The spirit of leadership. Say it with me. The spirit of leadership. One more time.
The spirit of leadership. I want to begin today with what I call the introduction to the spirit of leadership. I want to give you some simple, powerful quotes.
Principles that I'd like for you to capture. Number one, it's not what you are that holds you back. It's what you think you are not. I repeat, it's not what you are that holds you back.
It's what you think that you are not. That's what holds you back. Number two, you cannot always control circumstances, but you can always control your own thoughts. You cannot always control circumstances. But you can always control your own thoughts.
Number three, nothing changes until your mind changes. Nothing changes until your mind changes. Four, information...
Does not bring transformation, conversion does. Information does not bring transformation, conversion does. I just want to comment on this one for a brief moment. How many of you have said... This person sitting in front of me have been here for the last 15 years, hearing all this great teaching and still got bad ways.
You said that, I know you did. Or you might have said, the person sitting five seats from me have been coming here for the last 12 years and hearing all of this wonderful quality. Faith-filled, positive teaching, and still haven't changed.
Still the same person, still the same attitude, still the same problems, facing the same sins, struggling with the same difficulty. I mean, haven't they learned anything? Well, the answer is in the statement. Let's read it together again.
Information does not bring transformation. Conversion does. Number five. The teaching of the word brings revelation.
To transfer, rather, but the transfer of the spirit. brings transformation. Repeat that. The teaching of the word brings revelation.
But the transfer of the spirit of that word brings transformation. Number six, you know this one. As a man thinks in his heart...
That's the man. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. Number seven. I like this one. The most difficult project in the world is the reconstruction of a human mind.
The most difficult... Project in the world is the reconstruction of a human mind. It is easier to go to Mars than to change the mind of a human.
Number eight, you, yes you, you are the sum total of all you have been conditioned to think. I want to repeat this again for emphasis. You, you, yourself, you are the sum total of all you've been conditioned to think.
That's what you are. No more, no less. Please take your pen and underline the word conditioned.
Because conditioning is a serious process. But that's what we become. We are what we have been conditioned to think.
Number nine, belief does not guarantee conviction. Belief does not guarantee conviction. Because you believe something does not mean it convicts you.
You don't change until conviction takes place. How many times have you agreed with something but did not do it? How many times have you said to yourself, that's true, but you did not obey it?
You believed it because it was true, but you were not to the point of conviction where it caused you to act. I'll tell you a little quick example of the mind, how the mind works. Three men were laying brick. The first one was asked, what are you doing? He answered, laying some brick.
The second man was asked, what are you working for? He answered, for five lousy dollars an hour. The third man was asked, what are you doing?
Same project, same work. He answered, hum, helping to build a great cathedral unto the worship of our God. What do you learn from that?
Three men working on the same building, but all three has completely different attitudes. The first one could only see the bricks. The second one could only see how much little he's being paid.
The third one saw a finished cathedral with people worshipping. Now who do you think had the better attitude? Same job, but three completely different people.
Only because of their minds. The power of the mind could make you have a different experience on your job. right next to a lousy worker.
The future of a job is not in the job. It's in the one who holds the job. Number ten, what we see and what we hear are small things compared... to what we think. Oh, this is so important.
I'm going to repeat it again. What we see and what we hear are small things compared to what we think, because what we think interprets what we see and what we hear. Number 11. The thinking of the mind changes only when we conceive what we believe and accept what we hear. I repeat, the thinking of the mind changes only when we conceive what we believe and accept what we hear.
You don't change... Until there's conception. You know, talking about conception, you can have sex many times as you want.
Nothing changes until the doctor says, you're pregnant. When you conceive, change starts. Your hormones change.
Your body changes. Your entire physiological makeup changes. Your attitude changes. Your moods change.
The way you see your future changes. The way you see your money changes when you're pregnant. Everything changes when you conceive.
See, you can keep having sex, keep having sex, and never change. But when you conceive, you can sit under the Word, and sit under the Word, and keep sitting under the Word. But until you can... See, nothing changes. According to the Bible, the most powerful force on earth is the will of man.
Please write that down. The Bible teaches us that the most powerful force on earth is the will... of man. It's not the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit created the universe, but he cannot change your mind.
Wow. That is why when the Pharisees and scribes... When they were talking about Jesus to his face, one of the things they said to him was, listen carefully, they said, you are demon possessed. And then they actually called him a name.
