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Ep. 2_Lessons From the Man of God from Judah (Podcast) By Pastor Rich Kanyali
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The transcription is about a message titled "Lessons from the Mount of God" from the book of 1 Kings, specifically chapter 13 verses 11-26. The passage tells the story of a man of God from Judah who is sent to Bethel with instructions from the Lord not to eat bread or drink water, and not to return the way he came. An old prophet from Bethel lies to the man of God, claiming that an angel told him it was okay to eat and drink. The man of God believes the lie and disobeys God's command. As a consequence, a lion kills him on his way back. The main lesson highlighted is the importance of valuing and obeying God's word above all else, even when it contradicts what others, even prophets, say. The passage also emphasizes that God does not contradict Himself, and when faced with conflicting messages, one should choose to follow God's word. Hello, it's Pastor Rich Cagnalli here again, and I'm back with another message that I want to share with you. This is titled, Lessons from the Mount of God, from Judah, and this comes straight from the book of 1 Kings, Chapter 13, Verses 11 through 26, and I'm going to read those passages here as we go forward in dissecting the Word of God and see what God has to teach us from this text. 1 Kings 13, 11 through 12, the Bible says, Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. The words which he had spoken unto the king, them they told also to their father. Their father said unto them, What way went he? For his sons had seen the way the man of God had went, which came from Judah. Verse 13 says, And he said unto his sons, Saddle me the ass. So they saddled him the ass, and he rode thereon, and went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak, and said unto him, Art thou the man of God that cometh from Judah? And he said, I am. And he said unto him, Come home with me, and eat bread. And he said, I may not return with thee, nor go with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place. For it was said to me by the word of the Lord, Thou shalt eat no bread, nor drink water there, no time again to go by the way that thou came from. And he said unto him, I am a prophet also, as thou art. And the angel spake to me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him. Verse 19 says, And he went back with him, and did eat bread in his house, and drank water, and it came to pass, as he sat at the table, that the word of the Lord came unto the prophet that brought him back. And he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying, Thus saith the Lord. Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the Lord, and hast not kept the commandment which the Lord thy God commanded thee, but thou camest back, and hast eaten bread and drunk water, in the place of which the Lord did say to thee, Eat no bread, drink no water, thy carcass shall not come unto the sepulchre, or the grave of thy fathers. And it came to pass, after he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that he settled for him the earth, to wait for the prophet whom he had brought back. And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and slew him, and his carcass was cast in the way. And as stood by it, the lion also stood by the carcass. And behold, men passed by, and saw the carcass cast in the way, and the lion standing by the carcass. And they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt. And when the prophet that brought him back from the way heard thereof, he said, It is the man of God who was disobedient unto the word of the Lord. Therefore the Lord has delivered him unto the lion, which has torn him and slain him according to the word of the Lord, which is spake unto him. Now this is a very interesting passage right here. The three primary subjects, you have God, you have the old prophet in Bethel, and you have the man of God from Judah. Those are the three primary subjects in this passage. And what we see here, primarily, in summary, God gives a word to, sends the man of God from Judah into Bethel, and gives him a word, and what's supposed to speak unto the king, and all these things. And while he was in that place, the sons of the old prophet who was living in Bethel heard of what the man said, and went and told their father, there's a man of God from Judah and all these good things. And so what he did, he went and got on his ass and went and brought him and spoke to him and told him, come home and eat bread. But what's interesting here, maybe the key point we'll focus on as we're drawing our lessons from this passage, is that this man of God from Judah had a word from the Lord clearly that told him when you go, do not eat bread, do not drink water, and do not turn again to go the way which you've come from. In other words, don't go backwards. And so this was the word of the Lord that God gave to the man of God from Judah. This was the instruction, this was the commandment. So what happened here, this prophet, the old one that was living in Bethel, who I like to call the lying prophet, and I'll tell you why, because the Bible says here, he lied unto the man of God from Judah. He came and told him, don't worry, the