Scripture reference: Colossians 3:1-4 (TPT); Romans 8:1-4 (TPT); Matthew 28:19 (KJV); 1 Peter 5:8 (KJV)
Praise You, Lord. Thank You for Your presence here, Holy Spirit. Thank You that Your presence makes the Word of God alive and real to our hearts. Thank You that the Holy Spirit touches us in ways and makes the Word of God personal and real to us, even though it comes from one source; out of this vessel, You make it alive to every vessel. I thank You, Lord, that there’s no interference today. There is no barriers that prevent people from hearing and receiving living and doing the powerful Word of the living God. Hallelujah. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord. In Jesus’ name.
Praise the Lord. There are a couple of reasons why we’re starting at nine o clock these two weekends. Today we’re baptising a lot more people than we have in the previous weeks, and that’s primarily because next Sunday, Pastor Sharon and I fly to America to go and be with Brother Jerry and our flight leaves early in the afternoon. We want to be here with you in the morning. So, we are just being practical in the way that we do things, so thank you for accommodating us. We really appreciate it. God is doing some wonderful and marvellous things. You’re allowed to say, “Amen”. Yes, amen.
I’m going to get straight into the Word here. Our foundation scripture has been Colossians chapter 3 verse 1 to 4. The Passion Translation says 1 Christ’s resurrection is your resurrection too. This is why we are to yearn for all that is above, for that’s where Christ sits enthroned at the place of all power, honor, and authority! 2 Yes, feast on all the treasures of the heavenly realm and fill your thoughts with heavenly realities, and not with the distractions of the natural realm. So, that means the natural realm can be very distracting. The Bible is saying, “Don’t be distracted by what is distracting.” Everything that is going on in your life will distract you, so don’t let it distract you. It’s a conscious choice. It’s what the Bible says.
3 Your crucifixion with Christ has severed the ties to this life, and now your true life is hidden away in God in Christ. That’s your true life. 4 And as Christ himself is seen for who he really is, who you really are will also be revealed, for you are now one with him in his glory! (Colossians 3:1-4 TPT)
So, I have a question for the audience. I don’t expect you all to shout out, all at once, you know, but I have a question for the audience. What’s the most important thing you could do in your whole life, from the time you were born to the time that you die? What’s the most important thing that you could do? Give your life to God, right? Get born again. Invite Jesus into your heart. Anybody like to argue with that? I mean, your eternity depends on that. If you’re unsure, we can do this again. Anybody wants to get saved to make sure they don’t go to hell and go to heaven? You can raise your hand right now, and we’ll pray for you. The most important thing that you can do in your whole life, is give your heart to Jesus. That’s it. That’s the most important thing. So, I want everybody in the Church here this morning that agrees with this assessment of life to please say, “Amen”. Good, we’re in agreement then.
What’s the next most important thing that could happen in your life? The first question was, what’s the most important thing that must happen in your life or should happen in your life? This question is, what’s the next most important thing that could happen in your life? Are your brains smoking? Shall I help you? The next most important thing that should happen in your life, is that you should make a decision to follow Jesus and become like Him. Does anyone like to argue with that?
So, the first important thing is that you must be born again. Ask Jesus to come and live in your heart. The second most important thing is that you should have Him live in your heart and become like Him. Isn’t that what the scripture tells us, “That if you love Me, you will keep My commandments. You will do My Word. If you love Me, then you will love each other and walk in unity.” There’s a whole bunch of things that Jesus says that we should become when we become like Him. Right?
The third thing that’s the most important thing that can happen in your life is debatable. Some will say, “Find a lifelong marriage partner.” Others might say, “Find a career, then find a lifelong marriage partner.” Some people might say, “Make a lot of money and then give it to the Kingdom.” The problem is that those who make a lot of money give very little to the Kingdom. Cause money grabs them, generally speaking.
So, which is it? Which is it? Which is the third most important thing that could ever happen in your life? The first is you get born again. The second is you live your life to become like Him. What is the third most important thing that would happen in your life? For you to go about the Father’s business. Right?
So, becoming like Him has an automatic response system. When I become like Him, I want to do what He tells me to do. If He’s not telling you what to do, then you’re not becoming like Him. Then the only reason you’re saved is an insurance policy. I’m not going to go to hell. I’m going to go to Heaven. So, I have an insurance policy; all good, that’s it. I don’t need anything more. I’m going to live with the distractions of the natural realm; that is where I’m going to live.
