Scripture reference: John 5:20-23 (NKJV); 1 Timothy 5:17-20 (NKJV); 2 Timothy 3:10-11 (TPT); (2 Timothy 3:10-11 WNT); (2 Timothy 3:10-11 AMPC), (2 Timothy 3:14-17 NKJV); (2 Timothy 3:16 AMPC); 2 Timothy 3:15-17 (TPT); 2 Timothy 3:14:17 (MSG); 2 Kings 4:1 (NKJV); 2 Kings 4:7-37 (NKJV); 2 Kings 5:23-27 (NKJV); 2 Kings 8:1-6 (NKJV)
Pastor Sharon: We thank You Father, for Your saving power and Pastor John comes now to speak to us. Your words Father, from Your Spirit and we’re listening, Lord. We’re listening. Thank You that our hearts are open to receive, and we just come as Your people to believe and receive and walk in the things that You will say to us today. We bless you, Pastor John, in Jesus’ name. And we all say amen.
Pasor John: Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. I’m very glad you’re in church today. It’s always a good day to be in church. I look forward to church. Amen. Why don’t you just turn to someone and say, “I’m glad you’re in church. Welcome here today.” And then you may be seated.
Praise the Lord. Well, God is with us. God is with us. God is with us every day, all day, every moment, all the time. Here’s an interesting thing for you to think about. In the next 10 years, how many Sundays are you going to have? This is a simple sum. Jessica? [Jessica answers 520] 520 Exactly. How many days do you think you’re going to have that are not Sundays? 3,650 minus 520. Right? No, sorry. 3,000, What did I say? 3,650 minus 520. That means you’re going to have over 3,000 days available to yourself and 500 days plus that you can give God something. I wonder if you had to say, I’m going to just put this in sporting terms. If I said, “I’m going to train for an event and I’ve got 3,600 days to train, but I’m only going to train 520 days of the 3,600 days.” How well do you think I would be prepared for the event? My preparation would be very low, right? Very low.
But if I flipped it and I said, “I’m going to train for more than 3,000 days and I’m only going to rest for 520 days.” What kind of level of preparation do you think I’ll have? It’s very high. So, here we are in church, and we think we’re doing so great because we come to church every Sunday. And that Sundays are enough to get prepared for whatever events God has for our lives. The truth is you’re not prepared enough. Amen. Yes, you’re not prepared enough.
So, that’s why I do believe that as a Church, if we, as an Ecclesia, if we don’t give more to God and more to Him and we consider our lives to be our lives to live and give some to God, so that we feel good about what we give to him, we’ve got the wrong mindset. Actually, it’s our lives to live for Him and let Him give back to us that He wants to give back to us. That’s how we’re actually going to make a difference. That’s how we’re going to make a difference in our lives and that’s how we’re going to make a difference in everybody else’s life. Yeah.
So, I’m blessed. I’m going to be a little memorial today. I’m going to be a little memorial today so that we can honour the memory of a man that came into my life and I’m delighted to have been, to call him my spiritual leader, my apostle, my pastor, my friend. And, you know, we always knew the day would come when Brother Jerry would cross over from living part of his eternal life here to living his eternal life out of his body. We knew the time would come but he just didn’t give us enough warning. I don’t know why he didn’t tell us ahead of time so that we could have been a bit more ready for it, you know.
But so, there’s a part of our lives that we will miss him, but there’s a part of our lives that rejoice with him and we rejoice with his family and I for one am rejoicing for the life that he spent in honour of his Heavenly Father. Amen. I’ve said this a few times and I just want to remind you. I’m going to go through a… I will preach a little bit longer today if that’s okay with you, just because of the nature of the service today. I’d like to preach a little bit longer and so I promise I won’t keep you past one o’clock because I’ve got a plane to catch. But it will be a little longer.
I’m blessed to have got born again when I was very young, filled with the Holy Spirit when I was very young and had a great and strong desire in my life to live for Jesus. When I was young until I’m much older, I have lived for Him. I can certainly say that my life has been without, not been without challenges and without imperfections. But the Word of God has allowed me to overcome imperfections and go from glory to glory and faith to faith. That was his last message that he preached. Glory to glory and faith to faith. Amen.
I’ve had three pastors in my life or three spiritual men that I’ve had the privilege of walking with and serving. One of them was my natural father. He was also my pastor for the first, let’s say, 18 years of my life. Then I went to the military. He went to New Zealand and I married my wife. And we started going to Rhema and attending Rhema. Pastor Ray McCauley became my pastor and he was that for 19 years. He was that for 19 years. In that 19-year period, the Lord gave me an opportunity to meet Brother Jerry and for me to become directly connected and associated and walk under his leadership. And it has been that way for nearly 28 years. I’m thankful to say that I only move because God moves me. I don’t move because of some circumstantial thing. I’m glad that I can say that about me.
Now I can say this about Brother Jerry, that on my journey in life, I was first introduced to the message, not the messenger. I was introduced to the message through Pastor Ray. I was introduced to the message through audio cassettes and different things, Kenneth Copeland, Jerry Savelle, Charles Capps, Kenneth Hagin, many of those men. The only one that is left of all those men is Kenneth Copeland. He says he is going to 120. He is 88 now, living strong and healthy. Praise the Lord.
Well, it was a privilege for me to experience something that spoke to the depth of my spirit life, what spoke to the depth of my spirit man and my personal value system, if you like. I don’t like to talk about a personal value system, because a value system can be good or bad, because gangs can be extremely loyal, and everybody would say loyalty is a good value system, but it’s not necessarily a good value system. There are other things that connect to that value system.
But in my own self, I’m a relational person. I’m a loyal person. I value faithfulness. I value honour. I value these things. They are important to me. Have been always. Respect. These things have always been important to me. When I began to see the relationship that existed between Brother Jerry and Kenneth Copeland – their bond, their walk together, the way that they were respectful, honourable, faithful – I want to use the word loyal. They will eternally have a covenant relationship that is beyond human material things. It is beyond even their natural lifetime because their covenant will live on in their families and their covenant will live on in eternity. Amen.
So, those values really spoke to me, not just because they said it, but because I witnessed it. And I was privileged to be around Pastor Ray and watch their relationships in action, even though it was at a distance. It was close enough for it to be in the same geographic location. And it really had a marked impact on my life. That wasn’t the reason God joined me to Brother Jerry. He predestined way ahead of the time that I was born. He predestined that I would be born to my natural father, that I would eventually end up being in the household of faith with Pastor Ray and Rema, with Kenneth Hagin, and that would eventually transition me to walk with Brother Jerry Savelle.
Now, I can say that I have been around Brother Copeland and Brother Jerry enough to know this, that if God had not spoken to Brother Jerry when he was still new in the ministry with Brother Copeland and said this to him, “It’s not what you do with the anointing that is going to make the difference, and whether you are able to stay in relationship with Kenneth Copeland. It’s going to be about what you see in the familiar man, the human man. And how you manage that, that will cause you to be able to walk with him.” Because when you walk long enough with someone, you will see human flaws. You must. By nature, we have intelligence. We can see things happen, circumstances happen. And you personally would look at a situation and you would say, “If that’s me, I would make this set of decisions.” So, when someone else makes a different set of decisions, you by nature will say, “Wrong choice, wrong decision.” Whether that’s right or wrong, to you it’s wrong.
So to you, that would be an imperfect decision. It would be an imperfect behaviour pattern. Right. So, it doesn’t matter how perfect the human being is, in your imperfection, you will see things in that person through your imperfection and therefore it will be imperfect in the relationship. So, that level of contact, that familiarity, that familiar stuff that you become with the person. How you deal with that would be in the end how you walk with a person. Amen. Praise the Lord.
