Michael Todd - The Command With No Cap

Watch
Audio
Donate

I have not preached in a long time, and I truly believe that I’m about to act a fool up here. I want to go ahead and pre-warn everybody that I’m not fully responsible for what’s about to happen because this is something that God has been stirring in my heart for three and a half years. I need to be very clear that this is not a message I received on my way to church today. This message of crazy faith, which God is about to let us walk into, is something that began in me honestly from a young boy, but I just managed to put it in message form over the past three years.

In 2019, we started a series called Crazy Faith, and for some reason, it resonated with people’s hearts and struck a chord with the church; it went viral. People started getting tattoos of Crazy Faith and began to walk in Crazy Faith. Some individuals left their jobs in Crazy Faith after hearing from God, while others went out and married someone in Crazy Faith. All these different things were happening, but I was asking God about the significance of it all. He said, «Michael, I’ve said it from the beginning of when I wrote the Bible: when the Son of Man returns, will I find faith on the earth?» It didn’t say, «Will I find a church? Will I find songs? Will I find a prayer meeting?»

There’s something about faith that is a key ingredient in living out God’s purpose for your life. Somebody say, «I need faith.» Say it like you mean it; say it with conviction! Until you realize that you can’t be the mother you want to be without faith, that you can’t be the father you want to be without faith, that you cannot be the employee you want to be without faith, you will live your life below what God has called you to. Somebody just say it one more time: «I need faith.»

So, one day, I was driving at the end of 2018 to 2019, and a song I love came on by Gnarls Barkley called «Crazy.» I’ve listened to that song hundreds of times, and as a producer, I break it down and listen to the orchestration; I love the vocals and the different elements of it, especially the vintage, retro sound of the drums. I mean, I really listen to it, but this time, it was the words that captured me. When I began to listen to the third verse, he said something that struck me: «My heroes had the heart to lose their lives out on a limb.»

I remember thinking I want to be just like them. When I heard those words, I thought about all the Bible characters we love—Moses, Abraham, David—and all those others we talk about because they did something that wasn’t safe. They lived their lives on the edge; they were out on a limb, where things could go badly or could go really well. Many Christians and people who profess to believe in God are way back here, in complete safety. Yep, we want to worship from back here; we want to give God praise from a distance. But your purpose is right here, and we say, «But I don’t want to fail. I don’t want to mess up my future.» God says you’re missing your future because your future is lived in faith.

I began to think about people who are thousands of years removed from Abraham living on this earth. People sing, «Father Abraham had many sons, and many sons had Father Abraham, and I am one of them. Whoa! So will you?» Come on, let’s all praise the Lord! Some of you went to the same youth group I attended, and others are like, «John, what the heck?» I got you. But what I’m telling you is we’re talking about Abraham over 2000 years ago. The reason we talk about him is that he had faith.

When you go to Hebrews 11, there’s something called the Hall of Faith, which starts chronicling people like Abraham, Noah, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses. My question is: will your name and picture be in the Hall of Faith? Will they come down that hall and see Will, Brenda, Natalie, Brie, Tammy, Mo, and Michael? Will they call out your name, and will you be surprised to find yourself there? Type your name in the chat! I’m telling you that God’s design for your life is that at the end of this thing, there will be a plaque and a picture that goes in the Hall of Faith. I feel this so strongly already! Will you live your life on the edge, in obedience, in the will of God, being generous, doing the things God told you to do, even when everybody else is scared? Will your name be in the Hall of Faith?

When I heard this Gnarls Barkley song and began to reflect on my life, I said I’m not going to play it safe with a life that doesn’t belong to me. Did you give yourself the breath you took this morning? This life was given to me by God, and God said, «Will you please give Me back control of the life I gave you?» That’s when I decided, «We are going to live,» and everybody shouted at me, «Crazy faith!» No, you’ve got to say it a little crazier. Shout, «Crazy faith!»

Let me give you a definition of Crazy Faith. For everyone who thinks they know what this series is about because you were at the other 19 parts of the series, or maybe you received a pre-copy of the book: I’m not preaching one message from that; everything is fresh! I’m not about to come warm up something after two and a half years and try to serve it to you. Baby, I’ve been in the kitchen, and this thing is fresh! So, I want you to write it down and take notes because this may be your manual for the next decade of your life.

Crazy Faith is defined as thoughts and actions that lack reason but trust fully in what you cannot explicitly prove. I’ll say it one more time because some of you need to let this drop from your head to your heart: Crazy Faith is thoughts and actions that don’t make sense; it lacks reason. Why in the world would I do that? That doesn’t make sense! I went to school for something completely different. There’s no logical way this could systematically happen. It doesn’t make sense, but for some reason, I trust it. I trust it enough to put my weight on it, even in what I cannot explicitly prove. I can’t prove to you that this will work, but for some reason, something inside me tells me that I’ve got to move with this Crazy Faith.

Look at what Hebrews 11:1 says: «Now faith…"—everybody shout it at me—"Now!» Yes, the best time to walk in faith was yesterday, but the second-best time to start walking in faith is now. Some of you made a decision last week and even got up this morning ready to carry that out, and God’s saying, «That was not Me, but right now, you can start walking in faith.» Somebody, one more time, shout at me, «Now!» As you’re watching this, no matter what time zone, no matter what country, right now is always right now. God is saying that «Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance"—not insurance, assurance—"in what we cannot see.»

Everybody close your eyes. I want you to see yourself on the beach with the body you want. Hey, Cha Tadabo! I want you to feel the water going back and forth, and I want you to know you’ve got enough money in the bank to stay there a month. Uh-huh, I know that hit home for some of you, and I need you to know that when you see the bank account, there are a lot of zeros in it. I want you to see yourself with your favorite drink next to you. For some of you, it will be a little stronger than others, but I want you to envision it next to you with colors and a pineapple on it. Then I want you to envision yourself with someone you love: a friend, a husband, a wife. Can you see it? No, for real! Can you see it? Look at me; for some people, it’s hard for you to see it because you don’t feel it. What many people are trapped in right now is a place where God is trying to allow them to see something they will have before their situation turns around and changes into that thing.

In an age where we believe more in Google than God, in an era where we want to know the facts and we’re fact-checking everything, God is saying to you that there is a level of this life where I’m going to ask you to do things that don’t make logical sense. I know all my ones on the Enneagram are going crazy right now, thinking, «I need to plan!»

God’s saying your strategy is Me. If I am for you, who can be against you? If I mark out the steps of a good man or woman, you’ve got to trust Me in faith. All I’m trying to convey with this message, in the book, and in this series is that you’ve got to see it before you see it. Picture your family together and whole for Christmas 2022. I know everybody’s going crazy right now, and Uncle Junebug is locked up at this moment, but see yourself being able to give them some mashed potatoes. Some of you are like, «That doesn’t even make sense.» Your vision for the future from God is so important to how you move into the next thing God has for you, and I’m about to shake you for the next 14 weeks. You heard me! It’s crazy until Christmas!

I have a message for every weekend until Christmas to shake you out of lazy faith. My mission is to shake you out of it because I really believe, Aaron, with everything in me, that 2022 has a purpose set up for you that is so much bigger. It’s beyond your belief, but if you get to the gate and do not have the payment of faith, what if everything God wants to do doesn’t take money? Help me, Holy Spirit! What if what God wants to do for your company, your business, your family, and your life does not take smarts? What if the only payment you need to change the trajectory of generations with your last name is—shout it at me—faith?

