Scripture reference: Deut 34:1-4 (NKJV); Deut 34:4-9 (NKJV); Joshua 1:1-5 NKJV); Joshua 1:5-7 (NKJV)
Pastor Garth:
Father, thank You for the words that You’ve put in Pastor John’s heart this morning, the message from You through this vessel to us. We ask You to give us ears to hear, eyes to see, hearts to believe and to receive. We thank You that You’re answering our prayers, You’re helping us to see the gift that is in Pastor John, the gift that You’ve given to us through this human vessel, and we listen with those ears this morning with honour and faith in our hearts, listening for the voice of the Spirit. Hallelujah. And so we thank you for these words this morning. We’re already appreciative and value them highly in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pastor John:
Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Thank you. Glory to Jesus. Thank you for coming this morning. Before you sit down just turn and greet someone and say “I’m glad you’re in church. Be ready, be ready, be ready.” And then you may be seated. Praise the Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Well, you’re all ready for the word today? Amen. It’s the practice of this ministry over the years that when God has spoken to us in the prophetic word, prophetic revelation, or significant ways, I know I’m wearing a different mic today and they’re going to just try and make sure there are no echoes. Work well. If it doesn’t work well I’ll take the handheld mic but seems like it’s working better now.
So it’s our practice as a people that when God speaks or significant revelation comes or we sense a big moment that we adequately prepare ourselves and we adequately give time to receive what God is doing. Right? I mean just generally speaking, we are a people that observes what God’s doing. And we fully give ourselves to listening and to opening our hearts to receive from God and we are doers of the word. So we listen, we meditate, we applicate, if you like. We are not people that are frivolous.
We are not people that take what happens from God by God to us as something light. We are generally quite serious and determined and consistent in the way that we go after what God’s got for us. You would agree? So, you know, when brother Jerry went home to be with Jesus, I treated his departure, his death, pretty much the same as I’ve dealt with almost every other form of death that has happened around me in my life. And we will have a 20-minute break between first session and second session. I don’t really want people to leave and go and break the rhythm of what God’s doing here today. But I don’t also want us to spend, I want to have enough time to share what God has put on my heart today. But I am also mindful that this may not be the last time that I speak like this.
Anyway, from when I was a little boy actually, an incident happened in my dad’s car. I think I was about eight years old. We were driving from Johannesburg to Roodepoort. Those days, it was farm road it wasn’t built up. If you had to ride from Joburg to Roodepoort, it was like you were taking the journey, literally, that was the case. I mean, you would go out of the city into the plattelande to go to the next town, which was Roodepoort. Anyway, my dad was driving the car and we were around the Krugersdorp, Witpoortjie area. And suddenly this woman ran across the road, and she ran into my father’s car. Her intention, actually, was to run in front of his car and commit suicide by having my dad ride over her. But my dad was alert and he was awake and he swerved the car and she ended up running into the back of the car and hit the tail light of the car.
Those were big old metal cars those days and it significantly hurt her and damaged her. But the ambulance was called and she was okay. She survived. But I remember as an eight-year-old boy observing that incident and having no significant impact emotionally on what had occurred here. I can’t explain why, but it never marked me, never damaged me. It never hurt me, it never, I never had nightmares or dreams about it. It was just something that happened.
I was aware because of a demonic experience that had happened not too long before that or too much earlier before that where my dad had to take authority over demonic activity and I had been a witness to that. I’d seen it. So, I immediately recognized this is not just a woman that’s trying to commit suicide, this is demonic activity that is driving her to do this. And I remember having an understanding that this is a spiritual thing happening here. Over the years, people have died around me. My own mother died, my father has died, many people have died. When I was in the military, I saw a lot of death and none of the deaths that I witnessed had any impact on me, of any meaningful effect.
I mean, whenever you come really close to death and face-to-face with death, especially if it’s violent death, you know, I mean, it’s not nice. It’s not pleasant. But at the same time, I can say that it feels to me like there was a shield around me. And you know, psychologists might say, you know, there is something about your temperament type in the way that you handle it or maybe psychological makeup. They would maybe have some kind of explanation for me, maybe so. But I would like to think that actually all these years, there’s been a shield of God around me.
And so death hasn’t had an impact too much on me until my father died. And when my father died, it had a big impact on me, not so much that he died, but in the way that he was, that he died, in the manner in which he was, his body was left on the earth. So when Brother Jerry died, I of course celebrated his going to Jesus. I celebrate that. Don’t you? We celebrate that because his life was a life well spent. And so, my natural default to death is, okay, this is done, it’s happened, we’ve got to recognize it, we’ve got to understand it, but we’ve got to move on. We can’t live in a place where death occurs, we can’t live there.
So, instinctively when brother Jerry, when I heard brother Jerry went home, my natural instinct is let’s move on. But as I was traveling back from US, a lot of stuff happened to us in America, a lot of conversations. Especially after the memorial service happened, there was a lot of people that wanted to connect with me, me with them, there was a lot of activity that happened. I had more breakfasts, more lunches, more dinners, more coffees, more than I’ve had in years because it was kind of the connection point with everybody, let’s meet here, let’s meet there, let’s do this, let’s do that. People wanted to talk.
