Tuesday 26 February 2008

Invading the Impossible - Part 6

"Overthrowing the Spirit of Religious Control - The Revolution Has Begun!".

"We thank you today Father that You have made us to be like eagles who mount up and fly into the high realms of the glory high above pettiness and the sordid things of this planet - to enter in to that realm of the glory, to come before Your face and see the love that is on Your face for us. Lord, You have called us to administrate life through the power of the anointing - through the supernatural of Your Spirit. We ask today Lord, You would reveal Your face to us in Jesus Name, Amen".

Folks, the Father loves us. He loves us! And longs for us to sit at the table of His feasting. I had a challenge here at the beginning of this meeting and I spent hours praying this week. When you pray you pick up the Father's heart for the people. Jesus is the Chief Shepherd - I am merely an under-shepherd. I knew people struggled this week and were under pressure this week, and I knew if I didn't lead worship in a particular way this week you would not be able to receive what I want to say. You would be too under torment in agony and distracted and agitated. But the Father as we praised and worshipped Him has perfumed this place with His Presence and with His peace. He has laid for us a table of feasting and He says;

"Come and enjoy My smile - My smile to you, not because you do everything perfectly but because I love you perfectly out of My own perfection and every pressure, and every agony and every difficulty we face, we face in front of the Father's face as well with tender desires to reassure us and to comfort us and affirm us and let us know we will come out of these pressures - and it will be okay when we come out of these pressures. When this comforting heart of the love of the Father comes to you and to me, it becomes something so wonderful because we begin to see problems as blessings in disguise. We begin to see problems as prophetic promises pointing us and positioning us to a higher platform of the blessings of God and promising us increased power in our weaknesses.

Paul the apostle - that mighty man of faith who raised the dead, who wrote three quarters of the New Testament, who was caught up into the third heavens and came back to the earth, who moved in signs and wonders, visions and dreams (as a normal Christian should) - even that great man of faith was under such pressure at one time that he cried out to God three times and he said; "God, get this off me - I can't take it anymore - it's too much". God said to him, "My grace is sufficient for you and My power is perfected in your weakness". So Paul said - as we must say today - "I will delight in hardships and weakness and difficulties for when I am weak, that's when I am strong".

God doesn't need your strength - He is infinately strong - He needs your weakness so He can perfect His power in your weakness. God will not take the strong of the earth, those who think they will be used by the supernatural because of their great education, or because of their race or because of their great talent. God says, "I do not want anyone to steal My glory, I don't want anyone to say God is using that man because that man or woman is so well educated - is so strong, is so talented". No, God takes the weak and the foolish things of this world that He may confound the arrogant of this world.

(James 1:2) "Count it all joy when you face various trials of many kinds". We do not count it joy when we face trials because we are masochists. Do you know what a masochist is? Someone who loves pain. I hate pain! I think it's weird to like pain! We don't rejoice in the pain because our Father never caused the pain! The Father isn't into causing you pain. The Father will give you nothing but perfect gifts. Every good and perfect gift is from the Father coming down from the heavens. With Him there is no shadow of turning. The Bible says, "Don't be deceived - every good and perfect gift is from the Father". Sickness is not from the Father, cancer and flu is not from the Father, poverty is not from the Father, pressure on marriage is not from the Father, discouragement and depression is not from the Father - it is from the spirit of this age. This world in which we are living is not heaven and it is not the final resting place of man.

We are citizens of heaven and we must draw our resources from the supernatural every day. You can't wait two or three days and then have a quick time of prayer. It won't work in Hong Kong. There are things in Hong Kong you have to stand against every single day. There are many days that I feel like I want to die and just go home and be with Jesus. But I tell you something even that death desire is another revelation about how much I must depend on Jesus because I love life more than death. God hasn't called me to die, I have already died in Christ Jesus and I am alive unto the Father now. And the life I live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me and I am not going to give the devil the credit to live a miserable life. I am going to live celebrating life every day! Because I am a citizen of heaven! Therefore I can delight in hardship and I can delight in insults!

