Scripture reference: Hebrews 11:1-3 (NKJV); Hebrews 10:35-36 (NKJV); Hebrews 11:6 (NLT); 2 Timothy 3:1-9 (NLT); 2 Timothy 3:9 (NLT); Exodus 7:11-12 (NLV); Exodus 7:11-13 (NLT); Hebrews 11:5-7 (TPT); Hebrews 11:7, TPT
Pastor Sharon:
Yes, we love You, Lord, we, Your people, love You. We love Your Word that comes to us, now. Oh, what great expectations we have, Lord, to hear what You will speak to our hearts this morning, Lord. Thank you for Your Spirit that is upon Pastor John. Thank you for Your Spirit that is within Pastor John. Thank you that You’ve enabled him to say only what he hears You saying and to do what he sees You doing and he hears what You are saying. And these messages come straight from Your heart through Pastor John to our hearts, Lord, and we receive them today, we believe them today, Father, we love them today, Father, oh we love Your truth that sets us free. And so, Pastor John, we bless you today, we bless you today as you come to break the bread of life with us, that which the Father has given you, in Jesus’ name, and we all say, [Pastor Sharon sings] I’m drawing close.
Pastor John:
Praise Jesus. When I was standing down there, I got a picture in my spirit that I have to declare over you today. The Spirit of the Lord showed me a picture and I declare these words that the blessings of God, the glory of God, the wonder of God, the goodness of God is overtaking you. It’s overtaking you. It’s overtaking us. The goodness of God, the blessing of God is overtaking us.
I saw in the picture, in my spirit when I was in the front here, I saw like a motorcar travelling in a lane, and that is your normal speed of life that is going on. And then a car that is much faster comes and overtakes you. And if they overtake you with speed, it looks like you’re standing still because things are happening much faster around you.
That’s what the Spirit of the Lord wants me to say to you today that if you will trust Him and you will keep your faith exercised, the blessing of God is going to overtake you and the things that are happening in normal time in your life, God’s going to speed it up and it’s going to overtake you so that the normal things that are happening in normal time, God is going to overtake you and have them done in supernatural quick time. They will literally, the blessing of God, will literally overtake you. It will bypass the natural time, it will bypass natural things and it will overtake you. Hallelujah. The blessing of God is busy overtaking us as a people. Glory to Jesus. It’s overtaking time. It’s overtaking time. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus.
You know, what I saw in my spirit was; it’s not like you have to go faster, it’s that God’s power, His glory, His anointing, His wonder, His goodness is just going to go faster than you can. It’s just going to be more than you can think. It’s going to just be better than you could imagine. It’s just going to be there. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Hallelujah. Let’s just thank the Lord for that. Praise You Jesus, praise You Jesus, thank You, thank You, thank You, Lord, thank You Father, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, praise Jesus. Before you sit down I’d like you to turn to a couple of people and just say to them, “Pay attention to what you hear this morning” to a couple of people around you this morning and then you may be seated thank you, thank you.
Hallelujah. Title of my message today is Intentional day-to-day celebration of faith. 1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by faith the elders obtained a good report or a good testimony. 3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made by things which are visible (Hebrews 11:1-3 NKJV). If you hear something and you’re hearing the sound of my voice now, you can’t see the sound waves, you can’t see them. But they are creating things inside of you, these words have the ability to communicate, share things with you, activate things within you, yet you cannot see it. These words you cannot see, but these words are changing thee. Yes, so it doesn’t matter whether you can see the frequencies or the sound waves that are coming into your ears. The important thing is that these sounds are coming to you. And so it is with faith, you can’t necessarily see what faith is doing, but faith is working no matter where, no matter where you are, no matter what you’re doing, faith is working if you put it to work, Amen. Last week I was talking about the basic nature of faith, and I trust that today we are going to make progress in our faith, as we celebrate faith, Amen.
I want to just talk a little bit about this ‘god syndrome.’ ‘God syndrome.’ There is a fundamental choice that every human being has to make and that is whether they are going to believe that there is a God that is higher and that is the Creator, or not. The world out there today, billions of people on the planet; they are all faced with a condition if you like, and that is that they have to make a choice whether they believe that God is, or whether God is not.
They have a choice, one of the choices that they will make is whether the total number of intellectual minds are all correct. Or whether they believe in their heart. The other thing that they have to contend with is voices that speak about God. So every person has to decide whether the collective intellectual is right and whether the collective voice is right or whether they are going to choose to follow God for themselves. Every individual has to make that choice to follow God for themselves.
I can’t make a choice for my children, I can’t make a choice for my wife, I can’t make a choice for anybody else, I can only make a choice for me. I have to choose to believe God, I have to choose to believe in God. If I have to choose to believe God and I choose to believe in God then fundamentally that will change the way that I see the world and I see the future. If it doesn’t change the way that you see the world then I have to question whether you truly believe in God. Because if you believe in God then you will spend time pursuing God. Because if you believe God then God has got to be, by definition, more powerful than your intellect, more powerful than your voice, more powerful than your talent, your skill, God has got to be more powerful. Yes? If God is not more powerful then, He is not God. Then there is no God. If God is real and you believe God then you need to spend time pursuing God. Because surely and if there is God then surely you and I are not just here by accident. Surely you and I are then by design we are here. Surely, yes? Because by definition God would then have created all. Then if we are part of all then God has a design for us.
