Scripture reference: Colossians 3:1-2 NKJV; Colossians 3:1 TPT; Colossians 3:1-2 MSG; 1 Corinthians 1:18-19 MSG; Acts 2:28 NKJV; Romans 12:2 MSG; Romans 8:38-39 NKJV; Ephesians 1:11-14 MSG; Ephesians 6:12 AMPC; Ephesians 6:10 NKJV; Psalms 145:13-19 NLT
Hello, everybody. Thank you for joining me on this Sunday morning service, right after New Year. I’m going to be sharing some things with you right now that’s going to lead into a section or a portion of ministry that I did in September and it had to do with blow your mind. You’ll be watching that for a little bit and then I’ll come back and talk to you and then we’ll watch some of the things that the Lord gave me for the first Sunday of the new year, which is today. We’ll talk about that afterwards as well.
I just want to share with you that truly the Lord has got us in a tremendous place where He has given us His Word to carry with us in our lives, to mature us and to grow us. When He put it on my heart to speak about blow your mind, we really do need to have a change of mind.
Our spirit man is perfect, recreated in the image of God. Our natural man is being corrupted, is dying day by day. Our soul, our mind, is the thing that we really have to change and we need to be reminded continuously that we must blow our minds. So, you will know by now that when I talk about blowing your mind, I’m not talking about some weird thing, I’m talking about; renew your mind, change your mind, have the mind of Christ.
So, you’ll watch a portion of this. The Word of God says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, so, I’m really wanting you to, even though you might have heard this message before, I’m asking you to pay attention and allow the Word of God to wash over you and to help you with this new process.
I want you just to remember that the Lord has spoken to us for 2022 and He said; Big and Bold version 2 in ‘22. For us to be able to reach for big and bold, we’ve got to have a change of mind, we’ve got to blow our minds and we’ve got to receive the mind of Christ in every way and in everything that we do.
We’ve also had a word from the Lord by Brother Jerry Savelle and the year of 2022 is going to be the year of the Open Hand of God. He has been ministering that unusual, extraordinary and supernatural provision will come our way and it’s going to be accelerated. Certainly, Pastor Sharon and I have been speaking this scripture a lot, that indeed the harvester will overtake the sower. So, the reaper will overtake the sower. That’s acceleration, that’s extraordinary provision and we have been experiencing that for quite some time.
Well, if you keep living in the natural world, the reality of what’s happening around us, the reality of our natural circumstances, that’s the best you can ever have, but if you change your mind, you blow your mind, and you allow the Word of God to be your reality and your truth and your guide, that is where we make the progress. So, please enjoy this 17 minutes or so, perhaps a little bit longer, of me ministering in the church on Blow Your Mind. Thank you. I’ll see you after these 20 minutes or so.
I need to spend about ten or fifteen minutes this morning just going over some of the messages that the Lord has had me minister, over the last six weeks. I’ll do it as quickly as I can and then I’m going to go into the message that the Lord has declared, He wanted me to speak this morning. I started some, probably two months ago, and a lot has happened because we’ve travelled quite a bit, done many things with the interns, there’s been a lot of stuff happening. We’ve had fireside chats in between, so I probably started this series of messages, now that I think about it, three or four months ago. It was called, Blow Your Mind, and so, I’ve been talking on Blow Your Mind.
The original verse of scripture that I ministered on is Colossians 3 verses 1 to 3 and I’m going to read it to you in all three translations that I read it in, on that day that I preached it because I think it’s really important and relevant. ¹If then you were raised, this is the New King James Version,¹If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, seek those things that are above where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. ²Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth (Colossians 3:1-2 NKJV).
Well, I would say that pretty much blows your natural mind, doesn’t it? Because if you set your things on things above, and not on the natural things of the earth, you blow your mind, and so we all need to be blowing our mind. The Passion Translation puts it like this, ¹Christ’s resurrection is your resurrection too. This is why we are to yearn for all that is above, for that’s where Christ sits enthroned at the place of all power, honor, and authority! (Colossians 3:1 TPT) And so we are to set our minds on things that are above, we are to yearn for what is above, all that is above, for that’s where Christ sits enthroned at the place of power, honour and authority.
