Scripture reference: Deuteronomy 30:15 (NLT); Isaiah 14:12-14 (NLT); Deuteronomy 28:11-14 (NLT); John 14:30 (NKJV); John 14:30-31(TPT); John 15:7-8 (NKJV); John 15:7-9 (TPT); Matthew 18:18-20 (NLT)
Pastor Sharon: Oh, praise the Lord. We are now at that part of our assembly where we receive the Word of God. We receive the message from the Lord, and we already believe it even before it comes. We already receive it, and we already believe it, in Jesus’ name. We thank You for Your anointing that is upon Pastor John that rises up within him. Thank You for Your Holy Spirit that will speak through his mouth today the oracles of God. He will give to us Words that we need to hear today, Father. In our journey with You and You will do what is in Your heart to do today. And we say thank You for Your preceding Word that keeps coming. In Jesus’ name, and we all say, “Amen!”
Pastor John: Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord. Praise the name of Jesus. Praise the name of Jesus. Praise the name of Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Praise You, Lord. Praise You, Lord. Praise You. Praise You, Father. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to the Most High God. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. Glory to the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
Well, I’m glad you are in church this morning. It’s a good place to be. Better than almost any other place – almost. Maybe heaven’s better, but when we get there, we make it better. We do. Hallelujah. Before you sit down I want you to tell somebody, “God is good” and then tell someone else, “God is good, God is good”. Just tell somebody and then you may be seated. Thank you everybody. Praise the Lord.
Next Sunday is quite a big day because on Sunday evening at 5 o’clock, we start practicing. So, for the month of October, we are going to have both practice and celebration at the same time. Because on October 1st, we would have been full-time in the Pastoral Ministry here in Witbank for 24 years. Amen. 1st of October.
You know, the way that the Lord brought me to Witbank was someone… The Pastor or the man who actually just built the outer shell of this building. This building wasn’t anything like it is now, but he did build the outer shell of the building. He had some heart conditions, and we had gotten to know each other. I’ve preached in the Church here a few times. And the Lord had me come here and take over the Church, on a caretaker basis, to come and help the Church. And it turned out that his heart never recovered and I ended up taking the Church on a full-time basis. And, well most people said at the time. “We do not expect Pastor John to last more than two years, maybe three.” Because that’s the normal cycle of what happens in Witbank. Two or three years: people come here, they see potential, they see what God can do here, and then it gets tough. And, Witbank has had a lot of division in it as a city. It’s also a city that has a revolving door. People come here to do coal mining, and they go somewhere else. They come here to do a job for a season, and then they go somewhere else. It’s like a revolving door. It’s been like that for a long time.
So, what happens to preachers? They get caught in the revolving door. Except, our door is moving very slowly, 24 years later, here we are. Aren’t you glad? Praise Jesus. Hallelujah. So, I am going to invite you from next Sunday afternoon to come to the service. I want you to come prepared to give a testimony, to give an encouragement to the people, and we are going to celebrate the whole month long. I’d like you to put in your diaries, Sunday the 15th I beg your pardon. Sunday the 20th and Sunday the 27th, if you can earmark those 2 Sundays. After the morning service and into the evening service, we are going to have a significant celebration.
How do you celebrate without food? Carmen, you like that, hey? So, but we are going to celebrate testimonies, we are going to create some videos. We are going to do some stuff where we can celebrate because this year or this next year is the 24th year that we have been involved in Witbank. Amen.
And then after the 2nd Sunday, I’ll go to the USA for a couple of weeks, but… You know, it came to my attention the number 24, biblically, has some significance and some meaning. And if you want a very simple headline of what the number twenty-four means, biblically. It really talks about divine order and the completeness of His plan. Divine order and completeness of His plan. It represents God’s divine order and the completeness of His plan, and it is reflected in twenty-four hours of the day. It’s the twenty-four elders. There is a lot of twenty-four in the Bible. I don’t want to talk too much about that, but it is important for us to recognize that the number twenty-four, in scripture, points to: Perfection and thoroughness of God’s Word. Perfection and thoroughness of God’s Word. It speaks to divine order and completeness.
Isn’t it interesting that we find ourselves here, at this time, 24th year, in the year of 2024, and God has taken us over crossover, and in the year 2024, God had me, speak from the pulpit and say, “Reset now, because we’ve crossed over.” Twenty-four may signify based on Hebrew words: a divine shift or a season of change in one’s life. A divine shift or a season of change in one’s life. I wonder if God is telling us something in numbers. Hey? I think so. So, best we celebrate it properly. Best we be ready for the divine order and the completeness of what God is doing with us. A divine shift and a season of change. It encourages us to trust in God’s guiding hand and to embrace new opportunities He presents. Twenty-four. I wonder if the Lord has been speaking. Amen! Hallelujah. God is great.
There is no confusion in God. I promise you, God’s not confused. Anybody here think that God’s confused? Do you think He changes His mind on a regular basis because circumstances change? So, if God’s not confused, then who, if there’s confusion, where does it come from? It comes from the devil, or it might just be in your mind via the devil. But God’s not confused. Amen.
So, He’ll speak to us in many different ways. Praise the Lord. Last week, I read to you a scripture… just want to make sure I have started. Last week, I read to you a scripture, in Deuteronomy. It’s a well-known scripture. I’m not going to read that scripture again right now, but Deuteronomy chapter 30 verse 15 says, 15 “Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster. 16 For I command you this day to love the Lord your God and to keep his commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in his ways. If you do this, you will live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy” (Deuteronomy 30:15 NLT).
Now I want to just say something to you. God is a God of order, and He’s not confused. So, if God put me in Witbank, do you think He was confused, or do you think this was His order? It was His order for me to be here. So, why would God put me in Witbank? Me and Pastor Sharon – why would He do that? Well, because He wanted to establish His order through a people that would obey Him in the geographic location that He ordained us to be in. Right?
I’ve got to be honest with you. I believe God called me to Joburg too. I do believe that. I believe that God raised up leaders in our congregation that never took up their responsibility or their leadership. There were people that God brought into my life that… for a short season, they did, and they helped me get things in the order that God wanted us to be – Bible school and Missions and different things. But God doesn’t bring them so that they can leave. God brings them so their gifts and callings can be fulfilled in the order of what He called them to be.