They said, you are Beelzebub. Now the word Beelzebub is the name that the Romans and the Greeks gave to what they called the Lord of Flies. This particular term, Beelzebub, Lord of Flies, was the reference that they made in the pagan gods to the prince of demons. He was the chief demon. Actually, we call him Satan.
So they were telling Jesus, you don't only just have a demon, you got the ultimate guy. You are possessed with the prince of demons, the ruler of demons. You have the devil.
Now, Jesus said to them, Now before they called him this, they called him another name. They called him bastard. Remember that? They said, you don't know who your daddy is. Matter of fact, you were born under shady conditions.
You are an illegitimate child. They called him that. The Bible says Jesus did not answer them a word until they said, you have the devil. Then Jesus said to them, you can say anything you want. About the Son of Man, paraphrase for him in English, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never harm me.
He was telling them, you could call me the Son of Man, Jesus, the Christ, any name you want, you're still okay. Some of you have. Some of you use that name and you cuss it.
It doesn't bother him, you know. He said, you can call me any name you want and it does not bother the son of man. No problem. He said, because you could still get saved and most of you are.
You cuss for 20 years, now you're saved. Praise God. Okay? So you see, no problem.
He still can redeem you. Because a sinner can't help himself. But then he says to them, but if you speak against the Holy Ghost, then it is an impardonable sin. Now please, let me just quickly digress here.
That means adultery. Not the unpardonable sin, divorce is not the unpardonable sin, murder is not the unpardonable sin, cussing and lying, all that stuff you can be forgiven of. And I say that because I've met people who have made a divorcee feel like they committed the unpardonable sin, and that's not true. God can use anybody who comes back to him, and use them greatly, hallelujah.
Matter of fact, some of the folks who ain't never. Been divorced, ain't doing nothing for God. The unpardonable sin was, he said, for if you speak against the Holy Ghost, then you cannot be pardoned, it's impossible to be saved.
Now that's logical, think about it. The Bible says, no man comes to me except the Spirit draws him. Which means you can't even get to Jesus unless the Holy Ghost convicts you and draws you.
Now when the Holy Ghost comes to draw you and you call him the devil, you can't get to Jesus who has the blood to cleanse you, to redeem you. So you can't even get pardoned by... The father through Jesus, if you can't get to Jesus, who is the key to getting to the father? Hello. Now, what was he dealing with?
He was saying, look, if your mind tells you that I have a demon, then your mind is more powerful than the Holy Ghost. He can't change your mind. According.
to the Bible. The will of the mind of man is the most powerful force on earth. People are not sent to hell. They decide to go. People are not sent to heaven.
They decide to go. That is why it's so tough to follow Jesus. Wouldn't it be wonderful if every morning Jesus came into your bedroom, grabbed you by your collar, dragged you up, and all day dragged you to follow him? Wouldn't that be wonderful?
That means you could just go kicking and screaming, but are you still following him? I mean, it'd be so easy if he just forced you to do what he wants you to do, but he doesn't. His favorite statement is, Whosoever...
Wills, let them come. Christianity is a tough road because every morning you gotta decide to be saved. And in the middle of the day, when someone gets on your nerves, you gotta decide to still be saved. And when someone cuts in the front of you in traffic, At that moment, ain't no Holy Ghost to help you.
You got to decide to be saved. Why? Because it's a will ministry.
The most difficult challenge faced by God. Now listen carefully to this, because this is very frightening. The most difficult challenge God ever faced was the attempt...
To change the mind of former slaves. I want you to write that down, because that's where we had it all year. The most difficult challenge ever faced by God himself was the attempt to change the mind of former slaves.
As a matter of fact... I am going to say something that I am not sure will come across too well, but I've heard people say all my life, God never failed. I think I found a place in the Bible where God failed.
God failed. If we can use the term for God failing, God failed in his attempt to change the mind of 2.4 million people in the desert. He couldn't change their minds. Boy, the mind must be powerful.
It was easier to deliver them... from the power of Pharaoh than from the power of their thinking. Oh, come on, get this now. Taking them from Pharaoh is no problem.
God drowned Pharaoh, drowned the horses, no problem. God sent the flags, no problem. He finally got them out where he wanted them.
They are now in the desert. It's just me and them. Oh yeah, it's going to be easy.
They said, you think so. It was easier to deliver them from the power of oppression of a human than it was to deliver them from the power of oppression of their thinking. I think that you think that this is not true.
