Eagle Heights Cathedral

Bishop James E. Collins: Come on and give Him glory, Church. Give Him glory. You know He's pulled you through. You've had times when you thought you weren't going to make it, but you're here today to testify that at the brink of the cliff, He pulled me back. He brought me back into safety. If that's your testimony, shout real loud! Give Him glory. Hallelujah to His name. Glory!

Well, bless the Lord, oh my soul. I'm so glad to be in this room, I can hardly handle it. We're thankful for the Hills being with us. God bless you, love you so much. And Miss Audrey, thank you for bringing the young buck with you this time. We're also blessed to have Pastor Jose Alvarez's daughter and son-in-law with us today. Love y'all, Carla Alvin, we love you. Thank you for being here with us today.

Let's pray. God, we ask You, let a refreshing wind blow over our souls today. Lord, make Your presence new and real to us. And Lord, make Your word fresh to us today. And Father, transform our lives. Do what Your word promises. Move us from glory to glory. And Father, I thank You in advance that we're going to be changed because we're in the presence of the living God. These things I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen and amen. You may be seated in the presence of the Lord. Amen.

The story is told about a pastor who got up in the pulpit, and he apologized for the band-aid that was on his face. He said, "I was thinking about my sermon while shaving and I cut my face." After the service, the treasurer found a note in the offering bucket that said, "Next time, think about your face and cut your sermon." I can't make you a promise that I'm going to cut the sermon, but with the Lord's help, we're going to finish this outline.

Every year, we come together to hear what the Lord will say to us on New Year's Eve night. We come to hear His voice as He gives us the focus for the coming year. We are six months now removed from that assignment, and I say that to you right now because the farther you are removed from something, the more dim it becomes in your mind. And so I want to refresh our memory as we move on in this message with just a touch base and light review of what God said to us was to be the driving force for the remainder of the year of 2026.

In John 18, Jesus is standing before Pilate in the Praetorium, and Pilate is questioning Jesus. Jesus makes this remark in verse 36, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight so that I should not be delivered to the Jews, but now my kingdom is not from here." And then Jesus says to you and I, because His kingdom is not from here, He instructs us in John 6:33, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

And so God spoke to us in 2025 on New Year's Eve night that as a corporate body and as an individual, that 2026 is to be the year where we raise the kingdom of God above all cultural things, whether that culture be family, whether it be worldly, even church culture. And when Jesus said, "Seek first the kingdom and His righteousness," He was speaking of being in right relationship with God, which Paul says in Romans 14:17, "For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."

Listen to what Paul is saying. He is not condemning you having a good time in life. He is not condemning us from understanding that there are things in this life that are not evil that we can enjoy. But he said, "I want to remind you that those are of another kingdom. We must understand that what proves that we are from another kingdom is that we have a life of righteousness and a life that is right with God. And from that right relationship with God, there will flow some fruit, the fruit of peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." If you don't have peace and you don't have joy, then you've got to ask yourself, are you right with God?

Listen now. He said it's not just the good times that I have joy, but even in the bad times. Now, Colossians 1:13 says, "God has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son." When Jesus becomes the Lord and Savior of your life, Church, listen to me. We are then translated out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of God. So it is important that I remind you and that you grasp this, that I remind you you are in this world, you are on this planet, but you are not of this world.

And let me talk to you for a minute because your allegiance should belong to the kingdom that you were reborn into in Christ. And when your allegiance is divided, so is your loyalty. And so I remind us again to never forget that divided loyalty always creates confusion and conflict. On the opposite side, when your loyalties are not divided, when you are wholly on the Lord's side, when you are living the God-kind of life, a life of righteousness, Jesus says that to the one who seeks His kingdom and His righteousness, when you seek those things, you will lack nothing.

All the things you need, all the things that some of you are worrying about today, all the things that some of you are in an emotional frenzy about today, the Bible says Jesus says if you will just seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, those things shall be added unto you. Please grab this: the pursuit of kingdom plus righteousness equals provision. And so we talked about the markers. I gave you four. Let's jump into number five.

The kingdom focused life is fueled by purpose. When I talk about purpose today, I'm not talking about the kind of purpose that we talk about in life. I'm not talking about that thing that you think about that it's so exciting that it wakes you up in the morning. And don't get me wrong, there should be some things in your life that so stimulate you that you get out of the bed with excitement and you can't wait to dive into it again.

In fact, Charles Kingsley said this, "We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about." Now, I want to say something. I am praying that God will give every last one of you a purpose in your life. Now, listen to what I'm saying. Not what you do for a living, but that God will give you a purpose in your life that you can't wait to wake up in the morning and get to going at it because we all need something that we're living for that gives us purpose.

