Scripture Reference: Genesis 24:50-58 (AMPC)
Praise You Jesus. Praise You Lord. Praise You Lord. Praise You Jesus. Thank You, Lord, that this is a moment, where we, can honour You with our heart, not just with our lips, but with our heart, for praise and worship, in the words that we sing are from, what is happening in our heart. We give You, our adoration from our heart. Thank You, that You are the One who has created praise and worship, not because You need it, but because we need it and as we worship You Lord, we enthrone You as the Lord and Master of our lives.
I, thank You Lord, that as we continue in this meeting today, that the message, that You have given me today, that’s in my heart to preach, that it will come out with power, these will be words of power. I, thank You Father, that demonstrations and signs and wonders will follow this Word that has been declared and decreed. I, thank You, Jesus. I thank You, Jesus. I praise You, Lord.
I declare, that every ear is ready to hear, every heart is open to receive, every mind is free of clutter and chaos, to receive Your Word today, Father. As I am aware of the great importance of this Word and this message today, I thank You, for it Lord. May it be to Your honour and glory, and to the setting free and the victory of your people, in Jesus Name. Hallelujah. Amen.
You may be seated. Praise the Lord.
There are many things that people say about what they believe, but what you say you believe is not what you really believe. What you really believe is the way you choose to live your life. The way you choose to live your life is the evidence of what you believe.
So, this message that I have today, I would normally be teaching this to business people, but and so some of what I’m going to say today will naturally relate to business people, but after praying much during the week, the Lord has released me to minister this on this particular Sunday. Hallelujah. God is good.
So, if you’ve been watching politics at a municipal level, you will realize that actually the municipal governments of Nelson Mandela Bay and Gauteng and Tshwane municipalities and some others are managed by coalition government. So, there’s been quite a lot of coalition politics happening in the last week or two or three and you know they’ve, the EFF in particular, has tried to hold voters, ordinary people, as well as political systems hostage. So, although they are a minority voted group of people, they have chosen this moment to actually make a statement of how much influence they yield.
So, they are holding the Democratic Alliance in particular, who are the administrative leaders of those municipalities, they are holding them hostage by saying if you don’t include us in the decision-making, and then let us do the decision-making with you, we are just going to keep holding no-confidence votes in the mayor’s and we’ll keep doing this with other players in the party and we’ll just get people fired and then we may change our coalition to the ANC and then you will no longer be the administrating party in local government.
So, I used this example because of what I’m going to preach today. So, if I had to call on somebody, to come and stand by me. Wynand, just come stand by me, please. So, Wynand has come to stand by me on my request. So, he was sitting there doing his own thing and then my words were spoken and the request that I made, pulled him with his energy, out of his chair, to come and stand by me. If I had not made the request, if I had not spoken words, his energy and what he was choosing to do, to be sitting there, nothing would have changed, it would have remained the same.
So, what is it that, that is it about me, that pulled him out of that chair, to bring him to me? Perhaps he has respect for me. I know he does. Perhaps he has honour for me. Hmm, perhaps there are some other things at work here that I don’t know about, that are in him. So, when I called him, he might have thought, if pastor John’s calling me, maybe there is an expectation I could have, that something here might happen for me. So, I don’t know about those things. What I know about is, I called him and the reason I called him is because I knew that he would come. Because, I have that relationship with him. Yes?
There is another part of what is at work here. Part of what’s at work is that even if he didn’t respect me, even if he didn’t honour me, even if there was no expectation from him, if I called him he may come and stand with me anyway, because of the political dynamics that are at work in a corporate event with all of you being here. So, he would come, because I’ve called him. He doesn’t want to look foolish in your sight, he doesn’t want to look bad in this setting and this setting is important, because it’s church. You all came to church this morning. So, in a church environment, even if he didn’t respect me, didn’t honour me, even if he didn’t have any expectation of what might happen here today, he would probably have come up, because he doesn’t want to be looking foolish sitting there when I called him, in front of you, because afterwards you might all say, “Hey Wynand. I mean the Pastor called you, why come you were stubborn and you just kept sitting there? What’s wrong with you?” So, maybe he would have come up here if none of those other things were at work, he would have come up here just because of you, because of what you might say afterwards and the pressure you would apply on him- afterwards. Right? So there is not just one factor that got him here, there’s a number of factors. Thank you, Wynand.
I’ve got through preaching for 10 weeks or more or less 8 weeks given that I missed a week or so, about Jacob’s Constellation, which I entitled that series of messages as ‘The Source and The Future’, and so last week I said to you, “If the Lord wills me, and permits me I will talk about Laban’s syndrome”, and the reason I said, “If the Lord permits me, is because of what God has revealed to me about Laban and about what happens with Laban.” So, I’m going to be telling you stories today from the Bible, and I’m going to expose Laban’s syndrome.
So now, either you believe this, if you don’t believe this you have to seriously evaluate:
If you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, if you believe that He died for you, if you believe that you have received Him in your heart, then you will believe that there is a God, that there is a Saviour, and that everything the Saviour and God has provided for you, all of those things must be available to you. Is that a fair assumption? Otherwise why would you receive Jesus in your heart?
