Scripture References: Matthew 16:18 (KJV); 2 Corinthians 6:16 (AMPC); Matthew 25:20&21 (NKJV);
Pastor John:
Morning, morning. How is everybody today? Relaxed and in holiday Christmas mood? Well, it’s wonderful, good to see you all here, those that are not on leave. We are live streaming to those people that are kind of on the beach. I can see a whole bunch of Heritage of Faith people, lying on the beach with their 4G cell phones going there, check I’m in church this morning, I’m in church this morning. Oh, the joys of technology, hey?
Welcome. Let’s pray for the nation. Praise the Lord. Yes, stand with me, apparently, my wife wants you to stand. Praise the Lord.
Father, we thank You that we live in a land that has got praying people in this country, and because there are praying people, we understand that things get done. Father, we also put our trust completely in You, more than we put our trust in men, and we say that we trust You to do and accomplish those things that our prayers, inspired by the leading of the Holy Spirit, are prayed. We declare that we have a president in this nation, that is led by the counsel and the supreme intelligence of the Most High God. We thank You, Lord, that he has people around him, not just in his cabinet, but also in every province and every legislature. Father, we thank You that there are people that You are raising up in this nation, that will make wise decisions that will make good decisions. We thank You Lord that we will not be a nation that is known anymore for corruption, but we will be a nation that is known for getting things done with integrity, and with the service of people in mind. We thank You that as we pray these prayers that You go to work because we pray with faith and trust in You. We thank You, Lord, that it gets done, even while the country’s pretty much on holiday, we put our trust in You still, Father.
Right now, I still want to just pray, that all of our people that are travelling that they are protected by Your Word in the blood of Jesus. No weapon formed against them prospers. We give Your angels charge over them, and we thank You, Father, that they’ll go out of their homes and come back and they’ll find nothing missing because You left angels in charge to protect their goods too. We thank you for it Father in Jesus name. Everybody said, amen. Amen.
Now I guess you can be seated. We are having Christmas morning service at eight o’clock. From 8:00 to 9:00 am, so please join us if you’re in town. If you’re not in town, and only if you’re not in town, you may live stream Christmas service. Don’t stay at home because it’s Christmas morning, then we’ve got to live stream to an empty church, you know. If you see “Shut down and gone home because everybody’s home,” then you know what happened. That’s not you though, right? No, praise the Lord.
Pastor Sharon and I, as we’ve been spending some time together over this period, we’ve talked a bit about how different these moments are in our annual lifestyle and we just were sharing the Word with each other and sharing some thoughts about this sort of time frame. How different this time frame is for most people, and certainly some of our prayers have been, that the Holy Spirit would help people during this time because it’s so unusual to have three, four weeks of non-productivity if I can use those words, where you don’t have a daily routine. You have got to get up and go to work, you have got to do things, and so the relationships that are around you that are normally grounded in routine, are suddenly not grounded in a routine anymore. You kind of wake up in the day and you face each other and you don’t know what to say to each other because so much of what you say to each other is about responsibility and about the routine, it’s not about each other.
If you don’t have those kinds of people in your life, then very often this time frame becomes a fairly stressful time frame, because everybody else seems to be having fun, except you. It’s not really the case but it just seems like everybody’s having fun, you know? Although it’s a time of year where people can celebrate and where people can have a lot of fun and enjoy themselves and it seems like everybody’s having fun, it can actually be a very lonely time and it can actually be a very difficult time for relationships because a lot of arguments and a lot of conversations have and in moments that wouldn’t normally take place.
That applies to your own walk with God, and so in your own walk with God when you’re having these times, it’s like, well this is a season where I can just chill out and do whatever I want to do and I don’t have to connect with God. That’s why we did morning prayer time for you on Facebook. Heritage of Faith (HOFMI) Facebook, every morning or during the day whenever you can join me in a time of sharing the Word and a time of prayer and I’m talking mostly about the spirit of faith and how you need to have an attitude of faith. This is a season where you need to have an attitude of faith, amen.
This is also a season when you don’t need to forget God when it comes to your finances. Amen. So you kind of weigh up the thing, Christmas presents, or tithes? Christmas presents, or tithes? Well if you want your January to look good, then you don’t go for the Christmas presents. It’s an amazing thing about faith, is that if you disobey God’s Word, it’s much harder to have faith, but if you obey God’s Word it’s much easier to have faith because your confidence is in your obedience. If you say, well I’m not going to sacrifice because it’s December, then you are in a place where you say, “Well, I’m determining what my level of obedience and sacrifice is going to be based on my convenience of my lifestyle. I wonder how many people would not go on holiday if they chose to tithe. I wonder? So the consequence of that is if you disobey God in one area to do something that you want to do because it is convenient, then for a lot of your life you tend to make decisions that are based on convenience, not conviction. If you make your decision in your life based on your convenience and not your conviction, then everything is convenient to change whatever you want to change when you want to change it. Your relationship with God becomes convenient and not conviction. But, if you live your life with conviction then it doesn’t matter what the circumstances say, conviction drives your decision not convenience. That was a good teaching on finances this morning, right?
