Scripture Reference: Psalm 91:1-16 (NLT)
Hallelujah. Praise You, Jesus. Thank You, Lord, for this wonderful time that we’ve been able to just praise You and worship You. It is my prayer, Father that as I share the Word today that it will continue to impact us and change us. I pray that every ear is ready to hear, every heart is ready to receive and every mind is quiet and quieted so that the Word can gain entrance to the spirit of each person. I pray, Father that you will speak to us, Spirit to spirit, life to life so that we can grow by that that You give us, Father. I thank You, Lord, that this is just a vessel that You would choose to speak through and I pray that You would use this vessel in the best possible way that you can today, in Jesus’ Name. Hallelujah. Amen.
I just would like you to turn to someone and say, “I’m glad you’re here this afternoon,” and then you may be seated. Praise the Lord. Good to see you all here. Glad you could make it today. Hallelujah. I want to read to you from Psalm 91. I’m going to read to you from the New Living Translation. This is important because of what’s going on in the world. I’m going to read you this Psalm.
1Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. 2This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; He is my God and I trust Him. 3For He will rescue you from every trap and protect you from deadly disease. He will protect you from every or from deadly disease. 4He will cover you with His feathers. He will shelter you with His wings. His faithful promises are your armour and protection. 5Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night, nor the arrow that flies in the day. 6Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness, nor the disaster that strikes at midday. 7Though a thousand fall at your side, though ten thousand are dying around you, these evils will not touch you. That includes the coronavirus.
8Just open your eyes, and see how the wicked are punished. 9If you make the Lord your refuge, if you make the Most High your shelter, 10no evil will conquer you; no plague will come near your home. 11For He will order His angels to protect you wherever you go. 12They will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone. 13You will trample upon lions and cobras; you will crush fierce lions and serpents under your feet. 14The Lord says, “I will rescue those who love Me. I will protect those who trust in My Name. 15When they call on me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue and honour them. 16I will reward them with a long life and give them my salvation (Psalm 91:1-16 NLT).
Hallelujah. I wanted to read that scripture to you because the world is panicking because they don’t have an anti-viral vaccine for this virus that is a pandemic virus that has gone around the world. I do want to say this to you that it is a good opportunity to take head what medical professionals tell us and to do the things that medical professionals tell us to do. Right? There’s a reason they know what they know and there’s a reason that what they know saves many lives around the world over many diseases and many plagues, you know. I’ve spoken to Doctor Nico about this on numerous occasions and his medical answer, being a specialist, his medical answer to me has always been; medicine cannot actually cure any disease. God gave us an immune system that kills disease. Medicine can only help the immune system to deal with the disease and to deal with the symptoms. But medicine cannot actually heal any disease, only your immune system can do that. That’s quite something, hey? So what does this virus do? For those that are weak, it attacks the immune system. It weakens your immune system, so other things that are plaguing you, your body can’t actually fight those diseases together and that is why people die from this coronavirus. But I have the Word of God to trust in. I have the Word of God that I trust in. I listen to the professionals but I trust in the Word of God. Hello? I trust in the Word of God. Amen.
Over this last week as I have been meditating on how we as a ministry, how I as a spiritual leader should respond to giving you information about what must happen with this virus. Actually I was less concerned about the disease itself than about the terror that is stalking by day and the arrows that are flying. The arrows that are flying by day and it is terror that stalks at night. That is an economic terror that is happening in the world. If you look at countries like Italy and in Europe, I mean literally there are towns that are shut down. There is no commerce that is happening there. If you have seen some things on television about what is happening in America, I mean, people are actually having physical brawls overt toilet paper. It might be a logical approach when a doctor says to congress in America; it is going to get worse and everybody’s lives in America are going to get touched by this virus. Well, if you are an American and you have the mindset of an American that just creates panic, that doesn’t give anybody any good thing.
The virus is in South Africa, it is here but I have the Word of God that I trust in. I have the Word of God that I trust in, more that I trust in what is happening out there in the world. My first barrier is to use the Word of God. I have to trust that as I speak the Word of God and airborne diseases come near me that actual virus strain dies before it hits me or as it lands on my body it dies. That is my faith that it will not get hold of me. That is why I wanted to read you that scripture; my trust is in the Lord. I will still wash my hands and be careful and do those things that we should be doing. Hello? But my trust is in the Lord.
I want to say this that it is interesting to me that the word that we received for 2020 is that God is opening a new door and we will experience supernatural increase like never before. It is amazing to me that, well it shouldn’t surprise us because this is the way the devil works, really, the whole world, all the doors are closing. I mean literally America said we are not taking any flights from Asia and we are not taking any flights from Europe and we are shutting our borders, literally. They are closing their borders too. They haven’t closed their borders to Africa and they are monitoring the borders to South America but for the moment all the Northern, Western hemisphere kind of places or Asia, Middle East, whatever those places, Europe, you can’t get to America. They shut the borders. Doors are closing. It sounds to me like the devil is panicking because when God opens a new door for supernatural increase he can’t stop it, he can’t stop it. I want to encourage you that you don’t let go of the Word and you don’t look at the natural circumstances. You speak to those circumstances that in the natural might seem like they are going to control the future and you say, “No, my future is dependent on the Word that I speak not on what the circumstances of the world’s stock exchanges look like.” Amen.
