21 July 2024 Motion for Promotion Part 2 Pastor John Bendixen (WTB)
Scripture references: Hosea 12:9-10,13 (NKJV); 2 Chronicles 20:20 (NKJV); Mark 11:22-24 (TPT); Ephesians 4:10-12 (TPT); Ephesians 5:6-14 (TPT); Ephesians 6:10-13 (TPT)
Pastor Sharon: Now, Father, we pray in the power of agreement for Pastor John, that as he comes to minister to us, he will be speaking as of the oracles of God. Our hearts are open and ready to receive, ready to believe. Oh Lord, Your Word, a message from You, through Your messenger, Lord. Oh, thank You for Your anointing that rests upon us all, that rests upon Pastor John. Your anointing that rises up within him, Father, that he will speak the words that You give him to speak, Lord. We will receive all Your words that You say to us today, in Jesus’ name. And we all say, amen. Hallelujah.
Pastor John: Just raise your hands and just praise Him for 30 seconds. Praise You, Lord. Praise You. Praise You, Jesus. Praise You, Jesus. Praise You, Lord. Praise You, Lord. We give You thanks. We give You thanks, and praise You, and honour You. All authority and honour belongs to You, Lord. All authority, all honour belongs to You, Lord. Hallelujah! Praise You, Jesus. Praise You, Jesus. Thank You, Lord, for the sweet presence of the Holy Spirit here this morning. That everything that is said and done will be done to Your glory and Your honour in Jesus’ name. Under the authority of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and we’re all in agreement, we say, amen. You may be seated. Just greet someone before you sit down and say, “I’m glad you’re in church.”
Glory! Well, Message Moments this afternoon at 5 o’clock. Also I want to have a few minutes just to talk to you about the Men’s Camp. Well, you know, the Lord put it on my heart for us to have a men’s gathering. As you all know, over the last many years there’s not been that much on my heart, to separate men and women, or particularly minister to men, because I believe in the power of the family unit and everybody being equal under God. Hallelujah. But for some reason, and I don’t want to try and interpret it, I don’t want to try and put any kind of philosophy on it or my own thought process on it. But for some reason the Lord wants me to have some time with the men.
We have been really blessed to be able to book out a whole campsite, and we are probably going to let some of the chalets go. We’re going to take over the whole camping space, and some of the chalets, we’re going to let them go. But before we let anything go, we want to have your input. If you want to come and you want to be on the camp, and you want to stay in a chalet then it will cost you a little bit more. It is available as of now. If you want to come and not stay in a chalet and camp with most of the other people, that’s also available. And that’s predominantly where we will be, all of our activities will be in and around the actual tenting, camping site of what we do. It’s truly very, very wild there, and I invite fathers to bring their sons but I want to say that it’s really wild. And I suggest that very little boys don’t come with because they’re in danger. And if you’re a father, you’re going to have all of your time taken up being concerned about your little boy rather than focusing on what we want to do there that weekend. So I’m not trying to exclude little boys but I am telling you that it’s wild there. Although there are fences around the camp, we, ourselves have been there and witnessed, some of the people amongst us witnessed a hyena kill a nyala calf inside the camp. Using the fence as a way of trapping the buck in the fence and killed it in sight of the people. So, it’s pretty wild. You get my point? So, wild men need wild places to go to, and we’re all wild for Jesus. So, I don’t want you to be under any illusions here this is not a five star place. It’s very basic. Even the chalets are quite basic. It’s run by the National Parks Board.
So we have really been blessed. Ronel has really helped us. Thank you, Ronel, for helping us to get this booking. Also, I just want to say, not that it makes that much difference in terms of why you come or you don’t come. Pastor Justin from Heritage of Faith, Crowley will be with us. He’s coming here. He’s bringing his son with him. And, they are coming to do some things for the family here and to see what God has for their future. So he’ll be with us. And, if God permits it, we’ll ask him to do some ministry to us as well as men, him and his son. We’ll see what God does. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. I really would like men to, even if you’re not coming, please RSVP us and tell us you’re not coming so that we know. We have to tell them by tomorrow morning. Tomorrow we have to make all the payments. And the prices have come down considerably for various reasons, and again, thank you to Simon, and Ronel, and Tarryn, for working on that for me. I really appreciate all the effort that’s been put in, in a short amount of time. So praise the Lord. Alright, men? Sweet? Cool. Hallelujah.
Are you ready for the Word this morning? I’d like you to go to Hosea chapter 12 verse 9. Oh, by the way, about the men’s meeting, we have reduced it to 3 days not 4 days. So, we’re not going to be there for Sunday. We had intended to have a Sunday service there and Live Stream it or do something like that but we’ve decided we’re all going to come back on Saturday. So we leave Wednesday afternoon. We come back Saturday after the morning session that we’ll have there. So if you want to come later a day or 2 only, as opposed to all 3 days, just let us know what your intentions are, please. Amen.
Hosea chapter 12 verse 9. 9 “But I am the Lord your God…” (Hosea 12:9 NKJV) I’ve got to get back to this. The Men’s camp. If you can’t afford it or you’re believing God for it, please find out what the new costs are. It’s less than R1 000 per adult male or per person. And if you want to come, and you can’t afford it please don’t feel like that’s what has to keep you. Amen. We’ll trust God with you and we’ll find a way to get you there. Alright. So if you want to come but you haven’t got the money, just say, “I’m coming.” Don’t worry about the money. Just come. Amen. Praise the Lord. Okay. Let’s go to Hosea chapter 12 verse 9.