So, even then it was like I’m aware that something significant spiritual has happened here and, but we’ve got to move on. When I came back to South Africa, it was like something changed in me. And I suppose if I had to answer you on it, I would probably say this, I would probably say that the mourning that anybody would do for somebody that died, oftentimes that grieving in that mourning is immediate because the person that was there is no longer there. And so, you become aware of their presence not being around you. But for me the strangest thing happened is that when I came back home and I landed in South Africa, it was like a mourning hit my spirit. And so it was like I found myself in a state of grief, something that I’ve, that’s not normal for me.
And again I want to say I did experience that with my dad but it was more about that he was a martyr in the end of his life and I don’t know what that means really, eternally. I don’t know what that means other than his body was sacrificed for our future, for some reason. So, it’s my desire and I believe it’s the leading of the Holy Spirit to take a moment to pause, to recognize the significance of a man who lived his life for 55 years, completely dedicated to the service of God, and what that means to you and I going forward. And it’s a sense in me, that as I share what I want to share with you today, and if the Holy Spirit has more to say in the weeks ahead, that we will have ears to hear what it is that He is putting in me because of what is to come.
So already my preparation to speak to you this morning has done something unexpected for me, and it happened in the early hours of this morning. And I’m not going to tell you too much about it because I have to work this out with God. But I woke up out of my sleep, because the dream… and I had a spiritual dream that I would say, when I woke up, it was around four o’clock this morning. But in the dream the thing that woke me was that there were miracles that were happening and I was standing right in the middle of miracles and that’s all I’m going to say about it for now. But it has been a long time since I have had a spiritual dream. I know the difference between someone who dreams about spiritual things, versus an imparted spiritual dream that you need to take by the Word of God. That is a Holy Ghost inspired vision or dream. Amen.
So, I would like to read to you from Deuteronomy chapter 34, verse one in the New King James. It says, “Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is across from Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead as far as Dan, and He shows him all the land. Verse four, 4 Then the Lord said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have caused you to see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there” (Deut 34:1-4 NKJV).
This is a very spiritual moment that God and Moses are having together because for 40 years Moses has been leading God’s people out of slavery into a potential land of prosperity, flowing with milk and honey. And yet he was not going to be the one who was going to lead them, he was going to leave them. So instead of leading them, he was going to leave them. But God was going to be gracious to him and He was going to let his eyes see. I don’t know how far his eyes could see and how much of the land he could see, but I believe that in the presence of God, God was revealing to him supernaturally, even things beyond what his natural eyes could see.
…but you shall not cross over there.” 5 So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. 6 And He buried him – He God buried him – in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth Peor; but no one knows his grave to this day. 7 Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died. His eyes were not dim nor his natural vigor diminished. 8 And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days. So the days of weeping and mourning for Moses ended. 9 Now Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him; so the children of Israel heeded him, and did as the Lord had commanded Moses (Deut 34:4-9 NKJV).
So there are a few things I just want to say about this and that is that his eyes were not dim nor his natural vigor diminished at all. Well, I want to say to you that my experience of brother Jerry, is that the eyes of vision were not dimmed at all in his life. And right until the end of his life, his natural vigor, although age was taking over his body, his natural vigor was full of energy and life. And even though the enemy of God had tried to come and steal his natural life much earlier than he should have, God restored his health, so that he lived his life with natural vigor and vision until his body was no more.
And so, you know there is obviously in any medical environment, people when they have to give you a death certificate, they have to state the cause of death. There is always a cause of death in the body, but the real cause of death is, your spirit leaves your body and then there is no more life in your body. I believe that Brother Jerry had all the vision he had. I know that from until the day he departed, he was still believing God for a bigger better airplane. He was still believing God to be able to move among the nations and take the gospel to the nations. I mean he was still believing God, that in 2025 he would be back here. I mean that is vision. That’s vigor to get there and determination to want to keep pursuing the way of God. Amen.
But, you know, there is also this fact that brother Jerry is no longer with us but his words remain with us. And I guess the thing that really impacted me was, for me, Jerry Savelle, Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin, all these wonderful men, God put them on the earth in my time. So, if this sounds like it’s a little personal to you today, it is. But it’s also for us because in all of the years of eternity that God could have brought Jerry Savelle, Kenneth Copeland and Kenneth Hagin and Oral Roberts into the earth, He chose to bring them into a time of the earth when my dad would be alive and my dad would give birth to me and I would be alive and you would all be here. To have an experience.
So out of all of the ages that were gone, God chose to bring them into the earth at this time, and my time, and our time. And we’ve had the privilege to touch these people and now it’s our time. Amen. I don’t want to minimize though where we are today because of their time. Their time has had a lot to do with where we are today. Hallelujah.
So, in Joshua chapter one the Word says, 1 After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, saying: 2 “Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them—the children of Israel. 3 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses. 4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory. 5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life (Joshua 1:1-5 NKJV).
I want to just throw in a little something for you that brings this Scripture very current. 4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river the river Euphrates all of the land to the great sea – have you heard somebody saying from the river to the sea? Can you tell me who has been chanting from the river to the sea. Hamas and Iran have been declaring that they will destroy Israel from the river to the sea. If you don’t think that what they’re doing is not spiritually motivated then this Scripture that God declared all the way back to Moses and Joshua should reveal to you that God is in everything and everything He said is true.