So, if they came and left, some of them have died – if they came and for whatever reason they left, God has never been confused about bringing us together. It became clear to me that the spirit that John G. Lake spoke about when he was here– he talked about the strange spirit that’s in Joburg. A spirit of jealousy, a spirit of envy– he couldn’t really put his finger on it – the spirit that’s in Joburg, but it nearly destroyed his life. It did kill his wife. It was a big deal. He had to go back to America, and he had to take up a lot of time re-establishing his credibility. Because the people in Joburg rejected his ministry. This is true. What I’m telling you is fact. This is not a story. It’s in his book.
So, I believe God had wanted the church in Joburg – the church that God put me to do in Joburg, I believe that He, raised us up to be a voice for the order of God that was not received. Because people do not want to receive the order of God – they want to tell God what order they want in their lives. Yes? So, the Lord had me dust the feet, wipe the dust off the feet from Johannesburg, and brought me here, because He didn’t want me to be subjected to what was going on in Johannesburg. For whatever reason. I am not judging any other ministry that is functioning there, I am just talking to you about me and Sharon. Okay?
But I want to just show you about the order of God here for a minute. Because only Loutjie and Zelda and Tish will know, that I actually made this request from them probably a month ago, that I wanted to use their testimony. But I want to just show you how the order of God works. I have Tish’s date lines here. In September of 2018, Loutjie’s dad had a stroke on the farm, and he ended up in the hospital here in Witbank, I think. [Loutjie says in Pretoria] In Pretoria? In Pretoria. So, he had a stroke, and he was released from the hospital and actually, he was given a fairly clean bill of health that he was okay. He might have had some minor things, if I am right, Loutjie? [Loujtie nodding his head] But there was not anything seriously complicated because of the stroke that he had. And so he was released and he went home and all went ahead as fairly normal.
Except, God was with me in my private chamber of prayer. I have told this story before. I have just never named Loutjie by name, and I have his permission to do it, and Tish’s. But the Lord was visiting me in my private chamber in prayer, and so He came upon me so strongly. He said, “Phone Loutjie, and tell him that his dad is not going to live very long, and he must make the most of every opportunity that he gets with his dad.” I didn’t know how long was or wasn’t, but that’s what happened to me. The Spirit of God came upon me in my prayer time and said, “Tell… phone Loutjie and tell him.” The rest is up to Loutjie, I’ve done my job. You think that was easy for me? Huh? Was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life. When you phone someone else and you tell them by the Word of the Lord that their father’s going, not live very long, come on, and all seems well. In fact, everybody was full of hope after he came out of the hospital, and then they get a call from the Pastor. Come on now. That happened… grandpa, Oupa, had a stroke in September 2018. January 2019, Oupa went to the Lord. Four-months. That meant Loutjie and the family had a whole December, a whole holiday season they could spend with grandma and grandpa together, family – make the most of it. But now if that story is just taken in isolation, but we have to walk this out together, because we don’t know what God’s doing.
So, Tish was homeschooled, sort of. Homeschooled. And, she never went to a formal school. In the community that she got involved in, she met a guy. This guy was 17, she was 16. The relationship seemed to be very friendly. It started getting very close, and it became obvious from the mom and the boy that he was so keen on Tish that he wanted Tish to be his wife. They made an invitation and they put it out there for Tish to go with them to America for an extended period of time to see how she could fit into their community. Hello? Tish was ready to go. In fact, she was determined to go. Everything on the surface seemed good until the Lord visited me in my prayer chamber again. I phoned to Loutjie and Zelda, and I said, “I need to speak to the family, please, and I need to speak to Tish.” Can they come and visit me in my house? So, then I had a word. She was 16 turning 17, and the time of her departure to go to America was close at hand. And the Lord came upon me, and He said, “This thing is out of order. This will be.. this will be very bad for Tish.” That’s what I’m going to say. It’s going to be very bad for Tish.
So, now what do I have to do about this? Her heart is involved in it. There doesn’t seem to be any appearance on the outside that this thing can go wrong. Everything seemed okay. It seemed good, except God visited me again in the chamber of my private prayer time to speak to me about them [Pastor John referring to Loutjie and Zelda] and about Tish. Now watch this. God didn’t take Loutjie’s father home to prove anything. He just told me it’s going to happen. Why did He want me to phone Loutjie? Because when the time came that I had to come and intervene into Tish’s life, the credibility of the Word of God in this man {Pastor John referring to himself] would stand for them. Otherwise, they may not have believed what God told me.
Because it would be my word against everything that appeared right. Then how do you say, well, “It’s Pastor John’s word, but it’s Tish’s heart”, and everything looks good here? Hey? Are you at the back there, Tish? Thank you for listening. I tell you what, the enemy was after her life. And in my lounge that day, in my lounge, God had me get up out of my chair and go and talk to Tish in a way that would visually demonstrate what was going to happen to her and what was happening to her. Because the dark forces of hell were unleashed against her and against the Du Toit family, but they couldn’t see it. Neither would I have seen it unless God showed up.
So, they went away. But because God had used Loutjie’s father’s early departure and used me as a vessel to speak, they had to go away saying, “Maybe this shepherd, this messenger is hearing from God, and if he’s hearing from God, we better pay attention.”
So, Pastor John, why are you talking about this? Because God’s a covenant God, and I’m talking about covenant. And when He deals with covenant, He’s dealing in the long term of life. He’s not dealing about a year or two. Come on. You see, what happened with Loutjie and Zelda is that when they became aware of the message that we preach here and what we stand for here, they made a quality decision. They were going to drive from the farm, which is a 120 kilometers away, on not such high… it’s not like riding from Joburg to Witbank on highways. It’s farm roads, or single roads, and there’s lots of trucks on that road, always has been. They had to make a decision. We’re going to come to church every Sunday. Their commitment and their quality choice before God showed God that they meant business in covenant in His covenant with them, and their covenant was this ekklesia. So, God had no alternative, no choice, but to intervene in something that would have been catastrophic in their lives. God had to intervene – because His covenant. Come on. Praise Jesus.
