An Invitation to Mastery

At the start of every year, we embark on a journey into the unknown. To realize our full potential in 2023, we’ll need to get comfortable with both the foreign AND the familiar. You’ve already been exposed to something — or Somebody — greater. You’ve had opportunity to observe. Now, it’s time to step boldly into this new territory and get to work! The journey isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s the training ground for those who’ll remain steadfast in the process! Will you accept the invitation to mastery?

God’s Messages

Dear Lord,
Today…….I am asking all my prayer warriors to say a prayer that may help others. So many people are hurting right now. Many are struggling with finances and need jobs. Some are facing foreclosure and don’t even know how they are going to make it from week to week..

Many are lonely. . Many are heartbroken. . Many are facing sickness and health is fading. . Some are dealing with difficult family members. Many have lost HOPE.. Tonight, let us put our prayers and faith together decree and declare breakthrough over our families. Financial miracles WILL take place. Jobs WILL be found. Our Bodies WILL be made whole & sickness WILL flee. Marriages and relationships WILL be restored. Family members WILL find Jesus. Heartbreaks WILL be healed. JOY WILL be restored and HOPE WILL be found. In Jesus Name. Amen!!!!!! Keep God First…….

As I was praying, God gave me a subject about mastery.
My subject is an invitation to mastery.
And if God does what I believe he’s gonna do when we leave this place, we’ll have more vision, more focus, more clarity about who we are and how God has positioned us for such a time as this to move into the forefront.
My text is John 14 verse 25.
I don’t think we’re gonna be here very long in this text, the disciples in Jesus are having a conversation.
Jesus is preparing them for what will ultimately happen through his death, resurrection and ascension.
And he recognizes in order for them to be fully prepared that He needs to tell them beforehand what to expect after the facts.
I love that about the God that we serve is that He doesn’t just put us in positions that he often tells us beforehand.
If we’re intentional enough to listen, there’s always a clue for what we’re standing in now.
I hope this makes sense when I get finished.
But I feel like someone understands that there are some moments that only seem foreign because I haven’t done the work of fully looking at how everything in my life has prepared me for the foreign moment that I’m standing in right now.
And so Jesus is preparing the disciples and he’s gone through so many things in this chapter of what they can expect and who he is and how the world is gonna change.
And then he gets down to the end and he says to them, these things I have spoken to you while being present with you.
But the helper, the Holy Spirit whom the father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance.
All things that I said to you. Verse 27 continues and it says peace, I leave with you.
My peace, not this isn’t just any kind of peace.
I’m leaving you, my peace, my peace I give to you.
Not as the world gives do I give to you? So let not your heart be troubled.
Neither let it be afraid. You have heard me say to you, I am going away and coming back to you.
If you loved me, you would rejoice because I said I’m going to the father for my father is greater than I.
And now I have told you before it comes that when it does come to pass, you may believe I will no longer talk much with you for the ruler of this world is coming and he has nothing in me but that the world may know that I love the father and as the Father gave me commandment, so I do arise, let us go from here.
Spirit of the living God. Thank you for your spirit.
Thank you for keeping us.
Thank you for sustaining us and thank you for positioning us for next. God.
I feel like there are some people in this room who are unsure about next.
Maybe they’re wondering how they’re supposed to show up and whether or not they’ll have what it takes for the road ahead.
God, you’ve given me a word that I believe is gonna meet them, right?
Where that insecurity keeps whispering, that’s gonna meet them, right?
Where that demon keeps trying to trick them into believing that there’s nothing left.
And father, it is my prayer that you would take this message and that you would do that which only you can do.
Make it personal, make it relevant, make it effective and anointed.
I offer myself father humble as I can be.
Use me in ways that only you can in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah.
I am was trying to get my mindset together for 2023.
And if I can be honest, I know that so many of us look forward to the New Year because it represents a fresh start, an opportunity for us to start over and to do things differently.
But for some reason, I couldn’t find the happy in the New Year.
Had a little anxiety about the New Year.
Maybe it’s because for the last few years, these years just been coming up in here reckless.
Like, I don’t even know what to expect from you. We’re in a pandemic. The world is shut down.
People are losing their minds. I’m being betrayed. I’m going through depression.
I, I was a little nervous to enter into this next year because I didn’t really know what to expect.
And so I did what I think most people do when they try to really take control of the New Year and they decide within themselves, I’m gonna have a resolution.
I’m going into the New Year with a vision and a strategy.
I’m not gonna wait for the year to happen. I’m gonna happen to the year.
So I started thinking to myself, what are some of the resolutions that you wanna make?
Then the devil reminded me about the mother resolutions I’ve made in, in a few years in the past.
And you know, and how about come February?
I felt the Lord releasing me from those resolutions like who needs to lose £20?
Maybe you just need to embrace who you are right now.
Have you ever had God help you get out of the resolution?
I don’t even know if this started with the Lord.
Maybe it’s about vanity and I just need to be who God has called me to be.
I have lost some resolutions. I looked up the definition of resolution because now I’m in a bit of a hunt and the definition for resolution says a firm decision to do or not to do something.
Suddenly I realized why only 16% of people are able to keep their resolution.
The keyword is firm. My resolutions aren’t like firm enough.
My resolutions are a little bit more flexible than maybe they should be.