In fact, let me talk about time and purpose for a minute. I want to read this quote from Michael Marcel Jr. and it's long, but please listen very intently to what he says. "In the tapestry of human existence, time stands alone as the most democratic of resources. Each morning as the sun peaks over the horizon, we all receive the same allotment: 24 hours, 1,440 minutes, 86,400 seconds, no more, no less. The billionaire in their penthouse and the street vendor below wake to the same gift. The young student and the elderly sage, they share this identical treasure. It cannot be hoarded, cannot be saved, cannot be borrowed against future days. Time flows ever forward, spending itself whether we will it or not."

"What separates us then is not the quantity of time we receive, but the wisdom with which we spend it. Some invest these hours in pursuit of knowledge, letting each minute compound into greater understanding. Others spend lavishly on creation, turning time into art, music, or innovation. Some give their hours generously to others, transforming time into love, care, and connection. Yet, it's easy to become a poor steward of this universal wealth. Minutes slip away on mindless distractions, hours evaporate in the fog of procrastination, days can be squandered on pursuits that bring neither joy nor growth. Unlike money, misspent time can never be earned back. The most profound truth about time is this: its value is determined not by its passage but by its purpose. A single hour spent in passionate creation may be worth more than a day spent in listless consumption. A few minutes of genuine connection might outweigh weeks of shallow interaction. The challenge before us is not to control time, for that is impossible, but to be mindful of its passing and intentional in its use. To ask ourselves each morning, 'How shall I spend the currencies of these hours? What will be the return on this investment of moments?'"

Ephesians 5:15 through 16: "Be very careful then how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil." Psalm 90 and 12: "Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Ecclesiastes 3 and 1: "There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens." So I shared all that to share with you that I pray for every one of you in this room that you will not waste the rest of your days, but every day you will get up and there is a fire burning in you because you have a purpose and you know what that purpose is.

But let me caution some of you right now because the problem that I see with most of us, it is not about purpose. We think that purpose is being successful and accumulating a lot of things, that that will bring us happiness. But let me tell you what Jesus says. He says true purpose is when you begin to not only find out what your purpose is, but then begin to use that to perform the purposes of God in the kingdom of God.

Oh, now listen to King Solomon again. He was the richest man who walked the face of the earth, but he was also the wisest. He lived on this earth and he came to a conclusion about life. Listen very closely. Ecclesiastes 2 and 1: "I said to myself, 'Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.' But that also proved to be meaningless. Laughter, I said, is madness, and what does pleasure accomplish? I tried cheering myself with wine and embracing folly, my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives."

Now listen closely to verses 4 through 11. "I undertook projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold for myself and treasures of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers and a harem as well, the delights of a man's heart. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this, my wisdom stayed with me."

Listen very closely. He said, "In all this, my wisdom stayed with me." Let's pause there for a second. Proverbs 4 and 7: "Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom, with all thy getting, get understanding." Now why did Solomon add understanding to the wisdom? Because Church, listen to this: understanding is the power of wisdom. Wisdom is knowing what to do. Understanding is knowing how and why to do it, and then going out and doing it.

Watch now, read on. He says, "I denied myself nothing my eyes desired. I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labor, and this was the reward for all my toil. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind. Nothing was gained under the sun."

Listen to Ecclesiastes 2:17. "So I hated life because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind." I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun. Now Church, here's a good place for us to ask a question. Why did he come to this conclusion about life? Because he came to this conclusion: I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun. Listen now: "because I must leave them to the one who comes after me."

Listen to Ecclesiastes 4 verse 4. "And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person's envy of another." Stop and ask yourself something. The last time you bought something, when did you buy it because you wanted it or you saw someone else had it so you went and bought it? Solomon, the richest and wisest man on the people planet, he sends a reverberation down through the annals of human history and it is this: the accumulation of stuff will not matter in the end, but also it will not bring happiness and joy in this life.

1 John 3:8B. I'm going to tell you how to get happy and stay happy. 1 John 3:8B: "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." For this purpose, the Son of God came into existence. For this purpose, He became a man. He was nailed to a cross. He was buried in a grave, and on the third day, God raised Him from the dead. For this purpose, He came into this world to destroy the works of Satan, but He did not stop.

1 John 4:17 says, "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in the world." Let me talk about that because when you talk about being like Jesus, nobody wants to go where we're getting ready to go. If indeed we are He as He is in the world, then our purpose must be the same as His. And that is that wherever we see the works of Satan being manifested through the power of the Holy Spirit, it is our job, it is our purpose to destroy those works of Satan.

