Scripture reference: 2 Peter 1:1-4 (NKJV); Romans 12:1-2 (AMPC & MSG); 1Corinthians 11:23-26 (NKJV); John 11:41-42 (NKJV); Colossians 3:12-17 (NKJV); 1 TImothy 2:1-3 (NKJV); Matthew 26:6-13 (NKJV)
Praise Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank You, Lord. Thank You. Thank You. Thank You, Jesus. Father, I thank You that as we continue in Your presence today, that everything that is said and done will bring glory to You and will exalt the Name of Jesus. I thank You, Father, that every time we hear Your Word, we are transformed, and we are changed. I thank You, Lord, that we become more like You. Every time we take the Word, and we live the Word, we become the Living Word in our lives. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Jesus.
I pray that every heart is ready to receive, every mind is quieted and ready to hear the Word of God. Every ear is ready to hear, and I thank You, Lord, that there are no distractions or disturbances in this meeting today so that the Word of God and the will of God can be done fully in this service today. We thank You for it, Father, in the Name of Jesus. Everybody said, Amen. Amen. You may be seated. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Welcome to church. It’s good to have you with us this morning. Glad you could make it. Hallelujah. I know that this is the only place I would want to be right now. Amen.
Well, last week, I ministered, and I trust that we will have some moments at the end of the service that we can sing these songs again because of the message that I’m going to preach to you today, and I’m going to minister to you. I trust that you will receive it completely as the Word of God, even though I am the messenger of God. I was going to show you a letter, but I just feel led by the Holy Spirit that I should go straight into my message today.
Last week I started with the message; Beloved, In Bed Or In Red. I want to just make sure that you understand why I titled it like that because you’re either in bed with the world, or you’re covered by the blood of Jesus. If you’re in bed with the world, the blood of Jesus is still there to cover you, but you don’t receive the covering, so you’re in bed with the world. So, you’re either in bed, or you’re in red. Hallelujah.
If you’re in red, the blood of Jesus covers everything that you’re about to do or will do in your life. This position of covered in red, is a posture and a living reality of the real you, the spirit you. It’s a positioning; it’s a posture; it’s a place that you take; it’s a stand that you make, that I’m going to be covered in the blood of Jesus, rather than be in bed with the world. Actually, Jesus put it quite clearly and quite plainly. He said, “You can’t have both. You can’t be in bed with the world and serve Me and live with Me. You must do one or the other.”
So, you are born to live like Jesus. If you are born again, you should be living like Jesus, but often as people, we settle for getting into bed with the world system, and the world system ends up motivating us, driving us and helping, making our decisions for us, actually because of the influence that the system has upon us. I don’t want to say too much about this today, but if you’re in the world system, it’s idolatry. It’s idolatry because you worship a system more than you worship God. So, you’re either in bed, or you’re in red. Amen.
Over the last number of weeks, I’ve been teaching, and my focus has been on the real you, the person that is in red, the real you. Your spirit is the real you and contacts God and should direct every part of your life. So, remember, I’m going to have you say it again today with me. Remember I said, your spirit man is the real you. So, let’s say it together. My spirit is the real me. [Congregation repeats after Pastor John] I’m going, to say it again, My spirit is the real me. [Congregation repeats after Pastor John.]
So, even though, if you look at pictures of myself, me, when I was in my twenties, compared to the pictures you see of me now, there’s quite a dramatic change. I certainly had a lot more hair then, and there was quite a lot more youthfulness in my face. I didn’t have wrinkles and other things that come with age. So, the person that’s inside of me has not deteriorated like the person on the outside of me. The person inside of me has grown stronger and stronger and has become much more awake and alive to the things of God, and I follow Him much more than I followed Him when I was in my twenties. Even though my whole life was committed to God in my twenties, my spirit man has grown.
That’s why I say, in Jesus and in the realm of the spirit beings… that’s why God talks about elders in the church, that they should be respected and honoured because actually, their spirit man is growing. They’re getting stronger in God, well, they should be and I’ve read to you, and I’ve taught you, and some of the scriptures I read have little children, young men and older men because there is a different scope of growth in your life.
I want you to put up the slide, the circle slide for me, please, on the screen. This slide just gives you an idea. I’ve used this before, many, many years ago, but this gives you an idea of what I’ve been talking about. We start off with Covenant and you Touch; you Integrate Ways, you find out the Strategic Intentions of God, you enter into Divine Productivity, which goes back to Covenant. So, as I’ve shown you, and I’ve indicated to you that this framework is a framework that you can apply to any relationship, a working relationship, a marriage relationship, but particularly your relationship with God.
Your relationship with God starts with Covenant, and then it goes to Touch and then you begin to Integrate your Ways, and then because you’re Integrating Ways, Strategic Intentions are revealed to you and then God enters into the whole scope of Divine Productivity and then Divine Productivity leads to a position of Covenant again.
If I go to second Peter, and I’m going to just read through the scripture again for us this morning, second Peter chapter 1 verses 1 to 4, 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 Savior Jesus Christ: 2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, … (2 Peter 1:1-4 NKJV) The divine nature, the real you. Now, whether you know it or not, whether you live it or not? The real you is a divine real you because the real you is the spirit man who hosts Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Father; they live in your spirit. It is a mystery that you and I cannot understand that God Himself would live in your spirit when you receive Jesus as Lord and Savior. Amen.
