foreign [Music] we have an incredible speaker in the house this morning whose gift an assignment is to help us create more capacity for the territory that is assigned to our names Dr Anita Phillips is no stranger to The Potter's House she is a trauma therapist a life coaching Minister and she is equipped to speak to the several different facets that connect mental and spiritual health but one of the things that I love the most about her is that I attribute our Sisterhood our friendship to the increase of the capacity that God allowed to become a part of my destiny she is a New York Times best-selling author [Applause] selling off of her very first book The Garden within where the war with your emotions ends and your most powerful life begins Let Me Tell You Why this is powerful for so long faith and emotional wellness and mental health were separated in conversations but we're coming into a space where we recognize that they cannot be separated and we be all of who God has called us to be God is so serious about this work that he took her first book and said I'm going to make sure that I thrust it into the national Spotlight so that everyone from Oprah to TBN to Bishop TD Jakes are talking about what can happen through this book this is not just a book that tells you about yourself she has so graciously and generously shared her own deformities and her own enlarging capacity and so it is with great honor and privilege that I welcome to the platform my sister my friend Dr Anita Phillips can we give her a Potter's House welcome [Applause] well bless the Lord bless the Lord bless the Lord we as the church are standing on the precipice of a shift that is the last day of us being so powerful the bride he wants to come back for we were headed there a long time but we are right there ready and I believe that this understanding of how we are created spiritually emotionally mentally biologically that when we grip that we are standing in a power we were created to wield so I'm so honored to do this work that God's called me to do but it's not just about us feeling better it's about us being powerful as a church and I'm so honored I'm going to pray in a second but first let me of course it is always an incredible honor to stand on this platform thank you to our pastors Bishop Jakes and first lady Serita Jakes for every time they trust me I owe my friend Sarah an apology for every time I tell her girl don't worry about it you got this still it's your turn you'll be like well Jesus let me have this word because it is such a story platform and we want to honor the Sacred Space that it is so thank you Bishop thank you first lady for what you've built and for trusting me on this morning and then I must honor my assistant senior pastors Pastor Toray thank you for speaking over my life and Pastor Sarah I love being your friend but I also love serving in the ministry that God has given you and I love serving you as my leader so I honor you both thank you so much praise God father thank you for what you have given me to teach on today take us to school Holy Spirit teach us all things open every heart in the room let the shackles that fear brings Fall Away that ears will be sharp this morning to hear a word that is so important to next steps to increasing capacity to stepping into Destiny at the next level I think I know what you asked me to say but take my mouth and say what you want to say in the mighty name of Jesus hide me behind the cross amen and amen glory to God glory to God you can sit down I might stand you back up but you can sit down for now is anybody in here does anyone in here have a decision they need to make about something God has been weighing on my heart about what it means to make a decision some decisions are easy do I brush my teeth today yes or no I went with yes glory to God find some soap and water and a whole washcloth yes or no not everybody says yes to the washcloth but I said yes to that as well yes to those things some decisions are easy I'm hungry I eat unless I'm fasting and then it's not so hard on day one but maybe on day three it's a little harder but the clarity of what should be done is there but then there are other decisions that feel complicated either there are many options to consider or the options are slim but the outcomes all seem hard and it's when the decisions begin to be in that Arena that we need help sometimes we use something called a decision tree to make a decision now you might not realize that's what you're doing but there is a whole field of study and business about decision trees how do you make a decision so you start in the decision tree with a question do I apply for this mortgage loan do I leave my job do I start a business do I have another child even though labor with the last child almost killed me but I have the desire to have another child I'm prophesying to somebody and you're thinking do I do this again There's issues to consider so with a decision tree we start with a question and then if the answer to that first question is yes we go this way and if it's no we go that way let's say something simple like how do I decide if I'm healthy enough well perhaps the first question would be how old are you are you over 450 or under 50 and praise God this month I'm going to step over that line gracefully and celebrate the 50 side amen I'm so grateful not everybody made it to this point and so then you say well what age are you then you know can you stand on one foot without wobbling yes or no that's actually a fitness measure now y'all didn't know that it takes core strength I don't have that much and then if the yes is there will you ask another question and you go down or you say what do I want to spend my money on well how much money do I have in the bank do I have more than this cost yes okay after my bills do I have more yes no and so we go down the tree and really I want you to think of as going up because trees grow up so you starting with this question and then depending on the answer to that question you go to the next question and it branches out and it branches out until you reach a decision and that's your behavior that's the fruit on the decision tree and we all want to live fruitful lives but we worry about making the wrong decision