Scripture Reference: 2 Peter 1:14-21 (NLT); Acts 13:14-26 (NLT); Joshua 1:7-9 (NLT); Psalm 48:9-10 (NLT); Psalm 119:47-52 (NLT); Colossians 3:1-17 (NLT)
I mean, I don’t work with the team to pick the songs or know what they’re going to sing on a Sunday morning. I find out normally when I come in here, sometimes occasionally we’ll have some conversation about it. But I trust the Holy Spirit to work with Pastor Sharon and Pastor G for the songs that must be sung on a Sunday, and this morning, early this morning, I woke up and I had this significant need to pray for something that I saw in the Spirit. And what I saw in the Spirit was divorce. I saw two people that I loved very much. I saw them going through a divorce. I saw it and I didn’t see that it was necessarily a natural divorce but I just saw a separation. I saw divorce. Immediately I began to say to the Lord, “How can I prevent it? How can I prevent it? How can I prevent it? What can I do because this is not in You.” And the greatest thing that I experienced this morning was the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God showing me how His people divorce Him. They just leave Him, they just leave Him because they think God’s always there. I’ll come to Him when I’m ready for Him. And when I’m not ready for Him, then I won’t go to Him and I’ll just be there. He’s there, always there; He’s God, He’ll always love me, He’ll always be there for me. And so, I’ll just treat Him however I want to treat Him. I saw this divorce happening because the hearts of people that were turned against God and His ways.
Then I began to see how that translated into the natural lives of the people in the church. I’m talking about church people, not unsaved people. Unsaved people are already divorced from God. These are people who are saved, born-again people. I saw how this affects so much of their lives and how their lives are filled with separation and division because of what’s happening. Of course, you know, I realise that the greatest protection against divorce is unity. The greatest protection against separation is integration and so that’s what I prayed. And so, when they started to sing this song, Psalm 91, I wanted to come up here and sing with them because the Lord is my Shield. He’s my Fortress. He’s my Deliverer. No sickness or disease, no evil will come near my dwelling place and I do not receive the spirit of separation. I do not receive the spirit of divorce. I receive the spirit of integration. I receive the spirit of unity with God and with His body and with His people. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Glory to Jesus.
In a moment, you know, I had the same spiritual experience this morning that I had many years ago when the Lord showed me what happens in a spirit of betrayal. It’s so big. It is so devastating to see what divorce and division and separation brings into the world. I mean, you just look around and see the poor condition that the world is in and you’ll see what division and divorce and separation brings. The church is the only one that can bring a solution to it. We are the only ones that can bring a solution. It’s not psychologists. It’s not counselling. It’s not good marriage things. It’s the church. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Are you ready for the Word this morning? Amen. Amen. Praise the Lord. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You may be seated.
Next Sunday, we’re going to have a Chariots Sunday. So you should all come dressed in your Chariots t-shirts, your Chariots leathers, your everything. And then we’re going to go and have a picnic. I don’t know where yet, but we’re going to go and ride our bicycles, our motorcycles. [Congregation laughs] Some of us can do cycles in leathers too. But we’re going to go and do some … If you don’t have a motorbike, just come and join us and let’s go and have a picnic. Have some fellowship around the Word. You sound very enthusiastic about that. [Congregation cheers] That’s better. Thank you. Praise the Lord.
You know, in the last week or so I’ve been in touch with Brother Joe a lot. We’ve talked quite a lot on the telephone and indeed this weekend I was on the phone with him quite a bit. We’ve been talking about next year and he’s, you know, Brother Jerry was waiting for Brother Copeland to give him his ministry schedule for 2024 because Brother Jerry organises his whole ministry schedule around Brother Copeland’s meetings. He doesn’t plan meetings until he knows what Brother Copeland’s meetings are. Praise the Lord. That’s a level of honour that is very seldom seen in the church. Hey? Especially if you’ve been with someone that long and you’re in your 70s and he’s in his 80s and you still have that level of honour. That’s remarkable. It’s spiritual. It’s worthy of honour itself. Amen.
Anyway, it turns out that Brother Copeland gave him his ministry schedule a week ago. Brother Joe and I were talking about the schedule for Africa for next year. We were talking about the possibilities of going to countries in North Africa, predominantly. Going back to Ethiopia, maybe going back, going to Dubai or other places that have had given invitations to Brother Jerry, wanting to come and minister there. And so we were talking about all of that. Just in passing I made a very light comment, because he was here in February. You know, so I said, “Well, if he’s coming to Africa, don’t forget about us, just because he was here this year, don’t forget about us.” “No, John, we never forget about you.” So he phoned me. He phoned me on, when was it, Friday night? He phoned me on Friday night and he said, “John, I just want to give you some dates for next year.” I said, “Well, Joe, I’m busy having some family time with my kids, my grandchildren.” “Tell them I send my love but I’m going to give you these dates anyway.” “Yes, sir.” You know, because I’m going to be away in the U.S. for a couple of weeks and I wanted to have some family time. So he says, “No, I understand, but I’m going to give you these dates.” So he says, “We’re not going to Ethiopia and we’re not going to Dubai, but we are coming to South Africa.” I said, “You are?” He said, “Yeah.” He said, “October next year, 20 to 23 October, we’re going to have four nights in South Africa.” And he says, “If we don’t yet have our Falcon 900, we’ll come with our Falcon 50 again.” Hallelujah. “And we’ll see you next year in October.” He said, “Announce it to the church this Sunday. Announce it to the church.” I said, “Ok, well, then I will.”