So, you remember my normal question, my mandate question? What’s the point of being a Christian? So, the point of being a Christian, yes is so when we die we go to heaven, but if your only reason for wanting to be a Christian, so you go to heaven, and not hell, you are living – and you will always continue to live – as a little child in a household, because you cannot grow, because you only believe that your primary function of what you are on earth for, is for you. Jesus is just your Saviour that prevents you from going to hell and going to heaven. So, if that is the only reason you’re a Christian then everything else is still about you, it’s not about Him. So, if I ask you, “What is the point of being a Christian then we have to say, “Yes it’s to go to heaven, but secondly, so that we can be spiritual, so that we can become more Christian, more Christ-like.” So if we don’t want to become more Christ-like, today is your day where you are going to seriously evaluate where you stand. If you don’t want more of Jesus in your life, you’re going to understand a few things today.
Most Christians are fairly neutral in their lives about God. When I say most, I’m talking about the majority of Christians that have had an experience of receiving Jesus into their heart as Lord and Saviour, and then they get busy about life and they live life with the energy, the skills and the assignment – often – sometimes not, sometimes with the assignment that God has given them, but they do it in such a way, that God is not part of what they do, they separate their walk with God from how they live life. So, if they go to church they go to church on a Sunday and then they live the rest of their lives the way they want to live their lives. This is a function of the Laban syndrome. So if you bear with me and I’m going to tell you about the Laban syndrome. I started this by saying to you, “What’s the point of being a Christian?”
Okay, if you are saved so that you can go to heaven and not go to hell, great! But the point of being a Christian is so that you can become spiritual, because spiritual people – and what’s the point of being spiritual – because only spiritual people can see into the spirit realm and only spiritual people have faith to bring what God’s got in the Spirit into the earth. Natural people who are Christians cannot see spiritual things and they don’t know how to bring spiritual things from the spirit realm into the earth.
You have to become spiritual. That means you’ve got to think like Jesus, you’ve got to speak like Jesus, and you’ve got to live like Jesus. Then you are spiritual. That’s the definition of a spiritual person. Hallo. Now, if you believe all of that, that there is God there is Jesus, there is all of this, then you must believe that God created beings with a will. The first time He did that, He created a being with a will, but He created them in the image of an angel he was the archangel called Lucifer. He was beautiful and magnificent in every way with the creative ability. The Bible describes him with such beauty and describes him in such a way that he had organ pipes and all kinds of instruments built into his being. And God gave him the ability to make music. Which is why you will find that predominantly the most progressive music is made in the world system before it gets into the church.
Because often, I mean just not so long ago I heard a story about Lady Gaga who openly confessed about her encounter with a spirit being who offered her fame and offered her all kinds of stuff if she would give herself over to the ways of darkness, which she did. This report that I heard was Lady Gaga giving her life to God because she wanted to be free of all of that in her life. She’s not the first one to come public with that. There are many, many other musicians that have had that.
So if you have to, if you believe that there’s God then you have to believe that there is an alternate will in the universe that is opposed to the will of God. It’s the will of the devil and it’s a dark force. So when I say, what’s the point of being antichrist? So remember I ask the question what’s the point of being a Christian? So that you can go to heaven and not hell, for sure.
So if I go to the other side and say well what’s the point of being antichrist? Well nobody’s going to really ask you that question because what’s the answer to it? Because you want to go to hell, rather than heaven. Come on now, if I ask the question on one side then I’ve got to answer the question on the other side, what’s the point of being antichrist? Or against Christ? Or not receiving Christ? Well, that’s because, no you’re going to say, it’s not because I want to go to hell because I don’t know what hell is and I don’t know, so if you’re in that condition you won’t believe about God and you won’t believe about hell, and you won’t believe about heaven.
But sitting here with you today, if I ask the question said, what’s the point of being antichrist? Then you would say, “Well, it’s because I want to go to hell rather than to heaven and I would make that choice.” Well, if you knew what hell is, you wouldn’t. So then you would say, “Okay, I don’t want to really go to hell.” But then you’ve got to go to the next question …. If you are antichrist, then what is, what’s the point of the antichrist behaviour pattern? Right?
So then you have to say well the point of the antichrist behaviour pattern is to live for me and to promote all of the stuff that’s in the kingdom of darkness that’s in the kingdom of antichrist. So what is the kingdom of antichrist look like? Well, the kingdom of antichrist looks like, everybody can do anything they want as they want. Watch this now, but in the same way if I say, I’m a Christian, that wants to go to heaven not hell, but I want to become spiritual what do I have? I have access to God’s spiritual ways, which can bring God’s life into the earth. If I’m an antichrist living person, then I through my behaviour pattern have access to the antichrist order, the antichrist ways of darkness that will influence me and influence other people, how? In the Christian way it’s through faith, in the antichrist way, it’s through self-ishness. Myself ways.
So what happens is that I become somebody that is constantly being influenced by words, ideas, theologies, temporary momentary desires and lusts. Because those are the things that influence darkness. They promote the kingdom of darkness. They bring on to the earth the antichrist ways the anti-God ways. The end of those ways are destruction. What is the end of the spiritual person’s ways that brings spirit life from heaven to earth? Is life.
