Sheryl Brady - Conquering Carnality

On your way down, somebody shouted, «Conquering Carnality!» I am not sure if I have ever, in my life or in my lifetime, seen a moment where people are so utterly stressed out. They are struggling in their health, struggling with their mental health, struggling in their marriages—marriages are under attack—struggling with emotional disorders, struggling with singleness, struggling with discontentment, struggling to get ahead or at least to get even. And yet, all at the same time, we’ve never had more ministry available to us than we do today. For the most part, we are just one mouse click away from someone’s ministry, from a podcast, from a church service. There was a day when you couldn’t just click on and go to any church around the world, but today, you can pretty much do that. We have never had more church at our fingertips, more books available, more blogs to read, and more Scripture that we could just click on and go through in a daily devotion. There’s stuff all over the place that can help us grow by leaps and bounds in God. Yet, there is a struggle, and I really don’t know if I’ve ever seen it on such a level. You turn on the news, and you see it on people’s faces, and you hear it in their cries. We smile; we still smile, we still sing, we still praise. I saw some of you today praising and pressing through into worship, even though you had to push through pain and tears. We have the ability to tap into a glory because we’re beginning to understand the glory of God, and that it does cost us something. You can just come in here and enter into praise, and that’s free. But if you’re really going to enter into glory, that’s ultimately going to cost you something. But isn’t glory what we want to enter into? Because all of our needs are supplied according to His riches in glory. So if we’re going to have God supply all our needs, then we cannot just tap into praise, and we cannot just happen into worship; we have to tap into His glory. In spite of all that is available to us, people still struggle. When we pray the benediction and turn off the lights, we go into the parking lot, and we drive home, many still struggle. We can have a great time in church, but we go home and struggle with discontentment. We go home and struggle with discouragement and dissatisfaction; we struggle with restlessness within us, and all of that bothers me. I don’t understand how we can be so discontent and yet have so much glory available to us at the same time. I’m just that kid who asks all kinds of crazy questions: How can this be? All of that bothers us, but I want to take the next few moments to delve into it and see if we can come up with a few answers. Prayerfully, I trust that by the time I finish today, the word that is in my mouth and the word that is in this book right here will help those of us who are willing to be honest and say, «Yeah, the struggle does get very real from time to time.» So let me begin by saying this: Whatever you feed, it will flourish. Okay? Can you say this after me: «Whatever I feed will flourish.» Say it again: «Whatever I feed will flourish.» People who constantly rehearse their problems, who continually go over their difficulties, challenges, and situations—people who are always telling you what they don’t like about this job, what they don’t like about this house, what they don’t like about this marriage, and what they don’t like about this church—those people discover that they never get better; they only get worse. Because when you feed negativity with your words, language, and thoughts, it promotes growth and life to those issues. Whatever you speak to is what you’re going to get more of. If you have a child who is always rebellious and always in trouble, and every time you look at them, that’s how you address them—as a rebel or a troublemaker—guess what you’re going to get more of? You’re going to get more of that behavior because that’s what you’re speaking to. And where the focus goes, the power flows. Touch somebody and tell them: Where the focus goes, the power flows. Let me say it like this: How many of you know we live in three dimensions? If you know that, lift up your hand; if you don’t, don’t be embarrassed. But if you know that, lift it up. Okay, so if you don’t know that, then hang on, because you’ll hear all about it today. We live in three dimensions: we live in the spirit realm, and in the spirit realm, we are made alive. «Made alive» doesn’t necessarily mean a quickened state—it means that you are made alive. So, we live in a spiritual realm, and we…