Stephanie Ike - Manifesting Your Potential (01/19/2026)
This sermon, «Manifesting Your Potential,» teaches that God’s prophetic word over a person’s life reveals their true identity and potential—not something to be created, but what already is in heaven’s view. Using the Parable of the Sower (Mark 4:14–20), the preacher explains how people fail to manifest this potential: through doubt and past failures (wayside soil), emotional fragility and lack of rooted intimacy with God (stony ground), distractions by worldly cares, riches, and comparisons (thorny ground). True manifestation (good soil) yields 30-, 60-, or 100-fold fruit based on personal investment—heart (emotional vulnerability), soul (intellect and creativity), mind (will and perseverance)—not God’s favor alone. The call is to believe the word, work it diligently, and experience one’s God-formed identity without shrinking from it.
Manifesting Your Potential
So today, the title of—you know—today’s message is Manifesting Your Potential. Now, to manifest is to become the evidence of—you know what, this is nice, that little graphics, that’s real nice. And so what today is about is becoming the evidence of your potential. You see, the crazy thing in life is that so many people die filled with potential.
You know, I’ve been to a lot of prophetic conferences in my life, and I’ve lived a—I’m really young, so not that long, right—but something that, you know, always stood out to me, and I used to go to so many because how many of you ever feel like you just need someone to—I mean, you don’t need someone, but you’re in a stage where you’re so like, God, I need to know that this is you, and I just need somebody to confirm this word, right?
So in that stage of my life, I went to so many prophetic conferences, right? But the one thing that always blew my mind is that when a prophet would prophesy into someone’s life and they would speak the word of God into someone’s life, when they would speak into their identity, it was always something so, so big, right? Obviously, God never speaks to us at where we are, but it was always—it was not even they were not even talking about, you know, this is what you’re called to do, but they were just talking about who the person was. And the thing that always really, you know, struck me—it was young, old, it didn’t matter.
I mean, someone is heading to the grave, you know, and the word—I’m like, you know, he needs like 20 more years to do all of that, you know, but I’m sorry, that’s just me 'cause I’m looking at them, I’m like, wow, Lord, you know, you need to prolong his life. But but that’s the thing that always blew my mind, and even when God would give me a word about a person, it’s just wow. But the sad thing is that many people die without ever experiencing that, and there’s some of us here that we wrestle with God—you said this, but why didn’t it happen? You said this, but I haven’t experienced this word.
You see, the funny thing about life is what we call potential is what God calls the reality about who we are.
Gideon: Mighty Man of Valor
You see, in the Book of Judges 6, there’s a man named Gideon, and you know, write this down, study this on your own time—it’s incredible. Now, during that time, as an Israelite, they were being oppressed by the Midianites, and so the Israelites were crying out to God—they’re like, God, you know, we need you to save us, we need you to deliver us.
And so an angel is sent to Gideon, and by Gideon at this point, you know, he’s—he’s hiding, actually, trying to make some wheat or something, but he saw himself as inferior. He didn’t see himself as anything close to someone who could bring the deliverance or save the Israelites at that time. But the angel goes to Gideon and he refers to him as mighty man of valor—in other words, a mighty warrior.
Now, a warrior is someone who has been experienced in battle, and to be a mighty one at that—I mean, that’s, you know, top-notch. But the funny thing is Gideon had never fought, you know—he didn’t have a David type of story where he was fighting lions and tigers and bears, right? He didn’t have that, you know, history. But yet God referred to him—in heaven, he was identified as a mighty man of valor.
You see, the word of God to you is not something God is trying to create—it’s what is. It might be new to you, but it’s not new to him. There’s a passage in Ecclesiastes that says there’s no new thing under the sun. God is not—and that’s where we get caught up sometimes because we think that God is about to create something, or we think that we can only do this thing because, you know, the hand of God is on my life, and you know, he might shift it to somebody else’s life. But the reason that the hand of God is on your life is because he knows who you are—he’s not creating you to become somebody; that is actually who you are.
And so when he gives you his word, he’s giving you everything, but to experience the word is a whole another ball game. The experience is what we’re after. You see, Gideon could have decided to not believe what God said. He could have decided to not believe what the angel told him—that, you know, I don’t know who you’re talking to, you know, sir, right? This—I’m not the one, I’m not the one, right? He could have—like, honestly, because even when you look at the story of Gideon, there were times where he doubted what God—what the word that came to him—that he’s like, God, I need a sign, I need a sign, I need, you know, multiple signs.
