You're listening to the Miracle Word Podcast. We believe that the Word of God gives you the power to experience never-ending increase in every area. If you're ready for revelation that will take you to the next level, you're in the right place. Here's your host, evangelist, author, and founder of Miracle Word University, 10 Shuttlesworth, Jr.
Five Ways to Avoid Devastating Decisions. That's what we're talking about today. People are destroyed not because the devil's attacking for the most part, but most people make very poor decisions. I'm actually blown away.
Most people make very poor decisions. And then they wonder why they're struggling. What's going on? Why?
And it's like, bro, do you not even understand the types of decisions you're making? And what it's producing in your life? Frank, I'm going to send you up copies and you can send it to Adult Camp every year. Hannah, you are fully welcome to direct the musical.
So most people, they're struggling because of very poor choices. And the question you have to ask is, number one, before we get into the five ways you can avoid devastating decisions, is why would someone make these decisions? How does that happen? How does that happen?
Meaning why would somebody choose to make a bad choice? And there's got to be, there's got to be multiple reasons, but there are a couple I can think of. Number one, people were raised that way. You have to, before we get into the five, let me just give you a couple of prerequisites.
You've got to, if you grew up seeing and experiencing bad decisions all around you, you've got to break that pattern. First, you have to recognize it. And then you've got to break it. There's some people that were raised and they saw all the ways not to do something.
Well, unless you recognize that's not the way to live your life, you're going to repeat what you saw your parents doing, what you saw your grandparents doing, you know, it's like, this is like, and listen, I am not discounting the spiritual nature of things. But when I hear people come to me and say, hey, would you pray for me? There's a generational curse of heart attack and diabetes in our family. And I'm like, it's not a generational curse.
It's the way that your family has eaten for the last 70 years. And nobody, everybody is sedentary. Everybody just sits around. Nobody moves.
Nobody works out. They go from the couch to a chair to a bed. And you can't pound your body on a daily basis with food that's going to destroy your body and then not move at all. And then call it a supernatural generational curse.
It's not a supernatural generational curse. You have a learned behavior. Now, listen, I'm not saying that again, I have to make these caveats because there will always be people that will log on and say, well, he's discounting the supernatural realm and he doesn't believe this. No, I believe in the supernatural.
We have a deliverance ministry. We have a miracle ministry. So it's not that I don't believe in the supernatural or demonic forces or spiritual warfare. It's that you can't lay these things at the feet of demonic forces when they're learned habits and natural actions that are being taken on a daily basis.
So don't call it a generational curse when you eat biscuits and gravy three times a day and then sit around on the couch and watch Jeopardy reruns and wonder why your blood pressure and your not your blood pressure, but your blood sugars through the roof. It's not a generational curse. It's not the devil attacking. It's the result of poor decisions.
And so I've had people say that to me for years in prayer lines at churches, which you just pray for me. There's a generational curse. It's not a generational curse. Poor decisions produce poor results.
Poor decisions produce poor results. And so number one, it might be something you grew up seeing. Well, our families never had any money. Would you just pray?
There's a generational curse on our finances. There's not a generational curse on your finances. You spend all your money and the Bibles and I love biscuits and gravy as well, Casey. I just was in Orlando and got to eat them like three days in a row.
Absolutely amazing. The hotel we were staying at makes them fresh every morning and not like a holiday in the sweet, like a good place that makes good biscuits and gravy. So here's the story. It's not financial.
It's not a financial attack. It's the fact that the Bible says that a fool spends all that he has. You can't have no savings. You can't have, you know, I mean, I could go on and on.
You know what I'm talking about though. Well, that's how we've always been. That's how our family's always done it. Yeah, we'll stop doing it that way.
Stop doing it that way. Yeah, the devil got me in debt. The devil didn't get you in debt. So so stop doing it that way.
But before you can change it, you have to recognize that's not the way to live life. That's not the way to live life. And some of you have already made those discoveries and are already doing far different things than the previous generation that you saw do it the wrong way. And it's good because until you recognize it, you know, my father and I were talking one time when I was young and I made a comment to him.
I mentioned this. I think yesterday I made a comment to him and I said, you know, we saw we saw this guy. He was like dead as could be. No one knowing on his ministry.
And I said, Dad, I don't ever want to be like that. And my dad said something very interesting. He said, because you recognize it, because you notice it, you never will be like that. And so you have to recognize what's not right.
