Scripture Reference: Ephesians 1:10-13 (NLT); Ephesians 1:8-14 (MSG); 2 Corinthians 5:20 (AMPC); 2 Corinthians 5:20-21, 6:1 (TPT)
Praise You, Lord, praise You, praise You, praise You. Thank You, thank You, Lord, for who You are. That You never change, there’s no shadow of turning about You, You’re always the same. We can trust You completely. There is nothing about You that we can ever consider to be at fault or variance. You are always the same. This morning, Father, we praise You, we worship You, we give You thanks, we give You honour. In this service today, we raise up high the name of Jesus, we give place to the presence of the Holy Spirit. We ask the Father, to speak and to say, and be amongst us, everything that the Father wants to say and do.
We are here and we declare that we are here, to do the will of the Father, to praise the name of Jesus, and to give place to the Holy Spirit. To be led completely by the Holy Spirit. Hallelujah. We praise You to this day, that the Word of God that is shared and all the things that we have to say in this service today, every word will be directed. Everything that is spoken will be spoken by the living God. We are only messengers of things that you want to say, Lord. We ask you to speak in the Name of Jesus. Speak in the Name of Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Hallelujah. Everybody says, amen. Amen. You may be seated.
Glory to God. Hallelujah. Well, it’s good to be having church services with a bit more people around, Glory to God. So, it’s good to see you all. Praise Jesus. It’s also good that a lot of people began to say, when the Coronavirus came, a lot of people began to say, “Everything is a new normal.” I’m happy to say God has always been the new normal. Hallelujah. God has never needed a Coronavirus to declare the new normal. He is and always has been and will always be the new normal.
There is nothing normal about God. There is only something divine about Him, but He’s always new every day and in His world, He is normal. It’s our abnormal, that actually has to come in line with His normal. So, He’s always been the new normal. So, I don’t care what anybody says about the COVID virus, I serve the new normal God. Hallelujah. That’s my declaration, I serve the new normal God. Hallelujah and if anybody wants to say there’s a new normal, yes, He’s God, He’s always been, and He always will be. He’s the new normal. Everything He has to say is what I believe.
I don’t believe anything that anybody has to say about a virus, or about a sickness or about economic conditions that relate to a sickness. I don’t take any of it. I don’t believe it, it’s not the truth, it might be fact, but it’s not the truth. The truth is, my God, our God, is the new normal God. He’s the new economic God. He’s the new relationship, God. He is the new vision, God. He’s the new everything, God. He’s the new healing, God, because He always has been, and He always will be. Hallelujah.
If I go home now, I’ve preached enough for you to eat on that the whole week already. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. So, I looked forward to new things, not because of the abnormalities, I look for new things because of the way that God’s leading us in new things. I will say, I have discovered this about God, and I read it all in the Bible, that everything there is something that comes into the earth that wants to try and bring about a change, bring about a domination, bring about something, God’s divine normal intervenes and changes it for the good of His people.
From the time of famines where His people were affected, He had an answer. From the time of captivity, He had an answer. From the time of religious domination, He had an answer. God always has an answer for everything. So, all we have to do is, in any given time, is find the answer that God has. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
So, things are changing in the spirit, because there’s a God ordained timetable. From the beginning of forever, there is a God ordained timetable, and the God ordained timetable is kind of centred around the creation of man and the time that He is going to call the time on the things that are the normal things of men.
So, there is this period of God’s timetable. Otherwise, He’s an eternal God who lives in eternity and everything He does is on His eternal timeline. If you can call it that because it is not a timeline. It’s just an eternal perspective. He has an agenda to accomplish in His eternal, divine order. It’s a better way of saying things. Within this divine, eternal order, there is this little thing called, the time of men. Really, in His eternal order, there’s this little thing called, the time of men, which spans thousands of years for us, but in Him, it’s just a little, it’s just an event.
This event that is taking place, there is a beginning and an end to the event, and we’re living in it. When God calls, you know, to the end of the event, there will be a new order, under the order of Jesus. So, in the meantime, as we’re living as men, He’s involved in all of our details. He’s involved in all of the little things that we do every day, and everything that we say, and that’s the majesty of God. That He can function at a level of His eternal design, and He can be powerfully involved in everything that is just ordinary day stuff with us. That’s an amazing God. That is a God worth serving. Hallelujah.
