Scripture reference: Hebrews 11:1 (NLT), (MSG), (TPT), (WNT), (YLT); Ephesians 2:1-9 (NKJV); Ephesians 3:8-12 (NKJV); Ephesians 3:14-21 (NKJV); Matthew 14:12-15 (NKJV); Matthew 14:18-21 (NKJV)
I declare, as the music is playing, I declare that the Lord gives His angels charge over you. As we were singing, no weapon formed against you will prosper. He walks with you, He lives with you, He goes wherever you go and whenever danger will try and come near you, He is putting His angels between danger and you. He gives His angels charge over you. Hallelujah. No weapon formed against you will prosper. They will be formed but they’re not going to prosper. He will shield you from the success of weapons that are sent to take you out, destroy you and wipe you out, in every area of your life, He gives His angels charge over you. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
I declare that the Word of God and the blood of Jesus is surrounding you, it’s surrounding you, it’s taking care of you. It’s making a mark in the heavenlies and in the spirit realm that you are God’s people, you are God’s people, you are His children, you are the ones that are protected and guarded and kept safe by Him, by His Holy Spirit, by the Word of God, by His angels, by His blood that was shed, we are a special people, we are His people, we are His people, we are His people. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. We are His people. Hallelujah. There is none like us, we are His people, born with His blood, born with His blood. Hallelujah. Praise You, Jesus. Praise You, Jesus. Glory to God.
When the gifts of musicians are playing like this and the anointing of God is here, does it not do something to the desire inside of you? Do you not have a desire to want to worship and to praise and to raise hands? Do you not have a desire when you came in here, the desire was weaker? Because your head was filled with other things, but then when you’re in the presence of God, your desire grows. Doesn’t it? Your desire grows and grows and it gets stronger to put the things that wrestle in your mind, to put those things behind you and to go into and give expression to desire. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Glory to God, Glory to Jesus, Glory to Jesus. Just thirty seconds more, raise your hands and just praise Him. Praise You, Jesus. Praise You, Jesus. Praise You Jesus. We love You, Lord. We love You, Lord. Ah, we thank You that You put Your desire in us to worship You. Your desire to praise You. Your desire becomes our desire and flows into every area of our lives, Lord. Praise You, Jesus. Praise You, Lord. Glory to the Most High God, the Mighty One. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Well, before you sit down, just greet someone and tell them, “I’m glad you’re in church today, and I’m glad I’m in church today.” Then, you may be seated. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
Around the world today there are many reasons why people are in church or they’re not in church, many reasons. Almost all of it can be boiled down to design and desire and so the title of my message is, Intentional Celebration of Design and Desire. Hallelujah. Our faith is substance because we believe, we believe that He is. We believe that He is. I believe that He is, don’t you? I believe that He is. I believe that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. So, I believe that if I seek Him, I will be rewarded, yes? Everything I’m telling you is in the Bible. So, if I seek Him because I believe Him and I’m seeking Him because I believe Him, He rewards my seeking, doesn’t He? Yes, praise the Lord. Hallelujah.
So, Jesus is revealed by His faithfulness. Who He is and how He makes all things into who He is. So, if you want to use the word faithful then it means full of faith. So, Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit are full of faith. They didn’t manufacture faith, they are faith. They are faith, because they turn what their desire is into evidence. They turn what their desire is into evidence. When the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit said, “Let Us make man in Our image,” that wasn’t just a desire and a casual chat and a conversation. They turned Their desire of Their conversation into evidence.
So, that is a really wonderful way of talking about faith, that Jesus is revealed in what He desires becoming evidence. So when that thing becomes evidence of what He’s desired then it reveals Him completely. Doesn’t it? So, I’ll get into it. I don’t want to get ahead of myself in the message this morning, but the fact that you and I sit here is evidence of what He desired. So, He desired us, so He talked about us and then His talk became us. That’s faith. So, if you want to have desire then you’ve got to connect desire with what He wants, when you have desire with what He wants and what He wants becomes your desire then you speak and it becomes evident. That’s faith.
So, I’m going to read to you, Hebrews 11 verse 1. We’ve been reading it for a couple of weeks now. The New Living Translation says this, 1 Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see. (Hebrews 11:1 NLT) So, if you’re hoping for something, it means you desire something. Right? I mean, hope is desire in a different way. Hope is desire. I expect to have an outcome, so I have a desire. That’s what hope is. So, faith shows the reality of what we desire or what we hope for; it is the evidence of things that we can’t yet see while we are desiring it, but while we are desiring it, it remains just a desire until it becomes evident.
The thing about faith is that when you desire it, you already believe that it is the same as though the desire is fulfilled. You live with the desire fulfilled. You live with the hope fulfilled. You behave like it, you talk like it, you live life as though the desire is fulfilled.
