Scripture reference: Ezekiel 28:12-18(NKJV); Ezekiel 28:5(NKJV); Ezekiel 28:14 (NKJV), Hebrews 11:4(NKJV), Ezekiel 28:15-16(NKJV),Isaiah 14:15 (NKJV),Isaiah 14:13-14 (NKJV),Genesis 3:1-6 (NKJV); Genesis 3:6 NKJV; Isaiah 14:12-14 (MSG); Rev 13:8(AMPC); 2 Corinthians 5:21(NKJV); Isaiah 53:5 (NKJV), Matthew 4:1-11(NKJV), Hebrews 4: 15 (NKJV), Luke 19:11-27 (KJV); Luke 19:14-27 (KJ21)
Father, in the name of Jesus, we worship You. Thank You for Your great love, thank You for Your Son, thank You, Lord. We are sons of God. We are sons of Light. Oh, Lord, we praise You. There is no one like You. We give You glory today, in the mighty name of Jesus. Oh, and Father, You’ve made a way for us with Jesus. Jesus, Your blood made the way for us. We could not pay, but You made the way. Lord, we praise You today. The entrance of Your Word brings great light and understanding to our lives, Lord. Father, I ask You that I will speak with great clarity today, in the name of Jesus, great boldness and great purpose and with Your anointing on me, Lord, inspired by the Holy Spirit, as Your messenger this morning. Father, in the name of Jesus, may Your anointing rest on us as a people today. This we believe, Lord, when we ask You. We all say; amen. Hallelujah. You may be seated.
Well, I want to say thank you, today. I wish my birthday could be tomorrow, but what a privilege to be planted in this house with all of you. It’s absolutely a privilege. I just want to say, Pastor Garth, thank you, all of you, you sang beautifully. Thank you for your love and your kindness. I really, really appreciate that so much. Here with all of you and Pastor John and Sharon… Pastor John and Sharon are not missing a thing that we are doing here; not a thing. We miss them and we’re waiting for them to come back, but we say; Pastor John and Sharon, be blessed! Be blessed, in the name of Jesus, in everything that they must get, enjoy and receive that side, so we bless them, in the mighty name of Jesus. Hallelujah.
Will you open your Bibles, please, in the Book of Ezekiel 28 today? The title of my message is Come Out of Babylon: MiXchange. I’ve got a lot to share with you today, so I’m going to start straight away.
Ezekiel 28 verse 12 to 18. 12 ‘Thus says the Lord God: “You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.” God is talking about, and this passage is, talking about Lucifer when he was a perfect angel till iniquity was found in his heart. Verse 12, “You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Verse 13, 13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The sardius, topaz, and diamond, Beryl, onyx, and jasper, Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created.” Verse 14, 14 “You were the anointed cherub who covers; That’s very important and maybe next week we will go there. I established you; says the Lord, You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. 15 You were perfect in all of your ways from the day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you. 16 By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within, And you sinned; Therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God; And I destroyed you, O covering cherub, angel, From the midst of the fiery stones. Verse 17, 17 Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, That they might gaze at you. Verse 18, 18 You defiled your sanctuaries By the multitude of your iniquities, By the iniquity of your trading” (Ezekiel 28:12-18 NKJV).
When Pastor John ministered this, Pastor John made this comment; this is a very important word, ‘your trading’. The iniquity of your trading. Now, I have studied this passage of scripture for many years and times in my life, and when Pastor John said that, the Lord spoke to me while listening to Pastor John and the Lord said, “Mark that word.” I did, ‘your trading’, the iniquity of your trading.
Then Pastor John was ministering on The Power of Resurrection. When Pastor John shared at the end of that message; the world’s economy can collapse and how can God, He can, give you and me a way out? Just like in the days of Elijah and the widow woman. Pastor John said; We live in such a mindset in Babylon, that we are so indoctrinated… “I must take care of my retirement. I must take care of my future.” We do not even consider that God has a plan for us because we do not have a revelation of how God works outside our modern day Babylonian mindset, Pastor John shared, If we were free from the Babylonian systems, then we do not have to use their systems.
The very moment Pastor John said that, the Holy Spirit prompted me right there where I was sitting in my chair. He said to me, “Christi, ask Me for that.” Since Pastor John has been ministering on Kingdom Economics, I’ve been enquiring from the Lord and I’ve been praying about it. Also, you will remember, at the beginning of this year, Pastor John said; God will ask you to do things. Not just because He’s answering you, but because He requires someone to ask and not because you can take credit for it, because He requires someone to ask. Now, that can be for many, many things.