and that did not begin with a Harvard Business School study decision trees began in the garden the very first decision was about trees can you go with me to Genesis chapter 2. verse 5 and if you want to stand for this first scripture reading we can do that to honor God but y'all know when I Minister I go through about eight verses eight passages that we get to give them Honor on this first Genesis chapter 2 verse 5 in the ESV I'm reading when no Bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land and there was no man to work the ground and the Miss was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground then the Lord God formed the man of the of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and Man became a living creature and the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the East and there he put the man whom he had formed it's important for us to notice that the man was formed in Eden not in the garden it says that he put the man that he formed in the garden and out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is Pleasant to the sight and good for food the tree of life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil say decision tree there was two trees and then a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden because trees must be watered and they are divided and became Four Rivers may the Lord add a blessing to the reading of that word I'm gonna let you sit down but I'm going to read another word so we see that there are two trees choose between and we know that God speaks to the first man and says you can eat of all the trees but not the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil and he has communicated this message to the woman who God made after that because she knows and we know that because in Genesis 3 the serpent comes and initiates a decision tree he begins with a question Genesis 3 verse 1. now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made and he said unto the woman yea hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden and the woman said unto the serpent we may eat of the fruit of the Trees of the garden but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden God hath said ye shall not eat of it neither shall ye touch it lest ye die so he presented a question and it was a yes or a no and she said yes and she repeated the command and then in verse 5 for God says know that in the day you eat thereof when then your eyes shall be opened oh I'm sorry verse four and the serpent says to the woman you shall not surely die for God to know that in the day you eat of it then your eyes shall be open and you shall be as God's knowing good and evil so now he's challenging back there's more options to consider did God say what you say he think he said yes or no she said yes did what he said mean what you thought it meant has anybody ever doubled back when you knew that God said something but then you had to revisit and ask yourself did it mean what I thought it meant I can't deny that he said it but circumstances are presenting themselves in such a way as I'm starting to wonder if I really knew what he meant when he said what he said [Applause] and in those moments it always seems to be quiet we would love it if God would show up and say I said what I said but he doesn't do that he leaves it up to us to consider whether we have interpreted properly what it is that we heard and we're fine with it until things start looking off or to somebody suggests that maybe it's not what you thought it was and so now he has pulled her into a tree he gets her to look at the tree verse 6 and when the woman saw that the tree was good for food now first of all in Genesis 1 when God made it he said all the trees were good for food this is not a discovery he didn't say it wasn't good for food he said don't eat it lest you die he didn't say it wouldn't tastes good he disabled look good he didn't say you won't drop that in the moment he said don't eat of it lest you die so sometimes it killed me because she's like it is good for food well you didn't discover nothing but you're so busy revisiting what you already know God said because you're trying to adjust it to fit the circumstance that you wanted to fit and this is one of the reasons why decisions become difficult because you are trying [Applause] I think I'm preaching already you're trying to make a decision based on the outcome that you want and she was all right because she knew she wasn't supposed to eat it she hadn't given in any attention it wasn't a want but now that somebody said something well maybe he's all right he's not really like say see but you know maybe it's okay I mean that's not the job I was believing for I I got I know that I asked him for money that I needed for these things and this job but I've been waiting a while and maybe I should say yes because this is the only option maybe it is good maybe I'm uncomfortable in the environment where I'm being called maybe the territory stretch has me going somewhere that I don't really feel comfortable going and so maybe that's not what God meant because if he's going to qualify the cult I should wait till I'm qualified if he's calling so I'm just checking on the decision and we ask more questions and more questions and more questions I'm gonna keep going and so she saw it was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise this is her order she saw it was good for food she came to a conclusion she believed something and that it was pleasant to the eyes in the original Hebrew that were that phrase Pleasant to the eyes meant it was emotionally interesting she got enticed emotionally she felt something and then a tree to be desired to make one wise now she went to thinking something she went from seed to Heart to thought and then fruit she took the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also to her husband with her he with her he's with her and he did eat I'll let PT teach that another time he's with her and the eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sold fig leaves together and made themselves aprons so we have a decision-making order we just saw her go through a belief a Feeling a thought a behavior and Eve and Adam although her name wasn't Eve at this moment her name was