Scripture References: John 14:6 (TPT); Luke 6:8 (NKJV); Matthew 12:25 (NKJV); John 2:24-25 (NKJV); John 6:64-65 (NKJV); Genesis 1:1 (NKJV); Genesis 1:26-28 (NKJV); Genesis 2:7 (NKJV); Genesis 2:16-17 (NKJV); Genesis 3:1-7 (MSG); Genesis 3:22-23 (MSG); Genesis 28:12 (NKJV); Genesis 32:24-26 (NKJV); Exodus 3:2-8 (NKJV); Exodus 19:3-11 (NKJV); Exodus 19:14-19 (NKJV); Exodus 20:18-21 (NKJV); Exodus 23:20-24 (NKJV); Exodus 24:12-17 (NKJV); Joshua 4:14-15 (NKJV); Joshua 5:13-15 (NKJV); Job 1:1 (NKJV); Job 1:6-12 (NKJV)
Father, I pray that the message that is to come from this messenger today, human as I am, I’m submitted to You through the Holy Spirit and that it is not my humanity that speaks but the gifting, the calling and the Divine One that is inside of me that uses the vessel to speak. I thank You, Father, that Your words penetrate the most hardened heart. I pray that You soften and prepare each heart, each mind, every ear to hear what needs to be said, what needs to be heard and what we need to take for us to be able to live. I thank You, Lord, that in this message today that You are glorified. I declare that as the Word is being ministered that signs and wonders will follow Your Word and there will be great healing, restoration, miracles that will occur in people’s lives because of the preaching of the Word of Truth. We thank You for it, Lord, in Jesus’ name and everybody said; Amen. Say Amen again, please. That’s better. Before you sit down just tell somebody, “I’m ready for the Word this morning,” and then you may be seated. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus.
John chapter four, well, let me start off by saying this Tuesday is prayer meeting here in Witbank, and the people in Johannesburg; for the moment we’re going to let you view it as a live Prayer Connect, for the moment. There are some things that Pastor Sharon and I are praying about in terms of the Prayer Connect groups in Johannesburg but for the meantime, live prayer will be here. I invite you to please come and pray. I leave for Ethiopia with a couple of people that are going with me to record it and all that sort of stuff. But we’re going to Ethiopia and we’re starting our live Bible School there. We believe and trust that there will be a great impact because of the Bible School that is going to take a hold and touch thousands upon hundreds of tousands of people in Ethiopia. Amen. Hallelujah.
So John, chapter 14, verse six, in The Passion Translation says; 6Jesus explained, “I am the Way, I am the Truth, and I am the Life. No one comes next to the Father except through union with me. To know me is to know my Father too.” (John 14:6 TPT) This is a scripture I’ve been using, as one of the scriptures to talk about relationships and the resurrection power of Jesus in relationships and how He views relationships and how you can restore relationships. It’s quite significant to me that if I go to a young person today, and I say to a young person, “Tell me what your thoughts about your future are.” They will more than likely say they would like to have a good, happy, satisfying, wholesome relationship, a significant and meaningful one for the rest of their lives. They may or may not tell you that they may want a family. They will probably tell you that they will also wish to have financial independence and not be broke all the time and poor. Tell me which young person wants to be poor all their life? Tell me which young person says, “I want to have broken relationships wherever I go”? Tell me which young person says, “Well, I want to be sick the rest of my life”? Now, I mean, this is quite obvious, a young person who’s got a future ahead of them, they want to have meaningful relationships, they don’t want to be poor and they want to have some significance about their lives. Right? And they will want to be able to live life with a great sense of confidence and assurance that what they’re doing is moving them in the right direction and creating opportunities for them to be not only happy but significant. So relationships are very important.
Jesus died so that He could restore the relationship between us and the heavenly Father; with us and Him and with the Holy Spirit. The most important relationship we will ever have. There is no greater relationship you can ever have; ever, ever, ever. There’s no woman, there’s no man, there’s no friend, there’s no brother, there is no sister, there is no relationship you can have in this earth that is more important, that has greater impact and has great greater power and can influence your future more than the one that you have with Jesus; than the one that you have with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Come on, this should just make sense. The foundation right there that, if we give ourselves to Jesus, and the Holy Spirit and the Father, if we give ourselves to that relationship that all other relationships will begin to have what you have with the Father. This is not just sensible, but it’s spiritual. I have a lot to get through today and I’m trusting the Holy Spirit that I will speak as slowly as I have to, but get through as much as I can. I’m trusting that I will be able to finish my message that the Lord has given me today because of the significance of what I need to be saying.
Luke, chapter six, verse eight, in the New King James, most of my scriptures will come out of the New King James, occasionally I’ll have an Amplified or a Passion Translation; so it’s the New King James unless I say so, say differently. Luke, chapter six, verse eight says, 8 But He knew their thoughts, and said to the man who had the withered hand, “Arise and stand here.” And he arose and stood (Luke 6:8 NKJV). The important thing for me is, He knew their thoughts. I asked you today, do I know the thoughts that you’re having right now? No, but Jesus knew their thoughts. How is it that Jesus knew their thoughts? He got it from the Father because God knows all the thoughts of men. He knows what’s in your heart.
Matthew, chapter 12, verse 25, 25 But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand (Matthew 12:25 NKJV). Here again, Jesus knew their thoughts. I read the rest of that scripture, because division is not part of what God does because God is united. Everything that God does is in unity. I know I am teaching a little bit this morning, but I’ve got quite a lot of graphics to show you which is why I am using the lower pulpit so that when the graphics come up, I can talk dynamically to the graphics this morning, so, just stick with me while I am teaching out of this scripture. So, Jesus new their thoughts…
John chapter 2, verse 24 says 24 But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man (John 2:24 NKJV). So, is it possible that, I mean, Jesus knew exactly what was going on in their hearts, right? He did. How did He get to know it? Again, Jesus in His humanity was not a mind-reader, but because of His connection to the Father, God showed Him what was in their thoughts. So every time, you can say, what was in His thoughts, you can just add to that… He knew what was in their heart; their emotions, their soul, their thinking, the personality, the character of the beings. He knew what they were thinking, He knew what was in their heart and why they were doing it, because the Father showed it to Him. Are you all in agreement with me? I am teaching the Word of God here. Okay.
