Scripture Reference: Ephesians 5:8-10 (NKJV); Ephesians 5:15-17 (NKJV) ; Luke 5:2, 4-8 (NKJV); Luke 7:2, 8-10, 12-16 (NKJV); Matt 14;13-14 (NKJV); Mark 10:17-27,30 (NKJV); Joel 2:23-30 (NKJV)
Pastor Sharon:
And so now Father, Your bread, Your bread of life comes to be broken – for us Lord. The Living Word comes to us now Father, our hearts believe, our hearts receive, our hearts conceive Your Word, as seed Father, that will grow up, will find, take root and grow up and bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord is upon Pastor John this morning. And the Spirit of the Lord is upon us today, to minister to us as Pastor John ministers the word and he will say what he hears You saying our Father, we know that. We pray that and we receive that. And he will do what he sees the Father do. Hallelujah in Jesus’ name and we all say, amen. You may be seated.
Pastor John:
Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Glory to God. Well, I’m glad you all came to church today. I mean, that’s like a question that’s got a pause to it like, “Are you also glad?” You know? Hallelujah. I’m glad you came. Because whether you are here or not, I must preach. Many years ago, Pastor Sharon and I made a decision that doesn’t matter who shows up at church, we’ll preach like the church is full every time. And so I’m glad you came but if you didn’t come I preach anyway. And I preached like the church was full and so [Pastor Sharon says, “And I’ll be here.”] and you’d be here.
And that’s what we decided many years ago when we received persecution for being the kind of pastors that we are, preaching the kind of message that we do. You know, we just said, “Well, if it’s just her, and I that’s enough,” we’ll just keep obeying God anyway. So I’m glad you’re here, I really am. It’s better that I preach to you all. Yeah, hallelujah. Before I get into the message, you know, we are really blessed. I consider myself to be one of the most blessed men alive. Because God chose it in His eternal plan that I should be born into the kind of family and the kind of ministry, connected to the kind of people that He has connected us to. We have a legacy of faith. We have a legacy of triumph, victory. We have a legacy of doing great things in, for the kingdom of God in the earth. Hallelujah.
And our family, our family is everywhere. And so we have a visiting family from Fort Worth Crowley nowadays; Eric and Nikki, please stand up. They are family. Won’t you give them a welcome, please? Hallelujah. They ministered yesterday, so you should catch up on all the stuff that you didn’t hear yesterday. It was good, it was good, it was good.
So I’ve got a lot to minister today. I’ve got a lot to get through. So I’m going to ask you to just stay tight with me will you, this morning? And if I’m preaching you can say amen. Amen, and amen and amen. Even though I might be going all guns blazing here, please say amen. Then I know you’re listening to me. Amen.
So over the weekend, we ministered on capacity and capability. And we talked about authority. And I can’t go into all of that today because the Lord really spoke to us significantly. Also, we had some testimonies from various people that were on, that were digitally recorded and shown yesterday. And I encourage you to go back and, and watch all of their testimony, not just the bit that we showed publicly due to time. Go and watch all of what they said. And I know you’re going to be blessed by it. Amen.
So today, I would normally do a bit of a recap, but I just have some significant things to say. And since we’re on Money with a Mission weekend, I felt that I’m just going to jump right into the message this morning, so that I can get done the things that I’m supposed to say. And so today, I’m going to talk about empty hours, empty hours. And I told you last week when I announced this, that you think you know what I’m going to preach about. But I know you don’t. Because it sounds like empty hours; well that’s obvious. Okay, let’s see. Amen.
So empty hours, and then we’re going to celebrate the Lord Jesus and what He’s done for us through the word. Ephesians, chapter five, verse eight. In the New King James Version says, 8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. So, we are light in the Lord but we were once darkness because we were not in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), 10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord (Ephesians 5:8-10 NKJV).
So when you walk in light, there are things that you can demonstrate as walking in the light. And then you find out what is the acceptable will of the Lord, for who? Well, for you but also for those that are around you. Verse 15, says, 15 See then, that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. So if you walk in the light, and you know what the acceptable will of the Lord is, then you can walk, well, you can walk in goodness,16 Circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is (Ephesians 5:15-17 NKJV). So in these two scriptures we clearly understand that you can be foolish or you can walk wisely. You can walk in light, or you can walk in darkness. You can redeem time or you can waste time.
Ah, ja. Now, it is clear here that if you walk wisely, and you walk circumspectly, and you know what the will of the Lord is, that those actions will redeem time. Now, it would seem impossible in the world’s way of thinking about time, and certainly in our human condition, it’s almost impossible to go back in time. So you can’t go back in time to redeem time. Certainly, yesterday happened, and wherever you were, whatever you were doing whatever you said, yesterday has gone. You can’t go back to yesterday. Whatever happened yesterday, is in yesterday. You can’t go back to redeem time, so whatever God’s going to do to redeem time, it’s got to be doing something that is supernatural, and it’s got to come because you know the will of the Lord. Amen.
I’m going to start to show you how this happens, and how Jesus did it. Luke, chapter five – you all know the story. I’m not going to read all of these verses because otherwise if I read everything today, I won’t get to what I have to say. But there was a crowd that was pressing on Jesus, and He realized He can’t just stand on the shore and preach to everybody so He saw the boats there, fisherman’s boats, and He asked them if He could use their boats. He saw them washing their nets. 2 He saw two boats standing by the lake, but the fishermen had gone from them, and we’re washing their nets. The fishermen were gone from them, and they were washing their nets. So He preaches after He’s finished preaching, 4 He stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing.” (Luke 5:2, 4-5 NKJV).
I would say that’s the definition of empty hours. Right? Empty hours – hours, hours. A whole night. Let’s assume that it was a full 12 hour night, depending on the time of the year, right? Let’s assume it was a 12 hour night. They were fishing all night. So that was considered to be their most productive time naturally speaking. So in their most productive time, they had empty hours.Time spent, no gain, end of it. Now they are preparing for more hours. So what do they do? They were washing their nets because, caught nothing, got to prepare for another, hopefully productive time. So now they’re preparing for more hours, so they’re spending hours to get more hours. Hopefully, the next hours would be more productive than the last hours. So the last hours were empty. Now they’re spending hours preparing but they’re not sure that the next hours are going to be productive. But they still have to prepare anyway.
So he says, 5 we toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” 6 And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. 7 So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink (Luke 5:5-7 NKJV). Well, what is it that’s happening here? What’s happening here is that Jesus is about to launch into His ministry. Now I have a question for you; do you think that Jesus, when He was living His life on the Earth up till this point, had any empty hours? Hey? No. So, but what was He doing all of this time, up to the point of going to minister and launching His ministry? Well, certainly He was in a place where He as a man was busy fulfilling the law. When everybody started to come to question Jesus about the matters of the law, they were not just questioning His current actions, they were questioning everything He’d learnt up to that point that revealed themselves in His current actions. Amen.
