Discover Who You Are In This Season

A Living Testimony of Discovery

• In January, Pastor Demond made a decision: "God, I'm going to see everything You have for me in 2026." Being open to discover ALL God has for 2026 and beyond.
• "God has changed my life in 8 months."
• God said: "I always had it for you. I just need you to expect it."
• The discovery: in 2017, two days after burying the man he called father for over 40 years, his mother told him that man was not his biological father. He gave it to God and kept doing ministry. In January 2026, right after the fast, an Ancestry match surfaced. He discovered a biological father he never knew (still alive, living across the street from his old elementary school) and four biological sisters, one in his own neighborhood. His biological father attended the church anniversary this year.
• Health testimony: the doctors three weeks ago: "I don't know what you did, but your numbers all turned around."
• "I changed my mindset, and when I changed my mindset, things began to happen."
• Don't park in the past. "Some of you are still parked in high school." Don't get comfortable being saved. Keep the "what's next?" mentality.

Growth Is Intentional: Grace Upon Grace

• Growth is not automatic; it is intentional. You cannot just make a vision board. You have to put work in and be intentional with God.
• Spiritual growth is a commandment, not a suggestion. Peter does not say "grow if you feel like it." He says CONTINUE to grow.
• We are commanded to grow spiritually, and we do so by growing in grace.

• Out of His fullness: the superabundance of His grace and truth. Grace upon grace. Spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing. Favor upon favor. Gift upon gift!
• The BMW testimony: God said it was time to get a car. A 2017 BMW, mint condition, 24,600 miles, $35,000. "I ran out because I felt like I stole the car. I was looking for the police. But I'm in my season of favor."

Stand on the Word of God

• Not just confessing the Word. Not just reading the Word. Not just knowing the Word.
• The Word must be the foundation of everything: your final authority, your rock, your firm foundation in all that you do.
• Pastor Cynthia's line that rings in his ears: "I don't have a Plan B!"
• The test: are you really standing on the Word, or are you standing on your emotions? When things happen (good, bad, ugly), is the Word the first place you go?

• Be strong in the Lord and in the power of HIS might, not your own.
• Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand. Say: "I AM ABLE!"
• Above all: the shield of faith. The helmet of salvation. The sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. Praying always.
• Say: "I've got the POWER," and it is the power of the Word.

• Do not get weary in well doing. Do not faint. Do not give up on God. Do not give up on the Word.
• In due season we shall reap. "This is my reaping season."

Be OPEN for the MORE

• This is the season: I must be open for more. Do not get comfortable. Whatever God wants to do, be OPEN FOR MORE.
• Open for more in your ministry. In your walk with God. For your family. With your health.

• Sometimes, for men, what robs us is our victories. Not just the bad; the good too. You think you did something.
• Why does the writer say PRESS? Because your past (good or bad) is always trying to hold you back.
• Being comfortable with your past will keep you from moving forward to the will of God in this season. Being comfortable keeps you from moving forward.
• The new-shoes principle: new shoes are not comfortable at first, but the more you wear them, the more comfortable you get. God wants you to get comfortable with the new, and once you do, He will lead you to the next new.

• "I did not know I needed my biological family. I did not know. But the Holy Spirit knew, and He knew WHEN I needed it."
• There are things you do not even know you need until you are open for discovery and for something more. The Holy Spirit knows what you need.
• In ministry you are doing so much for so many other people. You check on everybody; who checks on you? God knows what YOU need.
• What is your story? And are you blocking it? God has SO MUCH MORE for you. It might be God restoring your relationship with your father, your mother, or your kids. Are you open for it?
• Make the decision: the latter part of my years will be my best years.

HOPE AGAIN!

• You must look forward to something. Hope means to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence. Hope gives you a desire for what is about to happen. Get excited.
• Don't become religious. Don't become passive. Many have become so comfortable that they don't hope anymore and don't believe anymore.
• Don't let money cause you to stop believing. You know what your paycheck can do. But what can God do? What can you believe God for? What are you HOPING for in this season?
• When he had nothing (free lunch, government cheese in the brown box), he had hope. He has "flown in faith." Prosperity can quietly kill hope; guard it.
• PUSH FORWARD.

