This is what Paul meant when he cried out in Romans 7: "Who will deliver me from this body of death?" He answered his own question: "I thank my God through my Lord Jesus Christ. There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death."

God's Unchangeable Word

In Psalm 89:34-35, God declares:

"My Covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips. Once I have sworn by my Holiness that I will not lie unto David."

When God speaks something into your situation, He has entered into a covenant with you. God has sworn by Himself that He will not alter what He has promised.

In James 1:17, we read:

"Every good and perfect gift comes from above, comes from the Father of Light, to whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."

This means once God gives it to you in the form of light, He will not alter what has come out of His mouth. Psalm 119:130 tells us: "The entrance of God's word giveth light."

God comes and gives you His word for your particular situation. He says, "You will not see my shadow turning away from anything I've said. There is no variableness. I will not alter what has gone out of my lips. I have said it. You can rely on this. This is what is going to happen."

But God needs our cooperation.

The Power of What You Plant in Your Heart

Jesus taught about a profound principle. When speaking about the kingdom of God, He said:

"The kingdom of God is as if a man casts seed into the ground, and the seed will spring forth and grow. He sleeps night and day, he knows not how, for the Earth by itself will bring forth fruit."

There is a principle that works for both good and evil. Your heart is the production center in your life. Whatever seeds are planted into your heart will produce what is planted inside.

The Bible says: "Guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it come the issues of life." This is critical because most people live their entire lives without understanding this principle. Seeds are constantly being planted into their hearts, but they are not consciously planting them.

"Death and life are in the power of the tongue."

You speak things into your life every day. When someone says things to you, they are planting seeds. When you speak about yourself, you are planting seeds. If tares are growing in the same field where the word of God is planted, it's because the enemy has planted them while you slept. The same place where you plant the word of God is the same place where weeds can grow.

It's not only the word of God that can grow in your heart. Tares can grow there. Weeds can grow there. Anything that is planted there can grow. This is why you must guard your heart. If you're not guarding it, the enemy is making use of it to create experiences in your life by planting seeds that you don't know about.

"A good man out of the good treasure of his heart will bring forth good, but an evil man out of the evil treasure has stored in his heart will bring forth evil."

It's the same principle. You either put good or you put evil into your heart.

Conscious vs. Unconscious Planting

There are different categories of people in the world:

First, those who don't know about the principle. Most people in the world don't understand how the heart works. They are just part of the harvest of other people. They have seeds being planted into them that they don't control, and they end up producing what others have planted.

Second, those who understand and are conscious about what they say. These people describe themselves as "the Masters of the Universe" because they believe they have mastery over things. They consciously plant seeds into their hearts through their words and declarations. From time to time, God sends wind to show them that there are limits to what they're practicing.

Third, very few Christians who get Revelation from God and plant those seeds into their hearts. These are the people who receive with meekness the engrafted word—the implanted word that God wants to plant into their hearts.

God ministers seed to the sower. You are the sower. God gives you seeds by Revelation—things that no man's eye has seen, no ear has heard, things that Kings and Prophets desired to see but couldn't. God, by His Spirit, reveals these things to you so you can speak them. When you start speaking these profound, Spirit-given words, they enter into your heart, and the quality of plants that come out of your heart is different from anything accessible on this Earth.

"The natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit, but the natural man can receive physical things."

If a man looks at a house, drives to it, looks around, and says, "One day I'm going to be living in this place," and he disciplines himself in his words so that nothing contradicting that vision is planted into his heart, within a short space of time he will see himself living in that house. He doesn't know how it will happen, but because he planted those seeds into his heart, they spring forth. Opportunity comes, he meets the right person, and suddenly he's living in that house.

I knew someone who did exactly this. He had a dream house in mind. He found the exact image of it—a white house with wooden floors and everything. He kept that image before him, planted it into his heart through his words and declarations, and an architect eventually designed and built that exact house for him. He met the right person, and he bought the house. This is how the principle works.

But you can enter that house and meet with trouble because it might not be the will of God. This is the crucial distinction.

The Role of Scripture and Prophecy

In 2 Peter 1:19-21, Peter writes:

"We have also a more sure word of Prophecy. You will do well to take it as unto a light that shines in a dark place, until the day Dawns and the day star rises in your hearts. Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation. For prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit."

The seeds for your destiny are in the book of the Prophets—from Psalms to the last book of the Bible. These are all the seeds you need to plant into your heart to bring incredible things into your life.

