Scripture reference: 2 Chronicles 20:20 (KJV, NLT, MSG); Proverbs 23:7 (AMPC); Psalm 112:7-8 (AMPC, TPT, MSG); Proverbs 31:17 (AMPC); Romans 4:21 (AMPC, TPT)
Hello, hello. Is julle almal wakker (are you all awake)? I’m watching you from up here in the lights after lunch. It’s the same old, same old Afrikaans saying, hey – magies vol, ogies toe (tummies full, eyes shut). Ek wil niks van toe ogies sien nie, nê (I don’t want to see any closed eyes). Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. So you think my ministry has been a bit radical today? No? You want me to become more radical? Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. So then let me start by being radical. Second Chronicles 20:20. So check it out – 2 Chronicles 20:20. 2 Chronicles 20:20. What God did in ten years, He’ll do in one. What He could do in 20, He’ll do in two. So 20-20, 20/20 vision in 2020. Are you all happy about that? Okay, let’s see what the Word says.
20And they rose early in the morning, get up early, and went forth into the Wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, which wilderness are you prepared to go into? No, I’m being silly now. Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the Lord your God (2 Chronicles 20:20 KJV). Remember what I’ve been teaching; you can’t have faith unless you believe God. So that’s part of the reason I started this morning the way I started this morning. So what is God to you and what demand does God have on you? And if you say, “Well, who is God to me? I don’t care what God is to me or who God is to me. I’m going to do my thing.” Well, you’re nothing unless God says so and you’re, you know, like that and you can cease to exist. Not because God is going to take you but your life is actually – the Bible, the Psalmist and many other places in the Bible talks about your life is like a breath, it’s like a vapour. In the context of eternity, it’s really nothing. I know you feel like, “Jis, I’m like who, me, everything me, why, whee, it’s about me. You know, like I’m everything.” But not really. But you can be everything in God.
20Believe in the Lord your God so shall you be established (2 Chronicles 20:20 KJV). You can’t be established unless you believe in God. It doesn’t matter how good your life is, how stable your life is, it doesn’t matter what your life looks like. You are not established if you don’t believe in God. That’s why a lot of people that have got lots of wealth, lots of wealthy people can give the impression that they have established their lives. And so, their money is a defence to circumstances, so they look well established. But this scripture says you cannot be established unless you believe in God. So your wealth doesn’t establish you; your competence doesn’t establish you; neither do your results or your achievements establish you. It’s only your belief in God that establishes you.
20Believe in the Lord your God and so you shall be established (2 Chronicles 20:20 KJV). Once you believe in Him and you believe in His Word, then you can believe His prophets, then you will prosper. So now it’s like a lot of people want to prosper just because it’s their choice to prosper. But you and I both know that prosperity is not money. Prosperity, having money, is actually the least of prosperity. And yet people chase it like it’s everything. Well, that’s because the spirit of mammon wants you to believe that money is everything that can make everything. But money actually doesn’t make everything. Being established in God and believing in God and then believing His prophets, then you can prosper because your prosperity guides your life, it frames your life, it gives you purpose, it gives you an assignment, and it causes prosperity to be yours God’s way. Hello now, come-on now, come-on now, come-on, come-on. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey that means you actually need a prophet in your life, hey? Yes, hey?
A prophet is a messenger of God that speaks the will of God. So you need to have one of those. So you need to, what it says here is, 20Believe in the Lord your God so you shall be established (2 Chronicles 20:20 KJV). Don’t believe in me – believe in God. Your belief in God establishes you. Right? So, you know, this is part of who I am as a person, and I’ve taught this and I live this. It doesn’t help us to have lots of words if some of them are not honest. Because I can act like I’m in faith, but if I’m not honest about what I’m doing first before I get into faith, then my faith is always on a shaky foundation. So, you know, I’ve said things like this before. So, you know, I can say, like for example; in December I hurt my foot playing tennis. These tennis players that hurt my foot. Anyway, I hurt my foot playing tennis because they’re jaaging (chasing) me around the court, you know. I’m blaming them but it was me who was running, you know. It wasn’t them. Anyway, I hurt my ankle so now I’m really believing God that it will heal as quickly as possible and so that I can get to a level of fitness that I’m desiring to be in because this is an important year for me. It’s an important year for me. This year is important for me because it’s 20 years of celebration in ministry. It’s a big milestone in terms of my age this year. There are many things that are happening this year for me in my travel with Brother Jerry and other things that I’ve got to do. And I have a goal to be in a kind of physical condition that is an important goal for me.
