Scripture References: Philippians 1:19 (AMPC); Romans 8:14-17, 22 (NKJV); Romans 8:5-21, 26-28 (MSG); Ephesians 6:10-13 (NKJV); 1 Timothy 1:18-19 (NKJV); 1 Timothy 1:18-19 (NLT); 1 Timothy 1:18-19 (MSG); 1 Timothy 1:18-19 (TPT)
Pastor Sharon:
A very, very good warm, warm, warm hallo. We are so grateful to be back home, safe and sound and we really did have a wonderful time, and I’m appreciative of so many things that God did for us and I’m going to get right along because Pastor John asked me, just to share some things with you from my heart.
First of all, I would like to say, “Thank you” to all of you, that were praying for us before we left and while we were gone. We were spiritually very aware, of … that we were being carried on the wings of prayer. So, there is a scripture here that I would just like you to see from the Amplified Bible, Philippians 1:19 that I’d like just to read to you. Philippians 1:19 from the Amplified and it says this: 19For I am well assured and indeed know that through your prayers and a bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (the Messiah) this will turn out for my preservation (for the spiritual health and welfare of my own soul) and avail toward the saving work of the Gospel. (Philippians 1:19 AMPC), but these are Pastor John and I’s words to you today. We, Pastor John and I are well assured and we know and we knew it all the time while we were ministering and while we were on assignment, that through your prayers, and your bountiful supply of your spirits and the Spirit of Jesus Christ, it turned out for our preservation. We can’t even begin to tell you how we needed your prayers and how many situations God preserved us in, He preserved us. It turned out for our preservation. It turned out for our spiritual health. It turned out for the welfare of our own souls, and your prayers availed towards the saving work of the Gospel that we had to go and bring, to our family, Heritage of Faith in Fort Worth, Crowley. I bring you greetings from Brother Jerry and Ms. Carolyn and all of the leadership, the spiritual leadership, Pastor Justin and Annette, send all of their love to you, and their gratitude. They made special mention to say please send our love to you and they will see you soon. Glory to God.
Okay, so I want to read something to you, I want to read a prophecy to you. It was part of what we ministered, when we were at Heritage of Faith, Fort Worth. This was a prophecy that was delivered by Kenneth Copeland in 2009. It said, part of it says, the prayer, the prayer, the prayer that’s gone forth. The prayer that is going forth, that is where the power release is. That is where the trigger to these things is. That is the way you release them in your church, and thus says the Lord your God. In this hour, these churches that are teaching and training people to pray. These churches in this hour that are teaching and training their people to pray.
He is talking here about Corporate Prayer, Brother Copeland. He is not talking here about individual prayer. As a born-again believer you should have your own desire as a new creature in your own heart to be speaking to God in the way that we have taught you, but he is speaking here about Corporate Prayer. That have been teaching and training people to pray. Those are the churches where the explosion and the Shekinah Glory of God will be manifest first.
It is so, of such significance to me, that Pastor John and I’s first missions’ trip, internationally, we went on a mission’s trip. Sent by God, together to minister internationally together, was to establish prayer, Corporate Prayer. To have the privilege by God, by invitation of Pastor Justin and Anette, by permission and sanction and authorization of Brother Jerry. That it would be, to go to minister about Corporate Prayer, because they had heard about us. They had heard about the powerful Corporate Prayer coming out of this church. Jesus was the one that took a spiritual whip, so to speak to churches that were not a House of Prayer and had other agendas, in having God’s people come together. Taking advantage of God’s people’s desire to worship, they were making it a place of merchandise. My, my, my, and He said, “My house shall be called a House of Prayer”. Glory to God.
This was our obedience to the Holy Spirit’s voice to Pastor John in 2008, organize and establish Corporate Prayer and it will increase and intensify. I am here to tell you today, that while I was in America and we were busy teaching on Corporate Prayer, remember we were teaching on Corporate Prayer, they called us to come and teach them on Corporate Prayer. That while, we were there the Lord opened my eyes to this, one day while we were in America and I saw it, and He said to me, “Because you have come and your church has sent you to come and sow this seed of Corporate Prayer in this place, in obedience to My Spirit, Sharon you can expect a harvest of increase and intensified prayer when you get back home in your own churches.” I got so excited, I had to contain myself and control myself because He showed me, you’ve sown the seed, financial seed because we paid for ourselves to go, we paid for everything there, not expecting anything from them, we went to sow the seed that we were carrying inside of ourselves, Pastor John and I. The seed we’ve been carrying in ourselves concerning Corporate Prayer, and we went to deposit the seed. What is seed? It is words. The sower sows the word it says, “Words are seeds that you sow into the hearts of people and when they take it, the words will grow.”
That is what we went to do, and the Lord said, “You’ve come in obedience to Me” and as Bother Jerry said to us, “John and Sharon, you have no idea how timely, timely, timely, timely.” He kept using those words timely, you’re coming to us is. How timely, how timely and you all sent us. You sent us, you let us go with love and recognition of what we were going to do. You prepared with us in prayer. You sent us on wings of prayer. You upheld us on wings of prayer while we were there. Oh, this is my thank you to you today. It is my thank you, but I believe it is God’s thank much bigger than mine, to those of you have upheld us in prayer, before, during, glory to God. Your harvest is rich. You will find that even your personal prayer time is going to take on new dimensions because of your willingness to be part of Corporate Prayer and to be praying for us. You are going to find that even your personal prayer will go to a place of richness and depth and heights and lengths and breadth’s. Your harvest of your prayer seed that you sowed for our trip, God says “Thank you.” Pastor John and I say, “Thank you.”
