Scripture Reference: Genesis 4:3-4 (AMPC); Deuteronomy 12:13 (AMPC); Genesis 1:28 (AMPC); 1 Chronicles 29:1-3 (AMPC); 1 Chronicles 29:9-16 (AMPC); Exodus 25:1-3,8 (AMPC); Exodus 35:1, 4-5 (AMPC); Exodus 35:20-21 (AMPC); Exodus 25:21-22 (AMPC); Exodus 35:29 (AMPC); Exodus 36:3,5 (AMPC); 2 Chronicles 31:1 (AMPC); 2 Chronicles 31:2-6 (AMPC); 2 Chronicles 31:6-10 (AMPC)
Well, good morning, everybody. We can take our seats. Hallelujah. Glory to God. So grateful to God that, what He’s doing in us and through us and I’m not going to wait for everybody in the back to get here because I’ve got lots of stuff to get through. Oh, you’re here already my darling. Glory to God. I was hoping you’d be here. Glory to God. Already. You are my everything. You are my everybody. You’re my everything. You and the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and you because we are one. Hallelujah. So, I received the prayer that Pastor John prayed over me last night. I got a little bit just, I was just in my own head with thinking, okay now I don’t have enough time to really get into something punchy and a block, you know. So I, I blew it a little bit last night just in my own soul, but I’m going to go for it this morning. And I’m jumping right in because I am full of words and God is full of words. God in me is full of words. So we are ready to receive His Word this morning, right?
And so I’m going to start off here because this was very powerful to me and for me last night, when Pastor John brought it, actually, yesterday morning. And I immediately recognised by the Holy Spirit and you can do that too as you receive the message. You can, you can receive the seed from the message that the Lord wants you to take to sow into your heart. The big one.
So there’s more than one seed in a message for you to take and put in your mouth, but the big one. I’m looking for the big one when there’s so much. Right? So Pastor John was talking about poverty is an aberration of God’s order. God never intended for us to have lack. The Lord is our Shepherd, we shall not lack. We ought not to lack because God is a God in His kingdom of abundance. Right? It’s not His order.
He wants us to say and here go, here it goes, and I’m bringing it. The Lord wants me to bring it again to you so that you can know that this is the part for you too if you’re looking for a seed to sow from this whole weekend. He wants us to say, “Hey,” so this is what I’ll be taking and this is what I’ll be saying. “Father, I recognise that You sent Jesus to come to pay the price of all the disorder that was created by Adam.” Did you recognise that?
He wants us to say… Hey, did you, did you get that? He wants us to say, “Father, I recognise that You sent Jesus to come to pay the price of all the disorder that was created by Adam. And when He died and was raised again by You, You brought back the order that was originally in heaven. Now You’ve brought it back to earth. Now I receive what Your original Son paid the price for. I receive redemption. I receive redemption from all of the disorder that has ever been in my life. I recognise, Father, that Jesus redeemed me from all disorder and the continuous perfect state of being that is heaven, that has been brought to earth, that is heaven, have been brought to earth. I now receive the continuous state of order that You have designed for my life. I receive that now in Jesus. I receive it because of the blood. I receive it by way of the Holy Spirit. I receive it because Jesus brought it for me and He paid for it for me, and I have it. I receive it. It’s mine. Now father, I have needs that You know of and I call them met now in Jesus’ name. Where my relationships are not in order, I speak order to them. Where my mind is out of order, I bring the order of God into my mind. Where my life is out of order in any way, in any place, I thank You for Your order that comes back into it.” Hallelujah. “Thank You, Lord, that the order of God is taking care of everything that I need. The order of God is taking care of everything I need. The order of God is taking care of everything that I need, and I keep speaking it because I’m seeking Your way of order.”
Hallelujah. Wow. Glory to God. I so appreciate when God gives me a nutshell seed like that and an ongoing confession, holding fast my profession, my declaration, my confession of faith, that He can give it to me out of the message that I hold fast too. Glory to God.
So then He went on to say, what Pastor John immediately after that, he says, what Pastor Sharon preached while I was away, He wrote it in the old testament, and He wrote it in the new testament. He said, bring your tithes and your offerings into His storehouse because the storehouse is a place where we all meet together. So God says, bring your tithe to the storehouse, bring your offerings to the storehouse. When you bring your tithes and your offerings to the storehouse, you are telling Me that I am seeking Your order. Pastor Sharon and I live like this.
Everything that we have, you gave us anyway. So if You want it, You can have it. If You want it, God, You can have it. Because that was in the heart of David, and we’re going to look at that scripture now again, I did bring it to you.
I did bring it to you, but we’re going to have a look at it again. David just got it. A man integrated with God that had the heart of God. That’s why he was a man after God’s own heart. He wasn’t a man after God’s own heart because of what he decided he was going to do. He was a man after God’s own heart. He was integrated with God, especially in terms of the house of God. He gave his all to the house of God. He understood the book of Malachi. Glory to God.
So he says here, everything that we have, You gave us anyway. So if You want it, You can have it. In fact, we are continually purposing in our hearts to give it. You can speak to us to tell us what You want us to give, but if You don’t speak to us to tell us what to give, we are continually purposing in our own heart anyway. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We are continually like Abel. This is very powerful. It says in Genesis 4:3-4, we can put that up on the amplified bible. Genesis chapter 4 verses 3 and 4.
I want you to see. God wants us to see again how Abel brought, what kind of offering Abel brought. 3 And in the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground. 4 And Abel brought the first, the first of his flock and of the fat (Genesis 4:3-4 AMPC). And what the Lord said to me, He first gave to God, and he gave God his first, and he gave God his fat. He gave God his best. Always. That is if He is our first love. We give Him first, and then we give Him of our best, and then we give Him of the fat. Hallelujah.
Because everything that we have, He gave us anyway, and we’re going to see this in the scripture just now. David said in 1 Chronicles, I think it’s 29, he said, “Who are we, Your people, that we can give You so willingly of what You’ve already given us.” What a heart after God. God’s own. After God’s heart own.
So I’m continuing with what Pastor John said yesterday. You can have it. In fact, we are continually purposing in our hearts to give it. It just starts with tithes and offerings. That’s just the beginning of showing God that you are in His order.
That’s just part of you being your being as you ought to be, your righteousness. That’s why you can then offer Him offerings in righteousness because you, in your heart are as you ought to be. You have the Continuous Perfect State of Being of God in you and you are one with Him and integrated with Him in that. So it just flows naturally, supernaturally from your new creation reality to give to Him first the best and to be privileged to be able to give it to Him and have a heart like David. Glory to God.
Purposing in a heart, it just starts with tithes and offerings and that’s just the beginning of showing God that you are in His order. But now I want to go back to Genesis 4, 3, and 4 in the amplified bible. I want you to see something. God wants you to see something very precious here this morning. Because in the book of Corinthians, it says you give according to what you have, not according to what you don’t have.
You give and purpose in your heart according to what you have. Someone said, someone preached in this church, God looks at what you keep so you give according to what you have. So if you have little, you will give in proportion to that. That’s how Pastor John and I started off.
We did not give, although there were times like the church of Macedonia, we will see in that scripture, the apostle Paul says the Macedonian church begged insistently that they might give an offering, and they gave beyond their ability to give. So there were times when we gave according to what we had, but then there were times and that we give beyond our ability to give because there arouses in us, like it says in that scripture, a desire to give offering. Hallelujah. Glory to God. So look at this. 3 And in the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground. 4 And Abel brought of the firstborn of his flock and of the fat portions. And the Lord had respect and regard for Abel and for his offering, (Genesis 4:3 AMPC).
When Jesus was watching the offering in the New Testament, did He have respect and regard for the rich people they put in? Would you say He had respect and regard? Because He knew what they were keeping. But would you say He had respect and regard for the widow’s offering? And here is God saying, “and the Lord had respect.” That is how the Lord said it to me. I had respect for Abel and his offering.
And so, I went and I had a look at that word respect. This is what the Hebrew word means: God looked at his offering with a keen interest. This is good news for those of you that have been giving offerings in righteousness as you ought to be, that continue to give offerings in righteousness, that He looks at your offerings. You see the tithe already belongs to God. You’re not giving God anything. We know that by now. That scripture says that the tithe belongs to God. It’s God’s. It’s God’s.
Why would you want to tithe as little as possible? Why would you, especially if you have a business, why would you want to just tithe on what you say, okay, my personal income is this, but I’m going to do all of this off my business, and not include that as my income and include that in a tithe. Why would we, why would we want to dishonour God like that? Why would we try, like we do with the tax man, try to give God as little of what belongs to Him as possible? Why when we love Him? Why when we love Him? Why when God says in the book of Malachi, if I be your Father, then where be My honour? You come and give a lame offering to Me, you give Me something that’s lame, and then you expect Me to receive it? Try and give that to the governor and see what he will do. So not all offerings are equal. Hallelujah. See, it’s our heart. It’s our heart with God, and that is what He is wanting, is us to love Him first and trust Him first.
So regard. This word, respect and regard respect actually it says in the King James, it means He looks at that offering with keen interest and it kindles a fire in His heart. Your offering in righteousness kindles a fire in His heart. There’s a very important scripture in the book where in which book is it where God says, “Do not bring your offerings to every place?” Where is that? Is it in Deuteronomy or Joshua where God says, “Don’t give your offering in every place you see.” Well, Lord, I’m bringing my tithes and I’m bringing my offerings. This is really what Christians do. I mean I’m giving it to my granny because she needs money and not Your storehouse. I’m giving it to my uncle and my auntie because they’re poor. You know? And that’s your part of giving that you give to the poor. Don’t call it your offering to God.
God says in Malachi 3:10, “Bring your tithes and your offerings into My storehouse, into My house that there may be meat in My house.” I don’t care how your mother or your father do it. God’s bringing you His order today. He is saying bring your tithes and your offerings into My storehouse.