Adam the man and the woman had not yet Fallen and so they are behaving in their perfect created state and so even though the fruit did not end up being a good fruit we cannot say that the decision-making process was sinful because they had not Fallen yet and so this is the only real Glimpse we get of the behavior of the created Humanity how we were designed to function the steps in which it goes the belief the word the judgment and the emotions together worked and then she had a thought and then she made a decision this is the order in which we make all decisions whether we realize it or not I'm going to show it to you differently it's important that we look at this trees because we are trees and so when they made this decision God was not only showing us how we were created to work but also they were choosing between trees because they're trees and that we are facing the same decision between the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil every day all day we are constantly deciding which direction we're going to go because even though we got tossed out of the garden we know that Jesus came and redeemed us and we have Choice still the tree of life is available to us yet still and every day we have the option to do it like we said sometimes it's an easy choice somebody got up this morning didn't think twice came to church to get a word but there are some people in here for whom it was a hard choice because you haven't heard God's voice in a while and it feels like nothing is happening right and it feels like what he told you is it coming to pass and the healing hasn't happened and the child hasn't got saved and they're still on drugs and the marriage is still messy and all the things and it was hard for you not everybody came easy this morning but you're going to be able to make a better decision when I'm finished teaching will y'all stay with me we are actually Gardens three and a half years ago Bishop gave me the opportunity to teach a message on this stage called good ground and uh it was a great honor of mine and one of the things I showed you was that when I was a student back in whatever earlier in the century I was in my first Neuroscience class and I saw a picture of a neuron and it looked like a Seedling and some of you have seen that but I brought it with me today would you show the people here and at home that on the left you see a neuron this is very important stuff because a neuron is the building block of all of your thoughts these are the nerve cells are they make up our entire nervous system our brain and our nervous system they're all over our bodies and they pass information between each other chemically like a telephone game until a thought is formed and we have like 70 000 thoughts a day now if I believe in the god of my Sunday school book and I do if I believe that he is the creator of the heavens and the Earth and of me and I do then it cannot be an accident that on the third day he made plants and on the sixth day he made us and that the my neurons look like plants I'm sorry but I'm not willing to skip over that I believe that God was writing a lesson plan for us to stand how we were made and not only did he plant a garden around us but he planted a garden within us there are billions of these plants all over the insides of our body and so we're used to talking about the garden as a metaphor but this is more than a metaphor this is literally your biological Construction oh your Bible has so much more in it than you think and so we see these tiny little saplings that can grow into trees we see these seedlings and so God put this inside of us you can take it down he put this inside of us to show us that we operate like Gardens furthermore he tells us in the parable of the sower in Matthew Chapter 13 every single part of us is there he shows us that the soil where these Gardens are planted the soil where those neurons are planted is the heart because in the parable the sower it says that A sower went out to sow seeds you know the story and the seeds fell on different types of soil there was Wayside soil and Stony soil and thorny ground but then also there was fertile ground they called it good ground and each one of those grounds got Jesus describes them in Emotion terms the first one the Wayside soil has no emotion nothing is said about it it's flat it's dry the seed falls on it a bird eats it there's no connection because that heart was not moved but then but then has anybody had a heart that wasn't moving that numbness you don't feel nothing I'm preaching right now and you're trying to catch it but it feels like it's just bouncing off because you've been in pain so long you don't feel nothing anymore that's that Wayside soil and then there was the Stony ground and it says that the seed was received with joy so there's an emotion but then when it got hot that soil got offended that's anger so there's another emotion and that anger choked it out the thing died because it couldn't get water and then the third type of ground was thorny ground and God says Lord Jesus says that the weeds of anxiety grew there there was fear in that ground so Jesus is giving us the first emotional vocabulary list he's going right down the list we got numbness Joy anger fear and those emotions impact how the seed of the word is received and so we have a seed it's the word in the Book of Luke when the parable is told it says that when the seed which was just a word by itself is received by the ground it becomes a belief it says they believed when they received it and so you have to understand we don't believe every word we hear but when a word falls on our heart depending on how it hits us emotionally it depends on whether we will actually believe it now I know you've been taught that you shouldn't have your emotions mixed with your beliefs but the Bible's telling me that is how it works that is how we were built and that's why the word of Satan fell on her heart in the garden and then her eyes looked and she had an emotional moment and then she started thinking and then the fruit came and so here in the parable the sower we see it all together the seed is the word the seed soil relationship determines if I'm going to believe the word that I heard and once the belief is there the