Scripture References: 1 Peter 3:18 (TPT), Colossians 3:1-4 (TPT), Colossians 3:1-3 (AMPC), 1 Corinthians 1:18 (NJKV), 1 Corinthians 1:21 (NJKV), 1 Corinthians 2:2-5 (NJKV), 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 (NKJV), Ephesians 1:16-23 (NKJV), Ephesians 1:19-23 (AMPC)
Praise the Lord. Praise Jesus. Hallelujah. Well, there is no issue with the track of your vocal cords. So you could just praise the Lord, just raise your hands and praise the Lord. Praise You, Jesus. Praise You Jesus. We praise Your name. Lord, we glorify Your name, we bless You. We bless your holy name. We thank you that You are our Saviour, we thank You that You are Lord, You are our living God. We serve and worship a living God who lives in our hearts, lives in our lives, gives us peace and gives us joy. Glory to Your name. Praise You, Jesus. Praise You, Jesus.
Lord, I thank You that as the Word is ministered this morning, that once again Father, this will not merely be words of men, but words of the Spirit that bring power of life and change. Every heart is ready to receive it. Every distraction of the mind is removed. I thank You, Father, that ears are ready to hear, hearts are ready to receive and that the enemy does not have the capability to come and steal any of these words out of their hearts. Hallelujah. So that we can be more like Jesus every day and bring kingdom, heavens realm, heavens, everything to Earth, in Jesus’ name, Hallelujah. If you agree with this message, say amen. You may be seated. Praise the Lord Praise the Lord. Praise Jesus.
As it turns out, when we get back, there’s about three days and we have camp meeting. Hallelujah. Camp meeting is going to be something really special. God’s got something awesome for us on Easter weekend. You know, I can almost guarantee that there’s going to be lots of opportunities that are going to be big, big opportunities that will come your way that just seem to be of this kind of nature, like, “How can we how can we miss this kind of opportunity to go away for an Easter weekend? Look, it’s free. And it’s at the sea. And that we must see. Tere we will be.” I mean, I can almost guarantee you the enemy of God is going to come and try and persuade you, distract you and cause you to want to go away somewhere else. When God, from November last year, God has had me tell you “Don’t book anything for April. This weekend God’s got something special for us.” So we’ve got Andy Mae, who is my uncle, is going to come and minister to us coming with his wife. His wife was healed from a stroke by the supernatural power of God. We’re going to have some very different sessions. We’re going to have interviews. So we’ll have time, we will sit in an interviewing and talking almost like in a studio session, we’ll have time of ministry… We’ll have Brother Jerry ministering to us, we’ll have brother Joe ministering to us. We’ve got a production for you. It’s a production of Love in a Time of War, which we have for you on that weekend. Then you have Pastor Sharon and I will also minister to you from what the Lord has given us while we go away. Amen. Praise the Lord.
In the meantime, if you have anything that you need, Pastor Christi is in charge, she’s in charge, she’s a lot tougher on things than I am. So Bassop Julle! Praise the Lord. I thank God that we have spiritual people that we can have being involved in ministry while we were away hallelujah.
From next Sunday services will start at 9:30 every morning, 9:30, so we asked you just to give us these two weekends just because of the baptism last weekend and the fact that Pastor Sharon and I are on a tight deadline for today because of the time that our plane leaves in for us to be get going. So thank you for accommodating us really appreciate really, really appreciate you getting up earlier in Joburg, Pretoria, Bethel, Morgezon wherever you come from. You’re appreciated, thank you for coming earlier. Praise the Lord.
This part that I’m going to share with you I’m going to share with it it’s mostly got relating to the Joburg people, had a conversation with the Joburg people last weekend and they’ve been they sense the need and urgency for, for the Johannesburg people to be here for as long as it takes because God’s doing something here, they all recognize that and since I had that conversation with him last weekend. I’ve had so many Joburg people saying, “Actually what God’s doing here in Witbank is so… there’s such an anointing here, there’s such a strength here that we would have been coming through anyway for Sunday morning services, and then going back and doing Sunday afternoon services in Joburg.” So I thank you for that response. It’s because it’s God, it’s a spiritual thing that needs to get done. I believe God’s doing an integration of the two churches, and He has an opportunity for us while that campus is closed, for us to grow together, be together, be strong together. Hallelujah.
I do have news, I was praying on Wednesday morning and in my prayer time, the Lord said, “I don’t want you to give up and stop being big and bold for the Johannesburg campus. I want you to continue believing for the Joburg campus.” So I said, “Okay, Lord, what should I do?” So He gave me a strategy. So I called LeRoux, my advising engineer, and I said, “Le Roux, this is what I want to do, will you help me, speak to the builder see what we can come up with and how we can go about it.” Because I’ve had it in my heart that the builder that should be building there should be coming from Witbank. And it’s amazing how God is putting everything together.
