Scripture Reference: Genesis 24:10; Genesis 24:21; Genesis 24:50-56; Genesis 24:57-58 (AMPC).
Glory to God. Father we thank You that today we are here for Your eternal purpose; to worship You and praise You and exalt Your name on high. Thank You for Your Word that will get spoken today Lord, and I pray Father that each one of us will be blessed through the serving of Your Word today, in the Name of Jesus, amen. Before you sit down just greet somebody and say I’m ready for the Word and I’m blessed today. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah.
I’m having the time of my life, how about you? It’s a really exciting time to be alive, you know, hallelujah, hallelujah. Praise the Lord. It is an amazing revelation to me and I continue to be amazed, I really I continue to be amazed at this revelation that right now in heaven there are all of the great men of Faith that have gone before us; and because of the way we are praising Jesus, because of the place that we give His Word in our lives and because we understand authority, those men are, those spirits are actually aware of what we are doing. Even though they’re across the earth, I mean in America time now, many people are going to church in America now. So, you might argue that on that part of the hemisphere of the earth there more people going to church than there are people going to church on this part of the hemisphere. If you go to Australia and New Zealand they’re all sleeping now, you know, (Pastor John laughing). Pastor Lynn took over my preaching there, you realise that, you know, for like ten seconds there.
But, you know, wherever the Church is praising Jesus by faith and has an understanding of the Word, the great spirits of men; that have been made perfect, that have gone before us are actually aware of us. You know, there is this eternal cloud that is a witness to everything that is happening on the earth that glorifies Jesus. It’s amazing. It’s amazing, you know, and they are actually joining their joy and their praise to God with us; because eternity… we are in the same eternity bubble. For them we’re just in bodies that have yet to join them because we live with Jesus by faith, we are in the same eternity bubble as them. That’s quite amazing hey? It’s quite wonderful to realise that. Hallelujah. It kind of puts a real sort of understanding, greater kind of significance on the few years that we have on earth. Puts it into perspective, yeah.
Time to do things by faith, hey? Because then it matters. Everything else doesn’t matter. Wow. Wow. So I got through preaching last Sunday on The Source and the Future, which was supposed to be part eight, the last message that I preached. So then I said “I would ask the Lord if it would be a good for me to minister on Laban Syndrome today.” So as the week went on and I was before the Lord on this, it became stronger and stronger in me that I need to minister on Laban Syndrome and actually included in the message of The Source in the Future, so this becomes part nine. When I was preaching in Witbank this morning, I didn’t finish and so there will be a part ten. So, well, praise the Lord for that.
I actually told them they must come back next week to come and get part two of this message, because there’s a lot of things they will learn that I couldn’t get through today. But then I realised I’m actually in Ethiopia with Joe McCroskey next Sunday and Pastor Sharon will be ministering to you, and she told me, she said, “John you know what I do very well, is I take with you preach and I actually give it to the people in a very different way.” So she said, “I’ll be doing nothing more than preaching on Laban Syndrome.” So she’s going to bring her perspective, which is always awesome. So you’ll have to wait to get part two the week after that, when I get back from Ethiopia, hallelujah.
So while I’m talking about Ethiopia I want you to just stretch out your hands to me and I just want you to bless me. (Congregation stretches out hands and blesses Pastor John.) Thank you and I want you to, and I’m, we are we are going to agree together “that my trip with Brother Joe is blessed; that everything we do with starting Bible schools and doing missions work and everything in Ethiopia with Brother Jerry – it’s blessed in Jesus’ Name. No weapon formed against us prospers. We are protected and we are productive, in Jesus’ name, amen.” Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
Yeah, you know. I’m a wildlife lover, in case you didn’t know. So, when I knew I was going to Ethiopia, you know, I discovered that Ethiopia has a place that’s about a day’s drive, it’s about 250 km, but it’s a day’s drive. Because of the roads and, you know, villages and everything, you know. So, it’s a day’s drive to get to a place that is the high mountains of Ethiopia. And there you can find a fox that is found nowhere else in the world, other than the Ethiopian Highland. So here I was thinking, “Well Lord, You know, I’m going to Ethiopia on Your business, is it okay if I go and do some of my business?” You know, take a camera with me and a nice lens with me. And there are some birds there that are also unique to that area, and some different kind of monkeys and baboons that we would have different than here in South Africa. So, I went and I said to the Lord, you know, “I’d really like to see these foxes. I really would like to go and experience it, You know.” So, He said, “I know you would.” I said, “Yeah, I really would.” He said, “Not this time.” I said, “Ah Lord.” He said, “Not this time.” He said, “There will be another time, but not this time.” So, this time I’m going there and we go straight into minister’s conference and we’re working on minister’s conference until Friday and then I fly back Saturday to be here with you on Sunday. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. The foxes will have to wait, for me. Yes. Hallelujah.
Laban Syndrome. Ordinarily I would minister this message, you know. And I did minister this message the first time – I ministered this message to business people. And if you look at the way that the Lord has given it to me, it is very informative and brings great revelation to people in business. Which pretty much puts everyone that has a job into the picture. You know. But the Lord has, wants me to actually bring this message in this form to you today. So are you ready for a really, really great, great revelation?
So, you understand of course, I know you understand but, but this is very real, that if you believe in Jesus, if you believe in the Holy Spirit, if you believe in the angels of God, you believe in the life and the light of God. Then you have to believe that the darkness that is against God is just as much real. You know, you have to. Because you cannot say, “I’m living in the light and I ignore the darkness.” So, the darkness is very real. The thing about the enemy that steals, kills and destroys – darkness. The thing about the enemy, is that man has given him permission to operate on the earth, you know. And that’s why I always say, you know, as much as the Church wants to rise up and take authority over all evil spirits; it just doesn’t have the authority to do that. Because the ultimate authority for evil spirits to operate on the earth is given by men who made choices and those men with choices still exist. And they still make choices for those spirits to operate. So, you understand that evil spirits cannot operate unless men give them permission. And so, the devil can’t operate in your life unless you give it permission.