So, for us, God is always changing, because men are changing things. Men’s agenda changes things, men sow seed into the earth, and what they sow, they must reap a harvest. Men will either sow seed to the flesh and carnality and from that, they’ll reap death and destruction. Or they’ll sow seed into life and from that, they will have a harvest of life. So, things are changing and part of the reason I put my pulpit here today, [Pastor John pointing to the pulpit in front of stage] and I had them do this early this morning. I wanted to change it a little bit so it could be on more cameras, is because I’m not accepting anything for granted that anything that was before must be going forward. I don’t accept that we have to have normal church services, whatever that looked like before, that it has to look like that going forward.
I’m completely focused on finding out what the will of God is and flowing with what the will of God is, to actually have what might be different. Hallelujah. It might just look for a time like we make just small changes on Sundays, and they might look small, they might seem small to you. They might look small and seem smallest because I’m determined not to be the same. Until I have the plan of God and the execution of God as to what the bigger picture looks like and how we go forward. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Something is happening, certainly, in our ministry and Pastor Sharon and I’ve been talking about it extensively over the last couple of days. It seems like the time, the time when God asked me to separate and then I began to just pray for Brother Jerry and pray for Brother Jerry.
It seems like it was a time, so even though I had a prophecy for a time in the shift of God in 2010. It seemed like when I separated, and I began to pray for Brother Jerry, 2014 that became the main point where things really began to develop, and things began to change in a much quicker way. So, we are aware that actually things have not slowed down for us as a ministry, things are speeding up for us. It’s escalating, it’s getting faster, there’s more to be done. Greater things to be done and that’s a great thing. Between us, we have to manage the spiritual energy of people and we have to manage the natural energy of people. We have to manage and execute on the various things that God tells us in the way that God is going to enable us to get things done. I’m going to show you a few slides before I minister and I’m going to minister for a short time this morning. Famous last words for any preacher [Congregation laughing]. I’m going to show you a few slides this morning.
These slides are of our trip with the interns and some of us that went away to facilitate the trip. I’m only showing you slides of our kind of formal gatherings that we
had in different places because God certainly achieved very supernatural and spiritual things in those moments.
Before I start going through the slides, I want to just say this to you that we had a whole lot of things planned. As you may know, circumstances change as, what you thought you were arriving to, was something different to what you did arrive too. Starting from the first night. For example, on the first night, we were supposed to have a very rough raw camping night. When we arrived there, the raw, rough camping night was very raw, very rough. In fact, what happened is that the farmer had opened a gate to a separate place on his farm, not far from where his house was. He had opened the gate, he had taken his boys, he’s guys, he’s workers and he said, “Just cut some grass here and cut some grass here, cut some grass here”, all on a slope, lots of rocks there, but just cut some grass here.
Then we walked up, then he said, “You guys can have that patch and that patch, and that patch. Goodbye”. You know, we looked at each other, and we said, “Nah”, and the temperature was dropping by the hour. So, we just made an assessment and we said, “You’ve got all these proper sorts of pitched tents here that are kind of in his words, “Their luxury tents”. Anyway, so happens to be his whole [sound lost] he moved everybody, and we all bunked down in those tents for the night. The significant thing is, and just using that night as an example, our intent was always that we would spend every morning and every night as far as possible, sharing the Word and speaking things of God to each other.
As it turns out, because we moved into those tents, his whole kitchen and his whole area of seating area became available to us, so that we could cook our food and have our conversations, even though it was cold. But that was how God took care of us our entire trip. Everywhere we went, we were able to find a space even where we were camping where we could sit around with chairs and in different places. It was amazing how God showed us things, made things available. And suddenly there’s this option that we would never have known where we could all get together, and we could have private time. Nobody interfering with us, absolutely exclusive, private, alone time where we could pursue the things of God for the whole trip.
Today, I’m not going to be sharing with you anything that happened to anybody or any individual. There is a lot that happened, but we have come back on purpose that we will be careful what we say because often if you say something without having the proper moment and the proper time and the proper place to speak in the proper timing of God, something can be said and can be completely misunderstood and not received. Meantime, something that’s happened to you is so big and life-changing, and someone just thinks it’s a bit of information. So, we’ve all come back very careful about what we’re going to say, and when we’re going to say it. I’m being just as careful today, this is not a presentation of what happened on the trip.
