12 June 2022 Beloved and Enemies Part 2 Pastor John Bendixen
(WTB)
Scripture reference: Ephesians 6:12 (NKJV); Deuteronomy 26:15 (NKJV); Deuteronomy 10:14 (NKJV); 2 Corinthians 12:2-4 (NKJV); Ephesians 4:7-10 (NKJV); Matthew 6:9-13 (NKJV); Matthew 6:9 -13(TPT); Daniel 10: 2, 3, 10-13, 20-21 (NKJV); Daniel 11:1-4 (NKJV); Matthew 12:28 (NLT); Matthew 12:28-30 (NKJV); Matthew 6:9-13 (TPT); Ephesians 6:18-20 (NKJV); John 6:11 (AMPC); Psalm 100:1-5 (AMPC); Acts 16:25-26 (AMPC); Deuteronomy 33:26-29 (AMPC)
Pastor Sharon [singing]:
The light of Your words, today. The entrance of Your Word today give light. We receive Your revelation light that You’re bringing to our hearts today, we receive all of it, Lord. The light of Your Word, the light of Your words, Lord, coming through the mouth of Your messenger. We receive Your words, receive Your words, we see Your words, we receive Your words, we see Your words, we hear Your words. Your words of light. Your words of life. Your words of life, Your words of light. Your words of life. The entrance of Your words… Pastor Garth, sing about the light of His Word that is coming to us today, right now.
Pastor Garth [singing]:
We are children of the Light. Created us to walk in the light. So, we open up our hearts and we let the light in. We let it shine into the deepest parts of our hearts so we can walk in the light, we can walk in truth, we can walk in freedom, we can come out of captivity. We are children of the light. We are children of the light. We were not born to live in darkness. We are children of the light. We are born to walk in the freedom of the light. We are children of the light, children of the Father of light.
Pastor Sharon [singing]:
Filled with light, the light of His Word. Revelation light entering our hearts continually. Overpowering all the darkness in me. Oh yes, Lord! Oh glory, glory, yes, Lord! Glory, glory. Pastor John… Hallelujah. Glory.
Pastor John:
Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Well, that is certainly inspired by the Holy Spirit and what Pastor Sharon was doing, was actually praying out a prayer declaration, and Pastor Garth, and so the prayer has already prayed for what God wants to do here today. So you may be seated. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus.
This might seem like a very basic question, but I need you to answer the basic question for yourself. The basic question is; why are you at church this morning? I mean, surely you would not be at church if the God that you serve was not a God at all. Right? Surely you would not be at church if the God that you served was not a living God. Surely, you’re at church because you believe. You believe in the living God. You believe in the living God. Now, if you are here today and you are here for any other reason, other than that, I pray that God makes that your primary reason for coming to church. Amen.
But you are at church this morning, hopefully, because you believe in the living God, you believe in Jesus Christ Who died, you believe in Jesus Who rose from the dead, the Father raised Him from the dead, you believe in Jesus Christ, and you believe that all authority and power in the universe belongs to God, the Father, Who has delegated all of that authority, power and judgement to God, the Son. And all of what happens in the God the Father, and in God the Son, is activated through God the Holy Spirit. That is what it says in the Bible. So, I’m sure you are here today, because you believe in the Bible. If you believe in the Bible, then you have to believe what the Bible says. You can’t say, “I’m going to be in church and believe in the living God,” and then not believe in what the Bible says. So, you have to believe in what the Bible says, and I cannot minister to you, and you cannot receive from me, unless you believe in what the Bible says.
Now, if you’re here and you have never made Jesus the Lord and Saviour of your life then you may not yet believe what the Bible says. But the very fact that you are here this morning, if that’s you, is because something or someone has brought you here and you wouldn’t have come with that someone unless there was something happening in your heart. You may not recognise it, but it will be true that God is drawing you into Himself.
That goes for Christians too. In the Christian faith, you come to church because you want to encounter God, you don’t come to church to tick a box in life. If you go to church to say, “I tick a box that I’m a churchgoer, so that I can represent and I can present that I’m a good person, because I’m doing the good thing of going to church,” then you may not believe in God at all. You will certainly believe in the power of society and the influence of society, and the culture that you’re involved in and you would go to church because the society and the culture you’re involved in says you’re a good person when you go to church, and you may get advantages and rewards from going to church, because the culture affirms that the fact that you’ve ticked the box, you go to church.
Now there are lots of people around the world today that need an encounter with Jesus Christ and everything they know about God is through ceremony, through religion, and through some kind of reflection or perception of Who God is and what God is. But I’m not talking to all of those people today. If anybody ever gets to watch this on YouTube or on any other form of digital media. I trust that this will immediately impact you and the God of all Gods – God, Jehovah God, the God that is alive forever, that He will reach in and touch your heart. And if you believe in this moment, that Jesus is the Lord and Saviour and your only way to salvation, then all you need to do is pray and say, “Jesus, I believe in You, I recognise You as the Son of God, You died for me. Save me from myself. Save me from my sins, and I ask You to come and live in my heart, and make the Father God real to me.” That’s all you have to say and God will come and take that faith and He will rebirth you, or reborn you. He will make you a newborn again Christian and save you eternally. Hallelujah.
When you get born again, you become a Christian, you become a Christ-like person in your spirit. And of course, God the Father now loves you as a son, He now no longer loves you as everybody in the world that Jesus died for. So, Jesus died for everybody in the world. Therefore, His love was unconditional. There was nothing anybody could do to get that salvation. The only way you can get that salvation is to believe that Jesus is Lord. So, He died for everybody in the world so that everybody can be saved if they believed in Him. Right?
So, Jesus loves everybody in the world unconditionally. When you become a son of God, the unconditional love of God changes because you are now – I mean, it doesn’t stop, it gets stronger – because you are now no longer just someone that He died for. You are now someone that’s received Him and you are now called son. So, you have a different status to those that are in the world, different love experience with God. He’s giving you the opportunity to walk in the light. He’s giving you the opportunity to behave as a son of God, to speak the same words that the Father would speak, to have an encounter with the life of God in His abundance, in His joy, in all the things that God is, you now have the privilege of having. So His relationship with you now becomes a son that He seeks to draw to Himself. You are no longer the unconditional love person of everybody else in the world, you are now a son that He wants to draw to Himself. And He now sets about making things happen, words to be spoken, encounters with people, circumstances of life to happen so that He can draw you to Himself.
It’s not possible for you as a born-again Christian to remain static. You’re either moving into the light or you’re moving backwards into darkness. There is no such thing as being a born-again Christian and your life remains statically, “I’m born again. That’s good enough.” Why? Because God is always moving to change your world for you to come into His presence and have encounters with Him, because He’s always changing and the Holy Spirit’s always working for your advantage, for your benefit to have a close encounter with God and drawing you. It is impossible for you to remain neutral. Because every time the Holy Spirit draws you to something and you say no, you go backwards into darkness. Darkness descends more upon you because you say no.
The more you say yes to the drawing of the Holy Spirit, you walk in light, the more light you walk in, the more you understand the ways of God, the more He draws you into His ways, because now you become not just a son. The more you say yes, the more you walk in His ways, the more you put your faith in Him, the more you become a beloved son. And so a beloved son is a child of God that has a very different encounter to those people that Jesus died unconditionally for in the world.