Deuteronomy 12:13. Can we just put that up? Deuteronomy 12:13, 13 Be watchful not to offer your offerings in every place you see (Deuteronomy 12:13 AMPC). God, that’s the psalm that I read last night. All of my money matters will now be in Thee. You shouldn’t just be giving on a whim. You should be, your giving should be giving on the wind of the Spirit that is blowing in your heart and steering your sails. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Be watchful not to give to any place you see just because you can. Oh, Jesus. Now we have some giving that the word is clear on. If you see your brother in a need and he has no food and he has no clothes, right.
But don’t let your giving be in every place you see. So let’s go. Let’s go here. So the offering that is done in righteousness that Malachi talks about, kindles a fire in God and He looks at it with keen interest. To do what? He takes it. He receives it. And the fire of His love will burn in all of your business dealings. The fire of His favour, the fire of His love and His wisdom will burn in you, of how to do and how to go. Hallelujah.
Your offerings that you have given in righteousness, God has already taken them. God has already, it’s already kindled a fire in Him and He’s already working with it. Glory to God. So, it just starts. That’s just the beginning of showing God that you are in His order. That’s what the whole book of Malachi is about. It’s so that you can integrate with God and think like Him because He’s telling you, “This is how I think. This is what I’m saying to you. This is how I think. This is My heart, is that you become a people like this.”
So, “Sharon,” He said to me, as I was just transcribing this part of yesterday’s message, He said this to me, “Sharon, now with this giving of this first fruits days, My intent and My purpose is that My people now permanently transform into the people as laid out in My Word.” I’m going to read that again. “Sharon, now with this giving of this first fruits days,” of our days, what used to be our holidays and what used to be our holy days to us, “Now with this giving of this first fruits of days, My intent and My purpose is that My people now permanently transform into the people as laid out in My Word.”
And then He said 1 Chronicles 29. Let’s go there. This and this is what He wanted you to know as well. This is Ecclesia Economics, local church economics. The original meaning of the word economics is household management of money. It became, that’s what it originally meant, it became the management of scarcity because that’s what it is in the world, but it actually means the management of household finances. Let me just see here. The etymology of economics is from the Latin and the Greek oikonomia, and it means judicious use of resources.
Judicious use. According to whose judgments do we, do we use our resources? According to God’s order do we use resources. So if we go to Genesis 1 verse 28 in the Amplified Bible, Genesis 1 verse 28, we will see of God’s heart in this verse. Pastor Garth has brought this verse to us before.
He brought this verse to my attention. 28 And God blessed them, these, this man and this woman that He created in His own image, and said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it [using all its vast resources… What is economics? It’s the management of resources. All your resources and all mine and all the resources of the ekklesia [using all its vast resources in the service of God and man] (Genesis 1:28 AMPC).
That’s what all my resource management, my economics is to use it in the service of God and man. Glory to God. Hallelujah. And so this I’m just going to go a little bit into this. Economy means oikos is abode and dwelling, and so the Webster’s Dictionary from 1913 says that economy is house and law and rule.
It’s primarily the government and the management of a family and things that concern a household. Number 2, it’s the management of pecuniary concerns. I had to look up the word pecuniary, and it means money, pecuniary. It’s the management of pecuniary, pecuniary concerns. It’s monetary concerns.
Number 3, economy is a judicious use of money. Number 4, it’s distribution and due order of things and economic system. So those, ekklesia economics, those called out to rule and to govern to govern God’s vast resources in the service of God, in the service of man, to manage the money, the pecuniary of things that come into our hands as a personal my personal management of it. As a family, if you’re in a family, you’re the family household of pecuniary aspects, and then as an ekklesia, the the management. And we’re going to see God’s examples of ekklesia management of resources.
So in His kingdom realm, God has economic order with rules and laws. These are not the rules and regulations that Pastor John has been ministering about, but He has laws. He has His order of things. He has His statutes, His testimonies, His ways that we are to govern and rule with money, with pecuniary concerns. We are to use our resources judiciously. We are how we are to steward, how we are to distribute our things in His due order. All of how we are to do this is clearly laid out in scripture which the beginning part of it is, I bring my tithes and my offerings to His house. Not someone else’s house, to His house. He takes that personally. He speaks about His heart about that. Right.
So judicially, we exercise our kingdom economic rights. These are spiritual laws we govern by. I qualify to take my place. Alright. I can’t go to all those places now. So where did I say we’re going to go to now? Chronicles. Okay. He wanted me to go to 1 Chronicles 29. Okay.
1 And King David said to all the assembly, Solomon my son, whom alone God has chosen, is yet young, tender, and inexperienced; and the work is great, for the palace the house, the house of God is not to be for man but for the Lord God. Here’s David. 2 So I have provided with all my might for the house of my God his first priority the gold for things to be of gold, silver for things of silver. Let’s go to verse 3. 3 Moreover, because I have set my affection on the house of my God, because I have set. You see that’s a purpose of a heart. I have set my affection on the house of my God, in addition to all I have prepared for the holy house, I have a private treasure, (1 Chronicles 29:1-3 AMPC). I have an investment, I have a piece of land, I have a house. That’s what Pastor John brought that scripture out of the book of Acts that nobody in the book of Acts living in the continuous perfect state of being as the Holy Spirit filled their lives with love for God as that’s how they lived.
None of them said that whatever they had was their own. That was a work of the Holy Spirit in their hearts. And God has said that in this house He is endeavouring and He is requiring us to yield our hearts to Him. To soften our hearts towards Him to say, “Everything that I have is Yours.” You can tell Me at any time, besides if you don’t even speak to Me, I will purpose in my heart to bring to You, because this is how I seek first the Kingdom and this is how I show You that I trust You. That my trust is not in the things that I earned and that I worked for and that my might and my hands got me this power and got me this wealth – that my power got me this wealth.
That’s what God says in the book of Deuteronomy when He’s preparing the people for the promised land. You’re coming into a land of abundance. That’s what we’re crossing over for. We’re crossing over to go into a place of abundance. But God is saying, “In that abundance, that abundance is first for Me.” It’s first for Me. Do I have your heart, God is asking? Are you going to think of Me first? Are you going to bring to My house first? Deuteronomy chapter 12. You shall go to the place which the Lord your God shall choose, and there you shall go, and there you shall bring your offering and your tithes and your first fruits and everything. And there you shall rejoice, you and your family. That’s the order of God. Deuteronomy chapter 1 verse 12.
And so here’s His house. He’s very busy working with us as a people to get the switch in our hearts that we shift and move across. That inner hearts. Because let me tell you something about the Kingdom of God. The Bible says the Kingdom of God is within you. The Kingdom of God is within you. It’s not a place, Jesus said, “Where you can look and say, oh, there’s the kingdom, oh, there’s the kingdom. No.” The Kingdom of God is within you. That’s where He establishes His Kingdom – is in you. This is what He’s doing in this crossover is He’s establishing His Kingdom in your heart. He’s establishing your kingdom in my heart. He’s showing us His Kingdom ways, and He’s saying, “Come with Me to a place you’ve never been before. You don’t even know that it exists cause all you’ve been living for is clothes and food and houses and land and, and cars. It’s you, this all these less important things you don’t even know, you don’t even never even experienced. But in order for you to experience, you have to give Me the obedience on this side. You have to give me your heart. You have to yield your whole heart to Me. You have to give Me your yes, yes, yes, yes, Lord. I believe, I believe, I believe. I have no questions. I need no explanations.
All I’m doing is saying yes. Yes. Yes to everything. Every circumcision You want to make in my heart during this Crossover. Every, every change You want to make, I’m saying, “Yes, yes yes, that’s me, Lord.” He’s requiring it now, and I’m just reminding us, I’m reminding us again, we are currently choosing our own level of Crossover. Currently, we are not crossing over next year.
God chose this time to Crossover. There is a line that He has drawn. That’s it. Because there are too many of us or there are enough of us that are giving our yes, that God will not anymore allow anyone else to hold us back.
No more. No more and like Pastor John said, “If you’re going to love money like Judas, God will choose another one.” He will choose another one. He will choose another one. He will choose another one. He doesn’t want to, but He will because He has to, because there’s me and there’s Pastor John that have been pressing for a long time for God. We want God. We want all of God. And this is the way He’s been leading us to get all of Him. And we’ve got Pastor Christi and we’ve got other disciples here that are burning, burning in their hearts. And like the scripture says, God knows who are His. He knows who you all are. He knows. But one thing we know, that God has said to us, this is the Crossover. This is not a dress rehearsal. You’re going over. John and Sharon, you’re going over. And everybody that’s hanging onto your every word is going with you.
God will not permit an Achan among us. He will not permit Achanish behavior. I didn’t, I didn’t bring that, did I? He will not permit behavior among us like Athan I mean, Achan. I did bring it. Achan, He showed me this. An Achanish thing, 2020. If there is one among us like Achan, if there is one among a promised land entering people, oh, it cannot be. In the sight of the Lord, no, no, no. He won’t have them hindered. Who’s the them? The those of us that are Matthew, is it Matthew 18:18? Matthew 18, chapter 1? Little children?
(Pastor Sharon prays in the Spirit) Oh, the Lord says, “There are little children here.” There are little children here. They have humbled themselves and become like little children with Me, and the Lord says, “I’m taking you in.” “Make no mistake about it”, says the Lord. “I’m taking you in. I’m taking you in. Every one of you that have humbled yourself to these messages, I’m taking you in. I will not permit anyone to stumble you in this congregation. I will not permit anyone to hinder you. My fire burns around you and for you. You’re going in.” Glory to God. Glory to God.