angel of the Lord just spoke to me, and he said I can bring you back, you can eat bread and drink water. And the Bible says he lied to him. This is the old man, I believe in my own opinion, that he was old and was no longer relevant and I think was trying to be relevant. And he comes up with this word that he cooked, he made up, and misled, so to speak, the man of God from Judah. And so that's why I call him the lying prophet, because he was lying. And of course, we know the story is miserable going forward, because the man goes back, goes contrary to the word of God and returns and goes backwards and eats bread and drinks water in a place where the Lord clearly commanded him that he shouldn't do. And shortly after that, after the man is done, he's eating, he's leaving, he's on his way going, the lion came after him, put him down and slain him and didn't even eat him, just killed him. And of course, bad news and sad story, as we all can see. But the various things that we can learn that are happening in this place, and I'm going to highlight one of the first lessons I probably want to focus on, is that when God speaks to you, you ought to hold what he has told you higher, of more weight, of more value than anything else anybody else says. And we can be who they are, it can be man of God, woman of God, child of God, minister in church, whatever they are, whoever they are, ladies and gentlemen, when God has given you a word, you have to be able to esteem that word, value that word, elevate that word higher than any other word of any other person. Many people are misled by a word contrary to what God spoke to them because of who says it. And they shouldn't be. In this case, the man of God from Judah was misled by this lion prophet because he was a prophet. He started by talking about his credentials, I'm a prophet like you are. And so, because he was a prophet, this man decided to lie to the man of God. This was not appropriate. The man of God from Judah was lied to by this funny prophet, the lion prophet, because he thought he was a prophet. And the man bought that because of the stature or because of the credentials that the old man had, he was a prophet. And the man told him something that was contrary to what God had spoken to him, and the man bought it and believed it. And he was willing to discard what God had told him, even neglect what God had told him to follow what the man of God, the old prophet, was saying, which was contrary. Ladies and gentlemen, you have to be very careful about this. God is always going to speak to you, He's going to give you a word, but man, you have to elevate that word, esteem that word God has spoken to you personally, higher and greater than any other word that any other person has or says. This has to be your position. If you don't have this, you're going to be in a lot of trouble, a lot of problems like this man here. And we'll see, one of the lessons here, we'll see other lessons we're going to learn from this, but one of the lessons I want to highlight here is when God speaks to you, that word that He gives to you, you need to hold it at a higher level, greater and bigger than any other word of any other person, even if they are men of God or women of God. The truth is, as we'll see, there's so many out there that are, you know, hate to say, lying prophets, like this old lying prophet. And if you don't have a word from the Lord specifically, you're going to fall for everything they're going to tell you, because you are not sure, or you're not, you know, fully content with what God has given you, or you're intimidated by the status of the man of God, or this or that. Listen, gentlemen, you need to have, this has to be the place you need to be. But let me make this point also, a second lesson, maybe I should say, God does not contradict Himself. We see here two people saying two different things. The man of God from Judah said God told him not to return, not to eat bread, not to drink water. Another old lying prophet tells the man and says, you know, God, the angel of the Lord appeared to him and told him he could go back and do all the things that God told him he shouldn't do. So, which is which? Somebody's lying, listen, gentlemen, here, and if you're in such a situation, you don't react. You don't move forward. You just go back and evaluate. Somebody was lying here, and we all know it was the old lying prophet that was no longer relevant. He made up stuff and misled another man of God. But here's the thing you have to understand, that God cannot contradict Himself. God was clear. He didn't tell this man of God one thing and tell the old lying prophet another thing and bring about confusion. No, that was not God. And boy, a lot of us, you know, we just have this, we're usually in situations where someone has said this and God told you this, and you're wondering, who should I follow? You better follow God. I don't care who the other person is or what their status is, including myself. If what I'm telling you is not, you know, bearing witness in your heart to what God has told you, you need to reject it and follow God. We are all servants of the Lord. So you ought to be following God over any other man or woman of God, any other person that gives you a word that is contrary to what God has told