So the Bible is very clear, God’s very clear in the Book of Revelations. He says, “If you are neutral.” He calls it, lukewarm. “I will spit you out of my mouth.” Because you have made a choice, not to be hot or cold. God says, “Make a choice of how you want to live your life, live it hot in other words live it for Christ and live it spiritual or live it cold.” But be bold about how you’re going to live this life, because when you live neutral, you live in Laban syndrome.
So, Laban syndrome. So if I had to ask you this question today, do you really want to live for the devil? Would you say, no? But here’s what happens is that people start making decisions for themselves, they started becoming a custom to the desires that give expression continuously in their lives. Sometimes that is demonstrated in anger, sometimes that is demonstrated in substances, sometimes that is demonstrated in violence, abuse of all kinds of natures. It’s demonstrated in different ways.
So if I asked you today, do you think that rape is from God? So then where is rape from? It’s the antichrist. How many of you would like to support the ways of the antichrist? How many of you support rape? No one, right? So but how did rape which is an expression of violence, sexual abuse and all manner of intimidation and control, how did that become something that is in the lives of men?
It wasn’t because one man decided I’m going to do this. No, it is because there is an anti-force darkness in the earth that works through the desires of a man that became unfulfilled in one way, so then he decided to take control of his desires in the sense that he used his energy, his strength, he used intimidation, he used all kinds of violence to get what he wants.
So if I said who supports rape, you would say never, don’t want any part of it but if you stay neutral then you’re not living for Jesus, what are you doing? You’re living the way other people live, the other people are the people in the world system that have made a choice to not live for God. The spirits that they bring into your life are spirits that begin to influence you and you won’t know it, because they are not going to come and present themselves of, “We are the antichrist spirits and we are preventing you from doing what Christ wants you to do”.
They are going to slowly begin to bring suggestions, manipulations, ideas, thoughts, desires in you that says, “It’s okay to live for yourself, isn’t it? So live for yourself and eat, drink and be merry”. I think I’ll do that, why not? I mean after all, I’ve got energy, I’ve got skill, I’ve got talent, I’ve got whatever is good going for me. I think I’ll use all of that for myself, thank you very much. Ah! You think you influenced yourself to think like that?
I’m going to give you, so the reason I set this all up for you, is I want you to understand that Laban’s syndrome is in the Old Testament, it is revealed in a man, but like any man that is operating in the world is either influenced by one of two things; the ways of God or the ways of the devil. Every one of us have the, every one of us have the possibility of being influenced by God or by the devil. So let me say this; when I read some of these things out here today you may find yourself in some of these.
So let me say; one day I had some American visitors come and visit me and they came and ministered in the church and we went away to the bush and I’ve told the story before, but it it’s good for today. I found myself having quite intense debates with them about many Bible doctrines and Bible things. And we came and there was quite a lot of, even though it was relaxed and friendly and we’d spent the days together, there was quite a lot of intensity in what we said. Got home, they were staying in our home and next morning woke up and we gathered together in the breakfast room, but the Lord woke me up early in the morning and when I woke up He immediately said to me, “John I want you to go and read it, a Scripture”. So I went to that Scripture and I read that Scripture in the Bible and it spoke about a Pharisee heart and this is what He said to me, He said, “Your discussions and the way you’ve approached your conversations with these people is the direct result of a Pharisee heart that is in you”. When He showed it to me I mean, He’s so gentle and loving when He showed it to me, you know, when God shows you something like that in the Spirit, He shows you a lot about yourself. He shows you a lot about what that spirit is doing to you, how you’ve opened yourself to that spirit and other and you immediately see like on a white screen many things in your life that have been affected by that, that’s in your heart.
Of course when He showed me that, He was very gentle and loving about it, and I’m just giving you the headlines. But from the early morning I began to weep before God and I just asked Him to forgive me and I repented from it and I said, “Lord wherever I go in my life, please help me to always be aware of this Pharisee spirit that’s potentially at work in me.”. Because there are many things that are influenced in our lives and it is only God’s revelation that can reveal it to you and if something is actually in you and you don’t let God deal with it, then it will affect everything.
So, I, I mean, I, I mean it was a moment of true understanding of what a Pharisee is, what a Pharisee heart looks like and how everyone of us can actually have a Pharisee heart, it’s like a pride. You may think I don’t live a prideful life, until something happens and you’ve observed just how much pride you have and then one day maybe you find out how much your pride has affected a relationship or relationships or other things in your life and then when God reveals to you your great pride, let me tell you, you will fall on your knees and weep because He will show you how you could have lived without pride in an instance you will see it.
So don’t look at me like I’m some weirdo because I declared to you today that I had a Pharisee heart moment with God and since that day till now I’m still always aware. Every time hey, Lord I’ve got a watch out for the Pharisee heart that wants to come up in me, so when I speak about this today and you find yourself here just understand you may have these symptoms because of influences or in the world. But you can be free of it. You can be free of it.
So Laban is a man that was used by spiritual forces, he made choices in his life that allowed him to behave in a certain manner. So if the first slide is up here.
