Scripture References: Genesis 1:14-31 (AMPC); Genesis 2:7 (AMPC); Genesis 1:28 (AMPC); Genesis 3:16-19 (AMPC); Genesis 3:17-19 (Living Bible – TLB); Proverbs 15:10 (AMPC); Psalm 2:4 (AMPC); Matthew 6:33 (AMPC).
So, Pastor John and Sharon, they send their love. They are having a very, very powerful time to say the least. It is, it is impacting the church, Brother Jerry, miss Carolyn greatly and I’m not going to say too much about it, but I will let Pastor John and Pastor Sharon share with you when they are back. This is a very strategic, very momentous time for Pastor John and Sharon. So, I’m very honoured and very privileged, as I always am to have this opportunity to minister to you. I was just saying to Bertus this morning, he picked me up, that I have the fear of God on me this morning.
Because of what, some of the things that the Lord, was speaking to me about during the week. So, in my preparation, obviously, you know, I’m still fairly new at doing this. So, in my preparation, I write down everything that I’m going to say and as I’m writing down what the Lord wants me to say, inside I’m saying, “Oh, ok, wow, really, really Lord?”
Let’s get into the message, but I just actually wanted to show you, that this is Pastor John’s message on Search and Switch Part One and pretty much everything that I am ministering this morning is based on this message. I want to encourage all of you, it’s very accessible, very easy these days for us to access the transcriptions of Pastor John and Sharon’s messages and it’s really, really easy for you to go through the message and just highlight what the Holy Spirit,illuminates to you, what He, what He quickens to you.
You understand what I mean? When I say, “Quickens” because you can read a lot and then suddenly something will jump out at you and that’s something that the Holy Spirit wants you in particular to pay attention to. That’s something that He’s wanting in your heart, that’s something that He’s wanting in your mouth, that’s something He wants to talk to you abou., He wants to give you revelation about. So, we really as a church have no excuse, but to put our foot in the message. Has everyone been on to the new Heritage of Faith Ministries International website? Can I see by hand who has been on? Okay. So, a few of you. Please will you visit the Heritage of Faith Ministries International Website? You can get all of these transcriptions, message highlights, which are basically the shortened version; highlights for the children, basically anything you can imagine is on the new Heritage of Faith Ministries International Website. Praise the Lord.
Will you pray with me and agree with me this morning. Father, I thank You for this blessed opportunity to minister to Your people and Father, everything that I have to say this morning, is because of the glorious house anointing because of Your blessing and Your grace that is on this place. So, I Thank You, Heavenly Father for Your anointing upon every word. It is You who has given me these words to say to Your people and I thank You for helping every person here this morning and who listens via YouTube or any live broadcasting, I ask You to help them, to hear the way You want them to hear, to see the way You want them to see and ultimately be the way You want them to be, in Jesus name. Hallelujah.
So, if you have Search and Switch, transcription on your phone or if you have it on an iPad or somewhere, you can actually follow along with me because that’s what I’m going to be doing this morning. My ministry is straight from Search and Switch. You know, like Pastor Melusi said, “Everything that I have, is because of the light that is already being taught in this church.” So, all of the light that I have is because of the light that has already been brought to us. Hallelujah.
So, Pastor John has been ministering on Search and Switch. You can see I’ve had some fair challenges with the enemy myself this week. I think it’s fair to say that he’s thrown pretty much everything he could this week at me, my family. I was telling Bertus and Stefnie, yesterday, my girls and Gabriel are never sick and this last week they were both fighting a runny nose and coughing. We’ve had our fair set of challenges this week, family wise and actually this thing that happened to my arm, happened yesterday, and I’m going to just quickly tell you, so you can see how the enemy is, has tried to gain access wherever he could.
Before we moved into the current house we’re living in, they tried to break into the downstairs area. They were unsuccessful, before we lived there, but they managed to break the glass. The people that, well there is cracks in the glass, all over the glass. The people that were living there, the time, they didn’t fix the glass. They just bought these metal things, from wherever and they just closed, you know, they basically bolted it closed. So, you can’t actually open that window, but the glass is still broken.
So, yesterday I was holding my son, Gabriel and he’s been getting teeth and that has its challenges in and of itself. I just happened to be standing right by this big pane window, with the window there that was cracked. While I was holding him, he stiffened his whole body and basically threw himself, out of my arms and I panicked basically, and tried to pull him, but with this arm, trying to brace myself and it went straight through. Well, I actually just tapped it, tapped the glass, but because of the weakness, already in the glass my whole arm went through the window. So, there I found myself in emergency, with Bertus and Stefnie. They came to help me and thirteen stitches later, but I must say I’m truly grateful because the doctor said that it had just missed the tendon here on this side, which controls the function of these two fingers, the pinkie and the ring finger. So, praise the Lord.
It did go through some muscle, but it missed the tendon. I was saying to the lady, “You know my fingers are important to me.” This was not an accident, because of the springboks winning, okay. Praise the Lord.