9 “But I am the Lord your God, Ever since the land of Egypt; I will again make you dwell in tents, As in the days of the appointed feast. 10 I have also spoken by the prophets, And have multiplied visions; I have given symbols through the witness of the prophets.” Is it possible for me to get a little more volume here? I don’t want to shout. I want to just hear a little more volume. Thank you. I want you to notice what he says, 10 I have also spoken by the prophets and have multiplied visions. I have given symbols through the witness of the prophets.” How do we get multiplied visions? How does the Bible say that His people will have multiplied visions? 10 …I have multiplied visions. I have given symbols through the witness of the prophets.” (Hosea 12:9-10 NKJV) There is a place that God has chosen to bring to His people an increase of visions, an increase of multiplication, an increase of knowing what to do, and what God wants us to do, through His messengers. So if we are getting visions from many other, different places then we should be questioning what that stirs up within us.
If you’re getting a vision or a directive, an assignment from the messengers of God, then you have a much greater place of being able to recognise that this is God that’s bringing it to you. Verse 13, 13 By a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, And by a prophet he was preserved (Hosea 12:13 NKJV). So what is the role of a prophet? The prophet is preservation, the prophet is multiplication, that’s the job of a prophet, and protection. Yes? Protection, preservation, and multiplication. So when God sends a messenger with a message to you, He is going to bring it so that there is protection, there is preservation, and there is multiplication. Hallelujah. This is good news because you, children of God, are in the right place, to receive a message from a messenger that God gives.
Last week I was talking to you about energy. Well, this is another way that I would put it to you. I would put it to you that the energy that is in God that comes to protect you, the energy that is required to preserve you, the energy that is required to bring multiplication to you, that energy comes through a human vessel, and the energy of that human vessel to bring it to you. So when you hear that message from God through a human vessel, if you do not believe that God speaks through human vessels, the measure that you give to the message that God brings. Oftentimes, people will put the value on how much they receive the message, based on the value that they put on the messenger. And that ought not to be because the human facade or the human channel, the human vessel that God chooses to bring a message, as I have said before, there is always a level of corruption. I mean, the human body is a corrupted vessel, and it is destined to die. From the moment that it is born, it is destined to die. So a human body is always corrupted. And it’s an amazing thing that God would choose to put a perfect Spirit-life, a perfect Spirit of Jesus into the human vessel that is corrupted, and still choose to use a corrupted vessel to bring out the perfect. Even though we are imperfect, He chooses to use the imperfect to bring out the perfect. And it is amazing that He can bring that energy that is Him, into your spirit, and then use the human vessel to bring it out.
Now in times past, in the Old Testament, the prophets were not born again. No one got born again until Jesus died and rose again. So none of them were born again, but they were chosen vessels. So what would happen to them as prophets? Well, what would happen is, the energy of God would rest upon them, let’s call it anointing, so that we use Bible terminology or Christian terminology. The anointing of God, the presence of God, the divine energy of God would rest upon them so that out of the vessel, they would speak the energy of words that would create things. It would create the future. So, if I get to it this morning I will read to you from Isaiah chapter 53 where the prophet Isaiah talks about Jesus, and the future of Jesus coming to the earth. He talks about Jesus in the context; He was marred beyond measure, we couldn’t even recognise Him, by His stripes on His body we are healed. He talks about Jesus as the Saviour.
What was happening to Isaiah at that moment? Well, there was a holy energy, a divine energy that was resting upon him, calling the anointing of the prophet. So, that anointing that rested upon him, the prophet, had to speak with that holy energy, and as that holy energy was stirred up and stimulated in him, the words that God wanted him to speak came out of the human vessel. Corrupted as it was, came out of the human vessel, and would speak into the future. So that, when Jesus came and He died, and they plucked out His beard, and they beat Him on the back, and they put a crown of thorns on His head, and put Him on the cross. Everything that the prophet Isaiah declared, it came out of the energy stimulation of God Himself resting upon a clay vessel. All of those energy words went into the future, creating an environment for Jesus to come so that the energy that was God’s Word will be fulfilled in the energy of Jesus that would come. Hallelujah.
And so it is that when God speaks through His messengers, His prophets on the earth, He’s creating visions. What happens when you come into church or you’re listening to a messenger of God, and the Word of truth is upon you, and the Word of God is resting upon you, and you get into a place where the multiplied energies of people that are anointed come together. It’s an amazing thing how it all comes together and how it all works, and what God can do. It’s amazing. It speaks to the future, and it will speak to your future. It will speak to our collective future but it will definitely speak to your future. Oftentimes, your future, your personal future is connected to, and the springboard of your future is based on the collective future. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Thank God.
Well, I’m going to use the example of Denholm that plays the bass guitar here. You know when Denholm did our first album we recognised this marvellous and amazing gift that was in him. Some months later the Lord spoke to me and said, “Speak to Denholm, and ask him to come and help us with Sound and Song, and be part of what we want to do to raise the standard of music, and Sound and Song, and worship that we have in our ministry.” Well, Denholm has a past, he has a reputation, he has a status in the music industry. All of those things. So, when the Lord said to me, “Call Denholm and speak to him.” I thought, “Why would Denholm want to, as well represented as he is, why would he want to come to our church?” What would he want to come and do here in Witbank? Hey? I mean, my natural mind said, “This is naturally not possible. Why?” But my spirit man said, “You must do this.” The energy of God was speaking to my spirit man, bypassing my human energy. If I had gone to Denholm out of my own desire, with my own boldness, with my own confidence to make an invitation to somebody, it would not have been an energy that God could bless. The anointing of God could not be on the conversation because it would have been out of my own boldness, my own courage, my own strength to say, “Come, and do what needs to be done.” But because it was out of a spirit energy, when I spoke to him, I was amazed that he just said yes.
