Scripture reference: Hebrews 13:17 (AMPC); 1 Timothy 1:18 (MSG)
Good morning. How’s everybody today? I’m blessed. Thank you. Hallelujah. Glory to the Lord. There’s a lot of time in Africa when the sound of rain is a beautiful sound, but we’ve had too much rain. Certainly here in Witbank. I mean we’ve had challenging moments, where people have come to try to visit us and couldn’t get through because the dam and the water was flooding so much that they couldn’t actually get through to come and see us. So, praise the Lord. It is raining again. Hallelujah. I was going to start with a missions video, but I thought I’d share something with you first. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 17. Hebrews 13 verse 17.
In the Amplified Bible it says, 17Obey your spiritual leaders …. Obey your spiritual leaders. And submit to them [continually recognizing their authority over you]. (Pastor John laughs) Tough language, hey. Why is he saying continually recognizing their authority over you? Because of what they do.
This is not a statement, that is a one-sided statement. This is a two-sided statement. It is; obey your spiritual leaders, submit to them, because of what they do. What do they do? For they are constantly keeping watch over your souls and guarding your spiritual welfare. Can I make a statement? If your spiritual leaders are not watching over your soul and guarding your spiritual welfare – no need for submission, no need for the recognition of spiritual leaders, no need for obedience, because the other counterbalance to the argument is that they are not doing their job. Right? If spiritual leaders are doing their job then you have a job to do. As men who will have to render an account [of their trust]. Obviously this is a trust relationship and the trust relationship is; God says through His Word there must be obedience, there must be submission because there is a watchfulness, a care, because of your soul and your spirit. Right?
Those that are doing the watching and the caring, have to do something one day and I believe it’s not one day I believe it’s every day. Every day I have to give an account, as a spiritual leader, I have to give an account of my trust, of your trust. To who do I give an account to? Well, there’s no bigger Person to give an account than to God and so that’s an important thing. Notwithstanding that I also give an account on a daily basis to those that are around me. So, if people are continuously being destroyed by the enemy, then I have to give an account that I let the enemy come and destroy them. Does the Bible not say that a good shepherd, will be watchful over the sheep? Right? [Do your part to] let them do this with gladness and not with sighing and groaning, for that would not be profitable to you [either]. (Hebrews 13:17 AMPC.) It is not a question of I will submit, but I will make it hard for you. It is a question of I will submit, but I am going to do it in such a way and I am going to obey and I am going to do it in such a way that it makes it easy for you.
So, Pastor John, why are you sharing this scripture with us today? Very seldom do you hear me talk about this scripture. Very seldom would you ever hear me talk about actually my authority in the church. Yes? Because I don’t believe authority is taken. I believe authority is given. If authority has to be taken then it implies forcefulness, it implies, well, it doesn’t imply. It is definitely forcefulness, power, strength, dominance. When you have a position of authority because you’re dominant because you are stronger because you are more powerful because of whatever reason then your authority is taken. It’s a bit like a schoolteacher. Children in school don’t really have an option, they just have to, you know, a typical normal school, they have to sit still in class. If they don’t sit still then they get. (Pastor John flicking fingers.) Fagala Headmaster. Well, in my days anyway. You’re too little bit… headmaster. Go to the headmaster. Uh-huh. Bend. They used to take out a cane and just for the drama to make sure you understood, he used to take the cane and… (Pastor John making a whipping sound.) Like I said, you know, before you’re even anywhere and then he’d make you bend over the headmaster’s chair, in my day. Today’s kids don’t know even know what this means but in my day it was like you had to put your hands over the chair like that and then the headmaster would go with his cane. (Pastor John making a whipping sound,) and you just know and he’d never let you know when the time is coming. (Pastor John making a whipping sound.) Ahh… Aai ja jaai…
Of course, as a boy it was like everybody, when you came out, “Did you shout, did you scream, what did you…?” It was like everything you had in you; I will not have a sound, come out of my mouth. Well, you see in that kind of situation of authority you don’t really have much of a choice. You just have to submit and you have to obey. Ultimately, it’s good for you. It’s not for your harm. It is for your good. I mean, it has been abused and there has been people that have been harmed by it, but generally, they’re wanting discipline in the school so there’s a proper environment for people to study. Right? I mean, that was the really good intent of it, but when you get into other forms of authority, it’s always better if people give you authority rather than you take authority because when it’s given then it’s in proper order and then when you give authority then it’s something that you can hold accountable. Right?