When I find myself murmering and complaining, the loving Holy Spirit is so quick to say; "Rob stop it! Don't do that! If you complain, if you get into self-pity and speak words of negative substance over your life then you are making an agreement and an alliance with darkness and you are empowering a disarmed devil. For even when your mouth wants to say 'I can't take it anymore - I have had enough' say 'I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and I am more than a conqueror through Christ who loves me - greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world! This problem, this pressure is a prophecy pointing me and promoting me to a higher level of the blessing and promising me greater power in my weakness so I will not complain but I will praise and exalt Him and He will make my enemies a footstool under my feet!'".

Pressure on your marriage is a prophetic promise that is desireous to take your marriage to another level of blessing. Sickness in your body is a prophetic promise that He wants to take you to a level not just of healing but of a lifestyle of health. Pressure on your finances is a prophetic promise that He wants to take your finances to another level of blessing and prosperity and more than enough in the blessings of God. As you agree with the promises of God, you make an alliance with light and heaven comes down and agrees with your heart and when you say "Yes!" to the promise God has already said "Yes!" and it is transacted into your life in power.

"Lord any agreement we made with darkness, any complaint, any murmering - we now repent of it in Jesus Name! Lord we break that alliance with darkness - we didn't want to make it and we were under pressure, we repent of it right now Father and there is no more agreement with darkness, only agreement with light!".

If we are going to invade the impossible and we are - when we invade the impossible it is a requirement to topple illegitimate governments. I am not talking about illegitimate governments in Sudan or Zimbawe.

God is bringing those governments down in the earth too before Jesus returns. Jesus will return to sum up all history in Himself at the consumation and the climax of the ages. The end of the age is not the end of the earth but is the end of the reign of evil on the earth then the Kingdom of heaven will have fully come to the earth.

Please don't hear me say that we will have the full kingdom of heaven on the earth before Jesus comes back. I am not saying that. We will die - we will get old. We have aging bodies. When Jesus comes back we will have resurrection, immortal bodies never subject to aging or death again. Our earth suits will be turned into heavenly suits so we can handle the glory of God's beauty.

When I say the Kingdom is coming and evil governments are going to be toppled, Robert Mugabe will be toppled, evil governments in Africa and Asia are coming down because Jesus is the King of Kings and Lord of Lord and the privilidge of co-working and co-equal reign with Jesus Christ and through last Adam is ours. Jesus came and took authority back from the devil who had stolen it from first Adam and gave us authority to reign and rule and trample illegitimate authority. When the church rises up and worships like we did today, then authorities are being shaken! The fact that 6,000 people in Hong Kong are living below the breadline has not escaped the Father's eye. It perturbs Him - He doesn't want that. He wants every person in Hong Kong born again and saved. He wants every person in Hong Kong to be living on at least enough social security to be able to pay their rent and have enough food to eat. He wants every person in Hong Kong to be able to have access to a hospital and not have to stand in long queues for days coughing and sick in disease. He wants every person in Hong Kong to live like the kingdom of heaven!

Christians for too long have been sitting at the rapture bus stop looking for an excuse to get out of this evil world while God says; "I want you to invade the impossible and make a difference in politics, economics, hospitals, social, education and every area of life". He is not calling us to come to church just to have sermons. He is calling us to be the people of God! The salt of the earth! Let me prophesy over you - you are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world, you are a city set on a hill, you are the children of God, you are the ambassadors of the highest government in the universe, you are the priests of God, you are the citizens of heaven, you are the sons and daughters of Almighty God - that's what you are!

When the Corinthian church went into all kinds of sins and perversion - Paul didn't put them back under Law! He said, "Don't you know you are light and citizens of heaven? And you are the righteousness of God!". He never condemned them, he never manipulated them - he told them who they were! You need to tell yourself who you are. There is not a day that goes by that Rob Rufus doesn't say over my life, "I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus - greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world - I can do everything! Lord I am up to this. Yes there are giants in the land, but Lord I can surely take the Land of Hong Kong. I can do it!". When I say those words my re-born spirit rejoices and leaps within me and my emotions and my soul come into line with truth as I make agreement with light and disagree with darkness. Darkness pummels my head and puts me under pressure - it's goal is to get me to speak words of complaint, of unbelief, of doubt, of negativity, of hopelessness - because then it can make a covenant of darkness with my words.