In our conversation, he mentioned this, he said, “Pastor John, your invitation to me has given purpose to my gifting.” It doesn’t matter that he goes anywhere else in the world. It doesn’t matter what else he does and what else his music ability can do to earn an income for him. His anointing and his blessing is because his gifting found a purpose. He has an assignment amongst the people. He didn’t know that I was going to talk about him this morning. Hey, Denholm? So, then a while later, Denholm came to me and he said, “Pastor John, I need to have a few other musicians around me that I know that if they are with me, and play with me, we can create the standard that you’re looking for.” And so, Nic and Riaan were invited. I’m happy to say that God brought all of them into our ministry. And I’m happy to declare that they have all found a purpose for their gift, here. We have embraced them as our brothers, and they’ve embraced us as their people.
I mean, how amazing is God? Because out of the prophetic word, His visions create a vision. It created a vision for them, it creates a vision for us, and it still speaks every time we come together. It speaks in every way. Hallelujah. I believe there’s much more of that to come of what God is going to do with our ministry in Sound and Song going forward. But, you know, it doesn’t matter that they all had a past in music and the development of their talent, and the development of their gift. When they came here, God definitely said, “Now your purpose, your assignment, and whatever you do with us, your gifting has an eternal value.” Whatever is happening, their gifting, their talents have an eternal treasure that they are building for themselves in heaven because they are on assignment. They are on assignment. This is a blessing.
So, when God speaks out of a messenger, He’s creating our preservation, He’s creating our multiplication, and He is also creating our protection. Now, I need to just read this to you. It happened here at a prayer meeting in February of this year. I said this, I’m just reading you an excerpt out of the prayer meeting. Okay. He has told me that there is chaos coming and there’s crisis coming but when the Christians understand the chaos and the crisis, they are the ones that God is going to use to turn things around. When chaos and crisis come, the Holy Spirit is going to cause our wealth to increase, not decrease. Our wealth is going to get higher. Hallelujah. I’m not going to read anymore. I’m going to ask Matt to just play that clip that I sent to him to play for us. I just want you to have a quick look. It’s only about two and a half minutes or so.
[Video plays on LED screen] So some of the billboards in Times Square here today went dark because of a global Internet outage; it’s causing chaos at airports, affecting banks, hospitals, government offices, media outlets, and other businesses all around the world. Fox Business correspondent, Lydia Hu, joining me to report here on all of this from New York. Hi, Lydia. Hey there, Martha. This is a massive global tech adage impacting what’s estimated to be millions of people who are traveling today in need of medical care or some just trying to get a cup of coffee. Take a look at this; these are the companies that are saying that they are impacted. Just some of them, Starbucks, FedEx, CVS, Bank of America, among them. But, Martha, it’s not just corporate America. 911 call centers are disrupted in states like Alaska, Virginia, and Iowa. Shipments to ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach interrupted, and Portland, Oregon has declared a state of emergency. Hospital systems, they’re seeing interruptions too. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, here in New York, says most of their systems and procedures are reinstated now but just earlier today, it reported pausing the start of some procedures that required anaesthesia. The cause of all this mess is cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. The company says the problem happened when it issued a faulty update to customers running Microsoft. Even though the disruption is not a cyberattack, some are now questioning whether we, our country, is vulnerable. Watch; “How did we allow for one company, one entity, to control whether or not America and the rest of the world can be in business?” Now CrowdStrike CEO has apologised, and the company says that a fix has been deployed but experts are saying it’s going to take time for that fix to take effect and rather than wait for that repair. It does appear that some are taking a different approach. Elon Musk posted on X that he has deleted CrowdStrike from all of his systems. Unclear which companies he’s referring to, or all of them perhaps. And meanwhile, Martha, shares of CrowdStrike taking a battering today in the market down more than twelve and a half percent when I just checked. Back to you. Lydia, thank you very much.
Well, I mean, who was to know? Hey? But the Holy Spirit knew and when He came upon me in a prayer meeting in February and said, “Chaos and crisis is going to hit the world.” But for those of us who are God’s people, if we know what’s happening, it will not come to us. In fact, what’s going to happen is, our wealth is going to increase. It’s not going to decrease because we have been alerted to what God is doing. Hallelujah.
How many of you are glad that you’re connected to God and not to the systems of CrowdStrike? Hey. I mean, I know that these things are developed in the world system to help the world. But at the same time, I have to say, I’m glad that I’m hearing from God and you are hearing from God because He’s got our interest at heart. I have no doubt about this, that as chaos and crisis will continue to be in the earth, that God is going to use the Christians, and He’s going to reveal Himself through the born-again believers. Through Christians, He’s going to reveal Himself to the earth. Because people are going to want to know, “How did you escape that?” “How did you miss that?” Well, it’s because 13 By a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, And by a prophet he was preserved (Hosea 12:13 NKJV). So people may want to think, “Does God still work through prophets today?” He does. He does. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus.
Let’s make it clear people, we are the Body of Christ. That means we are the children of the Most High God. He looks upon us with favour. He looks upon us with the eye of preservation and protection, and multiplication. He’s not looking upon us with the eye of judgement. The only time that judgement comes into the life of a believer is when you, as a believer, do not respond to the Holy Spirit’s working in your heart to walk away from the things that He’s telling you to walk away from. If you don’t make yourself available to grow in God, then judgement will come to your life, but that’s not the chosen method of God’s way of getting us to grow. That’s not His way of wanting to protect us and preserve us, and multiply us. His way is for us to be obedient to the Word that He speaks.