Another version of this scripture says, 1 The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. (Hebrews 11:1 MSG) Why? Because your life is an expression of His desire. Come on. The very life that we live is an expression of His desire. We are here because He desired it. Now, there’s lots of people living on the earth and they are all an expression of His desire – the fact that they are born and live on the earth, that’s an expression of His desire, that men will be on the earth. But, His greatest expression of His desire is that those men will worship Him and recognise Him as the Most High God. And not everybody makes their desire equal to His desire – they don’t worship Him. The act of faith… Sorry, I’m going to just finish this, It’s our handle on what we can’t see. (Hebrews 11:1 MSG)
The Passion Translation says it like this, 1 Now faith brings our hopes into reality and becomes the foundation needed to acquire the things we long for. Long for – desire for. It is all the evidence required to prove what is still unseen. (Hebrews 11:1 TPT) So, yet I can’t see it, but I hope for it, I desire it, I long for it, and so I’m going to speak it and trust in God that He is going to make it happen because my desire is for Him to be whatever He wants to have on the earth. So, therefore, my desire becomes equal to His desire, so I speak it. I know that it’s going to happen because it happened for Him. And none of what He desired or spoke, none of what He desired or spoke has not been fulfilled. Some of it is still yet to be fulfilled because He spoke from before the foundation of the earth that there will be an end to all these things that are happening on the earth and that Jesus will be the Head of all things. There will be a time when Jesus is the Leader, the Head, the King of kings. Everything will be under His feet in this natural earth.
The Wycliffe Translation says it this way, 1 Now faith is a well-grounded assurance of that for which we hope, and a conviction of the reality of things which we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1 WNT) It’s a conviction. The Young’s Literal Translation which translates it literally from the Greek or Hebrew says it this way, 1 And faith is of things hoped for a confidence, of matters not seen a conviction. (Hebrews 11:1 YLT) So, it’s a confidence that you have of matters not seen. But it’s a conviction that it is going to be seen. Amen.
So today I’m going to talk a little bit to you about desire and how things that in our world have the capability, we are privileged to be positioned that things in our world can change to look like Heaven on earth. Jesus Himself said that when we were to pray, He said, “Pray this way, Our Father which is in Heaven, hallowed be Your name. Thy Kingdom comes on earth as it is in Heaven.” Yes? He was praying, “Let Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” Therefore God never intended for Him to be separated from the things that go on in the earth. He always intended that He would be part of everything happening on the earth. In fact, everything that happens on the earth would glorify Him. In the process of Him being glorified His glory would be present on the earth.
So when we come and we have a time in Sound and Song like we did this morning the desire for you to want to worship Him and praise Him gets stronger and stronger because what you do is as you’re praising Him, you’re saying, “I’m recognising You and I’m worshiping You and I’m giving You glory, my desire for You increases.” As our desire for Him increases He makes more of His presence available to us because our desire is pulling on His presence. The more His presence is amongst us the more our desire increases. Hallelujah.
So just bear with me if I read this passage of scripture for you from Ephesians. It will give you wonderful context for the rest of my message today. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1, 1 And you He made alive, but you were living, no but He made you alive in Spirit, who were dead in trespasses and in sins. In other words your life was not in any way considerate of what His desire was, you just lived as you wished. 2 In which you once walked according to the course of this world, in everything that this world had to offer that’s how you lived. 2 …according to the prince of the power of the air, in other words, there is a legitimate presence in the air, the prince of the power of the air and he is influencing human behaviour, he is allowed to do that, Adam gave him permission to influence the behaviour of men. Can you tell me what his main job is? Create a desire in you that is not a desire for God.
Desire is something that you will have because God made us with desire. We should not look at desire that we have and say, “This is an ungodly emotion.” Desire is a pure God emotion. But if you are able to channel it to something else then that desire becomes something that’s not worshiping God but it’s a self desire. It’s meant to gratify self. That’s what the prince of the power of the air is trying to do all the time, “Don’t give your desire to God give it to something else.” So you lived, 2 walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.
So if you look around you in the world, that spirit creating desire for other things is currently at work in the world. Yeah. 3 Among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of the flesh. What is the lust of the flesh? It’s the desire expressed through your body, whatever desire I choose to have, whatever desire I give myself to, I express it through my natural world. Through my body, through my intellect, through my words, I express my desire to what I want. Hey? That’s called the lust of the flesh. 3 …fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath just as the others. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us. Can I say it like this, because of His great desire for us, He so desired us because He had such a great desire for us, to have fellowship with Him. 5 Even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved.) (Ephesians 2:1-5 NKJV)
So He made Himself available that the desires that consume you as a non-born again Christian, that He says, “I’m not going to judge you according to your desire. I’m going to judge all of humanity’s desires in Jesus. Now all you have to do is believe Him and when you believe Him your desire changes.” So the church has got it so wrong for so long that we wanted to try to manage and teach against people’s desire. You can’t teach against desire through a message that demands conformity. Like I said last week, religion is just acting Christianity. So what they did was they tried to control or dominate people’s behaviour, control their desires and therefore, it kind of, put a whole different way for people to see passion and desire and so they would think living in the real world is where passion and desire is when I come to church, I’ve got to control all of that and so I don’t like to have no passion and desire. I like to walk in desire. I like passion. Well God made you to have it. It’s what you give your desire to. It’s what you have passion for. This is good teaching today.
So, 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the Heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-6 NKJV) I’ve got news for you. When you got born again and you gave your life to Jesus, you automatically with an inheritance, positionally, you are seated with Christ in the Heavenly realm next to the Father. You are positioned there. It’s your inheritance. When you die that’s where you go but you don’t just go there when you die, you are there now because you are in Christ now and Christ is there so that’s where you are, in Christ now. Hallelujah.
