Scripture reference: Romans 12:2 (NLT); Genesis 15:1-8 (NLT); Genesis 17:1-8 (NLT); Genesis 22:12-19 (NLT)
Praise Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Father, that Your Word enters the hearts of Your people. That Your Word that is declared accomplishes that which it sent out to do. And none of it will return unto You void. But it will produce everything that You declare it will be producing. Fruitful. Fruitful. Eternal. We thank You, Lord, that You have sent Your Word to us, for all the good things that You have planned for us in our lives. Thank You, Lord. Hallelujah. If you agree with this prayer then you can say, “Amen.” You may be seated. Amen. Praise the Lord.
Apparently, we’ve had some trouble with WhatsApp and some of the technology that has been in… that we’ve been using extensively and some of the messages that were sent out Friday apparently some people didn’t get them. But if you don’t know, this is a Chariot’s day. Amen. And we’re going cycling, motorcycling together after the service and having a picnic and if you didn’t come prepared for that because you didn’t know, you’re welcome. Please come. Amen. Sjoe, that was very little half-hearted. Yes. “Amen.” That’s better.
And then in December, I’m just giving you a marker date. In December the weekend that is the 16th, Saturday the 16th and Sunday the 17th, we are going to have a year-end camp meeting here. And then after church, we are going to go to the farm and we are going to go there till Wednesday and we are going to inhabit the land. Yes [Congregation agrees]. We are calling it Inhabiting the Land Camp Meeting. Amen. And so because there might be too many people… you might have to pitch a tent. Almost certainly you’re going to have to pitch a tent or a caravan or a whatever.
But, it is a desire for us to go and make a mark on the land and praise the Lord. And we’ll have some spiritual time together but we’ll also have a lot of fun together. We’ll play volleyball and some of the younger people will teach some of the older people what it is to do an obstacle course. And there will be many wonderful things that we’ll do during the day. So we’re still in the planning stages of that and we’ll let you have all the information about that in the next couple of weeks. Amen. Praise the Lord.
Okay. The life… the message of… the title of my message today is Cross Over – The Life We Live. When I was praying about it, I felt like I wanted to … the Holy Spirit wanted me to bring something to your attention, and I had this going around in my heart all the time. The life that we live and the life that we want to live. So, I am going to start off with a number of facts and then we’re going into the Word, and will just show you how the Word of God is truly the foundation of everything for us.
Last week and the week before, I have been ministering on the word transform. And it means, literally metamorphosis or to change like a butterfly. It means to change, or cross over from one state to another. Create one thing to another thing. So, we understand that to form something is to form something that doesn’t yet exist. So, if you are going to transform, you’re going to have to cross over to something that you can’t really fully understand yet, but you’re going to become that, because it has to be formed. So, now we all know that we are formed in the image of Christ, and so, we have to be crossing over into the image of Christ. But each one of you is a different image of Christ. We’re not all the same image of Christ. We all together form one image of Christ, but each of us is a different image of Christ. Because, we are made in His likeness, but we are all different. So, all of us together represent Him but we’re each different in the way that we represent Him. Amen.
So, before I get into the facts, Romans 12:2 in the New Living Translation says, 2 Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you, into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you which is good, and pleasing and perfect (Romans 12:2 NLT). Then we will get to know God’s will for us.
So, now I am going to delve into something quite dramatic and you need to brace yourself mentally for what I am going to say to you now. Because what I am going to say might be shocking to you, because it is raw.
If everybody is born of God into the earth. Do you think the Palestinians that are in the Gaza strip today that are being shelled by Israel, the innocent victims that are being shelled, that they are being used by Hamas, do you think they were born from God – or no? Do you think they had a choice to be where they were born into? Those children did not have a choice to be born to the mothers and fathers that birthed them. And when they were birthed, they were birthed into the Gaza strip. They were birthed into conflict. Yes? [Congregation: Yes]
So, before they were born, God knew that when man and woman came together and creation was made, and He breathed life into a human being or became human, that they were going to be into a conflict war zone and that is going to be their existence. Now, this is a question that many people in their minds use to question God and the existence of God because how can God allow that to happen? Well, I ask you this question. How does God allow the sun to rise every day and the sun to set every day? Did He not put that into the order of life? Did He not say, “So it will be and there will be seasons and there will be days and there will be moon by night and sun by day?” Did He not declare that and then that was it? It will always be so.
Then that same God also created man and created man to have dominion. So, man is going about wanting to be and having dominion. Now if you don’t know the true and living God, then you want to exercise dominion in the way that you want to exercise dominion. Not the way God wants you to exercise dominion. When your children get born into your will to exercise dominion and you happen to be into conflict and you have chosen a life of war and conflict, then your children will be that too. Is that God’s choice or man’s choice? But then you say, “But did God know that they were going to get born there?” So, what must God do? Stop all children from being born when people make choices? He can’t do that because He put an order into place. He spoke His word to do something. Right?
So then, what hope does a child that’s born into the Gaza Strip, what hope does that child have to actually be free? Do you think that they want to live the life that they are now living? Unlikely. Unless they’ve already been brainwashed. And there’s a lot of evidence to say that to the children that are born into that environment are brainwashed from a very young age to make their whole existence about killing the Jews. Literally, there are classes that they have that they start teaching young kids and young teenagers that their reason for their existence is to wipe the Jews off the face of the planet. Now those young boys grow up to be young men and then those young men have a mission in life. They are given a purpose. It’s not God’s purpose but they are given a purpose. Yeah.
So, there’s a war going on right now. And it is a war to wipe Israel and the Jews off the face of the earth. Do you know that it’s the stated intent of Iran to destroy and completely obliterate the nation of Israel and all the Jews off the earth? It is their aim. It is also the written aim of Hamas and Hezbollah, who are proxies for Iran, that they are the military arm to want to destroy Israel. I’m not telling you anything that’s not on websites, their own websites that you can go and read. I’m not just talking about people’s opinions here. Okay. So, what is it about Israel?