He loves, He says, “He loves the little children. All the children in this house, He loves the little children, all those that have humbled themself.” He has regard for you. His eyes upon you, keen interest, says the Lord. “You’re coming. You’re going in. I’m taking you.”
So if there is one among us like Achan, if there’s one among a promised land entering people, oh, it cannot be. In the sight of the Lord, no, no, no. He won’t have them hindered. He won’t let them stumble. His little children must go in. He loves them so. They have become. It’s time to go. The Babylonish garment and the money thing, its devilish cunning, in the service of Satan it is, in our very midst, it’s a thing of pride, but now it has no place to hide. It’s a thing of immense pretense among the children. It is a great offense. He will not turn a blind eye and He will not look the other way. He will openly show it and all will know it. Left unchecked, it will bring the dark to all and cause even the little ones to stumble and fall. No. It will be dealt with by the hand of God. He will move His hands so this thing will cease. The fear of the Lord will increase, and all His children in this house will experience peace. Glory to God. So be it, Lord. So be it. Can we say, “So be it,” together? So be it, Lord. So be it, Lord. Hallelujah. Glory to God.
So, we’re still in 1 Chronicles 29, and we go to verse 5, Amplified Bible, 5 Gold for the uses of gold. I’ve prepared for the holy house. We were in verse 3. This is the spirit of God wanted to record this 3 because I’ve set my affection on the house of my God in addition to all I have prepared for the holy house, a private treasure. I have a private treasure which I give for the house of my God: Five – verse five, 5 Gold for the uses of gold, silver for the uses of silver, for every work to be done by craftsmen. Now who will willingly offer willingly to fill his hand and consecrate it today to the lord? 6 Then the chiefs of the fathers and the princes of the tribes of Israel and the captains of the thousands and the hundreds with the rulers of the kings were offered willingly and gave for the service of the house of God. And whoever, verse eight, 8 and whoever had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the house of the Lord. Verse 9. 9 Then the people rejoiced because these had given willingly. There’s a level of joy of the Lord that we’re gonna tap when these people become. We’ve tapped some and experienced some of the joy of the Lord. But this one, this thing that God is doing now about mammon, yet you cannot serve God and money. You cannot trust in your money.
This thing that God is doing now, transforming us into, is going to bring a level of joy to us. Glory to God. Verse nine 9 Then the people rejoiced because these had given willingly, for with a whole and blameless heart they had offered freely to the Lord. King David also rejoiced greatly. Pastor John also as this shift happens will rejoice greatly. 10 Therefore David blessed the Lord before all the people assembly and said, Be praised, adored, and thanked, O Lord, the God of Israel our [forefather], forever and ever. 11 Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and the earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and Yours it is to be exalted as Head over all.
12 Both riches and honor come from You, and You reign over all. In Your hands are power and might; in Your hands it is to make great and to give strength to all. 13 Now therefore, our God, we thank You and praise Your glorious name and those attributes which that name denotes. Verse 14; 14 But who am I, and what are my people, that we should retain strength and be able to offer thus so willingly? For all things come from You, and out of Your own [hand] we have given You. 16 O Lord our God, verse 16, all this store that we have prepared to build You a house for Your holy Name and the token of Your presence comes from Your hand, and is all Your own (1 Chron. 29:9-16 AMPC).
So here’s another thing the Lord wants to say today. We’ve experienced the measure of His presence, but when this is done in our hearts when we come to this condition that these people were in when it comes to this when we come into this condition, there will be and there will come a presence of the Lord and His power and His glory.
That is why He has not been able to manifest Himself to the degree that He has desired to and wanted to, is because our hearts have been divided. A little bit of this world system stuff and a little bit of the God stuff, living in between. But now we are to pass through the Blood and allow the anointing cleansing, healing anointing to cleanse us in our inner man completely, especially in this area that Father God is addressing us with right now. It is the mammon, money issue. It is the trust issue. Hallelujah.
So He said, “Sharon, now with this giving of this first few days, My intense and My purpose is that My people now permanently transform into the people as laid out in My Word.” 1 Chronicles 29. Now we’re going to Exodus 25. God wants us to see a people, a people. Right? In the book of Acts, it calls the church in the wilderness, it calls the people in the wilderness an Ecclesia. The church in the wilderness. Right? The people that assembled together. Exodus 25. I’m going to go there. I’ll just give you the verse now. Exodus 25. Okay.
Exodus 25, Amplified Bible, the first verse. 1 And the Lord said to Moses, 2 speak and the Lord said to Pastor John and Pastor Sharon, speak to the Heritage of Faith people that they may take for Me an offering from every man who gives it willingly and ungrudgingly with his heart you shall take My offering. 3 This is the offering you shall receive. Verse 8, 8 let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them (Exodus 25:1-3,8 AMPC).
This is God’s supreme extreme supreme. This is God’s supreme, extreme desire is to dwell amongst us as a people. It’s all He wants, but He cannot dwell amongst an unclean people with hearts divided, with idolatry in their hearts. What is idolatry? It’s anything that takes the place in your heart that God should be taking. Anything. Anything. It’s just a small example of what God said. Can you see the idolatry that’s in your heart for your holidays? It takes the place of Me? I cannot have the days I want to have because you’re on holiday, because your holidays are your holy days. He had to touch that to show us the condition of our heart. How do we know the condition of our heart if He doesn’t show? At least when He shows we have the choice. We have the choice to choose life. Hallelujah. And so, and then it says. I’m going to go now somewhere else. Oh, Lord. We’re going to now go–let me just see.
I’ll find it now. I’ll find it now. We go to chapter 35. Chapter 35. And 1 Moses gathered all the congregation, verse 1, 1 Moses gathered all the congregation of Heritage of Faith. Pastor John gathered them all together and said to them, These are the things which the Lord has commanded that you do. Okay. 4 And Moses said to all the congregation of the Israelites, verse 4. And Pastor John, Pastor Sharon said to all the congregation of Heritage of Faith. This is what the Lord commanded: 5 Take from among you an offering to the Lord. Whoever is of a willing, whoever is of a willing, whoever is of a willing, and generous heart (Exodus 35:1, 4-5 AMPC).
You see the spirit of generosity is supposed to continue in you. If you see your offerings as a one-off thing, “Well, I gave that offering. It should do. It should do for God. It should do for Him.” A spirit of generosity that loves God is ongoing in your heart. It’s a continuous permanent, permanent thing in your heart and that’s what God said. He wants our switch and our crossover to be a permanent thing so that He can show Himself to be powerful. Glory to God.
He said, 5 Take from among you an offering to the Lord. Whoever is of a willing and generous heart, let him bring the Lord’s offering (Exodus 35:5 AMPC) And verse 20, 20 Then all the congregation left Pastor John and Pastor Sharon’s presence. 21 And they came, and they came, each one whose heart stirred him up and whose spirit made him willing, (Exodus 35:20-21 AMPC).
That’s why we have to be spiritual people. That’s why you have to be in touch with the Holy Spirit all the time. You have to love the Holy Spirit all the time. You have to ask and seek and search from the Holy Spirit all the time. You have to ask Him what to do with your money, with your possessions, with your land, with your houses. You have to ask Him. You have to ask Him because He’s the only One that can bring you through and cause you to cross over. Especially the rich people. Jesus said it’s possible with God but you must be with God. You must be with God in all your money matters, and then He’ll help you through. He’ll help you to cross over. Those of you that have much and those of you that have little, He will cause you to trust. He will cause you to trust. And start with your little and not despise the day of small beginnings, and not to despise the day of small beginnings. Hallelujah. And then grow and increase and mature in your money matters overnight. Hallelujah. Glory to God.
21 And they came, each one whose heart stirred him up, verse 21, and whose spirit made him willing, and brought the Lord’s offering to be used, to be used, for all its service, and the holy garments. 22 They came, both men and women, all who were willinghearted, and brought, and they brought and they brought and they brought (Exodus 25:21-22 AMPC).
Verse 29, there is the Heritage of Faith people. Can I start to speak this over them? 29 …brought a freewill offering to the Lord, all men and women whose hearts made them willing and moved them to bring anything for any of the work of the Lord. That’s what my more is for. It’s for anything for the work, your work in this house. Anything. …and moved them to bring anything for any of the work which the Lord, commands Pastor John, to be done (Exodus 35:29 AMPC).
This is the people He’s looking for and that He desires. This is the only crossing over you can make. You cannot bring your old ways of thinking into the new promised land. It’s not possible. You’ll be out of your element. You’ll be out of your depth. You can’t come with. You’ll be out of your element because those that are giving God everything are in an element. They are in a state, in a condition. They are in a Continuous Perfect State of Being, one with God. And so it’s like unsaved people can’t go to heaven, they’re out of their element. Their spirit is dead, they won’t even know what to do in heaven. They’ll be out of the element and out of their depth.
This is the work that God is doing now of such a magnitude and such a depth in our hearts. Such a depth in our hearts. Hallelujah. And go, let’s go to chapter 36 and verse 3, 3 And they received from Moses all the freewill offerings which the Heritage of Faith people brought for doing the work of the sanctuary, to prepare it for service. And they continued to bring him freewill offerings every morning, every morning. And so verse 5 says, 5 And they said to Moses, The people bring much more than enough for doing the work which the Lord commanded to do (Exodus 36:3,5 AMPC).
So you see this is the management of abundance in the ecclesia. This is God’s economy, ecclesia economy. It’s the management of resources within an ecclesia because of the personal choices people have made for God in their personal lives that Pastor John says, “What is all this?” Oh, we’ll get to that scripture too. What is it? The people just keep bringing. They just keep giving. Right?
And so verse 6, 6 Moses commanded, and it was proclaimed in all the camp. Let no man or woman do anything more for the sanctuary offering. So the people were restrained from giving. 7 For the stuff they had was sufficient to do all the work and more (Exodus 36:6-7 AMPC). And I rest my case. God rest His case right there.
