MESSAGE HIGHLIGHT:

Abundant Harvest: A Faithful Messenger Part 2 – Ps John Bendixen (WTB)

Given my gift and my calling my job is to be a faithful, trustworthy messenger to you. I must speak what the Holy Spirit tells me to speak; I mustn’t just speak to please people. (Proverbs 25:13 TPT).

Job 1:6-12 (NLT) 

Job was blessed because he feared God. Job was the most influential, powerful, richest man in that whole area (no wonder there was a contest). 

It is clear that Heavenly beings present themselves before the Father at that Heavenly Court. Satan would come into the presence of God with a case and his case is always to accuse some Christian, some believer, some God-fearing person. His accusation will always be an attempt to show the rest of the world that a God-fearing man only fears God because of the blessing. 

You are either worshipping God with work or you’re worshipping yourself (refusing to acknowledge God in your blessing). There are very practical ways that you can spend your hours worshipping God with your work. Ask Him to bless the work of your hands; praise Him and give Him thanks. Honour Him and glorify Him with the fruit of your lips, with your attitude, with your heart, with the way you go about work. You can tithe on your income because your money represents your energy and your worship.

You don’t have to be rich to be self-worshipping; you can be poor and self-worship in your work.  It is not about how much money you’ve got, it’s about, “Do I  choose not to make Jesus Lord of my life”. Self-worship might reflect and reveal itself in self-pity – you don’t think that you yourself are worth enough to have enough faith to change your status. You are still self-worshipping, even if your self-worship is about inferiority, lack of circumstances, blame on other people. 

The covenant blessing of the child of God – Jesus has come to give us life and give us life more abundantly, to bless us, to increase us and to favour us.  If you are blessed enough to be able to separate your energy for personal time, you will have opportunity for prayer, for meditation, for learning, for service and for unity alignment. Alternatively, you can give your time to the cares of this world and your lust. If personal time is used for yourself to increase your wealth, you are doing self-worship with your work, like everything in life.  

John 10:9-10 (TPT). If you don’t choose God, then you will never really be satisfied. Self-worship is never enough because you want your self-worship to be worth more (like others around you).

Ephesians 5:14-17 (AMPC)

Verse 14 – You can be a born-again believer and you can be asleep. How? Through self-worship.  

Verse 15 – Awake, sleeper – you who do not use your time spiritually, awake to your spiritual intelligence, your spiritual way of life. Light will come upon you if you wake up from your slumber of self-worship. Then you will be able to live purposefully, worthily and wise rather than the witless. If God is not part of it, you are witless, living as an unwise, foolish person.

Verse 16 – The days are evil, because there are men in this world that are evil. Satan is patrolling the earth and observing what men do and his demons are going about influencing people that are around you. Arise from your slumber, spiritual being; be spiritual, live for God. Do not live inaccurately – with false words and misplaced energy. Don’t be captivated by the witless people living around you using their energy for themselves in self-worship. 

Verse 17 – Don’t live with all these evil day distractions, self-worship, lust, cares of the world, the lust of your eyes. You must live awake, alert. Live as people that are full of intelligence and full of the energy of God in you. Then you will know what the will of the Lord is for your life, not what everybody else is telling you.

Verse 18 – Don’t be like one of those people that satisfy themselves, but be filled with the Spirit; sing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs; speak words of spiritual life; flow with God; pray in tongues, build your faith.

Verse 19 –  This is about your heart – making melody with all your heart to the Lord, not your heart to yourself. It is not about what you can do to increase and improve yourself, to be better about yourself. How noble it may seem, if God’s not in it, it is self-worship.

What comes out of your mouth, your actions and the way you live your life is observed by the enemy and he will use it against you.  In everything give God thanks for everything He’s blessed your life with. Wake up from your sleep and don’t live by what you feel, live by what you say God is to you.  If you don’t see it, it doesn’t mean it’s not there, just keep going with the thanksgiving of your heart no matter what happens. When you are tithing and giving and getting hold of the faith message, it is like the devil throws everything at you to see if he can get you to say it’s God’s fault. Refuse to say it’s God’s fault – refuse to give up on God!

Ephesians 5:10-21 (MSG) 

The same Christ that lives in me lives in you. Sowing our gifts and our callings and respect for each other into each other to help each other become what they must become in Christ. And when we help them become that in Christ, then God raises them up to come and help us what we must become in Christ, then we all become power beings – not fast asleep in our coffins. When you go to work tomorrow morning and you’re self-worshipping with your work think, “This could be my coffin. I might as well be fast asleep because I’m self-worshipping”.

Colossians 4:2-6 (NKJV, AMPC, MSG)

How do you walk with wisdom to those that walk in sleep? You’ve got to walk in your spiritual enlightenment, recognizing their sleepiness. When you recognize their sleepiness, you don’t behave like the sleeping ones, because those sleeping ones want you to live like them. You got to stay awake!

It’s my job when you come here on a Sunday to wake you up, “Get out of your coffin”. It doesn’t matter what happens, you’ve got to be spiritual. How? You sing to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, you give thanks all the time to the Lord, you have a melody in your heart and say, “Thank You, Jesus”. Say it by faith, call it in. You can get things with your faith that money can’t buy. Always put Him first; opportunities will come your way.

God is good to me; God is good to you. Just give thanks and praise the Lord. Say, “Thank You, Lord.  I will manage my energy wisely; I will make the most of every opportunity. I will redeem my energy. I will redeem time.”  The enemy has already observed your pattern of your life and he’s instantly there to steal the Word out of your heart, because the very thing that you need is the very thing he is coming to steal.  Don’t let him steal it, rather embrace it and say, “I don’t even feel willing in my heart, but I’m going to go after this Word. Help me to become willing to receive this Word, Lord.”