The Laban’s syndrome or the Laban spirit, here, I’m going to give you some characteristics of the Laban spirit. It’s a spirit working through the personality and the choices of humans. So I’ve just got through telling you that. It’s a spirit that works through your personality. So I say your personality because it works through your soul. It works through the things that appeal to you and the way you go about life, in your personality, your soul. There are many people that are dead to Christ and their spirit is not alive to Christ so you can’t influence their spirit but you can influence their soul.
The main purpose of the Laban syndrome is to control and direct what God has declared over you so as to prevent you from becoming all of what God has planned for you. Effectively preventing you and others from establishing His kingdom, His Covenant and the Church on the earth.
That’s the whole point of the Laban syndrome. The reason I had to put it this way is because God declared His blessing over Abraham, Isaac and Jacob long before the church was the church, but they were still God’s people. And the covenant that God established for, with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is still our covenant today and we can live in all of the blessings of that covenant and use the covenant that God made with Abraham for our lives right now.
So let me just, let me just say, my son was born to me and my sons know that more than just being a father and son, we have certain covenant agreement, relationships, positions that we take. So what is, so our conversations about what our covenant is has got nothing to do with you.
A father and son might have a relationship that is based on culture, it may be based on personality, may be based on many things. I’ve had conversations with my sons that base our relationship on covenant. Firstly, on the covenant of God’s Word. Firstly, on the covenant of God’s Word and capacity of God’s Word that is in my life and then depending on the way he conducts his life according to the will of God we have a covenant.
So one of the covenants that he knows that I have with him, that it doesn’t matter what his behaviour is like, I will love him with without absolute any condition. From when he was a teenager there is nothing he can do that can disappoint me. There is nothing that he can do that can enhance me. There is nothing that he can do that is important to me that if he, if he succeeds or fails, will change the way I love him and the way that I will embrace him and the way that I will have relationship with him. Because I did not want our relationship at these years of life that we are now at, to be based on how good he was, how much he achieved, how much he didn’t achieve and how successful he was. I did not want those elements in our relationship.
Because I don’t find that element in my relationship with God. He doesn’t care about my achievements, He doesn’t care about my condition, whether I’m bad or good and He doesn’t care about my performance. He died for me before I even knew anything about myself, He died for me. So there’s nothing about myself that can change the way He’s going to love me when He died for me before I even was born. So there’s nothing I can offer Him that will change His love towards me. So is my love towards Garth, covenant. Hallelujah.
So he knows, he knows and I know and that’s between us and our family, that a son he can lean on the covenant with me whenever it’s needed. Now, my covenant stands in my will. If I die my covenant with my son will continue to stand because my will reflects my covenant with my son. So when his kids grow up, my covenant will, will still stand for his kids, because these are the terms of our covenant. So it doesn’t matter if his kids have kids have kids, if there is still access to the covenant through Garth with me, they can still access their covenant with me.
So I can access the covenant through Jesus, all the way back to Abraham. So when God said, “I will multiply you, I will increase you, I will bless you and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through you and you will be able to bless yourself because you’re in covenant with Me.” That covenant still stands with me today. I can directly access that covenant through Jesus.
So when I say the Laban syndrome, 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 planned for you. Effectively preventing you and others from establishing His Kingdom, His Covenant and His Church on the earth. In other words, the Laban syndrome is directly designed to prevent you from making an active choice to say I want to be spiritual, because the minute you say I want to be spiritual, you begin to walk in a spiritual way. And you begin to do things that says I want what’s spiritual, I want’s what spiritual, I want more spiritual, I want more Jesus, I want more of God’s ways, I want to be involved with God’s ways, I want to bring His kingdom on the earth, I want to establish His ways on the earth, I want to be one of those that when I get to heaven He’s going to say, “Well done good and faithful servant” because you had many things like Laban syndrome that you had to contend with in order for you to be spiritual.
So Laban, was a man and if you go back to my Source and the future documents, he was a man that and I’ve got the scriptures here, but I’m going to tell you the story today because that’s easier for me to tell you the story. So when the servant that came from Abraham as you all know, when he came to the city where Nahor lived or the son of Nahor which is Bethuel, whose daughter was Rebekah and a son was Laban. He brings his camels and he brings a lot of wealth with him from Abraham and he prays a prayer to God and says help me to find a woman for my master and his son Isaac. So when he comes there he meets this woman, she gives him water and she gives water to the camels, he puts jewellery on her, she goes back to her dad and brother and mother and tells them all that had happened and Laban runs out of the house before dad, before mum, before sister, Laban runs out of the house and he goes to the servant of Abraham and he says, “Come inside we’ve got a place to lodge for you and we’ve got, come and eat and come and drink”. And he says, “I’m on assignment, I can’t come and do any of those thing until I know that you guys are why I am here. If you are not why I am here, I can’t come and sit in your house, okay?”
So Laban says, “No, I’ve got everything prepared for you” so he takes him into his house. So notice the father was the one who should have gone and greeted him. Laban is the one who ran outside to go and greet him, because what did he see? Wealth, jewellery, opportunity. So he runs out and he says come and he says I can’t eat anything he says I’ve got to know what my assignment is. So he says, “Well speak, tell me”. Why Laban? So he tells him and the Bible ends with the story that at some point Laban’s father came into the room, because when he got finished telling the story everything that he was both Laban and Bethuel, father and son they both say that this is God, so let me just. Don’t worry about the verses if you can’t find it. This is what they said this is what Laban and Bethuel answered, this is found in Genesis 24 verse 50 “The thing comes from the Lord; we cannot speak to you either bad or good to you. What do you first see when the man says this thing comes from the Lord we cannot speak good or bad, neutral. They’re neutral, if they recognize that this is God here why not stand for God, why stand neutral.