So, it has happened on a couple of occasions that when I knew I’ve been travelling for some time I typically would sign a document before I leave which would be called a Power of Attorney Agreement and I would give certain people in the ministry power of it. I would give them Power of Attorney to represent me legally and to represent me financially. As a ministry, the decisions that I would normally take I would sign a Power of Attorney so that they would make decisions while I would be gone in case something happened to me and I was perhaps incapacitated or I had to be away longer than I needed to be then I would sign a Power of Attorney document and hand over authority for somebody to make a decision on my behalf. How many of you know that when you come back they must give you an account? So, that authority is given willingly, then the account is also given willingly. Hallelujah.
Over the last week or two, I’m sharing this scripture to you because I have almost in some days, been overwhelmed spiritually by my love and my care for you, because I have recognized the great battle that is ongoing in the spirit realm where the enemy would come after your soul and come after your spirit so that he can come after your life. I have had many moments over the last number of weeks, going all the way, I suppose since the beginning of December, I have had days and I have had moments where I’ve almost been overwhelmed by the great love of God for the people that are in my care, spiritually speaking.
I cannot even begin to describe to you the great love that God has for you. I cannot even describe to you the great love that God has for you. It is beyond my imagination, beyond my scope, beyond my thought process, to have Jesus, to understand that Jesus would stand on a hill overlooking Jerusalem and He would speak over the Jewish people and He would talk to them, and He said, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often it was that I would bring you under My wings as a hen would bring its chicks, but you would not.” In other words, His great love that He felt on behalf of the Father was: “Don’t you know how great the love of the Father is for you. Don’t you know that the God of all gods is the God of all gods, that is your living God that is wanting to take care of you, and you would not.” Sjoe, praise the Lord.
I have watched young married couples. I have watched young married couples get married. Some in this auditorium now, I’ve watched them get married. When they get married they take their potential, they take their dreams, they take their desires, they take their visions of the future, they take all their skills and their talents, and everything that they are and they join themselves to this other person in relationship and marriage. When you bring these two people together in marriage, it is at the best of times as challenging because you have people that have lived in different households, you have people that have had different experiences, people that have had different emotions, different things and yet there is a coming together for whatever their reasons are.
Then I have watched these good intentions in marriage, I’ve watched it and I have watched them struggle with their will and with their emotions and with their desires and their dreams as they dance with each other in life. They have this dance and in this dance of life, the one person wants to have these things in the marriage and this other person wants to have other things in the marriage. They have this dance and they feel like the dance is a matter of compromise and sometimes it is not a matter of compromise, sometimes it is a determination to win and it becomes my will versus someone else’s will. Before people get into the marriage, there is often a lot of idealistic notions and romantic notions, and it doesn’t matter whether you have been dating for two years, three years or five years. It doesn’t matter, that is not the answer to actually solving the problem of being properly connected together. It is just a matter of when you make a responsibility towards each other, that you are going to live for each other and live with each other.
You bring these two things together and you take responsibility to make this person become something better than they were when they were without you, but that’s not the way people come into marriage. For the most part, when they come into marriage, their thought process is; How much can I get to satisfy me, because after all, that is why I get married.” Right?
That’s not what marriage is meant to be. What marriage is meant to be, marriage is meant to be two people coming together and as they come together, they are meant to bring their dreams, their gifts, their callings, their assignments, their joys, their strengths that can overcome trouble. They are meant to bring it together, and together they are supposed to become something greater than the two individuals. Whereas what most people do is, they don’t want to become greater. What they want is to do is accumulate greater things, they want to have better performances, they want to have a better status, they want to have a better reputation. These are none of what is in marriage.
There are people, I can mention one that is without knowing the intricacies of their lives, I certainly know enough about them through documentaries and other things. There are people that get married because they want to have more, because they want to have better status, because they have career things, and a family that everybody knows about, that would be; Bill and Hillary Clinton. They didn’t get married because they wanted to be together. They got married because they wanted to be political and they felt that their coalition would produce more of what they wanted to achieve, more of whatever, what they could get, more of what power they could have, more of everything. That is different. They didn’t get married, you understand? They formed a coalition. Marriage is a completely different thing, to form a coalition, to achieve things. Huh.
