Scriptural Reference: Romans 4:20-24 (MSG); Romans 5: 3-5 (MSG)
Oh no. I mean, how good was that at the end there just in the dark praising the Lord. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Well, it sounds like the system is busy resetting itself. Hallelujah. I’ve been, I’ve been thinking about, you know, the assets that the church has to have. And I think it’s getting clearer and clearer we have to have our own power supply. That we start every service without being connected to Eskom. So we can finish every service without being connected to Eskom. I think we need to go there soon. Very, very soon. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. I’ve got prices and everything. I guess we just got to push the button and say let’s get it done. Hallelujah. Because we shouldn’t let, we shouldn’t let the enemy take what God has intended for good things on a Sunday. Amen. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise Jesus. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let’s just praise the Lord. Praise You, Jesus. Praise You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord. Praise You, Jesus. Praise You, Jesus. Hallelujah.
Well, it is my prayer that whatever happens this morning, the Word of God will be spoken. You will receive it. It will go into your heart. It will do the work that God intended it to do in your heart, and that you will grow by the Word of God, you will produce much fruit by the Word of God. And that you will as you begin to change, things will begin to develop and work around you in a way that there’ll be glory to God and it will set you free and bring joy to your life. Hallelujah. I’ll tell you there’s no greater place to be than to live in a place of joy, a place of peace and a place of prosperity. It’s called Shalom. Nothing missing and nothing broken. Hallelujah. That’s the thing that God intended us to live in.
While we were singing that song, you know, it’s a really great thing that we can declare with God that He has created all things for His pleasure. Everything is created for His pleasure, for His glory. So it’s up to us to live giving Him the glory. Don’t you think? Living in that same pleasure that He created for Himself that He wanted us to live in? That’s how we need to live. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. I’d like you to turn to somebody and say, “I’m glad you’re in church this morning and we will have electricity working properly.” Then turn and say that to someone else. Thank you guys. Thank you.
So if I talk a little bit louder, can you hear me out there? (Congregation answers: Yes.) Aantree! (Pastor John and the congregation laugh.) So, this afternoon, there will be message moments and I believe it will be a glorious time. And next Saturday morning we have the Slipstream Waterlectric race. So, the MiXchangers that ran two times 21 or 15 and 10, you should be ready to run 5 at least easy. Maklik. We had a really great couple of days cycling. Everybody did personal bests. Riding hours and hours. Cullies to Dullies. It was an amazing, wonderful time. We had lots of fellowship, lots of pain. I don’t know what it is? Why? But you know, when you’re going through pain, you love it. You know, while you’re going through it, you say, “Why am I doing this to myself?” And then when you’ve done it, you say, “Yes, that was lekker. Let’s do it again.” I don’t know why, but it’s a bit weird. So next Saturday morning, it’s a big deal here in the city of Witbank for us to be hosting the Waterlectric race at the Franschkloof farm. So, it’s just at the top of Bankenveld here. We’re going to have a good time. So please come and enjoy it.
I’d like you to just start to prepare yourself and just make a note of the date, that the 26th to the 28th of May that weekend. We are going to be doing a prayer and praise intensive weekend. And we’ll just let you know more about it. It’s been on Pastor Sharon’s heart and my heart that we would have a weekend like this. Even before we went to America, we’ve been praying about it and talking about it and we’re going to have a weekend where we’re going to pray and praise and pray and praise. And do a bit of teaching on praying and praising and the power of what that does in your life. Hallelujah. So, there are some people involved after the church service. Hallelujah. After the church service, there’s going to be some choral activity, choral work being done for some songs that we are releasing in the very near future. Ah ha. Praise the Lord. We’re looking forward to what God’s got to do for us in that way. Praise the Lord.
Are you ready for the Word today? I’m also ready. I was born ready. Literally, I was born ready. When I was born, my father’s first words to my mother was, “Our preacher has been born, here is your preacher.” I was born ready to preach. The call of God was upon me from the minute I was born – probably before I was born, He assigned me and called me to preach and so that’s a good place to be when you know you’re in the place and doing the thing that God wants you to do. Like I’ve always said, I’ve never had an identity crisis, I never had an assignment, or a purpose crisis. I’ve never had a relational crisis as a result of that. And that is a good place to be, and it is all in the will of God.
Don’t you want to be able to say the same? Don’t you want to be able to live today and be able to say, “I don’t have an identity crisis, I don’t have an assignment crisis, and I don’t have a relational crisis.” Praise the Lord.
I mean, when those things are and you have joy and peace in your life, it’s a wonderful place to be. Hallelujah.