So now I’m spending quite a lot of time on my indoor trainer and I’m cycling because I can cycle without putting pressure on the ankle and so it’s helping the healing process. Here’s the point I’m just trying to make. I can’t say, “I don’t have an injury and I’m healed.” I have to be honest and say, “I have an injury but God’s Word is true and His healing is working on my injury.” So I can’t say, “I’m fine.” “How are you doing?” “I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m healed, I’m healed.” Now it’s good to say, “I’m healed”, but I have to recognise that I was injured and that I have an injury, and because I’m honest, I can use faith to get over the injury. I know it’s a very simple thing. But it’s like this; I need God to intervene in my finances. That’s good. You sow your seed, believe God. But if you’re spending more than you’re earning, you have to be honest that you’re not managing your money. You can’t say, “I need a miracle from God and every month I need a miracle from God,” but you’re spending more than you’re earning. At the same time, you can’t say, “I’m expecting a miracle from God but I’m don’t sow any seed. I don’t sow seed with my mouth and I don’t sow seed with my money. But I’m expecting God to bless me. I’m being blessed by God.” Where’s your actions on your faith? So you have to be honest and then you can walk in faith. You can’t be dishonest and have faith on top of dishonesty.
So honesty is different from truth and you’ve heard me preach on that before. You can be honest and then choose to walk in truth. Honesty does not mean that you actually live in honesty without living in the truth. So you can say, “It’s honest that I need money and it’s honest that I’ve mismanaged my money.” But then you can walk in truth and the truth is, “I have the power of God that helps me with myself will that I don’t spend more than I earn.” So that might be your first step of faith that you have to learn to do, is, “Thank you, Lord, for self-control that when I want to spend money on things that I don’t have money for, and I’m using it on the credit card and I’m buying on the credit card and I’m buying on the credit card. I thank You, Lord, that I have the wisdom and the control that I don’t spend money that I shouldn’t spend.” Now you’re being honest and you’re making steps that your faith is working in the right place. Hello.
So I’m just saying, you know, sometimes people want to live in faith and they want to believe the prophets of God so that they can prosper, but you first have to be established in God. You have to believe in the Lord your God and be established in His Word and in Him, then you can hear from the prophets and prosper. Hallelujah. So that’s why, when Brother Jerry makes a point of sending me – he did it like Sarah was like quite uptight because she didn’t get the email that had the card on it that you and I now all have because it came directly to me. It’s like, “How come did I get cut out of the loop?” You know. And so, you know, I made sure that she understood that I’m privileged and I have special contacts and all of that, you know. And so sometimes she’s just cut out of the loop. And then I sent it to her and now she is in that loop too. So, anyway, that was just a bit of fun. But certainly, you know, Eric sent it to me because he said Brother Jerry said, “Take your seed, have a point of contact seed, and then send me the form that said you and your ministry collected the seed. I’ll lay hands on it and I’ll pray for it as a point of contact.” So what we have decided to do is, we are going to collect our seed. So if you want to sow seed and do an EFT seed transfer, you can sow it into the main church account and just mark it ‘contact seed’. Okay, so that you can, so that we’re in a space so that we can do a report of how much we received as ‘contact seed’, then we can take that and put that in Brother Jerry’s hands and he can pray over it.
Okay, if you’re going to sow cash, that’s okay, we’ll put all the cash together and we’ll put our sheet together that is all the EFT transfers, we’ll put that together with the cash and Brother Jerry will lay hands on it when he comes. Amen. We are so blessed that he’s coming here, in days. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Sell your old lawnmower so that you’ve got money. I mean I am just using it as an example. Do what you’ve got to do to get some seed. It doesn’t matter if it’s ten rand or ten thousand rand or ten million rand. I’d prefer the ten million rand, but I mean, you know you’ve got to get some seed, this is a big moment, this is a big moment. Let me read it to you, second Chronicles 20:20 in the New Living Translation says, 20Listen to me, all you people of Judah and Jerusalem! Believe in the Lord your God, and you will be able to stand firm. (2 Chronicles 20:20 NLT). So you see you need to be able to stand firm because many things will come against you when you’re actually needing to believe God. So believe God so you can stand firm. Believe in the prophets and you will succeed (2 Chronicles 20:20 NLT). Praise the Lord. The Message Translation says, 20Listen Judah and Jerusalem! Listen to what I have to say! Believe firmly in God, your God, and your lives will be firm! Believe in your prophets and you’ll come out on top! (2 Chronicles 20:20 MSG). Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. So, it’s interesting to me that when the Lord began to deal with me about 2020 and I started to receive the word of the Lord from Brother Jerry about there’s a new door and we’ll experience supernatural increase like never before; I began to ask the Lord and I said, “Lord how, what is it that I’ve got to do, what is it that we have to do as a people so that we can make progress?” So He began to deal with me at this level, and He said, “Well, you’ve already received the Word of the Lord that is about a victory that you’ve got to be living in.” And so you know the word that came to me was prophet Elisha, and the king came to him and he had an enemy which he had to fight and he said, “Give me your arrow,” and he shot the arrow through the window. And then he said, “Take the arrows and strike the ground,” and he struck the ground three times. And so the arrow that he shot through the window was a symbol of victory. So the first action that you take for victory, the amount of times that you strike the ground is the victories that you’re going to receive. Okay. So the Lord said to me, and I felt in my heart that seven was the number that I needed to sow to get victories in the areas of my life.
