"Son-ship vs Christianity"

This wonderful sermon was preached by Rob Rufus at City Church International on Sunday 30th November 2008.


"I want to talk a little bit more about being sons - the difference between being a Christian and being a son. Thank God for Christianity but being a son is far better. The word "Christian" does not appear once in the Old Testament and under the New Testament it only appears once in Acts 11:26. Yet all over the world you hear talk about "Christianity", "Church-ianity" but the New Testament only mentions the word "Christian" once - but dozens and dozens of times it talks about being "sons".


So the Father is restoring the revelation of son-ship. As I said last week, it doesn't matter if you are woman or man - if you are in Christ then you are a son. I am a man but I am part of the Bride of Christ - according to Ephesians chapter 5. The Bible says in Galatians 3 that there is neither male or female but all are one in Christ Jesus. So the ladies are sons as much as the men are sons in Christ Jesus.


The revelation of son-ship is what will take the Church to a greater level of doing the same miracles that Jesus did. It is not just our inheritance to do the miracles that Jesus did - it is the absolute will of the Father to do the same miracles that Jesus did.


No great theology or great truth or biblical idea will have any sustainability on the planet if it is not embodied in a community of people. Because we are not practioners - we are not theorists!


Much of Christianity has to do with theory, theology and concepts and cerebral mental ideas that we can get puffed up with all our information and Bible knowledge. But if we are not doing the miracles that Jesus did, if we are not healing the sick and the broken-hearted and letting the love of the Father flow through us - then we are not operating as sons - we are just operating as Christians.


The idea of son-ship was the ministry of Jesus. He didn't say "I am the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father but by Me" - His whole purpose was to bring us to the Father so that we can be in the Father and the Father in us to the same degree that Jesus was in the Father and the Father was in Him.


So for decades and decades - in fact from about 300 A.D - the church moved from the revelation of son-ship and began to emphasise the issue of Christianity. So we got denominationalism - we got religious traditions that are not in-line with the truth of the Bible.


It weakened the church - the Church went into superstition, religious legalism and control and guilt and feeling bad all the time and not worthy enough and self-hatred and all of these things stem from an absence of the revelation of being sons. From about 500 years ago God slowly began to restore to the Church the revelation that we are primarily sons first and secondly Christians. The world has seen enough of Christianity and quite frankly the world has HAD enough of Christianity and I have had enough of Christianity and I am looking for the sons of God to be revealed!


In the Zulu culture of South Africa, they call God - "The God of all Gods" and if you trace way back into the Zulu inheritance, they originally had an idea of one God who created the heavens and the earth. The very name "Zulu" translated into English means; "The people of heaven". We - not the Zulus - are the true Zulus! The true people of heaven! We are seated in heavenly places - we are the sons of God right now! And we are discovering our identity as sons.


From this church that is beginning to equip people to move from being Christians into understanding what it means to be a son - from this church every month for the last few years, a team goes up into China mainland and ministers to a congregation made up of 3 congregations and teach them about the grace of God and being free from Old Covenant legalism and law and guilt and condemnation and have open access to the Father and we are in the Father and in the grace of God. Then they show how this revelation manifests miracles and brings healing into people's bodies. They have been doing that over and over again and demonstrating that.


Month after month and year after year and suddenly the model - not just preaching on healing but calling out people out and healing the sick and doing it and embodying the idea in practice and community - that the idea is incarnated into practice by not just preaching but by doing - that church has now got an understanding of growing identity as sons and not just Christians and I heard this morning that they are now going out without us asking them to do that - the members of that church in mainland are now going into hospitals and praying for the sick and seeing the sick healed! They have been going for years and they haven't done that before.


The revelation has to be embodied - an idea has to be incarnate in a community and worked out in practical reality otherwise it is just classroom lectures and theories and Bible information - that's Christianity! Being sons is doing the stuff that sons do!