I expect God to be dealing with you in this season right now as chaos and crisis are going to escalate. You know, when I read this again, I realised that although I said it’s going to start in this year, I believe, actually, it’s going to be something that’s going to escalate more, and it’s going to happen more and more. This is not something that’s just for this year. It’s going to happen on an ongoing basis. But certainly, it’s happening in ways that one could not have expected. Praise the Lord.
In 2 Chronicles 20 verse 20, the second half of that verse says, 20 …“Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem…” Maybe we could say it this way, “Hear me, O Heritage of Faith, the inhabitants of Witbank, Johannesburg, and all other places in the earth. “…Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.” (2 Chronicles 20:20 NKJV) Hey? You shall prosper. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. I want to encourage you. I want to encourage you to strengthen yourself. Strengthen yourself financially, strengthen yourself spiritually, and strengthen yourself in the ways that you live. I mean to say, you should strengthen yourself by decreasing your debt. You should strengthen yourself by decreasing liabilities as much as you can. You should increase your strength by increasing your capability to maximise opportunity that God will bring to you. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus.
Mark 11 verse 22 in the Passion Translation says the following. 22 Jesus replied, “Let the faith of God be in you!” Can I say it this way? Let the superhuman energy of God. Let the supernatural energy of God be in you. Because as that energy works in you, how will it work? Verse 23, 23 Listen to the truth I speak to you: If someone says to this mountain with great faith…” If someone says to this mountain with the great energy of God, having no doubt about what that energy can do, ‘Mountain, be lifted up and thrown into the midst of the sea,’ and believes that what he says will happen, it will be done.” (Mark 11:22-23 TPT) If you want to know how God is going to make you wealthy and is going to change your situation and establish you, and prosper you, when the world is in chaos and crisis. This is how. Hallelujah. 24 This is the reason I urge you to boldly believe for whatever you ask for in prayer – believe, that you have received it and it will be yours.” (Mark 11:24 TPT) I’ve said this over the last number of weeks and months – Healing is yours. Believe it and receive it. Healing is yours. Divine health is yours. Prosperity is yours. Financial deliverance is yours. Increase is yours. The peace of God is yours. Hallelujah. If you believe it, you must receive it, and it will be yours. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Praise the name of Jesus. Praise the name of Jesus. Praise the name of Jesus. Praise the name of Jesus. Praise the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Yes. Thank You, Lord.
I’m reading from the Passion Translation. I’m reading Ephesians chapter 4 verse 10. 10 The same one who descended is also the one who ascended above the heights of heaven, in order to begin the restoration and fulfillment of all things. Can you see that the one who descended is also the one ascended above the heights of heaven? Can I have a bit more volume, please? And, in order to begin the restoration and fulfillment of all things (Ephesians 4:10 TPT). Restoration and fulfillment of all things. Restoration and fulfillment of all things. I want to tell you, God will not rest until the church is in its place of restoration, and the Church of the Lord, Jesus is in fulfillment. That means you and I, we have to respond to God in obedience to Him. We have to respond to the Word. We have to respond to the Word. Hallelujah.
You have something, Pastor Sharon. Okay. This is not the normal order of our service. I don’t know where the microphone is. Here is a microphone. Okay. Well tell the people what you’ve just said to me.
Pastor Sharon: As Pastor John’s been speaking, as you all know, you know me, this is not the normal order of service, but I know when a tongue comes on me by the Holy Spirit. And so the Lord just said in this case of today, He wants me to bring the tongue, and the rest of the interpretation will come through Pastor John. Could the interpretation come through Pastor John without the tongue? Absolutely. But this is just Him in me now, and I know Pastor John knows that, and I know that you also know that. [Pastor Sharon speaks in tongues]
Pastor John: Hallelujah. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. That’s what we prayed for in the beginning of the service. That the Holy Spirit would have free flow, and that He would do what He needs to do. Glory to God.
So, 10 The same one who descended is also the one who ascended above the heights of heaven, in order to begin the restoration and fulfillment of all things. I like the way the Passion Translation puts this. 11 And he has appointed some with grace to be apostles, and some with grace to be prophets, and some with grace to be evangelists, and some with grace to be pastors, and some with grace to be teachers. 12 And their calling is to nurture and prepare all the holy believers to do their own works of ministry, and as they do this they will enlarge and build up the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:10-12 TPT). For some reason, the Lord is wanting me to use this today. When I invited Denholm to come and be part of our Sound and Song here. What God is doing is that He’s using a standard of grace that rests upon them for their gifting to create a space for other giftings to come up under them. Amen.
Hey, I think I have a fairly good ear for music. I think I can hear when something is out of pitch? I can follow, I can do a tune. Right, you know. But when I’m around the guys that are really talented in this and have given themselves to increase their talent. I mean, they can hear things. It’s like amazing to me. It’s amazing to me, I’ve watched Nic, he’s playing his guitar, and the next minute, I can see he takes the one where you tune the strings, and he turns it like half a thing. He plays it again. How does he know the thing is out of tune? By half a turn? I’ve watched Denholm train with, practice with these guys, and something’s out of order, and he’ll start messing around with stuff. He hears stuff I can’t hear because he has a level of talent, skill, capacity, that it doesn’t matter how much I train in it, I can’t get there. Because God didn’t want me to have that gift for some reason. [Pastor Sharon says, “Aw.”] Yeah, aw. I feel the same way. You know? But for some reason, He wanted them to have that kind of gift. Now, I know that with every gift, you’ve got to train your gift to be able to operate at its maximum capability. Right? I’m not talking about the training today. I’m talking about what God anoints you with. What His energy is inside of you.
