Scripture reference: Hebrews 12:5-11 NKJV ; 1 Pet 2:8 AMPC ; Rom 9:33 NKJV; Mark 4:18-20 (TPT), Mark 4:18 (AMPC) ; 2 Corinthians 6:16 (TPT)
Pastor John: What a wonderful time that we’ve had this morning, in praise and worship. We’re so glad that you could join us in this live Sunday morning service. God is really great and it’s amazing that we have this opportunity and this way of communicating with you.
We declare a blessing over you, as we start today. Pastor Sharon and I have agreed in the spirit that the anointing of God rests upon everything that happens in this service. Already the praise and worship has been wonderful, otherwise I’m still in that way, but it is sound and song and thank God for His sounds of heaven and the songs that He gives us.
So, we’re going to minister the word today and you’ll see that in the end of the service we’re going to have an opportunity to do something different. We’re going to get straight into the Word, because the Word is the thing that really changes us and makes all things great in our lives. Pastor Sharon, this is a great day.
Pastor Sharon: It is a great day.
Pastor John: Because we’re live we’re not recording this as we have in the studio before, so that’s just really a great thing.
Pastor Sharon: We’re going Big and Bold.
Pastor John: Big and Bold, new and different. Wonderful.
So, for us to have context of what the message is that God is wanting to bring to us today; the World is in Chaos. The world has no answers. The world is in a place where everything is falling apart. The world system is trying to glue things together, but they are not doing a good job of it, Sharon.
Pastor Sharon: No.
Pastor John: There are governments that are pitted against governments. There are economic powers that are warring against economic powers, there are sickness and disease everywhere. There are all manner of complications that have come with the pandemic and world governments are in chaos. Elections and many things have caused trouble.
Well, if you think that this is somehow the norm, then maybe you’ve been asleep, but it is not the norm. The world is not going to get better. The world has no answers. Jesus is the answer. The Word of God is the answer and living in truth is the answer. Our question is, “Who do you believe?” “What voice will you believe?” “What is the truth that you are giving your ear too and you are receiving for yourself that you are living out in your life?”
So, Pastor Sharon I want to read this Scripture that we have been referring to in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 16 and I’m just going to read a portion of it and it says here 16I will make my home in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they will be my people (2 Corinthians 6:16 TPT).
Pastor Sharon: Hallelujah.
Pastor John: This is the statement of eternity. This is the intent of God, eternally. 16I will make my home in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they will be my people (2 Corinthians 6:16 TPT). Right from the beginning, Sharon, this has been God’s whole intent. It’s been everything that He’s been about. I want to be with them, I want to live in them, I want to walk with them and I want to be their God and I want them to be My people.
Pastor Sharon: That’s what we’ve just been singing, about the voice of the Lord. I mean there is nothing like it because He lives in us. He walks in us and among us. He’s voice speaks and we hear Him and we know Him and that’s just what life is all about.
Pastor John: Yes. And so, it’s a wonderful thing that we have this treasure that we are able to walk with God. It’s a wonderful thing.
I guess, a part of what the Lord has placed on our hearts, is dependent on us believing, truly that God wants to walk with us. That God truly lives in us, because if you don’t believe that God is walking amongst us, and living in you and walking with you, then you begin to separate your life from the God time, and then the other time.
If you don’t believe that God is walking with you and you don’t believe that God is living in you, then you have the right to choose or you feel like, I can do whatever I like, when I want, how I want, whereas God is calling you. He is calling you to always be with Him and to live with Him and let Him live with you.
Pastor Sharon: Yes, you know that scripture that you also bring regularly to us, Pastor John, in Him I live, and move, and have my being (Acts 17:28), so in Him, I live and move and have my being and He lives and moves and has His being in me. That’s life.
Pastor John: That’s life.
Pastor Sharon: That’s true life.
Pastor John: Yes.
Pastor Sharon: Is to walk with Him and Him to walk with us.
Pastor John: Yes.
Pastor Sharon: Yes.
Pastor John: I mean, Abraham had it this way, when he had it in Romans and he said, 17…..the father of many nations. He is our example and father, for in God’s presence he believed that God can raise the dead…. (Rom 4:17 TPT)
Pastor Sharon: Yes.
Pastor John: In God’s presence, he believed that God could raise the dead.
Pastor Sharon: Yes.
Pastor John: And call into being things that don’t even exist. (Rom 4:17 TPT) So, a lot of people want to call things into being that doesn’t exist, but they’re not in His presence.
Pastor Sharon: Yes.
Pastor John: They just speak words. That’s part of the reason why many years ago, I said, “Faith is not a formula for success, it is God’s pattern for victory, but faith is not a formula for success because faith is about living in the presence of God. It’s about being with God and living in God and living for God.”
Pastor Sharon: That’s right. You know, when you begin as a Christian to recognize the presence of God and you cultivate that presence, and you love that presence, and you want to be in that presence, and you know that presence, there’s nothing you can’t believe in His presence.
Pastor John: Yes.
Pastor Sharon: No wonder Abraham could believe in His presence because in His presence is everything we need.
Pastor John: As Abraham in His presence, believed that God could raise the dead.
Pastor Sharon: Yes.
Pastor John: Because he was about to sacrifice his son, Isaac. He believed in His presence that He could raise the dead. You know, Sharon, that what we are going to be talking about in terms of God’s provision for us, in this time, it’s all about living in His presence and having this ongoing, personal relationship with God.
Pastor Sharon: That’s right.