John chapter 6, verse 64 and 65 says, 64 But there are some of you who do not believe. “For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. 65 But there are some of you who do not believe for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that did not believe and who would betray Him. And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father” (John 6:64,65 NKJV). So once again, Jesus knew their thoughts. He knew from the beginning who they were and who did not believe. Again, Jesus is revealing that He doesn’t just only know what is going on, on the outside, but He actually knows what is going on on the inside of men.
It is important for me to establish a foundation here, and let me ask you the question; If you are a born-again Christian, and you are in union with Him, and you are filled with Him and you are reading His Word, and you are doing what He says you should do, that it is possible that God will reveal men’s hearts to you? You will know what is in their thoughts and what is in their minds. Sometimes, as Jesus says, He would not commit Himself to them because He knew all men. He would not commit Himself to them. There were actions that Jesus took or actions that He didn’t take because of who He knew He was talking to. Come on. His relationship with the Heavenly Father was much more important than the relationship He was having with the people He was talking to. Even though He was sent to preach to them, and teach them; His first priority was to obey the Father. Amen.
This next slide you know very well. If you put this slide up. It is the slide that I talked about last week. I am just going to make sure that you can see it properly and I am just going to talk to it for a second. The left-hand side is the person who is committed to God, who has oneness with God. He/she understands that in order to affectively have your life the way that God wants it, you have to have it through the Church. You can’t be an isolated individual and you can’t make up your own mind about what is good for you and what’s not good for you; you’ve got to be part of the Church to have that experience, right? It is because you are connected to the Church that God will use the Church for personal growth, for financial increase, for the things that He has for you; your gifts and callings, careers, for rest and recreation, health and fitness and relationships. All of it is because you are part of the Church, the Ecclesia of God; it’s not just because you are alive and it is not just because you can connect with people. It’s because the Church is the place where we should be operating.
Now, the next slide I’m going to show you, before they put it up, I just want to talk to it for a minute. It has quite a lot of wording on it. I am going to ask you to please allow me to read it to you from the outside of the slide and I am going to the inside of the slide, and then I will reverse the order. I don’t want you to be reading the slide behind my back and try to figure it out for yourself because then I am going to lose you. Alright. Let’s go to the next slide, please. You can see the Self-Existent One, God, the Great I Am, He is the One who has plans, purposes, and pursuits, He has plans and purposes for you if you see at the bottom. He predestined and He foreknew. Because God predestined and foreknew, I have put Him on the outside of the circle. Sstay with me, don’t look at the slide; stay with me. I’ve put Him outside of the circle because God is outside of time. God is in real-time able to recognise and see right now Abraham and Isaac and that whole situation that happened six thousand years ago more or less. Because He is outside of time, everything that is happening in the universe, in the time of man is dynamically still operating in God.
Whilst we can’t look back six thousand years, because God is outside of time, there is no linear event that is taking place. It is only a linear event in the time of men. I know this is mind-blowing, it is for me too. But we think that God is limited to the way that we can actually figure Him out, when actually God is seeing everything happening all around Him because He is the Self-Existent One. He always has existed, He always will exist and anything that He creates is already created in Him, so it couldn’t come out into reality without it already being in Him. So, because He already saw it in Him, He could speak it out, so nothing is happening already, that hasn’t already happened in Him. If it happened in Him before He could make it happen outside, then it is already still in Him. It never left Him. Everything from the beginning of the time of men to now has always been in Him because He is the Self-Existent One. What other God would you want to serve anyway?
There are heavens and where He exists, there are angelic hosts, and principalities and powers in heavenly places. These beings were created by God and one of them He created, He created with a will like Him. He used his will to go against God or to try to be equal to God and therefore you have two sets of beings that are active in the universe; in the space of men. I don’t want to get caught up in the book of Revelations in the book of Daniel and all of the different creatures that they saw. I’m not here to prophesy about the future. I’m not here to talk about prophecies or anything about the end times; I’m here to speak to you, about us, now. Okay?
The creatures that operate, creatures that exist in the human realm are angelic hosts, those are angels that are sent from the throne room of God, to minister to you and me, and to be part of our lives continuously, and hearken to the Word of God. There are other beings, there are principalities and powers in heavenly places. I’m going to show you out of the Word of God today, that in the same way, that in God in the angelic hosts, there is an order of, a hierarchy of order of more powerful and greater authority angels, it exists the same way in the principalities and powers in heavenly places. So what you have got in angelic hosts, you have also got in dark forces; evil spirits.
Well, why would they do that? The only thing they know how to do is operate what they saw in God. They have no other way of knowing how to operate. People say that the kingdom of darkness is in chaos and every every demon does what they do. It is just not true. They know what the authority structure is, because the only way that they know how to be, is the way God created the order to be. When they came out of the presence of God, they just came with the same order. So when they target cities, when they target people’s lives, when they target things, they are not just randomly targeting people; they have a structure and a hierarchy that goes after things, in the time of men, in human beings.
Those angelic hosts and principalities and powers, there is a meeting in the circle that is dominion, rule, authority, reign, heavens and realms, this is the meeting place, this is the intersection between spirits, and people. In people you have nations, realms and kingdoms. So the intersection of where people operate, and where angelic hosts and spirits operate, the intersection is where you have dominion, where you have authority, where you have a rulership, where you reign, and where heavens and realms are in which to reign, and to rule, and to have authority.
If you are a people and you are a ‘God-person’ that is in Ecclesia, then as a people, you can begin to operate in dominion, and rulership and authority and reign in the heavens, and all the realms that are encompassed in the heavens. If you are a person is ‘self-oneness’, you are likely to be the person that the dominion, rule, authority reign and heavens and realms are going to impose themselves on you. Whereas if you are a ‘God-person’, that is in Ecclesia, you have the have the authority to exercise that. The person who is in the Ecclesia is supposed to exercise authority, the one who is in self-oneness will have it exercised upon you.
Come on now, which one of these people would you rather be? Well, whether you like it or not, if you are in self-oneness, you are chasing your own dreams, your own desires, your own goals, you are saying, “It is all about me, It is all about what I can do, and church is just a part of my organization. So I have got friends, I have got business, I have got fitness that I do. I have got fun that I do, and I go to church. It is just something that I do.” Then you are living in a self-oneness state. Guess what? In the self-oneness state you think you are in control of your life. I have got news for you. I do not care whether you are healthy, wealthy and powerful. You are being exercised upon by dominions, authorities rule and reign and those principalities and powers are exercising it over you, over your life. I’ll show you from the scriptures. I’m going to leave that scripture up there, if you keep listening, leave that graphic up there if you’ll keep listening to me. Okay?
