Scripture Reference: Luke 16:1-5; Luke 16:5-13 (AMPC); Luke 16:14,15, (AMPC); John 17:15; 1 Timothy 6:10;
I am very very much aware of just how strategic a time we are living in. I am very much aware of how quickly God is restoring and doing things for me and Pastor Sharon, in particular, but for all of us together. And I really mean this; that this is not a moment where you’ve got to step back, this is a moment that you’ve got to step up. You’ve got to step up, you’ve got to step with, you’ve got to come along, ja, …. I’m telling you, this is a big moment in our lives, it really is. Praise the Lord, glory to God, and I wish I had time to share everything with you, except I can just tell you that God is supernaturally ordering my steps, directing my footsteps, doing beyond what I can ask or think, really, and I’m going to America in a short while and when I come back, I hope to bring very, very exciting news to you. Hallelujah. Wow, it’s all I can say – Brother Joe and I talked about it while we were in Ethiopia. I said, “Whoa Lord, whoa!” Really it’s fantastic, but some details have to be ironed out first and hopefully they will be ironed out while I’m in America. Amen, praise the Lord. So thank you for praying for me and I will be here next week but then I’m going and then I’m going to be gone for some time because I’m striking the ground.
If you read the story of Elisha and Elijah, the first arrow that was shot for the victory for Israel over Syria, the prophet Elisha said, “Take my hand and put my hand on your bow and shoot the arrow.” So the King and the Prophet had their hands on the bow together. You know. I’m going to be with Brother Jerry because I’m striking the ground and I want his hand on my hand when I shoot the first arrow. Amen. Ja Ja, it’s good stuff, it’s very good stuff, praise the Lord.
Thank you Lord, thank you Lord. I just want you to agree with me right now, Father I thank you that I will share what I need to share, I submit this vessel to You, and I ask You to focus my mind, bring clarity to what I’m thinking and what I’m saying so that I don’t wander and drift, I stay focused and stay committed to what you have been giving me as a revelation and I thank You Father that this revelation is continuing to change and alter us and giving us a future that we can step into. I thank You for it Lord, in Jesus name. Amen. Hallelujah, and I trust you have the ears to hear and the heart to receive the things that God has for us, amen.
So you know, I mean, when I left here, I was talking about Laban Syndrome and I’m going to pick up where I left off about Laban Syndrome and I’m just going to remind you that Laban Syndrome or the spirit and the characteristics of Laban syndrome is a spirit working through the personality and choices of humans. All spirits work through personalities and the choices of humans. Spirits, demonic spirits and evil spirits cannot work through people that are committed to Jesus and are making ‘Jesus decisions,’ ‘Word decisions.’ They can only work through people who are making decisions that are carnal or fleshly or against the will of God. Amen.
You do agree with me that the spirit of mammon has a right to operate on the earth because man has allowed him to? So the Laban spirit works hand –in- hand with the mammon spirit because it works hand-in-hand with the love of money, so are you focused? Are you with me? Okay, so the Laban spirit, the main purpose of which is to control and direct what God has declared over you so as to prevent you from becoming all of what God has got planned for you, effectively preventing you and others from establishing His Kingdom, His Covenant and His church on the earth-it’s the Laban spirit.
(I must remind you: There is no, due to circumstances, there is no church on Friday night in Witbank. Okay, don’t go to church in Witbank on Friday night. Please go to church in Witbank on Saturday morning. We are going to have a very special worship service with special musicians that are playing with us and we are preparing to record our first album. We are. And this is part of our preparation this coming Saturday. We are getting much closer than we have been before and God is bringing us more resources than we have had before, and my Faith is out there. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord)
So Laban’s Syndrome, Laban’s Syndrome can be identified by someone who is all about credentials and accomplishments and, or achievements, and this is the main source of influence. Loves money, riches and wealth. So you don’t have to have money to love money, riches and wealth. You can love it without having it. In fact I’d say a lot of very poor people love money, but they just can’t get their hands on enough of it.
