Scripture Reference: Isaiah 55: 8-11 (AMPC); Genesis 15:1 (KJV); Genesis 15:1 (AMPC); Exodus 3:6 (KJV); Exodus 3:6-15 (NLT); Revelations 1:8 (AMPC); Revelation 1:8 (MSG); Revelation 1:4-8 (NESV); Genesis 1:26-27 (AMPC); Revelation 4:1-11 (AMPC); John 16:12-13 (AMPC)
Hy het nou geruk en pluk daarso. Praise the Lord. I will say nothing more about that. There’s a few things that we are just experimenting with. We’re looking at how the stage can be changed and look different, some of the things at the back behind me, or whoever the speaker is here. So, of course you will understand that if we’re wanting to focus on the message on television, then we want to be in a place where there is nothing crowding the stage at the back and distracting us from the focus of the person who’s delivering the message.
At the same time, we are wanting to have high quality praise and worship, high quality music that is available to the world and will be a draw to the people of the world to worship and praise the Most High God. Amen. Hallelujah. So, we’re experimenting with a few things. We’re believing the Lord that we wanting to upgrade our lighting system and part of the lighting system we want is what they call theatre grade lighting, not just TV production grade lighting, but theatre grade lighting. The theatre grade lighting comes at a price of about R100 000. So, if you’ve got a R100 000 lying around, the Kingdom of God can use it. Amen. Praise the Lord. You know, there are many different things that as we keep moving into this space, are showing us more and more things that need to change. So, we’re going to use this next month to experiment and change a few things up and praise the Lord. Glory to God.
So, I pray that this message this morning will touch your heart, your mind, your ears, and your hearts are ready to receive the Word of God. I pray that there will be no barriers, human or spiritual barriers that will prevent you from receiving the Word of God. That it will touch you, it will change you, and it will because you to walk in a whole new way with God than you’ve ever walked before. Hallelujah. Even if you are the most disciplined disciple, I pray that this message will change you this morning.
I have entitled the message this morning, God is revealed. So, I want to ask you before I start my message, I want to ask you; if you had a choice to have a rest weekend, or a rest public holiday, or you had a choice to come and hear the Word of God, which God has been really moving upon me very strongly to preach on business and finance? So what would you do? Stay at home or come and hear what God has to say for your future in this economic environment? Hey? What do you say? What do you think? Really? I’ll tell you the Lord has been all over me because this is the moment for the Church to shine not for the Church to be like the world. When the world is experiencing economic difficulties, then the Church has got to be one that shows God is the One Who takes care of us. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
So, just watch out for the announcement and I’ll be working with my staff, because every decision I make affects a lot of other resources in the ministry. So, I have to make the decision carefully, you know, and affects a lot of timing and things like that. So, praise the Lord.
I’m in Ethiopia; I leave on Friday for Ethiopia and I will be in Ethiopia next weekend, with Brother Jerry, ag, Brother Joe. We are doing a whole week’s worth of missions outreach work in Ethiopia. So, you can pray for me and what we’re doing for, on behalf and with Brother Jerry Savelle and his ministry. I am looking forward to what God’s doing there in that country. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. So, you get to have a really amazing, awesome experience next Sunday, and that is Pastor Sharon is going to come and deliver an anointed message to you. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Praise the Lord.
So, my title, the title of my message is, God is revealed. If I didn’t, what? What must I do? What have I forgotten? Oh, we got to switch something off. Okay. Now you tell me. That sounds a lot better, doesn’t it? Yeah, I mean white noises like that, you don’t always realise something is happening behind there, you know, but when it is off then you realise. Praise the Lord. So, in other words, start again, hey? So now I must start again.
So my message is called, God is revealed. And if I was not, if I thought that my other title that I really wanted to call it wouldn’t be so controversial, then I would have called it, If I were God. So, because I think that my message title, If I were God, could be a little controversial, that would really be what I want to call it, but, so it is called, God is revealed.
I am going to read from Isaiah chapter 55 verse 8, from the Amplified Bible. This is something the Lord gave me after I sent my message to the people that work the system at the back there. Isaiah 55 verse 8, in the Amplified Bible, says, 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, 11So shall My Word be that goes forth out of My mouth: it shall not return to Me void [without producing any effect, or 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, I would like you to just recognise these words for me, in the last verse, but it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose, will you all say this with me; I please and purpose. I please and purpose. If God is revealed in this statement, I please and I purpose. I please and I purpose and so, if I were God, then, of course, being God, there would be nothing that I could do or wanted to do that could not be done. Right, because if I am God, then I do what I please and I do what I purpose. So, in our finite thinking, in our three-dimensional thinking, so it is very important for us to recognise that we are only; we are restricted in our thinking as human beings. We are restricted to three-dimensional thoughts and three-dimensional experiences.