And now Tish is part of this ministry. She will always have a place in this ministry. It’s part of what God called her to do; to be part of this ministry. The devil was all the while plotting to take her life and take her away to America, and take her to places she should never have gone, meet with people she should never have seen, and her whole life would have been a completely different life out of the order of God.
So, God is a covenant God He’s not a confused God here. Hey? There might be a lot of churches out there that are confused, but this church is not confused. We know the voice of God. We hear the voice of God. We are a praying church. We are a church that’s committed to the Bible, not to a doctrine or a philosophy. We are committed to the Bible. We are not committed to an organizational way of doing church. We are committed to the Bible. We are committed to the Holy Spirit. We are committed to Jesus, Himself. We are committed to God. We are a committed, devoted people. We are not a haphazard people. [Carmen shouts: We are truth-seekers] We are truth seekers, Carmen. We are truth seekers. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus.
So, you know, there’s a lot of church organizations out there in the world, and the world system is pretty much dictating how people go to church or not go to church. Because cultural things have come into the church and people don’t even know that their identity is wrapped up in culture, not in Kingdom, not in covenant. Hello? Thank you for allowing me to share such an amazing testimony this morning, because my next scripture says this. Isaiah chapter 14 verse 12, 12 “How you are fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the morning! You have been thrown down to the earth, you who destroyed the nations of the world. 13 For you said to yourself, ‘I will ascend to heaven. Please listen to this church. Please listen to the language here. Please listen to how important this is. 13 For you said to yourself, ‘I will ascend to heaven and set my throne above God’s stars. I will preside on the mountain of the gods far away in the north. 14 I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High.’ (Isaiah 14:12-14 NLT)
I will. I will. I will. I will. I will. I will. The covenant that Jesus came to establish with us on the earth isn’t ‘I will.’ What did Jesus come and say? And I’ll read it to you in a few minutes. He said, “I’ve come to do the will of the One Who sent Me.” I’ve come to do the will of the Father.” Yes? He didn’t say, “I will.” He said, “I’ve come to do His will.”
This scripture ends by saying, 13 For you said to yourself, ‘I will ascend to heaven and set my throne above God’s stars. I will preside on the mountain of the gods far away in the north. 14 I will climb to the highest heaven and be like the Most High.’ What was the pull of Eve and Adam when the enemy came? He said, “God said, if you eat of this tree, you will become like Him. Don’t you want to be more like Him? Disobey Him to become more like Him.” All he was doing is wanting them to exercise their will so that they say, “I will.” 15 Instead, you will be brought down to the place of the dead, down to its lowest depths. (Isaiah 14:13-15 NLT) I can tell you, the more you live in, “I will”, the more you are separated from God, and you live in depths of darkness that you don’t even know how far you’ve been removed from the light because it gets so dark.
I’d like to remind you of what I said, and I read to you from Deuteronomy chapter 28 last week. Remember, we ended off church on a high. “I will bless you. I will bless you. I will bless you.” And He said here, 11 “The Lord will give you prosperity, verse 11, in the land he swore to you… 12 The Lord will send rain at the proper time… 13 If you listen to these commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today, and if you carefully obey them, the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always be on top and never at the bottom. 14 You must not turn away from any of the commands I am giving you today, nor follow after other gods and worship them (Deuteronomy 28:11-14 NLT). Why is that such a big deal to God? Because from the beginning, in Satan, it was created, “I will raise myself up to the mountain and I will worship among the gods.” In other words, he was putting himself at the level of God, “I will be like God.”
So, what is it that Jesus had to come and do as a covenant with us? What did He have to come and do? He had to come and do and say, “I’m going to come on earth like Adam was, but this time, I’m not going to raise Myself up to be like God; I’m only going to serve God. I’m going to worship Him only.” Isn’t that what He said to Satan on the day of temptation? “You must worship the Lord your God only.” Hey? That’s what He said.
His whole life was, “I’m going to worship God; I didn’t come for Myself.” Huh. So, God gives us the answer of why He came. He came because They set up a covenant amongst Themselves before They even created the earth that when man gets it wrong, Jesus will come and set it right. Their covenant agreement was between Them unbreakable, unchangeable. Hallelujah.
Let me tell you, what Jesus did was just worthy of Him having our praise and our worship because He is our Saviour. He saved us from ourselves. All of humanity, He saved us from ourselves. He saved us from our own philosophies and our own ideologies and our own created ways. He saved us from ourselves. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah.
You know, Gideon and Riona, you mind if I share a little bit of your personal story, Gideon? [Gideon put his thumb up] Gideon and Riona, they were in this church when I came here. And before I took the church, I was just a passing preacher here at that time. Gideon and Riona’s life was in a bit of chaos, to put it mildly. Well, he asked if he could come and see me, and, he drove through to Johannesburg, and, I gave him some advice. I said, “Now, Gideon, it’s up to you to do what I’m telling you to do or not to do. I can’t tell you, that you must do this. I can tell you what the Word says, and if you follow my counsel, God will change things for you.” And so how many years ago was that – 25 years ago? Probably. Yeah, 23? [Gideon says 26 years ago] 26 years ago. The chaos that was in their life has been completely undone, and God has restored everything into their life where everything in their life is in the order of God. It’s in the abundance of God. They’re walking in the favour of God. All of the good stuff that they could ever have wanted for themselves is upon them. The mantle of God is resting upon them, the goodness, the blessing, the favour, everything. Right, Gideon? It started with you having to say, “I’m going to do what God says because I recognize there’s an anointing on your life, Pastor John.” You didn’t even call me Pastor at that time before I was Pastor.
There’s a there’s a place that God calls us in that if we recognize God’s hand at work, this is where God’s blessing rests on you. This is where it happens. When you recognize God’s called you to who He’s called you to, and you start to walk in those things, then the favor and the blessing is on you.