Anyway, so we went through a number of things. And of course, you know, what a builder wants to do is a builder wants to bring everything on site. He wants to build it as quickly as possible for efficiency and maximum profit, and then get it done as quickly as possible and then leave. Right? But, I in my spirit, what the Lord said was, “Take long. Don’t be short about this, go along.” So I said, “Well, Lord, you’re going to have to reveal to us how we can do this.” And so we got together, Le Roux, myself, and the builder we got together. And the Lord has given us the strategy of building this building in stages. So not this coming week, the week after that, we’re going to start with the first stage. The first stage is going to cost… it’s not a stage a phase. The first phase, it’s going to cost about R260,000 but essentially what it’s going to do is going to get all the walls up in the auditorium, do all the cement work that we have to do. And that’s about it, give or take, I’m giving you a broad, a broad brush. Then we’re going to take a break for a couple of weeks and then we’re going to do the next phase. And then we’ll do another couple of weeks or months and then we’ll do the next phase.
So, the idea is that by the time we get to the end of the year the building will be as complete as this building is here, with all the sound all the stuff everything in it that the Lord wants at the highest level that God wants us to do. So I have it in my heart to pursue that for the end of the year. Hallelujah.
So, I’m wanting you guys to just believe with me in faith that God will always, He has He’s never let me down yet, He will, He will provide resources and finances and raise up business people that think like God. That think about God’s money for the way that He needs to think about it and do things. You can’t, you can’t it’s impossible for you to out-give God. Amen. Praise the Lord.
Okay. The title of my message this morning is Power of Resurrection, I’ve been ministering on this for a long time. But um, the Lord had me, I really was searching the Lord for a title because of what He put in my heart. And He gave me this, Flipping the Coin for Truth. Flipping the Coin for Truth. So, I’m just going to go to 1 Peter 3:18, in the Passion translation. It’s been one of those scriptures I’ve been reading to you.
Christ suffered and died for sins once and for all—the innocent for the guilty —to bring you near to God by his body being put to death and by being raised to life by the Spirit (1 Peter 3:18).
The great thing is if the Holy Spirit can bring Jesus to life, then He can bring anything in your life to life, anything. There is nothing in your life that is too dark, or too bad, or too severe that He can’t bring it to life. Hallelujah.
So we’ve been reading Colossians 3:1-4. 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 (Colossians 3:1-4 TPT). I can speak to this personally, the more you think about the Word, the more you think about God, and the more that you think about how you can go about life in God, the more God fills your thoughts with His thoughts. And the more you find yourself being, or I should say, less distracted by natural thoughts. Hallelujah.
3 Your crucifixion with Christ has severed the tie to this life, and now your true life is hidden away in God in Christ. 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).
I want to read this also, from the Amplified Bible, I’m just going to read the first three verses, 1 If then you have been raised with Christ [to a new life, thus sharing His resurrection from the dead], aim at and seek the [rich, eternal treasures] that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 And set your minds (Colossians 3:1-4 TPT), you know if you set your mind. So yesterday was a very busy day for me because it started early in the morning to have a covered PCR test, and then we had some time and fellowship with young people cycling. It was in my heart that I wanted to do a quite a long distance and put my body under some pressure before I left as part of my training for things that God’s going… that unbelieving God to do for the rest of the year. My body’s feeling strong feeling it’s like getting good health and I wanted to push yesterday, but just one thing led to another and I didn’t manage to get to do the distance. But and I got lost in the nature reserve, if you can believe it, between the highway. You know, me getting lost, it’s almost impossible. But it happened [Pastor John, laughing].
Anyway, at some point, after I got lost, and I had to port my bike back across the river, the river bed anyway, the rocks and get myself back onto track, and then I found the route that I had to ride. Because I was behind everybody else’s schedule, trying to catch up. I had this long uphill that I had to climb. And so what did I have to do? I had to set my mind, I have to set my mind. This climb, I’m going as hard and as fast as I can go up to this climb. I’m setting my mind because I know when I get to the top, then I can start to push harder. When I got to the top. for the rest of the course, I really said ”Okay, I’m going to see how fast I can ride and how quickly I can get back because the rest of the people who were all being finished and we were going to have breakfast together.” And so, I knew they were waiting for me. And so, I set my mind to push as hard as I could. If you set your mind that means you set it. You know what it becomes like when you set your mind? You set your mind like this bicycle that I’m riding, there’s this track in front of me, I just got to watch for rocks, I got to watch for holes, I got to watch for dangerous things that will throw me off my course. But actually, I’m riding so hard, and I’m so focused. I’m set, my mind is set. There’s nothing that’s going to…. I’m going as hard as I can go. A couple of times because of the pace that I was going and some of the uphills, the back tire gets hit by a rock and so you slip a little bit or you go through some loose sand and fishtails a little bit. But you don’t get put off by that. You just keep powering through it. Actually, your best result for not falling off your bike is powering through it. Not taking your foot off the gas.