How many Christians do you think live with distractions of the natural realm? Plenty, even me and you. Nè? Ja, I mean, even if you really are having the second most important thing happen to you, which is becoming like Him. You still have to contend with the distractions of this realm, as you begin to do what He calls you to do, which is the assignment that He has placed on your life.
So, if you are born again, and you’re becoming like Him, who chooses your assignment? Who chooses what you’re supposed to become in life? God. “No, but it’s my choice. I can be anything I want to be.” That is what Hollywood keeps telling me, and all the psychologists that you could ever visit, they will tell you you can become anything you want to be. You should do anything you want to do. Ahh, [Pastor John making a sound to say no]
Make Jesus the Lord of your life, become like Him; He tells you what to do. He tells you what your assignment is. He’s given you gifts and callings. He’s given all kinds of graces inside of you from before you were born before He even formed the universe He knew you. The Bible says He knew you before He even formed the worlds. He knew you with gifts and callings and things that He placed in you, so when you came to earth, you would fulfil those, not yours.
I’ve just had reason to read some of Charles Finney’s stuff on Revival. He says, “A Church should never stop a preacher from preaching very directly and touching on very sore points in people’s lives.” He said, “Because why else would you want somebody to preach to you?” So, if you’re going to church for you, to someone to preach to you to feel good, then actually you’re not going to Church. You’re just going to feel good. So, he says, “If you have a preacher that preaches directly to you that makes you feel uncomfortable because the Holy Spirit is touching on points in your life directly, then you know he’s hearing from God. He’s preaching what God wants him to say, and you should be glad because God is working with those words in your life.” He can’t work with words that are not designed by Him to come to you just because a human being thinks it will sound good to you.
I am nothing except a messenger of God, and it is my job to hear from Him to come and bring a message to you. I’m sure it is a bit uncomfortable sometimes. In fact, this morning might be a little bit uncomfortable. Right? Well, first of all, you’re all born again; most of you are. The second thing is that you all want to become like Him. Right? Ja, so then the third thing is then you should welcome the idea that you can’t become anything you want to become. You need to hear what God is got to say about what you become. Right?
If you’re an adult person and you’ve spent your life building your career building things, and you’re hearing this message, and you think, “But you know what, I’ve done a lot of things because I thought they were good things, and I made decisions for my career based on whether it is a secure income base, and it is a good career to have, and it’s likely to be a career that will last for a long time. Where other people might actually not have jobs, I’ll end up keeping my job because that is what I’m supposed to do.” If you are in that position, it’s time for you to begin to say, “Lord, I can’t do anything about where I am now, but what I can do is I can become like You. The more I become like You, the more You can reveal Yourself to me so that in my becoming like You, You will reveal to me what You really want me to do.”
The Lord might tell you to become and do something that is completely different to what you’ve been doing all these years, and your whole financial security is built around it. What happens if He tells you to do that? You think He is not going to take care of you? The big question, of course, is; Do you really hear from God? Huh? Well, the only time you can say you really hear from God is if you’re spending time with Him, and you’re becoming like Him, and if you’re spending time with Him and you are becoming like Him, then you’ll be hearing from Him. Hallelujah.
Do you remember what the Lord told me to ask people wherever I go around in the world, and I minister in other churches? What’s the point of being a Christian? You remember that. I’m just saying it in a slightly different way today. What’s the point in becoming a Christian? It’s not so, well it is so, that you can go to Heaven and not go to hell, but that’s not the only reason you become a Christian. The reason you become a Christian is so that you become spiritual because only spiritual people know what’s in the Kingdom of God, and they know what to bring from the Kingdom of God to the Kingdoms that are in the earth. Only spiritual people can do that, not any Christian.
There’s a lot of talk in the world today about kingdom preaching and kingdom realities, and it’s been my experience anyway, a lot of people that preach about the kingdom of God, they preach about how the Church must infiltrate the governments of the earth, so that we can govern the earth. I didn’t see Jesus do that; I also didn’t see His disciples do that. What I did see was that they brought Heaven to earth as a solution whenever an answer was needed. Wherever there was a solution needed, they had the answer because in the moment, in the place, in the time wherever you are, you bring Jesus. That’s a spiritual being; that’s someone who understands the Kingdom. Hallelujah.
