The Small Habits That Quietly Destroy Your Life

This song, just do it. I greet you all in the wonderful name of Jesus Christ. Our Lord and Savior. I just feel like this morning, there's an awesome spirit of worshipping God. Spirit of worshipping God. And you know when you realize that Spirit of God is here, it's almost like as if you are... I don't know how to explain it, but it's like something that I can say to you. We think that the Spirit of God is not everywhere or not always with us. Because of our own thoughts, our own ways and our own, you know, you can almost call it noise in our heads. And therefore we don't sense the Spirit most of the time. But when somebody is sensitive to the Spirit of God, they know what is supposed to be done at that time. That's the difference because the Spirit of God is always with us. But the Spirit of God is also telling us what is needed for that moment. So therefore we need to understand that whenever there's something needed, He will make it open like harder or louder. In fact, yeah, louder. Louder is the word I'm looking for. Today I want to preach to you a subject called, on a subject I mean, called Root for Fruit. I'm going to take the time and explain to you when I say root for fruit. Because the Bible says it even that if the Lord doesn't build, build in vain, build the builders. So this is actually if the root is not right, the fruit will also be affected. When the root of things is affected, the fruit will also be affected. When the roots are, you call it healthy, the fruit will be healthy as well. And I came to know certain things in my place I'm staying. And one of the things that I came to know is that there's so many plants in this house, in the yard. And every time, whenever the plants start growing, there's just, there's just a lot of attack to them. And when I say attack, let me talk about this root bone. It's this thing that looks like a palm tree, but it's not a palm tree outside. I don't know what you call that one. But anyway, any time these things started to grow, there's this orange Mozambican butterfly. Mozambican butterfly that come to eat these things when they're still soft. Bread tree. So any time that it happened that when they have this soft flower, not flowers. Where's the English today? Leaves. So when the soft leaves come out, this butterfly, orange butterfly, keeps on coming to eat them. And the worst part of this butterfly is that the birds can't eat them because it has a better taste. And that is the reason why when it comes, it will stay there until your tree is gone. So it's so much attack towards this trees, but a root for fruit is something that I can say to you today. It is the things that you need to check before it becomes a grown plant in your life. This is what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about specifically our waiting for the last minute things. We had a thing at work where every year, this time of the year, we have to give presents. And then I normally wait for the last minute and then it's struggle. I struggle to give all the presents out in time. But I think this year was really a good one for me because I could do it earlier this year. But waiting for the last moment to get things done made us to lose the things that we should be doing. There's things that I want to do that I don't do and things I don't want to do but still doing it. That's what the Apostle said. I'm paraphrasing. I'm not saying it the way he said it. But I just want to let you know there's so many things that we want to do but we don't do it. But coming back to my message, root for fruit. What is your roots doing today to allow your tomorrow to look better? To allow your tomorrow or not just tomorrow but few minutes from now to have it better. I'm taking my notes now. I want to preach from my notes so that I don't deviate from what I want to say. But let us go to Proverbs 4. Proverbs 4.23. Proverbs 4.23 says, Keep thy heart with all diligence. For out of it are the issues of life. But I'm going to come back to the scripture later. But I first want to say, let me give you a story now. There's a guy by the name Solomon. Now Solomon stayed in a valley. Now if you know a valley, it's something that is down there. You get mountain or hill and then you get valley which is down. And Solomon was staying in this valley for many years. He became so familiar with this valley that every year when rain comes, he knows for a fact that this rain is just going to come and then it will pass. And then one year it happened that the rain came so strong and the normal height of the water was over that. And Solomon started to say, every year it happens that the water just come to a certain point. What will make it different this year? And he relaxed. Lo and behold, then the water came strongly in all the other days than when it was raining. And as the water go higher and higher, Solomon still sits and think, this rain will just pass by. But every time it's like almost something making you awake. Like, hey, get awake now because now something is coming too strongly now. And Solomon sit. But as the water came, Solomon's neighbors start saying, Hey Solomon, we've been preparing pudding scent so that the water can pass our houses. And they had some scent bags as high as the level of the water so that their houses could not be affected by this water. So they were prepared. Every year they prepared. Solomon were the only one who stayed the longest in this place, have not prepared ever since he stayed