So we need to be sure that we are collectively, in our understanding of God, we are pursuing Him. First personal choice then a collective choice. So, there are a lot of voices out there that have a lot of things to say about who God is and what God is. I’m happy to say that God, by definition of Him being God, has to be alive. Yes? I mean, just bear with my thought process today. By definition, if He’s God, He’s got to be alive. Otherwise, He’s not God. He’s got to be alive. So if God’s alive and God is the creator of us then He’s got to be, by design, involved with us, the creation. And so by definition of God then He’s got to be capable of communicating with us and allowing us to communicate with Him. Otherwise, He’s still not our God. Then if He’s not our God then we don’t have to accept Him as God because He’s not our God.
Now, if God is our God and He is God then we have to find out what this God thinks about us and we have to pursue what His design and His intent for us is, because by doing that we recognise that He is, He is everything, in Himself, that we need. Because He would have created us to pursue Him that way. Otherwise, He’s not God. If He is God then we have what it takes to approach Him, one way or another. So, that was the original way that He designed man was to have no interference between us and Him, that we would have a free flow of communication. But we decided, actually, that we are as good as God and as important as God by persuasion, by influence, by deception, we chose to believe that we are as good as God because we have the same will as God, otherwise we could not be like God if we didn’t have a will.
The very fact that we can have this conversation about recognising God or not puts us above animal species and it makes us a unique living creature. Because we can choose whether we choose to believe in God or not. We can choose it. If we choose to believe in God and we choose to try and understand what it is that God has designed for us to do then we are in a place where God is for us because He is not trying to separate Himself from us, He’s going to be with us. He’s going to make His, His ways known to us. He did that from the beginning and then we decided, “Hmm, I’m not sure if Your ways are best for me. I think I’ll pursue my own ways before I let You tell me again what’s best for me.” That’s what Adam did. And if you and I think we would have made a different choice than Adam, just look at all the choices you make everyday. Then you will know that you have Adam living in you and that you make the same choices Adam made; I think I’ve got a better chance of running my life than God can do to run my life. This is the foundation of all of our choices. Every day, day-to-day, we have a faith choice. Day-to-day. You might say, “But uh, faith, faith faith…” – every day you have to choose to say, “I’m going to believe God today, today I’m going to believe God and I’m going to get to know God today” – or not. It is a fundamental faith choice.
You know, the fact that you’re in church this morning tells me that you’ve already made the right choice. That at least today you made the right choice. At least today you decided you’re going to come and find out more about this God that is wanting to communicate with us, wanting to live with us, and us with Him.
There are voices, and there are intellects out there that would try to persuade you that God is not that interested in everything you do every day, because, “What, I mean, He’s God, He’s got the universe to run?” Well, that’s the awesome thing about Him being God, is that Him being God, He can run the universe and run your life all at the same time. Come on. So if this God is so intimately involved with you and me, why would you not give Him a chance to help you get to where He wants you to be? Wouldn’t it be better for Him who created you to actually help you get to the place where He wanted you to be, rather than you trying to figure out where you think He wants you to be?
“Ah, I wonder what God’s got for my life, I wonder what God’s got for my life, I wonder what… I’ll try and figure it out, I’ll try and figure it out, I’ll try to think about it, and I’ll try to converse about it, and I’ll try and read about it…” Why don’t you just talk to Him about it? I mean He’s talking. Maybe you’re not listening, but He is talking. He’s definitely communicating with us. Ha.
Now, if God is communicating with us, then He believes that His communication has at least the potential of being received, isn’t that right? I mean whether you receive it or not, that is your choice, but if He’s communicating with you, then He believes that actually that He’s not communicating in vain. He’s going to keep talking. So we know this because the Bible says that there is nothing that He speaks that will not return to Him productive; in other words, it will not return to Him void, but it will produce what He sent it out to do. So He is faith. He believes in Himself. Of course He does, He’s God. So He believes in Himself, that means He also believes in everything He says. So if He believes in Himself, He believes in everything He says, then He has the power to actually send His power with what He believes and what He says.
And so His power goes with what He believes and what He says and because His power goes with it there’s nothing that can stop what He believes and what He says. This is Christianity 101 and so He’s saying, “Hey guys I made you like Me. I made you like Me. The most perfect place that you can live in your life is to be like Me because that’s the way I designed you is to be like Me. So I want you to think like Me I want you to talk like Me and I want you to behave like Me.” Is that possible? Yes, He wouldn’t have made us if it wasn’t possible so if it’s possible then it’s not whether we can or not it’s whether we choose to or not. That in itself undermines everybody’s intellectualism because their minds can’t figure and can’t grasp the fact that God made us so that we can have this integration with God because our mind says, “But you can’t figure out God like that you can’t you can’t make God so simplistic.” So then they try and make all kinds of alternatives to God and I always think it takes more either stupidity or stupid faith to believe in the alternatives than a living God.
I’ve heard people actually say this. I’ve heard them say that they believe that they’re alive for the time that they’re on the earth and then there’s no more time after earth. They just are and then they are not like animals they just are and then they’re not. Well, the very fact that they choose to think that way should tell them that their very thought process puts them above that kind of situation, but they choose not to recognize that about themselves because they choose to reject God. Because they want to live according to their base instincts. They want to live according to their own desires and their own nature.
So then for us to live in faith day by day and celebrate faith we need to have a living relationship with God. A living relationship with God. God never intended faith to just be a set of rules God always intended faith to be a living relationship. God is a God of relationship living, living daily relationship. Everything about our journey in life is about an adventure in seeking and walking and living with God. This is the most exciting life that you and I can live. There is no greater life that you can live than to seek God and live with Him and to be like Him. If we’re going to live in faith then we can speak like Him and we can do the things that He does. So we are not, the book of Hebrews says, chapter 10, verse 35, 35 We are not to cast away our confidence, which has great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise (Hebrews 10:35-36 NKJV).