I went from there and we had some dinner together as a family on Friday evening. I said to the family, “I know I’m God’s favourite because I didn’t even really make a … I mean, it wasn’t really like, send him a letter of invitation. It was just like, I know we have the privilege of having him here regularly, sort of, you know, given how far we are but he’s coming to us. I wonder why? I think he likes it here. We’re his tribe. We’re his family. We’re his people. Hallelujah. So this is hot off the press. I haven’t really had any time to digest it. We will talk about how we will go about filling up that time and making it more significant. It’s from a Sunday to a Wednesday. In fact Joe had just come out of the meeting with Brother Jerry and he said, “I don’t even know what day it is.” So while we are on the phone, he is checking on his calendar. “Oh, I see it’s a Sunday to a Wednesday.” I said, “Well, I’m happy for that. We’ve got a weekend meeting in here, Sunday morning, Sunday night.” I said, “Will you do Sunday morning, Sunday night?” “Yeah, put it on the calendar.” I said, “Ok, then. Praise the Lord.” God is good to us. Hallelujah. Like I said, we are a favourite people. We are. We are blessed. You know, he is coming to visit us. That’s his purpose. He is flying all the way just to be with us. Oh, man, that’s wonderful. That’s wonderful. All right.
If you are not aware yet, I’m about to make you aware. But Hamas launched a full-scale war against Israel this weekend. For the first time ever… If you know, Hamas is the military arm of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, and they on purpose separated themselves from being attached to a state government because officially, PLO is not a state. They are just a political organisation. But it also means they can wage war without being affiliated or allowing any organisation to be punished for their actions.
But to give you an idea of what happened, a couple of years ago or last year, I believe it was last year or the year before, Hamas launched a number of missiles against Israel, and the total amount of missiles they launched against Israel, in an entire year, Hamas launched against Israel in 24 hours. The whole idea behind it was that they would try and overwhelm what is called the Iron Dome Defence System, whereby Israel will shoot down all missiles that come into their airspace. They have an anti-missile defence system that automatically tracks and shoots down missiles coming in. It’s an automatic air defence system. And so, they succeeded and a number of missiles landed in Israel and have killed hundreds and hundreds of people. At the same time, they launched a sea strike and a land strike, which has never been done before. And so, they have taken Israeli women and children prisoners, and they have taken some military leaders, some military men prisoners, and this is a major thing that has happened. In a little while I’m going to ask us to pray together but I need to share the Word with you a little bit but I want to show you how God’s Word is the Truth. Amen.
Last weekend, we had an amazing weekend, didn’t we? Cross over. Crossover is to transform or to change and it literally means to go across or go beyond and to go into another place or another state. So you go across and form. I spoke about this at length last weekend, so I don’t want to go again, too much, into that right now. But crossover is not something that is an intellectual process, although it can sometimes be that. It’s a choice. It’s always a choice. If you’re going to cross over into another form or another state. You can’t intellectualise it, you have to choose it. You might have an intellectual process that goes on with it, but you have to choose it, just like believing in Jesus. You can’t intellectualise Christian faith. You might have intellectual processes, but ultimately any belief that you have, any faith that you have, is a choice. It’s not an intellectual state and you can’t become a faith believing person through an intellectual state of arrival. You can’t think through the process of elimination of all of the pros and cons of faith and then through an intellectual process arrive at faith. You might have an intellectual process that happens, but ultimately, it’s a choice. It’s a choice that you have to make.
So, if we are going to be transformed, if we’re going to cross over, if we’re going to move from one state to another, although there might be processes involved, although there might be intellectual things that we do and logical steps that we make, crossing over is a choice first. If you make a choice that is a choice of quality and it’s a choice that you want to see come to fulfilment, it’s going to require commitment. It’s going to require energy. It’s going to require some resources. It’s going to require prayer. It’s going to require many things if you’re going to make this decision, a quality decision to transform to cross over. We as a Church need to do that.
For a minute, I want to just contrast to you, the personal walk that you and I have with God versus the corporate walk or the church environment that we have. I’m going to read you a passage of Scripture if you just bear with me, the New Living Translation. I’m going to read 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 14, and I’m going to read a few passages of Scripture.