there. And some of the neighbors that come in were literally every time when they come in, they saw that others have put some scent bags surrounding their houses and they will do the same. But Solomon is the one that never does it. And funny enough that this guy's name is Solomon, while the wisest name, Solomon, did it differently. So this year the neighbor said, Solomon, the water is too high now. Get out of your house. And Solomon refuses. Solomon refuses, prompt up. He said every year the water does this. It gets high and then it stops and it goes. And it wasn't few hours after that Solomon's house went with the water. And he had to swim out to get back out of that flood. But because of the problem with Solomon is that every year it happened the same. It goes up and then the moment you think it's too high, it goes down. And Solomon got so relaxed that he knew it won't happen this year again. But this year it happened. Now what is the story about? The story is about a lot of things that is happening in our lives, we tend to leave it for the last moment when it is literally consuming you. It is consuming you in a sense of because you don't know if it will flood you or if it will subside again. It's the same with things that we do in our lives. Now in our house, in our yard, there's some palm trees. Now the palm tree has green buds. And when it becomes ripe, it becomes an orange thing. But what happens is that when this orange thing comes, it brings a lot of flies with it and it brings a lot of honey bees with it. And the smell is unbearable. The smell is not nice. That smell is not nice. So when I look at that tree, I try to understand why is it that when that becomes orange, it starts falling off and it makes such a mess. And then as I was looking into it, I literally realized God is trying to tell me something. Proverbs says there's a time and a season for everything in our lives. Now if there's a season to plant, there must be a season to harvest. So it cannot be that you plant but never receive harvest. And therefore it's the same thing with this tree now. I was looking at it and I spoke to God and I'm asking God, but what should I do for this tree not to get to the smelly part? And I didn't get the answer at the time. But it made me aware of the things that is in our lives, that we also live until it gets rotten. And then it starts creating the smell and it starts becoming bad. This is things like, let me make an example. The movie before Jai Da, what was it? The Forge. We were watching a movie, The Forge. Now this boy's father left him. Or let's say he was drinking a lot. Obviously things get, and him and the mother, so they separated and he went to go live. So he got so bitterness with his father that it didn't help him. So this bitterness that I'm talking about is the things that we live until it becomes rotten. So he then got this nice job. This guy got the nice job and the first day they said he's going to do something else. And he needs to now open the receiving. And when he opened the receiving, you know what stands in front of him? Or who stands in front of him? It was his father. The very first job that he had, he did so well. But then suddenly when his father came to the door and he had to open the door and he saw his father, he broke down. He dropped everything and ran away crying because of the bitterness that he had for his father. These are the things that we live until last minute. So when these things are happening in our lives, we tend to see it. We tend to see it but not noticing it. It's the same like Solomon, ah no, nothing will happen. This year it didn't happen. Last year it also didn't happen. So what will make a difference this year? So all the time it becomes where our bitterness, our unforgiveness makes us to be consumed by that bitterness. These are the things. Now you might ask, or you might say this man, but why is it that this tree is there? What is the use for the tree? Because any time it's not a human benefit except for the good looking. That tree is nice, like the palm tree, it looks nice. But the problem with the palm tree is it does look nice except for the fruits that it made that is not nice. Now in our lives we sit with the same things that some of the things that we are seeing, it's smelly. It makes so much smell. But it's something that somebody else is in need of. Or it's useful for that person. How can something that is smelly be useful for somebody else? How come? Let me do this man. I want to take the time and tell you about what's this thing called? It's this thing man, wheat. What? Wheat man? Wheat is like, it's the thing that... It's oncrete. So what wheat is? Wheat is something that sometimes suffocates the plants. It does sometimes suffocate the plants. But what we don't know is that wheat also has a good in it. If I can make an example of one of the good things that it helps with man is erosion. What I mean by erosion is that when water comes and it cuts through the scent, it takes the scent away. But the wheat will stop the scent from moving so that it can stabilize the soil, if I can call it that way. Especially in places where there's not enough soil. Wheat can help that. Now what do we do? We take out the wheat thinking that the wheat is bad. Not knowing that you cut the nose to spite the face. You know what I mean? It's like somebody saying, let me kill the wheat, but you're killing your plants because there won't be soil enough. If I talk about wheat, wheat also helps insects and birds