Because all of these centuries later, millennia later, there is a chant that is going from a people that were not around when these Scriptures were spoken and over the universities and campuses of America there are people and in the United Kingdom and everywhere suddenly everybody’s on the side of Hamas and “Free Palestine, free Palestine and you got to stop the Jews, you got to stop the Jews from the river to the sea, from the river to the sea.” Because God said to the children of Israel, “I will give you this land from the river to the sea.” So, if you think this war is about the land, it certainly is, but it’s not just because it’s about the land, it’s because God spoke about the land and He said the land is for these people.
I trust that you are already recognising that the Word of God that we have in our lives that we use, work and live with every day prophetically has been on track from the beginning. And we can either take it and live with it or we can just turn our backs on it and say that’s just theology. Well, if you think God is just about theology then your mind is already confused because God is a living God and His words are alive. They’re active. The Bible says it’s active. Not one of His words will return void to Him. It will produce what He set it out to produce. It’s active, it’s alive, it’s sharp and it’s piercing, and it is so sharp that even divides between spirit and soul.
The Word of God is a living powerful active thing in your life and in my life and in the earth. And all the nations of the world might want to fight against God, they might rail against God, they might rage against God. But it doesn’t matter how much they may rage against God, God’s Word is true. God’s Word is eternal and it will not return to Him void but it will accomplish everything that He sent it out to accomplish. I don’t care how intellectual. I recorded more morning moments this week and I trust you will watch them in the mornings. But God says in the, because I talk about this, but God says in the book of Corinthians where is the wise of this world? I will cause the foolishness of God to confound the wise. The foolishness of God to confound even those people that call themselves so wise and smart and so intelligent that they seem to have all the answers. The foolishness of preaching the gospel will confound them. Because it doesn’t seem possible in an energy reward system that we live in, that God can say just tell me take your words and you will have eternal life. Believe in your heart, confess with your mouth, and you will have life. Something so simple can’t be that powerful. A wise mind says you got to work for everything. The God life says just trust Me, live in Me, believe in Me and you’ll have everything. It’s confounding. Praise the Lord.
So to Joshua He says 5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. 6 Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. 7 Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go, (Joshua 1:5-7 NKJV).
So I find myself in a place where I am in, I have been reflecting. I have been in a serious mode of just being quiet before the Lord and reflecting. And so I was given an opportunity on the Sunday after the memorial service, I was given an opportunity to bring the message to Heritage of Faith Crowley after everybody had shared about who Brother Jerry was to them. And I was given the opportunity, such an opportunity, such an honour, such a blessing. I did not ask for it. I did not take it. It was given to me. And one could say it was given to me by Pastor Justin. Well, he made it clear to me that he knew that God actually wanted me to do the talking. That means God did it. I didn’t have to try and do it. It means God did it.
And that message in itself had a very significant impact in America. In that message I spoke these things that over the last 14 years Brother Jerry has been used at least, but this is the record that I have. That over the last 14 years Brother Jerry has been used by God to speak words. Words of direction to us.
2010 He said, above and beyond – over the top, God’s going to bless. 2011 was the year of the supernatural. Do you know that when a messenger of God speaks a word out, that word is the same as if it comes from God Himself? If you take out the human error and every vessel will have human error in it. The message that God delivers is still His Words that He speaks, and wherever the human error is, His grace covers the error so that the Word can still do what it needs to do. Because all of the prophets of old before John the Baptist until Jesus, and since Jesus all of them were flawed humans.
In fact, the reason why Moses didn’t enter into the Promised Land is because God told him to speak to the rock and he hit the rock. One small flaw like that and God said, “You will pay the price for that flaw, but My Word will still exist for the people.” God is so gracious that He will choose human vessels to bring His Word into the earth. Both the Word of God and prophetic words. So, the words that were spoken from that time until now, they still live. Hello? They still live.
So if there was a year of the supernatural, every year from then has had the supernatural in it. The year of fulfilment – 2012. I’m laying out this for you because when I go into the next phase in this service, I’m going to read some things to you where 2012 is a significant year, the year of fulfillment.
So, what happened in 2012? Well, 2012 brother Jerry came to this country and he came and preached a Sunday morning service in Johannesburg and a Sunday evening service here in Witbank. I listened to the Johannesburg audio. I’m trusting the guys will be able to find the Witbank audio for me for those services. I listened to the Johannesburg audio and even in the beginning of the Johannesburg audio he says, “If I never come back to South Africa- I have been coming to South Africa and what God is doing amongst you people, Heritage of Faith, you pastor John and Sharon, what God is doing, I know that my work will live.” 2012 the year of fulfillment. He was retiring in 2012. And that’s when God spoke to him later and said, “Really? Did I tell you that? You need to believe me for the next airplane because you can’t do your ministry without airplanes.”
You could say well that’s the flaw in the human vessel. Perhaps. Doesn’t change all the messages that God spoke through him. Because if you’ve been giving yourself to the work of God for 45 years plus and you say, “I think I’ll take a break.” You want to accuse him for being human? Not I.
2012- the year of fulfilment.
2013- the year of unprecedented favour.
2014- will be known as the year of the greater. 2014, again in our ministry, was a very significant year.
2015- will be known as the year of visitations, manifestations and demonstrations.
And from this point, 2014 to 2024, everything that begins to happen to us as a ministry together with Brother Jerry Savelle. The significance of everything begins to escalate every year.
2015- will be known as the year of visitations, manifestations and demonstrations.
2016- the year of the great breaking loose.
2017- the faithful shall flourish and it shall be like days of heaven on earth.