So, I am grateful, I’m grateful that I have lived at a time when I witnessed a living testimony of covenant and honour that Brother Jerry exercised with Brother Copeland. I have been privileged to be around him sitting in many dinners, many coffees, many business meetings, many things where I’ve watched his decision making and I’ve watched the way that he’s gone about it. Above all, there was not a thing that he would do in his life, in his behaviour pattern that would dishonour Brother Copeland. Because he would not dishonour his Heavenly Father. His honour for his Heavenly Father was so high that he understood the honour that he needed to have in his covenant relationship with Brother Copeland.
So, it doesn’t matter that they didn’t see each other very much and they live busy lives. And although they would spend ministry times together, ministry times often is taken up with ministry. Doesn’t matter if they didn’t spend a lot of time together. One thing that I could say, Brother Jerry always had in his mind, “Does this decision, does it bear witness with the will of the Father and is it good with God?” The next thing he would say is, “Is it good for the body of Christ and the integrity that I walk within the body of Christ?” And then in the back of his mind, he would always have it, “Is this going to uphold the covenant that I have with Brother Copeland?”
So, he arranged his annual travel schedule and calendar around what Brother Copeland needed from him. And that’s not just in the last couple of years when he decided that. At the turn of 50, in his 50th year, he said, “I’m going to spend the whole year serving Brother Copeland”. It wasn’t just from then. It’s been like that for 30 years or longer where he said, “I don’t make a plan until I know what Brother Copeland’s calendar looks like.” Well, you know, there’s a lot of ministers, a lot of preachers, a lot of people that don’t see that kind of thing. They think that’s ridiculous. You know, they say that’s crazy.
Why would you so completely put your ministry at the service of someone else? Well, it’s crazy because they rationalize it. And they obviously don’t have the depth of honour and covenant and understanding of the depth and honour and covenant that Brother Jerry had with Brother Copeland. And he said that directly to me. He said, “John, I can tell you now, that most people do not understand. They may say that they know it in their head, but they do not understand the depth of honour that I have with Brother Copeland that we have together. Because if they understood it there would be many questions they wouldn’t ask.”
So, I’m privileged to have obeyed God’s call to serve Brother Jerry, to walk with Brother Jerry, twenty-eight years ago. Actually, I didn’t know it then, but he was calling me to him in February of ‘96. And so, that’s now almost over twenty-eight years when I first started serving Brother Jerry, in February of ‘96. I wasn’t doing it full-time then, but I took a week’s leave and served him when I was at Rhema. And then later that year, in November, God said I should serve Brother Copeland and Gloria and all the ministers, and that’s when God called me to Brother Jerry, and then I started full-time with him in January of ‘98.
But in the year or more preceding that, I spent my spare time doing all the legal paperwork, setting up telephone numbers, fax numbers, the things that were then available in the world. You had to apply for a phone line, a business line. You still had phones that you could go tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. And they would still make the old sound of ringing you know, or dialling. So, that was then. And so, I did all the legal work and we had prayer meetings in our house every week. And where’s Mari? And Mari was first to come to all those prayer meetings. She already called me Pastor then. And when I said, “We were going to have prayer meetings,” Mari started to come to the very first prayer meetings that Sharon and I called to pray for Brother Jerry. Almost twenty-eight years ago when we started those prayer meetings, twenty-seven years ago. So, praise the Lord.
I’m thankful and grateful that God gave me the opportunity to have a relationship with such an honourable, upright and wonderful man. Aren’t you glad that God called me? Because when He called me, He had you in mind. He had you in mind. He had you in mind. He didn’t just call me for me. He called me for you. So, I have some things that I need to share this morning which is why I’ve asked you to give me a little latitude with time here. Because when I come back and I’ve extended my time there, we will be there for a week longer than we anticipated in the beginning.
I want to just remind you of something. The title of my message today is, Special Crossover, the Promise and the Honour. That’s the title of my message. Because Brother Jerry’s crossed over. He’s crossed over from being in his body and he’s crossed over to being in a glorified body. Hey? How many of you know that when I get to heaven, I’ll see him? And I’ll recognize him because he’ll have a glorified body that will look the same as he looked when he was on the earth. Yeah. And when I get to heaven and I see my dad, I’ll see him. I’ll know him because he’ll look like my dad. It’s not like we’re going to get there and we’re not going to recognize people. We’re going to have glorified bodies.
So, I need to just share this with you and however this comes out and whatever it does, I have to just say what I have to say because I will read you a passage of scripture. And in a little while, I’ll read you a passage of scripture which will make sense to what I’m about to tell you. In 2014, about July 2014, I felt really strong in my heart. There’s a lot I can tell you that has transpired in my life, but I’m starting at 2014. But 2014, July of 2014, the Lord really spoke to my heart and I began to feel an urgency and a compulsion to go to the USA. And I really felt in my heart that we needed to take a group of people with me. And at that time, the people that I took with me, other than my son Brynn, the rest of the people were in some form of leadership in the church, leading either as pastors or in music or something like that. And unfortunately, half of those people are no longer with us.
But at that time, I sat in a boardroom with Brother Jerry, in his boardroom, and I pointed to all of those people and I said, “Brother Jerry, these people are my strength. And I now say to you that everything that is my strength, I make my strength available to you. However you might ever need my strength, I make this strength available to you.” He got quite serious very quickly and he emphasized that he was very strongly saying to me, “Promise me one thing, John, that you will never stop preaching faith.” He said it, I believe, the way I remember it, he said it at least three times. Is that right, Pastor Christi? About three times. So, at least three times he said, “Promise me, John, you will never stop preaching faith.” I said, “Yes, sir.”
So, I promised him I would not ever stop preaching faith. And so, I’m just telling you now, that is a promise I made then, it’s a promise I keep now. It’s a promise I will keep until I cross over. I will never stop preaching faith. I will never stop preaching faith. Hallelujah. So, when you make a promise, oftentimes, and the Bible is full of people that make promises and some people don’t, and the Bible is full of stories of people that make promises and don’t keep them. In the Old Testament, if you made a promise or a vow, as it was sometimes called, and you didn’t keep it, people could hold you accountable to the point of death if you didn’t keep a promise or a vow. So, when you make a promise, the Bible says in the New Testament, don’t make promises invoking God’s name in order to show how sincere you are about the promise. Rather, just let your yes be your yes and your no be your no. Stick with what you say yes to.
That’s why, when Brother Dennis Peacock was here and, you know, I think you all saw how much affection he has for me. I think you were a witness of it. We hadn’t seen each other physically for at least 15 years. But the affection that we had for each other was immediately visible. That’s why when he said, “John, come and join my ministry team,” and I said, “No.” You know, he didn’t fully get it. Because how does God create such an affection between two people and it doesn’t materialize into something? Well, I had to go with what God had said to me, “I want you to serve Brother Jerry.” And He never yet changed His mind. He had never changed His mind.
He never spoke to me again and said, “It’s time for you to leave Brother Jerry.” Neither did I allow anything that Brother Jerry did – and remember what I now said about decisions, imperfect decisions. Things that he did and decided and made in his ministry. I never let those things offend me to the point where it removed me from my relationship with him. That’s my choice. That’s not his choice. That’s my choice. And I’m so glad that standing on this side of the crossover of Brother Jerry, I’m so glad that I stuck with my choice. Aren’t you? Because now that he’s gone, there’s nothing I can go back to fix. The fixing had to be done, and the living, and the walking, and the honour, and the covenant, and the promise had to be lived. Man to man, ministry to ministry, it had to be lived. You can’t go back and fix it when someone’s gone. Hallelujah.
