Scripture reference: 1 Timothy 1:19 (NIV); 1 Timothy 1:19 (CEV); Mark 4:19 (NKJV); 1 Timothy 4:1-5 (TPT); Luke 22:31 (NKJV); Proverbs 4:23 (NKJV); Psalm 24:1(KJV); Jeremiah 29:11-14 (NLT); Philippians 3:12-14 (MSG); 1 Timothy 4:1 (KJV); 1 Timothy 4:15 (NKJV); John 21:5-14 (TPT)
Father, this morning again we receive Your word, this morning again, we believe Your word. We thank You for Your anointing that rests upon Pastor John and abides within Pastor John. Again, we are, we say thank You that he will speak this morning what he hears You speak, and he will do this morning what he sees You do because he hears You speak, and he sees You do. And so, we give thanks and praise to You in advance for this in Jesus’ Name, and we all say Amen. Amen. Thank you, music ministry.
Pastor John:
Thank you! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Well, it’s a good day to be in church, amen. Well, then just turn to somebody and say, “I’m glad you’re in church this morning.” And then you may be seated. Praise the Lord.
So just a quick announcement before I start, next weekend, Saturday morning, you’ll get communications, we are going to be dealing with and teaching on Ecclesia Economics. Hallelujah. So, you better get ready for something really wonderful. And, well, if you think you know everything about finances and, kingdom economic finances, think again. Because God’s always revealing something new, right? Always. Always. So, I’ll just jump into something new that He’s revealed to me and something that He’s challenged me with and, it’s part of my message today, but it’s part of our whole walk with the Lord.
This week the Lord just began to talk to me about something, and He said, “So, John, if I came to you, and I stood on the shoreline and I asked you to be one of my disciples, what would your answer be?” So, I think every one of you gonna say immediately, “Alright, Lord, I’ll do it.” Okay. But you’ve got to leave your house, you’ve got to leave your business, you’ve got to leave your family and you can’t think twice about it, you have to do it immediately. And now what do you say now?
I had to think about it because I got preaching this week about the Cost. And if you didn’t hear my message on the Cost, then if you haven’t listened to anything that I preach during the week, you should or in the last 2 weeks, on Wednesday to Friday nights, you should listen to the Cost. Because we’re always doing a cost-benefit analysis, and that’s what I preached on, Is you’re always doing an analysis of what’s it gonna cost and what’s the benefit? And I told you, you don’t really know the cost, and you cannot hope to know what the benefit is in giving everything to Jesus. So, how can you do a cost-benefit analysis?
The only way you do it is you do it emotionally. And when you do an emotional cost-benefit analysis, you cannot possibly do the right thing. So, you have to not do it on a cost-benefit analysis, but you have to do it In trust and faith. Fortunately, your trust and your faith are not in me. Your trust and faith is gotta be in Jesus. In the living God.
So, on the basis that your trust is in Him, you and I have an opportunity to do what He requests. And so, I don’t want to make light of it, but, you know, if we’re gonna talk about Ecclesia Economics, we’re gonna talk about the cost of discipleship. And I’m going to show you some of the benefits of what it takes to be an Ecclesia Economics person. Ecclesia Economics and Kingdom Economics are not the same. Now you really need to come so you can find out. Because this is stuff that God’s been doing in me in the last 2 weeks. So, I know you don’t know about it because I’m still finding out about it. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Alright. Great.
The year of 2024 Is a year of progressing, advancing, promotion, and seeing your highest expectations fulfilled. Progressing, advancing, promotion, and seeing your highest expectations fulfilled. Well, over the last number of years, the Lord has been speaking to us about being Big and going Bold, and He’s spoken to us about Maximum, and He’s speaking to us about More maximum in 24, More in 24.
And the way Brother Jerry received it was advancing progressing, advancing promotion, and your highest expectations fulfilled. So, I just looked up the dictionary definition of progress. And, of course, progressing is just an ongoing,.. an ongoing act of progress. And it has a definition that looks like this. A royal journey marked by pomp and pageant. A state procession. It has different meanings in different contexts, but well, the one that I liked in this dictionary is an expedition, a journey, or a march through a region. Simply put, progress is a forward or onward movement to advance. Gradual betterment, especially the progress or the development of humankind. Now, when I was looking through it, I was… I understand that actually advancing and advancement is a part of progress.
So, actually, if you look up the word progress, it has the same meaning as advancement. So, I then, you know, sort of reflected on why would Brother Jerry stress progressing and advancing. Well, it’s a double statement of movement. It’s a double emphasis on what God is doing. It’s a double emphasis, progressing and advancing.
So, if God’s taken the time to give us a double emphasis, then I think we’ve got it spot on when the Lord said, “It’s time to crossover.” Because you can’t cross over unless you’re progressing and advancing. Right? And it’s a state of movement, and there’s gotta be some objective or goal that you want to achieve or something that you want to move towards. The verb of advancing is to move forward, to develop to a higher, better or more advanced stage. Well, I’m all for that. Aren’t you? To a higher, better, more advanced stage. That sounds like God is moving all of us to a better, higher, more advanced stage. And then he talked about promotion. And, he briefly ministered on this while I was in the US, and subsequently, he has briefly touched on it.