Now let me just explain to you that that was a revelation that came to me privately by the Lord after I had been listening to a message by Brother Jerry, which he preached a long time ago, but I heard it through another message that he ministered, and it was ‘Sowing In Famine’, and he sowed ten seeds into ten different departments of his ministry. So I sowed six seeds into departments of ministry and one seed for a personal seed. Okay. So that was my revelation. So all of those seeds were sown into Brother Jerry’s life. Okay. So if you got a revelation of that and you wanted to use that revelation as part of your victory strike for your life, you should continue to live in that. Okay. If you have not sown any seeds or struck any grounds because you haven’t received that revelation, you have an opportunity to receive a revelation now of a new door for supernatural increase. The way the Lord dealt with me is, “John, I’m going to open a new door for you but you still have to keep pressing for striking for the full victories in the areas that I’ve already given you.” That does not exclude me from pressing for the new door and supernatural increase. So here’s the thing; am I going to get supernatural increase through a new door? Definitely. Am I going to get supernatural increase on all the stuff that I am striking the ground for? Definitely. So I am going to get supernatural increase on all the stuff I am currently believing for, plus I am going to get supernatural increase in the new door that God is going to reveal to me. Hallelujah. So when you sow, so there are some people that have sown their seeds in striking the ground, for me, I am going to sow more seed. I don’t necessarily need to sow more seed toward striking the ground because that’s done. I’m sowing now into the new door that I must go through, but all my seven areas are coming with me through the new door, they’re not staying behind. Amen.
So if you walk out this front door and you look on the side, you will see vision 2020. My A-Team has done a great job and there will be a few more things that are coming on there and you will see that the things that are on my glory board are the things that actually are the areas I am striking the ground for.So what’s on the glory board is my areas of victory that I’m pressing for. So what is a glory board about? A glory board is just a reminder, to be in your face of the things that you’re believing God for. If you have got stuff on your glory board that have not yet been fulfilled and you want to put seven more strikes on there, do it. There’s no limitation to what you can put on your glory board. The glory board is just; I’m believing you, Lord for the glory. It’s a revelation from two years ago, there’s no reason to ever stop it. I don’t think we’ll ever stop putting it up in front of my face, having a glory board that I’m always pressing for, whether it’s on seven strikes, whether it’s on new door, whether it’s on something else God is going to bring, I’m always going to live on my glory board. Does that help you? Hallelujah.
One of the things that Brother Jerry did for us when we were in America, you know if you go into a hotel and some of the hotels, they have these door hanger things that can say; do not disturb or make-up the room. If you haven’t been to a hotel, sorry, but it’s a real thing. If you go into a hotel you can put up a little sign that says do not disturb, which means they are not going to knock on your door at eight-o-clock in the morning and say, “Housekeeping”, you know. If it’s got ‘zzz’ or shhh or snoring or you know, do not disturb on it, they all have different little things, then it means leave me alone till check-out time. When it comes to check-out time they can knock on the door and kick you out, but it actually means that. Right? So, Brother Jerry, he gave us one of those door hangers that he did and he printed it and he said and he said, help me here Sharon; dream big, think big, plan big. So that’s a marvellous thing to do.
So these are visualisations of things that you deal with every day; think big, plan big, dream big. So that doesn’t change what my glory board looks like, except if I’m standing there looking at my glory board and I’m thinking dream big, think big, plan big, I might look at something I’ve got on my glory board and say, “Yes, I think I’m going to change that and make it bigger.” Do you understand what I’m saying? He’s not saying, “Thus says the Lord, you must go bigger than you’ve gone.” All he is doing is he is inspiring you and motivating you that if you think too small then small’s all you are going to get. So he is saying; think bigger, plan bigger, dream bigger. Right? Hallelujah.
So, I tell you what; the Lord really blessed me because as I was listening to Brother Jerry, he was talking about vision and he used this scripture in Proverbs 23 verse 7, 7For as he thinks in his heart, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. As one who reckons, he says to you, eat and drink, yet his heart is not with you [but is grudging the cost] (Proverbs 23:7 AMPC). So, you know, it doesn’t matter what your external appearance looks like, whatever’s going on in your heart, that’s who you are. And so if you want to change what’s in your heart you have got to get before God so that He can change what’s in your heart. Amen.
