SPEAKER_01: Thank you for this opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: God, I pray that you give people ears to hear.
SPEAKER_01: As if I open my mouth, God, I decrease and you increase.
SPEAKER_01: We trust you, God, that from this moment on our lives will never ever be the same.
SPEAKER_01: Because we leap into where you are.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Sister Kenya.
SPEAKER_01: I've known this girl since she was a baby.
SPEAKER_01: And she's not only my sister girl child, she's my sara.
SPEAKER_01: And I just tell God, thank you so much for chosen city.
SPEAKER_01: I am so, can I say this?
SPEAKER_01: Freaking excited to be here.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_01: I have enjoyed the worship.
SPEAKER_01: And you have to forgive me.
SPEAKER_01: I am not the polished first lady.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just as ghetto and ghetto fabulous as I can be.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a comedy.
SPEAKER_01: I'm all that.
SPEAKER_01: But the main thing is that I am saved, I'm sanctified, I'm Holy Ghost filled.
SPEAKER_01: And I know the Lord is on my side.
SPEAKER_01: First, let me give honor to God.
SPEAKER_01: You know how we do.
SPEAKER_01: Giving on to God who is the head of my life, that one.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Giving on to God who is really the head of my life.
SPEAKER_01: I am so thankful to be here.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I'm thankful for my bishop, Bishop Anthony L.
SPEAKER_01: Jimright, for allowing me to come.
SPEAKER_01: That shows how much he loves Chosen City.
SPEAKER_01: Because he doesn't release me too much on a Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_01: But I praise God for your church, but I praise God for that awesome man of God, that Pastor Walter Bowers.
SPEAKER_01: I need you to give it up for you.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm happy to be his spiritual mother.
SPEAKER_01: And if you missed yesterday's leadership conference, you missed Pastor Walter Bowers.
SPEAKER_01: He was exceptional, phenomenal.
SPEAKER_01: That man of God blessed that house.
SPEAKER_01: Coming to America, I remember sitting there and I was looking at the preachers around me.
SPEAKER_01: I said, That boy did good.
SPEAKER_01: He was awesome.
SPEAKER_01: But behind every good man, there has to be a good woman.
SPEAKER_01: And let us give honor and tribute and homage to my baby.
SPEAKER_01: Lady Tiffany Bowers is awesome.
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I like that.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Pastor Jamal, my grandson.
SPEAKER_01: Um, Pastor Jamal knows that I'm under doctor's care, so I don't know why you're trying to get me all excited.
SPEAKER_01: You know I can't be doing no whole lot, I can't be moving no lot, come hard and stuff start racing.
SPEAKER_01: And you tried to mess me up.
SPEAKER_01: I can't wait till my husband you tried to mess me up before I ever got up.
SPEAKER_01: But I thank God for him, I thank God for his spirit.
SPEAKER_01: But I thank God for every tier of leadership at Chosen City Church.
SPEAKER_01: Your name precedes you because you're chosen.
SPEAKER_01: You're chosen for the next.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care who's doing what in the city, y'all got it going on.
SPEAKER_01: And I praise God for that.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I will not be before you long, but I'm thankful for the uh invitation.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so thankful that Pastor Walter Bowers thought enough of me to come to his church when he wasn't gonna be here.
SPEAKER_01: Now that says a whole lot about him, although I'm a little mad about that.
SPEAKER_01: But anyway, that says a whole lot about him.
SPEAKER_01: That he would release me to his people.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna get right on into the message because I can stand up here for the next 30 minutes and have a whole comedy act, but I'm not gonna do that because it's Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I did tell Lady Tiffany I was a little upset with y'all because you did not tell me it was you Sunday, and I could wear a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and my sneakers.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm a little feeling feeling a little something, something about that.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm gonna go ahead and do what I came in here to do.
SPEAKER_01: I praise God for being here.
SPEAKER_01: If you will, will you turn in your Bibles to Luke 18?
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 18, and we're gonna look at verses 40 35 through 43.
SPEAKER_01: This is a familiar text.
SPEAKER_01: It is about Jesus healing a blind beggar.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus approached Jericho, and a blind beggar was sitting beside the road.
SPEAKER_01: When he heard the noise of a crowd going by, he asked, What's happening?
SPEAKER_01: They told him that Jesus, the Nazarene, was going back.
SPEAKER_01: So he shouted, Son of David, son of David, have mercy on me.
SPEAKER_01: Be quiet, the people yelled at him, but he only shouted louder, Son of David, have mercy on me.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus heard him, he stopped and he ordered that the man be brought to him.
SPEAKER_01: And the man came near, and Jesus asked a question.
SPEAKER_01: What do you want me to do for you?
SPEAKER_01: Lord, he said, I want to see.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said, All right, receive your sight.
SPEAKER_01: Your faith has healed you.
SPEAKER_01: Instantly the man could see, and he followed Jesus, praising God for all that God had done.
SPEAKER_01: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_01: If you will just allow me a little time, a little brief time of your Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: I want to speak from this topic in this title.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not leaving until I get what I came for.
SPEAKER_01: Look at your neighbor and say, I'm not leaving until I get what I came for.
SPEAKER_01: The other day I went to see my doctor, and the receptionist asked me one simple question.
SPEAKER_01: She said, Good morning.
SPEAKER_01: How can I help you today?
SPEAKER_01: I didn't have to think twice.
SPEAKER_01: I went there with a purpose.
SPEAKER_01: I needed some medicine.
SPEAKER_01: I needed some help.
SPEAKER_01: I was in pain, and all I wanted was some answers, but waiting was not an option for me.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you have ever gone someplace and you're impatient?