And God gave him every sign to say, look, you know, this is who I’ve called you to be. But what if Gideon was like, you know what, I don’t believe it, I don’t think that’s possible—which many of us do—and we walk away from that word? It doesn’t change the reality of what is. It doesn’t change the reality that indeed Gideon is a mighty man of valor. We look at it as he has the potential to be that, but that was the reality when God looked at him. And he could have walked away from it and never experienced himself to be a warrior, a soldier, an army man—he would have never experienced that. But God didn’t—never lied; it didn’t change anything God said because God spoke the truth.
The Parable of the Sower (Mark 4:14–20)
And so what we’re going to be talking about today—you see, what I love about this message is what God showed me would take place is that the treasures that have been hidden in darkness would be revealed, amen. And the treasure is you—the treasure is the things that he’s called you to, the dreams that you’ve given up on, the ideas that you’re like, huh, I don’t think so. You know, God speaks to us in many ways, right?
Some of you don’t even know that it was God that told you that, but you have this conviction about—I know this is what my life is called to, I know I’m supposed to do something in this area, I–I just have this strong knowing. God can speak through impressions too. But when you think about it, who would ever want to reject the word of God, right? Because to reject the word of God is to reject yourself because he’s speaking to reveal who you are.
And so the passage that we’re going to look into is going to break down the ways in which we knowingly or unknowingly walk away from the revelation of God about our lives and about the things he’s called us to. And the last part of that passage is also going to reveal to us if we are being blessed, but are we seeing the full capacity of the blessing. And so let’s go into—we’re going to be looking at Mark chapter 4, verse 14 to 20.
What’s happening in the passage as it comes up is that Jesus is explaining a parable that he just shared. And the parable—what is so fascinating about this parable—because when we see the word, he’s talking about, you know, the word of God, and it’s the parable of the sower. Many of you might have read this passage, many of you might be familiar with this passage, but he talks about the parable of the sower, right? But 14—no, for 4:14 to 20, yeah.
So he describes his word as a seed. In the parable, what he uses to symbolize his word were seeds that a sower—you know, a sower on his way, you know, some seeds fell here, some seeds fell there. But what I love about even him using seeds to describe his word is what a seed represents, right? Every seed has the potential to be a tree. You can be extreme and say every seed is a tree yet to experience itself. And so when God gives you his word, it’s everything that it needs to be, but the experience of it—there are two things required. Because when you have a seed, if you understand the potential of that seed, if you believe in the potential of it—so that’s faith—and you work it, you nurture it—so first of all, you’re planting it, you’re—you know, you water it and all that stuff, you—you know the water schedules.
And so that’s where we see faith and works. And so he refers to his word as seeds. God is not—is so fascinating because we think that, you know what, God, give me the word, and Lord, you know, favor me, favor me, favor me. And he’s like, no—in that word is your favor, in that word is your empowerment, in that word is everything that you need. But do you believe that it is what it is, and are you willing to work it?
Wayside Soil: Doubt and Confusion of Hope vs. Faith
And so when we read the first part of this passage, we’re going to see the different ways that we knowingly or unknowingly walk out of what God has revealed to us, right?
So the word says the sower sows the word, right? So this is the explanation now of the parable. So if you do want to read the parable in your own time, that’s just right before this passage. So he says the sower sows the word, and these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. This is crazy, but what I understood about this—you see, it’s one thing to be on a path and to be on the wayside by the road—no sense of direction. These are people that have no sense of direction about their life. They’re willing to, you know, whatever comes—okay, you know what, oh maybe. When you’re on the road, at least you either going—you’re moving forward or you’re moving backward.
But what happens—how does life bring you here, and how is it that immediately when the word is sown, immediately the enemy comes and takes it away? He takes you the way through doubt—instantly he reminds you of past failures, instantly he tells you, remember when you tried to believe God for this—it didn’t work out. As soon as it comes in, it goes out, and so you stay by the roadside not knowing where to go—east, north, south, you know, west.
And what happens here—you see, where the enemy plays us in this area is that we use—you see, sometimes we hope for things in ignorance, and hope and faith are two different things.
Now, the Bible explains faith as the substance of things hoped for—oh yes. So faith happens when God qualifies what you’re hoping for. But a lot of times we bring hope and we use it as faith, and we say, but God, I believed you for this, I–I exercised faith, and nothing happened. But he never qualified what you were hoping for, and so you might not know that what I’m hoping for is actually something that could kill me. And so when God doesn’t give it to you, the enemy comes and he tells you, oh, see what happens when you believe in God, when you exercise faith.
