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Part 19 of 19
Winning Season (CTC Vol. 3)
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Have you ever been wounded by somebody you were supposed to be winning with? Everyone in your life should have a place, but that does not mean that everyone in your life should have the same place. This is key and consequential.
If this is your winning season, you need to have a winning circle. It is not only important to have the right people in your life, but to also have the right people in the right places—because different seasons will require different seats.
Some people who you had in certain places in your life in one season may not fit in that same seat in the next season. And it doesn't mean that you're being mean. It means that you're .
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Just because people pursue where they want to be in your life does not mean that they're pursuing where they need to be in your life. Everybody will tell you what they want in your life. It is our responsibility to let people know where they need to be.
Just because someone is a good person does not mean that they are good for you. This is what separates the winners from the losers.
If it's going to be your winning season, you're going to have to deal with the tension of evolving from discerning between who's good for you and who's bad for you. But God is going to elevate you to where now you're going to have to discern:
Your greatest wins will come when you're able to discern between what's good and what's God. This is how all of mankind fell—because Adam chose what was good over what was God.
When you have the right people in the right place, they will make you better. But when you have the right people in the wrong place, they will make you bitter.
There is no neutrality in relationships. You are either getting better or bitter. You are either going forward or backward. People are either pushing you forward or pulling you backward. There is no moving nowhere—that is not even an option.
We become bitter out of a belief that God will not punish the people who hurt us. We become bitter when we allow an event or an experience to become a belief that God is not going to pay back the people that hurt us.
When someone hurts us, we sometimes expect God to respond how we want him to respond. But God would allow people you love to hurt you to release you from some codependency with people that you had started depending on instead of God.
Sometimes you called it a heartbreak in one season, and now you're calling it a breakthrough in another season. God separated you from the people that you wanted and sent the people that you needed.
Bitterness is when you decide that since God is not going to intervene, I will play the judge, the jury, and the executioner over the people that hurt me. To be bitter is to say, Jesus, your blood is not enough.
Bitterness is the result of unprocessed anger becoming your primary attitude. The more you dwell on it, the deeper the root grows. Bitterness hardens your heart on the inside and changes your features on the outside.
There are certain people right now struggling with cancer, ulcers, tumors, sicknesses, and diseases and don't even realize the root of it is bitterness. When certain people came to Jesus for him to heal them, he would look at them and say, "Your sins have been forgiven." They came for physical healing, but he gave them mental and emotional restoration because he's saying: "If I don't change your heart, I'm going to heal you physically, but your heart is going to walk you right back into what I brought you out of."
"Watch out that no bitter root of unbelief rises up among you, for whenever it springs up, many are corrupted." — Hebrews 12:15 (NLT)
Bitterness is not pain. It's poison.
Remember when Paul was on a ship and it wrecked? He made a fire and a snake bit him. The text says he shook it off and the people were waiting on him to swell up from the venom or the poison. The bite is the pain. The poison is the bitterness.
There are some predators that will bite you and follow you until you die from the poison so that they can devour you. Sometimes we are shouting that we survived the pain and we are silent that we have not overcome the poison.
How people treat you says a lot about them, but how you respond says a lot about you.
Just because you have been affected does not mean you have to be infected. When you allow pain to become poison, here's what happens:
Being cut in your past to being crippled for your future—when we allow pain to become poison, a bite to become bitter, we allow being cut in our past to cripple us in our future. Pain was never about your past. Pain was always about your future.
The devil comes not to destroy you in one season, but to steal:
You're headed to a season where you're going to have favor, but you're going to reach in your pocket for some wisdom, some faith that you need, and you're not going to realize the enemy took it from you in the season where you were just shouting over surviving the bite.
When you go from being cut to being crippled, it's an emotional and spiritual crippledness:
Winning season is not perfect season. Some of us are going to have to learn that if you need it to be perfect for it to be winning, that's not winning season—that's games. Winning season is about growth.
The pain will cut you, but the poison will cripple you.
You got the job, but you're not producing at the level you could be producing. You got the relationship, but everything seems like it's going in a cycle right now because you're not stuck—it's just moving too slow.
God is about to give you divine acceleration. For many of you who feel like certain areas have been held up, who should be further than where you are right now—God is about to help you get further faster. You're no longer moving at the pace that the enemy wants you to move at. God has put wind behind your back so you can catch up in the season that you felt like you wasted. In this season, you're about to start winning.
