Christlike Part 3 - Vain Traditions

In this episode, we explore the power of living with a renewed mindset and understanding the authority believers have to shape their day through the way they think, speak, and respond to life’s challenges. Listen now and break free from limiting traditions, allowing the Word to transform your thinking so that you can experience the fullness of God’s power and purpose in every area of your life.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

So we're talking about being Christ-like, amen. So our last message uh was uh intentional sightseeing, but it should be a s uh uh should be uh an uh a session of the Christ-like uh teaching. And that should be reflected on the podcast as well. Thank you. You guys can make your uh seats. Do you believe you're anointed? Oh yes are you anointed? Are you sure?

SPEAKER_02 0:36

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

You see, with being anointed, there are no days off. There are no days off. You're not allowed to wake up and say, I don't feel anointed. Are you listening? Oh, I do not feel anointed. Praise God. Oh, my day didn't go the way I want it to go, so it must mean that I'm not anointed. Praise God. You there's no space. There's no space for it. No days off, the oil keeps running. Yeah, tell your neighbor the oil keeps running every day. The thing is though, about the anointing is the anointing attracts big problems. Amen. The anointing attracts big problems because if you solve big problems, God is glorified. But the Bible says that Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, all right, which I found that the problems that were coming towards Christ at a young age were proportionate to the anointing on him at that age. So at your stage, you may find that the issues that are gravitating towards you are family issues, just family issues, and they present themselves and you have to fix them. What kind of an anointed person has that kind of oil on them? Problems come and they start crying. What kind of anointing is that? You want to partake in that anointing? No, when you're anointed, when issues come your way, that's the purpose of you being anointed. You're gonna use that anointing on your the oil that's been poured on you. Right? I'm saying oil, but in this case, you are anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power. Acts chapter 10, 38. Maybe I have to get you to say it a couple of times because you know, some of you are sleeping, some of you are awake. Say I'm anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power, I am indeed anointed with the Holy Spirit, and with power, I don't have to see it, I don't have to feel it, but I am anointed. I can even step incorrectly, doesn't change the facts, the truth, I'm anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power. I can go a day, two days, three days, four days, five days with no food in my stomach, but I'm anointed, brother. I'm anointed that oil is pressed on top of my head, yeah, I'm anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power. I may prophesy and I don't see the results, it doesn't matter because I'm anointed, and soon enough there's proof of the anointing, so I'm anointed, I don't need to feel it. Glory be to God, things can be going wrong. I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. So, my question to you is why do you have a wrong side of the bed? Why do you have a wrong side of the bed? Why are you putting yourself in a position where you have to come out on the right side? Say all sides of my bed I'm right. I'm teaching you how to talk like a Christian. All sides of my bed I'm right, and pure, and holy, all sides of my bed I'm right. Yeah, I don't have a bad day, I don't understand what a bad day is because when they present themselves, because I am anointed, the day becomes good. I am I am the representative of Christ. So when I show up, the day turns good. No matter what I see, my day turns good.

SPEAKER_02 6:19

Praise God.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

Now, I am aware some of you are saying it, but you don't believe it, but I know you can feel the power. You can feel that power, it's in inside your heart, in your belly. You can feel the power. And if you're sitting next to someone who is saying it, and you're not saying it, the power is rubbing off on you anyway. You ain't got a choice. Sit down, sit down, sit down. Praise God. No bad days on this side. I mean, I'm in a bad mood. So I'm in a bad mood. So, what's the anointing for? I'm in a bad mood. I'm upset today. What's that anointing for? Why did he take his time to anoint you with the Holy Spirit and with power? For what reason? What's that? What's the purpose of that? Power on you. Is the is the power for decoration? Was the power to be used? As a Christian, as a Christ-like individual, you control your day. Control it and be tough about that. I understand some of you never heard anyone say that before, but that's why you're here. Do you hear what I said? Control your day. Yeah, control it. You know. I love God so much that uh the more I read the scripture, the more I discover about Him. He wants us to be so different, so separated. And the more I read the scripture, the more I discover this so different. And I'll give you a few examples of that. Alright, in uh Exodus chapter 12, God decides. Alright, this was really random. He decides and he says, Uh, Israel, from today, your calendar is different. He just woke up and changed the calendar. God said, I don't want you, the Amalekites, the Babylonians, all of them. I don't want you guys having the same calendar. You your calendar must change. Can you imagine that? You wake up, you think this is we're six months into the year. God says, This is the first month of the year now. Praise God. Yeah, I let's can we read it? Let's read it. Let's read Exodus 12. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

Exodus chapter 12 from verse 1 says.

SPEAKER_01 9:29

He said, July is January. Listen, your bad mood will not affect my.

