"Folks the thing is if we are to invade the impossible then the power that enables us to do the impossible must first invade us. When there is a power to do the impossible that invades us and we come to another level in the power and in the anointing then you see you don't struggle with things like you did before. How many of you know there is a difference between a one inch cracker and a nuclear bomb? A cracker makes a sound and there is smoke. You can hurt an insect with a cracker but with a bomb you can have effect on a whole lot more effect! You can cut something with a hacksaw or a chainsaw! So God wants to take us up to a new level of power and the anointing so that things we couldn't do before, we will be able to do quite easily. I have a sneaking suspicion watching Jesus that raising the dead and opening blind eyes and deaf ears and causing the paralysed to walk is not difficult. Did you ever see Him sweating?
"Go your way - your faith has made you whole". He just did miracle after miracle and there was no struggle to it. Why? Because He was operating in a level of power that is available to us (as we have taught in this series) and we are going to come up to a new level. Tonight I want to talk about "overcoming the control spirit". Last week I spoke about overthrowing control governments off your life - overthrowing religious controls off your life.Tonight I want to continue with that because the control spirit is the greatest hindrance and the greatest restriction to you and I carrying the mighty anointings of God.
If you study revivals - it was when the church threw off or toppled the governments of control and of religious control and moved into the freedom of God and then the power of God rushed into that context and whole communities got saved. Look at the Welsh Revivals which happened in 1903 when Wales was a very hardened religious community - very arrogant, proud and hypocritical and a young man called Evan Roberts began to cry out and say; "Lord if the church will bend and bow then you will come and manifest Your power". He fasted and prayed and finally God came in 1903 for just 2 or 3 years and the glory of God literally filled Wales and hundreds of thousands got born again!
Even hardened miners got born again and had to change their language because the donkeys down the wells were used to swear words as commands. Now these hardened sinners were getting saved and using wonderful words of praise. God isn't against having a glass of wine but there was serious drinking problems in Wales. Pubs closed down! Soccer clubs closed down because Welsh soccer clubs lost interest in football and were having church every night - 9 hours praising God and people would fall and tremble under the power and repent and call out to God to save them. These are historical records! It happened in the Azusa Street Revival and in North-Western India where the whole state of India - school children by the thousands were getting saved because God came and covered the whole area with His glory Presence.
Why? Because they broke the religious control. If you go to those places today it is dead again and religion is back in control. It is dead with an absence of the supernatural.
This is a song they used to sing in the Welsh Revival: "This old world around me sage thinks I'm drunk and mad with rage. Drunk - doubtless yes. I am drunk and odd but drunk with the wine of God". In 1903 the Welsh Revival was singing about being drunk with the wine of God!
In almost every revival joy has broken out and laughter has broken out and happiness has broken out because God broke in and man's control was broken off through the Church. If you have been under someone's religious control and denominational control - a husband, wife or children's control, parents control - if you have been under a manipulative control that intimidates your freedom then you become a controller without realising it.
Control people become controllers and so if we want a greater level of the anointing then we have to ask the Father to topple all forms of control on our life altogether.
This doesn't make you a rebel - it makes you more accountable and obedient to God and in love with Jesus and in love with His Church and in love with true leadership in His Church! It doesn't make people divide and disintegrate - it integrates and brings life and marriage and holiness and security and victory over sin! And it brings the glory and power of God!
So what causes me to come under control? It is when we lose hope. The Bible says that the people that lack vision throw off restraint. With the absence of hope we begin to grow careless and I want to show how that happens.
Never be afraid and don't be paranoid about the control spirit. The control spirit wants to control you by being afraid of the control spirit. The biggest controllers I have met are always speaking against the control spirit. What's happened is in their past, they were put under control by a pastor, pope, bishop or parent and have come under such control that they are afraid of being controlled again that they think the only way they can not be controlled again is to try and control their environment. So they try and control everyone around them in order that they don't be controlled.
So you become a controller thinking you are free of control but you are not free of control because you are controlling everyone around you! I have had people walk into my church for the first time and say; "Great church but you need to stop doing this and that". I say, "Excuse me?! Who appointed you head over me?! How can you respect someone who submits to control?!". Now someone can come up to me and say; "Rob have you thought about this or that?" and I will say, "Thank you for your advice - I want to hear from all of you".
But I am talking about a control spirit that dominates either with a controlling arrogance that imposes on you, your conscience feels forced and pressured to do something you are not comfortable with - or a control spirit operates with flattery and smiles and says how wonderful you are and you think they are kind and before you know it, they have obligated you to do something for them. Do not feel afraid of being controlled.