And that’s why I’m not able to maintain them. Resolutions are often based on destinations.
I wanna lose £20. I wanna save money for a house. There’s always this end goal in mind.
And I feel like that is part of the reason why we end up losing out on our resolutions and we lose the momentum in order to actually make them happen.
Because if it is only based on a destination, then you can change your mind.
That’s why people who have been fit when you decided to go on a diet, say it’s not about a diet, it’s about a lifestyle and you know, it’s about lifestyle, but it’s also gonna have to take a diet to kick me into the lifestyle.
But the mentality of a lifestyle is so important because it helps you to recognize that you could lose the £20.
But if you go back to eating the way that you once did, they’re gonna come back, I’m talking a testimony right now.
This is my testimony. But when you decide that it is a lifestyle that it is a journey and not a destination.
Then it changes the way you set your goals.
Now all of a sudden, I don’t wanna talk about just losing weight.
I wanna talk about honoring my body in every way possible.
I don’t wanna just talk about finances and saving up for a thing.
I wanna talk about being a good steward so that generational wealth doesn’t just happen because I have overflow, but because we change the mentality of how we deal with money in my family.
There’s something different that happens when you look at your goals or objectives as a journey and not a destination.
To be honest, a destination mindset is really more cultural than it is kingdom.
Everything in our culture wires us to think that it’s about a destination.
So you graduate and you go from class to class and you’re like now the next destination is the 12th grade, the destination after that is college and we are wired to think that the destination is marriage.
We’re wired to think that the destination is family. The destination is a job, the destination is a degree.
And then we get those things and we’re frustrated because we realize that it’s not enough to just have them.
You gotta walk this marriage out. It’s not enough to just have the kids.
You gotta be willing to go on a journey with this child.
If many of us recognize the journey instead of the destination, we would be more selective about where we wanted to arrive.
Because when I get to that arrival, the ribbon gets pushed back.
I wish I had some people in this house who recognize that.
I thought that the degree would help me arrive.
I got the degree but the ribbon pushed back because now I need a job.
The ribbon keeps getting pushed back because at the end of the day, it is about a journey and not a destination.
And if you are not interested in a journey, you should stop asking God for blessings because blessings are not a one off.
When God gives you a blessing, you know, have to walk something out and walking that out is gonna be a journey.
God. If you give me a blessing, I don’t have room enough to receive.
I’m gonna have to renovate and renovation is gonna be a journey.
But because I have decided and I’m not gonna lose what you’ve given me.
I’m gonna make room for the blessing. I’m gonna make room for it in my mind.
I’m gonna make room for it in my friendships. I’m gonna make room for it in my language.
I’m gonna make room for it in my entertainment because God, if you give me the blessing, I’m gonna make sure that I take the journey to hang on to the blessing.
Some of us have had blessings fall through our hands and because it’s falling through our hands, we say God if you give me another chance, I’ll do the work necessary to make sure I don’t lose it this time.
Y’all can act like 2022 didn’t happen if you want to.
But there were a few things that you missed out on because you didn’t know how to make room.
But I hear God saying in 2023 that there are gonna be some people who know how to build and make room for what God wants to do.
They know how to build and make room so that there is space.
Oh oh maybe that’s why this year doesn’t have vision yet.
It doesn’t have specific vision for someone yet because if you focus on the destination, you’ll think that you can just skip to the destination.
Maybe the first part of this year is about renovation. I hear God saying that the blessing is on reserve.
I hear God saying that I kept you alive and I let you miss it the last time so that you could be more alert this time.
And because you’re more alert this time, you’ve already started making the proper renovations so that when it does come, it doesn’t have any choice but to make sure it hits the mark when it does come, it won’t have any other choice but to make sure that it comes that it takes root, somebody’s getting the ground ready for somebody.
It’s go time for somebody else. It’s ground time, it’s time for me to get the ground ready.
Because if he drops the seed into the soil of my heart, I don’t wanna push it out with my own fear.
I don’t wanna push it out from my own rejection. So, no, it’s not be mode season for me.
It’s B mode season for me. I’m trying to be who God said I can be.
I’m trying to be the kind of person worthy of the blessing. I’m praying for.
I’m trying to be the kind of person who can step into a moment.
I’m trying to be before I beast.
I’m trying to be before I beast.
Because baby, when it’s time to beast, I’m gonna be so certain. I’m gonna be so powerful.
I’m gonna be so anointed. I’m gonna be so confident.
I’m gonna be so ready that I’ve already got everything it takes for be mode telling you I tell you my own testimony, I’m staring down this woman evolve.
You know, it’s got real when you start putting in front of this, uh this is the, the woman evolve.
I’m staring it down because God moved it so much faster than I thought he was gonna move it.
And I keep envisioning in my mind what it’s gonna be like to be in a room with 50,000 women who have trusted the anointing that’s on my life.
And I’m not thinking about what I’m gonna preach and I’m not thinking about what I’m gonna wear right now, I’m thinking about who I need to be to step into that moment so that I can make sure I am who God has called me to be for the moment.
I’m going to step in. Can I prophesy for a minute in 2023?
I hear God saying that you’re gonna step into some foreign territory and when you step into the foreign Terry from territory, it’ll all be unfamiliar.
But one thing that will be familiar is the work that led you up to this moment.
You’ll start saying crazy things like I’m built for this.
