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, Ted Shuttlesworth Jr.
Today I'm going to be talking about how we can eliminate bad decisions. You know, most people, they don't fail, they're not destroyed because the devil's attacking. The Bible says, between the Old Testament and the New Testament, in the Old Testament it says that people are destroyed because of a lack of knowledge. They're destroyed because of a lack of knowledge.
Not because there's a devil, and not because the devil's attacking, but because of a lack of knowledge. In the New Testament, Jesus said, you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free or make you free. So it's the truth of God's Word that gives us freedom in any area of life. I've taught that for a long time.
But most people, they come to a place of frustration or ruin because they end up making poor decisions. You know, I even watch Christians, you know, they're constantly talking about believing for breakthroughs and, you know, have people come, will you pray, pray with me for financial breakthrough or whatever it might be? And what you find out is it's not that God's not blessing them. It's not that there's not harvests coming back from their giving.
It's simply because they don't know how to run their life, that they're in ruin. They don't know how to run their life. They're making bad decisions, making bad choices. And so you see that phrase is a phrase from the book of Ecclesiastes.
You know, they have a bag with holes, putting their money in a bag with holes. That's not God's fault and it's not the devil's fault. God's blessing. He's doing what he said he would do.
But then people, they make poor choices. They make poor decisions that bring them into a place of either frustration or ultimately destruction. That's the goal of this broadcast today is to avoid a life of frustration, avoid destruction, and to literally walk into the blessings of God in a way that you can retain them. That's so important, man.
It's not just about having God do something for you and you getting a miracle or breakthrough or a healing or whatever it is. It's about keeping it, maintaining it, having and continuing to have what God said is yours. That's so vital. That's so important.
And so part of that and it's a large part is what we choose to do as God's working with us in our lives. And this is from baby Christians all the way on to mature Christians. Nobody is exempted from making bad choices or poor decisions. That's why there's so much to be said in the Bible about how we should choose to live our lives.
So take them and do me a favor, share this broadcast as you're jumping on. And I'm going to give you scripture and show you what the Bible says. And then here's the goal of today. Here's the goal of today's broadcast is that by the end of this broadcast, you should be able to see from scripture what you can do to minimize all of those things that other people are dealing with.
No more frustration wondering why things just aren't working out. I'm going to show you today. And I'm talking from 22 years of ministry personally and then being around people being ministered to for 42 years, literally since the beginning of my life. And so the goal today is to show you five solutions here from the Word of God that you can use as a framework, parameters to keep your decisions in line with God's words so that you don't end up in a place of frustration or ultimately destruction.
God's desire for you is that you flourish in every area of life. But wisdom always goes after the right way of doing things. That's why the Bible says in the Old Testament that wisdom seeks out correction, but fools hate correction. Wisdom seeks it out.
Fools hate it. Why? Now, sometimes you would look at that and think, okay, that means if I'm a wise person, then a wise person should seek out correction. Well, that's true.
And you say, well, you know, if I, but think about it from the flip side. What if it's the fact that they are wise because they seek out correction and they are fools because they hate correction. That's in my opinion, a better way of even looking at that. They are wise because they seek out correction.
They are fools because they hate correction. And so the reason for that is, and I've said this many times, correction is just direction. That's really all it is. So when you understand that wise people, they're looking for that because they don't want to take any longer to get to where they need to go and to get accomplished what they need to accomplish, then it should take.
Why should you look back at the Old Testament, Israelites walking through the desert towards the Promised Land? Did you know that it should only have taken them 11 days? 11 days to get from where they were indicated. But because of their poor choices, bad decisions, rebellion against God, it took them 40 years to do what it should have only taken 11 days to do.
I mean, think of that. It took them 40 years to do what it should have only taken 11 days to do. That's frustration. You know, I can only imagine what Caleb and Joshua felt like as they were dealing with all that because they're the ones who had faith and had to wait 40 years to get into the promise.
You shouldn't have to wait 40 years. And so that's key. These things I'm going to show you today, we're going to help you to form a framework, parameters that will keep your decisions from being bad decisions, poor decisions that bring frustration and destruction. And you can mark these down and create it literally as you're getting ready to do, especially, let me say this, especially important decisions.
Don't make important decisions without prayer, without seeking God. Don't make them flippantly. Your life is too important to make those big decisions flippantly. You are too vital in the kingdom.
You're too important to God to make important decisions flippantly. And so let me show you this from scripture. I want to give you five things that will help you immensely. Number one is this and it's found in Psalm 1, the very first Psalm.
