MESSAGE HIGHLIGHT:

Keeping Score Or Glory Revealed Part 2 – Ps John Bendixen (WTB)

Scripture Reference: Mark 4:14-20 (MSG); Matthew 6:30-34 (AMPC); Hebrews 11:1; Mark 4:14-15 (MSG); Matthew 6:33-34 (MSG); 1 Corinthians 16:8-9 (MSG); 2 Corinthians 2:12 (MSG)

Makes rich and adds no sorrow: It’s an amazing thing that actually in the whole cycle of our human existence everything that you get and achieve, you seem to think that you have to do it by hard work, toil and self-achievement, but actually God says that everything we can get we can do without sorrow. He makes us rich without adding sorrow to it and allows us to actually live life without the performance syndrome hanging over our heads.

The farmer plants the Word: This Scripture is not about a financial seed that you sow. This is about the Word of God that you plant. (Mark 4:15 MSG)

I’m a son of God: If you find that you come to church, the Word is preached, and then you go away and you still live the life that you have been living, it’s probably because the devil’s using yourself against yourself to snatch the Word out of yourself. So if you just make a declaration, “I’m a son of God”, then you can stop that process from happening.

Speak the word through the stress: If you feel like you’re really stressed out and you can’t speak the Word because you’re stressed out, then here is the answer right here – you’ve got to speak the Word through the stress so that the stress no longer strangles you (Mark 4:16-20 MSG).

Trust relationship: God knows that we need material stuff to live with, He wants us to have a relationship with Him that is so full of trust, that the trust relationship provides so much for us in the material world that we never have to actually use our faith to get that. The reason we have to preach to you to have faith in God to have your substance met, is because our faith in God is not yet at a level where we trust Him to have the substance met without building your faith in Him, to have it met.

Please say this with me: “He will surely clothe me”, your faith is little if it doesn’t sustain you in your trust in God that He can provide even the most basic requirements. Seek first of all His kingdom and His righteousness then all these things – eat, drink, clothing, will be given you besides – meaning, abundantly. (Matthew 6:30-34 AMPC)

Faith for today: I can’t have faith for tomorrow because I don’t know what tomorrow’s going to bring. All I can do is have faith for now. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is” or faith is now. I can only live every moment in faith, which, moment by moment will take me to tomorrow. But I can’t have faith into tomorrow because tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet.

Sow today: I sow seed and have seed in my heart that when I arrive at my tomorrow, the word of God has grown up in my heart and it is creating the environment where I live in my wildest dreams and everything that I could hope for. But I can only be sure that I can have what I have sown when I am sowing today. I can’t sow into tomorrow because tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet but if I sow today then today my faith is going to be growing. (Matthew 6:33-34 (MSG), If I sow the word of God into my heart, when I get to the hard times, I will be able to count on that word that’s in my heart to get me through that time.

Faith levels: The Holy Spirit has given me faith when I got born again, my faith levels that God is growing in me is the Word that I’m sowing. This Word is growing, so my harvest is getting prepared. When I walk into tomorrow, my harvest is there in my heart, ready to receive what I got and what I need. The harvest is in my heart, the harvest is not in my environment. When my heart has the fullness of the harvest, it bumps into the natural world and it is able to call the harvest in the natural world into being.

Calling, creating and framing: “You don’t know how this calling works”, but as I’m calling and speaking the Word of God, the Word of God is beginning to create things and framing my world with the faith that has grown up in my heart. Sometimes that faith is going to say: “I need a thirty fold” or “I need a sixty fold” or “I need a hundredfold” return to meet this environmental need. Some levels of faith are going to produce at different times. Jesus says, “consider the mustard seed, how it’s the smallest of all seeds yet when it is planted and is full grown, it becomes a tree where even the birds of the air find nesting in the tree and it yields a great harvest continuously”. He’s talking about different kinds of harvest that you will get in your heart that will cause a different kind of harvest that you would need in the natural world.

Faith fulfilled: Faith is something that as I speak the Word – that Word that comes out of my mouth, as I sow that Word, it is creating things in my heart. As faith grows up in my heart and it matures and becomes faith fulfilled. Then faith fulfilled in my heart becomes natural.