plants brings up from the belief that's the mind you just saw the neuron the seed that's the mind my thought pattern and then the fruit is my decision that I make seed soil plant fruit word belief with feeling think do so when I make a decision that's the order in which I make it I take a word do I believe it and it's from the belief that I think and my thoughts lead to my ending of my decision that's what we saw happen to the woman so Jesus is showing it again and so when we realize how much our emotional life is playing a role in our decision making we will pay more attention to how we feel you can say emotion wasn't in it but you would be wrong like saying there's no gas in your car but you're driving you can deny it but it's there [Applause] and we have misunderstood the heart mind relationship we have believed that the mind creates the heart that the thoughts create the feelings but the Bible has never said that and Neuroscience just figured it out and they're catching up but your heart is the soil of your life and so here let's go back to the garden understanding that I want you to see another picture you show that heart for me so here we are as Eden the Bible says he made man Eden and then he placed him in a garden Eastward in Eden everybody put out your left arm that's the east side of your body now put it on your hand on your heart and there it is east in Eden your heart is the location of the garden furthermore because you may not believe me yet it goes on as I read to say that he sent a river into the garden to water it and when the river left the garden it divided into four rivers does anybody see one two three four rivers coming out of the garden planted Eastward in Eden and there he put the man that he made who you really are is Right Here In Your Heart here is where he put the person that he made this is why Jesus wants to live in your heart because he wants to be with you here he placed who he made in the garden the first Sanctuary this is the holy of holies in the temple that is you this is where he walks with you and talks with you and tells you he's on your own this is where he sees you face to face this is the place and it says that in that Garden that he put the man that he planted Eastward in Eden he planted a tree can you go to the next slide well look at that there's the tree if a tree was planted in a garden by rivers of water The Roots would grow down into your belly uh some people are getting it and then the trunk and the branches would grow up until that big old fruit would pop up on the top and there you have in this in the midst of the garden the center the tree of life that he has actually planted within you the neurobiologists call this tree the vagus nerve it is the longest nerve in the body and it innervates the parasympathetic nervous system now let me teach you something let's go to biology class y'all coming with me let's all go you thought you were fearfully and wonderfully made but you have no idea and so the parasympathetic nervous system is the part of our nervous system that brings us back into equilibrium when everything is well we feel a sense of Peace when we are in this place when this nervous system is activated we feel Joy we feel open we feel connected to other people this is how you want to feel this is love joy peace all the emotions that you like when this part of the nervous system is activated you feel those things but when it's not activated you don't however there were two trees in the description of the garden I don't have a picture of that one but I'm going to tell you about it there is another portion of our nervous system called the sympathetic nervous system the sympathetic nervous system activates under stress when the environment is demanding something from you the sympathetic nervous system activates and gives you the energy to do what you need to do you might need to knock somebody out you might need to tell somebody off I'm not saying don't be holy about it you might need to speed down the highway to get to the hospital in time you might need to rush to the school to intervene for your child but when the environment demands something the sympathetic nervous system says okay we can't rest right now we got to get up and fight we gotta go we gotta do we have to accomplish we have to achieve so the sympathetic nervous system is not all bad sometimes we talk about it that way the fight flight freeze but it's not all bad we need the energy but sometimes since the fall happen it malfunctions now what's interesting about this is that come here come here look look at you she jumped right up I was gonna ask the pastor to get up come here turn this way I guess there's her spinal cord down your back your sympathetic nervous system runs through your spinal cord that tree of life stands free in the center but this one is stacked in your spinal cord this is important because the only real difference between a woody Vine and a tree is that a woody Vine cannot stand up by itself a tree stands up by itself in the traditional sense it's a woody plant that stands by itself but but a Vine has to have support and that's why this one is inside your spine it's stacked up for support but it's really like a vine thank you here is the problem with vines there's a vine called a Strangler fig and when it gets to Growing it starts by letting a seed be planted in another tree and then the vine goes down and up and wraps itself around the tree and kills the tree but it looks beautiful you said you're like look at this Vine it's gorgeous it's all over the tree and you see it has all these leaves on the vine and the leaves cover the trunk and you think it's so pretty but if you peel the leaf back leaves back you will find that the tree is dead or dying I believe that right after the man and woman made the decision to eat a fruit they shouldn't have they ingested a seed that changed a vine that then reached out and wrapped around that vagus nerve the tree of life and began to choke it out but they thought it could look good if the leaves that they covered themselves with would hide the fact that they were now being choked to death by their own tree because they were disobedient because they allowed a seed to be planted that replaced the True Vine with a