I’m going to help you believe in God to the point that faith becomes the thing you want to wake up with, the thing you want to sleep with, the thing you give away when you go to the grocery store. People will walk around you and say, «I don’t know why, but when I hug them, when I talk to them, when I get my hair done by them, and when I listen to their music or go to their kids' birthday party, something in me leaps.» I don’t know; some people have that effect on others. That thing we all need is—shout it with me—faith! Without faith, according to John 3:16, we can’t be saved. Without faith, we can’t pray according to Matthew 21:22. Without faith, we can’t live the Christian life we are supposed to live according to John 10:10. You need faith!

So, today, let me walk you through a story of a man who lived in Crazy Faith—someone who maybe doesn’t get talked about as much. Today, God literally opened up the Bible to me in a new way. I’ve never preached a message on this Bible character before, but I feel like I can see him right now, and I’m going to try to make this story come alive for you today. We’re talking about a man named Elisha. Okay? Somebody’s like «Come on! Come on!» They don’t know what I’m about to say. But what I’m telling you is that Elijah lived in Crazy Faith.

Now, on the screen, I’ve put up Elijah because, growing up in church, they don’t really give you any pictures that go with your Bible stories. So, it was always these two guys—Elijah and Elisha—and I got mixed up for my whole life. Today, I’m going to help you never get mixed up again. Elijah is the OG; he’s Denzel. Okay? Elijah—we’re going to call him EJ for the rest of this sermon—was a prophet of God who did mighty things and was powerful on the earth. Then he had a successor, and his name was Elisha. J comes before S in the alphabet; there it is. I’m going to say the dictionary too, but it comes before that. So, Elisha—we’re going to give him brother Michael B. Jordan, okay? Some of you didn’t shout that much in praise and worship; sit your butt down! You will never get this mixed up again, EJ or Elijah; he’s the O.G. and today we’re talking about Elisha, okay? He was a man who lived his life in crazy faith.

Go with me to 1 Kings 19:19. Now I’m about to preach three sermons in one really fast, so y’all stick with me, and everybody pray in the back, okay? Because I haven’t preached in a long time, but I need to get to the end of Elisha’s life. Many times you can’t start at the end of something until you understand how it started. That’s a whole other message, but I can’t give that right now. Some of y’all have really been trying to get to the end of a thing, and God is trying to make you revisit how good He was at the beginning of it. So I need to go to 1 Kings 19:19 so you can see how Elijah even got called into this life of crazy faith. Look what it says: So Elijah, the O.G. Denzel EJ, went and found—underline, circle, make a star behind the word «found"—Elisha, son of Shaphat.

That’s a really interesting detail, plowing a field. There were twelve teams of oxen in the field, and Elisha was plowing with the twelfth team. I want to keep reading but I can’t because there’s too much gold right there. The first thing I have to point out is that Elijah, or EJ, was looking for Elisha. I came to tell you my first point: it’s looking for you. Your next level, your next promotion, your next relationship is looking for you. You don’t have to network your way into the next thing God’s about to do. You don’t have to dumb down who God created you to be to fit in with people you were never supposed to fit in with. The next thing God is going to do for you is looking for you.

Somebody say, «It’s looking for me.» The future is looking for you. Elisha was not trying to get bumped up and promoted while plowing the field and working with the oxen; he was just being faithful where he was placed. In this day and age, who’s ready for an upgrade? The iPhone 12 looked just like the iPhone 13; there weren’t any new features, just new names. And we’re trying to go from relationship iPhone 11 to iPhone 12, and her name is Sally and this one’s name is Susan. You’re always trying to go to the next. And God said, «Would you stay and be faithful where I placed you?» Because if you would stay there and be faithful, you would be found. Let me just give it to you in a point: crazy faith starts when you are found faithful. And maybe the problem with many of our lives, why God can’t do the next thing He wants to do in our lives, is because He can’t find us. He can only see you if you’re faithful.

You’re so shifty with your priorities. You want a new word every year, but you haven’t obeyed the one He gave you three years ago. You’re on your sixth church, and in every church it was the leader that was too close. You’re at your fourth job in your third city, and you’ve gone from the East Coast to the West Coast, the Dirty South, and now you’re in Canada. It’s always them. And God said, «Could I find you faithful?» Did God show up at your last location? Did He deliver the package of what was next in your purpose to the place you should have been, not where you actually are? I gotta leave it alone, but my question is: will you be found faithful?

When I started this journey of pastoring, I wasn’t trying to be a pastor; I was found faithful. You know where I started serving in this church? Behind the soundboard. Shout out to Paul! Can we give the sound man a little bit of love in the back? Gotta sound it real good. The reason I shouted out the sound man is that nobody shouts out the sound man. You don’t yell at him when the mic isn’t right. More reverb in the monitor! Shout out Tony Mason! All I’m telling you is that your life may be closely connected to where you should be, not where you want to be. And Elisha was found—everybody say «found faithful.» Okay, let me keep reading. Elijah, EJ, went over to him and threw his cloak across his shoulders and walked away. Do you know how gangster this is?

Charles, come here real quick! Elisha is in the field doing his thing—plow, just plow right there, just plow. You look good plowing, bro! He’s plowing, and Elijah has something that will change the trajectory of his life. But he’s being faithful; he’s not trying to be a groupie to Elijah. He’s not trying to get close to the pastor; he’s not trying to go eat lunch with the boss; he’s not trying to make sure he likes and comments on everything the people with followers post. He’s just being faithful, and EJ walks by like a gangster and says—that’s how quick favor can come on your life! There was no pre-warning, nothing premeditated; it was just one day I was doing what God told me, and favor found me.

When you’re faithful, favor finds you. Elisha gets a new weight on him while doing an old thing. There’ll be a day you wake up to go to that job, and the favor will fall on you, and you’re at that same computer you’ve been at every day, but there’s a new oil on an old assignment. There is a new weight that will make you think, «Hold on, something’s on me.» Look what EJ did—he didn’t even stop to see if he caught it! It says he threw the cloak across his shoulders and walked away. I don’t have to be friends with you to carry your favor; we don’t have to go on vacation together to be able to carry favor. He said he walked away, and look what happened: Elisha left his oxen standing over there and ran to Elijah. He said, «Hold up, first! Hold on real quick, I don’t know what you just did to me. I don’t know how this happenstance meeting at the baseball game is about to change my life. I don’t know why going to this Version One conference is going to change the trajectory of my life.»

There are people in this room that went to our first conference and now work here; their lives are changed because they had an idea of crazy faith. I don’t know what this means, but he says, «First let me go kiss my pop-pop and big mama goodbye, and I don’t know why I’m saying this, but then I’m going to go with you. I’m going to follow this favor.» And then watch what EJ says to him. He’s a gangster in my mind; it’s just that Denzel with the broken pinky. He’s just standing there like, «Go on back, but think about what I’ve done to you. Go back to your past and make sure you think about the favor I just placed on your life, because if you want to stay there, stay there. But if you come back, we’re stepping into a new level of living for you.»

And I don’t know who I’m talking to right now, but after this message, God’s gonna tell you to go back and look at it one more time and make sure that when you come back to next week’s sermon, make sure you think about what I’ve placed on you—the favor that’s on your life. Write this down in a point: favor is always an invitation to another level of faith. Any time God gives you favor, He’s trying to skip you into a place where you’re going to be less qualified, and now you have to trust Him to be out in the deep. What is the word for this year? Transformation! I said, «What is the word for this year? Transformation!»