Because once the Spirit of God lives inside you in freedom (and He is free) but when you are comfortable with the freedom of the Holy Spirit in you and you walk in the Spirit and you listen to the Spirit, you will get to know the Holy Spirit and you will discern the spirit of control in the first sentence! Control comes on people when they lose hope so let's not be afraid of control but let's read here the symptoms of control. I am going to enjoy this message!
The fruit of the Spirit is ... self-control. People say that is self-control. "I don't shake, I don't fall". Read the context! You are under the anointing of a supernatural Spirit. What is the context? He has just talked about the works of the flesh - drunkenness, gossip, slander, divisiveness, sexual orgies - that, he says is works of the flesh! Those that live in the Spirit will not satisfy the lusts of the flesh because one of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control.
In other words I don't have to go and have an orgy because I am in control of my own flesh - not me by my own power but by the fruit of a supernatural Person called the Holy Spirit. I don't feel tempted when there is an orgy going on. I have got self-control because the awesome Person of the Holy Spirit lives on the inside of you. I can't say the devil makes me gossip or slander - no I have got self-control over my own flesh because I am filled with the Spirit of God.
We are not talking about self-control over sin - we are talking about people controlling you and then you becoming a controller of people. Husbands control their wives sometimes just by a meanness and an attitude of deprivation. Wives may control their husbands by the system of rewards and withdrawing rewards - one of them being physical intimacy. So they can control by withdrawing favours and rewards and a wife can turn her back on her husband and give him the big huff and say "Not tonight". The Bible warns against that in 1 Corinthians 7 says you should not go into sexual abstinence as a husband and wife unless by mutual consent lest the devil tempt you. It says you can fast and pray for a few days by mutual consent but it is not one of you saying; "Put up with it - no sex for the next few days". If you are controlling people then you need to stop it and there is a wisdom to stop it.
Control spirit ruins homes, parenting - the most damage it does is to stop the power of God sweeping in.
If the Holy Spirit is not allowed to have control of the church, then man takes control of the church and the biggest leverage man has to control the church is the law - legalism - controls people to behave by putting rules and regulations and then kicking them out and punishing them if they don't line up with the taboos and laws and rules.
So we will look here; When you are full of hope, no one will ever be able to control you. I am a prisoner of hope - I am a captive of hope - I have been handcuffed to hope - arrested by hope. I believe in these days the Father has got plans for the church that are so awesome!
In 1981 and 1982 we had a move of God and saw people come out of wheelchairs and many cancer cases healed and many deaf ears healed and miracles for 18 months. Then God spoke to me and said, "I will bring this anointing on your life again at the latter stages of your life - something like 25 years and you will be then ready to be a father in the miraculous because I am going to bring a new generation of young people that will move in the miraculous and they will go beyond you and they will do greater miracles than you but they need a Caleb or a Joshua to father and to help them manage their lives".
When you are moving in the miraculous, people put you in demand!
"There will be fathers and I am going to travel the world as I father nuturing and coaching a young generation to move in the supernatural. I am thrilled with that hope! Someone who tries to stop me doing that cannot control me because I am a prisoner of hope".
Once you lose hope, you surrender to the control spirit and you become a controller and you limit the power of God operating in your life. (James 3).
Humility is your greatest weapon against the control spirit. If you live in humility, you can never come under the control spirit - never - you will never be controlled if you live in humility. I have written this in my Bible: "Humility is the mighty weapon that will keep you easily free from the control spirit but humility must not be false humility that comes from a fear of rejection that is a false submission. You are just humbling yourself out of fear of being rejected or disapproved of. Humility is a very powerful position of confidence and security before God that sets you free from the fear of man because true humility comes from God's wisdom - true humility comes from the wisdom that is above".
There is too much false humility in the church. "I don't want to be successful, I don't want to be blessed - I just want to be humble". Rubbish! Jesus was successful and He was humble. Moses split the Red Sea with his rod and yet was the humblest man at that time on the earth. Humble people are bold and confident in the mighty power of God and they cannot be controlled by the controlling spirit. But where did they get their humility from? From the wisdom of God. If you do not have God's wisdom then you cannot be truly humble. You have just learnt the lingo that sounds humble. But if you have God's wisdom then you have discernment about the control spirit and you can deal with it in true humility before God.