Even in your worst pressure and when you have done your worst sin, that is when you need to say, "I am the righteousness of God - I agree with who I am in Christ - I don't agree with my faults or my condition - I agree with my position in Christ Jesus - THAT is my permament position!".

So there is coming a toppling of governments in these years ahead. And increasingly so Jesus will shake the heavens and shake the earth and we will see righteousness like a fragrance in the earth and the child sex trade in Africa will stop and the abuse of children will stop and the broken homes in Hong Kong will be places of glory and perfume and love and husbands and wives will love each other and speak gentle words of kindness to each other. Children will respect their parents and there will be order in the home for the kingdom of heaven is breaking into the earth and as the kingdom breaks in, the governments of darkness are dismantled and they topple.

In order for that to happen, do you know what's more important first? Before we topple governments out there, first of all we have to topple governments in here. Before we can topple governments out there, first of all we have to topple governments of religious controls over us.

Do you know that much of the church in the world today (including us) is not free, it looks free, it acts free, it has an appearance of godliness, it looks holy but inside they are under a controlling government of legalism, a controlling government of condemnation, and a controlling government of man. Human flesh, human talent, human skills, human programmes are controlling the church in an illegitimate religious government and we will not topple evil out there until we topple evil over us and in here.

I was praying and don't normally pray on my knees - but as I got down on my knees God spoke to me audibly on the inside and began to speak to me. He began to speak a prophetic word into my heart and I want to read it to you what He spoke to me and then I am going to read to you some other things I wrote down yesterday afternoon. The main thing today is that City Church International - any residue, remnant or hangover of the control government that has come over our lives from our past - it needs to topple and be brought DOWN today that the government of His freedom, the government of His liberty, the government of His grace, His peace, His love, His joy fill our lives today. Will you give yourselves permission to access and enter in to that government of God and let the government of darkness break off your life? If we are to invade the impossible and topple unrighteous government then let the government of God come over your life today and topple the government of the control of the fear of man and religious government of condemnation.

This is what God said to me on Friday afternoon;

"There is rapidly occuring across the earth a division between Law teaching and Grace teaching. God Himself is doing it. Some of those who still preach a mixture of Law and Grace will first try to be diplomatic and reasonable but under the surface they will carry hatred and envy. They will seek to disguise this in a form of godliness and theological reasoning but God in these days is going to expose the true state of their hearts. This is not a gentle reformation. This is a true revolution. Those that do not understand this will be utterly dismayed at how quickly this revolution is about to spread. In this revolution the gospel of Grace revealed in the New Covenant will spread like wildfire - there will be unhealthy extremes on the left and the right in reaction to this.

There will be voices that will attempt to gain advantage by appearing to be balanced diplomats calling for calm but I will sweep these self-appointed voices of reason aside and silence them swiftly, says God. Those with secure, pure hearts will steward this revolution, not panicking at the unhealthy extremes or trying to prematurely balance everything. For you see, it is not the message of grace that is causing the extremes or imbalance but it is the result of entrenched deeply established legalism and man's control surfacing because of the intensifying pressure of the Grace Revolution. This revolution will force the mask off every form and appearance of godliness that denies the power of the New Covenant. This gospel revolution is not to be blamed for the ugliness that will appear in some. It is simply forcing the true nature of legalism out into the open and stripping it of all it's disguises so that even the naive and the deceived will see how truly hideous, HIDEOUS, it's face really is. The camoflauge of legalism is being removed so that it can no longer harress from hidden positions that have an appearance of godliness.

The people in these days who fearlessly embrace grace and remain pure-hearted and faithful enduring hardship and refusing to be polluted by bitterness during persecution will be partners with the Holy Spirit in seeing entire nations birthed into revival. So rejoice!".


