Outside of The System

Much like routines, we all have systems that impact who we are and how we live. Most systems we’ve designed protect our image and our hearts, but we can’t simultaneously depend on our systems and an all-knowing God. Are you willing to live outside your system? When you dare to break out from what’s familiar, that’s where you’ll find freedom, joy, and peace that surpasses all understanding. It doesn’t matter if it has worked for you in the past; decide today to live outside your system!

God is saying to you today,
“l heard your prayer. I’m able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all you could ask or think. I am making a way for you. I have you in the palm of My hand.”

Hallelujah.
Thank you, Jesus.
God is already got an assignment for this room.
I’ve been praying that God would allow me to just be in line with that vision.
I’m gonna be speaking from four verse 24.
Ladies. Can you make some noise in here?
Girl? You look blessed. Let me tell you your praise is blessed.
Can you make some noise if you’re going to see us in Atlanta woman that just say something?
Now, I don’t want you to have fear of missing out.
But if you didn’t know if you’re not gonna be in Atlanta on September 22nd through the 24th, you are going to miss out on one of the most incredible movements that God is birth for women in the earth, that is a woman.
Thou are loose and this is our last, our very last conference.
And I wanna make sure that every woman who is under the sound of my voice recognizes that there is a divine connection with your identity and who God is calling you to be that is gonna be manifested woman, thou were loose.
There are just some rooms that you know, you need to be in and woman thou are loose in Atlanta is one of those rooms.
We’re gonna have an incredible time. I’m gonna be there. The bishop of this house is gonna be there.
Bishop Doctor Carolyn Show is gonna be there. The list truly goes on and on and on.
And so I wanna make sure you’re in the place.
I had to say that before I jumped into my text verse 24.
Um This is really the beginning stages of Peter’s ministry after Jesus has ascended into heaven.
Peter John and those disciples who are left behind, begin to take on the great commission of going into all of the world to spread the gospel.
And in the process of doing that, they had to wait, they had to wait 50 days, the day of Pentecost.
And this is what we’re celebrating today.
They wait 50 days because Jesus says you can’t go until you’ve got power.
Sometimes we wanna go, we don’t have no power.
That’s why we tired halfway through because I don’t have no power for this.
But when Jesus has already assigned your destiny, he assigns power connected to that destiny.
And sometimes you think you’re waiting for nothing.
But what you’re actually waiting for is the power connected to the movement of what God wants to do through you.
And Peter and John have been released to move.
They’re still in Jerusalem and they’re beginning to really exercise the manifestation of who God said they would be in the earth and it’s gotten them into some trouble.
It’s got them under pressure.
They got a target on their back because they were obedient. Nobody tells you that about obedience.
But sometimes obedience puts a target on your back. Makes you stand out.
Makes people see you, they critique you, they watch you differently.
Not because you did anything wrong. I was just being obedient.
I didn’t know that obedience would make me have a target on my back.
And verse 24 begins, he’s gathered with some of his friends trying to unpack that they’ve been arrested and they’ve been called into the court.
And the Pharisees and the sauces have pushed them back into a corner, but they had to let them go because they were being obedient.
There’s also protection connected to obedience.
So you can back me in the corner, but you can’t kill me in the corner because I was protected on this mission.
And verse 24 begins, it says so when they that they are the other disciples heard, they heard everything that had happened.
They raised their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord, you are God who made heaven and earth in the sea and all that is in them.
Who by the mouth of your servant?
David have said, why did the nation’s rage and the people plot vain things?
The kings of the earth took their stand and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ for truly against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed both and Pontius Pilate with the gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before to be done.
Now, look on their threats and grant to your servants that with all boldness, they may speak your word.
They just need some courage to keep going, need some boldness to keep going.
I’m not saying I’m quitting. I’m just saying, I’m not bold enough to stand up against this opposition.
Unless God, you would grant me some boldness that they may speak your word by stretching out your hand to heal.
And that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.
And when they had prayed, not when they talked about it, not when they posted about it, not when they tweeted about it, not when they got inventory of everyone’s opinion.
When they prayed the place where they were assembled together was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God with boldness.
God, certainly, that is my prayer that in this room, you would unleash our tongues, that we would dare to speak your word with boldness, that we would dare to allow our actions to be a reflection of the bold God that we serve God.
You know, every person, every circumstance, every heartbreak represented in this room, you know, every area where we’re losing courage and Holy Spirit.
I just ask that you would have a one on one with us in a crowd that you would meet us in the places where we need you the most.
God allow a spirit of vulnerability to fall in this realm.
That just for a moment, we wouldn’t have to be the strong friend, the strong spouse, the strong partner, but we could just be a person on a journey trying to fulfill what God has given us and losing courage in the midst God.
We believe that if you would allow us to show our weakness, that your strength would be made perfect in it.
So we give you full permission to meet us in our weakness and then make us perfect in Jesus name.
Amen. Amen. Family. You guys can sit down now. Can you help me? Just honor my father?
I’m sorry. I’m so caught up the the chief of this house, the priest of our family, daddy.
45 years of staying in position. 45 years of being on post. Somebody said, why didn’t bishop preaching?