Just so that you know, Iran is ancient Persia. The spirit, the leading dominating principal spirit of the heavenly realm that was on the earth in the days of the Old Testament of Persia, that came to dominate and take all the Israelites and the Jews captive, he is the same spirit. He hasn’t left. He’s still there. He’s just working through a new generation of people. Same spirit. Okay.
The same angels and the same God that made Israel the covenant people of Israel. Is He the same God? [Congregation answers: Yes.] Are the same angels that He sent to take care of God’s people, are they still at work? [Congregation answers: Yes.] I wonder if that’s not perhaps why Israel is such a prosperous nation. I wonder why they have been able to defy all of the wars against them for all of the thousands of years, because there’s a covenant God that has sent angels, that even though they disobey God and they do things and God can’t always watch over them, there is still always the thread of God taking care of them. Amen.
Now, last Saturday, last weekend, there’s a whole bunch of young people at a music
concert and suddenly a whole bunch of terrorists arrive. Some came in with paragliders, some came in with vehicles, some came in with everything, and they came into a music concert and they just opened fire on all these young people and killed hundreds of young people at this music conference.
Do you think those young people that went to the music conference, if they knew what was coming, do you think they would have gone there? Of course not. So they didn’t know what was coming. So, there was a secret mission. There was a secret mission by Hamas to go after Israel and the Jews and they didn’t just go there to declare war, they went there to make a global statement of their brutality and their barbarism. And if you don’t know about it, I’m not suggesting you should know about it, but if you’re listening to news that says, “Shame, poor Hamas…” Then you need to go and talk to the people that got brutally murdered, innocent people that were targeted. You need to go and hear what happened, actually.
So, my question is, if they knew that this terror attack against them was going to happen and some of them, there’s supposedly around 150 hostages that are now somewhere in Gaza, twenty… some of them are apparently American, some are from Germany, some are from European countries, but the majority of them are Israelis. You think they would have gone to a music concert? No, they were just, “Hey, this is our life, this is the way.”
Bearing in mind, these are people that are used to having alerts, sirens go off when rockets are fired into their country. It’s not like they live completely without the threat of war constantly, this is Israel. They have been at war for just about all the time that they have been a nation. So, anybody who lives there knows at any given time they could be running. That’s why they’ve got bunkers everywhere in Israel. It’s a law that you have to have for so many people that live in the place, you’ve got to have this kind of bunker in a house and this kind of bunker in a community so that everybody’s got a place to go when there’s a bomb alert. It’s a law in Israel.
So, these people are not, it’s not like they’re unused to conflict but they felt safe enough to go to a music concert, an international music concert they felt safe. So, they go from safety to death and unimaginable cruelty in a matter of hours, in a matter of hours. If that doesn’t reveal to you the system of the principalities and the powers and the dark rulers of the heir that are out to destroy all humans, not just Christians, all humans. The Bible says the devil has come to steal, kill and destroy. And I believe that this is a moment for us by the Holy Spirit to remember that the devil that is coming against us doesn’t play fair. The devil that’s coming against us does not care whether God loves us or doesn’t. In fact, his mission is to prove that he is more powerful than the love of God. And so, he wants everybody to live in fear rather than in hope so that fear dominates your life, not the love of God and the hope of God. And so, if fear is dominating your life, well, then you are worshiping him. Not him personally, but his system. His order of life. But God wants us to live in faith and in love. That’s how God wants us to live. Amen?
So, I’m going to read to you how this all started today. Remember, this is crossover, the life we live and the life we want to live. So, Genesis chapter 15 verse 1, 1 Sometime later, the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, do not be afraid, Abraham, for I will protect you and your reward will be great.
Is God speaking to His son Abram? He became His son when he obeyed God. Now, He’s speaking to Abram and He says, “Fear not, I will protect you and your reward will be great.” 2 But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son? Since you’ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth. 3 You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.” (Genesis 15:1-3 NLT).
Just notice that Abram knows, this sovereign Lord, that he didn’t know until God said to him, “Leave this place and go to a land that I will show you.” He didn’t know this until God came to him. He worshipped other gods that all the other peoples around him were worshipping. And so, but he knows now the sovereign Lord that he’s got to know, he instinctively knows, He’s the originator of life. So when he says, “I don’t have children,” he says, “You haven’t given me children.” Because I didn’t make myself the way I am and neither did my wife make herself the way she is and we could not have children. So You have not given us children. He knows, this is the creator of life he’s talking to. 4 Then the Lord said to him, “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir.” 5 Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!” 6 And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith. 7 Then the Lord told him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as your possession.” 8 But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, how can I be sure that I will actually possess it?” (Genesis 15:4-8 NLT).
Well, this is a proclamation of the most high God to Abram. Yeah? This is the land that you will possess and I will give it to you. This proclamation was made, let’s call it, 4000 years ago. From the time that God spoke these words over Abram, this is an eternal contest as to the will of God and the power of God’s Word that stands on the earth. If you think that Hamas fighting Israel is just about two humans and a human conflict, and everybody in the world is going to be giving their two cents worth of opinion about whether it’s the right of Israel to defend themselves against such brutality, or whether the children that are the innocent people that are in the Hamas Gaza Strip and they can’t go anywhere and it’s not fair that Israel bomb innocent civilians, and there’s going to be opinions across the board all the way. You think that’s what the debate’s about?
I mean that’s what people are going to make it about but that’s not the whole story. This is the story. This is where it started. God proclaimed a covenant to Abraham and from that time till now the land that God gave Abraham has been in contest by the devil. From that time till now. I am aware that there are politics in our nation that favour the Palestinian people.
I am aware of that. I am aware that God says, “Anybody who blesses My people, Israel will be blessed. And those who curse them will be cursed.” And our nation better be careful what they say about Israel. Our nation better be careful and we need to pray for our government that they don’t speak against Israel. They may say, “We love the Palestinian people and we want to help the Palestinian people, and we want to make sure that their humanitarian aid is taken care of.” That’s all good. But they better not talk against God’s people. Because then we as South Africa are going to be in trouble. Because we don’t want to have God against us as a nation. And I’m just telling you that so that you bear that in mind if people talk to you about this, or you hear things about it, just know what’s really going on here is a spiritual battle.
