Scripture Reference: Philemon 1:22 (TPT); 2 Corinthians 8:1-5, 7-8, 10-12 (TPT); John 6:35-40 (NKJV); Proverbs 29:18 (KJV); Proverbs 29:18 (AMPC); 1 John 5:4 (MSG); Exodus 32:1-7 (AMPC); 1 Kings 12:26-30 (NIV); 1 Kings 14:22-24 (AMPC); Jeremiah 2:20 (NIV); Psalm 40:1-6 (AMPC)
Pastor Sharon:
Well, good morning everybody and it’s a wonderful day to be assembling together, as the Bible instructs us in the book of Hebrews, that we are not to neglect the assembling of ourselves together. It says, as is the habit of some but that is not our habit. We are in the habit of assembling because it is the way of God, to assemble is the way of God.
Pastor John has asked me, for a few minutes, to share the things that the Lord has laid on my heart. The Lord has been working together with Pastor John and I. Alright, I’m going to just wait for everybody to come get the seats. Not be distracted. Okay. All right.
He’s asked me to share from the Word for about 10 to 15 minutes, the things that the Lord has been showing me about what He needs us to be paying attention to right now and giving our attention to right now. There are many of us, those of you that are visiting here this morning, you are welcome. But this is definitely ministry to our church. It’s things that the Lord is saying to our church because that’s just how God works. He speaks to a specific local church and He gives them messages. It is my prayer that you will receive something out of it so that when you go to your local church, or where you should be going, that you will receive something for yourself this morning, but this is for Heritage of Faith members.
The Lord said to me, I just want to get myself together here. If you will remember, Heritage of Faith people, the Lord said to me; your spiritual preparation, your spiritual preparation for Brother Jerry’s coming, those of you that are preparing, your spiritual preparation is like a fragrance to Him. You know He watches everything in a local church, so He knows who’s preparing, and those of you that have been preparing, it’s a fragrance to Him. And those of you that have not been preparing, there’s still time, not much, but there is still time.
What the Lord said to me, as we have been preparing ourselves spiritually in the Word, in the messages, in Pastor John’s messages, in Brother Jerry’s messages, as we’ve been preparing ourselves in praise to soften our hearts, to receive properly the Word of God into our hearts, so that the Lord has something in our hearts to work with. He said to me; that so too now, our preparation for our financial giving can also be as a fragrance to Him. He does require that of us at this time; for us to make ourselves available to the Holy Spirit, for us to become willing hearted, to give and bring offerings that are pleasing to the Lord. Right, to bring our best.
I’m going to start with this. Pastor John said that we are going to be doing this for the next couple of weeks to be preparing our hearts for our financial seed. But the way the Lord gave it to me, Pastor John, was He said to me, on Saturday morning; this maiden flight, this first of a kind voyage for Brother Jerry and his crew, in his own plane, international to us first, our prayers have brought him here. Our prayers have brought him here. This is very scriptural, that our prayers have brought him here. We can see that in the book of Philemon. We can see that He says here in The Passion Translation, Philemon, verse 22, 22 And would you do one more thing for me? Since I’m hoping through your prayers to be restored to you soon, please prepare a guest room for me (Philemon 1:22 TPT). It’s what we are busy doing. We are busy preparing a guesthouse for Brother Jerry and his travelling companions. So he says here, through your prayers to be restored to you. So he’s coming to us because of our prayers, because we pray for him. We’re obedient to the Lord. So the Lord said; in his own plane, international to us first, he’s never flown internationally in his own plane, anywhere else in the world to anybody else.
The way the Lord said to me; we had a vision, we saw him coming to us again. And now the provision. Now the provision for the vision. We saw him coming to us again, and now, the supernatural provision is going to come for the trip.
Our spiritual preparation has arisen as a fragrance to Him. So too now, our financial support, and I will get into that scripture. Excuse me, I’m just taking out my music ears. Our financial support will be as a fragrance to Him. So we prepare our offering. We bring our tithe. We bring our first fruits, and we bring our free will offerings. Those are offerings that the Bible talks about – our tithes, our first fruits, and our free will offerings. That’s an offering you bring out of your own free will.
We’re going to have a look now at two Corinthians, chapter eight. There’s certain things here that the Lord wants Scripture to speak to our hearts this morning. Two Corinthians, chapter eight, and it is from The Passion Translation. If you don’t have a Passion Translation, please follow the scriptures. Let’s see ourselves in context and in the light of Scripture, to check our own hearts. God wants us to check and examine our own hearts in the light of Scripture, in how we’re going to go about preparing our offering for Brother Jerry, our financial offering for Brother Jerry to come.
So here it is, 1 Beloved ones, we must tell you about the grace God poured out upon the churches of Macedonia. 2 … even during a season of severe difficulty … tremendous suffering, … and …extreme poverty, (their) super-abundant joy overflowed into an act of extravagant generosity (2 Corinthians 8:1,2 TPT).
So, when Brother Jerry makes a statement like there is no revival without joy, look what joy produces. If it’s true joy, look what it produces. Even during a season of severe difficulty, verse two, I’m in that again, tremendous suffering and extreme poverty. Their super abundant joy, overflowed into an act of extravagant generosity. Here I check my heart, right? Is this me? Does my super abundance of joy overflow into an act of generosity of my actual financial giving?
And then it says here, 3 For I can verify that they spontaneously gave, not only according to their means but far beyond what they could afford (2 Corinthians 8:3 TPT). What a heart, what hearts and God’s looking for our hearts. So, for us to be spiritually prepared in the Word and in the messages and not to be spiritually prepared in our hearts for our giving – it’s out of balance. Can you see that? I’m ready spiritually, I’m in the messages. I’ve been diligent in that. But now my giving, now it’s giving too? Yes, yes. 4 They actually begged us for the privilege of sharing in this ministry (2 Corinthians 8:4 TPT). Is this in my heart? Is this in your heart? Would you actually beg Pastor John to have a share in giving into this trip that Brother Jerry is coming? Would you actually beg us for the opportunity? See, this is the heart of a congregation in Macedonia. It’s an actual church, with actual people, in their time, on their journey, on the leg of their journey, where they were at. That was happening in their hearts. They were begging for the opportunity to be able to bring finances, right?
Now look at verse five, 5 They exceeded our expectations (2 Corinthians 8:5 TPT). Is this going to happen? Is this going to happen in the heart of God that He’s going to be able to say that of us, that we exceeded His expectations? God’s expecting something from us. But first, they exceeded our expectations. Now this is how you give, here it is, in verse five. First, 5 dedicating themselves fully to the Lord. That’s how you’re going to go about preparing your seed or not. You are going to dedicate yourself to the Lord fully, in preparing for the seed. You’re going to say to the Lord, as families, as married couples, on your own – those of you on your own, you are going to give yourself fully to the Lord about this gift, this financial. Right? 5… fully to the Lord and then to us according to God’s pleasure.
