Scripture reference: John 2:13-17 (NKJV); Mark 11:15-17 (NKJV); Numbers 25:11 (NLT); Revelations 2:16 (NLT); Deuteronomy 12: 5 – 7 (NKJV)
Right. So let me see here, announcements. There will be Message Moments at 5 o’clock this afternoon. And let’s take up an offering while we’re all seated, this is a good time to take up an offering. Thank you. Miranda, if you can just open my wallet, please. And just take out some notes. Well, welcome everybody. Welcome. Such a privilege to have a spirit of generosity. Right? Ongoing spirit of generosity. Alright. And then we can pray after the offering. We pray over you actually, right? Don’t you just enjoy the stillness and I just so enjoy it. Right? His peace passes all understanding like rivers, just flows like rivers in your heart, it’s wonderful. Are you all doing well? Good. You ready for what the Lord has for us this morning? Thank you so much, Hans. Let’s just, – as an act of faith – let’s just stretch out our hands towards what we’re going to pray now actually. Right? Father, we thank You for the harvest that comes to your people from the seed, Lord. In Jesus’ name, and we all say, Amen. Glory to God.
So, I’m going to follow the Holy Spirit this morning. Isn’t it wonderful that we can follow the Holy Spirit? I just want to pray to the Father, in the name of Jesus right now, will you join me? Father, thank You, for the things that You’ve shown me that you would want to do this morning, that You’d want to say, and that You’d want us to heed and listen to and obey. Thank You that I can say that I will say only what I hear You say and I will do only what I see You do. And I ask this in Jesus’ name. Thank You for Your anointing, Your spirit that rests upon this whole time that we’re together. May Father and Jesus be glorified. Amen.
Let’s just see here. Hanna, I’m going to ask you to just come and sit here, please. I’m just looking. Alright. Yeah, okay. You already have the Spirit of the Lord on you. [Pastor Sharon referring to Hanna] We’re following the Holy Spirit. So, “What should we do now, Pastor Sharon, while everything is so quiet?” We reverence the presence of the Lord. And we say in our hearts, Lord, have Your way, have Your say, and have full sway here this morning. Right? And so some of the people that I had are not here this morning. DI, is not here. Is Di not here? Is your mom not here? All right. And Gideon’s not here. Alright. Well, Hanna, I’m just looking for the Holy Spirit to … Can you come, Tarryn? Would that be okay? Can you? Thank you. Angie. Angie. Hallelujah. Glory, glory, glory. I was hoping Pastor Melusi would be here, but he’s at service himself. And so, glory to God. And Bertus and Stefnie. Thank you. Bertus and Stefnie. Okay.
So I’ve had a very different time with the Lord. I know how He gives me messages, you know, it’s just like that with me and Him. When I seek Him for a message, He gives me a message. And yesterday I was just with the Lord the whole day and waiting upon Him. And, then this morning, I was up very early to wait on Him because I received no message yesterday. And the whole week I’ve been waiting on the Lord. And then this morning I woke up and there was no message. So then I said to the Lord, well, because I trust Him and, “You must have another plan.” I said, “Show me who else has got the message for this morning.” You know, I was going there with the Lord. Is it Pastor Melusi? Is it Pastor Garth? Is it, you know, and then I said, “Well, Lord, since You are not as clear to me as You usually are, I’m going to just continue in my prayer time this morning. I’m going to pray for my nation as I do. Pray for Pastor John as I do. And pray for my family as I do and pray for my family of Heritage of Faith. And when I began to pray for my nation, the Lord was quite clear to where we should go. But I just want to take a moment here.
Hanna, you said you had the Spirit of the Lord on you already during our sound and song. But you don’t know what for. Okay. So what we are going to do this morning is we’re going to flow with the Holy Spirit. So if He prompts you, if He prompts you, if He prompts you, right, then you yield and we participate with Him this morning. Right? Okay.
I’m going to read the two scriptures He … Let me read this one first. It’s John chapter 2 verse 13 from the New King James. John chapter 2 verse 13. We continue to reverence His presence because He’s going to move in the way He wants to move here this morning. Right? 13 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. 15 When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. 16 And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” 17 Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.” (John 2:13-17 NKJV). This is a scripture that the Lord brought a few weeks ago to say that this is what He requires of the disciples in this church; that the zeal for His House will eat us up, which means it will consume us. God’s dreams will consume us.
And so then I’m just going to read this account of it in Mark chapter 11 verse 15. 15 So they came to Jerusalem. Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 16 And He would not allow anyone to carry wares, stuff, through the temple. 17 Then He taught, So there’s going to be a little bit of teaching. I’m just going with Him. Right? We are all going with Him together this morning. 17 Then He taught, saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ” (Mark 11-15-17 NKJV). So what Jesus is saying here is that you have made His house, was saying to them, something other than what it should be. I say that it will be a House of prayer, a House of prayer.