So, if you want to know what you want to blow your mind from, you certainly want to blow your mind, so that it can think of these things; where Christ sits, in power, authority and honour. When you begin to think about Christ with power, authority and honour, you begin to think on a whole different level of living in God.
The Message Translation says it like this, ¹So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides, I’m going to read verse two here, ²Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective (Colossians 3:1-2 MSG).
So, I don’t know about you, but when I was in a corporate world, I was fortunate enough, blessed enough, favoured enough, to sit at a fairly high level of senior management. Often we will have these, these senior meetings, these management meetings. You know, you kind of wait for everybody to drift in sort of five minutes before the meeting starts. Oftentimes if you had a meeting that would go for more than 45 minutes, you might have coffee brought in and have something on the table, some biscuits or something. In those moments, natural conversations would be held and nothing about spreadsheets and nothing about strategies or anything like that, you’d have natural conversations between people.
I was very, not very, I should say, I was new to that level of management and so all the guys, they were talking about this new property deal that you had to get into, in the Cape. So, we were all living in Johannesburg, and they were talking about this thing that was going on in the Cape and around the Stellenbosch area, and you had to buy land there. This is the new thing, guys, you got to do that. So, then the one guy said, “Yeah, I bought mine two weeks ago.” The next person said, “Yeah, I’ve been in touch with the agent, I’m going to buy there.” So out of the six or so senior executives that were in the room, four of them already made plans to go and buy land there, because that’s where the action was.
So, they were talking to me, like, “Hey, John, you know, we’re telling you stuff that we’ve kind of gleaned from all the connections and all of our connections tell us that’s where the action is. That’s where the land is going to grow. So, get in. We’ve pulled you into our connection circle, you’ve made it. So now, start, start living on the tips. Start living on the knowledge base of the connections, because this is where the action is.”
Huh… You see, there is a natural world where there is action. But I don’t want to be involved in the action where the natural world is. I want to be involved where Christ’s action is. Because when I’m busy with His action, all of the stuff that the world thinks can last forever and will bring them profit and will bring good things to them, it can fail in a week. But when you’re doing what Christ wants you to do, you can’t fail. You can’t fail. You can’t fail. I can tell you that that property investment that they all invested in, has come and gone and is long time no more the action. It’s like that. It’s like that. So everybody gets kind of, you know, well, you’ve got to predict where the action is because that’s where your vision comes in. That’s where your instinct comes. I’d rather be where God’s action is. Let His instinct, His desire, let His blessing lead me and guide me.
So I said at that time, in that message, I said, All revelation, God-given revelation, all revelation is intended to replace your current reality with redemption and restoration. But not by living in your reasoning and only those things relevant to you and your plans. So God’s revelation is intended to replace your current reality with redemption and restoration. Hallelujah. So, if you continue to live in your reasoning, and things that are relevant to your plans, you’re not seeking where God’s action is.
I can tell you this revelation will cease to flow to you because if you don’t act on the revelation that God gives you, he can’t continue to give you, more revelation because revelation is meant to bring redemption, it’s meant to bring restoration. If you don’t live in the revelation that God gives you. It doesn’t come to you. I want to say this, if you don’t act on what God says, you become deaf and blind to the things of God.
Because why? Why would he want to give you more revelation when the one that he’s given you that’s supposed to redeem you and restore you, you’re not even prepared to act on it? It means you do not even recognize that this is revelation. You don’t recognize this as God talking. This is just a man talking, so I don’t have to do what the man says. So what’s it going to take for you to believe that God’s talking? I’ve got news for you. He doesn’t often send angels anymore. They hang around, but He has sent the Holy Spirit and He sends human messengers to come and speak to you.
