Scripture Reference: Isaiah 55:8-11 (AMPC); Genesis 15:1; Exodus 3:6; Exodus 3:13-14 (NLT); Revelation 1:8 (AMPC); Revelation 1:8 (MSG); Revelation 4:1-11 (AMPC); John 16:12-13; Genesis 21:26;
Hallelujah. Thank You Lord. Thank You Lord. Thank You Lord. Well I declare this afternoon that you have a heart to receive, you have ears to hear, your mind is clear and is not cluttered by many things that would try and prevent you from hearing the Word of God. And I believe and I trust that the Word of God will gain entrance into your heart and life and that it will change you, today. In Jesus’ Name. Do you agree with this prayer? Amen. Before you sit down tell somebody that, “I’m glad you’re in Church today.”
Praise the Lord. It’s like when we start the service, all the chairs are full and then when you say, “Kids Church – you can go,” then it’s like half the church empties out you know. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. It’s a marvellous thing to experience the life of God. It’s a marvellous, marvellous, marvellous thing to experience the life of God. There is just no other life but the life of God. It’s just amazing, it’s amazing, it’s amazing. Hallelujah. I have a strong urgency upon me to preach the Word and teach on things that the Lord has revealed to me and continues to reveal to me, about finance and business. And I’m looking for some time that I can share with you all about this. So, my question to you is: “If I made it on a public holiday, like in the middle of the week, in September, would you come?” You’re not sure about this. (Brynn responds – “I’m sure about this”). Ja, I know, I know you are. You shush, you shush. Huh? Will you try and …will you make it?
You know I really feel strongly that this is something that the Lord wants me to do now because…not only has the Lord impressed upon me to speak health and healing and wholeness to you, but also to speak to a financial breakthrough and to a financial increase right now in this time when things are not going well in the natural, in the economy. You know. And so, I want to teach on some things the Lord has shown me and I’m going to use the platform of Job’s life. So, I’ll give you a little bit of insight about this. You want to hear? (Congregation responds – “Yes”). Are you sure? Before I start to preach. (Pastor John laughs).
So, who named, …who gave Job his name? Well, no one knows because actually, you know, the ancient Jewish, the ancient Rabbinical texts indicate that Job was one of the first people that ever lived. In fact, you know, there is a reference that Job was, …lived at roundabout the time of Enoch and Methuselah and those guys, in the early years. So even though, biblically, the Bible puts the book of Job in the middle on the Book, his life was not in the middle of all of the stuff. His life was … and actually he was one of the first men to populate the earth – Job. So who named him? Who gave him his name? I can’t really tell who named him but why don’t you go and find out what his name means. You want me to tell you? His name means – Hated. Hated. So why would anybody name Job, Hated?
So you understand, that in chapter one, is a description of all of the years that Job was living. So if you prepare yourself for when you come to hear, you will read how wealthy and blessed and favoured Job was. And then you can find out what it was that caused him to be so blessed. Then, in the last five chapters of the book, it talks about his encounter with God and what the rest of his life looks like. So in-between, is this drama that happens in Job’s life. So many people when they want to talk about Job, they want to ask, they want to have this question answered, and the question is: Why did Job go through what he went through? Right? And so everybody really wants to focus on what Job ‘went through’.
But I have a different ‘take’ on what happened to Job, or I have a different revelation about Job’s whole life, rather than trying to answer one question: Why did Job go through what he went through? Because you know, if you categorise Job that way, there’s so many things you miss about him. You talk about a guy that was extremely prosperous and then you go and get a guy that became double prosperous. You talk about a guy who loved God and then he had an encounter with God. He loved God and he had all this prosperity and then he had an encounter with God and he had double prosperity. But everybody focuses on what happened in-between. So we will have a conversation about the conversations that happened between the two events. He had this whole life, he lived this whole full life, this life that for all intents and purposes lived hundred plus years and everybody wants to know what happened in nine months? And the whole of Job, everybody talks about nine months but actually the man, you got to look at the man’s life – the whole life of Job. And then you have these conversations that happen with Job. And all of the conversations are about, that happened with Job except for one guy, talk about, ‘You must have made a mistake – because this thing couldn’t have happened unless you did something wrong!’ Hmm.
I wonder if we face that same question that confronts us about our prosperity, and why we don’t see the kind of wealth and prosperity we’re supposed to be seeing. I wonder. You want to hear about those conversations? You want to hear about some of that revelation? … that’s not all I’m going to teach about, but it’s one the things that I believe we’ve got to press for the double. And we have a Covenant with Jesus that is limitless. So you understand, I know that I can teach about sowing and reaping, but God has given me something to impart to you that is just something different. It’s about conversations, it’s about attitude, it’s about confrontations, it’s about all kinds of things that are happening in life that are in addition to what you do when you sow and you reap. Now you’re really interested, hey? Ja. Ja. You better come. I’m not live streaming it, if you don’t come, you don’t hear it. Ja, no no, I’ve figured this thing out, it’s easy – Live stream it, we don’t come! That’s why I asked you the question, “If I have it, will you come?” And you said, “Yes.” So then it means I don’t live stream, it means you come. (Pastor John laughs). Praise the Lord. Hallelujah.