Last week that was the most defining message I have ever preached in my life - I really challenged and encouraged the members that were here to get the CD or download it and listen to it over and over again until the revelation of sonship drops into your heart. We have been so programmed and conditioned by centuries of Christianity but not revelation of sonship. Jesus was the first-born from the dead among many brothers. We are sons! I believe that if you missed that - please don't miss services for silly reasons. I know people need to have a break and a rest and I endorse that but don't miss things for silly, superficial reasons because we are on an un-folding sequence of destiny to recover and regain our identity as sons in the earth.


God is looking for a body of people to embody this truth in practical reality and He has found one here called "City Church International". It is the ultimate and it is the climax and the conclusion of the covenant of grace. There is no higher revelation than what I preached last week regarding the revelation of the New Covenant where from John 14 and John 17 - Jesus makes it absolutely clear that as much as He is in the Father and the Father is in Him so we who are in Christ are to the same degree in the Father and the Father is in us and we are sons of God - men and women.


So I want to very simply and practically and briefly just share some on-going revelation that flows out of last Sunday. I am getting emails from around the world and people are saying "Please teach us about hearing the voice of God - you keep saying you are going to start that". We have got to get people rightly positioned.


The reason why most Christians can't hear the voice of God is because they still think of themselves as Christians and not as sons. So when they hear the Father speak, they don't believe it's the Father because they think He couldn't be speaking such good things to me! Christians think of the Father as a Judge - they think of Him as schizophrenic, one day He is Father when I am behaving well and the next He is Judge when I am not behaving well. So they don't know the Father's voice because they don't know the love of the Father.


Last week we went to great detail that when Jesus said; "Father, the glory you have given Me - I have given them - the sons". The Church - the same glory! He says what that glory is - the glory I have, is the glory - the love you have given Me before the creation of the world.


The glory the Son gave us is the revelation that the Father loved us before the creation of the world.


I unpacked what that meant from Ephesians 1. So we need the revelation downloads of our identity so we can walk in it. Let's watch how Jesus did His miracles as a son because then we can do the same miracles He did because we are joint equal heirs with Christ and heirs with God. We can do them as sons as well! (John 5:19); "The Son can do nothing by Himself" - what a powerful revelation for you and me today! We could stop and spend an hour right there on; "The Son can do nothing by Himself". That in itself is a revelation to do and see miracles in your life and encourage you! He can only do what He sees His Father doing because whatever the Father does, the Son also does.


Now He can only do what He sees His Father doing. Many people think Jesus saw into the spirit realm - He did but not all the time. But they think when He said; "What I see my Father doing" - they think He saw a giant hand doing things. The Greek and Arabic word for "see" is the same word; "Without holiness, no man can see God". It doesn't mean if you are not holy enough then you are not going to go to heaven. "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God". He is not talking about going to heaven and seeing God.


The word there is the word to perceive - to discern - to be sensitive - to be aware by the Holy Spirit of what the Father is doing.


That's what He means by "see". You have a sense and an awareness and you hear the Father - you actually hear the Father. For instance we went upto China and worked from morning until evening - it was all talk. I went with 5 beautiful women and my wife was the most beautiful of them all. We were ministering and prophecying over people and blessing all these precious Chinese people. We flew back and arrived late and some struggled through customs due to immigration issues - got home late, no time to have a bath and then the prayer meeting starts!


So driving back from the airport to home in the taxi, I am sitting there saying "Father what do You want to do in the prayer meeting tonight? I want to do what You are doing!". He IMMEDIATELY said:


"Acts 13 - the prophetic and teaching gifts are going to transition in this church to the apostolic mantle and tonight I am going to bring an apostolic mantle down on the service".


Now because I sensed and perceived that's what the Father wanted to do - I didn't do anything else that meeting. That was the whole focus.


I flowed with what the Father was doing and those that were there know that a mighty mantle came down over that meeting. That's what every son can do!


It's just even when you go to work; "Father what do you want me to do?". What's the issue then? I want to show you right now why Jesus had confidence to know what His Father was doing - I want to tell you why He had perception and sensitivity and discernment to what His Father was doing.