Pastor John’s ministry on Search and Switch. The definition of search is; to find something or someone by looking or otherwise seeking carefully and thoroughly. The thesaurus says a quest, a purpose, a pursuit of or seeking something. So, in the message, Search and Switch, Pastor John says this, It seems to be something of an instinct that is inside you and me that we are looking, searching for something from the day we are born. So, then Pastor John gave us the example of a baby, that as they are born, they are already looking for their life source, they are already looking for the sustenance, the energy, food which ultimately keeps them alive. So, then the Lord directed me to Genesis. I’m going to require a lot of Genesis, because actually I want you to get a picture of how great and how wonderful our God is.
So, Genesis 1 verse 14 to 31 and you can turn with me or you can read with me, 14And God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be signs and tokens [of God’s provident care], and [to mark] seasons, days, and years, 15And let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light upon the earth. And it was so. So, God is creating, using His words or using sound. 16And God made the two great lights- the greater light (the sun) to rule the day and the lesser light (the moon) to rule the night. He also made the stars. 17And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth, 18To rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good (fitting, pleasant) and He approved it. 19And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day. 20And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly and swarm with living creatures, and let birds fly over the earth in the open expanse of the heavens. 21God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, which the waters brought forth abundantly, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good (suitable, admirable) and He approved it.
And here’s what I want you to note. 22And God blessed them, saying, be fruitful, multiply, and fill the waters … or He could have said, “Replenish the waters.” … and let the fowl multiply in the earth. 23And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. 24And God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creeping things, and [wild] beasts of the earth according to their kinds. And it was so. 25And God made the [wild] beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and domestic animals according to their kinds and everything that creeps upon the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good (fitting, pleasant) and He approved it.
Here’s where He creates us, 26God said, Let Us [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit] make mankind in Our image, after Our likeness, and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the [tame] beasts, and over all the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth. So we have authority over creeps. 27So God created man in His own image, in the image and likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28And God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth …
So, here’s where it’s different for you and me, to how it was for the animals. I want you to read this with me 28… and subdue it [using all its vast resources in the service of God and man]; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and over every living creature that moves upon the earth. 29And God said, See, I have given you every plant, yielding seed that is on the face of all the land and every tree with seed in its fruit; and you shall have them for food. 30And to all the animals on the earth and to every bird of the air and everything that creeps on the ground – to everything in which there is … And this is what I want you to note as well … the breath of life – I have given every green plant for food. And it was so. 31And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good (suitable, pleasant) and He approved it completely. (Genesis 1:14-31 AMPC)
So, I want you to see here God gave the breath of life to every animal and then the ability to be fruitful. So, what was the ability to be fruitful for animals? What was their ability to be fruitful? You can actually talk to me. To multiply, to reproduce after their own kind. He also gave them food and the environment in which to live. So, then you can turn with me to Genesis 2 verse 7, 7Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the earth and breathed life into his nostrils. And the Amplified says, the Spirit of life. So, He didn’t just give man, the breath of life like He did for every animal, He also gave man His Spirit. Okay, is everyone with me? Good. And man became a living being made in the image and likeness of God. (Genesis 2:7 AMPC)
So, you know when the Lord was talking to me about this, He was saying or let me not get ahead of myself. So, God gave form to Adam and then breathed His life into Adam. SAdam now opens his eyes like a child, like a baby would, in their first breath of life and as he opens his eyes, he is looking for his source. He’s looking for sustenance, for strength, where am I going to get my life source from? There’s no difference to what happened to Adam, as what happens with a child. He opened his eyes and immediately he was looking for his life source.
So, Genesis 1 verse 28 we’ve already read it, and God blessed him; so he opens his eyes and what happens? God says, “I bless you. Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, using all its vast resources in the service of God and man and have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air and every living creature that moves upon the earth.” So, immediately God, Adam saw his likeness in his Father. Okay. As he opens his eyes, God gives him desire, gives him purpose, gives him power and then all the resources to get it done. To subdue means; to overcome, to bring under control by the exertion of one’s will, to bring under cultivation.
So, God’s desire for man was to bring the entire earth under cultivation. Okay, that is going to get important. Using all its vast resources, for who? In the service of God and man. Search no more Adam, you found your life source, your strength, the ability to live this life, the way I created you to live. To overcome the earth and to use its resources in My service and to serve mankind.
This is what I want you to understand. This was all man and woman wanted – they had no other want. They wanted for nothing. So, not only were all their needs met, but the only thing they wanted to do, was to fulfil this purpose and this desire that God had given them; to be fruitful, to multiply, subdue the earth and use all of the vast resources in the service of God and man. That was all they wanted, they didn’t know anything else, okay. This is what the Lord said to me, “Your want, is your worship. Your want, is your worship.” What you want, is what you worship. They had no other want. They wanted only to obey the instruction of their Father. Their worship was to multiply, to be fruitful, to subdue the earth, and to use all of the vast resources in the service of God and man. That was their worship, because that is what they wanted.
