City Church International, Hong Kong.
Every week we get many many emails from our website and our downloads are averaging about 30, 000 a week. I read encouraging emails every week of miracles that are happening just from people listening to our website. Here's a couple;
"I feel like a butterfly coming out of a cacoon and loving the fresh air ... Durban, South Africa".
"I feel so connected to you and feel such warmth from you ... we belong to one another. Thank you so much for the best teaching I could ever wish to hear ... you are impacting people in phenomenal ways in Port Alfred as God removes the counterfeit from the lives of His people ... Cape Town, South Africa".
As soon as we can remove religion - the counterfeit of men - God can come and start doing miracles. People are living with lies in their minds about God and the Gospel - the barrier or hindrance to the power of God coming in the anointing. Open your Bibles please to Isaiah 35. We had an outstanding time in Dubai and for me it felt like sanctified revenge for our brother's death. I never allowed myself to grieve. Last Sunday morning was a defining word that I had to bring. I could only weep and weep on Monday morning on my way to Dubai to preach a "Glory and Grace Conference". My prayers did not save a man that I loved. I have seen people healed of cancer but it did not happen. I had to get before God in Dubai because it is very important to deal with what is in your soul if it is not kingdom.
You cannot formulate your view of life through disappointment - you can only formulate your view of life through what is unchanging - the Word of God. If you do not you are building a theology to accomodate failure. We need to say to our disappointments; "You move aside - you submit to the Word of God!".
Some Christians do not pray for more than 5 minutes but disappointment may have got in so deep you may need an hour to pray. Don't hide yourself in movies to get away from the pain - don't hide with people of unbelief who will commiserate you and persuade you that your disappointment is legitimate. I got up there on the first night and my opening lines were; "I lost a friend this week to cancer that I prayed for". How would you feel if you heard that? But on Monday night they brought in extra chairs to fit everyone in! How would you receive a man like that who said his prayers failed? It opened the hearts of everyone up!
Smith Wigglesworth raised the dead and all kinds of sickness and disease but those authors did not write about the thousands who were not healed when Smith prayed for them. I love Bill Johnson who is honest and says; "Thousands do not get healed when people come - that is unacceptable". He does not say "Oh it is a mystery why they do not get healed". He says it is "unacceptable".
There were numbers of people in Dubai with gold dust that fell on them. A lady was healed of lupus. Thousands were drunk in the Holy Spirit and had to be carried to their cars. This is in the Middle East! These were doctors and lawyers and professionals! I saw a lawyer hysterically drunk in the Spirit of God!
They invited us because they said when we were there a year ago we taught a series on grace and it opened them up to the miraculous - now they are moving into the miraculous and wanted to move in further.
Bonnie taught the musicians on how to touch the anointing and chose the right song to catapault the anointing with wisdom. Don't let people lock you into where you were - we are changing rapidly and we are becoming different!
There is only one place where Jesus couldn't get people healed - it says "He could there do no mighty works". That was His home town. It wasn't just because of unbelief - they were offended at Him because He was not just the Carpenters boy. He left Nazareth without the Holy Spirit. They were offended that He had changed and they hadn't! They found He convicted them of their pathetic lives. Jesus says; "You are not normal and you are being pathetic! I didn't come to make you feel pathetic - I came to lift you to where I am at!"
Cancer is NOT the will of God - the will of God is "get healed!". His wife wants to get revenge against the devil for her husbands death. Wrong theology will make you passive and submit to your disappointment and be captivated by lies. "Invading the Impossible" - we must talk about dealing with disappointment.
If you are invading the impossible, then by definition the impossible, is impossible for you to do. So you need a Presence on you that qualifies you to do the impossible. If you do not deal with disappointment then disappointment will deal with you. The way you deal with disappointment determines how far you will invade the impossible.
The depth to which you invade the impossible is determined by the depth to how you deal with disappointment. If you see disappointment as an opportunity to get into God then disappointment will not force you to bow your knee, but take you to a higher level of revelation and understanding. If you let disappointment dominate you then you will let it downgrade and devalue the things you currently understand. We understand some things about the miraculous. Incurable cancer has come out without any medical help. I have gone in and what I understand gets them healed. What I understand has opened a few deaf ears. There's much I don't understand though! I don't understand why Philip didn't get healed. There's much we must humble ourselves and admit we don't understand! But ... we can gain understanding on these things!