You’ll start saying crazy things like God created me for such a time as this.
You’re gonna start, I don’t know who you are but I hear God saying that your language is gonna pave the way.
Oh oh God doesn’t just give you a promise and hand it to you.
There’s always a journey connected to it.
I’m gonna bring the Children of Egypt into a promised land, but it’s not gonna happen overnight.
They’re gonna have to take a journey to get there. David, you’re gonna be king.
I’ve anointed you as king, but you don’t get to just go sit on the throne.
There’s a journey that has to take place, Mary, you’re gonna get pregnant and he’s gonna be the ruler of the king.
He’s gonna be the king of all kings, but there’s gonna be a journey that takes place.
God speaks in the language of journey.
Because if he just gave it to you, when he spoke it, you would miss out on the education that can only happen through the journey.
The journey, it’s when you learn no weapon formed against, you will prosper.
I didn’t learn that because I arrived, I learned that on the journey that I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken.
Nor they see. But I didn’t learn that when I got there, I learned that in the journey, the destination is only beautiful because of the journey it took to get there.
That’s why people who are really blessed don’t just put their head up and say, honey, I earned this.
They start saying Lord is shouldn’t be me.
Because if you knew what it took for me to get in this position, if you knew the journey, you would understand that it’s not supposed to be me.
You would understand that it wasn’t by work nor was it by power, but it was by the spirit of God that this happened.
The journey did it, the journey did it.
The journey perfected my worship, the journey, perfected my praise, the journey perfected my faithfulness.
The journey is what taught me that I could be broken and still effective.
The journey is what taught me that you could walk away and I could still breathe.
The journey is what taught me how to take care of.
The next thing it was in the journey that made the difference the journey, the journey, the journey made the difference.
So you’re in a journey right now and you wish you could just get there.
But if you accelerate this, you’ll get there and lose there.
The journey is what gives you stay in power. The journey is what gives you weight.
The journey is how you can keep on talking even while they’re talking because you saw some things that let you know, they talked about me in the past, but they couldn’t take away from what God was doing in my life.
The journey taught me that the journey is trying to teach you that every tongue that rises up against you.
He will condemn. The journey is trying to teach you that there’s power in being focused.
The journey is trying to teach you that silence is golden.
The journey the Joan is trying to teach you.
Thank you God. Thank you God for the journey.
God. I know it’s crazy because this journey had heartbreak and this journey had scars and this journey had bruises and I know most people wouldn’t thank God for what they went through.
Some people curse God and went through the same thing.
But I thank you God because I went through the journey and it taught me, you get down in the weeds with me.
I went through the journey and it taught me you’ll never leave me.
I went through the journey and it showed me who my friends were I went through the journey and it showed me had more hit me.
But what was against me? It has. Oh Yeah.
Oh yes. It’s a journey. But you’re not by yourself.
It’s gonna be hard but you’re not gonna be in it by yourself.
I hear God saying that if I’m gonna go ahead of you and make your crooked path straight, that means that I’ve already been on this journey and I went ahead of you.
Oh God, I feel like preaching in this place and if you would trust me, you would know that the snakes won’t get you that the scars won’t let you bleed out.
Ah I got to find a way to honor this journey.
It’s hard. There’s disappointment. I can’t take another unexpected.
But yet this is the journey trying to raise this family.
Don’t know what I got to pull from, but this is my journey. I’m in it now.
Sometimes I just tell myself, well, you in it now.
I was over there thinking I don’t know if I should be preaching, but I’m in it now.
So God, if I’m gonna be in it, I’m gonna need you to show up because I don’t have nothing but you.
But you are all I need for the journey.
If all I have is you, I wanna thank God for a minute for being the one thing I can count on in the middle of a scary journey in the middle Jesus.
Jesus says to the disciples, follow me.
Come on a journey with me and then I’ll make you, then I’ll make you fishers of men.
Follow me, follow me. Get on this journey with me, walk with me, talk with me and then I’ll make you who have always known you could be.
I love this about the way we gain wisdom from walking with Jesus because it reveals to me that in order to follow Jesus, the master that I got to first observe the master working.
And if I can observe the master at work, then maybe just maybe I could become masterful, full of the master.
So when Jesus says to them, follow me and that will make you fishers of men.
It is an invitation to mastery. It is an opportunity for disciples.
This isn’t for churchy people, this isn’t for church goers and people who just wanna come to church.
These are for people who wanna be disciples.
I wanna be like Jesus, I wanna be masterful.
And so Jesus first has them observe what it means to be masterful, what it means to come under attack and still be effective, what it means to literally cast out a devil.
I wanna show you what it means to be masterful. Why?
Why, why does Jesus say I have to show you before I can activate you?
Proverbs 30 tells us that the eyes are the windows to the soul.
So if I show you how a master works. It can invade your soul.
Oh God, most of us struggle at being masterful because we’re already full from what’s in our soul.
Fearful. So I can’t be masterful, shameful.
So I can’t be masterful, painful. So I can’t be masterful.
Jesus says, in order for me to really make the disciples masterful, I got to show them mastery and if I show the mastery, then it will change what’s in their soul.
I felt like this was important to say because some of you all have been exposed to mastery, mastery and marriage, mastery and ministry.
And if you’re honest, there are moments where you’re wondering, am I exposed so that I can be reminded of how much I don’t have.