Now fast forward to where Adam and Eve were disobedient. If you haven’t heard the messages that I’ve ministered on previously, about how; what happened in that situation, about how the enemy had Eve looking at this fruit and had her looking long enough that it became desirable to her. I would suggest you go back and look and listen to that.
Fast forward now to where Adam and Eve were disobedient to God and partook of the knowledge of good and evil. Now their natural eyes were opened and they saw themselves, okay. They saw self, they became self-conscious. The way they saw themselves and each other changed forever. Now the search was on again, the search to rid themselves of self-consciousness.
They were ashamed of self. Self was filled with fear and insecurity. Self was afraid of God, so they began to search for a way to clothe themselves, to provide for self, themselves. Is everyone with me? They had partaken of the knowledge of good and evil, their souls. So, what is your soul? Your soul is your mind, the way you think, your emotions, and your choice. Does everyone know that? So, their mind, their will and their emotions and their language had become corrupted. It had become corrupted by knowing evil. Is everyone with me? Okay.
So, it was no longer just good inside of them, they had a war, inside of them. Two wills competing against each other. So, part of me wants to serve God and another part of me wants to serve self. A part of me wants to use the vast resources for myself and another part of me wants to use vast resources for God. Another part of me, because it seems good, wants to use the resources for me. Why does it seem good? Because I’m covering myself, I’m providing for myself. Seems okay, I need provision, because now I need provision. So, now I must provide for myself. This was the war that entered into mankind. War in its very nature is the absence of peace.
If you think about a natural war, there will be blame, there will be an argument about who is right and who’s wrong. This is ultimately the conflict of war; who is right and who is wrong? Whose territory is this, whose property is this? Whose body is this? Does it belong to me or God? Where is my place? Where is your place? This is not your place. I should be better than this. I should be first. You are not better than me. This is just some of the language that entered into the soul of man. Is everyone with me?
Competition and comparison had never existed in man before this. Where had competition and comparison existed before this time? In Lucifer, he gazed upon the glory of God and he, you know he was the Archangel of worship. So he received all the worship and gave it to God. So now, he gazed upon the glory of God and he said, “I can compete with You, I can do better than You. I compare myself to You and I can do better.”
So, life in God had never been about who was better than who, it was all about working together toward a common purpose and helping each other to be fruitful. Competition does not exist in God or in the life we now have in Christ. We are all magnificent and wonderful in God’s eyes and so it should be, in our eyes as well. So their language; this is important to understand this church, their language, their words, their sound had been affected by the war going on inside them. Now remember what Pastor John had been teaching us about the war of words. Everything in this life, is the war of words. God has always been after our words. So, our words are also our worship. Yes, it is a war of words.
What we say, is our worship, what we worship we attract. Let me say that again; what we say, is our worship, what we worship, we attract. So they began searching and asking questions they were never meant to ask. I really want you to pay attention to these questions, because these are questions that every single one of us subconsciously ask ourselves every single day. What do I do now? What do I do with my time? What do I do with my life? What do I want? What do I want? They had never had to ask these questions before. They had been filled with the Spirit of Life, the Spirit of Glory and the only worship and want was for God and for His purpose. Now, they were just filled with the Breath of Life, just the breath of life. The Spirit of Life, which was the God-like or the Spirit of Glory had left them.
Now, they were driven by instinct like animals. They had the need to survive, provide for themselves, with one difference, they still had the blessing of choice. Now they had options, good and evil. What do I want? Do I want good or do I want evil? And we think options are a good thing. God the Father, steps in with consequence and recalibrates man’s purpose. You know when I was meditating on this, I was saying to the Lord, “You could have started all over again, You could have wiped out the earth, wiped out man, wiped out the entire universe and just started again.” This is what He said to me, “I always had a plan.” He had a plan to send His Son to die for us, according to Revelations 13:8, the Lamb was slain before the foundations of the earth. God always has a plan.