SPEAKER_01: I'm in there.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I don't like going to emergency rooms because if I come at nine o'clock, I need you to see me about 9:10.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not standing over there till 4 o'clock, because when you come around there at 4 o'clock, I'm already mad, my blood pressure gone up, and I'm sicker.
SPEAKER_01: So sometimes I have a tendency to be impatient.
SPEAKER_01: I know all y'all sanctified folk up in here.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all don't get impatient, but I do.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes prayer feels like God is far away.
SPEAKER_01: We go to God expecting a right now blessing, but instead it feels like he's taking his time.
SPEAKER_01: Has there ever been a time in your life when you cried out to him, but it felt like Jesus was not on the main line for you to tell him what you wanted?
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever prayed and it seemed like heaven was silent?
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever become weary just from waiting?
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever thought about giving up because your breakdown breakthrough had not come yet?
SPEAKER_01: Here is the truth.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you've got to decide in your spirit that I'm not leaving until I get what I came for.
SPEAKER_01: Because no, for me, is not an option.
SPEAKER_01: In Luke 18, we meet a blind beggar, Bonamaeus.
SPEAKER_01: Most of us are familiar with this story.
SPEAKER_01: As a child, I was taught about the story of blind Bonamaeus.
SPEAKER_01: It is amazing that he is known by his condition and not just by his name.
SPEAKER_01: Many of us know folk like that, and we know them by their conditions and not by their names.
SPEAKER_01: Case in point, sometimes we describe people that we are speaking of by their condition and their hyphenated name.
SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: You know that drunk man, uh Bobby down the street, drunk man came before Bobby.
SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_01: You know the crippled woman over there, or you know, you know that lady that got evicted.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you heard about it?
SPEAKER_01: You know that man that went to jail.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we know folk by their conditions, and we don't know their names.
SPEAKER_01: Too often we look at people and we size them up by the condition, but you don't know their hearts, you don't know what they've been through, you don't know why they're there.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes we mistakenly think that folk that don't look like us, don't act like us, don't dress like us, don't know who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: Saint Luke 18.
SPEAKER_01: It tells the story of Jesus healing Bonamias.
SPEAKER_01: People looked at him just like we look at people on the other side of the road.
SPEAKER_01: Have y'all ever been driving down the street and you see somebody when you come to a stop sign and they got a sign on out say, help me?
SPEAKER_01: How many times have we helped them?
SPEAKER_01: And I know you can't help everybody, because I've seen folk too.
SPEAKER_01: But if I'm up there and you got weave all down your back and you got your fingernails done and your lips done, and all that kind of stuff, you just need to quit spending your money on stuff that don't make no sense and help yourself.
SPEAKER_01: But there are some legitimate folk that stand on those corners that need help.
SPEAKER_01: And how many times have we passed by ministry and kept going because we didn't see it fit or necessary to help them?
SPEAKER_01: People looked at him just like we look at those people.
SPEAKER_01: When Bonamius heard that Jesus was in town, he knew the Son of God could heal him.
SPEAKER_01: He had faith that Jesus could give him sight.
SPEAKER_01: It is likely, highly likely, that Bonamaeus had heard all about the miracles that Jesus had wrought all over the land.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, Jesus had a reputation for being the healer and a miracle worker.
SPEAKER_01: Many people followed him because they wanted to be healed of their various diseases.
SPEAKER_01: Many people followed Jesus not because he was Jesus, they followed him because they wanted something from him.
SPEAKER_01: Just like we do sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes our relationship with the Lord is a little distant.
SPEAKER_01: But how about trouble comes our way?
SPEAKER_01: How about it's something that we want?
SPEAKER_01: All of us get real close to God in those moments of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: I know I'm not the only one that would just enjoy life, but when trouble or something hit my life and I need Jesus, I get to be a super Christian at that point.
SPEAKER_01: And that is when I began to build my relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Although there were some who tried to stop Bonamias from getting to Jesus, he did not stop screaming the name because he knew Jesus could help him, and he had tenacious faith that he was not going to leave until he got what he came for.
SPEAKER_01: The name Bonamaeus means son of honor.
SPEAKER_01: How is it that the son of honor is now deduced to a beggar?
SPEAKER_01: How many of you that our titles have changed our lives?
SPEAKER_01: We didn't wake up trying to be broke, we didn't wake up being homeless and jobless, but life happened, and when life started happening and life started life, sometimes things go wrong.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible does not specify the exact cause of Bonamias' blindness.
SPEAKER_01: It does not state whether he was born blind or whether he lost his sight in later life.
SPEAKER_01: All we know is his condition and his name.
SPEAKER_01: All we know is that he has a condition that has put him in a place of becoming a beggar.
SPEAKER_01: All we know is that his begging could have been his livelihood.
SPEAKER_01: Even though his sight was impaired, there was nothing wrong with his hearing.
SPEAKER_01: It has been said that people with sight impairment often have acute hearing.
SPEAKER_01: This is the case with Mona Maeus.
SPEAKER_01: As he sat on the side of the road begging, he heard a lot of commotion that drew a lot of attention.
SPEAKER_01: It even drew his attention.
SPEAKER_01: He heard a loud crowd of people passing by.
SPEAKER_01: This was not a normal day, so it was out of the ordinary that a large crowd of people would be passing by at that moment.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, he can see.
SPEAKER_01: He can't see, but he can hear.
SPEAKER_01: There was a lot of excitement in the air.
SPEAKER_01: And he began to ask, What's going on?
SPEAKER_01: What's going on?
SPEAKER_01: And can you imagine how many times he had to ask?
