Depression : The Silent Killer : What’s on Your Mind with Kakra Baiden

0:00 going to be um insightful. It's going to be um sorry. Wonderful. I don't even know how I'm speaking. Thank you so much. I would like you to invite somebody and tell the person that we are live on Instagram. Just let them know that we are live on Instagram. Yeah. So waiting just waiting for a few bit more people to join us and then I will be beginning today's session. All right, are you there? Can you hear me?

0:50 Hello, can you hear me? ready to go.

1:41 Thank you so much for joining me everybody. And um for those on YouTube, you're welcome. I just want to check whether um my staff are ready for us to go. So Priscilla, let me know if um you are ready. Just you can respond and tell me you are ready and then we'll start. If you can hear me on YouTube, please just write that I can hear you. And if it's clear, let me know that it's clear. I'm just checking the sound and everything before we start. If you can hear me, let me know.

2:35 We are live on YouTube. We are live on Instagram. And um thank you so much Nana Kouansa. Thank you so much for letting me know that you can hear me very clearly. Ice Begdan, thank you so much. Eddie Mukai, God bless you. Thank you so much for joining me today. Shall we pray? Father in heaven, I want to thank you so much for today. Thank you for making it possible for us to come before you. I pray that today's discussion uh will be instructive. I pray that it will be a blessing to everyone who's watching and listening from around the world. I pray for your grace to be with us. May we not be the same again. Amen.

3:22 Uh thank you so much for joining me and today I would like us to talk about depression. And um before we talk about depression, I would like to just make a few remarks and talk about what the Bible says about depression and how we can deal with depression. And after that, you can also come in with your uh questions and then we can interact. So uh first of all, I would like to say um what is depression? It's a persistent feeling of three things, of sadness resulting in hopelessness, loss of interest, and loss of pleasure. I'll say it again, a persistent feeling of sadness resulting in number one, hopelessness, number two, loss of

4:08 interest, and number three, loss of pleasure. You know, I think that sometimes even when you are depressed, you yourself, you're not even aware that you are depressed. Why? Because you don't even know the symptoms. But I believe that these three symptoms that I just mentioned are very important. Um you know let me give you my own personal example. You know some some years back I used to live and pastor in Kumasi. I was there for about um 14 years pastoring and then I I was pastoring this church from scratch. started a church, church grew. We had branches, everything. Then the church grew to thousands and I

4:55 really poured myself into this church and then after after some time after 40 years of course my spiritual father bishop died he said I should leave Kumasi and come to Ara. So I had to leave everything. My wife left her practice. I left my friends my children left their school. I left the church. I left all the social networks I had built. My wife had a hospital already. She had to leave the hospital. And then uh we came to Ara. And when I came to Ara, I did not know that for some time I was depressed. Why? Because I didn't even know what the patient looks like. But what I can say is that uh these

5:41 symptoms that I just mentioned uh two of them could apply to me. I didn't feel hopeless. No. But I told you the uh depression is a persistent feeling of sadness resulting in hopelessness, loss of interest and loss of pleasure. But two of them apply to me. And the Bible says that by the word of two or three witnesses, every word shall be established. So if two applied to me, then it means that it applied to me. And I didn't even know. And how did I know? Because number one, I had I had lost interest. I had lost not I had not lost complete interest in the ministry but I had lost a certain level of interest in the sense

6:29 that I said to myself now I just want to pastor I don't even want to pastor and I don't even want um to build a church building and I don't want to put in so much um energy and all those things And I had lost a certain level of interest in the ministry without knowing. I just felt that oh maybe it's just one of those things and and the the my second symptom was a loss of pleasure. You know sometimes there are things that give you great pleasure and when you are doing things that give you great pleasure you have um you have energy to be able to do it. It's like you are in a relationship with somebody

7:14 and you love the person. you realize that you have energy to um continue the relationship because it gives you pleasure. But once uh you don't love the person again, you lose that pleasure. So unknowingly, I'd also lost a certain level of pleasure. And I was just there. And I didn't even know that that meant that maybe not full-blown depression, but maybe um a little bit of it. I didn't know that's why it was until I was asleep one day in the middle of the night and then u somebody woke me up in the middle of the night and when I woke up do you know who it was? It was Jesus. Jesus was standing by my bedside and uh he told me my son do you know

8:00 that you are going through a bout of depression? I said really I didn't know that. And he said to me, "Your loss of interest and your loss of pleasure means that you are actually dabbling with that." And he said to me that I am going to use you mightily. You are going to build a mighty church. Great things are going to happen. I'm going to pay for the church. I'm going to bring in people. Your ministry is going to be larger. That's why I brought you here. You're going to see great signs and wonders. He spoke to me and when he spoke to me, do you know what happened immediately? My interest came up again. My pleasure came back. My

8:45 energy came back. He went on to build a mega church. That the auditorium alone could hold 5,000 people and the church grew to thousands. It did very well. So I realize that when it comes to depression of course people experience this in different degrees. There are some that is very severe and there are some is not that severe that whatever it is you may be going through and hopelessness a loss of interest and a loss of pleasure is one of them and I want to just read a scripture. I want to just quote a scripture concerning each of them. I said it's a persistent feeling of sadness resulting in hopelessness.

