Scripture Reference: Genesis 28:12-16 (NKJV); Genesis 28:20-22 (NKJV); Genesis 29:26-28 (NKJV); Genesis 30:25-27,29-34, 43 (NKJV); Genesis 32:22-29 (NKJV); Genesis 49:22-24 (AMPC).
Praise You Father. Praise You Jesus. Glory to God. Before you sit down, I want you to say to somebody, one, two or three people, “I’m ready for the Word this afternoon.” And then you may be seated.
Praise the Lord. Well, we have had an outstanding weekend in the Word in Witbank this weekend, yesterday, this morning. And I want to encourage you, when or if it is already on the system, on YouTube then you can watch it as soon as possible. But I would encourage you to watch the service this morning. The whole service this morning. Because God was in it from start to finish. How many of you watched it live? A few of you watched it live. I want to encourage you to watch it. It’s really – God had a powerful flow of worship and everything that was done in the service this morning was amazing. It’s God through and through. Amen.
I expect the Lord to show up in His Word like that this afternoon. Amen. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
There is a system that you and I are subject to, and it is the world system and it has a right to govern our clay bodies. But it doesn’t have a right to own our futures. But the system does have a right to govern our clay bodies. It is the challenge of the believer to function between the submission of your world that is in clay, to the government that is permissive to manage your clay body. And it is the challenge of every believer to release your spirit man to overwhelm and create a world that is ordered by God and His Word for you, and that is not just governed or governing your clay system, your clay body. So that’s what faith does for us. You know, what faith does for us is it permits us to live in a different world and a different order while we are submitting our clay bodies to the governing order of clay. And so that’s really all I have to say about that.
I want to just tell you about Joyce. Joyce came to me yesterday afternoon after the service and she came to do something that is seed-related to me, because she had a miracle. Can I share this publicly, Joyce? Is it okay for me to do that? Because Joyce had a miracle. How many years ago was it? 20? 20 Years ago, she worked for a company for three years and in that three-year period she paid pension money. And when she left the company she didn’t have anybody that informed her and there was no system that was created to pay the pension back. 20 Years later a tracking agent phoned her last week, three days ago, three weeks ago. A tracing agent managed to find her after 20 years. A tracing agent managed to find her and paid her out a great deal of money. 20 Years later. That’s a miracle. So, I know, you don’t know this about Joyce, but Joyce is one of the people that every now and again, God would lead her and she would just kind of purpose in her own heart that she would come and sow seed into my life and in my hands. Every now and again when she had the means to do it and when there was a financial opportunity for her to do it. So, I don’t know whether – I assume because she does that -she tithes. You know. I assume that she is all of what we are in this house. You understand? Is it any wonder that God would do a miracle like that 20 years later? 20 Years later a tracing agent phones her. Hallelujah. That’s what I said. I rejoice, we rejoice with Joyce. So, what she did was – and so I want just to show you how God’s glory is being demonstrated and how God’s glory works.
So, she knows that I’m going to go visit with Brother Jerry and go to countries with Brother Jerry. So, she put a seed in my hand and she said, “Pastor John, would you mind sharing my glory story with Brother Jerry, and take him for coffee.”
Well actually, she just said, “Take him for coffee on me.” So, what she sowed into my hands was dollars. So I don’t have to convert money into just dollars. “Go and buy Brother Jerry and Brother Joe a coffee on me.” So, I told her I’m going to do that – I’m going to buy coffee for Brother Jerry and when I do that and I pay for it, I’m going to tell him her glory story. That’s how God works. That’s how God works. Hallelujah, that’s a cool thing, hey? Ja, praise the Lord.
Ja, you see, in the system that governs our clay bodies, if we live by faith it gives us a different order. So even though we have to submit ourselves to the system of man, we can actually overwhelm the system of man. We can be greater than the system of man. It can – it works that way – that’s the way to work faith, hallelujah, praise the Lord.
It’s a good testimony hey? Ja. You know, for me it poses a question, and the question is – if we were not in the glory of God, ‘Show me Your glory season,’ would the tracing agent have found her? You understand what I’m saying? I mean, it’s a miracle. 20 Years and someone’s still doing the job of trying to trace people that are owed money from a pension fund. You know, and so, because, “Show me Your glory Lord”, we’re in the season, you know, the tracing agent finds her. You know, and so it’s very easy to say, “Well, that would have happened anyway because there are other people that are being traced.” No, this is our glory season, it’s our glory season. Hallelujah, praise the Lord.
Are you ready to have the final Word on Jacob’s constellation? And we’re going to talk about Jacob this afternoon. And yesterday we talked about the blessing of the fathers. So if you were not in Witbank this weekend at all, I can’t go back and teach you everything that I taught yesterday. There was a strong flow of the Holy Spirit in the service yesterday – all the services and all the preaching time and worship time. It was just wonderful. So, I can’t go back there – and if you want to know about the blessing of the fathers, you have to go and listen to that. And in any case, I really recommend as I have last week or two weeks ago, I really recommend that you go and listen to the message of The Source and the Future over and over and over again, over and over and over again. Hallelujah, because I do believe that this is a Word of God for us in this season. Hallelujah, praise the Lord. Ja!
You know what, Pastor Sharon and I believe, and we live this in our lives: you can’t say that you love God and not love your spouse. If you love God, then you must love your spouse. And I am not going to minister on relationships and marriage this afternoon, but you can’t say that, “I love God,” and then you don’t minister the love of God to your spouse. Neither, according to the Word of God can you say, “I love God,” and you see a brother in need and you don’t meet his need. The love of God is a very practical love. It’s practical. It’s not just a spiritual love that is felt spiritually. it is a love that is demonstrated practically, right?
