Scripture reference: Romans 1:1-6 (AMPC); Romans 5:7,9-11 (TPT), Colossians 3:1-3 (AMPC); Colossians 3:24 (TPT)
Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. He got frozen. Praise the Lord. Let’s just praise Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Praise You, Lord. Praise You. Praise You, Lord. Your goodness towards us, we are so thankful, Lord. We praise You, Jesus. We bless Your name today, Lord. Hallelujah. Glory to Your name, Glory to Your name. Hallelujah. Praise You Jesus. And so, Lord, I pray that as we continue in Your Word this afternoon, that the Word will continue to always bring the necessary change in our hearts, in our lives and everything around us. Thank You, Lord, that you have put eternity in our hearts and it calls to everything that you have for us. And so today Father I pray that this message will fall on ground that is ready in the hearts of people to receive it to grow it and to reap a great harvest upon it. We thank You for it, Father. Hallelujah. We thank You, Lord in Jesus’ name. Amen. Are you ready to receive the word today? Good, you may be seated. Hallelujah.
Wow, we’ve got air conditioners in here now. We really have air conditioners in here, you have got to come with a jacket to the church now, you know. Hallelujah. Are you all okay temperature-wise? Check, they got all jackets on in the front here. I suppose it circulates this way around, does it? So, I get the full blast of the cold. Thanks, Wallie. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Well, I trust the message will do you good today. It will bless you today. Amen. I like to do this from time to time. Who of you have watched the YouTube message this morning? You guys are naughty? Or you’re very good. I mean, what do I say about dates you know? Well, I can go now. Just watch the YouTube link.
I’m going to read from Romans chapter one. Verse one. And it goes, 1From Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ (the Messiah) called to be an apostle, a (special messenger) set apart to (preach) the Gospel the (good news) of and from God.
So, like I said this morning, a special messenger is called. You don’t choose it. God calls you. My primary calling is to pastor and to teach. The fact that God has given us opportunity to minister to many, many churches around the country. Around Southern Africa, all the way from Malawi, Zambia, and downwards and have Bible Schools everywhere would indicate that God has placed an apostolic calling on this ministry. If you’re a special messenger sent by God, and you have an apostolic mantle, it’s primarily designed to bring a message that other people have not yet received or don’t know about. It’s designed to take territory and once the territory is being taken, it’s designed to organize and establish and bring order in the territory.
So, an apostolic mantle people use the word ‘his apostolic’ or she, whatever they’ve got a lot of people want to have lots of titles, you know, from doctor to bishop to professor, Dr. Bishop and apostle and whatever, you know, and the more titles they can have, the greater their anointing you know, but it’s really absolutely epidemic actually in Africa, that everybody’s got 50 titles. But if you’re really called by God to do something, then whatever you’re called to do, it will begin to show the fruit. And especially if you have an apostolic mantle that will bring God’s order, not man’s order. And so that’s a very important thing, because there’s a lot of order in a lot of places and a lot of churches. But the order doesn’t mean it’s God’s order, it just means that there’s organized order. But God’s order is a completely different thing.
So, if you are a special messenger, then you bring good news, 2Which he promised in abundance advance (long ago) through His prophets in the sacred scriptures- 3(The Gospel) regarding His Son, Who as to the flesh (His human nature) was descended from David. 4And (as to His divine nature) according to the Spirit of holiness was openly designated the Son of God in power… The Amplified says, …(in a striking, triumphant and miraculous manner) So, if you want to know what power does in your life, it brings about a triumphant and miraculous state, and it’s visible. Hallelujah. By His resurrection from the dead, even Jesus Christ our Lord (the Messiah, the Anointed One). 5It is through Him that we have received grace (God’s unmerited favor) and (our) apostleship to promote obedience to the faith and make disciples for His name’s sake among all the nations, 6And this includes you, called of Jesus Christ and invited (as you are) to belong to Him. (Romans 1:1-6 AMPC)
So, as a special messenger of Christ, the apostle Paul was called to bring good news. The good news was to him to come and declare, Jesus in His humanity and Jesus in His divinity. So, it’s important that He comes and He’s making this distinction, that He came as a human. And He also came as a divine being and designated the Son of God in power by His resurrection from the dead. The resurrection from the dead is an important, is an important thing which we are going to talk much more about this day, and many other days to come. Resurrection from the dead. Hallelujah.
I’m going to go to Romans chapter five and go to verse seven from the passion translation. 7Now, who of us would anyone dare to die for the sake of a wicked person? We can all understand if someone was willing to die for a truly noble person. 8But Christ proved God’s passionate love for us by dying in our place while we were still lost and ungodly! 9And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus, we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in my sight.”
So you will know from this morning, please say, “I am a Righteous One”. Hallelujah. And so you can wake up in the morning and you can say, “Good morning, Righteous One”. It’s a good habit to get into. Even while you’re lying in the bed you can just say, “Good morning Righteous One.” Hallelujah. 9You’re now righteous in my sight and because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God. This is good news for you and me. We will never experience the wrath of God. Only those people who do not believe in Jesus Christ will experience the wrath of God. You and I will never have that.
