A relationship is designed by God to be the root, the foundation and the beginning of joy. Because the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are in a relationship with each other, and within them is fullness of joy. It is also under attack in the modern day world. Because the enemy was the one who fell out of relationship with God and since then he has been after every relationship to undermine it. Everything that God does is out of relationship. He does nothing just for the sake of a program.
The enemy gets into relationships by trying to bring in gaps. He will use work pressure, finances, emotions of a wide spectrum of heightened expectations, to poor expectations, to great satisfaction, to no satisfaction, to happiness, to sadness, to grief, to performance.
The first gap he tries to create is between you and the Father – by breaking down your trust in God. Then you start to lean on your own hand of strength, your own understanding, your own will, your own ways. When you do that, you cut God out of the picture. The more you get things done by yourself, and using tools of the world system, the less you trust God. The more you think you don’t need God, the more you depend on yourself and the less you want to give time to God.
The devil comes with subtle things. Do this, do that, go here. People speak things into your ears; he puts desires in front of you to do and to chase. If he can get that right, he’s got a much bigger chance of putting a gap between you and someone else. Whether that is your mom and dad or a sibling, a friend, a marriage partner, or children, families. And I’ve watched over the years that people do their best to close the gap. And you know what ends up happening when they close the gap? They either walk away from a person and start again. Or they lower their expectations and allow a lot more tolerance into the relationship so that they can close the gap.
I wonder what God the Father did? God the Father is not tolerant of sin. He knew that sin would destroy your relationship with Him forever. So, He said, “Sin is so bad, someone’s got to shed blood for the sin. I have to judge it. Let’s have Jesus come and shed His blood, so that the blood forever takes away the effects of sin.” Because He judged it, it no longer stands as a barrier between you and Him.
We need to be intentional in our relationships with each other and with God, otherwise we just live from day to day. God says, “Don’t let circumstances determine how you relate.” If I am intentional about living by faith and I speak the words that God wants me to speak about any situation, I am not allowing the circumstances to dictate what and how I live. Faith is the intention, the substance. And as I intentionally uphold that Word of God, I say this relationship is much more important than the circumstantial evidence.
Without Jesus, you’re hopeless. But with Jesus you can be full of hope in Him. I intend this message to help you close the gap to be hopeful in Him, not hopeful in you. Because if you’re hopeful in yourself, there’s a gap between you and God. You got to understand that God has given you the grace, the assignment, to close the gap with Him. And if you do that with Him, everything else in life is a joy.
God is a generous God. He purposefully wants us to live a blessed life. It is His intention for us to live blessed. His intention for us is to live in the realm where He lives.
Satan made sure that Jesus in the physical body of the man suffered greatly. There was no superhuman power that gave Him less pain when they beat His body with whips. He was all man that got that beating. Every single bit of pain that they put on Jesus, He felt it completely the same as every other man would feel it. And when He was in the garden of Gethsemane, He knew that what He was about to endure He was going to count on the life of the Father that was in Him to carry Him beyond what His humanity could carry Him. He had to go inward but it didn’t diminish the pain, it carried Him through it. That’s why He had to endure the pain because of the joy of what the harvest would be.
You might be experiencing some trouble or anxiety. And it might seem at this moment that, “I don’t know how I’m ever going to get out of this. Maybe this cycle of trouble has been around my life for so long and when is it going to change? It just seems like it goes on and on and on.”
Well, the first thing I want to say to you is – change your talk. If you keep talking about your trouble, you will get more trouble. I didn’t say to ignore it. You can’t live in faith if you’re not honest about what you’re dealing with. But if I know that my trouble is financial, or there’s not enough business coming in, I don’t have to keep talking about it. I’ve got to say, “Hey, at this moment in time I don’t have enough business, but the business is coming, I’ve called it. I say, “business, come to me, come to me as profitable and productive business.”
“Well, what gives you the right?” I closed the gap between me and God. I speak like God speaks. That’s my covenant relationship. Because I have a covenant with Him, I can speak what His covenant says about me.
We live in a covenant walk with God that is more powerful than medical science, although we will use it. It is more powerful than the economic and financial institutions of our lives, although God will permit us to use it. It is more powerful than science and technology, although God will allow us to use it. We can’t depend on that as our source but we can use it. We got to put our trust in God.
In Him we have great freedom. What’s the boundaries? There’s always freedom in boundaries. The boundaries are, “Pursue Him, give Him your all. Give Him your words. Don’t speak words that are contrary to His words.”
Pastor John says: I want all of you to put your hand on your body and declare this with me: I am a covenant child of God. I receive covenant power of health, of healing and the miracle power of God to flow into my body and restore my body to the original state of health and healing that God intended for me. I receive my health, I receive my healing, I receive restoration. I count on the covenant power of God to flow in my body right now to work on every part of my body. In Jesus’ name.
I’m telling you, the power of God present in this meeting today. There is eyesight and things that are getting healed, eyes are being restored right now. There are all kinds of diabetic insulin-related sugar-related diseases that God is working with His power to heal right now. We are in God’s operating theater right now. He is destined this morning for healing power to flow into your body. Whatever brain stuff needs to happen, the people here today that have had issues with the headaches and brain stuff and things that have been going on in your mind. The power of God is here today to deal with that stuff and you don’t even know what the cause of it is, but God is present, Jesus is present this morning and your brain is being healed whatever has been mistaken there, have gone bad there, Jesus is healing it right now. He died on the cross. He had His Body beaten for you. He had all manner of sickness and disease put on Him so we can walk free. This is our covenant right.
This is God coming right now and saying, “This is the freedom that I want you to have in your relationship with Me – when you need Me, call on Me.” Call on the healing power of God. Call on the miracle power of God. Call on the life-giving power of God that will restore your body that will restore everything that you need to be working perfectly and normally in your body in Jesus’ name.
And so, that God of the covenant is here today. God has chosen this day to come and show up and speak through this vessel and bring healing power and bring restoration power and bring liberation to you – to your mind, to your soul, to your body, to your relationship with God. He says, “I’m coming and bringing a message to close the gap with you. Come and praise Me. Come and worship Me. Come and give Me the glory and see how much freedom there is here. Come and see how great and purposeful this life is. Come and see all the joy that I have for you. All the peace that I can give you. Nothing missing, nothing broken in your life. Come and witness it. Come and live it. Come and enjoy it. Come and partake of it. I’ve got it all for you. It’s your inheritance, it’s your legacy. I’ve set it aside for you – come and enjoy it to the fullest.”
Brother Jerry does this all the time. It’s an absolute work of faith. When he says this, time and time again, he says, “Let’s give God praise in advance.” You know, what he is saying is, activate your praise to give thanks for something that you can’t yet see, but something that is on its way that will manifest itself. If you give praise in advance it will come, because you are already thanking Him for something that you can’t yet feel, you can’t yet see, but it is on its way because your faith is ignited.
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