It's because He KNEW that the Father loved Him.


When I was in Cape Town a lot of people saw the power of God flowing and came to me and said; "Rob what's your secret? What's the secret for miracles and healing? The power that flows from you - what's your secret? How long do you pray? How much do you fast?". You see they wanted a formula. They wanted a technique because they are thinking like Christians not sons. The older brother was slaving away and raged; "I've never disobeyed you but you've never given me anything! But this son of yours has been with the prostitutes and you have given him everything!".


The father said to the older brother; "Everything I have is yours". You don't have to earn it or deserve it - it's yours.


So what's your secret? I said - this is my secret. I know that the Father really really likes me. I know He enjoys me!


"You must be so perfectly holy! You must never do anything wrong!". What are you talking about?! Just come with me on a trip and see how imperfect I am! Those girls I went with to China are mighty prophetic women that prophesy with power. Just to dialogue with them and interact with them was a joy. But I just know that the Father loves me! "But Rob don't you fail?". Yes - often. "Are you always obedient?". No! Sometimes I don't get it right!


But the Father loves me and He didn't start loving me because He saw me getting better in my behaviour.


John 17 and Ephesians 1 says before creation - in love - the Father predestined me to be adopted as a son! He saw everything I was going to do wrong - but before time began, He loved me before the creation of the world! Now that's how He loves every individual! I just happened to find that out!


It has been the quest of my life and a hard task to convince Christians that the Father is madly in love with you. He loves your eyes - He loves your voice - He loves your temperament - He loves your personality - He overlooks your sin and it is not in His sight because it is ALL taken away through the finished work of the Cross. He loves you - He doesn't condemn you - He loves you totally and when we believe that the Father loves us then it is so easy as a son to know what the Father is doing and you can then just do it with the Father.


You don't always hear the voice of the Father - sometimes you just know that this is what He is doing and do it! It's not all weird and super-spiritual.


The greatest guidance from the Father is by the Spirit is not an open vision of techni-colour heavens! I have seen angels but its not a mighty angel coming and telling me the direction! It's not been a shooting star! It's not been shaking and falling! It's been a quiet, inner and profound awareness that this is what the Father wants and you have all got that!


You have all got that! Sometimes we say; "Be led by peace". Maybe we need to redefine that. As a son you are meant to walk in peace all the time. Don't be led by peace. If you are trying to make a decision - be led by disturbance. You should be walking in peace all the time! As soon as you feel something that doesn't feel right in my spirit - then where did you lose your peace? Something that's trying to pressure you to make a decision - whether it's to get married to somebody - to go into business with somebody - to sign a contract or buy a particular car or rent a house or buy a house - if the peace goes then you know that is the Father letting you know - don't do this no matter how much pressure is on you!


Walk away now. You are led by peace to walk in peace but as soon as your peace stops that's when you know that you are not meant to go ahead with this. These people who come bouncing up to you and say; "Praise the Lord - He spoke to me and said you are going to be my husband or my wife" - or in other words people who get all weird and say; "Oh I don't know what to do - he's hearing God better than me and maybe if I don't marry him then I am disobeying God! Lord give me a sign - if a shooting star shoots across the heavens then I will know it is your will because He told me that I am going to be his wife!".


Never be led by external circumstances - I am never led by circumstances. Gideon put out a fleece - then in the morning if it is wet or dry then I will know it's You God. That's because he wasn't born again. He was under the Old Covenant. You are led by the Spirit on the inside of you. Do not be led by anything on the outside of you. Do not be led by circumstances. Don't be led by shooting stars! That's what your marriage will be - a shooting star. Bright for a while then terrible afterwards. "Led by the Spirit on the inside for they are sons of God". Because of the economic downturn. I am not led by circumstances - I still tithe. Every month for 30 years I have tithed and brought offerings to the local church. I am not going to be led by circumstances - if I am going to lose my belt then I won't not tithe. I will cancel certain T.V programmes or I won't eat that much.