2018- days of glory, days of flourishing, days of abounding.
2019- marvels, wonders and extraordinary manifestations of the greatness of our God.
2020- the year of supernatural increase.
That was the year, if you remember that COVID hit. How many ministries have still not recovered from that? I can tell you as you travel around America and this came to my very doorstep in America. This came to my doorstep where it became known to me that there are people that are leaving churches and leaving their ministries and came to share some of that with me. Wishing or trusting for a divine connection of some sort that might change whatever was going on. Because some of them before COVID, some of them since COVID have not recovered in their churches, in their ministries. It’s a real thing people, that throughout America and Canada churches are half the size that they used to be. Many of them were not thriving before COVID but since COVID many of them are half what they used to be.
Why is that? Well, partly people became used to staying at home. Partly it was the beginning of a technology revolution where Zoom- and it became normal to actually have serious significant meetings over media rather than face to face. It’s a trend and a pattern that is threatening the whole earth that people are beginning to lose the value of relationships. But for our church and our ministry, our influence grew significantly in 2020, the year of supernatural increase.
And then of course the year of 2021, the year of abundant overflow.
2022- the year of the open hand of God, unusual extraordinary supernatural provision.
2023- of course the year of the maximum, the highest level attainable.
And of course this year, year of progressing, advancing, promotion and seeing your highest expectations fulfilled.
So you say, “Pastor John, all of those words have been spoken. I did not see the evidence of those words in my life.” Well, I have two things to say to you. The one thing is not yet. Not yet. The other thing I have to say to you is keep going. Why would you quit if God spoke them? Why would you say, “If I haven’t seen them, why… am I ever going to see them?” Not yet. Don’t quit. Keep going. What have you got to lose? You can keep speaking these words out for as long as you want to. And why not? And why not?
In the next session, I’m going to ask people that remain for the next session, I’m going to ask you, switch off your cell phones, not to record any of what I’m going to say. Because I’m already being personal, but the next session is going to be very personal. And I’m going to be showing you videos and I’m going to be showing you photographs and I’m going to be talking to stuff. So I don’t want the rest of the world to know what I’m sharing with this local ecclesia. Ecclesia. Amen?
Because we have relationships that the rest of the world don’t know about that have come a long way. And I don’t want people confusing what’s happening in us and through us and with us because they don’t know how far we’ve come and the stuff that we’ve experienced together. Are we all in agreement, people? Praise the Lord.
So, for me, 2014, and I’ve got notes here and I’m going to do my best and if I don’t get through all of it today, I am going to take time in this part and from this foundation anyway to speak into the future if necessary. If necessary. But 2014 was a significant year, because something happened in 2014 and God began to deal with me that it was important for me to take a group of people to America, and taking them to America would be a representation of those things that God was doing here. And I’m not going to look through my papers here to find it. I’ve got it on electronic version and all of this and I just said to the Holy Spirit, I said, “I trust You to bring it out today and in days to come if necessary in the way that it needs to come out.” But I had a whole bunch of people come with me and go to Brother Jerry, 2014.
So 2014, I’m going to remind you, will be known as the year of the greater. In 2014, in July of that year, I had a prophetic word that I spoke over Heritage of Faith. And I spoke of a prophetic word about certain things that were happening, things that were about to occur. And by the end of that year, a whole group of people went with me to the USA and I sat in the boardroom with Brother Jerry and I used these words with him – and Pastor Sharon as a scribe had transcribed what was said around that table. And I have been refreshing myself in all of these things and I’ve got a lot of things happening inside me at this moment. But I said this terminology is what I used with Brother Jerry in that boardroom that day. I said, “Brother Jerry, these people that I have brought with me, they are a presentation to you of first fruits of the people that are all the people in our church. This is merely a symbol, a first fruits symbol, a first fruits acknowledgement of many people that are in South Africa that have this relationship with you through me. That our strength and our resources and all of who we are belongs to you. And you may use our strength, our resources and our ministry and our people in any way that you choose. We are here representing all of the Heritage of Faith people. We are representing through these people.” Amen.
It’s unfortunate that half of those people, which I said to Brother Jerry, “These are sons in our ministry.” And so, sons are the highest form of commitment, right? So it’s unfortunate that half of those people are no longer with me or us. They should be. They should be. But they’re not. Be that as it may, it doesn’t change what was in my heart to go and do with Brother Jerry. That was in 2014. Something happened in 2015. I had it in my heart to go and be with Brother Jerry in Canada actually. And I flew to Canada and I only went to Canada. My records that I have and everything that I’ve been over reflects that I flew to Canada to be with Brother Jerry and then I flew back from Canada, back to South Africa.
So strong was it in my heart that I needed to go and be with him in Canada in a series of meetings that he was having there. I believe it was four days. I might have gone to Walter and Karen’s church at that time as well. I have no record of that. But if it was, it was for a weekend and then I would have come back home. Anyway, when I was in the meeting, when I was there, Brother Jerry and Joe had a conversation with me.
