Scripture References: 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21 (AMPC); 2 Peter 1:19-21 (AMPC); 2 Peter 1:21 (TPT); 1 Timothy 1:18-19 (KJV); Revelations 2:26-27 (AMPC); Revelations 3:7, 12 (AMPC); Luke 14:25-27, 33 (TPT); Luke 14:26-27 (AMPC); 1 Samuel 15:10-24 (MSG)
(Congregation praying for Pastor John in tongues) Oh, thank You. Now let’s thank Him and praise Him for answered prayer. He’s just going to walk and step right into answered prayer, every decision. Hallelujah. Twenty-twenty vision, clarity, Father. Hallelujah. Twenty-twenty vision, Father. Glory, glory, glory. Great light, great clarity, great seeing, great tapping Your supreme intelligence for every decision he must make. We thank You and praise You for that, Lord. In the precious, mighty Name of Jesus. We give You praise and thanks for that. We rejoice. We rejoice in answered prayer, Father. Yes Lord, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You. You may be seated. You may be seated Heritage of Faith. And the children, do the children need to go now? Okay. I’m so glad we get to see them during December.
Hello Helen. How are you, my darling? I’m going to just come from behind and hug you. Oh, I love you. We love you. So good to see you. Oh, we love you. Oh, it’s good to have you with us. Good to have you. Love you. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Glory, she has a strong spirit. She has a strong spirit. Glory to God. Hallelujah. We bless you, Helen. We bless you, we bless you. Come, just two minutes. Two minutes of Holy Ghost energy prayer for her. (Congregation praying in tongues for Helen) Oh, thank you. You strengthen her with mighty power in the inner man by Your Holy Spirit, Father, strengthened with mighty power in the inner man by Your Holy Spirit. Glory, glory, glory. Wow, my, my, my. Praise the Lord. Glory to God. Hallelujah.
Right. So I shared with you last week didn’t I? I shared with you; I read you the prophecy by Kenneth Copeland. Right, I’m just going to remind you and then I’ve got special points from the Lord this morning because Pastor John told me yesterday afternoon. He said he had it on his heart already that I was to minister today. So evidently there’s something that God wants to say through me, today. Glory to God. That He had it on his heart but He only let me know in the afternoon. So, no problem, I’m full of many things, I just had to get things in formation of where I have to go to today. And He gave me the points to speak to you and minister to you His Word today. Hallelujah.
So I did read to you, He did want me to remind you that prophecy and I’ll speak to you a little bit about that now, the prophecy that was delivered by Kenneth Copeland in 2009. And part of it says; The prayer, the prayer, the prayer that has gone forth. The prayer that is going forth that is where the power release is. Why? Because when you pray, your spirit by the Holy Spirit within you prays. So the Holy Spirit is the one that gives you the utterance. He is releasing, like it says in the book of Acts; when they were filled with the Holy Spirit they began to speak and they give clear, actually it says in the Amplified, clear, loud, appropriate words. They spoke in clear, loud, appropriate words. So God knows what we’re saying, even though 1 Corinthians 14 says that our my mind is unfruitful, but our spirit prays. And God, our heavenly language is immediately and instantly intelligible to God because He gave us our heavenly language. It came from Heaven; the Holy Spirit came from Heaven with languages. It says on the day of Pentecost, languages as of fire settled on each one of them and suddenly there came a sound from Heaven, and languages settled, and as they were filled with the Holy Spirit, they spoke in that language that had settled on them. Glory to God. Isn’t that wonderful? And so now, we are filled and we have this Heavenly language and I Corinthians 14 is full of it. When I pray in an unknown tongue I do not speak to man, I speak to God. How be it? In the spirit I’m speaking mysteries and things not obvious to my understanding. I’m so grateful that I can have a mental bypass; that my spirit can speak so purely, so accurately, so clearly, so pointedly, so strategically to God about anything that I want to talk to Him about. Glory. And I have His Word on it, I have His Word on it, I have His promises, I have His holy written Word; but then I have my holy language, my holy heavenly language too. The things that I don’t understand how it’s going to come to pass. That’s what I pray. Glory to God. So that’s why it’s so powerful because it’s pure, it’s clear and it’s clean.
So that is, it says here, the prayer that’s gone forth, the prayer that is going forth, that’s where the power release is. That’s where the trigger is. That’s the way you release the power in your church. And thus says the Lord, “In this hour, these churches that are teaching and training people to pray, this is corporate prayer, people, teaching and training their people to pray corporately, these churches in this hour that are teaching and training their people to pray, those are the churches where the explosion and the Shekinah glory of God will be manifest first. The Shekinah glory of God is the presence of God manifest among us to a degree that will change us eternally, His manifest corporate presence.
Let’s see here. The glory of God will be manifest first there. The praying churches will walk in it first. And they’ll say, “My, revival broke out over there”. No, answered prayer broke out over there. The awakening will come out of congregations and people will come into houses of worship where the glory is residing and hanging and say, “to be clean, to be clean, to be clean”. And they’ll come into that atmosphere and My blood will cleanse them from the top of their head. My blood will cleanse them from the top of their head to the soles of their feet. And my Word will take root on the inside of them.
And this church is headed for a Holy Spirit manifestation; it’s on us right now. Isn’t that wonderful? Glory to God. And you know the manifestations of God and that word that Pastor John brought in 2010, it’s not happening in spectacular fashion, as some would think as though they could have something to do with it. The supernatural is happening in us and among us organically but very powerfully. I know, everybody that’s been taking hold of the words of God and the messages of God are experiencing marvels and wonders. If I had to start tonight we wouldn’t be able to stop of your testimonies of what God has done for you this year. We wouldn’t have enough time to get through everyone who has a testimony to testify of the marvels and wonders of God this year, and the extraordinary manifestations of His greatness for you, to you, personally. Hallelujah. Glory to God. My, my, my. And so, we thank God for that.