Right, Pastor Lynn? I don’t want Pastor Lynn to talk because he’ll just blow my trumpet. I don’t mean it for that. But was it how many… eighteen years ago now that God called you to me? Twenty years ago? Nineteen years? Next year, February, we twenty years. God called him to me when he was nearly… he was in his early sixties, and he came to me and he said, “I’m going to retire at sixty-five,” and I said, “You can’t. Doesn’t exist in the Word of God”. Because I had a revelation that our inner man is renewed and wisdom comes by age, and we will lose the best part of his life. He came from a ministry that didn’t recognize that. That’s not my business. My business is what God shows me. He will tell you that these last twenty years have been the best years of his life because he came into the order of where God called him. Just recently, I won’t go into details, Lynn, but just recently, Pastor Lynn came and spoke to me about a personal and a private matter regarding his family. And when he was talking to me, I said, “Pastor Lynn, what you are planning is out of order. It’s not in the order of who you are in God. That must change. The planning must change.”
You know, he’s an elder. He knows the Word of God he knows everything. You know, I mean what, there’s hardly anything I can teach him. In fact, I’m accountable to him because of his spirituality that if he sees something in my life, he can call me on it. Hello? I’ve given him that position in my life. So, what must I go and tell him? But when he spoke to me, the Spirit of God said, “You are the chief Shepherd. Speak to him. This thing is not in order.” So, he said, “I’ll get back to you, Pastor John. I don’t know how it’s going to work.” He just started making, like, I suggested to him, and everything that he desires fell into place, and it came into the order the way God needed it to be. Praise the Lord. You see, that was out of relationship, not out of structural correctness. It’s not because we have an organization, and it’s correct according to the organization. It’s based on a relationship where God understands covenant. He understands the power of agreement.
Are you ready for some controversy this morning? It’s only controversial because other people are preaching this stuff in the world, and I like to shoot holy cows. God has called me to shoot holy cows. Praise the Lord. John chapter 14 verse 30, in the New King James V”ersion, says, 14 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. The ruler of this world is coming and he has nothing on me (John 14:30 NKJV). You know why Jesus could say, “The ruler of this world is coming against Me, but he has nothing on Me?” It’s because He didn’t do what He wanted to do. He always did what the Father wanted Him to do. He was completely obedient to the Father. So, I’m going to read that same verse 30 and verse 31 to you from The Passion Translation. ³⁰ I won’t speak with you much longer, for the ruler of this dark world is coming. But he has no power over me, for he has nothing to use against me. ³¹ I am doing exactly what the Father destined for me to accomplish, so that the world will discover how much I love my Father. Now come with me.”(John 14:30-31 TPT) I’m going to shoot a holy cow in a minute. Don’t worry. This is not the holy cow. This is the holy written scripture.
John chapter 15 verse 7 ⁷ If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. ⁸ By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. (John 15:7-8 NKJV) The Passion Translation reads like this, ⁷ But if you live in life-union with me and if my words live powerfully within you—then you can ask whatever you desire and it will be done. What’s the, what’s the doing Word there? If you ‘abide’ in Me, if you live in life union with Me. Right? Then My Words that live in you will be powerful in you. Then the power of the Words in you will give you the desire to ask Me what you want, and I will give you what you ask because you’re in life union with Me. This is not anybody’s desire for anything you like. ⁸ When your lives bear abundant fruit, you demonstrate that you are My mature disciples who glorify My Father. ⁹ I love each of you with the same love that the Father loves Me. You must continually let My love nourish your hearts. (John 15:7-9 TPT) Isn’t that powerful? God says, “Let My love nourish your heart.”
So, now Matthew 18 is a very famous scripture. Matthew chapter 18 verse 18, 18 I tell you the truth, whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven. 19 I also tell you this: If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you. 20 For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among you or among them, (Matthew 18:18-20 NLT). “Where two or three agree on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you”. Anything? Or is that in context with John? Where he says, “If my Words abide in you and I am living… you live in life union with Me.” Huh? It can’t be anyt[hing. If someone in the church is married and they look at another person’s wife and they say, “Lord, I want to have that wife.” And he gets two or three people to get into agreement with him that he can marry a person not telling them that he is married. Do you think God is going to honor that request? [Congregation says no] That is ridiculous. So, Jesus didn’t mean anything you think of. It’s where He is in the middle of it because where He is and who He is that’s what is going to happen. Right? Power of agreement is based on the power of covenant. So, when Jesus and the Father and the Holy Spirit all got together in agreement in eternity that They covenanted amongst Themselves that when Jesus died His bloodshed will be the point of covenant for eternity. Then that’s a powerful thing.
Okay. You want the holy cow now? I don’t know if you’re ready for it. What is the most powerful point of my relationship with Pastor Sharon? I’m using… I’m personalizing this because, you know, then I don’t get into trouble with anybody else. Okay? What’s the most powerful part of my relationship with Pastor Sharon? Is it because I’m the head of the home, or is it something else? Am I Sharon’s head? I’m not Sharon’s head. Who’s Sharon’s head? Jesus is Sharon’s head. How can I be her head when Jesus is Sharon’s head? I’ve already shot the cow. Now I’ve got to shoot it so it stops mooing. “But Pastor John, there are so many scriptures about… and you’ve thought for so long about how you must love your wife as Christ loves the Church and give yourself up for her. Oh, is that headship, or is that serving? Ah, it’s serving. Wow. How about that? So, I’ve heard people preach all over the world. Man must be the spiritual head of the house and women all over the world want men to be the spiritual head of the house. It’s doctrinally and spiritually inaccurate, and it has caused way too much confusion in the Church. “Well, Pastor John, you’ve gooied some big statements out there.” I know. It’s big bait. I’m reeling you in. Okay?
So, what’s more important for me, to exercise spiritual leadership or to be spiritual? Come on now. To be spiritual. So, God wants me to be what? Spiritual. What’s God’s most important thing for Sharon to be? Spiritual. So, many times, I want to just show you the conflict that happens because of the system of the world that has affected us, that affects your emotions, that affects your thinking, versus the order of God. Are you all with me?
