Pastor John Bendixen (WTB)
Scripture references: 1 Thessalonians 5:23 (NLT); 1 Thessalonians 5:23 (TPT); John 14:6 (NLT); Proverbs 20:27 (KJV); Proverbs 20:27 (NLT); Proverbs 20:27 (TPT); John 4:23-24 (MSG)
Well, I want you to say this with me that, my heart is open [Congregation repeats after Pastor John]. My mind is ready to hear. [Congregation repeats after Pastor John] I will not judge this message until I’ve heard all the messages. [Congregation repeats after Pastor John] And when all the messages are done, then I’ll be done too [Congregation repeats after Pastor John], because you’ll change. If you don’t judge the message because of last week and this week and the next week, you have to listen to all the messages. I am contemplating the possibility that we need to have a special weekend of messages so that I can get some of this out quickly. Otherwise, you know, we could be here all year talking about this stuff, and it’s that important, actually. So, praise the Lord. Amen. So, tell somebody, “I’m glad you’re in church,” and then you might be seated. Alright.
My foundation scripture, oh, yes, let me just say, next Saturday morning, we’re going to go for a Chariots social ride. We’re just going to go to Alzu and back. It’s half an hour, 40 minutes riding on the bikes. If you want to come in your cars wear a Chariots t-shirt. It’s really a social activity. We’re all going to get on our bikes, ride out there, have a muffin, have a breakfast, have a coffee. There’s a lot of space for us. We don’t have to sit in one place and wait for half an hour or an hour before we get served with a pancake, you know, or something like that. So, we’re just going to go and hang out together on Saturday morning. And, of course, tonight, we have church at 5 o’clock.
And, also, you’ve been receiving messages about Project 45 celebration, which begins Valentine’s evening, and we have got a lineup and a wonderful event planned for us all on Friday night. So, we’re going to dress smart. Don’t come with shorts and plakkies, LeRoux, asseblief. Hallelujah. We want to be a little bit grand. Yes, we want to have a grand evening and we want to look grand and feel grand. Amen.
So, my accelerating into our future, and this is all about having readiness. My foundation scripture, I’m going to just read it from the New Living Translation. 1 Thessalonians 5:23, 23 Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again (1 Thessalonians 5:23 NLT). Just a note here, it doesn’t say, may the God of heaven, may the God of your salvation, may the God of whatever. He is saying, 23 … may the God of peace … Because when you have peace, it will affect your body, soul, and your spirit. And of course, we know that word peace means nothing missing, nothing broken. Yeah. Everything is together. Everything is whole in your life, body, soul, and spirit. Amen.
The Passion Translation says, 23 Now, may the God of peace and harmony, harmony meaning everything is in sync, it sounds the same, make you completely holy. And may your entire being – spirit, soul, and body – be kept completely flawless in the appearing of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed. (1 Thessalonians 5:23 TPT) Alright. So, what I have been telling you is that your body makes you conscious of the world around you. Your soul makes you self conscious, and your spirit makes you God conscious, right? Are you all still with me on that? Amen.
So, if I have to ask you a question today and say to you; how many of you want to be unsuccessful in life? You don’t want any success. How many of you want to put your hand up? No one. So, I mean, you are not actually trying to set yourself up for unsuccess. “Hey, look at me. I’m unsuccessful.” Right? No ways, you want to be successful. How many of you want to say, “Hey, look at me, I’m not a winner.” No. I mean, you want to be a winner, right? Yeah. How many of you think that God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit want to speak over you, “Look at that unsuccessful one. I made them to be unsuccessful.” You think God made you to be unsuccessful? You think They have a conversation and say, “Oh, I think this person, I birthed them. I made them come to the earth so that they could really just lose at everything.” You know that sign; loser. You know? “Poor kid of Mine that I, you know, birthed him in the earth so that they could be losers.” You think God decided that? No way.
So, when He made Adam and Eve, you think He made them to be successful? So, if God was going to make Adam and Eve to be successful, what do you think His measure of success was? I think that’s quite an important thing, don’t you? Because He would’ve made them to be successful, He would have made them to be overcomers, He would have made them to have dominion – I mean He declared that. He put them in charge of everything. I’d say that’s about as successful as you can be. Right? So, He didn’t make them to be losers, He didn’t make them to make bad choices, He didn’t make them so that they could end up doing what they did do. He made them to actually be like Him.
So, isn’t that the measure of ultimate success? I mean when He made all of humanity, He said, “Be like Me, because I’m the ultimate winner.” Come on now, just work with me here. Jesus, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit said, “I’m the ultimate winner, be like Me.” So, He made men to be like Him as ultimate winners. In fact, He was so determined for them, He said, “Here’s what I’m going to do; I’m going to put you in a safe place, I’m going to give you all authority and dominion, I’m going to give you all creative power so that when the creation you see there, whatever you speak from you, it’s going to be like Me speaking and they will become what you say they must become. So, I’m also going to give you everything you need to eat, and by the way I’m going to give those animals everything they need to eat, and all you’ve got to do is just one thing – keep the Garden safe. I’m putting you in this safe place, just keep it safe.”
So, then obviously, something could come into the Garden that could cause them to change their mind. Yes? Change their mind. Change their mind. That was the only thing that Adam and Eve actually could do to stop themselves from being successful, is change their mind. Right?
Hey, come on, you must work with me. It will actually be a better service if you work with me and say, amen and yes, and all that. Because I’ve proved already that you can eat and talk at the same time. You do it all day, every day. You know, I’ve watched people, they have got good manners, and they don’t eat with their mouths full, until they’re talking on the phone. Because someone phones them on the phone, and they’re eating something on the phone, and then they will talk and eat at the same time. Anyway, just an observation.
I mean, God said, “I’m going to make man to be the ultimate winner in life. He’s going to look like Me. He’s going to have all My authority. He’s going to talk like Me. He’s going to be in a place that’s a safe place that I’ve made for him, and in that place, he has complete power. He has complete authority. He has a mandate for everything to become like he says it should become. There’s only one thing that, in order for him to be like Me, there’s only one thing that I have to give him the option to do, and that is to change his mind.” In other words, make a choice. “So, I tell him, ‘Here’s the choice you must make. Here’s the choice you must make. But here’s another choice you can make. And either choice you make, I have to give you the choice. Otherwise, you’re not like Me, you’re just like another animal.” So, do you want to be like another cow? I want you to engage with me a little bit and say; I’m not a cow. [Congregation repeats after Pastor John] So, please don’t moo at me this morning. You know, I mean, cows can’t change their mind. They operate on instinct. And so, for God to have a creature that was like Him, behaved like Him, everything like Him, He had to give them the option to change their mind, not behave like an instinctive creature. Yes? Amen.
