Living In the Supernatural - Stephanie Ike Okafor

[Applause] can we just Praise Jesus in this house I see all the men standing really tall trying to show the women next to them can we also just take a moment to honor pastors Rich DC and the amazing team of food [Applause] I'm so excited to be here uh you know let's let's pray and then you may be seated Heavenly Father we worship you We Adore You Lord Lord as we come before you gathered all together calling on your name we know that you are here we know that you are with us that you hear us and you're going to move in such a special way into Holy Spirit glorify Jesus in this place and have your way like only you can I am only Your Vessel use me as your instrument in Jesus name amen amen you may be seated you know such a blessing to be here I was listening to his testimony and I just love that so much I got married last year and now I'm expecting a baby on our anniversary [Laughter] [Applause] but I want to share with you as we go into today's word a personal testimony I experienced you know when I found out I was pregnant about a couple days after we discovered that there could be some complications in the pregnancy and the first doctor we go we meet and you know we we do some checkups and all of that and the doctor recommends literally termination but here's the interesting thing because as I you know as we Minister one of the things in my walk with God has always been connected to the supernatural so you're gonna get a little bit of it when I preach but the interesting thing is two days prior to finding out I was pregnant I had an encounter with an Angel and in his presence that's when I realized I'm pregnant and I was in my closet I don't know why he chose my closet but that's where he chose to show up I said well God why you're at it could you re-vamp my closet right so I run downstairs and I tell my husband and I'm like I think I'm pregnant and I tell him what just happened so we get a pregnancy test test two days later and it's positive but then afterwards a challenge shows up and I said God will not go through all this trouble to get me a word if this is the narrative I have to listen to I said nah we're gonna keep this baby and get a different doctor [Laughter] [Applause] moment where I was going through excruciating amount of pain excruciating you know my new doctor says look you're going to be fine this just needs to pass it's going to probably take I think it was about five weeks she said it would take and when it started I was on vacation and I was supposed to preach in L.A that Sunday so we're supposed to come back from Maui to LA to preach and I am in excruciating pain I couldn't sleep couldn't do anything I'm literally crying all the time and I was like Lord literally I wanted to call it off I wanted to call my pastor and say I don't think I got it in me but I said let me first ask the Lord and so I was praying and I said God I don't think I have this in me but I need your permission to step back and then the Lord encounters me in a dream and there are many things he shows me but one of the key things he said I am with you I am the god that walks with you in the mountain and I'm the god that walks with you in the valley even when you're going through what seems like a hard time I am with you and he tells me you're going to preach on Sunday and so literally my husband is trying his best to just see how I we can relieve this pain but in pain I was studying in pain I was praying but then here's the interesting thing that happened Sunday morning shows up and I'm like God you're gonna show up I wake up that morning I realize the pain subsided this is only a few days the doctor told me a couple weeks I get up I get ready because now that Saturday night all of a sudden I could sleep and Sunday morning I'm good to go the moment I get into the house of the Lord all the pain went away and here is what I realized in God that the healing I was looking for was in my obedience to the call you see you have to realize that obedience is a pathway for Supernatural realities that your obedience to God is literally a pathway for Supernatural possibilities it wasn't that God healed me as a favor but the healing was trapped in my obedience you see what I love about today and just conference in general is that when you come to Wu Khan you're coming here is the evidence of your hunger I was having a conversation with Dawn Pastor Don prior to today and when we were it was a conversation on Instagram and we were talking about she asked me what are you looking forward to what are you excited about when it comes to conference and I said hunger because when people are hungry their eyes open their ears open you see sometimes you're wondering God I need a word from you God I need to hear from you and God is like if you will be hungry I will feed you and in our lives we get so distracted by the things that we're pursuing but Jesus said something that I loved in the wilderness you see when he was in a state of natural hunger the enemy thought he could deceive him and so he tempted him and said you know what if you are the son of God turn these stones into bread and Jesus looks at him and he's thinking like you think my natural hunger supersedes my spiritual hunger So he responds to him and says man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God [Applause] because when you realize that God your word is life to me without your word I can't go forward when you are hungry for the word of God he feeds you and last night I couldn't sleep I got in literally really late but I was I was just so captivated by the presence of God and what he's going to do in this place and I kept seeing God feeling you up and I kept seeing God giving you fresh words over your life because the word of God