So, that’s what he said in these, “this hour these churches that are teaching and training people to pray. Those are the churches where the explosion and the Shekinah glory of God.” Do you know what the Shekinah glory of God is? It’s His presence, manifest among us, to a degree, that will change you and me, eternally. His manifest corporate presence, people, that is all Pastor John and I live for. We don’t do Church for any other reason, other than to have His manifest presence and we’ve been on a journey with God to bring revelations to you so that you can become the kind of people and we can become the kind of people together that God will be well pleased to come and manifest Himself in a way.
That’s all we want; He is all we want; is Him to manifest Himself, when we come together. Glory to God. It’s His desire, much more intense, than any intense desire you could have for Him to want to manifest Himself and we will be teaching you in the weeks to come about the things that qualify us. More and more God is giving us revelation of the spiritual qualities that will qualify us for the manifest presence of God when we assemble together. The fear of the Lord, the reverence of the Lord, the love for one another, the reverence for His messages that He brings every Sunday, the respect and the honour for the person of the Holy Spirit, the expectation of the hearts of every person.
It’s got everything to do with who we are. God is not, we’re not waiting for God. God is waiting for us. Jesus could do no mighty works in places because of their unbelief and their disrespect, but in places where there was reference and honour and fear of God; He could do mighty works. He is manifesting at present, according to the degree of what we have become so far. So, if you are wanting more of His manifest presence and I want more of His manifest presence. We are going to become more, as we go through the New Open Door in 2020, in Jesus Name. Hallelujah. Corporate Prayer has everything to do with it and your personal prayer life with Jesus has got everything to do with it. Hallelujah. You will become what you reverence, if you reverence and respect prayer; you will be doing it. Glory.
The Shekinah of Glory of God will be manifest first, the praying churches will walk in it first and they’ll say; You know they, who they are, whoever they are, My, revival broke out over there. No, answered prayer broke out over there; the awakening will come out of congregations. People will run into Houses of Worship with a glory of God is residing and hanging heavy. It’s not enough for me, the glory of God in this place, hanging in this place, not enough for Him, not enough, it’s going to increase. That is the primary, supernatural increase in 2020, through the New Open Door that I desire – is an increase of His manifest presence when we assemble together. That is the number one on my list, joh, I’m going to try my left hand, my, my, my. Right, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, and so I will just finish with this.
They will run into Houses of Worship where the glory of God is residing, we have to qualify for His manifest presence with spiritual things, for faith and prayer and fear, the true fear of the Lord and High Praise. Hallelujah. They will run, and they will say, “Clean, clean, clean, oh, to be clean, to be clean.” And they’ll run into that atmosphere and 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 is on us, now.
Thank you for listening to me and for allowing me to share Pastor John, “Thank you.”
Pastor John:
Praise the Lord. Wow, that was awesome from Pastor Sharon. Hallelujah. Good to see all your faces, again. Welcome to church. Praise the Lord.
How many of you feel like Rugby World Cup champions? Come on, how many of you feel like a rugby world cup champions? How many of you are actually Rugby World Cup champions? How many people actually prepared themselves to play the game to become Rugby World Cup champions? Maybe, in the whole of South Africa let’s say 300, 400 all the Super Rugby teams? They prepared themselves to be possibly nominated to become part of the Springbok team, that could play to become World Cup champions, right? I think the squad with all the support help, and everything was maybe 35 people. How many people played the game on the day, I think 22, right? How many people, I’m going to ask the question again. I want to see all your hands again. How many of you feel like Rugby World Cup champions? Feels good, doesn’t it? How many people are actually Rugby World Cup champions? 35 maybe, right? So, we may feel like it, but there’s only very few people that are it. There’s a big difference between feeling like a champion and being a champion.
Come on, I’m already preaching very good today, right? The wonderful thing about, about what happened with the Rugby World Cup champions, is that because they are our people, that we sent to represent us, we share in their glory. Not only do we share in their glory, but they bring their glory back to us. We can share in their glory. How many people feel like Rugby World Cup champions? How many are actually Rugby World Cup Champions? Very few. But because they represent us and because we sent them, we all share in the same glory and South Africa has become famous because we won the Rugby World Cup. Guess what? Because you prayed for us, because you sent us, we did championship performing duties for Jesus. We made His name famous, we made Him glorious in the USA.
And so, people are giving glory to God because of what we as a church have become. So, not the whole church went with us, but the whole church prepared with us and came with us as though you were there with us because you stayed behind and you did your job for us, so we all share in the glory of what God is doing. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus.
I want to take this theme, a little bit further and I want to say, that Jesus, the Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit, do not need everybody in the Church. He would like it, but He does not need everybody in the Church, to be high level disciples. 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, He 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, 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 been able to pay the price that these people have paid.”
Our calling and what God has assigned us to do, is not to speak a message to evoke inspiration from you. Inspiration lasts a very short time. Spiritual dedication lasts eternally. God has not called us to make you feel good. We like you to feel good when you go home. We don’t like you to feel bad. So, if we ever preach a message and you feel bad when you go home, it’s probably the Holy Spirit dealing with you about something that’s not good in your life, but we don’t like you to feel bad when you go home. Don’t look at me like… but it’s not about how good you feel when you go home, it’s about how much you can change. It’s how much power has been released in the church for you to change. Hallelujah.
