Scripture Reference: Romans 12:1-2 (TPT); Romans 12:1-2 (MSG); John 15:9-15 (NKJV); Acts 2:28 (NKJV); Acts 13:49-52 (NKJV); Acts 20:22-23 (NKJV); Romans 14:1-18 (NKJV); Romans 15:13 (NKJV)
Welcome to church this Sunday morning. It’s been a little bit cool around the country, a little bit cold. I still trust and hope that you’ve made an effort to get to church. And for those in Johannesburg, We’ll be communicating with you to see what the weather conditions do, so that you, please watch your social media communications with us closely based on what the weather pattern will do, depending on how we’re going to do the Sunday afternoon service.
I want to talk to you about my current favourite subject that the Lord is wanting me to minister to you and that is Blow Your Mind. I love it when I say that; blow your mind. It’s like one of those things that one of those skateboard dudes would do, you know, like doing a wild jump or one of these people that do these bicycle rides, riding through Paris or Rome or something and they’re coming down steps and then they’re jumping on car roofs or, you know – blow your mind, feels like that. So that’s why I like the name that the Lord gave me; Blow Your Mind.
Last week I talked about, Blow Your Mind With Rewards. This week I’m going to take you on a journey with Blow Your Mind With Joy, because in this season, it seems like everybody’s losing their joy. Like every time you talk to somebody, “How’s it going?” “It’s going alright.” “So you know, are you healthy? Are you well?” And of course that’s an important question. And then it seems like not too far after that everybody’s talking about somebody who had got Covid, all things Covid. It’s all about Covid. Or it’s all about government or it’s all about economics or something. Seems like all these conversations happen before you really get down to talking about God.
I walked into a place this morning, and well, I had a medical check-up because I’m going away with a bunch of young people that are going to put me under pressure on bicycles and camping and all that kind of stuff and I’ve got to feel good. Got to know that I’m strong. So when I walked into the doctor’s room, he got a response from me that he gets from very few people. He said, “So how are you?” So I said, “I’m strong like 10 buffaloes.” You know, and it’s like, what? Who comes to see the doctor and says, “I’m strong like 10 buffaloes”? Well, it’s just one of the things I do whenever I go away on a significant event or significant activity. I just have a medical check-up. It’s one of those things I do that the wisdom of the Lord has given me to do that every six months or whatever or every time I just go to have a check-up and make sure that all my vital signs are good. – there’s nothing that seems to be out of order. Makes Pastor Sharon feel good, makes me feel good, iIt makes everybody… and I’ve got my faith out there because medically, I know there’s nothing that is out of order. Amen. But it was like when I walked into his office, he wanted to keep me there because he hadn’t had a patient with that much joy for a long time. Let’s blow our mind with joy.
And so I’ve been reading scriptures, my go to scripture has been in Romans chapter 12, verse one, from The Passion Translation. I’m going to just read both of the scriptures I’ve been reading to you from The Passion and the Message translation. So, 1Beloved friends, the Passion says, what should be our proper response to God’s marvelous mercies? I encourage you to surrender yourselves to God to be his sacred, living sacrifices. You know, really, this is such a powerful passage of Scripture, this verse alone, I could spend weeks talking about it because that one sentence, I encourage you to surrender yourselves to God to be his sacred, living sacrifices, the amount of surrender that is possible, the sacrifices that can be given, and what God can do with that is quite amazing. And live in holiness, experiencing all that delights his heart. Sho, you want to experience the delights of God’s heart? You’ve got to do those other things. For this becomes your genuine expression of worship. Not worship because you sing it, worship because you live it. Two very big things, different things. 2Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes (Romans 12:1-2 TPT). You want to live a beautiful life? Then it has to be satisfying and perfect in His eyes. How do you get to do that? Total reformation of how you think. You’ve got to just think completely differently.