So I’m a cyclist. Predominantly that’s the sport that I do. Sometimes I do some running and a few other things. But as a cyclist, I know, over the years, if I get on my bike, and I cycle once a month, I can get away with maybe riding 50k’s or 70k’s kilometers. But, but I will, I will really struggle. I’ll hurt myself. I’ll put myself through pain. But if I started cycling 10, 20, 30 kilometers every day, every day, every day, every day. When the time came for me to cycle 80 kilometers. I’ll get through it pretty quickly. So when you see me on the bike doing 80 and 100 kilometers, you know, you’re not just seeing me on the day, doing what I’m doing. You’re also seeing me all the days that I’ve gone before. Right?
So, it’s the same with Jesus when Jesus was on the earth and they started to question Him. They knew that what He had learned, that’s why they could call Him Teacher. That’s why they could call Him Master. And that’s why they called Him the things that they called Him because they didn’t… they recognized that what He learned wasn’t just yesterday. What He learned was all of His life that led to this time. So when Jesus was coming into His ministry, He didn’t need to redeem time. He needed to walk in the acceptable will of God. Knowing the will of God. What did He come and do then? He came to redeem everybody’s empty hours. The whole earth’s empty hours. Because the whole earth was waiting for Jesus to come and be the Lamb of God that would give Himself so that in future time, all of mankind could walk in freedom.
If you read Hebrews chapter 11, then Hebrews chapter 11, will talk to you and tell you about men of faith that lived in faith, believing that they were going to see the result of their faith, the outcome of their faith. But while they were alive, they didn’t get to the point where they received the outcome of their faith. Why not? Because the only way that they could see the fulfillment of the faith was when Jesus came. We then as the church, we are walking in the things that they saw long time ago, that would come to the earth. And now we’re walking in what Jesus redeemed all those empty hours. Hallelujah.
And it’s so well described in this story, where they fished all night, most productive hours, they caught nothing. Jesus comes and He speaks the Word to them. Under normal circumstances, they would not have the faith to even obey what Jesus told them to do. But because He had released the Word of the Father to them, it brought faith to them. And yet, they still said, “Well, uh, you don’t know anything about fishing, but at Your Word, we’ll do it.” I’m glad they did it. Because God, Jesus redeemed all those empty hours. Not only did He redeem empty hours, but He redeemed those empty hours in such extravagant measure, that all of the previous empty hours that they’d only been able to slightly manage a living by. He so filled up their bank accounts, with fish, that they had more than enough to actually leave their jobs and go into the ministry. In one minute, Jesus made up empty hours.
So when we talk about redeeming the time, it’s not because we can go back in time, but it’s about what Jesus can do in this time, that produces more in this time than you could have ever expected He could do and you could do in all of the previous times. So then your capability and your capacity in Him is immeasurably enhanced because He’s redeeming hours. He’s redeeming empty time. Hallelujah.
You know, I can speak to this for days. But there were many people that I was at school with, maybe I was even in the military with that decided to go and go to university, do things, get degrees, whatever. When God brought the Word of faith to my life, I recognized that this was hope. This was God’s favour. It was His blessing. It was His way of bringing life to me. And as I began to speak the words of life, all of the potential opportunities that the world says, I missed out on. God said, “I will bring you abundance because you trust Me, not because of your lack or overwhelming opportunity.” Opportunity doesn’t, is not a requirement of blessing. God creates opportunity through faith and through His Word, that is much greater than opportunity that the world offers. The Word creates it. The Word creates it. The Word creates the opportunity to redeem time. The Word creates opportunity to undo empty hours and produce productivity and prosperity and well-being and peace beyond what you can accomplish by yourself.
These guys were experts in their field, they had all of the investment in their field. They had done everything they could in their field. They had all the resources in their field, Jesus comes along, and He gives them one word and He does more in one moment, and I could have ever hoped or dreamed of in all of their lives, investing in all of what they could do best.
So what does He do to them? He says, “Hey, let me show you what I can do.” And of course, you know, when God shows up like that, He says, 8 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” (Luke 5:8 NKJV). I mean, isn’t that just the way that we react as humans that are performance-based? When God does something so amazing, we say, “We’re unworthy, we’re unworthy.” And we measure His blessing on our lives by our performance. And when you manage to do that, you have no option but to say, “Depart from me, I’m not worthy.” This is a plot of the human condition. Thank God, we don’t have to respond with a human way. We have to respond by spirit man, righteous man, way.
Remember, I’ve been talking a long time over the weeks previously, that you can’t say, “I’m self-righteous,” you got to stand in His righteousness. Because the minute you stand in His righteousness, you don’t want to say depart from me, you’ll say, “I’ll do whatever You want me to do.” And you don’t see yourself as unworthy, but worthy. Hallelujah.
I want to take you to another story that happened to Jesus in the Bible. It’s Luke chapter seven, verse two, 2 And a certain centurion’s servant, Centurion’s servant, who was dear to him, was sick and ready to die (Luke 7:2 NKJV). Let me just explain to you for the sake of some of the other, the other verses I’m going to use and stories I’m going to take out of the Bible; sickness and disease is, by definition, a time stealer. Sickness and disease is by definition, a productivity taker. Sickness and disease is never a blessing from God. Never, never, never. Sickness and disease is always going to steal your time, take your energy, take away opportunities, and begin to squeeze you into something that is less than what God would have for you.
When this scripture says one little sentence that says, the Centurion servant, servant was sick, to the point of death, or dying, tell me what was the consequence of the most trusted close servant of the Centurion? What was the consequence in his life? Means the Centurion’s love for the servant had an expectation that he would be with him for a long time, that they would be able to be productive together, that they would have this relationship of being connected, serving, productive, walking through life together. When the servant got sick, those hours were taken. Empty hours, empty hours.
So just, for whatever we’re going to read, just recognize that sickness and diseases is a time stealer. Verse eight, he says to Jesus, 8 I also am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 9 When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him, and turned around and said to the crowd that followed Him, “I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!” 10 And those who were sent, returning to the house, found the servant well who had been sick (Luke 7:8-10 NKJV).
Okay, I want to make a point to you that in this particular occasion, the Centurion had an understanding of faith that if Jesus had not said those words over him, he would not have considered it to necessarily be faith. He understood authority. He understood authority. And yesterday, part of what we heard through one of the testimonies, which is submission to authority, and I talked about the fact that it’s not so much about authority, it’s about who’s going to govern you. Right? So if you weren’t here you need to listen to it.
But authority needs to put a framework before governance can happen. So what this what the Centurion was saying, I understand authority, my authority is words that I speak. The words that I speak activates people and when I’ve given them an instruction, I no longer have to be concerned about whether they will fulfill it or not because if they don’t, the governance will punish them. Right? authority without governance is nothing. Similarly, you can’t govern without authority.