SPEAKER_00 9:49

Thank you, sir. Exodus chapter 12, from verse 1 says, Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, Verse 2, This month shall be your beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

Did you hear that? He said, This shall be the beginning of the year to you. He didn't say it is the beginning of the year, period. He said, To you.

unknown 10:18

Come on now, man.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

Because you're anointed. Listen, listen, things are different when the power has been pressed on you. Things are different. God demands for you to see things differently. He demands for you to you cannot afford with that kind of power on you, you cannot afford to see things wrong. Because if you see things wrong, things shall surely go wrong.

unknown 10:44

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

There's too much power on you, brother. You understand that? There's so much power on you that if you decide to see things the way Satan wants you to see them, they will go exactly that way. But if you decide that I will see things the way God asked me to see them, then you've stepped into your authority where you can now wield your day. Now, brothers and sisters, it doesn't matter if it's, you know, some people say, ah, I mean, I forgot to pray and catch the day when it was young. So it's six o'clock, it's the middle of the day. The day is already gone. No, you can change your day at 11 p.m.

unknown 11:32

Closer.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

There's one hour left. Make that one hour something to shout about.

SPEAKER_02 11:38

That's right, that's right. Closer. Come on.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

Ask yourself a question. Why do I think the way I think? Why? I know why you think the way you think. I can tell you why, and I will tell you why. Amen. We got to change the way you think. We got to change the way you think. We cannot build a proper body if you don't attack the way you think. Amen. You cannot build, you can go to your home country and you know, I when I went to my home country, I saw terrible things. Terrible things. The roads were not done, nothing. Yeah, it was terrible. I can't fix that unless I fix my mind first. Unless I build roads of success in my mind. I cannot build roads in my home country. Do you understand that? Some of you are so ambitious. You you have been dreaming for a long time. You are not a dreamer. You don't want to be called a dreamer. You want those dreams to become reality. The only way that will happen is if you change the way you think. Be Christ-like. Being Christ-like is thinking parallel to Christ. You ask yourself, if the Lord was in this situation, what would he do? How would he respond to in this situation? Even if you miss it, but you go back and say, No, no, I can fix this. I'm still alive, the day is still running, I can fix this. Hallelujah. Yeah, I can fix this. So I I I reference the Old Testament a lot because the Old Testament is a shadow of the new. Okay. But when I say shadow, so when you study the Old Testament, you start to see 50 to 60% of how God is and 100% of how he's not. You have to be mature to understand what I just said there. You see 60% of how God is and 100% of how he's not when you read the Old Testament. Because when he was ready to uh burn Israel to the ground, he no longer is like that anymore. Hallelujah. So he's no longer like that anymore. 100% of what he's not. But he does have that side to him. Does that make sense to you now? Yeah. So the Old Testament is the shadow of the new. So when I reference the Old Testament, it kind of gives you a foundation on how you want to relate with God. You've seen how God was, and it will help you to manage your relationship with him now. So I found that Israel would zap the power of God out of their community through their vain traditions. Israel wanted what they were used to. Israel didn't like new beginnings. Israel was not interested in change and growth. They weren't interested in that. They wanted comfort, consistency. Praise God. How many of us identify with that? You don't like change. You find yourself in an abusive relationship, and God says it's time for you to move. And because you're comfortable, you stay.

unknown 15:59

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

So God says in Hebrews chapter 5, and I think I want you to read this. He says, There are, I need you to change your mindset. He said, There's something I want you to know first. And this thing will make you mature. You get this thing and you become mature. You understand this thing, and you're on your way to maturity, spiritual maturity. Yeah? Hebrews chapter 5. Let's look at that. Hebrews 5 13. Now I'm getting into the thick of my message. So I want you to listen attentively. I have good days only. Wonderful days. Today has been a good day. Holy Spirit-filled day. Anointed day. I met so many distinguished people. And they imparted on my life. And they gave me the opportunity to give back to them.

SPEAKER_02 17:03

And they blessed me.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

And so I blessed them. I'm in a thanksgiving mood. So thank you, Lord Jesus. For everything you've done for me. Even those things I don't know.

unknown 17:17

Even those things I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

Thank you, Lord Jesus. For making the supernatural available, available to me. Thank you, Lord Jesus. You protected me and my family. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Thank you, Lord Jesus. You made me rich, rich. I can smell the money. You made me rich, rich, rich. Now, brothers, sisters, even if you ain't feeling rich, doesn't matter. Say it from your spirit. Say, I am rich, rich. I have a lot of money. Abraham was blessed. A thousand cattles on a hill. What will you do with all those cattles? Likewise, I'm so rich. What will I do with all this money? Praise God. You know, I'll keep doing these confessions until your face changes. Praise God. You know, let me tell you my mentality. I am enough to affect everyone. Yeah, you can affect me. I am enough to affect you. There's too many of me to affect you. Praise God. Hallelujah. I'm so blessed. The Bible says Abraham was blessed. He was called Abraham the Blessed. And so I'm his child. I'm a descendant of Abraham. So I'm Pastor Max the Blessed. I'm so blessed. I'm so blessed. Mm-hmm. I inherited the whole world. The sea of old. I inherited everything.

