Jesus is the head of His church: 4Come out of Babylon, my people, (the world system). so that you may not participate in her sins (Revelations 18:4 GW). Jesus is the One who is the head of His church. He certainly is the head of this church because of the measure of the fear of the Lord that Pastor John and I have. He has never allowed us to get away with things and do what other people in other churches seem to get away with. He has always said to us, “Others may, you may not.” So we have walked with the Lord to the very best of our ability. And now we’ve come to a place of heightened walking with Him, with a greater certainty and more light because it is what God wants for His people and it’s for His time.
Jesus still writes to the church: READ: Revelations 2:1,17 (AMPC). He wanted me to tell you He still writes to His churches through His messengers. Jesus walks among us at Heritage of Faith, He knows every person that’s here, He knows Pastor John, He knows me and He knows all the people in the assembly – knows you by name. He knows you by the hairs on your head and He knows your condition. He addresses us through His messengers with His messages. It is His pattern. Jesus is still the Jesus that will write.
The two churches are very different: “The two churches are very different. They are in a different locations, they have different principalities and powers to contend with. The location of this church and the things that have infiltrated your hearts and your minds and the spirits that are at work here are different to what is at work in Witbank. The effects are the same; it’s to steal, to kill and to destroy. And then Jesus sends a messenger with a message so that you can overcome everything.
He gives a message to a messenger: He says to the messenger, “Write it down.” And that’s how we still do it. I take a pen and a paper when the Holy Spirit starts to speak to me and I write down what He’s saying to me to come say to you. His intention is to write something on your heart. READ: 2 Corinthians 2:17 (AMPC). 17watering down the Word (2 Corinthians 2:17 TPT). We are not allowed to water down the Word He gives to us. When He gives us a Word; He said to Ezekiel, son of man, you eat what I give you and you give it to My people. And then He said to Ezekiel, don’t you be like My people; stubborn.
I want to declare this in your presence today; Pastor John and I are not making a trade of God’s Word and peddling it. I cannot adulterate this Divine Message God has given me to come and bring you. READ: 2 Corinthians 2:17 (AMPC). I’m so aware when I’m standing here that I’m in God’s presence. He is watching and listening to me and He’s expecting me to yield to Him and bring the words to you that He’s given me. He had me write them down, so I’m in His presence; not peddling or shortchanging the Word of God. READ: 2 Corinthians 3:2-3 (AMPC). You see when He writes you a letter, He’s wanting to write it on your heart so that you become what the message is sent to you to become. You change your thinking. You repent; if you’ve had a different way of thinking you change. To repent means to change your way of thinking, to change your will to meet the will of God. READ: 2 Corinthians 3:6 AMPC). Key scripture: READ: Revelations 18:2-5,8 AMPC
I believe the prophets and I prosper: Brother Jerry said that this is a defining moment in our life right now. You can’t put this off until next year because “What you’re going to do and say and how you’re going to act and what you’re going to decide and how you’re going to respond right now and for the remainder of the year, will determine your future.” He’s opened a door for supernatural increase to come through. And that’s not just supernatural increase of finances, its supernatural increase of my spirit life with God. My spirit life with the Holy Spirit.
Pastor John said: We have to know God now like we’ve never known Him before. We have to know His voice. It’s our will. Our will is our platform and our worship is our power. What we’re going to will with our platform and what we’re going to worship is going to determine. Worship is not singing a song with Bible words to a slow song. Worship is the worth that your heart gives to God or the worth that you give to the things in the world. The worth and the value that you give. Worship means: to pay homage to, to submit to and yield to. Whatever you’re paying homage to, whatever ideology, philosophies in the world, whatever you’re yielding to, what people are saying, who’s saying, who’s influencing you.
Three words: We’ve been impacted, influenced and imprinted by the world system, the Babylon of our day, more than we realise. This series of messages are going to help us to have recognition of where we are influenced, impacted, infiltrated, immersed, imprinted. It’s like an imprint on your heart because your eyes take photographs of everything, (your eye-gate), and what you look at imprints your heart. God wants to clean what you’ve been looking at. He’s going to do it through messages. The Lord said, “You can’t exclude yourself here.” You can’t say, “It’s not my defining moment.” No, God says, “It is.” If you ignore it, you ignored your defining moment. There are always consequences to not listening to God. He’s created you and I to walk and talk with Him and hear His voice in all things in your life.
Pastor John said: “Especially now, we have to move into knowing His voice.” How do I know His voice? Well, I know His voice because I’m meditating in His Word and I’m reading His Word, and He speaks to me through His word. He speaks to you through His precious, holy written Word and His messages that He brings through His messengers. Then you put your foot in the message and He speaks to you in your heart by the person of the Holy Spirit throughout the whole week. That’s your starting point of getting to know the voice of the Holy Spirit. You already know that Voice. READ: Luke 1:66 AMPC. This is a serious time for us, people. Why? Because God wants to bring supernatural increase to your life of spirituality, of relationships with your children, relationships with your spouse, relationships with one another in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s got supernatural increase, but there are some things that we have to recognise and get right.
