Scripture reference: Ephesians 4:13-21 (NLT); Ephesians 4:23-24 (NLT); Ephesians 5:4 (AMPC); Ephesians 5:4-5 (NLT); Matthew 6:19-23 (NLT); Matthew 6:23-24 (TPT); Matthew 6:33-34 (TPT); Acts 1:6-8 (NKJV)
How’s everybody? After lunch? You all doing right? The subject must be interesting because you all made it back after lunch, goeie genugtig. Praise the Lord. Are you all okay? Didn’t get too technical for you? I felt like I was professor lecturing you somewhere, you know. I saw my image of myself going like that, I was talking like, “Oh no, shhh John.” I don’t want to ever feel like that, you know, Amen. Okay. Ready to go? Good. If I see you close your eyes on me, I’ll throw my pillow at you.
Thank God we have gifts in the Body of Christ and Jesus is the one who gave gifts. I just want to state the obvious man did not give gifts, Jesus gave gift. Yes? So, I’m going to have a bit of fun for a minute. What am I to you? A gift. Praise the Lord. He, Jesus, considered you worthy to have a gift and He made human beings with a gift and said to all those that will believe in Jesus, “Have a gift, have a gift.” The best gift that He could give you, besides Himself and the Holy Spirit was to put in some humans, part of Himself, I’m having fun right now. He gave some humans a part of Himself as a gift to you because when He went to Heaven, “I can’t be here anymore the Father is going to send the Holy Spirit and He will give you everything you need.” So, what He did was He gave some gifts so that you all could become what you need to become.
He gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors and teachers so that you could be equipped to do the work of the ministry 13b And that we will all measure up to the full and complete standard of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. That’s the only kind of lie that you’re gonna fall for, is the one that sounds like a truth right? otherwise it’s gonna be obvious this guy is lying. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly.
So if you’re part of this body, you’re supposed to be here and you are part of what makes the whole thing work. We all belong to each other. We are a gift to each other, hey come on, especially husbands and wives nudge the one next to you, “You’re my gift.” “I’ll tell you about it later.” Hahaha ha-h. No I don’t wanna get in trouble now, no no no, we’re in church now, hey, hey. [Ps John laughing] I can see what happens, you get out of the shower, “Hey babe, I’m a gift to you. The pastor said.” Ha ha ha ha ha! [Ps John and congregation laughing] Hey, hey, hey. Jah, 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
That’s what we are supposed to be, healthy and growing and full of love.That’s the measure of Christ, amongst us, yes. So this is how we’re supposed to live. Verse 17, 17 With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do, don’t live like those that are in the darkness, don’t live like, Jesus said, “I’m not of this world.” Don’t live like the gentiles, for they are hopelessly confused. What? You mean those guys, those high power guys that have got, ehh, some kind of degree and then they’ve got honors degree and then they’ve got masters degree from, nogal Harvard. That Harvard University that just fired the president. Hey, they just fired their president because she couldn’t deal with racial discrimination on campus. Jah, that one. That Harvard is supposed to be the premier institution of the world that gives everybody these fancy degrees and those people, those people they run a lot of the financial institutions in New York. Ne? They are hopelessly confused. Am I reading the Bible or not? So now, I can hear people saying, “No, but are you telling me all these degree people are hopelessly confused?” They are. They are hopelessly confused because all they know is the world system and they know how to manipulate the world system, they are hopelessly confused.
I’m reading to you what the Bible said. 18 Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against Him. So they are confused because they live in darkness and they’ve hardened their minds and hearts against God. 19 They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity. Does that sound like the world system? So the Bible says, “Don’t live like them, they’re confused.” We think that what they say is the gospel truth. Meantime we have the Gospel Truth. This is the truth that God wants us to live by. What they live by is not the gospel truth. 20 But that isn’t what you learned about Christ. 21 Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from Him (Ephesians 4:13-21 NLT).
Remember what I said in the first two sessions? A word you’re going to hear a lot in these sessions is the word “truth.” The word “truth” because the word “truth” is really what we live for, it’s the thing that sets us free, it’s the thing that should be the foundation of our life, is truth. It’s not information, it’s not knowledge, it’s truth. Come on, work with me here. The more I know about the world’s economic system, does not mean to say that if I manage the world’s economic system well that I am going to live in truth. Just because I can make money from the world’s economic system doesn’t mean to say I live in truth.
When I’ve taught on this subject over the years I’ve always said this, “You don’t need to be a Word-based Christian or even have to be a Christian to make money and to be rich. You just have to know how to work the system.” So that’s what people do, they focus on learning the system and the way the world works is, the more you can learn about the system the better you can be acquainted with the system, the better you can manipulate the system, the more likely you are that you can get wealth from the system. So that you can prevent yourself from being in scarcity.