So now I’m going to read you verse seven. 7 You do well and excel in every respect—in unstoppable faith, right, you do well in your faith, in powerful preaching, in revelation knowledge, in your passionate devotion, and in sharing the love we have shown to you. So make sure that you also excel, constellation. The assembly of excellences and splendours, see that you excel (2 Corinthians 8:5, 7). Here is an excellence. Here’s a configuration of God’s time with Brother Jerry coming. God arranged the parts and the elements of all of this for His outcome. For this time, for all of us. The Bible says; 7 …make sure that you also excel in grace-filled generosity. In grace filled generosity. 8 I’m not saying this as though I were issuing an order but to stir you to greater love (2 Corinthians 8:7-8 TPT). This is your stirring to your greater love, your greater love for God, your greater love for Brother Jerry, your greater love for Pastor John. It’s to stir you up for your greater love. Hallelujah.
So, verse eight, again. 8 I’m not saying this as though I were issuing an order but to stir you to greater love by mentioning the enthusiasm of the Macedonians as a challenge to you (2 Corinthians 8:8 TPT). It’s a challenge to my heart, isn’t it? Right? As a challenge to you. And actually, it says here, to test your love by the eagerness of others. If you see other people’s eagerness, they were alive on the earth with eagerness. And so it’s to test to see if we are as eager.
So, I would like to go now to verse 11. No, let’s go now to verse 10. ¹⁰So here are my thoughts concerning this matter, and it’s in your best interests. Since you made such a good start last year, both in the grace of giving and in your longing to give. Are we longing to give? ¹¹ You should finish what you started. You were so eager in your intentions to give, so go do it (2 Corinthians 8:10-11 TPT). Are we eager in our intentions to give? Are you eager in your intentions to give? So do it. Are you eager in your intentions to give now into this, now that God is creating this opportunity? So do it.
Now this is very important. 11 … Finish this act of worship. You see, it’s an act of worship here, … according to your ability to give. ¹² For if the intention and desire are there, the size of the gift doesn’t matter. Your gift is fully acceptable to God according to what you have, not what you don’t have. (2 Corinthians 8:11-12 TPT) Your gift is fully acceptable to God according to what you have. Not according to what you don’t have.
And so, I do need to read this to you. Pastor John said in his message, saying this; walking away from the natural, ok, here we go. This goes directly with the scripture here now. It says; this will indicate to you that if God speaks to you and tells you to give up something – He is not wanting to take something away from you, He is wanting to get it to you. He says here; this will indicate to you that if God speaks to you and tells you and you are not willing, that is what owns you, not God. It is interesting to me that people that have got money, they attach a value to what they give rather than what they keep. They attach a value to what they give, rather than to what they keep. And that’s what this scripture means here. It says here, ¹² Your gift is fully acceptable to God according to what you have, not what you don’t have (2 Corinthians 8:12 TPT) Right? Do these two statements measure up?
So, he says here; You know, it’s like, don’t you see how I’ve given so much money? I’ve given so much money. Oh, but how much are you keeping? “No, but Pastor John, I’ve given more.” Oh, but how much are you keeping? So, this is very important. I think this is all that I will share today. I will finish off with this scripture here, that ¹²Your gift is fully acceptable to God. This statement needs to stand in this congregation because Brother Jerry prophesied to this church, that there’s not a lack of money in this church, There’s just a lack of obedience. But God says, “I’m changing that. I am speaking to the hearts of men and women and they will obey Me.”
So, your gift, Heritage of Faith Church, is fully acceptable to God according to what you have. Your gift is acceptable to God according to what you have, not what you don’t have. Glory to God. So hereby my first part. My first part is done. Hallelujah. Thank you. You can just come and take these things down from off the stage. Oh, take up the offering. Let’s take up an offering and let the worship team come up, please. The sound and song, the music ministry.
[Pastor Sharon at the end of sound and song] We are strong. And now Your Word comes to strengthen us, Father, even further, Lord. We are strengthened by Your Word. You are the Bread of Life. You bring us the Word of Life now, which strengthens. Strengthens my spirit and strengthens our soul, Lord. Hallelujah. Thank You, Father, that Your anointing rests upon Pastor John, to bring us this word. Your anointing rests upon us and Your anointing rises up within us. We receive all of these words, Lord. We receive them all. We believe them all. We conceive them all. We bring forth them all, Lord. We appreciate that You still continuously send us a messenger with a message, and release the power. Release the power for our deliverance, Father. We receive revelation light today, Lord, because we love You. In Jesus’ name, and we all say; Amen.
Pastor John Bendixen:
Praise the Lord. Glory to Jesus. Thank you. Well, it is always good to be in the house of the Lord. Welcome back everybody. For those that have been gallivanting all over the countryside. Those people that want to go and rush off to where everybody else is rushing off to. It’s good to see all your wonderful faces again, and to have you back in church. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah.
Well, over the last month or so the Lord has really been ministering to me with a great deal of, a lot of insight actually. He has allowed me to observe many things in His Word, and about the spiritual atmosphere of things that are going on around us. I trust that He will give me the wisdom, and I will speak as He wants me to speak and share the things with you as deeply as it has touched me and as deeply as it has moved me and impacted my personal walk with God. And so when God deals with me, then He deals with you, it is just the way it works. Praise the Lord for that. So as I agree with Pastor Sharon’s words, you will have ears to hear, you will have hearts ready to receive. I trust that you will be deeply impacted and moved as I have been over the last month. Praise the Lord. You may be seated.
I am just going to give you some highlights of a recap very quickly. I have preached over the last two months or more; Jesus came to fulfil the law not to preach it. He was the fulfilment of promise, so we can be free from performance. Performance is a counterfeit to promise. And in Him, we know the truth and we live in power rather than in performance. We live in power, not just personality. We have all been given personality to live with but our personality needs to be submitted and subjected to the will of God and the ways of God. We exchange our lives for purpose, not popular culture.
I have ministered; if you live in perception instead of truth, you will open yourself to deception, and you can’t get rid of deception unless you receive correction. The only way you can have correction is to have the truth of God’s Word correct your heart and correct your life. Rejection of correction will enforce your perception as the highest form of self-believing truth. So if you don’t allow the Word of God to correct you, then the way that you perceive life becomes your highest level of belief and that level of belief enhances your perception of what life should be. So you live in this balance of self-believing perception that underpins your self-belief. You never really have truth in your life, you only have a perception of what life should be, and that can become anything you want it to become based on the perception that you have at any given time.
This applies to all the issues and relationships in life. I’m just giving you a very highlight recap now. In the last couple of weeks that I’ve ministered, I spoke about the Source and resource. A source is a place or a person, or a thing from which something originates or can be obtained. A resource is possibility of aid or assistance, which can be stock, money or materials. It can be something that is an action or a strategy which can be adopted. I don’t want to talk too much about those definitions. Part of my scripture that I read to you at that time was John chapter six, verse 35, to verse 40, in the New King James Version. 35 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life, the Source. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst (John 6:35 NKJV).
I said to you that if you have the source, you will always have a resource. Whatever your source is, it may or may not satisfy you, but if you have Jesus as your ultimate source, you will always have a resource. Always. This becomes very, very important when you begin to live your Christian life out fully, that you understand that Jesus is the Source.