I mean, Pastor Lynn and I have come from an era, and I know there are others here, but Pastor Lynn, being in the ministry for all the years that he was in the ministry – you know, he can bear witness to the fact that there are many, many pastors, many ministers that have lost their ministry, they went off their life-assignment, because they said they loved God, but they didn’t love God. And they said they love God and they didn’t love their spouse and so they lost their spouse and they lost their church, they lost their ministry. Fundamentally, that was a very big thing in me when I started in the ministry, I used to say this – if you give me a choice between my life assignment and my marriage to my wife, I choose my wife. You know, because it was so big in me that I can’t actually have an assignment if I don’t love my wife properly. You know, I used to say that. You all know that and the Lord said, “Change your confession John, because that’s not a choice I’ll ever ask you to make.” You know, He then began to minister to me that I’m not called to marriage, I’m called through marriage. So your marriage becomes a great thing, and so you’re called through marriage.
So, I feel I just need to say this, you know, that in our ministry here I have no need for me to go and listen to many other preachers, because the assignment that we have is already so big, that if I can’t receive my assignment with Brother Jerry from Brother Jerry, then how am I going to receive words from other preachers? So if I want to hear words from other preachers but I can’t live in this assignment, then those words from other preachers are not really going to do much for me because I’m not living in the assignment that God has placed me in. And so the assignment that God has placed me in is going to come in living relationship. It’s not going to come through words that are coming from many other ministries. When I’m fully engaged in this assignment, God may use other ministers to speak to me, but the He’ll be able to trust me with those words because I am already in assignment.
So when I say to you, “I believe that these messages of The Source and the Future, are that important that I would go listen to them over and over and over again,” it’s because our assignment is embedded in this message. And if you want to live in this assignment you’ve got to live in this message. Because I’ve already indicated over this weekend that God gave me this Word in 2010 and when I brought it I said, “This is not a word that’s going to be three weeks, three months, six months, or even a year, this is going to be a word that is going to go to decades, and it’s going to be even generational, this Jacob’s constellation.” You know, because there is the blessing of the Father, there’s the blessing of the future and there’s the blessing of identity change. And I know for me, that I have been experiencing all three of those, since I preached this message. In fact this message was so strong in me that, as you know, I went to have Brother Jerry and Brother Copeland lay hands on me and Pastor Sharon, and they spoke words of blessing over our lives because I felt so strongly, I need my father’s blessing before my future really unrolls, is unveiled for me. You know, and I don’t think it’s any coincidence that, that happened in 2012.
Then 2014 I took my, a group of my sons to Brother Jerry, and said, “My sons are your sons.” And then everything started to change from there. Is it any coincidence to you that there is this sequence of events? Revelation, application, and then God actually begins to move us all along, in identity change, and our assignment just started to get closer and closer to Brother Jerry. We had a strong missions programme, but actually when Brother Jerry, Jerry Savelle Ministries, and Heritage of Faith South Africa began to join our missions programme together, we became more effective. Right? Hallelujah. Well I think so. You know we were flowing, and then Brother Jerry said, “Come, let’s work together.” So that anointing and that cooperative agreement is happening.
So now I’m going to be with Brother Joe in Ethiopia, in a couple of weeks. I’m going to go and be with him for 8 or 9 days in Ethiopia, because one of Jerry Savelle Ministry’s partners, in Canada, made contact with Brother Joe and said, you know, “We have a bunch of pastors that need help in Ethiopia.” So he phoned me and he said, “John, meet me in Ethiopia.” So then I found out that they’re having trouble, funding the e-books, from Brother Jerry, because of government taxes. So I phoned Joe and I said, “Joe, listen, JSMI South Africa has got money. Why don’t we help them fund this and make sure that this thing is not held up?” Because the Canadian guys are the guys that are paying for the e-books, you know, so I said, “But don’t let us let this thing get held up and stop us from doing the thing in Ethiopia, I’ll bring money from South Africa and well pay what needs to be paid.” He said, “John, that’s a God idea. Be on standby to bring from JSMI if we need it, South Africa.” Ninety percent of the money that’s in JSMI South Africa, comes from us. The other ten percent is from, other miscellaneous partners. Come on now. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah.
So, you know, for me the Word that I have been preaching has been changing me as much as it’s been changing you. Because as much as I give the Word, the Word is changing me. Suddenly this morning, Pastor Sharon left home early and she went to go practice the praise and worship early in the morning. I don’t know if you can see, my faith is working: our music is improving and we’re getting more musicians, and more skilled musicians. And watch this space, watch this space, hallelujah.
Anyway. She went early this morning, Brynn and I came down stairs, and we were making eggs together. I was shocked how many eggs my son eats in one go. I shouldn’t be, but you know, because he’s a big boy – he’s a big man, but you know, he eats a lot. Well, I suppose you’ve got to eat a lot to fuel such a big body. Anyway, so we had breakfast together this morning and then came on down to church together in the same car and we suddenly had a very deep conversation and I was just saying to him, “Brynn, everything in my life changed when I became prepared. I became prepared to do whatever God told me to do.” And I had to make a fundamental shift in my decision making that, certainly for me to undergo an identity change, and for me to have a blessing for my future, I had to make a fundamental change in me that whatever discomfort I may experience, it was worth the discomfort to go to the next level.
For me, that discomfort became a forty-day separation where I gave myself to God, to the Word, to my future, you know. And obedience to a Word that is spoken to you by God is always going to make sure that you change. And so it will create discomfort for you. But I can tell you that that discomfort is always worth the price. Ask Jesus. He endured the cross for the prize, the joy, that was set before Him. That’s why He went to the cross. Hallelujah.