You can turn with me please to Genesis 3:16-19. To the woman He said, so He curses the serpent and says upon your belly you will live all the days of your life and then He speaks to woman and He says, Genesis 3:16-19 (AMPC) 16To the woman He said, I will greatly multiply your grief and your suffering in pregnancy and the pangs of childbearing; with spasms of distress you will bring forth children. Yet your desire and craving will be for your husband, and he will rule over you. I was saying to my wife, this language in today’s culture, there was a part of me that almost didn’t want to read this scripture, because of how language has; this kind of language has become so controversial. Yet your desire and craving will be for your husband, and he will rule over you. And yet our culture is so free to express any opinion about what they believe they can choose. This is what God said, 17And to Adam He said, Because you have listened and given heed to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat of it, the ground is under a curse because of you; …. What was the ground designed to do for man? To produce, okay. 17 …in sorrow and toil shall you eat [of the fruits] of it all the days of your life. 18Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19In the sweat of your face shall you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you shall return. (Genesis 3:16-19 AMPC)
Then I want to read this verse 17 to 19 in the Living Bible, it just gives a slightly different perspective with the language. Do you have the scripture? Okay. Genesis 3:17-19 (TLB) 17And to Adam, God said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate the fruit when I told you not to, I have placed a curse upon the soil. All your life you will struggle to extract a living from it. 18It will grow thorns and thistles for you, and you shall eat its grasses. And then note this as well. 19All your life you will sweat to master it, until your dying day. Then you will return to the ground from which you came. For you were made from the ground, and to the ground you will return.” (Genesis 3:17-19 TLB)
This is just a side note, but I wanted to share this with you. I asked the Lord, why He made the consequences, even to me, I was thinking about this and I was saying, “Lord these consequences were quite severe. You remove them from their ideal environment, and You cursed the ground, for it to produce and then You told woman you’re going to have great pain in childbirth and your husband will rule over you. He said to man, you are going to struggle and sweat.” I said, “Lord, why did You make the consequences so severe for mankind?” This is what He said to me, “I did the absolute best for My children. I limited their power to produce; I limited their power to produce. I limited the earth’s power to produce. If My children had continued to choose evil.”
Parents now listen to me; if my children continue to choose evil and allowed evil to dominate them, evil would have multiplied quickly and the earth would have been subdued by evil at a rapid pace, and all the vast resources used for self and for evil. So, I limited the production of evil, and in doing that I gave My children and the earth time, so I could send My Son to die for them, bring them back to Myself and turn everything around.
So, if you don’t understand that, I’m going to give you a natural example. If you give something nice to your children, you bless them with something, you buy them something, and you give specific instructions about it and they disobey those instructions. What is the first thing that happens? That you do as a parent? You take that, either take that thing away from them or limit how much they can use it. If your kids have access to the internet and initially they have free access to the internet and you see them watching things that they shouldn’t, you either stop the access or you limit the access, right?
This is what God did, He limited our ability to produce. Why? Because evil was now in man. So, He limited man’s ability to produce evil on the earth. That’s quite powerful. So, for scripture, for you to back up, what I’m saying here about severe discipline, Proverbs 15:10; 10There is severe discipline for him who forsakes God’s way; and he who hates reproof will die [physically, morally, and spiritually] (Proverbs 15:10 AMPC). Then scripture reference for you about.
I didn’t actually say this, but when I was, when the Lord was saying this to me, “I limited the production of evil and in doing that, I gave My children and the earth time, so I can send my beloved Son to die for them, bring them back to Myself and turn everything around”. I heard God, in the Spirit laughing, I heard Him laughing.
I want to read this to you, Psalms 2. How many of you understand that God laughs? So He, Psalms 2 verse 4, 4He Who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord has them in derision [and in supreme contempt He mocks them] (Psalms 2:4 AMPC). It’s talking about people, that set themselves up, to rule, to reign, to govern, to be Kings on this earth, and He looks at them and says, “Oh, you think you have the power? You think you’re going to influence this earth, the way you want it?”. Remember, God sees the beginning from the end. So, He knows how this whole thing is going to end up. So, He sits in the heavens and laughs.
So, here’s where I really want you to listen, please church. Here’s where it really gets interesting; our lives have become about the struggle to extract a living from the earth. Our lives have become about sweating, to master something in order to extract a living. That’s our instinct. Does everybody understand that? This is what the Lord said to me and please listen, “People have become worshipers of provision and not the Provider. The systems of the world are built upon the worship of provision, but I have always blessed those who worship Me first. I have always provided exceeding wealth, to those who worship and fear Me first.”
Can you hear Pastor John’s words church? “May the fear of God come upon us”. May the fear of God come upon us. “I am and will always be in this likeness”. This was a word the Lord gave me for the church, so listen please. “Separate yourself to Me now, My people, fear and worship Me and I will, I will cause you to be fruitful and produce far beyond what your worship of provision could ever produce. As you worship and fear Me first, I will cause the fear of God to come upon man and they will run to bring their business and their wealth to you. Praise the Lord.
Are you all listening this morning? You know, because we have a tendency to do this in our natural make up, of who we are and because we are faced with this every day. We respond to things and we respond to people, the way we see ourselves and the way we see other people. You know, when it comes to you listening to a minister, somebody delivering the Word of God to you, we tend to have that same approach, but actually, what God has put in me, and what God has put in Pastor John and Pastor Sharon, is exactly what you need to hear and exactly what you need. This might be Garth Bendixen, in the natural that you see up here, but this is God speaking to you, because He loves you. Because He wants, He truly does desire for everything to turn around in our lives. Amen.
I’m going back to Pastor John’s message. You find that teenagers in particular, rummage around in many different things. They are searching for something. They are trying to find themselves. They are trying to find, “What’s my identity? Where are my limitations? Where am I allowed to brake limitations? So that I can express what my identity is. All the while there is something happening inside them. There is a search for something, for someone. So all the teenagers in here please listen to me. Teenagers know their identity is not in education or provision. We all know it. I’m not saying that education is evil. However, I am saying that if the purpose of education …and this is again the Holy Spirit talking to you, “I am saying that if the purpose of education is for the pursuit of provision, then it is evil.”