But promotion is raising In rank or in person. The dictionary definition is the act or fact of being raised in position or rank And in its, thesaurus, it says preferment. So, you are preferred above others. The act of furthering the growth or development of something. So, if you’re promoting something, you’re the act of furthering the growth or development of something.
Well, if we are going to be advancing, we’re going to be progressing we’re going to be in a position where we are moving forward and we’re moving towards something, then we are in a perfect position to set ourselves up for promotion. Because then we will be preferred because we’re moving. I’m gonna make a few statements to you today that the Lord gave me, And I trust that you will, receive the statements. And if you want to question them or have further knowledge or information about this, I would… I trust that you will receive it without bias, and then go and meditate on it and go and test it for yourself. Okay?
1 Timothy 1 verse 19 says, in the New International Version, 19 holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith. (1 Timothy 1:19 NIV) Well, that’s from… so, you know, I mean, people, they don’t want to… if you ask some people and say, well, I think that’s the Timothy scripture, but some people, if you ask them, “Are you busy making shipwreck of your faith?” They will say, “No. I’m not.” And my question would be to you. If you’re in the process of making shipwreck of your faith, how will you know it? How will you know it if you’re busy making shipwreck of your faith? Unlikely because you’re unlikely to face the facts or face the cold hard value of what you’re doing. And of course, the enemy is going to do whatever he can to cloud your thinking and your spiritual connection to it. And you’re going to have lots of alternative reasons as to why you are not making shipwreck of your faith.
So, if you’re making shipwreck of your faith, you probably gonna be the last one to know about it. Because no one on purpose is gonna make a shipwreck of their faith. Would you agree? Because if you did and someone had to show you you’re busy making a shipwreck of your faith, you’d have to you’d say, “Wow. Really? Really? That’s me?” The chances are that you’re gonna deny it, and you’re gonna say, “That’s not me.” Because if you had to face that, you would have to immediately make the changes that you already decided you don’t want to make, and that’s why you’re in the process of making shipwreck of your faith. And so, that all goes down to your choices, your will, your desire, the things that you wanna pursue rather than the things that God wants you to pursue.
So, there’s a very close test there. You know, if you’re pursuing the stuff you wanna pursue rather than what God wants you to pursue, the chances are you’re in the process of making shipwreck of your faith. But it’s a very challenging thing to actually recognize it and acknowledge it. So, I made this note in one of my moments of meditation. I made this note.
Faith is the process of removing doubt. If you’re living by faith and you’re actively growing In faith, you are busy removing doubt. So, what are you removing your doubt from? You’re removing, you’re removing doubt that God can’t do what He said He would do. So, faith is the active process of growing your obedience to God’s word and in God’s word so that you can keep believing that God will do what He says.
Faith is the act or the process of removing doubt. Science Is the process of requiring doubt. If you’re a scientist, your whole process is you doubt every result until the result proves itself so substantially that no more can an answer be in question. Yes? So, faith is the process of removing doubt. Science is the process of requiring doubt. So, if we are living in a scientific world, then we are in a world where we are focused on disproving everything until the result is absolutely proven. So, which world do you want to live in? The science world or the faith world? Again, as I’m asking you the question, your automatic response would be, “I don’t want to live in, just a purely science world., I want to live in a faith world.” And I want to say to you, that I would prefer to first live in a faith world than a science world. Already when I say that, it already scratches you. “Because don’t challenge science, because science is the bedrock of human society.” “No, science is not. Faith is.” Faith is what made society what it is today, not science. Science is the current process of making a society that disbelieves God because it says, “You need to prove everything, and you can’t prove God. So, you must just believe God. Otherwise, if God was real, you would prove Him.” And science and that’s why today, the scientists all a lot of scientists are saying, “We don’t believe God because you can’t prove Him. But we can prove science.” So, they wanna believe in science more than they wanna believe in God. Little knowing that all science actually validates God.
So, if you remove doubt from science, then science becomes a religion. If you remove doubt from science, then science becomes a religion. So, I’ve listened to a lot of apologists, professors, doctors… people that are highly qualified and I’ve listened to their debates. And, one of my favourite people to listen to is Doctor John Lennox. And, I mean, he’s just amazing.
And, you know, he sat on a big stage with 1000 people or more debating a man who wrote a book and the man became famous for his book that he wrote. And the book that he wrote was called The God Question. And basically, his book is a book of evolution, and he uses science to disprove the fact that science and the Big Bang theory are the way it all started, and therefore, God cannot exist. So, he sat on the stage with John Lennox and they had a moderator, and they were debating each other about the question of God. And so, as this I believe the guy’s name is Dawkins. And as he was talking about this John Lennox basically just bypassed the moderator and asked him a question. “So, do you believe the stuff you’re talking about?” And he refused to answer the question of whether he believed it. Why? Because the minute he believes and he has to believe it, he has to believe in science because the minute you remove doubt from science, then it becomes your religion. So, the minute John Lennox asked him the question and said, “Do you believe in evolution? Do you believe in your scientific theories?” And he refused to answer the question because it was a trap for him. But it’s a trap that is a two-edged sword trap because on the one hand, If he doesn’t answer the question, then he says science is just science. But if he says, “Yes, I believe in my science,” then it becomes a religion.