They said the following, they said, “John, you have always been the director of Jerry Savelle Ministries South Africa. What we would like you to do is be the director for Jerry Savelle Ministries, Africa.” So how does that sound to you? I said, “Well, it sounds really fine to me, Brother Jerry.” So I recorded a message that he wanted to say to me and to us. The audio was so poor I recorded it on my iPad. The audio was so poor I never really felt that I should share it with you. I even contemplated sharing it with you today. But again, at the last minute, I felt the audio was so poor that it, because it was in the lobby of the hotel and there’s lots of noise in the background and so it was quite challenging. But basically, he was reaffirming the statement and he said this to me. He said, “John, there’s been, over the years I’ve met many people and I’ve been to many places where people have been my driver.” He said, “You and I first met when you drove me around in South Africa.” And he said, “But we knew when we met each other there was a recognition in both you and me that actually, this was not just about a one time event of driving me around, but this was a much bigger, deeper thing.”
In that same year, Joe McCroskey came here in the middle of the year and he had a prophecy. And his prophecy that he prophesied was that Heritage of Faith, we are going to experience deeper, we’re going to experience wider and we’re going to experience a surge of the supernatural of God. That happened in the middle of that year, the end of the year I went to see Brother Jerry. That is the end of 2015. So what he was saying is that, I recognize our connection has been strong till now, but now it’s got to go deeper. And he used those words that Joe spoke over our church. He used those exact words. I watched it now because of the audio, I’ve watched it and listened to it two or three times. And he uses these exact words. “Our relationship must go deeper and it must go wider. So I don’t want you to just be the director of South Africa, I want you to be the director of Africa. And then at the end of that thing he says, because you’re my man for Africa.”
What he did in 2012 was hand the baton of Africa over to me in this very auditorium on the Sunday night because he never thought he was coming back to South Africa. Amen.
So Pastor John, why is all of this important? Well, his departure has taken his energy that he’s had, his vision, his calling, all of his gifts, his departure has removed all of that from the earth. But everything that we are till now has been because there’s been a partnership and there’s been a cooperation of giftings and callings. And there’s no coincidence that God would place him on the earth and place me on the earth. And it doesn’t matter that he was in America and I was in South Africa because God always eternally had it in Jerry’s world that he was going to come to Africa and he was going to come to South Africa. And low and behold, he would find us here. And having found us here, he would have found his tribe of people that would work with his gift for Africa.
And we have done many cross-border missions trips to Botswana, to Zambia, to Malawi, to many different places. Our missionary team has gone to even Southern Tanzania. I’ve been to Tanzania. I’ve been to Kenya. I’ve been to Ghana. I’ve been to Ethiopia. We have been to all kinds of places in Africa because of the partnership and the cooperation with Jerry’s energy and his vision and ours. God intended it to be that before both of us were born. He also intended it to be and he would have known this, although we wouldn’t have known it, but he would have known it that there would be this period of time where he would be gone and I would be remaining. Meaning all of us are still here. So the next thing that happens is Brother Jerry was supposed to come. Now, I’m telling you about Toronto 2015 because Toronto 2015 Brother Jerry says, “Tell the people I’m coming next year, 2016, April.” Remember? You don’t remember? I’m telling you. So, then he didn’t come in 2016. He let us know that he’s not coming. So, you remember our preparation that we put in, hey? Spiritual preparation that he’s coming. So, our spiritual preparation was there and our seed was there. And you remember, all of you, it was one of the most significant moments of our ministry’s life because I felt in my heart the offering that we’ve taken, we’ve got to give it to him. But I mustn’t just give it to him, I must take it to him.
And again, only God would have known that in the time that I would take it to him, you all, you wonderful people, givers and even those that have left us, God will still let that seed speak for you. Even now. But the offering that we took up, that was already a significant offering, doubled before we left. And in the five days that we were from South Africa into America, before we saw brother Jerry, it tripled. So, it was a very large sum of money in US dollars that we gave him. Very large. I can tell you that it was three times bigger than very good offerings that he would get from a very big church in America at that time. It was three times bigger. So, Sharon and I went and we carried the seed with us. We went there to deliver the seed – an irrational honor transaction. I’m going to read to you a transcription of what happened between us in that meeting.
I speak first. Brother Jerry, when you said in December when we were in Canada that you were going to come to South Africa for us, I went back to the people. And so February came and I began to share with the churches the significance of my 40-day separation of last year when in the time that the Lord had me pray for you and then you had that incident as I went into my separation, which was the heart incident where he had the heart operation. You had the incident in the pulpit and I had the whole church pray for you more and more. It was so urgent on my heart.
Then I began to teach ‘In the Footsteps of a Prophet.’ We had special services for 10 weeks and I preached on your book and the Lord just gave it to me in such a supernatural way when I was in my separation. Then when we connected in December, it was just like the Lord had said, this is what I have been waiting for. So, when you said I’m coming to South Africa for you, John, I knew that it’s because of everything that is past, everything that is going to be in the future.
So, I asked the people in the church, I said my spiritual father is coming and we need to honor and bless him properly. I don’t want to be left wanting and honoring him when he comes because our churches are average size churches like when I was in church here yesterday. So, I said I want you all to be preparing and saving, and as we as a ministry are going to be doing the same so that when Brother Jerry comes, we can honor him. Well, people started to put into special account for you.
So, when I got the news you were not coming, I didn’t even immediately tell Sharon, I just went quiet and spent a couple of days with the Lord and I just shared some of that history with him. What the Lord had me put out for our churches on this is receiving the anointing of our father and we are teaching them and preparing them along these lines already.