What is as I titled in this broadcast, what is devastating to your family, to your personal life, to your body, to your finances, to your mind, all those things, you got to recognize it and avoid it. But until you recognize that's wrong or that it's not the way to go, you won't. And so that's one reason. But I would say that for most people, that's the main reason is that that that's what they've known.
It's what they grew up with. It's the people they grew up around and they never recognized what was wrong with it. And so they just follow in that pattern. If you've ever heard the, it's kind of an old adage at this point, but you will become the average of the five people you hang around the most.
You will become the average of the five people you hang around the most. You will become the average of the five people you hang around the most. Change your company if you don't, if you don't like the way things are going. And so you got to learn how to pull away and go higher.
You got to pull away and go higher. So I'm going to give you five ways in this broadcast from scripture to avoid devastating decisions. I heard one minister say it this way once he said, some mistakes are easy to recover from. Other mistakes are very hard to recover from.
And some mistakes people never recover from. Let me say that again, some mistakes are easy to recover from. Some mistakes are very hard to recover from and other mistakes people never recover from. So don't be flippin.
Don't be flippin. Be very careful about your life. And so I'm going to give you these five things. We'll hit these and then I'll give you the scriptures to go along with them.
But I'm just giving you framework to avoid making devastating decisions. So recently, I've been working with a lot of people who are working with me. To avoid making devastating decisions. So recently, I've been playing a lot of chess, a lot of chess.
And so in the, you know, a lot of times before I go to bed or, you know, whatever, I'll watch some YouTube videos from guys that are either international chess masters or grandmasters or whatever. And they'll create, you know, videos on how to make better decisions and stuff. And the reason most people never move forward, even in their chess rating is because they continue to make the same mistakes over and over and they never realize they're doing it. And these guys have started to put out videos where they show you the average mistakes that people make at your rating level.
And then they break that down with actual data from chess.com, which is the largest host of online chess games in the world. And they show you for the majority of people at this rating, we've reviewed their games. Here's the top top mistakes they're making that keep them at that level. And then they break the mistakes down for you.
And one of the things that you'll see is that after they show you the mistakes, they try to come up with a system where you can go through it like a checklist to make sure you're avoiding those mistakes. That's a very helpful checklist. And sometimes they'll abbreviate it. One guy that I was watching, he said, it can be called the CCTO checklist, which means do I have any checks, do I have any captures, do I have any tactics, and if not, how can I optimize my pieces.
So what he's doing is keeping in mind here are the areas where I normally make mistakes or people normally make mistakes. Let me create a checklist to make sure I don't make those mistakes and be more careful with each move. That's what I'm doing for you today is I'm giving you this checklist so that before you make a mistake or a bad decision, you can go through the checklist and see, am I doing any one of these five things? And if so, I need to stop and rethink this decision.
Stop and rethink the decision and that'll help you. It helps you to become more careful rather than flippant with your life and with your decisions. And so let's start with these. Let me give you number one.
Again, please write these down and I'll give you the verses as well. But put them in the comments for people to watch later. Number one, number one is this. This is the number one way to avoid devastating decisions.
And these aren't in any particular order. I'm just giving them to you as we go. Number one is this. Don't listen to counsel from the wicked.
Don't take especially about spiritual things in your spiritual life and family. Don't take your advice from wicked people. Don't take your advice from wicked people. The Bible actually says this in Psalm 1.
Psalm 1 says it this way, blessed is the man. Okay, so it's getting me to describe a blessed man. Do you want to be a blessed man? A blessed woman.
Of course you do. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked. Does not stand in the way of sinners. Does not sit in the seat of scoffers.
And there's nothing wrong with AI. AI is just a database of things that it's been taught. You can use AI to your advantage. But you've got to number one, don't listen to the counsel of the wicked.
If you listen to unregenerated people talk, they will say things that you should do, that you can immediately see, I should not, not only should I not be doing that, I should stay far from anything that even looks like doing that. Morning, Donnie. So especially, let me say this, especially when it comes to how you live your spiritual life. Now, it doesn't mean that there aren't people who are unsaved that may have good advice regarding certain things, business people for your business, stuff like that.
It doesn't mean that the only advice that you can take about things in life comes from people that are Christians. Because obviously there are people that are unsaved that have suggestions about things in business or life, whatever that you can take. What I'm telling you is be very careful about just taking it at face value. I don't care if the person's influential or not.