So, our assignment, Pastor Sharon and I, when God called us, He called me before I was born. I’ve never wanted to be anything else, but a preacher of the Gospel, even though I was very successful in business, that was because of my faith and my application of hard work and responsibility. It wasn’t because I was the most intelligent, most educated person. I did that for a season, so that I could provide for my family, but I’ve always wanted to preach the Gospel. I never wanted to just preach a Gospel that made people feel good. I wanted to, always deeply inside of me, there was always something that was pushing me to say; if I can live life in Christ Jesus, that’s so real, that no one could ever lie to me, that it’s not real. No church denomination, no Christian that’s had a bad experience in their life and then blamed God and then brought that blame to me. There wouldn’t be anybody that had any kinds of ideology or philosophy that could persuade me that God’s not real because He proved Himself so real to me that He wasn’t just a thought pattern. He wasn’t just a belief system. He was a real force in my life. So, for me, that makes all the difference between anybody that preaches Jesus and somebody that truly experiences Jesus. Because if you experience Jesus, then He’s not a thought pattern, He’s not a philosophy, He’s not an ideology, He’s not something that you do occasionally. He’s a relationship that you live with daily. Not because you have to, but because He’s so real that you want to. Jesus is as real to me as my living, breathing wife of 38 years is real to me.
This morning it was real to me, when we sat down to have a cup of green tea and share the Word and minister the Spirit of God to each other this morning. As living, breathing as she is, is as real as Jesus is, to me. As Jesus is real to me, that is the essence of the calling that I must bring Him to you, because actually, other words, or other things that can be taught and can be shared are in danger of confusing you about the real person of who Jesus is. Jesus is the Lover of your soul. Jesus is the One, that wants to have a relationship with you, more than anyone else in the universe, Jesus wants to have a relationship with you. More than your best friend. More than your mother and your father. More than your friends around you. More than your work colleagues that have an interest in you succeeding. More than anything else, Jesus is the One who wants to have the most real, the most powerful, the most authentic relationship with you, than anybody else. There is no one else in the universe that is more interested in you than He. Hallelujah.
There is a war being waged, every second of every human existence. There is a war. The war is a war of wills, the war is a war of words and the war is a war of worship. So, if this war can be waged, to get you to live your will then the person, the influence that gets you to live your will, is going to succeed in the war of wills. So, God doesn’t want you to not have a will, He wants you to will, to do His will. That’s the essence of choice; is that you will, to do His will. It’s a matter of choice. It’s not a matter of anything else. Hallelujah.
So, some years ago, Pastor Sharon went, and we sent her to South Korea to go to Dr. Yonggi Cho or David Yonggi Cho’s ministry – Prayer Mountain. She arrived there, they stayed overnight in Seoul, Korea. I don’t know how many years ago that was. Maybe 10 years ago or 8 years ago, I don’t know, 7, I don’t know… Some 8 years ago. She’s awake early in the morning, Seoul, Korea morning and everybody else that was with her was still asleep and she made it out of the hotel room and she went down the road and there she found this little shop that was open and she saw this green drink with a frothy foam top and she was intrigued by the green drink. So, she went into the store to talk to this person who didn’t speak English and communicated that she wanted this drink and it happened to be a matcha green tea, hot matcha latte green tea. So, she’s like, tastes this tea and she’s, “Wow! This is amazing.” She takes that tea and she goes to share it with the group that’s traveling with her and they all look at the tea and they say, “Pastor Sharon, this looks like grass.” And so, she gives them all a taste and they all say, “This tastes like grass.” They’re not interested in drinking this drink. You understand? Pastor Sharon is like, “Why have I never found this drink? This is the most amazing, amazing stuff you can ever drink!”
So, she buys some stuff, she comes home, she wants me to taste the drink. One of the people that said, I’m not sure about this drink, and if you know her and most of you do, you know, she is very diplomatic – was Pastor Christi. She tasted the drink, she didn’t like it, but she didn’t say no to it, because she is just diplomatic. So, the way she said to Pastor Sharon, “You just have a refined palette, Pastor Sharon, you know, more refined than everybody else. Enjoy your green tea.”
So, she brought the green tea to me, and so I tasted it, and I said, “Well this tastes ok, this doesn’t taste so bad you know, it’s surprising to me.” She sold me on one thing, she said, “Now you must drink it on an empty stomach and in about 20 minutes I want you to tell me how you feel.” I said, “Really?” You know, what am I smoking here? What is this kind of deal that comes from South Korea, it’s from some little corner shop, it’s got some foam, you know?
She brings me this. About 20 minutes later, a half an hour later, I said to her, “You know, I can’t explain to you, but I suddenly feel like I am in a really good mood, I feel like I am floating.” She said, “That’s it, that’s it! That’s what this green tea does to you.” So, then we did a whole research on it, and she had already done the research on it, and so green tea is a superfood. This premium grade matcha is a superfood. It also has caffeine in it. What it does it the way that it interacts with your physical body, is that it slowly increases your metabolic rate, and what coffee does to you with caffeine, is it, is that because it releases all kinds of stimulants into your system quickly, the way your liver processes it, and your pancreas and every… It spikes your feeling, but as quickly as it spikes you, is as quickly as it drops you.
Green tea, matcha on the other hand, it slowly picks you up, and it holds you at this most amazing feeling and then you don’t even know that it’s letting you down. I’m telling you, it’s just that good. As a product, it is expensive, you know most people don’t want to be able to drink that stuff, maybe they don’t like it. I don’t want to belabour the point, the point is when she gave me the substance, I decided that even though I’m not sure that I will, to want to will, to drink the stuff, I’m going to wait to let the feeling kick in, to see what that is about, then I’ll have a second opinion about this.
So, because I didn’t resist it, I was open to allow it to impact me, and then I decided I can’t actually live without it. So now, when we travel overseas, we do everything we can, to go every place we can, we actually have people that come from Canada and all over the place, where we send them emails, please buy us green tea, and please bring it to…, and we get people around the world to buy us this stuff so that we can drink it. Call us crazy if you will, doesn’t matter if you know, some people spend money on Spurs’ hamburgers, Steers hamburgers; we prefer to spend our money on matcha green tea. Amen. We buy enough of it so that we have got a stock of it, you understand.