Why are we now seated with Christ and then someday we will all leave our natural bodies and go and be seated with Him there? 7 That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. He’s going to show the expression of His desire because He gave us grace to receive Him in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; because you can’t have faith in God because you think you need faith. You have faith because he gave you faith to believe in Him. Without faith being given to you you can’t believe in Him. You first choose to believe in Him and then He gives you the faith to receive Him. That’s why the Bible says, 8 ….not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. (Ephesians 2:7-9 NKJV). So you can’t decide I’m going to work at grace and I’m going to work at having faith so that I can be saved. That’s the definition of religion. It’s based on what you work at, it’s not based on what you receive as a gift. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
So, we understand, right? Today we understand that there’s the spirit realm that’s out there. It’s the prince of the power of the air, he has the right to operate in the space where humanity lives. His operation is purely focused on every human creature’s desire. Because if he can get you to desire your own thing for your own self, whatever you want when you want it, and how you want it, if he can get you to focus on yourself, then your desire for yourself grows. The more you do for yourself, what you want to do for yourself, your desire for your self-fulfillment grows. But it’s a never-ending pit because it actually can never satisfy you. Why? Well because God is the designer, and he designed your desire for Him not for yourself. Desire for yourself is a perverted design. Hey.
I’ve got another scripture in Ephesians that I need to read just to get through the biblical foundation of what I’m saying this morning. Ephesians 3 verse 8 to 12. 8 To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to make all see, and to make all see. How are you going to see? Through preaching. Right? Those Gentiles who had no opportunity to even have something preached to them, Paul was called to go and tell them about this marvelous grace gift that they could get by believing in Jesus. So he’s saying, “I was called to do this, this is a marvelous thing.” 9 To make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God Who created all things through Christ Jesus. Can you see He created all things through Christ Jesus? Why? To fulfill His desire. 10 To the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church. Who’s the church? Us, those who desire His will on the earth, that’s the church. It’s not the people who go to church. It’s the people who desire Him and desire His will on the earth, that’s the church. 10 To the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the Heavenly places, 11 according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him. (Ephesians 3:8-12 NKJV)
Can you see that our job is to show off Jesus to principalities and powers in the Heavenly places? Can you see our job is to show off, show Jesus off? We are to be show-offs. Right? We are to be show-offs. How do you show off Jesus to the principalities and powers? You show Him off, you show Him up, you show Him off by expressing your desire. You say, “Hey, I’m not going to desire what you’re telling me to desire, what I must follow with my body, what I must follow with my natural everything.” So, everything that I would desire in the natural, how does that show off God? So, come on now, the fact that I can go and buy the next new hottest best car, motorbike, overseas trip whatever it is I want to do. You think that brings glory to God because I can do that? It doesn’t express a different desire to anybody else that can do that. It just shows desire. Right?
So, what is it that shows my desire? Well, what shows my desire is when I speak praise, thanksgiving, worship, gratitude for what He’s given to me. Now I’m showing Him off, that makes me a big show off. Because I’m showing Him off, because I’m showing my desire through my words. So, when the world’s circumstances, the world out there is wanting to demand that I follow the desires that they give me. Come on now. That the world is demanding that I follow the desires that they give me and I say, “No, I’m going to find out what He wants.” Then I’m going to speak what He wants and as I speak what He wants and I meditate on what He wants, and what I give myself time to find out what He wants My life becomes full of words of what He wants. My words are an expression of my desire.
You know, if you’re in sales and I don’t know what modern-day sales techniques are but certainly sales training programs that were in the past they would lead you to lots of mini closures before you have to get to the big closure. “Do you agree that this is a good product?” “Yes.” “Do you agree that this is one of the top products?” “Yes.” “Do you agree that this product can meet your needs?” “Yes.” “Do you think this is a good, well-priced product?” “Yes.” You get them to say, “Yes, yes, yes, yes.” Until they say, “Okay, will you sign on the dotted line please?” Then that’s the deal closing, that’s the big yes. Well, you think the devil is any different? He gets you to say yes to one thing, yes to another thing, yes to another thing, yes to another thing. All the while it’s just little desires that you’re giving yourself to. Just little desires, they don’t seem big desires in the big picture, they’re just little desires. Until one day he wants the big desire and he wants to close you on it. The big desire is, “Hey listen, I’ve got everything you need, it’s in my system. Don’t give God any credit. Follow my system for the rest of your life and I’ll look after you.” Isn’t that what he tempted Jesus with as one of the big temptations? “Your whole purpose for coming to the earth, let me show it to you. All the kingdoms of the earth is in my power to give to you. So if you just bow down and worship me, I’ll give you the kingdoms of the earth.”
The very design, the very intent, the very passion and the desire of what God had placed Jesus on the earth for, the devil gave Him alternative for His desire. Then His response was, “No, no, no, I don’t live by what you say, I live by what God says.” So the other way around works as well. If you try and give all of your life to the desire of God in one go, you can’t do that because you’ve filled your life with lots of other desires.