Let me tell you, encounters with God can change what’s in your heart and if you feel like; I do need to change what’s in my heart because I don’t like what’s in my heart, you have got to make sure that you get, you start talking, “I want an encounter with God to deal with my heart,” because whatever is in your heart is who you are as a person. So, if you are not believing God, you’re not established in God and you don’t believe the prophets of God then you have got to learn to get that established in your heart. Hello everybody. Ek dink julle moet almal opstaan. (I think you must all stand). Get the blood flowing. Ja, ek kan sien daardie ogies en daardie magies. (Yes, I can see those eyes and those tummies). Where I sit I can see things you can’t see.
So, he made this statement, He said; your head will believe what your heart is telling you. And so, here is the transaction that happens; if you are, I just want to use this, I just want to use this kind of person. If you have anger or bitterness in your heart, you can, in your head, you can say this, “When I am in public, I can’t afford to let my anger and my bitterness show,” so you learn to handle yourself in public so your bitterness doesn’t show. Right?
But one day there is going to be a pressure point and when the pressure point comes, the bitterness in your heart is going to show because that is who you are. Come on now, you know. So what you are in your heart is actually going to eventually reveal because that’s really who you are. So if you want to change what is in your heart, you’ve got to put something in your heart that’s going to change what your heart is. If you put nothing in your heart, the last thing that was in your heart is going to be what is going to come out of your heart.
So if you’re some who is always stingy and you’re always counting the money and you never freely give to anybody, I know you are not sitting, I’m making you stand on purpose for a little bit. Many years ago, this is going back many years ago, a young man was in the ministry with me and we were driving in the car one day and so, you know, he was having a conversation on the cellphone with his wife and then he was having a conversation with me and so I began to understand that actually, he does not permit his wife to buy or his family to even buy ice cream.
So I said, “You hold such tight control over the money that you don’t even permit your kids to have ice creams and buy ice creams?” I said, “Are you that tight financially?” He said, “No, I’m not that tight financially but I don’t ever want to be in a situation where I don’t have money”. So I said, “So you’re controlling your family so tight that they can’t have an ice cream unless you say so?” He said, “That’s exactly what it is”. I said, “This will be the story of your life always because it will control you that there’s never enough money. There’s never enough money and whatever money you spent on ice cream is money you wasted. So if you always have this idea that money on ice cream is wasted money, then it means money is more important to you than the moment that you can have with your kids and the moment you can have with your family by buying ice creams.” And I said, “The money will always control your life forever if you live like that”. Well, I am happy to say that a few months later, I noticed that what he did was, he allocated a certain amount of budget and his wife told me, “Thank you for having that conversation with my young husband because actually he’s now giving me a couple of hundred rand a month I can spend on the kids for whatever fun we need to have on the kids.” It changed his whole family dynamic. He needed to hear the Word from God that he allowed it into his heart. If he heard it but said, “I don’t need to hear that, I’m going to live the way I’m going to live”, then that thing would have always controlled him. I’m speaking good here today. I’m preaching very good today.
And so, there’s a good point of being, you know, managing money properly but then there’s a place where you can be really stingy and you use stinginess to control and manipulate and dominate people and your fear which is stinginess, your fear dominates you. And so it dominates all your relationships and it dominates your life and so essentially it dominates your whole future because it is in your heart. It doesn’t matter what you put on the front here, it’s what’s in your heart.
So how do you change that thing that is in your heart? You’ve got to start to say, “Thank you, Lord.” You have to have a word or scripture that says, “I’m a generous person, I’m a kind person, I’m not fearful about money because You supply all my needs according to Your riches in glory because I’m a giver, because I’m a sower, because I’m all of that.” So you’ve got to actually change your conversation, you’ve got to put words that are the Words of God in your mouth that you’ll be established in God by His Word, then you can receive the words of His prophets, then you will prosper. If you don’t change the Word of God in your heart, you won’t even believe God that God can fix you. It’s good stuff, hey? I told you I’m going to get more radical. Okay, now you can sit down.
So, you know, it was so wonderful for me when I heard Brother Jerry speak because he used Psalm 112:7 and he said, 7He shall not be afraid of evil tidings; his heart is firmly fixed, trusting in the Lord. 8His heart is established and steady; he will not be afraid while he waits to see his desire established upon his adversaries, or upon your circumstances (Psalm 112:7-8 AMPC). Hello. The Passion Translation says, 7They will not live in fear or dread of what may come, for their hearts are firm, ever secure in their faith. 8Steady and strong, they will not be afraid, but will calmly face their every foe until they all go down in defeat (Psalm 112:7 TPT). Hallelujah. The Message translation says, 7-8Unfazed by rumour and gossip, Heart ready, trusting in God, Spirit firm, unperturbed, Ever blessed, relaxed among enemies (Psalm 112:7 MSG). Why would you be relaxed among enemies? Well, because you know what the outcome is. Hallelujah.
