What… Just Happened – Ps John Bendixen (WTB)

Scripture reference: Ephesians 5:1-2 (AMPC); Deuteronomy 1:1-3 (AMPC); Deuteronomy 1:18-40 (AMPC); Matthew 4:18 (AMPC); Philippians 4:13 (AMPC); 1 John 3:23-24 (TPT)

Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Hallelujah. I thank You, Lord, that You are the Rock. You are the Rock of all ages. You are the foundation of our lives. Your Word is something sure, it is certain, and we can depend on You. I thank You, Father, that You are the Rock that has become the cornerstone of our lives. Whatever our circumstances are, we can face them with confidence, our future is sure in You. Hallelujah. Thank You, Lord. I pray this morning Father that every word that is going to be spoken, this message that is going to come from Your heart through this vessel. I pray that every heart is ready to hear, every heart is ready to receive. I thank You, Lord, that all of the possibilities of how You speak to Your people are released in this service today. All of the subtleties of what they need to know for their own lives, You will reveal to them in splendour and majesty and wonder; a life-changing experience. Thank You, Father, that the Holy Spirit is here today. We recognize Your presence, Holy Spirit because without You we would not be having a church service. We ask You to have Your say and have Your way in this service today. Hallelujah. Thank You, Father. In Jesus’ name. Amen. You may be seated.

Praise the Lord. Praise Jesus. Glory, Glory, Glory, Glory. Well, look at all of you in church today. Hey? Praise the Lord. Well, I can just say that I’m delighted that God has given us and continues to give us answers to our prayers. And He is answering our prayers that we’ve been praying for a long time. It was significant for me that last night, Brother Jerry was talking about a faith project that took him 20 years to get his aeroplane, his international, intercontinental aeroplane, he kept his faith switched on, he kept it working for 20 years.

I’m going to talk about his experience in a few minutes. But I want to thank you all for being in church this morning. It’s a great time for us, it’s a great moment for us. Some of the new technologies that we have in the auditorium, we’re still learning how to use them, but don’t they look fantastic? Hallelujah. There is much more that we need to do and much more that we want to do. Behind the scenes, there’s a lot that’s going on that you know not of. For example, we have had to… these things just take resources, but we have to put… they may already be installed, I haven’t caught up with my team on the subject yet. We need a UPS for this screen, we have three different phases, a phase for the back desk, a phase for the inside desk over there that goes to YouTube and a phase of power for the rest of this auditorium at the front here, so that if Eskom goes down, we can keep running to get our generator on time, and we won’t skip a beat and none of this stuff will go down at all, ever, for any kind of service.

If you’ve got Brother Jerry in Fort Worth, and he’s ministering to you, and Eskom decides to switch the power off. Not a good idea. Right? So there’s a lot of stuff going on that you don’t see, but a lot of planning and a lot of redundancies that we’re putting into the ministry and technologies that we’re utilizing, so that we can be available online to anybody and everybody that God has opened their hearts and open their lives to want to hear from the Word of the Lord through us. Amen.

There’s still a lot more to come. Praise the Lord. Isn’t it an amazing thing that once when God gets you doing faith projects, it doesn’t matter how much you used your faith for something the last time, He is always going to give you something to do the next time and normally, it’s bigger than the last time, you know? If you just keep growing in faith, then God’s going to keep using your faith. In fact, you know, this is something that Pastor Sharon and I have said, in some of the ministry that we’ve been doing, on a Thursday night I think we minister on faith. We’ve been just ministering that; if you’re not living in faith, there’s only one other way that you can live which is to live in reason. You only have one or two.

You can’t live in faith and reason. You may have reason to get the job done, but you have to have faith to create the job getting done. Faith becomes your driving force, not reason. If you’re not using faith, you’re only living in reason. If you’re only living in reason, you’re not living any different to anybody else. Then you can’t really go and stand before God and say, “Thank You for blessing me.” You should rather stand before the mirror and say, “Well done for blessing yourself.’ And just remember while you’re blessing yourself that it can be corrupted and taken away from you in a heartbeat. So don’t pat yourself on the back. You know? Anyway, I don’t want to talk too much about that today. Faith is the force of life that we live, and that faith is the name of Jesus. It is the word of God. That is what we live. We live and abide in Jesus.

Yesterday afternoon, we had a significant event. A couple of weeks ago, we had Brother Jerry do a ministry to us. He preached to us, sitting in his office, and he had a word for us and some of the examples of faith he used last night, again, using his aeroplane that he’d been believing God for 20 years. Over the last three weeks; let’s say three weeks. We’ve had Brother Jerry ministered to us twice, and Brother Joe ministered to us and we have had a significant impartation. So what just happened? This is the title of my message, by the way, What Just Happened? What just happened? Because if we understand what just happened, we will also understand what is going to happen. What just happened is; I didn’t call Brother Jerry and say, “Brother Jerry, will you please preach to us? We need a weekend off of preaching.” You know. “Would you please come preach to us?”

You know what he’d say? He’d say, “Hey, John, listen, roll your sleeves up and do some work, boy.” Now look, if I was in trouble, and I was really in a situation or in a moment where I needed help, then he would step in and definitely do it. But I didn’t call him and just say, “I think it’s a good idea. Shall we have you on?” You know, “Have you come into work on a Saturday morning?” His time. So he was relaxing in his ranch house and he came in from his ranch house, specifically into the church auditorium to come and minister to us yesterday. So Brother Jerry is a general in the faith. He is our spiritual leader; he is our apostle; he is the man that I’m glad to be associated with. Amen.

So why did he do what he did? He did what he did because he doesn’t just accept invitations to preach the Word. I know. I’ve watched Brother Jerry often, often, often. There is only one man that he just always says yes to without question. When Brother Copeland phones him and asks him, “Will you come and preach with me?” The only thing that might stand in his way is if he’s made an appointment that might be international or a series of meetings that he can’t change. Otherwise, he always says yes to Brother Copeland; never says no to him. Everybody else, he always prays about it and asks God. Sometimes God has already told him about it in advance, and then he’s ready for it. Other times, he has to see God as to whether he should be doing this.

You understand that what happened last night; was that he, his gift prepared beforehand a word for us. Although his gift wasn’t standing here, his gift came to us. I want to show you how God does things. The Lord laid it on my heart to invite Joe McCroskey, who has been brother Jerry’s right-hand man, serving him in the ministry; I think it is now 42 years. That’s quite something. How many people do you know stick with their assignment for their whole life? Not too many. Because many people that are placed in a position that brother Joe is in… You heard him last night, he’s got a wonderful way of communicating the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s got a wonderful, practical way of giving us the Word.