9:31 If you remember in first Thessalon Thessalonians somebody died and Paul wrote to the church of Thessalonica. He said, "I will not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you s not even as others which and Paul realized that the church was getting depressed and he said you can sorrow but don't let your sorrow be persistent and don't let your sorrow result in hopelessness." And sometime when we on one's parents uh people we love mothers brothers it can lead to that. The second one I said loss of interest and I want to also

10:19 quote a scripture concerning that you know when Israel was taken into captivity by the Babylonians uh in Psalm 137 the Bible records part of the journey and what happened when they got to Babylon and this what happened and they they they put them in in in in in two cities one was called go and one was called Halam And these were rivers and they put them there and they were captives. And in Psalm 157:1 they said by the rivers of Babylon there we sat down we wept when we remembered Zion. They were they were depressed. Then in verse two they said, "For there they that carried us away captive

11:06 required of us a song, and they that wasted us required of us or happiness." And we said, "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" So you see, they used to sing, you know, they used to worship, but now they had lost interest. So they said, "How can we sing the Lord's song in a string?" So when you lose interest even in your business, in your relationship, in Christianity, you may actually be dealing with depression. And the the question we want to answer today is how can you deal with it? How can you deal with depression? I do want to offer a few biblical um

11:55 solutions to depression. Number one is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, you know, one one of the rules for the Holy Spirit is that he comforts us. Sometimes you get into trouble. Sometimes you have problems and no one can comfort you. Only the Holy Spirit can comfort you because there's nothing physical that can comfort you. So in John 14:26, Jesus knew that when he died, his disciples will need comfort. And he recommended the Holy Spirit. That's what he said. He said, "But the comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all

12:42 things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." So Jesus said the Holy Spirit was going to come and he called him the comforter and he said that when he came he would do two things. He will teach them and he will remind them of his words. So what it means is that when we are depressed one thing we can do is that we can pray to the Lord and remind him of this promise that he's going to send a comforter. That's the Holy Spirit. And when he comes, he's going to give us a particular word that will that will heal the depression, that will bring back joy, that will bring back interest. So he says he will teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance. So

13:28 it's not just maybe that's why sometimes even when you are sad or depressed, you read your Bible, you hear a sermon, but you're not affected. Why? because the Holy Spirit himself has to teach you and bring to your remembrance a particular word that will help to break the depression over your life. So it's important that when we are feeling depressed, let's pray for the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Now Isaiah 61:3 the Bible says he will give us beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning and the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness. When you look at it, it talks about the fact that he's going to affect the three areas of man. It says he'll

14:15 give you beauty for ashes. In other words, physically even our countenance will change because sometime when you see somebody who's not happy, you can tell from his face. But when this Holy Spirit comes and begins to minister to you, he said even your face or your countenance will change. Then he says the oil of joy for morning, joy talks about your emotions. It comes from your emotions. So he's also going to affect our emotions and in the midst of great difficulties and stress, you'll still be joyful for no reason because the joy is coming from within your spirit. Then finally he says he will give give us the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Then he talks about our spirit that there if there's a spirit of

15:01 heaviness and that's an evil spirit that can come upon you that can make you depressed and uh what the holy spirit will do is that he will drive out that spirit of heaviness and instead of that his presence will be with you and you'll be filled with praises. So the Holy Spirit is important. That's the first thing I want to say. The second thing I want to say is that if you want to briefly on prepression, we need the word of God. We need the word of God in two forms. We need the written word of God and we need a spoken word of God.

16:03 When we say logos, we are talking about a collection of words, which means a lot of words have been put together. That's logos. That's why we call the Bible logos. It's a collection of words from different prophets, different people. That's the real meaning of logos. is the collection and arrangement of words. That's the real meaning in Greek. Now when we say remma, remma is a specific portion of the collection of words that is spoken to you. That's the difference. So one is like a general collection of words and the rema is where a specific portion of that collection is taken and given to you. That's when we say you

16:49 have a rema and a rema uh also found in God's word. So you're going to have a rema that's outside God's word. So if when it comes to the written word of God, let's say you are reading your Bible to break the power of depression, the Lord will have to give you a rumor. He will have to take a se a a a portion of his word and reveal something unique to you. And that is what will take away the depression. So not every sermon will work. It's the one that the Holy Spirit selects out of God's written word and shows it to you and that will break the power of depression. So even when we are reading our Bibles, let's always pray and you're feeling depressed that Holy Spirit will just lead me to a word within your word, a

17:37 rumor within the Lord that will change everything. In Jeremiah chapter 20:9, in Jeremiah chapter 20, the high priest, he beat Jeremiah and he locked him in a dungeon as a prison in in in the court of the king's palace. And uh when he beat Jeremiah, Jeremiah was depressed and he was in the tunnel because he didn't know why he was being beaten as a preacher. And this is what he said in Jeremiah 20:9. He said, "Then I said, I'll not make mention of him nor speak anymore in his name." But then he said, "His word was in my heart as a burning fire and I could not stay." So he said that the thing that revived him