And we’re going to go to 2 Chronicles 33. I will finish with this scripture. 2 Chronicles, that’s what He said. He said, “Sharon, now with this giving of this first fruits days, it’s My intent and My purpose that My people here now permanently transformed into the people as laid out in My Word. 1 Chronicles 29, we saw with David. Exodus 25, we looked at, and then this is 2 Chronicles 33. 2 Chronicles chapter 33 also out of the Amplified Bible. Right. We’re going to look. This is Ecclesia economics as God intends it to be in His, in this Ecclesia. Oh, dear. Is it? Alright, alright, alright. Let me just see. Oh, no. It’s 2 Chronicles 31, 1 When all this was finished, this is Hezekiah. Hezekiah, Pastor John, one of the men that Pastor John is like, is like Hezekiah. He just threw all the idolatry out of the temple. Everything that people were worshipping, got it out. Out of people’s hearts. Out of people’s hearts. Hallelujah. Glory to God. And when he had finished with all this stuff of idolatry, the high places of idolatry, until they’d look at this I must read this now.
1 When all this was finished, all of Heritage of Faith present, broken pieces, the pillars, obelisks, cut down the Asherom, threw down the high places [of idolatry] and all the altars until that utterly destroyed them all (2 Chronicles 31:1 AMPC). That is what God is doing in our hearts. He’s doing this in our hearts. He said this to me; as we are crossing, the Lord says, “I want to be their first. I want to be their best. I want them to give Me their children, their economy, their plans, their days, their holy days, their things. Then I can show them what My blessing brings. You will have no idols anymore. You will be idol free. Mammon free.”
Oh, He said to me, “To be able to come to Me idle free. Free, free from idolatry, one with Me as you ought to be.” Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes, Lord! No idols in our hearts, Father. No idols in our hearts, Father. Oh, to come, I saw that when He said to me, oh, “To be able to come to Me idol-free.” Oh. Wow. How? With no idolatry in my heart, and it’s possible because the Continuous Perfect State of Being is in me, and He brings all of that into order in me. Glory to God.
And so it says here, verse 2, 2 And Hezekiah appointed the priests and the Levites after their divisions, okay, then it says further on in the verse, to minister, to give thanks, and to praise in the gates of the camp of the Lord. Pastor John, I’m going to put Pastor John’s name in there, personal contributing of offerings. Verse 4, 4 He commanded the people living in Jerusalem, He commanded the people of Heritage of Faith, the Lord commands the people of Heritage of Faith, to give the portion due the priests and Levites, that they might [be free to] give themselves to the Word of the Lord. Verse 5, this is the kind of people, this is Ecclesia here. Right? And then, 5 As soon as the command went abroad, the Heritage of Faith people gave in abundance the firstfruits of grain, vintage fruit, oil, honey, and of all the produce of the field; and they brought in abundantly the tithe of everything. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
6 The people of Heritage of Faith who lived in this city of Emalahleni also brought the tithe of this and sheep and of the dedicated things which were consecrated to the Lord their God, and they laid them in heaps (2 Chronicles 31:2-6 AMPC). They laid them in heaps. Pastor John, you know this scripture has been alive in me for so long, so long, the heaps. And every year and every year and every year, I’m saying, “Where are the heaps, Lord? How do the heaps, how do heaps come like this? How do heaps come here? How do heaps come here?” Well, God knew we would crossover.
So, it says here 6 …they laid them in heaps. 7 In the third month [at the end of wheat harvest] they began to lay the foundation or beginning of the heaps and finished them… verse 8, 8 When Pastor John and Pastor Sharon and Pastor Christi and Pastor Garth and all the little children came and saw the heaps, they blessed the Lord and His people… 9 Then Hezekiah questioned, Pastor John questioned, …about the heaps. 10 Azariah the high priest, of the house of Zadok, answered him, Since the people began to bring the offerings… Since the people began to bring the offerings. Whereto? …into the Lord’s house. Since the people began. It’s a new beginning for all of us. Because God has respect unto our offerings, we’re going to have respect unto what offerings and how we bring it and how we give it. And regard. Because we want Him to look at our offering with keen interest and we want to kindle that fire in Him. We want to evoke that kind of response from Him. Phew. Right? 10 …Since the people began to bring the offerings into the Lord’s house, we have eaten and have plenty left, for the Lord has blessed His people (2 Chronicles 31:6-10 AMPC). For the Lord has blessed His people.
Thank you, Father, that I could bring this today. Thank you for giving me this opportunity. He said, “In My House economy, the management of My Household economy here in this church, only abundance from this time forward.” And then He said to me, “It’s in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 in the Amplified and it’s in Philippians chapter 4 verse 10 in the Amplified,” but I’m stopping right here, right now because God has said what He wants to say today. In Jesus’ name. Thank you for this privilege, Lord, that I’ve had of being able to bring this word.
We’re going to have a 10 minute break, Pastor John says, a 10 minute break and then we’re going to come together again. Thank you, everybody.
01 April 2024 Crossover First Fruits Part 14
Pastor John Bendixen (WTB)
Scripture reference: Hebrews 8:1-2 (NKJV); Hebrews 8:1-2 (NLT); Hebrews 10:19-22 (NKJV); Hebrews 10:23-25 (NKJV)
Well, something happened straight after the meeting and that is that the spirit of God moved on you Lillian, right? You were sitting. How did it happen? Just come and share with the people how it happened to you. And then, Hannah, just come and share what happened to you. Hannah. Yeah. Thanks.
Lillian:
So as you were, giving the word, the Lord just said to me that I should sow into the word that you were bringing as a contact point of my faith. And at first, I thought I was going to bring the envelope while you were preaching. And the Lord said to me, no. I need you to go up to Pastor Sharon and just give it into her hands. So when I came up, I just thought I was just going to give it to you.
I was just going to give it to you and which I did. And then you just started declaring things over my life because in this weekend, you know, the Lord spoke to me and said, “I want you to start calling in every seed you’ve sown.” I think He’s actually been talking to me about it for a while. And I was like, okay. That’s amazing.
So as I was sitting there, He just said go up and give her the envelope and that’s what I did. Yes. Yes. And you spoke about the order of God and that’s what I’m declaring, a higher order in my finances like, I’ve never seen it before. The continuous perfect state of being in my finances, breaking open like I’ve never experienced it before. Thank you, Lord. Hallelujah.
Pastor Sharon:
Thank you, Lillian. And then, Hannah, what happened to you? When did the spirit of God come on you?
Hannah:
So, Pastor Sharon is aware of this part of it that probably for a year, 2 years, I’ve heard the Lord come with a warning about Achan, and he said Achan is coming. Achan is coming. And so, you know, Achan took for himself what was the Lord’s, and he didn’t trust the Lord, actually. He thought I need to keep something for me because I want that. It’s that greed spirit, but it’s also that, you know, I don’t trust the Lord that He will provide.
So this morning, the minute Pastor Sharon and I haven’t heard it from him this way. So I’ve heard other things about Achan. But the minute she started with Achan, I just heard and He said the way for you to be set free if you locate any of the Achan attitude or any of the Achan, yeah, that in your heart that you want to hold onto, that you want to keep for yourself, the way to get free from that and that anointing for that freedom is available here this morning. So, the way to get free of it is to give. And I said to her, and as I was sitting there with this on me, the Lord reminded me when I was much younger and these things in the Lord, there were times when He would actually I mean, there were many times when I when I’ve given literally everything that I had, my last that I had.
But this was different. There were times when He would would say to me, I would actually say to people, “My money is burning me.” And people laughed at it because they didn’t get it, but it was like I had to give an offering then. So that that spirit can’t even get a place in my heart and can’t even get located in my heart. And so for this morning, if you locate any bit of that in you, anything like that that would keep you in bondage, the freedom is here this morning to actually be set free from that. And so as a significance of that, I’m just emptying out the cash that I have in my wallet. You warned me before we came this weekend, bring some cash with you. So I’m just emptying that out. But Pastor John, you also know I’ve contacted you. I’ve said to you, I’ve got some seed that I’m ready to sow. You just need to tell me when the account is ready for me to sow into. And so some of it also is that Pastor John will just tell us this and that and that. And you will find, you know, I often find that there are many projects in the church, but I hear one and that one sparks in me that one.
At the moment, the farm is very big in me. At other times, there were other things there were cameras and there were pastor’s lounges and there were many things over the different years, education center. But the things that are there now that people can sow into, so gift them what it is. There’s this, there’s this this this this and you will find the one that talks to you and bring it to set yourself free from that thing to even get a hold in you. We don’t need to go to Achan. We don’t need to have a whole, yeah, thing going wrong with everyone because some don’t obey. We can just be set free from that. And this is just I mean, this is just a sign. This is just this, you know, there’s much more that I’ve got ready to give. But this is what I’ve got on me just as a contact point for that this morning. The rest also as soon as you give me the way. Yes.
Pastor Sharon:
Well, there we go. So, we’re going to give you some time with the Lord for Him to speak to you what you need to sow. You may not even have it on you this morning. As Hannah says, she’s already got other money burning, another offering burning in her as soon as Pastor John says where it must go. And so, this is an opportunity God is giving us now to break free from the Achan in you, the Achan trait in you that says, “I like to keep things for myself. I like to keep that for myself and that and I just like and it.” I mean, it’s much more than that. It’s a big root. It’s a big root in our heart. And so it could, we can bring the cash this morning that we have. As your heart as your spirit makes you willing. As your spirit makes you willing, God is giving us an opportunity to come today and maybe have a heap or something.