Status and honour are important tools for the person, and used by the person. Laban’s Syndrome persons or people are very savvy and opportunity censored. Practised in the art of collecting information and using information for benefit and advantage. The person or persons will know a lot about you, and you may think that you know them in the same way but in reality you only know what they know to show to you for their ultimate advantage.
The Laban’s spirit is neutral towards God and His ways, this person or people may even be a Christian. Normally and very often they are Christians, and they may practice ceremonies of gods, and I already explained that to you last time, and people, and appear devout, but normally stay away from strong commitments towards God unless God forces the occasion through a covenant believer or disciple, and He will almost always force a decision and its normally not for your harm, its normally for you to actually give you an opportunity to make the right decision. Really that is the reason God does that; is to bring you along and force the moment because He wants you to make the right decision, not the wrong decision.
So I want to just use this moment to tell you that offence is not something that is given. Offence is something that is taken. You know. And I used an example this morning in the Witbank Church because I had forgotten somebody that has contributed significantly in Missions and I said, “Now I know them, they won’t take offence that I did; left their name off the list,” but they could have walked out the church and they could’ve said, “Ah, we’re a big donor in the ministry and Pastor John forgot about us.” So they could’ve become offended. Not because I gave it, but because they took it. So God when he causes a disciple or a strong believer to come across someone’s path to force a decision it’s because he wants them to grow and not to go back. But it is almost always the point where your decision will either give entrance to the devil or reinforce poor decision making in your life for God or it will be a catalyst for your certain good and your certain change.
The spirit of Laban: recognises favour, blessing, skill and order of things in order to position for advantage. Will learn the language of many ‘ways’, in order to remain neutral. So they don’t, ….they know a lot about a lot of things, systems, and ceremonies and ways, so they don’t have to take a position of standing one way or another, they can talk a language of many, many kinds of circumstances.
Even seem to be totally committed to a particular way or person, to obtain advantage. Deliberately, perhaps subconsciously has developed a carefully constructive/ ‘instinctive possibility triggering system’, or alarm system in order to position early and properly for advantage, like an early warning system.
May appear to be peaceful but will often be ready to be vengeful, full of vengeance and sometimes he might even do it violently. Mostly it is not physical, but very often it’s emotional and physically very abusive, in this situation. It operates through manipulation and hidden advantages, and becoming angry or demanding or fault finding or disagreeable in order to gain or regain an advantage when wisdom or anointing or the Word of God is delivered and outsmarted the Laban Syndrome to set you free.
This is a powerful, powerful revelation, like I said last time, you won’t find this in any book; this revelation was given to me by the Lord and it is all founded in the Scriptures of Laban and the way the Bible talks about Laban. It was a revelation God gave me from the Bible, not from a psychological programme or document or some kind of psychology school or some kind of, mentoring, coaching kind of school: This was ‘God to John’ through the Bible. Amen. Praise the Lord.
So, there is always good news when something like the Laban Syndrome is revealed. So remember the Laban Syndrome is designed to stop you from your assignment. Is designed to stop you from being effective in the Kingdom of God and His Church; because if he can stop you, then he can stop the work of God. And the Laban Syndrome is always directed to harness what you have and keep you suppressed.
How much money do you think is in the world? A lot. There is no shortage of money, even in this country. There’s a lot of money here. Those people that deal with wealth, “Am I right, Sean? There’s a lot of money, “Simon?” There’s a lot of money, there’s a lot of money in this world. Let me tell you, even in South Africa, there is plenty, plenty, plenty money. It’s held in the hands of few people. That is a strategic strategy by the enemy because if he can control those people, he can control all the people. So if those people are living for themselves and living for their advantage, then he can keep them, he can keep other people from being free because they want to harness your resources and your energy and your skill for their advantage.
I’ve got good news for you today and I almost certainly won’t get through it all today, so you have to come back next weekend. I can’t help it, the Lord gives me more and more revelation as I prepare and as I keep going through it.
So I need you to go with me to the Word to Luke 16 and I am going to read from verse one…. So last week Pastor Sharon did an outstanding job of teaching you about a spiritually neutral person and so she used the words of not engaged, over one side or the other, impartial, not helping or supporting either side, having no strongly marked or positive characteristics. So that’s what she would have taught you last week, she did a good job, I listened to her message. She did a good job of speaking about a neutral spiritual person, who just wants to not take a radical stand on anything….there is no marked characteristic about their walk with God.