What is the power of disappointment? The power of disappointment is that the power of the things you DON'T understand robs you of the things you DO understand.
You will trade truth for lies and when you do that, disappointment has now taken you to a place of oppression, demonic activity, you will lose hope and light will come into darkness. You will begin to formulate ideologies to accomodate the failure and from that point the impossible will invade you. You are the barrier between the impossible invading your future generations. I am obligated to hold on to what God has taught me to bring thousands out of wheelchairs and NOT feed myself on what God HASN'T done but what God HAS done! We cannot wait for people to encourage us but must encourage ourselves!
There are so many Christians who want to die to themselves again and again. You die ONCE when you are born again! But too many Christians have a resurrected self in Christ they are trying to kill! You don't die to the new life inside you! Don't die again - make your enemy die! Use disappointment to fuel you. Don't give up what you DO understand because of what you DON'T understand. This is what you and I understand - that Jesus Christ is PERFECT theology. PERFECT theology is not found in a Book but in a Person. From the book of Genesis to Revelation we have got progressive revelation but not full and final understanding - once Jesus arrives we have got PERFECT revelation - no more is to come! "If you have seen Me you have seen the Father".
The Pharisees were so caught up in the question of the Old Covenant that they didn't notice the answer that came in Jesus Christ when He came! If you get disappointed you will allow truth to be robbed by lower truth. If you don't see everyone healed, then you are in danger of being robbed of the truth that Jesus is perfect theology and saw everyone healed. So you start questioning why WE don't see everyone healed. We asked questions - maybe some diseases are consequences of things we have done with the planet and hence lung cancer is a result of smoking. Yes - Jesus will STILL heal them all. Maybe we have got a diet problem and need to get on the Mediterraean diet of fish and olives? No I like steak.
The Bible says in the last days there will be doctrines of demons where people forbid eating meat and forbidding marriage.
Jesus healed them ALL. All who got sick were on a fish and olive diet anyway! You can eat what you want! Paul McCartney's wife was a vegetarian and yet still died of cancer.
He HEALED THEM ALL - there is no other standard I will submit too and I will not rest until I see them ALL healed.
The two mighty weapons to deal with disappointment are; "Joy and Peace". Joy and Peace are the weapons of glory that dominate disappointment. If you lose them you will be dominated by disappointment. (Phil 4) says "Rejoice in the Lord always - again I say rejoice". What does "re" mean? It means "Go back to!". If you lose your joy during the day then you need to "go back". As you "re-joice" then your joy comes back. (Isaiah 9) says Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace.
Peace is a supernatural sign of the government of God and where peace increases, the government of God comes. (Romans 16:20) says the God of peace will CRUSH Satan!
I want to read to you about "Joy". The same Word of God has different effects in different people's hearts - but the same Word of God has the same power in people's hearts. Keep on clapping! Keep on rejoicing!
If you stay in joy and peace, mountains of opposition will break forth into song before you and will be levelled out. Isaiah 53 is a description of the finished work of the Cross - the full victory we have. Isaiah 54 is God announcing the New Covenant coming. Isaiah 55 is the fruit of people living in the New Covenant. "Mountains" speak of opposition. When you go forth in peace and joy, mountains of opposition will break forth in song.
Joy invades the impossible - we know the Bible says the joy of the Lord is our strength. Psalm 16 says in His Presence there is fullness of joy. One of the fruits of the Spirit is joy. We know Jesus is joyful. The Bible says when we stand before Him at the end of our life, He will say; "Enter into the joy of the Lord". Hebrews 1 says Jesus is anointed with the oil of joy. Heaven is a place of ecstasy and happiness. Jesus said what is loosed in heaven will be loosed on earth. The Holy Spirit is referred to by Jesus as the New Wine - far more intoxicating than old wine. Laughter in the Holy Spirit is a holy weapon against disease and deception sickness and discouragement. Paul says to the Galatians who have been deceived by witchcraft and were going back under legalism and condemnation - he asks them in Galatians 4 - "Where is your joy gone?". Loss of joy is a sign that we have allowed the activity of the Holy Spirit's power and anointing in our lives and we have allowed the spirit of demonic witchcraft and the spirit of heaviness to have influence over our lives.