And so the Lord wanted me to tell you that God still gives men prophecy today. So I just read an example of a prophecy that God has helped me to keep alive in me from 2009; to keep working in me. He’s helped me to keep it alive in me. Activated in me, okay? Just like every now and again the Lord may lead you to go to 2016 the great breaking loose, extraordinary manifestations in the Heavenlies, angelic more and more, angelic visitations, more and more instant healings, more and more. He might lead you to go there. Why? He just doesn’t want it to die and He wants it to stay alive and activate in you and because His inspired utterances, because that’s all that prophesy, not that that’s all, but prophesy is an inspired utterance given to a man or to a woman by God. And you can experience that in your own personal prayer time with God when you’ll be praying and praying and praying and then you’ll just find inside you’ll shift to another gear and the Lord will give you a prophetic utterance that’s more and that’s inspired and you know it’s a different gear. Praise and glory to God. And then you know you’re encountering Him in that moment and your faith is activated at a higher level when that happens. And you know that you can hold onto that more surely than if you were just speaking God’s Word and speaking God’s Word, which is good. But when there is that switch of that inspired utterance that comes, it is a sure thing to hold onto. Glory to God.
And so God gives prophecy still through men today and He will until the end of it all when we will; He will be with us and we will be with Him eternally, although we are now. But until that time tongues will not seize, there will; we will still be flowing in prophecy where God gives men and women inspired utterances, and like I shared with the Witbank people this morning; I have lived with this, it is the way that God has taught us when we were planted in our church and we were there for 19 years before we were released into the full time ministry; Pastor John and I. Our pastor would bring us the prophecy from Kenneth Hagin for the year.
I remember 2006 was the year of the fix that God was going to fix something. I remember 2007 was going to be we think we died and went to heaven. Yes, I know we’ve heard that before, but you know it is still powerful to me. Hallelujah. And 2009; everything is going to be fine if you stay in faith. And so I remember prophecies like that, and I remember words that would come from Dad Hagin and our Pastor would give it to us. Why? Because we were divinely connected to Dad Hagin. We didn’t surf the web to go and see what everybody all over the world is prophesying. God never taught us like that. He taught us in your house is everything you need. Glory to God. Even though I’d have, especially women, I don’t know why, but they’d come and say, “Did you hear that prophet? Did you hear that prophet?” And I’m like, “I’m at home, I eat at home. I eat at home. You want to visit every restaurant that’s your business, but I’m sticking with the simplicity of the way God has taught me.” Hallelujah. Eat at home. This is where I eat. Glory to God.
So, we have had, even when Dad Hagin went home to be with the Lord in 2003, oh no, 1996 the year of the fix, 1997, sorry, you’re going to think you died and went to Heaven, 1998 the year of ah, 1999 the year of the divine, 1999. That’s right and so he prophesied; he had this word every year and it would come to us from my pastor and it would thrill our hearts. And Pastor John and I learned to lay hold of it with faith, and it would produce in our lives, you know.
And so, and then he prophesied in 2003, he prophesied in the beginning 2004 was going to be a year of judgment and I remember at the end of 2004 when things hit our lives, 2005 was going to be, and 2006 he prophesied up to I think 2007. Oh my, my, my, that was his last prophecy, if I could describe it and the year; that’s only the beginning of the year, but it’s going to increase in intensity, and everybody should come up; nobody should come up empty handed, everyone should be walking in full victory, demanding their rights in Christ Jesus. Demanding nothing of the Father for He’s the One that’s given them, but demanding of the enemy who’s endeavouring to thwart them. And then the year will grow in intensity. Glory to God.
I still use that last prophecy of Dad Hagin’s and it is still fully activated in my life because what are they? They are inspired utterances of God that come and they, in a trajectory into my heart that never ends; they’re eternal. Glory to God. It’s like the Psalms that David wrote; they were inspired by the Holy Spirit and they are still inspired. They’re still inspired.
You better believe that in Heaven they sing the psalms; they sing the psalms of David. You better believe that if it says in the book of Revelation that they sing the song of Moses, and they sing the song of the Lamb. There is a song of Moses in Exodus if you go and find it. Revelations says they sing it in Heaven. You better believe that they’re singing David’s psalms. Glory to God.
And so, God still gives prophecy today and I’m going to read you the scriptures to support what God wanted me to tell you today; wanted me to tell you that He gives prophecy through men still today.
1 Thessalonians 5:19-21, Amplified Bible says, 19Do not quench (suppress or subdue) the [Holy] Spirit; and how would we do that? By spurning. 20Do not spurn the gifts and utterances of the prophets [do not depreciate prophetic revelations, don’t depreciate, appreciate, nor despise inspired instruction or exhortation or warning]. 21But test and prove all things [until you can recognize] what is good; [to that] hold fast (1 Thessalonians 5:19-21 AMPC).
2 Peter 1:19-21, also the Amplified Bible, 19And we have the prophetic word [made] firmer still. What are we to do with the prophetic word? You will do well to pay close attention to it. You will do well. Okay, just stop there for a while. You will do well to pay close attention to it. As to a lamp shining in a dismal (squalid and dark) place, until the day breaks through [the gloom] and the Morning Star rises (comes into being) in your hearts (2 Peter 1:19 AMPC).
What does that all mean? You; what it means is that you pay close attention until that prophecy from Jesus to His church comes into being; comes into the fullness of it’s being; rises and manifests in your life to its fullness. That’s what all of that means, simply put; beautifully put. Breaks through the gloom of your life, breaks through the gloom in the world’s system, breaks through any gloom that may want to just be around you. This prophetic word will just break through it. And the Morning Star rises, Jesus is the morning Star and He gives the prophecy to His church and it will rise in your heart and come to being.