There are also different kinds of people that are born-again Christians, but they don’t want to move into the ways of God. So, they keep living in the ways of darkness. The Bible says that many, many, many people die, or they perish because of a lack of knowledge. That’s because they refuse to receive the knowledge. So, a dearly beloved son, or someone that’s beloved is dearest, precious, much loved, favourite, cherished, prized, esteemed, highly-regarded. How many of you know that you want to have Jesus and the Father consider you to be prized, highly beloved, favourite? When Brother Jerry says, “I’m highly favoured of God,” he never got the revelation of the favour of God because it’s a principle that is just available to anybody that gets saved. It is available to everybody that gets saved, but in order to get the favour of God, you have to become beloved.
There are many Christians that think; as long as I’m born again, I can have the favour of God. Oh no, the favour of God, if it’s going to work in any way for you, it’s first going to draw you into His presence to be more like Him and it might require some discipline, it might require some Sword to be put in between the soul and the spirit of your life so that you can determine which side of the light or dark you’re living on. So, if you understand this, if the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God comes into your life, it comes to divide the difference between the soul and the spirit. And so, soul is darkness and Spirit is life. Why would the Sword come and divide it? Because you can live in your soul as a Christian and live in darkness. But if you live in the Light then you live in the Spirit, and living in the Spirit will activate your soul to obey your spirit. That’s why He’s come to divide it; so you can recognise what’s in your soul, so you can live by the Spirit.
So I’ve been talking to you, last week I talked to you about that there’s a clash of kingdoms going on. And Jesus, I read scriptures to you where Jesus caused the two invisible kingdoms to come apparent and become real in the form of a deaf and mute… was it deaf and mute? No, blind and mute man that He healed. So, I spoke to you about the two kingdoms with rulers in each that operate eternally, but in the time of man, are at war for the worship of humans through their choices of their will to serve through words and actions in and for one of the two kingdoms.
I’m going to read Ephesians to you again later. I said to you that highly organised kingdom learned from God, this is the kingdom of darkness, learned from God and is the only way of knowing how to set up a kingdom because he learned it, it’s a God look alike kingdom founded through rebellion. So, the devil doesn’t know how to create anything, he no longer has creative power. God took that from him. And so all he can do is function the way of what he learned from God when he was in the presence of God. So, everything that he’s doing in his kingdom is based on the organisation of God which is why he can appear to you as the angel of light, because he knows what God would do in a situation and he would come and present what God would do to you because he already knows what God would do, because he lived for a long time of eternity in the presence of God. So, just because he got cast out of the presence of God doesn’t mean to say he never stopped knowing what the ways of God are. It’s because he knows the ways of God that he can actually come and deceive you by the ways of God. Hallelujah. That’s why we got to study the Bible, we got to get into the Word and we’ve got to find out what the Bible says otherwise we are in danger of being deceived.
I said God never dominates. He is love and draws people through His goodness and justice based on the foundation of His continuous perfect state of being which is love. I said to you anywhere you see domination, very, very subtle domination, or very overt domination, any kind of domination is of the devil. It’s never of God because God never initiates anything to domination, everything is always initiated through love. That’s what I said last week. I’m just reminding you because I’ve got a lot of ground to cover. But I need you to have this base again this morning because you probably might not quite have it in the front of your mind what I preached last week. So, I’m getting you there as quick as I can.
Satan and his rulers has ambition to dominate the whole world and all who move through it, all human beings, all who move through his world to satisfy the original source of sin. He wants to satisfy the fact that his departure of the ways of God while he was in Heaven, to set up his own realm or kingdom that always disputes the authority of God. So, everything the devil will ever do for all time is to dispute the authority of God. He did it in the heavens. He said, “I will raise myself up to become like the most high God.” What did he do? He disputed His authority. When he was on the earth he came to Eve and he disputed His authority, “Has God said?” He disputed His authority with a question. Everything that is happening in the universe today is about the authority of God and the enemy of God, Satan, disputing that authority and to get you to worship him by doing what he says is authorised, rather than what God says is authorised.
What I’ve just said to you now is the foundation of all Christian living, of all human being living. The whole world is about the enemy of God wanting you to live based on what he authorises as living, against what God authorises as living. This is the eternal contest until the end of this time in this earth, this kingdom that will pass away and a new earth and a new kingdom will come, and then the dispute will no longer be in place. I’m going to get to that at the end of my message.
Because Satan truly believes he’s equal to God. And so that is something that he’s always trying to promote in each one of you and me is that we believe that we are equal to God and we can do what God says… we can do what God could do in a negative sense, through our own selves, we can do what God does. So, I don’t have to recognise the authority of God in my life. I can do what I need to do without God.
Most people who operate within the ways of the kingdom of darkness do not know where they are or who they serve because they can’t see. So, if you can’t see, then you think you’re operating in the right way, but everybody’s operating in darkness. But because everybody’s operating in the same way, they think that they’re doing okay because everybody’s operating the same way. But that’s all about darkness. None of that is the kingdom of light. Just to do things the same way that everybody else does it, doesn’t make you a disciple of God. It makes you a disciple of the ways of darkness.
Verse 12 of Ephesians chapter 6 says, 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12 NKJV) Last week, I got to saying to you, that we are not wrestling with flesh and blood, even though there might be differences and we might be working with people in the natural realm, we might be working with processes, we might be working with politicians and politics, we might be working with a whole lot of things that are in the natural realm that look naturally – this is what our war is. That’s not what we are warring. We are warring against principalities and powers and rulers of darkness and all those forces that are causing the systems and the men and the processes to behave that way.
You think, you think that men are just always only operating out of their own heads, that there’s no spiritual, no spiritual clash going on and around the ways of men? Come on, let’s be logical about this for a moment. You do agree that God is alive? You do agree that Satan is around? You do agree that Satan stands for darkness and God stands for light? Yes? Okay. You do agree that Satan is not in a pit? He is the prince, the power of the prince of this world’s darkness? He has a right to operate on this earth. So, how much of what is happening on the earth is the influence of him or just men going about their own kind of mindset? “I think I’ll make a movie. I think I’ll make a movie. And I think I’ll make a movie, a war movie. And in this war movie, I’m going to show the brutality of war. That’s my whole idea, brutality of war.” So, some people might think that’s quite amazing. But what is it actually stimulating? What is it actually revering? Come on. A spirit of violence, isn’t it? So, people think; oh, it’s just a creative guy having his own thoughts about his own self that he’ll do something. Oh, no.
So, you know, you and I, we can have this debate all day, we can’t answer this question, but my question to you would be; what percentage of your thoughts are stimulated just by your own head thinking, or by some other forces that are constantly wanting you to take a course of action? What percentage? So, you would be tempted to say, “Zero percent of the enemy influences my thinking.” I would say you’re 100% wrong. Because he has created an entire system to make you think the way that he wants you to think.
Just when you get the next bonus and your car is a little bit worn out, you drive past the billboard about this new BMW that you’ve always desired. And you now want to stop and buy the BMW and you go in and you buy the BMW and now all the bonus that God has given you is no longer His to give or His to have any say of. It’s because you want to go and buy what you want to buy. Now you think, “Oh, that’s just advertising and that’s my natural mind coming on.”