When I first got to meet Brother Jerry, I mean, I met him without Joe. I met him when he was part of the Copeland’s meetings in 1996. 1997, I went to America, and the idea was to learn about the processes and administration and everything of the way Jerry Savelle Ministries was working so that we could implement those things in South Africa. My first meeting was with Brother Joe and when I went to sit in his office, the Holy Spirit immediately spoke to me and he said to me, “You may not see this man, just as Brother Jerry’s number two. This man sitting in front of you is a man of God, treat him like that.” Just like that, the Holy Spirit spoke to me, “Don’t treat him as Brother Jerry’s manager, treat him as a man of God. A man that serves God.” From that date to this, I’ve received his gift into my life, as a man sent by God to serve Brother Jerry, but to minister to me. The result of which is that Brother Joe, and our family and his family are very close. There are some instructions that God gave me to walk, me and Pastor Sharon and our families, to walk with his family, Joe’s family and children and grandchildren, that has quite a lot of complexity to it, which is none of your business. That’s what God told us to do. Suffice to say that there are occasions when we meet with them, and we meet and have dinner with the entire family. Hallelujah.

We are sure of this thing that we are in, both in covenant with Brother Joe and his family, as we are in covenant with Brother Jerry and his family. You know, if you are a power broker, or if you’re a political Christian, you never want to really have to deal with the second in command. You always want to deal with the number one guy. You kind of just make friends with a second in command guy because you know you can’t get to the number one guy without knowing that number two guy. That’s not the way I saw it at all. I still don’t see it like that way. I’ve never seen it that way. To me, brother Joe is walking 100% in his assignment that God gave him. Because he is faithful and committed to the assignment that God has given him, he is capable of doing things because of his faithfulness, his loyalty, his steadfastness, his trustworthiness, his ability to navigate spiritual, Christian political circumstances with finesse on behalf of Brother Jerry, which is no small thing to do in many churches.

He is a man that has substance and integrity. When he came, and he ministered to us last night, he was a messenger sent on behalf of Brother Jerry. He preached under the mantle and authority of Brother Jerry. So when he preached last night, it was like Brother Jerry speaking with the same anointing. Obviously, they have different styles, they have different ways of communicating, and that’s their different giftings and callings, but the authority was the same. Amen. So what happened last night is that Brother Jerry put on display, for us, his love for us. We, as a people are firmly written on his heart. He loves us. He did what he did last night because He loves us and because God loves us and because God has put us together, as far as I’m concerned, for eternity.

We’ve been walking together now since 1996. This is 25 years that we’ve been walking together. I mean, I know it’s not the 50 years that he’s been walking with Kenneth Copeland, you know. But 25 years is also, you have to be committed to some relationships to walk for 25 years. Right? What happened last night was what the devil has tried to stop, God has used technology and made it available for him to come to us in a way that is very similar to what happened in the Apostle Paul’s day. In the Apostle Paul’s day, there was a church that was written on his heart, the people were in his heart. He was caught up in a dungeon, or he was caught up in a prison, and then he would sit and he would speak his heart of love and he would speak the heart of the Father, and he would have, mostly it was the apostle Luke that would write but sometimes it was others.

They would write the words that Paul would say, on a piece of paper, and he would write the letters to the churches. Though he would not necessarily be there, or have been there for some time, by the Spirit, he knew what was going on in the church and what they needed. When he wrote the letters that we now read, he was writing them by the Spirit of God, for their best interest for their spiritual growth; for their development. So what happened last night was that we didn’t just, you know, celebrate new technology here, we did something that was far more important, we receive ministry, from the apostle of God to us. Right?

We have taught you this many times, but we are reminding you that when somebody ministers the Word to you, you don’t just listen to it once and say,” Well, that was a good message” and feel motivated for a while, you walk it out, you live it out. If you don’t, if you choose not to walk it out and live it out, then you will remain circumstantially static, but spiritually, you will go backwards; your heart will get harder, your mind will become foggy and clouded about what you believe. Your emotions will be impacted and will generally turn away from God not to God because you can’t be one or the other. I mean, you can’t be in between one or the other, you have to be one or the other. You either have to be walking with God, or you’re going to be walking away from God. There is no middle ground. God said it this way, “You cannot be lukewarm. If you are lukewarm, I am going to spit you out of My mouth. I’d rather you’re completely cold, or you’re completely hot.” That’s the way the Bible puts it.

There’s no middle ground in Christianity, although in the world today, the way Christians live, you wouldn’t know it. It seems like Christians really want to live in the middle ground of society, so that they can be relevant to society, making themselves completely irrelevant. Because the fact of the matter is, the world out there is not looking for Christians that are compromising and identifying with them. They want to either stone you or be converted. That’s what they’re looking for in Christians, this is a fact. I’m telling you now, Christians, people out there in the world, they want to stone you, because they are going to hate your message if they are being convicted. They want to be convicted or they want to stone you, or they will never believe you. The minute you compromise in front of them, they say, “You don’t believe God the way that I believe my stuff. So why should I believe your stuff when I believe my stuff more?” They will either love you or they’ll hate you. Isn’t it interesting that Christians want to live somewhere in the middle?

Ephesians chapter five, verse one and two in the Amplified Bible says, 1Therefore be imitators of God [copy Him and follow His example], as well-beloved children [imitate their father]. 2And walk in love, [esteeming and delighting in one another] as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a slain offering and sacrifice to God [for you so that it became] a sweet fragrance (Ephesians 5:1-2 AMPC).

There is a couple of things I want to say quickly about the Scripture. The first thing is, be imitators of God, so we must copy and follow His example. We must walk in love as Christ loved us and gave Himself up. In other words, we must walk in love with everybody to the point where we self-hurt, we self-sacrifice for someone else. Come on. Isn’t that what the scripture saying? Then when you love, when we love each other like that, and we imitate God that way, then we become a sweet fragrance; then we become a sweet fragrance. Hallelujah.

There’s a lot that’s been happening in our ministry over the last year, maybe 18 months; there’s a lot that’s been happening. One of the things that has happened is that God said, “I will have the children. I will take the children. I will have the children, and they will follow Me.” God has been doing things in our ministry, that has begun to unfold the design and the pattern and the plan that He had for us. With the Song and Sound, with taking the children.