So, please open your Bibles at Ezekiel 28, well, you’re actually there and we’re going to go back to verse 5. So, the Lord wanted me to look at the word trading, the iniquity of his trading. I started to read what the Bible, the Word of God, says about it and one of the scriptures I immediately read because I was there in Ezekiel 28, just like you, you opened your Bibles this morning, and I was meditating and musing because somehow I did not want to look at this word because of how people minister about this passage and spiritual warfare and many other topics. But the Lord really prompted me to start and look at this.
So let’s look at Ezekiel 28 verse 5. Most of my scriptures today is New King James. Now, in this first part of Ezekiel 28, God is actually speaking to the real king of Tyra here; 5 By your great wisdom in trade you have increased your riches, And your heart is lifted up because of your riches (Ezekiel 28:5 NKJV). The moment I read that, the Lord said to me and I understood immediately, He said to me, “Christi, now you will understand why the word MiXchange is so huge and so powerful that I gave Pastor John.” He said to me, “This, in fact, is actually everything. This is the how.” When I was reading all the scriptures and especially looking at verse 5, I immediately saw it. I immediately saw it. It started to open up for me.
The first thing that the Lord said, even while He was saying it to me, I said, “Lord, I see it.” He said to me, “Christi, what’s the synonym for trade?” Immediately I said, “Exchange, Lord. Exchange.” So, I just want to, and I’ve asked them to put it on the board. What does it mean to trade? It’s to exchange, to swap, to do business with, and to barter. I did not really know that word so well, but to barter. I immediately saw it. The Lord showed me why it was all about MiXchange. The way and why God gave it to Pastor John.
Listen to this, to trade or to exchange is the basis of every economy. It’s the way all kingdoms expand. The kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. If we trade, how we trade and with whom we trade. Now, we all understand this. I know when it comes to understanding the economy but I’ve never seen this like this in the light of self-oneness, living for myself versus MiXchange. This is very, very powerful.
In the natural, we all trade and this is very important for us to take note from the beginning what the Holy Spirit is saying here. In the natural we all trade, we all exchange, all the time. We exchange with what we do have for the things that we do not have. I just want to add here, to lay a foundation today for where we are going next Sunday. We trade legally. We do not walk into a shop and just take a TV or a laptop or food. No, we trade legally. So to exchange, my exchange, your exchange is the foundation of our personal economy. Through exchanging we have food to eat, clothes to wear, and we can travel. Our ability and skill that we have to trade to exchange with what we have in our hands, determines our economic success or failure in the natural or spiritually.
This is very huge. It’s true for an individual. It’s true for a family, and it’s true for a nation. Our ability to exchange defines our economy. This is very, very important for us; as it is in the natural, so it is in the spirit. Our ability with what is in our hands, will determine how we can exchange in heavenly places. We will go there next Sunday, it will define the spiritual economy that we walk in. Abraham… What you obey God to do, what you give, what you give, is your worship. Here are the MiXchangers currently, they’re sitting. I know we are all MiXchangers. Just like Abraham not knowing where they are going, they are first seeking the Kingdom of God and He will add unto them. It’s true for us too. But this concept, Babylon does not understand because, “I have to plan in Babylon, you have to know what is the next thing happening.” It’s not just money. It’s what you obey, your life, your choices, opportunities, and we’re going to talk about your worship and who you are worshiping. Self oneness exchangers have devastating outcomes.
Then God showed me something that I’ve never seen before. Let’s go back to Ezekiel 28, this time, verse 14. Here we see Satan as Lucifer, when he was still the good angel, until iniquity was found in his heart. Very, very important here, 14 …You were on the holy mountain of God, I’m going to read verse 14 with you once again. 14 “You were the anointed cherub, angel, who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones (Ezekiel 28:14 NKJV). That holy mountain is very important. I’ve shared with you in the past a little bit about Hebrews 12. We have come to Mount Zion. We have come to the church of the assembly. We have come to the Judge of all the earth. When you read about the mountain of God there, you read about the Ecclesia, a place of government. It is judicial, governmental, it is all about legal activities.
I want to remind you what we spoke about. Things that we do here on the earth, there’s a witness before the Judge of all the earth. Remember we spoke there about James 5? The Bible says remember the corrosion of your gold and silver is witnessing against you before the Judge of the whole earth.
Choices we make here on the earth have governmental and eternal outcomes right now in heaven. Things are speaking about our actions today that are not only in the earth, but already in Heaven. Like Abel, and I want you to open your Bible at Hebrews 11 verse 4. I’ve added this scripture this morning. This is very, very powerful.