So, last week I was talking about intentional relationships and the Lord is wanting me to minister this morning on Intentional Relationships and I am going to talk about Freedoms and Boundaries today. And I trust the Lord will minister this to you. You know, relationships are an amazing thing. They are designed by God to be the root of joy.
A relationship is designed by God to be the root of joy, the foundation of joy, the beginning of all joy. Well, how can you say that Pastor John? Because the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are in a relationship with each other, and within them is fullness of joy.
So, there is no sadness in their relationship. There is no competition in their relationship. There’s no trying to find out well, you did too much today and I am miffed because You took all the praise and I didn’t get enough praise. Huh? Everybody knows what… God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit, they know what roles they play. They know what their assignment is, and they’re co-operating together to make it all happen.
So, relationship is the foundation of joy. And so, it is also the thing that is most under attack in the modern day world. I guess one could say it has been under attack from the beginning, because the enemy, I guess was the one who fell out of relationship with God because he expressed his will and since then he has been after every relationship to try and undermine it and make the relationship look like all his relationships rather than the relationships that people have with God or beings; all created beings have with God. You know, the created beings that are in the heavens they spend all their time giving worship and glory to God or serving. Serving at the pleasure and the purposes of God. It’s all relational. Everything that God does, is out of relationship. There is nothing that God does that is just for the sake of a program, or just for the sake of something. Well, let’s create the stars, and let’s create the heavens, and let’s create the moon. What for? Just because I feel like it. No, it’s done with purpose for a relationship.
So, I mean, this is really a big deal, relationships are a big thing. And to the measure that relationship is, is an assigned relationship and it’s got purpose, it’s got meaning, and it’s got good wholesome foundations. The relationships, the relationship can flourish and it can produce.
So this is by no means a small, a small thing. I’ve said this for years. I said it last week. The way that the enemy gets into relationships is he tries to bring gaps in. He tries to bring a gap between the people in the relationship and he uses all kinds of things to bring in the gap. He will use work pressure, he will use finances, he will use emotions of such a wide spectrum of heightened expectations, to poor expectations, to great satisfaction, to no satisfaction, to happiness, to sadness, to grief, to performance, to unfulfilled expectations, heightened expectations.
So many things. He uses so many things to try and bring a gap in a relationship, whether the gap is between you and the heavenly Father. That’s the first gap he tries to create. So come on, let’s talk about this for a minute. If he wants to create a gap between you and God, he’s going to try and make you doubt what you are in God and what you have in God. Because if he can make you doubt what you are in God and what you have in God. Then you start to wonder, well can I trust God? And if he can break down your trust in God, then He creates a gap between you and God. So then you start to lean on your own hand of strength, your own understanding, your own will, your own ways, and the minute you do that, you cut God out of the picture.
And so the minute you’re focused on yourself and doing things your way, it’s difficult for you to get to understand what God wants for you. So then trust becomes a bigger and bigger issue as you go through life. And the more you get things done by yourself, and using tools that the world system gives you, the less you want to trust God because you can get things done without God. After all, that’s what Adam and Eve discovered in the garden.
When they were faced with a choice, they chose their own will, rather than God’s will. And they discovered that they could still survive. They could still live as humans, but they lived in a fallen state without the full glory of God. And that’s always been the intention of the devil, is for us to live without the glory. To live in a fallen state, where you can always think you can get things done for yourself, by yourself, with yourself. And then by default with others that think the same way as you do. And that creates the gap.
And the bigger, the more you get done by yourself with yourself, together with others on their own selves, the bigger the gap grows between you and God, because you see that you don’t need God to survive. And so, the more you think you don’t need God, the more you depend on yourself; the more you depend on yourself, the less you want to give time to God. And so, in a very subtle way… You know, the devil doesn’t come with a bullhorn and shout at you and say, “I’m creating a gap between you and God. I’m creating a gap between you and God. Be aware, be aware.” Now, if he did that, you say, “Hey, shut up, go away. I don’t want to get between me and God.” Not if you’re born again you don’t. Right?
So, what does he do? He just comes with subtle things. Do this, do that, go here. People speak things into your ears, desires, he puts desires in front of you that you want to do this and go and chase that. And pressure is another way that he will get you to do things without going to God. Always we must first go to God. And then of course, if he can get that right, he’s got a much bigger chance of putting a gap between you and someone else. Whether that someone else is your mom and dad or a sibling, a friend, a marriage partner, or children, families, he will do whatever he can to bring a gap. And it’s an amazing thing I’ve watched over the years that people do their best to close the gap. And you know what ends up happening when they close the gap? They either walk away from a person and start again. Or they lower their expectations and allow a lot more tolerance into the relationship so that they can close the gap.