I know this is a fact that the South African economy is in a recession. Theoretically, they say that is going to grow by I don’t know what is it, point four percent, point four of a percent. Theoretically, it is going to grow. But everybody really knows that we are in a recession but it doesn’t move me. Come on because I trust in the Word and I trust in God who can make anything happen.
You remember the story that there was a blockade on a city in Israel and people couldn’t buy bread. The price of bread was so high, they couldn’t get water, they couldn’t have bread and it was like people were consuming their own children. It was a terrible situation because they couldn’t get food. Then the prophet of God came and said, “This time tomorrow you will have more than enough.” The leader said, “No, that is not possible, that is not going to happen.” He said, “It will happen but you won’t eat of it and it will not happen to you.” You know the story that the lepers went into the camp and they walked towards the camp and said, “Listen, we’re going to die. Let’s go and get food from our enemies.” God made their feet sound like a whole army marching towards them and they all fled; left all the food behind. All the food was there, the blockade was lifted, and by the next day there was food aplenty
Let me tell you, God can do miracles like that today that’s not just in the Old Testament. God can do miracles like that today. Today, He can do miracles but we have to believe that He can. Amen. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
In case you hadn’t noticed, I’ve been away from church. I thank you for releasing me from church to pursue what the order of God that He placed in my heart at the beginning of the year or last year even and that is Project Strike. I mean this has actually been going on since 2018; Project Strike, Project Conditioning, and Project Celebration, you know.
Kenneth Copeland, I can say this now because he has made it public, he spoke it on television, on the Believer’s Voice of Victory on a daily broadcast, he spoke it on television, and he said this, “God has spoken to me for many years to actually do physical exercise, to improve my condition as a person physically.” Then he said, “I didn’t like it, I didn’t want to do it, and I would get all psyched up for it and I would go to the gym and I would do it three times and then I’d quit, you know because I didn’t like working out in the gym.” I’m telling you what he said, this is not my interpretation this is what he said. For many, many years he would go in this, and eventually, I mean he just really didn’t exercise. Now he’s 83 and he wants to extend his life, but, in the meantime, over the years he’s had to have disc fusions in his back, and he’s had to have many things that have happened to him medically in order to keep his body in reasonable condition. Now he’s got a personal trainer and for the last two years, he’s been using a personal trainer, four, five, six times a week he’s been working out, and at 83 he’s in excellent shape.
I shared this with you that when we were in the Washington Believers’ Campaign, you know, Brother Copeland, at the end of the service of the last day, he dropped to the floor and started doing push-ups; Jerry Savelle next to him in his suit. Jerry Savelle was next to him, and there’s Brother Copeland and Brother Jerry and they’re doing push-ups. I stopped counting at around 30, thirtyish because I was counting Brother Jerry’s push-ups and then he stood up which was a wise move, considering that he didn’t want to make it a competition with Brother Copeland in front of 1000 or 2000 partners. Right? Out of honour he just stood up. Maybe he was a bit tired, but you know, certainly, it wouldn’t have been wise if he was stronger to show that he was stronger and push Brother Copeland beyond what he could do publicly. Right? There are things that are honourable and you just, nobody can teach you that, you just do that. I would imagine Brother Copeland did 40-odd push-ups, forty, forty-four push-ups, in his suit, in front of everybody because he’s been training, conditioning.
It’s one of my, it’s one of our goals this year in what we are doing that we will do physical conditioning, spiritual conditioning and financial conditioning in every area that you feel you need to do conditioning in; this is a good time, relational conditioning. This is a good time to get yourself in good condition. Amen?
Given the schedule that I have for this year which for the moment anyway, includes trips to America, and South America, and many other places that Brother Jerry has wanted me to be in attendance with him, so given the rest of my year, I decided to put quite a lot of effort into the beginning of this year to actually do some physical conditioning and use it at the same time to do spiritual conditioning.
I drove myself down to Clarens and then I went from Clarens by car to Cape Town and I spent all of the time just listening to ministry, listening to the Word, praising the Lord, meditating on His Word. I spent hours and hours soaking in the Word. Wow, what an amazing, wonderful time I had with God. I would like to share some of my experience with you, as part of this year which is a new door and there is opportunity for us to have supernatural increase.
When I’m in this environment with all of you, I’m very thankful, I’m very grateful to God that we have a very wonderful relationship as a community of people that you have with me and Pastor Sharon and I with you. You have an honour for me, you have a respect and a love for me that I don’t demand. The fact that you choose to give it is something that I value highly. Right? I love you and respect you and I honour you for your commitment as disciples. This is a wonderful relationship that we have.
It is not a difficult thing, really, for me to always experience kindness from you, blessing from you, honour from you and respect. I appreciate it. I understand that there are many people standing in my office that have abused their office and the honour and the respect is demanded; it is not freely given. I know that’s in the church but that’s not so amongst us.
I found myself in a situation where I’m cycling with hundreds of people and we’re going to do hundreds of kilometres. The days were like 151km one day, 144km the next day, 120km the next day, 100km another day, then another day a 100km and the temperatures are around 35 to 45 degrees. It’s just difficult.