18:24 and broke the power of depression because he lost interest in preaching, he lost the pleasure of preaching and he felt that preaching was hopeless. But whilst he was in the prison, God's word started acting within his spirit. God gave him a rumor and he said that look he said now he could not stay because now the word of God was revealed to him and it's very true even in the most trying times you know a little scripture that jumps out of the pages of God's word can break the power of depression so God's word is important now apart from reading the scriptures we also have the Holy Spirit himself self speaking directly to you and that's ex

19:11 exclusively the spoken word of God. I give you an example. Um Abraham, you know, he had been believing God for a child for 25 years. When the promise came, he was 75. Now he was 100 and no child. And the Bible says in Genesis 15:1, it says, "After these things, the Lord appeared to Abraham in a vision and said, "Fear not, Abraham. I'm your shield and exceeding great reward." You know, it's like you go to church and people are giving prophecies. You're going to have a breakthrough and all those things. Now, Abraham was depressed. He didn't wasn't interested in more words. So in verse two, he said to the Lord frankly, he said, "What will

19:57 you give me seeing I seeing I go childless and the steward of my house is this Eliza of Damascus?" So he told God, "Listen, this exceeding great reward, shield, whatever, I'm not interested. It's a child I'm looking for, not a silly great reward." He was very frank. And what did God do? Well, God decided to speak to him. So in verse 5 the Bible says that God it says and he brought him forth abroad. So God said let's go for a walk. So he took him outside and God said look now towards the heaven and tell the stars if thou be able to number them. And he said so shall your seat be. He showed him the stars. He gave him a vision and then the power of depression

20:44 was broken. I want you to know that in the most trying times where you are depressed and you are down, one of the things that can really rescue you is a vision, a dream, a revelation or some supernatural communication from God. That's crucial. If you don't have that thing, I tell you as a Christian, you will not survive big hits. You need that to survive very big hits. And it applied to everybody. Take Jesus for example in the garden of Gethsemane where he had to go and die on the cross. In Luke 22:43 the Bible says there appeared angels from heaven

21:31 strengthening him. There was something supernatural that happened. So what we have to do is that we have to pray that God will speak to us in a superal way. Personally, it has happened to me many times in my life where I've met I've been in trouble or I've seen things which are very difficult. But as I've prayed, the thing that has always rescued me is not that God sent money or God sent whatever. No, it's always a supernatural visitation. Recently I started a church again and uh we started this church in town and I told my church members that we're going to have buy a land of millions of

22:17 dollars and build but the question is where is this money going to come from you know but as I kept confessing one night I was sleep and then this angel walks into my room and he wakes me up and he says that do you know you're a very powerful man of God as I don't know And he says to me, "Look, all you need to do is to declare that you have the land and you have the building and it shall come to pass." I said, "Really? Is that possible?" He said, "Yes, just do that." So I stood in the middle of the room and I made a declaration. Within 4 hours, the land in the center of the city had appeared from nowhere after the angel came. When the angel came, he gave me great faith, great faith and great

23:03 excitement. Although before that I I I really didn't have answers but I believed it. So really let's pray that God will send us a word and one word from God I tell you will break the power of depression. Things may not have changed but the word was still destroyed. In in in Hebrews 11:27, the Bible says about Moses. It says, "By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible." So it says that the reason why Moses was able to go through all those difficulties was that he saw the invisible and that's very important. Now

23:49 let me go to my third point. The third point to combat depression really is company. You need social support. company very important you know even Jesus uh needed human support and God himself when he created man you know what he said in Genesis 2:18 he said it is not good for a man to be alone I'll make him an help made for him at that time God and Adam were in the garden but God said it's still not enough he said Adam needs another human being to be with him otherwise he will be alone because Adam is not God he's a human being. So God said I'm going to bring another human

24:34 being to keep him company and take away loneliness. What this tells you is that even if God is sitting by you he you still need another human being and that's that's God's design that we need company. So when we are going through depression you need a corner. You know in boxing when two boxers are fighting every boxer has a corner. In the corner of the boxer are two people the coach and the catman. The job of the coach is to encourage you edge you on and give you strategies and tactics to win the boxing bout. The job of the catman is to attend to

25:21 your wounds. Maybe your eyes swollen, maybe your cheek is cut, you will dress it, you will do everything. Now you need these two people in your corner to go through 15 rounds of boxing. Same with life. Life is a war. It's a fight. Remember what Paul said. He said in 1 Corinthians 9:26 he says so fight eye not as one that beats the earth. So he said life is like boxing. That's how describe life and in boxing sometimes look you can receive hefty blows and you can be depressed. That's why you need people in your corner real people. Now not everybody can be in your corner. So you

26:06 can you should make sure that you know the people who are in your corner because sometimes there are some people you think they in your corner but they not when trouble comes you find them anymore they will be gone. So just make sure that you have real people. So the Bible says even when Jesus was dying you know I find this thing very important. It says in John 19:25, it said there stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother and his mother's sister. Can you imagine? And Mary, the wife of Sha, and he says, "And Mary Magdalene, there were four women who was standing in Jesus's corner to keep him company and give him comfort while he was on the

26:52 cross in his most difficult time. All the apostles had run away. And two of the women were his relatives, family members. The Bible says that a brother is born for adversity. You know, there's something about family members. Doesn't matter what happens, they always stand with you. I mean of course not all family members will stand with you but generally speaking family members have a tendency of standing with you because they are not there because of the mission. They are not there because of the job. They are not there because of what we are doing. They are there because of you. So to come out of depression you need people who will also strengthen you.