We must worship and fear God in our homes, first. If we do this, our teenagers, our young people will worship God within the systems of this world, and they will use education and skills to create wealth in the service of God and man, not self. We will not have peace until we do. The war will continue to rage inside our teenagers, our young adults and then ultimately into the rest of our lives. Our lives are not our own. Glory to Jesus.
I’m going back to the message, their awareness of their social connectivity and their social order, begins to increase. That awareness and society starts to put pressure on them.
Something, the Lord said to me, a while ago, about people’s response to sending, to sending children to school, and I’m not saying this to condemn anybody. This is something, the Lord would have me say and it’s your responsibility to take this scripture, what I’m saying before the Lord yourself. He said this to me. I was,when me and Marcell were making juice for people, uhm, this lady asked me if, if our kids are going to school yet and I said, I said “no”. Her response was, so aggressive, she said to me, “But why? Your children need to socialize!”, and I, the Holy Spirit helped me with a response because I said to her, “Well, you know, because they very much enjoy being with their mom still”.
But her words impacted me so much that I went inside and immediately I looked up what the definition of socialize means. Can I tell you what it means? I don’t even have to look at notes because I, I remembered, it so distinctly. So socialize means to make you behave in a way that is acceptable to society. That is what it means to socialize. To make you, to make you, can you see the aggression, the force, to make you behave in a way that is acceptable to society.
When my brother was in standard three, he came to my mom and dad in tears, because obviously, he had grown up with, with my mom and dad being a very good example of what spiritual living actually is. Praying, attending church faithfully, you know, all the things, and he came to my mom and dad in tears and just said, “Mom and dad, I want to serve God, I don’t want to be in school. I want to serve God, all of my life”. Of course you know, all of the language from the world, and this is not a criticism, my mom and my dad did the best they knew how to do at that time and they said, “No, my son, you need to get an education”.
I’m not saying that education is evil. Remember what I said, it’s education for the purpose of pursuing provision and not God. That was my brothers desire at that time, to say, “I’m not identifying with what’s happening in this system. I’m not identifying with it. I want to leave this system and go to the system that I identify with, which is God, my maker, the Word, the Holy Spirit, living for Him”. Praise the Lord.
What is the social order, that puts pressure on our teenagers and our young, our children? You must go to war and compete to achieve. You must go to war and compete to achieve. What is God’s order? You must serve to be fruitful. Serve or compete. Serve or compete. Serve or compete.
Society puts pressure on them, and I’m not going to go into all of it, but remember, Pastor John said it’s about the time where young adults leave school, and now society begins to put pressure on them. What are you going to study? What are you going to do? What do you want? The closer you get to matriculating, the more pressure, society puts on you.
Part of the reasoning, which I’m going back to the message, Pastor John’s message, You don’t want to lose too much time. You don’t want to lose too much time deciding. In other words, you don’t have the time to get older and more mature, because when you get to that point, you have already lost years. So, so that you do what you want to do. So, there’s a searching. So, whose language is that? That’s not God’s language. This is the language, that comes from the internal war of who we are and whose we are. You don’t want to waste too much time finding out who you are and what you were meant to do. Why? Because you need to make a living. The worship of provision.
Can you all see how, how, how deeply entrenched, you know, and I was saying this to Bertus and Stef the other day; there are things that have, have come down generationally, that are so entrenched in our culture and in our way of thinking, that we don’t even question them anymore. No, you must go get an education, you must, cause you need to make a living. What do you want to do? What are we going to do with our time? Why are we even on this earth in the first place? Oh, you must make a living. Why? Because you need to provide for yourself. Praise the Lord.
I’m telling you church, if we will worship God, as a family, with the provision you have right now, God will multiply your provision. He will multiply your business, and He will multiply your productivity. So, then I’m going on in the message, Pastor John’s message. Then he talks about what teenagers do, to find enjoyment. I will search what options alcohol…, let’s put any substance in there. I will search what options alcohol can give me in terms of enjoyment and just do things in life that I want to do. Sometimes I will include drugs, sometimes sexual behaviour patterns, sometimes anger, sometimes violence.
Why do young people do this? Because they know their identity is not in education and seeing how I can compete in school. They know their identity, is not in how good my grades are, how well I compete in sports; if I even do well, if my grades are ever even good enough, if I can even make the cut. Here’s the thing church; in the system of the world, we will never be enough. Whatever achievement, whatever standard we think we can attain to, it’s never enough, never. So we were not designed to compete or to compare. Our teenagers find escape from the system, not God. They find escape from the system, to try and find joy out of this thing called “life”. They drink, they do drugs, have sexual relationships and guess what happens? Nothing, good.
