Scripture Reference: Matthew 17:5-6 (NKJV); Ephesians 6:10-12 (NKJV); John 3:1-8 (NKJV); Hebrews 12:9, 18-24 (NKJV); 1 Peter 1:27 (NKJV); John 1:1 (NKJV); 2 Peter 1:1-4 (NKJV)
Praise You, Jesus. Thank You, Lord. Every day it becomes more real to me and more real to those who love You, Father, that the extent of Your love for us is beyond our human understanding. The extent of Your love towards us is only experienced in the spirit man where You dwell. We thank You, Lord, that in our natural world, You show Your kindness and Your goodness, and You show outward, in this world that we live in, how wonderful You are to us. But truly, Father, we wish to have a greater experience and a deeper knowledge of the greatness of Your love. The height, the depth, and the breadth of it. Hallelujah. I thank You, Father, that that same love is evident in the message that is going to be spoken today. We thank You that Your love is permeating this building through the presence of the Holy Spirit and that everything that is said and done is to Your glory and to the benefit of Your body which is the expression of Jesus on the earth and from that foundation we speak and we declare the goodness, the promises and the greatness of our God. Thank You, Lord, that our hearts and our ears are ready to receive Your word and that we change from glory to glory, day by day, every moment we encounter You. Thank You for it, Lord, in Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen. Thank you, you may be seated. What an amazing song. Wow. First time I heard it today, really amazing. Glory to God.
Some time ago, if you remember, and if you had been around with us, I would have said to you that we have a number of financial projects that we can believe God for, coming in the future. At the time I told you we needed a new roof and God provided one and then I said to you one of the things that we have a challenge with is we are at the limit of electricity that Eskom provides us. Our backup generators are just not strong enough to do all of the stuff that we have grown into as a ministry from the LED screen to everything else. And so today is just an example to you that we are at the limit and praise God, He meets all our needs. We’ve looked at a lot of options and we think that the best option is to buy our own power generator that we run the ministry at any given time, that there is nothing we can’t do. We have no ceiling, no limit, no top end to what we can do in terms of our electronic requirements that we now need in the ministry. Will you get into agreement with me that God meets the need? It’s about a half a million rand, R600,000, somewhere around there, depending on the new prices in the new time but it’s about a half a million rand and I believe that we will be able to put a power generator in here that can do 200 – I think, the guys know what it is – 200 KV or whatever it is, or more so that we never have a top-end here in this ministry. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
It’s frustrating when Eskom switches off the power and we have to go on to a backup generator that for the most part helps us run the rest of the ministry, but we can’t do a screen at the back, we can’t run all the air conditioners at the moment. So, praise the Lord as we grow, He meets all our needs. Amen. Hallelujah. For me, the most important thing is the human factor, and always God has me not focusing that much on buildings but more focusing on the development of the human; the human soul, the human spirit, and the development of our lives. To me, I’m not one that really wants to push buildings all the time and I want to rather push God into your life. Amen. But if it’s too cold, then you don’t get too much of that or too hot. Amen.
All right. I’ve been speaking for some weeks on, Beloved, and what an amazing song that was this morning. The word beloved is a much-loved person. It refers to someone who’s adored, favourite. We’ve talked a bit about being a favourite or favourite, treasured, prized, esteemed, valued, revered, and highly regarded, is someone that is beloved.
I read to you as I have over the last couple of weeks, Matthew 17 verse 5, 5 While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” God called His son, beloved. 6And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid (Matthew 17:5-6 NKJV). I’m not going to read the rest of it. I want to read you the next verse that I’ve been reading over the last couple of weeks, Ephesians 6 verse 10 to 12; 10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. So, the wilds of the devil are going on when? All the time. The wiles of the devil are attacking the human race all the time. And you as a Christian, you’re being attacked by the wiles of the devil all the time. You can never let your guard down. 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 6:10-12NKJV).
So, our war is not against humans. Our war is against the spirits that drive humans. Amen. And so, if ever you feel like you’ve got an issue with a human, you should rather say, what’s the spirit that’s driving the human? Let me deal with that, then I can have a proper conversation when I understand what spirit is driving the human. I’m going to refer to this a few times in the message today. So, I want you to look at yourself as a spirit being and not as a human being. So, I want you to recognise the story I’m about to read to you, that a human comes to talk to another what he considers to be human but a powerful spirit being.
So, John chapter 3 verses 1 to 8. You all know the story well, but there’s always something to learn every time we read the Bible. 1 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. A ruler of the Jews. A ruler of the Jews.You don’t become a ruler of the Jews because you don’t know anything. You become a ruler because you know something. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” He recognises that God is with Jesus. So, yes, he is a ruler because he knows some things and he knows that God is with Jesus. 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Here is a man who’s asking Jesus the question and said, “I know God is with You. So, I’m asking You a question that’s absolutely impossible, see how You answer it.” 5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit – meaning born of the flesh and of the Spirit – he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:1-8 NKJV). In other words the spirit man can’t be taken hold off. The spirit man can’t be controlled by natural elements. The spirit man in the spirit of a man is ruled by the Spirit of God. The natural man can’t control and contain and hold the spirit man that is controlled by God.
