Scripture reference: Romans 6:17-18 (AMPC); John 15:1-3 (KJV); John 15:1-4 (AMPC);
Praise Jesus. Glory. Praise Jesus. Hallelujah, Lord. Glory to Your Name. Glory to Your Name. Glory to Your name. Hallelujah.
Thank You Lord, that we are in the time of God. We are living, breathing, functioning, because You have given life to us, and we live our lives dedicated and devoted to You. And we thank You for Your grace that empowers us and enables us and strengthens us to move with You in the time of men. Hallelujah. Praise You Lord. Praise You Lord. I thank You, Father, for the things that You, by the Holy Spirit are going to achieve and accomplish these few days that we are going to share together, be together. And as always, Father, we expect that we will be changed, Your will, will be done and glory will be given to Jesus and honor to the Most High God, our Heavenly Father. Thank you, Lord, that we are all ready to flow with You and move with You and surge with You over this weekend Father. We thank You Lord, in Jesus name. Hallelujah. And everybody said, Amen. You may be seated.
Praise the Lord. Praise Jesus. Hallelujah. It’s good to see all of you – sort of. They moved the steps. I don’t know, it’s all these people. We go away and they change lights and they change sound and it’s sort of a major production going on here. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
Well, this is a time generally speaking, when many, many people around the world will go to church, and it will be the only time they go to church in a year, because this would be considered to be a holy time for some in the church. In fact, on our journey back, we stopped at an international airport where the Muslim faith is practiced, and they declared in the aeroplane as we were landing in the airport, that this is the time of Ramadan and so food is not available to be eaten between, in the sunlight hours. So, not only is it a time that is kept by other faiths, it is also a time when a lot of Christians go to church and they expect that going to church at this time of what they would call Good Friday, or a holy Friday and Resurrection Day and all kinds of, this whole period of time now onwards, that this is a time where most churches will have special services. Well, as you know, last year, the Lord said to me, it’s a time for us to have camp meeting. And we are not, we are not doing what the religious thing is to do. We are doing what the God thing is to do. And I know that for most people, this is a long weekend where people would go away. Although I spoke to somebody, I believe it was last year. Could have been the year before, but I spoke to somebody and I said, “How was your long weekend?” He said, “Well, we spent the whole of the Friday riding there and the whole of the Monday riding back and we only had two days in between to have holiday.”
So, I think it’s a good idea for us to do this every year because you don’t have to waste Friday riding there and Monday riding back. [Ps John laughing] And you all say very cautiously “Amen”, because you want Easter, we don’t want our Easters to be given up, right? Yeah. Unless God speaks and so certainly for this, this year, God said, “I want us. He wants to meet with us. And He wants us to meet with Him.” And so we are obeying Him and I have a great expectation of things that God is going to do, accomplish, achieve and change in us. And for us and with us, these few days that we are going to be together, dedicating time that would normally be free time, relax time, rest time, but giving it to Him time. And who knows what God can do for you, when you give Him, what you’re giving Him. Amen. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
Before I hand over to Pastor Sharon who’s going to speak first. I just want to welcome, in human blood forms, he’s my uncle, my dad’s cousin, Andy May, and his wife Penny. So he is my blood family but he’s much more than that. We have just been catching up and to me, he has always been a man that has faithfully served God, devoted his life to God, and been uncompromising in his walk with God. When we’re talking together now we talk about so many things where we would like to have done better for God. But that is a tendency that happens when you get a bit older and you look backwards and say, “I could have done that differently and I could have done that. Now that I know this, I could have done that.” So, anyway, welcome Andy and Penny. It’s good to have you with us this weekend. Amen. Pastor Sharon, it is now over to you.
Pastor Sharon:
All right. So, Pastor John and I are going to share this session. And Pastor John has asked me to go into a little bit more detail and some of you will be hearing it for the first time, and as most of you know, I hang on to Pastor John’s every word because he is our spiritual leader. He is my spiritual leader. And I’m listening all the time to the things that he’s saying. And, and so there are some words.
He called this weekend; camp meeting. So, that’s always had a special place in my heart because, as you know, our spiritual father for many years before he went to be with the Lord, was Kenneth Hagin, and we used to go to America to his camp meetings. And we’ve had some people ask us, “What is a camp meeting? What do you mean camp meeting?” Well, this morning, Pastor John said to me, he said to me, “We are beginning. We are starting, this weekend, starting with camp meeting.”
So, I’m going to read to you what Kenneth E. Hagin said. He said this; during old time camp meetings in the 1800s, people often came in wagons, set up camp, and attended an outdoor tent revival. They weren’t in a hurry because they didn’t have to go anywhere. So the Spirit of God could move freely.
Why is the Lord having me say this to you? So your expectation can be in cooperation with what we’re in. We’re in camp meeting, where the Spirit of God wants to move freely, because we’re not going anywhere, but being here. So, so the Spirit of God could move freely, many would fall out under the power of God during the services. This is from Kenneth Hagin, his words. In January 1973, the Lord dealt with Kenneth E. Hagin, about holding meetings where the Spirit of old time camp meetings would prevail. God instructed him what to do and to teach in the daytime, and leave the night sessions open to the move of the Holy Spirit. Now, I’m not saying that the Holy Spirit is going to direct Pastor John in the same way, but I’m, we’re talking now about camp meeting. The purpose and the power of it. Brother Hagin, I thought you would find this interesting, Pastor John, held his first camp meeting in July 1973 at Sheridan Christian Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The early meetings were called Faith Seminar and Indoor camp meetings. More than 400 people came that first year. The speaker lineup included Roy Hicks, JR Goodwin. Vicki Jamison Peterson ministered in song. And so the rest of the article has got excerpts from the messages that Kenneth Hagin spoke and Roy Hicks spoke during that camp meeting. The first camp meeting.