I’m going to talk a little bit more about that later. The next message I preached on Blow Your Mind was, Blow Your Mind: Terms and Conditions Apply and that’s from one Corinthians chapter 1 verse 18, and 19. I’m reading from the Message Translation, and it says, 18-19The Message that points to Christ on the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hellbent on destruction. Now, let me just make it clear. If you go to anybody in the world system and ask them, are you hellbent on destruction? They would say no ways, what are you talking about, I’m hellbent on success because they believe in their own wisdom. They believe in their own intelligence and their own world of reference. So they can say, can’t you see we are busy making a success of our lives. That’s what they’ll say because the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hellbent on destruction, but for those on the way of salvation it makes perfect sense. This is the way God works, and most powerfully as it turns out. It’s written, I’ll turn conventional wisdom on its head, I’ll expose so-called experts as crackpots, (1 Corinthians 1:18-19 MSG).
There is more to that verse, but I’m not going to read any more. I want to tell you that it doesn’t matter how healthy you think you are now. A disease can come and overtake your body like that and conventional wisdom may not save you. But God’s power is always available to save you. Relationships, your relationships or relationships around you may fail, but God is the one who restores all relationships. Your money may deteriorate or it might become half of what it was worth because something can change overnight, but God is the one who supplies and provides and meets all your needs and He doesn’t need money to do it. Hallelujah.
That’s the next message I ministered was, Blow Your Mind with Joy. Acts 2 verse 28, says, 28 You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your presence. (Acts 2:28 NKJV). When I’m in the presence of God, I’m full of joy. You want to find somebody depressed, anxious, full of insecurities, anxieties? Get them in the presence of God. Get them in the joy of God. Watch what happens. Watch what happens. That stuff just kind of just, what? Who’s worried anymore? Because in His presence there is joy. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. It’s like, you can be in His presence and suddenly you just go he he he [Pastor John laughs] I do this quite a bit. You know, when the Lord speaks to me and I’m reading. [Pastor John laughs again] Just like that, and just like that I’ve got joy and it’s flowing out of the river of my spirit-being.[Pastor John is laughing again] Hallelujah.
Let me tell you where God is there is no depression. He did not invent it. He doesn’t know what it means, He can’t see it, He can’t touch it. It doesn’t belong there because in His presence is joy, not just joy, fullness of joy. Tell me how depression gets around the fullness of joy. Sadness, anxiety, madness, silliness, can’t hang around in the presence of God, because He’s got joy. His joy is like a river that flows out of His being to all of His creation. There is not a sad being in heaven. I’m telling you, all those angels and all of those created beings, they can’t help themselves. They just float around heaven shouting, “Joy”, “Glory to God,” “Hallelujah to the Lamb”, “Glory to the name of God” they can’t help themselves because in His presence is joy.
So, if this world system wants to kind of say, “Ooo, wat gaan nou aan, wat gaan gebeur môre.” What’s going to happen the next day, in the next week? You just say, “I’m going into the Presence. I’m going to get some joy there, so I can deal with all this other stuff trying to come on me. Hallelujah.” If there was ever a time in the earth that we needed joy, it’s around about now. Right? Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. [The congregation is praising Jesus] Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Praise you, Lord. Praise You, Lord. Hallelujah. Come on, that feels better already because just by opening your mouth and saying, “Praise You, Jesus.” It’s like the joy kind of just gets on you. Can’t even help it. It just gets, you know, it’s like. [Pastor John making gestures] I don’t want to be too happy before you know, your hand is up. I like this. Yeah, Okay. Okay. All right. Hallelujah. Blow your mind with joy. Let your mind get out of the way. All that stuff that suppose, it’s all on you like, how am I going to eat? What am I going to wear? How am I going to work? Joy! Blow your mind with joy. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
You’re getting the whole idea of what Blow Your Mind means? It’s not one of those crackpot things, you know. Those roofies, or whatever they call them. Don’t blow your mind, that stuff will only just implode your mind. We don’t want to implode your mind. We want to blow your mind. We want to blow it up so you don’t even think like the world anymore. You’ve got to take a hand grenade to your mind. Hallelujah.