As a pastor, I become aware of people that come together and they bring these two parts, these two lives come together and many times I watch them struggle, struggle, struggle, struggle. They have all these issues and then sometimes they will come to me and they will ask me if I can help, or they would come to a pastor in the church and then will ask if I can help. Hallelujah, praise Jesus.
Sometimes God will have me intervene, even though they don’t actually know what the issue is, sometimes. Would it be ok if I used you, Simon? I will be very careful. Simon and Tarryn knew each other for years and years and years and then they got married. If you don’t know about Simon and Tarryn, Simon was involved in children’s ministry and he was like the grown-up teenager, how old were you, 17? And Tarryn was how old, 12? She was like, in his class at children’s ministry. They know each other a long time, you understand? So, of course, Simon is not interested in Tarryn because she is 12, but Simon goes about his life and he is doing things and he heads into Botswana and he goes all kinds of places, a young man, he is trying to find things to do in his life, and he is doing things and he gets to about 23 years old, somewhere about there. He comes back into church world and he finds a Tarryn there that is now 17, 18.
She is now completely different, to when she was at 12. I don’t know what happened then exactly then Simon, but I can imagine his eyes batted a few times, and maybe Tarryn’s eyes batted a few times. Anyway, Tarryn went off and got a degree, Simon was doing things and somewhere along the line they began to understand that actually we really like each other, we are very good friends and we are very compatible and they got married.
Suddenly after they got married, they had a good marriage, but they found that there were some unfulfilled things that were not quite happening in their lives. The Lord had Pastor Sharon and I intervene and so, I took my baseball bat to kneecaps (laughter). I said, “You will grill me a salmon fish and I will come for dinner with Pastor Sharon and you will feed me dinner and then I will tell you about your life.” Right? More or less. So they made a fish braai, well, it was their choice about the fish braai, but we sat there and under the anointing of the Holy Spirit we began to minister to them and they were about to go on leave that December and we ministered the life of God to them and they went away and under the anointing and the umbrella of the ministry that was our marriage and our wisdom and our thing that we brought into their marriage, they had freedom to explore things that they would not have been able to explore had they not heard from us before they went on leave. Have I got that about right, Simon? Is it close enough, hey?
When they came back it became evident, and they told me; we want to make some changes in our lives because we understood this is what needs to happen. This is what needs to happen because this is what our dreams look like. This is what we want to have and this is how we want to be together. I said, “Praise Jesus! They got it.”
What was happening is that Pastor Sharon and I were watching over their soul. I don’t know if they’ve ever talked about it, but if they didn’t have us talking into their life, I’m sure they would still be together and I’m sure it would still be okay, but God didn’t ever call us to be okay. I know, Simon and Tarryn better than that. They want to push for every adventure, every dream, every amazing thing that life has to offer. They want to push for that. Right? And they want to do it together because in their togetherness that’s what they want to do.
What it did was; it took a spiritual leader that watches over their soul, to intervene and speak a word, speak a direction, which they then took and began to use it in their lives. Please understand that I’m in no ways speaking here as a discredit to them. Do you understand what I’m saying? Neither am I in any way discrediting any other people around them that had input to make their lives what it is; mom and dads, family members. I’m not speaking about that. I’m talking about my role. Okay? Just making sure.
I’m here to do this for a very, very, very particular reason. The very particular reason is that over the last while, Simon and Tarryn’s walk with God has jumped and escalated and they’ve really grown in God and they are completely different people in their marriage, they are completely different people in their lives and they are completely different people.
Have I said that to you? Probably a few times. They are completely different people. The strong point I want to make is; if they were going about life without God they would have lived life without God, but they would have lived life on the terms that circumstances kept handing to them. As life hands you circumstances, you’ve got to react to it. Come on, now. As life hands you circumstances, you’ve got to react to it. As a born-again believer, you are in a place where you have to make a decision, always you have to make a decision; am I going to respond to the circumstances that life hands me the way life wants me to handle those circumstances, or am I going to respond to the circumstances of life how God wants me to handle it?
Okay, so just bear with me for a moment. I’ve used Simon and Tarryn as a circumstance that relates to marriage. I would like to talk about a circumstance that relates to finances, for example. Gideon, do you mind if I use your life and just the whole scope of your life and how your life has been?