Watch now. No matter what your livelihood is, no matter your perceived purpose in life, no matter what jolts you out of bed in the morning, the number one reason that Jesus saved you was not to go to heaven and walk on streets of gold. He saved you that you might become that conduit, that wherever you see the works of Satan, the anointing of God comes on you and you begin to destroy the works of Satan because ain't no fear on the inside of you. You're not afraid of the evil one because greater is He that is in you than He that is in the world.

Now watch this. Matthew 5:14 through 16: "You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on a stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." The kingdom focused life is fueled by purpose, but not merely your purpose, but more so by the purpose for which you were born again into the kingdom of God.

Kevin Blue tells of a friend of his named Johnny who was ministering among the poor on a six-week urban project with an InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in Los Angeles. Part of their assignment was to spend time in a convalescent home in a part of the city where the elderly were, and they were in need. And they made up a segment of the poor who are easily overlooked by our society because they're tucked away in the hospices and the homes, and thus they are not visible as those who are young and on the streets.

The convalescent home that they were in was smelly, understaffed, and poorly kept. Few residents had visitors, and for the few that had people come in and they see guests arriving, it began to mess with their heads. Some of the residents were mentally ill, some were not responsive at all, others were very hostile. Members of Johnny's team began to struggle with being in that nursing home. They began to say things like, "Why are we here? This is depressing. We can't do anything to help." And they began to say those things out loud.

And after Johnny had been there for a week, he was standing in the hallway, and a little old lady slowly walked up to him and she drew close to him and she took her finger and she pointed her finger with an accusatory tone and she said to him, "I know why you're here." She paused. Johnny kept looking at her, wondering what this was about. That elderly woman was witty enough to know this dude doesn't get it. Again she looked at him, she pointed her finger, she said, "I know why you're here." Listen Church: "You're here because God wants us to know He has not forgotten us."

I want you to hear me, Church. This is the purpose that God is calling you to. Your greatest purpose is to find out where there is a person who is being persecuted by the enemy and begin to bring light into those relationships. And before I get to the last point, let me say something and hear me and hear me loud. We need to stop in the body of Christ thinking that we'll do something for God if we can get paid for it.

Let me talk to us. There's a young man in this church who went out to lunch with me one day and he sat across the table as we're eating lunch and he says to me, he said, "Bishop, I am working on businesses." I said, "Wonderful." He said, "But let me tell you why I'm working on businesses. Because I've got some giftings, I've got some purposes. I want to develop and bring them to my church, and I don't want the church to pay me a dollar for it. I want God to make provision for me to live, so when I bring my gifting, my church gets the benefit of it because I just love God."

I know it's going to get quiet in here now because everybody says to God, "Give me a buck-chuck and then I'll do something for you." God is looking for some people who will say, "I'm your servant, Lord. Use me." Amen. Amen. So since silence has become golden, let me turn to my last point. The kingdom focused life thrives through God's capacity.

Isaiah 40:29 through 31: "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow weary and tired, and young men stumble and fall. Listen now: but those who wait, those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar like eagles, they will run and not get weary, they will walk and not be faint."

Well, you don't understand, Bishop, I'm too old to do anything. Would you stop it? Would you read the word of God? The word of God says when you get old, don't worry about it, I'll give you some strength. When you get weary, keep on running because I'll pick you up and I'll carry you to the next destination. This Bible says that even when you feel like you've got no strength left, keep holding on, for I will renew your strength. The person who is kingdom focused does not put his or her faith in their own capacity. Please write this down. Nor do you put it into the capacity of men.

Now let me help you because some of you think, well, I don't need a man. Well, you need some men. You know why? Because while God is the source, men are God's resource. Are you hearing me? Now I need to go somewhere we have not been in some time. Let me talk about biblical faith today. In the book of John, chapter 20, verses 24 through 29, Jesus has risen from the dead, Mary Magdalene sees him, as do other disciples, and verse 24 says, "But Thomas, one of the twelve called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came."

Verse 25: "The other disciples therefore said unto him, 'We have seen the Lord.' But he said unto them, 'Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.'" Verse 26: "And after eight days, again his disciples were within and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus, the doors being shut in the midst and said, 'Peace be unto you.'"

Now listen to the rest of the text, verse 27. "Then he said to Thomas, 'Reach in here your finger and behold my hands, and reach in here your hand and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless but believing.'" Verse 28: "And Thomas answered and said unto him, 'My Lord and my God.'" Now I want you to see something. Stay with me on this, Church. Verse 29: "Jesus said unto him, 'Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and have yet believed.'"

