Scripture reference:
Acts 13: 2 – 12 (NKJV); John 1: 6 – 9 (NKJV); John 1: 15 (NKJV); John 1 : 32 (NKJV);
John 15: 26 – 27 (NKJV); Acts 4: 32 – 33 (NKJV)
Pastor Sharon:
Well, we thank you, Father. We thank you, Father, for Your Word that comes to us today. We’re so expectant of what You’re going to say. You’re going to speak to our hearts, Lord. And we’re ready. We’re ready to welcome the message as what it is, not the word of mere man, but Your Word to us today, God. We will adhere to it, and we will receive it and it will exercise its superhuman power in us, for us to become, for us to continue, Lord, in our walk with You. So, we thank you for your anointing that is within Pastor John, upon Pastor John. You give him the words, Your Words, to speak today and You refresh him today, Lord. Even as he ministers in Your presence and in Your sight, You refresh him. You strengthen him, Father. Strengthen, refresh him spirit, soul, and body, in the name of Jesus. When we say thank you and we all say, Amen.
Pastor John:
Thank you. Well, that song in the end. How great is that song? Wow. Yeah, man. Praise the Lord. Thank you. Praise Jesus. Good to see you all. For those that I can see, there’s still some in the darkness you should all be in the light. Please greet someone and say, “I’m glad you’re in church today,” and then you may be seated. Amen.
Well, I want to encourage you all to make a special effort to be participating in this weekend’s meetings and church festivities. Anytime we come to church it’s a festival. It’s a celebration. It’s a good thing. So, Friday night we have Bible School graduation. And I really want to encourage the church, not just the people who are graduating. I would like you all, and you will see from our message this morning, I’d like you to come and be a witness of many, many years of what God has done in terms of Bible School graduations. And the people that God has touched in their hearts and their lives. So please come and be a witness to what’s happening on Friday night.
Saturday morning we are going to have a Chariots of Light event, and it seems as though we’re going to be meeting here at the ministry at 7:30 in the morning. We’ve got places to go and things to do. Amen. Then 3 o’clock, there will be a bring-and-braai picnic at the church, and then at 5 o’clock in the afternoon, we’ll have a service here. We encourage everybody to wear a Chariots of Light t-shirt.
Also, I’d like to tell you that we have special guests this coming weekend. Pastor Josh and Iliana will be visiting us from their church in California. They’ll be ministering to us throughout the weekend as the Lord leads, and this is one of those moments where God has orchestrated something really special. So, they’re in Uganda at the moment on a missions tour and then they will come from Uganda to come and be with us. We’ve talked about this for years. I might repeat this in front of Pastor Josh when he gets here. But many of you have met him, those that went with us on the California tour met him and his wife, and know that he’s got wonderful people.
The thing that happened with me and Pastor Josh is, I went to go and be part of a missions trip and a Bible School graduation of sorts in Tanzania. It must be at least 15 years ago. I went to go to be with Brother Jerry in Tanzania in a Bible School graduation and do missions work there. And I arrived, I flew into Kilimanjaro Airport, which is in Tanzania and someone collected me from the airport and I was the last person to arrive at the lodge where we were staying. And they prepared a special little meal for me just because I arrived there quite late, and most of the people had sort of gone to their rooms and some people were still sitting around talking.
When I’m done with my meal, I got up and I began walking to my room and it was very dark. Some lights in the garden, but it was extremely dark, hardly could see anything. And the shadow of a being, a man came across from out of the darkness, and started walking in the path in front of me. I had no idea who this person was, I couldn’t see his face. I couldn’t see who he was. He was just a very large man. As we were walking maybe 10 meters behind each other, I was behind him. The Lord spoke to me and said, “This man will be in your ancient path and he will be a Covenant man in your life.” And I had never met him before. He turned out to be the one, Pastor Josh, that is going to be arriving here this weekend.
So many years we’ve talked about it. He wanted to come for many years. I wanted to go to his church for many years. And then earlier this year, we went to California and we ministered in his church and now he’s coming to be with us. So, things are changing. God’s timing is perfect. So, I want to encourage you to come and listen to the message and his ministry and Illiana’s ministry to us. He has a very, very colorful history. He may or may not get into his life testimony, but truly his family are some of the most notorious criminals ever, ever. I’m not going to say any more than that but let him tell the story if he wants to. How God saved his life is quite a remarkable thing.
So, I want to encourage you to participate in all of the weekend’s arrangements. Will you do it? Will you invite people? Will you call people who are not here this morning and tell them they better be here next week? Otherwise …. otherwise, my baseball bat comes out. Amen. Praise the Lord. Did I miss some other… anything Miranda? Where is she? No? Everything good? All right. Praise the Lord.
I must say, I say this every time I come back from overseas, but it’s very real to me. When I’m on assignment, there’s always a grace upon me to accomplish the assignment that God has on my life. And I know that that same grace rests on you when I’m not here. And whoever is ministering here and whatever’s going on here in the ministry, grace is here for things to be done. But I will tell you that it’s a real joy to come back, really.