You ready for the Word today? I’m experiencing such marvellous moments with God in my everyday walk, that it’s just a beautiful thing for me. It’s a beautiful, beautiful thing. I’ve served God all my life. I’ve had lots of moments where I can look on my life and say, I’ve had real, real genuine encounters with Jesus, from when I was a teenager. And all of my life I’ve served God. Some of my life, you know, more fervently than others but I can say that really, this season of my life, the last number of years – three, four, five years, have been the sweetest, the sweetest times that I’ve had with God. The sweetest, most deeply satisfying times I’ve had with God, on an ongoing basis. It’s a wonderful thing. And the title of my message today is: God is Revealed. But if I had to choose a title that was not so controversial, I would use the title: If I Were God, and I realised that if I had to say the title of my message was: If I were God, then it would become controversial because just the very nature of the title says you would assume that you are God or that you can think like God. So I decided I wouldn’t call my message: If I Were God, I would call it, God Is Revealed. But I’m going to talk to you about If I were God.
So we’re going to start with Isaiah 55:8-11, in the Amplified Bible, and it says this. 8For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord. 9For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. 10For as the rain and snow come down from the heavens, and return not there again, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and sprout, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, – sounds like Corinthians – 11So shall My Word be that goes forth out of My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, [without producing any effect, useless], but it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:8-11 AMPC)
So would you please say this with me: I please and purpose, say it again: I please and I purpose. So I please and I purpose. So God says: It shall accomplish that which I please and that which I purpose. Is there anything in the universe that is outside of what God says: I please and I purpose? So if you had to have a conversation with anybody that wants to know who God is and if you have to have your own conversation about who God is and why do we have to serve God, then you have to go back and say it’s because, He pleased and purposed it. He pleased it and He purposed it so because He pleased it and He purposed it, it became. So that’s what the end of that Scripture is: I pleased it and I purposed it and so when I purposed it, I sent out My purpose through my Words. I sent out My purpose and none of what I purpose ever comes back to me without producing what I’ve purposed. So I must first please it and then I purpose it and then I send it out to become it. It’s the way God is. So I ask you: Is there any force in the universe, any force in the universe, in eternity that can prevent that? No.
So there was a being that was created by God, His name was Lucifer, he was an angel of light and he had that, by God was given a creative ability and he said, “I’ll use my creative ability to please as I please so that I will purpose what I want,” and then he sent about making it become what he pleased and the minute he tried to send it out, it conflicted, it clashed against what God purposed because there cannot be a different will and purpose. So the minute he sent out what he planned and purposed, it came up against what God already sent His Word out to purpose and so when God sent His word out to purpose, what someone else sent out to purpose, what the other being sent out to purpose, had to clash with that – it couldn’t help it, right? And so when that someone else’s ‘what I please and purpose’ came into contact with God, there was only one outcome – He fell like lightning from Heaven. He couldn’t stand in the light of purpose because what was happening was he was clashing with the returning of the fruit. Do you see that? So this is a big big lesson for us to learn and I’ll speak about that in a short while.
Genesis 15:1 1After these things the Word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Fear not, Abram. I Am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.”
I just want to focus on the words, ‘I Am’. So if you have to say, you know, who is God and what is God, where is God. So we call Him Yahweh, we call Him Jesus, that’s what He tells us His name is. But when Moses ended up asking Him and I’ll get to that scripture in a minute, “Who shall I say sent me?” He said, “I Am.” I Am, I Am your shield and your exceeding great reward. The Amplified Bible says: 1After these things, the Word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Fear not, Abram. I am your shield, your abundant compensation and your reward shall be exceedingly great.” (Genesis 15:1 AMPC)
This is an accurate translation because He says, I am your shield and your abundant compensation. So in other words, I Am, I Am and because I Am to you, I Am. The ‘I Am’ is your shield. There can be nothing that penetrates through ‘I Am’ if ‘I Am’ to you. And if ‘I Am’ to you, then whatever ‘I Am’ is what you can have as a reward. What ‘I Am’ is yours – which means you are not serving Me because of a compensation and the rewards that you get, ‘I Am’ your reward. The fact that ‘I Am’ with you and you are with me, that is compensation, that is reward enough. Well, why is it reward enough? Because there is nothing that is out there that can penetrate the ‘I Am’ shield.
Come on, this is really awesome because if you have ‘I Am’ is with you, then ‘I Am’ is always the standard of anything that wants to come against you. Now if you go and read Job, you read the first nine verses of the book of Job, and you read about the relationship that he had with God and you will see that he recognises that God is ‘I Am’. And what happened was that the devil came to God and said, “Ha, but have placed a shield, a hedge around him and I can’t touch him.” Wow, and he’s so blessed and favoured, why? Because ‘I am’ is his great reward – now you want to hear more about Job, hey? Definitely.
When we pursue God for what benefits He has, then we tend to begin to focus on the wrong thing because we tend to focus on what I am in you – yourself – rather that what is The ‘I Am’. And so when you are needing something and you focus on the need, then you’re no longer focusing on the ‘I Am’ but the minute that you focus on the ‘I Am’, the need gets met.
Exodus 3:6,…this is God speaking to Moses,“6Moreover, I Am the God, thy father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.
Moreover He said, “I Am the God.” I am, I am the God, I am. Okay. So in this moment Moses hides his face and he doesn’t want to look upon God because, just because Moses, you know, he’s walking around in the desert and he’s tending sheep and goats and he’s done something in his life that he’s very ashamed of and this shame and this guilt and this whole thing has been upon him for a long time and for forty years he’s carried this fact – that he actually beat a man to death and then he buried him in secret – thought he could get away with it. He was carrying this shame and this guilt around with him; as part of his legacy for forty years. So here he is walking in the desert, you know, this is just my own interpretation, my assumption, is that he was quite a healthy man because if God appeared to him at the age of around about eighty, to come and do something significant, as to lead His people out of Egypt and know that it’s going to take another forty years, you know, then at eighty, he was a strong healthy man. So here he is and he has an encounter with God and he doesn’t know what God’s going to do to him because he recognises this immediately, in the face of this God, I’m nothing. And who has had an encounter with God like this? And if He’s encountering me like this, what’s going to happen next?