So, 4 by which we have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (2 Peter 1:1-4 NKJV). It is clear that this world is in a state of decay. The whole earth, the whole earth systems, everything about the world is in a state of corruption; it’s busy decaying. We might think that because of our social order, and that we haven’t had a significant World War or a significant war that has captivated the whole earth in a long time, that we’re in a good place as a planet. But actually, our planet is decaying more and more. And I’m not talking about the green kind of decay that we’ve got to save the planet. I’m talking about it; it doesn’t actually matter what man does to try and save the planet; the earth is in decay because sin is ever increasing in the earth.
If you can put up the next slide about Touch, then I asked for the second slide. This slide here is what I said to you last week, if I use this framework on any scripture in the Bible, I should be able to see the Touch component, the Relationship component of how this works in the scripture. I used this scripture in Peter; Touch is in grace and peace, and today, I’m going to talk to you about Touch. The rest of my message is going to be about Touch, and so Integration of Ways is the divine power; as that scripture says, as His divine power has given us all things. Strategic Intentions is life and godliness because if you have a life and godliness of God, He reveals Strategic Intentions to you. Divine Productivity is His exceeding great and precious promises. His exceeding great and precious promises come to you, and they become real to your life. God can do things with His promises to you that you can’t do for yourself. Amen.
Covenant is partakers of the divine nature. Today, I’m going to talk about touch. The reason why many years ago, the Lord gave me that circle is because you never; you can’t live a life of living in God without touch. So, while we were worshipping the Lord this morning, we were touching God, with our thanksgiving, with our praise, we were worshipping the Lord.
I’m going to ask the question for you. How does your spirit man touch God? Well, the above scripture that I’ve just read to you indicates clearly that we touch God because He’s given us grace and peace. If you don’t have grace and peace, you can’t touch God. Grace, His mercy, and His peace is really what gives you the ability to touch God.
The Bible is quite clear that actually, you have by His grace, He gave you faith to get born again. Yes. By His grace, He gave you faith to get born again. When you receive that mercy that God has given us through Jesus Christ, grace and peace is multiplied to you. So, your spirit man touches God, touches God through grace and peace. Now grace and peace that you touch God within your spirit man is also something that you will experience in your natural man.
So, grace and peace – and this is going to be a theme through everything that’s going to happen next weekend, as I talk about what God is doing to restore relationships in this season. There’s a reason why God is restoring relationships. The reason that God is restoring relationships is because there are things that are happening in the world system that is coming to your door. Your relationship must be restored to a place of health with Him, God the Father. Not a place of everything is as usual in the world system.
If we think that COVID is over and done with, and we’re not going to have anything come into our lives again like that, for another decade, or another twenty or thirty years, you are mistaken. It might not be another disease, but it certainly could be a financial meltdown. It could be a war that is generated outside of Russia and Ukraine, and other people start to get involved in the war, and suddenly a war that is a regional conflict becomes a global conflict. The enemy of God is actively at work as the prince of darkness, and he has a legitimate right to influence, activities, and influence things that are happening on the earth, and use the lust of men for greed, for power, for all manner of things, to use the lust of men for his own advantage and certainly, he does not operate in the ways of God, but what he does is, he copies the ways of God.
He uses people’s anger and uses people’s envy, and uses people’s greed to fuel action. People become violent and people become – they start wars. I mean, what good reason, what good reason would Vladimir Putin have to invade Ukraine? What did Ukraine do to initiate any kind of aggressive behaviour towards Russia that he would just decide, “I’m going to invade Ukraine.” Come on. I mean, if you know anything about global politics, you will know that Ukraine did nothing. They were just living their own nationality. Yes, there was corruption in the government. I promise you this corruption in every government, all through the world.
They had a democratic vote; they voted a president into power, he promised he was going to crack down on corruption. What happened was that their identity as a nation and what they were doing immediately threatened his autocratic dictatorship – that is, Russia. So he said, “I don’t like that your behaviour is challenging my authority. I’m going to take you out.” He didn’t succeed in decimating Ukraine in two months or two weeks like he thought he would, but he is still going about it.
So, China is buying all the oil from Russia. China is buying oil from the USA, the USA has shut their pipelines, and if you think that the spirits that are at work in the world system are not going to come to your doorstep, it is already. If you go to the gas station today, I drive a diesel vehicle that costs me R28 per litre of diesel. If you are going to put petrol in your car, it’s R26 a litre. Who would have thought? I mean, I was just making a comparison when I was in the military; my whole month’s pay was R26 something. I could drive my little VW Beetle that I had. I could have four guys in it, and we all contributed money and we could drive backwards and forwards to Johannesburg and back to Bloemfontein, with that little Beetle, on my R26 a month pay, now it’s R26 for a litre. Wow. Okay, that shows a bit like how old I am, but you know.
Things are happening in the world system, and nobody saw COVID coming, nobody. I’m not being political about what I’m saying now; I’m just making and stating a fact. If you believe the Biden messaging that’s coming out of America, they are not in a recession. They will also tell you that inflation in America is in its transitory. They’ve been saying that for a year and a half. What’s happening in reality, is that the people in America are paying double for everything, especially gas, more than double, and everything costs more in America, but they deny that they are.
So, what is the economy? This is global economics; you go to a school of economics, or you get to do an MBA, or you do whatever, they will tell you two-quarters of negative growth in the GDP of a country equals a recession. America is officially in recession, but if you listen to the Biden guys, they will tell you that we’re not in recession. So, just because you choose to have a certain narrative, doesn’t make something different.