This is only an indication of how magnificently God moved in some of the venues and some of the facilities that God created opportunities for us to get together and to share the Word. This is notwithstanding the conversations that happened informally, that sometimes had a bigger impact than the formal conversations because they all build on each other, you know. So, let’s have a look at some of the slides. I’m going to stand on the side here, so you can see it and I can talk to it. [Slide shows are shown on the big screen].
This is day one, getting ready to leave. ‘Hierso buite by die kerk’. That is somewhere along the road somewhere go somebody put a plate of food in my hands and there I’m eating? Well, I don’t know, somebody can help me, where was that? [Intern: Bothaville] Bothaville? Where is Bothaville? [Intern: Vrystaat] What, Vrystaat? ‘Erens in die Vrystaat.’ This is what we were faced with many, many nights. Where we went, we would see the handiwork and the glory and the magnificence of the night skies and the handiwork and the glory of God, [Slideshow of the night skies]. Which in itself just makes you praise. It just makes you give glory and just makes you want to just shout His praise and say how magnificent He is.
It’s no wonder the Book of Corinthians says that, that there is enough for anybody to say, “There is a God.” The Book of Corinthians chapter one says that He has actually created that universe to speak of Him so that everybody would know that He’s real. So, men must actually choose to deny that He is, on purpose, because when they look at that, they know that He’s real. We listened to a man who spoke, and he said, “When you look at that, there is something deep inside of you that calls to you in awe and wonder to believe that there is a God. But I don’t believe there is a God.” Because he chose to have a different philosophy, he believes in evolution. He says, “But I understand why Christians and everybody else want to think that way. Because it is awesome. It is astounding. It is like mind-blowing.” Right?
[Back to slideshows] So, that’s just the group of people that went. So, for example, when we stayed in, what place was this? [Intern: Handvol Gruis] Handvol Gruis, Calvinia. It’s near Calvinia? We stopped at a little farm off the road, and most of the people slept inside the house that night, it was a farmhouse. Some of the guys had to sleep in tents outside, but when we arrived there, this was their kitchen. We had the whole space for ourselves to be able to, and we had a nice big, one of those big stoves or whatever and a fireplace and so it warmed us up.
I will tell you the first two or three days, four days, how many days? Five days? Got very cold, especially at night. They were very cold, but Praise the Lord. This is us just sharing the Word. This is how we spent our evenings and our mornings. This is… what? [Intern: Platbakkies] Platbakkies? You want to know what Platbakkies is all about, take a bakkie, make it plat and then somewhere out there, it’s plat. It’s very plat, but this was an amazing stop because this was a farming family, and they made their barn available to us to have our meetings and they fed us dinner and breakfast. They treated us with amazing, amazing kindness, and we had amazing, amazing times with God. You can see we’re all cold, right?
You see my “skoene”, I just want to show you. You see my “skoene” there, they’re not “veldskoene”, but they are my version of “veldskoene”, and those shoes there will have to fall apart of my feet because they’re so comfortable. So anybody that has anything to say about my bush going shoes, watch out.
This is the next, in the mornings typically, what we would do is, is we’d have the evening sessions and in the mornings, we’d have some breakfast and immediately after breakfast we’d share the Word, and this became the pattern of our day. We’d either share the Word first or have something to eat later or vice versa and we would as much as possible and as far as our travel arrangements could fit it in. If we didn’t actually have time on a particular day we made up time later on, on another day.
This here is Potjiespram in the Richtersveld. I believe, was this, was this the night after, the morning after the first night? Yeah, the first night we arrived there almost in the dark had to camp in the dark and we found out the next morning that it was actually in a parking lot [Congregation laughing] if you can call that a parking lot. Anyway, next one. There is the parking lot and the way we set up camp. We moved camp again. Praise the Lord. I believe this is after we’ve moved the camp in the nighttime session. And isn’t it marvellous how the Lord just gave our tech guys, Simon and Mat and them wisdom, how to put lighting and everybody had either had headlights or enough lights or whatever that we could read we could share the Word, spend time together? Another Potjiespram. 46:23
This here, is the Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park at Twee Rivieren. We were staying in a camp, which is a proper camping place, and we found this place that was a day visitor venue, just for day visitors they can go and do a braai or whatever. Nobody ever comes there to visit for a day, it’s too far. We just went and took over this place and had our evening session and our morning session there. We had to carry our stuff and walked there, and we used it and it was completely away from the camp, it was completely away from anybody. We had time and certainly, some of these mornings and evenings were some of the most powerful or daytime sessions that we had, that God really moved in a mighty way. Some life-changing moments, for sure happened.