27:38 That's why you need a strong corner. That's why I said company people in your company. In Philippians 2:1 the Bible says if there be any consolation in Christ any comfort of love any fellowship of the spirit any bowels of mercies fulfill you my joy that you be like minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind. Then verse three says, "Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but by aloneeness of mind, lest each esteem other better than themselves." Then verse four says, "Look not every man on your own things, but every man also on the things of others." Here Paul starts by talking about if if there is any consol

28:25 consolation in Christ, any comfort of love, any bowels of mercies, bounds of mercy means empathy, people who can feel what you are feeling. And he said that this consolation, this empathy is going to come from people, people in your corner. Then he says the people in your corner, he said they they will not look after their own things, they will also look after the things of others. So you need a strong corner. You need a strong social support to be able to go through the pressure. That's why you don't have to cut yourself off. You must develop solid friendships, good friendships, quality friendships and most of the time quality friendships not everybody can it's not to sometimes

29:10 people mistaken uh people who are not quality friends for friends you know but there are real quality friends who will stand with you and those are the people we're talking about in your corner and you need them to be able to go through depression because they have to they have to encourage you even the great uh apostle Paul he needed people to encourage him when he was depressed In 2 Corinthians 7:5 it says even when we Macedonia it says that I not have you to heal brethren of our trouble which came to us. He said but God who comforted us comforted comfort them that are cast down comforted us by the coming of Titus. So he spoke about the fact that when Titus came he came to just help him. Number four I want to talk about

29:58 prayer. Prayer is important. Why? Because prayer makes you spiritual. And one thing that spirituality does is that it elevates you about the flesh. When you are not spiritual, you you operate in the flesh. And when you operate in the flesh, that is when you feel pain and bitterness and anger because you are not in the spirit. But when you are in the spirit, what happens is that your spirit dominates your flesh. And that's where prayer comes in. So prayer even emotionally it strengthens you because you are not thinking through your emotions. You are thinking through your spirit. You are acting through your spirit.

30:43 In James 5:3 the Bible says, "Is any amongst you afflicted? Is anybody going through a terrible time?" Maybe it's divorce, maybe it's your job, maybe it's money, maybe it's your kids. He says, "Let him pray." Because prayer will strengthen you and comfort you. That's why you must pray. You know, I like what Jesus said to Peter. Jesus knew that Peter was going to betray him and he knew that Peter was going to go through a moment of trial and struggles. And in Luke 22:31, he said to Peter, "Simon, Simon, Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith fail not. And

31:30 when you are converted, strengthen your brethren." He said, "I'm praying for you that your faith will not fail, that you'll be able to survive." So sometimes um the prayer is that your faith will not fail. It's like somebody who's in intensive care. We are not trying to give him ice cream. We not trying to give him steak to eat. All that we want to do is that we want to keep his heart beating cuz as long as there is a beep on the mon p there is hope. We know it's going to come back. So uh sometimes all the Holy Spirit has to do is that he has to keep your heart of faith beating. And as long as your faith is beaten, you will come back. There will be spiritual life by all means. And that's what prayer does.

32:16 It it takes you through difficult times. Number five is perspective. The word perspective means how you see things. Now how you see things will determine whether you are depressed or not. And it all depends on your viewpoint. You know for example if on the ground a huge building looks very big but if we're in a plane that same building looks like a toy. The reason is that you have changed your perspective. With one you on the ground looking at the building with with the other you are in the sky looking at the building. It's the same building but whether it's big or small depends on the angle at which you are looking at the building and that's very important. So sometimes I realize that people are depressed

33:01 because of the angle at which they are looking at the problem. Let's say somebody broke your heart and the person left. You can look at it from this angle that I cannot love anybody again. This is the end of my life. Nobody's going to come again. I'll never be happy again. It's one perspective. But there's also another perspective where you can see from other angle that there are so many men in this world, not only in my church, all around the world. There are millions of unmarried men. This is not the only one. There may even be a proper person out there who is waiting for me. and I'm believing God and uh if this were the right relationship, it would have worked. The fact that it didn't work means that God has something better for me. You know, it's the same problem,