So, I mean it’s a very simple thing. If you don’t give sickness and disease permission in your body then it can’t live there. Because, if you know the life of God is stronger that sickness and disease then you will take authority over that and you will command the life of God to be in your body. Right? So it is with any form of sin, any form of darkness, twisted wicked way.
So, if I asked anyone here, today. Would you permit rape as a form of lifestyle? It kind of jars you a little bit even if I use that word right? So, you would be very much against rape. Would you? Definitely? Why? Well, because it’s just wrong. Right? Because rape is a crime that is a crime of violence. It is an abuse against another person’s will. It is a manipulation, an aggression. There’s a lot of things that goes into a crime like that. There’s a whole lot of darkness. Right? Well that spirit that drives rape is no different, in essence, is no different to the spirit that can drive you to think that God can’t meet your needs. It’s the same spirit that causes you to get offended. It’s the same spirit that causes you to judge and have opinions other that God. It’s the same spirit. Those thoughts that come into your mind that want you to do your own thing, in your own way, for your own design. Same spirit, because it’s designed to keep you away from God. So I’m going to give you definition. So you’ve got that slide on Laban Syndrome – the characteristics hey? So I’m going to go straight there:
So the Laban Syndrome or the spirit of Laban, the characteristic, is a spirit working through the personality and choices of humans.
So this is the same thing if you give the enemy of God permission to do anything in you and through you or around you, then it’s the same spirit. Come on now. If God is the source of light, then who is the source of darkness? The devil. So he’s real and he has a will, and his will is set against God. So anytime he can influence you to do something, he’s setting your will against God. So if I come out and I say, “Come on, permit rape, come on permit rape, permit it, come on, permit it.” You would steadfastly resist it, because it’s just absolutely – there’s no way you’re going to let that happen, right? You would steadfastly resist it, but if that someone came to you and said, “Listen, why don’t you just don’t obey the voice of God?”
Can I use my own example? Unintended actually, but here it is: “I think I will go to the highlands and watch the fox. What’s wrong with going to the highlands and going, looking at foxes and taking your binocs and your camera and taking three days? All I wanted was one day there in the bush, that I can photograph these beautiful foxes and monkeys and things and take a few pics, you know.” “What’s wrong with that?” “Nothing, nothing really wrong with that.” “So why don’t you just go do it John?” “Yeah, but God didn’t want me to do it.” “Well, how did you know that God didn’t want you to do it?” “Well, I asked Him and so He told me – no.” “You mean, you actually chose to ask God that?” “Well, if Jesus chose to ask the Father about what His will was is in everything He did in His life, then the best place I can get myself to, is to do the same.” “Yes?” “So when I don’t ask God, I know I’ve got an intelligence and I’ve got skills and I can use them and I’m supposed to use them, but I actually will do better in the way that I use my intelligence and my skills if I keep asking God.”
Some people want to say, you know, “You’re too heavenly minded to be any earthly good.” I happen to think that is a statement from hell. Really, I do. You know, “You’re so spiritually minded, you’re no earthly good.” Ah, please God can we be more spiritually minded? You know, yes I know it came from an age when the Church was ineffective and the Church was going through quite a lot of change, and the Church was more about do’s and don’ts than they were about relationship with God, but here’s the thing: I wonder if the Church has shifted into a relationship with God or they’ve just chosen to shift the way that they present the do’s and the don’ts? Come on now. So the liberal grace Church is just about the way it presents the do’s and don’ts of God. And so they’re more about what you can do, than what you can’t do, but it’s still about do’s and don’ts. That’s a whole lot of difference in living in do’s and don’ts versus living in the relationship and intimacy of living with God’s will.
So Laban is the spirit – it’s an evil dark spirit working through the choices of men. Here’s the main purpose of 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, Covenant and Church on the earth.
So I use that word Covenant, because you understand that right now, Abraham is probably listening to me, and because God is a Spirit, and you live in a Spirit world, He communicates with you in a way that is not necessary in human language. When you get a revelation of God, you instantly get a whole picture and you know lots of things instantly. Isn’t that right? I mean, it’s not like you have to follow the dots before you get the understanding with God. Sometimes, He will have a communication with you like that, but most often when you get a revelation from God, it’s like He – it’s the whole thing’s on you and you just instantly understand a whole lot, in a moment. You know, well that’s what it’s like to be in the realm of God and that’s just Him giving a little piece of Himself. Imagine if the whole of Himself is where you were living, then you would just know everything that’s going on about everything, instantly, all the time. Come on now. That’s why He’s an omniscient God and an omnipresent God. Those of you who’ve been around me long enough, will know I’ve preached a whole lot of messages about that one time, hallelujah.
So the whole thing about it, is prevent you and others from establishing God’s Kingdom on the earth, His covenant and His Church on the earth. So I go back to my question, that is my mandate: What’s the point of being a Christian? And the point of being a Christian, is so that we can become spiritual. So, you know, I’ve kind of really gotten to start talking this way – and I’ve been really just addressing people like this – are you a Christian or are you a believer? Because they are different to me. A Christian is someone who’s saved, going to heaven and lives knowing that and has general faith in God – Christian. What’s a believer? A believer is someone who takes the Word and lives it in their life and doesn’t make decisions other than what’s in the Word. Because otherwise, if you don’t do that, you can’t call yourself a believer. Because being a Christian is like just being a child that is born, but that child has to come to a point where they learn about life and make decision and they become a human being. So, even though they’re born a baby fully complete, to become a human being requires a whole lot of development, you know. To be a believer means you got to understand the Word of God and you’re making choices deliberately to follow the will of God, that’s a believer. Amen. And I for one appropriate, I’ve been doing this much more recently since I’ve been talking about Jacob’s constellation, I made it my purpose to talk like this with Sharon and I will talk to her about Abraham’s Covenant blessing and I said, “Sharon God’s Covenant blessing with Abraham was that He would bless him, He would multiply him and increase him and he would have extreme wealth and prosperity wherever he went.”