So, now I’m going to just read to you, so that you can get the spirit of camp meeting, because this is where we’re going. Because this is our first camp meeting, right, so it’s good for us to get it. I’m gonna read things that other precious men and women of God have said about camp meeting.
Camp meetings are institutions that were developed during the early years of the Second Great Awakening. They began with very temporary arrangements such as tents, wagons, brush arbors, to worship under. Over times, these gatherings established more permanent structures and began to draw people from surrounding communities.
Francis Asbury once called camp meetings, a battle-axe and weapon of war that broke down walls of wickedness throughout the nation. He believed they were a great means of grace. Some reasons why we still, why Pastor John and I think we still need to have camp meetings today, besides the fact that it’s legacy; they provide an opportunity for true Sabbath rest. The first thing most people feel when they attend a camp meeting is that they have passed from business and busyness to tranquillity in just a few small steps. It was just a decision for you. I’m not going away. I’m not going anywhere on the Easter weekend. I’m going to listen to what the Lord is saying through Pastor John and I’m going to change my, I’m just going to go away from what I normally do. Just in a few small steps. I’m going to pass from business and busyness to tranquillity.
Many who attend camp meetings when no one else is worrying about productive, many who attend camp meeting when no one else is worrying about being productive or efficient, or being on vacation. The experience of camp meeting is difficult to describe. But Eugene Peterson’s description of Sabbath does a phenomenal job. You know, Eugene Peterson wrote The Message Bible. This is his description of Sabbath, uncluttered time and space, to distance ourselves from the frenzy of our own activities. So we can see and hear what God is doing. Okay, here’s another reason why we should have camp meeting. As marvellous as Grace is when it invades our life, grace needs many continuing, ongoing opportunities to invade our lives. If we are to go on marching. Camp meetings provide the time and place for this abundant grace to invade. Glory. Singing, singing hymns, gospel hymns, listening to someone preach with a fervour of a great awakening preacher, each service serve as a reminder that we’re part of something that started well before us and the fact that camp meeting survive in our world today, also serves as a testimony to the unstoppable nature of the gospel.
Countless institutions have closed down since the turn of the century but for some reason, God has preserved camp meetings. So another point is, there are places, camp meetings are a place where things happen in an intentional way – each year. It says here for one week, each year. Every day, singing, preaching, teaching, conversation, relationships taking place, which help replace false narratives adopted from the world, with the true narratives about God that Jesus regularly taught. Every moment is spent with other people who have chosen to dedicate their life to these same tasks.
You’re spending time, spend time together. When we’re not here, worshipping and singing together and we’re not listening to the Word together, fellowship with one another. It’s part of the purpose of camp meeting. Glory. To have holy conversations with one another. So, let me see what else I can read here. There’s so much. Why camp meetings? It is in the interest that every minister and layman keep before him a clear vision as to the real purpose of camp meetings. Camp meeting promotes spiritual life among our people. We need to meet together and receive the divine touch every effort should be put forward to place the divine imprint upon all who attend. And I want to tell you that there’s been prayers that have gone forth for this camp meeting, be expecting to be receiving everything to really not be the same as when you came. Hallelujah.
So okay, the ministers should be ready to act as teachers and leaders in the work of the camp. When occasion requires they should be able to speak words of cheer and courage and drop seeds of spiritual truth into the soil of honest hearts that will spring up and bear precious fruit. Glory to God. Camp meeting needs to be a time of prayer. Those who labor at camp meeting should frequently engage together in prayer. There is far more being done by the heavenly universe than we realize in preparing the way that souls may be converted. Among those who attend camp meeting, they are those who come burdened. Some have home problems, some struggle along throughout the year in divided broken homes. There are those present at camp meeting who are spiritual delinquents. Tithe delinquents. Isn’t that interesting Pastor John? Spiritual delinquents and tithe delinquents, et cetera. Some on the grounds look, some at camp meetings look for divine healing. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Thank You, Lord.
Still others come burdened with the guilt of sin and evil habits. Such an array of men and women present the boldest challenge to God’s servants and wise efforts must be put forth which we already have in prayer and Pastor John preparing his heart and the musicians preparing their heart and all of the people that have been involved, all the extreme team, all of the MiXchangers, everybody, all of the helps ministry that are busy here. Efforts must be put forth so that all may receive proper attention and spiritual uplift. Glory to God. It says here, the most determined efforts at camp meeting should be made to arouse the people. The Spirit and fire of evangelism should be predominant throughout the meetings. Camp meeting devoted to spiritual interests. As far as possible, our camp meeting should be wholly devoted to spiritual interests. Camp meeting is to be a time for singing and for praise. In our camp meeting services there should be singing and instrumental music. Glory to God. Hallelujah. If more, there would be much more power in our camp meeting, if more praise flowed forth from our lips to the honor and glory of His name. What could be more stirring than voices lifted to God in full throated song? It is a well known fact that the Roman church feared Martin Luther’s meetings of praise and song more than it feared his polemic theology. It would seem that after a 10 day session on the grounds, every worshiper should have cleared his soul of the tunes of the world and depart with songs of God in his heart and upon his lips. What a challenge for the ministers of music. Glory to God. The ministers of music have given themselves to this for this camp meeting this weekend. Glory to God.