14 For our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me that I must soon leave this earthly life. That’s Peter talking. I’m going to die soon. 15 so I will work hard to make sure you always remember these things after I am gone. This is the Apostle Peter speaking. 16 For we were not making up clever stories when we told you about the powerful coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We saw his majestic splendor with our own eyes 17 when he received honor and glory from God the Father. The voice from the majestic glory of God said to him, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.” 18 We ourselves heard that voice from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain (2 Peter 1:14-18 NLT). It’s the Mount of Transfiguration. So Peter’s saying, “That thing that we saw with God speaking to Jesus and saw the glory of God on Jesus, that wasn’t a clever story to try and make ourselves look important. We saw Him with our own eyes. We heard, we heard the voice of God speaking to Him.”
19 Because of that experience, we have even greater confidence in the message proclaimed by the prophets. You must pay close attention to what they wrote. So now Peter is talking from an authentic place of witnessing to an authentic place of the message that comes from the prophets comes from God. And you’ve got to hear, even though they declared through the voices of men, those men spoke on behalf of God. You must pay close attention to what they wrote, for their words are like a lamp shining in a dark place—until the Day dawns, and Christ the Morning Star shines in your hearts. 20 Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, 21 or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God (2 Peter 1:19-21 NLT).
Now, if God has chosen, as He has, to speak through the vessels of men on the earth, then He has chosen over a long period of time to use men because, I mean, this is not a big, this is not such a big thing, you know, if you really are a believer, because He made men in His image. Didn’t He? I mean, He made the earth for the man that was His image. He made the earth so that He could create an environment for the man that was His image. So, if He made the man in His image, then the image of the man, He gave him dominion and authority over all things in the earth. So, if He made man with that level of authority and dominion and power, it shouldn’t be too much of a big issue for us to recognise that He would still continue to speak through men. Yes? I mean, this is not … I’ve preached this many times, I’ve preached this many times and I will say it again and again. When He said to Adam and Eve, “Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the animals of the earth, the crawling creatures, the hoof creatures, all the different creatures.” When He said, “Have dominion, take authority, you are living on the earth.” He didn’t just say only Christians will have that dominion. He actually said all mankind will have that dominion because all mankind came from Adam and Eve. But all mankind only knows how to use his dominion for self-interest. Only Christians know how to have dominion for the interest of everyone else because only Christians can walk in the love of God, whereas anybody else does not know how to walk in the love of God. So that’s why the earth is in the mess that it’s in.
Truly, the earth is in a mess because the people that have dominion and authority on the earth, as God declared we should all have, don’t know how to use it. They only know how to use it for themselves, not for the best interest of everybody else. Now the Apostle Peter, he’s saying; we need to pay close attention to what’s gone before because what’s gone before pointed to Jesus. And then when Jesus came, all of their words were confirmed in the arrival of Jesus. When Jesus came, He made everything on the earth about Him as a fulfilment of all of their words. Okay, don’t get lost now, okay?
So when Jesus speaks into the earth through men, and men are speaking into the earth on His behalf, He is obligated to make those words come to pass because those words reveal Jesus. If men speak for themselves, about themselves, for themselves with their own self-agenda, He is not obligated to make those words come to pass. He’s only obligated to make words come to pass that glorify Jesus and glorify the church of the Lord Jesus. But if there’s personal agendas involved and there’s self-interest involved, then God is not obligated to make those words come to pass. Yeah. And so, if we walk, you and I walk, in Christ Jesus, in a personal capacity of, I receive the Kingdom of God, I receive dominion and authority and power over all things that are mine, then I have a walk with God that, as I speak His words into my life, He’s obligated to make those words come to pass. Come bear with me now. Can you see the connection?
If I trust the prophets of old as words coming from God that were revealed in Jesus and brought about altogether in Jesus, then as I believe in the words of all of the Old Testament words that Jesus would become the Saviour, as I believe that, then Jesus becomes my Saviour. If Jesus is my Saviour, then I can receive all of the inheritance and all of the prophecies that were declared beforehand, I can receive those. But I can only receive them if I believe that everything else pointed to Him. That means all of His Word is true to me. If I believe that, now I speak His Word, then all of His Word becomes truth for me, because I made all of His words past for me. Now all of His words become to me and for me. If I say, I don’t receive all of the words of God, and now I’m trying to speak the words of God for me, my heart’s not going to believe it. I’m really preaching good already. My heart’s not going to believe it because there’s a whole lot of words that God spoke that reflect Jesus, and I don’t really receive those words, so I’ll choose which words I believe or I don’t believe from the past. So, now if I want to take God’s words and speak them out for my life, and I want to do that selectively too, then they’re not going to work for me because I don’t know which I really believe in. Then faith becomes what you believe. And if you don’t believe all of God’s Word, then you’re already in a place where you are compromising yourself.