You will remember we spoke about Abel, the sacrifice, the exchange that he made with God, like Abel, he exchanged with God his first and his best. To that God Himself witnessed and testifies. I want to read this for you. Also New King James verse 4. 4 By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice, that is an exchange, it was the way he exchanged with God. …Through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, listen to this, God testifying of his gifts. God is testifying of his exchange and through it he being dead still speaks (Hebrews 11:4 NKJV). So God declared him righteousness, but I want you to understand what God showed me here. Abel gained a voice still speaking today.
The Lord showed me, about the cloud of witnesses. The cloud of witnesses, they have a stand and a place with God. Many of them qualified in the exchange of their lives like Abel, on the basis of their obedience and exchange on the earth. That is why I believe in my heart that God allowed Brother Kenneth Hagin to share in a dream with Pastor John about the legacy transfer, that he has bought this house, because he still has a voice, because of the exchange of obedience and worship that they did in the day when they lived. All glory to God. This is very important.
So Satan had a place near the throne of God. He was perfect in his ways, till something changed in his heart. Let’s read verse 15. Everything is about our hearts. Everything is about our hearts. Verse 15, says so beautifully, 15 You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you (Ezekiel 28:15 NKJV). Now this is important for today, because the definition for iniquity is a bit, there is much more.
I just want to start with this today. Iniquity means: a deviation from justice and righteousness. You see, from that legal, judicial place of the Ecclesia how God’s government works. Satan made the choice to turn away from righteousness and justice. He started to look at his own self-oneness, his own perfection, as though he was worthy of the worship that went to God. Pride turned his eyes away from God, and took him down a path of wrong thinking where he did not blow his mind, that lead him to sin. Now this is very important for us to understand. God allowed Satan to trade and exchange in heaven. He allowed him; that was good, until iniquity was found in his heart. We’re going to see today that exchanging is a spiritual principle of God. The problem came in with Satan when he allowed that iniquity into his heart.
Pastor John shared with us, Satan’s worship was no longer directed to God, it was now directed towards himself. Pastor John said, What was Satan trading with?. He was trading with the praises of the beings on the earth. He was very active on the mountain of God. But then suddenly, he started to take the praises for himself. Pastor John shared with us, if we think, as the church, we were just born as human beings just to live here on the earth. No, he said we made a very great mistake. We were born into an ancient confrontation. The ancient confrontation is an eternal, ancient confrontation between God and a very superior being that God created.
Satan wanted to be like God. As he started to trade with the sinful, twisted things in his heart, in the beginning, like I said, his trading was not bad, until iniquity was found in him. Then he corrupted his wisdom, and defiled the sanctuaries, says the Word of God. Let’s read verse 16 again, very important, 16 By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within, And you sinned; Therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God; And I destroyed you, O covering angel, From the midst of the fiery stones (Ezekiel 28:16 NKJV).
Satan lost his place. So here’s the part that in this light, I have never seen before. Satan then started to build his own kingdom, because he wanted to be worshiped, just like God. And he is still after that today. Pastor John shared with us in Isaiah 14, and I want us to look at it because I want you to see this self oneness in his heart that started to speak. Also from the New King James, 14 How you are fallen from heaven, Isaiah 14, verse 12, How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations!
Now from verse 13, I want you to pay attention because he declared five ‘I wills’. Five statements that he made that came out of his self-oneness, ¹³ For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation, in the New Testament we have come to Mount Zion. Then in verse 14, 14 he says, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High. Then he says, number five, I will be like the Most High. (Isaiah 14:13-14 NKJV)
Yet verse 15 says, 14 Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit (Isaiah 14:15 NKJV). I just want to amplify verse 13 to you once again. Lucifer said, I will ascend into heaven, and I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. So Pastor John made this statement, and I’ve asked them to put this statement on the board, because it’s so the heart of everything that the Holy Spirit is bringing us messages to understand this evil thing of self-oneness.
Pastor John made this statement. Like I said, it’s really the call. Let me tell you, every time you have an expression of self-will in your life, you also, just like Lucifer, make a choice to exalt yourself, your throne above the stars of God. This is very important. Satan wanted a kingdom, just like God. But the challenge he faced is he cannot create anything, in setting up his kingdom, Lucifer had to get his own domain. But everything at that time belonged to God. Satan knew in order to get his own kingdom, he needed to get his own territory in which to establish his own kingdom. When he saw that God gave the Garden of Eden to Adam and Eve to give them dominion over the earth, he saw the very opportunity he was waiting for.
