0:02

announcer 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32,

0:10

33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47,

0:16

45, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 60,

0:23

67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 78, 79, 80,

0:28

81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94,

0:36

94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18,

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19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32,

0:51

31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45,

1:00

46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 60, 67,

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68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 78, 80,

1:16

recognition could be defined as the

1:18

brain's ability to identify

1:21

stimuli

1:22

or lack situations, places,

1:25

people, objects, etc. are

1:27

all recognition that

1:29

you have seen before. And

1:33

so, recognition in

1:35

the word recognition is cognitive.

1:39

Your brain's ability

1:42

to relate what you see to

1:44

something you have seen. Recognition

1:49

is a cognitive ability

1:52

that makes it possible

1:54

to recover stored information

1:57

and compare it to the information being

1:59

presented. in it in front of you. Like

2:02

you look at somebody and you say, oh,

2:04

that's Freddie, I didn't recognize you, how

2:07

you doing? Recognitive,

2:09

recall, cognitive,

2:12

because I saw you before, but

2:15

I didn't recognize you. So

2:17

I can't say I cognizant

2:19

you, I have to say I recognize

2:22

you because I have a previous

2:24

experience

2:24

as a reference

2:27

to have recognition. I

2:29

have a terrible problem

2:32

with names.

2:33

And when I have to remember somebody's

2:36

name, it is easier when

2:38

I tie it to something that

2:41

I remember. So if

2:44

somebody says, hi, my name is David, I think Psalmist

2:46

David.

2:47

So if I can remember the Psalmist David, I say,

2:50

hi David, how you doing? Because I need

2:53

to tie what's in front of me

2:55

to something that's behind

2:57

me. Recognition.

3:00

So when we come to recognizing

3:03

God's answers, often

3:06

the only image we

3:08

have in mind is what

3:10

was in our head.

3:12

So when God answers and

3:14

he delivers something, then it's

3:17

different than what we saw in our head.

3:20

Sometimes we don't know how to handle it

3:23

because the answer doesn't look like

3:25

the prayer. Can

3:27

we go deeper with this? Let's go

3:29

to Isaiah 55, 6 through 9 for

3:31

a minute, and let's take a look at that.

3:36

Isaiah 55,

3:38

6 through 9. Seek the Lord while

3:42

he may be found. Call

3:45

on him while he

3:47

is near. Let

3:50

the wicked forsake their ways,

3:53

watch this, and the unrighteous

3:57

bear thoughts.

4:00

Wait a minute. I

4:03

understand the wicked forsake their ways,

4:06

but when he gets to the unrighteous, he says,

4:09

forsake your thoughts.

4:14

That means that the unrighteous have

4:16

to be careful because your thoughts

4:18

may betray you.

4:23

I thought I would be here by now.

4:26

I thought I would be married by 30.

4:29

I thought I would be out of debt by 50.

4:32

I thought, and the Bible says,

4:34

forsake for you to forsake

4:38

your thoughts.

4:41

Ooh, y'all got quiet. Forsake

4:45

what you thought marriage

4:48

is. Forsake

4:52

what you thought church was supposed

4:54

to

4:54

be.

4:55

Forsake what you thought you

4:58

deserve in a companion.

5:01

Forsake what you thought you

5:03

should be paid on a job

5:06

because God did not promise

5:09

to pay you according to your

5:11

thoughts,

5:15

but according to his. How are

5:18

you going to let this mind be in you, which was

5:20

also in Christ Jesus, while you

5:22

hold on to your own?

5:23

So

5:27

there has to be a moment in your

5:29

life that you go

5:32

blank and

5:35

say, not my will, but

5:38

that I be done. You know

5:41

what's best.

5:42

Let

5:46

them turn to the Lord and he

5:48

will have mercy on them, and to

5:50

our God, for he will

5:52

freely pardon them.

5:54

For thoughts, yes. For

5:57

he will pardon, he will forgive you.