So when the Centurion was talking to Jesus, and he was demonstrating his recognition of authority, he immediately said, “I know who You are, because You wouldn’t be on the earth, doing the things that You’re doing on the earth, if someone had not sent You, and delegated the authority to You. Now You are the governor on the earth on behalf of someone else. And if that someone else has delegated authority to You, all You have to do is speak and that authority will back You.”
So you and I cannot walk in faith, unless we understand authority, the submission to the authority, the supreme divine authority of Jesus, and the Father, and the Holy Spirit. If you say, “He can only have authority in certain areas of my life,” then He can’t govern the areas of your life that you are excluding Him from. This is where most Christians fail, because they recognize the supreme divine authority in principle of God on the earth, but they don’t allow Him to exercise authority through governance, into their lives. And it’s also why most people that have received the faith message will discipline themselves to make confessions. But if you confess something without recognizing the authority behind the confession, then your words can’t govern anything in your future. This is a pretty good faith message this morning. Amen.
So when I speak words, when I speak words, that are God’s words into my world into my life. I’m speaking them because I recognize that I’m getting them from Jesus. I recognize the authority that’s releasing these words through me. And so now all I’ve got to do is keep putting the words into that situation. The devil will try and tell you that you are wasting your time. You are doing empty hours. His trick, his deception is when you speak the Word of God, or when you pray in the Spirit, [Pastor John praying in tongues] when you do that you are wasting time. It’s empty hours, stop talking that nonsense. You can’t understand that nonsense. Why should you be talking those words?
So shhh speak something that’s productive. What’s he trying to do? He is trying to get you to step away from your most productive hours and exchange them for empty hours. When you take words that Jesus says, and you push them into your future, and you say, “I’m blessed going out, I’m blessed, coming in. Everywhere my feet go there, my Lord, my Master, my Producer goes with me. Whatever my hands touch, productivity, the blessing, the favour, the increase of the Father goes with where I put my hands.” When I speak those words, the words of going into the future to create something for me that I can’t yet have.
So what did Jesus do to the fishermen? He said, “Take your boats, take your nets, go fishing.” When He spoke those words, His authority was releasing God’s governance. And God through the Holy Spirit just went and rounded up lots of fish and put them right there, waiting. The fish were waiting. The fish were waiting right there. Those fish could have been on the other side of the lake. If they’d put their nets in there, they would have caught nothing. So when Jesus spoke His words, God’s governance was kicked into place by the Holy Spirit. And He went and rounded up all of those fish. Come wait. And they just wait today? What for? Obedience.
Nevertheless, at your Word, I will do that. Okay. And Jesus is looking at him and see you got no idea what’s waiting for you. Because, because I’ve spoken and the Father has already rounded up all those fish, they’re waiting. And if you just take one boat, it’s not enough because He’s about to redeem empty ours. Hallelujah.
What did Jesus do? He took an, He took an unproductive workplace, an unproductive economically unviable circumstance. And He said, “Obey My words and I’ll show you what I can do with all of what the economy says won’t work.” The time won’t work, the circumstances won’t work., we know better. He says, “Just take My Word for what it says. Just take My Word for what it says.” And you know, when they went fishing, because they obeyed and they started catching fish, and they started catching fish, and they started catching, they had to call another boat. Come help us. And then I wonder what would have happened if there were three more boats? I know what would have happened. They could have emptied out the lake. Maybe the Father would have just multiplied the fish with His Word.
Oh, these guys are really, got on obedience going here. Let Me make some more fish because they’re catching all of what’s left.” Who knows? Empty hours. God says, “In My kingdom, there are no empty hours.”
There are no empty hours in the kingdom of God. When you speak the Word of God, understanding authority that your words are governing. His words in your mouth are governing your future. It’s governing your productivity. It’s governing what is coming into your hands. Then you’ve got to say, “Wait a minute, I better speak the right stuff here. I better say what I need to say here.” It’s here, whatever I’m putting my hands to is turning to my best interest. It’s coming. It’s multiplying. It’s increasing. It’s doing stuff. Well but I don’t see anything, doesn’t matter. Go out with your boat boy. Go get there. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Glory to Jesus.
You see in the world system, they want to manage everything by the clock, because they will tell you that hours equals money. I’ve got news for you and I’ve got news for them. We live in a dimension that is way above time and it doesn’t matter how many hours are empty. If you’re talking the Word of God, He will redeem empty hours. He will make you more productive. He will increase your capacity. He will increase your capability. He will make you understand authority and governance in a way that you could never understand it before. Today, I’m taking up an offering after the service. I am because you need to have an opportunity to sow money into this message. And if you don’t have money here today, you can do an EFT into the ministry bank account after the service. Because you need to have this word just stabilized in your heart, become a driving force for you. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
Well look what God did, the devils come to steal your life, steal your thing. I redeem it. I redeem it before they even happen. The message is coming back, the servant’s well, he’s restored, he’s recovered, keep going. Okay, that man had faith. Look at the next story. Luke chapter seven, verse 12. 12 And when He came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother; So now she doesn’t have a husband. Obviously, he doesn’t have a father, this only son of the mother. So in this, in this time, a woman’s place was at home. Sons would carry on the legacy of the father and be productive in the home. So if this widow, this woman had lost her only hope of a productive future, was in her son. His death meant her money machine was over. Just being blunt about it. I mean, sons are never a machine.
You know, but her bank account was gone. The only son of his mother; and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the city was with her. If she had a large crowd, that meant that actually her son was well known and well respected in the city. As was she, probably. 13 When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” 14 Then He came and touched the open coffin. In other words, there he was in the coffin, no lid on it, He could see him. And those who carried him stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” What are you doing talking to dead people, Jesus? 15 So he who was dead sat up and began to speak. And He Jesus presented him to his mother. 16 Then fear came upon all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen up among us”; and, “God has visited His people.” (Luke 7:12-16 NKJV)
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Do you know what? This happens to be about sickness and disease and about premature death in the physical, but I want to tell you, this is a sign of what Jesus can do to areas of your life that are already so dead, that you don’t think it can be resurrected. But if you say, “I say, God says, I say the Word says, it doesn’t matter what has already died. Jesus will resurrect it. Jesus will resurrect it.” Hallelujah.
You know, I don’t know, it’s not clear what caused this young man’s death. But it is clear that they wouldn’t be going to bury him unless he has been dead for three days. That’s a lot of empty hours. Not only that, if he was sick beforehand, that would have been more empty hours. She was facing the prospect of so many empty hours. They could have been weeks, months or years of empty hours. When Jesus came onto the scene, He didn’t wait for any faith to reveal itself. He was moved by compassion.
Okay, can you see how God is putting this together? If you don’t trust in your self-righteousness, then you can trust in His righteousness. When you trust in His righteousness, then you don’t have to say, “Well, I’m not sure whether I’m doing enough.” If you are trusting in His righteousness, then you understand that you are in Christ, and everything that you do in your future should be by the Christ that is in you. His Word that is in you should be what you speak. Amen.