I’ve seen a lot of guest speaker. I wanted to comment, girl, he been preaching 45 years.
Instagram wasn’t even alive for you to make this comment when he started preaching. Daddy.
Thank you for constantly pouring into us in season and out of season.
And thank you that you’re not done porn yet.
That you still got word in you that you still got grace in you, that you still got strategy that you’re still the best to ever do it.
And we’re just trying to pick up the crumbs of a goddess placed on the inside of you.
And while we’re acknowledging them, we might as well acknowledge the queen because she is here.
She’s huh. Y’all didn’t even know I could sing. OK, mom.
Thank you for wearing your crown and making it look so easy. I love you so much.
It’s such an honor to be of your seat to honor my folks.
I really did just wanna play pastor. There’s message but since they told me I couldn’t do that.
Here we are. But I’m grateful to have my husband covering me and loving on me, pouring strength into me, coaching me.
It’s a blessing to be your wife.
I am one of the things I love about family is that you get to see different versions of them.
You know, my, my babies are here and four, well, they’re not babies anymore. Four of them are adults.
And um it’s funny to see them moving into the world and like taking on responsibility and I knew that we had come to a stage where we were really doing a good job when one of them picked up the phone in the middle of us having like family dinner and clowning and cutting up.
And all of a sudden I heard her AT&T voice. You know the AT&T voice.
That’s the, um, this is she Max who’s speaking, you know, that voice that you put on when you realize that somebody is calling you that cannot hear you talking the way that you were just speaking moments ago.
I call that my AT&T once you’ve all been around a person who the phone rang and you knew instantly like that must be their boss.
That must be somebody important because they didn’t clean it all the way up.
They’re enunciating, they’re pronoun, you’re using big words, you don’t even know that word. You heard it somewhere on TV.
And now you flexing, this is called code switching. Code switching.
Code switching was initially a study from linguists who wanted to understand the dynamics of people who speak two languages and what causes them to speak a native language versus a learned language.
What are the circumstances surrounding their need to code switch over time?
Sociology expanded the definition to be less about language and more about dialect.
So it’s not necessarily that you speak English and Spanish and sometimes you speak it and sometimes you don’t.
But it is when you use African American vernacular versus your AT&T voice, it’s when you go from girl, if you don’t put that bonnet on your head, then somebody drives by and you’re like, and I love you so much and I just, I really wish that you would move into your bedroom whenever you’d like though.
And then you go back to treating them kids.
You know, when you grab them with the, when all of your fingers wrap around their arms one by one, I learned that from my mother.
If you grab a child, just finger by finger, it communicates to them that this is your last, that last thing you said, this is your last chance.
She used to do that in the grocery store because she couldn’t talk to me the way she wanted to.
But I knew when that last finger wrapped around my arm, I was in trouble.
Code switching is actually something that in the corporate space is really trying to undergo a transformation because we’re seeing people from different cultures, different dialects beyond the majority dialect that is accepted within culture, really becoming frustrated that they’re not able to be themselves.
There’s a sense that in order for me to be successful, I need to assimilate because if I came in here speaking the way that I speak, using the expressions that I generally speak, I may come off as aggressive or someone may misunderstand me.
If I wear my hair a certain way, then those of you may be uncomfortable.
And so I’ve learned to have to code switch in order to fit in the issue with code switching is that in systems and structures where there’s not enough nimbleness or creativity to expand for the different cultures and identities and personalities that are connected with an organization that you end up still producing results.
But in the process, you have employees that feel crushed and disconnected.
That’s why we see a lot of corporations shifting their focus from being result oriented to employee oriented.
They wanna know what it will take to make this a pleasant working environment for you.
Especially when we have a generation that is so purpose driven that they refuse to lose their authenticity in the pursuit of success.
They wanna be a part of a culture and an organization that will allow them to bring their unique identity, creativity and innovation.
In order though for a company to switch from being employee oriented to results oriented, they can’t just set it as a goal because if they set it as a goal, it sounds good.
But the system is still set up to be results oriented because it doesn’t matter what Trigo is.
If you don’t change your system, James Clear.
The author of atomic habit says it like this, you don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to your systems.
That’s already kind of a breakthrough for somebody because you’ve been wondering like I set the goal, I have the goal in mind yet.
But did you change your system?
Because if you don’t change your system, you’ve already got a machine in place and that machine continues to produce that same lever, that machine continues to produce that same communication style that system continues to produce that old goal because you didn’t create a system for the new goal.
And everybody in this room has a system.
If you tell me your goal, I can tell you your system.
If you tell me your system, I could tell you your goal, I can tell you my goal started a long time ago.
My goal was to never disappoint the people who I cherished.
And so the system I created meant that I had to become a people pleaser in my mind because I don’t want to disappoint you and I don’t want to disagree with you because I don’t want you to abandon me.
So my system means I need to manipulate or I need to people please or I need to make you think I’m ok when I’m not or I need to suppress my feelings or my emotions because my goal is to make sure that you don’t leave me.
Everybody in this room has a system.
My goal is to never be afraid or to never come off as weak.