Genesis one, verse one, 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1 NKJV). He created the place where angelic hosts, principalities in heavenly places, He created the heavens, and He created the earth where people’s nations and kingdoms would, will eventually live. Who created them? God. Like I said; in the beginning, it came from Him. Okay, verse 26. 26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and then I’m just going to read a few select statements out of here. let them have dominion. Let them have dominion. 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them… 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. What is subduing? What is the nother word for subdue, you rule? You have authority. You reign. Yes? Have dominion… (Genesis 1:26-28 NKJV). So He’s telling men; “I created the heavens, I created the earth, you have dominion, you have rules, you have reign, you got it. Everything that’s in the heavens and everything that’s on the Earth. You have authority.”
Genesis, chapter two, verse seven says, 7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being (Genesis 2:7 NKJV). Well, how close do you have to be to breathe your breath into a clay vessel? I mean, you got to be there. Let’s just consider for a moment that we do not know what God looks like, except that He closely resembles us, must do? Because He said, Let’s make man in Our image. Right? So given that, we do know that, when He breathed His life into man, He was here. That was the beginning.
In the Bible, all theology will tell you that the principle of first mention is the principle of the pattern. So this is God showing us how He wants to have relationship with us. Right here, right here [Pastor John demonstrating, his hand up close to His face].
So when you say “But Pastor John, we are spirit beings, now God is in our spirit…” He is, but in everything else you’re dealing with in your life, He wants His breath to be yours. He wants His Words to be yours, wants His thoughts to be yours. Right here, He speaks to the children of Israel and says “Keep My Words in front of your eyes, keep them in your mouth day and night. Do not let them depart from before you.” Close up.
Remember what I said about intimate? So God wants to be close up and intimate with you and me. Then He’s into me, you see? Intimate, into me you see? So I can say quite safely that right at that moment God was going into me you see? Adam being the first of all men to be born, He breathed His Spirit life into man. That’s why from that moment on now, the enemy, and the world has tried to substitute the into me you see with so many other things that cannot fulfil but the lust of their flesh take them away from God and they refuse to give themselves completely to God. So they are not into me, you see. The more you give yourself to the things of the world, the less you can be into Me, God, you see?
Chapter 2, verse 16, 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17 NKJV). So that death, we all know that they didn’t actually physically keel over and die when they ate the fruit, right? What happened was that, they got separated from the Self-Existent One, who is the Source of the same form of life He designed and planned for us. Okay, so just hear me out now, the minute they chose to do something different to what God said, the act of them choosing to do something different to what God said, separated them from the Self-Existent One.
His whole plan and His whole design as the Source of who we are, was that we would never be separated from the Self-Existent One and that we would always be able to live the life He designed and He planned for us. Which means the Self-Existent One, who is always, always present everywhere, He is the one that said if you go with God first place, “You put Me first place, I will reveal Myself in such a way and it is My choice that you be reconnected to Me, the Self-Existent One”, with all of the life that He designed, and the plans that He has for you, through Jesus. You cannot achieve this by yourself.
Okay, I have to for a moment, just get here. How many of you represent Jesus, the way He lived His life fully and completely, 100% you look like Jesus? How many of you have all the gifts and all of the workings of the Holy Spirit on a daily basis, the way Jesus did? Who does? All of us. All of us. We are destined, all of us, together, not individually, together. And I’m going to get there. I’m going to get ahead of myself. We are destined as the Ecclesia to have dominion and rule, authority, reign in the heavens and all of the realms of the heavens. We are destined to have the authority, not only as it pertains to our life, but as it pertains to what God desires to show the heavenly realms that Jesus is the Church and the Church is Jesus.
Okay, so the serpent, chapter 3, verse 1 to 7, in the Message translation. 1 The serpent was clever, more clever than any wild animal God had made. He spoke to the Woman: “Do I understand that God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?” 2-3 The Woman said to the serpent, “Not at all. We can eat from the trees in the garden. It’s only about the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘Don’t eat from it; don’t even touch it or you’ll die.’” 4-5 The serpent told the Woman, “You won’t die. God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you’ll see what’s really going on (Genesis 3:1-5 MSG).
Hold on a minute, they look like a Self-Existent One, they love like the Self-Existent One, they are actually mini versions of self existence; and this being is coming in saying, “He doesn’t want you to eat of that other tree because then you really know what’s going on.” To this day, people still feel that the only way that they can really know what life’s all about is if they taste of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. 6 When the woman saw, verse five, sorry, God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you’ll see what’s really going on. You’ll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil.”6 When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she’d know everything! Still today women want to know everything. Moving right along.
She took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate. 7 Immediately the two of them did “see what’s really going on” What, you mean the devil told the truth? Saw themselves naked! They sewed fig leaves together as makeshift clothes for themselves. Now, look what happens in verse 22. 22 God said, “The Man has become like one of us, capable of knowing everything, ranging from good to evil. What was it? The devil was telling the truth? God never wanted men ever to know the evil side of anything. Still, today, He sent Jesus so that we don’t have to know the evil side of anything. But all of humanity wants to know what everything’s really all about; so evil is in the world. People want to blame God for all the bad things that happen to humanity, but it’s humanity themselves that want to know what’s really going on. When they say “What’s really going on?” It means they actually want to know what’s in the demonic spirit realm, as well as in the heavenly, spirit realm. But you can’t serve both.
So, What if he now should reach out and take fruit from the Tree-of-Life and eat, and live forever? Never—this cannot happen!” 23-24 So God expelled them from the Garden of Eden and sent them to work the ground, the same dirt out of which they’d been made (Genesis 3:22-24 MSG). So, I think it’s quite clear that when you take matters into your own hands, and you don’t obey God, and you follow what is your dream. Didn’t Eve say she wanted to really know what’s going on? Other versions of the Bible will say “Eve saw that the fruit was good and it looked good for the eating.” She was impressed by what it looked like and she was impressed by the fact that if she ate it, she would know something that Adam didn’t know and she wanted to know everything that God knew. Hmm.