10So if while we were still enemies, God fully reconciled us to himself through the death of his Son, then something greater than friendship is ours. Now that we are at peace with God, and because we share in his resurrection life, how much more we will be rescued from sin’s dominion! 11And even more than that, we overflow with triumphant joy in our new relationship of living in harmony with God—all because of Jesus Christ! (Romans 5:7,9 -11 TPT)
For those of you who watched this morning, I will repeat myself, for those of you who never watched this morning, you will hear it for the first time. But there is, there is a group of people out there in the world, and I thank God for them. The first, first one of that type that I came into, into contact with was a man by the name of Josh McDowell. I came into contact with him through his books. He now has, his son has now taken over his ministry, if you like, and his calling as an apologist. So an apologist is someone who is trained, and makes a life livelihood, or makes a living or makes a, makes it their business to go and debate agnostics and people that are atheists, people who say they don’t believe in God, they make it their business to go and debate them intellectually about God.
Because there are many, there are many gods in the world. There are many gods in the world. Because people have made gods to fill vacuums, so they make gods. The greatest god that people serve, is themselves. This is not a hard thing to do. It’s an easy thing to do to make yourself, god of yourself. Because intellectually and emotionally you’re self-connected with yourself and so it’s very easy to keep yourself motivated to do everything for yourself, and justify living for yourself. Right?
I mean that’s the easiest god is to make yourself, the god of yourself. And you don’t even have to try to actually do that people actually want you to say that. And they actually want you to say lots of things in the line of, you can do, and you can do and become anything you want to do and become anything you want to become. It’s not, and you can just go ahead and explore everything life’s got to offer as long as you don’t hurt anybody else. Right? So they want you to talk like that language, because actually, it makes you god of yourself. And so as long as you are god of yourself, everybody’s happy about that, even the devil. The devil is very happy if you’re god of yourself, because it means you are not serving Jesus, you’re not serving the resurrected, living God.
There are, there are many gods and if I, if I was not serving, I was not serving Jesus and serving a living God and I had to choose the god to serve, which god would I choose to serve? So which god would you choose to serve if actually, if there was a choice of gods, which one would you choose? I probably would choose the money god. Well, because if you’ve got lots of money, you can also have power. People, I mean, just have a look what’s happening with Facebook and Google and those guys. They’re actually interfering with elections in America and they’re telling the government what to do and what not to do. And they’re using their money as influence and power. Yes. I mean, I mean, it’s a well-known, it’s a well-known, you’re right, Kim? Just making sure you’re okay. I don’t mean to draw attention to you, but I’m just making sure you’re, you’re okay Kim. {Pastor John laughs.}
So, you know, I mean, if you had to choose a god, which god would you choose? Maybe you will choose a power god because you would think power is actually the thing that you really want, is to have power because power obviously has a lot of benefits. It controls things that it makes things happen and you become the director of, of power.
There could be other gods that you would want to serve, you might want to serve the pleasure god, the entertainment god. I mean, there could be a number of gods that you would want to choose if there was a choice of gods. Right? So do you think that’s happening in the world today or not? I mean people are choosing which gods they want to serve. They, you know, they make they actually, won’t call it god. They will call it a career, they might call it a lifestyle, they might call it different things, but actually they’re choosing a god to serve. This is where I’m going to put my energy. This is where I’m going to put all my time, this is what I’m going to do with my life. I’m going to do it like this.
So, if you have these apologists, and you watch a Christian apologist having a debate with someone that is an atheist or an agnostic, or someone who says they don’t believe in God, they will have a philosophy about life, they will have a, there will be theories about life and philosophies about life, and they will defend them. And many of them will, you will find that many of them their philosophies have grounded in writings and philosophers that have talked about evolution like Darwin, or they will find their philosophies or their, their theologies in Marx or Karl Marx, or in some kind of more obscure writer or thinker or philosopher of, of the days gone by and they will have, you will find that those books have had an influence on their thinking, and what they’re believing. The one thing, the one thing that you will always find if you watch debates between, because normally, apologists that are well known apologists normally have quite a lot of learning. They have, most of them will have doctorates, and not just one doctorate, most of them will have one or two or three doctorates, and they will be well known universities or education institutions where they will have studied from.
So, therefore, when they have a debate, there is normally an adjudicator and they have certain times and they have certain questions and it’s normally quite structured. But the one thing that you will find most often where the whole thing becomes unraveled and unstructured is when they talk about the resurrection of Christ. Because it’s the only, it’s the only thing that they have no answer for. The only answer they can give you is, “but the witnesses are unreliable.” Because the witnesses have an interest in actually saying that Jesus rose from the dead because after all the witnesses were the disciples of the same One. So, they will try and bring down the witnesses that were evidence that Jesus walked amongst men and He was risen from the dead.