You know, it’s one thing to say, if you talk to a medical doctor, and he says to you, “I think you should change your diet.” And you say, Okay?” He says, “Well, you’re eating too much meat, and you’re drinking too much coffee and having too much sugar.” So okay, he says, “You should cut down.” So then you look at your diet, and you say, “Alright, I’ll tell you what I’m going to do; instead of having a whole bar of chocolate every night, I’m going to have a half a bar of chocolate every night. And instead of having a muffin every day I’m going to have half a muffin every day.” Well, certainly it’s going to be better for you but you haven’t had a total transformation of your thinking. You’re still eating chocolates, you’re still eating muffins and you’re still going about your business. So, you need to be in a place where you totally transform your thinking. That might mean, “Hey, I’m cutting out muffins. I’m cutting out chocolates. I’m now going to eat bunny food.” Well, that might not be that pleasant – I’m being quite radical here and I’m a bit tongue-in-the-cheek, a bit funny with this now. But it may require for you to actually say, “Hey, I’m cutting out chocolate. I’m cutting out muffins and I’m going to explore what things I can eat that are a lot healthier for me. “
So, for example, you know, I discovered in my life that one of the things that really satisfies me, particularly if I’m in a training programme and I’m training for something, is I eat date balls. But I don’t just eat date balls, I eat date balls that are made with cacao powder and little bit of dates and things that are fairly healthy but it’s sweet enough but it’s not a big sugar rush. And then, if I’m going to be riding out on a ride and I’m doing a lot of training, I watch what my intake is so that I’m keeping on my energy levels. Point I’m saying is that if you just go here the doctor say, you know, “Change your diet,” and you just say, “Okay, I’m going to cut out half of what I used to eat,” you don’t have a reformed thinking. You’re just doing less thinking. Or, your thinking is allowing you to just do less of what you have been doing. That’s not a reformed thinking. A reformed thinking, a transformed thinking is, “Hey, I have a completely different mindset.”
I used diet just because it applies to all of us. But this applies to money; it applies to the way you approach your future in terms of economic development; your potential and career development; your gifts, your callings; it applies to al of that. You’ve got to have a whole new mindset about how God can promote you and position you in life rather than the way you think. Stick with me, this is about joy because this gets good.
The Message translation says, 1-2So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. So, this is part of the transformation – embracing what God’s got for you rather than you telling God this is what I’m going to do. It’s a complete reversal. This is the biggest thing that you can do. You want joy? Let God tell you what He wants for you. You don’t tell God what you want from Him. Big, big difference. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Here it is again – recognize what he wants from you, … respond to it. This is not, I think I’ll tell God what I want to do today and He must help me do it. Completely different transformed way of thinking. 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). So you and I – I think it’s really great that we have an opportunity that we can talk with God. We can allow our minds to be transformed and renewed and have a different way of thinking.
This morning I woke up and the wind was howling on my windows. Our house is in such a place where there’s just no interruption of the wind when it comes from that direction. And some of our rooms are quite high up off the ground, almost a triple story above the ground. And when that wind hits there – I mean, it’s howling, you know. It’s just like it makes a noise that hits the windows, it’s just noisy. And when I woke up and the wind was blowing like that, I just had the sense of, I had this amazing sense of God’s power in me. You know, it just surged in me. And the surge was; this is just an element that is within God’s power. There is nothing about this element that is in God’s power that can harm me. God’s lordship is in me. Jesus is in me. And I don’t find any need to stop the weather pattern as it is now. It’s not doing damage, it’s not doing any destruction, it’s not harmful, it’s just uncomfortable. But I had the surge in me that if I start thinking every day about where does God want me to exercise authority, where does He want me to pray into, where does He want me to be part of something that He wants me to do? My whole day, I begin to think differently about my day. I mean, I live a lot like that anyway. But today it was a weather thing that got me, you know, just a wind thing.