I’m going to speak to you for a little bit today because we’ve been talking quite a lot about the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom realm of the spirits that are legitimately operating in the heavenly realm that affects humans. We’ve talked about legitimacy and the order that they have, that they have the right to operate. We talked about the third heaven where God the Father lives, where Jesus is. We’ve talked a lot about the heavens, we’ve talked a lot about the kingdom of darkness and the right that the prince of the power of this air has to operate here and that spirits do not war with sticks and stones or swords and spears, or machine guns. Spirits have war with words and they have war with words that have authority and the legitimacy and legality of words that are spoken. Words that are declared whether they have authority or not, whether God has the legal right to use and speak those words to man.
So, in our lives we are spirit beings and we have the legal right to receive everything from God regardless of what those spirits want us to believe or not. We have the right to receive everything from God because if you are born again , you are born of the Spirit and so because you’re born of the Spirit whatever is affecting the natural realm that can’t control your spirit. Your spirit is free to function the way God intended you to function. So, I want to stop referring to your spirit and I’m going to say you, your spirit. The spirit-you. I’m going to be talking to you, the spirit-you, today. Okay?
Hebrews chapter 12, verse 9 says, 9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? (Hebrews 12 :9 NKJV). Who is the Father of spirits? Father God, the Father of spirits. So we have human fathers and we respect them and we submit to them because we respect them. How much more shall we not more readily be respectful, have honour and accountability to the Heavenly Father who is the Father of spirits and so live. And so we live with honour and accountability, with subjection, with respect to the will of the Father, who is the Father of spirits. So, the spirit-you, which is the real you, the spirit-you, has a Father and the Father of the spirit-you is the One that you should be accountable to and have honour for.
I’m going to continue for a while reading in chapter 12, verse 18, 18 For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, 19 and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. 20 (For they could not endure what was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.” 21 And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”) 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God (Hebrews 12:18-22 NKJV). So this was an experience that the children of Israel had in the desert and they were at Mount Sinai and God spoke. And so terrifying was the voice of God and the presence of God that manifested to the human race that they said, “This just too much for us,” and even Moses declared, “I’m exceedingly afraid and trembling of the presence of God.” 22But you, the spirit-you, us, new, the spirit-you, the born again spirit you. 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God. The living God is the Father of you; living spirit, the spirit-you. … the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels. Remember I’ve talked about angels over the last couple of weeks and I’ve talked about the war of the angels in the heavens with Daniel. I said you have an angel and so that is why this scripture is really relevant because you can’t count the number of angels because as human spirits get born into the earth, God sends an angel to look after you for your life. …to an innumerable company of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven. When you are born on earth you have a registration that is a witness to you being born. When you are born again, you have a register in Heaven where you are registered as the born again. Your name gets written in the Lamb’s Book of life. 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all. Who is the Judge of all? God. … to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect. So just men made perfect, is just men made mature. So this passage of Scripture says you do not have to be terrified of God because God is the Father of your spirits. But He is the Judge of all and if you are a just man then you are just because your spirit is made perfect or mature. Your spirit, not your mind or your flesh, your spirit. 24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel (Hebrews 12:22-24 NKJV).
So we understand that Abel was killed and his blood was shed and Jesus and God the Father spoke and said, “The blood of Abel speaks to the insurrection of Cain.” Who thought and considered himself worthy of killing his brother, because of an offering, because of money. Yeah, I know, it was vegetables and sheep but it was the equivalent of today’s money. He killed his brother. The voice, 24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel (Hebrews 12:24 NKJV). So what are the better things that the blood of Jesus speaks of? The blood of Jesus speaks of the better things that you and I as spirit beings can live in and live by. That we don’t have to tremble at the presence of God, we can freely have access into the presence of God and we can come into the presence of God with boldness as spirit beings, not as perfect humans but as spirit beings that have Jesus living in your spirit.
First Peter chapter 1, verse 23, 23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever (1 Peter 1:23 NKJV). So, how have you been made? How are you constructed now as a spirit being? Are you not constructed as an incorruptible being? Your spirit man is incorruptible because Jesus lives in your spirit. Come on, do me a favour where you are now. Just put your hand on your stomach area here, because generally it is accepted this is where your spirit being lives, in here [Pastor John places his hand on his stomach]. So, it’s not in your stomach, it’s not in your liver. It’s on the inside of you, the being that is made up of you; spirit being. So this being is incorruptible.
If you ever want to have a confrontation with the enemy and the enemy of God is coming against your mind and is causing you to say words under pressure – during this last week the Lord began to speak to me about pressure. Some time in the future I am going to be talking about how to deal with the devil and how to deal with your future when it comes to how the pressure builds, and how the enemy uses pressure to build a case against you in your own mind and in your own life. So if you cave to pressure, what that means, but how you can overcome the pressure. How many of you want to hear that message? Hallelujah.