You can see how far away in the background the camp is. Yeah, we had multiple sessions there. It was really awesome how God moved. You can see they’ve all got little lights on or headlights on. Praise the Lord. ‘Einde van die storie’. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
So, without doubt, this is just the preview. We will do a full presentation to you, we’ll have a whole service. We’ll let everybody know when it’s going to be in the next couple of weeks, but just obviously, everybody wants to know what happened and what’s going on and all that stuff. We’re asking you to be patient with us because there’s a lot to speak about. There’s a lot that God did in two weeks, more than, beyond our expectation and it not only changed the people who went, it certainly changed, people that stayed behind. It has shifted a lot in the ministry, it has.
I ask you a question. What happened to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ? What happened to it? On the day that the most ardent persecutor of the church, a man by the name of Saul of Tarsus, was confronted by Jesus on the road to Damascus. What happened to the Church from that day? Everything changed, didn’t it? I mean, first of all, he who was the greatest persecutor was taken out of the equation, which means his whole team with him.
Secondly, a whole lot of miracles began to happen so that he could, so it could be learned that he had become a convert. He had to go into the desert by himself so that he could hear from God about his future. When he came back, he came with revelations and mysteries that God had revealed to him from his knowledge of the Word about himself. He came and sat with the apostles and shared all the revelations that he had received. Then went on later to become an apostle that would not only touch all of the heathens, if you like, or the Gentile nations, but he would also write most of the New Testament. Would you say that was a significant moment? I mean it’s difficult for me to say any other moment in history… obviously, Jesus coming on the earth and all of that is a bigger moment, than even that because that made Paul’s experience possible.
But certainly, we feel, I feel, we feel like we are living in a moment that God has shifted our ministry, and shifted our church that dramatically, that it will have to move and change and become different. It will have to move and change and become different. Hallelujah.
My message today is partly to prepare you for what’s coming. I asked the Lord if I could continue with, Blow Your Mind. So, I’m going to say it in this way, Blow Your Mind with Truth; Nothing but The Truth. Because that’s got to be what we live our lives by, Nothing but The Truth. I’m going to read a passage of scripture, slightly different verses that I’m going to read from Ephesians chapter one. I’m going to read essentially from verse 8 to verse 14, but I’m going to read the New Living Translation, verses 10 to 13 and then in the Message, I’m going to add a few scriptures to it.
10And this is the plan: verse 10, Ephesians one, 10And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ— everything in heaven and on earth. 11Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan. 12God’s purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. 13And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. (Ephesians 1:10:13 NLT).
There are a few things I want to say about that, but before I go on, I’d like to say thank you to Pastor Garth, to Pastor Christi, for doing amazing, wonderful work on Sundays preaching on Sundays. Thank you. Pastor Sharon and I have listened to all six of your messages. Not once. Here in Witbank and Joburg. Pastor Garth, your Morning Moments and the way that you went about helping with Sound and Song was awesome. It’s wonderful to be able to leave the ministry and come back and find
it in the right way, in the right order in the right place. So thank you. Thank you all for coming. Thank you for continuing to be part of the ministry while we’ve been gone. Hallelujah.
There are a few basic things I want to say, at the begin 10And this is the plan: that God had. At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ. Who’s going to have the ultimate authority on the earth? Not the Father. Jesus Christ, because He knows that Jesus will do everything He wants. So, the Father has handed all authority to Jesus. Everything, everything is going to be under the command and under the authority of Jesus.
That is the power of what happens when you learn submission. When you learn submission, you don’t lose authority, you don’t lose power, you don’t lose status. You might lose it to yourself, your own self-image, and your own way of doing things about things, but you ultimately are given it back by God on a much greater level, and a much greater form than you could imagine. People are always, always hesitant to give up their self-opinion, their self-ego, their self-ability to make things happen for themselves, to promote themselves. But essentially the Bible says, If you lose your life, you will gain it and he who seeks to gain his life will lose it.
Jesus was the One who led us in that way. And He said He gave himself up completely. And God said, “Because I trust You, that You do not do Your own thing. I trust You with everything.” It’s just the way it is. It’s the way God eternally designed it. So, furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God. If you are united with Christ, you receive an inheritance. The inheritance has already been declared. So you need to just receive it. For he who chooses us in advance and makes everything work out, according to His plan.