Anyway, the point is, that if you just look at it on the outside: “This doesn’t taste so good, it doesn’t…” you know, but actually, if you just stick with it, it can have a meaningful impact in the way that you actually do that. As I was having tea with Pastor Sharon this morning, we were having green tea. It always gives us a lift in the mornings, so we have a spiritual lift, and we have a physical lift, in the mornings. Praise the Lord.
Well that’s the way it is with Jesus. That’s the way it is with His word and with the real Person that He is, not the person, that the church says He is. Not the person that some people that have had experiences with Jesus says that He is, because some people have prayed to Jesus to heal their friend or their mother of their father and they didn’t get healed, and so then they blame God for many things in their lives. So, they bring that blame syndrome to you, when they have a, when you talk to them about Jesus, they bring that blame to you. So, they impact, and they create filters in you, to look at Jesus the way that they have experienced Jesus.
Or maybe they had an encounter with God at a time, and there were people in the church that judged them for lifestyle behaviour patterns, and so it was such a hurtful and a negative experience that they bring that hurt to you, and they say, “I can’t serve Jesus, because of my experience.” Well, none of those things represent Jesus. That’s not who Jesus is, you’ve got to be willing and want to have Him as part of who you are, then you will encounter who He really is. That Jesus will never let you down, that Jesus will never forsake you, that Jesus will never leave you without His presence and without help and without His personal interaction with you, ever, through the form of the Holy Spirit, ever, ever. He is the most trustworthy Being in the universe, hallelujah.
There is a war of wills going on, where people, where the enemy of God, who’s ultimate and first sin was to raise himself up and elevate his will, at the same level of the will of God. So, obviously the whole war is to get your will, to listen to his will and not to God’s will. The way that it is most often demonstrated, is the war of words. People say, “Well, my words don’t really count” – they do. Because your words reflect your worship, what you speak about, is what you really believe in your heart. The Bible says it this way, what your heart is full of, will come out of your mouth. So, words do matter, because it’s a reflection of what’s in your heart.
I want to read you a few scriptures. Romans 8:14 14For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, God didn’t give you a new life in Christ Jesus so that you could fear, not trusting Him. That’s not what He did in you. What He did in you was to say, you are a new created being, you can trust Me completely. But you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” 16The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, (Romans 8:14-16 NKJV)
You are children of God. You should wake up every day and you should say, “I am a son of God.” I mean this, you should say this every day, “I am a son of God, I am a child of God, I am a son of God, I am a child of God, I’m a son.” You should say that many times every day. Why is it important? Just to remind your own spirit that what is happening in the world around you, is not who you are, hallelujah.
Fortunately, we can remind ourselves for four years every day that we are rugby world champions, even if we lose against the All Blacks next year, even if we lose against England or Australia, we can still remind ourselves – but we are world champions, right?
Well that’s the same thing, a way that you’re supposed to behave as a Christian, Jesus is my Champion, it doesn’t matter what I feel like, I am a son of God. If you remind yourself every day, I am a son of God, I’m a son of God, I’m a son of God – then it doesn’t matter what is happening to you, doesn’t matter what is happening around you, you are still a World Champion. You are a God champion, you’re a Christ champion, you’re a new creation, a new spirit in Christ Jesus. “Ja”, but you know, I didn’t play the game well today; doesn’t change that you’re a champion. I didn’t exercise well today; I lost my way; doesn’t change that you’re a champion.
Romans 8:16 16The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. (Romans 8:16-17 NKJV) How do we suffer with Jesus? We suffer with Jesus in the same way you suffered with the Springboks. Our identity is in how well they performed on the field. When they were not performing so well, we still said we are Springboks. Ouch! The All Black annihilated us 40/15. Eina, but we are still Springbokke. We suffer with them. We are still Springbokke, yes? But when the tide turns and then we become world champions, we are still Springbokke. So, you identified with them in their suffering and you identified with them in their glory.
So, our identifying in Jesus’s suffering is; even though Jesus went and died, and He was on the cross and He was in that grave and He took all of our sin and our shame upon Him. We identify that we are the ones that sent Him. We are the ones that sent Him to die, but when He was called from the grave by the Father and said, “You are illegally held in the grave, because You are perfect, therefore arise and come and sit at My right hand. I will put all your enemies under Your foot and everything on the earth and that are above the earth and below the earth will be subject to You. You are now glorified to sit at My right hand, and I hand over all judgement of everything to You.” Now we identify with Him too. You can tell me… [Congregation: You are preaching good, Pastor John.] Amen. Hallelujah. Come on this Christian walk that we live, is the most real thing that you can ever do. Praise Jesus.
Romans 8:22 says, 22For we know that the whole creation groans and labours with birth pangs together until now. (Romans 8:22 NKJV) I’m just reading that our of the King, a kind of older version of the Bible, because I want to read this whole passage of scripture to you out of the book of Romans, out of The Message Translation and I am going to begin at verse 5. You will find it interesting and if you feel like maybe the whip is out, that is just because this is part of your identity in the suffering, because we were the ones that sent Him.