I want you to grasp what Jesus said. He said something very important. He says you are not blessed because you have believed. He says you are blessed because you are the person who has believed before you see it. Blessed are those who trust, have faith in Me in spite of what your situation looks like. Blessed are those who will believe God will do what He said He will do before He does it.

There is in the church, especially an epidemic in the church today, of Thomas-like faith people. They are literal over the body of Christ and thus expectations are low. And let me say, some of y'all sitting here looking at me, I'm trying to get your heart healed. I want to drive it home again today in and you that you must rise up and realize this truth. It is still true, the atmosphere of expectancy is still the breeding ground of miracles.

Church, listen to me. Thomas knew the words of Jesus in Matthew 17, verses 22 through 23. It says when they came together and gathered in Galilee, He said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill Him, and on the third day, He will be raised." He knew the words of Jesus that came from the very mouth of Jesus himself, yet he had to see proof before he believed.

Let me show you how this works. We just celebrated the 250th. I know because I got neighbors across the street who thought it was their job to display, light up the sky all night long. Here's what I want to tell you about the 250th. It is known as what? The Day of the Declaration of Independence. Let me give you a line out of the Declaration of Independence. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness."

Who wrote those words? Thomas Jefferson. Despite his opposition to slavery, he enslaved more than 620 people during his lifetime, letting very few of them go. In fact, while he was living, he only set two free. Five got set free after he dies. Let me just say something. He used to say that slavery is a moral depravity. It is a hideous thing to our nation. He knew right from wrong, but Church, listen to me. To know right from wrong and to do something that is right in spite of it being wrong, they are not the same thing. So it is with faith.

You know what God's word says, but are you stepping into it? The reason Thomas had to see Jesus before he would believe He had risen was that his level of expectation was not that which took Jesus at His word. Let me tell you something right now. Let me tell you. You will never experience a miracle in your life unless you take God at His word. I want you to hear the Holy Spirit. Not all this fancy-smancy stuff we want to wrap around it.

Watch now. So what does that mean today? If you will experience a miracle, you cannot rewrite your theology as in common in the church today to fit your situation, to fit your lack of faith and trust in God. Hear the Holy Spirit. God is still who He is. He will still do what He said He will do no matter what you believe because it's in the book. I read the book.

Watch now. 1 Corinthians 2 and 9: "But on the contrary, as the scripture says, 'What eye has not seen, ear has not heard, and has not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared, made ready for those who love Him, that are promptly obeying Him and greatly recognizing the benefits He has bestowed.'" Now watch real slow. There are things that God has for us that we have not yet discovered. If you are walking in obedience to God, I didn't say you were perfect, but you are seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness.

And even when you fail and repentance is waiting at the tip of your tongue, then you need to get wide open and get expectancy level up there. Not only because God is limited by our level of expectation, but let me tell you what I learned about this. When you raise your expectation of faith, you give God something to work with, which is expectancy level of faith. And when you do that, you find Ephesians 3:20 through 21 to be true. Ephesians 3:20 through 21: "Now unto Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to the power that is in work in us, to Him be glory in the church and then Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."

I heard a quote by Simon Lorton. It's so powerful. He said, "Imagine what God would trust you with tomorrow if you trusted him more today." My God. Remember the children of Israel? Yeah, you remember them. They got what they got, which after they got it, they didn't want what they got. But they got it anyway, which was nothing. How many of you went to school long enough to understand that nothing from nothing leaves nothing? And listen now, once they got it, they didn't want what they got. And they got it because Psalm 78:41 says, "Yea, they turned back and tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel."

Notice what it says. They kept going backward instead of forward because they constantly put limits on God. And the sad truth in this hour in the church is that most Christians not only believe that what the King has for us, we believe that we got to die and go to heaven to get it. That's why some of us say, "I can't wait to get to heaven so I can walk on streets of gold." Let me tell you what's going to happen when you die. If you keep waiting to go to heaven to walk on streets of gold, you're going to find out that when you start walking on them, walking on the streets of gold was not the meal, it was the icing on the cake.

Please get this in your mind and get it in your spirit. Psalm 34 and 8: "Oh taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh taste and see that the Lord is good." Let me talk to you for a minute. The meal of God's blessing is what we're supposed to be eating right here, right now, on this people planet. Dr. J. Vernon McGee, now with the Lord, said of 1 Corinthians 2 and 9, "Listen to what he said about 1 Corinthians 2 and 9. 'This verse surely has been misunderstood. This is a verse that should never go to a funeral. It has been wrongly used so many times to imply, here lies Mr. So-and-So. His remains are here before us. In this life, he didn't understand too well, but now in glory, he understands all things.'"