So, here we are then, a couple of 1000 years later. We’re still on the same earth that God made for Adam and Eve. Things have changed quite dramatically because he changed his mind. Adam changed his mind and he was deceived into changing his mind. Will you all say this word with me; deceived to change his mind. [Congregation repeats after Pastor John] So, if you’re a Christian and God’s given you the right to win, there’s only one thing that can stop you from winning – you change your mind. Amen.
So now, this is a very, very powerful passage of Scripture, and it’s in John 14:6. I’m reading the New Living Translation. 6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6 NLT).
Now I just want to tell you, I’ve been doing quite a lot of research for this series of messages that I’m going to minister to you, and I’m going to play you some stuff on a video, I’m going to read you some materials that just came off the Internet, off Amazon. I’m going to do a lot of stuff and I’m going to just show you some things. So, if I’m quoting things to you, it’s not necessarily things that I am giving it credibility. I’m just merely using it as an example. Alright. Are you with me?
So, 6 … I am the way, the truth, and the life. (John 14:6 NLT). There’s a very well-known apologist. So, an apologist is someone that has studied all kinds of philosophies and they argue for the Bible against all other philosophies, an apologist. So, there’s an apologist that was talking about, and he lived his life and he had this scripture and he said, “Truth is the thing that really matters.” And, of course, he would say that because he’s an apologist for the Bible. You have apologists for the Muslim faith. You have apologists that go around saying for Jehovah’s Witnesses. When I say apologists, they are people that have studied all other doctrines and philosophies and they have an opinion about theirs. Right?
So, this is an apologist for the Bible, for the truth, and he said, “There’s only one truth.” And then he ended up having an encounter with God and he wrote another book or so he says, I’m not disputing it, I’m just saying, I’m referring to his experience. And then he wrote a book and he said, “Truth matters, but life matters more.” Truth matters, but life matters more. And so, I got to thinking about that and I thought, well, if you don’t have life, you can’t have truth. So, of course, you know, life does matter more. Come on. Truth matters nothing to my body that’s dead. I mean, the only truth that matters now is Jesus is Lord and Saviour of my life and I’m in heaven – that truth matters, you know. In that case, truth matters more than life because if I’ve lived by the truth, then my future life is sure. So, the two go hand in hand, but of course, while you’re living on the earth, truth matters, but life matters more.
So this scripture, 6 … I am the way, the truth, and the life. (John 14:6 NLT). Okay? So now, if I am the Way, why would He just not use that scripture and say, “I am the Truth and the Life?” Come on. Jesus could have said, “I am the Truth and the Life,” and then that would have been really powerful anyway. But He said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” That means there’s a way to truth and there’s a way to life that is His way; it’s not some other way. It’s His way. Amen.
I’m being a little bit of an apologist in these sessions. I’m being a little bit of a lawyer if you like. I’m making a case – a biblical case, a truth-based case – for you. Amen? You want to be successful? You want to be a winner? [Congregation answers; yes] Amen. So do I. Okay.
Now, I have to say that if God, if I believe that God doesn’t want me to be a winner and God doesn’t want me to be successful, then He must tell me that because if I live in this realm of saying, “God will make me sick to teach me a lesson,” or “God will keep me poor so that I can learn some stuff,” or that I must have experiences and circumstances in life that will teach me stuff that God can’t teach me, then I’m automatically assuming that the success that God wants me to have is conditional and I don’t know what the condition is because as I’m walking through life, my life, the way of my life might decide between God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They might decide, “His conditions, he’s not meeting them. We have to teach him a lesson,” and I don’t know what it is. Now I get sick so that He can teach me something on a condition I didn’t know I had before. Come on now. Or He’s trying to make me poor to teach me a lesson on a condition I didn’t know I had.
So, you know, if you read the Bible and you see how God called people all the time – from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob to Moses to anybody – if you see anybody, even Job, who had nine months of hell in his life, but the rest of his life was the wealthiest, best life ever. Everybody just wants to focus on the nine months that Job had. They don’t want to talk about his whole life that was about as successful as anybody could live it on earth. And God wasn’t the one who wanted to teach him a lesson. His own fear and his own pride and his own arrogance opened the door for the devil to get him. It wasn’t God that was trying to teach him a lesson. He had to learn a lesson because of his own things. And in the end, of all the things that Job… he says, “Now I heard about God. Now I know God,” and his whole view of God changed.
So, God wants us to be successful, and He’s not trying to make our success conditional to some obscure, some thing that I don’t even know whether I can be successful or not, hindering my life. If you don’t believe this, then you should just go and be poor and be sick so you can learn all the lessons and then get on with being successful. Why try… Hey, when you get sick, don’t try and make yourself well. Let’s put Doctor Nico and Amanda out of business. Don’t go to them when you’re sick, because why would you want to get well if God’s trying to teach you a lesson? Let the pain teach me. Let the fever teach me. Oh, God, what is the lesson I have to learn now? [Pastor John imitates being sick] Come on. I mean, it just doesn’t make any sense. We get all so weird about stuff. Right? Oh, but I mean, I’m talking to a people that know this stuff, so I’m going to get a little bit more personal here.
Do you think God wants you to have successful relationships? You think He’s trying to withhold successful relationships from you? If God wants you to have successful relationships, then He must have an idea about what relationships must look like. How’s He going to expect you to have good relationships if He doesn’t tell you what it should look like? From friendship to a relationship with the church, the body of Christ, to a relationship with a husband or a wife, relationship with children. I mean, surely, He’s going to tell us what success looks like. Don’t you think? If He doesn’t, then why would He, how could He say, “I built you for success?” Now if we don’t look for the answers in the Bible, then where are we looking for the answers? We’re looking to some other source that has a proven ‘credibility, credible success rate’. Come on.