There is no sin in God, because the Bible says in the book of Hebrews, that within Him there is no shadow of turning. There’s no variableness, He’s only pure light. God doesn’t have knowledge of evil, He only has the knowledge of what evil does. He never wanted man to have the knowledge of what evil does, because evil immediately shows you that you are naked and you are ashamed, and you are guilty. He never wanted that for man. He still doesn’t want that for man. He had to expel them from the garden. The rest of my message, I’m going to use a scripture just to reveal to you what happens, that there is activity happening in angelic hosts and principalities and powers in the heavenly realms. I’m going to show you how they influence us as human beings, and that they have, they are here to help us and to show us dominion, rule, authority, reign in the heavens and in the realms because whatever happens in the realms of heaven, in the different realms of heaven, will happen on the earth.
So, Genesis, chapter 28, verse 12, this is Jacob. He dreams, 12 Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven (Genesis 28:12 NKJV). So, are you, do you see here that there’s an earth and the heaven and the angels of God were ascending and descending, they were going from where? Heaven to earth and earth to heaven. So, I’m proving to you from the Bible, that this kind of activity that happens between the heavens and the earth happens all the time.
Genesis chapter 32, verse 24, 24 Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. 25 Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. Who was he wrestling with? Well, the Bible refers to it as an angelic being, but it’s likely that he was wrestling with the Lord, but either way, this is a supernatural encounter of a spiritual kind. So, why wrestle? Obviously, the spirit being has much greater power and authority than Jacob. Why was Jacob holding there, first of all, the angelic being was permitting himself to be there. He could have any time overwhelmed Jacob. So, he stayed there, because God wanted him to be there. The second thing I believe is Jacob’s faith was holding him there, not his physical strength. Because you can’t match the physical strength of an angelic being. So, it wasn’t his physical strength, God wanted to mark Jacob, so that he would never forget this event. And his strength in the natural would always be diminished, because of an encounter that he had with God, or a God messenger.
So, he wrestled with him, 26 And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.” But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!” (Genesis 32:24-26 NKJV). Now, you will know from the messages that I’ve taught that this is the blessing for Jacob of identity change. All of us need to have an identity change, that we are not just Christians that have churche as part of our lives, that we are Christians that belong to the Church, and the Church belongs to us. We need an identity change. But he was wrestling, until he said, “Bless me, I won’t let you go until you bless me.” How is it possible that he could hold him there, his faith was holding him there, his demand for blessing because he had faith for blessing was holding him there. The only powerful force that is enough to confront anything in the spirit is not your physical strength. It’s your faith. It’s your demand on the Spirit, on the Spirit of God; that you place with your faith.
I go to Exodus chapter 3, verse 2. 2 And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. 3 Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.” 4 So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him. Sorry, God? Called to him. God is in the spirit realm. Right? The spirit realm is calling to Moses who is in the natural realm based on… He’s just looking at a burning bush, right now. And he said, “Here I am.”
So, 4 So, when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.”
Here is a direct transaction of a spiritual realm being coming onto the earth, and the very earth that they touch has now become holy because the Spirit being is on the earth. The Spirit of God, God Himself, the Self-Existent One has decided to come onto the earth and when He comes and touches the earth, it becomes the holy place. From the place of holiness, where the Spirit being God, Himself is deciding to encounter man, the man must come to God on God’s terms, not on his terms. Because God says to the man, “You cannot come near to this space, take your sandals, take your feet out of the sandals, because the place you are standing is holy.” 6 Moreover He said, “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God (Exodus 3:2-6 NKJV).
Well, he wasn’t looking directly at God, God was in the burning bush. So, 3 and the Lord said to him, “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.” This is someone who’s in the heavenlies. He recognises the forces of the principalities and powers in heavenly places that are oppressing God’s people. So He comes from the heavenly realms and He’s coming onto the earth and He’s coming to make things right. 8 So I’ve come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a good and a large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites (Exodus 3:8 NKJV) and all the other ‘…ites’.
Chapter 19, Exodus chapter 19, verse 3, 3 And Moses went up to God. So now they’re already out of Egypt, they’re already in the wilderness, they’re already encountering God, a lot. They’ve had a whole lot of demands that they’ve placed on God. “We don’t have water, we don’t have food, we don’t have meat.” Every time they murmur, God answers them and gives them what they’re looking for. I think it’s fairly safe to say that they were fairly self-centered? They’re not really worshipping the God that delivered them. They’re always demanding something from the God that delivered them. Huh. Those people, they didn’t get to get into the land that flows with milk and honey because they made demands because they were self-centered, even though they were living under the protection of the covenant God.
I don’t know about you but I don’t want to be living under the protection of God and miss my plan, the plan and purposes that God has for my life? It is my choice and it is your choice. You can choose to follow your dreams, your desires, your goals that you set for yourself, or you can choose to follow God. Some people might say, “Well, I do follow God and I read the Bible and I pray every day therefore the desires that I have are God’s desires.” If you’re not actively involved in the Ecclesia and you don’t know what your role in the Ecclesia is and what the Ecclesia’s role is in your life, you cannot say, “I know what God’s desire is.” You do not know what God’s desire is. You have a desire and then you’re counting on God to bless it. You may say, “You’re preaching good Pastor John.”
This singular thing that I’ve told you is the reason why so many people walk away from faith. They walk away from church, they walk away from God, because they make their own plans and their own purposes and they love God, they are born again, they are saved, but they want to go about life the way that they’ve chosen to go about life. Then they say, “But listen, my serving God is enough because I’m disciplined in my prayer life, I’m disciplined in in my tithing and whatever I’m disciplining, therefore, God must bless my life.” Oh, oh, if you’re not saying it, you’re thinking it. So therefore, “I’ve done what it takes to satisfy God so He must bless me.” It sounds very much like your relationship with God is based on your terms. It doesn’t sound like your relationship is based on, “I’m seeking Him first and then all the things that He wants me to have will be added to me because I’m seeking Him and His way of doing things,” which is righteousness. That person is firmly under the principalities and powers in heavenly places, they are being impacted. So you say, “Oh, but I’m not having counters with demons.” How do you know? How do you know that demons are not speaking to you when you go into a lecture room at a university and the person standing on the podium is saying things and those things enter your thought life and there’s demons that come and take those words because they know you’re in the class of that liberal thinking of “Do things your way, pursue your own life, pursue your own goals.” And suddenly, I’ve got a whole new perspective or a whole different perspective on life because I’ve eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and now I really know what’s going on. And so you think, “No, I’m just liberal. I’m open to new ideas about the way Christians can do things. I’m open to new ideas about the way Christians can live morally.” “Surely, God doesn’t have a standard, a moral standard, that is, from 2000 years ago, when that when the Holy Spirit fell upon the church, and now we’re living in a whole new life of liberal agendas and liberal ideas and certainly God is… His grace is available to everybody.”
