So, come over here to the New Covenant where you have a new creation, and you can get born again and you have the Holy Spirit as the administrator. And so now, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, and loving one another, now the Holy Spirit begins to administer morality, as we lean and trust him, glory be to God. And he begins to put us into a place where our hearts are new, and the Holy Spirit has sealed us and he is our God, and he is our leader, and we decide that we believe it.
Now, all of a sudden, he begins to walk us down the path of morality and we want to do, we want to do something, not because we have to, but not we're wanting to. We're wanting not to commit adultery. We're wanting not to covet. We're wanting to walk in love. We're wanting to forgive what was painful and hurtful. We're wanting to do all of these things, how? Through this perfect law of liberty. So, he exchanges. For ten laws, he gives us one and with this one, we're able to do all of the morality in the heart of God and to bring into existence everything.
You see what I'm saying? It's never been this thing of, "Well, I'm under grace so, you know, I can sleep with, you know, ten prostitutes. Because I'm under grace, I'm covered by grace. Hey, the one who goes to bed with me, you covered to". I'm telling you, they're doing that right now. "You're covered by my grace". That is not right. That is not the heart of God. That is not the grace of God. For a person to talk like that, the question has to be, did it take? You know, when you went to the prayer room and got saved, did it take? Are you of the faith? Have you ever been of the faith?
There's certain things you just don't do when it takes. When Jesus is revealed to you, there's certain things you don't want to do. Now, you're old software might want to bring some stuff back to remembrance, but you don't want to do it. And if you do do it, you're not gonna have the same experience that you had when you did it before you had the revelation of Jesus because there's conflict now. There's a Holy Spirit now that's standing up reminding you of who you are and what you have.
So, however you did it before is not gonna feel the same way. Whatever how you experienced the last time you smoked weed, now that you have a revelation of Jesus Christ, you're not gonna get that same high because you got an inward partner talking to you through the whole process and saying to you that, "I can impact your emotions much better than this weed can if you can rely on me". Because the Holy Spirit was sent to get to the very root of sin.
The Holy Spirit wasn't sent to convict you for not tithing. The Holy Spirit was sent to convince you of, "Why is it that you're not trusting me with your money"? "Well, the Holy Ghost, he been sent to make you feel bad about what you did". No, the Holy Spirit was sent to convict you of your wrong believing. Y'all ain't gonna like this. I'm just trying to get it all out. Somehow or another, it creeped over here where, you know, under grace, you don't have to be holy. Under grace, you don't need to go to church. It produced kind of a passive kind of attitude where nothing...
Listen, please understand what I'm saying. Yeah, I experience the time of prayer and, you know, I'm shucking corn and look at my watch in five minutes and you know, I'm like, but I'm not saying stop praying. I'm saying stop depending on your program performance and efforts of prayer. Let all that go and enjoy a personal relationship in your communion time with God. Are y'all hearing what I'm saying? Nobody, nobody ever said under grace you don't tithe.
There are some people who have not quite seen clearly Jesus yet and they kind of go over there a little bit. And, you know, they'll say stuff, "You don't have to pray anymore. You don't have to tithe anymore. You don't need to come to church anymore. You can stay home. God doesn't mind. He don't mind if you don't come to church". Well, I mean, to be honest with you, the sky's the limit. You can do whatever you want to do. But when you have a relationship with Jesus, you just don't want to do those things.
So, we're not talking about the rule keeping, what you have to do. We're talking about getting a relationship with the new administrator so you will allow him to work in you to want to do. "Well, I just gotta go to Grace Life". It ain't no I got to go to Grace Life. I can't tell you how much I want to be here. I can't tell you how I delight in being here, how I delight in sitting and listening to the Word, and hearing it come from different perspectives. And it's forming a picture in my heart as I hear one message and another one another, and I'm like I'm seeing Jesus.
There's some clarity. My windshields are being cleaned, and I can see clearer here. And just by beholding him, the Holy Spirit has accepted the responsibility of changing me into that very image that I behold, just by beholding him. We've made it sticky unnecessarily. And some questions you answer you just, you just know people, they want you to answer a question, but they're not willing to spend time with him.
You know, certain things you ain't gonna know about people until you spend time with them. Same thing with Jesus. I can explain some stuff to you, but I cannot explain to you this overwhelming acceptance that comes by knowing him. I can't explain to you that why, you know, maybe I should be kind of tuned down a little bit on the gospel and yet, I stand up sometimes and I have to hold my tears back because I know him. It's not I know about him. I know him. And he starts working in me, and I want to do what I want to do. I want to love who's not lovely.
I meet people sometimes that, you know, and I heard they just dog me out and talking about me, and I just can't wait to get to them so I can go to them and tell them how much I love them. And I'm thinking, what is going on? I should slap this sucker. I want to love. I want to forgive. I want to be patient. I want to have self-control. It's a gift from God. I don't want my emotions controlling me. I don't want to be emotionally rude. I want to, I want it.
Somebody says, "Well, where's prosperity in all of that"? Honey, you just don't know. You're so busy wanting him and while you are so busy wanting him, he's opening doors up for you. He's causing harvest to come. He's releasing favor in your life. You don't even know how this stuff showed up, how that door opened, what even qualified for you. All you know is a loving Jesus that you have a relationship with decided to show you some favor, and you didn't do nothing. By the way, favor ain't fair, so don't get mad at me. Favor ain't fair, hallelujah. I'm not gonna fuss with you.
I'm not gonna debate with you. I'm not gonna argue with you. I'm gonna keep loving Jesus and start loving you. And while I'm doing that, he's amplifying it. And, you know, to me, of course, I haven't been in it as long as Andrew and Earl, but, man, it's to still have impact and for somebody to still want to benefit from your ministry, and that's amazing that God wants to use me, even though I wasn't everything I should have been. He wanted to keep me anyway.
A lot of my friends throwed me away and instead of me letting that bother me, I just love Jesus and more doors open, more doors than has ever been opened before, more opportunities than ever before. Nations are opening to me. Before it was just churches, now it's nations. I went to this one nation, I won't call the name of it, but I went to this one nation and went by to visit the president. And he called his armies to the gates. And on both sides as the car went by, they saluted me. And I didn't know what was going on at first. I said, hey, anything wrong? We didn't do nothing wrong. What's going on here? I was blown away.
And I hear something just deep sweet in my spirit a little small voice saying, "Son, thank you. I appreciate you. I know what a fun thing to have you preaching faith all over the world, and then I just tell you to change and start preaching grace, and you did it. I appreciate you". Are you hearing me? That's what I'm talking about. Like I said yesterday, I'm in this for the relationship. I ain't in here trying to play some little gospel games, and some little, you know, some little gigs. This is not a side gig. This is not a side gig. This is my life. This is my personal relationship with my friend. This is the one who has come on the inside of me.
And like Paul said, it's a radical change of me trying to do something to try to get God to do something. And now I recognize that he's already done it, and I believe in him, praise God, that come hell or high water, we'll get through a thing. We'll do what needs to be done, praise God, because he's revealed himself to me. Y'all excuse me, I don't mean to holler, and to scream, and hurt your ears or nothing like that, but this is not about another bunch of principles you can use to try to get church growth going on. I am not about church growth. I'm about church health and whatever's healthy will grow on its own. It'll grow, amen, amen. Now, I done preached myself happy.