So, in the early years of our marriage, you know, Sharon would say to me, I would say, “Sharon, do you do you love me?” “Yes. I love you, babe. But I love you as much as I love you because of how much I love God.” “No, no, no, no. You know, this body, this maleness here, I want to tell me you love this man. [Pastor John indicates to his body] You know, don’t tell me you love me because of God, tell me you love the man. I need you to love the man.” “Yes. I love the man, but I love the man because I love God so much.”
I wanted her to love the man. I’m the man. I need you to be completely in love with a man. [Pastor John deepens his voice and acts tough] Come on now. And she kept repeating to me, “Of course, I love the man. I adore the man, but I love the man because I love God so much that I have the right order of love for – the man.” But I didn’t want to hear that because my ego wanted her to tell me, I’m like the best thing since sliced bread. And there can be no other one quite like me. I’m the best male on the planet. Yeah? I wonder if that’s my ego talking. I wonder if that’s a maleness thing that’s like, “I want the female to love the male.” It’s like, “I’m going to drag you by your hair and pull you out of the cave until you tell me you love the man.” Hello?
All the while, she’s saying to me, “I love you because I love God so much that the way I love you is the highest kind of love that I could ever love you with.” What was she saying to me? She was saying, “John, you want my affection? You’ve got it. You want words of how gorgeous you are? You’ve got it. You want a good time in the bedroom? Let’s do it. But all of that is subject to the fact that I love God so much that all of what I am is loving you through the love of God.”
So, do you see the contest that I was having in myself? That my self wanted to go to the soul of the man, to the flesh of the man. She was saying, “I give you all of that, but the power of that can change depending on how good you are as a man. But because I love God as much as I do, it doesn’t matter what you do as a man, I love you the same.” So,then it didn’t matter that over the years I’ve got a bit of a belly because she still loved the more man that I was. Hello? It didn’t matter then that as the years went by, my skin got wrinkly. She still loved the man. Because the love that she had was a love that God gave her to love me. Come on now, bear with me. So, if I didn’t get up every morning at 5 o’clock in the morning to go and she could come and listen at the door and hear me saying, “And I pray for my wife [Pastor John prays in the Spirit], and I pray for my kids [Pastor John prays in the Spirit].” I’m doing that and I’m doing this, and she’s not hearing that and so, well, “what happened to you this last week? You weren’t the spiritual leader of the house.” She could judge me in our relationship based on how much spiritual leadership I’m taking.
You think God ordained for women to be the judge of men’s spiritual leadership? Come on. I’m still shooting the holy cows here. God never intended the woman to stand in judgment of the man to judge whether he’s the spiritual leader of the house. But everywhere I hear, a woman wants to say, “If I had a man who was the spiritual leader of my house, I would be much better as a woman.” No. No. God’s calling me to be a spiritual man and He’s calling Sharon to be a spiritual woman. Because as a spiritual woman, she can be all the woman she needs to be to me. As a spiritual man, I can be all the man that I need to be to Sharon. I don’t have to say, “I’m exercising spiritual leadership now, Sharon.” Hello? Are you all okay here? Are you all okay? Are you okay? Are you okay? I feel like a surgeon that’s cut the wound open, and I’m just checking that you’re all with me. You okay? You’re not in total shock yet? Hey? Are you still with me?
So, spiritual women all over the church–single. Spiritual men all over the church–single. They get married. Who’s the spiritual leader of that union? It’s Jesus. Jesus was the Head of that woman when she was single, He’ll still be the head of that woman when she’s married. If her husband asked her to do something that’s out of the will of God, who must she obey? [Congregation says Jesus] So, then who’s the spiritual leader? [Congregation says Jesus] Jesus. What if it’s like, this has happened a lot to me? What if it’s like this? And this often happens with the instigation of the woman. “You know, this church that we’re going to, yeah, it doesn’t do it for me anymore. We need to leave church.” The husband says, “Hold on. This is where I’m connected.” “Doesn’t do it for me. That person offended me. That person offended me. I’m not connected with that person. If you don’t leave, I’m leaving. Will you please take some spiritual leadership and let’s leave?” And vice versa. “I don’t like what this Pastor is saying. I don’t like the way he goes about church. I don’t like the way the organization works. I don’t like… and I disagree with that doctrine. I disagree with this point. I disagree with that. I disagree with all kinds of stuff. I think I’ll leave.”
Oh, so you came here… maybe you got married here, and now you going to leave here. How come? God’s not confused. It’s all about this ‘spiritual leadership.’ Come on. What is the most powerful thing that Sharon and I can do to exercise spiritual leadership in our lives? I do what the Father says I must do. We find a scripture, and we are in the scripture based on His covenant that He’s with us. We get into agreement on the scripture, then the power of eternal covenant and the power of human covenant, and the power of God’s order is altogether in agreement, and the most powerful thing that we can do is get into agreement. It’s not for me to tell her what we do next in the house.
Hey. I know you’ve got lots of questions. Well, what about money matters? What about financial matters? What about, you know, other family matters? Relationship matters. If you’re in disagreement, then who breaks the deadlock? You don’t. This is as simple as I can make it for you. If you’re in disagreement, who breaks the deadlock? Someone’s got to be in charge in the house. No. God’s in charge of two Spirit beings, husband and wife. God’s will is in charge. So, what happens if you’re in disagreement? You go to the Word, you get into the power of agreement in the Word, and then you wait for God to change one of their hearts or both your hearts to find an alternative solution. Okay? Are you all with me so far?
You know, most preachers will not preach this kind of stuff because they really are in fear of isolating half of the congregation. One day it might be the men, other days it might be the women. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord. That if I’ve broken any feet here or toes here, You heal them. So, just very quickly, what’s the measure of my spirituality? Is the measure of my spirituality my wife? She has no judgment on my spirituality. “You don’t pray the way I do. You don’t read the Bible as much as I do. You don’t listen to praise and worship the way I do. You know what? Sometimes I catch you listening to jazz when you should be listening to Christian music. Then when I’m listening to Christian music and you listen to jazz, you’re not spiritual. Because my commitment and my discipleship connection is more spiritual than yours. So, you’re not as spiritual as me. Therefore, I have something to say. And if we make decisions, I’ll take the position of spirituality here.”