You can say things about things; it doesn’t make it not come to your doorstep. We feel it. The reason our price is so high is because oil is now scarce in the earth. Why is oil scarce in the earth? Because America turned the taps off. Saudi Arabia is running at full capacity of oil production, all of those Eastern European, OPEC countries. Now we’re all dependent on them, and Russia and various people. If you think all of these little things that are happening, so-called, “Well, that’s in China, and that’s in Russia, and that’s in America, that’s not going to affect us here.” It already is. It already is.
Things are happening on earth, and God wants us to be restored in relationship with Him because you need to trust Him more than anybody. You can’t trust your job. You can’t trust the economy. You can’t trust me. You can’t trust anybody. You got to trust God. You can trust what I say about God’s Word, and you can trust God’s Word, but that’s where your relationship has got to be restored with Him that you trust Him more than the system.
The enemy of God is after everybody’s life through institutions. He has disguised his influence in your life, through institutions. He has disguised his involvement in your life through the institution of government. We will tell you how you can educate your children. We will tell you that you can’t actually discipline your child with a smack. The Bible says you got to smack your children. The government says you’re not allowed to. The enemy of God is using the institution of government to prevent you from obeying God’s Word. Who are you going to trust? The institution or God? That’s a law in South Africa if you didn’t know it. The law in South Africa is; that you may not discipline your child, it can’t happen in schools, and you yourself may not discipline your child with any kind of smack or any kind of smack their bum, you know.
The Bible says spare the rod and spoil the child. In other words, smack their bum, but the government says you’re not allowed to because you’re committing violence against your child. This is a whole theory that has been advocated by Dr Spock from many years ago, many, many years ago, that you got to raise your child in a certain way and not do certain things. Now it’s become institutionalised. Amen.
So, how does your mind and your body touch God so it can Integrate Ways? Well, first of all, you have to be aware that your spirit man, the real you, must receive grace and peace from God and the real you must come out and touch your body and your mind. Otherwise, it’s just staying in your spirit. Many Christians live like this. They don’t know how to develop their spirit man. They don’t know how to develop their spirit man and so they don’t know how to touch God. So, I’m going to start our weekend’s worth of teachings next weekend, starting today. I actually started last week, but God wants me to go big on the Touch.
Romans chapter 12, verse 1 and 2 in the Amplified Bible. We know it well but it’s worth reading. 1 I appeal to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies. In other words, dedicate your body. Am I reading anything that’s not in the Bible here? I don’t care which version you read it in; it says the same thing. Dedicate your body [presenting all your members and faculties] in all of your physical body and all of your abilities as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God. So, when you give your body to God, he’s pleased by it, which is your reasonable…
That means if you are thinking rationally, you say, I don’t want God to control my body. So, if he’s saying, it’s your reasonable, that means your spirit man is telling your mind this is reasonable to control what your body does, which is your reasonable, intelligent, (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship. So, here you have your spirit man and your body in agreement. They’re both doing the same thing because your spirit man will always do what God says. Your body and your mind will do what you say. Your spirit man will always do what God says. So, your spirit man is always trying to tell you what God says, that if your mind and your body is always doing something else, then your body and your mind will dominate what you do, rather than listen to your spirit man.
That’s why we have to develop the real you. So, what prevents us? 2 Do not be conformed to this world, the systems of this world, don’t be conformed to it (this age), that we live in here [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs]. The custom of the world is you have to go to work from eight to five. The custom of the world is that you’ve got to network. The custom of the world is you got to have an education that is world approved, and the world approved education says it’s got to be done like this and like that. Everything that the world around you, if you go to subcultures within a greater culture, there is a language that you use in a subculture that affects you. It has an impact on you.
So, don’t be adapted to your external superficial customs, but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude]. What are the new ideals and the new attitude? The real you, the spirit man you that’s born again, so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you]. (Romans 12:1-2 AMPC)
People often ask me, “How do I know what the perfect will of God is for my life?” They want to know, but they want to know is, they want somebody to prophesy over them, or they want somebody to tell them, or they want to say, “I know the will of God because I have a desire to do something in my life.” Well, you can’t know what the will of God is unless you transformed the renewing of your mind, and you’ve given your body as a sacrifice to God. Once you’ve done those things and you’re not adapting yourself to the customs of the world. Now you can know what the will of God is. You Touch God, you Integrate your Ways with God, and then Strategic Intentions become known to you. That’s the will of God, specifically the will of God for your life.
When I teach this, I know that this challenges people’s current status of where they’re living because, in the immediate place where you’re living, you have to be thinking to yourself, “Have I done all that?” The probable answer is no. Maybe you could say, “I’ve done a measure of that.” Well, then you have a measure of God’s will in your life. To the measure, you don’t have the will of God in your life that gives access to the enemy of God to make you more comfortable with all of the superficial customs of the world.
Then you are in conflict all the time with wanting to do the will of God and doing what everybody else is doing. So, the Bible says, a person who’s in a place where “I want to do the will of God, but I’m also doing what everybody else is doing” is like a man on a ship tossed to and fro; he doesn’t know which way they’re going to go. It will just go wherever the wind blows, because if I’m doing what people are doing, then I must go that way, and I’ve got to keep on following what people are doing, but actually, your spirit man wants you to do what God does because He becomes the anchor of your life.