All right. So, I’m going to finish with this. There’s just so much here. Success of camp meeting depends upon you. Success of camp meeting depends upon you, depends upon me. Each one should feel that in a measure the success of the meeting depends upon him. Do not say, “I am not responsible. I shall have nothing to do in this meeting.” If you feel thus, you are giving Satan an opportunity to work through you. That’s quite poignant, isn’t it, Pastor John? So, right that’s it.
So now what we’re going to do for some minutes, for those of you that haven’t been praying, for this camp meeting, we’re going to give you an opportunity to pray. Won’t you stand with me, please? Won’t you stand with me? Won’t you lift up your heart to God in prayer, lift up your heart to God now. You have been trained and taught in prayer. For those of you that are visiting here, you’re most welcome to make yourself at home but the majority of people here in this church have been trained and taught to pray. We are a praying church, and we pray in the Spirit. We pray in tongues, because the Word of God that says that he that prays in an unknown tongue speaks not to men but he speaks unto God how be it in the spirit he speaks mysteries and things that are not obvious to the understanding. That’s Corinthians chapter 14. So, saints let us pray. [Congregation praying in tongues]
That this camp meeting will be everything. We pray Your heart out now Lord. [Praying in tongues] You touch every person, Father. [Praying in tongues] Every person will be saved, every person healed Lord. [Praying in tongues] Every broken heart bound up Lord. [Praying in tongues] Every blind eye opened Father. [Praying in tongues] Our spirits speaks to you, our Father. [Praying in tongues] Have Your way, have Your say. [Praying in tongues] Thank You, Father. Thank You, Father, that we never pray in tongues without faith because our mind is unfruitful but every sound that we make in the ancient language in our praying in tongues Father, is immediately interpreted and discernible to You. And the answers are already on their way. We believe that and we receive that in Jesus name. And we all say, “Amen,” you may be seated.
Pastor John:
Well, that was awesome about camp meeting. Hallelujah. I do believe this, it may not be Easter, we’ll be flowing with the Lord as He leads us, but it may be Easter, but I don’t believe this is the last year we’re going to have camp meeting.
I believe God has started something and He’s going to increase it. Hallelujah, and He wants to use these meetings for His glory and His purpose. Amen. Praise the Lord. Glory to God.
So, I’ll give you some photographs and I’ll give you some feedback, probably in the evening session tonight, about as much as I can on the trip that we went on, and God really blessed us with. So I don’t want to say too much about that right now.
How many of you realize that about a month ago; maybe a little more now, maybe it’s six weeks ago; Ukraine was a thriving, democratic society. And the Ukraine had buildings, they had banking systems, they had hospitals, children would get up and go to school everyday. They would have stopped at the local grocery store, and buy groceries; and they would live, they were living a life that was normalized; more Western in its conduct, in its form, than say for example, third world countries. It was a thriving country, and a thriving economy and they had elected a new President, who was doing and has made it his mandate that he was going to get rid of corruption that Ukraine was famous for.
How many of you have seen any pictures of, some of what Ukraine looks like now? Perhaps the news only shows the broken buildings and the destruction that has happened, but millions of people have been walking away from their homes; and walking into Poland, and walking into neighboring countries; walking with what they could carry, because in order to save their lives, they had to walk away. They had to walk away from what was just six weeks ago, two months ago maybe, a very normalized life. What do you suppose is the reason why Russia would attack the Ukraine? Amass their weapons, roll their tanks into a country and start blasting away; when actually most Ukrainians have a legacy and a family heritage that is more Russian than anything else?
Stories are coming out where some Russian soldiers on purpose, actually put holes in their tanks, petrol tanks or diesel tanks or whatever, so that they could not roll their tanks in any further, because they were actually going to war with their own family members. Stories are coming out like that. So, why is it, do you think? Why do you think Russia has declared war on the Ukraine? I mean, you know, there’s been threats by Poetin before about the Donbas Region, and Belarus, and other neighboring countries that are around there, but never, not since the Second World War has there been war in Europe. Right?
So, 1945 was the last time there were tanks rolling around what is commonly known as the extended Europe. 1945; that’s a long time. In fact, Europe considered itself to be so free of violence and war, that when Donald Trump came into power he actually went and placed a demand on Germany to say, “You’ve got to pay your percentages into NATO if you want to have NATO.” And he went to France and to everybody and said, “We are not going to keep paying NATO anymore, because you guys are not paying your dues.” Because, Germany didn’t feel like it ever needed an army; along with others. Suddenly Finland, suddenly Sweden, Norway, other countries; there are many other countries that are around that area; suddenly there’s a real threat. Okay, how many of you have listened to the news, and heard anybody say, “It’s the devil.” Anybody?
Anybody heard that it’s the demon of war, the satan of war; the satan or the demon of violence? Anybody? No? They don’t talk about that on the news; what do they talk about? They talk about the political motivation, “What’s Vladamir Poetins’ agenda; what’s his ultimate agenda to commit this crime, which now, is being called war crimes; why is he doing that?”
So they will talk about his motives, they will talk about the political impacts, they talk about the economic impacts, they talk about the fact that Biden approved the completion of the second pipeline from Russia into Germany, which makes them more dependant on Russian gas; and suddenly the price of oil has gone from; I remember this, less than a year ago, the price of oil was around $30 a barrel and now the price of oil is about $110 a barrel; and Russia is one of the greatest exporters of gas and oil, and so how do you think he’s funding his war?
