Blow Your Mind With Light Pastor John Bendixen (JHB)
Scripture Reference: Colossians 3:1-2 (NKJV); Colossians 3:1 (TPT); Colossians 3:1-2 (MSG); 1 Corinthians 1:18-19 (MSG); Romans 12:1-2 (MSG); Romans 8:38-39 (NKJV); Ephesians 1:11-12 (MSG); Ephesians 6:12 (AMPC); Ephesians 6:10-12 (NLT); Matthew 6:23-24 (AMPC); Luke 11:34 (AMPC); Luke 11:34-36 (TPT); John 12:35-37 (ESV); Ephesians 1:18-21 (TPT); Ephesians 2:10 (TPT); Ephesians 3:7-10, 20 (TPT); Ephesians 4:11-14 (TPT); Ephesisan 6:10-13 (TPT)
Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. It is my heart’s desire, Father, as we come before You this afternoon that You will minister your Word to us by the person of the Holy Spirit. And we declare that we receive all that You have for us. We have open hearts, open minds and we are ready to hear everything that You need to say. Father, we know that Your words are not just the same as men’s words – Your words are everlasting. They’re ever productive, they’re ever balancing all of our lives in the scale of life and death, and light and darkness. And so I pray Father, that Your words will continue to bring us into light and strength and minister the words of Your great love to us this afternoon. Thank You, Father. Thank You, Father. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Praise Jesus. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. Glory to God.
Before I start our ministry this afternoon, next Sunday, I would like to do a proper presentation on what happened on our trip with the interns and it is my desire that you experience it in 3D. In other words, you have to come to Witbank Church. Not quite 3D, but actually, to have a presentation on this screen and to have a presentation on the big screen in Witbank, would be two different, completely different experiences. So I just want to know from you Jo’burg people whether you would be willing to come through on Sunday morning and have a joint service with us on Sunday morning so that you can have the full experience of what happened because we’ll be showing videos, we’ll be doing lots of pictures, we’ll be having testimonies, we’ll be doing a whole bunch of things and we’d like you all to really see it and fully get a grasp of what it was that happened to us. What do you all say? Are you coming? If you can’t afford to come let me know and I’ll find someone to pay for it. Hallelujah. I just think it would be so much grander, you’ll really get a feel for it, you know, of the things that we did, some of the traveling, some of the motion videos, some of the still pictures, you know. On the big screen you get the drama of it, on a little screen it just tells a little story. So you come? Okay. Praise the Lord. So there’s nobody that’s not coming? No… Otherwise, you will say I’m manipulating you, you know. I look forward to it. So that means that there’s no church here, next Sunday afternoon. We’ll make sure that there’s an announcement. I really want to encourage you to be there. Even if you didn’t have children or you’re not directly part of what happened there. You are indirectly part of what happened there and I really want to encourage you to come and experience it. It will be something, God will truly minister to you and you will see how great God is and what He is doing. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Glory to God.
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I am going to do a little recap on a couple of weeks of messages. Let me just see by show of hands, how many of you watched the message on YouTube this morning? Quite a few, hey. Huh. So I’m going to start a little differently then and so those who didn’t watch it, you can go back and watch it. I did a review on three months or so of how the Lord actually brought us to this point in the messages of Blow your Mind. So He gave me the original scripture that He gave me was Colossians three verse one,
1If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth (Colossians 3:1-2 NKJV). The Passion Translation says this, 1Christ’s resurrection is your resurrection too. This is why we are to yearn for all that is above, for that’s where Christ sits enthroned at the place of all power, honor, and authority (Colossians 3:1 TPT). If you want to experience the power, honor and the authority that Jesus has, and you are entitled to, you have got to set your mind where He sits, not where we are actually busy. The Message translation puts it like this, 1So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. I’m going to read verse two out of the Message translation. 2Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ – that’s where the action is. See things from His perspective (Colossians 3:1-2 MSG).
So, look up, be alert to what’s going on around Christ. That’s where the action is. So those of you who watched this morning, you will have heard me use this example and I feel like I’m going to go in a little different direction this afternoon. But, you know, when I got promoted in the corporate world and I sat in the boardroom with some senior executives and, of course the people, I was new into that position. I wasn’t yet earning the money that they were earning. My new structured package was going to take me there but I was new to staying, I was new to the boardroom, let’s put it that way. But you know, when you’re in the boardroom, they don’t see you differently just because you’re new. They just see you, you’re now part of them. You understand what I’m saying? So they have a language and they talk like you’re them, and you’ve been there with them for a long time. They don’t exclude you from conversations that they’ve had previously. So they just talk like they would normally talk and so the conversation, you know, between, you know, having teas or whatever the case might be, conversation was like, “You know, there’s that new property deal, it’s a big property development, it’s happening down in Cape Town and you need to get in on it. This is the next biggest, hottest property deal that’s going on in South Africa.”
So if you remember, I was promoted into that executive position at around about the time that South Africa was changing – ’94 – that sounds like some of you weren’t even born then, you know like, “When was that?” ’94/95 that’s when I was promoted into that position and so, you know, everything was changing in South Africa. It was… everything was in transition, everything was changing and people were looking for opportunities and the next biggest, hottest development that you want to invest money in in property was happening down somewhere near Stellenbosch, “Got to go and buy there.” And so the one, I think it was the MD, said he’d already bought his property. One of the other directors said that they were busy buying the
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property, the paperwork was just going through, the other guys were talking, “You got to get in on it now – the prices are good and things in the Cape are going to skyrocket.” You know what they were talking about was, that’s where the action is. “So we’re letting you in on the secret of our contact base that’s here in Johannesburg, where we deal with a level of guys, where we’ve now found out that if you don’t live there, you wouldn’t know, but that’s where the next action is.” Right?