So, what is it that we are doing? Everything in your natural world around you will potentially lie to you about whether God is with you or not. You have to make a choice to endure and keep walking with God until you see the evidence of it. You have to keep going until you see the evidence of it. Amen. You know, when you eat food besides the fact that you can taste it, you have no evidence that the food is actually going to give you energy, but you wouldn’t be eating it if you didn’t believe that it could. But you can’t actually see the energy that is in the food, but you have to eat the food for it to give you the energy, and by metabolic breakdown, it comes from food into energy into your body. It’s the same with the way that God works. You can’t say, “Because I don’t see the immediate impact of what my walk with God is doing that actually it’s not having an effect.” When you speak God, when you walk with God, when you live in God it’s changing your world. Even though you may not see it immediately, it is infiltrating and it’s changing your world.
I’m going to read this to you from the Living Translation, and in the Living Translation Hebrews 11:6 says, 6 And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him (Hebrews 11:6 NLT). This is not about a casual conversation, this is about sincerity. This is about pressing in for God. I want to know God, I want to know God. I want to press into God. I want to know more of Him. I want to be part of what He’s got for my life. The Word says that He rewards that faith, that you will press into Him.
Second Timothy chapter 3 verse 1. 1 You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. 2 For people will love only themselves and their money. They will love only themselves and their money. It is interesting that he didn’t say, “He will love themselves and their power or they will love themselves and their influence.” He says, “They will love themselves and their money.” Because money can buy you lots of things. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God. Don’t you think that’s very evident in today’s world? Disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. In other words, honour and thanksgiving is not part of their life. They will consider nothing sacred. In other words, there is nothing that is out of their consideration if it suits their own agenda. 3 They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. 4 They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God.
I’ve heard it many times, “Nah, but I hear what the scripture says, Pastor John, but not my friends. You know, my friends, I’ve got good friends. My friends, they’re loyal, they’re really good, I’ve known them a long time, I’ve lived with them. They won’t betray me. I’ve got good friends.” Oh, I see, you think you have better judgment than God. Oh, you think you know your friends better than God knows them. Huh? No no, if your friends do not give God first place, then your friends will betray you as quickly as anybody. 5 They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that (2 Timothy 3:1-5 NLT).
So these people, they act like they love God; that’s what religion is. Religion is an act, isn’t it? Religion is an act. Let’s all act like we love God together. Let’s all act like it, let’s all say that we have a common language, that we all are Christians. Let’s act like it. I know how to act, so let me act. I’m going to act it out. I’m going to come to church, I’m going to raise my hands, I’m going to sing, I’m going to speak the language that everybody speaks, I’m going to behave the way that everybody behaves, and I’m going to be part of what everybody is doing together. It’s an act. Not necessarily for you, but for them. It’s an act. That’s what religion is, it’s an act.
But they reject the power that could make them godly. So, how do you know whether a person is acting or not? You can know if a person is acting or not because they’re making choices to become more like God. If they’re not making choices to become more like God, then they’re acting. Ouch. Hey? Then it’s an act. Now, I’m not talking about somebody that is just going through life, and when I was before the Lord about this message this morning, I felt the Lord wanted me to just address this for a few moments. If you live your human life in the span of hours and minutes and days and weeks then it can feel to you like your life that you’re living goes slowly. Especially when it comes to your relationship with God it can feel like your days are long, because especially in our modern-day world technology is moving so quickly and so many things are bombarding your senses that for us to be spiritually attuned we have to constantly guard ourselves against this hyper sense world. And because the hyper-sensory world is continuously giving us feedback all the time, stimulating emotions, stimulating big thoughts. I mean you can have big conversations in a moment.
You know I’m just gonna say this by way of instruction for you, but also for your protection. If you come to me in church or around church like on a Sunday and you come and give me headlines about your life, you’re having a big conversation with me. So, you can present your headlines to me in such a way that you’re telling me what you want to tell me and you’re perhaps even regulating what I’m interpreting by the way that you tell me. You can make a phone call to me, you can make a phone call to someone else anywhere and you don’t necessarily know what kind of situation they’re in, but you can make a phone call and you can be ready to have a big conversation and you don’t know how the other person’s going to receive the conversation, because if you’re on a cell phone for example in our modern day world you can call someone and you have no idea where they’re at. You can phone someone in the bathroom. They can be sitting on the toilet if they don’t mind to answer the telephone. Hello? Who’s gonna know.
Let me put it in a different way, someone could phone you while you’re changing in your closet or your bedroom and you could be naked. How do they know? You’re just busy putting on clothes, but you might be ready to have a conversation with them that doesn’t take into account they’re feeling quite vulnerable right now you’re on the other end of the phone I’m busy changing, right?
I’ve made it my habit, and it’s part of the reason why Brother Jerry loves to have me around, is because I’ve made it my habit that I never talk to him when I’m around him I never start a big conversation with him. Not about my life; not about his life; not about ministry; not about anything. I never start a big conversation with him. I give him the privilege of starting that conversation with me. Yeah. Well, partly because if I want something from him and I approach him in the wrong way, I’m accessing his level of spiritual authority, and if his words come to me, I’m now, due to protocol and recognition, the law of recognition, I have to do what he’s now telling me. What if he’s in the wrong space in that moment? His words bind me. So, I’d rather be in a place where, when we have a conversation, that they are activated by a process of spiritual recognition, a spiritual order, so that in the right time God can get it done.