I want you to look at that with me, the very first Psalm. Psalm 1 1. I like this. Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked or stand around with sinners or join in with mockers.
So good. Oh, the joys, the joys. There's a joy that comes on you that can come no other way other than refusing to follow the advice of the wicked or stand around with sinners or join in with mockers. Where they mocking God and the principles that God has asked us to follow.
But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. All right. So number one, the first thing that you can put as a framework to keep you from making poor decisions is don't follow the advice of the wicked. Put it in the comments.
Number one, don't follow the advice of the wicked. So many people take their advice. They got family members that aren't saved and they got loved ones. They got friends, coworkers, not even serving God.
But then they give them all this advice. I don't think you should be, you know, don't you think you're going to church a little much in your church is in revival, having a week of meetings. Well, weren't you just at church last night? I mean, I don't think you should go.
Why are you going to church again? You really believe in all that tithing and giving. I mean, you know, they mock the things of God. And then what happens, especially with people who are newly saved that don't yet have a circle of friends that are of like faith.
That's why making friends and connections with people that are of like faith is vital. Because the more people you surround yourself with that disagree and you call them your close friends, they will end up pulling you out of what God puts you in. That's why you have to separate the Bible calls for separation multiple times. You know, in the Old Testament, God told his people, come out from among them and be separated.
Be different. Be separate. You're not like those pagans that serve all those false gods. Do all those unholy things.
Come out from among them and be separated. Right? So, and that's right, Glenn, New Testament, the Bible says bad company corrupts good character. And what ends up happening is people refuse to separate themselves and they continue with those close connections.
And then what they're doing is they're actually listening to and following the advice of the wicked, following the advice of the wicked. And I'm telling you right now that this is one of the areas that I've watched it happen. I've watched it. I'm sure many of you have too.
You've seen people that they just refuse to make separation with those that don't serve God. And then all of a sudden, they're taking the advice of people who don't serve God. And the problem with that is you're going to get advice that is literally from the heart of someone who doesn't even care about pleasing God with their life. They don't have any parameters on their actions.
They just do whatever they want to do. That's why their life's a mess. That's why their life's a mess. You know, I'll say this too.
I've said this for years and God gave me this years ago and it helped me immensely. You've heard me say it on the broadcast. Don't take constructive criticism from people who've never constructed anything. Don't take constructive criticism from people who've never constructed anything.
So here's the key. If I'm looking at somebody and their own life is in shambles, why am I taking instruction from somebody whose life I don't want my life to look anything like theirs? But I'm going to listen to their instruction. I'm going to listen to their advice.
No, absolutely not. Absolutely not. And then what about people? You say, well, there's some people that are successful that are unbelievers.
That's true. They might be successful in one area of life. They might be financially successful. They're spiritually bankrupt.
Many of them are mentally and in their soul bankrupt. I've used these illustrations many times. You look at the Robin Williams. You look at the Anthony Bourdain's.
You look at all these people that have gone through life. People can't even hold a marriage together. Their kids don't speak to them. They want to die.
They don't want to live. But they're worth multi-millions of dollars. Multi-millions of dollars. And I'm telling you that just because somebody may look successful in the natural room, it doesn't mean that their life is a success.
Life is not just a success because you have something. That's not what makes life successful. Sometimes we take advice from people that aren't serving God and it's really advice that's very, very bad advice because it comes from the wicked. People follow it.
And all of a sudden they find themselves not even serving God anymore. Not even serving God. Not even doing what the Bible says. I heard what somebody else said.
I really respect that person. Why? Why do you respect them? Why do you respect them?
They don't even serve God. They're in enmity with God. And you've given them all your respect and honor. And you're doing what they're like a life coach that's worthy of having.
I refuse to follow the advice of the wicked. It's a huge mistake. It's a huge mistake. Huge mistake.
And it happens all the time. And sadly, one of the ways that it happens is through family. I know this is hard. They're unsaved family.
There's a way to show people you love them, care about them without giving them a place to speak into your life when they don't even serve God. What do I mean by follow? You know what the word follow means. Follow the advice.
It means that when someone gives you advice you do what they tell you to do, even though they're not a Christian. That's what I mean by follow. You've never heard the term follow this advice. Follow my advice.
Follow the advice of the wicked. The Bible says it's people that are doing carrying out what wicked people have advised them to do. Very much so, Bridget. Watch out.
Watch out who you're listening to. Watch out who you're listening to. So, Celia, if somebody gives you advice but it contradicts the word of God and it's somebody that doesn't even serve God, you've got to be very careful that you don't just have to be careful. You don't just follow it.