This was not what Paul intended to convey. Paul was saying right here, right now, there are certain things that the eye has not seen, the ear has not heard. I'm talking about your eye and my eye. Talking about your ear and my ear. I'm going to say it again: there are some things that God not only wants to give you in the spiritual realm, but there are material things that God wants to give you. God wants to reveal to you as children, but you will never see them with a doubting Thomas kind of faith.

When it comes to the reality that the kingdom focused life thrives through God's capacity, there is a question that has to be asked. Let me ask you the question. Who are you connected to? Who are you listening to? Just pause on that for a second because remember in the introduction of this series, I said to you that we need to learn that focus is augmented by the company we keep. So let me ask you, are you hanging around doubting Thomases? Because if you are, you're hanging around them, their faith and their hope will influence your faith and your hope.

Dr. Tony Evans says, "You can't have clarity from heaven if you're constantly listening to voices on earth." Jesus said it like this in Matthew 15 and 14, "Let them alone. They are the blind leaders of the blind, and if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch." Let me say a not-so-spiritual thing. Your attitude affects your faith and your faith affects your attitude. And your attitude affects your altitude.

There was an experiment done to measure the power of attitude in rats. The researcher wanted to see how the rats' attitudes affected their will to live. They put one rat into a large tub of water with high sides so it could not get out. Then they put that tub into a dark room and they timed how long that rat would keep swimming before it gave up. That rat lasted three minutes.

They then put another rat in there, and they put that rat into a room, but they let a light ray of bright light shine into the room. That rat swam more than 36 hours, 700 times longer than the rat with no light. Why? The rat with no light had no hope. When he looked ahead, he saw only darkness. There wasn't any reason to keep swimming. Church, listen to the Holy Spirit. That's what happens when our expectation level is low.

We lose faith to overcome the obstacles in life. We begin to no longer believe that God is really in control, and therefore we lose our passion, we lose our drive. Can I be honest for a minute? I have been in a season where that has been my battle. It has been a war. It's been a season. But this morning early in prayer, the Lord revealed to me why that season was there. And next week, I'm going to start a series and begin to talk to you about why those seasons happen.

But let me read to you from Romans 5:3 through 5. Romans 5:3 through 5: "And not only this, but we exalt or extremely and triumphantly joy in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings perseverance, and perseverance proven character, and proven character hope, and hope does not disappoint." Too many Christians suffer from expectancy anemia. They've got that bad attitude thing working overtime. Church, listen to me. That'll foil your faith.

And we've got preachers foiling people's faith by telling them things like, God doesn't do miracles anymore. God doesn't heal anymore. Now look at me. I am not sovereign, God is. And since I'm not sovereign, I can't tell you why God heals somebody, doesn't heal everybody. But I am telling you that He still heals and He still does miracles. Let me tell you how I know it. My 94-year-old daddy called me. He's had prostate cancer since he was in his 80s. About a month ago, his doctor came in, they retested him and he said, "Reverend, I don't know what to tell you, but we can't find your cancer." Come on somebody!

Here's what you got to do. Hebrews 12 and 2. Keep, everybody say "keep". Keep looking to Jesus, the author, He's the one who started this, and the finisher of your faith. God never starts anything that He doesn't finish. Come on now! And I got to say it again. There are some things in the natural that God wants to give you that can only be gotten by the avenue of the spirit. They can only be called in by faith. Romans 4:17 says God calls those things that are not as though they already were.

Watch this now. Abraham was not Abraham when he first came into existence. His name was Abram. God says to Abram, He says, "Don't call yourself Abram anymore. I want you to call yourself Abraham." Abraham means the father of many nations. Now watch this. Before he ever became the father of many nations, God says, "I want you to start calling yourself Abraham," even though he wasn't there yet. Why does He say that? Because God wanted him to call it the way God calls it.

God wanted him to say what God was saying because He knew if He could get Abraham to say what He was saying, he'd begin to believe it. Now stay with me because what I am saying is not heretical, it is biblical. When you call it as God calls it, what you're doing is casting vision. What is vision? Watch now. Vision is a clear picture of conditions that do not currently exist. It is a clear picture of conditions that do not currently exist. I'm going to say that again. It is a clear picture of conditions that do not currently exist.

It is a strong mental image of the future, or to see beyond current circumstances. Let me back up. Vision is a strong mental image of the future, or to see beyond current circumstances. It is a strong mental picture of your destiny. That's why Habakkuk 2 and 2 says, write your vision, write your destiny, and don't just write it, make it so plain that a grade-schooler can read it and run with it.