So, blessing of the future, the blessing of assignment, the blessing of divine partnership – divine partnership here is God telling Jacob that He is in partnership with Jacob. And He, God, is making Jacob aware that He is in partnership with Jacob. So even though Jacob was blessed by his father, he needed to have his own personal experience with the living God. That was initiated by God. And when God initiates, and that certainly is what happened to me is I had this really strong, strong sense that I’ve got to go away and separate myself and be alone with the Lord so He could speak to me. And I’ve shared this with you before. You know, when you are used to doing your own thing the way you want to do it and you’re in a routine of, you know, doing emails and doing things that are connecting with people and managing daily things, to stop all of that and just be quiet before God for forty days and nights – let me tell you – it’s a very challenging process. It’s very challenging on your mind, it’s very challenging on your soul, that your soul wants to experience activity, it’s very challenging on your body to be static and not to be out there. It’s very challenging.
But it is the thing that God wanted me to do and it is that thing that I did that began to change everything. Because, you know, I said to Brynn today, and I said to him, “Brynn, it is possible that if I had not obeyed God and separated myself and started praying for Brother Jerry that on two occasions his life was threatened or he had serious medical interventions, let’s put it that way. He may not have made it.” I mean, I’m not discounting his faith, you know. And I’m not saying his faith wouldn’t have carried him through it. But I know that there was a season where we were supposed to sow an irrational honour seed and it happened to be the day before he went in. It happened to be the day that he spoke with his own mouth, “I will see you in South Africa, John.” Those words, that faith, that seed, that moment, that everything, I believe had everything to do with pulling him through it.
Assignment. Partnership. You know. And so, even though that we’re in discomfort, God has got something for us and I said to Brynn, “I can’t even imagine where I would be if I had not obeyed God”. Me, never mind us. Never mind Brother Jerry. And, you know, I feel very strongly about this. Because I’m about to go and be with Brother Jerry some more and I feel very strongly about this that Brother Jerry came to South Africa and the way I’ve described it is, he handed us a bag of seeds for revival. In recent days, in this last week, I had become aware actually that what he did was, he threw his cloak on us. His mantle. Because of conversations, words, things that have been coming out of my heart that I’ve had with Pastor Sharon in prayer time together, things that have been coming out of my heart, that actually he came to throw his cloak on us. And it’s up to us to make a decision whether we are going to burn our oxen and go after what our assignment is supposed to be, completely, or whether we are going to just be Elisha forever. Ploughing the fields. So we can be Elisha ploughing the fields or we can be Elisha, the prophet with a double spirit of the anointing of Elijah. The difference is, when the moment comes and he throws the mantle on you, do you say, “I’ll take it? And I burn my oxen, I cull my oxen, I burn everything, I burn my bridges to my past and I walk into my future.” Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
And God is with you and me all this way. There is no fear for us to think that if we do that, that God’s not going to be there with us. He’s going to be there with us all the way to make sure that we get what we’re supposed to get, go where we’re supposed to go. Look what He said to Jacob. Jacob found a place and he went to sleep, he put his head on a stone. Genesis 28:12, Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants… (Genesis 28:12-13). I just want you to notice here, He didn’t say that I’m the God of your father Isaac. He said I’m the God of your father Abraham. But his father was not Abraham, his father was Isaac, so why did God call him the father of Abraham, why did He say his father is Abraham. Because God was already addressing his spiritual lineage not his natural lineage. So the natural clay man had a grandfather but the spirit man had a father. So I can’t back and preach what I preached yesterday about the father and fathers, but you can listen to it.
13…the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. 14Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Hallelujah. 15Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go…” Here’s God saying, “I am your Partner. 15…I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” (Genesis 28:13-15). So God says, “Doesn’t matter what you’re about to face in your future, I will not leave you, until I have done what I have just said I’m going to do. So I will protect you, I will be with you I will bring you back to this land and I will never leave you until I have done and completed what I have said I would do.” That is a great promise, that is a great promise.
16Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” (Genesis 28:16). Well you know, there’s many Christians, many believers that have a day to day work time, and a day to day living experience, and you I may never know when it is that God is going to come and speak to us. It is important though that when God speaks that we recognise it is God and then we act accordingly. And so what did Jacob do, verse twenty: 20Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, 21so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God.” (Genesis 28:20-21). So, you know, why was he after the blessing if he didn’t believe the Lord was God? So he did believe that the Lord was God, but it was important for him to have a personal experience that he said, “Even though God is my God, I make Him my Lord.” There’s a very big difference between a Christian living as a Christian where you know that God is your God. But there’s a difference between knowing that God is God and He is your God and you making a decision to make Him your Lord. It’s a difference because this becomes personal as opposed to eternal redemption.
I’m about to tell you something now that is going to maybe shock you a little bit. I hope it shocks you. Probably won’t shock you, because you’re cool people, but anyway…. So he said: 21So that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. 22 And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.” (Genesis 28:21-22). So there’s two things that happens here. There’s the first church that is started because he sets a pillar in some kind of setting and he calls this – ‘this is the place of God’. This is where the presence of God was. So this is the first church, called, the Church of the ‘Jacobites’. ‘The first Church of the Jacobites’. Well when I talk to you about how God has met with me, I’m not talking to you about where I have set stones as memorials. I’m talking about events. But those events are Church to me. And the Church of The Lord Jesus Christ is not about this building, or that building. It’s about living stones. Amen.