And I said, “I’m taking that covenant blessing in the same level of faith that Abraham took it. Because maybe, maybe Abraham had a level of faith that, I mean it was amazing how much faith he had in God. But I can have that faith because of Jesus, and perhaps a greater faith even than Abraham, who is known as the father of Faith. Although I’m not sure sacrificed my son yet, you know. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Glory to God. So, you remember the story of Laban begins, the story of Laban begins where the servant of Abraham goes to the city of Nahor, and he arrives at the city of Nahor with all kinds of camels and gifts and wealth and presents.
So, in modern day terms I guess it would be, you know, that somebody would arrive at a house or a place with a fleet of its Mercedes Benz, you know, maybe six Mercedes Benz in line. And the trunks of the Mercedes Benz is full of money, you know, and you pitch up there and you’re kind of like – “I’ve arrived.” “What you here for?” “Looking for a girl.” “Must be a special girl if you arrived with, you know, six Mercedes Benz and, you know, trunks loads of money.” “Well yeah, my master is pretty rich and he wants the right girl.” “So how do you intend finding this very special girl, you know, can we line them up for you?” “You know, is there a kind of a special place you want to go look for this girl?” “No, no I think I’ll just ask God.” “Really, you’re going to ask God?” “Well, what do you know about God?” “I don’t know but my master knows God and I am on his assignment.”
Can I read to you just very quickly, can I read to you what happens, 10and the servant took ten of his master’s camels, and departed taking some of his master treasure with him; he journeyed to the city of Nahor (Genesis 24:10). And Genesis 21:24, 21The man stood gazing at her in silence, waiting to know if the Lord had made his trip prosperous (Genesis 24:21).
So he rocks up there with all this wealth and he just says, “I’ll wait for God to speak. I’ll stand here and I’ll just wait.” Doesn’t speak, doesn’t present all his wealth, has nothing to say, just waits. Wow. Let me tell you, if this could happen to a servant of Abraham who was not born again but a man of Faith to be sure, the Covenant partner of God, then you and I can have at least that consideration for every decision that we might make in our lives – is wait and let God speak. Come on now. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Well, you know then he takes jewellery and he starts putting it on her and tells her a story and off she goes, mom and dad, brother Laban is there. And, so before she gets even finished telling mom and dad Laban runs out to go and meet this man that’s arrived with six S-Class Mercedes Benz and trunks full of money, you know. “Who’s this man that’s got all this wealth that has arrived here?” And he says, “Come let me feed you. Come, I’ve got a place prepared for you. We’ve got lodgings for you – everything will be taken care of, I’ve organised it. Everything about… taken care of, just come, come, let me look after you.” He says, “No, no I may not even eat with you until I’m certain that my assignment for my master is prosperous, that God has given me favour here.” So he says, “well speak, tell me.” Well Laban has no authority to do this, he’s not the father of, well according to custom he did have some authority, but it was the father and the mother who would decide.
So, I remind you what I said last time and I read from verse 50, 50Then Laban and Bethuel answered, The thing comes forth from the Lord; we cannot speak bad or good to you. 51Rebekah 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 (Genesis 24:50-52). So he worshipped in the moment that he understood his assignment had been successful. Hallelujah.
53And the servant brought out jewels of silver, jewels of gold, and garments and gave them to Rebekah; and he also gave precious things to her brother and her mother (Genesis 24:53). Brother and mother. Who’s brother – brother Laban. 54Then they ate and drank, he and the men who were with him, and stayed there all night. And in the morning, so this servant has not wasted any time. So if you read further and you understand that Jacob takes the same journey away from Esau and Isaac later on in his life. He takes the same journey from there to Nahor, where he meets Rachel, “Rachel, oh Rachel, my Rachel.” You know. He takes the same journey and they state later on in the Scriptures that it was 400 miles. So this man has come with a train of camels, he’s come 400 miles. When he gets there, water and food is given to his camels. He has dinner. They stay the night. They eat, drink and are happy about, and celebrate the business of God. The next morning he’s up and he says, “Let’s go, assignment’s done.” Sometimes God doesn’t want us to go to the mountain of the foxes. He says, “it doesn’t matter how far you’re travelling I don’t want you going there and enjoying yourself. You’re on assignment. I want you there and back – get there.” Amen.
But notice, 54Then they ate and drank, he and the men who were with him, and stayed there all night. And in the morning they arose, and he said “Send me away to my master.” (Genesis 24:54). 55But [Rebekah’s] brother and mother, who was the one who got the gifts? Brother and mother. So, 55[Rebekah’s] brother and mother said, “let the girl stay with us a few days- at least ten; then she may go.” (Genesis 24:55). Come now – talk to me. Talk to me. Why do you think they wanted him to stay another ten days? Another trunk of money in one of those S-Class Mercedes Benz’s. Right? How much more have you got hidden in those saddlebacks of your camels, that you haven’t shared with us yet? Sure we can talk you out of some of that. 56But [the servant] said to them, “Do not hinder and delay me.” (Genesis 24:56). Come on now. Didn’t I say the purpose of the Laban spirit is to prevent you from actually establishing the Kingdom of God, the Covenant of God and the Church of God on the earth?
The anointing of God was on me so strong yesterday. I was running on my treadmill in my garage yesterday, and Sharon joined me for some a short period of time – exercise. She’s not the exercise girl yet, she will get there. But she joined me, which was a blessing for me, for a short while. And after she left, I was running on the treadmill and I was meditating on this message. And as I meditated on this message and I’m running, the anointing of God came on me so strong, so strong. This is what the Lord said to me and I said it to Sharon. I said, “Sharon, I feel like today is one of the most significant days, one of the most significant messages I’m ever likely to preach.” I said, “I feel like I’m taking spiritual hand grenades and bombs and throwing them into the Kingdom of darkness. And where they’re going they’re exploding with light.” That’s what I felt. That’s what I perceived.