Here’s the other problem they have. The other problem they have, they have is you and me. We are witnesses of His life. Hallelujah. We are a witness of His life. You see, evolution, for example, is not something that changes your life and is not about a person. It’s about a, it’s about a philosophy. Even other gods that are mentioned, very, very well known, other religions – their gods died. So, even though they follow the writings and they will die in the name of the God, their prophets died. And were never resurrected, the problem they have with Christianity is that Jesus was resurrected from the dead. This becomes very, very important to you and me.
I’m going to read Colossians chapter three, verse one to three, from the Amplified Bible. 1If then you have been raised with Christ [to a new life, thus sharing His resurrection from the dead], aim at and seek the [rich, eternal treasures] that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 And set your minds and keep them set on what is above (the higher things), not on the things that are on the earth. 3For [as far as this world is concerned] you have died, and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:1-3 AMPC).
This is a, this is an amazing difference between what we believe and what anybody else believes. And I didn’t intend for this message to be a confrontation between other theologies or other thoughts about God. I’m merely was making a reference that if you were to serve a God, and you had a choice to serve a God, which God would you choose to serve? Because, if you, if you deny the living God, Jesus Christ, then you must choose some other thing. Otherwise, you have no purpose on earth. Right? You have no purpose on earth.
One of the famous debaters of evolution actually has made it his life’s work to actually promote evolution, and promoted it so strongly that it has actually become very effective in America. And actually, the problems that you’re finding in America today, the chaos that’s happening in America today is a direct result of the teachings of Darwin, which was promoted by a man by the name of Professor Chris Dawkins. And he was the man that actually has made it his life’s business to make evolution the thing to follow. So, on questioning Christopher Dawkins about what’s your purpose for life on earth – his answer was to die. So, what is the whole purpose for you to live and die? And his whole answer was, so that the strong can continually be strong. So that the, that the species can evolve. So, his whole purpose on earth is to promote the evolution of species. That’s what he says. And so, in one of the debates that I watched one of the guys, obviously one of the guys that was on the other side of the table talking about God said, “Well, do you really believe that?” And he wouldn’t answer the question as to whether he really believed it or not, because that goes to the heart of the fact that he has a belief system. And so then, if you have a belief system, then you’ve chosen a god. Right?
So, even though he may never say he believes it, the fact that he goes around, teaching it and making sure that it’s evolving in schools. Have you heard of this thing happening in America right now, critical race theory? Let me tell you – this critical race theory didn’t happen by accident. Critical race theory has been actually in the making, in schools and in universities, and in institutions for probably 20 years, or longer. It’s been called different names. But now it’s bee, it’s emerged as being called critical race theory. It’s more relevant for us now to believe in the resurrection of Christ from the dead than ever before. Hallelujah.
So, you have been raised with Christ, and you are sharing in His resurrection from the dead. So, this is the most marvelous thing about salvation. The most marvelous thing about salvation is that you and I had no chance at having any future with Jehovah God. When Jesus came and He died, He made his death for all men. So, because He was raised from the dead by God, the Father – that was a legal matter, that Jesus was the power of God was able to raise Jesus from the dead. Because legally, the devil did an illegal thing. He caused men to kill Jesus’ body. And they never had the right to do that because He was sinless. Their accusations were strong enough to kill Him. But that was all part of the plan of God, that they would kill Him as a sinless man.
When the power of God became at work to raise Jesus from the dead, it was the only thing that still remained in the whole universe, where God was legally bound by His Word that a man must die. And there was no afterlife, hope for someone that died without Jesus.
Their hope was in the eternal God. So, hear me out now. Everybody, all of the Israelites, King David, all of the people, all the prophets that died, under God, they died with the hope that in the future there would be some form of Messiah where there will be a resurrection for them. But they did not know what that resurrection would look like. They died without that hope. Can I say they died without the knowledge of what that hope would look like – it’s a better way of putting it. You and I, when we die, we know what our hope is because the power of God raised Jesus from the dead.
Let’s say, you are driving a 120 km per hour on a 120 km road and a traffic officer comes and stops you. Do they have the legal right to stop you? Yes, they do. They have a legal right to stop you. If they fine you for exceeding the speed limit, it is illegal, even though they stopped you. They may write out a ticket and they may fine you for saying we say, you did a 121 km an hour. Just bear with me now. 121 – They can fine you legally for exceeding the speed limit because the speed limit is 120. If you are doing 121 km you have broken the law. Legally they can fine you. If you ask them for proof, they might say look our radar or our whatever says you were doing a 121, but if you could proof that you were doing a 120, you can go to the court system and you can say: this guy is telling me I did a 121 and I’m saying I did 120 and I dispute his legal right to stop me and to fine me whatever the fine is. That’s why they don’t stop you for a 121, right? Because the margin of error is in our favour. It’s not in their favour.