So my system means that I need to be aggressive, overly aggressive because I don’t want you to think I’m no punk.
My goal is for anyone who sees me to love me.
And so the system is that I give and I give and I give thinking that if I keep pouring out my cup eventually, you’ll love me.
My system is wired to, to betray me the problem with that is that your system is not an isolated system.
This is an ecosystem which means that your system is connected to my system.
That’s what makes marriage so hard.
That’s what makes relationships so hard because you brought your system and I brought my system, but neither of us are willing to live outside of that system.
And so I gotta be right by any means necessary because I already been wrong and I can’t handle conflict because I’m afraid that you’ll leave me.
Each of us are trying to navigate our systems and we can’t help but to affect other people with the infection of our system.
Wanna present that there is a possibility that your system is infected, that your system is going to keep you from living the abundant, full, powerful life that you desire, but don’t have a system that will allow you access to.
We say things all the time like the devil is busy. He ain’t that busy.
He ain’t that business because all the devils gotta do is get you in the system and you’ll do the rest of the work for them.
No, I already got her in the system. I can move to somebody else.
I already got him in a system. I can move to somebody else in Genesis three and 15.
It looks like he’s having a dialogue with the woman in the garden, but he’s not having a dialogue with the woman in the garden.
He is impregnating a system of doubt. He is impregnating a system of disbelief.
He is impregnating a system that will make us always question God.
That’s why we don’t have to see the serpent again anywhere in the scripture because the system was already set in place.
That’s why before the chapter even closes.
God makes it a point to let him know.
I’m onto your system and there’s a promise connected to the system in Genesis three and 15.
God says sing I peep game. And I want you to know you got my girl in the system.
But I also want you to know that I impregnated her with something that will crush that system if she’s uh so the enemy has his system, but the God has his promise.
The question is, will you step outside of the system to start partnering with the God who has the promise?
You wanna get the enemy’s attention?
All you have to do is start living a life that says, I’m gonna crack the system.
Oh God, the enemy doesn’t have to worry about you as long as you’re not aware of the system, as long as you’re living in the system.
But when you start praying, God help me to crack the system, that’s when hell got to turn around.
Because if you start praying that God crack the system, crack it, I gotta crack the system.
I gotta crack the system of disbelief. I gotta crack the system of living beneath who God says I am.
I got a system to crack.
I didn’t come to church because I didn’t have anything to do on Sunday morning.
I’m not watching this video because I don’t have anything else to do.
I’m watching this because I got a system to crack.
I’m coming to church because I got a system to crack.
I’m trying to live outside of the system that keeps pulling a generation down.
I’m trying to live outside of a system that caught up my mother, it caught up my father, but I’m trying to crack this system.
And I hear God saying if you crack it, I’ll break it.
If you crack it, I’ll put my weight behind. It came to crack a system.
You better be quiet when you start worshiping because worship cracks the system, you better be careful when you start praising because praising cracks the system.
I hear some systems cracking in this place. I’m not gonna stay the same way again.
I’m not gonna lose my mind again. I got a system to crack. I’ve been lost long enough.
I got a system to crack. I gotta crack it. So my baby don’t have to crack it.
I gotta crack it. So my Children don’t have to fight it.
I gotta crack it so I can make room for another generation.
I gotta crack it so they know that God still does miracles. I gotta crack it.
So they can see signs and wonders still happen. I got a system to crack.
I got a system to crack. I don’t have a name to build. I don’t have a brand to build.
I don’t have anyone to make proud. I got a system to crack. I’m focused on my system.
You’ve been praying that God will break it.
And God says I wanna see you crack it first because it’s gonna take your power and my power for you to crack this system.
I’m gonna need some sweat equity out of you.
If we gonna crack this system, I wanna see you roll up your sleeves and get uncomfortable so you can crack the system.
I wanna see you walk away from the relationship so I can break that system.
I wanna see what you got on it.
What you got on it, what you got on it?
What are you gonna bring to the table? Are you gonna partner with God?
Are you gonna ask God to do all the heavy lifting or are you going to dare to take inventory of your own system?
See the error in your own ways.
See the way that you keep sabotaging yourself and get so sick of it that you start saying God, I don’t wanna be this way no more.
I don’t want to think this way no more. I don’t wanna live this way no more.
God, I’m ready to crack this system.
I’m ready to finally break out of my cell and to become everything you knew, I could be.
I’m tired of doubting myself and doubting you.
Crack it, crack it, crack it with your worship, crack it with your prayer.
Crack it. When you read the book.
Every time I wake up in the morning, I’m trying to see how I can crack the system, man.
When you come to a place in your life and you begin to realize that this system could do more than just restrict me.
It could poison my destiny, could poison the destiny of my Children.
It could poison my community because exposure is everything.
And if no one is exposed to the reality that you can crack the system, then the system will become God.
Do you know why they wanted Jesus so bad?
Because Jesus started letting people slip through the cracks.
The woman with the issue of blood should have been at home.
She wasn’t supposed to be out with the issue of blood.
But when she heard that Jesus was around, she thought I could slip through the cracks that felt like something because there’s some people in this room who have already slipped through the cracks.