SPEAKER_01: Because folk walked right past him and paid him no attention and nobody really wanted to answer him.
SPEAKER_01: But he kept asking, What is going on?
SPEAKER_01: And someone in the crowd tells him that Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.
SPEAKER_01: When he heard this, it immediately got his attention.
SPEAKER_01: Now his attention is not on the noise, it's not even on the people that are around him, but his attention is on the fact that Jesus was passing by.
SPEAKER_01: You know, Jesus the healer, Jesus the provider, Jesus the way maker, Jesus the miracle worker.
SPEAKER_01: Then Jesus heard him and he asked for Bonamaeus to come to him.
SPEAKER_01: This was Bonamaeus's only opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: And when he saw and heard that Jesus was passing by, he was not about to give up.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe what was going to be his only opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: Bonamaeus had heard all about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: By then Jesus was already a celebrity, and everyone knew who he was and what he could do for them.
SPEAKER_01: But the people thought Jesus had little or no time to waste on some little blind bag and sitting on the side of the road screaming like he had lost his mind, disrupting the whole crowd.
SPEAKER_01: You know, it was almost like when we have celebrities and they come to church.
SPEAKER_01: And we want everybody to be on their best behavior.
SPEAKER_01: We don't want you running around in the church with your shoes off and acting crazy and screaming and falling out.
SPEAKER_01: We want you to act dignified when everybody comes to.
SPEAKER_01: Well, this is what they thought about Bonamius.
SPEAKER_01: He's sitting on the side of the road when Jesus comes through Jericho.
SPEAKER_01: But Bonamias knew that this was his one time and it was his only shot.
SPEAKER_01: And in his spirit, he knew this was his moment.
SPEAKER_01: And I think he said in his spirit, this is my moment, this is my opportunity, and I'm not leaving till I get what I came for.
SPEAKER_01: I ain't being quiet.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care who tell me to be quiet, because I need what Jesus has.
SPEAKER_01: When he heard Jesus was passing by, he began to shout, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.
SPEAKER_01: And the quiet, the crowd again began to tell him to shut up.
SPEAKER_01: That's what they were saying, basically, to shut up.
SPEAKER_01: And because of his persistence, Jesus stopped.
SPEAKER_01: This story teaches us how to hold on until the answer comes.
SPEAKER_01: One thing I want you to know is refuse to be silenced by the crowd.
SPEAKER_01: All of us have been in crowds that we're believing God for something, and everybody got an opinion about what you believe in God for, and folk don't want you to holler.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes when you see people at church and they're crying and they're screaming and they're running out, they're desperate for Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They ain't come here to see you.
SPEAKER_01: Sit your little happy tail down and stop trying to tell everybody what to do.
SPEAKER_01: When you see folk, you don't know what folk are in need of.
SPEAKER_01: Those that led the way kept trying to rebuke him, but he kept hollering.
SPEAKER_01: The very people who could have helped him were the same people to try to hush him.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes people aren't evil, they're just blind to what God is about to do in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes people don't mean no harm.
SPEAKER_01: They don't know that your next is almost here.
SPEAKER_00: They don't know that God is about to do something phenomenal in your life.
SPEAKER_00: They want you to hush, but they don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Everything in me got to holler.
SPEAKER_01: Because there's something that Jesus wants to do in my life.
SPEAKER_01: If you're drowning and you're out there at Myrtle Beach and you find yourself drowning, what you gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: Holler.
SPEAKER_01: When you need help, what you do?
SPEAKER_01: Holler.
SPEAKER_01: I've learned that when you are desperate for Jesus, you won't let people's opinions silence you.
SPEAKER_01: You know the folk that's always got something to say.
SPEAKER_01: Why you gotta go to church all the time?
SPEAKER_01: Every time the church doors open, here you go.
SPEAKER_01: At church.
SPEAKER_01: Why you always praying?
SPEAKER_01: You go to 6 a.m.
SPEAKER_01: prayer, noon prayer, evening prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Why you always got to be praying?
SPEAKER_01: Why you always giving your money to that church?
SPEAKER_01: I don't understand that.
SPEAKER_01: They got it going up, they don't need your money.
SPEAKER_01: That's when people dumb and don't know you gotta pay more because you got lights and heat and all that stuff, you gotta run in church.
SPEAKER_01: Why you always paying your tithes?
SPEAKER_01: Why you always talking about Pastor Walt?
SPEAKER_01: Pastor Walt said this, Pastor Walt said that.
SPEAKER_01: He made this declaration, he gave this profession.
SPEAKER_01: Why y'all always over there listening to Pastor Walt?
SPEAKER_01: Because the word that God has for me is in his mouth.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we listening.
SPEAKER_01: Don't let people's opinions silence you.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever it takes to get Jesus' attention, you need to find be found doing that.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible said Jesus stopped and he ordered the man to be brought to him.
SPEAKER_01: I don't believe that it was all the screaming that got Jesus' attention.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that it was Bonamias' faith that got Jesus' attention.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes Jesus is not attracted to all our crying and all your much speaking and all your much talking.
SPEAKER_01: I believe Jesus is attracted to our faith because what does my faith say?
SPEAKER_01: My faith says, even though I don't say it, I still believe that God is able.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus just don't pay no attention to all that stupid stuff we be doing.
SPEAKER_01: But sometimes when Jesus is ready to do something in your life, he's gonna get your attention.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes it's in a good way, and sometimes it's in a bad way.
SPEAKER_01: How many of y'all ever had to have Jesus get your attention by doing something crazy?
SPEAKER_01: Because when he told you the first time you didn't listen.
SPEAKER_01: So there are times Jesus will allow your whole life to be wrecked so he can get your attention.