Pastor Sharon and I chose many years ago; well, I pretty much lived my whole life like this, that when it comes to finances, we don’t live our lives by convenience, we live lives by conviction because we fully understand the rewards of serving God, full stop, serving God. Because we understand the rewards of serving God, then whatever God says we must do is to our benefit, not to our detriment. If that is your conviction, that serving Jesus and serving God is to your benefit, there is no downside to it. Then, when you have a conviction of that, then you want to do everything that He says. If you are not convinced that you can trust God, more than anything else, then you are pretty much saying, I trust myself more than anything else. When you do that, then that’s a fairly uncertain place to live in your life. Hallelujah, praise the Lord. Is that good? Did you get something out of that? Praise the Lord.
Let’s take up an offering. Praise the Lord. Pastor Sharon is doing the ministry here in Witbank this morning, I’m doing the ministry in Johannesburg this afternoon. I’ve got some other things to do, church-related activities, and then I’ll be staying over in Johannesburg tonight. Praise the Lord. Just because more of the church people go on holiday, doesn’t mean to say church stuff stops.
Well, I’m going to pray over the offering, while they’re busy taking up the offering. I want to declare that this year will be, the year of 2020, will be a year of great increase, it will be a supernatural increase. If you are a tither and you are a giver and you are a person that lives by faith, I pray that the manifestation of supernatural increase will show itself quickly, in Jesus Name. I thank You, that the harvest that is in your life will not be delayed, but it will come quickly and at the right time you will reap the abundant harvest that God has in mind for you. Hallelujah. Nothing will hold it back, there will be no adverse conditions for you, that you cannot reap the rewards of your giving, your generosity, your tithing. I pray in Jesus name that the blessing of God rest upon you. Even now for the rest of December, I pray that good things will happen to you. Favourable things that will happen to you, even things that are beyond your expectations will begin to happen to you, because God will show Himself great and marvellous and He will demonstrate Himself to you in His generosity to you, in Jesus Name. Do you agree with that prayer? Amen. Praise the Lord.
My darling, Pastor Sharon, I believe the service is now in your hands.
Pastor Sharon
Yeah, you know, when Pastor John talks like this, I look back over the 38 years; it will be 39 soon, years of our marriage, and just the things that God has done in our lives financially, just in that area, God has done many wonderful things, as we have believed His Word and believed His promises in our lives, in every area. In our relationship in marriage, what the Word says that we did the Word in our marriage. Then in our finances what the Word says, we did the Word. That’s what a doer of the Word, the book of James says, you will be blessed. I have so much gratitude in my heart. Ja, I have gratitude in my heart. We have experienced supernatural increase and now, that just is what God has for us.
One of the scriptures that was really very big for me, out of the Amplified Bible in 2nd Corinthians chapter 8 or 9 in the Amplified Bible says, God is unwilling to abandon or to do without a cheerful, joyous, prompt to do it giver whose heart is in his giving. One translation says, hilarious giver. So, God loves, the King James says, a cheerful giver. Glory to God, hallelujah. I know He loves me, I am a cheerful giver.
Thank you, Pastor John, I mean this is just as you all know, that Pastor John even though he is my husband, he is my spiritual leader. The Lord has taught me and trained me of the difference between being his wife and his best friend and my great love, and the difference between that and him being my spiritual leader. I don’t come to Pastor John ever and say to him, I think it is my time to preach. This is something that he does; he hears from the Lord. Even if he lets me know on a Saturday morning that I’m on for Sunday, I’m ready, I’m ready because I’ve been with God during the week. I’m full of many wonderful things that I can share with you that I’ve already heard from Him. So, I’m going to flow with that today.
Will you pray with me please; Father, thank You, that we can get together like this to listen to what you would speak to our hearts. Our hearts are open and our ears attentive to Your voice, because You are the One that lives within us. Thank You, Holy Spirit that You will bring what You want to bring to Your people this morning in simplicity, in clarity, but in power so that their faith does not rest in what I’m saying, but it rests in You. That You confirm in their hearts the things that you are wanting to say through this vessel, that Jesus may be glorified. We all say, amen.
I am going to start off, reading this prophecy. I know that there are people that come and join our ministry, that don’t know the journey we have been on. We have been on a very amazing journey in the 20 years that Pastor John and I have been Pastors, but in 2010 there was a very significant Word that God gave to us through Pastor John. I need you to see this, many of you know it, but I need to be speaking it again because it is all about the Time of God.
We need to understand that this is the way Pastor John and I follow God, in ministry, is we listen to His voice and we let Him lead us. Right.
It says here, “I know that God has got a shifting in the Spirit that has begun to happen. I want to tell you, and I am speaking by the Holy Spirit now. You will see that the nations will begin to take note of what God is doing. It is a shifting for our church. Sure, we are seeing the signs of a move of God, the early signs of the rain of the Spirit that is happening in our church, but it is not just for our church. There is a shifting in the spirit for the Body of Christ. There is a shifting of the Spirit of God in this nation! And it’s happening right now.
This was 2010, it’s happening right now. You need to be sensitive church! You need to be alert! You need to watch and pray to be flowing and be in touch and be in tune and flow with the Holy Spirit. There is a shift for victory that is about to take place. It’s the time of God! It’s the season of God!
That was so interesting to me that the Lord had him reiterate it and reiterate it; it is the Time of God. It is the season of God.
It is not the season of the power politics of the world. You may see that, but it is the time of God! It is the season of God that God has orchestrated for His glory and His power to come and be seen in the world. God has got a timetable. God is the creator of the world, people. He is the creator of the earth, He is the creator of all things. Jesus is the head of the church and Jesus said 18… I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16:18(KJV).