57And they said, “We will call the girl and ask her [what is] her desire.” 58So they called Rebekah and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” And she said, “I will go.” (Genesis 24:57-58). It’s interesting the way that they asked the question. You know, it wasn’t like “will you go with this guy now or in ten days?” It almost like, “Will you go at all? We got all the bucks from him now. Will you go?” Anyway, it’s just…
Characteristics of the Laban Syndrome:
So when I call it the Laban Syndrome, I mean it’s the way people operate that are functioning in darkness. So I ask you now, let’s come into agreement, at least in understanding. The economic system of this world – who controls it? Jesus, or the enemy of God? (Congregation replies the enemy of God.) Who should be controlling it? Jesus. How does Jesus want to control it? How’s He going to do it? Through us! As long as we don’t live by faith, he doesn’t mind if we make a little bit of money here or there. Even a couple of million here or there. Make it a billion or two. Here or there. Doesn’t really mind.
The guy that owns the house next door to where we stay in Witbank, there is a lot of very secret things that go on in that house, that the people don’t see from the road. Like for instance, he has a fish tank that has got, you can just see a little bit of the fish tank is there, but you can only really understand that fish tank if you’ve been in the house. But the fish tank is probably the size of this whole wall and it has saltwater fish in and so, it’s about the length of this wall and it’s probably maybe as wide as those windows (Pastor John making reference to a wall and window in Johannesburg Church). I mean it’s a proper fish tank, you know. This is a better word for it – it’s a private aquarium. Truly I mean he’s got fish there that are like this size in there.
So from the front, you know, you just see the outside and you see a couple rooms and you see a swimming pool and that’s all you see. Behind the house, underneath the house he’s got a bowling alley, ten pin bowling alley. He’s got a private gym, he’s got a whole lot of stuff. So, you know, recently somebody wanted to make him an offer on the house. So the guy said, “I don’t want to sell the house.” So he doesn’t want to sell the house, but he doesn’t live there. He visits the house maybe three times a year, for two days at a time and then he goes to his other house at least one other house. We don’t know where it is, but we know it’s in Clifton. And you know, but he doesn’t want to sell the house. So he says, “Okay, but if the guy wants to buy my house – I’ll take thirty five million for it.” So nobody’s that desperate to buy the house.
So there was an interview on some radio or some TV show about the man whose family come from mining. Coal mining and mining rights in the Witbank area and they go back, I think, two generations of people and so he didn’t earn the money, he inherited the money. But he has enhanced and increased the family wealth. So they were recently interviewing him someplace, I think it was a TV show or something they were interviewing him and they asked him about his availability status as one of the wealthiest bachelors in South Africa, you know. So he said, “Excuse me, I must correct you – I’m not a millionaire, I’m a billionaire.” Okay, well, then alright, okay, you know. So all right then. See what I’m trying to say to you is, and actually this week he had a party there, he came there this week. And he only came for one of the two days but he was entertaining fitness guests and stuff. I was really impacted by what I saw and the little bit that I saw, because suddenly all these people started arriving at his house. So he has a full-time stay-in manservant that looks after everything in the house and he has a manager that manages the manservant and everything that goes on in the property estate that we stayed in.
So suddenly we recognised this manager because she comes there from time to time and so when she arrived there, suddenly all these vehicles started arriving and they started delivering stuff, everything happened and… So everyone gets a notification – he’s going to have a party two nights in a row, get ready for the party. But the estate rules still only allow you to have midweek parties till 11 and weekend parties till 12, so rules will still be abided by. Our house is like right next door to his house, like right next door to his house. Anyway.
So I became very impressed because when he arrived, he didn’t choose to arrive with a car, he arrived there with his helicopter. Obtained landing rights on the golf course by the Yacht Club. So that he didn’t have to drive into the estate. He could fly from Johannesburg International Airport on a helicopter to Witbank. I guess if you want to make an entrance, you can, you know. But I’ll tell you what really touched me about this, is that we have such a problem with wealthy Christian leaders, the world has anyway, but it doesn’t matter how much money everybody else has. Well that’s because it wants to control and it certainly wants to control the servants of God not to have the wealth because if we start to really get wealth we can really change some things in this earth. Really we can. But we don’t even have the faith and the vision really to control the wealth that is in our life yet.
So it doesn’t matter how big we think, we’ve got to actually manage ourselves with the smaller things before we can think even the big. But I’ll tell you what, it really got to me, you know, that people that have wealth, they really don’t worry about what other people think. They really don’t. They really care about other things that are more in Laban’s world. Now I’m going to show you what’s important to Laban, because this man that lives next door is firmly and squarely a Laban Syndrome man.
Because number one, the characteristics of someone who’s in a Laban Syndrome is that – credentials and accomplishments and or achievements are the main source of influence.
Don’t touch my credentials. Don’t touch my accomplishments or my achievements. Don’t even come against it because this is my source of influence. You come and touch it, I’ll kill you, literally. What do you think, I’ll tell you from I come from the cycling industry and the biggest con story ever in the world was Lance Armstrong, and every time somebody accused him of doping, what did he do? Come on you should all know the story by now, he went after them with the law. He took them to court – inflammatory remarks, defamation of character, he went after, “Because I’m the purest cleanest cyclist that has ever been and everybody wants to support me. I’m the purest athlete.”
Don’t touch my credentials. Don’t touch my accomplishments. Don’t touch my achievements because that’s where my source of influence comes from. My money and my wealth come from that. You went after Armstrong’s credentials. He buried you, and all of the stories are about how Lance Armstrong bullied people because they came after his credentials. Don’t shout me down because I’m preaching good now, come on. Okay shout me down. Tell me you’re preaching well Pastor John, come on. You’re preaching well Pastor John.
Here’s the thing about the; anybody who’s involved in the Laban Syndrome – loves money, riches, and wealth.