As Christians that should not be our focus. Our focus should not be the system. That’s darkness. Those people are confused. Even though they have knowledge about the system they created. Come on. This is not a system God created. This economic system is not a system that God created. This is a man-made created system that will serve the needs of men. This is not God’s system. Hey. Ne? You guys look like I’m confused. Huh? Are you all with me? Okay.
Ephesians 4 verse 23 and 24 in the New Living Translation says, 23Instead let the Spirit, this is the Holy Spirit, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. 24Put on your new nature, created to be like God – truly righteous and holy (Ephesians 4:23-24 NLT). New thoughts, new attitudes. I’m trusting that today, this these few sessions are going to create a new foundation for new revelation for you so that your thoughts and attitudes can be changed because we need a whole radical shift in our thinking and a whole radical shift in our attitudes if we are truly going to make a difference. Amen.
This is a Scripture that Pastor Sharon and I actually received from the Lord when we were traveling on our very first Footsteps to Destiny’s tour. We were so, uh, God really dealt with us while we were driving in the car that we had to work on our language while we were around the young people while we were traveling to Platbakkies and to Hondeklipbaai and to the Richtersveld and then Kgalagadi. We endeavored between ourselves to watch our words and we wanted the young people to be a measure of whether we were actually succeeding in our language.
This is the Scripture in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 4, 4 Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes. Other translations use a different word. I’m going to just quickly look it up here. One of the translations uses the word, “jesting.” Chapter 5 verse 4, 4 nor coarse jesting is what the Amplified Bible says, 4 nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting or becoming (Ephesians 5:4 AMPC). So, 4 Obscene stories, foolish talk and coarse jokes, or jesting, these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God. 5 You can be sure that no immoral, impure or greedy person …. Am I reading the Bible? 5 You can be sure that no immoral, impure or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God.
We’re gonna talk a little bit about the Kingdom in a minute. 5 For a greedy person, a greedy person, is an idolater, worshipping the things of this world (Ephesians 5:4-5 NLT). It doesn’t say a rich person it says a greedy person. But you need to be very watchful that your wealth and your riches do not make you greedy. If you belong to a church like this, you’re unlikely to become greedy. Because the truth is spoken in this Church and if you’re in this church, it means you open your heart to the revelation of God and God’s already dealing with you and He’s already working with you so that money is not your god. I trust that’s true for everybody. Mostly because I don’t think you’d still be here, if you weren’t open to the truth. Ja ne, come on. Say amen. Praise the Lord.
Okay, are you ready for some more power stuff here? Matthew chapter 6 verse 19, 19 “Don’t store up treasures here on earth where moths eat them and rust destroys them and where thieves break in and steal. 20 Store your treasures in Heaven.” This is the New Living Translation. 20 Store your treasures in Heaven where moths and rust cannot destroy. And thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desire of your heart will also be (Matthew 6:19-21 NLT). We’re getting down to the crux of things now. I don’t know about you, but I certainly want to have a Kingdom, I want to participate in the Kingdom of God. Now remember what I said in the previous sessions? If you’ve got a king, the king is only a king if there’s a domain that he’s ruling over. There’s a realm, there’s a domain that he’s ruling over.
So if there’s no realm or domain that he’s ruling over, then he’s not the king. Someone else is. But if there’s a king, then there’s a realm or a domain. So if I want to be participating in the Kingdom of God, then I have to acknowledge He is the King. He’s the Ruler, He’s the Authority of His realm. What’s His realm? Light, truth. It’s not darkness and it’s not the systems of this world.
Verse 22, 22 “Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. Where your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light. 23 But when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is. 24 No one can serve two masters, for you will hate one and love the other. You will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.” (Matthew 6:22-23 NLT)
Hey, hey, hey. You don’t have to have a lot of money to be enslaved by it. You can be enslaved by money because you enjoy the chase of money. If you enjoy the chase of money, you can be enslaved by it. Yah, come on. You know, in preparation for this session, I called a couple of people so that when I was talking about economics to you, that I could be held accountable for my knowledge and that I wouldn’t stand here thinking that I’m teaching you stuff, oh, by the way, I must make a correction, I must make a correction. Elon Musk does have in fact, at least ten children, but it’s not from ten different women. It’s from, I think, three or four different women. So I must just be correct. Apologies for that fact. No, I was corrected, so I need to be corrected. I need to correct myself. Anyway, jah.