I can say to you and this is a go-to illustration for me, but when I had no money, and I had no real academic qualifications, there was no – in worldly terms – there was no prospect of me succeeding in life. I had the Source, my source was the Word of God, and when I tapped into the Word of God, He changed all of my life so that my resource came from the Source. Whenever I was confronted with economic possibilities or opportunities, I always turned to my Source, God, to guide me as to what my resource, where my resource should come from, and what I should do with my resource. As a result of dedicating both my resource and my connection to the Source, to God, I have never run out of a resource, ever. Since I handed it over to God, I’ve never run out of resource – not personally and not in the ministry. Hallelujah.
Yes, to be sure, there have been times when I’ve had to exercise some measure of wisdom and say, you know, at this point in time, there has been a lessening of cash flow in the ministry, and we’ve had to take actions accordingly, but that hasn’t happened in a long, long time. Thank God for that. Praise the Lord.
36 But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will [a]by no means cast out. Jesus is talking about the Father is My Source, and I am a resource to you, and everything that is My resource comes to you.
38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. In other words, “I’m connected to My Source. My whole life is a resource because My whole life has become a resource, your whole life can turn to the Source.” Come on; this is powerful.
39 This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, when the Source gives you a resource, you lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. 40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:37-40 NKJV) Even here, Jesus is talking; even when you lose the source or the energy of your life, the resources of your life, God will restore it and raise it up in a day and restore your resource. Hallelujah. There is no downside. There is absolutely no downside for any of us, making God the ultimate Source and if we see our whole life as a resource to fulfilling what the Source wants; then His will becomes our will and our will becomes His will. Then we will never run out of resource because all that we do is connected to the Source, then He is obligated to provide every resource when we are connected to the Source.
Our challenge as a church and as a people is that we see ourselves as the source and that we can do better than the Source. So we say we are just the resource but we make ourselves the source. Come on. I know it’s early in the new year, so happy and blessed may your new year be. We started off with a bang. I’ve got just so many minutes today and a lot to get through so I’m going as quick as I can. The Christian dilemma is this, and I mean this as a Christian dilemma more than any other beings on the earth, is that I live in this body. With this body I can eat chocolate. I can eat panettone. I can eat cake. I can have milkshake. I can drink Coca Cola. I can have croissants. I can have scones and jam. I can eat a lot of bread. What else? I can have all manner of crisps and chips, pastries. Pastor Sharon wants me to say biscuits. Anybody would like to add to this wonderful list that I’m busy… milk tart, pasta. What? Ice cream? For sure. Ice cream. Jam doughnuts. Ja, don’t let’s get started on doughnuts.
I mean, you know, Lindt chocolate. Keep that stuff away from me. You know, I mean, any, you name it, anything that kind of, your body, you can eat it, right? You can. There’s a fundamental requirement that your body has, it needs energy. So for you to be alive, you need a body and your body needs energy. So there’s a whole lot of energy you can put into your body. It’s not that healthy though, is it? Because what’s going to happen is if you eat all of that energy, your body will say I only need some of that energy and the rest I’m going to store because it can’t go anywhere. It’s got to just store somewhere. Right? It’s got to be stored somewhere. So then you end up storing it for a very long time – depends on how much of it you eat. So, body, I can put a whole lot of stuff in this mouth. On the other hand, I can eat lentils, broccoli, spinach, cabbage, carrots, and cauliflower. I can eat beans. I can eat nuts, bananas, grapes, apples, pears, peaches, and mangoes. I can have cheese. I can have some steak if you want. I can have eggs. Yes? Okay, okay, wait a minute. I can have all of that or I can eat doughnuts and chocolates and milkshakes and ice cream and everything else like that. Same body, two different sources of energy. The sources of energy have everything to do with the way my body reacts to the energy.
So in my hand, I have a phone. This phone is an extremely useful tool for me. It allows me to navigate sometimes, it certainly allows me to communicate extensively with people via WhatsApp, messaging, emails, different things. It’s a very useful tool to me. I can be anyplace, anywhere in the world and it can be very useful to me. It’s a tool. So, as a Christian, I can use this tool very effectively. I can also choose to use this tool very ineffectively. I can spend a lot of time on Facebook, on Instagram, on Twitter, Pinterest, anything you want to do, I can use this tool. When I use this tool for one thing, it’s entertainment. When I use this tool for another thing, it’s highly productive. Same hands, same eyes, same brain, two different things. Same tool.
The dilemma with a Christian is that we have to be in this body, we have to live on this earth and we are always faced with this dilemma that with this body, we can do good and with the same body, we can do evil. With the same body, I can speak kind words, I can speak loving words, I can speak gentle words, I can speak words of hope, I can speak words of love. At the same time with the same body, I can speak angry words, I can speak hopeless words, I can speak negative words, I can have anger, and all manner of bad things that I can do with the same body. Same body, same eye, same brain, same mouth; two different things.
When you become a Christian, you don’t only just get faced with two choices, you’re faced with a third choice. And the third choice is that you can use this body for spiritual activity, not just natural things. The challenge for you and I is, on the one hand, we come out of church and we want to go and have a milkshake and we want to go and eat doughnuts and we want to have Lindt chocolate and we want to have all those kinds of nice things when we leave church on a Sunday morning. But at the same time for the last hour and a half, you’ve used your body, to worship God, and to take in the Word of God that will hopefully change you. But when you walk out of here at the same moment, you go and use it for all manner of things that may seem to be not as spiritual.
So, our dilemma is living between the natural world and living a world that is a spirit-based world. So how do you tell someone that is spiritual? A spiritual person is someone who has the will of God in his spirit and it comes through messages like this, reading the Bible, praying, the will of God is known. Your spirit man has the knowledge of God. And then you act on the guidings and the leadings of your spirit man, rather than acting on the guidings and the leadings of your natural man. So that’s what makes the difference between a spiritually mature person – a spiritually mature person who is someone who is always acting on the spirit man’s guiding rather than what his natural world tells him. Amen.
So when you become someone that gives more of your life to God, and more of your ways to God, you become a person that begins to understand, maybe my life is actually more dedicated and should be more dedicated to what God wants me to do, rather than what I want to do. So here’s your challenge always, for the rest of your life. Here’s your challenge. The more you give yourself to God, the more you want to. The less you give yourself to God, the less you want to. Even though you’re a Christian, you will have these drawings. It’s like a magnet. You know, if you take a piece of ion away from the magnet, there’s no magnetic field that pulls it. You come a bit too close to the magnet – (Pastor John demonstrates what happens when a piece of ion comes close to a magnet) – begins to pull it, right? Well, this is what happens to most Christians in their life is that the Holy Spirit draws them to God. They respond, they come closer, and then an earth alternative opposing magnet draws them through their mind and through their flesh and through their humanity draws them in an opposite direction. So they have these opposing magnets pulling them in between all the time. And so they keep fluctuating between these worlds. So the closer you get to the magnet of God, the more you get into the magnetic field, He just gets you.