You know, Brother Jerry has an example of this where God called him into ministry. And he had made a decision that he was always going to be a partner with Kenneth Copeland, he would never leave Kenneth Copeland. And then God said he was to go and start his own ministry. And so he took a position, he said, “Well Lord, tell him.” If you know the story, they got in an airplane. They were flying up. When they got to cruising altitude, Kenneth Copeland turned to Jerry Savelle. He said, “So Jerry, when are you leaving?” In other words, what he did was he trusted God to show him and speak to him about what’s next. Amen.
I’m just saying, there needs to be a level of understanding. When we’re having a same relationship with God, we have this tendency to talk to God the way we would talk to our friends. “Hey God, You know, I’m facing this big business decision. Can you fill me in on it?” Now God’s always ready to talk to you. But when His voice comes to you with authority, are you ready to receive it? So, your conversation needs to be with sincerity. Your conversation needs to be with persuasion. Your conversation needs to be ready and filled with obedience because when He speaks, you need to be ready to activate what He says, regardless of whether you like the answer or not. Because sometimes you won’t like the answer. Yes? I mean, if God always only gave you what you asked Him for as an answer, then why ask God for anything? Just do what you feel. Ja nê.
So, I celebrate my faith day to day, celebration of faith, because I’m pursuing God’s plan for my life. So, because I pursue God’s plan for my life, I’m not a religious person. I’m not acting. Hello? I’m not acting. So now, because I am pursuing God’s plan and I keep being obedient to God. This day-to-day transaction with my emotion, the day-to-day transaction with my intellect, with my surroundings and my circumstances, I continuously look to be grounded in the plan that God is implementing for my life. Because if I am grounded in that plan, then the things that shift and move around me that continuously bombard my senses, I can say, “I’m not being moved by that. I am following God’s plan.” Hallelujah. I want to share a few things about that with you today. We’re gonna look to a few other people. Are you getting something out of this today? [Congregation replies] Yes Pastor John.
Verse 6. These kind of people, 5 They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that! 6 They are the kind who work their way into people’s homes. That means they act so good that you invite them into your homes because of how good they act. You can’t tell the difference between the real thing and the acting thing. Otherwise, if you did know the difference, you wouldn’t call them into your home. I am just preaching the Bible this morning. 6 They are the kind who work their way into people’s homes and win the confidence of vulnerable women who are burdened with the guilt of sin and controlled by various desires (Timothy 3:5-6 NLT).
Well, you know why is he talking about women here and not men? Well because there is this thing that God that happened in the beginning and that is the woman was deceived. Then she deceived her husband. So there is an emotional component, there is a part of a woman as powerful as they are, as amazing as they are, as wonderful as women are, there is a part of women that can be deceived. And people should not say to me, “Well it is the emotional women that are deceived.” No, it’s women who become vulnerable through circumstances in life. There are many kinds of things that can make a woman vulnerable. Pastor John, you’re just talking about women here. I am telling you what the Bible says. 7 Such women are forever following new teachings, but they are never able to understand the truth. (2 Timothy 3:7 NLT).
It’s a problem globally in the body of Christ in the church, that women are the ones that are pursuing God, they are more hungry for God. They are always following new teachings, because they are looking for some kind of supernatural power that they can get that can change their circumstances. It’s a problem. Thank God we have order in this church. ‘Cause we have a first lady, spiritually speaking, who pursues God and chooses to put her life in the order of God. And you have a first man here who recognises, understands and loves and adores her, properly; not with control, not with overbearing, not with brutishness, not with all kinds of manipulation but properly understands her gifts and her callings and her own walk with God. And so, I trust that we are representing Jesus well. Amen.
So these people that act, that come into Church, 8 These teachers oppose the truth just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses. Now I’m going to read the next scripture and I’m going to come back Jannes and Jambres. They have depraved minds and a counterfeit faith. How do you have counterfeit faith? You talk like it, you sound like it, you behave like it, you present yourself as it but actually you’re just acting. In your heart, you are not persuaded that God is your God. You’re acting it for your advantage. They have depraved minds and a counterfeit faith. 9 But they won’t get away with this for long. Someday everyone will recognize what fools they are, just as with Jannes and Jambres (2 Timothy 3:8-9 NLT). Now today I know for sure, I’m teaching on something that you have never studied. You have never heard anybody preach from the pulpit anytime about Jannes and Jambres. How do you know that? Because I’ve never heard anybody preach from the pulpit and I myself have never preached from the pulpit about Jannes and Jambres, if that’s the way that you will pronounce it.
Would you like to know who they are? Come back next week, I’ll tell you. [Pastor John laughing.] Jannes and Jambres were the people that Pharaoh turned to when Aaron and Moses came and threw down their rod and it turned into a snake. Pharaoh turned to magicians and wise men and they came and they took their staffs, their sticks, and they threw them down and their sticks turned into snakes. Jannes and Jambres are the guys who did that. Do you know what Aaron’s rod did? Ate them. So when the writer in the book of Hebrews, some say it’s Paul, some say it’s Luke, whoever it is; when the writer of Hebrews is saying that they won’t get away with it very long because they will have the same outcome as Jannes and Jambres. That means the real faith people will show them up as fakes and frauds because their power is a fake power. And God’s power will consume them in an instant. They can’t stand in the heat in the, of scrutiny of what faith is.