I wonder what God the Father did? Do you think that He is tolerant? You see, God the Father is not tolerant of sin. Come on. I’m preaching right on the button already. Do you think God the Father is tolerant of sin? He’s not tolerant of sin. In fact, He knew that sin would destroy your relationship with Him forever.
So He said, “Sin is so bad someone’s got to shed blood for the sin.” Some things got to shed blood. So He said, “This can’t continue forever.” Let’s take care of the sin that I can’t tolerate, I have to judge it. Let’s have Jesus come and shed His blood, so that the blood forever takes away the effects of sin so I don’t have to tolerate it. I have judged it. So because He judged it, it no longer stands as a barrier between you and Him. Because He judged it. He never tolerated it. When I talk about the quality of relationship that we have. Sharon and I have in our marriage it is not because we have got tolerance for each other, although I can say, “We have learned to give each other grace to grow.”
We have learnt over the years that one of the strengths that we have in our marriage is the grace to grow. We don’t hold each other to an ideology, we hold each other to the Word. Because an ideology is something that you will always fail to achieve. When you hold each other to the Word of God , it’s a standard that God is raised and given you the power to live to. But in striving to live to the things that God wants for you, He also gives you the grace. So, if you confess your faults one to each other, He allows you to have that space. To have a confession, to have a space for growth. He doesn’t tolerate it, He gives you the power to grow through it. Intentional relationships don’t tolerate things; they give each other space to have the power to grow into the things that God wants us to have. Hallelujah.
That’s why we need to be intentional in our relationships with each other. We need to be intentional in our relationship with God because otherwise what happens is that we just live in a space where we just live from day to day. From moment to moment. From circumstance to circumstance in a relationship and we find that the circumstances dictate how we relate. God says, “Don’t let circumstances determine how you relate. You being intentional about how you relate in these circumstances will bow to the relationship.” So if I am intentional about living by faith then as I speak the words that God wants me to speak about any given situation, I am not allowing the circumstances to dictate what and how I live. Faith is the intention. Faith is the substance. And as I intentionally uphold that Word of God, I say this relationship is much more important than the circumstantial evidence.
So I stay connected to this relationship so that the evidence of other relationships can change. This is a good faith teaching right here, already. If I sent you home, you got enough to live a whole year. Praise the Lord.
Remember, I read this Scripture to you, Romans chapter 4, verse 20 to 24, in the message translation; 20 He didn’t tiptoe around God’s promise, this is Abraham, asking cautiously skeptical questions. Remember I talked about that? Don’t live your life asking cautiously skeptical questions. ²¹He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what he had said.
You see, this is the thing where the devil tries to create a gap, “Did God say to you? Will He make good on His promise to you?” Amen. Will He make good on His promise to you? That’s why it is said, “Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right.” But it’s not just Abraham; it’s also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless. (Romans 20-24 MSG)
From the beginning we had a hopeless case, we were a hopeless case, do you know that? If you were born a non-Jew, you were a hopeless case; you had no path to God. And Jesus came and said, “I’m going to die for the Jew and for all those non-Jews that were hopeless; the Jews because they couldn’t keep the law and the Gentiles because they had no way to Me anyway, not even through the law. So I’m going to die for everybody, and God the Father is going to judge the sin on Me.”
And now you have no barrier between you and God. We were always hopeless. Now, let’s talk about intentional relationships from a position of being completely hopeless; this is going to be contrary to what I teach you, okay, but I want to make a point this morning, it’s a very powerful point.
I would like you just to turn to somebody next to you, now be careful now, and say “You’re a hopeless case.” Come on, I’m giving you permission, those people, I’m giving you permission. Come on, just turn to someone, “You’re a hopeless case.” Come on, do it with me, I know I told you upfront it’s a contrary thing, “You’re a hopeless case.”
You see, without Jesus, you are a hopeless case. Why am I actually bringing this to your forefront? You see, because in your own personal self-esteem and self-image about yourself, you already automatically say, “I’m not hopeless, I’ve got a way out of everything. I can do anything.” But I wonder if that’s God talking or you?
Uh-ha. Don’t call me hopeless. I can “maak ‘n plan”. I can make a plan. I’m not the boer, but I can make a plan. You know, so don’t tell me I’m hopeless. I want to tell you that without Jesus, you’re hopeless. I don’t care how many degrees you got you hopeless. I don’t care what connections you’ve got, you hopeless. I’m going to keep rubbing this point in a little bit this morning because I’m driving a point home. You are hopeless without Jesus. You are hopeless without Jesus.