Well, I got news for you, this scripture here says, 2Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ – that’s where the action is, that’s where the action is. See things from His perspective (Colossians 3:2 MSG). Huh. Wow. I’m going to come back to that in a minute but the next message I ministered on was Blow your Mind: Terms and Conditions Apply. And so I shared the scripture with you, first Corinthians chapter one, verse 18, 18The Message that points to Christ on the cross seems like sheer silliness to those hellbent on destruction, but for those on the way of salvation it makes perfect sense. This is the way God works, and most powerfully as it turns out (1 Corinthians 1:18 MSG). Well, God never works on something that doesn’t turn out the way He wants it to turn out. Everything He says, everything He does, turns out the way He wants it to turn out. There is no one in the universe that can tell God, “Actually, I don’t think that you can make your stuff happen, I’ll resist it.” It only happened once and Satan is now forever separated from Him but of course, men think that their will – they can resist God with their will – and that thing then, and then they think I can resist God with my will and I’ll make my stuff come to pass and God can’t make His stuff come to pass. I got news for you, action happens where His action happens.
Verse 19, 19It’s written, I’ll turn conventional wisdom on its head, I’ll expose so-called experts as crackpots (1 Corinthians 1:19 MSG). If you haven’t heard me say it before, I’m telling you now, the system that we’re involved in now, is busy imploding, globally, it’s imploding. There’s a lot of stuff that’s going to happen because the system can’t sustain itself in the way that it’s working. And the Bible is true. God is not surprised about what’s happening today. He was not surprised that COVID came. He’s not surprised by the rise of China. He’s not surprised that President Biden would come into power and immediately reverse President Trump’s decision and open up the gas pipeline from Russia into Europe, which changes the oil prices around the world. Which means our price of petrol that we were paying went from, I don’t know, R12 a litre or R13 a litre. Somebody help me here, to now, R16/R17 a litre. I don’t know what it is now. R18 a litre. You know that is because President Biden made a decision he’s opening up a gas pipeline, so all the gas that was in America couldn’t be unlocked. So all the fuel prices went up across the globe.
You think God didn’t know that this was going to happen? You think it caught Him by surprise? The will of men suddenly just caught God by surprise. Huh? I got news for you. Nothing catches God by surprise. And what He wants as the outcome is going to happen. And everything that’s going to happen in the universe is going to be about Jesus exercising authority. That’s the real deal. That’s the real deal.
The next message I preached in the series was Blow your mind with joy. You have made known to me the ways of life, you will make me full of joy in your presence.
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Well, if there was any a time in our lives that we needed joy – now’s the time we need joy. If you’re depressed, or oppressed, or anxious or have anything, just start a mini chuckle. And by that I don’t mean go and buy Cadbury’s. I mean start a mini chuckle all by yourself with God and let the Holy Spirit just rise up inside with you. Because His joy is real. It lives inside of you. It’s not something out there. (Switch that thing off. Switch the fans on again.) Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
Blow your mind with love. I used two scriptures that were the main scriptures at that time. Romans 12, verse two says, 1-2Don’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. How do you get changed? Praise the Lord. That’s how you get changed. The wind of the Spirit blows on you. Hallelujah. You change from the inside out, you don’t change from the outside in. You change from the inside out. And you can’t will your change. God must change. You must let Him change you. 1-2You will be changed from the inside out. 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).
I then then went on to talk about, 38For I am persuaded, from Romans 8:38, I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39 NKJV). I am convinced that there is nothing that can separate me from the love of God. Nothing. Absolutely nothing can separate me or you. Amen. Hallelujah.
And so then last week I preached and taught on Blow your mind with truth; nothing but the truth. Hallelujah. And so I used Ephesians one, verse eight to 14, but I’m just going to read from verse 11. 11It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. You want to find out what you’re living for. You can only find it in Christ. You can’t find it in anything else. Thank You, Jesus. 11It’s in Christ, that we find out who we are, and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eyes on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone (Ephesians 1:11-12 MSG). Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.
You know, it is something that really came out very strongly. And I’m trusting that the interns will say it to you in the way that they have experienced it. And so, I don’t want to use any of their phrases today. But, if you have a self-appointed purpose, then it is also self-appointed to fail. How do you make the purpose of your life – the reason Christ birthed you, the reason you have a destiny – how do you make it about a career? How do you make your purpose about making money? Hey? How do you make your purpose about making money? I mean, money has nothing of value to you other than it’s a mechanism of trade.
God can make things happen for you without money. Yeah, I mean, there’s lots of stories about this in the Bible. Jesus needed to, wanted to feed a couple of thousand
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people. He didn’t have the money. He didn’t have shops. He didn’t have a manufacturing company. He didn’t have a distribution business. He didn’t have anything, He just had a little bit of loaves and fishes and He multiplied it in front of everybody and said, “I’ll feed you.” And then the receiver of revenue needed money from Him. And so he said, “Go, go catch fish, and you’ll find money in the fish.”
Can’t make your purpose of life about money. Really, because when you die, your money means what to you when you’re dead? What does your money mean to you when you’re dead? Means nothing. What about you can make your purpose of your life about power. Let me tell you, as quickly as you think you’ve got power it can be taken away from you just like that. Okay, I’ll tell you what we’ll do – we’ll make your purpose about raising your kids. And you give your whole life to raising your kids. That’s a worthy purpose. Your kids don’t belong to you. They’re only your responsibility until they become an age where they are accountable to God. They do not belong to you, you are merely the mechanism for God to bring their spirits and their body into the earth. How can you talk like that Pastor John? Because my eldest son is sitting in front here. And he’s nearly 40. And let me tell you, a long time ago, long time ago, he ceased to be my purpose. Because when he got his own will to choose his own life, he was no longer my purpose. He had to choose for himself. He had to live his life, answer to God, still has to do that, answer to God, he has to live with the consequences. And he has to live with what he does with his life. He can’t be my purpose.