Anybody who knows about motorcycling or motorbike, or motorcar racing will tell you don’t brake into a corner, you brake before the corner and power through it. Right. If you didn’t know that you know it now. Hallelujah. Go to set your mind. Set your mind. Set your mind and keep them Set on what is above the highest things, not on the things that are on the earth. For as far as this world is concerned, you have died, and your new real life is hidden with Christ in God. So, you’re dead to the rest of the world. You have to live for Christ. Amen.
First Corinthians chapter one, verse 18, says, 18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us, you are being saved. It is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18). For many, many people, a God, that God, Jesus Christ, Himself dying on a cross is an unthinkable thing, because obviously, how can a God allow Himself to die, which is what they said to Him on the same day when He was killed. “Save yourself and save us also.” Right? Because it’s unthinkable that a God would actually sacrifice himself.
First Corinthians Chapter One verse 21 says 21 For sins in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God,” through wisdom, through the wisdom, they did not know God. It pleases God through the foolishness of the message preach to save those who believe (1 Corinthians 1:21 NKJV). For sins in the wisdom of God the world, through wisdom, did not know Him.
In other words, God used His wisdom, to let them think that they have all the wisdom, and yet can’t see God. As smart as they are, they can’t see God. Hallelujah. You have to desire God in your heart, not in your head. You have to live for God in your heart, not in your head. If you’re looking for God in your head, then your head will distract you and keep you thinking on natural realms, and God can’t change you; can’t work with you because you think, you have a relationship with God in your head, not from your heart. Life of the Spirit comes from your heart, not from your head.
There are the things of the world. The gospel of Jesus Christ is foolishness to the world. It’s foolish to give 10% of your money to God. We happen to be the vehicle. But, to the world, it’s foolish to give 10% of your money away. “Why on earth would you give 10% of your money away? To what? Some guy who stands and preaches on a Sunday and you’re making him rich?” That’s what they say. They’ve got no idea. The spiritual responsibility that rests upon true spiritual leaders. Yes, there are people that have abused this pulpit, many pulpits around the ages, people that have called themselves priests and done horrible, terrible things. Yes, there are those people across the decades and the generations that have done horrible things in the name of God. That doesn’t mean to say that God’s Word is not true. You can’t use anybody else’s experience or excuses to say the Word of God is not true. Because, the Word of God is truth, because there’s a big difference between He and ‘they’. If you listen to ‘they’, you will never do what He says. But if you listen to what He says, then ‘they’ don’t matter. Hallelujah.
I would like you to… I’m going to get to that after the next verse. I’m going to read first Corinthians chapter two, verse two to five. The New King James says, 2 For I determined not to know anything among you, except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. So, this is the apostle Paul saying, I’m determined not to know anything among you. “I do not want to know you after your soul and after your flesh. It doesn’t mean I don’t know your name, and I don’t know what you like or you don’t like. It means whatever pursuit that you have in your soul and your flesh, I don’t want to know that. I don’t want to know you that way.” 3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling, 4 and my speech and my preaching were not persuasive words of a human wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God (1 Corinthians 2:2-5 NKJV).
Let’s be clear, this passage of Scripture is about words. It’s about words that are spoken, that have no power; that are persuasive, and only persuasive in the way that they go about it. “I want to persuade you to see it my way.” But the Words of God are not there for your persuasion, they come with the power of the Spirit to bring life. That is one of the ways you can always tell if there is a ministry, teachers, people that present themselves, they want to present you with a compelling argument to persuade you. But Paul says it, “I did not want to know you. I wanted to come to you with the words of life and spirit so that it feels to you like as the power of God is working on you that I am speaking right to you. But that is the Holy Spirit speaking to you, it is not me speaking to you.” That is what he means when “I come with words of power…” Because when the Holy Spirit speaks to you, those power words change you. They work on your heart differently to the way they work on my heart.
Pastor Sharon and I, when we were driving to church this morning, she asked me a question. She said “Are you going through some of the same emotions? We are leaving all of the people we love, all of the people that we are called to, all of the momentum of everything that God’s doing in the ministry, we are leaving here for 20 days, you know, and I am quite emotional about it. What are you feeling?” I said “Babe, I have the same emotion.” I said, “But I cannot afford the emotion to distract me from what God’s doing, because my spiritual leader called and I’m going.” If he didn’t call, I wouldn’t be leaving here. It was not on my heart. It was certainly in our hearts, if there is a reason why we don’t go to America this year, and go to the president’s cabinet, we’re not going, we are very content doing what God’s telling us to do here. In fact, we are thriving on it. But our spiritual leader called and said, “I want you to be and I want you to come on a special assignment with me.” “Yes, sir.” My emotions are got nothing to do with it. Hallelujah.