SPEAKER_01: If Jesus asks you today, what do you want me to do?
SPEAKER_01: How many of you could give him a clear, precise answer?
SPEAKER_01: Faith is specific, it is not vague.
SPEAKER_01: Bonamas didn't say, Well, Lord, whatever you think is best, that's what I want to see.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I I don't know what I really want.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: When he asked him, what do you want from me?
SPEAKER_01: He had a specific thing.
SPEAKER_01: I want to see.
SPEAKER_01: I've been blind, I've been sitting down here begging all these years.
SPEAKER_01: I want to see.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us want a moment, we don't want a miracle.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us want to feel good for a moment, but we don't want to sacrifice a whole lifetime to serve God.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we can be in and out.
SPEAKER_01: Today we here with our hands up.
SPEAKER_01: By nightfall, we at the club, you know, or we somewhere with boots on the ground doing all that craziness because we don't want to have a lifetime of clear holiness.
SPEAKER_01: I ain't guessing none of y'all to hell because y'all did boots on the ground, because I learned how to do it too.
SPEAKER_01: But I promise you, I ain't gonna do it up and here, up and here, up and here.
SPEAKER_01: Too many people approach God casually with no clear expectation.
SPEAKER_01: I learned in my life, you'll never get what God has for you if you don't have expectations.
SPEAKER_01: He anything you got to have expectations of what he you really want before he'll do whatever it is he's gonna do.
SPEAKER_01: But if you have no expectations of Jesus, he would sit down, y'all get them little penny and a little blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Well, the Lord blessed me today, he gave me five dollars.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, that's good.
SPEAKER_01: But if I need more than five dollars, there ain't no good blessing.
SPEAKER_01: If my bills are too high and my money is too low, I need to be specific.
SPEAKER_01: Now thank God for the five dollars, but I need you to give me five thousand two hundred and twenty-six dollars more to be able to do what I need to do.
SPEAKER_01: Stay until Jesus stops.
SPEAKER_01: Here's Montamayus.
SPEAKER_01: You're hearing you're screaming, and the crowd is large, and everybody trying to tell you to share up, but you didn't leave, you ain't shut your mouth until you got Jesus' attention.
SPEAKER_01: The crowd kept moving, but Jesus stopped for one persistent cry.
SPEAKER_01: His cry pulled Jesus out of the flow of the crowd into a personal moment.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you have ever just wanted to have a personal moment with Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not talking about when things are going bad.
SPEAKER_01: Every now and then you ought to just have you a good shout moment by yourself.
SPEAKER_01: I was uh riding down the street one day and I started thinking about just how good God is, and I was at a red light, and I got out of the car and I ran around my car and I started dancing right there at the red light.
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: Everybody was looking at me.
SPEAKER_00: What nothing wrong with me?
SPEAKER_00: I just knew how good God had been to me.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes the answer doesn't come at first, or the first time you cry out.
SPEAKER_01: But if you keep calling him, he'll stop.
SPEAKER_01: Understand.
SPEAKER_01: Delayed don't mean denied.
SPEAKER_01: How many of y'all still waiting on something, something, and God has not happened?
SPEAKER_01: How many of y'all done sowed a seed on that high five, your neighbor on the left and on the right, ran around church, cut a step, but you still don't see what it is you ask God for?
SPEAKER_01: Well, denay, they don't mean denied.
SPEAKER_01: Just because it hadn't happened yet, don't mean God's not gonna do it.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it ain't got nothing to do with you.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes God's trying to filter and do the infrastructure around you so you'll be in the place that something has the capacity to hold what God got for you.
SPEAKER_01: I just came to tell you, don't leave until you get what you came for.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, Receive your sight, your faith has healed you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not leaving until I get what I prayed for.
SPEAKER_01: Stop praying, and in five minutes, if you don't get the answer, you quit praying.
SPEAKER_01: How many of y'all got still got seeds?
SPEAKER_01: Me too, still got seeds in the ground.
SPEAKER_01: I done sold for this and I done sold for that, and I done sold for that.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, I sold so many seeds, I don't even remember all the seeds I sold.
SPEAKER_01: But stop putting seed in the ground and not waiting on your harvest.
SPEAKER_01: Out now, I write down when I sow a seed, I go home and I write it down.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because it might not happen today, but way down the line, God is going to do just what He said.
SPEAKER_01: When was the last time you cried out to God?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not talking about that little cute prayer now, lay me down to sleep.
SPEAKER_01: I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
SPEAKER_01: If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul today.
SPEAKER_01: I ain't talking about that.
SPEAKER_01: When was the last time you went down and started really, really calling out for God?
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about tears running down your face, not coming out of your nose.
SPEAKER_01: That kind of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: The kind of prayer that I don't care if I'm cute, the kind of prayer that my wig might fall off, but I'm still gonna get to God.
SPEAKER_01: But I will say if the wig falls off, y'all put it back on.
SPEAKER_01: I'm praying for something.
SPEAKER_01: I'm believing God for something, and I'm not leaving until I get it.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care if y'all turn the lights out, I'm not leaving until I get it.
SPEAKER_01: Tell your Urshius to stop trying to fan the spirit out of me, because I'm not leaving until I get it.
SPEAKER_01: Tell them women with them gray, big old clothes they want to throw all over my legs.
SPEAKER_01: I appreciate you trying to cover a girl up, but I ain't leaving until I get what I came for.
SPEAKER_01: How many times have you been so tenacious that I don't care what's going around on around me?
SPEAKER_01: I ain't going nowhere.
