Mike Todd’s Introduction

·       Mike has to walk us to the word of the year this year

·       I noticed that my oldest daughter needs help receiving the level of gift that she is getting
·       She doesn’t know how much things cost, how Mike had to fight with people or go to the store within
the pandemic – due to not having a value attached to her gift, she can’t appreciate it
·       If there’s not an understanding of what it is, how much it cost, you can treat it without the value that
it has
·       Children can treat expensive toys the same way as a dollar tree toy, we have to say, things like “we
don’t leave this outside because…” – “you have to put some value on this because it’s worth more”.
·       Many of us are treating God’s visions as cheap suggestions
·       We cannot allow what God told us to be put up as a suggestion, but to value it as something
that is going to happen that requires commitment regardless of who cosigns
·       You can miss what God is trying to do if you look at God’s word as an Instagram inspirational quote
·       When you bring value to vision, then it changes the way you treat it
·       At TC, Mike didn’t have innate abilities to do a lot of stuff – but the one thing he has done from the
beginning is to mark down what God said, that’s why today is called, Mark My Words
 
Message Title: Mark My Words
 
Even though Mike wouldn’t know details, God would tell him to “mark my words”. God said, “I put
that on me” (like how we say, “I put it on everything”).
 
What are the things God has shown you? What are the visions He has given you for your marriage,
family, and business?
 
What has He said, not what are you hoping, but what He said that you wrote down or shared with
someone.
 
When looking at Moses, he went to the top of the mountain and got with God who gave Moses the
Ten Commandments and Moses marked His words down. Thousands of years later, people are
learning those commandments because someone marked His words.
 
The spoken word lives only for a moment but when you write it down, it lives forever.

Did you mark down what God said or are you trying to protect God’s reputation? God never needed
you to defend Him.
 
The pattern of marking God’s word happens through praying, listening, receiving, and believing.
 
That’s why we do 21 days of prayer at the beginning of the year. To make space to hear from God.
 
God I need you to move in my mind because my mind is all over the place. God is not offended by
what you say. He is big enough to handle anything you say. No matter how it comes.
 
You have to hear God’s heart. He understand the moan, groan, utterance, and sounds. You have to
go to him first in prayer.
 
Then you have to hear. Hearing is just awareness. God wants us to be aware, but then actually listen.
When you listen, you intentionally focus. 21 days of prayer and fasting give you the ability not just to
hear God but to listen to Him.
 
What is the still small voice God is speaking in? You then go from hearing, listening, to receiving.
 
Every year, we have to receive vision. Without vision, people do dumb stuff.
 
Without vision, you are not your best self.
 
Nobody has ever tripped up onto championships.
 
Nobody has ever accidentally had a great marriage.
 
It’s vision.
 
You have to also believe it, not just receive it. 
 
God is always speaking, but will you mark His words?
 
Additive: you can only mark God’s words by faith, not facts. God never gives a word to you that is
already accomplished. If your marriage is jacked up and He says your marriage will help others, mark
his words. If you don’t have money but He says you’ll be giving away money next year, mark His
words by faith.
 
God is trying to give you a receipt today for something that will arrive in a later season.
 
It’s not until we mark God’s words that we get to see everything that God is saying.
 
We’re about to celebrate 6 years at TC. As a young pastor, Mike hated finance meetings. We would
have finance meetings with no money.
 
The person over finances at the time is now under all business. In the meeting, God would tell Mike
to “say something dumb, like mark my words, one day we’re going to be able to give to other
churches, there’ll be white people at our church”, etc. He would say stuff out loud, and it was almost
like God said, “He believes me – look at them, he actually believes me. Is he actually writing it down,
sharing it with people, and putting seed for what is going to happen? We have to do it. We have to
make sure the word said in the dark comes to fruition.”
 
When you mark the words that God says, it may not come when you think, or how you think, but you
can mark His words when He gives you a vision.
 
It’s our routine to hear what God is saying. Many of you are having a false start because you never
got clearance or vision from God. Until you get it from God, it’s in vain.
 
Vision without God is in vain.
 
When you get a vision from God, then you can run with it.
 