My wife can’t be my purpose. Because when I die, I’m not going to go and stand before God one day. And He’s going to say to me, “So John, what did you do that was really good on earth?” “Well, I loved my wife with everything.” “I’m glad you did that. But that’s not your purpose, John. That’s not what you were destined to do. That was just merely the mechanism for you to live life to reflect the church of the Lord Jesus. But what was your purpose? What was your assignment that I gave you to do?”
If you can’t find your assignment in Jesus Christ, there is nothing on the earth that can satisfy you. Nothing. And so most people either become extremely achievement driven, because they need to keep achieving, because that’s the only bit of thing that they can keep living for or they become extremely angry and they become moody and they become very aggressive. And sometimes it’s both because their purpose is not God, their purpose is self-created. Hallelujah.
So, my opening scripture that I started with Blow your mind was, 1So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. The rest of the verse in the Message translation says, 2Look up and be alert to what’s going on around Christ – that’s where the action is (Colossians 3:1-2 MSG). Have you seen these pictures of the earth? Have you seen these pictures of the earth that they, I mean a lot of people are using it to advertise things that they want to give you an image of their globalisation, and so they show you pictures from out of space, and normally it’s at night and there’s darkness, and you see all the lights on, and all the continents, and you see the lights. Have you seen those pictures? Well, I mean, you know, I’m trying to give you an idea of the way that God sees things and His
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perspective of things. I’ll tell you what, Christians that are living for themselves, from God’s perspective; He loves them, and the Holy Spirit is going to keep on trying to bring them to assignment; but He’s going to focus His energy on people that are giving Him their lives in their assignment. Because that’s how He gets His job done on the earth. He focuses His energy on people that will give Him assignment, their life. Hallelujah.
Just look at it from God’s perspective, He’s got all these angels that are actually messengers sent to serve the children of God. And if the children of God are not speaking the Word of God and they’re not on assignment, all of His angels are getting fat and lazy sitting on the rooftop of their houses because they’ve got nothing to do. Because if you’re not speaking the Word of God, and you’re not living according to God’s assignment and doing what He wants you to do, He is aware of all His creatures, what they’re really not doing. Look at it from God’s perspective. Do you think God is looking for a church that’s got lots of people in it, or is He looking for a church that can exercise authority? That understands where Jesus’ action is? So if you’ve got a church that’s got a lot of things going on in the church, but none of that is where the action is, where is Jesus going to put His anointing and His presence? He’s going to put His anointing and His presence where the action is, where His action is. It doesn’t mean that men have an understanding of what that is. Hallelujah.
So today, I’m going to minister to you on Blow Your Mind With Light. Ephesians 6 verse 12 says, 12For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere (Ephesians 6:12 AMPC). Okay, let me ask you a question, you all here today – how many of you saw a demon this week? Come on, it’s a real question. Anybody saw a demon this week? Maybe more than one demon? No. Does that mean they’re not there? Demons are there. They are very active. Angels are there too. But demons are very active. Hallelujah. (Pastor Melusi, just open this water bottle for me, please. I can’t do two things at the same time, here with a microphone in my hand. Thank you.)
The New Living Translation says this, 10A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil (Ephesians 6:10-11 NLT). Strategies of the devil. The devil has strategies that he is implementing against all of humanity. Not just the Christians. The devil is working strategically against all of humanity. 12For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12 NLT). The evil forces, and the darkness of this world is real. Whether you see it or you don’t see it, whether you understand it, or you don’t understand it – it’s real. It’s happening around you. Praise the Lord.
I ministered this morning, and I said the following; so if I say something today, and you think I’m targeting you, I’m not. I’m always, always, always only ministering by
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the Holy Spirit. Often it happens to me where people come to me and they say, “Pastor John, you might as well have been speaking directly to me.” And that’s because the Holy Spirit makes it real to you. I’m not targeting you when I prepare my messages. I prepare them before the Holy Spirit and before God, and then He uses them as He chooses to use them to minister to you, and to say to your heart what needs to be said. So, I’m just making it clear that I’m not talking to anybody, but I’m talking to everybody. Okay?
There were times when I was in the corporate world, and I would go and sit in front of IT directors, financial directors, sometimes managing directors, sometimes the whole …all of them, because oftentimes when I was involved in, in those years, our computer systems had probably a hundredth of the power the Apple iPhone right now, but it cost a hundred times the price, you know. I mean, it was really millions of Rands for the computing power that was available to run business those days.
And so, inevitably it was a very strategic decision for a business. And so inevitably, from the CEO to all the directors, all the operational guys were all involved, because everybody needed something out of the computer system. So whether it was inventory management, accounting, whether it was human resources, everybody needed some information out of a computer system. So inevitably when you went in, you dealt with high level people in the organisation, and they would, you would kind of try and fit a solution around their needs.
Many, many times when I went in there, most of the time actually, when I went in there I would be prayed up in the Spirit, and I would go there spiritually aware. Because I wanted to know, what are the dark forces that may be working in this deal to prevent me from getting the business. So, why me? Well, because I happen to be a bringer of light, and I happen to be a person who was free with the money that God gave me. It wasn’t my money, it was God’s money to distribute out of my hands. That was our attitude, then.
