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When an anointing is released, that is a special moment. For many of you, you have mastered getting through. You perfected putting on that face. You perfected what to say to not say nothing. You've done such a good job at it that even the people who are close to you still don't know what's really going on.
You share your feelings, but you don't share your heart. You knew from the bottom of your heart that if you actually shared your heart, people couldn't handle it. It's hard for you to get free because to get free is going to offend immature people who are more concerned about what you said and not why you're saying it.
The devil binds and yokes people. If he can't destroy you, he binds you. He throws three things at you:
He knows now that you won't pray on your own. So he puts enough pressure on you that it outlasts you getting back to church on Sunday. The weight and pressure become relentless: "You'll never be the daddy I thought you was going to be. Your parents will never really say they proud of you."
And what you do now is you find a way to live in it. You find a way to live broken, and because you find a way to live in it, you think you're cool because you found a way to survive.
It's like something being broken in your car. My door handle was broke. So I already knew that if I wanted to open my door, I had to pull it and lift up. Boom. Door open. Now, anybody who walked up to my door who didn't know the code, I'd say, "No, no, just lift it up." Instead of getting it fixed, I learned how to live with something broken.
One of the greatest struggles we face, especially as strong men and strong women, is that we don't know how to say help. We learn how to live broken. But somebody in this room right now needs to understand: you don't have to live like that anymore.
The word I heard the Lord release—and for those who don't know me, I rarely say I heard God—but I heard God say there's a release of anointing happening. He showed me two examples.
First, he showed me an assembly line where people were getting manufactured oil. Then he showed me a sprinkler system, and everything under the covering was getting authentic oil. This is critical. Then when we left out of the building, there were doors. As we approached those doors, the manufactured oil couldn't open them. But those who had the authentic oil—the door began to open.
I'm going to be very clear: The Lord is saying that in this season, heaven is open. And because heaven is open, this is bigger than your new job.
Baby girl, you got to fight for your sanity. You got to, because if you don't in this season of your life, the weight of your own disappointment is going to crush you. Jesus says, "Michael, heaven is open now."
So what do I do with that? I submit to his will. I submit to his will.
The season that you call unlucky, that's dead. We don't operate in luck. That's superstition. We walk in favor. We walk in blessings. We walk in the anointing and the call of God.
What I'm trying to get my church to understand in this season is that God has favored this called out body of believers for such a time as this. For such a time as this.
Why is that important? Because for some of you, God says the season of just enough ain't going to get it. God is calling each and every one of you to a deeper level in him. Anxiety, depression, this unhealed hurt of broken promises—I say it's lifting.
In your heart, you never want to be as whole as you want to be right now. Lately, you've been saying, "No, I just want to be better. I want to be stronger." Well, baby girl, it's a price that comes with that.
Here's a question for you: What color is grass? Green. In the beginning stages, if you walk by a yard, you might see yard men cutting weeds that looked like grass. It's because anything that is not managed or stewarded grows wild.
That's how you're growing strong and crazy. That's grass and weeds. That's why you can pray and cuss. That's why a part of you can hear from God and the other part feels like God don't hear from you.
In this season, I release an anointing that is strengthening you for what God is calling you to do. It's bigger than peer pressure. It's bigger than the weight and the shame that life tries to throw at you.
I never wanted to be a spooky church. And many of you know what I'm talking about—that church where people were getting delivered and people were speaking in tongues. So I've done my best to create a ministry where you'd say, "I like his church." But what I've discovered is that if the church don't have power, the church should have never been opened.
There's a weight that God is lifting today.
In the Bible, Jesus shows up. When he gets off the boat, a demonpossessed man runs up to him and says, "What business do you have being here?" Then he tells Jesus, "I am legion. We are many."
Think about this: one man demonpossessed looks at Jesus and says, "I am legion." Legion means army. "We are many." It was one body possessing multiple spirits. And you'll be surprised who's in this room right now smiling as a "we." You'll be surprised who's in this room right now with so much going on on the inside of them that it's hard for them to function at a right level.