I’m going to read you that same passage of Scripture from the Message Translation. Very, very wonderful to read it. So, here’s what I want you to do. God helping you. 1..,Take your everyday, ordinary life,—going to work, going to college, going to school, going to places, take that your ordinary, everyday life,—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Do you know what that means? That means, “Here, God, this is where I find myself in my life. But I place it before you; tell me how you want me to change.” Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him. 2 Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.
I just go with the flow; I don’t have to think about it; it’s just natural and normal for me to do this every day. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. If you fix your attention on God, He touches you. The difference between our walk with God and our God that we serve, Jehovah God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, is that He’s alive. Other people serve other gods, they are dead. Our God is alive. The difference between our God and any other god is that our God touches you. His presence touches you. His life, His peace, and His grace touches you, and you can touch Him. When you just want to be in His presence, you can touch Him. Hallelujah.
So, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Quickly respond to it. Why must you quickly respond to what He wants from you? Because if you don’t quickly respond, your mind takes over, and all the old habits that you’ve had in your life take over, and you say, “No, no, no, no, no, no, no. If I start thinking about it, then what God tells me to do… I don’t want to do that. I’m fixed in this way. I’m going to keep doing this. I’m going to keep doing it. I refuse to change quickly.” Hallelujah. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Romans 12:1-2 MSG).
The only person that can mature you spiritually is God. Amen. The God in the church, the God in every believer, should touch you. That’s why going to church is an essential part of touching God because I touch the God in you. Now, if I touch the humanity in you, if I’m living God, then I can know what’s human, I can know that this, what’s driving you is not God, I can hear it out of your language, I can see it in your posture, I can see it in the positioning of your life, I can see it, that God’s not the Lord of your life. You’re still immature, you’re dragged around by all the superficial customs of the world.
You can say I’m preaching good today [Congregation: You are preaching good today, Pastor John]. How do I touch God on a regular basis? How do I touch God? How do I let God touch me on a regular basis? Because if we don’t allow God to touch us, and we don’t touch God on a regular basis, then we are in danger of always living according to superficial customs. This day-to-day, humdrum life drags us down to a level of immaturity. Jesus did not come and die for you so that you can live like everybody else in the world. Jesus came to die for you so that you can live like Him. And so, you can’t live like Him if you don’t know that He’s touching you every day, and you need to touch Him every day.
So, let’s be clear. The Holy Spirit is there to touch your life every day. Every moment of every day. He’s there touching, ready to touch you. The big question is, are you ready to touch Him? “How do I do this? How do I touch God?” Well, here’s one way that we normally do this collectively, but we can do this privately. First Corinthians 11 verse 23, ²³ For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me. 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. (1 Corinthians 11:23-26 NKJV)
In other words, if you want to touch God on a regular daily basis, you can have communion every day, and you can take the elements every day. You can have communion and say, “I’m touching Your body, and I’m touching the Blood of Jesus, and I’m remembering that You died for me, and today I choose the life of Christ that I have inside of me. I’m remembering that my life is a Christ life.” You can touch God every day with communion.
Why don’t we make a decision to do that this week? Individually but as a collective? Why don’t we do that? What do you say, from tomorrow morning, you wake up, you don’t have to do it with anybody else, just do it for yourself. You go and take a piece of bread, just take a piece of … you can drink water as a representation of His blood, or you can drink a little bit of tea or juice or something; you don’t have to have juice, you can just have water. It’s symbolic.
Take the bread and take a little bit of water and say, “Lord, I’m remembering Your death, and I’m remembering that Your body was broken for me and that Your blood was shed for me; I choose to live in red, and I don’t go into bed. Today, I choose to live in the red of my life, in Jesus Christ. I choose to live and serve and worship you.” And I say, “And I take this Blood, and I take this Body, and I say I transform my mind so that I’m not conforming to the world system, I am not going to get into bed with the world system. I give my body as a living sacrifice. I give it to You as my reasonable worship today, and I thank You, Holy Spirit, that You help me in the transforming of my mind because as I do this, I please You, and I know the will of God for me as I please You.”
I’ve just given you a recipe for touching God every day this week because He’s ready, waiting for you; if you come and do that, He’s ready there to touch you. Are we in agreement? Have we got an agreement broadly that we can do this; this week? So, if you can’t remember what I’ve just done, go onto YouTube, get to this part of my message and say, “This is what I’m going to do, Lord,” and you can do it with me as I speak it out. I do this; I do this, I do this, I do this now.
In fact, I’m going to ask the guys if they can do a bit of work this afternoon and just take this little portion and put it as a separate YouTube clip. Name it, In Bed Or In Red. Let’s have communion based on what I’ve just said this week until we get to the weekend. Hallelujah. Glory to God.
Let me tell you; this is the most powerful way that you can touch God and start to change your world because you’re going to remember every day that the real you is the spirit man you because you receive Jesus into your heart today, into your life today, into your world today, into everything. I am telling you, it will make a big difference when you start your day like this. If you feel your life is full of complicated issues, which some people might call sin or habits, all kinds of things, at that moment, you can say, “I repent, and so the rest of my day is blessed.” Even though you might miss it for the rest of the day, you will start your day off in the right frame of mind that God can bless your day. Amen. Hallelujah.
I want to tell you that God continues to circumcise my heart. He continues to bring place in my life and in my heart where I’m more interested in what He wants for my life than what I do because the more I follow Him, the greater I understand His plans and purposes and the more strength I have to pursue Him. Hallelujah. Often people can know what God’s plan is for their life, but they don’t have the strength to go through till the end. Hallelujah.