33:47 but we looking at it from different perspectives and your perspective will determine whether you are depressed or not. Very important. You know sometimes even people have maybe an immigration problem and they are deported and they have this feeling that as I'm deported I've come back to my home country it means I cannot do anything again my whole life is destroyed that's your perspective but there's another perspective as I've departed and I've come to my home country now even I'm going to do better because if God didn't want to bring me here he would not have brought me here but here is my home tiff I know more people are more connected. I understand the terrain better. I've learned new things. I'm going to apply them. I'm going to make it. God be my

34:33 helper. So, this is another perspective. Same problem, deportation, but different perspectives. And it's very important if to have a positive perspective if you're going to break out of depression. And you have to select your perspective. It's very important. So in Philippians 4:8 the Bible says in verse 6 vers4 it says be anxious for nothing or be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. Then uh verse 8 gives one of the things that you can do to take away this anxiety and worry. It says, "Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good

35:19 report, if there be any virtue, is there any good thing about it, if there be any praise, if there any praiseworthy thing about this problem that you have that you lost a house or you lost a business, is there something good about it?" He said, "Think on these things." In other words, we have to control our minds. Your mind is like a movie player. Select the right movies to play. You can select the wrong movies to play but we can select the right movies to play. And he said that select the good things about the situation and think about it and it will help you to come down out of depression. The second thing I want to talk about is um faith. Faith you know faith is the most potent force

36:07 known to mankind. When I say faith I mean faith in God. One of the things that sends people into depression is that they believe that there is no way out. There are no answers. Nothing will change. The situation is frozen. Their case is hopeless. And it can be summed up in one thing, a lack of faith. You know, with God all things are possible. With God all things are possible. So when you have faith in God, the Bible says that by faith, Abraham, Hebrews 11:8, when he was called out to go into a place which

36:52 he should after receive inheritance, obeyed, and he went out not knowing where he was going. It looked like helpful situation, but he didn't know where he was going, but the Bible says faith kept him going. Faith is very important. If you depend on your own strength, you depend on your own mind and your own resources, there are many problems that you will face that your strength and your resources and your network cannot support. And then the next thing you the next thing that will happen is that you'll be depressed. But what you have to do is that you've got to have faith in God. Why? Because with God all things are possible. I remember a woman in my church who was

37:38 owing over $100,000 and they were selling her house. She came to see me. She was sad. She was depressed. Said, "Prophet, what am I going to do?" And I said, "Look, we have faith." And our faith is that Romans 8:32 says, "He that sped not his own son but gave him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" So I said, "Let's pray." We prayed on Sunday. On Monday, she met a perfect stranger. On Tuesday, the stranger said, "Come to my house." And the stranger wrote a check and something thousands, gave it to her, said, "Take it and go and pay." She went to the bank and she paid the money. She She felt it. She even felt it was a fake check. It cleared.

38:24 And then she paid off her house in an instant. She did special clearing. She couldn't believe it. She went back to the stranger to go and find out from the stranger uh what the payment terms were and the stranger said it is free. It is free. You know it was a helpless situ a hopeless situation but faith in God turned it around. And when I say faith in God I want to say one thing. Don't work out your own formula. Don't be like Neon who said I thought he will come out and stand and call upon his God and strike his hand over the place and recover the leprosy. When we have faith in God, it is God who chooses what happens. We don't choose what happens. Our job is to believe. As God will do it, it's up to him. It's up

39:13 to him. Finally, let me talk about patience. You know, even when it is raining, it is raining. When you have patience, the rain will stop. Life is in seasons. In John 8:22, the Bible says, "As long as heaven and earth will means sea time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease." So, as for life, it's in seasons. And sometimes all you need to do is you don't need to do anything. Just wait and the season will change. That's all. The Bible says that

39:58 weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning. So sometimes in the in the most difficult times when you are depressed, prayer is not required of you. Fasting is not required of you. All that is required of you is patience. Abraham was 75 when God promised him a child. He gave birth at 100. 25 years passed. Within that 25 years where he and Sarah were going through sometime they were going through BS of depression. Prayer was not required. Fasting was not required. What was required was patience. The Bible says that in Hebrews chapter 6 vers it says that you you you be not

40:46 slaughterful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Hebrews 6:15 it says after he had patiently endured he obtained the promise. So sometimes we we we are depressed because we have our own alarm clock and we feel that by this time I should have a million dollars. By this time I should have bought my house. By this time I should have done this. By this time I should have done that. It's true. God respects that. But also remember that sometimes God has his own allow his own time. And sometimes you are running on God's time not on your time. And uh you think that he's wasting time, but he's not. He's sorting out everything so that when he moves,

41:32 everything will work out for your good. We know that all things work together for good to them that love God. So take um um um Job for example. When Job lost all his money in the Bible, do you know what took him through? Patience. Patience. Be patient. Your husband is coming. Your child is coming. Your house is coming. Your car is coming. Your documents are coming. Be patient. At the right time, in the fullness of time, God will move. The Bible says in James 35:10, it say, "Take my brethren the prophets who have spoken the name of the Lord for an example of suffering, affliction, and of patience." They went through difficulties, but also remember