But this is the start of it that you are born again of an incorruptible seed. The spirit man inside of you can not be corrupted. So if you have a confrontation in your natural man, you say, “No, no I’m not going to let the corruptible mind influence the incorruptible spirit.” I speak to my incorruptible spirit and I say, “Spirit man, command me what to do. Command me through the Word of God. Command me by the Holy Spirit. Command me in my mind what I must do.” Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus.
So, if you have been born again, not of the corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the Word of God which lives and abides forever (1 Peter 1:23 NKJV). What lives and abides forever? The Word of God. That lives where? In you, in your incorruptible spirit. The Word of God lives there. So, what’s going to abide forever in you? Your spirit man. So what’s going to live forever is the Word of God that you’ve put into your spirit man, that you and the Word of God that you have put into your spirit man, will live together forever with the Source of the Word which is Jesus. 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1 NKJV). So whatever Word of God you speak into your spirit, that Word is incorruptible, lives inside your incorruptible spirit forever. When you speak something out of your mouth that is from your corruptible mind and your corruptible emotions, then that thing must be judged. Must be judged. Who judges it? You should. If you don’t judge the words and the things that come out of your mind by your own spirit man, then God will judge it. Hallelujah.
I go to Second Peter 1, verse 1 to 4. This is a powerful message that I am speaking today because I am speaking to spirits. And the Father of spirits put a message in my heart to speak to spirits. I have never stood in this pulpit, with the understanding that I have about the fact that we are spirits. I have never stood here speaking to your intellect. Because if I speak to your intellect, it can be argued, refuted, theorised, and you can have a whole bunch of opinions about whatever you think about what I am saying through your intellect. Neither do I speak to your soul, although the Word of God will bring hope and joy to your soul and or correction to your soul. But when I stand and speak here as a messenger of God I speak to your spirit because it’s the only place that can make a difference in your life, is what’s in your spirit man. It’s the only thing that can change your future rather than your mind and what you think is best for yourself.
So, I have said this before, when I sit in a room, when I was in the corporate world and I have had many occasions in my life to sit with some really, really, really smart people. Really, really intellectual people. And there was a time in my life when I thought that those intellectual people were the smartest people in the room. And the Lord corrected me one day and He said, “John, wherever you go, no one’s intellect is the smartest in the room. There is not an intellect in the room that is smarter than you.” I said, “But Lord, they may have a higher IQ than me.” He said, “I live in you and you have supernatural intelligence that comes through your spirit into your mind if you let it. If you’ll let it.” So, when I understood that actually when I go into any meeting if I’m in the Spirit there is no one that can defeat me. There’s no argument, there’s no reason, there’s no function, there’s no power that can defeat me. Ask Daniel, those guys they politicised against him, they wrote laws so that they could politicise against him. They specifically wrote laws so they could control his prayer life and they knew that he would be a prayer and because they knew he was a prayer they were going to use his prayer to another god to come against him because the king demanded that all people worship him.
And so they wrote a law and so the king had no choice when they found him praying but to throw him in the lion’s den. And so the vicious creatures that had super power over any human being that were all waiting for him in the lion’s den, those angels just stood there and they held their lions. I think they sat across their bodies like this, those angels. They just had those lions between their legs and they just held their mouths like this and said, “Shh kitty cat, shh kitty cat, shh kitty cat.” Can you see the picture? Those ferocious hungry powerful lions that were going to devour Daniel, they just stood there the whole night and said, “Shh, shh shh, do not even growl, do not even growl.” The power, I believe, this is just a personal opinion. I believe the power of God the Creator that came into the room so controlled those lions they couldn’t even growl. You know you have these pictures that they were walking around Daniel growling and spitting, you know trying to get to him but there was this wall around him. I believe that the presence and the power of God was so strong in that room that they couldn’t even do anything. The spirit being, the life of God that you choose has got more power than anything that is in the natural. There is no natural power that can defeat you if you’re in the presence of God. If you’re in the will of God and if you’re on the assignment of God. And you say, “But Pastor John, there are many Christians that have been killed for their faith,” and God gave them the grace to die for it. God didn’t let them die in fear, God didn’t let them die in a place where He wasn’t present. How do I know that? Well, when they were busy stoning Stephen, he looked up into the mountain and he saw the heavens. He saw the presence of God, and he already knew where his spirit man was going and all of those stones hitting his body, I believe he didn’t even feel them. His body just couldn’t take it so his body dropped dead and his spirit went to be what he was seeing. And I’ll get more to that in a minute. Hallelujah.
You spirit being, you are the answer in every room. You are the answer to every problem. You are the being that has the wisdom of God, that has the knowledge of God. If you get into His presence, you get into His Word, you get into His ways, you have the answer. You certainly have the answer to any question that’s asked of your life. If you let God speak with an incorruptible Word that lives forever into an incorruptible spirit man that lives forever.
Second Peter chapter one verse one to four, 1 Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:1 NKJV). So, where do we get our righteousness from? Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. If the enemy ever wants to come and attack you for your humanity and the sins that you’ve sinned you can stand behind the righteousness of Jesus Christ. You don’t ever have to stand because of your perfection. I promise you the Bible said it doesn’t matter how good you are, it’s like dirty rags in His eyes. There’s nothing good enough that you can bring to God. That’s what brings us to our knees in humility that Jesus paid the price so that we can have access to the presence of God our Father with boldness.