If I had to have, if I somehow could get Elon Musk to come and stand here and come and talk to us about being successful in business, how many people do you think would show up here to come and listen to Elon? I mean, we would have a traffic jam all the way to Cape Town for people who want to come and hear what he has to say about being successful because he has ‘credibility’ because he’s done it. Right? Because he’s got credibility, we want to hear what he has to say, but what’s his source of success? Anybody like to tell me what the source of his success is? Pastor Sharon had it right. You shush for a minute, Sharon. Anybody like to tell me what the source of Elon Musk’s success is? I mean, that’s what he did. He made cars, but what is his source of success? I’m giving you the answer. [Answer comes from congregation; himself] There you go. Himself. He doesn’t stand up on the platform and say, you know, “I’m Jewish. I’m a covenant man. I’m an Abrahamic covenant man. I’m this… Or he doesn’t stand up and say, “I’m Buddhist or I’m Hinduist or I’m a Christian and all of my success is based on my relationship with God.” He doesn’t do that. It’s about himself. It’s about his IQ and it’s about his hard work. If you listen to him, you know, I mean, there’s times when he’s had problems on making parts in his car and for 6 months, he slept in the factory working 24 hours a day. He didn’t hardly even sleep because he had to solve the problem, because the whole manufacturing of his product was caught up because there was a problem and they needed to solve the problem. He slept there for …
So, still today, if you hear him talk, he will talk like this; so, most people work 40 hours a week. So, now if you work 80 hours a week, what are you going to do more than the average person? You’re going to do double because you’re doing double the work, double the energy, potentially double the productivity. Well, so how many hours do you have in a week in total? 120. Jess, is that the right sum? Put you on the spot now, misses numbers girl. It’s a 120 hours. If I’m wrong, you can correct me, but 40, 80, 120 in a week. Okay? So, what if I could sleep less and work a 100 hours and someone else is working 80 hours, I’ve got 20 hours of extra productivity. That means, just by my own work ethic, I can outwork someone else. Yes. That means I can achieve more than someone else that’s only working 40 hours a week.
So, when Elon Musk was facing a problem, he made himself a bed in the factory and he slept as little as he can and he was driving his engineering team, he was driving his logistics teams, he was driving everybody, and he was having creative sessions, eating and sleeping as little as he could. He just was wanting the solution. Now if Elon Musk had to come up here and had to come and tell us his success story, how many of you would walk out of here and say, “You know what, maybe I should work a bit harder because he’s got ‘credibility.’” Because now I’m looking to him as his pattern of success.
So, whatever industry you’re in, whatever you’re doing in life, if you look to someone who’s successful and say, “I can pattern myself after that success,” then you’ve created a role model, you’ve created a pattern, a success model if you like, that you can be successful. Okay, now I want you to answer a question that I’m going to ask you about me. Do I want you to be successful? [Congregation answers; yes] Do you think I want you to be a winner in life? [Congregation answers; yes] For sure. Why would I want you to be a loser? Why would I want you to not be a winner in life? I mean, if I stand up and I go up to my girl and I hug her on the platform, and I just share a moment with you, I’m demonstrating success. Yes? When I talk to you and say, “Look how smart I look today.” By the way, this tie is a fairly old tie. I’ve had it for a long time, and the shirt I’ve had for at least a year, you know. This is new [Pastor John pointing to his waistcoat], but I put this all together myself. I bought this thing (waistcoat), this thing is new, comes with a jacket and stuff, you know, and I just decided, well, I’m going to wear this today and I put it all together myself.” Does this project an image of success? At the very least, it’s successfully, it tells you that I’ve successfully put colours and styles together creating my own style. So, if you like it then you can pattern it. Don’t you dare.
So, I want you to be successful. I want all of us to be successful. Why? Because that’s the heart of God. If I’m coming to you and I’m trying to teach you something that in any way you think I’m trying to not make you successful, then why on earth would I want to do that as a pastor? Why would I want to set you up for failure? I wouldn’t. If anything, if people have challenges in their relationships, a husband and a wife, let’s say they’ve got a challenge, they want to come see the pastor. Why would they want to come and see the pastor? Because they want to hear some wisdom that can be something they can do in their marriage so they can get past the problem, because they want to enjoy marriage. That’s why you get married. Come on. I know marriage has difficult times, but you don’t get married so that you can, on purpose, have difficult times. I know it might feel like that sometimes, but that’s not why you get married. You get married because you want to have a friend. You want to have an intimacy partner, an affection partner. You want to build a life together. You want to have productivity together. You want to have children together. You want to enjoy the experience. That’s why you want to do it. That’s in the heart of God for all of mankind. Okay.
Now, if I came here as a pastor week after week, and I started teaching you how to be successful, and this week I’ve got Elon Musk, next week I’ve got Tim Cook from Apple, and then the week after that, I’ve got Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook. People will begin to think, “Who’s this Bendixen guy that can get all these names into his church?” If I started doing that to you every week, you’re going to start saying to me, “But why am I coming to church? Why am I not going to an Elon Musk conference?” So, what is it that is going to make church different to a success conference? What’s the difference? What’s the difference? No, you’re not allowed to answer. [Pastor John addressing Pastor Sharon] What’s the difference? Remember what I was saying to you; your body is world conscious, your soul is self conscious, your spirit is God conscious. Okay. I am setting my case up for you nicely here. You are working with me nicely. Say amen, everybody. Remember I told you you are not allowed to judge this matter before the time. So, this is just one message. And as the weeks go by, we are going to really have some fun here. We’ll see if you think it’s fun or not.
But if, “I don’t know Jesus, I come to Heritage of Faith and I am sitting in the church here, and this pastor is preaching about Jesus, and I have never made Jesus Lord and Saviour of my life and look, I have heard Jesus – at the very least, people use His Name as a swear word, you know. So, I know about this guy Jesus, but I don’t know Him as God. I don’t know Him as anything.” What is the condition of that person’s spirit? If the person didn’t have a spirit, they couldn’t be on the earth. So, the spirit and the soul is what makes the body work. Right? So, you need to have a spirit that is the human spirit. We all agree. So, everybody that’s born on the earth has got a spirit. The difference is that there are some spirits that have made space for Jesus to live in your spirit. So, when you choose to believe that Jesus is the Lord and Saviour and you invite Him into your life, you invite the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, the life of God, Jesus, the Father of all fathers, you invite Him to live in your spirit. How does that happen? Don’t know. When I get to heaven, He’ll tell me, but it’s got to do with the power of how He created us in our spirit.