Because I am led by the spirit of truth - not by circumstances. I am not trying to put something on you because you have stopped tithing - because I absolutely don't know!! I haven't checked the finances for a month or two. I just have faith that you are being faithful and walking in the Spirit with the Father. There's no manipulation here. If there's no money then I have to leave Hong Kong so it doesn't bother me! No! How many of you know that if the finances dried up then I still wouldn't leave Hong Kong? Because that's being led by circumstances! That's being led by a fleece! I will only do what I see the Father doing. I will be led by the Spirit and my Father will find a way. Even if the crowds have got to feed me or bring me money in front outside the city then I will be okay!


Here's the revelation on how to know what the Father is doing and knowing what He's doing. (v20); "For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does!". Yes to your amazement He will show Him even greater things than these! Now isn't it amazing that Jesus had to tell people that He knows that the Father loves Him? Do you know that Jesus was a man just like you? Do you know that Jesus had to go to the restroom? He had to eat? He got tired? He had to sleep and rest and He had a physical body? Did you know that He had to hear the Father say to Him; "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased"?


Jesus needed to know that the Father loved Him! He didn't just assume that - He got revelation that the Father loved Him before the creation of the world. In heaven He knew it already. He was fully God - but when He came to the earth, His divinity was restrained and He had to walk in humanity depending on the Holy Spirit.


He came to that understanding - the Father loves Me! He said; "Without the Father I can do nothing". So why am I trying? Why am I trying to get people saved? Why am I trying to get miracles? Why am I trying to impress people? Without the Father I can do nothing! So what's all this stuff that I am doing without the Father? It is called dead works! It is called religion! It is called Christianity! Before you are saved you need to confess your sins to get saved but after you get saved, the New Testament does not teach you to repent of your sins! In Romans 9 it teaches you to repent of dead works. What are dead works? They are spiritual things done without faith, done under the law and done without the Father.


If the Holy Spirit swept through the whole church world today - 1 billion 500 million people that call themselves Christians - how much dead works would He find and how much would He find Christians doing only what they see the Father doing? It's not meant to make you feel bad! This is rest! If Jesus said the Son can do nothing without the Father then He meant NOTHING! Nothing + nothing = Nothing! If you take 10 x nothing then you still get nothing. He couldn't even pray - He couldn't do anything without the Father!


That means when you understand you are a son and that you are in the Father and the Father is in you and you know that the Father loves you - then you will from that day be led by the Spirit into the adventures of the miracles of doing what Jesus the Son did.


Go to Romans chapter 8. What is the difference between Christians and sons?


1. Christians are primarily led by circumstances - they have a survival mentality. They will do things when they are hurt or rejected or times are tough. Christians will do in the circumstances what suits them best. Sons are not led by circumstances - they are led by the Spirit. That's what sons are. (Romans 8:14); "Those who are led by the Spirit are sons of God". It didn't say they are going to be sons one day. If people are led by the Spirit of God then they are sons of God - they are sons! Christians in Christ are going to heaven when they die. There is no question about that. It's not an issue about heaven or hell. If you are in Christ you are going to heaven. But a son is someone who is not led by circumstances - someone who is led by the Holy Spirit.


2. A son doesn't live in fear. Christians do. Paul writes and says God has not given a spirit to fear again. A few weeks ago that word "again" jumped out at me. I had never seen that word - even though I had read that passage hundreds of times. So I had to ask; "God has not given us a spirit to fear again". What do you mean "again"? When was the first time we feared? The first time we feared was when we saw how severe the law of God is and the judgements of the law of God. When we saw that we felt the fear of divine rejection, we felt the fear that the Father would reject us because we had broken His law, we felt fear of wrath, we felt fear of being abandoned, we felt fear of God's disapproval.