Chase of money, yes? Because, you know, I mean, I have an understanding of economics to some extent part of what I learned was, indeed at a mini-MBA college at Wits University. Part of what I learned was just living life and then learning, being in the corporate world and having to learn things of how to sit in board meetings and executive meetings and all of those things, and have to analyse finances and do things like that. I had to learn that stuff, I didn’t know that stuff when I started out. I had to learn it and I had to have people teach it to me so that I could interpret these things. But I also like to be sure that when I’m telling you about economics that I don’t want what the Word says and the credibility of the Word to be diluted by information that I give you that’s not accurate. Like Elon Musk.
I need to be sure that what I’m saying to you, that there is this out there. So I make it my business that I, as part of what I believe gifting the Lord has given me is to make things known to you in such a way that when you see life happening around you, that it’s not confusing to you, and it’s not raising all kinds of questions because when you see Light and when you see Truth and when you have Truth that is part of your everyday, and you’re saying, “But what I’m doing, what I’m hearing, what I’m changing my mind about, what I’m changing my heart about the things that I’m doing. That when I see the whole system rigged against the Truth and the Light, and the whole system speaks something different than the Truth and the Light, which one am I going to believe?”
So what are you taught to believe? What are you taught to believe? From little we are all taught to believe, “Trust the system.” We are all, not one of us are exempt from this. We have all been taught, “Trust the system. Trust the banks. Trust the education institutions. Trust the government. Trust…” So we are taught from a young age to trust darkness. Well because what we say and what we have been taught is, that as humans, how are you going to live without these institutions and how will you live in peace if you don’t trust these institutions? Because these institutions are the bedrock of society.
So, if you don’t live in society, trusting these institutions, how are you going to get by? So then we say, well okay, if I am a Christian and I have got to live in a society, then what I need to do is, I need to learn how best I can live my Christianity in society. But that is not what God expects us to do. Isn’t what Jesus prayed, I got to reading you the last session, didn’t Jesus pray, “I’m not praying for You to remove them out of the world, but that You would keep them from the evil one in the world.” Right?
So, we can’t just target one institution and say only that institution is corrupt. When I say corrupt, I’m not talking just about human corruption, I’m talking about, it’s against the ways of God. So we have a decision to make, all of us, we have an individual decision to make and we have a corporate collective decision to make. Our individual decision that we must make is, are we going to live in the Kingdom of God or are we going to live by the institutions of the system? That is not a decision you make once, it is a quality decision you can make once, but it’s a decision you have got to make every day, because every day you are going to be faced with institutional behaviours, institutional in your face, all the time and you have to all the time, confirm your decision that you are going to make a different one.
That is why, if you love Jesus, you will do His commands.That’s also a quality decision you make once but you have to make it every day. Because every day you’re going to be faced with a decision. Lots of them, all day long. So, it helps to make a quality decision upfront and say, “Hey, I’m going to be aware of this economic system. I’m going to be aware that this world is full of power brokers and these power brokers are going to be power brokers, either government power or economic power or some kind of power.” They are power brokers that want to channel the energy of men, of people, the skills of men, the talent of men, the resources of men. They want to channel them to promote themselves. Now they know that if they don’t give the reward to some of the men, those men are not going to work for them. Right?
So, if you’re in a corporate job, I mean certainly I benefited from that. I was in a corporate job. They came here and said, “John, if you sell this much and your team sells this much, then your guys in your team will get so much money and you’ll get this much money.” So, they made it co-operative rewarding, they make money, I make money, we all make money. Well, that’s how the system should work, you would say. All of this is to accumulate resources and power upwards, all the time. Yes? “So, Pastor John, how are we going to make money if we don’t use the world system?” I’m glad you asked the question, I’ll tell you tomorrow.
Where is your devotion? Is your devotion in money or is your devotion to God? Where is your devotion? I’ll tell you what you do, just test yourself for a week. Just test yourself for a week. Walk around and you just use this word out of your lips, “I’m devoted. What am I devoted to? What am I devoted to? What am I thinking about now? What am I trying to channel my thoughts to? Where is my energy? Where’s my devotion? Where’s my devotion? Where’s my devotion?” I don’t want to put ideas in your head but I do want to give you a trail that you can follow. If you are devoted to sleep, then you’re going to try and find every opportunity to sleep. Yes? If you are devoted to television, you’re going to find every opportunity to watch television. If you are devoted to work, you’re going to find every opportunity to work.
Now, the reason I put work in there is because nobody’s going to challenge anybody for working too hard, because that’s an admirable quality, right? In fact, even the Bible says, “If you don’t work you don’t eat.” Ah, but the Bible has got some things to say about work. Here’s what the Bible says about work, “When it’s time to sleep you must sleep and don’t spend your night times worrying about what you’ve done or you haven’t done.” That’s what the Bible says. The Bible also says if you’re going to follow God’s ways that there’s always an accumulated and given time that you must rest. So in a modern-day world, at least one whole twenty four hour period out of every seven twenty four hour periods you are supposed to completely rest.