Wherever Jesus is building His church, there is victory. There is victory. It says here, It is the season of God that He has orchestrated for His glory. His glory, that was what Brother Jerry was ministering to us about when he came for that week when God told him to come. The glory of God, the manifested power of God, the manifested goodness of God, and the manifested presence of God.
It says, It will not manifest in the way the world thinks, because the world wants things to happen with spectacular fashion, in ways that they can speak about it, or identify as they had something to do with it! It is the season of God! It is not the season of man. It is the season of God! When God chooses to do things there is no man that can stop Him.
When God chose to bring His people out of Egypt through the Red Sea into their Promised Land, there was no Pharaoh, there was no leader, no government, no anything in the known world at that time that could stop God. The only people that stopped God were the people of God themselves, that got into unbelief in the wilderness, but no man, no Pharaoh could stop God, when God decided He was moving.
He has a timeline and He has us born in the earth at this time and there are things that He is busy with and that is what we are very focused on. Pastor John and I are very focused and very aware that our obedience to God is for God so that God can have His way and His say in His time.
We are not building a ministry for any other reason than to obey God and let God have His way. You must know that about Pastor John and I. We are fixated on that and we are very intense about that.
It is the season of God! He said again, It is not the season of man. It is the season of God! When God chooses to do things there is no man that can stop Him. There is no man that can stop Him! There is no government on this earth that can stop Him! There is no philosophy on this earth that can stop Him! There is no financial situation on this earth that can stop Him! It is the season of God Church! It is the season of God. In the beginning of time, the time was begun.
Right in the beginning when the world was created. Time was begun because of the hovering of the Holy Spirit. You can read about it in Genesis. The Spirit of God was hovering over the earth, when God said, “Let there be light”. The Spirit of God brought that about.
The bible says that the Spirit of God covered the earth and so it will be in this time. The Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, Three-in-one. The Holy Spirit is going to begin to move. He is already moving, and shifts are going to take place and shifts are going to take place all over the globe. He is going to be hovering and moving and orchestrating on behalf of the Father. It is the Time of God. It is the Time of God.
This is how Pastor John and I live. We live, listening to the Voice of the Holy Spirit. God the Father is in heaven. Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father, Hebrews Chapter One. Jesus came to earth, but then He rose again. Then Jesus said to His disciples, the Holy Spirit is coming. You go get ready; He is going to come. When He came, He never left. He filled men and women with Himself.
The Holy Spirit is that part of God, when Jesus was telling His disciples, don’t be sad that I am going, it is advantageous for you that I go because when I go I will send you the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is that part, which of God, that is Spirit and when He came on the day of Pentecost, He filled men and women, 120 of them, that were in the Upper Room and the Holy Spirit can go into one. The Holy Spirit can go into another one. The Holy Spirit because He is Spirit and He doesn’t have a body
The Holy Spirit can go into another one. The Holy Spirit because He is Spirit and He doesn’t have a body. He is the Holy Spirit that lives in you and lives in me. The day you got born again, that when you said, “I receive Jesus as Lord and Saviour,” the Holy Spirit did the work, the recreated miracle for you to become a child of God and He’s took up residence in you and He’s never left you. Even if you’ve never had a conversation with Him. Even if you’ve never had a conversation with Him, He came to live in you when you became a child of God and He will never leave you. He sees everything you do, He hears everything you say, and He lives in every one of the children of God.
That’s why it is so amazing that Pastor John can bring a message, or I can bring a message, and the Holy Spirit who lives in you, can work in you and show you something, and in you something, and in you, and in you, because He is in you. Glory to God. Hallelujah. The Holy Spirit is going to begin to move, and shifts are going to take place, and shifts are going to take place all over the globe. He is going to be hovering and moving and orchestrating on behalf of the Father. Who can withstand the fearsome awesome power of Almighty God? And so, I’ll just finish with that. You will participate as the church. You will participate as the church.
I went back and I look because we are preparing and we are getting ready for Brother Jerry’s coming. We’re actually preparing for God, we’re not preparing for Brother Jerry. Okay? We’re preparing our hearts with God, for God to bring everything to us. For God to be able to do everything He wants to do when Brother Jerry comes. I read here, preparation in 21st of October in 2017 when Pastor John made a very powerful point. He said this, “Pastor Sharon and I, we grew up in Pentecostal environment where we began to experience in the church, there was a supernatural move of God in the late eighties, the early nineties. There was some movements that were very into the emotion of that and into the outward experience of it, but then there were some really authentic moves of God, where God was really moving, and that’s always the case when God really moves. You find a lot of people want to show that they’re also there, so they fake it, or they focus on the intense emotional, physical, outward display of God.”
He said here, “I’m making a point, there are times when God will show up in a place.” This is what God has promised, a supernatural increase of His glory and His presence with us. He is very present here today, but there is going to be a supernatural increase, He’s going to allow Himself to become, to come more to us, manifest Himself, more to us. “There are times when God will show up in a place in the weightiness of His presence, the glory. The weightiness of His presence becomes so heavy that your body begins to respond externally to the weightiness of the presence of God. That’s what happened to the people in the book of Acts. They were all together in one accord, and God decided to make His presence and what He is in the form of the Holy Spirit, show up in that place. He showed up with more of who He is. As He showed up with more of who He is, they had no option but to respond, because He infused them with Himself. He filled them with more of Himself than they were used to. So their bodies responded.”
