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We are at war. I'm not talking about what might happen with China or Russia—I'm referring to the most consequential battle you will ever fight in your lifetime: the battle for your mind.
I know this may not be everybody's issue, but I'll be transparent: there are times throughout the day where there is a wrestle happening in my head that will mess my whole day up. Whether you like it or not, you may not be fighting the enemy, but the enemy is fighting you.
There is nothing more dangerous and nothing more powerful on this planet than a believer who has a made-up mind.
Please put this in your notes: the enemy's potency is in his persuasion. The devil knows he can't stop you, so he convinces you to stop you. He baits you with self-sabotaging thoughts.
He makes you say things like: "I don't want to jinx it. I ain't going to get my hopes up too much because last time I got my hopes up..." But the devil is a liar.
This is not the season for your mind to be all over the place. This is the season where you got to make up your mind: are you in or are you out? Are you going to do it or are you going to quit?
You find yourself vacillating between whether you're going to move or stay, pray or cuss, love them or leave them. And sometimes you're exhausted—not because the devil is beating you, but because your body is caught in a mental tug-of-war and your mind won't make a decision.
God is waiting to bless you, but He doesn't bless double-mindedness.
There are two types of people: one of you will think yourself into depression, but one of you is going to say, "It may hurt if I stay and it may hurt if I go, so I might as well just make up my mind."
I've decided that this will be a blessed year for me. I've decided that if nobody supports me, I'll push myself. I've decided that I will get back in my devotion and I will be blessed and highly favored—whether I believe it or not.
For though we walk in the flesh we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds. Casting down every argument and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
The battle for your mind is a spiritual reality happening at this very moment. You can be in church and still lose the battle for your attention. The devil doesn't mind you being in attendance as long as you don't pay attention.
What does captivity mean? To capture, to seize someone. If I capture a thought, that makes it a prisoner. A prisoner doesn't decide when they leave—you decide.
But here's where many preachers give you an incomplete gospel: we say "take every thought captive," but the scripture doesn't stop there. It says bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. The prison isn't run by you—it's run by His word. If it don't line up with what He said, it don't belong in your head.
God said you are the lender, not the borrower. You are above only, never beneath. Whose report will you believe?
The devil is not after your money, your marriage, or your career—he's after your mind. He would give you more money if he thought it would mess up your mind. He would give you what you want as long as he can take up residency in your mind.
This is why Jesus said, "Think on these things—whatsoever is lovely, whatsoever is pure, whatsoever is kind." He's not going to live where the devil lives. So hide the word in your heart so that when your mind is tripping, your heart won't be buzzing.
Everything you do begins with a thought. What will I wear today? Thought—clothes. What will we eat tonight? Thought—dinner. Where will we go later? Thought—go.
If it starts with a thought, it can stop with a thought. You keep saying you want to be better, but the reason you keep reverting back is because you're trying to do it before you think it. "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind."
We see a father's faith weakened by the condition of his mind. Jesus comes off the mountain and finds chaos. A man in the crowd says:
Teacher, I brought you my son possessed with a spirit that makes him mute. And whenever it seizes him, it slams him to the ground, foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and stiffens out. I told your disciples to cast it out and they could not do it.
Here's what I need to fix in your mind: there's nothing wrong with this boy. The issue is there's a spirit that has him under subjection.
There are many kind-hearted, loving, nice people in the world, but every now and then something gets ahold of you. You've been so good, so blessed, so giving—and then something comes over you and people wonder what's wrong. But the issue isn't you; it's the spirit on you.
The spirit made him mute—it made him unable to speak. But when I look deeper at the Bible, verse 25 tells us he's mute and deaf. He can't speak and he can't hear.
For some of you, the spirits and the stuff you've been going through has been so intense that in this season, you just need one person in your circle who can speak something that flips your situation. You've got enough people bringing you mess—God, give me one person who brings me a blessed edge.
Your victory is tied to your voice. The devil wants you quiet because he knows if you ever call on Jesus, God's going to show up.
You can't be mute. You've been quiet long enough. Either you're deaf or you're mute—you can't be both, but the enemy wants you to be either one so you don't speak.