So, an amazing thing happened. As we were preparing, I had a target that I was putting my faith out to be able to give you in US dollars. So, when it came around July, August, we hit that target. Then I got the message that you are not coming and I told the people after a couple of days of being quiet, I said Brother Jerry’s life …. Brother Jerry is not coming, but I feel God has ordained us to sow this honor seed into Brother Jerry’s life right now. He’s not coming to us. So, I said to my leadership team, I’ve just been sensing that we have got to go and take it to him; because we always had it in our heart that Brother Jerry, this would be for him and for him personally, not for his ministry in South Africa. So, I made the announcement.
I’m not going to say word for word. So, I just sense that Brother Jerry, that this was a moment that you had been hindered to come to us. So, we were not going to allow the enemy to stop what God is doing here. Then Brother Jerry speaks. He said, and you know, Paul said in another place that the Holy Spirit restrained him. But in another place, he said Satan hindered me. And this was not God restraining. It was hindering. At the same time, God is turning a negative situation into a positive situation by extending my life. These are words he spoke out to me by extending my life. He was referring to the heart operation that he had. The next day he was going in for the operation that would cause him to have a stroke the next day. So, then the word of the Lord comes through Brother Jerry.
Let me tell you something that the Lord said to me when Joe told me what you guys wanted to do and you can take this back to the people. Remember in the Old Testament when the woman came to her husband and said, “Prophet is coming. We need to build him a chamber, a prophet’s chamber.” You know, build him a little place to stay. What the Lord said to me is this, “They didn’t wait until the prophet got there. That chamber was a seed into his life, into his ministry. And they didn’t wait until he got there and then built a chamber. They did that before he got there.” And the Lord said, when Joe told me what you wanted to do, He said, You tell them this is building the chamber for the prophet. This was done before I even got there. And then once he got there, the seed produced the miraculous. And I’m believing, that this is what the seed is going to do. This is the prophet’s chamber that you guys, John and Sharon and the people in the church have prepared. And then when I do come, I believe it’s going to manifest in the miraculous. [Pastor John] Amen, Brother Jerry. [Brother Jerry] I want you to take this back to the people. [Pastor John] Yes, Brother Jerry, it’s branded in us.
Then I told Brother Jerry about seed. So I presented the seed to him. I told him how much money it was. And I began to tell him the story. And this is very, very significant. And you will see how significant it becomes in the next session also.
I shared this with him. I said, “Brother Jerry, there are many stories of people that have sown seed. Many stories of people that have sown seed. And I wish I could tell you all the stories of all the people that have sown their seed. How some of them sowed the last of their seed. How some of them sowed all of their seed. How so many stories.” One of the stories I was led by the Holy Spirit to tell was Ester’s story. And I said, “Like Brother Jerry, we have a young girl in our audience because then she was, I don’t know how old, maybe 13, something, somewhere around, you were young. There’s a young girl in our church, her name is Ester. She put 500 rand into my hand and said, this is all the money that I have. And this is all the money that I have saved up. And I want it to go to Brother Jerry.
Now, when I read this transcription, I had forgotten details like that. This is happening in 2016. That was eight years ago. You can forget details unless you’re Kenneth Hagin. And he remembers that two o’clock on this day, on that week, on that month, on this day. You remember that day was a Sunday and then this happened. So I had forgotten, but as I was reading it, Ester’s name was on that paper. Ester’s name was in that conversation. And there’s more. I used some stories from Lenasia, people from Lenasia, people from Jo’burg. But I want to tell you what has happened to me since I’ve taken the time to, I want to say more on my father’s passing, but it’s more than that. It’s an assimilation and accumulation of things that we need to have before we go forward. Amen.
Then he prayed this prayer and he says, “Well, Father, I received this with humility and with joy and I know what it represents and I’m deeply touched by it, Lord. And I want you, Holy Spirit, to convey to every person who sowed in this. Let them know how deeply I am touched by this and what a special significance seed this is to us. And Lord, just like you said to me, I want them to know that this represents the prophet’s chamber in preparation for his coming. And Lord, I’m expecting the same thing to take place when I do arrive, as happened in the story of this woman and this man building the chamber for the prophet. And once he got there, it opened the door to the miraculous for the people who built that chamber. And I’m believing that this is going to happen when the door of the miraculous for the people who have built this chamber. And Lord, I thank you for John and Sharon and their heart’s desire to do this and how deeply touched I am by that. And I’m just believing in the Name of Jesus that this is going to cause manifestations of Your blessing, Your favour and Your miraculous power on their behalf beyond anything they have ever experienced before. The prophet’s reward. I don’t know what all is involved in that, Lord, but when You give to a prophet, you are entitled to the prophet’s reward. He’s still praying. There’s a whole lot more involved in that than I know at this moment. But whatever it involves in its entirety, I believe that for John and Sharon, thank You, Jesus, it’s done. And he starts laughing.
Now, remember, if you didn’t know that, that was a Monday. On the Tuesday, he was going into the theater and he would come out having had a stroke and all of this information would be lost to him temporarily. I don’t know if he remembers any of these details till the time he left, I don’t know. But I have one more little bit of reading to do here.
The very last message I preach in the Witbank church, I say this, your seed is going to cause a miracle. Your seed was not just to get a harvest. We never ever asked you to sow a seed for a harvest. We asked you to sow a seed of honour. I used the entire message of the prophet’s chamber and we come and give our seed to Jerry Savelle and he sits there and he says, John, your church has created a prophet’s chamber for me. And I’ve just read all of that to you. Now, I want to reiterate to you that what happened in the prophet’s chamber as a result of the prophet’s chamber, do you remember what happened to that woman? They had no need. Remember what I just said? I didn’t ask you to sow to a need. I asked you to sow to honour.