So it’s time for me to just say this: you know the story, I have mentioned it briefly to you, how I had some American visitors. We went away to the bush, we came back, we had lots of intense conversations about the Bible and about doctrines and all kinds of stuff. And we came home from the bush and we were sitting having dinner that night, and more of that intense conversation came up. We went to bed, and we were still staying in Boskruin then, and I was upstairs in my bedroom and Sharon got up to go and prepare breakfast and everything for our guests, and I was alone in the room, and the Lord said, “I want you to go and read a Scripture in Hebrews.” Just like that, I mean it was like a, as almost as clear as a voice could be, in my spirit. He spoke to me, He said, “Go read a Scripture in Hebrews, and He gave me the Scripture reference; go and read it. And it was about a Pharisee and a Pharisee heart, and when I read it I knew that He was talking to me, that I had been operating out of a Pharisee heart with these believers. Because a Pharisee heart is about rights and wrongs and do’s and don’ts. It’s not about the spirit of relationship, and He said to me, “John, you have conducted yourself with a Pharisee heart with these people, and that Pharisee heart is in you and I want you to get rid of it, right now.”
Well I repented so, so deeply that I wept – for must have been an hour until Sharon actually had to come and call me. My eyes were all thick and red and swollen. I came downstairs and the people could see I was crying and that something had moved me and I told them. I said, “I’ve come to just; I’ve repented before God this morning and I read them the Scripture…” and I said, “…now is the time for me to repent to you, because all of this time, I didn’t know this was in my heart. Our conversations have lead this way and they have had this clashing of doctrine and theology because of my heart.” I don’t care what was happening with them. God didn’t tell me to worry about what was in them. He was only worried about what was in me.
The reason I’m telling you that, is that we all have the capacity to have a Pharisee heart, and we all have the capacity to be touched by and influenced by the Laban Syndrome. So understand, you know, we are not immune from being touched by the world’s system in whatever form it presents itself to us. We can be influenced by it. So when I talk about this to you, you can be influenced with a love of money, which the Bible calls the root of all evil. You can be influenced by the love of money. If you say you can’t, well then Mr Perfect, I’m sorry, you’re wrong. By the grace of God you will never be influenced by the love of money, but it is by His grace, not by our strength. Yeah. I mean like I’ve said before, you don’t have to not have money to love it, in fact most people that love money are people who don’t have it, because they think money will solve their problems, and money doesn’t. So they love the idea of money and what money can do.
But the Laban Syndrome loves money, loves riches and loves wealth. The Laban Syndrome – that spirit loves status and honour, and status and honour are important tools for the person and are used by the person.
So they use status and honour as an important tool to get the job done, to have influence, to get and to present themselves and to get, out of life, what they want. People who are touched by the Laban Syndrome; the spirit of Laban, are – very savvy and opportunity sensitive. So they’re always out there feeling out for the opportunity that comes. So I don’t want you just to see this one in isolation, I want you to see it in credentials, and accomplishments, and achievements are the main source of influence; loves money, riches, and wealth; is status and honour is important – that they use those tools to get what they want, and they’re very savvy and they’re opportunistic; they’re opportunity sensitive people. So it’s like; it’s like a radar that they’ve got out there that senses opportunities and they’re very savvy when the opportunities come.
Number five: The Laban Syndrome is the people/persons/whoever’s operating under the Laban Syndrome are practiced 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 you know them in the same way, but in reality you only know what they want to show you, for their ultimate advantage.
You know sometimes, in our modern-day world, some people might call this, you know, emotionally intelligent. Where they know how to ask questions to get the maximum information, and the information that they give you, it feels like they’re giving you really, you know, quid pro quo information. But when you actually look behind it, you’re been very real with them but they’re actually just giving you the stuff that they want you to know, and they appear to be being very real with you, so you think this is the real deal. Huh? It’s like Laban said, “Come let me give you stuff, come tell me your stuff. Come tell me your stuff. No, no, don’t worry I’ll take care of it, I’ll take care of you, take care of it.” What is it for? “Wealth is coming my way. Let me delay you ten days so I can get a bit more information from you, so that I can sense and feel out what other opportunities are waiting for me. I can get maybe some more of your master’s wealth, if not your wealth maybe there’s, maybe there’s something else out there that he needs that I can supply.” Come on.
Number six: Laban Syndrome – a person that is under the influence of the Laban Syndrome – is neutral towards God in his ways, he may even be a Christian and may practice ceremonies of gods and people and appear devout, but will normally stay away from strong commitments towards God unless God forces the occasion through a covenant believer or a disciple.
So this kind of Laban Syndrome is a neutral Syndrome, so I, next week or the week when I will tell you about it, I’m going to put this with all this Scriptures for you. But, you know, when they said, “We recognise that this is God so we cannot speak for good or for bad.” What’s he doing? He is taking a neutral position. Why does a Laban Syndrome person want to take a neutral position? The reason he wants to take a neutral position because credentials, information, contacts, opportunities are more important to him than to take a stand on something. So he, “…don’t push me to make a stand on something because it is more important for me to work the system, because the system will provide for me.”
Huh, until, so here’s what happens. There are many people, many Christians that are operating under this, under a Laban Syndrome. So, remember what I told you? We can all have a Laban Syndrome in one or some of these things. But there are people that have identified the Church, as and they have the Laban Syndrome working in them because they have identified that, in the Church you’ve got openhearted, kind and wealthy people. And so, if you connect to people in the Church, you can get status, position; you can get your needs met, you can make a network happen.
Let me tell you, a large percentage of the people that are going… can I? Can I? I don’t want to sound, huh, I don’t want to sound discriminatory here. Please don’t put me in that category, but there are lots of big black Churches developing everywhere. And all the pastors are driving big Mercedes Benzes and big BMWs and have expensive clothes on and all of the people around him are wealthy people and so everybody’s flocking to these people because the Laban Syndrome is at work.