It's difficult, baby girl, because when you have to be strong for everybody, it does not give you permission to be strong for yourself. When you do so much being there for other people, the truth of the matter is you feel like, "Pastor Mike, I don't be having nothing left for me."
If people knew all of the stuff you were carrying, they would go a whole lot easier on you. All of these spirits were in one person and he was functioning—crazy, but functioning. The Bible says he would cut himself at night. He would scream. People who lived around the tombs couldn't sleep because all night he would be up screaming. And some of you ain't screaming physically, but your spirit is screaming spiritually.
Jesus tells him he's living amongst the tombs. One of the biggest deterrents to you being free from all the stuff that the devil has in your life is where you live. And I'm not talking about physically. I'm talking about mentally and spiritually.
Let me free you church. He's not just living in a graveyard. When I studied at Yale Divinity, I discovered that tombs were ghettos. They would cut holes in the mountain right next to the graveyard. If you were poor, they would let you live in the tombs. This lets me know that poverty is a type of death. Struggle is a type of death.
This is why for every man in the room, when your money ain't right, you don't feel alive. That's why for every person in this room, when you can't do the things that God's laying on your heart, you feel broken.
Jesus does something for that man—he cast the spirit out of him. Now, here's what's crazy: he literally calls the spirit out of the man, but then he places it in swine. There's a field of pigs over here.
All of those spirits were in one man. But he had to place all of those spirits in multiple pigs. The same spirits that were existing in this one man jump into pigs. And the scripture says the spirit was so crazy, the pigs jumped off the edge of the cliff.
The Bible doesn't tell me how long he had been cutting himself. It just says he cut himself. If I'm cutting, cutting, cutting—which means to continually cut—that means if I'm cutting myself, I'm not stopping. The spirit tormented him long enough not to let him kill himself, because the spirit knew if I kill the vessel, I won't have a place to dwell.
This is why you got to be careful because some of the people you call friend are not necessarily friends. They allow you to stay in what you're in long enough to where it don't kill you, but you necessarily don't get better.
According to 2 Corinthians 10:5, we pray God for the pulling down of all strongholds. We come against every distraction that life and the enemy is trying to throw at you right now.
You know who I'm talking to in this room right now. Because the more you try to remain focused, the more distracted you become. But devil, you are a liar. I speak by faith that the distractions that are trying to hold you hostage are coming to an end. You're going to delete numbers out your phone today because they are nothing but distractions. You're going to not answer calls today because they are nothing but distractions.
You're about to leave here stronger. You're going to leave here wiser. You're going to leave here better.
I prayed for healing. Now, I'm not going to shout from what I heard the Lord tell me—he's open in heaven. And I need you to hear that.
See, this is why I had to repent to God and I repent to my church. I repent from the depths of my soul. There was a certain season where sometimes you tend to shift what you feel in your gut because of your love for people. Because so many churches play games, I never want to be viewed as a church that plays games. So there would be moments where I'd be feeling God say certain things and I'd say, "No, we're going to stay cool. We're going to have technology. We're going to be what they call seeker friendly—a church where you can come and you don't ever feel a conviction. It's just good inspirational teaching."
And God says, "No, quotes ain't going to free people. Tweets ain't going to shift people. You need the exusia of the dunamis—the dynamite power of God."
I was worried because I said, "I got so many young people. Young people don't want all that." And God told me, "You'll be surprised. It's some young people who ain't coming to your church because you cool. They coming because they're saying, 'Boy, I need the power of God.'" I don't know who got a heavenly language, but I release your language right now.
I want to give this to you. Galatians 6:9: "Let's not get weary and well-doing. In due season, we will reap if we faint not." Don't get tired of doing good.
I'm going to prophesy to five people: You're getting ready to walk into your due season. You sat next to the wrong person. Just reach over and grab another neighbor and shout, "It's due season!"
If you don't get weary in well-doing, you will reap. You will reap. In due season, you shall reap. In favor, it's your season. Say, "It's my season. It's my season."