He’s been talking to us about not allowing ourselves to be overcome with the Babylonian system. More recently, He has been talking to us about money. Because this is our time. I mean this; I’m not just speaking words. I’m speaking spiritual words. It’s time right now; it is time for God to show the world how He can uplift His people, financially. We can become a light of how God can change us, in a time of drought, we can reap a hundredfold return. That’s where God’s got us now. God’s been speaking for some time and so… What just happened? What just happened this weekend is not something that just happened this weekend. There’s a lot of stuff that’s been going into what happened this weekend. What happened is that God began to speak to us, November of 2019, God spoke to us. He said, “I want you to prepare the ministry and I want you to go on (what I thought was) television (at first) four times a day.” When I started to evaluate what the cost of that would be, I said, “No, it’s not that.” We were on television and then the Lord gave me the wisdom of doing Facebook and YouTube and all those social media, where we would minister multiple times a day so that when COVID came, our ministry was 100% ready.

We were geared with cameras, we were geared with the room, we were geared with the message, everybody was already used to knowing that we were doing morning messages and afternoon messages and evenings on TV and all that kind of stuff. People were already used to going online to look for spiritual food. Only God can prepare you for something like it because He sees it coming and He prepares you and then you’re ready when it gets there. So COVID didn’t catch us off guard, not one second. Amen.

Another thing is that as a ministry, generally because of our assignment, we are generally a people who strongly believe in a firm relationship foundation, because if I’m teaching you the Word of God, and you’re listening to me as a teacher, then as a teacher, you may… a student or a listener, as a teacher, you may or may not agree with some things, you may or may not receive some things. But if we are together in relationship, you have an opportunity to learn how to grow into that Living Word, with continual guidance of that Living Word. Then your growth pattern becomes sure, going from strength to strength and you don’t have these momentous collapses. The church is full of people that collapse, disappear out of the church because they are offended, they are hurt, they are not looked after, and the organization takes the priority. It’s certainly been my mandate from the Lord, never to place organizational stuff ahead of relationship. But He always assured me that in the time that comes the relationship will begin to grow the organization, and it will happen organically, and it will happen together, and we will not have to compromise it.

He told me that in the same way, I was never going to compromise my marriage. If I had to choose between marriage and ministry, I would have chosen marriage. But the Lord eventually said to me, “Because you chose Me, you won’t ever have to make that choice.” Amen. That’s the way it is. Because I am relational, my ministry, and the way we go about things is much more relational than organizational. I will never have to choose between whether the organization or the relationship takes priority, the relationship always takes priority, and the organization will grow. Amen. Hallelujah. Let me tell you, that’s a much harder way to build a church. Because relationship is something that needs to be nurtured. It doesn’t happen overnight. Trust is something that needs to be built. It’s not something that just happens. Yah.

There’s a lot of things that I’ve preached over the years and I know, first of all, when I preach them, people looked at me and said, “Huh, really?” I mean, one of the things I know that was a really big game-changer for a lot of people that came into our ministry, and eventually ultimately didn’t hang around, is because of one focus that I had about faith. That one focus is, I would say it and you know it, I always say this; faith is not a formula for success, it’s God’s pattern for victory. That one statement caused a whole lot of people to leave me because they thought I was not really a faith guy; because of that statement.

You see, my focus on faith was; you need to have a loving relationship with Jesus if you’re going to walk in faith. It’s not just a formula… “I quote the Word so many times, and then I’ll get the results.” Faith doesn’t work like that. Faith is about a living relationship with Jesus, and the Word becomes alive to you. The Living Word becomes alive to you and then faith grows. Then you see the results. Amen. Praise Jesus. God is good. God is good.

It’s no wonder that so much of the ministry and so much of what happens in my life is because of who I’m connected to. So what just happened? What just happened last night was Brother Jerry was standing here, he was in our midst, via the screen. Brother Joe, Brother Jerry, you know what Brother Joe brought, he brought his bread of life, his supply of the spirit, and he broke the bread of healing to us. That is a powerful thing that happened last night. I encourage you, certainly, as far as I’m concerned, I’m going to be listening to Brother Joe’s message over and over and over again. Because to me, that was a fire starter for us to say, “Let’s get going on healing in the ministry here.”Amen. What Brother Jerry brought was, he brought his gifts and his supply of the Spirit and apostolically he came to say a few things to us last night and he came to say, “Don’t you worry about COVID and don’t you worry about the circumstances that the world is facing. This is going to be the best of times! When the world is saying it is the worst of times, God is going to make sure it is the best of times.” If I had to summarize his message last night, I would say that’s what he said. Would you agree? [Congregation agrees]. It’s not our worst of times, it’s our best of times. That is why we’re having a two o’clock to four o’clock interview today, we’ll have breaks in between, we’re interviewing on Financial Growth Point. Right now, we have a potential for financial growth. You might say, “Well pastor John, this is the wrong time to talk about it.” No this is exactly the right time to talk about it. Hallelujah. There are some things that I have to share with you this morning, so if you will bear with me, I’m going to go through quite a lot of scripture now, in order to bring to you what I need to.

Deuteronomy chapter 1 verse 1, ¹These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel [still] on the [east] side of the Jordan [River] in the wilderness, can you all please say this with me; In the wilderness [Congregation: In the wilderness]. So they are in the desert, right? In the Arabah [the deep valley running north and south from the eastern arm of the Red Sea, whada whada, to beyond the Dead Sea], over near ‘whada whada’, those places, [Congregation laughs]. That’s what we’ll call those places now, ‘whada whada’. Everytime, ‘whada whada’, so you’ll know what I am talking about, verse 2, 2It is [only] eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea [on Canaan’s border; yet Israel took forty years to get beyond it]. Eleven days, forty years. How long do you want to take? How long do you want to take to get what God’s got for you? Eleven days or forty years?

If I’m bringing you this message today, this is not for you to look backwards. You can do nothing about what happened yesterday. I’m bringing this message to you today so that you can look forward. 3And in the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the Israelites according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment to them, (Deuteronomy 1:1-3AMPC). I ask you, “Who did the Lord speak to? Come on now. [Congregation: Moses]. You can do better than that. [Congregation speaks louder: Moses]. You can do that one more time. [Congregation: MOSES]. And Moses was a…? He was a man. Right? So, He spoke to? [Congregation: Moses]. Say that again [Congregation: Moses] who was a? [Congregation laughs and answers: Man]. So, He spoke to Moses, who was a man. Moses was a man.

