This was another early sermon preached at the beginning of City Church International in Hong Kong that Rob preached mid-week in his home (I think). Once again the foundational aspect to this sermon is amazing. If this is how the foundations are being laid, then we can all watch with great faith to see the growth of CCI in the coming months and years.
2004 - 07 - 04
"In the Cross comes all the restoration of everything lost in the Garden. We won't have everything due us until heaven for we need heavenly bodies to stand in the full weight of the glory. God will have a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle and it is so exciting to be alive now at the restoration of all things in spite of failures. When we see that Ephesians 3 says we will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Him who loves us.
We draw our resources from heaven's glory not earthly therapies!
We are practicing to have a church of thousands of people in Hong Kong. There are 7 billion people on the planet - everyone a reason why Christ died and He wants everyone saved. Dudley Daniel says "Start the way to finish". PRESENCE. There is something about "Presence"! When God comes He does something.
There is nothing wrong in being addicted to the Presence of God. Jesus died for us to be able to daily experience the Presence of God that will distinguish the Church from the world!
Moralists and ethics does not distinguish us from the world. Of course we should be moral and ethical but how boring if that's all Christianity is! We won't win young people by calling for them to be moral and ethical! Atheists can be moral and ethical! So what distinguishes us from the world?
HIS PRESENCE! If we are not in His Presence there is nothing to distinguish us from the world. Christianity is not just about morality, it is about carrying the Presence of God.
(Exodus 33:13) - A leader when he is feeling the pressure reminds God that his people are His people and when the Presence of God comes there is peace and serenity because His yoke is easy and His burden light. Religion's yoke will crush you and cripple you with condemnation and will drive you. What else will distinguish us from the other people in the world? When the world looks at the church does the first thing that impacts them is the awesome God who created the world has coated the Church with His Presence like a dense, intense blanket?
To get electricity flowing you need positive and negative - can't be negative/negative or vice versa! Nice is bland! Jesus wasn't nice - He was love incarnate! It's not nice to call the religious leaders of the day - "Whitewashed walls!". We want a church where men and women want in - saying this is dangerous. Could die! Outside the Presence of God miracles are very difficult - you have to pray and beg but it is very rare and God doesn't want us to seek miracles but His Presence and in His Presence miracles happen!
(Psalm 16:11) - Don't seek deliverance but the Deliverer! Miracles radiate easily in His Presence! Those who seek miracles are always living in fear and taboo of what not living like Jesus. In His Presence is fullness of joy! The more heavenly minded we are, the more earthly good we will be. Why invest in something that will not last?
How does the Presence of God come? In the anointing! The anointing can get you to God's address. When we get in the anointing - we are in God! The anointing is an experience of God's reality!
It's no good saying to people; "Meet with God!". Well where does He live? In the anointing! When you live in the anointing you will live with God daily. (Luke 4:14) "He has anointed Me". Now here's what the anointing will do through you;
"To preach good news to the poor". Without the anointing you can learn the gospel off by heart and regurgitate it like a parrot - but no one is going to get saved. In the anointing those words will be carried.
"He has sent Me to proclaim freedom to the prisoners and sight to the blind". That means literal and physical eyes.
"To proclaim the year of the Lord's favour". That is the year of jubilee - the freedom from all financial debt!
(v20) Then He said; "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing".
They wanted to kill Jesus because He didn't talk about a revival in the future or in the past but He said TODAY the anointing can do what I have said. Religious people don't like to talk about "Today" - they only want to talk about future revivals or past revivals. But today's generation need God to move TODAY!
(Acts 10:38) - NEVER THINK OF YOUR BREAKTHROUGH AS BEING JUST FOR YOU - THINK OF YOUR BREAKTHROUGH AS BEING FOR YOU, YOUR CHILDREN AND YOUR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN!
The example of godly parents is the best legacy you can have.
Parents who do not love God with a passion are cursing their children in the worst possible way.
The source of sickness and disease is under the devil. (2 Corinthians 1:21) "He anointed us". (1 John 2:20) - The anointing cannot be earnt - it comes from the grace of God. "An anointing from the holy One".
What is the Anointing?
It is the power and Presence of God made manifest - it is tangible and it is transferable. It is detectable and discernible to human senses. The anointing is heavenly materiality.
Electricity is God's anointing in the natural. The paralell with the anointing is very close. Even if you are conservative - if you stuck your fingers in a light bulb you will react! It can be conducted to others even through cloths and clothes to bless and to heal and deliver and minister for miracles - conferring and comissioning. Electricity was not invented or created but discovered.
The anointing has been flowing for thousands of years but many Christians are living in the Dark Ages while boasting about our secular technology!
We have had flowing of anointing and the people have pulled back because they preferred the natural. We look back to revivalists with nostalgia but we wouldn't let them preach in our churches because they were dangerous men!
Jesus didn't do any miracles on the basis of His divine identity - He did every miracle on the basis of His humanity depending on the anointing. Why? Did He lose His divinity upon Incarnation? Never. It was restrained because He had to conquer the devil not as God but as man.
Jesus didn't train in a seminar or monastry but in a carpenters shop. Why would He need to be anointed if He did miracles by virtue of His divinity?
(John 14:12) "Anyone who believes in Me, the works (Greek; miracles) I have been doing - YOU shall do also". If He did them by virtue of His divinity then how dare He say that to us for He is then saying that we are divine!
(Acts 8) - All believers were doing miracles in anointing. The preaching of the Word of God under the anointing stirs faith. (Mark 5:24) - " A large crowd pressed around Him" ... "When she heard about Jesus Christ" - it is SO important that people hear about a miracle-working Jesus in the church! "Your faith has healed you". His clothes were full of the anointing but the touch of curiosity didn't pull the healing - even the touch of desperation didn't pull the healing. Only the touch of faith pulls it into your body.
The anointing can be pulled into you only by the touch of your faith.
"Whole crowds and villages came". The word spread! (Acts 19:30) - "God did extraordinary miracles through Paul ... even handkerchiefs". Paul walked in an anointing so that his clothes were full of the anointing. Power is stored like a battery in those clothes - it would heal and then be empty and just clothes again! "God does extraordinary miracles through ...". God does the miracles - not us!
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