Pastor John: If your relationship with God is not personal, if your relationship with God is not daily, consistently connected to Him, then speaking declarations of what you want in your life becomes an exercise of discipline, not something that’s flowing out of a relationship. God is after our hearts, He wants to live in us, He wants to live amongst us, He wants us to live for Him and He wants to provide for us.
Pastor Sharon: That’s right.
Pastor John: We go back to Matthew chapter 6 verse 33 which we’ve been speaking about, seek first God’s ways, His kingdom, the way that He wants things to be done and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. We don’t have to be chasers, after things.
Pastor Sharon: No.
Pastor John: If we are seeking God then we can just expect God to provide and to add because He said, “Seek Me first and I’ll add all these things to you.”
Pastor Sharon: It will be added. That’s right. He said, “I know what you need. I know you’ve got need of these things and to eat and all of these things, but you seek Me first and My way of being and it will be added.” I believe just like a little child, I believe, it will be added, I seek first.
Pastor John: Yes.
Pastor Sharon: His kingdom.
Pastor John: Yes.
Pastor Sharon: It will be added. It will be added, and that’s how we’ve lived, John.
Pastor John: Always.
Pastor Sharon: Ja.
Pastor John: You have this relationship which you have with God, which He says if you don’t work, you don’t eat. So, you work, but you work through a relationship with Him, your work is dedicated to Him, your work is worshipping Him.
Pastor Sharon: Yes.
Pastor John: Your work is not because I have to provide.
Pastor Sharon: Yes.
Pastor John: Your work is because God said we must work.
Pastor Sharon: Yes.
Pastor John: When you seek Him, He turns that work into something productive and fruitful and He blesses your life with that work because you’re in Him.
Pastor Sharon: Yes
Pastor John: That’s an amazing, wonderful revelation.
Pastor Sharon: It’s wonderful.
Pastor John: As you work, you work worshipping. You work walking with Him, and you work and you walk and you work and you worship. As you work and you walk and you work and you worship, He just provides.
Pastor Sharon: Yes!
Pastor John: He just brings everything to you, and so it just goes and the favour overtakes you and the abundant overflow comes upon you because it is all based on relationship. It’s not based on how smart you work, how many opportunities you have, it’s based on what God can do for you because you seek Him.
Pastor Sharon: That’s right. When you seek Him, His voice speaks to you and He leads you by His Spirit in your work. He will lead you and guide you in your work and His favour will be there and so, it’s a win. It’s such a win.
Pastor John: Yes. As we were preparing for what we’re doing today. The Lord really impressed it on my heart and I shared it with Pastor Sharon, to speak to you for just a moment about your heart and what part your heart has to play in all of this. Because as we speak about these things, your heart has to receive the Word.
Pastor Sharon: Yes.
Pastor John: Your mind may have trouble accepting it because the logic of it may not be compatible with the faith of what you have, but faith comes in the heart, faith does not come out of logic.
Pastor Sharon: Yes.
Pastor John: Faith comes in the heart, it comes out of you Spirit Man.
Pastor Sharon: Yes.
Pastor John: So, you Spirit Man will rejoice in what it is receiving although your logic might not actually quite get it. We have spoken about this before Pastor Sharon, but tithing is just like that.
Pastor Sharon: Yes.
Pastor John: You can’t tithe if you apply logic to tithe.
Pastor Sharon: Absolutely.
Pastor John: Because tithing is not a logical thing to do. Give away ten percent of your income.
Pastor Sharon: No.
Pastor John: Most people that think logically, will say, “That’s nothing. Why would you want to give ten percent away to a church?” It’s not logic. Tithing is something that’s by faith in your heart, that you believe the Word of God and you seek Him with your tithing, you worship Him with your tithing. Then He begins to bless you and He begins to show His goodness towards you. That is a condition of the heart. It is not a matter of logic.
Pastor Sharon: That’s right. Faith does not come from your head, from logic. It comes from your heart, that believes His Word on everything in your life. Your finances, your relationships, your children, your health. It’s just, faith comes to your heart that believes.
Pastor John: Yes. Then your mind can get involved and it comes out of your mouth. I want to just read this out of, Mark chapter 4, verse 24 and from the Passion translation and it says, ²⁴Then He said to them, His disciples, “Be diligent to understand the meaning behind everything you hear, for as you do, more understanding will be given to you. And according to the depth of your longing to understand, much more will be added to you. ²⁵ For those who listen with open hearts will receive more revelation. But those who don’t listen with open hearts will lose what little they think they have!”(Mark 4:24-25 TPT)
So, this passage of scripture is very powerful, just in terms of what you hear, if you have an open heart to hear, revelation comes.
Pastor Sharon: Yes.
Pastor John: But if you close your heart, the little bit of revelation that you do have, you lose it. Why? Because logic takes over. Other things that distract you in the world system, they begin to dominate you and then your heart gets more and more closed and less and less willing to receive.
Pastor Sharon: Ja, because your heart doesn’t give the revelation that’s coming to you from His word preeminence. There are other things that your heart chooses to have in the place of revelation from God. Ja.
Pastor John: I’m going back in Mark chapter 4, verse 16-20, the Word says, ¹⁶The seed sown on gravel represents those who hear the Word and receive it joyfully, ¹⁷ but because their hearts fail to sink a deep root into the Word, there’s the open, closed heart thing again, they don’t endure for long. For when trouble or persecution comes on account of the Word, they immediately wilt and fall away. (Mark 4:16-17 TPT) Why? Because their heart is not open, their heart is not, it’s closed to the Word.
Pastor Sharon: That’s right. They don’t sink a deep root into the Word.
Pastor John: They don’t sink a deep root into the Word.
Pastor Sharon: That takes concentration and focus.