So, our spirit has got to be an amazing thing inside here that it can have God in there. Right? Amazing stuff. Okay. So, the person who’s never met Jesus has a spirit, but it’s not alive to God. It just exists. Has a soul, and obviously, the soul has got to be connected to the spirit, and the soul is also connected to the body. Now I know you’ve heard these messages before. Here I am living my life, and I’m experiencing sensational stuff. Part of my senses is telling me I’m hungry. I want to eat. So, I need to go, and I see food, and I eat it. All my senses are involved in this. This is basic human living.
Now I can be in a place where I’m so poor that I’m trying to eat anything that will keep me alive every day, or I can be so rich that, actually, I fly caviar from Russia into South Africa once a week because it suits my taste. I don’t. Just in case someone gets hold of this message, I don’t. But I’m just saying if I had enough money, I could do that for myself, and it’s because I enjoy it. That doesn’t make my body any different to the poor person’s body. We have the same body. It doesn’t make my soul any different to that other person’s soul. Same soul. Doesn’t make my spirit any different to the other person’s spirit, you know, if we’re not both of us born again. You know, if we don’t know Jesus, our spirits are the same, our souls are the same, and our bodies are the same. Same design by God. Yes? Okay. So, now I have to say, as a human being, I can put any kind of food into my body, and my body will use it. Any kind of food.
You know the story, someone decided they want to live on McDonald’s for a whole month and see what happens to their body. You know that story and how sick they got? Because actually, if you didn’t know this, a McDonald’s burger doesn’t actually go rotten. Well, it was the case anyway. I don’t know if it’s anymore because they put so much preservatives and stuff in the meat that it can’t actually decay. That stuff goes into your body when you eat a hamburger, a McDonald’s burger anyway. Did you know that? Some of you seem like you didn’t know that. You didn’t know that. Some of you didn’t know that. Well, now you know it.
I mean, really, it’s that bad, so much preservatives and stuff going to the meat that it actually doesn’t decay. So, he ate that stuff for a whole month and he nearly died. As a test, his physical condition deteriorated so badly that it was dramatic. Anyway, I can eat McDonald’s all month long, that’s my choice. Hey, it’s my choice. It’s my choice. Or I can go and I can say, “I’m going to eat…” Don’t look at me with squiff eyeballs now when I say this. Okay? All of you meat eating junkies. But I can live for a whole month on lentils and beans and avos and tomatoes and salad and I can eat that and I look at Mia there and she’s got glowing eyes at me right now and others, you know.
I mean this is predominantly the way Pastor Sharon eats almost every day at the moment. It’s lentils, it’s beans, it’s salads, and maybe we’ll have some egg or we’ll have some fruits, some mangoes or some grapes or something like that, but we don’t eat very much at the moment, but we choose eating healthy stuff. You know, Pastor Sharon, we had to make a big decision over December. I’ve told you this, that in December’s past, she was known as panettone queen and so this December, we decided to change the narrative that you would not be panettone queen anymore. And it made a difference in the way we got through December, because it was our choice.
So, your body is the same and you can choose whatever you put into your body, your body’s going to process it. Anybody want to dispute that? This is science. Right? What about your soul? What about your soul? Your intellect, your emotions, your desires, isn’t your soul the same thing? Your soul is your soul, whatever you put into it, it is going to process it. And whatever you put there, it’s going to live by what you tell it to feed on.
What about a spirit? Well, if you are a spirit being that does not have Jesus and you feel this need to have a god in your life, but you don’t want to go this Christian thing because, “I have heard so many bad things about church, and the way church treats people, and so many people have got negative things to say about church, and the organised church, and the pastors of church and all of that kind of stuff. So, I want nothing to do with church. I can’t even trust the God of those kinds of Christians because, you know, the Catholics fight with the Protestants and there have been wars in the past that have been fought in the name of God, and what God can be part of that? So, I don’t want to know what Christianity, so I’m going to pursue a god.” Now you are going to pursue some kind of god. You meditate on things. You go to yoga classes. You go to all kinds of things where you are meditating. You are doing incantations, you are doing all kinds of stuff. What is happening to you? You are looking for something that your spirit man says, “I’m created to have God in it.” And you are looking for a god that you can put in there. The access to your spirit is through your soul because that’s where your choices are made.
I don’t know if you are ready for the next thing. You think you are ready for the next thing? [Congregation answers; yes] Proverbs 20 verse 27 says, I’m going to read it to you from three different translations. 27 The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly (Proverbs 20:27 KJV). The New Living Translation puts it this way, 27 The Lord’s light penetrates the human spirit, exposing every hidden motive (Proverbs 20:27 NLT). There’s two things here. There’s the Lord and there’s the light and it has an impact on the human spirit. Yes? It also reflects that your human spirit is a director. The Passion Translation puts it this way, 27 The spirit God breathed into man is like a living lamp, a shining light searching into the innermost chamber of our being (Proverbs 20:27 TPT). Can you go to the beginning of the verse? Can you see that spirit there is a small ‘s’? That’s not the Holy Spirit. That’s man’s spirit.
The life that 27 … God breathed into man is like a living lamp and that life is a shining light searching the innermost chambers of every human (Proverbs 20:27 TPT). Every human, not just Christians, every human. Can I go back to the New Living Translation version, please? 27 The Lord’s light penetrates the human spirit … (Proverbs 20:27 NLT). Come on. God says He has put eternity in your heart, your spirit, so that you could search for God. Your spirit. Let’s go back to the King James version, the first version I put up there. 27 The spirit of man, can you see it’s a small ‘s’ again? This is that life that’s keeping you on the earth, that spirit, that spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. In other words, it’s designed for God to be able to tell you what’s right and wrong. Yes? Searching all the inward parts of his being (Proverbs 20:27 KJV).
I’ll tell you what; you have a pastor that’s going to preach messages to you that are years, and years, and years, and years, and years, and years, and years of teaching in the making. I’ve never, in the past, felt a release to preach on it like I am now, but I believe that God is going to use this for His glory and to bring some changes.