you. You need to esteem what God has spoken to you primarily, greater and higher than any other word that someone claims God is speaking through them to you. But let me make another point here, that's a very clear point, God cannot contradict Himself here. I made that point. The other point I want to make is that men of God can be lied to. Some people think, oh, man of God, how is it possible to lie to a man of God? He's a man of God. Sure. Remember, one of the words, one of the words there is like, man of God, he's a man. That's a spiritual, the physical side of things is a man, God brings out the spiritual thing, is not a God of God, he's a man of God, it's a man who has a spiritual and physical side of it, and he was lied, he was deceived. I can tell you so many men of God have been around that are very powerful, they have been deceived, they have been cheated. It's crazy. A lot of people think it's impossible for this to happen to men of God, no, it happens to them. And we have to be very, very careful when we are making certain conclusions, thinking a person cannot be deceived just because, no, I know a lot of people have been deceived, they've been lied to. Man of God. It doesn't mean they're no longer men of God, it just means they are human too. They have a human side, they can be deceived, they can be manipulated, they can be cheated, they can be lied to. Man, this man of God was lied to. It's a lesson here to learn. You know, your man of God or whoever that person is, woman, whatever, they're not perfect. They're going to be, they can be lied to, they can be deceived. Of course, to the degree that they're yielding to the Lord, their deception will be minimal, but it doesn't mean they cannot be. Here, another prophet, old prophet, old lying prophet, lied to the man of God, and the man of God bought it. And there are reasons for that, to be honest, and I'll get into those as we share and talk about different lessons, but man, this should not have been that. So lesson number one, we said, what God gives you and God speaks to your word, that word has to be held at greater value, higher, greater than any other word that comes through any other person. Number two, we say God cannot contradict himself. He was not saying this to this man of God and saying the other to the old lying prophet. Somebody was wrong and that person wasn't God, was one of them. And we all know clearly it was the old lying prophet that was wrong. He was contradicting what God had told this other man. And so we know for sure that God doesn't contradict himself, and we don't act on the contradiction. We hold back, we wait until we get clarity of direction from the Lord if we have any doubts or confusion. Another thing I said, point number three, that man of God can be deceived. This man of God here was lied to. It's painful, but man, he was. What's even more painful, he had direction from the Lord. It wasn't like he was ignorant, knew nothing, and was lied to. I mean, I would probably have more sympathy for such a person, but this person had direction from the Lord. He was hearing from the Lord, and boy, oh boy, he was lied to. Man, as we read the story, it even cost his life. I wonder how this old lying prophet went to bed after this happened, knowing that he lied to the man of God. It's just unbelievable how people go to bed sometimes, and you think this is anyway, it's just irritates to wonder, and like, this man just made up stuff to appear relevant. So many. Today, I'm making up stuff to try to appear relevant, and to try to get some views and clicks and likes, and all these kind of things, and they'll just cook stuff and make up stuff, and it's unbelievable. But let me say this, another lesson, maybe I'll call it lesson number four, this man had a word from the Lord. So you want to be in a situation, wherever you're in, that you have a word from the Lord. And I honestly believe that what the man of God, what the old lying prophet said, should have been irrelevant, if this man recognized that he had a word from the Lord that was superior to any other word from any other person. I don't think he had that conviction, but he had a word from the Lord. And so whatever situation, and actually he rehearsed it to the man of God, whatever situation you're in, you want to make sure that, man, you got a word from the Lord, and that's what's going to hold you through moments and difficult times and confusion, and you're going to rehearse that, and you're going to say it back, and refuse to walk away from it. That takes me to the following point, or lesson, is do not backtrack from what God has given you. From the word that God has given to you, do not move away or walk away from it. That God that has spoken to you, you don't want to walk away from that word in favor of something else that is strange. Stick to that word. Don't quit that word. Don't give up that word. Do not backtrack. This man went backwards. He backtracked on the word of God that he had clearly, that he even knew by memory, and even rehearsed to the old lying prophet. This happened primarily because I believe this man was not fully sold, did not fully believe or know even the word of God, and so again, there could be various things that could have happened here, but all in all, one thing that is clear, he