What I don’t think she shared with you but she and I talked about, was, what a spiritual person is. So, the Greek definition of a spiritual person is pertaining to the spiritual, spiritual relating to the human spirit as part of the man which is akin to God and serves as His instrument or organ, serves as His instrument. So I have told you before a spiritual person is someone who thinks like God, talks like God and behaves like God- that is a spiritual person. Okay?
So you will be marked by your characteristic because you will make a definite stand because you think like God, you talk like God, you behave like God. Then what will happen is, you will be at a place where, when situations arrive, you will take God as you position, and you will default to what God says and what God thinks about a matter and so you will not accept what other people say, amen. Hallelujah.
Okay, Luke 16:1, 1Also [Jesus] said to the disciples, this is from the Amplified, There was a certain rich man who had a manager of his estate, and accusations [against this man] were brought to him, that he was squandering his [master’s] possessions. 2 And he called him and said to him, what is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management [of my affairs], for you can be [my] manager no longer. This is being fired. 3And the manager of the estate said to himself, What shall I do, seeing that my master is taking the management away from me? I am not able to dig, in other words he has no skills, and I am ashamed to beg. 4I have come to know what I will do, so that they [my master’s debtors] may accept and welcome me into their houses when I am put out of the management (Luke 16:1-4). So this is an important component here, when I am put out of my house, they will welcome me into their houses. Do you see that? I’m not misreading something, right? So, he’s doing this because when he is kicked out of his house, because of poor management, he will be accepted in other people’s house.
5 So he summoned his master’s debtors one by one, and he said to the first, How much do you owe my master? 6He said, A hundred measures [about 900 gallons] of oil. That’s a few tankers. Yes? That’s a large amount of oil. In the modern-day world, I’d say this is a mini Tiger Brands kind of enterprise. You understand what . I’m saying? This is not a small enterprise; 900 gallons of oil. Which means, his master was a big trader. His master had a big business, for this man to be able to buy 900 gallons of oil. So, you can understand that this manager was a senior manager. He was over a lot of ‘stuff’. Okay.
6And he said to him, Take back your written acknowledgment of obligation, and sit down quickly and write fifty [about 450 gallons]. So, he halved his debt. 7After that he said to another, And how much do you owe? He said, A hundred measures [about 900 bushels] of wheat. He said to him, so this can make a lot of loaves of bread. Let me tell you; it can feed cities. Okay. He said, Take back your written acknowledgement of obligation, and write eighty [about 700 bushels]. So, he’s reduced his debt by 20, 25 percent, more or less, 30 percent, right around there. It’s a significant reduction. 8And [his] master praised the dishonest (unjust) manager for acting shrewdly and prudently; for the sons of this age are shrewder and more prudent and wiser in [relation to] their own generation [to their own age and kind] than are the sons of light. 9And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon (deceitful riches, money, possessions), so that when it fails, they [those you have favoured] may receive and welcome you into the everlasting habitations (dwellings). I’ll get back to this in a moment. Let me just finish reading. 10He who is faithful in a very little [thing] is faithful also in much, and he who is dishonest and unjust in a very little [thing] is dishonest and unjust also in much. 11Therefore if you have not been faithful in the [case of] unrighteous mammon (deceitful riches, money, possessions), who will entrust to you the true riches? 12And if you have not proved faithful in that which belongs to another [whether God or man], who will give you that which is your own [that is, the true riches]? 13No servant is able to serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stand by and be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (riches, or anything in which you trust and on which you rely). Luke 16:5-13 (AMPC)
It is important that you read this whole passage of scripture in context, because Jesus is not praising an unjust man, and He is not promoting a system that is out of order and bad management. So, the scripture that says, “Everlasting habitations and dwellings,” is not fully interpreted according to the true Greek meaning because if you read, ‘everlasting habitations’, you are tempted to interpret this as an ‘everlasting life here after’ concept. So, if you interpret it that way, then you would immediately think that Jesus is indeed praising a man who was shrewd on the earth, that it has eternal effect. But if you go and study the Greek on ‘everlasting habitations’, a better interpretation of that in the Greek is, ‘permanent ways of living’.