I should have been dead, should have been in jail should have lost my mind.
But I made it should have been quiet.
But he heard Jesus was around and the disciple says, get back in the system and be quiet.
But he heard Jesus was there and he slipped through the cracks.
When people started realizing that it was possible to slip through the cracks.
They started getting hungry to live outside of the system.
Because if I can move outside of the system, then maybe just, maybe I can experience a miracle.
If I can move outside of the system, then maybe this issue won’t have to be my issue any longer.
I’m gonna start praying that God would let me slip through the cracks and not in the way that people let me do it.
Not in the way that the system was set up.
Wanna slip, need to slip through the cracks.
God, there’s a crack in this system.
There’s a crack in the system. There’s a way of escape.
You don’t have to stay the same repent for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
There’s a crack in the system and if you change your mind, you could be a part of the kingdom.
I’m trying to get a few people to slip through the cracks and don’t worry if I only get one or two of you in this room, we could set hell on fire.
I don’t even need everybody to go with me.
I just need about two or three hungry people who are ready to slip through the cracks, who are ready to change the way things have always been done, who are ready to eat on a different level and think on a different level, I’m ready to slip through the cracks.
I don’t wanna be like the rest of them. I don’t wanna talk like the rest of them.
I wanna, there’s gotta be something in you that wants to slip through the cracks of the system that poisons the marriage that sabotages your own goal.
The problem is not the goal. You’re not dreaming too big, you’re not thinking too high.
The problem is the system that you think you gotta have it tomorrow that you think everyone ought to understand it or you can’t do it, maybe just maybe I don’t need to change the goal.
I need to. So God, perhaps my prayer should be, show me my system, not just help me get to the goal, but what is my system?
And does it align with the goal? Because it’s not enough to just want it.
Every girl child, listen, everybody wants something but is my system set up for the desired goal.
And does that go align with what God wants to do in my life?
It’s a lot of qualifications before you just bring your prayers to God and then get upset with God because he didn’t do them.
God.
Does this go the line with what you see for my life?
God, is this what I want or is this what you want?
And God, I just want you to know that if it’s not what you want, that I will still bring the fullness of my creativity and identity and strategy to whatever you want.
Because I’m not so married to my dream that I’m willing to miss out on what God wants to do in my life.
I’m not so married to my comfort and my vision that I’m willing to miss out on what God wants to do in my life.
God, is this your goal or did the culture give me this goal?
Did my family impose this goal on me?
Because if this goal only exists because it’s borrowed from my own insecurity or it’s borrowed from someone else’s vision for my life, then I don’t want it.
God, here’s my system. Does it work?
Does this system yield the goal that I’ve already qualified as aligned with your vision?
So if it’s not the goal, God, is it my system?
Is it the way that I communicate? Is it the way that I study?
Is it how I engage? Am I set apart? God?
I give you permission to show me my sister.
Some of us know there’s something wrong with me, something wrong with me.
It’s like Paul said, I, I have a goal but I, I sabotaged the goal that, that I wanna do.
I don’t do. There’s something wrong with me. God show me my system.
Why doesn’t anyone want to get close to me? Why can’t I keep these relationships?
Why can’t I stand in the very thing that I prayed for? I planned for?
And now it’s time for me to step into it and I can’t step into it.
God show me my system. No.
You know, when David finds out that there’s a problem with his system in Psalms 1 39 23 through 24.
He says, search me, oh God and know my heart, try me and know my anxieties.
God. If you know my heart and you would know my anxieties, then God you can see my system too because my system lives in my heart.
Oh Man, this wasn’t even in my notes, but I’m just gonna say it.
Some of your systems exist because you were trying to protect your heart.
That’s why you don’t see the system as evil.
You see it as protection because one person hurts, you broke, you be betrayed you two people, three people, four people hurt, you betrayed you.
And you said I’m gonna set up a system so this never happens again.
But you’re coming out of that system today because your system can’t protect you when God protects you.
At the same time, some of you created the system because of the neighborhood you lived in and the culture you lived in and you said I gotta look out for me and that helped you survive up until now.
But I hear God saying for the next dimension of your destiny, your system is gonna betray you.
Your system is gonna sabotage you and you can thank God for what the system did and part ways with the system at the same time, God, I thank thank you that you gave me a vision for how to protect my heart.
But now that my heart has been protected, I’m gonna hand the protection over to you and I’m gonna trust you to protect my heart.
Not my system, not my words, not my hustling, not my sex appeal, not my bank account.
I’m gonna let you protect my heart. I’m gonna let you go ahead of me.
I’m gonna let the battle be yours and not mine. God, you can search my heart.
You can know my anxieties.
God, show me why I created the system in the first place and heal the version of me that felt like that was the only way says search me oh God and know my heart, try me and know my anxieties and see if there is any wicked way we could weigh in me and lead me in the way everlasting.
Don’t just show me my system, show me how to live outside of my system.
God, if there’s anything wicked in me, I can’t lead myself out of it.
I can’t move myself out of my system.
I’m gonna need you to lead me in the way that is everlasting. Everlasting.
I love that word everlasting because it says to me that anything else I do has an expiration date on it.