and other wildlife. It helps them to have some sort of food sometimes. I'm reminded of Tevin Campbell's song. Do you know Tevin Campbell's song, Dandelion? Dandelion is a plant with a stick like this. Then there's a white thing that when you blow it, the wind will blow it away. So I'm reminded of a dandelion. Dandelion helps a lot of pollination between plants. So when the bird comes to take this thing, it helps the others. So it's like that. Some of the weeds, what they do is they go deeper inside than the plants. So when they are deep inside the plants, they bring the nutrients from the deeper side closer to the plants. These are good things, and we call it weed, and we don't want it. Trans-interrelations are weeds that makes you stronger. So you don't see the good in it, but it's the best to have them. And funny enough is that when I read about the dandelion, they were actually saying that it is rich with vitamins and minerals that can support your liver health. I mean, liver health. I'm still trying to figure out why do you want to eat a wild plant, but it helps the liver. These are things when we're talking about the root. Now, when I look at the root, there's certain times that certain things need to happen for a fruit to come. Make sure it sounds like something that's a little hard. Don't let it break. Let the kids stay at the back. Don't stop them from doing whatever, but just see it sounded like something broke. Alright, but when you're looking at the roots, there's a certain time that you need to do like roses. If you don't prune the roses, the roses won't look nice. So you need to, at a certain time, wait for them. Otherwise, they will grow wild. They will be like all over. So you can't handle them. There's certain times when you're looking at the trees that we have outside of our house, when I leave them for too long, I can't cut them in form again. It won't have the same form again. So I need to restart the whole form of it. And I wish I can tell you what that plant is for. But that plant is a tree. You cut it in nice form. Sometimes you make it round. I think Neymar, can you have a look for us, please? It's just on the other side. So when you're looking at these things, if you don't use it at the right time, or prune them at the right time, they will not grow like the way you want it to. It's very important to understand the seasons in life. It's very important to understand when to cut and when not. Because the moment you cut too early, you kill the plant. The moment you cut too late, it might be too late. It might be too late. Let's talk about toxic relationships. Know when to move out. Know when to walk away. Because sometimes we still look at it, this guy is still giving me a hundred rent every month. So why would I want to lose the hundred rent? So know when is it time that you need to let go. I mean, let's talk about bad habits. Do you know waking up five minutes late every day? It's nothing. It's nothing. You don't have to worry about five minutes late. Because five minutes late, it makes you to have a... How do you call it? It makes you to just rush quicker so that you can leave earlier. So it helps because it pushes you to start finishing yourself faster. So that's five minutes late. But do you know every five minutes late will get added another five minutes? By the time you realize it's in half an hour. Let me make an example, Mark. Let's talk about it this way now. Every time when we say church, it becomes five minutes later now. Did you realize? The church doesn't start when it's supposed to start. It becomes five minutes later. It's that kind of fruit I'm talking... I mean root that I'm talking about that we don't realize it. And in my mind, I'm always of the opinion that these kind of habits will make us to lose a lot of people that don't like. Like for argument's sake, if somebody says to me, I need to be in the office at nine o'clock. And they arrive at half past nine. I'm upset. I don't like it to be waiting for somebody for some time. My wife is the one that can tell you that whenever we go somewhere, we need to be there fifteen minutes before time instead of being there on time. Instead of being there on time, it helps us not to use too much of our time. So any small thing that we think, it's not going to affect us. It's allowing us to sit with the tree that is smelling. That tree that smells so much that you can't bathe. And I don't touch that tree with my hands when I clean there. I rather use the rake, whatever I can, but I never touch with my hands because that smell doesn't even come off my hands. It smells for like few hours and hours. And you had to wash it with the scrub brush, you can say. So I want to also speak to you about the root. Now doctors will tell you, snuff, what else? Pain, what else? You know, they're trying to look for the symptoms of what is wrong with you. So they're looking for those kind of things to find out what is wrong with you. But do you know, sometimes they treat the symptoms only and not the root cause of the problem. Not the root cause of the problem, only the symptoms. Now when I look at the root, a root is normally under the surface of the soil. So you can't see if a root is good or bad. So it's always hidden. So the things that makes you to stand stronger, it's hidden. Characteristics that makes you stronger, it's hidden. It's not something loud. Do you know what I mean by characteristics that makes you stronger? It's not something loud. Humbleness, it's not something that you