But looking at the text in this concept reveals to me that you’re being exposed so that you can become masterful at the thing that you see.
If, if I really say this right, it’ll help you to reconcile that.
Every time you take note of someone being masterful that it is God trying to reveal to you what is possible for within you, you will no longer be jealous of someone else being masterful at what they do.
You’ll stop comparing yourself and you’ll start making sure that you’re in position to see someone be masterful.
I’ll be in the back of the room if I have to.
I just wanna see it because if I can see it, I can make a room for it.
And if I can make a room for it, then I can become it.
You gotta watch what God allows you to be exposed to.
Oh I don’t know who this is for.
But I hear God saying you’ve been thinking that you would be disqualified because you didn’t hear from someone because you didn’t hear it from an educator because you didn’t hear it from a parent because you didn’t hear it from a mentor.
And I hear God saying that you’re worried about your ears.
But I want you to recognize what I have allowed you to see. The very fact that you want it.
The very fact that you have been exposed to it is a sign that you can become masterful at.
And I wanna talk to somebody who was on a journey of becoming whole.
I wanna talk to someone who was on a journey of gaining their confidence back after trauma.
And I want you to know that the very reason why the taste is in your mouth is because the appetite is gonna be coming from your belly.
And I hear God saying that if you open your mouth wide, I’m gonna feel it.
But I had to put you in a position where you would hunger for the right thing where you would hunger.
Everyone else can be popular. I wanna be masterful.
Everyone else can just have a partner. I wanna be a masterful wife. I wanna be a masterful mother.
I wanna be a masterful minister. I wanna be masterful at everything I do.
And it is not too tall of an order because God allowed me to see it.
And if God allowed me to see it, it doesn’t matter who else believes it. I gotta for it.
I know master when I see Him, I know when the master is calling me higher.
And I’ve been like in 2023 that God said there are some masters in the making. There are some people.
Oh, masterful.
I wanna be master for her. I study because I wanna be masterful.
I’m in therapy because I wanna be masterful. I’m listening instead of talking because I wanna be masterful.
I don’t wanna just be in your world. I wanna be masterful at serving you.
I wanna be masterful at saying yes, I wanna be masterful.
God with everything you give me make me more full of the master than I am of my past and my grief.
Masterful.
So in my text, the disciples are moving from observation of mastery to the forefront of mastery.
You’ve observed long enough, Jesus says, you’ve seen enough of who I am.
You’ve seen enough of what I do. You’ve seen enough of how to communicate. You’ve seen enough.
Now it’s time for you to step into the moment.
I’m gonna be honest with you.
This is the moment where most church people start shouting because it’s your time until it’s actually your time then you’d be like, I’m nervous because I take it seriously and I wanna be masterful.
I’m afraid of people who get too excited at something that requires mastery.
Because to me, sometimes it communicates that you counting on you to show up when it’s finally time for the disciples to move into mastery.
These are not people who are celebrating and trying to figure out how they can make the announcement.
These are people who were so no, so empty, so humble because they want to get it right.
I submit to you that part of your anxiety.
Maybe I’m just preaching to myself. That’s OK.
If I am part of the anxiety in moving into next is the desire to really wanna do it right?
It’s important for you to know that because sometimes you’ll think that the anxiety is a sign that you shouldn’t do it at all.
When in reality, the fact that I’m nervous about this thing, it’s because I wanna be masterful, not at doing what someone else did.
I don’t wanna be a masterful imitator. I don’t wanna be a masterful duplicator.
I wanna be masterful at stepping into who God says I can be.
I, which means I gotta step out of who I think I am.
This is the moment I don’t know who you are.
But I heard God saying to me so clearly that in 2023 some people are going to step into their moment and there is a perspective for the moment that will keep you in the game.
When you get afraid. There’s a perspective on this moment that will keep your head in it.
Even when your heart get becomes afraid.
There’s a perspective that I found in this text that I wanna share with you.
In order for this new perspective to be effective.
I wanna let you know that you have to relocate the way that you have positioned your goals, your ideas of success and achievement.
They have to be repositioned to not be just about arriving to a destination.
You have to be repositioned at an intersection of the foreign and the familiar, the foreign and the familiar.
I’m gonna be, we’re gonna go home, we’re gonna be eating French toast in a minute in order for you to really accept this invitation into mastery.
There is a positioning that cannot be swayed based on your circumstance.
I call this intersection, the intersection of the foreign and the familiar.
Most of us stay in the familiar because we are afraid of what’s foreign and because we are afraid of what’s for foreign.
We decide to not activate in the areas where we know we could be utilized in the places where we know we are actually anointed to bring change because we are unsure of what’s on the other side of our familiar.
And then there are other people who are addicted to what’s foreign.
I just want to do something new, constantly escaping.
I gotta leave the familiar and move into something forward because what worked out there did?
I didn’t like the results of it. So I’m just gonna move away from it instead of learning from it.
Nobody in this room just people we know move from thing to thing to thing because they weren’t validated by the thing they thought would bring them validation.
So they moved to the next thing thinking that that’ll bring them validation, that doesn’t bring them validation.
So they move to the next booth.
Wait, hold on not boo I mean thing because it’s not talking about people in this room.
Other people, people who didn’t come to church today are those people, Jesus is the master of living at the intersection of the foreign and the familiar.