And so when I received the Word of God, God began to bless my life. He began to bless my life financially. So I received a lot of finances and blessing, I was promoted, and then I went… You know, when you have been poor for a long time, and money starts coming into your hands, you have a tendency to maybe go on a spending spree. Don’t look at me like that, like you never did that. Huh? Yeah, so we went on a spending spree. That in itself would have been covered by the productivity of faith, but God promoted me at the same time, and my package changed, and I went from being a commission-oriented person, to being a profit sharing person. So that takes longer for money to come in, and it’s on a much bigger level of results that happen. And the two things collided at the same time, too much spending, delayed money, trouble, trouble.
I was sitting having a conversation with my Pastor one day about this that had happened to me, and he said to me, he said, “John, it’s not an uncommon thing that has happened to you,” he says, “I’ve been a witness to this many times over. People get the faith message, they speak the Word of God, God blesses them, and then they get themselves into trouble.” He says, “Unlike you, most of them end up leaving the church, because they would blame God.” I was, I had enough sense to know that I couldn’t blame God about that. It was just me and Sharon spending too much. We had those special credit cards, you know, that they give to people that are high income earners, and so then you have lots of limits. And well, then I began to realize that I’m in trouble here. So I went to the Lord, and I said, “Lord, I’m in trouble.” He said, “If you keep doing what you did do, but you stop spending, I’ll fix this for you, and I will bring the prosperity back.”
So what I had to do was, phone everybody that I owed money to, said I’ll pay you when I can, and I’ll pay you a little bit, little bit little bit every month. I know it might not be enough, but I will pay you. And when I get the money, I will pay it off. I will pay all of it. And so now that gave me time to get my faith working again. Yeah. So what happened was that you know God did His miracle in my life, really, because I had almost nothing that I could give away, because the bank owned all of it. But you’ve heard my story, I had a camera, I sold the camera and took the money. And I had a computer, I gave the computer to the Bible school. I took my money, and I gave it in to the church. And that was my seed to become debt free.
And so from that moment onwards, I began to talk about, “I’m debt free through the miracle power of Jesus.” Everywhere I go, “I’m debt free through the miracle power of Jesus. I’m debt free through the miracle power of Jesus. I’m debt free through the miracle power of Jesus. I’m debt free through the miracle power of Jesus.” If you just pressed my button anytime, day or night, it would pop out of my heart, “I’m debt free through the miracle power of Jesus.” Out of my mouth, “I’m debt free through the miracle power of Jesus.” When I spoke to people on the phone, and I had to pay them money, and maybe I didn’t pay them enough, or they were, “When are you going to pay the rest, because you’re not paying enough.” I would deal with it. We were taking responsibility. But then when I put the phone down, I would say, “I’m debt free through the miracle power of Jesus.” Everywhere I went, “I’m debt free through the miracle power of Jesus. I’m debt free through the miracle power of Jesus.”
So you know the story, I’m just refreshing it, because in the context of what I’m preaching today, you need to hear it again. And so God had a company hire me. And then before I joined the company, they said, “Take a week’s leave, and we want to promote you.” And so then I said, “Okay, well, fine.” I came in on a promoted level, and they said, “You’ve only got six months left in this year, so we are going to give you a small target. And we don’t even think you are going to meet this target as the new sales manager. We don’t even think you are going to hit the sales target because it’s not possible. In the natural it is not possible, you can’t even meet the target we are giving you, and it is a reduced target. And by the way, you got to fire three unproductive salespeople as your first course of business.”
You take half my sales team away, give me a target that is impossible… it sounds like God is about to redeem empty hours. So, “I’m debt free through the miracle power of Jesus. I’m debt free through the miracle power of Jesus.” And I would get up in the morning, and I’m talking, “Now you salespeople that we are left with, and I’m working with, “Whatever you put your hands to, it’s not just your hands, it’s my hands. Now go and sell and be productive and be so blessed that you earn more than you even know you can earn, because God needs to bless me.” I had five months till the end of that year, five months. They gave me a six month’s target; I had five months after everything I had to do. I’m new in the company, I’m still coming to terms with the company’s policies and all of the stuff that you have to deal with.
Yeah? I’m debt free through the miracle power of Jesus. I’m debt free through the miracle power of Jesus. I’m debt free through the miracle power of Jesus. Whatever my hands touch, I prosper. Wherever I go, there’s favour. Whatever I speak, there’s blessing. I’m debt free through the miracle power of Jesus. The end of the year came and I hit 200 and something percent. I can’t even remember the numbers of target. They didn’t, they thought I’d be earning a lot of money at 110% of target. So they set it that way so that I made more than 110% of target that this multiplication number kicked in. That they never thought- there’s no way in five months, John and his sales team now, is ever going to hit that target. Because there’s no way.
So it had a multiplication factor in it that just dish, every number after that just doubled, doubled and doubled. So to the point is, that we were selling… when the computers that we sold, the company almost made no profit, it all came to me. True story. True story. So much money in five months. They said, “We’ve got to change this boy’s target.” Like they think they can stop the blessing of God. Like they think that they can’t make it that I can’t. Because they’ve only got natural eyes. They walk in darkness, they’re sons of disobedience. It worked for me. Be disobedient, do what you have to do. Let God be God.
Anyway, I earned a lot of money. And then when the money came into my hands, we decided, Pastor Sharon and I, we are going to tithe 10% and add another 10% on top of that, on the gross, before tax. That’s what we sowed. Because I said to Sharon, I said, “Babe, if God can do this once, He can do it again and again, and I don’t care what their targets are, He can keep doing it. We just got to keep with our words.”
Well, we had spoken food into empty cupboards before. We have spoken petrol into our tank where we didn’t have money for fuel in our tank. We had spoken many things into being, so now it was a simple case of keep doing what we know what to do. It’s not our authority, it’s His authority in our mouth with our words that we speak, that is His authority to govern. And these guys want to govern and muzzle my productivity. So, okay, John, now you got a full year. And we’re going to have a target, on ratio, by this, by this, by this.
Up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up. Now the year came and went, 190% of target. Whatever that number was. And they paid me a massive amount of money again. We did the same again. Tithe another 10% on the gross, given. Because you see, I’ve got to pay off other debts. But I needed to pay off those debts. I didn’t want them to keep on having compound interest.
So, this is a real revelation to me. The world has got a compound interest because they’re trying to match the multiplication of God’s harvest. But they can never match it because God will bring about a harvest through your mouth that He redeems empty hours. They don’t have the answer to this. They don’t know what and we don’t really know how much power we’ve got. Hallelujah. So, all this money came into my hands. We kept paying off our debt. But we sowed, we tithed 10%. Sowed 10% of the gross.
Next year, got to up your target again, John, got to do this. Now they promoted me again. And now they’ve changed all of the structure and all of my income again. It didn’t matter nothing, just God words, empty hours, productivity, redeem, here we go, John. Three and a half years, all of the compounded interest debt that we were having, they couldn’t claim all of the compound interest that they wanted to claim for twenty years or ten years or five years, because I paid all of our debt off in three and a half years. Mortgage, cars paid off, overdrafts paid off, credit cards paid off, everything paid off.