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Grace and peace be multiplied to you. Come on, Church, this should be a good message for you this morning because grace and peace is multiplied to you. If you know why I stand up here every Sunday after I’ve preached and I ask God’s peace to be upon you, for His grace to be with you, for His protection to be on you – I have the right to do so because the Bible gives me the right to pray this over you because it is multiplied to you. Grace and peace is multiplied to you. In the knowledge of our Lord Jesus, if you lack knowledge of the Lord Jesus, you lack grace and peace. 3As His divine power has given to us all things. His divine power has given us some things? Come on. His divine power has given us? All things. Oh, only when you’re just in the right space. No, His divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him (2 Peter 1:2-3 NKJV).
So, you have all that you need in life to live a life of godliness, you have it. You have everything that you need to live life; His life. And you have everything that you need for godliness; His way of life. He’s given it to you through His divine power. Okay, we have to ask ourselves the question, “Who’s got more power; the devil or God? Who’s got more power; human beings or God?” So, if God’s given us the power through His divine power, if He’s given us all things, who can stop it? Which power? There’s only one power that can stop it. Do you want to guess what that is? It’s your power of choice. It’s the only power that can stop it, it’s your power of choice.
3 … who called us by glory and virtue. He called us. 4 By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these great and precious promises and by the life and godliness that He has given you, that through these we may be partakers of His divine nature of the divine nature of God, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (2 Peter 1:3-4 NKJV).
So, the world, I’ve been speaking to you this for weeks now. So, I’m not going back but the world can have no godly emotion. So, when you watch a movie and they express a love that is full of romance and it’s an obvious wow moment between two people and you have this expression of what the movie thinks love looks like. I say to you, they don’t even have a clue what the love of God is. Why? Because they are presenting a corruptible idea through a corruptible being and they’re speaking to a corruptible soul and mind that you’re watching the movie with. I’m going to take it to another level. If you are watching romantic movies, and you get an idea that’s what love is and you go into a relationship and you expect to have that kind of love in the relationship, all of it is just about someone has put an idea into your mind that is corruptible and has put a thought into the way that you should behave that is corruptible. Therefore, the relationship that you then begin to have is what? Corruptible.
Can I go on the other side of the spectrum? If you watch action, violent movies; violence is perceived and watched by your eyes, goes into your mind, and goes into your soul. If you begin to behave in line with what you have perceived and watched in violent movies, you will start to act with violence. Why do you say so, Pastor John? You know what it does to you? It makes you stubborn. It makes you stiff necked. It makes you aggressive. It says, “I want to dominate.” It triggers a lust emotion in you rather than a Spirit of God. It speaks to your corruptible man, not your incorruptible man. If this is washing over you all the time, you begin to act in line with what you have been watching because it is corruptible to corruptible. But if you listen to the Word of God, hear the Word of God, speak the Word of God, it impacts your incorruptible man and then it can deal with any incorruption that comes to you. You’re preaching good, Pastor John.
I really want you to think like this. Don’t put your body first. Even in this meeting today, don’t put your body first and don’t put your mind first. Put your spirit first. If you walk into a room and there is a room full of people, let your spirit be there first. Say, “What does my spirit say? What does my spirit say?” Don’t say, “What does my mind say?” Don’t let my body dominate what goes on. “What does my spirit say? What does my spirit man say?” If you become spirit conscious, then you will recognise, I’ve got to feed this spirit. I’ve got to grow this spirit because my life depends on what comes here, out of my spirit.
If I walk into a place and there’s a lot of verbal arguments and there’s a lot of people that are accusing each other and abusing each other and doing lots of things, you need to keep your mouth shut. Because what’s going to happen is, the activity in the room is going to incite lust. Come on. The words play on emotions that bring about a case that incites lust. Well, you might think lust is just about sex, it’s not. It incites greed. It incites jealousy. It incites all manner of lust forces that become evident when you are in a room with people that talk that way. If you sit there and you let your mind and your soul and your body be the receiver of everything that’s going on, then you are in danger of letting lust incite you.
Pastor Sharon and I have worked, and we continue, this is not something that you reach one day perfection and it’s never ever going to come to you again. We have worked very hard at being in a place in our lives that even to each other, if there is an issue that comes up in a person’s life, there’s an issue that comes up with my sons, with anybody that’s around me – Pastor Christi can testify to this – if we are having a conversation, something comes up and we should not be having that conversation, we stop. We just stop. Stop, we’re not going to talk like this anymore. We’re not going to talk bad, we’re not going to talk lust. We’re not going to talk inciting and inflaming words. Because, where strife is, all manner of evil abounds. And strife comes from what? The corruptible person, not the incorruptible one. You want to see what dominates a person’s life? Just see what words come out. See the behaviour of how they go about things.