You know, if you are in the bush and you happen to be walking in the bush, and you are faced with a big cat, like a lion or a leopard or one of those things and you have an encounter with them. One of the things they will tell you to do is, not to eyeball the cat. Don’t challenge them with your eyes, look away, talk, look somewhere else, but don’t challenge them with your eyes and don’t turn around and run because then you become prey. But you need to not challenge him with your eyes, and stand your ground.
Well, I don’t think that Moses felt like he had any other choice because God said take the sandals off your feet, you’re standing on holy ground, you know, and He just hid his face and he melted. I mean he just – this is an encounter with God, right? ‘I Am.’ Exodus 3:6-15 (NLT) So verse 6 – 15 in the New Living Translation, 6I am the God of your father – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God. 7Then the Lord told him, I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. 8So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey – the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites now live. (Exodus 3:6-8 NLT).
Wow, I mean God is making a statement here to Moses. I mean, Moses has been wandering around in the desert and He just appears to Moses and before Moses can really even climatise to the fact that God has shown up. He’s saying, “My people are oppressed, I want to set them free and I want to take them to a land that belongs to another people and I want to give them the land that belongs to another people.” I mean, that in itself is like, wow. That means those people are going to not be there. Huh? So this statement in itself is a statement that God is making that is actually making His intent clear, and He’s already speaking that thing that is going out there: I please it, I purpose it, and as I speak it to you, it comes to pass. It doesn’t come to pass when he leads them out of Egypt and he led them into the … I speak it and therefore it must come to pass now. So the fact that it still had to happen, was just the mere fact of walking out what was already spoken, agreed. And He was just saying something to Moses that He already told Abraham.
Okay. 9Look! The cry of the people of Israel has reached me, and I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abuse them. 10Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people, Israel out of Egypt. 11But Moses protested to God, “Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:9-11 NLT). It is interesting to me that whenever you come into contact with ‘I Am’, the next question that you want to ask God is, “Who am I?” Because in the presence of ‘I please and I purpose and it becomes’, then the only question that you have to ask is, “Why choose me?” If you are the God who says, “I please and I purpose and it becomes, why choose Me?”
And I say to you, you are the chosen one. You are chosen. Why are you chosen? It’s not because of how good you are, it’s because He just needed a vessel. Wow. I have an honest estimation, I think, of myself when I say, I know that even though I have a rich legacy of faith in my life and my lineage, is that this vessel that looks like this, that has some hair missing now, you know. And that has a few wrinkles. I am aware that this vessel could have just housed a different spirit. And to put it conversely, I could say, my spirit and soul could have been given to another vessel. But God chose this vessel to put Himself into, because He needs vessels on the earth, even though He pleases and purposes and He performs it, He still needs vessels to get it done – that’s His choice. And so where should I stand in the whole process of self-glorification? I don’t need to tell you – I don’t need to say that there’s any glory that belongs to me. All I got to say is, “I chose to walk in His will and His way.” Hallelujah. And wherever my estimation is an over-estimation of myself, there I say to the Lord, “Please deal with that. Please deal with that.”
Anyway. 13But Moses protested, “If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ they will ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what should I tell them?” 14God replied to Moses, “I AM who I AM. Say this to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you.” (Exodus 3:13-14 NLT). Okay, I’m trying to get a point across to you here, if you can understand my point. My point is: How do you explain and say who God is? And He says, “I Am.”
So I had this confrontation with my own intellect, such as it is, when I was in my teenage years. Born again when I was five, filled with the Holy Spirit which I remember clearly when I was seven, but as a young teenager I remember having this mental encounter with God which caused me to have an emotional understanding, a soulish understanding of the fact that I needed to make a choice as an adult – young adult – that I needed to serve God. And so, I had this very thing here, I’m telling you, I had this mental gymnastic thought, when I was a teenager. And my mental gymnastic thought was: So God is in existence, and He plans things and He pleases His own will and so His will is the will of the universe. So, who made God? So who made God? Because in my three-dimensional realm that I live in, with the intellect that God gave me, that has the ability to choose, I have the ability to think also. And in my thinking about things in this three-dimensional realm, I’m trying to get a grasp of and understand that everything must have a beginning, just in the same way that I had a beginning, it started somewhere and there will also be an end to me. Then God must have a beginning, because everything has to have a beginning, right? Except, No – not if your God, because in God there was no beginning because no beginning ever needed to be in the beginning of God. You know, I mean, so there’s no beginning in God. God is the beginning and the end of everything so He wasn’t the beginning, He was the “I Am”. He was the ‘will’ that willed the beginning of everything.
So men have tried to understand this and they’re trying to intellectualise it and some people have got really high IQ’s, geniuses that God gave them anyway, and they try and use their genius to figure out where God started. So then they can’t get a hold of this idea that there is – everything has to have a beginning so they come up with an idea that is evolution. But they’ve got no physical proof that evolution happened. The best they can come up with, is with a theory that is ‘the big bang theory’, which is left up to chance. In some form of chance in the universe, this thing happened in its own evolutionary state that no one actually thought about – that there might be a beginning to that either. And so, they don’t know that, so they can’t even understand that. So they’ve got to have a faith that actually believes that. So if they say, if someone comes to me and says, “I’m an agnostic,” you know, then I say, you know, an agnostic is a – there are two words, I’m trying to think of the other one – atheist. An atheist believes there is no God.