3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God (1 Corinthians 2:3-5 NKJV). If your faith is in the wisdom of men, before it is in the power of God, then that means that the order of your life keeps following where the men system takes you. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Praise Jesus.
I’ve had moments in my life sitting in my office, really early days with Jerry Savelle; I mean, many of you have heard my story, but I recognize there is a lot of new people coming into the ministry. Some of you will be hearing the story for the first time, I am going to tell it quick. I left the corporate world, and I am sitting in an office, and my friend phones me and he is still from the computer world, and he tells me about how well his company’s doing. He tells me that he is actually taking a second bond on his house, and he is going to buy the shares in the company with his… I do not recommend you do that, but he is going to buy shares in the company with the second bond, because this is the first results of the of their company’s listing since they were listed on the stock exchange. So the first results and they are going to be spectacular… Salesman, he is not a director, he is not on the board, he is a salesman. I put the phone down. I said, “Lord, what must I do with that information?” He said, “Buy the shares.” Pick up the phone, I phone the broker, I told him to buy me so many thousand shares. The results came out a couple of days later, whatever the case was, I can’t remember the details now it was such a long time ago; and the opening share price, I don’t know was R22 or something like that. By day five or six or seven, the price of the share was R45; double my money. There was a day, I believe it was a Thursday, if I remember correctly on that day, I remember waking up in the morning, knowing I have to sell the shares today. At 10 o’clock, I said, “Lord shall I sell the shares now?” He said “Wait.” So the shares, I don’t know were R45 or something, 12 o’clock, the 40 shares were R46 something, two o’clock, the shares were R47, in a space of four hours, the share price had gone up by two Rand. Now, if you’ve got enough shares, that can be a considerable amount of money. At two o’clock, He said, “Sell all your shares.” Phoned my broker and I said to “Sell all my shares as soon as you can sell them.” He says “The share price is this, you should hold on to this. There’s only one trend that’s going here this trend is going upwards.” I said “Sell or my shares”, said “If the trend is going upwards this is the right time to sell”, didn’t take him half an hour, I sold all my shares. I made a lot of money. Praise Jesus.
What happened? I was listening to the way of God rather than the ways of men. I didn’t have to leave my desk for a whole week. I didn’t leave my desk, I didn’t have to go run around looking for business, phoning contacts, trying to make things, the Lord said to me “For the rest of your life, John, I will cause money and prosperity to come to you this way, where you don’t have to toil for it, and there’s no sorrow added with it, it will just come to you. I will give you strategies that will cause you to see things and understand things that the world can’t because you have obeyed Me and you’ve come into the ministry and serving Me the way that you are.” And so it has been like that for my whole life. God has, there is a bit of property here… Anybody know where Pastor Christi and Grobbies live? The Silver Laan, there is a property right next to the Curro school? I arrived here in Witbank many, many years ago, I saw that property I asked somebody “Is it for sale?” They said, “Yeah if someone makes an offer…” I made an offer and I kept the offer. I’m talking 20 years ago now, that price of that land then R120,000, six acres or whatever, or I can’t remember three acres or six acres or something like that. I can’t remember. There was no Curro school. There was nothing that going there at that time. I got some plans to develop it and to build houses on it and to to do some work with it. After I did all of that the Lord said “That’s not your business, John. I told you to buy the land.” said “Okay, so what must I do now? He said “Sell it.” I said “Okay.” I put it on the market. Within days, I had someone who came and offered me double what I paid for the property. Two years, God doubled my money again.
I have it on my heart to do a kingdom economic conference. How many of you want to come to that? Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Because you see, when you do things God’s way He makes you rich. He brings all what you need. He adds to your life because you seek Him. He never subtracts from your life. Never, never never. He adds to your life when you seek Him. Praise the Lord.
I’m going to read you the same passage of scripture. No, previous passage of Scripture, I read to you from verse two. I’m just going to read verse one to you. 1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God (1 Corinthians 2:1 NKJV).
Everything that you do in your life should be declaring the testimony of God, not the testimony of you. The testimony of God, if I give testimony to you about how God has blessed me; then it’s about His glory. It’s not about me. It’s about me hearing what He says obeying what He says; and then He blesses me and then it’s about Him. It’s not about me. The minute I think anything is about me, I’m about to fall. I’m about to have something happen to me, that might not be so good because I’m making it about me when God says, “I won’t share My glory with anybody.” You can say “You’re preaching well, this morning, Pastor John.”