So I want to say that just right away, I really would like to have church in Johannesburg on Sunday afternoon. And I ask the Heavenly Father right now and I speak to the wind and the bad weather to go away from the Gauteng area so that we can have a wonderful church service on Sunday afternoon. Amen. Would you agree with me? Amen. Hallelujah. So, you know, everything starts some where. I start taking charge of that weather pattern today. Amen.
So now, John chapter 15, verse nine, says, 9As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love (John 15:9 NKJV). This is an invitation that is also a command. But it is an invitation that doesn’t necessarily need a command because if you accept the invitation, it’s out of relationship you accept it. Out of joy you accept it. If you don’t accept it out of joy, it becomes a command. So it’s like, “Come, let’s jump in the car,” if you’re talking to your kids, “Come, let’s jump in the car. We’re going on holiday.” It’s a command but it’s an invitation. But it’s not really a bad command, you want to do this because it’s an invitation because we are going on holiday. Right? But, “Get in the car, we’re going to school.” “Ugh, I don’t want to go to school.” It’s still an invitation. But you’ve made it more of a command because you don’t want to go there. Either way, it needs to be obeyed. But the way you obey it has quite a big impact on how you actually can go forward in it.
10If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full (John 15:10-11 NKJV). There’s a few statements Jesus is making here. He’s saying; You’ve got to abide in My love, you’ve got to keep My commandments, you’ve got to let the love of God that’s in Me, let it be in you. Walk in the love that’s in Me. 11These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you (John 15:11 NKJV) So if He’s saying that My joy may remain in you, it means that your joy can be taken away from you. And He’s saying, don’t let the joy be taken away from you. How do you keep the joy? Abide, stay in the love. Feel the love, man, feel the love.
He’s saying 10…that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full (John 15:10 NKJV). Not half full, not just a little bit to kickstart you in the morning – 10…that your joy may be full (John 15:10 NKJV). So blow your mind completely and say to yourself, “Self, you must obey God and love Him and you must be full of joy.” Well, Pastor John there is a lot of stuff going on in my heart and in my life and there’s a lot of anxiety and there’s a lot of questions and a lot of uncertainties and there’s a lot of stuff. Well, hey, you’ve just given me a whole lot of reasons why you don’t want to abide. You’ve just given me a whole lot of reasons why you don’t want to transform your thinking. You’ve just given me a whole lot of reasons why you’re deeply steeped in the culture because that’s the way they think. What about if you just abide, just abide, and you just abide and you let Him guide you. And you’ve let Him guide you with your joy and peace and your joy is so full. And as you’re in this joy moment with God, He just says, “Wow, check out the joy that’s going on with you and Me and the abiding and love and go here, do this, say this. Write this down. Wow.” Whole transformed way of life, new thinking. Just completely new thinking.
12This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14You are My friends (John 15:12-14 NKJV). So He’s just saying; I lay my life down for My friends, you are My friends. If you do whatever I command you … So our relationship is a whole different level if you do what I command you. We have this companionship. We have this flow like friends have a flow. We have a friend relationship if you do what I tell you because then there’s no conflict because your thinking is My thinking. We’re connected in thought life. We’re connected in emotion. We’re connected in peace. We’re connected. Because joy is an emotion. It’s a spiritual force emotion but it’s an emotion. Hallelujah.
13Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you (John 15:13-15 NKJV).
If you watch my Morning Moments I’ve been doing over the last two weeks, I’ve been talking about one of the most powerful things you can do as a servant and the power of serving is much greater than being a servant or having a slave mentality. Because you can choose to serve, and have the power of serve, where serving work for you in the corporate space, with your friends, in a sporting environment, anywhere you can serve. So, I am wanting you to have this mindset; if you can have a mind-set – Jesus came to the earth to serve. He came to serve us. He left all of what was in heaven, to come to take on the body of a man, and subject His life and take all of His glory and all of His life and put it into the body of a man. So, He did that so He could come and serve us. Ultimately He did it so that He could serve the Father and He could serve us by dying. So, He came to die.