Verse 5 from The Message Translation. 5-8Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. You know, sometimes what you speak you want to be, but you’re not ready, so you measure someone else’s behaviour pattern by what you wish to be, not what you really are. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! In you. Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored. (Romans 8:5-8 MSG)
So, wake up every morning and say, “I’m a child of God.” By the very fact that you acknowledge you’re a child of God, if you do nothing else about your Christianity for that day, other than saying, “I’m a child of God, I’m a child of God.” You are declaring you are not ignoring God. You are giving yourself an ability, the option of living a spacious free life. I’m helping you. 9-11But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, He lives in you, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Because inside of you, He is always calling you to say, “I’m a son of God, I’m a son of God.” Guess what? If you are in church this morning, it’s because He is calling you. He is calling you to wake up in the morning and say, “I’m a son of God.” Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you, yourself experience life on God’s terms. (Romans 8:9-11 MSG)
Do you understand that this body of yours is continuously wanting to limit you? So, your will is always in a struggle between your limitation and the free limits of God that are in you; a unlimitless life. Just because you have the struggle, doesn’t mean to say you are a weak or nonsense Christian. It says, “Join the club, we’re all in this together.” It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? He will do it, He will do it in you. You don’t have to struggle with sin. When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s! 12-14So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go! 15-17This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him! 18-21That’s why I don’t think there’s any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what’s coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reigns it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens. (Romans 8:11-21 MSG) Hallelujah, glory to God.
I’m going to go to verse 26. It says, 26-28Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, of things to come, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good. (Romans 8:26-28 MSG)
Hallelujah. I’m nearly done. Are you having fun? Are you enjoying this message this morning? Praise the Lord. I told you in the beginning that we are in a war, we are in a war of will’s, we’re in a war of words, and what did I say third? War of worship.
Verse 10 of Ephesians chapter 6 says; 10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. (Ephesians 6:10-11 NKJV) What are the wiles of the devil? He wants you to change your language. He wants you to speak words that he would put in your mouth. You know, this is a very well-known thing I’m about to tell you. He who controls the language controls the culture.
In America, right now, this is very, very big. It is so big in America, that even ex-president Barack Obama got onto a television program and he spoke against what Liberals are doing. Understanding that president Barack Obama was probably the most liberal president that America has ever had and completely socialist in his agenda. Just painting a picture for you.
What he got up to say is; you cannot say that you are an American who promotes free speech, when you are calling everybody else that disagrees with your liberal opinion, a disgrace and you can’t say that you are an American that believes in free speech if you are running, everybody that doesn’t believe in what you believe in your liberal views as prejudice, bias, racist or just stupid. You must know how bad it is on college campuses, universities and everything else in their liberal America, where anybody that just stands against, anybody that is not for the liberal agenda is automatically categorized as racist, prejudiced, stupid and so, it is a war that is going on. Because they understand that he who controls the language, controls the culture.
So, now they are trying to impeach President Donald Trump. Do you know what they’re using to try and impeach him with? That he used words on a phone call that said to another president, “Do me a favor.” On those few words they’re trying to impeach him and say, “You are not fit to run for office,” even though most of America elected him into office. Because they’re using his words to control his legislative authority that was given to him by the cultural America that voted him in power, they’re trying to control it with his own words. Are you with me? What do you think the devil is going to try and do to you? He’s going to try and impeach you, every day with words that you use! He’s about the war of your will, the war of your words because it’s all about who you worship.
You know what an impeachment process is? An impeachment process is a process of legal intent. It’s a legal thing, and the devil will always try and use a legal issue against you. When Jesus came and paid every legal price there was to pay so you no longer have a relationship based on how legal you are, but now you can have a relationship based on His legal status. There is never a contest about that. That’s why you should wake up every day and say, “I’m a son of God. I’m a son of God,” because you enforce every day; actually, there is no contest here – I’m a son of God. That’s my legal status. I’m a son of God. I’m a child of God. I’m a child of God. I’m a child of God. Therefore no legal status, you can’t impeach me on anything. “Okay, I can’t impeach you on your legal status but I’m going to try and get words to come out of your mouth that will undermine your credentials.” That’s your choice. If you speak words that gives him right, then he can use that against you. He can’t use it against you in the heavens. He’s going to use that against you, in you.
You know what the biggest problem is with somebody who is an alcoholic? It’s that their body craves alcohol and so it’s not the whole world that’s a problem. It’s the fact that they’ve given alcohol permission in their life that it now rules them. So, it’s not the last drink that rules you. It’s the next drink that rules you. Having had alcoholism in my family, I know what that means. It’s not the last drink that rules you, it’s the next one. Come on now. It’s not yesterday’s words that are going to rule you, although it will, but it’s your next words that you choose because if you say, “Father, my words that have been against Your will in my life, I’m asking You to forgive me from that and from this day onwards I’m going to walk in words that You give me. I’m a son of God. I’m a son of God. And everything I do I’m going to do out of this state of sonship.” Now you find your words begin to change because now what a son of God can do is very different to what a Christian who doesn’t know that he’s a son of God can do. It doesn’t matter if you’re the son of a billionaire; if you don’t know that you’re a son of a billionaire, none of his billions can do anything for you.
But if you know that you’re the son of a billionaire, you can go and say, “Pops, gooi some money this way.” “Well, do you have the right to the money?” “Well, I’m your son. At least you should, you know, treat me like you treat yourself.” “Okay, well, do you want the newest Bentley?” “Yes, please.” “Really?” “Ja, that’s how you treat yourself. So, can I have one too, please?” “I don’t think you’re quite ready for Bentley, but let’s settle for uh… what do you want? A 540i BMW? Because Bentley… no, no you’re not ready for that yet, but I like where you’re going. You’re pulling on me as a son of a billionaire. You’re pulling on me. You’re pulling on your inheritance, you’re pulling.” “Okay let’s go for that. I’ll take that dad. From zero to 540i BMW, all the bells and whistles included. Is that okay dad? Special mags.” “Go for it son, I’ll give you a $50,000 car, as opposed to a $250 thousand car. Treat it well for four or five years, and then we’ll talk about the Bentley.”