And so I’m just going to share with you a little bit of a journey. I can’t possibly go through everything. But I am going to go through some of these things that I will tell you that we were planted in a church, Pastor John and I, for almost, well, for 19 years. We were planted where the Lord called us to. And, I was a witness to how many times the Holy Spirit came to our church while we were planted to speak to the people about prayer. I was a witness. And, by and large and on the whole, we did grow up in a church where there was virtually no corporate prayer. I will not say people did not pray on their own with God, but it’s very clear in Scripture that it was the corporate prayer that was the most powerful prayer. It was the prayer of the House of God. This is not just a house like a little house. This House, my House shall be called a House of prayer. This is like a house of parliament. It goes directly with the teaching that we have taught you that Jesus said, “I will build My Ekklesia, My Church,” and that word Ekklesia means those called out to govern and rule on the earth, so that the gates of hell cannot win against it. Win against the people. We are House of prayer. We are the Church individually and corporately. We are personally called out to rule and to govern in our personal lives according to the Word of God, to exercise our rights, our covenant rights. To exercise our rights with the promises of God, and to keep our eyes fixed, to keep our mouth filled, and to keep our hearts, the Word of God in our hearts. Right? And then to speak those things.
So I’m going to share with you a very,very powerful experience I had with the Lord in July 1996. There was a prophecy that our pastor allowed, a person that was known to be bringing the gift of the Spirit of tongues and interpretation. Right? And so he came again on that morning, and he said that he had a three part word over three Sundays to bring. And so this was the 2nd July 1996. How many years ago was that? Twenty-eight. And the reason this was so significant was because the Spirit of God arrested me where I was sitting. And this is what he said; How greatly I have loved you, talking to South Africa. How greatly I have loved you, this nation. Despised, weak, small, insignificant. I long to show My power, My goodness to a people unreligious, unpretentious. I’ve shown My grace and goodness. People have envied them. My trophy of grace, rare and excellent. One thing I find lacking, My people prefer their pillows to pray. It’s not enough now and again, here and there. That which I have spoken about this nation, it’s great. I need My Church. I do nothing to the exclusion of My Church, My people that have been called to rule and govern. But it requires a price from you; the price of prayer. I will fulfil and bring to fruition My plans and purposes for this nation. If you do not cooperate, I will raise up another people to do My bidding if you won’t pray. If you will pay the price, then I will speak further to you.
This is when the Lord began to speak to me and I had to write very quickly. “This is why I have been telling you to pray, Sharon, be the one that I will raise up. It’s only going to be done through praying people, people who know My voice and follow it. There are specific strategies I must give. Who will hear, who will hear My voice – only the praying diligent seekers in My Church. My signs and wonders, My mighty works, My glory and My goodness will only be displayed through My disciplined ones – diligent seekers – daily diligence, not occasional. No more, no more, I am moving fast, you must keep up. I am past programmes but into prayer. The power will only come through the praying. I am about to shout so loud in this nation.” The reason I am reading this is because God has brought it up to right now. It’s for right now. It has been accumulating. Now God is bringing the culmination of this. “I am about to shout so loud in this nation. Only through the prayerful ones who are hearing My voice on a continual, ongoing basis. I cannot afford to use those who only hear Me sometimes, for the timing, the strategy, the positioning is too crucial, too vital to be messed up. Soldiers, it is the time of generals, lieutenants, corporals, privates to position. Those who do not transition to prayer will not position. When you do not hear My voice then you begin to speak and pull things out of your soul and may even after a while think it is Me, but My breath is not in it. It is not current. I love My people so, I want to speak to them in demonstration and in power. If you will do this, then I will give you a platform and raise you up and bring the people. I will work My signs and wonders and miracles. I am breathing, it is a new door. I am moving in a new way – I’m breathing, I am the Head of the Church – it’s My Church, I am building it. If they don’t come to Me, then they labour in vain who build it. Only what I say, only the instructions that I give, only I know what to do when.”
Alright, then it continued, the prophecy to the next Sunday. To the measure you seek Me, you will find Me. To the measure you pray, you will find Me. Wait upon Me. Do not go back, be forewarned as prosperity is restored, do not go back to your pillows. This is not the time to do that, as you will not be ready for that which is to come. The Church will have lost its opportunity. If you go back to your pillows, you will lose the momentum of what I am doing. Return in these days to your love for one another. As you love one another, it’s that love that will draw all men unto Me. They will know you are My disciples by the love. Believe God’s prophets and you will be established.