I go to Chapter 17 verse 1, 1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am El-Shaddai-’God Almighty.’ Serve Me faithfully and live a blameless life. 2 I will make a covenant with you, by which I will guarantee to give you countless descendants.” 3 At this, Abram fell face down on the ground. Then God said to him, 4 “This is My covenant with you: I will make you the father of a multitude of nations! 5 What’s more, I am changing your name. It will no longer be Abram. Instead, you will be called Abraham, for you will be the father of many nations. 6 I will make you extremely fruitful. Your descendants will become many nations, and kings will be among them! 7 “I will confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you, from generation to generation. This is the everlasting covenant. This is the everlasting covenant.
If you have any questions about whatever might ever happen about Israel, here is your answer. This is an everlasting covenant and when God says it’s everlasting, it cannot be changed. And God the everlasting God, is right now working on behalf of His covenant people. Amen. It’s an everlasting covenant from generation to generation. 8 And I will give the entire land of Canaan, where you now live as a foreigner, to you and your descendants. It will be their possession forever, and I will be their God.” (Genesis 17:1-8 NLT).
Now let’s just be clear about this. We are this prophecy, this order of God, when He spoke it into the earth. We are that prophecy fulfilled. We are people that come from many nations. We are the descendants of Abraham. From our nation’s, many kings have risen. Yeah. This is an everlasting covenant. This is the way God spoke it. There is no changing this everlasting covenant.
So some people are okay. Most people actually are okay. Let the Jews be the Jews. We don’t care if the Jews are the Jews. Just don’t let them have their own country. They want the Palestinians to have their own country but they don’t want the Jews to have their country. If they do, they want to have to dictate the terms. And if the international community had had its way from 1948 when Israel became a nation till now, Jerusalem would not be part of their territory, because the war has always been about Jerusalem.
So not only is it a covenant of God for generation to generation, but Jerusalem is the only city that God says, “This is My city.” And eternally there will come a new Jerusalem. It’s the only city that God says eternally this will be the name of the city and it’s My city, Jerusalem.
So when there is a war that goes on about a piece of land, I wonder. Do you think this is a real spiritual war or no? Come on now. Do you think that this is just about some piece of sand in the desert? This is about Abraham leaving his country and God says, “Where your feet, look there, look there Abraham. From there to there and as far as you can see and as far as you can walk, I’m going to give this land to you. This is my everlasting covenant. I will give it to you and to generations and generations and generations after you.”
If you didn’t know it, I am making a declaration to you today. That land that is Israel, is your inheritance. It’s your inheritance. Hallelujah. It’s your inheritance. Well, I don’t want to go to Israel, and I don’t want any part of Israel, because who wants to go be there when it’s full of war? Well maybe not now. And maybe you never get to go to Israel. It doesn’t change the fact that that is your inheritance, and those people are part of our inheritance. Because they are the descendants of Abraham and Jehovah. Hallelujah. As are we.
Okay. Question for you. If you think the enemy will fight God on the promise of this covenant is forever. Do you think we are that covenant? I already gave you the answer. We are that covenant. So if we are that covenant, and we activate this blessing, and we go to take land, and to take territory, whether it’s actual dirt or whether it’s Kingdom territory. What do you think? That you’re not stepping into conflict and war?
I preached this message many, many, many years ago. I preached the message and I titled it Born into Conflict. And I was specific at that time, that when you are born again, you must just get used to the idea that you are born into conflict. Because you are the only ones that become aware that there is light and darkness, and that there is a spiritual biblical way of addressing and handling darkness. Hallelujah.
So that’s not something to be afraid of. You know I watch people around the world that live in the Western world and it’s like, even us you know can we please have a safe, safe world a comfortable safe, safe world and our best world, our best life now is where we have enough resources we know what tomorrow is going to do and we have anything that can save us from any potential eventuality that might upset our nice comfortable safe world. I’ve got news for you. I’ve got news for you. It’s an ideal that you should not want to live for. Because in that world you are going to do everything you can to create that world for yourself and then you are living in fear. Faith is about living in God and doing what He tells you to do because that’s the safest place to be. It might not be that you are conflict free but you are safe in God doing what He tells you to do. Hello.
You see we have this natural being of the life that we want to live. If I have to ask you today, come on, just write down for yourself what’s your perfect life that you want to live. What’s your perfect life that you want to live? I’ll say to you, take out a piece of paper now and write down very quickly for two minutes. What’s your perfect life? What does your world look like right now? What’s your world look like? So you might say if I was doing a good job of helping you along this road I might say to you, “Okay write down in two columns on the one column write down the world that you have now. What does your life look like right now? Then in the next column write down; what is it that you want your life to look like?” Yes. Because you can’t say I want my life to look like something when you don’t have a recognition of what your life looks like right now. Yes? So, what does my life look like now? What do I want to look like? You might say, “I would like to have more money. I would like to have more safety. I would like to have more cars, more houses. I want to travel internationally.” Maybe some of you just say. “If I had a steady job with enough money and I could live without fear of income and fear of whether I’m going to have food or not each day? That might be your thing. There’s a lot of things that people will write on one column and then what is my ideal life would be on another column. Right?
So, the life that we live and the life we want to live. If you had to start there you might write down a whole lot of natural things that you want changed. I propose to you that if your first thing is not written the rest doesn’t matter, I want to be in the will of God. Then everything else you write down there is unlikely to come to pass and everything that you now live your life with, is the life you’ve made. I’m really teaching good today.
And so, I want to save myself from myself. You think it’s a really grand idea to stand in front of God one day and say, “Hey God, what do You think about the way I managed my life? What do You think about it? Didn’t I do good? You know, I bought houses cash. Eventually, I bought cars for me and my kids. And I raised my kids good and I gave tithes to the church. And You know, I went on holiday whenever I needed to go on holiday. Don’t You think my life was good? And You know, I served the community. Don’t You think my life was good?”