God says, and it is for this reason that God says; My thoughts are higher than your thoughts and My ways are higher than your ways. You can’t grasp My ways because you are stuck in a three-dimensional world. So, what man is trying to do, is take a three-dimensional being and three-dimensional thinking and three-dimensional consideration and intelligence and try and figure out a fourth-dimension; God. You can’t. It is not possible. All the collective thinking in the world can only think three-dimensionally. It can never think in the spiritual realm. Intellectually, it requires a spiritual being to connect into the spirit realm.
So, I please and purpose. If, so God is revealed in the statement; I please and I purpose. If I were God, what, sitting in eternity, what is it that I would please to do and what is it that I would purpose if I were God? Now, I am not God, and I can’t begin to think like God, but God is revealed to me in what He has already pleased and purposed. So, what He pleased and purposed, He has revealed in His actions. So, if you want to know what you please and if you want to know what the purpose of your life is, it is all revealed in your actions. Well, no, Pastor John. I’ll tell you what you do. We have a specialist nutrition lady that we have known for a long, long time and she has become a very high-profile person in South Africa and so she very seldom takes on personal cases. She normally shares her learning through professional forums and conventions and speaking, but if you happen to be one of those few people that get to actually be managed by her nutritionally, the first thing she will ask you is; give me a two week written diary of everything you eat. Skip not one thing, you don’t skip a drink of water, you don’t skip a cup of tea, a cup of coffee. You don’t skip a thing. For me to analyse what you need in your future, I have to analyse what your behaviour is now. If you want treatment from her, she will tell you, give me a diary, two weeks of what you have been eating. Don’t change your eating habits, keep eating what you normally eat, but write it down.
And it is amazing when you go through the exercise of writing down, then what you discover about what you please and what you purpose. Just for your own sake, do this. I did this many, many years ago and maybe it is time for me to do it again, you know, but I did this many years and became so big in my awareness, that of course, you know, when you are, when you are much younger, and you are setting goals and you are wanting to achieve, and you are in the corporate world, the corporate world has an interest in you not just being efficient, but also being effective. They want you to be both. So in the corporate world when they’re paying you a big sum of money and they’re investing in you as a resource, they want to help you to be efficient and effective. So one of the ways they want to, want you to maximise your task management, your productivity, your output. So if you go on time management, which as you know, it’s more for me, it’s more about energy management, but essentially this is what they do, they say; write down for two weeks everything you do, every fifteen minutes. Write down what you’ve done in the last fifteen minutes. It will be a very interesting thing for you to do, to do that exercise for yourself. Write down what you do, what you have done for the last fifteen minutes. You can just put down a one liner; I listened to the radio. I sat thinking. I ate. I drank coffee and talked to my work colleague. If, you might say; wasted talk over coffee. Productive meeting. Unproductive meeting. Nonsense meeting. I’ll tell you what; write down what you’ve done fifteen minutes till you go to sleep and go to bed, for two weeks, and you will find out what you please and what you purpose. Really.
So if I were God, and I wanted to please and purpose what is me then there would be nothing in the universe. So when I get to eventually read you the scripture in Genesis chapter one, and He says; in the beginning, then the scriptures can only refer to the beginning of when God decided that there should be a universe that could reveal Himself. That wasn’t in the beginning. I don’t want to spend time getting on to a theological debate about this, because we think three dimensionally and you can’t figure this out in your brain. So that’s why people have come up with alternative theories how men came into existence because they can’t figure God out with their brain.
So what they, they talk about evolution, they talk about reincarnation, they talk about a lot of stuff about how men, how men came into being, because ultimately you got to get back to a point where you believe something. And so you have to believe that God has always been, and the God that has always been, there has been no other being in the universe other than the God that has been. And so when we say; in the beginning, then it only refers to the, to the allotted time in eternity when God decided; I please and I purpose. So when I please and I purpose, we became. And so that’s really, if you want to say what you can do in your life; I please, then I purpose, and I become. And this is an essential part of the message; God is revealed.