You agree with me then, that the spirit of a man, God is going to deal with you as a spirit. Why would God want to deal with your spirit and not your soul? You want to know the answer to that? Okay. Glad you asked. Here it is. John chapter 4. I’m reading this from the Message translation, 23 It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before Him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship Him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration (John 4:23-24 MSG). So, what’s your true self? Your spirit. Those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit because God is a Spirit. So, because God is a Spirit, those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit.
God is not going to deal with your soul because He’s a Spirit. He’s going to deal with your spirit. Can God deal with someone’s spirit that has not chosen His Son, Jesus, to be their Lord? The answer is no. Why do you think He had to appear to Saul on the road to Damascus? He had to appear to him physically so that his soul and his body could recognise that it’s God that’s speaking cause his spirit was dead. He had to come to him in body. God can only deal with humans in their spirit because He is spirit, and our bodies and our soul are living in a three-dimensional realm. Because we live in a three-dimensional realm and He’s a fourth-dimensional God, He has to deal with that part of us that’s also 4D or God-D; that’s your spirit. Amen. Hallelujah.
Are you okay with me to say this, that God is a Spirit and He’s going to deal with the spirit of men? So, God’s not going to deal with you about life stuff in your soul, He’s going to bring you stuff to your spirit that will change your soul. Yeah.
Listen, I’m not the first to be able to teach on this. I want to make this statement; I don’t agree with everything that Watchman Nee says because Watchman Nee, God raised him up to address issues that were enlightening issues to the church of his day that brought us to this point. Okay?
If you go and read his books, there’s a lot of things he says. I don’t agree with some of the stuff that he says, but you know, I mean, look, if you read Watchman Nee, then you are truly a scholar and a disciple because it’s not easy reading. But he says this, the term mind in psychology is broader in its meaning than that used in the Bible. In other words, psychologists have a broader meaning of the word mind than the Bible does. What the psychologists mean by the mind or the heart includes two parts; the conscious and subconsciousness. The subconscious side is what we call the miraculous part of the power of the soul. Though psychologists make the distinction between conscious and subconscious, they can hardly separate them. They only classify the more common psychical manifestations as belonging to the first type, meaning the consciousness, whereas they group the extraordinary things of life or the miracle manifestations of life under the second category, that of the subconscious.
In other words, what they’re saying is the subconscious part of man has so much power to bring about extraordinary change that the conscious part of man who lives in a world of consciousness can’t do. But the subconscious part – this is the way the psychologist put it – the subconscious part of man is a very, very powerful part of man. Amen. Okay.
A man by the name of John Avanzini, he wrote this; these three parts of your being – body, soul and spirit – are constantly striving for the leadership of your life. When the soulish portion of your being rules your life becomes a process of manipulation that accomplishes only selfish goals. When your body rules, it will strive to accomplish only those things that please your body. It is impossible under the leadership of either the body or the soul to live a Christ-centered life. Why? Because God’s a Spirit. So, it’s not possible under the rules of body worship and soul worship to actually be a God-centered person. Hey. Come on now.
Have I stunned you in this message today or are you still with me? Are you still saying, “Amen, Pastor John?” Is there anything that I’m saying to you so far that is not Biblical? Hey? This is all Bible-based stuff. Right? So, now I’m going to do some things that are just enlightening.
So, there’s a book on Amazon. I just went and did some research and there’s a book on Amazon that you can buy. You can buy it as an audiobook or you can order it as a hard copy book. It’s not available as an ebook or an electronic or a digital book. It’s called Superconscious Potential: The bridge between cutting-edge science and personal transformation. Can you notice the word here, cutting-edge science and personal transformation?
Are you feeling stuck, limited to invisible chains? Do you yearn for a life of purpose, fulfillment, and abundance? This groundbreaking book offers a roadmap to unlock your true potential and create the reality you desire. Discover the power of your superconscious mind, the realm of infinite possibilities that lies beneath the surface of your consciousness. Learn to navigate the complexities of your subconscious, breaking free from limiting beliefs and societal expectations. Through practical exercises and transformative insights, you will learn how to, number 1, harness the power of your superconscious mind. Number 2, identify and overcome limiting beliefs. Number 3, master the art of manifestation. Number 4, navigate the interplay of the self-conscious, subconsciousness, and superconscious minds. Number, the next one, number 5, I think, embrace the principles of universal law. In other words, harness the power of mentalism, correspondence, vibration, polarity, cause and effect, etcetera.
How many of you want to unlock limitless potential? How many of you want to create the reality that you want? It’s available to you. Now, I want to tell you, I’m not going to speak against this incredible power because these people have tapped into power. They have tapped into potential. I’m going to read you from another author. Are you all ready for this? So, that author… What happened to me now? I must undo that. [Pastor John fixes something on his iPad]. That author is a person by the name of Anthony Leroy Williams.
This is from another person by the name of it’s called, Maximum Achievement by Brian Tracy. I’m going to play you a clip in a minute from someone else. Brian Tracy, the world’s leading authority on success and personal achievement, gives you his proven principles, step by step tips for raising your self esteem and improving your life. This audio book is based on his seminar program that has dramatically improved the income and lives of over 1,000,000 graduates. It is based on proven principles drawn from psychology, religion, philosophy, business, economics, politics, history, and metaphysics. These ideas are combined in a fast moving, informative series of steps that will lead you to greater success than you ever imagined possible. You’ll hear about ideas, concepts, methods used by high achieving people in every field, everywhere, using his powerful proven system based on years of research and practice, you’ll build self confidence and self esteem, set and achieve all your major goals, increase your income, and take complete control of your life as you unlock all your full potential. You will become more positive, persuasive, and powerfully focused in everything you do and improve every area of your life. You’ll achieve more in the next 2 years than many people accomplish in a lifetime. When you begin to practice these powerful principles in your life, you’ll be happier, healthier, more fulfilled and yearning more than you may have ever thought.