What do you think the Lord’s going to say? “Hold on a minute. Let’s go into this operating system here. Let’s call up your files from before the foundation of the earth.” And He might call on the Bluetooth angel that allowed humans to create bluetooth. [Congregation laughs] You know, because nothing happens on the earth that didn’t first happen in heaven. He’s going to ask the Bluetooth angel, “Hey Bluetooth angel, just bluetooth that file for me from John, who was on the earth before the foundation of the earth.” And then up comes the blueprint and God will say, “John, when you were born, before you were born, I had a blueprint for your life. Here’s what it looks like and here’s the life that you lived and here’s what it looks… that’s what you did.” What do you think He’s going to judge your life on? What you did or what His blueprint for you was?
So then, if you are human and you were born from a human mother and father, then you will have the sin nature in you. And the sin nature will immediately begin with this process, “But Lord, I was born at the wrong time. Or You allowed me to be born into a family that didn’t have all the stuff I needed to get where I needed to be. Or Lord, that was wrong. Or Lord, that person gave me the hard life. You didn’t make it clear to me.” Because everything you’re going to say from that time on is a justification. Because the Bible says when the day of judgment comes, where all people are going to be judged there will be weeping and wailing and the gnashing of teeth. And that weeping and wailing is not just going to be the nations. It’s going to be each and every one of us. Not just the unsaved.
Because what’s going to happen is He’s going to call up your blueprint for your life. And He’s going to say, “That’s what I had planned for you, this is what you did.” And that’s where the weeping and the wailing is going to come, because in His presence you’re going to understand that what the blueprint was, I could have done it. He didn’t birth me, He didn’t birth me so that I couldn’t do what His blueprint was. He birthed me so I could do the blueprint that He wanted for me.
And we of course are going to make lots of excuses. We are. We’re going to make lots of excuses. You know the difference between an excuse and a reason? Nothing. “Well, the reason I did it is this.” – It’s also your excuse. Your excuse is also your reason. Somewhere along there, the two are going to connect. So when you have justification about the behavior and the things that you do or you don’t do it’s – that’s why so many people – let me tell you in South Africa if you travel to the rest of Africa you get to find out how good a life we live in South Africa, as Africans. Let me tell you we live a grand life. And there’s so many people that live in squatter camps and do all kinds of stuff and they think they’ve got a hard life. They need to go some other places in Africa to find out what a hard life is. And so in South Africa, we live with entitlement. We’re entitled for the government to solve this problem. We’re entitled for all this stuff and if you think we’re bad go to some of the European countries and the Western countries and see how entitled they are. And so after the entitlement, everything becomes a justification. Because “I’m entitled to what’s for me. This is my turn. This is my life. This is how I live my life.” After that entitlement, everything is about me. And so then when God says, “What about Me, God, and your blueprint for your life?” Then it’s, “Well no, but you.”
Isn’t that what the devil did? Didn’t he say that to Adam and Eve? “Did God say?” It’s all questioning God’s authority and God’s blueprint for your life. Because he failed in his blueprint, he wants all of us to fail in our blueprint. And so everything that Jesus came to do was to restore the blueprint. Hey, hey, listen to you, all the limitations that you had before you were born again. No more limitations, the blueprint, you can do it. Now the only thing you’ve got to say is, “I don’t want Your blueprint.” Now you’re at least being honest. “I don’t want Your blueprint.” If you’re not gonna follow God at least say that out of your mouth. At least be honest with God and say, “I don’t want what You got for me. I want, what I want, for me.” Because in that honesty God can deal with you because you’re not clouding your heart with all kinds of justifications and excuses and all kinds of fogginess and smoke and mirrors about who’s really at fault. “Oh, but Pastor John, aren’t you going against your own self where you speak words and words are your future.”
Let me tell you something. If you haven’t been that honest with God yet the words that you’re speaking are the smoke and mirror words. They’re just so smoky and so full of mirrors that no one else can see them even yourself. How do you know that? Well, the Bible says if you are one of those people that goes and looks at the Word of God and when you walk from it you forget what manner of man you once were. Because you’ve looked at yourself in a mirror and you don’t remember when you walk away what you saw in the mirror. Smoke and mirrors. I’m preaching good. Hallelujah. Just watch what God birthed Abraham into.
So are we all agreed? I will confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you for generation to generation. Are we agreed? Are we agreed from the Word of God that God said, “I will give you Abraham an heir from your own body? From you and Sarah”. Go and read it for yourself. Genesis 22, God comes and appears to Abraham and He says, “Abraham take your son Isaac, go and sacrifice him”. Well, I don’t think that if you’re a good father or even a bad father, and God, and someone shows up and says, “Come, bring your son, I want your son, your only son. I want you to sacrifice him to Me.” Huh?
God asks him to sacrifice his son. So what does Abraham say? Abraham says, “Okay, my body, Sarah’s body – we could have no kids. This generational God shows up to me and says, “Don’t worry Abraham, what you couldn’t do in your young age I’m going to do for you in your old age”. And so, here is the power to have a child – you and Sarah. Him and Sarah have a child in their old age that they couldn’t have in their young age. Now Isaac grows up, and history will tell us, or learning will tell us that he was at least thirteen, some people say he was thirty, but he was at least thirteen. He was already at a place where he was considered to be a man. And he takes him – so he wasn’t, he wasn’t two years old. He wasn’t carrying him on his shoulders. This was a young, a young man.
And so Isaac and Abraham, they go and he, you can go and read the whole story. Isaac asks him where’s the sacrifice because they’ve done this many times before. They’ve always sacrificed animals. Where’s the sacrifice? God will provide. So when they get up there, “Isaac, lie down here boy. You’re it”. “No dad. Don’t play games here”. “No, no. Lie down Isaac”. If you don’t think this was getting very real very quickly, you need to understand what the rest of the scripture says. Because if you go and read it, the Bible says that he had the knife in his hand, and he had the knife ready to kill the boy.