Genesis chapter 15 verse 1, 15After these things the Word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, fear not Abraham: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward (Genesis 15:1 KJV). I just want to focus on those two words, I am. I am. I am your shield, and I am your exceeding great reward. There are some translations that express if differently and they say; I am your shield and you shall be rewarded. That’s not how the original translation reads. The original translation says; I am your shield and I am your exceeding great reward. The Amplified Bible says this, 15After 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 a really accurate translation. I am your shield. I am your abundant compensation. It’s not; I am what I give you, I am. I am you. I am to you. I am your protection. I am your shield and I am your abundant compensation. It’s not what I can do for you that is your abundant compensation. It’s I am who I am to you, is everything you ever need. And therefore you shall see exceeding great rewards while you’re on the earth. But I am your abundant compensation, and I am everything to you that you ever need. So therefore, it’s quite clear from that scripture, when God reveals Himself, He’s not revealing Himself in what He can do for you but He reveals Himself in what He is to you and then when you understand what He is then everything else comes with it.
Exodus chapter 3 verse 6 says, 6Moreover He said, speaking to Moses, I am the God of 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 (Exodus 3:6 KJV). So God shows up and He says, “I Am, I am the God of your fathers; Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I Am.” The minute He says, “I Am”, Moses understands that this confrontation is not a human confrontation. This is an eternal confrontation and he becomes afraid because why would God come and speak to me? So he is concerned about the unknown walk with God that has appeared to him.
So do you think God would appear to Moses if He didn’t please and purpose? He appeared to Moses because He pleased to appear. It was His purpose to appear so that Moses could become. Right? So God must reveal Himself to show you what He pleases, what He purposes so that you can become. Hallelujah. Verse 6 to 15. I’m going to read to you from the New Living Translation; 6“I 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). In other words He’s saying I’m taking to you to a land that’s occupied by other people, but that’s your land. So if Moses could understand what God was pleasing and what He was purposing then he would also immediately understand what was to become is that he and the people would disinherit people that felt that they had ownership to a land. Amen. 9 “Look! 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?” 12God answered, “I will be with you. And this is your sign that I am the one who has sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, now he’s talking about his purpose, you will worship God at this very mountain.” 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.” (Exodus 3:9-14 NLT).
How can you tell people what I please and what I purpose? What is My name that can mean anything to them other than I am what I please, and I please to deliver you. What is His name? He didn’t say; I already told you I’m the God of your father Abraham, Isaac and Jacob because that’s not His name, that’s who He fathered. 14“Say this to the people of Israel: I am has sent me to you.” (Exodus 3:14 NLT). So I am the eternal being, I am the God of all, the God, I am God. I Am; there is nothing else that you can say that has more meaning than I am because I Am is what I please and I am is what by purpose and then what I am pleasing and purposing becomes. So how can you tell the people anything other than I am sent me.
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, my name to remember for all generations (Exodus 3:15 NLT) So He says; how I can describe to you what I please and what I purpose other than I am. But in order for you to have a connection point, you can say this is the same I am who is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and I am, My name, I am that same God to all generations to come. I am. That puts you and me in a very good space because today I am a messenger sent to you and I cannot come to you speaking my own message. I must come to you speaking what I am tells me to say to you. If I come with my own message, then my own message is something that will have no power. It is the reason the Apostle Paul says, “I didn’t come to you with theories and ideologies and motivating speeches and come to you with a rah-rah message, but I did come to you with words that are full of power of God. They’re full of I am.”
Revelations Chapter 1 verse 8, God is speaking to the churches in Revelations, and He said to John, 8I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, says the Lord God, He Who is and He Who was and Who is to come, the Almighty (the Ruler of all) (Revelation 1:8 AMPC). You all you must bear with me because we going someplace. I am the God, He Who is, He Who was and He Who is to come. The Message translation says it this way, 8The Master declares, “I am the A to 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). In other words, I am the Almighty, they’ve interpreted it, I am the Sovereign-Strong. In other words, I am the King with Strength.
Now I’m going to read you this passage of scripture from the English version, the New English Standard Version, and I’m going to read verse 4 to you, because I’m preaching to you this morning about God revealed, and if I, if I were God. 4John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from you Who is and Who was and Who is to come and from the seven spirits who are before His throne. 5And from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of kings on earth to Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood. 6And made us a Kingdom, priests to His God and Father to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 7Behold He is coming with the clouds and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of Him. Even so. Amen. 8“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “Who is and Who was and Who is to come, the Almighty.”(Revelation 1:4-8 NESV)
I’m wanting to establish for you that from Genesis to Revelations God refers to Himself as; I Am. And whenever He reveals Himself to people He says, “I am and there is no one else like Me, I am. I am the beginning, I am the past and I am the future and I am the present God.” There is always wherever you go, there is; I am. Okay, now if I were God what would I do? What would I do with what I have if I were God? So I ask you today; if you were God what would you do? Well, you might say to me, “Well, Pastor John, that’s not a reasonable question to ask me if I were God because I’m not God.” If you say you are not God, then why are you making decisions that are against God’s will? Come on now, this is reason. If I were God, what would I do? How would I, what would I do with my next 24 hours, what would I do? What did you do with your last 24 hours? “Well, that’s not a fair question Pastor John, because I’m not God.” Okay, that’s a good confession to make, that’s a good understanding do you have. You are not God. Right?