On the one day that we did a long ride, we arrived back at the hotel at around four o’clock in the afternoon and I’m good and solid ‘wacked’. I’m moeg and I don’t really want to talk to too many people. I don’t want anybody really talking to me. I want to just go and find a, it’s still about 40 degrees even though it’s four o clock in the afternoon. You know in the Cape in the afternoon, in the valley in the afternoon, the heat just hangs there and it’s still about 40 degrees, you know, it’s hot, hot.
I find myself a wall. They’ve got places there where you can hang up your bikes on racks but I just pulled my bike over against the wall, I sat myself down, took my helmet off, put my gloves in my helmet, took my shoes off, put my shoes next to my helmet and all I wanted to do was just sit. The rest of the people was still coming in. All the cyclists were still coming in. Some of the vehicles were still coming in. I mean it was going to be a while, while this thing unfolded. I just wanted to sit in the shade while that happened.
I put myself against the wall, my back against the wall and ‘huh’, this feels good, you know. I still got to ride back to my hotel and so I’m just going to take a break for now. After some minutes a vehicle pulls in that’s been a support vehicle that’s got water and all the kinds of stuff that they supported the cyclist with. The guy opens up the cooler boxes and he starts taking out packets of water that was ice that’s now just cold water that’s been lying in the cooler box, just cold water. He starts taking the water packets and just throwing them on the tarmac, because now it’s wasted, it’s just going to be thrown away, it’s just ice water gone liquid, right, but it’s still cold.
This guy’s van, the maintenance technician that helps cyclists with their setups and anything wrong with the bike, he would look after it, doesn’t say a word to me. I saw that he was walking but I didn’t pay attention to him. He just walked over to one of these cold packets that were laying on the ground, he picked up the cold packet like this; he had some kind of a screwdriver or something and he pocked three holes into the packet like this and he walks up over to me and he looks at me and he said, “Sir, it looks like you need this. Do you mind if I pour this water over you?” Now he’s being very smart and very aware because just to dump water on me would not be a good thing either. Do you understand? He poked three holes in it while he was walking to me and then asked me if he could proceed to shower me with cold water. I said, “Feel free.”
He comes and he stands over there and he just starts to hold this thing and he just starts pouring it on my head like this, on my body like this, on my legs like this, on my feet like this until the thing is empty. He says, “How do you feel now, sir?” I said, “I feel fantastic, thank you very much.” He said, “Is there anything else I can do for you?” So I said, “Well, if you’re asking, I wouldn’t mind a bottle of cold still water, please.” “I’ll get it for you.” He goes and he finds a place and he brings this ice-cold still water and he puts it in my hand. I said, “Well, thank you, sir. You know, what can I say, I appreciate it.” He said, “No, you just looked like you needed some help.” I said, “So, but what?” He said, “No, I’m just waiting on some people to come and bring their bikes to me and so I just saw you needed some help.” It’s called the blessing. He didn’t do it to anybody else of the hundreds of other people that were there. He didn’t do it to anybody else. He just did it for me. Huh.
I later found him at a hotel in Cape Town on the day before we rode the Cape Town Cycle Tour. I found him in a hotel and I said, “What are you doing here?” He says, “No, the hotel pays me to set up my station here and to serve the cyclists and make sure their cycles are in a good condition because the hotel wants them to come back here every year and for the ABSA Cape Epic and everything. They want them to come to this hotel and so they’ve asked me to come and just free serves.” So I said, “Well if it’s free, do you mind lubing my bike for me?” “That’s why I’m here, sir.” He says, “I’ll clean your bike and fix it and I’ll bring it to you.” I said, “No, I’ll just stand here, don’t mind if I hang around you and just talk to you and have some words with you.”
We had a conversation and I asked him, “So, what do you do? Where’s your bicycle shop?” He said, “No, sir, I don’t have a bicycle shop.” I said, “You don’t?” “No.” He said, “You’ll be surprised to know what I do.” I said, “Surprise me.” He said, “I’m actually the development manager for Shell Corporation in South Africa.” So I said, “Well, why are you doing these bikes?” He said, “It’s my passion and so when it’s this season, this time of the year, I get extra money and I get paid for it.” He said, “But actually they can’t pay me enough to do this, this is because of my passion. I love to serve and help people with fixing their bikes and make their experience wonderful.” I said, “Well, now I know why Shell employs you.” You know, really.
Then he says to me, “So, what do you do?” I said, “I’m going to surprise you and tell you what I do.” So he says, “Why don’t you surprise me, sir?” I said, “Well, I’m a pastor.” “Oh, really?” “Yeah”. “Mmm,” he says, “I didn’t expect that, but yeah, I can see that I can see that.” You know, it turns out his father was an Anglican priest and he was a born-again spirit-filled Anglican. When he came to pour cold water on me, he didn’t know why he was coming to do it for me, but spirit was calling to spirit and God moved two spirits towards each other without knowing anything and he came to bless me because the blessing follows me. You can’t pay for blessing like that.