Is Brother Jerry a man? [Congregation: yes]. Is Brother Joe a man? [Congregation: yes]. Am I a man? [Congregation: yes]. Thank goodness, I don’t have to wear all the makeup, I have to wear it occasionally but, you know. [Congregation laughs]. But, no, I mean, in this context it’s a human. It’s a human. It is quite clear that when God wants to speak to people on the earth, He uses humans.

Now I have to read a passage of scripture to you, so please bare with me because this is relevant to what I need to share with you this morning. Verse 18, 18And I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do. So this was in previous times. 19And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which should have only lasted eleven days, which you saw on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us, and we came to Kadesh-barnea. 20And I said to you, you have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God gives us. I also want you to see that Moses was speaking to them, but he was including him because he couldn’t go without them and they couldn’t get there without him. So the man needed the people, and the people needed the man. The one couldn’t function without the other.

²¹Behold, the Lord your God has set the land before you; go up and possess it, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, which were Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has said to you. Fear not, neither be dismayed. ²²Then you all came near to me and said, Let us send men before us, who did they send? Men. So, God spoke to a man, he spoke to all the men. Now all the men said, “Let us take a few men, and send a few men,” Let us send men before us, that they may search out the land for us and bring us word again by what way we should go up and the cities into which we shall come. ²³The thing pleased me well, so, he heard their council, men to man. This is very important, men to man. There is no God here. Men to man. There’s no God here. “This thing pleased me”, Moses, well. Men to man.

You got it? The thing pleased me well and I took twelve men of you, one for each tribe. 24And they turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out. 25And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us and brought us word again, so this was not the first time that this had happened, and said, It is a good land which the Lord our God gives us. 26Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God. 27You were peevish and discontented in your tents, and said, Because the Lord hated us, He brought us forth out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. To what are we going up? 28Our brethren have made our hearts melt, other men have made these men’s hearts melt, saying, The people are bigger and taller than we are; the cities are great and fortified to the heavens. It’s like somebody said: “I’ve told you a million times”, they’re grossly exaggerating, to all the sanguines out there.

Moreover, we have seen the [giantlike] sons of the Anakim there. 29Then I said to you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them. 30The Lord your God Who goes before you, He will fight for you just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31And in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God bore you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place. 32Yet in spite of this word you did not believe (trust, rely on, and remain steadfast to) the Lord your God, 33Who went in the way before you to search out a place to pitch your tents, in fire by night, to show you by what way you should go, and in the cloud by day. I mean is God not involved in every detail of their lives here. Showing them where they should pitch their tents at night, going before them by day, feeding them day and night, none of them got sick, none of their clothes grew old. I mean God was supernaturally, miraculously taking care of His kids. His people.

34And the Lord heard your words, and was angered and He swore, 35 Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land which I swore to give to your fathers, 36Except [Joshua, of course, and] Caleb son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and to his children I will give the land upon which he has walked, because he has wholly followed the Lord. To him and his children. To him and his children. Verse 37; 37The Lord was angry with me also, Moses, 37The Lord was angry with me also for your sakes, and said, You also shall not enter Canaan. 38But Joshua son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter there. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. 39Moreover, your little ones whom you said would become a prey, to those giants, and your children who at this time cannot discern between good and evil, because they are young, they were young then, they shall enter Canaan, and to them I will give it and they shall possess it. 40But as for you, turn and journey into the wilderness by way of the Red Sea (1:18-40 AMPC).

What happened was that men spoke to a man. They said, “Let’s go in and spy out the land and let’s get feedback on how big the cities are, and how wonderful the cities are, and this land that we must possess”, and the man said, “That’s a good idea.” The Bible says it pleased Moses. But Moses didn’t turn around and say, “Hold on, guys. I’m used to how this thing works. I’m going to go and hear from God first.” He just heard what men said and said, “That sounds like a good idea. Let’s do this”. Moses is writing this account here in the book of Deuteronomy. This is an account of Moses talking to the people of Israel. He said, “The children that you were afraid of losing to those people because they were too young to be able to discern the difference between good and evil, those young children, they are the ones that are going to possess the land. You, because of…” What words that they say, “God hated us.” The same God that fed you day and night, that protected you from the harsh sun that gave you warmth at night, this same God, you tell us, “He hates you.” What was their view of God? Where did it come from? It came from Egypt, where there were all kinds of gods that other people worshipped, and they did them according to their own design in their own way and they lived in abundance because of the river Nile. When it came for God to release His people, it was clear which God had power. Hallelujah.

So what has just happened? What has just happened is that we have obeyed God. I have endeavoured to obey God because when He said in 2019, in November, “Get ready for a digital message.” I obeyed God. I mean, I don’t know if any of you recall this, but I used to get lots of feedback about how wonderful it was to have the five-minute Facebook sessions or the YouTube sessions every day. Getting the Word through that time of lockdown, and all of the stuff that you could get from the Ministry, as input into your lives that you are not just left on an island, in your own little home with nothing to do. Right? You remember that? We were, I was obedient to God doing that. It cost us a lot of effort, a lot of time, a lot of preparation. We needed to be on our game the whole time and our people were coming to work. We worked harder then, in lockdown, than most other people worked because we were serving you. So last year I was supposed to go with Brother Jerry, to a number of different countries and of course, like you heard, he had to put a stop to all of that.

Well, end of last year, the Lord said to me, “2021, John, I want you to go big and be bold.” I’ve spoken lots about that, and the Lord began in the middle of last year to say, “I will take the children.” So we began to minister on I Will Take the Children. Each of the children that have come to the ministry came with their own will. They were, for every one of them, there were moments of deep reflection because they had to make deep decisions. But here they are, giving the first fruit of their lives to God. Wonder who God’s going to choose? I know who is going to choose, he’s going to choose those that have already given Him first fruits. Because they’ve made a choice, that they are going God’s way. That has caused a whole momentum shift in the ministry, some people might have this thought about it. Some people might have the thought that I was just waiting for the young people to come so that we could do ‘stuff’ in the ministry because I needed more help in the ministry. That’s not the way it worked. The way it worked is that God had each of these young people come into this ministry, with their assignment, and when their assignment came with their energy, and their first fruits, God said, “John, I’ve got to make space for them to sow into their future. So I need you to be obedient and be bold.”