Romans 5 speaks about the suffering we endure - the context is not the suffering of sickness and all of that - the context is suffering for the message of grace. Check it out. It says; "This suffering will produce character in you and character will build hope in you". I am suffering for preaching this message beyond what some of you realise. Your reputation will suffer and as you embrace the grace message you will stir up every legalistic demon to alienate you and cut you off but friends God will draw closer to you and the refreshing of hope and the gospel will fill you with wonder and the glory of God will become more present in your life.

I am amazed at how few Christians daily experience the manifest glory of God. I experience His glory every day and it is available to EVERY believer! But you have got to reject legalism, you have got to reject the fear of man, you have got to let God topple the control government of religion and the fear of man and condemnation and legalism and the performance pressure to do things to earn man's favour and God's favour.

Because you don't have to do a thing to earn God's favour - He loves you right now unconditionally. You are forgiven, you are cleansed, you are in Christ - you are a new creation in Christ! Everything from the old system of religion has passed away - the Old Covenant has passed away - it is obsolete. God says in Hebrews 6; "The Old Covenant of law is a weak and useless covenant". God said that about His own covenant in Hebrews 7! And there are still people mixing that weak and useless condemning that kills people, that Old Covenant that kills people, they are still mixing and confusing Christians in a cocktail of Old and New.

God is stripping that and exposing that and there is no middle ground left! It is either New Covenant embraced 100% and Old Covenant rejected or nothing! There is no more room. God is doing it in the earth today.

This is what I wrote down in response to the prophecy;

"Revolution causes disruption. I am amazed at how some Christians want a cute comfortable life. You even hear people say that if you walk in grace, it means you will never be divisive. If you walk in grace you won't be divisive but it will cause division in reaction. We don't want to be divisive! We love the Church but wherever Paul went division came because Paul would not compromise the New Covenant and mix a bit of Old Covenant in there. He even rebuked Peter to his face for the simple thing of eating Jewish food when there were Gentiles around! He rebuked Peter lest Peter confuse the Gentile Christians and make them think they were still under Jewish law and the law of Moses. Revolution causes disruption.

Did you see wherever Jesus went that everyone loved Him? Do you think everyone loved Jesus wherever He went? Actually some plotted to kill Him and they hated Him. Why did they hate Him? Was He a sinner? Why did they hate Him? Because He exposed their hypocrisy and their form of godliness - they had a government over Israel (the religious leaders) that was not the government of Abraham or Issac or Jacob but the government of the Pharisees and Sadducees. It was controlling the people and Jesus said, "Your religious systems that are making people think that is the normal government - you put weights on people that they cannot carry and you do not lift a finger to help them. But My yolk and My burden is light".

I have to guess that the majority of Christians in the world today are still under unrighteous Pharisaical goverment of man because most Christians still do not live in joy and passion for Jesus and are so in love with God and are walking in the Presence of God. There is an ungodly government that is over the church and over people's lives that must come down before we can topple ungodly government out there. That is going to take a revolution! It is not going to take cute sweet sentimental Charismatics who never want to be rejected or cut off or misunderstood, who want to be accepted by the Pharisees and they want to be seen and get the approval and the honour of man! They are so unlike Jesus and so foreign to Jesus that they fit in out of the fear of man.

I have seen people tell me personally that they do not believe in certain practices and things because they contradict the New Covenant - they are the same people with a position on a team or promotion who will go with the very team that perpetrates that! Because men flatters them and gives them recognition so they went with man rather than God. They have just disqualified themselves - they cannot be part of the Grace Revolution - they are fitting in with the status quo.