He knew Adam and Eve would never just hand over their dominion to him. I want you to listen to this today. This is what God started to show me. Satan knew he had to trade it away from them. Remember, he was a master trader in heaven. He understood God’s economy, and the legal requirements of exchanging to bring increase in any kingdom. For Satan to be legally able to establish his own kingdom, he needed to legally exchange dominion away from those that God gave it to. It’s very important. I’m going to read this once again, because God is giving us the time and the place in Witbank, in Johannesburg, every place where Pastor John’s feet is, where he’s going.
For Satan to be legally able to establish his own kingdom in any place. He needed to legally exchange dominion away from those to whom God had entrusted it. Now we’re going to go to Genesis chapter three, verse one to six, because here we see, Satan came to exchange with man for the first time. Also, the New King James, verse one. ¹ Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” And we know that is wrong. Verse 4, 4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Look at verse 6, 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate (Genesis 3:1-6 NKJV).
What happened here? In order for Satan, to gain the dominion that has been given to Adam and Eve. Listen very closely. Satan needed to exchange something for something. That’s what exchange means. Satan needed to exchange something for something. In the past, one would take a donkey and exchange it for a cow. I did some research on this matter when God started to show me this. And it looks like the coin system started to come in around 600 years before Christ. Now we don’t exchange a donkey for a cow, we exchange money for a cow, money for a cell phone. But you exchange something for something.
Satan needed them to legally exchange their dominion for something that he would give them. The only thing that Satan had to offer, very important, was sin, lies and deceit. That was the product that he could use to exchange with them. Satan needed his sin to look appealing to Adam and Eve, that they would be willing to take what he was offering, and he is doing the same with us today. He needed to draw them away from their worship to God, and into an exchange.
I just want you to look at Genesis 3, verse 6, again, because he does come to make it very appealing. Verse 6. 6 So when the woman saw that the tree actually was very good, it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable (Genesis 3:6 NKJV). It will not say, “desirable, if it was not desirable.” He has to make it appealing, and he does that with us, too. We see he is questioning Eve. His first step was to engage her in conversation, to question the instructions that God gave them.
Remember what Pastor John said, Lucifer, his will, that he created to stand against the will of God became his platform. His platform was to go and tell the other angels that he is equal to God, and he convinced a third of the angels. You will remember when Pastor John ministered, my and your will is our platform, and who we actually worship, it’s there where our power will come from. Sho.
We see Satan approaching Eve, with these questions to question the very instruction God gave them to obey. His first step was to engage her in conversation by introducing a question about the authority of God’s Word. The moment she responded, he succeeded in pulling her away from worshiping God. He succeeded in turning her eyes away from God, and that gave him the moment he waited for. What was that? To put forth the bait to tempt her. He offered her the opportunity to be like God, and this is what our ears must hear. Temptation is always an opportunity to exchange with Satan.
Every time he is coming to tempt me and you, it’s an opportunity to exchange with Satan, because the Bible says, “God will never tempt us.” The moment the enemy tempts you and me, we are standing on his trading floor. Now we have a choice to make. Will we exchange with him, or will we exchange with God? He will always come to offer you and me something. But in order to get it, remember, he only has one product to offer, and its sin. He will always offer me and you something to get something. But in order to do that, we have to partake of sin. The moment you say “Yes”, the moment you exchange with him, you are partaking of his product. If you accept the sin, he offers then Satan has the legal right to take something from you. A trade, an exchange, is something for something. This is very important to remember.
This is what happened with Adam and Eve. Eve was tempted to have an opportunity because it looked good, to have her eyes opened and be like God, knowing good and evil, never mind that she and Adam were created in the image of God. In order to have this what was now being offered to her, she had to disobey God and that was sin. Remember, at that very moment, she could have refused the enemy, but she did not. She chose to say “Yes” to the enemy. She chose to exchange with the enemy. She disobeyed God and partook of the sin and the moment she and Adam sinned; Satan now had the legal right to exchange with them. Because what he offered to them, they took. “You took my cow; I can take your donkey.” Adam and Eve freely chose to exchange to take this sin and now Satan had the moment that he was waiting for, to legally exchange. He took their dominion, the dominion of the earth. We know the rest of this story. Adam and Eve were banned from the garden and listen to this; sin entered the world and now Satan had the start of his demonic kingdom, because he exchanged.