Then, the final part of the prophecy was this; If you murmur against God’s delegated authority, you will turn leprous, like Miriam and like Aaron. Miriam turned leprous. Aaron didn’t because he repented very quickly. But Miraim was steadfast in what she felt she was justified in what she had to say about Moses. And so, I just need to appeal to you at this time, you see, I am going with the Holy Spirit. I need to appeal to you at this time, you need to allow the Holy Spirit to help you. If you’ve had any murmurings, any judgments in your heart towards Pastor John or to me. I think specifically to me, just because of the way God uses me, that people speak out. And so, what the Lord wants to help you with is for you to repent from that because if you don’t then you won’t – something Pastor John said just a few days ago in my presence, “You won’t receive the prophet’s reward,” which means because you don’t receive me, you won’t receive the prophet’s reward. You cannot think that you’ve got another prophet out there somewhere that you can receive the reward from. You cannot think that, because in this House, God’s dream, He has given the apostle, prophet, teacher, shepherd, He has given in this House. He’s given the work of the Evangelist, it is happening in this House. So, it is for your sake. This is not something that has ever bothered me, what people say about me. I have fear of God, not fear of man. But for your sake, you need to say, “Lord, this is what I’ve done. This is what I’ve thought in my heart. I have not received.” You see, that scripture says, “He who receives a prophet, will receive a prophet’s reward.” In other words, everything that God’s put in me to come out of me to you, if you’ve murmured, you’ve received nothing. You have not received anything from me, from the gift. Not that you receive it from me, but from the gift that God’s placed in me. It means nothing has happened from me, from the Spirit of God through me to you. Nothing’s happened. All of the messages, all of even the fire, you have not been, you’ve not let it burn. So, this is just something that God is appealing to you for your own sake. For your own sake that you not, don’t do that anymore. Just say to the Lord, “Lord.”
You know, this is a very interesting thing. The Lord reminded me about it this week. I was in a meeting once in my church where I was planted. And a speaker came from our church to do, I was always at the church on a Wednesday morning with our pastor’s wife, she would do beautiful teachings. She invited somebody from the Bible School to come and teach. And it was an amazing experience for me because he stood up and he said, “There are those of you that have been speaking against pastor. And God will cleanse you. He’ll wash you clean. He’ll wash you clean.” And if you know my story about the first time I was at a home cell. They had home cells and there were people that were in our church discussing our pastor. And the Lord said to me, “Run! Run from them.” And I ran. And, He didn’t want me to participate. So even if you haven’t contributed to the conversation, but you’ve lent your ears to speaking about me or Pastor John, this goes for both of us at this time, God wants you receiving the reward. So I sat there, I was shocked that such a thing could even happen. And do you know that three quarters of the ladies got up to go forward? I thought, “How does this happen? How does this happen, Lord?” The people can sit year after year after year and not receive anything of the gift that’s in her, the anointing that’s upon her, because they want to have discussions about her. What they think is right. What they think is wrong. Like Miriam. And so, you may not actually get a physical leprosy, but it’s a spiritual leprosy that anything that is leprous in your life speaking, you won’t be able to get it off because God’s dream is apostles and prophets and His teachers and shepherds, you see. That’s God’s dream.
So I’m not going to make that call this morning, but I hear the Spirit of God pleading with you to not do that. Don’t do that anymore. Don’t do that anymore. When you go home in your car or in your kitchen or in your bathroom or in your bedroom, you just say, “Lord, that’s me. I’m not ever going to do that again. I’m not even going to be participative.” I know of a woman in this congregation whose husband was always speaking out against me. And she said, “I will not have you speak like that against Pastor Sharon when you speak to me. I cannot hear you, and I cannot participate.” And so, that’s how you stop a conversation. You just say, “The honour in my heart.” You see? Because Miriam felt very justified in what she was saying, “Moses has done this, He married an Ethiopian woman.” And that was not a good thing that Moses did to choose an Ethiopian because of tradition and culture and all of that back then. It was actually not something but he did it. Right? And so she felt justified in herself to say what she had to say because of what she saw. You know? But it says, “God heard.” So she got together with, she found a counterpart. She found Aaron – they got into agreement, or he listened anyway while she spoke. So God wants to set you free. He wants you just to be clean. Just get alone with Him and say, “Lord, wash me. Wash me from that so that I may receive, going forward the prophet’s reward.” Hallelujah.
So this was the final part of the prophecy that day. If you murmur against God’s delegated authority, you will turn leprous. So that’s part of the scripture where David says, “Touch not God’s anointed.” So prayer. Yes. Okay, alright.
Hanna Prinsloo:
This is part of what I actually felt when I sat at the back there this morning. I was struggling with myself because I was sitting there, you know, we always sit in the back – it’s quite comfortable. I wanted to come and sit here in front because it felt like I needed to come and sit and be part of your spiritual covering. Yeah, that was what was going on in my heart. That was what was going on in my heart. But I didn’t want to draw attention to myself or anything because people know I don’t sit there. So, you know, they think, okay, what’s happening here? And they’re distracted from the worship and all. But this that you are saying, whatever else is going to come out, but just now, and if you feel it’s to the level that you need to come and publicly repent, then come forward and publicly repent. But if it is just that you can do in your heart, let’s just take a few minutes and settle it now because the anointing is so heavy now, and the presence of God is so heavy now.