So, Brother Jerry spoke about this and he said this, he said, “If you really want to get the best out of the word of the Lord that has come through the prophet of God for 2020, you’ve got to exercise your heart and exercise your mind in the same way that you exercise your muscle”. Almost word verbatim, word for word that he used. So he said, “Just as you go to the gym and you use weights to work your muscles and get strong, you’ve got to work mind and you’ve got to work your heart and stay focused and build strength in your heart and in your mind to see yourself prosper in the Word of God”. What was the second thing God told me? Project Conditioning; both spiritual conditioning and natural conditioning. What’s the natural conditioning going to do? Every time you go pick weights or you watch your food, what you’re eating, you are reminding yourself that what I’m doing in the physical world, I must also do in the spiritual world. And when you do it in the spiritual world, you’re also going to be doing it in the natural world. And when you do the two together, you get to end of the year and you’ll find that just by conditioning, you’ll have new doors open for you. Because you condition your mind, you condition your heart by the Word of the Lord and that in itself will create you to see new things because you establish yourself in the Word, you established yourself in God then you receive the word of the prophet and you prosper, but it is not going to come because you’re here at one time or every Sunday or every however often or even listen to it twice a week, you’ve got to keep working this thing every day, you’ve got keep living this thing.
I had a conversation with somebody this week and I’m sitting there talking and, you know, it was a moment that God wanted us to have a conversation and I’m sitting there talking and I began to just speak out of my spirit about honesty and having a word that is based on honesty. You can’t actually have a relationship unless you’re honest, you know. And so later on in the conversation, some very honest things came out in the conversation and then I just mentioned to this person, “Isn’t it interesting that I started off our conversation by speaking out of my heart just sharing about honesty which created the platform for us to be honest?”
Here is what I am telling you. People sit in this church and they think, “Pastor John has been listening to conversations about me.” I tell you, what comes in my heart is that I speak from the Spirit of God that naturally flows through me and then people sit in this church and they say, “Someone’s told him about me or someone’s told him about my circumstances”. I know nothing of no such thing. I’m flowing by the Holy Spirit and if it is touching you where it is touching you, and it is like it is hitting your nerve then that’s because the Holy Spirit knows that I have to talk like this to touch that nerve. Hallelujah. That should just be proof to you that the Holy Spirit is involved in this conversation, in this teaching. Magtig, man. Praise the Lord.
So conditioning is the process of training that results in fitness. The process that modifies a person’s behaviour. So, come on, what we want to do is use this year to modify behaviour. Like I told you, this is not going to be the same as the 4X4X40 where we gave you a journal, where we gave you everything and we spoon-fed you. We’ve grown up since then. This is what you’re going to do; you’re going to get these messages and you’re going to listen to what is being said and you’re going to say, “What am I believing in God for, striking the ground? What’s the new door I’m going to believe God?” And I start to take the stuff and I begin to do my own glory board, my own seven strikes, whatever it is you’re sowing towards, the new door, this is on you.
I’m going to give you on the website, we’re going to give you some ideas, some scriptures, some things that you can utilise if you want to but this is about you growing in God doing it the way that you need to do. I don’t want to give it to you then it becomes my revelation that you just live by. That was an identity change document and identity change season. This is a different season. This is different. We’re going into a new door and we’re enforcing victories that God wants for our lives. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
So, conditioning, the verb of conditioning, is to put into the proper state for work or use or to put into a better state. Hallelujah. So we are going to be training ourselves in godliness, we are going to exercise ourselves in spiritual things. We’re going to train ourselves in physical fitness to be better conditioned and there’s a scripture in Proverbs 31:17 that says about the Proverbs 31 woman, 17She girds herself with strength, and that she girds herself with strength is spiritual, mental and physical fitness for her God-given task (Proverbs 31:17 AMPC). So, you can use that for a man too. I gird myself with strength so that I can exercise myself and have strength spiritually, mentally and physically. Hallelujah.
Romans 4:21 says, 21Fully satisfied and assured that God is able and mighty to keep His word and to do what He had promised (Romans 4:21 AMPC). We must be fully assured that God is able to keep His word and deliver what He has promised. The Passion Translation says; 21He, Abraham, never stopped believing God’s promise, for he was made strong in his faith to father a child. And because he was mighty in faith and convinced that God had all the power needed to fulfil his promises, Abraham glorified God (Romans 2:21 TPT). Hallelujah.
And so Project Celebration; well, what happened to me in July two years ago, in July, what happened to me is I woke up in that morning and the Lord said, “You have victory, John. You have victory in these areas and you must strike the ground with your seed to enforce your victory.” And so since then, I have been walking in a declaration of victory. I don’t have to walk in a declaration of requesting; I’m walking in a declaration of victory. So, are you really interested to learn some of this thing now? Are you still with me for another 10 or 15 minutes then I am done?