If you go to Rock City, getting the word isn't your issue. We preach two times on Sunday, five days a week on DVO Energy, 50,000+ messages on social media, 52 albums, 75 singles, 300+ downloads. If you don't get a word at Rock City, it's because you don't want a word.
Most of y'all's issue is you won't speak anything because you grew up with family members telling you: "Be quiet. You don't want to jinx it. Be quiet because if folk find out, they'll ruin it."
But here's the truth: there ain't a person on Earth or a devil in hell that can block what God has for me. If it's for me, then it's for me. If it's not for me, then it's not for me.
Let the devil listen. You think God sits in heaven talking to you on the low? I want the devil to hear that I've made up my mind—God is getting ready to do what my eyes have not seen.
Whatever you believe God for, speak it out loud. Your victory is tied to your testimony. Whatever you're praying for, whatever you want God to do for you, declare it right now.
Your words matter. When my son went to those seven-on-seven camps and didn't get a scholarship offer but saw other players get them, I thought he'd be discouraged. But instead, he thought: "If God did it for them, He can do it for me too." That's the power of speaking it.
You may not know Philippians 3:13 or Jeremiah 10:3, but you ought to know there is a name that's above every name, and at that name every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess—what's His name?
I went to a doctor's visit where we were told our son had autism, Asperger's, and that he wouldn't have a normal life. The doctor said, "I know you're in denial, but this is what I do." I said, "No, this is what you do. But I'm not in denial—I'm in faith. Optimism believes the outcome will work out. Faith believes God will work it out."
Every night before he went to sleep, I would speak over him by faith: "Devil, you are a liar. I speak boldness. I speak faith. I speak peace." Yesterday he called me and said, "Dad, I'm going to drive to the bowling alley." He drove, made it to the bowling team, drove home functioning normally.
When is the last time you looked your situation in the face and spoke to it? Speak to your marriage. Speak to your finances. Speak to your health. Don't just pray at these things—speak to them in faith.
The reason people are playing with you and planning your face is because they don't know what you've been through. You try to be humble and keep quiet, but sometimes you got to pop out and remind them: just because I don't doesn't mean I can't.
You must actually speak to your circumstances. Speak to your marriage. Speak to your finances. Speak to your health. Don't just pray at these things—speak to them in faith. The reason people are playing with you and planning your face is because they don't know what you've been through. You try to be humble and keep quiet, but sometimes you've got to pop out and remind them: just because I don't doesn't mean I can't.
I'm not blind to my situation—that's right—I'm just open to God's possibilities. I'm not naive. I know when I don't have enough money to get something. When I walked into a building with the realtor, I knew I couldn't afford it. But I spoke it into being anyway. Sometimes you need to get bold enough to tell God what you want, even when the natural circumstances don't line up. If it's your will, then it's your bill.
When you go to the doctor, he doesn't give you medicine without telling you the problem—he acknowledges the problem, then gives you the solution. Your prayer life should work the same way. Be specific with God. Don't just say, "God, I need you to come through." Say, "God, I wasted it again. I know you got me out last time. I was doing good January, February, March, but I went out with them one time in April and ain't been right since." Stop asking God to fix what you keep ignoring.
Many of us never get to the next level because of dead faith. Put this in your notes: Dead faith is a faith that receives God's word but does not respond to it.
When God calls your name, He doesn't just want your attention—He's demanding your presence. I wonder who's been called by God and is still saying, "Huh?" Why would you drive all the way to church, grease your edges down, iron your clothes, get stuck in traffic, walk up the hill, and sit in a seat, just to leave and do nothing about what you heard?
It's like going to football practice all week—getting tackled, learning plays, going to the workout room, conditioning to stay in shape—just to stay home on Friday night. Why would you hear God's word and then get a chance to act on it and do nothing? Some of you need to grow up. We need to stop playing this church game.
You come here and say, "I receive that," then you walk out the door. You don't tithe, you don't pray, you're mean to people, you complain, you don't want to help anybody. How is it going to come back to you in good measure if you ain't done nothing?