SPEAKER_02 19:29

I inherited everything.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

The whole world. God gave me the whole world. And He said I can do all things. I can do all things. There's nothing I cannot do. If I want to be the Prime Minister, then I'm the Prime Minister. If I want to be a lumber, then I'm a lumber. If I wanna be a businessman, then I'm a businessman. If I wanna be an athlete, then I'm an athlete. Whatever I want to be, I become. Because God said I can do all things. I can do all things. I can do all things. The same God said greater is He that is in me than He that is in the world. So if I am greater, how can I be defeated? How can I be down? How can I be depressed? How can I be stressed? How can I be down? How can I be sickly? I conquered them. Yeah. He said I conquered them. He said I'm more than a conqueror. I explained this to you guys before. More than a conqueror, it means you're past conquering. Sit down, let me let me explain it to you. Let me explain past conquering. You know what past conquering is? Past conquering is it's as if I I I I just had my wedding, alright, and I had children. 15 years later, alright? I meet you and you say, Ah, congratulations for your wedding. I will look at you and say, Brother, I got married 15 years ago. 15 years ago. I'm past married. I got kids now. So when it says that you are you are more than a conqueror, it means you've past conquering. You conquered thousands of years ago. So you're you're living in your deliverables, you don't understand. You're living in the fruits of conquering. You can't don't congratulate me for conquering. I did that years ago. Right now, I'm living in the fruits of conquering. And and I'm not just saying these things. Do you understand? I'm not just saying these things. What I'm uh delivering to you now is power. This is power. You take this to your workplace, they will look at you and think, oh no, there's something good about that guy. You're different. I'm a distinguished person. Greatly distinguished. I am so distinguished. Highly distinguished. Very distinguished. Anointedly distinguished. I am who he says I am. Me and my children. We are who he says we are. And as I'm talking, the palm of God is spurgeon through my body. Is spurgeon through my body right now. The palm of God is smurging through my body. Everything that doesn't belong to God is wiped away. Destroyed. Taken. Removed. Everything. That's an anointing. I'm anointed. I'm anointed. With the Holy Spirit and with power. Give yourself a big round of applause. Amen. Hallelujah. Take a seat. Let's get into the word. Mark chapter seven. I might make you pop up again and we we go another round. Mark chapter seven, verse thirteen.

SPEAKER_00 24:41

Thank you, sir. Mark chapter seven from verse thirteen says Making the Word of God of no effect through your tradition, which you have handed down, and many such things you do.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

Praise God. You know, when I read this, it it kind of uh saddens me a little bit because I wonder how many things were passed down to you from generation to generation that has caused you to be the way you are. How many things how many traditions were passed down to you and I'll put the word tradition aside for a second and I will use the word uh habits. How many habits listen? Uh I noticed something naturally, okay? You may see this in your children, so you you you should tackle it early. Are you listening?

SPEAKER_02 25:41

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 25:42

When when they don't get what they want, they throw themselves on the floor. Have you seen that with kids before? Oh, they start sulking, they throw themselves on the floor, so they start rolling. It's it's it's as if they're going through deliverance. You know, they throw themselves. Some others will look at you, stamp. Just look at you to see what will you do now? I've stamped. No, but and this is because they didn't get what they wanted. Do you know that you were like that when you were a child? And nobody pulled you up on it, so you've grown into an adult. Now, when you don't get what you want, yeah, that's a lot of adults, and some become abusive with their words, they start cursing, the habits that you grew with when you were a child, and some of you did that, your parents said, It's okay to be upset, it's fine get it out of your system, and so you've grown into a man, and now you want to get it out of your system. If somebody has said you threw you threw yourself in the floor, you said, get up! Go and sit down there, you sit down, so when you don't get what you want, you don't throw yourself on the floor. You speak, you explain. So we have grown babies in the house of God. Yeah, some of them are usher leaders, some of them are pastors, leaders, bishops, some of them are choir leaders, some of them are apostles, they've started 150 branches, and you look at them and think, oh yeah, yeah, he's doing what you didn't know that this thing was in him. Some don't get what they want, so they run to food. You see this thing I just described, yeah? This little thing I said when they throw themselves. With adults, it comes out in different ways. You must understand that so with some adults it's it's self-abuse, alcohol. Alright. With others it's food therapy, so they he must he or she must be eaten, eating, and eating until they're now over this trauma of not getting what they want. He said the word of God has been made of non-effect because of your vain traditions and things that's been passed on from your parents, parents to you, and you will take them and give them onto your kids. You see, there are some there are some things that if when I'm highlighting them, make up your mind that you will not be like that for the sake of your children. I will not be like that for the sake of my life, for the sake, even if you don't have them, say for the sake of my children, and for the sake of Christ, I will not be like this. The woman of God said, the word of God is for correction and reproof. This is what we're doing. So there's an adult version of throwing yourself on the floor. Praise God. Did you know that that behavior can be demonically inspired? I taught you on behavioral confession, do you remember that? So that is a confession that you've made in your behavior, and you know what you did? You threatened me. Let me explain. If I don't give a child something and the child throws himself on the floor, what is he saying? Is this too deep for you? Most of us are like that with God. You prayed, you said, God, I want you to do something. God maybe didn't come through on your timing, and you threatened him with your behavior. I'm not going back to that church again.