An agnostic is someone who says, there is the concept of God does exist. You know, so that’s an agnostic. An atheist says, “I don’t believe in God,” but an agnostic says, “I don’t even believe in the concept of God.” So then how did you get here? “Well, big bang.” Well, so you actually believe that? “Yes.” Well, where did you get your believe from? I mean you had to choose, something in you had to believe that you believe this. Where did your belief system come from? How did it evolve in you? So there’s no such thing as an agnostic. Because then ultimately, if you believe that then you put yourself on the level of God. Then you have become your own ‘self-God’. Then you actually have the intellect to predict your future and run your future, therefore you have placed yourself at the premium link of evolutionary chain to think that you can think these things, so therefore you have placed yourself as God. So if you believe in yourself only, then you’ve put yourself as the highest form of what you can believe in. So you’re still not an agnostic, you’ve just put yourself there.
Okay, that was a little bit intellectual. I mean, academic is sort of argumentative if you like. Okay. But my point is this: If you begin to think that way, you’ve got to say, In my three-dimensional thinking I can’t figure God out, so who is God then, I’ve got to go back to the Bible and say, “If God is ‘I Am,’ then ‘I Am’ does what He pleases and what He pleases, He actually purposes. Then He makes it come to pass.” So here’s the amazing thing about God, is that, God is love and God is life. He doesn’t have these characteristics, cause if He has them, if He had them then He could be willing to change them. Because then it is just something I have. Come on, don’t shout me down cause I’m preaching good. Come on, come on, come on, come on. So, if I have this iPad, then this iPad that I’m preaching from is something that I have, and I can choose not to have it. So, if I have love, then I can choose not to have it. If I have life, then I can choose not to have life. But if I am love and I am life and I am justice, then what I am is everything that I please. Then I can’t say I am not those things, ever, ever, ever because that’s I am. So, if I am these things then everything that I am will always come to be the pinnacle of everything that must be, because I am is always going to be what I purpose. Come on, say, If I am, because I please it, then I purpose everything that I am so what I am is love and what I am is justice, what I am is faith, what I am is everything.
I’m life, I’m love, I’m hope, I’m everything – that’s what I am. So, what I am is always going to be what I purpose. So, the standard of everything that is going to last forever is what I am; not what someone else says or someone else’s will is. Which is why, when the time comes for the end of all things that are natural, everything will come and stand and bow their knee before the ‘I Am’, so we recognise, you are. Even though when we in the natural and we placed ourselves as gods on the earth, now we have to take this god we thought it was god, ourselves god and bow before the God, of ‘I Am’.
And the Bible says and every mouth will confess that Jesus is Lord. What are they going to actually ultimately be saying is: What you pleased, is what you purposed and what you purposed is what you made come about, and what you are is love, and life and light and what you are is all of those things which brought to us and we chose to ignore you. We choose to place ourselves at the pinnacle of everything that we want to do, but the Bible says every knee will bow and confess “I Am, I Am.” Now you and me – we’re a privileged position when you’ve made Jesus Lord and Saviour of your life – you’ve already made your one step and you’ve chosen, you said I recognise you, you’re ‘I Am’. You died for me, I am because your love is what pleased you, your love is what purposed you, your love is what made you come about on earth. So, your love demanded that you remove all of the do’s of life to relationship of connection. So, what you are is not what you do, it’s what you are prepared to engage with.
If I have to say that my whole life with Sharon, my wife, Pastor Sharon, if I have to say my whole life about living with her is about of what we have done together, then I’ve missed the whole reason of why I married her. I didn’t marry her so we can do things together; I married her because I wanted her. Come on now. I wanted her, I wanted her. When I wanted her, we ended up doing things together because our joint pleasing purposed and we made it come to pass. But if I say what our ‘come to pass’ is the reason I want her, then I can’t say that I’m actually wanting her, all I’m wanting is what must come to pass. How do you actually have a relationship with someone that’s all about what you got to do in life? Then there is no relationship; it’s all just a whole set of you do this, you do that, and I’ll do this. And we do these things together and so then we’ll get something done. That’s not what life is meant to be. What life is meant to be: Let’s live with each other and when we live with each other, what we do becomes the result of living – don’t you think?
The most powerful moments I can honestly say, still now after 38 years of marriage, the most powerful moments I have with Sharon, not the moments when she comes up to me and says, “I bought you food from Woolworths today John.” Do you understand? “Or I made you a great meal.” I mean I might enjoy it, and we might enjoy it together. But I can tell you honestly, the joy of our living together is that we sit face-to-face, eyeball-to-eyeball, we take what is deep inside, and we speak it, then she speaks it. And I want to say, it’s like you breathing life to each other. In that moment of breathing life to each other, there is an intersection of your soul and your spirit. And that intersection of your soul and spirit – that just so happens to be facilitated by your vessel – That intersection of soul and spirit is where the creation of joy comes from. I am preaching extremely well today.
If you think about, if you think about people say, I have a good friend, and I have a good friendship. Then what is it about this friend that you call your friend, that is so good to you? Well, you say well we hang out together. What do you do that you? What is it made you get to this point where you call this person your friend? Well, at some point there was a sitting down, where your soul and your spirit was, …can I use the words ‘vibrating’ together. And you found a tune that sounded similar and, in that tune, you found each other, a friendship? And whenever when you came together you found the tune saying the same tune. Yes? And so now as things came on, you began to decide I’m going to do things together with you because the tune that we sing, or this rhythm or this thing that we have, this vibration that is between us, this is good. It feels good. Yes? It’s not, …you can’t turn around and say I’m friends with you because you drive to school every day, or you drive me to work or we share a car to work every day. Right? That’s not, that’s not what your relationship is built on. You can’t say I have a relationship because we eat together every night, I mean, you can sit on that side of the table.