He chose us, He chose to give us an inheritance, and He’s going to make it all work out according to His plan. At what point in time does this sound like any of this is our plan? Huh? Does this sound like our plan? Does it sound like anything we plan matters? In the eternal agreement that happened when Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit; do you think any of our plans mattered then. They were making decisions about what we would become and who we would become. Even to the point where there was a plan that said, if they don’t choose, then Jesus will come and leave His place in eternity, and come and become a man so that He could become tempted in every way like we are as men. So that He could defeat the temptation, which He chose to do. So that as men, we can refuse temptation, and as men, we can have the divine nature, overwhelm and strengthen us. Hallelujah.
So, 12God’s purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. 13And now your Gentile s have also heard the truth, the Good News that saves you. And when you believe in Christ, He identified you as His own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom He promised long ago (Ephesians 1:12-13 NLT). God identified you as His own. Yes? He identified you as His own, and when He identified you as His own, He gave you the Holy Spirit. You didn’t have to beg for the Holy Spirit. You didn’t have to do any of that. All you had to do was receive it because it’s a gift. The Holy Spirit is a gift. The Holy Spirit is a gift to you and it’s part of your recognition that the inheritance that God has given to us, is confirmed in us by the Holy Spirit. That’s what the Holy Spirit is there for, to confirm your inheritance in Him.
I’m going to read a little more of the verse of this passage out of The Message Translation, Chapter 1 verse 8, 8He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, 9letting us in on the plans He took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, 10a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in Him, Jesus, everything in the deepest Heaven, everything on the planet earth. 11 It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for (Ephesians 1:8-11 MSG). How do you find out who you are? And what you’re living for? How do you find out who you are and what you’re living for? In Christ, how do you find out? Who do you find out? How do you find out who you are? And what you’re living for? You find out in Christ.
What about the self-help books? No. What about this new thing that they’re promoting in America called Critical Race Theory? No. What about? What about the greatest businesspeople on the planet that have got billions? They offer you, all of you lots of money in return for your intellect and your education? Is that where you found out who you are and what you’re here for? No, what about the universities that you attend? All of those lecturers and all of those books that you read? Do they tell you who you are? What your purpose is? Those universities? Anybody there? Professors, any of your mates, anybody there can tell you, who you are, and what you’re supposed to be?
They will make it out like they think they know, don’t they? I mean, when you talk to people, maybe they can’t tell you exactly what it is, but they can tell you what it’s not. Right? They can tell you, it’s not God, and they can tell you that it’s not a single organization, but it’s a whole career that you choose whether you like it or not, and you leave when you like it or not. You take it when you can get the biggest promotion and the most money. Come on now. Or they can tell you, it might not be a career, but it might be in starting your own business. So, a lot of people have got a lot to say about who you are, and what you’re supposed to be doing, but they don’t know about themselves. So, they’re trying to find out what you have to say and then argue with you about it, in the hope of trying to find out who they are.
If you can’t be influenced by that, then they want to say a whole lot of garbage on Twitter and Instagram and Facebook, hoping that there’ll be enough people that identify with what they say, so that is enough. What they think all these people agree with them, but these people are just nobodies that are saying one-liners, and you know nothing about their lives. There’s 100,000 people that say the same thing, so they must all be right. So, then this must be what I must be about, and you know, what about them?
They are some person sitting behind a keyboard or on a phone, and they’re just expressing a momentary idea based on a mood or an emotion or something the professor or the friend said in class or after class at campus and so now and they put themselves up there with a picture that looks like they’re fifty years old. In the meantime, they’re eighteen, and you think this wise person is giving you this advice? Come on, don’t shout me down because I’m preaching really good. Huh? And so, these people in the world they think they know what you are supposed to be, who you’re supposed to be in what you’re supposed to become.11-12 It’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 eye 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).
If you’ll just be patient, He’s busy working it out in you, with you, for you, for His glorious purpose. Hold on a minute, don’t think one year is enough time. Hold on a minute, don’t even think that you can get this done in 10 years, and then you want to go and talk to people that are older people. You talk to people because they are old, and they seem to have a lot of experience about life. So, you think they’ve got a lot to say, it’s got a lot of wisdom, but experience is not wisdom. Experience is only something, it’s something they learned, that they might have learned, that they might be able to say to you, we know what not to do. Or if we could have done something different, we would do it differently.