So I want you to turn to God's record. Get your Bible. I'm going to read what God's record says about these people.
Exodus the second book third book of Moses rather second book of Moses Exodus chapter 13 I want you to read this you got to read back at home there if you're watching this program in the family islands or somewhere in Africa or in the United States or Canada I want you to read this right there in your hotel room get your Gideon Bible and read it on the drawer here get out of the drawer I want you to read this you won't believe this is in the Bible this is what the Bible says about God's attempt to change the mind of a human. And while you're turning there, let me make a comment. Did you know that miracles do not change the mind? Please write that down, put it in your notes.
Miracles do not change people. Some of you are saying, well... I ain't gonna move until God show me a sign. The sign ain't gonna move you.
How many times you put a fleece outside your door and God wear it and you still doing what you doing? How many times you made a swear on your resolution and you still ain't done what you told God you was gonna do? Who in this hand watching this program and driving down the road listening to this tape have experienced... experienced more miracles than the children of Israel none of us anybody ever had food fall from the sky for 40 years you ain't got to go work just food wake up in the morning food and when he complained he changed the menu that's a miracle isn't it anybody here ever was thirsty and didn't have to go to the water corporation to pay any bills you got free water from a rock Every day, talk to me. That's a miracle.
Anybody here ever had a suit of clothes that never wore out for 40 years? Is that a miracle? Anybody here ever had a pair of shoes that did not wear out for 40 years?
The Bible says their shoe didn't wear out. Lord have mercy. I want to know what kind of style that was and who... Was that makeup? Is that a miracle?
Yes. Anybody ever been sick and instead of going to the hospital and paying the doctor 40 bucks for the first visit? 45, sorry.
55, you keep going up, okay. 100 dollars. No, you were sick and you went and looked. A brazen serpent on a pole.
I'm talking about free health care. Instant healing just to look at the stake. All the stuff just left you. You were healed instantly.
I mean that is a miracle. None of us had those kind of miracles. Anybody ever seen a pillar of cloud by night telling you what corner to go through?
Or a cloud by day that tells you what curve to bend to avoid. No! We've never had that kind of guidance, and yet these people had it for 40 years.
And let's read what people who saw miracles thought. Verse 17. When Pharaoh let the people go... Anybody get it?
Exodus 13. When Pharaoh let the people go... You ain't gonna believe what you read. Watch this. God did not lead them... on the road through the Philistine country, even though that was shorter.
Underline that. Now, my wife and I went to Egypt some years ago, and we were amazed. We traveled from Israel to Egypt.
And we got there so quickly, I thought they went in another place. And then I realized, we... we flew over the Saniyya desert and we landed in Cairo. And when it was up in the air, you could see Israel and you could see Egypt at the same time.
And I said, wait a minute, 40 years, when we landed, our guide took us on a tour, Luxor and all these places of Pharaoh and the pyramids and everything. And we were... I'm amazed at the place where Moses and these people lived.
I mean, desert, hot, dry. The only source of water is the Nile. We went by the Nile and they were still making bricks today from the mud and the straw. They still do it today. Their houses are from the mud around the Nile.
And I found out from my guide that the distance between Egypt and Israel is a 35-day walk. One month. Now God took them from Egypt and the place he was to take them called Canaan, land of promise, milk and honey, is 30 days walk. They supposed to be there in a month. It took them 40 years and they still didn't make it.
That's a long walk to nowhere. Now... I want you to watch this statement.
The Bible says when God delivered them out of Egypt, He did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, even though that was shorter. That was, He could have gotten them there in one month. Watch the problem. Because God said, God's thinking now, if they face war, they might change their, what's the word? Minds.
God brought them into mind already. He said, these people are delivered from oppression, but I got to deal with this mind they got. If they face war, they will change their minds.
And look what he says. And return to Egypt. Could you imagine that the mind is more powerful than a promise? Wow! You know, I think about things that all of us experience are similar to this.
These people were in Egypt for 430 years. Write that down. That's a long time. 430 years. Almost as long as we've been in the Caribbean under British rule.
Lord bless us. Amen. 250 years of parliamentary democracy, slavery, oppression.
We suffering from the same stuff they got still. Now the Bible says for 430 years they were slaves, oppressed. In oppression, they were protected by the oppressor.
These people couldn't fight. They were conditioned. To be servants. All they did all their lives was make brick, build houses, build pyramids, construct aqueducts for irrigation, planted reeds and corn in the desert.