20[Yet] first [you must] understand this, that no prophecy of Scripture is [a matter] of any personal or private or special interpretation (loosening, solving). Verse 21, look here, 21For no prophecy ever originated because some man willed it (2 Peter 1:20-21 AMPC). This prophecy that has been coming to us all the years through Kenneth Hagin; and I’m speaking about legacy transfer here now people, and that’s been coming to us from Brother Jerry, started bringing prophecy to us, after Dad Hagin died. He started to get it; he started to get the same anointing as Dad Hagin. He would get it in rhyme, sometimes he gets it in rhyme and sometimes he doesn’t. It doesn’t matter; it’s an inspired utterance from Jesus to us. Glory to God. And we would do well to pay close attention to it.
So it says here, 21No prophecy ever originated because some man willed it. Brother Jerry just didn’t sit and make something up for us. How did it come to him? Men spoke from God who were borne along (moved and impelled) by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21 AMPC). So today, Brother Jerry, Pastor John, is still moved along and impelled by the Holy Spirit that’s how prophecy comes.
The Passion translation says this, 21No true prophecy comes from human initiative but is inspired by the moving of the Holy Spirit upon those who spoke the message that came from God. Can I read that again? 21No true prophecy comes from human initiative but is inspired by the moving of the Holy Spirit upon those who spoke the message that came from God (2 Peter 1:21 TPT).
I mean I’ve had times in my prayer time where I’ve been just praying in the spirit for my husband, as He taught me to do when I was a young married woman with my children. And He would say, “He’s going out to work there; it’s dog-eat-dog out there.” I’ll never forget that. He used those words with me; it’s dog-eat-dog. You pray for him. You pray for him and He would lead me to pray, and He would lead me to say, and to speak and to say, “I thank You, Father, as He goes to work today, You roll out the red carpet of favour.” That was the one that I did often. “You roll out the red carpet of favour for him; paved for him by the blood of Jesus.” He would give me pictures and show me the red carpet, “And pray that Sharon, and say that Sharon, and pray in the spirit”, and then sometimes I would pray in the spirit for him, not all the time, but there would be a word for my husband, it was an inspired utterance.
You know, like for example the one day the Lord said to me and so, “Yes they are going to fire him because he’s standing firm, but you tell him that I have something better for him and that he must just stay steady.” So when he came a few days later and he walked through the front door in the middle of the day, I said, “I know”, and then I was able to give him that word and we were able to rejoice in our lounge. Glory to God. It was an inspired utterance. It wasn’t; it didn’t come from my human impulse, but I was borne along. I spoke the message that came from God to me. I’ve had words that the Lord gave me as I have prayed for Brynn, since they were little, and for Garth, at, different seasons of their lives and times, and they; He would give me words to settle me when they were making choices and He would say certain things to me, inspired utterance to me. Glory to God. And I held onto them because I knew that this is God.
So, Isaiah 48, okay, I’m not going to go to Isaiah 48. I want to show you now our part. 1 Timothy 1:18 and 19. What is our part when a prophecy comes? Look at what Paul told Timothy, 18This charge I commit to you, son Timothy according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare; 19Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck (1 Timothy 1:18-19 KJV)
So Pastor John read this scripture last week from the Passion Translation where he said use your prophecies as weapons as you wage spiritual warfare by faith. Use this prophecy that Brother Jerry has given us about marvels and wonders and beyond. Remember? The Lord said to him it’s not going to stop; extraordinary manifestations of the greatness of our God. You use prophecy as a weapon with faith. Hallelujah. Who’s your weapon against? Against the enemy who comes to your mind to tempt you, comes against your will, comes against your worship, comes to change your language so that he can get your words, so that you don’t speak this Word, you speak his words and his language that he wants you to speak, because he knows what powerful speaking spirits we are. Hallelujah. And he knows if he can put things into your mind from the outside through circumstances that he’ll create from the outside and get you to speak his words, that he’s got you because you got yourself because you’re a powerful speaking spirit and you just spoke death. You just spoke doubt, you just spoke your emotion, you just said what you felt like saying. That’s what he’s after. He’s after seeing if he can get you to change your language, but not in this house. He may not; he cannot, not in this house, not in this house. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. We are those who say what we hear Him say, just like Jesus. We live on earth as it is, you know, as Jesus lived when He was on the earth. Glory to God.
So use your prophecies as weapons as you wage spiritual warfare by faith, right. So now this is the next thing that He wanted me, next point. Okay. So the point I’ve made very well that God gives prophecy through men today. I’ve shown you the scripture. Are you convinced? Glory to God.
And then our part is to wage the good warfare with faith. Right? Use the prophetic word, pay close attention to it as to a lamp that shines in a dark place. If you’re in a dark place pay close attention to the prophetic word, that’s a light that’s given to you, shine it. Let the light come out of your mouth. Just shine it all around. Glory to God. It is the power of God unto your salvation. Glory. That’s how you change your circumstances. That’s what God said to Joshua, “Joshua, you don’t let this Word depart out of your mouth.” He didn’t say to Joshua, “Don’t worry about anything. You can say what you like. I’ll just speak over you.” No, He said to Joshua, “Joshua, you don’t let these words that I’m speaking to you depart out of your mouth, but you meditate on them day and night so that you can do according to all of it. So that you can make your own way prosperous and have good success.” We make our own way prosperous when we deny the devil any opportunity to get us to speak the reality of our circumstances because it’s subject to change by the power of God’s Word. Hallelujah. Glory. This is that which overcomes the world even our faith. And faith comes by hearing. And me, I’m hearing what He’s saying to me, and you’re hearing.