So, experience is not wisdom. You may take experience and have God’s Word show light on it, then you can have wisdom, but experience is not wisdom. So, what happens is, a lot of people say okay, maybe we’re going to talk to some older people, and in today’s generation, it’s 18-year-olds talking to 22-year-old, [Congregation laughing] because they think, gee, this guy has finished college, and I’m just starting college, so he’s got to actually know it all. Meantime, God has had his eye on us long before we even knew that we were going to be, and He’s got His plan and purpose sorted out for our lives. 13-14It’s in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit.
Delivered to who? To Jesus. Delivered to what? Your purpose. Delivered to what are you going to become? Like Him, signed, sealed, and delivered. Just hold on a little bit. Don’t think it takes a week, and now I’ve got it sussed out. This signet down payment from God is the first instalment on what’s coming, a reminder that we’ll get everything God has planned for us, What, what? We will get everything that God’s got planned for us. Everything? What’s our job? Just be you, united to Him. Just stick with Him. A praising and glorious life. (Eph 1:13-14 MSG).
You may find, you may find that there’s quite a lot of change in me, because it’s hard not to be changed when you go away. So first of all, I want to just say to you that God has planned for this ministry to minister, and have a redemptive calling, since Pastor Sharon and I started it. I have shared with you before that because I was in marketing, there were many things that I could have done to grow a church. I could have changed ministry, I could have changed what I was preaching, I could have done a whole lot of things, and I could have built a big church.
The more I went into it, the more God began to be clear that I have to stay on point with the message. The message is still a message that we preach, and that is that God is not interested in a bunch of Christians running around saying, “We are Christians”, but they go to the same bars, the same nightclubs, the same sex shows, the same everything as everybody else, but they call themselves Christians, and they go to church on Sunday, but everything else goes for the rest of the time. The earth does not need Christians like that, in fact, the earth can do without Christians like that.
In fact, God was quite clear with Jesus, I’m going to only give you 12, by the way, one of them is going to actually let you down completely and be irrecoverable. One of them – the guy that’s going to be the most solid guy in the future – he’s going to betray you. There’s one of them that’s going to doubt you so much that he is going to want to put his finger in your side, and in the holes of your hand. There is going to be a few others that are going to run away in the same process. Jesus said, and God, the Father said, but hold on, I got My eye on those 12. I’m going to do everything in them that I need to do, and I’m going to do everything with them that I need to do, so that My plan that I would do, and said would do before the beginning of the foundation of the earth, would be done in them. Hmm.
And so, it has been our mandate, that we continually preach Christ. We preach a level of Christian living, that has us as far as we could have been revealed by the Holy Spirit, to live with strength, and purpose. Hallelujah. For me, and for Pastor Sharon and I, it’s not possible that we, we have done everything we’ve done, and we get to this place in our ministry, and when the young people start, that have grown up, a lot of them have grown up in this church, and they come to a turning point in their lives, where they’ve got to choose whether the world system is calling them. These people that think they want to tell you who you are, and what you must become and they have no clue themselves, but they want to tell you because they’re educated, and their education says, “This is what you must become. This is what you must do. This is how you must do it.” They don’t know, but they have an education, so we believe them.
And in that context, God is not having a say at all, but it’s the best reasonable, most reasonable, intellectual, most fact-based evidence of what I must do, but this is not about God calling you or pulling you or speaking to you. This is about a system that’s designed for you to enter in, and what does that system designed to do? It’s to suck all of your potential, all your gifts, all of your energy, all of your calling, everything He planned from the beginning, suck it out of you so that you do not give it all to God. Because if you gave it to God, He would use it in such glory, that it would blow their minds.
When our time came to have this year, we were obviously wanting to have a missions trip and then that wouldn’t happen. So, we went on this adventure and God had His own purpose for it, but I’ll tell you, it’s when you begin to spend time with people and you see God changing them right before your eyes, you see the Word of God changing them. You see their hearts, being captivated by God. You see their lives being transformed into a person that was thinking like a world system and now they’re beginning to think like God and so when they begin to speak back to you, they’re not speaking like the world system anymore, they’re speaking back to you like God speaks. Not only are they speaking back to you like God speaks, but they’ve got a zeal for their future, and they’ve got energy and they’ve got they want to just give it all to God. How does that not change me? Never mind them. How does that not change me? How does that not change all of us?