• There is a hope anchored in my soul. It cannot slip. It cannot break down. It was stepped on, but it still stands.

• Joy and peace IN BELIEVING. Abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
• "The Holy Spirit IGNITES my hope!"
• Rick's phrase: "The excitement that comes from HOPE and the serenity that comes from PEACE."

• Your heart will be sick if you are not hoping anymore. Pastor Demond: "I need you not to be sick anymore." Get your hope back. Hope again!
• God does not have grandkids. Your children are God's kids. Stop stressing. Get your hope back about your children. When you let God be in their lives, God can do what He wants to do in their lives.
• His testimony: he released his daughter to God her second semester; she made the dean's list. "When I stepped into my position, she stepped into hers."

• We have to go FROM HOPE TO FAITH. If you have no hope, you will never get to the faith stage. Faith is the substance of things HOPED for; faith needs hope to attach to.
• Get your desire up. Get your hope up. Build it. Meditate on it. (He sat in cars at the dealership, imagined the rims and the tint: building desire before attaching faith.)
• You have to become it on the inside before you can become it on the outside. You will never get the manifestation on the outside until you hope and believe on the inside.
• This is our season. This is our time.

Apostle Tony: Hope, Keys, and the Extremes of God

• "I don't want a Word life with no manifestation. I don't want a prayer life with no manifestation. I don't want a Christian life without manifestation."
• Men are under crazy pressure, especially financial pressure, and we pretend instead of using the tools in our toolbox. Stop pretending; use the tools. One of the greatest tools is hope. Partner that hope with your faith and it produces.
• The gauge: joy and peace IN your believing. "Peace: nothing missing, nothing lacking, on the inside first. Then nothing will be missing on the outside."
• The pool story: his daughter hoped for a pool; he did not, so nothing happened. When he finally started building the dream (an amazing pool house), the Lord said: "Son, you're believing Me for a pool house. I'm trying to give you a water park." God always keeps stretching you beyond where you are.

• What the Lord told him: "I want to do things in your life that are not incremental. If I do it incremental, people will think you did it. I want to do something so extreme that when it is done, people say it's only God."
• "He says to me all the time: the V doesn't have billionaires." God is pushing us far beyond where we are.
• The keys principle: those dreams are locked inside all of us, and God puts the key in somebody else. You cannot unlock it yourself, because God does not want you doing life by yourself. That is why honor matters, and why we need one another.
• "There are a lot of men who did not show up. When you show up, God has an opportunity to open doors and unlock things in you."
• "The world is waiting for what God put in me. Let's do something with the dreams God put in us."

Key Quotes

Themes

Nuggets

• Don't park in high school. That mirror is deceiving.
• New shoes hurt first, then fit. So does the new season.
• Your paycheck can cap your prayers if you let it.
• Free-lunch seasons produce hope; comfortable seasons kill it. Guard your hope in prosperity.
• Build the desire first (sit in the car, smell it, picture the rims), then attach faith to it.
• Release your kids to God: He has no grandkids.
• Show up. The key to your next season is in the room.

How This Applies to Us

• Make the January decision today. Tell God: "I want to see everything You have for me in 2026 and beyond," and expect it.
• Put the Word first, not your emotions. When anything happens (good, bad, ugly), open the Word before you open your mouth. No Plan B.
• Run the comfort audit. Name the place you have gotten comfortable (ministry, health, family, walk with God) and do one uncomfortable new thing this week.
• Ask the Holy Spirit what you need. He knew Pastor Demond needed a family he did not know existed. Pray: "Show me what I don't know I need."
• Rebuild your hope list. Write down what you are believing God for that your paycheck cannot buy. Meditate on it until the desire is real, then attach faith.
• Release your children to God. He has no grandkids. Step into your position and let them step into theirs.
• Say the declarations out loud. "I AM IN MY SEASON OF FAVOR." "I AM ABLE." "I'VE GOT THE POWER." "The rest of my days will be the best of my days."
• Keep showing up with men. Somebody in the room has the key God assigned to your next season.