And so now he traps you in the mindset—he traps you in the mindset that if God gives you a fresh word—now this is a word from God—but he traps you in the place of confusing hope and faith, and he tells you, you believed like that—nothing happened, you’re going to fail again.
Stony Ground: Feelings-Based Faith and Lack of Root
And so the next thing now—it says these likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately—somebody say immediately—immediately, Lord Jesus—immediately receive it with gladness, and they have no root in themselves and so endure for only a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately—I mean, how quick is this happening, right? —immediately they stumble. You see, this is the category of Christians that are feelings-based—you are driven by your feelings. When the word feels good, you hear the word—hallelujah, you might even start crying, oh, I could only imagine, Lord, why did you choose me, right? You get so in your feelings, right? And you’re so excited like oh, my God spoke to me, God did this. But you’re driven by your feelings because in that moment it feels good, and so immediately you’re like—you’re so glad, you’re so joyful. And then, you know, tribulation comes—this is when you’re like, I don’t think that was Lord, you know—if it’s God, it should not feel this hard. I–I just don’t think if it’s God there shouldn’t be this much opposition.
And then the passage tells us that persecution actually comes because of the word—not because of something else—it comes because of that. So opposition is to be expected, but then you become opposed, and you start doubting that I don’t think God is in this, you know—I just—I don’t feel the Lord, I just don’t feel the Lord’s presence anymore, right? And you see what happens here—you see, there’s a passage that talks about when God says, behold, you know, there—I’ve opened the door that no man can shut. The enemy is aware that he can’t shut the open door in your life, but what he would try to make you do is walk out of that door.
The problem—the problem when there is no real relationship—you see, David said something—he said, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil because you are with me. The shadow means what is close by.
So when you talk about the shadow of death—listen, I don’t want to know what’s close to death, right? All kinds of oppression, all kinds of opposition, defeat—so many things that come—death is the final thing, right? And he’s talking about death in a negative sense—not in the sense of this is what happens to all humans, right—he’s talking about it as death is looking for him. And so when he says that though I walk through the shadow—he’s telling you that look, I’m walking through some tough things here, but I will not be shaking because I have a relationship with God.
Thorny Ground: Distractions and Deceitfulness of Riches
And so let’s go into the next—the next verse—so that would be verse 18 of Mark 4. And so it says now these are the ones sown among thorns—they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires of other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful—unfruitful when the fruit does not mature. And you see it talks about the deceitfulness of riches—you see, what happens here is, you know, what God told you to do or you have this strong belief about what you’re supposed to do—you start going into it, and all of a sudden you doubt its ability to be financially empowering. And so because you don’t—you don’t know if this thing can sustain you financially—you become deceived by looking at what the next person is doing that is making them rich. So now instead of being directed by vision, your motive becomes money, money, money, money, money.
Now what this does is that it keeps—it puts people in this lukewarm position because on one end you know the thing you’re supposed to do, but you don’t believe that thing will financially empower you, and on the other end you’re trying to pursue what other people are doing, but you’ve not been anointed to take that route, and so it’s not even working there.
Now this is the thing—because obviously God is not into, you know, an illusion, right? It’s one thing to—when you’re focused on a vision, it could be true that right now that vision is not sustaining, you know—it’s not bringing you what you need financially. But that vision needs to be built.
The vision is what gives your life direction—it says that, you know what—no matter what road life takes you, each day build on what I’ve told you because that is the place of your wealth, that is the place of your abundance.
Good Ground: 30-, 60-, 100-Fold Fruit
And so finally—this is the part that really intrigues me—now verse 20—it says but these are the ones sown on good ground—those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit—some 30-fold, some 60, and some 100. You see, it’s funny—it’s really interesting to me because if you read this—who wants to be in 30 when there’s 100? Who wants to say oh, I–I just—I received 60, Lord—no, no, no—there’s 100, right? And so why is it—why is there a difference here—30, 60, 100? What this spoke to me and what this taught me is that God is in all of them—the favor of God is not what gives you a 100 because—check this out—if God wants to bless you, he has access to 100—why would he give you 30?
You see, the 30-fold, the 60-fold, the hundredfold has nothing to do with God—it has everything to do with you. You see, there’s a passage where the Lord Jesus says—he was speaking about, you know, the first and greatest commandment—and he says you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. God is his word—I believe that these three things—this is the blueprint for how we do anything that God is involved in, even with his word.