So Isaac wasn’t thinking don’t do this dad. He knew his dad was doing this. And we’ve got this kind of soft Western view of things in our life. And we think, okay that’s just a story in the Old Testament and Abraham didn’t feel about his kids the way we do, because you know their lives was a lot rougher those days than it is here. You don’t think that they valued their lives more then, than we do. Maybe. But a love of a father is a love of a father. He’s got the knife in his hand. Why is he obeying God? Because he knows that whatever he’s about to do now, the One who gave him this child has got an answer. I don’t know what their answer is but the One who gave me this child, He has an answer.
So if I obey Him, whatever is going to happen, He has got the answer.” So he is ready to take his own son’s life. And as he is about to do that, and I read this scripture, Genesis 22:12. 12 “Don’t lay a hand on the boy!” the angel said. “Do not hurt him in any way, for now, I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son.”
You know, if he had three boys, five boys, ten boys, maybe like Jesse, you know, that had King David. I think King David was boy number eight. You know, if you had eight boys and God told you to take one, you’d say,”Okay, you would grieve for him but you have seven more. The only one.”
The only one. This is the one who was going to carry all of his future and all of his wealth and all of the prophecy is the one that he is about to kill. This angel, the angel of the Lord says, “I know you truly fear God because you won’t hold back even when it comes to your only son.”
Verse 14; 14 Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which is “the Lord will provide”) Jehovah Jireh. To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.” 15 Then the angel of the Lord called again to Abraham from heaven. 16 “This is what the Lord says: Because you have obeyed me and have not withheld your son, your only son, I swear by my name that 17 I will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies. Hold on. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies.
Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies. If you think this war that is happening in Israel right now is just a war of human, ideological conflict, you are wrong. This is God’s covenant promise to a people that is in dispute from the moment God spoke it. Because everything that God has said, the enemy of God will dispute it. Either through deception, through manipulation or through violence.
Do you remember, I preached a whole series of messages about violating spirit that brings violence and he will violate the will of God and the things of God? That violating, violent spirit is in evidence about what happened to God’s people in Israel. Violent, violating spirit that came to destroy God’s covenant people. 18 And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.” 19 Then they returned to the servants and travelled back to Beersheba, where Abraham continued to live (Genesis 22:12-19 NLT).
Two things are happening in the world right now. This covenant word of God that is declared, from those many thousand years ago, is at work right now. His command is being disputed. Do you not know that in the realm of the Spirit the Bible says, one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day. In other words, in the Spirit Realm it’s timeless. So the words that God spoke about Abraham and his descendants and this land from generation to generation. It’s like He just spoke it, just spoke it in the realm of the Spirit. Those words are currently, right now, they are being disputed by the heavenly forces. Spirit beings in the heavens. In the heavens. Hello.
When you were born again you got born again and you were saved from yourself. Are you, I’ve preached this for many years. You were not just saved from hell. You were saved from hell, but you were also saved from yourself. Because even though you get saved from hell, if you’re not saved from yourself then yourself will rule your life and at the end, your blueprint will not match up to what God’s blueprint has for you. So you need to be safe from yourself so that you can follow the blueprint of God. Yes. Amen. Hallelujah.
The other thing is that God has declared that there will come a time when there will be a new earth and there will be a new heaven and there will be a time of God when the nations of the earth will be judged. That time must come. That is not just a story that will happen, but never happen. Because it hasn’t happened so it will never happen. It’s just like Israel, the people in Israel were living in safety until they weren’t and in a moment their lives were changed. And so just like this [Ps John snaps his fingers] things can change on a global scale and when the time comes, the time. So whatever you believe in prophecy and just in the last weeks I’ve heard people talking prophecy from this end of the scale to the other end of the scale. Some people say God is going to judge the world by what they do to Jerusalem. Some people say this is the end of time. Some people say that there’s going to be a seven day period where the earth is, the church is going to go and be with the Lord in the sky and we’re going to have a wedding feast for seven days and then after seven days we’re going to come back and then we’re going to rule and reign with God on the earth and we’re going to first judge the nations and then we’re going to rule and reign with God after the tribulation because there’s a tribulation. I mean. I promise you there’s a spectrum of whatever you want to believe in there. Whatever it is that you can, and I promise you everybody that’s got a very strong case has got scripture to back their strong case. Yeah?
Whatever you believe and whatever is going to happen, it’s going to happen sometime. It’s not not going to happen. Just like you know for so many years hundreds, thousands of years Israel lived without a land but God made a promise to Abraham. So the time had to come when God had to restore land back to Israel. And when it happened it happened like this. It was like Britain who was in charge of Palestine. It was called Palestine and that’s why the people of Palestine call themselves the Palestinians. They say it’s their land. But because Israel called it Palestine. So if we stop calling Iran, Iran we would have to call them Persia because it goes back so long.
So just because the name has changed doesn’t make it anything based on what God said. So Israel, the British were occupying Jerusalem; they were occupying what is now called Israel. They were occupying it. It was then called Palestine. And so in a very short space of time the British people said, “We don’t want to be here, we don’t want to have this conflict. We don’t want to be at war with both the Jews and the Arabs and everything else and we don’t want to be occupying this nation for what reason.” And so they said, “We’re going to give it to Israel.” They called it Israel and Israel was formed in 1948 after the Second World War. It was in a space of months no more than a year and just like that the British empire that had ruled that area for so long said, “It’s not our land anymore. We’re handing it to people.” And Israel was born. Just like that. It happened just like that.
And that’s been 70 years and ever since then there’s been a war about who owns this land. Why do you think? I’ve just got reading to you. Why do you think? Because God declared it a long time ago. Pastor John what’s this got to do with this wonderful thing about the life that you live and the life that you want to live? Here’s the good news. What has God already declared about you? The same way that He’s already declared things about Abraham He’s declared things about you.
Come on. Come on. He has already declared that He’s got thoughts for you and plans for you that are beyond what you can imagine or think. Why would you want to try and live by your own plan when His plans are that great? But Pastor John, “I don’t know what His plan is.” Good point to start. Good point to start. “Lord, I really want to have Your plan. Maybe Pastor John’s got a story after all.” Didn’t he read you from the scripture? Don’t not be conformed to this world but be transformed into what God’s got for you. How? By the way you think. You don’t have to try and change the way your spirit man is. It’s already transformed. It’s a Christ form in you. So what is it that’s got to be crossed over into forming something else? You’re thinking. You’ve got to cross over into thinking the way you always think into thinking the way that God wants you to think.