Well, Pastor John, what about all those people in the world out there that have got lots of money, they’ve got good careers. They’ve got, they’ve got, you know, things in life. They’ve got opportunities. They’re hopeless. They think they’ve got answers that they don’t have, that’s hopeless. You know, I know enough people that know a lot of wealthy people. And if you had a private conversation they would tell you very wealthy people are more scared than people that have no money. Because they don’t know what the future is going to bring in whether they have enough money. And so people think, well, if I just had a couple mil, I’d be okay. My situation wouldn’t be hopeless. No, even wealthy people have hopeless because their hope is in their money. And so they never know when it’s going to not be enough.
You young men, your hope is in your strength. Your hope is in your ability, your potential, your capability. Ah, then you just get sick for a week and you see how hopeless you are. Young woman, you think your hope is in your beauty or your smooth talk or your capacity, capability? Intellect, whatever it is, until something happens and you find out actually, you can’t depend on anything that was in you. Am I getting the points through to you?
Without Jesus, you’re hopeless. But with Jesus you’re very hopeful; you can be full of hope in Him. Why am I talking like this because I intend this message to help you close the gap to be hopeful in Him, not hopeful in you. Because if you’re hopeful in you, there’s a gap going to come between you and God. You got to understand that God has given you the grace, the assignment, to close the gap with Him. And if you do that with Him, everything else in life is a joy. It’s a joy. Hallelujah.
So, Romans chapter five verse one to five. I’m going to read this in the Message translation because it’s just awesome. It’s really wonderful in the Message Translation. 1-2 By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us – set us right with him, make us fit for him. Set us right with Him. Make us fit for Him, I’d say that’s freedom that we entered into, through faith we entered into what God wanted us to do. And don’t you think this is freedom. We have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all. We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his doors to us. We find ourselves standing, where we always hoped we might stand out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise. 3-5 There’s more to come: We continue to shout out praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us. (Romans 5: 1-5 MSG).
You might think that trouble is something you want to avoid. It’s in our inherent in our nature to want to avoid trouble. Yes. How many of you go looking for trouble? Maybe if you’re young, maybe you go look for trouble. I’d say if you go look for trouble, you’re a bit foolish. But it’s a funny thing about trouble that doesn’t come with a label that says trouble. Suddenly, a circumstance presents itself and you find yourself in trouble. financial trouble, relational trouble, maybe there’s a threat of violence in your life, trouble. All kinds of trouble that just doesn’t come immediately as a label that you find yourself in trouble. But the Word of God says we’re hemmed in with troubles because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us. If you know what your relationship with God is, and the power of that, who you are in Him what you have Him. If you know that, then when you have troubles, you just be patient. And you will see how the words that God’s given you to speak will de-materialize those troubles or find a way around those troubles or move those troubles out of the way and create a path for you through the troubles.
Whatever way He is going to take care of the trouble. But you can only do that if you’re patient. Because you got to give God a chance to work. In other words, your faith has got to have time to work.
… because we know how troubles can develop passionate patients in us, and how that patients in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue … Romans 5: 3-5 (MSG) The tempered steel of knowing what to do next is another way I can say it. Knowing how to do next and knowing what to do next. Virtue. … keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. I’d say this is a pretty healthy, intentional relationship, don’t you? Can you see intentionality everywhere in this Scripture? This is intentional living. “In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary – we can’t round-up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 5: 3-5 MSG)
Come on. God is a generous God. He purposefully wants us to live a blessed life. It is His intention for us to live blessed. Its intention, His intention for us is to live in the realm where He lives. Now I want to ask you a question – is Jesus, was Jesus when He lived on the earth – was He the Son of God? He was. Did He have trouble? The Bible says that Jesus endured the cross because of the joy that was set before Him. Right? Endurance – that sounds like patience. Endurance. That means He understood that He has got to go through something, and this is going to take more time than He wanted it to take. It was going to cause more things that He was wanting to have. Well, didn’t He want to do the will of the Father? He did. But He did have a moment in the Garden of Gethsemane where He said to the Father, if there’s any other way to do this, can we find it? But not my Will – Your will be done. That tells me that Jesus knew what He was about to face, was so, was so desperate, that if there was a way that He could find, to get to, to go through a different way, He would have done it. He would have found that option. But this was the will of the Father that Jesus should endure the cross.