So, how do you reverse that giving desire process? You start with little decisions. I’m going to speak some words about this. When my son, Brynn, was in a bad place, many years ago, he was in a bad place with God, he was in a bad place in his life. Him and I had a conversation and then the Lord put it in his heart, and he said, “I’ll just go to church every Sunday. I’ll make sure I’m at church every Sunday.” That was the only thing that he could commit to as a part of his desire. He didn’t even properly have a desire for it because of all the bad behaviour he was part of at that time. But he said, “At least I’ll give myself the opportunity to have the desire by going to church every Sunday.” That was already God’s desire working in him to do that. Hallelujah. It’s how God rescued him. Just giving into one desire.
So you’ve got to start somewhere and you say, “Hey I’m going to go to church and when I’m at church I’m going to give myself to singing the songs, even though I want to keep my mouth shut.” Why? Because as you sing the songs you sing words that create desire. So, even if that’s just where you start you’ve got to start somewhere.
So, Ephesians chapter 3 verse 14, 14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that’s us 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, What’s he talking about? That you would be strengthened by His desire in your inner man. That His desire would be so much your desire, that the desire of Him and the desire that you have is the same. Then you have the strength to say no to other desires, because you are strengthened with His love, His desire, His power, His words in you. 17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. (Ephesians 3:14-19 NKJV)
You see desire has no reason. You watch young people that fall in love and ask them if reason has got anything to do what they do. They just can’t, they want to spend every time, every minute of the day together. Don’t look at me squiff. You know it’s like when that person comes into your world it’s like everything is just about that person. What are we talking about? Desire. You think about, you talk about, you focus on, you have a great intention, it’s like everything about that person fills you with joy. What are you doing? You’re giving thoughts to, you’re giving conversation to, you’re giving time to, you’re giving energy to, you’re making that person completely full of your world.
Well, that’s the same with Jesus. If you give Jesus time, attention, words, energy then He fills you and then His desire gets much stronger to have more of Him and the more you have of Him, the more you want of Him. If you fill your world with other things that you desire, that’s not God, then guess what your world is going to be full of? Those things. You’re going to be thinking about it, you’re going to be talking about it, you’re going to be putting energy to it, it’s going to become the focus of your attention. Everything. So, the more you do it, the more you want to do that. Which is why people don’t understand, how does someone become a paedophile, or how does someone become a sex addict or something like that? Well, it works the same principle when you ignite a desire and you keep talking about it and you keep thinking about it. This is why pornography is such a devastating thing, because it gives you the reward of intimacy without intimacy. It bypasses the whole intimacy thing and just gives you pleasure for desire, but the desire that God wants us to have is for Him.
You see, if I can use this as an example, pornography and sex addiction is an alternative desire that is based on what you give your mind to, what you give your thoughts to, your words to, your actions to those things become the focus of your attention. The more you give yourself to that, the more you want to give yourself to that. Which is why pornography breaks intimacy. Because it breaks intimacy because you don’t want to be intimate where you don’t have to be intimate to get pleasure.
So, the whole world system is geared to say, “Come let me give you pleasure, follow your desire, let me give you pleasure and you don’t have to be intimate with God to get anything. “I’ll give you money, I’ll give you power, I’ll give you status, I’ll give you any one of the desires that you want to be fulfilled in and I’ll give you alcohol to do it, I’ll give you drugs to do it, I’ll give you anything you want. You can have all of it and you don’t need intimacy. You just need a fulfilment of your desire.” What is that? That’s perverted desire. That’s the same desire that God gave every human being to worship Him and want Him and to live in fulfilment of intimacy with Him which is where you get your fulfilment from, is your intimacy with Him.
So, when you follow Him, you get full of Him and when you are full of Him, then you are fulfilled. But if you are filled with other things, you can never be fulfilled because that thing doesn’t fill the thing that God designed you to be. He designed you to be full of Him. Every human being. That’s why it doesn’t matter to people in the world how much money they have, how much power they have, how much anything they have. They want more. Because they always think the more is where they get the fulfilment. It’s always out of reach. It’s just never there so they push for more because the more is where I’m going to be satisfied. It never happens.
So, when you see the really rich guys and you start to question yourself and you say, “Well why do they want to interfere with elections? Why do they want to try and control governments? World Economic Forum? Why do these guys that have so much money want to meet once a year and kind of, have conversations about the future?” Because it’s not enough for them – their wealth. They think they came to control human behaviour to satisfy their desires of what they think either world’s outcome should be. News for you, they can never be fulfilled. They will end up destroying humanity because of their lack of fulfilment. Because God created us to be fulfilled only in Him. When we are full of Him then we are fulfilled. There is no other way of being fully filled. So, you will always be hungry. Always. You will always have grief. You will always have sorrow.
So, the devil recognises that. He can’t stop the grief and the sorrow, because God proclaimed it in the Garden of Eden, “He’s going to bruise your head.” Forever. He can never win this. But so what he tries to do is he tries to delay the consequences of your desire. “Just spend more money on the credit card, don’t worry about it, it’ll make you feel good for now.” “Yeah, did you feel, I’ve bought that thing, I feel good. I feel so much better now.” You are gratified but not fulfilled. Until sometime down the track you have to pay all the credit card bills. Now the consequences have been delayed, delayed, delayed and all the while you feel gratified, gratified, gratified. Consequence time, judgement time. So in life, the medical system, the government system, what do you think the whole push for socialism is? The whole push for socialism is: “Let every man live according to what the government says is right for him and not for him and we’ll make sure that you’re taken care of medically, educationally and every other way. Just don’t worry about it, we are going to delay the consequence. We are going to delay judgement so that we can have a social order that will give us all peace.” It can’t, it’s not possible because it’s not God at the centre of it. Hey, come on, you’ve got a pastor that likes to speak the truth and I’m not afraid of hitting big subjects on the head. Hallelujah, never have been, never will be. A lot of people don’t like it. What must I do about that? I’ve got to do still what God tells me to do. Praise the Lord.