So don’t put your body first. Don’t put your mind first. Put your spirit man first. What you focus on is what you develop. And what you develop, you are nourishing and growing what you are developing. What you focus on, if you focus on your body, you’re going to nourish it and you are going to develop it. If you’re focusing on your mind, you are going to nourish it and you are going to develop it. Because many people will see their mind as the advantage that they have in life. Maybe they think the power of their soul, connected to their mind, is what can bring them success. And to be fair, the soul is a very powerful force all by itself. The intellect and the emotions are very powerful. And people can develop that soul power very, very powerfully.
In fact, it is such a powerful force that there are many people that go around the world that have huge audiences, that have huge inspiration-speaking messages. Guys like, is it Anthony Robbins? People like Anthony Robbins, people like that. Their whole focus is to give power to your soul. The very first book he wrote was, Awaken the giant within. And all of what he spoke about was to develop the soul. At that time, I even had my sons read it because it was so close to what Christianity sounded like and what our faith movement sounded like. It was so close to it. And then I began to read it and the more I read it the Lord said to me, “This is the fake thing.” Because this is only nourishing the mind and the soul and making the soul and the mind powerful. But it is diminishing the power of the spirit. You are a spirit, you have a body and you operate through your soul. When you die, your body will collapse in a heap and its organs will cease to function. What goes to heaven, or to hell, will be your spirit and with whatever you have nourished your soul with, will go with you. It will go with you.
We need to grow up and become the spirits of just men made mature. I’m going to come back to this if I’ve got time, but I’m going to speak this story to you. How do I know what you are going to nourish is going to go with you to eternity? What you nourish in your spirit or in your soul. Because, whatever you put into your body, I mean, your body should be kept in good condition because it’s the temple of the Holy Spirit. Your body should be kept in conditions so it can keep you functioning well on the earth. But your body is going to die and everything that you’ve put into your body and worked through your body, is going to die with it. The best that we have for eternity is to live according to God’s assignment for our lives while we are living in his body, that’s the only chance we’ve got. A very slim chance that God has given us to show that we chose Him and chose His assignment for us, that’s the best thing we can do.
Okay, so I want to tell you about an experience, and I’ve listened to this message from Kenneth Hagin many, many, many times. I’ve actually read it more times in his book than I’ve listened to it, but in recent weeks I’ve listened to it over and over and over again, and I think I know the story well enough to tell it as accurately as I can. If I get something wrong and you end up listening to it one day, please forgive me. It’s not my life, It’s not my, it’s his story. But he is one of the men that changed my life with the message of faith because he had an assignment by God, “Go teach My people faith. So he had a big impact on teaching me faith. So, spirits are eternal. So, Kenneth Hagin was born with a dysfunctional heart and he had a dysfunctional body. He was never a young boy that could play like other young boys could play, by the time he was 9, 10, 11 he was already sickly and weak. By the time he was 15 he was bedfast and it was a matter of time, just a short time and he was going to die. His heart was getting weaker and weaker, and his body was functioning less and less. He tells the story about how it was a 105 in America outside during the day and still they had to fill his room with blankets and try to keep him warm with water bottles and blankets, because his blood circulation was just so poor.
One day he realised, he just knew that he was going to die. His grandmother was sitting next to his bed, and he died. His heart stopped and his spirit left his body. The way he describes it, it was like he was diving into a swimming pool, his spirit left his body, and it went down. The way that he speaks it and I wish, I don’t have the video or the visuals of it. I only have the audio of this experience. Maybe one day if you want to come and listen to it, we can put it on in the auditorium at a time of the day when it suits everybody. It’s an amazing testimony to listen to. The way he describes it is his spirit was diving into a swimming pool, and he was going down, down, down, down, down. He said there was dense darkness that was pulling his spirit and he describes it – and I’ll use this phrase a few times – it was like a magnet that attracts something that is metal. A darkness was pulling him like a magnetic field. This darkness was pulling his spirit. He became aware as he was going through the darkness he became aware of this creature that came alongside him and started to escort him down towards what he could observe as something flickering down in the bottom of a pit. There were gates that were there, and the spirit creature wanted to take him through those gates. In his message he calls it the cavern of the damned. He later learned through Scripture how that experience was justified and God authenticated his whole experience through the Word of God. I don’t have time to do all that today.
Then he heard a word that was spoken, he didn’t understand the language, but there were few words. But it were words that were spoken with such authority that it caused the very surroundings to tremble. Words were spoken by a big voice that thundered in the darkness like a magnet pulling a metal, a force pulled me from that darkness and came up onto the porch and into his body like a man puts his foot into a boot. His spirit man came back into his body. This picture alone if I said no more should indicate to you that you are a spirit being and your soul goes with you wherever you go eternally. He was present in his body for a short while, I think his mom had come into the room because his gran thought he had died. His mom had come into the room and she came to speak to him and his heart stopped again. He died again. He had the same experience; down, down, down, down. This darkness was pulling him down and again this creature came to take him and escort him through the gates. Again the thundering voice spoke from somewhere behind him and again the creature let him go and he was pulled back from darkness. The second time he came back into the earth he came back at the foot of his bed and went into his body through his mouth. He could see when he was standing outside his body, his spirit man could see his mom sitting at his bed. He could see his bed, he could see what was going on in the room. His spirit man and his soul was observing it but his body was obviously dead until his spirit and his soul entered his body again through his mouth.