How many scientific breakthroughs would there be in the world today if scientists like Newton and others just accepted the opinion of the scientists of the day? What is happening in the earth is that there scientists who are saying that evolution is completely defunct of any evidence and new scientific evidence clearly shows that it is creation. There are many medical breakthroughs that certain scientists had to step out of the crowd and start a revolution and they pushed through against the opposition and the establishment blocking them because the establishment would be threatened by scientific breakthrough. So those scientists moved with compassion for people they had a revolution and then a breakthrough and millions of people are benefitted in the earth. But no one remembers those Nobel Prize winners that had to walk through the corridors and the passageways of loneliness. Them and their wife and children having been cut off and misunderstood by the scientific community that said what a load of rubbish - we have always done it this way! But then the breakthrough came that brought a cure! What are they? They are revolutionaries that step out of the crowd.

Too many Christians today conform to the crowd and conform to the pattern of this world. God has not called City Church International to be like that. We are not going to try and balance things right now. It is not the time to try and balance things right now. To break the control and the entrenchment of legalism there has to be a revolution and fur will fly!

And there will be extremes on the left and the right and it is the silly sentimental ones seeking to take advantage and looking like they are ambassadors of peace but they actually have selfish ambitions and agendas who will try and calm the extremes down but Jesus never calmed the extremes down because He came in to topple a government of religious evil that was over Israel! It is not the time to calm things down! It is the time for revolution!

Revolution out of pure hearts and pure motives because we love the Church and we love people. Revolution causes disruption because things that have been unchallenged are confronted. In order to have a revolution you have to be willing to overthrow the established government. A government that has been seen for a long time as normal. One of the hardest things to bring apartheid down in South Africa was that many people became mesmerised and hypnotised by a philosphy and an ideology to the point that people become like cattle and become like sheep that go along life like they are drugged and duped by deception.

It is sad if man will change in the times of peace and good will so much suffering would be avoided but finally because oppression goes on for so long that God has to raise up revolutionaries and fighters and they stir the sleeping masses to their rights and to their privilidges and there are consquences and it is horrible and ugly and the revolutionaries get the blame but actually the people from forty years ago who could have made the change in the peace time - they are the ones who should get the blame.

Jesus should not have got the blame for speaking the amazing words of authority He spoke to the Pharisees. Paul should not have got the blame for the tough words he had to speak but the people wouldn't change so God stirred up a revolutionary and He confronts things that have gone unchallenged for so long and the government that has been accepted for so long and the Christians live like sleeping mesmerised and hypnotised sheep in the pews and the control of man and the hierarchies of man control rather than the living glory and power of the God of miracles. Religious systems in the earth are coming down - Babylon is coming down.

You say, "Gee Rob I've got problems in my life - I didn't come to church to hear all this stuff!". You did - you are a priest of God! You will understand why some of your problems are coming when you understand what you got involved in when you signed up for this church. Revolution is not dressing the old up as different. Revolution is not putting an overhead up and singing a few happy clappy choruses and saying 'Hallelujah we're so free". That's not revolution! That is dressing the old up as the new with an appearance as freedom. Revolution is not about cosmetic change. Revolution brings radical, cultural transformation.

Why do you think I am so irritating sometimes when I say, "Respond, say amen?". I am trying to build a culture of passion and a culture of unity. I am not trying to brainwash you to kiss your brains goodbye - actually in a culture of freedom, you have the right to believe what you want, to come to your own conclusions theologically and doctrinally and you don't have to agree with everything I teach. You don't have to give permission for me to go where you want to go - live in the Spirit, follow the Spirit of God. I think it's wise to confer with wise leaders if it is a big choice, but you are not subject to me! You are free to hear the Holy Spirit yourself.

Some of the Chinese people who first joined this church couldn't work me out when they first joined us. They kept asking me questions about what they should do - can I do this or that. I realised that they had been under the control of the government of man. That is abusive. They thought it was normal and they found a pastor that says; "Don't ask me what to do - go ask the Holy Spirit - go ask the Father - He will direct you and show you what to do". When I teach, it's not to stampede you all and make you like some cult.

It is to break a spirit of formalism and conservatism that is demonic and religious and a control government so that in the anointing you can start hearing God yourself.