We will need to come to a place where we value vision so much that we ignore “good ideas” and
wait for “God ideas”.
 
Vision is more important than anything in your life and more important than anything in this church.
It’s important to God.
 
Take this very simple scripture, remember it and tattoo it on your heart.
 
Proverbs 29:18
18 Where there is no vision, the people perish
 
Whatever area is dying in your life is a result of no vision.
You relationship keeps dying, your business keeps flailing? There is no vision from God. Another
translation says, the people cast of restraint. You can go ‘this way or that way’, ‘start this business’ –
that’s because when there is no vision, you stop caring. The result you’re living in is partly because
you have no vision – no prophetic word from God. Nothing where you can say, “I don’t know about
all this, but God told me this.”
 
What is the one thing that you know that God told you to do?
 
If you don’t know anything, it’s not because God is not speaking, but because you haven’t made time
to listen.
 

1. Vision is Most Valuable 

 
Vision is more valuable than money, your marriage, your business – because without vision for the
money, the business, the marriage, they will perish. Even some of your friendships are jacked up
because you have no vision for your friendships. You talk about being depressed and lonely but
won’t get a vision. You’re overweight because you don’t have a vision for health. Until you make it
valuable, you will always continue to wander and let “what happens, happen.”
 
Some of you are so traumatized, and you post about trauma, and talk about mental health but won’t
get a vision for counseling for your mental health. You may spend hundreds on a gift like a
PlayStation for a man, but not on your own mental health.
 
Furthermore, Vision is valuable whether you believe in God or not. Vision is a principle of the Earth.
 
Vision takes man to the moon. Someone had to sit in their room and God dropped a vision. Vision
makes an airplane be built in a bicycle shop. Vision makes a man take off from the free throw line. It
was something he saw before it was seen. Vision makes you build a car with no motor. That came
from somebody’s vision before it was never seen. Vision makes a man build an ark when it’s never
rained. Vision makes you put your baby in a basket when they’re killing every baby two and under
and vision will allow you to still be able to raise him. Vision makes you leave your successful fishing
business and follow a man that claims to be the Christ. Vision will make you sit in a room at 7:30 in
the morning and write down the outlandish things God tells you and mark the date in your
daughter’s room. Vision will give you the audacity to climb up on a cross and die for people who
may not even receive you. For the joy set before him – “Father, please forgive them”, because they
didn’t see the vision.
 
The problem with many of us is that vision isn’t that valuable to you. You see the next thing that’s a
trend. God doesn’t operate like that. He will give you a glimpse and expect you to stand and stay
with that.
 
Something can be valuable, but still not be your value. Your value is the priority you set on it. It’s the
difference between worth and thinking it’s worthy of your time and effort.
 
As we walk on this journey, we’re not trying to raise milk fed Christians who just need their week to
be a little better – but people who come hell or high water, if they shut it down, if they tell me I can’t,
and know that it is worth whatever God told me to do.
 

2. Vision Must be a Value

 
Health is valuable, but it’s not everyone’s value. What’s valuable does not equal your value.
 
In 2021, let’s make vision your value.
 
Have vision for your family, wife, husband, children, singleness, finances, and future. Declare that you
will have vision for these things.    
 

3. Vision is Always Vertical

 
Friends don’t bring vision. You can never get a vision horizontally.
 
Vision has to be vertical. Vision comes from God. God is the source of my vision.  Your vision has to
come from God.
 
If a vision doesn’t come from God it is void.
 
Colossians 1:16 New International Version (NIV)
16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether
thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.
 
Vision always comes from God. Even the most inanimate object is supposed to give God glory. Wash
cloths, bees buzzing. Everything in the heaven and Earth was created from God.
 
God has no lack of vision, he has a lack of vessels.
 
It’s been created in heaven and He’s waiting for a place on Earth for it to come to pass.
 
All you need to do is get in His presence – not a motivational speaker.
 

4. Vision is God’s Investment

 
It is God’s investment from heaven. “I can trust Bree with that.”
 
Nobody invests without expecting to see a return on their investment. God is looking for people in
2021.
 
You’ve never heard the best song, seen the best graphic, your favorite movie is still to come. God is
weighed down with vision waiting to invest it.
 