The answer is, grace is available to everybody but that grace that’s available to everybody is not going to put them into authority. They ain’t having no dominion, excuse my good English. They ain’t having no dominion, no authority, no reining, no ruling. They are being ruled over. By what? The very desire that you say you are open to, is the very desire that’s ruling you. I mean, come on, when you actually begin to pull the veil back and see what’s going on here, you can see how the world has been so manipulated by the enemy for this liberal agenda to come to the Church, that everybody can say, “Doesn’t matter what church I go to, it’s okay for me to go to any church that I choose to go to. As long as the church is actually progressive and has got the new sounds of worship and it’s got all the all the good things, it’s a motivational, inspirational message, I’ll go to that church. That’s the church I want to go to – inspirational.”
I’m going to say it again, I said it a long time ago, I was not called to be an inspirational teacher or preacher. I’m called to reveal to you the Ecclesia of God and some people won’t like it. In fact, Jesus had that, I mean, I spoke about it even last time, Jesus didn’t come to actually please people. Jesus only came to please the Father and sometimes He said some things to people, certainly to the Pharisees and the Sadducees – the people that really supposed to have known the Bible – He riled them up because He had an answer for everything, because He was answering with the wisdom of God. He came to confront those who so called ‘knew at all’.
Hey, I got to keep moving here. So Exodus 19, verse 3, a lot of stuff has happened with the children in the in the wilderness, 3 And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: 4 ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. Doesn’t matter about all the murmuring, doesn’t matter about everything; “You saw what I did to the Egyptians, and I brought you out of that place of absolute oppression, and I bore you on eagle’s wings.” In other words, “Even though you’ve been walking around in the desert. I have been gently carrying you through this whole process.” This is God speaking to His people. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people for all the earth is Mine.
All the earth is whose? The earth does not belong to the devil, neither does the gold or the silver in the earth belong to the devil. Anglo American, and all the other mining companies from Russia and South America and Australia might think all the minerals belong to them. They’re just excavating it for wealth. Which is going to go where? It’s supposed to be the wealth is layed up for the just. But the just are not getting the wealth. Why? Because all of the Christians are living in self-oneness. The time of Ecclesia needs to be here for us to have a transfer of wealth. This is not just a matter of “I’m going to pray and I’m going to make a few declarations and I say thank You, Lord, that the wealth of the wicked is laid out for the just. I am the just so I command all the wealth of the wicked to come into my hands.” It’s not going to happen. You might have some of that happen because you’re a covenant child, you might have things that God will get you to believe Him for that there would be wealth in the House of the Lord. But the transfer of all of that wealth that they are mining out of the earth, that belongs to God, it’s not going to happen because one or two people believe it.
That’s going to happen because the Ecclesia is in place. 6 You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a Holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel. 7 So Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before them all these words which the Lord commanded him. 8 Then all the people answered together and said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” So Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord. 9 And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I come to you in the thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and believe you Moses forever” (Exodus 19:3-9 NKJV).
In the meantime, Moses has been going to God and God has been speaking to Moses, and Moses has been the messenger, and all of these things they have been believing because Moses is the messenger. Now God says, “Because the children of Israel said ‘We will believe God, we will believe all the words that you tell us.’ I’m going to come in a thick cloud on the mountain of Sinai, and I’m going to speak to you, Moses, and everybody’s going to hear My voice, so that they will believe you forever that God is actually God speaking to you.” It’s not a god from Egypt. This is the living God speaking.
Moses told the words of the people to the Lord. 10 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes. 11 And let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. I want to tell you people, that we cannot have a relationship with the Almighty Living God, if we don’t wash our clothes. This is not putting your clothes into a washing machine with some OMO. This is about you putting on the robes of righteousness and you being washed and clothed by the blood of Jesus. That’s when you begin to start a journey that will take you into the proper place of Ecclesia.
15 And he said to the people, “Be ready for the third day; do not come near your wives.” In other words, this is a holy moment going on here. You’re not even supposed to have physical intimacy with a woman, with wives, husbands and wives stay away from each other. So this is a moment of separation, consecration, dedication, this is a Holy moment.
16 Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. 17 And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. 18 Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. It’s smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. 19 And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice. Do you think Moses’s relationships are any greater than the relationships we have with the Almighty living God, Son of God?
Let me tell you something, when the Ecclesia begins to understand who we are in Christ Jesus, He will not only speak, He will speak with power, He will speak with thunderings; and He was literally shake the wealth loose out of the earth. He will literally bring us to a place of reverential fear. The awe and the fear of God will be overtaken the Church of the Lord Jesus. Anybody that watches us in action will be afraid of us like they were afraid of the children of Israel when they went to Jericho.
Chapter 20, verse 18. 18 Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. So Moses brings them near, now they go to far away. 19 Then they said to Moses, “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die” (Exodus 19:16-19 NKJV). From that time till now, there is this whole process that is entered into the church, where it’s “Pastor, you hear from God, and then you speak to us. But we don’t want to hear the awesomeness and the thunderings, and the lightnings of God that wants to deal with your heart and wants repentance for you in your life.” As a general rule, not in this church.
I know that this church you seek an Ecclesia, you want to hear the voice of God, you don’t mind if He’s going to come and shake and rattle and roll your cage with His power and with His might and with His glory; because He’s wanting you to stand in the level of authority that you can say, “I hear the voice of God and I heard what He said and I’m saying it back to you.” Hallelujah.
19 Then they said to Moses, “You speak … ” 20 And Moses said to the people, “Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.” 21 So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was (Exodus 20:19-20 NKJV). Moses knows God now. He goes back into the thick darkness, to go and speak to God. Hello. Those people that are living in Ecclesia, those people that are saying, ”I want to hear the voice of God”, they’re not afraid of what God’s going to say. They draw near.