This is just my simple analysis of what they did on the stage. I’m sure they so smart, they thought of that in hyper seconds, and it took me days and weeks and months to figure it out. You know? So, it’s important for us in this season to hold on to faith. In the Amplified Bible, it says, “We must hold fast to our faith.” If you go to hold fast to something, it means there’s a possibility of letting go. And like I said, if someone was talking to you and confronting you and saying, “You’re busy letting go of your faith,” you would say, “No, I’m not. I still believe in faith.” Another translation says, 19 Some by relaxing their faith have made a thorough mess of their life. (1 Timothy 1:19 CEV).
Well, yeah. Sure. If you’re gonna let go of your faith, you’re gonna make a mess of your life. But I’ve got everything pretty much under control. I know you think you have and it’s all about you having control of you. And if you think you’ve got control of you, you’re about to show… God’s about to show you and life’s about to show you and circumstances are about to show you, you don’t have control of you. And you cannot control everybody around you. Sorry for you. If your whole life is based on control of you, that’s your religion.
Because you have faith in you, and it’s all about you. God is saying, “What about Me? Don’t you want Me to say what’s control for you?” “No. No. No. No, Lord. I don’t want to have that I don’t wanna give You that much control over my life.” Point made. Point made. One of the reasons we want to hold on to our faith is cause our faith is precious. You know, in meditating on this message this morning, and preparing myself to bring this to you, I tried to find an example of something that’s really precious to me. And, you know, my first – my first thing was – I would like to find something that’s a material possession, that I can talk to – that is precious to me. So, I had some deep thoughts about it, and I thought, “Well, which of my material possessions are that precious to me?” I couldn’t find one. I am happy to declare to you, I couldn’t find one.
“Pastor John, you mean your bicycles are not that precious to you?” “No.” “What about your car?” “No.” “What about your house?” “No.” When I thought about everything, of how precious things are to me, and I thought, “Well what is it that is so precious to me?“ The closest thing I could come to a material value-based thing that was precious to me, was three Bibles that I have. One is a Kenneth Hagin Bible, from Rhema from the 1990’s. It’s got all Kenneth Hagin’s faith messages in it. The other one is, Jerry Savelle’s Bible, it’s got all his favourite scriptures in it. And Kenneth Copeland’s Bible, that’s got all of his teachings on it.
And then I thought about this, and then I thought, “Well maybe if you have to ask me about something that might be precious to me, it might be a watch that my son gave me as a sign of covenant”. I gave him a watch first, to show him that I am in covenant with him in a dark time of his life. That will always be a symbol of covenant between him and me. And then later on, when he came out of that dark time, he chose to buy me a watch that is a symbol of his reference of covenant to me.
But in the end, you know, I thought if God told me to give that watch away, I give it away in a second. If God told me to give one of those Bibles away, I give them away in a second. So, then they are not that precious to me. So, what is that precious to me? And so, the most precious thing that I could think about, is not a material thing at all. And I am sorry to tell you all, it is a thing that I go back to… it is this woman sitting in the front. She is the most valuable and precious thing to me. Because I wanted to find out what it would be like holding on to something that’s like precious faith. And I wanted to say, have I held on to anything of that precious nature, like I would hold on to precious faith? And my answer is, here she sits. Because I’ve given up myself, I’ve given up my desire, and I’ve given up my will to pursue her. Not material possessions. Those things are going to be gone when my body leaves anyway. But the investment I’ve made in her, that I leave with my sons, with my grandchildren, with all of you. My investment with her resides in all of you.
That’s precious. That’s really precious. I am delighted to say that there are young people that have hope in marriage because they have witnessed our relationship. They have witnessed what it can be in Christ. Amen. Well, don’t you think it’s worth holding on to precious faith like that? Don’t you think that if you have got something that is precious to you, you want to pursue faith with that same passion and that same desire, like you would hold on to something that is that precious to you? Don’t you think this is a really wonderful kind of conversation to have with yourself? What is so precious to me that I’m unwilling to give it up?
I’m happy to tell you guys today that there is nothing material in my world that is that precious to me. And I’m also happy to tell you it’s not my kids. “You mean your kids are not that precious to you?” “They’re not.” She is most, most precious to me – Sharon Bendixon, the one and only woman in my life. She is most precious to me. I told my kids when they were teenagers, I said, “One day, you guys are going to leave home, you are going to marry, you are going to do things in your life, but I am going to live with her for the rest of my life. She is my most valuable and prized possession.” And she still is. And I am working hard at it. I am pursuing her. And she is pursuing me, every day, day after day, day after day, we are pursuing each other to make sure that we keep the prized valuable possession as valuable as it ever was. In fact, we are trying to make it more valuable. I am unwilling to do without her.
I want my faith to be the same, don’t you? Don’t you wanna hold on to your faith with the same intensity? It’s so valuable and precious to me. How can I let my faith go? How can I stop living in faith? How can I stop speaking the words of life over everything, so that my faith keeps working for everything? Because your faith is valuable. Amen.
So, don’t get… don’t let go of faith. Please don’t let go of faith. Don’t let Satan steal the Word out of your life. Don’t let Satan steal it. Some people might say to me, “Well, Pastor John, isn’t your health your most valuable possession?” Well, if you have to say, “I’m going to be most healthy, but I’m going to lose her…” it would be a real challenge for me to pick one. Because she’s like my flesh and blood. I have paid a price to love her this much. Hey?