Now watch, see this. There is a definitive difference between sight and vision. Physical sight is the ability to see things as they are. And we're good at that, aren't we? We're good at seeing things as they are. Vision is the ability to see things as they could be. Vision is the ability to see things as they could be, which takes faith. So when you call things that are not as though they were, you are moving Church, watch now, from physical vision into the realm of spiritual vision. And spiritual vision will always cause a purpose to rise up on the inside of you.

1 Corinthians 5 and 7: "We walk by faith and not by sight." Four military recruiters showed up to address an auditorium full of high school recruits. Each recruiter was given 15 minutes, and the first three recruiters got carried away. So when the Marine got up to speak, he only had two minutes. He walked up there and he stood utterly silent for the first 60 seconds, half of his time.

Then he said, "I doubt whether there are two or three of you in this room who could even cut it in the Marine Corps. But I want to see those two or three immediately in the dining hall when we are dismissed." He turned smartly and sat down. When he arrived in the dining hall, there was a mob of individuals waiting at his booth. Listen up. I'm trying today to build up your expectancy level because let me tell you what I know. Expectation determines behavior.

Come on somebody! See, listen. I don't need an alarm clock to wake up most days. Monday through Saturday, I wake up at 5:00 or 5:30. But Sunday, without fail, the alarm clock in my spirit goes off every Sunday at 4:30. And sometimes I go to the restroom, come back, get in bed and say, no, not this Sunday. 4:30 God says roll yourself out of this bed. You know why I wake up at 4:30? Because I want you to understand that I don't come to church because it's my job. I come to church because I have an expectation that when I get to this house, God is going to meet me in this house. God is going to show me things I've never seen before. I believe that.

And I've found out something. People are more motivated by a great cause than by great comfort. They want their lives to count for something, that's what a vision will do for you. Again, Jesus said in Matthew 15 and 14, "Let them alone," speaking of the religious leaders. "They are blind leaders of the blind." There are so many blind people in the kingdom of God leading blind people, and that's why we're not getting anywhere but backwards.

Their natural sight, listen what Jesus said about them. He said their natural sight was good, but when it came to the spiritual sight visionary, they were as blind as bats. And the problem we have is that we have some people who need things which only God can give you, but you're trying to get them in reverse. Now watch. Hear this. You don't call therefore you have faith. You call because you have faith.

What is faith? Jesus defines faith in Mark 9:23. He says faith is to the one that believes that all things are possible. Hebrews 11 and 6: "But without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one that comes to God must believe not only that He is, but that He is also a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." Now watch this. There are unverifiably there are verifiable three types of people in this room today. Let me give them to you.

There are the ones who believe that all things are possible to the one who believes. That's the minority, but I'm praying that you will soon become the majority. Then we have another group. You're trying to get blessings from God and you haven't taken care of the first things first. You have not yet acknowledged that He is.

Now let me say something that's important. To say that you believe He is is not enough. For James 2:19 says, "You believe there is one God, good! Even the demons believe that and shudder." James says, okay, you believe that God exists, that's wonderful. But don't get too excited because even the devils and his imps believe in God. But he says you have to go a step further than that. You have not yet truly acknowledged that He is until He becomes the Lord and Savior of your life.

Notice what I said: Lord and Savior. He can't just be Savior. You have not really acknowledged who He is until He becomes the Lord of your life. What does Lord mean? It means He's the ruler, He's the owner, He's the runner of your life. And you have not really acknowledged Him until He becomes that. That's why it doesn't work for somebody to come to the church and you bring them in here and they're all broken up and they're in a tight place and they want God to be their bail bondsman. It's just a matter of time before they go back to their messed up life and sooner or later are in need of a bailout again.

This is why there are some people who say they believe in God, they're still going to go to hell because just to believe there is a God does not change your life. Then we got another group which is the majority. You're truly trying to get something from God. You have acknowledged that He is, you have truly given your life to Him. The problem is that you have not yet gotten to the place where you truly believe that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. You've got a Thomas kind of faith.

So I want to really, really talk to you. Some of you are waiting to see what God is going to do before you call and believe Him to do what He said He would do. And He is saying to you this day, "No, you believe me, then you call to me and I will then answer in your time of need." You've got to get a vision for what you need God to do and then by faith, according to Hebrews 4:16, come boldly—the word boldly means with confidence—before the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in a time of need.

And then when you go there, you are to remind God of His promises to you and begin to call it as God calls it. Isaiah 43:26, God says, "Put me in remembrance of my word." God does not suffer from amnesia. He is saying I'm trying to tell you to declare my word. He is saying to you today say what I said to you when I said to you what I was going to do. Say it back to me so that it gets in your spirit. Job 22 and 38, he says, "I shall declare a thing and God will do it." In other words, it is you who makes the declaration and it's God who performs it.