Some of our faith is dead because we've got faith for emergencies, not for the daily. That's critical. Here's why: we got our faith tucked in our pocket in case something happens. It's like a bill. Let me go get my faith. When you hear bad news from the doctor, you let me go grab my faith. When you and your spouse are fussing, let me go get my faith. When there's a job opportunity, well let me go grab my faith.
Your faith isn't a fire extinguisher for emergencies. Faith is daily. It takes faith to go to bed at night and say, "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep." While you're sleeping, the devil is fighting. It's a war happening. But the angels say, "It's not their time." When you wake up, it takes faith. Many of you are treating faith like a pain pill.
We can't have a gospel that makes God a magician, pulling bills out of His hat and paying them. Where is your faith? God wouldn't have to keep stepping in if you would just walk Him in. Just walk Him in.
Dead faith is a belief that is limited to God relieving something from you. "I don't know what I'm going to do—put my faith on it." But God shouldn't have to keep stepping in. If your faith ain't being put to work, it's dead.
Not only do we have dead faith, but we also have domesticated faith—faith that has been tamed by trauma.
When I was growing up, dogs lived outside, chained to a tree. That was their whole life. You knew exactly how long that chain was. You could cut through somebody's backyard without even flinching because you knew the dog was going to come right there and stop. But out here in the suburbs, dogs are domesticated. They come outside to use the restroom and walk right back in the house. They wouldn't go far if they got out—they're not built for the outside anymore. If the door opened, that dog would go right back in the house because it's been domesticated.
Here's what I want you to catch: A domesticated faith will normalize a supernatural God. In other words, domesticated faith lowers God's power to the level of your pain. You don't believe God to heal it—you use God to cope with it. You only use it to be functional, not to be made whole. You only use it to get through, not to come out.
There are certain seasons of your life where God brings it to you. The problem is you're in a season where He's not, and you're too scared to go outside and get it. When you take medicine for pain, it helps you function with the problem, but it doesn't fix the problem. Domesticated faith is when you only use God to be functional, not to be made whole.
Wake your faith up. It's going to put a demand on God to respond.
We are at war. I'm not talking about what might happen with China or Russia—I'm referring to the most consequential battle you will ever fight in your lifetime: the battle for your mind.
I know this may not be everybody's issue, but I'll be transparent: there are times throughout the day where there is a wrestle happening in my head that will mess my whole day up. Whether you like it or not, you may not be fighting the enemy, but the enemy is fighting you.
There is nothing more dangerous and nothing more powerful on this planet than a believer who has a made-up mind.
Please put this in your notes: the enemy's potency is in his persuasion. The devil knows he can't stop you, so he convinces you to stop you. He baits you with self-sabotaging thoughts.
He makes you say things like: "I don't want to jinx it. I ain't going to get my hopes up too much because last time I got my hopes up..." But the devil is a liar.
This is not the season for your mind to be all over the place. This is the season where you got to make up your mind: are you in or are you out? Are you going to do it or are you going to quit?
You find yourself vacillating between whether you're going to move or stay, pray or cuss, love them or leave them. And sometimes you're exhausted—not because the devil is beating you, but because your body is caught in a mental tug-of-war and your mind won't make a decision.
God is waiting to bless you, but He doesn't bless double-mindedness.
There are two types of people: one of you will think yourself into depression, but one of you is going to say, "It may hurt if I stay and it may hurt if I go, so I might as well just make up my mind."
I've decided that this will be a blessed year for me. I've decided that if nobody supports me, I'll push myself. I've decided that I will get back in my devotion and I will be blessed and highly favored—whether I believe it or not.
For though we walk in the flesh we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds. Casting down every argument and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
The battle for your mind is a spiritual reality happening at this very moment. You can be in church and still lose the battle for your attention. The devil doesn't mind you being in attendance as long as you don't pay attention.
What does captivity mean? To capture, to seize someone. If I capture a thought, that makes it a prisoner. A prisoner doesn't decide when they leave—you decide.
But here's where many preachers give you an incomplete gospel: we say "take every thought captive," but the scripture doesn't stop there. It says bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. The prison isn't run by you—it's run by His word. If it don't line up with what He said, it don't belong in your head.