You’re all very quiet on me this morning. I know you’re listening but you might say, “Okay, yes Pastor John, I understand I’m not God. Yes, Pastor John.” Amen. Okay you are not God, but if you were God, what would you do? “Well, you can’t ask me that question because I’m not God.” That’s a good point, you’re not God. Huh, so then if He is Almighty, Who was, Who is and He’s about to arrive, are you a Christian? Then doesn’t He live in you? Then what does the God in you want to do with you? What does the God in you want to do with you? What does the God in you want to become to you? I mean, that’s now a reasonable question. If I was asking someone who was an unbeliever who doesn’t know God and I say, “Does Jesus live in you?” And they say, “No.” And then I say, “Okay, you’ve decided for whatever reason not to make the God Who is the God of all gods your God. Which makes you the person to decide who God is, so then you’ve made God yourself.” Yes? Because if they’re choosing who God is to them or who He’s not because I have a free choice to decide whoever I want to believe in, whether God is Who He is, what He is and what He’s not, then okay. I must be God to myself. “Well, okay that’s a bit strong, don’t tell me I’m God to myself because actually I’m a very open person, and I’m a very social person, I’m open to all kinds of ideas from all different people about things.” And so many people actually think that when they think that they’ve decided who God is, or who He’s not, or whether He exist or He doesn’t exist, many people think that they’re coming up with original newly created ideas, but essentially they’ve all only thinking ideas that other people have thought before them, because the ideas that they’ve got to not believe God didn’t come from the human source, they come from a spiritual source who is anti-God.
And so they think they are coming up with freshly newly created theology or ideology of who God is or isn’t or may or may not be. But actually they can’t come up with an original thought, because if they had an original thought, the original thought would come from God and it would lead them to God. This is good teaching, Pastor John. Right? So then, if you are a Christian you’ve already decided by the prompting and the revealing of the Holy Spirit, God to you. You said, “Yes, I receive Jesus as my Lord and Saviour and so now He lives in me.” So now if the God that is in you was wanting to do something for you, what would the God in you want to be for you? Then you can say, “Well, if I were God, if God were in me what would He want for me?” Right? Well, then I’ve got to go back to what I originally read, and He said to Abram, “I am your Protector and I am your Abundant Reward. Everything you need is in Me, and when you come to Me, everything you ever need in your natural world will be supplied to you if you let Me be you, be everything I need to be to You.” So, if you read the ongoing story of Abraham, Abraham is having this encounter with God, and He says “Fear not Abraham, I am your Shield and I am your Abundant Reward.” And Abraham says, “Hey God, I’m so rich already, and if You tell me You’re going to make me richer, what’s the point of getting me all of these riches when I can’t leave it to the next generation?”
So God says to Abram, “Funny you should say that, I’m going to give you a son, so actually I’m going to change your name and your name is going to be called Abraham because you will become the father of many nations.” Yeah, I please to purpose because from the beginning when I pleased to make man in My image, I pleased to make man in My image because, because I pleased it. So I’m going to read that to you right now in Genesis chapter 1 verse 26 and 26God said, “Let 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 1:26-27 AMPC). So what did God do? He said, “Let’s, let’s talk about what we please, let’s purpose. We are going to make man in our image.” Right? So this weekend I had opportunity to spend time with my, with my children and my grandchildren. And so on Friday, on Friday we, they had time to come, they had reason to come around to our house on Friday and they, they said, when they arrived little Daina-Mae, she’s the youngest daughter, little Daina-Mae, she comes with two little dolls in her hands. And so she comes up to grandpa with these two little dolls. She says, she says, “Grandpa, they,” she doesn’t call them names or anything, she just says, “They hungry, they crying because they’re hungry.” So I said, “Well, why are they hungry?” She said, “Because I left their bottle at home.” I said, “You left the bottle at home?” “Yes, and they’re hungry.” So I put my arms around her and I said, “Well, let’s see if we can.” “No, no, no, I don’t need to find anything; it is all right I will go fetch their bottle.” Huh, you know, and so then I got granny involved because I found I was out of my depth here, you know.