Now, when you get pulled into the magnetic field of God, your ions change, the direction of your ions change and you begin to look like the same as the magnet you’re connected to. And so at some point in time, if they can separate you from the magnet, then you actually behave like the magnet you were pulled from, and you yourself become a magnetic field. On the other hand, if you get sucked into a different magnetic field, then you’re eventually going to get stuck to that magnetic field and you’re going to look like that magnet. So what do you want to look like?
I’m quoting a preacher that is connected to our circles, who quoted from a book and I’m going to read you the quote from this book. It’s quite extensive, but it’s really powerful. And I’d like you to just give me the moment to read it to you.
And, and that goes as follows. In the church, so many in this upcoming generation have very little grasp, if any, of the Bible. Obviously, he’s not talking about our church but this is a general quote. Additionally, there is a culture war we are being dragged into – magnetic field culture. SIt is a war over ideals and affects the very souls of our children and our children’s children. So many before us fought for a better tomorrow, only to see this present generation walk all over their sacrifice. Responsibility lies at the feet of both a weak church and a permissive society that has allowed the lawless spirit of antichrist to run wild. Are you getting this? The King James Bible says this, 18Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he (Proverbs 29:18 KJV). I prefer the Amplified version, the way it writes it and says, 18 Where there is no vision and that vision means [no redemptive revelation of God]. In other words, if you’re not in the magnetic field of the way God does things, the redemptive revelation of God, you will perish, you will be drawn to another magnetic field. 18 … the people perish; but he who keeps the law [of God, which includes that of man]—blessed (happy, fortunate, and enviable) is he (Proverbs 29:18 AMPC).
He goes on to quote further, Fist-shaking or cursing the darkness has never been a productive response when dealing with a brainwashed culture. Why? Because if you’re dealing with a brainwashed culture, what’s fist pumping and what is cursing the darkness going to do? Add a church that is faint of heart and is only a shadow of what Jesus intended for it to be. The highest response is to point to something magnificent—a future of hope and a seemingly impossible vision of what we could have. I have a desire to remind the people of God where they come from and what could be, if they only stand up and take it! We are living in a time after generals of faith and when many heroes from history are gone and largely remembered no more.
This sounds very much like the times we are living in. I go on to quote him, I’m reminded of Exodus 1:8 where it speaks of a new king who came into power who did not know Joseph. The very people who were rescued and made a strong nation, because of a great man of God, had no memory of him. If we do not know the foundation of a thing, we are destined to disrespect it or disregard it. So praise God, we have a general of faith coming to visit us. And we do not disrespect or disregard the generals that have gone before us, we embrace them. We will not be a generation that is toothless, we are going to be a generation that is dangerous. Hallelujah. We are going to continue in the legacy of the generals who gave a lot and sacrificed a lot, sacrificed a lot, so that we could have what we have. Amen.
This man goes on to speak, “There is a special weapon of provision God provides for those who choose Him over the comforts of this life. This applies to those who have left all for the sake of the Gospel. This is a promise that should be greatly considered for the days ahead. It is a promise directly from Jesus that offers sustainability through something as catastrophic as a global economic meltdown, as you’ll hear, I am living proof of this example. And he goes on to share his testimony. I really want you to hear the testimony.
I am living proof of this principle as before the age of 13, a choice was presented to me. My parents were divorced while I was very young, and my mom served the Lord. Through her faith and the faith of her parents, my life was impacted by encounter after encounter with the Holy Spirit. This was unacceptable to my father, who wanted a much different path for me. A day came when a choice was presented: follow Jesus or be part of everything my father had, which included cattle, land, real estate, and a future inheritance with a large financial benefit. My father and his family were very well off. We owned a ranch bordered by a large beautiful river. My father was adamantly against me going to church and openly confessing Jesus was my Saviour.
A mom who serves God, a dad who doesn’t. A dad who has a great deal of inheritance and health and wealth and lands and everything else. A mom, who’s just serving God.
The issue was, I had already encountered God for real! It was undeniable—to walk away from Jesus for property and provision would have been much like the story of the rich young ruler. I couldn’t deny all the Lord had done in my life leading up to this decision. Upon saying to my father, “I choose to follow Jesus,” after a very difficult conversation, we got in the car and left the property. He dropped me off at my mother’s house. That was one of the last three times I saw my father before he died. I share this story with you, to let you know that God has taken care of me in unbelievable and supernatural ways since those early days in my life and continuing in my adult years. Anyone who will completely throw themselves onto Jesus, forsaking everything that stands in the way, will have a special place with the Father God. He will make Himself, Himself. He will make Himself responsible for your life. This can apply in a variety of areas. Whenever you seek first His Kingdom and give Him your all, supernatural provision will happen in your life. Also, you will experience an unfair advantage when it comes to accessing God’s economy. Make no mistake about it—the Lord your God will watch over you and He will fiercely protect you.
Well, of course He will. You’ve made a choice. You’ve made a choice for Him rather than possessions, rather than things that will attract you to the world-system. Very rarely are decisions for serving God presented so blatantly. Normally, the decisions are much more subtle. Normally the decisions are not as contrasting. Normally there’s fairly good relationships and there’s never a definitive choice that gets made. It’s normally just a gentle, persuasive, “Come and spend time… One more weekend, you can just miss church one Sunday to be with your parents, why not?” Or, “You can just miss a couple of Bible studies to be with what we want to do. Why not? You can just miss church on a Sunday and go boating. Well, why not?”
I mean, normally, the decision is not so forcefully, clearly presented, one way or another. Normally, it’s just a vague kind of choice with no real clear compromise being offered. When it comes to all the potential terrors this world will eventually unleash, I must say, in no way do you have to live under a sense of dread. Rather, this kind of person who gives their life to God, this person with a revelation from God is never at the mercy of a culture gone mad. Never.
The Apostle John wrote about the power that overcomes this system—our faith! 4Every God-born person conquers the world’s ways. The conquering power that brings the world to its knees is our faith (1 John 5:4 MSG). That’s 1 John chapter 5, verse 4 from the Message Translation. The Greek word for “world” is kosmos, which means system. Another way of saying it is, “Our faith is the power that brings the world’s system to its knees!” Are you going to bring the world system to its knees? No, you’re going to bring the world to bow at your knees. The world system will bow to you, not to everybody. The world system wants to dominate everybody, only God’s people can cause the world system to bow to you. No one else can do this.
There is a system of darkness in the world. It is ‘THE SYSTEM OF DARKNESS.’ It’s not the system of light. Come on. It’s the system of darkness. The Bible is full of it in the New Testament; the god of this world is the god of darkness. It’s the system of darkness. It’s the system of darkness. You want to know why you’re fed up with corporate life and the politics of corporate life, and the politics of government, and the ineffectiveness of government, and the inefficiency of things, and the way that you have to slog every day, every week, every month, every year to earn the kind of living that you have to make? The reason you are frustrated with it is because it is the system of darkness … its economy is attempting to keep you in a place of fear and compliance with the spirit of the age that fearfully says, “You’ll never have enough.” ‘THE DARK’ economy is a dependence on self, self-reliance, and this world’s system. That’s the dark economy. Dependence on self, self-reliance, and the world system. I’m still reading from him, I’m quoting him.