So when God gives you favor, you know how we be praising God? «Oh my God, they came in and I got favored! My credit was jacked up, and I went in and needed a new car, and the Lord just walked in our favor! I walked in, and I had favor, and they gave me the one I needed with the things on it, and the leather, and the Bluetooth.» God, what you just got invited to is a larger payment, and what people don’t understand is that favor always comes with responsibility. The favor is an invitation into a new level of faith. If you are favored in any area of your life, God is trying to make you more dependent on Him. When I walked onto the platform to be the lead pastor of Transformation Church, people looked at my life and were like, «Oh my God, he’s so favored! How did he get to do that?»

Do you know what it was for me? It was an invitation to walk in crazy faith every single day of my life; to get up and pray and say, «God, I don’t know what the heck I’m doing, and if You don’t do this, it ain’t gonna get done! God, I need You to show me!» And what I’m saying to you is don’t pray for favor if you don’t want to go to another level of faith! Shut that nonsense up! Stop asking God to bless you with a bigger house if you don’t want to—let me stop! If you don’t want Him to bless you with a higher-paying job—which means you’re gonna have higher responsibilities, which means you’re gonna have to manage more—and the first thing you’re gonna have to manage is you! You know you stop praying for favor if you’re not stepping into another level of faith. This is where you, just like Elijah, are going to have to step out in crazy faith. Do you know what Elisha did? Yes!

Look at 1 Kings 19:21. It said, «Oh I love this!» So Elisha returned to his oxen and slaughtered all of them. He killed them all! He used the wood from the plow that he had built his livelihood off of and used it as fire to roast their flesh. He passed around the meat to the townspeople, and they all ate. Then he went with Elijah as his assistant. Do you know how crazy it is to look at the career that got you to this place you’re at right now? And if God says, «Follow this to go to that career,» take an ax to it and dismantle the things that brought you significance? The way everybody knows you? They know you as Bob the Builder; they know you as—come on somebody—they know you as Rachel the Real Estate Girl; they know you as Isaiah the Insurance Guy; they know you as Billy the Basketball Player!

And God says, «Don’t just walk away from it!» Because you might be tempted to go back to it. I need you to break it and burn it! What kind of crazy faith does it take to look at what has made you who you think you are? And then God says, «Can I have it back?» Oh God wouldn’t do that! Ask Abraham! When he waited 100 years to have a son named Isaac, he finally gets the promise and then God says when the boy’s about 16 or 17, «Come and make an altar and give me back what I promised you.» Do you know how crazy it is to lead your promise up the mountain to kill it? Do you know how crazy it would be to cut off your social media when you are a content developer?

I’m trying to bring it to your regular life. Do you know how crazy it would be that you studied eight years in that profession, and then God told you to go volunteer—come on! —at a nonprofit that can’t pay you? When you walk in crazy faith, write this down: you burn up the backup. I’m trying to get you to crazy your faith, but we ain’t even perfected crazy faith because you still have so many backup plans. When you walk in crazy faith, we do what Elisha did: we burn the backup! This was his livelihood, but he said, «I can’t go where God is calling me when I always have plan B in my back pocket.»

How many of us have our plan B’s ready? This didn’t work; y’all didn’t like me, but we got—okay—hands raised in the chat! And here’s the lie: how many of y’all always got a backup plan, no matter what happens? Hands lifted! Come on, y’all, let’s be real, humble, open, and transparent! Some of y’all got two, three, four, five backup plans! You’ve got a backup husband and a backup wife; that’s why you keep those DMs open. That’s why your Facebook is so friendly; it’s because you’ve got a backup plan! I’m coming to your house today, and God said if you’re gonna live in crazy faith, it’s time to burn the backup! Some of y’all are working at a job that God plans to make you the CEO over, but you’re still working that side hustle on the side that is your ambition and not anointed by God!

I’m not telling you not to do the things to get ahead, but what I am telling you is if God told you to focus there, you can’t give 100% there while you’re working on plan B! And God said you’ll never see what I want you to see if you keep working on plan B. And if God didn’t give you plan B, you only go with plan A! Yeah, I know they don’t teach this no more because they want everybody to feel comfortable, but live a mediocre life if you want to be 58 talking about, «I just knew God was going to do more with me, but is this it?» He tried 30 years ago. You always needed a stash! I always have my side hustle; this was my environment; my uncle always told me; my cousins always told me to keep this, that, and the third.

Did God tell you that you have money stashed under your mattress and that He’s trying to give you a ministry? Burn the backup. I don’t know who I’m talking to today, but they’ve got to understand that if you keep going through life God has called you to walk in faith, and you keep relying on and hoping for the moment when God allows you to get out of this current situation, you can pull out the hard drive you’ve been saving, the phone number you’ve been saving, the relationships you’ve been preserving. Some of you still have little black books from college. Burn that stuff! Some of you are still holding on to boyfriends and girlfriends and notes they wrote you because that was a time. I read the notebook, and it was like the notebook when he said, «That ain’t your man,» and I need you to let it go.

Let me help you understand that what God has for you is much better, but you’re comparing it to something that’s never going to happen. Burn the backup. I know it’s going to take crazy faith to do that because some of us are so comfortable that we can’t see our lives without what we already have. So, Pastor Mike, practically, how do I burn the backup? You need to pray a triple H prayer, and I’m not talking about a WWE star with long hair that spits in the air. This is something different that I’m going to help you understand. A triple H prayer is the kind of prayer I believe Elijah was praying on the way back to meet and follow Elijah. He said, «Lord, let this thing that You’re working in crazy faith go from my head; let it be so heavy that it drops to my heart, which then makes me do something, and it comes out in my hands.»

You don’t break and burn something with your hands that didn’t go through those three steps: it started in your head, dropped down to your heart, and came out in your hands. I feel that thing. I said it started in your head, it dropped down to your heart, and it came out in your hands. Can y’all help me right now? It’s going to start from my head, drop down to my heart, and come out in my hands. One more time, I need everybody: it starts in my head, it drops down to my heart, it comes out in my hands. You’ll never give what God wants you to give if you don’t start walking in crazy faith. It goes from your head, «That’s a good idea. I probably should do that,» and it drops down into your heart, «I can’t shake this,» and it comes out in your hands.

It doesn’t matter; Elisha could have been crying while he was breaking down the plow. This is what you’re going to do with me; God doesn’t care if it’s emotional as long as you’re obedient. You might cry giving away that jacket and that hoodie He gave you. You know who He is. You might be frustrated leaving the city where you’re the man. God said, «I want to give you a new journey, and it’s going to take crazy faith to do it.» You’ve got to burn the backup. Do you know what this means? When you burn the backup, you make it final. When you burn something, you don’t do it with hopes of going back to it. This man burned everything he had worked for up to this point and made it final.

So I just need to paint this picture: Elijah found Elisha; he found him faithful. Then he gave him favor, and Elisha made it final. If you’re going to walk in crazy faith, you have to be found faithful, you have to wait for the favor, and then make every plan you had before this final. This man came to this realization that I’ve had to come to: if I’m always holding on to what could have been, I will never go to what is. I don’t know; there are 103 days left in 2021, and some of y’all are still talking about what you lost in the pandemic, and God said, «I’m not back there, I’m up here.» If you’re always holding on to what you could have done and what we could have had and what the business should have done, you’ll never go to what is.