I have this picture in my mind right now of these wealthy people sitting in a big room and this long dinner table, one person is on that end of the table, and each one has a butler standing there feeding them food, you know. And then you see them talking to their socialite circles afterwards, “Me and my husband, we had dinner together last night.” You did really? I haven’t had dinner with my husband for a long time. What they don’t say to you is that we had dinner, like 10 foot apart. And when he was sitting eating, you know, he was reading a newspaper and I was editing, but we had dinner together. You can’t say cause you had dinner together that you have a relationship. So who are you having a relationship with? Whenever you’re having a relationship with someone, it’s the ‘I Am’ in the person that you are having a relationship with.
14He said to them, go tell them, I Am has sent me to you, 15God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: Yahweh, the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you. This is my eternal name, which name is that? I Am – Yahweh), my name to remember for all generations (Exodus 3:15, NLT)
I’ve got news for you today, the reason we are sitting here today is because ‘I Am’. And for me to ask you to be part of a relationship that is based on ‘Come let’s build churches together, come let’s be on TV together, come let’s go and do things together.’ This is not what relationships are built on. If relationships are built on vision and what we must do together, then as soon as my vision changes or your vision changes, or something happens then we’ll no longer going to walk together. But if we say, hey let’s walk together because ‘I Am’ has brought us together, then we understand that there’s a much bigger deal at stake than ‘I am’, than me. The’ I am’ is the thing that’s walking together, generation after generation, that’s why we are here. Hallelujah.
Revelation 1:8 in the Amplified Bible says 8I am the Alpha and the Omega [the Beginning and the End], says the Lord God, He Who is [existing forever] and Who was [continually existing in the past] and Who is to come, the Almighty [the Omnipotent,] the Ruler of all. I’m going to read to you in The Message Translation 8The Master declares, I am A – Z. I’m The God Who Is, The God Who Was, and The God About to Arrive. I’m the Sovereign-Strong.” (Revelation 1:8, MSG). I am king, I am strong, I am the King of Kings, ‘I Am’. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah, Hallelujah.
I want to read to you Revelation 4, can read you the whole book of Revelation chapter 4. 1After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice which I had heard addressing me like [the calling of] a war trumpet said, Come up here, and I will show you what must take place in the future. 2At once I came under the [Holy] Spirit’s power, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with One seated on the throne! 3And He Who sat there appeared like [the crystalline brightness of] jasper and [the fiery] sardius, and encircling the throne there was a halo that looked like [a rainbow of] emerald. 4Twenty-four other thrones surrounded the throne, and seated on these thrones were twenty-four elders (the members of the heavenly Sanhedrin), arrayed in white clothing, with crowns of gold upon their heads. 5Out from the throne came flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder, and in front of the throne seven blazing torches burned, which are the seven Spirits of God; 6And in front of the throne there was also what looked like a transparent glassy sea, as if of crystal. And around the throne, in the centre at each side of the throne, were four living creatures (beings) who were full of eyes in front and behind [with intelligence as to what is before and at the rear of them]. 7The first living creature (being) was like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature had the face of a man, and the fourth living creature [was] like a flying eagle. 8And the four living creatures, individually having six wings, (so they each had six wings) were full of eyes all over and within [underneath their wings]; and day and night (these four creatures) never stop saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, Who was and Who is and Who is to come. (Revelation 4:1-8)
There is no one else in the universe; there is no other presence in the universe; there is no other will in the universe that is ever going to ever be able to stand before the will of God. Every will must bow to it. And this is not a hard thing to do. The only hard thing to do is when you don’t want to serve God, is that you take your will and you bash it up against the will of God. But you, spirit being – you person – that is Christ-like, you – Christian – inside of you is the very thing that is wanting to call out Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, Who was and Who is and Who is to come. Because you have already made the decision, “I don’t want my will to bash up against His will. I want Him to be my shield and my abundant reward. Him – not things.” Wow!
9And whenever the living creatures offer glory and honor and thanksgiving to Him Who sits on the throne, Who lives forever and ever (through the eternities of the eternities), (just in case you didn’t understand how long eternity was) – Who lives forever and ever (through the eternities of the eternities), (which means there is no beginning and no end to Him – just the eternity of the eternities is all that you can say about the ‘I Am’, is the eternity of the eternities are in Him. So if you want to think about trying to measure yourself and your intellect before God – think about the eternities of the eternities and when you get that figured out you say, “Well, maybe I can think like God.” But ‘I Am’ is the eternities of the eternities 10The twenty-four elders (the members of the heavenly Sanhedrin) fall prostrate before Him Who is sitting on the throne, and they worship Him Who lives forever and ever; and they throw down their crowns before the throne, crying out, 11Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive the glory and the honour and dominion, for You created all things; by Your will they were [brought into being] and were created (Revelation 4:1-11).
What He willed, He purposed. And what He purposed must be created. It cannot not be. Can I tell you, Church, that poverty was not created in God. Poverty is a sin function. It’s a function of sin nature that is greedy; that is all about self-glorification; it is all about setting yourself up as God and not setting yourself up as worshipping the ‘I Am’. Poverty is about managing the earth’s resources so that a few people can live as they choose. That is not what God set up the earth to do. God did not set up the earth for the wealth to belong to those that wanted to worship the spirit of mammon – which is the control of money. God set up the earth for us to represent and look like Him through us on the earth. Hallelujah.
