Scripture Reference: Ezekiel 28:11-19 (NKJV); Isaiah 14:12-17 (NKJV)
Praise You, Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank You, Lord, for Your anointing that is here today, pressed upon Your Word that is spoken, pressed upon worship that is given. We thank You, Father, that every time we come into Your presence, there’s something that happens in us – something new, something powerful. We can only say thank you, that we can have the opportunity to live with the Most High God inside these clay vessels. Lord, we give You honour and praise in this service today, and we thank You that Your will be done in everything that is said and done. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated.
Praise the Lord. It’s an interesting thought process that has been going on in my heart and I have referred to you before, in my musings and my meditations. The two are different. Meditation is something that I do that relates to the Word of God. Musings is just something that gets done, where the Word can be present, but you are looking for applications of the Word in life. In both of those things, I find myself in a place where I wonder how we would be considered in the history of man, how we all would be considered in our time and how effective and what our responsibilities on the earth were in this time.
We, if I give you some of my musings, I would say, there were people that have sacrificed their lives in many wars for many generations. Thousands of years, people have died in wars. They died, some of them, in faith. If you read the book of Hebrews, the book of Hebrews will tell you that there are people that died by the sword, they died by wild beasts, there were many reasons why they died, but they all died in faith. Believing that they would have the result of their faith, but not actually seeing the end of their faith. It’s what it says in the book of Hebrews, chapter 11. You can go and read it. It’s called the Hall of Fame of Faith, you know. There are many stories like that. There are many stories of men that have given their lives, men and women, given their lives in wartime, where people that had power, people that wanted more power, would decide that they actually would want the whole earth to be subjugated to them.
You know, if I just talk about the last hundred years, a little more than a hundred years, we’ve had two world wars, we’ve had an atomic bomb that was dropped on a country. We’ve had people fly across oceans and attack harbours, like Pearl Harbour in America. We’ve had world wars come to the shores of South Africa, and of course, the rest of the world. We’ve had terrorism, where the World Trade Centres have been destroyed, aeroplanes flown into them. There have been men, and this is a famous picture I would like to just leave with you, a famous picture of firemen that had hoses and gear out and they were running up the World Trade Centre stairs, in America, trying to bring the fires under control, trying to save people from death and destruction. As they’re fighting to save the lives of others, the building is imploding and collapsing on them, killing them. Still today, people, the month of September, the people will remember, the bravery of men that gave their lives that others may live.
I look at us, I look at our lives and I say; what is it that, and I’m just talking for those spirits that are alive to God and live in Heaven, the Bible calls them a great cloud of witnesses. I wonder what it is that they see when they look at us. In our day, this group of people, this time that we are alive. I wonder what it is that they think, and I wonder what it is that they can speak of that we have done.
Now to be sure, the bravery of souls and men that have died for values, that have died to protect families that have died to protect way of life, they are to be commended and they are to be honoured. There is nothing that compares with those that have faith, live in faith, and die for their faith. I find myself, having had a major birthday just recently.
Let me take this opportunity to say thank you to all of you, for the just wonderful words, the amazing kindness that you have shown me. I have a box that I have put all your letters and your cards and different things in, and I pray over that, just as a point of reference and contact for me. It took me three or four days to read everybody’s letter and everybody’s card, and whatever notes they might have sent me on little pieces of paper and some people just kind of glued some sticky’s together and wrote on sticky’s and put it, you know, what they had, they did for me. It wasn’t so much how fancy the card was or how much, you know, whatever it was, it was the words that were on there, that really were very special words for me.
I have said this to Pastor Sharon; it is very seldom that a pastor gets to hear from everybody at the same time, how the Word of God has changed and impacted their lives. For me, it’s almost a glimpse into what might happen to me one day when I get to Heaven, and I stand before Jesus and if He asked me, He says, “So, John, what is it that you think you did for Me?” Then I would hold your box of letters up and say, “Here it is, Lord.” You know. There’s more than that, but I want to say thank you for your kind words, and for loving me and for receiving me in the spirit of the way that you do.