(James 3:13) "Who is wise and understanding among you ... by deeds done in humility that comes from wisdom ... selfish ambition in your hearts" (Not in your head - in your heart), "Do not boast about it ... Such wisdom does not come from heaven" (He is being sarcastic now by saying "Such wisdom"), " ... of the devil" (Oh it's just a bit of envy Rob. Just a bit. They need to be controlled. Well let's see how innocent it is), "For where you have envy ... you have every evil practice ... but the wisdom from heaven is pure ... raise a harvest of righteousness". (James 4:13-17) "You do not even know what will happen tomorrow ... you are a mist that appears for a while and then vanishes ... anyone who knows the good they should do and doesn't, sins".
I am so convinced that revival is going to manifest in every nation on the planet. I am so convinced that the shape of the Church is going to change so completely over the next few years - it is going to accelerate so fast! But you know - people who say this, "I can't wait to see revival - I am tired of waiting - unless I see revival now I am going to give up". Friends, you will NEVER see signs and wonders through your life or in your life unless you see it as a prophetic hope in your heart - unless you see by the windows in your eyes the prophetic hope of the miraculous and God invading cities and winning millions at a time! Unless you see that in your hearts, you will never see it with your real eyes.
This is given to those who are the prophetic people - who are prisoners of hope, captured and arrested and handcuffed to hope. When you throw off the agenda of God to invade the impossible, and throw off God's hope for your life - if you abandon God's ambition for you and abandon God's agendas and adopt your own agendas and your own ambitions, they are called "selfish ambitions" for anything that isn't God's ambition and God's agenda for you is a "selfish ambition" - a self-centred ambition. You can take on religious ambitions!
I meet people from time to time who try to manipulate and control me by religious ambitions for this church or for other countries I have been in. They arrive in the church with their religious agenda and they try to hi-jack you to their cause. They come in and sense the vision of the church and realise that there is health and strong leadership and think, hey this is a church to come in and penetrate it and hack it from the soft underbelly and then get a control spirit going on here. You can be religious and zealous but if you have given up the ambitions of God and taken on a personal cause - some slice of the Kingdom that doesn't take on the whole Kingdom, then you are too focused on one slice. God says preach the Kingdom! Don't just take on marriage counselling or into healing of the sick or kingdom economics. Embrace the Kingdom! Otherwise you get into selfish ambition and aim to make your name great in the church through this cause I have got.
When you abandon the agenda and ambition of God to see His Church full of the glory of God, then you adopt your own agendas and your own ambitions which are selfish and they are not from the wisdom from above and not in humility and there is no life and liberty and freedom. There is just pressure and an agenda. I will smile and be nice but I don't budge! I will open my heart to anyone who has a Kingdom agenda and is willing to just leave it. I don't want to feel like; "If you don't line up then I am out of here - I am leaving the church". That is an agenda full of selfish ambition that is not full of wisdom but from below and it is of the devil.
If you allow that in, then you allow the control spirit in and the anointing will decrease in that church. You can go to church after church today and sadly you need a microscope to find the anointing because there is such control. Everyone smiles and everyone is nice that's why people think I am a nut!
They say; "Those are nice people! They help me fix my car and bake me cake!". Yes but come on now. If there is an agenda that is not of God's - then there is no freedom! I would never go into a church that is full of life and joy and say; "Alright now I want to get my cause in here". That's insane! You just stand and support that vision and don't try and control anyone but liberate and say; "I have a revelation in this area - can I submit it to you?". Yes we may preach it but we may not! We must realise that God has got timings and we may do it a year later! If you recognise that then you say; "Praise God I trust you and stand with you". You don't come back and say; "Well have you done that yet? What about that?". That is pressure! That is a control spirit! And too many of you allow it to be done to you. Don't allow your wife to do it to you. Or your husband or your children or me!
I have even tried to control God. I know none of you have tried to be that stupid. "God I have got a plan for Hong Kong. I have got a plan for Australia and a plan for Africa". Then I try to get God to bless my plan and after a lot of tears and sweat and frustration I find that my plan is not happening! So I say; "God! What are you doing?!". He says; "It's not My plan. Find My plan - it is already blessed. When you find My plan, it has got My resources and My power behind it. Your plan has only got YOU behind it!". If you step out of God's plan then heaven stops resourcing you and heaven stops empowering you then you have got to control people around you to resource and empower you because you have lost the vision of God and have stepped into your own agenda and ambitions that heaven wasn't backing.