So that’s very good. I’ve made those points very well. Let me just see here now and our part. Now what the Lord wants me to speak to you about, it’s what Pastor John encouraged me with this morning; just stay on those points He gave you. I’m staying. I did well this morning too, he was very happy with me.
The next point is, speak about totally dedicated disciples. It’s the next point He gave me. Speak about totally dedicated disciples. So it comes from Pastor John’s message last week and he said this, “I want to say that Jesus, the Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit do not need everybody in the church. He would like it.” I just want to put it a little bit stronger, He would desire it earnestly that every one of His children be a high level disciple. He would like it but He does not need everybody in the church to be high level disciples, does not need everybody. He needs some people to be totally dedicated disciples, because if there are some people that will be dedicated disciples on the earth then they can represent all of what Jesus intended on the earth for all of the church on the earth, so that in the realm of the spirit God can turn and say to all of the spirit realm, “There are people on the earth that look like Me, that talk like Me, that behave like Me, that speak like Me, that are like Me, they’re becoming more and more like Me in their press with their own walk with Me. They are being transformed into My likeness. They have matured into a sonship and they’ve come into a maturity now.” So He can say into the spirit realm, “And all I need is some of them to be like Me, then they can represent all of the people that have Me inside of them but have not paid the price that these people have.”
This group of people is busy rising to a level of spiritual maturity; some have risen to the level of spiritual maturity. They give Him total obedience and total allegiance. These were the words that came here. I want you to see He used high level disciples, totally dedicated disciples. Totally dedicated disciples and high level disciples, you don’t need actually to have any education to be a high level disciple and a totally dedicated disciple. So were the 12 disciples. They were ordinary fishermen but they were totally dedicated disciples who came into their mature manhood as they were with Jesus. Glory to God. And even after He left and they were baptised in the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and they had the Holy Spirit resident in them who helped them to become totally dedicated disciples and high level disciples to pay the price, to pay the price. Was that not in Brother Jerry’s bag of seeds that he brought to us? Are you willing? What price are you prepared to pay for God’s manifest presence in your life, in our church, in our corporate meetings, in our prayer meetings, in our homes, in our families? What price are you prepared to pay? And so this group are giving Him total obedience, total elegance in their hearts. Hallelujah.
Okay, now I just want to read you a little bit here. I just want to read it just to confirm what Pastor John has just said. The Lord has been speaking to me, spoke to me many years ago about this principle of He doesn’t need everybody. He wants everybody but He doesn’t need everybody to get His plans and purposes fulfilled in the earth. He didn’t need everybody to get Jesus born. He needed Anna and Simeon, and the prophet Isaiah in his day to prophecy the birth of Jesus. He does not need a majority to get His plans to come to pass in the earth, as was shown with the principle with Gideon. “You got way too many people with you to get this victory for Me, Gideon and for My people. You’ve got way to many people. I’m going to make a cut and then I’m going to make a further cut. And I’m going to see how these people qualify and these are the people that will go with you to get the victory because they’re not going to say, ‘I had something to do with it’, they’re not going to be afraid when you beat the enemy and so you go.” They represented the whole, it was a part.
I know Pastor Lynn calls it the remnant principle, as well, which is those that allow themselves to come through the fire of God. Allow themselves to be purified in their hearts; desire to become more like Jesus. In fact, their whole life long they’re just responding to their new creature that says, “I just want to be like you, Jesus. I am raging in my inside in my new creatureness to be like You.” Because it’s your destiny and it’s my destiny, you have to squash that in your life to not become like Jesus because Romans 8 says, we are predestined to be molded into the image, to be transformed into the image of Christ Jesus our Lord. All of us have been predestined to be like Jesus. So you do desire to be like Jesus and so do I, because it’s our destiny. God puts your destiny in your heart to want to be like Jesus. So you have to actually squash that to say “No, I’m just going to be like everyone else. I’m just going to do what everyone else does.” You actually have to put that aside. It’s actually naturally supernatural for you to actually pursue, your whole life to be in pursuit of wanting Christ to be formed in you. It’s natural, supernaturally natural. It’s natural for a born again believer to want to be like Jesus because the Holy Spirit puts it in you, He puts it in you to want to be like Him.
And so, all of God’s people have a part in His eternal purpose. This is a gentleman called Watchman Nee who was an apostle of God many years ago, he’s with the Lord, but God gave me much insight into this that Pastor John said in this message last week. All of God’s people have a part in His eternal purpose, but not all will take up their rightful responsibility. Therefore God chooses a group of people from among them; this group is a portion of the whole and a part of the many chosen by God. When this group is compared with the whole, their number is a minority, but God’s plan is fulfilled in them and His purpose rests upon them. How often have you heard me say, “God’s counting on us, people, God’s counting on us.” And we’re thinking but what’s happening and where are we going and its Pastor John’s obedience and it’s legacy transfer. But oh, we are on this journey, we are occupying. If we could see in the realm of this Spirit how super effective, how we are changing things, if we could see the effects of our obediences we’re giving Him in the realm of the Spirit; we would just be amazed. Hallelujah. We’d just be amazed.
And so it says here, they will achieve God’s purpose, alright. At the cross, the death of the Lord Jesus has already dealt with the position which Satan gained at man’s fall. Because what he says here is that the reason He needs a people, like Pastor John was talking about, a totally dedicated disciple and a high-level disciple; is for the purpose, people, of walking in the fullness of the authority that the Lord Jesus Christ walked in when He was on earth. Is to be able to rule and reign in life as kings. In our circumstances personally and in the Church; the Ecclesia. To legislate with authority on behalf of the Father in the earth as it is in Heaven, currently what God is busy with right now with His plans on the earth. Glory to God. I’m speaking to your spirit. I’m speaking to your spirit.