And then I started to speak the real stuff. “Now I thank You, Lord, that everything my hand touches, there is a miracle anointing on my hands. That what You did to pay off the debt, there is now a miracle coming of much more increase of finance, because now I’ve got no more debt to pay. So let me, let me and You work together God, let’s see what we can sow.”
The next thing that God said, come on now don’t look at me like this when I share my life with you. The next thing that God said to Sharon and I was, “Kenneth Copeland Ministries (Brother Jerry wasn’t in the country then) Kenneth Copeland Ministries, sow a seed.” We said, “Yes sir, how much do You want us to sow?” He gave us a number, it was a big number then. Was many years ago. Come to find out that the directors of Kenneth Copeland Ministries were believing God to buy an office block in the same area as their offices were in, because they needed a warehouse. When Sharon and I came with our offering, the amount of money that they were going to pay for the office block was exactly the same amount of money as our offering was. They told us then, it was the biggest single offering Kenneth Copeland Ministries had ever had given into their account and that money was to buy the office block. I don’t care what happens to Kenneth Copeland Ministries ever. I’m always part of all of the seed that everybody ever gets anything through Kenneth Copeland Ministries. Forever. Talk about God redeeming empty hours! Hallelujah!
See,’ cause now I’m debt-free, now I can do with the money what God wants me to do with the money, not because I have to go and pay someone else. Hallelujah! Sharon, I just preached myself happy this morning. (Pastor Sharon says to Pastor John to tell them what happened to the sales people he was meant to fire.) I don’t really want to go there too much, but you know, the company wanted me to fire sales people, one of them I found a job for at another company, and he was successful there. One of the guys was an alcoholic. I had to let him go, but I worked with him as best as I could, but I had to let him go, because he was just drinking all hours, every hour and it was just a bad situation. And, he left on good terms, and it wasn’t a bad thing, because I confronted him on his alcoholism you know, and he had nothing to say about it. And other guys I worked with, I said, “If you work with me and we work together, I will help you undo your lack of success, and we’ll work together.”
Some of those guys became the most successful salespeople in the company. Like number 1, number 2, number 3 – they all worked for me. One, two, three – they all worked for me. Ya, I mean, it was a fact – it was a fact, that actually my sales team and my business unit in the end, you know, we were the most productive, the most profitable, the most blessed division of the company. That’s why – the end of the story is that’s why they came and said, listen John, “Uhh we don’t want to keep paying you all this commission money, let’s give you shares. Let’s make you a shareholder, so that all that kind of stuff can happen.” And then, you know, but they still couldn’t stop paying me large sums of money. [Pastor John laughs] Because, because how do you manage God’s filling empty hours. How do you manage it when there is no boat… and they tried to catch me on this – anyway – you’ve got me going here now, but they tried to catch me on this you know. They tried to say, “John, you’re hiding deals from us. When you’re negotiating sales targets, you’re hiding prospects and opportunities from us.” And I said, “I’m not.”
I go to my sales guys – guys don’t hide stuff from me, hey – don’t hide stuff from me. No, no, no, no. We’re not hiding stuff. I said, “You better tell me, because they’re accusing me that you…” No, we’re not hiding stuff. I don’t know if they did or if they didn’t. But I had to be as straight with them as I could. And I was straight… this is what my guys are working on. So, what else have you got? I can’t see anything else. So, how are you going to meet your targets? Give me a target and we’ll see. Hello. And God kept delivering and delivering and delivering and delivering. And He has not stopped yet. He has never stopped, has never stopped, He has never stopped because I understand. I am just putting things to you in a way that makes sense today – empty hours. But, God was filling my life with productivity.
So, I am to going just give you another story quickly because it’s important that you understand that the source of where something comes from is not where you must put your faith. If Peter and James and John who were fishing had put their faith in the source which is the water where the fish was, they would never have caught the fish because he already said, “This source is dry.” The woman’s son that was dead, this source is dry. The Centurion’s servant that was sick and dying, the source is dry. If they had evaluated the source for their blessing, they would never have done what God told them to do. So, you can’t look at your source in the natural and say, “My source is what’s making me wealthy or my source is meeting my needs.” You’ve got to say, “God is my Source and the Source is the words of life that are in my mouth. These are the words of authority that govern my future.” If you understand this, then it doesn’t matter whether you live in Joburg, whether you live in New York, London or Texas. It doesn’t matter where you live in the world, if you know this thing then God will be the source of everything you need in your future – everything.
So, Jesus departed – this is Matthew chapter 14 – departed from there by boat, to a deserted place. He went to go and be by Himself. I just wanted you to see this. Can you see this? The multitude heard it… So He departed from them by a boat to a deserted place by Himself. Hello. What was He going to do by Himself? Tell me. He was going to refresh words. He was going to refresh understanding the will of the Father. He was going to refresh Himself in the Holy Spirit. He was going to do what you have to do. Come on now. He went to a deserted place by Himself. He never even took his disciples with Him. He went by Himself. When the multitude heard it, they followed Him (Matthew 14:13 NKJV).
So, they all show up and He is healing the sick and everything and so, evening time’s come. Now, just hear me when I say this. People heard He was there. So they all come, they all come. What does He do? He starts to share the Word. As the Word is being declared, He is healing them. Not only is He teaching them, but He Himself the Word is among them. So all of the hours that these people had lost from sickness and disease, look what it says, just show it to me on there again. 14 And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick (Matt 14:14 NKJV). Remember what I said about sickness and disease? It’s a time stealer. It’s an opportunity taker. It’s something that will remove productivity from your life. And when Jesus healed their sick, what was He giving them back? Hours that were empty. Just watch this. Come on. This is so cool. Just watch this.
Jesus goes to fill Himself with Words. Then when they come to Him, He speaks those words to them. He Himself is the Word. So He speaks words to them, but He becomes the Word manifest to them. In one moment, all of their hours of getting to their sickness, lost productivity, lost opportunity, all of that in one moment. Boom, the Word spoken and the Word revealed empty hours gone. Empty hours gone. Now, you know, the disciples are watching all of this, and they say, “This is pretty good stuff.” You know. But being good stewards, these people are all hungry. Jesus says, “Feed them.” What is He just demonstrating to them?