So, when you become a person who God can trust with money, to let your hands be open with money, then you have to understand that when you go into a business deal, there are going to be dark forces that are going to work to try and prevent you from getting the deal. So I would go and sit there with my spiritual awareness, and I would begin to assess spiritually what dark forces are at work here that are preventing me.
On three occasions, only three occasions in my computer – this is not something I’m boasting about, it’s just a fact – only on three occasions did I go after a deal seriously, and I didn’t win it. Just about every other time I went after business in the corporate world, even if the odds were stacked heavily against me, I got the deal. Why? Because I understood that my warfare of money was not against the guys who were making the deals; there were a whole lot of forces that were at play that release money into the earth, or try and manipulate money and control money for power – especially to keep it out of the Church. There were many times I would go into a deal, and I would assess it and people in the corporate world would be aware that there is a tender out and there is a request for proposal, and we would put no
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resources into the deal. And so people would say, “How come you guys are not going after that business?” And I’d say, “Because I’m not going to win it. I’m not going to put resources after a deal that we’re not going to win.” “Well, how do you know that you’re not going to win it?” “The Holy Spirit told me.”
So of course, we did the basics, everything. Put in a request for, you know, put in a response; you do the professional thing. But I didn’t put a whole lot of resources into it because I knew this deal’s not going to come my way. So I didn’t waste energy. Other people were throwing lots of resources at the deal, throwing resources at the deal. I’m off chasing something else where God knows that I’m going to win that. See, where the devil has strategies, God has more strategies. There’s not a strategy the devil can bring against the child of God that you can’t win. You can win. You should win.
So, what I’m about to say to you, and what the Word of God is about to say to you today, is not profound. It’s not profound. It’s as basic as, I had to drive a motorcar to get me here today. It’s just a fact. I couldn’t have gotten here if I didn’t drive here by motorcar. Well, I suppose I could have taken a helicopter. But you understand, I mean, I came here with a motor car. If I had to get here another way, I should have started riding my bicycle probably this morning. I might have been here at, if I left at seven I could have got here by eight. I’m kidding. But no, I mean, it’s a fact. It’s just the way it is. People who want to move around the earth, this is the way they do. They’ve got motorised engines, they’ve got things that get them from A to B, right? It’s a fact that’s not profound. It’s just we’ve harnessed energy to mobilise us, to move us from place to place. It’s a fact.
So, what I’m about to say to you today is a fact. Matthew chapter six verse twenty-three, 23This is the truth. But if your eye is unsound, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the very light in you [your conscience] is darkened, how dense is that darkness! 24No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stand by and be devoted to the one and despise and be against the other. You cannot serve God and … (deceitful riches, money, possessions, or, here is what I like the best about this translation in the Amplified, or whatever is trusted in) (Matthew 6:23-24 AMPC). So, you can’t serve God and whatever else you trust in – including yourself. You can’t serve God and trust yourself. “I can make it happen. There’s nothing that can’t …I can make anything happen. I trust me. I trust me.” You can’t serve God and trust you. You’re either going to serve you or you’re going to serve God. You can’t do both at the same time. So, you’re either going to love yourself and the way you serve yourself or you’re going to love God and the way He wants you to serve Him. I know that this scripture talks primarily about money – the god of this world – but actually it’s about what you trust in. It’s about what you trust in. Where’s your trust? My trust is in where the action is with Jesus, not where the action is on the earth.
Luke eleven verse thirty-four in the Amplified Bible says, 34Your eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye (your conscience) is sound and fulfilling its office, your whole body is full of light; but when it is not sound and is not fulfilling its office, your body is full of darkness. 35Be careful, therefore, that the light that is
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in you is not darkness. 36If then your entire body is illuminated, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright [with light], as when a lamp with its bright rays gives you light (Luke 11:34 AMPC). If you’re a spiritual Christian, if you’re a spirit Christian, not just the Christian-talking Christian, if you’re a spiritual Christian, you can come into contact with another Christian and you can feel the life, illuminating rays of light coming from them. You can go to another Christian who knows all the language, but there’s no life flow. There’s no light emanating, there’s no radiating light coming from them. You know it, you know it. They can have all the language, they can have all of the external sounds, but you don’t feel that life. You don’t feel that life. You don’t feel that. Come on, you know what I’m talking about. This is not hard.
The Passion Translation says, 34The eyes of your spirit allow revelation-light to enter into your being. When your heart is open the light floods in. But when your heart is hard and closed, the light cannot penetrate, and darkness takes its place (Luke 11:34 TPT). That’s why you can’t choose to say, “I’ll walk a little bit in the light, but I’ll actually serve myself.” If you close your heart off to the light, darkness enters you. Darkness takes a hold of you. Hey, come on. Don’t shout me down because I’m preaching good today. 34…the light cannot penetrate and darkness takes its place. 35Open your heart and consider my words. Watch out that you do not mistake your opinions for revelation-light! (Luke 11:34-35 TPT). There are a lot of people that have got an opinion about Jesus, or an opinion about the Bible, or an opinion about a verse of scripture or an opinion about something. But be careful that your so-called revelation is not your opinion. Because there’s lots of people that have got lots of opinions about the Bible, but they don’t speak the whole truth. The truth that they are looking for is that which serves themselves. I’m still preaching good.