So it says here, it says here, the head of the Church is on the throne and God’s purpose is not just to have one man upon the throne but many men upon the throne. His original desire was to have a group of people on the throne seated with Him to exercise His authority. God desires that Christ and the Church together will bring to fulfillment His purpose. However the majority of the people in the Church are not attaining to the throne, only a minority according to the book of Revelation called overcomers. Jesus writes very definitely to every Church, calls them by name, and says, “You’re doing, you’re doing this well. You’re doing, but that and that and that.” And to him who overcomes. I will give to him who overcomes. I will give. Jesus has given this open door to us. He’s the only one who can open a door for His people in His Church. And I’ve got good news for those of you that are seeking to walk through the narrow door that leads to life. It’s a narrow door, this new door. Because narrow is the door that leads to true life, resurrection life of Christ. Wide is the door that leads too where most people are walking, people.
So it says here, God desires that Christ and the Church together, Christ and the Church together will bring to fulfillment His purpose. So at the cross the death of the Lord Jesus has already dealt with the position which Satan gained by man’s fall. Redemption has destroyed the legal position of Satan. Now the work of the Church is to execute in the Kingdom of God what the Lord Jesus has accomplished in redemption and bring to an end the legal position of Satan gained by man’s fall. I could go to at least ten scriptures in the New Testament to prove this to you and I don’t have time. But the one in Ephesians that I’m thinking of now that Gods speaks to me through often; through the Church, through the Ecclesia the wisdom of God, the many-sided wisdom of God will now be made known to the principalities and the rulers in Heavenlies; through the Church.
So, redemption is Christ’s solution for the fall. The Kingdom is the Church’s solution for the fall. The work of judgment was Christ’s while the task of executing this judgment rests upon the Church. That’s why our prayers are legislative, our prayers are pleading our case and bringing our case to God. Sheesh, we bring our case to God because He has given us authority on the earth, to intervene in the affairs of earth. So God is wanting to raise us up to new levels of authority. We haven’t even, we have begun, we have begun to touch, we have begun to touch some of that knowing of we’re walking in that authority under the mantle of the apostolic that is upon Pastor John. But God is saying to us, “There’s new levels of authority that you as a believer when you become a totally dedicated disciple and a totally high-level disciple, you’ll be walking in higher levels of authority, both for your personal life and as a body together.” Hallelujah. Jesus said that, people.
I am going to read you something so awe-inspiring now. It inspired awe in me. It produced wonderment in me, okay. He writes to the Church at Thyatira and at the end, he says to them, to the Church, to the Church at Thyatira, but in verse 26 He says, He says, 26He who overcomes (is victorious) and who obeys my commands to the [very] end [doing the works that please Me], I will give him authority and power, I will give Him authority and power, over the nations; 27And he shall rule them with a (rod) of iron, and [his power over them shall be] like that which I Myself have received from My Father (Revelations 2: 26-27 AMPC).
He gives it to the Church on earth. He’s the one that can give that. He gives that when we qualify like Pastor John spoke last week about the BMW. Let’s see what you’re doing? “Are you fully using what you’ve already got so that I can give you more?” “Yes, we are fully using what we’ve already got, Father. In PCG’s You see how we are faithful to pray for our nation with faith and we pray for Brother Jerry and we pray for Pastor John. Lord, we’re fully using; we’re engaged in the messages, Father. Our faith is working. Can you see how we are praising you from our heart and we’re learning, we are yielding to the person of the Holy Spirit. Yes Lord, we, we, we.” Yes, of course, everybody, everybody, Satan will come and tell everybody, “You could do more, you could do be better.” We know by now we don’t listen to that. We judge our own selves with sober judgment the Bible says. He says, “Now I come to give, now I come to give you.” Glory to God. He’s coming to give us more, people. We’re going to be more like Jesus than ever before, more authority to rule and to reign.
So, this was very beautiful to me too. In Revelation 3, He says here in verse 7, 7And to the angel (messenger), that’s the messenger, of the assembly (church), which is the spiritual leader, in Philadelphia write: These are the words of the Holy One, the True One, He Who has the key of David, Who opens and no one shall shut, Who shuts and no one shall open (Revelation 3:7 AMPC). Jesus is the One that opened this door. He opened it and no one can shut it. You can decide not to go through it, but no one can shut it. If Jesus opens a door for us, if He tells us, “I’m opening a new door for you,” no one can shut it. And when you realise it’s Jesus that inspired this utterance for a new open door, through which supernatural increase is going to come, then you will reverence it more. If you can see that; He has the keys, He can open a door with the key. He can open it and say, “Come, come.” He can give that to a messenger like Brother Jerry and say, “Come, come through, come, come in.”
He gives things to specific churches. If you have a look at verse 12 here, 12He who overcomes (is victorious), I will make him a pillar in the sanctuary of My God; I will write on him (Revelation 3:12 AMPC). See, it’s Jesus speaking, “I will make you, I will write on you as you overcome.” Well, you can go and read all of that for yourself; it is very beautiful, it’s awe inspiring to me. So Christ gives. Christ gives. There are things Jesus gives to a people in a designated church, who qualify to their levels of obedience, because in that church that He gave, He said, “I’ll give you authority over nations such as I have over nations.” He was talking to them and telling them, “You deal with Jezebel in your church; otherwise I’m going to come.” He says, “If you don’t deal with Jezebel in your church, that spirit of operation, I’m going to come and I’m going to deal with her and I’m going to take your lampstand from you. That lampstand means your right to rule and reign with Me in the Heavenlies.” You see what a great responsibility we have to mature, to become mature sons of God, so that we can rule and reign with Him, so that He can get His stuff done in the earth, He can get His stuff done in the Earth. He can do it because He can’t do it without mature sons of God. He can’t do it with sloppy, low-level disciples. He loves them, but He’s looking for the totally dedicated disciple, because He’s looking; there’s more authority here, there’s more influence here. There’s more. Glory to God.