It’s interesting to me that Jesus, in His greatest moment before His greatest triumph, He was breaking bread, even with the one who betrayed Him. How was it that He knew that Judas was going to betray Him, and yet He broke bread with the same person who betrayed Him? What was that all about? Judas still had a chance to repent. In that moment, Judas still had a chance to repent, but he chose not to, and so I don’t want to go into the whole message of who He, who He foreordained, He also predestined, but God knew that he would have if he was given a chance, he still wouldn’t repent. Amen. I’m not going to go any further than that.
John 11 verse 41, Jesus is at Lazarus’ grave, and He’s standing there; 41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying, Lazarus, And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. I thank You that You have heard me. 42 And I know that You always hear Me. Come on, if Jesus is living in your heart, then you can say what Jesus says, “Father, I thank You that You hear me. I thank you that every prayer that I’ve ever prayed, You’ve always heard me.” If it’s in line with God’s will. That’s why Jesus could say, “You always heard me”, because He always prayed in line with the will of the Father. You can pray prayers like that. If you read the Bible, and you read prayers, and you pray prayers, according to the Bible, He will always hear you. 42…but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” (John 11:42 NKJV)
Isn’t it interesting that you can have a conversation with God privately and then have a conversation with God publicly so that the people can believe that God is sending you with a message? Hallelujah. There are things that I prayed before God this morning before I came here. I didn’t have the full answer of those things that are prayed out in the spirit until I got here, sitting on the front row. I got here, and then I began to understand that God wanted some things to happen in the service today. Hallelujah.
Which is why I came up to Garth, and I had a word with him and said, “Is there anything preventing us from singing the songs at the end?” Because after this message, we are going to touch God with our worship and our praise.
Colossians chapter 3 verse 12, 12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, (Colossians 3:12 NKJV) You want to know how to touch God, you have the right, God has given you the ability to put on tender mercies. In other words, if someone has offended you and you don’t like what they’re doing, put on tender mercies towards them. You have much more power in tender mercies than you have in the way that culture says you must deal with the problem. People might say if you walk in love and tender mercies, you appear weak. No, strength is in tender mercies because it’s in God. The whole world thought Jesus was weak when He stood in front of Pontius Pilate and Pontius Pilate said, “Don’t you know that I had the power to take Your life?” And He says, “No man has the power to take My life, except I lay it down.”
But the whole world thought Jesus was weak because He proclaimed Himself to represent the Father and represent God, yet He was being taken captive. Then He went through the most severe beating anybody would ever, ever have. Still, all the while, the thing that was driving Him was tender mercies because He understood that My beating is for everybody in the future. God’s mercy needs to come to people for generations and generations, and every stripe that they lay on My back is not a sign of weakness; it’s a sign of absolute controlled power and strength. You can put a crown of thorns on My head, and you can beat My body, and you can spit on Me, and you can pull out My beard, and you can get rid of Me, but every single moment is tender mercies at work. The power of God is being released in every bit of thing that I’m taking, but the world system says, don’t let people walk over you, and if they don’t do things the way that you’d like them to do, just obliterate them. Politically, manoeuvre them out of your life.
Kindness. Kindness, you want to touch God, be kind to somebody. Do it today. Wherever you go, do it this week. Find somebody in the car park and be extravagant beyond what you would ever do when you come to somebody in the car park or somebody fills up your gas tank. See what kindness does to somebody. See what kindness does.
What about humility? You touch God when you have humility. You don’t touch God through pride. Pride is in fact one of the seven things that God hates, is the prideful look because He hates it; read it in the book of Proverbs.
Meekness. Meekness is just power under control. Long-suffering. I refuse to quit on God, and what His Word says for my life; I refuse to do that. That’s long-suffering. If I don’t see the results yet, I’m going to keep pressing until I see the result. It’s long-suffering. You touch God with these things.
Can I start again? 12 Therefore, as the elect of God, you the elect of God, holy and beloved. You might not know this, but you are holy. As you sit here today, you are holy. Why are you holy? Because your spirit-man has Jesus in it, and Jesus is holy. The real you is holy. Your body might not yet be sanctified or your thought process, but you are holy. To some people, that’s a sacrilege to say, “I’m holy,” but in the book of Peter, He says, “Be holy, even as I am holy” because you are. You’re completely righteous before God.
13 …bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. (Colossians 3:13 NKJV) You want to touch God; function in forgiveness. I ask you this question. If you’re operating in forgiveness, and someone else is not, where do you think the power lies? Where do you think the power lies? In the short term, I’m going to give you an example of something that happened to me in the corporate world. I’m moving along as quickly as I can because we need to have time at the end here.
Something that happened to me in the corporate world is that I got promoted. I had a lot of paperwork, I had a lot of stuff to do and a lot of new things to manage. A tender, a request for proposal that we were responded to, got mixed up in my paperwork, and then, as I was going through my paperwork, I discovered I’ve neglected to respond or delegate this request for proposal to a salesperson.
I knew the reason we got invited for the request for proposal is because the company that was doing it, I had a long-standing relationship with the IT director of that company, and he knew me; and so even though I had changed companies, he asked me for a request for a proposal. Now I know I’ve let him down because I’m supposed to respond, and I’ve only got two or three days, and we’re not going to make it in time. It’s a complicated request for proposal.