And I agree with Scott. Family's the toughest because people might be the first one saved in their family and the family doesn't understand it. And the family gets all bent out of shape. What do you mean you want to go to church every night this week?
Yeah, we're having a revival of the church. You're going to church every night. You just went on Sunday. Yeah, I'm going again.
I hope you're not going down there giving that church all your money and that's people get weird. They get weird because they've never served God. They don't understand. They don't understand.
They don't understand. They don't understand. They don't understand. They don't understand.
They don't understand. They don't understand. You know, people are like, man, I feel God calling me to become a minister and I'm going to go to Bible school and then the family comes in. Well, I don't think you should go to Bible school.
I think you should first go and get your degree from university. I think you need to go get your degree first so you've got something to fall back on. God didn't tell me to go to some university and get a secular degree. He told me to go preach the gospel.
Go preach the gospel. He told me to go to Bible school. I would have been making a mistake if I would have followed the advice of even my guidance counselor in high school who called me into her office and was so angry that I had only filled out a, why did I lose the word? And then I gave myself an application.
Thank you. It's a one college. I mean, she was livid. She called me in for a special degree.
You've only felt out an application for one college? Yes, just one. Just one. But you need to make sure there's going to be a school that accepts you and what are you going to do if she literally said to me?
What are you going to do if preaching doesn't work out? What are you going to do if everybody hates your preaching? You know, they don't like your preaching. You better have something to fall back on.
I don't. This is what I've got. This is what I've got. And so I knew what God called me to do, which had been confirmed many times.
But see, if I had taken the advice of somebody, even though it sounded wise, that's where people get into problems. It sounds so wise, sounds so smart. Yeah, but it's not God. It's not God.
And so you got number one, don't listen to counsel from the unsaved, even if they're family, love them, respect them. But you don't have to blindly do what people tell you to do just because they're in your family. That's nowhere in the Bible. No, no, in the Bible.
In fact, the opposite is true. God said that we're to leave those behind to follow Christ. That's a hard thing to understand. It doesn't mean we cut them off.
It doesn't mean we never speak to them again. But you've got to make sure I'm following Christ with my whole heart. Even if my parents don't want to follow, I'm following. Even if my children don't want to follow and they refuse it, I'm following.
Even if my wife doesn't want my husband, I'm following. And I've seen that testimony and God use it to turn whole families around. But you have to lay down the law in your own heart. I will not receive and listen to advice from the wicked.
Number two, second piece of framework for decision-making process. Number two, not just the wicked, but don't listen to the counsel of the unwise. People that aren't wise. So how do I know if they're wise?
Their track record speaks for them. Their track record speaks for them. Proverbs 20, let's go there. Proverbs 20 and the 18th verse.
And I'm going to actually read the 19th verse because I think it needs to be said as well. But Proverbs 2018, the Bible says, plans succeed through good counsel. So don't go to war without wise advice. Plan's succeed through good counsel.
Don't go to war without wise advice. You say that one more time. Plans succeed through good counsel. Wise counsel.
Don't go to war without wise advice. Don't do anything without wise advice. Not anything. And then verse 19, a gossip goes around telling secrets.
Don't hang out around with chatterers. So there's a piece of advice there that'll keep you in a place of protection. People that gossip all the time, people that are always chattering about other people, they're not wise. They're not wise.
And you can't trust them to even keep your secrets. So don't share anything with them. That's close to personal and dear to you. I'm going to go four chapters down to the 24th proverb.
And I'm going to read you the sixth verse as well. Same thing. Don't go to war without wise guidance. Victory depends on having many advisors.
Wise people that are speaking into your life. Wise people that are speaking into your life. Listen to this, Hebrews 612, then you'll not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God's promises because of their faith and endurance.
So we're supposed to follow the example of those who are inheriting God's promises by their faith and endurance. So there should be people we can look at that are doing what we're called to do. And we can model our lives after theirs. That's why Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ.
People that go, if people, if someone said that today, they say, Oh, he's so full of pride. Paul said it. Follow me as I follow Christ. At one point, Paul could not be with them in person.
So you know what he said? I put this in my book further faster. He said, my son Timothy is coming to you to teach you how to live like I live. That was Paul's instruction.
My son Timothy is coming to teach you how to live like I live. Why? Because there should be people that we can see how they live, what they do, and then emulate their life, emulate their actions. It's an example.