So, now if you’ve got all of this in context, properly positioned. 20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, He can do abundantly above all that we can ask or think according to the power that works in us. What’s that power? Let’s call it desire. For what? For Him. He can do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think according to His desire that flows through us for Him. You know, people want to use this to say, “Well I can just think about it and ask it and then I can have it.” No, it’s according to the power that works in you. It’s the power of God, it’s not the power of imagination. Although God has given us imagination by design. I’ll get to that in a little while. If I don’t get to it today, I’ll get to it next week. So, exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask or think, according to the power that works in us. 21 To Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21 NKJV) You know, let me tell you what the devil, what’s happening here in Heritage of Faith, the devil fears this the most because we are giving ourselves to God’s desire that is creating a younger generation to give themselves to God’s desire and so we are giving glory to generations. It’s a fulfilment of this word and it is currently speaking to the principalities and powers in the heavenlies and it is working. That’s why he can’t stand it. Hallelujah.
So, faith is the substance. It’s substance because we believe in Him, we believe He is, right? Faith is because we seek Him and faith is because we recognise He rewards us for seeking Him. Hey, work with me now. My faith can work. Because of the principle, my faith can work for job promotions, it can work for lots of things. Because the principle of imagining, desiring, speaking is all what Christian science believes in. Christian science and faith are so close that you can’t almost tell the difference. So, you think the world hasn’t learned about positive affirmation and positive speaking and rewarding? You think the world doesn’t know about this stuff? There’s lots of benefit in following what God designed us to follow.
So, but faith, from a Biblical point of view, is cooperation with the rules and the ways of Heaven. So, even though the unseen world is what we believe in. The unseen world is what we believe in, because we believe He is. Because we seek Him, we seek the rules that govern life. We seek ways of how life is expressed in us. So, we live this way, we want to live this way and it reveals faith. Therefore, blessing and favour is the delivery truck from the unseen world to our world in our daily lives.
So, I mean, nowadays, you know, with the world wide web and the internet and all that kind of stuff, we have a very good way of showing the example of faith. I’m not trying to make faith the same as the world wide web, but I am trying to show you using modern technology how faith works. If you get onto your computer and you go and look at a particular website and you see, “Oh, I like these jeans or I like this shirt or I like this set of clothes.” You haven’t put it on yet, you don’t really know how well it’s going to fit you, but the more you look at it, the more you desire it. The more you desire it, the more your desire starts to be part of your meditation. If you don’t speak it, you go from meditation to action, because that’s how world wide web can work anyway. You can just think about it long enough sitting at your computer and then you can buy it without telling anybody else, but you are creating a future problem for yourself. Because now you don’t even have to speak it, you just cut that part out. You just go straight from thinking to acting, thinking to acting, thinking to acting. The more you train yourself to think, to act without putting words to it, the more you are going to be challenged to make proper decisions in the future because you are not talking about it. You just want to skip the act of talking.
Pastor Sharon and I, we have an agreement. If there is something that we want to do, something that we like that is remote purchase, we talk about it. We always talk about it, we don’t just act on it, always we talk about it. Why? Because it’s making God’s process, the way that Heaven works, is the way that we work. Where do you get that from? Well, God had a desire to make man, so then they said, “Let us make man,” and then the thought and the desire went to talk, and then went to actions. Hallelujah.
But here’s the thing. You look at this thing on the internet, they tell you, “Put it in a cart, then you want these items?” “Yes.” “Now this is how you pay for it.” Then you go and you pay for it, and they say, “Your goods will be delivered in three to five working days or seven or two weeks,” or whatever the kind of products you buy, “and it will come to this address.” You’ve just activated desire and faith because you don’t know that it’s coming, but you believe in hope and desire that it will come. It is founded on what? A belief system that other people have spoken to you about that has been created through other people that have done that thing. They’ve received their product, you say, “There’s substance to this thing.” Even though none of it is substance until it arrives and then it becomes substance. But you’re living as though that thing that you ordered is already in your house. That’s faith.
You desire something, you order it from God. It’s not like that but I’m just giving you an example of how it works. You order it from God, you say, “God I receive it into the natural. My delivery address is this.” You say, “Now I’ve paid for it with faith, with intimacy with You, desire for what you want and I know you want me to have this because my desire is in line with Your desire. I thank You for the delivery.” Now I live as though the delivery’s happened. I don’t have to talk about it, “If it’s God’s will. If maybe one day it’s going to come. If I think…” No, you talk like it’s happened because you know the process has happened.
People want the outcome of faith without doing the process of faith. Well, what’s the process of faith? Where’s your desire fixed on? What do you put your desire on? So that’s why people, who are not living in the desires of God, but they live in their own desires, they say, “You know what, this faith thing, I can do this thing. I can do it through discipline. I can read the Bible. I can meditate on it and I can speak it. Then I’m going to say it’s got to come.” Then they don’t get it and they say, “That thing, it doesn’t work.” But their desire is not truly in what God wants, their desire is in the reward but they’re not prepared to seek Him. They just want the reward of Him. They don’t want to seek Him. Eish. Neh? Ja, neh? Hallelujah.