Come on. How out of order is that? But you think it doesn’t happen? It happens in subtle ways. A wife will just keep her body from her husband. She’ll go silent. She’ll walk around the church… the house with a moping mouth and a moping spirit, and she’ll make sure that the husband knows she’s in disagreement with him until he changes–that’s going to be the atmosphere in the house. Eina, It’s a good thing I prayed about broken toes before I actually broke them.
What about the men? “Oh, so you’re all spiritual and you pray all this stuff, but what happens in the bedroom is, like, so few and far between, and I’m going to be so perfect and do everything so right for you to get something from you.” Now who’s spiritual and who’s not? “Oh, I think I’ll just cut your household budget for a while to show you who’s boss. I just won’t let you spend money on the stuff that you really want to spend it on.” You think there are no ways… ways in a relationship that messages can be given? And I’m just hitting headlines here, and I’m really being extravagant because a lot of this stuff happens so under the ground. Let me tell you, a husband and a wife can just look at each other with a look across a room full of people, and then know exactly what each other’s doing. You think that look doesn’t play a part in the house? Come on now. Praise the Lord.
Aren’t you glad you got a Pastor who’s willing to shoot some holy cows and actually just go there? Because otherwise, we walk around in darkness here. Right? And if we can’t talk about tough issues, then who’s going to talk about them? We just run around life with our eyes closed. Okay? So, alright, “Pastor John, you’re just confirming everything I’ve always thought today. My wife is not my spiritual head or my spiritual judge,” and the husband is saying, “Thank God my wife is not calling on me anymore after today to be the spiritual head of the house.” You know, why would I be talking like this? Because the enemy of darkness, that dark ruler that Jesus was talking about, where Jesus says, “He has nothing in Me.” Because He always did the will of the Father. Our problem is that we got so much intellectual, doctrinal issues that we want perfected in our life before we obey God or before we do something that’s honorable before God – that the ruler of this dark world has something on us. It just pushes that button, pushes that trigger, “I know how to work with you. I know how to get you going.”
Hey, listen that devil’s been around thousands of years with thousands of human, million and billions of human beings. If he doesn’t know by now how to touch you and your triggers and your emotional stuff and your soul stuff, you are mistaken. And he will find the most perfect way to capture you. He will. And you, won’t even… you won’t even see it coming. How does this happen? Well, you know, first of all, we got to live in the Word. We got to live by the Holy Spirit. And then, we have to learn to be accountable to each other. Listen. Holy Spirit speaking to you is your responsibility. But what He tells you, it’s your accountability to the church to identify that He did actually hold you responsible for what He’s called you to be responsible for. Responsibility and accountability are two different things. I might be responsible, but if I’m not accountable to anybody, then sooner or later, my responsibility is going to be self-centered. Accountability holds me… a servant holds me responsible for my serving and for my gifting. If I’m not accountable to someone, somewhere along my line, the responsibility is going to be so self-centered that it’s going to undermine everything that I stand for.
So, all of you out there, tell me what role God has called me to in the Church. I’m the Pastor here. I’m the senior spiritual leader here. What’s God called me to do? He’s called me to serve you. Right? You know what the Bible says He’s called me to do? He’s called me to watch over your soul. Not your spirit, your soul. Why must I watch over your soul? Because the devil comes after your soul because he can’t touch your spirit. Your spirit’s perfect, but your mind’s not. Hello? So, God has put a covenant into the church. What did He do? He sent Jesus to the earth to die for the Church. In Ephesians, He wants to show the world how the Church looks. So, He takes a marriage, and He says, “In your marriage, this is how you live your marriage so that the marriage can look like the Church. So, husbands, love your wives as Christ loves the Church and give yourself up for her because that reflects the church.” So, if a Pastor comes and he says, “Hey, it’s my calling, it’s my anointing, it’s my authority, and I’ll tell you what to do, and you better obey because I’ve got the spiritual authority here, and I have the final say, like the husband says he has in the house. I’ve got the final say.” If I come along here and I say that to you, I’m out of order. Why? Because I’m now no longer serving you and watching over your soul. I’m making this Church about me.
Now I’m responsible, but I’m no longer accountable. Hello? So, Pastor John, what’s this message all about? Well, God is about to pour out His anointing of covenant into this church because He’s got a plan for us, and He needs for us to establish a new framework of how we’re going to use the gifts in this Church. But if we use the gifts in this Church, we are certainly going to face a situation where somebody’s going to say something that you don’t like and it might touch where your gift is supreme. “So, you want to tell me what I must do with my gift when my gift knows I’ve got to do something else and my gift is so so completely, perfectly situated to do the best that I can, and now you’re telling me what to do, not letting my gift operate?” “For the moment, yes.” “Oh, you don’t like that?” “I don’t like that.”
Oh, I wonder what God’s up to here. You know what it could be? Maybe it just could be He’s testing a heart. Hey? I go back to my relationship with Brother Jerry. I was newly with Brother Jerry, and I knew that God wanted us to have a bible school. And I went to Brother Jerry as the head of JSMI South Africa, and I said, “Brother Jerry, the Lord…” and having Churches that I was leading. I said, “Brother Jerry, the Lord wants us to have churches, Bible schools in this country.” He said, “No, John. God didn’t tell me to have bible schools in every country.” He said, “God told me to have a bible school in Fort Worth, Texas. So, the answer is no.” Well, I knew what I’d seen in my spirit. I said, “Yes, Sir.” I walked away for a year. I could have said, “You know, what kind of leaders God put me with here?”
You know, doesn’t he see my gifting? Doesn’t he see the anointing that’s on me? Doesn’t he see who I am? Doesn’t he? So, one year later, I went back to him and said, “Brother Jerry, I’m back again. We need to have a bible school in South Africa, and not just one, many campuses.” He said, “Yes, John. The time is right. The Lord has spoken to me. Now you must do it.” And we’ve been doing bible schools now for 22 years, 23 years. And we’ve graduated more people. This says I’ve got 5 minutes left. [Pastor John referring to his timer on his cellphone]. We’ve graduated more people through our Bible school in South Africa than Brother Jerry and Kenneth Copeland Ministries and anybody else that I’m connected to in that circle has ever done in all of their years on the earth. Not because I’m fantastic, because under his agreement, under his anointing, under his apostolic leadership, he gave me the authorization, and he gave me the right to do the bible school and when we did our 1st bible school graduation, we had stood in an auditorium full of people, and there were something like 300 bible school students in one location, and we still had to go to 3 more locations, 4 more locations to go and do graduations there. We were standing on the platform there, and he stood next to me and he said, “John, I’m living in the dream that God gave me years ago. I’m living in my dream.”