“Why are you putting me through all this?” “Because fatherhood comes with making sure that you know how to behave as my son. Not just a son – my son. I can’t let my son go riding around in Bentleys, representing who I am, shaming me everywhere he goes.” Come on, you can tell me again… (Congregation: You’re preaching very good, Pastor John.)
12For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. (Ephesians 6:10-13 NKJV) How do we stand? Thank you for asking. 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 18, 18This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, 19having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, so when we are given the Word of God and we were given prophecies, if you reject it as not being Words from God, then you don’t speak those words, you speak words that you want to speak. Then you say, “I don’t need those words, my life doesn’t need those words, I’m a self-made person, I live my life by myself with myself for myself.” Well then those are the words you’re going to speak, so then you make shipwreck of your faith and your conscience. Concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck. (1 Timothy 1:18-19 NKJV)
Can I read that to you in the New Living Translation? 18Timothy, my son, here are my instructions for you, based on the prophetic words spoken about you earlier. May they help you fight well in the Lord’s battles. 19Cling to your faith in Christ, this battle we are fighting is not a battle against sin, this battle we are fighting is not a battle against sickness, or poverty, or against anything. You don’t have to fight those battles. Jesus has already fought those battles of sickness, sin, disease, relationship falling apart, degradation, all of poverty, Jesus fought those fights and won it. That’s not the fight that we have to fight. That’s not the war! The war is the fight of faith. What comes by faith? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. It’s words. It’s the war of words and your words reflect your worship.
The prophetic word that was directed to you prepared us for this. All those prayers are coming… I’m reading from the message translation. Well let me go back to New Living Translation. 19Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked. (1 Timothy 1:19 NLT) When you violate your conscience, is because you say, I hear what God says but I refuse to accept it. I want to live for myself anyway. The Message Translation 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, keeping a firm grip on your faith and on yourself. After all, this is a fight we’re in. (1 Timothy 1:19 MSG) It’s a fight of faith, it’s a fight of faith.
I’d like to read it to you from the Passion Translation; 18–19So Timothy, my son, I am entrusting you with this responsibility, in keeping with the very first prophecies that were spoken over your life, and are now in the process of fulfillment in this great work of ministry, in keeping with the prophecies spoken over you. With this encouragement use your prophecies as weapons as you wage spiritual warfare by faith and with a clean conscience. (1 Timothy 1:18-19 TPT)
Why is your conscience clean? Because now you understand that the war is about words and it’s about prophecies that God’s given and it’s about His Words that you speak and my conscience is clear because I’m saying, “Those are the words that I trust.” 18-19….For there are many who reject these virtues and are now destitute of the true faith. (1 Timothy 1:18-19 TPT). That’s why people say it’s better to go to church than not go to church, so we’ll design a church life that will invite people to church. I don’t know that that’s true. It could be more damaging to go to church and pretend that you are worshiping God and go home and not believe that what you had is the thing that you are living with. If you go to church, come on now, all of you have been desperate to hear this what I’m telling you all of your life; that our life is not about what church looks like, our life is about who we are with Jesus. And every church denomination and every Christian that’s ever let God down, that’s ever had a responsibility, that has let God down, everybody that’s spoken about God in some term that He’s not, is not the way that you’re supposed to approach God because He’s not the One that’s ever let you down.
Yeah, but isn’t the church Jesus? No, the church should be Jesus. I’ve got news for you. I consider myself, and I had some just wonderful moments with Brother Jerry, Pastor Sharon and I, with Brother Jerry’s and Miss Carolyn this time around and it was wonderful for them to speak words of wonderful affirmation about our spirit life that they have touched. I can stand before you today and say to you; I’m a fairly mature spirit being. I’m fairly good at living my life in Jesus, but as good as I am, I will let you down. Because I am human still and you have expectations that you may look at me and say, “As a mature spirit being, you should be like this.” Until you get around me one day.
Like one day, we were riding up a mountain. It was the 4th day of a 5 day cycling tour and it was 40 degrees heat and we were riding 140 kilometres and we were a 139 kilometres into it, with 1 kilometre left to ride and Mr Grobler here, Grobbies Grobler, rides up next to me, and he’s like, “Come on Pastor!” Hills are not my favourite thing to ride and the race finished at the top of the mountain. Du Toits Kloof in the Cape, nogal. Go ride it with your car. Sometimes people have to put it in 1st gear to go up there, never mind with legs on a bicycle. We are hot, sweaty, tired, moeg, anything you can think of in that line – more than that. He rides up, he’s coming to encourage me; “This is a maklike sport, Pastor John.” It’s an easy sport. He’s just told me it’s an easy sport. You know what I said to him? I said, “Shut up, Grobbies” Why? I don’t need his encouragement, I’ve done 139 kilometres, I can see the end and I’m moeg and I’m sweaty and I’m putting every little last bit of effort into it and he says, “It’s a maklike sport”.
My human man came out of me, “Shut up, Grobbies! Don’t talk to me now; I’m focused on finishing my race!” Afterwards, I’m sitting, drinking water, top of the mountain, “Sorry, Grobbies.” You understand? That as much as there is a life that is dedicated to living for Jesus, you touch my humanity in one way, somewhere, somehow, sometime, you might find a response that is, “Hey, that outjie, he’s not so cool, hey. I thought he’s better than that”. You can’t judge my Jesus by my actions because one day you will touch my humanity that doesn’t look like Jesus. That does not give you an excuse to walk away from your walk with Jesus. Because He’s true and He is faithful and He’s perfect, and He’s the best God in the universe. Hallelujah.