He then gave instructions, “Please tell grandpa I love him. Thank him for giving me a home when I didn’t have a dad and he gave me a place to live. And thank so and so, tell them I love them, thank them for everything.” And before he was done speaking his heart stopped and he died again. This third time when he went down, down, down, down, down. I’m only saying it a few times. He said it many ,many, many times; down, down, down, down, down. You can hear his voice going; down, down, down, down. He was pulled through the darkness and then this time he did something different. He was aware the creature was coming and he did something different and he shouted, “God, I’ve been baptised in water and belong to the church.” Silence. Down, down. He said he was aware that his words slowed his progress down somewhat but then that draw was pulling him. He shouted again, “God, I’ve been baptised in water and belong to the church.” Shouted louder; silence. Nothing. Didn’t hear anything, only the deafening sound of this darkness. The third time he shouted and he screamed even louder. He said, “God, I’ve been baptised in water, I belong to the church.” Then he heard the voice, the sound of the voice pulled him back into his body and as he was coming up through darkness he began to pray and he began to say, “God, whatever I’ve done in my life please forgive me. I ask You to be my Lord and Saviour. I repent from my sins.” As he was coming, he came, the third time, he came straight into his body. And as he was coming into his body, his natural mouth began to speak the words his spirit man was saying. And the words started to come out of his mouth because he was speaking as a spirit being and when he got back into his body, his body had to obey his spirit. He kept praying as a human being now that has a legitimate right to be on the earth. He kept praying, he said, “God forgive me. Jesus, come and be my Saviour, be the Lord of my life and help me. I receive You as my Lord and Saviour.”
You see, being baptised in a church does not give you any rights to any eternal destiny. Only your walk with Jesus and receiving Him into your heart as your personal Lord and Saviour gives you any right to an eternal destiny. No matter how good your body might like things on the earth right now. No matter how much soul development you have done and how you exercise your soul in a numerous amount of ways – as good as that may feel. You think that these men that create huge technologies, that have huge technology companies that are worth billions and billions, you think they don’t enjoy their money and enjoy what their soul has created through intellectual development and through argument and through politics? You think they don’t enjoy it? They enjoy it plenty. It has zero value for the future; nothing.
All of this that I am talking to you about, happened in a space of ten minutes. Because when he talks, he has this way, he says, “You remember that day in 1933 or 1939, I was in the south room of McKenny, Texas, and you remember that day was a Thursday off course. And on that Thursday at 7:30 pm that is when my heart stopped. And he said, after the third time that I died, I looked at the clock and it was twenty to eight and realised that all of these things have happened in the space of ten human minutes. So, just by the way, he had had experiences in the time that he was sick before he got to this, where he was unconscious. One time he was unconscious for three weeks and two other times he was unconscious for a further two weeks and in the unconscious state he declares that even though he was unconscious, his body had failed in being able to function normally, in a conscious state, he said, he could hear everything everybody was saying in the room when they walked around his bed or came into his room. He could hear and understand what they were doing because his spirit man was still alive and active in his body. And so, praise the Lord. This is all just to prove that we, all of us, all of us, we are a spirit. Whatever we choose to do with our bodies and our soul development while on the earth, it goes with us to eternity. Unless we bring judgement to ourselves, unless we let the Word of God correct us and bring us to a better place of life in Him to live as an incorruptible person rather than a corruptible person.
So, he died a fourth time. His young brother was standing at the edge of his bed, at the end of his bed and he called to his brother. His Brother’s name was Pat. He said, “Pat, call Mama to say goodbye.” And as his brother, Pat, ran out of the room, this glory cloud came into the room and lit up brighter than the sun on white snow – this glory cloud. And his spirit man left his body and it went up into this glory cloud. And it would seem like he went up but couldn’t go very far because in the glory cloud a voice spoke to him. And the way he says it, in the glory cloud, I heard a voice speak, “Go back, go back, go back to the earth. You can’t come yet; your work is not done yet.” And as those words were spoken, his spirit that was kind of going upwards stopped at the top of the roof of the house and he could see down into his room and his spirit man came straight back and entered his body. For years he never told this story – in this message that I am listening to and I got it because he was preaching and speaking to a lot of Bible School students. And he said for years and years he could never speak of this experience because it was too holy for him. It was too sacred is the word he used – it was too sacred for him to speak about this experience. But in time God said to him he should be sharing this experience. It was some twenty or thirty years before he actually shared this experience. And his mother heard him speak it one day on the radio, speak about this experience and then she had a chance to speak to him later and she said, “I never heard your side of the story like this, Kenneth.” She said, “But I want to tell you what my side of the story is.” She said, “When Pat came to call me, I came running to the room and as I came to the door of the room, there was this bright glory light, glory cloud that was in your room and I recognised immediately that it was the glory cloud of God. And the fear of God gripped me, and I went to a chair, and I sat in the chair and I just began to pray because I recognised that something was happening in that room and I didn’t know what it was.”