Gideon came and he, one day, visited me. I had only come into this church and preached once. He heard me preach and he made an appointment to come and see me in Johannesburg because he needed some advice for his life at that time. When he came to see me, I said, “Gideon, I can’t do anything about your life and advise you about your life unless you come to me and I can help you, I can just give you some advice,” and so, him and I connected. It was how many years ago, Gideon? 23 years ago. At that time there was quite a lot of chaos and disorder in his life. He immediately began to make decisions that, on the advice that I had, he was going to start changing his life, based on the advice that I gave him. I’m not going to get specific about it, other than, if he had continued in the direction of his life at that time without spiritual input, hello? I think Gideon recognizes that his life would be, I mean, Gideon and Riona and I have talked about this a lot, their lives would be in a very, very different place. Very different place.
The time came, actually, when Gideon was beginning to, as a result of us taking the church, him being in the church, hearing the Word of God, obeying the Word of God, he started to prosper in his business. Again, I’m not discrediting the fact that he was a hard worker and that he did his job properly. Do you understand what I’m saying? When you do your job properly and you have faith and you have the Word of God, the two work together. Gideon began to do the Word of God. He began to prosper. The time came where Gideon was made an offer to move to Johannesburg because that’s where his promotion lay. When he came to speak to me, at the time, I said, “Gideon, I know that’s where you’re supposed to be, but the time is not right.”
Three times. Three times he came to me. He said, “I’m supposed to move to Jo’burg.” I said, “I know, but the time’s not right.” On the third time he came to me, I said… Now listen, he’s not actually requiring me to make decisions for his life. He’s big and ugly enough to make his own decisions (laughter). He didn’t need me to make decisions for him. What was he doing? He was saying, “I understand your spiritual leadership role in my life and that you watch over my soul and in your watchfulness, I’m leaning on your spirituality to help me make this decision because two can put ten thousand to flight. Whereas, if I do this without spiritual leadership involved, there’s not as much strength here.”
There are a number of reasons for it. Firstly, one of the reasons is that wherever you make big decisions in your life you tend to be very subjective and not objective. Secondly, you tend to want to do what you want to do, rather than what God wants you to do, generally speaking. Even if you’re very spiritual, there’s a good chance that there are parts of the decision that are going to be about you.
When he came to speak to me the third time, I said, “Gideon, I’ve been in with the Lord on a regular basis about this; it’s time to move.” Right? It was like; he had to sell his house here in Witbank, he had to buy a house in Johannesburg, it was a time for the kids to move and it all happened like within 60 days? Two weeks? Two weeks the houses were sold, bought. Two weeks! Done. Since then his life has got stronger, stronger, stronger. Financially, his life has got stronger.
I’m trying to make a point here. What is it about Christians, us Christians, what is it about us that we want from God? What do we want from God? Who is God that we should serve Him? You might think that this is a very basic question, but who is God that we should serve Him? Who is God that we should serve Him? Who is God that we should serve Him? Who is God, that your choices of your life; whether it be about business choices and promotion and moving location, whether it be about marriage choices, whether it be about the way you raise your children and whether it be all manner of things; who is God that we should serve Him? Who is God that we should serve Him? Who is God that He has a right to our choices? Who is God that He has a right to your choices? Come on. Who is God that He has a right to your choices?
Well, perhaps He is God in the fact that you wouldn’t be here if He wasn’t God. Come on now, you have to face this first very, very basic thing. You do not exist, you do not walk on this earth, you are not here, if God didn’t put you here. You are not here, you do not exist, you have no life, you didn’t even get born, if God didn’t permit you to. You are not here because a man slept with a woman. You are not here because of some, even another way that you might have been born through medical science. You are not here because medical science makes it happen or because biology makes it happen. You are here because biology was just the vehicle for God to breath His Spirit into you. You are not here if God didn’t want you to be here.