So don't grow weary and well-doing. Watch this: For in due season. Now, bro, I'm going to free you. This ain't a message. This is a release from God. I was up this morning and I had to wear a jacket. When we leave out of church, you probably going to have to take your jacket off. This morning it was 40 degrees. By lunch, it's 74. I'm going to free you.
We're currently in winter, but it feels like spring. This is because at the end of one season, you can feel the impact of the next season approaching. You might not know whether to wear a jacket or a t-shirt because you're caught in that transition.
Even though it's officially winter, many of you aren't getting everything you want, yet you feel the impact of your next season coming. It's my season. It's my season. You can sense that everything attached to you is about to shift.
Because you're in this season of transition, you're getting irritated with people now. Your employer irritates you. Friends irritate you. But that's because they're looking at you in this current season, while your spirit knows your new season is coming. Part of you feels like the price just went up, and you're thinking, "No, you're not going to keep talking to me the way you used to. I'm getting ready to walk into my new season."
I dare you to start walking right where you are. Walk it out like you're already walking in your new season. Walk it out.
Due season means everything that was due to you is about to show up. This isn't just positive thinking—it's a biblical principle. Don't get weary in well-doing, because in due season, you shall reap.
There's enough in heaven to bless everybody around you. If God is going to bless you, He's going to bless the people connected to you. It's not about scarcity; it's about abundance flowing through His people.
Whenever there's a transfer of anointing happening, there's also a lot of warfare happening. Think of it like this: if you all go out to eat and put it on one check, and one person says, "I got the bill," everybody enjoys the meal, but one person carries the responsibility of paying the debt. When spiritual warfare happens, sometimes people catch friendly fire just by being close to the target.
If a coach gets fired, often his assistants leave too, because sometimes when you attack the right person, everybody suffers. This is why there's a weight in this moment—a supernatural download is happening. There's so much more God is releasing that I wish I had the space to touch and agree with every person in this room.
I heard the Lord say, "Release an anointing today" and "Heaven is open." Heaven is open is a particular season and dispensation point in time where from heaven God rains bountiful blessings, manifestations, miracles, signs and wonders.
Heaven is open when nobody saw you coming, yet when it's all said and done, you're standing there with your hand raised. It's checks in the mail, raising bonuses, sales and commissions. You're done dating, not looking for love, and then everything you prayed for finds you. That's an open heaven.
Here's my problem with church: we become a church that shouts on foolishness, but then sits on substance. We preach an incomplete gospel. The Scripture says, "At midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and all the doors opened." But the complete Scripture says God caused an earthquake—because praise on earth without a move from heaven does not open doors.
When I say we're under an open heaven, you have two hands: your submission and obedience to God colliding with the favor and timing of God. And it's about to happen now.
God just likes me. That's the only way I can say it. I don't deserve it. I'm not the best. On the wrong day, I'll cuss you out. I still have a lot of growing up to do in certain areas. But I'm giving God everything I got, and for some reason, He loved me.
Everything I've done in my life, He's always done it suddenly. I go pray for something, go home, go to bed, wake up, and suddenly—it just happens. It's a weird anointing because the things I attach to start winning. At 39 years old, I now realize why I never really had that many friends. I still have practically the same friends from when I was bullied in school.
I want to release this suddenly anointing because we're standing under an open heaven in this season. There's a suddenly anointing on my life, and I want to release this anointing over you.
Let me free you real quickly about the anointing. If this is a faucet and water goes through it, there is no hot or cold on the anointing. What does that mean? If you want cold water, you press cold. If you want hot water, you do hot. But when it comes to the anointing, it just flows. There is no regulator on it.
You can't cuss me out but then turn the anointing off. This is why you have to be careful. When you get a suddenly anointing, even the stuff you speak in anger manifests. This is why for those who are close to me, I apologize so fast. The rate of my repentance has to move faster than the rate of my oil activating.
When I get mad and say stuff like, "I'm just tired of you and I wish you would go away," I have to come right back and repent because there is no regulator on the anointing. Don't ask for suddenly but not be mature enough to handle it.