If I had to ask her if I had to ask Sharon, “Sharon, what would you want for John as your most prized possession?” She would probably say, “Good health for him.” Yes? Besides my walk with God, she would probably say, “I wish that he would be in good health and strong.” Well, there’s a real benefit for both her and me in that. Amen. But I know, we’ve talked about this, I know that if we had to live without each other it would be a real hard thing. Not because we’ve become so comfortable living just around each other, but because our lives are so integrated with each other, that to live without each other is almost an impossible thought.
Well, shouldn’t that be the same way with your faith? Now to live without faith, it’s almost an impossible thought that you could live without faith. That’s why you know faith and living in faith is so precious to you, that you will speak words that God says, “Speak this over your finances, speak this over your relationships, speak this over your health, speak this.” That most precious faith is the words that come out of your mouth. So, if you’re speaking words that are contrary to what God wants you to speak about yourself then you say, “I’m letting go of my precious faith.” This is a good faith teaching.
Mark, chapter 4 verse 19 says, 19 and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful (Mark 4:19 NKJV). This is a real problem. Jesus would not have talked about this if this wasn’t a problem. If it was not a problem that the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust or the desires of other things would come in and choke the Word, then He wouldn’t even talk about it. But He listed three things. He listed the cares of this world. Come on. How easy is it for the cares of the world to enter into you? If you’re not on watch – like that, the cares of this world will take hold of you. What about the deceitfulness of riches? Well, you know, you have to really evaluate that, and I’m not going to do that too long this morning, but the deceitfulness of riches is the deceit that riches can solve your problems. They can’t. And what about the desires of other things? If you live yourself even in a perpetual cycle of desiring something, desiring something, desiring something, and the desire of these things is the thing that keeps you alive and keeps you ticking and keeps you working until the next six months and the next six months because you need to have a desire for other things that motivate you and stimulate you, then maybe you’re not living with your faith really working. Maybe those things have grown up and are busy choking the Word in your life. So we need to stay in faith and remain focused so the enemy of God will not distract us.
1 Timothy, chapter 4, verses 1 to 5 says, 1 The Holy Spirit has explicitly revealed: At the end of this age, many will depart from the true faith one after another, devoting themselves to spirits of deception and following demon-inspired revelations and theories (1 Timothy 4:1 TPT). That’s The Passion Translation. 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 1. So we need to stay focused. We need to be focused on His promises for us, and we need to refuse to allow… we must refuse to allow anything to distract us. Well, part of what we were doing over the crossover period in December and January – is refusing to let other things distract us and focus ourselves on the Lord.
I’ll tell you, as for me, this is probably one of the most productive Decembers I’ve had in a long time. Because it’s been spiritually productive for me. Spiritually, very productive. In Luke chapter 22 verse 31, Jesus is speaking to Simon 31 And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; you. (Luke 22:31, NKJV). That’s how important faith is to us. Is that Jesus would pray for Peter and say, I pray that your faith doesn’t fail you. Hold on to your faith. You could phrase it this way, and some translations refer to it this way. I pray that your faith is not reduced to inactivity.
You can have faith, but it can be dormant. If you’ve got dormant faith, you’re about to make shipwreck of it. Proverbs 4 verse 23 says, 23 Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23 NKJV) You and I need to guard our hearts every day. We need to guard our hearts. We need to make sure that there’s not stuff coming into our hearts that’s going to damage our future. Amen. Hallelujah.
It’s very rare for me to, find myself in any kind of long, long conversation with people that are really not exercising discipline and caution about their words. But every now and again, I find myself in a place where someone has not got the discipline or the restraint to speak what they just feel they should just speak out of their mouth. And when it does happen to me, it’s a cringeworthy moment. Why would it be a cringeworthy moment for me when I hear people talking like that? It’s cringeworthy because knowing the power of life and death that’s in the tongue, And those that are using that will eat the fruit of it, I know what you’re busy producing. You’re producing inactive, inoperable, ineffective words. At best. At worst, you’re creating death and destruction by your words. Hallelujah.
You know, there’s a worldly saying about this; If you love something, set it free. If it loves you back, it’ll come back to you. Right? Well, I mean, you know, everything for me has got to be judged by the word of God. But I would say that’s, that’s agape love. If you love something and you just love it unconditionally, you’ve got a much better chance of having that find its proper order in your life than if you try to control something. Yeah. So, in our world, it’s better for us to love God rather than have Him or try and control His influence in our lives. Don’t you think? Don’t you think it’s better to say, “I’m gonna let these words of faith, let them free out of my mouth? Let words of faith free out of my mouth, and let’s see if they come back to me productive.” If you’ve got the love of God in your heart and you speaking faith words, let them free. And let’s see if they come back to you. The Bible says they come back to you on every wave. Every wave. Why would you want to try and control something that’s so valuable? Wow. I’m preaching good today.