I’ll prove it to you. Philippians two verse five 3 11.
Let this mind, let this perspective be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
That’s enough right there because this proves the whole invitation to mastery.
There’s a perspective that you need to have this mind that you have.
It needs to be the same mind that was in Christ Jesus. Let’s figure out what that mind did.
In verse six, it continues, it says who being in the form of God familiar with God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.
He was familiar with God. He came from the holy of Holy.
He knows what it’s like to be in heaven and to hear the angels worshiping 24 7.
That is what he was familiar with, but he made himself with no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of men.
Wait a minute, Jesus left the familiar and then moved into four. Why did he do this?
Because in order for him to be effective at what God needed him to do on the earth, he had to get out of the familiar and move into the foreign.
But he could not forget the familiar when he was in the foreign or he would not be effective in the foreign element.
If I preach this right, you’re gonna understand that the very thing you are running from is the very thing that is preparing you for the place that God has called you.
If Jesus forgets that He was one with God and moves into the earth, then we’re gonna miss out on what he came to do.
If you forget where you come from, you will not make the most of where you were headed because where you are headed only works.
If you remember where you came from.
And I wanted someone to understand that you’ve been trying to let go of the past and I hear God saying no baby, hang on to it.
I’m gonna use it. If you hang on to where you came from, I’ll show you how to throw it at where I’m pointing you, I’ll show you how to point it in the direction of where you can be most effective.
So I gotta live at this intersection of the foreign and the familiar.
That means you know me but you don’t know me.
That means there’s not one particular friend group that can handle all of who I am because in this room I’m familiar, but in the same room, I’m also a little bit foreign.
If I could say it the way that they say it in the music that I listen to, they would say I’m on something different.
I know that I’m in the world but I’m not of the world. I’m on something different.
It is familiar to you. But there’s also another part of me that is so foreign.
It would blow your mind that I could cast a demon out of you.
There’s another part of me that is so foreign that it would radically change your life if you understood the way that I could communicate.
I hear God saying that I’m getting ready to make you foreign in the place where you were once familiar.
Oh Yeah, that’s somebody’s word and they grabbed it. That’s somebody’s word.
I don’t know who you came in with, but I have a feeling before you leave that that’s a different person.
They’re gonna be a little for, I tell you one of the things I’m learning about marriage is never to get too familiar because the more that my husband grows, the more he becomes foreign to me.
But because I have decided that being married to him means that I’m gonna be positioned at the intersection of foreign and familiar.
If he learned some new baby, I’m reading because what you’re not gonna do, it become so foreign to me that we are no longer familiar.
What you’re not gonna do is move in such a way that I can no longer lay hold of you.
I’m gonna stay right here at the intersection of foreign familiar who needs people to say the same unless you have decided that you are not going to grow.
I don’t know about you. But in 2023 I wanna be connected to people who understand.
I’m gonna be familiar, but I’m also gonna be foreign. We can talk about what we used to talk about.
But baby, let’s start talking about technology. Let’s start talking about building this business.
Let’s start talking about building this nonprofit. It’s gonna sound foreign, but that’s where I live.
Now. If he gonna be in my neighborhood, you better get you a house at the intersection of foreign and familiar or otherwise, you’ll be surprised when God starts moving me from the familiar and into the foreign Jesus.
If you can embrace the symbiotic relationship between the foreign and the familiar, you won’t feel that you have to choose.
I don’t have to choose. I don’t have to choose.
I could be wrapping it one day speaking in tongues.
The other Paul said to the Jew. I became as the Jew.
It was foreign until God needed me to use that.
And when God needed me to use it, I became what God needed me to become.
And I’m well versed in both, both of them because I’ve been educated on the journey, six things.
I’m done. Six strategies for mastery.
Once you have embraced that this intersection is where you must live.
This text gives us six strategies. I’m gonna breeze through them.
Six strategies for mastery John 14 25 says that Jesus was telling the disciples these things I’ve spoken to you while being present with you.
But the help of the Holy Spirit whom the father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance.
All the things that I said to you.
It’s for and now, but it’s gonna be familiar when you need it.
I’m gonna bring it back to your remembrance. Oh God.
Oh I’m a sidetrack for one minute. Then I’m gonna get back to my strategies.
I hear God saying that I’m gonna bring back to your remembrance, words and prophecies that were spoken over you that even you forgot about.
I’m gonna bring it back to your remembrance, right?
When it’s time for it to be activated. I hear God saying that you almost needed to forget it.
So that you wouldn’t be tormented and wondering when it was gonna happen.
But I hear God saying that in 2023 someone’s gonna step into a moment and at first it’s gonna feel foreign.
But then you’re gonna realize, wait a minute, this was prophesized over me.
Maybe that’s already happened and you’re in this room and God’s doing something in your life and to everyone else, it looks new but you, no doubt in your soul that ever since you were a little child that God had prophesized that I was gonna put you in rooms bigger than you that I was gonna allow you to do something different than anyone in your family has ever done.
And I hear God saying that you forgot it, but I remembered it.
You forgot it, but I kept a record of it. You forgot it.
But I’m gonna show you I was faithful to the liver when it’s all said and done gonna bring it back to your remembrance.
One thing a master knows how to do.
You’re taking notes, write this down.