SPEAKER_01: Until you bless me, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I remember years ago, and I'm when I'm talking about I'm not leaving until I get what I came for and know it's not an option.
SPEAKER_01: I ain't telling y'all that just because I just want to talk.
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you because I know what it's like.
SPEAKER_01: I remember when I pastored my church, I had five women in my church, and all of them kept miscarrying and kept miscarrying, and none of them had children.
SPEAKER_01: I remember sometimes you got to go before time and you got to set up stuff before God answered you because that's the way God knows you're serious about it.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember having a baby shower at the church for five women that none of them had gotten pregnant and couldn't get pregnant, so they said.
SPEAKER_01: But we did a baby shower, and folk brought all kinds of stuff, and I told them, I said, now y'all go home and set up a nursery.
SPEAKER_01: And I messed around and found a scripture to say, and none shall miscarry.
SPEAKER_01: And we began to stand on that word.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care what the doctor said, I don't care what all y'all other folks said, I don't care what your mama, your daddy, or even your husband said.
SPEAKER_01: If God said it is so, it is so.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember we had the baby shower, and people were setting up, they had cribs in the house, and they had everything they needed in the house, but they ain't had no baby.
SPEAKER_01: But we stood on that word of God.
SPEAKER_01: We stood on it.
SPEAKER_01: One Sunday I was in church and a girl came running in church and she was skinny and she started patting her stomach.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Baby, I got an indigestion.
SPEAKER_01: What is wrong with you?
SPEAKER_01: You're patting your stomach.
SPEAKER_01: No, what it was is you had a baby.
SPEAKER_01: All five of them had babies.
SPEAKER_01: Some of them had multiple children.
SPEAKER_01: One girl asked me, could I pray?
SPEAKER_01: She stopped having children.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you got to act like you got it before you get it.
SPEAKER_00: You got to believe God even when you don't see God.
SPEAKER_01: I remember years ago, I was sitting at home one day and I heard the Lord tell me, pack up everything you own.
SPEAKER_01: You're about to move.
SPEAKER_01: Move away.
SPEAKER_01: I ain't asked for no house.
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm in a really nice house and I'm quite comfortable.
SPEAKER_01: And the house payment is really good.
SPEAKER_01: And Bishop Abe and I are able to do that without struggle because I can pay that house payment and still go shop a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: See, all that's important to me.
SPEAKER_01: I know that ain't important to y'all.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm shocked at this word because we had not even talked about moving.
SPEAKER_01: We were in a nice house in a nice neighborhood, but I heard Jesus say, pack up everything.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm kind of one of those people that when I hear the Lord speak, I get to move in.
SPEAKER_01: See, some of y'all got to wait till you see it before you do it.
SPEAKER_01: I ain't got to see nothing.
SPEAKER_01: If the Lord says pack up, I'm packing up.
SPEAKER_01: So I remember it was January and it was cold outside, but I went to the store and I bought not a few boxes, I bought a whole Lot of boxes.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember my husband came home.
SPEAKER_01: He what are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: And I told him, I heard the Lord say, pack up.
SPEAKER_01: Bishop didn't ask me not one question.
SPEAKER_01: That boy grabbed up a box and started packing with me.
SPEAKER_01: See, that's what you got to do.
SPEAKER_01: You got to have mates in your house and people in your house that when God, God don't speak to everybody in the house, but when He speaks to somebody, you gotta have somebody to believe God spoke to you.
SPEAKER_01: So here we go.
SPEAKER_01: We're on a packing mission.
SPEAKER_01: It's January.
SPEAKER_01: We're packing.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know where we're going.
SPEAKER_01: We ain't looked at no house.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know none of that.
SPEAKER_01: But I heard God say, pack up.
SPEAKER_01: We packed up everything.
SPEAKER_01: We eaten out of paper plates and paper cups.
SPEAKER_01: We got plastic farts.
SPEAKER_01: We got on it's winter time, so the only clothes I got out of my winter clothes.
SPEAKER_01: But then I sit there and I listen.
SPEAKER_01: See, when God gives you instruction, you better follow those instructions.
SPEAKER_01: Even if you can't see it.
SPEAKER_01: I couldn't see it.
SPEAKER_01: Here we go.
SPEAKER_01: Spring comes.
SPEAKER_01: Now I gotta pack up my winter clothes, put them in a box and take out my spring clothes.
SPEAKER_01: Still ain't got no place to go.
SPEAKER_01: Summer comes.
SPEAKER_01: Now I gotta pack up the spring clothes.
SPEAKER_01: Now I gotta put on the summer clothes.
SPEAKER_01: Still ain't got no place to come.
SPEAKER_01: Fall come, I'm doing the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: But I heard God say, pack up.
SPEAKER_01: You're getting ready to move.
SPEAKER_01: So I was looking one day in the newspaper that there was a home showcase in a certain neighborhood.
SPEAKER_01: And I just went to see the houses in the neighborhood.
SPEAKER_01: You ever go into a neighborhood or you go in someplace, you know you can't afford it when you go up in it.
SPEAKER_01: But they don't charge you nothing to come.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I don't understand why people don't go to the car dealership.
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling y'all, I drove some wonderful cars and I had some wonderful cars in my life.
SPEAKER_01: They will let you come to the car dealership, they'll let you get in a car, they'll let now they're gonna send somebody with you, but they're gonna let you ride around the block a couple of times and you come back because every now and then you need to taste where you want to go.
SPEAKER_01: Stop sitting around waiting to do nothing.
SPEAKER_01: If they're gonna let me test drive, I remember test driving all the time.
SPEAKER_01: I remember Charles took me to the Tesla dealership because I went to see where the Tesla rode like.