So, I just want to make it public today that my honour for Brother Jerry will be forever. It’s not something that stops because he’s no longer here. It will continue forever. In fact, the minute he crossed over into eternity, he made it forever. That’s why I said, “He should have given me a bit more warning.” But here’s the thing, because I had already purposed in my heart that it will be forever when he crossed over, it doesn’t surprise me that it is forever. And isn’t that also what he and Brother Copeland have taught us for so many years? When you make a quality decision, make a decision of quality. Don’t make a decision and say, “Yes” today and “No” tomorrow. Amen.
You know, well, I must move along here. I don’t want to get too caught up in too many… I believe I’ve been working around the dates 2016 or 2017, but I believe it was the end of 2016. Anybody would like to tell me in the audience when I went to go and give an irrational honour seed to Brother Jerry? Say again? October of 2017. Anybody got a different date? I’ve been checking my photos and I’ve been checking my stuff, but I think it was October 2017. Yes? Okay. You remember he was supposed to come earlier in the year, and then he didn’t come, but we’d already prepared a seed for him, so that when he could come, that we would give him a good honorarium. And then he didn’t come. And then the Lord said to me, “But give him the seed anyway, as though he did come.”
Now, anybody will tell you that if you’re going to go and buy goods or services, you want to extract the most value out of your transaction. Right? If you get a price for a product, you want the best price for the product, then you want the highest quality product for the best price. That’s how we operate in human life. God has a completely different operating style. Not really the right word. Operating way, because He’s the Continuous Perfect State of Being.
So, you know what Kenneth Copeland started to do, and he learned this from Oral Roberts. He started when God told him to give his first aeroplane away, he made sure that the aeroplane was clean. He made sure that it was serviced. He made sure that it was in the kind of condition that when he received the plane, he would want that plane back in the same condition. The best level of service, the best level of maintenance, the best level of everything. So, when he ever sowed an aeroplane and gave it away, he made sure that many times he replaced an engine.
I mean, you know, in our value system, if I buy you something, I want something back. That’s not how Brother Copeland learned it from Oral Roberts, and that’s not how he operated in his life. Well, Brother Jerry, learned that himself. It’s a higher level of honour. It’s a higher level of relationship that you have with God where you say, “It doesn’t matter if I’m spending my money now to give my seed to somebody where it’s better than actually I would have made it had I been continuing to use it.” So, if Brother Copeland had continued to use the plane and if Brother Jerry had continued to use a plane, they may not have serviced the plane for another thousand miles of flying. But now they’re giving the plane away as a seed. They now do the service of the plane so that the person who’s getting the plane has the benefit of a thousand miles. That’s a higher level of living your life. Amen.
So, when the Lord said to me, “Why don’t you give Brother Jerry an irrational honour seed?” The reason He used the word irrational to me is because it’s not rational to give someone a seed for something he didn’t do. Because it’s an honorarium. It’s a recognition of the gift that he brought to you. His gift. So, he didn’t bring the gift, so then he doesn’t get the money. That’s how it works in church. Cancel the appointment. Well, you can’t get it. You can’t get it because they’re not going to take up an offering for you because you didn’t preach. But we didn’t see it that way. We were taking up offerings so that when the time came, we already had our offering. It wasn’t just because what he brought to us while he was preaching.
I’ll tell you what if the whole body of Christ operated that way, most preachers would probably spend a lot less time talking about money than they do. Because people would seek in their hearts what God wants to do rather than what they hear from the preacher. And then get inspired by the preaching to give. I’m teaching many things today. Anyway, so we said we’re going to give an irrational honour seed. And I say, again, “You people are amazing. How you responded to that.” Because in the end, when we ended up giving that seed to Brother Jerry. The number that we had in mind that we knew was a really outstanding offering in US dollars. It was by anybody’s standard, even in America at that time, the offering we were going to give was an outstanding offering. By the time we got to give it to him, it was three times higher. It was three times more than we originally thought of. Praise the Lord.
So, I now get into the ministry part of this. Because this is going to take us somewhere. But just remember, and I just need to conclude my calendar point. After the irrational seed, because he was going to come and then he couldn’t come. Then he had the throat operation. Then, because when I took the seed to him, the next day he went into the operation, he had the stroke. But he had said to me, “When I come to South Africa, John, say this to your people.” He came back the next year. You remember he came, he came for three days. He went into the back of the room there. And the Lord spoke to him. He said, “Next time you come back, you come back for as long as I tell you to. And you don’t leave until I say it’s okay for you to go.” So, only the second time and the last time he ever did that in his whole ministry was for us. Was for us.
Don’t you know that from that moment onwards, God started to deal with me and say, “John, I want you to go to America. I want you to start spending time with Brother Jerry and spend weeks and sometimes almost months with him. And just serve him and be there with him and do it at your own expense.” And you guys have been amazing because you sowed seed towards that and you allowed us to go and do that. So, you are partakers of that. Amen. Aren’t you glad you were partakers then because now you can’t be partakers again? Because now he’s gone, it will be different, but he’s gone now.
John chapter five, verse 20 says, 20 For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will. 22 For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, 23 that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. (John 5:20-23, NKJV)
Come on. Some time ago, I said in this platform, I said, “If you say Pastor Christi can say something, but you don’t have to listen to what she says because you want to hear me say something. Well, then you don’t understand delegated authority.” If you have conversation, if she says something you don’t agree with, and then you owe it to the Word of God, not to human interference or human issues, but you owe it to the Word of God to go back to her and say, “I don’t agree with what you said, Pastor Christi, because the Word of God says the way that I must go about it is come to you and show you why I disagree with you. Here’s the message, here’s the Word, here’s what God said to me. And now I’m going to talk to you about what God said to me and now I must have this conversation with you.” Then if you and she can’t resolve it and or Pastor Garth and or Pastor Melusi or one of those, if you can’t resolve it, then you come together with her to see me. That’s the order of the scriptures. That’s the order of the scriptures.
So, 23 …. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. (John 5:23 NKJV) That’s why when I was saying in the beginning of the service, you know, Brother Jerry, one of the very few times he ever interfered in the operational work of Kenneth Copeland’s ministry was here in South Africa. He came here to visit Pastor Ray and the Holy Spirit alerted him. The Holy Spirit alerted him that there was disorder in Kenneth Copeland’s ministry. And so, he went about investigating things that was happening in Kenneth Copeland’s ministries. He found some things that he didn’t, that were not right. So, he phoned Brother Copeland and he said, “Brother Copeland, there’s some stuff here in the South Africa office that I’m not in agreement with. This is not representing you well. How much authority do I have to work here?” He said, “Jerry, whatever authority I stand in, you stand in that authority. Whatever you do, I back you. You make the decision, I’ll back you.”
He walked into the office, he fired the man and changed things. They rehired somebody else. Brother Copeland’s ministry turned around and it’s been in South Africa functioning, operating as a ministry, serving the South African and African people for 45 years. You see, there was delegated authority. Amen. I mean, Brother Copeland wasn’t here and neither were any of his staff here to see what was going on. But the one that represented him on his board and represented him in excellence, he was there.
Now, first Timothy, Chapter five, verse 17. I’m going to read this to you out of a few translations. Verse 17, 17 let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially those who labour in the word and doctrine. 18 For the Scripture says, “you shall not muzzle and ox while it treads out the grain, and the labourer is worthy of his wages.” 19 Do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses. 20 Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all, that the rest also may fear. (1 Timothy 5:17-20 NKJV) I’m wanting to make a point here about this, and that is that God recognizes people who are spiritual authorities in the church as worthy of honour. Hey. That doesn’t mean to say that everything they do is right. Remember what I said earlier on in the service, “You may have a way of seeing things in life and you look at the way I do things in life,” and you say, “But I wouldn’t do that therefore, he’s wrong.”