These people were simply, oh dear, they were conditioned, look at me, they were conditioned for service industry. They were servants in the industry of Egyptian hospitality for so long that servitude became a life they couldn't handle delivering. I just bought a book.
I haven't started reading it yet because I'm working on two others, but this book talks about the seven keys to success. It's an excellent book. I scanned it and I said, I got to buy this. Because I want to know, what are the seven steps to success? You know, they say if you want to be successful, you hang out with successful people.
So I want to hang out with a successful book. But the guy who wrote the book is a success, so I want to know how he did that. I open the page to chapter one, first step for success. Do you know what it is?
It's not prayer and fasting and dreams and writing your goals or anything. The first step is believing you deserve it. My God! Now, what is that? That has to do with, write this word down, we can deal with it all month.
Attitude. It's an attitude principle. Some people are so conditioned to be serving others all the time, that when they have an opportunity to be served, they can't handle it.
God says if I take these people the short way, they're going to face what? War. In other words, the shortest way to success is full of trouble.
Trouble is not bad, but you got to have the good, right attitude to handle trouble. And their attitude wasn't ready for trouble. Oh, help me. The way you overcome difficulty... is by the right attitude.
And the attitude was not ready for trouble. Matter of fact, they, God said, now this is God speaking now, this is deep. This is the one who made the world and the one who made the guys that they're gonna fight.
You missed that. This is the one who set it up. He know where the enemies are.
Now notice, God doesn't handle these enemies like he handled Pharaoh. Which means these enemies are part of the... Program if you want to go quickly.
Oh, you're mr. Okay If you want to get to the top fast you could but it gonna be the biggest fight you ever had And if you ain't ready for the fight dog and take you the long way around you can still end up in success Now some of you wondering why it's taking so long for you to be successful in your project because God know you can't handle war yet. He got you going in circles because he ain't working on the enemy, he working on you. Tell your neighbor, ain't nothing wrong with the trouble, something wrong with me. They'll return to Egypt. Look at the next statement.
So God led the children of Israel by the desert road toward the Reed Sea. You pronounce it red. It's actually Reed Sea, where reeds grew. Now, who led them by the Reed Sea? Underline that.
You know, if you say, now God knows that they can't cross this water. But God said that's the long way around. Hopefully by the time they get there, they'll have a better attitude. Got it? God knows where the trouble spots are.
It ain't the trouble spots that's the problem. What's the problem is how you are going to interpret this trouble. You know, a mature... Sure, well-tested leader always sees problems as opportunities to grow or a challenge to his or her spirit or potential. But the immature, unskilled, undeveloped person sees trouble as chaos, overwhelming, awe-striking, diabolical, demon-infested, devil-dealing.
destructive element to destroy their lives. So God says you ain't ready yet I ain't gonna take you there don't even go there. You ever heard that? Don't go there.
They were saying take us to the promised land God said don't go there. If we go there you can run back to Egypt because you're gonna find out that prison is more comfortable not than the problem but than your attitude. Your attitude is already adjusted it to slavery so it has found comfort in oppression.
You know some people in our nations in the Caribbean would trust the oppressor before they trust their own people. That is why consultants from the outside seem to be better than the consultants like me on the inside. What's amazing to me is that we bring in these consultants and then we gotta teach them what we know, then they get paid for it.
I don't understand that, but that comes from a conditioned slave spirit. You come to the airport sometime, I'm a meddler now. And you come on the plane and you's a Bahamian and the fellas with the car pass you by and go to people who look like they got money and they ain't got no money, you know.
Bahamians got money, go to them. But the mentality, mentality is bad. The attitude has been conditioned. By 400 years of oppression, they said to Moses, was it because there was no graves in Egypt that you brought us to this desert place to die? People talking now.
What have you done to us by bringing us out of oppression? They argued with this guy. Didn't we say to you? I couldn't believe it was in the...
Didn't we say to you? Leave us in Egypt? In other words, these people only came out because Moses pressured them. The last statement it says here, didn't we tell you to leave us alone? This is in the Bible.
And let us be slaves to the Egyptians. It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in this freedom place. My God, what kind of people are these?
Bahamians, Jamaicans, Trinidadians, Barbadians, Guyanians, South Americans, Africans, Asians, Indians, anybody who's been under... Oppression, for any measure of time, suffers this same problem. You know, even when they dress up nice, they ain't changed.