strangling Vine and now every day the tree of life and this strangling Vine are back and forth back and forth and when that vagus nerve is activated when the tree of life is activated and we're in a place of peace and joy and rest we make good decisions we make decisions well when we have a sense of joy we make decisions a little bit slowly but very accurately but when we are afraid we make them creatively but then we are collapsed when we are angry we make them quickly but we are less accurate there's a problem with the input and so you have a decision to make about which tree will be your decision-making Tree on a daily basis will you choose life [Applause] or will you allow it to be strangled because you are desperate for control let me explain that let me explain that let me so I'm getting ahead of myself the knowledge of Good and Evil was not for us to determine we were meant to Simply believe see the decision tree always starts with questions but that's not where it really starts it starts with a seed what do you believe because every question you asked is based on something you already believe should I accept this marriage proposal well why are you asking that question is it because you believe that God has a good thing for you and this might be it or is it because you believe I'm not very worthy and this might be my last chance what is the question springing from because the decision tree is not where we start we start with the seed and so I'm challenging you today to check on the belief that is informing the questions that you ask as you make the decision that will produce the fruit because what is always inside the fruit the seed that it started with every single time and so you make a decision and then you have this fruit you eat the fruit the feed falls on the ground it grows more of the same and that's why you keep finding yourself in the same cycle that you don't like because you think you made a good decision because you got the outcome that you wanted but the outcome is not the issue you don't make the right decision because you got what you wanted you make the right decision because you did what what's right that is the confusion baby I can tell you how to make the right decision every time stand on the belief that matters and move from there when we try to make decisions based on what will happen we are trying to control and control is about limiting predicting holding preventing and you don't have the capacity to do that anyway the lie that you believe that you are able to predict an outcome and know which one would be good and which one would be bad because of what you saw somebody else go through or before because of what you're afraid to go through or because of what you're ashamed to deal with you think you have to control the outcome [Applause] but the outcome will tell you what seed started your process and seeds are activated by the soil that they are in and so in order for you to get this fruitful life that you want that means to use the seeds that are good you have to recognize where you are emotionally because the seeds that spring up are brought to life or brother awakened by what's going on in the soil the soil needs to be a certain temperature the soil needs a certain amount of water the soil needs a certain amount of air so there are some seeds I'm not good ground for when my children were young I was terrified that I would be a bad mother and so if you had come to me at that time and looked at them and looked at me and looked at them and looked at me and said you are not a good mother my heart would have said and that thing would have said Bop and it would have started growing because the fear and the sadness and the trauma that made my heart good ground to believe those words but now if you walk up to me and say I don't think you've been a good mother I might actually laugh at you because I'm a monstrously good mother I'm good and so that's Wayside you're gonna get nothing from me on that see you you get upset like what they're trying to do to you but but are you good ground where are you emotionally that that seed quickly becomes a belief and where are you not such that the word can fall on your soil of your heart and it doesn't do anything and nothing happens because you're saying I'm fearfully and wonderfully made you're saying I'm blessed you're saying he's going to enlarge my territory you're believing the scripture trying to believe it but nothing's happening because emotionally what I've been through means I don't have hope remember Faith believes that it's possible but hope believes it's possible for me some of you have faith but no hope thank God all hope is found somebody might have just wrote a book called all hope is found Pastor Sarah hope is a Feeling first and we try to Hope with our mind and so we'll say I'll just go through the motions and then we arrive and maybe some things get done but we still feel so empty we still feel so lost because we haven't stopped to stir hope in our hearts what's going on with you emotionally will impact how the seed wakes up now some of the seeds let me read you something real quick I'm going to give you this scripture I got so many scriptures I don't know if I'm going to read them all that vine that I told you about Jesus wants to replace in John chapter 15. Jesus says what oh this word I love that these peoples knows the word of God while I'm turning to it in my Bible my electric Bible in John chapter 15 Jesus says I am the True Vine and my father is the husbandman every branch of me that bearth not fruit he taketh away and every branch that bear fruit he purges it now you are clean through the word which I have spoken to you abide in me the vine and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself accept it abide in the vine and no more can ye except you abide in me I'm the vine you're the branches he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me you can do nothing his cast forth as a branch and his withered that's what happens to us when we're trying to make decisions based on how we know what's good and what's bad if you abide in me and my words abide in you you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you hearing is my father glorified that you bear much fruit so shall you