I want to tell you about an experience that I had many years ago. Pastor Sharon went, Pastor Christi was on that trip with her, and there were a few others that went on a prayer retreat, if you like, prayer advance to South Korea, to Prayer Mountain, to Yonggi Cho’s Prayer Mountain in South Korea. And they were having a prayer meeting there and they had an experience there at the Prayer Mountain. They experienced a beautiful thing which was they experienced an open heaven.
The best way to describe an open heaven of course is, if there’s lots of clouds in the sky, cumulonimbus clouds. Clouds that are going to bring thunder and lightning and it closes up the sky. Well, you can’t see the sky because the clouds have closed up the sky, right? The blue sky. So, there would be a closed heaven and there would be a lot of activity happening in the closed heaven, because there would be lots of wind, and lots of noise and lightning and thunders, and so there would be noise in the heaven and it is a closed sky. And then after the wind has taken the clouds away, very often you will have a clear blue sky again. Now you have an open heaven.
Well, that same principle is at work in the spirit heaven where there is a lot of activity happening in the spirit heaven. And that activity can often be a very dark activity depending on where you are, what kind of location you are in, what kind of spirits are active in those heavens. So, you will find that there are places where there is, for example, there are places in nations where there are a lot of prostitutes and there’s sex for sale. And you will find that there are certain darknesses, there are certain activities, there is a certain pressure that will come on humans that are in that space, because there are a lot of demons that are active and involved in sex activities. Those sex demons are involved on the earth in the heavens around you. So, even though you may not be part of the activity, those demons will try and affect you. They will come upon you.
Oftentimes you are going to places around the world where there is lots of violence and lots of aggression and lots of crime happening, and you will immediately begin to feel unsafe and fearful, and there will be other kinds of emotions that you will begin to experience. A different kind of pressure, because the spirits that are active in that area are released through the lust of men in violence and aggression and crime. This is a real thing. If you didn’t know it, I’m teaching you something this morning. But if you do know it, I’m just reminding you.
Well, the thing that happened to me was they were praying in South Korea and as they were praying, they experienced an open heaven, which they put down to the fact that they had given themselves to prayer, and that there was a lot of people that were praying night and day in Prayer Mountain. There was continuous prayer and there was regular times of prayer that they were allocated to go into the cathedrals and the rooms that they had there. And then there were people that had little caves like little grottos where you could go in by yourself and spend whole days and nights and not come out of this little place where you would pray for as long as you need to. So, there was continuous prayer happening in that place. They experienced an open heaven because of the prayers of the saints.
So, I just want you to picture this. There’s no lust of the flesh that’s being activated. There’s no giving oneself over to soul activity. Everything is based out of a level of spirit life calling to God and God sending angels to answer prayers. The Holy Spirit being present at that place to hear the prayers of the saints and answer the prayers of the saints. Open heaven, right? So, they were praying, and South Korea is a number of hours ahead of South Africa. And when they experienced this open heaven, they prayed, and unknown to me, they prayed and they asked God to let me experience what they were experiencing as an open heaven. We only communicated later but I was awakened in the morning, and I started to pray, and I’ve experienced something that I hadn’t experienced before. I experienced this freedom in talking to God, this freedom in God answering me that I hadn’t experienced in that way in a long time. And immediately it came to my spirit, there’s an open heaven.
The Biblical answer to it is that when Daniel was praying, God sent angels in answer to his prayer, and for 21-days the heavens withstood him from being able to come and answer them because the heavens were active. They were busy and they were hindering the answers coming through. But when the breakthrough came, heaven came and showed up to Daniel and then there was open communication. You get it?
Well, it was the most amazing thing to me. They asked God and I had a vision in my spirit, I knew that I knew. It was like around me, around my house where I was praying, there was like a silo going into the heavens and I just felt there was this absolute absence of spiritual activity that was of negative dark spiritual activity that was happening around me. And I knew I was experiencing something unique because I was experiencing an open heaven. Well, later on in that day, I had a conversation with Pastor Sharon and she then, I told her what I experienced and then she said this is what they had experienced and they’d asked the Lord to make it available to me. Quite remarkable.
So, why am I telling you this? Well, I’ll tell you that when I was in America, I experienced a great deal of activity, a great deal of soulish activity, a great deal of forces, spiritual forces that were at work. There was, to me, there was a war that was happening in America. Of course there was a war. There was a contest of religious freedoms that were happening by way of vote for a presidential election. So, of course there was heightened war happening in America. It was a war of the future, I experienced it.
When I came into the service this morning, it felt to me like I’d walked into an open heaven because of your prayers and because of who you are, and because God has prepared amongst us as a church and in our ministry and it’s a beautiful thing. You are a beautiful people. You are marvellous in the eyes of God. And I thank you for praying for me, for praying for us on our assignment, and for helping us to get done. I don’t want to leave you with the impression that anything that we did was hard. It wasn’t hard. Everything was easy, and God was with us. We had some really amazing, amazing things happen. So, I don’t want to leave you with the wrong impression. But certainly, I didn’t realise just how much spiritual pressure I felt while I was there. I felt it. But when I walked in here this morning, I realised just how marvellous you guys are. Thank you. Thank you. Truly, thank you. Amen.