You know, if you don’t do it now and you walk out and then you get in your kitchen and reason starts hitting your head again and you know… but remember Pastor Sharon did it that way and she was shouting like that and I didn’t like that shouting and I didn’t like her performing like that. But this is the way the Holy Spirit works through her. And, I mean, I know from me, you know, you’ve heard part of my testimony already in times. I mean, the first time we finally joined the church permanently and you were preaching that Sunday. And it was in submission to authority, it felt like someone took a knife and cut my heart up in little bits and pieces like mincemeat. But it was the most liberating thing. But it didn’t come comfortably, you know, and if we can look past, because God can speak to His Church whichever way He wants to. It’s His Church, you know, and He chooses the vessels that He chooses.
We certainly know I don’t carry Pastor Sharon’s anointing. You know you don’t carry that. So, it must come through her how it comes. If I struggle with my humanity to step over how it gets delivered, well, then I must deal with it and grow up a little bit. You know what I mean? But if you get to the Word that comes through and what the Lord is doing in us through that, and in this atmosphere here, I know it now. There’s such an anointing to be able to just let go of that. And, yeah, just let go of that. And as I say, let’s just close our eyes. Let’s take that moment to settle this thing right with the Lord. But if you feel it’s to a level where you publicly need to just come and repent,we know Pastor Sharon well enough to know that she’s not going to hold this thing against you. On the contrary, she is going to rejoice for the liberation and the setting free that’s coming with this. But if you do feel you want to do it publicly, come, otherwise just sit there and settle this thing and get it over with.
So, that there’s such a freedom for the Lord also to speak in this house. You know, I wouldn’t want Him to not be able to say things to us that He needs to say to us because we can’t handle it. We take offence because we didn’t like someone’s, I don’t know, the top that they’re wearing that day or the way that the Word comes through them, you know, it’s too little. We passed that. We’re beyond that. So, let’s shake those things off because there’s so much more that the Lord wants to say to the house, but He can’t if we keep Him restrained.
We’ve talked, you know, He’s brought that word about familiarity to us many times. If we put people inside the boundaries of what we find acceptable and how we think they should operate, well, there’s a whole lot the Lord can’t do with us, and so we don’t want that. We simply just don’t want that.
So, Father, here’s our hearts before You on this, Lord. And in any place Father whether it’s been with Pastor John, with Pastor Sharon, with Pastor Garth, with Pastor Christi, with any of our brothers, our sisters, Lord but especially here with the fivefold ministry and especially the ministry as it comes through Pastor Sharon, Lord. That she never has to hold back from You Lord, what you’re putting through her because we’re saying, “No, You can’t go there, You may not operate or function like that because we disapprove.” But meantime, You and heaven say, “This is the way that I want it, Lord.” So, if there’s anything like that Lord, search our hearts, see it, Lord and then we repent, Lord. We repent for any of those thoughts; any of those fleshly natural things, Lord, that’s not spiritual things, Lord, to make it right before You, so that You can speak and that leprosy doesn’t come on us but there’s a free, free flow opening of the Spirit for and through us, Lord. From you to us and through us and in this House and corporately together, Lord.
Pastor Sharon Bendixen:
Thank you, thank you Hanna. Angie.
Angie van Staden:
Pastor Sharon, I just, just from my own personal walk with the Lord and how He has used your gift in my life. I’ve been really thinking about this a lot, this week, how smart God was to put you alongside Pastor John because He breaks open territory, He takes us to new realms. But we cannot occupy if we are not trained. We cannot take those and go into those spaces and places – and that’s the anointing that the Holy Spirit works through your vessels, is to get us into shape. And Pastor John said it – he could feel the fire from that message on that Sunday night, you know? And it’s uncomfortable, but it’s; what are you going to do with it that’s going to determine what happens next? And he also said, we have to have an expectation of being baptised with water or do we want to have the expectation of being baptised with fire? Because it is the baptism of fire that is going to get us to the point where we can occupy fully and go into all His plans and purposes for our lives. And we recognise, Pastor Sharon, that it’s the Holy Spirit through you. It’s the Holy Spirit. We reference the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t matter how He manifests. It doesn’t matter how He manifests. He must manifest the way He does through your gifting, but it’s Him. It’s Him. And we receive the fire that comes through Him because it is to purify us. It is. And great victory comes through the purification process. We can not get to where we’re supposed to without it. We cannot.
Pastor Sharon Bendixen:
I’ve realised that this week to a degree that I’ve never realised before. It suddenly dawned on me. Oh my word, Brother Jerry said the prophet’s realm and everything, the prophet’s reward and everything that that entails, Lord. And I thought, oh. Wow. Wow. Many things have changed since Brother Jerry died. God is putting some things in place with our go forward now.
You’ve got something, Tarryn?
Tarryn Roos:
That seed, Pastor Sharon, it’s actually opened the door to the miraculous. The prophet’s chamber, and everything, therefore, that God has for us as a people, are going to come through recognition of who God has given us. Because that is God’s dream. He spoke very clearly to us last week. God’s dream is, He has given apostles, prophets, pastors, evangelists, and teachers. And so, if and this is a big part of the crossover. We have to recognise, because what we don’t recognise, we cannot receive from. So you have to recognise who Pastor John is. You have to recognise who Pastor Sharon is. You have to recognise who Pastor Christi is, and you have to recognise and have honour in your heart for who Pastor Garth is too. And honour… out of honour that really, if you are having conversations in your home out of honour, you say, “I cannot have these conversations any longer.”