Now what do you declare? Not some nutcase off-the-wall stuff you made up in your finite mind. You declare the promises of God. Where do you find the promises of God? You find it in the book that many churches have evicted. Because you know, we don't need that book anymore because we get direct revelation from the Father now. But I'm telling you if you want what God's got, you have to say what God says. And you've got to get what God says from His word, which now, watch this now, you've got to get the word of what... watch what the word of God does.

The word of God does for you what my remote control does for me when I'm watching TV. I press the guide button. Matter of fact, I don't even press it anymore, I just press this little button and say, "Hey, what should I watch next?" And it begins to scroll all these things I should probably watch next. But listen to me very closely. The word of God, it will do the same thing for you. Watch now. In that book, you find out what God has promised concerning your life and your circumstances, and you begin to work the word of God.

When you begin to work the word of God, how do you work the word of God? You work the word of God by faith. Watch now. Watch. Because faith, everybody stop talking. Why is it that we start talking when the most important thing is about to be said? Watch now. You work the word of God by faith because listen now, faith is the vehicle that you use to bring back out of the heavenlies what God already told you is out there.

Watch now, which is why Jesus said, "Pray thy kingdom come and thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Please understand that everything you need, God says is out there, but you've got to use faith to bring it into the earth. He says, "Only speak my word, declare it, and I will do it. Call it the way God calls it and God will bring it to pass." Now let me help some of you who are about to give up.

C.S. Lewis says, "Life with God is not immunity from difficulties, but peace in difficulties." And those who understand this and believe this, God's about to make the winds that have been blowing in your life, He's getting ready to make them shift and begin to blow in your favor. If you will remain kingdom focused, you'll begin to thrive in God's capacity. Watch this now. What is God's capacity? It is God's ability to do for you what you can't do for yourself.

Let me tell you what the Lord spoke to my spirit last night. The winds that were once blowing out of control and messing up your life will begin to blow and propel you toward great victory. The very storm that has messed up your life will begin to shift. Let me say something else though. You've got to do your part. James 2:14 and 17: "What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?" Verse 17: "In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."

Let me ask you something. Are you waiting on God to do something while you do nothing? "Well Lord, I need a job," and you've been praying and you've been praying. Let me give you some advice. You own a Chevy. After you have asked God, you take your Chevy's called your feet, shove one in front of the other and go look for a job. That's what it means to have faith and works.

Watch now. I don't care what my situation looks like, I'm going to declare what God said about it so eventually the winds start shifting. I said to Lady Brenda and I told Pastor Lopez about a certain situation, I said, "When did that start?" It started last year when I made God a promise about something that the devil wanted to die. And God says to me this morning, "What did I say? Did I not say I'm going to do it?"

Down in Florida Keys, there was a treasure hunter whose motto was "Today's my day." Every day for 16 years, Mel Fisher sent divers out with those encouraging words to find a Spanish ship that sank off of the Keys in 1622. He had to pay men in promises while dodging bill collectors. He and his family lived on a leaky boat for years. And one of his sons and his daughter-in-law were lost at sea as they searched for the treasure. But Fisher never gave up. He refused to abandon the vision or to give in to critics and doubters.

Every day he'd wipe the sandman out of his eyes and he would say, "Today is going to be the day." And every day he held on declaring that each day would be the day. Then in 1985, 16 years later, Mel's divers hit the mother lode of gold and silver and jewelry from the wreckage of the Spanish galleon. Now we're being told that 71 years later, they're still bringing up treasure from that site. See, you don't know, but that what God is going to do for you is not already opening up in heaven right now.

You don't know. You don't know. Listen, that's why some of y'all need to quit tripping in here on Sunday morning with your nonchalant attitude. "Well, we're going to go to church. We're going to go to church and we'll see what happens." Let me tell you something. You need to come running in here. You need to be tripping over people like all those fools were tripping trying to get to Taylor Swift's wedding. They interrupted my program so I could see them. I looked at my TV and I said, "I don't care." Click.

Your attitude is a breeding ground for miracles. Three things before I wrap it up. Very quickly, when you're going through a crisis in life, you need to do three things. The first thing is this, and this is not in your notes, but you've got to work on this one. Three things: continue to build on the right foundation. Continue to build on the right foundation. Continue to build on the right foundation. What is the right foundation? The word of God.

Secondly, give all you hold dearly into God's trust. Give all you hold dearly into God's trust so you can be at peace. Give all you hold dearly into God's trust so you can be at peace. And here's a real goodie: sow in times of crisis. Sow in times of crisis. David said in Psalm 37 and 25, "I am old now, but I can tell you I've never seen the righteous forsaken or their seed begging for bread." You know what he was saying? I've been around long enough, I've hung out with God long enough to tell you that it may not look like it but God will never fail.