Come on, you’re getting some good stuff today. Yeah, new stuff, huh? Just because, you know, you’ve got to take time to figure this out. You’ve got to be led by the Holy Spirit. You know, I was talking to Pastor Sharon yesterday. We were talking about… I said, “You know Sharon, if I wasn’t the one preaching the message on multiplication and multitudes and the Body of Jesus and the breads and the MiXchangers and all of that” I said, “You know, if I wasn’t the one preaching it, I would have thought, that’s an amazing revelation. But because I got it from God and I made it, you know, part of me, and then I shared it, it’s like, uh, I’m just teaching.” But when I went back and listened to myself, I thought that’s pretty good revelation. You know, that’s like, that’s like Hollywood stuff. That’s like make a movie out of that stuff. It’s like write books about that kind of revelation. You know. Well, Jannes and Jambres, maybe not quite the level of revelation, but you know. Let’s go there.
You see, what happens is that people in the church, they treat faith and they treat church like it’s a magician. And they keep throwing out things that look like signs and wonders and they look like miracles, but they are just acting. Hello. But those who live in faith, those who are the real deal, they are the people, that their faith will stand the test of time and it will consume the fakes. Thank God for that, hey. What do you say, Sunelle? Thank God for that. Thank God for that. Yeah. Thank God that our faith that we have, is sure and steady, it’s grounded in the true and living God and every other fake will stand against the test of our faith.
That’s why, when people, and I was saying this last week, when people look at other people’s experiences and then try and say, “My faith is not working…” because you don’t know whether that’s fake faith or real faith. You don’t know what else is going on in their lives and now you think their representation of faith is what you must measure your faith by. No, no. You must live by the Word of God, a relationship with the living God. When you have that living relationship with God, then you can say, “I’m in a sweet place.” How do you do that? You take the Word of God. You put it in your heart. You think about it. You meditate it. You talk it. You talk it. You say it. You speak it. You put it out there. I’ve got all the confidence that as I speak words that God gives me to speak that are out there, I’m in a sweet place. I mean a true place.
So, if you want to know what the reference is, it’s Exodus Chapter 7. So 11 Then Pharaoh… Verse 11, 11 Then Pharaoh called in his own wise men and sorcerers, and these Egyptian magicians did the same thing with their magic. 12 They threw down their staffs, which also became serpents! But then Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. 13 Pharaoh’s heart, however, remained hard. He still refused to listen, just as the Lord had predicted (Exodus 7:11-13 NLT). You see, when real faith is still working and people are still acting, their hearts get turned hard. They get harder to reach, not easier. One would think if real faith is at work and you see real faith working where one rod literally consumes other rods that people would say, “Wait a minute, hey, maybe I’m at fault here.” No, their hearts get harder. They become more determined to prove themselves. Hallelujah.
Hebrews 11 verse five and six in The Passion Translation says this, 5 Faith lifted Enoch from his this life and he was taken up into heaven! He never had to experience death; he just disappeared from this world because God promoted him. For before he was translated to the heavenly realm his life had become a pleasure to God. This is how faith works. When you are walking with God and your life becomes pleasing, a pleasure to Him. Why, how does your life become pleasing to Him? You begin to behave like Him, you speak like Him, you think like Him, behave like Him. Hey, come on. When we are loving each other in the church, we’re behaving like Him. He gets pleased with that kind of behaviour. When you start having words against each other, that’s not behaving like God, because God has got no words against you. His words are only to uphold you, to correct you, to promote you. 6 And without faith living within us it would be impossible to please God. For we come to God in faith knowing that he is real and that he rewards the faith of those who give all their passion and strength in seeking Him (Hebrews 11:5-6 TPT). Hallelujah.
Okay, so I’ve got about ten minutes or more and I’m going to just talk to you about, day to day celebration of faith from the life of Noah. Why did I choose Noah with the Holy Spirit in me, saying, “Lord, what do you want me to speak about?” Why did Noah come up in my heart to talk about? Because, Noah restarted the human race. There was a great reset that happened with Noah. So, either you got to talk about Adam and Eve, or you got to talk about Noah because that was the first set, then there was the reset, and then there was the God set with Jesus.
So, Noah, Hebrews 11 verse 7 says – I’m going to read it from The Passion Translation, 7 Faith opened Noah’s heart to receive revelation and warnings from God about what was coming, even things that had never been seen. But he stepped out in reverent obedience to God and built an ark that would save him and his family. By his faith the world was condemned, but Noah received God’s gift of righteousness that comes from by believing (Hebrews 11:7 TPT).
Well, you know, this is an amazing thing that Noah received information from God in this revelation like I said last week, in the Revelation that Noah got, there is no way that we can know whether he actually saw the floods. Whether he saw the destruction on the human race before it happened. Or whether he just saw the arc that was to be built that would save him and his family and the animals from destruction. I mean who is to know? Whatever he received from God it was enough for him to act on it.
But it’s noteworthy for us to talk about the fact that God wouldn’t have chosen Noah, unless Noah loved God. It is also noteworthy that out of all the human race there was only one family that God could count on. Now if you were one of those who said, “I am going to trust in the collective intellect, and I am going to trust in the collective voices.” Then you were one of those that drowned. The collective intellect is not always right. The collective voices are not always right. Why would they be? Where does their collective intellect come from? Where does their voice… why do their voices have a noise? Well, because the collective generally speaking choose themselves before they choose God.
I feel like I sound like a lawyer this morning making a case for faith, and celebrating faith every day, day to day, day to day, day to day. Because every day the collective intellect wants to assault your intellect. It wants to infiltrate its thinking into your mind. Every day the collective voices wants to influence your emotion, it wants to influence your choices, it wants to influence the way you recognise the future, every day. It does not quit not one day. Every day the collective intellect and the intellect of voices want to impact you, and what for? Come on now. See, see if the collective intellect out there wants to call you to worship God, hmmm? The collective intellect out there they want your voice, “Come on speak your praises to God, speak your worship to God.” The collective voices and the collective intellect, no. The collective wants to shut your worship down, wants to shut your voice down and they want you to just sound like them. Right or wrong?