SPEAKER_01: I ain't know what no car rode like that didn't have no driver.
SPEAKER_01: That before Elon Musk went crazy, but I ain't buying no Tesla.
SPEAKER_01: That was a sidebar, okay?
SPEAKER_01: So I go to this neighborhood.
SPEAKER_01: When I got out of the car, I already knew the houses in the neighborhood were out of my price range.
SPEAKER_01: But God kept sending me back to this neighborhood.
SPEAKER_01: One day I'm in the neighborhood.
SPEAKER_01: I visited this uh showcase house so many times until the owner of the uh house actually thought he was the builder.
SPEAKER_01: He thought I worked for him.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm there all the time.
SPEAKER_01: I'm giving tours.
SPEAKER_01: I know how deep the pool is, I know all that stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And the crazy thing is, all these crazy folk in the place, they all follow me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just giving tours.
SPEAKER_01: I don't work for none of y'all.
SPEAKER_01: Truth be told, I can't even afford to live over here.
SPEAKER_01: But I went over there because I had to get that neighborhood and that spirit and that house in my spirit.
SPEAKER_01: I mess around.
SPEAKER_01: I meet the builder, and he begins to talk to me.
SPEAKER_01: And y'all know I'm I'm a good actress.
SPEAKER_01: I was talking back, I was acting as though I had a whole lot of money, but I was broke as I can be.
SPEAKER_01: But he didn't know that because I know how to act.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all know how we can do when we're in the right place, we get bougie.
SPEAKER_01: Just don't ask me to get no offering, and you're gonna be really sad.
SPEAKER_01: But one day, as I was talking to this builder, he began to talk to me and he told me, he said, Uh, are you planning to move here?
SPEAKER_01: I said, Oh yes.
SPEAKER_01: Because that was my plan.
SPEAKER_01: I ain't had no money, but I didn't know if I was gonna move like that yeah, but I knew I was gonna one day move in that neighborhood.
SPEAKER_01: So the builder began to look at me.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Are you busy?
SPEAKER_01: I said, No.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Come down the street.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I want to show you a house.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'm game.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, now I'm going down the street with this other colored man to a house, and I don't know you, but I know this, you know, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You show out if you want to, Jesus was gonna need to be with you.
SPEAKER_01: But anyway, I go to the house and he showed me a house that was being built and it was almost complete.
SPEAKER_01: He was building it for another builder, and the other builder backed out of the deal.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm looking.
SPEAKER_01: But I know we are not getting ready to buy this house because in my mind I can't see how we're gonna buy this house.
SPEAKER_01: Now the Lord said, pack up, and I did that, but he ain't said nothing about we can ready by that house.
SPEAKER_01: So here we are.
SPEAKER_01: I had never been in a home like this before.
SPEAKER_01: I grew up in West Charlotte, so I hadn't been in no million-dollar house.
SPEAKER_01: I hadn't been in a house where all the house, every bedroom had its own bathroom and all.
SPEAKER_01: So I know all y'all did that, but I hadn't been in all that, so that was new territory for me.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm walking around looking like, ooh, this is nice.
SPEAKER_01: I like this.
SPEAKER_01: But I still didn't say I was moving there.
SPEAKER_01: I had never seen anything like this.
SPEAKER_01: Now remember, I told you that the Lord told me to pack up in January.
SPEAKER_01: Now it's October.
SPEAKER_01: We went to apply for a loan.
SPEAKER_01: We decided, me and Bishop, this is the house the Lord wants us to have.
SPEAKER_01: Well, the Lord said that, but you know how the Lord tells you something, but you still can't see it.
SPEAKER_01: We decided to stretch out on our faith.
SPEAKER_01: Now I tell you, when we went to the house, we ain't had no million dollars.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I ain't sure we had no hundred thousand either, but we we had a little bit of money, but we had no lot of money.
SPEAKER_01: We had good credit, but we had no money.
SPEAKER_01: All we had was faith and a word.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you getting ready to walk into stuff you can claim and you ain't got nothing but faith and a word.
SPEAKER_01: Ain't nobody can't say it but you, but you got faith and a word.
SPEAKER_01: If you got faith and you got a word and you got God's word, that's really all you need.
SPEAKER_01: All the rest of it up to God.
SPEAKER_01: So here we are.
SPEAKER_01: Bishop and I are faith focused.
SPEAKER_01: All we did was relieve God for what he said.
SPEAKER_01: We followed every instruction and we were obedient.
SPEAKER_01: So here we are now, Bishop and I going to get alone.
SPEAKER_01: We applied for the loan.
SPEAKER_01: We got denial after denial after denial after denial.
SPEAKER_01: But every time I would get a denial, I would go back to that house and I praise God and I'd shout all over that house, and I started seeing that things were going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: Not because I know y'all said no, but no, it's not an option.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know who you think you're dealing with, but you're dealing with a child of God.
SPEAKER_01: If God told me to pack up my stuff and God told me that was my house, I don't care how many denials you give me, that's my house.
SPEAKER_01: I would begin to praise God.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember going there one day, and some of the builders and the construction workers were running around the house.
SPEAKER_01: And I went in the kitchen, and I decided I don't like this kitchen.
SPEAKER_01: So I began to give them change orders.
SPEAKER_01: And I ain't got no loan, I ain't got nothing, but I'm giving change orders, and these folk following everything I said.
SPEAKER_01: So the man said, What do you want?
SPEAKER_01: I say, Well, I don't like the stove, I don't like the refrigerator, I like to cook, I want a commercial kitchen.
SPEAKER_01: Them little four eyes you got on that stove, they ain't gonna do no good for me because my husband liked these.