The oil of joy instead of mourning! The garment of praise instead of the spirit of heaviness! Joy is warfare against sickness and disease! Joy boosts your immune system! The Bible says in Isaiah; "You shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace". Joy smashes gates of hell down. The Bible says; "Rejoice in the Lord always". The Bible says those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. 2008 is a fruitful year of reaping - reap with joy now! The Bible says with joy draw waters from the well of salvation. Psalm 126:1 says that when Israel came out of captivity and returned to Zion; "Our mouths were filled with laughter" and it says God filled our mouths with laughter.
The greatest release of joy is the revelation of the splendour of grace. How safe and secure we are in God because of grace! How confident we can be before a Holy God when you truly embrace grace! The Bible says in Romans 4 and 2 Corinthians 5:19 that God will never count our sins against us - He is treating you through grace as someone who is perfectly innocent in His sight!
That is a basis for rejoicing and declaring the glory of God! I am simply by the Spirit and the Word addressing the secular spirit that is too prevelant in this world and that is when Adam and Eve turned from the tree of life and ate from the legalistic tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Goodness is as much part of the fall as evil. Being self-righteous - me being good and avoiding evil - is as much part of the fall in man as evil. Adam said; "It's not my fault - it's the fault of the woman you gave me". Where did he get that knowledge? From the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was self-righteousness. The woman said; "It was not my fault - it was the serpant".
What's in the church today? "I have a right to be depressed, I have a right to miss church, I have rights because I have not been treated right and I am disappointed! And if you wipe my bum enough I may come back to church!". We have all wiped bums as parents. Do you know what I learnt from wiping thousands of spiritual bums over the years? It doesn't help them at all - they just get filled with more pity. I am not against healing classes - but what I am concerned about is that those who run healing classes need the most healing. They teach inner healing for 20 years and yet haven't broken out of a victim mind-set. They are still blaming someone for sexual abuse as a child - terrible as it is. It ISN'T your fault - you are innocent but victory doesn't come through giving blame but through reaching out to the power of the finished work of the Cross and dealing with disappointments that won't dominate you and dealing with philosphies that dominate you.
You have got no excuse for sulking through disappointment. Those who do miracles aren't anymore righteous than the next - they are just personally taking responsibility for their lives. They have taken their disappointment and turned it into a divine appointment for invading the impossible.
4 comments:
Whoa! Powerful, even though I only read it, I could hear Rob's voice filled with passion!
I appreciate this comment;
He does not say "Oh it is a mystery why they do not get healed". He says it is "unacceptable".
I was talking to a friend and I was questioning something in the Bible in regards to how my old church taught it and I just wasn't satisfied, and she well the Bible say's it's a mystery. You know that actually kinda made me mad - I thought that's a cop out, I want to know the mysteries of God......I want to seek and find.....
I also love how he explained Holy Laughter and loy being able to boost your immune system.....and so much more........thanks for doing this yet again!!!!
I know - it is a provocative statement isn't it!? The thing is - we have been trained for years in conservative SGM with teaching on "Suffering and the Sovereignity of God" etc etc and so automatically as soon as something doesn't happen and someone DOESN'T get healed, then we pass the blame back onto heaven and God.
But maybe we should consider this response that it is "unacceptable". If Jesus healed all who were willing, then why are we not seeing such results? If Jesus told us to go out and "greater works shall ye do" - WHERE are the greater works?!
What is unacceptable is that Rob Rufus is such a lone voice asking these questions! We need to stop being so comfortable and lazy and passive in the sovereignity of God! We need to arise in our calling, fill our horns with oil and go out and start praying for the sick!!
Example today: I went to drive to work tonight and my car was TOTALLY dead. I mean TOTALLY. Not a spark. So just before calling Breakdown Recovery I laid hands on the steering wheel and asked God for a miracle to start the car as I needed to get to work!! WEll nothing happened. And that is unacceptable! But at least I tried! And I will try again!
Yes good for you for trying and not giving up!!!
My husband and I like to remember the speech Winston Churchill is famous for "Never Give Up, Never Never Give Up, Never Never Never Give Up!"
Of course now we can add that to this message and "greater works shall you do!"
I was just thinking why does it seem like Rob is the only voice out there with this message .... do I need to relocate to Hong Kong ---------!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I've been thinking exactly the same thing!! Hong Kong here we come!! :)
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