Hey, Sagrys? You are not here if God didn’t want you here? Huh? I mean this is both awesome and beautiful. Why are you here, Le Roux? Are you here because God wanted you to be here? That’s why you’re here. The fact that you are a husband, you are a father, you are a businessman, is actually just a component of why God wanted you here. That is only a part of why He wanted you here, but He wanted you here. If He did not want you here, sorry. I wish I could do like they do in some of these adverts I see on TV like an insurance ad or a 4×4; if you can drive this 4×4 up this hill then I’m Giel, whatever and then they drive it up the hill and then (poof) he changes into Giel. Something like that, I don’t know, maybe you can all help me with that. You know, (poof) he’s just gone. If God didn’t want you here, (poof) you would not be here, someone else would be sitting in your chair. It would have Le Roux’s spirit, but not in Le Roux’s body because God wanted your spirit here.
Who is this God that has a right to your choices? Yet He says, “Actually, I want you to be like Me with your choices; so I’m going to not impose My choice to you, I’m going to give you your choice back to you because I want you to be like Me and you cannot be like Me unless you have a choice. I’m not making you do anything, unless you choose it.” Huh, but you have to start in this place, “I’m not here, unless God puts me here.” Are you with me? This is going to get really better further down the line.
I’m going to go back to, to Simon and Tarryn. Simon and Tarryn, are on the earth and they meet each other and they have got all these dreams and all these desires and all of these wonderful adventures that they want to go together in life. So they decide, “Let’s do it, but we’re just going to ignore why God put us here.” God says, “Okay, go for it”.” How do they live their lives from that point onwards? I’m using them because I can use them because I know what their choices are. I mean, they are safe, I have got a safe example here.
They could make a decision and say, “We are just going to do our thing and do our thing and do our thing we’re going to…” Tarryn could say, “I’m going to use my degree”, and Simon could say, “I’m going to use all of my qualifications in the financial industry sector. We are going to push for our careers and we are going to make money and we are going to buy houses and we are going to spend our money going on overseas trips and adventures and we’re going to go…” They would be well within their rights to use their skills and their talents and their drive and their determination and all of what they’ve got. They would be well within their rights to drive themselves into success.
God says, “I’ve given you the choice, use it.” Come on? Then they get to a point where they’re on this precipice of making decisions and on this precipice of making decisions, they are beginning to struggle with, “We want God, but we want to do our thing. We want God, but we want to do our thing.”
I want to just make it clear that I’ve been listening this week to Brother Jerry a lot and he talks about Vision, and 2020 and I’m getting there, that’s why I’m starting here. Okay? So that we are prepared for when he comes and I don’t want to teach it the way he is teaching it because I am fully expecting him to come and teach us what he has taught in his church and more when he gets here. This is my gift teaching it to you the way I teach it to you. Hallelujah.
So, Simon and Tarryn, they could do whatever they want. Here they are and they have got at this crossroads, “We want to press for all these good things, but there, actually, there’s another pull in us, it’s a, it’s a pull for God.” Thank God for that pull for God. What they start to do is, they start to pull towards what God wants for their lives and as they start to pull for what God wants for their lives, God immediately takes their prayers, takes the people that are around them and starts to orchestrate their lives and begins to mould their lives for His use. Come on, now. Watch this; the more they are aligned with what He can use them for, then they are aligned in, with what God can bless them with. God cannot bless them until they are useful to Him because while they are doing their thing, His blessing cannot come upon them.
As born-again believers, as people that are generally following God, who come to church regularly, God has a level of blessing He can bless them with, but now they’ve said, “Take our lives, use our lives for Your glory. Mould us to Your purpose.” God says, “That’s the kind of people I’m looking for because now I’m not wanting to demand that I am God in your lives. You have made me God in your life.” It’s a very different thing for God demanding who He is in your life, versus them making God the God of their lives.
Simon and Tarryn have had to make very challenging decisions. Tarryn had studied and she gave up her, she made a decision; “I’m not going to pursue what I studied at university for and have a degree in. I am not going to study. I am not going to use that for making money anymore. I’m going to follow the plan of God for my life.” So, they had to readjust their financial capacity. Then Simon had to make some tough decisions about his life because God was calling him. The more God was calling him, other parts of relationships began to become clearer and clearer; these things are never coming into order. Even though he gave it a best chance. I’m being as broad here as I can because the details of their lives are not relevant to you.