God said you are the lender, not the borrower. You are above only, never beneath. Whose report will you believe?
The devil is not after your money, your marriage, or your career—he's after your mind. He would give you more money if he thought it would mess up your mind. He would give you what you want as long as he can take up residency in your mind.
This is why Jesus said, "Think on these things—whatsoever is lovely, whatsoever is pure, whatsoever is kind." He's not going to live where the devil lives. So hide the word in your heart so that when your mind is tripping, your heart won't be buzzing.
Everything you do begins with a thought. What will I wear today? Thought—clothes. What will we eat tonight? Thought—dinner. Where will we go later? Thought—go.
If it starts with a thought, it can stop with a thought. You keep saying you want to be better, but the reason you keep reverting back is because you're trying to do it before you think it. "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind."
We see a father's faith weakened by the condition of his mind. Jesus comes off the mountain and finds chaos. A man in the crowd says:
Teacher, I brought you my son possessed with a spirit that makes him mute. And whenever it seizes him, it slams him to the ground, foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and stiffens out. I told your disciples to cast it out and they could not do it.
Here's what I need to fix in your mind: there's nothing wrong with this boy. The issue is there's a spirit that has him under subjection.
There are many kind-hearted, loving, nice people in the world, but every now and then something gets ahold of you. You've been so good, so blessed, so giving—and then something comes over you and people wonder what's wrong. But the issue isn't you; it's the spirit on you.
The spirit made him mute—it made him unable to speak. But when I look deeper at the Bible, verse 25 tells us he's mute and deaf. He can't speak and he can't hear.
For some of you, the spirits and the stuff you've been going through has been so intense that in this season, you just need one person in your circle who can speak something that flips your situation. You've got enough people bringing you mess—God, give me one person who brings me a blessed edge.
Your victory is tied to your voice. The devil wants you quiet because he knows if you ever call on Jesus, God's going to show up.
You can't be mute. You've been quiet long enough. Either you're deaf or you're mute—you can't be both, but the enemy wants you to be either one so you don't speak.
If you go to Rock City, getting the word isn't your issue. We preach two times on Sunday, five days a week on DVO Energy, 50,000+ messages on social media, 52 albums, 75 singles, 300+ downloads. If you don't get a word at Rock City, it's because you don't want a word.
Most of y'all's issue is you won't speak anything because you grew up with family members telling you: "Be quiet. You don't want to jinx it. Be quiet because if folk find out, they'll ruin it."
But here's the truth: there ain't a person on Earth or a devil in hell that can block what God has for me. If it's for me, then it's for me. If it's not for me, then it's not for me.
Let the devil listen. You think God sits in heaven talking to you on the low? I want the devil to hear that I've made up my mind—God is getting ready to do what my eyes have not seen.
Whatever you believe God for, speak it out loud. Your victory is tied to your testimony. Whatever you're praying for, whatever you want God to do for you, declare it right now.
Your words matter. When my son went to those seven-on-seven camps and didn't get a scholarship offer but saw other players get them, I thought he'd be discouraged. But instead, he thought: "If God did it for them, He can do it for me too." That's the power of speaking it.
You may not know Philippians 3:13 or Jeremiah 10:3, but you ought to know there is a name that's above every name, and at that name every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess—what's His name?
I went to a doctor's visit where we were told our son had autism, Asperger's, and that he wouldn't have a normal life. The doctor said, "I know you're in denial, but this is what I do." I said, "No, this is what you do. But I'm not in denial—I'm in faith. Optimism believes the outcome will work out. Faith believes God will work it out."
Every night before he went to sleep, I would speak over him by faith: "Devil, you are a liar. I speak boldness. I speak faith. I speak peace." Yesterday he called me and said, "Dad, I'm going to drive to the bowling alley." He drove, made it to the bowling team, drove home functioning normally.
When is the last time you looked your situation in the face and spoke to it? Speak to your marriage. Speak to your finances. Speak to your health. Don't just pray at these things—speak to them in faith.