spoke. You don't talk about it. You don't say, I'm so humble. No, you don't. It's something that is under the surface. Humble yourself by the side of the Lord and He will lift you up. So when you're humble, you don't need to blutter. You don't need to wha. You don't need to speak. These are roots that make your tree to bear nice fruits. These are the roots. When Jesus taught us, he taught us some principle I can tell you. In Luke 6, he taught us Luke 6 verse 43 and 45. No good tree bears bad fruit. Then it goes on, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. Now, when I talk about fruit, I don't talk about the fruit that you can see because sometimes the nutrients doesn't come to the fruit if the root has problems. A wheat can be such a good thing to help you with the soil, but it is when to know, when to take it out. Do you know I don't take out wheat if it's this short? Because what you will do is you will just take out the top of the root of the wheat. The root will still stay and it will keep on growing. So what you do is you wait for them to have a certain length where you can have a grip on it. Then you pull it out. Then it comes with the root. It's the same thing that I say to you. When your roots is placed at a place where it's still bad, it still helps the fruit, you don't need to cut it. The tree I'm talking about specifically, the palm tree, there's a certain length where I need to cut it so that when I do cut it, it does allow us to have a, how do you say, it does allow us to, I want to say, what is this, the bees, yeah, the birds and the bees, so when it becomes orange, it helps the bees to make honey. So there's a good thing about it. So the bees get honey, the flies get food. Bees get honey, flies get food, even some of the birds eat it, eat this orange thing I'm talking about. But for a human being, the smell doesn't do it. For a human being, your house doesn't look nice. What do you call your yacht? Because it makes a problem. And for somebody who has a swimming pool, that thing with swimming pool is even worse, because it clogs the swimming pool's vacuum thing, what do you call that thing? Yeah, vacuum, I don't know what you call it. So it clogs it so that the swimming pool can work nicely. But for the bee, it helps to make, to help to make the honey. So as it is bad for you, it's good for somebody else as well. Trials and tribulations, as it is bad for you, it's also good for you. The purpose of this is literally like James 1 verse 224 says, it often grows our character. There's some people that says, I just want to get rid of this relationship because it felt toxic. Not knowing is that thing that helps them to know what kind of relationship you don't want. I don't want a Mike Tyson relationship because I had it before. Mike Tyson was literally giving me blue eyes. So now I know, the moment you start hitting me once, you will not stop. Once will become twice, will become thrice. That is the relationships. So you need to make sure that you don't get into that. Now, one of the things that I must also say that I love about this is that you need to discern when is it the right time to let go of a certain habit in your life. Because if you don't let go of a habit, I can make an example. One beer is no problem. One glass of wine is no problem. There's nothing wrong with it. But do you know people like me, when wine goes in, manners, they go out. I don't have manners. So I'm not a good person when I'm drunk. Because I am a strong man. I start hitting anybody that just say a skew word to me. That is why I left it 24 years ago. Because I became strong when the wine goes in. I started with the anger that I had at the moment at that time. I started allowing the wine to dictate me. It made me to lose my cool. Therefore I had to leave it. So one glass of wine is nothing. But like me, where it's a lot, it becomes a problem. But the thing is also, at the same time, you need to understand the root about it is that when you drink also everyday kind of wine, you become an alcoholic. Because that thing is addictive. It's very addictive. Because the more you start drinking, the more you become reliant on it. That is why I'm saying there needs to be a discernment. So discernment is the key to make sure that the root is taken care of before the fruit comes and before it kills you. So there's a too much or too less. Just as a farmer knows when to prune a tree or to uproot it entirely, we must also seek wisdom to act at the right time. Know when it is that your futsek is becoming too much now. Because it's no longer futsek. It's some extra added words. Know when it is to stop it. Because now it becomes something that downgrades somebody else. Because when you respect somebody, you won't use the word futsek to somebody. It's only dogs that get futsek. Really, if you're looking at it, there's a time to plant and there's a time to uproot it even. So what is it that you need to uproot in your life that is causing you your downfall where the fruits that you want to have is no longer the same fruit? What is it? Think about it. Let's take a step back. Thinking of myself, there's some of the things that I need to uproot. And one of those things is that my studying, there's some problem with me. The way I keep on studying things, I have a tendency of wanting information any time. I wake up at night, like 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock at night. Something triggers my mind at that time. I want to learn something about this. I will