You see, but if I had allowed myself to get discombobulated, confused because of what I saw in my spirit, but he said something different… God… I could’ve separated myself from him. Then neither of our callings would have been fulfilled. Hello? Praise the Lord. You see, in the end, the covenant and if the Lord wills, next Sunday, I’ll talk about the difference between covenant and kingdom and the difference between kingdom and the power of agreement, but I had to set this up from last week to this week so you can see how the whole picture comes together. Because covenant came before kingdom. God didn’t need to advertise His kingdom in heaven. He was God. He only needed to establish a kingdom because man required it. But covenant precedes kingdom. And the power of agreement in covenant establishes kingdom. It’s not that I must live the kingdom and then agreement comes. Its covenant and agreement establish kingdom. And then we’ll set ourselves up for the Ekklesia conversation. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus.
If you’ve got a question about marriage after this morning, please don’t shoot me yet. I do request, if you want to, I do request sending an email to Miranda and ask your question on email, and I’ll do my best to answer you. Okay? But, you know, if you’re part of this church, don’t worry. God will answer the questions. It’ll come out somewhere. Somewhere.
So, Pastor John, why did you start out with the testimony of the Du Toits? Because here’s what God wanted me to demonstrate to you today, that when He puts a messenger in your life, He makes me… He holds me accountable to hear from Him that if I need to say anything to you, then I will do it, whether it’s from this pulpit or whether it’s in private. I’m certainly not a perfect vessel. I’ve told you that many times. But you don’t hear me get up here, and, you know, I certainly follow in Brother Jerry’s footsteps on this call. I don’t get up here every Sunday and start prophesying, and I don’t start calling people out and giving words for their life and prophesy and prophecy and prophesy, and then this whole church is built on my ability to be operating in the gifts of the Spirit and prophesying.
Even the Apostle Paul never built his church, the church that Jesus told him to build, in anywhere he went based on the gifts of the Spirit. He started churches based on the Word of God, based on the leading of the Holy Spirit, based on covenant. If the gifts of the Spirit operated, so be it. Let me tell you, more often than not when Apostle Paul operated in the gifts of the Spirit, it got him in jail. I’m telling you. You go read it. He goes around town healing people, calling out familiar spirits. Next minute, you know, he’s called before a council, thrown in jail, he’s beaten, because when you are confronting the ruler of darkness, he doesn’t like that the light is coming. Yeah. Most people want the gift of the Spirit. Lekker, “Give me a word, Pastor John. Give me a Word.” You don’t know the consequences that come with the word that is given. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Did you get something out of church this morning? Hey? Praise the Lord.
Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Hallelujah. God is a God of restoration and He’s a God of good things. Yeah. Praise the Lord. “Marnus, how’s your life now? Is it sweet? [Marnus says yes Pastor John] Does He look after you? [Cindy says very well]. Are you guys happy? Are you blessed?” [Marnus and Cindy nod yes] I’m checking on him publicly. Because I told him, when I married them, I was always going to check up on them. But I’ll tell you, Marnus, his dad and his mom came here, and they made a quality agreement that this was going to be their church.
They’ve been here for a long time. And Marnus, you know, Cindy was around and then it was on and then it was off and then it was all kinds of stuff. I mean, this was history part, but it was like, and then Marnus was like, “I’m not sure” And the world was pulling him for him to pursue things in the world, worldly ways, worldly ways, but he didn’t leave the church. He stayed here and eventually, the Holy Spirit smacked him upside the head and he said, “Oh wait, I think I’m doing a mistake here. I better get my life…”
But you know, he used to come and sow seed from his… he used to run a snoepie at school. How old were you, Marnus? [Marnus says 12 years old] He was 12 years old. He ran a snoepie at school, and he would come from… with the profit of the snoepie, and he’d come and tithe into my hands. Marnus… come and sow seed into my hands. See, God brought him through his parents, brought him into my life, this church, so that from the days of his snoepies, he began to realize that if I don’t obey God, I’m done. He might not have been able to express it now. And then Cindy was in the church and I could see they, I mean, they, you know, they had eyes for each other, long time. But all that nonsense came into their heads, or his head anyway.
Yeah. And then when he said, “Know what? I’m going to make a quality decision, I’m going to serve God and I’m going to follow His ways, and I’m going to do things in order.” And Cindy suddenly said, “Now you’re on the right track, boy. Now you can ask me.” It’s more or less like that, Cindy. I may be dramatizing a little bit, but it’s more or less like that. [Cindy says It’s perfect like that] It’s perfect like that. She always had this thing about him and she said, “It’s okay,” but she watched him run around and he was, you know, “I don’t know if God… what God this, God that. Whatever.” He was, like, all in a mix-up, you know. But when he stabilized himself, he said, “Know what? I know where my life is, I know where my covenants are, I know where my walk is, I know where my relationship is. I’ve been sowing seed into this relationship I must get myself right.” He’s huddled up to Cindy and says, “What do you say, Cindy?” She said,” I can see you’re on the right track. Talk to me, boy.” And after a while, she said, “Are you asking the big question?” She said, “Yes. I’m in.” How many years ago is that? [Marnus says three years married] You’ve been married three years? It’s pretty good. It’s a wonderful life.
You see, because there’s an order of marriage that God has brought into this church, everybody that gets married under this order will have all of the blessings. So, where there’s a proper order in the Ekklesia of the church and the gifts and the callings are operating in their proper order, the anointing is there for everybody to achieve the things that God has called them to do, destined to do. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Hallelujah.