You know, when I was travelling down to Cape Town and I was listening to the Word and listening to the Word and just saturating myself with the Word, there were things that I said to the Lord, there was communication that I had with the Lord about things that were in my life and things that have been with me since I was a child; things that have been with me since I was, I grew up as a preacher’s kid, you know. There were things in my walk with God, there were things in my life, there were just circumstances in my life that I had deep conversations with God about while I was driving down to Cape Town. It’s just like God heard me speak to Him and He just switched on my insight into how He could bless me where nobody knew me. No one knew me, no one knew that I was a pastor, no one knew who I was, no one knew what I was there for other than I’m just, my name is John and I’ve got a sticker on my back that says so and one on my bike that says so. And that’s all who I am. I’m just John. I’m just another number cycling. No one else knows who I am, except Heavenly Father does and He sends people to bless me all along the trip; every day in little ways that after a while I said, “God, this blessing is so amazing to me, it’s overwhelmed me how much You’ve shown me that You love me and bless me in little things. I dare say that if You’ve given me a million it wouldn’t have meant as much to me.” Really because the care that He showed for me that people came and just gave to me was beyond anything that anybody could – if it had happened to me in your company it would be expected and understood. Do you know what I’m saying? Because you know me, but nobody knew me there.
Mind if I tell you my stories? I’m trusting and I’m believing God that the spirit of this will come upon you because I believe that’s part of the reason the Lord had me go away, was to show how God could open new doors and supernatural increase can come your way. At first, it might seem small, but it leads to bigger things. Because certainly, it opens you up as a person to appreciate small things and to love God in the small things and then He brings along the bigger things. How do you see the bigger things if you can’t see the small things? I mean anybody could logically say to me, “Ag, John, that’s just a coincidence.” No, it’s not, I know who I am before God. He didn’t do it to anybody else, you know.
I’m driving in my car and I drive through a butterfly storm. You know what happens when you drive through butterflies that are everywhere and they hit your car. It’s like you can hardly see through your windscreen, you know. I stopped at a garage to fill up with gas and asked them to clean my windscreen. Lo and behold, there’s a Seattle Coffee company. Thank You, Lord. I head for Seattle Coffee company. “Please, fill up my car and clean my windscreen.” I’m taking my time, you know, and I bought some cheese, to just nibble on the cheese and stuff like that, you know. I didn’t want to eat junk, I just bought some cheese and coffee. It didn’t take me very long. I come out and there are three guys around my car and they’ve washed my car. They’ve washed my whole car, not just the windscreen, they washed my whole car in five minutes or seven minutes. I mean how long does it take to make coffee? Do you know what I’m saying? They washed my whole car. I walked out, I’ve got a sparkling new car. I said, “Hey guys, what’s this all about?” They said, “No,” now they’re talking in a Cape accent, you know, “No mister, you know, we’re standing around doing nothing and we’re just going to wash your car.” You know, like, “Hey man, it’s lekker, a good day, it’s Friday.” You know, like, “Hey mister, you know, it’s like…” I said, “Hey guys, thank you for doing it. I like your initiative.” I haul money out, I start giving them money. Now they are dancing, they’re like, “We’ve got dop money for the weekend,” you know. They attend the Dopper Kerk, for sure on a Friday night. You know what happened in my heart was when I asked them to clean my windscreen it was just in my heart, you know, I wouldn’t like to arrive at the hotel that I am going to with my car in this condition. It was just like that in my heart. I didn’t say it even to the Lord. I didn’t even express it to the Lord. It was just in my heart, next thing I come out and they’ve washed my car. Now let me tell you, to get three coloureds to wash your car without any knowledge of payment coming their way, on a Friday afternoon, when there is drinking just around the corner, three coloured dudes. That’s quite some incentive, that’s quite some, you know, some motivation to get guys like that to do. Jy verstaan, nê? Hey, jy verstaan ons. You know? But God is the most powerful motivator. It’s the blessing. It’s blessing.