And this is what Pastor John had prayed when he left for America the first time before – the time before this – before he went the last time, we know, with Brother Jerry’s passing. But he said this – and I encourage all of you, if you’ve had anything in your heart towards Pastor Sharon, the best way to cleanse that. Yes, repent and have an earnest repentance before the Lord today. But then also, you can pray for her. I know that was a great encouragement. When Pastor John released these words, I said, “I know Father how I’ve been faithful in praying for Pastor John, but I want to be faithful in a new level now of praying for pastor Sharon.” And just the highest expectation in my heart that the Lord, as He was telling us to have these high expectations and have dreams, and Pastor John asked us to write them down, but it’s really for prayer to go to a higher level personally and then, obviously, when it’s personal, it can go corporate. And so, these are words Pastor John released over Pastor Sharon, and this is what you can pray and say; She will be flowing in an anointing that will be new. It will be sure. It will be strong. It will reinforce and bring new insights and revelations to what God has given us as a momentum. We cannot have this momentum if we do not recognise the gift, and we do not want things to be leprous in our lives. So I urge you, this is Pastor John. This is the Lord Jesus speaking through Pastor John to us. I urge you to pray for Pastor Sharon as the delegated spiritual leader while I’m gone, that she will have the mind of Christ, that she will follow all the ways of God in everything that needs to be said and done, that there is not a spiritual vacuum of authority while I’m gone. And whoever and that was it.
So it’s really bringing new insights and revelations to what God has given us as a momentum. And so, Pastor Sharon, it’s really, if there’s anything that’s a hindrance in your life, recognise what Pastor Sharon has said through the Holy Spirit here today, that if things aren’t moving in your life, it’s because you have not actually ever received those messages. And these are big messages every week that come Sunday by Sunday, by these vessels used by God. We must receive them now to make great advancement, to progress, to be promoted, and to have God’s highest expectations and dreams fulfilled in this church.
Pastor Sharon Bendixen:
Thank you. Thank you. So I come without fire today. I think what the Lord is going to do, is He is going to, He is without fire today, because He wants the permission of this Ecclesia for the fire to flow freely again. He wants your permission. Please. Thank you.
Marcelle Bendixen:
So, hi. The first time I encountered Pastor Sharon, I was 16, turning 17, and she was praying in the Spirit and I was outside the church and hadn’t even seen her face. Right then and there, the Lord said to me, “This is your home, whether your parents stay or not.” And it’s been a long time since then. I’m much older now. But what I can say is that Pastor Sharon has been faithful, and she has dedicated her life to praying for us. We don’t have anybody else necessarily praying for us. You know? And I’m a mom, and I know that sometimes I’m not perfect. A lot of times, I’m not perfect. And I would rather have a mom than not have a mom. Imperfect. And so I know that there have been things that have been hard for me in some of the messages that I have heard. But the Lord has always encouraged me to face the fire, to turn and face the fire. And so before God, before you, if there’s anything in my behaviour or my words that have been dishonourable to you, Pastor Sharon, I apologise. And I encourage all of you to do the same because this is our safe place. It really is. Just like I can say to my children, my number one job is to protect you whether I do it perfectly or not, you know.
Pastor Sharon Bendixen:
Thank you. This is beautiful. Isn’t this a beautiful thing? Isn’t this precious? It’s beautiful. Right. The Lord is, I’ve never heard that before. Like that. That He wants your permission. He’s looking for the fire that’s coming now, not from me, but from the Church. That He wants your permission to flow fully through Pastor John, but especially through me because just the way He is with me and I am with Him, you know. You got something, Stef?
Stefnie Kruger:
Pastor Sharon, so for me, it’s just we’ve crossed over now. So if you think you can go into the promised land with your old habits and your old thinkings and your old ideas, you didn’t cross over. You’re still on the other side. So for me, it’s just that the law of recognition must work. And if you can’t recognise what is happening, I don’t know, then you also didn’t cross over. So for me, just receiving from you, Pastor Sharon, as I said previously, is if it’s only this one thing that I can take into eternity, it is your zeal for the House of the Lord. That zeal and the fear of the Lord that’s consuming you. That’s the only thing that I want to take with me into eternity. I will be very grateful to the Lord. And that is my desire before for the congregation, before the Lord, just to be a disciple like that, that the zeal of His House for His glory will conceal me for all the days of my life. And, even this week, I had a moment with the Lord. And I said to the Lord, “I don’t want to do things that people say, wow and oh, or I want a platform.” I really don’t want that. The deep desire of my heart is that I want to be one of the intercessors of the House of Heritage of Faith that you can count on me. You can count on me for prayer. And I didn’t know that you would say this, this morning that we’re from the House of prayer. So, the consuming fire, the zeal of the house and to be me, Stefnie, house of prayer, is that I received from you with all the rest. But I have the law of recognition of that, Pastor Sharon. And for me, if it wasn’t for you, where would I have been? I don’t know. I really don’t know because no one taught me that. I’ve learned it from you and the way you are with the Lord, the way that you present the Lord, the living example among us, Pastor Sharon, that encourages me. That wants me to go up higher because I’ve got a living example living next to me. I can look up and say, “Lord, Lord, Lord. That’s what I want to be. I want to be there. Just pull me up there, Lord.” And every time you do that, yeah, sometimes it is uncomfortable. But thank you, Lord, that, again, I can go to the next level.