Actually, we believe, we believe, that if we dress like Pharaoh, we gonna think like Pharaoh. But the thinking is not... in the clothes.
Oh Lord. That's why all you Bahamians and Jamaicans and Babbageans, Trinidadians, Ghanians, St. Kithians, Grenadians, Orleans, listen to me. That's why most of you want white collar jobs. That's why you want to walk around with briefcase. That's why you want to wear Esquire titles.
You know why? Because you believe that... If you look like a man, you'll be like a man, because you'll think like the man.
I got news for you. If a fool puts on mohair, all you got is a well-dressed fool. Say, neighbor, he talking about you. Come on, listen to him.
He talking about you. Some of y'all look so good, I would like to believe that's the way you think, but I ain't convinced yet. Now, no one could dress like a Bahamian.
I'll never forget the day I was sitting down with one of our trustee members in the association, Dr. Future Pickett, and she said to me, she said, Dr. Monroe, the women in the Bahamas. She said, every time I'm coming to the Bahamas to the conference, I go shopping. She said, because if you come from America and you come to the Yacht Conference, the Bahamian women make you look so bad that you got to go shopping before you come. Is that right, Lucy?
I mean, the people who ain't got no money look rich. They would save up to get their hair done. You know here in the Bahamas, when I was growing up, I saw this spirit years ago when I was a young guy. They had guys, you know, Nassau was considered, probably still is considered, you know, the capital city. This is the big city in our country.
And we used to be amazed by the guys who used to come from other islands like Andrus, or Medellin again, just give a break, you know, Long Island West, you know, Long Island. They come to the Bahamas to visit the big city, and they figure, we gotta dress up. And I see these guys, red pants, purple shirt. Yellow tie, am I right about it? And Tom McCann shoes, gotta be turned up in the air.
Out the hair, collar big as their ears. And when they walk in, they call them holly gully. They look like a Christmas tree.
But they wanted to dress. Even if they still had a settlement mentality, and it showed. It would have been better, they say, if we were left to serve the Egyptians.
Turn to Joshua chapter 5, take a deep breath, tell your neighbor something's coming now. Now I want you to read this for yourself, okay? Here's what God did with these people.
It actually is written in the Bible, what God did with them. Tell your neighbor, change your mind, or God will kill you. Where you going in life? Your future ain't no problem to God.
The dream you have ain't no problem to God. It was one, it's the one that He gave you. It's God's vision.
God gave you birth for a purpose. You have a dream in your mind, in your heart. That's why you got these big ideas about what you want.
Some of you are dreaming about your dream house. And you're wondering why God still got you rent. You can't handle dream house yet, why?
Dream house is not a house. It's a mindset. Y'all ain't got it yet. You can't handle your dream house. You wouldn't know how to handle the rooms.
You wouldn't know what to do with it. You know, the poor man want money more than the rich man. Someone say, well, you know, I don't want too much. I just want a little.
You lying. You know you lie. You want plenty. I want plenty. plenty.
I want more than you. Don't want to humble on me. The way you think is more important than where God taking you.
And where God taking you is already guaranteed. God told these people, listen, He said to them, Moses, go and tell them that I am taking them to a land flowing with milk and honey. Milk means cow is there and honey means flowers and trees are there.
In other words, the land is cultivated, it's beautiful. A lot of prosperity. He said, I'm taking you there. He said, I've already given you the land.
Which means before you start, it's already yours. Well then, if that's true, then God, why not give it to me? He said, because the land is ready for you, but you are not ready for the land. My mind keeps going on this thing.
Some of you all think you want your business to grow. You can't handle growth yet. What is it you believe in God for? Are you preparing yourself for it?
Watch this, chapter 5 of Joshua. God couldn't take it anymore. Verse 4. Now this is why God did this. All those who came out of Egypt, all the men of military age, died in the desert on the way after leaving Egypt.
I like how the words say they died. But later on it says, I'm going to show you in a minute. God killed these people.
God being nice for you said they died. No, God has killed you and tell himself you died Verse 5 all the people that came out of Egypt had been circumcised But all the people born in Egypt in the desert rather during the journey from Egypt had not so we got two groups of people Here right we got a group that was under colonialism and a group who know nothing about it We got a group that was under oppression for 430 years. And now we got a bunch of young people who weren't born in Egypt, they were born in the desert. Now, you may think that the one born in the desert is a better group.
But I want you to think about something. The one born in Egypt were born under oppression. The one born in the desert... was born in deliverance.