So, I’m going to make some demands on you in the weeks and the short few months that we have because Brother Jerry is coming and we become aware of quite a lot of changes that have been made in his ministry schedule. He may not be coming to South Africa only once next year, he might be coming twice next year. And there is a bunch of other things that are happening next year. I’m telling you, we know how to get ourselves ready. So we need to be ready. Come on, church, we are known around the world for being ready to receive a spiritual gift like Brother Jerry. So, we’ve got to get some training done.
You know that same cycling ride that I shouted at Grobbies on? You know, we had trained many, many days and weeks before that and by choice, in the middle of December; we rode from here via Groblersdal to Loskop dam. How many kilometres did we do, Empie? 165km that day. I think it was 38 or 40 degrees temperature that day, hey? We did that out of choice. Call me crazy, I’ll accept it – in that context. We did that because we knew that we had to ride in heat, we needed to understand what our hydration requirements were, what our nutrition requirements were. We had to understand many things about ourselves before we could go and ride in a 5-day stage race down in the Cape.
You understand? We know how to prepare and now it is time to pick up our training for when Brother Jerry comes. Because you know, it’s the way it is. You can’t, you can’t train the whole year like that. Everybody will tell you that you got to have an off season. So, off season in the spirit doesn’t mean to stop praying, to stop doing, and we do that every week. When we want to extract the best out of a spiritual gift like Brother Jerry, then we got to be ready for him. Amen. Hallelujah.
There are some very exciting things coming our way next year. Very exciting things. I want to remind you, this is what Brother Jerry said, I heard these words from the Holy Spirit, 2019 a year for marvels and wonders and extraordinary manifestations of the greatness of our God, such as has never been seen before in the earth. Don’t stop believing this just because 2019 comes to an end, the Lord impressed upon me to tell the people, add and beyond. Marvels are things that are, that cause one to be; amazed or filled with overwhelming surprise. Wonders are; unusual and often even strange things that arrest the attention through their grandeur and magnificence. Extraordinary manifestations; rare, uncommon things beyond the common order or method. So, we are going to add that to the Word that has comes from the Holy Spirit to us in 2020. In 2020 the Word is, In 2020 I will open a new door and I will cause my faithful ones to experience supernatural increase like never before. Hallelujah.
Now, you can be like Timothy, who was a good son and received the words and said, “I’m going to increase my faith in this. I’m going to use this as a weapon in my faith.” Or you can say, “Oh, well I’m not sure that anybody can hear from God for me, so I’m not going to speak anything about this.” So then what happens? You don’t get. So other people experience marvels and wonders and extraordinary things and they see things and they experience things, and you say, “Well, how come they are experiencing something and I’m not?” Well, because you didn’t do what a good son does. So, then you come across the son of the billionaire five years later, and he’s riding in a Bentley and he’s only 28 years old. He’s riding in his Bentley.
How come he got a Bentley? Well, because when he was 22, I gave him a 540i BMW. He rode with responsibility, he never shamed, he never brought abuse, he never did all that stuff. He didn’t crash the car; he didn’t do anything. He used it with responsibility. Now I know that he can handle more. Now, other sons that didn’t make a demand on the father, and didn’t show responsibility to the father, they don’t qualify for the Bentley. I’m just using a natural example. Are you with me?
The son that qualifies for the Bentley, he’s driving around enjoying life in a Bentley. Other sons are looking at him saying, “That’s not fair, how come he gets a Bentley? We can’t even get a 540?” Well, did you ask dad? “No not really, I haven’t asked him”. Well, why not? “Well, I don’t believe he will give me anything”. Well then, that’s where your problem is. Why do you not believe he’ll give you anything? “Well it doesn’t say that in the Bible”. That’s because you don’t know your Bible. That means, if you don’t know you’re Bible, you don’t know your Dad. If you don’t know your Dad, you’re not going to ask him. If you know your Dad, you’re going to ask him.
Ah no, no, no, but there’s too many things that I’ve disappointed Him in. I’ve let Him down in too many things already in the past and I’m not really up to scratch. Well, you choose to have those words, you choose to live by those emotions, you choose to live by your past, not by what your Dad says He is. Well, then you’re going to only have what He says, what you think about Him. If you read it in the Bible and He says that, then you can have what He says. He’s not going to give you the Bentley tomorrow. He’s going to give you a BMW.
Then other children, they are kind of moaning, and they have got all these words, and they create whole movements against the son, that is driving the Bentley. “Can’t be, he’s supposed to be giving his billions to the poor children of the world. Do you know how many people that Bentley can feed, poor people?” They create movements against the man driving the Bentley.
He’s saying, “Hey, I’m just being a son”. “Well, you should give your money…” “No, my father’s taking care of the poor. By the way, my father has put me on the board of a foundation that manages money that comes in for the poor and I go and feed the poor and I take care of the poor. Taking care of the poor does not preclude me from driving my Bentley. I can do both. It’s not one or the other, I can do both.”
I’m preaching good, hey? I’m preaching really good. Come on, come on, come on now. You want to hear more preaching like this? You’ve got to come more often between now and when Brother Jerry comes. We’re going to pray together, we’re going to put our faith together, we’re going to increase our capacity together. So, when our spiritual leader comes here we can get everything that his 50 years of faithful ministry, everything that’s in him, comes out. Later on in the year, when others come also, we can get from them, too.
Experiencing supernatural increase is like this; it’s God, it’s beyond anything I can think of, it’s beyond anything I can do, it’s beyond, and it’s beyond anything I can and have ever experienced before. Hallelujah, Glory to God.
I am done for today and God has, and you have enjoyed this message that God has put in me, the way He has allowed me to deliver it to you? Haven’t you enjoyed it today? Hasn’t this ministered to you today? Hallelujah.