There’s a reason why I’m talking to you today like this. And I will get to it in a short while if you just stick with me. I know it’s Sunday afternoon, and it’s hot. But just stick with me. 36If your spirit burns with light, fully illuminated with no trace of darkness, you will be a shining lamp, reflecting rays of truth by the way you live (Luke 11:36 TPT). You can’t help yourself, you just want to speak about Jesus. You can’t help yourself; you just want to be in His presence. You can’t help yourself. You look for people that have got the same rays of light coming out of them and you connect like a sparking plug. You connect. “You’ve got that life.” “Yes, I’ve got that life.” “Let’s go. Come on, let’s go. Let’s push it.” Energy transaction; rays of light. You know it. You know it. When it’s not there it’s like bouncing off a wall. Just bouncing off the wall. Do you think that you go about your daily life and the devil doesn’t come and put thoughts in your head? You Christian, radiating rays of light Christian. Do you think the devil is leaving you alone? He’s not leaving you alone. So come on, work with me now for a minute. If the devil is not leaving you alone, then he’s coming into your space and into your world. He must be, right? That’s nothing to be afraid of.
I’m going to read from the ESV translation. 35So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. 36While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become
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sons of light.” When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. So He had been talking to them about light and now He just leaves them alone for a little bit. 37Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him (John 12 :35-37 ESV). Do you know who He’s talking about? Do you know who He’s talking about? Peter, James, John, Luke, Matthew. That is whom He is talking about. If you don’t think the devil is hanging around you the minute you just don’t feel the presence of God around you anymore and suddenly, what is it that you feel? Anxiety, doubt, some kind of fear, oppression, a thought process; I wonder if I’m going to make it? Where do you think that’s coming from?
All right. I probably need you to stand for a minute because I’m about to go into something very significant for about twenty minutes. Can you handle me for another twenty minutes? Listen, I drove all the way from Witbank. So, you just hang with me for twenty minutes here. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Take a deep breath. Get some oxygen into your lungs. Thank you, you may be seated.
The young people that I’ve traveled with for sixteen days, was a marvelous, marvelous triumph for God. I said to them on a number of occasions, I said, “If it’s the will of the Lord, I would like to speak to you. And I would like to teach you and give you an overview of the book of Ephesians.” And so, we never got to it because it always seemed like God had another agenda on every given time that we spent time together. God had something that He wanted to do. So, I’m always willing to go with God rather than me because that’s where the action is. Right? And so that’s what they’ll tell you, that’s where the action happens. Hallelujah.
I woke up at four o’clock this morning and the Lord said to me, “I want you to give a brief overview to the church on the book of Ephesians today.” So, you know, I’ve got a lot that I can say about the book of Ephesians and when He woke me up at four o’clock this morning and told me to get ready to do this, I kind of had to say, “Okay, Lord, what do I leave out?” So, I want you to know, there’s a lot I can say. But He told me to say something today. So, I’m going to do my best to give you an overview on the book of Ephesians in twenty minutes. All right? Because Ephesians is like the star church of the New Testament. It’s the church that has held up as the Church. All other churches from other cities, Corinthians, Philippian church, the Thessalonian church – all other churches – the Ephesian church was the role model church. Are you ready for it? I am going to start in Ephesians one off course, and I’ll do my best to get through it as quickly to get to Ephesians six. You can be blessed that there are only six chapters in Ephesians. And I am certainly not going to read all of it to you. I am going to read all of it from The Passion Translation so that I am not switching translations just for ease of reading and the ease of getting the message through. Are you all with me?
Ephesians chapter 1; anybody knowing about the book of Ephesians will know that two of the prayers that the Apostle Paul prayed, two of the most powerful prayers that he prayed for the church which you should pray over yourself are in the book of Ephesians. So of course, if I am going to talk to you about Ephesians, I’ve got to talk to you about the prayers. So, Ephesians 1 verse 18, 18I pray – so what is my
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message today? Blow your mind with light. 18I pray that the light of God will illuminate the eyes of your imagination, flooding you with light. This is God praying – this is the Holy Spirit praying through the Apostle Paul for us today. Because although he wrote to the Ephesians, this is the same as him writing to the church in Joburg and the church in Witbank and the Heritage of Faith people. This is our letter to us. 18I pray that the light of God will illuminate the eyes of your imagination, flooding you with light until you experience the full revelation of the hope of his calling—that is, the wealth of God’s glorious inheritances that he finds in us, his holy ones! (Ephesians 1:18 TPT). I can spend a week just talking about this because I must say this quickly today, that 18…you experience the full revelation of the hope of his calling. The hope of? His calling. His calling. That means there is a calling. On who? 18…the hope of his calling—that is, the wealth of God’s glorious inheritances that he finds in us, his holy ones! (Ephesians 1:18 TPT).
He’s called, His calling is to us. We are His inheritance. We are His holy ones. Pat yourself like this on the chest and say, “I am a holy one.” Next time the devil comes to lie to you about something, you say, “I am a holy one. Get away from me, I am illuminated. I am full of light. I am full of revelation. I know where the action is; it is around Christ. I am a holy one. I am the inheritance of His calling. Me, me – I am the inheritance of His calling.” If I don’t preach anything more today, and this is all you get today, this is a powerful thing. You are the inheritance of God, of Jesus. You are His inheritance. He doesn’t see you about all your failures and your weaknesses. He sees you holy. “You are My inheritance, you are My calling. You, you, you, you.” Try and stop that devil if you can. Not possible because what God sets out to perform, it will accomplish. There are those who will respond to this inheritance – I am His calling. I’ll go with this. I’ll go with this. I’ll run with this. I’ll be the inheritance. I will call myself the holy one. Wooh, now you are becoming heretical. Go read your Bible. This is not me speaking.