You know, I kind of deliberated with myself for quite some time whether I should read it to you, because this is what we’ve been preaching for some time already. But the Holy Spirit has directed me through the month of December, to be part of things. You know, somebody asked me one day, “Pastor John, where do you get all this stuff from, like there is one source?” The answer I have to say is because I am led by the Holy Spirit to go to places, to read stuff, and to be guided by the Holy Spirit for me to be able to access stuff I need to access, for your benefit and for mine. Hallelujah. It’s not one source, it’s many places. Are you all with me still? I know, I know that what I’m preaching today is dangerous material. Do you know that if you’re entering a site that has got nuclear material, it’s got like big yellow triangles, and kinds of, these sort of half arc things that cross each other, and, you know, they’ve got warnings and dangers about nuclear material and how you can be contaminated by that because it’s so dangerous.
Yes, what I’m preaching today is nuclear. It is, it has the potential to nuke the stuff that has controlled your life. It has the potential to nuke all of those strongholds that have been in your mind, all of the devils and the demons of this age that try to control you, all of the dark systems that got their claws into you everywhere. This has the ability to nuke it.
So, I warn you right now, you’re on highly contaminated, contaminating-material ground. The counter that says, highly nuclear, is off the charts right now. It’s blowing up the devil’s system. If you will receive it, it will blow up everything that the devil’s got his hands into your world, through systems, through ideas, through philosophies, through ideologies.
There’s a reason why many years ago the Lord had me, He gave me a revelation and I preached about it. It’s still a foundation teaching in my life; ancient paths, ancient languages, ancient connections that God has for us because there are things that are founded in God before you were born in the womb, God knew you, and He created an ancient path for you to walk on. The reason why God had to bring you into the earth and purpose your life is because there are also ancient forces that wish to destabilise you and everybody else that’s on the earth, so we have to get on our ancient paths and have an ancient language with ancient divine connections that can keep us steady and keep us focused. Otherwise, there are ancient forces that will destabilise our future and our eternity. Hallelujah.
So, bear with me, I will get to everything hopefully as the Lord leads me. I believe that Brother Jerry is coming at the season of our ministry and our time. It is not just a coincidence. You know, all the resources that we need are going to be here for him, for us to be able to meet all of the financial needs which are bigger than I’ve ever had to confront. Bigger than I’ve ever had to confront, ever. When you fly a private jet, I promise you, it writes the books on expenses. It’s my desire for us to make sure that we cover all those expenses. And they come with US dollars; that means that we have to, we need to, I want to, I believe it’s the will of God for us to be able to cover those things. We don’t need hundreds of thousands – we need millions.
But you know what, here’s the thing. I’ve always been this way in my life, Pastor Sharon and I’ve always flowed this way. If you want quality, you invest with quality. So if you want a quality anything, it’s going to cost you more money. I’m not talking about people that have an inferior product, that sell it at a high price, thinking you’re buying quality just because the price is high. If you really want quality, you will pay more for real quality. Right? It’s the same with the body of Christ. If you want a general to come visit you, the general comes with the things that a general comes with. And so many people can say to me, “But you don’t have to put that, you know, this thing could happen for a lot less money.” That’s not the point. When the general comes, he comes with what he comes with. You don’t dictate to a general what he comes with or how he must come. On the contrary, here’s our opportunity to invest in the God system. So all of our future, we are making a statement that by investing in God’s system, we are being freed from fear of not having enough in a global meltdown economy. I’ll tell you what, if I have to put my trust in anything, I will put my trust in God rather than in men. Praise the Lord.
Exodus chapter 32, verse one, 1 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, [they] gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, Up, make us gods to go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt (Exodus 32:1 AMPC). What? “The man who brought us up out of slavery, the man who has the instrument in the hands of God to bring 10 plagues on Egypt, to force the Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go out of slavery, that man has only been gone for 40 days and 40 nights, that man is not coming back. We don’t know where he’s gone to. So make for us gods, make for us gods to go before us.” Those god’s got them there? “Make for us god’s.” You see, the human thing is, we are influenced by spirits. Who are they listening to? They were influenced by spirits that were in them that came from Egypt. Those evil spirits could not occupy them under the anointing of the presence of God, but that came with them in their minds and their hearts from Egypt because they saw those people worshipping gods made by man’s hands. So they said, “Make for us gods that they can go before us.” 1 … as for this Moses … we do not know what has become of him. 2 So Aaron replied, Take the gold rings. Where did they get these gold rings from? Egypt. God gave all the wealth of Egypt into their hands so they’ve got gold rings in their ears. Take the gold rings from the ears of your wives, your sons, and daughters, and bring them to me. Here they are wandering around in the desert and they’ve got so much gold that they are parading their gold around because they’ve got nowhere else to go with all this gold. So Aaron says, “Bring all this gold, it’s in your ears, that’s all. No other gold, just the gold that’s in your ears.” Well, I think that’s quite prophetic because whatever you hear and whatever you have ears to hear, is what becomes part of your life.
3 So all the people took the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it a molten calf; and they said, These are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt! What? This is the God that brought them out of the land of Egypt? Is this deception, that is based on what? Perception. What was the perception? The man who had the anointing of God on them, that was just gone for forty days and forty nights, we don’t know where he is, we don’t know what’s, so let us make ourselves gods. Their truth was based on perception, not truth, self-belief. Who believes that they can make a graven image and say, “This is god who brought us out of Egypt.” 5 And when Aaron saw the molten calf, he built an altar before it; what’s an altar for? A place to worship. And Aaron made proclamation, and said, Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord. The Bible uses a capital L, so Aaron was referring to the Lord through a golden calf? 6 And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. To play. These are people in the wilderness, hanging out, waiting for something to happen, they don’t know what, because Moses is gone. Perhaps the golden calf will tell us. In the meantime, we will play. Am I reading anything that’s not in the Bible? Come on, you thought playtime is only a modern day word. They rose up to play. How many play things do you occupy yourself with and worship the altar of ‘play’. Anyway, I’m not going there today.
7 The Lord said to Moses, Go down, for your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. God’s speaking to Moses. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten calf and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it, and said, These are your gods, O Israel, that brought you up out of the land of Egypt! (Exodus 32:1-7 AMPC). Can you put the image up of that calf, please, on the screen. Not the bull, the calf.
There you go. I’m going to leave it on there while I’m reading.
So Moses intercedes and he pleads with God and he says, “How can You do this God? You can’t actually be angry at these people.” Because He says, “Let Me get at them and wipe them out of this thing and I’ll start again with you Moses?” And Moses says, “No, Lord, how can you do that? You’ve got to honour Your word to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. You can’t do that,” and so then Moses goes down and he loses his cool and he breaks all the law and different things and you know. Moses gets real cross and he makes them drink the gold and show them what kind of God this is that they are serving.
Anybody like to see a modern-day golden calf that people worship to? Would you like to see it? It stands as a symbol for the whole world that the whole world worships it. You want to see it? Next slide, please. Anybody recognise it?
Wall Street bull. Wall Street, financial markets of the world. The hub of the financial centre of the world. We want this system to tell us what we must do with our money?