He’s funding his war, because Biden said, “USA is going to stop manufacturing oil, shut all our oil fuels down, and we’re going to authorize Russia to open its pipeline to Germany.” Suddenly, all the prices go up, Russia’s got all the money, and they go to war. That’s what they’ll talk about. They’ll talk about the economic reasons, they’ll talk about how financially they’re capable of doing it, they’re going to talk about the political issues, they’re going to talk about the motivations, they’re going to talk about what this means to the rest of the world and you will probably hear, if you’re listening to the news, you’ll hear about the fact that there’s a coalition that’s happened between Russia and China.
Because, what’s China’s next agenda? Anybody heard what China’s agenda is? Come on; global domination, am I right? Global domination. Not even just, “We want to take over America.” China has stated as its objective; they want to have global domination; they said by the year 2025, and the person that came in that was stopping their agenda, was a strong leader. I know he was also rough around the edges, but a strong leader like Donald Trump came into power, and suddenly he was calling on Russia, making trade agreements, making them pay their way. He was taking them on and he was saying, “Wait a minute, America’s the powerhouse in the world, not Russia.” A new president comes in, and suddenly America is weak.
In one year, America went from an inflation rate of 1.6% to, as it stands today, the American inflation is about 8.5%. Am I right, anybody want to, it’s about that? And it’s going up every month. Anybody heard that perhaps there’s a demon of greed, envy, power, that’s behind this? Anybody heard anybody on the news talk about devils, demons, satanic powers, rulers of darkness, spiritual forces, wickedness in high places? Anybody heard anybody talk about the motivation that this is the reason why this is happening? Because that’s not what they talk about. They don’t talk about the real, what’s going on. They talk about reason. They talk about people’s agendas. Talk about political motivation. They don’t talk about what the devil is doing.
You think, come on now, let’s talk turkey for a few minutes here today. Do you think the devil is behind any of this? Or do you – I mean, I can’t sit in your heart and sit where you are, and connect with your thinking and with your heart here, what you really believe? Is this just human stuff, or whether God is really God, and the devil is really trying to do what he can do, to stop the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Stop the rise of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and stop men from worshiping God, the living God. I can’t say what you really, I don’t know what you really really believe. But whether you really believe it or not – the devil is behind this. This is not God that’s causing violence and war.
Okay, we’re going to become a little more, we’re going to bring this a little bit closer to home. I’ll tell you what we’re going to do. I’m going to ask you to not eat for the whole weekend. Don’t eat for the whole weekend. It’s got quiet in this place. Why has it gone so quiet in this place? Because the minute I said don’t eat, you are already thinking, “I’m waiting for dinner, never mind tomorrow.” Yes? And if you get to tomorrow, lunchtime, if you make it that far, it’s like (Ps John roars), “Don’t talk to me.” And if you happen to make it through tomorrow, and you get all the way to Sunday without eating, you are going to be already detoxing. Your stomach is going to be talking, and you are going to be hangry. Right? So, but fasting just means you stop eating food. You just stop eating food. What’s the big deal about that? I mean, fasting, you just stop eating food.
But if you’re fasting and praying, you stop eating food and you now focus your energy on what God is wanting. Now you stop eating food, and your obedience or your submission, or your declaration of your intent of your devotion to God, to stop eating to say to your body, “You will not dominate me, because I want to give myself to God, and let God and me get closer, because I don’t want to be distracted by eating food.” Right? It’s an incredible thing about fasting. You don’t want to be distracted by eating food, but all you can think about is eating food. You know, but the thing about fasting is that what you are saying is that, “I am recognizing that this natural realm has an impact on my world, and I choose to let this impact take second choice to a much higher level of life that I want to live for a short period of time.” So when Jesus went and fasted and prayed for 40 days and 40 nights, that meant that He really was making a spiritual statement that actually He was giving Himself to the spirit realm, not to the natural realm.
Okay Romans chapter 6, verse 17 says, 17 But thank God, though you were once slaves of sin, you have become obedient with all your heart to the standard of teaching in which you were instructed and to which you were committed. How many of you are sinless? But you can say, “I’m no longer a slave to sin,” because when you sit and you listen to the Word of God and you let the Word of God change your heart, and change your life, you can say, “I might still yet not be perfect in my life, but I’m no longer a slave to sin.” So what’s this got to do with Ukraine? Hold on, I’ll get to it in a minute. 18 And having been set free from sin, you have become the servants of righteousness which means you have conformed to the divine will in thought, purpose, and action). (Romans 6:17-18 AMPC)
So now when you are no longer a slave to sin, you’re actually righteous. You are made righteous which means you, in your spirit man, you want to conform to the divine will, the divine thought, and the divine purpose of God. It’s what you were born for. You were born again for it, so that you are no longer a slave to sin, but you are righteous and in your righteousness you wish to do the will of God. So when you are not wishing to do the will of God, you actually have to choose to say, “I rather choose my old life of slavery.” It’s quite something.
I want to talk to you for a moment, if you’ll go with me to John chapter… This thing is not working for me. [Speaking of his iPad] No my iPad is not jet lagged, but it has been, this Bible has been giving us trouble. Sharon and I have been sitting in many meetings and suddenly our Bible freezes on us, and my Bible is frozen on me, I mean literally frozen on me. Can I have, Sharon is gonna say to me now, “You see that’s why I use a paper Bible and not an electronic Bible.” Thank you my darling. If you’ll go with me to John chapter 14 please, but I wanted to read it out of the Amplified, but nou ja. John chapter 15. I want to read verse one.
John chapter 15. 1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. 3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. (John 15:1-3 KJV) So if you are connected to God, then your connection to God says you must bear fruit. You must bear fruit. You, must bear fruit, if you are connected to God you must bear fruit. Okay, I’ll read it to you out of the Amplified.