I’m just going to go to Romans chapter 8 verse 1 to 4—the Passion Translation. 1So now the case is closed. There remains no accusing voice of condemnation against those who are joined in life-union with Jesus, the Anointed One. I want to be clear about this. This is a legal exposé about a Christian’s life and the way that he’s permitted to live and not permitted to live according to the law and according to the law of heaven and earth and the life and death of Christ Jesus. And so, There remains no accusing voice of condemnation against those who are joined in life-union with Jesus, the Anointed One.
If you are in life-union with Jesus and there’s an accusation that comes against you about a fault or a disobedience or about a sin in your life, you do not accept an accusing voice because your life is joined to His. You might say, “But I don’t live that life perfectly, you can’t, on your own, and you’re going to make mistakes for sure, but you’re still joined to Him because you’re living in your heart with Him. So, your corrupt flesh might let you down, but your heart will always draw you to God, and you don’t have to receive any accusation against you for anything.
2 For the “law” of the Spirit of life flowing through the anointing of Jesus has liberated us from the “law” of sin and death. 3 For God achieved what the law was unable to accomplish, because the law was limited by the weakness of human nature. So, I spoke to you about this in previous weeks, and I’m going to put up some slides in a second here, but performance mentality of what you do right or wrong is a mentality that comes from the natural world; it doesn’t come from God because God has said, “I’ve already achieved for you what you could never ever achieve for yourself, through Jesus.”
3 … Yet God sent us his Son in human form to identify with human weakness. Clothed with humanity, God’s Son gave his body to be the sin-offering so that God could once and for all condemn the guilt and power of sin. Whenever you sin, guilt comes upon you; condemnation comes upon you; accusation comes upon you. The devil makes sure you get it because he wants to shame you into believing you do not have the right to be with God and you do not have the right to pray anymore. You do not have the right to worship anymore. You do not have the right to praise, and you do not have the right to give thanks, you do not have the right to pray in tongues because you have done something that’s against the will of God and so he wants to accuse you, condemn you, and shame you. You don’t have to take it. You hide behind the blood of Jesus.
3 … God’s Son gave his body to be the sin-offering so that God could once and for all condemn the guilt and power of sin. 4 So now every righteous requirement of the law can be fulfilled through the Anointed One living his life in us. And we are free to live, not according to our flesh, but by the dynamic power of the Holy Spirit! (Romans 8:1-4 TPT) So, you are free to make good choices, not bad ones. Grace is not the freedom to make bad choices and then just say you’re sorry. Grace is the power that the Holy Spirit gives you to not make bad choices. When the bad choice hits you, in front of you, say, “No.” Say, “No.” Say, “No.”
I’ll tell you what, if you’ve got a bad habit in your life, you might feel like this is not something you can ever get rid of because it’s a bad habit, by the very nature of a habit is that it consumes you and you may feel like I can’t break out of this mould, I can’t break out of this habit pattern, I can’t break out of this thing. Well, you can. You just have to say, “No.” If you say, “No,” and it comes back ten minutes later, and it comes again, and you say, “Yes.” You said, “No” once. Build on that. “His power gave me the grace to say, no, once. If I can do it once, I can do it again.”
The next time it comes, you say no once. When it comes again, you say no twice; if it gets you the third time, now you build on twice. You are free to say, “No.” You are free to live in Him. You are free to walk with Him and be a spiritual being. Hallelujah. You are free. Jesus paid the price for us to be free. He did not pay the price for us to just keep living as natural people. He paid the price for us to live as spirit beings. Spirit beings. Hallelujah.
This morning the anointing of God came upon me with such, such strength, and I said, “Lord, some of the things that I might say today might offend some people.” He said, “And so?” He said, “And so? Just about every time I spoke, I offended somebody, but I also healed a lot of people, and a lot of people followed the truth and the light. So, don’t worry about those that you actually offend.”
Cause you see, sometimes what happens is, that when the Holy Spirit brings a Word to you that’s alive, and it’s real, it feels like I’m talking to you and that I know something about you. Cause maybe you shared something about yourself to someone else, and now you think I know something about you. When actually, I’m preaching to all of you because of what the Holy Spirit told me to preach. If it is that personal to you, thank God! It means the Holy Spirit is doing His job, and I’m hopefully doing mine as good as I can. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
So, over the weeks, I’ve shown you some slides, and I want to just run through them very quickly if we can go to the oneness slide. So, you remember this oneness slide. Ok so, on this slide over here this is someone who lives a God-life. God is the centre of his world. He’s made the choice for him to be saved. He says I’m becoming like You God, and I am ready to receive my assignment. The person that lives like this will begin to live as the Ecclesia Church because they understand the ruling and reigning through unity and through the love of God and the power of God. For them, what happens is that when they touch relationships in life, when they touch finances in life, when they touch a career, when they touch things in life, they do it through the mindset of someone who understands what God wants. Not what they want.