You don’t think that the whole system is geared to make you think the way he wants you to think? You don’t think that’s where the warfare is happening? Isn’t that what God says in Corinthians, that we must take hold of the strongholds. And we got to cast our strongholds that raise themselves up against the knowledge of God. It’s the thinking that you think that raises itself up against the knowledge of God, it’s a system of the world’s thinking that make you think the way you think that raises itself up against the knowledge of God. That was the original question, “Did God say?”
So, I said I would show you today, I’m going to talk more to you about the armies of the hosts of heaven and I’m going to tell you where Satan’s headquarters are. Satan’s headquarters are in heaven. I’m sorry to disappoint those people who think Satan is in hell and that he has been cast into hell. He is not there. Satan is in the heavenly realm and he is active with all of his demons, all of his fallen angels, they are active in the heavenly realm. You look stunned. I read to you again, Ephesians 6 verse 12, 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, it’s not the age of hell. But bear with me, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12 NKJV). Not hell. I’ve got news for you, the devil is not in hell. I wish he was. Eventually he will end up there. But he’s not there now.
He’s very active with a host of army and militant fallen angels that through their ambition wish to prove that they have more authority over the minds and the will of men than God does. They are ambitious to prove God wrong that His is the only will in the universe that counts. Okay. So there’s more than one heaven. There are at least three heavens. I’m going to teach you about that now.
I’m going to read to you out of the Lexham Bible Dictionary. So, if you just bear with me a little while, so I can read this. In Ephesians 2 verse 6, the text states that Christians – in anticipation of the age to come – even now share Christ’s heavenly reign. So, now this is a commentary, a dictionary commentary of taking Greek words and putting it to express what is meant by “heaven”. Paul asserts that heaven is the present dwelling place of Christ – from where He will come for final judgement. You can find that in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1:10, and 4:16 – both first Thessalonians. God’s wisdom is revealed to the rulers and the authorities of the heavenly realm – Ephesians 3:10. That’s the reason the Church is on the earth. Further, the heavenly realms is the place of conflict between the believers and evil spiritual forces. The heavenly realm is the battleground. Paul, and others, believe that there were several heavens. You can read that in 2 Corinthians chapter 12:2-4. It was in this uppermost heaven that God dwelt with the angels.
So, I’m going to refer to the book of Revelation in general through the same dictionary. The prophet Isaiah had already spoken of new heaven in Isaiah 65:17, and several New Testament authors expand on this notion. Hebrews 1:10-12, speaks of the perishing of the visible, temporary heavens. Later, the author refers to the same cataclysmic endtime event, Hebrews 12:26-28, to describe the removal of the created heavens in order to usher in the final kingdom. The passing away of the visible heavens is also found in Revelation 21:1 and 2 Peter 3:12. In the book of Revelations, John enters an open door in heaven in order to witness the celestial affairs, or spiritual goings on, the celestial affairs that are usually veiled from humans – Revelation 4:1. John sees the heavenly realm abounding in life, celebratory praise and worship. Revelation portrays the heavenly domain as the place of final judgement – Revelation 20:9 – and the vindication of the righteous – Revelation 11:11-12. The whole chapters of Revelation 21 and 22 foretells the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven, and the dwelling of God will be with a redeemed humanity in a city on the New Earth. Heaven is the transformed city of Jerusalem, the transformed Garden of Eden. In sum, Revelation looks forward to the unification of the heavenly and earthly realms.
I’m going to just briefly read to you a little more about heaven. Deuteronomy chapter 26 from verse 15, 15 Look down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the land which You have given us, just as You swore to our fathers, “a land flowing with milk and honey (Deuteronomy 26:15 NKJV). Another expression representing the dwelling place of God is the highest heaven, literally the heaven of heavens. This does not indicate height, but an absolute. God’s abode is a unique realm not to be identified with physical creation. So, the same chapter, Deuteronomy chapter 10 verse 14 says, 14 Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it (Deuteronomy 10:14 NKJV).
Okay, this is very important that we understand that the heaven where God lives, and all of the earth, and where we live, belong to God. So, everything on the earth belongs to God. Everything in the highest heaven belongs to God. What part does not belong to God only? There is a heavenly realm that is over the lives of humanity and the earth where all of the spiritual forces are active – both light and dark – and it’s for the lives of men. So, your angel is probably with you this morning. And so there’s a car park full of angels right above the ceiling. They’re probably having a good conversation about this kind of teaching because they’re saying, “They’re teaching about us this morning.” I mean it. There are a whole bunch of angels that are here, and they’re occupying the heavenly realm that you can’t see. That’s not the heavenly realm which is the first heaven of the clouds. It’s the heavenly realm that is between the clouds or the air that we breathe and the life that we live that keeps our life going, that is the heaven of the earth, where we need the heaven and we need gravitational forces, we need the moon system, we need all of that where man can live. The second heaven is where the enemy of God and all other celestial beings operate. The third heaven is only accessible by God’s beings. It’s the highest heaven where God lives.
You may find that there is some talk where people might say that there is a seventh heaven. That is an inaccurate interpretation of anything that’s in the Bible and is only found in the Koran. Again I say; nothing happens for just any reason. But when you’re wanting to make a movie and you want to make a statement, “I felt like I was in seventh heaven.” That didn’t come because seven and heaven was just something that somebody plucked out of the air to create a state of euphoria, “I think I’ve experienced like I’m in the seventh heaven.” That comes directly from the Koran. It’s for the Muslims to infiltrate and influence the minds of humanity that there’s a whole bunch of heavens that you don’t know about that only Muhammad knows about. The Bible is clear there’s only three heavens. You’re learning something this morning? Are you enjoying this ministry this morning? I trust it’s touching your heart.
Second Corinthians chapter 12 verse two says, 2 I know a man, Paul says, I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven. 3 And I know such a man—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— 4 how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter (2 Corinthians 12:2-4 NKJV). How would he know such detail? Everybody, all theologians, scholars all say this is Paul talking about himself in the third person because what happened to him felt like he was in the third person because he wasn’t in his body. He wasn’t sure whether he was in his body or not but, “I saw things, I know a man.” He didn’t want to draw attention to himself because of the revelation that he received. Which comes to the point well, if people are always talking about their journey to heaven, what is the value to us when Paul hid for himself, to others, that he was the one who went to heaven? Anyway, it’s just a question.
Ephesians chapter 4 verse 7 to 10, 7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men.” 9 (Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) (Ephesians 4:7-10 NKJV). Why did He go to the lower parts of the earth? Because all perished souls that have died from the beginning of time have potentially, wicked people, let’s put it that way, wicked souls that have done really wicked things have gone to the bottom of the earth. All sin was judged on Jesus. I don’t want to get technical here. I just want to say, all sin, all the wickedness of all humanity was judged on Jesus on the day that He died on the cross.
Okay, I’m going to read you the same passage of Scripture in the book of Matthew in two different versions. The first one is just to set a platform because we all know it in this version, 9 In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Our Father in heaven. Which heaven is that? The heaven where He lives. Hallowed be Your name. 10 Your kingdom come. The same Kingdom that is where He lives – that Kingdom. Your will be done on earth as it is in Your Kingdom, Your heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. 13 And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen (Matthew 6:9-13 NKJV). So, even by this prayer, if you understand this that Jesus was saying, “Pray that the Kingdom that is in the heaven where God lives will be the Kingdom that comes onto the earth.” So, why would He then pray and say, “Deliver us from evil one.” Because the evil one is trying to make his kingdom come. In this prayer is already a reflection of the direct conflict of kingdoms on the earth which is why he said, “Pray this, that His kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.” He wouldn’t say pray it, if it couldn’t be. The whole conflict is about the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light on the earth, for the will and the souls of men.