But it does make one reflect on what’s going on in your life, what’s going on in your time and what’s going on around you. It makes you, certainly as you get a bit older, you tend to think more about your mortality, you think about your assignment in life, you think a little bit more about what you have done in your life that has eternal value. Because there’s many people that have got amazing, amazing stories of value systems and an inward ability and a strength to do things that people marvel at. Like running up a World Trade Centre stairs with a hosepipe on your back, knowing that actually you’re running into smoke, you’re running into dust, you can’t just see what you’re doing and you don’t know whether you’re going to die or not. You’re literally running into the face of the most serious danger that there is and you’re willingly doing that. And then, when the building implodes on you and your life is sacrificed, people may be tempted to say, “That’s got to be the highest level of commitment and sacrifice that there is on the earth.”
People might say, “Well, you know, for sure they fulfilled their assignment.” Well, if they didn’t live for Jesus, they didn’t. They may have used their gift, they may have used the thing that God called them to do, but if it wasn’t in the name of Jesus, then it was to serve humanity, for sure, to be honoured, for sure, but eternally has no purpose. You might turn around and say to me, “Pastor John, that’s not a fair statement. That man or that woman gave up their life for humanity. How can you judge whether that is eternally something that stands or doesn’t?” Well, the Bible is clear that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Jesus is the Way. Jesus is the Truth. Jesus is the Life. If you do everything that you do with Him, in Him, for Him, then you become someone that does work for eternity.
Take two firemen running up the stairs. The one has the sense of God’s calling on his life, he has worship in his heart, and he trusts entirely on the Lord. Another fireman running up right next to him or right behind him on the same stairs, doesn’t believe in Jesus, just believes that the higher purpose of his life on the earth is to serve humanity, and the walls come tumbling in. If he did not cry out to Jesus in his last breath to save him, then he will still have an eternity separated from Jesus, otherwise known as hell. Because life is not just about what you do with the gifts that you are given, it’s about what you do in Jesus with the gifts that you’re given.
Pastor Sharon has done an amazing job of ministering to you over a couple of weeks, and she’s read some of the scriptures that I would want to read to you today, and the title of my message is God is Answering. God is answering, right now. So, you and I, whether you know it or not, whether you believe it or not, whether this is something that is part of your daily understanding or not, you and I were born into an ancient confrontation. The confrontation is a confrontation of will, and the will of the Father was to create an angel that had beauty created in him. He had a will to create.
Pastor Sharon read this to you from Ezekiel, and I’m going to just read it to you again; 12… ‘Thus says the Lord God: “You were the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 13You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: The sardius, topaz, and diamond, Beryl, onyx, and jasper, Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. 14“You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. 15You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you. In other words, created in you. 16“By the abundance of your trading You became filled with violence within, And you sinned; Therefore I cast you as a profane thing Out of the mountain of God; And I destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the fiery stones. 17“Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, That they might gaze at you. 18“You defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your trading; this is a very important word, the iniquity of your trading.
Therefore I brought fire from your midst; it devoured you, and I turned you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who saw you. 19All who knew you among the peoples are astonished at you; you have become a horror, and shall be no more forever.” (Ezekiel 28:12-19 NKJV).
Hallelujah. Well, I mean that’s a very powerful story of how, what the enemy, what happened to him, how he was created. Essentially, this is a being that was so beautiful, and he was created with a will in order for him to do certain things. So, one of the things was, he was the covering cherub of all other angels and other beings.
One of the things he did was that he had music in him, his job was to reflect the glory of God. I share this with you because it’s important. Now I must go to Isaiah and read to you Isaiah fourteen from verse twelve, and it says this;
12How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! 13For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; 14I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ 15Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the [e]lowest depths of the Pit. 16“Those who see you will gaze at you, and consider you, saying: ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, 17Who made the world as a wilderness and destroyed its cities, who did not open the house of his prisoners?’ (Isaiah 14:12-17 NKJV).
So. this is two passages of scripture that refer to the creation, and the making of the enemy of God. As he is now, not as he was then, and his fall from Heaven. This is an ancient confrontation from the beginning when God created him, he was made a beautiful being.
For a moment, I just want to give you a broad picture. The trading that he was doing was that there were many beings, created beings, in the universe. What he would do is, he would come into the congregation, into the very fiery stones, into the very presence of God. He would be in the presence of God, and he was created in such a way that in the presence of God, the very light and the fire and the beauty, and the glory of God would be absorbed into his being with all these precious stones, and all this amazing beauty. What he would do, because the pipes of music was created in him, he would translate the worship of God, and amplify the worship of God, to all other beings in the universe. Other beings in the universe would look at him, and they would worship God, because out of him would flow glory, and beauty, and amazing light of God, and the very worship and the sounds of Heaven, would come from him. What was the trading that he did? Well, the trading was that he would take sounds, and he would take the beauty of God, and he would reflect it to beings in the rest of the universe.