How many of you feel a peace over this meeting that wasn't there when you first came in? The atmosphere has shifted because I stirred that passion. Now I am longing for the day when it is not just cosmetic and dressing the old up in me exhorting you, but it becomes a radical revolution where your heart has culturally changed so that you come shouting and praising and worshipping God without me having to do it! And I will know that day has happened when I don't have to stand up the front and encourage you! That means it has happened as a cultural transformation. The culture of the kingdom isn't to cater to your preferences. It is to cater to the King's preferences - it is the culture of the Kingdom. It's not a South African or an Aussie culture. It's not a Chinese culture but the culture of the Kingdom, the eternal age. It is God breaking in from the heavenlies to topple ungodly, illegitimate governments in the earth that oppresses the people!

Let me read this: "There has been a form of religion, a form of godliness that has been over the Church for centuries. It is primarily controlled by programmes, focus on keeping the people happy for the wrong reasons". It is a false happiness, it is not the happiness and liberty of the Spirit of God.

There are three common characteristics of the control government that God is overthrowing in our day. The prophets in the Church worldwide have had a hard time in the Church in the last 10 years.

Notice that it does not say in Ephesians that the Church is built on the foundation of the pastor or the evangelist or the teacher. It says the church is built on the foundation of apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone. Evangelists, pastors and teachers must build on the foundation of apostles and prophets - some say "Oh that is the prophets of the Old Testament and the apostles of Jesus". That is not true at all - not even vaguely. We are not building on dead prophets and dead apostles because Christ Jesus as the chief cornerstone is not a dead Christ. I don't need a dead Christ to build on. I need a living speaking vital, vibrant living Jesus speaking to me every day. I am building on life - not Jeremiah. Jeremiah is in the grave as bones! I am not building on Paul or Peter. Now yes I take the words that bring revelation to me, but Jesus said in Ephesians 4 that AFTER Christ ascends He gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets ... until the Church comes to the full stature of Christ.

There is to be no more blown to and fro by every wind of doctrine but now the voice of the prophets have been silenced and the Church has been taken over by pastors and they are beginning to control the church with programmes. The Church doesn't even know why they are going through pressure or what is going on in the earth because prophets are the eyes of the Church. Prophets see what's going on, they see and they discern! They are weird! I am a prophet! And prophets are weird and they discern things and know what God is doing and they get all agitated when they see the people throwing money and talents into a government of control.

True apostles and prophets are godly people who hear God audibly and move in miracles, signs and wonders and don't let anyone tell you they are an apostle unless they move in signs and wonders and understand the revelation of grace and can build a church and have planted churches. Too many people call themselves apostles today. Don't let anyone call themselves a prophet unless they can preach the Word of God with revelation and power that breaks the control spirit off the Church with power! This morning there was an anointing in here that broke the control spirit off our pre-service prayer meeting. It is called a prophetic anointing.

Here are the three characteristics of a control government. God doesn't want to overthrow pastors, He wants pastors to lead the church! He wants pastors in the church leading the church! But pastors must come under the true liberating influence of apostles and true prophets. That's what they must be under the influence of and connected to those ministry gifts in friendship and good relationship.

1. The idea of the supernatural manifestations of the power of God is seen as frightening or as distasteful under the control government because it cannot be fully explained or understood.

Religious government argues that God would not do anything that we don't understand. So it must be the devil they say. They feel the supernatural would not make the people happy - but would make them unhappy and uncomfortable so they dismiss the manifestations of the miraculous. God often does things we do not understand and we know it is God simply by the beauty of His Presence. If there is a miracle taking place and the beauty of His Presence is there, then it is God even if we don't understand. Laughing, falling, crying, demons coming out - the control government pushes that out because it doesn't understand it.

The grace revolution is awakening in the hearts of people a hunger for the supernatural encounters with God's glory and Presence. There is such a hunger burning in people's hearts that they are desperate for the Presence of God. Whereever we go and advertise a "Glory and Grace Conference" - people are lining up because they are desperate to get into that Presence! They are tired of just being under the principles of Bible information from the teacher. They want to encounter God!