be my disciples as the father have loved me so have I loved you continue in my love all this is mattering if you keep my Commandments you'll shall abide in my love even as I've kept my father's Commandments and abide in his love these things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full so here's what we just found out the way for me to get this raggedy Vine replaced by the True Vine is for his words to abide in me words are seeds in every soil you see there is something called a seed bank the seed bank is all the seeds that are in the soil whether they're growing or not seed banks are so important because they allow us to reproduce things that have died and so this is mattering so much that they consider the seeds in the soil to be the genetic imprint of the soil the seeds are the genes of the soil they call it the soil's genetics it's so important that in Norway in some freezing cold place the world has come together to store millions of seeds in a seed bank so that if there is a volcanic eruption or an asteroid hits half the Earth they can replant everything that is killed and so there are seeds inside of us all the time that may or may not be growing right now you have a seed bank and that seed bank is required is comprised of words that you have received and believed at some time or another but the condition of the soil is not such that they're growing right now now some of the seeds are weed seeds because weed seeds are very sturdy they can live in the soil for decades and when the conditions get right they will grow a weed seed is coming up in the lies that you have believed in the parable of the sower and the thorny ground Jesus says I'm there anxiety the the deception of riches in the world all of the lies that you've believed about yourself are living in there and so I want you to understand what wakes up a weed seed it goes back to what this Vine verse just said when the soil loses nutrients weeds wake up isn't that something if you see weeds growing in your yard the soil doesn't have enough nutrients the most important nutrient is love that's why Jesus said if you abide in me there will be love and you love me you will be good but when love drains fear becomes present because fear is the absence of love it is written that those who have fear have not yet been made perfect in love and so when we are in a fear state it wakes up the weed seeds that form that vine that chokes the Tree of Life and so every single time you have to make a difficult decision the first thing I want you to do is sit quietly and figure out how you feel I know a simple truth but we've been missing it because you've been taught to ignore how you feel and try to make the decision anyway but how you're doing emotionally is going to determine which beliefs awaken and the beliefs that awaken will determine the questions you ask when you think and the questions you ask will turn in what conclusion you come from and that'll be the fruit and that fruit will have the seed and we'll start again so if you find yourself in a bad thinking space stop right there because if you make a decision from that space it's going to have the seed that started it all and now we'll have a fresh cycle of growth and so take this in your notes when you are feeling like a decision is really hard the first thing I want you to do is sit still close your eyes and scan your body how do I feel because you know how you feel based on what your body is doing when you say I'm angry you say that because you feel hot your head is parting pulsing your fists might be clenched and you name old somebody doesn't somebody gets angry out here and then you realize I am angry and then you decide to move from there when we are sad our heart can feel heavy sometimes our head and eyes feel heavy our arms and legs feel slow when we're sad when we're grieving we know that by paying attention to our bodies when we're scared we usually feel it here our stomach gets tight our heart starts racing our breath gets quick so when you sit down and just sit there how do I feel because once you're aware of how you feel you know which seeds are being activated from words to belief because I'm feeling this way I'm believing I don't have a shot because I feel this grief I believe I'll always be alone because I feel this insecurity I believe I'm not worthy because I feel feel angry then I believe I don't have control is that making sense because once you know what seed has been activated yes this is important you'll be able to know what shift I need to make because thoughts are not in charge of feelings but feelings in charge of thoughts you cannot simply distract yourself into making the right decision you cannot simply think about something positive just to make the right decision what you need to do is process how you feel and your feelings are valid when we are sad we need to be connected sadness makes us isolated it says you need connection so instead of ignoring it and trying to make a decision anyway maybe you phoned a friend and say I'm feeling just I'm depressed today I could use your company can you come and see me can we hang out before you try to jump past that and make a big decision take care of the soil of your heart because that will help to bring you into a different place when we are in the presence of people we love who love us and we feel safe whether that's on FaceTime or at the mall or however the tree of life that vagus nerve activates it turns off the Strangling Vine and brings us back into a place where other seeds are awakened I am loved I am cared for and suddenly it starts to be easier to make a hard decision not because you thought through it but because you felt through makes sense when we are angry it is usually because we don't feel a sense of worth being given to us we get angry when something valuable is treated as less than valuable and that's why somebody messes with your child at school you get angry because your child is valuable and they're not being treated that way when someone abuses you or mistreats you or speaks to you disrespectfully it's okay to get angry I am valuable and you are not treating me at the level of my value it's okay to get angry and if you're not getting angry we might need to talk about bringing up our