Remember what Pastor Sharon shared with us in I Will Take the Children, first message. Babylon conquers spiritually and literally, spiritual warfare with the one true God is expressed in her earthly action of making war on God, against these people, and directly against His house. Satan is coming to kill, steal and destroy, and to exchange our dominion away from us if we allow him. But we will not.
I just want to take it to Isaiah 14, verse 12, in The Message Bible. Pastor John shared this, and I want you because the title of my message is, Come out of Babylon, MiXchange. Isaiah 14, verse 12 to 14 says, and the Message Bible really puts it in a wonderful way. 14 What a comedown this, O Babylon! Daystar! Son of Dawn! Flat on your face in the underworld mud, you, famous for flattening nations! From verse 13, to 14. You said to yourself, “I’ll climb to heaven. I’ll set my throne over the stars of God. I’ll run the assembly of angels that meets on sacred Mount Zaphon. I’ll climb to the top of the clouds. I’ll take over as King of the Universe!” (Isaiah 14:12-14 MSG). That is what Satan said.
Pastor John said here. O Babylon, when the Bible talks about Babylon it refers to a system that is being created by the enemy. And we just saw how he went about… Here we see how Satan exchanges with Adam and Eve, to bring about the start of his demonic kingdom. So, the second slide that I have, here, I actually missed sorry, guys, my first slide… Next week, I think I will go back to that quite a bit. I just want to tell you, because actually, what I wanted to do was to minister all Pastor John’s messages again, because he gave it to us, he gave it to us. But here you will see, Pastor John gave us this wonderful slide about the kingdoms.
There, you see the kingdoms in the middle, but you see devils in destruction. This is exactly what happened here. So, what happened here is, of course, the legitimate deception; because Satan had the right to exchange. Adam and Eve on the left, alternative gods, instead of obeying God, they started to listen to other voices. Adam and Eve disobeyed the Word of God. Self-will came in, division, compromise, and then specially second last here on the left, overcoming Christians. There’s so much to say about what Pastor John already said about these slides, but I just wanted to show you, this is exactly, here are the kingdoms. This is overcoming Christians, and one of the strategies that the enemy is using to do that… We will look at some of the other slides as well today.
Since the first time that Satan exchanged with Adam and Eve, Satan now continues to come in exchange with mankind. He wants to do that with you and me too. On a daily basis, he comes to offer sin to us, hoping we will freely choose so that he can keep on taking from us. When we are tempted, Satan can take, if we say “Yes” to his sin, he can take destinies, gifts and callings, blessings and strengths and all opportunities that belong to us in Christ Jesus. Every time we exchange with the enemy when he tempts us with sin, just like Adam and Eve, we give away part of our Godly inheritance. Every time you sin, you exchange with the enemy, you worship him instead of God.
Now, just remember, this is why it is so powerful and wonderful how God gave Pastor John, MiXchange. God wants to exchange with us, so that He can add onto our lives. But most people don’t understand how His Kingdom works. So they want to gather for themselves, chase, and plan for themselves in the world system. Because for many people, that’s the only thing that they know. But God wants us to come and exchange with Him. Satan wants to exchange our blessings away, so that we can live in so much less than what God actually has for us. So just to make a start here today, and there’s more detail to come next Sunday.
This is why sin is so deadly. Think about fornication, you exchange your sexual purity for immorality. When you tell a lie, you exchange your integrity for dishonesty. When you slander and gossip about someone, you exchange the authority invested in your words, as a powerful speaking spirit, for self-righteousness. Satan comes with depression and fear. When you take the depression he offers, Satan has a right to take your joy.
Remember, an exchange means something for something. I just want to give you one or two more examples that the Holy Spirit pressed on my heart. For example, and this is true, it’s just one of the many examples that we are going to talk about. Satan does make depression look appealing. How can this be? He does. He does it with self-pity, that will bring attention and people like that, “Oh, we can all see that things are very hard for you, we can all see that you try your best, but things are very difficult for you. We understand that you cannot overcome, you cannot be strong, you cannot. We understand life is tough for you. You cannot be part of what God is doing.” When he is presenting depression to you, and you take it, he may take your joy.
Many people unknowingly have exchanged with the enemy. The enemy will come and tell you, “You can drink and party. Drink and party! You deserve to get away from all the demands of a hard life. Why must you be responsible and grow spiritually and be a blessing for the people around you? No! Party on, we understand you want to get away from things that are difficult for you!”