A couple of you know my personal story, and I can say this first-hand, because I went pretty much as deep as I could go, before God rescued me, into drugs. The more I did drugs, the worse I felt about myself. I wanted to know how deep I could go. I was partaking of the knowledge of good and evil. The evil appeared to be so good, the escape seemed to be so good, but actually it was tearing me apart and destroying my soul and my God-given ability to produce good. The more drugs I used, the more self-conscious I became. The more drugs I used, the more conscious of self, my own nakedness, my own frailty, my own weakness in myself, I became more conscious of it.
Do you all understand what I’m saying? God is still and will for the rest of my life, but right now, He’s still restoring my soul from the effects of doing whatever I wanted, to escape the system. You know and for those of you have teenagers or young adults, they, you know that they may not be necessarily, going into the depths of using drugs like I did, but whatever it is that they’re into; it’s the escape from the system of this world that they’re looking for. God does not want us knowing evil, He wants us knowing Him, which is good because He is good and His mercy endures forever.
I’m going to keep reading from Pastor John’s message. I’m not far, what’s the time please? Quarter past? Twenty past ten, okay. I’ve got plenty of time. So, I’m reading on again from Pastor John’s message. We tend to find that our lifestyle and the encounters that we have in life, tend to be very average, most of the time. Please bear with me. Inside of ourselves, we are designed to press for the extraordinary. So, you know what teenagers are doing, when they when they press like that. It’s actually, the God-given desire that’s in them, to press for extraordinary and they know what they’re doing and what they’re experiencing is anything, but in fact most of the time they’re feeling pretty bad about what they’re achieving and the level that they’re attaining to. They would not voice it this way but this is what’s happening. That is what the system is designed to do; to compete and to compare. How do I matchup, do I even match up? We are designed to press for the extraordinary. Another way of saying this is, to be fruitful to multiply to replenish and subdue the earth, using its vast resources in the service of God and man.
The Lord, was very much, when I was writing this, I felt like it wasn’t even me writing this and when I was writing this, I said, “Lord, but that doesn’t seem so extraordinary” and He said “Yes” and this is what I’m going to read you now. We have lost sight of how extraordinary, our original purpose was. Our original purpose, to be fruitful, to multiply, to replenish the earth, to use its vast resources in the service of God and man.
What seems so extraordinary about that? Are you asking yourself the same question? The response is, “We have lost spiritual sight, to how extraordinary that actually is”. Our original purpose to serve God and to serve each other. Praise the Lord. This plan and purpose was meant to be extraordinary. We have simply lost sight of how amazing and how wonderful it can be, because the enemy has been able to keep us worshiping provision. Kept us looking at the knowing and the knowledge of good and evil. So, I can decide for myself what’s good and what’s evil. The more I partake, and the more I can see for myself, the more I can choose. The more we do that, the less we want to serve God, but I have good news. (Pastor Garth laughing)
God is taking over, He is taking us over, we are partaking of the tree of life and He is showing us His glory. How is He showing us His glory church? Right now, He is showing us His glory through the message, through the message, through the message, through the message.
I was talking to Bertus in the car on the way here and he was just saying to me, he was part of a church for many years and he’s been going to church for many years, but he’s seen his daughter grow so magnificently spiritually, both his daughters. But we were talking about Ester this morning, and you know she’s. What is the difference between him going to a church and having very little growth and his daughter experiencing so much spiritual growth in her teenage years? He’s wondering at it, it’s a marvel to him, but he was, he’s been his whole life in church. What’s the difference? What we receive from God, in Word, in sound, that’s the only difference.
There are many people, in many different churches, who are not experiencing spiritual growth. Why? The Word and the sound is different, the Word and the sound is different, and the Word and the sound is different. Is everyone with me? He is showing us His glory. Every time, Pastor John, Pastor Sharon, Pastor Melusi, myself or Pastor Christi is standing here and teaching you, He is showing us His glory. If you want more of His glory, what is it that you have to do Church? What is it that we have to do? Put our foot step in the message, live our life in the message, bury ourselves in the message.
The Lord gave me such a beautiful example of a farmer. You know how a farmer, when they plant, they have to tend the plant in its infancy. He gave me this beautiful image of us, of a farmer living among the seed. Going along those furrows, that they plant, the seeds and living among the seed. How are the seeds doing? Are they’re getting enough water? Are they’re getting enough nutrition? What’s happening with my seed? Why? Because the seed is what’s going to bring forth life, the seed is what’s going to bring forth life. What are we doing with the seed? (Holding up Pastor John’s Message)
Are we living among the seed like a farmer? Are we taking the seed like we’re taught so beautifully from our Pastors from Pastor Sharon in the Hard Working Farmer putting the seed in our heart, in our mouth, in our heart, in our mouth, in our heart, in our mouth. Living among the seed. Taking this transcription, reading through it, highlighting what is this seed, Lord that You want me to plant? What is the seed? What is the seed?