Genesis 1:26. God said, 26Let Us [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit] make mankind in Our image, after Our likeness, and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the [tame] beasts, and over all of the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth. 27So God created man in His own image, in the image and likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them. (Genesis 126-:27 AMPC). We are part of the creation. God created us to be like Him. So then, you can ask yourself the question today: “Why did God make man to be like Him? And why did God make man with a choice to choose Him and then man chose to actually serve his own will as the superior will?” Isn’t that really what Adam chose? What Adam chose was, “I choose not to serve and obey the ‘I Am’, the glorious, eternal One of eternity. I choose to make my own choice the point of everything.” Yes? I mean, when He said, “I’ll eat of the fruit”, did He not say, “I choose,” rather than, “His will chooses for me.”
And so, I say to you, this message that I’m ministering to you today, If I were God… If I were God, what would I want you to do – if I were God? Now do you understand why I said this will be a controversial title for the message? But if I say, God revealed/God is being revealed… But I want to say to you, “If I were God, if I were God,” and so that’s the controversy in this thing; because if I’m saying, “I’m God,” then you’re going to say to me, “But you’re not God.”. And then you could say, “Yes, but it’s not fair to ask me this question because I’m not God.” And so, “No, you are not God.” There is only one God. So, it’s not fair for me to ask you the question, but if you were God, because you want to say, “But I’m not God.” Come on, stay with me here. I know it’s in the afternoon but stay with me. Come on.
Do you think it is fair for me to ask you the question, “If I were God”, and I ask you, “What would you do if you were God?” And then you say to me, “But it’s not fair to ask me that question because I’m not God.” Wouldn’t that be your response to me? Come on. Are you with me actually? Do you understand what I’m asking you? You understand? You know, if I said to you, “If I were God, I would want you to do this.” Now, “If you were God, what would you do?” And then you would say to me, “No, no, you can’t ask me the question – if I were God.” In the same way you can’t even ask yourself the question, “If I were God.” Because, when you’re not God, that would be a fair answer. Right? You get me! Are you with me? Okay, that would be a fair answer. So then, why do you insist on being like God? Why do you insist on making every decision based on your will, not His will? I mean, right, it’s a fair question, “If you were God, what would you do?” “Well, you can’t ask me what I would do because I’m not God.” “Ah, but every decision you make is based on what you want. So then, you are God – to yourself. So why do you insist on making every decision as though you were God?”
Kim (Pastor John taking to Kim), you’re looking there like…(laughing). So, it would be fair for me to say to you, “If you were God,” but then actually I have to ask you, if you were God because you and me, we’re behaving every day as if we were God because we are making decisions as if we are God; because we are making decisions for ourselves all the time, without consulting the great will of I Am – what He wants. So every time you say, “I’ll choose”, rather than, “He chooses,” – you are God. So don’t ask me the question, “If I were God.”
Okay, but now I must ask you the question, “If you were God, what would you do?” “Well, then that would imply that I must actually think like God before I can answer you…” Exactly. “So what do you think God thinks about this?” “I don’t know.” “Well, shouldn’t you find out? Do you think He does not want to tell you what He wants you to do?” Come on. No, He wants to tell you what He wants you to do. Doesn’t He? I mean, Hey, you’re His kids. Didn’t the whole reason that He said, “I will, and I purpose, and I make to become a creature that is like Me,” is so that not so that He can do whatever He wants. That already proved to be a wrong deal. And through what He did, what He did wants, poverty came into the earth. Through what he did, what he wants, curse came into the earth. That already proved to be inadequate.
So why do you want to go back to that way of living? Why don’t you just come over here and behave like the superior creature that is in you – Jesus that is in you, Christ-like one. And come and say the ‘I Am’ is the will that I want to serve. Oh, I like this conversation because what you’re actually asking me is the ‘I Am’ is going to become everything that you decide upon. Hey, now we’re in a good space because now we get to go into God’s realm of limitless options. When you say I want what I want, then you are limited to everything that your will that you can do. The minute you say, I want what He wants, I become limitless in my options, but the limitless options are what God determines my options should be because in Him choosing my options and I respond to them; the power of all of His abundance and great reward becomes mine. Now I live life completely satisfied, full of joy. This is really great preaching – hey Kim? (Laughing). I was worried about Kim for a minute because she had her hand over her mouth like this, you know, and I get that – I kind of understood that deep thinking stance – what are you saying Pastor John? Revelation was hitting you hey, oh, awesome.
So John 16- Jesus on the earth, He is everything that the Father’s will. He came from the ‘I Am’ and everything that the ‘I Am’ is living in a human body and now this human body; when you’ve heard me preach like this now you should go back and read John chapter 15 through to John chapter 18, and you will see everything that was the embodiment of the ‘I Am’ willed in Jesus’ body. So He had a vessel that perfectly lived everything that was ‘I Am’. Nothing He said, nothing He did was anything else other than what ‘I Am’ wanted – right? I have still many things to say to you, Jesus is speaking to His disciples, but you are not able to hear; bear them or to take them upon you, or to grasp them now. Right now, because I am limited in this vessel; this vessel is the only vessel that exists in the universe that is the ‘I Am’ in flesh. And your vessel was born out of a cursed environment therefore you are unable to bear things right now, because at this point in time what’s in My vessel is not yet in your vessel. Huh.