The moment you make the trade Satan can take from you. When the enemy tells you to gamble, the Lord just gave this to me. To buy a lottery ticket, you take the shortcut. You exchange with the god of luck. Get rich quickly. Satan comes immediately to take from you your financial blessings. Remember, it is an exchange. Why must you believe in your God that says, “I’m your source, and I’m your provider.”
Pastor John shared with us I Will Take the Children Part 19, The prince of this world creates a system that tells you what your plan for your life should be. If he can get you to believe that he has the plan for you in the system, then you do not even have to think about it, because everyone else is doing it. Satan and his forces don’t even have to fight you. They already have you handcuffed. So, little by little they steal all of your life. They steal your destiny, and they steal your very purpose.
This word MiXchange that God gave Pastor John, as a congregation, we will never be the same. After the messages, I Will Take the Children and What is Your More For, our lives are now changing.
In the beginning of this year, Pastor John said, the enemy has come with a big lie, because of the virus. He tried to separate the church. But Pastor John said, I’ve got good news for you. God knew a long time ago it was coming. And when he said I’m going to take the children, God says I’m breaking the hold that the world system that Babylon has and had over young adults and young children and breaking the mold they are no longer going to serve the world they are going to serve Me. They chose to exchange their future for a future with God. They chose to exchange with God. We are all the little children here. We are all MiXchangers. But this is exactly the light and the revelation that God is bringing us with all these messages from Pastor John and Pastor Sharon.
The last slide, the oval one, please and thank you that Pastor John showed us. On the sixth of March this year in The Power of Resurrection, Pastor John shared with us, there you can see the heavenly beings, dominion and authority and angelic hosts, you’ve got the good angels of God. But then you also have the principalities and the powers. Pastor John says, And they are legitimate rulers of this world, why are they legitimate? They are legitimate because men gave them legitimacy when they chose to follow themselves, rather than the plan of God.
When you go to do business in a place that God has not sent and said you can, when you buy, when you do, when you disobey, when you just follow your own plan, every time the enemy says, “Thank you very much, thank you very much”. You are in that self-oneness in making decisions. All of these are legal exchanges.
If we do not exchange with the enemy, he has nothing to build his kingdom with. Satan can only keep on building his kingdom if we keep on giving away our inheritance and our blessings. Everything that the Father has fashioned for us before the foundation of the world, he is after that. Here’s the good news today. Next week, we will focus much on that; God instituted the principle of exchange, not satan. Satan thought that he had out-traded God.
I want you to see Revelations 13 verse eight today. God blessed me with this revelation when He just opened it up for me. By faith I knew, just like you, that the lamb was slain before the foundation of the world. The Lord said, “Yes, before the foundation of the world, the greatest exchange of the cross was made.” Long before Satan thought he could come and exchange with mankind. 8 And all the inhabitants of the earth will fall down in adoration and pay him homage, everyone whose name has not been recorded in the Book of Life of the Lamb that was slain [in sacrifice] from the foundation of the world (Revelations 13:8 AMPC).
Why from the foundation of the world? Long before Satan thought he could come and trade this way, dominion of the earth was lost through the exchange with Adam and Eve. But it all is won back, buy the greatest exchange of all times; the cross, the cross of Jesus Christ. Second Corinthians five verse 21, New King James; 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV). Look at this exchange, He became sin, so that He can take my and your sin and exchange that with His righteousness.
Now, next week, we’re going to look at something very important. You have to call sin, sin, otherwise you can’t exchange. Lip service will not do. We’re going to look at one John nine next week. You have to freely come and admit that you have sinned. Lip service can’t be exchanged for God’s righteousness, if we want to exchange with our Lord, glory to God. Next week we will really focus on that. I just want to give you a glimpse, because now when you are going to read the Bible, this is the power that we have in Christ Jesus; in Isaiah 53 verse 5, we know it, we love the Word of God. 5 He was wounded for my transgressions. Do you see the exchange? Bruised for my iniquities (Isaiah 53:5). “Lord, I exchange my iniquities for all the bruises on Your body, because I am healed.” I’m going to show you Isaiah 60, God says: “Come to Me, I will exchange My beauty for your ashes.” It’s time that we come and exchange the ashes, ashes of our lives, for His beauty. The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, the oil of joy for mourning; can you see? I’m just touching on a few here.
He became poor so that you and I can become rich. It’s time that we exchange with our heavenly Father only. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I’m going to end with two very important passages of scripture that I want to show you today, to lay the foundation for where we are going next week.