knew and heard the word from God. And so, there was no reason, this shouldn't have been an issue, I mean, whatever the other guy said could have been irrelevant if this man had valued, lesson one, esteemed what God told him greater and higher than any other person, including an old lying prophet. But he didn't. We know the story. It's miserable, miserable, miserable. Another lesson, I believe this will be lesson number five. Every time you get a word from the Lord, an instruction from the Lord, there will be somebody that will be paraded by the devil, by the enemy, to try to contradict what God has told you. Every time. Every time. This happens. And you have to be bold, you have to be strong, you have to be willing to push back and not back down and not depart from the word from the Lord. They're going to be there. Somebody's going to try to hinder the word of the Lord, somebody's going to try to use people or work through people to sabotage what God has called you to do. A good contrast I want to make here is a contrast of Peter and Jesus. Peter and Jesus. I mean, that's a powerful one, but we know the story in the book of Matthew, I believe, Matthew 16. Let me open that. Matthew 16, we see something very similar to what we're looking at here in this story of the man of God from Judah and the old lying prophet. So, Matthew 16 is a story where Jesus, you know, came to the disciples and said, you know, who these guys said he was. And verse 13, Matthew 16, verse 13 says, When Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, asking, sorry, saying, Whom do men say that I am? That I, the Son of Man, am? And they responded and said, Some say thou art John the Baptist, some say you are Elias or Elijah, others say you're Jeremiah, others say you're one of the prophets. And Jesus stands around and looks at them and says, Now, who say ye that I am? Or who do you say that I am? Now, pay attention to this. This is very similar to the story we just read in the book of 1 Kings chapter 13 about the man of God from Judah. And so, Simon Peter, in verse 16, responds and says, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon, by Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. Then goes on and says, As I say also unto thee, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Now, I'm going to get into these, but this wasn't saying Peter is the rock. Peter is not the rock. He's a rock to nothing. Jesus is the rock. Jesus was saying, Upon this rock, which rock? Myself, Jesus, Jesus, I will build my church. God did not build his church on the foundation of man. He built his church on the foundation of Jesus. Jesus is the rock, okay? He's the foundation of the church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. So, this is what Jesus was saying here. Nonetheless, right after that, Peter had said some of the most powerful revelations. Shortly after that, a few verses later, actually just about five verses below, Jesus begins to share with them that he's going to go die. He's going to go to Jerusalem. He's going to suffer many things by the elders and chief priests and the scribes. That's verse 21. And be killed, and be raised again the third day. When Peter heard this, it was like, the Bible says, Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, it shall not be unto thee. Okay, you see the old lying prophet in Peter? There you go. The old lying prophet is saying something through Peter here. Peter is saying something that is contrary to what God has told Jesus. Jesus has just mentioned it. He's going to go suffer many things in Jerusalem, die, and be raised again from the dead. And Peter says, No, this shall not be unto thee. Peter was standing in the way. He was trying to paint another vision. He was trying to come up with a word that was not the word of the Lord. God was not contradicting himself here. He had said what he said through Jesus, and that was exactly what was true. Peter just acted like a lying prophet, and this old lying prophet right over in 1 Kings 13, and he's trying to take a place here, and he's trying to correct Jesus. He's trying to say, No, that shouldn't happen. That won't happen. Who is Peter? And boy, oh boy, Jesus, unlike the man of God from Judah, knew the word, was convinced and persuaded that God had spoken to him. He was not going to let anybody talk him out, lie him out, what God had told him and called him to do. So what he did, he rebuked Peter strongly. He said, Get thee behind me, Satan. What? Did you call Peter Satan? Are you serious? A lot of people, if you say this to them, man, they'll be weeping for ages, for years. How dare you call me Satan? But anyway, Jesus says to Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou art an offense unto me, and thou severest, or favors, or concern, not for the things that be of God, but the things of men. Jesus rebuked Peter and said, Get thee behind me, Satan. He was not looking at Satan. He was looking at Peter and telling him, Get thee behind me, Satan. He wasn't saying Peter was Satan. He was saying that the spirit that spoke all that foolishness, trying to say Jesus shouldn't die on the cross and all that, was not the spirit of God. It was the spirit of Satan, and he rebuked it. He rebuked that and said, Get thee behind me, you loser thing you. But