The next thing I thought was Blow Your Mind with Love. I read Romans 12 verse 2, 2Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you (Romans 12:2 MSG). I read that scripture because if you hang around the culture of the modern-day world, it will drag you down, away from the love of God. It doesn’t want you to experience the love of God because the love of God is so powerful to redeem you.
So then in Romans chapter 8, it says, 38I am persuaded that neither death nor life, your life culture, nor angels nor demons or principalities nor powers, nor things that are present nor things that are to come, 39nor height nor depth, nor any other creative thing. That means mother-in-law too. [Congregation laughs.] It means that angry boss at work. That means the taxi that cuts you off around the corner. No created being, no created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39 NKJV). The only thing that can separate you from the love of God is that you become so well adjusted to the culture around you that you want to live there, rather than live the love of God. Why would you want to live in the culture around you? Why, why? What’s the purpose of you wanting to live in the culture around you? Why? What do they have to offer you? “Well, I’ve got to know them so that I can do business with them.” Yeah, knowing people and being well adjusted to their cultures are two different things.
Hey, yeah, I was thinking about it the other day. The Lord really blessed me financially in the days when I was in the corporate world. I had to deal with, even those days I had to deal with corruption. Those days, I had to deal with bribery. Those days I had to deal with the people that wanted to adjust contracts. Do you know what an adjusted contract means? It means adjusted so that some of it can come to me. Adjusted contracts. Knowing someone and being well adjusted to the culture, they’ve got nothing to offer you. What you compromise to gain, you will eventually lose. But nothing shall separate us from the love of God.
The message that I preached last week was Blow Your Mind with Truth, and Nothing but the Truth. That comes from Ephesians chapter 1 verse 11. I’m just reading from verse 11. 11-12It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, He had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living. Remember I talked about this last week. He’s designed us for glorious living. I don’t have enough time in one meeting to explain all of the doctrine of how God never designed poverty at all. Poverty on the earth is not God’s vocabulary. In the same way, as there is no sickness in God there is also no poverty in God. It cannot exist there. He had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone. 13-14It’s in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it, (this message of your salvation), found yourselves home free, —signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. (Ephesians 1:11-14 MSG) Hallelujah.
Okay, so those are my catch-up messages today. I did it in about seventeen minutes, sixteen minutes. I said fifteen minutes. Hang with me now. Come on now. Because they sang, the last song that they sang today was walk in the light. And the message that the Lord wanted me to minister to you today, is Blow Your Mind With Light. Hallelujah.
I have some fairly serious things to say today. Some important things to say today. They’re only serious because I have a recognition of what this message will do to those who hear it and I have a recognition of what it actually declares in the spirit realm. Amen. Praise the Lord.
So Ephesians chapter 6 verse 12, in the Amplified, and I’m going to read it from two versions, says this. 12 For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [we are not contending only with physical opponents], but against despotism, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness. They are the rulers of this present darkness. What darkness is this? What is this present darkness? It is the darkness of the cultures of the world that reject Christ. That’s darkness.
So, 12against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere (Ephesians 6:12 AMPC). So this is the apostle Paul writing to a Church. This was the Church of the Ephesians. If I can put it quite plainly, they were people like you and me, that attended Church in Witbank. The apostle Paul wrote a letter to people like you and me, and he would write to the people in Witbank. I want you to understand that we do not only contend with natural, human enemies, but our fight is with these forces that are in the heavenlies. These rulers, these dark forces, these spirits, these things that are happening in the spirit realm, that’s where our fight is. In Witbank?
“No, Pastor John, I haven’t seen any demons in Witbank.” That doesn’t mean to say they’re not here. I’m going to just say to you, again; we are not wrestling against flesh and blood. This was real to me when I was in the corporate world, it was real to me if I was sitting across the table from somebody and I was after business. And typically at that time, the business I was dealing with involved multiple millions of rands worth of contracts because they were large computer systems, so it was always fairly big money.