It’s only when you change your thinking that you get to find a different kind of something that you can go after. Come on now. So, you know the Lord has got a plan for me. So, many many years ago I was not doing any exercise and I was not in good physical shape and the Lord spoke to me personally. He said, “John, I want you to do something about this physical condition that you’re in.” I said, “You need to help me, Lord. Because I don’t like to go to gym and running is not my favorite thing to do.” And so He put it in my heart and he placed people around me to go cycling. And so now all these years ago I’m a cyclist. I lost a lot of weight and I got fit. And then somewhere along the line, I found a war was waged against my body. I didn’t quite know what it was but I began to feel something amiss in my body. So I went to a medical specialist who deals with looking after your whole body. Some of the symptoms showed up after I’d been fatiguing badly in cycling events. I mean one day I phoned Dr. Nico I’d gone and done three days of extreme heat in Nelspruit, in the jock tour. And I got home and I was home for about two days. I could hardly walk up the stairs and I phoned Dr. Nico and I said, “Dr. Nico I’m just letting you know I feel like I’m having a heart attack.” And he asked me some questions on the phone. He says, “No, Pastor John, you’re not having a heart attack. You’re just in fatigue. This is what’s happening to you. But I’m going to make a few phone calls the next couple of days.”
Anyway, I’ve been on a whole journey to find out what is this thing happening in my body. So I discovered some things about my body. So I went on a journey where I could discover some things with my body that I could recover health in the way God wants me to live health. How? I’ve got to make sure that there are some things I do and some things I don’t do. And then there’s some things that I’ve got to, I’ve got to I’ve had to put stuff into my body to restore my body into a good working condition. Amen. So then the Lord said to me, “John, I want you to step up your health. I want you to step up your fitness and your condition.” I said, “Okay, Lord.” So I’m still on a journey to improve my fitness. And I can tell you this the man that you see in front of you now is not the man that you will see by next year. Because I’ve already started this journey of improving my fitness. And those of you who rode with me yesterday you will know because you saw. Yes, Luke? Yeah. You will see that my fitness is returning. My physical conditioning is getting back to a level and it’s going to go way beyond I’ve ever been since I was in my teens when I was in the army. I’m pressing towards something that’s close to that.
He promised me with long life He will satisfy me and show me His salvation. So, He’s come to me and He says, “John, you obeyed Me on the first step, it’s time to obey Me in another step and another step because I don’t just want you to have a long life, I want you to be satisfied. You can’t live a satisfied life until you live this kind of conditioned life.” Now, do you think God wants me to throw everything overboard and just focus on my health? No. He’s got an assignment, a blueprint for my life. Yes? So why does He want me in good health? To do the blueprint. He doesn’t want me to say everything is the health, because then I’ve missed the mark. I think that’s what the Apostle Paul said, “Physical exercise profits a little.” It does. It’s not like it doesn’t profit you, it profits a little. Why? Because what it does profit you, is give you the strength to finish your blueprint. Amen.
I want to tell you as I’m journeying this journey with God, I’m getting madder and madder in my spirit. That’s very good English. But you know, I mean, I’m beginning to get before the Lord and there’s people around me that I’ve become aware of, the devil has attacked their bodies, their temple. Their temple. Their ability to fulfill their blueprint is no longer at the level where it used to be because the devil is coming and trying to steal it. And so I’m just letting you know that I’m before the Lord and say, “Lord, if You’ve got this plan for my life then You’ve got a reason for me to want to do this.” I know that this anointing is not just for me, it’s for all of you and, “Because if You’re taking me in this place You want everybody to go into that level of condition, that health, that wealth, that level of life You want for everybody.”
I’m mad at the devil and I’m getting madder and madder at the devil that he’s trying to go after God’s people in their physical bodies, in their physical condition and try and stop your blueprint from your life by just sucking your energy out of your life. No. No. No, it’s not going to happen. “Pastor John, how are you getting mad?” As I’m obeying God and I’m walking in this place with God, He’s revealing stuff to me because I’m giving myself to obedience.
Work with me here for a minute. “Abraham, I want you to give your son, your only son.” “Alright, Lord, because You are the God that created my son, I give him back to You as my son. Okay. Okay. Because I know if You could create him once then You could give him back twice.” When did Abraham get a revelation of his covenant with that Almighty God? When he was ready to take him and God said, “Don’t, I know now you will not withhold anything from Me. Don’t. I’ll give him back to you a second time.” But he didn’t take his life. In his heart he took his life. He couldn’t have taken that knife and be ready to kill his son if he wasn’t in his heart already. That’s why God says, “I know already that you will withhold nothing from Me,” because He didn’t just look at the action He looked at the heart. Hallelujah.
I want to tell you something that the same God that declared that covenant Abraham is the same God that has made a declaration over our lives, that He will, He will heal us. He will restore us. He will strengthen us with long life. He will satisfy us. And I want to tell you something church that we are going from level to level. We are going from glory to glory. We are going from strength to strength. And it’s not just about health. I want to tell you when the Lord came upon me, and He said, “Go after this house across the road.” Now we paid for this house across the road. Now we’ve got to clean this house out. If there’s anybody who wants to participate in helping us to fund the kind of maintenance that we have to do and the new growth that we have to do across the road, feel free. If you want to do it through your company and invoice for work done, feel free. God is moving amongst us here with things that He wants to do. He wants to do the community centre and we’ve pretty much decided that this house across the road is going to be the community centre. This is the generations of generations of generations that we are taking care of across the road there. And that’s just the start. We are the Abrahamic generations. Amen.
We are the story. We are the story. So Pastor John, why is God creating? We want the farm. We want the house. Because there’s land involved. There’s territorial gains that God says in the Spirit, “Come, it’s time for heritage of faith and this ecclesia to take a mark in the land, in the land, in the land. It’s a time for this ecclesia to take a stand in the land. It’s time for us to make a mark in this land.” We are not here to leave this land and go to some other country across the waters because we don’t feel safe here. Because there’s no future in land here. Because there’s no political future here. Because there’s no opportunity future here. Because we’ve got a corrupt government here. I say, “No, the ecclesia of God says we make this our land. We make this our stand. This is the place that God has called us and it doesn’t matter who comes against us. This is our land and this is our stand.” Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus.