For some reason, God liked me. I don't take it for granted. I don't try to walk around like I'm the man. I never wanted money. Never cared about it. Never cared about fame. Don't care about status. I don't have 25 armor bearers walking behind me. Just a little guy from Ensley who went to minor high school, and at every step of my life, when I asked heaven for something, they responded.
You've been faithful. You've been as strong as you knew to be. These are things we have to start saying in church. It ain't just about living right. Sometimes you live the best you knew you could be. You did the best you knew to do at the time you were doing it.
I want to release a suddenly anointing over your life.
Let me be very clear about what open heaven does not mean. It does not mean you got a spiritual discount on anything you decide you want. If you don't get the job, that doesn't mean something was wrong with you. That means something was wrong with it.
In a season where heaven is open, God covers you. One of my members played for the Philadelphia Eagles, number 11. Before the season started, I asked him to send me his goals so I could pray over them. He sent me a voice note and said, "PJ, this year I'm not setting goals. I'm just praying God's will be done. And I just want to have fun."
That year, he had no real injuries. He went to the Super Bowl. He caught a touchdown in the Super Bowl. He didn't win the Super Bowl, but it was one of the most blessed years of his life. That's what open heaven looks like.
I have a couple who came to the first service at Boutwell. They said, "Pastor Mike, we just want to get through January without fussing." Now they inbox me and say, "We're good, pastor. If we don't hit a rhythm suddenly..." That's open heaven.
If in your heart you know:
For every hand lifted, I release a suddenly anointing. The anointing on this house would rest on your life. The anointing is attached to the house. God, the house serves as the conduit.
In this moment, I stretch my hands to this room and online, and I release a suddenly anointing. Somebody's thinking suddenly means I'm gonna get the house this week. No. I release a suddenly anointing for forgiveness—that relationship with your parents, that father-son, mother-daughter, brother-sister dynamic.
I release a suddenly anointing that the anger is being lifted in this moment. Forgiveness will come if the anger can be lifted. You'll never be the woman you want to be. Never be the man you want to be if anger has your heart.
This is what David meant when he said, "Create in me a clean heart and renew a steadfast spirit within me." In this moment, God, suddenly remove the guilt. Suddenly remove the shame, the heartbreak, so I can walk in the things that you desire me to have.
Father, I thank you that heaven is open. In this moment, I want you to pray right where you are. This prayer is about you. I can't pray it for you. I don't want it emotional. I don't want it driven by music. You know what you need God to do in your life—online and in this room. In this moment, heaven is open.
To that brother who's been feeling like death was going to happen—I touch and agree with you. Lately, you've been feeling like death had your name on it. Something bad was about to happen. I come against that, my brother. I speak life over you. You're not by yourself—it's probably eight or nine of you. I speak life.
You feel like a bullet got your name on it. Literally, you're just not sleeping and feel like every time you turn around, something might happen. But God got you. God got you.
I cancel the assignment of the enemy. Devil, you can't have him. No street, no beef, no suicide, no hurt, no cancer, no nothing. This is what the devil doesn't want right here.
This is what church is right here. Churches, we are standing under an open heaven.
We cancel that assignment. We speak life over you. No street, no beef, no suicide, no hurt, no cancer, no nothing. This is what the devil doesn't want right here.
I keep hearing the name Sandra. I don't know if you're in the room or online, but Sandra, I speak faith over you right now. I keep seeing four numbers like 3210. I don't know if that's the end of a sales number, phone number, or social security number. I hear the Lord saying touch and agree with you.
We are standing under an open heaven. That's the word of the Lord. And there's a responsibility that comes with that. This isn't so we can stunt. This isn't so we can show out. God is looking for a people he can bless so his light can shine through them.
I feel a shift. It's my due season. You ought to declare it's your due season. Not only is it your due season because it's your season, but your family is going to be blessed. Your circle is going to be blessed. You ought to shout, "It's my due season."
When God gives you a plan, he often doesn't tell you what you will have to fight through to see that plan manifest. In 2020, I announced we were bringing Rock City to the city of Hoover. Then COVID-19 hit. I had no idea that I would be preaching to an empty sanctuary and wouldn't see my church for two years.