Also, the Bible is clear, if you follow Old Testament guidelines. I know we’re not under the law, but God gives us a way in the Old Testament of the best way that we should live our lives. Every six years you should rest for a whole year being the seventh year and every seven cycles of seven years you’re supposed to rest for a whole, everybody’s supposed to rest for a whole year. Yeah, that sounds like we were going to do that, right? You can’t rest from your phone for five hours. (Nick says he needs some rest.) You what? You need some rest. I hear you Nick, I hear you.
So, I mean, you know, it’s like work has become a big thing, but it can become your god. “Don’t talk like that Pastor John, you’re treading on holy, sacred ground here.” Yeah, I want to shoot some cows. I want to shoot some cows, because I’m not trying to give you … I’m not trying to tell you how you should live your life but there are some things that have crept into our culture of ourselves that we have been taught by generations gone by that this is how you get ahead. If you work, work, work, work, hey Christi and Grobs, if you work, work, work, day or night, day or night building a practice, building a practice, building a practice, building a practice what’s your devotion? Your devotion is your work, your devotion is what company I’m building, what am I building, what am I building because I’ve got to build something, because if I don’t build it, who’s going to build it? Who’s going to take care of me? Because I’ve got to build it. If I don’t build it, who’s going to build it? Good question. If you don’t build it, who’s going to build it? If you don’t build it, who’s going to build it?
That’s right, Nick, yeah. Maybe God would like to have a say in it. Maybe if you just listened a little bit to God and not grafted all the time, maybe He would tell you what next to do. I can promise you this, God can build wealth for you so quickly, in such a short space of time, with so little effort. But we don’t see that happening very often because we don’t give God the chance. “Pastor John, I think you’re smoking your socks because this is not the way it’s supposed to work. It’s not supposed to be.” Well, tell Jesus that, He goes to a wedding and there’s not enough. So if they didn’t make the wine happen, then there would be no wine, except God had a say in it. “I can make your water into wine like that.” Don’t tell Jesus that he didn’t have dominion over realm of scarcity and convert what resources that are there into valuable resources in a second. He did that even in the Old Testament. There was a siege around the city, one of the cities, and people paid such a high price for bread, they couldn’t afford the bread because of the siege. And so then the prophet comes and he says, “By this time tomorrow, bread will be worth almost, you’ll have as much bread as you want. You won’t have to pay anything for bread.” Some of the guys laughed at the prophet.
So you know the story, these lepers, they said, “Listen, we’re going to die. We might as well go over there and see what’s going on there.” They go over there and the Lord makes them sound like a whole army marching towards them. They all leave their food and everything and they run away and the lepers go and find all the food. So then they say amongst themselves, “There’s a whole city starving here. Why should we keep this food all to ourselves? Let’s go tell them.” The whole city comes out and gets the food, they don’t pay anything for it. In an instant their scarcity is gone. You hear the voice of God, underlined what I just said.
You see there is a Kingdom, there’s a realm of God’s operation. It’s the realm of Truth, it’s the realm of Light and there’s no scarcity there. There’s no hesitation there. There’s no confusion there. There’s only abundance there, there’s increase there, there’s prosperity there. All the wealth that he ever created is all there for us. We have to make an individual choice. We want to live that way. That is Kingdom Economy living. It’s an individual choice that only you can make. I can’t make that for you. It’s a choice that I can make and you can make. It’s to live in the realm of God’s Kingdom, making His Truth and His Light and His Life the foundation for which we do everything.
I’m going to read that Scripture to you from The Passion Translation. I just read it to you from the New Living Translation. I’m going to read it to you from The Passion Translation. 19 Don’t keep hoarding for yourselves earthly treasures that can be stolen by thieves. Material wealth eventually rusts, decays, and loses its value. 20 Instead, stockpile heavenly treasures for yourselves that cannot be stolen and will never rust, decay, or lose their value. 21 For your heart will always pursue what you value as your treasure. 22 The eyes of your spirit allow revelation-light to enter into your being. If your heart is unclouded, the light floods in! What do you think clouds our hearts? Darkness. What do you think clouds our hearts? It’s what we pursue with our heart more than we pursue God,
23 But if your eyes are focused on money, the light cannot penetrate and darkness takes its place. How profound will be the darkness within you if the light of truth cannot enter! 24 “How could you worship two gods at the same time? You will have to hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You can’t worship the true God while enslaved to the god of money!” (Matthew 6:23-24 TPT) So how is money enslaving you? How does money enslave anybody? Come on, let’s talk about enslavement to money. You don’t have to have a lot of money to be enslaved to it. You just have to need it badly enough that it keeps you captured. So, you could spend your whole life pursuing more money so that you don’t have the feeling of lack, that you don’t have insecurity, that you don’t have this feeling of, “I’ve not got enough, I’ve not got enough, I’ve not got enough, I need more, I need more because I need more to be my strength against any eventuality of something. I need more.” And you can pursue it, and you can be enslaved to the pursuit of more. Jah.