Let me give you an example that's practical so you see what I mean. There might be some unsaved financial guru, financial planner that writes a book or has a podcast or is on a television show and is talking about ways to get out of debt and says, well, one of the things that you should do while you're trying to get out of debt is that you should pause all of your charitable donations, your financial contributions to charitable organizations until you're out of debt. Well, a Christian would hear that and say, well, that means that I should pause my tithe, pause my giving until I'm out of debt and then restart again. That's terrible advice.
That's terrible advice because number one, God is your source and honoring God above all else is key. So why would I choose to slap God in the face? And as his words as rob him in the time where I'm trying to get out of a place of debt or a heavy burden over my shoulders. So that's a piece of advice.
I don't care to hear from somebody just because they're a guru or whatever. Now if that was the case for an unsaved person that's not going to church, maybe they're just giving to philanthropic organizations, that's a different matter altogether. But for a Christian, it's a stupid thing to follow that advice, very stupid thing because you're taking counsel from the wicked. They don't have the same covenant you have with God nor do they have the same convictions you have and they don't understand how life with God works.
So it's a foolish, foolish thing to take advice from the wicked. Another thing would be taking advice about your marriage, taking advice about relationships. Let me tell you, the world has very different ideas about how relationships should go, how marriage should go. If you listen to people that don't serve God, talk about marriage, they're not going to have a biblical worldview of marriage.
They're going to give you different kinds of decisions. Well, if I were you girl, I would never forgive him. Well, is that scriptural? To never forgive somebody.
It's not scriptural. It's not scriptural. It's stupidity, especially for a Christian. If I were you, I would never forgive them.
It's stupid. That's how you're going to live your life and then cut off all blessings from God because you're living in unforgiveness, not walking in love. But there's people that live like that. You've heard people talk like that.
Well, if I were you, you're not me. You don't even serve the Lord. Be very careful listening to people who give you advice and their life. They're not even living their life for Christ.
Again, I'm not throwing out every piece of advice from people that are unsaved. There are people that are very successful that can show you how to do things in the realm of business or whatever they're in that you can listen to that advice, but you've got to compare it to what God says. I'm not doing something just because somebody's successful. I'm doing it because God's word says it.
I'm definitely not following the advice of wicked people. But let me tell you, all some people need to see is a little bit of success and then they'll follow somebody around like they got to carry it in their hand. That's why, you know, there's this rule of influence that if someone is successful, they come in more influence than other people. That's even found in the Bible.
The Bible says that a poor man could cry wisdom in the streets and nobody would listen to him. Because of his poverty, because it looks on the outside like you don't know what you're doing. So no one's going to follow you. So that's not just, that's a biblical principle, not just a random principle.
But the downside of that principle is people may have gotten influential or wealthy a different way and then people listen to them about every subject. I'll give you a perfect statement about or a perfect example of that. Look at a professional athlete, NFL, right, NBA, or look at someone who's a great singer or a pop, like a pop artist, right? Then because they became successful in sports or in music or whatever, they pull them on talk shows and start talking to them about politics.
What do you think about this election? Who would you, and it's like people will listen to what they have to say about politics because they put out a hit album of views? That doesn't even make sense. They're not a political commentator.
It's like, who cares what they think? He's a running back in the NFL. What does he know about politics? But people start to follow people, you know, whatever they say, I like that guy.
I'm a listen, he doesn't even know what he's talking about. And so there's a mistake to just follow somebody because they're influential. They better be influential in the area that you're looking to become influential. And then you have to make up your mind if they say anything that is contradictory to the Word of God.
I'm not listening. I'm not following. So those are practical examples of what I'm talking about because you see it happen all the time. You think politicians hire celebrities to come in on their campaigns to support them because there's a ton of people that already really like those celebrities and they think, well, if those celebrities like those politicians, then I like them too.
And that's how dumb people are because they don't even realize it's a, they're cutting a deal to be there. They're not going to be there without, without a deal being cut. And so you got to be very careful about that. But number one, according to Psalm 11, do not listen to the counsel of the wicked.
Do not listen to counsel from the wicked. But then here's, here's number two. And this is like a different, this is a different aspect. But man, does this happen a lot.
Also don't listen to the counsel of the unwise. That's number two. Number one, don't listen to advice from the wicked. But number two, don't listen to the advice of the unwise.