I phoned him. His name was Eric. I phoned him and I said, “Eric, I’ve got to apologize to you. You know I’ve been promoted. You know all about that.” “Yes, John, congratulations”, and all that kind of stuff. I said, “I’ve dropped the ball, Eric. You asked for a request for proposal, the date you’ve said, we can’t make it; so if you want to go ahead with a request for a proposal without our proposal, please go, but I can’t respond in time to this.” I said, “But if you want us to have a meaningful opportunity here, I need you to extend the time frame by two weeks so that we can properly respond.” So he said, “John, I thank you for your honesty. You have the two weeks. I’ll just write a letter to all the people I’ve asked; It’s a closed request for a proposal, I’ll send a letter to them, and you have the two weeks.”
I took that to a salesperson, gave it to a senior salesperson that was working for me, and I told him the whole story. Next thing, I’m being called into the Managing Director and the Human Resources directors’ office, “What about this thing here, John?” I said, “Yes, I dropped the ball.” I explained to them what I did. So, he said, “We have a charge against you, an accusation has been laid against you by this senior sales guy, that you’re unprofessional; that you do this, you do this, and he’s coming after you.”
I said, “Well, I can’t defend myself. I’ve told you that’s the truth, that’s what happened. So whatever you must do, you must do. I have no defence if you… He’s right. I did it,” but I phoned the customer, I apologized to the customer. “I have a change, and they were ready to hear us. That already should tell you that we have a trust relationship with this customer, and that should already tell you that we already have an advantage in this place.” “We hear you, John, but because there’s been an accusation against you, we have to take this very seriously, because your behaviour was unprofessional.”
I said, “I understand.” I came home; I prayed about it, and I spoke to Pastor Sharon about it. The next day I went in, and I asked for an audience with them, and I handed in my resignation, I tendered my resignation. I said guys, “I don’t want to put you in an awkward position. This is something that you have to, that you have to do. You have to take action on this because I’m a senior person in the company, there’s an accusation against me, you have to do something about this. I’m taking it out of your hands. I’m resigning.”
They said, “No, no, no, John, we don’t accept your resignation. We just need some time.” So, two days later, they called me back in, and they said, “John, we’re taking no action against you. We consider your behaviour to be absolutely professional, even though. We know what kind of pressure you’ve been under. You behaved ethically, morally and professionally correctly, but we have to deal with this accusation. So, we’re going to take this salesman out of your department, move him to another department and you’re just going to go ahead, and we will find someone to take his replacement, and we’ll have to deal with…and let’s do it together.”
I said, “Well, I thank you for your grace. I thank you for handling it in this manner.” “No, no, John, you, you are too valuable to us, and that salesman is valuable to us. No problem.” So, I go walking around the office, most of it was open plan, and because I was a senior person I had, in the window, in the corner; had a nice office there, but it’s all open plan. I had all these things around my office.
I’m walking around the office, and the next minute I began to hear talk, “Don’t take John on politically, because he’s got an inside track. He’s a blue-eyed boy. He’s going to nail you. Don’t take John on politically.” I heard this. I just heard the rumours. I walked up to the salesman who was standing there in the thing; he was busy packing his desk up so that he could go and move into another department. I walked up to him, and I said to him, “I just want to tell you, I have no hard feelings towards you about what you did. I understand exactly why you did it.”
The real motive behind it is that he wanted to take my job. He was a very ambitious young man, and he was out to take my job. So, I said, ”I got no hard feelings. And I want to tell you, as far as we’re concerned, whatever you need from me in that new position, you have it.” I made it. I spoke loudly so that everybody could hear.
Well, we shook hands, and we agreed and off he went. I think it was three or four months later that he was hijacked outside of his house. They stole his car; they beat him up. One thing after the other started going wrong with him. Eventually, he resigned from the company and he moved to Dubai, saying, “I gotta get out of this country. This has all turned bad for me.”
I didn’t ask God to do that, and God didn’t do it, but what happened? What happened is that I walked in forgiveness, I walked in meekness, I walked in humility, I walked in the power of God, and because I chose God’s way, God protected me. I touch God every day and in your corporate life, whatever it is, maybe you work for yourself, maybe you work in a corporate place, maybe you work somewhere else. If you go with God’s ways rather than what the world says you have to do, God will bless you.
There is this culture that happens that work, sometimes that you get paid on a fixed rate and the job that you do is just a menial job, and it’s just a process, and you just have to do the same thing over and over again. So, people often think in those circumstances, “I’ve got to be here for eight hours or twelve hours, so the least that I do, the better it is for me.” That’s not the way God would want you to do. God would want you to say, “Put the most in that you can and trust God.” Let God work with your life. Do you understand that touching God and touching His ways have a direct impact on what happens to your future? Do you understand that? Do you see what I’m saying? You’re either in bed, or you’re in red.
Verse 14, 14 But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection or maturity. 15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, this is how you touch God, let the peace of God. The peace of God is there for it to rule in your heart, but if you don’t choose it, it won’t rule your heart, it won’t rule your mind – you have got to let the peace of God rule, … to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Do you want to know how to touch God? Be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. (Colossians 3:14-16 NKJV)
If you can’t sing with a voice, sing in your heart. Hey? But what’s in your heart will come out of your mouth. You don’t have to have a good voice to ride in your car and sing to the Lord. You don’t have to be in a place where you are… even if you’re working in a corporate space, and you’re really pressured. I used to do this when I was in the corporate world. I was often under a lot of pressure, with a lot of people in my face all the time. I would just get up from my desk, and I would walk to the toilet, go to the bathroom, or go into the cubicle. I would just quietly begin to praise the Lord. If anybody didn’t want my attention while I was walking in the passage, I would just say, “I praise You, Jesus, I praise You, thank You, Lord, thank You, Lord, I thank You,” and I used to make confessions about being debt free and having the miracle power of God working in my life and financially prospering me, and I would make His peace my portion, would make His peace, my portion.