Words, authority, manifested Word. What are you going to do with this revelation, Disciples? They turn around Jesus and they say, “We don’t have any food. Do you want us to go to the village and buy?” I really liked that. Because they wouldn’t have asked Jesus to go and buy food in the village for 5000 people at least if Jesus didn’t have the money to feed 5000 people. I like it. Anybody that wants to tell me Jesus was poor, He didn’t have a place to put His head. He had no place to rest. He didn’t even have a home. He was so poor. They so stupid bless their darling hearts, you know. Because who walks around with a treasure when you have no money to manage? And I mean, He’s held so much money that they didn’t even know the money was missing. I mean, Jesus knew about the spirit, but the other guys didn’t know. Because wherever Jesus went He just paid for everything. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
He says, “Feed them, feed them.” We got no food. But at least one of them had sense. But there’s a little boy here. He’s got a little couple of loaves and fishes. Now come on. Come stand here Josh. I mean, if I send this young man on a day trip somewhere. He’s going to walk there. Okay, just remember, he’s going to walk there. How much food do I give him for the whole day? Let’s assume that he has a backpack on him. Yes. And he knows he’s going to be away the whole day. He’s going to put as much food as he can possibly do. Right, Josh? Yeah. He’s gonna not just take a couple of sandwiches. He might take a whole loaf of bread. He might take a couple of hamburgers. Yes. I’m just being time related here. You might put a couple of juices in there. Probably a bunch of lunch bars or bar ones or? I don’t know.
But let’s say he has a whole backpack of food here. Yes. Do you think this backpack is going to feed all of, thanks, Josh. You think that backpack on his back is going to feed all of you? Nevermind, nevermind 5000 people, his backpack? So this disciple comes and says, “Hey, this guy, young boy, Josh got a backpack of food here.” Huh, Jesus says, “Bring Me, bring Me his backpack.” So you can imagine Josh comes with the backpack. And he opens it up and he’s saying, “All these hungry people? My backpack? These people? No. And then what’s left for me anyway?” I mean, that’s what a young man would say. “Where’s my food going?” Right? Jesus says, “Father, thank You. Bless it. Disciples go and give it.” So as He takes the food from the backpack and He breaks it. Here is a piece of lunch- bar for you. Here is a piece of bar one for you. Here is a piece of … And as He’s breaking it. As He’s breaking it. It just keeps going. And Josh is looking at his backpack. And he’s saying, “Where did all this food come from? Out of there?”
He just keeps breaking it as they take it. And now Josh is sitting there and have some, there is a half one. I break it again. There’s another half as I break it again. There’s another half. And then I get to Josh and he says, “Where’s all of my stuff?” But take this half in the meantime, Josh and as I keep giving and he’s looking at it and do you think his life is ever going to be the same again? No, he just witnessed how little food he had and how many people he’s food is feeding. I bet you he went to his mom and dad’s, “Can I be a disciple? Can I run around after Jesus please? Because at least He gave me 12 baskets leftover. He gave me 12 backpacks where I only had one.” Left over and everybody got full, everybody ate and everybody went home.
God fills empty hours. He will never allow your commitment to the Word of God, your dedication to hear the Word of God, when you follow Christ when you follow Him where He wants you to where you could, He’s never going to let you have empty hours. He’s going to fill your life with goodness, He’s going to fill it, He’s going to fill it. That young boy, his money, got a whole new meaning with a mission. He didn’t have much, but that which he did have that which he did have God multiplied that so much that which he did have left; shooo. Let me tell you something, if you will use the word of God as your authority, He will not allow any empty hours to go to waste. He will fill your life with productivity 30, 60 and 100 fold you know what Brother Jerry said, Brother Jerry said, “That another way to say 100 fold return is maximum.” So, if we’re going to reach the highest level attainable we got to believe Him for a 100 fold, on what? First, the Word. When the Word is multiplied 100 fold to you, then it will multiply to you in finance and in health and in relationship and in every area that you put the Word to work in. Amen.
All right. I’m not going to get to all of what I have to minister today but I need to finish off with a story so I can explain a few things to you. Are you, are you okay? Can we switch off these heaters? Is it just me that’s hot or are you guys all comfortable? Are you all comfortable? I’m just hot. I’m hot. I’m hot. No, I’m good. I’m good. I’m good. If you guys are comfortable then that’s the most important thing to me. Okay. So, Jesus on the road, Mark chapter 10, verse 17, 17 Jesus going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him. I’m reading from the New King James Version, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? 18 So Jesus said to him, This to me is that classic Jesus? Because He wanted the emphasis to be on eternal life. What must I do to inherit eternal life? Yes. He says, Good Teacher, Jesus says to him, Why do you call Me good? He is not focused on the internal life thing. He’s hitting the nail on the head that the guy doesn’t even know it yet. Classic Jesus.
Wisdom from the Father and the Holy Spirit. Why do you call me good? No one is good but One, that is God. Ha! This boy, I mean he’s already being sorted he doesn’t even know it yet. Why do you call Me good? Because there’s only one good and that’s God. You just called me God. You just called me God. Okay, let’s see how you answer the next question. While you’re talking to God. 19 You know the commandments, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ Do not murder, ‘Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and your mother.’ 20 And he answered and said teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth. In other words, this guy is a performance guy.
There is the law, I keep the law. I am totally committed to the law. Why? Because I’m a results driven guy. I like achievement. I like results. And I’ll, I’ll discipline myself so much so that I can get the results. 21 Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and he said to him, one thing you lack: you know, this is quite a statement that Jesus is making, because He loved this guy. And he loved him because he was committed to the law of his Father. So, He loved him. And he said to him, one thing you lack go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. The guy asked Him, how do I inherit eternal life? Jesus is answering him about eternal life. How are you going to get there? Take all of your natural substance, sell it and give it to the poor. And you’ll have the treasure you seek. He just got the answer from God.
And then come, take up your cross and follow Me. And this young man 22 was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions, great possessions. 23 Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciple, his disciples, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God.” 24 And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answered again, and said to them “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God. 25 It is easier for a camel to go into the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Why? He’s not saying you can’t have eternal life, but you can’t enter the kingdom of God. You can’t have the kingdom mindset while you trusting in your riches. Because your riches will always draw you away from the kingdom. Notice what He now speaks to the disciples. 26 And they were greatly astonished, saying amongst themselves, who then can be saved?” (Mark 10: 17- 26 NKJV). I ask you now, come on, come work with me for a minute. Is this okay, I’m going 10 minutes more. Is that okay for you today. I got to deal with this today. We’re on a money with a mission conference today. So I’ve got to deal with this today. I can’t come back next week and preach this again. I got to deal with it today.
Okay. So why, how do a bunch of poor disciples become astonished? Why do they even have to have this conversation? “We’re poor, we’re okay.” Hey, Peter, it’s a good thing we’re poor, hey? James, if there was ever a time we thought good, it’s good to be poor, now it’s good, because we got the Kingdom sorted. We’ve got eternal life. Hey, good time to be poor. No. They’re looking at each other. How many of us are going to get saved? Because we’re all rich!