I’m not alone in believing this, but I do believe that the earth was formed at that time, and there were beings that existed on the earth at that time. When scientists say, “We observe that there are fossils on the earth that are so many million years old” and they say, “It’s evolution.” It’s not evolution. It’s the time before Lucifer had iniquity found in him. All of those years there were beings and creatures that lived on the earth that the enemy of God would allow the message, and the beauty of God, and the worship of God to come to those beings. Science and God can live, and should live in the same space. Science does not contradict God; science just underscores what the Word says about God. Hallelujah. I’m not afraid of what science may say, because the Word of God has got the answers for everything. Hallelujah.
He would go and give his glory, and give his beauty, and give the praises of God through his being to those beings. Then he would come with all of the praises; Holy is the Lamb, glory is the God of Gods, glory is the King of Kings, glory is the One, the Most High, the beginning and the end, the be all and the end all of everything. Whatever praises they would sing of His eternity, forever and ever, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. They would sing those praises, give those praises, declare their worship for Him. Then Lucifer would come back into the presence of God and out of his being would flow the worship and the praises and the honour of God that were given by men, but which they saw God, in him. Because of this iniquity, what happened was, when he said, “I will ascend into the high place, I will make myself like the Most High God.” What he did was, he assumed that he was God; because he looked like God, he had all of the worship of God, and he made music that all the people fell down and worshipped him, too. He assumed that what he was doing, was God. That’s how iniquity was found in him, it wasn’t that he was misplaced in what he was receiving, it was that he thought he was equal to God because God was reflected through him. He could no longer stand in the presence of God because there can only be one will in the universe, and that’s the will of the Creator.
Let me just make this statement to you before I go any further; if you believe in evolution, or you don’t believe there is a God, or you believe there is a multitude of gods that you can get to become an eternal living being, then what you are saying is, “I choose to believe of God what my intellect allows me to believe of God.” You have just put yourself on the same level as God because you have said, “I have the right to understand God and therefore because I can intellectually understand God or make debate to myself about God that suits my own ways, and my own thoughts about God”. Then what happens is you say, “I will ascend to the level of God, and I will make my choice about what God looks like, what the god is that I should serve.” I tell you, it takes more faith to believe that you are god, than to believe that God is the creator of all beings.
If you can have that much faith for that, you might as well take that faith and believe in God. What’s standing in your way? Your will. Because your will is what is driving you to make choices for yourself. Which case you’re putting yourself into a context, well, “When I do what I want to do, when I behave the way I want to behave, when I’m doing everything that suits me in my life, then I am choosing to serve God the way I choose to serve God.”
Your will is your platform, and your worship is your power. Without a will, you have no platform. In life, your will is your platform. Whatever it is that you choose to do with your life, your will is the platform for what you do in your life. Your will. Your power is your worship of the choices that you’ve made. When you make a choice and you put your whole heart behind it, “I think I’ll become a very successful businessman, and I’ll put everything behind it and I’m going to make a lot of money.” Your will gives you the platform, and your worship of what you’re doing gives you the power to do it. What happened to the enemy was, iniquity was found in him. His will gave him the platform and his worship gave him the power to go against God. But when your worship goes with your will that your platform creates, then there cannot be the will of God come into your life, because your will stands between what God wants for you, and what you want for you. Hallelujah.
God will always pursue mankind, so that mankind will always begin to see that His will is the real thing. The ancient confrontation is about will, it’s about ways, your ways, or the ways of men, it is about worship, and it is about wonder, and it is about work. In God, when your will is submitted to the will of God, then your will creates a platform for His ways. It creates the power of worship of Him in your life, which causes you to have a wonderful life, and the work that you do is always going to worship Him, because what you work is in line with His will.
I’m really preaching good today, but if you are anti the will of God, the order of God, the control of God that He wants for you, and if you say, “I want my will to control my world”, then everything your will does, is creating a platform for you. Then you end up not having a wonderful life, but you have a wondering life. Where you wonder and wonder, and you’re not sure ever of what your assignment is. You might say, “My assignment is to raise children, and to have them have a good life, and then have grandchildren that have a good life”. That might be a good and noble thing, just like a fireman running up the stairs. It might be an honourable thing, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to stand for anything in eternity, unless your will is given to God in worship.