So with Jesus it became a legal matter that even though the devil could kill His body, he never had the right to kill His body. Because he never had the power to kill His body, the power of God could raise Jesus from the dead. Now, this may seem like this is basic Christianity, but I am really going to be building on this as we go forward, because there is something significant that happens because we identify in the death and the resurrection of Jesus. I am going to read that passage of scripture again. If then you have been raised with Christ [to a new life, thus sharing His resurrection from the dead], aim at and seek the [rich, eternal treasures] that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. So aim at and seek for those things. 2And set your minds and keep them set on what is above (the higher things), not on the things that are on the earth. Because as far as this world is concerned, 3For you died [to this world], and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:1-3 AMPC)
I am going to give you the same example I gave this morning. I know we have got some medical professionals here. I’m not sure how they would handle this, but if I was standing here today, and standing in front of you and my body decided to stop working, and I died, standing in front of you – my body stopped working. What is going to happen to my body? It is immediately just going to collapse on a heap, right? You all will get quite a fright, probably Elrika will come to the front and she will start beating my chest and try and get my heart back to working again and maybe all of you will start praying in tongues. (Pastor John prays in tongues) and you all will go into highly hyper spiritual mode, “raise him from the dead Jesus, raise him from the dead”.
You are all welcome, you’re welcome. But let me tell you what is going to happen to me. As my body is crumpling and let’s say this is the moment I am not supposed to be here on the earth anymore, hypothetically hey! When that moment comes, I would like you to just recognise that what you’re seeing, my spirit man will remain standing and in the instance that my body ceases to function, my eyes and my whole being will immediately be filled with the radiating glory of God and my standing spirit and soul will immediately transfer into the heavenly realm. And I will immediately become part of the spirits of God, the angels of God, the spirits of God and I will immediately and forever eternally be present with Him. And even though you guys might be carrying on and “gaaning aan” and you know all the stuff that might happen emotionally I will be unaware of what you are doing because I will be experiencing a new moment of glory.
Why would this happen to me? How could this happen to me? Well, because I have already identified myself in the death of Jesus, recognising that He died for me, paid the price for me so that I can wake up in the morning and say “Good morning, Righteous one”. So now, if I also identify in His death, I must also identify in His resurrection, which means that He died, and then came back into life again. Now, just to be clear, that death, even though His body died, that death was a separation of His life from God.
His spirit was still alive as it were, it still existed, but it was separated from the life of God. So, His spirit and His soul existed in a separated state, so eternally this would be the only moment ever that Jesus would ever be separated from His Father. And He did it, so that you and I never have to experience it. When we had Jesus in our hearts, and He is our Lord and Saviour, when my body collapses, I am immediately present with the Lord. I don’t have to go through the three days of separation that He went through. I don’t have to go through one blink of an eyelids’ moment separated from God. The connection I have with Jesus right now, is the same and better that I will have when my body dies. I will never experience death. My body will certainly die, but I will never experience death because the real me is my spirit. The real me is my spirit that has a soul. They will live or they will exist eternally, either with God or without God. Now this becomes very important because God set all of these things in motion. How did He do it? He used the authority of His Word and His power to set all of this in motion so that men could have a choice.It required His power to remove the obstacle of death, by using His power to raise Jesus from the dead. This is going to become very, very important in the weeks ahead.
So I’m going to read you this same passage of scripture from the Passion Translation; 3Christ’s resurrection is your resurrection too. Come on. Christ’s resurrection is your resurrection. So when you wake up and you say, “Morning, righteous one.” Then you say the resurrection life lives in me, already. Already. You don’t have to die to experience His resurrection life. It’s already working in you. This is why we are to yearn for all that is above, for that’s where Christ sits enthroned at the place of all power, honor, and authority! (Colossians 3:1 TPT) We are to yearn for all that is above. Not this here 2Yes, feast on all the treasures of the heavenly realm and fill your thoughts with heavenly realities, and not with the distractions of the natural realm. (Colossians 3:2 TPT)
Wow. You see, the resurrection life of Christ that is already in you, is already calling to the seated place of Christ, where all glory and all honor is and all authority belongs. Your resurrected being already because you had to choose Jesus to be your Lord and Saviour. When you chose Him, He gave you the faith to become born again. You became resurrected – born again, resurrected, that born again-resurrected-being does not want you to be distracted by all the stuff happening here. It’s already calling you to the heavenly realities.
Wow. So let me read that again. 2Yes, feast on all the treasures of the heavenly realm and fill your thoughts with heavenly realities, and not with the distractions of the natural realm. 3Your crucifixion with Christ has severed the tie to this life, and now your true life is hidden away in God in Christ. 4And as Christ himself is seen for who he really is, you who really are will also be revealed, for you are now one with him in his glory! (Colossians 3:2-4 TPT) You are now one with Him in His glory. When? Now. When? Now. Hallelujah.