We’re all rich! Where did their wealth come? Jesus made sure before they even came into the ministry, they were rich. Put those boats in, get those fish, make your money. You know, if you are obeying the Word of God, you could get rich like that rich young ruler got rich too, because you obeyed the word of God. Because you’re in covenant with God who is El Shaddai. The one who is more than enough. Hallelujah. So they were astonished, who can be saved. But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but with God, but not with God; for with God all things are possible” (Mark 10:27 NKJV.) You know what He’s saying? He says it’s possible for you to be a rich man and have the kingdom of God, if you’re in Christ Jesus. If you’re in Christ Jesus, if Jesus in you, it is possible for you to both have wealth and be in the kingdom. Come on, this should be liberating to you.
Then Peter began to say to Him, “See we have left all and followed You. So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospels, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time” (Mark 10:30 NKJV). What’s God doing? Is He not redeeming time? Didn’t the disciples say we have forsaken everything that human productivity time can do? And Jesus says, “You come and give it to me and I will redeem it hundredfold in this time. Because your measure of your life is in this time. I will redeem it, in this time. Hundredfold, I won’t just give you back what you just gave up. I will give you back a hundredfold what you gave up to follow Me. Hundredfold now, in this time. Houses, and brothers and sisters, and mothers and children and lands. He’s not just talking about money, He’s talking about money and relationships. Money and relationships.
I want to tell you all these young people that are MiXchanges that have walked away from the system that has promised so much, that has got so much potential, they were just trying to take and steal your time. Let me tell you, the world system is hungry for talented, smart, hardworking people that have potential. Give us your time, and we promise you, we will give you something back. Well, what are you going to give back? Just enough money to say you’re successful. But we’re going to suck all your potential, all of your energy, we’re going to just give it into the system, we will swallow it into the system. These guys, they’ve got an advantage way beyond their years, because they are redeeming time before they even get to that place. God is already blessing them and creating their future for them, because they’ve given their whole future to Him. And for the parents that have allowed their children, you partake in that. Even if you don’t see it yet, keep speaking it. Keep speaking it. God is redeeming my lost time through my children who are going with God’s time. He’s going to redeem my time. Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
Oh man, and He says, “Houses, brothers and sisters and mothers and children that is with persecutions”. You know, those persecutions can sometimes make you feel like nothing’s going on here. But if you, if you are persecuted, for this reason, you better know that a hundredfold is coming. Because the persecution comes with the blessing.
31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first” (Mark 10:31 NKJV). God is saying what happens in the kingdom is a completely different order of what happens in the world. Ha, this is so important. Come on, come on. Come on. Come on. These young people, everybody in the world that’s talking about these young people say, “They are wasting their potential. They’re wasting their time. Because they should be studying. They should be doing something else with their time, with their energy, with their potential”. So what are they doing? They’re measuring what the world system has got in darkness. They are measuring that and they are saying “The dark system has all the answers. The church is just stealing our young people.” Who’s stealing the young people? Yeah, let me tell you something, the world has no other way, but to steal, to kill and to destroy, because God is not their Master. The devil is their master.
God is not telling the people that trans-whatever you want to identify with, you can do with whatever you want to identify with, however, and by the way, you got to speak this and you got to affirm people’s identity gender with whatever they want you to call them. That’s not God. That’s not God taking our children. That’s the devil taking our children. And he wants them to go into all the institutions that will affirm all of the destruction that the devil wants to steal. “So but you know, Pastor John, my kids they are okay. They’re not going to go there because we’re good parents.” Yeah, I suppose that argument, that argument is a God argument? I suppose that’s God giving you the answer? No, if you answer like that, that’s the institution that’s already infected you so much that you want to answer with that answer so that you can go to the institution. You reveal what’s in your heart by the way that you ask the question. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus.
I have to finish with this, Joel, chapter two, verse 23 because we have preached about this already. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I’m telling you, when God raised us up as a ministry to stand for Him, He said, “Yes, I’ve got someone who’s going to save My children, and My children’s children and their children. I’ve got someone who’s going to stand for the Word of God. He’s going to be unashamed to stand and say, we are going to stand for God on this matter. We are not going to bow to the world. We are not going to bow to some kind of government or some kind of peer pressure.” Hallelujah.
Because, God has declared, 23 Be glad then, you children of Zion, And rejoice in the Lord your God; For He has given you the former rain faithfully, And He will cause the rain to come down for you — The former rain, And the latter rain in the first month. We are in that month. We are there right now. The former and the latter rain to us His children. Look what He says, 24 The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, And the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil. It’s everything you need, all the anointing, all the wisdom, all of the nourishment, all of the productivity. Empty hours are converted into productive hours. 25 “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, The crawling locust, The consuming locust, And the chewing locust. My great army which I sent among you. 26 You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, And praise the name of the Lord your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you.
He is busy living with us wondrously. And our threshing floor is going to be full of wheat – it is already. New wine, new oil, everything we need we have it now. 26 You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, And praise the name of the Lord your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you; And My people shall never be put to shame (Joel 2:23-26 NKJV). You want to talk about a young people that people think they’re going to be able to shame them? No, no. These young people have got the answers to life. They got the answers to life. They got the answers to life. Hallelujah. And all of the young people sitting everywhere else in the congregation, they’ve got answers, you got the answers to life. And there’s a younger generation that God’s giving us wisdom on how to start a community centre to help educate young people, so they are even going to redeem time quicker than these have redeemed because many of these were institutionalised and God plucked them out of the institution and redeemed them. And all of the empty hours, God has already redeemed their empty hours. He’s already called them, He’s already bringing them into a whole new walk with Him. But Pastor John, you know, that’s not the way the world sees it. I know, they live in darkness. They don’t know what they’re talking about.
27 …I am the Lord your God And there is no other. My people shall never be put to shame. “And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions. 29 And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. 30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke (Joel 2:27-30 NKJV). Many, many people in the Church, they want to say, “Hey, let’s see some fire and some pillars of smoke and let’s see the wondrous signs of God.” They’re sitting amongst us. Our young men and women are dreaming. They’re prophesying. They’re seeing visions. They’re walking with God. Your threshing floor is full of wheat. Your vats are full of wine and oil. Why do you want to see thunder and pillars of smoke?
That’s God’s time. That’s His business. The rest of what God’s doing, empty hours, He’s filling it, He’s filling it, He’s filling it, He’s filling it, He’s filling it, He’s filling it with His Spirit. I will pour out my Spirit. His Spirit is upon you. His spirit is upon you. His spirit is upon you, His Spirit is in you and His Spirit is upon you. His Spirit is in you and His Spirit is upon you.
Agh! Glory to Jesus! Yes! Hallelujah! [Pastor John and the congregation shout and rejoice.]
[Lights in the auditorium go off.] We don’t shout the lights out. Glory to God, those people that are sitting, please stand. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus.
Whoo! I’m telling you, you know, when the Lord said, have a conference – Money With A Mission, and I said to you, I’m going to talk about capacity, capability, I’m going to talk to you about empty words, and remember I said to you, you think you know what I’m going to talk about? But you know what, God has had His say. God has had His say. This whole weekend with the interviews that we did, with Eric and Nikki, with the words that God has spoken through this vessel. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. We’re heading to a whole new level of productivity. You can trust this, that God’s not going to… if you will speak His word, there will be no empty hours in your life. No empty hours in your life. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Eish, someone switch the lights on. Hallelujah.