We can see their wisdom in action. And their wisdom is an example for us. I know if someone's wise, because wisdom has fruit attached to it, put that in the comments, wisdom has fruit attached, wisdom has fruit attached. So I know if somebody's wise, I don't have to go on.
I wonder if that guy's wise. I can see it by the fruit of his life, the work of his hands, what he's built, what follows him wisdom has fruit attached praise God, wisdom has fruit attached, so powerful. So when I'm making up my mind, do I want to receive counsel advice from someone? They're giving me what they think are life lessons and pearls.
I'm going to look at their life. If the fruit of their life does not show the wisdom that they claim to have, I'm not taking the advice. Wisdom produces something. Amen.
Wisdom produces something. So if I'm a surgeon, I'm studying to be a surgeon. Am I going to sit under and take advice from a plumber or an electrician? No.
Absolutely not. They have no wisdom that pertains to what I'm about to do. That's why I said earlier, don't take constructive criticism from people who have never constructed anything. You look and see, they don't even know anything about building what I'm building doing what I'm doing.
Why would I take instruction from them? You know, there's people in the, it's wild how Christians have been able to get hit with so much pride in this area that they don't, they don't recognize it. I was just talking to somebody who came to the church a couple of weeks ago and they were saying, yeah, I was in town for one of Grant Cardone's conferences here. These are the Palm Beach Convention Center and he said business people from all over came.
Why? They want to hear wisdom from Grant Cardone on how he's built business and what they should do in business. And he already said to me, he said, the cheapest ticket was thousands of dollars. The cheapest ticket to go, not VIP, not front row, not meet the, no, cheapest ticket was thousands of dollars to go here.
Grant Cardone talk about business. What does that mean? It means that there are people who are some of them unbelievers. This man was a believer, but some of them unbelievers that recognize the wisdom in giving advice from the wise.
They can see that Grant Cardone has done what they want to do that they've not yet done has the principles has the wisdom has the knowledge. So you know what they're willing to do? Pay thousands of dollars to go and sit and listen to him, teach those things because they recognize their need for advice from the wise. But then somehow the devil is able to trick Christians into such pride.
They're like, I don't need anybody. I don't need anybody. It's my life. I can do what I want.
You can't judge me. And that's people live like that. And the people wonder why are people failing? Why are marriages failing?
Why are families failing? Why are businesses failing? Because nobody can tell people anything. And then they listen to the council of unwise people.
Ladies, let me tell you something. If you've got some aunt somewhere or a mother that's like, you know, you better be careful with that husband of yours because I'm gonna tell you something. Men ain't no good. You can't trust men and blah blah blah.
Stop listening to that nonsense. Look at people that have not been able to keep a marriage together and then recognize probably their advice about men and marriage isn't worth anything. Men, if you've got some uncle, some guy, these women, let me tell you something about these women. Stop listening.
They've not been able to keep a relationship together their entire life. So stop listening to these people that are giving you advice about things you should do in your marriage and in your family and in your business and whatever. And they've not been able to make it succeed in their own life. Red flag.
Red flag. They don't know what they're talking about. If they did, the fruit would be there. If they did, the fruit would be there.
We would see the fruit of their wisdom at work in their life. Their marriages would be great. Their businesses would be great. Their families would be great.
Everything they're doing. That's a red flag. Some is always telling you stuff. Let me tell you something about it.
They don't know if they knew it would be different for them. It would be different. Amen. So don't listen to the counsel of the unwise.
How do I know if they're unwise? Their life is proof. They don't have fruit of wisdom. They don't have fruit of wisdom in their life at all.
Where's the peace? Where's the joy? Where's the blessing? Where's the growth?
Where's the family? That's you see what I mean? Unwise. Number three.
This is a big one. But somehow, Christian still seemed to do it. The third one is this, making decisions. Don't take actions that contradict God's word.
Don't take actions that contradict God's word. That's a bad move. It's a bad decision. Let me give you a very simple one.
When the Bible commands us in Hebrews 10, 25 to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. When you forsake the assembling, means you stop going to church. Well, we go to church and we give the chance. And if you're a Christian and you're not worshiping somewhere every Sunday, you have a problem.
I'm going to say that again, not just when it's good, not just when you don't have other things going on. Well, you know, Sunday's my day of rest. If you're a Christian and you don't worship somewhere on Sunday morning, you have a problem. You have a problem.
The Bible says, don't forsake. Don't stop assembling to worship and praise. Don't. Don't stop assembling to receive teaching and building up and correction.