Jesus never intended for us to be destroyed by what’s going on around us. In fact, Jesus was so powerful on the earth, and we’ll talk about this next weekend, Lord willing, we’ll talk about this next weekend, but, but Jesus was so powerful that when, when the Bible says, and I refer to this in the messages this week that I’ve preached Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. Yes? So, when God gave the authority of the earth to Adam and Eve, then the fullness of the earth belonged to Adam and Eve.
It did not belong to lions, it did not belong to elephants, it did not belong to any other creature. The earth and the fullness of the earth belonged to Adam and Eve. There was no other creature that could extract anything out of the earth other than Adam and Eve. Until Eve, and then Adam, decided to relinquish that authority to another creature.
When Jesus came and walked on the earth, come on this is so good, this is so good. When Jesus came and walked on the earth He demonstrated that He was at least the equal of Adam, because He walked on water. I am so in control of the earth and all of the forces of the earth, I have such dominion in the same way Adam would’ve had dominion, I will demonstrate my control over the earth by walking on the water. Notwithstanding, God will use an opportunity to glorify His Son by putting Him in a boat where the wind and storm of destruction would come upon them and Jesus is woken up by the disciples, “Don’t You care that we are perishing?”, and Jesus says, “Hush, shh, stop.” [Pastor John indicating how Jesus was calming the storm] And they all look at Jesus, “What kind of Man is this, that He can speak to the wind and the waves and everything obeys Him?” Well, what manner of man He is, He is at least demonstrating that He was equal to Adam. Ha.
So, if we’re going to operate in Ecclesia Economics then we as the church, have at least the equal to what Adam could do. But we’ve got more than that, we are at least equal to what Jesus did. So, there is a difference between Kingdom Economics and Ecclesia Economics because there is a difference between the Kingdom of God and the Church of God. Ha ha ha. Nou wat nou? This comes from December meditation. December and January meditation, seeking the Lord. So, I am sure you want to hear more of that.
Active or living faith moves God. Living faith refuses to be defeated. Living faith obtains and receives promises. Remember the scripture in Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 11. 11 For I know the plans and thoughts that I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘plans for peace and well-being and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:11 NLT). God never intended our circumstances to dominate us. Hey? Never. He never intended circumstances to dominate a kingdom person and He never intended circumstances to dominate the Ecclesia of God. Professor Bertus Kruger wat sê jy vandag? [Bertus replies: You’re speaking the truth, Pastor John] I’m speaking the truth? Thank you, Bert. Hallelujah.
Verse 12 says, 12 In those days when you pray, I will listen. Verse 13 13 If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. (Jeremiah 29:12-13 NLT) What have we been doing December and January? Looking and seeking God wholeheartedly. And I, for one am glad to tell you that I found Him. And He found me. And He’s been showing me revelation upon revelation upon revelation. Praise the Lord. There’s only, there’s only one reason why God would increase revelation. Because the revelation that we are doing, that we have, we are living by that revelation. God would not increase revelation unless you’re doing what He already told you to do.
Because why would He waste revelation on someone that doesn’t do what He already showed them to do? So, you have to be doing the word of God before God’s going to reveal revelation to you. You may hear me teach on it, but if it’s not a revelation to you, you won’t live in the revelation of the power of the revelation. Because faith without works is dead. And so that’s often a strong divide that happens in people that come. God brings them into an environment where they can hear revelation. Because they desire to hear the revelation. They want more of God and then when they are confronted with themselves that they’ve got to start changing, they don’t like it. And then as the church of the Lord Jesus progresses and makes advancement the divide comes eventually. They say, “I don’t agree with all the stuff that’s being taught. I don’t agree with all the stuff. I can’t handle all the stuff. I can’t… Yeah. Yeah. It’s too radical. It’s too much. It’s too it’s too much. I can’t handle all of this. Let me rather go find a church that I can handle.”
So, what they’ve effectively said is, “I’m not doing revelation. I don’t want to do revelation. So, I’m going to go to a church where there is no revelation. Or at the very least, the revelation suits my opinion and suits my lifestyle.” So, then you’ve just cut yourself off from future revelation because all the revelation you’re going to get is already what suits you. I think I should have been an attorney. What do you think, Belinda? Advocate. Nogal neh, ja.
So, verse 14, 14 I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.” (Jeremiah 29:14 NLT) Well, God is about to restore so many things to us in 2024, He’s going to restore the more to us. We need to be ready for it. We need to be pressing for it. We’ve got to go for this. Amen.
If you want to be defiant, be defiant about this. You know, sometimes people want to defy the truth. “Can’t be true. Can’t be true. Nah. How can… How can Pastor John speak like that?” Well, you know, when Kenneth Hagin was raised from his deathbed because Mark 11:22-23 became a revelation to him. “Speak to the mountain.” If you believe in your heart, you can have what you say. When he had a revelation of that, God raised him up from his deathbed, he died 3 times. The 4th time he went to heaven, and then God raised him up to health. And so, many people that don’t believe in healing in the modern day world, in the modern day Christian circles, they will say, “Well, you know, I don’t believe that any human has got that much faith or that can believe like that.” Too late. Kenneth Hagin had the revelation. If you defy the revelation, then you prevent the revelation from coming to you. So, why do you want to defy revelation? You’re just cutting off your nose to spite your face.
