What I put into my training is what I’m going to get back in energy. When I go and run 5km and expend that energy that makes me tired, I harvest more energy. That’s the way it works because the more I put into expending energy, my body rests better, recovers better, has better circulation, better everything, oxygen levels in my body. What I get back is a better energy level because I gave energy. That is a principle in God’s Word. When I give energy to relationships, what I get back is good relationships.
We’re going through a phase of ministry right now where we are talking about big rocks. We are talking about taking the children; we’re talking about life, purpose, callings, things that have to happen. These are big rocks.
Even though we have intense big rock moments here and we go away and I go and have lunch and I chat and I switch on the TV and I do something that is a very small rock or even granular activity, it doesn’t diminish the big rock that has been placed in my life. I keep looking at that big rock. I understand this big rock is designed to actually stabilise everything in my life.
There will be times when God will come into my world and He will speak directly to me, and He will ask me to do things, and when He does that, I obey and I obey immediately, I obey without question. Big rock moments. God is looking at what I do with my life with my big rocks, those things that He tells me to do, that are important to do.
Abram had a big rock moment. God appears to Abram and says, “Abram, I want to be your God and I want you to be my people, come follow Me. I will take you to a land and I will show you a land and I will take you to that land.” Big rock moment. Disobedience there, nothing else matters after.
I can tell you about David, he went backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards getting food to his brothers and all of the backwards and forwards was his preparation for him to fight his Goliath. If I think backwards and forwards moments don’t really have much value in my life, they do, they are just granular. They are just granular until God has a big rock moment for me. I am in a big rock moment.
10-12The Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits. When the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, they fell into the tar pits, but the rest escaped into the mountains. The four kings captured all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah, all their food and equipment, and went on their way. They captured Lot, Abram’s nephew who was living in Sodom at the time, taking everything he owned with them (Genesis 14:10-12 MSG).
15They chased them as far as Hobah, just north of Damascus. They recovered all the plunder along with nephew Lot and his possessions, including the women and the people. 17-20After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and his allied kings, the king of Sodom came out to greet him in the Valley of Shaveh, the King’s Valley. Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine—he was priest of The High God—and blessed him: Blessed be Abram by The High God, Creator of Heaven and Earth. And blessed be The High God, who handed your enemies over to you. Abram gave him a tenth of all the recovered plunder (Genesis 14:15-20 MSG).
21The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me back the people but keep all the plunder for yourself.” 22-24But Abram told the king of Sodom, “I swear to God, The High God, Creator of Heaven and Earth, this solemn oath, that I’ll take nothing from you, not so much as a thread or a shoestring. I’m not going to have you go around saying, ‘I made Abram rich.’ Nothing for me other than what the young men ate and the share of the men who went with me (Genesis 14:21-22 MSG). Abraham left his people by a word from a God he didn’t know. He was obedient and he went to a country that he never knew.
1After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I am your Shield, your abundant compensation, and your reward shall be exceedingly great (Genesis 15:1 AMPC).
Fear not, Abram, I am your Shield, your abundant compensation, and your reward shall be exceedingly great. 2And Abram said, Lord God, what can You give me, since I am going on [from this world] childless (Genesis 15:1-2 AMPC).
2Since I am going on [from this world] childless and he who shall be the owner and heir of my house is this [steward] Eliezer of Damascus? (Genesis 15:2 AMPC).
3And Abram continued, Look, You have given me no child; and [a servant] born in my house is my heir. 4And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, This man shall not be your heir, but he who shall come from your own body shall be your heir. 5And He brought him outside [his tent into the starlight] and said, Look now toward the heavens and count the stars—if you are able to number them. Then He said to him, So shall your descendants be. 6And he [Abram] believed in (trusted in, relied on, remained steadfast to) the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness. 7And He said to him, I am the [same] Lord, Who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees to give you this land as an inheritance. 8But he [Abram] said, Lord God, by what shall I know that I shall inherit it? 9And He said to him, Bring to Me a heifer three years old, a she-goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon. 10And he brought Him all these and cut them down the middle [into halves] and laid each half opposite the other; but the birds he did not divide. 11And when the birds of prey swooped down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away. 12When the sun was setting, a deep sleep overcame Abram, and a horror (a terror, a shuddering fear) of great darkness assailed and oppressed him. 13And [God] said to Abram, Know positively that your descendants will be strangers dwelling as temporary residents in a land that is not theirs (Genesis 15:3-13 AMPC).
16…they [your descendants] shall come back here [to Canaan] again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full and complete. 17When the sun had gone down and a [thick] darkness had come on, behold, a smoking oven and a flaming torch passed between those pieces. 18On the same day the Lord made a covenant (promise, pledge) with Abram, saying, To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates (Genesis 15:16-18 AMPC).