It's crazy to me that unsuccessful people usually have the most advice to give out. Unsuccessful people usually have the most advice to freely give out to everybody. I'll tell you what I wouldn't do it that way. You're not doing anything.
So why would I listen what you have to say? This is something that I've said for years and years. I think I went back and found where I wrote it down in like 2013 or 2012, 13 years ago. And I came up with this phrase, don't take constructive criticism from someone who hasn't constructed anything.
Don't take constructive criticism from somebody who hasn't constructed anything. Don't take constructive criticism from somebody who hasn't constructed anything. That doesn't make any sense. I'm mechanic going into an operating room during a brain surgery and be like, yeah, doc, I wouldn't do it that way.
If I were you, I'd just get those pliers and start pulling on that thing until it came out. It's like, why would I listen to advice from you? You have no, you have no experience in this realm. You've not done one brain surgery in your entire life and you want to come in and tell me how to do brain surgery.
Of course, you'd be arrested for breaking into a hospital operating room. But it's like, and it's crazy because these are the people that seem to have the most advice for people they always talk to. Well, if it were me, I wouldn't do it that way. Oh, really?
What have you done? What have you done? You know, when I went to plant this church that God told us to plant, you know, obviously I had questions for people that have been in the ministry, but I had some real questions for people that had planted churches, not taken over a church, not become the pastor of a church. I had questions for people who had planted churches from scratch.
Why was I more interested to hear from them than just anybody in ministry? Because they've been there, done that, got the t-shirt. They know what they're talking about. If I look at somebody that has a successful church that started it from nothing, I want to hear what they have to say because that's what I've done and I'm in the same vein as that person.
So they're obviously not unwise because they did the same thing that I'm doing, but now they're very successful at it. You know, it's been years down the road, you know, whatever it might be. And so yeah, I obviously want to hear what they say, but then when I have people that may come out of the woodwork and say, well, if I were you, I don't think that I would start a church in West Palm Beach. I don't care what you think.
First of all, I'm not just deciding to do something. I'm doing it by the instructions of the Lord. Number two, you've not started any ministries. You've not started any ministries.
So don't take constructive criticism from someone who hasn't constructed anything. If I want to get better with my golf swing, I'm not hiring a pitching coach. You understand? If I want to get better at my golf swing, I'm not hiring a pitching coach.
Why? Because he may have no idea how to swing a golf club, which would make him in this arena unwise. He doesn't have minus, he doesn't have the necessary wisdom to take me to the next level. And you know why many people fail?
I'm just going to be very plain. One reason that many people struggle when they get frustrated is because they take tons of advice just from family members or friends that have no idea what they're talking about, no idea. I don't know if I would do that much business like that. It's like, you've never started a business.
You've never done any of that. Well, if I were you, I wouldn't hire employees because then you got to have pay roll tax. It's like, not only do you not have employees, you don't have a business. Why would I take advice from you?
And I'm being funny about it, but you'd be surprised how many people are making life decisions just because a family member told them they should do this or a friend told them they should do that. Somebody close to them said, if I were you, this is what I would do. And then because they're close to that person, they just take their advice because they, well, you know, they love me. They wouldn't tell me something.
Yeah, but just because they love you doesn't mean they have necessary wisdom to lead you forward. And so that's the key. That's the key. Make sure, make sure that the person you're taking advice from has done it is successful at it.
You know, why read somebody's book? Why would somebody even produce a book? Pastor Bill Motley said, a woman used to tell me, slow down. I'm seeing there's more because there's no lips is there, but I'm sure every minister that I talk to, I'm sure every business person that I talk to has stories of people that try to give them all this life advice, all this business advice, all this ministry advice, and they've never done anything.
So people are free to try to do that, but don't feel free to accept their advice. If you see, you know, that's why the Bible says, and I understand that this is in regards to the work of salvation in your life, but it's actually true about everything. You know, there it is. A woman used to tell us to slow down from someone who's on say, yeah, yeah, exactly.
And so that's how I feel about it. I feel the exact same way, which is like, why are you? And then the thing that blows my mind is that I sit around thinking like, why are you so free to just toss out advice when you've not done anything? You've not accomplished anything.
You know what I'm saying? And I'm like, you're very free. You feel very free to just give advice. And so I'm always, I'm always watching.