You see TV evangelists come on air and say; "If you don't back us - we're going off the air!". I say; "Go off the air!". No - that is a control spirit! You need to go off the air if you have got to beg every time for money then it could be a good sign you are into selfish ambition. Because where God guides - He provides. You can challenge and inspire people to give and appeal to their conscience to give, but if you have to say things like; "If you don't give then we are going off the air!" then you will try and control Christians. I know in our lives we have given hundreds of thousands of dollars away for the purposes of the Kingdom - so I am into generous giving. But I like to give to people who say; "Man we are going somewhere - God is blessing us - we are enjoying God - we don't need your money. You will be blessed by giving to us but God is providing and we are going ahead!
So they put up all the pictures of starving children and your emotions are manipulated and controlled. We want to give! I could come out every week and show you pictures of starving children around the world and pump your emotions and get you to give every week. In Australia I would get letters across my desk every week from organisations and fundraisers saying can we come to your church and campaign - and I would say; "No! No! NO! You are not coming and manipulating my congregation. I spend all my time trying to teach my congregation how NOT to be manipulated and be controlled but to be led by the Spirit of God!".
The minute we give up control, the Holy Spirit takes over and He can raise the dead, He can win Hong Kong, He can do signs and wonders, His glory can cover this place! But the Church is controlling Him!
You hear pastors every year who say; "We bind the devil and we bind this spirit! We bind the rulers and we loose the Holy Spirit!". And they do that every meeting! So little weak Holy Spirit bound and tied up in the corner and big devil running all over the place. No no friends! Principalities and powers bound at the Cross and the blood of Jesus and the power of God, the power of the Spirit, the Word of God! We are about GOD! Not about devils!
So I just have to repent and the Father laughs and says; "Son you are trying to get Me to do something that isn't My plan and isn't My timing and isn't My way and My agenda. I want you to do this". And then suddenly I find the power comes! The best thing to do as a people if we have got control spirits over our lives and we are trying to control God or other people is to just repent with joy. And say "Oh Father I harmonise my heart with heaven - I re-align my ambitions and agendas with you. I repent of the control spirit and repent of my agendas I am trying to force on people and humble myself and take Your agenda and Your ambition and then God breaks in". I must say; "Lord I won't do a thing - unless it be Your will. If you give me the okay - Lord you are in control over my life and control will then break off you".
And then the power of God comes!
When you lose hope you come under a control spirit and abandon God's agenda and ambitions for your own selfish ambitions and agendas. Even though they may look religious, if they are not God's agendas and ambitions they are selfish ambitions. All of that comes out of losing hope and losing vision.
When you accept what is unacceptable you settle for a lie - you allow that lie to defeat you, define you and describe your life but this is definately not the landscape and geography of your future. We have legal access to passionately cry out to God to release a greater anointing on our lives. There is a dearth or a deficit of mentors and fathers in the earth. The Church is not a narcotic to numb the pain of life - but the Church is meant to be the fuel that ignites our faith to live lives that seem impossible to others but we live them because we are not under control spirits and we live to model a life to a generation and show them to follow a Christianity that is Kingdom Christianity that invades the impossible and does the impossible because we have thrown off control spirits. We are liberators and emanicaptors of God's government of peace!
God never called us to be average - I hate average! I puke on average! An average kiss is like kissing my sister on the lips. It is not the same as kissing Glenda - when I kiss Glenda there is a buzz!
We were never called to be mediocre - we were called to be great men and women of God! The Bible does not call great perfect. The Bible reveals great men and women who's imperfections and failures are clearly recorded in the Bible. I think "God aren't you ashamed of that?". David committed adultery and murder and Jacob and Abraham lied? No - God does not call greatness - perfection.
Men and women's imperfections are clearly recorded in the Bible but instead of disqualifying them, it clearly prepared them for greatness.
Don't measure your greatness by people's responses to you that are around you. Some people are so preoccupied with smallness that they cannot even see you are on a journey to greatness. All they see is your history and all they see is your past - and they are over-familiar with you. You have heard God tell you about greatness! I hope you have - if you haven't it is not because He hasn't spoken, because He is speaking to EVERY believer about greatness and it is for you.
God spoke to me in 1981 about greatness but you know, not every believer around me heard Him speak. Some don't believe He said it to me. Some people like Joseph told people about God's dream for greatness. To have ambition for greatness in God is not selfish ambition but the calling of God! You heard God tell you to do great things but the people around you, probably never. Like Joseph, you tell them about the great things and they want to throw you into a pit. Some people don't want you to become great because that will embarress and threaten them and then they will try and control you to throw off greatness and expecting greatness becuase they then have controlled you.