In the economic world, in the business world, they talk about the cost of opportunity, and in some cases, they talk about the cost of lost opportunity and we tend to have a mindset that says we need to always have something in reserve so that we can go after those opportunities that will come our way. I’ve got news for you. If God wants you to have an opportunity, He will make a way and He can make a way like that, and He doesn’t need you to have money to make it.
The Passion Translation in Matthew chapter 6 verse 33 says this, now we know this Scripture very well, I quote it regularly. 33 “So above all, constantly chase after the realm of God’s Kingdom and the righteousness that proceeds from Him. Then all these less important things will be given to you abundantly (Matthew 6:33 TPT). Please tell me, less important. Say it after me, less important. These less important things. Less important to than what? Less important than chasing after the realm of God’s Kingdom and His righteousness. “I know, but Pastor John, I think that’s the thing we do on a Sunday. We chase after God’s realm and His righteousness on Sunday. That’s what we do on Sunday morning. The rest of the week is mine to chase after.” Yeah, well, if that’s the way you see it, that’s what you’re going to chase. So, what’s the less important things? Houses. Read the rest of Matthew chapter 6 in the previous verses. What you’re going to eat, what you’re going to drink, what you’re going to wear. Those things, those things are less important.
Come on, what is our most important things that we chase after? What we’re going to eat, what we’re going to drink, what we’re going to wear. Don’t shut me down because I’m preaching so good. I mean, if you talk about humans in society in general, this is all we spend our life chasing after. Houses, cars, clothes, food. Houses, cars, clothes, food. How are you going to get houses, cars, clothes, food? Education. Get a better education, education, so that you can get houses, cars, clothes, food. So then when you’ve got houses, cars, clothes, food, now you can maybe afford a holiday and maybe you can afford to buy a second house. Houses, cars, clothes, food. Houses, cars, clothes, food. Houses, cars, clothes, food. And then you die and then who gets the houses, cars, clothes, food? I’m doing it for my kids, so my kids don’t have to chase houses, cars, clothes, food. They’re going to chase it anyway because you taught them how to chase cars, houses, clothes, food. What else are they going to learn? You taught them how to chase it. So even though you give it to them, they’re still going to chase it because that’s how we’re going to live life. Chasing. Houses, cars, clothes, food. The other stuff. Financial institutions, credit lending agencies, going to get degrees to make houses, cars, clothes, food. To get all of that stuff so we can live without worries, so we can live without care of a past. Houses, cars, clothes, food. You’ve got to get that. So those are just tools to enable us to chase. Cars, houses, clothes, food. Cars, houses, clothes, food. And then you die with your houses, cars, clothes and they all stay behind for your kids. They look at themselves and say, “You know what? Inflation is busy eating our wealth that mom and dad left me the houses, cars, clothes, food that they left me and the insurance policies and so inflation is degrading it and so we need more money, less chase.”
So what does Jesus say Himself? I’m not talking about, this is red letter stuff in the Bible. Maybe not in The Passion Translation, but if you read a version of the Bible that’s got red letters, this is red letters. This is what Jesus said. Come on, you know better than that. Actually, your life has got to be about purpose. It’s the hole in everybody’s life. What’s my purpose? So if you haven’t got God as your purpose and God giving you your purpose, you will create one. You will create one and almost always, it’s going to sound really noble and really great. I will make a purpose that sounds really great, like we got to save the planet. If we don’t save the planet, who’s going to save the planet? Or maybe let’s help the next generation live and thrive because we didn’t have all the opportunities. Let’s make the next generation do it. So now we live for the next generation because we make that our purpose. I just hit it out of the park. [Pastor John swings his arms like someone hitting a ball.] That’s the whole ball game in the last three minutes. That’s the whole ball game.
So what does the devil want us to do? He wants us to be clouded and confused. Chase, chase, chase, chase. As long as I’ve got you chasing, I’ve got you distracted. I’ve got you focused on all the things that you think are important that God says, “These are less important things.” “Follow Me, pursue Me, chase Me, chase Me, chase My Kingdom, chase My rights, chase Me, chase Me, chase Me, chase Me and these things will just come, chase Me.” “Jah, but Pastor John, I want to own stuff.” Says who? Wait, God will give it to you, but in the meantime, don’t worry about what you own and you don’t own. That’s an old mindset that you’re chasing what you have to own. So the world says, “You’ve got to own a house because the quicker you get into a house market, the quicker you’re going to beat the curve.” I’ve got news for you.