Where to invest it, what to do with it, how to prepare our future with it? Are we not? What are we doing with it? What are we doing with it? Where is our security and our trust? Is it in this bull? Or is it just a bunch of bull? Come on? Now this is a real question. Is our trust in this bull? Really?
What if God tells you to take out your investments out of your investment account, out of your pension fund and says, “Give it to Me and let Me take care of your future.” Let’s see, what bull do you trust in. It’s quiet in the Presbyterian Church.
I’m not saying you must do that because God is the one that would have to tell you to do that. I’m not doing that. But where is your trust? I told you this is nuclear.
So, First Kings, chapter 12 verse 26, there is a war. There is a conflict between two kings – King Rehoboam and King Jeroboam. One is the king of Judah and the other one is the king of Israel. 26 Jeroboam thought to himself, “The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David. 27 If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, rather to a human king. Can I tell you something? All human kings want you to worship at their altars, not at the Lord’s altar.
Have you heard this statement? He’s the captain of industry or the king of industry? Or is the king of clay – tennis. Or is the king of the golf course. Or she’s the queen of … Have you heard those terms? The kings of this world, the captains of this world, want you to worship at the altar of their world, not the Most High God. Even now, there is a struggle going on and thank God we, as a church, are part of, God inserted us at the right moment, in the right thing, in this history where we were able to meaningfully input to the education system of South Africa, not just Mpumalanga – South Africa – which will allow us to do education according to the way God will direct us to do education. Why? Because the whole system says you must worship at the education system that we dictate you must worship at. We will tell you where all the knowledge is held, where all the information is held, and you will come and if you want to get to see information, you will come kneel at the altar of the temples of curriculum, professors, people who will tell you not just the knowledge you must know but the spirit of how you must learn it.
26 …“The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David. 27 If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam.” 28 After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” Is he telling the truth? He is just making up some things so that people can worship where he wants them to worship. He just made a choice, “I need people to give me their resources.” 28 … “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” 29 One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. 30 And this thing became a sin; the people came to worship the one at Bethel and went as far as Dan to worship the other. (1 Kings 12:28-30 NIV)
I read verse 22, chapter 14 in the Amplified Bible. 22 And Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, Whom they provoked to jealousy with the sins they committed, above all that their fathers had done. 23 For they also built themselves [idolatrous] high places, pillars, and Asherim [idolatrous symbols of the goddess Asherah] on every high hill and under every green tree. Every high hill and under every green tree. Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and worship. He who does not sit in the counsel of the godly but listens to everything that God says, he will be like a tree planted by still waters and he will be prosperous all the days of his life. But they exchanged that form of blessing for high places, mountains and trees to do idol worship. These are the people of God. These are the covenant people of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
24 There were also sodomites, these are (male cult prostitutes). You think modern day male, female prostitution is just a modern day thing? When you open your world up to idol worship it becomes a common and prominent thing. The perversion of sexuality becomes prevalent and pervasive. Oh, you think you are just making a decision to have sexual promiscuity the way you like. Let me tell you there is a demon spirit that is wanting your body to worship it through sexual behaviour patterns.
24 …They did all the abominations of the nations whom the Lord cast out before the Israelites (1 Kings 14:22-24 AMPC). I want to quote to you from a commentary; Jezebel brought hundreds of prophets for Baal and Asherah with her into the Israelite court. This is the one that Elijah was raised up by God to confront Jezebel. Two gods; Baal and Asherah. So, god of Baal is the male version of prosperity. Asherah is the female version of fertility and prosperity but mostly fertility and eventually it leads to the queen of sexuality. You want to go and worship at the feet of a bull. You are going to open yourselves up to the false god of sexual promiscuity.
You think choices for money are disconnected from everything else in life? These are ancient spirits, and you think when you are faced with a thought process, “I don’t think I will tithe. I don’t think that, you know, I don’t think I will give this much money to the church, I’ll rather spend my money here.” You don’t think that there are things behind that, that want you to worship with your money what you want to worship? And then when you make a choice for the way your money is going to go, you don’t think that there are other things that are going to come in with that? These are ancient spirits that have ancient gods that want you to worship at their altars. God says there is only one God. He is Yahweh, He is Jehovah, He is the God who is more than enough. He is the Provider. He is the only one and living God. Worship Him, seek Him first and His way of doing things, His righteousness, and all these things that the other world promises through performance, He will give to you through power. What power? It is the power of obedience, it is the power of worship, it is the power of giving Him the place in your life, not the other gods the place in your heart.
Popular culture defines Canaanite religion and Hebrew idolatry as sexual “fertility cults,” products of primitive superstition rather than spiritual philosophy. This position is buttressed by the Hebrew Bible, which frequently and graphically associates goddess religions with prostitution. As Jeremiah wrote, 20 On every high hill and under every spreading tree you lay down as a prostitute (Jeremiah 2:20 NIV). Hosea, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel in particular blame the goddess religions for making Yahweh “jealous”. Of course, God says, “I am a jealous God. What am I looking for? I am looking for your heart.” God is a jealous God. He gave His only begotten Son, so that He could redeem you to Himself. Do you think He is going to just take your little bit of worship that He wants and say “Okay, that is enough, but you can spend the rest of your time worshipping other gods? So, go. Go and do any kind of education system that you want to do, and where you want to do it and how you want to do it, and go and worship at their altars of their education system. Why don’t you go and worship at the altar of money and industry and e-commerce? Go and do whatever you want to do with business and finance, go and do it, go and worship that god of finance and money.” He is a jealous God, He is after your heart. What’s the reward? Those who diligently seek Him, He is the rewarder of those. With what? His presence, with all of Himself. What is Himself? “I am that I am. Everything that I am belongs to Me and I give it to you.” That’s what I started with. “Everything that I am belongs to Me; I give it to you.” If you are connected to the Source, then all the resource comes to you.
So, Hosea, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel in particular blame the goddess religions for making Yahweh “jealous” and cite his jealousy as the reason Yahweh allowed the destruction of Jerusalem. As for sexual and fertility rites, it is likely that once they were held in honour in Israel, as they were throughout the ancient world. Although their nature remains uncertain, sexual rites typically revolved around women of power and influence. Huh, and so they started promoting priestesses and queens, and prostitution. Huh, I wonder what kind of age we are living in now. I wonder if all of this stuff hasn’t been absolutely consuming our society. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Come on, people.
“Pastor John, what are you talking about?” I’m going nuclear. I’m going nuclear because I’ll tell you what you’ve got; you have got a general that’s coming here, you have a legacy. God has positioned your pastor, this man (Pastor John points to himself), has positioned him with one of the greatest generals of faith in the body of Christ ever to walk this earth. He has connected us in lineage to Jerry Savelle, Kenneth Copeland, Oral Roberts, Kenneth Hagin, Smith Wigglesworth, John G. Lake. We have a direct connection to those people.