I want you to see that the very thing we’ve got to do, and to refuse Satan; I want you to see that Jesus was tempted, just like you and me, to exchange with Satan but He refused. Let’s go to Matthew, chapter 4, verse 1 to 11, New King James: 1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread” (Matthew 4:1-11 NKJV). Remember, he’s always coming with questions, like Pastor John said, to Eve: “Did God say…?” He’s coming to Jesus: “If you are the Son of God…”
Verse 4, 4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ” 5 Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down (Matthew 4:1-11 NKJV). Now he’s testing, and we will look at it next week; he was now testing the pride of Jesus, because, “Jesus, surely you’re the man. You can just snap your fingers and they will come and assist you.” We will look at what the enemy did in the way that he came to tempt Jesus, the way that he comes for us.
He said 6 “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ” Come on, this is when you talk to people and someone offends you, or you’re in a situation when you want to say to someone: “Do you know who you’re talking to?” We all understand all of these things, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life; we will talk about it next week.
Verse 7, ⁷ Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ” ⁸ Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. ⁹ And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me” (Matthew 4:1-11 NKJV). Can you see, he wants to be worshiped like our Father. He’s after that, he wants you to trade with him because then you worship him, because you obey him and not our heavenly Father.
Notice that Satan showed Jesus very enticing things. Why do I say that? He drew Jesus’ vision to things that were indeed very tempting. “How can it be tempting to Jesus?” Satan tempted Jesus like he tempts all men. He tempted Jesus; he made Jesus the offer to worship him: “I will give you all these kingdoms and the world, and their glory.” It was quite an offer. “Why?” Satan was offering Jesus something that Jesus knew would be His, one day, all the kingdoms. But Satan offered it just like a get rich quick scheme, because: “Jesus, you can have all of this without going to the cross.”
Satan was offering Jesus a shortcut to the same destination. Jesus was really tempted. Look at Hebrews 4, verse 15, I want you to see this today: 15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15 NKJV). He did not make the exchange with Satan. Jesus understood the concept of exchange very well. Jesus was not going to worship anyone but His Heavenly Father. He would only worship the One True God. Jesus refused the opportunity to exchange with the enemy. Why is all of this so important for us to understand? Now that we understand, it’s all about my exchange. That Satan is coming; daily do we have this opportunity.
God has a kingdom, and Satan has a kingdom. Both exist in the spirit, but their fruit is manifested on the earth. There’s two economies. Both expanding everyday through the actions and decisions of men and women like you and me. So, I want to end today, and we will pick this up next Sunday to show you the details of this. What has Jesus to say about this in the New Testament? Is there anything at all? Do we just come from Ezekiel and Isaiah?
I want you to go to Luke chapter 19, verse 11 to 27. Before I read that; everyday when we obey God it brings increase to His kingdom. That means when we obey God, we do what He’s telling us, we go where He’s telling us and directing us to go; not following our own plans because we are so impacted and influenced by Babylon.
Luke chapter 19, verse 11 to 27. This one I’m reading from the old King James, and some of you who are here with us for a bit longer, you will recognize the message of Pastor John in this and that’s why I chose the old King James. 11 And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear. So, we’re talking about the kingdom of God, verse 12: 12 He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return (Luke 19: 11-12 KJV). This is very important. 13 And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, the other translation says Ten Minas, ¹³ and said unto them, occupy till I come (Luke 19: 13 KJV). Now, I just want to stand still here because this is just the way God is speaking to me. You will remember Abraham asked God for the city of Sodom and Gomorrah, he started at 50 and God permitted him to end at ten.
Ten righteous people that will exchange with God so that He can spare cities and take nations. We are back to the ten in righteous living before God, in the Ecclesia following God. ¹³ …he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, look at verse 14: 14 But his citizens hated him… In the first message, the A team listened to that again here in the week of the messages, I Will Take the Children, Babylon hates Jesus, hates God. Look at verse 14, ¹⁴ But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. And now look at verse 15, 15 And it came to pass that when he had returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading (Luke 19:14-15 KJV).
How much are you gaining by exchanging? With who? How do you do it? My exchange. 16 Then came the first, saying, ‘Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds.’ 17 And he said unto him, ‘Well done, thou good servant; because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.’ Can you see where we are once again, in the kingdom of God, the ones that want to choose and obey God, exchange with Him, live in the kingdom of God, understand Kingdom economies, it comes to authority over ten cities. We are back to the righteous, the ten, righteous.