It was a historic time. I will say it was a privilege for me. I mean, certainly I didn’t plan it that way, but God orchestrated it that way that we would begin our missions assignment in the USA at a time that was so dramatic in the history of the United States. And it was a privilege for us to be there over the election day and then the week after the election, and to see how things were done and how much God was part of the process. And truly, it is this way, as the church goes, so does the nation go. And it is a fact that the church in America have taken their place for these elections more than they have ever done in the past. And it was obvious. It was obvious.
So, I am going to minister something to you today. Wherever you go, wherever I go, we go together because we are united in spirit and we are united in assignment. So, wherever my feet go, you go and wherever your feet go, I go. Because wherever you go to work and wherever you go in your life, we go together. This is something that is really powerful and it is something that God orchestrates.
There are many stories and there are many evidences of that in the Bible and I’m not going to go into too much of that. But the one story I want to tell you quickly is that David went and fought a war and he came back to Ziklag and they had taken family and possessions prisoner. So, they chased after the people to go and get their wives and children back and their possessions back. Some of the soldiers were faint and tired, but some of them were able to continue. Half of them stayed behind and the other half went and continued the battle. So, in the end when all of the spoils of war were allocated, given out, David said, “We all did this together, even though some stayed behind.” So, they were all allocated the same portion because they were all one united army. Amen.
So, we are a united people and it’s a beautiful thing. All of my life I have been privileged to follow and be part of the ministry of wonderful messengers of the gospel of the Lord Jesus. And wherever their feet went, my feet went, my tithes went with them, my offerings went with them, my prayers went with them, my gifts and my callings went with them and whatever they did, I did. And it is now the same for us. Wherever I go and wherever those that travel with me go, and whatever we do in missions, and whatever we do in different places and spaces, God, we do it together. Amen.
I’m going to, I was going to get to this at the end of my message, but I’m going to read the scripture to you now. And it’s in Acts chapter 13, verse two. And the New King James Version says, 2 As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” The first thing was separate to me. … separate to me Paul and Barnabas for the work to which I’ve called them.” (Acts 13:2 NKJV) I just want to say each one of us have, when you make Jesus Lord and Saviour of your life, you are separated. You are no longer the person you were before you got saved. You are separated.
However, these men were called to a specific ministry, a fivefold calling ministry, to which I have called them. 3 Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away. 4 So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. 5 And when they arrived in Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. They also had John as their assistant.” This is the Apostle John, as their assistant. 6 Now when they had gone through the island to Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus, 7 who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. This man called for Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the sorcerer (for so his name is translated) withstood them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.” (Acts 13:3–8 NKJV)
Can you see that two men that were messengers of God came, they were separated, and they came to talk to the proconsul? This is a high administrator, a high government individual, an administrator of an entire region. They came to minister to him, amongst others, but they were ministering to him. At the same time, there was a false prophet, otherwise known as a sorcerer, 8 … (for so the name is translated) withstood them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. 9 Then Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 10 and said, “O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord? 11 And now, indeed, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time.” And immediately a dark mist fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand. 12 Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had been done, being astonished at the teachings of the Lord.” (Acts 13:8–12 NKJV)
Now, this is an interesting passage of scripture, because this is really at the beginning of the ministry of Paul and Barnabas. And it’s interesting that as they come to a place to minister the gospel there is a false prophet. So, a false prophet is someone who is a false messenger, simply put, a false messenger. In other words, this person is intent on teaching stuff that is not truth. It’s false. It’s not truth. But they will teach it as truth. So, his entire goal was to teach this proconsul his truth, so as to blind him so that he would not see The Truth. So, now that’s not something that was going to happen and change just by the teaching of the scripture. Because what was going to happen was, if I can just put it to you this way, this man was going to present his truth.
So, he already had the ear of the proconsul, and he was going to preach his truth. Another man comes along, named Paul and Barnabas, or these two men, and they begin to talk. So, they are presenting in the proconsul’s mind another truth. Two different teachings. Now he’s going to have to choose which teaching he likes. This is an intellectual conversation. This is a matter of a presentation of truth. Yes? But the Holy Spirit comes upon Paul, and he does something that the spirit world can never see coming. The spirit world can never see this coming, because the Holy Spirit comes upon Paul and rises up inside of Paul, and by the Spirit he looks at this sorcerer and he calls him out spirit to the spirit. He calls out the spirit that is controlling the sorcerer, and he says, “You false spirit, you man of deceit, you will have nothing to do with this exercise. You are going to be blind for a time so that the will of God can be done here”. And as Paul speaks under the Spirit of God, he goes blind. Like right now, he goes blind and he starts looking for someone to lead him away because he can’t see.
Now, if he had not taken that kind of spiritual authority in that moment, it would have just kept on being a debate. Yes? It would have. Whatever was going to be talked about was going to be one truth versus another truth. It didn’t matter that Paul and Silas, Paul and Barnabas had the Truth. It was going to remain a debate about truths, because there was a false prophet presenting a truth, and there was the true Word of God that was the Truth. But someone who has not made a decision about what truth to follow, to them it’s just a debate about truth. Its philosophies, its ideologies. Right? But when the power of the Spirit of God becomes present and evident things change. Things change and that was something that the spirit that was controlling the false prophet, that spirit could never anticipate the power of the Spirit of God in Paul that would take charge of that situation and change the outcome. Because demon spirits, dark spirits, only do what they know what to do. That’s all they can do. Yeah.