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. (Colossians 3:16-17 NKJV)
One more, two more scriptures, and after the last scripture, as I read the last scripture, I’m going to ask the Music Ministry to come up. First Timothy chapter 2 verse 1 to 3. This is what we do every Tuesday night when we pray. 1 Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, this is how you touch God 2 for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. If you do this, you touch God 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior. (1 Timothy 2:1-3 NKJV)
Now, I want to just quickly tell you, show you, if you’re a person that is touching God regularly, every day, but you have this world system coming at you, but you’re touching God, how are you going to respond to the issues? You’re going to have that strength, you’re going to have that peace, you’re going to be able to hear from God, what do I do next? So, what if you are somebody that is so overcome by the cultural ways of this world, the every day going to work stuff that wants to bring you down to immaturity? Now you’re faced with issues? What do you do? You handle it the way immature people handle it. You don’t handle it the way God handles it. You handle it the way immature people handle it, and so what’s the outcome of that? You don’t know. You think you can control every outcome?
It’s not possible, and nobody starts out trying to control an outcome thinking that they can’t control it. Nobody starts out trying to fix a problem, thinking they can’t control it. They’re always starting out saying, “I know I can control this.” It’s why they make the decisions they make, but God, but God, the example that I just gave you. That guy thought he had me dead to rights. At the very least, they can’t keep John in that position. They’ve got to move him somewhere else. At the very least, that opens the door for me to come into that position because I’m the next most senior guy in line to come in; at the very least, temporarily, I will be able to run the sales team.
But God – but God said to me, “John, you do this, you do this, you go and resign.” So, people would say, “But what would you do? How would God take care of you?” I had to do with the wisdom of God does. So, when I dealt with the situation the way God would deal with it, my outcome was not just positive, my outcome continued to be great. In fact, what I did there raised, they told me this later, it raised my estimation, the estimation that they had of me, it raised the estimation because they recognised that I handled the situation with maturity and in the same way that I dealt with the customer, I also dealt with my management that way. It ultimately led to me getting shares in the company, being promoted in the company again, and having an outcome that no one thought that would be, in that moment. I thought they had me done.
You see, because I live touching God, I integrate my ways with God. This is not a hard thing for me; to integrate my ways with God because I’m touching Him. I’m touching; He’s touching me, I’m touching Him… so I can integrate my ways because I touch Him. I let His Word; I let the worship that is in the sound and song that comes from our ministry, I let it penetrate my life and flow over me daily. I give thanks to God daily. I touch God daily, and so what happens, I used to do this in the corporate world, so what happens is that my responses were always spiritual.
Okay, so now, finally, I must allow you to see what touch does. Matthew chapter 26 verse 6. 6 And when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, 7 a woman came to Him having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on His head as He sat at the table. 8 But when His disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? 9 For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor.” 10 But when Jesus was aware of it, He said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for Me. 11 For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always. 12 For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My burial. 13 Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.” (Matthew 26:6-13 NKJV)
I want to say to you that this woman took a very, very valuable, costly item that was an entire year’s worth of salary or wages and just poured it on Jesus. The offering was so extravagant, the offering was so extravagant that the disciples were offended by the offering. It was also the very deed that exposed Judas because betrayal was in his heart because of the offering.
If you want to experience the touch of Jesus; what she did was she came to worship Him with the most expensive gift she had. I say to you; I’m not asking for money here; we’ve taken up the offering this morning; I’m asking you to give God the most expensive gift that you’ve got. What’s that? It’s your time, it’s your energy, and it must come from your heart. If you give God your heart and you give Him your time, it’s a fragrance that permeates everywhere. It’s a fragrance.
Do you think that some of the people that I’m connected with… The people that I’m connected with they’ve suffered such persecution because they’re such extravagant givers. So, people that are in a religious mindset, they can’t handle such extravagant giving because it’s such a powerful place of worship and restoration, and God uses it to restore relationships.
Such power was in this gift that God said, “Her relationship with Me will be remembered for eternity, and forever men will talk about this gift that she has given. It has restored her relationship with Me so completely that, forever, men talk about the restoration of relationship.” Here we are today talking because she took an expensive gift and gave it to Jesus and poured it on Him. Just understand this; when she walked out of there because she handled the perfume her whole life, her whole life, she walked out there smelling with the same fragrance. Everybody that was in that room had the same fragrance. It was impossible for you not to be touched by that fragrance because it was such an extravagant gift.
I want to encourage you today that if you will have your relationship with God restored, let Him touch you. You touch Him. Make a choice in your heart, “I want to touch God. I want Him to touch me daily. I want to touch Him daily.” I promise you that the extravagance of your breaking of bread this week will begin to change you. It will become a fragrance that begins to fill all around you – because you will be Christ-minded, you will be inside, your real man, minded. Not about all the external superficial customs that want to drag you down into a level of immaturity and make you live the way that everybody else lives. There’s no glory there. There’s no honour there. There’s no purpose there. There’s no power there. There is nothing that God can use there if you do it all for yourself, by yourself, with yourself.