But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth [the whole truth]. For He will not speak His own message, on His own authority but He will tell you whatever He hears [from the Father—He will give the message that has been given to Him], and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come [in the future]. In other words, even the Holy Spirit will be a vessel that comes from the will of the eternal of eternities. And in His will He will come and He will give you what His will is and He will show you the things that He wills you for the future. And then you will be able to receive it because inside of you will be Me. And the One that I am, that is in this body, is now going to be glorified but it is going to be in you. When you receive Me, the ‘I Am’, Me, Jesus is going to be in you and I am perfectly in the will of the Father, and when I die I will have everything that ‘I Am’ will come and live in you.
So, you are not going to have any trouble living like Me because all of the power of what I am is going to come and live in you. So how come I have such trouble with my will? Because the more you train your will, the more you going to give your will a chance to do what it wants and then; it’s like a drug. I will therefore I want. I want therefore I will. I will therefore I want. It’s like a drug addict. I want. I want. I will. I want. And it becomes so big inside of you; it becomes so big that I get what I will and what I want is what I will, what I will is what I want that the will of the One, the ‘I Am’ is no longer your option.
And so it is just a matter of time before that thing is going to fall in on you like a pack; like a house of cards. Because there is no way that you can throw your will up against the will of God, you can’t even as a Christian; you can’t do that. In fact the Bible says, in the book of Hebrews, if you really want to understand what that interpretation is in the book of Hebrews it says, for such a one that thinks that they can live by their own will, and not live by the will of God, there is no more sacrifice that can be made for them, because it is not about what you’re sinning, it’s about the fact that you want to live by your will when you know, actually that you should be living by the will of God. And because the will of God is in you to do the will of God then you do your own will, there is no more sacrifice that can be made for you because all the sacrifices have already been paid that you can live the will of the Father.
Wow. Whoo. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. And so here is my encouragement to you today, you don’t have to work to get the will of the Father. This is not a works programme. You just have to say, I’m agreeing with all of those creatures in Heaven right now. I’m agreeing with all of the Christians that have gone before us, that are now the great cloud of witnesses. All of those creatures that I talked about in the Bible, I’m agreeing with all of them – “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty Who was and Who is and He is to come.” And I say, “Holy, holy, holy, glory, glory, glory to the Most High God.” And I say Father I willingly submit my will to Your will.
When you wake up tomorrow morning, you don’t have to worry about what was, because when God says He was the eternal of eternities that was, then everything that Jesus Blood paid for was in the ‘was’. When you wake up tomorrow morning you have to now say I’m now living in the ‘is’. Because I don’t have to worry about the ‘was’ because that’s past yesterday. So whatever happened yesterday was in the ‘was’. I mean if you want to make a nickname out of it, you know, you can say “Howzit Was?” You know because ‘was’ was was, and ‘was’ can’t affect me because ‘was’ was was. And ‘was’ is dead and buried and under the Blood and if I pull the ‘was’ into the present, then that is my choice to do that; that is not God’s will. God’s will… He says leave the ‘was’ in the was. My Blood covered the ‘was’. Even now My Blood covers the ‘is’ right now, and He wants to show you that the Blood covers the future.
So when you wake up in the morning, you want to wake up and say it’s a new day, say I praise You; glory, glory, holy, holy, praise and honour and thanksgiving to the Most High God. And then the next thing that happens is that your will that you have been training for too long says, Ja but, in a few hours you are going to do something that you want to do. And then you are going to let yourself down. And then what’s going to happen to all of these good intentions? Then you say, well that’s not my will speaking. Come on now. That’s not my will speaking. No but it is your will because you know what you will is. No no; my will is the new DNA genetic reformed person. That will is the one I’m wanting. My will wants to worship. My will wants to walk the way God wants me to walk. Ja but what about that other will? That other will, don’t worry about it, this new will is going to take care of that will. Because the ‘I Am’ is greater than even your will. And so all you got to say is I agree with what pleases Him and I agree with what His purpose is, and it will come to pass. And now I understand, that when I take what His will is and I purpose it, it cannot return without anything; it must come.
So then I have to say well the purpose of us being on the earth is to dominate – money. Money is not supposed to dominate us. We supposed to dominate. Let me tell you, alcoholism is not supposed to dominate us. Power politics is not supposed to dominate us. Governments are not supposed to dominate us. The Bible says in the book of Romans, now if you get the whole picture you can understand that God says I put governments in place to bring peace to you. Huh – that’s for another day.
Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Well what if the government is a corrupt government? What if the government is a communist government? Let me tell you, there is no ideology on the earth, neither is there an injustice system on the earth that should determine what you can and can’t do. Well, where do you get that from? Well, if you must know, you should come on that Wednesday. But let me tell you that ideologies do not confront the will of God. The will of God will make every ideology bow because ideologies are only the figment of man’s rulership. And all the earth is crying out and waiting for the sons of God to become rulers because when we rule, we speak what He wills or what He purposes, and then it must be accomplished. So whenever an ideology comes up against it, he says, “No, no. It’s got to bow.” You’ve just got to stand your ground long enough until it does bow. But we get caught up with stuff that says, “Go up against that and win.” Well, if you start thinking like that, you’re going to lose. Which is why it is important to live in faith in smaller things in your life. It is important to live with the will and purpose of God in your life in smaller things. It is important because when you live in the smaller things, then you begin to grow in confidence that you stand your ground in smaller things. Hallelujah.
I ask you now, Church, we are going on TV in October now, okay, so I ask you, “Do you think that in the beginning of the year when we, …when I was talking about and looking through things financially, what our income is year-on-year, what expenses we have to spend and you think that I had it in mind that we would have to spend the amount that we have to spend every month on TV?”