I’ll tell you, there were so many things that happened to me, so many things happened to me on my time away where I grew in fitness and strength and conditioning. I grew in the Word and God showed me many marvellous things and spiritual things and I believe that for the year we have ahead, there’re many more things God is going to bring out as a result of my time with Him. Come on you guys all know me by now. I mean, I spent a lot of time speaking to my wife and praying about even going down and then in the end, who drives when you can fly? Huh? I said to Sharon, I said, “You know, babe, I just feel like I need days and hours and uninterrupted time where I can just hear from the Lord and speak to the Lord. And yet at the same time, I can just be in a flow that is, that is just easier. I just have this peace that I must drive to Cape Town.” If the peace of God leads you, there is nothing else to do, you know? In the time that I was gone an anointed song gets written, ‘I come Boldly.’ Didn’t Pastor Sharon, my wife, did she not preach awesomely and minister under the anointing in an awesome way? I know, I’ve listened, I’ve been soaking in her message too, messages. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
I am expecting great changes to happen, I am. I know she shared this with you, but I am going to share it with you one more time. The new door for supernatural increase means I do not compare; I do not compare with what God is doing to me with anybody else. I’m sharing with you small things and you might look at my small things and say, “Well, that’s not really special because actually God gave me half a million rand. Let me share my great victory with you.” You might make me feel very small if I share that with you. Then I might want to compare what God’s doing in my life to your life and the minute I start doing that I lose what God’s doing. In the meantime, He is actually doing something very special for me. What’s the point in comparing? Hallelujah. If you compare what God’s doing in your life now versus what maybe he did a year or three or five or ten years or twenty years ago, you’re in danger. Because actually if you start comparing what God did some years ago or did in a particular set of meetings or He did in a…. There were a set of circumstances, there was a context, there was a situation, there were circumstances and you can’t replicate that, you’ve moved on. You can’t go back and compare what happened then to what’s going on now. You’ve got to live in the now with God. Don’t compare with each other or anything else you have a reference point. Remember what I said; prevent comfort zone crime. To live in your comfort zone is a crime. It’s a crime against the Word of God. “But I want myself to be comfortable.” If you are wanting control and you’re wanting comfort then you’re not allowing the Holy Spirit to guide you and lead you. Because what you are trying to do is to make Him fit your answers. I’ll tell you what; He’s got answers for you that are so superior, so superior that when He shows you the answers you would think, “Why did I even try and control that? Why did I even try and stay in my comfort zone? I need to move out and let God do what He needs to do.” Don’t connect to your past for confirmation of what’s happening in your current status and or your future. There is nothing in your past that can prepare you for now. Nothing. Not even old testimonies can be used for new victories. Old testimonies can only confirm to you that the Word of God is true, that’s all they can do. You can use them and say, “I’ve won by the Word of God before so I can win again.” But what happened then can’t help you to what is happening now. This is a whole new faith walk. It is a whole new set of victories you’ve got to live. Come on. You are preaching good, Pastor John. Magtig man.
You must be unchained from your current status. Unchained; you’ve got to unchain yourself from your current status and say, “I’m not going to let my current status hold me down. I am going to move into the next status that God has for my life.” You’ve got to walk, see and talk covenant future. You can’t speak the natural world future especially right at the moment. You know, Donald Trump announced a 51 billion dollar fiscal stimulus and medical intervention plan for America because they are very concerned about small businesses actually shutting down wholesale across America because of the coronavirus. They are concerned about the economic – it is just stopping. Large service-related, for example, I mean I saw this on the news, for example, if you are an uber driver and nobody has going to work, you’ve got no customers. Who is going to bail you out? Get what I am saying? If you’ve got a restaurant business and you depend on so much turnover a day because people come into your restaurant for food and now nobody is coming to the restaurant. What would you do? I am just being led by the Holy Spirit now. What would you do if you were in America and you had a restaurant, you were a born-again believer and the way that you were making money was having feet flow through your restaurant and now people are not coming to your restaurant? What would you do?
The first thing that you would have to do is you would have to go to God and say, “God, Your answer to my life is not to have a company that fails. Your answer to my life is to keep me in prosperity.” My answer might not be to keep my restaurant going, I might have to shut this restaurant so there are no overheads. I might have to go to the bank and talk to the bank or other people who are creditors and say, “Pause.” How am I going to get income? [Pastor John praying in the Spirit.] I thank You, Lord, for insights, ideas, concepts, supernatural thought patterns. Thank You, Lord. You have to trust the God of Psalm 91. You have to trust the God of Psalm 91. Hallelujah.
You have to be courageous and obedient to His guidance because, you know, I have preached to you about this before. This is a meaningful revelation to me; if Elijah stayed eating from ravens at the brook when the brook dried, he would have died. But God said to him, “Listen up, Elijah, the water is running dry and the ravens are going to stop feeding you. Walk one step in front of the other. Move from this place and go to a town. I’ll show you which town and there is a widow there waiting for you and she will feed you.” When he got there she had nothing, enough to give him one meal. He said, “That is My plan all along to go to the person who has the least so that I can keep filling what they have least until this thing passes.” Job done, miracle accomplished. Let’s go. Hallelujah.
I am ministering life to you today. There are different categories of riders that were riding on this cycle tour and we had road closures with traffic officers and medical and all that kind of stuff going with us. On a particular given day, we arrive at the foster group that is riding ahead of us and, “Why are you guys waiting here?” “Well, because the traffic officer stopped us.” “Why?” Because as it turns out part of the road we were going to ride on was on the N4 between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth and the traffic officer made a decision that he is not going to let multiple groups of riders through. He is going to make all the riders come together and then take them through. Now that is against the spirit of what cycling pelotons and different racing groups and strength groups are supposed to be riding for. Right?
They had arranged for that but this officer decided; all come together, one group are going to ride. Lots of ‘hana-hana’ on the phone. Lots of questions, anyway we get it done. I can hear the owner of the tour, he is the owner and the organiser of the tour, there are lots of conversations going with high-level officials. Now they are apologising to him for this man on the ground that made a mistake. They kind of say to him, “Can we make it up to you?” He says, “Ja, I think you can.” He said, “Tomorrow we are going to ride from Gordon’s Bay into Cape Town, we want to ride over Chapman’s Peak.” He said, “How about you close Chapman’s Peak for us so that we can ride as a group over Chapman’s Peak?” He said, “That has never been done, ever. Not two days before a major cycle tour is about to happen.” He comes back to him and he says, “We will close one lane for you. Traffic office, everything, we will close one lane for you. Different groups; you go.” This guy gets up, he is like, “You can’t believe what just happened. We – never happened, they never close Chapman’s Peak like this and they have done it for us and you know, ” and he’s like “Ra-ra,” you know. “Look what I’ve done.”