Pastor John:
So, I’m going to have, guys with the just two people with the offering bags. Just come and stand at the edge of the aisles here, just these two aisles. And so we’re just going to do this because this is the way that God is doing it right now. Just come and stand here and come put if it’s 5¢, 10¢, 5¢ maybe. I don’t know if there is such a thing anymore. R2, R5. Just make your contact point.
Pastor Sharon:
This is not to be seen of men, please don’t do it to be seen of men, it’s your spirit is stirring you.
Pastor John:
Yeah. And this is not how much money. This is just I’m obedient, Lord.
Pastor Sharon:
It’s a contact seed, I’m obedient because I want to be free.
Pastor John:
I’m obedient, Lord. I’m sowing because this is what God’s doing in the meeting today.
Pastor Sharon:
Pastor John, have you got your wallet here?
Pastor John:
It is there my babes. Empty it. It’s in the front. Empie knows where it is. Well, we okay, I don’t know how much is in there. You have to count that or must know what that seed is. Yeah. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. This is what they did in the Old Testament, they came and they brought stuff for heaps. They brought stuff for heaps. Yeah, they did it like this, this is a powerful thing. Hallelujah. I would, I would like Hannah if you can walk and Lillian. I want you to come up here please, and I want you to come and if you two can come together please, just come and stand together, no, face the congregation please. Come and stand Lillian, come and stand with Hannah and pray over these offerings as the Holy Spirit leads you.
Hannah:
Praise You Father, so Father, this signifies just the seed, Lord. There’s much more that we’re determining and enquiring in our hearts to give You Father. Freewill offerings with great joy Lord, because You love a cheerful giver. And in Your Word You say that You are unwilling to do without a cheerful giver Lord. Lord, as You have given us the job to manage Your vast resources in the earth, Lord, there is no shortage and there is no lack in You and as You see the offerings, freewill offerings of Your people, Father, receive them.
Receive them Father, with joy. Receive them with gladness, Father. And the much, much more that will be following this from us Father. Receive it Lord, it is to honour You. It is to love You, it is to thank You for all your goodness and Your faithfulness, Lord. It is to glorify your Name. Thank You Father, for these opportunities that you give us to set us free Father and to abundantly bless us Lord. But more than that to be integrated with You, to be one with our God, to walk and be how You want us to be and walk. Thank You Father, in Jesus’ Name.
Pastor John:
Thank you Lord.
Lillian:
Yes Lord, we thank You for Your order in our lives. We thank You Father that You have just revealed to us, our hearts burn within us Lord to follow Your ways, to seek first Your Kingdom, Your way of being and doing and coming and just bringing to You. And it just gladens Your heart and we are just so thankful. We come rejoicing, Lord. Woo, we rejoice Lord, for Your order in our lives, woo, thank You Lord. The windows of Heaven are opened for us, woo, yes Lord. We rejoice, Lord. We rejoice Lord, we call it in, we call it in Lord. We call in our harvest Lord, from the North, from the South, from the East, from the West.
We call it in. We call the angels to bring in our harvest, Lord. In Jesus’ name. Hallelujah! Glory! Woo! Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Oh, hallelujah! Praise you, Lord! We praise you, Lord! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Thank you, Lord! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Pastor John:
Thank you, Lillian.
Hannah:
And for any of you, by the way, who are here and you think, sho, others have so much to give, I only have R5. I only have R10. I only have a R100. Remember the widow’s 2 mites because God doesn’t need the money. He’s made the money. Really, honestly. But it’s for Him to see the heart. And if you bring what you have, it is so valuable to Him and there can be one that brings millions and it’s worth much less because God’s not obligated to receive every offering. You know it from the book of Malachi. So let’s bring the right kind of offerings but your little bit is as much a treasure and like Pastor Sharon taught this morning, it will get you set free. And very soon, you’re gonna be one of the ones that will sow the millions in.
Pastor John:
Thank you. Thank you. You can go. Thank you. Thank you. Hallelujah. Lillian, Pastor Sharon is a witness that this week, I was asking about you and Daniel, because I saw Daniel, you were serving last Sunday, I think, or recently, Daniel. And I said, “I saw Daniel, but I haven’t seen Lillian in a while.” I’m so glad that I’ve seen you, Lillian. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I’m not saying you’re not here. I’m just saying I don’t see you all the time. It’s glad that I see you again. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Wow. Wow. I mean, we’re gonna be, this is our last session right now. And, and I’m sure you’re saying, aww gee.
I mean, how amazing is it that the Word of God has just filled us this weekend? Hallelujah. Yeah. In you know, everything that you need, you have to deposit something before you can withdraw something. And, when you bring your first fruits, you’re depositing something so that your withdrawal can be much bigger than what you deposit. And so that can only work in the kingdom of God. That doesn’t work in the system of men. It can only work in the kingdom of God, and that’s a powerful thing. So, by the way, I have settled this with Stefnie who manages our accounting in the ministry, and, the aviation account that we have used as the aviation account, which is essentially money that we collected for brother Jerry, that same account is now going to be used for the farm.
So if you’re looking for an account number, it’s the aviation account number. We will for the sake of putting it on the website. We will change the name of the account so it will become the farm account. I mean, it’s an account number. We just named it an aviation account. It’s just an account number. Now we are going to use it, otherwise, we keep opening up accounts all the time, and that’s not smart. So you are going to use the same account now for farm money. Amen? Hallelujah. Is dit reg so, ek het dit nou reg gekry Stef? Amen. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. There is money in the account already. I know there’s people that have been sowing some money into that account, so it’s on its way. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. It’s on its way. Pretty soon, we’ll write out a cheque or, no. No. We don’t do that anymore. EFT’s. Or we’ll do something that you… that much money. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus.
I might use some language that you are more familiar with in this last session, that we are going to have now. And, I’m trusting that as you receive the more familiar language, you will make the connection with the new language. Are you blessed? [Congregation answers, “Yes.”] Good.
Hebrews chapter 8 verse 1. Hebrews 8:1. Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: This is the New King James. Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man (Hebrews 8:1-2 NKJV). I’m going to read this again, but then, can you please put the scripture up for me in the New Living translation? But first, let me read this one again. Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.
So He is sitting on the throne of the Majesty in the heavens. Remember what we said. That is the place that the Continuous Perfect State of Being occupies. 2 a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man (Hebrews 8:1-2 NKJV). So whatever man has erected is just a copy of what is in heaven.
So we know, so if you can get the New Living Translation ready, have you got it? 1 Here is the main point: We have a High Priest who sat down in the place of honor beside the throne of the majestic God in heaven. Next verse 2 There he ministers in the heavenly Tabernacle, the true place of worship that was built by the Lord and not by human hands (Hebrews 8:1-2 NLT). Hallelujah.
So I want to just make a point of the whole way God has had, and led me to preach, teach, and the focus of our ministry for many years. And, I really… Pastor Sharon can testify to this this morning. I was sitting on my couch, and I was just being very quiet, and we decided to have a green tea together. At first she wasn’t sure whether I wanted to have any company. But because I was meditating on something that I felt the Lord wanted me to share today, and it is this. I was talking about vision. If I had it in our church organisation, and that’s the way I’m going to put it, if my focus of leading a church organisation was to continuously put visions, a vision in front of you about the next project, about the next project, about the next project. And our church became a project-oriented organisation, then your giving would be towards the projects. I’m not diminishing this. I’m just wanting to draw you a similarity, but a very big difference.
If you give to a project because the purpose of the project draws you, you’re giving to the purpose of the project. You’re not giving because your heart is in what God is doing with money. So you can give to a project but not set free from mammon. Because you can give to a project because the purpose of the project will draw you. But if you are not being set free towards money in your heart, there will always be this thing in you – I’m giving. I’m giving. I’m giving, but you’re not set free from mammon. Money is still what you trust in. Even though you give to projects because the purpose draws you.
So over all the years, I’ve been very careful because I heard a spiritual mentor to me say this, “So many ministries have been able to falter, have not made it. The pastors, the Christian leaders have gone out of the ministry because of the way they mismanaged money, because of their attitude towards money.” So, Pastor Sharon and I’ve always been very careful that when we manage money in the ministry, that we are properly in order. We don’t take money for ourselves. We don’t borrow money from the ministry. We don’t take cash out of the offering and say we’ll replace it later and then don’t replace it.
Anybody here that helps me manage money will know that always, we are above board when we manage money. There’s no point in us trying to take a couple of hundred bucks for a need, a couple of thousand bucks for a need, and then compromise the whole ministry of the Lord Jesus because of it. But my own walk with God goes bigger than that, because my own walk with God was, “Lord, I never want to make a pull on people for a project, and then they give towards a project because the project is a meaningful project.” My heart before God is, “God, Your people have got to see what You want them to see when their relation to money before they give to a project.”
This is a whole different way of approaching a project. So what has happened this morning is- so when I say we’re going to buy a farm, you know, I don’t put a project before you, and I keep hammering you with a project and keep putting pictures up and, come on, we got so much with the project, and we got so much money, and we got so much money, and we keep pulling on the project. That’s because now I’m making the vision, the project, the purpose. What God wants to do is He wants you to be free from money in your heart. And then when you are free with money in your heart, you will see the purpose you must give to.
I’m a witness to Hannah’s giving in her life because many times, you know, God has put it on her heart to do stuff many, many times, and then I recognize when the anointing of God is on her, that she’s not trying to gain favor with me. That’s not the kind of relationship we have. She’s not trying to find anything with me. I recognize the anointing of God on her life and what she’s called to do. She’s a Lydia in this ministry. Amen.
So, you know, I don’t normally talk about stuff that she does, but I wonder, Hannah, if I could talk about the most recent project that you did. Is it okay? I mean, you can say no. Is it okay? So, you know, I mean, I don’t…God knows that we have needs of things. God knows. So, they wiped out our generator here, but we’ve been wanting to buy a proper generator. She phoned and she said, “Pastor John, I’d rather give money to the ministry than give it to the receiver of revenue. Is there a way that we can give money to the ministry and do something that we can make happen?”