Now, if I’m 25 years old, so let me just go so far as to say to you, when I was 25 years old, when I was 30 years old, I was reading these books. I, the next person I’m about to play you a clip of, I was reading his books. In fact, I thought this was so godlike that I asked my sons to read these books. Hey. So, when I was 25 years old, what do you think was driving me at 25 years old and 30 years old? I wanted to be successful. I wanted to be a winner. I wanted to do whatever it took to be a winner. Right? I don’t want to be a loser. None of us do. Come on. So, will you play the clip for me, please? Can you play the clip? You guys at the back there. It’s 2 minutes and 5 seconds. I asked them to stop it after 2 minutes and 5 seconds.
[Clip plays] Every morning is a fresh start, a new chance to shape your destiny. What if I told you that speaking just five powerful lines to yourself each day could transform your mindset and unlock your potential? Let’s dive into these life changing affirmations that successful people swore by. Let me tell you, it’s not merely speaking, it’s about conditioning your mind for success and establishing the mindset for your entire day. It’s about shaping your destiny one morning at a time. What you say to yourself in those first few moments after waking up can influence the course of your entire day. If you can take charge of your days, you can take control of your life. It’s both simple and profound.
The third wisdom is that, have you ever wondered how some people seem to have everything together? They’re successful, happy and always progressing. What’s their secret? The answer is that they’ve mastered the art of self talk. They understand how to inspire themselves, drive themselves forward and become their own greatest supporter and motivator. That’s exactly what I want to share with you today. I want to teach you how speaking just five simple lines to yourself each morning can completely change your life. But before we dive into those five lines, let’s discuss why this practice is so powerful.
Think of your mind as a garden. Every thought you have and every word you say to yourself is like planting a seed in that garden. Now you have the choice. You can plant flowers or weeds. You can cultivate thoughts of success and positivity or you can let negative thoughts take over. The decision is yours. But here’s the key, your mental garden will grow regardless of whether you tend to it. So, why not be intentional about what you’re planting? Why not begin each day by sowing seeds of success, motivation and positivity? That’s where these five lines come in. They’re like a daily boost for your mind, a fertilizer that helps positive seeds thrive. They’re the water that nourishes growth and the sunlight that ……
I need ten more minutes. Is that alright with you guys? I mean, you might as well have been listening to me or Pastor Sharon talk that last two minutes. Whatever you put into your soul, right, whatever you put into your mind, whatever you put into your heart, it’s going to grow. It’s going to grow. Okay. Just hang with me for a few more minutes. I’m nearly done here for this morning anyway. Remember, I said, you can’t judge these messages until I’m done. You’re going to come back week after week until I’m done. I’m only starting.
Alright. I’m about to be your motivational speaker for you. Alright. Are you with me? I want to tell you that as a person who would like you to part with your money to come and attend the course of mine. I want to tell you why you should come and attend my course.
I want to tell you that as a young man, I grew up as a preacher’s kid. My father and my mother were poor. I had nothing going for me in my life. I really enjoyed sports. I was reasonably good at sports. I certainly wouldn’t have become a pro sportsman, but I enjoyed it and I achieved a measure of success at it. But I knew that actually, I had nothing really going for me until I discovered that actually what I spoke could really make a difference to me. So, what I decided to do was every day, I decided to have a confession card and a declaration card and I would write things out on my card and I would have them and I would speak them to myself. In fact, I put them up on my mirror. I put them in my car. I put them everywhere and I would speak these things to myself.
Wouldn’t you know that I got a job selling photocopiers? When I went to go and sell those photocopiers, my bosses asked me how do I think I’m going to be successful. So, I said to them, “Well, I believe in what I’m saying and I believe in what I’m doing and I’m telling you now, I will be the most successful salesman you have ever had in your company.” And they said to me, “Well, how are you going to do it?” And I said, “Well, just watch me.” And wouldn’t you know it, within a year, I was the most successful salesman in that company to the point where people that were selling photocopiers to a whole dealer network, I outsold them in one year. My own personal sales were greater than the whole network of dealers selling altogether, I sold more than them in the same year. In fact, I was so successful that they had no more place for me to be more successful, to earn the same kind of money.
So, I made a decision with my wife and I went into the computer industry. After 6 months, I did so well in the computer industry selling services that they asked me to go into selling those years, really large, very expensive computers. Within a year or 18 months, wouldn’t you know it, I was the top-selling salesperson in that whole company selling large computer systems and they didn’t have any more capacity for me. I’d outgrown them. So, I went to another computer company that gave me more, bigger accounts, bigger everything and I went into that company. Wouldn’t you know it, within 2 years, I was the top salesperson where they promoted me into management and I was so successful in that, that I was poached to go to another company.
I can tell you that by the time I was 32 years old, I was earning millions and millions, whatever debts I’ve made, I’ve paid them off. Whatever I was doing was successful. Not only that but I was married to the most beautiful woman in the world. Not only that, but my sons were going to the best schools that South African money could buy for my sons to go to. I was hooked into a network of professional business people. I was hooked into a network of excellence and life discovery at the highest level in our nation.
When I was working for my company, I would host the top executives of the top groups of the top organisations in our country. I was hosting them in sporting events, in boxes, and doing things, and taking them overseas because of the level of success I had achieved. Would you not like to come and hear from me how I can help you be successful?
I could sell myself. Don’t you think? Hey, I was a salesman. When I was selling photocopiers, I learned. And if you want to know more of my success, you can come for an extra afternoon, and it’ll cost you another thousand. Just work with me here. I’m role-playing. Right? You understand I’m role-playing. Okay.
I learned that when I was selling photocopiers, if I was competing product feature for product feature and money based money, it was always going to be a game because whoever decides what one single product is better for them in their company than another product feature, or it’s just a little bit marginally cheaper than something else, I’m toast. So, I went and I had some really careful thinking about this and I thought, I wonder how I can sell my product. I thought, what’s the thing that most people don’t know about photocopiers? See, because they don’t know how it works because when it jams, they don’t know how to fix it, and they want the copier that doesn’t jam, but they want to be able to say, “I bought the copier for the company, and look how well it works, and look how good the images are. Don’t you think I made a good choice?”
So, I thought, ah, if I can tell them how this thing works, then they can sell it to the board or to the people that they’ve got to help make the decisions to spend. So, I said, “Well, what is a photocopier?” It’s a camera. It has a lens, it has light, and it has a film. So, that’s how I started selling.