On a personal level, the church needs to bring hope. On a very personal level, the church really needs to bring to the world an opportunity to see God as the Source of the future. The world needs to see the church as the light, and they need to see the light in you and me. They need to see how God is favouring us and good to us. We should be the testimony of the goodness of God. Amen. But we also need to be that same witness corporately. You know, my belief in Jesus as my Lord and Saviour was not dependent on whether… When I was in my teenage years and I was playing rugby and soccer and all the sports that I played, I really wanted to have better boots and better equipment than my parents could afford. I would normally arrive at a sporting event, practice or whatever, and I would have the cheapest boots or the cheapest or second-hand things, whatever it was that I could wear, I would always have the cheapest. I was always looking at my friends and all my colleagues that were in my team with me, and I was always wondering what it would be like to wear those pairs of boots because those were the new fan dangled, most colourful, better studs, better laces, better everything. I always wondered what it would be like if I could have a proper pair of something, you know. Whether I had good boots or not, didn’t change my belief in Jesus. I didn’t give up on my walk with Jesus because I didn’t get a better pair of boots.
Those days, I don’t want to take too much of a sidetrack now, but there was a magazine, a story that was out, it was called Billy the Boot. And Billy the Boot had a pair of magic boots, and he was such an ordinary, average soccer player until he put his magic boots on. When he put his magic boots on, then he became Billy the Boot. He became this absolute superstar soccer player. He could dribble past anybody, control any ball, score as many goals as he wanted to. Billy the Boot. I remember, wow – always having the cheapest pair of boots – I wish I could have even a proper pair of boots, maybe I would become Billy the Boot then. It was a long time ago. Billy the Boot. There’s a blast from my past.
But Jesus was always the answer to me for everything. He was the reason I was alive, He was the reason I lived, He was the reason I went to church, He was the reason I did everything. And even though I enjoyed sport and I enjoyed the things that were around me as a young man, young boy and a teenager, I mean, you know, Jesus was everything to me. And when I grew older, He still became that to me. Whether He gave me financial blessings or any other kind of blessings, He was always the foundation of my everything. Is it any wonder then, that because He is the foundation of my everything and He brings a word to me about how to be married, that I receive it completely? Because all of His Word is everything to me. Because all of His Word is everything to me. So because everything, all of His Word is everything to me, then I can take that Word and speak it into my marriage, and it becomes the very living force of my marriage and my finances and my health and my everything else, because I believe it. Because everything is mine.
On a very personal level, we need to live life in God that is personal. But if we just have everything that is about us personally, then we are going to be lost in this haze of personal desire and personal needs and personal wishes and personal dreams and personal ambitions and personal everything. It’s a worrying trend in the church, that the church is preaching Jesus as a personal exchange agent, if you like. He’s got to be my personal helper and hope and my personal emotional support and my personal everything all the time. And that’s all He is. Whereas actually God wants to be much more to us. I know I started with Israel, I’ll get back there. Moenie worry nie.
I am going to talk about Israel, but I want to tell you that what I’m going to share with you is not in any way, got anything to do with what happened with Hamas. This is already stuff that was in my heart from last week. But I’m going to read it to you from the book of Acts. 14 But Paul, chapter 13, verse 14, 14 But Paul and Barnabas traveled inland to Antioch of Pisidia. On the Sabbath they went to the synagogue for the services. After the usual readings from the books of Moses, and the prophets, those in charge of the service sent them this message: “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, come and give it.” So Paul stood, lifted his hand to quiet them, and started speaking. “Men of Israel,” he said, “and you God fearing Gentiles, listen to me. ” (Acts 13:14-16 NLT.)
I’m just wanting you to see again that whatever God’s going to do on the earth, He’s going to use human beings to speak it out. Whether it’s revelation knowledge, whether it’s an encouragement from God, or whether it’s a prophecy that needs to be fulfilled, or whether it’s some other thing that God wants to do on the earth, He’s going to use men. He’s not going to write it in the sky. I mean, you might see the signs of it in the sky but He’s going to use men.
Now this is what he’s saying to the men of Israel and God-fearing Gentiles. 17 “The God of this nation of Israel chose our ancestors and made them multiply and grow strong during their stay in Egypt. Then with a powerful arm, He led them out of their slavery. He put up with them through forty years of wandering in the wilderness. Then He destroyed seven nations in Canaan and gave their land to Israel as an inheritance. All this took about 450 years.” Acts 13: 17-20 (NLT).
I’m going to read some more Scripture but I want to just show you something, based on this scripture and I wanted to use this scripture because I didn’t want to go to Genesis, Exodus and all of those Old Testament encounters, or stories of how they did it. This shows, by the Word of God, that God took them out of slavery and He made them cross over the Red Sea. He made them crossover with a powerful, mighty hand. Remember the story. He is talking to them like they know the story. So they came to the Red Sea; “How are we going to… Here come all the armies from Egypt.” That pharaoh was angry. He was angry because his firstborn son had died, and all of his officers and all of his princes and all of the people that were in Egypt, all of their first born children had died; there was great wailing and mourning in Egypt and they gave all of their wealth to Israel. They lost their kids, they lost their wealth and now they realise that all of their slave labour and their future wealth is walking away from them.
The pharaoh decides, “We are going after these guys and we are going to come and make slavery even harsher than they had before.” Israel, there they are, women, children, grannies, grandpas, everybody together, warriors, workers, everybody together; they are walking and they are on their way. They get to the Red Sea, no way through. God says, “It’s time for Me to show you just how important you are to Me because of what I promised to Abraham. It doesn’t matter how mighty and how much technology and how much the force is that is coming behind you; I have got a way out for you.”