6:00

My mother was here this late

6:01

for thinking like a fool. Wasn't

6:06

she good for telling you that you're thinking like

6:08

a fool? Yeah, she

6:11

didn't call us a fool, but she said you're thinking

6:13

like a fool. That

6:15

don't make no sense, you're thinking like a fool. Because

6:17

she understood parenting is about

6:20

teaching

6:20

how to think. You

6:26

can't teach a child how to think when

6:28

your answer is because I said

6:30

so.

6:35

So I have a tendency when I'm frustrated

6:38

with any individual to say, what

6:41

were you? Yeah,

6:44

because I can't understand how you did

6:47

what you did. I

6:49

have a problem with your ways, but the root

6:51

of your ways is in your thoughts.

6:56

Anytime you see somebody acting

6:59

a certain way, the

7:01

action is the fruit of their

7:03

thinking. What were

7:06

you thinking? Then

7:10

God goes on and says, for my thoughts are

7:13

not your thoughts. That's

7:16

why I want you to forsake your thoughts, because

7:19

my thoughts are not your

7:22

thoughts. Neither

7:24

are your ways my

7:27

ways. Now we keep seeing this ribbon

7:29

tied between thoughts and ways,

7:32

thoughts and ways. His thoughts

7:35

justified by his ways, your thoughts

7:38

justified by your ways. God

7:40

declared unto you, I'm not thinking

7:42

what you're thinking.

7:46

And my ways of

7:48

getting you there are not your way.

7:50

I

7:53

swore I was going to bless you, but I didn't tell

7:55

you how.

7:59

I swore I would bring you out, but I didn't

8:02

tell you through who. I

8:04

thought it was going to come through the bishop. I

8:07

thought it was going to come through the music. I thought

8:09

it. Your thoughts, get them out

8:11

of the way. Get them out

8:13

of the way. If you can surrender your thoughts

8:15

to God, what you think about it, rather

8:18

than building a shrine around your

8:21

opinion

8:21

and

8:23

worshipping at the altar of that

8:26

that is fragile

8:28

and open yourself up, that's

8:30

what I surrender really means. I surrender

8:32

all means I surrender what I had

8:35

in mind.

8:37

I surrender what I had planned.

8:40

I surrender how I thought it

8:42

would turn out.

8:44

I surrender my definition

8:46

of success at this stage

8:48

in my life. For instance, somebody

8:51

says, oh, you're such a successful

8:53

pastor. Then I always think

8:56

to myself, are you talking about

8:58

quantity or quality?

9:02

Who says that the most

9:04

successful pastor is the one

9:06

with the most members?

9:09

Perhaps God goes by

9:11

quality and not by quantity.

9:13

Y'all ain't going

9:15

to talk to me tonight.

9:18

All of a sudden, you

9:20

are judging on the outer appearance and

9:23

God is looking at the heart and

9:25

it could be that the guy in the storefront with 12

9:27

members is a more successful

9:30

pastor

9:31

because

9:34

he is qualitative and not quantitative.

9:37

We like it big. We

9:40

do it big in Texas. I

9:42

want to see big. I want to see big. God

9:45

wants to see quality.

9:49

So I'm a big man, but are you a

9:51

good man?

9:52

I

9:55

found out that you can be strong in your

9:57

body and weaken your will.

10:04

You can be physically

10:06

strong and emotionally weak. And

10:10

some little old girl that weighed 90

10:12

pounds soaking wet can be tougher

10:14

than nails and can't lift up a barbell.

10:16

So

10:20

when you start talking about strength, are

10:22

you talking about outer strength or

10:25

inner strength? Outer

10:27

strength is deceptive

10:31

because you can be strong outwardly

10:34

and be fragile inwardly.

10:37

Or you can be fragile outwardly

10:40

and be tough inwardly. Are

10:43

you hearing what I'm saying? There's some tough

10:46

people in here tonight. They

10:49

might not look tough. They might

10:51

not dress tough. They may not

10:53

have triceps or biceps or anything

10:55

like that, but mess with them.

10:57

The

11:01

bad thing about messing with people, you don't

11:03

know how tough they are until you hit them.

11:08

Toughness can't always be qualified

11:11

by what you thought.

11:14

So if it happens they're higher than theirs,

11:16

so are my ways, higher than your ways,

11:19

and my thoughts than your thoughts. Come

11:21

on.