All of those young people have been meaningfully part of this whole project with their physical labour, their energy, their skills, their time; everything. God created an opportunity for them to sow into the future of this ministry, which already means they have sown into the future of their whole lives because they are called to this ministry. I said this a long time ago, many, many years ago, I don’t say it very much anymore, but I feel that I’ve got to say it again this morning: Don’t call me Pastor if you don’t do the message that God has called me to give you. Don’t call me Pastor because then I’m not your Pastor. Don’t call me Pastor, just because it’s a title. You know? If it’s got honour attached to that, and you can see the call of God on my life, then you can call me Pastor because then it’s real. Don’t fake me out like that. Do you know what I’m saying? If I’m your Pastor, then call me Pastor, if it’s in your heart to call me Pastor, call me Pastor. If you see me as your Pastor, you don’t see me as your Pastor, don’t call me Pastor. I don’t want you to confuse your own heart that you’re calling me, “Pastor” but you receive nothing from me.

So man to men, right, God uses a man to speak to men. When men speak to a man, without God being involved, you have problems. It’s my responsibility to hear from God and God has such a high accountability factor, that He says, “If you mislead My people” not my people, God’s people. If I mislead you, then I must stand doubly accountable before God than anybody else that just walks with God. Because if He’s asking me to stand here and give messages to you, I better be talking with inspired messages that God has given me by the Holy Ghost. In other words, Holy Ghost inspired messages with power, not just something that regurgitated from a book I read.

I may very well get inspiration from Kenneth Hagin’s books and Kenneth Copeland’s ministry and messages, but my message must be between me and God, what is He saying to me, what is He saying to me today? If I allow men to interfere with this message, then it won’t go well with me, because now I’m preaching for men. If it’s men to men, none of us go into the promised land. None of us get to go where God wants us to go. We all miss it. So even Moses didn’t get to go because of that. So, God is taking our children.

I want to encourage you today, that globally, globally, we have had a major, major event happen. A pandemic virus that has hit the world. It doesn’t matter how real it was, how bad it was, who it had touched or who it didn’t touch. You can say many things about it. Here’s really what happened. Churches were shut down, and still are, in many places, businesses were closed, lockdown, shut, no economic activity, governments were shut. The world came to a standstill. If you think God’s in that, He’s not. It’s like Brother Joe said yesterday, “Sickness and disease do not come from God, it comes from the devil.” God has always got a way out for you and me. Now we have one of two things that can happen right now. We can allow ourselves to be caught up in all the words of the world about the pandemic. Or we can be caught up in the words of God. If you get caught up in the words of God, the pandemic will not touch you. You will grow right through it. I’ve come to make, I’ve come to ask you today, on behalf of the Lord Jesus, I’ve come to ask you something important.

Matthew 4 verse 18 says, in the Amplified, 18As He was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He noticed two brothers, Simon who is called Peter and Andrew his brother, throwing a dragnet into the sea, for they were fishermen. 19And He said to them, come after Me, follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men! At, please say it with me, [Congregation: At once]. Say it again [Congregation: At once], At once. Say it with me again, [Congregation: At once]. Not tomorrow, at once. 20At once they left their nets and became His disciples 21And going on further from there, He noticed two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets and putting them right; and He called them. Say it again, at once [Congregation: At once]. Come on, again, [Congregation: At once]. 22At once they left the boat and their father and joined Jesus as disciples. 23And He went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every weakness and infirmity among the people (Matthew 4:18 AMPC).

I’m grateful to God that I have walked with God, all of my life. There are some things that have been part of my life that I never had to learn to do. I never really had to learn to tithe; because as a young child I heard all the teachings about tithing in my dad’s church, and so I just grew up knowing that tithing is the thing to do. It wasn’t even a confusion thing for me. It wasn’t even a thing for me, I just knew it, I just knew that this is the right thing to do. If you love God, you tithe, you know. Later on, I found out how many people do whatever they can to get out of tithing the tithe.

I’m telling you, this is the way I found out that Christians are very reasoning in the way that they tithe. Because do we tithe on the gross? Do we tithe on the net? Do we tithe after expenses? Do we tithe with expenses? And so, all of those questions are so that you can pay the least, as little tithe as possible. Why would you want to pay God as little as possible when it’s Him that’s blessing you with as much as you have? So, we’ll talk about some of this, this afternoon. We’re not going to talk so much on tithing.

Many years ago, I was faced with a dilemma. In fact, some high-profile preachers had me come to their ministries because they wanted advice from me about promoting the gifts in the body of Christ that were finances. There was a great upswelling in the body of Christ in churches, to nominate business people that were very successful, and call them apostles of business. I don’t want to get into the that why that whole teaching was out at that time, but it was a big deal at that time. I had some challenges in people who tithe as entrepreneurs and people who tithe that are in a corporate job. So, if you’re living in a corporate job, and you don’t have too much flexibility with taxes if you earn… I’m just going to put a number out there, it is by no means a measure for anybody or anything. It’s just I’m going to put a number out there.

If you earn R10 000 a month, and that’s your income and you pay, then medical aid comes off and pension comes off and unemployment insurance funds come off and all of that kind of stuff, you might be left, after-tax, you might be left to R7000 a month. What does the receiver tax you on? R10 000, right? It’s the number. So, then your tax should be R1000? No brainer. Then you get people who have their own businesses, and they draw a salary, and their salary is R20 000 a month. But the business pays for their children’s schooling, they’re this, the food, the that we got the financial people around us here and they know what people do to try and move it away from the taxman. So, they’re and earn R20 000 a month what they take out of the business is R200 000 a month.

So, what should they be tithing on? That should not actually even be for debate, it should not be what you put on your salary slip. It should be what you take out of the business because that’s what you really live on. That’s how you pay for your holidays and write it off as ‘expenses’. I’m not talking to anybody in particular, but everybody in general. So credit cards are used, and many things are done in the business, and you live on a large amount of money, but my salary is R20 000 a month. Why would you not want to give God a portion of the R200 000 or 10% of the R200 000, when that’s the standard that you are living? What you’re actually saying is that “I don’t really care what God thinks about my money. I’ll tell Him what I think about my money.” Come on.

I might be standing on some toes now and shooting some holy cows now, but it’s good. It’s good to shoot holy cows. If they’re holy, they’re holy for a reason, because people pamper them and keep them sacred to themselves. How did I get on the subject? God led me there. Oh, yes. I mean, I’ve never had an issue with tithing. When I was in the corporate world and I used to earn really great, great amounts of money, first on commissions and then on shares and profit-sharing in the business. I mean, it was never even an issue for me. My tithe was the top number, every time it was the top number.