In 2 Samuel, we see a brother by the name of Mephibosheth. He's the son of Jonathan, who is the son of King Saul. Jonathan is fighting in the battle, and Mephibosheth is living in peace, prosperity, and protection. He has everything he needs. He's winning. Everybody around him is winning.
Then all hell breaks loose.
Mephibosheth isn't at war—his parents are. He ultimately becomes lame because his parents lost. Be careful of some of the battles that you choose to fight that God didn't call you to fight, because it won't just affect you. It affects everybody connected to you.
Here's what happened: King Saul was the king, but he was broken on the inside. He looked good on the outside, but he was so insecure that when they chose to anoint him as king, he was hiding in baggage.
God sent David as a sign of grace, saying: "Even though I wouldn't pick you, I'm going to send who I am picking to support you." But Saul couldn't see that. He was so insecure that while David was fighting for him, Saul was fighting David. Eventually, David couldn't handle the hostility and went to partner with the Philistines.
There's something powerful here: David had conquered the Philistine giant when he was anointed, and now he's collaborating with them. God even used your enemies to promote you. There are some people that wanted to kill you in one season that started collaborating with you in the next season. That's why in your winning season, you're going to have to open up your heart to the people that God wants to use to send you further faster—because it may not be the people that you thought.
King Saul dies. His son Jonathan dies. Now look at what happens:
"Saul's son Jonathan had a son named Mephibosheth. He was crippled as a child. He was five years old. When the report came from Jezreel that Saul and Jonathan had been killed in battle, when the child's nurse heard the news, she picked him up and fled. But as she hurried away, she dropped him and he became crippled." — 2 Samuel 4:4 (NLT)
Now, before we beat up the nurse, let me explain. According to tradition in this culture, whenever a new king took reign, he would hunt out everyone in the previous king's family and kill them—so no one from that family would grow up and try to take his crown.
She's running because she saw a pattern from the past. And some of us are like her—we're running because we're expecting old patterns to keep showing up. When we see signs of old patterns, we run and we drop stuff that God wants to use.
She was triggered. Be careful when you allow a trigger to become a trap.
When you're triggered, fear came out of her. When you're triggered, what comes out of you?
Just because you're saved does not mean you can't be triggered by old patterns. She was in fight or flight mode. When someone shows signs of old patterns, instead of facing it, you flee from it.
She's triggered, so fear tells her, "Run, pick him up." But Mephibosheth is five years old. A five-year-old can run pretty well on their own. But fear will have you carrying stuff in new seasons that you shouldn't be carrying.
Because she's carrying something that she should not be carrying, she drops him. It's one thing when you have to struggle because of what you did. It's another thing when you have to struggle because of what somebody else did.
Have you ever had to deal with the consequences that you didn't cause? Have you ever had to deal with a struggle in one season and when you confronted them, they acted like you caused it? Have you ever had somebody who was the villain, but as soon as you confronted them, they wanted to play the victim? They hurt you and acted like they needed help for hurting you. Everyone sees your retaliation, but they're not talking about what caused it.
He's dropped and he didn't even ask to be picked up.
A drop is when someone who's responsible for making you better irresponsibly makes you worse. A drop is something you never saw coming. It has the potential to devastate you.
He's dropped on the outside and becomes crippled on the outside. But when we get dropped, we get crippled on the inside. He got dropped and his feet got wounded. We got dropped and our soul got wounded.
What do you do when a mentor drops you? This is not about peers. This is a different type of wound.
I imagine if he struggles with embracing authority the rest of his life because this is not any type of wound. This is a soul wound from authoritative figures. What do you do when the person that your parents trusted with you abuses you, misuses you? Now you may have authority issues the rest of your life.
Have you ever been dropped by a parent? There are two types of drops—two types of pain.
There are two types of drops—two types of pain. Violent pain is when something happens to you that should not have happened to you. Void pain is when you don't get what you needed, so it leaves a void.
You were dropped. You didn't get the attention you needed, so now you're looking for that attention in all the wrong places. Abandonment, betrayal, abuse, manipulation—these can all be a drop. There are certain people who have been dropped and are acting like they're okay when, truthfully, they are uncovered.
Some people say, "I love God, but I don't do church." When really, they never recovered from a drop. That drop broke them, and now they've become bitter. They allowed the pain to become poison.
There are people preaching on platforms with no accountability. People starting podcasts and shows with no covering, mentorship, or leadership they can be held accountable to—all because they got dropped. Now they're dropping others.