A master knows how to tap in when they want to tap out.
Poor child.
Tap out be so close, tapping out. I quit tapping out.
I won’t even try tapping out.
I give up a master understands that if you’re gonna be effective, you gotta know when to tap in.
Instead of tapping out. I got this from the text because when Jesus says the helper the Holy Spirit whom the father will send in my name.
He will teach you all things and bring you your remembrance, all the things that I said to you.
He says this because he then goes on to tell them, let not your heart be troubled.
Neither let it be afraid.
Remember this is a prophecy preparing them to step into becoming like the master and he tells them in advance, don’t let your heart be troubled nor let it be afraid.
But if you can remember that the helper is on the way, the helper will bring to your remembrance, who you need to be.
And the moments where you feel the most afraid you see sometimes in church, we talk about being full of the holy ghost and being full of the Holy Spirit.
And I believe that you ought to be full of the holy ghost and you ought to be full of the Holy Spirit.
But we also need to add to that conversation that you also need to be spirit led.
Because what good is it for you to be able to speak in tongues?
But you don’t know which direction you need to take when it comes to raising your Children.
I don’t wanna just be full of the holy ghost. I also wanna be his spirit led.
The helper is gonna come and the helper is gonna show you how to be spirit led.
So if you tap in, see this is why some people, we lose some people in church.
When we tell them just pray about it and just go the church because they think that just praying about it means that we aren’t dealing with it.
They don’t realize that when I pray about it, I’m tapping in instead of tapping out.
And when I tap in, I receive strategy and God brings back to my remembrance, the promises that are yes and amen.
God reminds me when I tap in that no weapon formed against me will prosper.
There are some revelations you cannot get unless you are willing to tap in instead of tapping out.
So Jesus tells the disciples, the Holy Spirit is gonna teach you and bring back to your remembrance.
So don’t tap out. Number two.
A master knows when and how to ask slash receive help.
The Holy Spirit, the helper is coming. He’ll be available to help you.
But a master cannot be so consumed with their pride and their ego that they don’t know how to ask for help when they’re in over their head.
And I just wanna tell you all this for you people who are like me and are so independent that you have no problem asking God for help.
You just don’t want him to use people to be the answer for the help. God.
If you got an angel on layaway, if you could just send them my way.
Because Lord, if I have to actually open up my mouth and be vulnerable to someone else.
Then I don’t know that I have what it takes to do that, but I’m letting you know right now that the Holy Spirit uses people to help accomplish his work in the earth.
So while you’re waiting for the sky to crack open, you may miss that.
Your help is sitting right next to you, you may miss that.
Your help has not come in a package that you desire, but it’s got all of the resources that you need.
You’re gonna have to be open to becoming a master by asking God, what is the strategy for the people you’ve placed around me?
A master knows when and how to ask and then receive help.
Number three, a master has peace in trouble. Six strategies for mastery.
Jesus says in peace, I leave with you. But to be clear, it’s my peace.
The world offers peace. The world offers opportunities.
The world offers connection that feels like peace in some moments. But that peace is temporary.
Jesus says to the disciples that I’m gonna leave you with my peace because trouble is gonna come and if you’re really gonna be a master, you’re gonna need my peace in times of trouble.
You can have the world’s peace in times of victory in times of celebration. That’s cheap peace.
Anybody can get that. But the master’s piece, a master’s piece only comes when you recognize that trouble is working for me and not against me.
I’m not saying I’m not tired.
I’m not saying I’m not concerned but I have peace in the midst of it all because I know if that devil is in my life, it is on assignment to bring out what God has put on the inside of me.
I trust the crushing. So I have peace in the midst of trouble.
I gotta give you the kind of peace. That’s what I was wondering. What kind of peace does Jesus have?
Jesus has the kind of peace that he could be on the cross and say, forgive them father for they know not what they do.
That means you can be both hurting and still have peace because I know some of you think you got to choose a struggle.
We don’t have to choose struggles anymore. That’s still 2008 in this day and age. We don’t choose struggle.
We recognize that I could be in struggle and also be in strength because my struggle is not a reflection of his strength and my struggle is not depending on my strategy.
My struggle is submitted to the master strategist and if the master strategist has allowed it, then even this trouble is working on my behalf.
You a bad somebody when you start believing that even trouble is working on your behalf.
Oh, I wish I could testify for a minute about when the enemy tried to make me think that the trouble was trying to take me out and I messed around and tapped in instead of tapping out.
And God said, if I allowed this fight into your life, it’s because I wanna show you that I can protect you in every season.
And if I allowed this fight to destroy your family, it’s because it needed to be destroyed so that I could rebuild the right thing.
See, that’s a different kind of peace that most people don’t have.
You want a kind of piece that says, don’t slay me at all.
I want the kind of piece that says though he slay me yet, shall I trust in him?
Because if he’s slaying me, there was something in me that wasn’t gonna serve me and yes, he had to beat it out of me because I loved it.
But once he got it out of me, I had enough victory to pull somebody else out of it.
A master. I know he’s a deliverer because he delivered me.
I know that he’s able because I was unable, I know that he’s got victory in his hand because I had pain in my head and he turned pain into purpose.
I got peace. My peace is different than your peace.
My peace doesn’t need everything to go.
Well, this year, my peace doesn’t mean for me that to get the job.