When faith leaps in your heart that God's will for you is greatness and that God made a covenant to commit to your greatness then you begin to rise above the control spirit.
Here is a thought that I wrote down; "God is delivering you and me from diminished dimensions. God is able to expand and duplicate and dilate the dimensions of Christ's miracle ministry through you. No matter what your career is, that is your vocation and very wonderful and the calling of God, but for every Christian He has called us to do the works that Jesus did and greater works".
The Church today has not yet operated the way that the Church operated in the Book of Acts. We find it difficult to conceive that we can even do these things, but all it takes is greatness and power to come on us and these things are easy! Demons have no authority to dictate your station or position or level of God's calling. A small boy's lunch offered to Jesus dilated and duplicated was not diminished but duplicated thousands of times larger than this original size as so with our lives offered to Him, no matter how insignificant we are, Jesus anointing on us displays His dilated, duplicated divine dimensions.
When you consider your future, God has not called you to look in a mirror but through a window. A mirror only shows you what you are now. Don't limit yourselves to what you are now. A mirror should become a window that you can look through to the power of what you are to become through the power of God's promises and His calling and His hope. It is the anointing that empowers you to see beyond the mirror. Lack of hope will dry you up and dwarf you and diminish you and decline you and deprive you and dilute you but the anointing increased will enhance you and elevate you and enlarge you and excite you.
Very quickly - five symptoms of a mirror mentality. Five questions to know whether you are a control freak or have a mirror mentality. You don't look through a prophetic window of hope but see what you are right now and it is discouraging so you become vulnerable to a control spirit. Five symptoms that church pews around the earth are filled with - and sadly there are more people under this mentality in the Church than in the world. Unsaved people don't have this but the control spirit has turned people who should have been great has diminished them to small, little, diminished people with no hope under a powerful control spirit. This will characterise many church goers and it is a tragedy. But we cannot bring down control governments down there until we have brought them down in here.
So;
1. Symptom Number 1; Prejudice.
We pre-judge everybody. If they are not like us, if they do not look like us, smell like us, dress like us ... "Unity is uniformity". Rubbish! Unity is diversity! People under a control spirit expose themselves for life expansion only to a smaller inner group of people that are just like them, inflexible, don't think outside of the box. Around the world today there is no excuse for ignorance anymore. You can download around the world off the internet mighty men and women ministering that are far further down the road than I am in some areas. You are depriving yourself if you feed only off me. There is no excuse! I encourage you - and I really mean this - go listen to Bill Johnson and Heidi Baker and anyone you want to - get out there and listen and get the downloads and listen to Joyce Meyer! That will expand you! There is a whole lot out there!
You know what worries me about movements and denominations? They feed only off themselves. It is spiritual incestuousness. "We all talk the same and we are religious and we are stereotyped and we are cloned by the religious control system".
It is sadly easy to tell who is Baptist and who is Methodist and who is Pentecostal. What is that? It is a cross-cultural control spirit - Jesus kept the people guessing! Who is this Person? Does the Messiah drink wine? He just did! Who is this guy? He doesn't wear religious clothes! People should never be able to say; "You are a charismatic, you are a Pentecostal, you are a Baptist" - no, they should say "Who the heck are you?!". Because you are not living in a religious sub-culture but the fresh breath of Kingdom culture. You can listen to some guys on the internet (and you are equipped and you can discern) and you will be able to say; "Okay that is legalistic - I will spit that out. There are a few bones with this lovely meal but I will spit the bones out".
There are some evangelists who shout and scream but if people are coming out of wheelchairs then it is worth listening to. I don't care if he jumps, screams or has colonic flatulence - I don't care as long as at the end miracles happen! Some are too extreme and say; "He uses the law - I won't listen to him anymore!". Learn what you can and discern what's wrong. You don't have to say; "Don't you listen!".
We have got people in some parts of the world saying; "Don't you listen to City Church International!". What does that do to people? They say; "I wonder why I shouldn't listen. I wonder why? I am going to go and listen!". Our downloads skyrocket every time someone says; "Don't you listen!".
2. Symptom Number 2: Small Expectations or Narrow-Minded.
They don't expect change and are fixed in their ways. Some people want the church to stay small so they can stay in their small circle and we can examine our belly buttons and just be nice to each other! We can have relationship - yes but we can be THOUSANDS and have relationship! The early Church had thousands and yet they were relational and loved each other because they met in small groups.