The Bible is not talking about whether you think I’m doing right or anyone else is doing right or wrong. This is about honour that supersedes right or wrong. This is obviously not a moral issue. If I was cheating on Pastor Sharon, then I would expect you all to honour Pastor Sharon and fire me. Well, you know, now Brother Jerry’s not here, he would have fired me. So, now it’s up to you all, but like I said, “I have this value in my life. I have this lifestyle that I live that I have lived amongst you for many years, that it speaks for itself.” So, God has blessed me with this honour that I now can stand in front of you as a father, because, you know, like someone said one time, “My marriage is forty-four years old, I think it’s going to last.” Yeah.
My walk amongst you and with you and around you has been open. I don’t hide stuff from you. You know, one time Brother Jerry actually said to me, “John, you’re too vulnerable, you’re too accountable to people.” He did, he said that to me, he said, “You’re too accountable to people.” So, I mean, he’s coming from a place where he’d experienced many people in ministry attacking him and Brother Copeland and many other things. So, I understood the mindset that he was coming from, that he experienced much, much persecution for our sake. He was saying from his perspective, “John, you’re too accountable to people.”
Well, I have this recognition about accountability; if I’m accountable truly, then it will keep me safe because if I’m accountable, then my life is open for you to come and have a look, and if you can’t find anything, then I’m safe. And then if you can find something, then I’d rather say, “Hey, guys, help me get rid of it. Help me fix it. Let’s walk together on this.” Then there’s value on each side because then you can help me get better. Come on. I think there’s harm in hiding. There’s harm in hiding. The minute you start hiding, you start compromising. You compromise relationship, you compromise honour, you compromise respect, you compromise dignity, you compromise intimacy. There’s harm in hiding. Without hiding, you can live in honour.
How many people do you think have wanted to hang around Brother Jerry for years and years and years? But in his heart, he’s been cautious. That’s why I consider it my greatest privilege that I don’t live in America, I’m not serving him in his ministry, I’m not traveling with him in his ministry like that where I’m selling his books or I’m doing stuff. But he permitted me to travel with him everywhere. Because my ministry, my life from 2014, and I said, “My strength is your strength.” From 2014, there was a higher level of accountability that I had towards him and from him. All the strength that was in our ministry, if he called on it, he had the right to call on it. Amen.
I need to talk like this to you today because I’m going to be away for a couple of weeks. Then when I get back, I want to reset. Then once the memorial is over and the celebration of Brother Jerry is over, there’ll be a new set of orders that will start coming. New differences are going to start coming. I don’t want to live in the past. I want to go forward.
The Passion Translation in 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 10 says this. 10 But you, Timothy, have closely followed my example and the truth that I’ve imparted to you. You have modelled your life after the love and endurance I’ve demonstrated in my ministry by not giving up. (2 Timothy 3:10 TPT) Come on. How many of you know Brother Jerry’s whole thing is don’t quit? Hey, don’t quit. Don’t quit. If you’ve been around me long enough, you’ll know that very often there’s been many reasons for us to quit. Come on. Your strength is my strength. Isn’t it?
Who do I preach to if you’re not here this morning? Sharon and I, when people tried to destroy our ministry in 2004, literally, when they tried to destroy our ministry. Sharon and I, after we went to Brother Jerry and we came back and all of that, Sharon and I made a decision. If it’s only me and her, we have to preach to the pews, to an empty church; we will obey the call of God. That’s a don’t quit attitude. Timothy says here, 10…. you have followed my example and the truth that I’ve imparted to you. You have modelled your life after the love and endurance I’ve demonstrated in my ministry by not giving up. The faith I have, you now have. What I have hungered for in life has now become your longing as well. (2 Timothy 3:10 TPT) When you saw Jerry Savelle, you saw Kenneth Copeland. I trust that when you see me, you will see Brother Jerry.
The legacy of Brother Jerry is not in the organization and in the products that Brother Jerry sells. The legacy is in me. His legacy is in you. It’s in all of us. The greatest honour we can give Brother Jerry and any of the men that have gone before us is that what they imparted to us, we lived that truth too, and what they were hungry for, we are still hungry for.
10….The patience I have with others, you now demonstrate (2 Timothy 3:10 TPT). Many times, the patience that God has given me to walk with people in life through so much of the challenges in life. The patience that I have, people say, “How do you do that?” It’s grace. It’s grace. But I see it in you all now. That patience has been growing. 11 In the same persecutions and difficulties I have endured, you have also endured. (2 Timothy 3:11 TPT) The Weymouth New Testament Translation says, verses 10 and 11 like this, 10 But you have intimately known my teaching, life, aims, faith, patience, love, resignation, in other words, I’m resigned to what God wants for me 11 and the persecutions and sufferings which I have endured. (2 Timothy 3:10-11 WNT) You have become intimately, you know this. Intimately. The Amplified Bible verse 10 says, 10 Now you have closely observed and diligently followed my teaching, conduct, purpose in life, faith, patience, love, steadfastness, 11 persecutions and sufferings… (2 Timothy 3:10-11 AMPC)
You’ve closely followed it. Amen. Well, I’m delighted I’m standing here today and I can say that even though I’m sad that Brother Jerry’s gone, I have this great joy and this great peace in my life, that when God has spoken to me about things in my relationship with Brother Jerry, I’ve responded to them. Even to last year in November when I was saying, “I’m going to be away for so many weeks and I’m going to spend this much time with Brother Jerry. I know that there’s a new season coming. I know that there’s new things coming down the line. I know this. I know this. Yet, I’m still hanging out with him.”
We came out of a meeting where Brother Copeland preached. We were in the hotel and we stood in the lift. As we got into the lift, Brother Copeland came with his security detail and he stood in the lift. Now we’re going up the lift. That’s me and Tony, security guy, Kenneth and Jerry. And I’m standing in the lift and we’re going up to our rooms. We’re all on the same floor. I’m standing there and I’m thinking, I’m glad I came. Now that he’s gone, I’m glad I went.
The New King James Version, second Timothy Chapter 3 verse 14 says, 14 But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, 15 and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:14-17 NKJV). Well, if we don’t have instruction on the whole Word of God, then we cannot get complete. We need instruction from the whole Word of God for us to get complete.
The Amplified Bible in verse 16 says this, 16 Every Scripture is God-breathed (given by His inspiration) and profitable for instruction, for reproof and conviction of sin, for correction of error and discipline in obedience, [and] for training in righteousness. Come on, seek ye first the kingdom of God and His….? because if you’re living that way, everything will be…..? So, all scripture is given to us so that we could be trained in righteousness, (in holy living, holiness, integrated thought, word, and deed in conformity to God’s will in thought, purpose, and action). (2 Timothy 3:16 AMPC). Come on, this sounds pretty much like I’m quoting Paul, who wrote to Timothy, who I speak from the word of God to you. Hallelujah.
I really like the way the Passion translation writes it. 15 Remember what you were taught from your childhood from the Holy Scrolls which can impart to you wisdom to experience everlasting life through the faith of Jesus, the Anointed One! Every scripture has been written by the Holy Spirit, the breath of God. 16….It will empower you by its instruction and correction. (2 Timothy 3:15-16 TPT) Here is the whole purpose of instruction and correction. It’s to give you power not to try and dominate you. It’s to give you better not to try and show you how bad you are. Isn’t it so that when someone instructs you or corrects you, it’s just a factor of unfortunate cultural and behavioural learning, our first instinct is defensive. You know, “I’m not that wrong. Don’t teach me. I’m not. I can’t be that wrong. I can’t be that bad. I can’t be. Why do you want to correct me? You can’t. I don’t need that much correction. I’m much more perfect than you think.” Don’t look at me like that. Even if you don’t say that with your mouth, that’s what you’re thinking. “I don’t need that much correction. I’m more perfect than you think.” Well, I’ve got news for you. God looks past all of what you think of your perfection and He sees your heart.