1 I am the True Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser. 2 Any branch in Me that does not bear fruit [that stops bearing] He cuts away (trims off, takes away); and He cleanses and repeatedly prunes every branch that continues to bear fruit, to make it bear more and richer and more excellent fruit.3 You are cleansed and pruned already, because of the word which I have given you [the teachings I have discussed with you]. So he says in verse four 4Dwell in me and I will dwell in you. (John 15:1-4 AMPC) This is a choice. This is something that we must do.
Now, I’m going to talk to you about the scale that God works with, for a moment and I’m going to just lay a foundation for something that I’m going to share with you tonight. I can say this publicly, because Brother Jerry has spoken this publicly in his own church. And so, if you haven’t listened to his message that he preached in his own church in January, February, March timeframe, then you would have heard him say it in his own church. But he talks about his December as being a holiday from hell, a vacation from hell. A holiday from hell, because they discovered some signs of skin cancer in his skin, and so he went for a skin treatment, which they burned his skin with some kind of form of radiation. And he says the treatment lasted for 15 minutes, but it felt like someone had a fire torch, blowing fire on his face for 15 minutes. And he said, it was the most painful 15 minutes he’s ever experienced in his life. So he goes home after the treatment, and so now they’ve effectively burned his face.
So his face begins to peel and the peeling process is as painful as the heating process. In the process of him being at home, he gets gout. Yeah, he gets gout. So he talks publicly about this. So we had the opportunity to talk about it more privately, while we were spending time with him, but he talks about the fact that together with what was happening in his body, his face, the gout and everything. He said, he’s never experienced discomfort to that extent, before in his life. And he was supposed to be having timeout and then he was actually man down. It took him four or five weeks to recover from the facial treatment.
Thank God that 98% of it is now gone. He has one more mark on the side of his face, which is taken care of right now and it will go away. So we thank God for that. Amen. So he also discovered the reasons why from time to time he would get gout. So he has quit eating the food that would give him gout. It’s just a wise decision. If you haven’t had gout, then you won’t know how painful it is but if you have had gout, you will know that it’s an extremely painful thing. If you can talk to anybody that had back pain, and that has had to have a back operation because they have a back pain, they will tell you that there’s no pain as, I mean, it’s like they can’t think of anything else in the world, other than the pain that they’re having at that time. That’s basically what Brother Jerry said, he said, “You know, I was in such agony and such pain. You know, I don’t want to listen to Kenneth Copeland. I don’t want to listen to Kenneth Hagin. I don’t want to listen to anybody. All I could think of is how do I get rid of this pain?” Come on now but Jerry Savelle is a very strong spiritual being. Right?
So you tell me now what is the greatest reality in his life, the physical pain he experienced in December, or his walk with God that he’s experienced his whole life? Tell me what’s more important to Jerry Savelle? His walk with God, all of his life. He doesn’t blame God for what happened to his skin. He doesn’t blame God either for the gout. On the contrary, he considered those two acts, the things that happened to him as temporarily disabling him and now he’s coming back with avengeance to say, “That which the devil has stolen from me, I’m taking it back.” Because what’s in his spirit is stronger than what was in his body but to say that pain has no impact on what’s in you. It’s like, you can’t focus on anything else but when your body is in real pain, that’s what you focus on. Right?
So, which is the highest truth? What is the highest truth in your life, the pain that you have in your body, or the life of God that you can live with? Come on. So when Jerry Savelle was in pain he recognized; I have to number one, get, receive medical advice as to what is going on in my body. Number two, I might have to go through some pain in the short term, so that I can be used by God in the longer term. So even though he’s 75, he’s got to, Kenneth Copeland says he’s going to be around till a 120. He openly declares that Jerry Savelle, therefore must live till at least 110 because he’s not prepared to live without his ministry partner and work without him. So if he’s going to be 120, Jerry’s got to live to 110. So whether Brother Savelle likes it or not Dr Savelle, he’s got to live to 110 because Kenneth Copeland said so.
So anyway, those men have an understanding of the life of God, that even though for a moment, they are focused on, and they have to recognize that their physical bodies are mortal. They know that in their spirit, they live immortally. They know that in their spirit, they have more power available to go further than what their physical bodies will allow them. So I’m trying to bring a connection for you here. You think what is happening between Russia and the Ukraine is just one military, stronger, powerful country trying to dominate another country? No, there are demonic powers that are at work in the human globe and it is possible, it is possible that the events that we are busy witnessing may lead to things that are end times activities.
I mean, things are changing in the landscape. It’s been a long time since there’s been a superpower that’s gone to war with another power where the superpower will, just can push a button and you can have a nuclear war. I don’t believe it’s going to happen but I’m just saying, there’s things happening. Do you think it’s any different to when the enemy comes to you and says you’re not going to make it financially? Or don’t, don’t do this or go and do that or? Do you think it’s any different spirit that is at work? If they are trying to make you the slaves of sin, and not allow you to walk in the freedom of righteousness? Do you think there’s any difference in the war that’s taking place? I’m trying to tell you that wherever you allow the devil to come into your life and into your world, and give him access into your world, he’s busy firing missiles at the structure of your life and it is taking out entire blocks of flats, in your emotions, in your thinking, in your words, and in your life.