He says, “Moses, take your rod, hold it over the waters.” As he does this, the waters start to part and Israel starts to walk through this wall of water on the sides and the land is dry enough that they don’t get stuck in there. Israel did not get stuck in there. They walked through and, I mean this is the most remarkable thing to me. I mean, that pharaoh, with his army, would look at this thing happening and think that after the ten plagues which resulted in his children dying; that God showed him how powerful He was. He is looking at this path through the water, he is looking at these people going through the water; and he has got to be recognising the same God that caused this to happen is causing this to happen, but such is his anger and such is his desire to come against the children of Israel and take them slavery for more, get his wealth back, punish them for his children dying, that he just goes straight into the water. “I’m going to go get them,” and where the children of Israel walk through safely, his chariots get stuck in the mud, the water closes, end of story. Kaput.
All of the leaders of Egypt; the kings, the princes, the warriors, the horses, the chariots, the mighty military force, the future economic well-being of Egypt died in that water, right there. Not only did Pharaoh lose his life, his children, his firstborn had lost their life. Do you understand how God obliterated not just the current evil force against the children of Israel, but even the firstborn generation was taken away so that the firstborn would not wreak vengeance. Hello? God showed Himself strong on behalf of His people. Amen.
Then the Bible says that He put up with them in the wilderness, all of their nonsense. Then the time came when He was going to give them the lands filled with milk and honey and all of that. He says, “Time to cross another sea, cross the Jordan Sea,” but this time He did it differently. He got the priests to come and stand with their feet in the water and as the priests walked, the waters parted and Israel walked through the water and got to the other side. I spoke about that last weekend. He didn’t just want to show them once again what your future can look like because the same power that’s available to open these waters is the same power that will be with you everywhere. The very next thing that He does once the covenant is sealed is circumcision. The next thing He does is He gets them to walk around Jericho praising, praising, just praising, and through a praising, an exercise of praise, God just pulls down an entire system on itself and obliterates it.
I’m here to tell you that we have a mighty God. We have a mighty, mighty powerful God that is bigger, better, greater than anything that can come against us. We have a mighty God. We have a powerful God. His Name is above every name that is named on the earth. In fact, Jesus has given Him all, God the Father has given Jesus all power and all authority over everything in the heavens, on the earth, and beneath the earth. There is no power that can match His power. Nothing. Nothing. This is a good thing for you and me.
After that, 20 God gave them judges to rule until the time of Samuel the prophet. 21 The people begged for a king, and God gave them Saul son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, who reigned for forty years. 22 But God removed Saul and replaced him with David, a man about whom God said, “I found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do everything I want him to do.” 23 And it is one of King David’s descendants, Jesus, who is God’s promised Savior of Israel! 24 Before he came, John the Baptist preached that all the people of Israel needed to repent of their sins and turn to God and be baptized. 25 As John was finishing his ministry, he asked, “Do you think I’m the Messiah? No, I am not! But He is coming soon – and I’m not even worthy to be His slave and untie the sandals on His feet.” 26 Brothers – you sons of Abraham, and also you God-fearing Gentiles – this message of salvation has been sent to us! (Acts 13:26 NLT).
I want to tell you that there are many things, and I have said this to you previously, that when you look on in the world and you begin to see the alignment of nations, and you begin to see scriptures that say people will speak peace, peace. I heard one of the most amazing speeches of the Prime Minister of Israel, President Netanyahu, in the United Nations, less than a month ago, talk about what a great power Israel is, and how Israel is in the forefront of artificial intelligence, and how Israel is one of the greatest technologically advanced nations on the earth and agriculture. I mean, it was an amazing thing, and he was saying; Israel is going to be part of everything that’s going to happen in the world. I have no reason to disbelieve that because they are God’s children. They are His covenant people. But at the same time, the Bible says people will talk peace, peace, and then there will also be wars, and there will be rumours of wars. Yes? And so whatever’s going to happen on the earth, we are barreling towards it at a great rate of knots.
When we hear of all of these things, we can’t afford to get faint and be weary in our hearts. We have to be strong. In Joshua chapter 1 verse 7, and I read some of this last week, 7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do. 8 Study this book of instruction continually. Meditate on it day or night, so you will be sure to obey everything written in it (Joshua 1:7-8 NLT).
Can I ask you, what was he being told to study? Moses’ words. Moses’ writings that God gave Moses to give people. So, 8 Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. 9 This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go. (Joshua 1:8-9 NLT). God is with me wherever I go. God is with me. God is with me wherever I go. God is with me. I know God is with me because I think about His Word day and night. I think about it. I keep it in my heart. Everything that’s happening in my world, I evaluate it against the Word of God that I’ve placed in my heart. I don’t evaluate what’s happening in the world as to whether it’s right or wrong. I evaluate it by what the Word says.