reveals you and so I got excited I sat with the Lord and I'm like God what do you have for your people and so I want to tell you something not just for today but the entire conference be expected don't allow the distractions of your life cause you to lose focus of these moments that when you're coming into the presence of God be expected for what God wants to say to you because literally one word from God can radically transform your life and that's what I'm going to be teaching about you see as you're taking notes my message is living in the Supernatural [Music] and we get to do this through obedience I'm so excited oh okay we're going to go into the word of God and we're going to start with First Kings 17 verse 8 to 16. and just to give you a back story before we we dive in here this is a story of the Prophet Elijah and the Prophet Elijah in this time had declared the drought that the entire land is going to suffer a drought which they did for three and a half years now when he declared this drought it was during a time where the people were there were some of the people who were worshiping a god named Bale and Baal was known as the god of the sky right he was believed to be the one to bring rain there were some worship in him there were some worship in the Lord and some were just in between very similar to how we are in culture today you have some people worshiping Jesus you have some people doing other stuff and some people are both and Jesus and some other things that are out there Jesus and New Age practices Jesus and whatever feels like it's gonna meet our needs because we are allowing need and the appetites of the flesh to drive us rather than the discernment of the Holy Spirit that rather than being led by the appetite of My Flesh let me be led by the appetite of the spirit and this was what was happening back here it's not that they did not know the Lord but because they were driven more by need in the flesh they lost discernment and so Elijah literally is about to confront their belief system and he says you know what the skies are going to be shut up because if your God is any powerful this wouldn't happen and he is declaring that Yahweh is God alone so there is a drought and during this trial the Lord supernaturally provides for Elijah the Lord supernaturally provides water and food for him he tells him you I'm not going to go into that part of the story but you got to read the entire First Kings 17. he sends Ravens to feed him now Ravens are very intelligent you know animals and they're excellent Hunters but they don't bring food for people they devour what they catch but you see what I love about this story is that even the animals know their creator that even the animals know how to obey a word from the Lord what more of us and another thing I love about this story with Elijah is that the Lord tells him about a location where he must be and the Ravens will feed him there the Ravens could feed him anywhere but the Lord tells him this is where you would go and the Ravens will feed you there do you know you're there is a there connected to your life in the different seasons of your life but it is the word of God that gives you access to know you're there Vu could be planted anywhere but there was a there the Lord knew that would have a harvest and you see sometimes and this is where the enemy gets us we are pursuing things when things are assigned to you there and so we get so caught up by the appetite of our flesh more money relationship all these things and the Lord says if you locate you're there the things you're looking for will find you you see we just heard a beautiful testimony he didn't come even looking for a wife but there was something the Lord was drawing him to that the Lord even orchestrated where he was sick and as he was there what he didn't realize what his wife was also there this is why you have to hunger for the word because if the Lord can make you sensitive to know you're there everything you're looking for you would realize is looking for you so this happens with Elijah and then all of a sudden the brook dries up the brook that was supplying him water and now we get into the scripture the word of God says then the word of the Lord came to him saying arise go to zeropath which belongs to siddhan and dwell there look at another there oh I love this see I have commanded a widow there to provide for you so he arose and went to zeropath and when he came to the gate of the city indeed a widow was there Gathering sticks somebody say there just say God show me my there oh amen and he called to her and said please bring me a little water in a cup that I may drink and as she was going to get it he called to her and said please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand so she said as the Lord your God Lives I do not have bread only a handful of flaw in a bin and a little oil in a jar and see I am Gathering a couple sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son that we may eat and die and Elijah said to her do not fear go and do as you have said but make me a small cake from it first and bring it to me and afterward make some for yourself and your son for thus says the Lord God of Israel the been a floor shall not be used up he starts going into this beautiful speech basically how she's not gonna have lack supernaturally that she would experience No Lack until it starts to rain again and she did according to the word of Elijah and it happened exactly that way now first of all I want to break down this scripture a little bit the scriptures Yourself by saying then the word of the Lord came to him you see Elijah is clearly a prophet and I need to just clarify a few things here because the office of a prophet is bigger than just prophecy in the Old Testament before we they could