Dedication to God: READ: Luke 2:21- 22 (TPT). They took the baby to be dedicated. I was just thinking of the dedication of babies that we’ve done – Pastor John and I. And the dedication that parents have done. For our hands to be on those children-this is a spiritual thing that’s happening here. Even though our water baptism is a natural thing where we go under the water, it’s a spiritual thing of the heart that happens when a parent truly dedicates their child to God. READ: Luke 2:22 (TPT). (Luke 2:25-28 TPT). The part that I want you as parents to see is And the destiny of your child is this (Luke 2:33-35 TPT).
The destiny of your child: For every child, God says, “And the destiny of your child is this.” If you don’t allow God to have the first say about the destiny of your child, you will impact and imprint your will on your children. God wants you to know that He has a say, He wants to be only the One to say about your child, because the spirit of that child was sent by God into the womb of the mother for His purpose, for His plan. After today you will be without excuse with the Lord because today the Lord is saying to you; He alone wants to have the say about what the destiny of your child will be. If Abraham’s blessings are to be ours and Abraham is our father, then this is a requirement. 19I have chosen him for a reason, namely that he will carefully instruct his children and his household to keep themselves strong in relationship to Me and to walk in My ways … I know he will uphold his end of the covenant so that he can ensure My promises to him will be fulfilled and upheld as well (Genesis 18:19 VOICE). READ: Genesis 18:19 (NLT); (NIRV); (CEV); (19 CEB).
Warning – immature: “Don’t let it be a stumbling block in your thinking to look at Pastor John and my life, our natural life and what happened with our children. This is a message from the Lord, regardless of the messenger. That’s a big thing that Christians do so that they can have an excuse to not obey Gods Word. That’s really immature, to think that you cannot listen to God’s message through me because you judge me to be not as good as you are in raising your children. That is a very, very sneaky thing of the devil that he would love to do to your mind”.
Abraham’s testing was Glorious: There is a powerful thing that happens in the realm of the spirit when a parent, truly from their hearts, out of covenant with God, offers up their child that they love, only to God and not to the world’s system. READ: Genesis 22:1-5 AMPC. Isaac was a young man, not a little child. We are talking about the dedication of children to the Lord. When you give God and offer up, completely entrust, completely consecrate – it’s worship. “I’m making no plans for my child because You know the thoughts and plans You have. I’m not speaking nonsense like the rest of the world does over the destiny of my child or anybody else’s child for that matter. I’ll not speak from my soul thinking you could become this, or I think you could become this or you can become anything you want to become” – that’s completely antichrist. “I am not going to seek God about what my child is going to be. I’m going to seek man. I am going to go to a career counsellor and see what they say my child should become”. It’s where your trust is. There is no condemnation if you have done that. You have got to make your own adjustments with God. You have got to have your own conversations with your own children about these things. You have got to have holy conversations. You have got to change your conversations. READ: Genesis 22:6 AMPC – What a beautiful picture of Abraham’s trust and Abraham’s faith. He was not sorrowful at all. The book of Hebrews is quite clear on it. His faith and his trust in God was so absolute that Abraham received his son back from the dead because God is faithful. READ: Genesis 22:7-8 AMPC. (Places and spaces that we’re occupying now. Spiritual places, spiritual spaces allotted to us at this time as a people.) Genesis 22:9 AMPC – (This is worship). READ: Genesis 22:12 KJV.
Bible commentaries say: God put great honour on Abraham by giving him this opportunity of showing to all successive ages the nature and efficacy of unshaken faith in the power, and the goodness and the truth of God. Isaac was between 25 and 37 – some even say as old as 40. He was a man. For can it be supposed that an old man of at least 125 years of age could have bound without his consent a young man in the very prime and vigour of life? In this case, we cannot say the superior strength of the father prevailed, but the piety that was in Isaac. Isaac yields of his own accord – a yielded son and Abraham offering his child to God. This was the same Isaac that God said, “Don’t go to Egypt to put your trust in Egypt in this time of famine, like your father did. You stay here where there’s famine, and you sow your seed.” And Isaac was, “Yes, Sir.” Who taught him? Abraham taught him. Abraham so totally gave him to God. Abraham wasn’t running after Isaac to say, “You’re going to have no money, you must go to Egypt. You need to do this, you need to make a plan here. Why don’t you try this?” He so totally dedicated his son. He so totally trained his son up to fear the Lord, to have faith in God. Isaac’s faith was with Abraham’s faith on that altar. There was no resistance in Isaac. We cannot say the superior strength of the father prevailed, but the piety, the filial affection. There was such affection between the two of them – such love. That is something that is developed because you teach your child to fear Him first. You show him, you show him. It was the piety, the filial affection and obedience of the son yielded. Glory to God. All of this illustriously, typical of Christ in both cases, the father himself offers up his only son, and the father himself finds him on the wood to the cross. In neither case is the son forced to yield. Hallelujah. He yields of his own accord. READ: Hebrews 11:17-19 KJV. The father yields up the son, the son gives up his life – on both sides as far as will and purpose could go, the sacrifice was complete.