As they did that, God has started to draw them into His purpose. Now, they are, haven’t quite seen it yet, but they’re close to it. They are on the fringes of touching it because I know some of the practicalities of what’s happening in their lives. The anointing that’s on their life. One of the things that God has anointed Simon for is; that he would be useful to God, in terms of finance. I can say that because I made prophetic declaration over the Roos Brothers when Wesley wasn’t even in the church; I made a prophetic word over the Roos Brothers that God would use them in wealth, in His kingdom. Now both Wesley and Simon are sitting in the church here in Witbank and they’re on the verge of being used by God for wealth in His kingdom.
What is God? What is God that we have to do anything for Him? What is God? Why is this God that we have to acknowledge this God? Why? Well, firstly you wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Him. Listen, if you can’t say that out of your mouth on a daily basis, “Thank God, that He’s my God, that I’m alive because of Him and my whole life is because of Him and I thank Him for my life.“ Then you’ve already made a choice that your life is because you are here and somehow you think you could be here without Him. Somehow, you think you all could be here without Him. Somehow all the gifts and talents that you have that somehow they’re yours. Somehow, they weren’t given to you by God, somehow they were given to you because of some genetic transfer. Somehow? You think God wasn’t involved in the genetic transfer?
Come on, shout me down, because I’m preaching so good. Come on, shout me down, shout me down, come on, come on, shout me down because I’m preaching really good now. Come on, I’m preaching good, come on, I’m preaching good.
Somehow your gifts and callings, all your talents and your skills and your abilities are separate from God. You don’t breathe without Him because you’re not here without Him. You have got no gifts and callings and talents if He didn’t give it to you. Well, what about my brain? You don’t have one, without Him. You don’t have a brain without Him! You think you are smart? Whose IQ do you think you got? You think it’s your IQ? Oh, these big rugby, big boys, you know like Beast. Beeaasstt. And he sucks himself into the front row. He’s got all this power and strength and he’s genetically built for it. God didn’t give that to him. Somehow that was just, somehow, somehow. So, what’s the somehow from? It’s God.
How he is using; I’m just using him as an example. How he is using his genetic makeup and the strength of his will and the determination of who he is and all of that person. There’s going to come a time when God’s going to hold him accountable and say, “Are you doing what I told you to do?” It means nothing to God if he actually even gets up and stand in front of the world and says to the whole world, “I give glory to God for what I’ve achieved;” and he’s completely out of the will of God because he used his genetic makeup to achieve something.
I can say the same for very intelligent academic people that use their intelligence for their own choices. Businessmen, I’ve watched businessmen at work. It’s like they just know how to put deals together. They know how to vision, they know how to put deals together, they know how to make deals, they know how to make money, they know when. It’s just like they have a sixth sense. It’s a God sixth sense, but it’s like they just know when to press for the profit and when to say; okay, I’m going to release a little bit of the profit. It’s like they just know how. Right, Empie?
You just know how. This deal I can go after and I can get it done. This deal I’ve got to back off it. I’ve got to make a bit less profit on this deal because if I make a bit less profit, I can make the deal. I mean, it’s nobody sitting on your shoulder telling you what to do. It’s just like you just know. Huh? In your world, it’s like, how does anybody not see it? Right? You just see it and it’s like, maybe you even get a little bit panicky sometimes. I’m not sure that’s not a word you would use, but like, what if all these other people that are chasing the deal are seeing it the way I see it? But they don’t, because you’re anointed because you’ve got business genes in you.
I have got to watch out for Marnus because he is like that too. He wants to sell me my own church back to me, (laughter) if he could. I mean, I remember Marnus from when he was a boy, he would buy lots of sweets at the shops and then he go sell them at school, right? It’s like the DNA is in him. It’s like he wants to make money from when he’s at school. I’ll buy lots of sweets and I make one cent on each sweet or ten cents on each sweet. If the guys can’t pay him, I remember this from a long time ago, if they couldn’t pay him, he makes another deal; alright I’ll trade you for this to get that. Am I right? Something like that nê, Marnus? You see already he’s like, we can negotiate that. It’s just like that, it doesn’t matter if you’re an academic. It doesn’t matter if you’re a sportsman. It doesn’t matter if you’re a businessman, it doesn’t matter what; you are not here unless God wanted you to be here. You don’t get to breathe unless God said so.
I find that Christians want to touch God. First of all, God wants to touch you, so that He could have a family. When Christians touch God, they have this thing that because I’ve become born again, I have the right to touch God the way I want to touch Him and God says, “Yes, you do. I give you that right, but the sweet spot of your life is when you let Me be your God.” Not when you decide how much of God you’re going to let in. That is a very big difference. Hello?