Pastor John: Yes
Pastor Sharon: …Of meditation on the Word and desiring for that Word to sink and take root.
Pastor John: Yes, yes
Pastor Sharon: It is an attitude of your heart.
Pastor John: Correct.
Pastor Sharon: Because the Word can sink and take root in every born again believer’s heart. It is what the Word is designed to do.
Pastor John: Yes
Pastor Sharon: To sink into every believer’s heart and take deep root, but it’s the choice.
Pastor John: It’s a choice, and also sometimes it depends on what you choose not to listen to because if you are listening to bad news all the time and you are listening to economists and your listening to the world and today they want to tell you how relationships work and how they don’t work and how good or how much trouble it is. If you listen to all that stuff, then that goes into your heart.
Pastor Sharon: Yes and like the scripture you are coming to now.
Pastor John: Yes
Pastor Sharon: It chokes the Word.
Pastor John: It chokes the Word.
Pastor Sharon: It suffocates the Word.
Pastor John: It suffocates it.
Pastor Sharon: Yes
Pastor John: The next verse says 18 And the seed sown among thorns represents those who hear the Word, 19 but they allow the cares of this life and the seduction of wealth and the desires for other things to crowd out and choke the Word so that it produces nothing. (Mark 4:18 TPT) In this case their hearts are open, Sharon.
Pastor Sharon: Yes
Pastor John: The Word actually begins to grow in your heart.
Pastor Sharon: That’s right.
Pastor John: It grows, but then you allow cares.
Pastor Sharon: Yes
Pastor John: You allow all these other things, the seduction of wealth.
Pastor Sharon: Yes
Pastor John: The desire for other things, they grow up too. So, you let the Word in and then those things grow up too. We were talking about this, the other day and we were saying, a lot of people and even you and I, had to journey through this. This is not a revelation we’ve had since we were young. We had to grow into this revelation, that it’s almost as though Christians feel like – I can have the care of this life, and I can pursue wealth as I desire, and I can desire other things as much as I want. As long as I am tithing and as long as I am giving something to the Church I can do both. So, what they’re doing is they are allowing the Word to grow, but these other seeds are also growing in their hearts.
Pastor Sharon: The tares
Pastor John: The tares
Pastor Sharon: Yes
Pastor John: Eventually they are going to choke the Word.
Pastor Sharon: Yes
Pastor John: Eventually this Word won’t produce the fruit anymore, that it should be producing.
Pastor Sharon: John, can I just read what the Amplified says here?
Pastor John: Yes
Pastor Sharon: The words, we are talking about sowing the Word, or the words that come to you on Sundays, the messages, the scriptures 18 And the ones sown among the thorns are others who hear the Word; 19 Then the cares and anxieties of the world and distractions of the age, and the pleasure and delight and false glamour and deceitfulness of riches, and the craving and passionate desire for other things creep in and choke and suffocate the Word, and it becomes fruitless. (Mark 4:18 AMPC)
Pastor John: What that is saying.
Pastor Sharon: It just amplifies
Pastor John: Yes, it is just amplifying that. It is that you have an open heart to the Word.
Pastor Sharon: Yes
Pastor John: But then you also have an open heart to these other things.
Pastor Sharon: Yes
Pastor John: Because you have an open heart to the other things – Oh I can desire and crave riches, I can desire other things, I can take responsibilities and cares and anxieties. I can worry every day about everything. If you open your heart to that, oh, but I will also be careful to tithe and also be careful to give to the church and so I have both things open in my heart. Eventually the one is going to grow up and choke the Word.
Pastor Sharon: Pastor John, I remember one day a precious person saying to me, you know, like dad Hagin said “Bless her darling heart” Anyway I won’t go there. Anyway, she said to me, “No, I am open to everything.” I remember in my heart how it shocked me, and I thought then you will get everything.
Pastor John: Yes
Pastor Sharon: Because you are open to everything, you will get everything.
Pastor John: Yes
Pastor Sharon: That is what we are talking about.
Pastor John: Right
Pastor Sharon: You’ll say, I am open to this, but I am also open to that.
Pastor John: Right
Pastor Sharon: You don’t actually realize that the things that you do allow in can choke the Word.
Pastor John: The Word
Pastor Sharon: The Word is actually what you are wanting to be in your heart, only.
Pastor John: Because if you keep that as your open heart for the Word only.
Pastor Sharon: Yes
Pastor John: 20 “But the seed sown on good soil, open soil of the heart, good soil, that you protect and guard, represents those who open their hearts to receive the Word and their lives bear good fruit—some yield a harvest of thirty, sixty, even one hundred times more than was sown!” (Mark 4:18-20 TPT). You and I have spoken about this before. I don’t necessarily think that it is something that you should count; here is thirty or sixty, or measure.
Pastor Sharon: That’s right.
Pastor John: But it will just keep yielding fruit and in one area of your life, you may be having this level of harvest, and in another area of your life, another level of harvest.
Pastor Sharon: Yes
Pastor John: As you open your heart to the Word, the soil gets better as you protect it and as you nourish it, it gets better.
Pastor Sharon: Well, I’m thinking about our marriage right now, you know? When we started off, sowing the Word of God in our hearts, we had cares and all kinds of things that wanted to creep in. There was temptation for it not to take root in us, but we continued with it, we guarded it in our hearts, and we started to bear fruit. We didn’t bear the full hundred-fold fruit, but if I think of what we are bearing in our lives now, you now? It’s like I have to believe what Brother Jerry says, “Don’t say it doesn’t get better than this.”