When they touch the world system, the world system is through the filter of, I’m living my life for God, and I’m living my life for God in assignment, with the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is all of you. I know I’m connected to the Church, I’m in the church, I’m functioning in the Church. I know that I’m supposed to be in the Church, planted in the church. Living in the church with my gifts and my callings. Now when I touch the world system, the world system has no hold on me and then the prayer that Jesus prayed over His disciples in John chapter 17, He said, “Father, I don’t ask You to save them from the evil one but to keep them from the evil that’s in the world.”
The devil is always going to be there, but you don’t have to be touched by him, if you live in the right place, with the right motive—the right way. If you’re a self-oneness Christian, a self-oneness Christian says, “I’m a Christian, but I want to live for myself. I want to make all my life decisions about myself, with myself, for myself. That kind of person makes Church a part of their life and actually Church might become quite a big part of their life, but it’s still only a part of their life, and they say, “Lord, we’re happy to hear what God has to say through the pastor, but when it comes to my financial decisions; when it comes to my education decisions; my career decisions; everything else, I don’t want You involved. I don’t want the Church involved. I don’t want You involved in it. I want to do that.”
There’s been a lot of teaching over the years, and believe me, I’ve heard it a lot. People say, “God gave you a brain, so use it. You don’t have to ask God for anything. He gave you a brain. Use your own brain.” Well, that’s good for changing a tire. I don’t need to ask the Holy Spirit to please help me undo the; how do I undo this nut on the wheel so I can pull the wheel off. You know, someone else can teach you that, and that’s good for going to buy groceries. Use your brain. If you’re looking to buy cheaper or higher quality, go to this place, go to that place. That’s what’s called using your brain, but the potential of your brain is never meant for you to say how I choose to use it in my future. The potential of your brain must be, should be one that God gives you the avenue where you should use it. Huh?
So, the self-oneness Christian is very goal orientated, have their own dreams. They’re very achievement orientated, and they kind of, everything is measured in their life. Everything is measured. We got to achieve this, achieve that, achieve that. We gotta get this goal, hit this goal, get this goal. We gotta do this, gotta do that. So, that’s self-oneness, Christians.
When they touch the world system, what do you think the world system tells them? The world system promotes their self-oneness because the world system says, “See, if you get this degree and you get that degree and or you go and do this, or you get a job in that company, and you got this, and you know these people, and you’re connected to these people, you’ll see what benefits it can bring. Do you see what rewards it can bring? Do you see how secure you feel?” It’s paper-thin. Ask all those people that lost their jobs because of Covid.
I used to say this from the pulpit a lot. You can be the richest guy in the world, and suddenly something can change in your life, and you would trade all your money for one thing. I used to say it so long ago that Steve Jobs was still alive. Then Steve Jobs died from pancreatic cancer, and you know he did, he literally gave millions and millions and millions of dollars to try and find a solution for pancreatic cancer or pancreatic transplants. Or whatever, so that he could keep himself alive a little longer because suddenly all of his billions meant what?
I like Apple products. Please don’t bring android stuff around me. My whole life is an Apple ecosystem, but that doesn’t make what Steve Jobs did spiritually significant. He lived in oneness of self doing everything that he wanted to do, but if you are a person that lives with God in your life, you will touch people, you will touch Nations, you will touch realms of spiritual life. That I’m going to get into it in a moment, and you will touch the kingdoms of the earth. You will do that as a self-oneness person, but it will all be negative to you. If you are that person that lives in the Church with the understanding of what Ecclesia is, you begin to change it because the life of God in you begins to change it, and of course, with that, there is all manner of the dominions and rule and authority and heavens and realms that you touch, and there’s, I told you before, there are angelic hosts, and there are principalities and powers and rulers of darkness. You will touch both sides when you are a person that lives like this.