If you are not leading, that’s why I believe God wanted me to preach this message because someone’s system has an expiration date and they don’t realize that they’re coming up on the expiration day of that system.
But there is a way in which you can take that will allow you to live everlasting.
There is a method in which you can show up in the world that will allow you to live everlasting.
It takes courage to pray, the kind of prayer that says God show me my system because it creates humility and Brokenness.
It is no wonder that when Peter’s system is revealed, he removes himself from being a disciple steps down.
I’m gonna throw it back for those of you who don’t know fully what happened.
Peter, his system is discovered when Jesus is headed to the cross, Jesus is headed to the cross and Jesus tells Peter you’re gonna deny me.
And Peter says, who couldn’t be? I will write, I’m gonna write a that’s me.
Write a was in the Bible, not like that Bible but like a Bible somewhere. I don’t know which one.
But if it was in the Bible, Peter would have been like Roter dias me could never.
Jesus says, just wait and see there’s a system inside of you that you don’t even know about.
So I’m gonna have to expose the system so that you can know what’s in you.
So Peter says, I could never and then he finds himself doing the very thing that he didn’t know that he could do because his system is that I quit.
When I’m under pressure, Peter didn’t know that was in Him until God created a circumstance to highlight the system.
And when God created the circumstance to highlight the system, Peter learned something about himself that he didn’t know.
He learned that when I’m back up against the wall, when I, when I am under pressure and I’ve got a threat headed in my direction.
I have a tendency to deny, deny because I don’t wanna be held accountable for my truth.
So instead I would rather quit and not be in position at all than stand the fire that comes with being in position.
God helped me to say it the way that she gave it to me.
But some of us gave up because we couldn’t handle the pressure connected to our identity.
We couldn’t handle the pressure connected with being chosen. And so we quit before we could get under pressure.
Not realizing that pressure is what produces the oil pressure is what puts you in position.
Pressure is what creates the strength in the first place. But you got a system that’s working against your strength.
You got a system that’s working against your anointing. You got a system that’s working against your prophetic gift.
You’ve got a system that’s working against your ability to perform miracles. Don’t quit when the pressure comes.
Don’t quit, don’t quit, don’t quit.
Don’t quit when the pressure comes, the pressure is a part of the process.
The pressures are part of the process.
Yeah.
So God says I gotta reveal your system not to shame you not to embarrass you.
But so you can break out of that system when God reveals your system.
If you aren’t careful, your insecurity will tell you.
See, that’s why you shouldn’t be up there in the first place.
And that’s why you should have never started it to begin with.
Not realizing that God revealed the system because I wanna break you out of the system.
And I wanna talk to somebody who got discouraged because they realized they had a system that was working against you.
Babe, I’m glad that you realized it was working against you because now that system can start working for you because I’m gonna learn to live outside of you.
Now that I know that I quit when I’m under pressure, I stand taller than I’ve ever felt before when the pressure is on because I realize I gotta live outside of this system.
My system is I don’t communicate. So I gotta use the words when I don’t wanna use the words.
The system is I resist vulnerabilities.
So now I gotta open up my heart because I’m gonna live outside of this system.
One thing about me, one thing’s for sure and two things for certain, I’m gonna live outside of this system.
I’ve made a decision that I’m not going to allow this same system to keep plaguing my family for generation after generation.
I’ve made a decision that if I’m the only one who ever does it, that that may be the only thing that ever matters because I’m going to live outside of the system that has caused poison and trauma and abuse and neglect and ignorance for years.
Y’all can act cute like you don’t have a system that ain’t been in your family for years.
But I’m gonna stand flat footed and let you know there are some systems that I’m gonna live outside of by hook or by crook.
I’m gonna live outside of the system. I’m gonna speak God’s word over my life.
I’m gonna break every chain connected to my.
If I can break it off for me, I can break it off for you.
I’m gonna break every chain connected to my potential. I’m gonna break every chain connected to my anointing.
I gotta live outside of this system. Not on my watch, not on my watch.
Not with my exposure. God, you messed around and let me see the system. Now I got responsibility in it.
Now I got skin in the game.
Now I have a mandate from heaven to not just sit back and be a spectator while a system sets up my family for failure.
Not me. Not I not on my watch. If I see it, I’m gonna crack it.
If I see it, I’m gonna whoop it if I see it, I’m gonna do whatever it takes to run up on the system.
I don’t care how long it’s been around. My God is the same yesterday, today and forever.
You know, I like to talk my talk outside the system outside the system.
That’s where the freedom is. It’s outside the system. That’s where the creativity is. It’s outside the system.
I hear God saying this right outside the system, it’s right outside the system.
Your joy is outside the system, the power is outside the system. The peace is outside the system.
How I’m gonna do it? I’m gonna get out the system. How am I gonna say it?
I’m gonna get out the system. How I’m gonna break it? I’m gonna get out the system.
Living outside the system requires dependency on God means I gotta kind of live naked and that’s why we don’t want to do it.
So it’s much easier to be behind the scenes.
But living outside the system puts you center stage, put you center stage.
Peter’s trying to deal with the scrutiny that comes with living outside the system.