There is a lot that I have to teach about this. And you know, the apostle Paul, he does a very great job of debating with people who served a lot of gods. In fact, the people of the day they were so aware of gods that they made so many gods and they had a name for every god, the god of money or prosperity, the god of fertility and the god of the harvest and the god of the this and they had just gods, and they had lots of feasts, that would, they would give all things to gods. And so in case they offended a god, you know, they even had an idol there that said to the unknown god.
He said, “You guys are so afraid of you know, offending a God that he’s going to pour His wrath out on you, that you even are worshiping and giving, giving offerings and having feast to the unknown God.” So of course, Paul, filled with the wisdom of Christ, he says “That unknown God, I know him. Do you want to know who He is?” “Of course, we want to know who he is.” They argue and he argues with them. “And of course, you preach this God come and tell us who is this God.” “Well, hHs name is Jesus. And He was risen from the dead, and He is alive.”
And so the Apostle Paul uses their absolute construct of the many gods, to reveal to them Jesus, that Jesus died and rose again. For you and me. This becomes the cornerstone of our salvation, because if our Jesus that we serve was not raised from the dead, this is the argument that Paul has, and we will get to it again in future Sunday sessions. So his argument is, if the God that we served was not raised from the dead, if He died, ‘pity’ he uses the word, ‘pitiful’ people we are.
Why are we pitiful? Well because we could chase all the desires of our natural men, anything we desired we could chase after it. And yet we choose not to in the name of a god that’s dead. Why would you want to give up all the pleasures of life? So called pleasures of life. Why would you want to give up all the so called pleasures of life to serve a God that is dead? You to be pitied and that’s what he says. We would be pitied. Really, I mean, it’s like, you could serve the money god and have all the money, why would you want to serve a God that’s dead? You could serve the entertainment god, the pleasure god. You could, you know, live the way you want to live, satisfy all of your human desires – if the God that we serve is dead.
So I ask you, what do you think the world is doing out there? If they don’t believe that Jesus is Lord and they don’t believe that He was raised from the dead, what choices do they have to make? Their choices are to serve a god, that is themselves and anything else they choose to want to do.
But the Apostle Paul argues, and he says, but if the God that we serve is resurrected from the dead, and He is alive, and He does live in you, then you and I have a completely different set of choices that we must make because the very God inside of us now calls to eternity, it calls to the heavenly realms. Okay, question for you; “How much power did it take? How much power did it take to separate the night from the day? How much power did it take to separate the water from the earth? How much power?” Can’t measure it. But you can say this, “That power belongs to God”, that is scriptural. It says so in the book of Psalms, “Power belongs to God.”
Power is only released when His will is known. Come on now. When the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit revealed their will to make man in their image, power was released because the will of God was known. How much power did it take? Enough. Enough. Do you need to know more? Enough. How much power does it take to heal you? Enough? How much power does it take to work in your life? To restore relationships? To restore finances to restore trust in God? How much power does it take? The same power that raised Christ from the dead, it’s the same amount. It’s enough. It’s enough.
I’m going to close with this. You know, when I say close, it’s the first time. Sometimes when I, when I make this statement, I have to pinch myself because I really don’t feel like it. But Sharon and I have been married; 40 years. I don’t feel like I should be married for 40 years. You know, 40 is just a number. I don’t feel like that’s the number. You know, I mean, I feel like I’ve been married 20 years, because I feel young enough that it should only be 20 years. You know? So, but 40 years 40. I’m wanting to make something real to you, as a foundation block for going forward, through this; it has become very personal to me, when I was in my early 20s, you saw the picture last week. I looked young hey? Bright eyed, you know, young, newly married young man, you know?
Anyway, it wasn’t immediately after we got married it was I don’t know if it was months or a year or, sometime, but it wasn’t exactly. But just give me a few months, and let’s say it’s been 40 years, okay? Where the Lord spoke to me and He said, “John, I want you to love Sharon, as Christ loves the Church and I want you to give yourself up for her.” And then He told me, and He said, “If you will speak the Word over her, what will happen to her will be what happened to the Church, My Word will wash her, and cleanse her and present her to you, without spot or blemish or wrinkle in glorious splendour.” So the Lord said to me, “Do you want to have a marriage that is glorious, and splendorous? Do you want to have a marriage like that?” I said, “I do. Lord.” I said, “That’s the dream of my heart. It’s the desire of my heart, that if I’m going to be married, I want to have a marriage that is glorious.”
I began to speak the Word that I love my wife as Christ loves the Church. I began to do that. I never got it right, a lot of the time, I didn’t get it right. So, you know how it goes in relationships? “What’s wrong with you? Nothing’s wrong with me. I can see something’s wrong with you. I promise you nothing’s wrong with me. I can see you’re not there’s something wrong with you. What’s going on? Nothing’s wrong with me. I can see something’s wrong with you, you can’t hide it from me. I know something’s wrong with you. I’m okay. I’m, nothing’s wrong with me.” And the tension rises, right. Depending on your personality, you are either going to drag it out, or you’re going to ‘Blahhhh’. Right?