pick the phone, start Googling it and research it. It becomes so much of a problem. Even last night, my wife was asking me, what are you doing every night? What are you doing every night? It's late. What are you doing? Because I so much want to have information. I'm an information freak. I'm addicted to information. Some people will look at me sitting on the phone, thinking that I might be playing games or something. I'm looking for information. When do I stop? It's when it affects my wife's life. It affects my life with my wife. What do you call it? Whatever. I need to understand that at a certain time, it needs to stop. It's a good thing to know. It's very good to know. But when it affects other areas of your life, it's not good. So know when to. Just know when to. I want to go back to the one I said to you about bitterness and unforgiveness. Bitterness and unforgiveness. Hebrews 12 verse 15. Hebrews 12 verse 15. Hebrews 12 verse 15 says as follows. Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness spring up, troubling you, and thereby many be defiled. Did you hear that? He says, lest any root of bitterness. Meaning to say that there's a root towards it. There's something towards it. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God, that no bitter root grows up, causing trouble and defilement. Unforgiveness starts as a small hurt. You know like small. It's so small. But when it is left unchecked, it grows into bitterness. When it's left unchecked, this bitterness seeps into your relationships. I can't forgive my father for leaving me at the age of two. You know my father left me before I could know him. And I became bitter against him. I was bittered, you know. And at that time, it affected my relationship with my stepdad. He was there for me while the other guys were not. So that bitterness made me to have such a bitterness. But you know what I like about it? It made me to realize to be a more present dad than what my father used to be. I need to be more present with my kids. I'm not saying I can afford anything they want because the more you are closer to them, the more they want. It's like, Hey daddy, when are you coming here to look for shoes? Daddy, when are you coming here to look for shoes? But all I'm saying to you is that I'm a more present dad because of the trials I went through as a child not to let my children go through it the same way. Now, can you see what I'm talking about? The root is also a fruit. It's the roots for your fruits. Because what can happen, I can also let you know that certain things in life, it's either making you or breaking you. My father's alcoholic, like being an alcoholic, drinking every day, made me not to want to drink every day. But lo and behold, my sister, he says, But we grew up in the same place the way you're looking at the situation is what makes a difference. If you see trials and tribulations as something that is killing you, it will kill you. But if you see something as trials and tribulations that is burning you, it will burn you. Something that is burning you, it will burn you. Coming back to my scripture, God your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. Proverbs 4, 23. God your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. Why do you want to God your heart? The answer lies in the second part. Why do you want to God your heart? It is the second part. Wellspring of life. I want to go to the, I almost said the Proverbs, but what do you call it there? I want to go to the King James Version. Keep thy heart with diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Is that issues of life? So what is the issue of your life? My heart is not pure enough, therefore I can't see God. So God your heart. My heart is not pure enough, therefore I cannot love my neighbor as I love myself. I don't respect myself enough to respect others. I don't love myself enough to love others. God your heart. God your heart. I want you to think about it this way. When we take the word of God, sometimes if you don't have the Spirit of God, the word is just a, what is this, Mils and Boons? A love story or whatever. I don't know what you call those books. It's just a fiction. But with the Spirit, it's made a life. Ephesians 6 says, our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, against the spiritual forces of evil and heavenly realms. What I'm trying to say is that when we struggle, our struggle has nothing to do I wanted to let you know something else. When you have time to reflect on your life, reflection is very important in one's life because reflection will help you to see certain things differently. The Bible says meditate on this day and night. Now by meditating, you take the word of God and you reflect what does it say in my life. And reflecting what does it say in my life means that when I look at the root of whatever is happening in my life, I don't go to the devil and fight every fight that he brings your way. It's not necessary. He's been, not he will be, he has been defeated on the cross of Calvary. You know that day when Jesus was in darkness, he brought us to life. So he's been, not he will be. So the fight that we sometimes fight is because of our ignorance. Ignorance is something hectic. Ignorance is the thing that makes so many people What's that film you were watching? Lots of, I think it's one, two, and three that you were watching. Creed. Creed. Creed. It's C-R-E-E-D. Creed. It's Creed 1, Creed 2, whatever. Now when I look at that, it's a boxing, you say that