value level it's okay to be angry so when I'm angry then I may need to say okay before I start making a decision what boundaries do I need to protect the valuable thing because once I have boundaries in place I can relax again and now I can think through what I need to think through because I activate a different seed I am valuable not I am attacked I am unworthy but I am valuable and I will now make this decision from that emotional space when I am afraid that means I need to be safe it is not a sin to feel the emotion of fear the emotion of fear is not the same as being possessed by a spirit of fear the emotion of fear you know how I know this because the last time you saw a dog you didn't know I'll wait yeah the last time you saw that dog you didn't know when you was walking by the lake trying to get your exercise you did not rebuke the spirit of fear you went the other way you got a stick you start hollering at that dog to go somewhere but you did not give yourself a hard time for being scared the only time we feel bad about being scared is in relationships or something that we know we believe God wants us to do and we feel scared then we start rebuking it but we don't rebuke it when we slam on the brakes and a car is about to hit us and we're trying to you don't rebuke it then because you feel like it's okay for me to be scared in this moment because it is a human emotion that's always true and so when we feel the emotion of fear a lot of times it's just we need to feel safe how can I feel safe how can I meet the need that's in the soil how do I water this how do I get love into this space so that I feel safe and then when I feel safe that tree of life is waking up that vagus nerve clears my mind now I'm able to think now I make a good decision but when I allow myself to ignore how I feel and try to jump over that and just think through it you're ignoring it but it's still there and so it guides your thinking and that's why you continue to ask question after question after question after question because now you're trying to figure out how to get the circumstance to make you feel better instead of hound dealing your own body's needs you have been designed miraculously by God he placed these things in our bodies for us to be able to move through life the way he called us to and he gave us these trees in the garden to teach us how it works I want you to know it's possible to make the decision right every single time if you listen to your heart get into the place emotionally where you need to be awake in the seed that you need to believe and then move from there you must trust God with the outcome you must trust God with the outcome because when we do that we are moving from a place of power instead of control power is I have the capacity to affect these things control is I'm going to try to limit the things that I can't affect control is moved by fear and I know you all say well God is in control that is not in the Bible that scripture is nowhere in the Bible there's nowhere in the Bible it says God is in control he has Dominion but that's not the same thing as trying to control everything he's not trying to control you he's trying to empower you and so I want you to never make a decision from a place of I'm trying to control it but rather that I have power last thing I'm going to give you you doing good last thing I'm going to give you so that you can take really good care of your garden I want to teach you some ways to identify seeds because a lot of you don't know which seas are which and so I want to let you know which seeds they are and which seeds you can replace them with here are some seeds that wake up the Strangler Vine these are beliefs that you've had I am permanently damaged [Music] um now if somebody caught you on a good day you would say I don't believe that but when I said it just now I heard a lot of people go yeah there's something wrong with me I'm not good enough I'm a bad person or I'm bad and here's one of the things we do in church to sneak this in we say if it had not been for Jesus I would be in trouble because I'm not anything good in my flesh dwells no good thing you're using scripture from an emotional place that's not good ground for the real seed you're using scripture to hide the fact that you believe you are unlovable I wouldn't be loved but God loves me but you are lovable and not just by God you are lovable by me you are lovable by friends you are lovable by family you are lovable by romantic Partners you are lovable by people you are lovable by humans you are not only lovable by God stop saying I don't need anybody to love me but God as long as God loves me nobody else needs to love me you do need other people to love you we were designed to be loved by other people we were designed to be connected to other people but you're hiding that seed of I am unlovable and you're trying to make it sound like scripture but it's not and because you're not being honest about where you are emotionally you're not being honest about the seed and you're making decisions from this place I am stupid I am ugly I'm a disappointment I'm different I'm invisible I'm a failure but these are the seeds that I want you to plant I can heal I'm fine as I am I am good enough I am caring I can succeed I am worthy I am lovable I am smart enough I need you to believe that I need you to not say I'm just gonna say it but in God I can be it no I am it he created you that way and this is a moment because as the spirit of God is moving in this place your heart your emotional life is coming into alignment with how you're made so right now is when you need to repeat these things because your heart is good ground to receive them so say it right now say I'm lovable I'm smart I'm wonderful I'm cold I'm strong I have what I need do it now while the spirit is moving your heart and your heart can receive it it won't be stolen it won't fall on Wayside I have what I need I am worthy I do matter right now get it in the bank get it in the seed bank get it in the bank you gotta take the truth to the bank I want you to reject beliefs about your guilt it's my fault I should have done something I should have known better I should not have no right now as the spirit is moving say this I did the best I