Are you a good investment? Can God give you a glimpse and are you willing to believe when
nobody else does, to sow into it, to pray for it?
 
We are good investments. If you want to give vision through the Earth, “God you can do it through
me”.
 
“You’re a weak investment” when you come up with excuses. Why can’t you? How can the kingdom
of God advance if we won’t release it to the world and represent to the whole world? Be a good
investment. The next Amazon is watching right now. The next idea – the cure – is in you, if you were
available, to let God give you vision.
 
All marriages can be healed through a tip God gives through your marriage. He’ll give it to you in
prayer but you wouldn’t even write it down or share it.
 
He gives heavenly investments and can’t find people who would actually watch over them to be
demonstrated in the Earth.
 
God uses people to do things on Earth.
 
Many times when God can’t faith, He looks at the church, says “you’re not ready”, then He goes
outside of the kingdom to people who have the audacity to believe. You have the audacity to say,
“Pray with me to see if God maybe had kinda said.” Don’t you talk to Him?
 
Stop cowering in the face of what we see.
 
 God told Mike that this would be the greatest year of the church. Mike doesn’t look at sight, he looks
at vision.
 
Close your eyes,
·       Where do you live next year?
·       Where is your family? Are they saved, healed, denouncing old lifestyles?
·       Where do you see your ability to bless others, 6 weeks from now?
o   God doesn’t need a long time to resurrect – He can find faith
o   Luke 18:8 New International Version (NIV)
§  8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son
of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
 

5. Vision Needs a Vehicle 

 
God is trying to ask you, will you be the place I can sit to make this thing happen.
 
What kind of vehicle would you be? Post what kind of vehicle you would be, and before you post the
Ferrari, recognized hat some of us are Hoopties when it comes to Gods vision. We break down at
every obstacle, we don’t want anyone to see us in public, we don’t want anyone to ride with us, and
we don’t put enough oil on it.
 
At the start of 2021, you get a chance to choose something different. Bring value to vision today so
that you can choose different and be the Ferrari.
 
Vision always needs a vehicle, and when you get the vision of God, Habakkuk 2:2 NKJV comes into
play.
 
We value vision most here. If you start valuing the vision of God, there’s no limit to what God wants
to do.
 
Habakkuk 2:2 New King James Version (NKJV)
The Just Live by Faith
2 Then the Lord answered me and said:
“Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it.
 
It didn’t say write the suggestion, or the opinion – but the vision and make it plain on tablets.
 
Some of you are a product of receiving a YouTube link because the vision God gave Mike had
enough faith behind it to be written down – then God backed it on the Earth.
 
Write it down because it came from God (vertical). You don’t have to make it happen. You have to
work with God to make it happen through you.
 
The self-help, grind, make it happen, self-will etc. are fruitless and causing burnout because it’s by
God’s spirit that it will happen. You need to look at what Jesus says because it is not by might.
 
When you allow the spirit of God to give you a vision and stay consistent, then you can mark God’s
words.
 

6. God Gives Vision in the Valley 

 
God doesn’t give vision on mountaintops, but in valleys. God gave “representing God to the lost and
found for transformation in Christ” when nobody was coming to the church.
 
When God gave Mike that vision, they didn’t know who was going to stay or go. There was nothing
in the church.
 
God never gives vision in the spotlight. He gives vision in the valleys.
 
This is the perfect time for you to shut everything down and get quiet with God. Take this 21 days or,
even 3 or 4 days and allow God to give you vision in the valley.
 
When He gives you something when you’re low, He can take credit for it when you’re high.
 
If you listen, He’ll give you vision, He’ll turn tests into testimony, and take your setback and set you
up.  
 

7. Vision Must Be Visible & Vision Must Be Vocal 

 
Why are you so scared that what God told you will actually come to pass?
 
If God said it, then believe it, and say it. If it doesn’t happen, you can point back to Him. “I guess He
had a different plan, but I believe Him.” If it didn’t happen how you thought it was going to happen,
it is still for your good.
 
We should praise Him for what He didn’t do for what would have happened if he allowed it. I dare
you to praise God for what He didn’t allow to work out, that your feelings hurt, but it was for your
good. I dare you to tell your husband where you both will be next year.  
 