SPEAKER_01: I need at least six to eight uh eyes on my stove.
SPEAKER_01: So everything I asked them to do, I saw they were doing it.
SPEAKER_01: So done day one, they they changed, didn't a change order.
SPEAKER_01: They changed my kitchen around.
SPEAKER_01: So I was like, okay, I'm gonna stretch it a little further.
SPEAKER_01: Now still ain't got no loan.
SPEAKER_01: So I go back a day or two later, and I'm walking through, and the gentleman he said, just what Jesus said, what do you want me to do?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I think I really want an elevator.
SPEAKER_01: Come a knee's not good and I can't walk up three flights of stairs.
SPEAKER_01: So I really need an elevator.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember the next thing I turn around, they had surveyors outside, inside, trying to find the best place for an elevator.
SPEAKER_01: And the man he said, Well, what do you want?
SPEAKER_01: I said, Well, if you ask me, you ask me what I want.
SPEAKER_01: I want the elevator, but I want it to be glass on the outside so that when I go up, I can see the water.
SPEAKER_01: Next thing I know, the elevator is in.
SPEAKER_01: But I had just gotten a denial.
SPEAKER_01: When I went there to tell them I wanted that elevator, and they had already denied me, but I want an elevator.
SPEAKER_01: The house is almost complete.
SPEAKER_01: But we continue to get denial after denial, and every time they deny me, I have to continue to praise God.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell y'all something.
SPEAKER_01: When somebody tells you no, every now and then you got to just start praising God.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because I know what you said, but that ain't what God said, and I ain't focused on what you said, I'm focused on what God said because you might have said no, but God told me what he was about to do for us.
SPEAKER_01: I had anointed the walls in the house so much until the painters thought the paint was bleeding through the house, so they had to repaint the whole house.
SPEAKER_01: That wasn't nothing but oil.
SPEAKER_01: I went to anointing everything, steps got anointed, the floors got anointed.
SPEAKER_01: I remember going in there one day and say, Let me walk through this little place and get the print.
SPEAKER_01: See, when God gives me an instruction, I don't give a rip who say I can't.
SPEAKER_01: If God said I can, I'm going off.
SPEAKER_01: I can.
SPEAKER_01: Delayed don't mean denial.
SPEAKER_01: At this point, I've gone through all of that.
SPEAKER_01: We've had 71 no's.
SPEAKER_01: Most of y'all can't stand three no's, and you already gave up on what God said.
SPEAKER_01: We had 71 no's.
SPEAKER_01: But how many of y'all know it only take one?
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember on the day that I got number 72.
SPEAKER_01: No, I got up, I went to that house, and I reminded God what he told me.
SPEAKER_01: I began to command the Lord's hand to move in this situation.
SPEAKER_01: I began to tell God, I ain't asked for no house.
SPEAKER_01: You said, and as I began to say that, I began to tell him, you said that if I ask anything in prayer, believing it shall be given unto me.
SPEAKER_00: That's what you said.
SPEAKER_00: You said the cattle on a thousand hills belong to me.
SPEAKER_00: That's what you said.
SPEAKER_01: You said it was your good pleasure to bless me.
SPEAKER_01: You said that if I trusted you, you would give me direction.
SPEAKER_01: You direct my path.
SPEAKER_01: That's what you said.
SPEAKER_01: You said every place my foot shall trod, I could possess the land.
SPEAKER_01: And when I got to that one thing, I started stomping and walking all around that house.
SPEAKER_01: Because it was my house.
SPEAKER_01: I just recited the word.
SPEAKER_01: How many times when you get in a jam, do you stop and remind the Lord what he said?
SPEAKER_01: I ain't making this up, this is what you said.
SPEAKER_01: If you said I could have it, I ain't got no more sense than believe you that I'm getting ready to get it.
SPEAKER_01: So here we are.
SPEAKER_01: I'm praising God.
SPEAKER_01: I done stomping all around that house.
SPEAKER_01: I done prayed inside, outside, all in the yard.
SPEAKER_01: I began to thank God for what we were about to receive.
SPEAKER_01: I got my commercial kitchen, I got my elevator, I got my new fresh paint on the way nowhere.
SPEAKER_01: I'm about to leave this house.
SPEAKER_01: I'm about to build some water.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all gonna look at me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm moving up in this house.
SPEAKER_01: I ain't got no papers because God said I could.
SPEAKER_01: I remember that day when I left, God said, put feet to action.
SPEAKER_01: What you mean, God?
SPEAKER_01: I was riding down the street.
SPEAKER_01: God said, Go to the furniture store and start buying all the furniture you need in the house.
SPEAKER_01: Cool.
SPEAKER_01: Now I got my backs, all my boxes packed.
SPEAKER_01: I got my elevator, I got my kitchen now.
SPEAKER_01: I'm getting ready to go buy me some furniture.
SPEAKER_01: But I believed what God said.
SPEAKER_01: But in the middle of the night, the Lord began to wake up, wake me up and said, Go to another lender in the morning.
SPEAKER_01: Now God sent us to a bank that at that time wasn't lending black folk no money.
SPEAKER_01: So when God said, I'm like, okay, you got jokes.
SPEAKER_01: Now you're gonna send me to this other bank and you know they don't lend us no money.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know we went to that bank and in two days we had that loan?
SPEAKER_01: Then I learned we never got denied.
SPEAKER_01: The lending institutions that we were going to, they couldn't lend over a million dollars.
SPEAKER_01: So they were trying to pull three and four little loans together to make a man.
SPEAKER_01: So you never told me no.
SPEAKER_01: You told them no, they came back, told me no.