Okay, I read to you from the Passion Translation. 9 Pray like this: ‘Our Father, dwelling in the heavenly realms, may the glory of your name be the center on which our lives turn. 10 Manifest your kingdom realm, and cause your every purpose to be fulfilled on earth, just as it is fulfilled in heaven. Is there a purpose of God that is in heaven that is never fulfilled? Every purpose that God states in the heavens, where He lives, is fulfilled. The Bible says He will send out His Word and it will not return unto Him void, but it will accomplish that which He sent it out to perform. Every purpose of His Word will be accomplished in eternity. There is not one word that God speaks that will be an unproductive word. Everything that He speaks and says and declares, will come to pass.
10 And cause your every purpose to be fulfilled on earth, just as it is fulfilled in heaven. 11 We acknowledge you as our Provider of all we need each day. 12 Forgive us the wrongs we have done as we ourselves release forgiveness to those who have wronged us. 13 Rescue us every time we face tribulation and set us free from evil. Well, this prayer is an Old Testament prayer, but it is answered in the cross of Jesus. He did set us free from all evil. That is no longer a present tense prayer. We are set free from evil. For You are the king who rules with power and glory forever, amen. (Matthew 6:9-13 TPT)
I trust that you’re getting something good out of this today. I trust that you’re understanding that our presence on the earth is just not by coincidence and what you’re doing is not just something that is just because God, you know, or someone thought that through two humans coming into intimacy or artificial insemination, however they want to say they do it, you’re not there just because there’s a physical act that happened. You were breathed out of the presence of God into the body you occupy.
I’m going to go to the book of Daniel chapter 10 verse 2. 2 In those days I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks. What was he mourning about? He was mourning about the condition of Israel. He was mourning about the circumstances in the earth that faced Israel and God’s people. 3 I ate no pleasant food, no meat or wine came into my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled. This is what is called the Daniel fast. 11 And he said to me, verse 11, “O Daniel. So the angel comes and he appears before Daniel. Verse 11, “O Daniel, man greatly beloved. You see, here is a man who is speaking the will of God, putting his whole life on hold, in the natural, to be spiritual and seek the ways and the will of God for God’s people. Even though he himself was in a place of high authority, the highest almost besides the king, he was in the highest level of authority. His lifestyle was commensurate to his position. He had in the natural everything he ever wanted, and yet he gave his whole self for God’s people.
11 “O Daniel, man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for I have now been sent to you.” While he was speaking this word to me, I stood trembling. 12 Then he said to me, “Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard. Day one, words are declared from a righteous man, a covenant man, a man who has given himself and devoted himself to live like God told him to live as an as a Israelite. He refused to live like the king’s world told him to live. He chose to live the way that his legacy of faith commanded him to live. On the basis of that he stood in a place of intercession on behalf of God’s people, that made him a beloved man. So, this man, who’s beloved by God, speaks words, and from the very first words that he utters into the heavens to God, he is heard; 12 Your words were heard and I have come because of those same words of the first day. 13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me. How many of you understand that no human king or prince can withstand an angelic being? Ask Jacob. He withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, in other translations, he would be called an archangel. But Michael, the archangel, one of the chief princes, came to help me. (Daniel 10:11-13 NKJV)
Now do you see that there is a reference to the prince of Persia and Michael, who was a chief prince? Do you see the alignment of the two realms of darkness and of light, because the dark realm can only do what the light realm says it can do? It can only copy, it can’t recreate something new. 13 …one of the chief princes came to help me for I had been left alone there with the Kings, plural, the kings of Persia (Daniel 10:13 NKJV). These are powerful demonic forces that have a high status in the realm of darkness and there were a number of them that withstood a single angel who was sent to come to answer.
I go to Daniel chapter 10 verse 20. 20 Then he said, “Do you know why I have come to you? “Do you know why I have come to you? And now I must return to fight with the prince of Persia; and when I have gone forth, indeed the prince of Greece will come. 21 But I will tell you what is noted in the Scripture of Truth. (No one upholds me against these, except Michael your prince). (Daniel 10:20-21 NKJV). What has happened? What is happening here – there is a description of a war in the heavens between rulers of God’s kingdom and rulers of the enemy’s kingdom. There is a reference made to the rulers of the darkness that impose themselves onto men in the natural realm and they are princes and kings, they are rulers and leaders and authorities over the realms of natural man’s kingdom and they will be under the command of the prince of darkness – the prince of Persia and the prince of Greece – those are spiritual forces that are under the rulership of those and they make the will of that ruler prince come to pass in the way of men.
If you don’t think that we, as a church, are fully engaged, whether you like it or not, whether you know it or not, whether you think that this teaching that I’m preaching today is valid or not, is irrelevant. You are engaged in a conflict. You’re engaged in war and there are princes, angel princes, and there are demonic princes and they come to impose themselves and rule.
The angel continues to speak 1 “Also, in the next chapter verse one, 1 “Also in the first year of Darius the Mede, I, even I, stood up to confirm and strengthen him. 2 And now I will tell you the truth: Behold, three more kings will arise in Persia, and the fourth shall be far richer than them all; by his strength, through his riches, he shall stir up all against the realm of Greece. 3 Then a mighty king shall arise, who shall rule with great dominion, domination, and do according to his own will. This great, rich king. 4 And when he has arisen, his kingdom shall be broken up and divided toward the four winds of heaven, but not among his posterity nor according to his dominion with which he ruled; for his kingdom shall be uprooted, even for others besides these (Daniel 11:1-4 NKJV).
This is clear that when he is coming to tell Daniel about things that are happening in the future. So, Daniel’s praying about the position or the frailty and the bad place that the children of Israel find themselves in, not just because they’re enslaved or captive, but because of their spiritual condition against God. And so, that’s the reason why Daniel is before God about them. This angel comes to answer him, and he reflects a war. I’ve said this before, this is not a new revelation to me, but this is the way God wanted me to put this revelation to you at this time of our ministry. This angels and demons don’t fight Star Wars type wars with weapons that are found in Star Wars, with laser sticks. They don’t fight those kind of wars? What kind of wars do they fight? They don’t fight with their wings beating against each other. I’ve said this and taught this before, this is not a new thing to you. They fight a war of words. And what is the war of words that they fight and they contest with? It’s a war of authorization. It’s a war of authority. Who’s in charge and by what authority do you come into our realm and by what authority and what pattern on the earth does God permit you to come and speak the future words of what is going to happen to a human being on the earth?
So, the message you are carrying you are not authorised to carry. And so they war with this angel about the authorization of words that he needs to speak about the future to a human being, because those things are supposed to stay in heaven. So that the realm and the kingdom of darkness that the enemy works, that he can impose it on men, so he doesn’t want revelation coming to man, he wants to keep it from men so he can dominate men with his persuasive domination.
So, the contest is about an angel that God sends to tell a man about the future to come so that we, when we get to the future, will know what is happening. Daniel is a wonderful pattern of how we can be used by God to change history. Only the ones who win in the heavenlies can determine the destiny of God’s people and nations. Come on. Only the ones who win in the heavenlies can determine the destiny of God’s people and nations. I have a few things and I’m going to make it this morning. Thank you, Jesus.