She said, “Grandma on the other hand, was grandma. Grandma wanted to find out what was going on with the glory cloud.” So, grandma was determined to run into the glory cloud to go and see his body because they thought he died and he did, but he was back, you know. She ran into the glory cloud and there was like the opening of a door. There was just an opening, there wasn’t a door, there was just an opening. And as she ran into the opening of the door, she literally bounced off the glory cloud and bounced back into the room. She couldn’t access the glory cloud. Grandma said to Kenneth Hagin’s mother, “This can’t be right, I have to see what is happening with his body.” Sounds like a grandma, right? She ran again. This time she went back a little bit further, got a bit more energy and a bit more speed, and she ran to go into the glory cloud, because obviously you know, I wasn’t fast enough then, I will go now. So, she built up a head of steam and she ran. And when she hit that glory cloud, it bounced her back further. She said, “No, this can’t be, I have to see his body,” and she went right to the other side of the wall, and she took a long run, and she was running into that glory cloud, she was going to see what was going on in here. She ran a third time and this time it bounced her so hard on her backside that she didn’t try it again.
What does that tell you? It tells you that your spirit is so connected when you are born again, your spirit is so connected to glory, so connected to the divine nature and the divine life of God, it is incorruptible. And when a corruptible person comes into the presence of God when God is busy dealing with someone’s future, there’s nothing you can do about it. You just bounce right out of it because that is between God and that person. Hallelujah.
Would you please say this after me; my spirit is the real me. Will you say it again? My spirit is the real me. Can we say it again? My spirit is the real me. Let’s say it again; my spirit is the real me. I’m going to say it one more time; my spirit is the real me. So, if you have an understanding of this, then when you talk to another spirit being that’s a born again spirit and you understand that God is dealing with a spirit being and the life of God is in the spirit and you recognise that every activity is to try and control the mind and the soul of the person. The way to breakthrough to the person is to speak to the spirit man. Even if the person comes back at you with soul stuff and mind stuff, speak to the spirit man.
The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but they are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Which strongholds? The strongholds that the devil has put thoughts into your mind, habits, cultural issues, many kinds of things, the lust for power, the lust for money, the lust for other things in your life. Perhaps fear is something that controls your mind and your soul. You can get rid of it. The incorruptible power that is inside of you can deal with it.
As I was listening to Kenneth Hagin, he’s got a number of messages about it. As I was listening to it, he was saying all sickness is spiritual. Why? Because it starts in the spirit realm with the evil one. And then our words and our bad behaviour that we don’t see the power of our spirit man permits sickness to come into our body. That same sickness that comes into your body is the same sickness that comes into your mind. That sickness is what? I have control over my future and my destiny. It’s a sickness. It’s a disease, it’s lust, it’s sin. This is a bold speaking preacher to speak such messages in a modern day world where everybody wants you to just make them feel good, you know, be hopeful about everything. Well, as a spirit being that has the living Word of God in you, you should be hopeful about everything. You should be joyful about everything. You should be praising God for everything because you are the one who has the future. Hallelujah.
So, a lot of time and I’m done in a few minutes here. In the world that we live in there have been many, many institutions, universities, schools, different things, many institutions that have been created to develop the minds and the souls of the human – everything that is needed to function and excel in the natural world. Do you agree with me that this whole world is institutionalised, designed to develop your intellect and to develop your soul? It must be done. There are lots and lots of things from diets to physical exercise to sports to many different things that are there to develop the function of your bodies in this natural world. Because in the natural world people can touch your intellect, they can touch your emotions and they can touch your body. How do they touch your intellect and emotions? With their own intellect and emotions. So you make a connection intellectually, you make a connection with your emotions and with your body. This is all stuff that happens in the natural world. How much do you think is being developed for Christians in their spirit man? How much is being developed? The Church has not had the teachers that have had the revelation and the inspired Word of God to teach us how to develop and grow our spirits to function. There is a limited number of teachers out in the church today that do this. The church has not had the teachers and the revelation and the inspired Word of God to teach us how to develop and grow our spirits to function and excel and bring all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him into our world and to those around us. I’m happy to say that you are sitting in one church with a teacher for you. This is something that should be happening in church everyday, all day. You should be active about growing your spirit man all day, everyday. You should not consider university or college education or even high school to be your number one priority. You should consider the development of your spirit your number one priority. Well, what about your mind and your body? After you’ve developed your spirit man, He will lead you to the correct amount of intellect that you should spend on accumulating knowledge that is useful in the natural system. If you develop your spirit , it will guide you into how you should use your body and how it becomes useful in the natural world. Because your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t belong to you if you’re a Christian. It doesn’t belong to you. Your body doesn’t belong to you. The Bible is clear in Romans chapter 12, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit because the real you is your inward man.