I would sit across the table and normally to start off with, it would be a guy who would be in charge of a tender or something like that. It often, and most likely, it was the information technology, director, manager, IT guy. Sometimes it was the financial director and the IT director, and we would receive a request for proposal and then we would go about our business to see the fit between our solution and their requirement. When I’m sitting in front of that person, I’m listening to what their requirements are because I was a man of faith, I am a man of faith, I’m a man of the Spirit.
I was not only wanting to find out who my competition was, obviously, you’re in a better place if you know your competition, and your major competition is IBM, or it’s someone else. You want to know who your competition is because you know what their solution is going to be, what they’re offering would be, so you want to know. But inevitably a process like this would take anything from six to eighteen months, depending on the size of the solution that you were working on. I would sit there, and I would begin to allow the Spirit of God inside of me to begin to explore what spiritual forces are at work here. And are they going to prevent me from getting this business?
If they want to try and prevent me, can I overcome it by my faith? Or is there something else going on here that God would require me just to walk away from it? Because my battle wasn’t just against flesh and blood, I’m contending for business that is influenced by demonic forces that work in people. If you don’t think that the person that you stop, and you do business with, and you buy your lawnmower from is not influenced by a demonic force or the prince of the darkness of this world. Then you’re only considering half of the matter every time. Hallelujah.
You know, that thought that comes to you when you’ve decided to fast. “Why don’t you just have that last piece of cake that’s in the fridge?” You think it’s just your stomach talking to you. You just think it’s your mind training, talking to you. You don’t think that there are devils that want to stop you from fasting because you are seeking God’s face? Huh? I’m not talking about if you’re fasting to lose weight. That’s your story. That’s your business [Congregation laughing].
But if you’re fasting and giving up things, because you want to seek the face of God, suddenly you find out these are all these distractions. All these distractions start coming your way. What do you think that it is? It’s those forces that recognize; here’s a light, here’s a light seeker. You become like a, what do they call those things? A heat-seeking missile? You become like a beacon for a heat-seeking missile, you become a burning light. And that heat-seeking missile of enemy forces starts to make their way towards you because your burning fire in God, is visible in the spirit realm.
2022 is going to be one of the best years of our lives. I have no doubt about it. Certainly, the world went into 2021 with a great deal of uncertainty. I have heard it spoken over TV and over radio the last while and many people are saying they’re ready to move on from COVID, they’re ready to move on from 2021 and they’re looking forward to 2022.
Well, I couldn’t agree with them more, but I’m not walking away from 2021 like, “Joh, I’m glad that’s over.” On the contrary, we had such an amazing 2021 that actually God’s got to show Himself really mighty and powerful and awesome for us to have a bigger and bolder 2022 because we had such a great ‘21.
Just a reminder as you go into the next section, that the Lord has really been ministering to me about being strong in the Lord and having strength and that in the year 2022, one of the things that we’re going to talk about and there’s going to be a big and bold, is we’re going to have better relationships in 2022.
So, as you listen to the next section, I want you to know that even in this month of December the Lord has had Pastor Sharon and I on assignment and we have witnessed amazing supernatural and miraculous interventions by God to bring about a reconstruction and a renewal and just an amazing bringing together of relationships and people and restoring. There’s a tremendous restoration and reconstruction in relationships that have occurred in the month of December that God has had Pastor Sharon and I on assignment doing things for Him. It’s been marvellous to me.
I pray that as you watch this, the rest of this ministry, that you will begin to receive what God has for us. When we get to the end of the message, I’m going to talk to you about what Brother Jerry has said for 2022; the open hand of God is for us in 2022 and I’m going to talk to you a little bit about MiXchange at the end of this session. Please enjoy this next sort of 15 or 20 minutes or so and I’ll see you at the end. Thank you, enjoy.