So, sometimes for us as a ministry, us as a people to make progress, God has to intervene in our lives in some way where the Word of God comes with the power of the Spirit, so that things can change by the power of the Spirit, not just by the preaching of words. Sometimes God will have the Spirit of God do something that will just intervene in a situation that it doesn’t seem logical why something would happen.
I’ll tell you what, I learned this from Kenneth Hagin. Kenneth Hagin said, “Pastors should never be without the gifts of the Holy Spirit when they pastor. Because to pastor people without the gifts of the Holy Spirit present, is just being someone who cares for people. But if you are a pastor that is led by the Holy Spirit, you are led by the Spirit of God and do things by the Spirit of God that will touch people’s lives in a way that only the Spirit of God can bring about a change in that person’s life because you are moved by the Spirit of God to do it.”
That doesn’t mean to say that when I do something, I say, “Thus says the Lord,” or you know, “God says this” or “God says that.” I am moved to take action. When I am moved to take action, it’s because the Holy Spirit says, “Something’s going on here. You need to say this.” Sometimes it will be extremely positive. Sometimes it will be very encouraging. Sometimes it will be comforting. Other times it will be strong. It will be, I have to make a stand here. I’ve got to do something here. Why are you doing that, Pastor John? My spirit man is guiding me. Well, what do you see that we don’t see? I don’t even see it all the time. I’ve just got to be obedient to what the Holy Spirit is telling me to do. And then when I’m obedient, I see different things, outcomes happen. Things change. But I’m not sure why, this doesn’t make sense, this is not logical. It doesn’t matter. I’ve got to obey the Holy Spirit. I don’t care if people agree with it or not. Yeah. It’s the way the move of the Holy Spirit works. It’s the power of the gift of the Holy Spirit operating through the gift of the messenger. That’s what happened with Paul.
Now, to many of you here, this gift has operated. [Pastor John referring to him] Yes? Many, many of you sitting here, the majority of you sitting here, have experienced this gift in me. The gift in me doesn’t often just come and present itself, it’s the gift of the Holy Spirit. Oftentimes, it’s a phone call. Not so long ago, not so long ago, the Holy Spirit, I woke up in the morning and as I woke up in the morning, this heaviness was on me to pray for someone in the church. This heaviness, it was, “Wow, what’s going on here?” I could do nothing, but as I woke up, I was praying in the Spirit for the person that God showed me in the Spirit. I mean, obviously, I had a choice to pray or not to pray, but I know the pull of the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit’s on you like that, you almost can not respond because He’s just pulling you like that.
So, I was praying in the spirit. It was early, early in the morning. And after about half an hour, forty-five minutes, whatever the time was, peace came on me. Then I knew, actually I had prayed out what needs to be prayed out for that person. Well, of course now I know something’s going on in the spirit because I wouldn’t have been woken by God to pray for this person unless something’s going on. Right? So, then I couldn’t wait for enough time to go by so that it was morning time, late enough in the morning that I could phone the person. All I wanted to do was, “How are things going?” When I called, you know, it was a caring call, but it proved to be a life-changing call, because it was the Love of God that was in my heart because of God waking me to pray. That’s being led by the Spirit. It’s having the gifts of the Holy Spirit present in your messenger gift. The gift that God has called me to pastor, teacher, shepherd, apostle, whatever that gift that is operating at that time. That gift is operating, and the Holy Spirit comes alongside and to help. Amen.
Now, when I was in the USA, I was in, you know, we went there, and we did a lot of things in the North Carolina Heritage of Faith Church. We installed a lot of equipment. We paid for it. We have set up a church called MiXchange Studio Church in North Carolina. And I thank God for the relationship that exists with Pastor David and Wendy, and because they are walking with us in a level of obedience to God that none of us have the vision of the future for. Because they want to know what’s next? What does it look like? Where do we go from here? Well, I don’t quite know exactly, but it doesn’t stop me from being obedient to what I had to do first because if you don’t do what’s first, then you can’t do what’s next. Right?
So, as we were busy installing stuff and we’re busy going about our business, the Holy Spirit is talking to me. He’s talking to me, and He says, “Do you see this, John?” “Yes, Lord, I see this.” “Do you see what I’m going to do here, John?” “I see that. Wow. Okay, Lord.” I wouldn’t have seen it unless I was first obedient. Yeah. The fact that we have obeyed God to be there and to do what we have done there is already beginning to create a spiritual atmosphere that where I went, we all went. I don’t want you to underestimate to know what’s happened because where I went, we all went. Please hear me.
When they laid hands on, when the people who prayed, the apostles laid hands on Paul and Barnabas and sent them. Wherever Paul and Barnabas was sent, the others who sent them also went because they were authorised as messengers from the sending people. So, if you haven’t known this about Paul’s entire ministry, wherever he went across Asia, wherever he went, he would regularly send gifts, money, food, things. He would regularly send to Jerusalem, the sending base, he would send to Jerusalem because he recognised that they were the place where God started everything. Amen. Praise the Lord.