But I don’t mind saying that I, you know, I have the first church of the ‘De la Reyites’, this morning I said the ‘Gideonites’. He (Gideon) is back at church this afternoon. It’s amazing, “Well done Gideon, you can’t stay away, you love the Word, hey?.” Praise the Lord. It is important that he recognised the place where the presence of God was and he set a stone there as a memorial that this is where God’s presence is and it’s important for us to recognise that there are moments in our life when we connect with the presence of God that change us forever. And in this case, that stone that is set, is a stone that he set where the presence of God becomes a marker in his life because God made him a promise and he said, “If God’s going to be a God to me like that, I make a vow and I set the stone in the earth and I set it here as a recognition of my vow that God will be my God.” And the next thing he said was, “I will give a tenth of everything that I possess or that I make.”
The thing that is powerful about this is that when God gave me this message of Jacob’s constellation, it’s Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and then we fast forward all the way to Jesus because Jesus talks about us being Abraham’s seed. So as Gentiles, we don’t have to go through anything that is about the law; that is about the Mosaic Law or the Levitical Law. We don’t actually even have to address anything that is in those laws, because as Gentiles we can go straight from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and we can go straight to Jesus – and all the blessings that are in them, are the blessings that are for us. We don’t have to worry about any observances of any laws in between. That is the power of the New Testament Church – is that there was no ceremonies or laws that we had to adhere to. We could just go straight to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to Jesus. So all of the blessings He pronounced over them become blessings for us. Hallelujah.
And so, I can say this, there are many people who are Christians, but not all Christians are believers. Because the difference between a Christian and a believer is a Christian is someone who knows that Jesus is Lord, and they’re saved and they’re going to heaven. A believer is someone who acts on the Word. And in this case, Jacob said, “I am a believer in God and I’m going to show Him I believe by giving him a tenth of everything I earn.” There was no Moses there to tell him. So now we already have Melchizedek; Abraham giving Melchizedek a tenth. Jacob makes a vow to give God a tenth, and then we have, in the book of Hebrews, we have a conversation; we have a record of the conversation between Melchizedek and Abraham, and the conversation also goes and says, here on earth men receives tithes but in heaven, God receives them. Jacob was making a vow to God with his tithe, he wasn’t saying it to anybody; there was nobody there to listen to him. He made a vow to God that he was giving Him a tenth.
If you make a vow to God; let me tell you, you just read in the Mosaic Law and the Levitical Law what happens to you if you break your vow. You get dead if you break a vow. So giving a tenth is not about a law that I, in any case, wish to apply to you. In fact, it has been a mark in my ministry, and I have said this many times, if you don’t have the faith to tithe then it is better for you to have the money in your own bank account than give it to me. Because if you don’t have the faith to tithe, you going to need it because you are going to run out of money. Ya, because the tithe is not about a law, the tithe is about faith it’s about a covenant with God; a recognition that my covenant in God is connected by my tenth. And that is just a principle and a pattern that God has established in His Word.
Luc, do you mind if I talk about your chain stuff? The sales that you make; can I talk about it? So Luc is putting the mic on me here in the back in the room there. So we’re having a conversation, so he says to me that he’s made a couple of hundred Rand extra money because he’s converting wire; he’s taking wire and he’s making jewellery out of wire. So, a couple of weeks ago, when he was working with me in the back room there I happened to see a bangle he had on his arm. I said, “Luc, where did you get that bangle?” He said, “No I made it.” I said, “What did you make it out of?” He told me that he made it out of wire. You know. So I said, “Gee that looks pretty good.” So he’s been making jewellery and selling it, out of wire. So while I’m standing at the back there, the offering is being taken up, and the offering basket are back there and he takes out his tithe and puts it in the offering and says, “Here’s the proof of my income, Pastor John.”
I can tell you that, I said to Luc, I stuck my arm around him and I hugged him and I said, “Well done Luc,” because he is already establishing a pattern for his future. And he is saying, “I am not depending on this clay vessel for what my future looks like. I am depending on God. And I am recognising my covenant with God by doing this.” I know Luc has a revelation of that and he has an obedience of that to some extent. But he is allowing himself the opportunity to get much more revelation as he keeps doing this. So if I can just use Luc as an example, how many years advantage do you think Luc has on anybody else who doesn’t do what Luc’s doing? Because Luc has already chosen, at seventeen years old, he’s chosen he’s going to bless God with his first income. That means God, at seventeen, has already got a covenant with Luc to bless his life. I want to say that I know that Luc has already tithed long before he gave this tithe, which is probably why he got this idea of making jewellery out of wire; why he’s got favour on him to sell the jewellery out of wire – multiple streams of income. He’s got Jacob’s constellation working for him. Joyce has got Jacob’s constellation working for her. Praise the Lord.
I am not going to talk about Laban syndrome. I may talk about Laban syndrome next week, because there is just too much that God has revealed to me about Laban syndrome. The neutral man that sees the glory of God in others and wants to be close to those that have the blessing because he recognises that he gets the blessing by being close to those who are blessed. And that kind of person will milk you for everything that you can get them and that kind of symptom will keep you from walking into your future with really major blessing.
So if you want to hear about Laban syndrome, pray and ask the Lord that He releases me to preach it next Sunday. Will you pray? Will you agree? That if the Lord lets me, I will preach on Laban syndrome next Sunday? Hallelujah! Because there is a lot to learn about what happened here with Laban. So, and I really have to control myself and constrain myself because Jacob served seven years for Rachel.