Then as you know, Pastor Sharon and I made a decision that if God could bless us that way, with 10%, we wanted to give Him an extra 10% as an offering; you cannot double tithe, you can tithe and then you can do offerings. So we decided we were going to do another 10%. Well, from that date to this, Sharon and I have never lacked, ever, ever. I wonder what that’s got to do with? Perhaps it’s got a way of it’s got to do with the way we trust God about money. Perhaps it’s because we started way back then putting our trust in God in money. But that’s not the only thing that I put my trust in God with. I put my trust in God with the most important thing in my life; which was my wife. I put my trust in God that He would give me a marriage that was so beautiful and sweet, because that was the strong desire of my heart, that my marriage would be sweet to me. It will be satisfying to me all the days of my life, it would be something that when I’m at this age, when I was in my 20s, and I said: “One day, when I get to the age I am now I still want to have that sweetness in my marriage, I don’t want to have bitterness, I don’t want to have arguments, I don’t want to be so grown apart from each other because we’ve developed habits of living apart from each other that we don’t know each other anymore. I want to be closer to her when I’m older than when I am now.”

That was the desire of my heart then. So I said: “The only way that I can get that to happen is to trust God with my marriage, not trust me.” So I had to trust God. I did trust God 100% with my marriage. The same thing happened with my children; I had to trust God that we raised them up the way God would. The Bible says, and they will not depart from it when they grow older. Well, they made decisions that caused them harm and caused us a bit of heartache, but they’re both in church serving the Lord and living for God now. Thank God for that. I’m not holding myself up as a role model, I’m saying you must imitate God and follow God. Because that’s what He’s… I know Apostle Paul says, “Imitate me as I follow God. And if there’s something in my life that you can see that follows God, imitate that.” That’s a good thing to do. If it’s based on the Word of God, and I’m doing it, and you see it working, you can do it. God is not a respecter of persons. You see, when God is in the middle of men to men, it always works out. When God is excluded from men to men, then there’s always a problem.

In the case of Moses and the Israelites, it was men who came back and gave a report and said, “There are giants there, it’s a grand land, it’s an awesome land, but there are giants there.” And 10 out of the 12 men just brought such a bad report that caused their whole generation to live in the wilderness for 40 years; it should have taken 11 days. Because there were 40 years of wilderness living, all the older people that had to die, literally die, before God could release them into the promised land. Come on older generation people. You have to make a choice today; “I’m not dying in the wilderness.” Come on. I’m not just preaching to the kids here. I’m preaching to the adults here. We have a moment here. God has reset the economies of the world. He is resetting the church right now. I’m telling you this by the Spirit of God, I’ve been prophesying this for weeks now. I’ve been prophesying this, that God is resetting churches. He’s resetting economies. He’s resetting his ability to touch the kingdoms of this world and make them the kingdoms of our God. He is in the process of doing something significant here. You can either be part of that or die.

“Yoh, that’s a harsh word, Pastor John.” No, I’m telling you, this is the way it’s going to be. If you have murmurs against God and you murmur against God and you say, “I don’t want to give God my money. And I’ve worked so hard for my money. I don’t want to give God my money. If I give Him money I have less to work with.” Say what? I ask you. Let’s just keep this basic, shall we? I need to choose someone that I can pick on and he won’t fight back because he loves me. I’m going to pick on Le Roux. He knew it was coming. Stand up, Le Roux, please. At least he doesn’t have a Free State shirt on today.

[Le Roux: Yesterday Sir] Yesterday? I’m glad I didn’t see it [Congregation laughs]. So Le Roux, let’s just you and I have a conversation here:

Pastor John:
I mean, this morning, you got up and you use your intellect to actually plan to get here? You used your intelligence?

Le Roux:
Yes Sir.

Pastor John:
And I mean, you’re skilled at putting on pants, a little bit?

Le Roux:
Yes Sir.

Pastor John:
Oh yah, you’re from the Free State. You’re not sure if it’s one or two, hey? [Congregation laughs]

Le Roux:
Yes Sir.

Pastor John:
And your shirt and you brushed your teeth? I assume you know.

Le Roux:
Yes Sir.

Pastor John:
Got yourself clean. Then you timed it because I see that you have an ‘ushers’ shirt on that you would be helping, right?

Le Roux:
Yes Sir.

Pastor John:
So I mean, that means you have a brain.

Le Roux:
Yes.

Pastor John:
I know you have a brain. But this morning, that skill didn’t require you to do anything that is your training and do engineering work like you helped us with all this engineering stuff, yeah? You are a Civil Engineer, right?

Le Roux:
Yes Sir.

Pastor John:
…by qualification?

Le Roux:
Yes Sir.

Pastor John:
Okay, so I’m just, so you have a level of knowledge there. But you didn’t need all that knowledge this morning to just get here? Right.

Le Roux:
No.

Pastor John:
But there are days when you use that basic knowledge of getting up in the morning and you get yourself ready, and then you go and sit in a meeting and you might have drawings with you, and you might have all kinds of designs with you. You might talk to people and say, “No, no, if you’re going to build this infrastructure, you need to put more steel here and more concrete here.” Now you’re operating at a higher level of connection with the people. But it had to start out getting up in the morning.

Le Roux:
Yes Sir.

Pastor John:
Thank you, Le Roux. You’re okay by me. I’m trying to use an example with the Le Roux, that every one of us have a brain that gets us out of bed every day and you take it for granted that you are in charge of your life because your brain is working. Really? You think you’re the whole deal because your brains working? Who gave you the brain to get up in the morning? This is not a biological transfer. This is a God-breathed living life that made you as a person.

You didn’t just come together because a man and a woman came together and then you existed. You existed because God breathed life into you. So who gave you your brain? [Congregation: God] Say what? [Congregation: God]. Okay, let’s do a bit of biology now. Who gave you your skin? [Congregation: God] Who gave you your muscles? [Congregation: God] Le Roux, did you use muscles to get you out today? [Le Roux: Yes]. I presume you use them to get in the car. And then you use them to get out of the car. Right? And you needed bones to carry your muscles. So from now on we can call you ‘bones’? [Congregation laughs].

I mean, we take all of this stuff for granted every day, we get up and we think, we got bones, we got skin, we got muscles, we got brains, and we get up and we go about our stuff and you say, “I’m so great, look what I can do.” You got nothing. The very air that you breathe is from God. Everything that’s working in your body, God gave it to you. If he just stopped his life and stopped the Holy Spirit looking after you in your life for one second, you would collapse and be nothing. God gave you everything you’ve got, and you want to take credit for it? “I think I’ll tell God, how I use my money. He can’t tell me nothing.” Well, I’ll tell you what, it’s going to go to that Pastor in that church and you know, he’s just lining his own pockets. Well, as a matter of fact, the Lord has just placed on our hearts; we haven’t taken an income out of this church for three years. So there is no excuse for you not to tithe. If you think you’re giving me the money.