Once again, we find ourselves where there is a heightened expectation, and I find God coming and occupying this space and putting things in our mouths, in our spirit and ministering to His people.
So, as we go into 2022 I fully expect that God is going to do some amazing things. So, one of the things that He has told me, some months ago already, that 2022 will be a Version 2 of Big and Bold. So, Big and Bold Version 2 in 2022, which means the things that we did that were big and bold in 2021, we must raise our expectations, we must raise our desires, we must raise our faith levels. We must raise… we must set our sights higher on what God is going to do. It could look different to what, it almost certainly will look different to what it looked like in 2021. Because God is always doing different things and touching different areas in our lives.
I want to read you a scripture and it is in Ephesians chapter 6:10, 10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. (Ephesians 6:10 NKJV).
One of the things that the Lord has been speaking to my heart in the last couple of weeks actually, as the year has been coming to a close, the calendar year, and the natural course of December coming here in the Southern Hemisphere and South Africa in particular. We know that this is a time where a lot of people go on vacation, they travel across the border into Southern Africa because they work here, they go visit their families. There is a lot of activity and movement out of the major centres and then for a while there is a holiday time or a visitation time of family and then there is a migration back into the major centres of South Africa.
And uh, one of the things… and you begin to hear people’s language often. And it’s like when the year end is coming, “We can’t wait for holiday. It’s just, yoh, it’s time, I mean we’ve had quite a year. Like, I don’t know if I could have waited one more week. I need a holiday.”
Well, what is that an indication of? When people talk like that, what are they indicating? They are actually just saying I am running out of strength. I’m running out of intensity. I’m running out of capacity. I’m running out of capability, perhaps, not in the sense you’re not capable but because of capacity and a lack of strength perhaps, it’s like you’re holding on, holding on, until that time comes.
Well, first I want to say is that if you speak those words, then that’s what happens to your strength. Your words actually start to drain your strength. And your words begin to minimize your strength. And one of the things the Lord is giving and increasing in my spirit for 2022 and part of the Version 2 for ’22 for Big and Bold is to speak out strength and to speak out to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, be strong. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. I am looking for strength in 2022. I am looking to be strong in the Lord, my strength in the Lord and what the Lord can do is really where I am going to draw my boldness and my courage from, is to be strong in the Lord, to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. In other words there are some things I know that God is going to do in 2022, that are going to require strength; my natural human strength, but it is my spiritual strength, my joy strength, my peace strength, my hope strength, my faith strength, the love of God strength that kindness, gentleness, perseverance, steadfastness, the fruit of the spirit strength that is going to be required in my spirit being and I am already speaking and you can already sense this, I am already speaking strength into myself.
I don’t want to go through this season that is ahead, this Christmas season and New Year season and be speaking well. “I’m just going to make it, ah I’m not sure, okay phew I’ve had a bit of a rest I can go on now.” I am not taking that particular perspective. God has already got me activated to do things for Him over this period of time that is already supernatural and divine. God is using this time where people move and families come together. God is already using this time with me to be able to be His messenger, to be His hands, to be available to Him to use in other people’s lives.
Under normal circumstances this would be a time where Pastor Sharon and I would oftentime, just in many ways retreat into our space, we would spend a lot of time talking to each other, sharing with each other, just resting, sleeping, doing some exercises. As a general rule for December we do not like to travel to, away from home, we find the traffic is a lot, we find that actually it is a lot more quiet in town than it is in holiday, coastal resort areas, so we have a tendency to just be at home and enjoy our space and be at peace. But in this season the Lord God has us actually on assignment and He has got us working and so how do I get it done? Well, I am strong in the Lord and I have the power of His might working in me, in me and for me and with me. And I am surging into 2022. I am not waiting for the surge and the strength of God, just waiting for my body to catch up, I am surging.