Come on, you can put it to a test. Go onto any radio station, any television station, except the Christian ones and even then the Christian ones, you don’t know what truth they’re telling because there are many of them out there that are throwing their own rods out that turn into snakes. Sho, Pastor John, you’re being out there today. Yes, I am. If this pastor is not prepared to talk about it, then how are you ever going to learn about it? I wouldn’t do it unless the Holy Spirit was inspiring me to talk about it.
I don’t want to follow the collective intellect, neither do I want to follow the collective voices. It is something God put in me when I was a teenager, it is something God put in me when I was a teenager. It was like, you know, I wanted to pursue God with everything that I had and there was like all this noise around the system of church, the system of church, bearing in mind the days I grew up in church. The church was all about women can’t wear pants at all. The church was women don’t wear makeup. The church was women have got to put stuff on their head and come into church with hats on or little cloths over their head. When I was in church everything was about the form of church, not the living relationship of God. Something in me as a teenager rejected the form of church because I wanted to pursue the living God of church. It is the reason when I left my home and I went into the military I said, “Lord, this is the first time in my life where I have no one’s influence in my life, except You and me. Now You and me, we are going to work together in this military thing and You are going to show Yourself strong to me, powerful for me. You and I are going to develop a relationship for the rest of our lives or nothing because then it is all about the form and I am not interested in the form.” Well, I knew God already then that He was real. I knew He would show up and be real to me. I didn’t say that because I was testing Him. I was inviting Him. I was inviting Him to show Himself strong for me because I knew He was. I’ve already had encounters with Him. I knew He was real and He didn’t look like the form of church.
The form of church has changed radically over the 50 years or so, 45 years since that time I had with God. The form of church has changed but my living relationship with God has only got better and stronger and more intimate and more powerful and more wonderful because I didn’t pursue Him for the form. I didn’t pursue Him for the power of it. I didn’t pursue Him for the platform. I didn’t pursue Him for anything else other than who He was to me. Then He said, “All right, John, now it is time for your gift to walk and talk and be like I want you to be.” Hallelujah.
So I want to just finish off with this. You can read it in the book of Genesis. You know Noah he was like, “All right Lord, I will do what You say.” Can you just picture yourself for a moment how Noah would have started going about obeying God. I got to find wood, I got to find enough nails. I got to find equipment. I got to go about doing stuff. So just hear me now. What was the thing that was driving all of his day-to-day behaviour? God spoke to him, God showed him what his purpose was. God showed him what his mission was and God said, “Now Noah it is time to obey.” God didn’t have to tell Noah every single day what is next. He gave him the vision, He gave him the purpose and He said, “Do it.”
I have no question in my mind that the Holy Spirit’s anointing was upon him in everything that he did, every detail. Because he built something that had never been built before. He didn’t have a blueprint. He couldn’t go to a master boat builder and say, “Hey, show me about how things are going to float.” So I have no doubt that the Holy Spirit’s anointing just kept bubbling images, revelation, knowledge, application, execution, just every day. I can imagine every day he would wake up, every day he would wake up and he would just know I’ve got to do something today. This is what I got to do today. This is what I got to do today. I got to go and he would wake up in the morning probably and he would say, “Hey, I’m just going to go over here.” And he would walk up to a tree and he would just know, this kind of tree. If I can get this kind of tree in a whole bunch of these. I would know this kind of wood.
Who told him? There wasn’t anybody there to tell him. It’s the Holy Spirit that was upon him. Then he says, “Okay, now I know this is the kind of trees I need. And then he will probably go back to his sons, I don’t know. Maybe his wife, maybe his sons. He says, “Hey boys, we’ve got work to do.” “What are we going to do dad?” “We are going to cut down forests.” “What, why?” “I don’t know but I just know I’ve got to do this. Start cutting.” “Okay. Dad, what have you been smoking?” “Nothing son.” That was a good question to ask Noah because later they found that he was drinking. I’m just having a bit of fun now. I’m just having a bit of fun now. [Ps John and congregation laughs] But you know, I mean you, can you just imagine with me; day by day how Noah would have to get up and he would have to go about his business. Bearing in mind there was no great infilling of the Holy Spirit with power. This was a relationship that was born out of pleasure with God and knowing God. And God could let the Holy Spirit rest on him and pull him into every detail of everything that he needed in all of his life. Today, tomorrow, today, tomorrow.
And can you just imagine all of the talk of everybody around? They watched Noah getting up with his kids and they went and they cut the first tree down. I guess one tree is not going to be an issue. Maybe they dragged it with ropes, with horses, donkeys. I don’t know. Maybe they were strong enough. I mean, I don’t know what kind of strength they had as humans, those days. The Bible says, if you read previously, that there were giants on the earth. So, I don’t know how strong they were. Maybe they paid people to come and work with them- giants. Maybe those giants took one axe, [Pastor John imitates swinging an axe] tree down, carry it. “Where shall I put this for you, Noah?” I mean, I don’t know. I don’t know how strong he was, maybe he and his sons could carry trees. Maybe they had animals that helped them. I don’t know. You can imagine it just as much as I can.