I want you to imagine, I want you to imagine with me for a moment. So just, will you come into your imagination? Just imagine, a young married couple, who are in their early 20s, 23, 24, 25… Let’s just say in that mid early 20s. They’ve met their life partner, they’re enjoying each other’s company together, they’re having a good life, they’re in God, they go to church, they are serving God; it’s a good life. They have it in their heart to be pregnant. So they go about doing things that normally would make people pregnant… Six months goes by and there’s no pregnancy, 12 months, a year, two years, three years. What do you think is happening in the hearts of the two young people who adore each other? They’re living in God, they’re living for God, they wanted to have a child but now there is no child yet. Are you with me?
Would you say the desire and the expectation and the hope to have a child is growing? Come on. Imagine with me, the desire is growing, the expectation is growing, that the ‘want to’ is bigger now than it was then. Yeah? Because in some ways, the fact that it hasn’t come easily or quickly, it’s created a greater expectation. But they stay focused, they stay in the Word, they keep doing what they know to do. And lo and behold, year four, now they’re getting closer to 30, and so that, you know, biological clock and timing and all that kind of nonsense. You know? But just imagine now the girl, the woman, married woman is 28; she’s pregnant. She’s pregnant. When they are sure; all the scans all the time. Three months, first trimester. It’s all looking good. No complications. Pregnant.
Tell me what you think is happening in their hearts. Joy, thankfulness, gratitude, increased expectation. In fact, because they kept serving the Lord and kept going with God and they kept everything; this pregnancy is as much about the glory of God as anything else. In their minds… Come on, just work with me here a little bit. In their minds, it’s nothing about the physical act that made it happen. Because they’ve been doing that for years and no success until now. It’s not about how good that was. It’s all about how good He is.
Come on now. So look back to how good He is. You see, that is a big contrast about how the world system operates. The world system operates that they want to always take glory for what they do. Whereas we as believers should be always giving God glory for who He is. When we give glory to who He is, then He automatically gets the things done that our hearts desire. Amen.
Okay, let’s fast forward a couple of months. Second-trimester baby is moving; new life. Wow. It’s like, you know, sometimes some husbands are like this; whatever your personality. I’m not trying to ‘have a go’ at personalities, I’m just saying, you know, some husbands are like this. It’s like when ‘grandma and grandpa to be’, mom and dad come around and visit, “Come touch the stomach, feel the kicking. Right? Come on it’s like an amazing thing we’ve been waiting all this time and feel the baby is moving. It is an increased expectation. Because more time has gone by, let’s get to nine months. Nine months, this belly is big. And the lady is walking around like this, you know? And she can’t go 10 minutes anywhere, and I need a toilet. You know? “Pease, can I have another pillow for my back? Or can I lie on the floor? Or can I do…” Come on now? Huh? Okay, are you all with me here? So, they’re just… Imagine with me, the couple are just lying on the carpet, on the floor, in their lounge, because this is a comfortable position for her. So, he’s lying next to her chatting to her speaking about this new event that’s about to change their lives forever.
Do you imagine that the father would then look at, and let’s just say because it’s a hot summer’s day, she’s wearing a tank top and she’s pulled the tank top off up over the belly. And this big protrusion of skin is visible to her husband, only her husband and father. Are you all with me, you got the picture? Can you imagine that father to be speaking to that belly and saying, “I want everything bad for you. I want sickness on your life. I want poverty on your life. I want all manner of death and destruction to come into your life. I want you to experience all of the hardships of life. Because that’s real life. So, I don’t want anything good for you, life’s real bad.” Can you imagine that?
What do you think that father is going to be saying when he speaks to that belly? He’s going to be speaking to his future child saying, “I’ll tell you what you’re going to have everything your heart’s desire. As far as possible, I’m going to make everything happen for you, you’re going to be healthy, you’re going to be strong, you’re going to run around and have a lot of fun, you’re going to enjoy life, you’re going to be strong, you’re going to have the best that I can possibly, and then more. And I’m going to introduce you to God the Father, and you’re going to have an experience with God for the rest of your life that is going to just be awesome. You’re going to meet Jesus, I’m going to lead you to Jesus. And I’m going to show you how great life is in Jesus.” Right?
Don’t you think that’s the words that he would speak? Two days later and dad has got a little baby in the arms. For now we’ll call her a girl. Just because most people would say a man wants to have a boy. So, we’ll call her a girl just to break the mould for a minute. So, he’s got this little girl in his arms. What do you think with all of this he is going to say to her? “I’m going to protect you. I’m going to provide for you. I’m going to make sure the environment has got the best that you can ever have to express yourself to have freedom. I’m going to teach you some life lessons girl. And there will be some moments where you think I don’t like you very much. But I promise you it’s for your best. Just because I can’t make it so easy for you that you think that you can’t grow up, you’re going to have to grow up. And so as you’re growing, you’re going to bang your knee. I am going to tell you not to do things but it’s all for your best interest. So, me and you girl, we’re going to walk a long way together. But believe me, everything I’m going to do is for your best.” Right? Because the Father is the source of that life.