So, I ask you one or two questions: do you think God – based on what we have read in the Scriptures today and there’s much more, I’ve only just scratched the surface here – do you think that God… You know, I’m tempted to really want to teach here because if you read Genesis chapter one and God said, Let us make man in our image. And then the first scripture says, and He separated the heavens from the earth. Why did He have to do that? He had to do that because the darkness that was on the earth was occupied by demon spirits. And in order for Him to actually have heavenly realms on the earth, He had to make a separation. It started all the way back then.
So, I have to ask you a question. Question is, do you think God is a God who just lets angels do whatever they want to do? Come on, you have to answer this question. Do you think angels are all about doing the will of God? [Congregation: Yes] So, do you think based on scriptures that we’ve read that there are levels of authorities of angels in God’s presence? There is definitely that, right? Authorities. And different angels have got different responsibilities.
In fact, God has made angels, your angels, you have an angel when you are born that is designed for your whole existence, just to look after you. This is scriptural. This is good news. Because if you activate the Word of God in your life, that angel must adhere to what God says, not what your will is. He’s not come to protect you from your will, not even God can protect you from your will. Your will is your will.
That’s what separates you from any other being in the universe is your will. God cannot protect you from your will. The only thing that can protect you from your will is beings, other human beings, that will pray that your will is revealed to you and light comes to you that it is your will that is dominating your choices. When that light comes because of prayer and intercession, you still have to choose light. Because it’s still your choice and your will.
So, do you think God, that has all this authority structure when it comes to people on the earth, He’s just going to let all the people on the earth do whatever they want to do? Come on. Let’s just talk about the Church, never mind human beings across the earth. Let’s just talk about the Church. Do you think He’s going to make the Church a reflection of what’s in heaven? The answer is a simple one: whatever is already in heaven, may Your kingdom come. May it be on earth as it is in heaven. Let there be an authority structure on earth as it is in heaven. Why do you think I read to you in Ephesians; He descended, He also ascended and He gave gifts unto men. What is the gifts meant to do? It’s meant to create an authority structure. So, what human beings want to do is say, “We believe in the authority structure of heaven, but don’t exercise Your authority structure on the earth.” You don’t want to get yourself into a place where you are getting into agreement with someone else and causing 10,000 to flee? Come on. One will put 1000 to flight, that’s you. You don’t want to exercise your authority? You don’t or you do? Where do you get your authority from? From God, from His Word. So you want to exercise authority?
How do you exercise your authority? Are you not submitting yourself, your will to the will of God’s Word and to the God of heaven? Right. You can’t exercise your authority unless you recognise the other authority that is higher than yours. So, when you exercise authority in the Word of God into the natural realm, you have to recognise that God’s authority structure is available to you and wants to work through you but you have to recognise His authority as the head of what you do. You can’t just choose to do what you want to do and then access His authority and say, “I think I’ll take His authority here on this matter but I’ll do still what I want to do.” You’ve got to recognise where your authority comes from.
And He doesn’t authorise you to do just whatever you want to do. How do you know? Ask Jesus. Jesus could have done anything He wanted to do because He was obedient to the Father to the point where He stood in front of Pontius Pilate and He said, “I can call legions of angels to save Me from this situation. But I choose not to because I’m here because I freely give My life.”
So, if you believe in the authority structure of God then surely God has got to have an authority structure in the Church. And He tells you what the authority structure is; I have called people into the fivefold ministry and I’ve given you elders, I have given you deacons, I have given you spiritual people that will help you and guide you and exercise what I say and what My will is, tell you what God’s will is for you. Not based on what I think should be done, but based on what God’s Word says. Come on.
People say, “Don’t give me this Church authority thing.” I’m sorry, you don’t have a choice in the matter. Neither do I, by the way. People think, I mean, I know there are some people, there are some Christians and there are millions of people that are under the governance of a structured, ordered church system that has all the power either in one or two or three individuals. I know, across the world there is a lot of that. But you have to recognise, according to the Word of God, what kind of leader God has put into your life. You can’t just judge every leader based on what other leaders in the world are doing. And you can’t say the Word of God is inaccurate because other people have misused and abused it. Remember, we do not fight against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers who want to influence the ways of the Church so that the Church doesn’t become the powerful Church that takes authority over what the devil does. And you can’t be a powerful authorised Church to come against what the devil does and bring the will of God into the earth, if you as an authorised Church don’t know what it is to be under authority.
Some people think it must be a grand job to be a pastor because everybody listens to what you have to say. I have to be accountable for God because the things that I say have weight. Because even God gave Moses an instruction and He said, “Speak to the rock,” and Moses hit the rock and God backed him in front of the people but in private, He said, “You will pay a price for your disobedience and you will not enter into the promised land. You will only see it from a distance.” God here, he paid a big price for his disobedience. You think that I can stand in my position as a pastor of a church and I can lead you spiritually and I can just spew forth anything that I want because I want you to obey me? I would be, I would be the worst kind of pastor that there is because I want you to obey me because it gives me an ego trip. That is not the way God intended the Church to be run. He intended the Church to those, if you read – I was talking to the MiXchanges this week about it and God has put people in charge where Paul the apostle is very clear, he says, “Follow me as I follow Christ.” On many occasions in the New Testament he says, “Follow my example.”
That’s the authority that you walk in when all your life is an example to others and you walk in the Spirit of God’s Word. I can’t walk in the power of revelation-knowledge. Revelation-knowledge does not give me the authority that I need to walk in as a God ordained spiritual leader that He’s given gifts to. I’ve got to walk in the power of my own walk. How else can I tell you about the ways of God if I don’t know the ways of God? I have to do it. It’s a requirement of the order of God.
So, only the ones who win in the heavenlies can determine the destiny of God’s people and nations. Only those who win in the heavenlies, only those who win in the heavenlies. I’m just checking myself on my clock here. Only those who win in the heavenlies can determine the destiny of God’s people and the destiny of nations. Only those who win in the heavenlies. Why am I stressing this; only those who win in the heavenlies? It’s because we don’t fight against flesh and blood. Come on, just hear me, work with me now.
If I have a case against – no, I am not going to use that because it is too public. I don’t want to do that. I want to say this. If you think that your fight is against men because of what they are or aren’t doing, then you have determined for yourself that you are going to ignore all of the spiritual forces that are at work and you are only going to do what you think is the best thing to do, the right thing to do for you. Such a person cannot have authority in the heavenlies. Huh? Such a people cannot have authority in the heavenlies. So, how do these ones who win in the heavenlies – how do you win? Number 1, our biggest weapon that we have to win in the heavenlies is prayer and intercession. There is also a prayer that comes with fasting. But I want to say that fasting by itself is not a weapon, because you can fast for physical reasons. But when you pray and fast then the fasting gives you more strength to your prayer because you are suppressing your self-will.