So the question became: God, was that the plan? And somebody listening right now, you've been faithful and sticking to the plan God gave you. God told you to stay with them when all your circle is saying leave them. God told you don't quit the job, even though everybody is saying you can do better. But what God told you does not look like your reality.
I'm here to tell you: stick to the plan. I know it may be frustrating, but you have to stick to the plan. There may be some ups, there may be some downs, but I have the courage to remain committed.
In the midst of those deviations, we've seen thousands of people saved. In the midst of those deviations, we've seen people from across the world find Rock City. Had the pandemic never happened, you never would have found Rock City.
We've always had to believe God. We've always had to fight, scratch, and claw for everything we have. But because we've been faithful—because you watched for two years online and stayed faithful, because everybody sat in overflow and stood in lines without parking spots because you've been faithful—God said, "Mike, I may have took a detour, but I'm still faithful."
I'm pleased to announce that God's been faithful. We got a new church. God has blessed us because we stuck to the plan and because we had the courage to commit.
This is proof: if you stay committed, God will bless you—good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over. You will be able to testify again that he did the impossible.
There's an anointing being released in this church. This and more is about to start manifesting in your personal life because you are living under an open heaven.
Do not get weary in well-doing, for in due season you shall reap, if you faint not. (Galatians 6:9)
I want to be transparent with you about how I live my life. I can claim Galatians 6:9 because I've lived Galatians 6:7:
Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. (Galatians 6:7)
I see a powerful principle: the principle of sowing and reaping. And it's so much bigger than money. I sow support, therefore I believe I can reap support. I sow love, therefore I believe I reap love.
Wherever you place a seed, it grows. That's so important. And here's what I need you to understand: I'm in charge of my harvest. I'm in charge of my future success or the lack thereof.
We put all the pressure on God to come through when there's a responsibility on you. You can't get on your knees and pray for something as if God doesn't know you didn't do your part in the beginning.
One of the greatest mistakes we've made in the church is confusing harvest with overflow. They are not the same thing. I get a harvest because I planted seed. Overflow means something came that I didn't have nothing to do with, or it means my seed did way more than it was supposed to.
Because I'm in charge of my harvest, I now have powerful principles. In your relationship, if you want her to hear you, hear her. When I sow an apology, sometimes I reap understanding. I sow it as a principle—the principle of sowing and reaping.
Now, in Galatians 6, Paul is talking strictly about finances. But because it's a principle, I can apply it everywhere. I am a leader because I sow into people. Therefore, I can expect something from that person.
But there's more. Not only do I see a powerful principle, I see a productive place. Because in order for me to sow, there has to be a place that's proven to be productive. And the reason I love this church so much is that this church is productive.
By March 1st, this church has done enough for 25 years. We went to the Boutwell and a couple hundred people got saved. We've helped Ramsay's football team and other schools. Over 1,000 people have given their life to Christ already by March 1st. We released music that's changing the world. A daytime talk show host sat there and started talking about how she loved talking to God. We are changing lives. Those same babies that they laughed at 10 years ago are now city council members and representatives changing the world all over this place.
This is a productive place.
Here's why I'm excited: seed breeds expectation. It breeds expectation. So now, brother, I expect some things from heaven. You want to know why your prayer life is so hard? Because you don't know if you can expect it or not. You're hoping for it. You're not expecting it.
In 2023, I expect doors to open for me because I've opened doors for folk. I expect blessings to come and overtake me. I expect my business to prosper. I expect overflow to hit my life.
Here's a word God gave me 11 years ago. Every day of my life, I say this:
Good things are coming my way. Not by coincidence, not by luck, not by happenstance. I planned it. I prepared for it. I expect it according to Galatians 6:7. What I plant will come back. I receive that in Jesus' name.
Whenever you grab hold to a kingdom principle—not a church slogan, but a kingdom principle—it causes a radical shift of momentum. Everything that was going one way suddenly shifts the moment you get the principle.
You've got your mind, your body, your soul. When you've been living so wild, your mind is saying one thing but your body still wants to do what it's always done. There's a fight between what your mind tells your body to do and what your flesh likes to do.