experience the indwelling of the Holy Spirit the spirit will just come upon certain people according to their calling so in the Old Testament when we read about prophets there is a primary function for them to declare the word of the Lord so it would seem as though the word of God will come to them more often than the regular individual but then after the sacrifice of Jesus the Holy Spirit was poured out that anyone who would receive the Lord would receive the Holy Spirit he is known as the spirit of Prophecy and I'm saying this because many can use this scripture to manipulate you that in order for God to speak to you you need to go through them that you need a prophet in your life to hear the word of the Lord when literally you have the spirit of Prophecy in you [Applause] and this is why as Believers we cannot get so emotionally overwhelmed in our walk with God because if emotions lead you the voice of God is silent and here is the danger your emotions are the closest thing to mimic the voice of God because your emotions have conviction when you're angry you're really angry have y'all seen that series on Netflix beef I'm like road rage is a serious thing because just being angry you do things outside of yourself because you have a conviction that I must do this and it's dangerous when Christians are moved by emotions because they begin to call emotions the voice of God and if you don't know the nature of God you won't discern between the two because if you have a best friend [Applause] someone cannot lie to you about what they said or did because you know your friend you're like nah that doesn't sound like her that doesn't make any sense if someone said to my friend or my husband man your wife wants to go watch this horror movie he was saying no that's definitely not my wife now if you said Shrek I would believe that she would stay up to watch her some Shrek when you know someone you know their nature you can discern and I'm saying this because it's so critical because we are in the last days and they're going to be deceptionist not just in what looks like deception it's not just what you think it is but deception also comes through people carrying titles in the church [Applause] because you have to recognize when Satan knew that he could not destroy the move of God through the church he recognized the only way to bring destruction is to join it and so that's why the Bible talks about false prophets it's not saying that randomly he's saying their people will come in my name and I never sent them [Applause] and if you don't think that God could speak to you for yourself if you don't think that you could hear the word of God for yourself that you could learn the nature of God for yourself to discern between the two then you will be a casualty of deception and this is important because when reading scriptures like this you might only catch that he was a prophet that the word of God spoke to or the word of God came through not realizing you also carry the spirit of Prophecy and if you Avail yourself to the Lord he will speak to you right so then the scripture continues and says arise and go to zeropath right which belongs to sin and all that good stuff and he says to him see I have commanded a widow to provide for you but nowhere in the Bible do we see God having a conversation with the Widow matter of fact what we just read when the Widow is even asked like hey you know could you prepare some bread for me the Widow said look I know you're a prophet but you're not sin right because clearly I don't have enough food we're literally about to prepare food and die so at one point did God command the Widow and I studied the word command and it literally means to ordain or appoint and then I thought about where have I seen that word and then Jeremiah 1 5 came to me God said to Jeremiah before I formed you I knew you and before you were born I Sanctified you and ordained you a prophet to the Nations then I found myself in Psalms 139 16 and this is what David was saying he said your eyes he's talking about God he said your eyes saw my unformed body all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be and I began to realize when God said I have commanded a widow to feed you this was not a conversation he had with her in real time this was something that was ordained even before she came into existence you see I want you to know there is a you that God is trying to have this version of you meet there is a you that God knows there is a version of you that all your days have been written before him there is a version of you that God appointed and ordained and said I will back up even before you were born there is a call of God on your life and you don't even recognize there was a conversation that happened before you ever got here so when the word of God comes to you it is God put in a mirror in front of you that you may not remember this conversation you may not remember this appointment but before you even got here there were things we agreed about and you see the enemy does not want you to know you because the real you is a threat the real you would not be distracted by things beneath you if you began to realize that God's word to you is not you doing the favor to God is God bringing a mirror in front of you you see Jesus is a perfect example Jesus walked the Earth 30 years he was Undercover he was just acting like a carpenter's son maybe build some chairs and whatnot created some I don't know some things for a funeral can you imagine life at a funeral you have to recognize the Bible literally tells us when Jesus went to his hometown and the people heard about him and the Miracles he did it says they were offended at him why would they be offended because could it be that they're looking at Jesus and they're like you were at