In oppression, you were forced to work for everything. In deliverance, everything's free. So you still got problem.
Now we're getting to the ethics, see? We got a group of young people who don't know what it is to work. Free food from the heaven, free water from the rock. Free clothes on the back, free health system, they don't work for nothing, you owe us this, they say. Maybe that's why the Joshua generation failed.
Because they did make it to the land. But the Bible says there rose up a generation. who did not remember what God had done and did not know God. Young people, maybe you don't like your parents to tell you how hard it was.
And sometimes, I guess that could irritate you. But I do hope you also will remind yourself that somebody had to work for what you enjoy. And you have to now be responsible for taking charge of the next generation. And work, and work, and work too.
Listen to this. It gets worse. Verse 5. But all the people born in the desert during the journey from Egypt had not been circumcised.
Verse 6. The Israelites had moved about in the desert, how long? 40 years. until all the men of military age that left Egypt had died.
Now, that's an important point. God moved them around in circles until they dropped dead. God was waiting for them to die.
It literally tells you why. It says God kept them wandering until all of them were dead. Now, he explains why he did it.
Because they had not obeyed the Lord. Wow! They wouldn't change. For the Lord had sworn to them that they would not see the land that he had solemnly promised their fathers to give us. A land flowing with milk and honey.
Who swore that they won't go in? Now, I don't understand this. When you read the previous book, it says God swore to them he would take them in. Now God's swearing and saying, I can't take you all in there.
I swear you ain't going. Now, here's the reason. This is very important. No matter what God promised you, if your mind can't handle it, you won't get it. Now, that's tough revelation.
As big as his promises are, they depend on your attitude. This is revelation to me. So all that prayer you're praying, you got to make sure your attitude is ready for the answer.
Your mentality determines the fulfillment of God's promise for your life. How you think determines... Whether you receive what God told you is yours.
Therefore, I think what God spoke to us today prophetically must be heard by everybody again. I have prepared a table for you, but I want you to prepare for the table. I swear you ain't going.
But you swore we were. No, I swore you were if you were the ones qualified for it. You are not qualified.
Why? You did not change your mind and therefore I kept you alive long enough to get what was in your loins. You know, 40 years is a generation. Did you know that?
So God was waiting on what? The next generation. Did God break his word?
No. If God speaks to you, he's speaking to every sperm in your loins. That's why it only mentions men.
You'll get it later. It only mentions men. He says, the men died. The men fell. The men died.
The men. Why? Because the men are filled with the generations. So when God says, I'm taking you in, he was talking to everything in them. So if you personally, this body don't want to go, I'll try the ones in there when they come out.
So I'll keep you long enough to get what's inside there, because I'm still taking them because I was talking to them too. What God wants this ministry to accomplish doesn't necessarily have to be accomplished by us. If we disobey God, God will still have this vision in the Bahamas. And it'll be through the children's children if we don't obey God. God is not trapped by your personal attitude toward Him.
You are trapped by your personal attitude. It will kill you. God will get what He wants with or without you. He keeps His word. Look at verse 7. So he raised up their sons in their place.
Interesting. And these were the ones Joshua circumcised. My point is this.
They refused to change their minds. Write this down. They were victims of mental and historical conditioning. They were victims. That's the problem, Hal.
They were victims of mental and historical conditioning. I'm speaking in the 21st century right now. We have become victims. You know, a victim is somebody who can't help what they're doing.
of historical conditioning. It's a history of conditioning. God obviously believes that it is possible to To change people's minds after they have been under oppression for 400 years.
God believes it is possible to change people's minds. Did you get that point? I'm going to say this again. God believes it is possible to change your mind after 400 years of slavery.
God believes it. If he didn't believe it, he wouldn't have attempted it. To give you the back side of the failure of God, here's the flip side. The people failed to change their minds, even though God believed they could. The people failed.
Why am I saying this? It is possible, that's why we are going into this series. It is possible for you to change the way you think. In your life, Jesus did a miracle that was greater than the deliverance from Pharaoh.
No wonder why Moses said, when they told Moses, you such a great leader, Moses quickly said, there comes one after me, who is greater than I. I delivered you from physical bondage. He shall deliver you from spiritual bondage.
What did Jesus do? Listen to me. God could not change those people's...
Jesus changed the mind of 11 men in 3 years. That's a miracle. He took a farmer from a village. on a settlement and made him a world thinker. That's a mental transformation.