So, can I read you this scripture now, that you’ve heard what I said? So, when I tell you make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, temporary money – deceitful riches, and money and possessions, so that when it fails, those who you have favoured may receive and welcome you into the ‘permanent system’ or way of doing things and the ‘dwelling thereof’ or the ‘living lifestyle’ of the permanency of that way of doing things.
Then he goes on to say, you got to be faithful in a little bit so that you can be faithful in much. He goes on, therefore, therefore you’re going to have to make a choice because you cannot serve God and mammon at the same time. So, what’s he talking about? A permanent system of lifestyle; of doing things that relates to mammon and money, it is not an everlasting habitation. So He says this master praises this guy for being shrewd as a man who understands the way the system works permanently on the earth. What system is that? It’s the system of mammon. Remember what I said earlier: mammon, riches, the deceitfulness of riches, and the way that money operates on the earth, the spirit of mammon has the right to control it and work with it, because man gave him that right. Who is the only people that can take that away from him? Sons of Light. So Jesus is saying, the people that know the system of the earth, the permanent system of mammon, they know how to work with that system: ‘Favour for favour’. I’ll forgive you a debt, if you will forgive me a debt. I will give you something if you will give me something. We work on a Laban Syndrome. So people who are involved in this system, they are shrewder than the people of Light (the sons of Light), because the sons of Light are confused. Why? Because they see that on this earth, there is a system of money and the way it works, and it has a right to operate and they see how well people work the system.
Then they come over to God’s system and God says, “I’ve got a better system for you to work on; it’s a system of Faith. It’s a system of ‘trusting in Me and My way of doing things’. It’s a system of ‘sowing and reaping’, ‘not working for reward’. So the believers see that this is, and they know in their spirit-man, this is God’s way of doing things, but they see this other system working here and they see how shrewdly these people work the system of ‘favour for favour’. Do something good for me, I’ll do something good for you. You wash my back, I’ll wash your back. Come on now. So they know this system works. Then they come over to God’s system and they see it doesn’t work as quickly and they can’t control it because they have to use Faith.
So if you are not completely sold out to Faith, then you’re always going to revert back to the ‘other system’. The problem is, as a son of Light, you know what the truth is, so internally you come to a conflict because your conflict is always about ‘I know this mammon-system works, but I don’t…. I want to beat the system. So I start to do what this other system is. I start to put the Word in my heart and I start to grow in Faith, but somehow it doesn’t seem to work as effectively as that other system. Yeah, because while you living in that system, that system is about reason, it is about reality and it’s about what’s relevant to me and what I can get out of it. This other system demands that you live in redemption. It demands that you must live with revelation, because only then can you create the revolution away from that system.
Can you see now how this Scripture makes sense? Jesus, He’s actually telling the children of Light, you should not be operating in this system, but I’ve got news for you, before I finish today. Let’s go to the next…. Luke 16. So I’ve got finished reading verse 13, which says you cannot serve God and mammon at the same time. Verse 14, 14Now the Pharisees, who were covetous and lovers of money, heard all these things [taken together], and they began to sneer at and ridicule and scoff at Jesus (Luke 16:14). Why? Because they’re firmly entrenched in this system. They are not sons of Light. They are involved in this system. 15But He said to them, You are the ones who declare yourselves just and upright before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted and highly thought of among men is detestable and abhorrent (it’s an abomination) in the sight of God (Luke 16:15). Why does this system of ….I’ll do you an favour, you do me a favour, ….I wash your back, you wash my back – we work and we cooperate and collaborate together in the system, in the world. It’s because mammon controls that system. That’s why it’s so abhorrent to God – it doesn’t require faith in God, it requires faith in you. So if you want to know, this is where the self-development programmes have a really big part to play because they teach you about developing yourself, not your trust in God.