Sometimes we lose sight of what happened to Jesus and I’m not going to, I’m not going to talk too much about this today or put too much emphasis on it but you know the devil says, the scripture says that had the devil known what he did to the Lord of Glory he would not have crucified Jesus. Why? Because he thought if I can stop the human living being that is Christ I can stop all future seed from producing. So if I can stop Him from producing any further seed in His natural world, in the natural man, then I can stop His ministry, I can stop the future. He understood that the future is in the seed. So he said if I can stop the seed then I can stop the future. He didn’t know that it is in the death of the seed that the future is reborn. So had he known that by crucifying Jesus he was actually the instrument of death so that the future could be reborn in all of us.
But make no mistake that he made sure that the man Jesus in the physical body of the man suffered greatly. There was no superhuman power that gave Him less pain when they beat His body with whips. He was all man that got that beating. He was all man when they placed that crown of thorns on His head. There was no angel there that was preventing the pain from getting through to His forehead. Every single bit of pain that they put on Jesus He felt it completely the same as every other man would feel it. And when He was in the garden of Gethsemane He knew that what He was about to endure He was going to count on the life of the Father that was in Him to carry Him beyond what His humanity could carry Him. He had to go inward but it didn’t diminish the pain, it carried Him through it. That’s why He had to endure the pain because of the joy of what the harvest would be. Hallelujah.
Why am I talking to you like this? Because you might have trouble in your life. You might be experiencing some trouble. You might be experiencing anxiety. You might be experiencing some kind of trouble and it might seem at this moment that, “Wow”, you know, “I don’t know how I’m ever going to get out of this. Maybe this cycle of trouble has been around my life for so long and when is it going to change? When is it going to ever get better? It just seems like it goes on and on and on.”
Well, the first thing I want to say to you is change your talk. If you keep talking about your trouble, that’s what you’re going to get. More trouble. This is not rocket science. Talk about your trouble – trouble you’ll get. “But Pastor John, I can’t ignore the trouble.” No, I didn’t say that. I’ve always said you can’t live in faith if you’re not honest about what you’re dealing with. But, if I know that my trouble is a financial trouble or there’s not enough business coming into my business. I don’t have to keep talking about, “I don’t have business.” What must I talk about? I’ve got to say, hey, at this moment in time I don’t have enough business, but the business is coming, I’ve called it. I’m calling it. I say business, come to me, come to me, come to me as profitable, come to me as productive, come to me, come to me. I call in those customers, I call into my life customers with money, I call into my life customers that are willing to do and have my product. I call, I call it, I call it. I command it. Come to me.
“Well, what gives you the right?” I closed the gap between me and God. I speak like God speaks. That’s my covenant relationship. Because I have covenant with Him, I can speak what His covenant says about me. Is His covenant not speaking for you? Is His blood not speaking for you? Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
You know, this last week, someone in our congregation had to have an operation and before they went into operation, in the theatre, we… the Lord just placed it on my heart that as a family, and I had to join them, you know, to have communion before they went into operating theatre – and I can’t wait for the testimony to be told. I can’t wait for the testimony to be told. But the testimony is that that man died in the theatre. This is a clinical, medical fact. His heart stopped and he died. They revived him. And today he’s sitting in the hospital bed, sitting up talking, because before he went in there, we all had it on our heart that he would live and not die, that there will be peace upon him and that the medical professionals will know what to do, they will know how to… He never even had the operation, he didn’t get to the operation. This incident happened before he actually had the operation, but he was in the theatre. So all the professional people that knew how to deal with an emergency like that, the best in the land pulled him through it.
Someone might say, “Well, you know how did it get to that point?” The devil threw a weapon at him and tried to take his life but God said, “Through the covenant blood that you participated in, you called upon that covenant – I’ll be there.” He has lost absolutely no faculties, none of his intelligence, none of everything… God made sure. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus.
I want to tell you that we live in a covenant walk with God that is more powerful than medical science although it will use it. It is more powerful than the economic and financial institutions of our lives although God will permit us to use it. It is more powerful than science and technology although God will allow us to use it. We can’t depend on that as our source but we can use it. We got to put our trust in God. Our covenant is first got to be with Him then we can walk in the other places in life.
In Him we have great freedom. What’s the boundaries? There’s always freedom in boundaries. The boundaries are, “Pursue Him, give Him your all. Give Him your words. Don’t speak words that are contrary to His words.” Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus.
A miracle took place this week. A miracle took place this week. Hallelujah. The presence of God was present to save. The power of God was present to save. To save. God was present, the angels were present in that theatre room to save his life. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Hallelujah.