my mom's funeral so all this time when we had lack when people around us were dying you want to now show up and say you are the way the truth and the life can you imagine life in itself Undercover provision in the form of a man Undercover because for 30 years he was not allowed to show who he really is and then when the appointed time came Jesus removed the veil and said you might think I'm marriage boy but I'm actually the son of the Living God and I came here with an assignment the only difference between us and Jesus he was so in tune with the father you see Jesus yes he was 100 God but he was also a hundred percent man he did not come in the strength of being a God he came in the form of full Humanity dependence on the spirit of God so he could show us how to do it do you know who you really are because you see let me let me read something and it makes sense to me why we procrastinate because literally when Elijah who is fully aware of the instruction of the Lord the Lord said I have commanded a widow to feed you when Elijah sees this woman he says to her please bring me a little water in a cup that I may drink please you know why we procrastinate because we think the words of God are suggestive we think that we are doing God a favor we think that God is suggesting to us what we should do with our lives Elijah comes to this woman and says please he comes in the form of the only one having a need the first thing he doesn't tell her hey I am the Prophet Elijah and I've been sent by God if you feed me you will have no lack that's not the first thing he says the first thing he says is please may I have some water to drink you see we often procrastinate because we think our obedience to God is about God when in reality there is nothing we can do to add to him or take away from him we think that when God is calling us away from something and to something else it's about being a good Christian for the glory of God and it is for the glory of God but we think it ends there so we take our time God just give me like five more years give me two more years right now because when I when I'm when I was praying for you I could feel who's in the room and there are many right now you've been procrastinating on the word God gave you 've been procrastinating on the instructions God gave you because you're thinking it's more about him and less about you you're thinking you're doing God a favor that God I know you just need me to do this I just need some time I need to wrap some things up I need to focus on X Y and Z but you don't realize that yes God's glory is connected to it but so is your truth that yes God will be glorified but there is also a glory god assigned to you that yes God will be glorified but even the thing you're pursuing if you would listen to the voice of God will pursue you you think it's about it's only about God and it's not about you Elijah says to this woman please and the Holy Spirit is such a gentleman he doesn't Force his way with you so when God speaks to you you feel as though you can sit on it that's why when we enter environments like this all of a sudden the spirit of the Lord begins to remind us of things he said to us five years ago seven years ago six months ago two weeks ago that if we were honest we heard it and we backed away and we're like God I don't think I have what it takes I I know this is what you want me to do but you need to find somebody else you need to look for another person and you don't even realize yes it's about God but it's also about you [Music] that your life didn't start here and it doesn't end here we have to live with an eternal perspective I came from God and I'm gonna continue on this journey with him and where I came from there is something I already signed up for I just forgot and my walk on this Earth is that I may remember and grab hold on to what he held on to me for [Music] the word of God is for you as much as it is for the glory of God it is your mirror it is your reminder the potential to do this already exists in you the ability to do the thing that frightens you is already you already have the capacity and the potential for it and this is the place heaven will back you up you were not called to live a natural mundane life you came from a realm that is Supernatural so everything about who you are is supposed to be Supernatural thank you Jesus and so he first says to her please and in the beginning she doesn't quite understand it but there is still humility in her tone she says as the Lord your God lives she's like I just want to be honest I don't have enough and even what I do have I'm preparing it for me and my son that we may eat and die see the Lord showed me there's some of you and you're literally on the verge of giving up you're literally on the verge of like God I I don't I don't have it in me I don't have what it takes to continue this journey I'm trying and I'm trying and I don't have what it takes you see the Widow was not by herself it was her and her son and sometimes kids can also represent the things that God has called you to birth on the Earth their projects their Visions their ideas that God has given you and you're literally on the verge of saying God I don't know how to sustain me and this I don't know how we're gonna do this and you're on the verge of giving up but here is the beautiful thing that happens even in that place he says and Elijah said to her do not fear and he follows up with it in the next verse for thus says the Lord God of Israel now he begins to communicate to her the word of God you see what I love about this woman is how the word met her this woman was not out there searching for alternative means she wasn't going to a psychic for an appointment to say hey when is the drought gonna be over she wasn't Consulting means outside of