That’s a very important question which Laban answers a long way further down the line, so he says: 50This thing comes from the Lord we cannot speak bad or good to you. 51Rebecca is before you; take her and go, and let her be the wife of your master’s son as the Lord has said. 52And when Abraham’s servant heard their words, he bowed himself to the ground before the Lord. 53And the servant brought out jewels of silver, jewels of gold, and garments and gave them to Rebekah; he also gave precious things to her brother and her mother. 54Then they ate and drank, he and the men who were with him, and stayed there all night. And in the morning they rose and he said. Send me away to my master. But [Rebecca’s] brother and mother who was the one that he gave the wealth to, the mother and brother. 55But the mother and the brother said, let the girl stay with us a few days- at least ten; then she may go (Genesis 24:55).
Why? Tell me why? Come on this obvious and logical, why? They want to milk it; they want more money they want more jewels. 56But the servants said to them do not hinder and delay me… What did I say was the primary purpose of the Laban syndrome was? To prevent you from bringing the purposes and the plans of God and the kingdom of God and the Covenant of God to pass in your life and they just said stay ten days. What would have happened when ten days was over? You got more wealth stay another ten; it’s a long journey home. Later on we find from Jacob that the journey is about four hundred miles. And they said, we will call the girl and ask her what is her desire. So they called Rebecca and said to her, Will you go with this man? And she said, I will go. (Genesis 24:50-58).
Here is a disciple spirit, here is a Christian spirit, here is a covenant spirit. She didn’t know who Isaac was, she didn’t know who Abraham was, she didn’t know what manner of people these were. The wealth that they gave her was great and all well, but she could have said, no listen my parents my folks I’m never going see to them again give me ten days and her destiny would have been delayed, maybe even prevented. Disciple says, you speak I go, let’s go now let’s forget about what’s in the past, I’m moving into my future. Hallelujah.
Laban syndrome. So characteristic number one are the main source of influence
Someone who is functional in the Laban syndrome.
The person who is involved with the Laban syndrome or has a Laban syndrome influence in their life is:
Don’t shout me down because I’m preaching really good today. Remember what I said the primary, the primary influence of the Laban syndrome is to prevent you from getting everything that God has for you, and God fulfilling the reason why you were born.
If you don’t think that you are born on the earth for God’s reason, then you are already in Laban syndrome, because you’re already so self-absorbed that you don’t know that God called you to this earth for a purpose that He has in mind, not for yourself. And so then, you are already about your credentials, your accomplishments, your achievements, and they are the main source of influence that you trade with in your life. You love money, and you love riches, and you love wealth.
Listen, I told you all of us are susceptible to this. I’m not preaching to anyone in particular. I’m preaching to the spirit that wants to control our future. I’m uncovering a truth here that is going to destroy the works of this enemy in our life if you will believe it.
Status and honor are important tools in the person, and used by the person. Very savvy and opportunity sensitive. I’ll tell you people who are involved in the Laban syndrome, when they just get a sniff of, there is money and there is wealth, they are going to run and they’re going to do everything they can to make the people and the person or the opportunity sweet, and how can I get involved here, and what can I do, and how can I…
Watch the next bit of information that I give you today. Revelation by the Holy Spirit. This person is, he:
This is someone that is very, very involved in the Laban syndrome. Nou wat sê julle nou? (What do you say now?) I know, when you look at these things you say, but listen, this is just a worldly, savvy person who knows how to make money and make deals. Exactly, exactly.
A Laban person is neutral towards God and His ways (may even be a Christian) … he may practice…. (And the Lord had me…He gave it to me this way, and I wrote it this way, because he may not be a Christian. He may be a Christian that is evolved around Christians, because he understands that in some certain Christian circles there is wealth, and there’s opportunity, there is status, there is honour. And if they are opportunity sensitive they will know that there’s lots of stuff where the loving hearts of Christians are open towards them. So the Lord had me write it down this way.
They will stay neutral and they will do everything, they’ll get all these benefits and advantages until there’s the covenant believer, a disciple of God who will stand for God and God’s ways in His Kingdom. And he will stand and he will say I’m calling you on this. I’m calling you on your ceremonies, I’m calling you on your ways, I’m calling you on your speech, I’m calling you on what you’re doing. I’m calling you on it. Show me your heart.
And then the Laban syndrome is going to be forced to make a choice. Because right in that moment, they are going to say, “I don’t want to make this stand. I don’t want to make this stand.” Why? Because if the Laban syndrome is always after the love of, is a lover of money, he is always after the opportunity, he is always after the status, is always after the credentials, is always after the honour. So for them to not be neutral, means they’ve got to make a stand for hot or for cold.