I didn’t always get it right. I’m wanting you to understand that even though God gave me a word of what to do to have a glorious marriage and to give myself up for her, I didn’t always get it right. But I kept speaking it and I kept letting the Word have its effect in me and let it let the Word of God have its effect in Sharon, and in our lives.
What happens when you are in agreement with the will of God? “I am in agreement that the same power that raised Christ from the dead now lives in me. And the Word that He has given me to speak over my marriage is the same power that raised Christ from the dead is now the Word that I’m speaking over her.” I couldn’t have taught this back then. Back then, I just was obedient. I did it as often as I could, as much as I could and I allowed His mighty power to do its work in me. As I allowed His powerful work to build it in me, I began to observe the changes that began to happen in Sharon. I observed her going to the Word of God and I observed her reaching into the Word of God to find the Words that God says about her personality, where her personality would be at war with me. Glorious life. Glorious life.
We both agreed in the resurrection life of God, that His power was in the living Word. I can’t consider it to be living Word if He’s not resurrected. It’s the resurrection life that makes His Word alive. Without resurrection His words are dead. So, if I’m identifying in His crucifixion, and His resurrection, then the minute I agree with His words, when is the power of God released? When the will of God is known. So when I speak His words, which is His will, over my marriage, His power is released to begin to bring about the change that needs to come. So, I believe that everyone who is married, that is in our ministry is experiencing the resurrection life of Christ in your marriage. If you’re not, hang in there it will. If you believe what I’m telling you today, it will. What I’m about to say is not a criticism of your relationship, it is merely a witness and a testimony of the power of God in my marriage.
And so I can say that of 40 years, 40 years probably means that 40 years, it probably means that the sex issue in your marriage is no longer that much of an issue. It probably means the children are grown up and out of the house. It probably means financially, you know, kind of that you’re settled, you know where you’re headed. It probably means that you’ve learned to live in a comfort zone with each other, that you know, when to fuss with each other or not to fuss with each other. You can see the signs before they happen and you just leave it alone. Generally speaking, generally speaking.
So often, if you find people that have been married 30, 40 years, they will tell you, and let me say this quite plainly, I applaud you if you’ve been married that long, well done. It’s a good job. But I didn’t want to have a marriage where we lived comfortably with each other because we know each other. I wanted to have a marriage back then, in my early twenties, I wanted to have the glorious splendor of God in my marriage. So what did I release into my marriage 40 years ago? I released power. I released power. The same power that raised Christ from the dead, I released that power into my marriage. It’s gone awful quiet here it shouldn’t be so quiet. I released that power into my marriage 40 years ago. So, I can stand before you today. And I can say for 40 years that power has been building and sustaining and developing my marriage. It has become more glorious because we’ve kept releasing the power.
How can you say? How can you agree with the Word of God? And say, “You shall run and not grow weary, you shall walk and not faint. And He will carry up on wings of eagles and you will be… and the joy of the Lord can be your strength.” Do you believe those words? Come on now, talk to me. Do you believe those words? Then how can you run and not be weary and walk and not faint? How can you believe those words in your life? If you don’t believe in the resurrection power of Christ, that they’re actually working in your life? Why say them if you don’t believe them? Come on.
Why would I speak the Word of God into my marriage, if I didn’t believe it? I will tell you this, that no one else in my circles believed what I was doing. No one else. I never made someone else’s measurement of a marriage, my measurement. I never knew what God could make of my marriage. I never had a measure except I knew to be obedient to God and I had to allow His power to work.
I don’t care how good a Christian you are, I mean this, I don’t care how good a Christian you are. Any of you, anybody that’s been raised as a Christian, you’ve both been raised in Christian homes, let’s say you’ve both been raised in this church in the Word of faith, and you’re now going to get married, and you both were raised in this church. You are still going to need to work out the human differences between you. You’re still going to have to learn how to live with each other. Simple things. Men put the toilet seat down after you’ve gone to the toilet. It bugs the woman, you already know what I’m talking about? Little things, huh?
I mean, this is real. Pastor Lynn can tell you many more stories, because he did marriage counseling for years and years, and he taught on this, and people wrote about many things. And they have weird things. But I mean, literally, it’s like, what you do with your toothbrush after you brushed your teeth? How do you squeeze the toothpaste tube? Do you squeeze it from the bottom? Or you just squeeze it from the middle? Do you wrap it up? Or don’t you? Do you leave all your clothes lying on the floor in the bathroom? Or the towel, the wet towel, “Pick up the towel, please it’s wet, pick up.” “Meh, I was going to do it just now.” “When’s just now?” “When I get to it.” That’s the problem, you don’t get to it. Right? So it doesn’t matter actually, that you’ve been raised Word of faith, knowing the power of God, you still have to work through differences.