If we live under the banner of the self-existent one God, the Great I Am, His plans and purposes and His predestined assignment for our lives come to pass and then when we just have these few years in this clay body that eventually just goes to sleep. Our spirit man transitions to the Heavenly realm with God, and we stand before Jesus, and He is either going to say, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” or I don’t know what else He is going to say. I do know that there will be a time of judgement when even everybody, all Christians—when they see their lives and what they should have done while they were on the earth. God is going to show them what they did do versus what they should have done, and the Bible says that at that time of the judgement of all things, there will be a lot of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and people have assumed that those are the people that are going to go to hell. No, all the people are going to have that because they’re going to see what plans God had for them if they lived for him versus what they did. You don’t like what I’m preaching or you love what I’m preaching.
For the next slide, I just want to just remind you. I believe it’s the kingdom slide. No slides. There we go.
This side is the Darkness side. So, how an eternal will of God people have to contend with the law, sin consciousness, performance-based results, pride, shame, your conscience which separates you, which then wakes you want to repent, and then you repeat that cycle, repeat that cycle and eventually you can’t repeat that cycle too many times before you say enough and then you reject God and Christianity altogether.
Whereas if you’re on the Light side, then you are a person who lives in His mercy and the mercy in the life of God gives you the power and the grace to become relationally with Him and with others what you’re supposed to become. That gives you gratitude and thanksgiving, and it allows you to integrate with each other and with God because He’s giving you the power to do that. Then you have a recognition of what the Church is and what’s going on, and then it allows you to renew so you can obey. Then you can respond and follow, and you walk in the Light. When that cycle repeats, you respond, and you follow, you respond, and you follow because you obey. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
Then this person is—the next slide is the Ecclesia slide. I put it this way that the Eternal will of God, which is the people, Church revealing Jesus. You have overcoming Christians on this side and you have Christ-life in the Ecclesia, but the devil has a plan also, and the devil’s plan is to bring destruction, and he does it how? Compromise, division, self will, the knowledge problem. I have talked about that previously. Alternate God’s, money is one of them; careers are another thing, self achievements athletically and entertainment-wise that’s another thing. He has the legitimate right to deceive you into believing all of those things are important. More important than being an overcoming Christian. Those are the things that an overcoming Christian should be overcoming, but with the Holy Spirit’s help and the angels and the abundance of God, we have devotion towards Him. I think it’s that side. Devotion, my printouts are the wrong way round, but devotion, love and serving God, we follow God’s will. We have the words of God with power and with strength. Our words come through our worship, and our worship is in our words. Then we’re able to walk in authority and honour, and when that happens, we become Christ-like, Christ-life, overcoming Christians, we become the Ecclesia.
Even though you may, from time to time, have a self-will problem, because of the grace of God you can bring it back and say, “I’m going to use the words of God for my self-will to not be.” So, sometimes you might have a knowledge problem that says, “I want to know everything before I make a decision,” where the Holy Spirit is saying, “Buy this property, now.” Hello. Or He might say, “Sell this, now. Or do this, now.” Praise the Lord. I have already spoken much about this, so, I don’t want to talk too much more about it.
I’m going to just read a little bit out of this book and if you don’t mind just bearing with me as I read. It’s not often that I do this, as you would know, but I felt this morning was important for me to read.
While Jesus was talking to me, an evil spirit that looked like a monkey ran between Jesus and me and spread out something that looked like a black cloud or a smoke screen. I couldn’t see Jesus anymore.
Then the demon began jumping up and down, waving his arms and legs, and yelling in a shrill voice, “Yakety-yak, yakety-yak, yakety-yak.” I paused for a moment. I could hear the voice of Jesus as He continued to talk to me, but I could not understand the words.
I thought to myself, “Doesn ‘t the Lord know I am missing what He is saying? I need to get that – it is important — but I am missing it.” I wondered why Jesus didn’t command the evil spirit to stop. I waited for a few more moments. Jesus continued talking as if He didn’t even know the evil spirit was present. I wondered why the Lord didn’t cast him out, but He didn’t.
Finally, in desperation, I pointed my finger at the evil spirit and said, “I command you to be quiet in the Name of Jesus Christ!” He stopped immediately and fell to the floor. The black smoke screen disappeared and I could see Jesus once again. The spirit lay on the floor whimpering and whining like a whipped pup. I said, “Not only must you be quiet, but get up and get out of here!” He got up and ran away.
I was still wondering why Jesus had not stopped this evil spirit from interfering, and of course Jesus knew what I was thinking. He said, “If you hadn’t done something about that, I couldn’t have.”
“Lord, I know I misunderstood You! You said You couldn’t do anything about it, but You really meant that You wouldn’t.”