Here’s the power of what happened with me is that when I went, you came with me, that means all your prayers, all your gifts, all your callings, all of your energies that you have in life, all went with me. Amen. If you’ll notice, my language has changed because in the past I would have said, “I’m going where Brother Jerry is,” but I can’t go where he is now, not yet. The time will come when I will meet him there, but not yet. So now, I’m the sent one and you go with me. Here’s the power of what happens is that when I go there, all of the prayers and all of the stuff that I need to have me work there, is there for me, because you sent me. Amen.
So, the time will come and I just want you all to get ready, all of you. I’m making this open. I want you to, as you feel led and as you feel you want to do this, I’m certainly going to encourage the young people to all do this, and I’m going to encourage the families of the young people to do this. You should all get American visas. You should. And we must all work together to make sure that we don’t get rejected by the American Embassy. Amen. Yeah, because hey, we got to be ready to work for whatever God says, to whoever God is saying it to. So that when we have to go, we must go. Amen. Praise the Lord. Because on a much broader level, I want to touch on this morning and we’ll just see how the Holy Spirit leads me in days and weeks to come.
But let me read you this scripture, John 1, verse 6 to 9. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. 8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9 That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.” Verse 15, 15 John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ ” Verse 32, 32 And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him.” (John 1:6-9, 15, 32 NKJV)
There is a witness, and God has established this as a principle both in the heavens and on the earth. We are currently being witnessed. There’s a great cloud of people that the Word of God calls as a great cloud of witnesses. What are they witnessing? I will speak more about this, no matter what happens, I know this is something the Lord wants me to touch on. What are they witnessing? They are witnessing what we do. They are a witness to everything we do. These are people that have left the earth. They are in heaven. One time, they walked the earth. Come on people.
This man, John the Baptist, he came from heaven. God put him in a woman’s body that couldn’t have a child and she was beyond her age to have a child, and yet He gave her a child, Elizabeth. And God graced her with John the Baptist. His sole purpose of arriving on the earth right before Jesus came on the earth was so that he could be a witness. A witness. He could be a witness, a mouthpiece of God to declare the things that would be true.
So, a false prophet is a false witness. It’s a false messenger. In other words, he’s not declaring the message that is true. He’s declaring a message that he thinks is true. A false witness. When God raised up or birthed John the Baptist into the earth, He never raised up a false witness. He raised up a true witness. Yes? And what He did was He put him in the wilderness and shielded him from the culture of the day, and then when the time was right, He brought him out of the wilderness, and he came to call the nations to repentance because Jesus was about to come and there needed to be a repenting attitude when Jesus the Messiah was to come to the earth. The Father prepared the way of Jesus by sending John as the witness. Amen.
So, if you are a witness to something, it means you attest to a fact or an event. One that gives evidence specifically, or one who testifies in a cause or before a judicial tribunal. One who has personal knowledge of something. Something serving as evidence or proof. So, if the great cloud of witnesses is witnessing us, what are they witnessing? They are witnessing the evidence, the proof. They are giving a testimony of who we are.
This is a very important thing that I’m talking about because something happened to me on this trip. I haven’t experienced something like this in a long, long time – a long time. We were putting all of our cameras together, putting lights up in the church, doing a whole lot of stuff, and we needed some furniture. So, we went to a furniture store, we bought some furniture and we told the people at the store what we’re buying the furniture for, and that if we didn’t want some of the furniture, we would return it. We said that upfront. So, we went and we figured out what furniture we wanted and then before we went to Texas, the only furniture we bought that we didn’t want was two chairs. So, we took these two chairs back to the furniture place.
So, we arrived at the furniture place and boy, did this guy manifest. I mean, he just went crazy. “You can’t bring these chairs back, I don’t…” I said, “Hold on a minute.” He said, “I can’t give you full price back on these chairs.” I said, “Okay, tell me what you will do.” “Well, I don’t want to give you anything back on this price.” I said, “Okay.” “What? I’m going to go and call…” So eventually it turns out there were two owners, the one was the father, the one was the son, and the son was the one who was giving me gears for bringing these chairs back. So, I immediately picked up, I immediately picked up they’re actually thinking I’m dishonest here, that I came to take this furniture and use it for my own purposes and then bring it back and say I don’t need it, but now in the meantime I’ve used it. Two chairs.
So I said, “ Hey, I’m not doing anything dishonest here. I was upfront with you and I’m upfront with you now. We’re keeping the rest of the furniture. It’s going to be a long-term use for us, but we don’t need these two chairs.” So, the old man said, “Well, I know David and because of David, I’ll give you a refund on these chairs, but I don’t want to do it.” So, when he said that, the younger guy said, “And I don’t want to do anything for you just because you’re a church,” because we pulled up in the van that had the church signs all over it. I said, “Hold on a minute. I don’t want you to do anything because of David. I’m transecting with you. Number two, I don’t want you to do anything because of the church.” The guy got even more mad with me. He said, “I’m going to give you a return on your money but don’t ever come and do business with my business again.” I said, “Hold on a minute.” I said, “Why don’t you take the chairs and the money and keep them both?” He didn’t know what to say. I said, “Bye.” I said, “Come boys, let’s go.” Got in the vehicle and we left. I mean, that guy was popping mad. He was like, I promise you, I’m sure if he could have hit me, he would have. For nothing. I mean, I was calm, I was well mannered. As you see me now.