It’s quite graphic that. Right? I don’t like my nose, so I’m going to cut it off, because… Doesn’t make any sense, but that’s what people do. They don’t make sense when they defy revelation. So, if you want to be defying anything; defy to bow to the devil, defy bowing to doubt. Be defiant about it. Say, “No, I’m not going to bow to doubt, I’m not going to bow to unbelief, I’m not going to bow to these thoughts that come to me about the radical Christian lifestyle.” To be defiant means to oppose with force, object or protest with a strong verbal declaration. Well, I protest with strong verbal declaration anything that the devil tries to bring to me; doubt, unbelief or any amount of pressure. I reject it with strong opposition and verbal declaration. And my verbal declaration is that I’m immune to pressure because the force of faith rises and brings me above the waves of pressure, the storms of life. It calms them, subdues them and I get to walk on water, as it were, on all the pressures, on all the things that would try and bring opposition to my faith. I defy it. I make declarations that I will not submit to it. I will submit to God and the devil must flee from me. It’s not the other way around, I don’t submit to the devil and hope God rescues me. No, I submit to God and the devil must flee from me.
The Apostle Paul, in Philippians 3 verses 12 to 14 in the Message Bible says it like this, 12-14 I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back (Philippians 3:12-14, MSG). I’m off and running and I’m not turning back. How about you? I’m so far gone on this deal. I’m so far gone on this deal, that it’s impossible to reel me back. I’m sold out completely.
You know, it’s like somebody that’s out beyond the waves, and the lifeguards are kind of worried about you. And they say, “Come back, come back.” “Sorry. I’m so far out. I can’t come back.” I’m way out there. I’m way out there. I’ve given my life to Jesus a long time ago. I’ve given my life to living in faith a long time ago. I found out that this thing works. It works. It works. It works. It works. It works. I found out that if you walk with God, He’s walking with you. If you choose Him, He chooses you. If you say, “I’m with You.” He says, “I’m with you.” Hallelujah. How cool is that? “I’m with You, God.” He says, “I’m with you, son.” “What?” “Yes, you with Me and I’m with you.” Wow. I can almost hear His voice booming back at me. “I’m with you, John.” Wow. “So where’s the devil now?” Come on, God boom one more time for me.” “I am with you, John.” “Did you hear devil? I’ve got God on my side, I got Jesus Who beat you in the grave, in your own territory. He beat you. God the Father raised Him from the dead and He came in He showed everybody else that you are defeated from everything.” It’s like heh heh heh…
I mean, come on, Christians, strut your stuff. If you’re sold out to God, strut yourself. God’s voice is booming. “You’re my kid go, go, go, go get the stuff! The fullness of the earth and all that’s in it, go get it, boy!” Dad said. Man. Praise the Lord.
First Timothy chapter 4 verse 1 says, 1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils (1 Timothy 4:1 KJV). There are some that are going to listen to stuff. Can I tell you what is a deceiving doctrine? Do you want to know what a deceiving doctrine is? It’s that one thing that will deceive you. It’s not rocket science this. It’s not spiritual science. It’s only the one thing that will deceive you. That’s what a deceptive demon is. The one thing that will deceive you.
So, what is it that will deceive you? Well, maybe you will be deceived into thinking, “I don’t know that this faith message is all that.” Well, that’s a doctrine of demons that’s ready to deceive you for thinking like that. “I don’t know if South Africa is going to make it. We better make an alternative B plan to get out of South Africa and go and live somewhere else in another country.” That’s a doctrine of demons. It can deceive you. How many South Africans have that demon deceived already? He’s absolutely deceived them into leaving their place of assignment. How much better off do you think South Africa would have been if all of the money that has left our shores was still in this country?
So, people have made a decision. They’ve said, “Well, I’m happy for those that are staying. I’m not going to be one of those that are going to stay. I’m going to be one of those that takes our money and leaves.” Well, I’ve got news for them, if they’re out of the will of God trouble awaits them and trouble and trouble and trouble. And they… “Oh, no, but I can’t see any trouble if I’m going to live in Australia or New Zealand or, or the UK or the USA. If I’m going to go live somewhere else. What more trouble can I be in and be in South Africa?” You’re already deceived because you think that you’re not going to get trouble if you’re out of the will of God.
You’re already deceived into thinking that being in the will of God won’t protect you. Then you have to take control of your future because God can’t. You’re already deceived. The doctrine of demons has already deceived those people. Because they got to run their lives and they got to make decisions for their future. So, God’s protective power is already void and nullified in your life. All of those things that you hold so dear to you, the money, the investments, the future potential of what you think is going out there, that’s quicksand. Without God it’s quicksand. I heard the other day. I heard this. I can be corrected on this. I’m not saying this as an absolute fact that I heard that Google was going to retrench, or let go, something like 8,000 or 13,000 workers around the world, Google. Who would’ve thunk it?
Google, the successful company, they are just laying of workers. Why? Because there is some people that want to maximise profits. They want to maximise power and control and if you think you’re one of them, you’re not. The only way… and they think they are and they’re not. They might be billionaires who think they are controlling the planet, but someone else is controlling their agenda. What is it? Greed. Who do you think is controlling greed in their lives? Come on. It’s the devil. What are they responding to? Lust, greed, power. Those forces are controlling them. You think you got a chance against those forces if you are out of the will of God? Yeah, people think that they can make decisions just as they choose and as they wish. “No worrying, God will bail me out every time.” “No! No. It doesn’t work like that.”