You see, when you talk about with all your heart—you become emotionally invested in something.
And the Lord says with all your soul—you see, your soul is the place of your intellect, your creativity.
And then it talks about with all your mind—your mind is your will—it’s your ability to say yes every time opposition comes.
And you see these three things—I believe is what makes up—what the result of these three things combined together is what creates the hundredfold. You take one away—you get 60-fold. You take two away—you get 30-fold.
Isaac’s Hundredfold in Famine
You see, there’s no passage in the Bible—and I believe that God wants 100-fold for everyone—no passage of the Bible talks about 30 or, you know, 60—come on, somebody—it talks about 100. And that’s why I love, you know—there’s a man named Isaac, and I believe this is in the Book of Genesis 26—and there was a point where there was a famine in the land.
And so Isaac planned to leave where he was to go to Egypt because he believed that look—if I go to Egypt, there’s no famine there—I can continue my business, I can, you know, continue to prosper. But then it says the Lord appeared to him and told him not to go to Egypt—that he should stay where he is and the Lord will bless him. So that was a word from God. Now the Bible says that Isaac planted in the land, and in that same year he reaped a hundredfold.
You see, hundredfold is the best possible outcome of a thing. It says that he reaped 100-fold—but we missed the dynamics of how that happened. It talks about he sowed in the land—how do you sow crops when there’s famine if you don’t believe what God is saying—if you don’t find some creative ways to water those crops?
He planted in the land as though there was never—there was no famine. He did the—the best he could do—he didn’t do it part-time. And so the Lord saw that no, no—he really believes in what I told him. And so he would reap hundredfold that same year.
Altar Call and Prayer
Family, what is it that God has spoken to you—and do you believe it? Are you willing to work it? What is it that you’re not putting into it? Are you in the place of yes—you are bearing fruit, right—but what fold are you in—30, 60, or 100? Is your mindset the mindset of one who wants to receive the 100?
You see, for some of you—even while you were here right now—God started reminding you of things that he spoke to you about. For some of you received a whole fresh revelation from the Lord—something about who you are, what he’s calling you to do—everything he’s invested in you.
Rise with me, family—if you’re here and you want to recommit yourself back to God’s word to you—you’re not just trying to—it’s stop giving up on yourself—stop thinking that you’re not able to do it. You see, one of the biggest things in life is that you must be patient with yourself—you must be patient—one step at a time—never underestimate what that leads to—one step at a time.
Let us pray—Father God—I thank you for your word tonight—I thank you for your people—I thank you Lord God because indeed you’re calling out the treasures that have been hidden in darkness—you are switching on the light Lord Jesus because each and everyone here—they are the treasures—they have been hidden but they are being revealed.
I thank you Lord that as we grow deeper in you—as we grow deeper in you Lord Jesus—that we will hold on to the truth about our lives—we will not give up no matter how long it takes—no matter the naysayers—and even when we speak against ourselves Lord God—we bring that even into submission Lord God to your word—we submit every negative word that we’ve spoken over our lives—and we loose the powers of those words Lord Jesus—we thank you—we will be intentional about what we say—yes—and what we do—we would invest everything Lord—our heart—our soul—our mind Lord God—we believe—we believe—and your word says faith without works is dead—so the evidence of our belief is in the things we do regarding that.
I thank you Lord that we would not cow it down or wonder why you chose us—we would understand that this is who you formed us to be—your word says that we should come before the throne with boldness—boldness comes from a place of understanding—not to come in timidity—not to come, you know, wondering like oh my God—flee the throne of Jesus Lord—we would know—we would know—we would know that we are sons of God—that we are created in your image—that we sit in heavenly places—that we will begin to understand our identity—and not shrink at the thought of who we are—but we would receive it Lord God—we would receive it with boldness—thank you Jesus for what you’re doing in their lives—thank you Lord that this word Lord God would pierce every form of doubt—every lie Lord God—and it would be written on their hearts in the name of Jesus.
I thank you for your love Lord Jesus—you love us so much that many times you hide us until we’re ready for the blessings—on this altar Lord God—we release—release every disappointment—we release every shame—we release Lord God every setback—we release it to you—to never pick it up again—to never—to never think about our future based on our past—no, no, no—not anymore—we release it to you Lord God—and we would walk with our heads held high—we will be confident—we will come before you in boldness—we would know that this is who I am—Jesus you gave us the example—your time on earth—you never downplayed yourself—no, no, no—you never did—I thank you Lord—have your way in Jesus' name—amen.