I love you all. I wish I could express; you see because it’s not because I love your personalities or because I love your gifts and callings or because I love the way you dress or you don’t dress. Although I must say, because of the way God wired me and made me, I love the different cultures that are around me. When you get around Le Roux for example, the guy from the Free State. He can’t hardly talk to you before he breis so “gurr” (brei in Afrikaans – manner in which to pronounce words) or something like that, you know. He’s not wearing an orange shirt today, so that’s at least one, you know, he’s come a bit further than that, but I love the culture and the green hair is gone. For the whole month of December there was green hair. I mean, I just love the cultures, the different cultures that God brings into my life and different personalities and things like that. It’s not about that. It’s the love of God that is in me that has matured to the point where I love you because the love of God in me draws me to you. It draws me to you.
In first Timothy chapter 1 verse 18 it says, I’m passing this work on to you, my son Timothy. The prophetic word that was directed to you prepared us for this. All those prayers are coming together now so you will do this well, fearless in your struggle, fearless in your struggle, keeping a firm grip on your faith and on yourself. After all, this is a fight we’re in. (1 Timothy 1:18 MSG) What is the fight? The fight is keeping a grip on yourself and keeping a grip on your faith so that you can keep making Jesus the Lord of your life every moment of every day because you want Him to be not because you permit Him to be. If you permit Him to be, then it’s only when you give Him permission that He can do anything.
Here is the thing that happens is that Christians want God to intervene in their lives when they permit Him. Normally they want to permit Him because they have some kind of issue in their life that they want resolved. If it is not an issue, sometimes God will create something in you, where you are just so hungry for God and you don’t know why you’re so hungry for God, but it’s like your whole world is without meaning and purpose and without any kind of anything. There is just a pull in your heart to want to be with God. When God places that in you, you have to follow that because if you say no to that, the next time He puts that in you, it’s going to get harder to follow. The reasons why you said no to Him in the first place, are the same reasons. They might look different, but it’s the same will that is going to prevent you from pursuing Him after that. I’m not even preaching something new. I have been preaching all of this stuff, a long time. Praise the Lord.
2020 is a time, where God is opening a New Door and Supernatural Increase is coming to your life in 2020. So, I’m getting there. To the extent that you follow God completely with everything that you’ve got, will be the measure that you can have supernatural increase. If you are at a point in your life where you say; I will decide how much of this Word I want to actually get in my life, then how much you decide is how much you’re going to get, right?
I am hoping Brother Jerry’s going to share some of this with us when he comes, but I will share this with you that over the last couple of weeks, Brother Jerry has shared his vision that God gave him over the month of December, November, December. God gave him a vision about the future of their ministry, the church part of their ministry. They have made decisions to sell the existing building that they are in and all of the stuff that they have got. They have sold it all and it’s already sold. They are making plans to build a new church building, right across from their ministry headquarters.
Guess what Brother Jerry did? He said, “I’ve got the vision, Lord. Now I’m going to do this Your way.” What he did was, he pronounced to his church, that as Jerry Savelle Ministries and Heritage of Faith, the head of the ministry, he’s taking a substantial amount of money and he’s going to go to a church in California and he’s going to go and pay off that church’s bond. That church, previously, he had already paid off a portion of their bond some years ago and that part of the bond that he paid off was a $120 000. Now he’s gone to pay off the rest of that bond, which was substantially more than the $120 000. Come, now.
What’s Brother Jerry after? Supernatural Increase, right? Supernatural Increase. Why is he after supernatural increase? There’s an assignment that God’s calling me to at 73. There’s an assignment. I’ve got to get this job done, so the way I get the job done is; I hear what God is saying. I take the Word that God’s given and he’s doing what his own word is that God spoke through his vessel. He has taken a large amount of seed and he has paid off someone else’s bond. Why did he do that? Because he wants to pay for his church. Hallelujah.