And it is possible that God has got places for us to go and other geographic locations and nations to take our message to. Because there are few churches that have this kind of ecclesia in it. There are few countries that have this powerful prayer people in it that are united together with their gifting, with their calling, with their money, with their spirit, with their love together. There’s few churches like us in the earth. So it is possible that God says, “I want this church to take the spirit of this church across waters to other nations, to other peoples.” That doesn’t change that God says, “Now is the time for us to make a stand on this land and bring the next generation along with us and generations after us and generations after us.” Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
And every time you hear something going on in Israel, you say, “It’s covenant time! It’s our covenant time! It’s God’s covenant time!” It doesn’t matter what the world brings against Israel, God’s covenant is working. From generation to generation, God is a God of covenant. If you’re not sure of what your spirit life needs to look like, just be aware of this; what you’re seeing in the natural is evidence of a spiritual war that has existed for thousands of years and it’s still alive right now. So, it’s time for us to step up. It’s time for us to be ready. It’s time for us to be ready. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Praise Jesus.
You know, when Israel became a state, and I’m going to finish with this, come on, we’re having a good time in church today. When Israel became a state, they were so vulnerable because they had very little weapons, they had very little training, they had very little as a people and people were flooding from across the world. I’m talking about the 1940s, the 1950s, people were flooding from across the world. Holocaust victims from Germany were making their way to Israel and from Russia and from Poland and from Austria and all those places, they were coming out of Europe to Israel because suddenly they had a land to go to. They had a God-ordained, prophetic, generational land that they could go back to. And suddenly, they had nothing.
And if you fast forward 70 years, 70 years, Israel has probably got some of the most advanced technology just about on every level of life that any country in the world has. In fact, America and Israel cooperate very closely when it comes to technology. Farmers in South Africa will tell you that the agricultural developments that have happened in Israel are so good that our farmers in South Africa import the technology from Israel. Am I right, Loutjie? Because they are the guys that are ahead of the game. They are inventing things. Come on. Isn’t it folklore; if you want to find a poor Jew, you can’t. Isn’t it folklore? Like hey, if you want to negotiate, you’ve got to learn how to negotiate like a Jew. Hey? Ja. Because the blessing of God is on them.
And in 70 years they went from having no defences to having such an advanced protection system, they call it the Iron Dome, where they’ve got these 3D radar technology things that are working all the time and people are putting missiles into their territory all the time and they’ve got this anti-missiles system which they call the Iron Dome and it just shoots the missiles out of the sky. If you didn’t know it, their system is so advanced that this 3D artificial intelligence system that they’ve got going, identifies what’s coming into the atmosphere in Israel and if it’s not an armed warhead, it will leave it to come through.
It can detect whether it’s an armed warhead because what happened is the enemies of Israel started shooting unarmed missiles into the country so that they could overwhelm the defence iron dome system.
So they created the software to even detect whether this thing is an armed warhead or not. And if it is, it shoots it out of the sky. If it’s not, it lets it come in and unless it’s going to hit a population area then it takes it out anyway. It even knows where it’s going to land. It instantly detects where its trajectory of landing is and it will take it out based on what it’s going to take out in that place. Seventy years, I wonder if this is a Jehovah people, come on!
I wonder if this is a Jehovah people. I wonder if this is the blessing of God on these people. Guess what? We’re it! We’re it! We are the same blessing people. We are the same blessing people. We are God’s people. He has the same covenant with us as He has with those people. In fact, He’s so with us that He put His own self in us. They still have to mark their bodies to show that they are Jewish. We have a heart that is already marked by the most high God. It lives and breathes inside of us. It’s the heart of Jesus. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Don’t tell me I don’t have a covenant. Don’t tell me God’s not looking after me and protecting me and working with me and restoring me and strengthening me and making me just super rich. Well, don’t come with your wealth story now. You were preaching so good until you came with wealth. No, He wants all of us to be super rich. He’s not a poor God. He’s a rich God. He’s like, how do we get rich? I’m glad you asked. It’s called seed. Hallelujah. When you speak words of seeds out of your mouth. You don’t even have to have a financial seed yet, but if you don’t, if you have a word of God in your mouth, you’ve got what it takes to start the whole process. Thank You, Lord.
So I’m reminded right now, I want to tell you, that Kenneth Copeland did not. How long has this thing been going? (Pastor Sharon: only five). No ways. Only five? Sorry. I was preaching really good there. I wasn’t really cared about that or not. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Kenneth Copeland, when he got to first find out about Oral Roberts, he was sitting in an Oral Roberts thing and Oral Roberts said, would you become a partner with me for ten dollars? And Kenneth Copeland was so poor he didn’t have ten dollars. So then he found out that they gave him an envelope with a pencil. And so then he asked the people, the person, “Whose pencil is this?” They said, “It’s yours.” So he said, “Well, I don’t have ten dollars. I’m going to write my name on this piece of paper here and I’m going to put my pencil in it.” So this is the pencil Oral Roberts gave him. He writes his name and puts it back to Oral Roberts. Before he put the pencil in, someone tapped him on the shoulder and said, “The Lord told me to give you ten dollars.” And he became a partner of Oral Roberts. I wonder what harvest the guy, the person who gave Kenneth Copeland his first ten-dollar seed.
I wonder what he can access or she can access for eternity, and you think one, ten dollars or ten rand or a hundred rand or a thousand rand is insignificant? Let me tell you, it all counts in God. It’s the heart that matters. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. So whether it’s health, whether it’s wealth, whether it’s relationships or whether it’s a future blueprint that you don’t know yet that God’s got for you, either which way, now is our time. This is crossover time. We are crossing over into the formation of what God’s got for us, of something that we haven’t yet seen and something that He has already pre-planned for us to walk in. Now’s the time. What do you say church? Are you in agreement with this? Now’s the time. Now’s the time.