So, whether you like it or not this church has changed because of them. Because they said, “Come, we’ll, we’ll give ourselves to God.” I’ve got news for you. There’s a whole bunch of them that had plans for the future that God’s already changing. We didn’t talk about those plans, not one of them came to me or Pastor Sharon, we were planning that and we’re not doing that we’re doing something different. But we know all in us in the spirit realm, we know that all their plans have changed. That’s a conversation that must happen in time with their parents, and in consultation with us if they want, but certainly, it’s got to be under the direction of God. Otherwise, it means nothing more. So, that’s why I’m unwilling to even go back to this stage because even that’s too normal for me. It’s just an indication that things have changed, they will change and will continue to change. Hallelujah.
I’ve got two more scriptures to read to you just the two different translations of the same scripture from 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 20. 20So we are Christ’s ambassadors, God making His appeal as it were through us. We [as Christ’s personal representatives] beg you for His sake to lay hold of the divine favor [now offered you] and be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:20 AMPC). I say to you, on behalf of God, I want to beg you, I want to beg you, for His sake, to lay hold of the divine favor [now offered you] and be reconciled to God. But Pastor John, I’m a born again, Christian, I am reconciled to God, and you know, I’m going to heaven. And broadly, that is what that scripture means.
Personally, what the scripture means is, there are ways that you and I have lived, that are not God’s ways. They are not God’s ways. They are not, they are not God’s purposes, they’re not God’s plans. We have lived them, and I beg you that this new thing that God has done in our younger generation, that is now going to, it certainly has changed Pastor Sharon and I, and some of those that travelled with us. We have received letters explaining to us, some of the older people that were with us, how significant the change has happened. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
There is a grace. There is a grace that is now upon us. There is a flow, there is a grace, there is an inheritance of the Holy Spirit, there is a promise of the Holy Spirit that is here for us. Hallelujah. It’s time for us; It’s time for us to change. It’s time for us to be brave enough. It’s time for us to be bold enough. It’s time for us to be courageous enough to look at and say, “Yoh, in the last 40, 50, 60 years, I may not have actually done the things that I should have done, or may not have been able to, my circumstances and my own revelation.”
There’s no point in getting condemnation about it. There’s no point in going back and try and say, “But what if this message or this thing that’s happening could have happened earlier?” There’s no point in going back there, that can only hold you back there. The only point about this conversation is I beg you to take the favour that’s here now and let’s go forward with it. Let’s make the changes, so let’s give our hearts to God. I’ve got news for you, if you could change your life, you would have. We live in this perpetual, ongoing thinking, “I’ll change, I’ll change, I’ll do better. I’ll change. I’ll do better at praying; I’ll do better at confessing, I’ll do better. I’ll make, I’ll make, I’ll make it, I’ll change. I’ll change.” And we live in this perpetual thought process that you can change, yourself. You have enough willpower and discipline to change yourself. If you had it, you would have done it.
Oh, great one that thou art. It’s time for us to lean on everything that He’s paid the price for. It’s time for us to lean on His word, lean on His spirit, lean on all of the help that He has promised He would give us. Lean on it. Lean on it, call on it, call out to Him. It doesn’t matter if you want to call out to Him every day, all day, all day long. Even in your calling people say, “But that’s not faith.” Forget about that, call on Him. You’re calling on Him is an act of faith anyway so don’t let the devil lie to you whether you’re in faith or not call on Him. If you find yourself stuck, because of whatever call on Him, help me Lord, help me. I don’t know what to do next. Help me. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus.
God has never, since Jesus, He has never been about a broken law, or a broken promise or a broken rule. It’s always been about just choose Jesus. Lean on Him. Lean on Him, believe in Him. I just read this to you from The Passage Translation. Chapter five, verse 20. 20We are ambassadors of the Anointed One who carry the message of Christ to the world, as though God were tenderly pleading with them directly through our lips. So we tenderly plead with you on Christ’s behalf, we tenderly plead with you, on Christ’s behalf, “Turn back to God and be reconciled to him.” (2 Corinthians 5:20 TPT). Hallelujah. I think I must read the next verse. 21For God made the only one who did not know sin to become sin for us, so that we who did not know righteousness might become the righteousness of God through our union with him. (2 Corinthians 5:21 TPT). I receive Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I receive Him into my heart, I receive Him into my life.