SPEAKER_02 31:10

Closer, closer, closer.

SPEAKER_01 31:16

I sold, I prayed, I did this, I did that, I did that. I'm not going back to that church again. You didn't threaten the pastor, you threatened God. That's what Israel was doing. What's the difference between you and Israel? Yeah, you're paripasu. You're all the same. Israel did the same thing. We're in the desert here, you know. We want to go back to Egypt because you're not feeding us well. I made up my mind years ago that I will be a grateful child. When I noticed these things, I said, I will be a grateful child to God. How do you how do you show gratefulness? If daddy doesn't come through on A, I thank him for coming through on B. You're too quiet. This is terrible. Listen, there are there are there are fathers here. Ask yourself, how will you feel? If your child asks you for something, and by human capacity, you cannot provide. So you say, you say, by faith, I'll get it for you. You come back home, you didn't get what the child asked for. And the child looks at you and says, I thought you were a father. Which father here will be happy to see that type of behavior? Are you sleeping or am I? Should I? So, do you think God is happy when He doesn't really come through on your timing and uh you change some of your behavior? You say, I'm no longer going to be devoted as I was before. That's a threat. For those of you that don't know what that is, it's a it's a spiritual infant, he's a baby. When he doesn't get what he wants, he throws a tantrum. Another thing that children do is everybody must know that they didn't get what they want. Hey, I must be hitting certain demons today. I've never seen you so quiet before. Pastor Max, continue. You are doing well. I've not seen you this quiet before. Everybody must know. Have you met a person like that before? When something goes wrong in their life, everybody must know. First way you will know is the face. They've come into church the first you everybody will know that there's an issue. Say nepios. Everybody must know. Second thing they will do is they will tell everybody. Tell your neighbor, God loves a private man because he's a private God. God is extremely private. You know, if he wasn't private, he would have exposed you long ago. All the things you've done. And you know all the things you've done that nobody knows about. God himself would have exposed you. But he hasn't exposed you, has he exposed you? Has he?

unknown 35:01

No.

SPEAKER_01 35:02

Alright then. Alright then. So God is a private God and he likes privacy because he wants you to build with him in secret and he rewards you in public. So when you pray, you're you're in prayer about something, or you're believing God for something in that very thing that you're believing him for didn't happen. What does a grateful child do? You know, if you're wise, you will sit down on a chair and put a table in front of you and start recalling all the good things he's done for you that year. He saved you from this, he did this for you. You prayed for this and he came through. You start outlining all the good he has done for you, and you know what that does as well by virtue of you know meditation, it boosts your faith. So your expectation level goes from one to one hundred because you're now meditating on all the good he has done for you. Amen. I've seen in the church, in the ministry, vain traditions zapping the power of God out of the church, even to the littler things which I'll address now, like for example, dancing in the church. Some dance, you saw the dance in a worldly music video, you don't know where they got that dance from. You brought it to the church, and everyone is now doing it with you. Someone says, No, but sir, that's how we dance in our culture. Different cultures have different dances. Do you know where those dances came from? Vain traditions zapping the power of God, making the word of God of no effect. Praise God. Even even uh certain types of prayers I've heard, I have personally heard some Christians say, I prayed and God didn't hear me. The moment I took all my clothes off and prayed, lie down on the floor naked and prayed. That's when you know God moved. I said, You know, you're gonna know when you're doing some kind of witchcraft.

SPEAKER_02 37:32

Wake up.

SPEAKER_01 37:36

Where'd you get that from? Where after I was naked on the floor, one prophet said I should take lime and lemon. Yeah, he put it together and I got an answer. Tell your neighbor witchcraft, and by the way, my sister or brother, just because it worked doesn't mean God was there. Because some of you will say, Oh, but Pastor, it worked. Oh, it worked, you know, so for it worked, yes. Moses was asked to do what? Talk to the rock.

unknown 38:22

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 38:22

He struck the rock. Did water come out?

unknown 38:25

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 38:26

Was he wrong?

unknown 38:27

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 38:28

Of course. So just because it worked doesn't mean God is in there. Vain tradition, zapping the power of God out of his word, and they bring this into the church. Everybody from home bring a fruit, bring a fruit, vain traditions, and by the way, I know that you like stuff like that. If I gave you a simple instruction and I said, just go home and open your heart to God and pray for you. It's too easy. God should be more bloody. There needs to be more. You understand now? Why? How can it be that easy? Then I must sacrifice vain traditions. Someone said, I fasted. I fasted, I prayed God didn't hear. I fasted and I made my children fast. How old are your children? Three years old. Two days after my child fasted, God answered, witchcraft. Yeah, no, you're not gonna like what I'm telling you today. It's necessary. Culture has destroyed the power of God in a way, hmm. Culture. Take my handkerchief. I use this every day. Put it under your pillow. You love that one. You love that. Take the take, put this under your pillow. Your dreams will always be good. Say vain traditions. Vain traditions. Get away from the practices of Egypt, get away from them. You see, the Pharisees, yeah, they had this attitude that uh a lot of you may have seen or may have found yourself practicing. That when they would do something spiritual, everybody must know that they're doing spirit something spiritual. So when they're fasting, this is how they would walk. How is your fast going?

unknown 41:29

I'm hungry.