So when Brother Jerry said you’re sowing to honour, therefore there’s a miracle that’s going to be released to you that is beyond just meeting a need. Miracles. Come on, work with me here, people. We’re going to go into the next session with a glory story. Because I did not understand until I started meditating on it this week that Brother Jerry came in 2017 for three days. For three days. While he was here, the Lord said to him in the back office at the end of the last meeting, “Come back next year for as long as you must.” It’s only the second time in his whole ministry that ever happened and that never happened again until he left.
Can you tell me what happened in 2018? Something began to happen. Something began to happen. But let me tell you what happened in the prophet because of the prophet’s chamber. Didn’t the prophet say to his servant, “What do they have need of?” And she said, “They need nothing.” “So what don’t they have?” “They don’t have a child.” “So tell her…” And then he goes and tells her, “That this time next year you will have a child.” And she says, “Don’t lie to me prophet. Don’t lie to me. Don’t give me a hope.” “By this time next year you will have a child.” What was birth out of the miracle of the honour seed? Generational blessing. Because when the seed came into her life for her and her husband, they had a right, they had a reason to give their wealth and their status to her seed.
So, I have news for you. I, when the Lord came to me this year and He said, “John.” Last year He said, “John, I want to do a favour for you.” I didn’t know what to ask Him. Because in my heart I know how to believe God for money and I how to believe God for things in the church and I know how to believe God in my life. I knew how to use faith. I knew that what He was asking me wasn’t a faith thing, it was something more than that. He wanted to show me a favour that only He could grant me. What was happening to the Shunammite woman? The only thing that she couldn’t get was a child and the honour seed was going to give it to her.
Why are we all in Witbank this morning? Partly because what God did was reach into our ministry and He resurrected our children. When there was no hope for our children and all of our children were going to go into the world system, to the universities, to all of the places where they would be in their minds affected and infected by social media and all manner of stuff, God said, “I will take the children.”
When we went to give all of our honour seed to Brother Jerry in 2016 and he used that parable, God said, “There’s going to be a miracle.” And his words, “I don’t know what all of this involves, but whatever it is, I believe it will come full circle and it will all happen and everything will happen for this people.” Look at all the young people that are sitting in this church, a new generation of faith people. The prophet didn’t even realize that he didn’t even realize that when I come, this miracle will be unlocked when I come. I will show you a photograph in the next session that when he stood here he had Zani and Jess laughing, standing next to him. It was a sign that God was taking the children. He was raising up a generation of faith young people that would serve Him and walk with Him and believe Him. And they would be the next generation of prophets and generations of Jerry Savelle of faith people, of favour people, of blessing people who would know how to walk with the Most High God, that the faith message, the favour message would not die because Brother Jerry goes on to be with God, but a generation would live on.
And by His spirit, He said, “Tell Brother Jerry about Esther’s seed.” Not knowing me, not knowing at that time that she would be part of the next generation that would come. So you people, you think God has just got a haphazard thing that He’s doing here? Think again. Do you think Brother Jerry’s departure when he left was up to some kind of medical reason? It wasn’t. He walked with God with his eyes, not dimmed with his vision, not muted one, but with his energy and his bigger right until the end, he was flat out running for Jesus. And when he walked into his closet and suddenly he was in glory and he just transitioned out of his body into eternity, into the glory of God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
Yes, I am his son. And yes, he was my father. And yes, he is an apostle of God to me and his messages as an apostle will live and burn in my heart forever. They will burn in our hearts forever. But I want to tell you the story is just beginning for us. It’s just beginning for us because we have a young generation, a generation of people that our honor seed unlocked before Jerry could go to heaven. So God would ensure that would be generations to come. Hallelujah. And you kids, you’re not here just by chance. You’re here because God called you here. God called Matt and Kate here and they got a child and their children’s children are beginning to be growing up in a faith church.
And God said, “I will take the children and the generations will continue to live this way.” I don’t care how many people are born to any other churches, any other preachers, any other ministries around the world. God’s got a plan for our kids. And if you are here, remember what I told you now, all of those words spoken, but I haven’t seen the end result. Not yet. Don’t quit. Not yet. It’s still coming. It’s still coming. It’s still coming. It’s still coming. Hallelujah. Don’t be surprised about stuff that’s going to happen in this church in weeks and months and years to come. Don’t be surprised. Why not, Pastor John? My father left, but his spirit didn’t. My father left, but his messages didn’t. I made a promise to Brother Jerry.
In that 2014 meeting, he looked at me and he made me repeat it three times, and he said, “John, promise me.” You remember, Pastor Christi? Remember Grobbies, remember Pastor Sharon? He made me promise him three times, don’t ever stop preaching the word of faith, John. Don’t ever stop preaching the word of faith, John. And so I told him that we were a representation of all of us, and we will never stop preaching the word of faith.
There might be big churches. There might be many churches. There might be many things going on around the world, but we have an assignment. We have a calling. Hallelujah.