Who’s the source of your life? What do you think He’s speaking about you? Even now, right now, Jesus is sitting at His right hand speaking to Him about you. What do you think Jesus who died for you, and God rose from the dead for you, what do you think He’s telling the Father about you? He’s not looking at you and saying, “See those ouks, they’ve got no clue. Drop them off. Let lightning strike them. God, open up the land and lets swallow them up. And just, you know, those guys from Witbank, they’re a bunch of moegoes they know nothing.”
You know, He’s not talking about you like that. He gave His life for you with every expectation that as you were born again, and you begin to live as a new believer, all of what in His power that raised Him from the dead, the Father, all of that power will work in you. All of that power is available to you, to heal you, to save you to set you on your right path, to take all of the things that plague you in your mind, your habits, your addictions, your wrong relationships, all of your insecurities, your fears, whatever it is your desire to control your life because of fear, whatever or failure or whatever the case might be. He’s got it covered in Him; not in the world’s wisdom. Hallelujah.
So, in Ephesians, chapters, chapter one, verse 16, the apostle Paul says this, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the knowledge of Him. (Ephesians 1:16-17 NKJV) Who is the spiritual father of the church in Ephesus?
God’s the Author of all life, but He sent a messenger to Ephesus. As the messenger of Ephesus, he is the source of this life of the church in Ephesus. So when he says, I am praying for you, he says, I am praying for you and I am always praying for you, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you, my sons and daughters in the spirit. Are you with me? Are you? Father, baby, my sons and daughters in the spirit, Paul says, I pray that the Heavenly Father, the source of all life, and who worked through me to bring you life, I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom, and revelation, in the knowledge of Him. I pray that He gives it to you. I pray that He gives it to you. He’s not trying to take something from you. Never. He’s trying to give something to you. That He gives to you the spirit of wisdom. What wisdom? It’s not a persuasive word wisdom. It is the wisdom of the Spirit of Life wisdom that Paul was previously talking about.
You know, one of the things that they gave, they did for me when I did. What’s that test that you do? The profiling test, it’s called something I don’t know, DISC. I did a whole bunch of those things in the early years of my life. Everyone, they said, what kind of job I should doing? They said I should be in sales, I should become a lawyer, or I should be a preacher. Well, I think I’m all three. Hallelujah.
The strongest one that would come out most often was the fact that I should be a lawyer, because of the way my brain thinks, you know, what the job of a lawyer is? It’s to bring a persuasive argument. Right? So if you bring a persuasive argument, it means there’s a judge and there’s two sides to the story. You got to bring your story to make a bit more sense to the judge, than the other person’s story. Come on, work with me here. If I can’t, if I trust, in my words, to bring you a persuasive story, then all you’ve got is words of persuasion that you can live with. But they are my words, there’s no power in them. But if I bring words that are given to me by the Father, and my words come, and they say, “May He give you?” I’m using words now, “May He give you the spirit of wisdom, revelation, and knowledge of Him.” So you may be hearing the words from me, but “May He give you the revelation”, a whole different level of power? Different level of power that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened now that you’ve got this knowledge and revelation that you may know, what is the hope of His calling?
What are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in you? So that straightaway tells you there’s a calling and there’s an inheritance. For all of you, all of us together, come on, don’t you want to have the God of all gods call you? Don’t you want Him to be the One who’s giving you inheritance? Let me tell you, it’s a wonderful thing. If you’ve got a somebody who is your father, or somebody in your family, who has had the foresight to have insurance policies and do leave assets. And they die, and they move on, and they leave you an inheritance, and suddenly when you receive this inheritance, there are so many things you can do in your life that you couldn’t do before. Come on. Well, that’s what Jesus promised. An inheritance, the things that you couldn’t do before you can do now, because He’s giving you all of the revelation, all of the knowledge, all of the insight, all of the enlightenment about Him.
Now you can do things that you couldn’t do before. You can do things and get away with things in the natural world, you can create things that other people couldn’t get away with. Because favour comes upon you, the glory of God rests upon you. You can say things to one person in one minute, and it will be like, oh, but of course, yes, let’s do that. Hallelujah. Human wisdom can’t give you that stuff. And you can go to any financial advisor out there in the marketplace, and they are going to tell you the same thing with a little bit of a variation. Put your money here, buy some of this, do some of that, you’ve got to invest in some of this, invest in some of that. All human wisdom. You got to get God’s wisdom, He will show you things to do. Hallelujah.