So when you have someone with that kind of capacity, when other people around him come with their instruments, come with their music abilities, they might think in their own ears, “I’m really talented.” So, it’s possible that if I didn’t know Denholm and Nic and Riaan, and those guys and there are others on the stage, and Melissa and others. If I didn’t know them, and Garth, if I didn’t know what they did, I might get up on the stage, play my guitar, and sing, and think I’m the world’s best gift to music. Why? Because the measure of gifting that I have has not found anything that’s greater than my gifting. So when my gifting is to itself, with itself, whatever itself wants to think about itself, it will probably think about itself that, “I’m the greatest thing that there is.”
So, the end result of it is that if I am limited in my capability, someone that’s around me that might be playing out of tune or have a marginal pitch issue, I may not hear the marginal pitch issue because I’m not capable of hearing it. Right? So, therefore, that pitching issue becomes part of our whole environment. So, we don’t know what we’re missing. If someone like Denholm and Nic and Riaan, these guys, they and others, they come into our world, and they bring their high level of capability and gifting to us. Suddenly, everybody hears the sound, “This is different.” Suddenly, everybody can recognise it. “What’s different to the last guys?” And it might be just, let’s call it 10%. I don’t know what the margin is. It’s not relevant. I’m just saying, even if it’s a little bit different, you can hear the difference. But it would take someone that has that capability to bring us to that level. Hallelujah.
So, I thank God that all of us together, we can function as the Body, so that it’s not up to one person’s capability to bring what God needs to bring. It’s all of our capability. So when Jesus descended into hell and then He ascended. And He gave some with the grace to be apostles, some with the grace to be prophets, some with the grace to be evangelists, some with the grace to be teachers, some with the grace to be pastors. He says, “I know that you can’t do what you have to do with one of you.” I’m using Denholm again. For some reason, God wants me to be on this. I’ve heard Denholm play the drums. He’s excellent. I’ve heard Denholm play the rhythm guitar. He’s excellent. I’ve heard him play the lead guitar. He’s excellent. You know, just the capability and the talent that’s in him, he can do all those things but he can’t do all of those things at once. So it doesn’t matter how good he is. He can only play one instrument at one time. So he has other people that are around him that he says, “I hear they are in time, they are in rhythm, they are on pitch, they have all of the things that I want to have for me to know that my gift is working at the right level.” Hallelujah.
So praise the Lord. I know that sometimes this might cause confusion in people because in their own ears and in their own sight, they may think they’re fantastic. And they can be really amazing but when God has got gifts and talents around you actually realise, “Wait a minute, I’ve got some work to do here to come up to that level.” Right? That’s what happens when God gives grace to an apostle. When God gives the grace of an apostle to the church, He graces the church with order, with structure, with assignment, with purpose. That’s something that a pastor can’t do. That’s what an apostle does. Many pastors want to call themselves apostles because they want to carry the human status that the church gives to apostles. Did you hear what I said? That the church gives. It’s not necessarily what God gives. Because the apostle must function in what the apostle must function in.
So what is the difference between an apostle and a pastor? Well, you know, there’s many ways that you can describe the five fold ministry but I would say it this, that some of the work of the pastor is in an apostle but none of the work of the apostle is in the pastor. Hey? So if I use Denholm as an example again. He can play a lot of instruments, and so he can hear the sound of all the instruments, and whether they’re making the right instrument. So he might be the orchestrator, the producer of the sound. So he can hear and do what a drummer can do but the drummer can’t necessarily do what he can do at the level of production. Am I okay talking like this, Riaan? Since you are the drummer. I mean, just because Riaan’s an excellent drummer, doesn’t mean that he can say, “I want to be what Denholm is, and I really want to crave what gift and talent he’s got because I really want to be able to produce.” And it doesn’t matter how much he wants that, if he’s supposed to be the drummer and that’s what he can hear, then that’s what he must do. When Riaan’s in his right place doing his things and he’s got a Denholm helping him and saying, “Now this is when you play. Play like this. Play like this. Come in here.” And he’s arranging and producing music, all the instruments function to their perfection.
So an apostle – that’s the design of the apostle. The design of the apostle is for the other instruments, the other gifts to work the way they should be. So this scripture only talks about the five fold ministry this morning. 12 …their calling is to nurture and prepare all the holy believers to do their own works of ministry, and as they do this they will enlarge and build up the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:12 TPT). As the sound people function and they begin to work together, everybody begins to come under the quality of the sound.
So, let me just say this. Sound in itself has got a very powerful force. That’s why you can have rock music that can have a really powerful force on people. Jazz, the Blues can have a different powerful force that can get people to become melancholy. Hard rock or rock music can get people to become aggressive and violent. Right? I mean, music in itself has a powerful force. But music that is given to God with the anointing of God on it can bring about a whole new dimension of where the church can go. In its way that it’s open to what I’m saying, in the way that it, right now, in the messages that come through the sound and the song as they cooperate to represent God. So when you are hearing sound… I feel like I must just say this for a moment. The church has got it so wrong about women not being able to teach men. So they say, “A woman can’t stand up in the pulpit and teach a man.” But they’ll put a woman behind a piano, and I’m talking about old-time churches. They’ll put a woman behind a piano and the woman can sing songs that carry a message and can be teaching the whole church, and that’s acceptable but, “Don’t let her get up here in the pulpit and teach.” That’s a cultural bias.