Romans 8:18, let this encourage you. I prophesy this over you right now: «I consider that our present sufferings are not worth or worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us.» What’s ahead isn’t worth me comparing to what could have been. Somebody needs to hear me say this: it’s better up ahead. I felt that thing, Jay. It’s better up ahead. Some of you have been looking at what you lost, and God said, «Would you follow me out here in crazy faith? Would you be found faithful? Would you wait for my favor? Would you burn the plows and make it final? Because it’s better forward. Your family’s better forward; your finances are better forward. The thing that God wants to do in your life is better.»

Elijah leaves everything and goes forward with Elisha, and he walks in crazy faith. But this isn’t even my message: it’s because Elijah lived in crazy faith that you can read throughout the kings that Elijah was doing miracles. Elijah and Elisha were like a tag team going around, miracles happening everywhere. All kinds of stuff was happening for them, and then it comes to the end of Elisha’s life. Now Elijah is about to carry the mantle of living in crazy faith, which I believe God wants all of you to do. Second Kings 2:9 says that Elijah wanted a double portion of the favor, anointing, and miracle-working power that was on Elisha..

When they came to the other side, look at what Elisha said to Elijah: «Tell me what I can do for you before I die.» Elisha replied, «Please let me inherit a double portion of your spirit and become your successor.» Elijah said, «You ask a difficult thing, my brother. If you see me when I’m taken from you…» You know what I’m saying because it is difficult for you to ask for someone’s anointing without having been through what they’ve been through. So many of you see people on platforms and celebrities, but don’t ask for what you don’t know it took to get there. That’s why he said, «You ask for a difficult thing, my brother.» Then he said, «Watch this. If you see me when I’m taken from you, you will get your request. But if not, you won’t.»

Sorry, some of us just read the Bible, but I investigate the Bible, and I encourage everybody in Transformation Nation: don’t just take Pastor Mike’s word for it. Don’t just look at the little scripture; read everything before it and everything behind it. Learn the Bible for yourself. I started investigating this because it messed me up. He said, «If you dare to be there when I’m taken, you can have it. If not, you don’t get anything.» What do you think Elisha did? He stayed with that man everywhere: «You in the bathroom? I’m right here, dog. Eating breakfast? Good morning!» I thought about the picture of what it would look like if believers stayed that close to God daily: «Good morning, God. You moving here? You at this prayer meeting? You want me to get off social media on a random Tuesday? You want me to give $30 to this person? You want me to take the shoes off my feet and give them to this person? I don’t even know what size they are, but I’m that close!»

See, the thing you don’t know about being close is that when you’re close, you can see details you couldn’t see from far back. Some of you saw me from the camera that was at the other side of the room, but one thing you can notice about me is I sweat on my nose before I sweat anywhere else. Because I’m this close to you, you can see the beads of sweat on my nose; God is saying, «I want you to be that close, that when I make a move, you don’t miss a thing.»

Some of us have been trying to reach God from across the room. Some of us have kept God at arm’s length, saying, «God, I’ll do my thing over here, but when you need me, you know how to really get me.» God says these next instructions of crazy faith may come in whispers; they may be something that you only get after five or six days in my presence. It may be something I only give when you shut off your iTunes and the radio and Instagram, and for the next week and a half, you drive in silence. Why? Because I want to be close. I want to hear you; I want to sense you; I want to feel you; I want to know you because I will not miss the next thing you want to do in my life because there was too much space. People who walk in crazy faith are committed to being close.

So, this is the transition from Elijah to a person who is like many of us that will walk in crazy faith. I gave the offering, I come to church, I serve, but what if that’s not it? The reason I titled this series «Crazier Faith» is that God challenged me on my time away since I preached the last message. He said, «Michael, that was the first chapter; it wasn’t the finale.» Yeah, and I was kind of like, «Have you ever told God it’s enough?» Like, «You did it?» I am preaching to you today in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in an arena that I should not be in.

I got a message from God 37 days after I became the lead pastor of a church that was birthed from a man and woman’s hearts to go to North Tulsa to reverse the curse. They led it for 16 years and then handed me the baton. There were 300 picky people still in the church at the time trying to decide if they were going to stay faithful, and after 37 days of me being found faithful, I made sure I stayed in a place to receive the favor and made it final. I literally walked away from the music industry and said, «God, if you want to use me to be a pastor, I don’t know anything. I don’t know half the names in the Bible, Lord; I don’t even know how to use a concordance. But if you called me to it, I’m crazy enough to step out in it.»

And 37 days after I was dependent on God, I went to my daughter’s room, and I typed this document. This document, I still have it here; the first thing I said is, «The Spirit Bank Event Center will be Transformation Church.» We had no money in the bank and nobody to co-sign us, but God gave me a crazier faith vision. The reason that I’m standing here talking to you is that God said to me after He did all of this miracle and we got the building and paid it off, «That was the first chapter.» Some of you are so scared to walk in the promise of God that you’re trying to figure out how it’s going to happen, and God said, «I got that.»

If you would just trust me to step out in crazy faith. This man asked for a double portion, and he stayed close. This is what happened in Second Kings 2:11. I’ll paraphrase: all you need to know is that as they were walking along and talking, suddenly, mid-sentence, a chariot of fire appeared, drawn by horses of fire. It drove between the two men, separating them. Elijah was carried by a whirlwind into heaven. In verse 13, Elijah picked up Elijah’s cloak, which had fallen when he was taken up. He was close enough to catch it. Then Elijah returned to the bank of the Jordan River.

Verse 15: When the group of prophets, who weren’t close people who loved God, people who went to church every Sunday, people who gave, saw from a distance what happened to Elijah, I just want to let you know you can serve God from afar. You can post your Bible scriptures and still miss out on God’s full purpose for you because you did it from a distance. God doesn’t want distant disciples; He wants you close. When they saw what happened from a distance, they exclaimed, «Elijah’s spirit rests upon Elisha,» and they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him.

Can I give you a point? The crowd can tell when you’re walking in crazy faith. Elijah did not have to make a public statement to let everybody know he had changed. He knew you saw him last week; he got a new coat and the double portion. God said, «Just do you, boo,» and when you do you, the crowd can tell something is different. I don’t have to prove it to you.

Do y’all know one of the things that God has allowed me to do as I walk as the lead pastor of Transformation Church? I don’t have to prove that I need to be validated by anybody else but God. The reason that I can stand up here and know that what I’m doing matters, whether y’all clap or not, whether you come or not, whether you give or not, it doesn’t matter, because I wasn’t called by you; I was called, approved, and verified by God Himself.

One of the funniest things that ever happened to me is that on Instagram, they have this thing called the blue check. When you get a certain number of followers and people following what you’re doing, they give you this blue check to verify you. There were millions of people following us, and I had no verification. I told my wife, «God did it to me on purpose.» He wanted me to remember that it does not matter what man says; I’m verified by God.

I don’t know who I’m prophesying to today, but somebody needs to lift your hands and receive this: this next level will not come from a committee’s approval. You’re going to have to step into crazy faith, knowing that you are verified by God. This man was verified by God. The anointing on his life was obvious. So what does he do? He starts living in crazy faith, so much so that when he put the cloak on, the water split. This man would walk into situations where people were dying, and they would get healed because he showed up.

What I’m telling you is these are not mystical Bible characters. God is trying to do these things today. Miracles, signs, and wonders are for the church today. The problem is we don’t have faith to believe it can happen, so we believe for crowds when God wants to heal cancer. How was service? It was amazing—people got healed! Oh, my gosh, it was amazing—the lights, the pyrotechnics, the production! God said, «But who found purpose in that? Did somebody find purity in that? Did somebody’s life change because of that?»