And, and so, afterwards I had this thought, I said; why is she coming and she’s got these two dolls in her hands and she’s talking about they’re crying because they’re hungry. And I can’t feed them because I left their bottle. Where is she learning this? Well, she’s learning this because she’s watching mommy who’s got young Gabriel in her arms and she’s breastfeeding Gabriel and when he cries it’s because he’s hungry. So she doesn’t really understand the meaning of what she’s saying but she knows enough to know that mommies look after babies and babies get hungry and they need to be fed and so she’s play-acting mommy and she’s three. Where is she learning this, well, what has happened was that inside of her has been placed a genetic likeness of what a woman should be like. Right? And so this genetic likeness of what a woman should be like is watching someone, who is her mother, and she’s imitating or mimicking what her mom is doing with little play dolls. Yes? Because she’s made in the likeness of her mom. So when God said, “Let us make men in our image and in our likeness,” what He was saying is, “I’m not looking for robots, I’m looking for sons who will choose to imitate and behave and look like Me.”
So when He comes to Abraham and He says, “Abraham, I am your shield and I’m your abundant reward,” He is saying; if you live in Me then what will come out of you will be Me. And when what comes out of you is Me then there is nothing that can stop what you need. Because what you need that comes out of you, will be put in you by Me. So what is in you by Me, will come out of you by Me and when it comes out of you by Me, it will become. I please and I purpose and it becomes, and so God is revealed. Hallelujah.
This is how faith works. Faith is not just about a sequence of confessions that you make every day. Faith is a living relationship with Jesus who lives in you. The Father that lives in you, the Holy Spirit that lives in you and He is your shield and He is your abundant compensation. And when He lives inside of you and you know that He is Who He is, I Am comes out of you. The I Am speaks. And then everything in your world is created by I Am that is in you.
This is a powerful passage of scripture. I want to just read to you about how glorious God is. I read 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. How do you explain a voice of God? Come up here, and I will show you what must take place in the future (Revelations 4:1 AMPC). Because God is the God I am Who was, Who is and Who is to come. And nothing I’ve ever spoken can come back to Me without producing what it is because I am God and I am God what I please is what purposes and what purposes what I please must become. It’s an irreversible process because there is no other living being that is God that is like God. He is not just a living being, He is the life source of life. He is life. How else can I describe God to you other than He is life? He is the source of all life.
So you know, people want to intellectualise this now and say, “Well, now where did He begin and end? Someone must have made Him?” Well, that’s what makes Him God. Nobody made Him. He was and He is. So we in our three dimensional mind wants to question, how did He come about? Because you cannot figure out the next question or the answer to the next question. You can’t get there with your intellect. Even the people who speak about evolution, where they speak about this big bang theory, and boom it just happened. It takes faith to believe that because they have no scientific evidence that it happened. They have zero scientific evidence that happened. They only surmise that so many billions of years ago, this kind of thing could have happened with this kind of thing and so then we all evolved out of this. Because they have to think about something that began, because they can’t intellectualise beyond a 3D dimensional thinking program that says; something must have a beginning.
But if you’re God then you don’t have to think about what You are, You just are You always have been. We can’t figure out how that is but it just is. That’s where your faith comes into being. That’s where you choose to believe. By the way, I grew up in a church, I was a pastor’s kid, and I grew up in church all my life. And I believed God; I gave my heart to Jesus when I was 5. I was baptised in the Holy Spirit when I was 7 and I wanted to live for God. But there came a time when I was about 14 years old, when I had this thought process I’m giving you today. I had this thought, “Where did God begin?” There must be someone that made God, but there can’t be anybody who made God. Can’t be, because if He is God, then everything started in Him, but my mind wanted to figure out there got to be someone that made Him. So then that must be the God that I don’t know about.
Which is why in the book of Acts when Paul talks to the Corinthians, and they think that they know all the gods, then they say, “But there has to be a god that we don’t know about,” so they worship the unknown god. So when Paul comes to talk to them he says, “That God that you don’t know, that’s the God I’m talking about.”
And so, you know, in my teenage head I’m thinking where did God begin? So I got to the point well, I can’t figure Him out. And I’m pretty sure that all of the cleverest, wisest men have been trying figure Him out all the time. So what’s left for me? Well, I know what the Word of God says already, I’m a teenager, I’ve been in church all my life. I say, “Well, this is my moment of choice.” Either I’m going to believe Him completely or not at all. And if I’m going to believe Him completely then I’m going to give my whole life to Him. Everything, everything, I’m going to give everything to God, everything. That became the source of all of my joy in God when I gave Him my future. I gave Him my everything, everything.