Anyway, I’m not going to teach about that this morning. Hallelujah. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 6. I’m reading again from the Passion Translation. 6 Don’t be fooled by those who speak their empty words and deceptive teachings telling you otherwise. This is what brings God’s anger upon the rebellious! 7 Don’t listen to them or live like them at all. 8 Once your life was full of sin’s darkness, but now you have the very light of our Lord shining through you because of your union with him. Your mission is to live as children flooded with his revelation-light! Your mission is to live as children flooded with his revelation-light! 9 And the supernatural fruits of his light will be seen in you—goodness, righteousness, and truth. 10 Then you will learn to choose what is beautiful to our Lord. 11 And don’t even associate with the servants of darkness because they have no fruit in them; instead, reveal truth to them (Ephesians 5:6-11 TPT).
Okay, so as God’s beginning to lead us in our ministry, I want to say, it’s important for us to be the light to the world but not be associated with the darkness of the world. That’s a very different thing for us to be a light to the world and not be associated with the world. I don’t have to become an alcoholic to be able to associate with and save them. What good would that do? What good would it do if I started drinking alcohol and I start going to pubs and drinking beer so that I can talk to the people in the pub. What good will that do? So now, I’ve had a couple of toots and I start talking to the next guy next to me, and I start telling him about Jesus. I mean, one of two things are going to happen. He’s probably in some kind of alcoholic haze himself, and he’s not sure what to make of me now because, “Hey, you’re drinking like me, you are like me, and here you’re talking about something that is what? How do I receive from you what you’re telling me?” Now in a moment of God’s special grace, the person that’s listening, God might use that moment to save them. That doesn’t make it right for you to be in that place. It just means that God’s got so much grace and amazing power to work in any situation that He would even use that one to get someone saved. But that’s not the way we should live our lives. Hallelujah.
So, 11 …don’t even associate with the servants of darkness because they have no fruit in them; instead, reveal truth to them. 12 The very things they do in secret are too vile and filthy to even mention. 13 Whatever the revelation-light exposes, it will also correct, and everything that reveals truth is light to the soul. 14 This is why the Scripture says, “Arise, you sleeper! Rise up from, the dead, and the Anointed One will shine his light into you!” (Ephesians 5:11-14 TPT)
So last week, I was talking to you, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, about the energy of God, the energy of Jesus, the Light, Himself that came into the earth and lived in a human body. So, the eternal light of God, the eternal energy, the divine energy of God was placed into a confined vessel of flesh. So that He could live on this earth and His flesh in this vessel, this divine light in this vessel, could experience everything that would happen in the clay vessel but that the light itself would never be extinguished. Why was this important? Because from before time, God was going to give all of His glory to Adam. Adam was going to sin against the glory itself. Then somewhere down the line, Jesus had to come and say, “I now represent all of Adam, and I have all of the glory of Adam (which is the life and the light of God). I have all the glory but I am going to sin not.” And because of that He restored us to light.
So, I want to say and declare to you this morning that you and I, we have an awesome, awesome, wonderful opportunity. Our opportunity is to represent the Most High God while we live in the body. What good is it going to do us after we’re dead? Because all of us are going to die, and if you’re born again in your spirit, your spirit goes to heaven. While your spirit will be eternally with God, the good that you can do for God is while you’re in the body. Hey? The good that you do for God is while you’re in the body. So, the body is warring against the spirit. You have to train your body to not listen to itself all the time. Otherwise, it will just respond to everything that you want to do.
I am led this way this morning. I had a different, again, as of last week, I had prepared a message with a whole lot of scriptures and this morning, the Lord began to change the direction of my message to what I’m saying to you today. I want to encourage you. I want to encourage you to press into God right now to strengthen yourself because there are opportunities coming our way as the world’s crisis begins to emerge and the chaos begins to be revealed, we as Christians will have opportunities to increase wealth. We will have opportunities to reveal God’s protection, and we will have opportunities for preservation. Multiplication is coming. It’s coming.
I want to tell you last year, in July already, the Lord began to speak to me, to the iXchangers about the multitudes and the multiplication. I can see how the Lord has been using my vessel to speak words of light like the tree of the forest of trees of light to bring about things that He would prepare us for as a church that now is. I want to also remind you that when I prayed that in the prayer meeting in February. Was it February or March? It was March, hey? When I prayed that prayer meeting in March, it was before Brother Jerry went home to be in heaven. And so, the Lord was in ways unclear to us at that time. He was preparing us for things to come. Hallelujah.
I need to read you another scripture before I finish here. Ephesians chapter 6 verse 10. 10 Now my beloved ones, I have saved these most important truths for last: Be supernaturally infused with strength through your life-union with the Lord Jesus. Stand victorious with the force of his explosive power flowing in and through you. Stand victorious with the force of His explosive power flowing in and through you. 11 Put on God’s complete set of armor provided for us, so that you will be protected as you fight against the evil strategies of the accuser! 12 Your hand-to-hand combat is not with human beings, but with the highest principalities and authorities operating in rebellion under the heavenly realms. For they are a powerful class of demon-gods and evil spirits that hold this dark world in bondage. 13 Because of this, you must wear all the armor that God provides so you’re protected as you confront the slanderer, for you are destined for all things and will rise victorious (Ephesians 6:10-13 TPT). Hallelujah. We will rise victorious if we put on the armour of God. We will rise victorious as we understand that our close combat is not with flesh and blood. It is not with other human beings. It is with the principalities and powers, demon gods that are trying to run our lives. Hallelujah.
I am awaiting. I’m awaiting the Holy Spirit to confirm something to me. So, I’m being cautious about what I say today. Okay? But who runs the money system of this world? It’s a demon god. It’s the demon god of mammon that runs the money system of this world. Right? Come on. Why do we want to put our faith in a demon god system? “Okay now, Pastor John, don’t talk to me about it like that. Let’s rather say it’s a system that men have set up so that it can be of benefit to men.”