I am going to read to you again from the Living Bible, the same prayer that Jesus prayed. 9 “Pray along these lines: ‘Our Father in heaven, we honor your holy name. You see, if you want to use another word for submission, and I have said that in this ministry, we are going to use the word “honour and accountability” because people don’t like the word submission to authority. It engenders all kinds of rebellious thoughts. It is like a weird thing, the minute you say authority or submission, it’s like the whole Church goes crazy and they foam at the mouth. Well, I am sure they do, because the devil doesn’t like it. He doesn’t like that revelation coming to them and he certainly doesn’t want them to live like that because that is where their power is. So, …honor your holy name. 10 We ask that your kingdom will come now. May your will be done here on earth, just as it is in heaven. 11 Give us our food again today, as usual, this is more connected to what Matthew chapter 6 says. 11 Give us our food again today, as usual, 12 and forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us. 13 Don’t bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the Evil One. (Matthew 6:9-13 TLB) Again, God answered that through Jesus.
14-15 Your heavenly Father will forgive you, this is verse 14, 14-15 Your heavenly Father will forgive you if you forgive those who sin against you; but if you refuse to forgive them, he will not forgive you. He will not. This is the Bible, I am not, this is in my notes from last week. I thought I’d get through all of it last week – fat chance – barely able to get through it in two weeks. He will not forgive you.
16 “And now about fasting. When you fast, declining your food for a spiritual purpose, (Matthew 6:14-16 TLB) you see, if you want to fast, don’t decline your food because you want to lose weight. Decline your food for a spiritual purpose. What’s your purpose? I am going to pray, I want to intercede, I want to intervene on behalf of others. What would those others be? The ways of the Church and the things that God has designed for the Church. In our case it would be the Heritage of Faith Ministries and our apostolic leader and his ministry. Yes?
So, 16 …declining your food for a spiritual purpose, don’t do it publicly, as the hypocrites do, in other words, don’t say, “I am fasting, I am fasting, I’m fasting. Look at me, china! I can decline food for spiritual purposes.” Well, you’ve got your reward already. 16 …don’t do it publicly, as the hypocrites do, who try to look like they’re fasting, wan and desheveled so people will feel sorry for them. Truly, that is the only reward they will ever get. I don’t need your reward to feel sorry for me, that’s pathetic. 17 But when you fast, put on festive clothing, 18 so that no one will suspect you are hungry. (Matthew 6:16-17 TLB) I know that is difficult for a few young men. Anyway, they go without food for about 12 hours and it’s like, “How are you doing?” “[Growls]” You know, [Pastor John laughs] “I thought you’re praying?” “Yes, I am (saying it growlingly). “What’s wrong?” “[growls] I haven’t eaten [growls].” It’s like they’re going to die. I have been there; I am talking from experience. 17 …put on festive clothing, 18 so that no one will suspect you are hungry, except your Father who knows every secret. And he will reward you. (Matthew 6:17 TLB) Okay.
I might go…. According to my clock, I’ve got 3 minutes left and I am going to pause it. [Congregation laughs] I have to. I gave myself an hour and five minutes to preach, but I need about five more minutes. [Congregation laughs]
Matthew chapter 12 verse 28, 28 But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. 29 Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house. 30 He who is not with Me is against Me. (Matthew 12:28-30 NKJV) Jesus is very direct about this. If you are not for My Word and My ways, you are against Me. “No, no, but Pastor John, I just want to take a neutral state, I don’t want to … phew …” You can’t. You have to say, “I am for what God stands for.” And then you have to allow Him to show you what He stands for. You can’t take a neutral state and say I don’t want anything to do with that. That’s saying you are against God because you are not for Him. 30 …and He who does not gather with Me scatters abroad. (Matthew 12:30 NKJV) What? He who does not gather with Me? That’s a whole different teaching, but I want to show you this.
Many, many people want to bind the strong man. This is a spiritual principle that Jesus is talking about and He is talking about; don’t go into the house of a strong man and know that he is there and try and get back goods that he has plundered. That’s what that scripture says. Don’t try and get back goods that he has plundered without binding the strong man. Because you are going to know that when he sees what you are doing, he is coming with his strength while you’re trying to get goods back, he is coming with his strength and he is going to dominate you with his strength. So, Jesus is saying, “You must bind the strong man before you get back the stuff that he stole.”
Come on now. If I know that a six-foot-five chiselled NFL football player, who’s one of the greatest thieves in the world, has stolen all my stuff, and I know where to go and get it. I go into his house and I don’t go and bind him, I know trouble is coming my way. So, because I am entering into a realm where he is presiding, without taking authority, he will come and impose his authority on me. But, bearing in mind what I have been teaching the whole morning, you can’t have authority unless you know what authority is until you are submitted to authority. That’s not just the Word of God, but it is also the structure of God’s order in the heavenlies and in the Church. So, Matthew 12 verse 28. 28 But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. 29 Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? So, people want to go and bind the strong man? (Matthew 6:9-13 NKJV)
They want to go and bind the strong man, but they don’t even know who the strong man is. They don’t know who the strong man is and they don’t know how to bind the strong man. So, they will pray because the Bible says, “I bind the strong man.” So, they will go into a town or a city or they will go into a place and, “I bind the strong man that comes against all businesses and comes against the income of people.” You can’t go in there and bind that strong man. Come on. What you have to do, is you have to go into a place of prayer and intercession and you’ve got to begin to speak out the will of God for His people to be blessed, for His people to have all of the stuff that God has promised them, and as you pray in the spirit, according to the will of God and you get into agreement that one will put a thousand to flight, two will put ten thousand to flight, what happens then is you take the Word of God and you send the Word of God out to accomplish that which it must perform.
Would you agree with me that the strong man that was against Jesus, when Jesus was on the earth, was Satan himself? So, Jesus did not come into the whole earth and bind the strong man’s influence on the earth. If He could have done that legally, spiritually, He would have done that then, got everybody saved because He bound the strong man, shut the shop, put the devil in hell and gone on to be with the Father, if He had that authority. Jesus didn’t do that. What Jesus came to do is that when the strong man came against Him, He quoted the Word to him. He said, “This is what the Word says, this is what the Word says, this is what the Word says.” And then, when the strong man tried to come against Him, they cut off John’s head and the strong man said, “I’ll show You how powerful I am, the very one that prophesied You into Your ministry, and baptised You into the ministry, where God spoke that He was pleased with You, that very person I’m going to take him out and show You who is the strong man.” And Jesus gets the message that John the Baptist’s head has been cut off and He says, He turned, and He went into the people and He taught them, and He healed them. He brought light and truth. So, the strong man got bound because He brought light and truth. Hallelujah.
That’s why the Bible says in Ephesians you’ve got to put on the whole armour of God because the way that you defeat the strong man that comes against you is that you do it with the armour of God. You have the helmet of salvation, that he can’t come against you about what God has saved you from and what God has saved you to. You put on the breastplate of righteousness that it’s not by your performance that you can win anything, but you stand behind the blood of Jesus. You put on the loins of truth so that you walk in the ways of God, not in the ways of men. You shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel of peace, so that wherever you go, peace goes with you because you speak the Truth. You have the shield of faith, which stands and counters every fiery dart that he sends to your way, because faith counters that and you need faith, the Word of God, to counter what he sends to you.
You have another weapon at your disposal, that is spoken about in Ephesians chapter six, and it says there and take the helmet of salvation, and in verse 18, 18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints— 19 and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel (Ephesians 6:18-20 NKJV).