So I’ve got lots more to say. I didn’t get half of the distance that I wanted to get today. But if this is all that God wanted me to say and the way that I needed to say it for this session, then so be it. I’m going to just finish by reading this. In February of 2023, he came here. And he said this, “When I kind of settled down a little bit, just beginning to listen to the Lord, He led me to the book of Joel, and He said something to me. In every generation, God desires to raise up an army of young people that are passionate about God. And it shall come to pass that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh and on your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see vision.” Notice this. This is Brother Jerry speaking. Notice it mentions young people twice in that verse. “They will have visions and they’ll prophecy.” I like to say it like this, where the Holy Spirit said it to me. “I desire to have influence in young people’s lives by inspiring them to prophesy, to speak on my behalf, giving them visions of things to come.”
I want all of you to, this is him speaking. “I want all of you to lift your hands and say this with me in the name of Jesus, I submit myself to God to be used by Him in any way that He desires. I desire to be everything He wants me to be. I want to be His vessel to affect my generation and according to the book of Joel, I fit into the category of young men and women. And I receive what the prophet Joel said, by the utterance of the Holy Spirit that I will prophesy, that I will have visions, that I will be influenced by God. And in the name of Jesus today, when my hands are laid upon me, when hands are laid upon me, I believe something very significant that is going to take place in my life that I will never be the same. And I give God praise for it now.” Hallelujah.
And then he had another continuous word after that. “This is a new season that you’ve entered into. A season of greater blessings that I’ve arranged for you. Blessings that you’ve never experienced before. So get ready to receive them. They’re yours for sure. I’m taking you higher. Yes, that’s My plan. So stay in faith and take your stand. Refuse to be moved by what others say. I’m in charge and I’ll have My way.” Hallelujah. “Yes, this is a new season which many thought would never come. But I’ve made it happen. Yes, it’s what I’ve done. I’m still the God who makes the impossible possible. It’s what I do. And it’s all because of My love for you. So rejoice and be glad with outbursts of joy and laughter to your entering into the realm of the maximum, just like I said you would do.” And that was the last time Brother Jerry stood on this platform and that’s what he spoke by the Holy Spirit.
So I say this to you. I was sitting with a wonderful man. He’ll probably be here this year or next. He’s going to come and preach here. God had, we recognized both that there was a divine connection in our ministries through Brother Jerry a long time ago. We were sitting having a conversation and he said this to me. He said, “John, you and I, we have no regrets, no regrets because of the way that we pursued brother Jerry.” Well, in his way he did. But in my way, I pursued him from a long distance. If you’re in America and you’ve got to just fly one hour to be with somebody as opposed to someone else who’s got to fly 25 hours to be with somebody. It’s a big difference. There’s a bigger commitment involved and my answer to him was, “Yes, I have no regrets because from 2014 when the Lord began to speak to me, I began to obey. Do this John.” And you know, I’ve been open with all of you about this. Every time God spoke to me to do something, my soul is conflicted because I’ve got to be going for five weeks, got to be gone for seven weeks. I’ve got to be gone for this time. I don’t want to leave my girl. I don’t want to leave you and what am I going to do? But God, but God. And now on the backside of that, I say, thank God, number one, that I obeyed Him in 1996 when He said, “I’m connecting you with Jerry Savelle.”
Where would our lives have been if we didn’t have that connection? Number two, in the last 10% of his life, and that’s not just a throwaway line. In the last 10% of his life, our relationship was like this. [Ps. John crossed his fingers to show how close.]
So I stand on the side of obedience, on the other side of obedience, and I say, “I have no regrets.” I was obedient to God. I followed Him and God has honored what we did. We all together as a whole ministry go forward into the future with confidence because we have no regrets. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Won’t you all stand with me, please? Hallelujah. So in the next session, I’m going to be talking to slides and videos almost exclusively. I’m going to stand down at the bottom here and everything I’m going to say is about a picture. It’s going to be about a video. We’ll watch a couple of videos. It should take about 40 minutes. Thereabouts, 45 minutes maybe. It’s going to be dependent on how much you want to hear. Really, I’ve got lots to talk about, but I didn’t want you to all go away for lunch and do this and then come back, so we’re going to take a 20-minute break.
Hey, before we do that, let’s take up an offering. I think this is really good today to take up an offering, given what I’ve just preached about. Don’t you think? Yeah. It’s what we do neh. Hallelujah. You can sit down again. I’ll dismiss us in a minute. I really, if you’re part of this ministry, if you’re part of this church, I’m not wanting this to get out. If you’re here today, you’re going to hear it. You’re not going to have another opportunity to hear it because it’s not going to be recorded for you. Excuse me. I’m having them record it for me, but it’s not going to be available to anybody else. It’s just for me. Amen. Hallelujah.
So if you can’t make it today, that’s your decision. I’m not trying to be heavy on you. I’m just saying that the wisdom I’ve got is that this shouldn’t be a public thing. It should be a private family thing. Amen. Hallelujah. I’m going to just pray over this offering while they’re busy taking it up. And I say, “Thank you, Lord, for the seed that is sowed, that You will use it to Your glory. You will use it for Your honor. You will use it in any way that You want to bring goodness into the lives of Your people, that everything that they touch is blessed. They’re blessed going out and blessed coming in. You use it for their peace. You use it for their wellbeing and their prosperity in Jesus’ name. And everybody says, “Amen.” Hallelujah. So 20 minutes, it’s now 11:15. So 11:35 we’ll start again. Thank you.
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TOUCH | TEACH | TRAIN | TRANSFER