So, let me see, oh, when the Lord Jesus died all the power of Satan was destroyed. But what can actually cause Satan to lose his power in Heavenlies? What can cause all his power to be brought to an end? It is by God’s children on earth repeated, repeatedly dealing with him, instance after instance, and overcoming him. The work of the church is that we all together resist the work of Satan that we all together cast out the demons. Now listen to what this means; this is not I come to you and you are demon-possessed and I say, “Come out in Jesus’ Name.” Listen to this; the casting out of demons does not necessarily mean that when we encounter a demon we should confront him. Casting out demons means we cast out all the work and power of the demons in our lives. We lay hold of the authority of the Lord and stand fast in our position, we lay hold. What is it? It’s that scripture, it’s that Word that he spoke; I lay hold of my authority. It’s that promise He made. He has entrusted, God does not work directly by His own hand to cause Satan to fall. It could be very, He has entrusted this work to the Church. This is why there must be overcomers standing in the position of the Church to do God’s work. Glory to God.
Okay, there are lots more like that but speak about totally dedicated disciples. That’s what the Lord wants me to do. What does it totally dedicated disciple look like? So I’m going to read from Luke 14 from The Passion Translation. The Passion Translation, Luke 14 from verse 25, and actually in The Passion Translation it’s called The Cost of Following Jesus, 25As massive crowds followed Jesus, He turned to them and said, 26“When you follow Me as My disciple, you must put aside your father, your mother, your wife, actually one translation says your spouse, you must put aside your spouse, must put aside your mother, you must put aside your father. You love them all but this is what Jesus says, 26You must put aside your father, your mother, your wife, your sisters, your brothers – yes, you will even seem as though you hate your own life. This is the price you’ll pay to be considered one of My followers. 27And anyone who comes to me must be willing to share My cross and experience it as his own (Luke 14:25-27, TPT). You have to die the death that Jesus died, not physically on the cross, but in your heart with your will, your willfulness and your words and your worship. Hallelujah. You have to win the war of worship, the war of wills; you have to win the war of words. Where you’re so, revealed, His words are so revealed to you personally, through the messages and through your own press of wanting to be like Jesus that you cannot but speak what you see and speak what you hear. Glory to God.
So it says here in verse 33 of Luke 14 in The Passion, 33Unless you surrender all to Me, giving up all you possess, you cannot be one of my disciples (Luke 14:33 TPT). The Amplified Bible says, 25Now huge crowds were going along with [Jesus], and He turned and said to them, 26If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his [own] father and mother… …and wife and children and brothers and sisters- [yes] and even his own life, The Amplified says it very well here, 26…[in the sense of indifference to or relative disregard for them in comparison with his attitude towards God]… …he cannot be My disciple (Luke 14:25-26 AMPC). Isn’t that amazing? So, that’s not one step out of love with your brother, your sister, your mother, your fathers, your wife, your husband. It’s not one step, your love walk is immaculate, your love walk is immaculate. But your love walk doesn’t look like the syrupy love that the world talks about or that Christians would say, “But you don’t love your husband?” or “You don’t love your wife?” “Oh, Abigail would not have heard you”. “You’re not being very nice to your husband, you know?” “So, it means I’m following Jesus first.” It’s like Smith Wigglesworth’s wife, Polly. He said, “You’re not going to go to church.” She said, she said, “Smith,” now I’m talking it works both ways for men; it says husbands leave your wives with relative indifference to them compared to your devotion and your allegiance to Jesus. This is not going to look like anything that’s out of love, people. It’s going to look like Jesus. Where Jesus said to Peter that He loved, “Get behind me Satan. You’re minding the things of men and you’re a snare to Me, you’re a stumbling block here to Me, preventing Me from fulfilling My destiny, preventing Me from going to the cross.” So, where was I with this now?
So in order to qualify, to be part of a people such as this that Pastor John was speaking about that God has need of, so God can speak into the spirit realm and say, “Look and therefore their words will win the war, what they say, what they declare from earth in the Heavenlies will stand, and I can answer and I will answer and when they cry, I will come and when they call, I will come, and when they cry, I will hear, and I will do that petition that they are asking Me for because look, and it I will do it at this level because look at their level of discipleship. Look at their level of winning the war of words and worship and their will.”
So you can’t, this is my last point; you can’t negotiate trade-offs with God. When it comes to what God needs in the earth for His Kingdom purposes, you can’t marginalise with spiritual requirements that God has. When God is ready on His timeline with His plan, He doesn’t negotiate, He doesn’t negotiate. You can have a look at that with the five wise virgins and the five foolish virgins. Jesus shut the door and they couldn’t open it. Jesus opened the door and five went through and then He waited and waited and He shut the door, and that other five didn’t go through. They were all belonged to Him, but when there comes a strategic time of God to move, right. It’s just like the Israelites at that strategic time, what they did, what they did and they didn’t enter. There was a door for them open to go into the Promised Land, they didn’t go through. Disobedience cost them.
So you understand what I’m saying here. Are you with me, people? God wanted me to share with you about the level of disciple you can be if you want to be at any time. He wants me to tell you that to be a totally dedicated disciple any new creature can be, any new creation, born again child of God can be at any moment, in any time you can search and switch, search and switch, search and switch and not listen to the lies of the devil that say to you, “But you’ve been like this for so long. What makes you think anything’s going to be different now?” No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I change now. I switch right now, I switch right now. Glory to God.