And all condemnation produces stress, anxiety, worry and anger. Modern psychologists have traced all stress, all anger, panic attacks, anxiety - back to guilt and condemnation. The economic downturn in and of itself could not have caused the amount of suicide that is happening in Hong Kong and around the world IF people were taught about being sons because sons have a spirit from the Father in them so they will never fear again.


What's the fear? The fear that the Father will abandon me during the economic downturn - the fear that the Father is not able to supply me with what I need because I am not good enough and I am not holy enough so I will be rejected.


Sons are led by a spirit that will never put them in fear again!


I have heard Christian leaders tell me this - that the Holy Spirit came to replace the law. That is criminal to teach that because it makes out that the Holy Spirit is just like the law. The whole purpose of the law was to point out your faults, point out how wrong you were, point out what you should be doing and that you will be judged and rejected by God under that law. The Holy Spirit didn't come to replace that and just carry on making you feel bad - no!


The Holy Spirit came not to replace the law but to totally remove the law and to show you that you are a son and that if you live in the Spirit being led by the Spirit and not by circumstances, not reducing your life to your own wits and replying on your own understanding and logic and working it out, but if you will learn the sensativity of a son to do only what you see your Father doing then you are walking in a spirit that will never make you a slave to fear again.


How do I know that most people I have met in 30 years as a pastor are not operating as sons but as Christians? Because they live in fear. God has not given us a spirit of fear. Why are Christians living in fear? Well they are living in something the Father never gave them. It's a demonic fear - it's satanic power - it's partnership with unbelief - it is not the revelation of sonship but basic, low level Christianity. Do I sound like I am on a mission here?! I don't want to sound so intense about this - this is supposed to be good news! I am provoking you guys here! "Rob do you live like a son all the time?". No! At times I operate as a Christian! I am operating more and more like a son however.


I am shocked at how few Christians even know this is an issue. They think Christianity is the ceiling. Oh friends - we have so much to discover about sonship! Do you know that in you, you have the potential in the Holy Spirit to never fear again? Christians fear again because they go back under law but you have a spirit - if you are led by this spirit - you will never fear again! If fear comes on you - fear of failure, fear of the dark, of responsibility, of confronting people you should be confronting, of God rejecting you ... anytime you come under fear, it's because you have stopped being led by the Holy Spirit and are being led by circumstances. For as sons we have the potential to never ever fear again. Not fear a doctors report or death or that your parents or closest friends may reject you. Jesus had one of His closest friends reject Him. He didn't withdraw and sulk and say; "There must be something wrong with Me!".


Sons are very secure because they know the Father loved them before the creation of the world and never ask that stupid, wasted question; "Well there must be something wrong with me". Sometimes people who mistreat you and reject you - it is not a commentary on you but a commentary on THEM and if you are a son you will not live in this fragile, frightened little world of needing people to be loving me and nice to me and never rejecting me.


Jesus just kept on doing what He saw His Father doing. If I listened to every issue that came at me in Hong Kong then I wouldn't even be leading this church. I would be taking you down this road or that road. Every movement for unity and every idea of what a Christian should be doing. Oh and if you don't co-operate you are seen as divisive! I love everybody - truly. I am not prejudiced in the way I see people but I am going to do what I see my Father doing. I will not live in fear!


I have already been rejected a number of times in Hong Kong. It hasn't shifted me one little bit!


That is the part of me operating as a son. Let's read (v15). Once people realise you are operating as a son they will stop trying to manipulate you. The more I walk as a son - less and less people sulk, withdraw and by abscence try and manipulate me. Once people know you are confident with quiet assurance that you are a son and you are not fearing again they will actually give up trying to manipulate you. When they know that you have such an insecure rejection complex, they will pull out all sorts of guilt trips on you and their body language will match - them not turning up or phoning for days while making you wait. They know that if you can be manipulated, they will manipulate you because society runs on a system of manipulation.


The kingdom runs on; "You are loved - not because you do what the system says you should do - you are loved because you are a son!".