this is what exactly the man of God from Judah had to do to this old lying prophet. Had to rebuke him and say, Get behind me, Satan. Maybe they use the same words, but you know what I'm trying to say? They're supposed to rebuke and say no, because why is that? Because this man was giving him a new vision, was giving him something that is contrary to what God has spoken to him. This is what I told you earlier, that everything that God has spoken to you, when God gives you a word, Satan is going to try to correct somebody, sometimes it's the people of the inner circle, family members, people that you love dearly, people you esteem dearly, people that hold a very special place in your heart, and they will come and try to tell you something that is contrary to what God has told you and what God is leading you to do. And it's up to you to say, No, get behind me, Satan. No, I'm not going that direction. I'm going to stick to what God has put in my heart and do what God has called me to do. A lot of people don't do that. They yield, just like the man of God from Judah, 1 Kings 13, and the men, they just crush and burn, and they go in the direction that God was not telling them to go. Why? Because they esteemed greatly what the person was saying, not the word of God that God had given them to keep and to say. Amen. That is a very, very horrible position to be in. You don't want to be in that place. You want to always esteem the word of God higher than any person. And we see a clear example from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, how He rebuked Peter and put him in his place, and rebuked Satan, put Satan in his place, and went on to do what God had called him to do. These are two situations that you can compare and see how they both reacted differently. Jesus, in this case, reacted differently. The word of God in his heart was a challenge, was being challenged by Peter. And the other old story, the old lying prophet was challenging the word of the Lord that he had spoken to the man of God from Judah. But the man of God from Judah did not act or respond like Jesus did, and we know the result was horrible and terrible. Yet, on the side of Jesus, we see how he handled the situation, and then stood and refused to back off and back from, go away from what God had spoken to him in favor of what Peter was trying to paint. And this has to be our response. Ladies and gentlemen, when you're dealing with things like this, because every time you've got a word from the Lord, somebody, people that seem to be good, good opinions, that have different additions or this and that, they're going to try to tweak, even hijack, what God is calling you to do. I call them vision hijackers, or direction hijackers, lying prophets. Man, another lesson probably, I just said it right there, is lying prophets. Some prophets are liars. Just because someone is spiritual, is a man of God, doesn't mean he can't lie. I think I made that point earlier, but I'll say it again. Lies out there. If you don't know the word of God, you're going to be a victim. If you have the word of the Lord and you're not fully persuaded and convinced that God spoke to you, or you don't know what it is, or you forgot what it is, or you're looking at men and you're looking at their stature, their status, and all that, you will be duped. You will be deceived. You will be lied to. You'll be spoiled and taken advantage of. And this is exactly what happened. Lying prophets happen. Lying spiritual leaders happen. They're there. So you need to get in the word of God to ensure that you're not fooled and tripped into all this foolishness and all these lies that's always happening. You know, I think a lot of good things, and I really pray and really hope that, man, you're tracking and you're really receiving this good stuff. Because, man, this could change your life. This is powerful stuff right here. Man, lessons from the man of God from Judah. Another thing here, be fully persuaded that you're heard from God. While you have to esteem the word of God that you get from God higher than any other word, you have to be fully persuaded, convinced, and sold that you heard from God. And nobody can talk you out of it. Man, if someone can talk you out of what God has called you and told you to do, most likely God didn't speak to you. You have to have this attitude that means God speaks to you, you are fully sold out, you're fully persuaded, and nobody is going to try to come in and try to cause you to go a different direction. This has to be your position. This is how we win. And the man of God from Judah, unfortunately, while he had the word of God, he wasn't fully persuaded of the word that he even heard from God that somebody else came and painted a picture for him and went another way. He did not esteem and value the word of God higher than this lying prophet. And this really caused a lot of problems. And again, I'm saying these things from a place of love, and I'm just saying you have to get to a place where you, well, you have to have esteem and respect for ministers and men of God and all these things. Man, you have to be in a place where you hear from God and nobody is hearing from God for you. And that will really help you to be able to circumnavigate and skip and avoid the lies and the deception