Now, come on, I have to talk to you a little bit. I’m going to get into the New Testament in a minute here. I’ve got a lot to say. Lord, help me. Are you getting something out of this today? I’m going as quick as I can, but I need to be as accurate as I can here today. Come on here. There’s a messenger, who’s meeting with God, God says, “I want to take you out of the equation. I don’t want to remove you as a messenger, but I want to talk directly to the people.” When He does, they say, “No, we don’t want to listen to You. We want to rather listen to you, not to God.” Not too long, in the next couple of chapters, there’s an encounter that happens where Moses is actually getting the orders from God and they make a golden calf and they begin to worship an idol; because they wouldn’t hear God. So why should they hear the messenger of God?
It is unfortunate that there have been many messengers of God that have done many things that have disqualified them as a voice. But it doesn’t change that there are true messengers of God on the earth; that God will use to bring a message. Sometimes, when you’re in the cloud, hearing things from God and you can see that God shows you the hearts of men, people don’t like it; they rebel against it and then they want to have words against the messenger. Because the words are there to discredit the messenger, because if you can discredit the messenger, then you no longer have to think that he’s coming from God. A person who lives in self-oneness, “My own dreams, my own goals, my own desires. I can’t afford to hear from the messenger who’s actually coming from God and wants the Ecclesia. Because otherwise, I got to change my whole profile. I‘ve got to change my program. I got to stop following what I want. What I want, when I want and how I want to do it. You shouldn’t tell me anything about anything. Just you preach. I’ll decide how much of what you say, I’m going to listen to.”
“Oh, Pastor John, you being very confrontational this morning.” No, it’s not me. This has been a message coming for weeks now. On the contrary, I want to tell you something that’s happening to me – the fire of God is burning in me. You guys, all of you have always known the prophet is Pastor Sharon and sometimes the fire will burn in her and she will bring messages. But as an apostolic leader, sometimes God will let the prophetic voice come out of me and I will speak with the fire of God. All these messages that I’ve been speaking these last weeks; this is the fire of God. My delivery might be a little bit different; but this is the fire of God. This is the order of God that He’s bringing to His Church, because He wants His Church to be powerful. He wants His Church to represent Jesus. He doesn’t want Christians running all over the place speaking about authority levels that they have no clue about. They have no idea what words they’re saying. They have no idea that when they just resist what God says through a messenger, that they’re resisting God Himself.
“Don’t tell me what I can eat or drink. Don’t tell me who I can marry or can’t. Don’t tell me who I can sleep with or not sleep with, whether I’m married or not. Don’t tell me what I can do or can’t do. Don’t tell me when I can buy a house or when I can’t buy a house. Don’t tell me that I’ve got to put the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ before anything else and that’s not the way God designed it.” It is exactly the way God designed it. Ask the New Testament Church. I haven’t got it in my notes today, but the next time I minister to you, hopefully, it will come out the way that God wants it to come out.
The New Testament Church breaks away from these people, the covenant people and they become a new covenant, which is sons and daughters of the Most High God. God implements a new leadership structure and without anybody doing anything, they just begin to take all of their wealth and they come and bring it to the apostles’ feet. Somebody said, “You know what, I think I can get in on this act and make myself look good. I’ll come and bring my money and make myself look like I’ve got something yet I’m also doing my share.” God says, “The heart that I knew, I’m going to reveal your heart to the apostolic leaders, to the messengers of God.” In a moment, God reveals their hearts. Peter says, “What’s this that you’re doing? Why you bringing in this? Was the land not in your control all the time until you just deceived the Holy Spirit and all of those by the Holy Spirit, was not yours all the time? Now you’re deceiving,” and they drop dead. The next person, the next member of the family comes in and says, “So this thing that you did, did you get into agreement?” “Yes, that’s what we agreed on.” Then they dropped dead, and the fear of God came into the church. Why? Because God was looking for everybody to pursue their own dreams, their own desires, their own goals? “I’ll have my own walk with God, thank you very much Peter and Paul.”
No, no. God is calling His people to a Church that will have power. To be clear, I don’t know yet exactly how the Ecclesia looks, because we haven’t even got close to behaving like an Ecclesia. To be clear to you, I do not put myself in the category of Peter and James and John, and all of those guys, and neither am I telling you what to do with your wealth or with whatever you do in your life. I’ll tell you what I can do is the Lord said to me, I’m supposed to be a watchman over your soul and if I see something happening that’s going to affect your soul and touch your life, I have to speak. “But Pastor John, you telling me something, you’re restricting me.” Not me. It’s not me. I’m just the messenger.
I can tell you, you should read Exodus chapter 23, verses 20 to 24. I suggest you read Exodus chapter 24, to verse from verse 12 to 17. This talks about angelic hosts appearing to Joshua, angelic hosts appearing to the people of God. I’m trying to prove to you by scripture, that the realm of the heavenliess is occupied and is active all the time. Hallelujah.
Can ask you to do me a favour, please. The next part I’m about to say is very important and I need you to be paying attention. Won’t you please stand I just need to have some oxygen go to your brains. So, you know, like, like an athlete would do in out of breath. [Pastor John breathing deeply with the congregation] Thank you. I appreciate you doing that. I just needed to get some blood flowing so you can be with me in the next 10 or 15 minutes. Amen. Thank you may be seated.
There’s a whole thing that happens with Moses and Joshua, and then Moses dies and Joshua chapter 4. Verse 14, 14 On that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they had feared Moses, all the days of his life. 15 Then the Lord spoke to Joshua, saying… (Joshua 4:14-15 NKJV). I’m wanting you to see that God uses messengers, He uses men and if men do not fear the message, the message that comes from the messenger, then they have lots of words to speak about the messenger. So, they can do what they want to do because if they can discredit the messenger, it gives them the right to; no they give themselves the right let’s put it that way. They give themselves the right to not do what the messenger has said to do, so the messenger gets discredited.
So, you know, I want to tell you about the story of Job, I’m not going to read it to you, I was going to read it, you can read it. But Job Chapter 1 said 1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. This was a man who feared God and shunned evil. He was very much a modern day Ecclesia, if you like, right? I mean, Jesus hadn’t died yet but he feared God and he shunned evil. So, the sons of men came to present themselves in the presence of the Lord, and there was Satan, and He says, “So, what are you doing here? Satan.” Satan, he’s one of those principalities and powers who can’t be in the presence of God, he’s the chief one, he’s the chief, he’s the chief power there.