SPEAKER_01 41:32

God will answer our prayer. Amen. The beard is unwashed, hair unwashed, sack cloth on the head. Hi. What day are you on? Day 15. That's that's how they were behaving. Jesus said, I don't like this nonsense. This is this is rubbish. Jesus came and said, When you're fasting, go and shower. No one should not make up what's the matter with you. Come and go and dress, go and wear that suit. Go and get your hair cut. Go and cut your beard and look handsome. No one should know you're fasting. You know why he said that? Because he said, When are you doing this? You remove this from men. Everyone is looking at you like Wow. This man is a saint. He's always fasting. Oh what day? 21. Me and Daniel Harry Pass. Praise God. God Jesus said, I'm not interested in this. Can I shock you on something? Do you know that when Jesus fasted 40 days, nobody knew? What you saw in the scripture was by revelation. Nobody was there. Nobody was physically there. He fasted, no one knew. So many things we do wrong in the house of God because there's some power behind it. Amen. That's why you see me using the anointing oil with a measure. I only use the oil because the Bible says you do it when someone is sick. You anoint them, pray for them, and they will recover. Amen. But I don't use it all the time. You will never hear me. Take this sticker, it has my picture on it. Put it on your wall. Why? Why? This is where some religions have beads. You know, you got some beads. You know, you're walking around like

SPEAKER_00 44:02

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:03

You're counting the beats and you're praying. And the strangest thing is, I've seen some of those guys in very dire situations. Alright, they get in these dire situations. You know what they run to? The beat.