16And in the fourth generation they [your descendants] shall come back here [to Canaan] again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full and complete (Genesis 15:16 AMPC).
I’m at a place in my life now where I cannot look back with affection to where I used to live. I go back there; my life will turn into a pillar of salt and become useless. There are times that I can’t just ignore and say, “Well, I think I‘ll just keep doing what I’ve been doing all along.” This is not one of those moments. This is a big rock moment.
16And in the fourth generation they [your descendants] shall come back here [to Canaan] again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full and complete (Genesis 15:16 AMPC).
I think children are born to me because I have physical intimacy and my child is born. And now it is my job to manage this child and I will decide this child’s future. And I will make whatever future this child’s future needs to be. God knew Abram from before he was born because he was in Him that Abram was born from.
There are some things in my future I can’t see. Number one, I have to be obedient, number two, I’ve got to start walking a journey, and number three when God shows up and He wants to talk to me about my future, I’ve got to be willing to say, “I am Your covenant partner and I’ll do what You say.”
The enemy of God has a tendency to focus on the fine little granules of my life – he heightens the granular effect so that I forget the big rocks.
I want a better marriage, I don’t look to my partner to try and fix them. I do my stuff before God that He tells me to do. Big rock moments.
If I’m going to have children or have children, I raise them in the Lord. I work with them, love them, energise them spiritually because we can all grow together and achieve things together. 1-2When Abram was ninety-nine years old, God showed up and said to him, “I am The Strong God, live entirely before me, live to the hilt! (Genesis 17:1-2 MSG).
1-2“I am The Strong God, live entirely before me, live to the hilt! I’ll make a covenant between us and I’ll give you a huge family.” (Genesis 17:1-2 MSG).
3-8Overwhelmed, Abram fell flat on his face. Then God said to him, “This is my covenant with you: You’ll be the father of many nations. Your name will no longer be Abram, but Abraham, meaning that ‘I’m making you the father of many nations.’ I’ll make you a father of fathers—I’ll make nations from you, kings will issue from you. I’m establishing my covenant between me and you, a covenant that includes your descendants, a covenant that goes on and on and on, a covenant that commits me to be your God and the God of your descendants. And I’m giving you and your descendants this land where you’re now just camping, this whole country of Canaan, to own forever. And I’ll be their God.” 9God continued to Abraham, “And you: You will honour my covenant, you and your descendants, generation after generation. This is the covenant that you are to honour, the covenant that pulls in all your descendants. 10Circumcise every male (Genesis 17:10 MSG).
God was taking this covenant personally. This is My covenant with you, Abraham. Now I need you to show Me how personal this covenant is to you – circumcision.
Not everything God’s going to tell me is easy, but when I obey God and I get that intimate with the things that God wants me to do, I establish the covenant forever. Would Abraham have had Isaac if he had not circumcised every male? The condition of the covenant was obedience.
I have a covenant with God that is generational, it is eternal. He has got things planned for me that I cannot even begin to hope or think of or imagine how great my life is going to be but I have got to get the big rocks right. I do not let the little granular sands and small rocks say to me that the big rocks don’t matter. I don’t let the granular energy management of my life dictate what happens to the big rock time.
I don’t hear a promise from the Word of God and try to make it come on my own terms – it causes trouble. There is a bigger blessing. There is a more accurate way of living that God wants because that is where the real future lies.
19But God said, “That’s not what I mean. Your wife, Sarah, will have a baby, a son. Name him Isaac (Laughter). I’ll establish my covenant with him and his descendants, a covenant that lasts forever (Genesis 17:19 MSG). 22God finished speaking with Abraham and left (Genesis 17:22 MSG).
When God comes into my life to establish a big rock moment, His presence and His greatness and His magnificence and my knowing of just how amazing this is to be here with God knowing my future, knowing what my direction is and then God leaves me, not that He is leaving me alone. He is just leaving me because I cannot manage all of the intensity of all of God, all of the time. And so He leaves me and when He leaves me what fills that space has the potential – the small granular stuff – to say that maybe that was not so important. Maybe I can choose something else. Maybe He did not mean it so big because the bigness of Who He is when He leaves there is this vacuum. I don’t allow my thoughts, my emotions, my desires and other people rushing in to fill that vacuum – I remember that big rock moment.
1After all this, God tested Abraham. God said, “Abraham!” “Yes?” answered Abraham. “I’m listening.” 2He said, “Take your dear son Isaac whom you love and go to the land of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I’ll point out to you.” (Genesis 22:1-2 MSG). He was preparing Abraham for something that was much bigger to come, a much bigger rock.
What kind of God does this? It’s a God with a grand plan. It’s a God with a grand plan that I can’t see until I’m obedient to the grand plan. And only when I’m obedient to the grand plan can He start the next phase of the grand plan. But God’s got the plan that I need, a plan with everything beyond my wildest imaginations. But He’s got the grand plan. Not me.