boxing them. So when I look at it, do you know that when you hit mess, you become more tired? It brings you to be tired. Now imagine fighting the devil with a fight that, yes, like that, all wind, all wind. It makes you tired. Therefore, we are so tired in our lives because we fight battles that is not even necessary to fight whilst the Bible says it so loud and clear. Our wrestle is not against flesh and blood. Now you're fighting your poor brother who is telling your nonsense. You one clap him. Tomorrow you come back, the same thing. Quack, quack. Next day you come back, the same thing. Quack, quack. My sister, the fifth. It was my sister's birthday on Thursday. Now, the best present that the other sister, my younger sister gave her, was to take her to a woman of God that did deliverance. She does deliverance ministry. She's in deliverance ministry. She took, not she took, she invited, she invited this girl to come to the house. And when this one, when this, I'm saying girl, but she's strong in the Lord. I'm talking about the girl as if, yeah, she's younger, but she's not young in spirit. She's a spiritual orphan. So my sister invited her to come to the house. Lo and behold, we're fighting this poor girl. We sometimes, we say, you are useless, you are this. We keep on fighting her, not knowing that it's the spirit behind it. It's the spirit behind it. And what does this, this woman of God does? Audrey, her name is Audrey. She went in, start speaking to the demon and ask, hey, who are you? Where are you from? She gave all the answers. And here we're fighting this one. Instead of saying, ah, the one behind this thing, let's talk. Come. You see what I'm saying? Because sometimes our fights is so in vain because of the wrong, you can almost say, you fight in a boxing ring, but you stand on the soccer field. No one can kick in a boxing ring. You're not allowed to kick. You'll be disconnected. That thing, man. Disqualified. So you'll be disqualified if you kick in a boxing ring. But that is what we do most of the time, Bishop. We get so much disqualified in our fights by taking the time and fight where it's a first fight, we use our feet. You'll be more impactful if you use your fist in box. Kickboxing, no problem. You can use both. Because kickboxing is is, you see, and then sometimes you you play the uppercuts and but the problem is we use the wrong thing. The doctor is treating the symptoms instead of the root cause. No, I have a toothache. Okay, let's see the tooth. Let's see the tooth. They took out the tooth. Ah, tooth is falling. They took out the tooth. You know what happened? Bishop, the root cause was cancer. The guy had a cancerous I don't know which side. I think this side. But doesn't matter. The guy had a cancerous tumor. And they thought it's just the teeth. They took out the teeth, took out the teeth, took out the teeth. The root cause of the problem was the cancer. Now he was cut half way where they were talking about the tooth problem. Vomiting. Sometimes looking at the symptoms of things makes you to forget the root cause. Root for fruit. That is why I gave you from the beginning I said to you root for fruit. I didn't say to you a root to be taken out and be killed. I didn't. I said a root for fruit. So let us make our roots to have fruit for our just after this minute. Is it fine with you? Now let me take you to another one. Small compromises in morality. Small compromises. A little dishonesty. A casual indulgent in something unhealthy. You know like me and the sugar. Hey Bishop, me and sugar. We are together. I used to when I was younger. This is the cup. The cup is like this big. But the sugar is here. I am telling you. I loved sugar too much. Until I realized it makes me want to vomit because I was using it too much. That thing gave me what is it? Khaal. Khaal. Do you know Khaal? I don't know what is it in English. But that thing is Khaal. So that thing gave me that problem. Indulging in sugar. Sometimes it's just a small thing at work. You are like, the kids are shopping pen at home. You take the pen. There is no stealing. It's just my kids in need of pen at home. So sometimes when your kids are saying, mommy I don't have pen for school. No worry, I'll bring from work. It's not you bring from work. I stole from work. No compromises. The Galatians said so do not be deceived. God is not mocked. A man reaps what he sows. A man reaps what he sows. Small talks. Let's talk about your mind. You know what the mind sometimes does? The mind sometimes thinks opposite of what the word of God is saying. I'm sick. Why am I feeling the pain here? I'm sick. You're not even sick. It's just that the pain you associate with sickness. And therefore you are sick. The thing that I associate with my with being sick is my I get dizzy sometimes. Then I know it's my blood pressure. I must just check the pressure again. But sometimes when I get dizzy for nothing, just getting up too quickly. Now now you are really I must check my blood pressure. Mind. The association with certain things makes you to have a problem. Mind. Take out the root cause of the problem is that fill mind. Your mind is too dirty to see the things that God has implanted for you. I'm of the opinion that when let me say it. As a man think so is he. What do you think? I'm useless. Shut useless. So think. Do you know that there are certain times what the heart follows what the mouth I will tell you now what it means. What the heart is full of the mouth starts speaking. What the heart is full of the mouth starts speaking. Now our internal dialogue you know when you talk to yourself. The self talk. The self talk. Self talk is too much of a problem. So once you start talking about in your mind and you give a small little negative thought we won't make it for this month. The electricity is too low. Small thought. You have not seen the electricity the last time you saw it is maybe last week. Now you're thinking maybe the electricity won't last. Just by thinking of the electricity won't last. It already doesn't last. Bishop you know what I questioned and one of the men of God made me aware of. I was questioning somebody taking Fox's tail and fuzzle it together. 