The Laban syndrome in our lives, in the person that influences in that spirit, does not want us to make a decision for hot or for cold, in case you lose your credentials. In case you lose your status. In case you lose your money. In case you lose your friends. In case you lose your honour and status among people, that you know are there to serve you to get whatever you want. So don’t make a decision for hot because it might isolate you and alienate you from other people.
Because Laban syndrome people don’t like radical fanatical. Because it will affect your credentials. In the short term, it may appear that way. In the long term it will enhance your credentials. Because God is never going to be in debt to any person who stands for Him. When you stand for Him, He’s going to honor you, He is going to exalt you, He’s going to promote you, He’s going to bless you, and He’s going to make your name famous where you couldn’t even believe it will be famous, if you will stand for God. And He can do it in one year that would take 20 years to do it in. Because if you believe God, and you become spiritual, it can change everything in your future.
But don’t make me make a commitment, that’s too radical. I like my neutrality here, because if I have to deal with very radical people in the world that “dop” a lot, and they drink a lot, and they corrupt a little bit, and they this and that. My neutrality says I’ll move over there and I’ll finesse this, and I’ll be easy with it, and I’ll work with it and I’ll kind of, you know. I’ll manage it with my value systems, but I will find a way to get commission to them that is legal. Or I’ll get commission, or I’ll get corruption money to them that can’t come back and hurt me, because I’m neutral. What you’re saying is actually the Laban syndrome is more powerful to me in my life than God is.
It may be that right now that that is the way it is, but today you are faced with a choice. Today the revelation of God has come to you. Today Truth has been declared to you.
The Laban spirit, next one, the Laban spirit:
That’s why Christians that are very strong under the Laban influence, they will recognize favour, they will recognize blessing, they will recognize skill and they will recognize the order of the way things are so that they can position themselves for advantage. Isn’t that what Laban did?
People who are under the influence of the Laban spirit:
So in particular if a Christian comes around to way, other Christians that speak in a particular “Christianese”, you know, Baptists have a way of speaking, us faith people we have a way of speaking, and the NG people have a way of speaking, you know, Different groups of Christians have different ways of speaking. So the Laban spirit will actually find the way that that language is and they will use that language so that people will perceive them to be part of that culture and part of that way for their advantage.
They deliberately, the Laban spirit will:
A person who is involved in the Laban syndrome:
10. May appear peaceful but will often be ready to be very vengeful, they hold grudges. Sometimes small, sometimes big, but they hold grudges. And sometimes in certain people they will become violent (mostly not physical but it could include physical violence). But their vengeance will take effect; I’ll withhold money from you, I won’t do this deal with you, I’m going to take you on like this, I’ll start spreading rumors about your reputation around the place. Vengeful.
And my last one that I have for you today is; the Laban syndrome:
Because if you have a heart for God and you are under people or a system or an organization that has a strong influence of Laban on it, God is honour bound if you love Him to set you free. And part of what He’s doing to you today, if you haven’t figured this out yet, He’s given me the revelation going all the way back to 2010 when I first preached about the Laban syndrome. He’s given me the revelation all the way going back…listen, I’ve got many things that the Lord has given me revelation of that I haven’t had the opportunity to share with you fully yet, but the time has come. I told you the time has come that these things are going to start coming out of me, because the Lord is releasing me to preach on some of these things. Because it’s too long that the Christians have been burdened with these kind of spirits and they’re active in the church and they’re active around you and they’re active in the world because it’s designed to stop you from reaching your assignment, your purpose, your ability to walk with God and be free in God.
What do you say Wynand, I’m preaching well today, hey? This is good news, because if you could see this spirit, then you could say, “Hey, wait a minute, I don’t have to be part of it, I can watch this spirit, so how do I come against this?” Well, I have covenant, I’ve got words, I’ve got faith, I’ve got love and I’ve got wisdom. And these are the things that defeat the spirit of Laban. And often you need patience, patience to be free of Laban spirit. Ah I’m out of time already, not really, I’ve got 5 or 10 minutes still, are you alright with 5 or 10 minutes? Come om, this is some of the best stuff you’ve ever heard in your life.
So Laban, you know, Jacob runs away from Esau and he runs away because now he’s got the birthright. Remember I told you we have the blessing of the Father, we have the blessing the future and we have the blessing of identity change. And so Jacob is on the run from his father and his brother because he had the birthright and he got the blessing.
And so he arrives at this place Haran, and he finds Laban there. So, he first actually has an encounter with Rachel and if you read the story he saw Rachel o Rachel my beautiful eyes Rachel. Remember I said that last week? O Rachel my Rachel, I mean you read the whole story you can find this whole story in this particular chapter of Genesis which is chapter … and I suggest you read Genesis chapter 29, 30, 31, 32, good reading. And you get a modern translation which is easy even easier reading but it is good reading.
But he comes to this place and they all waiting, all the shepherds are waiting to feed their, to give water to their sheep, and so then he finds these girls all around the watering hole. And while you waiting, you got to roll the stone away so Jacob takes the stone, big strong man, some people think he wasn’t, he was. Big strong man he rolled the stone away, that wasn’t his forte to be strong and be in the field, but he was strong enough to roll the stone away. And the water comes trickling out and he feeds Laban’s animals, as part of serving his daughters. They go back to Laban; he goes to work with Laban for one month, because he loves Rachel. After being a month with Laban, Laban says to him, “There’s no point in you staying here for no reason. So what is it that you want to do here?” He says, “Well actually I’m in love with your daughter Rachel, o Rachel my Rachel, I’m in love with your daughter and I will give you seven years of my life and work for you to get this girl.”