If you wanted a visual representation of what the devil is trying to do to you, as a person, just go and look at what’s happening to that infrastructure of Ukraine. So he’s trying to destroy your health, he’s trying to destroy your education facilities, he’s trying to destroy your communication ability. He’s trying to destroy everything that you have. So go look at Ukraine and see what the enemy of God is doing there. The infrastructure of that nation has crumbled. So even if Russia pulls out right now, I believe that whatever Russia, Poetin is, whatever spirits are influencing him, they would have already achieved quite a lot, because it is going to take Ukraine how many years to recover. They got to take down all those buildings that are partially blown apart. They got to remove all those buildings, and they’ve got to rebuild their nation. Hello?
I’m telling you now that there are demonic forces out there that are throwing arrows, bombs at you, at your life, in your mind, in your emotions, in your world, causing you to speak words, causing you to think thoughts, causing you to take actions and he’s busy blowing up the spiritual infrastructure of your world. So that you can’t communicate the way God wants you to communicate. So that the health that he’s given you, he steals it, so that the education that is the God way of living in faith, by faith with His fruitfulness is taken away from you. God offers you an alternative, and the alternative is, stay connected to Him in the Vine, because when you stay connected to Him in the Vine, you will bear fruit. Your fruit will create infrastructure in your life, spiritual infrastructure, spiritual health buildings, spiritual communication capabilities, spiritual education, spiritual financial Wall Streets in you, to bear fruit. In you, to bear fruit.
Then He says, “Oh, this financial infrastructure thing that’s working good, I see that there’s a few things here that’s not working so well. Let’s cut them off.” Ah. “What are you doing to me, Lord? You’re telling me to give my car to somebody?” Or “You’re telling me to sell my car and do this or do that? I must go and pay for somebody’s meal?” He’s pruning you. He’s not testing you, He’s pruning you because you got to take your head and you got to take your mind and you’ve got to say, “I refuse to obey what my instinct of myself is telling me to do.” Because if you live by the instinct of yourself, you are attracting bombs from Russia and you can have them with love. You will have them from Russia with love. Russia being the devil. He doesn’t know how to love but he will send bombs to you because his whole plan is to take you out.
God says, “Come, stay connected to Me. Stay in union with Me. Come stay vitally connected to Me. Come and let My life flow in you, let your life, receive My Life.” And as Life flows into you, you begin to act on what God tells you to do, you begin to act on it and as you begin to act on it, God says, “Hey, John, I want you to do this financial thing for me.” “Yes, Sir.” He’s building infrastructure. It might be that I have to give up something and if I give it up, then I know He’s pruning me. He’s not taking from me. He’s pruning me. So the next thing is that I’ll bear more fruit. So when I’m coming to Bible School, and I’m giving up my free time to come and learn at Bible School, He’s saying, “I’m pruning you, give Me your time, so that you can bear more fruit.” He’s building an infrastructure of education.
If you come to prayer, and you give yourself to prayer, what is He doing? He’s building an infrastructure of communications in your life, teaching you how to communicate with the Most High God and with all of God’s people. Do you want to talk about a visual experience of what happens to us in the spirit? I want you to go and look at the Ukraine and go and see and go and see what’s happening. Those people walking with little bags and sacks on their back and they’re walking with little things and babies in their arms, and they’re running away from their homes because they’re trying to save their lives. That’s what the ultimate goal of the devil, he’s gonna take all of what he’s got, and he’s gonna throw it at you.
Okay, are you all with me? I’ve got five more minutes to speak to you about this. What do you think, anybody, if you’ve been following news, what do you think about the President of Ukraine? The guy who was a casino owner, who’s now the President? What’s the world saying about his leadership? Come on, they are saying, he has surprised the whole world because he phoned the President of the United States, the President of the European Union, he’s phoned the president of Germany and France and he’s been talking to everybody putting himself on the news and he refuses to leave his country and he’s standing there and he’s fighting with his Nation and he says, “I don’t care how strong Russia is, we’re going to fight.”
So what he’s begged for is someone to help him clear the airspace. So that Russia can’t keep sending missiles into the airspace? Am I the only one who listens to news from time to time? Or do you know what I’m talking about? Okay, so then there’s a whole political thing, we can’t interfere with the airspace because then that will be like an act of war against Russia. Hello? Russia’s not at war with Europe. Okay, don’t worry about the airspace, just give me the missiles that I need. America, Europe, give me the missles I need so that when they come with their tanks, and they come with their helicopters, and they come with… we can shoot them. We got at least … Let us just shoot them down. We got the guts. Give us the ammunition.
I mean, we’ve seen leadership of the highest order from an unexpected man in Europe. Yes? And all he’s asking for is the right weapons, and he will defeat Russia. He’s on the point of defeating Russia anyway but all he’s asked for is the right weapons to defeat Russia.
What do you need? What weapons do you need? Let me tell you if you stay connected to God, and you are vitally in union with Him, and you begin to build that infrastructure in your life, then He begins to give you all the ammunition you need. So, why did you tell me the story about Brother Jerry? Because what Brother Jerry needed to know is; I needed to have the wisdom that the stuff that’s happened on my face, there’s the doctor and they can, and I’m going to believe God for the healing. When he’s going through the pain, he doesn’t want to hear from anybody but there’s enough words of healing in his whole life.
Come on, the last couple of years, he shared with us the miracle of his; can’t remember a thing, didn’t know his name, didn’t know his daughters, didn’t know everything from the stroke. He was going to be a vegetable for the rest of his life, but his faith words pulled him right out of it and what the devil couldn’t steal from him was his prayer language. Remember, he said that? The devil couldn’t steal his prayer language. So even though he couldn’t remember his own name, his own daughter’s name, or his own wife’s name. He couldn’t remember a verse in the Bible. He was praying in the tongues, in the Spirit. It came out of his spirit and it bypassed his mind that that stroke had tried to take all of his life from him and it came out of his spirit, because he was in union with God, and he was bearing the fruit of health. He didn’t need the fruit of money, right then, he needed the fruit of health and in his spirit man, he spoke out by the Spirit. And God said, “I’ve got words here that can come.”