So here’s another Message Bible, 1 Samuel 15. And this is my last scripture. 1 Samuel 15, Message Bible from verse 10, where God is saying, “I’m not going to negotiate with you, I’m not going to negotiate with you.” This is what He means like this. When I require an obedience of you, I require, if you’re going to be a totally dedicated, you’re going to be totally obedient. You’re not going to negotiate with Me and say, “But I do pay my tithes, Lord, but I’m not going to do this. But I do obey You in this, but not that.” You can’t barter with God like that and negotiate with God like that.
Here’s a man who did. 10Then God spoke to Samuel: “I’m sorry I ever make Saul king. He’s turned his back on me. He refuses to do what I tell him.” He refuses to do what I tell Him. Can you all see that? 11Samuel was angry when he heard this. He prayer his anger and disappointment all through the night. He got up 12early in the morning to confront Saul but was told, “Saul’s gone. He went to Carmel to set up a victory monument in his own honor, and then was headed for Gilgal.” By the time Samuel caught up with him, Saul had just finished an act of worship, having used Amalekite plunder for the burnt offerings sacrificed to God (1 Samuel 15:10-12 MSG). So God told him you don’t take any of it. You kill everything and he says, “No, I’m not going to do that, but I am going to offer it to You, because I did do a lot of other things You told me to do. I didn’t do everything You told me but I did a lot of things You told me to do, but not everything.”
So, 13As Samuel came close, Saul called out, “God’s blessings on you! I accomplished God’s plan to the letter!” 14Samuel said, “So what’s this I’m hearing. So what’s this I’m hearing? Verse 15. 15Only some Amalikite loot,” said Saul. You can see here how he’s trying to explain himself here, justify himself what he’s done. He’s negotiating with God to see if he can get away with it. “The soldiers saved back a few of the choice cattle. So in other words we killed most of them but we saved back a few of the choice cattle. And sheep to offer up in sacrifice to God. But everything else we destroyed under the holy ban.” 16“Enough!” Interrupted Samuel. “Let me tell you what God told me last night.” Saul said, “Go ahead. Tell me.” And Samuel told him. 17“When you started out in this, you were nothing. Isn’t that interesting? And you knew it. Then God put you at the head of Israel. Or God, you became born again, you became a child of God. He dressed you with a robe of righteousness and He received you to Himself and you said, “Yes,” to the blood of Jesus, you said, “Yes,” to the redemptive purposes of God. Then God put you at the head of Israel – made you king over Israel. Are we not kings and priests unto God? Has He not made us kings? Has He not crowned us with glory and honour, given us a new nature?
Then God sent you off to do a job for Him, ordering you. Do you remember those messages by Pastor John about the command? God will give you a command, an invitation is a command. He’s the commander. He is the commander. He gave you a command, ordering you, ‘Go and put those sinners, the Amalekites, under a holy ban. Go to war against them until you have totally wiped them out.’ So why did you not obey God? Could Saul have obeyed God? Yes. So why did you not obey God? Why did you grab all this loot? Why, with God’s eyes on you all the time, did you brazenly carry out this evil?” 20Saul defended himself. “What are you talking about? I did obey God (1 Samuel 15:13-20 MSG). This is what God’s saying to you now, you can’t do this anymore. You can’t marginalise like this anymore. Don’t do it. Don’t do it. His eyes are upon you all the time. Come on. He never stops loving you and He’ll never ever even leave you. But He wants you to qualify; He wants you to come into the maturity of sonship, so that you can be with Him on the job to get the job done.
20“What are you talking about? I did obey God. I did the job God set for me. I brought in King Agag and destroyed the Amalekites under the terms of the holy ban. 21So the soldiers saved back a few choice sheep and cattle from the holy ban for sacrifice to God at Gilgal – what’s wrong with that? (1 Samuel 15:20-21 MSG).
Well, God just told me to tell us all, tell me and tell you; let’s not do that with God, let’s not do that with God. Right? Cause we try and defend ourselves, “Well, at least I do that. At least I go to church. At least I, at least I.” Come, let’s not do that. Let’s not do that with our awesome God, right. Hallelujah. Glory.
And so, 22Then Samuel said, Do you think all God wants are sacrifices – empty rituals just for show? He wants you to listen to him! Listening is the thing, that’s what makes us a dedicated disciple, is we listen to Him. Glory. Because we can. Plain listening is the thing, not staging a production. But I did, but I do. Don’t stage a production. 23Not doing what God tells you is far worse than fooling around in the occult. Getting self-important around God. So he says this, Because you said No to God’s command, He says No to your kingship 1 Samuel 15:22-23 MSG). That was very powerful to me. Your ability to rule and reign over the enemy, you can’t. I want you to, I’ve given you all power and all authority over all the power of the enemy to trample and tread upon serpents and scorpions so that nothing by any means may hurt you. But if you persist in disobedience your kingship; He says no to your kingship. You have legally disqualified yourself. It’s not God who says no. It’s you who disqualified yourself through disobedience when you know what He said to you. We’ve all done that. We’ve all done that. And God’s just encouraging us in saying, “You didn’t have to do that. You can become a totally dedicated disciple.”