Come on, put your hand on your heart like this. Make this declaration with me. I am a son of God. Jesus is my Lord. I trust Him. I give my life to Him. I give my energy to Him. I give my words to Him and He returns them back to me, pressed down, shaken together, running over. He blesses my life, the maximum, the highest level attainable. We’re stepping up and stepping into all that God has for us. In Jesus’ Name. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. You’re going to have message moments like you’ve never had before this afternoon. I just know God is, after all the Word that has been spoken this weekend, I mean, there’s fire here, there’s an anointing here. The Holy Spirit is here, He’s in us and upon us. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus.
So if you guys from Jo’burg thought you were going home, you really want to miss this anointing? Okay. I pray that whatever your needs are that you have to do, I pray that you are blessed. You’re blessed going out. You’re blessed going into your house. The Word of God is overshadowing you. He’s protecting you. No weapon formed against you will prosper. You are protected by His Word and the blood of Jesus and great peace comes upon you. I want to say to you I never prayed this prayer without faith. When I pray this prayer, I’m praying it that faith that the Word and the blood of Jesus is covering you, that His angels are sent to protect you and no weapon formed against you will prosper in Jesus’ name, in Jesus’ name. And you will have a 100-fold on everything that you give to God in this lifetime in Jesus’ name. So I need to take up an offering. Yes. Hallelujah. So you must sit for a minute please. I nearly got distracted with the lights. Thank you. Thank you. Hallelujah. Ek het myself nou moeg gepreek. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus.
I know that there are some of you that will transfer money via EFT when you get home, if you don’t have cash on you, I just want to pray over your seed right now. I just want to pray over your seed, if you’ve got money in your hands, take it in your hand, if you don’t have money, that’s okay I understand if you’re going to do an EFT, just hold up your hand anyway, just hold up your hand like this so that I know that it’s just a sign that we are in agreement together and we agree in Jesus’ Name, that the seed that you’re going to sow today, that this revelation of this whole weekend will be foundational in your life. It will be something that you always turn to as the most basic truth in your life, that you will trust Jesus with your words, you will trust Him with your life, you will trust Him with your seed, and you will trust Him with everything that you’ve got, and He will answer you with blessings, He will answer you as a covenant God would. He will answer you with all the things that you have need of and then some. Do you all agree with this prayer in Jesus’ Name. As you sow your seed, you receive the fullness of revelation in Jesus’ name, amen. Let’s take up an offering please guys. Hallelujah. Glory to God.
I am certain of this that if you will give your life to God with words and you trust in the words that God fills your mouth to speak, He will redeem things in your life that you may look back on your life and you might say, “I wasted time then. I didn’t give myself fully to God then. I allowed devastation to creep into my life in that situation,” and you might have things that you can look back on and say, “I could’ve done better.”
I am telling you now, by the Spirit of God and by the truth of the Word of God, He will redeem the time and He will give back to you all the things that the locusts have tried to steal out of your life all those years. Do not allow time to lie to you. Do not allow behaviour patterns to lie to you. Do not even look back on your past and say, “Huh, I’m not sure that anything can be redeemed from that.” Just say, “Lord, You redeem everything that You’ve designed for my life. I receive it now.” I receive it. I receive it. I receive it. I receive it. I receive it, in Jesus’ name. I receive it, in Jesus’ name. I receive it, in Jesus’ name. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus.
You know, yesterday I wanted to hug Pastor Lynn and him and I just had a wonderful brother-love moment, here in the church. But, you know, Pastor Lynn gave his life to the ministry. The church that he was in and serving in at that time did not look after him financially well enough that when he got to this age in his life that he would have an abundance. But his own walk with God put him in a place where God guided him to me. Now, I’m using this on purpose, Pastor Lynn, because he spent so many years of his ‘young energy’ in that ministry that he could have taken a view that said I cannot redeem the time.
When he came into the ministry with me, he said, “I’ve only got so many years and then I must retire.” I said, “No, Pastor Lynn, in this ministry there is no retirement. Those words don’t exist because the older you get, the more value you are to the Kingdom. I’m not paying for you based on how much energy you get into this ministry. I’m paying for you for the wisdom of God that is in you, your whole walk with God, what you stand for as an elder in the church, all of the stuff that you bring, that’s what we partner with, that’s what we covenant with.”
So, every time he said, “I’m going to retire,” “Hmm, no, I don’t want those words,” and he hasn’t spoken it, to his credit, for at least ten years and now he’s changed his tune, he says, “I’m not retiring.” And I’m happy for it. Why should he retire? He’s an elder in the church, he’s a spiritual man that helps us and leads us and guides us as a whole ministry. Hallelujah. I’m just trying to tell you that even though he joined me when he was – how old were you, 55 or something, Lynn? 60. He joined our ministry at 60 and God said, “All those years that you’ve given, I’m restoring it. I’m redeeming it. I’m restoring it. And you will never go without because you put your trust in Me.” And now, he’s 78 years old and we’re not stopping him.
Pastor Lynn and I have got something going in case something happens to his health because he knows that I will take care of him beyond his life on the earth. There’s a living document signed by him to me that we have an agreement that if anything happens to him, we take care of his family forever. We have a signed agreement. We have words. But we have a signed agreement that are based on our words.
I’m just trying to say to you; if you think that you can get to 60 and you say, “My life is over,” I just want to tell you that in God, He can restore your whole future. And he (Pastor Lynn) will tell you, this is not, I’m not talking about me, I’m talking about him now, he will tell you that his best years of his life started at 60 because God brought him into a people that appreciated him, that honour him, that respect him, that receive all of his gifts and his callings. His life started at 60. Don’t think that if you give your life to God that He hasn’t got a plan for you. [Pastor Lynn: The most enriching times] Yes. The most enriching time. It’s a good word that you used – a most enriching time.
There’s a whole bunch of you. I’m looking out at you, I see your faces, I want to tell you that you’re heading into your most productive years. You’re heading into the things that, now you’re coming into alignment with God, it’s here for you. It’s here for you. Hallelujah. I know, Renier, the devil tried to steal your life. Let me tell you, your productive years are ahead of you, they’re ahead of you. What the enemy tried to kill you in death, God is going to restore you in life with Heleen and with all of your children. With you, too, Conrad, the devil tried to steal your life. God’s going to restore you. You and Lorraine and all of your kids. They’re all in church this morning, I know, praise Jesus! They’re on assignment. They’re in the right place. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I know this, Paul, you know this, I know this, we know this, this is the time. Hey, Jacinta? Yes. This is the time. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Glory to God. Whoo!
How am I going to close this meeting? I don’t know if I can. You’d better just go home. Bye. Cheers. I love you. I love you. Bye. I’ve already prayed for you. Go!
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