So here,…. just hear this now, Until John came, that’s John the Baptist, There were the law and the prophets. Since then the good news of the Gospel, of the Kingdom of God has been preached…. who’s preaching it? Jesus and His disciples. And everyone strives violently to go in. To what? The Kingdom of God. Would force his own way, rather than God’s way into it. So the old King James Version says: The Kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent take it by force. So you know, that doesn’t make too much sense because it says: “It takes it by force.” No, the Amplified actually puts it much better because what it’s saying is ‘if they could get to the ways of the Kingdom of God, they would do it forcefully. But God will not permit it.’ But people are violently trying to get God’s will for their life. Or they want access to the ways of God and have the blessing of God. Enter the Laban’s Syndrome: “If I can’t get it for myself, I’m going to get it through you. So I recognise the favour of God on you. I recognise the blessing of God on you. I recognise all of the things that God has got going for you. So I’m going to harness your skill, I’m going to harness your energy, I’m going to harness your favour and your blessing, and I’m going to make it work for me.” What does God want for us? To be free from that!
So what do we do? What do we do? How do we go about getting free from that? Glad you asked. Because, in John 17:15, Jesus says, I do not ask you, I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you will keep and protect them, from the evil one. I’m just going to read you the scripture in 1 Timothy 6:10, For the love of money is the root of all evils. Come on now, come on now, come on now. Just work with me here, I’m nearly done. I know it’s late in the afternoon, it’s hot and all that kind of stuff, but I’m nearly done. Notice what Jesus says, I’m praying for them father, and not just them, those that are going to come after them, that you do not take them out of the world, but you save them from the evil one. 1 Timothy says: The root of all evils, the love of money, is the root of ALL evils. So the Father is saying, “I’m not asking you to remove them out of the world” ….Why? Because our clay bodies would have to die. But our clay bodies are in the world. So that means that the world and what’s in the world, is available to us. But what we don’t want, is to be part of the evil system that manages this in the world. So when Jesus prays and he says “I’m not asking you to take them out of the world but to keep them from the evil one in the world” and if the love of money is the root of all evils then, you could quite comfortably interpret and say: “Father I pray that You would keep your people from the evil and deceitfulness of what riches offers them as the alternative lifestyle.”
So that doesn’t mean to say that we can’t be rich. This doesn’t mean to say we must not go after abundant wealth. What we must do, is not go after it the way that man goes after it, we got to go after it the way God says we must go after it. We have a problem though. The problem is Laban’s Syndrome is so smart, that just like Jacob, you fall in love with Rachel, my Rachel, those beautiful eyes that captivate you. So you work for seven years like Jacob did, to obtain the thing you want. It’s legitimate. It’s okay, God will bless you in it. This is not an illegal system, but understand, Laban is always involved in the system, looking for the moment of advantage. When does the moment come for the advantage with Jacob? So watch this now: Jacob work for seven years to get Rachel – my beautiful eyed Rachel. He works for seven years. Who’s watching him for seven years? Laban. What does he see in seven years? Everywhere Jacob goes, everything Jacob touches, his sheep are prospering, his goats are prospering, his camels are prospering, and everything that’s happening where Jacob goes, there is protection, there is blessing, there is growth, there’s increase. Seven years is up, wedding night, celebration. Laban says, “My moment has come, lets really celebrate,” because I’m going to give you the alternative plan. In your moment of greatest expectation of your deliverance, I present you with the alternative and you are in a fog of happiness and you can’t see the alternative as being presented. And Jacob wakes the next morning and he is next to Leah, who the Bible calls ‘was dull of eyes.’
I asked the Lord, it was just a small meditation, but I asked the Lord about this, you know, I said, “Was she an ugly girl?” He said, “No.” This is just my interpretation cause I read the scriptures again, trying to find some answer to it. But He said, this is the way the Lord explained it to me, He said, “Jacob fell in love with Rachel and so everything that was Rachel, was just spectacular. By comparison, Leah had no patch on her. He wasn’t interested in Leah. It wasn’t that she wasn’t beautiful, he just fell in love with Rachel. So what does Laban Syndrome do? When the moment, when your defences are down, you stop confessing the Word, you stop believing God, you just let your guard slip, he brings Leah in. He says, “Is that so, you want Rachel?, ….seven more years, because I can’t afford to let you go because the favour is on you, the blessings on you, you have great skills with these things that I’ve put in your hands to manage them for me. You want Rachel, you can have her. In fact you can have her right now, just work seven more years.”