24Saul gave in and confessed, “I’ve sinned.” Well he confessed because he got caught out. So he had to confess. He didn’t confess because he was smitten and he was going to repent. He confessed because he got caught out and God called him on it. “I’ve sinned. I’ve trampled roughshod over God’s Word and your instructions. I cared more about” (1 Samuel 15:24 MSG). Okay, I cared more about. That’s the part, just that phrase that God showed me. You care more about. I cared more about something else than following God’s instructions. No, no. We say, “I care more about God.” That’s what Jesus meant, was to leave that, leave that and follow Me, follow Me. I care more about Jesus than my wife, my husband, my mother, my father, I care more about them. I care more about Jesus and following Jesus. Okey dokey. Did you get something out of this? Isn’t this wonderful. Oh, I do have one last scripture. I do. This is what the Lord said to me this morning. “So Sharon, when you bring this message to the people,” He was just so personal with me as I was preparing for this. He said to me, “So Sharon, so when you bring this message to the people, they are going to sit there and some of them are going to ask, and even in their hearts they will ask, well, are you a totally dedicated disciple Sharon, Pastor Sharon, are you?” You know that was a new thing to me that He said and I thought, “Okay, so are You asking me or is that what the people are going to be thinking in their hearts? So are You, are You asking me that?” So I said to the Lord, “Lord, You know, You know, I have a certain press, I have a certain press.” That’s what I said to Him. I am pressing. I am reaching. I am. I am.” And it kind of hung there between me and God. And then the next thing that the Holy Spirit helped me to say was this, “But I need Your mercy. I ask for Your mercy on me, Your mercy, that You will be merciful towards me and that Your Holy Spirit, in Your mercy, I have never seen, I have never kind of had that depth of experience of mercy like I did today, where I realised that it’s in Your mercy that I got saved and born again. It’s in Your mercy that You sought me, it’s in Your mercy that You found me, I found You, I got saved. It’s in Your mercy that I got baptised in the Holy Spirit, that I got made, it’s Your mercy, it’s Your mercy, Lord. You are merciful towards me, mercy.” I said, “Lord, I am trusting that Your mercy, through the person of the Holy Spirit and Your fire, Your fire, will take all of me. I cannot and do not rely on myself to give everything to You. I am relying on the power of Your mercy and loving kindness. Give me the more that I need to become that totally dedicated disciple. Give me the extra that You have.”
Then when I was just standing washing the dishes before I came to Jo’burg, the Lord said to me, “I’m going to come, I’m coming to the Heritage of Faith people. Don’t even worry about it. I am coming, by the power of My Holy Spirit and with My Holy fire and I’m going to just take anybody that’s there for the taking. I’ll just take you completely with the power of my Holy Spirit and My fire and you will just know that only; only Me could have taken you to that degree. No matter how much you can press and reach and I am going to come in My mercy and I’m just going to come with My Holy Spirit and My fire and take you, just take you as a people.”
Let’s be ready. Did you get something out of this today? Because with a message like this, you can sit here and you can go, “How can I give You more of myself?” Right? Isn’t that right? Don’t you sit there and think? I thought, “I’m giving you, already, you know, Lord, I’ve been, I’ve been,” And then He just goes, “My mercy, I’m going to come take all of you because I know your press, I know, I see.” And how do we know what is enough to qualify as a totally dedicated but He knows how to do that in us. Glory to God. Aren’t you glad for the mercy of God that’s going to, He said, “By My Spirit and My fire; don’t even think about it again. I am coming. I am coming.” He just wanted to have that conversation with me so that when it happens, I know it’s His mercy and not my press and my prayers and my price. Hu, hu, hu, He is just amazing. Hallelujah.
Let’s say thank you to Him. Let’s say thank you to Him that He is coming to us as a people, in His mercy. He is coming to us because He has been watching all of our efforts; He has been watching all of our efforts for a long time. And He says, “I am going to come in My mercy now, I am going to finish it and I’m going to take You and You are going to be mature and You are going to be walking in authority and you’re going to be walking as a full-fledged son of God and you are going to be finding Yourself in that place because My power can just take you like that.” Hallelujah. Thank You. Thank You that in Your mercy You going to do it, Lord. Thank You. We receive it, Father. We receive it, Lord and we thank You for it. We expect it. We expect it and I pray for each and every single one of us, Father. You have seen all of our efforts; how we have pressed and how we have yearned and how we have longed and how we have come and how we have, and this and that and You see and You have heard our cry and You have seen our hearts, and now Lord, You come in Your mercy. And I thank You, Father that it works for every single one of us, Heritage of Faith people, in Your mercy. We receive it from You, from mercy, from the mercy seat, from the mercy seat. We thank You that You will come with Your Holy Fire and take us completely and it starts now.
Holy fire, holy fear; it starts now. How does it start? Pastor John came to me after this morning’s service and I said, “Is that it, babe? It was so burning in my heart that which I had to bring to the people and yet it’s this.” And he said, “Sharon, you turned open the gas,” combustion, he said something about combustion. He said, “And here it comes now. God just needed you to speak these words out so that He can come and do it; wait for it.” He said, “The fire of God is going to burn in our hearts like never before and transform us to the levels that we have yearned and longed for so long. Be the mature sons of God that creation is groaning for. As a people I have seen Your obedience and your ‘what you have become together’ and I now bring My mercy to you. You are going to see Me in power of My mercy; in the beauty of My mercy.”
Isn’t that wonderful? This is new, hot off the press people. I heard these words today and I bring them to you tonight, this evening with great joy. Be expecting as we are preparing for a fire to be kindling and as you, from this point onwards that fire will be kindling. Just be aware and expect it and just know that He is at work in His mercy.
I thank You, Father, they are blessed going out, blessed coming in. The word and the Blood of Jesus protects them Father. I thank You that Your plans and purposes for them are sure and they will come to pass, Father. These are a people Lord, full of faith. These are a people, a praying people; a House of Prayer, a household of faith and they are blessed, Father and now You come with Your mercy and we praise You and thank You in Jesus Name and we say, Amen. Hallelujah. Have a wonderful week. Glory.
© 2023 – Heritage of Faith Ministries International
TOUCH | TEACH | TRAIN | TRANSFER