And so what do you do? You reach into the Word of God and the rich treasures of His heavenly treasury realm that He has and you say, “I bring the heavenlies into my natural.” And I speak the glory of God into my natural. So that even my living naturally becomes supernatural. So this has become such a big thing to me. This has become such a big thing to me, because actually the only, there are so many examples and so many of them are so personal, that I just… it would be improper, and I would make myself too vulnerable for me and Sharon to share them with you. So many things where the glory of God has been dealing with us in our marriage in the last ten years, that have increased our levels of intimacy and increased our levels of God-awareness in each other; have increased our effectiveness as ministers.
But you know, one morning I’m praying and the Lord says to me, “Make it available to Sharon to come on the intern trip where most of the camping is going to happen.” Just watch this out now. My natural realm thinking says, “Why should I even tell her that?” I know her. I’ve lived with her forty years, she’s a five star lodge girl. Okay, maybe four stars but don’t go lower than that. Come on, don’t look at me like that. I know her, Lord. We already settled this. I bought the car; got the camper on top of the roof… I mean, she can’t sleep there. It’s not going to happen. “John, this is God talking to you- make it available to her.” “Alright, if You say so.”
Where is this coming from? Forty years of power. Resurrection power. Forty years of resurrection power is working right now. In me. In me, it’s undoing my natural thinking in me. So when I see her, “Sharon, the Lord told me.” I had to make sure it wasn’t coming from me. “The Lord told me to tell you that I must make this trip available to you. You know what’s going to happen, you know what it’s all about, but He told me to make it available to you.” I mean, it’s like she became almost rooted to the spot. I mean, it was like God arrested her. She said, “Okay, John, I’ll get back to you.” And so that very day, she called my son Garth. She said, “Garth, come pray with me.” And she and Garth went and prayed together, she said, “The Lord has made this available to me through dad. I need to pray this out.” What? She’s even praying about it? After she prays about it, she says, “John, I’m coming.” I said, “Wait a bit babes. Let me explain. Let me explain. Let me explain… toilet stuff.” She says, “John, I’m coming. The Lord said, I must come.”
I don’t know if you understand how big this is. This is so big for me. Because what God did between me and her because of her obedience, and my obedience, just the spiritual interaction to make something happen that was previously – not even thinking about it. And then to live together through the experience, come back from that experience and having all of the supernatural workings of God on that whole experience. And now she says to me, “When’s the next one John?” Do you understand that there is no natural realm-thinking that can change that? That all of that is 40 years of power at work, that changes the natural thing in a minute. In a minute, a week, a day.
It’s the same power that raised for us Christ from the dead. That same power touched her spirit, touched her natural man, it elevated her above her comfort zone and said, “I’m able and I’m capable and God has anointed Me and gracing me and He’s giving me all the power I need to do this. So I’m coming. Because if God wants me there, then He wants me there for spiritual reasons and my body can just suck it up.” And those of you that were with her know how well she just sucked it up. This is my Sharon. My Sharon. What! She’s no longer my Sharon – the way I knew her then. I’ve had to learn to know her differently. Forty years of power, resurrection-life power. Because I believe in the resurrected Word of the living Christ.
I’ve got good news for you today and I’m only saying this because the Holy Spirit is prompting me to say this. If you haven’t done what we did, you can have what we have and God had us celebrate forty years last weekend and do prayer cloths, because He wanted to change some things in marriages and relationships. And He wanted to bring about some changes that 40 years of obedience of releasing power and glory was able to do. And that comes available to you – by grace now. And the Lord said to me to tell you as a group this afternoon of the parable, and the story of the man who owned a vineyard, and he went in the morning, and he said, “Will you come and work for a day’s wage?” And they said, “Yes, thank you, we’ll come work for a day’s wage.” And in the midday halfway through the day, he came back into the square, and there were people sitting around and he said, “Do you want to come and work for the same wage as the guys that worked from the morning?” And they said, “Yes, we’ll come work half a day.” And then one hour before the end of the day, there were still men sitting in the square, and he comes in the last hour, and he says, “Will you come and work?” And he pays them the same wage.
I’m telling you, the power of the resurrected Christ that has been available to me and Sharon all these 40 years, it can be yours right now. You don’t have to do 34 years of speaking, you can receive it by grace, because God has released His grace through this messenger that comes to you. If you don’t believe it, you won’t experience it. If you resist it, because, “Ah, I don’t know.” Please don’t. Because if you resist it, you won’t have that. And it doesn’t matter to me what level you think you want the glory of God, I didn’t know what it would mean to have the glory of God on my marriage 40 years ago.
Next week, we’ll talk about the resurrection life of Christ that comes upon your wildest dreams and plans and thoughts and imaginations. Next week. Because it’s time to dream God’s dreams again. It’s time to reach into the resurrected life and think heavenly realm thoughts, and begin to reach and say, “I’m going to live there. I’m not going to live here. I’m not going to scratch around where everybody else’s marriage is.” “No, you have got to compromise this and you have got to give that back and you have got to do this. And you… and now it’s too late for this and it’s too late.” Ha. Tell Abraham that. Tell Sarah that. “I couldn’t have babies when I was young, now I’m even an old woman” – can’t have babies.