As I tell you the story, there was someone else there. Matthew was there and he is a witness. He’s a witness. He has firsthand knowledge of what was said and what went down. When we got in the vehicle and we were driving away, I said, “You know what? This is a sure sign to me that we are in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing because I haven’t had someone stirred up so mad at me in a long time, that was almost foaming at the mouth.” I’m not exaggerating. I mean, wild, crazy wild at the prospect of taking two chairs back, you know. So, when I got to Texas, I spoke to David about it. He said, “Yeah, the owner’s son is a bit weird and he’s a bit crazy.” He said, “But they would go to all that and then put all of my business at risk.” I said, “David, don’t even see it like that. This is a spiritual thing. And if you want to do business with them again, do business with them again. This is a spiritual thing. This I know, this is just evidence that we’re doing the right thing.” Our fight is not against that man who frosted and foamed at the mouth. It’s the spirit behind him who immediately recognised authority has arrived. God has arrived. Assignment has arrived. Something’s going on here and they wanted to attack me to try and slow me down. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus.
So you know, a witness is an important thing because there are things that are happening on the earth that are happening in your life and in my life. There are things that are happening in heaven, we have a great cloud of witnesses and they are witnessing what’s going on. Now, let me tell you what they are not seeing. They do not see your carnality. When you do your own foaming at the mouth, for whatever reason, you know, get all bent out of shape, your mind goes crazy. You think someone’s got something against you and they don’t have it. The devil’s playing mind games with you and you go a little crazy in your own way. Right? Don’t look at me like you don’t know what I’m talking about. Yeah?
So, yeah, I mean, you know, whatever you’re doing there, they’re not seeing that. They’re not seeing that because you’re in your own human space. They don’t have to witness your humanity. God didn’t call them in the heavens to witness your humanity. What they want to witness is they want to witness you in your humanity giving yourself to God, obeying Jesus, obeying the Word, believing, focusing on what God’s got for your life, on assignment, doing what He says, preaching the gospel, living the gospel, being the church. They are a witness to that. They stand in the heavens and they say, “We witness, we testify, we see the evidence of the Spirit of Jesus on the earth.”
Why do they need to be a witness? Because there are dark spirits, evil spirits that are against the church that want to testify false messages against the church. They want to present false ideologies to be accepted by the world and they want to say, “You see, the false ideologies that the world is hearing is more powerful than the truth of ideology that the preachers preach, or that the Christians live.” So, the witnesses in heaven testify to the fact that we’re doing what we’re doing. So, we need to be the church. Come on y’all. Come on y’all. You’ve got more power on this earth than you can ever imagine because there’s a whole bunch of eternal things happening because of us that you can’t see, but they’re happening. They’re happening and every so often things happen and the enemy shows up and reveals himself. Otherwise, he tries to hide himself. Amen.
In John chapter 15 verse 26, the scripture says, 26 But when the Helper comes, the Holy Spirit, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. 27 And you also bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.” (John 15:26–27 NKJV) So, the Holy Spirit’s going to come and He’s going to testify. What is someone who testifies? They’re a witness. So, He’s going to be witnessing. He’s going to be testifying. The Holy Spirit, when He comes, He’s going to be testifying. He’s going to be witnessing and He’ll come from the Father and He will testify. He will witness of me. 27 And you also will testify, you will also bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.” Do you think it’s important this witness thing? Do you think it’s important? I mean, it’s important, isn’t it? For sure. That’s why when we have Sunday evening services now, we could call them Testifying Services. We could call them Witnessing Services. We are bearing witness of the Good News of the gospel that is available to all people. I mean, this message today is the same kind of message. It’s just geared more towards those that have been witnessing for longer. Yeah. Amen. So, when the Holy Spirit comes upon us and the Holy Spirit is in us, He is witnessing. He is witnessing the Life of God.
Acts chapter 4 verse 32, and this is my closing scripture. 32 Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. 33 And with great power, the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.” (Acts 4:32-33 NKJV). Can I just show you what the scripture is saying? 32 Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart.” What made them of one heart? A common witness, a believing. It’s a common witness, right? Common witness, they believed. They had one heart and one soul because they had the same witness.
So, when I was there in North Carolina, it was me, and it was Matt, and it was Drew, and we were together. When we left there, the three of us were in one mind and one soul because of one thing we witnessed. We all witnessed the outrageous, inexplicable anger towards us. So, we believed in one mind, one soul, and one witness, we believed that this was a spiritual attack, a spiritual interference. We witnessed it together and we were all in one mind and one heart about the event that occurred. This is what happened. One mind, one soul because of the witness of the experience of Christ.
32 … neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.” (Acts 4:32 NKJV). This is such a powerful scripture and I just need a few minutes and I will close with this. This is such a powerful scripture because I just want to reveal this to you, that all of these people that have just experienced the resurrection of Christ Jesus through the outpouring of the power of the Holy Spirit, yes? They have lived their entire lives accumulating possessions. The witness of Jesus was so strong in their hearts, that from that moment no one considered their possessions as their own. But they said, “All of our possessions belong to each other.” What kind of power is this? It was such a powerful thing that was happening inside of them, that they had this recognition that the witness of the life of Christ is so grand, it is so beautiful, it is so life-giving, it is so empowering that actually we recognise that earthly possessions cannot come close to what we have witnessed. And that we are witnessing together the power of the collective body that is Christ in us is so powerful that none of what we own is worth what we have. So, we make all of what we own available to all of who we are, so that we all together can be what we need to be, all of who we are. What a witness. What a witness.