Many people are calling things "church hurt" when really it is—they never overcame some of the drop before they got to the church. They got triggered and saw signs that reminded them of what happened before. And now they ran because they saw signs of an old pattern forming. When sometimes God is saying, "No, I need you to face this so you can overcome it." Your job is to face it. My job is to fix it. God will never fix what you're not choosing to face.
When you've been dropped, you have problems with authority. Even when God anoints you to lead, you won't even accept it because it'll remind you of what someone didn't do for you. So you sit around and look at people in your church struggling to do what you were graced to do with ease. But you're saying, "I don't do people. I ain't trying to get involved. I just come to church to get my word and go home." When God has said, "No, there's greater in you. What you make happen for My house, I'll make happen for your house."
Because you've been dropped, you had no good example or a bad example. So now when God sends a good example, you begin to see any example through the lens of being dropped. You interpret high standards for hating. I'm not hating. I'm just calling you higher.
He was dropped by someone close to him, someone that loved him. The text says he was crippled in both feet. But there's a local colloquialism here—he's not crippled in both feet because he was dropped on his feet. His feet is only a symptom of the source where it was originally damaged.
Often times we can be crippled in one place and trying to fix the place that we can see the crippleness, when I am telling you that sometimes that is only a symptom, a sign—fruit, not root. God is saying, "No, I know this is hurting you. I know this may not be working, but I need you to get to the source."
To be crippled in both feet meant that he was dropped on his head. He broke his feet because he bumped his head. If your mind doesn't work, your feet won't work. The Bible says we walk by faith, not by sight. There's some stuff that's been happening in your feet when truthfully the devil's been after your mind.
Yeah, that ex didn't break your heart. They made you bump your head. That job didn't let you go. You bumped your head. I am telling you, you will get mobility when you recover your mindset. You will only move at the pace of your mind. If you can get your mind out, you can get your life out. If you can get your mind out, you can get your money out. If you can get your mind out, you can get your marriage out.
The devil is not after your stuff. He's after your mind. Because he knows that pain can't stop you, but your mind can.
Be careful with who you allow to speak into your life. Some people aren't giving you advice. They're giving you assaults. They are assaulting your mentality. When they were in your life, whether you knew it or not, you stopped believing like you used to. You started drifting from the faith.
He's grown now, but someone made him settle in a place called Lo-dbar. "Lo" means no. "Dar" means word. So he's crippled with no word. He's wounded with no word.
The issue is not being wounded. The issue is when you're wounded with no word. Be careful when you're wounded with only good quotes. You're not going to overcome with good quotes. I need the Word when I'm wounded. I need a word that can tell me I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. The Word is a lamp unto my feet. It's a light unto my path. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God. So he wasn't just in a place with no word. He was in a place without God.
What word can you grab hold to? The Word is not just a weapon. The Word is also your medicine. The Word will give you prescription for your pain. The Word will turn your wounds into wisdom.
There are certain seasons when you bumped your head and you came out broken. But you came out better because you allowed the Word to be prescribed to your heart.
The Word won't just turn your wounds into wisdom. The Word will also turn your wounds into worship. You haven't worshiped God until you've learned how to worship him while wounded.
I want to preach to people online and in the room that you love God, but everything's not perfect. This week, this year, some of us went through some stuff that broke our heart, that made us down and out, that made us question our faith or even question God. You got bad news and it broke your heart. Somebody dropped you and you felt wounded.
I dare you to begin to confuse the devil and start worshiping God while you're wounded. Worship will take your focus off your wounds and put your focus on God. When David was wounded, he began to encourage himself in the Lord. Job said, "Though they slay me, yet will I trust them." If Job can worship while wounded, what are you waiting on? Recover your worship.
For some of you right now, you've been trying to fight with willpower. I'm telling you, you need to lay that willpower down at the altar and begin to say, "God, create in me a clean heart. Renew a steadfast spirit within me."
While you're worshiping, God started trying to send favor to your house. You don't need to just sit cute. If you start worshiping God, what if God will help you win at the level of your worship? This win is not just for me. It's for my children. This worship is for my children's children. This worship is for my health.
One of the servants says, "Yeah, Jonathan has a son named Mephibosheth, but he's crippled in both feet." The king says, "I ain't asked you that. I just asked, was he alive? Go and get them and bring them to me." God didn't fix his crippleness, but he called him with his crippleness.