Luke, am I preaching good? I mean, you’ve only been married a few months, but I’m preaching good hey? [Luke replies very good Pastor John] Yes? Praise the Lord. I’m telling you, the young people in this church, they’ve got a good life ahead of them. If they just obey God and they keep stuck and they keep going and they keep doing what God tells them to do, it’s good stuff. And you older people, you’re not too old to make your marriage good. Amen. I’ve been married to this girl for 45 years. We got Project 45 going. I thought some things were going to come to her in next year.
God said, “John, I’m so in this thing with you I’m going to make things come to her this year already ahead of time.” Time will tell. Moenie worry nie watch net. Time will tell. God is good. Project 45, you know what we’re doing? We’re celebrating. We are celebrating. We’re already celebrating. You know, 45 years, that’s a pretty grand time to be married. But we haven’t just stuck together because we’ve been together so long that we know how to be comfortable with each other, and so, we might as well live together now because we’ve been married so long. So, we just live together. No. No. I don’t settle for that.
I want better, more, more, more than I had when I was married 2 years. More than I had when I was married 5 years. More than I had when I was married 15 years. On our 15th anniversary, we found ourselves in the United Kingdom, there in a Kenneth Copeland International Believers Conference in Birmingham, I think, Birmingham in England, and we were there sitting on the 2nd row. Jerry Savelle walked in, and he recognized us from South Africa, and God was already pulling there. And he said, “Hello John and Sharon.” And we’re sitting behind Jesse and all those guys. And this lady behind us said, we were hugging each other and loving on each other, and she tapped us on the shoulder and she said, “Are you guys, newlyweds? Because you look like such a fine couple.” I said, “No, ma’am. We’ve been married 15 years.” “What?” Because nobody behaves like they’re dating when they’ve been married 15 years. I’m still dating her. And we’ve been married for 45 years and I’m still dating her.
She’s still my date. She’s still my girl. She’s still the love of my life. It’s still sweet to me. 45 years. Come on. That’s because we put God in the relationship when we put God’s order in our life. Every day, all the time. I’ve got one. [Pastor John referring to a tissue} Thank you. I came prepared this morning. Check. Thank you, Empie. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I want to tell you, Sharon, and I we are blessed going out and blessed coming in. We’re blessed in the field and we’re blessed in the town. We’re blessed. We’re blessed. Everything about our lives speaks blessing because the order of God is in our lives. Hallelujah. Hallelujah, Jesus. This is what Church is supposed to be like. This is what Ekklesia community is supposed to be like. Amen? Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
I think we must take up an offering sommer nou. You see, they’re reminding me that I already remembered it. If I can remember my hanky then I can remember the offering now. Praise the Lord. I think my wallet is in here, Empie. I want to put some money in the offering here. You can also do that, baby. You got yours already? You’re ready already. Thank you. Thank you. Praise Jesus. Hallelujah.
Don’t you like my shoes? They alright? Thank you. I like them too. You see, I refuse to get old. I refuse to get old. I might, my age might increase and I might get closer to a 100, but my dress code is not going to go there. As long as I can, I’m going to dress like I belong with the youngsters. And now I’m on the bicycle and they drop me. I mean, yesterday, Jessica dropped me. She dropped me and she dropped me. She was following an e-bike, Conrad Grobbelaar, he’s got an e-bike now. She was riding behind him with the other Conrad, and off they went in the distance. I had to splash water on them and shout at them for dropping me. Dis nie reg nie.
Some of the other youngsters, they rode with the Pastor. Because they had respect. But some others, they had no respect. Just let me show you how good I am. Hallelujah. It’s a miracle I can walk today. Praise Jesus. But as long as I’m getting fit and I’m staying fit and I’m in the will of God and I’m speaking His Word, His health is in my body. His life is in my body. His order is in my life. And sin and death shall not touch me. I might end up leaving this body, I will end up leaving this body some time. But when I’m ready to go, I’ll just go. I won’t be sick and I won’t be aged and decrepit. I’ll just go. I’ll still be going strong and then just I’ll just go because He’ll call me.
He’ll say, “John, it’s time to come home.” I’ll say, “Yes, Sir. I’m ready.” I believe this. I’ll see the angels. Just like Steven, I believe this. I’ll see the angels waiting for me. Hey, Sharon? Absolutely. I’ll see the angel. It’s not going to be a surprise to me. When I check out, I’m going to see them. And we might even go together, baby. Wouldn’t that be fine? Praise the Lord.
You know, when we were married a few years, we used to say, “You know, when we get to heaven, we’re going to find a place where we can have a quiet sort of moment of intimacy.” You know. We’ll find a bush. [Pastor John and congregation laugh] That’s in your legacy if you want it. [Pastor John and congregation laugh] Baby, what did you do here? [Pastor Sharon says while laughing I can’t believe it, you made it public]. Come, stand up. Stand up. Pastor Lynn said it’s a burning bush. [Pastor John and congregation laugh] We’ve got fire, man, fire. I’m going to stop it right here. Otherwise, it’s going to get out of… no.
Thank You, Lord, for a blessing and opportunity to give of our substance to You. Thank You that You bless us. Thank You, Lord, that You are such a good and wonderful and amazing God. And whatever we give You with our substance, it can never express our love and gratitude for You. But it’s a way that we can say thank You. We bless You. We ask You to bless this for everybody. That their harvest might be plentiful and their walk with You and their life will be sweet, in Jesus’ name. Everybody said? Amen. Amen.
So, I declare the blessing of God on you. No weapon formed against you will prosper. You will increase and abound with good things. No weapon formed against you shall prosper. He gives His angels charge over you. He will even stop your foot from being caught in a hidden snare. You will not dash your foot against a rock, but He will protect you and guide you, and lead you in the paths that you should walk. His Word will be a light unto your path and a lamp unto your feet. His Word will bless you, in Jesus’ name. Hallelujah. I pray the peace of God is on you, that nothing is missing and nothing is broken, in Jesus’ name. Amen. Hallelujah.
If she [Pastor John referring to Pastor Sharon] shows up at 5 o’clock, maybe she won’t… because maybe we found a bush. [Congregation laughs] 5 o’clock Message Moments. She’s going to finish preaching. Bye. Bye.
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