But I’m like; how does it get better than this? But it will, it does get better than this because we are bearing fruit of the Word of God that we have sown in our hearts. People have said, “Oh, but you are soul mates”, no, nonsense. We are just two people that married each other, but then we took the Word of God, we put it in our hearts, and we guarded it in our hearts. We became doers of the Word and the seed in our hearts and we are still bearing fruit after forty years of marriage. We are still bearing fruit, excellent fruit and we will for the next forty years that we are married, John.
Pastor John: We will babe; we will.
Pastor Sharon: We will. I mean, our fruit is getting sweeter and richer and just…
Pastor John: More glorious.
Pastor Sharon: …more glorious. Because we decided to sow the Word into our hearts in the area of marriage.
Pastor John: And that is just one area.
Pastor Sharon: That is just one area.
Pastor John: But we also applied the Word of God, to an area of finances in our lives.
Pastor Sharon: Yes. That’s right.
Pastor John: It produced great fruit.
Pastor Sharon: In an area of our intimacy with God, and it’s producing great fruit.
Pastor John: Our gift, and our calling and our assignment, and it is bearing good fruit. More and more and more as we go forward.
Pastor Sharon: Thank You, Lord, for Your Word that we can sow in our hearts and it can bear fruit.
Pastor John: All of this, is about what we give to God. How open our hearts are to God, because all of this is really, it’s an amazing life to live. I don’t want to focus too much on this, but the Bible says; When the Word comes, persecutions will come with it. You can overcome persecutions if you keep your heart open to the Lord. But this amazing life depends on you continuing to follow God and having your heart open to hear what God has to say.
Pastor Sharon: Yes.
Pastor John: In the recent, last nine months or so in our ministry, Sharon. The Lord has been quite vocal about us coming out of Babylon and God taking our children and for us to be completely dedicated and separated in our lifestyle and our choices to live for Him. What a marvellous result we have seen; what marvellous changes in the people and the hearts of parents, the hearts of children and in the whole climate of what is happening in our churches, Sharon.
It has been quite marvellous to see how God has worked in the hearts of people as they received the Word, responded to the Word.
Pastor Sharon: That’s right. Responded to the Word.
Pastor John: And as they have received the Word and responded to the Word, God was working all the while in the hearts of parents, in the hearts of children and He continues to do that work.
Pastor Sharon: That’s right.
Pastor John: We were saying the other day that some might even be calling what is happening in our church, ‘revival’. Well, we don’t like to use that word too much, because actually every time when you obey the Word, there is newness of things that God brings into your life.
Pastor Sharon: That’s right.
Pastor John: There is a new, a newness, there is a fresh…
Pastor Sharon: There is an awakening.
Pastor John: There is an awakening.
Pastor Sharon: That comes from obedience.
Pastor John: …that comes from obedience.
Pastor Sharon: Revival actually means to make awake the saints.
Pastor John: Yes, yes.
Pastor Sharon: That’s right. There is an awakening that comes through obedience through God’s Word. You can get awake and stay awake, just through continually being obedient to His Word.
Pastor John: Yes. As we have started to come through the change of the old year into the new year of 2021 and we are into February now, the Lord began to say that we should be ministering on finance.
What He wants with our finances and so we’ve been speaking a bit about that and we’ve been preparing you and even today we’ve been speaking to you, that it’s not our business to take our care of how what we shall eat, what we shall drink, what we shall wear, what cars we shall drive, what houses we shall live in. If we seek Him, He will provide for us supernaturally. We believe.
Pastor Sharon, with the strong Word from the Lord, began to share with me and I had a strong witness with it, and so we have been preparing you and putting into context for you, some of the things that we are sharing with you today.
Pastor Sharon you want to …
Pastor Sharon: I wanted to just to go here in the Amplified in the scripture that you read here. It says here, …they accept and welcome it with joy, right. That’s Mark 4:16. At once they accept and welcome it with joy, when they listen to us preaching, they welcome it and they accepted it with joy 17 and they have no real roots in themselves, so they endure only for a little while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the Word, because it always will. When you believe something, there is going to be trouble and persecution that is going to come to test, and that comes from the enemy. 17… they immediately are offended, that word offended, offended, (become displeased, indignant, and resentful) and they stumble and fall away. So, the Word offends them. It is an offence that can come from the Word of God. That’s something that before we go into these messages that the Lord has put on our heart about wealth, finances, and possessions that…
Pastor John: That’s very important
Pastor Sharon: We need to deal with this.
Pastor John: That’s why we are talking about the heart condition this morning. Because the heart condition makes the difference as to whether you get offended or not. If your heart is open and you hear the truth about what God is wanting to say, then you won’t get offended.
Now, while Pastor Sharon is looking for something that she wants to share with you here. I want to say this to you, that Jesus is called the Rock of offence, because what He came to do was to deliver people from a religious spirit. He came to deliver people from the spirit of the world which wants to control your resources, control your life energy, and control your worship. Jesus came to set us free from all of that because the life-giving force of Jesus, the life-giving Word and His death and resurrection continues to be an offence.
When you say, I believe the Word of God, you’re immediately taking Jesus into your heart and you’re saying I’m believing Jesus. Your logic and the world system will war with that to try and offend you.
Pastor Sharon: Yes, because it wants you to think like it, because Satan is the god of this world. He wants to keep the thoughts of your heart trapped in the world system.
Pastor John: He wants to keep you captive.
Pastor Sharon: Yes, so when the Word comes, it is like – oh! There is an opportunity for offence that comes.
Pastor John: And so those words that we used in the Amplified Bible, what were those words?