I want all of you right now, I want you to put your hand on your body and I want you to declare this with me I am a covenant child of God. I receive covenant power of health, of healing and the miracle power of God to flow into my body and restore my body to the original state of health and healing that God intended for me. I receive my health, I receive my healing, I receive restoration. I count on the covenant power of God to flow in my body right now to work on every part of my body. In Jesus’ name. Hallelujah.
I’m telling you right now, there is a power of God present in this meeting today. There is eyesight and things that are getting healed, eyes are being restored right now. There is all kinds of diabetic insulin-related sugar-related diseases that God is working with His power to heal right now. We are in God’s operating theatre right now. He is destined this morning for healing power to flow into your body. Whatever brain stuff needs to happen, the people here today that have had issues with the headaches and brain stuff and things that have been going on in your mind. The power of God is here today to deal with that stuff and you don’t even know what the cause of it is, but God is present, Jesus is present this morning and your brain is being healed whatever has been mistaken there, have gone bad there, Jesus is healing it right now. He died on the cross. He had His Body beaten for you. He had all manner of sickness and disease put on Him so we can walk free. This is our covenant right. This is our covenant right, today. In Jesus’ name. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
I declare that every heart condition that is in here today that is out of sync that you might not even though that hasn’t even been diagnosed. I say, “Be healed heart, have a whole heart, be a restored heart.” Take your healing in your heart right now in the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Hallelujah.
This is God coming right now and saying, “This is the freedom that I want you to have in your relationship with Me, when you need Me, call on Me.” Call on the healing power of God. Call on the miracle power of God. Call on the life-giving power of God that will restore your body that will restore everything that you need to be working perfectly and normally in your body in Jesus’ name. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Hallelujah.
Pastor Christi will tell you that I had a thing in my spirit that this might happen this morning. I couldn’t be sure about it. But I said to her that something might happen this morning in the meeting and here it is, God showed up this way. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. We don’t serve a God that we can’t trust. We can trust Him. We can trust Him. Hallelujah.
You know, that person was scheduled to go in for a very major operation and before he went into the theatre and we’re having communion together, I searched my heart. You know, I searched my heart because sometimes the Lord will tell me things. You know, in the last couple of days, I’ve been listening to some messages by Kenneth Hagin. Because I want to stay plugged into men, generals, that have gone before me that have got revelations that I’m living out now. But they brought me the revelation.
Kenneth Hagin was in a meeting, and they brought somebody’s name, a person, they brought this person’s name to him. And they said we must pray, that this person’s is in a critical condition and that this person needs to be healed and God’s miracle power needs to work in their body. So, while Kenneth Hagin – they’ve prayed over that person and then they began to pray in the spirit for whatever… And the Lord said to him, “You’re wasting your time.” And Kenneth Hagin says, “Say what Lord?” And He said, “You are wasting your time.” He said “That person is not going to survive, that person’s time to come home, you are wasting your time.” So he said, “All right, Lord.” And he didn’t tell everybody else, he just called a close to the time of prayer. He went afterwards and he said, “Lord, I need You to help me with this, tell me what… He said, “There is some people where the time had come where they got to come home. The time has arrived where they have got to come home, and it doesn’t matter how much you pray; their time is to come home and I’m not going to reverse the time for them to come. The fact that they are sick and going home has got nothing to do with it.” It is their time to come home, so you are wasting your time praying for her to be healed or that person to be healed.
Well, I’ve learned a lesson and so sometimes I would just search the innerward parts of my Spirit Man and when I’m praying for somebody to be healed or for something… “Lord, is there something going on here that I need to know, I don’t want to waste my time?” I went back and listened to that message this week so that I didn’t find myself in error. I needed confirmation.
There are people in this church, where the Lord has spoken to me and I’ve said to them, “Your family member is going to die in a short space of time.” And they didn’t understand why God would say that. But then my council to them was, “Spend as much time as you can with them because they are going home soon.” “How much is soon?” I don’t know. It turned out to be three months and they left the earth. But they had three months where they could spend time knowing that this is valuable precious time. You mean God will you show you that? Sometimes, not every time. I know what it did for me and that family. Is it strengthened their confidence that I hear from God. And later on, it became critical that when I did hear from God about other matters in their life, they could count on that fact that God is speaking. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
God doesn’t waste anything. He is intentional about everything. So when we were having communion, I made this declaration out of my mouth and I said to the family, I said, “I’ve gone before the Lord and I’ve asked the Lord if there is something that I need to know about this operation that is about to happen, and I said I have complete peace that you will come out of it on the other side.” See, because I don’t want to be praying for something and then something goes on and then people say. “But Pastor John, you prayed for something and then the opposite happened.” I want to be intentional about every prayer that I pray over everybody for the will of God to be done in their lives.