I'm always watching to see, is the person who wants me to take a certain action, make a certain decision, is that person successful in the area in which they're trying to advise me? Ask that question. Always ask that question. Wow.
Kristen said I had a guy tell me he wouldn't get into this business in today's landscape. Then I took his biggest client without trying. There you go. There you go.
So yeah, it's Dawn's right. She said people do it when watching football all the time. Yeah, armchair quarterbacks. Why do you throw that pass?
I'd have never thrown that pass. Can't you read coverage? It's like, bro, you're 70 pounds overweight eating nachos and a recliner. You can't even step on the field, let alone throw a pass on an NFL field to an NFL receiver.
Yeah, that's the other one. Pastor Bill brings up a great point. People that are always wanting to give you advice about how to raise your children. Their kids are hellions.
Exactly right. That's exactly right. People have all this advice for you about your kids. You look at their kids and you're like, yeah, I don't want my kids to be anything like your kids.
So thanks for the advice, but no thanks. You'll know people by their fruit, Bible says so. I understand that that's in regards to salvation, manifestations of salvation and your life, but it's true in every area. It's true in every area.
You'll know people by their fruit. You'll know people by their fruit. No question about it. You'll know people by their fruit.
Watch for fruit. Be a fruit inspector. Nicky said when a congregant criticizes the church, I'll say something like, so when you built your last church, how was that? How did you prevent this at churches you built?
Never built one. Never built one. So people don't have any idea what they're talking about, but they want to give all their opinions to you. Be a fruit inspector.
Put it in the notes. Put it in the comments. Be a fruit inspector. That's so vital.
I'm blown away actually when people don't look for fruit, when people are trying to shove advice down their throat, give them all these tips. Let me tell you what I do if I were you, okay? Let me inspect some fruit first. Let me see what you've actually done.
I want to know what you've done. I want to know where you've been. Who have you affected for the better? What have you built?
Because if the answer is nothing, then why are you giving me advice? Why are you giving me advice? And one of the reasons people make devastating decisions is because, number one, they either take advice from wicked people or number two, they take advice from unwise people. It's another great one.
That's what I was talking about earlier. You can take a marriage advice from people on their fifth marriage. It's like, yeah, maybe not. Maybe not.
Maybe not. It's like the teacher in shop class that's missing four fingers that wants to talk to you about being careful around the, be careful around the saws. Yeah, like you've been careful around them. Let me teach you how to be careful around these saws.
You're missing four fingers, brother. That's right. Be a fruit inspector. Brother Willy said, show me the fruit.
So people end up making devastating decisions because they take the advice of the wicked or they take the advice of the unwise. Now here's number three. Here's how you measure it. Don't take actions that contradict God's word.
That's number three. Put it in the comments. Don't take actions that contradict God's word. Don't do that.
Don't do that. So what they said it would be a good idea if I did this. Yeah, but God's word says to do the exact opposite of that. You know, and I was going to cover that later, but Nikki's commenting and I agree with this.
Did you ever notice how if someone's truly wise, most of the time you have to seek out their advice? Yes, I do notice that, which is why when I find somebody that's done something successfully, I have to, I'm trying to pry it out of them. I ask penetrating questions. If I ever get a chance and I've done this for my whole life, if I ever get a chance to be around people that have been very successful in any area, whatever that area might be, if I get a chance to sit and eat with them, whatever, I'll make sure I ask them penetrating questions.
Ask them how they did what they did, how they got where they're going. I used to ask one question to everybody. I'd say, if you could go back and speak to your 20 year old self knowing what you know now, what would you tell them if you could only tell them one thing? I see Ben, Ben falls on back when Ben lived in Georgia and didn't live here in Florida.
There's a man that he would go out to lunch with often who was a very successful businessman. And why did Ben want to go to lunch with him? Well, first of all, he loved him. Member of his church had a great relationship with him, but he also wanted to glean wisdom from that man's life.
He wanted to listen to him talk, see how he thinks, see the way he works through things, see what advice, how does he think about these situations? What advice would he give because he understood where that guy was and what his intelligence and his decision making and his wisdom had done for him. And so I want to, and so what we do, you have to, for most people that are successful, you got to pull it out of them. They're not just blabbing.
They don't have time to just blab to everybody. They're producing things. They're producing things. And number three, as I said, don't take actions that contradict God's word.