If I bow to scarcity, then God cannot answer my purpose. I have to believe His will and walk in what pleases Him then He can answer my purpose with his abundant, exceeding reward. If I bow before scarcity, then He can’t answer with abundant reward. Do you understand how this works every day? That if every day, you find yourself in a situation and you bow to that situation, then He can’t answer you as your shield. He can’t answer you as exceedingly abundant reward. That’s why it is important that you have to speak things out of your mouth. You’ve got to speak things out of your spirit that are ‘God speak’, not human speak, not reality speak.
One of the most damaging statements that I had to grow up in church was, “You become so spiritually minded, you are no earthly good.” I mean, that’s what I grew up with. And so there was, I understand the merit of why people say that because, because there were spiritual people that just, you know, they didn’t want to actually engage with anybody in the world because they were just too spiritual, you know? And that’s just not the way life is meant to be. That’s why Jesus prayed and He said that, “I don’t ask you, Father, to take them out of the world but to protect them from the evil one.” So if He prayed that and you can be sure that that prayer’s been answered so you are protected from the evil so go ahead and live in the world, go ahead and live in the world.
But that was a very damaging statement because what it did was, it had the opposite effect. “So if I’m not so spiritual then maybe I can be of earthly good.” And the reality is, actually, I can be of no earthly good unless I am spiritual. I can’t even be of any good to my wife unless I am spiritual. I can’t even be of any good to my kids unless I am spiritual. I can’t even be of any good in my income management if I am not spiritual. I may get lots of income but I can’t manage the money properly unless I am spiritual. Why? Because you’re going to end up spending the money on yourself as you want. And so when you spend the money on what you want, then you can’t manage your money properly because it’s all about what you want. It’s not about what He wants. Huh. Come on. Huh.
I hope, and it is my prayer that this shepherd that is standing in front of you, this spiritual leader that is standing in front of you, I’m doing the best I can to be a vessel where God’s revelation is flowing to you, God’s revelation is touching you, setting you free because the Great ‘I Am’ is the reason we are here. We‘re not here because of me, we are not here because we have a vision, we’re not here because we can build churches, we’re are not here because we can buy aeroplanes. We may need those things but that’s not why we are here. We are here to do the will of Him. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
Won’t you stand with me please? Did you get something out of this message today? I know that what I preached to you today is part of some of the deep things in the spirit that is going in inside of me but I have to say like Brother Copeland, “If God gets on me then He gets on you.” It’s just no other way about it. What He says to me I’ve got to say it to you and He wouldn’t want me to say it to you if you weren’t here, so if you were here, it means you get to hear it and if you get to hear it, then it means it is His purpose that you were here to hear it. I sound like the Apostle Paul debating now. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.
Shall we all pray this prayer together?
“Lord, I recognise that I need a savior. I believe this in my heart and I confess this with my mouth that today, You save me from myself, You save me from my own will and I declare that from this day onwards, I will do the will of the Father. I put myself in agreement, to do the will of the Father and now, Holy Spirit, I ask You to reveal all of what the Father is to me. All of what my future holds, I ask You to reveal it to me because that is in agreement with Your Word, in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Isn’t that an awesome prayer to pray? Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
I wake up most mornings now, I wake up very early and I’m normally up and around and this is not something that’s not natural to me. This is a totally supernatural activity and I can preach to you what I’m preaching to you today because this has actually been something that happened to me by the Holy Spirit. It is not my natural thing to wake up early in the morning and get out of bed, naturally early. Some people, Sharon is like that. I mean for her it is like, when the alarm goes off at 5 o’clock, “I’m out of here. It’s morning.” Well, that’s the way it seems to me. For me it’s like the alarm clock went then it’s just the reason to sleep in for another half an hour, at least. You know what I mean? Nah, you don’t know what I mean.
But here is the thing that’s been happening to me. It’s that, I’ve been waking up like half past three, four o’clock in the morning and then I can’t sleep anymore and the Holy Spirit is calling me, He’s calling me and saying, “John, come, come. Come, I want to talk to you, I want to talk to you.” Yes, Sir. Yes, Sir. And I am up and I open the curtains and I go and I open the curtains wherever I’m sitting and I’m praying and I’m in the Word and I see the sun come up and I see life beginning, and every time that happens to me, every time that happens, it’s like, “Wow, wow God, wow, You just made this happen.”
It’s been happening the whole time I was asleep but you just made this happen. You know what I mean? It’s like I’ve been sleeping and I’m so human and you just, the whole universe is just gravitating on Your Words. Wow. You wake up like that in the morning, you can say, “Glory, glory, glory, glory.”
So now I can confess to you that I am an easy early morning riser. Hallelujah. And I didn’t even have to try that. It was like God just, “Come on, come on John, come on.” But I will tell you this. Now I get to about 8 o’clock at night and I am like… (Pastor John drops his head to indicate he falls asleep…. laughter). I must have been sitting in the chair and the head goes (Pastor John nods a few times…more laughter). Praise the Lord.
It’s not unusual for me nowadays to find myself lying on the bed at 5 o’clock and Sharon comes in, “Hello John, John,” “Hello, What, what, what, I was just meditating.” “No you weren’t. You were sleeping.” Hallelujah.
I pray that the Lord blesses you and that His peace rests upon you and you understand that the Great ‘I Am’ is your shield. No weapon formed against you can prosper and the Word of God is going before you to make all the good things come about for you, in Jesus’ name. Do you agree with this prayer? Then you can have it. Receive it. Say, “I receive it in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
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