But if you take all of yourself and say, “Here I am, Lord. I don’t know how I’m going to do this every day, but I’m doing it right now because I can only make a choice in this moment.” You can’t make a choice for the moments to come, but you can make a choice in this moment. Every time you choose this moment, being the moment that you’re in, to say, “I worship You, and I’m giving my sacrifice of my thanksgiving, my praise, my kindness, my meekness, my gentleness. I’m going to be a person that walks in these things, and I’m going to be God-conscious because I break bread every day.”
When we come into this weekend, and you’ve been breaking bread every day, and you’ve been fasting, God is going to touch us, and His presence is going to fill this place. His presence is going to be filling you and filling this place. Our praises and our worship is going to go to a new level this coming weekend, our fasting and our preparation in the presence of God, we are going to go from glory to glory, from the next level to the next level.
I told you, we want to prepare ourselves for Brother Jerry who’s going to come in January, and I’m telling you, this is part of the beginning of our preparation; that we are just going to worship Him and give Him ourselves to Him this weekend. Hallelujah. If you’ve got something else already planned, cancel it and come. Hallelujah.
Can we sing that song, I Worship You, please? Please stand. This is a moment for you to worship, people. This is a moment for you to touch God. Touch Him. Touch Him. Allow your spirit-man freedom through your body, through your hands, through your mouth. Touch Him.
[Sound and Song: I Worship You]
Praise Him. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. We worship You, Lord. We thank you, Lord. We praise Your holy name, Jesus. Hallelujah. Glory to the Most High God. We give You our praise. We give You our thanksgiving. We give You our love today, Lord. We declare it openly. Thank you that You restore us and have restored us to Yourself. You have reconciled us to You, Lord, through Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. Praise Your name, Jesus. Praise You, Jesus. Praise You, Jesus. Oh, hallelujah!
We give You first place in our lives, Lord; we give it to You. We give it to You. We thank you for the touch of Your life, the touch of Your presence, Lord. Hallelujah. We give You the praise of our lips, the thanksgiving of our hearts and our lips, Lord. Hallelujah. We give glory to the Name, the Name that is above every other name, the Name that has subjected every other name to Himself; it’s the name of Jesus. Hallelujah.
Oh, we declare, Lord, that our hearts are Your heart; it belongs to You. We ask You to fill our hearts with Your presence, with Your life, with Your glory. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank you for Your divine touch. It’s a divine touch, it’s not a human touch, it’s a divine touch. Glory, glory to the name of Jesus. Glory to Jesus.
I just have this in my heart right now, that there’s some of you, that you want to come to the front and you just want to come and kneel here, and you want to just come and praise Jesus. Just come and give Him the fruit of your lips. Come and praise Him and give Him glory. Hallelujah. This is a moment that God has created for us to touch Him, for us to be able to come and say; here is my life, here is my heart, here I am, Lord Jesus. I don’t trust in myself. I’m putting my trust in You. Oh!
If you’re standing right there where you are, maybe you want to be seated, maybe you just want to kneel down where you are at your seat, just give God this moment. This moment is your moment. This moment you can open your mouth, and you can open your heart. This is a moment that you will have with God.
Oh, Jesus! Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. We love You, Jesus. We praise Your name, Jesus. We give You honour. We give You honour, Jesus. We give You our hearts. We give You our lives. We praise You, we praise You, we worship You. Hallelujah, Lord.
Wherever our heart has been hardened to You and to the integration of our ways with You, Lord, right now, we ask You to touch it and break it so that our lives can be a fragrance to You, Lord, a sweet-smelling aroma to You and to those around us, Lord. We praise You. Oh hallelujah. Praise You, Jesus. Praise You, Jesus. Praise You, Jesus.
Well, here we are, Lord. These are Your people and this is an expression of their praise. This is an expression of their hearts that they freely give to You. I thank you, Lord, that as we go about this week that is ahead of us, I thank you, Father, that we will take Your presence with us. We will take this moment with us, Lord, and every day we will come before You like this. We will break bread before You, and we will remember the death and the price that You paid. This week, Lord, we are going to worship You and give You all of our praise. We ask You to take our hearts. Touch us as we touch You with our lips, with the joy of our hearts. Thank You for Your peace, and thank You for Your grace.
I pray, Lord, that Your presence goes with Your people, that You protect them, that You guide them, You lead them, You look after them, You protect their income, You protect their lives. Thank you, Lord, that the blessing of God rests upon them, the blessing of the Holy Spirit, the blessing of grace and peace rests upon them. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Hallelujah.
I’m closing the meeting now because there’s no way that I can close this meeting because the touch of God is here. The touch of God is touching people everywhere, here. Everywhere God is touching His people. I’ll tell you what, people, this is the way that you can live life every day. You don’t have to be subjected to the culture of this world. You can live like this every day.
I’m closing the meeting, but I’m not closing it. You can stay here. They’re going to just play for a couple more minutes, and you can continue to worship, or you can make your way back to your seat. May the blessing of God be upon you and go with you. May He give you peace, in Jesus’ name. Be blessed, people, be blessed. I look forward to having communion with you tomorrow morning, wherever you are, whatever house, whatever place. We’ll have communion together tomorrow morning. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
© 2024 – Heritage of Faith Ministries International
TOUCH | TEACH | TRAIN | TRANSFER