Let me tell you if somebody had said to me, I’d be sitting in my office, and a phone call would come to me from a friend in the computer industry all those years ago, and then I would end up buying shares and selling them a week later and done and just making a lot more money. I would have said, “I don’t deal in shares.” So what happened to me next was I actually started looking at it. “Okay, no, I see what You’re doing here.” I started looking at all the share prices every day. So I phoned my broker and I said, “I want you to buy the shares, please.” I sold them a couple of days later and whatever I lost 30,000. So I said Lord, “How come I lost the money?” He said “I didn’t tell you.” He says, “Just because I work in one way once doesn’t mean to say I’m gonna work in the same way again.” And if I do work in the same way again, I’ll tell you. You don’t do it because now you think this is the way to go. Now you really want to come to the kingdom economics conference. It’s gonna be on the banks of the Okavango. Are you in for it? We gonna sleep there by the hippos and crocodiles. It’s gonna be on the banks of the Okavango. Are you in for it? We go and sleep there by the hippos and the crocodiles.
Now that 19 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, the power comes towards you who believe, the power doesn’t come to those who don’t believe. And those who don’t believe are those that are stuck in their minds, but those who believe are stuck in the spirit. You can be a Christian and don’t believe. 19 The greatness of His power towards us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which is this mighty power? 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. 22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all (Ephesians 1:19-23).
Hey, come on. We are the inheritance. We are Jesus’ inheritance. We, the Church, are supposed to be the fullness of Christ in all things. That’s Jesus’ inheritance. So, when the Apostle Paul prays and he says, “I pray that He give you all revelation, all wisdom, and all insight into everything.” It’s because you need it, because you are the Church, you are Christ revealed, you are the fullness of Jesus on the earth. You are. When He says, and He put Him at His right hand, and He put all things under His feet, and every principality and every power and every ruler, what do you think those principalities and powers and rulers are? They are people that tried to control money, they are people that tried to make you sick, and cause diseases and spread covid all over the world. They are people that want to come and break into your house and steal, and if possibly even kill you and take your car and ride away with your wealth. They are all manner of evil that is in this world is not coming out of this throne of grace. But the power that’s in the Church overcomes all of that. On the contrary, God expects you to bring the release of everything that you need in your life through knowing Him.
Let me make this a little bit more personal. And then I’m going to finish because I’m pretty much done now and I’m out of time. I’ve told the story before so this is not new to those of you who’ve been around me for a while. Me and Pastor Sharon, we bought our boys new bicycles. The guy who sold them the bicycles, we were living in Randburg, said, “You must have helmets.” And you know, young boys, “We don’t drive with helmets.” This is 30 years ago. Nobody rode around with helmets 30 years ago. The guy in the shop said, “You must buy your kids helmets for their bikes and don’t let them ride without it.” We buy the bikes. It’s during the week, I’m at work, boys want to go cycling around the area, roads in the area. It’s a quiet area, housing, no problem we’re going to go cycling. So, two boys cycling, Brynn’s a bit older. Of course, they’re gonna dice each other. Take it to the bank. So they’re going down a downhill. Of course, Brynn’s a bit bigger, a bit stronger, he’s ahead of Garth going down the downhill. And Brynn ‘jumps’ the stop street. It’s a quiet area, there are no cars that drive around, jumps the stop street and as he goes through the stop street, he knows his brother’s behind him and he looks and he sees here’s a car coming and he knows his brother’s going to follow him. He’s not going to stop there at the stop street, he’s gonna try and catch him. But he sees the car coming. He tries to turn around to tell Garth to stop, too late. Garth’s already in the intersection. That car hit Garth, breaking, hit Garth. Garth came off that bike onto the bonnet, hit his head against the windscreen, fell on the floor, on the ground, on the top.
The night before that incident happened, Pastor Sharon and I was standing in the kitchen. Instantly, at exactly the same time, a spirit of prayer came upon us. We began to pray in the Spirit. We didn’t know what it was for. But suddenly we were praying. It just flowed out of our spirit. We were praying, and we prayed in the spirit for about half an hour. When we were finished, we knew what we were praying for was done. We didn’t know what we were praying for. We had no idea. What we happen to be praying for was for our son’s protection the next day. The power of words that are in Him. So great was God’s protection over our son that when the car hit him, he hit him when his right foot was raised. So when the car hit him, it didn’t hit him on a straight leg that could have crushed his knee. It hit him when his right leg was raised, which forced his body this way up onto the boot of the bonnet of the car. The helmet that he was wearing on insistence by his mother, hit the windscreen and cracked the windscreen, then you know how hard he hit the windscreen with his head, fell onto the ground next to the car. Brynn ends up phoning his mom later, mom phoning from the ambulance or the hospital or somebody lent him a phone or I don’t know how it happened. He said, “Garth’s all right but he’s on his way to the hospital. He’s in the ambulance but he’s all right.” Ended up, he had a bruised kidney. He had a bruised kidney. Listen, don’t drive through the stop street.