And as far as it is possible I don’t want to do something that is just a religious ritual and then that gives place for the devil to undermine your trust in God. Hallelujah. Ja, I’m saying things today that I haven’t said publicly before. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus.
And so, that God of the covenant is here today. That God of the covenant is here today and I’m telling you God has chosen this day to come and show up and speak through this vessel and bring healing power and bring restoration power and bring liberation to you – to your mind, to your soul, to your body, to your relationship with God. And He’s come to close the gap through this message today He says, “I’m coming and bringing a message to close the gap with you. Come and praise Me. Come and worship Me. Come and glorify My Name. Come and give Me the glory and see how much freedom there is here. Come and see how great and purposeful this life is. Come and see all the joy that I have for you. All the peace that I can give you. Nothing missing, nothing broken in your life. Come and witness it. Come and live it. Come and enjoy it. Come and partake of it. I’ve got it all for you. It’s your inheritance, it’s your legacy. I’ve set it aside for you – come and enjoy it to the fullest.
There’s no downside to this, there’s only an upside. Hallelujah. Stand to your feet please. I had much more to preach today. I even have time left on my clock. That’s a first. But the presence of God is here and He has done today what He needed to do and there is no reason for me to just keep speaking. Hallelujah. Praise You Jesus. Praise You Jesus. I want us to give thanks to God right now for the healing power, for the restoration that He’s had on you right now.
In fact, the Holy Spirit has just spoken to me and if you’re here today and… the family that is here for that person that’s in hospital you need to do this. Take a tissue out of your bag or out of your pocket, find a tissue, take a handkerchief just take it and give it in your hand right now. If there’s somebody here that’s got sickness or you are part of a family member that’s got sickness… I want you to get… this is a point of contact. Brother Jerry has done this many times. I want you to get a tissue into your hand, get anything just doesn’t matter, if it is just a string, doesn’t matter, just get a tissue. We’ve got a box of tissues in the front here, come and get one. If you need a tissue, we are going to pray over this. And we are going to get healing happening in the body of Christ that is here today. And your family members are going to get healed. There is going to be restoration of relationships. There is going to be restoration of physical bodies, mental diseases. This has been a big thing in my heart today, mental diseases are being healed today, healed today.
Yeah, Quinten there is that person that we’ve got to minister to? You got to put something on his body, you know who I’m talking about. In Jesus’ name, healing power is in this place today. The presence of God is here present, to heal and to deliver and to restore in Jesus’ name. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise You, Jesus. Praise You, Jesus. Praise You, Jesus. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus.
You know why? The Lord has put this on my heart today, is because it’s one thing to be healed, but it is another thing to be completely restored. And there is a story in the Bible where 10 lepers got healed, but only one got restored. And the one that got restored is because he came back to say, “Thank You, thank You for healing me.” You know, Brother Jerry does this all the time. It’s an absolute work of faith. When he says this, time and time again, he says, “Let’s give God praise in advance.” You know, what he is saying is, activate your praise to give thanks for something that you can’t yet see, but something that is on its way that will manifest itself. If you give praise in advance it will come, because you are already thanking for something that you can’t yet feel, you can’t yet see, but it is on its way because your faith is ignited. Hallelujah.
So we are going to thank God now, we are going to praise Him, and we are going to thank Him, that everything is going to be in order. Everything that we have prayed that has been declared today, is going to happen in our lives, in our families, in our bodies, in our minds, in our family, relationships, and friends and things. There is a restoration that is happening. There is a move of God happening in this auditorium today. There is the presence of God, there is the anointing of God, there is the power of God to heal, to restore, to bring things into order that have been out of order, in Jesus’ name. Hallelujah. Thank you for it, Lord. Thank You for it, Lord. Thank You, Jesus. Come on, we are going to do this for a minute. [Congregation praising and thanking God in advance]
There it is. There it is. there it is.. Hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Hallelujah.
The Lord just said to me there’s ladies here, women here that have monthly cycles that cause them discomfort and pain. The Lord says if you put your faith out and you keep speaking that you have no pain, no cramps, no discomfort, you can live a life free of those symptoms in Jesus’ name. Some of you might have to change your eating habits. Yes, that means not drinking Coke and not having too much sugar. So, pain, sugar. [Pastor John demonstrates pain on the one hand, sugar on the other hand] But the Lord is speaking to you today and saying you can do this by faith and live a life free of all that monthly nonsense. There are some older women here that it’s a time of life where things are changing in your body. You don’t have to have the symptoms the world says you got to have. I know, because my wife, Pastor Sharon, she took the Word of God, she used the Word of God and she said, “I won’t have any of that stuff that everybody says every woman must have when they get to that time of life.” She used the Word of God and she had none of it. None of it. I can say as a man, I can say; glory to Jesus. I didn’t have a moody woman. I didn’t have a problematic woman, “Open that window, open that window, I’m hot, I’m hot, I’m hot.” “But, Pastor John, that’s just the reality.” Doesn’t have to be. Who says? You can take the Word of God, you can use it in your life and you can be free of those symptoms and live a joyful, wonderful, strong, healthy life. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus. Praise the name of Jesus. Praise the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus.