3. Symptom Number 3: Suspicious/Conservative/Nervous/Cautious.
I know the first time I went into a church in 1977 and I had just got saved out of Hinduism and I didn't want to get deceived again and I was very cautious and the first meeting I went into everyone started singing in tongues and I said to Glenda, "We are out of here! These people are weird!". But something in my heart said, "Wait - no - just discern the atmosphere" and I discerned the atmosphere and I realised that God is here! Then I looked at one man and he had his face up in the air and I saw the way he was worshipping God and I thought, "That man is sincere - I am staying".
I watch people come in here and I watch them as the power of the Spirit of God starts moving and they tense up. What is that? They have been under a control spirit. Now I want to appeal to you folks - be merciful to them. Run after them and put an arm around them. And throw a lassoo and just pull them ... no I am joking! Remember the first time you went into a wild meeting! Isn't it sad that we aren't talking about non-Christians here? We are talking about people who have been Christians for years and yet are suspicious/nervous/cautious - it is a control spirit!
4. Symptom Number 4: Easily Disappointed/Lack discipline/easily offended.
Pharisees are easily offended! So when you are around a Pharisee, they will smile a lot, they will bake you a cake and be nice to you but you can't say anything that disagrees with them because they will get offended. So what do you do? You say nothing that disagrees with them! What's just happened? You have just been controlled and you let them do it.
You are reducing the effect of the supernatural on your life every time you allow someone to control you.
They always have excuses and you just can't pin them down for any kind of accountability or responsibility because they have always got excuses. It is THEIR right to always be full of unbelief - full of self-pity - full of offence and full of bitterness.
5. Symptom Number 5: They are easily distracted.
They have very little focus on God's purpose in their life. They live life short-sightedly. They make decisions based on how do I get out of pressure now? So they bargain long term success for short term relief of pain.
Decisions they make set them up for disqualification of destiny.
They want to get out of debt so instead of trying to get out of debt by God's economics, they use worldly principles to get out of debt and so get into more and more and more debt. Then they will be making excuses after excuses saying it is the devil making them get into more debt. Adam said it was the woman that made me do it and Eve said it is the devil who made me do it. Always excuses!
Here is the good news for those with a mirror mentality under a control spirit. (Judges 6:12) When Gideon was dwarfed, diminished and diluted because he defined himself by what he saw in the mirror and afraid and hiding in a winepress. He was under a control spirit - he was dominated and he was intimidated. His destiny had diminshed to a winepress because he was afraid of the Midianites. The angel of the Lord appeared in this dwarfed state and the word of the Lord to Gideon was; "The Lord is with you mighty warrior!". The Lord was not looking in the mirror - the Lord was looking through the prophetic window! Gideon's answer was typical of someone with a mirror mentality! (v13); "If the Lord is with us - where are the signs and the wonders?". Sounds familiar? Hopelessness brings people under the control spirit. (v14) - The angel said; "Go in the strength you have and deliver Israel out of the Mideanites hand".
Here God calls Gideon to invade the impossible and throw off the Mideanites control. He wanted to take this man - a diminished dwarf under the control spirit with a mirror mentality and help him look through a prophetic window into greatness and bring great deliverance to the nation! How many of you are sitting in a winepress around the world? Gideon's answer to that great call to invade the impossible was (v15); "How can I ... my clan is the weakest!". Gideon was focused and locked into a control spirit by a mirror mentality. He was telling the truth about himself in his current condition. God came and smashed the mirror and opened the window to Gideon's destiny. Please hear this now - God then anointed Gideon!
You cannot do anything without anointing! That is the trouble with the Church. You have got people who know the Bible back to front and can quote the whole Bible but have never had an encounter with a supernatural God that made their blood boil, their hair go straight and stand on end, their faces go numb and their bodies shake as heavenly voltage goes through them. You cannot do the supernatural without divine encounters!
God did not anoint Gideon according to Gideon's mirror mentality. God anointed Gideon on the level of the prophetic window of his destiny to deliver a whole nation. If you want to live small in a wine vat and live in a small church and in a small way - and God will give you an anointing for a small life. You can keep looking at your mirror and the anointing you will get is limited by a control spirit. Or you can let God come and smash your mirror and open the prophetic window and show you your destiny so you can do the impossible!
But where people are living under a control spirit they do not even see the need for a greater anointing! God wants to anoint you and I not according to how we see ourselves but how He sees us.
If you look at the mirror of the law, you will only see a limiting picture of yourself. It will bring you under a control spirit - but if you look out of the window of grace the control spirit will lift off you and give you an anointing of power that you did not even know was available will come upon you to do the impossible. Now I want to close with this:
A very interesting story I want to give you here. At the beginning of last year - January 2007 - we were in the USA in Los Angeles and we were speaking to the senior pastors of many, many churches around the States and Canada. They had all come together and I did 16 meetings with them in 6 days preaching and ministering to them all.