I do know this, that he had to go every day and he had to cut down more trees. And he had to bring them to one place, then he had to shape them. And then suddenly he just knew how to cure them. He just knew how to make bitumen. He just knew how to put it in such a way that he’s crafting something that’s never been crafted before. Where did he get it from? The Holy Spirit gave it to him in a vision. Maybe in his spirit, maybe in his imagination.
Day by day, faith. I want you and me to celebrate the same faith that Noah had. That you can get up in the morning and say, “Lord, I know what I’m going to do today. I know what You want me to do today and I’m going to keep speaking it until I already know what I’m going to do today.” Come on. If God can do it for Noah, He certainly can do it for you.
You can wake up every morning and say, “Lord, I have the purpose. I have the understanding. I know what I’m called to. I know what I’m supposed to be doing. Show me, day by day, exactly what I must do, and I’m going to praise You in advance.” Isn’t that what Brother Jerry teaches us to do? “I’m going to praise You in advance that I know what to do. I’m going to praise You in advance that my faith is working. My faith is framing the worlds. The faith that You gave me. This trust I have in You, You put that trust in me. I’m a new created being and this new creature speaks my world into being. It frames it. And I don’t even know what it’s gonna be like, but I speak it into being. I speak it into being.” I say, “Be, be my world, be!”
What I am going to do, I will know what to do. What’s next? I will know what’s next to do. What am I going to say? Whatever God shows me to say. I’m going to speak it and I’m going to speak it and I’m going to speak it. And you know what, hey? There are going to be people and they’re gonna look at you and say, “Wat maak jy broer? What are you doing? Looks like you’re just doing nonsense. Built what? What are you building? For what? Why?” Shh. [Pastor John puts his finger on his mount to show be quiet.] God’s faith at work. God’s plans and purposes being fulfilled.
Aah, but aah, but we don’t understand. You don’t have to. On the contrary, God has shielded and blinded you because you’re corrupt. Read what He says: Man’s heart was evil all the days – exceedingly evil and corrupt. God had to say, you won’t even see it until the end is near because your corruption has to die with you. So don’t think that you need affirmation from someone else who intellectually thinks that their agreement makes you okay. On the contrary, if they’re agreeing with it, and they’re not a Christian, be very afraid. Because then they are just intellectualising you and they’re agreeing with your intellect.
Ok, one last thing. Thank You for reminding me, Lord. One last thing. This morning I said to the Lord – I said, “Lord, You’re going to help me get there today, because… because it’s a lot to get to.” You know. So, here we are.
As you are living in faith, as you are walking day by day, just like Noah building the arc, you yourself are going to have moments, when you look at what you’re doing and you’re saying, “What am I doing? What? What?” Because if your day-to-day stuff is in front of you all the time – you have to be sure about what God has called you to do, otherwise your day-to-day stuff will corrupt what God’s called you to do. Because corruption is in the world. And if you let the world’s corruption drive your agenda, then you are not going to fulfill what God’s called you to do. “What are you doing?”
You might even say to yourself every day, “Jo, this Christian thing.” Let me tell you, this is not – this is not science fiction. If I say to you that as a Christian, you’re going to be confronted with thinking in your mind every single day – you’re going to be confronted with the truth of God’s Word. And you’re going to be confronted in your mind to choose to believe the truth or to listen to the collective intellect of which your mind is part of – of which your mind has been influenced by the collective intellect. And that collective intellect is in your mind every day. Every day. You don’t even have to wake up – and it is already there, facing you down. You want to worship God today? What for? You want to speak God’s Words today, what for? Why? You’ve got brains a-plenty yourself, man. You’ve got education up the Ying yang. And if you haven’t got it, google it. And if you can’t google it, YouTube it. And if you can’t YouTube it, phone someone – a specialist in the field of what you’re looking for. It’s a phone call away – it is a text message away. It’s somewhere away.
You’re going to wake up every day until things change substantially and you’re going to be confronted with a collective intellect. And you’re gonna just wake up and your mind is already saying, “What, you gonna pray, why, why? You’ve got other things to do with your time, why? Why pray? Why speak the word, why? Why read the Bible even, why, why, why? You’ve got better things to do with your time, why? Oh no, don’t go and read the Bible at night, just do something else with your time. Why? Why do that? Come on! Don’t be silly man, that is a waste of your intellect.” Pastor John, we don’t think like that. No, it is so embedded in you, you don’t even have to think like that, it is already there.
Don’t shout me down because I am preaching good. Come on, that’s how we humans have to live. You’ve got to be renewed by your mind. Your Spirit’s already been renewed, you got to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That means, when you wake up you celebrate your faith in the morning. “I have the faith today to renew my mind.” If that is the first thing you do, then say that. “I have faith to renew my mind, today.” You are already in a much better space, just acknowledging the fact that your mind is attacking you. Your own good self is attaching your own good self.
And it won’t let up until you speak something out that is in line with God’s Word and then tell it to obey. Come on! Say amen to that, somebody. (Congregation saying “Amen”.) You’ve got to speak to yourself, and you’ve got to tell yourself to get in line with the Word of God, and to stop intellectualising yourself, and to stop thinking of the reality is what you got to get up and talk and do, you say, “No, no, no, I am in the Word today” No, but you’ve got to work today. So? Get into the Word. How? Speak it. My life is committed to Him. My life is dedicated to Him. My energy is about His today, it doesn’t matter if I’m at work. My energy is His today. My life is His today, my words are His today. My life is His today. My energy is His today. My skills is His today. My talent is His today. Everything that I am doing today, it’s His today. If you speak that for thirty seconds every day, you’re going to be already be in a better mind. I promise you, you will get out of that bed and you’ll say, “Hey, let’s go. Come on John, you looking good today boy!”