42:18 that patience was the key. Then it says in verse 11, you have heard of the patience of Job and I've seen the end of the Lord that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. You know now when I look back at many things I mean I remember when I was a kid one of the thing that used to worry me was whether I can buy a car. I don't know why that thing used to worry me but it used to worry me as early as 12 years old. I used to think about when I'm going to buy my car and I was worried whether I could buy my a car like my father had cars you know but I didn't need to worry why it's just a matter of time I'll have cars now I have cars parked right now I can go downstairs use different cars so that it can be leaving for days I've not driven them all I

43:04 needed was patience that's all just time to pass and the cars will come I didn't need to worry so I just want to remind you that let's trust in God Let's be patient and uh once we have that knowledge it will help to drive away depression. God bless you. Thank you for listening. I think that we can now go into a time of um interaction. I don't know whether my um my uh my staff are ready but I'm ready for you. So you have a question you can write it. you have a question, you can write it and post it and uh it will be read and then I will uh I will respond to it. So,

43:51 I'm waiting for your questions. I'm waiting for your submissions. Uh we're talking about depression. Hello, Priscilla Co. Can you hear me? They've all gone silent. Right. Somebody said, "I had two interviews this week and all were unsuccessful, but dear God, I'll be patient. So help me, Lord." Yep, I think so. Jill, I think so. Be patient and God will do it. Somebody said stimula says that what if the depression is clinical

44:38 and the person's on medications very simple you know I've I've ministered to people who are on medications and I've laid hands on them and pray for them and they have been healed I remember once I came to the stage to preach and there was this guy who had been on medicines for 12 years taking medications I laid hands on him and I prayed and from that day that was it never took medications again he became a normal person. So what I want to say to you is that clinical issues cannot stop the power of God. But I'm not saying that because of the power of God, don't take your medicine. God is not afraid of medicine. But you can take it, but the power of God can break through and you don't need those medications again. Somebody said, "God bless you." MG says, "Please, my question is, can we pray to

45:24 the Holy Spirit?" Can we pray to the Holy Spirit? Ah, the YouTube is frozen. Really, Pa? Maybe it's your YouTube. I wonder if it is really frozen because I don't see that it's frozen here. Somebody said, um, can we pray to the Holy Spirit? I would say that by divine protocol, we pray to God through the name of the Lord Jesus. But if we pray through the Holy Spirit, although we are not following divine protocol, I don't think God does not understand what we are trying to say. He understand what we are trying to say and um he will listen to the prayer because remember God even knows the thoughts of

46:11 your heart. Joseph says, "How do you deal with your state of depression when you don't have the support system? You can't even find the strength to pray." Well, if you don't have the sport system, I think you can you can start to develop one. You can start to develop one. You can approach people and um you can begin to speak to them. And once you open up, you know, once you open up, they will some God will touch people's hearts. They'll also open up to you and they will begin to support you. But sometimes we are so secretive. So nobody knows our issues. That's why there's nobody to support us. But once we open up, I believe that God himself will bring people to support us. And also, if you can't even find the

46:57 strength to pray, you can ask others to pray for you. You know, one, one thing we forget is that even Paul, the great apostle, he he came into situations where he he couldn't pray because he was discouraged. In 2 Corinthians 18, he said, "I not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning the trouble which came to us in Asia." He said we were pressed out of me measure above strength in so much that we despared even of life. Then he said we had a sentence of death in ourselves that we not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead. Then he said in verse 11 you also praying for us. So the great Paul you know he became so depressed but he said others supported him in prayer. That's why it's good to go to church. That's why it's good to uh join small groups in the

47:44 church so that if you have an issue, you can share with some of them and they can pray with you and help you because sometimes generally speaking, you find it difficult to pray but others can pray for you. Jill says, "I was there by the spirit to apply for two jobs this week." Okay, this one I think I've read it. And uh somebody said uh Nana says how do I distinguish between patience for a new job and delay in getting it and how do I work around the delay during the waiting time? Good question. I believe that um if you're looking for a job, keep on looking for the job. That's all. Just keep on. First one didn't work, keep on looking for the another one, second job because I don't think patience means not doing anything. Patience means doing

48:31 something but still waiting upon God to come through for you. So I don't think it's a recipe for idloness. Still do what you have to do but still be patient. Be quiet because impatience can let you take decisions that are not scriptural. Impatience can let you uh do things even lead you into sin. But patience will help you to be obedient to God's word. And um somebody said, "What do you suggest I should do when you lost everything including your shop and your money?" Well, I want to tell you that it's a very difficult situation to be in to lose everything. But that's why we have testimonies in

49:17 the Bible, testimonies. And these testimonies are stories about people who also lost everything. And when we read these testimonies, they're supposed to encourage us. Like Job in the Bible, he lost everything. But in Job 42:2, the Bible says, "The Lord blessed the latter end of Jew more than his beginning." So what I want to say is that you may lose everything, but don't lose hope. You'll be surprised that when you when you start again, the speed at which you see when you lose something, most of the time you think that it's going to take you the same number of years and the same amount of effort to get to where you were. So, for example, I just started a new church. The church just 8 months old, but has over a,000 members. It has land. It has a serious

50:04 construction project. Things are going on just eight months. But my first church that I pastoed, it took me about 10 years to get to that level. So sometimes you are thinking that it's going to take the same time and the same effort. But God can fast forward the time, give you more grace, give you more anointing. And what you used to do in 10 years, you do it in one year because the grace of God is stronger upon your life. So don't think that uh the same thing is going to repeat itself. Something greater will happen. Someone said, "I have a baby and I'm struggling with accommodation and job. My boss closed my contract last week even though I traveled 250 kilome away from my family to start this new job. I am in a dark place." I agree with you.