The control government is underestimating this to their own detriment.

2. The control government is also legalistic.

Some openly teach that Christians are under the Law of Moses. Others are not that blatent but nonetheless they insinuate that we get God to bless us by the performance of our holiness which is an Old Covenant truth rather than Jesus performace on our behalf which is a New Covenant truth. This way they control the church by condemnation and never releasing the people into the confidence of the assurance of the New Covenant. Often there is in the control government a call for balance.
But truth - biblical truth - is not held in a tension of balance. Truth is held in upward layers of higher and higher reality.

If you touch the leper under the Old Covenant you were declared to be unclean. If you touch the leper under the New Covenant then the leper is healed. Both realities are true - but one is simply a higher truth than the other. You cannot balance these truths or you will neutralise them both. You cannot balance law and grace. One is a higher truth than the other. Watch out for the call for balance.

3. The control government has hierarchies in place.

It is so clear in the New Covenant that Jesus Christ has removed the distinction between priests and clergy. So for some people to dress up with priestly clothes and call themselves priests and the members laymen is totally ungodly. It is a violence and a blasphemy against the Cross. Jesus died on the Cross to birth a priesthood nation, a Christian Church where every believer is a priest! The control government doesn't want you to know that because they want you to see them as the professional and that you have the hotline to heaven and they can't hear God. They don't need to know the Bible - only you do. Up till recently one control government preached every week in Latin! To masses who couldn't even understand the language and it was a sense of control. When the Bible teaches that every Christian can break bread at home!

Pentecostals and Charismatics have a worse government than the one I have just described. It is more dangerous because it is more subtle. You live in fear of the pastor because he is the big guy. He is up on a pedestal. He is the man - you don't cross his demenour. He is the guru and they let you know that. It may not always be immediately obvious but it will soon become clear if you cross one of their invisible lines. The Grace Revolution has freedom in place with strong gifted leaders leading the church! The Grace church has strong leaders who lead with boldness and the fear of God and they are taking people on a journey!

But here's the difference;

In the control model of government, your primary role as a member is to serve the leaders. In the Grace Revolution, your primary role as a leader is to empower the people to know God, to hear God for themselves, to dream for yourself, to have visions from heaven for yourself and to respond to the Holy Spirit's initiatives to lead you to invade the impossible.

Do you know what they do to revolutionaries if they catch you? What did they do to Martin Luther? To the martyrs who stood against religious governments down through the ages? Were they divisive people just out to cause trouble? No they loved the masses who were on their way to hell. They stood and said, "This is not true - we have got to change this". They were not reformers. We have called them reformers but that is too tame a word. They were revolutionaries. Most of us could not stomach radical people. They were wild and today we live in the benefits of their pain and their guts and we cannot afford to let that momentum of the revolutionaries fade.

We cannot leave it for a professional priest because if you leave it for this professional priest, then the powers of darkness will come at me more and more and try and make me a controller. And I will never allow them to do that. I will go somewhere else where people will rise up and say we will topple this false government of religious control. It is about the Father's love, liberty, healing love and beauty coming into the earth! But when you are under a control government you cannot love Jesus more than theology and doctrine and the systems of man - it is about the masses being saved, nations coming to Jesus, unrighteous governments being toppled.

A prophetic people are a people who see the future and become the future in the now.

Down the road freedom in the church will be commonplace - we need to see the freedom in the now for it to become commonplace. Now we can speak in tongues freely but if we did it 100 years ago we would have been put to the stake. Now that war is over. But there is a new war about law and grace - about freedom of government over the church and the people of God.

1 comment:

Keith_Joy said...

Get hold of John Piper's sermons on this score.

having just lost my youngest daughter (18) I really looked into this.

Point of Death - Spirit goes to Heaven, immediately, where you are with your loved ones and God, Jesus. No judgement (yet). End of the World, your spirit is reunited with your new perfected body.
God cleanses heavens and earth, and we live forever ON A NEW EARTH, and God has His "tent" with us.

YES!!!!