Yes, eyes in a girl can be quite a powerful thing hey? Seven years nè? Laban says, “Sharp.” Deal sensitive, opportunistic, manipulative, seeking for advantage, wanted information. How much information do you think he got about Jacob in 30 days? Everything! So he says, “You have a deal you can marry my daughter Rachel for seven years.” Wedding ceremony, have a wedding ceremony they all having a dop, they’re having a drink. The Bible says they were drinking. The next morning Jacob wakes up and there is someone else lying next to him and her name is Leah, not Rachel. So he goes to Laban and he says, “What have you done to me?” So what does Laban do? He readjusts the rules; he readjusts the rules because remember it is in his nature to get everything for his advantage. He can identify the anointing, he can identify favour he can identify blessing he can identify who’s got skill, he can identify opportunistic moments and he wants to always extended – remember the first time the wealth came he said, “Give me ten days.” So now it is seven years and so when he wakes up in morning he finds another girl lying next to him and he goes to Laban and he says, “What’s the story?” He says, “Our custom …” they never discussed the custom before the night was consummated “our custom cannot give the younger daughter before the older daughter. But if you will give me another seven years you can have Rachel right now.”
Laban syndrome; wants to control your future, wants to prevents you from reaching your assignment, because he will recognize that Laban syndrome recognizes that you are a covenant child of the Most High God that has the favour of God and the blessing of God and the order of God and the authority of God in your mouth and in your heart and if you knew all of that, you will break free from the Laban syndrome. And you will not let any of those things that are around you, money, rent, money for food every month, that’s all part of Laban syndrome, designed to control, so you can’t think past the next month. Because the favour, the blessing, the skill and all of your contacts your connections everything is designed to keep you from reaching the assignment of God on your life, your purpose for your life and all the good things that God had you born into earth for.
You are not here just because you are born! I don’t know how many times I have to say this publicly, but in eternity when it was a man and a woman which you would call your biological father and biological mother, when they somehow came together, it doesn’t matter what the condition of the consummation was, God decided your spirit must come into the earth and it must come with gifts and anointings and skills and all of that and the whole purpose for your coming was to give glory to Him and make His kingdom come.
But there are so many people out there that don’t do that – Yes! And that’s not God’s desire. That is the ways of men and the spirits of darkness that are antichrist and they lead them into living however they feel best to live and survive and to do things for themselves, because it will always worship the god of self. Whether you know it or not the god of self is a big god. It has its own ceremonies. It has its own desires it has its own convictions, its own belief systems. I’m not preaching to any one in particular here today you understand? But every time you feel this thing rise up inside … I want to do more for God, I want to do more for God, what happens is inevitably you go away from here and you get into the normal order of your ceremonies of your living. And then pretty soon the ceremonies of your living become such a logical real process that the revelation God gave you in church on Sunday become so far from you that you can’t access that anointing anymore and the Laban syndrome dominates you through reality, and reason, and everything that’s relevant to you and how you can live your life.
And so, if I asked you today: “Do you really want to stay in bondage to the forces of darkness?” How many of you will say yes? Not one of you will say yes, I really want to make a choice to live in the darkness.
Just like Jacob. If Jacob knew that Leah was going to come and lie next to him, he would have been wide awake! No drinkies, you know, keep that, you know, Amarula Cream away from me. No drinkies, I’m alert here, I’m wide awake here. Who is this girl? I want to look in her eyes. Those eyes that mesmerized me, I want to check it out, but that Laban syndrome dulled his senses.
So when he woke up in the morning, his future was by seven years taken away from him. I’ve got good news for you: God is in the business of restoration. He’s in the business of reconnecting you to your purpose that you were born, your assignment for why you’re on the earth. He’s in the business of connecting you to the people that He said, “These are the best people that can allow you to get to your potential, and all the things that you’re supposed to become”.
Many times God brings people into my life, and then I get into their face, because I have an anti-Laban syndrome anointing upon me, and they come into my life and they come and say, we want to be part of this, we want to be part of this, and then the next minute I’m calling them on it and say, “Where’s your walk with God? Come on step up to the plate here you can’t be a Laban around me.”
Sometimes it takes 20 years to be free of Laban. Sometimes it takes 20 years to be free of Laban, but I’ll tell you what: God has given me the revelation that if there’s a Laban around me, he’s bleeding all of my wealth, and he is using me, using my status, my anointing, my blessing, my favour, my connection for his own advantage. And there will come a time, and if you read it there, there will come a time when God speaks to Jacob, and He says, “Jacob, am I not your God? It’s time for you to go and become everything that I prophesied over you, that I spoke over you, that I blessed you, it’s time for you to go and be all of those things”.
“Well, how am I going to get there, God?” “You go to Laban”, and I’m telling you the story now. “You got to Laban, and you tell him you don’t want any more wages, you don’t want to have anything more of his. All you want is anything that is born that is speckled and spotted and got stripes on it, that stock belongs to you.