9-10They arrived at the place to which God had directed him. Abraham built an altar. He laid out the wood. Then he tied up Isaac and laid him on the wood. Abraham reached out and took the knife to kill his son (Genesis 22:9-10 MSG). God wanted to take something from Abraham that was more precious to Abraham than himself, which was his seed for the future.
It’s the future that means a lot.
11Just then an angel of God called to him out of Heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Yes, I’m listening.” “I’m listening.” 12“Don’t lay a hand on that boy! Don’t touch him! Now I know how fearlessly you fear God; you didn’t hesitate to place your son, your dear son, on the altar for me.” 13Abraham looked up. He saw a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. Abraham took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 15-18The angel of God spoke from Heaven a second time to Abraham: “I swear—God’s sure word!—because you have gone through with this, and have not refused to give me your son, your dear, dear son, I’ll bless you—oh, how I’ll bless you! And I’ll make sure that your children flourish—like stars in the sky! like sand on the beaches! And your descendants will defeat their enemies. All nations on Earth will find themselves blessed through your descendants because you obeyed me.” 19Then Abraham went back to his young servants. They got things together and returned to Beersheba. (Genesis 22:11-13, 15-19 MSG).
16And when Jesus was baptized, He went up at once out of the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he [John] saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on Him. 17And behold, a voice from heaven said, This is My Son, My Beloved, in Whom I delight! This is My Son (Matthew 3:17 AMPC).
5Jesus answered, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, unless a man is born of water, and [even] the Spirit, he cannot [ever] enter the kingdom of God. 6What is born of [from] the flesh is flesh [of the physical is physical]; and what is born of the Spirit is spirit (John 3:5-6 AMPC). 53And Jesus said to them, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, you cannot have any life in you unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood (John 6:53 AMPC).
31Then His mother and His brothers came and, standing outside, they sent word to Him, calling [for] Him. 32And a crowd was sitting around Him, and they said to Him, Your mother and Your brothers and Your sisters are outside asking for You. 33And He replied, Who are My mother and My brothers? 34And looking around on those who sat in a circle about Him, He said, See! Here are My mother and My brothers. (Mark 3:31-34 AMPC). Jesus was making a distinction. Was He making a statement? There is a level of relationship with Jesus that is about to become about the Father’s will that there will be a difference between a blood-born family relationship versus a blood-bought family relationship. “Who is the one most important to Me – is it the one of My blood or is it the one who does the will of My Father?” Jesus said that before He even died. Whoever does the things that God wills, is My brother and sister and mother.
Repentance – there is nothing else that I have to do but to speak those words and believe it in your heart and immediately God changes my future. 44It was now only midday, yet the whole world became dark for three hours as the light of the sun faded away. 45And suddenly in the temple the thick veil hanging in the Holy Place was ripped in two! 46Then Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Father, I surrender my Spirit into your hands.”And he took his last breath and died (Luke 23:44-46 TPT).
Whatever my future is in these moments of walking in God together, God has literally put His money where His mouth is and He has said, “I have given You My Son, brought Him in human form and caused Him to take all the sin of the world and be separated from Me for the first time in eternity,” so that neither the Father nor the Son understood the nature of this relationship, other than in the Father’s will He had power to raise Him from the dead. And Jesus said, “I’ve got to give it to You, from here this is new ground, I have never been this way before, My future is in Your hands. Father, Father, Father, I’ve done everything You have asked Me to do and now You leave Me? You’re gone?” Of course, He wasn’t. He had to allow Jesus to go through three days and nights of judgment so that He could raise Him from the dead, legally, eternally. This is not all so I can just choose life as a Christian for myself.
If I live like that, I’ll experience a lot of Moabite activity in my life, a lot of Amorite activity – people that will come and eat away at my things that I think I am creating and just come – moth and rust and corruption makes it fade away but what I do on earth in obedience to Him, like Abraham who did take that knife and was ready to take Isaac so that Jesus would, God the Father would have the right to send His Son, Jesus into the earth and so that He could take His life because Abraham was willing to do it, He had a legal, legitimate right to come and do it for His Son. He is known as the father of faith because it started with him.
I don’t forget about the big rock moment that God has done today. I hang onto it, I make this part of my life going forward.
Your Word is like a hammer and it breaks down the hardest and resistant – hard, rock-like resistance. Your Word is a hammer that breaks down any resistance to this message so that my old culture, my old ways, my old thinking, my old self tries to get in the way through all those little granules that filter into my life; this word is powerful in my life. Your Word is like a fire that burns and this word will burn with fire in my heart so that You can have a generation after generation after generation of people that You can show Yourself how much You want to bless Your people.
As these messages come out, they will truly just completely annihilate the things of the past in my life.
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