And you jump out of bed and you just sommer know, hey, hey, hey. Hey, life is better already. I am not trying to get down on myself and think about myself and do everything for myself, about myself, and I’m already tired of myself and it is not even half an hour in the morning yet. He? Come on! I know the devil, I know the collective intellect is infusing everything. But God has given us a powerful Spirit of faith. And He says, “Come on, live by your faith. This faith can overcome the world, this faith can reframe your world, this faith is the overcoming thing that can change everything.” I’ve got to believe that He is though. And I got to go after Him, otherwise, the collective intellect is just gonna undermine me every day.
Staan met my asseblief julle mense. Please stand with me, you wonderful, wonderful amazing people. You wonderful spiritual giants, you. Yes, you. You great anointed, appointed glorious people, the body of Christ. That’s who you are. You go out from here today, tomorrow morning, you say, “Hey, I am something special. I am something special.” Turn to somebody and say, “You are somebody special. You are something special. You are something special.” [Pastor John laughs]. Hallelujah. Hey, hey, the Pastor is giving you permission, when you wake up tomorrow morning, say, [Pastor John hits his chest] Hey, I am special.” Maybe if you are a girl you go a bit higher, you know. [Pastor John hits his chest a bit higher and laughs. Then covering his face with his hands].
You know, come on, [Pastor John showing rather hitting your shoulder one by one]. Come on, come on. You can do it today, you can today, you can live by faith today. Come on spirit being, go bigger, go bigger, go bigger, go better. Come on, come on. Hallelujah. Give yourself a pep talk when you get up in the morning, and say, “Come on faith giant. Come on you glorious Christian, you believing one. You, you that is going to reframe your world today. Come on, you got to do it today. Come on, boy. Come on, Girl. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus.
And then when you got yourself straightened out, you go and hit somebody else on the chest like this, on the shoulder, you know, and say, “Hey you glorious one, you wonderful one, you spiritual being, you faith giant. You awesome being, let’s change the world today. Let’s change it. Let’s reframe it. Let’s do something special for God today.” Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. And then just when you think, “Ah no, no.” You say, “Let’s praise a little bit, let’s praise a little bit, come on you just praise a little bit.” Your mind is saying all this, all this emotion, “I am not sure if I am ready for all of this emotion.” You know. Okay, well then just praise Him. I Praise You, Jesus. Praise You, Jesus.” Okay, quieting the emotion but just keep your word straight. Praise You, Jesus. Praise You Jesus, praise You, Jesus. Don’t let the devil steal niks. Don’t let the collective intellect take nothing from you. I am speaking best English ever today.
But I am in the flow, hallelujah. We are all in the God flow, we are in the Holy Ghost moment right now. And we are going maximum, we are going the highest level attainable, we are stepping up to it, we are stepping into it, and God has got us covered. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus.
So whether you are a male or female you can put your hand on your chest here, and you can just say, “I am a son of God. Jesus lives in my heart, that makes me special. That gives me an eternity in His presence because I am a child of God. He has forgiven me, He has saved me. I am a child of God forever.” Hallelujah. Hallelujah. “Because I am a child of God I live by the faith that He gives me. My faith is working, my faith is active, it is changing my world in Jesus’s Name.” Hallelujah.
Hey man don’t settle for anything ordinary. You and I are extraordinary people. Just you are… you just are. Pick up your head, put on a tie… I’m extraordinary. Come on doctor Nico go like this [Pastor John referring to his tie] I’ve never seen him wear a tie ever. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Glory to God.
Now, you get into agreement with me that these words that I say, we are in agreement that this has an impact on your life. That this message changes your world today. Amen. That you are blessed going out of here, and you’ll be blessed all the way till next week when you come back. Hallelujah. And all of those blessings are overtaking you, they’re overtaking you. They bypass you, the normal time doesn’t matter anymore it’s God’s time. It’s supernatural time. It’s spiritual time. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus.
I declare healing power upon you. I declare the glory of God on restoring relationships, fixing that which is unfixable. Fix it, God, fix it, God. Let it overtake me. Let the fix overtake me. This is not a bookie word this is, “Let the fix overtake me.” That happened so quickly that you didn’t even know what I said. You know bookies say, “It’s a fixed fight.” This is not a bookie word, this is a God word. Let the God-fixed come into your life, right now. Right now. Whatever needs fixing, let God fix it.
I speak the fixing anointing. I speak the restoring anointing, the redeeming anointing, the correcting anointing, I speak it out all over you in Jesus’ Name so that you get into line with the blessing that overtakes you. Hallelujah.
I want to just say, you know that our athletic club is called Slip Stream. Because the one in the front is doing the work and the one behind is saving a lot of energy because you just stick in the slipstream. Yes? Hey, Jesus did all the work, let’s just get in the slipstream. And as His blessing overtakes us, just get in that slipstream. Hallelujah. It’s slipstreaming time. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
Well, whatever you’re going to do in Message Moments today, I know it is going to be good. I want to tell you that Message Moments are powerful. If you don’t join Message Moments on Sunday afternoon if you’re in Joburg or wherever you are, you need to. Because this is the collective church’s voice speaking at five o’clock on a Sunday afternoon. This is as good as church all over again, even better. Because you’re hearing everybody talking for God. It’s the ecclesia at work. So, if you didn’t see that before, you see it now. Now, you’re responsible for it. Okay, bye be blessed. I love you all. Be blessed you all.
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TOUCH | TEACH | TRAIN | TRANSFER