On the last day I really discerned that God wanted to release the prophets because the prophets have been bewitched by the Jezebel spirit and have been controlled by pastor/teacher controlled denominational churches. I don't know if that makes any sense to you but it's the truth. The prophets are the eyes of the church and when the prophets are silenced and controlled, the church has it's eyes gouged out and they are like a Samson who is blindly working the Philistines camp having lost his strength. And the prophets eyes are coming back - the prophets are hearing this message and are finding strength to stand up and boldly prophesy this message.
I love it! So on the last day I started praying for the prophets and I stepped up to this one man who had a Vineyard church background in the USA and as I walked towards him, I didn't even get a chance to get my hands on him as I recall - I walked towards him and he was thrown back under the power of God and he sobbed for 2 hours. When the sobbing and weeping stopped then he couldn't talk and the fire of God was going through him. I flew out a few days later and I was at the Los Angeles airport and I rang him because I got a message and he said; "Rob I have never experienced the power of God like that - I have got a CD that I think would be helpful to you that is by Mike Bickle".
How many of you know Mike Bickle? From the Kansas City Prophets. He leads a phenomenal church in Kansas City and his church is praying with other churches 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for revival. Any time you switch on TV and they are praying - every day, every moment and they are praying for world revival in the church.
He said; "Mike Bickle spoke a message on the control spirit and I really believe that God wants you to hear this message". I got the CD and I listened to this message about a year ago and I have to be honest while I was listening to it, it didn't really resonate with me. I just thought it didn't give me a buzz, it didn't register. I always make notes when I am hearing someone preach that I am interested in so I did write down what he was saying - an outline - and then I just forgot it. Now I don't think about the control spirit a lot - I just discern it when it is operating and I deal with it. But I don't talk about it a lot or preach about it - only these two Sundays in a row I have preached about it. If you talk about the control spirit too much you make the people paranoid and they see control in everything!
Anyway I wrote this stuff down and was preparing this message and thought that I would go and get some notes I wrote some time ago (and I haven't got the best filing system!) and so was looking through my notes and came to this outline of Mike Bickle speaking on the control spirit. I got the shock of my life because I started reading it and suddenly now it was alive to me! How many of you know that a message has a season for your life?
I am looking at this and I see that I have written down about Mike Bickle speaking recently about an incident that happened to him in October 1990 in the United Kingdom. He was travelling there with John Wimber. How many of you know John Wimber? He is with the Lord now but he was a remarkable man - I met him several times. God raised him up from California to open the door of the supernatural to denominational churches. He went primarily to the Church of England of all places! Thousands of Anglicans would gather to hear him and John Wimber would just talk and while he was talking they would begin to bounce in their seats and demons would come out and people would fall under the power of God. He is typically Californian - he is not like me - he has a goatee beard and a big paunch and Californian sunshirts on and he would just talk quietly and the power of God came.
Mike Bickle was invited to travel with him and Mike went into his hotel room at the end of a meeting and he said in the early hours of the morning Jesus walked into his room visibly. October 1990. Mike Bickle said he had only seen Jesus visibly with his open eyes three times in 30 years of ministry. He said a terror came over him and it wasn't just parts of his body shaking - every single part of his body began to violently shake. God is not a semi-senile Santa Claus - He is an awesome God, this Jesus! He walked into that room and Mike Bickle began to shake violently. He said he could hear the traffic outside and then he said Jesus began to speak to him and he said, he could hear Jesus like he was hearing with his ears! He began to say;
"I want you Mike to begin a prayer movement and prepare for the power of a visitation of My Kingdom that will begin in 2007".
Now isn't God amazing? He spoke about something 17 years before the event! Prophets have to be patient! Now I am thinking; "October?! October! 1990! Jesus visibly in a room telling a man that a visitation is coming that will begin in 2007!!". Now the Spirit is starting to rise up inside me!
"Hold on a minute -hold on. In JUNE of 2007 Marina saw two angels appear in this room". Which by the way people from Dubai saw as well and have told me since and they are sane, not weird people. So angels appeared with big trumpets and as she was seeing them, I didn't see them but I heard God speak in my heart and say that He was sounding a trumpet blast that was signalling the transitioning of this church out of an Old Covenant mentality and into a New Covenant mentality. And the power of God fell on this place and some of you saw this and we went to Brighton and we saw the power of God fall like we have never seen it before.