I said, “I want to tell you why my photocopy is better than any other copier because the film is so good. This is why our film is good. It’s made from this material. Whatever image you put on that material, it’s got to be that good to produce a good image.” So, if you don’t have the right light, you’re going to have a poor image. We have the best light in the copier because the light is that great and we understand that light goes with image. Now what good is good light and a good image if you don’t have a good camera, a good lens?
So, because our history is in good lens making, we got the best lens in this photocopier. You got a lens, you got a … everybody knows how a camera works. So, “Sir, here’s the problem. Your biggest problem is a jam in the paper.” Now most people want to buy a photocopier based on how cheap the price is. That’s why they keep having jams because they want to make so many 1,000 copies and they buy the cheapest copy and the copier can’t handle the amount of copies you want to put through it so it keeps jamming. Gets overheated, gets this, it gets that, can’t handle it. So I said, “So, you want to have a good, reliable thing in your business where you can take credit for making a good decision, you must upgrade a little bit and buy something more expensive, not less expensive.”
You want my secrets of success? Come, it’ll cost you another 1,000. Hello? I sold photocopiers and all my photocopiers that I sold were at the highest level. I took them up price levels. How many of you want me to come and help sell your product in your company? It will cost you another 1,000.
See, if I wanted to market and to be honest with you, when I started the ministry, people knew this about me. They knew that I was a success oriented person, that I was a pastor and a preacher, that was a success oriented person. So, when I started the ministry, people wanted to come to hear what I had to say to help them be successful. But they didn’t bargain on something. They didn’t count on the fact that, actually, what I’ve all just told you, I gave God the credit for it because I didn’t develop my soul, I developed my spirit. Because God speaks to my spirit, not my soul. So, when I was looking for a solution, how to sell photocopies, I wasn’t looking to my soul for the answer. I was looking to my spirit. So ,when they wanted to come and hear me and teach them how to be successful, I said, “You have to have a relationship with Jesus. You have to speak the word. You have to know the holy spirit. You have to become a mature Christian, not just someone who’s a Christian that develops your soul.” “No, I don’t want to hear that. I don’t want to hear that. I don’t want to hear that because you’re now putting a responsibility on me that when I get up in the morning, instead of having five positive confirmations and affirmations every day, I’m going to take the Bible and I’m going to put the Bible and my relationship with Jesus into my heart. So, my relationship with Jesus grows, not my five affirmations of success.”
So, Pastor John, well, what about all these guys that are successful? Well, they’re very successful because they’re teaching the soul to be the super powerful power that it is. “So, Pastor John, just teach me how my soul can be that powerful so I can …” I don’t need to? Go to these guys. They’ve done it all.
Okay, but I can do a good job for you if you want. I’ve read most of their stuff. I’ve listened to many of them. You know, when I was starting out, you know, what do I know? I’ve got to be successful. I’ve got to learn how to sell something. I’ve got to learn to be positive. I’ve got to learn how to dress. I’ve got to learn how to … Come on. I didn’t have anybody to teach me. I had to teach myself.
So, if I wanted to give myself credit, I had enough to give myself credit, but I knew that none of what I achieved was because of myself. I knew it’s because I was God driven. I was spirit man driven, and my spirit began to impact my soul. Now work with me, I’m going to give you one last tip before I leave here today. Okay. It’s a tip because I’m motivational now. So, I’m going to give you this one thing. If God’s Word and the Christ in me is that powerful, then it means that my soul can become more powerful than anybody’s soul in the world. Anybody’s soul. Anybody’s soul. Anybody’s soul. I’ve told you this many times before. I’m going to tell it to you again.
I would go into business meetings and I had a couple of meetings that were different levels, different things, and there was someone that was with me regularly in the meeting and I knew this person to be extremely intelligent, very smart, very well educated. And I would always say when this person was with me, I’d always say, you know, he’s the smartest guy in the room. Wherever I am, he’s the smartest guy in the room. Come on. If I had to invite Elon Rusk in, Elon Musk here today, most people would say – I was going to say Elon Rusk. I’ve got rusks on the brain. But if I had to invite him, most people would probably say he’s the smartest guy in the room because maybe his IQ, I don’t know what his IQ is. Maybe he’s 170, I don’t know what it is. Who knows what it is, you know. But IQ doesn’t make you smart.
I don’t know if you’ve seen this thing that went viral on the Internet. They said that Elon Musk was doing a Hitler salute. Did anybody see that? He was standing on the stage at one of Donald Trump’s inauguration events and I mean, he’s got a low EQ because he’s got such a high IQ that he’s got a low EQ. He’s got a high IQ and a low EQ. So, he’s bouncing on the stage because he doesn’t know how to contain himself. Call it ADHD, whatever you want to call it that people want to give it a label to. Here’s Elon Musk, one of the richest men in the world who’s made so much that he doesn’t know how to contain himself in front of these thousands of people who adore him. So, he says to them, “You guys are fantastic.” And he hits his heart like this, “And I’m with you! I’m with you!” [Pastor John gestures a Hitler salute] So, the media says, “See, he’s Hitler.” Promise you. The next thing he went [Pastor John taps his heart], “You’re here. You’re here.” He doesn’t know how to control himself, contain himself, this smart man.
The Spirit of God inside of you is the smartest that any place, anywhere, anybody can be because the Spirit talks to your spirit, and what is in your spirit will control what comes out of your soul. If you let your spirit lead, not your body lead and not your soul lead. Remember what I read to you from John Aravanzini? Your body, your soul, and your spirit are all contending for what’s going to lead you in your life. So, if you let your body control your future, then obviously, that’s where people just eat McDonald’s because they want to because, “I like the taste.”
You know, sometimes, sometimes, I have this craving taste. Can I tell you what’s my craving taste? This is a vulnerable confession moment. So, don’t diss me now for it. Okay? Don’t take me to task on this. Sometimes I’ll have this vulnerable craving. It’s a hot loaf of bread with the inside all taken out, and you take a whole packet of salt and vinegar chips, and you stuff it into the bread like this [Pastor John gestures stuffing chips into the bread]. And then maybe just for mos, you have hot slap chips and you grab that. And if you’ve got it with you, you can take those big blobs of butter and throw it into that and you just [Pastor John demonstrates eating]. Don’t go … I can see it got to your soul. Right? The imagery of it. Right? See, what happened was when I was in the military, I mean, we would eat anything to get energy and you learn to eat stuff that’s palatable to you and, of course, I had to have a whole thing of Coke that went with it. You train your body, I like the rush of the sugar. I need the rush of the sugar. I like the taste. I like the fact that it gives me energy quickly, and so I’ll grow to like it. Now when I’m driving around and I’m thinking and I’m hungry, what am I going to eat? My mind and my body get into agreement. Go and buy a loaf of bread. Go and buy your chips. Have your Coke because isn’t that lekker? Come on now.