God has created us with capacity for imagination, for dreams, for visions, for desires. It is a sacred gift that God has created, has given to man, and He has created in us to look and be like God above all other created beings. The thing that separates us from other creatures is that we can dream, we can imagine, we can have desires. Other creatures just have instincts. We have desires because our desires are based on dreams, visions and imaginations. Right?
So, God has given us these things. These are part of our lives. This is part of the design. The anti-god spirit works to kill that God-given gift and works to conform us into the image of one another, rather than in the image of God. The anti-god spirit says, “That desire I’m going to twist it, so that you desire to be like each other rather than be like God.” So we spend our lives doing what each other does, rather than doing what He wants us to do. In a modern-day world, it’s called culture. So, we have this wonderful phrase that we talk about, social media. What do we spend our time doing? Being like each other. Showing ourselves to be like each other. Before we had social media we had social networking. It was all about who you knew not what you knew, come on.
God says, “I have given you an imagination, I’ve given you visions and I’ve given you dreams to be like Me. When you be like Me, My desires are going to be expressed in you, and then you will express Me amongst others.” Then those people that want to be like each other will begin to desire what you have because you are not trying to be like them, but you trying to… you’re just with them showing off God. They look at that kind of Christian and they say, “That’s a real Christian there because they are not trying to be like us.” They hate you for it and they love you for it. They persecute you for it, but it is the reason they get saved. It’s because you are not trying to be like them, you’re trying to be like God around them. Amen. Yeah. Huh? Only the Holy Spirit can put something like this in a human vessel and then speak it out to you. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus.
So the anti-god spirit is at work all the time to conform us, into the image of one another, for us to live by the fear of man and the fear of the future that is dictated by the fear of man, rather than the fear of God. So if you are wanting to live like other humans, then you start to be in a place where you say, “If I don’t live like other humans, I’m going to…” Fear begins to get a hold of you because it becomes a performance thing. Come on. “I look how other humans live. I must live like other humans live, otherwise, I’m going to be left behind. Otherwise, I’m going to get behind and if I get behind I’ll never make up the ways of the humans and the progress the humans are making. So, I’ve got to keep pace with the way that humans and others are living.” Now you’re living in the fear of men and the systems that men have created, rather than in the fear of God because your desire is connected to what men think of you rather than what God thinks of you. Because you’re not giving enough attention to what God thinks of you, you give more attention to what man thinks of you. That’s what social media is all about – what do people think about me? How many likes do I have? How many subscribers do I have? How many people are influencers out there? My whole life becomes about what do people think? We fear stepping out of line because of what people think but it’s the very thing that God’s put us on the earth to do, is not to live the way people do but to live like Him. The whole of creation is groaning for the manifestation of the sons of God. They are all groaning for us to actually just be like Him. The whole of creation can’t wait for us to actually show ourselves as true sons and be like Him. They’re hungry for it. Yes, they will also persecute you but let’s rather work with the hunger.
This anti-God spirit takes into account what others think and what matters to them and makes the most popular decisions rather than in line with the Designer’s plan. So, hey, we shouldn’t worry about what other people think. We should work to live to the Designer’s plan for us.
I’ve got only a few minutes left so I’m going to do my best to give you what I’ve got for today and then, Lord willing, we’ll do this next week. Part of what I’m doing here is because on Saturday, the 26th of August, I’m inviting you to come and have refreshments with us, the Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. Saturday afternoon and Saturday early evening, we’ll be done by six. It is my desire to share with you what God’s desire has been for this ministry and what God’s desire is for this ministry going forward. Some would call it a vision statement. I just call it God’s desire for us. Let’s use a word that God gave me a while ago; a journey to new discoveries of what God wants for us. Amen.
I’m wanting to share it with you because we’re in the moment of God here. I asked the Lord last week or the week before, I asked the Lord, I said, “Lord, what happens after, The Year of Maximum?” You know I’m not looking for a prophetic word I’m just asking Him. What happens after maximum? Because if you’ve got maximum what else can you get? So then He said, “More, more of maximum.” You can’t get more than maximum but you can get more of maximum. Right? You can get maximum in every area so more of it, more of it, more of it, more of it. So, I’m already confessing that I’m going to the maximum. I’m going to the highest level attainable and I’m going to get more of it, more of it, more of it, more of it, more of it. More of it in every area of my life, more of it, more of it, more of it. Why do I know that? Because I’m seeking Him so His desire is for me and everything that I’m desiring is His desire. Hallelujah.
I told you I was having a time with God. I’m not going to tell you anything about it because it’s between me and God and for maybe a very few select people that I’ve shared it with. But the Lord said to me, I was lying in bed because I was not so well. The Lord said to me, “Hey John, I want to bless you. I want to give you favor. I want you to ask me for something that you couldn’t possibly get for yourself.” So, I had to think about it because He clearly wasn’t talking about a Bentley or a Rolls Royce or you know an airplane because those are just things. And He could have someone come and just give me a thing. Huh? Things are just tools. It’s just stuff. Thank you, Pastor Sharon. It’s just stuff. Clearly, in my conversation with the Lord, this was something that He could arrange for me, He could make happen for me, that I couldn’t make happen for myself and that would require my involvement and within days He did. It surprised me so much that both Sharon and I were in disbelieve actually. That He could do something so great for me in such a short time and the manifestation of it is still ongoing and working out. But I received the anointing together with the favor. So that it can all be accomplished. Hallelujah.