Here’s the difference in serving. When Jesus says I have come to do the will of the Father, He asks the Father, “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me, nevertheless, not My will, but Your will be done.” What is this conversation going on? This is a conversation that is so intimate because they both understand what He is about to go through And in all of the eternal planning, Jesus gets to a moment where He still asks the Father, “Can this pass from Me?” And the Father says, “You’ve got to go. You’ve got to do this.” Nevertheless, not My will but Your will be done.
I say to you, the power of serving, the power of serving unlocks joy. The power of serving unlocks peace because if I serve without trying to control, if I serve without trying to be controlled, if I serve with joy that doesn’t mean to say I become a servant – neither do I become a slave. Jesus said, “I’ve come to lay down My life.” Pontius Pilate says to Him, “Don’t you know I have the power over Your life? I can take Your life.” Jesus says to him, “I might be here to serve but the power is all Mine. I serve through power.” Come on, this is great stuff. I serve through power. Because Jesus is standing in front of Pontius Pilate, He says, “If you knew how much power I have, I could call on legions of angels and they would immediately show what Kingdom I have and what power I have in My Kingdom. But I choose to harness that power and serve you. And you can’t take My life unless I let you. So, I permit you to take My life.” That is the level of serving. So why did Jesus do that? He said, He endured the cross because of the joy that was set before Him. Just because you serve and you sacrifice and you transform your thinking and you give your body as a sacrifice, doesn’t mean to say you are in weakness. You are in the biggest place of strength in your life when you say; I sacrifice, I give my body, transform my thinking, I serve God with my life, I let my gifts and callings be used by Him. You are right in that moment where He’s saying; your joy is now about to be full because you do everything I tell you to do. Blow your mind, let your life be filled with joy. Wow, amazing stuff, amazing stuff. You can’t actually have this joy unless you blow your mind. Blow it up. Blow up your old thinking. That’s what the Bible says – do not be conformed, but be transformed. Just blow up your old thinking about ‘weh, weh, weh.’ Let God just really take your life and run it. Wow.
I want to just share two things with you quickly. Yesterday afternoon, I mean, my days have been very, very hectic. I’ve had lots of big decisions to make, lots of activity, lots of teaching, lots of preaching, lots of stuff going on – international phone calls, many, many things going on. We’re about to get down to the real specifics of launching our next album which is what my meetings are about this afternoon and so, it is just a lot of stuff that is going on. So, Pastor Sharon had a prayer meeting here last night, and she came home and I was on my bed and I was resting and was actually trying to keep myself awake until she came. I succeeded, barely, you know. When I heard she came, I got up and I went and then she came in and she had a bath because she was cold. She had a bath and when she was ready to get into bed, I had my tracksuit on. She went from the bath, dried herself and went from steaming hot skin into the bed. You get the picture? It’s like; I am hot, I am not losing this heat, I am jumping straight into the bed. So, I went and laid on top of the covers and I went and laid next to her. So her knees were about by my head and I put my head on her thighs like this and she put her hand on my head and I said, “Babe, I have been waiting for you to come home just because I need you to be affectionate to me. I just need you to give me a moment of your love. Just give me your heart. Just let your love just flow and wash over me. I just need the human and spiritual love that you have – just for a moment, just minister love to me.” So I am just wanting to make sure that you all understand – this is not eros love. This is just affection. This is just her ministering kindness, gentleness, affection to me. Why did I need it? I get it from the Heavenly Father. But I needed her to just minister to me. Because I felt that in that moment, her affection would just give me joy.
Let me tell you something; when you do whatever the Father tells you to do, you have moments with Him like that. Where you go to the Father and you say, “Father, I am frazzled. I have been working hard. I have been doing that. I have been doing this. I do not need anything from You. I am not asking You for anything. I am just wanting Your presence to minister joy to me, minister peace to me, minister love to me.” And guess what? He shows up. His presence will overwhelm you because He listens to you. He wants to be that heavenly Father to you. That’s how the Holy Spirit just shows up in your room, and suddenly you just are enveloped with peace. Hallelujah.