But when you get a kingdom principle: Flesh says get all you can and can all you get. God says give what you have so I can give you what I got.
There's a wrestle. And what God is doing in this season of our life is a kingdom principle that requires a radical shift.
When new people join this church, they say, "I love your church. I just got one problem. I don't know how to give because you don't never do it." You see, this church doesn't have just an offering period. For me, it's very simple: you can give on your way out, tithe when you get it, but your giving is between you and God.
I can't get you to do what God can't get you to do. I never want my voice to become so stale that when I actually do hear God, I've already been doing too much. That's why for years, you come to this church and you never hear anybody say, "Give." If you're giving, God bless you. We'll see you later.
Because for me, if it's his will, it's his bill. And for me personally, I've never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging for bread.
Today, I want to activate a kingdom principle. This has nothing to do with me—that's done. As we speak, they're over there fixing stuff. Those lights in there—all the lights were blown. But that's proof of God's faithfulness.
And in response to God's faithfulness, he waits to see what your reaction will be. For me, I offer God more than a praise.
Today I want to activate a kingdom principle. What God is doing in this season is significant—I clearly heard the Lord say, "Heaven is open." This requires a response from us. And that's the problem with the new school church: we have way more technology than our grandmothers had, yet none of their power, because our grandmothers had principles.
We're about to sow, and I need you to understand something crucial: we're not sowing for something arbitrary. We're sowing biblically because there's a moment where God has provided. When we sow into that moment, we reap that moment into our lives. This is called the principle of sowing and reaping—or, as some call it, the law of reciprocity. This law suggests that what you put out comes back.
Father God, I stretch my hands toward your faith right now. I speak by faith over this room and online: we will not miss this moment. We will not miss the opportunity to be a part of a God thing.
Today is one of those supernatural days that radically shifts careers, radically shifts relationships, radically shifts mindsets. This is an open heaven day—a day where what we do in this moment will echo into our future. God, I ask not just for saving faith, but for that supernatural amount of faith given by the Holy Spirit to accomplish a God-given assignment.
I'm calling on that faith that gave us boldness to walk into an empty room and declare it would be filled. That faith that enabled us to sign contracts on buildings with no people—then people began to show up. That faith that walked into hospitals, touched the sick, and decreed they would live and see the goodness of God. To this day, they're still living and breathing.
That faith had us speak over brothers and sisters in jail, declaring they would not be there for the rest of their lives. Right now, they are raising their sons and daughters. That faith, in the midst of a pandemic when all hell was breaking loose and we were fearful and afraid, stood on Christ, our solid rock.
God, we call on that faith right now to be who you have called us to be.
Now I need every person to begin to pray about what you're giving. Let me be direct with you: the Holy Spirit gave me a number—500. That is a hard number. Why? Because it's not a sacrifice if it does not hurt. You cannot determine what you're giving to God as a sacrifice if it comes from a place of comfort.
This is why, biblically, when the woman gave two mites, Jesus looked at the people and said, "She did more than everybody." Why, Pastor Mike? Because God sees what's given; man sees what's given. But God sees what's left. God said, "No, your 300 pales in comparison to her two pennies." Why? Because she gave trusting God.
In the Old Testament, when people gave, they would lay the gift on the altar. Now, as young and as cool as I am, I'm very biblical—people don't know that about me. I still believe in getting on my knees to pray. I have to make altars. There are certain Old Testament principles I just see the sudden response from heaven in.
When they would build an altar, fire would come down. When they would give, they would bring that gift to the altar as they worshiped, and the priests would wave it before God. It was a sacrificial firstfruit offering. And what would happen? God would bless their entire crop for that year. That's a biblical principle.
Right now, I'm speaking life and faith over every seed that's going to be given. Even if you're using your phone, I want you to come tap the altar. There's a biblical blessing that's about to be released in this church and online. Come begin to give right now.
I speak by faith an open heaven over each and every one of us. God is getting ready to do exceeding and abundant above all you can ever ask, think, dream, or imagine.