I say thank you for praying for me so that I can preach boldly this mystery of the Gospel that I’m preaching to you today and that there are no enemy forces that are trying to stop me from preaching this Gospel. Matthew 18 verse 18, 18 Truly I tell you, whatever you forbid and declare to be improper and unlawful on earth must be what is already forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit and declare proper and lawful on earth must be what is already permitted in heaven. What did He say? Your kingdom come Your will be done as it is in heaven let it be on Earth. So, what I see is happening in heaven, I activate that on Earth. 19 Again I tell you, if two of you on earth agree (harmonize together, make a symphony together) about whatever [anything and everything] they may ask, it will come to pass and be done for them by My Father in heaven (Matthew 18:18-19 AMPC).
You see that scripture? You can’t just take one and say, “Two of us are going to agree and we’re going to harmonise together and God is going to answer us.” It goes before the previous scripture; you’ve got to know what is permitted in heaven and what is going to be released on the earth. You can’t be in strife with your wife and then say, “Father, I pray that You bless my finances,” and you don’t want to love your wife and you don’t want to give her what God has told you to be to her as a spiritual being, but, “I bind the devil that’s trying to come against my finances,” you have no authority to do that.
Okay, second thing that we have as a power… I’m switching on my thing again, because I’ve got three-minutes-fifteen left, so I’m trying to… After my five minute interlude that I gave myself. The second thing that you’ve got going for you as an arsenal, a weapon that God has given you is; thanksgiving. John 6 verse 11 says 11 Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks, He distributed to the disciples and the disciples to the reclining people; so also [He did] with the fish, as much as they wanted (John 6:11 AMPC). Notice that Jesus didn’t pray this long prayer about “Your will become on the Earth as it is in heaven and forgive us our day… And, and, and.” He just said, “Thank You, Lord.” Thanksgiving. “Thank You, Lord.” He didn’t even say, “Thank You, Lord, that You multiply this.” He just said, “Thanks.” “Thank You for what You’ve given Me.”
Psalm 100, 1 Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! 2 Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. 3 Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. 4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. 5 For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations (Psalm 100:1-5 NKJV). We are busy here in this church making His Truth endure to the next generation.
Let me tell you, the world out there has gone crazy because everybody in the world is wanting to identify with any kind of gender you want to identify yourself as. It’s like some people say, “Just look down and have a look, man and you can know what you’re born as.” “No, but I choose to be this, I choose to be that, I choose to be that,” that’s not a choice that God gave you. That is a choice that some evil, dark forces are coming to you that want to give you ideas about what you can become. The world’s gone crazy. They think that they can print money and spend money just as they want and it’s not going to impact them. They should come and ask Zimbabwe what it means to print money. If you think America is not making the same mistake, they are busy doing the same thing Zimbabwe did. It is not South Africa that’s going to become a banana republic. If anybody, any country is going to become a banana republic, it’s America, if they keep printing money. We can only pray that God puts another person in office, in president, in the next election that doesn’t keep doing what the Democratic Party wants to do. I mean that, because, I’ll tell you this is not… How much did you pay for your fuel to get you here today?
You think we’re fighting against flesh and blood? You think the man that’s in office there that he’s just doing it because he’s in office? There are forces at work that want to dominate the lives of men and make everybody poor except a few handful elite persons. If you have any time and you go watch, you just click on Davos and go and hear what the person, who’s like, puts the whole Davos thing together, he said, he’s a German man, he says, “We have the means to make everybody in the world do what we think is the best thing for them to do.”
My time is up. (And his time’s up.) But I mean, the fact of the matter is, is that he really, they believe that because of their wealth, they can dominantate all the wills of men. You think the devil is not behind that? Some Christians are gonna say, “Ya, it’s the Illuminati,” and they’re going to come with all kinds of stories. I don’t care what you call it. It’s principalities and powers who want to dominate the wills of men and the enemy is ambitious to have every man’s will bow to the will of his will and not worship the will of God.
The last thing that you have at your disposal, well, you have two more things. The one is; praise. Acts chapter 16 verse 25, 25 But about midnight, as Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the [other] prisoners were listening to them, 26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the very foundations of the prison were shaken; and at once all the doors were opened and everyone’s shackles were unfastened (Acts 16:25-26 AMPC). We have tools at our disposal. We have powerful weapons at our disposal.
The last thing is, and we do this in our church. That’s why I want to say that our church is an effective tool in the hands of God because we understand authority, we submit to authority, both natural and spiritual. We understand what prayer does, we understand what corporate prayer does, we know how to pray and pray corporately, in agreement according to the will of God based on His Word. We know how to give thanks, we know how to praise, we know how to pray, and then sometimes fast.
This one, we know how to do this, you make a proclamation or a declaration or a confession, whatever you want to call it. Some of them are more forceful in nature than others. 26 There is none like God. There is none like God, Who writes through the heavens to help to my help and His majestic glory through the skies. 27 The eternal God is my refuge and dwelling place. I’ve personalised this, that’s why I’m reading it to you like this. 26 There is none like God Who rides through the heavens, to my help, and His Majesty, glory through the skies, 27 The eternal God is my refuge and my dwelling place and underneath are the everlasting arms; He drove the enemy before me, John, and He thrust them out saying, Destroy! 28 And I, John, dwells in safety, the fountain of God alone in a land of grain and new wine; yes, His heavens, drop dew in my life, and all that He’s called me to do. 29 Happy are you, me, John, and blessings is mine! Who is like you, saved by the Lord, the Shield of my help, the Sword that exalts me! My enemies shall come fawning and cringing, and submit feigned obedience to you, and you shall march on their high places. (Deuteronomy 33:26-29 AMPC) Hallelujah.
It’s a proclamation. It’s my proclamation, it’s my declaration. It’s my, it’s my words that I take from the Word of God that I speak out. It is my declaration that this is how God blesses me and that my enemies cannot come before me, they will cringe before me. Some of them will even feign like they’re cringing before me, but that doesn’t matter, they still have to cringe. Hallelujah, praise the name of Jesus.
I really am finished. Look, I’m at the end. [Pastor John holds up his iPad to show the end of his notes]. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Glory to Jesus.
I understand there is more that the Lord wants me to minister but it could be that the Lord wants other words to be spoken. I may or may not be the only preacher, the only messenger that wants this message to come forth over the next weeks and months. But God is not playing games. If you think the enemy of God, through all the power bases of the earth, Russia attacking Ukraine, who have so much of the grain storages of the earth, and Europe and Africa, and other countries are already beginning to feel the pinch of food, if you feel like the fuel shortages are just a decision of President Biden to shut down all the oil manufacturing in America because of some New Green Deal that they want to go and make solar panels and wind panels and say, “Now that’s going to be fuel all over.”
Let me tell you this is a war between light and dark. This is a war that is on the earth. There is a war, there’s a nation that has sent missionaries around the world to produce light, and there’s the other side of the earth where they have killed missionaries all of their being time. Hmm. And you want to think, you think this is just politics. This is just the world that we live in. I’ll tell you, for sure, there are wars that are happening in the heavenly realm and it requires a Church who is prepared to be a real Church, not a Church that comes for a happy clappy service. And we just fill the Church. And there’s 1000s of people that just worship because, “I need some more healing in my soul because some boy said the wrong thing to me. Or my boss just was bad and mean to me and I’m hurt. And I’m not sure what, who I should identify with anymore in the world. Am I conservative or am I liberal? Do I believe in wealth and health and or do I just believe in sickness and poverty? Oh my word, I need inspiration from the Lord. And I go to church and I walk out of church. Feel good, hey. Let’s go and have a cup of coffee. And you feel good, yeah, we’re good praise. It was a good message. I’m inspired. You know, yeah, really, I feel good.”