19I pray that you will continually experience the immeasurable greatness of God’s power made available to you through faith. Immeasurable power. That is power you can’t measure. It’s so much. Hey. 19Then your lives will be an advertisement of this immense power as it works through you! Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. This is the mighty power 20that was released when God raised Christ from the dead and exalted him to the place of highest honour and supreme authority in the heavenly realm! 21And now he is exalted as first above every ruler, authority, government, and realm of power in existence! He is gloriously enthroned over every name that is ever praised not only in this age but in the age that is coming! (Ephesians 1:19-21 TPT). It was famously, John Lennon said, “I am more famous than Jesus Christ.” And now he lies in his grave eternally alone forever in hell, completely alone. There is no communication between people that live in hell. They have no way of communicating with each other because they live in complete darkness because there is no light in hell. It is complete darkness. They don’t even know who to talk to because there is no way they can see the person next to them – the spirit being next to them. They have no way of communicating with another dead spirit that has no light for them to even understand. They live in entire loneliness and silence forever with all of their
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desires and passions that they wanted to have on the earth that they couldn’t get on the earth – they live eternally with an unfulfilled passion. Completely in darkness; alone. That in itself should get you to say, “I want with the action where Jesus is.”
There’s a lot of people on this earth that say, “I don’t believe that.” They intellectualise it and say, “I don’t believe that.” It doesn’t matter what you believe or you don’t believe. When you die that is the way it is going to be. And Jesus even addressed it Himself when the rich man died, and there was a man that was a beggar at his gate and he also died, and then he was in Abraham’s bosom. And he said to him, “Please send that beggar that was there all the time to just put one drop of water on my tongue.” It’s a lonely place. And I might add, that was at a time when there was a gulf between hell and paradise, so all of the people who were waiting for Jesus to come and preach the Gospel to them, were living in paradise in Abraham’s bosom and there were those who were never ever going to make that divide. So, at that time it was a different time to what eternity hell looks like. Anyway, I don’t want to preach too much about that.
Ephesians chapter two. I’ve got to get a few more chapters under my belt here. Ephesians chapter two, 10We have become his poetry, a re-created people that will fulfil the destiny he has given each of us, for we are joined to Jesus, the Anointed One. Even before we were born, God planned in advance our destiny and the good works we would do to fulfil it! Hold on a minute, we have become His poetry – you and me, 10We have become his poetry, a re-created people that will fulfil the destiny he has given each of us (Ephesians 2:10 TPT.) So, I am going to just use a few names because I want to personalise this. Gideon, your destiny is not mine. We may walk together, and God has an assignment for us together, but our destiny is not the same. God has a destiny for you that He created you to do and only you can fulfil that destiny. Do you know that, Paul? You have a destiny that only you can fulfil. I can’t fulfil your destiny. You were uniquely created, Paul Roos, to fulfil a destiny for Jesus Christ. You, Paul, are His poetry. We are destined to walk together for us to walk out our destinies together. But only you can do what Jesus created you to do. Wow. No one else can do your job, eternally.
You know, when I speak to an older person, it sounds like, okay, they’re a bit older so, you know, maybe the younger generation kind of is more hungry for that information. Let me just tell you, they are hungry for it because they want to follow God because they have their whole life they want to follow God with. But if you are older than 50, you should have no less hunger to want to find out what your destiny is. You should be pursuing God with everything to find out what your unique destiny is. Hallelujah.
And I am going to say a few things later in a few minutes now, I’ve got to get to more chapters, so let me go further. Ephesians chapter 3 verse 7 to 9, 7-8I have been made a messenger of this wonderful news by the gift of grace that works through me. I have been made a messenger. I have been made a messenger, just like the Apostle Paul. I have been made a messenger. This is the Apostle Paul writing to the Ephesian church. Are you all with me still? Even though I am the least significant of all his holy believers, this grace-gift was imparted when the
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manifestation of his power came upon me. Grace alone empowers me so that I can boldly preach this wonderful message to non-Jewish people, sharing with them the unfading,inexhaustible riches of Christ, which are beyond comprehension. 9My passion is to enlighten every person to this divine mystery (Ephesians 3:7-9 TPT). I stand before you today, both boldly and with meekness and humility and “Holy Spirit, help me wherever my own pride prevents me from walking in humility.” But I am a sent messenger to you. I am able and capable to understand at this moment of my life that I can say like the Apostle Paul, I am the least of all of you. I am the least significant of all of you, His holy believers. Do not look at me today and say, “Pastor John, you are just speaking words, because you are a pastor, and because you know the Bible and because …” I understand that unless God’s grace empowered me, I am nothing. My destiny has no future. Therefore, unless He empowers me, I am less than any of God’s holy believers. That’s how great you are to God that He would send a messenger to you.
Today, I am your messenger. I have been for some time. Ephesians three verse 10,
10The purpose of this was to unveil before every throne and rank of angelic orders in the heavenly realm, God’s full and diverse wisdom revealed through the church (Ephesians 3:10 TPT). Do you understand that Jesus has such an investment in the church because it is only the church that can reveal to any spirit being, the greatness of His resurrection. Because until the church behaves like Jesus, no one can see Jesus on the earth, that He has been resurrected. So, if I don’t act like Jesus on the earth, the earth has got none of the spiritual forces in the earth and on the earth and below the earth anywhere, can see that Jesus is resurrected. His resurrection life is only seen through the church – that tells the message to eternity; Jesus was resurrected by the Father and all power has been given to Him.
Chapter three verse 20, 20Never doubt God’s mighty power to work in you and accomplish all this. He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination! He will outdo them all, for his miraculous power constantly energizes you (Ephesians 3:20 TPT). How can you say that this will be done when I am living in His resurrection inheritance? I recognise who I am; I am His inheritance and His mighty power works in me and my wildest imaginations are fueled by His mighty power. When my imaginations are fueled by His mighty power, He makes it all come to pass. I don’t even have to try. Hallelujah.