16…It will empower you by its instruction and correction, giving you the strength to take the right direction and lead you deeper into the path of godliness. 17 Then you will be God’s servant, fully mature and perfectly prepared to fulfill any assignment God gives you. (2 Timothy 3:16-17 TPT) I like the way that the Passion translation puts it because other translations that I’ve already read you say, “Then the man of God.” Well, you know my way I think about that. So, everybody’s talking about, “The man of God, the man of God,” and it’s like become the badge of the man of God. And if everybody says, “It’s the man of God” well, then you must be the man of God. Meanwhile, most of those people are not men of God. They’re just men that like the title; Man of God.
When I first came to this church, people were calling me, “Pastoor” or “Pastor.” And I said, even in the church in Joburg, I said, “Don’t call me pastor unless I’m your pastor and unless you want to call me pastor because you understand that I am your pastor. I don’t want you to call me pastor because it’s a title that I think would help me in my status. I also don’t need the title of apostle because it helps me in my status.” I either am one or it’s meaningless than if you call me apostle for status’s sake. Come on.
Anyway, I like it when it says here, 17 Then you will be God’s servant, fully mature and perfectly prepared to fulfill any assignment God gives you. (2 Timothy 3:17 TPT) The Message Translation has a good way of putting it, 14-17 Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, “No, not me Pastor John.” Every time you say, “I want to do my thing and I don’t want to do what I know the Word says…” Hey? Eish. 14-17 Correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way. (2 Timothy 3:14:17 MSG) I’ll tell you this. This is just for free now this morning. If you accept the fact that you have rebellion in your heart, you will be better capable of dealing with it. It’s most of the time people that deny that they have rebellion in their heart that will never deal with it. You say, “But no, Pastor John, I don’t have rebellion. I’m submitted.”
Until someone tells you to do something you don’t agree with. Then you’ve gone from agreement to disagreement, and now your disagreement is going to test whether you have honour and submission. Accountability. Now it’s going to test you. So, if we all accept that our human nature is designed to be rebellious, to rebel against God, and to rebel against the life of God. Our human DNA, not your soul, not your spirit, your human DNA has got rebellion in it. You say, “Okay, I have to now watch out for rebellious thoughts, rebellious behaviors, rebellious emotions that want to drive my life in a direction that’s away from God.” The minute we are honest about that, we can better deal with ourselves and we can let the Word of God correct us and deal with us. It’s just for free. So, it’s 14-17 ….. correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us. (2 Timothy 3:14-17 MSG) Amen. This word today is full of rich things and I’ve only got started.
One of the things that Brother Jerry was well known for is that he wrote a book about The Benefits of Favour: and favour produces supernatural increase and provision; it produces restoration of everything that the enemy has stolen from you; produces honor in the midst of your adversaries; produces increased assets, especially in the area of real estate; produces great victories in the midst of great impossibilities; produces recognition, even when you seem the least likely to receive it; produces prominence and preferential treatment; it produces petitions granted by ungodly civil authorities. Okay, I want to say to you, “Would you like to have these things in your life permanently? Would you?” So, if we’re going to go forward, I say, “Why don’t you start to take these 10 things and speak them out over your life loud every day? And why don’t you do it more than once a day?”
I thank you, Lord, that the favour that is upon me produces supernatural increase and promotion. I’ll tell you what, if you just take number one and talk like that for a month and you do it all the time. Thank you, Lord. The favour is increasing me and it’s causing me to have supernatural promotion. It’s increasing me and it’s causing me to have supernatural promotion. It’s supernatural increase and supernatural promotion. Thank you, Lord, that the favour is on me. I’m getting it. I’m getting it. I’m getting it. I’m getting it. Thank you, Lord. What do you think is going to happen to your mindset if you say this?
Now, come on, I’m going to talk for a moment to those of you here that might have had some – might have a life where your assets and your status is already at a level where you have had a lot of promotion and increase in your life. How much more do you think you can get? Why don’t you take what you’ve got and say, “Lord, this is just the beginning point. Let’s make sure that we have supernatural on this state on this from here, let’s have the supernatural.” Don’t look at that first one and say, “Well, I’ve experienced lots of favour and increase and I’ve been promoted many times in my life and so, I don’t need more promotion.” Says who?
Favour says it wants to give it to you. And so, you might say, but in my company or in my business, I am promoted pretty much as far as I can go. Well, there’s some things that you don’t even know that you can get from God that you can’t even think about as per Ephesians chapter three. You can’t even ask for it, it’s beyond your wildest asking and thinking and imagination. How are you going to get it? Speak this over your life. What about more honour? Amongst all of your enemies, your foes against systems. You get the point. I don’t want to belabour this too much today. I’ve got other things to say, but I wanted to just read that out aloud to you this morning.
I want to take you through a significant moment in our ministry. That I believe has created this launching point for where we are now and where we are going. I’m going to speak first out of Second Kings Chapter Four and go through Second Kings to Chapter Five. And I’m just going to talk to you about things that happened in the Book of Kings. 1 A certain woman, verse one of Chapter four, 1 A certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord. And the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves.” (2 Kings 4:1 NKJV)
So, I just want to say, something happened in this prophet’s life where he now had a debt that he had to pay. And he dies in the service of a senior prophet and he dies in the service of the Lord. And now the creditor comes to say to his wife, “Pay me what your husband owed me.” She says, “I can’t.” And he says, “I’ll take your sons to pay my debt.” That’s what they did in those days. They took your kids to work for them as the payment if you couldn’t make the payment. How many of you would like that to happen to you? Not much, right? Not so much. No. Okay.
So, what does Elisha do? He says, “What have you got in your house?” She says, “I only have a little jar of oil.” He says, “Go borrow as many jars as you can and take that oil and start pouring it into your jars.” And so, she just keeps pouring and she keeps pouring and she keeps pouring and until there’s no more jars to fill. So, then Elisha said to her in verse seven, 7 “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.”(2 Kings 4:7 NKJV)
That’s a miracle that I get reading to you from Timothy, how God says all of scripture is good for us. So, this is good for us. The Continuous Perfect State of Being. Was He present to do this? In eternity time, how much time has gone by from this thing happened to where we are now? There’s no time in eternity. So, in the moment when God was actually making the oil happen in man years, many times have gone by. But in God’s time, they’re still talking about it in heaven. Because it only just happened. Even if we had to take the example of a thousand years is as a day and a day as a thousand years, then it’s about four days. Eternity time.
So, that Continuous Perfect State of Being that was doing that miracle is still with us now. In you and me. Verse eight. 8 Now it happened one day that Elisha went to Shunem, where there was a notable woman, and she persuaded him to eat some food. So it was, as often as he passed by, he would turn in there to eat some food. 9 And she said to her husband, “Look now, I know that this is a holy man of God, who passes by us regularly. 10 Please, let us make a small upper room on the wall; and let us put a bed for him there, and a table and a chair and a lampstand; so it will be, whenever he comes to us, he can turn in there.” (2 Kings 4:8-10 NKJV).