God because she feared she you see the Widow already suffered loss she knew what it meant to go through a laws she lost her husband now she's left alone with just her and her son many of you here you've encountered disappointment you've suffered loss to the point that now it feels more like home than Victory should [Music] disappointment is more comfortable for you the idea of being disappointment feels more at home than the idea of having a testimony [Music] so the woman already settled in her mind I lost my husband that's what she says to herself I'm assuming and now she's like she's left alone as a widow and the same death is creeping back in she can't control the circumstances there is a famine in the land what does it feel like when you're just like God I can't control the circumstances but this is what kept me up all night because I could feel the heart of the father for you I could feel the love of God for you and that in God's mercy and in his goodness he is sending a word to you then in that place of disappointment in that place where you no longer had expectation for a testimony in that place of hopelessness God says I am sending a word to you and that word will change everything so the Lord starts by saying do not fear and I want you to receive that right now God I'm not going to be afraid I'm gonna be open to receive what you are saying to me I'm gonna be open to understand who I truly am in you God I'm not gonna fear because you see her obedience there was sacrifice connected to it Elijah did not provide before she fed him so Faith was involved and sometimes Faith feels like your last resort because you've just been met by disappointment over and over again and I'm telling you the voice of God was so clear in this and he says I'm doing a new thing in your life there is a word that is coming to you whether it is coming to you as a fresh word or the reminder of what God already said to you and God said this time if you will take that word and move in obedience that you would experience Supernatural possibilities you see I remember one of the things the Lord said to me to ask you is that do you know the cost of living a lie do you know the cost that every time you want to back away from what God is instructing you to do remind yourself do I recognize the cost of living a lie because anything beneath the word of God to you it's not only a lie it is the path of death that you can be living in just existing not truly tapping in to what God always knew about you and this is what I love about the Lord as I was in prayer for this I want to remind you that in the place of obedience there is Grace there is a Divine empowerment you're not doing this by yourself you see one of the things that fills me up is knowing that the journey that God has called us on are not just shoes that I'm supposed to feel it's a shoe that I feel with him it reveals my dependence on him but there is a supernatural Grace that comes upon your life when you are willing to align when you're willing to commit to what God said about you and again I go back to Jesus because he embodied this so well when Jesus was in the wilderness being tested the Bible literally tells us in the Book of Matthew you see Jesus was fasting for 40 days right no food but then the Bible highlights something so powerful it says that after he fasted for 40 days he was hungry [Music] how do you wait until the 40th Day to then realize you're hungry for some of us just a father fasting I'm all right you get hungry already somebody's like hey you know we should fast tomorrow you just had dinner you say yeah you know I'll go get some pizza let me prepare myself for this fast but Jesus 40 days he did not feel hunger and it was not because it's Jesus it's because of the grace that was backing him up [Music] [Applause] for the time tables and the moments we have no clue what happened in those 40 days we know what happened after but in those 40 days there was something he was obedient to and there was a Grace that he will not get hungry he will not leave the Wilderness before time but he will be he will stay there until what needed to be completed was completed any minister of the Gospel will tell you this that every time we get on the altar there is a Grace that backs you up literally didn't sleep today I went to bed at 6 00 am because I was so caught up in the presence of God and I was just spending time in prayer and then when I realized it was 6 a.m I'm like oh all right I got one hour to sleep and I got a baby but then I realized God you sent me I am not here preaching by myself Heaven backs you up in the place you are called to be and so you might be worried about do you have what it takes and God says when you step into the thing I am with you you would experience a Divine empowerment that upholds you God will give you strategy beyond what you know because you have said yes to you [Music] stand with me [Music] thank you Jesus thank you Lord thank you Lord God is changing stories in this place God is changing stories in this place have your way God thank you Lord thank you Lord [Music] if you don't mind just to for a moment just to close your eyes and silence every noise every internal noise [Music] see the Lord speaking to you I see the Lord bringing things back to your memory [Music] I see where he is emphasizing on that word do not fear [Music] and I just sense his love in this building you see the word of God says perfect love casts out fear and that the one who fears has not been perfected by love what is that telling us that you're not afraid because there's something to be afraid of that's just the narrative we give ourselves but we're really afraid because we don't know if God is going to hold us up we question his love towards us maybe because of the things you've