Mephibosheth is like many of us. We crippled but still called. If we're going to win, we're going to have to learn how to win with things not working the way we want them to work. He says, "No, no, you come to my house, you're going to have a seat at the king's table. What I eat, you eat." The favor I get, you get. Because God will send the very people that you thought was about to kill you to build you.
While he's sitting at the table, nobody could see his feet anyway. This next season, God is going to bless you so much that nobody will even be able to see the evidence of the crippledness of what dropped you in the last season. People are going to look at you and they won't see what was broke. They're going to only see how blessed you are. He's preparing a table in the presence of your enemies.
Who were they on the run from? King David. Who called and came looking for him? David. King David—he got carried and became crippled because someone carried him and dropped him. But in order to win again and get in favor, he had to allow someone to do the very thing that wounded him. He had to trust someone to carry him to the king.
God will use what wounded you in one season to help you win in the next season.
Often times we get dropped and we focus on what people owe us. You feel like someone owes you an apology. You owe me an explanation. I need to know why. But I've seen God promise a lot of things in the Bible. I've never seen him make a promise for an explanation.
If he's not giving you one and He is Jehovah Jireh who provides, it means He must know that you don't need the explanation for where you're headed. There are some things we feel like are owed to us—that if we got it, it would hurt us even more.
You have to remove the entitlement. Nobody owes me anything. I owe no man nothing but to love him. You have to remove the entitlement of thinking you deserve better than what you have. What if God looked at you and said, "You really want to talk about what you deserve?"
You have to redirect your expectations. Some of us are expecting the right things in the wrong places. You're setting yourself up for chronic frustration, consistent disappointment.
Once someone shows you who they are, believe them. So you have to stop expecting healthy outcomes from unhealthy people. It's what they call a healthy hopelessness. The Bible says hope deferred makes the heart sick. When you keep expecting and hoping something from the wrong people and places, it makes your heart sick.
Many of us are expecting right things from the wrong place. Peace does not just come from right prayers. It also comes from right thinking. Some of you are saying, "I've been praying about it." But also, what type of mind renewing process? Once you pray, at some point you need to come out of your prayer changed. If your prayer isn't working, I don't need to stop praying. I may need to change my approach.
In this season, you need to allow peace to be your bodyguard.
The race is not given to the swift, nor to the strong, but to the one that endures. We often want strength and swiftness. But God is saying, "I need you to have endurance. You need to endure it."
Being wounded over a long period of time will make you weary. You may have physical strength, but now you don't have the mental strength. You start lacking the patience for stuff that you used to be excited about. If the enemy can't wear you out, he'll weigh you down.
You're trying to overcome always feeling exhausted. In this season, you're going to have to trade the spirit of heaviness for a garment of praise. For some of you, you're going to have to have a moment—at least five minutes in your prayer time—dedicated to nothing but gratitude.
New seasons require new oil. David was not just anointed one time. He was anointed multiple times. Some of us are stepping into new seasons with old oil. The Holy Spirit is pouring out new wine, but you're going to have to remove the old wineskins—the old mindsets.
God is doing a new thing in your life. He's doing a new thing in your mind. He's doing a new thing in your heart. You're going to win while wounded. This is not your season to give up. This is not your season to give in. You have to make up in your mind, "I'm going to win anyway."
For some of the wounds you have been going through, you've been pressing through something that wasn't the enemy. Some of you have been going through an anointing process. In order for the fresh oil to flow, the olives have to be crushed. Some of you have been resisting the breaking, and God has said, "No, that's me breaking. That's not the enemy. I'm trying to break you for a breakthrough."
God is renewing your strength. Your word says, "They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They should mount up with wings like eagles. Run and not get weary. Walk and not faint." God is speaking this renewal over your life right now.
A new oil is falling. A fresh anointing is being poured out—not just on this church, but on communities and leaders everywhere. People around the world are receiving this fresh oil. You are not taking old oil into your next chapter.
You can worship and win while wounded. Healing is breaking through for those who are willing to let go and not allow bitterness to take root. Physical healings are manifesting. Cancer is being dried up. But you cannot allow pride to block your blessing.
Break free from what binds you. The Holy Spirit has no distance—whether you're in this room or online, God's power is moving. He is destroying every yoke. He is breaking the power of depression, mental illness, and anxiety over your life.
Recover and move forward. God is helping you recover from being dropped. You will no longer settle for living in lack. You are stepping into a land flowing with milk and honey. This next chapter will be your best season. You're going to win while wounded.