Did he ask for this? Did they give it to him? She had it in her heart. 11 And it happened one day that he came there, and he turned in to the upper room and lay down there. 12 Then he said to Gehazi his servant. Can you just repeat the name of the servant with me? His name is Gehazi. Let’s say it again. His name is Gehazi. 12 “Call this Shunammite woman.” When he had called her, she stood before him. 13 And he said to him, “Say now to her, ‘Look, you have been concerned for us with all this care. What can I do for you? Do you want me to speak on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?’ ”She answered, “I dwell among my own people.” (2 Kings 4:11-13 NKJV)
So, the first thing I want to say to you, she was a notable woman. She decided out of her own to give him food coming and going when she observed him and this was her way of getting to know him, her observing. She said, “I’ve seen this is a holy man and let’s make a place for him to come and stay here.” Why would she want to do that? If she saw him as a holy man, every time he came into the house, he was bringing what with him? Holiness. Holiness is a state of being with God. So, she recognised if I make a place for him when he comes into my house, his state of being with God comes into my house. So, let us make him a place where he can constantly come here. Now, he’s got this thing.
13 “I dwell among my own people.” I don’t need you to speak to the king. I don’t need you to speak to a general for me. My relationship with those people are notable. So, I don’t need any favour from you. I’ve come to favour you. 14 So he said, “What then is to be done for her?” And Gehazi answered, “Actually, she has no son, and her husband is old.” (2 Kings 4:13-14 NKJV) Okay, now just bear with me for a minute, because this is quite important because you can just read over it. If the Bible is saying she has no son and her husband is old. That means she’s young enough to still have kids. Right? But he’s old. Men can have kids till they’re much older than women. So by reference, if they’re saying he’s old, he’s that old that he no longer wants to even look at this beautiful young woman’s body. It has no arousal impact on him. Because he’s really old. If you just read it just like, “Well, he’s old.” You just ignore the fact that he’s not lying with her anymore, in that way. Do I have to be more blunt, he’s not having sex with her anymore.
15 So he said, “Call her.” When he had called her, she stood in the doorway. 16 Then he said, “About this time next year you shall embrace a son.” And she said, “No, my lord. Man of God, do not lie to your maidservant!” (2 Kings 4:15-16 NKJV) What was she saying? “I’m young. For whatever reason, this old man and me, we can’t have kids, we haven’t had kids. Now you’re telling me that even at his age and the stuff that’s not happening, we’re going to have kids. Don’t lie to me.” And she’s rationalising what the holy man that has come to bring holiness to her house is speaking to her. “No, don’t lie to me. Don’t tell me it’s possible that this can happen.”
This is what happens oftentimes when we as messengers come and speak the Word of God and people hear things that seem irrational in their outcomes and what might happen. And yet God says, “If you have holiness in your life and in and around you, things are possible beyond what you can think.”
17 But the woman conceived, and bore a son when the appointed time had come, of which Elisha had told her. 18 And the child grew. Now it happened one day that he went out to his father, to the reapers. 19 And he said to his father, “My head, my head!” So he said to a servant, “Carry him to his mother.” 20 When he had taken him… (2 Kings 4:17-20 NKJV) This old man came to life. He’s out in the field now, working with the reapers. You understand, he came to life. The holy man that came to walk in their doorway, that holiness that was on him, that he had walked with God, came into his body and revived him, and strengthened him, and made him a man that he was no longer before.
How did this all start? Because she said, “Let’s give him some food. Let’s make a place for him to stay.” That kicked the whole order of life into their world that they couldn’t have even begin to think of. They chose, they didn’t wait for God to come and knock them on the head and say, “Do something.” They chose it.
19… “Carry him to his mother.” 20 When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died. 21 And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door upon him, and went out. 22 Then she called to her husband, and said, “Please send me one of the young men and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of God and come back.” 24 Then she saddled a donkey…. and went to him. 25 And then he saw her coming from afar off and he said to Gehazi, “Look, the Shunammite woman! 26 Please run now to meet her, and say to her, ‘Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?’ ” Well, those are the things that are important to anyone’s life, right? And she answered, “It is well.” 27 Now when she came to the man of God at the hill, she caught him by the feet, in other words, she bowed down in front of him and she grabbed his feet, dirty as they were in the field, but Gehazi came near to push her away. But the man of God said, “Let her alone; for her soul is in deep distress, and the Lord has hidden it from me, and has not told me.” (2 Kings 4:19-27 NKJV)
Let me tell you, this is a very real thing that we can learn, that even though someone might speak for God, there might be a situation where things are unfolding in your life and you’re saying, “Have you heard nothing from God for me?” Sometimes it’s because God has hidden it from me. For why? For His purpose and for your purpose. But that’s not the end of the story.
28 So she said, “Did I ask a son of my lord? Did I not say, ‘Do not deceive me’?” 29 Then he said to Gehazi, “Get yourself ready, and take my staff in your hand, and be on your way. If you meet anyone, do not greet him; and if anyone greets you, do not answer him; but lay my staff on the face of the child.” (2 Kings 4:28-29 NKJV) I just want to ask you a question. Do you think that wherever Gehazi went, everybody knew who he was? Because he was known as the servant of Elisha. Right? So, Elisha says, “You don’t even talk to anybody. Even if they greet you, don’t talk to them.” Wow. He’s making sure that everybody that might want to talk to him, there’s no interference here.
Anyway, 29 … “lay my staff on the face of the child.” 30 And the mother of the child said, “As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you, Prophet” So he arose and followed her. 31 Now Gehazi went on ahead of them, and laid the staff on the face of the child; but there was nothing that happened. And he came back and he said, The child has not awakened. And so Elisha came to the house. 33 He went into the house, shut the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the Lord. 34 And he went up and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands; and he stretched himself out on the child, and the flesh of the child became warm. 35 He returned and walked back and forth in the house, and again went up and stretched himself out on him; then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. 36 And he called Gehazi and said, “Call this Shunammite woman.” So he called her. And when she came in to him, he said, “Pick up your son.” 37 So she went in, fell at his feet, and bowed to the ground; then she picked up her son and went out. (2 Kings 4:29-37 NKJV Hallelujah.
What I’ve just said to you now is a short version of what I preached the Sunday before I left to take our irrational honour seed to Brother Jerry. What I’ve just preached to you is a five-minute version of that message. When we arrived in the USA on the Monday, we were going to see Brother Jerry on the Tuesday morning. We went in to see him on Tuesday morning and he was going to be admitted to the hospital Tuesday night, to have an operation on Wednesday morning. We were there on Tuesday, we placed our seed in front of him, and he proceeded to read this passage of scripture to me. And he said to me, “Now, John, because of this honour seed that you have given me, you go back and you tell your people that because they have participated in the seed, that God is going to cause things to be birthed in their life that they couldn’t even have asked for, that they have been unwilling to ask for. God is going to birth things in their lives.” And then he said, “And wherever there have been dreams and whenever there have been things that have died in their lives that seem impossible to be resurrected, God is going to resurrect those dreams and resurrect those things in their lives. Now go back and tell them. And when I come back to you next time, I will bring the same ministry to your people.” Praise Jesus.
Two things happened there; he received our honor seed. That honour seed is the seed that; we recognise there’s holiness in this man, there’s a calling, there’s a gifting, there’s a life of integrity in this man. God’s called us to this man, we are going to walk with this man. We are going to create a place of honour for this man. We can’t do it as a house that he can visit, but we can do it with our energy, our gifts, our things, our callings. We can do this and we can be connected. I want to tell you that that honour seed, that word that he spoke is still working. It will never, never, never stop working, even though he has crossed over. That seed is still working. Those words are still prophetically working. Hallelujah.