I don’t have to be the measuring person of what’s happening in the world. All I’ve got to do is say, “I have the Word in me. Where is the Word leading me? Day and night. Where is the Word leading me? Day and night.” If I meditate on the Word day or night it makes me strong. It fills me with courage. Come on. If I let circumstances get to my head, then what’s in my head is going to be what I live. Because my head is going to dictate my emotions, and my emotions and my head are going to get into an agreement. Then I’m going to do things that these things (emotions and head) say I should do. But if I’ve got the Word in my heart day and night, if I’m thinking about the Word day and night, it fills me with hope. It fills me with strength. It fills me with courage. Yes. No matter how bad the times get, it fills me with courage.
I truly believe this with all my heart, that we as a generation of people are living in the most peaceful time in human history that’s ever existed. I’m talking about the last 50 years. Because if you look back at the whole history of man, there’s always been war, there’s always been civil conflicts, there’s always been strong forces attacking weak forces, taking people as slaves, doing many things. Because of technology and because of geographical boundaries, and because of all of the things that we are faced with in the world today, we are living in, and medical science has provided us with health. Credit has given us money way beyond what we have earned before we earn it. Yes? So people have houses that they don’t own, but they live in them as though they own them because the bank owns them.
People think that, “This is my house,” but it’s not your house. If you have a bond, it’s not your house. It belongs to the bank. Just miss a few payments and you find out who it belongs to. And then if you miss a few more payments, you’ll find out that they’ll come and ask you to leave the house. And you might say, “No, but this is my house.” And they say, “No, no, it’s our house. We just loaned you the money to pay for your house to stay in it for a while.”
If you take the credit system of the world, you take the medical system of the world, you take the governments of the world in the way governments are wanting to have this united peace. I’ll tell you, I don’t want to get too sidetracked here, but the G20 government forces, the G20, are working on a global digital currency that is going to be, as soon as they can get it working, they’re going to have a global digital currency that will have benefits and they’ll have all kinds of stuff. And all of it is to secure this utopia of peace. I wonder what that sounds like. It sounds like they think that they are the government of the peoples of the earth. Whereas God said the government will be on Jesus’ shoulders, not the government of the earth. And there it is already showing you the conflict. Humanity says we have to obey the governments of the earth. Yes, but you have to obey Jesus as your government. And whenever the conflict comes between Jesus as your government and the government of the earth, you’ve got to choose Jesus.
Psalm 48 verse 9 says, 9 O God, we meditate on your unfailing love as we worship in your Temple. That means you come to church. 10 As your name deserves, O God, you will be praised to the ends of the earth. Your strong right hand is filled with victory (Psalm 48:9-10 NLT). Psalm 119 verse 47, 47 How I delight in your commands! 48 How I love them! I honour and love your commands. I meditate on your decrees. 49 Remember your promise to me; it is my only hope (Psalm 119:47-49 NLT). Let’s not put our hope in a system. Let’s put our hope in Jesus. Let’s put our hope in the Word of God. 50 Your promise revives me; it comforts me in all my troubles. 51 The proud hold me in utter contempt, of course they do. You see a Christian that’s fully sold out to God, they’re going to say you’re radical, you’re an extremist. They hold me in utter contempt, but I do not turn away from your instructions. 52 I meditate on your age-old regulations; O Lord, they comfort me (Psalms 119: 50-52 NLT). Praise the Lord.
It’s time for you and me to make sure that our mind and our whole world is filled with the ways of God. It’s time to cross over from earthly thinking to eternal thinking. It’s time for us to cross over from natural ways to supernatural ways. It’s time to cross over from natural thinking to divine thinking. All of what you need is in there. Thank You, Lord.
I’m going to read from Colossians chapter three, verse one. 3 Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand . 2 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. 3 For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:1-3 NLT). Come on. You and I are going to be faced with this every single day. What’s my real life? You know, this is a challenge for us. If you don’t eat for a couple of days, you are going to really begin to focus on what you think is real life. Don’t eat for a week and let your body tell you what’s real life. Your body is going to say, “I need to eat, I need to eat, I need to eat. I need to eat. Real life is about eating.” That’s what’s going to happen. If you don’t eat, if you don’t drink water for a couple of days, you’re going to find out just how much your body starts to scream at you and then your body is going to tell you, “This is real life.” Huh.
Jesus gave us the answer. The enemy comes to Him after He was led by the Spirit to fast for 40 days and nights. As He’s coming out of His fasting, the devil comes to Him and he says, “Why don’t You turn stones into bread?” Jesus was going to perform a miracle not too far from that day, where He was going to turn water into wine. The devil knew the power that Jesus had that everything on the earth could immediately be turned into a resource, that if Jesus wanted it, He could have it. All He needed to do was what? How do you think the devil was tempting Jesus to turn stones into bread? How was He going to do it? Come on, come on. [Congregations answers; Speak it] Speak it. I mean, He’s going to speak it. He’s not going to take the stone, throw it into the air and say, “Lord, pfft, let it come back bread.” Get out of the way, lest the stone hits you on the head. Yes? He was wanting Him to use the power of His words of life and death, to use the power of His words to turn the stones into bread and guess what, the stones would have obeyed His command. But then He would have lost His authority to a suggestion, not to the will of God. His authority was in the will of God. The devil wanted Him to have the authority of suggestion to run His life.