experienced not recognizing that every decision God makes what he allows some things are not his perfect will there's some things that he allows but at the end of the day he will cause it all to work for your God and so when we fear it is the evidence that we have allowed the enemy to cause us to question if God is really backing us up God are you really going to be with me if I walked away from this toxic relationship is there anyone there for me God if I move to this city are you really gonna be with me God you've been showing me a there but I don't know anyone there God do you really have a tribe for me that exists there but I want you to hold on to this that when the word of God comes to you it is your mirror God is showing you the you that has always existed that this version of you needs to catch up to thank you Jesus that is why the Bible says on Earth as it is in heaven In Heaven There is a book written about you that Revelation came to David he said even before you soar my my before you saw my you know when you saw my unformed body rather all my days were written before you so essentially before I was born my life was already a testament before you this is also why when you go all the way back to Genesis [Music] I always pay attention to what God looks at [Music] when the Bible talks about what the eyes of the Lord was on or when Jesus is walking the earth I love to pay attention to the things he focuses on and in Genesis we see one of the first moments of what the eyes of God was on and it was when the Lord brought the animals to Adam and the Bible says to see what he would name them and then after Adam finished his name in The Animals the Bible says and whatever Adam called them was its name was its name their names already existed and now God creates the man in his own image after his own alikeness and he puts it to the test does he really think like he should be thinking does he think like us does he see things like us because any good Creator would test what they created so after he creates the man he says let's just make sure this is not a dummy project right so he brings animals to him to see if he will call them according to what their names are already called [Music] Who You Are the real you has already been written and God is just put in a mirror in front of you just about my glory but it's about the revealing of you so we're gonna pray but I want to take this moment and maybe if you can get closer to the altar that you will just raise your hand up wherever you are but if you're making that commitment that you're saying God I'm no longer running I saw this wrong I thought it was just because you were up there and you just needed somebody to do this not realizing this is all so connected to me you've let fear you you've let anxiety your movements but God is speaking to you right now and you're saying you know what Lord here I am I say yes to you take advantage of the hunger and feed yourself what's necessary and I tell you in the place of obedience what you're looking for is looking for you so if you want to get close to the altar you can do that if you want to stay in your seats you can do that whatever you want to do if you want to just lift up your hand you can do that but I want to just give you an opportunity to make room for yourself and God however you see fit thank you Jesus we're gonna pray if you don't mind just close your eyes Heavenly Father we love you God And We Worship You In This Place and Lord we are committing our lives in our ways before you that as you are releasing words to us throughout this conference that Lord we are going to run with it we're no longer going to back away in fear and anxiety but we're going to be full of faith and move in obedience in the direction that you have called us to so Lord we thank you I thank you for your sons and daughters in this place I thank you Lord because you know each and every one of them by name and you have seen the totality of their lives and so God we thank you have your way in this place have your way in this place have your way in this place the Lord just I need to do one thing when I talked about there are some of you literally on the verge of quitting this conference felt like your final hope [Music] and you have been contemplating ending your life because you felt like that is the only thing that has been consistent lost and death and I can't shake this off and there's only one thing that the holy spirit is telling me to have you do [Music] and that and and before you do this I'm going to explain why because wherever you are in the room that you will shout Jesus and this is why because rather than using your words to confess death rather than using your words to confess the end of a thing you will speak forth the name of life [Music] and just like so many testimonies are going to come out of this conference you were going to see the Lord radically shift your life and so the lights are down you don't have to worry about who's next to you who's in front of you you see I would always choose Freedom over validation [Music] to in this [Music] who is your savior and who has already purposed to lift you out of this pit and so wherever you are I'm gonna count down from three and I want you with everything in you because you're gonna make a mockery of the enemy and and say you thought you could have my mind but Jesus has my life so we're gonna count down and I want you to shout his name and as loud as you can three two one amen amen amen

Channel: Stephanie Ike Okafor

Views: 224,972

Keywords: Stephanie Ike Okafor, Stephanie Ike, Sarah Jakes Roberts, Woman Evolve, Supernatural, Living in the Supernatural, VousCon, Toure Roberts, One Church LA

Id: su0M9y2r0zw

Length: 59min 10sec (3550 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 19 2023