And you remember that as a result of that, he came back and then he came here for three days. And then God said, “Come back for another eight days. Come back until I tell you it’s time to leave.” I wonder if our honour seed had anything to do with creating the environment that was ready for things to be birthed and for new opportunities and for new things to come, and old things that were dead a long time ago to restore, come back to life. I tell you people, he may have crossed over out of his body, but we, me, I am the legacy. The message that has been preached will continue and live inside of me forever. There is no place for dishonour in my life for him and for the message of faith and the message that brought us this far. When anybody asked him about his relationship with Kenneth Copeland, he said, “My mother never raised no fool. I dance with the one who brung me.” It was his relationship with Brother Copeland and his relationship with the Word of Faith that brought him all of the things that he had.
Brother Joe was talking to me on the phone, a lot this week. Many times a day, sometimes. Last night we were talking on the phone. But one of the things that he said to me was, he said, “John, Brother Jerry, God called us together and we stayed together and we did everything that God told us to do together until the very end of him. But what happens, this thing continues.” What is he saying to me? And we’ve had a lot of conversations over the week, even though we’re going to miss his physical thing, the Word lives. The Word lives. The Word lives. Hallelujah. The Word of God lives mightily in me and you.
I’m nearly finished. Actually, I’ve got a lot to say still but I have to finish sometime. You know, the next thing Elisah does is he purifies a pot of stew. You can go read it.
Then afterward, Elisha feeds 100 men with just a few loaves of food and barley. The next thing he does is Naaman the leper comes to him and God heals Naaman the leper. Do you know what the biggest part of that story of Naaman’s leprosy is? The servant. The servant of Elisha chased Naaman down. And this is what he said. 23 So Naaman said to the servant, “Please take two talents.” And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, … and two changes of garments, and handed them to two of his servants; and they carried them on ahead of him. 24 When he came to … he took them from their hand, and stored them away in the house … 25 Now he went in and stood before his master. Elisha said to him, “Where did you go, Gehazi?” And he said, “Your servant did not go anywhere.” (2 Kings 5:23-25 NKJV).
Hey, can you see, is this honour or dishonour working here? Dishonour will lead to deception and deception will lead to dishonour. I’ll tell you what, people think people can get away with deception and dishonour. You can’t. It’s a thing that lives in a Continuous Perfect State of Being. It’s who God is. The Father honoured the Son. Remember, I started the whole message; the Father honours the Son and the Son honours the Father. Honour is a thing that is in God and He wants it to be among men. And so if you think, if you and I think we can get away with dishonour and deception and as long as no one else knows about it, we’ll be okay?
26 Then he said to him, “Did not my heart go with you when the man turned back from his chariot to meet you? Did not my heart or other translation say, my spirit go with you? Is it time to receive money and to receive clothing, olive groves and vineyards, sheep and oxen, male and female servants? In other words, “The time would have come, Gehazi, because of your serving me when all of these things I’ve just said would be your portion.” Look what happened – 26 … Is it time to receive money and to receive clothing, olive groves and vineyards, sheep and oxen, male and female servants? (2 Kings 5:26 NKJV). Is it time to receive these things? “No Gehazi, your greed has put you out of time. Your dishonour and your deception has put you out of time. The time would have come when these things out of serving and honour for the ways of God and the men of God would have come to you.” 27 Therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and your descendants forever.” And he went out from his presence leprous, as white as snow (2 Kings 5:27 NKJV).
I’ll tell you, people, I really want to share one more thing with you, please. I know what the time is, but please let me share one more thing with you this morning and this is my last scripture, actually, so praise the Lord He has helped me today. A whole lot of things happens in Elisha’s life. A lot of things happens in Israel’s life but I want to just share this with you. Second Kings, chapter eight, verse one, 1 Then Elisha, this is something that is about to happen. Then Elisha spoke to the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, come on, people, “Arise and go, you and your household, and stay wherever you can; just don’t stay in Israel, for the Lord has called for a famine, and furthermore, it will come upon the land for seven years.” 2 So the woman arose and did according to the saying of the man of God, and she went with her household and dwelt in the land of the Philistines for seven years (2 Kings 8:1-2 NKJV).
Who’s this woman that he’s talking to? He’s talking to the woman who said, “I perceive we have a holy man. He comes and he goes, let’s feed him.” Now, let’s say, you’re going to give him a place to stay and then all of her taking care of him in the order of time, she needs something. She doesn’t need anything. What does she want? She would like to have a child. Well, let’s give her a child. The enemy comes to steal the dream that she had from when she was little. The enemy comes to steal the dream when it was already manifesting. So, God has to intervene through the same divine connection to speak a word to bring her son back to life. Now, If people say, “Your seed is enough for this to have happened in your life,” let me tell you, your seed and your walk with God and your recognition of who God’s called you to will work for a long time.
Because Elisha did not have to share with her privately what God was going to do publicly. But before he made it public, he went to her privately and said, “God’s about to do something and you have honoured me. You have recognised holiness in me.” Why could he go and tell her? Because she already knew who he was. How can a man who gets a word from God go and tell someone this is what the Lord says and they think, “Oh, no, you’re just a man. I don’t think I’ll take anything for what you say.” Hey? So, because she knew who he was, he was able to go to her saying, “Because of your recognition, because of your honour, because of your seed,” come on, “Because of your recognition, because of your honour, because of your seed. I’m going to tell you something. God’s about to do something public, but I’m going to tell you privately so you can be prepared for the public.”
3 It came to pass, at the end of seven years, just watch how this seed continues to work at the end of seven years, that the woman returned from the land of the Philistines; and she went to make an appeal to the king for her house and for her land. (2 Kings 8:3 NKJV) She goes to the king. She’s been away for seven years. Can I tell you, she lived in a place where she was taken care of. The famine, she moved away from the famine. Now the famine is over, she comes back and she comes to the king and she says, “I have an appeal before you. I want my house back. I want the stuff back that I left.” Because there was a law that if you left a place, and I believe it’s an old Jewish custom. If you leave your place open for seven years, other people can come and occupy it and then you wouldn’t have the right to have it back.
So, be that as it may, she has gone to make a petition to the king. 3…. that the woman returned from the land of the Philistines and she went to make an appeal to the king for her house and for her land. 4 Then the king talked to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, “Tell me, please, all the great things Elisha has done.” 5 Now it happened, as he was telling the king how he had restored the dead to life, that there was a woman whose son he had restored to life, appealing to the king for her house and for her land. And Gehazi said, “My lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.” 6 And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed a certain officer for her, saying, “Restore all that was hers and all the proceeds of the field from the day that she left the land until now.” (2 Kings 8:3-6 NKJV)
Hey, we don’t serve a God that’s just doing partial restoration things here. We don’t serve a God that is just doing partial lifetime assignments or partial covenant agreements or partial favors or partial things. When God does something, He does it over and over and over and over and over again. And He won’t leave and stop until He’s satisfied that in your life you have everything that you will ever have need of. Everything, everything, everything, everything. He restores everything. He helps you with even the things that you desire that you won’t speak of as in her life. Because she recognized what happened in that man, who he was, what he needed. God supplied not only a future for her through a son, but when the famine came, He provided a way of escape through the famine. And when that was over, He provided everything as a restoration for her and her son that her husband had paid for when he was already gone.
So, people, let me say today that that honour seed that we sewed into Brother Jerry’s life has spoken and spoken and spoken. We have taken money across the shores to Brother Jerry for aviation expenses and you all sewed money into that. We are one of the few ministries in the world, in the whole world, that we’re not looking to go to America to bring dollars to South Africa. We are one of the few ministries in the whole world that takes dollars from South Africa to America. What, how’s that thing, how does it work, why does it work like that? Honour, covenant, divine connection, a recognition of who Jerry Savelle was always in our lives and still will be in our lives through his message.