He took a fisherman from a village on the shores of a lake and made him a world changer. That's a miracle. He took a boy from Bain Town and made him a world speaker.
That's a miracle. It's a miracle. How do you change a person's mind?
Oh, this is going to be a good series. Because you see, you look good, but God's still taking you through the long way. You dress nice, and I feel a personal mandate this year. I feel like we're getting close to school closing. I don't know how I tell you how I feel.
I feel God is saying, I sent you back home in 1980 and I told you, if the people don't exist, create them. I've been working on the creation for 15 years. God say now, the next two years is graduation.
Because what's about to happen in the 21st century... Those of you who are, you should be teachers by now, yet you still need someone to teach you. Impossible.
I'm excited about this. I believe that there's going to be a revolutionary... Transformation right here in the Bahamas, right before the nation, right in this city, right among this people.
And people are going to meet you in the next two years and they won't even know you. Because you are going to be so different, not in your dress. Something is going to happen in your mind.
That you're gonna walk, you have the same clothes on, but they can think you taller. I'm praying for that. God says...
These people got a historical problem. Historical conditioning. Write this down.
They accepted their external conditioning as their internal destiny. They accepted their external conditioning as their internal destiny. They decided that the way it is on the outside is the way I am on the inside. They allowed, write this down, the atmosphere to create their attitude. This is the failure of these people.
They were physically relocated, intellectually motivated, but spiritually paralyzed. Let me repeat this. They were physically relocated. Oh, hallelujah. Write that down, please.
They were physically relocated. They were intellectually... motivated but they were spiritually paralyzed how many of you understood that statement how many of you get the revelation of that statement these people were taken out of bondage oppression and transferred to a free desert So they've been relocated. They were intellectually motivated. They believed enough to actually leave.
So their minds, their intellect heard what Moses said and they analyzed it and they figured out something. They said, well, that must be better than what we're hearing, so let's go. So intellectually, they believed it. Sound like you.
But spiritually, internally, attitudinally, they were paralyzed. This teaches me one thing very important. Changing location does not change mentality. They say you can take the people out of the slum, but you can't take the slum out of the people. You can take the people out of the ghetto, can't take the ghetto out of the people.
You can take the people out of Egypt, can't take Egypt. out of the people. You can take people out of a bad situation, but you can't take a bad situation out of the people.
Intellectually stimulated. How many of you sit here for years and you say, boy, that's a good teaching. That's wonderful teaching.
You buy the tape and then just store it. What I was deep today, and you didn't change. There's wonderful teaching in Annapa. Intellectually stimulated, physically relocated, but still spiritually paralyzed. It doesn't connect.
Why? Because information doesn't bring transformation. Conversion does. There has to be a conversion in the spirit mind that creates a different sense of reality for you.
That makes you think differently. And when you think differently, you become different. When a person has to be told to change, you're wasting your time. Excuse me.
You got five minutes. Write this down. This is probably one of the most important things I'm going to say.
Next week is going to be so wonderful because this is only introduction here. They suffered from what we call a broken spirit. Hey boys, a broken spirit.
Say it again, broken spirit. Oh my people, oh my people. This is the problem right here.
A broken spirit. When I was growing up as a boy, my mother and father used to say, you gotta break that... My spirit you ever heard that If you're not in the Bahamas right that's a dangerous thing daddy don't have no more please. I'm so glad don't set them a grand jury I don't know those animal okay now. I know what they intended to mean, but those words are Ungodly you could beat foolishness out of a child no problem with that The Bible say to do it.
Take the rod, wield them. Get the foolishness out of their heart. Heart means mind. You whip them, whatever you need to do. But you don't break their spirit.
These people and most of us are still suffering from a broken spirit. Some of you are intimidated when a person... From a foreign country with a high pigmentation walking your...
When I walk in, you don't feel no different. Don't look at me funny, keep the TV on. You still got a problem?
You working at the hotel and some foreigner who came in there, walk in your department, all of a sudden you nervous. Then when a Bahamian supervisor come in, you don't even flinch. What's the problem?
You sick. You are sick, sick. Sick! Don't get mad at me.
What happens to your mind when that happens? What happens to your mind? You pick up a Bahamian product, hot pepper.
You pick up a Louisiana pepper. What's your problem? What goes through your mind? You got a slipper made in the Bahamas and a slipper made in Paris.
What goes through your mind? You're sick. Thanks for helping me preach. Anybody understand what I'm talking about? It's in your mind.
