Changing Your World Podcast with Creflo Dollar

The most dangerous thing about self-deception is that when we ' re operating in it, we do n ' t even know that we ' re being deceived. Failing to be true to what we believe is right causes us to rationalize and make excuses. Deceiving ourselves causes a disturbance in us that we can ' t reconcile, because deep down inside, we know exactly what we should do. Fooling ourselves in this manner results...

Feeling like we ' re inadequate causes us to focus solely on ourselves instead of on God, and brings us into self-effort to try to improve ourselves. We ' re delivered from this emotion through our belief in Jesus Christ and our dependence on Him. The world has plenty of "solutions" for the negative emotions associated with condemnation, but trusting in and relying on Jesus is the only permanent o...

Change is necessary for growth, and if we 've been born again , our own lives should demonstrate transformation. Others should be able to look at us and notice some type of difference or alternate route taken as a result of our Christian walk . Yielding to the Holy Spirit's prompting and begin ning to think in line with Him begins changing our lives radically. Letting God direct and guide us as we...

When we get born again, we receive a new nature and become as perfect and flawless in God's eyes as Jesus, Himself. God sees everyone who has accepted Christ as completely righteous. However, we 'll still continue falling short and committing sinful acts while on our Christian journey. The difference between the old and the new is that God no longer holds our sins against us because our old, sinfu...

The coming year will be a pivotal point for Christians. The changes it will bring will include a split within the church in which people fall away from the faith and their love will grow cold. There will be plenty of slander, conflict, and offense, and people will compromise their values; however, we 'l l recover from that. On a global level, governments will team up and become allies in preparati...

God wants to empower us. Specifically, He wants us to be able to break free from addictions, cravings, and lasciviousness. Submitting to a change in identity—from who the world tells us we are to who Christ says we are—delivers us from addictive behavior. Seeing ourselves the way God sees us through Jesus changes our thinking, which subsequently changes what we do. Looking to Christ is the only wa...

Being conscious of our sins is not the way God wants us to live. By contrast, being aware of how God sees us in Christ—innocent and free—lets us focus on our righteousness. We are forgiven because Jesus has dealt with our sin. We are not what we do; bad behavior does not separate a person from God, but rather the sinful nature of a person before they get born again. Living under the law always cre...

What we focus on dramatically impacts the quality of our lives. An awareness of sin, and the shame and guilt it brings, comes from the knowledge of the law. It causes believers to see themselves as unworthy and condemned because of their failures, and makes them think they must work to get into heaven. By comparison, being aware that we are innocent comes from knowing that Jesus has redeemed us an...

The devil is always actively working to destroy us. One of the ways he makes inroads in our lives is by getting us to be more aware of our sins and shortcomings instead of our righteousness. God sees born-again believers as innocent and acquitted of all accusations the enemy has made against us. We must therefore be more conscious of what Jesus has done for us under grace than sin, and the shame a...

An awareness of sin is Satan's number one weapon to keep believers stagnant and paralyzed in one place. His strategy is to constantly remind us of our mistakes so that he can control us through guilt and shame. This spiritual paralysis is not a good place to be because being conscious of sin keeps us from receiving the liberty that Jesus gave us. The battle started in the garden of Eden when Adam...

Deceiving ourselves comes with serious consequences. Telling ourselves a lie so often that we eventually believe it blinds us to the truth by producing a false view of our circumstances. Personally, it damages relationships and stunts our personal growth; in leadership, it leads to poor decision-making because leaders may overlook problems or crucial feedback. Failing to deal with self-deception k...

Deceiving ourselves trips us up on our spiritual walk. When we deceive ourselves, we are blind to the assumptions we make and think we are right when we are actually wrong. Much of this is delivered through the pulpit; wrong doctrine deceives us so that we do not see the truth of God's love and grace. Our success in life hinges on knowing our true identity as His righteous children. God wants to s...

God has great plans for our lives, but those plans are blocked when we deceive ourselves. Deceiving ourselves makes us spiritually blind to the truth of a situation; this is something God wants to deliver us from. Self-deception springs from the fall of man in the garden of Eden, and our sinful nature that resulted from it. The devil works through this and tries to convince us that our identity is...

The most dangerous thing about self-deception is that when we are operating in it, we do not even know that we are being deceived. Failing to be true to what we believe is right causes us to rationalize and make excuses. Being true to our sense of what the right thing is relieves us from having to explain our actions; if we are false to our belief, then our excuses make the wrong thing that we are...

To experience God's best, it is important not to live in deception. This especially applies to us because believing the wrong thing causes us to deceive ourselves. Operating too long in deception can harden our hearts and lead us to believe a lie. We are all susceptible to this; God therefore wants to work with us to help us stop fooling ourselves. Letting Him guide us in this area keeps our spiri...

One thing we can count on as Christians is that we will encounter trouble and tribulation. There is no escaping this; however, in the midst of the suffering, we must learn to depend on God as the one who brings us through it all. This helps us to navigate through all the stress that life throws at us. The very nature of His grace demands dependence on Him; grace from God, and our faith in Him, mus...

When we pray, we demonstrate our trust and reliance on God. Praying with the right motives does not involve loud wailing and constant repetition to impress others; it is our way of having a private conversation with Him. Prayer reminds us to always acknowledge God's involvement in everything concerning our lives, and that we cannot live apart from Him. It requires our acknowledgement that we are h...

As God's children, our heavenly Father has made a commitment to take care of us. This extends not just to our finances, but to every other area of our lives as well. When we have a need, we do not have to strive or toil to take care of it ourselves; we can simply respond to God's promise to handle it. This gives us peace and assurance that we can depend and rely on Him for everything. Trusting in...

We are in a spiritual battle with Satan. In this fight, our enemy always concentrates his attacks on our thoughts. Whatever happens in our minds translates into our lives; therefore, how we think determines whether we win or lose in life. Wearing God's Word like armor to protect us is the key to winning in spiritual warfare; it does not involve fighting to win, but standing firm in the victory Jes...

Believers are in a spiritual battle with Satan, who is constantly attacking our minds. Our thoughts determine the course of our lives; we therefore must be aware of what we think. The devil wants to disrupt our lives with suggestions that contradict God's Word; God warns us to be vigilant of his attacks. Our mentality makes the difference between success or failure; this is where the fight takes p...

The devil is constantly lying to us. Although he is a defeated foe, he continues to come up with strategies to make us think otherwise. The weapons he uses to kill and destroy us and to get us to accept defeat are deception, distraction, discouragement, and suggestion. Religion is the area he prefers to focus on; specifically, he wants to keep us following the Law of Moses. We fight back and win b...

Believers are under constant attack from the devil. Although Jesus has already defeated the enemy through His finished works, Satan continues to focus his attacks on our minds in an attempt to convince us that those works have not been finished. He uses fear and intimidation, with the intent of introducing doubt as to whether God's promises will come to pass for us. Our thoughts carry great power;...

To get a clearer picture of God, we need to understand His unearned, undeserved favor toward us. His grace goes far beyond simply forgiving our sins; it is His way of dealing with those who receive Christ. Grace provides assurance, stability, and direction in the lives of believers. It is not something reserved for when we eventually get to heaven; it immediately begins working in our daily lives...

Believers have received the gift of righteousness and salvation from God. Just like any gift we receive, this was something we did not have to earn; it was given to us when we believed in Jesus Christ. It is permanent, and came because of our faith in what He did, not because of anything we do. In light of this, we must be careful not to be confused by any doctrine that says otherwise. We were ins...