Don't stop. And then it goes on further to say, but as you see it, the day of the Lord approaching, gather all the more. Gather all the more. So in fact, as we see that we're getting closer to the day of Christ's return, we should be actually gathering together more than less.
I can't be strong enough on that. And I said this when I was not a pastor and I'm not saying it because I am a pastor. I'm saying it because the Word of God. If you're a Christian and do not faithfully go to church, at least on the Lord's day, Sunday, you got a problem.
You're not as dedicated as you think you are. If you can't carve out, think about this. People can't carve out maybe a total of three hours out of their 168 hour week to go worship and receive the Word of God in the house of God. You've got, you're saying, I'm sold out to God.
I belong to God. He's, but you can't take three hours of your 168 hour week to go and worship God as the Bible commands you to do. Let's take a look at that. That is 1.7% of your time.
Let me say that again. And three hours, most churches don't have a three hour service. We do. We might have two and a half hours at miracle word church.
I think this lasts another way to about two and a half hours. Okay, most people don't have a full three hours, but let's include your drive time, you know, to and from church or whatever. If you gave God those three hours on Sunday morning, that's only 1.7% of your entire week. 1.7% of your time, the Bible doesn't say to assemble online granddokes farm.
It says, go to church. Go to church. How can somebody baptize you? How can somebody lay hands on you?
How can somebody serve you communion? How can somebody anoint you with oil? There's, there's something about doing what the Bible says and gathering together in person. Online church will never take the place of gathering together in wherever you might gather under a tent, in a church, on a field, whatever, however you worship, it will never take the place ever because there are ordinances of the church.
Like I just mentioned, baptism, laying on of hands, anointing with oil, Lord's supper, multiple things that you can't do online. Can't do it. You got to be together like the Bible says. And I question people that can't give God 1.7% of their week while they claim, I'm sold out to God.
I'll tell you he's my Lord, he's your Lord, but you can't give him 1.7% of your time. I wonder how your wife would feel or your husband would feel if you say, Oh, no, I'm so in love. I'm so in love with him. I'm so in love with her, but you couldn't give them 1.7% of your time.
They would know immediately that you don't love them. Like you say, you do. Think about that. I got a wife, I got a husband, but I can't give them three hours out of my 168 hour week.
Doesn't matter how much you say you love them. They will know you don't love them because people that truly love each other, you can't get them away from each other. Ted Milton said my drive time to church is three hours, three hours to go worship. Look at that.
Three hours to go worship. We got people that come to our church that drive over an hour to come to church over an hour. Come one way to church. We got people that, plenty of people that drive 40 minutes.
I drive 40 minutes one way to go to church. We got plenty of people that drive a long way to come be in the house of God. See that shows a love for God and obedience to his word. Don't take actions that contradict God's word and then wonder why things are falling apart.
It's a bad move to not do what the Bible says to do. Well, you know, brother, we don't tithe. Why? Are you smarter than God?
Well, brother, we don't always give, you know, we give our time. No, the Bible doesn't say that. Just give offerings. Well, brother, you know, I don't, there's times I, you know, I try to do my best to live holy, but there's no, the Bible says be holy as I am holy.
Well, brother, I don't really pray, you know, every day. Why? Why don't you? The Bible says, man, I'd always to pray and not to faint.
It says in verse, that's only in five, never cease praying. And I don't disagree, Don, that the quality of the church matters. No question. That's why I encourage people to get an on fire, New Testament church that preaches the full council of God.
I totally agree. There's churches I wouldn't attend. But let me tell you, I'd find one that I could attend. Look at Ted Nashley that just commented.
Ted Nashley, they drive three hours to go to church. You know what they did? They didn't sit home and say, well, there's no good church around me. There's not a good Holy Ghost quality church.
No, they found one and they drive to it. They found one and they drive to it. They do what the Bible says. And God blesses them for that choice.
I can tell you that because I know it about their life. God blesses them for how they live. Don't take actions that contradict God's holy word. It's not not intelligent to do that.
Number four, framework. Look at that. Ava said, I drove for an hour and 20 minutes for an entire year and then I moved closer to the church. And she said it was the best decision of my life.
Yes, yes it is. Obeying God's Word is a great decision, always, always. Yep. And they drive from what town are you at somewhere in what town in Alabama all the way to the river of Columbus, Georgia, Pastor Mike Childs, who we love, doing a great job.
It's a three hour drive. So three hour drive. But let me tell you, it's worth it. It's worth it.