How do we live? We live with faith. I don’t phone people up in the church and say, “Hey, listen, if you’ve got a couple of ‘bob’ for me this month? You know. I’m a bit short, buddy. You know, I said live by faith but I’m not really, I need a few bucks. Can you ‘gooi’? [Congregation laughs]. I don’t have a WhatsApp network that says, “When I send you a #111 or #911, that if you get that message, you know, “gooi’ some money.” If God moves on anybody to sow money into my life, it’s because God’s moved on their hearts, not because I’ve asked them to. Hallelujah. So if there’s an example, you can live with that example. I live with that example from Brother Jerry, didn’t he tell you last night that he had to stop travelling for six months? But his partners understood the spiritual connection between what he is, not what he does for them, but what he is, and so they sowed into his life for what he is not what he does. Although what he does was cut off for a time, they still sowed into what he is.

The Lord reminded me this week of this, Pastor Sharon, there was a whole bunch of messages that are preached in this Church. I don’t know how many years ago was a long time ago, the Lord had me supernaturally speak and preach this message and I went, and I came in, I walked in the front here, and I said, “Who am I to you? Who am I to you?” I asked a couple of people who I am to them? Because if you don’t recognize me as a messenger sent by God to bring a message to you, then what are you doing here? What are you doing here? Well, if you’re just sitting here saying, “Hey, I don’t know you, I come to check you out and I want to see if I like this church or not.” Welcome. Come and do it as much as you like, if you’ve been here a long time and you don’t like the way I preach. Stay away. Stay away, don’t come. Because if you just here because you need to show everybody that you’re here then you are deceiving not only yourself but everybody else. Then your whole life is a life of deception. The Bible says that man, he will not receive anything from the Lord. [Pastor Garth: That’s good preaching]. Thank you, my son, at the back there.

Can you do this? Can you make this decision? To come and say, we’re going now, we’re going to go, we’re going to go and take Jericho. We’re going to go into the land, God is pressing reset, and it’s time for us to be set. If we don’t be set right now in the ways of God, I promise you, this is not the first, the last wave that is coming into the earth to dominate God’s people. This is the first missile that’s been shot. The devil has found a way to terrify the earth. Hear me people when I tell you this, the devil has found a way to terrify the earth with viruses that are unseen, that cause people to panic and run into their homes. If you think that he’s caused this amount of destruction, and he’s not going to use it again. You’re wrong. You don’t understand that this is a matter of life and death.

Everything that’s going on here is about a war that happens in the spirit realm. It’s the war for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s to try and make the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ fearful and timid and cowardly and drawback and just preach a self-promoting, feel-good message. Jesus needs a powerful people that will stand in the midst of a storm after virus wave after virus wave and say, “It shall not come near us.” We will live in the land of Goshen, and where there’s darkness in that world, the light of His presence will shine amongst us, where there is famine and poverty in that land, the power of God is going to cause us to be fruitful. But He’s not going to do it for those that are willing to stay in the wilderness because they’re scared of the future. Because they’re trying to hang on to their kids and say, “I’m going to be what I need to be to my kids.”

Philippians 4 verse 13, 13I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency] (Phillipians 4:13 AMPC). Hallelujah. I read my final scripture this morning. I’m reading from The Passion Translation, only. It’s one John chapter 3 verse 23. 23So these are His commands; that we continually place our trust, in the name of Jesus, the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and that we keep loving one another, as He has commanded us. 24For all who obey His commands find their lives joined in union with Him, and He loves and flourishes in them. We now have proof that He constantly lives and flourishes in us, by the Spirit that He has given us (1 John 3:23-24 TPT).

So we have what it takes to make this decision, Church. You have it in you, you must choose it. I’m not in the habit of reading quotes from other people and I’m closing with this. I’m not in the habit of reading quotes from other people just because philosophers, by the very nature of what they do is, they philosophise. You know, I don’t need a philosopher when I’ve got the Bible. All I need is the Bible. I find this particularly helpful, and this is what this particular gentleman said, “First, we form habits, and then they form us. Conquer your habits, or they will conquer you.”

So, if you are in the habit of speaking against God. “Well, how’s God going to come through for me? How’s He going to make it happen for me? What’s going to happen to me?” If you’re asking those questions all the time, and you’re speaking against God. It’s a bad habit that will form you. Do you know, this is a fact that children don’t become what you say? They become who you are. I’ll tell you what? My kids grew up, sharp this way, if they found in me something that spiritually they could see, I’m just treading water here, I’m not really committing here; they would call me on it. They knew better than I because they can see, “Dad, what are you doing? I don’t see you confessing the Word on this. I don’t see you doing this. I don’t see you doing that. You’re not living for God.”

So you might say, “Well, listen, you know, at least I’m honest with my kids.” Whoop dee doo. You think honesty is going to give them a life? They want God. They want the real Life. Because the new generation people say, “You listen, and you hear from God, and we will follow you. We’re not even going to murmur or question like our parents did.” So I’m inviting all of the adults. I’m addressing Pastor Lynn, who is sitting at the back there today and I don’t like it that he sits at the back, but he sits at the back because the sound is a bit loud for him in the front here. I can say this to Pastor Lynn because I know him. I’m inviting Pastor Lynn to be a new generation person and he’s 78 now. Are you 78, Pastor Lynn? [Pastor Lynn: 76 going on 77] Seventy what? 76? Sorry, I gave you two extra years there [Congregation laughs]. I knew you were over 75. But I’m inviting you, Pastor Lynn, I’m inviting you to be a new generation person. Will you accept the challenge, Sir? Please say, yes, I do [Pastor Lynn: Yes]. There is a man of 76, I know the spirit of which he is made off. He’s got Caleb in his heart and he’s got Joshua in his blood. I can speak to him at this distance and invite him to be a new generation person because he chooses it and he always chooses it every day.

Sharron, how old is your mom? [Sharonn: 88] 88. I invite you ‘Ouma’ to become a new generation person. Do you accept? [Doreen: Yes]. I know, because I know that you are full of life at 88, you are full of the love of God and the Word of God and you’re full of the things of God. You can hardly keep her in the house. He wants to go walking and running every day. I know because we watch her on Slipstream, they got these things going, Sharron and mom. Hallelujah.