And I’m telling you, I will not lead a powerless church, and I will not live a powerless life. There is a double portion with my name on it because I am going to have the faith to live out on a limb. If you’re going to live in crazier faith, go ahead and give God a shout of praise! Don’t play with me; this is just the beginning. I need to shake you up right now because some of y’all have been living this mediocre, medicated, sad Christian life. God said, in the beginning of Genesis, my plan for you is to subdue, rule, and dominate on this earth, and you’re looking depressed, sad, and dejected. But I’m telling you, a shot of crazy faith is about to come across this screen, and you are going to believe again.

Elijah starts living in crazy faith, and then he starts living in crazier faith, doing stuff that nobody said he could do. How do you go and buy a building and pay it off in six months with people donating from around the world? Do they go to your church? Are they your members? These are questions bankers will ask: Do they know what you’re doing with the money? It may not make sense to you, but it’s about to make a miracle for me. Oh, that’s gangster. It may not make sense to you, it may not make sense when the doctors tell me that my son is nonverbal and he’s about to be sick, and there’s only so much we can do, but God’s given me a word. I don’t need anybody’s help; I’m too pumped up already. God’s already given me a word.

So, it may not make sense to you, Mr. Doctor, Mrs. Speech Therapist. It may not make sense, but for Michael Alexander Todd Jr., it’s about to make a miracle. Somebody needs to get to another level of indignation and say it might not make sense, but it’s about to make a miracle.

See, when you start living in crazier faith, you start doing different things. When you see a door, you start thinking about how it’s coming down. When you see a mountain, you start thinking about how it’s going to move. A lot of times, when we live at a low level, we see a door, and we start thinking about why it can’t happen. It’s closed to me. Every door has hinges, y’all. Every door has hinges. With enough knocking, if I have to get gangster, I’ll kick that door down. Some of y’all need to get a level of faith that says if I gotta kick this door down, if I gotta walk up to it and knock over and over until the hinges start to shake, I’m not talking about no low-level faith; I’m talking crazier faith.

Somebody shout crazier faith! However you’ve been believing, crazier! Whatever you’ve been saying, crazier! Whatever you’ve been confessing, go crazier! Well, my family won’t understand when I tell them I’m leaving Florida and moving to Tulsa, Oklahoma. My business, my music, my everything is in Atlanta; my connections are in L.A.; my company is in… it doesn’t matter, because this next season we’re moving in crazier faith.

I don’t have time to go through all of it, but you need to read all of Second Kings this week and look at Elijah and how he passed down a double portion to Elisha. He starts living this out, and now I want to go to when he dies. Oh, dang, sad! You’re going to die at some point. My question is, what will they say about you when you’re dead? The worst compliment you could ever get when you die is something short like this: «He was cool.» I mean, when they read your epitaph, it would say, «They were fun.» You just summed up 89 years of life with «They were fun»? No, tell me more about them! «I mean, just the life of the party.» What? They didn’t do anything that made anybody move into something else! They didn’t change the trajectory of the people that would come behind them.

The Bible says the least you can do is a good man leaves an inheritance for his children. He ain’t leaving; we ain’t getting nothing but pictures. I mean, he looked nice, but see, faith builds a legacy too. Many of us are living in the fear of our grandparents and our parents. The reason you won’t step out is you never saw anybody do it. The reason you won’t go to counseling is that we don’t tell people our business, but you’re jacked up, and now your kids are going to pornography to feel.

Let me stop, but if you could ever really deal with your own stuff, fear is now passing down generationally. But that scripture said, «Now faith.» Today, as I’m sitting here, I believe that something can switch in your life, that where fear has been the primary operating system of your life, you eject it and burn the backup. Today, you’re going to insert faith in there. And from now on, we don’t just live in crazy faith; we live in crazier faith.

God, if you said it, I will obey. God, if you want me to go, I’m already moving. God, if you want me to stay, I ain’t moving till you bless me. There is a level of crazier faith that is available to you right now. This is my real message right here in five minutes: Second Kings 13:14. Elijah gets sick; he’s about to die. But I can imagine that at the end of his life, he starts reminiscing. They tell us that when you get to the end of your life, your memory keeps the highlights, and you start thinking about all the amazing things that happened during your life.

I think he was probably going through the catalog in his mind of all the amazing things that God did, and it came to the end of his predecessor’s life. While he was thinking of how he even got here, he said, «Oh shoot, it was the crazier faith of Elisha that I got transferred a double portion of. I know I’m old and I’ve been living in crazier faith all my life, but I wonder, can I transfer this crazy faith I got to somebody else?»

So, there’s this king named Joash, and he had been getting his tail whooped in his kingdom for years because his people were sinning. Joash comes to mourn the prophet Elijah. Look at it in Second Kings 13:14: «When Elijah was in his last illness, King Joash of Israel visited him and wept over him. 'My father, my father! I see the chariots and the charioteers of Israel, ' and he was crying.»

This is what happened in verse 15: Elijah said, «Man, quit all that! I’m about to die, man! Stop crying! Get a bow and some arrows.» That’s crazy! It doesn’t make any sense. But I’ve watched you live your life in crazy faith. Where are some bows and some arrows? Let me just thank Elisha; I got the bow and the arrows. I was faithful to follow the instruction.

Remember what I talked about in crazy faith? You have to be faithful to follow instructions, find favor, and make it final. Watch it right here; he’s trying to do the same thing in somebody else’s life, and I’m trying to get it to go down into your heart. He was faithful to follow instructions.

Do you know how dumb it would look right now, where your boy is dying? I’m crying, my army’s out there getting their tail whipped, and I’m standing here—I’m the king with a bow and arrow? How does this make sense? It’s a crazy faith instruction. Look at verse 16: Elijah told him, «Put your hand on the bow.» Okay? And then look what he says to him: «Don’t worry, I’m not going to shoot it.» Everybody in the front row is like, «We’re about to die!» And then watch this: Dad, come here real quick, real quick. Watch what it says—it says Elijah, watch the symbolism, laid his own hands on the king’s hands.

Come lay your hands on my hands; act like you’re shooting with me. So now what just happened is the favor came onto his life. I want you to see the symbolism. He told him to pick up the bow and arrow, he did it, he obeyed, and he found himself faithful. Then the prophet put his hands on his hands. He now has the favor of the one who can give him a double portion.

And then look at verse 17: Then he commanded him, «Open the eastern window.» And he opened it; why the eastern and not the western? Shut up and obey me. Sometimes that’s what God says: «Why go to this company and not this one?» Shut up and obey me. «Why did you tell me to go to Wendy’s and not McDonald’s?» Shut up and obey me. You don’t know at Wendy’s I got a blessing for you; there’s somebody you’re going to meet there.

This ain’t a plug for Wendy’s, but if you want to hit your boy up, hit me up. What I’m saying is some of y’all need to just shut up and obey. Why the eastern window? It don’t matter. And then what did he say? «Shoot your shot. Make it final!» Yeah! He pulled that thing back. Dad, don’t do it because I’ll kill Ron right there; don’t do that. Thank you!

And what did he do? He took what was just a moment of crazy actions and he made it final. The arrow’s gone. That was crazy faith; that seemed completely dumb. But what did that do for me? Look at the promise that comes after he made it final. He was found faithful; favor was put on him; he made it final. This is how you know you’re walking in crazy faith. Elijah proclaimed, «This is the Lord’s arrow and an arrow of victory over Aram.» That was who was kicking his butt: «For you will completely conquer the Arameans at Aphek.»