of the lying prophets out there. They are there. Man, you just have to be intentional to avoid that stuff. But let me say this. I remember a story. Let me start with you. One time I was looking for a place to rent. I just moved to Uganda to help Andrew McMinistries. It was around 2000, 2020. And man, I needed a place to stay. I needed a three-bedroom house. And man, I was looking, looking, looking. I got people to look and help me look. And I was not finding a place. So I just sought to get counsel from some people that are esteemably valued and esteemably esteemed in my life. And then there were four people and they shared something that was very similar to what they both told me the similar thing. They didn't know each other, but both said the same thing. And I went and I prayed and I got direction from the Lord and God confirmed. And what they told me, the four of them separately, they said, don't get a three-bedroom, just get a one-bedroom is what you need right now. When your situation changes or your circumstances change, go ahead and look for a third bedroom or a three-bedroom house and then move into that. But for now, take it easy, chill out. I said, okay, sure. I went and prayed about it. God confirmed that. I said, that's the direction. So I went and I started to go that direction. Here's what happened. I had already deployed people to go and look for the place for me. And I called them and I said, hey guys, push pause, pull the plug. I'm not going forward. I don't want no more three-bedroom. We're going to look for a one-bedroom. And immediately God told me, whoa, before you say that, we found a place. I said, what? We found a three-bedroom for you. I said, sure. You see, are you tracking with me now? I'm beginning to divert and move away from what God has spoken and confirmed. And so I give audience to their foolishness and I listen and all this. And then they say, tomorrow, come see the place. I went, I saw the place, beautiful place and all this. Price was right, everything was right, everything, everything. They tell me, hey, this place will be taken. You got to put a deposit down. All this kind of stuff. You get the keys. We'll move in the next day or whenever. You know, I said, if you make plans to enter three-bedroom, your God has spoken to me and told me to get a one-bedroom apartment. I departed from the word of the Lord. Man, I tell you, while I did not die like the man of God from Judah, boy, the loss I suffered was, you could call it death. God, have mercy. Man, these people were crooks, were con men. They conned me seriously. I lost $1,411. $1,411 was stolen and I was deceived and lied and duped, and these people ran off with it. But you know why this happens? Because I did not stick to the word of the Lord that God spoke to me. A change on the other side caused me to flip and change and move away from what God has spoken to me and confirmed in my heart that I needed to get a one-bedroom. Confirmed by four people also. I esteemed the value and the other words contrary to what God had told me to esteem, and so I got burned. I mean, thank God for God. Thank God for his goodness. He showed me a lot of kindness. I was able to, you know, recover all through his restoration power and his faithfulness and his goodness. I mean, I was able to recover all. But long story long, short story long, or long story short, that's the right one for sure. God really came through and showed me his kindness. But the point I want to make here is that, man, I just departed from the word of the Lord and caused problems. I suffered loss. A man, God just helped me, walked with me through this whole situation, and I was able to find the thief and the man and brought him to justice, so to speak. Man, I recovered all. But I made a wrong decision. I was following. I was going the wrong direction. I was a man of God from Judah at that point. Again, many of us and all of us have done things like this, stupid things like this. But you don't want that. You want to make sure you're following God. You want to make sure you're doing what God has called you and put in your heart to do, and you're not just jumping up and down, following whatever you want to follow. I remember another situation, actually. You know, when I was the previous director of Andromac Ministries in Uganda. I was leaving, and I was coming in, and they had already planned to, you know, found a place where the ministry was supposed to relocate to, new building, beautiful, by a Christian organization, good money, good space, good rent, brand new, everything, just check all the boxes. And when I heard all those things, I said, sure, I mean, that's not a bad idea, but allow me to go pray about this, and I'll make my decision since I'm the new director. So I went home, prayed about it. God said, no, don't move. I went back, and I told everybody, I'm not moving. I'm not doing that. God said, no, I'm not doing it. And everybody looked at me like, man, what is wrong with this guy? And for me, at that point, I had a word from the Lord, and I was not going to depart from it the second time, ladies and gentlemen. I was going to stick by it, and I refused to move. I stayed there, and history is history. But I'm telling you, man, it was the right decision that I made. If I had moved into