“No,” He said, “if you hadn’t done something about that spirit, I couldn’t have.” “But Lord, You can do anything. To say You couldn’t is different from anything I’ve ever heard preached or preached myself. That really upends (upsets) my theology.” “Sometimes your theology needs upending (upsetting),” the Lord answered.
I said, “Lord, even though I am seeing You with my own eyes, even though I hear your voice speaking to me as plainly as any voice I have ever heard, I cannot accept that unless You prove it to me by the Word of God. For the Word says, ‘…In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established’ (2 Cor. 13:1). I will not accept any vision, I will not accept any revelation, if it cannot be proved by the Bible.”
Instead of becoming angry with me for saying this, Jesus smiled sweetly and said, “I will give you not just two or three witnesses; I will give you four witnesses.” I said, this is the author, I said, “I have read through the New Testament 150 times and many portions of it more than that. If that is in there, I don’t know about it.”
He’s telling Jesus, Who is the Word. Like, “I read it 150 times and You are the One that is the Word…” Ja… Does that sound like sometimes how we behave? Our theology, more important to us.
“Son, there is a lot in there you don’t know,” the Lord pointed out. “There is not a single place in the New Testament where believers are ever told to pray against the devil and I will do anything about him. There is not one instance in any of the epistles written to the churches that said to tell God to rebuke the devil or do something about the devil. If they do, they ‘re wasting their time. God has done all He is going to do about the devil for the time being until the angel comes down from heaven, takes the chain and binds him, and puts him into the bottomless pit.
“Every writer of the New Testament in writing to the Church always told the believer to do something about the devil. The believer has to have authority over the devil, or the Bible wouldn’t tell him to do something about the devil:
Matthew 28:18-20 18…All power [or authority] is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: (Matthew 28:18-19)
And that’s why I am baptising you today, because this is His instruction to do that, I believe that everybody that is getting baptised, even though you may have been baptised before, there is a new level of authority that is coming upon your life. There is a new level of strength and capacity and capability spiritually, which is why I have gone at length to make sure and to give people the opportunity to understand why they are being baptized in water. Hallelujah.
You know, if you’ve never had a faith testimony, then it is very difficult for you to have a testimony against the devil of how your faith overcomes a situation. Many many people have never understood what it was when they were water baptised and came up, what power they had in the death and the resurrection and the identity of that death and resurrection, when they were baptised. So, what happens is that they don’t ever go back to that moment of baptism and say, “I died with Christ, and I’ve raised with Him.” So, that’s why I have made it available to anybody who wants to be baptised even though you may have been baptised before because this is a powerful moment that we are having in this Church. 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you… and, do, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. (Matthew 28:20 KJV) I’m going to stop there.
I’m going to read just one more scripture in closing today. Jesus writes in the book of one Peter chapter 5 verse 8. 8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour. (1Peter 5:8 KJV) Let’s be clear. If we resist the devil, he will flee from us. You can’t wait for God to do the resisting for you. He’s already resisted the devil. He’s already broken his power. He’s already given authority to us. For us to say, we’re going to wait for God to deal with it; you’re going to wait a long time. What we have to do, is we have to resist the devil because he is going about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
Ok, so finally. Who does the devil want to devour? ALL people. He doesn’t want to just devour Christians; he wants to devour ALL people. Because I’ve got a lot of people to water baptise today, and then I’ve got still something else after the end of that session. I’ve got a full morning this morning because my spiritual leader changed my direction, changed some of the course of my near future. I have to adapt to accommodate his invitation and his request. Praise the Lord. So, we will be away a little bit longer than we thought. So, I’m trying to get as much done today as possible.
But the devil wants to devour and destroy everything. Come on; I want to make this personal. If I cannot make this personal to you this morning, you are going to see this just as a message that I preached from the pulpit that was for someone else. That’s the greatest danger that we have, is that we sit in church and say that this message is for someone else. It’s for the other people in the church—this is not for me. Especially if it hurts for you to change, come on.
I’d like you to just take your index finger; either hand will do, point it at yourself like this and say, “The devil is trying to destroy me. He will if he can. The devil is trying to destroy me. He will if he can.”
Where’s the first point of destruction? The first point of destruction is between you and God. Don’t tell me I must give my whole life to God. Don’t’ tell me I must give my whole life to God. I’ve given my whole life to this, I’ve given my whole life … and I’ve given a lot of money to charity, I give a whole lot of money to this… I’m a good person; I’m going to Heaven. Ja, but what’s your personal walk with God like? Are you doing what he’s told you to do? If you’re not, destruction is already begun.