In First Timothy Chapter 4 verse 15 the Scripture says, 15 Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all. (1 Timothy 4:15 NKJV). If something is evident then it is evidence. Hey, Come on! I’m going to use Mia as an example today. Do you think God’s favour and blessing is evident in my life? [Congregation answers, Yes.] Huh? Come on, I don’t, this doesn’t have to be a ‘pump Pastor John up’ session here, this is not a you know, making brownie points with Pastor John moment here. Is God’s blessing and favour evident in my life? I don’t have to try and prove it to anybody, it is there for you to see. Anybody that is close enough to me can touch it, can see it, can experience it. Right? It means it’s obvious, it’s evidence, it’s evidence. It’s evidence that God’s favour is there. Hallelujah.
I know there is a lot of you out there that have got evidence, and it is God that is blessing you. I know. You guys have got evidence, you’ve got testimonies of God’s evidence that He is blessing you, that His life is working mightily in you. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord.
This is becoming bigger and bigger in me, and I’m going to keep speaking it out as the Holy Spirit guides me and leads me. I wanna tell you that God is gonna evidence Himself to you. You, all of you are gonna evidence Himself to you. He is bringing His healing power, His restoring power into your physical bodies, Into your hearts, into your minds, into your souls, into your physical beings.
God is going to evidence Himself to you as you keep on laying hold of the word of God, He’s gonna heal you. He’s going to restore you. He’s gonna bring your bodies back to the original state that they designed to operate and work in – in Jesus’ name. And I wanna tell you that I’m not letting any past stories of anybody’s sickness and disease that hasn’t been able to get healed or hasn’t had the full recovery working in their body, I’m not letting those testimonies near me. I’m pushing back against those ways.
And I say, “I receive the full power of God’s healing power for all of you in this church.” Hallelujah. For all of you. Physical healing, mental healing, soul healing, any kind of healing that you need, I receive it in the Name of Jesus. Won’t you agree with me and receive it right now in the Name of Jesus? Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. No sickness and disease is our portion. Glory to God. Full health, full restoration, full strength.
He will cause us to run and not go weary. He will cause us to walk and not faint in Jesus’ Name. He will cause us to rise up with the wings of eagles. And we will soar over all of the circumstances that have tried to pull us down in Jesus’ Name. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Hallelujah.
You know, I make this confession every time I go and ride a bicycle. I say, “Thank You Lord that Your angels protect me. That no harm will come near me. No sick… Your angels have got charge over us. Your word and the blood of Jesus surrounds us and protects us.”
Every time we pray, I believe that prayer. But I also pray this at the same time that I will ride my bicycle with wisdom and understanding because it doesn’t help for me to say, “I believe in His protection,” and then I go do crazy stuff; like ride in front of a car and say, “Protect me, Jesus.” That’s just stupid. That’s why I believe Doctor Gerrie’s discourse to us was so important.
It’s one thing for us to believe Jesus for healing, but we want to drink a 2-liter Coke every day. That’s like saying, “Heal me, Jesus, but I want to eat and drink what I like. Heal me anyway.” He’s going to say, “No, no, no, no. You treat your temple the right way. Treat your temple the right way. My healing power will be there for you.” Amen. Praise Jesus.
You and I, we need to make all of this that I’ve been preaching today, our constant meditation, and let’s make God’s Word in our lives evidence. Shall we? [Congregation says yes.] Let’s when people speak to you and your response needs to be, “What does the Word say?” Not, “What does my circumstance say?” What does the Word say? Amen.
Brother Jerry said this in one of his messages, I don’t recall which one now, but It was quite thought-provoking for me but T. L. Osborne shared this with Brother Jerry in a private moment and this is what he said, “When people criticise you, it’s their carnal way of saying they want to be like you. So when people criticise you, bring it on.” That’s what he was saying to brother Jerry.
When people criticise you, tell them to bring it on because, actually, it’s their carnal way of saying, “We like it what you’re doing so much, and we don’t know that we can get there, so we’ll criticise you.” So that means if people are criticising me. There’s got to be a reason for the criticism. That means there’s evidence. If there was no evidence, there would be no criticism. Come on. Isn’t that a healthy way of looking at stuff? Progressing, advancing and promotion is always God’s will. Regressing and going backwards is never the will of God. Never. Never. Never.
I want to just close with this and Brother Jerry used this in one of his meetings. He said, “We’re going to increase more and more in 24.” And then he said, “I should have made that as part of the declaration.” Well, I said, well, thank you. He just said that if nobody else, he said it for me because I’ve been saying that since September. More and more in 24. What’s more than maximum? More of maximum. Yes. Hallelujah. So let’s progress and let’s advance. Amen.
Oral Roberts said this to Jerry Savelle, “Jerry, miracles are coming your way every day. You either receive them or they pass you by.” Come on. Which one do you want? Do you want a miracle today or are you going to let it pass you by? The thing is, Oral Roberts was basically saying to Brother Jerry; God’s miracles are there for everybody. Either you’re going to get them or they’re going to go past you. So, don’t let another day go by. Don’t let another day go by without a miracle, getting some kind of miracle. Come on. Let’s have a mindset, what is a miracle? It’s the supernatural intervention from the supernatural realm into the natural realm of men. It’s not complicated. Let God’s super be on our natural every day. See what He does. Be aware of what He does. Look for it. Look for the miracle. Can be just something small like a parking place right in front of where you want to be. Acknowledge it. “Thank You, Lord, for favour.”