Let me tell you, the world system with all the dark rulers of this world, they will promise you everything and all of that is sorrow and toil. And you have to work hard, very hard to try and get the promise. And at the end it’s like vapour and disappears before you can get to it. Because he can never deliver on his promise.
Are you still with me? I am up to chapter four. I’ve got about five or seven minutes left. Chapter four verse 11, 11And he has appointed some with grace to be apostles, and some with grace to be prophets, and some with grace to be evangelists, and some with grace to be pastors, and some with grace to be teachers. 12And their calling is to nurture and prepare all the holy believers to
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do their own works of ministry, and as they do this they will enlarge and build up the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-12 TPT). Hold on a minute. He has called some to do what? Let’s just for a moment, just say I’m a pastor, teacher. Okay? Let’s just use those two that I function in the most; pastor, teacher. Okay. So, I’m called by grace to be a pastor, teacher to do what? To nurture you. Right? And 12… prepare all of the holy believers to do their own works of ministry (Ephesians 4:12 TPT). So, who has a work of ministry? All the holy believers have a work of ministry to do. All of you, not just some of you, all of you holy believers. And as they do this, they will enlarge and build up the body of Christ.
As you go about doing the ministry that I’ve nurtured you to do, you go about enlarging and building up the Body. But I thought that’s my job. I thought all these times you put me here because it’s my job. It’s not my job. It’s your job. Do you want to know what your destiny is? Here it is. Your destiny is to work with Jesus and the works of the ministry that He’s called you to do. Allow yourself to be nurtured so you can do the work of the ministry; to build the church. 13These grace ministries will function until we all attain oneness into the faith. Listen, you can never all get into unity. I’m not even in unity with my wife all the time about spiritual things. Don’t look at me like that. We are on most things. But there are some things she reads in the Bible and I say, “Well, I don’t see it that way.” And she will read something and say, “Well, I don’t see it that way.” Inevitably, she comes around to see it my way. She’s awesome in the way that she understands the Scripture.
But I’m just saying, this is not about how well you are united in doctrine. This is how we are united in faith. 13… until we all experience the fullness of what it means to know the Son of God, and finally we become one into a perfect man[ with the full dimensions of spiritual maturity and fully developed into the abundance of Christ (Ephesians 4:13 TPT). That perfect man is a mature man. So, 13… until we all experience the fullness of what it means to know the Son of God, and finally we become one into a perfect man[ with the full dimensions of spiritual maturity and fully developed into the abundance of Christ (Ephesians 4:13 TPT). We can only achieve the abundance of Christ when we do what we are supposed to do, all of us. And then our immaturity will end and we will not easily be shaken by trouble. Come on, we did not easily get shaken by COVID. Not our business, not our health, not our… As a community we were strong, we strengthened each other, we stood strong with each other. Hey? Ja. We can’t be shaken easily with trouble, nor led astray by some novel teaching that someone comes along and says, “Hey, you’ve got a new teaching about a new, you know, watch out?” Ja, watch out. Exactly, Pastor Lynn, watch out. 14… And we will not be easily shaken by trouble, nor led astray by novel teachings or by the false doctrines of deceivers who teach clever lies (Ephesians 4:14 TPT). Why are they teaching clever lies? Because you won’t fall for a stupid lie. Come on now. You’ll only fall for a clever lie. And so they’ll lie and they’ll tell you all this truth – this sounds good, that sounds right, that sounds right. And then there’s a bit of doctrine there that comes in the end, that says, “Where does that come from?” That’s why I tell you every time I teach, go and read the Bible for yourself, go and study it for yourself. And then come and talk to me if you have a disagreement. That’s the way the Body is supposed to
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function. If you think I don’t have a … come talk. I’ll beat you to pulp if you disagree with me. [Congregations laugh] Hallelujah.
So, I did this this morning. I have to do it this afternoon. So Brynn just come and stand with me here for a moment, please. So, when this big man was a little boy, he doesn’t remember this but I did change his dirty nappies.
Brynn:
Mom has pictures.
Pastor John:
I think she’s thrown them away. Maybe. But I did change his nappies. And when he would cry at night, I would go into his room when Sharon was absolutely exhausted and I would go and pick him up and I would walk him around, and I would put him to sleep, so that Sharon could have time out, so she could sleep. That was when he was a little boy. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to carry him. So hold on, I want you to understand something. As he was growing as a little boy, I had the responsibility to impart things to him. Whatever was my humanity, it is still my prayer, I trust that he will put it off him. My humanity has no place in his life. All of my human values, all of my quirks, all of my culture, all of my passion, all of my desires that I put on him, because I wanted to fulfill some stuff through him that I couldn’t do for me. It’s still my prayer; may it fall off his life. Because my job always has been to raise him in the ways of God. Is that not what the Bible says? Raise up a child in the ways that he should go and he will not depart from the ways of God. This is not about your ways. There are many people who have many cultural ways that they want to raise their kids; in many kinds of communities. But those cultural ways are not what God seeks when they get to eternity. It is still my prayer that whatever I put into him that I lived Christ before him, that he would have that. Whether I did not live Christ before him; I pray that it falls off him. Because I was busy ‘daddying’ him. I was not pastoring him. I have always since at least the age of seven, my parents prophesied it over me at my birth that I would be in the five-fold ministry. The mantle of pastor, teacher has always been on me, but the mantle of pastor, teacher did not raise him; daddy raised him. Daddy that stood before God on my own way to say, “I stand accountable before God in the ways of God, before my son.” Huh? Come on, you’ve got to hang with me here now.