A church alive is worth the drive. Liz said I'd fly every Sunday if I could. But right, put that in the comments if you've never heard it before. Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
They're Clemson fans. Big, big Clemson fans. Put it in the comments. A church alive is worth the drive.
If you see Ted Melton, he had right on the back of his car. He's got big go tigers, bumper sticker, Clemson. They love Clemson. A church alive is worth the drive.
He's he's seething. I think they might be Alabama fans. I don't know. I don't know.
Number four, I see roll tide came up in the, roll tide came up in the comments. Number four, here's a big one for many believers. Don't ignore the Holy Spirit's leading. Sometimes the Holy Spirit leads.
Now see, here's the thing. He's always willing to lead us. That's the Holy Spirit's job that he's sent to lead us and guide us into all truth, all truth. He'll show us things to come, the Bible says.
But what happens a lot of times is either the Holy Spirit speaks and people aren't listening or they hear him speak and they're afraid to step out by faith and do what he says. But let me tell you something, don't ignore the leading of the Holy Spirit because he'll lead you into the biggest blessing, increased favor that you could ever have. No man, no woman, no corporation or government could lead you there ever. What God can do for you.
No man can do for you. That's why Psalm 84 verse 10 is so powerful. Better is one day in your courts than a thousand days anywhere else. I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
For the Lord our God is a son and shield and he distows favor and honor and he will withhold no good thing from those that walk uprightly. That's why better is one day in his courts. And so when I follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, he'll never lead me into destruction. He's never going to lead me to a place where I diminish and just burden is exactly right.
They reason themselves out of the Holy Spirit's instruction. No question. People get that word from the Holy Ghost. And let me say I taught this to our church because our church is filled with very intelligent people.
Miracle word church is filled with very intelligent people. I'm talking very intelligent people that own their own businesses, people that hold high in positions, just very, our church is filled with very intelligent people. And that's why I taught our church this. I said, listen, when you're very intelligent, when you operate at a high level mentally, it is very easy to ignore the Holy Spirit's leading because of logic, wisdom in the natural or knowledge, logic, natural wisdom or knowledge.
Sometimes the Holy Ghost will tell you to do something that makes no sense to your natural mind. Didn't make sense to mine. Probably didn't make sense to Jessica and Jared when the Lord spoke to them. You know, when the Lord spoke to them to move and leave Ohio and move to Florida and they're trying to figure out what's going on and why are we feeling this way?
And even when the Holy Ghost spoke to them, you don't know this story, but they saw that you might know the story, but the Lord spoke to them to sow a seed into this ministry. And they said it's for land or property. And they're like, why are we even doing that? They're evangelists.
You know, they're evangelists. They're evangelists. And then when they did that and they were talking about moving to Florida, I looked at Carolyn, though we had not yet announced that we were starting the church. I was like, we probably need to call Jess and Jared because this is a big life decision, they're getting ready to make and let them know what's happening.
And we called them up on the phone and they were like, I knew it. We knew it. Something was up. We knew something was going in their spirit.
See, the Holy Ghost was leading him in their spirit. It doesn't make sense to the natural mind. They didn't know we were launching a church in South Florida. They didn't know any of that when they were making plans to leave Ohio and move to Florida.
They didn't know that when they sow to seed and that was what it was for. They had no idea. But see, the Holy Spirit knows, the Holy Spirit knows. So he leads you and he guides you to make decisions that will bring you into the thing he has for you.
As Glenn put here in the comments, the carnal mind is at enmity with God. Fighting against. That's why Paul taught the Galatians and Galatians 5 and said, the English is 517. The flesh is constantly at war with the spirit.
They're fighting each other. The flesh doesn't want you to do what you should do. I think the answer to that question is so obvious. Deborah puts in the comments, I've been giving my tithes to a church that speaks against Kenneth Copeland and speaks against Kenneth Agin.
What can I do? I think that your fellow friends on YouTube can put in the comments what you can do. Seems to be very easy to me. Very easy.
But the carnal mind is at enmity with God. Your friends are already giving you advice in the comments. The carnal mind is at war. Why?
Because the flesh is at war with the spirit. The flesh is at war with the spirit. The devil is one thing. Okay.
I want you to hear this very clearly today. The devil is one thing. Demons are one thing. And even if you took them out of the picture, watch this.
Because most people never get this. They like to blame everything on the devil. But watch, even if we removed the devil and demons from the picture, our flesh alone would still try to fight against the spirit every day, every day. Did you know that that's actually one of the purposes of the millennial reign of Christ?