1and 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 center 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, were full of eyes all over and within [underneath their wings]; and day and night they never stop saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, Who was and Who is and Who is to come. 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), 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 honor and dominion, for You created all things; by Your will they were [brought into being] and were created. (Revelation 4:1-11 AMPC)
What He wills is what He purposes. In what He purposes is what becomes. There cannot be anything that is greater than Him. There is no idea, there is no thought process, there is no speech, there is no lifestyle, there is no created raw material, there is no ocean, there is no mountain, there is no sky, there is no heaven that is greater than the Almighty God. Everything in the universe is just waiting to say, “Glory! Glory! Glory! Holy! Holy! Holy is the Lord God Almighty!” Wow. What He wills is because He pleases what He wills. And you and me, we think our will is something? “Well, I won’t do what God wants me to do because I don’t want to.” Okay. And God says, “I created you like Me so I must leave you to your want. I must leave you to your want.” “I want to do what I want to do.” “Okay, I will leave you to do what you want.” So, whatever your want is, that becomes your god. Whatever your want is, becomes your god.
Now, do you understand why I said to you and have been saying to you; if you are a born-again believer, you are first a Christian then you are a businessman. You are first a Christian then you are a husband or a friend or a wife. You are first a Christian then you are a father or a mother. If you say; I am first a friend because I want to be friends because I enjoy friendship and friendship is the most important thing in my life, then that is going to be your want; it will always be your want. It will never be fulfilled because that is what you want. “Oh well, I think I want money, because money gives me choices and I want to be free to choose what I want in my life.” That’s right. It will always be your want and you will never be satisfied with that want because you’ve made that want your god. “Well, I want to be politically powerful; I want to be the most relevant, influential person on the planet.” “Oh, is that My will for you?” “No, that’s what I want.” Well, then your want is what will drive you. Your want is what will be your god to you. Why don’t we say; okay, if I’m created in God’s image and I receive Jesus into my heart, then already His want is in me. If I want, I can want what God wants. Hallelujah.
So, now you understand why I would like to call the message If I Were God, because, essentially, if you respond to your wants you are god to your want. So, if you say; if I were God, I would. No, you are god if you do what you want. Then what you’re wanting is what you would. Do you all get me here? But if you say; I’m letting the Holy Spirit, the Holy One, rise up inside of me then I know what He wants. He wants me to wake up in the morning and He wants me to say, “I worship You today. I praise You today. I give You thanks today. I honor You today. I praise You today. And what’s more, Father, I’m going to behave like You today, not in my perfection, but in my want. Now your whole relationship doesn’t become about what you do or don’t do, it is what you want. “What is that, what are you getting at, Pastor John?”
Here is what I am getting at. I know what He wants, because what He wanted was to send Jesus. “Well, why did He want to send Jesus?” Because He wanted to restore man back to a relationship with Him that became confused with a whole lot of what you do’s. So He doesn’t want us to have a relationship because of what you do’s, He wants to have a whole relationship with you because of what you wants.
If I want to encapsulate what marriage success looks like; it should never be about what you can do for me. It is about what I want to become to you. Well, well, well, you know, I want to become to you. How do I know what I want to become to you? It’s a good question, go and find out in the Bible, the Bible will tell you what you can become. Praise the Lord.
Ok, I am nearly done, here. John 16 verse 12 says, 12I have still many things to say to you, this is Jesus speaking to His disciples, but you are not able to bear them or to take them upon you or to grasp them now. So this is before Jesus died. 13But when He, the Spirit of Truth (the Truth-giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the Truth (the whole, full Truth). For He will not speak His own message [on His own authority]; but He will tell 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 [that will happen in the future] (John 16:12-13 AMPC). Because God is the God of; He was, He is, and He is to come, and I am your abundant reward, so I don’t want you to walk into the future clueless. Hallelujah.
I want to finish off by making this statement; many people have this attitude in life; I will do what I want to do, and then I will ask for forgiveness later. So here is what they do when they look at the rules of the country; they look at the rules of the country and they say, “I’ll break all the rules that I can, and then I’ll face the consequences later.” And if you’ve got enough money and you have enough influence, just ask Mr. Zuma. He firmly believes that he will never face the consequences of any decisions that he made before, because he has enough money, and he has had influence. But everybody who thinks that way, thinks that God, the Powerful, Almighty God is not a God of justice. And he doesn’t recon that there are praying people in the world that have authority to bring the will of God into the earth.