I shouted my clip loose at the back here. I’ve just fixed it. I fixed it, don’t worry, Empie. I put it underneath my collar, so I’ve got freedom here. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Glory to God.
I’m telling you, the devil is tried to use every curse that he can use to create a gap between us and God, between us and people in relationships and God is about to tell you that there doesn’t have to be. You can close the gap with God, you can close the gap with people you just trust Him. You got to call on His name. You got to speak His word, You got to live in the spirit in Jesus’ Name. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus. We praise the Name of Jesus. We give Him glory. We give Him praise. We give Him thanksgiving. We give Him honour, hallelujah to the Name that is above every name, every sickness, every disease. His Name is above every name. Hallelujah, hallelujah to Jesus. Glory to God, glory to God. Glory to God, glory to God, glory to God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
I’ve got praise in my spirit. I’ve got praise in my spirit. I’ve got joy in my spirit. I’ve got thanksgiving in my spirit. [Pastor John rejoicing dancing and screaming] Glory! Hallelujah!
I’m telling you go home you wake up tomorrow morning you can get this on Youtube and play it and praise Him and say, “I’m free from this sickness, I’m free from this disease, I’m free from this symptom. I’m free from this thing or whatever it is you name it and then you claim your freedom from it.” Hallelujah. Hallelujah hallelujah praise Jesus! Praise Jesus, praise Jesus, praise Jesus, praise Jesus, praise Jesus, praise Jesus. [Pastor John praising Jesus] Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus.
I want to tell you, I had an experience this week. I haven’t done much exercise for a couple of months because just various things happened that I’ve been trusting God that this medical practice that I am eating right, drinking right, doing the things that a medical practitioner has told me to do. I’ve been trusting that God would do supernatural work in my body. And I got to ride for two days this week with such strength and revitalized body. My highest heart rate. Because I am riding with all these people that have been training for weeks and weeks and week and they are claiming Elijah legs themselves. And I am thinking that is my benefit, not yours. But then I can’t say no you can’t do that. Because like Pastor, they can also do that. So, now they are young and they have Elijah legs, that gives me a problem. It means I have got to have an E-bike. They have got E-legs; Elijah legs, I have got E-bike and E-legs. Not yet I have, I don’t have the E-bike yet but I rode one. And then I showed them that they have got trouble now.
But I sat on that saddle, I had my heart rate on the first day, my highest heart rate was 183. My average heart rate was 162. Now that will tell you that on average I am riding at the limit of my heart rate for my age, for 5 hours, not a single flutter in my heart. Not a skipped beat in my heart. Not one. That is what would happen, that as the time would go by on a day and my heart would get fatigued, my heart would start to skip a beat. And so what they wanted to do is put a; do an operation and do a thing in my heart. The Lord said, “Don’t do that, go with the medical advice that can naturally take care of this.” I am here to tell you today that God has healed my heart, He has healed my life. And these young people better watch out, because when I get training, I am coming after them. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise You, Jesus. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Whoo!
And so, God is about His people. He is watching over you. He is taking care of you. Won’t you agree with me right now? Whatever you put your hand to, prospers. Say this with me, “I am a son of God; everything that He has for me I receive it in Jesus’ name. I have all of the inheritance in every area of life, belongs to me. I receive it, I take it, I have it, in Jesus’s name.” Hallelujah.
And I declare that this week your week will be filled with laughter. Your week will be filled with joy. Your week will be filled with peace, that whatever you put your hands to prospers. Wherever you go He will guide you and lead you so that it comes into good place. Hallelujah. No weapon formed against you will prosper. He covers you with the wings of His Word and the blood of Jesus. He gives His angels charge over you and you won’t even dash your foot against a rock because He will guide you and lead you in the way that you should go. In Jesus name. Hallelujah. Do you agree with this prayer this morning? Say, “Amen.” Hallelujah.
Now what a message moments you will have this afternoon nogal, ne? Nogal.
Be blessed. Enjoy lunch. See you later alligator. Praise Jesus.
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