I can talk with this with great authority because this was also at work in my Church, which was a white Church mostly, my previous Church, where I was at for 19 years and became the head of the business people’s fellowship. And I tell you what, I saw Laban Syndrome at work – credentials matter, achievements matter, accomplishments matter. It’s my connections that matter. “It’s what I know, it’s who I know and I’ve got all my radar out there waiting for the opportunistic deal that I can see that’s going to happen here. And I’m going to hang around this thing and it’s going to happen and it’s going to, wait a minute, but don’t get me to make a stand on something because I can’t afford to be taking one stand or another, because if I take one stand then I’m going to be against someone else, and I can’t afford to alienate anybody because anybody could be a source of income for me. So I can’t alienate anybody.”
Thank you, Charles. This is not good preaching, this is great preaching! This is revelation preaching! Hallelujah. Laban Syndrome. Remember, this person wants to take a neutral stand with God, or the ways of God. And let me tell you, they may practice the ceremony of gods and people and appear devout, you know. “I may even, I may even make sure that I know everything about rugby and appear to go to the rugby matches or the soccer matches, the cricket matches because there might be a group of people that are influencers that I’m connected to and if I can talk their language, then I must follow the ceremonies of their gods, so that my influence is intact.”
Lillian, this is pretty good preaching! (Pastor John laughs). She looked so surprised when I called her name, like, “What are you, what are you going to do with me now?” (Pastor John laughing). I wish you could have seen Lillian’s face when I called her name. “Yes.” (More laughing) Maybe she thought I was going to get her up here to come and finish the message or something, you know?
But this, this Laban spirit, the person, will normally stay away from strong commitments towards God unless God forces the occasion through a Covenant believer and a disciple. Because this is what happens, is that the Laban Syndrome person will operate, operate, operate, operate, operate, operate, operate, operate, and it will operate until there is a believer that comes in and he says, “Don’t hold me here. I’ve got to finish my assignment. You’re holding me here”.
With Jacob it took 20 years to get free of the Laban Syndrome. His servant, Abraham’s servant was under threat of being delayed by only ten days. Jacob took 20 years to get free from Laban. Hallelujah! So, I want you to note and I want you just to take note that the Laban Syndrome operates within the world system. This doesn’t mean to say you got to remove yourself out of the world system. Jesus prayed and He said, “Father I’m not asking You to remove them from the world. But You must keep them from the evil that’s in this world.” So you don’t have to live, you can live in this world and you can be fed by this world. So, Jacob was fed by Laban because he had nowhere else to go. Until the Laban Syndrome kept him and held him there. Then it took the Covenant order of God to say it’s time to be free.
Without knowing it. Without knowing it. There was a large part of my struggle in the early days of our Church. A large part of my struggle was because of many, many people that came to our Church that were fully totally cooperating with the Laban Syndrome. Because for them it was about – who am I connected to? Achievements. Accomplishments. Status. Wealth. “Oh you’re connected with Brother Jerry? That means you’re connected to Brother Copeland. That means you connected to Jerry, Jesse Duplantis. I think this is a Church I should belong to because those are great men. There’s a lot of influence. There’s wealth. There’s a lot of connections that could happen.” And the people flocked to my Church because of my connection. And when they found that there was a Covenant believer here that said, “No I’m not going to permit you to hang around me for the influence and the status and the achievements and the things that you might be able to accomplish. You may not hang around me for your sake, you must hang around me because of Covenant sake.” Then they said, “No, no, no, no, no, you can’t hold us to that. We want to go where there’s more opportunity. Because you can’t be manipulated under the Laban Syndrome for opportunity for us. So we’ll go somewhere else.” I tell you a whole bunch of the people that left me at that time – their lives have come to ashes. I mean that. Ashes. And still they refuse to recognise that the Laban Syndrome is what’s dominating their life. Hayayayi.
I’ll tell you what. This is, this is a very strong part of who I am. In my own walk with God, I’m … I … I’m a lot like Brother Jerry. My wife is a lot like Brother Copeland. When those blue eyes look at you – the fire burns. He doesn’t have to say anything. It’s just when he looks at you with those intense eyes, Brother Copeland it’s like, you know, you almost feel the fire burning. It’s just the way he looks at you. You know, I remember Sharon and I, when Brother Jerry took us in there and he asked Brother Copeland to lay hands on us and bless us. And he was standing like this far from my face like this and looking he’s at me with those blue eyes, like this, you know. Now we asked him to bless us, you know. And Jerry’s asked him to bless us. And he’s looking at us like this, you know. And I can hear he’s hearing from God, you know, I’m like ooh gaats you know … it’s like … (Laughing) Maybe this wasn’t such a wise thing to ask for the blessing, you know. It’s like … (Laughing) Because that prophetic thing can burn and that fire burns, you know.
I’m more of the grace guy. I am. I’m a gentle, you know, give people space. But I am that kind of person that when you’ve been given space and space and space and space then the time comes where you got to make a decision. Because if you don’t want to walk in Covenant with me then you’re showing your heart and you’re showing your hand and then this is all about you. If this is all about you, then you can’t walk with me. Because I’m not about me. I’m about assignment. I’m about purpose. I’m about the ways of God. Don’t hold me where I shouldn’t be. Don’t hold me here. I’ve got to go places with God. So you can come walk with me.
And listen. You know Brother Jerry said this to me. Many years ago. Some people, you know. You know the whole story. They accused me of all kinds of things and they wanted a private meeting with Brother Jerry. And so he called me on the phone. He said to me, “John.” He said, “If you’ve done something wrong,” he says, “You tell me now. Because you and I can deal with this thing before they come and tell me. Don’t come and let them come and tell me that you’ve done something wrong.” So he was talking to me on the phone. So I said, “Brother Jerry you have my word,” on the phone. “I have not committed adultery. I am not a drunkard. I am not a drug addict. I am not defrauding the Church with money. In, according to me I’m living a pure life. I have no idea what kind of argument they are bringing to you.” Because Brother Jerry said this to me, he says, “If you’ve done something wrong John you come and tell me. Then I’ll work with you. I’ll protect you, till you have change.” Huh! Because there’s a grace part that works like that. But then if you work with somebody and then you don’t want to change then you obviously don’t want to change. Then obviously you really don’t want the good things of God. And obviously you don’t want the great things of God and the assignment. You don’t want it. So if you don’t want it then you can’t hang around me. Because one time or another you and I are going to stand, find ourselves in the Laban Syndrome where I say, “Don’t let, hold me here. I’m on assignment for my Master. Let me go.” (Pastor John laughs) Hallelujah.