Go and do some, go find an analyst, somebody that’s smart with money. Go take the bond, the amount of money you spend on the house. Let’s just say it’s a R500 000 house. R500 000 house, take out a bond for R300 000, pay off your R300 000 bond. Most people will go for R500 000 because that’s what they can afford. But let’s just say it’s a R300 000 bond and you pay it off over fifteen or twenty years. Do a number, take the number of what your house is going to be worth and how much money you’ve spent. You will find you’ve come out on the short end of the stick. “But I have a house after twenty years. I have a house.” Whoop-de-doo. How much did you pay for the house? “I don’t know, it was just five grand a month.” Yeah. So in the meantime, “Because I don’t have that bond and I don’t have that house that I can call my own, actually I’m feeling very insecure and very lost because I don’t have a house that I can call my own.” I’ve got news for you, until you make the very last payment on that house, it’s still not your own.
Let me tell you what the spirit of mammon does, and if you’ll just work with me between today and tomorrow, I trust this will bring light to you. Because the spirit of mammon is not just about that one house or that one car or whatever. It’s the spirit that makes you keep on believing that you have to chase. So then it doesn’t matter how much you’ve got, it’s never enough. So then we think that, “Because my house is paid for, my cars are paid for,” whatever the situation in your life might be that actually, “I’m on a good wicket here.” I’ve got news for you, it’s never going to be enough. Because now there are better holidays you want, there are nicer clothes that you want, and there is more, more, more. There’s always more. That spirit wants you to chase. I’m checking you in the eyeballs, all of you, because this what I’m telling you is the truth. I’m not making up stuff for you here. I’m just telling the Bible to you. 33 So above all, constantly seek God’s Kingdom and his righteousness, then all these less important things will be given to you abundantly.
You know what I like about The Passion Translation, hey? Is it’s a translation, it’s a modern day translation and it’s not, it’s not just some people’s interpretation of what the Word must mean. It’s not a version, it’s a translation. 33 Then all these less important things will be given to you abundantly. 34 Refuse to worry about tomorrow, but deal with each challenge that comes your way, one day at a time. Tomorrow will take care of itself (Matthew 6:33-34 TPT). I’ve been privileged enough to talk to people that function on behalf of other wealthy people and help them invest their money. I mean, it’s a clear thing, that it doesn’t matter if you’ve got half a billion or a billion or two hundred million, it’s still never enough. Because where you’re operating with that money, there is more or it’s not enough for where my new standard of living is. If something goes wrong, how quickly can I lose that money? So deep down, they have a fear. “If something really goes wrong, and I invest in this …something can happen.”
Have you heard? Have you heard? That Apple, Apple as a company in a week, lost $177 billion of their value as a company. $177 billion. Do you know why? Because suddenly their biggest selling item, the Apple iPhone, is no longer in big demand. As bigger demand as it has been in the past. Number two in the Chinese market Apple is losing market share to other phones, Chinese orientated phones. So Apple’s share of the Chinese marketplace has taken a tumble. Number three, they are busy re-organising themselves so that they can open up a factory in India to build some of their Apple phones, rather than in China. Put the pieces together. So when the news started to come out, what happened with Apple’s numbers, shares prices dropped and so they lost 177 billion in a week, 177 billion.
When you hear things like that, you know what people think? If that can happen to Apple, that can happen to us, we need more. So that we don’t ever find ourselves without. I would rather put my trust in God than in the system of men. But this is a decision you and I have to make in our hearts and then it is a decision we have to make every day because this is not a decision that when you make it once it’s never going to come and challenge you again. I promise you it is going to challenge you every day, all day, every day this decision will be challenged to you. Okay, what’s the time? I got five minutes, hey? But you all came in five minutes late. The clock is wrong, I believe so, Christi, it is definitely wrong. It is definitely wrong. Change it back five minutes, it is wrong.
Jesus has died and He is about to go to Heaven and He is having a conversation with His disciples. In Acts chapter 1 verse 6 in the New King James Version, 6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel?” Can you just see what they are saying? He was always talking about the Kingdom. When I was over the last couple of weeks, when I have been preparing for this that the Lord has given me, if you go and read in Matthew, Mark and Luke, in particular those three Gospels, and you go and read when Jesus starts to teach and He starts to teach about the Kingdom; and if the Lord willing, I might just go through that flow with you tomorrow, a little bit, some of the Scriptures, when He starts to teach about the Kingdom, He starts to say, “The Kingdom of God is like this. The Kingdom of God is like this. The Kingdom of God is like this.” So, He is teaching on the Kingdom, so Jesus taught a lot about the Kingdom.