300 I'm asking the question just I'm asking you the question. If I take one I must hold under the head and run after the other one to take the other one and then fuzzle them together. But what will happen if now when these two are fuzz I must run for the other one. How will that be possible? Because I need to leave these two because by 100 I can't carry them all of them again. So what does it mean is that now you have to see it in your mind's eye. Now this man of God laid it so nicely. Bishop I can't remember his name now. But what I'm trying to say is he said that the only way it could have been done was to prepare it in your mind and have a plan for it. And when you plan it it starts happening. Once it's concealed in the mind you will have it. So a negative thought let us begin self-doubt. Pick it. Pick one. Small, small. Make sure to be in doubt of yourself. Small, small. The tongue has power of life and death and those who love it will eat the fruit. Those who love it will eat it. Die a lost one. You just I think I come to an end now. Let me talk about pride and self-sufficiency before I close. No, no, no. There's actually two. Alright. Let me quickly run through it. Pride and self-sufficiency is pride often creeps in unnoticed. It making us to think we can handle everything on our own without relying on God or seeking wise counsel. Now, I love the thing that we watched last night. Bishop, if you get a chance you must watch the movie The Forge. F-O-R-G-E. Forge. I think is the name. I don't know if it is I don't even know where. No, we watch it on something, on a place. This movie there's a place where they say they give the guy a sword and they say to him this is a little 19, 20 year old. They say hold the sword like this and this sword was let's say a few pounds kilograms whatever you call them and by holding it like this he was so confident young man and he kept it for this long and because of pride he doesn't ask them this thing is becoming too heavy now because he's thinking he will be judged. It's the same thing we're going through so much because of pride we don't want to say to others I need some help this becomes too heavy now I need some help I can't bear this burden alone and that is what happened. It's sometimes blind our weaknesses you know like you don't see you become weak until something expose that weakness it expose my weakness I'm getting angry too quickly it's one of my weaknesses I'm honest I'm a man that can say to you I get angry too quickly but I've learned to know it's there I become too angry now I need to walk away I've learned over the years how to handle it sometimes certain circumstances expose just like that I'm trying to run so that you can't see this man of God of you is hot blooded I'm trying to run away from that but some cases expose it quickly the man just say something then I'm like get angry but remember the Proverbs 16 verse 18 says pride goes before distraction pride goes before distraction the hauti spirit before fall what does it say it says that when pride is going there you must know there's some tlaparda fall you're going to Proverbs 16 verse 18 fall there's also something that I need to tell you about the root that will bring you a fruit is never to neglect your spiritual discipline one prayer must becomes two prayer must three days four days, five days prayerless no prayer when there's a problem please God now you may God a magic wand never neglect your spiritual discipline not reading the word do you know that the nice part of it is that when Jesus was coming from the mountain he didn't say Satan why he said oh okay so if you are who you say you are I'm thinking of the thing I was talking about the other day where I said when you are a false prophet is the time you will try and tell people you're not false prophet but when you are not a false you don't need to announce anybody I'm actually thinking of that now when I think of Jesus saying if you are the son of whoever you say you are here's a stone let's turn it into bread let us eat it didn't come with me let me show you it's like I can take five loaves of five pieces of Yemen five fish one loaf one slide you know like the boy scuffed him I can make it to cover five thousand he didn't he didn't brag about those things he didn't brag about hey man if I want money to buy bread I can just tell the fish hey fish bring that money in your mouth let's buy he didn't have to brag about it all he was saying he used the word he used the word he says man will not live by bread alone so if you don't know the word of God it's the inevitable that you will not be ready for the war you will not be ready for the war because over time all these things that you neglect will distance you from God and it will weaken your spiritual foundation the root what was the one I started with ma it said I was