I’m standing there at my bicycle and I am thinking, “Thank You, Lord,” thinking, “Thank You, Lord.” He does not know that that whole thing happened because I am there. Come on now. Do you think Potiphar’s household that Joseph was running, was prosperous before Joseph got there or it was prosperous because Joseph was there? Do you think the prison that Joseph was in was run well because there was a good prison guard or because Joseph ran the prison? So do you think Egypt became the prosperous nation that it was because there was a good Pharaoh in charge or because Joseph was there? There was always a headman that took credit for everything that happened but none of it was credited to them because Joseph was there.
“Pastor John, are you not being a little bit arrogant or a little bit, you know, overstating?” I’m not, because the Lord began to show me all the time, “Watch how I am going to bless you. Watch how I am going to bless you. I am going to take care of you. Watch this, watch what I can do. Watch what I can do.” You know and I am standing and this guy gets a phone call from the commissioner and he says, “But you have got to be at the base of Chapman’s Peak at that time and each group has got to be on time, the time you say it’s going to be because we are going to have traffic officers; they are going to close that lane and you go. You do not stop until you get to the other side.” “Yes, sir.”
We get there; there’s traffic officers closing, you know, traffic lights, everything and we just go. Climb, climb, climb Chapman’s Peak. A whole road to ourselves. I mean, there were some other cyclists and some other traffic that was going but no cars. It was closed to them. So even though they said one lane, they actually ended up closing the whole of Chapman’s Peak for half an hour. I did Chapman’s Peak twice in two days; road closures. Hallelujah.
You know what? I began to see that God will move people and He will move things and He will have conversations with people. There will be issues over here and you think this is unassociated and God all the while is saying, “Watch Me, watch Me bless you. Watch Me do things for you that are beyond your …” And there are other things that happened as a result of all the groups coming together that I am not going to tell you about. But just God connects you with people and puts you with people and does amazing things. He does. Favour here, favour there, connection here, have a conversation there, do this, go here, do that. Yes, Sir.
The organiser of that tour, the guy who owns it, before we left each other he comes to me, he found himself riding with me a lot of the time, next to me. So he comes to me afterwards and he says, “Hey, John.” He says, “You and I have to stay in touch, hey.” I call him by his name, I say, “Yes, I will.” He says, “Will you call me?” I said, “I will call you.” He said, “We need to be talking about some of the things that I have got going on that I want to develop and the things that we have talked about.” I said, “Ja, I know, good things.” He said, “Let’s talk.” He lives in London. “Keep in touch, John.” Consider it done. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
You know, the story and I finish with this. You know the story that I read to you previously about Cornelius who was a captain in the Roman army and you know, part of the payment that people got in the military those days was when you conquered nations or you conquered cities, you plundered their wealth. If you were a centurion you were legitimately authorized by Caesar to claim a certain amount of the wealth that you would capture from other nations and other people. So the centurion, he had a lot of wealth; he had servants; he had all these things that he had and he used the wealth to build synagogues for the Jews. Even though he was the occupying force, there was something that God had revealed to him about these Jewish people that they have a covenant with God that is beyond his understanding. And so he had it in his heart to just do good things for them. This man; God chooses Cornelius as the point where He wants to bless Cornelius. He gives him a dream, the vision, he sends his servants to go and fetch Peter. Peter has a vision on the house, rooftop of the house, about unclean food and all of that. Then these guys knock on the door and he ends up going with them into a gentile’s house. This was God’s way of saying to him, “I have considered them to be clean and I am expecting you to not stay in your comfort zone. I am expecting you not to judge your future by the past. I am expecting you not to judge your current status by anything that has happened in your past. I’m expecting you to be led and have courage and be guided by the Holy Spirit. So go to Cornelius’ house, Peter and be a covenant man for your future, Peter.” And so he goes into Cornelius’ house and he preaches the Gospel to them and as he’s preaching the Gospel to them, the Holy Spirit falls upon them and they all begin to speak in tongues. Then he says, “If God visits them with the evidence of speaking in other tongues, why should they not be baptised?” So he then water baptises the whole family and immediately that whole Roman family became born again, spirit-filled Christians that’s future was changed forever.
Let me tell you if you are going to go into this season of the new door that God has got supernatural increase waiting for you, in every area of our lives, and then you’ve got to be mobile. You can’t be stuck like your feet are in cement. Hey, come on. I’m talking to someone now. If your spirit, your attitude is stuck in cement, change it. Because I’m telling you now, your attitude, you might not have your feet stuck in cement, but if your attitude is stuck in cement you are not going anywhere. If your spirit-life is stuck in the past or stuck in a current status, you can’t receive what God is bringing to you because you won’t see it.