Why am I saying this all to you? I am wanting you to move past this point, before Brother Jerry comes, where you sit and you think; I am here because it’s my will to be here and I am here because I will give a little bit to God. I shall give Him a bit of my time, I shall give Him a bit of my talent, I shall give Him a bit of my energy, I shall give Him what I think is good enough to give Him. Then He must just deal with me and deal with the rest of my life, because I choose to give Him this little bit. I am wanting you to move way past that because this is a moment for us, spiritually, all of us. This is a moment for us, that we’ve got to keep a hold of ourselves and we’ve got to keep a hold of our faith because God has created a spiritual opportunity for us, that we can get rid of everything in our past and walk into a New Door. We can go into new things and we can have supernatural increase on all of those new things right now, but our choices cannot be our old choices. You cannot come and say; I’ll give God what I think I should give Him.
Well, Pastor John, you are preaching a little bit radical. Well, I am just in my own radical place, right now and I know part of the great love that has come upon me, this great love for you, that has come upon me, because I know what it takes. Let me tell you, it is one of the greatest joys in my life, one of the greatest, greatest joys of my life, when I’m listening to Brother Jerry preach on Sunday night. The reason I didn’t want you to listen to it is because I want you to get it from him, when he comes here and it’s only two weeks away. On the Sunday night, he’s standing there and he says and he teaches them, for the first half an hour or whatever, he teaches them; I am receiving and I’m living with the Mantle of the Apostle to you, my congregation. Remember that he started to teach in the previous service about familiarity, so they just saw him as Brother Jerry. He’s declaring himself; I am your apostolic leader. As your apostolic leader, there is a different anointing that is upon me that you can tap into if you want, but if you so see me as Brother Jerry then that’s all I’ll be to you is, Brother Jerry. Then there is nothing that you can take from me other than; I’m Brother Jerry.
I’ve told you this long ago; when Brother Jerry comes to visit us, I’ve got a high expectation, that he’s not just coming here as Brother Jerry to me, that’s the teacher. I’m receiving Brother Jerry with his apostolic ministry, he’s prophetic ministry, with all the gifts and callings that come with that ministry. I want him to flow. I’m telling you, he can preach to me all day, all night, all week. It doesn’t matter. He can come and preach and he can come and do what God has called him to do. Hallelujah. I’m wanting you to get all of it. I’m wanting you to get all of it. Brother Jerry, when he comes, I don’t want us to be in a place where we say; okay, we’ll just be here to the extent that we’ve decided that this is a good idea for you to have this much of my life. I mean that.
I mean, listen, you should be sure that when he’s here on Thursday night there is no other arrangement. You really still have enough time. I don’t care if you’ve got international flights booked. There should be no other arrangement that should keep you away from church. Well, I’ve got to drive from Johannesburg on Thursday night and Friday night and Saturday and Sunday… So what? It’s four days. You think that’s hard?
Well, I’ve got to sit in the traffic across the bridge. I’ll tell you what, what is a guarantee. I can guarantee you the devil will throw challenges in your life and he will on purpose make you make hard decisions, so that you cannot come. Then you just think; well, you know, I booked, I’ve got this event that I’m supposed to go to and I’ve paid money for that event. Well, obviously the Word of God and the anointing of God is worth less to you than what you paid for that, but I am just going to lose that money. Well, then obviously that’s how important it is to you.
Do you understand how this thing works? I’ll give God a little bit as much as I think I can give Him, because after all this is my life, these are my choices, this is my world. I’ve got to get on with my life don’t try and come here with your international guest speakers that are going to come and interfere with my life. Days of Our Lives is on at 6 o’clock at night anyway, and so I’ll come after worship, so that I can get to the Days of Our Lives, first. I don’t even know if that exists anymore. It dates me probably a little bit. If it’s still on then that shows you how many Days of Our Lives, you should have missed. Hallelujah.
When we come back, we are going to talk about vision, that Brother Jerry talked about. We’re going to talk about some of the things that God has caused for us. I know some people have asked questions about how we do striking the ground, how we do some of those things and before this day is over, I am going to answer those questions. I’m going to give you everything that you need to do. Today I’m not cutting the meeting short at lunchtime. We are going to go into the afternoon because this is my last time I get to talk to you before Brother Jerry comes. I want you to be well prepared for him, when he gets here with me, when we come from Kenya. Hallelujah. Shall we take a 15-minute break and then come back? Have a gou-gou-gou koppie tee. Gou-gou-gou.
© 2023 – Heritage of Faith Ministries International
TOUCH | TEACH | TRAIN | TRANSFER