talking about if the if the Lord is not building the foundation in vain build the builders is the one I was talking about you see it's in vain because your foundation is not right it does leave you unprepared for the challenges of life John 15 verse 5 it says hey apart from me you can't do nothing as your goddess if you are not with God next you can't do nothing so the solution for this is ma the solution for this is always do self reflection number one regularly examine your thoughts regularly examine your actions regularly examine your habits by that you will identify what needs to be changed because if you don't do they call it the introspection or introspection or whatever that thing is if you don't do those things you will not know some of the things are born self reflection now so when we talk about self reflection that's the one regular exam your thoughts your actions and your habits that's the one but then there's something also that you need to know is no use of trying to do it on your own trying to do it on your own let me make an example do you know that here's a good example you know that if I do this I'm not able to see any of you I'm not able to see any of you it means that I'm in that situation so when you're in that situation you only have this that you can see but let me take myself out of the equation and stand like an eagle a little bit further and look at the situation somebody who's in the situation will not see broader than what their eyes can see will not see further than what their eyes can see but somebody who comes from outside I said self-reflection now I want to use another one accountability do you know what accountability is? accountability is where you surround yourself with people who will no no no let me say I want to say it nicely who will lovingly call out areas of concern in your life not hey you're useless why you do what I mean by lovingly if you love your neighbor like yourself it means that you don't want to hurt your neighbor because you're going to hurt yourself so in love rebuke rebuke correct you see accountability helps one to have a tendency of making life easier for you where you miss something somebody else can see and I want to say without this one it's tough how do you get to the root repent and renew because if you don't if you're not quick to repent it will become problem bishop there's somebody that sometimes come and then they say no I'm I didn't mean it in a harmful way but it's painful for the other person and when you say it with laughter you know when you say hey you're ugly huh it doesn't make the other person feel bad because you said it with laughter the intention is there but the way you say it makes it to be small but the other person keep on hearing it from you faith come by hearing so the more the guy here ugly ugly ugly ugly ugly ugly ugly ugly becomes you can almost say it subconsciously not in the conscious mind subconsciously he becomes ugly so repent and say hey sorry I didn't mean to say you're ugly I was making a joke but I didn't mean it and I won't say it again that's repenting from that repent of all your wrong doings as God will as you repent he will renew your mind as well so be quick to repent and replace literally any harmful things that will harm you and replace them not not just replace but replace them with the fruit of the spirit you know what the fruit of the spirit is is the good things if you replace it with a don't just replace a bed with another bed then it's no use lastly prayer and the word ask the Holy Spirit to reveal hidden sins or weaknesses and use scripture to guide your growth use scripture to see where you are doing wrong use scripture to know it doesn't balance it doesn't balance so when you deal with life changes always ask God for wisdom to discern when to uproot or when to nurture because if you if you nurture too quick when it was time to uproot you are in problem you cannot nurture something that is helping you to be strong for too long because it might disturb you explanation let me explain what i mean by that when trials and tribulations come you don't nurture them you you you handle them not for them to become too big uproot them when you have learnt from it already so don't uproot before you have learnt something from it let me repeat from verse 5 trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways submit to him and he will make your paths straight no need to know when it is this when it is that but by God's grace we have come to an end of root for fruit if you are rooting it's not right your fruit will also not be right one is known by his fruits and the longer you left one wrong fruit without addressing it the more it becomes the fruit that will kill your roots habani father you are God you are no man that you should lie and your word is yay and your word is amen nothing will be added nothing will be taken your word is a sword that cuts through bone and marrow your word is actually when it is sent out it will not come back to you void and therefore I stand on this word of today and know that as the word went out everything that the word is was was set out forth will do what it was set forth to do and I thank you for it in Jesus mighty name amen now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God and the sweet fellowship of the Holy Spirit rest and abide with us all until Jesus comes surely goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives and we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever Jesus mighty name