I’m going to use a very basic example. Again, I’m being led this morning by the Holy Spirit. Sex is a good thing. Sex is a good thing in marriage. Sex is a great thing in marriage. Hey? Who gave sex to humans? God gave sex to humans. So then, God gave it to humans for humans to enjoy it the way God meant it to be enjoyed. Yes? What is one of the biggest focuses in the world that’s out there? Is it not sex? So then there’s a god out there, the demon god that will be a god of fornication, a god of adultery, a god of pornography, sexual vices, and sexual sins. You can’t look at that and say, “Because God gave sex that that kind of sex is good sex.” Suddenly I’ve got everybody’s attention. So what happens is that everything that God raises up to be good, the enemy of darkness raises up a counterfeit system and wants to make the counterfeit look more real because it appeals to your body, and your mind, and your soul rather than what God gave us.
So if we want the best out of enjoying sex in marriage, we’ve got to do it God’s way, not the way the enemy has raised it up in the world system to be. Now I would just want to show you this by way of example. When someone like me stands up in church and I begin to talk sex God’s way, the world, the whole world out there will probably say it like this: “The conversation of sex doesn’t belong in the church. It belongs in the hands of specialists, psychologists, or social workers that will tell you how you can do sex better.” Right? Come on. So what they’re trying to say is that actually the thing that God raised up as good in the marriage should not be talked about to Christians by the Christians, by the messengers of God, for the protection of the Christians, for the wonderful glory of the Christians. We must leave it to the world to talk about it the way they want to talk about it, to have it the way they want to have it, to be able to live it the way they want to live it, and they want to set themselves up as the masters of sex. The great knowers of sex. Knowers as in K-N-O, not Noah as in the ark. Knowledge holders of what sex, good sex must be like. So I ask you, if you want to enjoy sex in marriage, who should you go to to have the most healthy image, the best way of having sex, where should you go to get it? To God. To the Bible. To the Holy Spirit. To the energy of what God created it from His being, inside of Him was the energy of unity. Inside of Him was the energy that belongs in the bedroom that God says, “This is a magnificent thing to have, and in marriage, with honour and respect, it’s undefiled in the bedroom.” It’s in the book of James. It’s undefiled. If it happens in the marriage bed and there’s respect and there’s honour, it’s undefiled in the bedroom.
“Pastor John, why did you get on sex now suddenly when you were talking about the financial system?” Because when I start talking to you about the financial system of God and Kingdom Economics and Ecclesia Economics, and the world system says, “No, no. We are the specialists in economics. We know what to do with money. We are the ones that have the stronghold of where billions and billions and trillions of currencies, and gold, and everything is held in the system of the world. So we are the guys that are the controllers. We have the knowledge of this. We know how to dictate this. We know what’s going on in this.” God says, “I’m going to make your wisdom look like foolishness.” Read first Corinthians chapter 12. “Your wisdom is going to look like foolishness to you because I’m going to show you that nothing that you have belongs to you. It all belongs to Me, God.”
Here’s my alarm. But suddenly you want me to keep preaching. But I’m going to just finish, few more minutes here. I want to tell you that when God began to speak to me and said to me, “Chaos and crisis is coming.” I saw something in the spirit. The reason I showed you that clip this morning is because with that clip, I saw that in the spirit when God gave me that word. I saw it. I couldn’t explain it to you. I couldn’t tell you what, how it would be revealed that it would manifest this way. But I saw chaos all over the earth. People not knowing what to do. Things that they were guaranteed of what they were supposed to do, suddenly, they couldn’t do it. People waiting to go on the aeroplane can’t get on the aeroplane. Why not? “The aeroplane’s standing there. I’m standing here. The pilots are ready. Everybody’s ready, but the little computer system can’t tell us what’s going on.” Chaos!
Can I put it to you this way? All the energies that were normally dictating the flow of energies on the earth from transport energies, human energies, financial energies. I was told Capitec went down for some time. Is that right? So all of the money flowing in and out of Capitec, static, no energy. What happened? Chaos. God says, “Children, My children, I want you to be alert to My voice because I’m going to show you things to do before things happen. I’m going to show you things to do, and you’re not going to know why you’re going to do this thing. And you’re going to do something and you say, ‘But I don’t see any human sense why I’m doing this.’ And before you know it, a chaotic crisis moment is going to arise, and you’re going to be in a place where suddenly you can make a lot of money overnight because you were ready in the place. You were just waiting. You didn’t know why, but you were just waiting.” Hallelujah.
Because God is going to show that even though Pharaoh had a lot of power, even though Pharaoh had controlled the energies of God’s people for decades, God sent a messenger, the prophet, to Pharaoh to stand in front of the power and the financial, and all of the wisdom systems of the world. And God’s messenger went in front of him and said, “Pharaoh, I don’t give two hoots about your power, about your armies, about your financial system, about your wealth on medication, about your wealth in terms of philosophies and all kinds of wise men that you have. I don’t care about that.” God has come to say to you, “Let my people go.” So he takes his staff and throws it on the ground as a sign, and the staff turns into a snake. And Pharaoh looks at Moses and says, “That’s not so great.” He calls his magicians, and they all come and take their staffs, and they throw them on the ground, and they turn into snakes. How did that happen? There’s a spirit realm out there that is a counterfeit. It knows how to operate in the ways of the spirit and human life. What happened next? The Moses snake ate all the other snakes. That was just God saying, “You may be able to counterfeit it but you can’t control God’s ways.” So what did he do? He just dug his heels in, and he said, “This is an energy resource that’s here to make us wealthy.” God said, “Uh-uh, no more.” You know the history. The rest is, eventually, they let God’s people go, gave them all the money, all the wealth, and they left Egypt. I want to tell you we are living in that moment, where crisis and chaos is going to be happening constantly around us. It’s our time, church. It’s our time. Hallelujah. It’s our time. It’s our time. Hallelujah!