We visited a lady from our home church in Chile. Chile, our church just outside of Iquique in Chile, is a church that's like Boston, Massachusetts. It is a breeding ground from people all over the world. You know what was so crazy? We even met a Haitian in our church in Chile. I'm like, "What?" We met people from all over the world in our church in Chile. This lady whose house we were in, can I get that picture? When we were in that house, we're sitting in her house. She came across the border from Bolivia into Chile. She didn't have any money. There we are sitting in her house. That house she built it herself. She's sitting there with us. Here's the short of the story she told us. She said, "Bishop, lady, I built my house." And listen now: "and I never stop tithing while I built my house."

See, what do you do? You give in times of crisis. Here's the conclusion of the matter. We've been set apart for the glory of God. John 17:9 through 17. I'm only going to read verses 14 through 17. Jesus said, "I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of this world anymore than I am of this world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of this world even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth."

The second thing I want to leave you with is this: your expectations about eternity determine your kingdom focus. When we were looking and we were doing the water baptisms, there was one young man—and I don't know, John may have the picture of that young man—when we were baptizing them, one young man, he was a druggy, there he is, tattoos all over his body. As I baptized him and brought him up, he grabbed me and he held on, and he held on so tight that literally his fingers were digging into my back.

And I found out that what he was saying was that "God saved me, He delivered me, He brought me out, He saved my life." We go to another member's home, and in that home we see her son. And we go there because she wanted us to come and pray because that young man is lying in a wheelchair. He is paralyzed. He is paralyzed because he was dating a girl, and his mom said she thinks they got mixed up in something they shouldn't have been in. He takes a rope, he puts it around his neck to hang himself and to kill himself. His mother gets home, sees him, cuts him down, and that's how he ended up.

And Lady Brenda and I wondered, "Does she ever go through... I probably would have... has she ever wondered, 'Did I make a mistake by me loving my son so much that I cut him down and now he's in that state?'" That's the human side of us speaking. Does she ever wonder about that and feel the guilt? But here's the differentiation I want to make. The young man that was holding me tightly, he understood that you've got to keep a kingdom focus. This life is temporary.

That other young man either didn't know or no one told him that a girl, a relationship that's temporary... keep a kingdom focus. And I kept thinking, I wish I could have told him, "Son, listen to me. Everybody plays the fool sometimes." That's what the song says. But when you don't think in terms of eternity, something can trigger in you and you start losing your focus. And that's where the devil wants all of us, to lose our focus on the kingdom. And he knows the one thing that can trip us up. And once that happens, we may not end up like that young man, crippled physically, but spiritually. You've got to stay focused, Church. This is not the time to be looking around you, to be looking down. This is the time to be looking at Jesus, the author, the finisher of our faith.

I want to thank you for joining us today and for watching this message on our stream. We are flowing now from the worship of hearing and receiving God's word into the worship aspect of giving into the kingdom of God. And as God has spoken to your heart, I pray that you're able to join us in giving and bringing Him His tithe and our offering. I want to share a little piece that's very interesting that you might even find interesting.

People were asked how much money it would take for us to have enough money. Remarkably, every person said, "If I could have a 10% increase, it would be enough for me to live and have a comfortable lifestyle." I share that with you because it's interesting that God says, "But if you will give Me 10% in Malachi 3 and verse 8 and verses all the way to verse 11," He talks about if you give me that 10%, He says you will have more than enough, there will be an overflow.

So why is that number significant in your giving today? The number is significant in that in your desire to live and have a healthy life, you want 10%. God says, "If you give Me 10%, I'll make your 10% multiply in your life." And so as God leads your heart today, I ask you to first be obedient to the Lord and bring that 10%, that tithe. And then let the Holy Spirit speak to your heart as you give an offering above that. That will open the windows of heaven. I thank you in advance for your faithfulness in giving to the work of the kingdom so that we may expand God's kingdom.

Let me pray for you now. Father, I thank You for these that have committed this day to be obedient to Your word. Because Lord, they understand that sometimes thanksgiving is merely an act of obedience. And since we are thankful people, we obey You this day to bring You Your tithe and to give our offering. We thank You in advance that You will open the windows of heaven, pour out blessing we will not have room to receive. We will be blessed spirit, soul, and body. And this we pray and believe for in Jesus' name. Amen.

Just lift your hands where you are. Though you may not be in this sanctuary, you become aware that we have words on this wall that are not just words, they are the biblical words from the very throne room of heaven. Let me speak them over your life. May the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show you His favor and give you His peace. God bless you as you receive it.