And I don’t want to go into all the details of it, but there were certain things happened. The end result of it is that we were able to cooperate together. I’m going to say that carefully. We were able to cooperate together so that the ministry could get a new generator, paid for. And Hannah was a big part of that. So, I mean, you know, I’m just, when God, now it doesn’t matter what happens anytime, anywhere, any place. If the electricity goes down, none of our services have to be, we have to worry about, because that generator runs all the air conditioners, all of the things, everything, all at once and then some. So when we need to be off the grid, we can be off the grid. She didn’t do that because she wanted me to stand up here one day to bring this offering testimony to you. She did that because she did that in private. No one else knew about it, and there are others in here that do the same thing.
I’m not, I’m not only singling her out today, but God worked on her and worked on Lillian to take up an offering today. And because of that, I’m using this as an example of how, in this ministry, we’re not trying to get money to pay for a project. Rather our focus is on ministering to your heart so that your heart gets changed, that your whole walk with God is changed when it comes to money. And then when the project is this is the project, now you give from a position of heart attitude change rather than because the project is the purpose. That’s a big difference. It’s a big difference.
So I, you know, I have been very cautious, and many I’m not pointing fingers at anybody else’s ministry. I’m just saying this is the way God has led us because I can sleep me. This is my way with God. I can sleep with a clean conscience every night, that what I’m doing with God’s people is I’m putting the heart of God into you, and then when He works on your heart to come and do what you to do, then this is a God thing. It’s not a project thing. And so then if it’s a God thing, then we’re actually all benefiting, aren’t we? The body of Christ is benefiting, you’re benefiting. Because your heart is in the right place. Then you never look at your offering and You and start to say, well, I wonder if the church is managing it properly. I wonder if it’s being used for the right thing. I wonder if that, because now you’ve given to a project, and now you’re wanting to question the project because your heart wasn’t in it, but you were okay with the purpose. Are you all getting this?
And so that has been this has been actually an example of the way God has called me, the way God has called me always to lead people and to be in ministry, is always to work on what people’s hearts are doing rather than on what the projects or what the benefits are. I mean long time ago, I had said, I know how to build a big church. I know how to get a lot of people to come into church. I’ve been in marketing. I’ve been in sales.
I know how to make a big church happen. I still do. If I wanted to become a big church, I know how to apply management principles to make a big church. God wouldn’t permit me to do that, because He said, “I don’t want a big church. I want a big hearted church.” I want a big hearted church, and then He’ll take care of the rest. That means He wants the church’s heart to be the right heart. He wants the people to be able to be in the right condition, and then He will take care of the rest. Amen. And in the end, when I stand before the Lord Jesus one day, I can have a clean conscience that what He called me to do, I’ve done that. Amen. Praise the Lord. I want to just read to you from Hebrews chapter 10. Therefore verse 19.
Therefore, verse 19. Hebrews 10 verse 19. 19 Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and having a High Priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. See, you got to have a true heart in full assurance of faith. …Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water (Hebrews 10:19-22 NKJV).
I’ve ministered on this before, about an evil conscience. And the thing about an evil conscience is that you can actually perform your way into a better walk with God, and you can’t. None of us can. But your conscience wants to be performance orientated rather than just receiving the grace of God, receiving the love of God, receiving His mercy. So now you don’t have to try to work to be in His presence. You just have to choose to be in His presence because the evil conscience says you have to work to be in His presence. You have to be perfect. You have to confess your sin, you have to be right. But God says, “Don’t let your evil conscience be performance orientated. Just let your conscience be sprinkled with blood, and so then you come with a pure conscience.” Which just says, “Here I am, Lord. With everything I am, and what I’m not, and what I am, here I am.” Hallelujah. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works.
Isn’t that what happened this morning? Hey? Did we not stir up each other to do good works? And that the love of God was present using all of you to stir up, to stir it up. Stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching (Hebrews 10:23-25 NKJV).
So the days are upon us and Praise the Lord, we are gathering together, assembling ourselves together, not forsaking it, increasing it. And the more we increase it the more God can show Himself strong for us. Hallelujah. So when we receive Christ, we receive the Continuous Perfect Sacrifice that is presently in a state of being and He is continuously our Mediator. And everything that He mediates, our faith can obtain.
I know that’s a mouthful, but I just had to write it the way the Lord gave it to me. And, you can, you can get it via transcript, and you can meditate on it at another time. I’ll say it for you again. When you receive Christ, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of majesty, and the throne of majesty is the Lord, it’s the King, it’s God Himself, He’s sitting at the right hand of the throne of majesty, which we read earlier on, and He’s sitting at the right hand of the throne of majesty, which is the place of the Continuous Perfect Being and His continuous state of occupation. Then we have a Mediator, and His mediation is a Continuous State of Mediation.
And because He’s the perfect sacrifice, He is in that Continuous perfect state of Mediation for anything you and I might ever get wrong. He’s mediating on our behalf, and He’s saying to the Father, “I am the Continuous Perfect State of Mediator that covers everything that they do wrong. They look like Me. They are Your family. They look like Me.” And because He is in that state of mediation, our faith and our believing obtains everything that He paid the price for. He brings it to us because the Mediator is always active. He’s our High Priest that’s sitting at the right hand of the throne of majesty, Continuously Perfect being in that place of mediation where He occupies the Father’s to replace at the right hand and in that continuous perfect state of occupation in heaven. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
He never quits mediation for us, not for one of our human seconds. In eternity He will still be mediating for all of creation, not just for humans. He is the Mediator sitting at the right hand of the Father because all of creation has been covered and cleansed by the Blood of Jesus. Let me tell you, this is much bigger than just humans because when God made Adam and Eve to be in the garden and to have dominion over every living creature, the way that Paul writes about it in Romans chapter 1, go and read Romans chapter 1, it’s a really good book for you to read. It’ll help you a lot, and, and he would say, “All of creation is groaning, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. Creation is in the condition of disorder that it is because the sons of God don’t know what our power is because we just want to think that everything is about us, but God says you should think about dominion.” And so the devil tries to play the lowlife game with us because he’s a lowlife. So he wants to play the lowlife game with us.
What’s the lowlife game that the devil plays? He wants you to always think you don’t have enough. You don’t have enough power. You don’t have enough perfection. You don’t have enough prayer. You don’t have enough confession. You don’t have enough going to church. You don’t have enough of the Word in you. You don’t have enough commitment. You don’t have enough seed. You don’t have enough. You don’t have enough. You don’t have enough. You haven’t done enough. You haven’t done enough. You gotta do more. You gotta do more. He plays lowlife games for you so that you can always make you focused on what you haven’t done or what you still have to do or what you maybe one day get to doing, and he plays the lowlife game with you.
So we, as Christians, are always looking at ourselves and trying to figure out how we can live more successfully, when Jesus is sitting at the Continuous Perfect State of Being, the Father’s majesty throne. He’s sitting at his right hand mediating on our behalf forever and say, “Come on, kids – run the earth the way that you were destined to run the earth so that all of creation can come into order when the church gets its act together.” I mean Christianity, that’s why I’m really – why, does this sound really crazy if I say to you, “I don’t want to be identified as a Christian anymore?”
Because the word Christian has become almost the same as the word Muslim. It’s become the same as the word Hindu. It’s become the same as, as just another identification of another religion. I don’t want to be called another religion. Someone wants to say, “Well, what faith are you?” I’d like to say this to them. You think about it. I’ve been thinking about it. “I’m a truth seeker.”
“What faith are you of?” “I’m of the faith of the truth seekers.” “What’s that?” It’s a good opening question. Don’t you think? Well, Jesus lives in my heart, so some would maybe call that Christian, but actually, I’m a truth seeker. I’m not a Christian that doesn’t seek the truth. That immediately gives me a conversation point for anybody that says, “Oh, you are, you one of those Christians?” “No. I’m not one of those Christians. I’m not a ritualistic ceremonial person that has an order of religion that satisfies a set of rules and regulations. I’m not that person. I’m a truth seeker.” What do you think?
I know. I know. I kick holy cows. I shoot them. I know. I get myself into trouble sometimes, but, you know, with myself, I sometimes go home and I think about it, and then I listen to my own messages, and I think, I said that? What was I thinking when I said that? You know? It’s like, even for me, thinking and listening to it again, it’s a bit radical, you know?
Anyway, so by receiving Christ, I receive, because I have a Mediator, I receive His righteousness. That means I receive the right order of life because I’m seeking Him in the Continuous Perfect State of Being. Therefore, I’m seeking the right order of life. I receive the right order of life. I receive it. If we are called the righteousness of Christ, then when we receive that right order of Christ, then we receive the right way of doing it.
We seek first the Kingdom and His right way, right order of the Continuous State of Being. Everything is just in its proper place. Isn’t it? I receive correct alignment with the divine Author of everything. If I’m in alignment now, again, this language should not be unfamiliar to those that have been around me for a long time because I’ve always spoken about alignment, and I’ve always talked about assignment.
I’ve spoken about divine alignment and divine assignment and the way that God brings that order into our life. So now it’s just got a slightly fuller way of being able to speak to you about it because we have a Continuous Perfect State of Being, and now I’m in alignment with the Author of everything. If I’m in alignment with the Author, can I use it this way? The Authority. Because the Author is the authority of what He authored.
So now I’m not out of alignment with the Authority. If I’m in alignment with Authority, then Authority speaks for me. Then I speak with authority because the Authority and I speak the same language. And therefore, my positioning is correct with the Author, with the Authority I have a correct position. And so if I have a correct position, then I don’t have to worry about what my positioning is.