I just want to point this out to you. This wasn’t just the rich people that had this thing. This was everybody from people who had little to people who had much. Everybody had, oh, you might be cynical and say, “Well, you know, if you got little, then it’s okay to make your little available to everybody.” No, quite the opposite. People that have little hold onto little if they got more tightly to those that have got lots, because the little they have is all that they have. They can be more possessive over their stuff than people that have got much. It could be. It’s not always like that, but it could be. So great was the witness of the Spirit in the people that they considered none of what they had to be their own. They considered all to be the collective. What a witness.
So, you have to recognise that to read and understand the next part of the scripture which says, because they were witnessing God to this extent 33 And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.” What did that collective witness do? It unlocked a level of teaching, a level of proclaiming, a level of being able to share the power of God that was so powerful that it was about a resurrecting power that was lifting everybody from what they were to what He was wanting them to be. A whole new life. So, the last part of that scripture says, 33…. And great grace was upon them all.” (Acts 4:33 NKJV) Great grace was upon them all because of the witness. The witness. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Praise the Lord.
When I was up here this morning, the Holy Spirit came upon me and He said, “I want you to make this declaration, John.” So, now is the moment for me to make this declaration and the declaration is that there is a witness amongst this group of people about the power of God that has come into this assembly, into this ecclesia. There is a power of God that has come here. The power of God that has come amongst us, has become a witness to all of us and this witness that we have witnessed has created a level of obedience and sacrifice from all of us.
So, to those that are giving themselves to God, thank you. For those that are giving their possessions, and their wealth, and their substance to this witness, thank you. There are those that have made big and bold decisions. Parents have made big and bold decisions to allow their children to follow God. On behalf of the Lord Jesus, I say, “Thank you.” This morning, He is bearing witness to you, and as a witness to you, He is affirming what you have done.
To the young people that are making a decision to follow after God, thank you. You are a witness. You are a testimony of the resurrection power of Jesus. The resurrection power of Jesus is in your commitment. It is in your willingness to give yourself to the plans, the purposes, the ways of God.
I feel very strongly led by the Holy Spirit to make this declaration that the power of God that is available to us, we haven’t even yet seen it. We are only but in the beginning stages of the glory and the power of God that is yet to manifest in its fullness amongst us. And we are truly only at the beginning stages of what God is going to reveal to us, the wonders of His person, the glory of His being, the move of the Holy Spirit amongst us. And it’s going to be mighty and glorious. We are already experiencing glory, but it’s a glory that is about our – we are witnessing in one soul and one mind. But there is a power that is yet to be unlocked in the power of the message of the resurrection, the renewal, the coming up of us as the Body of Christ, and great grace is resting upon us. Great grace is resting upon us.
So, I want to encourage you all that you may feel like this has been a testing time, a trying time because there’s been a lot of stuff going on here. And there’s been a test of your commitment. There’s been a test of sacrifice. But I’m here to encourage you by the Holy Spirit this morning and to tell you that you should not allow the power of your witness to be removed from you now. Do not feel weakened by the passage of time, by the pressures that have come through the passage of time, by the pressures of things that don’t seem to have yet fully come into evidence yet. God is with us. God is with us. God is with us. God is with us. Hallelujah. God is with us. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. God is with us. God is with us. Hallelujah. Praise the name of Jesus. Praise the name of Jesus. Praise the name of Jesus. Hallelujah.
I also want to make this declaration under the inspiration and the leading of the Holy Spirit. I speak to those that are in this auditorium today, and those that might be watching that are part of this community, that might be watching online today. I speak to you and I declare that just as false teachers, false messages, alternative messages, things that come to your mind that are not true, that come from other sources besides the truth of the gospel, that might cloud your mind, that are preventing you from having a breakthrough, like that consul, the proconsul had, that there was an interference in the truth coming to them. I declare in the name of Jesus that all that spirit activity that’s controlling your mind, that’s been bogging you down, that’s been holding you, I speak to it now and I command it to leave you, in the name of Jesus. I speak to that darkness and I say, “You must leave!” And it must be gone from you, in the name of Jesus. That darkness will be lifted from your mind, and your eyes will see, and you will begin to experience the wonders of the glory of Jesus Christ, and the gospel that is being preached to you. Hallelujah. Praise the name of Jesus. Praise the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus.
Won’t you stand with me, please? Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I really would like you just to raise your hands like this and just say, “Thank You, Lord.” Just where you are. You don’t have to shout it aloud or anything, but just where you are, just say, “Thank You, Jesus.” Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. We call on the name of the Lord today. We declare the name of Jesus. We declare the power of the Holy Spirit that is resting upon us and that we are free from agitating passions, and moral conflicts. We are free from those things in the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Glory to God. We are free from those things in the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Glory to God. Yeah.