This morning, I said, “when Jacob arrived at Laban’s house and he saw Rachel, he said, “Rachel, my Rachel”. He saw those beautiful eyes and he said,” Rachel, oh my Rachel”. (Congregation giggle). A man could work for seven years because a beautiful girl looks into his eyes, then let me tell you, she’s got some eyes. (Congregation laugh, Ps John chuckles). You know, and Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed only a few days to him because of the love he had for her. Them eyes hey, a woman and a male, yeah, it is a mystery, that thing. A woman can look a man in the eyes and suddenly, that man is just mush. Seven years is but a few days. (Congregation and Ps John laughs). Don’t let anybody tell you, “Men are not mushy”. We are the most mushy creatures there are. “Them eyes” by them girls. {More laughter}. Let me tell you, they turn the best man into a mushy weakling. {More laughter}. Seven years? No problem, I will do whatever it takes. I know all about them eyes. I’ve been loving that for 37 years.
Well, you know, Laban, he is a master manipulator. That is what Laban is – and so when Laban, when Jacob comes to the wedding night, he wakes up in the morning and finds he slept with the wrong girl. And so he goes to Laban and he said, “What is this all about”. Now, listen, you know, you must have been a bit out of it, because something happened between the wedding ceremony and, you know, whatever happened in the tent, you know, because somehow, the eyes didn’t speak. There was something else that was speaking, but you know, he woke up with the wrong girl the next morning. (Lots of laughter.)
Yeah, but anyway, he ends up having to work another seven years to get the girl that he loves. 14 Years just like that. Laban, let me tell you, Laban will keep you for as long as he can keep you.
Chapter 29:26, 26 And Laban said, “It must not be done so in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn. 27Fulfill her week, and we will give you this one also for the service which you will serve with me still another seven years.” 28 Then Jacob did so and fulfilled her week. So he gave him his daughter Rachel as wife also (Genesis 29:26-28).
Chapter 30:25, 25And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my country. 26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service which I have done for you.” 27 And Laban said to him, “Please stay, if I have found favour in your eyes, for I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.” (Genesis 30:25-27).
Well, there is something important here that I am not going to minister on a lot today, but I am going to finish with this. And that is that, Jacob was able to break the Laban syndrome when the son that was to become the redeemer of Israel was born. Because Joseph was the son that was going to redeem the brothers. When Joseph was born, Jacob was ready to leave Laban. He was not ready to leave Laban until Joseph was born. When Joseph was born, he goes to Laban and he says, “Let me go, I have got to go back to my own country.”
It is a powerful interaction, this that has significance. Later I will share more with you. And then he said, “Name me your wages, and I will give it.” This is Laban saying to Jacob, “You’ve got such favour with God and I am blessed by your favour – name me your wages.” So, you know it’s like, “Why didn’t you say this to me before? You know, you have been making all this money from me and now I suddenly want to live and now name me your wages.” You know, I want to like clap that kind of negotiator, you know. “Why didn’t you value me before? You wait until I’m ready to leave?” Anyway! I’ve got to restrain myself I told you when I start talking about Laban, because I want to take a Magnum and shoot him, that spirit of Laban, you know.
29So Jacob said to him, “You know how I have served you and how your livestock has been with me. 30For what you had before I came was little, and it has increased to a great amount; the Lord has blessed you since my coming. And now, when shall I also provide for my own house?” 31So he said, “What shall I give you? “And Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep your flocks: Now Jacob is in this Jewish negotiating mode, praise God he knows how to cut a deal, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. 32Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from there all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and these shall be my wages. 33So my righteousness will answer for me in time to come, when the subject of my wages comes before you: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the lambs, will be considered stolen, if it is with me.” 34And Laban said, “Oh, that it were according to your word!” (Genesis 30:29-34).
Well, it was according to his word, because Jacob is under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, he’s got the blessing of God on his life, he’s got the favour of God, Joseph has been born, there’s redemption coming into his life, the anointing is on him and this season and he says, “Everything that is speckled and spotted from this point onwards that gets born that is speckled and spotted is mine. Anything that is not speckled and spotted that’s yours.” So now, you know, in one stoke he has removed any kind of question about whether this goat was under Jacob’s care or if it was under his son’s care. You’ve got to read the whole story – if you want to go read the whole story, how the sons moved far away and there was all this thing going on because there was a contest of who is going to bare what kind of lambs and sheep and all this kind of stuff. And so, Jacob is inspired by the Lord to start carving up sticks and throwing them in the water troughs, and in one lambing season, one year, but two double seasons of lambing, God makes Jacob so wealthy that Laban’s sons are complaining that he has stolen their inheritance from the father, Laban, and so this causes no small strive.
43Thus the man became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks, female and male servants, and camels and donkeys (Genesis 30:43). So, when God said He’s going to bless him and his future and He said, “I will be with you and I will be with you wherever you go. I will look after you. I will feed you. I will clothe you. I will protect you. I will look after you.” He didn’t have in my mind what Jacob said, when Jacob put a stone in the ground and said, “I’ll give you a tenth.” He didn’t have in mind what you can eat in a day, what you can eat in a week – he had in mind the great wealth and prosperity that was going to come on him.
When I actually get to speak about Laban syndrome, I will tell you and I will show you from the Bible, that Jacob, when he confronts Esau, and the relationship between him and Esau is broken once and for all. There is peace between Esau and Jacob, the next thing Jacob does is go to his father and he tithes the tenth of all of his wealth to his father. Jacob didn’t give a tenth until he found his father. He never had an opportunity to give a tenth to anybody, until he found the priest, the father, the one who blessed him with covenant. He gives a tenth to his father, Isaac. I will show it to you if you thus not believe me, you seem very quiet about this. I shall prove it to thee and thou in the time to come. It is sufficient for me today in this moment of time however to repeat this to you: 43Thus the man became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks, female and male servants, and camels and donkeys (Genesis 30:43). He became mega rich. In a very short space of time he became mega rich.