Sandra, Sandy, do you accept it? Do you accept to become a new generation person? [Sandy: Yes]. See, I’m asking older people with some grey hair because these people have the most difficulty in doing this. But I know the spirit in which they are made off. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus.

Grobbies? [Grobbies: So glad you asked, Pastor John] [Congregation laughs] [Grobbies stands up: I accept gladly]. There was a time I couldn’t ask you that question. But now I can ask you that question and I know that your whole heart and your whole spirit and your whole being is to give your life to God. In this week, you and I have spent time together and the liberty that is in your spirit and the freedom that is… There’s a few rough edges there we got to work on, you know [Congregation laughs]. But you know what hey, Grobbies? God is smoothing them off every day. You know. Thank you for accepting His love through judgment. Yah. Because you see God called Grobbies to my life a long time ago and he refused to accept God. So God said, “I’ve got to take you out of John’s life because you’re going to burn and die if you stay in his life.” And that very removal out of my life and out of your lives, caused judgment to come to his heart and he turned his life over to God. He turned his life over to God. Now he stands a liberated redemptive man, ready to be a new generation person.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus. I want all the interns wherever you’re sitting to stand up, just stand up please; the interns. Some of them are sitting behind the things there, some of them are here. These young people here, they’ve already made a decision, they’re going full-on flat out for God. These are the first fruit children. [Pastor John speaking to the interns] I’ll tell you, because of all of you, and I said this to you the other day; because of all of you, there are going to be generations of young people that are coming through now that are going to follow your example and they’re going to do what you’re doing now. They’re going to come and give their first fruit to God. God is taking for Himself. Thank you, you can sit down.

God is taking for Himself a people that the older generation say, “Nah, nah, nah, we’re all just comfortable we’re sticky in our stickiness. We want to be messy, and we want to be sticky. And don’t… leave us alone. We got too many issues to deal with, urgh” Right? When you touch them, it’s about like that, it’s like “Urgh.” You know, leave me alone. Younger generation people say, “Give it to us, Pastor John, give it to us, give it to us. We want the best.” You want the gold? “We want to go for this whole thing. Yah, everything. We’re going to take everything.”

[Pastor Lynn: I’m still an intern] [Congregation laughs] Pastor Lynn, 76, and he’s still an intern. Hallelujah. There is hope for all of us. So you know what just happened? What just happened is that God showed up for us this year. He showed up for us this last two nights. Tonight, last night and this coming night and this afternoon. He’s been showing up for us because He’s saying, “It’s time, it’s time, it’s time it’s time, it’s time.” You can’t just hang around and say, “I wonder what’s going to happen next in the church.” If you’re on the outside wondering what’s going to happen come inside a little bit. Come and give your energy, come and give your life stuff. What are you doing hanging out there? What? Where? Why? What for? You hang out there and you know if you hang out there you become like biltong, you go get old, dry like a piece of old meat, you know, ‘jig’. Eventually, you can’t even eat that you got to bang out and pull little pieces off it to get something out of it, you know. It gets so dried out there’s no life in it. Praise the Lord.

So what do you say church? It’s time to form new habits. It’s time to not let our old habits form us. It’s time for us to have habits that we form, and we now transform, and we become something that God can transform. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. So, I got good news for you. You know, last night Brother Jerry was talking about his Falcon, huh? He said, “John, just be ready? We’re coming. Just pray about the timing.” So you all have been hearing me speak for a while now that I’ve been saying, we’re going to pay for the fuel bill.

That’s no small amount of money. Well, we’ve put some money aside and it’s been growing, a little bit by little bit. But God moved on the heart of someone last to come and put a significant amount, and it was already deposited last night, I’ve got the proof of payment this morning. That will cover the whole fuel bill for Brother Jerry to come to South Africa [Congregation praising God]. Those people know who they are and I’m speaking to them and I’m speaking to all of you through them. That’s a new generation mindset. And it’s time for all of us to have that mindset that when God says to you at night, “Do this no, you do it now at once.”

When Jesus says, “Come follow Me,” You say, “At once” and this morning there is an at once movement that has begun. That just came out of my spirit. Don’t you think that’s cool? We are about an at once movement hashtag at once. Come on, that’s what we’re going to do, hashtag at once, at once, at once. We’re not going to wait until tomorrow we do at once. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Praise the Lord. Come on sound to faith everybody. You have a song. If it’s not too much trouble, I’d love to hear the song. Come on musicians get yourselves up here.

I would like you to put your hand over your heart like this [Pastor John putting his hand on his heart] and say this; I am a son of God. I am doing everything that God commands at once. So therefore right now, I repent of all my stubbornness. All my laziness. All my weakness, at once, right now. I repent, at once.

God, you saw them. [Congregation laughs]. You saw them. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. This is a time to go forward this is not a time to go backwards. This is a time to be bold and courageous and to go for God because He is resetting the agenda eternally. He is going to do it through a praying church. He is going to do it through a church that says, “At once. At once.” What do you say, Brynn? [Brynn: At once]. There you go. What do you say, Pastor Reagan? [Pastor Reagan: At once] At once. Vekesh what do you say? [Vekesh: At once]. It better be, at once! Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Marnus what do you say? [Marnus: At once]. At once. He knows better, Cindy will ‘klap’ him. Hallelujah. Le Roux, what do you say? [Le Roux shouting: At once]. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We are a #atonce people. At once people. At once people. We’re going to do it, at once. We’re going to follow Jesus. Glory to God. Glory to Jesus. I’m surprised they don’t have an, ‘at once song yet.’

I mean, if they were in the spirit, they would have known I was going to do this ministry today, you know? So what do you girls all say on the front here? Are you at once people? [Girls in the front row: At once]. At once? I saw you ran this morning. Was it yesterday or Friday? But you only posted it this morning. That’s what she does. She ran on Friday and she posted it this morning. At once, ha-ha, not that kind of ‘at once’. [Congregation laughs]. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Glory to God. Glory to God. We’re going to have a great time in the finances this afternoon. We’re going to join Fort Worth Crowley this evening. And at once we get to change again. Because every time the Word comes to us, we’re going to change. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Will you pray for them and release them once you’ve finished singing? [Pastor John speaking to Pastor Sharon]. Thank you, my darling. So that I can sit and enjoy the music. I love you all, goodbye. I’ll see you at two o’clock.