Pastor Sharon: It says, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the Word, they immediately are offended. Mark 4:17 (AMPC)
Pastor John/Pastor Sharon: They are offended, (become displeased, indignant, and resentful) and they stumble and fall away.
Pastor John: Those words, they become displeased. If you tell me to give my money or my income or my life must be dedicated to an assignment rather than dedicated to myself. My desire for riches, my lust for other things or craving for other things. If you are telling me that my assignment and my life must be full of assignment and that all of that stuff that comes into my life must be for assignment, not for all the stuff then I become displeased. I become resentful and I become indignant. How can you tell me that all of this stuff I worked for is not mine to own?
Pastor Sharon: That’s right
Pastor John: But It’s God’s to use.
Pastor Sharon: Exactly
Pastor John: Right?
Pastor John: That’s how you become offended.
Pastor Sharon: That’s right.
Pastor John: Don’t tell me how I must spend my money. Don’t tell me how I must focus my life or how my life must be for assignment, rather than for what I am pleased to do with my life.
Pastor Sharon: That is what happened in the message of, I will take the children. Many of the parents, before they repented became offended at the Word. Where God says, “I want you dedicating your children to me.” We just brought scripture, that’s all we did. We just brought them the Word that God is saying about children that He wants them dedicated to Him. That He knows the thoughts and the plans that He has for them and you should not be making plans for them if you are not seeking the Lord. You see there it is. You are chasing for your children like the world does, instead of seeking the Lord out of relationship. Lord, what do You have? When we brought them scripture after scripture and many of the parents told us afterwards that we were so offended at the Word. We were indignant.
Pastor John: Because we raised our children with a life career plan, with the best possible options for them in the future.
Pastor Sharon: Yeah we gave them this and we’ve got this planned for them, don’t tell us that we must now seek God about it and let that go.
Pastor John: Yes, if God requested.
Pastor Sharon: Exactly.
Pastor John: Yes, or requires it. Then they became resentful and indignant, but because they allowed their hearts to remain open, God was able to work in their hearts. They received the Word and then it began to bear fruit, and more and more fruit.
Pastor Sharon: That’s right. One of the scriptures here is, as the Lord brings these messages to us people, it’s ministering to Pastor John and I, as much as it is ministering to all of you. The Lord says, “5Do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you’re rebuked by Him; 6For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.” (Hebrews 12:5-6 NKJV) We’ve been saying I am a Son of God. Here is His Word in Hebrews 12:5.
Okay. And it says, “7If you endure chastening (or discipline,) as the Amplified puts it, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten (discipline)? 8 But if you are without chastening (discipline) of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. 9Furthermore, we have had human fathers who have corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? 10For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them.” (Hebrews 12:7-10 NKJV) You see, earthly fathers chasten and discipline like that that seems best, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers for His holiness.
Now, no chastening or discipline seems to be joyful at the present, but painful. There is the offense. “Lord, I thought I was doing good. Now Your Word comes here and oh Lord, you know. It does not seem to be joyful for the present, but painful, nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit. There is the fruit of the Word of God; we don’t become offended at the Word of righteousness of those who have been trained by it.
Pastor John: You can’t be trained in the Word, you can’t be trained in what God is doing, if you are rejecting the Word of God. You have to have an open heart and you have to receive it. I know, I have been there with the Lord many times in my life.
Pastor Sharon: Me too, many times.
Pastor John: When the Word of God comes to me, to correct me and chasten me, it is so painful because it actually highlights something that you know, this has been displeasing to God.
One of the things that I shared publicly because it marked my life so deeply. We had some people that were visiting us from America and they were staying in our home. We had been travelling together and had lots of discussions about lots of things in the Word. I made a fairly strong stand on what I believed in the Word of God and this other Pastor made a fairly strong stand in what he believed.
I went to bed that night and I woke up in the morning and the Holy Spirit was just resting upon me. He was all over me and Sharon got up and prepared breakfast for the guests and the Holy Spirit was just all over me and He led me to a Scripture, in the book of James. He led me to a scripture and immediately He began to reveal to me that what I had been portraying was a Pharisee heart, that in my heart, I was wanting to be right instead of being relational. I wanted to be right.
He said: “If you love Me and you love My body then you will never put what you believe to be right doctrinally, ahead of what you need to have relationally.
Pastor Sharon: I remember.
Pastor John: Remember that Sharon?
Pastor Sharon: I remember the tears. I remember your tears.
Pastor John: When He showed it to me, I just broke in the bedroom, I broke and I wept and I wept and I wept because I realised what happened. I had potentially compromised a relationship with another pastor. I mean, you know, it wasn’t going to separate us, but when I saw how the devil would use something like this to try separate people, Pastors, Preachers, just people in the Body of Christ, “I want to be right,” which is much more important than being relational.
Well, that’s a Pharisee heart, and you remember, I came down stairs eventually and my eyes were all puffy and swollen from crying before the Lord.
Pastor Sharon: We were at the breakfast table and you asked them to forgive you. You shared it with them and it was wonderful.
Pastor John: It was wonderful. It brought such a strengthening of our relationship.
Pastor Sharon: So, that is what we are saying to you: the Word is going to come, God’s coming bold, big and bold, with His Word and with Scripture to us because He loves us. He corrects us because He loves us. He reproves us because He loves us. He doesn’t come to offend us on purpose with His Word, but whatever is in your heart, when truth comes, there’s an opportunity for offense, if your heart is not on the truth. We’re going to be speaking about that. I’m going to give you just a little taste of what to do.
Pastor John: Yes, let’s go there Sharon.