I am a believer, I am not just a Christian. I am a believer and I believe that when my Father and my man of God said; God will do in 1 year what took 10 years and in 2 years what took 20 years, I believe it. I don’t believe those were words just spoken out of lips of clay. I believe that those are words that was spoken by my Father God, through his lips of clay, to me. So, if there is an acceleration that is happening for blessing in my life then I’ve got to be ready to be accelerated in my behaviour patterns and my activities. I cannot sit back and say I think I will just wait for this to come. Even Jacob recognised I’ve got to do something and so when he will sit and do whatever he is doing, now he was carving sticks and putting them into the troughs and he did something different than he did before. He worked on the plan and he didn’t have before. He worked on an outcome he didn’t have before, because suddenly there was a result and a blessing an outcome of prosperity and an abundance that was spoken. So, there has got to be something different that has got to get done. Come on. Praise the Lord.
And so, finally we get to the last of the three blessings. And we get to the blessing of identity change. And so, Genesis 32:22, 22And he arose that night and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of Jabbok. 23He took them, sent them over the brook, and sent over what he had. 24Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. 25Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him (Genesis 32:22-25).
So, yesterday I talked about the spirit of a father. And the spirit of a father is bone of my bone. And how the spirit of a father is joined by the hip to the son. That is the father’s spirit. So, stand up Melusi, just come and stand next to me. And so, we are, if our hips are together like this the reference is that if we walk through life together, and we are hip to hip, you know, when we move we move together, our hips are … (Pastor John and Pastor Melusi standing side-by-side, hip-to-hip) there is no him moving away from me. And there is no my moving away from him. When I move, he moves. This is bone of bone, hip to hip.
So, I can’t go through everything I taught yesterday. But here’s the thing. When this Man, who most theologians will agree that this was Jesus. When this Man … if it wasn’t Jesus, it was an angel. But all the indications are this was Jesus. It’s the prophetic Jesus who came to visit Jacob. Because, and so, you know, He wrestled with him and what does He touch? And this didn’t come out in this morning’s message. What did He touch? He touched his hip. And He put his hip out of joint. So, what happens if your hip is out of joint? You walk with a limp. Is it fair to say that when you walk with a limp, you don’t have full strength? Right? Because your hip’s out of joint. So, what He did was when He put his hip out of joint and this would remain a condition for the rest of his life. What? Where does your future come from? It comes from where your feet and your strength in your legs can take you. So, when this Man, Divine Being, probably Jesus, comes to wrestle with Jacob, He touches his hip. So, what He’s doing is He’s touching the strength of his future. And He’s saying, “You may not walk into your future with the strength of a clay man. You have to walk into the future with the strength of the eternal Man, from this moment onwards.”
So, where does the strength of the clay man come from in where your strength lies? Does it come from your shoulders and from the top of your body, your arms, your hands? Yes? So, if you touch someone’s hip, you’re touching the nexus point of their natural strength of what they can accomplish in the natural and the places where their future strength can come from, from their feet. So, God was saying, “Both your current, present strength and your future strength is changed in your identity. You may not depend any longer on your natural man. You are forever going to understand that it is the eternal man that is going to be your lead. And every day when you get up you’re going to be reminded, eternity is in my name.” The hip is the nexus point.
So, 25…He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. 26And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.” But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!” 27So He said to him, “What is your name?” He said, “Jacob.” 28And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Hallelujah. I just want to finish my train of thought here when He said 29…Then Jacob asked, saying, “Tell me Your name, I pray.” And He said, “Why is it that you ask about My name?” And He blessed him there (Genesis 32:25-29).
He didn’t tell him what His name was. He could not tell him what His name was. Because if He told him what His name was, all of Who He was in His name would become present. And He could not reveal all of Who His name was in that present because Jacob wasn’t ready to receive all of Who His name was because His name was I AM. And so He could not say, “My name is I AM.” Because if He said His name was I AM, all of who He was in present I AM would come on to the scene and Jacob couldn’t take it in his physical clay man. He couldn’t take the I AM being present. All the I AM was there to do was to change his name for his future. Change his identity from a natural clay man to a spiritual eternal man. So He couldn’t say what His name was. He says, “Why do you ask me what My name is? What is the relevance of what My name is? I bless you.”
Hey. Wow. Jacob. I mean that’s the one thing I can say is so great about Jacob is that this God-Being, Jesus I believe, the I AM. He said you … cause He says, “You have wrestled with man and with God and you have prevailed.” So how can a man say that? It can only be God that is speaking to him as God, because He would be the One Who knows that he’s been wrestling with both men and God. So, I can’t prove it 100 percent, but there is, I mean there is proof in the scripture. There is evidence enough to say, “This was God showing up on the scene.” And so, Jacob is a man who prevailed with Laban. He’s a man who prevailed with Esau. He’s a man that prevailed with his own father, Isaac in getting the blessing from him. He has wrestled with men and prevailed, and he says he wrestled God and he’s prevailed. And so, now your name will no longer be called the name that you go by, meaning Jacob. Your name will now be called Israel, because you have become the father of many nations. So, from that moment onwards, he would wake up everyday and he would remember every single day when he would wake up when he got up and he was walking with a limp. He would walk, “I have wrestled with God, and my name is many nations. My name is many nations; therefore, I walk into my future of many nations. I walk into my future of great prosperity, blessing and abundance. And I walk into it not with my own strength by with the strength of God who have called me and named me. Cause I’ve wrestled with Him and I found favor with Him.” Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus.