I mean there are just times even when I’m with God in my own private personal time when He just manifests His presence more than at other times and it causes actual trembling in my physical body. Because He just is energy and life in me. So, when He shows up more in you or more in me, there just is, you know, a physical, it just is a physical reaction, a response.
“This is fairly an important pattern for us to understand” this is Pastor John, “because not only is this part of the preparation for us in the way that we serve God, but this is how God works in your life. 2 Corinthians 6:16 16I will dwell in and with and among them and will walk in and with and among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. (2 Corinthians 6:16 AMPC)” This is God’s desire of His heart to be with and among and dwell in and among and walk with and among. This is God’s desire, this is God’s passion of His heart, is to dwell with us and among us and in us and among us. He filled us with Himself. He filled us with Himself. He loved us so much, He just said, “I’m just filling them with Me.” Isn’t that amazing? That He lives inside of me by the person of the Holy Spirit.
And so, Pastor John talked about, “An overwhelming essence of His presence that comes into the human space.” Come on. He said, “So we had services where we have the presence of God with such weightiness. Really what it is, it’s the infinite perfections of God. It’s His splendour, His brightness and His majesty. It’s the very essence of God that just begins to manifest Himself in our temple. Among us in the house of God. The reason we have church like this is because we make dedicated time to separate ourselves…” This is what we do every Sunday people, we make dedicated time to separate ourselves. “…from a worldly process that is full of darkness and all kinds of corruption and we come and into this place and we say, Heavenly Father, we bring You that is in us, and we recognize that You are with us and then we come together like this and You are now among us. And the minute we begin to say that He is God,” here I’m going, this is where God wants to go this morning. “And we worship Him with guitars and we begin to worship Him with drums, and we begin to worship Him with song, with the words of our mouths and we begin to worship God, as we begin to worship Him, as we begin to give Him honour and praise. What happens, is that the heavenly place or the place that God dwells, the place where His presence is stronger in the realm of the spirit, the realm of the spirit where God is, begins to intrude into the realm of the temple, we begin to experience God with a greater measure, because our humanity now begins to touch God as well as our spirit life, where God dwells, because we have separated ourselves to come and have time with Him.”
Isn’t that wonderful? To me, that’s what I live for. I live for that. I live for that. I live for Him to be that real to me. More and more, when I’m talking to Him in the morning, in the early morning hours, when I’m in my car. That is what I live for; is to experience Him. You know what that does for you and me when you encounter God and His presence and you experience God’s presence – there’s nothing else that changes you like that. To be in the presence of God. He is already present in you, but to have His presence manifest more and more, will change you more and more because you know that you know that you know that He is real.
So, that’s what I wanted to just share with you, that Pastor John said that; “When we begin to worship Him with guitars and with drums and we begin to worship Him with song and we worship as we begin to worship. The place where His presence is stronger…”
Right. What I need to say to you this morning is; the Lord has not allowed Pastor John and I, to do what other spiritual leaders and other churches are doing. He’s never allowed us to do that. He has never allowed us to do what other people are doing. We don’t even look – there is a lot to look at and a lot to listen to. We are listening to the voice of the Lord. We are not listening to the voice of other men and other women when it comes to building this church. We are listening to the voice of the Lord. Pastor John and I follow the plan of God for us all. We have learned to do this.
I’m going to just read a little bit to you out of this book by Kenneth Hagin. You know that he’s our spiritual father, even though he’s gone to be with the Lord. He had a visitation. Jesus visited him in 1987 and he says this; I share it with you in reverence and in much trembling because of the awesomeness of God’s power and His presence. He speaks about a time when he was praying in the Spirit and he kept saying these words in English; “Plans, Purposes and Pursuits.” “I was caught up into the Spirit and began to see and understand man’s plans as they related to God’s plans.
Now we’re talking about the Time of God, people. Right? And the things that God is doing in His Church now, and with His people now – desiring to.
I could see that many times men had plans that were good, and even thoroughly scriptural. But they were not God’s plans. This experience was unusual and it lasted almost three hours. Part of it was revelation, part of it was a vision. It began about three o’clock in the morning, and the last time I looked at the clock, it was almost six o’clock. And as I stood… He describes where he was with Jesus. “…Jesus narrating and explaining the things that were happening in the service – I saw that this camp meeting would be one of the most monumental and momentous camp meetings we have ever had.” Isn’t it interesting we are having camp meeting in March? “I saw that the results of this camp meeting would be forthcoming for a long, long time.”
This was ’87, and this visitation of Jesus to Kenneth Hagin about God’s plans, God’s purposes and we are to pursue that, has been working in Pastor John and I, down through the decades, right? So, he says here; “I stood there and I said, ‘Lord, why didn’t You visit me in advance so that I could have advertised to the people that this camp meeting, was going to be unusual?’ Jesus answered, ‘The reason I didn’t was because then the curiosity seekers and those seeking the sensational would come.”
Didn’t we get through reading that word through Pastor John? People want to think that they had something to do with it. They want it to happen in some sensational way and Jesus, Himself said to Kenneth Hagin, “No. I came at the right time so that people seeking the sensation… and I just wanted those people to be here that I had directed to come.”