When everything in your will is for you, and you are wandering in life, then you have lots of questions and your questions are always, “Who is benefiting?” and “Why am I doing this? When is anything going to get done and what for?” You can go back to the Garden of Eden when the enemy came to man, and tried to confuse man, and have him with his will, relinquish his power in his worship.
Everything from that time onwards is evident in mankind, they’re always asking, “Who?” they’re always asking, “Why?” they’re always asking, “When?” and they’re always asking, “What for?” Because that is a wondering mentality. But when your platform of your will allows you to worship God, the power of God is released in your life, then your ways become His ways, your worship creates more power for you. You begin to have a wonderful life, and everything starts to work for you. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Glory to God.
Even now, we are in a contest. We are in an ancient confrontation, and I finish with this. I want to be in a place, that in a time where the world’s economies are in chaos, when the world’s health is under immense threat, when the ways of men that have been created, there is death and destruction, and everything that is happening in this world. This might be our moment, when men that run up the stairs in the World Trade Centre, run to their death. This might be our moment when we say, “We lay our lives down.” Not necessarily running upstairs, but standing firm in our faith. Maybe this is the time when God will call every one of us to begin to pray, and to speak words, and maybe too fast. Oh, so you might have to do without food for a week. Maybe this is a time where God says, “I need a people that will fast and separate themselves, and become My instruments in the earth, so that you give Me your will, then you give Me your worship, then your ways will follow Me, and then you will have a wonderful life, and every bit of work that you do will be an eternal thing, and I will use it to save mankind in this season.”
I’ve heard it said by many preachers that; any failure on earth is a prayer failure. If we, as a church, don’t rise up in the fullness of what we’ve got, and do what God wants us to do, we may be standing in front of a crowd of witnesses one day and say, “You had everything going for you. Your lifestyle and your body was not so difficult. In fact, the only difficulty that you had at a time when a serious humanity was under threat, is that you just wished that you had more shops that were open and more restaurants that were open so that you could go and buy more stuff and that you can go on a holiday that you booked and planned for and didn’t take”.
I don’t want to be one of those people that stands before an eternal host and say, “Oh well, but you don’t know, I was raised to actually deserve everything that I worked for.” Well, that’s your will. That’s our will, that’s our ways. We will wonder a lot about who, why, what, when? Because we have our agenda. When I get up there and I stand before those eternal hosts of faith, where people died not seeing the outcome of their final faith, but dying in faith nevertheless because they believed in the eternal Jehovah.
I want to stand before them and say, “When my time came, I stood before, between the forces of darkness and humanity, and I stood there, and I prayed, and I spoke the Word. I put the word out there and I stood for the ways of Jesus and I gave Him my full worship, and the power of God came into the earth because we filled the bowls of heaven with our prayers. We filled the earth with our worship, and we let the power of God rule and reign so that it could counter what darkness was bringing to humanity”. Hallelujah.
Don’t you want to join me in being someone that has that kind of perspective of the Word of God and the power of God? Come on, I know you do, right? Please stand to your feet. I got to preach for 30 minutes and it was too short. Hallelujah. I believe that everything that God wanted to say today, has been said. Praise the Lord.
Why don’t you just put your hand on your heart like this and say, I am a son of God. Because I believe in Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, and there is nothing of my past that will keep me from living in my future with Jesus. I acknowledge you, Lord, as my Master, and as my Saviour, and I commit because You give me strength by the Holy Spirit to live for You, from this day onwards, in Jesus’ name. Hallelujah.
I pray that your days and your week ahead will be filled with worship. It will be filled with you knowing the will of God for your life. It will be filled with His Words coming out of your mouth. I pray that whatever you put your hands to, will prosper, where your feet go, you will go in the anointing and the power of God. I pray that the blessing of God overwhelms you and overtakes you and His favour goes before you. No weapon formed against you will prosper. You are protected by the power of the Word of God and Blood of Jesus. From sickness and disease, He will save you. From all manner of economic destruction and corruption, He will protect you. If you agree with this prayer today, say, “Amen”.
Thank you for coming to church, God bless you. Please leave now.
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