11:23

God is trying to teach

11:25

them to forsake what

11:27

they had in mind so

11:30

that they can recognize

11:34

His answer. As

11:41

we prepare to offer up before God

11:44

in the spirit of thanksgiving

11:47

with a cheerfulness of heart

11:51

and a purity of mind into

11:54

that presence we now come.

11:59

Oh, oh, you

12:03

have been so good. I

12:06

can't even explain how good you've been. You've

12:08

been my everything, my everything.

12:13

And as I lift up something before

12:16

you, I realize that

12:18

whatever I have given does

12:20

not compare to your everything.

12:23

But I

12:26

want to have reciprocity. I

12:29

cannot let you be this good to me

12:32

while I ignore my responsibility

12:33

to reciprocate

12:36

back to you.

12:44

Seldom in my life has

12:46

his answers looked like my prayer.

12:52

Seldom in my life has his answers

12:55

looked like

12:56

my prayer. His

12:59

answer

13:00

came in such a way

13:03

that it confused him. I'm

13:05

going to show you what I mean.

13:07

God's answers can't be cognitive.

13:11

They cannot be cognitive. So

13:13

God says over and over again, I will

13:16

show you.

13:18

Okay, because where I'm getting ready

13:20

to take you, you don't have

13:22

a predetermined picture in

13:24

your mind for what

13:27

I'm getting ready to do in your life.

13:31

You have no point of reference

13:33

for what I'm about to do in your life. I don't

13:35

know who I'm talking to, but I'm talking to

13:38

somebody in this room right now or

13:40

on the stream right now. You have

13:42

no point of reference. God is going to do

13:45

a new thing in your

13:47

life. The former things

13:49

have passed away. So I'm

13:51

going to forget those things which

13:53

are behind, and I'm going to reach

13:56

to those things which are before because

13:59

God is going to do it. do something in you that

14:01

you never saw in your mother, that you

14:03

never saw in your father, that you didn't

14:05

see in your grandparents, that you didn't

14:08

see reflected in your neighbors, that

14:10

you didn't see coming in your life, and

14:12

it cannot be cognitive and

14:14

still be divine. God

14:17

is going to do something like you have never

14:19

seen him ever do before, and

14:22

so he says, I will show

14:24

you. Type it on the line,

14:27

I will show you. Type

14:29

it in your house, I will show

14:31

you. I can show you better than I

14:33

can tell you. I will show

14:35

you. I will show you that

14:38

I will provide for you. I will show you

14:40

that I can heal you. I will show

14:43

you that I can bring you out. I will

14:45

show you that I can supply all your

14:47

needs. I will show you that

14:49

there's a method to what looks like madness

14:52

in your life. I will show

14:54

you while your family rejected you.

14:57

I will show you while your father

14:59

forsook you.

14:59

I will show you while your mother

15:02

didn't raise you. Stop murmuring and

15:04

complaining just because you're

15:06

hungry for something that you didn't get. I

15:09

will show you. I already

15:11

considered what they weren't going to

15:13

be in your life. I

15:16

will show you. Not your

15:18

mother, not your father, not your sister, not

15:20

your brother. I will show

15:23

you. Keep on walking with me

15:25

and I will show you because

15:28

you will not recognize

15:31

what I'm getting ready to do in your life

15:33

because you have never passed

15:36

this way before. You have never

15:38

passed this way before. And

15:41

if you can put up with the trauma

15:43

of uncertainty, eventually

15:46

I will show you I got

15:48

a plan to work this out that

15:51

you haven't seen. It's not on your

15:53

blueprints. It's not on your drawings.

15:55

It's not on your schedule. It's never

15:58

been done before. going

16:00

to do something new in you. It's

16:02

not going to be like your first pastor. It's

16:05

not going to be like your childhood.

16:07

I will show you.

16:10

Look at somebody and tell them God's going to show you.