unknown 44:17

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:19

They're not running to God. They're running to the beat. You want to be in the name of the Father. And the speed, you should see them going through the beat. Because of fear. God is not in the bead. Listen, brother, God can use the bead, but He's not in the bead. You find God in His word. Develop a relationship with Him where vain traditions don't get in the way. Don't say, I am Ibo or I am Europa. And we do this this way. Get away from vain traditions. Praise God. Get away from that. That's why your Christian life isn't as exciting as you want it to be. There are things that have been passed on. So when you come to the house of God, you have to strip yourself bare. Many, many years ago, I met uh I met a gentleman. And at this time, I was discovering the word, I was practicing and discovering the word. And I said to this gentleman, he was older than me. He's like my, you know, at that time he was like 60. And uh he said, My son told me about you. I said, Really? He said, Yes. I said, Okay, what did he tell you? So he began to recant. My son told me that you're doing miracles and you're doing all that. I said, He said, I thought these things are not really real. I said, Sir, you have to relearn the Bible, all the things you've learned. I was shocked. I said, I didn't tell him, but in my spirit, I thought, at your age, you thought miracles are not real. You have work to do. At 60, if you think miracles are not real, you have a lot of work to do. So I said to him, You have to unlearn what you've learned if you want to see the power of God in your life. I was with him for about six weeks. He struggled. It was ingrained in him. It was it was it was tradition. This word tradition, yeah, look at what it done to your parents. If you want the proof, did I hurt your feelings there? Go ahead and look at what it done to your parents. Yeah, what tradition has done, vain tradition. Because in tradition, there is some meat there, you can take some good things, not everything is bad, but when tradition starts clashing with the word of God, fighting the word of God, colliding with the word of God, and now you're stuck between tradition or the word. This is where the problem begins. Or when you start taking certain practices, amen from the world and bringing them into the body of Christ. We'll take a look at Judas. Judas was so upset as a businessman, so upset that perfume worth one year's salary was broken and thrown on Jesus' feet. I mean, he was furious, he said, No, this is not how you do ministry. All these pastors, all they love they love is money. That's what Judas was saying. Yeah, yeah, how can the pastor accept that perfume is broken on his on his legs? He was so angry, the Bible says, and then you know what remark he made? He said, Um, that money could have been used to feed the poor. Meanwhile, I think but listen, listen. I've heard believers, so-called believers, say the same thing. Why should a pastor be rich? Why should he be rich? You know why you sound like that? Your traditions, the juju man that your parents used to see was in the bush. You think me and him are the same? Yeah, that's why you think I should be broke because the juju man that our parents used to see back home, they lived in the in the bushes. I heard I heard the stories. They will go to the bushes and see you, you know, you have to take a long road. Long road. You go through the river, you come out, the bush, ah, you go back in again. I've arrived. The journey is two hours. You get there, it's a tiny hut. The juju man is looking at you. He said, Take off your shoes. You take off your shoes. He says, What would you like? So you think as spiritual men, we should also be like that. That's what was passed down to you. I'm not a juju man, I'm God's man. God's man. You understand? I'm God's man. So I'm blessed. I'm blessed. Because I'm God's man. Not a juju man. And when when when when my when my parents would explain this thing to me, I'll say, uh, sometimes you have to reserve your comments, you know. I'm thinking to myself, at least if I got to that bush place and the juju man had a Lambo, Lambo Guinea, I would say, I can get something from this guy. You're you're going to be the guy hasn't got a roof. Who will he give you? No, tradition kills. Am I hurting your feelings? Tradition kills, it kills, it kills. Get away from tradition, get away from it. Now, the hard the hard tradition to get away from is the ones you think are normal. It's to normalize this tradition. So it's been your life for a long time. Talk to a young man who for 15 years has been looking at women as sex objects. Try and talk him out of that. He, by the time you finish speaking with him, he will make you feel gay. Michelle, I preach about prosperity. Have you spoken to these lustful boys? They'll make you feel like, ah, maybe I should go and get some women as well. Then praise God. No, because that's how they've been brought up, it's so embedded in them. Everyone they look at is an object for them to do things with. They can't pass that place in their mind where this person is a soul. Oh, this is my sister. He cannot see a girl and say, This is my sister. Sister is too difficult for him. Sexual behavior was normalized. How many of you grew up in a home where you saw your parents naked? Let me let me leave that one. Should I leave that? Even at the age of 10, 12, 15, you would see your mom naked, your dad maybe half naked. They sowed in your life and normalized this behavior. So you grew within. I had a friend. The Spirit of God is here. I had a friend. I went to his house. I sat there. His sister came in the front room brahless. She walked. I was sitting there, she didn't know that I had I was in the house. She came in, she saw me, she screamed, she covered her chest, she ran off. I said, What happened? I asked him, What happened? No, I wasn't asking what you think. My mind is different. I asked him, What happened? He said, I don't know, she saw you and she ran, in it. I said, No, brother. What happened? What gave her the confidence in a house full of brothers? This girl was 22 in a in a house full of brothers that are older than her, all are older. She's the youngest one. They're all older than her. What gave her the confidence to come in the front room like that? And he was like, Oh, he was like, Yeah, she walks around like that. It's calm. So he said, he said, it's calm. My mom does it too. Hey, I looked at him, he was like, I know it's a it's a bit weird. I said, A bit. I said, Okay. So I I also asked him, I said, Where are you from again? He told me the country, he told me the culture. I said, Uh I understand. And then he, you know what he did? He proceeded to explain to me that you know, in our family, in our culture, we don't sexualize the women. So them coming out like that is fine. But he was a Christian and he could speak in tongues, vain traditions. So if this guy starts a church, should I should I leave that area? So if this brother starts a church, he he will be allowing women to come in anyhow. You know why? Because his culture is infused with his Christianity, vain traditions, and when you do stuff like that, you zap the power of God out of the church, you zap it out. So you have to be strong and stand on the word. Pray for discernment, say, Lord, give me discernment. So I I because I you will know in your spirit, I haven't been experiencing the the the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let me tell you something. One one week it was a tough week for me. Financially. I had bills to pay, I had a car on finance, I had quite a few things. Amen. I said I saw Jesus do these kind of miracles. I must be able to experience this. So I have something to shout about. I took the 27 pound, I said, You will carry me for two months. I will spend you and you will stay the same. I spoke, I said, You will carry me. The power of God is on you now. Carry me through them two months. That thing carried me for two and a half months. 27 pounds. Experiencing the power of God without tradition infiltrating. Tradition will tell me go in the garden and burn something. How do you think many of us got into incense? You know what incense is? How many families burn incense and they think it's God? Raise your hand if you know a family or friends that burn incense. Yeah, you should. Yeah, they burn it, they leave it on the wall. Why? So that demons don't come in the house. My sister, the moment you did that, they all came in. All of them. They're now feasting in your house now. Yeah, your house is now an airport for demonic activity. Vain traditions. Elijah found some of these people, they were beating themselves, you know, children of Baal, beating themselves. Elijah was laughing at them. He said, Where's your God? Where's your God? You've been beating yourself for the whole day. Where's your God? Where's your God? Say, I'm distinguished.

SPEAKER_02 58:06

I'm distinguished.