Pastor Sharon: Jesus is called the Rock of offense, a Rock of stumbling in the Church itself. It’s 1 Peter 2:8 in the Amplified Bible, a rock or 8And, A Stone that will cause stumbling and a Rock that will give [men] offense; like Pastor John and I have shared, we know what it is, for the Word to come and correct and for us to be offended and want to be indignant. They stumble because they disobey and disbelieve [God’s] Word (1 Peter 2:8 AMPC). You see, the Word comes to you and then you are offended at it and you chose to disbelieve it. Romans 9:33 in the New King James Version, the Lord says, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” (Romans 9:33 NKJV). So, I don’t know how much time we have got? Maybe we pick up from there next Sunday.
Pastor John: I think we should go, just go a little longer and just talk about where we are going on the financial matter here, Sharon.
Pastor Sharon: Yes, because God is going to have a lot to say to us about our finances, about our wealth, about our positions for one reason only; because it is time for Abundant Overflow. His love is wanting to come and minister Scripture and Word to us, so that we see Abundant Overflow in the light of God’s Word. Not in the light of what you want to think when you think of Abundant Overflow from the world’s perspective.
So, the Barns commentary says about this stumbling, Pastor John, He is called the rock of stumbling not because it was the design of sending Him that people should fall, but because such would be the result. The application of the term Rock to the Messiah, is derived from the custom of a building. He is the Cornerstone and the immovable foundation on which the Church is built. God is immovable on truth.
Pastor Sharon: He is not going to compromise the truth, to make you feel better. That is why the Word says you are going to find yourself some other teachers that are going to scratch the itch of your ear.
What do I do when the message offends me? When the light of His Word shines bright? Recognise your response immediately. Recognise, “I’m offended here. I don’t actually want to hear anything more here.” Recognise your response immediately. Recognise what is happening to you and then fall on the Rock. That’s how the Lord gave it to me. Fall on the Rock, Jesus at once. With that scripture that’s offending you, fall on it. Say, “I’m not going to be offended at this Scripture, I’m going to fall on it. I’m going to take that Scripture that’s offending me and I am going to take it to God my Father and I’m going to relationally take it to Him.”
Fall on the Rock for in that moment of offence, fall on Him in that moment of offence, fall on the Word, the Scripture, the message that brought the offence to you and let it break you. He says in Jeremiah, 29Is not My Word like …. a hammer that breaks in pieces (Jeremiah 23:29 AMPC). So, you take those very Scriptures that are offending you and you let it be like a hammer that breaks into pieces the rock of most stubborn resistance in you. Isn’t that powerful?
If you dismiss it and just remain offended and say, “I’m just not going to receive that. I’ll listen to the other stuff that I like.” You will go dark in the light. Because Matthew 21, 44 says, 44Whosoever shall fall on this Rock shall be broken, but on whomsoever, it shall fall It shall actually grind him to powder. (Matthew 21:44 NKJV) You can’t do anything against the truth, only for it, Pastor John. You have to fall on it.
I remember how offended I was. I grew up in the AFM and I had sound doctrine in the AFM. I was a good AFM. My father was a pastor in the AFM. When God planted us in our church and they started to talk to us about prosperity and blessing, and finances. I was offended, I was indignant, I was displeased. I thought this is all about money, this is all about, and I used all those other words that other people use, but you know what I did? I fell on the Rock. I took all of the scriptures that the ministers, where God planted us, were bringing. I took all the scriptures in relationship to the Lord and God opened it up to me. I’m so glad He did because we have borne fruit. We were so poor, if I had stayed offended, we would have stayed poor. Hey, John?
We allowed that revelation light to come in completely.
Pastor John: We did, and the journey that you take is, you first recognise God for who He is, He is the provider, He is the abundant One, He is the El Shaddai, the One who provides everything. He’s the One who gives in abundance and He’s the One who feeds you and provides for you and so that is part of His name. That is part of how He makes Himself known to you. You first encounter God as we did. We were poor, had no money, we had no real opportunities facing us that could really do anything for us.
Pastor Sharon: We would have served God anyway. We would have served God poor; for the rest of our lives.
Pastor John: We would have. Oh yes, because God is in our hearts. When we received that Word, we received it with joy and we began to apply the Word, which became a declaration of His Word, so that we could get to know what His Word was able to do for us.
As we spoke the Word and we became aware of what His Word was doing for us, it strengthened in our hearts, opened our hearts and the Word began to bear fruit. The Word grew thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold, and as the Word grew, more and more things began to be added to us because we were seeking His Word.
I think it’s important for us to say, Sharon, that we didn’t just seek His Word for money or for provision. We were seeking His Word in our marriage, we were seeking His Word in our assignment in the Church. We were seeking His Word with our children because we wanted His way; His life.
Pastor Sharon: Completely in us.
Pastor John: Everything that He is, in every part of our lives.
Pastor Sharon: Exactly.
Pastor John:We didn’t just want it on a Sunday or when it was convenient, we wanted it all the time.
Pastor Sharon: On a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
Pastor John: All the time. We wanted God in our lives all the time.
Pastor Sharon: 24/7
Pastor John: We wanted all of His goodness to be there for everything that we did.
Pastor Sharon: Yes.
Pastor John: We just knew, through teaching, we just knew that God is good and that if we live in God then God is going to be good to us.
Pastor Sharon: Exactly.
Pastor John: That is the foundation of everything. When He comes to you and He says, “I want you to do something on assignment,” then you just know that if He asks you to do something on assignment He’s not just going to say, “Give Me and I’ll give nothing back.” He’s always going to say, “Whatever you give Me on assignment, I’m going to multiply it back to you.”