50:50 That's a dark place. But in 2 Timothy 1:16, the Bible says, "You have a more sure word of prophecy. Where onto you do well that you take you take heed as unto a light that shines in a dark place." Second 2 second Peter 1 verse 19 it says you have a more sure word of prophecy God's word he said where unto you do well that you take as unto a light that shines in the dark place until they done until the until the situation changes and now you see great light. So sometimes we are in dark places but the Bible says that let's hang on to God's word and his promises and he will take us step by step and

51:38 whilst we are following him before you realize the darkness is gone and day has come again. So don't lose hope. Look at God's word. Don't look at the circumstance. Don't look at the situation. Focus on God's word and it will help you to move out of that dark place. Now somebody said, "How do you preach through depression? How do you preach through depression?" Well, I guess that's a pastor. Well, you know, there's something about a preacher. As a preacher, you are preaching in season and out of season. It doesn't matter whether you are depressed, you are happy, you are not happy, when it's time to preach, you get up and you preach. And the reason why you do that is that you don't follow your emotions, you follow your spirit. Romans 8:14 says, as

52:27 many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God. So at the end of the day, don't just follow our emotions. Let's follow our spirits because the emotions are not spiritual. There's a spirit that is spiritual. So let's press on regardless of how we feel. Let's press on based on God's word, not based on our emotions. And that can help you to preach through depression. Somebody said, Stmler says, "My story started from 2020. I've lost everything. If you can pray for me specifically, I'll be happy. I know the power of God is always available to heal his children." That's true. Let's pray. Father, in Jesus name, I pray for your children. I pray for miracles. I pray for divine turnaround. I pray for signs

53:13 and wonders. I pray that you bless them. I pray for those who are in a dark place. Those who are in chains, those who are depressed, those who feel disappointed, those who feel they lost everything. I pray that you put strength in their hearts. Strengthen them in the inner man. Send them a word. Encourage them. give them supernatural strength to fight back and to rise out of the situation in Jesus mighty name. Amen. Evelyn says, "What do you do when your faith goes down?" Well, when your faith goes down, focus on God's word. Focus on God's word. Read the word. Romans 10:17,

53:59 faith cometh. How does it come? By hearing. Hearing what? Secular music. No, the word of God. So if you keep on you know reading God's word and soaking God's word it's really very difficult for you to be to be depressed really because God's word will just come and you know ginger you up and wake you up. Why? Because it's like wine and pray prayer too. Pray cuz prayer also is like wine. The Bible says that Ephesians 5:18 be not drunk with wine wherein is excess but be filled with the spirit. So as we we people pro people drink because they want to forget their problems. But the word of God and prayer has the same effect. When you when you go into it and when you go into prayer you go into

54:44 God's word it has the effect of wine. You may have a problem may not even notice that the problem is there because of God's word. Joshua says that uh what pical steps would you recommend in developing and growing in patience? Well, you know, there are many things in the Bible. You read about it, but you actually but you only learn about them practically by going through it. That's why in 1 Peter 1:7, the Bible says, "The trial of your faith is more precious than gold." So faith is mental, but then it has to be tried in real life. And when there's a stride in real life and uh let's say God comes to deliver you after you have waited for a while then you learn patience. So the next time you

55:31 meet something similar you said oh I know this I lost my job I believed in God he came back even gave me a greater one. So now that I've lost it again I know that my God is good. He will do it again. So one way to really develop patience is that look you you have to there have to be practicals I'll say practicals somebody said that how does one wait on God at night do you see God with all your heart says how do you see God with all your heart well thou shall love the Lord thy God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind just what Jesus said this is Matthew 22:36

56:19 and uh when we say the love of God it is not an emotion it's obedience John 14:15 it says if you love me keep my commandments so the love of God is not an emotion it's obeying God's word so when it says you shall love the god with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind it means that with your whole spirit or heart obey God with your mind obey God with your soul Obey God. That's giving everything to the Lord. I mean, obeying his word. Don says, "Does God really make all things beautiful in his time or does he also wait on your faith?" I think God makes all things beautiful in his time, not your time. You know uh most of the time when we are

57:04 looking for something want God to do something for us whatever we are looking for we look at it in isolation. So let's say you're looking for a husband or you know that you're looking for a husband but there are certain things you are not you may not know or you have not thought of. For example, the mother-in-law that you have, maybe the guy is nice, but the mother-in-law will give you problems. For example, the kind of diseases that are in the family. Maybe the mother-in-law is nice, but if you marry this person, maybe the kind of diseases that you're going to have every time you're going to be in the hospital or something is going to go wrong. Maybe 10 years die on the line, he's