SPEAKER_01 58:07

And say, from today, I will experience the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is in character and the demonstration of power. Yeah, sit down. You want to read about Judas?

unknown 58:33

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 58:34

Iscariot? Can we read about him?

unknown 58:37

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 58:37

Alright, let's read about him. Let's go to the book of John. Thank you, Holy Spirit. John chapter twelve. Are you there, John chapter twelve? Alright, take me away, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 59:15

Thank you, sir. John chapter twelve, from verse one, it says, Then six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus, who had been dead, whom he had raised from the dead, verse two. There they made him a supper, and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with him. Verse 3. Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spiked blood and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. Verse 4. One of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Silent Son, who would betray him, said Verse 5, Why was this fragrant oil not sold for 300 deniri and given to the poor? Verse 6. This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and had the money back and refused to take what was put in it. Verse 7. But Jesus said, Let her alone. She has kept this for the day of my burial. Verse 8. For the poor you have with you always, but me I do not have always.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:53

Right? For the poor. But God has his own way of seeing things. And I want you to develop your mind to start doing God's things God's ways. Amen. Do God's things God's ways. Don't come into the house of God and try to do God's business your way to please you. Do God's business his way. Learn his way. If God asks you to do something in a certain way, there's power in there. There's your benefit is in there. Praise God. Your benefit is in there. For example, we can say, we can teach and say, don't do this with your children. And you have the choice. You can go home and say, Oh, it's my child, I can do what I want. Of course, you're right. It is your child. You can do what you want. But if the if if the spirit of God is saying, Do this with your child, it means that your benefit is in there.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:55

Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:59

I I'll I'll tell you something. Uh, yesterday, two days ago, I read this was on social media. I read there was a young boy of 15 that killed his mother. He shot her. No, he stabbed her, sorry, multiple times and killed her and injured his father. You know why? Because his mother wrote a few Facebook posts. And she said raising a teenager is a nightmare. And she put it on Facebook. She was expressing herself. So he saw the post and went to confront her about it. And she said, Well, of course, you know, raising you is not easy. And he proceeded to kill her. That was his reason. I can tell you for certain that that mum and that father spared the rod. You're way too quiet there. They spared the rod. So for those of you that don't understand what spared the rod is, the Bible says, if you spare the rod, you will spoil the child. So when the Bible is recommending something to you for that woman, it could have saved her life. But the Bible says, spare the rod, spoil the child. You understand that? Yeah. You have to do it. Oh no, I don't believe in that. It's not about what you believe. When will you learn? Your opinion has not changed anyone's life. The Bible has changed all our lives. So why are you telling me what you believe? Follow the scripture. Name me five lives that your opinion has changed in a good way. Give me five lives that your opinion has changed in a good way. So your your opinion has done nothing for nobody. You don't even get paid for your own opinion. So it is better you reserve your opinion and go with what the scripture says. People, a lot, a lot of individuals ask me, What's your political opinion on this? I said, I don't have one. I have what the Bible says. My opinion doesn't pay. The Bible's opinion pays. Praise God. Say the Bible pays. So they didn't know all this time they were raising a little devil. A little devil, they were raising him when he was three. Oh, he's so cute. That boy's gonna kill you. He's gonna kill you. Praise God. I don't want you to be a recipient of those things. You see, I learned very early on that as you apply the word, you protect every area of your life from Satan infiltrating. So if you do what the word says with your children, Satan cannot enter your kids. If you do what the word says in your marriage, Satan cannot enter your marriage. Many couples say, No, but if we're married, we can both watch porn together. You are a Christian, you're Christ like. How can you watch porn together? Tell me, tell me that. Yeah, but sir, I'm not really I'm not cheating on her, you know, it's something that we do together, we enjoy. Let's let's pray. All I can say is let's. Because I don't know what else to say to such a thing. Don't you understand? I told you God said to Israel, you shall not look upon each other's nakedness. So, so, unless you're covenanted, you need a covenant to look upon another person's nakedness. That's why these are deep revelations I'm giving you. That's why we could look upon the cross. You understand that? If I go too deep in that one, you'll be here for hours. I can talk on that for hours. Yeah, so so that's for another day. That's for another day. Sit down, that's for another day. It's very deep. But he said, Don't look upon each other's nakedness unless you're covenanted, right? So you have a covenant, and he insisted on that. He said, Don't do it. Do you have a covenant with your brother? Your sibling at home. Do you have a covenant with that person? You got a covenant with your dad? Do you have a covenant with your best friend? No, because some girls do that, some ladies. That's my best friend, so yeah, we look, we've seen each other, obviously. We have the same thing. You ain't got a covenant with her. If I catch guys doing that here, I will I will personally attend to you in prayer and fasting. Directly. Amen. Treasonal activities. Praise God forevermore. So God says to Israel, unless you have a covenant, do not look upon each other's nakedness. So the idea is I told you the old testament is a shadow of the new. So unless you have multiple wives, then go ahead and knock yourself out. But if you don't, you can't do that. And vice versa. And when your children come of age, or when you yourself come of age with your parents, avoid that stuff. Amen. I spoke about being curious. Remember that, some of you? That curiosity can really damage you. It kills. It kills. That's what caused David to fall with Bathsheba. He saw and he didn't publicly see, he was peeking. David was a bit of a weirdo. He was, you know, no, in his palace, he was. No, no, no, no, no. That posture tells you you're wrong. You shouldn't be doing that. He went like this, he saw the lady showering. He said, Kai. He went back again and looked again. He went from here to here.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:29