Okay, here’s the thing; you never have to ask God for money. If you ask God for money, you’re out of faith, you are inaccurate in your belief system. So, if you ask God for money; stop it. So, what are you supposed to do with money? You are only supposed to declare victory about money because first of all in Matthew chapter 6 God says He knows what you need, and He will deliver what you need, firstly. Secondly, money is something that if you are someone who tithes and you are in the right position with God, you are the master of money, money is not the master of you. So, then you can walk in the authority that commands money to come to meet needs. You can command it; you don’t ask God for it. God has given you all the authority to call money that you need. So if you’re asking God for money; don’t. You’re wasting your breath. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. If you believe in your heart and you speak with your mouth, you can ask whatever you need and God will give it to you. It will be done for you. So, if I’m believing in my heart I can speak to a mountain and it will move into the sea. If I believe in my heart and I command money to come to me, it will come. Here is the thing, “I think I’ll command money to come and give me a boat.” “What are you doing with the boat?” “Well, I’m just going to have fun.” “Well, are you doing God’s assignment?” ‘No, no, I just want to have fun.” “Well, why don’t you rather just believe God for your assignment before you ask God for a boat? Because you might just ask for a boat and you don’t get it and your faith is like, “You see, He doesn’t answer my faith.” “Oh, but your life is not about assignment.” Come on now. But if your life is about assignment and you say, “God, I really desire to have a boat,” then He will confirm that desire in your heart. The minute He confirms the desire in your heart, you call it, then it will come. Ja, nê. Are you all with me now?
Okay. So, it’s very important that we see God’s Word in the correct context. Can I pray and ask God for my healing? Definitely, the Bible even says if you are sick you can call for the elders of the church, they can anoint you with oil, they can lay hands on you and the prayer of faith will heal you, will save you. The Bible also says that by His stripes you are healed. So if you are believing God for healing then you can do that, then you can continuously begin to declare you are healed. So, what if it happens to me if I’ve got a sore ankle and I’m believing God for my healing? What I’ve got to do is take care of my ankle while my healing is manifest. So, if you have sugar diabetes and you take insulin; don’t stop taking your insulin until your insulin starts making you sick. But you should be taking the Word that will heal you from your diabetes and when your healing starts happening, you’ll start to see that your body starts to react to insulin. Then you go back to the doctor. Hello? Unless God does an instant miracle in your body which is possible.
So, I’m saying that there are things that you ask for, then you start to walk in the victory of it by praising, thanking and giving Him and declaring the end result; not continuously declaring the symptom. So, if I declare; I’ve got the headache but I’m believing God for not having a headache but I keep on speaking about the fact that I’ve got a headache, well, then clearly I can’t receive my healing for my headache because I keep talking about my headache. Do you understand? What I’ve got to keep saying is, “Thank You, Father, that you have delivered me from all sickness and dis-ease and right now I am free from dis-ease. The dis-ease of what this is doing to me. I’m free from this dis-ease.” Amen.
If you suffer from headaches for example and migraines and different things like that it might be that you need to be taking some medication to help you through the symptoms, but whatever is causing that, that medication is not going to deal with the cause. It’s just going to help you through the symptoms. So you should be speaking the Word of God that’ll get rid of the cause. But then when you believe God you’ve got to keep just declaring the victory that you are free from whatever the cause is. Amen. Praise the Lord.
So, can you pray for somebody that needs to get saved? The answer is, you always pray for someone to be saved until they get saved. You never stop praying for them until they get saved. You can also not declare that they are saved in Jesus’ Name and then declare the victory of their salvation because that’s not up to you or even up to God; it’s their own will. So, on that basis, you’ve got to keep praying and intercede for their salvation.
I’m trying to give you the difference and the different kind of ways about the different things of how you pray and how you declare things, so that when we come into the new door. So how are you going to pray for the new door? The most important thing I believe Brother Jerry is addressing about the new door is he’s talking about; if you don’t have an understanding, if you don’t receive what the Word of the Lord is and you have no vision for it then you can’t see it. So, what you need to say is, keep thanking the Lord and keep exercising your faith that you see the new door. “I thank You, Lord, that the new door is opening to me. I thank You, Lord, that you are creating circumstances that the new door is opening to me. I thank You, Lord, that you are rearranging people and situations and even geographic locations so that the new door is open to me. I thank You, Father, that the new door is open to me and I see the new door. And then, Father, I thank You that not only do I see the new door but I have the boldness and the courage to walk by faith into the new door through the new door so that I can have the new things and the new experiences with You. This is how you pray for 2020. If you have a new event happen to you and you think this is a new door you can begin to immediately declare, “I thank You, Lord, I have the supreme intelligence, the divine counsel of God, the divine wisdom of God, the truth of the Holy Spirit inside of me that witnesses that this the new door. And thank You, Father, that you have given me men and women of God that are around me that are wise that will help me see the new door.” And so, if you have a new door and you want to really walk in it go to someone, you know, Pastor Christi. Go to some people you are connected to that are spiritual and ask them, “This seems to be a new door for me, would you witness with it?” Let me tell you, God is not going to shut a door on you if you just take a moment to get a witness about it.