So, then you might say to me, “Well, Pastor John what about rest?” I will take my rest, I will have times when I go away for two or three days or I’ll just rest for two or three days and I’ll have moments here and moments there, I certainly will do that. Revitalise my physical body strength and have time alone with Pastor Sharon because we need that, that fellowship that intimacy, that thing that we need to be us, to be our strength together, our joy together, our sharing together with my family if they are around and we can spend some time together, I certainly will do that but I want you to know that I am surging into 2022, I’m already surging from 2021 into 2022 and God has done that in my spirit, He has energised me already in my spirit and so I look forward to what 2022 has for us because I have this surge and you are going to hear me speaking a lot about it.
I have this surge that God is going to restore peoples’ relationship with Him, God Himself, He is going to restore that relationship. He is going to bring us up to a higher level in our walk with Him in a way that we are obeying Him, that He can use us and our discipleship. I am aware that actually He is going to do, and hear me now when I say this, He is going to do major, major work on relationships. He is going to do major work on relationships between husbands and wives, between fathers and mothers and children, between siblings, between different family members, God is going to do a major thing and He is going to bring them together under His mantle of knowing Him and there’s going to be a restoration and those that have got good relationships, God is going to bring them closer. They are going to get better, they’re going to be bigger, they’re going to get stronger, they’re going to flow together, they’re going to be energised to do kingdom-of-God-work together.
God is going to do a major restoration in relationships in 2022. It’s, and as I have been asking the Lord about it, and say Lord, why is relationships so big on my heart? And He began to say to me, “Because this virus has been a violation of My Word and a violation of what I stand for. I stand for relationships and I am the ultimate relationship-God.” God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three in one. There is no separating them. They are unified, they are in a relationship in such unity and intimacy and complete agreement, there is no division between them, there is no separating them, completely united and completely compatible and they are completely in unison with each other. They are the ultimate relationship example for us to follow as believers.
Jesus often spoke, if you read, particularly in the book of John, Jesus often spoke, “Live in Me as I live in the Father”, and “As I am united with the Father, so you will be with Me and with the Father” and He is very strong about the relationship component that He talks to His disciples, “Abide in Me and I will abide in you. Just as I abide in the Father and He abides in you and you in Me and He in us.” And He’s strong and abiding and He’s strong on relationships and He’s strong on connecting.
I know that as we go into Big and Bold, Version 2, 2022, I know that one of the things that’s going to happen is that the relationship component is going to produce a level of productivity that we haven’t been able to touch before. Because creativity comes from unity. The Spirit of God – words are spoken, words are spoken that God wants to speak when you’re in that space of unity and in that space of relationship where you are supporting each other; you’re agreeing with each other; you’re connecting with each other. You can collaborate and partner with ideas, with energies, with concepts, with all manner of new things that God wants to bring into our lives to release our giftings, release our assignments, and release us into productivity for the Kingdom of God. As we are released into those things, I’m more convinced now than ever before, but the Word of God is true on this – the resources just pour into our hands. Resources come to us because we are completely, completely focused on the relationship component.
For 2022, I’m starting off by just speaking about be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. And if you want to have a declaration, a confession that you want to start to make before we get to see each other again, I would say, say your name. Say,
John, I’m strong in the Lord.
John, I’m strengthened with mighty power in the inner man.
I’m strong in the Lord and I have the power of His might working in me.
I’m strong. I’m strong in 2022.
I’m strong in Him.
I have His might in me.
I have His power in me.
I’m ready for everything that He’s got in me.
I’m equal to anything and I’m ready for everything that He has got for me and for us in 2022.
So, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. If you have strength there is a lot that you can accomplish. If you are weak and you are timid and you are fearful there is every chance that you might retreat, you might become timid and you might find yourself actually not being confident and going for what God has for us and reaching for His best for us.