Why are you acting different?
Why you, I mean we used to, oh You wanted him now?
No, I just moved outside the system.
Oh So you think you’re better than me?
No, no, no, I just think I’m better than the sister.
You gotta respect when you can’t connect with people who are still in the system.
You gotta respect when you can’t connect with people who are still living in the system because your thoughts are not gonna match their thoughts anymore and your goals don’t match their goals anymore.
I li I just, it’s, it’s, if it’s good for you, it’s good for me.
But as for me in my house, we gotta live outside of the system. I’m not shaming you.
I was in the system. I understand how you got in the system. This isn’t a judgment. It’s a declaration.
I live outside the system now. It’s not a judgment. It’s a declaration. I live outside the system.
A declaration means you can’t vote on it.
A declaration means you can have your opinion, but your opinion doesn’t change my decision because live outside.
It’s Peter pa.
In order to effectively live outside of the system, you must shift your focus from self preservation.
I can no longer worry about what they’re gonna say about me.
I can no longer worry about whether or not people will get it or understand me.
I can’t try and protect my image and fulfill my destiny.
At the same time, Jesus says in Matthew 16 and 25 she said I better give her my AT&T voice for whoever desires to save his life, we’ll lose it.
But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
If my system is set up for self preservation, I’m guaranteed a loss.
But if my system and my goal becomes at the end of the day, I just want God to get the glory out of my life.
God, I just want your glory to rest so heavily on my life that it becomes evident that you still perform miracles.
God, I just want for everything I do to point in the direction of you that means whoever loses their life on my sake.
I’m gonna find the thing that really fulfills me.
I’m gonna find the thing that makes me stand tall.
When I wanna back down, I’m gonna find strength for this life that I have been granted to live.
Not when I try to protect my life.
But when I don’t mind losing, gotta be willing to take a nail and still show up, gotta be willing to take a and still get back in the game.
I gotta be willing to take an ale and not like let that ale define me for the rest of my life.
Do you know how strong you gotta be? In order to take an ale?
I wanna talk to some people in this room who know what it’s like to take a few a I had a few losses.
I had a few breakdowns. I almost lost my mind.
And yet God is telling me that if I don’t mind taking some a and I start saying God for your sake, I’ll take an ale for your sake.
I’ll lose. I don’t wanna lose trying to chase after them.
I don’t wanna lose my life trying to chase after a relationship, chase after a goal.
But for your glory, God, I’ll take an ale. God for your anointing. I’ll take an ale. God.
If I have to take this ale by myself because no one else could stand the pressure.
I’ll take this ale. If I gotta declare your word by myself, God, I’ll take this ale because at the end of the day, I wanna see your life show up in my life.
I wanna see your glory show up in my glory.
I’m almost finished.
Peter and acts four is learning to live a life outside of the system.
The system was revealed.
God restores him and now he’s living a life in resistance to the system. Yeah.
And it’s hard and it’s not easy and he doesn’t know what he’s gonna be up against.
One thing. They don’t tell you about living outside of the system is that you living outside of the system creates disruption with other systems because you believe that living outside of the system only affects you.
I’m the only one who decided to break out. It’s only on me.
You don’t realize that you living outside of the system disrupts everything could remember because we’re an ecosystem.
So if you break out of your system, it disrupts other systems.
On one hand, that’s good because now other people know that you can live outside of the system on the other hand, that makes you a target because people who benefit from you being in the system would prefer that you go back to being in the system.
So now you’ve disrupted their system because you wouldn’t just stay in your position.
Well, I’m sorry that I had to disrupt your system when I got, I wasn’t even thinking about you when I did it.
I was thinking about seeing God’s glory rest over my life.
I wasn’t even expecting for you to turn your back on me.
I wasn’t even expecting for you to no longer connect with me. I thought it was just about me.
I didn’t realize we’re an ecosystem.
So when I step out of my system, I disrupt everything and Peter has disrupted a system, it’s important to know that disruption is not destruction.
I think this is important because a lot of times we think that if I disrupt the system, that I will destroy relationships and connections, but I just want you to know that there are people assigned to your life who can handle the disruption of your system.
I’m not talking about people coming, I’m not talking about one day, God’s gonna send them.
I’m telling you there are people within your c circle right now who can handle the version of you that lives outside of the system.
As a matter of fact, can we just give God 10 seconds of praise for the people who stuck with us when I moved outside of the system for the people who didn’t give up on.
No, no, no. We gotta do better than that because it wasn’t as lonely as we like to pretend we weren’t as isolated as we like to pretend there was somebody who said, go ahead, you can do that.
Someone who said go forth, I believe in you.
Someone who’s, I never seen it but I believe you can do it.
See y’all must not have the kind of praying grandmothers that I know about.
You must not have the kind of friends that I’ve been exposed to.
God will make sure that there is at least one person in your circle that says, well, kick that system down, then I don’t even know why that system exists.
But if anybody can break it, it shoe disruption.
Some people in your life who can say grow baby, I’m gonna grow with you.
Go baby, I’m gonna go with you. If you disrupt the system, it’ll show me how to move next.
Everybody ain’t jealous of you. Some people wanna learn from you.