But the power – that same power. How much power? Enough. Enough, It’s always enough. It’s never too little. It’s always enough. It’s enough, it’s enough. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Hallelujah. Please say, “We still love you, Pastor.” Hallelujah. Hallelujah. What do you want to know from me today? I’ll tell you something. If there’s a question you could ask me today that I could answer after 40 years of living with a woman and having the glory of God, where we made mistakes, made wrong decisions. But every time God’s glory, resurrected out, fixed it, restored it, rebuilt it. You want to ask me questions about my son’s that made choices different to mine, still restoring it, still fixing it, still working – power.
How much? Enough to undo bad decisions, enough to undo a past that hasn’t been doing this. It’s enough to fix it right now. and I am believing that after these series of messages as I am preaching the series of messages on the resurrection power of Christ, that His resurrection power is going to work in your bodies. It’s going to come up from inside your innermost being and the mighty power that’s inside of you, it’s going to heal you, it’s going to resurrect you, it’s going to restore you. It’s going to change your thinking, it’s going to change your attitude towards money. It’s going to change your attitude towards your place in the Body of Christ. It’s going to change you – the way you think about your future, because you’re going to become heavenly minded in your realities, you’re not going to think about the low earth life that everybody else is talking about.
Don’t let your opinion be the substance of your life. Your opinion has got no value. Make His Word the opinion of your life. Make His Word the substance. You got an opinion? Shut up. Ja, I’m being strong now. This is the Holy Spirit speaking through me. You got an opinion about something? Shut up. Your opinion has no future. Nothing. “Oh, but it’s my opinion.” So what? Do you want to live by your opinions? Why don’t you just make a list. As you say them and think them, make a list of what your opinions are? If you are saying words about people, words about politics, words about finances. Make a list of what your opinions are. It’s my opinion. It’s what I think, this is my thing. This is what I believe, this is what I think. And then go and match them to where your life is. Don’t speak your opinions. They have got absolutely no power. Can I make it this, can I say it this way: It has not enough power, it’s not enough. It’s not enough. Speak the will of God -it’s got enough power. It’s more than enough. Greater is He that’s in you than he that’s in the world. The resurrected one lives in you.
Okay, now I’m going to close the service. Promise. Last time, I want you to please tell your body to get up. In a minute or two, you’re going to tell your body to leave this building. Right? And then after that you’re going to tell your body to get in a car. You may not think you’re telling your body but subconsciously, you’re telling your body to do that. Hmm? I’m believing that your resurrected life consciousness is going to become so great in you that you don’t even think about it. You will be telling your life story through the resurrection life of Christ. “I tell you body, this is what you think about money. I tell you, body, this is what you think about health and sickness and disease. I tell you, body, this is what you’re going think about it.” It’s what the Word says. “I tell you marriage, this is what it’s going to be. I tell you future, this is what it’s going to be. Hallelujah.
What do you think Jesus meant when He said, “If you believe in your heart and you don’t doubt, and you speak to this mountain and you command it to be cast into the sea, it will obey you”. What life was that? What power is that? Can I tell you, that the mountain that was in front of me when I got married, I promise you, Sharon and I have talked about it and we’ve talked about a lot in this last year because we are celebrating and we have so much to be thankful for. But the mountain that we had, that we had in front of us, she as a person, me – my stubbornness –yoh, stubborn. I can be stubborn, not anymore. I’m stubborn for Jesus. But let me tell you, I could be stubborn. It’s my way and I’m right. None of you identify with that and then Sharon could be just as stubborn back except she had all the facial expressions and all the body language to match. We had a big mountain and as we spoke the glory of God, that mountain, little bit by little bit, it just moved out of our way and now we have no mountains in front of us. We have just plain sailing life.
And you say, ‘Well, but 40 years – of course you got it.” Hmmm. You don’t know how sweet my marriage is. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. “Good morning, righteous one. Say hello to the resurrected person in you. Hello resurrected one. Hello righteous one.” Yeah. When you wake up tomorrow morning, call on the resurrection power of God to work through you this day. Call on the righteousness of Christ that is yours to be your portion – this day, tomorrow.
I pray that these words will find a root in your heart. They will rest upon you with the anointing of the Holy Spirit. They will change you from the inside. I pray that you will receive this with gladness and joy but it will also grow up and become a rich harvest in your life. And that from this moment on, resurrection life, power begins to work in your thought life, in your body, in your circumstances, in your relationships, everything. The resurrection life of Christ begins to work for you right now in Jesus’ name. Do you agree with this prayer? Say amen. And I pray that this week you’re protected by the Word in the Blood of Jesus. No harm will come near you or your dwelling place and you’ll be blessed going out and coming in and all that you do. Amen and vote right tomorrow. Bye everybody.
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