My body and my soul is leading me to destruction. You might not think so because it’s so nice and what’s the harm in it? But my body and my soul is leading me to destruction. Maybe there’s a part of my spirit man that wants to talk to me and say, “John, your body is the temple of the Lord. Treat it well.” But now the spirit man is saying, “John, your body is the temple of the Lord, treat it well.” And you say, ”I don’t want to listen to You. My soul and my body are talking loud.” Your body and your soul is leading you. Your spirit man’s got very little to say because it’s too quiet on this matter. Come on. If you want your spirit man to lead you, you have to feed your spirit man. I’m not going to let my taste, I’m not going to let my desires, I’m not going to let my lust, I’m not going to let old habits of eating take my future, just because I like it, because I think it’s wonderful, I like the taste. In fact, I say, “Lord, I’m giving the spirit of myself, the spirit man, I’m giving the Word of God to it, that I will treat my body with respect. I will present it to You as a sacrifice, as my worship. I give You my body as my worship. Therefore, wherever I’ve got bad habits or bad eating that treat my body bad, I’m asking You Spirit man to guide me and lead me that in the moment of weakness, the spirit man will be strong enough to overcome it.”
That might not work for a while because your spirit man’s got to get stronger. But one day, you’ve been saying it enough and enough and enough and your spirit man says, “I’ve got the power.” It’s going to control your soul. It’s going to tell your body to shut up and now you’re going to win. You’re not just winning one battle of slap chips and salt and vinegar chips and warm bread. You’re going to win over and over and over again because any new desire that comes your way, you can beat it the same way.
I have a last question I’m going to leave you with. Do you think there’s enough power in your soul to help you control that desire? Absolutely. If I tell my soul that my soul can tell my body what to do, it will grow in my garden. That’s why I don’t want to diminish what these people have unlocked in the power of your soul. But, if I let the spirit lead the soul, then I’ve got more power that God can say He can do more than I can ask or think or imagine because the Spirit is in the power of my spirit. Hallelujah.
So now, motivational man, if I was a motivational speaker, I’d say, “Did you get something out of this today?” And you’d all say? [Congregation answers; yes] That’ll cost you tithes and offerings. Let’s take up an offering. How many of you can’t wait for next Sunday to come around now? Hey.
We’re going to learn some stuff here. I’m going to shoot some holy cows. I said this to Sharon. I said this to Sharon yesterday, I said to her, I said, “You know, Sharon, if I had given myself credit, if I’d given myself credit for what I achieved, I would have taken the next job offer that came to me when I left the corporate world.” Because this is really what happened.
When Hewlett Packard came and bought the shares back in South Africa and they bought me out as a shareholder, I decided to go into the ministry. The Lord called me into the ministry. What they thought, what the career people thought was I’m taking a sabbatical, till I find the next right job for me to move into because that’s what senior people do. Come on now. And so, I started getting phone calls, three months later, six months later, I started getting phone calls from headhunters, and top business people. We’ve got a position for you as the sales director, marketing director, director of this in this large company. And if I had to tell you the names, they were household names in terms of the technology world. People who have made fortunes of money, they wanted me to come be there because I had a credible reputation. So, they thought he was making all the right moves to go to the next level where he could turn his millions into tens of millions.
I had to say, “No, thank you.” But I said to Sharon if I had said, “Yes, thank you,” I think I would have probably made quite a lot of money for two or three years. And I mean a lot, I mean tens of millions. If I looked at what I would have done and what happened to those companies I would have made a fortune. I said, “But you know what, Sharon, I could not have had all the stuff that I have in my life and what I’ve got in my life is worth much more than money.” It’s worth much more than what the world says my success should look like. Amen.
Willie De la Rey. Dis goed om jou te sien, broer. Ek will sommer jou hug hierso, sommer voor almal hierso (It’s good to see you, brother. I want to hug you here in front of everybody.) It’s good to see you. I miss you, you know. I mean, you sometimes sit at the back there. I hardly get to say hello to you. Samajoor De la Rey. (Sergeant Major De la Rey) Don’t you all want to stand with me, please? Hallelujah.
Let’s just thank the Lord. Thank you, Lord, for an opportunity to sow seed. Thank you for the blessing that You are to our lives. Thank you, Lord, that You’re bringing us into the Way, the Truth and the Life and that when we put our money in Your hands it’s just our way of saying we worship You, we honour You, we adore You and we thank you that You bless us with all blessings and wellbeing in our lives. We thank you for it, Lord, in Jesus’ name. We all say; Amen. Thank you, Willie. Is Sue with you? No? Sy kan nie sit nie? Sê vir haar ek kyk na haar. Maar stuur my groete en my liefde hoor. (She can’t sit? Tell her I’m watching her. But send my love and regards.) Amen. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Glory to God.
Did you get something out of this today? Are you looking forward to the next session that we can sort some of these things out and set ourselves up for amazing things in God? We’re accelerating into our future and we’re making ourselves ready for it. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus.
So, I pray for you that this day you will be at peace and may the God of peace, may He preserve your body, soul and spirit blameless until the coming of our Lord Jesus. Amen. And may the peace of God guide you, lead you, and overwhelm you with such amazing power that you just know God is God in your life. Do you agree with that? Hallelujah. I pray that the Lord will protect you and guide you and lead you, that you’re blessed going out and blessed coming in and no weapon formed against you prospers. Under the shadow of His wings does He keep you and protect you, in Jesus’ name. Say amen, somebody. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus.
See? That’s how you build strength in your spirit man. Five confessions? I’d rather have five praise moments, five thanksgiving moments. Wait. The time is coming. You’ll get it, you’ll get it, you’ll get it. Hallelujah. All right, bye, everybody. See you at 5 o’clock.
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