He comes into the presence of God, and God and him have a conversation about Job. And then he says, “Yeah, but he doesn’t he worships You because You’ve blessed him so much.” So God says to Satan, “Look, Job is already in your hands.” And it’s a whole different teaching. So please don’t get caught up in the do’s and the don’ts and in the rights and the wrongs of the of my doctrine here. I’m trying to just show you that there was there’s is a flow in the spirit realm in the heavenlies. Where there are spirit beings that are flowing because they are going… Satan says “I’ve been on the earth I’ve been, I mean, going up and down the earth and I’ve seen this guy Job.” He says, “Okay, Job is in your hands.” God didn’t put Job in his hands. Job put himself in the devil’s hands. If you read the scripture carefully, that’s what happened, because he was afraid that something would come upon his kids.
The devil comes against Job with everything, takes his kids, takes his wealth, even takes even to his physical body; boils and sores and everything. His wife comes up to him and says to him, “Why don’t you curse God and die?” He says “Me? Curse God? When I’m just a human being?” But Job had a whole bunch of pride in the way that he served God. Anyway, that’s another story, another teaching for another day about job.
But I want to read this to you that after all of this activity, God begins to have a conversation with Job. I urge you to read it, go home and read it. It is from about Job chapter 36 all the way to 42. Job and God have a conversation, a long conversation, and God is basically telling Job says, “Are you the one who made a horse who can snort and run into battle? Are you the one who makes the seas wage rage? And are you the one who can do this? And are you the one…” He begins to speak to Job like “You think you’re something Job? Because you worship Me?” Job has a repentance moment. 2 “I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You (Job 42:2 NKJV). I ask you, do you think anything God has purposed on the earth is going to be withheld from Him? Hmm. No, because He is going to look for people that are going to be the Ecclesia of Jesus. Those who obey Him are going to be the ones that will make His purpose on the earth come to pass. He will keep talking to people until they are those that obey Him and look like Jesus on the earth.
If I have to choose, and I did, I chose a long time ago, a long time ago. I knew that if I use my marketing knowledge from the corporate world, my communication skills, the gifts and callings that God gave me, and I began to build a church, through marketing, through communications, through music, through the things that were all happening in the church all of that time ago. I mean, it didn’t take very long I took it took us, even though I was being true to my calling, people wanted this relationship with a person that was going to be significant, and they wanted to help be significant. It didn’t take more than three to six months and we had 600 people in the church in Joburg. But they didn’t understand that actually, I wasn’t going to I was going to compromise what God called me to do to make people happy and to build a big organization and a big church of numbers. God has always called me, always called me, to represent the life of Christ Jesus and to build an Ecclesia not to build a congregation. Hallelujah.
So “I know that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You. 3 You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 4 Listen, please, and let me speak; You said, ‘I will question you, and you shall answer Me.’ 5 “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. 6 Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” This is repentance. Chapter 42 verse 10, 10 And the Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before (Job 42:2-10 NKJV).
Praise the Lord. I am out of time, I’m going to have to do second part of my… Which is now going to be another third part. But I’ve got to do a proper job for God. I want to show you if you can put the next slide up for me please, I just want to talk for a minute to the slide. So I just want to show you that a person that is in Ecclesia, that’s on God’s assignment will find themselves fairly squarely, touching the plans and purposes that God is predestined and foreknown for you to walk in. When you touch that, the world system has no, it hasn’t got a hold on you. Because what is happening is that you are touching it through the Ecclesia, and all of the components of your life, although you’re living in the world, it is the plans and purposes of God for you that will stand. Then people, nations and realms and kingdoms become your inheritance, become your heritage. You become what person that has dominion and rule and authority and you reign, and the heavens begin to give them what rightfully belongs to the Church. Then you have angelic hosts, that all heeding to the Word of God, and bringing things to your life. Will demonic principalities and powers trying to bring their lives to you? For sure.
Ephesians 3, verse 10, says, 10 to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church, that the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church, to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, 11 according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him. 13 Therefore I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory (Ephesians 3:10-13 NKJV). Next week, or the next time I speak to you, I will talk to you about people that have ‘so called’ authority to bind and loose on the earth, and access the ‘so called’ power of God on the earth.
If you want to know, if you want to keep hearing what’s being taught here, and you want to know how you can be free from ‘soul Christianity’ to pure life divine life Christianity, you’re going to have to stick with my message. I don’t want to soul you and I don’t want you to soul me. I want you to have the Spirit of God as the contact point between you and me. I’m going to show you one last slide. Before I go, just so that you can have a kind of understanding, can you show the next slide?
I purposely put the slide like this, because the person that is following their own dreams, their own desires, their own goals, the self oneness person, they touch all of this thing through the Church, through relationships that are in the Church, and they will say through their finances. But if they are not focused on what God’s assignment is for thir life, then all of the principalities and powers, all of that authority, all of that stuff, it has very, very little impact on you for the positive. It puts you right on the outside spectrum of everything that God’s really doing. Even though you think you’re touching it, even though you think you’re part of it. It puts you on the outside of what God’s doing. It’s not putting you in the center of what God’s doing.
I will take these slides, and I will minister to them to you. I will show you some amazing things that God has given me to talk about. I’m going to use the prophet Daniel’s life and how principalities and powers and kingdoms and realms and authorities were granted to him and to his influence, because he obeyed God. He would not compromise his walk with God, as before he became a Christian. Then I’m going to come into the new testament and I’m going to show you how Paul fought beasts at Ephesus, and he did them for you and me so that the beasts that he fought could actually be, he could be allowed to proclaim the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. He actually says in that scripture, where he fought the beasts of Ephesus, “Did I fight those beasts for nothing? I fought them so that I could preach to you the resurrection power of Jesus Christ, that you could know the fullness of everything that God has for you.”
I want to say to you today as our close, Pastor Sharon and I have had this experience, not once, not twice, but many times we have had this experience that we have fought the same beasts that Paul fought in Ephesus. We have fought them. We have fought them. They are familiar spirits. We have fought them. They are rebellious spirits that operate through people in the Church. There are people that come to the Church as false prophets, they come as false teachers, they come in the name of, of “I want to help God’s people with finances,” but they’re actually looking for the resources in the Church to take finances for themselves. We have fought beasts where God has said to us, “You stand in the gap and you intercede and you pray, and you stand in the gap and you do not compromise. You say what I tell you to say.” Did we do this for nothing? Pastor Sharon and I have not fought those beasts, that are in the spirit realms, those principalities and powers, those rulers of darkness, those people that will come and try and take over people’s lives and bring them into it… and come and try and derail you and distract you and destroy you. Because the Bible says that Jesus came to give us life and life more abundantly, but the thief comes to steal, to kill and to destroy.