Brother Hagin would listen to people praying and ask for what they are believing for. “Nothing in particular,” they would say. Then that’s exactly what you will get. Nothing in particular. Brother Copeland said many people are walking away from the faith because the word of faith has lost its entertainment value. When it first came out, everybody saw it as a success principle to get. You know and they would flock to word of faith preachers because they were talking about success. Well, everybody wants to hear somebody that’s going to tell you how to be successful. Until you realise, actually, this is a lifetime responsibility.
And so finally, real Bible hope is a favourable and confident expectation or a happy anticipation of something good taking place. Something good is about to happen to you. Where did that come from? Oral Roberts. Something good is about to happen to you. That’s only about 60 years old. Something good is about to happen to you. You want to talk about a revelation that is passed on from generation to generation. Oral Roberts got that revelation that something good is about to happen to you 60, 70 years ago, in a tent meeting, he started to declare that; something good is about to happen to you. And then Kenneth Copeland got a hold of it, and then Jerry Savelle got a hold of it, and long and behold, I’ve got a hold of it. Something good is about to happen to me. Hallelujah.
So, during the week, I read to you, it’s in my notebook here, and I’m not going to read all of them to you. But if you go back to this last week’s messages, you can find it. Ja, nê. Those of you who didn’t because you were too busy frolicking in the desert by the sea, uh-huh. Okay. I won’t go there.
Favour produces supernatural increase and promotion. Favour. Remember what I said last week? Brother Jerry said, blessing is the power to prosper and he asked the Lord, “Well, what’s the favour there for?” It’s the opportunity for the blessing to prosper. Favour creates the opportunity. Favour produces supernatural increase and promotion. Aren’t we talking about advancing, progressing and promotion? Favour produces supernatural increase and promotion. Favour produces restoration of everything that the enemy has stolen from you. Favour produces honour in the midst of your adversary. And this is the last one I’m going to quote to you today. That favour produces increased assets, especially in the area of real estate.
We are going to buy a farm. We already have that farm. It’s just waiting to be transferred. There’s a small amount of money that is going to be paid for it, and that’s just a little bit because God has got more money than any farm is valued at. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. This is a year for progressing and advancing and for promotions and for all manner of good things to come to us. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus.
You know, when you’re in the spirit realm when you are in the spirit realm, you can see things that other people can’t see. Because naturally, if you’re connected to the realm of the spirit, then you are operating in the 4th dimension. And the 4th dimension is the dimension of God. It’s not a 3D thing. It’s a 4D thing. You know, they have these things that are 4D printers, they call them now. Tell me what a 4D printer does. It takes an image and it makes a product. That’s what happens when you’re in the 4th dimension of the spirit realm. You get an image from God and then you speak out the end result.
If you’re not living in the 4th dimension, Then all of the images that you’re getting are the images that the 3D world says you should live by. So, if you say the world is telling me to be successful in sport, it’s a 3D image you’ve received, and now you’re going to live in the 3D realm. If the world is saying, be successful in business, well, it’s a 3D image. What about all of us being 4D image-oriented? Let the Holy Spirit imprint you with His image, then you speak out what you see in the image, and then God makes that image come to pass. Now you’ve bypassed the 3D world, and you’ve gone straight to God’s answer for everything. I think it’s called faith. I think it’s called faith. I think it’s called progressing and advancing and promotion with our highest expectations being met. I think that’s what he was talking about. Amen.
What a way to start 2024. What a way. What a way. Come on, everybody, won’t you stand with me, please? What a way to start. What a way to start. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah.
Won’t you take your right hand and put it on your heart and make this declaration with me, and say; Lord Jesus, I trust You as my Lord and Saviour. I receive You into my heart. I receive You into my life. Help me to live for You every day, in Jesus’ name. And now I want to declare something over you, that you are sons of the Most High God. You are spiritual giants. Just say this with me; I am a spiritual giant. I am a child of the Most High God. Holy Spirit, I ask You to make this revelation real to me, in Jesus’ name. Hallelujah.
I ask the Father to protect you, to guide you, to lead you. No weapon formed against you will prosper. You are blessed going out and you are blessed coming in. He gives His angels charge over you to watch over you, to protect you, that He won’t even let your foot be dashed by a hidden stone. He will keep you firmly planted on the ways that you should go, in Jesus’ name. Hallelujah. And I pray that the revelations that you have received by the Holy Spirit, that you will live them to fullness and productivity. In Jesus’ name. Hallelujah. I pray that you will experience the favour, the peace and the joy of the Lord in your life this week, in Jesus’ name. Do you agree with me? Will you say amen? Ha! Wonderful.
There is no prayer meeting this Tuesday night, but the week after this weekend there will be prayer meeting and there are some developments that God has put into my heart that are going to happen in this year for many things. And next weekend, Saturday and Sunday, we will start to tell you about some of them. Amen. Alright, bye, everybody.
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