Desire without understanding of origin creates a pathway to making every effort to make that desire be fulfilled. In other words if you don’t understand the origin of the desire then you won’t be able to determine which desire to follow. Do you get that with me? So if I understand that the origin of desire is God then my desires are not wrong they just have to be influenced by the originator, the designer. I can’t say if I desire something and I’m walking as a good Christian and I’m going to church and I’m tithing and I’m doing stuff… Hey, that’s the whole beef God, Jesus had with the Pharisees and the Sadducees. He had a beef with them because they lived according to all the rules of the law. They were good people, they tithe, they went to church all the time, they prayed all the time and they said they had all the answers and so. But their desire wasn’t for Him. Their desire was for the program of Him and His whole story is those guys are hypocrites, they’re whited sepulchres. On the outside they make you think this one thing but in the inside they are like tombs. They are dead inside to the real will of God. [Pastor John’s cell phone alarm goes off.] That’s my ice cream truck. [Congregation laughs.] For those who know what that is.
So, we were created with desire to fulfil design. We were created with desire to fulfil design. Design is the container of purpose. If you don’t find out what the purpose of God is for your life, you cannot say that desire is the measure of your purpose. Hey, I don’t know if you got that, it got awfully quiet in here. [Congregation asks Pastor John to please say it again.] Okay, so you were created with desire to fulfil design. Design is the container of purpose. You can’t say that because I have a desire for something, it is the very essence of my purpose, my desire. Well, if that was the case then every drug dealer who has a desire for wealth, that’s got to be their purpose. Hey? Every politician who desires power will say, “That’s my purpose, it’s to govern.” But 99% of all politicians don’t want to govern, they just want power and governing is their way to power. But they won’t be true to their desire because to say their desire would be to reveal their intent. And then they would never get anything.
You can’t say because I have a desire for something that it’s an indication of my purpose or God’s plan. You’ve got to put Him first place in your life, not just act like He’s first place in your life. There’s a lot of people that can act like that, there’s not a lot of people that truly want to live like that. That’s why the real church- the Bible says, Jesus says this Himself, The road to destruction is broad. The way of life, yes, the road to life and destruction is broad and there’s many that go on that, but the way to life is narrow and there’s few that walk on that. Why? That’s the whole principle of everybody’s looking what everybody else is doing and I have fear of men rather than I have fear of God. So, I’m going to walk on the broad road, not on the narrow road because I don’t know if God’s going to come through for me like those people can come through for me. I trust people more than I trust God. I trust institutions more than I trust God.
You’re already revealing your fear of men and their institutions to control you, then you are fearing God. So, now we want to measure whether God will come through for us or not because of what other Christians have experienced. Meantime other Christians are living with the fear of men on the one foot and the fear of God, so-called, on the other foot. The Bible says these people are unstable in all their ways. How can you work with someone who’s unstable in everything they do? They don’t have answers for you and me who are prepared to give God our all.
So design is the container of purpose and all sin is a violation of design and purpose. All sin is a violation of design and purpose and it is triggered by desire. God is the Creator of design, He is the Creator of desire and He is the Creator of purpose. If you take design and purpose and the origin out of that, you’re only left with desire. If you’re just left with desire, then you’re left with, “I’ll do what I want to do, when I want to do it and how I want to do it.” Then people create their own sense of purpose. They create their own sense of destiny. Because they don’t have a real one because they have taken the Creator that designed us and purposed us, and His ways, they’ve taken it out of the equation. “Don’t mess with… I don’t want to know that… I just want to live with desire.” So, they have made desire the foundation of all that they do.
Can you argue, come one, you and me, can you argue with somebody that has really has strong desire? Because when they’ve got desire and passion, they will sacrifice so much to get it. I would go so far as to say that there’s not a sportsman alive, that’s successful that has given themselves over fully to desire to succeed. Some will call it a competitive spirit. What you’re just saying is, “I have such a desire to succeed in this area, that I will give my thoughts, my attention, my energy, my everything – I will give my all to succeed.” Desire – without purpose and without design.
So, the world system says, “We will reward that kind of passion, because we want others to reveal it.” Because if there is a reward, then people will follow, the similar pattern of desire. “If you give yourself so completely to your career and to business and to making money, that desire… it is a good thing. How will we reward it? Giving you money.” And so, people look at this few people that have all these rewards in life and they say, “Listen if we just work harder, if we just give ourselves more education, if we just do this, if we just do… then we can be one of those lucky few that actually get the end result of our desire.”