Can I tell you that I recognise that partly why God was leading me to go to, and you all know me by now? You’ve been around me a long time. When the Holy Spirit leads me to separate and go and do stuff like this, I know that God’s going to talk to me. You know I don’t just sommer do things, sommer, you know. But I feel like part of what God did for me in the days that I was gone and all of the Word that I was soaking in and all of the things is He unstuck me. It’s like I’m floating in the Spirit, surfing with God. I feel like that. It’s like I can move and I’m mobile. It’s like if God says go here do this, do this, I’m ready, Lord, I’m ready, I’m not stuck. I’m ready to go. You’ve got to be ready. Am I encouraging you today? I hope nobody is receiving this as a hiding because it’s not meant to be that way. If it’s giving you a hiding, well, sorry for you. It’s more about you than about me because I’m really trying to encourage you to be mobile, to have this awesome place where you can just say, “I’m ready for the blessing, Lord.”
So, here are a few points for you. You have to recognise this moment fully. This moment, you must recognise it. If you don’t even recognise this moment as something significant, then you won’t be mobile enough and you won’t be able to receive, you won’t walk through the new door to supernatural increase. You have to recognise this moment. I know that Pastor Sharon had my son Brynn come and share with you. Did he come to Jo’burg too or did you just see it on the TV? Did you not hear Brynn’s testimony or his conversation here in Jo’burg? No? I know she did it in Witbank. She asked Brynn to come up and give his testimony about what happened with him on the 4x4x40. Does this bring any remembrance to any of you? She talked about it, okay. Brynn heard me talk about 4x4x40 and all that stuff that God wanted us to do, and he sat there as my son thinking, I don’t need this and so how the Lord showed him that he was foolish because he wasn’t ready to go through the process.
You have to recognise this moment. You have to recognise that this is a spiritual moment. Hallelujah. Revelation must continue through conversation and action. When you recognise the moment, you’ve got to speak the revelation. If you don’t speak the revelation, you will never move from revelation to action. Come on. I’m preaching good today. Because if you don’t talk to each other about the new door and you don’t talk about the supernatural increase and you don’t talk about these things, it keeps coming out of your mouth, then you’re not converting the revelation to conversation. And if you don’t have conversations about it then you’re not going to convert anything to action. Amen. Hallelujah. You must reflect on your daily commitment to this season. Don’t leave it till tomorrow, because you know the way I feel about marriage and this has been my philosophy about marriage for years and years. How do you destroy a marriage? One day at a time. How do you make a great marriage? One day at a time. You don’t make a great marriage by saying; I’m going to live with this person forever. You can’t even think you’re going to be alive forever. But you can live for today. All you’ve got to live is in the marriage that God wants you to have fully today. Whatever destruction you bring today is the destruction that you are taking in for tomorrow. Don’t destroy your marriage one day at a time, build it one day at a time.
It is the same thing with this season with God. Don’t destroy the supernatural increase and opportunity to walk through the new door, one day at a time by inactivity. Because if you are just inactive about this revelation for one day, you lose a day and then you lose 2 days, then you lose 3 days, then you lose a week, then a week has gone by and you think; I have done nothing about this revelation. I haven’t spoken to anybody about it, I haven’t let it come out of my mouth, I’m not making it full inside of me. Then the revelation begins to die, it doesn’t grow. You’ve got to create that environment through conversation that it will grow because then the conversation grows that and then it becomes action.
It’s part of the way you stay mobile, flexible, ready. You must respond to both small and large Biblical or Bible-based and Holy Spirit inspired changes. My last point is to rejoice always and I’m going to use that point, for example, if the Bible says to you rejoice in the Lord again I say rejoice; then you don’t have to have me come and stand and tell you to rejoice today, that’s a Bible thing that it says rejoice. Is it a command? Rejoice, and again I say, rejoice
I don’t have to have anybody explain that to me. Doesn’t matter how I feel, it doesn’t matter what is happening to my circumstances; the Bible just says rejoice and again I say rejoice. You know, I have shared this with you many, many times but it’s worth mentioning again. My wife and I have not always had super easy circumstances in our lives and anybody that’s been married thirty-nine years tomorrow, anybody that has been married thirty-nine years, you will know that life has not been plain sailing, not in relationships, not in finances, not in raising children, nothing. It’s not smooth, plain sailing always. Yet the Bible says; rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.
What does that scripture mean? How can you say rejoice when my circumstances are different. Well, the way you’re going to get out of those circumstances is by rejoicing, that’s why he said it. “But I don’t feel like it, and I feel down and I feel depressed. I feel ugly, I feel,” whatever you might be feeling because of something you said or didn’t say or things you did or didn’t do. Whatever the spectrum is, that’s not the condition of the scripture; if you’re feeling good rejoice. On the contrary, the power of rejoicing always is when you don’t feel good. “I don’t feel like it.” Do it anyway. “I rejoice in You, Lord, I rejoice in You, Lord.” Well, a least you’re being obedient. “I rejoice in You, Lord, I rejoice in You, Lord.” [Pastor John imitating rejoicing when you don’t feel like it]
I’ve been there, like that, for days at a time where things were so tough and so bad for us that we didn’t think we could, we couldn’t see any silver lining. It was just dark. The only way that we survived it was to walk around in that darkness and say, “ We praise You, Jesus. I praise You, Jesus. I praise You, Jesus. I praise You, Jesus.” I did it as an act of obedience, not because there was anything in me or in my circumstances or in my life, there was nothing that allowed me to have any reason to praise Him, but I did it anyway. Then I got through it because I did it.