Did you know that? Because during that thousand year millennial reign, Satan and all those demons will be bound and in a holding place for a thousand years, they'll be bound, not be able to operate. The lion will lay down with the lamb, right? The Bible tells us what will happen.
Everything will change. But the Bible says, God will judge sin and wickedness very quickly. So part of the millennial reign of Christ on the earth is to show you that even without the devil and even without demons, the flesh of a man, the carnal nature of man is evil and wicked by itself with no devil with no demons. The Bible doesn't say in that passage of Galatians 5 17 that the devil wars against the spirit or that the demons war against the spirit.
No, it says the flesh will war against the spirit. They're constantly opposed to one another. The carnal nature has Glenn pointed out a moment ago, is it war with the spiritual nature, which is why on a daily basis we have to submit ourselves to God and subdue our flesh as Paul said he did for his body so that we won't miss out on what God wants for our lives. Our flesh has desires, but our spirit also has desires.
Our flesh has desires, but our spirit also has desires. But the key is to subdue your flesh and to press into the spirit, right? Press into the spirit. And when you obey the voice of the Holy Spirit, he doesn't lead you to destruction.
He doesn't lead you to fail. He doesn't lead you into a place where you diminish. He leads you into blessing, increase, healing, favor, open doors. He leads you into a place where you go from grace to grace and from victory to victory.
That's how the Holy Spirit works. So when you hear it, now listen to me because I know the victory tribe is very much the same. As a miracle word church in that we have a lot of very intelligent people that are a part of the victory tribe, very, very intelligent. I've spoken to many of you.
I know many of you. Personally, very intelligent people don't allow your natural wisdom, your knowledge, don't allow logic to move you out of the place where you obey the voice of the Holy Spirit when he speaks. Don't allow logic, natural wisdom, all these things you may know in the flesh to keep you out of the leading of the Holy Spirit because there are times he'll tell us to do something and we don't understand it. We just don't.
I can't expect my finite mind that does not know the future to understand everything the Holy Spirit tells me to do that pertains to my future. I have no doubt now and of course we can see it. You know, when I left Virginia Beach in 2017, my uncle, Pastor Terry Shuttlesworth, who was my pastor at the time, he said, what are you moving down there for? He said, you're going to start a church or something, you're starting to work for the Lord down there?
I said, no, I got no plans to start a church and I didn't. I had no plans to ever be a pastor ever. I was evangelizing and still him and that was the thing I knew God had called me to do. But obviously now looking where God brought me, he was taking me step by step.
I didn't know where I was headed or what I was doing. I had no reason even to come to Florida, but I just did it because the Holy Spirit said to do it. That's the only reason we did it. But obviously you can see the steps now, can't you?
Didn't make sense to my mind? I thought to myself, Lord, the cost of living down there is way more than the cost of living in Virginia. So you're going to bring me down to Florida? I said, not only that, Lord, I'm an evangelist.
I travel. I drive to all my meetings. I'm in a great position here in Virginia to go up into New England, go down south, go out west, whatever, centrally located. You're going to move me all the way down to the tip of Florida to the very bottom.
Word's going to take me a full day just to drive out of the state. That's what I was thinking. Lord, you're moving me all the way down. I'm going to drive.
Of course God had plans to increase us. Of course, He had plans to bless us and take us higher. Oh, yeah, I watched it. I watched it happen.
As God continued to increase us, add staff, add spaces, add resources, add gear, add partners, enlarge the victory tribe to the place where I wasn't driving to our meetings anymore. I was flying out of South Florida to all of our meetings and then I was flying and flying my whole family to all of our meetings and then flying myself, my family and our staff to meetings where we were going. And then to the place now where until God bless us or gives us a plane of our own, that there's times where we take up the majority of the first class cabin by ourselves, our ministry team and my family, just because that's where my mind was. Lord, I'm going to have to keep driving from South Florida and God was thinking, no, I'm not going to have you driving.
I'm going to have you and your staff fill up first class and I'm going to take you to these places where I'm calling you to go. See, our natural minds don't think of it in the moment, but the Holy Ghost knows what He's doing. And then brought me right down here, put me in position right to where He was going to have me launch miracle word church. I couldn't be more happy right now.
I couldn't be more happy. I told I tell my church almost every single week, it's like living in a dream. I'm just being very honest with you right now. It's like living in a wonderful dream that I get to come every Sunday and be with my family, my church family at miracle word church and preach to some of the most wonderful people I've ever preached to in my life.
I love our church. I love our people. I love the spirit of God that's there. I love the freedom we have in our church.