Every social or organizational system has a manipulation technique built into it - in this system, this is how we all behave and if you don't we will put guilt on you. But in the kingdom we are all seen as sons and we are loved for being sons. Because we are sons we are led by the Spirit and the Spirit will never lead you to be lazy or into sin or not to come to church on a regular basis. People that miss church on a regular basis are not being led by the Spirit 99% of the time. We don't have chaos in the church! I have taken the law off everyone and we don't have chaos!


People are disciplined - they come to church and in the Word of God and come and pray on Thursday night and give generously and go for God and pray for the sick and go into China and do outreach and all the stuff! Not because if they don't they won't be seen as a good member! But because they are finding out that we are sons. (v15); " ... did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear but you received a spirit of sonship and by Him we cry "Abba! Father!". The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit ...".


The Holy Spirit is telling you that you are a son of the Father and is in you and through you is crying; "Abba! Daddy! Father!".


(v17); "If we are children then we are heirs - heirs of God and co-heirs". Co-heir is an equal heir. "with Christ". (v19); "For the sons of God to be revealed". It didn't say that the world is waiting for Christians to be revealed but for sons to be revealed - led by the Spirit who only do what they see the Father doing and are not led by circumstances. Two more Scriptures and we are going to close. Go to Hebrews 4. I am stretching you - I am taking you out of confusion here! Remember when Jesus said in Matthew 11:25; "the Father hides these things from the wise and the learned". From the intellectual and those who have abilities. The Father hides this from the wise and learned but reveals it to children. "This is the Father's good pleasure to reveal it to the childlike".


He said; "No one knows the Son except the Father reveal the Son and noone can know the Father unless the Son choose to reveal the Father".


Now who does the Son chose to reveal the Father to? The wise and learned? It is His pleasure to hide the revelation of the Father's love from the wise and learned, the arrogant and the self-righteous - those keeping the law. But it's His joy and His pleasure to reveal the love of the Father to those who come down in humility and believe that He has not called you to be a Christian but a son who the Father loves!


(v28); "I choose to reveal the Father to the child-like". So we cry; "Jesus reveal the Father!". How do you do that? The very next verse I am quoting in sequence says; "Come to Me all you that are laiden and heavy-burdened and I will give you rest". What is the revelation of the Father's love? Rest. Why? "I can do nothing without the Father". I am not going to bother trying because I can do nothing without the Father! My yoke is easy and My burden! Christians talk about "God gave me a burden" - now if you mean by that God has given you a calling then fine. But He is showing you what He is doing and wants you to do it with Him. But if your idea of a burden is moaning and groaning then that is not rest and that is not a yoke that is easy and is not a burden that is light.


When you have got a light burden on you, you don't know you have got it on because it's light. But you know as soon as something registers on you, it's got too heavy. You are not meant to live under people's pressure. You are not meant to live under pressure to do things apart from the Father. You are not meant to have your ministry - you don't have one. It's the Father! So the revelation of the Father is rest. Every time fear comes on me, I know I am not walking in the Spirit. Every time stress and striving and intensity and anxiety comes on me - I know I am not walking in the Father. I know I am getting wise and learned now and I can sort this out today Lord. I don't need you anymore. No - apart from the Father you can do nothing!


(Hebrews 4:10); "For anyone who enters God's rest - also rests from His own work just as God did from His". God is rest! God is resting! From his own work - just as God did from His! Do you know that God is not working anymore? Do you know God has finished from His work and is at rest? After six days He rested and He is at rest and has finished creation! It's not because He gets tired - God never gets tired. He rested because He has finished. So creation - He's resting. He is finished. What about salvation? What about signs and wonders? Redemptions and forgiveness of our sins and blessing us? He's done it already! When? Jesus said on the Cross; "It is finished!".


So God is at rest. He doesn't have to do one more thing to save you - one more thing to bless you - one more creative act. God is resting! He that enters into God's rest, rests from his own works - that is not just getting saved, that's your whole life - rests as God rests from His own works. One day I am going to teach you how to do that in a busy world. There is a way to live otherwise. God is just teasing us! I get tired of sitting in a meeting with Christians reading the Bible and saying; "Well tell me how this works!".