I’m here to say to you today too, people, this is like a calibration of many things that God wants to get out today; that Pastor John and I, are not looking to build a church where God is going to bring just multitudes and multitudes of people in a random, haphazard, unstructured way. There’s a way in the Word that God says that He will increase a people. It’s found in the Book of Acts where it says; and God added daily to the Church, such as should be. God is going to add to Heritage of Faith such as should be added to us. God is not going to add wolves that come in sheep’s clothing to us. God is going to add to us daily such as should be coming to us. It’s wonderful to know that we can have our faith in that. Glory to God.
He speaks here about…”In 1987 the visitation with the Lord, Jesus told me some things that He is wanting to do in this day in the Church – His plans – and why He has not been able to do them. If the Body of Christ will cooperate with God, and get in line with His plan and His purpose, and pursue that plan, then God will be able to accomplish what He wants to in this day!
Pastor John and I don’t do things just because other churches do them. I remember in the beginning when people would come to our church, they would say to Pastor Christi, “So, where’s ‘die susters biduur’? Where is the women’s meetings?” Where’s the this, and where’s the…, that? Pastor Christi would just say, “The Lord hasn’t said anything like that to Pastor John and Sharon.” The Lord is leading Pastor John, how things are going to be here. He’s building here. Right.
“Jesus explained to me in this visitation, the things to help get the Body of Christ ready for this next great move of God’s Spirit upon the earth. The spiritual truths that Jesus shared in this visitation are just simply the springboard, so to speak… That is why, when Pastor John comes to speak to you, he is speaking words, he has heard already from the Lord to say to you. It’s why we have honour in this house that when God speaks because we do not speak to you inspirational, motivational talks. We come to you like Jesus said to His disciples, the words we speak to you, they are Spirit. They come from the Holy Spirit and they are Truth. They come from God’s Word that is Truth.
“It will spring the body of Christ into the realm of the supernatural in a way and in a place, we have barely been before.” Why? “Because we will be following His plans and His purposes. The Head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ, is directing the activities of His body in the world today and He will receive all the praise and honour and glory for it. Oh, there is a move of the Spirit of God, dear friends, but we can’t just jump into it. God wants us to get there and that is why we have to follow His plans and His purposes. And the Lord said to me, “I bless all of my people as far as I can but the reason there is not a move of God in the depth of the flow of the Spirit and the fullness of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit today is because men do not take time to hear from Me. They do not take time to follow My plan. The more closely you follow My plan, the more power will be in demonstration and manifestation.”
God wants me to speak this to you today. God’s plan, we have been bringing God’s plans to you for many, many, many years now. We’ve been on a journey together. We’ve been on a journey, where God has taught you to be planted, He’s taught you to be under authority, so you can be in authority. He has taught you the power of that. He’s taught you how to put your foot in every message that comes here. He’s taught you how to feed in this house, to eat in this house and not be like the majority of the body of Christ, who surf the web. They surf the web. For prophecies, they surf the web. God has planted us in a particular place and He’s divinely connected us to a particular part of the Body of Christ and that’s where God expects us to feed. That’s where God expects us to take our lead and hear, and hear from. Right? We’ve been taught that. We’ve been taught to have honour and reverence for the messages that God brings here on a Sunday, and so God is wanting us now to have honour. To raise our level of honour and reverence for the sounds and the songs that He, by His desire and His design, brings to this church.
I read to you a little bit out of that book so that you know what’s in Pastor John and I and how we follow God. How we endeavour with every fibre of our being, to listen to the Holy Spirit, how to build the church. This church. It’s not our business what other people are doing. It’s their business with God. We don’t stand before the Lord one day with, “But they did, but they did.” That’s what Jesus was saying to the Apostle Peter when the Apostle Peter was saying, “But what about that disciple and what about that disciple and what was going to happen to that.” Jesus said, “What business is it of yours, Peter? You listen to what I’m telling you.” That’s where our stability is, that’s where our peace is, that’s where our joy is. Glory to God.
“With the advent and advancement of everything that you can look at today, and everything that you can listen to. You have to know that it all enters you. That’s why Jesus said in Mark 4, “Be careful what you are listening to.” God uses sound for His agenda. He spoke to me this week about Jericho. He said, “Look what I had the people at Jericho do, Sharon. For them to get their victory as a people together, I had them be silent and then I had them shout.” They would have said, “Who does this?” They would’ve asked themselves, “Who does this?” They did. They obeyed God.
Who else has our journey? We’ve been on a journey. We’ve been on a journey and time, I cannot go through all of it. From the time of this prophecy in 2010 to Brother Jerry’s Your Exodus has Begun to Manifestations, Demonstrations, Visitations, to our 4x4x40 that we went through, to Pastor John’s time of separation to Pastor John’s obedience that he gave God to pursue Brother Jerry to all the preparations that we’ve done together. The journey we have been on. Is there another congregation that has journeyed together, the way that we do? No. It’s unique to us. It’s because of God’s redemptive purpose that He wants to achieve for His Kingdom and His glory, as with sons, with these sons that He is wanting to do this with. Right.