Yeah. And about six hours later, they’re back at work and their boss shouts at them again, and all of that good inspiration is shhhssss [Pastor John gestures like it is out of the window]. Instead of walking into their office the next morning and they say, “I thank You, Father, that You are with me today. Your presence is with me and any enemy or words that are spoken against me, any activities that have come against me, that wants to undermine me, that want to come against me, they want to break me down, want to take away my income, wants to come and use politics to try and destroy what I am in this in this company, I thank You, Father, that I’m blessed going into this into this place of work, and I’m blessed going out and anything I do is blessed. Every phone call or answer is blessed. And if there are people that are coming with words and politics, I bring them to null and void that come against me, and I command all those spirits that are coming against me to have no place in my life, in my family’s life, and in the blessing that God has placed on my life. I command the blessing of God to be upon me while I am working. I command the blessing of God to be upon me when I come into work. I command the blessing of God to be when I go home in the afternoon, I speak blessing and blessing and blessing and blessing. And if somebody comes to me with words that are contrary to that, I say you are not in agreement with my words. My words says, ‘I am blessed in everything that I do.’”
I know, I’ve done this when my boss said there’s no way you’re gonna get that business. I went before God and I said, “God, I’m the head and above and not beneath and above. I’m the one that’s supposed to be blessed. I cant have some IBM exec who’s been using politics all these years to try and get this account from me, come and steal it from me. Show me what I must do. And [Pastor John speaks in his Spiritual language]” I spoke the language of the Spirit [Pastor John speaks in his Spiritual language] because it bypasses all the heavenly realms, and they don’t know what God is telling me to my spirit when it comes from heaven. And it passes the second heaven and comes from the third heaven to this person. [Pastor John speaks in his Spiritual language] And God showed me the face of a man and I did what I needed to do. And guess what? That account came to me. It didn’t go to someone else. Hallelujah.
And there was no power politics that could take that business from me. No power politics because I went at it by the Spirit of God, because I’m blessed. Hallelujah. Many times the devil has tried to stop me and Pastor Sharon from being in the ministry, from running churches and from doing the Bible school, and many times things have tried to come against us. Every time we’ve had to say to ourselves, we do not fight against them, flesh and blood. We fight against principalities and powers that are coming after our ministry, our calling and all that we stand for. And sometimes we needed help from Brother Jerry to talk, to talk life into us. And say, “No no no, you can’t let the devil get you yet now. You’re just about to win.”
Pastor Sharon reminded me about this, this week when Brother Jerry, I went for my father’s blessing, and Brother Jerry took me to Brother Copeland, who is his father and we stood in his speaker’s lounge in Eagle Mountain church and he came to bless us. When he stood in front of us, he kind of went quiet for a minute and he said, he started to pray for us and then he went quiet and he said “Yes, but you know already. You know how to come against the devil. You know how to stand against him. You know how to beat him.” And he began to speak not what we should be, but he already could see in the Spirit what we already were. Then he began to speak about our future. And he began to say, “Revelation-knowledge is already pouring out of your mouth and it will increase and more will come.” Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Glory to God.
I’m so glad that I was not moved from the place that I’m called to. And there were many forces that tried to move me. There were many forces that tried to move me – even friendly people came and said, “We’re so well connected. We’re so well suited. We say everything, come and join our part we can do this ministry.” No. God didn’t change His mind. He hasn’t told me anything different to what He first said and that is; I’m called to Brother Jerry. “But how you know,” doesn’t matter. That’s what God said.
Where would we be today? If I had disobeyed God on that one account, just that one? Itell you, we wouldn’t have the place of authority, spiritually, that we have now. God wouldn’t be able to use this ministry to touch the lives of the next generation because He can entrust us into what they really need before they go into the future.
This is a real thing for me, when my granddaughter Keira-Leigh, in 10 years time, she’ll be 17,18. And what do you think this earth is going to look like in 10 years time when she’s 17 or 18? Where do you think technology is going to develop? Where do you think the politics of the earth are going to be? I’ve got to do what God wants us to do and be spiritual and have a generational transfer that says, “We know how to pray. We know how to stand against the evil one. We know how to stand against principality. We will stand, we will do it.”
And I’m grateful to God, that there are parents of these children that have seen, “Yes, we have to let them go and understand what the will of the Lord is.” Because they are our future. Their ability to stand in the presence of God and before the forces of the darkness to come. They’re going to do that when you get old and you’re ending towards there, you got to say, “Come with your energy and your spiritual.. come stand in agreement of me, me as an elder of the church, me as one that’s been spiritual for a long time. Come with your energy, come with your prayer, come alongside of my thanksgiving, come along.” And we were supposed to be united together because the fathers and the sons are supposed to be together. Amen.
I should have stopped preaching 10 minutes ago, you better stand. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I’ll tell you what, this is truth you’ve heard today. This is not preaching that tickles your ears. This is truth. This will teach you how to be a winner and an overcomer. And you’ll be able to walk in the presence of God. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Put your hand on your heart here and pray this with me; I thank You, Jesus, that I am Your child. You are my Saviour, You are my Lord. And I thank You that You are here to bless me. I thank You, Lord, that You have given me access to the Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus, and from this day, I will be a son. I will not just be a believer. I will be a son who believes, in Jesus’ name. Hallelujah. Glory to God.
I really feel I got to lead you in this. Just keep your hand here and say; Father, I come to You in the name of Jesus and I say that I am blessed going out. I am blessed whatever my hands touch. I am blessed wherever my feet go. I am blessed in everything that You command me to do. I am blessed because You call me blessed. In Jesus’ name. I speak to the blessing and I commanded it to come to me in the name of Jesus, because I asked it of the Father in the name of Jesus. Hallelujah.
Come on. Now let’s put on one of our weapons to work now and give Him Thanksgiving. And just give Him praise. We thank You, Lord, and we praise Your holy name. We praise Your name, we honour Your name, we give glory to Your name. Hallelujah. You are the King of the whole earth and all that is in it. And we command the wealth of the earth to come to us Lord in Jesus’ name. Hallelujah. Glory to God.
I want to just tell you, I know that if I walk in light in a dark system, wherever I go with my light, that the wealth of that system has got to come to me. But I also want to pray, I want you to pray, you have to pray that the wealth of the earth that belongs to God comes to you directly and bypasses the dark system. You can pray that. You can pray that. Hallelujah.
I pray that peace of God comes upon you. When the enemy comes to give you thoughts of darkness and anxiety about your income and about things about your family and about all kinds of stuff, when those thoughts come upon you I pray peace comes upon you and it stands like a God like a garrison, like a soldier just stands there and says. “No, anxiety. You can’t undermine what God’s got for my life.” Hallelujah. Peace be to you in Jesus’ name. I thank You, Lord, that You protect your people as they go out. No weapon formed against them will prosper, that You put a hedge around them of Your Word and the blood of Jesus and no weapons that are formed against them will prosper. It is the will of Jesus. And you all agree by saying, Amen. Thank you for coming. Totsiens julle mense. Wonderlike mense. Wonderful people.
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TOUCH | TEACH | TRAIN | TRANSFER