In between God says, the Good Shepherd will take the sheep and put them in together in a protected place, and he will go after the one sheep that is lost. Sometimes if a sheep keeps running away, He’s got to go up to that sheep and go and break a leg. Literally, the Good Shepherd will break a leg so it can’t keep running away. Why? Because He’s trying to save him from the wolves, and somebody who’s a animal lover says, “How dare the shepherd break the sheep’s leg?” But the alternative is, go and place him at the feet of a wolf, and let the wolf just have its way and just eat, and eat, and eat and let him watch him take my sheep. That’s not a shepherd.
A shepherd is someone that God has raised up to say… I will talk to you about this, when I read you more about the church of Ephesus and Paul, and the way that God taught him, and how he had to fight beasts, and how he had to bring the Gospel of the… and how he had to go and suffer many hardships, because God said to him, “I need My Church to understand what Ecclesia is. It’s not just a congregation of people that come to synagogue on a Saturday. It’s a powerful ruling, dominating force in the Earth.” Hallelujah. Praise Jesus.
We, Pastor Sharon and I, have not been the only ones who have fought those beasts. We have had people that have stood side by side with us, and they’ve strengthened us and they’ve encouraged us and they’ve helped us and many of you have been with us for a long time, for 20 years or whatever. You have observed how we have contended, not only with the external forces that have come against us, but we have contended with the beasts that have come to us in our own sleep, in our own homes, in our own minds, in our own soul and tried to try and derail us and try and keep us. Beasts that have come against us and say, “You should separate from your divine connection Jerry Savelle and follow after other courses and other churches that are doing so well, other doctrines and other ways of doing ministry that are doing so well you should follow after those things because, after all, aren’t you one that wants success? Don’t you have dreams and goals and all kinds of things that you can achieve for yourself?” We’ve had to fight beasts ourselves in the quietness of our home, in the stillness of our prayer time. In the time when you are worshipping God, and then afterwards the devil comes to you and says “No, no, no, you didn’t really… and when you preached on Sunday…”
Let me tell you, what I preached today. Do you think this is God speaking? Do you think this is just John Bendixen speaking to you today? Come on now. Help me out here. Is this John Bendixen speaking to you today? [Congregation replies No] This is an anointing mantle that is resting upon me today. It’s my calling. It’s my gifting. I’m bold as a lion. I’m speaking directly and straight to you. The Word of the Lord came to me and He said to me, “John, do not look at the faces of the people, do not see what they see. Do not try and look at them and say they receive it or they don’t receive it. You speak what I put in your mouth and you say what I need you to say.” But let me tell you, when I get off this pulpit and I go, and I sit at home this afternoon, the devil comes to me and he says, “Haha, got you now. Your boldness, your words that you spoke, that truth words, I’m going to use them against you. You watch, all these people, they’re going to leave the church.” You think the devil doesn’t come and talk to me like that?
I have to do the same thing that you have to do when he comes against your finances. I take that thought captive, and I bring it down as a stronghold that’s trying to come against my mind and prevent me from preaching the truth of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am a messenger sent by God, so I pull down that stronghold, I am not a speaker on my own, I come to represent the Holy One of Israel. I come to represent the Good Shepherd Who looks after His sheep. I’ve got to activate my faith the same way that you’ve got to do it. When sickness and disease comes upon you, I take that thought captive, I pull that down, not with flesh and blood weapons, but the weapons of God that are mighty in Him to be pulling down strongholds that come against my mind. The devil is the same devil for each one of us. He just comes at us differently. Hallelujah.
Please stand with me. I feel the anointing of Brother Copeland coming upon me. I might just keep you here for three hours today. I’ve been in many meetings with Brother Copeland where three hours, he would look at his clock and say, “I’m not finished yet.” And your bum says, “You’re finished Brother Copeland.” He says, “I’m not finished yet.” Then he’s heading for the fourth hour. I kid you not. I’ve been in those meetings myself. Hallelujah. You can say, “Thank you, Pastor John, that you are not Brother Copeland.” Hallelujah.
Won’t you just raise your hands and just praise Jesus for a minute, please? Praise You Jesus. Praise You, Jesus. Praise You, Jesus. Praise You, Jesus. Praise You, Jesus. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord. Hallelujah. It is my prayer as I prayed in the beginning Father, because I knew what You have placed in my heart, and I didn’t get everything out that You had given me to preach. But I pray that each one that has heard this message will have ears and hearts that will let it grow in them. I pray that You protect the Word until we come together again, until this message can be completed Father; that You would watch over Your Word, and protect it and it will not return unto You void, but it will accomplish that which You have sent it out to accomplish. I thank You for it, Lord, in Jesus’ name. Hallelujah.
I ask You, Father, that You protect Your people as they travel. Wherever they go every day, backwards and forwards. No weapon formed against them prospers. I thank You, Lord, that You give Your angels charge over them to watch out for them. I pray, Lord, that they are the blessed ones coming in and out and they… Whatever they touch with their hands, they prosper. I thank You, Lord, that You are our God, and we will serve no other. We are grateful that You are the living God who has grace and mercy upon us every day. Hallelujah.
Won’t you just put your hand on your heart and just say, “I’m a son of God. Jesus lives in my heart. I have the power to live as a Christian, boldly, confidently, courageously. Day by day. I live for Jesus. In Jesus’ name.” Amen. Hallelujah.
I thank you for being patient with me today. Thank you for hearing me. And the next one is going to be more fire. Hallelujah. God bless you. Pray for us while we go to Ethiopia and take the message of the Gospel there. Amen.
Oh, by the way, for the Joburg people, the building of the church project is going ahead next week. And you’ll see there’s a whole lot of things that are going on. Bricks are going to be delivered. I think we need 35 or 40 thousand bricks, they’re going to be delivered. We’ve got a strategy of how to build a fence around it for the building area and to start the building process and so praise the Lord. Amen. Okay, bye, y’all.
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