Hi. He said, Kai.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:34

His mind was taken. Hijacked. Praise God forevermore. You saw the same thing happening with uh Noah's kids. One of the children of Noah saw his daddy drunk and naked. He ran off to tell the others. He said, Come and see, come and see, come and see. Daddy's drunk and naked. Did you know that a curse came out of that? So, if the old testament is a shadow of the new, what do you think is happening in the new testament? You're looking upon your parents' nakedness. Mummy's coming out of the shower. So you you you wonder, you wonder. Can I tell you what a curse in curse is? And then I'll stop because I think we've run out of time, right? We've run out of time. A curse is limitation. That's all it is. Don't think of it as a diabolical, you know, something. A curse is simple layman's terms, limitation. So you would have found that you're just not your your your maybe your bank account is just not passing a certain number. You just find that you're in a relationship and you're not passing two years with the person, then you break up. No one marries you. Limitation. You're constantly sick. There's always something. My back, my elbow, head, hospital, limitation. Ask yourself, what have you been looking at for years? On top of that, can I give you another one? As you're looking upon these things, it's meditation. So you are setting spiritual laws in motion for a time like this. Whilst some of us that are filled with the spirit have been setting spiritual laws in motion for us, you're setting spiritual laws against you. You're setting these spiritual laws in motion against you. For years you've been watching porn. For years you're watching porn. You have no idea that you've limited your finances. Understand this sexual impurity always almost certainly affects finances. They're connected. Are you listening? So when you're doing what you're doing, you become a broker and broker every day. Every day. When it's finished your finances and flogged you, you are finished and have been flogged. It goes for your health. Yeah, it goes for your health. I think I'm offending you. How many minutes do I have left? I don't have I gone over time. Can you give me another two minutes? And then you just tell me, and then we're done. Amen. Praise God. Because God wants to deal with this stuff. If we're gonna build, we have to build properly. Amen. Now, yeah. If we're gonna build, we have to build properly. Get out of these traditions, get out of these things. I met one of your friends. I met her and she says, Um, you're a prophet. I said, I think so. You know, and she says, Okay, uh, this is what I'm going through. And so I said to her, This is where your problem is. Yeah, this is where your problem is. She said, She said to me, Um I believe that my power, prosperity, because this is the word that I got from God. That's what she said. She said she was on fasting and she got a word. And the word was she should never cut her hair. So she's been growing her hair like a like a Nazarite, yeah? Like Samson. So she's been growing her hair ever since. And it's like her dreadlocks, you know, that type of look. So she says to me, Um, so this is what God told me. I said, Okay, I didn't want to tell her that the problem is the hair. But you know where she got that word from tradition. So, tradition is so deep, it can mask itself as the Holy Spirit. Like you may genuinely feel prompted, like God has told me not to cut my children's hair, all the hair will grow naturally. This is why we have the scripture so you can balance it against the scripture. The scripture will tell you whether God actually spoke to you. Do you understand what I'm saying? The Bible will tell you whether God actually gave you that word in this New Testament where the test the testator has died, yeah, the power of God is not on your hair, nor your nails, nor your clothes. The power of God is in his word. That's it. Anyone tells you, you know, I have a secret on where the power of God comes from. That person is a juju man. I walk in the supernatural. If you're close to me, you will know that. There's a lot of things I don't talk about. The supernatural comes from the word, period. It's not my hair because I cut it off and I'm still flowing. Amen. It's not any ring or anything like that. I've changed my ring a hundred times. It's none of those things. Those are vain traditions, those are things we got from, you know. Unfortunately, I have to say, we got it from Africa. Yeah. And I love Africa, but we got it from there, some of our traditions, some of these strange things. Amen. The last I'll touch on is even your sense of dressing. Your sense of dressing can come from your culture. Alright, some cultures are heavily central. Amen. I've been to some cultural weddings, and people's wives are dancing with people's husbands. They don't care. Everyone's touching and dancing. And I'm I'm wondering how come no one's broke out in a fight?

SPEAKER_02 1:18:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:21

There was a podcast. One of the guys on the podcast is saying, Yeah, you know, we're Caribbeans. We what did he say? He said, What? He said, he said his his girlfriend or his wife can dance on another man. He's fine centrally, he's okay. So all the Africans on the podcast said, Hey, everyone said, Hey! What are you talking about? He said, No, that's how we are. We're very loose as but Caribbeans were we're just out there. Amen. I'm not saying one is better than the other, no. Okay, I'm saying I've had this whole time I was highlighting African culture just now. So let me touch on the Caribbeans for a second for a minute now. Praise God. Caribbeans, calm down. You know, so this this gentleman was saying, yeah, you know, this we can, you know, I've seen my you know my partner whining on another guy. I didn't feel no way. I whined another woman, it was fine. That's our culture, we're very free. I said, This is this is demonically inspired, demonically inspired, and we'll cut those things off at the root in this ministry. We will be fully scripture, not culture. This is not a Ghanaian church, this is not a Congolese church, this is not a Nigerian church, Christ like church. God bless you. Thank you for listening to Pastor Max's teachings. Make sure to subscribe and for more information, find us at Faith and Victory Wallace.