Here’s what I’m telling you. That the mighty power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is the same power that lives in you. He gives you wisdom and revelation and insight into mysteries that you can’t see by yourself. If you will speak words when He tells you to speak words in places that He tells you to speak them, He will give you things in life, He will protect your life, He will save your life, you will bring wealth to your life, He will bring a partner to your life, He will bring children into your life if that’s what you desire. And if that’s what God puts, He will bring all good things because when He raised Jesus from the dead, every time a new believer gets born again, He says I’m going to nurture you like a great father would nurture any child, I’m going to give you the best of life, I’m going to give you the best training the best education. Where you gonna get it? It’s in the church. It’s not in the world education system. It’s not in the world economic system. It’s not, where is it; in the church.
Why? Because if you read the next line, he says, and he has put all things under his feet and gave him to the head over all things to the church. Not to Wall Street, not to the stock exchange, not to or to Cambridge Education systems. I’m not knocking them, but they don’t have the education that you need for your kids or for you. Harvard can’t give you what God can give you in a second. On the contrary, if you went to Harvard, you will be so full of Harvard philosophies, you probably wouldn’t hear what God is saying. Because all you can hear is what your professors have been telling you and all your friends have been telling you with all their liberal agendas. So you’re unlikely to hear what God is saying because you listening to everybody else. That doesn’t know God. The ways of God are foolishness to them.
You mean you give 10% away for what, what do you get back? Much, much, much more. Absolutely. There’s not even a comparison between one is enlightened one is in dark. One has got all the abundance and the blessing of God forever and eternally because it allows you to not only have abundance while you on the earth. But it says that in the lifetime to come, you will store up for yourself riches. In the lifetime to come, you will get there and you find all these powers of riches and wealth and blessings and good things that God has provided for you. Hallelujah. If I can preach that guess before I go to America, you must know what’s happening when I’m coming back from America. Glory to Jesus, why don’t you stand with me please? Hallelujah. Glory to God. Yeah. Hallelujah. Pastor Christi, please come. She asked me to do this before the service and I wouldn’t have thought about it. But it’s the right and proper and spiritual order to do so she’s going to pray for us. Come stand with me my darling.
Pastor Christi:
Hallelujah. Thank you, Pastor John. Will you please stretch out your hands we want to release Pastor John and Sharon with a blessing as they go.
Father, we want to say thank You today because You orchestrated this opportunity and special assignment for Pastor John and Pastor Sharon to be with Brother Jerry Lord, that they will get from you Lord everything that You have for them. Father with Brother Jerry, but also other places and spaces and people that You have orchestrated and designed for Pastor John and Sharon to be in and to receive from You, Lord, we give You glory, Lord, we ask You that they will have the anointing of Your Spirit in every moment, to see to receive and to, to get from You, while You are sending them load, a great transfer, the fullness of things that step by step and moment by moment of coming to them, Lord. We bless them in the name of Jesus, to see everything, have everything, Lord with Your favour, Your joy, and Your wisdom, every moment of the go. We bless them, Lord, and we love them in the mighty name of Jesus. And we all say, Amen.
Pastor John, Pastor Sharon, and we love you dearly. We love you dearly. And we will be praying for you. And we have a great expectation for you to come back with what God is giving you what you’re going to get, Hallelujah.
Pastor John:
Praise the Lord, I want the band to come up, please. While the band is coming up, I just want to pray for you. I want to just declare that the blessing of God rests upon you that this message that are preached and the messages that have been preaching on the resurrection power of Christ, and all of them will do the work in your heart, and cause you to be resurrected out of that natural way of thinking and focused on the natural things, that you will focus on the heavenly realm and the heavenly things. Because that’s where the blessing of God is. That’s where the order of God is. That’s where God’s everything that He wants for you is in that space. Hallelujah.
I asked you before God as I go, I ask you to be obedient to Him, and to follow Him and to give your heart to Him. I ask you to be faithful in your coming to pray, coming to church, bringing your gift to the ministry. We’re going to be connecting with you as much as we can through social media. There’s a few things that you’ll get to hear about as we traveling. But in the meantime, I ask the Father to bless you, that you bless going out bless coming in, the peace of God rests upon you. No weapon formed against you will prosper and you will be sound and intact and I release you into the hands of God until we come back. In the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. Glory to God. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. We love you. We love you. Glory to God. I don’t want to leave you but I must go. Ek se tot siens. Praise Jesus please stay for the song.
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TOUCH | TEACH | TRAIN | TRANSFER