So, now you and I are still faced with this; the authority of suggestion – do this, do this, follow this, go this, use this, do that. Suggestion. Whereas God is saying put the Word of God in your heart, in your mouth, in your mind day and night, day and night, use the Word of God, let it become your strength, let it become your stronghold, then it fills you with strength and courage and boldness so that when God speaks to you through the Word, now you are in a place where He creates for you.
Jesus did the same type of miracle soon after that; turning water into wine. What was the difference? The difference was not a demonic suggestion, it was a requirement by God to answer honour. His mother was proclaimed to have honour before God and before men. She used the honour to make a pull on God who had put the seed in her womb. And so when she had no answer, other than Jesus, she turned to Jesus and He said, “My time’s not yet.” She said, “Honour says it is.” This was no longer an evil temptation, it was a force of God that says, “Honour is asking. Therefore, I, God the Father, answer with honour because I proclaimed your favour and your honour when you were a virgin woman and you obeyed Me, you answered for your whole life that anytime you called on Me for favour and to meet a need, I would be there for you, Mary. Because I declared it over you when you said yes to Me.” Now, she’s making a pull on honour. It’s not a temptation for Jesus because He’s answering honour because He has honour for His Father. Now his Father says, “Jesus, go about Your business.” Water into wine. Do you see the difference? One was; I’m going to let your hunger talk to you, another one was honour is speaking to you. Completely different reality of life. Can you see it? If you can’t, you better listen to this message again and again and again until you get to see it. Because this is how we must think about heaven’s realities, not our natural realities.
That’s what the scripture says, 1 Set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honour at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. (Colossians 3:1 NLT). Jesus was responding to a heavenly force of honour; the devil wanted Him to answer to an earthly response of lust or temptation in hunger. 3 For you died to this life and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole earth, the whole world, you will share in his glory (Colossians 3:3-4 NLT). You share in his glory because you identify with Him in everything.
So, you need to think about the things of heaven. 5 So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking in you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater. A greedy person is one who worships idols, worshipping the things of this world. 6 Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming, not on the Christians, but on the world. 7 You used to do these things when your life was still a part of this world. 8 But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behaviour, slander, and dirty language. 9 Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. 10 Put on your new nature and be renewed as you learn to know your creator and become like him. This is the crossover; be renewed, be renewed. Put on the new nature and be renewed as you learn to know your creator and become like him. 11 In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you’re a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us (Colossians 3:5-11 NLT).
I want to say to you, if you are a slave, if you are a slave and Jesus becomes your Lord and Saviour, how do you think that changes your world? You see, we have a fairly easy life, actually. We have a fairly easy life. We have a fairly easy life, and so we don’t tend to think of ourselves in terms of slavery. But if you are a slave and you make Jesus the Lord and Saviour of your life, what is it that’s going to change about your life? In fact, the Apostle Paul writes in another place, and he says, “If you are a slave, don’t seek to be free from your master. Rather, become a person who lives the God-kind of life to your master.” And so if you’re a Christian and you’re a slave, you would be tempted to say, “I’ve got all this freedom in Christ. How is it that man can enslave me?” And you might be in a position where you might say, “I am free in Christ, therefore no man can enslave me. I will run away from my master.” Well, if they found you, they’d kill you. Paul wasn’t trying to tell them to be, he wasn’t trying to promote a system of slavery, he was dealing with human condition on the earth. And he was saying, “Whatever the human condition is that you find yourself in, put on Christ, live in a heavenly reality, not an earthly thought process. Because if you don’t put on Christ as a slave, you’re going to be so angry because you know that you are eternally free. But as a human, you are enslaved, you’re going to become so angry that you are going to do something you shouldn’t do.” I mean, he’s painting a picture of how the sin nature enslaves you. He says, “Now get rid of that stuff that slaves you, put on Christ that’s freed you. Put on Christ that’s freed you.” Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
12 Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful. And now verse 16 says, 16 Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. 17 And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father (Colossians 3:12-17, NLT). So, in closing then, I want to say; the God of Israel that parted the Red Sea is our God. Same God. Same living, powerful God. That God who parted the Red Sea, He’s in you. He’s in you. That God that caused 10 plagues to come upon Egypt because of their hardened heart, because of Pharaoh’s hardened heart, He permitted those things to happen on the earth, is the same God that permits things to happen on the earth because of sin. And it will be judged. He has to do it. He has to let hard-hearted men have their way.
The same God that commanded wealth to flow in one night into Israel for 400 years of abuse. They paid for 400 years of abuse, Egypt paid back to Israel in one day, one night. They walked away with 400 years of wealth of Egypt. They walked out of Egypt with that wealth in their hands. This is not a fairy tale story, people. This is a living God that made this happen.