SPEAKER_01: And if I had believed what they said, I wouldn't have never moved into that house.
SPEAKER_01: But sometimes when you hear no, in the back of your mind, you got to hear God saying yes.
SPEAKER_01: I ain't leaving till I get what it came for.
SPEAKER_01: We learned some lessons that day.
SPEAKER_01: I told you this journey started in January.
SPEAKER_01: It is now December.
SPEAKER_01: That's why y'all gotta stop fainting in the middle of times of adversity because God knows just because it's late don't mean God ain't gonna do it.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember I got up when I got the loan, we were just shouting, and I told the loan officer, because I had heard God that night say, Y'all moving New Year's Day.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Now God, that's a holiday.
SPEAKER_01: He said, You're moving New Year's Day.
SPEAKER_01: So I began to talk to the loan officer, and I remember the loan officer told me, There's no way we can, it's already December.
SPEAKER_01: We can't go to closing in December.
SPEAKER_01: We can get you there by the end of January, the first February.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember looking at him and I said, okay, well, let me let me explain something to you.
SPEAKER_01: This is what God said.
SPEAKER_01: So if you can't get my closing by the end of December, you need to tell God that you ain't gonna close on this house by the end of December.
SPEAKER_01: I ain't telling God nothing else.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just telling you what God said.
SPEAKER_01: And I just remember I came home and the Lord said, Call the move and set up a mover.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the man already told me I can't go closing.
SPEAKER_01: But I called and I set up that move.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember the people tell me, they say, Ma'am, that's New Year's Day, that's a holiday.
SPEAKER_01: We ain't moving nobody on New Year's Day.
SPEAKER_01: I say, Well, I'll triple whatever your price is.
SPEAKER_01: The man said, Okay, what time you need us there?
SPEAKER_01: How many of y'all know money talks?
SPEAKER_01: But I remember when the moving company came.
SPEAKER_01: We were ready.
SPEAKER_01: We got the man had already told us no, we couldn't have closing.
SPEAKER_01: How many of y'all know December 28th?
SPEAKER_01: I closed.
SPEAKER_01: Not only did I close December 28th, New Year's Day, I moved.
SPEAKER_01: Why did that happen?
SPEAKER_01: Because no was not an option, and I was getting everything I came for.
SPEAKER_00: So I don't know who I'm talking to in here today, but there's some things out there in the wind, in the wind, waiting on you, and you need to tell the devil from hell, all the imps and everybody else, I ain't moving till I get what I came for.
SPEAKER_00: I came to get a blessing, I'm getting a blessing.
SPEAKER_00: I came to get a car, I'm getting a car, I came to get a house, I'm getting my house.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not leaving until I get everything I came for.
SPEAKER_01: Start thinking in your mind, what is it that I'm waiting on God to do?
SPEAKER_01: How many of y'all about the point of giving up?
SPEAKER_01: Because you done waited so long.
SPEAKER_01: And God's thank you.
SPEAKER_01: I see one person that's honest.
SPEAKER_01: I can raise my hand too.
SPEAKER_01: Because there have been times that I wanted to give up.
SPEAKER_01: Because what I asked God for, I wasn't seeing.
SPEAKER_01: But let me tell y'all something.
SPEAKER_01: Again, I say delayed don't mean denied, and no, it's not an option.
SPEAKER_01: Don't tell me no, I can't move in this house.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I can.
SPEAKER_00: Don't tell me no, you can't close.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you can.
SPEAKER_00: Don't tell me no.
SPEAKER_01: Because God has a plan for our lives.
SPEAKER_01: How many of y'all waiting on healing?
SPEAKER_01: Waiting on family restoration, waiting on God's provision, waiting on money to stop being funny.
SPEAKER_01: How many of y'all really need God to do a quick move in your life?
SPEAKER_01: When you sit here and you listen to the vision of this church, I decree some of y'all getting ready to get blessed because you're gonna help underwrite the vision of the church.
SPEAKER_01: So when money starts coming in the mail and God starts doing something, don't sit there and get there acting crazy.
SPEAKER_00: Some of what God getting ready to do for you is to be able to bless the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not walking away empty-handed.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us need to learn how to cry out to God.
SPEAKER_01: If you need healing, cry out.
SPEAKER_01: If your money is funny, cry out.
SPEAKER_01: If you need a house, cry out.
SPEAKER_01: We are in the season that we got to act like we got it before we get it and understand that delayed don't mean denied.
SPEAKER_01: Know that even though God don't always show up, I'm still on his mind.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you know sometimes God is just preparing the way for you?
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you didn't get what you wanted because God's trying to allow the interest rates to come down.
SPEAKER_01: So you ain't gotta pay more money for it.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care who is in the White House, I know who's on the throne.
SPEAKER_01: I ain't being moved by your big ugly bill.
SPEAKER_01: I ain't being moved by none of that.
SPEAKER_01: Because God said, if I got hungry, ravens will come and feed me.
SPEAKER_01: When faith refuses to quit, Jesus will always stop.
SPEAKER_01: And when Jesus stops, nothing but miracles are gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: Lift your hands and just begin to tell God thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Now I ain't thanking for right now.
SPEAKER_01: I'm thanking you for what I've I'm about to receive.
SPEAKER_01: I thank you for the direction you're about to take me in.
SPEAKER_01: I'm thanking you for the prayers that you're getting ready to answer.
SPEAKER_00: No, you ain't answered it yet, but how many of y'all know that God is still on the main line and He's about to give you some things that you asked for, hoped for, prayed for.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's not an option.
SPEAKER_01: And I ain't leaving until I get what I came for.