But actually, you are not even taking into consideration what the originator said into account. There is no origin here, there is no design here. There’s no plan here. There is no purpose for what you are doing, “It is just my own self-made purpose. So, I am going to give myself over to the passion, I’m going to give myself over to desire, and I am just going to live with myself, because I like it.” It is called the lust of the flesh. It is called the pride of life. It’s called the lust of the eyes. The devil says, “Go for it, because when you’re there, I’ve got you. The more you live there, the more I’ve got you and finding your way back to God, it’s not going to happen.” Unless there is a bunch of praying Christian, and those Christians they come along and they say, “Lord, we’re praying for those Heritage of Faith people. We pray for them that their desires will be in line with Your desire for their life. We pray for them Lord that they won’t go on the way that they think is the best thing for them, but they will follow Your plan, Your purpose and we as a collective body will find ourselves together when there’s a praying person it’s only redemption to a person who gives themselves to desire and passion.” Because the more you give yourself to desire and passion, the more it controls you. Because you can’t ever be fulfilled. So you think that the way that you’re going to get fulfilled is to give yourself more to the passion and the desire, but it’s only true in Christ.
So a couple of years ago, the Lord began to say to me, “John, I want you to have a new car.” I said, “Really, Lord?” He said, “Yeah.” So I said, Okay, I’ll receive that.” You see, I didn’t go around looking for new cars. Let that become a desire in me. I heard from God. “Okay, Lord, I hear you.” So then when He told me, I went to go and look at which car I like. I looked at BMW, I looked at Mercedes, I looked at Bentley’s, I looked at, I looked at Amaroks, I looked at the whole bunch of scope of vehicles. Sharon and I were thinking about it and praying about it, and talking to the Lord about it. None of those things, and none of those things had a witness with me in my spirit. So one day I found out someone in our congregation was moving a vehicle, and so I had a conversation with them and I said, “The Lord wants me to have a new vehicle and I believe yours is the one that I want to buy.” They said, “You know how much it costs?” I said, “Yes, I think so.” So I said, “All right, Lord, now You said I could have it, now you must pay for it.” He did. He did. We paid cash for it. I’m driving that vehicle now. Everybody who knows me says, “I want an Amarok or a Mercedes rather than driving a Prado, Toyota. Why must I drive a Toyota and I can drive an Amarok or a Mercedes or something?”
But God had it in mind for me. Some of the missions that we have to fulfill, that’s the right vehicle for me. And when I realised that was the vehicle for me, He fully gave me the desire of my heart and it became my fulfilled desire and that car became everything that I ever wanted in a motorcar and it’s still to the point where now I just want to buy Prados or Toyota, because God led me there. He gave the substance for it, He fulfilled it. So now, it’s not such a big deal in my life that if I bump it, or do something that it’s a problem, because it’s, He gave it to me. He gave me the desire for it, He gave me the means for it, He made it happen and I drive it. It’s a tool, it’s a blessing for while I’m on the earth. I didn’t make that car the focus of my desire. I let my focus be on Him, then He gave me the desire. Then I had to find out what car it was. I can preach a lot longer on this but I’m done. You’re done because time’s done. Hallelujah.
Come on, what do you think about this message today that God spoke? I mean God’s making sure that we have everything in shape and in order and working to maximum and more. Maximum and more. Hallelujah. We live by faith. We live by the design and the desire that God puts in our heart. Hallelujah. But you see, I can tell the difference between my own desire and God’s desire, because I can tell what I’m giving my attention to. That’s how I know that this thing that God said to me, “I want to favour you with something John, tell Me what you want.” I had to think about it. It took me days, I had to pray about it, I had to get before the Lord about it and say, “Lord, what is it?” Clearly I know You don’t want to give me something, because I know how You work with that, You know how to talk to me about that, so it’s not about stuff, it’s about something else.
I don’t know what You can give me in my marriage that I don’t already, it’s amazing. You know, and so I had to really think about it. What is it that God wants to bless me with? It took me days. That is a cool place to be with God, when you don’t automatically turn to something, or some event, or some overseas travel, or some dream that you had years ago, but you let Him begin to guide you and lead you. Now I have every confidence, what I do next is in order. Everything to fulfill that desire is in place, because He put it there. Wow. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise You Lord Jesus and the more I live on the earth, the more my desire is in line with His desire. Hallelujah.
Won’t you all stand with me, please? Praise Jesus. I want you to work with me here, and I want you to say this with as much intent as you can. I want you to place your hand on your heart and say, Lord, help me with my desire wherever I have a wrong desire in my heart and in my life, I ask You to help me to get rid of it. The way that I’m asking You to do that, is to help me with my desire for You and I will have a greater desire for You in my life, in my heart and everything that I say and think and do. In Jesus’ name, I receive Your help, right now, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
This walk of faith in Christ is a journey. This is not a one-time thing, I make a decision and everything is perfect after that. We live, we live and every day you are going to be confronted with desires and some of those desires have been in your heart for a long time and you don’t even know that it’s a bad desire. But if you ask God, He will help you, He will help you, Hallelujah. Do you want to hear more about this? Then you got to come back next Sunday, Hallelujah.
I already declared this over you in an early part of the service, but I say that, you are blessed going out and blessed coming in. The peace of God rules in your heart, rules in your mind. It rules in every part of your life, in Jesus’ name. And next week when we talk about peace ruling in your heart and your mind. Now you understand where desire becomes the liberator of peace. Stress and worry is the function of wrong desire. Peace has got to guard you against wrong desire. For a volgende tyd, another week. Bless you, bless you, bless you, love you all, love you all, Hallelujah. Amen. Okay bye everybody.
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