God's word is the ultimate wisdom. It's the ultimate wisdom. And so the moment that you begin to contradict God's word is the moment you begin to fail. Don't allow yourself to fail because you refuse to obey the instruction manual.
Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't take actions that blatantly contradict God's word. If God's word says to do it, do it.
If it says not to do it, don't do it. Allow God to guide you through his written word. He wants to lead you by instruction, not by destruction. It's vital.
It's vital that you do that. Number four, here's a big one as well. I'm not spending a lot of time on number three because I would hope as a Christian, you would agree and understand you don't want to live contrary to God's word. That's called sin.
But number four is very interesting because most people never think of it this way. Don't ignore the leading of the Holy Spirit. Don't ignore the leading of the Holy Spirit. When He leads you to do something, do it quickly.
Do it quickly. Do it with all your might and do it quickly because the Holy Spirit is leading you to increase. He's leading you to blessing. He's leading you to green pastures, making you lie down beside still waters.
The Lord's your shepherd. And I'm thinking about Isaiah 48 17. I try to quote this as often as possible to people to get it into their spirit so that they never forget it because this is how the Holy Spirit works. Isaiah 48 17, I read it often.
Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. I am the Lord your God who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. There it is. Thus says the Lord your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
I am the Lord your God who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way that you should go. The Spirit speaks to you. He is teaching you to profit. He is leading you in the way that you should go.
I say this often. There's many ways you could go. There's only one way you should go. Many ways you could go.
There's only one way that you should go. So when the Holy Ghost begins to speak, begins to show you what to do. Don't delay. Don't delay.
Most people don't even, now listen to this, this is insane. Most people don't even consult the Holy Spirit at all about their life choices. You'd be surprised. And I'm not talking about sinners.
Obviously I'm talking about Christians. Sinners don't ask the Holy Spirit anything. I'm talking about Christians. You'd be so surprised.
Isaiah 48, 17, Annie. You'd be so surprised how many people that are Christians don't even consult the Holy Spirit about anything in their life, not anything. They don't ask His advice. They don't, they don't pray and ask for His leading.
They just literally do whatever they want and then ask God to bless it. That's not how it works. That is not how it works. And so it's a dangerous thing, dangerous thing.
Number one, to ignore the Holy Spirit while He's speaking to you. I'm telling you where to go, telling you what to do. But it's also a dangerous thing not to ask the Holy Spirit for His leading. Don't just flippantly make life decisions without consulting the Holy Spirit and saying, Lord, what do you want me to do?
What do you want me to do in this situation? Where do you think I should, and He'll speak? He will speak. I've tried to make a habit of every major life step that I've taken, consulting the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit's the one who called me to preach. The Holy Spirit's the one that told me where to go to Bible school. The Holy Spirit is the one who told me where to take my first position. The Holy Spirit's the one who told me who to marry.
The Holy Spirit is the one who told me that it was time to leave the position He led me to and start evangelizing full time. The Holy Spirit is the one who told me to leave Virginia and move to Florida. The Holy Spirit is the one who told me to launch a church in Florida. So every major life step that I've taken, it's been the Holy Spirit.
I don't want to do anything at all because I think it's a good idea. That's the last thing I want to do. I just do something because I think it's a good idea. We depend on the Holy Spirit.
We depend on His leading and on His guidance. That's the whole reason He came. He came to lead us and guide us into all truth. Hallelujah.
That's key. That's key. Can I encourage you, if you've not made a habit of doing this already, that you consult the Holy Spirit in fasting and prayer before making any major life decisions at all. Don't just decide.
If you're watching me as a young person, don't just decide to go to college here. Don't just decide to do this with your life. You've heard me say this before and it holds true. We don't tell our children ever that they can be whatever they want to be when they grow up.
No, you have to be what God called you to be. You've got to be what God called you to be. You have to. And so it's vital.
It's vital to consult the Holy Spirit. And then when He does speak, don't forget prayers of dialogue, not a monologue. When He does speak, not only listen to His voice, quickly obey His voice. Now, I'm going to give you a little bonus here, but this is going, this is like one of the things that I've learned by doing it.
This is like an inside tip that I've learned by doing it and this will help you. It's not just about obeying the Holy Spirit when He speaks because there's people that obey and they'll take forever in doing it. What I'm telling you is when you get an instruction from the Holy Ghost, obey so quickly with speed, with urgency and speed, God blesses people that obey quickly, obey Him with urgency, obey Him with speed, obey with urgency, obey with speed. So vital that you do.