So what does Jacob do? He follows his heart and he ends up working for Laban for 20 years. Next week, when we are together, maybe on the Saturday, maybe Saturday and Sunday, we will just see how the Holy Spirit leads us, because the Lord gave me an amazing revelation that I really want to share with you, but it might have to wait until I come back from America because I’ve got to finish Laban’s Syndrome because this is important, right? I mean, this is really really important stuff. I said this this morning in Witbank after this mornings service, I said, “It’s very seldom that I get an opportunity to minister to you in the sweet spot of my passion. This is the sweet spot of my passion: marriage and this.
Because this sweet spot right here is where we get delivered and set free from the system of the world and we operate in God’s Kingdom and this is where I wrestled in my walk with God because most Christians don’t know how to go from the Laban Syndrome control, because they need to live month by month, week by week. They need the money ticking over but they want to operate in God’s system that has an endurance, patient factor in it. Why is there this patient – faith- endurance factor in it? Because if it wasn’t, everybody would walk in the Kingdoms ways and they would take it by violence and the same people that operate in Laban Syndrome, would control the Kingdom Syndrome. And God says, “You can’t have it, this is My Kingdom, it’s My people, it’s My light, it’s My system – you can’t have it.” Only those that are prepared to hear the truth, that will have their eyes opened by revelation and walk in redemption, will create this revolution.
So what do we do? This is where I wrestled, this is why I started, partly, Leadership Academy. This is why I had to write my own Business Schools, from the Word of God. Which is why God gave me the revelation of Laban Syndrome, in the Business School, Huh? Because there is this problem that the Church has, living day to day in Laban Syndrome and being free of it. I’ve got good news for you: In every Christian’s life, there is a moment where God will talk to you and God will give you a revelation of the moment. When He gives you an opportunity to hear His voice, ….my sheep know my voice and the voice of a stranger, they will not follow. You actually have to make a choice to go against the will of God and the Word of God in that moment and you have to choose the comfort of the system or you got to go with the voice of God. But the voice of God will speak so plainly to you, that you will have to choose the comfort of the system. It is a choice that you are going to have to make rather than go with the ways of God because your spirit-man is alive to God, it is a light, it is switched on to God and when He speaks, you will hear Him. You don’t have to wonder about it.
I was saying to LeRoux, earlier on, you know – welcoming him here – he heard God. God said move from Bethlehem to Witbank because your spiritual assignment and your spiritual destiny is based on your moving. What he had to wrestle with…., I know this because I found out later. He had to wrestle with history – culture – what’s my future going to look like when I get there because it’s uncertain. But if you don’t make that choice, then you can’t walk in the light. You can’t put yourself in the place of blessing. You can’t put yourself where God comes through for you. I happen to know a lot about what is going on in that family. He was not to know that his father would pass away, that would lead a whole trigger a whole bunch of things that would happen, that would bless him and his family and would reorder his whole family because he was in Witbank. Am I right LeRoux? And other members of the family are all present in this service today. God spoke to them. They would’ve had to forcefully make a decision and say, “We are not going with God’s voice. “ Because he obeyed God’s voice, a whole bunch of things have since happened and a lot of things have now transpired that put them in the sweet spot of where God’s blessing is and if the devil is lying to you LeRoux, this is a Word from the Lord to you: If the devil’s lying to you that He’s not going to come through for you, I’m telling you, you’re in the ‘sweet spot’ of God-obedience, and it’s just a matter of time and your breakthrough’s coming. Hallelujah.
For all of us, if you obey God, it’s just a matter of time. You have got to have patient endurance with your faith. That is your protection mechanism to walk in the Kingdom of God and not in the ways of mammon; not be influenced by the Laban Syndrome. I love to kick the devil in the teeth, hey! I love to expose him like this. I thank God that He chose to use my vessel for this revelation. Truly. Because let me tell you, the love of money is the root of all evils. Does it say ‘some’ evil? Come on, what does your Bible say? All! All! It’s not money; it’s the love of money. So what did Jesus say? You can’t love one system and hate;… you have got to choose one; you have got to love the one and hate the other one. You can’t love both. You can’t walk in the system where Laban operates – do me a ‘solid’ and I’ll do you a ‘solid’ – or walk in this other system.