It’s the same God that fed them day and night in the desert. He fed them, He clothed them, He kept them healthy, He gave them their own private heating and air conditioning system. Same God. It’s the same God, when they got to the river Jordan, that He opened the Jordan for them to cross over. It’s the same God that obliterated Jericho. Same God lives in you and me. And if He could take His people across, and I’m talking millions of people, He could get them to cross over. He could get them to move from one state to another. He could move them from one place to another. He could literally get them across through His power and His creativity. What makes you think that we have a barrier that can stop us? Hey? You tell me, is there a barrier that can stop you and me? I don’t know if you’re listening to me. I don’t know if you get this.
So, what do you think Jericho stood for? So, if we talk about the two rivers, we talk about barriers that crossed over. The big thing that stood before them in all of their future was the city of Jericho. It stood for the institutions of engineering, military might, education, all of the stuff that all comes together. That’s what Jericho stood for. And God said, “Don’t you lift a hand in battle against Jericho. You just praise Me, and you praise Me day after day, and you obey Me, and you praise Me, and you obey Me, and you praise Me and watch Me obliterate the systems that wish to control your future. I will obliterate it in front of your very eyes. Just praise Me. Just praise Me. Just praise Me. Just praise Me. Just praise Me. Give Me first place. Do what I say. Put it in your heart. Put it in your mind. Make it part of your conversation. Put it in your mouth. Keep it in your heart. Keep it in your mouth. Day after day. Keep it there. Cross over from negative talk to powerful talk. Cross over from depressive thinking to liberated thinking. Cross over from those things that want to keep you captive and be free in Christ Jesus.” It’s a crossover moment for all of us here. Hallelujah.
There is not a barrier on this earth that can stand against the people of God. We are His people. We are His people. We are His people. We are His people. I’m telling you, we are His people. The Bible says in Psalm 122, the Bible says that we must pray for Israel and the peace of Israel and that there will be peace in the borders and the boundaries of Israel and there will be peace and prosperity. I think this is a good time for us to pray for Israel. But guess what? If we identify with Israel, which we should, because Abraham came from them and brought Jesus to us, then when we pray for Israel’s peace, we pray for our peace because we are the covenant children of God. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus.
So we pray, Father, right now we pray in the name of Jesus that whatever is happening in Israel and whatever spiritual forces are combining in the end of the times, in the end of the ages, in the end of the world events, Father, that You would bring Your angels and intervene in the ways that You need to intervene to keep Your covenant people safe, to keep Your covenant people in peace and let them have a long life of prosperity and joy. We pray that Jerusalem would be in peace in Jesus’ name. We are being obedient to Your Word and doing it together as a people this morning in obedience and we declare that as we are obeying this, as You have told us, we also live in peace. Hallelujah. We thank You for it, Lord, in Jesus’ name. Glory to God. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus.
I am not concerned about world events. I’m also not concerned about what is happening around me. I have Jesus in my heart. It doesn’t mean to say I don’t think about these things. I do, but I always bring the Word to them. I allow facts to be filtered by faith. Hey, that works quite good. Facts filtered by faith. I like that. Facts filtered by faith. The future filtered by favour. Yeah. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Won’t you stand with me, please? Hallelujah.
I have endeavoured to bring the Word of God to you today in such a way that you would recognise that there is a very personal walk that you have, but that there is also a crossover that we must have as a whole people. That it’s not just about us individually, but it’s also about all of us corporately. And whilst we all need to have a very personal walk with God, we also need to have a very corporate walk with God. The two are intertwined and they are linked and God has ordained it to be that way. Hallelujah.
Won’t you put your hand on your heart, please? Let’s pray this together. Say; Jesus, You are the Lord and Saviour of my life. You are my Healer. You are my Provider. You are my future. I thank You, Lord, that from this day, I’m going to put Your Word in my mouth, in my mind, in my heart, day and night, every day, every night. I’m going to be strong and courageous and I will not be afraid. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Hallelujah.
I pray that the peace of God is your future. It rules your mind and it rules your heart. No weapon formed against you will prosper. Take that song that we sang today and you find refuge and you make Jesus your fortress. No weapon formed against you will prosper. He gives His angels charge over you and me. He surrounds us and protects us. The Word of God and the blood of Jesus are powerful forces standing as a shield against all things that would come against you in Jesus’ name. We command our angels to go and hearken to the Word of God and be there for our protection. We also ask the ministering spirits, the angels of God, to go out and set free all of the finances that God has ordained for us to have. All of those business opportunities. All of that income creating things. We say; go and unlock them. Go and make them work for us. Go and open them up and bring in rivers of income and rivers of prosperity and rivers of well-being in Jesus’ name. We speak that out to the angels, the ministering spirits, to go and do the Word of the Lord on our behalf in Jesus’ name.
You all agree with that today? Say; Amen. Well, be blessed. Message Moments today at five o’clock. Amen.
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