My peace doesn’t mean I have to get the house. My piece is that whatever happens in 2023.
It’s happening for me and not against me.
Whatever happens this year is running up on somebody who’s on an invitation to become a master.
I’m gonna be a master at this and I know that God wants to pull mastery out of me, which means he’s got to dig around some of these other things.
My peace is in the strategy of the master who was pulling mastery out of me.
Oh God, I hear God saying that when I get finished with you, you’re gonna be masterful at building a business.
When I get finished with you. That’s how you’re gonna break the generational curse.
You’re gonna break the generational curse because you’re gonna become masterful at introducing generational wholeness.
You’re gonna break the generational curse because you’re gonna become masterful at submitting to the Holy Spirit and then being obedient to what God says.
Do? You’re not gonna become masterful because you arrived, you’re not gonna become masterful because you got the check.
You’re gonna become masterful because God took you on a journey.
A master has peace and trouble.
Three more. A master chooses rejoicing over rejection.
Jesus says to the disciples, I’m going back to my father.
You could be sad if you want to. You could feel abandoned if you want to.
But if you really love me and you really trust me, you would rejoice instead of feeling rejected because when you rejoice instead of feeling rejected, it shows that you trust that whatever has left me, whatever walked away from me.
I must not need any longer. And so yes, it sounds crazy but I’m glad you left me.
I know it sounds crazy because I got tears streaming out my eyes.
But baby, these are happy tears because now that you’re out of the way you made room for the real me to emerge.
These are happy tears. I may look sad but these are happy tears because I recognize that though.
You’re no longer here. I can still pull from the lessons you left me.
I’m making a choice. I could feel rejected.
I’m prophesying over somebody in this room and you got rejection issues.
And every time someone says, no, you think it’s a reflection of your worth and your value.
But I want to prophesy that the next time you experience rejection, that you will throw yourself a party because you recognize that that rejection is reason to rejoice.
It was protection for what God was trying to make sure you didn’t do so that you could become who he knows you are.
It hurt.
But I’m glad it happened because now I know where the weakness is in our marriage, it hurt.
But I’m glad it happened because now I know where the weakness is and my character and I can build from here a master choose is rejoicing over rejection.
It’s a choice. That’s why Jesus says if you love me, if you really love me.
You would rejoice. You get to choose what you do.
I’m gonna choose to rejoice till this weeping turns to joy till this morning turns to dancing.
Hallelujah. I’m sorry.
I just feel like somebody’s making that choice right now that somebody decided that I’m not gonna keep carrying this rejection around and allow it to continue to dictate what’s possible for my destiny.
I’m gonna have to find a way to rejoice and the rejoicing is gonna be in the trusting and the trusting is gonna be in the strategy and the strategy is gonna be in the hands of the master.
And because I trust the master not do, this would not get me this far to leave me.
I trust that God wouldn’t just torment me.
I trust that God means for everything to get to a place of good.
I’m gonna rejoice even when I’m covered in darkness and the spirit of God is just hovering, but I can’t access it because I know who’s in control.
A master six strategies.
This is number five, a master knows what’s in Him is more dangerous than what’s outside of him.
Jesus says in my text that he’s not gonna talk much more about this because the ruler of this world is coming, the enemy is coming, but the enemy will only be effective at ruling this world because Jesus says he has nothing in me.
If he had something in me, I’d be afraid because if I don’t know what’s in me and the ruler of this world comes, then the ruler may pull on what’s in me that I didn’t know was in me and then my gifts and my talents and my mentality and my spirit will be subjected to the ruler of this world and not the ruler of my destiny.
If you don’t take inventory of what’s in you, then you’re gonna continue to sabotage your destiny because what’s in you is not about what’s outside of you.
You’re worried about an external enemy. Bishop said this last night is the enemy.
But Jesus says that I’m not afraid because he doesn’t have anything in me, which means that he could tempt me, but he can’t pull me off track because he doesn’t have anything in me.
I’m so full of the spirit of God.
Oh God, I should be bitter but I’m so full of the spirit of God.
I should be angry, but I’m so full of faith. I should give up.
But I’m so full of who I’m so full of mastery.
I’m so masterful that even when the enemy comes, he doesn’t govern me because he has nothing in me.
I see you devil. I see you trying to come from my family. I see you devil.
I see you trying to come from my mind. I see you devil trying to come from my dream.
But you don’t have anything in me because I’m so full of who God has called me to be.
I’m so full of the power of God that you can’t take this thing over.
The enemy can come but you can’t take over, you can come, but you can’t rule, you can come.
But you can’t have your way because I’m right in the middle of letting God have his way.
And because I’ve made a decision to let God have his way, I gotta keep my circle tight.
I gotta know what’s in me and who’s around me.
Because I don’t wanna be the gateway that allows the enemy access to someone else.
You need some people in your life who are diligent about what they allow themselves access to.
Because if they don’t access them, it can access you.
I’m sorry, but I need a little distance because I’m trying to stay masterful.
Last point, we’re going home, Jesus end this conversation, this portion of the conversation with the disciples by saying, but that the world may know that I love the father and as the father gave me commandments.
So I do that brings me to my last point. You can stand.
We’re leaving a master doesn’t just have a message. A master is a message.
There will be moments in your life.
Well, you’re waiting to speak up, waiting to release your message, waiting for God to give you a message.