God said; "I am lifting the periphery fence - you are stepping into New Covenant glory and no one can go into New Covenant glory if they are under legalistic mindsets". Remember? What is a legalistic mindset? A control spirit. So Mike Bickle is shaking and Jesus says;
"In 2007 a visitation of My Spirit is coming to the earth". And then He says this to Mike Bickle; "No body under a control spirit will be part of that visitation".
Now I am preparing a message on the control spirit looking for other notes. I had forgotten I had written that down! Then Jesus said this to Mike Bickle - and by the way Mike Bickle is a holy man of integrity who fears God and he could be a multi-millionaire but he lives in a small house on purpose. He is a faithful man who doesn't make stupid stuff up. Jesus said this;
"Mike in the world at the moment in 1990, the Christians today who are moving at the highest level of the miraculous - if you want to talk about the anointing, the scale of the anointing from 1 to 10 and the book of Acts was 10 - the people in the earth who are moving in the highest levels of the anointing have not gone beyond a 2".
I heard that and thought; "Wow! Good news!". Because we are trying to do the works Jesus did with a number 2 when God wants to get us to a number 10! So He says;
"People that move at a number 2 - other Christians think they are moving at a number 10. But they are actually moving 8 scales below that and the reason why most Christians think they are moving at a number 10 is because most Christians are operating in a 0.01 level of the anointing. So when they see a number 2 they think it is a number 10.
I am willing to give a number 2 level of the anointing to any Christian anywhere on the earth at any time - but no one with a control spirit will go beyond a number 2. But I am willing to give the number 10 anointing to anyone who deals with the control spirit".
And then He said; "Now Mike at the next meeting you are going to preach to thousands of people and you will preach what I have told you".
Mike went to John Wimber and said; "John Jesus told me to do this - do you think it will be right John?" and he was hoping John Wimber would say; "No" because he didn't want to address the Church of England that have got serious control spirits. He didn't want to be remembered like that. He was under much persecution in the USA at the time and people were writing books against him at the time and he didn't want to be remembered as the guy who stood up and told the Anglicans they were under a control spirit and you need to repent!
John Wimber said; "I believe that is Jesus - you need to go and do that". So he came out and there were thousands in the auditorium and (this was October 1990) he spoke about the control spirit in weakness and in fear and in trembling. He said while he was speaking the power of God fell and hundreds had demons come out of them and they fell foaming from the mouth. This was British people! He flew back to Kansas and thought he would preach it and see the same power and he preached it and nothing happened! He preached it again and nothing happened! He said; "Lord what is happening here?". Jesus said;
"Mike I told you to preach that message about 2007 and I backed it up with signs and wonders so the message you preached would be backed up. But what I was talking about was for 2007".
So I am saying this locally and internationally. Jesus is coming after the control spirit in the church over His Bride and He will not just come and topple it off us. He doesn't do that. He will expose our hearts to the revelation of the control spirit and give us the choice to repent, humble ourselves and say;
"Lord not my plan, not my ambition - Father I want your plan, your ambition for my life and I repent of trying to control You, control people, control my life - I surrender to the control of the Holy Spirit. Do what you want Holy Spirit".
Let me give you an example but it is a sign of bigger things. The majority of Christians I have met when a level 2 anointing comes on them in the service and they will shake a bit and nearly fall over, they get a fright, get worried and get all formal and take control back. Who's in control of their life? Them. I am not talking about self-control over the sinning spirit. They are controlling the Holy Spirit and He came on them in a number 2 anointing!
Folks, I want to tell you I am not interested in a number 2! I have only got a number 2 right now! I am not interested in a number 3, 4, 5 or 6! I want a number 10! I am a prisoner of hope and I can see what's coming! I know what we need! The power of God comes and they say; "God's in control of this church!? This is our church!". No its His church! The first whiff of God coming on you and what do you do? Welcome to the number 2 club. Enjoy number 2.
That's all you will have in 2007-2009 even though you know that in the Bible Jacob wrestled with God face to face, experienced God encounters, Abraham fell under the power, Daniel heard an audible voice, all the prophets had encounters with God, Jesus saw the heavens opened, the early church was drunk, Paul was knocked to the ground by the power of God and heard an audible voice, John was caught up to heaven!!
And yet it's NOT happening today!! Why is it not happening today? The spirit of control. We've got control of our lives, our church, our religion.
We must repent and open our heart! "Your will on this earth as it is in heaven".
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