If it feels like I haven’t really shared much about our trip, it’s because it will come out in different ways and different forms, you know. Pastor Sharon said it all right at the beginning of the service; all we can say is, “Thank you.” Just like the Springbok champions, thank you, and thank you. We will get in our bus and do a tour parade later, but for the moment, thank you. Thank you, thank you for standing with us, thank you for sending us, thank you for believing in us, thank you for doing what God said to do and we all glory in what God has done in the body of Christ and continues to do through our influence on a global stage. Hallelujah, praise the Lord, praise the Lord.
People have said to me, “Well, why didn’t this happen earlier on in your life?” I think it’s a bit like the BMW and the Bentley. God was entrusting us to a level of Christian living, that He wanted to see that we can deal with all the stuff that was going to come our way. All of the persecution, all of the words, all of the war, all of the stuff because when eventually we got to the stage where He said “It’s now Bentley time” that we didn’t worry about everything that came with the Bentley. We could just drive it in freedom. That’s pretty cool, hey?
Hello Bertus, it’s good to see you. Thank you for being here, you and Stef. Standing here with my family and with all these wonderful people. I see you got a new “snor” there? [Laughing] It’s an old one? It’s got more grey hairs in it now. That all happened in a month. [Laughing] Hallelujah, praise Jesus, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise Jesus, praise Jesus, praise Jesus, Glory to God. Hallelujah. Won’t you stand with me please?
Do they know about your arm, this congregation? They know about your arm? Come and bring your arm to me, I need to just… bring your arm. You see his arm here, you see it? I mean he’s a good father, hey? And so he broke a window in his house because he’s a good father, he didn’t want his son to get hurt, right? I mean, we go on assignment to go and do God’s business. In all the five years that he’s been a father, not once did he actually crash through a window to protect anyone of his children, right? But while we are away on God’s assignment something happens and he crashes through a window and he cuts his arm. Do you think it’s coincidence? A potentially, an injury that could potentially stop him from ever playing piano again.
Well you think, well it’s just a little scratch, how could that happen? Because if this thing had gone to deep and cut the tendon, thirteen stitches, if this had cut the tendons, he may not have had use of these fingers in his arm and he won’t be able to fulfil his worship assignment. How do you, what do you think happened? A weapon was formed against him and against this ministry, but God stood and He said, “The weapon is formed, but it’s not going to prosper.” You see, Christians want to live life and say, “Don’t bring any weapons because that cannot be God.” No weapons are there, this is a war, but let me tell you, our words of prayer that you prayed for us and prayed for everything. The outcome was that the weapon was formed, but it hasn’t prospered. All he is left with is a scar, and it’s going to go, supernaturally its being healed. [Garth talking to Pastor John] You tell them, I don’t know about that so much. Oh yes, I do know. I do know because you told me yesterday.
So before this happened, before this happened Bertus called Garth and he said “Garth, are you okay? Something is, are you okay, what’s going on?” He said, “No, I am fine.” He says, “The Lord has impressed upon me to pray for you and so I’m phoning you to find out if you’re okay. So strong is my impression to pray for you.” Was it the next day you had the accident? Two days later he fell through. The Lord already prepared his protection. That’s how the body of Christ works. Come on, we serve an awesome God, we have nothing to fear. If we keep our words, that show that we worship Him then we win the war every time, every time. Thank you son, Hallelujah.
Won’t you all say this with me; I am a son of God. I will wake up tomorrow morning and I will declare that I am a child of God, I am a son of God, I am a joint heir with Jesus. So bring on all my good stuff. Hallelujah, Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus, Glory to Jesus. S
Let’s just take care of all impeachment proceedings against you as a believer, right now and let’s just say; Jesus forgive me for any emotions, any lifestyle patterns, any words that might make me feel that I am not a child of God. Forgive me, Jesus. Right now, I declare I’m a son of God, I’m a joint heir with Jesus, so bring all my good stuff, in Jesus name. [Shouting] Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah. Glory to God, Glory to God. Praise the Lord.
I want to tell you, there are surprises waiting for you, there are things. You know, Miss Carolyn Savelle, she did such wonderful things for us in the ministry apartment where we stayed, for the ministers conference, that we went, we wanted to buy her and Brother Jerry something. I mean, you know they don’t need anything. He’s got all the motorbikes and all the cars he would ever want. Miss Carolyn has everything in her house she ever wants. So, there’s not anything that they lack or you know buy anything. We’ve got to buy them something just to say thank you. So, we went to a very well-known high-end store in America and we found something that we know has a lot of, that when they receive the gift, they will understand that we have thought about it. And while it might not be worth lots and lots of money it was worth enough money for them to understand that this is a thoughtful, wonderful gift which they can enjoy for time because it’s appropriate to say thank you, yes? So, what we did was we made sure that Tony took the gift and it was in a bag from this particular shop and put it in their car so when they got in their car after church they would see this gift and when they saw the package that it was in they would know; special gift.
Guess what? When you wake up tomorrow morning, I want you to start having an expectation of marvels and wonders and new doors and you open and you say, “I expect that I’m going to get into my car, I’m going to go into my job, I’m going to go to it and there’s a new gift, there’s a special gift wrapped for me by Jesus.” It’s a high-end quality amazing gift. You didn’t have to do anything to deserve it, it’s just cause He said He would. If you believe it, you can have it. New doors, new gifts, open doors, open gifts, marvels and wonders 2020, hallelujah.
I pray that the rest of your day and the rest of your week is blessed. No weapon formed against you prospers, in Jesus name. Hallelujah. You’re blessed going out and blessed coming in and I pray and I believe with you that you’ll get new ideas, new concepts, there will be new inventions, new things coming out of you, 20/20 vision for 2020. Hallelujah. And everybody said Amen. Okay, bye you all.
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