The question that Pilot asked Him was, “Are you a king?” Because he wanted to know, “Where is Your Kingdom? Where are you having dominion as a king.” So now when Jesus died and He rose again, now they’re beginning to realise this Jesus, I mean, He’s God. I mean, He’s greater than any king. So they asked Him, “Lord, when will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel?” What are they thinking? They’re thinking it’s about Israel. They’re thinking about geography. They’re thinking about getting rid of the Romans. Yes? So, when I talk to you about the kingdom of God, I’m not talking to you about establishing an alternative system that will replace the banks. So instead of getting money from the banks, there’ll be a different system that you will get money from. Do you understand what they were doing? They were saying, “Are we going to have a natural kingdom of Israel back?” When He was talking, He says, “It’s not about what’s on the earth. It’s about the Kingdom of God.”
When I’m talking to you about this, it’s not about a replacement theology. It’s not about replacing one financial system with another financial system. This is about God providing in His system the way He provides rather than the way the system of the world will provide. 7 And He said to them, ”It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:6-8 NKJV) You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. “Pastor John, we all know what that power was. That power was the Holy Spirit which filled them in a language of speaking in a different tongue. It was the evidence of their filling by the Holy Spirit.” But He didn’t, He wasn’t saying you’re going to just be filled to speak in another tongue.
We mustn’t, we mustn’t allow ourselves to think that speaking in tongues is the alternative power. The alternative tongues are just a sign that you have the power. The power is not just in the words that you speak out of your mouth, the power is in the Holy Spirit that fills you with another language. It is the language of speaking Spirit words that God and you will speak to eternity. The power is not the fact that you just have other words coming out of your mouth. Come on. The power is the Holy Spirit that’s in you. The evidence of the Holy Spirit being in you is words that come out of your mouth, it is the language of the Holy Spirit. It’s the evidence of the power that’s in you. It’s the evidence of the power that’s in you. So we need to be encouraged that if you can speak in tongues, you should speak in tongues because it’s evidence of power. If you are not convinced of your power, speak in tongues. Let your tongues convince you that you have power. Come on, we get so caught up sometimes in this language that we speak and we get so caught up in the ritual of speaking in tongues because it is the answered-prayer language. But hey, sometimes we lose sight of the power that’s in us, that’s speaking the language.
So when I’m in front of you and I go, [Pastor John praying in tongues] These are words that are coming out of my mouth, but it’s evidence of power that’s in me. So when I speak in another language, [Pastor John praying in tongues] I am reminding myself there’s power in me and this power bypasses all of the systems. It bypasses all of the natural things. It bypasses everything. It taps me into power, a power that only I have, that I read to you in the previous sessions, the world doesn’t understand it. It can’t receive it. It doesn’t know about it. It doesn’t receive the Holy Spirit so they can’t access the power. You and I have power! Power! Power! The power that belongs to God, we have power!
How are we going to fight the spirit of mammon, the spirit of money? How are we going to overcome the spirit of money? You can’t do it by just thinking differently. You can’t think it by a disciple’s lifestyle. You know, when I’m putting it like that, it’s been like I’ll pray for half an hour, I’ll read my Bible for half an hour and then I’ll live an upright life. That’s not going to give you the power to overcome the world system. We need power! We need power!
I’m glad that God was using me and using the power in me when I didn’t even have the full revelation of this. I’m going to remind you. I’m after a deal here in Middelburg and I’m losing the deal to IBM. I’m asking the Lord, “I know I’m the one who’s supposed to get the commission there, not some IBM salesman and corporate politics is defeating me. Help me, Jesus.” [Pastor John praying in tongues] I access the power. When I access the power, the Holy Spirit gave me a face like a television screen. I saw a face. Didn’t know who the man was. Didn’t know what his name was. Didn’t know what he did. I got a picture of a face like a photograph somebody showed me. I saw it in the spirit. Let me tell you, that is an amazing thing to have happen to you. I mean, I’ve told the story so many times that sometimes we just, “Oh, it’s just Pastor John’s story.” But let me tell you, that’s amazing when you’re praying in the Spirit and God shows you a face. It’s amazing. It’s supernatural. It’s power.