How much of your time do you spend thinking about your position in Christ, your position in God, your position in life? A lot. Thank you, Carmen. It’s right. A lot. People make decisions about careers based on positioning. People make decisions in corporate workplaces. I mean, just about daily, they are concerned about positioning themselves in the right place with the right people in the right conversation. Even in conversations, you’re positioning your words to be in the right position for the conversation.
So when I receive Christ, I’m in the right position with the Authority. And because I’m in alignment and I’m in the correct positioning, I also have a continuing fellowship that is unbroken. Never has to be broken. Wow. I hope you’re receiving this. And if this is, if I’m moving along too quickly, there’s always transcriptions and re-listens that you can get on the website. Yeah. I listen to myself again and again, because sometimes I’m here under the anointing, and I say things, and then I have to remember, and I have to get it and receive it from the Lord because the anointing spoke it. Hallelujah.
So this also, when I receive Christ, I have a corrected order of relationship with Authority, a corrected order. So everything that we have learned in our humanity and our circles and our society, there is a level of disorder. And so when I receive by faith in my relationship with Christ, I say, “I receive a corrected order of relationship.” Corrected order of relationship. Do you know that the world system is very, very strong on law? They will use law to their advantage whenever they can. They will use law to control society in the hope of having a secure society.
They will also use the law to break the laws that others won’t break so that they can gain an advantage financially or with power or something. They will try and marginalize the law, always, and find a way of working with the law in many different ways continuously for advantage. You know that? You know, the law, the modern-day law just about runs all of, certainly, Western society. And so if you don’t have a contract and you don’t have a law, a legal and even if you do have a legal agreement, sometimes, it’s not enough.
I have told this story before and it’s getting to a point, a very important point, which is why I’m just laboring it a little bit here. When I was in the corporate world, a lot of political stuff happened in a particular account, and they ended up using my position as a supplier to actually root out a corrupt CEO and a corrupt financial director. And the group chief in information officer actually said, “John, this is a bigger thing. You got to put your proposal in. You got to stay the course. You got to stay the distance. No matter what they say, you got to keep going back because there’s a bigger issue at stake here.” I didn’t realize what it was, but they were using my proposal against an alternative proposal to actually root out corruption. And in the end, they did. They actually ended up arresting the CEO and the financial director in the office. That’s not a normal thing that happens. You know, they did a sting operation, and they came with helicopters, and they ended up arresting him. And, so they put a new financial, a guy that had retired, and they brought him back to stabilize the company and to bring it in. But one of the things that they needed, which is why I was involved, was they needed a new computer system for all of their companies, their head office, and all of their branches. And so that’s what the whole deal was about.
They wanted to use that to see how much the prices would be inflated of my competitor and how much of that money would get to the management of the company as opposed to what I was doing. So, when the new director came into the office, called me in, he said, “John, I understood you knew a little bit about what’s going on?” I said, “Yes, sir.” He said, “They tell me, the chief information officer of the whole group tells me you’re a man of integrity and upright and everything you’ve done is in order?” I said, “Yes, sir.” He said, “You have the order. Start delivering the machines as quoted.” I mean we’re talking millions, millions, and millions of rands. Back then, I said, “Sir, I need a signature on the order.” He said, “You have my word.” I said, “My boss is going to need a signature on the order.” He said, “You’ll have it, but I need you to act on my word. I’ve got some red tape that I’ve got to get through here, but I’ve been put here so that we can get things working. I need you to work with me.” I said, “Yes, sir.”
I went to my boss, and I told my boss what he said. He said, “John, go back and get a signature,” I said, “If I do that, I’m going to insult him. This is a man that is a man that says his word is his bond.” He said, “Alright, John. It’s on you. We’ll order this stuff, and we’ll start installing it.” Yes, sir. Started installing the machines. He started paying everyone who installed, he paid it. Still didn’t have a contract.
Then we had to go back for a maintenance, because now they’re installed, we’ve got to go to maintenance. He says, “I’m not signing this maintenance contract, John.” I said, “Why not?” He said, “Are you going to deliver according to the terms of the contract?” I said, “Yes. That’s our delivery.” He says, “Why must I sign it? Your word is enough for me.” I said, “But I’m not always going to work there, sir. Then it’s going to be between someone else and someone else in your company and my company.” He says, “If your company is like you, then my company will be like me. We don’t need to sign this contract.” You deliver, we’ll pay. That was an old school man.
A man who said, my word is my bond. And if I give you my word, I will deliver according. If you give me your word, then that’s the contract. That’s the agreement. We stick with that. That’s the way it works. That has been one of the biggest marker moments of my life because when we started delivering and all of these things happened, the chief information officer that was that whole group officer, the whole group, he called me in to come and have a cup of tea with him, and he was a strange man, but a very powerful man.
He was a strange man. You walked into his office, and, those days, smoking was still happening in buildings. I’m ageing the deal now. He would call me into his office, and he’d be sitting on his chairs, and he’d be lounging like this and his tie would be off like this and his sleeves would be rolled up and he’d have a cigarette in his hand and the, you know, cigarette thing would be full of put-out stompies and he’d sit there.
“So John, hey. You did a good job.” “Thanks hey.” He says, “Now we have a trust relationship going.” Says, “I want to let you in on a few other things. I want to see if you can help me out, and let’s get some stuff done in this whole group here. Let’s change some things.” I mean, God just opened that up because of a word.
How much more do you think we can trust God’s Word? Hey. If God says, “I’ll give you, I’ll meet your needs.” You think you can trust it?
If you believe in a god of religion, you can’t trust it. But if you believe in a God in a relationship who died for you, you can trust it. That’s why we have to trust that Jesus walked on this earth like I’m walking, and He died for you and me so that when He died, His Blood could forever speak on the mercy seat, and He could sit by the Heavenly Father, and He could say, “Do you see what John is doing there? Yeah. I know he’s not in order right now, but look at all the revelation we’ve given him, and he’s making progress. He’s coming towards the way of Me always. Always. Look how he’s making progress. I mediate for him. Keep working. Angels, keep helping. Keep, he’s got, come on. Let’s keep working the favour. Let’s keep working. Come on, John. You got to, I’m counting on you, John.”
The Father says, there’s a potential legal case come against John because he missed it here. My blood covers that. Keep working, John. Hallelujah. Now listen, I would be silly if–because what God will do is He’ll talk to the Holy Spirit, Him and Jesus, and say, “Go and talk to John, spirit in the word, send someone. Go talk to him and make sure that he stops this nonsense because there’s better things for him than what he’s currently doing, because what he’s doing is stopping the better things from coming to him.” God’s not going to get faced by it, but you are. You live a low life compared to the high life if you keep doing the nonsense, because the nonsense is coming from the lowlife who wants to make you live a lowlife. So skop daai low life ding. Just kick that low life and say, like a rugby ball, Luke. [Ps John pretends to kick a rugby ball] Goodbye. You know? Just kick that lowlife. Why am I saying that? Because of Jesus in my heart, I have a legal and lawful continuance with Him. I always have a legal and lawful continuance. There can–you know, if you seek a continuance, it means we need extra time to go and prepare ourselves. So I have a legal and lawful continuance. We never get to the place of judgment. It’s always a legal and lawful continuance for me to get better. Hallelujah.
And so what that does, it gives me time to develop in my gifts and my talents, and it gives me a guarantee of work and reward because I have a legal and lawful continuance with Him. That’s a mouthful, hey? More to come. Not this weekend, but more to come. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I got two more things to say, and then I’m done today, and because I have Christ in my life, I have personal rights that has been given to me by His authority that He exercises sitting at the right hand of the Father. So when I come to the Father and I say, “Father, my needs need to get met. Thank You. I’m standing on my rights.” Jesus says, “Make it happen.” Someone else would like come to the Father and say, “Yeah, but he’s not, perfect, he’s not oh.” No. He is, in his spirit, he has a Continuous Perfect State of Being, and he’s making a claim on that right that is Jesus that’s living in him that’s sitting at My right hand on the throne so make it happen. I can stand on my personal rights. You know, this whole world has become about personal rights, and it’s all the selfish, orientated personal rights. My personal rights are based on what Jesus paid for, and He wanted to pay that price so that I could have my personal rights.
Come on. This is a whole new take on personal rights. And, finally, because I have that, I have access to all the resources that the Authority has that I’m in alignment with. I have access to all of those resources that is given to me by the Continuous Perfect State of Being, who has a continuous perfect state of occupation, who has a continuous perfect state of giving me everything I need all the time.
“So, Pastor John, why do we get so stuck in this humanity that we live in? Why do we get so stuck? You know, we get stuck. We get stuck in our head. We get stuck in our emotions. We get stuck in the stuff that we do, the things that we… We get stuck all the time.” Yeah, you’re stuck because you choose to get stuck. Me and you both, I’m not preaching at you, I’m preaching with you. We both get stuck. We all get stuck. We get stuck with stuff. We allow stuff to get in our heads and then we get stuck there. We do.
That’s why the Word of God comes and says, “Don’t get stuck in your head. Don’t be conformed to this lowlife. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind so you can live the high life, the one that the Mediator has created for you, that is sitting at this right hand of the Continuous Perfect State of Being. And He’s a continuous perfect state of mediation so that you can have a continuous perfect state of alignment. You can be continuously in this right state of authority. You can be in the continuous right state of all the access to all the resources. All the rights that you have are legitimate because He’s sitting at the right hand of the Majesty Throne, and He’s continuously telling you, you got it. You got it.”
So, the devil, the enemy of God, he wants the Christians to be labeled and categorized with all other religions so he can marginalize Christianity as just another religion. Because we are the only people on the earth that have a living Mediator that currently not only died for us but was raised again, that is now sitting at the right hand of God, and He’s mediating constantly for us to make sure that the will that He left us is enforced and that we get everything that He left for us in the will.