When you bring your gift and your talent and your calling, whether it be a musician, whether it be a singer, whether it be someone who serves when church comes back together again and you have a need for a car park attendant and you need things like that. Where other people can serve more in their gifts, and you feel that’s part of your assignment. Well, God is going to bless you in your assignment. He’s going to bless you because of your assignment. Some people get to do it, part-time and some people get to do it full time. I think we’ll pick up next time on this matter.
Pastor Sharon: There’s a lot of things that we’re going to be picking up on now.
Pastor John: Perhaps we can just let the people know, Sharon, that we’re going to be quite specific about money and about finances and about wealth.
Pastor Sharon: Yes, because the Word is quite specific, the Word is quite specific.
Pastor John: The wealth that God is wanting to bring to us right now is, because the world is trying to constrain us, trying to control the Church, it’s trying to control people through economies. He’s trying to stifle the flow of money. What’s happening in the world now, is that the rich are getting richer because as the shares drop and up and down. The wealthy people buy shares, the wealthy people invest in things that are now wholesale because people need money. What’s happening through this whole process is that people are getting richer. The rich are getting richer. The money is coming into those that want to control the money and it should be in the hands of the Church, but it’s trying to be controlled by others. God is wanting us to speak to you about finance and how we see money, so that He can cause Abundant Overflow to come to us in the local church in this year of Abundance, hallelujah.
I think Sharon, we need to pray and just bless the people as we close and then we’ll have the next phase of the meeting after that.
Let’s just take hands and let’s just pray and just join us in prayer right now, hallelujah.
Father, we thank You for this Word that has come and we pray that as people hear the Word, their hearts are open, they receive the Word and they allow the Word to do the work that it needs to do in their hearts. We pray, Father, that right now that instead of being offended and rejecting and resisting God, they will allow the Word of God to do a work in their hearts. We pray Father that You heal them, You bless them, You prosper them, You increase them and You give them peace in this time when there is very little peace anywhere. We thank You, Lord, that You protect them from sickness and disease and that Your blessings rest upon them and Your mantle of grace and glory comes upon them, fills their homes, fills up in their relationships and joy and peace will be their portion in this season. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Q & A Pastor John And Sharon Bendixen
Now we’re still live and we’re going to go into a questions and answers session and we’ve been inviting you while you’ve been listening to the message or some of the messages that you’ve been hearing over the weeks gone by, that perhaps there would be something that you would want us to answer.
So we have some questions that have been sent through and they’re excellent questions and we’ve answered some of them.
• How do you apply the 2021 prophetic word to your life and how are you going big and bold in the prophetic word?
Pastor John to Pastor Sharon: You want to answer the first one and I’ll answer the second part?
Pastor Sharon: Well you know, John, I think we’ve already answered it in the beginning of our message, it’s to be in His presence. It’s to have that personal relationship with Him. You actually can’t apply the prophetic word to your life or even Go Big and Bold without that relationship; working relationship with Him. God talking, you talk to Him, He talks to you, you know?
When I take the prophetic word, how am I going to apply it? I take it, like we’ve got it on the website already and people have already printed it or got on their iPads and things. I begin to take it to the Lord in relationship and I begin to go; “Oh Lord, go big and go bold, yes Lord, Pastor John said we must be bold in defence for our protection, bold in offence which means it’s time to attack”, which means, aggressively, “Go after the things of God regardless of circumstances. Bold in our new directions.” Well we certainly had a new direction in I Will Take The Children and we’ve got another new direction of the Word, to be bold to go into this new direction that the Word is taking us into. I take the prophetic word to the Lord, Brother Jerry’s A New Era has Begun, you know, and I talk to the Lord with it, I sit with Him and the Word and I speak it with Him and speak it out, meditate on it, because a new era has begun, but it’s also the new open door.
Pastor John: So, as you speak it, Sharon, you open your heart, as we’ve been talking about, and then the Word grows in your heart and then as that Word grows in your heart, God will begin to show you where to be bold and how to be bold. (Pastor Sharon: Exactly.)
So it’s not just a question of; I’m going to be big and bold in everything that I’m going to be going with. It’s as you declare that Word and as you spend time in His presence, He will show you how to be big and how to be bold as He reveals it to you.
Pastor Sharon: That’s why Abraham could be big and bold because it was in His presence.
Pastor John: I mean, we just had an amazing week away with the MiXchange Interns and the young people and my A-Team, and under the current circumstances that we had, most people wouldn’t even dare to think about doing that and go ahead and actually execute it and do it and go away for a week and spend time in relationship and fellowship and spending time with God. For me, Sharon, that was going big and going bold in a time when everyone is going small and stopping things and holding on to things. I just said, “Lord, I trust You to always look after us and to make sure that whatever we invest in the Kingdom is going to come back to us”.
• What do I have to do to ensure that the Word falls onto good ground in my life?
This is right up your alley. Go, girl.
Pastor Sharon: Right up my alley. Wow! I mean, a lot of you can answer it but that’s a very, very important question for those of you that don’t know what do I have to do to ensure that the Word falls onto good ground in my life.
Well, you need to get my series of The Hardworking Farmer, the revelation that God gave me, but to plough a hard heart, there’s that scripture, I don’t have it on hand immediately, but Judah shall plough… and the word Judah is praise. So, praise, to live a life of praise will plough up a hard heart.
Pastor John: It will keep your heart fertile.
Pastor Sharon: And then, to live a life of praise will keep your heart soft and fertile because praise is the fruit of lips that thankfully acknowledge and confess and glorify God for who He is. So, that’s why we’ve been doing praise out of the Psalms and in the Being Filled Speaking.