I believe it Melusi. The time will come when you will say that about government. The time will come. I’m telling you. The time will come when you will know the time and the time will … and we will know the time. And the time will come when you will say, “Don’t hold me here. You’re holding me here under Laban’s Syndrome. Using my energy. Using my potential. Using my stuff for your benefit when it should be done for assignment.” And the time will come. And it’s not far away now Melusi. No. It’s not. The time will come when you will break free and say, “Come let me go. I have assignment. My Master’s calling me.” Hallelujah, hallelujah. Praise Jesus.
I have an assignment, my Master is calling me. Hallelujah, hallelujah, praise Jesus. Glory to God. You all witness with that hey! Ja, nê. Praise Jesus. That’s what happened to me when I looked at you, instantly the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, “Tell Melusi.” I didn’t have that on my heart at all. “At all, at all, at all, you know, and all (Speaking in an Indian accent, laughing) “Hay, Ragan – at all, at all, at all and all – I didn’t have any of that at all for Melusi, you know.” But you know God is the God of all of us (Laughing). Hey listen, God is awesome hey! I mean He is the coolest God that I know how to serve, hey. (Laughing) Whoohoo. (Pastor John and congregation laughing)–“Lord and I want to preach and all man.” (Pastor John in Indian accent again, more laughter) Praise the Lord, Sjoe! Oh my!
The Laban Syndrome, the Laban Spirit – recognises favour, it recognises blessing, it recognises skill and the order of things in order to position for advantage.
The Laban’s Syndrome does this – recognises favour and blessing. Wants to hang around people for advantage. I know that you’ll look at these things and say, “but this is the normal order of the way the world works.” Exactly, exactly. If this is the order of the way the world works then actually this is a counterfeit to the genuine thing that God’s got. So if you look at what’s genuine and what’s counterfeit, you will find that in all of these things you can do this between the Word, the Holy Spirit and faith. And He will lead you to all of the divine connection. He will lead you to the favour. He will lead you to the skills and the blessings. He will lead you into presenting His credentials. You only have to present His achievements and His accomplishments and get all the same benefits. Hallelujah.
Someone who is under the influence of the Laban spirit will learn the language of many ways in order to remain neutral, even seem to be totally committed to a particular way or person to obtain advantage.
Number 9: someone who is under the influence of the Laban Spirit will deliberately perhaps subconsciously but most of the time it is deliberate has developed a carefully constructed / instinctive possibility triggering system or alarm in order to position early and properly for advantage …. call it an early warning system.
So, sometimes this thing appears instinctive. And sometimes it is instinctive, but most often it’s a carefully orchestrated way of life where they are tuned into little bits of information and behaviour patterns and ways that people operate in; and they observe the minutest of shifts that happen around them – so they say: alarm bells, like infrared around your house that anything larger than a cat will trigger an early warning system. This is what happens with people that are under the influence of the Laban system. They have so many tentacles in so many places that they have an early triggering system an alarm system that’s … something is happening here, shift, shift, move, flow. Remember the neutrality – you can only do that if you’re neutral. If you make one stand one way or another then you can’t shift the way the things are flowing and the way things are going. So I’ve got to have my fingers in many pies, all the time, so that I can sense that early warning system for my advantage. That’s why many people – many, many wealthy people left South Africa, they went to Australia, New Zealand, they went to England, they went to America only to find 20 years later that maybe went a bit prematurely. It didn’t take 20 years, within 10 years they knew that actually they shouldn’t have left.
Well, those people don’t really care about what God wants for their lives. They’re just interested in doing what they want to do. There have been many, many dynamic leaders – young men – dynamic leaders who have left the people that God connected them with. Who have left their true Covenant walk with God in order to pursue what was best for them and they may even be pastoring Churches, have made successful businesses elsewhere in the world, but that does not put them in the will of God.
Number 10: People who are under the Laban Syndrome influence, may appear peaceful but will often be ready to be vengeful and sometimes violent (mostly not physical but it does include physical violence).
So if you get in the way of someone who is under the influence of a Laban spirit, and you call them on it and you become spiritual around them and say, come on you’ve got to wait for God, you got to … they become vengeful.
So sometimes they can’t be outwardly vengeful, they become subtly vengeful. So what they do is they take their skills, their energy, their life from you and they say, you have no access here. But I need you. You have no access here because you made a stand against me and I don’t want it. I don’t like what you did – you made me make a choice. They will often withhold money from you or business opportunities. Sometimes the vengefulness, and this is the most common for of vengeance that they will take on you, is that they will speak badly about you and they will begin to spread words about you and so they will isolate and alienate you because what is important to them is credentials, achievement, accomplishments, status, honour, wealth, money. That early warning connection system so don’t make me make a stand. So I’m going to make sure that my early warning system and all of the people that feed me are all intact. I’m going to isolate you because you made a statement stand for the covenant God. So I’m going to isolate you. Hey Mr Graham Green, it’s good preaching hey, it is hey, its top-drawer stuff hey? Hallelujah.
This is in nobody else’s book. This is in the first book of John Bendixen according to Laban Syndrome. So you don’t go and spread it around too much until I’ve written the book, hey? You can buy the book first, Amen. Because after all, you know I’ve got to be connected with books. Some of you got that hey? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh and I’ve got to have a Dr in front of my name, otherwise I’m not really a significant relevant preacher globally – unless I’m Dr John Bendixen (Laughter). Or Bishop, Apostle, Doctor, got to have one of those titles … because after all credentials are very important. Come on, tell me that you don’t recognise Laban Syndrome at work in the Church?