I love the anointing that we see every week. I love the hunger of our people. I love it. I love every family that God has added to our church.
I love them. I pray for them. This is wonderful. I mean, it is wonderful.
I'm living in a dream. Can I tell you something? The reason I'm living in a dream today is because I didn't ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit. I didn't ignore it.
I didn't ignore Him. One other said, oh, you better be careful. I didn't listen to the advice of unwise people. I didn't listen to the advice of the wicked.
I didn't take actions that contradicted God's word. And then let me give you one final one here before we pray today. This will help you a lot. And it's probably one of the biggest ones that you'll face.
Never. This is number five. Again, I'll give you one through four. Number one, don't listen to the advice of the wicked or the unsaved.
Number two, don't listen to the counsel of the unwise people that don't have any fruit of wisdom. Number three, don't take actions that contradict God's word. If God's word tells you to do one thing, do that thing and don't contradict it with your life. Number four, don't ignore the Holy Spirit's leading.
When He tells you something inside, follow it as quickly as you can. We're talking about how we can eliminate bad decisions from our lives, making sure that we eliminate regret. I don't regret it. I don't regret anything.
I don't regret moving to Florida. I don't have to. It's what the Lord wanted me to do. I'll never regret starting Miracle Word Church.
The Lord told us to do it. See, you don't have to regret things if you make the right moves. Number five, this is big. Please write this in your notes, write it in the comments.
Never make decisions when you are tired or emotional. Never make decisions when you are tired or emotional. It's a big deal. It's a big deal because what ends up happening is because you're worn out.
You'll make a decision in your flesh and you make a decision based on how you feel right then. I don't want to do that. Oh, so much. It feels like so much.
Or you're emotional. You're overly emotional about something. People get super emotional and then they make wrong moves just because they're in their emotions. People, they make bad decisions because they're in the middle of emotions.
And I understand people go through things, but in the midst of those things, don't make important decisions. Get through it first, then make decisions. Get through it first, then make decisions. Don't allow yourself.
Sometimes I share this thing I read because I found it very interesting, especially when it pertains to this. I was reading something about the woods in Maine. People go hiking. They go camping.
Then you go people that come from out of town that want to go hiking or whatever and camping and they decide to go off the trails and start going out into the, you know, and people don't know Maine. The forest is very dense. And then also, there's huge portions of Maine that are just nothing but woods. When I used to drive from Central Maine up to Northern Maine to go to camp from my uncle and aunt's house all the way up to my grandmother lives and my grandmother lived, it's so dense.
And there's, did you know there's whole areas on that road going north? Those towns don't even have names. They just have numbers. It's like C-17B.
It's like, where are we at right now? C-17B? That's the name of the town because there's no town. It's just woods.
It's just portions of land. Huge, huge portions of land that's just woods. So people go down, they want to go out into the woods and it's going to be so exciting. I'm going to go out and just go off grid and go out and then they get lost.
They don't know what they're doing. They get lost in the summer in the woods in Maine. And I was reading this thing that says that there are rangers that will find people that are totally disoriented because what they do is they go off grid, they're hiking. And then all of a sudden they start looking around and everything starts looking the same and they realize, I'm lost.
I don't know how to get back. I don't know what I'm doing. And then they panic. Emotions go high.
They're fully panicked. And so because they panic, what I read said, they'll start running. They take off running to try to find a place they recognize, to find a trail, to find a way out of the woods, to find a place. And because they're running in the woods or so dense, now their clothes are getting torn, all kinds of stuff.
And there's so many mosquitoes in Maine eating people up. And these rangers say, well, find people that are just like in the woods sitting there totally dazed, totally out of it. They've been sitting around running. Their clothes are torn.
Mosquitoes eating them up and they're out there. They don't even know where they're at. What's the problem? They decided to make decisions in the midst of high emotions.
Panic, afraid. So I gotta run. I gotta go. No.
In fact, if you read any survival handbooks, I have about three or four of the top survival handbooks you can buy. One of the things they tell you is this, if you're off grid, let's say you're out in Wyoming, somewhere out out west, where I'm telling you it's like very barren. If you find yourself, they say, in a place where you are lost and you recognize the fact that you're lost and you feel that panic, you feel that panic hit you. They tell you the first thing you should do is sit down, take your pack off and begin to take inventory of what you have on you.
Take inventory. Do you have a cutting tool? Do you have a way to make fire? Do you have a way to make shelter?
Do you have any rations or food that you've brought with you? Do you have enough water? You know, go through your pack, go through and take inventory. Comms your mind down.