I’ll tell you; God has placed in your community, in this nation, to this people, He has placed a pastor who not only honours and respects and highly regards the men that I’m connected to and that we are connected to, but God has placed with us a mantle, a mandate that we will stand as a true Kingdom Church, an Ecclesia before God – which is a ruling, reigning, governing assembly. He has given us the mantle and the mandate that we can walk on this earth with authority and we can govern by God’s grace.
So, when God is talking to me over December, God is speaking to me about years gone by and the journey that we have taken till this point. And God says to me, “John, I want you to go nuclear, son. I want you to begin to reveal when all of your fathers… when Kenneth Copeland paid a price and for many, many years he was persecuted.” People used to picket in front of his services, they used to write and they have written books about him. Still today there are people that write articles about him and do things about him on the internet, there are still things, because they say, “Prosperity, prosperity, prosperity – that’s an anti-God thing, it’s an anti-church thing and you’re making all of church about money.”
Well listen, if there wasn’t a man that was called by God to say; Money is not what the problem is, it’s where your heart is in connection to the money. And so he said if money is not the problem then having it or not having it is not the issue; it’s what your heart does with the money. He’s been teaching that for 55 years. Why? Because where your heart is, is where all of your stuff is going to be. And if your heart is with money, then where do you think your heart is going to be? It’s going to be consumed by the god of sexual fantasies and sexuality. It’s going to be consumed with all kinds of sicknesses and diseases that come by demon spirits that want to consume the body that God gave you to live life with.
And we think; ah, we’ll just run to the doctor and take a Panado. I’m very happy for doctors. But hey, there’s a level of Christianity that we can walk in where we can live above that stuff. It’s like Brother Jerry preached many years; do you want divine healing or do you want to live in divine health? I don’t want a miracle of healing every time I get sick. I’d rather have God’s health on my body so that I don’t need a miracle. It’s a higher level of walking with God. I also don’t want to have to believe God for financial miracles every month. I want to live in divine prosperity. What does that mean? Every need that we ever have, God is taking care of it. Praise the Lord.
I finish with this scripture, Psalm chapter 40 verses one to six, 1 I waited patiently and expectantly for the Lord; and He inclined to me and heard my cry. 2 He drew me up out of a horrible pit [a pit of tumult and of destruction], out of the miry clay (froth and slime), and set my feet upon a rock, steadying my steps and establishing my goings. I am here to say to you today church, that God has brought this nuclear message so that He can nuke all of the bad stuff that the devil has brought into your life. He can raise you up, and He can steady your feet, and He can take you out of the mud and all of the clay and the froth and all of that stuff, and He says, “Give Me your heart, son and daughter. Give Me your heart, give Me your life”. And it starts with a yes.
Don’t start with a decision about tomorrow or how will I get this tomorrow? Start with ‘yes’ today and let tomorrow take care of tomorrow. The devil lies to us all of the time and says, “Well, you have let yourself down so many times when you have made a yes, and you have never been able to follow through with it”. Well, this is a nuclear moment. All of your yeses and no’s that you have faulted on before, God is going nuclear with it. Hallelujah.
3 And He has put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many shall see and fear (revere and worship) and put their trust and confident reliance in the Lord. 4 Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man who makes the Lord his refuge and trust, and turns not to the proud or to followers of false gods. Come on, come on. 4 Blessed … is the man who makes the Lord his refuge and trust, and turns not to the proud or to followers of false gods. Did you see pride and the followers of false gods go together? Pride, hey? Nê, I didn’t even touch on that today. 5 Many, O Lord my God, are the wonderful works which You have done, and Your thoughts toward us; no one can compare with You! No one. There is not another god, there is not another financial god out there that is a god made with man, there is no bull in Wall Street that is caring for you like God, the Almighty God, cares for you. He thinks about you. He has got His eye on you. He will never leave you or forsake you. Wall Street will let you down but Jesus will never let you down. 5 Many, O Lord my God, are the wonderful works which You have done, and Your thoughts toward us; no one can compare with You! If I should declare and speak of them, they are too many to be numbered. 6 Sacrifice and offering You do not desire, nor have You delight in them. Well, aren’t you saying that, Pastor John? Read the rest. You have given me the capacity to hear and obey (Psalm 40:1-6 AMPC). He is looking for me to hear and obey. Then my sacrifice and my offering will be in the right place, not the wrong place. See, we all want to make it about sacrifice and offering. I will give you my golden earring, then make me a calf, please. Sacrifice. God says, “Give Me your heart, hear Me.” Then when you give, you don’t want to give for a golden calf. You want to give to the Most High God.
I have said this to you many times before. If you tithe out of fear, stop tithing. It is not doing you any good. Put the money in a savings account and keep it for yourself. Ghee, that is a radical thing coming from a pastor, hey? I thought pastors always look for money. No, I am not looking for your money. God wants you to give your money because you trust Him. Not me. You’re trusting me? I can do nothing, what can I do with your money? I can’t multiply it. I can’t help you with your resource problems. But if you go to the Source, He makes all the resource, if you go to Him. So what can I do for you? Nothing. If you go to Him, He can do everything. So you’re not bringing your money to me. I’m only a representation of God on the earth. God says, here men receive tithes but there God receives them in heaven. I’m just a focus point. This ministry and what we do with the money is just a focus point. When you bring your tithe, you give it to Him. If you can’t bring your money to Him then don’t bring it because it means nothing,it’s just sacrifice. And then you’re going to put yourself in a position where you have something against the church because they’re not using the money or the pastor lives in too much luxury. Or, “Did you see the new car the pastor bought? That ‘lekker’ suit he’s wearing. I wonder how much that cost? I wonder if that’s my tithes and offerings. You know, here I am and I can’t meet my rent every month and check what the pastor is wearing.” You think that doesn’t happen. Let me tell you that happens a lot. Why? Because people think they’re giving to men. But if they’re giving to God then actually men are just the contact point. Hallelujah.
So 6 Sacrifice and offering You do not desire, nor have You delight in them; You have given me the capacity to hear and obey [Your law, a more valuable service than] burnt offerings and sin offerings [which] You do not require (Psalm 40:6 AMPC). In other words, Your law is more important. Your heart and your obedience is much more important than what you can sacrifice. See, I told you I’m going nuclear by the Holy Spirit. This is nuclear teaching. We are nuking every false god out there. Every god under every tree and every high mountain, we are going to go after that. We are going to preach truth because God wants us to preach truth. Hallelujah. Because God wants us to live in the ways that we put our trust in Him, not in institutions.
Let me just clarify something; the church is as much of an institution as the university is. Is as much the institution as Wall Street is. I’m even telling you don’t put your trust in the church. Put your trust in the living God. Hallelujah. Now the body of Christ is not the church in the sense of buildings and institutions and ceremonies. Wherever the ceremonies and institutions replace God, walk away from it because God is a relational God. He’s not an institutional God. The devil only knows institutions because it requires performance. God is a power-God and it requires relationship. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Glory to God. Glory to God.