Who else has our journey? Who does this, as we journey? We do. Who else did the Exodus with Moses ever again? No other people did it again. Who else did go into the Promised Land like they did with Joshua? Nobody. Who else did the battles with David and the mighty men of David, for the Kingdom purposes of God? Nobody else. Who else ever did, Gideon and his 300 men? Never happened again. Who else did the journey with Deborah and Barak, like they did? That was what God had in their time, for them to listen to God and obey God to achieve God’s purposes in the earth, while they’re alive. That gives your calling and your gifting and who you are as a person, every magnificent thing that God has put in you as a human being, it gives you purpose. You are called by God, by Grace, you are blessed with purpose. You’re blessed with purpose. We are travelling together, we are journeying together with God into all of His salvation, into everything that He has for us and all of it is in the Word.
But what about, what other people are doing? We should not be doing that, people. You should not be doing that. If you are listening and looking, you will always wonder. You will sit here and always wonder, “Well, maybe we should be doing that.” Pastor John and I don’t. We are so secure in our walk with God and listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit. It really doesn’t matter to us. We really mind our own business in ministry. We really do mind our own business. It’s a very wonderful trait to have, is to mind your own business, in your own house. We at Heritage of Faith has been on a spiritual journey, building a house of prayer that God told us in 2008, we’ve been obedient. We are a household of faith. We learn to put our foot in every message from every Sunday that the Lord brings us.
We have got those messages transcribed. We have learned how to put it in our hearts and in our mouth, and we’ve been on the spiritual journey with Pastor John’s arrows. The seed that he went to sow to Brother Jerry, in churches, missions, education, media, transport, our outreach, and today I’m speaking to you about our journey in music ministry. You have heard Pastor John speak about the desires that the Lord has put in his heart a long time ago, and we celebrate twenty years in 2020, in the full-time ministry.
The Lord gives us this scripture for us. There’s a lot to read here, but just listen, just listen. It’s Jesus talking about, I’ve come to give you, I’ve come to give you some talents, and after a long time the Lord of those servants came, so He gave one five talents, the other, two talents, and He came to see what they had done with what they had been given. 20 ”So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, “Lord you deliver to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents beside them.” 21And the Lord said, “Well done good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler now over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord. (Matthew 25:20&21 NKJV)
Isn’t that what’s happened to us in prayer, House of Prayer? We started off being so small and being faithful over just such a small group, and now we are up to a hundred people that pray together. We are such a small group, but we worked with that that God gave us we worked it and we fully used what we had and we worked it and we worked it and God said, “I’m going to increase it, I’m going to intensify it. Well done you working it, you working it, I gave you something to work with.” Supernatural increase cannot come on nothing. It comes on something that’s already there. Glory to God.
He said, “Enter into the joy of the Lord.” What a joy it is to us to experience supernatural increase in our prayer time, corporate prayer. This is the same that’s happening with us now in music ministry. It’s increasing and intensifying and God wants us to enter into the joy of it because this is what the Lord said to me, “We used what we had.” We really did. We used, we fully used what we had. Our one, or two that we had, we were faithful with little. We were all faithful together. We journeyed together with the little, in music ministry that we had. Now God says, we did not despise the day of small beginnings that the Bible talks about. Now He gives us supernatural increase. Now. Now, He gives us supernatural increase. Why? Because we were faithful with the little. He is increasing now, what we were faithful over.
Pastor Christi’s message was a very, very important for you to listen to people. It shifted me on my inside, the same way as her last message shifted me, about Put Your Foot in the Message. This is to Put Your Foot in the Sound. Put your foot in the sound. God is requiring, who does this? Who does this? That Pastor Christi brought by revelation from the Lord, who does this? We do, we do.
There’s something about obeying God in childlike faith regardless of what your reasoning says, “But how can this be? That God wants me to listen …. it would have be the same kind of reasoning you would have had in your head, how can this be that God just wants me to listen to Pastor John’s messages? So many other good messages on TBN. It’s the same thing with the sound that’s coming from this house, there is so many other wonderful things that I can listen to. God is requiring something of us here, to have childlike obedience people really, really, really He’s got a plan here, and you never discover the benefits of what God is really saying to you and until you’re on the other side of that obedience. Then you go, “Oh, wow, what is happening in me, Lord, it’s changing me.”
Pastor Christi’s message says this is what the Lord said to her now. “As you put your foot in the message, I want you to put your foot in the song. The Lord said to Pastor Sharon, “I’m holding you responsible for the spiritual…” On September 27th, I think it was 2017, you will remember Pastor Sharon received a Word from the Lord for Pastor Garth, and she thought she would give it to him on that day privately, but the Lord said, “I want this public.”
Pastor John appointed her to the music ministry and God added to Pastor Sharon’s portfolio, ‘Music Ministry’. The Lord said to Pastor Sharon, “I’m holding you responsible for the spirituality of the music, in this ministry, not the technicality, but the spirituality of the music.” That means He holds me responsible, to make sure that the words in the songs are spiritual and not filled with all kinds of unbelief, where it’s against the Word of God. Songs that we used to sing, even when we were young, in the AFM when I was a little girl, “Standing somewhere in the shadows, you’ll find Jesus”. I mean no, no, no, no. He lives right within me. He’s not saying, “Pass me not, oh, gentle Savior, Oh Lord. when He’s living right in me. No, God is holding us responsible, that we will sing, what we would say. We will not have unbelief and begging songs. ‘Lord, bring me to my knees. Lord, humble me, humble me.” When God says, “You humble yourself.” Lord humble me, Lord, bring me to my knees. No, no, no, no, no. The scripture is very clear, you humble yourself.