While you’re standing, I just want to say this to you, last Sunday morning I ministered in Heritage of Faith Crowley, and I told them about Nelson Mandela and what a powerful witness, a powerful testimony Nelson Mandela was. Where for so many years he was imprisoned because he was a threat to the government of that day. When Nelson Mandela was released from prison, he decided that he was not going to take revenge on those that had imprisoned him, but that he was going to create a rainbow nation. Where all cultures and colors of people would be able to live in a peaceful way. That is an amasing and amasing and amasing thing. That a man could have such a big heart. Yes.
I was there to declare to the people of America on that Sunday morning, that they were busy witnessing something of their own Nelson Mandela moment through Donald Trump. Whether you believe in his policies or not, I’m not being political today. I want to tell you that for the last eight years, all of the people, the establishment, the institutions, the politics, the activated law, what they call lawfare was activated against him. They tried to assassinate him. This was not just humans that were trying to go after him. He was certainly confronted by humans. But I mean it is a remarkable thing that on that election, he is the first Republican President, I believe, I don’t know in how many years, it’s a lot of years to win the popular vote, the whole vote. In other words, the actual sheer numbers of votes that he had in the whole America was, it wasn’t just the electoral college, it was the popular vote. He had five million more votes. That means California and New York, all of the large numbers of people that would vote for a Democratic Party. More people voted for him than voted for the Democratic Party. So, he is the popular President. When they called him Hitler, they called him racist, they called him all kinds of stuff. It’s shocking what they called him. How did he make it? He kept believing. He kept believing that he was born for the cause and that he was the only one. I mean, he said it to the American people. He said, “They’re coming after you. I just happen to be in the way.” So, they’re coming after me hard because I’m in the way.” He was a messenger. And anybody that brings a good news message, they’re going to try and take him out of the way. Yes?
So, the reason I wanted to share that with you is because we should not faint and falter at some little bits of things that seem to go against us, or don’t seem to quite work out the way we thought they would work out. We got to have a bit more backbone than that. We got to have a bit of spiritual backbone. We got to have some stickability, steadfastness and say, “We’re going to see this thing to the end.” Cause victory can happen just like that. You know, we were watching until late in the night, we were watching the election and the countdown. Eventually I went to sleep, other guys all stayed up and they kept watching. But you know, I think it was two or three o’clock in the morning, Donald Trump was announced to be the President because he had won all of the votes.
You know, he was fighting, fighting, fighting, fighting, fighting, fighting, fighting until in one or two hours, all of the results came in and his victory was assured. And the people’s victory was assured. And just like that, years of war, years of absolute confrontation, years and years and years and years of stuff that was happening, instantly turned into victory. And that’s how it is going to be with you. It could feel like you standing, standing, standing. It doesn’t seem like anything’s happening, but if you keep standing, victory will happen. It will happen. Hallelujah.
Why don’t you take your right hand and put it on your heart like this, and make this declaration with me. Say, “Jesus, I declare today, I will be a witness of the life of Jesus on this earth, in Jesus’ name. I am a child of God. I receive Your life. I receive Your blessing. I receive Your power to be all that I need to be in Jesus’ name.” Amen. Hallelujah. I pray that the peace of God will rest upon you. No weapon formed against you will prosper, amen. That where your feet go, God’s blessing goes. When you bring your feet back, your blessing comes with you.
So, what – do I have to take up an offering? What do you think? Yeah, okay, let’s take up an offering. That means you’ve got to sit again. Please just take up an offering.
Isn’t it a marvellous witness? Isn’t it a marvellous testimony what happened in the Book of Acts? That they considered all of their possessions to not be their own. Isn’t it? Hey people? Ja. It was a marvellous thing, quite a thing. Praise Jesus. Glory to God. Glory to God. Hallelujah. I will tell you that the favour of God is upon us, the blessing of God is on us, the glory of God is upon us and there are things that are happening for us, with us and in us that are going to be marvellous. It’s already marvellous, but it’s going to get better. It’s going to get better. Ja. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. So, wherever you go, you know, you’ve got to be ready for anything.
Yoh, we arrived at New York airport – I’ve never stood in a line that long. Our immigration line was 2-hours. We stood in the immigration line for 2-hours. You’ve got to actually know who you are in the Lord to stay steady, you know. [Congregation laughs] Ja nê. Praise the Lord. Come, let’s pray.
Hallo, Nick. Hoe gaan dit? Gaan dit goed? Ek het lanklaas met jou gepraat. Gaan dit sterk met jou? Ek is bly om dit te hoor. Hallelujah. Won’t you all stand with me, please? Hallelujah.
Thank you, Lord, that You have blessed us with all the heavenly blessings and all the earthly blessings. And we thank You, Lord, that we can sow our seed, we can show You our trust in You by giving to You. And all of us that give our tithes and our offering every month, every week, however often we need to do it, I thank You, Lord, that Your life is upon us. Ha. Thank you, Lord. And we rejoice that You have given us a way to constantly remind us that we are in covenant with You and You with us. We are a witness to Your goodness and Your blessing. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah.
How you doing, Paul? Are you alright? You sure? Good. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. God is good. Hey, Marnus, look. See I’ve got a watch on here today? It’s the one you blessed me with. Amen. Praise the Lord. God is good. Alright, I guess you’d better go home and I’ll see you at 5 o’clock. Totsiens. Aufiderzein. Sala kahle. Hamba gahle. Okay, hamba, hamba, hamba.
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