Give yourself permission to accept that this is the Word of God therefore it's accessible to you!


Go to Ephesians 2 and we'll close with this.


Holy Spirit-led activity is not inactivity. It's doing things in what the Father has already done!


The Greek tense is not like the English tense. There are all kinds of tenses in the Greek present continuous. "Has done" and "is continuing to do". As I said last week, God created time - God does not live in time and God is not limited to time because God in eternity - there was no time then God created time when He created this world. So before time began, many New Testament passages tell us that God already loved us, that God already redeemed us, the Lamb of God "slain before the foundation of the world". So before time began, Father had already done everything - then in time He fulfilled everything. He had done already in the Spirit realm - He created and then rested. On the Cross the work of redemption was all finished.


What we are doing now is that we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do miracle, to do works that have already been done. You don't have to create a miracle. The Father created it before time began and you just need to see where He is leading you to do something - but that something He is leading you to do - He has ALREADY done it before time began!


So you don't have to manufacture it or sweat.


In other words our lives should be characterised by doing mighty miracles without hardly trying! You just enter into rest! Many people try to get signs and wonders by striving. When the power of God is on you, it sometimes does come on you so strong (like at Eastbourne) and can be frightening. If anyone had swept upto me with a big growth on the side of their head or in a wheelchair it wouldn't have frightened me or bothered me - just power!


As it was a crippled lady was healed and demons came out of people and dozens got healed within a few minutes. It was only on me like that for 10 minutes. Then it lifts and you feel as normal as anyone again. I didn't fast to get that power - I hadn't been particularly holy that week or the week before. I just know that my Father loves me! And He brought that power on me for that moment for certain people to be healed!


Did everyone get healed? No. Did I go feeling guilty? No. I can only do what I see my Father doing. I cannot live in the pain or those who don't get healed or the trauma of those in the question; "Why?". I will live in the joy of those who did get healed and trust that I can equip many sons.


That night (at Eastbourne) sons were allocated to get healed those I didn't but didn't understand their sonship. They thought I was the guru. One day I am going to preach to a congregation that all are sons. As a son I can get some healed but He hasn't done it for me to get the others healed One day I am going to preach to a whole congregation that are ALL sons. As a son I can get some healed but He hasn't done it for me to get the others healed. He has allocated to the others to get that miracle.

You can see it in Acts 3. Jesus went upto the Temple and through the Gate Beautiful many times when He was in Jerusalem. It says in Acts 3 that a man had laid there crippled from his mothers birth and had been put there every single day. Jesus would have walked past the cripple many times and didn't heal him. In Acts 3 two other sons Peter and John came walking in that day and they saw the Father say "Do it". Now you say was there a particular fatalistic day when he should have been healed? No I don't believe that God had showed people sonship yet. Jesus rebuked the synagogue leaders in Luke 13 because He said this woman had been crippled for 18 years and you get mad with Me for healing on the Sabbath? She is a daughter of Abraham and she should have been healed 18 years ago! Don't get from what I am teaching that there is a fatalistic day. The Father has deployed sons all over the world to get everyone healed that is sick!

The reason we are not seeing the full measure is because we have got too many Christians and not enough sons.

Lets read Ephesians chapter 2. You can't reveal everything in one sermon and thats obviously why I take so long. Allow me one more minute latitude here. How many of you perceive in your heart how committed our Father is to having in the earth churches that are filled with sons that are opening blind eyes, deaf ears and seeing the cripples walk? Not once when a crusade evangelist comes to town but they are doing it every day! How many of you know that the Father is committed to that? Almost more than anything else! The only thing He is more committed to is you understanding that you are a son!