So what did Jacob do? He operated in the Laban System. All the time he is remembering that God gave me a Word. God gave me a Word that one day I will return to my father. He will be with me; He will bless me; He will order my steps; He will prosper me; He will increase me; I am His favoured one. I have the blessing of my Father and I have the blessing of my future. I am remembering; I’m stuck in this Laban Syndrome, but I remember what the Word says. I remember what the Word said. I remember what God says. And every day you sitting by the sheep and you working the sheep and when they come; when the beasts come and steal a lamb or a thing, he says, “Okay, I take the hit for it.” His integrity was at stake.
God prayed; Jesus prayed and He said, I don’t pray that you come out of the world, but that you are saved from the evil one. Notice, the evil one is not a person. It’s a system that works through people and people have got to allow themselves to be worked. So don’t take your anger out on people. It’s the system behind them that’s driving them. If you blame a person, then you are in danger of judgement, and if you are judging a person, then you yourself will be judged by the same measure. Come on. Come on.
You got to recognise the system and you’ve got to say, “I am free from that system. I am free from that system. I am free from the Laban oppression. I am free from what Laban is doing – stealing my health, stealing my wealth, stealing my favour, stealing my blessings, stealing my divine assignment – I am free from that system. I remember what God said, that if I sow, I shall in this lifetime and in the lifetime to come, reap a hundredfold return on everything I put into the Kingdom of God, and everything I put into this kingdom; I am free from it. I am free from it. I am free from it. That is how I start to get free of Laban’s Syndrome is I start to put the Word of God in my heart. I put it in my mouth. I put it in my life. I do it everything and I’m still operating here, because I have to be in this world. I’ve got to live here. But I am free now from the evil of it.
So I ask you, I close with this: How did Jacob get wealthy? He used all of Laban’s sheep. He used all of Laban’s goats. He used all of Laban’s camels and he became so wealthy that the time came when he said, “I have to move away because their attitude has shifted towards me, because I have become so strong and wealthy.” You know what, most Christians want to do? They want to be free of Laban Syndrome. No! Don’t try to be free of it. Use it! Remember your covenant. Speak your covenant. You are going to keep speaking your covenant, day out and day in. The Word of God says: If you will not let it depart from your mouth day and night, you will receive all the blessing of it. And the day comes when the Lord says to you, “It is time to move. It is time to go. What have I got to do? You have to follow my voice now. Because now is the moment when your wealth transfer happens”. How is it going to happen? I promise you it is going to happen this way: That the Laban syndrome is going to set you up in the natural, that you think it is impossible for you to be free. In fact, it will seem like Laban is tightening his grip on you.
Don’t shout me down, come on, shout me down! Shout me down! Tell me, “You are preaching well, Pastor John, you are preaching well”. Come on now, come on. It will look like Laban Syndrome is tightening its grip on you but you are just going to have to be quite and go sit at the water troughs with Laban’s sheep, Laban’s goats, Laban’s camels and He will show you to start doing things that seem so ridiculous because it is ridiculous because it is by Faith. You just cut twigs and sticks and you put them in the water. That is not what changes the reproductive system, it is the covenant blessing of God that is working on the reproductive system that is working for you, because you didn’t walk away from Laban, you said, “I am going to use all you’ve got, Laban because it is my covenant, not yours.”
Huh, but Pastor John, it is so frustrating, it is so tedious, it is so full of ‘yuckiness’ to be in the Laban’s system. I know! That is why it is called, “Patient endurance”. That is why the Bible says in the book of Hebrews: Many have made shipwreck of their faith because they lost their hope. Huh, it is so’ yucky’ here! I know! I have been there. I am preaching this because I struggled with the same thing that you are thinking. The same things that you have got going in your heart, I have been there. I have wrestled with my own walk of Faith right there. In that same system, that I will say, “I didn’t know if God was going to reveal this to me but I will say, “You are not controlling me. You are not my boss, Jesus is my boss”.