Let me tell you, it’s okay for you to have a wrestle with God and His Word. It’s a good thing to actually have a wrestle with God and His Word, because actually you are going to wrestle with it. If you are not wrestling with it it’s – you have chosen to withdraw from the fight. And if you have chosen to withdraw from the fight, it’s on you that you don’t get the blessing. So, what is this wrestling that you will have with God? You will wrestle every day, you will wrestle with God about how effective His Word is in your life. So that you don’t walk as a defect but you walk as an effect. So, you don’t walk in a place of unholiness but you walk in a place of holiness. And so, as you apply the Word of God in your life you are wrestling with God and saying, “I want the Word in my life. I want the Word in my life. I want the Word in my life. I want the Word in my life.” And so, you say, “But that’s not wrestling with God, that’s wrestling with your own…” Yes, that is the carnal man that’s wrestling with your thought life that wants to intrude on it. But it’s also, you are wrestling to make sure the Word is applied in your life. And if you stop that, you withdraw from the contest, if I can put it… And so, we don’t fight against flesh and blood, but we fight against principalities, and powers and rulers of darkness.
And I mean, we are not in a place where we have to fight to have God’s Word cause victory for us. Our fight is to make sure that we just bring the Word of God to the battle. Then the battle gets done. You don’t have to do the fighting. The Word does the fighting. Your bit is to wrestle with the Word into your life. From that moment onwards, Jacob had to do no more wrestling. He just had to walk into his life with the Word of God and everything got done. The blessing and the prosperity was all there for him just to get it, because God said, “I’ve given you this country from the North to the South to the East and the West. And everywhere you go I’m going to give you all this land. Just walk in it. With a limp, mind you. Because you have to remember that it’s Me who’s given it to you and not you and yourself. Praise Jesus.
I’ll tell you, we have three blessings. We have the blessing of the Father, we have the blessing of Jesus, we have the blessing of the Holy Spirit. And in the Father, we have the blessing that everything that belongs to the Father comes to us. How? The Father blessed us with a future in Jesus. And Jesus went and conquered everything in the past so that He could also conquer everything in your future. So, He gave us a future through His Word, Jesus. So, He blessed us with Jesus. Then He blessed us with the Holy Spirit, because everyday the Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth and He will show you everything you need to know how to live life successfully. Blessing of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Three blessings of Jacob are the blessings for us every day. Blessing of the Father, blessing of the future, the blessing of our identity change. Every day.
I don’t have to walk as the clay man, I can walk as the Spirit man. Every day I don’t have to walk as the name John, I walk with the name John Jesus Bendixen. “Don’t use profanity like that.” “No, that’s my covenant name. I am Christ-ian. I am the Christ in me, John Jesus Bendixen. And where ever I go Jesus shows up because He’s in me.” That’s my identity I must believe in. If I don’t believe in that identity then I won’t do the things that the Christ in me wants to do. So, then the Christ in me wants to behave like Jacob, that when he has a meeting with God he says, “I want to give you my tenth.” It’s a relationship. It’s a covenant relationship, it’s not a law. If you don’t want to believe that about yourself and you believe that you are changed as an identity for your future in Christ then there is no point in us having any further conversation. I’ve said this about people who have marriage problems who come and talk to me about marriage. I say, “Don’t come and talk to me about your marriage unless you’re willing to do what I tell you to do. And I’m not here as a marriage counselor, I’m here as a Jesus counselor. I come to tell you how to live your life in Jesus. Not how to live your life in marriage. Because if you live your life in Jesus, then your marriage will become what Jesus wants your marriage to become.” Hallelujah.
And so that’s what I say, I say, if you are not willing and ready to walk in assignment and walk in the ways of God in your life and walk in the fullness of the new Christ person that is in you, then you will always live as a Christian that is going to go to Heaven. And so the point of being a Christian is what? So that we can become spiritual and so the point of becoming spiritual is what? So we can bring Heaven to earth. How do we do that? We walk in the blessing factor of the blessing of the Father, the blessing of Jesus and the blessing of our identity change. The blessing of the Father, the blessing of the future and the blessing of identity change. It’s all been taken care of for us, we just have to walk in it and when we show up on the scene, we say, “the Word in me shows up today and the Word in me says, this business deal is mine in Jesus’ name and I command the favour of God to go before me and the favour of God rests in this business deal and He has empowered me and prospered me and gives me all the wisdom and might I need to make this business deal come to me and for me to be the one who’s successful in this opportunity.” And so, there’s no question about who’s going to get this, my faith as a Christian – it doesn’t matter if other Christians are also contesting that deal – it’s not about being fellow believers or fellow Christians, it’s about whose going to believe.
There are a lot of Christians out there that are getting divorced every day. What’s the difference between those Christians that are getting divorced and those that are not? Believe – if you’re a believer in the Word of God in your marriage then you will take the Word of God to your marriage. When you take the Word of God to your marriage then your marriage becomes what God wants your marriage to be, then you’re not going to get divorced. Don’t look at me with squiff eyes. It’s good preaching hey? Don’t ya think? Come on, I want you to say, “Good preaching Pastor John.” (Congregation responds by saying good preaching Pastor John). There you go.
Earlier on I said the way Jacob broke the yoke of Laban on his life, as he broke the yoke of Laban, he was about to confront his future, but in order for him to confront his future, which had everything to do with his past, in Esau, he had to have an identity change. So the season for his identity change arrived and his prosperity and blessing, when he gave birth to the redeemer, Joseph. When Jacob is ready to die he prophesies this over Joseph. So when Isaac was busy getting ready to die, by the way, Isaac didn’t die when he thought he was going to die, he lived another 40 years or something silly, stupid like that and a whole lot of things happened in Isaacs life after that which is why Jacob could come back and tithe to him – because his father was still alive. You know, so this whole thing about, I’m about to die and I’ve got to bless my sons, you know, there was some hypochondriac stuff going on there or something I don’t know. Isaac, Isaac, Isaac, anyway, you know, he thought he was like at the end of the road and so he wanted to bless his sons and he blessed Jacob and he blessed Esau and the whole thing happened.