Spiritually discerned: The way faith works is the same way that a farmer can’t tell you how a seed responds to soil, but it does work that way. It’s a spiritual thing. That’s why this cannot be discerned by people who are trying to grasp it naturally. It can only be discerned by people that understand it spiritually and so if I have a spiritual understanding of it and I begin to speak it, then it comes to pass.

Words spoken creates faith: Romans 10, Words that are preached and words that are spoken create faith to get saved. When I hear the Word / good news and I receive it, it’s good enough to get me saved. What I believe in my heart and I confess with my mouth will lead me to salvation. When I speak things with my mouth they become believing words in my heart.

Words equal to believing: When my words are equal to believing words in my heart then faith comes to fulfilment. Faith doesn’t come into fulfilment when it manifests in the natural. Faith comes into fulfilment when it’s believing words in my heart. Mark 11 says, you can speak to the mountain, believe in your heart and don’t doubt, command it to be moved into the sea and it will obey you. That’s not just words that you speak, it’s believing words that you speak.

Creating a doubt system/environment not to believe: How do your words go from just words to believing words? That’s very important, deep down, there is this thing that exists. If you say, I’m going to give you R10 by tomorrow and I don’t give you R10 tomorrow, what I’ve done is I’ve sown words but my actions will cause me to doubt whether I have what the substance is to follow through. Every time I say I’m going to do something and I don’t do it, I create an environment in my heart where I don’t believe my words. (Example – if I say I’m going to tithe and I don’t tithe because circumstances prevent me from tithing then I don’t believe my own words). Now if I’m beginning to speak God’s words, I’ve sown into my heart a doubt system so that when I speak the Word of God, I treat them like my own words that I don’t believe. Even though I’m speaking God’s Words and I’ve got a parrot-fashion speaking God’s Words, the belief system I’m creating as an alternate universe in my life, is a doubt system. Now I’m getting confused every time I speak God’s Words whether I’m going to actually reap the fulfilment of those words or whether I’m going to reap the doubt of my own words.

Align my life with God’s Words: What I’ve got to do is to begin to align my life with God’s Words and my own words so that my words and God’s Words become so aligned that I’m not doubting either. The minute I get into a place where I don’t doubt my words and God’s Word then I’m going to be in a place where I have a strong belief system that words matter and can really produce things in my life.

Double-minded man: The book of James says a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways and let him not think that he will receive anything from the Lord. The instability of your ways means you’re double-minded and your double-mindedness is, “I think I’ll go cycling but I don’t feel like cycling so I’m not going to cycle”. It seems like a small thing because who cares if I cycle or not. No, It’s actually you yourself who is letting yourself down.

Say nothing – create nothing: You might say, “Well then it’s best that I don’t say anything”. If you say nothing about your life then you create nothing about your life. You’re placing your circumstantial emotional feelings of what you want to do above what you’re supposed to do. You won’t say anything, so you can do anything and not let yourself down with what you say. You live this life of not saying anything, not making commitments to anybody, not being responsible or accountable to anybody, not wanting to do anything with anybody because you want to live your life the way you want to live it. You want to do anything – when you want, how you want, why you want to do it and when the time comes, you’re not going to get anything from the Lord because your whole life is about how you want live. You’re double-minded and the pattern of your life is undermining what you can do by faith.

Power of commitment: Someone who understands the power of words, is going to say, “There are some things that I’m going to commit to because I’m trusting and believing in my own heart that when I take the words of God, give them a higher priority even than my own words, and my own words have such a high priority that I will not break them”. Now, in myself, I’ve got the substance of my own words that stand. And when I say, “Lord I take Your words, I understand the power of commitment, I’m going to speak this word until it grows up. I don’t doubt it, I believe it is going to come to pass because I know what it’s like to speak words where I’m committed to making them come to pass”. There are some things, when you commit to them, you’ve got to stick with that commitment.

Example – Peter getting out of the boat walking on water – He had lived with Jesus enough to know at that point in time that if Jesus speaks words they all come to pass. He didn’t just get out on the water and walk, he understood words have to be spoken, because on those words that are spoken there is the substance of all life. And I can count on those words that He speaks. They are so powerful that I can walk on water and act on it.