Do you mean that that simple move from the apartment that I liked to the apartment on the other side of town that God told me to move to, that I had to lose my deposit because my lease wasn’t up? You’re telling me that because I obeyed you to do the thing that sounded crazy, you’re about to give me victory in an area I don’t even have to fight? Do you all know that when we came to get this building in crazy faith, there were victories that we won because we obeyed God that we didn’t even know were against us?

We always praise God for the victories that we know about, but some of us need to take a moment and praise God for the challenges and the victories we didn’t see coming. Opposition that never even made it to our front door. Obedience will enable you to circumvent battles. The victory is in your obedience. This man was obedient, and he found victory in crazy faith. But the name of this series is not crazy faith. What’s the name of this series? Say it with your chest: it’s crazier faith! So anytime you live in crazier faith, God follows it up with an opportunity for even crazier faith. Look at what the next thing Elijah says to him: «Now pick up the other arrows and strike them against the ground.» «That’s not what you told me to do last time!» «Shut up and obey!»

Now, I’m trying to help you, because you just won victory doing it one way, and God is giving you another instruction that doesn’t even require the bow. He didn’t ask for the bow this time; he didn’t ask for you to write a paper this time; he didn’t ask for you to network this time—pick up the arrows, okay? Strike them against the ground. That’s sometimes how crazy your faith looks. Keep doing the Bible study and nobody’s coming. Keep serving at that ministry, and they haven’t recognized my gifting yet. And watch this scary moment: «I obeyed you! I obeyed you! I did it!»

So the king picked them up and struck the ground three times, but the man of God got so angry with him, saying, «You should have struck the ground five or six times because then you would have beaten Aram until it was entirely destroyed. Now you will have only three victories because that’s what you had the faith for.» Could it be that when God gives you a command, sometimes he leaves space for you to fill it with your faith? Strike the ground! That felt good, didn’t it, God? He said, «You did that! That’s all you get because that’s all you have faith for.»

Did I give you a number to stop at? Did I say you could only have one house? Did I tell you you could only touch one city? Did I give you a limit? Ah! You thought three was enough! You thought that was enough! You thought the college degree was enough! I wanted to let you be the president of the organization, but you settled for a plaque on the wall instead of walking in purpose. Let me calm down by playing a game. I’m going to put a picture on the screen, and I need you to tell me what’s in between these two images. Can you put the first picture on the screen? Tell me what is between—just go ahead and put it up there! What is between Earth and Mars? Say it louder! Say it one more time!

Okay, you got one right. Put this woman’s beautiful smile up on the screen. Okay, what’s between her two front teeth? Say it louder! More pictures! I just want to make sure because some of y’all are remedial, and so you don’t know what the answer is for all of them, so just cheat off your neighbors. Put up the next picture: what is between these two parked cars? What is between the vision God has shown you in your heart and living it out in crazier faith? Space! And what if, when you’re walking in crazier faith, you have to fill the space with faith? That’s all I’m trying to get you to know because you can fill that space with anything. Mike, they can fill it with fear, and that’s why you’re watching the news all the time. It’s killing the purpose over your life because you’ve got this space where God said you’re going to be a successful business owner, and all you hear on the news is that the Dow is down, the stock market has dropped, and the real estate industry is done.

God said, «I called you to come in there and tear that thing up! I’m setting the stage for you to come up and do something that’s never been seen before,» but you filled the space with fear. What I want you to do in this series—and for some of y’all, this is going to take us chipping away at the hard places of your heart and the pessimism of your perspective—but I’m telling you right now, if you stick with me for these next 14 weeks, by the end of this, you will fill the space of your life with—somebody shout at me—crazier faith! Say it like you mean it! See, there’s a space between instructions and belief, and this is the thing that messed me up: when Elijah was told to pick up the arrows, that man could have done something that nobody had seen before. He could have gone and picked up all the arrows that were left on the ground that other people left. He could have taken things people left from generations before.

Oh, y’all didn’t want to walk in the blessing of God like that? Oh, y’all didn’t want to actually—no, no, no! We’re not leaving anything on the table! This is the type of gangster I’m about to live at! He said strike the ground! He gave him, watch this, a command with no cap! That’s the title of this message: command with no cap! This next level of crazier faith you’re about to live in—you need to be so close that you can listen for God to give you a command, and don’t put a limit where God didn’t. This man literally, when he said strike the ground with the arrow, you know what that man could have done? He could have been like, «No more left!»

Some of y’all are laughing because I look crazy to you, but that was your purpose! That was your family! That was your finances! That was victory over the cancer! That was victory over depression! There was victory over every lie of the enemy! There was victory over doubt! That was victory over poverty! Three arrows were crazy favor; six arrows would have been crazier! Three arrows would have been obedient; six arrows were abundance! Three arrows weren’t bad, but three arrows weren’t God’s best. Could you be living below God’s best? He was trying to do the bare minimum when God was trying to do something beyond belief. Everybody say beyond belief! Say it again one more time!

That’s the season we’re walking into! Charles, we’re going beyond belief! Bree, we’re going beyond belief! Natalie, we’re going beyond belief! They’re going to look at our life and say, «How did all of that happen?» And all we’re going to say is that we obeyed the command with no cap! Don’t put a cap where God has given you the audacity to live in crazier faith! What could God do with your life? Could God be asking for the whole city while you only circle the block? Could God be asking the little church from North Tulsa to impact the whole world when all we were trying to do was get a building? Could God be calling you to run the largest real estate firm in the nation when all you’re trying to do is manage a housing development? Could God be trying to bring the entire family in your life to Christ, and you’re just trying to get them to come to Easter?

This story plays out in my life and in the life of this church in a real way. God said, «Crazier!» Somebody shouted, «Crazier!» One more time! I thought it was crazy when God gave us this building! Thirty-seven days after I became the lead pastor of this church, I wrote this thing down, and God’s doing this. We got the building, but there were like 11 other things that were on here that he said we would do. Me and Natalie became the lead pastors of Transformation Church on February 1, 2015. We didn’t know what we were doing, but God said, «You walk by faith and not by sight, and I’m going to do something crazy in your life.»

What ends up happening is miracle after miracle after miracle! Relationship Goals goes out, and this young lady named Ashley posted on Twitter, and two million people watched it in 48 hours! It brought all of this attention! We didn’t have a working website at the time; stuff was all crazy! All we had was an obedient step that God told me to do. He said, «Put by new cameras!» We spent $80,000 on Black Magic cameras, and people left the church over it because they said I was doing too much! «That young person doesn’t know what he’s doing spending that money!» For two years nobody watched it except my mama, my auntie, and my prayer groups—50 views every week. But I was found faithful! It didn’t care how many views I was getting; it cared that I was being obedient! This young lady posted this series in December, boom! Like wildfire, everything starts growing!

In 2018 we went from one service to five services in a converted grocery store in the hood of Tulsa! We had white people who had never been past downtown traveling to North Tulsa like, «Man, watch yourself! It’s kind of crazy out here!» But they didn’t even care—they were driving their Buicks, Cadillacs, and Mercedes to North Tulsa! It looked like a melting pot of white, black, and brown! There were people everywhere, and God said that he was going to grow this thing! This wasn’t us looking for this; God found us faithful! And Bishop put his favor on me—even though people told him he was crazy for trusting me. But he put that coat on me! He didn’t just kind of put his favor on me; he let me run it! He said, «And if you mess up, I’m right here.»