16:14

Don't worry about it. God's going to show you. You

16:16

don't understand it right now. That's okay. God

16:19

is going to show you. You don't recognize

16:21

God's hand and where you're at right now,

16:24

but God's going to show you. It doesn't

16:26

look like God is with you, but

16:28

God is going to show you. You feel

16:30

like God has forsaken you, but

16:32

God is going to show you. You don't

16:34

recognize anything around you, not

16:36

a street sign, not a road marker.

16:39

You don't know where you are. You had a

16:41

stage in your life of uncertainty.

16:44

You have never been this age before.

16:46

You have never been at this stage before.

16:49

It's foreign to you. You don't

16:51

know what to do in this season of

16:53

your life. You tried to do what

16:55

you used to do. You can't do

16:57

what you used to do. You tried to

17:00

do what you're going to do, and you can't

17:02

do what you're going to do, but stand

17:04

still and see the salvation

17:07

of the Lord. I

17:10

will show you. Type

17:12

it on the line. I will show you. Put

17:14

it on the pad. I will show you. Tell your

17:17

neighbors, I will show

17:19

you.

17:21

When it's time for you to know, you're

17:23

going to know. When it's time for you

17:25

to see, you're going to see it. When it's

17:27

time for you to understand it, you're going to understand

17:29

it until then walk by

17:32

faith and not by

17:35

sight. When it's time for your

17:37

eyes to open, they're going to open.

17:39

When it's time for you to see, you're going to see

17:42

it. I told you to go to the pool, and

17:45

I knew you were blind, and I

17:47

want you to grow up after it and feel

17:50

after it. And when you get to the water,

17:53

I will. Everybody

17:58

who got that, give him a like.

17:59

I

18:08

got this building I didn't know how we were going to pay

18:10

for it.

18:11

I had no clue. There

18:14

was nothing in my background that prepared

18:16

me to need, I can't remember

18:18

now, something around $86 million just

18:21

to build a sanctuary. I had no point

18:23

of reference.

18:24

I could not recognize

18:27

a strategy because there

18:29

was nothing in my path of

18:31

that magnitude. I told

18:34

my mother about it, she said, baby I can't think

18:36

that high.

18:39

I thought, Lord, Mama, I can't either.

18:42

But God said, I will

18:45

show you. They told me not

18:47

to build this kind of church in this kind of neighborhood.

18:50

They told me I ought to move up to North Dallas and

18:52

build the church where the money was. But

18:55

God told me to stay right here.

18:56

I

19:03

will show you. Now

19:05

they didn't give me bad advice, they gave me good

19:07

advice that makes really good sense. But

19:10

this is not cognitive. This

19:13

is supernatural. This

19:16

is not natural wisdom. This

19:18

is not the wisdom of men. This

19:21

is the foolishness of God. God

19:24

has a way of going things that boggles

19:26

the mind of the wise. God

19:28

says, I will show

19:31

you. Some of you, God told you to move

19:33

here. And you said, Lord, I don't even know

19:35

what to do here. He said, that's all

19:37

right, just go ahead and move here. I

19:40

will show you. Glory

19:43

to God. And so you packed up your stuff and you moved

19:45

by faith. And you told your family

19:47

you were moving and they thought you were crazy.

19:50

But you left your kindred and

19:52

you went to a place that God said,

19:54

when you get there, I

19:56

will show you. Now you're

19:59

learning about faith. Now you learn

20:01

it about trust. Now you learn it

20:03

about prayer. Now you learn it about

20:05

power. And everybody in your mind says,

20:08

what are you doing here? But don't let your

20:10

mind talk you back to where you've already

20:12

been. This is not cognitive.

20:15

This is supernatural. God

20:17

said, I will show you. If

20:19

I'm preaching the right thing in the right place to the

20:21

right people, make some noise in here

20:23

right now.

20:38

He's going to show you. He's going to show

20:40

you. That's why he's got your alarm tonight.

20:43

Because he wants to reaffirm in you, he's

20:46

got a plan. He hadn't revealed

20:48

it to you, lad. But he says, I will show

20:50

you. When the time

20:52

is right, God is going to reveal

20:54

everything to you as

20:57

a believer. But until then,

20:59

he has to test you to

21:02

see if you will walk in obedience

21:05

without understanding.

21:14

Oh, I'm talking to somebody.