Verse 18.18 And the second came, saying, ‘Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds.’ 19 And he said likewise to him, ‘Be thou also over five cities.’ 20 And another came, saying, ‘Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid away in a napkin. 21 For I feared thee, because thou art an austere man: thou takest up what thou layest not down, and reapest what thou did not sow.’ Verse 22; 22 And he said unto him, ‘Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. But now please understand how many times we spoke about this Pastor Sharon explained it to us again, wicked means twisted ways. It means it’s not God’s ways. It’s your own way. This is exactly what the kingdom is. Our Lord Jesus, a kingdom, a kingdom with a king, and the commands and the ways that work in a kingdom.
Then verse 23, 23 Why then gavest not thou my money unto the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with interest?’ 24 And he said unto them that stood by, ‘Take from him the pound and give it to him that hath ten pounds.’ 25 And they said unto him, ‘Lord, he hath ten pounds!’ 26 ‘For I say unto you, that unto every one that hath shall be given; and from him that hath not, even that which he hath shall be taken away from him. And verse 27, 27 But those mine enemies, who would not that I should reign over them, bring them hither and slay them before me’” (Luke 19:14-27 KJ21). This is quite a parable.
The disciples thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately. Maybe, and I can just imagine we all would have thought that because they’ve been with Jesus, they’ve seen Him perform miracles, they’ve seen the dead being raised, blind eyes opened, food multiplied. They thought that the kingdom was about right there to manifest. But Jesus spoke this parable to correct their thinking. He wanted them to understand that for the kingdom to come, it was going to take some exchanging, that must still happen.
God is looking at you and me to see how we are exchanging every day. What will we say, when we stand before Him? And next week in a bit deeper way, God gave them actually very little in the ten pounds, but God says, “Faithful in the little, and then you will be faithful in much.”
Now I want to make this statement because we will also go into greater depth about this. This trading is not for everyone, the nobleman only calls for His servants, those already serving in his house, he’s not calling the lawless. This is very important when we talk about the Ecclesia. They are in submission to the master already serving his house. Only those can be entrusted to take care of his finances. His economy while he is away. This is very important for us.
This trading is not for the lawless and anyone just to become and part, those who were not his servants, they can have no part in his economy. The citizens who were not part of his household; it says “they hate God.” Just as much as our money has a voice. It’s going to become very clear here among us how we will choose to exchange; my exchange, your exchange; daily in the kingdom of God. This is so huge. You know what I mean? When Pastor John ministered that message last Sunday, I could not type fast enough where I was sitting. Pastor John, what was the title and what is the title of his message? Flipping the Coin for the Truth. It’s all about how we choose to exchange. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let’s pray.
Father, we just want to say, thank You, Lord, for all Your messages. For the great light Lord, we say once again, we are sons of light and we choose to walk in Your light. Father, we’ve been impacted and influenced and imprinted so much by the Babylonian system. Thank You for Your great love, that You are now taking the little children. That’s all of us, Lord. That You are taking all the MiXchangers Lord, thank You for that. Thank You, Holy Spirit that You are helping us to see what we thought we could never see and understand. We receive Your resurrection power today, Lord, as we choose to come forth. Today we say Lord to ourselves like Lazarus, Jesus, you said, “Come forth, come out of death patterns, come out of dead ways of thinking”, Lord, we say today, Lord, we are coming forth because of Your great love.
Oh Lord, we give You glory, Holy Spirit, You are so powerfully working in our hearts, Lord, thank You, Lord, for Your resurrection power that You are exerting in us and for us. Holy Spirit help us that we can call sin, sin Lord. Our hearts Lord, just like we spoke in the past, we first love You. We first love You, Lord. We want to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. We want to come and say, “Lord, we want to go where You say go. We only want to do what we hear You say do.” Father, thank You the entrance of Your Word, it does bring great light and understanding. Oh Father, we worship You. We thank You for Your goodness. Father as we go from this place today, thank You that we are experiencing Your open hand; full of blessings Lord, even in the midst of disorder and chaos.
Father, I bless Your people. The Word and the blood of Jesus surrounds them and protects them, Lord. Thank You for Your extreme providence and Your extreme protection for us every single day. Every single moment. We are experiencing Your goodness Lord, Your overflow, Your love and we give You all the worship, Lord. We praise You. Our worship belongs to You, Lord, and no other god in this world. We love You, Lord, and we all say, “Amen.” Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We’ve laid a wonderful foundation today. Next week, we will go much deeper. Have a blessed Sunday. A wonderful lunch and a glorious afternoon and week; we’ll see you next week. Bye. Bye, everyone.
© 2023 – Heritage of Faith Ministries International
TOUCH | TEACH | TRAIN | TRANSFER