That is the difference between this church and any other churches, we get magnificent life filled seed. Pastor John said last, the Sunday before he left he said, “It’s a wonder to me, how much God can get done, without man’s obedience. It’s a wonder, what He actually gets done, without man’s obedience. Let me tell you, it’s a wonder that in this church, the Lord gets so much done.” Can I tell you why? Because the seed, that we get, just on a Sunday, is filled with so much life and so much power. Just on a Sunday, can you imagine what would happen to us as a people, if we used the Word on a Monday, on a Tuesday, on a Wednesday, on a Thursday, on a Friday, on a Saturday.
We were meditating on this Word, we were having conversations with each other, regarding this Word. We were as a family, we were talking about this word. I mean, what better tool could we have, than to print this, go through it as a family, through the week and then talk about it. What is your interpretation? What in this message has the Holy Spirit highlighted to you? Talk about the fear of God coming upon us as a family, worshiping God as a family, Hallelujah. So, easy. We have been given it on a silver, gold, bronze, platinum platter. Really, it’s that easy for us church. You can, I mean, I have not been ministered to much, but you can already taste, and this is not to puff myself up, but you can already taste of the gift of God, that He’s put in me for you, and it is very, you know, this is how I live my life, with myself for myself.
I take all of what God is saying on a Sunday and I use it as a mirror. Where do I still have blemishes? Where is my nose running? Is my nose running? Do I have a zit? Do I have a pimple? Do I have hair that I need to comb? I’m saying that with a sense of humour, but I’m looking at the mirror, seeing what I need to bring into order in my life. There is no other place that we can find spiritual order, except this beautiful thing here (holding up the Bible), God’s Word to us. God talking to us. God talking to us and this (transcription of Pastor John’s sermon), God talking directly to us. Exactly where we are all at, in our lives, every single one of us.
I’ve been watching, if you haven’t been watching Pastor John and Sharon in America, you can. If you don’t have the link you can ask for it, just message somebody at the office, they’ll send you the link and you can watch Pastor John and Sharon. I think today is the last day though, but they have been ministering at the prayer conference. So, I was very aware of this, watching them, that we as a church, will be a prototype for God.
Do you know what a prototype is? An original. We will be church, we will be a prototype for God and I was very aware of those people there, in the Texas Church, watching our people, our people that have gone with Pastor John and Sharon and they will be watching us too, church. Brother Jerry and I’m not going to say too much about it, because it’s Pastor John’s place to tell you, but Brother Jerry is watching us, he’s watching us. Do you know why he’s watching us?
Seed – and us as a church, are being just this much obedient to God and it’s producing extraordinary results. We have a significant amount of tithers in the church, we have some of you attending prayer. We have men loving their wives as they should. We have wives submitting to their husbands. We have parents disciplining and correcting and training up their children in the way that they should go. We have a core group of you, that are faithful every single week. These are all the elements that God needs to be in place for Him to come. These are also, all the elements that need to be in place, so that we can see each other and ourselves the way that He wants us to see each other and see ourselves.
The Lord is being surgical with this church. This church, He has been surgical with every single one of us, very precise in every single message that He delivers to us, surgical. He is cutting out all of those things that shouldn’t be there. Cleansing, sucking, removing, amputating … mmm, all of those extra limbs and you know funny things that had been growing on us. Restoring our souls. Hallelujah.
You all, are you all, receiving from God today? From the Lord? I hear Pastor Sharon regularly when I talk, I hear her singing that song, Words. Words are all I have, to take your heart away. You know what song I’m talking about? Words as a man, as a woman, is all we have from God. Now, God can communicate with you, like Pastor John has been teaching us, God can communicate with you in many ways, but as a minister, we can only use words to take your heart away to Him. Hallelujah. So, last little bit and then I am done.
When you come to God, this is again in the message. When you come to God, when you come to find Him, then in your finding Him, you will find all of your answers. I was saying this to the staff this week, you know, we ask questions and we search for things that we don’t even know we’re asking and searching for. Many times. Stuff happens to us, in our lives and we are like, “What?” Subconsciously, we begin to question whatever that you know, it is that’s impacted us. How we can prevent it. How we can manage it, How we can handle it. How we can do things. We ask questions. When you find Him, in your finding, you will find all your answers. All of your answers are found in Him. Whether you are a child, a teenager, whether you’re a young adult or an older person, all of your searching is found in Him.
I’m going to end with this scripture, Matthew 6:33, in the Amplified. This is a very common Scripture to search, to church circles. Matthew 6:33. 33But, seek, or you could say, “search” search first of all His Kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and all these things taken together will be given you besides (Matthew 6:33 AMPC) You can understand church, how, what I said to you in the beginning, when I was preparing and writing everything down, I was saying to the Lord, “I really need to meditate on this”. I really need to understand what it is that You’re saying to me here. You understand church? So, the Lord is presenting a standard to us, that I’m not exempt from. I have to go from church today and I have to do all of this. Since the Lord has been talking to me about this and has been for some time to Marcel about it, uhm we have been endeavouring to implement severe discipline on our children. (Pastor Garth Laughing)
Let me tell you severe discipline, we have become a little bit, ahh, as a culture in our society, we have become a little bit soft to severe discipline. This was not severe discipline, okay. (Pastor Garth laughing referring to his hand). This was not as a result of severe discipline. To discipline children severely and this is what I mean by disciplining children severely. If I have said no, or I have set a boundary in place and you push that boundary, even once, there’s discipline.