Hannah’s dedication to God; READ: 1 Samuel 1:11 (MSG). That is the dedication that God is looking for that heart in every parent that will not fear to unreservedly give that life to Him and not want to control it themselves the way that the world parents control their children through fear; fear and pride. We have been impacted, influenced, and imprinted by the world system and by Babylon – More than we know. “Set him apart” – that’s what it means to dedicate your child to the Lord. In other words, I’m not going to interfere with my emotions, my feelings or my insecurities in the life of this child. Every day of this child’s life I will say, “I dedicate him to You. He’s consecrated to You. I offer him up to You.” READ: 1 Samuel 1:21-22 MSG – That’s where he’ll stay for good. As a parent it must be in my heart; I bring, I bring, I bring him myself. I present my child before God and that’s where he will stay, she will stay for good. READ: 1 Samuel 1: 23 -28 MSG
An example of dedication: (Pastor Sharon reads and excerpt from Rees Howell’s book). Mr Howell and his wife had a burden to pray for some friends in Africa so they went to the prayer meeting and there God showed him a vision of Africa. The Lord said, “I will answer the prayer through you. I will send you both out there.” “It was the greatest surprise of our lives,” said Rees. We thought we had a vision of the Africans in order to burden us to pray for someone else to go, but with the Lord, we can only push others as far as we are willing to be pushed ourselves. There were a thousand and one hindrances, but the Lord would take no excuses. The problem was that a little boy had been born to them. Months before their little boy was born, the Lord told them to call his name Samuel. There were several similarities in his life to the one he was named after. One being that Mrs Howells’ name was Hannah, and she too was now to put her son on the altar of sacrifice. “It was our greatest, our first test on the call, and the greatest,” said Mr Howells, who tells the story in his own words. The Saviour had said, “Anyone who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me,” We left it entirely in the hands of the Lord, we wouldn’t have dared to interfere, or we would have made the greatest mistake. A few weeks before the time for us to leave to South Africa I was sent for by my uncle and his wife and he asked if we were taking Samuel with us. I said, “No.” “Where is he going to?” I said I didn’t know. “Well,” he said, “he is to come here.” They had never seen him, although they lived within three or four miles, something came over them, they said, about him, and they wanted to nurse him while we were away. Walking home that day to tell my wife was more than one could bear. Although we had given him up in our hearts, when the Lord actually opened a door for him, it was like pulling one’s heart to pieces; but before I had reached home, I had enough victory to control myself. When I arrived home she was playing with Samuel and I took courage and told her. We proved that night that Africa was going to cost us something and we were coming up to the victory by degrees. The process was slow and hard. His going out was more than emptying the house. When I came home that night I asked my wife, “How did you get through?” They were just in God in their hearts. “How did you get through?” She said she went into the garden and wept and thought to herself, “I’ve been singing that hymn many a time.” And this is the hymn that we can never prove the likes of His love until all the altar we laid. And then the Lord told me, “Measure it with Calvary.” And with those words she came through. Because it was going to be an intercession one had to walk every inch. Morning came when my sister arrived to fetch him. I think in eternity we shall look back on what we went through, giving our best to the Lord. You think the price that people pay to come to South Africa, God’s just going to let it go? That He is not going to require for somebody to come up to the standard so that standard can continue. You think He is not going to find a people somewhere that will determine the future of the Kingdom of God? You think He forgets that kind of thing? The Holy Spirit knows how to bring you through to surrender if you want to come through. They wanted it, they willed it. Their will was their platform and their worship was their power. And praying together afterwards the Lord showed me the reward; hundredfold for all the souls in South Africa. After Mr. And Mrs. Howells left for South Africa, Samuel became so completely a son to Mr. and Mrs. Rees that his name was changed to Samuel Rees. He accepted Christ as personal Saviour at the age of twelve. His adopted parents always wanted him to become a doctor but Samuel felt (and this is for your children. Children do not need to become what their parents want them to become), the Lord’s call. After his university course he came back to join his own father with his foster parents’ loving consent. Although Mr. and Mrs. Howells never raised one finger to draw him in their direction it was God sending him back to them. Samuel became assistant director of the Bible College of which after his father’s home call, he became director and was once again known to everybody by the name of Samuel Rees Howells. How perfectly the Lord fulfilled the promises given to his father and mother even before his birth. And how abundantly the Lord honoured the sacrifice made by his parents.
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