could I did what I could I can learn better you haven't believed that before but right now the spirit is moving on your heart so that you can receive it I am better than I have been do you feel what's happening it doesn't always have to be up in the air some of you are believing this I'm gonna die God told me to rebuke that on this morning I'm going to die I'm going to die I'm going to die some of you are being haunted by the belief that you will not live a long life you think that every time something good happens this must be the end because now God did this for me and so this must be it I must be going home you're looking for the car accident you're looking for an illness because it's so hard for you to believe that God loves you and that he will continue to give you good things I rebuke I'm going to die I want you to say I'm going to live I survived it's over I made it it's the truth long life where he will satisfy me with I will live I will live [Applause] you gotta get emotional about this thing when you get emotional you can take it to the bank you need these seeds in your bank some of you are lying to yourselves and you are believing I am out of control I am powerless I'm helpless I am weak I can't protect myself I can't trust my judgment I can't get what I want I have to be perfect those are lies are you ready to sow some seeds into the bank that are good say I can't handle this I have personal power I can make choices I am strong I can protect myself I am allowed to have the desires of my heart I can be a human being say it over I can be human I can have the desires of my heart God does love me I need you to get a new set of seeds in the bank because when the pressure comes and your heart moves these are the beliefs that must awaken because if I believe I am lovable then the question is do I settle no and the decision is made when I believe I can have the desires of my heart the question is should I apply yes and the decision is made it's when the wrong seeds are activated that we go down the decision tree the wrong way but today oh my God I had a whole nother thing but God is telling me to stop right here if you know that the bank in the soil of your heart is full of lies hit this altar hit this altar hit this altar hit this altar God is about to give you an emotional experience with him that is going to shift what you are fertile for you've been told that God shouldn't give you emotional experiences that that's not good stuff that that's not sacred but it is sacred and so I want you to let your heart cry out right now let the tears slow down your cheeks push out the trauma rebuke the thoughts that the devil has told you say I am not a lovable I am not always going to be abused I am not always going to be promiscuous I am not always going to be last I am first I am worthy Jesus died for me I love him and he loves me back fill it up God wants you to take some new words to the bank today he wants the seed bank of your heart to be full of Truth [Music] grab a hand next to you grab a hand next to you grab a hand next to you any hand grab a hand grab a hand grab a hand father God in the name of Jesus in the name of Jesus I'm doing that because connection makes a difference when we are touched by someone else who is in the same space as us it starts to move where we are emotionally squeeze that hand right now squeeze that hand right now in the name of Jesus father God I activate the heart of every believer right now the seeds that have been in their hearts that our lives are being expelled and they are receiving the truth that they have been fighting to believe God I thank you that the Tree of Life is flourishing in them and that you of the True Vine is standing up strong in their back that when it's time to fight they don't have to fight like we fight when we have no power but the fight is coming from you I thank you that we are connecting right now to the True Vine who will allow us to know that we are winners that we have power that we are loved that we were created fearfully and uniquely that we have a calling that we are hidden in you that we are protected by you that the devil cannot destroy what you have put in us and we believe that and that when the pressure from the outside comes these are the seeds that will spring up these are the mindsets that we will have and the behavior and the decisions will be the fruit of Truth and not of Lies in the name of Jesus I bind the seeds that abuse has left behind I bind the seeds that failure have left behind I come against the weed seeds that from those whose mother somebody I said your own mother told you you were not worth the trouble I know it's hard to believe somebody would say that but I heard God say your own mother told you you were too much trouble I rebuke that weed release the pain that keeps it growing release the pain that keeps it growing you're not smart enough you're not smart enough that's a lie release the pain that keeps it growing and declare I am smart enough I do have what I need God did make me useful to this world I'm not just gonna work all day every day and die God is going to allow there to be fruit and harvest in my life in the name of Jesus finish the degree I hear God saying some of you stopped you are less than a year away from graduating and you have stopped because you didn't believe you would be able to pass those final exams so why waste the money if I'm not even going to finish it is a lie get back in the program and finish the degree your graduation date has been set in heaven and now it's going to be on Earth you dropped out dropped back in it is a lie that you cannot finish drop back in there's somebody online there's several somebody's under the sound of my voice online God is moving you here now I don't say stuff like that because I don't want you to get flaky and quit your job and go somewhere and can't pay a bill and then be asking the church to help you that's not my thing but I heard God say that there are several somebody's online right now and your service and gifts are ordained for the future of this house and God is moving you and you don't believe that you can hear him clearly I sow the seed into your bank right now I hear God clearly I believe that move we have need of you Jesus [Music]