You know God didn’t give Adam and Eve another chance in the garden, and say “Mmmm, you know, you weren’t, I could have taught you a little bit better”, or you didn’t look at all the circumstances surrounding it and trying to reason why they made that decision. I told you not to, you did – you’re out of this environment, and I limit your ability to produce. Severe consequences. If this is making some of you a little bit uncomfortable, you will be okay. Because severe discipline, even in the last week that we’ve been implementing more severe discipline, it is amazing. The results that it produces. It is amazing how much more at peace, our home is. How much more at peace, mom is? Especially, because I take a lot of that responsibility on myself, because my wife is with them all the time. So, when I’m there, I take that responsibility very seriously. It’s amazing how peace prevails.
If you look at that, in light of what the Lord has said to us about the war that is raging inside of us. How much discipline settles that war and brings peace, and actually when you don’t do that, you have more war for yourself, you make it actually harder for yourself, without severe discipline.
Anyway, I’m talking I’m getting into next week’s message, but next week, I am going to go back into Pastor John’s message, and this is where I am going to start. I am going to find my place now. Where he talks about comfort. Oh yes, there is something inside of you that wants to keep looking, at the same time please hear me out, at the same time you want to do what you want to do, and you are not sure how much of your comfort zone you want to rock. So, it is like I want to stay comfortable, but I also want to search, I want to stay comfortable but I also want to dig around a bit, I want to stay comfortable but I want to find different ways of expressing myself. Am I talking to the right people this morning? He says that.
So, I am going to pick up there, because I really, really, really, really want to get into, how you and I, how you and I can make this church more welcoming for God.
It is not His responsibility church, it’s ours. Do you want God to show up in this church? Is it His responsibility? (Pastor Garth laughing). Only got two or three of you saying, “No”. Is it His responsibility? Is it our responsibility for how much of God shows up in this building and in our lives? Wouldn’t you want to do everything you can on a Sunday morning, and that’s what I want to specifically want to talk about, how we can do it on a Sunday morning. How we can welcome God more into this environment, on a Sunday morning, because the same thing that you do and you exercise here on a Sunday morning, you can do when you leave this building, and you can do at home. This is our training ground; this is where we come to exercise as the army of the Lord. We can do things that can make that can welcome God into our presence. Wouldn’t you want to do everything you can to welcome the Lord into our presence? I know I do. Praise the Lord.
So, have you got some grass to feed on this week? Can you tell Pastor John, that the shepherd he left in charge, fed his sheep some good grass? (Pastor Garth laughing). You got some grass that’s organic and beautifully green and lush and well, I think so anyway. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
You know I just want to share something, honestly with you. I said to the Lord “I really, I really do when I minister, I would like to share, to uhm, to share my personality with you, but there is a greater part of me that doesn’t want you to see my personality, but wants you to receive only life. Only the Word, and we have this tendency, that when personality is shared, then our eyes shift over to, oh well, Garth’s funny or Pastor John, he is great and he’s wonderful and you identify with the personality, and that’s not why we are here. We are here to identify with the Word and we here to identify with God. So, I mean, let that be an encouragement to you that when Pastor John, Pastor Sharon and Pastor Christi, you see their personality, that’s not what you are identifying with. You are identifying with God, you are identifying with the Word that they are bringing. The personality is just nice. You know. Praise the Lord. I could just keep talking, but I think I am done. Hallelujah.
So, let’s pray. Father, thank You for this Word that you‘ve shared with us today. Oh, I must I must get you all to stand, please. I must, you must all pray with me, you must pray this prayer, in case some of you have not received Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. So, let’s all say this together.
Father, today I believe and today I receive Jesus Christ as my Saviour and as my Lord and I ask you Jesus to come and live in me, and have Your way in me and have Your way through me and totally revolutionize my life, so that I can look more like You. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Glory to Jesus. Ok, now I can pray for you.
Father, thank You, for this opportunity to minister to Your people and I thank You that as I’ve shared Your Word, Your Word has penetrated the hearts and the ears and the minds of all of the people, listening today. I ask You to help every single person, to live among the seed, to put their footsteps in the message, to leave here today and already be talking about what’s been said. And tomorrow, already been listening to Pastor John, Pastor Sharon, Pastor Christi, Pastor Melusi and this message, and help them, Father, to keep their foot and life in the message. I ask You for it, in the precious Name of Jesus. Amen.
Thank you for coming, you are blessed and protected by the Blood of Jesus. Amen.
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