The reason people are playing with you and planning your face is because they don't know what you've been through. You try to be humble and keep quiet, but sometimes you got to pop out and remind them: just because I don't doesn't mean I can't.
You must actually speak to your circumstances. Speak to your marriage. Speak to your finances. Speak to your health. Don't just pray at these things—speak to them in faith. The reason people are playing with you and planning your face is because they don't know what you've been through. You try to be humble and keep quiet, but sometimes you've got to pop out and remind them: just because I don't doesn't mean I can't.
I'm not blind to my situation—that's right—I'm just open to God's possibilities. I'm not naive. I know when I don't have enough money to get something. When I walked into a building with the realtor, I knew I couldn't afford it. But I spoke it into being anyway. Sometimes you need to get bold enough to tell God what you want, even when the natural circumstances don't line up. If it's your will, then it's your bill.
When you go to the doctor, he doesn't give you medicine without telling you the problem—he acknowledges the problem, then gives you the solution. Your prayer life should work the same way. Be specific with God. Don't just say, "God, I need you to come through." Say, "God, I wasted it again. I know you got me out last time. I was doing good January, February, March, but I went out with them one time in April and ain't been right since." Stop asking God to fix what you keep ignoring.
Many of us never get to the next level because of dead faith. Put this in your notes: Dead faith is a faith that receives God's word but does not respond to it.
When God calls your name, He doesn't just want your attention—He's demanding your presence. I wonder who's been called by God and is still saying, "Huh?" Why would you drive all the way to church, grease your edges down, iron your clothes, get stuck in traffic, walk up the hill, and sit in a seat, just to leave and do nothing about what you heard?
It's like going to football practice all week—getting tackled, learning plays, going to the workout room, conditioning to stay in shape—just to stay home on Friday night. Why would you hear God's word and then get a chance to act on it and do nothing? Some of you need to grow up. We need to stop playing this church game.
You come here and say, "I receive that," then you walk out the door. You don't tithe, you don't pray, you're mean to people, you complain, you don't want to help anybody. How is it going to come back to you in good measure if you ain't done nothing?
Some of our faith is dead because we've got faith for emergencies, not for the daily. That's critical. Here's why: we got our faith tucked in our pocket in case something happens. It's like a bill. Let me go get my faith. When you hear bad news from the doctor, you let me go grab my faith. When you and your spouse are fussing, let me go get my faith. When there's a job opportunity, well let me go grab my faith.
Your faith isn't a fire extinguisher for emergencies. Faith is daily. It takes faith to go to bed at night and say, "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep." While you're sleeping, the devil is fighting. It's a war happening. But the angels say, "It's not their time." When you wake up, it takes faith. Many of you are treating faith like a pain pill.
We can't have a gospel that makes God a magician, pulling bills out of His hat and paying them. Where is your faith? God wouldn't have to keep stepping in if you would just walk Him in. Just walk Him in.
Dead faith is a belief that is limited to God relieving something from you. "I don't know what I'm going to do—put my faith on it." But God shouldn't have to keep stepping in. If your faith ain't being put to work, it's dead.
Not only do we have dead faith, but we also have domesticated faith—faith that has been tamed by trauma.
When I was growing up, dogs lived outside, chained to a tree. That was their whole life. You knew exactly how long that chain was. You could cut through somebody's backyard without even flinching because you knew the dog was going to come right there and stop. But out here in the suburbs, dogs are domesticated. They come outside to use the restroom and walk right back in the house. They wouldn't go far if they got out—they're not built for the outside anymore. If the door opened, that dog would go right back in the house because it's been domesticated.
Here's what I want you to catch: A domesticated faith will normalize a supernatural God. In other words, domesticated faith lowers God's power to the level of your pain. You don't believe God to heal it—you use God to cope with it. You only use it to be functional, not to be made whole. You only use it to get through, not to come out.
There are certain seasons of your life where God brings it to you. The problem is you're in a season where He's not, and you're too scared to go outside and get it. When you take medicine for pain, it helps you function with the problem, but it doesn't fix the problem. Domesticated faith is when you only use God to be functional, not to be made whole.
Wake your faith up. It's going to put a demand on God to respond.