And so when praying people, who understand the wants of God, and they speak out the wants of God, then what the Word of God is that comes out or their mouth does not return to Him void. Therefore, Church, when you speak out of your mouth what has already been spoken by God then it must come to pass in the earth. Therefore, what you speak out is loosed into the earth because you take what is God’s want, what is in His Word, and you speak it into the earth, it cannot stop from performing that which you send it to perform, because you believe Him.
Similarly, when you speak words into the earth that constrain men and constrain spiritual forces and bind them by the Word of God, then they are automatically bound on the earth, they cannot do anything outside of what He wills, what He purposes and what must become.
Glory to Jesus, glory to Jesus. Praise the Lord. So those people that say, I’ll behave as I wish now and then I’ll repent later, no, no, you don’t understand what you are saying. You are saying I am setting myself up of God, because of what I want. And your want will be your god until you repent from your want, then you can allow God to be your want. You cannot have two wants at the same time; I want my self’s and I want what is God’s. You cannot have two wants at the same time. Well, what do you mean by that? God said; you can’t worship money and you can’t worship God at the same time. You will love the one or hate the other, because you can’t have two wants living in the same spirit being.
So if you want to know what you want, just go and make a diary for yourself and go and make a history of what your life looks like. You’ll say that is what I’ve always wanted, and every now and again I have allowed God to interject a little bit, and He fixed this and He fixed that. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. I don’t know about you, but there is an anointing upon me that wants me to, when I wake up in the morning, it’s upon me and it says; praise Him, praise Him, praise Him, praise Him, praise Him. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty.
You see, I’m free to do that, no matter what I did yesterday. I am free to do that because I recognise what God wants for me is not based on what I do’s or I don’ts, by wants, what I can do for God, what He has already placed in me that wants me to be Him. So when I wake up in the morning, I don’t have to worry about what I did yesterday that prevents me from being Him, I just must be Him, because He is inside me and I must let Him out, and the Him that is inside of me, Jesus doesn’t say, “You got to first take care of yesterday.” He was already there yesterday, when He saw me with my faults, and now He is with me right now, and the right now says; praise Him, say glory, say holy, say praise Him.
He doesn’t wake you up in the morning and say, “Well, fix what you did yesterday before you can say thank You to Me for today.” He says, “Wake up, wake up, wake your spirit is alive. I’m alive in you, my Word is in you, my whole force of My life is in you. Praise Me, just praise Me. Don’t worry about yesterday, don’t think about yesterday.” “But I’ve got to think about yesterday, because it is a reflection of what I am going to be tomorrow, because I have tried this before.” No, this is a new time. Start now. “But if I get to my tomorrow and my today was like yesterday, then I’ve got to start all over again.” So? Well, at some point you got to stop starting. You know, that is the whole thing the devil wants you to believe. He wants you to stop starting and start stopping. That is what he wants you to do, because he wants you to start stopping because if you get up every morning, and you say, “It’s not because of me, but because of the blood, it’s because of Him that I praise Him.” Then you put yourself in the right spiritual order, because it is not what I do or what I could have done, or could or should have. It’s not about what I do; it’s about what I’m becoming. And you can’t become like Him if you’re not praising Him, and doing what they are continuously doing right now in the throne room of God. Those same elders are throwing their thrones before God and they are saying; Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, Who was and Who is, and Who is to come, from generation to generation. All dominion and power and authority belong to Him. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
Stand to your feet people. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. And if you wake up, and you have had a terrible day and you have lost your temper, and you crashed your car and you did all kinds of manner of things that you thought you shouldn’t have done, you say; well, right now there are those that are before the throne room of God, and they’re all saying, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty.” And this Being inside of me which is the Holy One of Israel, He lives in me, He is also present right there, and I am in agreement with Him and so right now, I praise Him, I praise Him and I praise Him, and I praise Him and I praise Him, and I say Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty in my life, in my family, in my day, in my world, in my everything. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus.
Yesterday I was talking to a farmer and we were talking about clothes that farmers wear. So anybody want to just tell me what kind of clothes farmers wear? Two-tone? Two-tone? If you’re lucky they wear two-tone, otherwise they were khaki. Right? And if it is not khaki then it is dark khaki, or it is light khaki, or maybe it is two-tone khaki. Right? Farmers, and so we talked a little bit about why they dress like that. They dress like that because partly the work that they do, you know, is dirty work, and so then you don’t want to wear a nice white Christian Dior shirt. You know, while you are making sure the pigs are fed, or you know, things are, you fix the tractor with your Christian Dior shirt. You get me? So there is a practical reason why they do that. But you can know that it is not just practical, when they actually put on their smart khakis with highly polished shoes to go to town. So why would they put on their smart khakis with highly polished shoes to go to town when they don’t have to work with the cows? Because when they go to the other farmers, they want the other farmers to know that they fit in, because that’s the dress code of all farmers. If you rock up there, and you’re dressed in your white Christian Dior shirt, they’re going to check, hmm, what’s happened to this guy? You know, where does he come from? And it is not so much about, and this is what we talked about. It is not about that he is not wearing khaki’s, it’s like, he’s weird. You know, he is not one of us.