that place, it would have been terrible, because shortly as I had that word from the Lord and I knew what I wanted, I got calls, people just trying to persuade me, the guy, the dueling, trying to give me offers so I can move in. He was painting and was saying a word that is different from what God had told me, and this time, I was not going to give in. I was so determined that I'm not yielding, and then I never yielded. I stood strong and followed through, and then, by God, I put my heart to do. So, I want to say these, and all these things I've shared with you, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you're really picking up a lot of stuff here. But, man, you don't want to have the man of God from Judah syndrome, where God gives you a word and speaks to you to do not to do something, and someone else comes and tells you, sure, you can do it. The Lord told me you can do it. And then you forget what God has told you, and then you do what these people want you to do. You don't want to do that. You stick to what God has called you to do, what God has told you to do, what God has put in your heart to do. And, man, that makes sense for a lot of people. You may be losing money or offers or this and that. Man, just do what Jesus said you should do, period. I like the story of John chapter 2, verse 5. It's the story of water. Jesus turned water into wine, into wine, not into water. I just want to make that very clear to some of the religious people out there. He turned water into wine, not into grape juice or whatever. Nonetheless, one instruction that Mary told the men that were filling up the pots of water, I told them, and look, in John chapter 2, verse 5, he said, Whatsoever he says, talking about Jesus, do it. And that's pretty much the summary of this. Whatever Jesus tells you to do, do it. And if anybody says anything contrary to that, rebuke it. Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it. Again, I say, you're better off to fail, so to speak, if that's a possibility. It's better off for you to fail believing and trusting God than trying to come up and follow other instructions that are contrary to what God has spoken in your heart and for you to do. You don't want that. So, let me show two other examples here, and I'll quit. Nehemiah chapter 6, verse 4 through 5, the story about Nehemiah. Nehemiah had just come down to build the wall. He was getting a lot of opposition from people that never wanted to see Jerusalem picked back up and get better. In summary, they began to send him messengers to meet with the enemies. The people that never wanted him, resisted him, fought him, wanted to meet with him. In other words, the devil wanted to have a meeting with Nehemiah. Nehemiah refused. The Bible says here, Nehemiah 6, verses 4 through 5 says, Yet they sent unto him four times. These people were relentless. They kept sending and sending after this sort, and I answered them after the same manner. I told you I'm not coming. In other words, Nehemiah was saying. Then they sent St. Bartholomew, his servant, unto me in like manner the fifth time with an open letter in his hand, and he rejected. Nehemiah had a word from the Lord, and he was not going to walk away or go away from it. He pushed back. He refused to yield and do what these other enemies of people were wanting him to do. This has to be the issue that we have. He didn't back down from the word of God. Again, the rest is a good story about Nehemiah's journey. A lot of people, again, like the man of God from Judah, they all have a word. Then when someone else comes and paints something new, they drop what God said, and they do what the man or the other person is saying. Wrong. Wrong. You don't want to do that. Genesis 39 verse 10, the Bible says, And it came to pass, as she spoke to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her to lie by her or to be with her. This is speaking about the old lying Potiphar's wife. You understand? Potiphar's wife was wanting to get in bed with Joseph, and Joseph had a word from the Lord. He knew what was right. And this woman relentlessly, day in, day out, pressured and tried to apply pressure to this man to yield. And Joseph did not back down, did not walk away from the word of God. He refused to accept and receive another word from the old lying prophet, or from the old lying woman, from this wife of Potiphar. Of course, he even paid a price for doing the right thing, ended up in jail, and all these kind of things. But he refused to go away or to depart from the word of the Lord to do what another person was saying that was contrary. He refused to get new vision from a strange person that was contrary or contradicted what God had told him. And this has to be the attitude that we have. If we're going to prevail, if we're going to win big, we need to have this attitude. God is going to be speaking to us. God speaks to us, but we need to come to a place where we say, heck no, I'm not doing that. I'm not doing what is not of the Lord. I'm going to do only what the Lord has told me to do. Man, if this is your attitude, you're going to win big. My prayer is that, man, we and you avoid, you know, by the grace of God, this man of God from Judah syndrome of departing from the word of the Lord that you have clearly, that you know very