Then also just to realise that in every moment, wherever you are, that you can realise that you can fall off at any moment on the level that you are. It’s only prayer and the Word that will keep you safe and let you keep going. Keep going. Then again, you come alongside us and just bring us to true north again. For me, Pastor Sharon, I can’t live without it. I can’t. I really can’t. The other thing is, Pastor Sharon, if you don’t bring it to us, if I’m just thinking about December, again, I mean, you just came that morning to share. Didn’t know what was going to happen, but it shifted us as a Church to a new level. So, if you don’t do that, we can’t go forward crossing over into our promised land. So for me, we need that. I say thank you, Pastor Sharon. We give God all the permission. Yes. Thank you, Pastor Sharon.
Pastor Sharon Bendixen:
You’re welcome. So, that’s what God wants. He doesn’t want you receiving from me because you’re looking at me and you’re thinking things in your head. He wants you to become like I am. Did you hear what Stefnie said? That I want the zeal that you have for God’s house to come on me. I want that. So, you’re supposed to, the fire is not my fire. Jacinta said it so beautifully to me. That it’s not my fire, it’s God’s fire. So, He wants His fire to be fire in you so you can become on fire. He wants you on fire. His fire. Only His fire can make you on fire. I can’t make you on fire, but if God’s fire, baptised with the Holy Spirit and with fire. So, if God’s fire is allowed to burn here in this House, then you will become on fire. But if you resist the fire because of a natural thing, and, “I know Pastor Sharon, and there she goes again. That’s just Pastor Sharon.” That’s familiarity that Brother Jerry said that the Lord Jesus told him this, “Your destiny, whatever you do with your familiarity with Brother Copeland’s humanity is what will determine your destiny.”
So, now more than ever, especially those of you that have been here with me for a long time, with us for a long time, you need to close your eyes when the fire of God starts burning through me. You don’t have to even look at me. You understand? Because it’s not my fire. It’s the fire of God so that you can be on fire. That’s the ministry of Elijah that will turn all of your hearts to your Father. It’s the ministry of fire. He called the fire of God down to burn up all the bowls, all the Babylonian stuff, all the worldly stuff. You cannot burn up, you cannot have the world and your love for the world burned up in you without the fire of God. And so, that’s why Elisha said to Elijah, “I want a double portion of your spirit. Your spirit that calls down fire.” Because Elisha was saying, “I’m so consumed with God’s purposes that your people don’t serve the world. I must have a double portion of what your fire was to turn the hearts of the Israelites to God.” You see that? It’s not some strange thing. It’s like that. Hallelujah. You got something here now.
Hanna Prinsloo:
Okay. So, the other thing we can’t stumble across is the vessel that it comes through. And in this case, God has put that into a female vessel. If you’re a male and you’re struggling with that, that this is a woman telling me what to do, you know, we can’t stop there. It’s got nothing to do with gender. But in that, we need some men to stand up and speak. It can’t just be the woman of the church standing up and saying, “We receive your ministry, Pastor Sharon.” So, we need some men. Bertus if you don’t mind because you’re here in any case to open the floor and then we need some men to come up and acknowledge this gift and stand for it as well, please.
Pastor Sharon Bendixen:
Isn’t it amazing that God is wanting this today? I didn’t know it was going to go like this. I’ve got lots of other things there I was going to read. Bertus. But the Lord wants your permission for Him to be able to flow through this gift.
Bertus Kruger:
So I wanted to share this at Message Moments this afternoon, and I said to the Lord, “If it’s now, then it’s okay.” But I’ll just share a small bit and hopefully I’ll still get another chance this afternoon. But what the Lord showed me because Pastor Sharon spoke about the Nicolaitan spirit. Then the Lord took me to Numbers 25 and it was how the Israelites sinned against the Lord because they were seduced by the Midianite women or the Moabite women who followed the advice of Balaam who was a prophet. And, so I think it’s also called the doctrine of Balaam, which is the doctrine of compromise. So I don’t know who these people were who were being led by this evil spirit in our community or in our church. I don’t know that. But anyway, I wanted to find out a bit more, and then I went, and the Lord took me to Numbers 25, and I encourage you to go and read this. But I’ll come to the point where the Lord really touched my heart regarding Pastor Sharon.