And then Brother Copeland came and then Brother Jesse Duplantis came, and others came, and they came into his room, and they laid hands on him, and they prayed for him and so then, all he’s got to do… remember? Remember his testimony? All he had to do was he had to be able to walk in a certain way and do certain things and then they would let him go home. And that’s all he knew, “I’m going to do that.” And he put his faith that was in his heart. “I’m going to do this, so that I can go home because if I can go home then God’s going to heal me.” It came from his prayer language out of his spirit.
You tell me what’s more real, bombs from Russia or what’s in your spirit man? Because the enemy is sending bombs into your life, and you think, “I’m okay, I’m okay. I’m okay. As long as some other people are running from their homes, as long as it doesn’t come near me.” I’ll tell you what, he is coming around the seaports and he’s trying to come from the seaside and he’s bringing other kinds of war machinery to come and attack you in ways that you don’t think he’s coming. “Well, Pastor John, aren’t you giving too much credit to the devil?” No, I’m just waking you up to the fact that he’s busy.
He’s busy, and I’m waking you up to the fact that it’s time for us to be serious about God and you might say to me, “But Pastor John, we as a Church, we are all serious about God.” I know that, I know you’re serious about God but listen, my job, my job is to come and bring with me, tomahawk missiles and our job is to come and bring special helicopters and aeroplanes and jets and they all come. How do they come? They’re coming today, I just brought a whole bunch of missiles with me today and how did it come to you? Through the form of words, through the form of if you want to know how to defeat your enemy let me show you how to shoot your rifle. Let me show you how to let this bomb go. So what does that mean? That means when those guys come with their tanks and they start firing; phew, phew, phew. We have like Israel, we have a steel dome. What do they call it? The Iron Dome because as Lebanon or the Palestinian organization, as they tried to throw bombs at Israel, they’ve got this Iron Dome and they intercept them in the air. All the Ukraine would need would be to have an Iron Dome and I’ll tell you what, they would defeat Russia like that.
But if you don’t allow God to give you an Iron Dome, those missiles are going to destroy your spiritual infrastructure. Come on. Hello? Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord that He has given us the ability to stay connected to Him. And when we stay connected to Him, we bear fruit and as we bear more fruit, we dwell with Him, He dwells with us and we begin to build a spiritual infrastructure of communication, of health, our financial well being. We begin to develop a structure, a support structure of people that we can call on, people that we are connected to, people that can stand in faith with us. Relational infrastructure.
So you think that what we need in the natural world isn’t in the spirit realm? It was God’s idea for man to name animals. What is he giving him? Authority, education, he was building infrastructure in him. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. I had more to read to you. But I had to read a paper Bible and I’m rather, unused to reading a paper Bible. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Glory to the Lord.
I’m expecting. I want you to hear this. I’m expecting that we will have miracles this weekend. We are going to have relationship miracles, we are going to have financial miracles, we are going to have healing miracles, we are going to have miracles that are going to be emotional and miracles where there are things that seem desperate and hopeless in people’s lives. God is going to bring restoration and recovery over this weekend. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Hallelujah.
I’m particularly believing God that they will be healing miracles, healing miracles. So I’m going to share something with you that happened. We went with Brother Jerry to Brother Copeland’s Branson Victory Campaign and so we go into a service and after the morning service, Brother Jerry announces that he brought a suit with him and didn’t bring the right colour shoes to wear with the suit. So now, you know, Brother Jerry, he’s immaculate. You don’t know that? Just checking. He’s immaculate. So he says to the driver that’s been allocated to us, “I need to buy a pair of shoes that matches my suit.” “Yes, Sir.” So it’s a small town and generally there is no store there that Brother Jerry would normally shop at.
Anyway, there was a store that he went into. So I’m walking there with him, and there is a gentleman that is driving us and acts as security because he’s in a town now where lots of people know him and they are there for the conference and so sometimes people try to interfere with him, and so he needs security. So, but I’m hanging out with him there and there are shoes. So we’re looking around and so I pull out a box of shoes and I say “What about this colour?” Brother Jerry says, “Ah, ah, okay.” He says, “I think this will do it. This is not quite the color I would have chosen but understanding my limited options I’ve got here, I’ll take these shoes.” So they have a limited amount of sizes. So he puts on a size, he says, “You know what hey, this size is just a little bit too big for me.” He says, “But I can wear it.” He says “If I had the option I would have chosen a slightly smaller size, but I can wear it.” He said “I’m going to pay for this.” So I need socks. I need socks, so we got to find some socks for him to go with the colour of the shoes. Now, come on, church. I’m vitally connected to Jesus. I’m in Branson because God wanted me to be in Branson with Brother Jerry and Brother Copeland for a reason. I’m not just there, because [Putting his hand to his ear – listening gesture]
So you know, remember that Brother Jerry was given shoes by Oral Roberts and when he has healing services, he walks around in size 12 shoes where he wears a size nine. So he’s put a whole lot of stuff in the front of the shoes, so he can walk around in Brother Oral Roberts’ shoes, because he believes in the scripture that when the prophets died and their bones and people fell on the bones, they came alive again because they fell on the bones of the prophets. Ezekiel. Right? So because he believes that the healing anointing is with him still that was imparted to him by Brother Roberts, he walks around with those shoes on. Now, you can believe whatever you want or not.