Say it with me; the real me is my inward man. The real me is my spirit man. The real me is my spirit man. Come on now, if we all know and believe this according to Scripture, the real you is the spirit man then shouldn’t we really be focused on building our spirit man? How do you build him? How do you feed him? How do you grow him? You feed him with the living Word of God. You feed him with the language of prayer that you pray out of your mouth, out of your natural intellect but also without understanding – you pray in the Spirit. The Bible says in Jude verse 20 that you grow your faith and you continue to let it grow by praying in the Holy Spirit. Hallelujah. That’s how you build your innerman. The real you. Glory to Jesus. Praise the Lord.
I believe that through this message today and more to come, that we are going to be learning about the redeeming power of Jesus Christ. That when Jesus Christ was dying on the cross, He cried out and He said, “Father, why do you forsake Me?” Well, of course the Father had to turn His eyes away. He had to turn His presence away from His Son because God had pre-ordained that to defeat the enemy His Son had to come into the earth in the body that was completely dedicated to doing the will of the Father. That the real spirit being came from heaven and came into a natural body. The contest of His soul, He never permitted the devil to have access to His soul because when he said, “Turn the stones into bread because You’re hungry,” He said, “Man shall not live by bread alone.” Meaning eating is not as important to Me, as obeying the will of God. That’s why when you fast and we are going to have a fast next weekend. Pastor Sharon is going to do some teaching on fasting and you will be able to follow it on YouTube every morning from Tuesday to Friday. And we’re going to fast on Friday, but when you fast you are saying, I choose not to give my body or my soul the benefit of what it wants. I choose to focus my spiritual energy on the real development of me. Hallelujah. And so, this is good news, this is really good news because you and I have an opportunity to live as spirit beings. I see you, spirit. I see you, spirit being. I see you. I wonder if my new spirit in heaven is going to have more hair than I have now. I wonder what my spirit being will look like. I wonder if Brynn will have a shaved head in his spirit being. Ryan, I don’t know what your hair is going to look like if you have a spirit being.
I saw someone this week here, who is it? Melissa’s got this huge thick head of hair. I wonder if her spirit being is going to have hair or not? And if it will be thick like that, who knows? I am trying to tell you that your body and your spirit are two different things and your body is going to die but your spirit lives forever. The Bible says that we should know each other after the spirit and not after the flesh. Why? Because flesh is corruptible. Flesh is going to die and it is just here for a short time. But what you do with your spirit man, how you grow it and how you allow it to impact all of your choices. It’s critical. It’s critical. It’s eternally relevant. Eternally important. If you don’t know Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, today is a good day to make Him the Lord and Saviour of your life. It’s not a moment to waste, because if your body stops, your heart stops beating and something happens to you, you rather want to be born again. Certainly hell is a real place, but the thing that is keeping you is yourself will. Now is a moment for yourself will to be given over to Him. And say, “I give my will over to You and I ask You to be the Lord and Saviour of my life.”
People think that when you get born again, you’ve got to give up everything that you’ve built in your life till this point. The answer is no. Get born again and let God show you, grow your spirit man. Let your spirit man guide you into the things that are good for you. Hallelujah. Won’t you all stand with me, please?
I was focused on my message, so I wasn’t so focused on the announcements, Pastor Christi. Did we talk about what is going to happen next Sunday? Not yet. Hallelujah. So you will get some communication during the week. Next Sunday, believing that the power is restored, we will have morning service. We will have some food to eat and then Pastor Sharon is going to lead a time where she is going to do, she is going to use some of the first fruits, young people, to show you how they go through foot in the message every Sunday so that you can take what they do and go through foot in the message every Sunday. And so we are going to have lunch and then at 12:30 we are going to start foot in the message. So I’m getting better timing myself up here. Really I am. I am working on it every Sunday. I am timing myself. So we should be finished by 11:00 next week. And you have enough time to eat, to do whatever and Pastor Sharon is going to lead one hour, just for one session 12:30 to 13:30 on how we do foot in the message. This is to your benefit to feed and nourish your spirit man every day so that you can grow by the Word of God and by His spirit. Hallelujah. Glory to God.
Come let’s pray together. This is the real me. My spirit man is the real me. So now I pray in the name of Jesus, I ask You, Jesus, to come and live in my spirit man, to be my Lord and Saviour and to fill me with Your love. I believe this with my heart. I confess it with my mouth. And I receive it now, in Jesus’ name. If you believe that and you receive that and you spoke that prayer, you are now born again spirit and you can pray the next part with me. The real me receives peace, receives grace, receives the joy of the Lord. Thank You, Lord, I am blessed, have abundance and walk in the fullness of God that comes through my spirit man, in Jesus’ name.
Now I pray for Your people, Father and I pray that as these words get strengthened in their spirits. I pray that this spirit life will bubble up through their soul and into their bodies and just drive them into a whole new way of living. I thank You, Father, that there is nothing missing and nothing broken. The peace of God that passes understanding rules their mind and rules their life and great joy and peace is their portion, in Jesus’ name. I thank You that You protect them by Your Word and the blood of Jesus. You give Your angels charge over us that no harm will come near us or our dwelling place. Do you agree with that? Say; Amen. Thank you for coming to church. God bless you.
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