So the Midianite women, they seduced the men of Israel or some of the men. I don’t know how many, to have sexual relations with them, and then they seduced the men to have meals with them and to offer sacrifices to their god who was, Baal. This made the Lord angry. This made the Lord angry. So, His wrath was kindled and a plague started among the Israelites. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get your ring leaders. Get your ringleaders and execute them publicly.” So, my thought was, “Lord, Pastor Sharon, was very strong when she spoke about this and when she said, ‘You can go.’” And I thought, “Praise the Lord that Pastor John didn’t say these words.” But imagine Pastor Sharon calling me out or calling any one of us out to come and stand here, and asking us, “What are you busy with, this spirit of compromise that you are spreading in this church?” So I said, “Lord, thank You. Thank You. Thank You. Thank You.” But while the assembly was going on with Moses and the people, there was a man. I don’t understand this, but he, at that very moment, in front of their eyes, he took a Midianite woman into his tent. I don’t know. You know, if you know the scripture, but go and read it. And I thought, how arrogant, how stupid, but that’s just how the devil works. And, so this happened in front of everyone’s eyes. And then Phinehas, who was the grandson of Aaron, he was so zealous for the Lord. He was so zealous for the Lord that he grabbed the spear and he ran after this man into into his tent and and he stabbed the man. And as he stabbed the man, threw him, the spear went through him and into the woman as well. So you can just use your imagination what was happening there. And then the Lord said to Moses, 11 Phinehas son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron the priest has turned my anger away from the Israelites by being as zealous among them as I was. So I stopped destroying all Israel as I had intended to do in my zealous anger (Numbers 25:11 NLT). But not before 24,000 people had died. So I was thinking this morning, “Lord, some scholars say that because they were camped, when this happened they were still camped opposite Jericho, but on the other side of the Jordan. So they hadn’t crossed over yet. So I was thinking, “Lord.” The scholars say they were when they left Egypt, they were around about 3,000,000 people, but whatever the number is. So if you go back to Revelations 2, where the Lord spoke about this Nicolaitan spirit, and the Lord Jesus says He hates their deeds. He hates their deeds. If you go and look at that word, what it means, He abhors it. He utterly detests it. It’s loathsome to Him. And, so I was thinking and then He also says, maybe I can find it quickly and then I can read it for you. The Lord Jesus says, this is in Revelations 2 verse 16, He says, 16 Repent of your sin, or I will come to you suddenly and fight against them with the sword of my mouth (Revelations 2:16 NLT). So that’s what the Lord Jesus said. That’s to the church of Pergamum. And I thought, okay. 3,000,000, 24 dying out of 3,000,000? Some people won’t even notice the 24,000 dead. So I thought, “Lord, what will happen if You suddenly come and fight against these people with the sword of Your mouth? What will happen? What will happen to us?” Because it could be a person that we love dearly. It could be a person that we love dearly, but because, praise the Lord, some people say, “No, in front of me, you don’t speak like that of Pastor John or Pastor Sharon.You don’t speak like that, and we don’t speak like that. I mean, are we stupid? How many times has Pastor Sharon and Pastor John taught us we don’t speak against our spiritual authority? We cannot receive from them if we speak against them. So how stupid do we want to be to want to speak against them? How arrogant, how arrogant are we to think that we can speak against them? Thank You, Jesus for helping us all.
Pastor Sharon Bendixen:
Yes. That’s the fire. That was God’s fire. You felt it in you, hey? Bertus? Nico, you come first.
Dr. Nico Ligthelm:
Thank you. He pressed something on my heart and I need to share it. 2013, we started with Bible School, and I was quite arrogant at that stage, like all of us at some stage. I told Amanda, “I don’t want to join the church. I’m quite comfortable in my church.” At that stage, 2013, that’s quite a few years ago. And then I think they were on their way to a mission trip to Malawi, and I felt in my heart that that’s something I need to do. And what I’m getting to is and I don’t know if I’ve thanked you publicly. I might have in person, but I want to thank you publicly that you brought that day, you Pastor Sharon, Deuteronomy 12 verse 5, 5 But you shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling[c] place; and there you shall go. 6 There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. 7 And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the Lord your God has blessed you (Deuteronomy 12: 5 – 7 NKJV). And I can honestly say that the Lord God blesses us out of our feet, out of our shoes, because of words that you bring for us. Sometimes your fire is tough on all of us, but always keeps us on the right track again and again. And I’ve spoken to you over the telephone, told you, “I know it’s tough for you sometimes, but you must be strong and we pray for you. And we thank you. We love you, Pastor Sharon.”
Pastor Sharon Bendixen:
I feel the love. Thank you, Nico. Wow. It’s beautiful. Thank you. We’re giving God permission, right? Because if we’re going to make progress in advance, now it means that He wants to progress and advance my gift. And so I don’t know what that’s going to look like. I don’t know how that’s going to be. But if the fire might be getting hotter, and so when His fire burns in me, it burns me too. You must understand while it’s happening to me, while He’s happening in me, it’s happening to me. I’m in fear and trembling with the Lord. I’m not like this at home with my husband. I’m the most excellent follower you can, well, one of the most. You are all excellent followers. Come, Pastor G.