Consider the seeds that were planted into Jesus. All the prophecies about how He would be crucified, how He would rise on the third day, how He would sit at the right hand of the Father according to the order of Melchizedek—all these were planted into His heart so He could fulfill them.

"For like lights shining into dark corners," the Scripture says. "If you have any dark corner in your life, the word of God shines as light into those corners. These are words that help us understand many things that otherwise would be dark and difficult. But when you consider the wonderful truth of the Prophet's words, then the light will dawn in your soul, and Christ, the Morning Star, will shine in your heart."

If you have personal problems or issues, go to the Psalms. David suffered so he could collect the seeds for every kind of personal problem. If it's organizational or corporate issues, there are other sections of Scripture. Use Scripture to interpret Scripture, and you will find the seeds you need for your situation.

Seeing the Opportunity

Let's look at Matthew 14:22-31, where Jesus walked on water and called Peter to do the same.

Jesus constrained His disciples to go before Him to the other side. He sent the multitudes away and went into a mountain to pray. When evening came, He was alone on the mountain, but the disciples' ship was in the midst of the sea, tossed by the wind. In the fourth watch of the night, Jesus came to them walking on the sea.

When the disciples saw Him, they were troubled, saying, "It is a spirit!" They cried out in fear. But Jesus said, "Be of good cheer. It is I. Be not afraid."

Anytime there is wind blowing against you—a contrary wind—Jesus wants to change your level. He wants you to come out of the boat and start walking on water. This represents a level change. But most people cry out to remain in the boat. They don't like trouble. They don't want anything to touch them.

Peter saw the opportunity. He said, "Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water." Jesus said, "Come." And Peter walked on water toward Jesus. But when he beheld the wind, he became afraid and began to sink. He cried out, "Lord, save me!" And Jesus immediately saved him and put him back in the boat.

Peter gives us a perfect picture of someone who succeeded and failed in the same project. He succeeded when he had faith and walked on water. He failed when he focused on the temporal contradiction—the wind and the waves—instead of keeping his eyes on the eternal reality—the word of God.

The Contradiction and Your Response

Here's the key principle: In times of crisis, opportunities come. But the opportunity is not written in Scripture. You have to see it with your natural eyes and then connect it to what God has promised you.

For example, you might see an opportunity in business, in technology, in fashion, or in ministry. You didn't see it in the Bible. You saw it in life. Your natural perception opened your eyes to what is coming next. But before you act on that perception, you need God's word, His Revelation, to confirm whether it aligns with His will.

Vision is regulated by the environment to a large extent. Before the internet existed, nobody talked about coding. When electricity was invented, new opportunities emerged. When electric cars were introduced, new possibilities opened up. The environment creates the platform for vision to emerge.

But here's the crucial point: once you see the opportunity, you don't have the resources to get it yet. It's like walking on water—you're moving in the realm of faith, not in the realm of what you can see or touch.

Staying Steady in the Face of Contradiction

When I started this church, God gave me a Scripture. He said, "The children with thou has lost will all be returned." At that time, my world seemed to be coming to an end. I went deep in prayer.

In those early days, when I would come to preach on a Sunday morning, I would look at how many cars were parked outside. If there were few cars, I would come down to preach feeling discouraged. If there were many cars, I would feel happy. My emotions were being controlled by what I saw on the outside.

I was praying an average of three hours every day for the church, but my prayers were being nullified by what I saw. The day I would look and see few cars, my heart would sink, nullifying all my prayers. The day I would see more cars, my happiness would nullify all my prayers.

God taught me something crucial: If what you see on the outside is affecting the way you feel on the inside, you are not keeping your own side of the Covenant.

God expects you to reach a place where nothing on the outside influences your spirit. Even if the church had only two rows filled, I should share the word with the same fire, the same anointing, the same faith, without feeling anything about the numbers.

This is what it means to enter into rest. At that point, God can start working freely. You've reached a place of balance where you don't have people as your idol, where their approval or disapproval doesn't control your emotions.

Peter was walking on water until what he saw—the wind and the waves—changed the way he felt. His feelings changed his actions. He began to sink.

But when you practice with the word God has given you, when you allow that initial word to change and enter into your heart to the point where it governs you, nothing affects you from the outside. When you reach that point, it becomes simple. You enter into God's rest, and God blesses you.