I was listening to one of our legacy preachers, if you like, and he was talking about flying an aeroplane. He said, “If you got a course that you got to get to, flying from one airport to another airport and you make a half a degree miscalculation on takeoff, as you are taking off, a half a degree miscalculation. Over a period of, and he was speaking in American miles. Over a period of 600 miles, that half a degree can have you a hundred miles off-course. Now, if you are fueled for one direction, and now you’ve gone into another direction, you may not be able to land that plane.
What the enemy of God comes to do, is he doesn’t try and come with a big story about; I’m going to destroy your life. That preacher is over-dramatising. That pastor this morning that … heh, don’t believe him. He’s got to say that that’s his job. Look, my life turned out ok. Oh really? That mindset is full of pride, it’s full of self-oneness and it’s already taking you away from the intimacy of God that you have no idea how good it is. Because maybe you’ve judged that goodness with God and mixed it up with the Church and you said, “I don’t need the religious order.” Neither do I. I hate religious order. Can I say that again, please? I hate religious order. Because religious order means that there is an order that you need to follow, and only through the order that you follow are you accepted by the order.
Jesus didn’t come to die for us to have a religious order. He came to die, to have a personal relationship. So, the devil has come to first destroy your walk with Him, because if he can stop you with communicating with God; if he can stop you from having a daily personal relationship, where day by day you give thanks; day by day you are grateful to God; day by day you’re saying, “Lord, what is your Bible saying?” You read the Bible, and you and you take that Bible verse, and you speak it out in your day, and you make your walk with God a living relationship. Destruction has already happened.
Because what decisions you make for yourself in your self-life is so way off course from the one that God has destined for you. So, where is the airport that God wants you to land in? It’s 100 miles away from where you are. Where is the next fueling station? It’s 100 miles away from where you are. Where is the next abundance, the life, the blessing, the order of God, all of the things that you are supposed to be getting all your life? Where is it? It’s 100 miles away. Because the devil will not tell you as you are taking off, “Half a degree correction; half a degree correction.’’ In fact, he is going to say, “You’re half a degree… you got to go off course here because that course you plotted is not right.” He is going to try and deceive you half a degree at a time.
He is not going to come with all of his darkness and all of his stuff and try and wipe you out in one shot. It’s going to be subtle—little bit by little bit. “Watch as much TV as you’d like. Drink as much as you want to. Eat what you like. Go where you like.” What is it? Whatever-whatever. “It won’t do you that much harm; spend on your credit card now. Buy what you want now.” “Ah yes, I really want this new… and I really need this new washing machine, hey. My old one is fifteen years old; I need this new one.” “Spend on your credit card now; get it now. You don’t have to wait.” “After all, I have a good credit rating. Let me do it now.”
Then suddenly you find out the interest rates that you had when you bought it went from, I don’t know, fifteen per cent to twenty per cent on the credit card. Now suddenly, you are on the limit of what you can have every month. You think the devil is going to say to you, “Don’t buy this now. You’re going to be in debt, and believe me, I’m looking after you, don’t enter the world system, the darkness of this world. So, don’t go there.” Do you think the devil is going to tell you that? No.
There is only one person that is going to tell you that; it is the Holy Spirit. He is going to say, “Don’t do that; don’t do that. It is going to get you into trouble later, don’t do that.” Come on, who wants to be a self-oneness Christian or a Christian that says, “I am living in God. I am living with God. I am going to follow God’s assignment for my life, and I am going with Him. The Holy Spirit will talk to me, and the Word of God will talk to me, and I will have moment-by-moment and day-by-day, I will have a real personal, intimate relationship with Him, and then I will also understand what it means to live in a church with people that are also doing that. Hallelujah.
I want to leave you with this message today that when we have, and we go, and we baptise people, and they go through the waters, this is a spiritual thing that is happening. It is not just because your head is going under the water, and you are coming up. This is a deeply spiritual thing that is happening. It’s so spiritual that when you come up out of the water, you can stand renewed in your purpose with life, and you can say, “I have died with Christ, and I am resurrected with Him. Now I walk into my resurrection life, and I walk with Him, and I allow Him to be the one who leads me in everything. I am not distracted by all these natural realm things because the death of Jesus and His resurrection is my power, and with that power, I say to the devil I resist you when you come against my money, and when you come against my relationships, and against my thoughts and against my desires and against everything that you are trying to bring. I resist you, devil, in the name of Jesus!”