God wants songs full of truth, full of life, full of light, full of victory, full of all that He is. Full of love. Glory to God. Full of … and there have just been some songs, I remember through all the years I’ve said, We can’t sing that song, we can’t sing that song.” But now God has brought us to a point where we have our own sound and our own songs and it’s filled with Him. It’s for this house, for now. So, you must work with Garth on songs. Why Lord? Why do I find myself with Pastor Garth with new songs, new sounds coming out the whole time? It was just one of those things, and I didn’t know that God wanted an album… I didn’t know any of those things at the time when I was following the Holy Spirit, His plans and His purposes.
You must work with Pastor Garth on songs, there is a sound I’m giving him, I want it out. I’m pushing you, Sharon. You’re in charge of song and it is your spiritual responsibility, and she said, “Yes, Lord.” So, the word that God spoke over Pastor Garth by divine assign, I put a sound. There are songs coming from the sound that God is putting in him by divine assign, I put a sound, there’s a specific sound. There’s a specific sound that God wants in you and in me, even in the music ministry, people. Not the sound of every other house out there. God has never allowed us to do and now He’s narrowing it even more and saying, “I don’t even want you… I want, I want you being more specific, I want you to be more specific, more selective so that you can be more effective spiritually. I want you to be more selective in your listening even, not just you’re listening to the messages. I want you to be more selective in your listening to sound and song because of how it enters you and how I need the entry of this sound to come into you as a people so that you can be of one mind and one heart and one accord.” Right.
“I put a sound in this one. No explanation you need, only My Spirit, you heed. This sound must resound in the hearts of everyone says the Lord. This sound must resound in the hearts of everyone says the Lord.” So this is what Pastor Christi says, “I took note. I immediately knew the seriousness of what happened that day and Pastor Sharon started to pray and then this came out” and I’d forgotten about that. “Pastor Garth from your mother’s womb, I have called you with a sound that will now come forth.”
You see, it’s a sound of the Times of God, for this house. It’s the sounds of the time of God in this house and for this house. Who does this? We do. “I have called you with the sound that will now come forth. The sound from this sound that will resound will come. My new sound that I have placed in you from your mother’s womb with, will all other sound resound listen for this legacy, this transfer, this ancestry, this line divine, this line divine for this legacy says the Lord.” God’s working with something very particular and specific here people. Isaiah 48, when God does a new thing He says, “I’ll show you specified new things from this time forth, specified new things.”
Who does this? Who did what they had to do, around the Jericho wall? They did. Who does this put your foot in the message, put your foot in the sound? We do. We will only discover if we as a people are obedient to these instructions. What it is, that God is going to do with it. “I read all these things,” Pastor Christi says, “To you today, so that you can see God’s order here. Pastor John appointed Pastor Sharon. God said to Pastor Sharon, you must work with Pastor Garth. So, now why must I say this today? To show you God’s order because Satan is going to come again and again to you and say, “Yeah, but these things are only happening because Pastor Garth is their natural son.” May you never listen to those lies.”
May you never listen to those lies. Resound. So, I had to look at that would resound because God said, “There’s a sound that will come for God’s purposes of what He wants to do in us all with that sound.” He said, “It must resound in all of us.” Resound means this; to be filled with sound. So we have to be filled with the sounds that are coming. The songs, the words and the sounds of the music, the instruments, everything coming to these sounds these songs.”
Okay, to celebrate as in song means resound means heard very loudly and clearly. Resound means fill the air with particular sound. Resound means repeated prolonged celebrated sound, that’s why these songs are evergreen because they’re for this time of God. If you find yourself going, I think I’ve had enough of getting bored with these songs; you are not understanding what God is doing in your heart and in your life and in your whole persona, with these sounds. They may come, have come naturally even though, through Pastor Garth some of it, but He is putting His super on it because it’s obedience to Him. Do you get that?
To resound means repeated prolonged, celebrated sound. Filled with loud sound that continues for a long time, to be mentioned much and loudly, to be resonant as the earth resounded with His praise. To celebrate with the voice, the sound of instruments, to extol with sounds, to read the return of sound, keep coming, keep repeating, keep listening to the sound, recur split the ears.
Okay, Sarah thank you.
Pastor John’s declaration by the leading of the Lord, what he declared over these sounds. Now, why is God wanting to bring this all to you today? He wants you to have a better understanding, that when you listen to these songs and you sing these songs your faith can be involved. Where you can be singing and saying, something’s happening, something spiritual, something supernatural is happening to me as I listen to these songs in my car, in my home, as I’m singing them in this house that God designed. God brought about, not Pastor John, not Pastor Sharon, not Pastor Garth. This is God’s plan, it’s God’s plan and it’s God’s purpose and it’s blessed. It’s blessed and so He is increasing.
Then the declaration by Pastor John, I’m not going to go through that, but music transcends language… huh. I’m going to leave something leave something with you here, that God gave me on the 12th of December. The New Open Door for Supernatural Increase. A word of caution, I have this music ministry for this time of Mine for My House, a supernatural increase of My glory. A word of caution, I will give you the best for music ministry, but as a congregation, you must pass the test, don’t be impressed, just be blessed.