I mean there are some new doors that need to be taken quickly but then God will prepare you that you will have the right spirit or condition to be in that condition. Like Pastor Sharon and I when we accepted that God said you’ve got to be with Brother Jerry. But you understand although that happened in a very short space of time, God is preparing us from way back. He said serve Brother Jerry at the conference of our church that was in February of that year, in 1996. And then in that same year, we went to Birmingham where Brother Copeland was having a conference and we got to see Brother Jerry again and they put us on the second row. We were connecting with Brother Jerry. Then when Brother Jerry came with Brother Copeland to the conference and we obeyed God and they had us serve Brother Jerry, Brother Copeland and Brother Creflo Dollar and Jesse and everybody, we were in their company, we were in their presence all the time. So from the beginning of the year, God had already been preparing us something is coming, something is coming, change is coming, change is coming and when the new door opened it was there. And even there I was saying to Sharon, “I’ve got to talk to Brother Jerry. I think I’m going to die if I don’t talk to him. It is like being pregnant as a woman.I’ve got to talk to him.” And so then she said, “Yes, John, but what if?” And I said, “I don’t care about what if, I’ve got to go now.” It didn’t just happen overnight. When it happened it was important that I walk through it right there otherwise it would have been lost. Hello?
And that’s what happened to Louis, because Louis, I mean God intervened in a supernatural way. And it’s none of our business, this is mostly for him but in a supernatural way God put me into Louis’ life. He put me into Louis’ life and I was in his presence for three days. Literally and not all the time in three days. In those three days, I asked him a few questions and the Lord said, “Invite him to come to Witbank.” And he said, the next day he said, “I’m coming.” And he found himself here. He didn’t have time really to think about it because actually God made an opportunity available to him now. Why is it important right now? Well, there’s a new season, a new door, there are new things and already God’s got something to say because he wants new things for his life. But what happened was there were people around him, lots of people around him, spiritual people around him that all witnessed this is right. This is right, we’ve got to make this happen. This has all got to happen and everything happened in place; it was like boom. In twenty-four hours it was sorted; lived in Durban, now he is in Witbank. And he doesn’t know what happened. And he’s like; I was a Durban guy, walking around in slops and now I’m in Witbank and I don’t know what I’m doing. No, you never want to be anywhere else except in the will of God because in the will of God is where you can make a transition in your life. And if you think you’ve got the best kind of life but you’re out of the will of God, it doesn’t matter how good your life is, out of the will of God, you’re never going to have peace. Never. Never, or joy. And your life will just be one continuous seeking for one achievement after the other. One result after the other, one joy after the other. One kind of happiness and you’ll just be running and spinning wheels your whole life. You’ll be chasing your tail your whole life. And that’s what people do in the world; they accumulate wealth but they’re chasing their tail because the money is never enough. The power is never enough, the profile is never enough, the achievement is never enough. There is never enough to satisfy you because you chase your tail the whole time because you’re not in the will of God.
Praise the Lord. So, what do you think? The last thing God told me is Project Celebration. And so we are going to express our walking through the new door. Yes, it’s twenty years of being in the church and in the ministry but God clearly began to show me this. Do you think it is a coincidence that God is showing us a new door after celebrating twenty years of ministry? While we are walking in the whole process of victory striking. Hey listen, this is the way it works, this is the way it works. When God said you are going to defeat Jericho, He didn’t say get all your mighty men and throw spears until the wall breaks. This is what He said, He said, “Day one; walk around the walls and praise for the whole time you’re walking around the wall. And on the seventh day you walk around seven times and you praise the whole time and you’ll have the priests and they’ll blow the horns and you’ll praise God.” And when they walked around that wall seven times, that wall came crashing down. What God did with praise no man could have done with a mighty army. And is it any wonder to you that in this year where the Lord said strike the ground to me and that we’re walking in victory and all these things that the Lord said; Project Celebrate, Project Celebrate. Because it’s not just about celebrating twenty years; it’s about the victory praise of what God’s doing now. It is about a new door. It’s not about looking backwards although we might celebrate that, it’s about rejoicing and joyful victory and praise for what God’s about to bring crashing down that has always stood in our way.