God give me something to say, God, give me something to do. God.
What is my purpose, God, who am I? That’s not mastery.
A master recognizes that I’m preaching when I have no microphone that I’m preaching.
When I deal with someone who I don’t even think that I need. My whole life is a message.
If you think that the best part of who I am happens when I’m speaking, then you’ve missed out on the true quality of who I am because I have a master mentality And that master mentality tells me that I’m a message everywhere I go.
Jesus says, Jesus says that the world may know that I love that.
My whole mission is to be a message to the world that I love. The father.
I wanted to share with you these six strategies of mastery because I felt like it was challenging for many of us to decide what are my goals for this year?
What, who am I supposed to be? What am I supposed to do?
I felt God say you only think about what you’re gonna do this year.
You’ll miss out on the vision I have for your life.
Your life is an invitation to mastery.
And so we must be willing to ask ourselves family.
How do I become a master?
Think about all of the things that you do, the people you serve those you are in relationship with your jobs, your health don’t just make a resolution.
Ask yourself, what would the message, what would the goal look like?
If the objective was to become a master, not just a winner.
There’s a woman, her name is Sarah Elizabeth Lewis.
She’s a professor at Harvard and she talks about mastery in her book, The Rise.
And in it, she suggests that most people have a definition of mastery that is incorrect because they think mastery is about success and success is a one off, generally isolated win.
But mastery is a pursuit, a constant pursuit.
That means that at this season of our lives, we have an opportunity to ask God, God, how do I become a master at who I am and what I’m doing, how do I make sure that by the way that I show up, people know that I am doing it as unto the Lord mastery in your relationships.
Mastery and your finances, mastery. I wanna be masterful.
And the only way that I can become masterful is if I allow the Holy Spirit to teach me to help me and to bring to my remembrance how hungry I was, how eager I was to just be connected to the master.
And there will be moments where life feels nothing but familiar.
And then there will be other moments where it’s completely foreign that all you wanna do is go back to what you did know.
But I hear God saying, I’m gonna use it all this year.
So lean into the familiar, learn everything you need to learn from it, observe it, allow yourself to be exposed to it.
Look at the patterns and the pathologies of what has become familiar to you because you’re gonna need it for when you move into the foreign, these disciples are moving into the forefront, Jesus is going to ascend in just a short time after this message.
And because he is as sinding, that means that they’re moving into position family, I believe now more than ever that we are moving into the forefront of what this generation, what this culture and what church needs in the world.
I believe that.
And I don’t mean we just like we up here, I mean, all of us collectively are going to be called to move into the forefront and God wants us to have stability when we get there and God wants us to recognize that we won’t be there by ourselves, but that there will be help on the way.
I wanna pray with you. I wanna pray with you.
And I think traditionally we would do an altar call.
But I’m gonna be honest, I believe we’re all being invited into mastery because it’s a pursuit, not a destination.
And if you tell me you’re already masterful and you, you don’t need to have any mastery in any other area in your life.
I just want you to know hell is real and it’s hot. I heard it’s very hot.
Hotter than in Texas summer. All of us have an area of our lives where we get to choose whether or not we will just be basic, do just enough to get by or if we will become masterful.
Mm And the pursuit of mastery changes the way you show up.
You don’t need to win.
You just need to learn and become better because you know, you’re gonna have another chance.
I don’t need to win. I just need to learn.
I don’t have to do it perfectly. I won’t do it perfectly. Mastery is a journey.
I just need to be humble enough to learn when I get it wrong.
The Holy Spirit, we call you helper. Holy Spirit.
Thank you for being our comforter. Thank you for being with us.
Even when we didn’t even know that you were there on the very first Sunday of 2023 we say Holy Spirit, you are welcomed here, not in this church, but in our being in our building, this body, this temple, holy Spirit, take up space.
Holy Spirit. We don’t know what this year holds.
But one thing we do know is that we’re gonna need you Holy Spirit.
I’m gonna need your wisdom, Holy Spirit. I’m gonna need your strength, Holy spirit.
I’m gonna need your power, Holy Spirit. I’m gonna need your focus, Holy Spirit.
I’m gonna need your clarity, Holy Spirit.
We welcome you to journey with us on an invitation to mastery Holy Spirit.
Wherever there is something else filling up space where the master should be taking up residence God.
I pray that the Holy Spirit would begin to fall over that place right now.
A divine confrontation with shame, a divine confrontation with anxiety, a divine confrontation with fear.
Holy Spirit, hover. Holy Spirit.
Break Holy Spirit, take root Holy Spirit up, root and take root Holy Spirit.
Do that thing which only you can do when we open our hearts and say, I just wanna become more like Jesus.
May we hunger for the right things this year?
May we rejoice instead of being rejected Holy Spirit? May we discover peace?
Not because the circumstance is going well, but because we trust that the end will be good.
Bring our hearts, our mind, our mouths into alignment with what you have already purposed this year to be and Holy Spirit while you’re dwelling within us.
God, I pray that you would stir up the gift of God inside of every person in this room that you would stir it up in a way that produces overflow like never before God.
I thank you that this is just a new beginning, but it is the same journey that we would become masterful in every way we receive your spirit.
We receive your love. We allow it to lead us, to guide us and to go ahead of us in every way in Jesus name.
I pray amen.