Did you hear that, Heritage of Faith people? If we are going to stand, when Brother Jerry comes, as a puffed-up congregation because God has blessed us with His best we’re not going to get the best from God out of our time. If at any time we become proud in our hearts, of the kind of answers God gives to a house of prayer. It’s the book the Bible says that Hezekiah was lifted up in pride because of God’s spectacular response to His prayers. If our hearts get lifted up in pride because of our powerful praying and God answers our prayers and He hears us. If God is moving with Glory in the music ministry and giving us His best, He said, “I want the congregation to pass the test, do not be impressed, but just to be blessed”. Be blessed. Isn’t that good? Isn’t that good?
Because Satan, He showed me in Ezekiel 28:15, this is God speaking to Lucifer, “You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created”, and it talks about, in Lucifer was put pipes and timbrels. Many people say that Lucifer was actually in charge of the worship and the music ministry, Lucifer himself. He got lifted up in pride, and the Lord said, “The world worships talent. The world worships and idolizes, people with talent”, that God has given them, that should be bringing God the glory. But that’s not to be found in our house and found among us.
Just as I prepared you for Brother Jerry’s coming the last time. Remember God had me use that word with you? We’re not name dropping, we’re not star-struck, just because Brother Jerry, is just the most wonderful servant of the Lord and he’s used so mightily of God in the body of Christ. We’re not spiritual groupies, we’re not star-struck, we don’t drop names so that other people can be impressed. That must not be found in our midst, congregation. We’re to come like a little child. Hallelujah. We’re to be so blessed by what God is doing, all the wonderful things He’s doing, we must be like little children. Glory to God. Jesus said, “Unless you become like a little child”.
He says here to Satan, “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty”. The Message Bible says, “Your beauty went to your head, you corrupted wisdom by using it to get worldly fame, you defiled your holy places of worship”. “You don’t need to do this,” He said to me, “You are already sharing My glory, I’ve crowned you with glory and honour as a son. As I bring you into My supernatural increased glory, do not let your heart be lifted up, give Me the glory. Give Me the glory. Let your spirit, glory. ” Isn’t that wonderful?
I’ll be sharing more of this with you, but now, God wanted to just, I just want a little bit more here. God wants you to know about the power of sound. Sound, sound, sound, sound, sound. It’s just one or two little things. Music transcends language, it’s beyond the rational.
The song of the sea, according to the Word when the Israelites reached the other side of the red sea, Miriam took up her timbrel and the woman began to sing. An ancient rabbinic teaching on the Word, tells us that the song of the sea, was actually sung during the crossing itself, and not afterwards. We’re going to cross the thresholds into this new door, worshipping and singing. Hallelujah. Glory.
It was song, that enabled the Israelites to face the unknown. Glory to God. God is really going to put supernatural increase on the music ministry. Can you see why? Do you understand why? Right. It was song that enabled the Israelites to face the unknown, song that filled their lungs and came tumbling out of them as they walked. Their voices shaking but rising. Because the Egyptians were behind them. Singing in this way allowed the Israelites to endure something so threatening and supernatural, to believe that something existed for them on the other side of the sea. To believe in their own liberation.
When we sing together, we are the choir, you are a choir. I want to encourage you. For the first time I saw something this week, that even when you’re singing to God here, there’s no difference between us here, and you. You know, stand up straight, don’t slouch. You sing better when you stand up straight, just breathe in through your nostrils. Let your diaphragm expand, so that you can just sing out the whole thing. Right, don’t run out of breath, just be that choir, just sing. Celebrate the voice that God has given you. Singing in this way, okay, we sing together.
When we sing together, we affirm for one another what is possible. We tell each other a story of a new kind of future. When we sing together, we bring our individual voices, in all their resonant diversity into one communal voice. We are braver because we have song. Let us honour our voices. Don’t just be a slap-dash-singer when you come to sing, honour your voice. You’re singing to God. When we sing together, we are braver, let us honour our voices, let us sing together, let us sing together. Singing requires that we stay with each note, that we feel its resonance, that we support our voices with the power of our breath. Singing as though the part and a practice of attuning to the supernatural. It is medicine, it is vibration, it is power to heal. It has power to heal trauma in the soul, to open hearts. Singing is vulnerable and empowering all at once. Our voices in all their imperfect glory, are what is needed, to speak truth to power, to bring healing transformation and wholeness. Glory, glory to God. Isn’t this wonderful?
I feel like I obeyed God to bring you and us this. To bring us together in song. That you have more understanding now. Glory to God. We celebrate our voices; I celebrate your voice. With all the glory of its imperfections. It’s your resonance, it’s your sound, it’s your voice. Hallelujah. And so, just this morning, it’s part of our preparation for God when Brother Jerry comes. That we just stand up a little bit straighter, we’re just a little more aware of our breathing and of the notes that we keep it as pure as we can. That we can sound to God and celebrate our voices, as we are braver when we sing together. We are braver, aren’t we? I mean, you’re both vulnerable, but you’re brave at the same time because we’re doing this together. In Jesus’ Name.
Let’s just sing two or three songs. Come up worship group, please? Thank you. Thank you my darling, thanks, Pastor John. Hallelujah. Can you feel that this is us going further? Did you, did you get this? Right, I know you did. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Glory to God
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