He’s going to bring things crashing down around you. And it’s going to sound like a mighty earthquake and you know what it is? It’s the walled cities of things that have prevented you from walking in the places that God wanted you to walk in because you’re about to take land that you never thought that you could take. You’re going to build and live in houses that you never thought you could live in, you’re going to have fields of productivity that you never thought you could walk in. You’re going to drink out of wells of living life and living joy that you never thought you could drink from. But Jericho is standing in your way, and now the joy of the Lord is going to crash it down, in Jesus’ Name. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
And when you wake up in the morning you say, “Praise You, Jesus. Praise You, Jesus. I’m a son of God, I’m a son of God. I’m a son of God. I praise You, Jesus. I praise You, Jesus. And when you keep quiet watch for the sound, the sound of those walls coming down. The sound of those new doors opening to you in 2020. Hallelujah, praise Jesus, praise Jesus. Glory to God. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Do you see what you’re doing now? Do you see what’s going on now? This is how you attack your future, this is how you get to see your new door, this is how you get God’s best for your life. This is how you do it; day by day, hour by hour. This is how you do; 2020. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Listen you may not be a person that’s kind of noisy like Pastor Sharon is, and sometimes Lebo, so she can also join Pastor Sharon in the noise level here and Christi. is close behind them. If your temperament is like a little bit calmer, at least notch it up a level or two. You know, within the scale of your temperament. If you don’t want to raise your hands, at least raise your hands. Do you know what I’m saying? At least do something that you weren’t doing before, you know. But the most important thing is when you wake up in the morning and you’re like, “Now it’s Tuesday and Wednesday and ya, that was a really great service Pastor John preached and I’m not so sure.” Well, first of all, get this statement, put this praise on. You know, fast forward the whole message and get to this praise and say, listen to the praise. This is where my victory is; listen to the praise. And if that doesn’t get you going then I don’t know, dan is jy amper in die Hemel (then you are almost in Heaven). You know, but what I’m saying is that if you do this every day, every day. I’ll tell you what; before you know it 2020, you’ll get through 2020 and you’ll begin to see things. And you’ll begin to hear things. And you’ll begin to connect with people and they’ll begin to say things to you and you’ll begin to see things and all of the stuff that God’s intended, our conditioning, our celebrating, and our new door is all going to be there for us as we get victory, after victory, after victory. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
Do you believe this stuff? Do you believe it, Marnus? Are you sure? Definitely? Sure sure? Hundred percent? Check, he’s like, “I’m not going to do anything more than hundred percent, Pastor John.” I double-dog dare you Marnus that this whole week that the first thing you do is raise your hands in your bed and say, “Praise You, Jesus.” I dare you. Do you accept the dare? Okay. What about the rest of you? Can I dare you too? When you wake up in the morning, the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning, even while you’re lying in the bed or when you get up to go to the bathroom, whatever you do, gooi your hands up, “Praise You, Jesus. Praise You, Jesus.” And it doesn’t matter whether your head is telling you, you get up and your back clicks and you think, “Praise the Lord, praise the Lord.” Hallelujah.
This is how you get your spirit strong, this is like doing gymnastics, you know, going to the gym spiritually. This is conditioning. Hey? And when that pizza and that two-litre of coke and that chocolate seems very appealing to you, you say in Jesus’ Name, I bind that thing in my life. Give me some green vegetables instead in Jesus’ Name. If you want green vegetables, Wes has got a whole lot of micronutrients which he’s growing. Put in an order. Popeye food, not pizza food, Popeye food. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Eat Popeye food, not pizza food, you know, not wimpy food. I mean not Wimpy, I mean wimpy as in wimp, you know. Not wimpy food, Popeye food, hey? Don’t eat Wimpy food either, you know. And as for Spur, they’ve got like; we’ve got the best breakfast. Double eggs and here’s all these chips and here is this bacon and you get a slice of toast, with jam and it’s nine…I don’t know what is it? R19.99 or something. I don’t know. It’s like ‘stay away from me’. Conditioning, right? And the more you get conditioned, the better the celebration is. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise Jesus. Did you get something out of this today? Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Well, I pray that these words that have been spoken; they find root in your heart. I pray that the Holy Spirit protects your mind, the Blood of Jesus protects your mind and your heart and that these words will not be removed out of your heart and your mind; they will find strong root and you will become strong and you will be able to press through into new things, in Jesus’ Name.
And I declare that as you travel back home you are safe and sound and no weapon formed against you will prosper. I pray that you are blessed going out and blessed going in and I pray that even in today and tomorrow you will begin to see the new door that is opening for you. You got to expect it every day. Don’t wait for a big event just expect it every day in Jesus’ Name. Amen. Do you receive these words? Say Amen. God bless you, thank you for coming today. I will see you in both Witbank and Jo’burg tomorrow. Amen. Bye julle.
© 2024 – Heritage of Faith Ministries International
TOUCH | TEACH | TRAIN | TRANSFER