One of the ways of God that I had to teach my kids was; we are going to church on Sunday, and we are going to go to homecell and we are going to go and do things and we go to church on Sunday night too; not just Sunday morning. And, come boys, we’re going to tithe together and we are going to pray over our tithes and our offerings together. From when they were little, I had to teach them in the ways that I go. When sickness and disease would come on us, we turned to God; in prayer we prayed sickness off ourselves. That part of ‘daddy’ was for me to reflect the God in me, to him. But what he started to learn was that you go to church to be pastored, you can’t be pastored by your daddy. Even though I knew that I was called to the five-fold ministry, I could not pastor my son because pastoring is not ‘daddying’. Pastoring is an anointing and a mantle that is there for all of us. Today the anointing
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is upon me, the mantle is on me to pastor-teach you. When I leave here it doesn’t mean that that mantle is there for son. I am daddy to son.
When I teach him to value the Christ that is in you, when I teach him; I go to church. And this is what I would teach my sons, “Brynn, you must value the Christ that is in Gideon.” And I’m using Gideon again and I will use Paul again. “You value the Christ that is in Gideon and you value the Christ that is in Paul because they have something of Christ that I can’t give you as ‘daddy’ but in a corporate church environment, they’ve got stuff they can give you. I can’t. I’m not the only one that can tell you how to live. They are all called to work in the ministry. Of doing what? Of making Christ mature in you, son, my son. My blood son.” It requires Paul, it requires Gideon to mature Christ in my blood son. I can’t do it to him because I am only a reflection of Christ in one body. You all are the Body. Thank you.
And now? My son has become part of the Body, and I see Christ in him and now the Christ in him ministers to me because there is a Christ in him that must minister to me. There are times when he comes to me and he says to me, “Dad, I’ve got something burning on the inside of me. I feel it, I’ve been praying, I was praying in the Spirit…” Most often, because he is passionate about it, he would start crying. Then he would come to me and he would come with his passion and he would say, “I’ve got things to speak to you, Dad, by the Spirit.” Now, I’m not receiving this from my son. I’m receiving this from a person in the body of Christ that is born in the church to mature me.
So we can’t become what we need to become in the chruch unless we can see it in each other and we allow each other to become what we must become in Him and recognise the becoming of each other in Him. I pick up the ray of light that is coming from you. It’s coming, it’s maturing me, it’s increasing me, it’s enlarging me, it’s building me. No one can mature and fulfil their destiny, it is not possible. I don’t care if you’re Tiger Woods. I don’t care if you are Donald Trump. I don’t care who you are. You can’t be fulfilling your destiny unless you are part of a body that is teaching you about Christ and the fullness of Christ.
Well, some people might say, “Well, Tiger Woods has reached his destiny.” Ask him. Ask him why he went after hookers and whores when he was married to a beautiful woman. Ask him why he can’t get his life together now. Ask him, because he found out that golf is no substitute for the emptiness that is there that can only be filled by Jesus Christ. That kind of fame can’t bring it.
I’ll tell you something, Donald Trump still has purpose. You know why? Because he actually sees it as part of his calling to undo the darkness that is trying to overtake America. And however God is going to use him; that is still another question. I don’t want to get into politics now or make any prophecies or predictions, because people get it wrong; and I’m likely to get it wrong too. Hallelujah.
I’m going to finish with Ephesians chapter 6, 10Now my beloved ones, I have saved these most important truths for last: Be supernaturally infused with strength through your life-union with the Lord Jesus. Stand victorious with the force of
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his explosive power flowing in and through you. 11Put on God’s complete set of armor provided for us, so that you will be protected as you fight against the evil strategies of the accuser! 12Your hand-to-hand combat is not with human beings, but with the highest principalities and authorities operating in rebellion under the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:10-12 TPT). Let me tell you, everything that is happening on the earth at this moment, at this time, all of the darkness, if it is not happening in the church, it is darkness. All of those operations are trying to stop you from actually becoming a mature Christ. For they are a powerful class of demon-gods and evil spirits that hold this dark world in bondage. 13Because of this, you must wear all the armor that God provides so you’re protected as you confront the slanderer, for you are destined for all things and will rise victorious (Ephesians 6:12-13 TPT). You will rise victorious, you will rise victorious. Hallelujah.
I did my best to give you the book of Ephesians in a little more than a half an hour. That took a lot out of me because the book of Ephesians is so rich with so many different things. But I wanted you to understand that when I come here, and when we are doing things with young people that God has brought into our world, this is not about John Bendixen. This is about a mantle that is upon the pastor, teacher that is Pastor John. That has been used as a messenger of God. I who can say with the Apostle Paul and least of the believers, unless this mental works through me. And when the mantle is working through me and through Pastor Sharon, then we become what we need to become as messengers that will bring the Christ out of you. Invigorating you, empowering you, infusing you with mighty power in the inner man. And you become unstoppable. Victorious, victorious. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus. Praise the name of Jesus. Praise the name of Jesus. Praise the name of Jesus. Praise the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah, Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory, glory, glory. Glory to Jesus. Hallelujah.
It is my prayer that these words that I’ve spoken today will find a deep root in your heart, and the enemy will not steal it out of your mind. I pray that you’re blessed going out and coming in. No weapon formed against you prospers. I pray that your income is protected. Your health is protected. Your relationships that are valuable to you and important to you are protected, in Jesus’ name. I pray that His favor and His blessing rests upon you. His peace is like a fog upon you, just holding you in the name of Jesus. I declare and I speak to you and say; go forth with peace and be led forth with joy, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
I’m glad I came to church. Are you? Hallelujah. Next week we’ll see you in Witbank, nine o’clock, for a power presentation. I mean power, not PowerPoint, power. Okay, bye.
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