I tell you what, today I took that ball and I ‘skopped’ (kicked) it. I took it and I ‘skopped’ it. Do you know, I often say this, today I’m shooting some holy cows. Well, I have to say that today I shot some holy cows. Because they’re actually unholy cows that people put a lot of holy sacredness in them and God is always on my case, “Shoot those holy cows John, shoot them, shoot them, John. Shoot those holy cows.” Why? Because they’re other people’s holy cows. Golden images set up before the world system for people to bow down and worship them. God says, “Shoot them, John, shoot them.” And now He’s taking me beyond shooting and He is saying, “Bomb them, atomise them, obliterate them so that in your church and in your people they never raise their heads again.” There is no place for them in our church. Hallelujah.
Stand with me, people. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus. Well, if you’re visiting here today perhaps you’re, “Who’s this pastor? Where do these people come from?” Well, the reason that there are people in this church today, is because we have never stopped preaching this kind of nuclear stuff, ever. And if I’m more radical about it, it’s because I’m getting a bit older – I’m by no means old, I’m just older. And as the older I get, the Lord is saying, “Go more nuclear, John, more nuclear, John, more nuclear, John. We need more nuclear stuff going on here because I need a younger generation of people to take on this nuclear spirit and you send them out as mini-nuclear atomic bombs that go out there and they start blowing up sacred holy cows everywhere they go.” It’s the only way we’re going to survive what’s coming. Really.
You think the world’s got answers for everything? They’ve got nothing. Oh my word, in the last year or 18 months, Wall Street has lost trillions of dollars in value. I’m using Wall Street today because there’s a bull in front of Wall Street. And so the global economy has lost trillions of dollars’ worth of economic wealth. Huh. Your god? Not your god. The world’s god – can take care of you? No wonder the world is in a panic. The world is in a panic, but we have a living God which we serve. It’s more important for us now, I need to just say this, I know I’ve got to let you go, but I’ve got a month’s worth of teachings inside of me here, you know, and anyway, I’m preparing you for Brother Jerry, so… and he’s going to preach to you for hours and hours. No, he normally doesn’t do that, but we’re going to let him preach to us for as long as he wants to preach to us. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
But you know, the world system doesn’t have any answers for us in the future going forward. Everything that I’ve been reading in the Bible, the Bible says, before the return of the Lord, things are going to have to get worse before they’ll get better. If you think there’s… it is going to be wars, there’s going to be more wars, there’s going to be droughts, there’s going to be famines, there’s going to be all kinds of things that’s going to happen. There’s going to be things that happen that are the same that happened in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the days of Noah. The world system is going to get worse, it’s going to devour itself. You don’t want to be putting your trust in that thing. So yes, we can connect to it, and we can suck all of its money out of it. Come on. Just go like this, go like a vacuum. (Pastor John raises his hands and shows that he’s sucking the money in like a vacuum, making a slurping noise.) Go like this. Come on, we’re going to suck all of the resources that are in the world system, we are going to suck it right out into the hands of God, into the Kingdom of God, into the things that God wants to do with all of those resources, we suck it right out with our faith. Our faith overcomes and makes those institutions kneel to us. Hallelujah.
Can you tell I’ve got fire in my belly? I’ve got nuclear stuff happening in my spirit man, in my belly. Praise Jesus. I knew when I came back, I told you this when I came back from Brother Jerry, I’ve got to… I’ve got to… there’s things God wants to put in me, there’s things that God wants to take me, there’s things that God wants to show me, I’ve got to go and sit with Him. Well, now you’re getting to see what we’ve been talking about – me and Him, while you guys have been eating Christmas lunches, and puddings, and coffeeing, and braaing and surfing, God has been downloading nuclear material into my spirit and He’s been waiting for this Sunday morning, saying, “Just a little explosion, John, just…” I’ve been, really, I’ve been controlled this morning, believe it or not. Praise Jesus.
Put your hand on your heart like this, and just say; Jesus, You are my Lord and Saviour. I put my trust in You because You are my God. You are my Lord, You are my heavenly Father. I worship You, I praise You and I give You my life, in Jesus’ name. Hallelujah.
Do you know what you just did? Do you know what you just did? You just made a confession, a declaration that He is the God that is worthy to be worshipped and to be served, that He occupies your heart. Wow. It’s a glory thing. It’s a glory thing. It’s a glory thing. It’s a praising thing. It’s a praising thing. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Glory to God. Glory to God. Praise Jesus.
I just want to pray the peace of God over you, and I pray that His peace rests upon you. That no weapon formed against you will prosper. I pray that you are released into the fullness of the understanding of what God has put in my spirit, that it will come to you in fullness. I pray that He will give you wisdom and understanding and insight how you can apply this in your life and that you will see what you need to see, and you will blow up things with the Word of your confession as you need to blow them up in Jesus’ name. Hallelujah.
I pray that your hands will prosper in everything that you put them to as you are led by the Holy Spirit. I pray that your feet are guided and directed by the Lord, and He takes you the places that He needs to guide you and lead you so He can bring all good things to you, in Jesus’ name. Hallelujah. Glory to God.
You want to know, just quickly, you want to know how to blow up an old habit? Don’t try to change it, speak to it. Come on. You know, I witnessed this with my son, Brynn, many years ago. He’s not here this morning, he’s got a runny tummy. But, okay, oversharing. [Congregation laughing] He’s blessed; he’s blessed; he’s blessed. I prayed with him this morning because he phoned me and he told me, so I prayed for him and I said, “By the end of the day it will all be well, in Jesus’ name.” Hallelujah.
Anyway, you know, I was a witness to him. He was addicted to smoking and I watched him, he said, “I can’t get rid of this by myself, Dad. But I know the power of the Word of God can help me get rid of it.” And he used to puff on that cigarette, and every time he smoked that cigarette, he would pray in tongues and speak to it and say, “This thing doesn’t control me. I am free of this thing; I am free of this habit. In Jesus’ name. I’m free of it; I’m free of it; I’m free of it; I’m free of it.” He spoke to it, and he spoke to it. And I don’t know all the words that he used to speak to it, it was his confession, not mine. I’m not addicted to that stuff. Thank God. Besides the fact that it’s dirty, it will also kill you. Prematurely.
Anyway, he would speak to it, he said, “I am free from this thing; I am free from this thing.” And for three months he spoke to it, while he smoked it, he spoke to it; while he smoked it, he spoke to it. Now, many people would say, “How could that be? You got to change yourself before you can pray.” No, it’s your praying that changes you. And so, one day, those words had enough power in his spirit man that it grew up into a harvest of power. And in that weekend moment, it was a weekend, he came home, and he just took his cigarettes and he said, “I’ve had the last one.” He took his pack, and he threw it in the dustbin. He had a few symptoms for 24-hours, a few withdrawals but in 24-hours he was free of it and he never looked back.
He didn’t try and get free of it; he spoke to it and it freed him. If you got something you want to be free of; love of money, fear of money, resources, failure, anything else, speak to it. That’s how you get rid of it, speak to it. You want a future? Speak to it. More to come in weeks to come. Praise the Lord. Be blessed. Thank you for coming. Those people who got the MiXchanger’s joining, please stay behind. The other people, get out of the auditorium as quickly as you can. [Congregation laughing] We need the auditorium. Go talk in the foyer. Thanks for coming to church. Bless you, love you, good to see you.
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