So, the devil doesn’t like this living relationship, so he’s got to try and marginalize it. And, by the way, for all of you Christians that are living in a living relationship with Jesus and having this dynamic relationship with God, he wants to try and keep you on the low life level at least, because if you become a high life Christian, you become dangerous. Because suddenly, everybody else wants to live the high life. Come on.
Most of you are here because Sharon and I, to the measure of revelation that we have, we pressed into the high life. And I can say I pressed into the high life, not having very much revelation of it, but at least I had a foundation of it. I pressed into a high life. When I had my military service, I pressed into a high life with God where I said, “Lord, I’m going to go and do the highest, worst, best service that I can in military, and I’m going to ask You to help me there. I want to build a relationship with You in that position.”
And He delivered. And when I came out of the military with that confidence, I met this amazing woman. Not immediately, it took a couple of months, but I saw this amazing woman. And when I saw this amazing woman and we began to have a connection, that was 44 years ago. When we connected, I had a dream in my heart about what I wanted this relationship to be to me all of my life. I wanted marriage to be something that was special, that was fulfilling, that was amazing, that was wonderful in every sense of the Word. And so when I met her and married her, the Lord said to me, “If you want to have that marriage, you’ve got to give yourself to her as Christ loves the Church. Give yourself to her. Don’t stand on your rights. Just give yourself to her.” That’s contrary to what men want to do. They want to claim their rights. In any given relationship, people want to claim their rights. A woman wants to claim her rights, and the man wants to claim his rights.
The Lord said to me, “If you’ll do My Word, I’ll show you the high life of relationships.” So then I started to love her, and she made demands on me that were unreasonable. So you all know the story. Unreasonable. They were unreasonable. They were unreasonable. And so I had to tell my reason to shut up and obey God. So when I told my reason to not claim my rights, I could take the Word of God and say, “I’m going to love her the way Christ loves me.” And that means that Christ is not making any demands on me, He’s loving me unconditionally. So I’m not going to make any demands on her, I’m just going to love her regardless of her behaviour.
I can’t speak that every man will do that, but I can tell you what God revealed to my heart and what I then lived and acted on. And so that’s why when people started to become aware of us in our church that we were in for many years. And they began to see us and they would hear us talk and they would be in our company, and they would see us, everybody that was having trouble in their marriage wanted to come and talk to us about getting help in their marriage. Why? Because they saw a high life, not a low life. Everybody sees everybody else having a low life in marriage. We chose the high life. Here’s what happened. When I loved her that way, she started to trust the love of God that was in me. So then she started to say, “I don’t have to try and demand from him so that I can prove his love. I can just live in the fact that he loves me so I can love him back without condition.” And so when she came up and I came up, we started raising each other, raising each other, raising each other.
And so now that’s why when people are in our ministry, you guys have got hope. All of you have got hope that if you’re going to have a marriage, you can have it like this. If you do what we did, you can have what we have. So this is a living example of a high life. Amen. Hallelujah.
To a measure, Pastor Sharon and I have lived a high life with our finances, but, actually, there’s so much higher we can go in our finances and our faith before God that, actually, I’m still yet to raise my own walk with God to that high life. And there’s many other things that I can say, we still have to press for a higher life because there’s much more that we can press for. Hey. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I know there’s more. There’s more for me, for example, that God wants to favour me with, but I can see how the favour is already working for me. You know? I shared this with the youngsters the other day. You know, our GoPros went missing. So now we don’t have GoPros, but I personally prefer the DJI version of the GoPro. It’s called an action camera. Now don’t you all go and buy one because there’s limited you can’t find them anywhere in South Africa. And all the ones that have been, we bought them. So until the next stock arrives, live with your GoPro. But I want to just tell you a story.
Before we went to Cape Town, Conrad went on to the Internet. He made phone calls. We tried to find, because we wanted to have another one for the epic. We wanted to get another action camera that is a DJI action camera, and the only people that stock them is a particular store. I’m not going to tell you that store in case you try and go and buy them. They said they have no stock anywhere in the country. We went to the Waterfront. I went to go and buy something for my phone. Low and behold, I find there’s a DJI there. They got two. One is just the camera and the other one is what they call the adventure pack, and it’s got extra batteries and a whole lot of other things, a stick in it and all this kind of stuff. So Matthew looks and he says, “Pastor John, they’ve got the same price on these two. This is not right.” We know. We’ve investigated this. This one is like R3500, R4,000 more than the other one, but they’ve got the same price on. I said out loud to him, “You know what, Matt? If they’ve got the same price on, they have to sell it to me at the price that they put on the box.” So we said, “We’ll take the adventure one.” So, the lady comes, wrong price on the till. She’s got to go back to the boss. The boss says, ”No. No. No. No.” So they try and wangle out of it. She comes to look in the front. Took a little bit of time. She says, “Oh, it’s on the box.” Because it was locked in the cabinet, you see. “Oh, it’s on the box. Well, then we have to sell it to him at the price that’s on the box.”
She signs off on the deal. We saved R3500, R4,000. I mean, everywhere we go, things happen to us that are extraordinary, that are favour, that are just blessed. You know what’s happening to me is I’m getting used to this. I am.
You know, it’s not such a thing like, “Wow, did you see that favour God did for me? Wow!” It’s like, this is happening so often, I’m getting used to this.
I want to live at that life where I’m used to it, it’s no longer something exceptional anymore, I’m just getting used to it. Hallelujah. When I seek Him first and His way of doing things, the Continuous Perfect State of Being and His order. These things just keep happening. They just keep happening. He meets all our needs. And not only that, but we can speak our desires to Him. “I desire to have this, Lord. I desire to have this, Lord.” “Okay, just watch and wait.” Come on. We’ve got to live a much higher life. The way that we, Christians, are currently living life, we are not attractive to anybody. Why would anybody else give up their lifestyle for a Christian lifestyle? It’s just a matter of, “I can live the way I want to live. Those guys have got to live without stuff. So I want to live with all the stuff I can have, and they have got to live without stuff, so let me live with the stuff I can have.”
Come on, if you’re in their shoes, but when you begin to see things happening to Christians all the time that are extraordinary, that are amazing, that are just, “And look how happy they are, how much full of joy they’ve got. And they’ve got… look at these people. They’re like in our face all the time with all this peace and joy and good stuff happening all the time. What’s happened to you? What’s wrong with you? What’s going on with you?” I’m a Truth-seeker. “Ah, you’re a truth-seeker, is that what the difference is?” Ja, I’m not a Scientologist, I’m a Truth-seeker. I’m also not a man of science. Those are 2 different things. I mean, I am a man of science, but I’m not looking for all the answers in science. I’m looking for all the answers in God. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to God.
So we’ve come to the end of our First Fruits Weekend. [Pastor John laughs as the congregation goes, “Ahh.”] Ah, thank you. That’s why I say you guys are amazing. You people, all are just wonderful, and I can see why God would want to use such a group of people like you because you are just amazing people. Your heart is for God. You want to do amazing things for God. You want to know God more. You want to live in God more. You want to change the order of things. Don’t you? Ja, we do, we want to change the order of things.
I’ll tell you what. When the Church begins to change the order of things, people will sit up and take notice and say, “Here are people that have got an understanding of power and authority and influence, and these people have got a connection.” What’s the connection? Ja, the Continuous Perfect State of Being is in me. He’s living with the Father, but He’s in me. We are supposed to be the problem solvers on the earth. There’s no one else that’s going to solve the problems on the earth except us. Let me tell you, governments can’t solve the problems. They are proven time and again; they only bring temporary fixes but they can’t solve the problems. We are the ones that are going to solve the problems. Yes. Praise the Lord. Won’t you all stand with me, please?
So, now we’ve got to say this in the nicest possible way, hey? No funny stuff going on here, hey? I want you to turn to somebody next to you and say; you are amazing. Now, not your wife or your husband, someone else also. You guys are all amazing. You’re amazing before God. You’re amazing and I want you to go and be your amazing selves this whole rest of this day, whatever that may look like. Have a braaivleis, but not with vleis. Do a fish braai. Do whatever you want to do. Sharon wants to do lamb chops, met vet. Dik vet, dik vet. Sharon wants lamb chops with dik vet. [Pastor John laughs] I’ll tell you, this whole weekend we’ve been eating on the go. Literally, just little bit, little bit, little bit. Now she’s telling me she wants vet lamb chops.
The first meal she ever made me when we started to show interest in each other, the first meal she made me were these beautiful lamb chops, mashed potatoes and peas and this gravy on it. Was it beans? [Pastor Sharon tells Pastor John the details of the dish] Bright green peas. And bright orange baby carrots. I’d better say this right. [Pastor John and congregation laugh] And proper onion lamb gravy. I’d better get this right for you, otherwise I’m in trouble when I get home. And she made me this amazing salad and I sat there eating this food and I thought, “Wow. Wow.” [Congregation laughs] You know that old story, you know, ‘the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach?’ She got it right, I’ll tell you. She got it right. [Pastor John laughs] Praise the Lord. Enjoy your fish braai or your takeout Kentucky Fried… oh no, that’s terrible.
May the peace of God be on you today. May you enjoy His favour and His goodness. May your conversations be seasoned with all of the goodness of God. May the joy of the Lord just bubble up inside of you and be part of everything you do today and this week, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
And so, for the iXchangers, I’ve got something in my heart about this week with you guys and just watch the WhatsApps. I’ve got to have some conversations first, before I can announce it or declare it. I want you to hit the road for 10 hours of cycling every day for the next 3 days. [Pastor John laughs] Some of them went, “Yay!” Some of them went, “Ah…” Thanks for coming everybody. Be blessed. Have a safe trip home, for those that are travelling. Hallelujah. Amen. Bye, y’all.
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