But I get up in the morning and I go to Laban Syndrome’s work and work on the water troughs and feed the sheep. “Bless me Lord, Bless me Lord! I am a covenant son!” Come on, “Bless me Lord, Bless Me Lord!” How do you know you are a covenant son? Because my heart is so full of covenant that my tithe goes to God. In fact my tithe is not enough. I put 20% of my gross income into the ministry and then I still gave offerings and then I still gave a whole bunch of stuff after that because I understood my blessing and my covenant is not dependent on what Laban gives me. So here is the son of light. But Pastor John, you can’t walk in the son of men while you are a son of light. I know! But you have got to give it the chance to work. Patient endurance, steadfast Faith.
Remember when Brother Jerry said he is coming back and he is staying as long as God told him to stay? Remember what I did? I have got one of those moments and I am not finished with this message yet! You are going to have to come back next weekend to get the rest. Sorry, but it is the way it is. Hey Wallie? (Pastor John laughs) I know you have wrestled with this a long time, hey? All your answers today. I know! It is just as I saw you now, I remembered all the conversations we have had. Praise Jesus! Praise Jesus! Praise Jesus! Praise Jesus! Praise Jesus! Praise Jesus! We are sons of light. We are covenant children, we are blessed going out and blessed coming in. Hallelujah!! Glory to God! Glory to God! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!! Praise Jesus! Praise Jesus! Praise Jesus! Praise Jesus! Praise Jesus! Hallelujah!
And when you get up in the morning and Laban Syndrome is staring in your face because they want to put more work on you and pay you less than you got paid and you say, “This is not fair,” you say, “I understand Laban is at work. I am going to become the son of light here and I declare: You will not control me. My future does not belong to you. And I will go to your watering trough with a smile in the morning. Because I’m about to put little sticks and twigs in there that are going to produce for me and you think like you’ve got me under control, you got nothing on me”. Hallelujah. Praise You Jesus.(Ps John laughs …. whoooooo)
Once again, God’s anointing showed up here to verify His word today. You can, you can just, you’re under the anointing of God right now. You know that this is the truth that changes everything forever for you. This is the truth that God has wanted me to get to. From Jacobs constellation cause the blessing of the Father, the blessing of the future, the blessing of identity change are all needed and you will be free forever. Laban Syndrome can’t can’t can’t control you, if you don’t let it. You got to choose though; you can’t serve two masters. I’ll work the one so that God can use it to bless me because I’m a clay being, I’ve got to live here. So I agree with Jesus, “Don’t take me out of the world, just save me from the evil one.” Come on. This is simple.
So this was deliberate on my behalf. It’s time for an offering. Because this is a time to sow into this message and this anointing. And if you are a regular tither and you do your tithe by eft that’s ok, just put something in the offering today, just something, because this is your connection. Like I said before, T D Jakes wishes he could preach like this. Hallelujah. T D Jakes is a great preacher. Anyway, so am I. (laughs). Praise the Lord. I just said that because I do respect the way the man teaches and preaches. He’s got a part to play in the Body of Christ. Amen. Hallelujah.
Come let’s pray over it. Stand with me please, will you every body:
Father, this seed that we’ve sown into the offering today, is a token that we agree with Your Word. And that we will not allow Laban Syndrome to control us or mammon to be our source. We agree with Your words Heavenly Father and we agree with Your covenant, that we are the blessed sons of light and that what we put into our soul and our spirit on this lifetime, will reap a hundredfold return, both now and in eternity. And we thank You for a harvest that overtakes us right now, from this moment onwards, in Jesus’ name. And Father I call these people blessed, going in and going out. I call them favoured of God: That Your blessings overtake them and You favour them, Father. I pray that You protect them by Your word and the Blood of Jesus, that no harm will come near them or their dwelling place. And I thank You Father that this revelation will build strong in their lives and it will not be stolen out of their hearts. In Jesus’ name. And everybody said – Amen. Thanks for coming to church.
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