I want to read you Acts chapter two verse 28. 28You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your presence (Acts 2:28 NKJV). Those two verses connect so well together. 28You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your presence (Acts 2:28 NKJV). Because if you do what God tells you to do, you know His commands, you obey His commands – You make me full of joy in Your presence. Blow your mind, people. Blow your mind, blow your mind – get joy. Walk around in corona time, walk around in economic depression time, walk around in sickness and disease time and smile and tell people how great your life is. Well, it does not look so great, does not feel so great, does not think it is going to be so great. Well, then go ahead, make it bad. Be as bad as everybody else. No, blow your mind. Do not. Blow your mind, blow your mind and be full of joy.
What about Acts chapter 13 verse 49, to 52, 49And the word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region. 50But the Jews stirred up the devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city, raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas. Persecution, I mean, we’re talking about serious persecution. The whole city is now being mobilised to come up against Paul and Barnabas but they did what Jesus instructed the other disciples to do. They shook off the dust from their feet against them. They said, “Hey, you don’t want us in the city. We take our peace with us. We take our joy with us. We take our blessing with us.” And so that city just became cursed. So, … they shook off the dust from their feet against them, and came to Iconium. 52And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit (Acts 13:49-52 NKJV).
49 “And the word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region. But the Jews stirred up the devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city, raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, 51 they shook off the dust from their feet against them, and came to Iconium. 52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 13:49-52 NKJV) What? You mean they had persecution, and they had to do this whole thing of shaking the dust off their feet, take their peace with them and all of that, but they were filled with joy? Yeah, because God’s Word is being spread and they are following the leading of the Holy Spirit. Just because something is negative, and something starts out negative, I mean in Paul and Barnabas’ life, I mean, it is like they are preaching the Gospel and suddenly the whole city is, “These guys are … these guys are that.” I mean, we do not even think about the half of the stuff they went through but, “Ah, you get away you here, you heretic, you cult, you this…” And they raise up all the people in the city and they forced them out the city. They came to preach to the city and now they are forced out the city. Sheesh. But they are filled with joy because they are on assignment for God. Great stuff, hey?
Another thing here in Acts chapter 20, verse 22, 22And see, now I go, this is Paul again, I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem (John 20:22 NKJV). In other words, his spirit was bound by assignment. Okay, he had to go to Jerusalem, by prophetic word he had to go to Jerusalem. … not knowing the things that will happen to me there, 23except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me (Acts 20:23 NKJV). “So I am bound by prophetic word to go to Jerusalem. And the one thing I know by the Holy Spirit that He previously ministered to me, every city I go to, I am going to go in, I am going to be put in chains and have tribulation.” You might say, “Well, stay out the cities for a bit, Paul.” “No, God said go to the cities, go to the people.” 24But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God (Acts 20:24 NKJV). He’s saying, “I do not even worry about going to Jerusalem.” I mean, if you read the whole story they tried to stop him from going to Jerusalem, and they had a prophetic word that he was going to be bound and all that kind of stuff, but he said, “I am used to this. I know this. Every city I go to I get bound up. None of it moves me. I have got to go anyway to be obedient to God. And I count it all joy. It is to my joy. So that I might finish my race with joy.”
Hey, come on. We think that actually, we smart people, talented, got the stuff, we think we’ve got the right to run our lives the way we want to run our lives. You’ve been indoctrinated by culture, you’ve been indoctrinated by the ways of the system, the ways of the world. You will have no better than the ways of the world. And you say, “Well, if I have good ways of the world that’s a good life.” Sorry to tell you; no joy, no peace, no God involvement, no God direction, no God blessing, no God favour. You may make a way for yourself that might look like that. But in a while it will start to crumble. It can’t be sustained. It’s just the truth.