So, I went to their annual report that they do for shareholders and everything else. I went to go and look and see if I could find something in there. Those days we still looked at it in books, you know, nowadays you see it on the Internet, but those days we still had books to go to. I looked and I saw this guy, there’s the guy, that’s the picture. Chief Operating Officer. Operations, operations, production, production. Oh, so this is quite a serious dude here. I saw his face. I started doing some research. I phoned my boss. I said, “Give me two weeks. If I don’t have a solution for you in two weeks, I’ll walk away from the account myself.” So I went over to Middelburg there. Hanna, hanna, hanna, chat, chat, chat. Found out. Phoned him up and I said, “I need to see you.” “Do I know you?” “Yes, sir. We provide you with all your computers that run all of your CPUs that interface with your furnaces.” “Oh, you’re the guy it’s from …” “Yes.” “I haven’t met you before.” “No, no. Can I come and see you, please?” I went in front of him. I said, “IBM is going to install a system.” “Yes, we think so,” he said. “They can’t do this. They can’t do this. They can’t do this. They can’t do this. They’re compromising you, sir.” “Are you sure about these facts?” “I’m sure about these facts.” He says, “Give this stuff to me.” He goes sitting in an executive committee meeting and he says, “This is what IBM can’t do for me.” So they go all the way to the group chief information officer. By the time I got back to Johannesburg that guy had already phoned my boss. “What’s your salesman doing? He’s causing political problems for me.” They had to redo the tender. When they redid the tender based on what he needs for his part which is critical to the running of those furnaces 24/7, that IBM couldn’t do, they lost the business. I won the business. [Pastor John praying in tongues]
I’ve had people here in this church, we’ve talked about politics getting in their way of promotions and when I knew we were going to talk about it, I went to the Lord and I said, “Lord, what do I say?” The Lord said, “You tell them that they won’t have to do anything about the promotion. I will provide it. I will sort it. I will do it. They won’t have to work at all. God will provide the promotion.” Three months later everything that we talked about happened. What was that? [Pastor John praying in tongues] A covenant partnership that God said, “They’re looking for something, I’m providing it through the messenger.” [Pastor John praying in tongues] The power’s available to take all of that guesswork out of it. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. This is Kingdom power. This is Kingdom power. This is Ecclesia power. This is how we break the stronghold of the devil. This is how we change everything. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. I have to stick to my word. I told you I’d get you out of here. I mean, you can change me. I mean, you can tell me to preach for another five minutes if you want. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
I want to tell you, the way that God has set up Kingdom Economics and Ecclesia Economics is that the two are supposed to go in partnership because in the Kingdom of God, you are the one that must choose whether you’re going to follow the light, whether you’re going to follow the life, whether you’re not going to be confused by the systems. But when it comes to Ecclesia, there’s a covenant partnership that’s got to be at work. There’s got to be a cooperation of, there’s a gift, there’s a messenger, there’s a cooperation, we are a body, we are a unity, and God wants to use the Ecclesia to get things done.
Tomorrow, we’ll talk about the Kingdom of God, we’ll talk about Ecclesia and we are going to have something solid and substantive that we can meditate on, we can go and seek the Word of God on, and we can pursue this and chase after God and not after the system. Amen. Hallelujah.
Tomorrow we’ll talk about the Kingdom of God, we’ll talk about Ecclesia and we are going to have something solid and substantive that we can meditate on, we can go and seek the Word of God on and we can pursue this and chase after God and not after the system. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Praise Jesus.
I know we’ve talked about economics and inflation and all kinds of stuff, but hey, all of this is a context for us that we are in this world but we are not of this world. We do not have to be dominated by that system. We are of God’s system. I promise you, inflation will never hurt me because God’s abundance is much greater than any inflation. It’s the answer to inflation! And currency devaluation. It’s the answer! Power! Hallelujah. You have the power. You have the power. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to God.
Hey, I want to tell you, if you don’t speak in tongues yet, you should just ask the Lord and say, “Lord, I want to speak in tongues.” If you haven’t had it, if you haven’t had it publicly, don’t panic. You can get it privately. Because some people will struggle to have a public thing happen to them. Go into your room and say, “Lord, I want to speak in tongues.” And if you’re in the car, if you’re in your home, if you’re in wherever, Lord I want to speak in tongues. Maybe you’ve just got a few words that come out and you want to have more language come out. Say, “Lord, I want to practice speaking in tongues.”
Hey! You know, this is not a magic thing. If you want to speak in English words, it comes into your mind and then you speak it out of your mouth. It’s the same thing when you get filled with the Spirit. It floats from your spirit into your mind and then you must speak it out of your mouth. It’s a step of faith. That thing that comes into your head, “I’m going to speak it!” “Jah, but that just sounds like it’s my own language.” No, that’s the power waiting to be manifest! Hallelujah. Go home and practice. Go home and ask Him. Go home and practice! Let’s get power. Let’s get power going. Let’s get it going, let’s get it going – power! Power!
Glory to Jesus. Tomorrow morning, be on time or be square. Thank you for coming, thank you for being wonderful today, thank you for being part of everything that God’s doing. I love you all. Have a wonderful afternoon. Arrivederci.
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TOUCH | TEACH | TRAIN | TRANSFER