21:16

Anybody on a faith journey right

21:18

now? And you're

21:20

in the wilderness and you don't understand it,

21:23

and there's a feeling of uncertainty and

21:25

you've got great faith, sometimes you're murmuring

21:28

complaints because God got you out of

21:30

your element and got you out of your comfort

21:32

zone and you've got a bunch of critics criticizing

21:35

you. But God keeps saying,

21:37

I will show you. That's why

21:39

you had to be in this Bible class tonight

21:42

because God has given somebody confirmation.

21:45

I don't know who it is, but I feel a spirit

21:47

of confirmation coming in this

21:49

place right now. God will

21:52

show you why you had to be

21:54

here, why you had to do it then,

21:57

why you had to move now, why

21:59

you

21:59

don't have no...

21:59

friends yet. While you're still

22:02

uncertain, God shook you

22:04

away from that which was familiar

22:08

because it wasn't fruitful and

22:10

he brought you into a place where

22:12

you could be fruitful and he says,

22:14

I will show

22:16

you. Give him 30 seconds of crazy

22:18

praise.

22:21

Yeah,

22:29

yeah, yeah, yeah. I

22:32

said all of that to get to the text.

22:37

In our text we

22:39

learned that God's answers

22:41

often defy our recognition.

22:45

He said I'm going to send you bread.

22:47

Remember I'm back in Exodus. I'm

22:49

in Exodus 16125, 31232. He said I'm gonna send

22:54

bread but the

22:56

people called it manna. They

23:02

were looking for bread. Wait a minute. What

23:05

is their cognition of bread? Egypt.

23:12

The only bread they recognized

23:15

was Egyptian bread.

23:20

So when God sent bread down

23:22

from heaven

23:24

they didn't recognize it. They

23:26

called it manna

23:29

which means what is

23:31

it?

23:32

Now

23:41

God called it bread. They called

23:43

it manna.

23:45

What is the difference between bread

23:47

and manna? It's

23:50

what your cognitive

23:53

thoughts tell you it

23:55

should have looked like and

23:58

now it's in front of you and

23:59

And the answer doesn't look

24:02

like what you

24:03

thought. Oh,

24:07

I'm working on something.

24:10

The reason I'm in this text tonight,

24:13

there's a lot of reasons I'm in this text tonight,

24:15

but one of the reasons that I'm in this text tonight

24:18

is because sometimes

24:20

God's answer looks so different

24:23

from what you thought

24:24

that you will reject his

24:26

answer because you

24:28

don't recognize it.

24:35

This is the substratum of

24:37

the gospel. He

24:40

came unto his own and his own received

24:42

him not

24:43

because they did not

24:45

recognize it.

24:47

If the

24:49

princes of this world would have known what they were doing,

24:51

they would have never crucified the Lord, but

24:54

they did not recognize it. Who

24:56

do men say that I am? Some say that thou

24:58

are the lies and some say that thou are Jeremiah.

25:01

Who do you say that I am? Only one

25:03

of the 12 recognize him. It's

25:05

the same guy who recognized

25:07

him on the water.

25:10

Thou art the Christ. Oh,

25:12

y'all don't hear. Y'all ain't shouting good as I'm

25:14

preaching. Thou art the Christ,

25:17

the Son of the true and living

25:19

God. And Jesus says flesh

25:21

and blood have not revealed this unto

25:24

you. You didn't get this through your natural

25:26

eyes, but my Father, which

25:28

is in heaven and upon this

25:30

rock, I will build my church

25:33

and the gates of hell should not prevail

25:36

against it. I will build my church

25:38

on the backs of men and women who

25:40

can sense what they don't see, who

25:43

can recognize me in another form,

25:46

who has supernatural revelation

25:49

of who I am. I'm gonna build

25:52

my church every so often. I'm

25:54

gonna raise up a man or a woman

25:56

who can see what other people cannot

25:59

see.

28:00

The International Leadership Summit. Register

28:03

today at thisisils.org.

28:06

Feel free to reach out to us on social media

28:08

and share your story of how God is impacting

28:10

your life. We look forward to seeing

28:12

you next time on the Potter Show.