I gotta stop; I have to honor you, Elijah. E.J.'s in the building! Y’all, Bishop, we have to honor you—thank you, sir! He put the coat on me, Joe, and when he put the coat on me, he said, «Now you’re going to have to trust God for yourself. You can’t do it the way I did it; you got to trust God for yourself!» So we started trusting God, giving when we needed, being a blessing, doing the sermon series that God told us to do, and doing all this other stuff! This thing blows up, and I’m about to die because we’re doing five services! One Sunday, I said, «God, you gotta do something!» He said, «I already gave you the plan!» I said, «I already gave you a vision. Can you see it though?» I began to close my eyes—that’s where it said, «I gotta see it before I see it!»

I came over here with Bishop, we broke into this arena, and we took a picture in the lobby of this place, and I declared that this place would be Transformation Church—not because I said it, but because God said it! Be careful when you start walking in crazier faith—God did not co-sign what you’ve committed to! We’ll talk about that another week. Can I just make a long story short? God did the miracle! In September 2019, I believe—or was it August? —was it August or September? August 2019, I stood up and said, «We got the keys, the keys, the keys!»

We shouted, we jumped, we danced! Six months later, we paid the building off—$10.5 million, completely debt-free! It’s only crazy until it happened! The banker laughed at me when I told them we were going to buy the building, and then I took the note in there six months later and right before Christmas, he said, «You said that you were going to do what?» I said, «God said that he was going to do it!» And we did that thing! I was good—I had lived my life in crazy faith, minding my own business! I wasn’t trying to steward over what God gave me! Driving up here one day, Mike, this building sits at the back of a commercial real estate complex that has 35-plus buildings in it, along with owning the land that Chick-fil-A sits on—that’s holy ground!

I was driving in one day, and the Holy Spirit said, «Don’t take your foot off the gas!» I said, «What do you mean? I’m driving, Lord! I won’t take my foot off the gas until I get to where I’m going.» He said, «No, no, in faith. You believed for the building, but will you believe for the entire complex?» I said, «I mean…see, this is the test! If God wants to do something, why would you stop him because of your fear?» I said, «God, I’m going to step out and live in crazy faith!» One year after purchasing this building—August 2019—In fall 2020, in the middle of a pandemic, we bought the entire complex of Post Rock! We own the land Chick-fil-A sits on; they pay us! Do you hear me? But see, that didn’t come without preparation! See, when God did the first crazy faith miracle, I brought the team together and said, «I think God’s about to do some more stuff!» They said, «We need to start not just a non-profit; we need to have a for-profit.»

See, some of y’all, the step that you need to make has nothing to do with the miracle happening! God said you need to open the bank account! God said that you need to take the step that you can do right now! We made a for-profit Transformation Group Holdings Company because we knew we didn’t want everything to not be taxed! We wanted to make so much for the Kingdom of God that we could be able to take what God has done and fund missions, and be the ones to stroke the check for hurricane victims, and go to Afghanistan! Before they ask for it, we’re already there to help in sex trafficking! And we didn’t have to ask for you to give an offer!

The vision here is to represent what would happen—let me just throw a little vision: can you see it? What would happen if the tithes and offerings that came in this church were never used for ministry in this building, what if every dollar we received was going out because there was so much revenue coming from other business ventures that we never had to ask for an offering to do what God wanted us to do? Just because we’re here as believers, you get mad when someone asks for an offering, but I’m talking about the kingdom. They’re going to have to help me. All right, so we went and bought the whole building. Are we done yet, God? I thought we lived in crazy faith. God said, «Michael, this can either be a monument in your life or this can be momentum for the rest of your life. Either we’re going to worship this moment that God did the miracle, or it’s so normal that one miracle brings momentum for the next miracle, and that miracle brings the momentum for the next miracle, and this miracle brings the momentum for the next miracle.»

While I was on sabbatical, y’all helped me. Holy Spirit, I was resting. I was doing what God told me to do, and we held a service on June 19th for our city. When we were preparing for that service, we knew we were a generous church, and you were such a generous people. We knew we were going to do something significant, as this was the hundredth year of the race massacre that happened in 1921 in Tulsa, and nobody, which is the dumbest thing in the world, has ever done anything for reparations for the families in North Tulsa. We just got the first grocery store out there a year ago—shout out to Oasis. That doesn’t make any sense, so I said, «It’s reparation season,» and if the city’s not going to do it, if the government is not going to do it, the church will. Because of Transformation Church’s generosity, we gave a million dollars away to North Tulsa in building and to the survivors.

Now watch, that’s not the testimony; we already shouted over that. When I was driving away, the Holy Spirit said that was a seed for what I’m about to do. Ozbe, I drove away from that place, and that was on a Sunday. By midweek, Wednesday or Thursday, I get a call. Guys, I’m like, «You going to the meeting for my security?» He knew I wasn’t going to any meetings; he knew I was on sabbatical. But he said, «You’re going to tell me.» I said, «What meeting, Scott?» He said, «Oh, never mind.» I said, «Scotty, if you don’t tell me what meeting…» Rico, he said, «There’s something happening, Pastor Mike.»

See, one of the decisions we made at Transformation Church is that children were going to be a priority at our church. So when we talk about the state-of-the-art facility and all this other stuff, I want our kids' ministry to be twice as good as whatever we do in here. During the time we were down for Corona and then for construction, this is the first week we’re back in the auditorium. Oh, it’s good to be back in the auditorium, and that means soon it’s going to be good for all of us to be back in the auditorium. Glory to God!

As we began to look with contractors and various people around, we realized something: For the type of children’s area we needed, because we went back to the prophecy, God said one of the lines in this states that the kids' zone will be a place that draws students from around the world and we would have state-of-the-art facilities. So I went back to the word, and then it said at the bottom that this building will be filled three times over every weekend. Now that hasn’t happened yet in the middle of a pandemic, but God has given us space. What do you fill it with? Because I fill it with faith, I said we have to start preparing for the children to be here three times over, and it’s got to be big enough.

So the team starts looking, and what they concluded is that to provide a state-of-the-art facility for our children, the staff office that is here Monday through Thursday has to be moved out of this building. It was like we need all of that space to facilitate the weekend. They said, «We need to start looking for places around here that we could at least office in and be the headquarters for Transformation Church staff, and then we do Sundays here.»

So the expansion team went out looking, and they came across this building with three floors in a beautiful area right off the highway. It had three floors with beautiful views that were white-boxed, so we could go in and make it look like Transformation Church. They were evaluating leasing this space, and when they entered into negotiations for this building, something shifted from leasing to, «Would y’all like to buy this?» Now, we weren’t looking to buy anything, but they called me, and I walked up to this building that I’ve passed for the past six years, and I didn’t know when I was passing it that it was part of my purpose.

We spent about 45 minutes walking through that building, didn’t we, Dale? As I was coming down the elevator, the Holy Spirit said, «Michael, you didn’t believe for this, but I need a partner that has the faith to make this happen.» What happens when you walk at such a level of faith that God doesn’t even care if you believed Him for it? He comes to find you because He knows you have the faith to believe for the impossible. I said, «God, if You want to do this, you know I have the faith for it.»

The literal people, oh God, that built this building for, wait for it, 64 million dollars six years ago came to us and said, «There’s some financial things shifting in our company, and we want to sell it.» I went to our finance people and said, «Can we do this?» They said, «Pastor, if you walk in crazy faith, we’re standing right here with you.» Be careful who you talk to when God is asking you to do something in crazy faith. Our chief finance guy, he’s so full of faith—Tim, I love you so much—he said, «Pastor Michael, if you believe that this is God, we’re going after it.»