Pastor Garth Bendixen:
I would like to share with them the dream. So, in the spirit there are elements. Our natural world represents first what is in the spirit. So, in the spirit, there are elements of wind, fire, and water. All of those elements first existed in the spirit. And I had a dream years ago now, about Pastor John and Pastor Sharon. And, the way you know it’s a spiritual dream, Brother Hagin taught this, is it makes an impression on you and that impression never leaves you. And so, even now I can see the dream clearly because that’s what the Spirit does. It makes an impression on you. And in the dream, I saw wind pick up leaves and stubble and lots of things. And if you’ve ever seen strong wind, that’s what the wind does. It’ll pick it up and it blows it into a space or where the wind can’t take it anymore because it’s reached that place where, like, in the corner of a wall or or somewhere where the wind can’t take it anymore.
And so, I saw the wind doing that. And in my spirit, I knew that that was the ministry that was coming through Pastor John that picks us all up and moved us into a place. And then I saw the fire come onto all of the stuff that had been pushed into one place and burn it up and refine it and purify it. I didn’t see what was left. Even now, I… it’s for whatever reason, I didn’t see what was left, and maybe that’s yet to come to see what’s left, what that pure substance, that pure gold looks like. But that is the purpose and the function of what God has in this House for us, for all of us, is that Pastor John, as the wonderful, kind, gentle shepherd, picks us all up and moves us into a place, and then the fire comes through Pastor Sharon and purifies us. And for us to resist that, if you believe in your heart that God has planted you here in this House, for you to resist that, you are resisting God and that is foolish for you to resist that. And so I believe I have a strategy from the Lord for the men, an Ekklesia strategy. So for the men that are here that haven’t been here long enough to understand what it means to be planted, understand what it means to be faithful to this local church and listen with intense or intent ears to change. If you’re not one of those men who don’t yet understand, this is not for you. But this is for the men here who know and understand what it is to be planted and to be faithful and to recognise that the messages that come from the prophet and from the apostle are for us to change whether we’re uncomfortable or not. I believe the strategy from the Holy Spirit is for you to stand or not to stand. And if you don’t stand, then you need to take that to the Father, why it’s not in your heart to stand. But to stand and say, “Aye.” And by doing that, you’re giving your agreement and you’re yielding to the Holy Spirit that the fire of God can flow through this vessel to purify and for us to become as a people what we need to become.
Because as the heads of homes, as fathers, as that representation before God, you saying, “Aye,” you allow that into your heart and into your home. So this is a serious moment. [Some men in the congregation stand and say, “Aye.”] And these are the words that I would like for us all to say, “I yield to the fire of God in this home in Jesus’ name [The men repeat after Pastor Garth].” Thank you, men. That’s not for us. That’s you before God. That is you before God.
Pastor Sharon Bendixen:
A great work has been done here today.
Pastor Garth Bendixen:
A great work for God.
Pastor Sharon Bendixen:
He has permission now.
Pastor Garth Bendixen:
Yes. The Church has spoken. The Ekklesia has spoken. Praise the Lord. Thank you.
Pastor Sharon Bendixen:
Thank you, Pastor G. Praise the Lord. Isn’t this beautiful? Glory to God.
[Pastor Sharon notices a young man] I can see you want to say something, but I don’t know you. Are you a member of this church? No? I’m not sure if I can. Right? But afterwards would be good. Afterwards. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I think because Pastor Garth finished, I think it’s appropriate for us to finish now. How many of you sense, do you sense, is there agreement with us here this morning that God has done a beautiful work and that we’re done? We’re done. But I would really love you, young man, to come and speak to me, right? Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Glory to God. Right, right. God has done a beautiful work here this morning. He has permission now and it’s wonderful. That’s the only way you get gold, is if His fire can burn. It’s the only way. The fire of His Word.
Father, we thank You for what You have done here today. We bless You, we bless You. We appreciate You. Me especially that I didn’t have to come with any fire today, Lord. [Pastor Sharon and congregation laugh] To just be so quiet in me. It’s been a wonderful opportunity. We thank You for what You’ve done here by Your Spirit. We acknowledge You, we see what You’ve done here, we receive what You’ve done here, Lord, and we look forward to everything going forward.
You are blessed by the Word and the blood of Jesus. The Word and the blood of Jesus protects you, protects you, surrounds you and blesses you. You are blessed going out. Blessed going out of this assembly. Blessed into your car. Blessed where you’re going. Blessed into your home. Blessed wherever you go. This whole week until we see each other again. You are blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed. You will have a week where everywhere you look, blessings. Blessings, blessings, blessings, blessings. Spiritual blessings and temporal blessings. You are a blessed people. You have the extreme providence of God. You have the extreme protection of God. Hallelujah.
I just speak these words because He’s been telling me that now for a couple of months; You have My extreme protection, Sharon. You have My extreme providence. And I praise God because you have it, too. That’s all of us, in Jesus’ name and we all say; Amen. Glory to God. Come, young man.
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