I’ll tell you, sometimes you can see this Laban Syndrome at work in marriage, where one of the partners is called on behaviour that is more about accomplishments, achievements, all about themselves. Let me just broadly speak it, let’s say it’s all about what I can get out of this for myself; and one of the partners is spiritual or wants the God way in their marriage will call them on it, then they will become vengeful to their partner. So vengefulness is either a withholding from or a direct attack against, you know. So if the woman feels aggrieved, she will just hold her body from her husband and say, “You’re not getting sex from me, I’m going to take vengeance out on you.” For example: the man might say, “I run the finances in this house, you won’t get any money for anything other than what you really need it for or until I’m satisfied that I’ve taken vengeance on you.”
Number eleven this is the last point. The Laban Syndrome operates through manipulation with hidden advantages becoming angry or demanding or fault finding or disagreeable in order to gain or regain advantage when wisdom, anointing and or the Word of God have delivered and outsmarted the Laban Syndrome to set you free.
Tell me that this is not God’s anointed revelation for us. So now I want to tell you that this is the way that Laban operated and this is where I have to finish my message, because there is a whole lot that comes with this, that I didn’t get to this morning. What comes with this is the way that Jacob got free and so the way that the Word interprets Jacob’s wisdom is that he said, “I don’t want you to increase my salary. I don’t want you to give me a salary. I don’t want you to give me … I just want you to permit me to operate in the way I’ve always been operating but I want to increase, I want to have an increase of my anointing in what I touch.”
So you ask any farmer whether, you know, stripping strips of bark off a tree and putting notches in a twig and putting it in the water where the animals drink before they mate, whether that has got anything to do with whether they are, you know, single coloured skin or multi-spotted skin. Any farmer will tell you, any normal human being who knows anything about DNA genetics will tell you that that’s just stupid. So what was it about Jacob that went and put those sticks in the thing… it was his act of faith to activate the Covenant. So he was still working with Laban and operating at Laban’s water trough. He was operating with Laban’s sheep and goats and camels and he said, “Ok, I’m going to take all your stuff and I’m going to multiply my wealth.” And he was doing it in direct obedience to God’s Word who spoke to him and said, “It’s time for you to be free. You must return back to the land where your father came, where you lived with your father, go back there.” “Yes Sir!” “So now don’t negotiate any more with Laban. You are free from all of these things.”
So, but he didn’t leave Laban immediately. He waited until his wealth increased so much and then he left Laban. That’s what comes part two. It all seems like there’s another part, but when I get into this God shows me so much stuff that when I say to you, maybe there’ll even be a part three I don’t know. You know. But as I prepare myself for you and I get with the Word, the Lord you know shows me this bit extra and then He says, “but have you considered this from this angle John?” I say, “No Lord, You know, I’ve never seen it that way.” He says, “ Why don’t you study that a little bit and I’ll show you something more.” And then I think this is going to take one message – I’ll get it out quick. And then five messages later, I’m still getting revelations, and I say “well I got to quit this thing now Lord.” It’s the beauty and the power of our interactive, dynamic relationship with the Lord. It’s just a thing of beauty. He reveals Himself in so many different ways. Hallelujah!
Come on I want you to agree with me as a prayer today that you, want to be free and you are free from Laban’s Syndrome. Do you want to be free from Laban’s Syndrome? Then come stand with me, let’s all agree today; let’s make an agreement today. Let’s all say it together and, we’ll have this declaration and confession together and we say: “Jesus, You are my Lord and Saviour. And because You are my Master, I choose to serve You. And I thank You Lord, any of Laban’s Syndromes and characteristics, that is influencing my life, I am free from that and I’m walking in Your Covenant and Your ways from today, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.” (Congregation repeats after Pastor John) Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Glory to God!
I want to tell you I feel like I’ve taken a whole bunch of bombs and thrown them into the devil’s territory, and said “Let’s see what you do now!” And he’s got bombs exploding in everywhere and he says, “Aaaahhhh!” Heavenly mutilation! Heavenly destruction of the enemy’s ways that has come to dominate us. Hallelujah! You understand that this all happened between the blessing of the future and identity change? This whole thing happened. It started way before the father’s blessing, it started way before, because you know, Rebekah was the mother of Jacob. Laban was around.
It’s the one thing about the Laban’s Syndrome; he’s in it for the long game. And we think as Christians that we’ll confess the Word for about a half an hour and then we’ll be free. Let me tell you, the spirit behind the Laban’s Syndrome, is in it for the long game. Is in it for the eternal gain. And we better be on our game – day and night. And we can be blessed in everything that we do.
I got things to share with you from, that I can’t even share with you, because, I’ve got finished with, you know, the blessings of the fathers and all of that. But this week the Lord showed me that, that they called Jacob’s name, I’ll let you go in a minute, but you know, they called Jacob, Jacob because the name means supplanter. So tell me what your definition of supplanter is. To completely change. Change identity. Yeah, you supplant means you kind of undermine, yes? Undermine someone’s identity, your own identity. So the Hebrew definition of this word Jacob, (‘ya`aqob’) has almost the same meaning as if you see somebody running full tilt for the try line with a rugby ball and he’s got nobody in front of him to score the try and you ankle tap him. So you’re at your biggest stretch and you ankle tap him. And at full tilt, he has a face plant. That’s the real meaning of supplanter. I grab your heel at the most strategic time, so that you are not free to do what you must do. So Jacob was called ‘Ya`aqob’ because he was the supplanter, because he was already declaring before he was born, “I will not permit you Esau to have your birthright and to be what you must do.” There was already God’s hand at work in his hand holding onto the heel. So when he had a meeting with God about his future, and he had an identity change, and he said, “What is your name?” And he said “Jacob,” and the Bible says he had this epiphany, this awakening – supplanter. He understood that really all his life he’d been tripping up people that couldn’t reach their potential. “No longer will you be called supplanter, you will be called Israel. The liberator the one that is going to be the father of many nations. You will cause many people to reach their potential.” That’s for free. That’s for free. How about that? Hey? Okay, now you can go home. Bye.
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