I walked out of that building and gave them the thumbs up and said, «That’s our building» and went back on vacation. When you don’t fight, and God fights for you, watch this: You can rest. The number one thing that’s plaguing the church today is we don’t rest because we’re always worried about what God already said He was going to do. I went to rest, and I came back 15 days ago. These people said, «Pastor Michael, it’s almost like things got out of the way for you to have this property.» I said, «What do you mean?» A closing of this magnitude would usually take months to get through all the legal stuff. They said, «You saw this at the end of June, and we’re here at the top of August, and everything’s in place for you to sign on the dotted line.»

I said, «Hold on, wait—don’t play with me. I didn’t really work that hard for this, but this is bigger than anything, and God said it’s beyond your belief.» He said, «Michael, what I’m about to do in crazier faith is make a spectacle out of the space you put faith in.»

So, Transformation Church, what I want to let you know is that God has expanded our church again, and not just giving us something cute that the staff can office out of; He is giving us a global headquarters to train, serve, and function the vision that not even we currently have. It’s the vision that God is taking us to. This is a hundred and ninety-something thousand square feet of office space: six floors of this, that, workout gyms, and all kinds of stuff that’s way above my pay grade. But I came to tell you on the first week of crazier faith that I got the keys. Yo, I got the keys! I don’t drop the keys, but I got the keys. Transformation Church, we are now the owners! It ain’t just crazy faith; this is crazier faith of the new Transformation Towers that will give God glory, honor, and praise. Somebody give God a shout of praise!

Oh, y’all better help me! It’s not done at faith; it’s not done at crazy faith; it is crazier faith. This was beyond my belief. Vic, when I go over there, it’s 30 acres of manicured golf course property, highway frontage—you won’t find that. It looks like something Tony Stark built for the Avengers. They have LED lights all around, and God knows what I like. He knows what I like. And because I was found faithful, I found favor, and I made it final. This is not just a season of life, Bree; this is how we’re going to live. Somebody said, «This is how I’m going to live.» Come on, one more time. It’s going down—this is how I’m going to live!

It went from crazy faith to crazier faith. As a church, we’re not supposed to own over 70 million dollars' worth of property in the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma. I don’t have enough education for that; I don’t have enough favor for that. But because of the generosity and stewardship of all of us together and because of the crazy faith of a bunch of people like us, when I die, I’m going to end up in the Hall of Faith. Why? It’s because I decided I wouldn’t live my life safe. When God does something like this for our church, it wasn’t for our church; it wasn’t for the organization; it was for the organisms to know that, hold on, Pastor Mike is regular, degular. He has problems. He hasn’t told us all of his issues. He hasn’t told us he struggled with pornography; he didn’t hold on. If anybody can be used—hold on, you say it too loud? It’s the truth, though. That’s what I want people to feel. I want you to feel like if God can do it with us, and He’s no respecter of persons, what does God have planned for your life in crazier faith?

The keys don’t mean anything if you don’t have your life. All I’m telling you is that God, last point, wants to take you beyond your belief. I took the staff over there this week, and the level of shouting and praising that went on in that building—I didn’t tell you the best part. God’s so crazy with it that the company that was there decided, «You know what? We still want to be in the building, so we’ll pay y’all to stay on two of the floors while y’all occupy the other floors.» So God gave us ownership but still sent assistance to do everything that didn’t hurt us at all. You missed it! God’s trying to expand you, and He’s saying it ain’t gonna hurt you at all! It’s way bigger than you thought it would be, but I got you still.

Pastor Mike, you excited? It’s because I’m fired up at another level now. This book that comes out Tuesday—the only thing that it is trying to do is give you the bare minimum basics that allow you to get to a life of crazy faith, and you have to get that book so that you can understand everything that we’re about to go. I’m telling you, Transformation Church, I got 17 more pages to preach, but I’m stopping right here because this thing is about to change your family, your life, and generations because you will, mark my words, I’m prophesying over you—hands lifted all over— you will live in crazier faith. You will be able to experience God beyond belief, and you will be a person of faith. Hands lifted, I want to pray over you.

Father, in the name of Jesus, I did to the best of my abilities what You called me to do. God, now I’m praying that when You give us a command, we won’t put a cap. Thank You that we would strike again, that we would believe again, that we would stand in faith again, and that we would go out even after we’ve done it two times, three times. God, just like those areas, this has been back-to-back year after year. Three times that You’ve done something in crazy faith, but I will not be one to stop on the third one. Whatever You want to do with this church, God, You can do it. And whatever You want to do with our lives, God, You can do it.

Today, Father, we’re making a commitment anew and afresh that we’ll burn the plows and make an altar. We’re burning the backup; we’re going to live in crazy faith. Today, God, I thank You that a revolution—or better yet, said a revival—would start on the inside of each one of us. And God, I thank You that we would trust You and trust Your promises and stand in faith. Father God, because when we stand in faith, You get glory, You get honor, and You get praise. Today, let it be the start of a generation of people who will live, stand, love, and be able to say that we lived in crazier faith.

If you believe it, you receive it, and you claim it—go ahead all over the world and give God the greatest shout of praise! Oh, come on, let’s give God a crazy shout of praise! There’s somebody watching right now; that was literally just my introduction to this series. I’m full, y’all, but I’m telling you, this is about to change everything. If you’re watching this and you’ve never given your life to Jesus, this is the biggest crazy faith step you can take; it’s the thing that changed me from being a liar, a manipulator, and someone who was addicted to pornography. I had all kinds of problems and bad things in my heart. God said, «If you will give me your life and your heart, I’ll transform you, and I’ll allow you to help other people.»

I am standing here only by the grace of God, and today that grace is available to you. I don’t care what you’ve done, who you’ve done it with, where you’ve been, what you said you would be, or where God has you right now. God is asking you to surrender; He’s found you. I don’t care how you got to this platform; I don’t care who sent you the link. God said, «Today is the day of salvation!» I need anyone who knows how to pray to start praying. There are lives on the line right now; there are people’s eternities in the balance right now. I’m telling you, this is the one decision—the crazy faith decision—that can change everything.

If you want to make that decision today, all I want you to do is, at the count of three, just slip your hand in the air. I don’t care if you’re on the track, if you’re at your cubicle on break; I don’t care what’s happening. This statement that you’re about to make publicly is going to change everything in your life. One: you’re making the greatest decision of your life. Two: God is so proud of you right now. Three: shoot your hand up in the air all over this world. Yes! There are people here making a fresh commitment anew and afresh. I see you, sir. I see you, ma’am. You can put your hands down. What is about to happen is something that physics and science can’t explain; it’s something that goes down to the cellular level. It changes you from the inside out.

Today we’re going to pray a prayer together. There are thousands of people—I feel this, Charles—there are thousands of people about to give their lives to God. This is going to be their first crazy faith move, and it’s going to change everything. Now, Transformation Church, we’re a family; nobody prays alone here because we all know we are a hot mess without Jesus, and some of us are still a hot mess with Him. All I’m telling you right now is that we’re in this together. If everybody would, for the benefit of those who are coming to Christ, would you just lift your hands one more time and pray this prayer? Say:

God, thank you for sending Jesus just for me. Today, I realize that I’m a sinner and I need a Savior, and I choose You, Father God. I believe that You lived, You died, and You rose again with all power just for me. Now come into my life, change me, renew me, transform me. I’m Yours. In Jesus' name, amen.