I got news for you. The only way that you can break out of being one of us, is to become like Him. And religion, churches, religion wants you to become like them. You got to pray this way. You got to read this way. A church service is got to look like this, and you got to praise like that, and you got to worship like this, and you got to clap hands then and you mustn’t clap hands like this, and religion wants to constrain you to look like them. And God says; I don’t want any religion between you and Me, I’m done with do’s and don’ts. I want you. I want you, and I want you to want Me, because when you understand that I am in you and you want Me and I want you; I am your shield. I am your abundant reward. There is nothing that stands between you and the things that are now coming to you. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Praise the Name of Jesus. Praise the Name of Jesus. Praise the name of Jesus. Hallelujah.
You know why I do this? Because tomorrow morning when I’m not there you’re going to wake up and you’re going to have a confrontation between thoughts that say; it’s what you did. I want to tell you, when you wake up, you say, “Uh-uh, uh-uh, there are worshippers that are worshipping Him right now. I’m in an agreement with them.” So it’s not about how I feel. It’s not about I’m oppressed or depressed. It’s not about what I did or good or bad or what; praise You, praise You, Jesus. Praise You, Jesus.
You know what eventually happens is that when you praise Him enough and you praise enough, you begin to find out those things; fit in with us, begin to fall off. You begin to find out that all of those things that were holding you captive and habits and stuff, they just, I don’t want to do that anymore, I don’t want to do that anymore, because it’s so cool. Hallelujah. Praise You, Jesus. Praise You, Jesus. Praise You, Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Come on let’s just practice this for 30 seconds. Come on, this is what life’s all about. Just 30 seconds.
Praise You, Jesus. Praise You, Jesus. Praise You. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty. Hallelujah. You’ve always been there for me. You are with me right now, and You’re always going to be there with me, Lord. And I praise You for that, and I thank You for that. If I can’t do anything else I praise You that You were there for me, You are here with me, and You’ll always be with me. Praise you, Lord. Praise you, Lord. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus. Glory to God.
Let’s just pray. You know, if you have never made Jesus the Lord and Saviour of your life, today’s a good day to do it. You know, this is not about living, hey, I’ve got to first get rid of all my sin before I can come and give my live to the Lord. No, the reason you’re here is that the sin can become an irrelevant factor. That’s why Jesus died. But you might be here today and say, “Look Jesus is my Lord and is my Saviour but Him and I have this relationship where you know, I check Him out on a Sunday and say, hello, and then the rest of the time in the week is my time, you know.” Well, today you change that. Amen.
Hallelujah, so let’s all pray together and we’ll, if you don’t know Jesus, you can pray this prayer with us. If you do know Jesus, you can also pray this prayer with us. Amen. Let’s pray together. Say; Jesus, I confess with my mouth, because I believe in my heart that You died for me, and You have cleansed me from all the human stuff in my life. And You have become my Saviour, and now I recognise, that You, God, live inside of me. I ask You to keep filling me with the Holy Spirit, and I ask you, Lord, from this day onwards to help me with my stinking thinking that I will wake up every day not with stinking thinking but with praise and thanksgiving in my mouth, with praises in my heart to worship You every day, in Jesus Name. Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
Yes, you can clap and give the Lord a praise. Give the Lord a praise. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Glory to God. Now I pray that this will be a week where you are captivated by God. I pray this will be a week where you will be prospering with your hands, prospering with your ideas, prospering with the energies that are coming out of you, because the want of God is inside of you to come out of you. And I pray that you are protected by the Word and the blood of Jesus. You understand how Biblical it is when God said; I am your shield. That’s why I pray every Sunday; I pray that you are protected by His Word Who is Jesus and by the blood of Jesus who’s all that He paid for. You are protected by that, in Jesus Name. So no weapon that is formed against you, sometimes weapons are formed but they won’t prosper. Hallelujah. And I pray that as you speak words of life out of your mouth, none of it will return void, it will accomplish and produce and prosper according to the want and the will of God that comes out of you, in Jesus Name. In Jesus Name. Be blessed. Thank you for coming to church. Bye y’all.
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