I’m glad you disrupted the system because I didn’t see a way out of it until you cracked it.
But because you cracked it, I wanna thank Jesus for disrupting the system of my sin.
I wanna thank Jesus for disrupting the sin of my inadequacy.
I wanna thank Jesus for disrupting the sin of my infirmity because I saw Jesus do what I know, it can be done.
Some people can handle you growing.
Not everybody. That’s true. But don’t count out.
You don’t, you don’t even need that many less is more. It’s plenty of us.
You don’t even need that many. I just need people who get it.
Jesus Peter has disrupted the ecosystem of the Jewish church.
We thought we got rid of Jesus and that should have handled that.
But here you come as an extension of what Jesus did in the earth.
And now you want other people to know that miracles are still possible.
And now you want people to know that signs and wonders are still happening.
And now you want people to know that they don’t have to be trapped in their sin.
And you want people to know that you can be free from depression and you want people to know that there’s freedom from addiction and you want people to know that you can be healed and you want people to know that it doesn’t matter what the doctor says.
I wanna know what God says and you want people to know that you can be whole after going through years of Brokenness.
And you want people to know, oh you are disrupting the system. I want you to know who you are.
You are called to be a disruptor.
And that’s why the enemy wants to keep you blind to what God has done in your life.
Because if I keep you blind, I’ll keep your mouth shut.
But baby, there’s one thing about me, you can keep me blind, but you can’t change my heart.
You can’t change what I know. For sure. I know. God saved me. I know God touched me.
I know that I was lost. But now I’m, I’m not talking about what I heard about.
I’m talking about what I know.
I know what it’s like to feel like you can’t break out of that disease, disease and God broke you out of it anyway.
I know what it’s like for depression and keep you in bed until you can’t get up, but you manage to pull the blanket back.
Anyway. Don’t talk to me. I know what it’s like to have a gun in my hand and think I’m gonna end it out.
Don’t talk to me but God that oh no, Peter says this feels familiar.
This moment in act four, feels familiar. It reminds me of another time.
I was being questioned about my connection and my relationships and in that moment, my system spoke on my behalf, but I’m not the same person as I was when it happened back then.
Oh, I’m not the same person as I was when it happened back then back then, my system responded to the text back then my system set the price.
But something happened in between the last time and this time and it happened in the upper room in between the last time.
And this time, the Holy Spirit came into the room in between the last time.
And this time I found myself in the waiting room, Ben in the waiting room this time because I’d rather wait than let my sister move on autopilot.
Something happened to me in the waiting room that feels like we could be here for another hour talking about what happened and the waiting room in the waiting room, there came a sound like a mighty rushing land, no wind, just a sound.
The sound was making a call for Peter to not just come out of that system, but to allow the place where the system wants lived to be filled by the Holy Spirit.
So that when he stepped into the multitudes, he could preach with boldness.
When he saw the lane man at the gate called beautiful.
He could reach out and pull him up and help him to be healed.
It, it it happened because of what took place in the upper room.
He got filled in the place where his system was.
If you get filled in the place where your system was, you will be empowered to do great works for the Lord.
If you get filled in the place where your system was, you won’t have to prove to anybody that your life is a testimony.
All you have to do is function and walk like you’ve been somewhere that no one else could understand.
Like you’ve seen something that only God could have shown to you.
If you allow God to really show something to you, it’ll change the way you walk.
It’ll change the way you touch. It’ll change the way you speak. Something happened in the upper room.
And in this moment, Peter, it’s back in the corner and instead of his system showing up, the Holy Spirit speaks on his behalf.
If you look just a few verses up from my text, you’ll see that it says, and Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit.
He’s been arrested, the Pharisees and the sad wanna understand how did this lame man start walking? Who are you?
They discern that he’s been with Jesus and he is filled with the Holy Spirit in the moment of pressure in the moment of pressure before he gave up.
But this time in the moment of pressure because he says, I’m gonna live outside of the system.
He allows the spirit of God to show up and speak on his behalf.
You don’t have to have the words for your haters. You don’t have to have the words for your enemies.
You don’t have to know what you’re gonna say.
If you get caught doing what God called you to do, if you get caught doing what God called you to do, then God’s gonna handle the caught.
That happens when you get caught doing what God called you to do God.
If you back me into a I believe that you’re gonna help me come out swinging because I didn’t get in this corner by myself.
God, you put me here, God, you trusted me. I told you it was a bad idea.
I told you I was raggedy, but I decided to do it anyway.
So this battle is truly not my mind. It is the Lord.
So God, what we gonna say when they back me in the corner and the Holy Spirit feels in acts 24 4 and 24 we see him after he has lived past that moment of pressure and we see what it cost him to live outside.
That moment of pressure and the moment I stood up to it and the moment I showed up, I did what needed to be done.
And I said what I had to say, but back in this intimate group, get to tell you that thing almost scared me.
This scared me, almost took me out.
You gotta make sure that you’re in the right room with the right people.
God does not need you to pretend that it didn’t cost what it cost.
I want you to be obedient. I want you to stand up in the moment.