And this time now Jacob is ready to die and he’s about to bless all of his sons and prevents the birthright from going to the firstborn, which is Reuben because Reuben behaved in a very poor manner sexually with his father’s woman. I don’t want to get into that today, but Reuben was not a good guy, he was the first born son but he was not a good guy, he did a few bad things, anyway, Jacob has things to say about Reuben while he’s declaring things over their future as he’s about to die. He passes on the birthright of the firstborn on to another son called Judah, because the birthright had to belong to Judah, because Judah, one who praises who was going to be the king who is the one who would ultimately lead, but he has something to say over Joseph.
And I finish with my whole discourse to you about Jacob’s constellation in this verse: 22Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well (spring or fountain), whose branches run over the wall. 23Skilled archers have bitterly attacked and sorely worried him; they have shot at him and persecuted him. 24But his bow remained strong and steady and rested in the Strength that does not fail him, for the arms of his hands were made strong and active by the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob, by the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel (Genesis 49:22-24). When Jacob pronounces this blessing over Joseph, he does not refer to himself as the father Jacob he refers to himself as the one who is the Rock of Israel that is blessing him. You tell me whether Jacob had an identity change or not. That he understood that his name was Israel and he blessed his son by the name of Israel, not by the name of Jacob. “The father of many nations blesses you! And even though you have been persecuted and all of your strength has been challenged, there has been a mighty God, Who has been with you all of this time. And He has kept you alive and strengthened you to redeem all of your brothers, so that all your brothers may be strengthened and multiply. And in your strength they can all be strengthened, Joseph.” And when they leave Egypt, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, strong, it was all because of Joseph.
When Jacob gave birth to Joseph, he said to Laban, “It’s time to leave.” Come on! Many years later it’s Joseph who redeems his father Jacob and his brothers from famine. And He creates an environment for them in the land of Goshen where they flourish, and thrive and they become a prosperous, mighty nation. So blessed was Joseph and everything that Joseph provided for his family that, the Bible says, it was many times after pharaohs had died that there came a pharaoh that did not remember the name of Joseph. The redeemer, when he was born of Jacob, Jacob said to Laban, “It’s time for me to go ‘boet’ (Afrikaans for brother). It’s time for us to get out of here. Bring the big bucks. Twenty years’ worth of money, come now!”
I make that declaration today! Twenty years’ worth of money, come now! Come now! Come Now! Why? Because my Redeemer has come, my change of identity has arrived, my Joseph has been born. I’m about to blow this place. I am! Catch me if you can! Hey Melusi? Catch me if you can brother.
What do you say? Do you receive the blessing of the Father? Do you receive the blessing of your future? Do you receive the blessing of identity change? That you are prepared to walk in the name of Jesus and walk as a Christian, believing in your identity change! Do you believe that? Say, “I believe! I receive the blessing of my Father. I receive the blessing of my future. And I receive the blessing of my identity change. I will not be the same. I will walk in abundance. And I will walk in my redemption, in Jesus’ Name.” Hallelujah, Hallelujah!
So endeth the discourse on Jacob’s constellation. And if God would permit me, I shall have pleasure in peeling away all the layers of Laban’s syndrome. And exposing the spirit of Laban in the world around us so that you can be free of Laban and all of Laban’s works and all of Laban’s ways, and all of Laban’s dominance in our lives. You can tell I don’t like him. I don’t like what he stands for. I don’t like what he represents. Hallelujah! Praise Jesus! Praise Jesus! Praise Jesus!
I’ll tell you what, if you listen to this whole message, which goes, you know, The Source and the Future (from one to eight). If you listen to it and you go over it you will begin to see how many dots God will connect for you, because the revelation will come to you, over and over and over again. In fact I’ll tell you what, this revelation is such powerful revelation, that I believe that it should be a whole Bible School all by itself. Never mind even a Bible School course. Just it should be whole Bible School, just by itself. It’s that good, even if I say it so myself. I’ve had a lot of fun teaching you about this. It’s been a real blessing for me, it’s changed me as I’ve been teaching you. And we will keep making reference to Jacob’s constellation, in the days, weeks, months, years ahead because we’re just getting started, Hallelujah, we’re just getting started. Hallelujah! Glory to God! Hallelujah!
Okay, if you want to blow this place you can also blow this place. And I’ll see ya when I see ya! Have a blessed week! Have a Holy Ghost week. Have a week of peace! Be protected by His Word and the Blood of Jesus, and don’t let any weapon formed against you prosper! Decree it and declare it that you are strong and safe in the hands of the Almighty God. And that all the streams of income that you need will come and flow like rivers into your life, twenty years’ worth of money – it’s coming now, in Jesus’ Name. Hallelujah! Go and cut for yourself speckled and spotted reeds, and go and put them in all the troughs of where your income comes from. And if you haven’t got more than one, go and just believe God and take one, and do it by an act of faith, and say “I have more streams of income and I by faith put speckled and spotted rods in them, so that I can just flourish!” “Hoekom nie? Hoekom nie?” (Afrikaans for why not?) Why not? Be well believer! Be the blessed believer. “Slaap lekker” (Afrikaans for sleep tight). Ciao.
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TOUCH | TEACH | TRAIN | TRANSFER