It's in your mind. We believe the way we've been conditioned. Let me tell you something, let me tell you something. I got a problem with this, you see. Because in the Bahamas, now those of you watching from other countries, you know, maybe in South Africa the same problem too, and in China and other places.
But in the Bahamas, we got this problem. You know, we think that anything that is not Bahamian is better. And we tell the people it's better in the Bahamas.
Now I got a problem with that. Did you get my point? We tell the world it's better in the Bahamas, and we don't buy nothing from the Bahamas.
Why? Because we are suffering from historical conditioning. I want to see some of you Bahamians start your own shoe company mind.
We need some Andres Shine or some Long Island loafers or something. I mean, give us our own stuff. Make some shoes with coconut bark on it.
Make it original. I'll wear them. We gotta believe in our own stuff. Make some hair grease from the oil. From the coconut man, let's have some stuff that belong to us and let us buy them.
No, we have a broken spirit. You know, a broken spirit, write this down. The goal of oppression is a broken spirit.
The goal of oppression. is a broken spirit. Oppression or the oppressor is not interested in your working for them. They are interested in something deeper. That's a broken spirit.
If they could break your spirit, they won't have to worry about the future of work. How do you break the spirit? And what does it mean to break the spirit? And what do you mean by spirit? And how do you mend and repair a broken spirit?
This is the key question of life and the entire purpose and goal of God in his redemptive plan. That question, how do you mend? a broken spirit. That is the entire purpose for the Bible. That's the entire goal of Jesus.
Dealing with a broken spirit. I'm going to answer that question next week. Close your Bibles.
There's a presence of God here today. Some of y'all are sitting here. I could feel you feel what I feel.
Can we please... Have no movement unless there is Ministry of Health's people going to their positions. Look at me.
No disturbance, please. Look at me. Look at me. Look at me.
Do you remember what Jesus said? And this is where we're gonna... Really have to get into some heavy stuff next week.
Jesus, in his inaugural introduction to the world at age 30, took place in a little small synagogue up north in Galilee. And he was standing there and he opened this scroll and he began to read. You know what he read?
He said the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, really from Isaiah, for he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. Then he says to mend the broken hearted. Now the word heart... Doesn't mean the thing in your chest.
The Greek word there is the same word as mind. The spirit of the mind. People who have no more reason for living, no more reason for trying. You might as well just let it happen. Just let, you know, we got help what's happening.
Let's just kind of just flow with the flow. He said, I came to break that spirit. I came to heal that kind of attitude. I came to mend the stuff that caused that. Something happened to you and it's called a broken...
A broken spirit does not believe things could get better. He doesn't believe you should even attempt to try to make it better. A broken spirit says... This is my lot. A broken spirit says, this the way I meant it, this the way I'm going to leave it.
A broken spirit says, why bother? Jesus said, I came to heal a broken spirit. And that's what this is about. It doesn't matter what kind of crown you wear, if your mind is still a slave.
He's anointed to heal the broken hearted and to set at liberty those, one translation says, that are bruised. Wow! Can you believe that?
Their minds were bruised, their thinking was mashed. To set at liberty those that are bound, and to give sight to the blind. I asked myself a question the last 24 hours.
Maybe you can answer it for me. I don't know. How many blind people did Jesus open their eyes? We have record, to be sure of, of two.
I ask you a question. I put it to you. If he said he came open the blinded eyes, only open two, and there are millions of people in the world, then either he failed, or we misunderstood what he meant. There's still a lot of blind people around and their eyes still ain't open. And Jesus passed millions of blind people and didn't touch their eyes.
Matter of fact, all the ones who got healed physically blind had to access. He wasn't interested in physical blindness. And yet he says, I was sent to...
open the eyes to give sight to the blind. How? I am the light of the world.
The people that walked in darkness seen a great light. And we are so wise now, don't we? We know that the Hebrew word for darkness is ignorance. Same word, and the Hebrew word for light is knowledge. Same word.
And that's where we're at, my friends. We're going on a ride this year. But the ride we're going on is not going to come back where we started.
Hallelujah. We ain't going on a Disney ride where it stops where you got on. We're going on a ride this year, and when we get off, we're going to be at a higher place, in a different realm, at a different level, and it's going to be a higher position, and we're not going to be able to see where we came from no more. We're going to walk up at the level where leaders fly.
Go ahead, clap your hands and thank God.