He might say to you, “But you don’t have any right to resist me like that.” You say to him, “I died with Him, and I was resurrected with Him, I have every right, that is all the right…” “Yah but your behaviour pattern…” “It died with Jesus, and it is resurrected with Jesus.” “Yah, but you did yesterday after you were baptised.” “That person died and was resurrected; I am just getting rid of the old habits.” It’s a deeply spiritual… “Ah, but your habits are still holding on to you.” “They are coming off of me because I died with Him, and I was resurrected with Him, and the same way sin has no power over Jesus’ body, sin has no power over my body.” “Ja, but you sinned yesterday, last night, man.” “That doesn’t matter; that person is busy getting rid of that old rubbish. Because I died with Him, I am resurrected with Him.” Hallelujah. Praise Jesus.
I am just going to say one more thing; it is in my spirit now. Let me tell you, there is a lot of people in the world that has got a lot to say about sex. I want to tell you something, that if you are wanting to have sex the way the world says you should have sex, you are allowing the enemy of God that has come to destroy your life; to destroy your relationship, married or not.
Sex is meant to be a beautiful thing in marriage. In fact, in marriage, it’s meant to be the most beautiful thing you could ever wish for. It’s the most intimate union, the most blessed, beautiful, pleasurable union you can have in marriage, and in marriage, if you do it with God, not only do you bring God’s blessing to it, you bring all of what He knows about your body. If you want to have a more fulfilling relationship with sex in your marriage, don’t ask the world; ask God and ask God together with your marriage partner. He knows more about the man or the woman you married than you ever will. If you’re in the Word, and your relationship with each other is in God, it becomes honourable, and the minute it’s honourable, all things are permitted in the marriage bed, and it becomes powerful. Wow, it’s quiet now. Hallelujah.
I want to say this to you, finally; if sex is a problem, or sexual patterns, behaviours, is a problem, in death and resurrection, you resurrect the life of Christ in your relationship. Whatever troubles you have now, you can call on God to resurrect them. You can call on God to resurrect them, just in the same way as He redeemed them; He can resurrect them.
“Well, Pastor John, how do you have sex that way?” It’s not for this morning’s session; there’s little ones around here. We’ll have a different session for that one day. Where young and old alike can attend, and we’ll tell you some straight, straight talk. Hallelujah.
“You mean you do that in this church?” We haven’t done it for a while, but we have, we even have CDs about it and only certain people are allowed to buy the CDs. Well, I don’t know if we have CDs anymore. It’s probably on a disc somewhere—anyway, Hallelujah. I believe the Lord has said and done what He needed to say today. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Won’t you all stand with me, please?
Do you understand that what I read to you out of this book is an indication to you that the demonic realm is around you all the time? Don’t think that because you’re living life and you don’t see people foaming at the mouth and rolling around on the ground because they’re possessed by demons, that they’re not active and busy and trying to actually undermine you and destroy your life.
They are busy. They are busy, but I’ve got good news for you; you’ve got angels that God has sent to you. You have an angel God sent to you. I’ve got good news for you that the Word of God in your mouth is much more powerful than any dark force that you can come against. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus.
Won’t you put your hand on your heart like this [Putting hand on heart] and just say this with me, say: “I am a son of God. I thank you, Lord, that You live in me, and You’ve given me the power to live life in abundance, with authority, with power, with freedom in the name of Jesus.” And everybody said? [congregation says Amen] Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
Well, we’re about to get ourselves ready to start to baptise people. There is sandwiches and tea and stuff for everybody out there; if you want to watch what’s going on, watch the people getting water-baptised. We need about fifteen or twenty minutes to get ready, we should be ready by roundabout quarter to eleven, eleven o’clock – so, “moenie worry nie, watch net.”
I bless you in the name of Jesus, and I say that you are blessed coming in and going out of this Church, of your home, of your business; you are blessed coming in and going out. No weapon formed against you prospers. I trust that the angels of God and the blood of Jesus create a barrier and a fortress around you, that your jobs are safe, your income is safe, your personal well-being is safe, and God’s plan is at work to bring you to health and wealth and blessing, in the name of Jesus. Do you agree with that? [Congregation: Yes!] Then, may the peace of God rest upon you in Jesus’ name, amen.
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