You know what the devil is most committed to? Not getting you into pornography or to do this or do that. He is committed to stealing your identity as a son. He wants to keep you with a Christian mindset. He does not want you to discover that you are a son! He said to Jesus; "IF you be the Son of God ...". IF?! Jesus refused to do anything because He knew He was!

And He didn't see the Father telling Him to take up the stupid challenge from this illegitimate called Satan. But Satan was trying to question His identity. What was h he trying to do to Eve in the Garden of Eden? "Did God really say? Did God really say you are a son?". Yes He did devil - now shut up! I am a son and I am led by the Spirit never to be subject to fear again! So when I enter God's rest because God has rested from His works and therefore I can rest from my works. How do I do that?

Ephesians 2:4 "But because of His great love for us, God who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved and God raised us up!". PAST tense! He will not do this one day in the future - God has already done it "with Christ"! When Christ was raised up with Him already, and seated with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus in order than in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus". (v10); "Created to do good works which God prepared". So these good works were prepared in advance before time began. Before time began God made you His workmanship - not your workmanship! Created in Christ Jesus to do good works. What is good? (Acts 10:38); "How God anointed Jesus and went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil because God was with Him". We are God's workmanship created to do good works that He prepared in advance. And now He is resting!

I have studied revivals for 30 years and there are not many revivals that you can talk to me about that I haven't heard of. I know the personalities involved and I know about their families. I have got every video that I can get on revivals that happened 50 years ago and I have watched the miracles! Here is my take on it. 50 to 100 years ago (and I believe I speak with pretty strong authority) God raised up men and women who He gave an ability to do miracles that was close to the miracles that Jesus was doing. 3 of them were women - Maria Woodworth-Etter, Kathryn Kuhlman and Aimee Semple-Mcpherson.

Now there could have been going on something in China but I don't know that part of history. He raised up men like Smith Wigglesworth and Alexander Dowie and John G Lake and Evan Roberts. These people walked in such power that the biggest lumps like this would disappear in front of crowds eyes. Such was the power on these ordinary mortals! All God was wanting to do was show the high water mark of which every son is meant to walk in! But the Church made them gurus and the Christian world stayed Christian and allowed only a few sons who mostly didn't equip the masses with the secrets of sonship that they had discovered.

So for 50 years we have not seen that level of anointing from the turn of the century to the mid-50s and early 60s that was seen on the planet. Now you will hardly find anyone who matches up to those 50 years ago. I have seen the videos of those people and seen what they did. It was not trick photography.

In the early 80s I felt such power on me that it was frightening and it was week after week, month after month at least for 18 months - it was profound! I can tell you how fantastic it was to walk under that. Now every time I say; "Father launch me like those who were the high water mark 50-100 years ago" and He will say "No son - no". No more high water bench marks! It is going to be congregations that learn with their pastor! I will coach the little I know - each step He gives me I will give you and we will all grow together as sons so none of us will stick out as gurus because that is bordering on blasphemy ofthe death of Jesus Christ.

He did not die on the Cross and be raised again from the dead to produce a few sons that show the high water mark while multitudes of Christians are just pew warmers on a Sunday led by circumstance, easily offended, fickle, fragile, self-image, wanting some kind of religious therapy when the Father is saying; "All creation waits in anticipation for the sons of God to be revealed".

I believe that the Chinese people are going to learn the way in the revelation of sons both in mainland and in Hong Kong. God has chosen Hong Kong to be a place where He will establish a move of His Spirit that releases sons that will get the attention of the entire world and not just the Christian world but the unsaved world!

I came as a son on an assignment to Hong Kong not to raise up a Christian church but to raise up sons who are hungry for God and who don't see Christianity as a little thing that you do on Sunday out of guilt. People that come fresh to be equipped and coached and who make it a priority to be here learning in the ways of the Kingdom! Masses are not worried about Christianity and the church doesn't offer anything to give up their pursuit of money that fades. I long for the day when the Father lets me go from Hong Kong because there are so many sons here in City Church International and have discovered that their identity as sons who know that the Father loved me from the beginning of the world.