I accept Him as Lord and Savior. I accept Him that He is the one who died for me. I receive Him as my Lord and Savior Jesus, and now I receive Him every day as my Savior, to be reconciled and in union with Him. Every day, I receive my salvation. Every single day, every moment of every day, I receive Him in my union with Him I receive that I can become what I’m supposed to become. I can be who I’m supposed to be. Because He wants me to become. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
I close with this; Chapter Six, verse one says, 1Now, since we are God’s coworkers, so He just called you righteous, now He doesn’t say, “Now since you’ve gone to Bible school, and you graduated, and you know all the gifts of the Spirit, and you know how to and you know how to be one of those guys that are, you know, can really debate whether God is God or not.” What do they call them? Apologists.
What? Onnosel. [Congregation laughing] Oh, yeah, those guys who think God is or isn’t, ‘Hulle is ‘n bietjie onnosel. Dit is nou maar net so’, Nick. But there are guys that actually have a gift on them to debate with those who don’t believe, and they call them apologists.[No sound] So you don’t have to become an apologist. Now since you are God’s apologist. Now since you are God’s Bible school student finished, or since you now have been a Christian for 50 years, or now since, you know, no. 1Now, since we are God’s coworkers, since when? Since you became the righteousness of Christ. 1Now, since we are God’s coworkers, we beg you not to take God’s marvelous grace for granted, allowing it to have no effect on your lives. (2 Corinthians 6:1 TPT). I ask you, and I beg you today as we go forward, and as we share things with you, and you become aware of things that are happening in the ministry and things.
You will hear testimonies, you will hear people making decisions in times to come, weeks and months, depending on each individual, and how God works and for those of us that have been impacted by it. It might be that you hear more from me and Pastor Sharon, because of the impact it’s had on us than you hear from them. Because we are careful to nurture them, to experience and have what God wants for them without interference from anything in the past. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
Then I say to you, as a co-worker, don’t let this moment pass you by as a co-worker of God, don’t let this grace that God has given you, this grace that is coming to you, don’t allow it, to have no effect on your life. This is a moment for it to let it impact you. Hallelujah. Let it impact you. Let it impact you.
This morning, I had a very strong thing during the week. I shared it with pastor Sharon, but I feel it will come in a different place, but I feel there will come a time when, maybe as part of the Blowing Your Mind series, that you’ve got to blow up the darkness in your life. You’ve got to blow up darkness because wherever there is darkness, you can’t have light and if you choose darkness, you choose to not let light penetrate. So, you have to willingly blow up darkness, so light can come in. There’s only one real way you can blow up darkness, if you want to hear about it, come back next week. No, I’ll tell you, we’ll talk about it another time, but there’s only one way you can blow up darkness, and that’s repentance. It’s not the acknowledgement of your sin and just move forward. You have to have repentance to blow up darkness. That’s another message yet to come. Hallelujah.
Won’t you all stand with me please? Praise the Lord. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Hallelujah. Glory to God.
It is my heart’s desire and as Your messenger today Father, I declare that every mind is open and received what You have had to say today. Every heart has been opened, ears have heard, and I ask You, Father, that not one Word will be stolen out of their hearts, but it will find root in their hearts. I ask You by the Holy Spirit, to cloud their reasonings that might come against this. Put a barrier there, a barrier of light, a barrier of Your Word, a barrier of Your love so that they can experience and fully receive the things that You have wanted to say today. I ask You, Father, that as they go forward from today into the rest of the week, You bless them, You favour them, You increase them, You show them the way that they should go. You bring light into their lives. I pray, Father, that You overwhelm them with Your goodness, You completely just blow them away with how great and good You are. With Your favour and Your blessing. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
I ask You to protect their income. I ask You to protect their health. I ask You to protect their relationships. I ask You to protect all that is in their world. Hallelujah. By Your Word and by the blood of Jesus. So, finally, Father, I ask that You bless them going out and bless them coming in. In the name of Jesus. Hallelujah.
May they have encounters with Your Holy Spirit this week. I asked You, Father, in Jesus’ name. Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God.
Thank you for coming to church today. Be blessed in all that you do. Amen. ‘Totsiens julle mense’’.
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