57:51 going to lose his job and he may never work again. Maybe something happened, the person will die early. So there are many things that you don't know. But for God, he puts everything together before he moves. So Proverbs 10:22 says, "The blessing of the Lord, it make us rich and added no sorrow to it." In other words, he takes everything into consideration. That's why it's good to wait upon the Lord. Very important. I can tell you, I've been a Christian for 30 something years. And when I look back, I realize that you may think that God is delaying, you may think that you're making the right choice. But when you wait on God and God finally makes a decision, you'll come to a conclusion that God was right and you were wrong. But it's only experience that's going to

58:37 teach you that only experience. Somebody said, "How are you as a man of God able to preach words of hope to someone going through depression when you are facing the same faith?" Well, as a man of God, remember that we are preaching the word of God in faith. Romans 1:17, it says, "The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. The fact that we are preaching does not mean that we have even experienced it." We ourselves, we are believing God. Someone may be preaching about financial prosperity by him hasn't prospered but God's word is not determined by your experience. God's word is determined by God's word himself. So we cannot preach something just because we have experienced it. We have to preach something because that is God and that

59:23 is his word. So we have to we have to preach independently of how we think or how we feel because God is God and we are men. Somebody says that how does one break a negative cycle that's been present for years and it's overcome me. I think you need deliverance. Sometimes you need somebody to pray with you and also to you can confess. The Bible says confess your faults one to another. Pray one for another that you may be healed. when when you confess to somebody that you can really confess to and confide to, it helps you to be able to overcome the problem. And also to number three, I'll say counseling. Sometimes you need to

1:00:09 open up and let somebody counsel you and help you and assist you out of your problem. God bless you. I think the questions are many, but next Wednesday I'll be back again. You can bring in more questions on YouTube, on Instagram, and uh we are going to interact one more time. Every Wednesday we are here. Thank you so much for joining me. Next Wednesday, 700 p.m. GMT, I'll be back. It's going to be an awesome time in the presence of God. And I hope to see you. And when you are coming, don't come alone. Invite somebody. Remember 700 p.m. GMT every Wednesday. Uh I'm on YouTube. I'm on Instagram. So I'd like to see you again. And next next Wednesday we're going to have a totally new topic. I'll post it on Instagram. I'll post on

1:00:56 YouTube as well. I'll show it on YouTube as well. So then get ready. It's going to be a wonderful time. But before we close, I would like to pray. Id like to pray for all those who are going through depression. I've prayed for people who who were on medication and depressed and I've seen God heal them. One day a man traveled all the way from South America. Never been to Ghana before. He was watching me on YouTube. He was suffering from uh sleeplessness and depression. He flew all the way to come to Ghana for prayer. I laid hands on him. And uh the next night he returned and went back to his country. And I said, "What great faith." So I want to pray with you that God is going to be with you. And for everybody who's going through a

1:01:42 difficult time, I pray that the Holy Spirit will comfort you. The Holy Spirit will open a door for you. The Holy Spirit will assist you and help you to come out of that difficulty. May also have mercy on you. Shall we pray? Father, in Jesus name, I want to thank you so much for today. I thank you for all those who joined us today. I commit them into your hands. I pray for those who are going through difficult times. They in the valley of despair. Holy Spirit, I pray for the oil of joy. I pray for the garments of praise. I pray for the wine of the spirit. I pray for the peace of God which passes all understanding to keep their hearts and their minds through Christ Jesus. I pray for wisdom. Show them what to do. Give them steps practically how to come out out of the situation. I pray Lord for

1:02:28 grace. May they be assisted. May they be help marvelously by the Holy Spirit, by angels and by your mighty hand. Let there be miracles. Let there be signs and wonders. Bless them and keep them. May they never lack. I pray let them come with testimonies. I pray for those who are even on medication. I break the power of medication. I come up against those who are being harassed by evil spirits. I rebuke every evil spirit. I rebuke the spirit of depression by the power of the name of Jesus. I pour upon you the oil of joy. Receive the joy of the Holy Spirit. begin to operate normally. I pray for those who are facing a setback. I pray that you'll be assisted by the

1:03:14 wind of the spirit. May the hand of God, the mighty hand of God lift you up. That which took you 5 years, may you do it in a year. That which took you 10 years, may you do it in a single year because of the grace of God which is upon you. May the Lord send people to help you. May the Lord open your eyes and show you a well even in dry places. Thank you for hearing our prayer. Lord have mercy on us in Jesus mighty name. Amen. Thank you so much for joining me. God bless you. Next week, Wednesday, we'll be back again YouTube and Instagram. I have a different topic with you. There will be more questions. Today I couldn't see my my moderators. I didn't know I didn't know where they passed, but uh it's been an awesome time. God bless you. I will see you again and have a wonderful time

1:04:00 and bye-bye. Good night.