You must respond to small things that God brings into your life like I am talking to you now. Small things that are not major issues, you know, it’s not a major thing what I’m telling you to do.
Willie, if it’s not the thing, then you bring the other birds. I choose to rejoice with them, the hadedas, Willie, shame Willie, he’s got his work cut out here, if it’s not the guinea fowls then it’s the hadedas and then it’s something else. Praise the Lord. They are intent on talking to us. We used to live in Boskruin and we had this big, big tree in our garden. What do they call it? A blue gum tree. It’s called something else though, the official name anyway, Eucalyptus tree, right. We had this big tree and the hadedas would come in there and they would rooster in that tree and then like 5 o’clock in the morning something would upset them and ‘wha-wha-wha’, they do this. They’re worse than the alarm clock, the worst alarm clock.
You must just respond to the small things that you learn in the Bible and then there are things that the Holy Spirit will inspire for you, in you, to change. Holy Spirit inspired change, Holy Spirit inspired change. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
I am just making a reference point for you that 2018 when the Holy Spirit inspired me to go hang out with Brother Jerry for seven weeks and you know all of the turmoil that I went through; who in his fifties does that? Who that has the ministry that I have puts his ministry on hold and goes for seven weeks and goes and hangs out with another minister, with no agenda, with no nothing? There wasn’t any reason for me to be there and I did not expect him to make a reason for me to be there. I just was inspired by the Holy Spirit; go there and be there. You all know the results and what happened because of that. That’s a Holy Spirit inspired change as opposed to a Bible-based change. I believe personally, I believe that God used that as a seed to change many things in Brother Jerry’s life, in Brother Copeland’s life and many other things that have happened and will continue to happen and are continuing to happen. Hallelujah. Amen.
I consider it as a seed well sown into our future and into Brother Jerry’s future. It’s possible that if I hadn’t sown that seed, it is possible that God wouldn’t have made it possible for us to go and minister, ‘A House of Prayer’ to Heritage of Faith, Crowley. We got a Facebook post from somebody in Heritage of Faith in North Carolina and the Facebook post says, I know the Pastor, Pastor David Stowe. There was a time when he worked at Jerry Savelle Ministries and he worked in the production department. He used to be a sheriff and he worked for Brother Jerry and he eventually became a pastor in North Carolina. He started a Heritage of Faith church there. As a result of us doing prayer school in Heritage of Faith, Crowley, they took our set of teachings that we did and took all the videos that we did there plus our the manual that we gave to them and went and replicated that prayer school in their Heritage of Faith. We’ve got a Facebook from one of the ladies that’s just been through the prayer school course saying that it’s changed our church’s life. Thank you for being obedient to God.
Holy Spirit inspired changes. You’ve got to go with it because God opens a new door, new opportunities and supernatural increase in ways that you can’t see when you’re doing it. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
Did you get something out of this teaching today? I trust you are encouraged then and you are ready for the blessing that’s about to come upon you. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. Don’t you want to stand with me, please?
Put your hand on your heart. I am a son of God. I receive everything that the Holy Spirit has for me in this season. I am ready, I am alert. I am mobile, I am spiritually agile and I’m ready for the new door and supernatural increase, in Jesus’ Name. Hallelujah. Amen. Glory to God. Come on, church, this is a time for the new day, for the new door. It’s a time for rejoicing and it’s a time for celebration.
Oh, by the way, you better make sure that you have all your details set-up for Clarens. Please, get on and register on the website before you go. Caitlin, are you here? Caitlin and who else? And Annie. Annie and Caitlin are ready to help you take details and make sure that you are registered on the website because we need to send you information on email because we want to share with you some of the spectacular, wonderful, exciting things that we have got planned for Clarens. We are going to have a good time. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
I bless you in the Name of Jesus and I say; Father, I ask You to let Your peace rest upon Your people and this mantle, this revelation that You have given me of the blessing and of favour and of just how You are constantly looking for ways that You can do good for Your people. I pray that that revelation comes on Your people today and it stays with them and they remain active and ready to go with You and flow with You, in Jesus’ Name. I ask You to protect them by Your Word and the Blood of Jesus as they travel. No weapon formed against them will prosper. As I have already read; You give angels charge over them, in Jesus’ Name. They are blessed going out and blessed coming in, in the Name of Jesus. If you agree with that prayer you can say; Amen.
Before you go I just want to say; I want to encourage all of you to be at Jannie’s memorial service on Tuesday at 11 o’clock at the Rhema Chapel. We’re all going to be there. Jannie has stepped over into glory and he has a glory body now and he is having a very good time in Heaven. I know the family because I have been working with them for a bit, long time actually and they are not sad, they are glad. Hallelujah. We are going to rejoice at Jannie’s receiving in Heaven. Amen. I will see you on Tuesday at 11. God bless you.
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