8. Vision Makes You Vulnerable 

 
When Mike said we’d be multicultural, multi-generational, etc. he felt vulnerable.
 
Imagine how Noah must have felt telling his wife he’d be spending the next couple of decades, and I
need everyone to help me. Imagine how vulnerable Abraham had to have been to say, “Hey Sarah,
God gave me a vision, and said look up into the stars and number them if you can, that’s how many
descendants you will have…so you will get pregnant.” If you don’t feel a little vulnerable with the
vision, it might be invalid.
 
For you to say, “my marriage is going to succeed and I am going to enjoy being in this home” might
have you feeling a little vulnerable. To say, “me and my mother’s relationship will be healed” may
make you vulnerable.
 
Even though you’re vulnerable, be vocal. God dares you to believe it and say it.
 
In 2016, Mike was scared to say something, but said it anyway. “I close my eyes and see this
auditorium of 10 thousand people…” “I see what He’s shown me”…”If you could open your eyes of
faith”…”I am standing in a place that I did not have sight for, but God gave me vision for”.
 
If you don’t get anything else, understand how important your vision is because God gives vision in
the valley. In 2016, that was Mike’s valley.
 

9. Vision is God’s View 

 
Illustration: When it comes to your career, we only see a portion of what God wants to do. When God
allows you to get a vision, He lets you come up a little higher, says you’ll be successful, provides
instructions, and advises you to follow His view. He sees into it, over it, and around it. Then He asks
you to live like the vision is very vivid. Get God’s view at the top, then come down with diligence.
Write down what He tells you so that you don’t forget when you come back down from prayer. That
way you won’t be distracted by the ignorance that comes from other people. Some of us need God’s
vision for our family, not our career. “Show me my marriage healed, show me my daughter not
running from boy to boy to fulfill the void of her father not being there”. When He gives you the
vision, write it down and be vocal about it. When Mike and His family were believing God, Tommy
Todd would always vocally say, “God showed me a vision of you impacting the world”. It was what
His daddy saw from God’s view and down here, Mike is living out on Earth as it was in heaven. For
some of us, we need to know our future – not just our family or career. God has an intended future
for you. Get God’s view. We see in part, hear in part, prophecy in part, when you get a vision, you just
get God’s view and you know enough to begin.
 

10. Vision Has Versions 

 
God had a plan for the future, but you have to keep going back to God because there are different
versions of the vision based on the season you’re in.
 
Where do you need God’s view? Fill in the blank.
 
Mike needs God’s view as it pertains to MJ. Mike wants to hear God’s view of MJ’s healing. Mike
wants to know what God is saying to know what God is a part of this. Mike doesn’t know what your
MJ is, or what you’ve been trying to believe without God, but you need a vision because it’s God’s
view and vision has versions.
 
As Mike comes to 2021 and thinks about what God is doing in our church, it’s not new. This is the
2021 version of representing God to the lost and found for transformation in Christ.
 
Every year, Mike goes to God for His view. In 2015, God gave Mike the word, “survive”. He had
people telling him he wasn’t qualified and he was too young. “What can you tell me about God’s
word?” Mike would be in his car thinking this isn’t like you.
 
In 2016, the word was “maintain”. Survive and maintain – what?! Two years of being planted, but
feeling buried. Transformation Church was tiny, but God said to maintain it. If you look at the picture,
there are only black people in the picture, despite God saying the church would be multi-ethnic.
 
In 2017, the word was “beyond”. The church began to believe God, people started getting saved,
baptized, and God took the church beyond. 400 families joined the church that year. That was the
best year for Mike because God did what He said, and Mike marked His word for it.
 
In 2018, God gave Mike the word “stride” – you’re running and I want you to walk. “No! Not at the
moment we’re getting breakthrough”. God said, “If you do less, I’ll do more”. Mike remembers going
into meetings and cutting stuff and saying, that’s not striding, that’s striving. Then everything blew
up, the church went from 1 service to 5 services, Relationship Goals went viral, people were backed
up all the way to the highway. What if Mike thought the word was “more” when God said stride. He
would have forfeited the benefits of obedience. Kingdom math doesn’t add up, because God does
miracles.
 