Go read what God did to them. You know, his act of faith was to strip barks and put stripes, and throw them into the water. What do you think if you ask a farmer stripping bark off a tree, is going to do to animals that come to drink the water, while they’re mating? The DNA is not in the water or the sticks that you strip, the DNA is in God, anointing the seed!
It’s not the fact that you decide one day, hey I think I’m going to see if I can do business over here. And then suddenly you look and say, “Here’s these doors are opening for me”, and God says, “Hold it, hold it, don’t put in a proposal yet.” “But everybody’s putting in proposals!” “Don’t, not yet, not yet.” “Why not?” “I don’t know, I don’t know, just hold on”, and so you don’t and you don’t and you wait and you wait and God says, “Do it now, and do it like this, and go and see this person”, and suddenly all these people had to put all this energy, and all this work. God says that’s the way to do it.
And the favour comes, and the business comes, and the profit comes and the anointing comes and He can restore your life, that twenty years of poverty – He can restore you in one year into wealth. And if you think you know how to make money, believe me God knows how to make much, much more money than you can, and He can do it in an instant, an instant. Praise the Lord, Hallelujah!!
I’ve got lots more that I can tell you. I wonder if I should do this again another week? One more week because this Laban syndrome, it’s a dinges jong. It is, it’s a devil’s thing this. It is, it kind of slowly dulls your senses and in Jacob’s life, that took him 20 years to wake up and it took a Word of God to wake him up. I got News for you: Today you got woken, meaning ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding maybe I should go (imitating hooter sound) Bi-ba, Bi-ba, bi-ba it’s your wake-up call, today.
If you are in business, you can watch these Laban’s syndromes tactics at work every day. As a believer, Laban syndrome has always made me want to puke, vomit, Hallelujah. And so, you know, the wisdom of God is the way to defeat anything in your life. The faith that God gives you and the wisdom that God gives you.
Ja nee ek moet nou stop anders gaan ek weer vir nog ‘n halfuur preek. Nee, daar is ander goed wat moet uitkom, ne? Prys die Here, en as ek eers begin Afrikaans praat, dan moet julle weet, dan kom die salwing eers aan ne. En as hierdie salwing aankom, dan moet julle weet, gaan ons eers begin met kerk. En al die Afrikaanse mense sê ja! Laat die kerk begin, laat die preek begin.” Hallelujah, praise Jesus, praise Jesus, praise Jesus.
It is time for us to be free, it is time for us to walk in covenant, it is time for us to walk in blessing and really; I thank You Lord. Yes, He showed me right now that it is appropriate for me to do this next week, because I did want to get into talking about the blessing factor. When God releases you from Laban and the Laban syndrome; how that blessing factor kicks in, but you have to be no more neutral. You can’t be a neutral believer. So if you have heard me preach about all of Jacob’s blessings and all of the wealth of Abraham and Isaac and all of that, then you will know that wealth is not something that was unknown to Jacob. He knew about extreme wealth; he grew up with lots of wealth. He knew that wealth was his portion, but when you’re with Laban you forget.
Won’t you stand with me, please? Hallelujah. How many of you got something out of this church service today? Now don’t, now come on hey, you have got to commit to me. You have to come back next Sunday and find all the people that was in church today, you know you have to come back, you have to come listen to Part 2. The good stuff is in Part 2. This is just unveiling Laban; the good stuff is in Part 2. Magtig man, moenie my so bekyk nie. Sê, “Ja Pastoor.” (Don’t look at me like that”). And All the Canadians and all of the Americans that are watching us say, “What language is he talking there?” You know, praise the Lord. Glory to Jesus!
I feel lead by the Holy Spirit to pray this prayer today and I want you all to pray it with me, because this is where it starts. I want us to just make a recommitment in our hearts that we make Jesus Lord and Saviour of our life. That is all of us and that we make a choice to be spiritual and allow God to lead us into becoming spiritual. Remember this is a lifetime journey; this is not just a onetime small decision; this is a lifetime journey. At times you will be better at it than other times, but you got to make a choice that you want to be free of this neutrality, so that you can attract the favour and the blessings of God into your life. You want to make a confession like that with me today? Come on, let’s all pray it together.
Say, “Lord, we make a decision today that Jesus is the Lord and Saviour of our lives and we make a decision together today, that we don’t want to be neutral Christians, we want to be spiritual. I may feel weak, I may feel a bit hopeless, but I am relying on Your strength, to get me through this decision, in Jesus name. And now I receive Your favour, I receive Your blessing, and I receive Your anointing to break every yoke of bondage in my life, in Jesus name. Amen. Hallelujah”.
That is a good prayer. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah. Praise Jesus, praise Jesus. And because you know there is no religious bone in my body. Thank God I am not religious, I am relational. There is a big difference in being religious and relational. Relational is alive and active and fluid and changing. Religious is only got ceremonies and all kinds of things have got to obey and do stuff. I don’t want any part of that, I had a lot of that when I was growing up, “Ek wil niks van dit weet nie”. I want Jesus living in my life, every day, relationally, talking to me, me to Him and we pull this thing through in life. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Praise, Jesus. So, go in peace and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.
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