But when the moment is over, I still want you to take the time and recognize that it stretched you beyond what you thought was possible.
And Peter admits to this group of people what it cost him and he doesn’t, it doesn’t go into detail exactly what Peter says.
But for some reason we know that when he got finished reporting that they decide to pray with specificity about what he would need in order to continue, some of us start praying when we’re under pressure and that’s beautiful.
But as my friend, Doctor Anita would say that there is something special about analyzing the damage so that you understand exactly what to pray for.
So he made a report and then he made the prayer because until you understand what happened to you, you don’t really know fully God, where do I need your glory to show up in my life?
God, I wanna pray with specificity.
God, I wanna ask you to heal me from the thing that happened when I was four years old, God, I want you to heal me.
I gotta get specific about the system and he thought he was just debriefing and he thinks he’s just unpacking.
But that moment that he is standing in is familiar too because he’s in a room full of people and they’re all on one accord.
This looks very similar to what happened in the upper room, which means that he has unknowingly assumed the posture that allowed him to be propelled into destiny in the first place.
If you can’t get back to the posture that allowed you to be prepared into destiny in the first place, then you’ll be reporting but not getting restored, you’ll be reporting.
But not seeing God’s restoration show up in your life.
But because Peter was in another room and we were on one accord.
They said, I wonder if we pray this time, if we could experience the Holy Spirit coming like we did that one time before God.
Peter begins to pray for boldness.
Boldness is in direct contrast with what the system creates.
This is how I know that in that moment, Peter is flirting with the temptation of getting back in the system.
But he prays instead for boldness so that I don’t get sucked back into the system because right now the pressure is on like it was on before.
And I feel that target on my back the way I felt it before.
And I feel like giving up the way that I gave up before God.
I don’t know if I could deal with the pressure.
I don’t know if I could deal with the responsibility and yet he’s in a room.
This is if the Holy Spirit propelled you the first time, then maybe just maybe that same Holy Spirit would show up again if we begin to pray and they begin to pray with the knowledge of what can happen.
Some of us pray and we act like we don’t know what will happen.
But there is a prayer that you can pray that you know, God will answer.
When you say come Holy Spirit. I don’t have to qualify whether or not the Holy Spirit wants to come.
It is the Holy Spirit’s desire to show up in your life.
And when you don’t know what to pray at all, God, should I pray for this or should I pray for that?
Should I pray for her or should I pray for Him? God, I don’t know what to do.
And I feel like I’m back in the corner and I feel the pressure mounting.
So what I’m gonna pray for and instead is Holy Spirit come, Holy Spirit come, you do the dirty work.
Holy Spirit come, you sort it out.
Holy Spirit come and just give me boldness to stay in the position that you place me in.
Just give me boldness to not get sucked back in the system.
Holy Spirit, holy Spirit come, Holy Spirit come, Holy spirit come.
They pray. They say now, Lord look on their threats and grant to your servants.
Listen, he doesn’t pray, get rid of their threats. God show them who we are.
He doesn’t pray. God make him pay for what they did to me.
He says, look at their threats and grant to your servants that with all boldness they may speak.
Wait a minute, God don’t allow me to shift my focus from what you’ve called me to do to those who are trying to disqualify me from doing it.
God, you see their threats and you see how their threats affect me.
So I’m not gonna ask you to stop the threats because the threats are a part of living outside of the system.
I’m just gonna pray that you give me the boldness to stay outside of the system, that you would give me the strength to stay outside of the system that I may speak your word.
That when I stretch out my hand, it won’t be my hand, it’ll be your hands and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your servant.
Jesus. God don’t change my language. Don’t cause me to code switch.
When I’m under pressure, don’t make me change my ways.
When I’m under pressure, change my system. When I’m under pressure. God, I feel like code switching.
I feel like saying, maybe I wasn’t called.
I feel like saying, maybe I can’t break the generational curse.
I feel like backtracking on my words because I can’t afford to live under this pressure.
But if you would grant me boldness, God, I think I could stand up to this.
My text continues, you can stand and I’m done.
Says, and when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken, it was shaken.
First. There was a sound like a mighty Russian wind.
And if you’re like me, you would think God, you don’t have to answer as big as you did the last time if you would just give me a little bit.
But God says, I don’t even have to answer in the same way that I did before for it to still be grand and scale.
In a different way, the room begins to shake and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.
They’ve been filled before, but this was a fresh feeling they’ve been filled before.
But this filling is now so that they can continue because sometimes you only get filled enough to get started.
But if you’re gonna sustain it, if you’re gonna keep it going, then you’re gonna have to know how to get back to the filling spots.
You’re gonna have to know how to get back to the place where the Holy Spirit will move again.
And so because Peter has made a decision that he’s gonna live outside of the system, it’s gotta always know how to get back to the place where the Holy Spirit will fill him again.
I wanna pray with you.
I wanna pray someone who’s made a decision to live outside of the system.
I wanna pray for somebody who feels themselves running out of boldness, running out of courage to live outside of the system.
If this is your word and you feel like God, I need your help.
I need your Holy Spirit. I need a fresh out pouring.
I want you to come to the altar because I wanna see you break out of your system and I must get it.