So, I wasn’t born yesterday. “Brother Jerry, can I buy these shoes, please?” “No, John. No, I didn’t come in here…” “Brother Jerry, I would like to buy these shoes for me. I would like to own these shoes. I’m actually buying these shoes for me and I’m asking you if you will wear them, while you’re having your services with Brother Copeland and while you’re preaching, if you wear those shoes, I would be most blessed, but I’m buying my shoes.” He said, “I understand John, please go ahead and pay for them.” So he wears his shoes. My shoes. He makes a point, he makes a point on the day when the conference ended when we got off the aeroplane and we arrived in Fort Worth. He takes the packet with the shoes and he brings me the shoes, and he says, “John, here’s your shoes.” He understood what was happening in the spirit between us.
Here’s what happens. I put the shoes on. They fit me perfectly. Perfectly. So I say to Brother Jerry, I said, “Brother Jerry. I’m going to be wearing these shoes when I have a healing ministry meeting. When I lay hands on people on Monday, I’m going to be wearing these shoes because I’m expecting the healing anointing that was on Oral Roberts’s life that’s been operating in your life to flow through these hands that come from these shoes. It’s a point of contact.” The shoes are just leather. Come on, but it’s a point of contact for faith. If the Lord took us to America, just for that reason, it’s enough. Hallelujah. Praise the Name of Jesus.
And so I have a great expectation because you know, I’ve been preaching on the resurrection of Christ and I’ve been preaching on that the resurrection means that when we are baptized with Him, we are also raised with Him and if we are raised with Him, then the healing power belongs to us. The healing anointing belongs to us. Healing is part of ours to have. It’s time for us to walk in that authority and that anointing and I’ve been preaching that because I’ve been sharing with you that my faith is out there that we will begin to have miracles and healings in our church. Now is it a surprise to you that Brother Jerry left his shoes at home? He never leaves shoes at home but I’m flying with him in his aeroplane and he leaves shoes at home and so I happen to be able to walk with him into a store where he is ready to buy shoes, that are now my shoes, that now fit me that are now always going to be on my feet when I have healing meetings. And I don’t care if they fit with my suit or they don’t. Hallelujah. Glory to God.
And when Brother Joe and Brother Jerry preach to us on Saturday, late afternoon, I’m expecting an anointing. I’m expecting miracles. I’m expecting you to receive the Word of God that is building infrastructure of faith in you so that you can receive from God what you need. No communication breakdown, no misiles taking you out. Nothing is going to destroy what God’s got for your life. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus.
So you can end up like Ukraine or you can end up with a powerful military kind of organization like America used to be and can be, will be. Amen. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus and if you have been living in a Ukraine life, then let this be the beginning where you start clearing out all the old stuff, and all those things that have been broken down just to take a big bulldozer and say, “God, in the spirit, I move this out of the way so that You can rebuild my hospital, my health life, my telecommunications life, my financial institution life.” All of the stuff that you need to have in your life, rebuild, rebuild, restore, recreate, redevelop, let it come. Take the old bulldozer and let it bulldoze all that rubble out of the way. Let God build something new in you. It’s time. It’s time. It’s time. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus.
Won’t you stand with me, please. Hallelujah. Glory to God. I’m letting you out 20 minutes early. Magtig. Why? Praise the Lord. Glory to God. Father, I pray that this Word that has been declared today will take root in hearts. I pray that Your anointing begins to blow the cobwebs out of the lives of people, out of their minds, out of their hearts, out of their thinking. Just blow it away, Father. Take the bulldozer of Your Spirit and take that rubble and push it out of their hearts, out of their lives, out of the way so that You can begin to rebuild what needs to be rebuilt. Restore. Hallelujah. Re-invest in the infrastructure Father, right now in Jesus Name. Right now, as people give You their hearts, Lord. Hallelujah, and so Father, I expect healing to begin to happen. Even right now. I’m expecting healing miracles to happen. I’m expecting You, Father to begin to change conditions, conditions where there are up to now no answer for it. I’m expecting Father, that diabetes will be healed. I’m expecting Father that there will be cancers that will be healed. I’m expecting Father that there will be all manner of sickness and disease, limbs that have been broken and hurt and whatever, for whatever reason, Father, that they will be healed by the miracle power of Jesus. Hallelujah. I’m praying Father, that there will be a faith that will arise that will cause Your people to reach out and go for the highest and the best that You have for their lives. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Praise Jesus. Do you agree with this prayer right now? Say, “Amen.” Hallelujah. Glory to God.
Tonight, I’m going to talk to you about Ukraine, Russia, and America, spiritually speaking and I’m going to use natural circumstances to bring home to you what God’s got for you in the spirit. What God’s got for your life. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. I’m going to talk to you about identity politics. I’m going to talk to you about infrastructure, the lack of infrastructure investment and what it does to you spiritually and I’m going to use America, and I’m going to use Russia and I’m going to use Ukraine, and I’m going to use world politics to talk to you about it, or world circumstances. So that when you hear the news, you will remember these messages. Hallelujah, and suddenly you’ll be driving in a car and the anointing of God will come on you. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. I mean, the anointing is already strong in this place. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus. Praise the Name of Jesus. Praise the Name of Jesus. Praise the Name of Jesus. Hallelujah. Addictions are going to be broken, habits are going to change. The power of God’s Word is going to come and transform us in Jesus Name. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Praise Jesus.
Thank you for coming this afternoon. I will see you this afternoon. Six o’clock. Amen. Eet lekker. Slaap lekker, wat ook al lekker julle wil doen. Mag dit lekker wees. Bye.
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