Devil throws an enticement: (Pastor John’s sons trying to get him to commit with his words to say yes because they knew he would do it). That’s exactly what the devil does to you. He throws an enticement, “Why don’t you do this with your time?” “Why don’t you rather do this” or “go here?” Or, he’ll pressurise you to say “Yes” to something that through a social environment, somebody knows just how to call you and when to call you. The devil knows if he can keep you doubting all the time then you will never reach the potential of your faith. The faith that you need in your life is – if you don’t doubt and believe what you say, it will come to pass. The devil is trying to get you to doubt your words, so that you can doubt God’s words.

Temptations and trials: “Sometimes when I preach like this, it’s almost like I know the devil’s going to test me. “You want to preach like this? I’m going to see how you going to handle it?” Does it mean I must be afraid of preaching like this? Because the very definition of backing off this, means that he’s going to have some kind of power and hold over me, that I mustn’t preach these words – which is where the Body of Christ comes into play. Because if you see me faltering with my words, you shouldn’t judge me, you should pray for me. Because you should understand, that all of us together are going to be faced with trials and temptations, and many kinds of tests in our life – where our words and our doubt and our belief system is going to be tested. Why? Because if he can get you to doubt one time God’s Word, he can get you to doubt another time – and the minute you doubt, you’re not going to walk in the fullness of faith”.

2020 New Door – God’s got me covered: There is a new door that God has got for us, and the new door is going to bring along with it supernatural increase. In order to walk through the new door, I’m going to have to trust God that as I step through that new door, that He’s got it, got me, and he’s got me covered. (Like Peter stepping out of the boat on the water).

Much opposition: (1 Corinthians 16:8-9, MSG). The minute you begin to open and walk in the doors of opportunity that God has for you, opposition’s going to come. Why? Because the minute you believe God and you walk through that door of opportunity, you’re going to experience the supernatural stuff and increase of God. (2 Corinthians 2:12, MSG).

Teaching on faith to see and walk through new doors:We have a Word for 2020 that God has a new door that He has opened for us, and that we have got an opportunity to walk through this new door. I’m teaching you today on faith, because without faith you are not going to walk and even potentially see new doors, because it’s going to take faith to believe there’s a new door”.

Safe, secure, routine, steady, comfort: In our human natural environment that we all live in – we are geared to make our lives routine, consistent, safe, secure and comfortable. You work as hard as you can in the early years of your life so as you get older you have more comfort, more steadiness, more routine and more safety. You’ve got to do more when you’re younger, so you can provide for yourself when you get older. That is not the way God lives. God does not live like that. Neither does He tell older people to live like that.

Young men dream dreams and old men have visions: The Book of Acts says that young men will dream dreams, and old men will have visions. Old men will have visions because in your old age, you need to see some things that will give you the boldness to go for those things as you lose your natural strength. You’ve got to see things to go after things. And He makes no difference about what old men or young men will see. It means you’ve got to have some courage, you’ve got to have some boldness to walk through new doors.

When Brother Jerry comes – no excuses: “I’m kind of using these opportunities right now because when Brother Jerry comes there’s a scripture in the Word where the Apostle Paul sends someone ahead of time because they promised an offering and he wanted to make sure that they were making good on their offering so that he wasn’t ashamed and that all the things that they said they would do that they were actually doing it. I’m pressing you to come to these meetings and to even stay in prayer connect groups and come on the public holiday of the 16th to a meeting here. Why am I doing this? Because Brother Jerry is coming soon and he has spoken much about who you are to the whole world. I don’t want him coming here and finding that who we are is not who we are. And so, I’m speaking faith to you and I’m speaking the Word to you and I’m encouraging your faith that you do not make shipwreck of your faith. That you don’t allow circumstances to say, “Well I’m not sure that I’ll be available when he comes because it’s early February and I’m not sure if I can make the evening meetings and it’s going to be difficult and the kids are at school, and … ” And so you can have lots of excuses and I’m saying don’t do that”.

Allow the Word to grow – be ready: I let this word grow up in me richly. I let it grow up in me and cause me to be sure that, when I say, “I’m going to come”, I’m not going to let anything deviate me, I must make a commitment to this because my very life depends on hearing the words that are going to come from someone like Brother Jerry who has lived this word for  53 years. Brother Jerry comes with an authority and anointing that comes with 53 years of established faith. And I want you to be part of it. And we need to be part of it. And I’m encouraging you to be ready for it so that everything that he has experienced about us, before, he finds it again when he comes.