So, people, Brother Jerry cannot prophesy anymore to us every year what the next will of God is for the next year prophetically. He’s not going to be around to do that anymore. So, is God going to stop speaking? God has got an eternal delegated level of assignment, authority, and I can say this, I did not… God gave me this revelation a long time ago. Because I had a personal conversation with Brother Jerry about some personal things that I believe God was bringing us into as a ministry when I was there in November. And he created a three-hour window for me to sit and talk to him heart to heart for three hours by myself in the aeroplane with him. And I said to him when I was having that conversation with him, I said, “Brother Jerry, this has been the order of my life. I will not have it said of me that there is anything that’s happening in my ministry or my life that is at your expense. And because I’m connected to you, you made it happen for me because for some reason it was out of human order.”
I said, “If there’s any question at any given time ever that there will be any reason for anybody to say at any level that I benefited out of my relationship with Brother Jerry, I’d rather not have it.” In terms of networking, in terms of creating opportunities, in terms of doing all the things that human people do when they have somebody that’s got influence, status. I said to him, and I’m delighted to tell you what his words were to me. He said to me, “John, I know who you are. You will never have to worry about that. I know who you are. That will never be the case with anybody who would say anything about you that would get to my ears that that can be said of you. I know that will never… I know your heart, I know your life, that will never happen.” And then most of that conversation will be private.
But the next thing he said to me, “But John, you must do what God is telling you to do. You must obey Him.” I said, “Yes, sir.” And so, even though I was released in November, I just didn’t have a release in my spirit. And I can honestly say to you that in all of the time I lived with him, my life never said, “It’s my time for olive oil. It’s my time for servants and donkeys and all kinds of increase. It’s my time. It’s my turn because I’ve been with you all these years.” I have waited until my time. And you have walked with me and waited for this time. And now the time has come for all of us to go together because we have waited patiently for this time.
So, I go to America and I go to honour my spiritual father that has left us in his body. I go to honour the apostle that God has sent and I take your honour with me like I’ve always done. And those of you that went with me a couple of years ago to North Carolina to do a cycle tour, that went again with me, some others to California tour, you will know that when I go, you go there. And the day before Brother Jerry left to go to eternity, he was spending a large portion of that day talking about us. He talked about our California tour. He talked about our people. He talked about the stuff that’s happening in our ministry here. I know because those people have told me that he was talking about us the day before he left. So, I’m going to honour him. I’m going to go and stand there and just be there out of love for him. But I also celebrate that he has left his weary body.
Because when you get older, your body just has limited time left. So, whatever we’re doing in the flesh has got nothing compared to what we will experience in heaven. And so by comparison, his body was weary – by comparison of the eternal body. And he has just left that thing behind and he’s gone into the heavens. He’s now hanging out with the Heavenly Hosts whom he talked about a lot, whom he was living his life for. If there’s anything for us to be a witness and be something that says, let us do from this point on in our lives, let us do more than we’ve ever done before. Let’s have a moment of recognition and say, “Hey, this man has left us.” And so too our time will come when we will leave. And then when we get there, what will we say to Him who awaits us eternally? I know what I want Him to say to me. “Come on, John. You did well. You did well.” Hallelujah.
So, I take your blessings with me. Amen. Thank you. Thank you to all of you for the seeds that you’ve sown. Some of you bless us on our way. Thank you. Thank you for the blessing that you are to Sharon and I, in our lives. Thank you. Thank you for being willing to serve God and to love God and to embrace the teachings of my father, my spiritual father and my apostle. Thank you. And I take all of your thanks, all of your seeds, all of your honour, I take it with me. And when I go stand there and you guys, you can watch it on Kenneth Copeland Ministries website and on YouTube and all the social media, the memorial service will be broadcast live. USA time 1:30 from Fort Worth on Friday. And so, I don’t know, that’s probably 8:30 in the evening, more or less here in South Africa. You’ll be able to watch the whole service online if you want to.
But we will be there to go and give honor for a man that gave his life to the Lord. But, you know, that’s just one event and it will be a big event, I can tell you. I was talking to Joe last night and we were saying that the auditorium can seat maybe two thousand people. There’s no way it’s going to be big enough. And so, we were thinking, are they going to pitch a tent outside because they can put another thousand people in the tent outside? And we don’t think that’s going to be big enough. And then there’s a whole new auditorium, there’s another auditorium, a place for the kids. They might convert all of those spaces that can maybe seat another thousand people. And we don’t think that’s going to be enough. Joe says they’re coming from all around the world and all over the place, they’re coming to this thing. Honour. Honour.
Do you know why they want to honour him? Because he honoured God. Do you know why they’re having it in Kenneth Copeland… Brother Copeland sent his plane to go and fetch Brother Jerry’s body. I mean, Brother Copeland is involved in this. This was his ministry partner for fifty-five years. He’s like this, Kenneth Copeland Ministries, JSMI, they’re arranging everything together. So, we’ll be there for the event. But the true legacy is in you and me. Heavenly Father, Jesus, the true legacy of what they did is in you and me. Amen.
Would you all stand with me, please? Thank you for allowing me to minister this to you today. Thank you for being so patient and for being so marvellous. I guess we had our own service today. And I thank you for being here and for being part of it and being so patient and allowing me to say what was on my heart today. Because when the time comes back, everything will be different. Ja. Ja.
Do you want to do an offering, or…? Hey? Pastor Christi is showing me money here so she wants me to do an offering here. Then I’d better have you sit down again. You see, I get caught up in the message and then I forget to take up an offering. I think that’s a good thing for a pastor to forget to take up an offering because then you know he’s not preaching for money’s sake. Hey? Amen. And if you don’t have cash money on you to sow an offering today, you can do EFTs or whatever you normally do anyway. Praise the Lord for that. Praise the Lord.
Pastor Sharon and I are going to be sensitive to the family’s needs and to the ministry’s needs and for our time there, we are going to be available. We are going to be available to the ministry in any way that they might need us. I’ve already had some requests for me to spend some time with various different people there. But we’re just going to be sensitive to whatever happens there. How about this? It might just be that there can be days where Pastor Sharon and I have blessed rest. And then God orchestrates our blessed rest because we’re still on assignment but He just puts blessed rest in there. That’s how God does it, hey. He brings stuff to you. Hallelujah.
As always, we value your prayers. We really, I mean, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Prayer makes everything work. It really does. We petition and make our requests known to the Father and He answers us because we ask in faith. So, when you’re doing that, we appreciate it. Now, you can stand again, please. I think this is probably the longest I’ve ever preached to you on a Sunday. I do.
Just stretch out your hands, here. Say; thank you, Father, for this seed that people have sown and we bless You and honour You and we thank you for every opportunity to sow seed. Thank you for this opportunity that Sharon and I can go to America and be part of this amazing event of the homegoing of Brother Jerry. I thank you, Lord, that You bless everybody that’s here today. Protect them. I pray, Father, that no weapon formed against them prospers, that You cover them with Your Word and the blood of Jesus. Your Word is a shield around them, Father. And I pray that as they are blessed in everything that they do, they give You honour and glory and recognise that it is because of You that we have such a wonderful life. We trust You, Lord. We give You honour and praise today. We thank You for it, in Jesus’ name. Amen. And you’re all in agreement with me and you say? [Congregation: Amen] Amen, amen, amen.
Alright, I’m just having a look at all of you wonderful people. You know, the best way to take photographs is with your mind. And you see my eyes blinking? I’m storing it. I’m storing the image of you. Because I’ll see you on the other side. Thank you for coming. Bless you all. Bye, everybody.
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