I’ve given you examples of how I praise. I praise from His Word. I praise God from His Word so that I keep my heart soft.
Pastor John: On a very basic level, Sharon, I always wake up every day and the first things that come out of my mouth is; “Thank you, Lord, that I had a good sleep. Thank you that I’m awake. Thank you that I’m alive. Thank you that my day is ahead of me, that You fill my day. I’m a son of God.” I still have basic things that I… it’s not a ritual for me. It’s always flowing out of my heart. I’m thankful – that is already praise. That is already praise. It keeps your heart soft. It keeps your heart thankful and grateful.
I would say, if you’re thankful and grateful and you’re praising Him and you’re telling Him just that He’s amazing and He’s a wonderful God, if you just do that every day through moments in the day, it will keep your heart soft.
Pastor Sharon: Yes, because the power of acknowledgment of God and who He is that comes to your heart when you praise, it’s that power that you acknowledge who He is and you’re saying it and it’s real to you that actually, it works in your heart. Powerful principle of praise.
Pastor John: So, the next question is; How do we sow our God-given gifts in the church during this time of lockdown?
• How do we sow our God-given gifts in the church during this time of lockdown?
Well, it’s two-fold. The one is; certainly, you can keep giving tithes and offerings and keep giving of your financial gift and, if you’re able, you can extend that. The other way of doing it is to phone into the church and say, “Is there something that we can do, phone calls that we can make to the rest of the Body of Christ, some food that we can hand out, some people that we can connect with. There will be ways if you phone into the church, and you are looking for something. At the very least, you can pray for someone, and you don’t have to have to necessarily, say this person has got a financial need so will you pray for them? We could just give you names of people that you could pray for, and you could just pray for people in the time of lockdown. You don’t even have to phone the church for that. You know people in the church, you know people around you, and you can just pray for them, spend time praying for them. And that is a way that your God given gift can work in the body of Christ.
Pastor Sharon: Absolutely, your gift of mercy, your gift of finance that Romans 12 talks about, your gift, all of your gifts, it doesn’t stop functioning just because of lockdown, you should be in touch with people, you should be in touch with them at least on WhatsApp, calling them and being obedient to the Holy Spirit, to be encouraging somebody, and… Continuing your life in the presence of God will cause your gift to keep flowing,
Pastor John: Yes
Pastor Sharon: Because He will lead you.
Pastor John: Yes.
Pastor Sharon: Everything stems from how you started this morning off, Pastor John.
Pastor John: Yes, yes, exactly.
Pastor Sharon: Is to be in His presence, and then He will lead you.
Pastor John: That’s right.
Pastor Sharon: He will lead you to continue in your God given gift in the church. It will be by default; it will be organically happening in your life.
Pastor John: Yes, so last question, and then we are going to go off the air, but…” How do you explain the significance of the “Word of Faith” to a Christian who doesn’t believe in it?” Well that’s a very big question.
• How do you explain the significance of the “Word of Faith” to a Christian who doesn’t believe in it?
Pastor Sharon: That’s a loaded question, ya it is.
Pastor John: That’s a loaded, but I guess in a very simple basic level, one would have to say: “Do you believe that Jesus saved you?” Because if they are a Christian, then they must believe that Jesus saved them, and so the best way to, without getting into a debate, and often debating with someone has no real value, because they take a position, and they want to defend their position.
Pastor Sharon: No, it has no value. They want to be right.
Pastor John: They want to be right.
Pastor Sharon: So you mustn’t take the position where you want to be right.
Pastor John: So don’t take a position, but in very basic questions, I don’t think you should disagree with them, or have an argument with them, you should merely go to Romans chapter 10, and go to Romans 10 verse 8 to 10, and then verse 17. If you read Romans chapter 10 verse 8, he talks about how the confession of the Word of God, what you believe in your heart and what you speak with your mind, has the power to get you saved. And that’s how you got saved, it is because you believed in your heart, and you confessed. You confessed Jesus with your mouth, and you believed it in your heart. So every Christian must believe that, if they are a Christian. And so then you can just, let me say, then you and I don’t agree, disagree what the Word of Faith is, we agree.
Pastor Sharon: We agree.
Pastor John: Because you believe in your heart, and you speak it with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord, and that is the Word of Faith.
Pastor Sharon: That is the Word of Faith
Pastor John: So if they then say, “Well what about, you always talk about the word of faith on money, and word of faith and so…” Say “Well, I don’t want to argue with you, I apply that principle to every area of my life.”
Pastor Sharon: And to every promise in God’s Word. And to every promise. I apply the same principle of being born again, to every promise that God makes in His Word to me. I believe in the promises of God’s Word.
Pastor John: Yes, amen. Well, we wanted to do this, because God has got some big things in store for us, and in terms of the broadcasting community and the broader broadcasting networks that are out there, we are exploring options of doing live teaching, and then having live Q&A’s coming through different social media platforms.
Pastor Sharon: Yes
Pastor John: So thank you for joining us today, and helping us today to practice what God has got in store for us, as we go big and bold.
Pastor Sharon: Yes, because we have the sense that God’s favour and pleasure is on, and the way that Pastor John and I are ministering right now. So we are checking in with the Lord, and seeking Him, just to find out, you know, how He wants us to go and flow, go and flow right now in big and bold, and we are finding it quite exciting, very exciting. So it has been wonderful to be with you like this, thank you.
Pastor John: Thank you for being with us, thank you for the questions, God bless you.
Pastor Sharon: Ya, God bless you.
Pastor John: Bye
Pastor Sharon: Bye everybody
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