And so after this service we’re all going to cross over to a picnic place. Hallelujah. Won’t you all stand with me, please? Praise Jesus. “Well, Pastor John, what about this healing thing?” I’ve recently been refreshing myself with what God has got to say about this. And one of the things I’ve learned from Oral Roberts was, he taught it to Kenneth Copeland and Jerry Savelle, and he said, “Don’t just lay hands on people. Make sure that the anointing is there for the laying on of hands.” So I want you to know that what’s brewing in me is a laying on of hands anointing for health and healing. And hey, let me tell you that’s no coincidence that right now all of this stuff that’s happening, I’m going to go and be with Brother Jerry and spend a couple of weeks with him. Amen. Hallelujah. I fully expect to come back ready to be laying hands on people. And God is going to do a mighty work amongst us. A mighty work amongst us. Healing, restoring, strengthening. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus.
I stand with you in faith in everything already. Many of you I’ve already laid hands on, it stands but I’m looking for something else from God. I’m looking for that miracle anointing that will come upon people and undo things that the devil has been doing for years. Hallelujah.
Put your hand on your chest and just make this declaration with me and say, “Thank You, Lord, that You have restored me. You have saved me. You have healed me. I live in complete health and divine health in Jesus’ name. I receive my anointing for healing in Jesus’ name. Hallelujah. I thank You that You are my Lord. You are my Saviour. I am Your child. I’m Your covenant child, and You bless me going out and bless me coming in. I thank You for it, Lord, in Jesus’ name. Amen.” In the beginning of the service Pastor Sharon prayed in her singing and in her words, she prayed that the peace of God will be upon you. There is no greater place to be than to be in a place of peace, and if the peace of God is upon you it’s the best thing that you can ever have, is the peace of God. There’s nothing like it. No money can buy it. Nothing else can do it. Only the peace of God is what is really the most beautiful thing on the earth. And I agree with her words and I declare the peace of God be upon you. And no weapon formed against you will prosper. He gives His angels charge over us as we go about our lives. And the Word and the blood of Jesus surround us and protect us.
And for those that are riding motorbikes I declare that you ride safely. That you ride with the angels. You will ride there and you will ride back wherever back and there is. Wherever you’re going to ride you are protected and safe in the name of Jesus. And if you’re going in cars, same thing. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus. Hallelujah.
I’m going to America on Thursday. Praise the Lord. I’m going to America on Thursday. And I’m going to be gone for a couple of weeks. And God has got some things that He’s lined up for me. Which means us. I just happen to be the one taking my energy and my physical body there. But wherever I go, we go. Amen. May I take your love? [Congregation said yes] May I take your peace with me? [Congregation said yes] May I take your blessing with me? [Congregation said yes] That wherever I go your blessing goes with me. [Congregation said yes] Amen. May I take your blessing to the churches that I’m going to go and minister in? [Congregation said yes] May I take your blessing and your peace to Brother Jerry and to Heritage of Faith in the USA? [Congregation said yes] Amen.
Well, I want to declare that while I’m gone that Pastor Sharon is going to be the spiritual leader in charge of what’s going to happen here in the ministry while I’m gone. That she will flow in an anointing that will be new. It will be sure. It will be strong. And it will reinforce and bring new insight and revelation to what God has already given us as momentum. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Whoever else God chooses to use as a vessel while I’m gone, all of those messages, anything else that might happen, under her delegation and her authority, there will be a strong anointing. Amen.
And just as you are praying for me and praying for Brother Jerry, we will be praying for you. Amen. And I urge you to pray for Pastor Sharon as the delegated spiritual leader while I’m gone, that she will have the mind of Christ. And she will follow the ways of God in everything that needs to be done. Amen. Of course I’m a phone call away and I’m still part of what you’re doing here, but there needs to be this spiritual activation that needs to happen so that you are all protected while I’m gone. That there’s not a vacuum of spiritual authority, but there is a delegated authority while I’m gone. Amen. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Glory to God. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Hallelujah.
So I just want you to know that we as a people and Pastor Sharon and I, in our own selves, we are going into a seed-sowing frenzy. And we are doing some things in the next couple of months, we are going to be doing some stuff that as a ministry, you know, I’m privileged and so blessed to be able to hang around brother Jerry because I see things of how he sows seed personally and through his ministry that most people are not privileged to see that. And 90 percent, more of what he sows he doesn’t talk about. Well, the same applies to me and Pastor Sharon. Most of the stuff that we do we don’t talk about. You know Pastor Sharon, she goes to the bank every month and her sole purpose for going into a bank, how many of you know that’s not always a fun thing to do? Because you have to wait around in a bank. Her sole purpose for going into a bank is to go and draw enough money that she can have money with her always in the car so that wherever she stops she’s giving money out of her window, or to someone in the car park or to someone that she will just go and pick them up and take them and buy food for them.
You know I can’t even begin to tell you how much of that we do in our lives but I say that because I want you to be encouraged that you are all givers. You’re all givers and if you have any thoughts in your head that, “Oh my harvest hasn’t come yet.” I want you to remember that God has put in our legacy a living witness, a living example of how God can bless you. You know when it became clear to me that brother Jerry was coming here and I asked Joe, “So, Joe, how are you coming?” Thinking you know, maybe I don’t know what’s happening with the Falcon 50. I said, “So are you coming with the Falcon 50?” He says, “Only if we don’t have the Falcon 900 yet.” Jerry Savelle is 78 years old and he’s still believing for a Falcon 900. Well, when does faith stop working? Never. Never. So don’t let the devil… you are a covenant child.
Abraham thousands of years of covenant. Thousand, thousand, thousand, thousand of years covenant. It’s yours today. Okay, I’ve got to quit preaching now. You can see I’m leaving you this week and watch the social media and all that. There’s lots of very wonderful things happening even while I’m away. We are launching many, many wonderful things here in the ministry. So thank you all. Bless you all. See you at the picnic. Bye you all.
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TOUCH | TEACH | TRAIN | TRANSFER