So, just want to remind you; Brother Jerry Savelle has a word for 2022 and that word is that the open hand of God is extended towards us in 2022 and will bring with it unusual, extraordinary and supernatural provision and it will be accelerated. It’s a year where the provision is going to be accelerated, it’s going to come quicker and the harvest is going to be greater. He has been reading and I want to read to you from Psalm 145, I’m going to read out of the New Living Translation, verse 13 to 19 and this is what it says; 13 For your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. You rule throughout all generations. Relationship is a generational thing. The Lord always keeps his promises; he is gracious in all he does. 14 The Lord helps the fallen and lifts those bent beneath their loads. God is here to strengthen us. 15 The eyes of all look to you in hope; you give them their food as they need it. Provision. 16 When you open your hand, you satisfy the hunger and thirst of every living thing. 17 The Lord is righteous in everything he does; he is filled with kindness. 18 The Lord is close to all who call on him, yes, to all who call on him in truth. 19 He grants the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cries for help and rescues them. (Psalms 145:13-19 NLT)
This passage of scripture in Psalm 145 is not… there’s no ambiguity here, there is no doubt about what God is saying here. God is clearly, through the psalmist, He is saying He’s hand is open to those who need Him and He will provide, He is kind, He is a great God, He is a generational God, and He is ready to be there for us in all of our comings and goings and all of the things that we go through life with.
For me, I believe that God is not waiting for the system of the world to dictate to Him when He can bless us or how much or how little He can bless us. He’s talking to us as a church, He’s talking to us as His people and He’s saying, “Come along with Me. Let’s go big. Let’s go bold. The open hand of My favour, the open hand of My blessing, the open hand of My provision, the open hand of all of the good things that I have for you is extended towards you in 2022.” So, don’t mind what the world is saying, let’s believe God. Let’s go big and let’s go bold and let’s watch Him accelerate how He’s going to bless us. Things that have taken just too much time are going to suddenly be changed.
Recently I was talking to a lady who’s been stuck in her circumstances for 20 years and she was just sharing with us that God has restored in 2 years already what she could have had in 20 years. That sound like the God of acceleration to me. That sounds like the God of provision and favour and an open hand of the favour of God.
Truly God, just about every day through Christmas, through New Year, through this whole period, people have been speaking to me and phoning me and WhatsApping me and sharing stuff with us about the goodness of God in their lives. So, let’s go big and bold in ‘22.
Everything begins and ends with the will of His Word and the word of His Will. That’s what He said to me for ‘22. Everything begins and ends with the will of His Word and the word of His Will. Praise the Lord.
We are entering into another season of MiXchange in the ministry. I just wanted to briefly share this word exchange with you. Exchange is; give something and receive something of the same kind in return. Or it is to give or receive one thing in place of another. So, I don’t know about you but I receive the Word of God for 2022, the open hand of God is towards us, I receive the Word of God to go big and bold in ‘22. In exchange for what? In exchange for everything the world is saying; “There’s the ‘new norm’, we don’t know when things are going to go back to normal. We don’t know when things are going to be economically back to a place where people are provided for.” Well, for me, my household and we, Heritage of Faith people, we are not dependent on what the world says. I exchange bad news for good news. The Word that God has given us is Truth and that’s good news for me. Let’s exchange it.
And for those that are coming into the new MiXchange year this year in 2022, I say to you we’re going big and bold and expect to exchange old ideas, old ways, your old life for a new one. Expect to have something grand, something marvellous, supernatural and extraordinary to be your portion. For those of you that are just in Heritage of Faith Ministries in any way, shape or form, expect God to do something amazing for you. You can’t have what you don’t expect for. So, have your expectation high and say, “I choose to exchange. I’m exchanging a low expectation, no hope, maybe there’s been a lot of turmoil and trauma in your life in ‘21, I’m exchanging that. I’m leaving that behind and I’m giving that up for a hope message; a message that God’s open hand is extended towards us and that we are going to experience the goodness of God, the extraordinary provision of God in 2022.”
So let’s start and end with His Word and His Will for ‘22.
I look forward to seeing you in person, in church, next Sunday. Thank you for joining me. God bless you and have a marvellous and wonderful time of peace and rest, in Jesus’ name.
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