In 2019, God said, “release”. This was the year that God released this building. We are in the lobby of
our church having church. He released gifted and talented people from all over the world. He started
releasing people and did what He said because we marked His word.
 
Then in 2020, He told us “stronger”. Who could have known that two months after, we would hit a
global pandemic, the most televised season of racial injustice, and smack dab in the middle of a
crazy election. Can you believe that God said that’s what He would do? He did it before, and again,
and again, and again, and again – so why would we not believe Him now?
 
This year, God has spoken again!
 
God told Mike, back in August, “Every word I said has come to pass and I’ve done it in a way that
matches what happened spiritually and numerically”.
 
There has never been an ounce of manipulation and we don’t believe in the prosperity gospel. We’re
transparent.
 
2015
1.2M
 
2016
1.2M
 
2017
1.6M
 
2018
When you obey God, he multiples – 7.2M
 
These are the results of obedience – not just for the church house, but our homes. Where there’s a
vision, we stay in our lane and stay the course.
 
2019
22.5M – your faithfulness allowed us to move into the building and pay it off. We gave away money
because we followed the vision.
 
You know what God did in 2020? When Mike was in 2015 believing God, he said, 5 years from now,
I’ll show you in real life what I showed you in your daughter’s bedroom. God wanted us to get
stronger in the midst of the pandemic. People giving from countries Mike can’t even pronounce. Not
huge gifts, but committed gifts. We got stronger!
 
2020
51M!! We went from 1.2 million to 51 million. We went from nobody coming to not knowing how
many people are watching. From being insecure to being secure in what God wants even if nobody
comes.
 
In 2021, it’s time for Transformation Church to be:
 

Anchored!!
 
God built the church for such a time as this. An anchor is something with weight, which drops and
connects so that whatever it is connected to does not drift. 2021 is the year we get anchored and it’s
the year of the anti-drift. Your marriage, your purity, your shift, the vision for your life – everything
that has been drifting, this year it’s getting anchored. Your health and relationships will be anchored.
Think about the areas in your life that need to be anchored.
 
There has been generational drifting. This year, you will become a steady force – something able to
withstand and withhold no matter what storm comes, no matter what is presented to you. You will
last, you will make it through, you will be dependable, you will be consistent, and there will be weight
when you’re involved. Mike has been given many confirmations that this is the word God wants us to
live out this year.
 
This is not a suggestion. This is vision. This is God’s view.
 
This week your assignment is to write down the areas of your life where you know you’ve been
drifting and you want God to anchor you. Then to wear what God says as a badge of what God wants
for you. We’re going to speak it in January 2021 and prove it in January 2022. 
 
Prayer & Altar Call:   God, I’m thanking you that you will allow us to be anchored. That we will not
drift. That you will anchor this church, partner, and child of God, and that the kingdom will be
stronger because it’s anchored to the only thing that never changes – you God. I speak life in the
name of Jesus over every person right now. Thank you father for chasing after us God. Thank you
God for rescuing us to anchor us back to you Father God.
 
God gives vision for victory. Jesus had to have a vision and it was a vision for victory. He had a vision
of the joy set before Him and He endured the cross to win victory over any shame you would have.
His vision was for your victory.
 
Today, God wants to give you the opportunity to receive victory that was paid for by Jesus. He is the
anchor for our soul. He is the only thing that will keep you from drifting. How you get a vision from
God for something new is by accepting Him today. There’s a war going on for people’s eternity. The
presence of God is invading your space right now and is asking you to receive Him. According to
Romans 10:9, all you have to do is believe and confess that Jesus Christ lived and He died just for
you. Today, you can stand and make a decision that will change your life forever. Just lift your hand if
you want to be added to the prayer. 1) You’re making the greatest decision of your life, 2) We’re
proud of you, but more importantly, God is proud of you, and 3) Just lift that hand up right there
 
God, thank you for sending Jesus, just for me. Thank you for the vision of my salvation. I believe
Jesus lived, he died, and rose again for my freedom, and today, mark my word, and I’m going to live
for him. Change me, renew me, transform me, I’m yours. Amen.