Okay, joy sustains you. Joy keeps you strong. Joy invigorates you, gets the blood flowing so to speak. Your spirit life energy, assignment flowing. Lose hope, lose joy, lose strength, go slow. And that’s like being on strike for God, you know. Lose strength, go slow, lose hope, go on strike. Please don’t go on strike with God. Get hope, get joy, get strength, go fast, be effective, be productive. Yeah, glory to God. Hallelujah. Blow your mind with joy.
17For the kingdom, Romans chapter 14 verse 17 says, 17for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17 NKJV). Hey, come on this kingdom that we’re living in is not about how much we’re going to eat, what are we going to wear, what we’re going to drink. God’s taken care of all of that. This kingdom that we’re living in is about our right ways with God and then those things bring peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18For he who serves Christ in [e]these things is acceptable to God and approved by men (Romans 4:18 NKJV). What better deal have you got, … is acceptable to God and approved by men. Acceptable to God and approved by men. Go Jesus. Get the joy; blow Your Mind.
When the mind comes against you with all these things, say, “Hey mind, I blow your thinking up – stinking thinking. I blow it.” Just get up. I’m doing this lately. Because I’m preaching on this, I’m doing this. I’m literally doing this. I picture myself. I’ve did it last night, something was coming against my mind and I pictured myself because I know what happens in the army – I’ve been there. I pictured myself, I took this grenade. I said, “Here it comes, mind.” And I lobbed it and I watched this grenade blow up on my thought. And so now where is the thought? Come on, now. It’s blown to pieces. So I’ve got to go and fetch that little piece there and that little piece there to try and put it together. Blow it up. Hallelujah. Glory to God.
And finally, last scripture, 13Now may the God of hope, our God is a God of Hope. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. Believe everything He said, believe in your abiding, believe in everything. That you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13 NKJV). Wow, the scripture, 13Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy. God is hope. God is a joy God. You feel hopeless, you feel ‘we, we, we’ – blow your mind up. Because God’s a God of hope. You feel like I’ve got no joy, blow your mind up, get joy, make yourself happy. I’ve done this from time to time. I’ve taken my fingers and I’ve put them on my mouth and I say, “You will smile, John. You will be happy and be joyful, John.” I’ve done that. Not only once. I’ve walked around my house and I’ve jumped and I say, “You will praise, John. You will joy, John. You will joy,” and my lip felt like I was walking on it. Why did I want to do that? Because I’ve got no business being hopeless. I’ve only got business being hopeful. And if I feel hopeless, it’s a feeling that can change. It’s subject to change. My circumstances are subject to change. Everything happening around me is subject to change. I change it with hope, I change it with joy, I change it with peace, I change it with the Word of God. And so any of those hopeless, not joyful, bad thoughts, I blow them up. Blow them up, blow them up. Gooi (threw) enough bombs that they never come back. Hallelujah.
So I pray, as I close, I pray that this day, this week ahead of you, that you blow up your mind with joy. Blow up your mind and get the rewards. Just be transformed, be renewed, go with God, understand His ways and His assignment and His abiding that He wants you to do. He calls you friend when you obey Him and do things that He wants you to do. He says, “Come on, friend, let’s have a relationship. Let’s talk. And by the way, here’s all My hope and here’s all the joy that it may be full in you. Walk in righteousness with Me and walk in peace and don’t worry about eating and drinking; I’ve taken care of that.” Come on, that’s the God we serve.
I pray your week will be filled with those ideas and those thoughts and those meditations and He will fill with the presence of Himself and the glory of Himself. And God will be good to you. And may He protect you, may He keep you. May no weapon formed against you prosper. And I pray that you will walk into the week ahead of you with strength, with joy, and with just the knowing that God is on your side and He’s not against you. In Jesus’ name.
© 2023 – Heritage of Faith Ministries International
TOUCH | TEACH | TRAIN | TRANSFER