So vital. It's looking for people that will move quickly. Don't forget He wants things to be done on the earth. There's things God wants done.
And He's looking for people that will do them. Don't take 20 years for what you could have done in 20 weeks. Hear that. Don't let it take 20 years for what you could have done in 20 weeks.
Obae quickly. Urgency and speed attached to this point, number four, because it will change everything. Look at Joshua and Caleb when they spied out the promised land and the other 10 spies were talking about how they shouldn't do it and how bad it would be. What did Joshua and Caleb say?
Let us go up at once and take the land. Let's go right now. Let's go right now. Let's go very quickly.
And then number five, let me give this to you before we pray. Never make decisions, especially life decisions. Never make decisions when you're tired or emotional. Don't make decisions when you are tired or emotional.
I'm going to say it again because it's so important. Don't make decisions when you're tired or emotional. So where's the thing you could do? We're not called to have heavy hearts.
We're not called to be people who are constantly worried, overwhelmed. No. Cast your cares on him. Rejoice in the Lord always.
Make your request known to God with thanksgiving with prayer. And then the peace of God will rule your hearts and minds by Christ Jesus. Don't make decisions when you're tired or emotional. Don't feel like you're forced into making a decision.
Don't do it. Always regret the decisions you make that you were forced to make when you were over tired or when you were emotional. You'll always regret them because they're not good decisions. They're not good decisions.
Do you realize there's business people that refuse to make important decisions at the end of the day? Think about that. There are business people who refuse to make important decisions at the end of the day. Why?
Because they know their focus isn't there. They're tired. They're mental acuity is not there. They're literally they've you know, as I tell you often focus time is not eternal.
You have a limited amount of focused time. Once focus runs out, once willpower runs out. So we had all these sayings, you know, you've probably heard saying like this, they were but they were based on this fact, you know, they were based on this fact fact, which was this. You ever heard people say nothing good ever happens after dark, nothing good ever happens after dark.
What are they talking about? People start to make poor decisions by the time night comes. Nothing good happens after dark. What are they saying?
People have their inhibitions have dropped. They're tired. They make decisions they normally wouldn't have made. And so you have to make sure you're not making decisions when you're tired or when you're emotional.
Tiffany said like the snacks. That's right. It's easy to let your guard down and start snacking. I feel you.
And so if you'll just follow these are just this is a five step checklist. If you'll just follow this five step checklist, you'll find yourself avoiding. You know, all of the things that people felt like, man, I wish I'd have never done that. I wish I'd have never done that.
I would bet money. I would bet money, literally a lot of money that whatever decision they made fell into one of these five categories, I would bet you a lot of money that people who say, man, I wish I'd have never done that. They either took advice from some wicked person and did it or they took the advice from some unwise person and put it into play or they did something that contradicted God's word. I bet you that the Holy Spirit told them to do something.
They didn't do it. And now they wish they had or they started making decisions when they were tired or emotional and they look back, said, I wish I'd have never done that. I bet you money that people who regret decisions like that, it's because they fell into one of those five categories. I could listen, I've been in the ministry now for 23 years going on 24 years.
I've seen a lot of things. I've seen a lot of different people in a lot of different situations and I could bet you anything that falls into one of these five categories. Because this is what I've seen over the last two decades and a half of ministry of people who need counseling, they want advice. And then when you find out what they need advice for one of these five things govern their decision making process.
Don't make devastating decisions. I just gave you five ways to avoid it. If I were you, I would make it a small little, even if it's something you keep with you in a wallet, something you keep on your phone. And as you're thinking, brainstorming, getting stuff, go right down the list, go right down the list.
Say, Lord, am I missing anything? Am I missing anything about this? Especially when it comes to big decisions and I wouldn't just launch into things. There's people that just launch right into big things, never consulting the Holy Ghost.
Ever. Don't be that person. So it'll help you. And the reason I'm teaching this is because again, when you see that the majority of things that people are dealing with are not based upon some demonic force that's been attacking their family or their life, not to say demons don't attack, not to say the devil doesn't attack.
He does. But the majority of what people are facing is it's brought in to their life because of that. Poor decisions. Ignoring the leading of the Holy Spirit, ignoring God's work.
Now that's the stuff leaders should be made up.