So I want to say, don’t be surprised if there’s an event that happens in the not too distant future that might bring financial chaos to the earth. That’s why I’ve said you need to get yourself strong, and there might be some opportunities for us to make a lot of wealth. Yeah. Praise the Lord. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Hallelujah. You know, our human vessels can be trained, our bodies can be trained, our souls can be trained. And I really feel led by the Holy Spirit, and compelled to say this today that your personality type should not be a hindrance to your walk with God. Don’t let your personality stop you from walking with God. If you are a quiet person, let’s call you a ‘reserved person’, some might call you a shy person. Yes? So you may not feel like your personality is expressive.
Well, okay. Don’t let your personality stop you from being expressive with God. Because you can be a quiet person that doesn’t say very much and you can internalise a lot of things, but you should still speak words of light. You should still speak words that will create your future so that you have words available to you with harvest available to you so that you can tell mountains to be moved, and they will be moved because you believe it in your heart and don’t doubt it because of the words that you’ve spoken. Similarly, if you’re somebody that’s really bold and outspoken and has a lot of words to speak, don’t let that part of your personality prevent you from believing the words that are God’s Words. Because where there’s a multitude of words, there is much transgression. So, if you’re a person that can speak a lot, make sure that your speaking does not counteract what speaking you’ve done in the Word. Let the words that come out of your mouth, speak words of life. And don’t let your speaking out of your natural personality undermine what you’ve spoken as the words of life.
So, don’t let your personality stop you from being ready to maximise everything that God’s got for you. And don’t let your circumstances – don’t let your circumstances stop you from believing what God can do. Don’t let it stop you from believing what God can do. Come on. Remember what I’m saying now. Don’t let your current circumstances stop you from believing what God can do! Don’t just look at what you see now. Look at what the prophets are saying, and you shall prosper! Believe the Lord your God and you will be established. Believe His prophets and you will prosper! You will prosper! You will prosper! You will prosper! You will prosper in Jesus’ name! Hallelujah. Glory to God.
You all know when I talk about prosperity, I’m talking about peace, I’m talking about well-being, I’m talking about health, I’m talking about relationships, I’m talking about finances, I’m talking about every part of our lives. What good is a whole lot of money if you’re sick and dying? What good is all your money when your relationships are falling apart? What good is all of the stuff that you can accumulate in the natural that everybody else says you are prosperous, but everything else in your life is falling apart? Shalom means nothing missing and nothing broken. And I speak shalom over you today. I speak shalom over you today. Nothing missing in your life. Nothing broken in your life. Complete restoration by God. These are words that I’m speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Shalom in your life. Nothing missing in your life. Nothing broken in your life. Full restoration in your life. There’s a whole future for you that’s waiting for you, and walk into it with confidence because of shalom. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus.
Please stand with me. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. So, we’re going to do an offering. We’re going to have baskets out in the foyer. As you go out, put your offering in the basket because I feel like we’re in a holy moment here and I don’t want to let this holy moment go because we have to take up an offering, right now. Okay? Hallelujah. But, by all means, sow your seed as you’re walking out here. Praise Jesus.
I want you to take your right hand, put it on your heart here and say; I speak shalom to me. Nothing missing for me. Nothing broken in me. Peace to all in my life. Nothing broken in my life. All things healthy and whole, in Jesus’ name. I go into my future with confidence, with boldness, with courage, with the superhuman power of God working in me, working for me and working with me, in Jesus’ name. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus.
And I set myself in agreement with that prayer, now, and I declare as you go out and you go about your daily life this week, I pray that you will be sensitive to what God’s telling you to be. You will hear His voice and the voice of the Good Shepherd, you will hear Him and you will not follow any other voice – you will follow the voice of the Good Shepherd, in Jesus’ name. Hallelujah. Glory to God. And He’s going to lead you besides still waters, He’s going to lead you to green pastures, He is the Good Shepherd that is going to take you through valleys and no death will come near you, in Jesus’ name. Yea, though you may walk through some of those valleys, you shall have no evil, it shall not come near you. He will prepare a table of abundance before your enemies for you, in this week ahead, in Jesus’ name. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
He is our Shepherd. He is our Shepherd. He is our Pastor. He is the One that is going to lead us and guide us and make us whole, in Jesus’ name. Glory to God. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Glory to God.
This holy moment, here, I exhort you, I encourage you to take this holy moment with you, take it into the rest of your day, take it into the rest of your week. Don’t let the devil come with ideas, with all kinds of responsibilities, with all kinds of thoughts and things, don’t let the devil come and stop this holy moment from being with you in the rest of your week. I don’t care if you’ve got to go on YouTube and you’ve got to have just this part of the service replaying to you all the time. In fact, to my multimedia people, can we just take the end of this service, just the way that we’ve laid hands on our chest in this last 5 minutes and let’s put it on a clip that you can run and run and run and run and you take it with you into the rest of your week. He’s my Shepherd, He’s my Shepherd, He’s my Shepherd, He leads me, He guides me, He’s going to take me through every wrong place, every shadow in my life, He’s going to lead me to tables of abundance, in Jesus’ name.
Don’t let the devil take this out of your mind and out of your heart and out of your words, in Jesus’ name. Are we all in agreement? Well, be at peace then. Enjoy the rest of your week. Arrivederci. Goodbye. God bless you.
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