well you can rehearse and you can even say again to do things that are not what God has told you to do because somebody said it, regardless of their status or their stature. That's my prayer. Hopefully, again, I said a lot of things here. I trust that, you know, these things will really help you. Some of the lessons we've shared will really help you to just, man, just get stronger and just get grounded in the things of the Lord and just make sure that nobody, you know, robs you in daytime and takes you for a ride and takes advantage of you. Again, summary again is that, number one, when God speaks to you, you're all to hold and value what he has spoken to you, higher than any man. I said also God cannot contradict himself. There's a contradiction. You're going to drop the second thing the other person is telling you. Stick to what God is telling you. If you're still confused a bit about that, put both on the shelf. Go back to the Lord. Get clarity. God will speak to you. He wants to speak to you more than you want to hear him, and he will give you direction. Another thing I said here, a man of God can be lied to as well. Just because someone is spiritual doesn't mean they cannot be lied to. They cannot be duped. It happens all the time. And here is another lesson we can draw from this passage we just read about the man of God from Judah. Another lesson we say here is when you have a word from the Lord, first get a word from the Lord, and when you have a word from the Lord, you've got to stick by it. And, of course, lesson number four here is don't back down from that word. Lesson three, you have a word from the Lord. Lesson four, do not back down from that word. Stick to that word. Lesson five, we say, man, beware of lying prophets. While men of God can be lied to, but also beware that, you know, the people, spiritual leaders out there, they can lie and deceive. That's why you need to get in the word of God. They will deceive you. Man, they'll make you sell your house, sell your kidney, sell your liver. I mean, you will sell your guts, your intestines for. I tell you, you have to be superior. And, man, spending time in the word of God and making sure that nobody is painting something that is contrary to what the word of God is. And I'm preaching good here, and I know you're quiet wondering. You know, but the truth is, what I'm saying is true. It's powerful. These things happen, you know. Somebody's going to lie to you. He's going to dupe you and all these kind of things, and if you don't know the word of God, you're going to fall prey to that. You're going to fall prey to that. And so, number six, every time God speaks to you, gives you a word from the Lord, someone will be perverted to come to try to interfere and hinder the word of the Lord and try to paint a different vision, different picture for you. I'll give you a good example. Matthew 18, Jesus versus Peter. Jesus had a word from the Lord. He was going to die, rise again from the dead. Peter had a different word. He said, you should die. You're not going to die. No, die for me. What did Jesus do? He rebuked Peter and made sure he sticks to what God had put in his heart to do. And this has to be the same response. It has to be the same attitude that we have when we are dealing with such situations. So, again, someone is going to come. They might have good reputation to you, highly esteemed, highly valued. They have great opinions. They have great thoughts. They have great this and great that. Praise God for all of that. But, man, if it strays in any way and it's contrary to what God has told you to do, that thing has to be put in the dustbin, in the trash can. It's rubbish. It's trash. Hello? It's trash. I don't care who says it. I don't care who they are, their status, or how many people go to their church, or what many televisions they are on, how many radio stations they are on. I do not care. That thing belongs in the trash can. Nobody, no opinion, no word ought to be esteemed above and higher than the word of the Lord. No matter who says it. We saw an example of the old lion prophet, right? All right, another lesson here to keep in mind. Be fully persuaded with what you've heard from the Lord. That way nobody can just come and try to sway you and just to get you off topic. So you end up doing what they want you to do. Be fully sought. Be fully persuaded. You know that nobody gets a chance to lie to you and deceive you. Man, I have a lot of things I can say here that God probably wants to share and all that. But I really believe this is enough for what I shared. And I trust that God is going to use these things, quicken these things to you. I mean, it's going to really be a blessing to you. Of course, there are many ways you can get this teaching. You can hear it on radio. You can hear it on our podcast. You can hear it on our YouTube channel. We are happy to share this with you any time. And, man, we just pray that God gives you wisdom to be able to discern and not fall prey to some of the things that are happening out there. And we love you, man. Again, it's Pastor Rich here at NOF, and we look forward to hearing from you. We love you greatly, and we pray grace and peace and blessings to you. And, yeah, God bless. Take care.
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